0. Introduction










The Natural History

Pliny the Elder

John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S.

H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A.

Perseus Project, Tufts University

Gregory Crane



Prepared under the supervision of

Lisa Cerrato

William Merrill

Elli Mylonas

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Medford, MA

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The Natural History

Pliny the Elder

John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S.

H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A.



London

Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street

1855































English

Latin

Greek

German

French









1 Jul 2004

DMed.

initial version
























0. > Book I.


BOOK I.[1]







1. Lemaire informs us, in his title-page, that the two first books of the

Natural History are edited by M. Alexandre, in his edition.




1. Dedication.


DEDICATION.



C. PLINIUS SECUNDUS TO HIS FRIEND TITUS VESPASIAN.



THIS treatise on Natural History, a novel work in Roman

literature, which I have just completed, I have taken the

liberty to dedicate to you, most gracious[1] Emperor, an appellation peculiarly suitable to you, while, on account of his

age, that of great is more appropriate to your Father;-

"For still thou ne'er wouldst quite despise

The trifles that I write[2];"

if I may be allowed to shelter myself under the example of

Catullus, my fellow-countryman[3], a military term, which you

well understand. For he, as you know, when his napkins

had been changed[4], expressed himself a little harshly, from







his anxiety to show his friendship for his dear little Veranius

and Fabius[5]. At the same time this my importunity may

effect, what you complained of my not having done in another too forward epistle of mine; it will put upon record,

and let all the world know, with what kindness you exercise

the imperial dignity. You, who have had the honour of a

triumph, and of the censorship, have been six times consul,

and have shared in the tribunate; and, what is still more

honourable, whilst you held them in conjunction with your

Father, you have presided over the Equestrian order, and

been the Prefect of the Prtorians[6]: all this you have done

for the service of the Republic, and, at the same time, have

regarded me as a fellow-soldier and a messmate. Nor has

the extent of your prosperity produced any change in you,

except that it has given you the power of doing good to the

utmost of your wishes. And whilst all these circumstances

increase the veneration which other persons feel for you,

with respect to myself, they have made me so bold, as to wish

to become more familiar. You must, therefore, place this

to your own account, and blame yourself for any fault of this

kind that I may commit.



But, although I have laid aside my blushes[7], I have not

gained my object; for you still awe me, and keep me at a

distance, by the majesty of your understanding. In no one

does the force of eloquence and of tribunitian oratory blaze

out more powerfully! With what glowing language do you

thunder forth the praises of your Father! How dearly do

you love your Brother! How admirable is your talent for

poetry! What a fertility of genius do you possess, so as to







enable you to imitate your Brother[8]! But who is there that

is bold enough to form an estimate on these points, if he is

to be judged by you, and, more especially, if you are challenged to do so? For the case of those who merely publish

their works is very different from that of those who expressly dedicate them to you. In the former case I might

say, Emperor! why do you read these things? They are

written only for the common people, for farmers or mechanics, or for those who have nothing else to do; why do you

trouble yourself with them? Indeed, when I undertook

this work, I did not expect that you would sit in judgement

upon me[9]; I considered your situation much too elevated

for you to descend to such an office. Besides, we possess the

right of openly rejecting the opinion of men of learning.

M. Tullius himself, whose genius is beyond all competition,

uses this privilege; and, remarkable as it may appear, employs an

advocate in his own defence:-"I do not write for

very learned people; I do not wish my works to be read by

Manius Persius, but by Junius Congus[10]." And if Lucilius,

who first introduced the satirical style[11], applied such a remark to himself, and if Cicero thought proper to borrow it,

and that more especially in his treatise "De Republica,"

how much reason have I to do so, who have such a judge to

defend myself against! And by this dedication I have deprived myself of the benefit of challenge[12]; for it is a very

different thing whether a person has a judge given him by

lot, or whether he voluntarily selects one; and we always

make more preparation for an invited guest, than for one

that comes in unexpectedly.







When the candidates for office, during the heat of the

canvass, deposited the fine[13] in the hands of Cato, that determined opposer of bribery, rejoicing as he did in his being

rejected from what he considered to be foolish honours, they

professed to do this out of respect to his integrity; the

greatest glory which a man could attain. It was on this

occasion that Cicero uttered the noble ejaculation, "How

happy are you, Marcus Porcius, of whom no one dares to

ask what is dishonourable[14]!" When L. Scipio Asiaticus

appealed to the tribunes, among whom was Gracchus, he

expressed full confidence that he should obtain an acquittal,

even from a judge who was his enemy. Hence it follows,

that he who appoints his own judge must absolutely submit

to the decision; this choice is therefore termed an appeal[15].



I am well aware, that, placed as you are in the highest

station, and gifted with the most splendid eloquence and

the most accomplished mind, even those who come to pay

their respects to you, do it with a kind of veneration: on

this account I ought to be careful that what is dedicated to

you should be worthy of you. But the country people, and,

indeed, some whole nations offer milk to the Gods[16], and those

who cannot procure frankincense substitute in its place salted

cakes; for the Gods are not dissatisfied when they are worshiped by every one to the best of his ability. But my

temerity will appear the greater by the consideration, that

these volumes, which I dedicate to you, are of such inferior

importance. For they do not admit of the display of genius,

nor, indeed, is mine one of the highest order; they admit of

no excursions, nor orations, nor discussions, nor of any wonderful adventures, nor any variety of transactions, nor, from

the barrenness of the matter, of anything particularly pleasant in the narration, or agreeable to the reader. The na-







ture of things, and life as it actually exists, are described in

them; and often the lowest department of it; so that, in

very many cases, I am obliged to use rude and foreign, or

even barbarous terms, and these often require to be introduced by a kind of preface. And, besides this, my road is

not a beaten track, nor one which the mind is much disposed

to travel over. There is no one among us who has ever attempted it, nor is there any one individual among the Greeks

who has treated of all the topics. Most of us seek for nothing but amusement in our studies, while others are fond

of subjects that are of excessive subtilty, and completely involved in obscurity. My object is to treat of all those things

which the Greeks include in the Encyclopdia[17], which, however, are either not generally known or are rendered dubious

from our ingenious conceits. And there are other matters

which many writers have given so much in detail that we

quite loathe them. It is, indeed, no easy task to give novelty

to what is old, and authority to what is new; brightness to

what is become tarnished, and light to what is obscure; to

render what is slighted acceptable, and what is doubtful

worthy of our confidence; to give to all a natural manner,

and to each its peculiar nature. It is sufficiently honourable and glorious to have been willing even to make the attempt, although it should prove unsuccessful. And, indeed,

I am of opinion, that the studies of those are more especially

worthy of our regard, who, after having overcome all difficulties, prefer the useful office of assisting others to the

mere gratification of giving pleasure; and this is what I have

already done in some of my former works. I confess it surprises me, that T. Livius, so celebrated an author as he is,

in one of the books of his history of the city from its origin,

should begin with this remark, "I have now obtained a sufficient reputation, so that I might put an end to my work,

did not my restless mind require to be supported by employment[18]." Certainly he ought to have composed this work,

not for his own glory, but for that of the Roman name, and







of the people who were the conquerors of all other nations.

It would have been more meritorious to have persevered in

his labours from his love of the work, than from the gratification which it afforded himself, and to have accomplished

it, not for his own sake, but for that of the Roman people.



I have included in thirty-six[19] books 20,000 topics, all

worthy of attention, (for, as Domitius Piso[20] says, we ought

to make not merely books, but valuable collections,) gained

by the perusal of about 2000 volumes, of which a few only

are in the hands of the studious, on account of the obscurity

of the subjects, procured by the careful perusal of 100 select

authors[21]; and to these I have made considerable additions

of things, which were either not known to my predecessors,

or which have been lately discovered. Nor can I doubt

but that there still remain many things which I have omitted;

for I am a mere mortal, and one that has many occupations.

I have, therefore, been obliged to compose this work at interrupted intervals, indeed during the night, so that you will

find that I have not been idle even during this period. The

day I devote to you, exactly portioning out my sleep to the

necessity of my health, and contenting myself with this reward, that

while we are musing[22] on these subjects (according to the remark of

Varro), we are adding to the length of

our lives; for life properly consists in being awake.



In consideration of these circumstances and these difficulties, I dare promise nothing; but you have done me the

most essential service in permitting me to dedicate my work

to you. Nor does this merely give a sanction to it, but it

determines its value; for things are often conceived to be of

great value, solely because they are consecrated in temples.



I have given a full account of all your family-your







Father, yourself, and your Brother, in a history of our own

times, beginning where Aufidius Bassus concludes[23]. You

will ask, Where is it? It has been long completed and its

accuracy confirmed[24]; but I have determined to commit the

charge of it to my heirs, lest I should have been suspected,

during my lifetime, of having been unduly influenced by

ambition. By this means I confer an obligation on those

who occupy the same ground with myself; and also on

posterity, who, I am aware, will contend with me, as I have

done with my predecessors.



You may judge of my taste from my having inserted, in

the beginning of my book, the names of the authors that I

have consulted. For I consider it to be courteous and to

indicate an ingenuous modesty, to acknowledge the sources

whence we have derived assistance, and not to act as most

of those have done whom I have examined. For I must

inform you, that in comparing various authors with each

other, I have discovered, that some of the most grave and of

the latest writers have transcribed, word for word, from

former works, without making any acknowledgement; not

avowedly rivalling them, in the manner of Virgil, or with

the candour of Cicero, who, in his treatise "De Republica[25],"

professes to coincide in opinion with Plato, and in his Essay

on Consolation for his Daughter, says that he follows

Crantor, and, in his Offices[26], Pancius; volumes, which, as you

well know, ought not merely to be always in our hands, but

to be learned by heart. For it is indeed the mark of a perverted mind

and a bad disposition, to prefer being caught in







a theft to returning what we have borrowed, especially

when we have acquired capital, by usurious interest[27].



The Greeks were wonderfully happy in their titles. One

work they called Khri/on, which means that it was as sweet

as a honeycomb; another Ke/ras )Amalqei/as, or Cornu copi,

so that you might expect to get even a draught of pigeon's

milk from it[28]. Then they have their Flowers, their Muses,

Magazines, Manuals, Gardens, Pictures, and Sketches[29], all

of them titles for which a man might be tempted even to

forfeit his bail. But when you enter upon the works, O

ye Gods and Goddesses! how full of emptiness! Our duller

countrymen have merely their Antiquities, or their Examples,

or their Arts. I think one of the most humorous of them has

his Nocturnal Studies[30], a term employed by Bibaculus; a name

which he richly deserved[31]. Varro, indeed, is not much behind him,

when he calls one of his satires A Trick and a Half,

and another Turning the Tables[32]. Diodorus was the first

among the Greeks who laid aside this trifling manner and

named his history The Library[33]. Apion, the grammarian,

indeed-he whom Tiberius Csar called the Trumpeter of

the World, but would rather seem to be the Bell of the

Town-crier[34],-supposed that every one to whom he inscribed

any work would thence acquire immortality. I do not regret

not having given my work a more fanciful title.



That I may not, however, appear to inveigh so completely

against the Greeks, I should wish to be considered under

the same point of view with those inventors of the arts of







painting and sculpture, of whom you will find an account

in these volumes, whose works, although they are so perfect

that we are never satisfied with admiring them, are inscribed

with a temporary title[35], such as "Apelles, or Polycletus, was

doing this;" implying that the work was only commenced

and still imperfect, and that the artist might benefit by the

criticisms that were made on it and alter any part that

required it, if he had not been prevented by death. It is

also a great mark of their modesty, that they inscribed their

works as if they were the last which they had executed, and

as still in hand at the time of their death. I think there are

but three works of art which are inscribed positively with

the words "such a one executed this;" of these I shall give

an account in the proper place. In these cases it appears,

that the artist felt the most perfect satisfaction with his work,

and hence these pieces have excited the envy of every one.



I, indeed, freely admit, that much may be added to my

works; not only to this, but to all which I have published.

By this admission I hope to escape from the carping critics[36],

and I have the more reason to say this, because I hear

that there are certain Stoics and Logicians[37], and also Epicureans

(from the Grammarians[38] I expected as much), who

are big with something against the little work I published

on Grammar[39]; and that they have been carrying these

abortions for ten years together-a longer pregnancy this

than the elephant's[40]. But I well know, that even a woman

once wrote against Theophrastus, a man so eminent for his

eloquence that he obtained his name, which signifies the







Divine speaker[41], and that from this circumstance originated

the proverb of choosing a tree to hang oneself[42].



I cannot refrain from quoting the words of Cato the censor,

which are so pertinent to this point. It appears from them,

that even Cato, who wrote commentaries on military discipline[43], and who had learned the military art under Africanus,

or rather under Hannibal (for he could not endure Africanus[44], who, when he was his general, had borne away the

triumph from him), that Cato, I say, was open to the attacks

of such as caught at reputation for themselves by detracting

from the merits of others. And what does he say in his

book? "I know, that when I shall publish what I have written, there will be many who will do all they can to depreciate it, and, especially, such as are themselves void of

all merit; but I let their harangues glide by me." Nor was

the remark of Plancus[45] a bad one, when Asinius Pollio[46] was

said to be preparing an oration against him, which was to

be published either by himself or his children, after the

death of Plancus, in order that he might not be able to

answer it: "It is only ghosts that fight with the dead."

This gave such a blow to the oration, that in the opinion of







the learned generally, nothing was ever thought more scandalous. Feeling myself, therefore, secure against these vile

slanderers[47], a name elegantly composed by Cato, to express

their slanderous and vile disposition (for what other object

have they, but to wrangle and breed quarrels?), I will proceed with my projected work.



And because the public good requires that you should be

spared as much as possible from all trouble, I have subjoined

to this epistle the contents of each of the following books[48],

and have used my best endeavours to prevent your being

obliged to read them all through. And this, which was

done for your benefit, will also serve the same purpose for

others, so that any one may search for what he wishes, and

may know where to find it. This has been already done

among us by Valerius Soranus, in his work which he entitled "On Mysteries[49]."



The 1st book is the Preface of the Work, dedicated to

Titus Vespasian Csar.



The 2nd is on the World, the Elements, and the Heavenly

Bodies[50].



The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th books are on Geography, in

which is contained an account of the situation of the

different countries, the inhabitants, the seas, towns,

harbours, mountains, rivers, and dimensions, and the

various tribes, some of which still exist and others have

disappeared.



The 7th is on Man, and the Inventions of Man.



The 8th on the various kinds of Land Animals.



The 9th on Aquatic Animals.



The 10th on the various kinds of Birds.







The 11th on Insects.



The 12th on Odoriferous Plants.



The 13th on Exotic Trees.



The 14th on Vines.



The 15th on Fruit Trees.



The 16th on Forest Trees.



The 17th on Plants raised in nurseries or gardens.



The 18th on the nature of Fruits and the Cerealia, and

the pursuits of the Husbandman.



The 19th on Flax, Broom[51], and Gardening.



The 20th on the Cultivated Plants that are proper for

food and for medicine.



The 21st on Flowers and Plants that are used for making

Garlands.



The 22nd on Garlands, and Medicines made from Plants.



The 23rd on Medicines made from Wine and from cultivated Trees.



The 24th on Medicines made from Forest Trees.



The 25th on Medicines made from Wild Plants.



The 26th on New Diseases, and Medicines made, for certain Diseases, from Plants.



The 27th on some other Plants and Medicines.



The 28th on Medicines procured from Man and from large

Animals.



The 29th on Medical Authors, and on Medicines from

other Animals.



The 30th on Magic, and Medicines for certain parts of the

Body.



The 31st on Medicines from Aquatic Animals.



The 32nd on the other properties of Aquatic Animals.



The 33rd on Gold and Silver.



The 34th on Copper and Lead, and the workers of Copper.



The 35th on Painting, Colours, and Painters.



The 36th on Marbles and Stones.



The 37th on Gems.









1. "Jucundissime;" it is not easy to find an epithet in our language

which will correctly express the meaning of the original, affectionate and

familiar, at the same time that it is sufficiently dignified and respectful.

2. Lamb's trans.; Carm. i. 4. of the original.

3. "Conterraneus;" we have no word in English which expresses the

idea intended by the original, and which is, at the same time, a military

term. There is indeed some reason to doubt, whether the word now

inserted in the text was the one employed by the author: see the remarks

of M. Alexandre, in Lem. i. 3; also an observation in Cigalino's dissertation on the native country of Pliny; Valpy, 8.

4. "Permutatis prioribus stabis;" Carm. xii. 14; xxv. 7; see the

notes in Lamb's trans. pp. 135 & 149.

5. These names in the original are Varaniolus and Fabullus, which are

supposed to have been changed from Veranius and Fabius, as terms of

familiarity and endearment; see Poinsinet, i. 24, and Lemaire, i. 4.

6. The narrative of Suetonius may serve to illustrate the observation of

Pliny: "Triumphavit (Titus) cum patre, censuramque gessit una. Eidem collega et in tribunicia potestate, et in septem consulatibus fuit.

Receptaque ad se prope omnium officiorum cura, cum patris nomine et

epistolas ipse dictaret, et edicta conscriberet, orationesque in Senatu recitaret etiam qustoris vice, prfecturam quoque prtorii suscepit, nunquam ad id tempus, nisi ab Equite Romano, administratum." (viii. 5.)

7. "Perfricui faciem." This appears to have been a proverbial expression among the Romans; Cicero, Tusc. Ques. iii. 41, employs "os perfricuisti" and Martial, xi. 27. 7, "perfricuit frontem," in the same sense.

8. Suetonius speaks of Domitian's taste for poetry, as a part of his habitual dissimulation, viii. 2; see also the notes of Poinsinet, i. 26, and of

Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 351.

9. "Non eras in hoc albo;" see the note of Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 8.

A passage in Quintilian, xii. 4, may serve to illustrate this use of the term

'album'; "...quorum alii se ad album ac rubricas transtulerunt..."

10. It appears that the passage in which Cicero makes this quotation

from Lucilius, is not in the part of his treatise De Republica which was

lately discovered by Angelus Maius; Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 9. Cicero

refers to this remark of Lucilius in two of his other works, although with

a variation in the expression and in the individuals specified; De Orat.

ii. 6, and De Fin. i. 3.

11. "Qui primus condidit styli nasum."

12. "Sed hc ego mihi nunc patrocinia ademi nuncupatione."

13. "Pecunias deponerent." Ajasson, i. 11, remarks on these words,

"Qui videri volebant ambitu alienissimi, pecuniam apud sanctum aliquem

virum deponebant, qua scilicet multarentur, si unquam hujus criminis

manifesti fierent."

14. This expression is not found in any of the works of Cicero which are

now extant, nor, indeed, is it certain that it was anything more than a

remark made in conversation.

15. "Provocatio," calling forth.

16. Horace, Epist. ii. 1. 143; Ovid, Fast. iv. 746 and v. 121, and Tibullus, i. 1. 26 and ii. 5. 37, refer to the offerings of milk made by the

country people to their rural deities.

17. "...id est, artium et doctrinarum omnium circulus;" Alexandre

in Lem. i. 14.

18. These words are not found in any of the books of Livy now extant;

we may conclude that they were introduced into the latter part of his

work.

19. "Quem nunc primum histori Plinian librum vocamus, hic non

unmeratur, quod sit operis index." Hardouin in Lem. i. 16.

20. Nothing is known of Domitius Piso, either as an author or an individual.

21. The names of these authors will be found, arranged by Hardouin

alphabetically, with a brief account of them and their works, in Lem. i.

157 et seq.; we have nearly the same list in Valpy, p. 4903.

22. "Musinamur." We learn from Hardouin, Lem. i. 17, that there is

some doubt as to the word employed by our author, whether it was mu-

sinamur or muginamur; I should be disposed to adopt the former, as

being, according to the remark of Turnebus, "verbum a Musis

deductum."

23. "A fine Aufidii Bassi;" as Alexandre remarks, "Finis autem Aufidii Bassi intelligendus est non mors ejus, sed tempus ad quod suas ipse

perduxerat historias. Quodnam illud ignoramus." Lem. i. 18. For an

account of Aufidius Bassus we are referred to the catalogue of Hardouin,

but his name does not appear there. Quintilian (x. 1) informs us, that

he wrote an account of the Germanic war.

24. "Jam pridem peracta sancitur."

25. This sentiment is not found in that portion of the treatise which has

been lately published by Angelus Maius. Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 19.

26. The following is probably the passage in the Offices to which Pliny

refers: "Pancius igitur, qui sine controversia de officiis accuratissime

disputavit, quemque nos, correctione quadam exhibita, potissimum secuti

sums..." (iii. 2.)

27. "Cum prsertim sors fiat ex usura." The commentators and

translators have differed respecting the interpretation of this

passage; I have

given what appears to me the obvious meaning of the words.

28. "Lac gallinaceum;" "Proverbium de re singulari et admodum

rara," according to Hardouin, who quotes a parallel passage from Petronius; Lemaire, i. 21.

29. The titles in the original are given in Greek; I have inserted in the

text the words which most nearly resemble them, and which have

been employed by modern authors.

30. "Lucubratio."

31. The pun in the original cannot be preserved in the translation; the

English reader may conceive the name Bibaculus to correspond to our

surname Jolly.

32. "Sesculvsses" and "Flextabula;" literally, Ulysses and a Half and

Bend-table.

33. Biblioqh/kh.

34. "Cymbalum mundi" and "public fam tympanum."

35. "Pendenti titulo;" as Hardouin explains it, "qui nondum absolutum

opus significaret, verum adhuc pendere, velut imperfectum." Lemaire,

i. 26.

36. "Homeromastig."

37. "Dialectici." By this term our author probably meant to designate

those critics who were disposed to dwell upon minute verbal distinctions;

"dialecticarum captionum amantes," according to Hardouin; Lem. i. 28.

38. "Quod argutiarum amantissimi, et quod mulatio inter illos acerbissima." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 28.

39. Pliny the younger, in one of his letters (iii. 5), where he enumerates

all his uncle's publications, informs us, that he wrote "a piece of criticism

in eight books, concerning ambiguity of expression." Melmoth's

Pliny, i. 136.

40. The ancients had very exaggerated notions respecting the period of

the elephant's pregnancy; our author, in a subsequent part of his work

(viii. 10), says, "Decem annis gestarevulgus existimat; Aristoteles biennio."

41. His real name was Tyrtamus, but in consequence of the beauty of his

style, he acquired the appellation by which he is generally known from

the words qei=os fra/sis. Cicero on various occasions refers to him;

Brutus, 121; Orator, 17, et alibi.

42. "Suspendio jam qurere mortem oportere homines vitque renunciare,

cum tantum licenti, vel femin, vel imperiti homines sumant, ut in

doctissimos scribant;" Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 29. We learn from Cicero,

De Nat. Deor. i. 33, that the name of this female was Leontium; "...sed meretricula etiam Leontium contra Theophrastun scribere ausa sit."

43. A. Gellius (vii. 4) refers to this work and gives an extract from it.

44. The hostility which Cato bore to Scipio Africanus is mentioned by

Livy, xxxviii. 54, and by Corn. Nepos, Cato, i.

45. Lucius Munatius Plancus took a conspicuous part in the political

intrigues of the times and was especially noted for his follies and extravagance.

46. Asinius Pollio is a name which stands high in Roman literature;

according to the remark of Alexandre, "Vir magnus fuit, prono tamen

ad obtrectandum ingenio, quod arguunt ejus cum Cicerone simultates,"

Lemaire, i. 30. This hostile feeling towards Cicero is supposed to have

proceeded from envy and mortification, because he was unable to attain

the same eminence in the art of oratory with his illustrious rival. See

Hardouin's Index Auctorum, in Lemaire, i. 168.

47. "Vitiligatores."

48. The table of contents, which occupies no less than 124 pages in

Lemaire's edition, I have omitted, in consequence of its length; the object which the author proposed to effect by the table of contents will be

gained more completely by an alphabetical index.

49. ")Epopti/wn." For an account of Valerius Soranus see Hardouin's

Index Auctorum, in Lemaire, i. 217.

50. To the end of each book of the Natural History is appended, in the

original, a copious list of references to the sources from which the author

derived his information. These are very numerous; in the second book

they amount to 45, in the third to 35, in the 4th to 53, in the fifth to 60,

in the sixth to 54, and they are in the same proportion in the remaining

books.

51. "Spartum;" this plant was used to make bands for the vines and

cables for ships.




0. > Book X. The Natural History Of Birds.


BOOK X. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Ostrich.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE OSTRICH.



THE history of the birds[1] follows next, the very largest of

which, and indeed almost approaching to the nature of quad-

rupeds, is the ostrich[2] of Africa or[3] thiopia. This bird exceeds

in height a man sitting on horseback, and can surpass him in

swiftness, as wings have been given to aid it in running; in

other respects ostriches cannot be considered as birds, and do

not raise themselves from the earth. They have cloven talons,

very similar to the hoof[4] of the stag; with these they fight, and

they also employ them in seizing stones for the purpose of







throwing[5] at those who pursue them. They have the marvellous property of being able to digest[6] every substance without

distinction, but their stupidity[7] is no less remarkable; for although the rest of their body is so large, they imagine, when

they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole

of the body is concealed. Their eggs[8] are prized on account

of their large size, and are employed as vessels for certain purposes, while the feathers of the wing and tail are used as ornaments for the crest and helmet of the warrior.







1. Cuvier remarks, that the accounts given by the ancients of birds, are

enveloped in greater obscurity than their information on quadrupeds, or

fishes. The quadrupeds, he says, are not so numerous, and are known from

their characteristics. The fishes also, which the ancients so highly esteemed

as an article of food, were well known to them in general, and they have

repeated occasions to speak of them: but as to the birds, the augurs were

their principal informants. Pliny, in fact, often quotes their testimony;

and we find, from what he says, that these men had not come to any agreement among themselves as to what were the names of divers species of

birds, the movements of which announced, according to them, the success or

misfortune of states equally with individuals. This portion, in fact, of the

works of Pliny, Cuvier remarks, is an excellent commentary on the remark

of Cicero, who, an augur himself, asked the question, how two augurs could

look each other in the face without laughing. There are also several passages from Aristotle, who has, however, given but very little attention to

the exterior characteristics of birds: it is only from the similarity of their

habits and present names that we are able, in many cases, to guess what

bird it is that is meant.

2. "Struthiocamelus:" from the Greek, signifying a "little sparrow,"

and a "camel." Cuvier remarks, that Pliny's description is correct, and

that he is only mistaken in a few slight particulars.

3. Pliny perhaps here uses the conjunction "vel" in the explanatory

sense of "otherwise;" intending to distinguish thiopian Africa from the

Roman province of that name.

4. Cuvier remarks, that there is some truth in this, so far as that the

ostrich has only two toes, like the stag and other ruminating animals; but

then they are unequal in size, and not covered with hoofs.

5. Father Lobo, in his account of Abyssinia, says that when the ostrich

is running at great speed, it throws the stones behind with such violence,

that they would almost seem to be thrown at those in pursuit.

6. An ostrich, Cuvier says, will swallow anything, but it is by no means

able to digest everything. He says, that he has seen ostriches with the

stomach ruptured by nails which they have swallowed, or dreadfully torn

by pieces of glass.

7. It has been remarked by Diodorus Siculus, B. ii., that so far from displaying stupidity in acting thus, it adopts a wise precaution, its head being

its most weak and defenceless part.

8. Cuvier states that its egg is equal to twenty-four to twenty-eight

fowls' eggs, and that he had frequently eaten of them, and found them very

delicate.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-The Phnix.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-THE PHNIX.



thiopia and India, more especially, produce[1] birds of diversified plumage, and such as quite surpass all description. In

the front rank of these is the phnix,[2] that famous bird of







Arabia; though I am not quite sure that its existence is not

all a fable. It is said that there is only one in existence in the

whole world, and that that one has not been seen very often.

We are told that this bird is of the size of an eagle,[3] and

has a brilliant golden plumage around the neck, while the rest

of the body is of a purple colour; except the tail, which is

azure, with long feathers intermingled of a roseate hue; the

throat is adorned with a crest, and the head with a tuft of

feathers. The first Roman who described this bird, and who

has done so with the greatest exactness, was the senator Manilius, so famous for his learning; which he owed, too, to the

instructions of no teacher. He tells us that no person has

ever seen this bird eat, that in Arabia it is looked upon as

sacred to the sun, that it lives five hundred and forty years,[4]

that when it becomes old it builds a nest of cassia and sprigs

of incense, which it fills with perfumes, and then lays its body

down upon them to die; that from its bones and marrow there

springs at first a sort of small worm, which in time changes

into a little bird: that the first thing that it does is to perform

the obsequies of its predecessor, and to carry the nest entire

to the city of the Sun near Panchaia,[5] and there deposit it

upon the altar of that divinity.



The same Manilius states also, that the revolution of the

great year [6] is completed with the life of this bird, and that







then a new cycle comes round again with the same characteristics as the former one, in the seasons and the appearance of

the stars; and he says that this begins about mid-day of the

day on which the sun enters the sign of Aries. He also tells

us that when he wrote to the above effect, in the consulship[7]

of P. Licinius and Cneius Cornelius, it was the two hundred

and fifteenth year of the said revolution. Cornelius Valerianus

says that the phnix took its flight from Arabia into Egypt

in the consulship[8] of Q. Plautius and Sextus Papinius. This

bird was brought to Rome in the censorship of the Emperor

Claudius, being the year from the building of the City, 800,

and it was exposed to public view in the Comitium.[9] This

fact is attested by the public Annals, but there is no one that

doubts that it was a fictitious phnix only.







1. "Ferunt." With regard to this verb, Cuvier remarks, that it is equivocal; and that it is very possible that the writer intends to say, not that

India and thiopia produce these marvellous birds, but that the people of

those countries report or relate marvellous stories touching those birds. It

is clear that he does not believe in the existence of the phnix.

2. Cuvier remarks, that all these relations are neither more nor less than

so many absurd fables or pure allegories, but that the description given is

exactly that of a bird which does exist, the golden pheasant, namely. The

description given is probably taken from the pretended phnix that Pliny

mentions as having been brought to Rome in the reign of Claudius, It is

not improbable, he thinks, that this may have been a golden pheasant,

brought from the interior of Asia, when the pursuits of commerce had as

yet hardly extended so far, and to which those who showed it gave, most

probably, the name of the phnix. Ajasson is of opinion, that under the

story of the phnix an allegory was concealed, and thinks it may not improbably have been employed to pourtray the doctrine of the immortality

of the soul. Bailly, Hist. de l'Astronomie, thinks that it bore reference to

the great canicular year of the Egyptians.

3. Borrowed from Herodotus, B. ii. c. 73.

4. The MSS. vary considerably as to the number. Some make it 540

years, others 511, others 40, and others 560.

5. Mentioned also, B. vii. c. 57,

6. 532 years, according to Hardouin. Bailly says: "The first men who

studied the heavens remarked that the revolution of the sun brought back

the seasons in the same order. They thought that they observed that certain variations of the temperature depended upon the aspect of the moon,

and attached different prognostics to the rising and setting of the stars,

persuading themselves that the vicissitudes of things here below had regulated periods, like the movements of the heavenly bodies. From this arose

the impression, that the same aspect, the same arrangement of all the stars,

that had prevailed at the commencement of the world, would also attend

its destruction; and that the period of this long revolution was the predestined duration of the life of nature. Another impression was the idea that

the world would only perish at this epoch to be born again, and for the

same order of things to recommence with the same series of celestial phenomena. Some fixed this universal renovation at the conjunction of all the

planets, others at the return of the stars to the same point of the ecliptic;

others, uniting these two kinds of revolutions, marked the term of the du-

ration of all things at the moment at which the planets and the stars would

return to the same primitive situation with regard to the ecliptic, or in

other words, they conceived an immense period, which would include one

or more complete revolutions of each of the planets. All these periods

were called the 'great year,' or the 'great revolution.'" Histoire de

l'Astronomie Ancienne.

7. A.U.C. 657.

8. A.U.C. 789.

9. A public place in the Forum, where the comitia curiata were held,

and certain offences tried and punished.




3. Chap. 3. (3.)-The Different Kinds Of Eagles.


CHAP. 3. (3.)-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF EAGLES.



Of all the birds with which we are acquainted, the eagle is

looked upon as the most noble, and the most remarkable for

its strength. There are six[1] different kinds; the one called

"melantos"[2] by the Greeks, and "valeria" in our language,







the least in size of them all, but the most remarkable for its

strength, is of a blackish colour. It is the only one among

all, the eagles that feeds its young; for the others, as we shall

mention just now, drive them away; it is the only one too

that has neither cry nor murmur; it is an inhabitant of the

mountains. The second kind is the pygargus,[3] an inhabitant

of the cities and plains, and distinguished by the whiteness

of its tail. The third is the morphnos,[4] which Homer also

calls the "perenos," while others, again, call it the "plangus"

and the "anataria;" it is the second in size and strength, and

dwells in the vicinity of lakes. Phemono, who was styled

the "daughter of Apollo," has stated that this eagle has teeth,

but that it has neither voice nor tongue; she says also that it

is the blackest of all the eagles, and has a longer tail than the

rest; Bus is of the same opinion. This eagle has the instinct

to break the shell of the tortoise by letting it fall from aloft,

a circumstance which caused the death of the poet schylus.

An oracle, it is said, had predicted his death on that day by

the fall of a house, upon which he took the precaution of

trusting himself only under the canopy of the heavens.



The fourth kind of eagle is the "percnopterus,"[5] also called

the "oripelargus;"[6] it has much the appearance of the vulture,







with remarkably small wings, while the rest of the body is

larger than the others; but it is of a timid and degenerate

nature, so much so, that even a raven can beat it. It is always

famishing and ravenous, and has a plaintive murmuring cry.

It is the only one among the eagles that will carry off the

dead carcase; the others settle on the spot where they have

killed their prey. The character of this species causes the

fifth one to be known by the distinctive name of "gnesios,"[7]

as being the genuine eagle, and the only one of untainted

lineage; it is of moderate size, of rather reddish colour, and

rarely to be met with. The halitus[8] is the last, and is remarkable for its bright and piercing eye. It poises itself aloft,

and the moment it catches sight of a fish in the sea below,

pounces headlong upon it, and cleaving the water with its

breast, carries off its prey.



The eagle which we have mentioned as forming the third

species, pursues the aquatic birds in the vicinity of standing

waters: in order to make their escape they plunge into the

water every now and then, until at length they are overtaken

by lassitude and sleep, upon which the eagle immediately seizes

them. The contest that takes place is really a sight worthy

to be seen. The bird makes for the shore to seek a refuge,

and especially if there should happen to be a bed of reeds

there; while in the meantime the eagle endeavours to drive it

away with repeated blows of its wings, and tumbles into the

water in its attempts to seize it. While it is standing on the

shore its shadow is seen by the bird, which immediately dives

beneath, and then making its way in an opposite direction,

emerges at some point at which it thinks it is the least likely

to be looked for. This is the reason why these birds swim

in flocks, for when in large numbers they are in no danger

from the enemy; as by dashing up the spray with their wings

they blind him.



Again, it often happens that the eagle is not able to carry

the bird aloft on account of its weight, and in consequence

they both of them sink together. The halitus, and this

one only, beats its young ones while in an unfledged state,







with its wings, and forces[9] them from time to time to look

steadily upon the rays of the sun; and if it sees either of

them wink, or even its eye water, it throws it headlong out

of the nest, as being spurious and degenerate, while, on the

other hand, it rears the one whose gaze remains fixed and

steady. The halitus[10] is not a species of itself, but is an

eagle of mixed breed: hence their produce are of the species

known as the ossifrage, from which again is produced the

smaller vulture; while this in its turn produces the large

vulture, which, however, is quite barren.



Some writers add to the above a seventh kind, which they

call the "bearded"[11] eagle; the Tuscans, however, call it the

ossifrage.







1. Cuvier remarks, that this passage is borrowed, with some changes,

from Aristotle's "History of Animals," B. ix. c. 32, but that the account given

by Pliny is not very easily explained, from the fact that the word eagle is

not used by him in a rigorous acceptation of the word. Indeed it is only

at the present day that any accurate knowledge has been obtained as to

the different species of eagles, and the changes of colour to which they

are subject with the advance of age; circumstances which have caused the

species of them to be multiplied by naturalists. It is very doubtful,

he says, whether Aristotle has distinguished the various kinds any better

than Pliny; although Buffon, who himself was not very successful in

distinguishing them, says that Aristotle understood more on the subject

than the moderns.

2. Melanaeto\s, or the "black eagle." Cuvier says, that this description

is copied exactly from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 32. This eagle, he

says, cannot be, as is commonly supposed, the "common eagle." It can

only be, he thinks, the "small" eagle, the female of which, according to

Nauman and Savigny, when it is old is almost all black, and without spots;

only the young being spotted.

3. From the Greek pugh\ a)rgh\, "white tail." Cuvier remarks, that

this is copied exactly from Aristotle, except that he says nothing about the

whiteness of the tail, which is an interpolation. The feathers as described

agree with those of the common eagle, the Falco fulvus, which is strong

enough to seize a fawn. As regards its habit, he says, of dwelling on

plains, that would agree better with the Jean le blanc of the French, the

Falco Gallicus; while the name of pygargus is commonly applied, at the

present day, to the great sea-eagle, the Falco albicilla; which frequents

lakes and the sea-shore, and therefore corresponds more nearly with the

halitus of Pliny.

4. Cuvier says, that he is almost tempted to believe that it is the balbusard, the Falco halitus, that is here meant, as it has a black back, and

lives in the vicinity of lakes. But then, he remarks, it lives on fish and

not aquatic birds; while, on the other hand, the little eagle of Buffon, the

Falco nvio, often seizes ducks and other aquatic animals. He is inclined

then, notwithstanding the apparent confusion, to take this morphnos for

the modern small eagle. The words morfno\s and perkno\s signify "black."

5. From the Greek, meaning "black wing.

6. "Mountain stork." Buffon thinks that this is the great brown vulture; Cuvier, the great white-headed eagle.

7. Gnh/sios. "True-Born," "genuine." Cuvier thinks that this may

be the royal or imperial eagle, Falco imperialis.

8. The great sea-eagle, according to Cuvier, the varieties of which (in

age) are called by Linnus "Falco albicaudus," and "Falco ossifraga."

9. See Lucan, B. ix. 1. 902.

10. He contradicts himself, for he has already stated that it is the sixth

species.

11. "Barbata," Cuvier takes it to be the lmmer-geyer, or Gypatus,

the only bird of prey that has a beard.




4. Chap. 4.-The Natural Characteristics Of The Eagle.


CHAP. 4.-THE NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EAGLE.



The first three and the fifth class of eagles employ in the

construction of their aerie the stone atites,[1] by some known

as "gangites;" which is employed also for many remedial

purposes, and is proof against the action of fire. This stone

has the quality also, in a manner, of being pregnant, for when

shaken, another stone is heard to rattle within, just as though

it were enclosed in its womb; it has no medical properties,

however, except immediately after it has been taken from the

nest.



Eagles build among rocks and trees; they lay three eggs,

and generally hatch but two young ones, though occasionally

as many as three have been seen. Being weary of the trouble

of rearing both, they drive one of them from the nest: for

just at this time the providential foresight of Nature has denied

them a sufficiency of food, thereby using due precaution that

the young of all the other animals should not become their

prey. During this period, also, their talons become reversed,

and their feathers grow white from continued hunger, so that

it is not to be wondered at that they take a dislike to their







young. The ossifrage, however, a kindred species, takes charge

of the young ones thus rejected, and rears them with its own;

but the parent bird still pursues them with hostility, even

when grown up, and drives them away, as being its rivals in

rapine. And indeed, under any circumstances, one pair of

eagles requires a very considerable space of ground to forage

over, in order to find sufficient sustenance; for which reason

it is that they mark out by boundaries their respective allotments, and seek their prey in succession to one another. They

do not immediately carry off their prey, but first deposit it on

the ground, and it is only after they have tested its weight

that they fly away with it.



They die, not of old age, nor yet of sickness, or of hunger;

but the upper part of the beak grows to such an extent, and

becomes so curved, that they are unable to open it. They

take the wing, and begin upon the labours of the chase at

mid-day; sitting in idleness during the hours of the morning,

until such time as the places[2] of public resort are filled with

people. The feathers of the eagle, if mixed with those of

other birds, will consume them.[3] It is said that this is the

only bird that has never been killed by lightning; hence it is,

that usage has pronounced it to be the armour-Bearer of Jove.







1. Or eagle-stone. See B. xxxvi. c. 39. He does not there mention

that it is combustible. It is not impossible that pieces of atites, or ferru-

ginous geodes, may have been found in an eagle's nest.

2. Fora.

3. Albertus Magnus says that he knows this by actual experience: "credat

Judus."




5. Chap. 5. (4.)-When The Eagle Was First Used As The Standard Of The Roman Legions.


CHAP. 5. (4.)-WHEN THE EAGLE WAS FIRST USED AS THE

STANDARD OF THE ROMAN LEGIONS.



Caius Marius, in his second consulship, assigned the eagle

exclusively to the Roman legions. Before that period it had

only held the first rank, there being four others as well, the

wolf, the minotaur, the horse, and the wild boar, each of which

preceded a single division.[1] Some few years before his time

it had begun to be the custom to carry the eagle only into

battle, the other standards being left behind in camp; Marius,

however, abolished the rest of them entirely. Since then, it

has been remarked that hardly ever has a Roman legion

encamped for the winter, without a pair of eagles making

their appearance at the spot.



The first and second species of eagle, not only prey upon







the whole of the smaller quadrupeds, but will attack deer

even. Rolling in the dust, the eagle covers its body all over

with it, and then perching on the antlers of the animal, shakes

the dust into its eyes, while at the same time it beats it on the

head with its wings, until the creature at last precipitates itself

down the rocks. Nor, indeed, is this one enemy sufficient for

it; it has still more terrible combats with the dragon,[2] and

the issue is much more doubtful, although the battle is fought

in the air. The dragon seeks the eggs of the eagle with a

mischievous avidity; while the eagle, in return, carries it off

whenever it happens to see it; upon these occasions, the dragon

coils itself about the wings of the bird in multiplied folds,

until at last they fall to the earth together.







1. Ordinem.

2. See Virgil, n. B. xi. 1. 755, et seq. By the "dragon," he means

some large serpent.




6. Chap. 6. (5.)-An Eagle Which Precipitated Itself On The Funeral Pile Of A Girl.


CHAP. 6. (5.)-AN EAGLE WHICH PRECIPITATED ITSELF ON THE

FUNERAL PILE OF A GIRL.



There is a very famous story about an eagle at the city of

Sestos. Having been reared by a little girl, it used to testify

its gratitude for her kindness, first by bringing her birds, and

in due time various kinds of prey: at last she died, upon which

the bird threw itself on the lighted pile, and was consumed

with her body. In memory of this event, the inhabitants

raised upon the spot what they called an heroic monument,[1]

in honour of Jupiter and the damsel, the eagle being a bird

consecrated to that divinity.







1. "Heroum."




7. Chap. 7. (6.)-The Vulture.


CHAP. 7. (6.)-THE VULTURE.



Of the vultures, the black ones[1] are the strongest. No

person has yet found a vulture's nest: hence it is that there

are some who have thought, though erroneously, that these

birds come from the opposite hemisphere.[2] The fact is, that

they build their nest upon the very highest rocks; their young

ones, indeed, are often to be seen, being generally two in number.

Umbricius, the most skilful among the aruspices of our time,

says that the vulture lays thirteen eggs,[3] and that with one of







these eggs[4] it purifies the others and its nest, and then throws

it away: he states also that they hover about for three[5] days,

over the spot where carcases are about to be found.







1. The great European vulture.

2. Their nests are seldom seen, in consequence of being concealed in the

crags of the highest mountains, the Pyrenees, for instance.

3. "Three" seems a better reading. Aristotle says "two."

4. Ovid, in his "Art of Love," speaks of the use of eggs in purifications

made by lovesick damsels. See B. ii. 1. 330.

5. This story arises from the extreme acuteness of their power of smelling

a dead body. The Egyptians said that the vulture foreknows the field of

battle seven days.




8. Chap. 8. (7.)-The Birds Called Sangualis And Immusulus.


CHAP. 8. (7.)-THE BIRDS CALLED SANGUALIS AND IMMUSULUS.



There has been considerable argument among the Roman

augurs about the birds known as the "sangualis" and the

"immusulus." Some persons are of opinion that the immusulus is the young of the vulture, and the sangualis that of

the ossifrage. Massurius says,[1] that the sangualis is the same

as the ossifrage, and that the immusulus is the young of the

eagle, before the tail begins to turn white. Some persons

have asserted that these birds have not been seen at Rome

since the time of the augur Mucius; for my part, I think it

much more likely, that, amid that general heedlessness as to

all knowledge, which has of late prevailed, no notice has been

taken of them.







1. Festus says, also, that it is the ossifrage, and was so called from the

god Sancus.




9. Chap. 9. (8.)-Hawks. The Buteo.


CHAP. 9. (8.)-HAWKS. THE BUTEO.



We find no less than sixteen[1] kinds of hawks mentioned;

among these are the githus, which is lame[2] of one leg, and

is looked upon as the most favourable omen for the augurs on

the occasion of a marriage, or in matters connected with property in the shape of cattle: the triorchis also, so called

from the number of its testicles,[3] and to which Phemono has

assigned the first rank in augury. This last is by the Romans

known as the "buteo;" indeed there is a family[4] that has

taken its surname from it, from the circumstance of this bird

having given a favourable omen by settling upon the ship of

one of them when he held a command. The Greeks call one







kind[5] "epileus;" the only one, indeed, that is seen at all seasons

of the year, the others taking their departure in the winter.



The various kinds are distinguished by the avidity with

which they seize their prey; for while some will only pounce

on a bird while on the ground, others will only seize it while

hovering round the trees, others, again, while it is perched aloft,

and others while it is flying in mid air. Hence it is that

pigeons, on seeing them, are aware of the nature of the danger

to which they are exposed, and either settle on the ground or

else fly upwards, instinctively protecting themselves by taking

due precautions against their natural propensities. The hawks

of the whole of Masssylia, breed in Cerne,[6] an island of

Africa, lying in the ocean; and none of the kinds that are

accustomed to those parts will breed anywhere else.







1. Aristotle says ten.

2. A mere fable. Cuvier says that the githus of Aristotle was probably

a kind of sparrow.

3. Said to be three in number; a mere fable. The buzzard probably is

meant.

4. The family of the Buteones belonged to the gens Fabia.

5. Cuvier thinks that he means to identify this kind with the triorchis,

of which Aristotle says that it is to be seen at all seasons.

6. See B. vi. c. 36.




10. Chap. 10.-In What Places Hawks And Men Pursue The Chase In Company With Each Other.


CHAP. 10.-IN WHAT PLACES HAWKS AND MEN PURSUE THE

CHASE IN COMPANY WITH EACH OTHER.



In the part of Thrace which lies above Amphipolis, men[1]

and hawks go in pursuit of prey, in a sort of partnership as it

were; for while the men drive the birds from out of the woods

and the reed-Beds, the hawks bring them down as they fly;

and after they have taken the game, the fowlers share it with

them. It has been said, that when sent aloft, they will

pick[2] out the birds that are wanted, and that when the opportune moment for taking them has come, they invite the fowler

to seize the opportunity by their cries and their peculiar mode

of flying. The sea-wolves, too, in the Palus Motis, do something of a very similar nature; but if they do not receive their

fair share from the fishermen, they will tear their nets as they

lie extended.[3] Hawks will not[4] eat the heart of a bird. The

night-hawk is called cybindis;[5] it is rarely found, even in the







woods, and in the day-time its sight is not good; it wages war

to the death with the eagle, and they are often to be found

clasped in each other's talons.







1. Cuvier remarks, that we here find the art of falconry in its rough

state. It was restored to Europe, no doubt, by the Crusaders. See Beckmann's Hist, Inventions, vol. i. p. 201. Bohn's Edition.

2. "Missas in sublime sibi excipere eos." The meaning is very doubtful.

3. The whole of this passage is, most probably, a gloss or interpolation.

4. This is denied by Albertus Magnus.

5. Cuvier remarks, that Pliny has erroneously joined the account given

by Aristotle of the cybindis, to that of the hybris, or ptynx. He takes the

cybindis to be the "Strix Uralensis" of Pallas.




11. Chap. 11. (9.)-The Only Bird That Is Killed By Those Of Its Own Kind.-A Bird That Lays Only One Egg.


CHAP. 11. (9.)-THE ONLY BIRD THAT IS KILLED BY THOSE OF

ITS OWN KIND.-A BIRD THAT LAYS ONLY ONE EGG.



The cuckoo seems to be but another form of the hawk,[1]

which at a certain season of the year changes its shape; it

being the fact that during this period no other hawks are to be

seen, except, perhaps, for a few days only; the cuckoo, too,

itself is only seen for a short period in the summer, and does

not make its appearance after. It is the only one among the

hawks that has not hooked talons; neither is it like the rest

of them in the head, or, indeed, in any other respect, except

the colour only, while in the beak it bears a stronger resemblance to the pigeon. In addition to this, it is devoured by the

hawk, if they chance at any time to meet; this being the only

one among the whole race of birds that is preyed upon by those

of its own kind. It changes its voice also with its appearance,

comes out in the spring, and goes into retirement at the rising

of the Dog-star. It always lays its eggs in the nest of another

bird, and that of the ring-dove[2] more especially,-mostly a single

egg, a thing that is the case with no other bird; sometimes however, but very rarely, it is known to lay two. It is supposed,

that the reason for its thus substituting its young ones, is the

fact that it is aware[3] how greatly it is hated by all the other

birds; for even the very smallest of them will attack it.

Hence it is, that it thinks its own race will stand no chance

of being perpetuated unless it contrives to deceive them, and for

this reason builds no nest of its own: and besides this, it is

a very timid animal. In the meantime, the female bird, sitting

on her nest, is rearing a supposititious and spurious progeny;

while the young cuckoo, which is naturally craving and greedy,

snatches away all the food from the other young ones, and by

so doing grows plump and sleek, and quite gains the affections

of his foster-mother; who takes a great pleasure in his fine







appearance, and is quite surprised that she has become the

mother of so handsome an offspring. In comparison with him,

she discards her own young as so many strangers, until at last,

when the young cuckoo is now able to take the wing, he

finishes by devouring[4] her. For sweetness of the flesh, there

is not a bird in existence to be compared to the cuckoo at this

season.







1. Cuvier says, that this notion is still entertained by the French

peasantry.

2. This is not the case. It only lays in the nests of insectivorous birds.

3. Cuvier remarks, that this is not a very good reason; but we have not

yet been able to find a better.

4. Cuvier denies this story, but says, that when the foster-mother is a

very small bird, the young cuckoo will take the whole of her head in his

beak when receiving food.




12. Chap. 12. (10.)-The Kite.


CHAP. 12. (10.)-THE KITE.



The kite, which belongs to the same genus, is distinguished

from the rest of the hawks by its larger size. It has been remarked of this bird, extremely ravenous as it is, and always

craving, that it has never been known to seize any food either

from among funereal oblations or from the altar of Jupiter at

Olympia; nor yet, in fact, does it ever seize any of the consecrated viands from the hands of those who are carrying them;

except where some misfortune is presaged for the town that is

offering the sacrifice. These birds seem to have taught man

the art of steering, from the motion of the tail, Nature pointing

out by their movements in the air the method required for

navigating the deep. Kites also disappear during the winter

months, but do not take their departure before the swallow.

It is said, also, that after the summer solstice they are troubled

with the gout.










13. Chap. 13. (11.)-The Classification Of Birds.


CHAP. 13. (11.)-THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS.



The first distinctive characteristic among birds is that which

bears reference more especially to their feet: they have either

hooked talons, or else toes, or else, again, they belong to the

web-footed class, geese for instance, and most of the aquatic

birds. Those which have hooked talons feed, for the most

part, upon nothing but flesh.










14. Chap. 14. (12.)-Crows. Birds Of Ill Omen. At What Seasons They Are Not Inauspicious.


CHAP. 14. (12.)-CROWS. BIRDS OF ILL OMEN. AT WHAT SEASONS

THEY ARE NOT INAUSPICIOUS.



Crows, again, have another kind of food. Nuts being too

hard for their beak to break, the crow flies to a great height,







and then lets them fall again and again upon the stones or tiles

beneath, until at last the shell is cracked, after which the bird

is able to open them. This is a bird with a very ill-omened

garrulity, though it has been highly praised by some.[1] It is

observed, that from the rising of the constellation Arcturus

until the arrival of the swallow, it is but rarely to be seen

about the sacred groves and temples of Minerva; in some

places, indeed, not at all, Athens for instance.[2] In addition to

these facts, it is the only one that continues to feed its young

for some time after they have begun to fly. The crow is most

inauspicious at the time of incubation, or, in other words, just

after the summer solstice.







1. "Curse on your ill-Betiding croak." See "The Farmer's Wife and

the Raven," in Gay's Fables.

2. Aristotle says, that it was never to be seen in the Acropolis or Citadel

of Athens.




15. Chap. 15.-The Raven.


CHAP. 15.-THE RAVEN.



All the other birds of the same kind drive their young ones

from their nest, and compel them to fly; the raven, for instance, which not only feeds on flesh, but even drives its young,

when able to fly, to a still greater distance. Hence it is that

in small hamlets there are never more than two[1] pairs to

be found; and in the neighbourhood of Crannon, in Thessaly,

never more than one, the parents always quitting the spot to

give place to their offspring. There have been some differences

observed between this and the bird last mentioned. Ravens

breed before the summer solstice, and continue in bad health for

sixty days-Being afflicted with a continual thirst more particularly-Before the ripening of the fig in autumn; while, on the

other hand, the crow is attacked by disease after that period.

The raven lays, at most, but five eggs. It is a vulgar belief,

that they couple, or else lay, by means of the beak; and that,

consequently, if a pregnant woman happens to eat a raven's

egg, she will be delivered by the mouth. It is also believed, that if the eggs are even so much as brought beneath

the roof, a difficult labour will be the consequence. Aristotle

denies it, and assures us in all good faith that there is no more

truth in this than in the same story about the ibis in Egypt;







he says that it is nothing else but that same sort of billing that

is so often seen in pigeons.[2] Ravens are the only birds that

seem to have any comprehension of the meaning of their

auspices; for when the guests of Medus[3] were assassinated,

they all took their departure from Peloponnesus and the region

of Attica. They are of the very worst omen when they swallow their voice, as if they were being choked.







1. Only the case with the large raven, or Corvus corax of Linnus, the

others living in flocks.

2. Do says, that this is incorrect; the beak of the raven not being of

a similar form to that of the pigeon.

3. Or else, "The Median guests. "It is not known to what he alludes.

Alexander ab Alexandro says, that both Alexander the Great and Cicero

were warned of their deaths by the raven.




16. Chap. 16.-The Horned Owl.


CHAP. 16.-THE HORNED OWL.



The birds of the night also have crooked talons, such as the

owlet,[1] the horned owl, and the screech-owl, for instance; the

sight of all of which is defective in the day-time. The horned

owl is especially funereal, and is greatly abhorred in all auspices

of a public nature: it inhabits deserted places, and not only

desolate spots, but those of a frightful and inaccessible nature:

the monster of the night, its voice is heard, not with any tuneful note, but emitting a sort of shriek. Hence it is that it is

looked upon as a direful omen to see it in a city, or even so much

as in the day-time. I know, however, for a fact, that it is

not portentous of evil when it settles on the top of a private

house. It cannot fly whither it wishes in a straight line, but

is always carried along by a sidelong movement. A horned

owl entered the very sanctuary of the Capitol, in the consulship of Sextus Palpelius Hister and L. Pedanius; in consequence of which, Rome was purified on the nones[2] of March

in that year.







1. Noetua, bubo, ulula." It is very doubtful what birds are meant by

these names. Cuvier has been at some pains to identify them, and concludes that the noctua, or glaux of Aristotle, is the Strix brachyotas of

Linnus, the "short-eared screech-owl;" the bubo, the Strix bubo of

Linnus, and the ulula, the Strix aluco of Linnus; our madgehowlet,

grey or brown owl.

2. Seventh of March. The year of their consulship is not known.




17. Chap. 17. (13.)-Birds, The Race Of Which Is Extinct, Or Of Which All Knowledge Has Been Lost.


CHAP. 17. (13.)-BIRDS, THE RACE OF WHICH IS EXTINCT, OR

OF WHICH ALL KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN LOST.



An inauspicious bird also is that known as the "incendiary;"[1]







on account of which, we find in the Annals, the City has

had to be repeatedly purified; as, for instance, in the consulship of L. Cassius and C. Marius,[2] in which year also it was

purified, in consequence of a horned owl being seen. What

kind of bird this incendiary bird was, we do not find stated,

nor is it known by tradition. Some persons explain the term

this way; they say that the name "incendiary" was applied

to every bird that was seen carrying a burning coal from

the pyre, or altar; while others, again, call such a bird a

"spinturnix;[3] though I never yet found any person who

said that he knew what kind of bird this spinturnix was.



(14.) I find also that the people of our time are ignorant

what bird it was that was called by the ancients a "clivia."

Some persons say that it was a clamatory, others, again, that it

was a prohibitory, bird. We also find a bird mentioned

by Nigidius as the "subis," which breaks the eggs of the

eagle.



(15.) In addition to the above, there are many other kinds

that are described in the Etruscan ritual, but which no one now

living has ever seen. It is surprising that these birds are no

longer in existence, since we find that even those kinds abound,

among which the gluttony of man commits such ravages.







1. Cuvier suggests, that it may be the coracias of Aristotle, our jack-

daw probably, the Corvus graculus of Linnus. It has been said, that in

its admiration of shining objects, it will take up a burning coal; a trick

which has before now caused conflagrations. Servius speaks of it as frequenting funeral piles.

2. A.U.C. 647.

3. "Spinturnix" and "clivia" were names given by the augurs probably

to some kinds of birds.




18. Chap. 18. (16.)-Birds Which Are Born With The Tail First.


CHAP. 18. (16.)-BIRDS WHICH ARE BORN WITH THE TAIL FIRST.



Among foreigners, a person called Hylas is thought to have

written the best treatise on the subject of augury. He

informs us that the owlet, the horned owl, the woodpecker,

which makes holes in trees, the trygon, and the crow, are produced from the egg with the tail[1] first; for the egg, being

turned upside down through the weight of the head of the

chick, presents the wrong end to be warmed by the mother

as she sits upon it.











1. Cuvier ridicules the excessive ignorance of the augurs. It is with the

beak that the young bird breaks the shell.




19. Chap. 19. (17.)-The Owlet.


CHAP. 19. (17.)-THE OWLET.



The owlet shows considerable shrewdness in its engagements with other birds; for when surrounded by too great a

number, it throws itself on its back, and so, resisting with its

feet, and rolling up its body into a mass, defends itself with

the beak and talons; until the hawk, attracted by a certain

natural affinity, comes to its assistance, and takes its share in

the combat. Nigidius says, that the incubation of the owlet

lasts sixty days, during the winter, and that it has nine different notes.










20. Chap. 20. (18.)-The Wood-Pecker Of Mars.


CHAP. 20. (18.)-THE WOOD-PECKER OF MARS.



There are some small birds also, which have hooked talons;

the wood-pecker, for example, surnamed "of Mars," of considerable importance in the auspices. To this kind belong

the birds which make holes in trees, and climb stealthily up

them, like cats; mounting with the head upwards, they tap

against the bark, and learn by the sound whether or not their

food lies beneath; they are the only birds that hatch their

young in the hollows of trees. It is a common belief, that if a

shepherd drives a wedge into their holes, they apply a certain

kind of herb,[1] immediately upon which it falls out. Trebius

informs us that if a nail or wedge is driven with ever so much

force into a tree in which these birds have made their nest, it

will instantly fly out, the tree making a loud cracking noise

the moment that the bird has lighted upon the nail or wedge.



These birds have held the first rank in auguries, in Latium,

since the time of the king[2] who has given them their name.

One of the presages that was given by them, I cannot pass

over in silence. A woodpecker came and lighted upon the

head of lius Tubero, the City prator, when sitting on his

tribunal dispensing justice in the Forum, and showed such

tameness as to allow itself to be taken with the hand; upon

which the augurs declared that if it was let go, the state

was menaced with danger, but if killed, disaster would befall







the prtor; in an instant he tore the bird to pieces, and before

long the omen was fulfilled.[3]







1. See B. xxv. c. 5.

2. Picus, the son of Saturn, king of Latium. He was skilled in augury,

and was said to have been changed into a woodpecker. See Ovid, Met.

B. xiv. 1. 314.; Virgil, n. B. vii. c. 187. See also Ovid, Fasti, B. iii.

1. 37.

3. Valerius Maximus, B. v. c. 6, says, that seventeen members of this

family fell at the battle of Cann.




21. Chap. 21. (19.)-Birds Which Have Hooked Talons.


CHAP. 21. (19.)-BIRDS WHICH HAVE HOOKED TALONS.



Many birds of this kind feed also on acorns and fruit, but

only those which are not carnivorous, with the exception of

the kite; though when it feeds on anything but flesh, it is a

bird of ill omen.



The birds which have hooked talons are never gregarious;

each one seeks its prey by itself. They nearly all of them

soar to a great height, with the exception of the birds of the

night, and more especially those of larger size. They all have

large wings, and a small body; they walk with difficulty, and

rarely settle upon stones, being prevented from doing so by

the curved shape of their talons.










22. Chap. 22. (20.)-The Peacock.


CHAP. 22. (20.)-THE PEACOCK.



We shall now speak of the second class of birds, which is

divided into two kinds; those which give omens[1] by their note,

and those which afford presages by their flight. The variation of the note in the one, and the relative size in the other,

constitute the differences between them. These last, therefore,

shall be treated of first, and the peacock shall have precedence

of all the rest, as much for its singular beauty as its superior

instinct, and the vanity it displays.



When it hears itself praised, this bird spreads out its gorgeous colours, and especially if the sun happens to be shining

at the time, because then they are seen in all their radiance,

and to better advantage. At the same time, spreading out its

tail in the form of a shell, it throws the reflection upon the

other feathers, which shine all the more brilliantly when a

shadow is cast upon them; then at another moment it will

contract all the eyes[2] depicted upon its feathers in a single







mass, manifesting great delight in having them admired by

the spectator. The peacock loses its tail every year at the fall

of the leaf, and a new one shoots forth in its place at the

flower season; between these periods the bird is abashed and

moping, and seeks retired spots. The peacock lives twenty-five years, and begins to show its colours in the third. By

some authors it is stated that this bird is not only a vain creature, but of a spiteful disposition also, just in the same way

that they attribute bashfulness to the goose.[3] The characteristics, however, which they have thus ascribed to these birds,

appear to me to be utterly unfounded.







1. "Oscines" and "alites." This was a distinction made by the

augurs, but otherwise of little utility, as all the birds with a note fly as

well.

2. See the story of the eyes of Argus transferred to the peacock's tail.

Ovid, Met, B. i 1. 616.

3. It would be curious to know how the goose manifests its modesty,

or "verecundia." We are equally at a loss with Pliny to discover it.




23. Chap. 23.-Who Was The First To Kill The Peacock For Food.-Who First Taught The Art Of Cramming Them.


CHAP. 23.-WHO WAS THE FIRST TO KILL THE PEACOCK FOR

FOOD.-WHO FIRST TAUGHT THE ART OF CRAMMING THEM.



The orator Hortensius was the first Roman who had the

peacock killed for table; it was on the occasion of the banquet

given by him on his inauguration in the college of the priesthood. M. Aufidius Lurco[1] was the first who taught the art

of fattening them, about the time of the last war with the

Pirates. From this source of profit he acquired an income of

sixty thousand sesterces.[2]







1. Tribune of the people, B. C. 61. He was maternal grandfather of the

Empress Livia. "Lurco" means a "glutton.

2. About 12,270 francs, Ajasson says.




24. Chap. 24. (21.)-The Dunghill Cock.


CHAP. 24. (21.)-THE DUNGHILL COCK.



Next after the peacock, the animal that acts as our watchman by night, and which Nature has produced for the purpose

of arousing mortals to their labours, and dispelling their slumbers, shows itself most actuated by feelings of vanity. The

cock knows how to distinguish the stars, and marks the

different periods of the day, every three hours, by his note.

These animals go to roost with the setting of the sun, and at

the fourth watch of the camp recall man to his cares and toils.

They do not allow the rising of the sun to creep upon us un-

awares, but by their note proclaim the coming day, and they

prelude their crowing by clapping their sides with their wings.

They exercise a rigorous sway over the other birds of their







kind, and, in every place where they are kept, hold the supreme

command. This, however, is only obtained after repeated

battles among themselves, as they are well aware that they

have weapons on their legs, produced for that very purpose, as

it were, and the contest often ends in the death of both the

combatants at the same moment. If, on the other hand, one

of them obtains the mastery, he instantly by his note proclaims

himself the conqueror, and testifies by his crowing that he has

been victorious; While his conquered opponent silently slinks

away, and, though with a very bad grace, submits to servitude.

And with equal pride does the throng of the poultry yard strut

along, with head uplifted and crest erect. These, too, are the

only ones among the winged race that repeatedly look up to

the heavens, with the tail, which in its drooping shape resembles that of a sickle, raised aloft: and so it is that these

birds inspire terror even in the lion,[1] the most courageous of

all animals.



Some of these birds, too, are reared for nothing but warfare

and perpetual combats, and have even shed a lustre thereby

on their native places, Rhodes and Tanagra. The next rank

is considered to belong to those of Melos[2] and Chalcis. Hence,

it is not without very good reason that the consular purple of

Rome pays these birds such singular honours. It is from the

feeding of these creatures that the omens[3] by fowls are derived; it is these that regulate[4] day by day the movements of

our magistrates, and open or shut to them their own houses,

as the case may be; it is these that give an impulse to the

fasces of the Roman magistracy, or withhold them; it is these

that command battles or forbid them, and furnish auspices for

victories to be gained in every part of the world. It is these

that hold supreme rule over those who are themselves the rulers

of the earth, and whose entrails and fibres are as pleasing to

the gods as the first spoils of victory. Their note, when heard

at an unusual hour or in the evening, has also its peculiar presages; for, on one occasion, by crowing the whole night through

for several nights, they presaged to the Boeotians that famous







victory[5] which they gained over the Lacedmonians; such,

in fact, being the interpretation that was put upon it by way

of prognostic, as this bird, when conquered, is never known to

crow.







1. See B. viii. c. 19.

2. Possibly Media; Varro says, " Medicos."

3. "Tripudia solistima." An omen derived from the feeding of the

fowls, when they devoured their food with such avidity, that it fell from

their mouths and rebounded from the ground.

4. By the auspices which they afforded.

5. Mentioned by Cicero, De Divin. B. i.




25. Chap. 25.-How Cocks Are Castrated. A Cock That Once Spoke.


CHAP. 25.-HOW COCKS ARE CASTRATED. A COCK THAT ONCE

SPOKE.



When castrated, cocks cease to crow. This operation is

performed two different ways. Either the loins of the animal

are seared with red-hot iron, or else the lower part of the

legs; after which, the wound is covered up with potter's clay:

this way they are fattened much more easily. At Pergamus,[1]

there is every year a public show of fights of game-cocks, just

as in other places we have those of gladiators.



We find it stated in the Roman Annals, that in the[2] consulship of M. Lepidus and Q. Catulus a dung-hill cock spoke, at

the farm-house of Galerius; the only occasion, in fact, that I

know of.







1. The same too at Athens, in one of the theatres, in remembrance,

lian says, of the victory gained by Themistocles over the Persians.

2. A.U.C. 676.




26. Chap. 26. (22.)-The Goose.


CHAP. 26. (22.)-THE GOOSE.



The goose also keeps a vigilant guard; a fact which is well

attested by the defence of the Capitol, at a moment when, by

the silence of the dogs, the commonwealth had been betrayed:[1]

for which reason it is that the Censors always, the first thing

of all, attend to the farming-out of the feeding of the sacred

geese. What is still more, too, there is a love-story about this

animal. At gium one is said to have conceived a passion for

a beautiful boy, a native of Olenos,[2] and another for Glauce,

a damsel who was lute-player to King Ptolemy; for whom at

the same time a ram is said also to have conceived a passion.

One might almost be tempted to think that these creatures

have an appreciation of wisdom:[3] for it is said, that one of







them was the constant companion of the philosopher, Lacydes,

and would never leave him, either in public or when at the bath,

by night or by day.







1. When the Capitol was besieged by the Gauls.

2. Near Patr, m Achaia. lian gives his name as Amphilochus.

3. A singular quality in a goose. lian says, that Lacydes was a peripatetic philosopher, and that he honoured the goose with splendid obsequies,

when it died.




27. Chap. 27.-Who First Taught Us To Use The Liver Of Tee Goose For Food.


CHAP. 27.-WHO FIRST TAUGHT US TO USE THE LIVER OF TEE

GOOSE FOR FOOD.



Our people, however, are more wise; for they only esteem the

goose for the goodness of its liver.[1] When they are crammed,

this grows to a very large size, and on being taken from the

animal, is made still larger by being soaked in honeyed milk.[2]

And, indeed, it is not without good reason that it is matter of

debate who it was that first discovered so great a delicacy;

whether, in fact, it was Scipio Metellus, a man of consular

dignity, or M. Seius, a contemporary of his, and a Roman of

equestrian rank. However, a thing about which there is no

dispute, it was Messalinus Cotta, the son of the orator Messala,

who first discovered the art of roasting the webbed feet of the

goose, and of cooking them in a ragout with cocks' combs: for

I shall faithfully award each culinary palm to such as I shall

find deserving of it. It is a wonderful fact, in relation to

this bird, that it comes on foot all the way from the country

of the Morini[3] to Rome; those that are tired are placed in

the front rank, while the rest, taught by a natural instinct to

move in a compact body, drive them on.



A second income, too, is also to be derived from the feathers

of the white goose. In some places, this animal is plucked

twice a year, upon which the feathers quickly grow again.

Those are the softest which lie nearest to the body, and those

that come from Germany are the most esteemed: the geese

there are white, but of small size, and are called gant.[4] The

price paid for their feathers is five denarii per pound. It is

from this fruitful source that we have repeated charges brought

against the commanders of our auxiliaries, who are in the habit

of detaching whole cohorts from the posts where they ought

to be on guard, in pursuit of these birds: indeed, we have

come to such a pitch of effeminacy, that now-a-days, not even







the men can think of lying down without the aid of the goose's

feathers, by way of pillow.







1. See B. viii. c. 87. Horace also mentions that they were fattened

with figs.

2. "Lacte mulso." Perhaps honey, wine, and milk.

3. In Gaul. See B. iv. c. 31.

4. "Gans" is still the German name. Hence our word "gander."




28. Chap. 28.-Of The Commagenian Medicament.


CHAP. 28.-OF THE COMMAGENIAN MEDICAMENT.



The part of Syria which is called Commagene, has discovered

another invention also; the fat of the goose[1] is enclosed with

some cinnamon in a brazen vessel, and then covered with a

thick layer of snow. Under the influence of the excessive

cold, it becomes macerated, and fit for use as a medicament,

remarkable for its properties: from the country which produces

it, it is known to us as "Commagenum."[2]







1. This medicament is further treated of in B. xxix. c. 13.

2. "The Commagenian mixture." For Commagene, see B. v. cc. 13

and 20.




29. Chap. 29.-The Chenalopex, The Cheneros, The Tetrao, And The Otis.


CHAP. 29.-THE CHENALOPEX, THE CHENEROS, THE TETRAO, AND

THE OTIS.



To the goose genus belong also the chenalopex,[1] and the

cheneros,[2] a little smaller than the common goose, and which

forms the most exquisite of all the dainties that Britannia provides for the table. The tetrao[3] is remarkable for the lustre

of its plumage, and its extreme darkness, while the eyelids are

of a scarlet colour. Another species[4] of this last bird exceeds

the vulture in size, and is of a similar colour to it; and, indeed,

there is no bird, with the exception of the ostrich, the body of

which is of a greater weight; for to such a size does it grow,

that it becomes incapable of moving, and allows itself to be

taken on the ground. The Alps and the regions of the North

produce these birds; but when kept in aviaries, they lose their

fine flavour, and by retaining their breath, will die of mere

vexation. Next to these in size are the birds which in

Spain they call the "tarda,"[5] and in Greece the "otis:" they







are looked upon however as very inferior food; the marrow,[6]

when disengaged from the bones, immediately emits a most

noisome smell.







1. The "goose-fox," so called, according to lian, for its cunning and

mischievous qualities; and worshipped by the Egyptians for its affection

for its young. It is supposed by Cuvier to be the Anas gyptiaca of

Buffon.

2. The Anas clypeata of Buffon, according to Cuvier.

3. The Tetrao tetrix of Linnus, or heathcock.

4. The Tetrao urogallus of Linnus, according to Cuvier.

5. The Otis tarda of Linnus. Cuvier says, that it is not the case that

they are bad eating, and remarks that birds have no marrow in the larger

bones.

6. Do thinks that the spinal marrow is meant.




30. Chap. 30. (23.)-Cranes.


CHAP. 30. (23.)-CRANES.



By the departure of the cranes, which, as we have already

stated,[1] were in the habit of waging war with them, the nation

of the Pygmies now enjoys a respite. The tracts over which

they travel must be immense, if we only consider that they

come all the way from the Eastern Sea.[2] These birds agree by

common consent at what moment they shall set out, fly aloft

to look out afar, select a leader for them to follow, and have

sentinels duly posted in the rear, which relieve each other by

turns, utter loud cries, and with their voice keep the whole

flight in proper array. During the night, also, they place sentinels on guard, each of which holds a little stone in its claw: if

the bird should happen to fall asleep, the claw becomes relaxed,

and the stone falls to the ground, and so convicts it of neglect.

The rest sleep in the meanwhile, with the head beneath the

wing, standing first on one leg and then on the other: the

leader looks out, with neck erect, and gives warning when

required. These birds, when tamed, are very frolicsome, and

even when alone will describe a sort of circle, as they move

along, with their clumsy gait.



It is a well-known fact, that these birds, when about to fly

over the Euxine, first of all repair to the narrowest part of it,

that lies between the two[3] Promontories of Criumetopon and

Carambis, and then ballast themselves with coarse sand. When

they have arrived midway in the passage, they throw away the

stones from out of their claws, and, as soon as they reach the

mainland, discharge the sand by the throat.



Cornelius Nepos, who died in the reign of the late Emperor

Augustus, after stating that thrushes had been fattened for the

first time shortly before that period, has added that storks were

more esteemed as food than cranes: whereas at the present

day, this last bird is one of those that are held in the very

highest esteem, while no one will so much as touch the other.











1. B. iv. c. 18, and B. vii. c. 2.

2. In B. vii. c. 2, Pliny speaks of the Pygmies as living to the far East

of India.

3. See B. iv. cc. 20 and 26; and B. vi. c. 2.




31. Chap. 31.-Storks.


CHAP. 31.-STORKS.



Up to the present time it has not been ascertained from

what place the storks come, or whither they go when they

leave us. There can be no doubt but that, like the cranes,

they come from a very great distance, the cranes being our

winter, the storks our summer, guests. When about to take

their departure, the storks assemble at a stated place, and are

particularly careful that all shall attend, so that not one of

their kind may be left behind, with the exception of such as

may be in captivity or tamed; and then on a certain day they

set out, as though by some law they were directed to do so. No

one has ever yet seen a flight of cranes taking their departure,

although they have been often observed preparing to depart;

and in the same way, too, we never see them arrive, but only

when they have arrived; both their departure as well as their

arrival take place in the night. Although, too, we see them

flying about in all directions, it is still supposed that they

never arrive at any other time but in the night. Pythonos-

come[1] is the name given to some vast plains of Asia, where,

as they assemble together, they keep up a gabbling noise, and

tear to pieces the one that happens to arrive the last; after

which they take their departure. It has been remarked that

after the ides of August,[2] they are never by any accident to be

seen there.



There are some writers who assure us that the stork has no

tongue. So highly are they esteemed for their utility in destroying serpents, that in Thessaly, it was a capital crime for

any one to kill a stork, and by the laws the same penalty was

inflicted for it as for homicide.







1. The "village of the Python," or "serpent." Gueroult suggests that

this may be Serponouwtzi, beyond the river Oby, in Siberia.

2. Thirteenth of August.




32. Chap. 32.-Swans.


CHAP. 32.-SWANS.



Geese, and swans also, travel in a similar manner, but then

they are seen to take their flight. The flocks, forming a point,

move along with great impetus, much, indeed, after the manner

of our Liburnian beaked galleys; and it is by doing so that

they are enabled to cleave the air more easily than if they

presented to it a broad front. The flight gradually enlarges







in the rear, much in the form of a wedge, presenting a vast

surface to the breeze, as it impels them onward; those that

follow place their necks on those that go before, while the

leading birds, as they become weary, fall to the rear. Storks

return to their former nests, and the young, in their turn, support

their parents when old. It is stated that at the moment of

the swan's death, it gives utterance to a mournful song;[1] but

this is an error, in my opinion, at least I have tested the truth

of the story on several occasions. These birds will eat the

flesh of one another.







1. M. Mauduit has a learned discussion in Panckouke's Translation, vol.

viii., many pages in length; in which he satisfactorily shows that this is

not entirely fabulous, but that the wild swan of the northern climates really

is possessed of a tuneful note or cadence. Of course, the statement that it

only sings just before its death, must be rejected as fabulous.




33. Chap. 33.-Foreign Birds Which Visit Us; The Quail, The Glottis, The Cychramus, And The Otus.


CHAP. 33.-FOREIGN BIRDS WHICH VISIT US; THE QUAIL, THE

GLOTTIS, THE CYCHRAMUS, AND THE OTUS.



Having spoken of the emigration of these birds over sea and

land, I cannot allow myself to defer mentioning some other

birds of smaller size, which have the same natural instinct:

although in the case of those which I have already mentioned,

their very size and strength would almost seem to invite them

to such habits. The quail, which always arrives among us

even before the crane, is a small bird, and when it has once

arrived, more generally keeps to the ground than flies aloft.

These birds fly also in a similar manner to those I have already

spoken of, and not without considerable danger to mariners,

when they come near the surface of the earth: for it often

happens that they settle on the sails of a ship, and that too

always in the night: the consequence of which is, that the

vessel often sinks. These birds pursue their course along a

tract of country with certain resting-places. When the south

wind is blowing, they will not fly, as that wind is always

humid, and apt to weigh them down. Still, however, it is an

object with them to get a breeze to assist them in their flight,

the body being so light, and their strength so very limited:

hence it is that we hear them make that murmuring noise as

they fly, it being extorted from them by fatigue. It is for

this reason also, that they take to flight more especially when







the north wind is blowing, having the ortygometra[1] for their

leader. The first of them that approaches the earth is generally snapped up by the hawk. When they are about to return from these parts, they always invite other birds to join

their company, and the glottis, otus, and cychramus, yielding

to their persuasions, take their departure along with them.



The glottis[2] protrudes a tongue of remarkable length, from

which circumstance it derives its name: at first it is quite

pleased with the journey, and sets out with the greatest ardour;

very soon, however, when it begins to feel the fatigues of the

flight, it is overtaken by regret, while at the same time it is

equally as 10th to return alone, as to accompany the others. Its

travels, however, never last more than a single day, for at the

very first resting-place they come to, it deserts: here too it

finds other birds, which have been left behind in a similar

manner in the preceding year. The same takes place with

other birds day after day. The cychramus,[3] however, is much

more persevering, and is quite in a hurry to arrive at the land

which is its destination: hence it is that it arouses the quails

in the night, and reminds them that they ought to be on the

road.



The otus is a smaller bird than the horned owl, though

larger than the owlet; it has feathers projecting like ears,

whence its name. Some persons call it in the Latin language

the "asio;"[4] in general it is a bird fond of mimicking, a great

parasite, and, in some measure, a dancer as well. Like the

owlet, it is taken without any difficulty; for while one person

occupies its attention, another goes behind, and catches it.



If the wind, by its contrary blasts, should begin to prevent

the onward progress of the flight, the birds immediately take

up small stones, or else fill their throats with sand, and so

contrive to ballast themselves as they fly. The seeds of a

certain venomous plant[5] are most highly esteemed by the







quails as food; for which reason it is that they have been banished from our tables; in addition to which, a great repugnance

is manifested to eating their flesh, on account of the epilepsy,[6]

to which alone of all animals, with the exception of man, the

quail is subject.







1. The "mother of the quails." Frederic II., in his work, De Arte

Venandi, calls the "rallus," or "rail," the "leader of the quails."

2. From glwtta\, " a tongue." It is not known what bird is alluded to.

3. Bellon thinks that this is the proyer, or prayer, of the French; Aldrovandus considers it to be the ortolan.

4. Gesner suggests from "asinus," an "ass;" its feathers sticking up

like the ears of that animal. Dalechamps thinks it is because its voice

resembles the braying of an ass; the name "otus" is from the Greek for

"ear."

5. Either hemlock or hellebore.

6. "Despuisuetum." See B. xxviii. c. 7. As Hardouin says, in modern

times they are considered delicate eating; but Schenkius, Obsers. Med.

B. i., states, that if the bird has eaten hellebore, epilepsy is the consequence

to the person who partakes of its flesh.




34. Chap. 34. (24.)-Swallows.


CHAP. 34. (24.)-SWALLOWS.



The swallow, the only bird that is carnivorous among those

which have not hooked talons, takes its departure also during

the winter months; but it only goes to neighbouring countries,

seeking sunny retreats there on the mountain sides; sometimes they have been found in such spots bare and quite unfledged. This bird, it is said, will not enter a house in Thebes,

because that city has been captured so frequently; nor will it

approach the country of the Bizy, on account of the crimes

committed there by Tereus.[1] Ccina[2] of Volaterr, a member

of the equestrian order, and the owner of several chariots, used

to have swallows caught, and then carried them with him to

Rome. Upon gaining a victory, he would send the news

by them to his friends; for after staining them the colour[3] of

the party that had gained the day, he would let them go,

immediately upon which they would make their way to the

nests they had previously occupied. Fabius Pictor also relates,

in his Annals, that when a Roman garrison was being besieged

by the Ligurians, a swallow which had been taken from its

young ones was brought to him, inorder that he might give

them notice, by the number of knots on a string tied to its

leg, on what day succour would arrive, and a sortie might be

made with advantage.







1. See B. iv. c. 18.

2. A friend of Augustus, sent by him with proposals to Antony, B.C. 41.

3. The colour of the "factio," or "party" of charioteers. See p. 217.




35. Chap. 35.-Birds Which Take Their Departure From Us, And Whither They Go; The Thrush, The Blackbird, And The Starling-Birds Which Lose Their Feathers During Their


CHAP. 35.-BIRDS WHICH TAKE THEIR DEPARTURE FROM US, AND

WHITHER THEY GO; THE THRUSH, THE BLACKBIRD, AND THE

STARLING-BIRDS WHICH LOSE THEIR FEATHERS DURING THEIR







RETIREMENT-THE TURTLE-DOVE AND THE RING-DOVE-THE

FLIGHT OF STARLINGS AND SWALLOWS.



In a similar manner also, the blackbird, the thrush, and the

starling take their departure to neighbouring countries; but

they do not lose their feathers, nor yet conceal themselves, as

they are often to be seen in places where they seek their food

during the winter: hence it is that in winter, more especially,

the thrush is so often to be seen in Germany. It is, however,

a well-ascertained fact, that the turtle-dove conceals itself, and

loses its feathers. The ring-dove, also, takes its departure:

and with these too, it is a matter of doubt whither they go.

It is a peculiarity of the starling to fly in troops, as it were,

and then to wheel round in a globular mass like a ball, the

central troop acting as a pivot for the rest. Swallows are the

only birds that have a sinuous flight of remarkable velocity;

for which reason it is that they are not exposed to the attacks

of other birds of prey: these too, in fine, are the only birds that

take their food solely on the wing.










36. Chap. 36. (25.)-Birds Which Remain With Us Throughout The Year; Birds Which Remain With Us Only Six Or Three Months; Witwalls And Hoopoes.


CHAP. 36. (25.)-BIRDS WHICH REMAIN WITH US THROUGHOUT

THE YEAR; BIRDS WHICH REMAIN WITH US ONLY SIX OR

THREE MONTHS; WITWALLS AND HOOPOES.



The time during which birds show themselves differs very

considerably. Some remain with us all the year round, the

pigeon, for instance; some for six months, such as the swallow;

and some, again, for three months only, as the thrush, the turtledove, and those which take their departure the moment they

have reared their young, the witwall[1] and the hoopoe, for

instance.







1. Galgulus.




37. Chap. 37. (26.)-The Memnonides.


CHAP. 37. (26.)-THE MEMNONIDES.



There are some authors who say that every year certain

birds[1] fly from thiopia to Ilium, and have a combat at the

tomb of Memnon there; from which circumstance they have

received from them the name of Memnonides, or birds of

Memnon. Cremutius states it also as a fact, ascertained by







himself, that they do the same every fifth year in thiopia,

around the palace of Memnon.







1. Cuvier suggests, that these birds may have been the Tringa pugnax

of Linnus and Buffon, the males of which engage in most bloody combats

with each other on the banks of livers, in spring.




38. Chap. 38.-The Meleagrides.


CHAP. 38.-THE MELEAGRIDES.



In a similar manner also, the birds called meleagrides[1] fight

in Botia. They are a species of African poultry, having a

hump on the back, which is covered with a mottled plumage.

These are the latest among the foreign birds that have been

received at our tables, on account of their disagreeable smell.

The tomb, however, of Meleager has rendered them famous.







1. No doubt, as Cuvier says, this was the Numida meleagris of Linnus,

Guinea hen, or pintada. Cuvier remarks that they are very pugnacious

birds.




39. Chap. 39. (27.)-The Seleucides.


CHAP. 39. (27.)-THE SELEUCIDES.



Those birds are called seleucides, which are sent by Jupiter

at the prayers offered up to him by the inhabitants of Mount

Casius,[1] when the locusts are ravaging their crops of corn.

Whence they[2] come, or whither they go, has never yet been

ascertained, as, in fact, they are never to be seen but when the

people stand in need of their aid.







1. See B. v. c. 22.

2. Cuvier suggests, that these birds may have been of the starling

genus, perhaps the Turdus roseus of Linnus.




40. Chap. 40. (28.)-The Ibis.


CHAP. 40. (28.)-THE IBIS.



The Egyptians also invoke their ibis against the incursions

of serpents; and the people of Elis, their god Myiagros,[1]

when the vast multitudes of flies are bringing pestilence

among them; the flies die immediately the propitiatory sacrifice has been made to this god.







1. The "hunter of flies."




41. Chap. 41. (29.)-Places In Which Certain Birds Are Never Found.


CHAP. 41. (29.)-PLACES IN WHICH CERTAIN BIRDS ARE NEVER

FOUND.



With reference to the departure of birds, the owlet, too, is

said to lie concealed for a few days. No birds of this last kind

are to be found in the island of Crete, and if any are imported

thither, they immediately die. Indeed, this is a remarkable

distinction made by Nature; for she denies to certain places,

as it were, certain kinds of fruits and shrubs, and of animals as







well; it is singular that when introduced into these localities

they will be no longer productive, but die immediately they

are thus transplanted. What can it be that is thus fatal to

the increase of one particular species, or whence this envy

manifested against them by Nature? What, too, are the limits

that have been marked out for the birds on the face of the

earth?



Rhodes[1] possesses no eagles. In Italy beyond the Padus,

there is, near the Alps, a lake known by the name of Larius,

beautifully situate amid a country covered with shrubs; and

yet this lake is never visited by storks, nor, indeed, are they

ever known to come within eight miles of it; while, on the

other hand, in the neighbouring territory of the Insubres[2]

there are immense flocks of magpies and jackdaws, the only[3]

bird that is guilty of stealing gold and silver, a very singular

propensity.



It is said that in the territory of Tarentum, the woodpecker

of Mars is never found. It is only lately too, and that but

very rarely, that various kinds of pies have begun to be seen

in the districts that lie between the Apennines and the City;

birds which are known by the name of "vari,"[4] and are remarkable for the length of the tail. It is a peculiarity of

this bird, that it becomes bald every year at the time of sowing

rape. The partridge does not fly beyond the frontiers of

Botia, into Attica; nor does any bird, in the island[5] in the

Euxine in which Achilles was buried, enter the temple there

consecrated to him. In the territory of Fiden, in the vicinity

of the City, the storks have no young nor do they build nests: but

vast numbers of ringdoves arrive from beyond sea every year

in the district of Volaterr. At Rome, neither flies nor dogs

ever enter the temple of Hercules in the Cattle Market. There

are numerous other instances of a similar nature in reference

to all kinds of animals, which from time to time I feel myself prompted by prudent considerations to omit, lest I should







only weary the reader. Theophrastus, for example, relates

that even pigeons, as well as peacocks and ravens, have been

introduced from other parts into Asia,[6] as also croaking frogs[7]

into Cyrenaica.







1. Suetonius says, that when Tiberius was staying at Rhodes, an eagle

perched on the roof of his house; such a bird having never been seen

before on the island.

2. See B. iii. c. 21.

3. It is still noted for its thieving propensities; witness the English story

of the Maid and the Magpie, and the Italian opera of "La Gazza Ladra."

Cicero says, "They would no more trust gold with you, than with a jackdaw." See also Ovid's Met. B. vii. It is the Corvus pica of Linnus.

4. "Mottled pics."

5. See B. iv. c. 12.

6. Asia Minor, most probably. The assertion, though supported by

Theophrastus, is open to doubt.

7. Sec B. viii. c. 83.




42. Chap. 42.-The Various Kinds Of Birds Which Afford Omens By Their Note-Birds Which Change Their Colour And Their Voice.


CHAP. 42.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF BIRDS WHICH AFFORD OMENS

BY THEIR NOTE-BIRDS WHICH CHANGE THEIR COLOUR AND

THEIR VOICE.



There is another remarkable fact too, relative to the birds

which give omens by their note; they generally change their

colour and voice at a certain season of the year, and suddenly

become quite altered in appearance; a thing that, among the

larger birds, happens with the crane only, which grows black

in its old age. From black, the blackbird changes to a reddish colour, sings in summer, chatters in winter, and about

the summer solstice loses its voice; when a year old, the beak

also assumes the appearance of ivory; this, however, is the case

only with the male. In the summer, the thrush is mottled

about the neck, but in the winter it becomes of one uniform

colour all over.










43. Chap. 43.-The Nightingale.


CHAP. 43.-THE NIGHTINGALE.



The song of the nightingale is to be heard, without intermission, for fifteen days and nights, continuously,[1] when the

foliage is thickening, as it bursts from the bud; a bird which

deserves our admiration in no slight degree. First of all,

what a powerful voice in so small a body! its note, how long,

and how well sustained! And then, too, it is the only bird

the notes of which are modulated in accordance with the strict

rules of musical science.[2] At one moment, as it sustains its







breath, it will prolong its note, and then at another, will vary

it with different inflexions; then, again, it will break into

distinct chirrups, or pour forth an endless series of roulades.

Then it will warble to itself, while taking breath, or else disguise its voice in an instant; while sometimes, again, it will

twitter to itself, now with a full note, now with a grave, now

again sharp, now with a broken note, and now with a prolonged

one. Sometimes, again, when it thinks fit, it will break

out into quavers, and will run through, in succession, alto,

tenor, and bass: in a word, in so tiny a throat is to be found

all the melody that the ingenuity of man has ever discovered

through the medium of the invention of the most exquisite

flute: so much so, that there can be no doubt it was an infallible presage of his future sweetness as a poet, when one of

these creatures perched and sang on the infant lips of the

poet Stesichorus.



That there may remain no doubt that there is a certain

degree of art in its performances, we may here remark that

every bird has a number of notes peculiar to itself; for they

do not, all of them, have the same, but each, certain melodies

of its own. They vie with one another, and the spirit

with which they contend is evident to all. The one that

is vanquished, often dies in the contest, and will rather yield

its life than its song. The younger birds are listening in the

meantime, and receive the lesson in song from which they

are to profit. The learner hearkens with the greatest attention,

and repeats what it has heard, and then they are silent by

turns; this is understood to be the correction of an error on the

part of the scholar, and a sort of reproof, as it were, on the

part of the teacher. Hence it is that nightingales fetch as

high a price as slaves, and, indeed, sometimes more than used

formerly to be paid for a man in a suit of armour.



I know that on one occasion six thousand sesterces[3] were

paid for a nightingale, a white one it is true, a thing that is

hardly ever to be seen, to be made a present of to Agrippina, the

wife of the Emperor Claudius. A nightingale has been often

seen that will sing at command, and take alternate parts with

the music that accompanies it; men, too, have been found who

could imitate its note with such exactness, that it would be

impossible to tell the difference, by merely putting water in a







reed held crosswise, and then blowing into it, a languette being

first inserted, for the purpose of breaking the sound and rendering it more shrill.[4] But these modulations, so clever and so

artistic, begin gradually to cease at the end of the fifteen days;

not that you can say, however, that the bird is either fatigued

or tired of singing; but, as the heat increases, its voice becomes

altogether changed, and possesses no longer either modulation or variety of note. Its colour, too, becomes changed, and

at last, throughout the winter, it totally disappears. The tongue

of the nightingale is not pointed at the tip, as in other birds.

It lays at the beginning of the spring, six eggs at the most.







1. It was the nightingale that was said to be "Vox et prterea nihil;"

"A voice, and nothing else."

2. As there may be different opinions on the meaning of the various

parts of this passage, it is as well to transcribe it for the benefit of the

reader, the more especially as, contrary to his usual practice, Pliny is

here in a particularly discursive mood. "Nunc continuo spiritu trahitur in

longum, nunc variatur inflexo, nunc distinguitur conciso, copulatur intorto,

promittitur revocato, infuscatur ex inopinato, interdum et secum ipse

murmurat, plenus, gravis, acutus, creber, extentus; ubi visum est, vibrans,

summus, medius, imus."

3. 1227 francs, Ajasson says.

4. Something very similar to this, we often see practised by the waterwarblers in our streets.




44. Chap. 44.-The Melancoryphus, The Erithacits, And The Phnicurus.


CHAP. 44.-THE MELANCORYPHUS, THE ERITHACITS, AND THE

PHNICURUS.



The change is different that takes place in the ficedula,[1]

for this bird changes its shape as well as its colour. "Ficedula" is the name by which it is called in autumn, but not

after that period; for then it is called "melancoryphus."[2] In

the same manner, too, the erithacus[3] of the winter is the

"phnicurus" of the summer. The hoopoe also, according

to the poet schylus, changes its form; it is a bird that feeds

upon filth[4] of all kinds, and is remarkable for its twisted topknot, which it can contract or elevate at pleasure along the top

of the head.







1. Cuvier supposes that this is one of the fly-catchers; the "Muscicapa

atricapilla" of Linnus, which changes in appearance entirely after the

breeding season.

2. The "black-head."

3. Cuvier thinks that this is the wall nightingale, the Motacilla phnicurus of Linnus, which is not seen in winter. On the other hand, the

Motacilla rubecula of Linnus, or red-throat, is only seen during the

winter, and being like the other bird, may have been taken for it, and

named "phnicurus."

4. This is not the case. Aristotle only says that it builds its nest of

human ordure; a story probably without any foundation, but still prevalent

among the French peasantry.




45. Chap. 45.-The nanthe, The Chlorion, The Blackbird, And The Ibis.


CHAP. 45.-THE NANTHE, THE CHLORION, THE BLACKBIRD, AND

THE IBIS.



The cenanthe,[1] too, is a bird that has stated days for its re-







treat. At the rising of Sirius it conceals itself, and at the

setting of that star comes forth from its retreat: and this it

does, a most singular thing, exactly upon both those days.

The chlorion,[2] also, the body of which is yellow all over, is

not seen in the winter, but comes out about the summer solstice.



(30.) The blackbird is found in the vicinity of Cyllene, in

Arcadia, with white[3] plumage; a thing that is the case nowhere else. The ibis, in the neighbourhood of Pelusium[4] only

is black, while in all other places it is white.







1. It has not been identified with precision. Pliny, B. xviii. c. 69 calls

it a small bird. Some make it the popinjay; others, with more probability, the lapwing. Horace, B. iii. Ode 27, mentions it as the parra, a

bird of ill omen.

2. The Oriolus luteus, or witwall, according to Linnus.

3. White blackbirds (if we may employ the paradox) are a distinct

variety, according to Cuvier, to be found in various countries, though but

rarely.

4. This is from Herodotus, but it is incorrect. The black, or rather

green ibis, Cuvier says, the Scolopax falcinellus of Linnus, is found not

only near Pelusium, but all over the south of Europe.




46. Chap. 46. (31.)-The Times Of Incubation Of Birds.


CHAP. 46. (31.)-THE TIMES OF INCUBATION OF BIRDS.



The birds that have a note, with the exception of those previously mentioned,[1] do not by any chance produce their young

before the vernal or after the autumnal equinox. As to the

broods produced before the summer solstice, it is very doubtful

if they will survive, but those hatched after it thrive well.







1. He alludes to the nightingale, mentioned in c. 43.




48. Chap. 48.-Other Kinds Of Aquatic Birds.


CHAP. 48.-OTHER KINDS OF AQUATIC BIRDS.



The sea-mew also builds its nest in rocks, and the diver[1] in

trees as well. These birds produce three at the very most; the

sea-mew in summer, the diver at the beginning of spring.







1. Or didapper.




49. Chap. 49. (33.)-The Instinctive Cleverness Displayed By Birds In The Construction Of Their Nests. The Wonder- Ful Works Of The Swallow. The Bank-Swallow.


CHAP. 49. (33.)-THE INSTINCTIVE CLEVERNESS DISPLAYED BY

BIRDS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THEIR NESTS. THE WONDER-

FUL WORKS OF THE SWALLOW. THE BANK-SWALLOW.



The form of the nest built by the halcyon reminds me also

of the instinctive cleverness displayed by other birds; and, indeed, in no respect is the ingenuity of birds more deserving of

our admiration. The swallow builds its nest of mud, and

strengthens it with straws. If mud happens to fail, it soaks

itself with a quantity of water, which it then shakes from off

its feathers into the dust. It lines the inside of the nest with







soft feathers and wool, to keep the eggs warm, and in order

that the nest may not be hard and rough to its young when

hatched. It divides the food among its offspring with the

most rigid justice, giving it first to one and then to another.

With a remarkable notion of cleanliness, it throws out of the

nest the ordure of the young ones, and when they have grown

a little older, teaches them how to turn round, and let it fall

outside of the nest.



There is another[1] kind of swallow, also, that frequents the

fields and the country; its nest is of a different shape, though

of the same materials, but it rarely builds it against houses.

The nest has its mouth turned straight upwards, and the entrance

to it is long and narrow, while the body is very capacious. It

is quite wonderful what skill is displayed in the formation of

it, for the purpose of concealing the young ones, and of presenting a soft surface for them to lie upon. At the Heracleotic

Mouth of the Nile in Egypt, the swallows present an insuperable obstacle to the inroads of that river, in the embankment which is formed by their nests in one continuous line,

nearly a stadium in length; a thing that could not possibly

have been effected by the agency of man. In Egypt, too,

near the city of Coptos, there is an island sacred to Isis. In

the early days of spring, the swallows strengthen the angular corner of this island with chaff and straw, thus fortifying it in order that the river may not sweep it away. This

work they persevere in for three days and nights together, with

such unremitting labour, that it is a well-known fact that

many of them die with their exertions. This, too, is a toil

which recurs regularly for them every year.



There is, again, a third kind[2] of swallow, which makes holes

in the banks of rivers, to serve for its nest. The young of

these birds, reduced to ashes, are a good specific against mortal

maladies of the throat, and tend to cure many other diseases of

the human body. These birds do not build nests, and they take

care to migrate a good many days before, if it so happens that

the rise of the river is about to reach their holes.











1. The first is the common chimney swallow. This latter one, Cuvier

says, is either the window swallow, the Hirundo urbica of Linnus, or else

the martinet, the Hirundo apus of Linnus.

2. The bank swallow, or Hirundo riparia of Linnus.




50. Chap. 50.-The Acanthyllis And Other Birds.


CHAP. 50.-THE ACANTHYLLIS AND OTHER BIRDS.



Belonging to the genus of birds known as the " vitiparr,"

there is one[1] whose nest is formed of dried moss,[2] and is in

shape so exactly like a ball, that it is impossible to discover

the mouth of it. The bird, also, that is known as the acanthyllis,[3] makes its nest of a similar shape, and interweaves it

with pieces of flax. The nest of one of the woodpeckers, very

much like a cup in shape, is suspended by a twig from the end

of the branch of a tree, so that no quadruped may be able to

reach it. It is strongly asserted, that the witwall[4] sleeps

suspended by its feet, because it fancies that by doing so it is

in greater safety. A thing, indeed, that is well-known of them

all, is the fact that, in a spirit of foresight, they select the projecting branches of trees that are sufficiently strong, for the

purpose of supporting their nests, and then arch them over to

protect them from the rain, or else shield them by means of the

thickness of the foliage.



In Arabia there is a bird known as the "cinnamolgus."[5]

It builds its nest with sprigs of cinnamon; and the natives

knock them down with arrows loaded with lead, in order to

sell them. In Scythia there is a bird, the size of the otis,

which produces two young ones always, in a hare's skin suspended[6] from the top branches of a tree. Pies, when they

have observed a person steadily gazing at their nest, will immediately remove their eggs to another place. This is said to

be accomplished in a truly wonderful manner, by such birds as

have not toes adapted for holding and removing their eggs.

They lay a twig upon two eggs, and then solder them to it by

means of a glutinous matter secreted from their body; after

which, they pass their neck between the eggs, and so forming

an equipoise, convey them to another place.











1. Cuvier thinks that this is either the remiz, the Parus pendulinus of

Linnus, or else the moustache, the Parus biarmicus of Linnus.

2. Not moss, Cuvier says, but blades of grass, and the silken fibres of the

poplar and other aquatic trees.

3. Cuvier thinks that it is the same bird as the vitiparra of Pliny.

4. Galulus.

5. This story, in all its extravagance, is related first by Herodotus, and

then by Aristotle, who has reduced it to its present dimensions, as given by

Pliny.

6. Cuvier suggests that, if at all based upon truth, this may have been

the case in one instance, and then ascribed to the whole species.




51. Chap. 51.-The Merops-Partridges.


CHAP. 51.-THE MEROPS-PARTRIDGES.



No less, too, is the shrewdness displayed by those birds which

make their nests upon the ground, because, from the extreme

weight of their body, they are unable to fly aloft. There is a

bird, known as the "merops,"[1] which feeds its parents in

their retreat: the colour of the plumage on the inside is pale,

and azure without, while it is of a somewhat reddish hue at

the extremity of the wings: this bird builds its nest in a hole

which it digs to the depth of six feet.



Partridges[2] fortify their retreat so well with thorns and

shrubs, that it is effectually protected against beasts of prey.

They make a soft bed for their eggs by burying them in the

dust, but do not hatch them where they are laid: that no suspicion may arise from the fact of their being seen repeatedly

about the same spot, they carry them away to some other place.

The females also conceal themselves from their mates, in order

that they may not be delayed in the process of incubation, as

the males, in consequence of the warmth of their passions, are

apt to break the eggs. The males, thus deprived of the females,

fall to fighting among themselves; and it is said that the one

that is conquered, is treated as a female by the other. Trogus

Pompeius tells us that quails and dunghill cocks sometimes do

the same; and adds, that wild partridges, when newly caught,

or when beaten by the others, are trodden promiscuously by

the tame ones. Through the very pugnacity thus inspired by

the strength of their passions, these birds are often taken, as

the leader of the whole covey frequently advances to fight with

the decoy-Bird of the fowler; as soon as he is taken, another and

then another will advance, all of which are caught in their

turn. The females, again, are caught about the pairing season;

for then they will come forward to quarrel with the female

decoy-Bird of the fowler, and so drive her away. Indeed, in

no other animal is there any such susceptibility in the sexual

feelings; if the female only stands opposite to the male, while

the wind is blowing from that direction, she[3] will become impregnated; and during this time she is in a state of the







greatest excitement, the beak being wide open and the tongue

thrust out. The female will conceive also from the action of

the air, as the male flies above her, and very often from only

hearing his voice: indeed, to such a degree does passion get

the better of her affection for her offspring, that although at

the moment she is sitting furtively and in concealment, she

will, if she perceives the female decoy-Bird of the fowler approaching her mate, call him back, and summon him away

from the other, and voluntarily submit to his advances.



Indeed, these birds are often carried away by such frantic

madness, that they will settle, being quite blinded by fear,[4]

upon the very head of the fowler. If he happens to move in

the direction of the nest, the female bird that is sitting will

run and throw herself before his feet, pretending to be over-heavy, or else weak in the loins, and then, suddenly running or flying for a short distance before him, will fall down

as though she had a wing broken, or else her feet; just as he

is about to catch her, she will then take another fly, and so

keep baffling him in his hopes, until she has led him to a considerable distance from her nest. As soon as she is rid of her

fears, and free from all maternal disquietude, she will throw

herself on her back in some furrow, and seizing a clod of

earth with her claws, cover herself all over. It is supposed

that the life of the partridge extends to sixteen years.







1. The Merops apiaster of Linnus, or bee-eater.

2. Cuvier says that the red partridge, the Tetrao rufus of Linnus, is

meant.

3. The same wonderful story is told by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 5,

and by lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 15.

4. "Metu." Aristotle says, by sexual passion. The reading is probably

corrupt here.




52. Chap. 52. (34.)-Pigeons.


CHAP. 52. (34.)-PIGEONS.



Next to the partridge, it is in the pigeon that similar tendencies are to be seen in the same respect: but then, chastity

is especially observed by it, and promiscuous intercourse is a

thing quite unknown. Although inhabiting a domicile in

common with others, they will none of them violate the laws

of conjugal fidelity: not one will desert its nest, unless it is

either widower or widow. Although, too, the males are very

imperious, and sometimes even extremely exacting, the females

put up with it: for in fact, the males sometimes suspect them of

infidelity, though by nature they are incapable of it. On

such occasions the throat of the male seems quite choked with

indignation, and he inflicts severe blows with the beak: and







then afterwards, to make some atonement, he falls to billing, and by way of pressing his amorous solicitations, sidles

round and round the female with his feet. They both of them

manifest an equal degree of affection for their offspring; in-

deed, it is not unfrequently that this is a ground for correction,

in consequence of the female being too slow in going to her

young. When the female is sitting, the male renders her every

attention that can in any way tend to her solace and comfort.

The first thing that they do is to eject from the throat some

saltish earth, which they have digested, into the mouths of

the young ones, in order to prepare them in due time to receive their nutriment. It is a peculiarity of the pigeon and

of the turtle-dove, not to throw back the neck when drinking,

but to take in the water at a long draught, just as beasts of

burden do.



(35.) We read in some authors that the ring-dove lives so

long as thirty years, and sometimes as much as forty, without

any other inconvenience than the extreme length of the claws,

which with them, in fact, is the chief mark of old age; they

can be cut, however, without any danger. The voice of all

these birds is similar, being composed of three notes, and then

a mournful noise at the end. In winter they are silent, and they

only recover their voice in the spring. Nigidius expresses it

as his opinion that the ring-dove will abandon the place, if she

hears her name mentioned under the roof where she is sitting

on her eggs: they hatch their young just after[1] the summer

solstice. Pigeons and turtle-doves live eight years.



(36.) The sparrow, on the other hand, which has an equal

degree of salaciousness, is short-lived in the extreme. It is

said that the male does not live beyond a year; and as a ground

for this belief, it is stated that at the beginning of spring, the

black marks are never to be seen upon the beak which began

to appear in the summer. The females, however, are said

to live somewhat longer.



Pigeons have even a certain appreciation of glory. There

is reason for believing that they are well aware of the colours

of their plumage, and the various shades which it presents, and

even in their very mode of flying they court our applause, as

they cleave the air in every direction. It is, indeed, through







this spirit of ostentation that they are handed over, fast bound

as it were, to the hawk; for from the noise that they make,

which, in fact, is only produced by the flapping of their wings,

their long feathers become twisted and disordered: otherwise,

when they can fly without any impediment, they are far swifter

in their movements than the hawk. The robber, lurking amid

the dense foliage, keeps on the look-out for them, and seizes

them at the very moment that they are indulging their vainglorious self-complaisance.



(37.) It is for this reason that it is necessary to keep along

with the pigeons the bird that is known as the "tinnunculus;"[2] as it protects them, and by its natural superiority

scares away the hawk; so much so, indeed, that the hawk will

vanish at the very sight of it, and the instant it hears its

voice. Hence it is that the pigeons have an especial regard

for this bird; and, it is said, if one of these birds is buried

at each of the four corners of the pigeon-house in pots that

have been newly glazed, the pigeons will not change their

abode-a result which has been obtained by some by cutting a

joint of their wings with an instrument of gold; for if any

other were used, the wounds would be not unattended with

danger.-The pigeon in general may be looked upon as a bird

fond of change; they have the art, too, among themselves of

gaining one another over, and so seducing their companions:

hence it is that we frequently find them return attended by

others which they have enticed away.







1. See B. xviii. c. 68; where he says that the summer solstice is past at

the time of the incubation.

2. Cuvier takes this to be the kestril, or Falco tinnunculus of Linneus,

and considers it to be synonymous with the cenchris, mentioned in c. 73,

and in B. xxix. c. 6, though Pliny does not seem to be aware of the

identity.




53. Chap. 53.-Wonderful Things Done By Them; Prices At Which They Have Been Sold.


CHAP. 53.-WONDERFUL THINGS DONE BY THEM; PRICES AT

WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN SOLD.



In addition to this, pigeons have acted as messengers in

affairs of importance. During the siege of Mutina, Decimus

Brutus, who was in the town, sent despatches to the camp of

the consuls[1] fastened to pigeons' feet. Of what use to Antony

then were his intrenchments, and all the vigilance of the be-







sieging army? his nets, too, which he had spread in the river,

while the messenger of the besieged was cleaving the air?



Many persons have quite a mania for pigeons-Building towns

for them on the top of their roofs, and taking a pleasure in

relating the pedigree and noble origin of each. Of this there

is an ancient instance that is very remarkable; L. Axius, a

Roman of the equestrian order, shortly before the Civil War of

Pompeius, sold a single pair for four hundred denarii, as we learn

from the writings of M. Varro.[2] Countries even have gained

renown for their pigeons; it is thought that those of Campania

attain the largest size.







1. Hirtius and Pansa. Frontinus, B. iii. c. 13, says that pigeons were

sent by Hirtius to Brutus. At the present day, letters are sent fastened

under their wings.

2. B. iii. c. 7.




54. Chap. 54. (38.)-Different Modes Of Flight And Progres- Sion In Birds.


CHAP. 54. (38.)-DIFFERENT MODES OF FLIGHT AND PROGRES-

SION IN BIRDS.



The flight of the pigeon also leads me to consider that of

other birds as well. All other animals have one determinate

mode of progression, which in every kind is always the same;

it is birds alone that have two modes of moving-the one on

the ground, the other in the air. Some of them walk, such

as the crow, for instance; some hop, as the sparrow and the

blackbird; some, again, run, as the partridge and the woodhen;

while others throw one foot before the other, the stork and the

crane, for instance. Then again, in their flight, some birds expand their wings, and, poising themselves in the air, only move

them from time to time; others move them more frequently,

but then only at the extremities; while others expand them

so as to expose the whole of the side. On the other hand,

some fly with the greater part of the wings kept close to

the side; and some, after striking the air once, others twice,

make their way through it, as though pressing upon it enclosed

beneath their wings; other birds dart aloft in a vertical direction, others horizontally, and others come falling straight

downwards. You would almost think that some had been

hurled upwards with a violent effort, and that others, again, had

fallen straight down from aloft; while others are seen to spring

forward in their flight. Ducks alone, and the other birds of

that kind, in an instant raise themselves aloft, taking a spring

from the spot where they stand straight upwards towards the

heavens; and this they can do from out of the water even;

hence it is that they are the only birds that can make their







escape from the pitfalls which we employ for the capture of

wild beasts.



The vulture and the heavier wild birds can only fly after taking

a run, or else by commencing their flight from an elevated spot.

They use the tail by way of rudder. There are some birds that

are able to see all around them; others, again, have to turn the

neck to do so. Some of them eat what they have seized, holding

it in their feet. Many, as they fly, utter some cry; while on

the other hand, many, in their flight, are silent. Some fly with

the breast half upright, others with it held downwards, others

fly obliquely, or else side-ways, and others following the direction of the bill. Some, again, are borne along with the head

upwards; indeed the fact is, that if we were to see several kinds

at the same moment, we should not suppose that they have to

make their way in the same element.










55. Chap. 55. (39.)-The Birds Called Apodes, Or Cypseli.


CHAP. 55. (39.)-THE BIRDS CALLED APODES, OR CYPSELI.



Those birds which are known as "apodes"[1] fly the most of

all, because they are deprived of the use of their feet. By

some persons they are called "cypseli." They are a species of

swallow which build their nests in the rocks, and are the same

birds that are to be seen everywhere at sea; indeed, however

far a ship may go, however long its voyage, and however great

the distance from land, the apodes never cease to hover around

it. Other birds settle and come to a stand, whereas these know

no repose but in the nest; they are always either on the wing

or else asleep.







1. "Without feet." This was supposed to be the case with the martinet,

the Hirundo apus of Linnus.




56. Chap. 56. (40.)-Respecting The Food Of BirdsThe Capri- Mulgus, The Platea.


CHAP. 56. (40.)-RESPECTING THE FOOD OF BIRDSTHE CAPRI-

MULGUS, THE PLATEA.



The instincts, also, of birds are no less varied, and more especially in relation to their food. "Caprimulgus[1] is the

name of a bird, which is to all appearance a large blackbird;

it thieves by night, as it cannot see during the day. It enters

the folds of the shepherds, and makes straight for the udder

of the she-goat, to suck the milk. Through the injury thus

inflicted the udder shrivels away, and the goat that has been

thus deprived of its milk, is afflicted with incipient blindness.







"Platea"[2] is the name of another, which pounces upon other

birds when they have dived in the sea, and, seizing the head

with its bill, makes them let go their prey. This bird also

swallows and fills itself with shell-fish, shells and all; after

the natural heat of its crop has softened them, it brings them

up again, and then picking out the shells from the rest, selects

the parts that are fit for food.







1. Or "goat-sucker." The Caprimulgus Europus of Linnus.

2. Cuvier says that this is the spoon-Bill, the Platalea leucorodea of Linnus. Some suppose it to be the bittern.




57. Chap. 57. (41.)-The Instincts Of Birds-The Carduelis, The Taurus, The Anthus.


CHAP. 57. (41.)-THE INSTINCTS OF BIRDS-THE CARDUELIS,

THE TAURUS, THE ANTHUS.



The farm-yard fowls have also a certain notion of religion;

upon laying an egg they shudder all over, and then shake their

feathers; after which they turn round and purify[1] themselves,

or else hallow[2] themselves and their eggs with some stalk or

other. (42.) The carduelis,[3] which is the very smallest bird

of any, will do what it is bid, not only with the voice but with

the feet as well, and with the beak, which serves it instead of

hands. There is one bird, found in the territory of Arelate, that

imitates the lowing of oxen, from which circumstance it has

received the name of "taurus."[4] In other respects it is of

small size. Another bird, called the "anthus,"[5] imitates the

neighing of the horse; upon being driven from the pasture by

the approach of the horses, it will mimic their voices-and this

is the method it takes of revenging itself.







1. By nestling in the dust. Throwing dust over the body was one of

the ancient modes of purification.

2. "Lustrant," "perform a lustration." This was done by the Romans

with a branch of laurel or olive, and sometimes bean-stalks were used.

3. The linnet, probably.

4. The "bull." This cannot possibly be the bittern, as some have suggested, for that is a large bird.

5. Supposed to be the Motacilla flava of Linneus, the spring wagtail.




58. Chap. 58.-Birds Which Speak-The Parrot.


CHAP. 58.-BIRDS WHICH SPEAK-THE PARROT.



But above all, there are some birds that can imitate the human voice; the parrot, for instance, which can even converse.

India sends us this bird, which it calls by the name of "sittaces;"[1] the body is green all over, only it is marked with







a ring of red around the neck. It will duly salute an emperor, and pronounce the words it has heard spoken; it is

rendered especially frolicsome under the influence of wine.

Its head is as hard as its beak; and this, when it is being

taught to talk, is beaten with a rod of iron, for otherwise it

is quite insensible to blows. When it lights on the ground it

falls upon its beak, and by resting upon it makes itself all

the lighter for its feet, which are naturally weak.







1. Hence the Latin name "psittacus." From this, Cuvier thinks that

the first known among these birds to the Greeks and Romans, was the

green perroquet with a ringed neck, the Psittacus Alexandri of Linnus.




59. Chap. 59.-The Pie Which Feeds On Acorns.


CHAP. 59.-THE PIE WHICH FEEDS ON ACORNS.



The magpie is much less famous for its talking qualities than

the parrot, because it does not come from a distance, and yet

it can speak with much more distinctness. These birds love

to hear words spoken which they can utter; and not only do

they learn them, but are pleased at the task; and as they con

them over to themselves with the greatest care and attention,

make no secret of the interest they feel. It is a well-known

fact, that a magpie has died before now, when it has found itself

mastered by a difficult word that it could not pronounce.

Their memory, however, will fail them if they do not from

time to time hear the same word repeated; and while they are

trying to recollect it, they will show the most extravagant joy,

if they happen to hear it. Their appearance, although there

is nothing remarkable in it, is by no means plain; but they

have quite sufficient beauty in their singular ability to imitate

the human speech.



It is said, however, that it is only the kind[1] of pie which

feeds upon acorns that can be taught to speak; and that

among these, those which[2] have five toes on each foot can be

taught with the greatest facility; but in their case even, only

during the first two years of their life. The magpie has a

broader tongue than is usual with most other birds; which

is the case also with all the other birds that can imitate the

human voice; although some individuals of almost every kind

have the faculty of doing so.



Agrippina, the wife of Claudius Csar, had a thrush that

could imitate human speech, a thing that was never known

before. At the moment that I am writing this, the young







Csars[3] have a starling and some nightingales that are being

taught to talk in Greek and Latin; besides which, they are

studying their task the whole day, continually repeating the

new words that they have learnt, and giving utterance to

phrases even of considerable length. Birds are taught to

talk in a retired spot, and where no other voice can be heard,

so as to interfere with their lesson; a person sits by them, and

continually repeats the words he wishes them to learn, while

at the same time he encourages them by giving them food.







1. Cuvier says that this is the jay, the Corvus glandarius of Linnus;

but that they are not more apt at speaking than the other kinds.

2. Cuvier remarks, that these can only be monstrosities.

3. Britannicus, the son of Claudius, and Nero, his stepson.




60. Chap. 60. (43.)-A Sedition That Arose Among The Roman People, In Consequence Of A Raven Speaking.


CHAP. 60. (43.)-A SEDITION THAT AROSE AMONG THE ROMAN

PEOPLE, IN CONSEQUENCE OF A RAVEN SPEAKING.



Let us do justice, also, to the raven, whose merits have been

attested not only by the sentiments of the Roman people, but

by the strong expression, also, of their indignation. In the

reign of Tiberius, one of a brood of ravens that had bred on

the top of the temple of Castor,[1] happened to fly into a shoemaker's shop that stood opposite: upon which, from a feeling

of religious veneration, it was looked upon as doubly recommended by the owner of the place. The bird, having been

taught to speak at an early age, used every morning to fly to

the Rostra, which look towards the Forum; here, addressing

each by his name, it would salute Tiberius, and then the

Csars[2] Germanicus and Drusus, after which it would proceed to greet the Roman populace as they passed, and then return to the shop: for several years it was remarkable for the

constancy of its attendance. The owner of another shoemaker's

shop in the neighbourhood, in a sudden fit of anger killed the

bird, enraged, as he would have had it appear, because with its

ordure it had soiled some shoes of his. Upon this, there was

such rage manifested by the multitude, that he was at once

driven from that part of the city, and soon after put to death.

The funeral, too, of the bird was celebrated with almost endless obsequies; the body was placed upon a litter carried upon

the shoulders of two thiopians, preceded by a piper, and

borne to the pile with garlands of every size and description.

The pile was erected on the right-hand side of the Appian

Way, at the second milestone from the City, in the field gene-







rally known as the "field of Rediculus."[3] Thus did the rare

talent of a bird appear a sufficient ground to the Roman people

for honouring it with funeral obsequies, as well as for inflicting

punishment on a Roman citizen; and that, too, in a city in

which no such crowds had ever escorted the funeral of any one

out of the whole number of its distinguished men, and where

no one had been found to avenge the death of Scipio milianus,[4] the man who had destroyed Carthage and Numantia.

This event happened in the consulship of M. Servilius and

Caius Cestius, on the fifth day[5] before the calends of April.



At the present day also, the moment that I am writing this,

there is in the city of Rome a crow which belongs to a Roman

of equestrian rank, and was brought from Btica. In the first

place, it is remarkable[6] for its colour, which is of the deepest

black, and at the same time it is able to pronounce several

connected words, while it is repeatedly learning fresh ones.

Recently, too, there has been a story told about Craterus, surnamed Monoceros,[7] in Erizena,[8] a country of Asia, who was

in the habit of hunting with the assistance of ravens, and used

to carry them into the woods, perched on the tuft of his helmet and on his shoulders. The birds used to keep on the watch

for game, and raise it; and by training he had brought this art

to such a pitch of perfection, that even the wild ravens would

attend him in a similar manner when he went out. Some

authors have thought the following circumstance deserving of

remembrance:-A crow that was thirsty was seen heaping

stones into the urn on a monument, in which there was some

rain-water which it could not reach: and so, being afraid to

go down to the water, by thus accumulating the stones, it







caused as much water to come within its reach as was necessary

to satisfy its thirst.







1. In the eighth region of the city.

2. The nephew and son of Tiberius.

3. Festus says that the "fane of Rediculus was without the Porta Capena; it was so called because Hannibal, when on the march from Capua,

turned back (redierit) at that spot, being alarmed at certain portentous

visions."

4. P. Cornelius Scipio milianus Africanus Minor, the younger son of

L. milius Paulus, the conqueror of Macedonia. It is doubtful whether

he died a natural death, or was privately assassinated by the partisans of

the Gracchi. His wife, Cornelia, and his mother, Sempronia, were suspected by some persons.

5. 28th March.

6. One would hardly think that there was anything wonderful in a crow

being very black.

7. The "one-horned."

8. Most probably in Asia Minor, and not Eriza in India.




61. Chap. 61. (44.)-The Birds Of Diomedes.


CHAP. 61. (44.)-THE BIRDS OF DIOMEDES.



Nor yet must I pass by the birds[1] of Diomedes in silence.

Juba calls these birds "cataract," and says that they have

teeth and eyes of a fiery colour, while the rest of the body is

white: that they always have two chiefs, the one to lead the

main body, the other to take charge of the rear; that they excavate holes with their bills, and then cover them with hurdles,

which they cover again with the earth that has been thus

thrown up; that it is in these places they hatch their young;

that each of these holes has two outlets; that one of them looks

towards the east, and that by it they go forth to feed, returning by the one which looks towards the west; and that when

about to ease themselves, they always take to the wing, and fly

against the wind. In one spot only throughout the whole

earth are these birds to be seen, in the island, namely, which

we have mentioned[2] as famous for the tomb and shrine of

Diomedes, lying over against the coast of Apulia: they bear

a strong resemblance to the coot. When strangers who are

barbarians arrive on that island, they pursue them with loud

and clamorous cries, and only show courtesy to Greeks by

birth; seeming thereby, with a wonderful discernment, to pay

respect to them as the fellow-countrymen of Diomedes.

Every day they fill their throats, and cover their feathers, with

water, and so wash and purify the temple there. From this

circumstance arises the fable[3] that the companions of Diomedes

were metamorphosed into these birds.







1. Cuvier is inclined to think that the Anas tadorna approaches most

nearly the description given here. From Ovid's description of their hard

and pointed bills and claws, it would appear that a petrel (Procellaria), or

else a white heron (Ardea garzetta), is intended; but these birds, he remarks,

do not make holes in the earth. Linnus has given the name of Diomedea exulans to the albatross, a bird of the Antarctic seas, which cannot

have been known to the ancients.

2. B. iii. c. 29.

3. See Ovid's Met. B. xiii.




62. Chap. 62. (45.)-Animals That Can Learn Nothing.


CHAP. 62. (45.)-ANIMALS THAT CAN LEARN NOTHING.



We ought not to omit, while we are speaking of instincts,

that among birds the swallow[1] is quite incapable of being







taught, and among land animals the mouse; while on the other

hand, the elephant does what it is ordered, the lion submits to

the yoke, and the sea-calf and many kinds of fishes are capable of being tamed.







1. Albertus Magnus says that swallows can be tamed.




63. Chap. 63. (46.)-The Mode Of Drinking With Birds. The Porphyrio.


CHAP. 63. (46.)-THE MODE OF DRINKING WITH BIRDS. THE

PORPHYRIO.



Birds drink by suction; those which have a long neck taking

their drink in a succession of draughts, and throwing the head

back, as though they were pouring the water down the

throat. The porphyrio[1] is the only bird that seems to bite at

the water as it drinks. The same bird has also other peculiarities of its own; for it will every now and then dip its food

in the water, and then lift it with its foot to its bill, using

it as a hand. Those that are the most esteemed are found in

Commagene. They have beaks and very long legs, of a red

colour.







1. The Fulica porphyrio of Linnus, the Poule sultane of Buffon.




64. Chap. 64. (47.)-The Hmatopous.


CHAP. 64. (47.)-THE HMATOPOUS.



There are the same characteristics in the hmatopous[1] also,

a bird of much smaller size, although standing as high on the

legs. It is a native of Egypt, and has three toes on each foot;

flies[2] forming its principal food. If brought to Italy, it survives for a few days only.







1. Literally, "the blood-red foot." Cuvier says that this description may

apply to the sea-pie or oyster-eater, the Hmatopus ostralegus of Linnus,

or else the long-legged plover, the Charadrius himantopus of Linnus,

but most probably the latter, more especially if the reading here is "himantopus," as some editions have it.

2. "Musc," "flies," is a mistake of the copyists, Cuvier thinks, for

"musculi," "mussels."




65. Chap. 65.-The Food Of Birds.


CHAP. 65.-THE FOOD OF BIRDS.



All the heavy birds are frugivorous; while those with a

higher flight feed upon flesh only. Among the aquatic birds,

the divers[1] are in the habit of devouring what the other birds

have disgorged.







1. More especially the Larus parasiticus, Cuvier says.




66. Chap. 66.-The Pelican.


CHAP. 66.-THE PELICAN.



The pelican is similar in appearance to the swan, and it

would be thought that there was no difference between them







whatever, were it not for the fact that under the throat there

is a sort of second crop, as it were. It is in this that the everinsatiate animal stows everything away, so much so, that the

capacity of this pouch is quite astonishing. After having

finished its search for prey, it discharges bit by bit what it has

thus stowed away, and reconveys it by a sort of ruminating

process into its real stomach. The part of Gallia that lies

nearest to the Northern Ocean produces this bird.










68. Chap. 68.-The Penicopterits, The Attagen, The Phalacro- Corax, The Pybrhocorax, And The Lagopus.


CHAP. 68.-THE PENICOPTERITS, THE ATTAGEN, THE PHALACRO-

CORAX, THE PYBRHOCORAX, AND THE LAGOPUS.



Apicius, that very deepest whirlpool of all our epicures, has

informed us that the tongue of the phnicopterus[1] is of the

most exquisite flavour. The attagen,[2] also, of Ionia is a famous







bird; but although it has a voice at other times, it is mute in

captivity. It was formerly[3] reckoned among the rare birds,

but at the present day it is found in Gallia, Spain, and in the

Alps even; which is also the case with the phalacrocorax,[4] a

bird peculiar to the Balearic Isles, as the pyrrhocorax,[5] a black

bird with a yellow bill, is to the Alps, and the lagopus,[6] which

is esteemed for its excellent flavour. This last bird derives

its name from its feet, which are covered, as it were, with the

fur of a hare, the rest of the body being white, and the size of

a pigeon. It is not an easy matter to taste it out of its native

country, as it never becomes domesticated, and when dead it

quickly spoils.



There is another[7] bird also, which has the same name, and

only differs from the quail in size; it is of a saffron colour,

and is most delicate eating. Egnatius Calvinus, who was prefect there, pretends that he has seen[8] in the Alps the ibis also,

a bird that is peculiar to Egypt.







1. Literally, the "red-wing." The modem flamingo.

2. Buffon thinks that this is the grouse of the English, the Tetrao Scoti-

cus of the naturalists; but Cuvier is of opinion that it is either the common wood-cock, the Tetrao bonasia of Linnus, or else the wood-cock with

pointed tail, of the south of Europe, the Tetrao alchata of Linnus, most

probably the latter, as the male has black and blue spots on the back; a

fact which may explain the joke in the "Birds" of Aristophanes, where a

run-away slave who has been marked with stripes, is called an attagen. By

some it is called the "red-headed hazel-hen."

3. In allusion, perhaps, to the words of Horace, Epod. ii. 54.

Non attagen Ionicus

Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis

Oliva ramis arborum.

4. Literally, the "bald crow." Pliny, B. xi. c. 47, says that it is an

aquatic bird: and naturalists generally identify it with the cormorant, the

Pelecanus carbo of Linnus.

5. Literally, the red crow, the chocard of the Alps, the Corvus pyrrhocorax of Linnus.

6. The "hare's foot." Identical with the snow partridge, the Tetrao

lagopus of Linnus; it is white in winter.

7. The same bird, Cuvier says, as seen in summer, being then of a

saffron colour, with blackish spots.

8. Cuvier remarks, that the green courlis, the Scolopax falcinellus of

Linnus, which is not imrobably the real ibis of the ancients, is by no

means uncommon in Italy.




69. Chap. 69. (49.)-The New Birds. The Vipio.


CHAP. 69. (49.)-THE NEW BIRDS. THE VIPIO.



During the civil wars that took place at Bebriacum, beyond

the river Padus, the "new birds"[1] were introduced into Italy

-for by that name they are still known. They resemble the

thrush in appearance, are a little smaller than the pigeon in







size, and of an agreeable flavour. The Balearic islands also

send us a porphyrio,[2] that is superior to the one previously

mentioned. There the buteo, a kind of hawk, is held in high

esteem for the table, as also the vipio,[3] the name given to a

small kind of crane.







1. "Nov aves." The grey partridge, Hardouin thinks.

2. Flamingo.

3. See B. xi. c. 44.




70. Chap. 70.-Fabulous Birds.


CHAP. 70.-FABULOUS BIRDS.



I look upon the birds as fabulous which are called "pegasi,"

and are said to have a horse's head; as also the griffons, with

long ears and a hooked beak. The former are said to be natives of Scythia,[1] the latter of thiopia. The same is my

opinion, also, as to the tragopan;[2] many writers, however,

assert that it is larger than the eagle, has curved horns on the

temples, and a plumage of iron colour, with the exception of

the head, which is purple. Nor yet do the sirens[3] obtain any

greater credit with me, although Dinon, the father of Clearchus,

a celebrated writer, asserts that they exist in India, and that

they charm men by their song, and, having first lulled them to

sleep, tear them to pieces. The person, however, who may

think fit to believe in these tales, may probably not refuse to

believe also that dragons licked the ears of Melampodes, and

bestowed upon him the power of understanding the language

of birds; as also what Democritus says, when he gives the

names of certain birds, by the mixture of whose blood a serpent is produced, the person who eats of which will be able

to understand the language of birds; as well as the statements

which the same writer makes relative to one bird in particular,

known as the "galerita,"[4]-indeed, the science of augury is

already too much involved in embarrassing questions, without

these fanciful reveries.



There is a kind of bird spoken of by Homer as the "scops:"[5]

but I cannot very easily comprehend the grotesque movements

which many persons have attributed to it, when the fowler is







laying snares for it; nor, indeed, is it a bird that is any longer

known to exist. It will be better, therefore, to confine my relation to those the existence of which is generally admitted.







1. Scythia and Ethiopia ought to be transposed here, as the griffons

were said to be monsters that guarded the gold in the mountains of Scythia,

the Uralian chain, probably.

2. Literally, the "goat Pan." Cuvier thinks that the bird here alluded

to actually existed, and identifies it with the napaul, or horned pheasant of

Buffon, the penelope satyra of Gmell, a bird of the north of India, and

which answers the description here given by Pliny.

3. See Ovid, Met. B. v. 1. 553.

4. A kind of crested lark.

5. The Strix scops, probably, of Linn. See the Odyssey, B. v. 1. 66.




72. Chap. 72.-Who First Invented Aviaries. The Dish Of sopus.


CHAP. 72.-WHO FIRST INVENTED AVIARIES. THE DISH OF

SOPUS.



The first person who invented aviaries for the reception of

all kinds of birds was M. Lnius Strabo, a member of the

equestrian order, who resided at Brundisium. It was in his

time that we thus began to imprison animals to which Nature

had assigned the heavens as their element.



(51.) But more remarkable than anything in this respect, is







the story of the dish of Clodius sopus,[1] the tragic actor,

which was valued at one hundred thousand sesterces, and in

which were served up nothing but birds that had been remarkable for their song, or their imitation of the human voice, and

purchased, each of them, at the price of six thousand sesterces;

he being induced to this folly by no other pleasure than that

in these he might eat the closest imitators of man; never for

a moment reflecting that his own immense fortune had been

acquired by the advantages of his voice; a parent, indeed,

right worthy of the son of whom we have already made mention,[2] as swallowing pearls. It would not, to say the truth,

be very easy to come to a conclusion which of the two was

guilty of the greatest baseness; unless, indeed, we are ready to

admit that it was less unseemly to banquet upon the most

costly of all the productions of Nature, than to devour[3] tongues

which had given utterance to the language of man.







1. Valerius Maximus, B. ix. c. 1, tells this story of the profligate son of

sopus.

2. B. ix. c. 59.

3. "Hominum linguas," Pliny says; a singularly inappropriate expression, it would appear.




74. Chap. 74.-The Various Kinds Of Eggs, And Their Nature.


CHAP. 74.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF EGGS, AND THEIR NATURE.



Some eggs are white, as those of the pigeon and partridge,







for instance; others are of a pale colour, as in the aquatic

birds: others, again, are dotted all over with spots, as is the

case with those of the meleagris; others are red, like those of

the pheasant and the cenchris. In the inside, the eggs of all

birds are of two colours; those of the aquatic kind have more

of the yellow than the white, and the yellow is of a paler tint

than in those of other birds. Among fish, the eggs are of the

same colour throughout, there being, in fact, no white. The

eggs of birds are of a brittle nature, in consequence of the

natural heat of the animal, while those of serpents are supple,

in consequence of their coldness, and those of fish soft, from

their natural humidity. Again, the eggs of aquatic birds are

round, while those of most other kinds are elongated, and taper

to a point. Eggs are laid with the round end foremost, and

at the moment that they are laid the shell is soft, but it immediately grows hard, as each portion becomes exposed to the air.

Horatius Flaccus[1] expresses it as his opinion that those eggs

which are of an oblong shape are of the most agreeable flavour.

The rounder eggs are those which produce[2] the female, the

others the male. The umbilical[3] cord is in the upper part

of the egg, like a drop floating on the surface in the shell.



(53.) There are some birds that couple at all seasons of the

year, barn-door fowls, for instance; they lay, too, at all times,

with the exception of two months at mid-winter. Pullets lay

more eggs than the older hens, but then they are smaller. In

the same brood those chickens are the smallest that are

hatched the first and the last. These animals, indeed, are so

prolific, that some of them will lay as many as sixty eggs,

some daily, some twice a day, and some in such vast numbers

that they have been known to die from exhaustion. Those

known as the "Adrian,"[4] are the most esteemed. Pigeons

sit ten times a year, and some of them eleven, and in Egypt

during the month of the winter solstice even. Swallows,







blackbirds, ring-doves, and turtle-doves sit twice a year, most

other birds only once. Thrushes make their nests of mud, in

the tops of trees, almost touching one another, and lay during

the time of their retirement. The egg comes to maturity in the

ovary ten days after treading; but if the hen or pigeon is tormented by pulling out the feathers, or by the infliction of any

injury of a similar nature, the maturing of the egg is retarded.



In the middle of the yolk of every egg there is what appears to be a little drop[5] of blood; this is supposed to be

the heart of the chicken, it being the general belief that that

part is formed the first in every animal: at all events, while

in the egg this speck is seen to throb and palpitate. The body

of the animal itself is formed from the white fluid[6] in the

egg; while the yellow part constitutes its food. The head in

every kind, while in the shell, is larger than the rest of the

body; the eyes, too, are closed, and are larger than the other

parts of the head. As the chicken grows, the white gradually

passes to the middle of the egg, while the yellow is spread

around it. On the twentieth day, if the egg is shaken, the

voice of the now living animal can be heard in the shell. From

this time it gradually becomes clothed with feathers; and its

position is such that it has the head above the right foot, and

the right wing above the head: the yolk in the meantime

gradually disappears. All birds are born with the feet first,

while with every other animal the contrary is the case. Some

hens lay all their eggs with two yolks, and sometimes hatch

twin chickens from the same egg, one being larger than the

other, according to Cornelius Celsus: other writers, however,

deny[7] the possibility of twin chickens being hatched. It is

a rule never to give a brood hen more than twenty-five[8] eggs

to sit upon at once. Hens begin to lay immediately after the

winter solstice. The best broods are those which are hatched







before the vernal equinox: chickens that are hatched after the

summer solstice, never attain their full growth, and the more

so, the later they are produced.







1. B. ii. Sat. 4, 1. 12. "Longa quibus facies ovis erit, ille memento,

Ut succi melioris, et ut magis alba rotundis."

2. Aristotle says just the reverse: but Hardouin thinks that the passage

in Aristotle has been corrupted.

3. This, Cuvier says, in reality is not the umbilical cord, but the chalasis,

a little transparent and gelatinous ligament, by which the yolk is suspended

like a globe. The true umbilical cord of the bird only makes its appearance

after an incubation of some days.

4. Produced in the territory of Adria. See B. iii. c. 18.

5. Cuvier says, that after an egg has been set upon for some days, the

heart of the chicken may be seen like a small red speck, that palpitates;

but that no such thing is to be seen before incubation.

6. Cuvier remarks, that the chicken is not formed exclusively from the

white, and that the yellow is gradually displaced by it, as the chicken increases in size.

7. Cuvier tells us, that in the Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburgh,

there is a memoir by Wolf, entitled Ovum simplex gemelliferum, in which

these twin chickens are described with great exactness.

8. More generally eleven or thirteen in this country.




75. Chap. 75. (54.)-Defects In Brood-Hens, And Their Remedies.


CHAP. 75. (54.)-DEFECTS IN BROOD-HENS, AND THEIR REMEDIES.



Those eggs which have been laid within the last ten days, are

the best for putting under the hen; old ones, or those which

have just been laid, will be unfruitful; an uneven number[1]

also ought to be placed. On the fourth day after the hen has

begun to sit, if, upon taking an egg with one hand by the two

ends and holding it up to the light, it is found to be clear and

of one uniform colour, it is most likely to be barren, and another should be substituted in its place. There is also a way

of testing them by means of water; an empty egg will float

on the surface, while those that fall to the bottom, or, in other

words, are full, should be placed under the hen. Care must

be taken, however, not to make trial by shaking them, for if

the organs which are necessary for life become confused, they

will come to nothing.[2] Incubation ought to begin just after

the new moon; for, if commenced before, the eggs will be unproductive. The chickens are hatched sooner if the weather

is warm: hence it is that in summer they break the shell on

the nineteenth day, but in winter on the twenty-fifth only.

If it happens to thunder during the time of incubation, the

eggs are addled, and if the cry of a hawk is heard they are

spoilt. The best remedy against the effects of thunder, is to

put an iron nail beneath the straw on which the eggs are laid,

or else some earth from off a ploughshare. Some eggs, however, are hatched by the spontaneous action of Nature, without

the process of incubation, as is the case in the dung-hills of

Egypt. There is a well-known story related about a man at

Syracuse, who was in the habit of covering eggs with earth,[3]

and then continuing his drinking bout till they were hatched.







1. To secure their being more equably covered.

2. Or rather, will produce chickens hideously deformed. This trick is

sometimes practised among the country people against those to whom they

owe a grudge.

3. Aristotle says with a straw mat.




76. Chap. 76. (55.)-An Augury Derived From Eggs By An Empress.


CHAP. 76. (55.)-AN AUGURY DERIVED FROM EGGS BY AN EMPRESS.



And, what is even more singular still, eggs can be hatched

also by a human being. Julia Augusta, when pregnant in







her early youth of Tiberius Csar, by Nero, was particularly

desirous that her offspring should be a son, and accordingly

employed the following mode of divination, which was then

much in use among young women: she carried an egg in her

bosom, taking care, whenever she was obliged to put it down,

to give it to her nurse to warm in her own, that there might

be no interruption in the heat: it is stated that the result promised by this mode of augury was not falsified.



It was perhaps from this circumstance, that the modern invention took its rise, of placing eggs in a warm spot and covering them with chaff, the heat being maintained by a moderate

fire, while in the meantime a man is employed in turning them.

By the adoption of this plan, the young, all of them, break

the shell on a stated day. There is a story told of a breeder

of poultry, of such remarkable skill, that on seeing an egg he

could tell which hen had laid it. It is said also that when a

hen has happened to die while sitting, the males have been seen

to take her place in turns, and perform all the other duties of a

brood-hen, taking care in the meantime to abstain from crowing. But the most remarkable thing of all, is the sight of a

hen, beneath which ducks' eggs have been put and hatched.-

At first, she is unable to quite recognize the brood as her own,

while in her anxiety she gives utterance to her clucking as

she doubtfully calls them; then at last she will stand at the

margin of the pond, uttering her laments, while the ducklings, with Nature for their guide, are diving beneath the water.










77. Chap. 77. (56.)-The Best Kinds Of Fowls.


CHAP. 77. (56.)-THE BEST KINDS OF FOWLS.



The breed of a fowl is judged of by the erectness of the

crest, which is sometimes double, its black wings, reddish beak,

and toes of unequal number, there being sometimes a fifth placed

transversely above the other four. For the purposes of divination, those that have a yellow beak and feet are not considered

pure; while for the secret rites of Bona Dea, black ones are

chosen. There is also a dwarf[1] species of fowl, which is not

barren either; a thing that is the case with no other kind of

bird. These dwarfs, however, rarely lay at any stated periods, and their incubation is productive of injury[2] to the eggs.











1. Similar, probably, to our bantam.

2. In consequence, probably, of their smallness, and want of sufficient

warmth.




78. Chap. 78. (57.)-The Diseases Of Fowls, And Their Remedies.


CHAP. 78. (57.)-THE DISEASES OF FOWLS, AND THEIR REMEDIES.



The most dangerous malady with every kind of fowl is that

known as the "pituita;"[1] which is prevalent more particularly between the times of harvest and vintage. The

mode of treatment is to put them on a spare diet, and to expose them, while asleep, to the action of smoke, and more especially that of bay leaves or of the herb called savin. A

feather also is inserted, and passed across through the nostrils,

care being taken to move it every day; while their food consists of leeks mixed with speltmeal, or else is first soaked in

water in which an owlet has been dipped, or boiled together

with the seeds of the white vine. There are also some other

receipts besides.







1. The pip.




79. Chap. 79. (58.)-When Birds Lay, And How Many Eggs. The Various Kinds Of Herons.


CHAP. 79. (58.)-WHEN BIRDS LAY, AND HOW MANY EGGS. THE

VARIOUS KINDS OF HERONS.



Pigeons have the peculiarity of billing before they couple;

they generally lay two eggs, Nature so willing it, that among

birds the produce should be more frequent with some, and more

numerous with others. The ring-dove and turtle-dove mostly

lay three eggs, and never more than twice, in the spring;

such being the case when the first brood has been lost. Although

they may happen to lay three eggs, they never hatch more

than two; the third egg, which is barren, is generally known

by the name of "urinum."[1] The female ring-dove sits on

the eggs from mid-day till morning, the male the rest of the

time. Pigeons always produce a male and a female; the

male first, the female the day after. Both the male and

the female pigeon sit on the eggs; the male in the day-time,

the female during the night. They hatch on the twentieth

day of incubation, and lay the fifth day after coupling. Sometimes, indeed, in summer, these birds will rear three couples

in two months; for then they hatch on the eighteenth day of

incubation, and immediately conceive again; hence it is that

eggs are often found among the young ones, some of which

last are just taking wing, while others are only bursting

the shell. The young ones, themselves, begin to produce at

the age of five months. The females, if there should happen

to be no male among them, will even tread each other, and lay







barren eggs, from which nothing is produced. By the Greeks,

these eggs are called "hypenemia.[2]



(59.) The pea-hen produces at three years old. In the

first year she will lay one or two eggs, in the next four or

five, and in the remaining years twelve, but never beyond

that number. She lays for two or three days at intervals, and

will produce three broods in the year, if care is taken to put

the eggs under a common hen. The males are apt to break

the eggs in getting at the females while sitting, and hence it

is that the pea-hen lays by night, and in secret places, or else

sits on her eggs in an elevated spot; the eggs will break, too,

unless they are received upon some surface that is soft. One

male is sufficient for every five females; when there are only

one or two females to a male, all chance of their being prolific

is spoilt through their extreme salaciousness. The young

breaks the shell in twenty-seven days, or, at the very latest,

on the thirtieth.



Geese pair in the water, and lay in spring; or, if they

have paired in the winter, they lay about forty eggs, after the

summer solstice. The hatching takes place twice in the year,

if a hen hatches the first brood; otherwise, their greatest number of eggs will be sixteen, their lowest seven. If their eggs

are taken away from them, they will keep on laying until they

burst; they will not hatch the eggs of any other birds. The

best number of eggs for placing under the goose for hatching,

is nine, or else eleven. The females only sit, and that for

thirty days; but if they are kept very warm, then only twenty-five. The contact of the nettle is fatal to their young, and

their own greediness is no less so-sometimes, through overeating, and sometimes through over-exertion; for seizing the

root of a plant with the bill, they will make repeated efforts

to tear it out of the ground, and so, at last, dislocate the

neck. A remedy against the noxious effects of the nettle, is to

place the root of that plant under the straw of their nest.



(60.) There are three kinds of herons, called, respectively,

the leucon,[3] the asterias,[4] and the pellos.[5] These birds experience great pain in coupling; uttering loud cries, the males







bleed from the eyes, while the females lay their eggs with no

less difficulty.



The eagle sits for thirty days, as do most of the larger birds;

the smaller ones, the kite and the hawk for instance, only

twenty. The eagle mostly lays but one egg, never more than

three. The bird which is known as the "golios,"[6] lays four,

and the raven sometimes five; they sit, too, the same number

of days as the kite and the hawk. The male crow provides

the female with food while she is sitting. The magpie lays

nine eggs, the malancoryphus more than twenty, but always

an uneven number, and no bird of this kind ever lays more; so

much superior in fecundity are the smaller birds. The young

ones of the swallow are blind at first, as is the case also with

almost all the birds the progeny of which is numerous.







1. Meaning the "urine-egg."

2. Or "wind" eggs. See cc. 75 and 80.

3. The white heron.

4. So called from its soaring towards the stars.

5. The tawny or black heron.

6. Possibly the night-hawk. Sillig says, that in the corresponding passage of Aristotle it is a)itw/lios.




80. Chap. 80.-What Eggs Are Called Hypenemia, And What Cynosura. How Eggs Are Best Kept.


CHAP. 80.-WHAT EGGS ARE CALLED HYPENEMIA, AND WHAT

CYNOSURA. HOW EGGS ARE BEST KEPT.



The barren eggs, which we have mentioned as "hypenemia,"

are either conceived by the females when they are influenced

by libidinous fancies, and couple with one another, or else at

the moment when they are rolling themselves in the dust;

they are produced not only by the pigeon, but by the common

hen as well, the partridge, the pea-hen, the goose, and the

chenalopex; these eggs are barren, smaller than the others, of

a less agreeable flavour, and more humid. There are some

who think that they are generated by the wind, for which

reason they give them the name of "zephyria." The eggs

known as "urina," and which by some are called "cy-

nosura,[1] are only laid in the spring, and at a time when the

hen has discontinued sitting. Eggs, if soaked in vinegar, are

rendered so soft thereby, that they may be twisted[2] round

the finger like a ring. The best method of preserving them is

to keep them packed in bean-meal, or chaff, during the

winter, and in bran during the summer. It is a general belief, that if kept in salt, they will lose their contents.











1. "Dog's-urine." See the last Chapter.

2. Hardouin asserts that this is the fact.




81. Chap. 81. (61.)-The Only Winged Animal That Is Viviparous, And Nurtures Its Young With Its Milk.


CHAP. 81. (61.)-THE ONLY WINGED ANIMAL THAT IS VIVIPAROUS,

AND NURTURES ITS YOUNG WITH ITS MILK.



Among the winged animals, the only one that is viviparous

is the bat; it is the only one, too, that has wings formed of a

membrane. This is, also, the only winged creature that feeds

its young with milk from the breast. The mother clasps her

two young ones as she flies, and so carries them along with

her. This animal, too, is said to have but one joint in the

haunch, and to be particularly fond of gnats.










82. Chap. 82. (62.)-Terrestrial Animals That Are Oviparous.- Various Kinds Of Serpents.


CHAP. 82. (62.)-TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS THAT ARE OVIPAROUS.-

VARIOUS KINDS OF SERPENTS.



Again, among the terrestrial animals, there are the serpents

that are oviparous; of which, as yet, we have not spoken. These

creatures couple by clasping each other, and entwine so closely

around one another, that they might be taken for only one

animal with two heads. The male viper thrusts[1] its head

into the mouth of the female, which gnaws it in the transports

of its passion. This, too, is the only one among the terrestrial

animals that lays eggs within its body-of one colour, and soft,

like those of fishes. On the third day it hatches its young in

the uterus, and then excludes them, one every day, and generally twenty in number; the last ones become so impatient

of their confinement, that they force a passage through the

sides of their parent, and so kill her. Other serpents, again,

lay eggs attached to one another, and then bury them in the

earth; the young being hatched in the following year. Crocodiles sit on their eggs in turns, first the male, and then the

female. But let us now turn to the generation of the rest of

the terrestrial animals.







1. This is probably fabulous.




83. Chap. 83. (63.)-Generation Of All Kinds Of Terrestrial Animals.


CHAP. 83. (63.)-GENERATION OF ALL KINDS OF TERRESTRIAL

ANIMALS.



The only one among the bipeds that is viviparous is man.

Man is the only animal that repents of his first embraces; sad

augury, indeed, of life, that its very origin should thus cause

repentance! Other animals have stated times in the year for

their embraces; but man, as we have already[1] observed, em-







ploys for this purpose all hours both of day and night; other

animals become sated with venereal pleasures, man hardly

knows any satiety. Messalina,[2] the wife of Claudius Csar,

thinking this a palm quite worthy of an empress, selected, for

the purpose of deciding the question, one of the most notorious

of the women who followed the profession of a hired prostitute; and the empress outdid her, after continuous intercourse,

night and day, at the twenty-fifth embrace. In the human

race also, the men have devised various substitutes for the more

legitimate exercise of passion, all of which outrage Nature;

while the females have recourse to abortion. How much more

guilty than the brute beasts are we in this respect! Hesiod

has stated that men are more lustful in winter, women in

summer.



Coupling is performed back to back by the elephant, the

camel, the tiger, the lynx, the rhinoceros, the lion, the dasy-

pus, and the rabbit, the genital parts of all which animals lie

far back. Camels even seek desert places, or, at all events,

spots of a retired nature; and to come upon them on such an

occasion is not unattended with danger. Coupling, with them,

lasts a whole day; the only animal, indeed, of all those with

solid hoofs, with which such is the case. Among the quadrupeds, it is the smell that excites the passions of the male. In

this act, dogs also, seals, and wolves turn back to back, and

remain attached, though greatly against their will. In the

greater part of the animals above mentioned, the females

solicit the males; in some, however, the males the females.

As to bears, they lie down, like the human race, as previously[3] mentioned by us; while hedgehogs embrace standing

upright. In cats, the male stands above, while the female

assumes a crouching posture; foxes lie on the side, the female

embracing the male. In the case of the cow and the hind,

the female is unable to endure the violence of the male, consequently she keeps in motion during the time of coupling.

The buck goes from one hind to another in turn, and then

comes back to the first. Lizards couple entwined around each

other, like the animals without feet.



All animals, the larger they are in bulk, are proportionably

less prolific: the elephant, the camel, and the horse produce







but one, while the acanthis,[4] a very small bird, produces

twelve. Those animals, also, which are the most prolific, are

the shortest time in breeding. The larger an animal is, the

longer is the time required for its formation in the womb;

those, also, which are the longest-lived, require the longest

gestation; the growing age, too, is not suitable for the purposes

of generation. Those animals which have solid hoofs bear but

a single young one, while those which have cloven hoofs bear

two. Those, again, whose feet are divided into toes, have a

still more numerous offspring; but, while the others bring

forth their young perfect, these last bear them in an unformed

state, such, for instance, as the lioness and the she-Bear. The

fox also brings forth its young in an even more imperfect state

than these; it is a very uncommon thing, however, to find it

whelping. After the birth, these animals warm their young

by licking them, and thereby give them their proper shape;

they mostly produce four at a birth.



The dog, the wolf, the panther, and the jackal produce their

young blind. There are several kinds of dogs; those of

Laconia,[5] of both sexes, are ready for breeding in the eighth

month, and the females carry their young sixty or sixty-three

days at most; other dogs are fit for breeding when only six

months old; the female, in all cases, becomes pregnant at the

first congress. Those which have conceived before the proper

age, bear pups which are longer blind, though not all the

same number of days. It is thought that dogs, in general,

lift the leg when they water at six months old; this, too, is

looked upon as a sign that they have attained their full growth

and strength; when doing this, the female squats. The most

numerous litters known consist of twelve, but more generally

five or six is the number; sometimes, indeed, only one is pro-

dued, but then it is looked upon as a prodigy, and the same

is the case, too, when all the pups are of one sex. In the dog, the

males come into the world first, but in other animals, the two

sexes are born alternately. The female admits the male again

six months after she has littered. Those of the Laconian breed

bear eight young ones. It is a peculiarity in this kind, that

after undergoing great labour, the males are remarkable for

their salacity. In the Laconian breed the male lives ten







years, the female twelve; while other kinds, again, live fifteen

years, and sometimes as much as twenty; but they are not

fit for breeding to the end of their life, as they generally cease

at about the twelfth year. The cat and the ichneumon

are, in other respects,[6] like the dog; but they only live six

years.



The dasypus[7] brings forth every month in the year, and is

subject to superftation, like the hare. It conceives immediately after it has littered, even though it is still suckling its

young, which are blind at their birth. The elephant, as we

have already[8] stated, produces but one, and that the size of a

calf three months old. The gestation of the camel lasts twelve

months; the female conceives when three years old, and

brings forth in the spring; at the end of a year from that

time, she is ready to conceive again. It is thought advisable

to have the mare covered so soon as three days, and indeed,

sometimes, only one, after she has foaled; and, however unwilling she may be, means are taken to compel her. It is believed also, that it is by no means an uncommon thing for a

woman to conceive on the seventh day after her delivery. It

is recommended that the manes of mares should be cut, so as to

humble their pride, in order to make them submit to be covered

by the male ass; for when the mane is long, they are liable to

be proud and vain. This is the only animal, the female of

which, after covering, runs, facing the north or the south, according as she has conceived a male or a female. They change

their colour immediately after, and the hair becomes of a

redder hue, and deeper, whatever the colour may naturally be;

it is this that indicates that they must no longer be covered,

and they, themselves, will even resist it. Gestation does not,

however, preclude some of them from being worked, and they

are often with foal long before it is known. We read that

the mare of Echecrates, the Thessalian, conquered at the

Olympic games, while with foal.



Those who are more careful enquirers into these matters, tell

us that in the horse, the dog, and the swine, the males are

most ardent for sexual intercourse in the morning, while the

female seeks the society of the male after mid-day. They say







also, that mares in harness desire the horse sixty days sooner

than those that live in herds; that it is swine only that foam

at the mouth during the time of coupling; and that a boar, if

it hears the voice of a sow in heat, will refuse to take its food,

-to such a degree, indeed, as to starve itself, if it is not allowed to cover-while the female is reduced to such a state of

frantic madness, as to attack and tear a man, more especially if

wearing a white garment. This frenzy, however, is appeased

by sprinkling vinegar on the sexual parts. It is supposed also

that salacity is promoted by certain aliments; the herb rocket,

for instance, in the case of man, and onions in that of cattle.

Wild animals that have been tamed, do not conceive, the goose,

for instance; the wild boar and the stag will only produce late

in life, and even then they must have been taken and tamed

when very young; a singular fact. The pregnant females,

among the quadrupeds, refuse the male, with the exception,

indeed, of the mare and the sow; superftation, however,

takes place in none but the dasypus and the hare.







1. B. vii. c. 4.

2. Justly called by Juvenal, "meretricem Augustam," Sat. vi. 1. 118.

3. B. viii. c. 54.

4. Probably the goldfinch.

5. A kind of large hound.

6. The number that they hear.

7. See B. vii. c. 81.

8. B. viii. c. 10, and in the present Chapter.




84. Chap. 84. (64.)-The Position Of Animals In The Uterus.


CHAP. 84. (64.)-THE POSITION OF ANIMALS IN THE UTERUS.



All those animals that are viviparous produce their young

with the head first, the young animal about the time of yeaning

turning itself round in the womb, where at other times it lies

extended at full length. Quadrupeds during the time of gestation have the legs extended, and lying close to the belly;

while, on the other hand, man is gathered up into a ball, with

the nose between the knees. With reference to moles, of

which we have previously[1] spoken, it is supposed that they

are produced when a female has conceived, not by a male, but

of herself only. Hence it is that there is no vitality in this

false conception, because it does not proceed from the conjunction of the two sexes; and it has only that sort of vegetative existence in itself which we see in plants and trees.



(65.) Of all those which produce their young in a perfect

state, the swine is the only one that bears them in considerable numbers as well; and, indeed, several times in the year a thing that is contrary to the usual nature of animals with a

solid or cloven hoof.







1. B. vii. c. 13.




85. Chap. 85.-Animals Whose Origin Is Still Unknown.


CHAP. 85.-ANIMALS WHOSE ORIGIN IS STILL UNKNOWN.



But it is mice that surpass all the other animals in fecundity;







and it is not without some hesitation that I speak of them, although I have Aristotle and some of the officers of Alexander

the Great for my authority. It is said that these animals generate by licking one another, and not by copulation. They

have related cases where a single female has given birth to one

hundred and twenty young ones, and in Persia some were

found, even pregnant themselves,[1] while yet in the womb

of the parent. It is believed also that these animals will become pregnant on tasting salt. Hence we find that we have

no longer any reason to wonder how such vast multitudes of

field-mice devastate the standing corn; though it is still a

mystery, with reference to them, in what way it is that such

multitudes die so suddenly; for their dead bodies are never

to be found, and there is not a person in existence that has ever

dug up a mouse in a field during the winter. Multitudes of

these animals visit Troas, and before this they have driven

away the inhabitants in consequence of their vast numbers.



They multiply greatly during times of drought; it is said

also that when they are about to die, a little worm grows in

their head. The mice of Egypt have hard hairs, just like those

of the hedge-hog. They walk on their hind feet, as also do those

of the Alps. When two animals couple of different kinds, the

union is only prolific if the time of gestation is the same in

both. Among the oviparous quadrupeds, it is generally believed

that the lizard brings forth by the mouth, though Aristotle

denies the fact. These animals, too, do not sit upon their eggs,

as they forget in what place they have laid them, being utterly

destitute of memory; hence it is that the young ones are

hatched spontaneously.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 37, does not quite say this. He says

that the young ones looked "as if" they were pregnant. oi(=on ku/onta.




86. Chap. 86. (66.)-Salamanders.


CHAP. 86. (66.)-SALAMANDERS.



We find it stated by many authors,[1] that a serpent is produced from the spinal marrow of a man. Many creatures, in

fact, among the quadrupeds even, have a secret and mysterious

origin.



(67 ) Thus, for instance, the salamander, an animal like a

lizard in shape, and with a body starred all over, never comes

out except during heavy showers, and disappears the moment







it becomes fine. This animal is so intensely cold as to extinguish fire by its contact, in the same way as ice does. It spits

forth a milky matter from its mouth; and whatever part of

the human body is touched with this, all the hair falls off, and

the part assumes the appearance of leprosy.







1. Ovid, Met. B. xv. 1. 389, makes mention of this belief.




87. Chap. 87. (68.)-Animals Which Are Born Of Beings That Have Not Been Born Themselves-Animals Which Are Born Themselves But Are Not Reproductive-Animals Which Are Of Neither Sex.


CHAP. 87. (68.)-ANIMALS WHICH ARE BORN OF BEINGS THAT

HAVE NOT BEEN BORN THEMSELVES-ANIMALS WHICH ARE BORN

THEMSELVES BUT ARE NOT REPRODUCTIVE-ANIMALS WHICH

ARE OF NEITHER SEX.



Some animals, again, are engendered of beings that are not

engendered themselves, and have no such origin as those above

mentioned, which are produced in the spring, or at some stated

period of the year. Some of these are non-productive, the salamander, for instance, which is of no sex, either male or female; a distinction also, which does not exist in the eel and

the other kinds that are neither viviparous nor oviparous. The

oyster also, as well as the other shell-fish that adhere to the

bottom of the sea or to rocks, are of neither sex. Again, as to

those animals which are able to engender of themselves, if they

are looked upon as divided into male and female, they do engender something, it is true, by coupling, but the produce is imperfect, quite dissimilar to the animal itself, and one from which

nothing else is reproduced; this we find to be the case with

flies, when they give birth to maggots. This fact is better illustrated by the nature of those animals which are known as insects; a subject, indeed, very difficult of explanation, and one

which requires to be treated of in a Book[1] by itself. We will,

therefore, proceed for the present with our remarks upon the

instincts of the animals that have been previously mentioned.







1. See the following Book.




88. Chap. 88. (69.)-The Senses Of Animals-That All Have The Senses Of Touch And Taste-Those Which Are More Remark- Able For Their Sight, Smell, Or Hearing-Moles-Whether Oysters Have The Sense Of Hearing.


CHAP. 88. (69.)-THE SENSES OF ANIMALS-THAT ALL HAVE THE

SENSES OF TOUCH AND TASTE-THOSE WHICH ARE MORE REMARK-

ABLE FOR THEIR SIGHT, SMELL, OR HEARING-MOLES-WHETHER

OYSTERS HAVE THE SENSE OF HEARING.



Man excels more especially in his sense of touch, and next,

in that of taste. In other respects, he is surpassed by many

of the animals. Eagles can see more clearly than any other

animals, while vultures have the better smell; moles hear more







distinctly than others, although buried in the earth, so dense

and sluggish an element as it is; and what is even more,

although every sound has a tendency upwards, they can hear

the words that are spoken; and, it is said, they can even

understand it if you talk about them, and will take to flight

immediately. Among men, a person who has not enjoyed the

sense of hearing in his infancy, is deprived of the powers of

speech as well; and there are none deaf from their birth who

are not dumb also. Among the marine animals, it is not

probable that oysters enjoy the sense of hearing, but it is said

that immediately a noise is made the solen[1] will sink to the

bottom; it is for this reason, too, that silence is observed by

persons while fishing at sea.







1. Known by us as the razor-sheath.




89. Chap. 89. (70.)-Which Fishes Have The Best Hearing.


CHAP. 89. (70.)-WHICH FISHES HAVE THE BEST HEARING.



Fishes have neither organs of hearing, nor yet the exterior

orifice. And yet, it is quite certain that they do hear; for it

is a well-known fact, that in some fish-ponds they are in the

habit of being assembled to be fed by the clapping of the

hands. In the fish-ponds, too, that belong to the Emperor, the

fish are in the habit of coming, each kind as it bears its name.[1]

So too, it is said, the mullet, the wolf-fish, the salpa, and the

chromis, have a very exquisite sense of hearing, and that it is

for this reason that they frequent shallow water.







1. Martial alludes to these fish-preserves, and the fish coming upon

hearing their name, B. iv. Ep. 30, and B. x. Ep. 30.




90. Chap. 90.-Which Fishes Have The Finest Sense Of Smell.


CHAP. 90.-WHICH FISHES HAVE THE FINEST SENSE OF SMELL.



It is quite manifest that fishes have the sense of smell also;

for they are not all to be taken with the same bait, and are seen

to smell at it before they seize it. Some, too, that are concealed in the bottom of holes, are driven out by the fisherman,

by the aid of the smell of salted fish; with this he rubs the

entrance of their retreat in the rock, immediately upon which

they take to flight from the spot, just as though they had recognized the dead carcases of those of their kind. Then, again,

they will rise to the surface at the smell of certain odours,

such, for instance as roasted spia and polypus; and hence it

is that these baits are placed in the osier kipes used for taking

fish. They immediately take to flight upon smelling the bilge







water in a ship's hold, and more especially upon scenting the

blood of fish.



The polypus cannot possibly be torn away from the rock to

which it clings; but upon the herb cunila[1] being applied, the

instant it smells it the fish quits its hold. Purples also are

taken by means of fetid substances. And then, too, as to the

other kinds of animals, who is there that can feel any doubt?

Serpents are driven away by the smell of harts' horns, and

more particularly by that of storax. Ants, too, are killed by

the odours of origanum, lime, or sulphur. Gnats are attracted

by acids, but not by anything sweet.



(71.) All animals have the sense of touch, those even which

have no other sense; for even in the oyster, and, among land

animals, in the worm, this sense is found.







1. A species of origanum.




91. Chap. 91.-Diversities In The Feeding Of Animals.


CHAP. 91.-DIVERSITIES IN THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS.



I am strongly inclined to believe, too, that the sense of taste

exists in all animals; for why else should one seek one kind

of food, and another another? And it is in this more especially

that is to be seen the wondrous power of Nature, the framer of

all things. Some animals seize their prey with their teeth,

others, again, with their claws; some tear it to pieces with their

hooked beak; others, that have a broad bill, wabble in their

food; others, with a sharp nib, work holes into it; others suck

at their food; others, again, lick it, others sup it in, others chew

it, and others bolt it whole. And no less a diversity is there

in the uses they make of their feet, for the purpose of carrying,

tearing asunder, holding, squeezing, suspending[1] their bodies,

or incessantly scratching the ground.







1. As in the case of the galgulus, mentioned in c. 50.




92. Chap. 92. (72.)-Animals Which Live On Poisons.


CHAP. 92. (72.)-ANIMALS WHICH LIVE ON POISONS.



Roe-Bucks and quails[1] grow fat on poisons, as we have already mentioned, being themselves the most harmless of animals. Serpents will feed on eggs, and the address displayed

by the dragon is quite remarkable.-For it will either swallow

the egg whole, it its jaws will allow of it, and roll over and

over so as to break it within, and then by coughing eject the

shells: or else, if it is too young to be able to do so, it will







gradually encircle the egg with its coils, and hold it so tight as

to break it at the end, just, in fact, as though a piece had been

cut out with a knife; then holding the remaining part in its

folds, it will suck the contents. In the same manner, too,

when it has swallowed a bird whole, it will make a violent effort,

and vomit the feathers.







1. See c. 33 of the present Book, as to quails.




93. Chap. 93.-Animals Which Live On Earth-Animals Which Will Not Die Of Hunger Or Thirst.


CHAP. 93.-ANIMALS WHICH LIVE ON EARTH-ANIMALS WHICH

WILL NOT DIE OF HUNGER OR THIRST.



Scorpions live on earth. Serpents, when an opportunity

presents itself, show an especial liking for wine, although in

other respects they need but very little drink. These animals,

also, when kept shut up, require but little aliment, hardly any

at all, in fact. The same is the case also with spiders, which at

other times live by suction. Hence it is, that no venomous

animal will die of hunger or thirst; it being the fact that they

have neither heat, blood, nor sweat; all which humours,

from their natural saltness, increase the animal's voracity. In

this class of animals all those are the most deadly, which

have eaten some of their own kind just before they inflict the

wound. The sphingium and the satyr[1] stow away food in the

pouches of their cheeks, after which they will take it out piece

by piece with their hands and eat it; and thus they do for a

day or an hour what the ant usually does[2] for the whole year.



(73.) The only animal with toes upon the feet that feeds

upon grass is the hare, which will eat corn as well; while

the solid-hoofed animals, and the swine among the cloven-footed ones, will eat all kinds of food, as well as roots. To

roll over and over is a peculiarity of the animals with a solid

hoof. All those which have serrated teeth are carnivorous.

Bears live also upon corn, leaves, grapes, fruit, bees, crabs even,

and ants; wolves, as we have already[3] stated, will eat earth

even when they are famishing. Cattle grow fat by drinking;

hence it is that salt agrees with them so well; the same is also

the case with beasts of burden, although they live on corn as

well as grass; but they eat just in proportion to what they

drink. In addition to those already spoken of, among the

wild animals, stags ruminate, when reared in a domesticated

state. All animals ruminate lying in preference to standing,







and more in winter than in summer, mostly for seven months

in the year. The Pontic mouse[4] also ruminates in a similar

manner.







1. As to these monkies, see B. xviii. c. 30, and c. 80.

2. I. e. lay by a store.

3. B. viii. c. 34.

4. Probably the ermine. See B. viii. c. 55.




94. Chap. 94.-Diversities In The Drinking Of Animals.


CHAP. 94.-DIVERSITIES IN THE DRINKING OF ANIMALS.



In drinking, those animals which have serrated[1] teeth, lap;

and common mice do the same, although they belong to another

class. Those which have the teeth continuous, horses and

oxen, for instance, sup; bears do neither the one nor the other,

but seem to bite at the water, and so devour it. In Africa,

the greater part of the wild beasts do not drink in summer,

through the want of rain; for which reason it is that the mice

of Libya, when caught, will die if they drink. The ever-thirsting plains of Africa produce the oryx,[2] an animal which,

in consequence of the nature of its native locality, never

drinks, and which, in a remarkable manner, affords a remedy

against drought: for the Gtulian bandits by its aid fortify

themselves against thirst, by finding in its body certain

vesicles filled with a most wholesome liquid. In this same

Africa, also, the pards conceal themselves in the thick foliage

of the trees, and then spring down from the branches on any

creature that may happen to be passing by, thus occupying

what are ordinarily the haunts of the birds. Cats too, with

what silent stealthiness, with what light steps do they creep

towards a bird! How slily they will sit and watch, and then

dart out upon a mouse! These animals scratch up the earth

and bury their ordure, being well aware that the smell of it

would betray their presence.







1. Pliny alludes to dogs, cats, and similar mammifera, as having serrated

teeth; the term, however, is quite inappropriate.

2. See B. viii. c. 79.




95. Chap. 95. (74.)-Antipathies Of Animals. Proofs That They Are Sensible Of Friendship And Other Affections.


CHAP. 95. (74.)-ANTIPATHIES OF ANIMALS. PROOFS THAT THEY

ARE SENSIBLE OF FRIENDSHIP AND OTHER AFFECTIONS.



Hence there will be no difficulty in perceiving that animals

are possessed of other instincts besides those previously mentioned. In fact, there are certain antipathies and sympathies

among them, which give rise to various affections besides those

which we have mentioned in relation to each species in its

appropriate place. The swan and the eagle are always at







variance, and the raven and the chloreus[1] seek each other's

eggs by night. In a similar manner, also, the raven and the

kite are perpetually at war with one another, the one carrying off the other's food. So, too, there are antipathies between

the crow and the owl, the eagle and the trochilus;[2]-Between

the last two, if we are to believe the story, because the latter

has received the title of the "king of the birds:" the same,

again, with the owlet and all the smaller birds.



Again, in relation to the terrestrial animals, the weasel is at

enmity with the crow, the turtle-dove with the pyrallis,[3] the

ichneumon with the wasp, and the phalangium with other

spiders. Among aquatic animals, there is enmity between the

duck and the sea-mew, the falcon known as the "harpe," and

the hawk called the "triorchis." In a similar manner, too, the

shrew-mouse and the heron are ever on the watch for each

other's young; and the githus,[4] so small a bird as it is, has

an antipathy to the ass; for the latter, when scratching itself,

rubs its body against the brambles, and so crushes the bird's

nest; a thing of which it stands in such dread, that if it only

hears the voice of the ass when it brays, it will throw its eggs

out of the nest, and the young ones themselves will sometimes

fall to the ground in their fright; hence it is that it will fly at

the ass, and peck at its sores with its beak. The fox, too, is at

war with the nisus,[5] and serpents with weasels and swine.

salon[6] is the name given to a small bird that breaks the eggs

of the raven, and the young of which are anxiously sought by

the fox; while in its turn it will peck at the young of the fox,

and even the parent itself. As soon as the ravens espy this,

they come to its assistance, as though against a common enemy.

The acanthis, too, lives among the brambles; hence it is that

it also has an antipathy to the ass, because it devours the

bramble blossoms. The githus and the anthus,[7] too, are at

such mortal enmity with each other, that it is the common

belief that their blood will not mingle; and it is for this reason

that they have the bad repute of being employed in many magi-







cal incantations. The thos and the lion are at war with each

other; and, indeed, the smallest objects and the greatest just

as much. Caterpillars will avoid a tree that is infested with

ants. The spider, poised in its web, will throw itself on the

head of a serpent as it lies stretched beneath the shade of the

tree where it has built, and with its bite pierce its brain; such

is the shock, that the creature will hiss from time to time, and

then, seized with vertigo, coil round and round, while it

finds itself unable to take to flight, or so much as to break the

web of the spider, as it hangs suspended above; this scene

only ends with its death.







1. Probably the chlorion of c. 45.

2. Supposed to be the golden-crested wren.

3. An insect. See B. xi. c. 42, if, indeed, this is the same that is there

mentioned, which is somewhat doubtful.

4. It is not known what bird is meant: perhaps the titmouse.

5. A kind of hawk or falcon.

6. Species unknown.

7. Probably the spring wag-tail.




96. Chap. 96.-Instances Of Affection Shown By Serpents.


CHAP. 96.-INSTANCES OF AFFECTION SHOWN BY SERPENTS.



On the other hand, there is a strict friendship existing between the peacock and the pigeon, the turtle-dove and the

parrot, the blackbird and the turtle, the crow and the heron,

all of which join in a common enmity against the fox. The

harpe also, and the kite, unite against the triorchis.



And then, besides, have we not seen instances of affection in

the serpent even, that most ferocious of all animals? We

have already[1] related the story that is told of a man in Arcadia, who was saved by a dragon which had belonged to him,

and of his voice being recognized by the animal. We must

also make mention here of another marvellous story that is

related by Phylarchus about the asp. He tells us, that in

Egypt one of these animals, after having received its daily

nourishment at the table of a certain person, brought forth, and

that it so happened that the son of its entertainer was killed

by one of its young ones; upon which, returning to its food

as usual, and becoming sensible of the crime, it immediately

killed the young one, and returned to the house no more.







1. In B. viii. c. 22.




97. Chap. 97. (75.)-The Sleep Of Animals.


CHAP. 97. (75.)-THE SLEEP OF ANIMALS.



The question as to their sleep, is one that is by no means

difficult to solve. In the land animals, it is quite evident that

all that have eyelids sleep. With reference to aquatic animals,

it is admitted that they also sleep, though only for short

periods, even by those writers who entertain doubts as to the

other animals; and they come to this conclusion, not from any

appearance of the eyes, for they have no eyelids, indeed, to close,







but because they are to be seen buried in deep repose, and to all

appearance fast asleep, betraying no motion in any part of

the body except the tail, and by starting when they happen

to hear a noise. With regard to the thunny, it is stated with

still greater confidence that it sleeps; indeed, it is often found

in that state near the shore, or among the rocks. Flat fish are

also found fast asleep in shallow water, and are often taken in

that state with the hand: and, as to the dolphin and the

balna, they are even heard to snore.



It is quite evident, also, that insects sleep, from the silent

stillness which they preserve; and even if a light is put close

to them, they will not be awoke thereby.










98. Chap. 98.-What Animals Are Subject To Dreams.


CHAP. 98.-WHAT ANIMALS ARE SUBJECT TO DREAMS.



Man, just after his birth, is hard pressed by sleep for several

months, after which he becomes more and more wakeful, day

by day. The infant dreams[1] from the very first, for it will

suddenly awake with every symptom of alarm, and while

asleep will imitate the action of sucking. There are some

persons, however, who never dream; indeed, we find instances

stated where it has been a fatal sign for a person to dream, who

has never done so before. Here we find ourselves invited by

a grand field of investigation, and one that is full of alleged

proofs on both sides of the question, whether, when the mind

is at rest in sleep, it has any foreknowledge of the future, and

if so, by what process this is brought about, or whether this is

not altogether a matter quite fortuitous, as most other things

are? If we were to attempt to decide the question by instances quoted, we should find as many on the one side as on

the other.



It is pretty generally agreed, that dreams, immediately after

we have taken wine and food, or when we have just fallen

asleep again after waking, have no signification whatever. Indeed, sleep is nothing else than the retiring[2] of the mind

into itself. It is quite evident that, besides man, horses, dogs,

oxen, sheep, and goats have dreams; consequently, the same

is supposed to be the case with all animals that are viviparous.

As to those which are oviparous, it is a matter of uncertainty,







though it is equally certain that they do sleep. But we must

now pass on to a description of the insects.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

seven hundred and ninety-three.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Manilius,[3] Cornelius Valerianus,[4]

the Acta Triumphorum,[5] Umbricius Melior,[6] Massurius Sabinus,[7] Antistius Labeo,[8] Trogus,[9] Cremutius,[10] M. Varro,[11]

Macer milius,[12] Melissus,[13] Mucianus,[14] Nepos,[15] Fabius

Pictor,[16] T. Lucretius,[17] Cornelius Celsus,[18] Horace,[19] Deculo,[20]

Hyginus,[21] the Sasern,[22] Nigidius,[23] Mamilius Sura.[24]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Homer, Phemono,[25] Phile-







mon,[26] Bus[27] who wrote the Ornithogonia, Hylas[28] who wrote

an augury, Aristotle,[29] Theophrastus,[30] Callimachus,[31] schylus,[32] King Hiero,[33] King Philometor,[34] Archytas[35] of Tarentum,

Amphilochus[36] of Athens, Anaxipolis[37] of Thasos, Apollodorus[38]

of Lemnos, Aristophanes[39] of Miletus, Antigonus[40] of Cym,

Agathocles[41] of Chios, Apollonius[42] of Pergamus, Aristander[43]

of Athens, Bacchius[44] of Miletus, Bion[45] of Soli, Chreas[46]

of Athens, Diodorus[47] of Priene, Dion[48] of Colophon, Democritus,[49] Diophanes[50] of Nica, Epigenes[51] of Rhodes, Euagon[52]

of Thasos, Euphronius[53] of Athens, Juba,[54] Androtion[55] who

wrote on Agriculture, schrion[56] who wrote on Agriculture,

Lysimachus[57] who wrote on Agriculture, Dionysius[58] who

translated Mago, Diophanes[59] who made an Epitome of Dionysius, Nicander,[60] Onesicritus,[61] Phylarchus,[62] Hesiod.[63]









ERRATA IN VOL. I.



Page vii. line 31, for Coisicius, read Cossicius.



" xvii. " 15, for pepole, read people.



" xviii. " 30, for Fabulosetas, read Fabulositas.



" 378, " 20, for Goat-Pens, read Goat-Pans.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 10, maintains the contrary. But in

B. vii. he asserts that infants do dream.

2. See Lucretius, B. iv. 1. 914, et seq.

3. M. Manilius, mentioned in c. 2. Nothing certain is known of him,

but by some he is supposed to have been the senator and jurisconsult of

that name, contemporary with the younger Scipio. The astronomical poem

which goes under his name was probably written at a much later period.

4. See end of B. iii.

5. See end of B. v.

6. A famous soothsayer, who predicted to Galba, as we learn from

Tacitus, the dangers to which he was about to be exposed. He wrote on

the science of Divination, as practised by the Etruscans.

7. See end of B. vii.

8. A Roman legislator, proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis, and long a

favourite of Augustus. According to Aulus Gellius, his works were very

numerous. He also wrote a treatise on the Etruscan divination.

9. Trogus Pompeius. See end of B. vii.

10. See end of B. vii.

11. See end of B. ii.

12. See end of B. ix.

13. See end of B. vii.

14. See end of B. ii.

15. See end of B. ii.

16. He was the most ancient writer of Roman history in prose. His history,

which was written in Greek, is supposed to have commenced with the arrival

of neas in Italy, and to have come down to his own time. He was sent

by the Romans to consult the oracle at Delphi, after the battle of Cann.

17. See end of B. vii.

18. The famous poet and writer on the Epicurean philosophy. He was

born B.C. 98, and slew himself B.C. 54.

19. Q. Horatius Flaccus, one of the greatest Roman poets.

20. Nothing is known of this writer; indeed, the correct reading is a

matter of doubt.

21. See end of B. iii.

22. Father and son, who wrote treatises on agriculture, as we learn from

Columella.

23. See end of B. vi.

24. A writer on agriculture, mentioned by Columella.

25. A priestess of Delphi, said to have been the inventor of hexameter

verse. Servius identifies her with the Cuman Sibyl. Pliny quotes from

her in c. 8, probably from some work on augury attributed to her. A

work in MS. entitled "Orneosophium," or "Wisdom of Birds," is attributed to Phemono. She is said to have been the first to pronounce the

celebrated Gnw=qi seauto\n, commonly attributed to Thales.

26. An Athenian comic poet of the New Comedy, born either at Soli in

Cilicia, or at Syracuse. Plautus has imitated several of his plays.

27. Nothing is known of this writer, who wrote a poem on ornithology,

as here stated. Athenus is doubtful whether the writer was a poet,

Bus, or a poetess, Bo.

28. Nothing is known of this writer.

29. See end of B. ii.

30. See end of B. iii.

31. See end of B. iv.

32. The Greek tragic poet of Athens, several of whose plays still exist.

33. See end of B. viii.

34. King Attalus III. See end of B. viii.

35. See end of B. viii.

36. See end of B. viii.

37. See end of B. viii.

38. See end of B. viii.

39. See end of B. viii.

40. See end of B. viii.

41. See end of B. viii.

42. See end of B. viii.

43. See end of B. viii.

44. See end of B. viii.

45. See end of B. vi.

46. See end of B. viii.

47. See end of B. viii.

48. See end of B. viii.

49. See end of B. ii.

50. See end of B. viii.

51. See end of B. ii.

52. Of this writer nothing whatever seems to be known.

53. See end of B. viii.

54. See end of B. v.

55. See end of B viii.

56. See end of B. viii.

57. See end of B. viii.

58. Cassius Dionysius of Utica, flourished B.C. 40. He condensed the

twenty-eight books of Mago into twenty, and dedicated them to the

Roman prtor Sextilius.

59. See end of B. viii.

60. See end of B. viii.

61. See end of B. ii.

62. See end of B. vii.

63. See end of B. vii.




0. > Book Xi. The Various Kinds Of Insects.


BOOK XI. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF INSECTS.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Extreme Smallness Of Insects.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE EXTREME SMALLNESS OF INSECTS.



WE shall now proceed to a description of the insects, a

subject replete with endless difficulties;[1] for, in fact, there

are some authors who have maintained that they do not respire,

and that they are destitute of blood. The insects are numerous,

and form many species, and their mode of life is like that of

the terrestrial animals and the birds. Some of them are furnished with wings, bees for instance; others are divided into

those kinds which have wings, and those which are without

them, such as ants; while others, again, are destitute of both

wings and feet. All these animals have been very properly

called "insects,"[2] from the incisures or divisions which separate the body, sometimes at the neck, and sometimes at the

corselet, and so divide it into members or segments, only

united to each other by a slender tube. In some insects, however, this division is not complete, as it is surrounded by

wrinkled folds; and thus the flexible vertebr of the creature,

whether situate at the abdomen, or whether only at the upper

part of the body, are protected by layers, overlapping each

other; indeed, in no one of her works has Nature more fully

displayed her exhaustless ingenuity.



(2.) In large animals, on the other hand, or, at all events,







in the very largest among them, she found her task easy and

her materials ready and pliable; but in these minute creatures,

so nearly akin as they are to non-entity, how surpassing the

intelligence, how vast the resources, and how ineffable the

perfection which she has displayed. Where is it that she has

united so many senses as in the gnat?-not to speak of creatures

that might be mentioned of still smaller size-Where, I say,

has she found room to place in it the organs of sight? Where

has she centred the sense of taste? Where has she inserted

the power of smell? And where, too, has she implanted that

sharp shrill voice of the creature, so utterly disproportioned to

the smallness of its body? With what astonishing subtlety

has she united the wings to the trunk, elongated the joints

of the legs, framed that long, craving concavity for a belly, and

then inflamed the animal with an insatiate thirst for blood,

that of man more especially! What ingenuity has she displayed

in providing it with a sting,[3] so well adapted for piercing the

skin! And then too, just as though she had had the most

extensive field for the exercise of her skill, although the

weapon is so minute that it can hardly be seen, she has formed

it with a twofold mechanism, providing it with a point for the

purpose of piercing, and at the same moment making it hollow,

to adapt it for suction.



What teeth, too, has she inserted in the teredo,[4] to adapt it

for piercing oak even with a sound which fully attests their

destructive power! while at the same time she has made wood

its principal nutriment. We give all our admiration to the

shoulders of the elephant as it supports the turret, to the

stalwart neck of the bull, and the might with which it hurls

aloft whatever comes in its way, to the onslaught of the tiger,

or to the mane of the lion; while, at the same time, Nature is

nowhere to be seen to greater perfection than in the very

smallest of her works. For this reason then, I must beg of

my readers, notwithstanding the contempt they feel for many

of these objects, not to feel a similar disdain for the information I am about to give relative thereto, seeing that, in the







study of Nature, there are none of her works that are unworthy

of our consideration.







1. "Immens subtilitatis." As Cuvier remarks, the ancients have committed more errors in reference to the insects, than to any other portion of

the animal world. The discovery of the microscope has served more than

anything to correct these erroneous notions.

2. "Insecta," "articulated."

3. The trunk of the gnat, Cuvier says, contains five silken and pointed

threads, which together have the effect of a sting.

4. The Teredo navalis of Linnus, not an insect, but one of the mollusks.

This is the same creature that is mentioned in B. xvi. c. 80; but that spoken

of in B. viii. c. 74, must have been a land insect.






2. Chap. 2. (3.)-Whether Insects Respire, And Whether They Have Blood.


CHAP. 2. (3.)-WHETHER INSECTS RESPIRE, AND WHETHER

THEY HAVE BLOOD.



Many authors deny that insects respire,[1] and make the

assertion upon the ground, that in their viscera there is no

respiratory organ to be found. On this ground, they assert

that insects have the same kind of life as plants and trees,

there being a very great difference between respiring and merely

having life. On similar grounds also, they assert that insects

have no blood, a thing which cannot exist, they say, in any

animal that is destitute of heart and liver; just as, according

to them, those creatures cannot breathe which have no lungs.

Upon these points, however, a vast number of questions will

naturally arise; for the same writers do not hesitate to deny

that these creatures are destitute also of voice,[2] and this,

notwithstanding the humming of bees, the chirping of grasshoppers, and the sounds emitted by numerous other insects

which will be considered in their respective places. For my

part, whenever I have considered the subject, I have ever felt

persuaded that there is nothing impossible to Nature, nor do I

see why creatures should be less able to live and yet not

inhale, than to respire without being possessed of viscera, a

doctrine which I have already maintained, when speaking[3] of

the marine animals; and that, notwithstanding the density

and the vast depth of the water which would appear to impede

all breathing. But what person could very easily believe that

there can be any creatures that fly to and fro, and live in the

very midst of the element of respiration, while, at the same time,

they themselves are devoid of that respiration; that they can

be possessed of the requisite instincts for nourishment, generation, working, and making provision even for time to come,

in the enjoyment too (although, certainly, they are not possessed of the organs which act, as it were, as the receptacles







of those senses) of the powers of hearing, smelling, and tasting, as well as those other precious gifts of Nature, address,

courage, and skilfulness? That these creatures have no blood[4]

I am ready to admit, just as all the terrestrial animals are not

possessed of it; but then, they have something similar, by way

of equivalent. Just as in the sea, the spiahas[5] a black

liquid in place of blood, and the various kinds of purples, those

juices which we use for the purposes of dyeing; so, too, is every

insect possessed of its own vital humour, which, whatever it

is, is blood to it. While I leave it to others to form what

opinion they please on this subject, it is my purpose to set

forth the operations of Nature in the clearest possible light,

and not to enter upon the discussion of points that are replete

with doubt.







1. They respire by orifices in the sides of the body, known to naturalists

as stigmata. The whole body, Cuvier says, forms, in a measure, a system of

lungs.



2. Cuvier remarks that the various noises made by insects are in reality

not the voice, as they are not produced by air passing through a larynx.

3. B. ix. c. 6.

4. Cuvier remarks, that they have a nourishing fluid, which is of a white

colour, and acts in place of blood.

5. The dye of spia, Cuvier remarks, is not blood, nor does it act as such,

being an excrementitious liquid. It has in addition a bluish, transparent,

blood. The same also with the juices of the purple.




3. Chap. 3. (4.)-The Bodies Of Insects.


CHAP. 3. (4.)-THE BODIES OF INSECTS.



Insects, so far as I find myself able to ascertain, seem to

have neither sinews,[1] bones, spines, cartilages, fat, nor flesh;

nor yet so much as a frail shell, like some of the marine animals, nor even anything that can with any propriety be

termed skin; but they have a body which is of a kind of intermediate nature between all these, of an arid substance, softer

than muscle, and in other respects of a nature that may, in

strictness, be rather pronounced yielding,[2] than hard. Such,

then, is all that they are, and nothing more:[3] in the inside

of their bodies there is nothing, except in some few, which

have an intestine arranged in folds. Hence it is, that even

when cut asunder, they are remarkable for their tenacity of

life, and the palpitations which are to be seen in each of their

parts. For every portion of them is possessed of its own

vital principle, which is centred in no limb in particular, but







in every part of the body; least of all, however, in the head,

which alone is subject to no movements unless torn off together

with the corselet. No kind of animal has more feet than the

insects have, and those among them which have the most, live

the longest when cut asunder, as we see in the case of the scolopendra. They have eyes, and the senses as well of touch and

taste; some of them have also the sense of smelling, and some

few that of hearing.







1. " Nervos." Cuvier says that all insects have a brain, a sort of spinal

marrow, and nerves.

2. "Tutius."



3. Insects have no fat, Cuvier says, except when in the chrysalis state;

but they have a fibrous flesh of a whitish colour. They have also viscera,

trachea, nerves, and a most complicated organization.






4. Chap. 4. (5.)-Bees.


CHAP. 4. (5.)-BEES.



But among them all, the first rank, and our especial admiration, ought, in justice, to be accorded to bees, which alone,

of all the insects, have been created for the benefit of man.

They extract honey and collect it, a juicy substance remarkable

for its extreme sweetness, lightness, and wholesomeness. They

form their combs and collect wax, an article that is useful for

a thousand purposes of life; they are patient of fatigue, toil at

their labours, form themselves into political communities, hold

councils together in private, elect chiefs in common, and, a thing

that is the most remarkable of all, have their own code of morals.

In addition to this, being as they are, neither tame nor wild,

so all-powerful is Nature, that, from a creature so minute as to

be nothing more hardly than the shadow of an animal, she has

created a marvel beyond all comparison. What muscular

power, what exertion of strength are we to put in comparison

with such vast energy and such industry as theirs? What display of human genius, in a word, shall we compare with the

reasoning powers manifested by them? In this they have, at

all events, the advantage of us-they know of nothing but what

is for the common benefit of all. Away, then, with all questions

whether they respire or no, and let us be ready to agree on

the question of their blood; and yet, how little of it can possibly exist in bodies so minute as theirs.-And now let us

form some idea of the instinct they display.










5. Chap. 5. (6.)-The Order Displayed In The Works Of Bees.


CHAP. 5. (6.)-THE ORDER DISPLAYED IN THE WORKS OF BEES.



Bees keep within the hive during the winter-for whence

are they to derive the strength requisite to withstand frosts

and snows, and the northern blasts? The same, in fact, is

done by all insects, but not to so late a period; as those







which conceal themselves in the walls of our houses, are much

sooner sensible of the returning warmth. With reference to

bees, either seasons and climates have considerably changed, or

else former writers have been greatly mistaken. They retire

for the winter at the setting of the Vergili, and remain shut

up till after the rising of that constellation, and not till only

the beginning of spring, as some authors have stated; nor, indeed, does any one in Italy ever think of then opening the hives.

They do not come forth to ply their labours until the bean

blossoms; and then not a day do they lose in inactivity, while

the weather is favourable for their pursuits.



First of all, they set about constructing their combs, and

forming the wax, or, in other words, making their dwellings

and cells; after this they produce their young, and then make

honey and wax from flowers, and extract bee-glue[1] from the

tears of those trees which distil glutinous substances, the

juices, gums, and resins, namely, of the willow, the elm, and

the reed. With these substances, as well as others of a more

bitter nature, they first line the whole inside of the hive, as a

sort of protection against the greedy propensities of other small

insects, as they are well aware that they are about to form

that which will prove an object of attraction to them. Having

done this, they employ similar substances in narrowing the

entrance to the hive, if otherwise too wide.







1. " Melligo." For further information on this subject consult Bevan

on the Honey Bee.




6. Chap. 6. (5.)-The Meaning Of The Terms Commosis, Pisso- Ceros, And Propolls.


CHAP. 6. (5.)-THE MEANING OF THE TERMS COMMOSIS, PISSO-

CEROS, AND PROPOLlS.



The persons who understand this subject, call the substance

which forms the first foundation of their combs, commosis,[1] the

next, pissoceros,[2] and the third propolis;[3] which last is placed

between the other layers and the wax, and is remarkable for

its utility in medicine.[4] The commosis forms the first crust

or layer, and has a bitter taste; and upon it is laid the pissoceros, a kind of thin wax, which acts as a sort of varnish.

The propolis is produced from the sweet gum of the vine or







the poplar, and is of a denser consistency, the juices of flowers

being added to it. Still, however, it cannot be properly termed

wax, but rather the foundation of the honey-combs; by means

of it all inlets are stopped up, which might, otherwise, serve

for the admission of cold or other injurious influences; it has

also a strong odour, so much so, indeed, that many people use

it instead of galbanum.







1. Or "conusis," "gummy matter."



2. Pitch-wax.



3. A kind of bee-glue; the origin of the name does not seem to be

known. Reaumur says that they are all different varieties of bee-glue.



4. See B. xxii. c. 50.






7. Chap. 7.-The Meaning Of Erithace, Sandaraca, Or Cerinthos.


CHAP. 7.-THE MEANING OF ERITHACE, SANDARACA, OR CERINTHOS.



In addition to this, the bees form collections of erithace or

bee-bread, which some persons call "sandaraca,"[1] and others

"cerinthos." This is to serve as the food of the bees while

they are at work, and is often found stowed away in the cavi-

ties of the cells, being of a bitter flavour also. It is produced

from the spring dews and the gummy juices of trees, being

less abundant while the south-west wind is blowing, and

blackened by the prevalence of a south wind. On the other

hand, again, it is of a reddish colour and becomes improved by

the north-east wind; it is found in the greatest abundance upon

the nut trees in Greece. Menecrates says, that it is a flower,

which gives indications of the nature of the coming harvest;

but no one says so, with the exception of him.







1. Different combinations of the pollen of flowers, on which bees feed.






8. Chap. 8. (8.)-What Flowers Are Used By The Bees In Their Work.


CHAP. 8. (8.)-WHAT FLOWERS ARE USED BY THE BEES IN THEIR

WORK.



Bees form wax[1] from the blossoms of all trees and plants,

with the sole exception of the rumex[2] and the echinopodes,[3]

both being kinds of herbs. It is by mistake, however, that

spartum is excepted;[4] for many varieties of honey that come

from Spain, and have been made in the plantations of it, have

a strong taste of that plant. I am of opinion, also, that it is

without any sufficient reason that the olive has been excepted,

seeing that it is a well-known fact, that where olives are in

the greatest abundance, the swarms of bees are the most no-

serous. Bees are not injurious to fruit of any kind; they will







never settle on a dead flower, much less a dead carcase. They

pursue their labours within three-score paces of their hives;

and when the flowers in their vicinity are exhausted, they

send out scouts from time to time, to discover places for forage

at a greater distance. When overtaken by night in their expeditions, they watch till the morning, lying on their backs,

in order to protect their wings from the action of the dew.







1. It is formed from the honey that the bee has digested.

2. Sorrel, or monk's rhubarb.



3. A kind of broom.



4. Spanish broom, the Stipa tenacissima of Linnus. Ropes were made

of it. See B. xix. c. 7.






9. Chap. 9. (9.)-Persons Who Have Made Bees Their Study.


CHAP. 9. (9.)-PERSONS WHO HAVE MADE BEES THEIR STUDY.



It is not surprising that there have been persons who have

made bees their exclusive study; Aristomachus of Soli, for

instance, who for a period of fifty-eight years did nothing else;

Philiscus of Thasos, also, surnamed Agrius,[1] who passed his

life in desert spots, tending swarms of bees. Both of these

have written works on this subject.







1. Or, the "wild man."






10. Chap. 10. (10.)-The Mode In Which Bees Work.


CHAP. 10. (10.)-THE MODE IN WHICH BEES WORK.



The manner in which bees carry on their work is as follows.

In the day time a guard is stationed at the entrance of the

hive, like the sentries in a camp. At night they take their

rest until the morning, when one of them awakes the rest with

a humming noise, repeated twice or thrice, just as though it were

sounding a trumpet. They then take their flight in a body,

if the day is likely to turn out fine; for they have the gift of

foreknowing wind and rain, and in such case will keep close

within their dwellings. On the other hand, when the weather is

fine-and this, too, they have the power of foreknowing-the

swarm issues forth, and at once applies itself to its work, some

loading their legs from the flowers, while others fill their

mouths with water, and charge the downy surface of their

bodies with drops of liquid. Those among them that are

young[1] go forth to their labours, and collect the materials

already mentioned, while those that are more aged stay within

the hives and work. The bees whose business it is to carry

the flowers, with their fore feet load their thighs, which Nature

has made rough for the purpose, and with their trunks load







their fore feet: bending beneath their load, they then return

to the hive, where there are three or four bees ready to receive

them and aid in discharging their burdens. For, within the

hive as well, they have their allotted duties to perform: some

are engaged in building, others in smoothing, the combs, while

others again are occupied in passing on the materials, and

others in preparing food[2] from the provision which has been

brought; that there may be no unequal division, either in their

labour, their food, or the distribution of their time, they do not

even feed separately.



Commencing at the vaulted roof of the hive, they begin

the construction of their cells, and, just as we do in the manufacture of a web, they construct their cells from top to bottom,

taking care to leave two passages around each compartment,

for the entrance of some and the exit of others. The combs,

which are fastened to the hive in the upper part, and in a

slight degree also at the sides, adhere to each other, and are

thus suspended altogether. They do not touch the floor of the

hive, and are either angular or round, according to its shape;

sometimes, in fact, they are both angular and round at once,

when two swarms are living in unison, but have dissimilar

modes of operation. They prop up the combs that are likely

to fall, by means of arched pillars, at intervals springing from

the floor, so as to leave them a passage for the purpose of

effecting repairs. The first three ranks of their cells are generally left empty when constructed, that there may be nothing

exposed to view which may invite theft; and it is the last

ones, more especially, that are filled with honey: hence

it is that the combs are always taken out at the back of the

hive.



The bees that are employed in carrying look out for a favourable breeze, and if a gale should happen to spring up, they

poise themselves in the air with little stones, by way of ballast; some writers, indeed, say that they place them upon their

shoulders. When the wind is contrary, they fly close to the

ground, taking care, however, to keep clear of the brambles.

It is wonderful what strict watch is kept upon their work: all

instances of idleness are carefully remarked, the offenders are







chastised, and on a repetition of the fault, punished with death.

Their sense of cleanliness, too, is quite extraordinary; everything is removed that might he in the way, and no filth is

allowed to remain in the midst of their work. The ordure

even of those that are at work within, that they may not have

to retire to any distance, is all collected in one spot, and on

stormy days, when they are obliged to cease their ordinary

labours, they employ themselves in carrying it out. When

it grows towards evening, the buzzing in the hive becomes

gradually less and less, until at last one of their number is to

be seen flying about the hive with the same loud humming

noise with which they were aroused in the morning, thereby giving the signal, as it were, to retire to rest: in this, too,

they imitate the usage of the camp. The moment the signal

is heard, all is silent.



(11.) They first construct the dwellings of the commonalty,

and then those of the king-bee. If they have reason to expect

an abundant[3] season, they add abodes also for the drones:

these are cells of a smaller size, though the drones themselves

are larger than the bees.







1. Huber has discovered that there are two kinds of bees of neutral sex,

or, as he calls them, unprolific females, the workers, which go out, and

the nurses, which are smaller, and stay in the hive to tend the larv.



2. From the honey found in the coroll of flowers. This, after being

prepared in the first stomach of the bee, is deposited in the cell which is

formed for its reception.



3. Cuvier says that the three kinds of cells are absolutely necessary, and

that they do not depend on the greater or less abundance. The king of

the ancients is what we know as the queen bee, which is impregnated by the

drones or males.




11. Chap. 11.-Drones.


CHAP. 11.-DRONES.



The drones have no sting,[1] and would seem to be a kind of

imperfect bee, formed the very last of all; the expiring effort,

as it were, of worn-out and exhausted old age, a late and tardy

offspring, and doomed, in a measure, to be the slaves of the

genuine bees. Hence it is that the bees exercise over them a

rigorous authority, compel them to take the foremost rank in

their labours, and if they show any sluggishness, punish them[2]

without mercy. And not only in their labours do the drones

give them their assistance, but in the propagation of their species as well, the very multitude of them contributing greatly

to the warmth of the hive. At all events, it is a well-known

fact, that the greater[3] the multitude of the drones, the more







numerous is sure to be the progeny of the swarm. When the

honey is beginning to come to maturity, the bees drive away

the drones, and setting upon each in great numbers, put them

all to death. It is only in the spring that the drones are

ever to be seen. If you deprive a drone of its wings, and then

replace it in the hive, it will pull off the wings of the other

drones.







1. This is the fact, but not so their imperfect state.



2. They do not work, but merely impregnate the queen; after which

they are driven from the hive, and perish of cold and starvation.



3. It appears, as Cuvier says, that the ancients had some notion that the

swarm was multiplied by the aid of the drones.






12. Chap. 12.-The Qualities Of Honey.


CHAP. 12.-THE QUALITIES OF HONEY.



In the lower part of the hive they construct for their future

sovereign a palatial abode,[1] spacious and grand, separated from

the rest, and surmounted by a sort of dome: if this prominence should happen to be flattened, all hopes of progeny are

lost. All the cells are hexagonal, each foot[2] having formed

its own side. No part of this work, however, is done at any

stated time, as the bees seize every opportunity for the performance of their task when the days are fine; in one or two

days, at most, they fill their cells with honey.



(12.) This substance is engendered from the air,[3] mostly at

the rising of the constellations, and more especially when

Sirius is shining; never, however, before the rising of the

Vergili, and then just before day-break. Hence it is, that at

early dawn the leaves of the trees are found covered with a

kind of honey-like dew, and those who go into the open air at

an early hour in the morning, find their clothes covered, and

their hair matted, with a sort of unctuous liquid. Whether

it is that this liquid is the sweat of the heavens, or whether

a saliva emanating from the stars, or a juice exuding from the

air while purifying itself, would that it had been, when it

comes to us, pure, limpid, and genuine, as it was, when first

it took its downward descent. But as it is, falling from so

vast a height, attracting corruption in its passage, and tainted

by the exhalations of the earth as it meets them, sucked, too,

as it is from off the trees and the herbage of the fields, and

accumulated in the stomachs of the bees-for they cast it up







again through the mouth-deteriorated besides by the juices

of flowers, and then steeped within the hives and subjected to

such repeated changes-still, in spite of all this, it affords us

by its flavour a most exquisite pleasure, the result, no doubt,

of its thereal nature and origin.







1. Cuvier says that the cell for the future queen is different from the

others, and much larger. The bees also supply the queen larva much more

abundantly with food, and of more delicate quality.

2. Cuvier says that this coincidence with the number of the legs is quite

accidental, as it is with the mouth that the animal constructs the cell.

3. The basis of it is really derived from the calix or corolla of flowers.






13. Chap. 13. (13.)-Where The Best Honey Is Produced.


CHAP. 13. (13.)-WHERE THE BEST HONEY IS PRODUCED.



The honey is always best in those countries where it is to

be found deposited in the calix of the most exquisite flowers,

such, for instance, as the districts of Hymettus and Hybla,

in Attica and Sicily respectively, and after them the island of

Calydna.[1] At first, honey is thin, like water, after which it

effervesces for some days, and purifies itself like must. On

the twentieth day it begins to thicken, and soon after becomes

covered with a thin membrane, which gradually increases

through the scum which is thrown up by the heat. The

honey of the very finest flavour, and the least tainted by the

leaves of trees, is that gathered from the foliage of the oak

and the linden, and from reeds.







1. See B. iv. c. 24.




14. Chap. 14. (14.)-The Kinds Of Honey Peculiar To Various Places.


CHAP. 14. (14.)-THE KINDS OF HONEY PECULIAR TO VARIOUS

PLACES.



The peculiar excellence of honey depends, as already stated,[1]

on the country in which it is produced; the modes, too, of

estimating its quality are numerous. In some countries we find

the honey-comb remarkable for the goodness of the wax, as in

Sicily, for instance, and the country of the Peligni; in other

places the honey itself is found in greater abundance, as in

Crete, Cyprus, and Africa; and in others, again, the comb is

remarkable for its size; the northern climates, for instance,

for in Germany a comb has been known to be as much as eight

feet in length, and quite black on the concave surface.



But whatever the country in which it may happen to have been

produced, there are three different kinds of honey.-Spring

honey[2] is that made in a comb which has been constructed of

flowers, from which circumstance it has received the name of an-

thinum. There are some persons who say that this should not

be touched, because the more abundant the nutriment, the







stronger will be the coming swarm; while others, again, leave

less of this honey than of any other for the bees, on the ground

that there is sure to be a vast abundance at the rising of the

greater constellations, as well as at the summer solstice, when

the thyme and the vine begin to blossom, for then they are

sure to find abundant materials for their cells.



In taking the combs the greatest care is always requisite, for

when they are stinted for food the bees become desperate, and

either pine to death, or else wing their flight to other places:

but on the other hand, over-abundance will entail idleness,

and then they will feed upon the honey, and not the bee-bread.

Hence it is that the most careful breeders take care to leave

the bees a fifteenth part of this gathering. There is a certain

day for beginning the honey-gathering, fixed, as it were, by a

law of Nature, if men would only understand or observe it,

being the thirtieth day after the bees have swarmed and come

forth. This gathering mostly takes place before the end of

May.



The second kind of honey is "summer honey," which, from

the circumstance of its being produced at the most favourable

season, has received the Greek name of horaion;[3] it is generally made during the next thirty days after the solstice, while

Sirius is shining in all its brilliancy. Nature has revealed in

this substance most remarkable properties to mortals, were it

not that the fraudulent propensities of man are apt to falsify

and corrupt everything. For, after the rising of each constellation, and those of the highest rank more particularly, or after

the appearance of the rainbow, if a shower does not ensue,

but the dew becomes warmed by the sun's rays, a medicament,

and not real honey, is produced; a gift sent from heaven for

the cure of diseases of the eyes, ulcers, and maladies of the

internal viscera. If this is taken at the rising of Sirius, and

the rising of Venus, Jupiter, or Mercury should happen to fall

on the same day, as often is the case, the sweetness of this

substance, and the virtue which it possesses of restoring men

to life, are not inferior to those attributed to the nectar of the

gods.











1. In the last Chapter.

2. Or "Flower-honey."

3. Season-honey.




15. Chap. 15. (15.)-How Honey Is Tested. Ericum. Tetra- Lix, Or Sisirum.


CHAP. 15. (15.)-HOW HONEY IS TESTED. ERICUM. TETRA-

LIX, OR SISIRUM.



The crop of honey is most abundant if gathered at full

moon, and it is richest when the weather is fine. In all

honey, that which flows of itself, like must or oil, has received

from us the name of acetum.[1] The summer honey is the most

esteemed of all, from the fact of its being made when the

weather is driest: it is looked upon as the most serviceable

when made from thyme;[2] it is then of a golden colour, and

of a most delicious flavour. The honey that we see formed

in the calix of flowers is of a rich and unctuous nature; that

which is made from rosemary is thick, while that which is

candied is little esteemed. Thyme honey does not coagulate,

and on being touched will draw out into thin viscous threads,

a thing which is the principal proof of its heaviness. When

honey shows no tenacity, and the drops immediately part

from one another, it is looked upon as a sign of its worthlessness. The other proofs of its goodness are the fine aroma of

its smell, its being of a sweetness that closely borders on the

sour,[3] and being glutinous and pellucid.



Cassius Dionysius is of opinion that in the summer gathering

the tenth part of the honey ought to be left for the bees if the

hives should happen to be well filled, and even if not, still in

the same proportion; while, on the other hand, if there is but

little in them, he recommends that it should not be touched

at all. The people of Attica have fixed the period for commencing this gathering at the first ripening of the wild fig;

others[4] have made it the day that is sacred to Vulcan.[5]



(16.) The third kind of honey, which is the least esteemed

of all, is the wild honey, known by the name of ericeunm.[6] It

is collected by the bees after the first showers of autumn,

when the heather[7] alone is blooming in the woods, from which

circumstance it derives its sandy appearance. It is mostly pro-







duced at the rising of Arcturus, beginning at the day[8] before

the ides of September. Some persons delay the gathering of

the summer honey until the rising of Arcturus, because from

then till the autumnal equinox there are fourteen days left,

and it is from the equinox till the setting of the Vergili, a period of forty-eight days, that the heather is in the greatest abundance. The Athenians call this plant by the name of tetralix,[9]

and the Eubans sisirum, and they look upon it as affording

great pleasure to the bees to browse upon, probably because

there are no other flowers for them to resort to. This gathering terminates at the end of the vintage and the setting of

the Vergili, mostly about the ides of November.[10] Experience teaches us that we ought to leave for the bees two-thirds of this crop, and always that part of the combs as well,

which contains the bee-bread.



From the winter solstice to the rising of Arcturus the bees

are buried in sleep for sixty days, and live without any nourishment. Between the rising of Arcturus and the vernal equinox,

they awake in the warmer climates, but even then they still

keep within the hives, and have recourse to the provisions

kept in reserve for this period. In Italy, however, they do

this immediately after the rising of the Vergili, up to which

period they are asleep. Some persons, when they take the

honey, weigh the hive and all, and remove just as much as

they leave: a due sense of equity should always be stringently

observed in dealing with them, and it is generally stated that

if imposed upon in this division, the swarm will die of grief.

It is particularly recommended also that the person who takes

the honey should be well washed and clean: bees have a particular aversion, too, to a thief and a menstruous woman. When

the honey is taken, it is the best plan to drive away the bees

by means of smoke, lest they should become irritated, or else

devour the honey themselves. By often applying smoke, too,

they are aroused from their idleness to work; but if they have

not duly incubated in the comb, it is apt to become of a

livid colour. On the other hand, if they are smoked too often,

they will become tainted; the honey, too, a substance which

turns sour at the very slightest contact with dew, will very







quickly receive injury from the taint thus contracted: hence

it is that among the various kinds of honey which are preserved, there is one which is known by the name of acapnon.[11]







1. " Vinegar" is the ordinary meaning.

2. Sillig remarks that the whole of this passage is corrupt.

3. Hence, perhaps, its name of "acetum."

4. The people of Italy.

5. The 10th of the calends of September, or 23rd August.

6. Or "heath-honey." In the north of England the hives are purposely

taken to the moors.

7. "Erice," "heather," seems to he a preferable reading to "myrice,"

"tamarisk," which is adopted by Sillig.

8. 12th September.

9. "Tetralicem" seems preferable to " tamaricem."

10. 13th November.

11. "Unsmoked" honey.




16. Chap. 16.-The Reproduction Of Bees.


CHAP. 16.-THE REPRODUCTION OF BEES.



How bees generate their young has been a subject of great

and subtle research among the learned; seeing that no one has

ever witnessed[1] any sexual intercourse among these insects.

Many persons have expressed an opinion that they must be

produced from flowers, aptly and artistically arranged by

Nature; while others, again, suppose that they are produced

from an intercourse with the one which is to be found in every

swarm, and is usually called the king. This one, they say, is

the only male[2] in the hive, and is endowed with such extraordinary proportions, that it may not become exhausted

in the performance of its duties. Hence it is, that no offspring can be produced without it, all the other bees being

females,[3] and attending it in its capacity of a male, and not

as their leader. This opinion, however, which is otherwise

not improbable, is sufficiently refuted by the generation of the

drones. For on what grounds could it possibly happen that

the same intercourse should produce an offspring part of which

is perfect, and part in an imperfect state? The first surmise

which I have mentioned would appear, indeed, to be much

nearer the truth, were it not the case that here another difficulty meets us-the circumstance that sometimes, at the extremity of the combs, there are produced bees of a larger size,

which put the others to flight. This noxious bee bears the

name of strus,[4] and how is it possible that it should ever be

produced, if it is the fact that the bees themselves form their

progeny?[5]



A fact, however, that is well ascertained, is, that bees sit,[6]

like the domestic fowl, that which is hatched by them at







first having the appearance of a white maggot, and lying across

and adhering so tenaciously to the wax as to seem to be part of it.

The king, however, from the earliest moment, is of the colour

of honey, just as though he were made of the choicest flowers,

nor has he at any time the form of a grub, but from the very

first is provided with wings.[7] The rest of the bees, as soon

as they begin to assume a shape, have the name of nymph,[8]

while the drones are called sirenes, or cephenes. If a person takes off the head of either kind before the wings are

formed, the rest of the body is considered a most choice morsel

by the parents. In process of time the parent bees instil

nutriment into them, and sit upon them, making on this occasion a loud humming noise, for the purpose, it is generally

supposed, of generating that warmth which is so requisite for

hatching the young. At length the membrane in which each

of them is enveloped, as though it lay in an egg, bursts asunder,

and the whole swarm comes to light.



This circumstance was witnessed at the suburban retreat of

a man of consular dignity near Rome, whose hives were made

of transparent lantern horn: the young were found to be developed in the space of forty-five days. In some combs, there is

found what is known by the name of " nail" wax;[9] it is bitter

and hard, and is only met with when the bees have failed to

hatch their young, either from disease or a natural sterility,

it is the abortion, in fact, of the bees. The young ones, the

moment they are hatched, commence working with their

parents, as though in a course of training, and the newly-born

king is accompanied by a multitude of his own age.



That the supply may not run short, each swarm rears several kings; but afterwards, when this progeny begins to arrive

at a mature age, with one accord[10] they put to death the inferior ones, lest they should create discord in the swarm.[11]

There are two sorts of king bees; those of a reddish colour are

better than the black and mottled ones. The kings have







always a peculiar form of their own, and are double the size

of any of the rest; their wings are shorter[12] than those of the

others, their legs are straight, their walk more upright, and

they have a white spot on the forehead, which bears some resemblance to a diadem: they differ, too, very much from the

rest of the community, in their bright and shining appearance.







1. It takes place while they are on the wing.

2. The only prolific female, in reality.

3. Some unprolific females and some males, in reality.

4. Cuvier thinks that either hornets, or else the drones, must be alluded

to. Virgil, Georg. B. iv. 1. 197, et seq., is one of those who think that

bees are produced from flowers.

5. I. e. from flowers.

6. They arrange the eggs in the cells, but they cannot be said to sit.

7. This is not the fact. The queen bee commences as a larva, and that larva of a working bee, Cuvier says, which, placed in a larger cell,

and nurtured in a different manner, developes its sex and becomes the queen

of the new swarm.

8. They are then in the chrysalis state.

9. "Clavus."

10. It is the first hatched queen that puts the others to death.

11. In consequence, really, of their pregnancy.

12. The greater size of the abdomen makes the wings look shorter.




17. Chap. 17. (17.)-The Mode Of Government Of The Bees.


CHAP. 17. (17.)-THE MODE OF GOVERNMENT OF THE BEES.



Let a man employ himself, forsooth, in the enquiry whether

there has been only one Hercules, how many fathers Liber

there have been, and all the other questions which are buried

deep in the mould of antiquity! Here behold a tiny object,

one to be met with at most of our country retreats, and numbers of which are always at hand, and yet, after all, it is not

agreed among authors whether or not the king[1] is the only one

among them that is provided with no sting, and is possessed

of no other arms than those afforded him by his majestic office,

or whether Nature has granted him a sting, and has only denied

him the power of making use of it; it being a well-known

fact, that the ruling bee never does use a sting. The obedience which his subjects manifest in his presence is quite surprising. When he goes forth, the whole swarm attends him,

throngs about him, surrounds him, protects him, and will not

allow him to be seen. At other times, when the swarm is at

work within, the king is seen to visit the works, and appears

to be giving his encouragement, being himself the only one

that is exempt from work: around him are certain other bees

which act as body-guards and lictors, the careful guardians of

his authority. The king never quits the hive except when the

swarm is about to depart; a thing which may be known a long

time beforehand, as for some days a peculiar buzzing noise

is to be heard within, which denotes that the bees are waiting

for a favourable day, and making all due preparations for their

departure. On such an occasion, if care is taken to deprive the

king of one of his wings, the swarm will not fly away. When

they are on the wing, every one is anxious to be near him, and

takes a pleasure in being seen in the performance of its duty.

When he is weary, they support him on their shoulders; and







when he is quite tired, they carry him outright. If one of them

falls in the rear from weariness, or happens to go astray, it is

able to follow the others by the aid of its acuteness of smell.

Wherever the king bee happens to settle, that becomes the

encampment of all.







1. The queen has a sting, like the working bees, but uses it less fre-

quently.




18. Chap. 18.-Happy Omens Sometimes Afforded By A Swarm Of Bees.


CHAP. 18.-HAPPY OMENS SOMETIMES AFFORDED BY A SWARM

OF BEES.



And then, too, it is that they afford presages both of private

and public interest, clustering, as they do, like a bunch of

grapes, upon houses or temples; presages, in fact, that are often

accounted for by great events. Bees settled upon the lips of

Plato when still an infant even, announcing thereby the sweetness of that persuasive eloquence for which he was so noted.

Bees settled, too, in the camp of the chieftain Drusus when

he gained the brilliant victory at Arbalo;[1] a proof, indeed,

that the conjectures of soothsayers are not by any means infallible, seeing that they are of opinion that this is always of

evil augury. When their leader is withheld from them, the

swarm can always be detained; and when lost, it will disperse

and take its departure to find other kings. Without a king,

in fact, they cannot exist, and it is with the greatest reluctance that they put them to death when there are several; they

prefer, too, to destroy the cells of the young ones, if they find

reason to despair of providing food; in such case they then

expel the drones. And yet, with regard to the last, I find that

some doubts are entertained; and that there are some authors

who are of opinion that they form a peculiar species, like that

bee, the very largest among them all, which is known by the

name of the " thief,"[2] because it furtively devours the honey;

it is distinguished by its black colour and the largeness of its

body. It is a well-known fact, however, that the bees are in

the habit of killing the drones. These last have no king of

their own; but how it is that they are produced without a

sting, is a matter still undetermined.



In a wet spring the young swarms are more numerous; in

a dry one the honey is most abundant. If food happens to







fail the inhabitants of any particular hive, the swarm makes

a concerted attack upon a neighbouring one, with the view of

plundering it. The swarm that is thus attacked, at once

ranges itself in battle array, and if the bee-keeper should

happen to be present, that side which perceives itself favoured

by him will refrain from attacking him. They often fight,

too, for other reasons as well, and the two generals are to be

seen drawing up their ranks in battle array against their op-

ponents. The dispute generally arises in culling from the

flowers, when each, the moment that it is in danger, summons

its companions to its aid. The battle, however, is immediately

put an end to by throwing dust[3] among them, or raising a

smoke; and if milk or honey mixed with water is placed be-

fore them, they speedily become reconciled.







1. A place in Germany, where Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, gained

a victory over the Germans: the locality is unknown.

2. "Fur." A variety, probably, of the drone.

3. So Virgil says-

--Hc certamina tanta

Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescent."-Georg. iv. 87.




19. Chap. 19. (18.)-The Various Kinds Of Bees.


CHAP. 19. (18.)-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF BEES.



There are field bees also, and wild bees, ungainly in appear-

ance, and much more irascible than the others, but remarkable

for their laboriousness and the excellence of their work. Of

domestic bees there are two sorts; the best are those with

short bodies, speckled all over, and of a compact round shape.

Those that are long, and resemble the wasp in appearance,

are an inferior kind; and of these last, the very worst of all

are those which have the body covered with hair. In Pontus

there is a kind of white bee, which makes honey twice a

month. On the banks of the river Thermodon there are

two kinds found, one of which makes honey in the trees, the

other under ground: they form a triple row of combs, and

produce honey in the greatest abundance.

Nature has provided bees with a sting, which is inserted in

the abdomen of the insect. There are some who think that

at the first blow which they inflict with this weapon they will

instantly die,[1] while others, again, are of opinion that such is

not the case, unless the animal drives it so deep as to cause

a portion of the intestines to follow; and they assert, also,

that after they have thus lost their sting they become drones,[2]







and make no honey, being thus castrated, so to say, and

equally incapable of inflicting injury, and of making themselves

useful by their labours. We have instances stated of horses

being killed by bees.



They have a great aversion to bad smells, and fly away

from them; a dislike which extends to artificial perfumes

even. Hence it is that they will attack persons who smell

of unguents. They themselves, also, are exposed to the

attacks of wasps and hornets, which belong to the same class,

but are of a degenerate[3] nature; these wage continual warfare

against them, as also does a species of gnat, which is known

by the name of " mulio;"[4] swallows, too, and various other

birds prey upon them. Frogs lie in wait for them when in

quest of water, which, in fact, is their principal occupation

at the time they are rearing their young. And it is not only

the frog that frequents ponds and streams that is thus injurious to them, but the bramble-frog as well, which will come

to the hives even in search of them, and, crawling up to the

entrance, breathe through the apertures; upon hearing which, a

bee flies to the spot, and is snapped up in an instant. It is

generally stated that frogs are proof against the sting of the

bee. Sheep, too, are peculiarly dangerous to them, as they

have the greatest difficulty in extricating themselves from

the fleece. The smell of crabs,[5] if they happen to be cooked in

their vicinity, is fatal to them.







1. If it is left in the wound, the insect dies, being torn asunder.

2. Of course this is fabulous, as the drones are males.

3. Though belonging to the same class, they are not of degenerate kinds.

4. The "mule-gnat."

5. See Virgil, Georg. B. iv. 1. 27.




20. Chap. 20.-The Diseases Of Bees.


CHAP. 20.-THE DISEASES OF BEES.



Bees are also by nature liable to certain diseases of their

own. The sign that they are diseased, is a kind of torpid,

moping sadness: on such occasions, they are to be seen bringing out those that are sick before the hives, and placing them

in the warm sun, while others, again, are providing them with

food. Those that are dead they carry away from the hive,

and attend the bodies, paying their last duties, as it were, in

funeral procession. If the king should happen to be carried

off by the pestilence, the swarm remains plunged in grief and

listless inactivity; it collects no more food, and ceases to issue







forth from its abode; the only thing that it does is to gather

around the body, and to emit a melancholy humming noise.

Upon such occasions, the usual plan is to disperse the swarm

and take away the body; for otherwise they would continue

listlessly gazing upon it, and so prolong their grief. Indeed,

if due care is not taken to come to their aid, they will die of

hunger. It is from their cheerfulness, in fact, and their

bright and sleek appearance that we usually form an estimate

as to their health.



(19) There are certain maladies, also, which affect their

productions; when they do not fill their combs, the disease

under which they are labouring is known by the name of

claros,[1] and if they fail to rear their young, they are suffering

from the effects of that known as blapsigonia.[2]







1. The reading seems doubtful, and the meaning is probably unknown.

2. Injury of the young."




21. Chap. 21.-Things That Are Noxious To Bees.


CHAP. 21.-THINGS THAT ARE NOXIOUS TO BEES.



Echo, or the noise made by the reverberation of the air,

is also injurious to bees, as it dismays them by its redoubled

sounds; fogs, also, are noxious to them. Spiders, too, are especially

hostile to bees; when they have gone so far as to build their

webs within the hive, the death of the whole swarm is the result.

The common and ignoble moth,[1] too, that is to be seen fluttering

about a burning candle, is deadly to them, and that in more

ways than one. It devours the wax, and leaves its ordure

behind it, from which the maggot known to us as the " teredo"

is produced; besides which, wherever it goes, it drops the

down from off its wings, and thereby thickens the threads of

the cobwebs. The teredo is also engendered in the wood of

the hive, and then it proves especially destructive to the wax.

Bees are the victims, also, of their own greediness, for when

they glut themselves overmuch with the juices of the flowers, in

the spring season more particularly, they are troubled with

flux and looseness. Olive oil is fatal[2] to not only bees, but

all other insects as well, and more especially if they are placed







in the sun, after the head has been immersed in it. Sometimes, too, they themselves are the cause of their own destruction; as, for instance, when they see preparations being

made for taking their honey, and immediately fall to devouring it with the greatest avidity. In other respects they are

remarkable for their abstemiousness, and they will expel

those that are inclined to be prodigal and voracious, no less than

those that are sluggish and idle. Their own honey even may

be productive of injury to them; for if they are smeared with

it on the fore-part of the body, it is fatal to them. Such are

the enemies, so numerous are the accidents-and how small a

portion of them have I here enumerated!-to which a creature that proves so bountiful to us is exposed. In the appropriate place[3] we will treat of the proper remedies; for the

present the nature of them is our subject.







1. There are two kinds of hive-moth-the Phalna tinea mellanella of

linnus, and the Phalna tortrix cereana. It deposits its larva in holes

which it makes in the wax.

2. In consequence of closing the stigmata, and so impeding their respiration. The same result, no doubt, is produced by the honey when smeared

over their bodies.

3. B. xxi. c. 42.




22. Chap. 22. (20.)-How To Keep Bees To The Hive.


CHAP. 22. (20.)-How TO KEEP BEES TO THE HIVE.



The clapping of the hands and the tinkling of brass afford

bees great delight, and it is by these means that they are

brought together; a strong proof, in fact, that they are possessed of the sense of hearing. When their work is completed, their offspring brought forth, and all their duties fulfilled, they still have certain formal exercises to perform, ranging

abroad throughout the country, and soaring aloft in the air,

wheeling round and round as they fly, and then, when the

hour for taking their food has come, returning home. The

extreme period of their life, supposing that they escape accident and the attacks of their enemies, is only seven years;

a hive, it is said, never lasts more than ten.[1] There are some

persons, who think that, when dead, if they are preserved

in the house throughout the winter, and then exposed to the

warmth of the spring sun, and kept hot all day in the ashes

of fig-tree wood, they will come to life again.







1. Cuvier says that a hive has been known to last more than thirty years:

but it is doubtful if bees ever live so long as ten, or, except the queen,

little more than one.




23. Chap. 23.-Methods Of Renewing The Swarm.


CHAP. 23.-METHODS OF RENEWING THE SWARM.



These persons say also, that if the swarm is entirely lost, it

may be replaced by the aid of the belly[1] of an ox newly killed,







covered over with dung. Virgil also says[2] that this may be done

with the body of a young bull, in the same way that the carcase of the horse produces wasps and hornets, and that of the

ass beetles, Nature herself effecting these changes of one substance into another. But in all these last, sexual intercourse

is to be perceived as well, though the characteristics of the

offspring are pretty much the same as those of the bee.







1. Though Virgil tells the same story, in B. iv. of the Georgics, in relation to the shepherd Aristus, all this is entirely fabulous.

2. Georg. B. iv. 1. 284, et seq.




25. Chap. 25. (22.)-The Bombyx Of Assyria.


CHAP. 25. (22.)-THE BOMBYX OF ASSYRIA.



A fourth class of this kind[1] of insect is the bombyx,[2] which

is a native of Assyria, and is of larger size than any of those

which have been previously mentioned. They construct their

nests of a kind of mud which has the appearance of salt, and

then fasten them to a stone, where they become so hard, that

it is scarcely possible to penetrate them with a dart-even.

In these nests they make wax, in larger quantities than bees,

and the grub which they then produce is larger.







1. What modern naturalists call the "Hymenoptera."

2. Some kind of wasp, or, as Cuvier says, probably the mason bee.




26. Chap. 26.-The Larv Of The Silk-Worm-Who First Invented Silk Cloths.


CHAP. 26.-THE LARV OF THE SILK-WORM-WHO FIRST INVENTED

SILK CLOTHS.



There is another class also of these insects produced in quite

a different manner. These last spring from a grub of larger

size, with two horns of very peculiar appearance. The

larva then becomes a caterpillar, after which it assumes the

state in which it is known as bombylis, then that called necy-

dalus, and after that, in six months, it becomes a silk-worm.[1]







These insects weave webs similar to those of the spider, the

material of which is used for making the more costly and

luxurious garments of females, known as " bombycina." Pamphile, a woman of Cos,[2] the daughter of Platea, was the first[3]

person who discovered the art of unravelling these webs and

spinning a tissue therefrom; indeed, she ought not to be deprived of the glory of having discovered the art of making

vestments which, while they cover a woman, at the same moment reveal her naked charms.







1. Called "bombyx" also; though, as Cuvier remarks, of a kind altogether different from the preceding one.

2. The first kinds of silk dresses worn by the Roman ladies were from

this island, and, as Pliny says, were known by the name of Coca vestes.

These dresses were so fine as to be transparent, and were sometimes dyed

purple, and enriched with stripes of gold. They probably had their name

from the early reputation which Cos acquired by its manufactures of silk.

3. This account is derived from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 19.




27. Chap. 27. (23.)-The Silk-Worm Of Cos-How The Coan Vestments Are Made.


CHAP. 27. (23.)-THE SILK-WORM OF COS-HOW THE COAN

VESTMENTS ARE MADE.



The silk-worm, too, is said to be a native of the isle of Cos,

where the vapours of the earth give new life to the flowers

of the cypress, the terebinth, the ash, and the oak which have

been beaten down by the showers. At first they assume the

appearance of small butterflies with naked bodies, but soon

after, being unable to endure the cold, they throw out bristly

hairs, and assume quite a thick coat against the winter, by

rubbing off the down that covers the leaves, by the aid of

the roughness of their feet. This they compress into balls

by carding it with their claws, and then draw it out and

hang it between the branches of the trees, making it fine

by combing it out as it were: last of all, they take and roll it

round their body, thus forming a nest in which they are enveloped. It is in this state that they are taken; after which

they are placed in earthen vessels in a warm place, and fed

upon bran. A peculiar sort of down soon shoots forth upon

the body, on being clothed with which they are sent to work

upon another task. The cocoons[1] which they have begun to

form are rendered soft and pliable by the aid of water, and

are then drawn out into threads by means of a spindle made of

a reed. Nor, in fact, have the men even felt ashamed to make

use[2] of garments formed of this material, in consequence of







their extreme lightness in summer: for, so greatly have manners degenerated in our day, that, so far from wearing a cuirass,

a garment even is found to be too heavy. The produce of the

Assyrian silk-worm, however, we have till now left to the

women only.







1. "Lanificia."

2. Early in the reign of Tiberius, as we learn from Tacitus, the senate enacted "ne vestis Serica viros fdaret"-' That men should not defile

themselves by wearing garments of silk," Ann. B. ii. c. 33.




28. Chap. 28. (24.)-Spiders; The Kinds That Make Webs; The Materials Used By Them In So Doing.


CHAP. 28. (24.)-SPIDERS; THE KINDS THAT MAKE WEBS; THE

MATERIALS USED BY THEM IN SO DOING.



It is by no means an absurdity to append to the silk-worm

an account of the spider, a creature which is worthy of our

especial admiration. There are numerous kinds of spiders, however, which it will not be necessary here to mention, from the

fact of their being so well known. Those that bear the name of

phalangium are of small size, with bodies spotted and running to a point; their bite is venomous, and they leap as they

move from place to place. Another kind, again, is black, and

the fore-legs are remarkable for their length. They have all of

them three joints in the legs. The smaller kind of wolf-spider[1]

does not make a web, but the larger ones make their holes in

the earth, and spread their nets at the narrow entrance thereof.

A third kind, again, is remarkable for the skill which it displays in its operations. These spin a large web, and the abdomen suffices to supply the material for so extensive a work,

whether it is that, at stated periods the excrements are largely

secreted in the abdomen, as Democritus thinks, or that the

creature has in itself a certain faculty of secreting[2] a peculiar

sort of woolly substance. How steadily does it work with its

claws, how beautifully rounded and how equal are the threads

as it forms its web, while it employs the weight of its body as

an equipoise! It begins at the middle to weave its web, and

then extends it by adding the threads in rings around, like a

warp upon the woof: forming the meshes at equal intervals,

but continually enlarging them as the web increases in breadth,

it finally unites them all by an indissoluble knot. With what

wondrous art does it conceal the snares that lie in wait

for its prey in its checkered nettings! How little, too, would

it seem that there is any such trap laid in the compactness of







its web and the tenacious texture of the woof, which would

appear of itself to be finished and arranged by the exercise of

the very highest art! How loose, too, is the body of the web

as it yields to the blasts, and how readily does it catch all objects

which come in its way! You would fancy that it had left,

quite exhausted, the thrums of the upper portion of its net

unfinished where they are spread across; it is with the greatest difficulty that they are to be perceived, and yet the moment

that an object touches them, like the lines of the hunter's net,

they throw it into the body of the web. With what architectural skill, too, is its hole arched over, and how well defended by a nap of extra thickness against the cold! How

carefully, too, it retires into a corner, and appears intent upon

anything but what it really is, all the while that it is so carefully shut up from view, that it is impossible to perceive whether there is anything within or not! And then too, how extraordinary the strength of the web! When is the wind ever

known to break it, or what accumulation of dust is able to

weigh it down?



The spider often spreads its web right across between two

trees, when plying its art and learning how to spin; and then,

as to its length, the thread extends from the very top of the

tree to the ground, while the insect springs up again in an

instant from the earth, and travels aloft by the very self-same

thread, thus mounting at the same moment and spinning

its threads. When its prey falls into its net, how on the alert

it is, and with what readiness it runs to seize it! Even

though it should be adhering to the very edge of its web, the

insect always runs instantly to the middle, as it is by these

means that it can most effectually shake the web, and so successfully entangle its prey. When the web is torn, the

spider immediately sets about repairing it, and that so neatly,

that nothing like patching can ever be seen. The spider lies

in wait even for the young of the lizard, and after enveloping

the head of the animal, bites its lips; a sight by no means

unworthy of the amphitheatre itself, when it is one's good fortune to witness it. Presages also are drawn from the spider;

for when a river is about to swell, it will suspend its web

higher than usual. In calm weather these insects do not spin,

but when it is cloudy they do, and hence it is, that a great

number of cobwebs is a sure sign of showery weather. It is







generally supposed that it is the female spider that spins,

and the male that lies in wait for prey, thus making an equal

division of their duties.







1. The Aranea lupus of Linnus.

2. As Cuvier observes, he has here guessed at the truth.




29. Chap. 29.-The Generation Of Spiders.


CHAP. 29.-THE GENERATION OF SPIDERS.



Spiders couple[1] backwards, and produce maggots like eggs;

for I ought not to defer making some mention of this subject,

seeing, in fact, that of most insects there is hardly anything

else to be said. All these eggs they lay in their webs, but

scattered about, as they leap from place to place while laying

them. The phalangium is the only spider that lays a considerable number of them, in a hole; and as soon as ever

the progeny is hatched it devours its mother, and very often

the male parent as well, for that, too, aids in the process of

incubation. These last produce as many as three hundred

eggs, the others a smaller number. Spiders take three days

to hatch their eggs. They come to their full growth in

twenty-eight days.







1. They copulate in a manner dissimilar to that of any other insects the male fecundates the female by the aid of feelers, which he introduces

into the vulva of the female situate beneath the anterior part of the

abdomen.




30. Chap. 30. (25.)-Scorpions.


CHAP. 30. (25.)-SCORPIONS.



In a similar manner to the spider, the land scorpion also produces maggots[1] similar to eggs, and dies in a similar manner.

This animal is a dangerous scourge, and has a venom like that

of the serpent; with the exception that its effects are far

more[2] painful, as the person who is stung will linger for

three days before death ensues. The sting is invariably

fatal to virgins, and nearly always so to matrons. It is so

to men also, in the morning, when the animal has issued from

its hole in a fasting state, and has not yet happened to discharge its poison by any accidental stroke. The tail is always

ready to strike, and ceases not for an instant to menace, so

that no opportunity may possibly be missed. The animal

strikes too with a sidelong blow, or else by turning the tail







upwards. Apollodorus informs us, that the poison which

they secrete is of a white colour, and he has divided them into

nine classes, distinguished mostly by their colours-to very

little purpose, however, for it is impossible to understand

which among these it is that he has pronounced to be the

least dangerous. He says, also, that some of them have a

double sting, and that the males-for he asserts that they are

engendered by the union of the sexes-are the most dangerous.

These may easily be known, he says, by their slender form

and greater length. He states, also, that they all of them have

venom in the middle of the day, when they have been warmed

by the heat of the sun, as, also, when they are thirsty-their

thirst, indeed, can never be quenched. It is an ascertained

fact, that those which have seven joints in the tail are the

most[3] deadly; the greater part, however, have but six.



For this pest of Africa, the southern winds have provided

means of flight as well, for as the breeze bears them along,

they extend their arms and ply them like so many oars in

their flight; the same Apollodorus, however, asserts that there

are some which really have wings.[4] The Psylli, who for their

own profit have been in the habit of importing the poisons of

other lands among us, and have thus filled Italy with the pests

which belong to other regions, have made attempts to import

the flying scorpion as well, but it has been found that it

cannot live further north than the latitude of Sicily. However, they[5] are sometimes to be seen in Italy, but are quite

harmless there; they are found, also, in many other places, the

vicinity of Pharos, in Egypt, for instance. In Scythia, the

scorpion is able to kill the swine even with its sting, an animal

which, in general, is proof against poisons of this kind in a

remarkable degree. When stung, those swine which are black

die more speedily than others, and more particularly if they

happen to throw themselves into the water. When a person

has been stung, it is generally supposed that he may be cured

by drinking the ashes of the scorpion[6] mixed with wine. It







is the belief also that there is nothing more baneful to the

scorpion and the stellio,[7] than to dip them in oil. This last

animal is also dangerous to all other creatures, except those

which, like itself, are destitute of blood: in figure it strongly

resembles the common lizard. For the most part, also,

the scorpion does no injury to any animal which is bloodless.

Some writers, too, are of opinion that the scorpion devours its

offspring, and that the one among the young which is the most

adroit avails itself of its sole mode of escape, by placing itself

on the back of the mother, and thus finding a place where it

is in safety from the tail and the sting. The one that thus

escapes, they say, becomes the avenger of the rest, and at last,

taking advantage of its elevated position, puts its parents to

death. The scorpion produces eleven at a birth.







1. Cuvier remarks, that the scorpion is viviparous; but the young are

white when born, and wrapped up in an oval mass, for which reason they

may easily be taken for maggots or grubs.

2. This must be understood of the scorpion of Egypt, Libya, and Syria.

The sting of that of the south of Europe is not generally dangerous.

3. Cuvier seems to regard this as fanciful: he says that the instances of

se ven joints are but rarely to be met with.

4. There are no winged scorpions. Cuvier thinks that he may possibly

allude to the panorpis, or scorpion-fly, the abdomen of which terminates

in a forceps, which resembles the tail of the scorpion.

5. Probably the panorpis.

6. See B. xxix. c. 29.

7. The starred or spotted lizard.




31. Chap. 31. (26.)-The Stellio.


CHAP. 31. (26.)-THE STELLIO.



The stellio[1] has in some measure the same nature as the

chameleon, as it lives upon nothing but dew, and such spiders[2]

as it may happen to find.







1. The stellio of the Romans is the " ascalabos" or "ascalabotes" of

the Greeks, the lizard into which Ascalabus was changed by Ceres: see

Ovid, Met. B. v. 1. 450, et seq. Pliny also mentions this in B. xxix. c. 4,

though he speaks of some difference in their appearance. It is a species

of gecko, the tarentola of Italy, the tarente of Provence, and the geckotta,

probably, of Lacepde. The gecko, Cuvier says, is not venomous; but it

causes small blisters to rise on the skin when it walks over it, the result,

probably, of the extreme sharpness of its nails.

2. See c. 28 of this Book, and B. viii. c. 95; B. xxx. c. 27.




33. Chap. 33. (28.)-The Wings Of Insects.


CHAP. 33. (28.)-THE WINGS OF INSECTS.[1]



There are some insects which have two wings, flies, for

instance; others, again, have four, like the bee. The wings

of the grasshopper are membranous. Those insects which are

armed with a sting in the abdomen, have four wings. None

of those which have a sting in the mouth, have more than

two wings. The former have received the sting for the purpose of defending themselves, the latter for the supplying of

their wants. If pulled from off the body, the wings of an

insect will not grow again; no insect which has a sting inserted in its body, has two wings only.







1. Cuvier says that the observations in this Chapter, derived from Aristotle, are remarkable for their exactness, and show that that philosopher

had studied insects with the greatest attention.




34. Chap. 34.-The Beetle. The Glow-Worm. Other Kinds Of Beetles.


CHAP. 34.-THE BEETLE. THE GLOW-WORM. OTHER KINDS OF

BEETLES.



Some insects, for the preservation of their wings, are covered

with a erust[1] the beetle, for instance, the wing of which is

peculiarly fine and frail. To these insects a sting has been

denied by Nature; but in one large kind[2] we find horns of a

remarkable length, two-pronged at the extremities, and forming

pincers, which the animal closes when it is its intention to







bite. These beetles are suspended from the neck of infants by

way of remedy against certain maladies: Nigidius calls them

"lucani." There is another kind[3] of beetle, again, which,

as it goes backwards with its feet, rolls the dung into large

pellets, and then deposits in them the maggots which form its

young, as in a sort of nest, to protect them against the rigours

of winter. Some, again, fly with a loud buzzing or a drony

noise, while others[4] burrow numerous holes in the hearths

and out in the fields, and their shrill chirrup is to be heard at

night.



The glow-worm, by the aid of the colour of its sides[5] and

haunches, sends forth at night a light which resembles that of

fire; being resplendent, at one moment, as it expands its

wings,[6] and then thrown into the shade the instant it has

shut them. These insects are never to be seen before the grass

of the pastures has come to maturity, nor yet after the hay has

been cut. On the other hand, it is the nature of the black

beetle[7] to seek dark corners, and to avoid the light: it is

mostly found in baths, being produced from the humid vapours

which arise therefrom. There are some beetles also, belonging

to the same species, of a golden colour and very large size, which

burrow[8] in dry ground, and construct small combs of a porous

nature, and very like sponge; these they fill with a poisonous

kind of honey. In Thrace, near Olynthus, there is a small

locality, the only one in which this animal cannot exist;

from which circumstance it has received the name of " Cantharolethus."[9]



The wings of all insects are formed without[10] any division in







them, and they none of them have a tail,[11] with the exception

of the scorpion; this, too, is the only one among them that has

arms,[12] together with a sting in the tail. As to the rest of the

insects, some of them have the sting in the mouth, the gad-fly

for instance, or the "tabanus," as some persons choose to call

it: the same is the case, too, with the gnat and some kinds of

flies. All these insects have their stings situate in the mouth

instead[13] of a tongue; but in some the sting is not pointed,

being formed not for pricking, but for the purpose of suction:

this is the case more especially with flies, in which it is clear

that the tongue[14] is nothing more than a tube. These insects,

too, have no teeth. Others, again, have little horns protruding in front of the eyes, but without any power in them;

the butterfly, for instance. Some insects are destitute of wings,

such as the scolopendra, for instance.[15]







1. Or sheath; the Coleoptera of the naturalists.

2. The flying stag-beetle, the Lucanus cervus of Linnus.



3. The dung-beetle, the Scarabus pilularius of Linnus.

4. Various kinds of crickets.

5. Cuvier says that it is on the two sides of the abdomen that the male

carries its light, while the whole posterior part of the female is shining.

6. In the glow-worm of France, the Lampyris noctiluca of Linntus, the

female is without wings, while the male gives but little light. In that

of Italy, the Lampyris Italica, both sexes are winged.

7. "Blatt." See B. xxix. c. 39, where three kinds are specified.

8. This beetle appears to be unknown. Cuvier suggests that the Scara-

Bus nasicornis of Linnus, which haunts dead bark, or the Scarabus

auratus may be the insect referred to.

9. "Fatal to the beetle."

10. Cuvier remarks that this assertion, borrowed from Aristotle, is incorrect. The wings of many of the Coleoptera are articulated in the middle,

and so double, one part on the other, to enter the sheath.



11. Cuvier remarks, that the panorpis has a tail very like that of the scorpion; and that the ephemera, the ichneumons and others, have tails also.

Aristotle, in the corresponding place, only says that the insects do not use

the tail to direct their flight.

12. These are merely the feelers of the jaws.

13. Not instead of, but in addition to, the tongue, by the aid of which

they suck.

14. Evidently meaning the trunk.

15. See B. xxix. c. 39.




35. Chap. 35.-Locusts.


CHAP. 35.-LOCUSTS.



Those insects which have feet, move sideways. Some of

them have the hind feet longer than the fore ones, and curving

outwards, the locust, for example.



(29.) These creatures lay their eggs in large masses, in the

autumn, thrusting the end of the tail into holes which they

form in the ground. These eggs remain underground

throughout the winter, and in the ensuing year, at the close

of spring, small locusts issue from them, of a black colour, and

crawling along without legs[1] and wings. Hence it is that a

wet spring destroys their eggs, while, if it is dry, they multiply in great abundance. Some persons maintain that they

breed twice a year, and die the same number of times; that

they bring forth at the rising[2] of the Vergili, and die at

the rising of the Dog-star,[3] after which others spring up in







their places: according to some, it is at the setting[4] of

Arcturus that the second litter is produced. That the mothers

die the moment they have brought forth, is a well-known fact,

for a little worm immediately grows about the throat, which

chokes them: at the same time, too, the males perish as well.

This insect, which thus dies through a cause apparently so

trifling, is able to kill a serpent by itself, when it pleases, by

seizing its jaws with its teeth.[5] Locusts are only produced in

champaign places, that are full of chinks and crannies. In

India, it is said that they attain the length of three[6] feet, and

that the people dry the legs and thighs, and use them for saws.

There is another mode, also, in which these creatures perish;

the winds carry them off in vast swarms, upon which they fall

into the sea or standing waters, and not, as the ancients supposed, because their wings have been drenched by the dampness of the night. The same authors have also stated, that

they are unable to fly during the night, in consequence of the

cold, being ignorant of the fact, that they travel over lengthened

tracts of sea for many days together, a thing the more to be wondered at, as they have to endure hunger all the time as well, for

this it is which causes them to be thus seeking pastures in other

lands. This is looked upon as a plague[7] inflicted by the anger

of the gods; for as they fly they appear to be larger than they

really are, while they make such a loud noise with their wings,

that they might be readily supposed to be winged creatures of

quite another species. Their numbers, too, are so vast, that they

quite darken the sun; while the people below are anxiously

following them with the eye, to see if they are about to make

a descent, and so cover their lands. After all, they have

the requisite energies for their flight; and, as though it had

been but a trifling matter to pass over the seas, they cross immense tracts of country, and cover them in clouds which bode

destruction to the harvests. Scorching numerous objects by

their very contact, they eat away everything with their teeth,

the very doors of the houses even.







Those from Africa are the ones which chiefly devastate

Italy; and more than once the Roman people have been obliged

to have recourse to the Sibylline Books, to learn what remedies

to employ under their existing apprehensions of impending

famine. In the territory of Cyrenaica[8] there is a law, which

even compels the people to make war, three times a year,

against the locusts, first, by crushing their eggs, next by killing the young, and last of all by killing those of full growth;

and he who fails to do so, incurs the penalty of being treated

as a deserter. In the island of Lemnos also, there is a certain

measure fixed by law, which each individual is bound to fill

with locusts which he has killed, and then bring it to the

magistrates. It is for this reason, too, that they pay such respect

to the jack-daw, which flies to meet the locusts, and kills them

in great numbers. In Syria, also, the people are placed under

martial law, and compelled to kill them: in so many countries

does this dreadful pest prevail. The Parthians look upon

them as a choice food,[9] and the grasshopper as well. The voice

of the locust appears to proceed from the back part of the head.

It is generally believed that in this place, where the shoulders

join on to the body, they have, as it were, a kind of teeth, and

that it is by grinding these against each other that they produce the harsh noise which they make. It is more especially

about the two equinoxes that they are to be heard, in the

same way that we hear the chirrup of the grasshopper about

the summer solstice. The coupling of locusts is similar to

that of all other insects that couple, the female supporting

the male, and turning back the extremity of the tail towards

him; it is only after a considerable time that they separate.

In all these kinds of insects the male is of smaller size than

the female.







1. It is not true that the young locusts are destitute of feet.

2. 7th May.

3. 18th July.

4. 11th May.

5. Cuvier treats this story as purely imaginary.

6. Cuvier says that some have been known nearly a foot long, but not

more.

7. He alludes to the ravages committed by the swarms of the migratory

locust, Grillus migratorius of Linuus.

8. Julius Obsequens speaks of a pestilence there, created by the dead

bodies of the locusts, which caused the death of 8000 persons.

9. See also B. vi. c. 35.




36. Chap. 36. (30.)-Ants.


CHAP. 36. (30.)-ANTS.



The greater part of the insects produce a maggot. Ants also

produce one in spring, which is similar to an egg,[1] and they







work in common, like bees; but whereas the last make their food,

the former only store[2] it away. If a person only compares the

burdens which the ants carry with the size of their bodies, he

must confess that there is no animal which, in proportion, is

possessed of a greater degree of strength. These burdens they

carry with the mouth, but when it is too large to admit of

that, they turn their backs to it, and push it onwards with

their feet, while they use their utmost energies with their shoulders. These insects, also, have a political community among

themselves, and are possessed of both memory and foresight.

They gnaw each grain before they lay it by, for fear lest it

should shoot while under ground; those grains, again, which

are too large for admission, they divide at the entrance of their

holes; and those which have become soaked by the rain, they

bring out and dry.[3] They work, too, by night, during the

full moon; but when there is no moon, they cease working.

And then, too, in their labours, what ardour they display,

what wondrous carefulness! Because they collect their stores

from different quarters, in ignorance of the proceedings of one

another, they have certain days set apart for holding a kind of

market, on which they meet together and take stock.[4] What vast

throngs are then to be seen hurrying together, what anxious

enquiries appear to be made, and what earnest parleys[5] are

going on among them as they meet! We see even the very

stones worn away by their footsteps, and roads beaten down

by being the scene of their labours. Let no one be in doubt,

then, how much assiduity and application, even in the very

humblest of objects, can upon every occasion effect! Ants are

the only living beings, besides man, that bestow burial on the

dead. In Sicily there are no winged ants to be found.



(31.) The horns of an Indian ant, suspended in the temple







of Hercules, at Erythr,[6] have been looked upon as quite

miraculous for their size. This ant excavates gold from holes,

in a country in the north of India, the inhabitants of which are

known as the Dard. It has the colour of a cat, and is in

size as large as an Egyptian wolf.[7] This gold, which it extracts in the winter, is taken by the Indians during the heats

of summer, while the ants are compelled, by the excessive

warmth, to hide themselves in their holes. Still, however,

on being aroused by catching the scent of the Indians, they

sally forth, and frequently tear them to pieces, though provided with the swiftest camels for the purpose of flight; so

great is their fleetness, combined with their ferocity and their

passion for gold!







1. What are commonly called ants' eggs, are in reality their larv and

nymph. Enveloped in a sort of tunic, these last, Cuvier says, are like

grains of corn, and from this probably has arisen the story that they lay up grains against the winter, a period through which in reality they do

not eat.

2. They stow away bits of meat and detached portions of fruit, to nourish

their larv with their juices.

3. It is in reality their larv that they thus bring out to dry. The

working ants, or neutrals, are the ones on which these labours devolve;

the males and females are winged, the working ants are without wings.

4. "Ad recognitionem mutuam."

5. Some modern writers express an opinion that when they meet, they

converse and encourage one another by the medium of touch and smell.

6. See B. v. c. 31.

7. M. de Veltheim thinks that by this is really meant the Canis corsac,

the small fox of India, but that by some mistake it was represented by

travellers as an ant. It is not improbable, Cuvier says, that some quadruped, in making holes in the ground, may have occasionally thrown up some

grains of the precious metal. The story is derived from the narratives

of Clearchus and Megasthenes. Another interpretation of this story has

also been suggested. We find from some remarks of Mr. Wilson, in the

Transactions of the Asiatic Society, on the Mahabharata, a Sanscrit poem,

that various tribes on the mountains Meru and Mandara (supposed to lie

between Hindostan and Tibet) used to sell grains of gold, which they

called paippilaka, or "ant-gold," which, they said, was thrown up by ants,

in Sanscrit called pippilaka. In travelling westward, this story, in itself,

no doubt, untrue, may very probably have been magnified to its present

dimensions.




37. Chap. 37. (32.)-The Chrysalis.


CHAP. 37. (32.)-THE CHRYSALIS.



Many insects, however, are engendered in a different manner; and some more especially from dew. This dew settles

upon the radish[1] leaf in the early days of spring; but when it

has been thickened by the action of the sun, it becomes reduced to the size of a grain of millet. From this a small grub

afterwards arises, which, at the end of three days, becomes

transformed into a caterpillar. For several successive days

it still increases in size, but remains motionless, and covered

with a hard husk. It moves only when touched, and is

covered with a web like that of the spider. In this state it

is called a chrysalis, but after the husk is broken, it flies forth

in the shape of a butterfly.











1. Cuvier observes, that this is a very correct account of the cabbage

or radish butterfly, the Papilio brassic or Papilio raphani of Linnus.




38. Chap. 38. (33.)-Animals Which Breed In Wood.


CHAP. 38. (33.)-ANIMALS WHICH BREED IN WOOD.



In the same manner, also, some animals are generated in

the earth from rain, and some, again, in wood. And not only

wood-worms[1] are produced in wood, but gad-flies also and

other insects issue from it, whenever there is an excess of

moisture; just as in man, tape-worms[2] are sometimes found,

as much as three hundred feet or more in length.







1. Cossi. See B. xvii. c. 37.

2. Tnise.




39. Chap. 39.-Insects That Are Parasites Of Man. Which Is The Smallest Of Animals? Animals Found In Wax Even.


CHAP. 39.-INSECTS THAT ARE PARASITES OF MAN. WHICH IS

THE SMALLEST OF ANIMALS? ANIMALS FOUND IN WAX EVEN.



Then, too, in dead carrion there are certain animals produced, and in the hair, too, of living men. It was through

such vermin as this that the Dictator Sylla,[1] and Aleman,

one of the most famous of the Grecian poets, met their deaths.

These insects infest birds too, and are apt to kill the pheasant,

unless it takes care to bathe itself in the dust. Of the animals

that are covered with hair, it is supposed that the ass and the

sheep are the only ones that are exempt from these vermin.

They are produced, also, in certain kinds of cloth, and more

particularly those made of the wool of sheep which have been

killed by the wolf. I find it stated, also, by authors, that

some kinds of water[2] which we use for bathing are more productive of these parasites than others. Even wax is found to

produce mites, which are supposed to be the very smallest of

all living creatures. Other insects, again, are engendered

from filth, acted upon by the rays of the sun-these fleas are

called "petaurist,"[3] from the activity which they display

in their hind legs. Others, again, are produced with wings,

from the moist dust that is found lying in holes and corners.







1. He alludes to the Morbus pediculosus.

2. Aristotle says, in the corresponding passage, Hist. Anim. B. v. c; 26,

that the animals which are affected by lice, are more particularly exposed

to them when they change the water in which they wash.

3. Or "leapers."




40. Chap. 40. (34.)-An Animal Which Has No Passage For The Evacuations.I


CHAP. 40. (34.)-AN ANIMAL WHICH HAS NO PASSAGE FOR THE

EVACUATIONS.i



There is an animal,[1] also, that is generated in the summer,







which has its head always buried deep in the skill [of a beast],

and so, living on its blood, swells to a large size. This is

the only living creature that has no outlet[2] for its food;

hence, when it has overgorged itself, it bursts asunder, and thus

its very aliment is made the cause of its death. This insect

never breeds on beasts of burden, but is very commonly

seen on oxen, and sometimes on dogs, which, indeed, are subject to every species of vermin. With sheep and goats, it

is the only parasite. The thirst, too, for blood displayed by

leeches, which we find in marshy waters, is no less singular;

for these will thrust the entire head into the flesh in quest of

it. There is a winged insect[3] which peculiarly infests dogs,

and more especially attacks them with its sting about the

ears, where they are unable to defend themselves with their

teeth.







1. He alludes to dog-ticks and ox-ticks, the Acarus ricinus of Linnus,

and the Acarus reduvius of Schrank.

2. In c. 32 he has said the same of the grasshopper, in relation to its

drink.

3. A variety of the Cynips of Linnus, which in vast numbers will

sometimes adhere to the ears of dogs.




41. Chap. 41. (35.)-Moths, Cantharides, GnatsAn Insect That Breeds In The Snow.


CHAP. 41. (35.)-MOTHS, CANTHARIDES, GNATSAN INSECT

THAT BREEDS IN THE SNOW.



Dust, too, is productive of worms[1] in wools and cloths, and

this more especially if a spider should happen to be enclosed

in them: for, being sensible of thirst, it sucks up all the mois-

ture, and thereby increases the dryness of the material. These

will breed in paper also. There is one kind which carries

with it its husk, in the same manner as the snail, only that

the feet are to be seen. If deprived of it, it does not survive;

and when it is fully developed, the insect becomes a chrysalis.

The wild fig-tree produces gnats,[2] known as "ficarii;" and

the little grubs of the fig-tree, the pear-tree, the pine, the

wild rose, and the common rose produce cantharides,[3] when

fully developed. These insects, which are venomous, carry

with them their antidote; for their wings are useful in







medicine,[4] while the rest of the body is deadly. Again,

liquids turned sour will produce other kinds of gnats, and

white grubs are to be found in snow that has lain long on the

ground, while those that lie above are of a reddish[5] colour-indeed, the snow itself becomes red after it has lain some

time on the ground. These grubs are covered with a sort of

hair, are of a rather large size, and in a state of torpor.







1. These are really the larv of night-moths. His account here is

purely imaginary.

2. He speaks of the Cynips psenes of Linnus, which breeds on the

blossom of the fig-tree, and aids in its fecundation. See B. xv. c. 21.

3. He alludes to various coleopterous insects, which are not included

among the Cantharides of the modern naturalists. They are first an egg,

then a larva, then a nympha, and then the insect fully developed.

4. See B. xxix. c. 30.

5. The redness sometimes observed on the snow of the Alps and the

Pyrenees, is supposed by De Lamarck to be produced by animalcul:

other naturalists, however, suppose it to arise from vegetable or mineral

causes.




42. Chap. 42. (36.)-An Animal Found In Fire--The Pyrallis Or Pyrausta.


CHAP. 42. (36.)-AN ANIMAL FOUND IN FIRE--THE PYRALLIS

OR PYRAUSTA.



That element, also, which is so destructive to matter, produces certain animals; for in the copper-smelting furnaces of

Cyprus, in the very midst of the fire, there is to be seen flying

about a four-footed animal with wings, the size of a large fly:

this creature is called the " pyrallis," and by some the " pyrausta." So long as it remains in the fire it will live, but if it

comes out and flies a little distance from it, it will instantly

die.










43. Chap. 43.-The Animal Called Hemerobion.


CHAP. 43.-THE ANIMAL CALLED HEMEROBION.



The Hypanis, a river of Pontus, brings down in its waters,

about the time of the summer solstice, small membranous particles, like a grape-stone in appearance; from which there issues

an animal[1] with four legs and with wings, similar to the one

just mentioned. It does not, however, live more than a single

day, from which circumstance it has obtained the name of

" hemerobion."[2] The life of other insects of a similar nature

is regulated from its beginning to its end by multiples of

seven. Thrice seven days is the duration of the life of the

gnat and of the maggot, while those that are viviparous live

four times seven days, and their various changes and transfornations take place in periods of three or four days. The other

insects of this kind that are winged, generally die in the







autumn, the gad-fly becoming quite blind[3] even before it dies.

Flies which have been drowned in water, if they are covered

with ashes,[4] will return to life.







1. Cuvier thinks that he alludes to a variety of the ephemera or the phryganea of Linnus, the case-wing flies, many of which are particularly

short-lived. These are by no means peculiar to the river Bog or Hypanis.

2. "living for a day."

3. They only appear to be so, from the peculiar streaks on the eyes.

Linnus has hence called one variety, the Tabanus ccutiens.

4. Or with pounded chalk or whitening. lian adds, "if they are placed

in the sun," which appears necessary for the full success of the experiment.

Life appears to be suspended in such cases for a period of surprising length.




44. Chap. 44. (37.)-The Nature And Characteristics Of All Animals Considered Limb By Limb. Those Which Have Tufts And Crests.


CHAP. 44. (37.)-THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ALL

ANIMALS CONSIDERED LIMB BY LIMB. THOSE WHICH HAVE

TUFTS AND CRESTS.



In addition to what is already stated, we will add an account of every part of the body of an animal, taken limb by limb.



All those which have blood, have a head as well. A small

number of animals, and those only among the birds, have

tufts of various kinds upon the head. The phcenix[1] has a

long row of feathers on it, from the middle of which arises

another row; peacocks have a hairy tuft, resembling a bushy

shrub; the stymphalis[2] has a sort of pointed crest, and the

pheasant, again, small horns. Added to these, there is the lark,

a little bird, which, from the appearance of its tuft, was

formerly called "galerita," but has since received the

Gallic name of " alauda,"[3] a name which it has transferred to

one of our legions.[4] We have already made mention, also,

of one bird[5] to which Nature has given a crest, which it can

fold or unfold at pleasure: the birds of the coot kind[6] have

also received from her a crest, which takes its rise at the

beak, and runs along the middle of the head; while the pie

of Mars, and the Balearic crane, are furnished with pointed

tufts. But the most remarkable feature of all, is the crest

which we see attached to the heads of our domestic fowls,

substantial and indented like a saw; we cannot, in fact,

strictly call it flesh, nor can we pronounce it to be cartilage

or a callosity, but must admit that it is something of a nature

peculiar to itself. As to the crests of dragons, there is no one

to be found who ever saw one.











1. Probably the golden pheasant, as already mentioned.

2. Some kind of heron or crane, Cuvier thinks.

3. The Alauda cristata of Linnus, so called from " galera," a pointed

cap like a helmet.

4. The fifth legion.

5. The hoopoe, B. x. c. 44.

6. Savigny and Cuvier take this to be the Ardea virgo of Linnus, a

native of Numidia.




45. Chap. 45.-The Various Kinds Of Horns. Animals In Which They Are Moveable.


CHAP. 45.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF HORNS. ANIMALS IN WHICH

THEY ARE MOVEABLE.



Horns, too, of various forms have been granted to many

animals of the aquatic, marine, and reptile kind, but those

which are more properly understood under that name belong

to the quadrupeds only; for I look upon the tales of Acton

and of Cippus even, in Latin story, as nothing more nor less than

fables.[1] And, indeed, in no department of her works has

Nature displayed a greater capriciousness. In providing animals with these weapons, she has made merry at their expense; for some she has spread them out in branches, the

stag, for instance; to others she has given them in a more

simple form, as in the " subulo," so called from the resemblance of its horns to a " subula,"[2] or shoemaker's awl. In

others, again, she has flattened them in the shape of a man's

hand, with the fingers extended, from which circumstance the

animal has received the name of " platyceros.[3] To the roebuck she has given branching horns, but small, and has made

them so as not to fall off and be cast each year; while to the

ram she has given them of a contorted and spiral form, as

though she were providing it with a cstus for offence. The

horns of the bull, again, are upright and threatening. In this

last kind, the females, too, are provided with them, while in

most it is only the males. The chamois has them, curving

backwards; while in the fallow deer[4] they bend forward.

The strepsiceros,[5] which in Africa bears the name of addax, has

horns erect and spiral, grooved and tapering to a sharp point,

so much so, that you would almost take them to be the sides

of a lyre.[6] In the oxen of Phrygia, the horns are moveable,[7]







like the ears; and among the cattle of the Troglodyt, they

are pointed downwards to the ground, for which reason it is

that they are obliged to feed with the head on one side.

Other animals, again, have a single horn, and that situate in

the middle of the head, or else on the nose, as already

stated.[8]



Then, again, in some animals the horns are adapted for

butting, and in others for goring; with some they are curved

inwards, with others outwards, and with others, again, they

are fitted for tossing: all which objects are effected in various ways, the horns either lying backwards, turning from, or

else towards each other, and in all cases running to a sharp

point. In one kind, also, the horns are used for the purpose

of scratching the body, instead of hands.



In snails the horns are fleshy, and are thus adapted for the

purpose of feeling the way, which is also the case with the ce-

rastes;[9] some reptiles, again, have only one horn, though the

snail has always two, suited for protruding and withdrawing.

The barbarous nations of the north drink from the horns of the

urus,[10] a pair of which will hold a couple of urn:[11] other

tribes, again, point their spears with them. With us they are

cut into lamin, upon which they become transparent; indeed,

the rays of a light placed within them may be seen to a much

greater distance than without. They are used also for various

appliances of luxury, either coloured or varnished, or else

for those kinds of paintings which are known as " cestrota,"[12]

or horn-pictures. The horns of all animals are hollow within,

it being only at the tip that they are solid: the only exception is the stag, the horn of which is solid throughout, and

is cast every year. When the hoofs of oxen are worn to the

quick, the husbandmen have a method of curing them, by

anointing the horns of the animal with grease. The substance

of the horns is so ductile, that even while upon the body of

the living animal, they can be bent by being steeped in boiling wax, and if they are split down when they are first shooting, they may be twisted different ways, and so appear to be







four in number upon one head. In females the horns are generally thinner than in the males, as is the case, also, with most

kinds of wool-bearing animals.



No individuals, however, among sheep, or hinds, nor yet

any that have the feet divided into toes, or that have solid

hoofs, are furnished with horns; with the sole exception of

the Indian ass,[13] which is armed with a single horn. To the

beasts that are cloven-footed Nature has granted two horns,

but to those that have fore-teeth in the upper jaw, she has

given none. Those persons who entertain the notion that the

substance of these teeth is expended in the formation of the

horns, are easily to be refuted, if we only consider the case of

the hind, which has no more teeth than the male, and yet

is without horns altogether. In the stag the horn is only

imbedded in the skin, but in the other[14] animals it adheres to

the bone.







1. The suddenness of their appearance, no doubt, was fabulous; but we

have well-authenticated cases in recent times of substances growing on the

human head, to all appearance resembling horns, and arising from a disordered secretion of the hair. Witness the case of Mary Davies, a so-called horn from whose head is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at

Oxford. The story of Cippus, the Roman prtor, is told by

Ovid, Met. B. xv. 1. 565, et seq.

2. A spitter, or second year stag, according to Cuvier.

3. "Broad-horned." The Cervus dama of Linnus.

4. "Dama." The Antelope redunca of Linnus, Cuvier thinks.

5. No doubt a kind of antelope.

6. "Lyras" seems preferable to "liras."

7. There are several varieties of oxen, in which the horns adhere to the

skin, and not to the cranium.

8. B. viii. cc.2931.

9. The Coluber cerastes of Linnus. See B. viii. c. 35.

10. The drinking-horns of our Saxon ancestors are well known to the

antiquarian.

11. The " urna" was half an "amphora," or nearly three gallons.

12. See B. xxxv. c. 41.

13. The rhinoceros. See B. viii. c. 39.

14. He surely must except the Phrygian oxen with the moveable horns,

which he has previously mentioned.




46. Chap. 46.-The Heads Of Animals. Those Which Have Nonf.


CHAP. 46.-THE HEADS OF ANIMALS. THOSE WHICH HAVE NONF.



The head of the fish is very large in proportion to the rest

of the body, probably, to facilitate its diving under water.

Animals of the oyster and the sponge kind have no head,

which is the case, also, with most of the other kinds, whose

only sense is that of touch. Some, again, have the head

blended with the body, the crab, for instance.










47. Chap. 47.-The Hair.


CHAP. 47.-THE HAIR.



Of all animals man has the longest hair upon the head; which

is the case more especially with those nations where the men and

women in common leave the hair to grow, and do not cut it.

Indeed, it is from this fact, that the inhabitants of the Alps

have obtained from us the name of " Capillati,"[1] as also those

of Gallia, " Comata."[2] There is, however, a great difference

in this respect according to the various countries. In the

island of Myconus,[3] the people are born without hair, just

as at Caunus the inhabitants are afflicted with the spleen







from their birth.[4] There are some animals, also, that are naturally bald, such as the ostrich, for instance, and the aquatic

raven, which last has thence derived its Greek[5] name. It is

but rarely that the hair falls off in women, and in eunuchs

such is never known to be the case; nor yet does any person

lose it before having known sexual intercourse.[6] The hair

does not fall off below the brain, nor yet beneath the crown of

the head, or around the ears and the temples. Man is the

only animal that becomes bald, with the exception, of course,

of such animals as are naturally so. Man and the horse are

the only creatures whose hair turns grey; but with man this is

always the case, first in the fore-part of the head, and then in

the hinder part.







1. Or "long-haired." See B. iii. c. 7.

2. See B. iv. C. 31.

3. See B. iv. c. 22.

4. See B. v. c. 29.

5. Falakroko/rac. See B. x. c. 68.

6. He borrows this from Aristotle.




48. Chap. 48.-The Bones Of The Head.


CHAP. 48.-THE BONES OF THE HEAD.



Some few persons only are double-crowned. The bones of

the head are flat, thin, devoid of marrow, and united with sutures indented like a comb. When broken asunder they cannot be united, but the extraction of a small portion is not necessarily fatal, as a fleshy cicatrix forms, and so makes good

the loss. We have already mentioned, in their respective[1]

places, that the skull of the bear is the weakest of all, and

that of the parrot the hardest.







1. B. viii. c. 54, and B. x. c. 58. The skull of the bear is not thinner

or weaker than that of other animals of its own size; but the skull of the

parrot, in proportion to those of other birds, is remarkably hard.




49. Chap. 49.-The Brain.


CHAP. 49.-THE BRAIN.



The brain exists in all animals which have blood, and in

those sea animals as well, which we have already mentioned

as mollusks, although they are destitute of blood, the polypus, for instance. Man, however, has, in proportion to his

body, the most voluminous brain of all. This, too, is the

most humid, and the coldest of all the viscera, and is enveloped above and below with two membranous integuments,

for either of which to be broken is fatal. In addition to these

facts, we may remark that the brain is larger in men than in







women. In man the brain is destitute of blood and veins, and

in other animals it has no fat. Those who are well informed

on the subject, tell us that the brain is quite a different

substance from the marrow, seeing that on being boiled it

only becomes harder. In the very middle of the brain of

every animal there are small bones found. Man is the only animal in which it is known to palpitate[1] during infancy; and

it does not gain its proper consistency until after the child has

made its first attempt to speak. The brain is the most elevated of all the viscera, and the nearest to the roof of the

head; it is equally devoid of flesh, blood, and excretions. The

senses hold this organ as their citadel; it is in this that

are centred all the veins which spring from the heart; it is

here that they terminate; this is the very culminating point of

all, the regulator of the understanding. With all animals it

is advanced to the fore-part of the head, from the fact that

the senses have a tendency to the direction in which we look.

From the brain proceeds sleep, and its return it is that causes

the head to nod. Those creatures, in fact, which have no brain,

never sleep. It is said that stags[2] have in the head certain

small maggots, twenty in number: they are situate in the

empty space that lies beneath the tongue, and around the joints

by which the head is united to the body.







1. See B. vii. c. 1.

2. Cuvier says that these are the larv of the strus, which are deposited

on the lips of quadrupeds, and so make their way to various cavities.




50. Chap. 50.-The Ears. Animals Which Hear Without Ears Or Apertures.


CHAP. 50.-THE EARS. ANIMALS WHICH HEAR WITHOUT EARS

OR APERTURES.



Man is the only animal the ears of which are immoveable.

It is from the natural flaccidity of the ear, that the surname

of Flaccus is derived. There is no part of the body that

creates a more enormous expense for our women, in the

pearls which are suspended from them. In the East, too, it

is thought highly becoming for the men, even, to wear gold

rings in their ears. Some animals have large, and others

small ears. The stag alone has them cut and divided, as it

were; in the field-mouse they have a velvet surface. All the

animals that are viviparous have ears of some kind or other,

with the sole exception of the sea-calf, the dolphin, the fishes







which we have mentioned[1] as cartilaginous, and the viper.

These animals have only cavities instead of ears, with the exception of the cartilaginous fishes and the dolphin, which last,

however, it is quite clear possesses the sense of hearing, for it is

charmed by singing, and is often taken while enraptured with

the melody: how it is that it does hear, is quite marvellous.

These animals, too, have not the slightest trace of olfactory

organs, and yet they have a most acute sense of smell.



Among the winged animals, only the horned owl and the longeared owl have feathers which project like ears, the rest having

only cavities for the purpose of hearing; the same is the case,

also, with the scaly animals and the serpents. Among horses

and beasts of burden of all kinds, it is the ears which indicate

the natural feelings; when the animal is weary, they are drooping and flaccid; when it is startled, they quiver to and fro;

when it is enraged, they are pricked up; and when it is ailing,

they are pendant.







1. B. ix. c. 40.




51. Chap. 51.-The Face, The Forehead, And The Eye-Brows.


CHAP. 51.-THE FACE, THE FOREHEAD, AND THE EYE-BROWS.



Man is the only creature that has a face, the other animals

having only a muzzle or a beak. Other animals have a forehead as well, but it is only on the forehead of man that is

depicted sorrow, gladness, compassion, or severity. It is the

forehead that is the index of the mind. Man has eyebrows,

also, which move together or alternately; these, too, serve in

some measure as indications of the feelings. Do we deny or

do we assent, it is the eyebrows, mostly, that indicate our

intentions. Feelings of pride may be generated elsewhere,

but it is here that they have their principal abode; it is in the

heart that they take their rise, but it is to the eyebrows that

they mount, and here they take up their position. In no part

of the body could they meet with a spot more lofty and more

precipitous, in which to establish themselves free from all

control.










52. Chap. 52.-The Eyes-Animals Which Have No Eyes, Or Have Only One Eye.


CHAP. 52.-THE EYES-ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO EYES, OR HAVE

ONLY ONE EYE.



Below the forehead are the eyes, which form the most precious portion of the human body, and which, by the enjoyment







of the blessings of sight, distinguish life from death. Eyes,

however, have not been granted to all animals; oysters have

none, but, with reference to some of the shell-fish, the question

is still doubtful; for if we move the fingers before a scallop

half open, it will immediately close its shell, apparently from

seeing them, while the solen[1] will start away from an iron

instrument when placed near it. Among quadrupeds the

mole[2] has no sight, though it has something that bears a resemblance to eyes, if we remove the membrane that is extended in front of them. Among birds also, it is said that

a species of heron, which is known as the "leucus,"[3] is

wanting of one eye: a bird of most excellent augury, when

it flies towards the south or north, for it is said that it

portends thereby that there is about to be an end of perils and

alarms. Nigidius says also, that neither locusts nor grasshoppers have eyes. In snails,[4] the two small horns with which

they feel their way, perform the duties of eyes. Neither the

mawworm[5] nor any other kind of worm has eyes.







1. Or razor-sheath. See B. x. c. 88.

2. Aristotle was of this opinion, but Galen maintained that the mole can see;

see. Its eye is extremely small, and hard on the surface.

3. Or "white" heron. As Cuvier remarks, this is probably a mere

augur's fable.



4. It is almost needless to remark, that both snails, as well as locusts and

grasshoppers, have eyes.

5. Lumbricus.




53. Chap. 53.-The Diversity Of The Colour Of The Eyes.


CHAP. 53.-THE DIVERSITY OF THE COLOUR OF THE EYES.



The eyes vary in colour in the human race only; in all

other animals they are of one uniform colour peculiar to the

kind, though there are some horses that have eyes of an azure

colour. But in man the varieties and diversities are most

numerous; the eyes being either large, of middling size, remarkably small, or remarkably prominent. These last are

generally supposed to be very weak, while those which are

deep-seated are considered the best, as is the case also with

those which in colour resemble the eyes of the goat.










54. Chap. 54.-The Theory Of Sight-Persons Who Can See By Night.


CHAP. 54.-THE THEORY OF SIGHT-PERSONS WHO CAN SEE BY

NIGHT.



In addition to this, there are some persons who can see to a







very great distance, while there are others, again, who can only

distinguish objects when brought quite close to them. The

vision of many stands in need of the rays of the sun; such

persons cannot see on a cloudy day, nor yet after the sun has

set. Others, again, have bad sight in the day-time, but a

sight superior to that of others by night. Of persons having

double pupils, or the evil eye, we have already spoken[1] at

sufficient length. Blue[2] eyes are the best for seeing in the

dark.



It is said that Tiberius Csar, like no other human being,

was so endowed by Nature, that on awaking in the night[3] he

could for a few moments distinguish objects just as well as

in the clearest daylight, but that by degrees he would find

his sight again enveloped in darkness. The late Emperor

Augustus had azure eyes like those of some horses, the white

being larger than with other men; he used to be very angry

if a person stared intently at them for this peculiarity. Claudius

Csar had at the corners of the eyes a white fleshy substance,

covered with veins, which would occasionally become suffused

with blood; with the Emperor Caius[4] they had a fixed, steady

gaze, while Nero could see nothing distinctly without winking, and having it brought close to his eyes. The Emperor

Caius had twenty pairs of gladiators in his training-school,

and of all these there were only two who did not wink the

eyes when a menacing gesture was made close to them: hence

it was that these men were invincible. So difficult a matter is

it for a man to keep his eyes from winking: indeed, to wink is

so natural to many, that they cannot desist from it; such persons we generally look upon as the most timid.



No persons have the eye all of one colour; that of the

middle of the eye is always different from the white which

surrounds it. In all animals there is no part in the whole

body that is a stronger exponent of the feelings, and in man

more especially, for it is from the expression of the eye that

we detect clemency, moderation, compassion, hatred, love,

sadness, and joy. From the eyes, too, the various characters

of persons are judged of, according as they are ferocious, me-







nacing, sparkling, sedate, leering, askance, downcast, or lan-

guishing. Beyond a doubt it is in the eyes that the mind has

its abode: sometimes the look is ardent, sometimes fixed and

steady, at other times the eyes are humid, and at others, again,

half closed. From these it is that the tears of pity flow, and

when we kiss them we seem to be touching the very soul. It

is the eyes that weep, and from them proceed those streams

that moisten our cheeks as they trickle down. And what is

this liquid that is always so ready and in such abundance in

our moments of grief; and where is it kept in reserve at other

times? It is by the aid of the mind that we see, by the aid

of the mind that we enjoy perception; while the eyes, like so

many vessels, as it were, receive its visual faculties and transmit them. Hence it is that profound thought renders a man

blind for the time, the powers of sight being withdrawn from

external objects and thrown inward: so, too, in epilepsy, the

mind is covered with darkness, while the eyes, though open,

are able to see nothing. In addition to this, it is the fact

that hares, as well as many human beings, can sleep with

the eyes open, a thing which the Greeks express by the term

xorubantia=|n. Nature has composed the eye of numerous membranes of remarkable thinness, covering them with a thick coat

to ensure their protection against heat and cold. This coat she

purifies from time to time by the lachrymal humours, and she

has made the surface lubricous and slippery, to protect the eye

against the effects of a sudden shock.







1. B. vii. c. 2.

2. "Csii."

3. The same has been said also of Cardan, the elder Scaliger, Theodore

Beza, the French physician Mairan, and the republican Camille Desmoulins.

4. Caligula.




55. Chap. 55.-The Nature Of The Pupil-Eyes Which Do Not Shut.


CHAP. 55.-THE NATURE OF THE PUPIL-EYES WHICH DO NOT

SHUT.



In the midst of the cornea of the eye Nature has formed a

window in the pupil, the small dimensions of which do not

permit the sight to wander at hazard and with uncertainty,

hut direct it as straight as though it were through a tube,

and at the same time ensure its avoidance of all shocks communicated by foreign bodies. The pupils are surrounded by a

black circle in some persons, while it is of a yellowish cast with

others, and azure again with others. By this happy combination the light is received by the eye upon the white that lies

around the pupil, and its reflection being thus tempered, it

fails to impede or confuse the sight by its harshness. So

complete a mirror, too, does the eye form, that the pupil,







small as it is, is able to reflect the entire image of a man.

This[1] is the reason why most birds, when held in the hand

of a person, will more particularly peck at his eyes; for seeing

their own likeness reflected in the pupils, they are attracted to

it by what seem to be the objects of their natural affection.



It is only some few beasts of burden that are subject to

maladies of the eyes towards the increase of the moon: but it

is man alone that is rescued from blindness by the discharge

of the humours[2] that have caused it. Many persons have

had their sight restored after being blind for twenty years;

while others, again, have been denied this blessing from their

very birth, without there being any blemish in the eyes. Many

persons, again, have suddenly lost their sight from no apparent

cause, and without any preceding injury. The most learned

authors say that there are veins which communicate from the

eye to the brain, but I am inclined to think that the communication is with the stomach; for it is quite certain that a person

never loses the eye without feeling sickness at the stomach. It

is an important and sacred duty, of high sanction among the

Romans, to close[3] the eyes of the dead, and then again to open

them when the body is laid on the funeral pile, the usage

having taken its rise in the notion of its being improper that

the eyes of the dead should be beheld by man, while it is an

equally great offence to hide them from the view of heaven.

Man is the only living creature the eyes of which are subject

to deformities, from which, in fact, arose the family names of

" Strabo" [4] and "Ptus." [5] The ancients used to call a man

who was born with only one eye, "cocles," and "ocella," a

person whose eyes were remarkably small. " Luscinus" was

the surname given to one who happened to have lost one eve

by an accident.



The eyes of animals that see at night in the dark, cats, for

instance, are shining and radiant, so much so, that it is impossible to look upon them; those of the she-goat, too, and the

wolf are resplendent, and emit a light like fire. The eyes of

the sea-calf and the hyena change successively to a thousand







colours; and the eyes, when dried, of most of the fishes will

give out light in the dark, just in the same way as the trunk

of the oak when it has become rotten with extreme old age.

We have already mentioned[6] the fact, that animals which turn,

not the eyes but the head, for the purpose of looking round,

are never known to wink. It is said,[7] too, that the chameleon is able to roll the eye-balls completely round. Crabs look

sideways, and have the eves enclosed beneath a thin crust.

Those of craw-fish and shrimps are very hard and prominent,

and lie in a great measure beneath a defence of a similar

nature. Those animals, however, the eyes of which are hard,

have worse sight than those of which the eyes are formed of a

humid substance. It is said that if the eyes are taken away

from the young of serpents and of the swallow,[8] they will grow

again. In all insects and in animals covered with a shell, the

eyes move just in the same way as the ears of quadrupeds do;

those among them which have a brittle[9] covering have the

eyes hard. All animals of this nature, as well as fishes and

insects, are destitute of eye-lids, and their eyes have no covering; but in all there is a membrane that is transparent like

glass, spread over them.







1. Hardouin with justice doubts the soundness of this alleged reason.

2. He alludes, probably, to some method of curing cataract; perhaps

somewhat similar to that mentioned by him in B. xx. c. 20.

3. This was done by the nearest relatives. This usage still prevails in

this country, the eyelids being pressed down with pieces of gold or silver.

4. Or "squint-eyed."

5. Or "cock-eyed. "

6. B. viii. c. 45.

7. B. viii. c. 51.

8. See B. xxv. e. 50.

9. Or crustaceous covering.




56. Chap. 56.-The Hair Of The Eye-Lids; What Animals Are Without Them. Animals Which Can See On One Side Only.


CHAP. 56.-THE HAIR OF THE EYE-LIDS; WHAT ANIMALS ARE

WITHOUT THEM. ANIMALS WHICH CAN SEE ON ONE SIDE ONLY.



Man has lashes on the eye-lids on either side; and women

even make it their daily care to stain them;[1] so ardent are they

in the pursuit of beauty, that they must even colour their

very eyes. It was with another view, however, that Nature

had provided the hair of the eyelids-they were to have acted,

so to say, as a kind of rampart for the protection of the sight,

and as an advanced bulwark against the approach of insects

or other objects which might accidentally come in their way.

It is not without some reason that it is said that the eye-

lashes[2] fall off with those persons who are too much given to

venereal pleasures. Of the other animals, the only ones that

have eyelashes are those that have hair on the rest of the

body as well; but the quadrupeds have them on the upper







eyelid only, and the birds on the lower one: the same is the

case also with those which have a soft skin, such as the serpent,

and those among the quadrupeds that are oviparous, the lizard,

for instance. The ostrich is the only one among the birds

that, like man, has eyelashes on either side.







1. Kohl is still used in the east for the same purpose.

2. Aristotle says so, Hist. Anim. B. iii. c. 10.




57. Chap. 57.-Animals Which Have No Eyelids.


CHAP. 57.-ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO EYELIDS.



All birds, however, have not eyelids: hence it is, that

those which are viviparous have no nictation of the eye.

The heavier kinds of birds shut the eye by means of the

lower eyelid, and they wink by drawing forward a membrane which lies in the corner of the eye. Pigeons, and other

birds of a similar nature, shut the two eyelids; but the quadrupeds which are oviparous, such, for instance, as the tortoise

and the crocodile, have only the lower eyelid moveable, and

never wink, in consequence of the hardness of the eye. The

edge of the upper eyelid was by the ancients called " cilium,"

from which comes our word "supercilia.[1]" If the eyelid

happens to be severed by a wound it will not reunite,[2] which

is the case also with some few other parts of the human body.







1. " The eyebrows."

2. This is not the fact.




58. Chap. 58.-The Cheeks.


CHAP. 58.-THE CHEEKS.



Below the eyes are the cheeks, a feature which is found

in man only. From the ancients they received the name of

"gen," and by the laws of the Twelve Tables, women were

forbidden to tear them.[1] The cheeks are the seat of

bashfulness; it is on them more particularly that blushes are

to be seen.







1. With their nails when mourning for the dead.




59. Chap. 59.-The Nostrils.


CHAP. 59.-THE NOSTRILS.



Within the cheeks is the mouth, which gives such strong

indications of the feelings of joyousness and laughter; and

above it, but in man only, is the nose, which modern notions

have stamped as the exponent of sarcasm and ridicule.[1] In

no other animal but man, is the nose thus prominent; birds,

serpents, and fishes, have no nostrils, but apertures only for

the purpose of smell. It is from the peculiarity of the nose







that are derived the surnames of "Simus"[2] and "Silo."

Children born in the seventh month often have the ears and

the nostrils imperforate.







1. Hence the word "nasutus," a sneering, captious, or sarcastic man.

2. "Flat-nosed, " and " snub-nosed."




60. Chap. 60.-The Mouth; The Lips; The Chin; And The Jaw-Bone.


CHAP. 60.-THE MOUTH; THE LIPS; THE CHIN; AND THE

JAW-BONE.



It is from the " labia," or lips, that the Brocchi[1] have received the surname of Labeo. All animals that are viviparous

have a mouth that is either well-formed, or harshly defined,

as the case may be. Instead of lips and mouth, the birds

have a beak that is horny and sharp at the end. With birds

that live by rapine, the beak is hooked inwards, but with those

which gather and peck only, it is straight: those animals,

again, which root up grass or puddle in the mud, have the

muzzle broad, like swine. The beasts of burden employ the

mouth in place of hands in gathering their food, while those

which live by rapine and slaughter have it wider than the

rest. No animal, with the exception of man, has either chin

or cheek-bones. The crocodile is the only animal that has the

upper jaw-bone[2] moveable; among the land quadrupeds it is

the same as with other animals, except that they can move it

obliquely.







1. A Roman family-the reading of this word seems doubtful.



2. In reality, the under one only.




62. Chap. 62.-The Teeth Of Serpents; Their Poison. A Bird Which Has Teeth.


CHAP. 62.-THE TEETH OF SERPENTS; THEIR POISON. A BIRD

WHICH HAS TEETH.



The asp also, and other serpents, have similar teeth; but in

the upper jaw, on the right and left, they have two of extreme

length, which are perforated with a small tube in the interior,







just like the sting of the scorpion, and it is through these that

they eject their venom. The writers who have made the most

diligent enquiries on the subject, inform us that this venom is

nothing but the gall of the serpent, and that it is conveyed

to the mouth by certain veins which run beneath the spine;

indeed, there are some who state that there is only one poisonfang, and that being barbed at the end, it is bent backwards

when the animal has inflicted a bite. Other writers, however,

affirm that on such an occasion the fang falls out, as it is very

easily displaced, but that it soon grows[1] again; this tooth,

they say, is thus wanting in the serpents which we see

handled about by persons.[2] It is also stated that this fang

exists in the tail of the scorpion, and that most of these animals

have no less than three. The teeth of the viper are concealed

in the gums: the animal, being provided with a similar venom,

exercises the pressure of its fangs for the purpose of instilling

the poison in its bite.



No winged creatures have teeth, with the sole exception of

the bat. The camel is the only one among the animals without horns, that has no fore-teeth[3] in the upper jaw. None of

the horned animals have serrated[4] teeth. Snails, too, have

teeth; a proof of which are the vetches which we find gnawed

away by snails of the very smallest size. To assert that among

marine animals, those that have shells, and those that are

cartilaginous have fore-teeth, and that the sea-urchin has five

teeth, I am very much surprised how such a notion could have

possibly[5] arisen. With insects the sting supplies the place of

teeth; the ape has teeth just like those in man.[6] The elephant







has in the interior of the mouth fourteen teeth, adapted for

chewing, in addition to those which protrude; in the male

these are curved inwards, but in the female they are straight,

and project outwards. The sea-mouse,[7] a fish which goes before the balna, has no teeth at all, but in place of them, the

interior of the mouth is lined with bristles, as well as the tongue

and palate. Among the smaller land quadrupeds, the two

fore-teeth in each jaw are the longest.







1. There is always one fang, at least, ready to supply the place of the one

in front, if lost by any accident.

2. Like the jugglers of the East at the present day. But it is very

doubtful whether the poison fang is in all instances previously extracted

from the serpents which they handle.

3. But the camel, as well as the lama, has an incisive bone, provided

with an incisive tooth on each side, and has canine and molar teeth as well.

4. If by this term he means teeth separated from each other, the assertion is incorrect, as in these animals we find the molars separated from the

lower incisives by a very considerable space.

5. Cuvier says, as far as the sea-urchin is concerned, very simply, and

merely by looking at it, as its five teeth are very apparent.

6. The incisors are in number, and very nearly in appearance, like those

of man. The canines are different in shape, though similar in number.

What he says about the elephant, is peculiar to that of India.

7. See B. ix. c. 88.




63. Chap. 63.-Wonderful Circumstances Connected With The Teeth.


CHAP. 63.-WONDERFUL CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH THE

TEETH.



The other animals are born with[1] teeth, whereas man has

them only at the seventh[2] month after his birth. While

other[3] animals keep their teeth to the time of their death,

man, the lion, the beasts of burden, the dog, and the ruminating animals, all change them; the lion and the dog, however, change none[4] but the canine teeth. The canine tooth of

the wolf, on the right side, is held in high esteem as an amulet.[5]

There is no animal that changes the maxillary teeth, which

stand beyond the canine teeth. With man, the last teeth,

which are known as the " genuini," or cheek teeth,[6] come

about the twentieth year, and with many men, and females as

well, so late even as the eightieth; but this only in the case

of those who have not had them in their youth. It is a

well-known fact, that the teeth are sometimes shed in old age,

and replaced by others. Mucianus has stated that he, himself,

saw one Zocles, a native of Samothrace, who had a new set of

teeth when he was past his one hundred and fourth year. In

addition to these facts, in man males have more teeth than

females,[7] which is the case also in sheep, goats, and swine.







Timarchus, the son of Nicocles the Paphian, had a double[8]

row of teeth in his jaws: the same person had a brother also

who never changed his front teeth, and, consequently, wore

them to the very stumps. There is an instance, also, of a man

having a tooth growing in the palate.[9] The canine teeth,[10]

when lost by any accident, are never known to come again.

While in all other animals the teeth grow of a tawny colour

with old age, with the horse, and him only, they become whiter

the older he grows.







1. Very few other animals are born with teeth, in their natural state.

Apes, dogs, and cats are not born with teeth.

2. From the fourth to the eighth month in reality, during which the

four central incisors appear.

3. The only ones that do not change are those which have three molars

on each side of the jaw.

4. This is erroneous: they change the incisors and molars as well.

5. See B. xxviii. c. 78.

6. By us known as the "wisdom" teeth.

7. This is not the fact: they have usually the same number, but there

are exceptions on both sides. The same is also the case with sheep, goats,

and swine.

8. This is not very uncommon.

9. Not at all an uncommon occurrence.

10. Of the second set.




64. Chap. 64.-How An Estimate Is Formed Of The Age Of Animals From Their Teeth.


CHAP. 64.-HOW AN ESTIMATE IS FORMED OF THE AGE

OF ANIMALS FROM THEIR TEETH.



The age, in beasts of burden,[1] is indicated by the teeth. In

the horse they are forty in number. At thirty months it

loses the two fore-teeth in either jaw, and in the following year

the same number next to them, at the time that the eye-teeth[2]

come. At the beginning of the fifth year the animal loses two

teeth, which grow again in the sixth, and in the seventh it has

all its teeth, those which have replaced the others, and those

which have never been changed. If a horse is gelded[3] before

it changes its teeth, it never sheds them. In a similar manner,

also, the ass loses four of its teeth in the thirtieth month, and

the others from six months to six months. If a she-ass happens not to have foaled before the last of these teeth are shed,

it is sure to be barren.[4] Oxen change their teeth at two years

old: with swine they are never changed.[5],When these

several indications of age have been lost in horses and other

beasts of burden, the age is ascertained by the projecting of

the teeth, the greyness of the hair in the eyebrows, and the

hollow pits that form around them; at this period the animal

is supposed to be about sixteen[6] years old. In the human







teeth there is a certain venom; for if they are placed uncovered

before a mirror, they will tarnish its brightness, and they will

kill young pigeons while yet unfledged. The other particulars relative to the teeth have been already[7] mentioned

under the head of the generation of man. When teething

first commences, the bodies of infants are subject to certain

maladies. Those animals which have serrated teeth inflict the

most dangerous bites.[8]







1. It is only in the horse and the ass that these indications can be relied upon.

2. Columellares.

3. This has no such effect.

4. The contrary is the case: it will he more prolific.

5. Swine change them just the same as other animals.

6. By certain appearances in the incisors, the age of a horse up to its

twenty-fourth year, or even beyond, may be judged of: the other signs

cannot be so positively relied upon.

7. B. viii. c. 15.

8. Svissima dentibus," seems to be a preferable reading to " svissime

dentiunt. "




65. Chap. 65.-The Tongue; Animals Which Have No Tongue. The Noise Made By Frogs. The Palate.


CHAP. 65.-THE TONGUE; ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO

TONGUE. THE NOISE MADE BY FROGS. THE PALATE.



The tongue is not similarly formed in all animals. Serpents have a very thin tongue, and three-forked,[1] which they

vibrate to and fro: it is of a black colour, and when drawn

from out of the mouth, of extraordinary length. The tongue

of the lizard is two-forked, and covered with hair.[2] That of

the sea-calf also is twofold,[3] but with the serpents it is of the

thinness of a hair; the other animals employ it to lick the

parts around the mouth. Fishes have nearly the whole of the

tongue adhering to the palate, while in the crocodile the whole

of it does adhere thereto: but in the aquatic animals the palate,

which is fleshy, performs the duty of the tongue as the organ

of taste. In lions, pards, and all the animals of that class,

and in cats as well, the tongue is covered with asperities,[4]

which overlap each other, and bear a strong resemblance to a

rasp. Such being its formation, if the animal licks a man's skin,

it will wear it away by making it thinner and thinner; for

which reason it is that the saliva of even a perfectly tame

animal, being thus introduced to the close vicinity of the blood,

is apt to bring on madness. Of the tongue of the purple we

have made mention[5] already. With the frog the end of the

tongue adheres to the mouth, while the inner part is disjoined

from the sides of the gullet; and it is by this means that the

males give utterance to their croaking, at the season at which







they are known as ololygones.[6] This happens at stated periods

of the year, at which the males invite the females for the

purposes of propagation: letting down the lower lip to the

surface of the water, they receive a small portion of it in the

mouth, and then, by quavering with the tongue, make a gurgling noise, from which the croaking is produced which we

hear. In making this noise, the folds of the mouth, becoming

distended, are quite transparent, and the eyes start from the

head and burn again with the effort. Those insects which

have a sting in the lower part of the body, have teeth, and a

tongue as well; with bees it is of considerable length, and in

the grasshopper it is very prominent. Those insects which have

a fistulous sting in the mouth, have neither tongue nor teeth;

while others, again, have a tongue in the interior of the mouth,

the ant, for instance. In the elephant the tongue is remarkably broad; and while with all other animals, each according

to its kind, it is always perfectly at liberty, with man, and

him alone, it is often found so strongly tied down by certain

veins, that it becomes necessary to cut them. We find it

stated that the pontiff Metellus had a tongue so ill adapted for

articulation, that he is generally supposed to have voluntarily

submitted to torture for many months, while preparing to

pronounce the speech which he was about to make on the dedication of the temple of Opifera.[7] In most persons the

tongue is able to articulate with distinctness at about the

seventh year; and many know how to employ it with such remarkable skill, as to be able to imitate the voices of various

birds and other animals with the greatest exactness. The other

animals have the sense of taste centred in the fore-part of the

tongue; but in man it is situate in the palate as well.







1. Only two-forked in reality.

2. It is not covered with hair.

3. It is not bifurcate.

4. These are horny, conical papill, the summits of which point back-

wards.

5. See B. ix. c. 60.

6. "Criers."

7. One of the titles of the goddess Fortuna.




66. Chap. 66.-The Tonsils; The Uva; The Epiglossis; The Artery; The Gullet.


CHAP. 66.-THE TONSILS; THE UVA; THE EPIGLOSSIS; THE

ARTERY; THE GULLET.



In man there are tonsils at the root of the tongue; these in

swine are called the glandules. The uvula,[1] which is suspended

between them at the extremity of the palate, is found only

in man. Beneath this lies a smaller tongue, known by the







name of "epiglossis,"[2] but it is wanting in animals that are

oviparous. Placed as it is between two passages, the functions

of the epiglottis are of a twofold nature. The one of these

passages that lies more inward is called the [tracheal] artery,

and leads to the lungs and the heart: the epiglottis covers it

during the action of eating, that the drink or food may not go

the wrong way, and so be productive of suffering, as it is by

this passage that the breath and the voice are conveyed. The

other or exterior passage is called the "gula,"[3] and it is by

this passage that the victuals and drink pass: this leads to the

belly, while the former one communicates with the chest.[4]

The epiglottis covers the pharynx, in its turn, when only the

breath or the voice is passing, in order that the victuals may

not inopportunely pass upwards, and so disturb the breathing

or articulation. The tracheal artery is composed of cartilage

and flesh, while the gullet is formed of a sinewy substance

united with flesh.







1. " Uva, " or "grape."

2. More generally " epiglottis." It is found in some few reptiles. This

passage is omitted by Sillig.

3. Gullet, or pharynx.

4. Stomachum.




67. Chap. 67.-The Neck; The Throat; The Dorsal Spine.


CHAP. 67.-THE NECK; THE THROAT; THE DORSAL SPINE.



The neck is found to exist in no animal but those which

have both these passages. All the others which have the

gullet only, have nothing but a gorge or throat. In those

which have a neck, it is formed of several rounded vertebr,

and is flexible, and joined together by distinct articulations, to

allow of the animal turning round the head to look. The

lion, the wolf, and the hyna are the only animals in which

it is formed of a single[1] rigid bone. The neck is annexed to

the spine, and the spine to the loins. The vertebral column

is of a bony substance, but rounded, and pierced within,

to afford a passage for the marrow to descend from the brain.

It is generally concluded that the marrow is of the same nature

as the brain, from the fact that if the membrane of exceeding

thinness which covers it is pierced, death immediately ensues.[2]

Those animals which have long legs have a long throat as well,







which is the case also with aquatic birds, although they have

short legs, as well as with those which have hooked talons.







1. All these animals, on the contrary, have seven vertebr.

2. This is not the fact. The spinal marrow, even, may be wounded,

without death being the immediate result.




68. Chap. 68.-The Throat; The Gullet; The Stomach.


CHAP. 68.-THE THROAT; THE GULLET; THE STOMACH.



Man only, and the swine, are subject to swellings in the

throat which are mostly caused by the noxious quality of the

water[1] which they drink. The upper part of the gullet is called

the fauces, the lower the stomach.[2] By this name is understood

a fleshy concavity, situate behind the tracheal artery, and joining the vertebral column; it extends in length and breadth

like a sort of chasm.[3] Those animals which have no gullet

have no stomach either, nor yet any neck or throat, fishes, for

example; and in all these the mouth communicates immediately with the belly. The sea-tortoise[4] has neither tongue

nor teeth; it can break anything, however, with the sharp

edge of its muzzle. After the tracheal artery there is the

sophagus, which is indented with hard asperities resembling

bramble-thorns, for the purpose of levigating the food, the incisions[5] gradually becoming smaller as they approach the belly.

The roughness at the very extremity of this organ strongly resembles that of a blacksmith's file







1. Snow-water, we know, is apt to produce goitre.

2. "Stomachus." More properly, the sophagus, or ventricle.

3. Lacun modo.

4. Or turtle. It has a tongue, and though it has no teeth, the jaws are

edged with a horny substance like the bills of birds.

5. "Crenis" is read for " renis:" otherwise the passage is unintelligible;

it is still most probably in a corrupt state.




69. Chap. 69.-The Heart; The Blood; The Vital Spirit.


CHAP. 69.-THE HEART; THE BLOOD; THE VITAL SPIRIT.



In all other animals but man the heart is situate in the

middle of the breast; in man alone it is placed just below

the pap on the left-hand side, the smaller end terminating in

a point, and bearing outward. It is among the fish only that

this point is turned towards the mouth. It is asserted that

the heart is the first among the viscera that is formed in the

ftus, then the brain, and last of all, the eyes: it is said, too,

that the eyes are the first organs that die, and the heart the

very last of all. The heart also is the principal seat of the heat

of the body; it is constantly palpitating, and moves as though

it were one animal enclosed within another. It is also enve-







loped in a membrane equally supple and strong, and is protected by the bulwarks formed by the ribs and the bone of

the breast, as being the primary source and origin of life. It

contains within itself the primary receptacles for the spirit and

the blood, in its sinuous cavity, which in the larger animals is

threefold,[1] and in all twofold at least: here it is that the

mind[2] has its abode. From this source proceed two large

veins, which branch into the fore-part and the back of the body,

and which, spreading out in a series of branches, convey the

vital blood by other smaller veins over all parts of the body.

This is the only one[3] among the viscera that is not affected by

maladies, nor is it subject to the ordinary penalties of human

life; but when injured, it produces instant death. While all

the other viscera are injured, vitality may still remain in the

heart.







1. Among all the mammifer and the birds, the heart has four cavities,

two on each side.

2. Mens.

3. This is a mistake. The heart is subject to disease, equally with other

parts of the body.




70. Chap. 70.-Those Animals Which Have The Largest Heart, And Those Which Have The Smallest. What Animals Have Two Hearts.


CHAP. 70.-THOSE ANIMALS WHICH HAVE THE LARGEST HEART,

AND THOSE WHICH HAVE THE SMALLEST. WHAT ANIMALS HAVE

TWO HEARTS.



Those animals are looked upon as stupid and lumpish which

have a hard, rigid heart, while those in which it is small are

courageous, and those are timid which have it very large.

The heart is the largest, in proportion to the body, in the

mouse, the hare, the ass, the stag, the panther, the weasel, the

hyna, and all the animals, in fact, which are timid, or dangerous only from the effects of fear. In Paphlagonia the partridge has a double heart. In the heart of the horse and the

ox there are bones sometimes found. It is said that the heart

increases every year in man, and that two drachm in weight

are added[1] yearly up to the fiftieth year, after which period

it decreases yearly in a similar ratio; and that it is for this

reason that men do not live beyond their hundredth year, the

heart then failing them: this is the notion entertained by the

Egyptians, whose custom it is to embalm the bodies of the







dead, and so preserve them. It is said that men have been

born with the heart covered with hair, and that such persons

are excelled by none in valour and energy; such, for instance,

as Aristomenes,[2] the Messenian, who slew three hundred

Lacedmonians. Being covered with wounds, and taken prisoner, he, on one occasion, made his escape by a narrow hole

which he discovered[3] in the stone quarry where he was imprisoned, while in pursuit of a fox which had found that

mode of exit. Being again taken prisoner, while his guards

were fast asleep he rolled himself towards a fire close by, and,

at the expense of his body, burnt off the cords by which he

was bound. On being taken a third time, the Lacedmonians

opened his breast while he was still alive, and his heart was

found covered with hair.







1. In spite of what Schenkius says in confirmation of Pliny, this is

very doubtful. Of course it must increase from childhood, but the increase surely does not continue till the fiftieth year.

2. See an account of him in the Messeniaca of Pausanias.

3. In this part of the story may have originated that of the escape of

Sindbad the Sailor, when buried in the vault with the body of his wife.-

See the "Arabian Nights."




71. Chap. 71.-When The Custom Was First Adopted Of Examining The Heart In The Inspection Of The Entrails.


CHAP. 71.-WHEN THE CUSTOM WAS FIRST ADOPTED OF EXAMINING

THE HEART IN THE INSPECTION OF THE ENTRAILS.



On an examination of the entrails, to find a certain fatty

part on the top of the heart, is looked upon as a fortunate

presage. Still, however the heart has not always been considered as forming a part of the entrails for this purpose. It

was under Lucius Postumnius Albinus, the King of the Sacrifices,[1] and after the 126th Olympiad, when King Pyrrhus had

quitted Italy, that the aruspices began to examine the heart,

as part of the consecrated entrails. The first day that the

Dictator Csar appeared in public, clothed in purple, and sitting on a seat of gold, the heart was twice found wanting[2]

when he sacrificed. From this circumstance has risen a great

question among those who discuss matters connected with

divination-whether it was possible for the victim to have

lived without that organ, or whether it had lost it at the very

moment[3] of its death. It is asserted that the heart cannot be







burnt of those persons who die of the cardiac disease; and the

same is said of those who die by poison. At all events, there

is still in existence an oration pronounced by Vitellius,[4] in

which he accuses Piso of this crime, and employs this alleged

fact as one of his proofs, openly asserting that the heart of

Germanicus Csar could not be burnt at the funeral pile, in

consequence of his having been poisoned. On the other hand,

the peculiar nature[5] of the disease under which Germanicus

was labouring, was alleged in Piso's defence.







1. " Rex Sacrorum." This was a priest elected from the patricians, on

whom the priestly duties devolved, which had been originally performed

by the kings of Rome. He ranked above the Pontifex Maximus, but was

possessed of little or no political influence.

2. No doubt there was trickery in this.

3. No doubt there was trickery in this.

4. This was P. Vitellius, who served under Germanicus in Germany.

He was one of the accusers of Cn. Piso, who was charged with having

poisoned Germanicus.

5. The cardiac disease, as alleged.




74. Chap. 74.-The Gall; Where Situate, And In What Animals It Is Double. Animals Which Have No Gall, And Others In Which It Is Not Situate In The Liver.


CHAP. 74.-THE GALL; WHERE SITUATE, AND IN WHAT ANIMALS

IT IS DOUBLE. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO GALL, AND OTHERS

IN WHICH IT IS NOT SITUATE IN THE LIVER.



In the liver is the gall, which, however, does not exist in

every animal. At Chalcis, in Euba, none of the cattle have

it, while in the cattle of the Isle of Naxos, it is of extraordinary size, and double, so that to a stranger either of these facts

would appear as good as a prodigy. The horse, the mule, the

ass, the stag, the roe-buck, the wild boar, the camel, and the

dolphin have no gall, but some kinds of rats and mice have it.







Some few men are without it, and such persons enjoy robust

health and a long life. There are some authors who say that

the gall exists in the horse, not in the liver, but in the paunch,

and that in the stag it is situate either in the tail or the

intestines; and that hence it is, that those parts are so bitter

that dogs will not touch them. The gall, in fact, is nothing

else but the worst parts of the blood purged off, and for this

reason it is that it is so bitter: at all events, it is a well-known

fact, that no animal has a liver unless it has blood as well.

The liver receives the blood from the heart, to which it is

united, and then disperses it in the veins.










75. Chap. 75.-The Properties Of The Gall.


CHAP. 75.-THE PROPERTIES OF THE GALL.



When the gall is black, it is productive of madness in man,

and if it is wholly expelled death will ensue. Hence it is, too,

that the word " bile" has been employed by us to characterize

a harsh, embittered disposition; so powerful are the effects

of this secretion, when it extends its influence to the mind.

In addition to this, when it is dispersed over the whole of

the body, it deprives the eyes, even, of their natural colour;

and when ejected, will tarnish copper vessels even, rendering

everything black with which it comes in contact; so that no

one ought to be surprised that it is the gall which constitutes

the venom of serpents. Those animals of Pontus which feed

on wormwood have no gall: in the raven, the quail, and the

pheasant, the gall-bladder is united to the renal parts, and, on

one side only, to the intestines. In many animals, again, it

is united only to the intestines, the pigeon, the hawk, and the

murena, for example. In some few birds it is situate in the

liver; but it is in serpents and fishes that it is the largest in

proportion. With the greater part of birds, it extends all along

throughout the intestines, as in the hawk and the kite. In

some other birds, also, it is situate in the breast as well: the

gall, too, of the sea-calf is celebrated for its application to many

purposes. From the gall of the bull a colour is extracted like

that of gold. The aruspices have consecrated the gall to Neptune and the influence of water. The Emperor Augustus

found a double gall in a victim which he was sacrificing on

the day of his victory at Actium.














76. Chap. 76.-In What Animals The Liver Increases And De- Creases With The Moon. Observations Of The Aruspices Relative Thereto, And Remarkable Prodigies.


CHAP. 76.-IN WHAT ANIMALS THE LIVER INCREASES AND DE-

CREASES WITH THE MOON. OBSERVATIONS OF THE ARUSPICES

RELATIVE THERETO, AND REMARKABLE PRODIGIES.



It is said, that in the small liver of the mouse the number

of lobes corresponds to the day of the moon, and that they are

found to be just as many in number as she is days old; in

addition to which, it is said that it increases at the winter solstice. In the rabbits of Btica, the liver is always found to

have a double lobe. Ants will not touch one lobe of the liver

of the bramble-frog, in consequence of its poisonous nature, it

is generally thought. The liver is remarkable for its powers

of preservation, and sieges have afforded us remarkable instances of its being kept so long as a hundred years.[1]







1. There must be some corrupt reading here; for, as Sillig remarks,

who ever heard of a siege which lasted a hundred years?




77. Chap. 77.-The Diaphragm. The Nature Of Laughter.


CHAP. 77.-THE DIAPHRAGM. THE NATURE OF LAUGHTER.



The entrails of serpents and lizards are of remarkable length.

It is related that-a most fortunate omen-Ccina of Volaterr

beheld two dragons arising from the entrails of the victim;

and this will not be at all incredible, if we are ready to believe

that while King Pyrrhus was sacrificing, the day upon which

he died, the heads of the victims, on being cut off, crawled

along the ground and licked up their own blood. In man, the

entrails are separated from the lower part of the viscera by a

certain membrane, which is called the " prcordia,"[1] because

it is extended in front of the heart; the Greeks have given it

the name of " phrenes." All the principal viscera have been

enclosed by Nature, in her prudent foresight, in their own peculiar membranes, just like so many sheaths, in fact. With reference to the diaphragm, there was a peculiar reason for this

wise provision of Nature, its proximity to the guts, and the

chances that the food might possibly intercept the respiration.

It is to this organ that is attributed quick and ready wit, and

hence it is that it has no fleshy parts, but is composed of fine

sinews and membranes. This part is also the chief seat of

gaiety of mind, a fact which is more particularly proved by

the titillation of the arm-holes, to which the midriff extends;







indeed, in no part of the body is the skin more fine; for this

reason it is, also, that we experience such peculiar pleasure in

scratching the parts in its vicinity. Hence it is, that in battles

and gladiatorial combats, many persons have been known to

be pierced through the midriff, and to die in the act of

laughing.[2]







1. Or diaphragm; from "pr," "before," and "cor," the " heart."

2. With Sardonic laughter, as Hardouin remarks.




79. Chap. 79.-The Small Guts, The Front Intestines, The Anus, The Colon. The Causes Of The Insatiate Voracity Of Cer- Tain Animals.


CHAP. 79.-THE SMALL GUTS, THE FRONT INTESTINES, THE ANUS,

THE COLON. THE CAUSES OF THE INSATIATE VORACITY OF CER-

TAIN ANIMALS.



After the belly we find in man and the sheep the " lactes,"[1]

the place of which in other animals is occupied by the

"hill:"[2] it is through these organs that the food passes.

We then find the larger intestines, which communicate with

the anus, and which in man consist of extremely sinuous

folds. Those animals which have the longest intestinal canal,

are the most voracious; and those which have the belly the

most loaded with fat, are the least intelligent. There are

some birds, also, which have two receptacles; the one of

which is the crop, in which they stow away the food which







they have just swallowed, while the other is the belly, into

which they discharge the food when it is duly prepared

and digested; this is the case with the domestic fowl, the

ring-dove, the pigeon, and the partridge. The other birds

are in general destitute of crop, but then they have a more capacious gorge, the jackdaw, the raven, and the crow, for instance: some, again, are constituted in neither manner, but

have the belly close to the gorge, those, for instance, which

have the neck very long and narrow, such as the porphyrio.[3]



In the solid-hoofed animals the belly is rough and hard,

while in some land animals it is provided with rough asperities like teeth,[4] and in others, again, it has a reticulated surface like that of a file. Those animals which have not the

teeth on both sides, and do not ruminate, digest the food in

the belly, from whence it descends to the lower intestines.

There is an organ in all animals attached in the middle to

the navel, and in man similar in its lower part to that of the

swine, the name given thereto by the Greeks being " colon,"

a part of the body which is subject to excruciating pains.[5]

In dogs this gut is extremely contracted, for which reason it is

that they are unable to ease it, except by great efforts, and not

without considerable suffering. Those animals with which the

food passes at once from the belly through the straight intestine,

are of insatiate appetite, as, for instance, the hind-wolf,[6] and

among birds the diver. The elephant has four[7] bellies; the

rest of its intestines are similar to those of the swine, and

the lungs are four times as large as those of the ox. The belly

in birds is fleshy, and formed of a callous substance. In that

of young swallows there are found little white or pink pebbles,

known by the name of " chelidonii," and said to be employed

in magical incantations. In the second belly of the heifer

there is a black tufa found, round like a ball,[8] and of no

weight to speak of: this, it is generally thought, is singu-







larly efficacious in laborious deliveries, if it happens not to

have touched the ground.







1. Or small guts.

2. Or front intestines.

3. The coot, probably.

4. He alludes to the papill of the mucous gland.

5. The colic.

6. "Lupus cervarius." Probably the lynx.

7. The belly of the elephant presents five transversal folds.

8. See B. xxviii. c. 77. This substance, known by the name of egagropile, consists of the hair which the animal has swallowed when licking

itself. It assumes a round form, in consequence of the action of the intestines.




91. Chap. 91.-Animals Which Are Without Blood At Certain Periods Of The Year.


CHAP. 91.-ANIMALS WHICH ARE WITHOUT BLOOD AT CERTAIN

PERIODS OF THE YEAR.



Those animals which conceal themselves[1] at certain periods

of the year, as already mentioned, have no blood at those times,

with the exception, indeed, of some very small drops about the







heart. A marvellous dispensation of Nature! and very similar

to that witnessed in man, where the blood is sensible of various

modifications from the slightest causes; for not only, similarly

to the bile, does it rush upwards to the face, but it serves also

to indicate the various tendencies of the mind, by depicting

shame, anger, and fear, in many ways, either by the paleness

of the features or their unusual redness; as, in fact, the redness of anger and the blush of modesty are quite different

things. It is a well-known fact, that when a man is in fear,

the blood takes to flight and disappears, and that many persons have been pierced through the body without losing one

drop of blood; a thing, however, which is only the case with

man. But as to those animals which we have already mentioned as changing[2] colour, they derive that colour from the

reflection[3] of other objects; while, on the other hand, man is

the only one that has the elements which cause these changes

centred in himself. All diseases, as well as death, tend to

absorb the blood.







1. Bears, dormice, serpents, &c.

2. The polypus and the chameleon.

3. See B. viii. cc. 51, 52.




92. Chap. 92. (39.)-Whether The Blood Is The Principle Of Life.


CHAP. 92. (39.)-WHETHER THE BLOOD IS THE PRINCIPLE OF

LIFE.



There are some persons who are of opinion that the fineness

of the wit does not depend upon the thinness of the blood, but

that animals are more or less stupid in proportion to the skin

or other coverings of the body, as the oyster and the tortoise,

for instance: that the hide of the ox and the bristles of the hog,

in fact, offer a resistance to the fine and penetrating powers of

the air, and leave no passage for its transmission in a pure

and liquid state. The same, they say, is the case, too, with

men, when the skin is very thick or callous, and so excludes

the air. Just as if, indeed, the crocodile was not equally remarkable for the hardness of its skin and its extreme cunning.










93. Chap. 93.-The Hide Of Animals.


CHAP. 93.-THE HIDE OF ANIMALS.



The hide, too, of the hippopotamus is so thick, that lances,[1]

even, are turned from it, and yet this animal has the intelligence

to administer certain medicaments to itself. The hide, too, of









the elephant makes bucklers that are quite impenetrable, and

yet to it is ascribed a degree of intelligence superior to that of

any quadruped. The skin itself is entirely devoid of sen-

sation, and more particularly that of the head; wherever it

is found alone, and unaccompanied with flesh, if wounded, it

will not unite, as in the cheek and on the eyelid,[2] for

instance.







1. Walking-sticks are still made of it.

2. As already mentioned, this is not the fact.




94. Chap. 94.-The Hair And The Covering Of The Skin.


CHAP. 94.-THE HAIR AND THE COVERING OF THE SKIN.



Those animals which are viviparous, have hair; those which

are oviparous, have feathers, scales, or a shell, like the tortoise; or else a purple skin, like the serpent. The lower part

of all feathers is hollow; if cut, they will not grow again, but if

pulled out, they will shoot afresh. Insects fly by the aid of a

frail membrane; the wings of the fish[1] called the "swallow" are

moistened in the sea, while those of the bat which frequents

our houses are dry; the wings of this last animal have certain

articulations as well. The hairs that issue from a thick skin

are rough, while those on females are of a finer quality. Those

found on the horse's mane are more abundant, which is the

case also with the shoulders of the lion. The dasypus has

hair in the inside of the mouth even and under the feet, two

features which Trogus has also attributed to the hare; from

which the same author concludes that hairy men are the most

prone to lust. The most hairy of all animals is the hare.

Man is the only creature that has hair as the mark of puberty;

and a person who is devoid of this, whether male or female,

is sure to be sterile. The hair of man is partly born with

him, and in part produced after his birth. The last kind of hair

will not grow upon eunuchs, though that which has been born

with them does not fall off; which is the case also with

women, in a great degree. Still however, there have been

women known to be afflicted with falling off of the hair, just

as some are to be seen with a fine down on the face, after the

cessation of the menstrual discharge. In some men the hair

that mostly shoots forth after birth will not grow spontaneously. The hair of quadrupeds comes off every year, and







grows again. That of the head in man grows the fastest, and

next to it the hair of the beard. When cut, the hairs shoot,

not from the place where they have been cut, as is the case

with grass, but at the root. The hair grows quickly in certain diseases, phthisis more particularly; it grows also with

rapidity in old age, and on the body after death. In persons

of a libidinous tendency the hair that is produced at birth falls

off more speedily, while that which is afterwards produced

grows with the greatest rapidity. In quadrupeds, the hair

grows thicker in old age; but on those with wool, it becomes

thinner. Those quadrupeds which have thick hair on the

back, have the belly quite smooth. From the hides of oxen,

and that of the bull more especially, glue is extracted by

boiling.







1. See B. ix. c. 43.




97. Chap. 97. (42.)-Various Kinds Of Cheese.


CHAP. 97. (42.)-VARIOUS KINDS OF CHEESE.



The kinds of cheese that are most esteemed at Rome, where

the various good things of all nations are to be judged of by

comparison, are those which come from the provinces of Ne-

mausus,[1] and more especially the villages there of Lesura

and Gabalis;[2] but its excellence is only very short-lived, and

it must be eaten while it is fresh. The pastures of the Alps

recommend themselves by two sorts of cheese; the Dalmatic

Alps send us the Docleatian[3] cheese, and the Centronian[4]

Alps the Vatusican. The kinds produced in the Apennines are

more numerous; from Liguria we have the cheese of Ceba,[5]

which is mostly made from the milk of sheep; from Umbria

we have that of sina, and from the frontiers of Etruria and

Liguria those of Luna, remarkable for their vast size, a single

cheese weighing as much as a thousand pounds. Nearer the

City, again, we have the cheese of Vestinum, the best of this

kind being that which comes from the territory of Ceditium.[6] Goats also produce a cheese which has been of late

held in the highest esteem, its flavour being heightened by

smoking it. The cheese of this kind which is made at Rome

is considered preferable to any other; for that which is made

in Gaul has a strong taste, like that of medicine. Of the

cheeses that are made beyond sea, that of Bithynia[7] is usually

considered the first in quality. That salt exists in pasture-

lands is pretty evident, from the fact that all cheese as it

grows old contracts a saltish flavour, even where it does not

appear to any great extent;[8] while at the same time it is

equally well known that cheese soaked in a mixture of thyme

and vinegar will regain its original fresh flavour. It is said

that Zoroaster lived thirty years in the wilderness upon cheese,

prepared in such a peculiar manner, that he was insensible to

the advances of old age.











1. Nismes, in France. Hardouin speaks of goats'-milk cheeses made in

its neighbourhood, and known as fromages de Baux.

2. Probably the modern Losere and Gevaudan. See B. iv. c. 19.

3. For the Docleat, see B. iii. c. 26.

4. For the Centrones, see B. iii. c. 24. He perhaps refers to the modern

fromage de Passi.

5. The modern Marquisat de Cive, which still produces excellent cheese.

6. See B. xiv. c. 8.

7. And more especially at Salona in Bithynia.

8. "Etiam ubi non videtur major. "This is probably corrupt.




98. Chap. 98. (43.)-Differences Of The Members Of Man From Those Of Other Animals.


CHAP. 98. (43.)-DIFFERENCES OF THE MEMBERS OF MAN FROM

THOSE OF OTHER ANIMALS.



Of all the terrestrial animals, man is the only biped: he is

also the only one that has a throat, and shoulders, or "humeri," parts in other animals known by the name of "armi."

Man, too, is the only animal that has the "ulna," or elbow.

Those animals which are provided with hands, have flesh

only on the interior of them, the outer part consisting of sinews

and skin.










99. Chap. 99.-The Fingers, The Arms.


CHAP. 99.-THE FINGERS, THE ARMS.



Some persons have six fingers on the hands. We read that

C. Horatius, a man of patrician rank, had two daughters, who

for this reason had the name of "Sedigit;" and we find

mention made of Volcatius Sedigitus,[1] as a famous poet.

The fingers of man have three joints, the thumb only two,

it bending in an opposite direction to all the other fingers.

Viewed by itself, the movement of the thumb has a sidelong

direction, and it is much thicker than the rest of the fingers.

The little finger is equal in length to the thumb, and two others

are also equal in length, the middle finger being the longest

of all. Those quadrupeds which live by rapine have five toes

on the fore feet, and four on the hinder ones. The lion, the

wolf, and the dog, with some few others, have five claws

on the hind feet, one of which hangs down near the joint of the

leg. The other animals, also, which are of smaller size, have

five toes. The two arms are not always equal in length: it

is a well-known fact, that, in the school of gladiators belonging to Caius Csar,[2] the Thracian Studiosus had the right

arm longer than the left. Some animals also use their forepaws to perform the duties of hands, and employ them in

conveying food to the mouth as they sit, the squirrel, for instance.







1. He wrote a poem, in which the principal Latin dramatists are enume-

rated, in the order of merit. A. Gellius, B. xv. c. 24, has preserved a portion of it.

2. Germanicus.




100. Chap. 100. (44.)-Resemblance Of The Ape To Man.


CHAP. 100. (44.)-RESEMBLANCE OF THE APE TO MAN.



As to the various kinds of apes, they offer a perfect resem-







blance to man in the face, the nostrils, the ears, and the eyelids; being the only quadrupeds, in fact, that have eyelashes on

the lower eyelid. They have mamm also on the breast, arms

and legs, which bend in opposite directions, and nails upon

the hands and fingers, the middle finger being the longest.

They differ somewhat from man in the feet; which, like the

hands, are of remarkable length, and have a print similar to

that of the palm of our hand. They have a thumb also, and

articulations similar to those in man. The males differ from

man in the sexual parts only, while all the internal viscera

exactly resemble those of man.










101. Chap. 101. (45.)-The Nails.


CHAP. 101. (45.)-THE NAILS.



It is generally supposed that the nails are the terminations

of the sinews. All animals which have fingers have nails as

well. In the ape they are long and overlapping,[1] like a tile,

while in man they are broad: they will grow even after death.

In the beasts of prey they are hooked, while in others, such

as the dog, for instance, they are straight, with the exception,

indeed, of the one which is attached to the leg in most of

them. All the animals which have feet [and not hoofs], have

toes as well, except the elephant; he, also, would appear to

have toes, five in number, but rudely developed, undivided,

and hardly distinct from one another, bearing a nearer resem-

blance, in fact, to hoofs than to claws. In the elephant the

fore-feet are the largest, and in the hind-feet there are short

joints. This animal is able, also, to bend the hams inward

like a man, while in all the others the joints of the hinder

legs bend in a contrary direction to those of the fore ones.

Those animals which are viviparous bend the fore-leg forward,

while the joint of the hind-leg is directed backward.







1. This seems to be the meaning of "imbricatus."




102. Chap. 102.-The Knees And The Hams.


CHAP. 102.-THE KNEES AND THE HAMS.



In man the knee and the elbow bend contrary ways; the

same is the case, too, with the bear and the ape, and it is for

this reason that they are not so swift of foot as other animals. Those quadrupeds which are oviparous, such as the

crocodile and the lizard, bend the knee of the fore-leg back-







wards, and that of the hind-leg forwards; their thighs are

placed on them obliquely, in a similar manner to a man's

thumb; which is the case also with the multipede insects, the

hind-legs only excepted of such as leap. Birds, like quadru-

peds, have the joints of the wings bending forwards, but those

of the legs backwards.










103. Chap. 103.-Parts Of The Human Body To Which Certain Religious Ideas Are Attached.


CHAP. 103.-PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY TO WHICH CERTAIN

RELIGIOUS IDEAS ARE ATTACHED.



In accordance with the usages of various nations, certain

religious ideas have been attached to the knees. It is the

knees that suppliants clasp, and it is to these that they extend

their hands; it is the knees that they worship like so many

altars, as it were; perhaps, because in them is centred the

vital strength. For in the joint of either knee, the right

as well as the left, there is on the fore-side of each a certain

empty space, which bears a strong resemblance to a mouth, and

through which, like the throat, if it is once pierced, the vital

powers escape.[1] There are also certain religious ideas attached to other parts of the body, as is testified in raising the

back of the right hand to the lips, and extending it as a token

of good faith. It was the custom of the ancient Greeks, when

in the act of supplication, to touch the chin. The seat of the

memory lies in the lower part of the ear, which we touch

when we summon a witness to depose upon memory to an

arrest.[2] The seat, too, of Nemesis[3] lies behind the right ear, a

goddess which has never yet found a Latin name, no, not in the

Capitol even. It is to this part that we apply the finger next

the little finger, after touching the mouth with it, when we

silently ask pardon of the gods for having let slip an indiscreet

word.







1. Though wounds in the knee are highly dangerous, death does not ne-

cessarily ensue.

2. Of another person, who had thus forfeited his bail. It was the custom to touch the ear of the attesting witness.

3. The goddess of retribution. See B. xxviii. c. 5, where he makes fur-

ther mention of her statue in the Capitol.




104. Chap. 104.-Varicose Veins.


CHAP. 104.-VARICOSE VEINS.



Men only, in general, have varicose veins in the legs, women but very rarely. We are informed by Oppius, that







C. Marius, who was seven times consul, was the only man ever

known to be able to have them extracted in a standing position.










105. Chap. 105.-The Gait, The Feet, The Legs.


CHAP. 105.-THE GAIT, THE FEET, THE LEGS.



All animals take a right-hand direction when they first

begin to walk, and lie down on the left side. While the other

animals walk just as it may happen, the lion only and the

camel walk foot by foot, or in such a way that the left foot

never passes the right, but always comes behind it. Men have

the largest feet; in every kind of animal the female has the

smallest. Man only[1] has calves, and flesh upon the legs: we

find it stated by authors, however, that there was once an

Egyptian who had no calves on his legs. All men, too, with

some few exceptions, have a sole to the foot. It is from these

exceptional cases that persons have obtained the names of

Plancus,[2] Plautus, Pansa, and Scaurus; just as, from the malformation of the legs, we find persons called Varus,[3] Vacia, and

Vatinius, all which blemishes are to be seen in quadrupeds

also. Animals which have no horns have a solid hoof, from

which circumstance it is used by them as a weapon of offence,

in place of horns; such animals as these are also destitute of pastern bones, but those which have cloven hoofs

have them; while those, again, which have toes have none,

nor are they ever found in the fore-feet of animals. The

camel has pastern bones like those of the ox, but somewhat

smaller, the feet being cloven, with a slight line of division,

and having a fleshy sole, like that of the bear: hence it is,

that in a long journey, the animal becomes fatigued, and the

foot cracks, if it is not shod.







1. The frog is, in some measure, an exception.

2. Or "flat-foot," "splay-foot," "large-foot," and "club-footed."

3. Words meaning "knock-kneed," "bow-legged," and "wry-legged."




106. Chap. 106. (46.)-Hoofs.


CHAP. 106. (46.)-HOOFS.



The horn of the hoof grows again in no animals except

beasts of burden. The swine in some places in Illyricum

have solid hoofs. Nearly all the horned animals are cloven-footed, no animal having solid hoofs and two horns. The

Indian ass is only a one-horned animal, and the oryx is both







one-horned and cloven-footed. The Indian ass[1] is the

only solid-hoofed animal that has pastern-bones. As to

swine, they are looked upon as a sort of mongrel race, with a

mixture of both kinds, and hence it is that their ankle-bones

are so misshapen. Those authors who have imagined that

man has similar pastern-bones, are easily to be confuted. The

lynx is the only one among the animals that have the feet

divided into toes, that has anything bearing a resemblance

to a pastern-bone; while with the lion it is more crooked

still. The great pastern-bone is straight, and situate in the

joints of the foot; it projects outwards in a convex protuberance, and is held fast in its vertebration by certain ligaments.







1. The rhinoceros.




107. Chap. 107. (47.)-The Feet Of Birds.


CHAP. 107. (47.)-THE FEET OF BIRDS.



Among birds, some have the feet divided into toes, while

others, again, are broad and flatfooted-in others, which partake of the intermediate nature of both, the toes are divided,

with a wide space between them. All birds, however, have

four toes-three in front, and one on the heel; this last, however, is wanting in some that have long legs. The iynx[1] is

the only bird that has two toes on each side of the leg. This

bird also protrudes a long tongue similar to that of the serpent,

and it can turn the neck quite round and look backwards; it

has great talons, too, like those of the jackdaw. Some of the

heavier birds have spurs also upon the legs; but none of

those have them which have crooked talons as well. The

long-footed birds, as they fly, extend the legs towards the tail,

while those that have short legs hold them contracted close to

the middle of the body. Those authors who deny that there

is any bird without feet, assert that those even which are

called apodes,[2] are not without them, as also the oce, and the

drepanis,[3] which last is a bird but very rarely seen. Serpents, too, have been seen with feet like those of the goose.











1. Or wryneck.

2. See B. x. c. 5.

3. Supposed to be the Hirundo apns of Linnus. Of the "oce" nothing

is known; indeed, the reading is very doubtful.




108. Chap. 108. (48.)-The Feet Of Animals, From Those Having Two Feet To Those With A Hundred.-Dwarfs.


CHAP. 108. (48.)-THE FEET OF ANIMALS, FROM THOSE HAVING

TWO FEET TO THOSE WITH A HUNDRED.-DWARFS.



Among insects, those which have hard eyes have the forefeet long, in order that from time to time they may rub the

eyes with their feet, as we frequently see done by flies. The

insects which have long hind-feet are able to leap, the locust,

for instance. All these insects have six feet: and some of the

spiders have two very long feet in addition. They have, all

of them, three joints. We have already"[1] stated that marine

insects have eight feet, such as the polypus, the spia, the

cuttle-fish, and the crab, animals which move their arms in a

contrary direction to their feet, which last they move around

as well as obliquely: they are the only animals the feet of

which have a rounded form. Other insects have two feet to

regulate their movements; in the crab, and in that only, these

duties are performed by four. The land animals which exceed

this number of feet, as most of the worms,[2] never have fewer

than twelve feet, and some, indeed, as many as a hundred.

The number of feet is never uneven in any animal. Among

the solid-hoofed animals, the legs are of their proper length

from the moment of their birth, after which they may with

more propriety be said to extend themselves than to increase

in growth: hence it is, that in infancy they are able to scratch

their ears with the hind feet, a thing which, when they grow

older, they are not able to do, because their increase of growth

affects only the superficies of the body. It is for the same

reason also, that they are only able to graze at first by bending

the knees, until such time as the neck has attained its proper

length.



(49.) There are dwarfs to be found among all animals, and

among birds even.







1. B. ix. c. 44.

2. He evidently means insects of the centipede class. See B. xxix. c. 39.




109. Chap. 109.-The Sexual Parts.-Hermaphrodites.


CHAP. 109.-THE SEXUAL PARTS.-HERMAPHRODITES.



We have already spoken sufficiently[1] at length of those animals, the males of which have the sexual parts behind. In

the wolf, the fox, the weasel, and the ferret, these parts are

bony; and it is the genitals of the last-mentioned animal







that supply the principal remedies for calculus in the human

bladder. It is said also that the genitals of the bear are

turned into a horny substance the moment it dies. Among

the peoples of the East the very best bow-strings are those

which are made of the member of the camel. These parts also,

among different nations, are made the object of certain usages[2]

and religious observances; and the Galli,[3] the priests of the

Mother of the gods, are in the habit of castrating themselves,

without any dangerous results. On the other hand, there is

in some few women a monstrous resemblance to the male conformation, while hermaphrodites appear to partake of the

nature of both. Instances of this last conformation were

seen in quadrupeds in Nero's reign, and for the first time, I

imagine; for he ostentatiously paraded hermaphrodite horses

yoked to his car, which had been found in the territory of

the Treviri, in Gaul; as if, indeed, it was so remarkably fine a

sight to behold the ruler of the earth seated in a chariot drawn

by monstrosities







1. B. x. c. 83.

2. Such as circumcision among the Jews.

3. See B. xxxv. c. 46.




110. Chap. 110.-The Testes-The Three Classes Of Eunuchs.


CHAP. 110.-THE TESTES-THE THREE CLASSES OF EUNUCHS.



In sheep and cattle the testes hang down to the legs, while

in the boar they are knit up close to the body. In the dolphin

they are very long, and are concealed in the lower part of the

belly. In the elephant, also, they are quite concealed. In

oviparous animals they adhere to the interior of the loins:

these animals are the most speedy in the venereal congress.

Fishes and serpents have no testes, but in place of them they

have two veins, which run from the renal region to the genitals.

The bird known as the "buteo,"[1] has three testes. Man is

the only creature in which the testes are ever broken, either

accidentally or by some natural malady; those who are thus

afflicted form a third class of half men, in addition to hermaphrodites and eunuchs. In all species of animals the male

is more courageous than the female, with the exception of the

panther and the bear.







1. Probably the buzzard; from this story also called the "triorchis."




111. Chap. 111. (50.)-Te Tails Of Animals.


CHAP. 111. (50.)-TE TAILS OF ANIMALS.



Nearly all the animals, both viviparous as well as oviparous,







with the exception of man and the ape, have tails in proportion to the necessities of the body. In animals with bristles

the tail is bare, as in the boar, for instance. In those that are

shaggy, it is small, such as the bear; while in those animals

that have long hair, the tail is long also, the horse, for instance. The tail of a lizard or serpent, if cut off, will grow

again. The tail governs the movements of the fish like a

rudder, and turning from side to side, to the right or to the

left, impels it onwards, acting in some degree like an oar.

A double tail is sometimes found in lizards. In oxen, the

stalk of the tail is of remarkable length, and is covered with

rough hair at the extremity. In the ass, too, it is longer than

in the horse, but in beasts of burden it is covered with bristly

hairs. The tail of the lion, at the extremity, is like that of

the ox and the field-mouse; but this is not the case with the

panther. In the fox and the wolf it is covered with long

hair, as in sheep, in which it is longer also. In swine, the

tail is curled; among dogs, those that are mongrels carry it

close beneath the belly.










112. Chap. 112. (51.)-The Different Voices Of Animals.


CHAP. 112. (51.)-THE DIFFERENT VOICES OF ANIMALS.



Aristotle[1] is of opinion that no animal has a voice which

does not respire, and that hence it is that there is no voice in

insects, but only a noise, through the circulation of the air in

the interior, and its resounding, by reason of its compression.

Some insects, again, he says, emit a sort of humming noise,

such as the bee, for instance; others a shrill, long-drawn note,

like the grasshopper, the two cavities beneath the thorax receiving the air, which, meeting a moveable membrane within,

emits a sound by the attrition.-Also that flies, bees, and

other insects of that nature, are only heard while they are

flying, and cease to be heard the moment they settle, and that

the sound which they emit proceeds from the friction and the

air within them, and not from any act of respiration. At all

events, it is generally believed that the locust emits a sound

by rubbing together the wings and thighs, and that among

the aquatic animals the scallop makes a certain noise as it

flies.[2] Mollusks, however, and the testaceous animals have no

voice and emit no sounds. As for the other fishes, although







they are destitute of lungs and the tracheal artery, they are

not entirely without the power of emitting certain sounds: it

is only a mere joke to say that the noise which they make is

produced by grating their teeth together. The fish, too, that

is found in the river Achelos, and is known as the boar-fish,[3]

makes a grunting noise, as do some others which we have previously[4] mentioned. The oviparous animals hiss: in the

serpent this hissing is prolonged, in the tortoise it is short and

abrupt. Frogs make a peculiar noise of their own, as already

stated;[5] unless, indeed, this, too, is to be looked upon as a

matter of doubt; but their noise originates in the mouth, and

not in the thorax. Still, however, in reference to this subject,

the nature of the various localities exercises a very considerable

influence, for in Macedonia, it is said, the frogs are dumb, and

the same in reference to the wild boars there. Among birds,

the smaller ones chirp and twitter the most, and more especially about the time of pairing. Others, again, exercise their

voice while fighting, the quail, for instance; others before

they begin to fight, such as the partridge; and others when

they have gained the victory, the dunghill cock, for instance.

The males in these species have a peculiar note of their own,

while in others, the nightingale for example, the male has

the same note as the female.



Some birds sing all the year round, others only at certain

times of the year, as we have already mentioned when speaking of them individually. The elephant produces a noise

similar to that of sneezing, by the aid of the mouth, and in-

dependently of the nostrils; but by means of the nostrils it

emits a sound similar to the hoarse braving of a trumpet.

It is only in the bovine race that the voice of the female is the

deepest, it being in all other kinds of animals more shrill than

that of the male; it is the same also with the male of the

human race when castrated. The infant at its birth is never

heard to utter a cry before it has entirely left the uterus:

it begins to speak at the end of the first year. A son of

Crsus,[6] however, spoke when only six months old, and, while

yet wielding the child's rattle, afforded portentous omens, for







it was at the same period that his father's empire fell. Those

children which begin to speak the soonest, begin to walk the

latest. The human voice acquires additional strength at the

fourteenth year; but in old age it becomes more shrill again,

and there is no living creature in which it is subject to more

frequent changes.



In addition to the preceding, there are still some singular

circumstances that deserve to be mentioned with reference to

the voice. If saw-dust or sand is thrown down in the orchestra of a theatre, or if the walls around are left in a rough

state, or empty casks are placed there, the voice is absorbed;

while, on the other hand. if the wall is quite straight, or if

built in a concave form, the voice will move along it, and will

convey words spoken in the slightest whisper from one

end[7] to the other, if there is no inequality in the surface to

impede its progress. The voice, in man, contributes in a great

degree to form his physiognomy, for we form a knowledge of

a man before we see him by hearing his voice, just as well[8]

as if we had seen him with our eyes. There are as many

kinds of voices, too, as there are individuals in existence, and

each man has his own peculiar voice, just as much as his own

peculiar physiognomy. Hence it is, that arises that vast diversity of nations and languages throughout the whole earth:

in this, too, originate the many tunes, measures, and inflexions

that exist. But, before all other things, it is the voice that

serves to express our sentiments,[9] a power that distinguishes

us from the beasts; just as, in the same way, the various shades

and differences in language that exist among men have created

an equally marked difference between us and the brutes.







1. Hist. Anima. B. iv. c. 9.

2. See B. ix. c. 52.

3. "Aper."

4. B. ix. c. 7.

5. See c. 65 of the present Book.

6. Not the dumb son mentioned by Herodotus, who saved his father's

life at the taking of Sardus.

7. Like the whispering gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral.

8. "Non aliter quam oculis." On this, few will be found to agree with

Pliny.

9. And not to "conceal" them, according to the opinion of some modern

politicians.




113. Chap. 113. (52.)-Superfluous Limbs.


CHAP. 113. (52.)-SUPERFLUOUS LIMBS.



Supernumerary limbs, when they grow on animals, are of

no use, which is the case also with the sixth finger, when it

grows on man. It was thought proper in Egypt to rear a

human monster, that had two additional eves in the back part

of the head; it could not see with them, however.














114. Chap. 114.-Signs Of Vitality And Of The Moral Disposition Of Man, From The Limbs.


CHAP. 114.-SIGNS OF VITALITY AND OF THE MORAL

DISPOSITION OF MAN, FROM THE LIMBS.



I am greatly surprised that Aristotle has not only believed,

but has even committed it to writing, that there are in the

human body certain prognostics of the duration of life. Although I am quite convinced of the utter futility of these remarks, and am of opinion that they ought not to be published

without hesitation, for fear lest each person might be anxiously

looking out for these prognostics in his own person, I shall still

make some slight mention of the subject, seeing that so learned

a man as Aristotle did not treat it with contempt. He has set

down the following as indications of a short life-few teeth,

very long fingers, a leaden colour, and numerous broken lines

in the palm of the hand. On the other hand, he looks upon the

following as prognostics of a long life-stooping in the shoulders, one or two long unbroken lines in the hand, a greater num-

ber than two-and-thirty teeth, and large ears. He does not, I

imagine, require that all these symptoms should unite in one

person, but looks upon them as individually significant: in my

opinion, however, they are utterly frivolous, all of them, although they obtain currency among the vulgar. Our own writer,

Trogus, has in a similar manner set down the physiognomy as

indicative of the moral disposition; one of the very gravest of

the Roman authors, whose own[1] words I will here subjoin:-



"Where the forehead is broad, it is significant of a dull and

sluggish understanding beneath; and where it is small, it in-

dicates an unsteady disposition. A rounded forehead denotes

an irascible temper, it seeming as though the swelling anger

had left its traces there. Where the eye-brows are extended

in one straight line, they denote effeminacy in the owner, and

when they are bent downwards towards the nose, an austere

disposition. On the other hand, when the eye-brows are bent

towards the temples, they are indicative of a sarcastic disposition; but when they lie very low, they denote malice and

envy. Long eyes are significant of a spiteful, malicious nature

and where the corners of the eyes next the nose are fleshy, it

is a sign also of a wicked disposition. If the white of the eye

is large, it bears tokens of impudence, while those who are

incessantly closing the eyelids are inconstant. Largeness of











1. But they are borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 13. i. c. 9.




115. Chap. 115. (53.)-Respiration And Nutriment.


CHAP. 115. (53.)-RESPIRATION AND NUTRIMENT.



The breath of the lion is fetid, and that of the bear quite

pestilential; indeed, no beast will touch anything with which

its breath has come in contact, and substances which it has

breathed upon will become putrid sooner than others. It is

in man only that Nature has willed that the breath should

become tainted in several ways, either through faultiness in

the victuals or the teeth, or else, as is more generally the case,

through extreme old age. Our breath in itself was insensible

to all pain, utterly devoid as it was of all powers of touch and

feeling, without which there can be no sensation; ever renewed, it was always forthcoming, destined to be the last adjunct that shall leave the body, and the only one to remain

when all is gone beside; it drew, in fine, its origin from

heaven. In spite of all this, however, certain penalties were

discovered to be inflicted upon it, so that the very substance

by the aid of which we live might become a torment to us in

life. This inconvenience is more particularly experienced

among the Parthians, from their youth upwards, on account

of the indiscriminate use of food among them; and, indeed,

their very excess in wine causes their breath to be fetid. The

grandees, however, of that nation have a remedy for bad breath

in the pips of the Assyrian citron,[1] which they mix with their

food, and the aroma of which is particularly agreeable. The

breath of the elephant will attract serpents from their holes,

while that of the stag scorches them. We have already made

mention[2] of certain races of men who could by suction extract

from the body the venom of serpents; and swine will even eat

serpents,[3] which to other animals are poisonous. All those

creatures which we have spoken of as insects, can be killed by

merely sprinkling them with oil.[4] Vultures, which are put

to flight by unguents, are attracted by other odours: the beetle,

too, is attracted by the rose. The scorpion puts to death certain

serpents. The Scythians dip their arrows in the poison of







serpents and human blood: against this frightful composition

there is no remedy, for with the slightest touch it is productive

of instant death.







1. See B. xii. c. 7.

2. B. vii. c. 2.

3. See B. xxix. c. 23.

4. See c. 21 of the present Book.




116. Chap. 116.-Animals Which When Fed Upon Poison Do Not Die, And The Flesh Of Which Is Poisonous.


CHAP. 116.-ANIMALS WHICH WHEN FED UPON POISON DO

NOT DIE, AND THE FLESH OF WHICH IS POISONOUS.



The animals which feed upon poison have been already[1]

mentioned. Some of them, which are harmless of themselves,

become noxious if fed upon venomous substances. The wild

boar of Pamphylia and the mountainous parts of Cilicia, after

having devoured a salamander, will become poisonous to those

who eat its flesh; and yet the danger is quite imperceptible

by reason of any peculiarity in the smell and taste. The sala-

mander, too, will poison either water or wine, in which it

happens to be drowned; and what is more, if it has only drunk

thereof, the liquid becomes poisonous. The same is the case,

too, with the frog known to us as the bramble-frog. So nu-

merous are the snares that are laid in wait for life! Wasps

greedily devour the flesh of the serpent, a nutriment which

renders their stings fatal; so vast is the difference to be found

between one kind of food and another. In the country, too,

of the Ichthyophagi,[2] as we learn from Theophrastus, the oxen

are fed upon fish, but only when alive.







1. B. ix. c. 33.

2. Or Fish-eaters.




117. Chap. 117.-Reasons For Indigestion. Remedies For Crudity.


CHAP. 117.-REASONS FOR INDIGESTION. REMEDIES FOR

CRUDITY.



The most wholesome nutriment for man is plain food. An

accumulation of flavours is injurious, and still more so, if

heightened by sauces. All acrid elements are difficult of digestion, and the same is the case if food is devoured greedily,

or in too large quantities. Food is also less easily digested in

summer than in winter, and in old age than in youth. The

vomits which man has invented, by way of remedy for this

evil, render the body more cold, and are more particularly injurious to the eyes and teeth.










118. Chap. 118.-From What Causes Corpulence Arises; How It May Be Reduced.


CHAP. 118.-FROM WHAT CAUSES CORPULENCE ARISES;

HOW IT MAY BE REDUCED.



Digestion during sleep is more productive of corpulence than

strength. Hence it is, that it is preferable for athletes to







quicken digestion by walking. Watching, at night more especially, promotes digestion of the food.



(54.) The size of the body is increased by eating sweet and

fatty substances, as well as by drinking, while, on the other

hand, it is diminished by eating dry, acrid, or cold substances,

and by abstaining from drink. Some animals of Africa, as

well as sheep, drink but once every four days. Abstinence

from food for seven days, even, is not of necessity fatal to man;

and it is a well-known fact, that many persons have not died till

after an abstinence of eleven days. Man is the only animal

that is ever attacked with an insatiate[1] craving for food.







1. Or bulimia.




119. Chap. 119.-What Things, By Merely Tasting Of Them, Allay Hunger And Thirst.


CHAP. 119.-WHAT THINGS, BY MERELY TASTING OF THEM,

ALLAY HUNGER AND THIRST.



On the other hand, there are some substances which, tasted

in small quantities only, appease hunger and thirst, and keep

up the strength, such as butter, for instance, cheese made of

mares' milk, and liquorice. But the most pernicious thing of

all, and in every station of life, is excess, and more especially

excess in food; in fact, it is the most prudent plan to retrench everything that may be possibly productive of injury.

Let us, however, now pass on to the other branches of Nature.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

two thousand, two hundred, and seventy.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[1] Hyginus,[2] Scrofa,[3]

Saserna,[4] Celsus Cornelius,[5] milius Macer,[6] Virgil,[7] Columella,[8] Julius Aquila[9] who wrote on the Tuscan art of Divination, Tarquitius[10] who wrote on the same subject, Umbricius

Melior[11] who wrote on the same subject, Cato the Censor,[12]

Domitius Calvinus,[13] Trogus,[14] Melissus,[15] Fabianus,[16] Mucianus,[17] Nigidius,[18] Manilius,[19] Oppius.[20]







FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Aristotle,[21] Democritus,[22] Neop-

tolemus[23] who wrote the Meliturgica, Aristomachus[24] who

wrote on the same subject, Philistus[25] who wrote on the same

subject, Nicander,[26] Menecrates,[27] Dionysius[28] who translated

Mago, Empedocles,[29] Callimachus,[30] King Attalus,[31] Apollodorus[32] who wrote on venomous animals, Hippocrates,[33] Herophilus,[34] Erasistratus,[35] Asclepiades,[36] Themison,[37] Posidonius[38] the

Stoic, Menander[39] of Priene and Menander[40] of Heraclea, Euphronius[41] of Athens, Theophrastus,[42] Hesiod,[43] King Philometor.[44]









1. See end of B. ii.

2. See end of B. iii.

3. C. Tremellius Scrofa, a friend of M. Varro, and one of the early writers

on agriculture.

4. See end of B. x.

5. See end of B. vii.

6. See end of B. ix.

7. See end of B. vii.

8. See end of B. viii.

9. See end of B. ii.

10. See end of B. ii.

11. See end of B. x.

12. See end of B. iii.

13. Nothing seems to be known of this writer.

14. See end of B. vii.

15. See end of B. vii.

16. See end of B. ii.

17. See end of B. ii.

18. See end of B. vi.

19. See end of B. x.

20. C. Oppius, one of the most intimate friends of Julius Csar, for whom,

with Balbus, he acted in Spain. Of his numerous biographical and historical works, none have survived to our time.

21. See end of B. ii.

22. See end of B. ii.

23. Probably Neoptolemus of Paros, who wrote a book of Epigrams, a

treatise on Languages, and other works.

24. Of Soli, an observer of the habits of bees. His portrait is said still

to exist, on a cornelian, attentively observing a swarm of bees. He wrote

upon bees, honey, and the art of mixing wines.

25. Probably a different writer from the one mentioned at the end of

B. viii.; nothing seems to be known of him.

26. See end of B. viii.

27. See end of B. viii.

28. See end of B. x.

29. A philosopher of Agrigentum, and disciple of Pythagoras. He is

said to have perished in the crater of Mount Etna. He wrote numerous

works, of which only some fragments exist.

30. See end of B. iv.

31. Apparently the same as the King Philometor, mentioned below.-See

end of B. viii.

32. Of this writer nothing seems to be known.

33. See end of B. vii.

34. Of Chalcedon, one of the most famous physicians of antiquity. He

was physician to Phalaris, the tyrant of Sicily, and is said to have dissected criminals alive. He was the first that paid particular attention to

the nervous system.

35. A native of Iulis, in Cos, or else Ceos, grandson of Aristotle, and

disciple of Theophrastus. He acquired great reputation as a physician, at

the court of Seleucus Nicator, king of Syria, where he discovered the supposed disease of Prince Antiochus, who had fallen in love with his stepmother, Stratonice. Of his numerous medical works, only the titles and

a few fragments exist.

36. See end of B. vii.

37. A physician of Laodica, founder of the school of the Methodici. He

was a pupil of Asclepiades, and died about B.C. 43. Of his medical works

only a few fragments survive.

38. See end of B. ii.

39. See end of B. viii.

40. See end of B. viii.

41. See end of B. viii.

42. See end of B. iii.

43. See end of B. vii.

44. See King Attalus, above.




0. > Book Xii. The Natural History Of Trees


BOOK XII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TREES










1. Chap. 1.-The Honourable Place Occupied By Trees In The System Of Nature.


CHAP. 1.-THE HONOURABLE PLACE OCCUPIED BY TREES IN

THE SYSTEM OF NATURE.



Such, then, is the history, according to their various species

and their peculiar conformations, of all the animals within the

compass of our knowledge. It now remains for us to speak of

the vegetable productions of the earth, which are equally far

from being destitute of a vital spirit,[1] (for, indeed, nothing can

live without it), that we may then proceed to describe the minerals extracted from it, and so none of the works of Nature may

be passed by in silence. Long, indeed, were these last bounties of hers concealed beneath the ground, the trees and forests

being regarded as the most valuable benefits conferred by Nature upon mankind. It was from the forest that man drew

his first aliment, by the leaves of the trees was his cave rendered more habitable, and by their bark was his clothing supplied; even at this very day,[2] there are nations that live

under similar circumstances to these. Still more and more,

then, must we be struck with wonder and admiration, that

from a primval state such as this, we should now be cleaving

the mountains for their marbles, visiting the Seres[3] to obtain

our clothing, seeking the pearl in the depths of the Red Sea,

and the emerald in the very bowels of the earth. For our

adornment with these precious stones it is that we have devised

those wounds which we make in our ears; because, forsooth,

it was deemed not enough to carry them on our hands, our

necks, and our hair, if we did not insert them in our very flesh

as well. It will be only proper, then, to follow the order of

human inventions, and to speak of the trees before treating of







other subjects; thus may we trace up to their very origin the

manners and usages of the present day.







1. "Anim." The notion that plants are possessed of a soul or spirit, is

derived from the Greek philosophers, who attributed to them intellect also,

and sense.

2. Vitruvius mentions the people of Gaul, Hispania, Lusitania, and

Aquitania, as living in his day in dwellings covered with oak shingles, or

with straw.

3. See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xi. c. 26.




2. Chap. 2. (1.)-The Early History Of Trees.


CHAP. 2. (1.)-THE EARLY HISTORY OF TREES.



The trees formed the first temples of the gods, and even at

the present day, the country people, preserving in all their

simplicity their ancient rites, consecrate the finest among their

trees to some divinity;[1] indeed, we feel ourselves inspired to

adoration, not less by the sacred groves and their very stillness,

than by the statues of the gods, resplendent as they are with

gold and ivory. Each kind of tree remains immutably consecrated to its own peculiar divinity, the beech[2] to Jupiter,[3] the

laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus,

and the poplar to Hercules: besides which, it is our belief

that the Sylvans, the Fauns, and various kinds of goddess

Nymphs, have the tutelage of the woods, and we look upon

those deities as especially appointed to preside over them by

the will of heaven. In more recent times, it was the trees

that by their juices, more soothing even than corn, first mollified the natural asperity of man; and it is from these that we

now derive the oil of the olive that renders the limbs so supple,

the draught of wine that so efficiently recruits the strength,

and the numerous delicacies which spring up spontaneously at

the various seasons of the year, and load our tables with their

viands-tables to replenish which, we engage in combat with

wild beasts, and seek for the fishes which have fattened upon

the dead corpse of the shipwrecked mariner-indeed, it is only

at the second[4] course, after all, that the produce of the trees

appears.



But, in addition to this, the trees have a thousand other

uses, all of which are indispensable to the full enjoyment of







life. It is by the aid of the tree that we plough the deep, and bring near to us far distant lands; it is by the aid of the tree,

too, that we construct our edifices. The statues, even, of the

deities were formed of the wood of trees, in the days when no

value had been set as yet on the dead carcase[5] of a wild beast,

and when, luxury not yet deriving its sanction from the

gods themselves, we had not to behold, resplendent with the

same ivory, the heads of the divinities[6] and the feet of our

tables. It is related that the Gauls, separated from us as they

were by the Alps, which then formed an almost insurmountable

bulwark, had, as their chief motive for invading Italy, its

dried figs, its grapes, its oil, and its wine, samples[7] of which

had been brought back to them by Helico, a citizen of the

Helvetii, who had been staying at Rome, to practise there as

an artizan. We may offer some excuse, then, for them, when

we know that they came in quest of these various productions,

though at the price even of war.







1. Desfontaines remarks, that we may still trace vestiges of this custom

in the fine trees that grow near church porches, and in church-yards.

Of course, his remark will apply to France more particularly.

2. It is doubtful whether the sculus of the Romans was the same as the

bay-oak, the holm-oak, or the beech. See B. xvi. c. 4.

3. See further on this subject in Phdrus's Fables, B. iii. f. 17.

4. Reckoning the promulsis, antecna, or gustatio, not as a course, but

only a prelude, the bellaria, or dessert, at the Roman banquets, formed the

second course, or mensa. It consisted of fruits uncooked, sweetmeats, and

pastry.

5. He alludes to the pursuit of the elephant, for the purpose of obtaining

ivory, which was extensively used in his day, in making the statues of the

divinities.

6. A sarcastic antithesis. And yet Dalechamps would read "hominum"

instead of "numinum"!

7. Prmissa, The exact meaning of this word does not appear. Though

all the MSS. agree in it, it is probably a corrupt reading. Plutarch, in

his Life of Camillus, says that the wine of Italy was first introduced in

Gaul by Aruns, the Etruscan.




3. Chap. 3.-Exotic Trees. When The Plane-Tree First Appeared In Italy, And Whence It Came.


CHAP. 3.-EXOTIC TREES. WHEN THE PLANE-TREE FIRST

APPEARED IN ITALY, AND WHENCE IT CAME.



But who is there that will not, with good reason, be surprised to learn that a tree has been introduced among us from

a foreign clime for nothing but its shade? I mean the plane,[1]

which was first brought across the Ionian Sea to the Isle[2] of

Diomedes, there to be planted at his tomb, and was afterwards

imported thence into Sicily, being one of the very first exotic

trees that were introduced into Italy. At the present day,

however, it has penetrated as far as the country of the

Morini, and occupies even a tributary[3] soil; in return for which







those nations have to pay a tax for the enjoyment of its shade.

Dionysius the Elder, one of the tyrants of Sicily, had plane-trees conveyed to the city of Rhegium, where they were looked

upon as the great marvel of his palace, which was afterwards

converted into a gymnasium. These trees did not, however,

in that locality, attain any very great height. I find it also

stated by some authors, that there were some other instances,

in those days even, of plane-trees being found in Italy, and I

find some mentioned by name as existing in Spain.[4]







1. The Platanus orientalis of Linnus. It received its name from the

Greek pla/tos, "breadth," by reason of its wide-spreading branches.

2. For further mention of this island, now Tremiti, see B. iii. c. 30.

3. He alludes, probably, to the "vectigal solarium," a sort of ground-

rent which the tributary nations paid to the Roman treasury. Virgil and

Homer speak of the shade of the plane-tree, as a pleasant resort for festive

parties.

4. It is not improbable that Pliny, in copying from Theophrastus, has

here committed an error. That author, B. ix. c. 7, says: e)n me\n ga\r tw=|

)Adri/a pla/tanon ou) fasin ei)=nai, plh\n peri\ to\ Diomh/dous i(ero/n: spani/an

de\ kai\ )Itali\a| pa/sh|."They say that in Adria there are no plane-trees, except about the temple of Diomedes: and that they are extremely

rare in Italy." Pliny, probably, when his secretary was reading to him,

mistook the word spani/an, "rare," for )Ispani/a|, "in Spain."




4. Chap. 4.-The Nature Of The Plane-Tree.


CHAP. 4.-THE NATURE OF THE PLANE-TREE.



This circumstance took place about the time of the capture

of the City of Rome; and to such high honour, in the course

of time, did the plane-tree attain, that it was nurtured by

pouring wine upon it, it being found that the roots were greatly

strengthened by doing[1] so. Thus have we taught the very

trees, even, to be wine-bibbers!







1. It has been remarked that, in reality, this process would only tend

to impede its growth. Macrobius tells us, that Hortensius was guilty of

this singular folly.




5. Chap. 5.-Remarkable Facts Connected With The Plane-Tree.


CHAP. 5.-REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE

PLANE-TREE.



The first plane-trees that were spoken of in terms of high

admiration were those which adorned the walks of the Academy[1] at Athens-[in one of which], the roots extended a distance of thirty-three cubits, and spread far beyond its branches.

At the present day, there is a very famous plane in Lycia,

situate in close proximity to a fountain of the most refreshing coolness; standing near the road, with the cavity in its







interior, it forms a species of house eighty-one feet in width.

Its summit, too, presents the foliage of a grove, while it shields

itself with huge branches, each of which would equal an ordinary tree in size, as it throws its lengthened shade across the

fields. In addition to this, that nothing may be wanting to

its exact resemblance to a grotto, there is a circle of seats

within, formed of stone, intermingled with pumice overgrown

with moss. This tree was looked upon as so worthy of remark,

that Licinius Mucianus, who was three times consul, and recently the legatus of that province, thought it a circumstance

deserving of transmission even to posterity, that he, together

with eighteen persons of his retinue, had sat down to a banquet

in the interior of it. Its leaves afforded material for their

couches in the greatest abundance, while he himself, sheltered

from every gust of wind, and trying in vain to hear the pattering of the rain on the leaves, took his meal there, and enjoyed himself more than he would have done amid the resplendence of marble, a multiplicity of paintings, and beneath a

cieling refulgent with gold.



Another curious instance, again, was that afforded in the

reign of the Emperor Caius.[2] That prince was so struck with

admiration on seeing a plane in the territory of Veliternum,

which presented floor after floor, like those of the several stories

of a house, by means of broad benches loosely laid from branch

to branch, that he held a banquet in it-himself adding[3] very

materially to the shade it threw-the triclinium being formed

for the reception of fifteen guests and the necessary attendants:

to this singular dining-room he gave the name of his "nest."



At Gortyna, in the Isle of Crete, there is, in the vicinity of

a fountain there, a single plane-tree, which has been long celebrated in the records of both the Greek and the Latin language:

it never loses[4] its leaves, and from an early period one of the

fabulous legends of Greece has been attached to it, to the effect

that it was beneath this tree that Jupiter lay with Europa;

just as if there had not been another tree of a similar nature







in the island of Cyprus. Slips of the tree at Gortyna-so

fond is man by nature of novelty-were at an early period

planted at different places in Crete, and reproduced the natural

imperfections of the tree;[5] though, indeed, there is no higher

recommendation in the plane than the fact that in summer it

protects us from the rays of the sun, while in winter it admits

them. In later times, during the reign of the Emperor

Claudius, a Thessalian eunuch, the freedman of Marcellus

serninus,[6] who, however, from motives of ambition had enrolled himself in the number of the freedmen of the emperor,

and had acquired very considerable wealth, introduced this

plane into Italy, in order to beautify his country-seat: so that

he may not inappropriately be styled a second Dionysius.

These monstrosities of other lands are still to be seen in Italy,

independently of those which that country has herself devised.







1. Situate near the sea-shore. It was here that Plato taught. See B.

xxxi. c. 3.

2. Caligula.

3. It is supposed that he here alludes sarcastically to the extreme corpulence of Caligula.

4. M. Fe, the learned editor of the botanical books in Ajasson's translation, remarks, that this cannot have been the Platanus of the botanists,

and that there is no tree of Europe, which does not lose its leaves, that at

all resembles it.

5. The tendency, namely, to lose their leaves.

6. Grandson of Asinius Pollio. Tacitus tells us, that he was one of

those whom Piso requested to undertake his defence, when charged with

having poisoned Germanicus; but he declined the office.




6. Chap. 6. (2.)-The Champlatanus. Who Was The First To Clip Green Shrubs.


CHAP. 6. (2.)-THE CHAMPLATANUS. WHO WAS THE FIRST

TO CLIP GREEN SHRUBS.



For we find in Italy some plane-trees, which are known as

champlatani,[1] in consequence of their stunted growth; for

we have discovered the art of causing abortion in trees even,

and hence, even in the vegetable world we shall have occasion

to make mention of dwarfs, an unprepossessing subject in every

case. This result is obtained in trees, by a peculiar method

adopted in planting and lopping them. C. Matius,[2] a member

of the Equestrian order, and a friend of the late Emperor

Augustus, invented the art of clipping arbours, within the last

eighty years.







1. Or "ground plane-trees." It is by no means uncommon to see dwarf

varieties of the larger trees, which are thus reduced to the dimensions of

mere shrubs.

2. C. Matius Calvena, the friend of Julius and Augustus Csar, as also

of Cicero. He is supposed to have translated the Iliad into Latin verse,

and to have written a work on cookery.




7. Chap. 7. (3.)-How The Citron Is Planted.


CHAP. 7. (3.)-HOW THE CITRON IS PLANTED.



The cherry and the peach, and all those trees which have

either Greek or foreign names, are exotics: those, however, of







this number, which have begun to be naturalized among us,

will be treated of when I come to speak of the fruit-trees in

general. For the present, I shall only make mention of the

really exotic trees, beginning with the one that is applied to

the most salutary uses. The citron tree, called the Assyrian,

and by some the Median apple, is an antidote against poisons.[1]

The leaf is similar to that of the arbute, except that it has

small prickles[2] running across it. As to the fruit, it is never

eaten,[3] but it is remarkable for its extremely powerful smell,

which is the case, also, with the leaves; indeed, the odour is

so strong, that it will penetrate clothes, when they are once

impregnated with it, and hence it is very useful in repelling

the attacks of noxious insects. The tree bears fruit at all

seasons of the year; while some is falling off, other fruit is

ripening, and other, again, just bursting into birth. Various

nations have attempted to naturalize this tree among them, for

the sake of its medical properties, by planting it in pots of

clay, with holes drilled in them, for the purpose of introducing

the air to the roots; and I would here remark, once for all,

that it is as well to remember that the best plan is to pack all

slips of trees that have to be carried to any distance, as close

together as they can possibly be placed. It has been found,

however, that this tree will grow nowhere[4] except in

Media or Persia. It is this fruit, the pips of which, as we

have already mentioned,[5] the Parthian grandees employ in

seasoning their ragouts, as being peculiarly conducive to the

sweetening of the breath. We find no other tree very highly

commended that is produced in Media.







1. See B. xxiii. c. 55. Fe remarks, that the ancients confounded the

citron with the orange-tree.

2. Fe remarks, that this is not the case. The arbute is described

in B. xv. c. 28.

3. In the time of Plutarch, it had begun to be somewhat more used. It

makes one of the very finest preserves.

4. At the present day, it is cultivated all over India, in China, South

America, and the southern parts of Europe. Fe says, that they grow

even in the open air in the gardens of Malmaison.

5. B. xi. c. 115. Virgil says the same, Georg. B. ii. 11. 134, 135.

Theophrastus seems to say, that it was the outer rind that was so used.




8. Chap. 8. (4.)-The Trees Of India.


CHAP. 8. (4.)-THE TREES OF INDIA.



In describing the country of the Seres, we have already







made mention[1] of the wool-bearing trees which it produces;

and we have, likewise, touched[2] upon the extraordinary

magnitude of the trees of India. Virgil[3] has spoken in

glowing terms of the ebony-tree, one of those which are peculiar to India, and he further informs us, that it will grow in

no other country. Herodotus, however, has preferred to

ascribe[4] it to thiopia; and states that the people of that

country were in the habit of paying to the kings of Persia,

every third year, by way of tribute,[5] one hundred billets of

ebony-wood, together with a certain quantity of gold and

ivory. Nor ought we here to omit the fact, inasmuch as the

same author has stated to that effect, that the thiopians

were also in the habit of paying, by way of tribute, twenty

large elephants' teeth. So high was the esteem in which

ivory was held in the year from the building of our city,

310: for it was at that period[6] that this author was compiling his History at Thurii, in Italy; which is all the more

remarkable, from the implicit confidence we place in him,

when he says[7] that up to that time, no native of Asia or

Greece, to his knowledge at least, had ever beheld the river

Padus. The plan of thiopia, which, as we have already

mentioned,[8] was recently laid before the Emperor Nero, informs us, that this tree is very uncommon in the country that

lies between Syene, the extreme boundary of the empire, and

Mero, a distance of eight hundred and ninety-six miles; and

that, in fact, the only kind of tree that is to be found there, is

the palm. It was, probably, for this reason, that ebony held

the third place in the tribute that was thus imposed.











1. See B. vi. c. 20.

2. See B. vii. c. 2. The tree to which he alludes is unknown.

3. Georg. B. ii. II. 116, 117.

4. B. iii. c. 97. There is little doubt that, under the general name of

"ebony," the wood of many kinds of trees was,-and is still, imported into

the western world, so that both Herodotus and Virgil may have been correct in representing ebony as the product of both India and thiopia.

5. Herodotus says two hundred.

6. In Italy, whither he had retired from the hostile attacks of his fellow-citizens. It is supposed by Le Vayer and others, that Pliny is wrong in

his assertion, that Herodotus wrote to this effect while at Thurii; though

Dr. Schmitz is inclined to be of opinion that he is right in his statement.

7. B. iii. c. 115.

8. B. vi. c. 35.




9. Chap. 9.-When Ebony Was First Seen At Rome. The Various Kinds Of Ebony.


CHAP. 9.-WHEN EBONY WAS FIRST SEEN AT ROME. THE VARIOUS

KINDS OF EBONY.



Pompeius Magnus displayed ebony on the occasion of his

triumph over Mithridates. Fabianus declares, that this wood

will give out no flame; it burns, however, with a very agreeable smell. There are two kinds[1] of ebony; the rarest kind

is the best, and is produced from a tree that is singularly free

from knots. The wood is black and shining, and pleasing to

the eye, without any adventitious aid from art. The other

kind of ebony is the produce of a shrub which resembles the

cytisus, and is to be found scattered over the whole of India.







1. Fe remarks, that the words of Pliny do not afford us any means of

judging precisely what tree it was that he understood by the name of ebony.

He borrows his account mainly from Theophrastus.




10. Chap. 10. (5.)-The Indian Thorn.


CHAP. 10. (5.)-THE INDIAN THORN.



There is in India, also, a kind of thorn[1] very similar to

ebony, though it may be distinguished from it, by the aid of

a lantern even; for, on the application of flame, it will instantly run across the tree. We will now proceed to describe

those trees which were the admiration of Alexander the Great

in his victorious career, when that part of the world was first

revealed by his arms.







1. It is not known to what tree he alludes.




11. Chap. 11.-The Indian Fig.


CHAP. 11.-THE INDIAN FIG.



The Indian fig[1] bears but a small fruit. Always growing

spontaneously, it spreads far and wide with its vast branches,

the ends of which bend downwards into the ground to such a

degree, that they take fresh root in the course of a year, and

thus form a new plantation around the parent stock, traced in

a circular form, just as though it had been the work of the

ornamental gardener. Within the bowers thus formed, the

shepherds take up their abode in the summer, the space occupied by them being, at once, overshadowed and protected by







the bulwark which the tree thus throws around; a most

graceful sight, whether we stand beneath and look upwards,

or whether we view its arcaded foliage from a distance. The

higher branches, however, shoot upwards to a very considerable height, and, by their number, form quite a grove, spring

ing aloft from the vast trunk of the parent tree, which

overspreads, very frequently, a space of sixty paces in extent,

while the shade that is thrown by it will cover as much as

a couple of stadia. The broad leaves of the tree have just the

shape of an Amazonian buckler; and hence it is that the

fruit, from being quite covered by the leaves, is greatly impeded

in its growth. The fruit, indeed, of this tree is but scanty,

and never exceeds a bean in size; being ripened, however, by

the rays of the sun, as these penetrate the leaves, the figs are

remarkable for their singular lusciousness, and are quite worthy

of the marvellous tree by which they are produced. These

fig-trees are found, more particularly, in the vicinity of the

river Acesines.[2]







1. This account of the Ficus Indica, or religiosa, known to us as the

banian-tree, is borrowed entirely from Theophrastus. Fe remarks, however, that he is wrong in some of his statements, for that the leaves are not

crescent-shaped, but oblong and pointed, and that the fruit has not a pleasant flavour, and is only eaten by the birds.

2. See B. vi. c. 23.




13. Chap. 13.-Indian Trees, The Names Of Which Are Unknown. Indian Trees Which Bear Flax.


CHAP. 13.-INDIAN TREES, THE NAMES OF WHICH ARE UNKNOWN.

INDIAN TREES WHICH BEAR FLAX.



The Macedonians[1] have made mention of various other

kinds of trees, the greater part of which, however, are without

names. There is one which resembles the terebinth[2] in every

respect, except the fruit, which is very similar to the almond,

though less in size, and remarkable for its extreme sweetness.

This tree was met with in Bactria, and some persons looked

upon it as a variety of the terebinth, rather than as bearing a

strong resemblance to it. As to the tree from which they

manufacture a kind of linen[3] cloth, in leaf it resembles the

mulberry-tree, while the calix of the fruit is similar to the

dog-rose.[4] This tree is reared in the plains, and there is no

sight throughout the cultivated parts of the country that is

more enchanting than the plantations of it.







1. See Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 5.

2. Dalechamps and Desfontaines are of opinion, that the pistachio, or

Pistacia terebinthus of Linnus, is here alluded to; but Fe considers that

there are no indications to lead to such a conclusion.

3. It is not improbable that he may here allude to the cotton-tree, of

which further mention is made in c. xxi. of the present Book.

4. Fe is of opinion that Cynorrhodon here means, not the dog-rose, but

the gall which is formed on the tree by the sting of the Cynips bedeguar.




14. Chap. 14. (7.)-The Pepper-Tree.-The Various Kinds Of Pepper-Bregma-Zingiberi, Or Zimpiberi.


CHAP. 14. (7.)-THE PEPPER-TREE.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF

PEPPER-BREGMA-ZINGIBERI, OR ZIMPIBERI.



The olive-tree[1] of India is unproductive, with the sole

exception of the wild olive. In every part we meet with trees

that bear pepper,[2] very similar in appearance to our junipers,







although, indeed, it has been alleged by some authors that they

only grow on the slopes of Caucasus which lie exposed to the

sun. The seeds, however, differ from those of the juniper, in

being enclosed in small pods similar to those which we see in

the kidney-bean. These pods are picked before they open,

and when dried in the sun, make what we call "long pepper."

But if allowed to ripen, they will open gradually, and when

arrived at maturity, discover the white pepper; if left exposed to the heat of the sun, this becomes wrinkled, and changes

its colour. Even these productions, however, are subject to

their own peculiar infirmities, and are apt to become blasted

by the inclemency of the weather; in which case the seeds

are found to be rotten, and mere husks. These abortive seeds are

known by the name of "bregma," a word which in the Indian

language signifies "dead." Of all the various kinds of pepper,

this is the most pungent, as well as the very lightest, and is

remarkable for the extreme paleness of its colour. That which

is black is of a more agreeable flavour; but the white pepper

is of a milder quality than either.



The root of this tree is not, as many persons have imagined,

the same as the substance known as zimpiberi, or, as some call

it, zingiberi, or ginger, although it is very like it in taste.

For ginger, in fact, grows in Arabia and in Troglodytica, in

various cultivated spots, being a small plant[3] with a white

root. This plant is apt to decay very speedily, although it is

of intense pungency; the price at which it sells is six denarii

per pound. Long pepper is very easily adulterated with

Alexandrian mustard; its price is fifteen denarii per pound,

while that of white pepper is seven, and of black, four. It is

quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into

fashion, seeing that in other substances which we use, it is

sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appearance that

has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it

that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its

only desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is

for this that we import it all the way from India! Who was

the first to make trial of it as an article of food? and who, I

wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself







by hunger only for the satisfying of a greedy appetite? Both

pepper and ginger grow wild in their respective countries, and

yet here we buy them by weight-just as if they were so

much gold or silver. Italy,[4] too, now possesses a species of

pepper-tree, somewhat larger than the myrtle, and not very

unlike it. The bitterness of the grains is similar to that which

we may reasonably suppose to exist in the Indian pepper

when newly gathered; but it is wanting in that mature flavour which the Indian grain acquires by exposure in the sun,

and, consequently, bears no resemblance to it, either in colour

or the wrinkled appearance of the seeds. Pepper is adulterated

with juniper berries, which have the property, to a marvellous

degree, of assuming the pungency of pepper. In reference to

its weight, there are also several methods of adulterating it.







1. Fe expresses himself at a loss to conjecture what trees are here meant

by Pliny.

2. Fe remarks, that there are many inaccuracies in the account here

given by Pliny of the pepper-tree, and that it does not bear any resem-

blance to the juniper-tree. The grains, he says, grow in clusters, and not

in a husk or pod; and he remarks, that the long pepper and the black pepper, of which the white is only a variety divested of the outer coat, are

distinct species. He also observes, that the real long pepper, the Piper

longum of Linnus, was not known to the ancients.

3. Fe remarks, that this is not a correct description of ginger, the Amomum zingiber of Linnus. Dioscorides was one of those who thought

that ginger was the root of the pepper-tree.

4. It is very doubtful what tree is here alluded to by Pliny, though certain that it is not one of the pepper-trees. Sprengel takes it to be the

Daphne Thymela.




15. Chap. 15.-Caryophyllon, Lycion, And The Chironian Pyxacanthus.


CHAP. 15.-CARYOPHYLLON, LYCION, AND THE CHIRONIAN

PYXACANTHUS.



There is, also, in India another grain which bears a considerable resemblance to pepper, but is longer and more brittle;

it is known by the name of caryophyllon.[1] It is said that

this grain is produced in a sacred grove in India; with us it

is imported for its aromatic perfume. The same country produces, also, a thorny shrub, with grains which bear a resemblance to pepper, and are of a remarkably bitter taste. The

leaves of this shrub are small, like those of the cyprus;[2] the

branches are three cubits in length, the bark pallid, and the

roots wide-spreading and woody, and of a colour resembling

that of boxwood. By boiling this root with the seed in a

copper vessel, the medicament is prepared which is known by

the name of lycion.[3] This thorny shrub grows, also, on







Mount Pelion;[4] this last kind is much used for the purpose

of adulterating the medicament above mentioned. The root

of the asphodel, ox-gall, wormwood, sumach, and the amurca

of olive oil, are also employed for a similar purpose. The best

lycion for medicinal purposes, is that which has a froth on its

surface; the Indians send it to us in leather bottles, made of

the skin of the camel or the rhinoceros. The shrub itself is

known by some persons in Greece under the name of the

Chironian pyxacanthus.[5]







1. It has been suggested that under this name the clove is meant, though

Fe and Desfontaines express a contrary opinion. Sprengel thinks that it

is the Vitex trifolia of Linnus, and Bauhin suggests the cubeb, the Piper

cubeba of Linnus. Fe thinks it may have possibly been the Myrtus

caryophyllata of Ceylon, the fruit of which corresponds to the description

here given by Pliny.

2. See c. 52 of the present Book.

3. Or "Lycium." It is impossible to say with exactness what the medical

liquid called "Lycion" was. Catechu, an extract from the tan of the

acacia, has been suggested; though the fruit of that tree does not answer

the present description.

4. Fe suggests that this may possibly be the Lycium Europum of

Linnus, a shrub not uncommonly found in the south of Europe.

5. The Rhamnus Lycioides of Linnus, known to us as buckthorn. The

berries of many varieties of the Rhamnus are violent purgatives.




16. Chap. 16. (8.)-Macir.


CHAP. 16. (8.)-MACIR.



Macir,[1] too, is a vegetable substance that is brought from

India, being a red bark that grows upon a large root, and bears

the name of the tree that produces it; what the nature of this

tree is, I have not been able to ascertain. A decoction of this

bark, mixed with honey, is greatly employed in medicine, as a

specific for dysentery.







1. What he means under this head is not known. Fe speaks of a tree

which the Brahmins call macre, and which the Portuguese called arvore

de las camaras, arvore sancto, arvore de sancto Thome, but of which they

have given no further particulars. Acosta, Clusius, and Bauhin have also

professed to give accounts of it, but they do not lead to its identification.

De Jussieu thinks that either the Soulamea, the Rex amaroris of Rumphius,

or else the Polycardia of Commerson is meant. It seems by no means impossible that mace, the covering of the nutmeg, is the substance alluded to,

an opinion that is supported by Gerard and Desfontaines.




17. Chap. 17.-Sugar.


CHAP. 17.-SUGAR.



Arabia, too, produces sugar;[1] but that of India is the most

esteemed. This substance is a kind of honey, which collects







in reeds, white, like gum, and brittle to the teeth. The

larger pieces are about the size of a filbert; it is only employed, however, in medicine.







1. "Saccharon." Fe suggests that Pliny alludes to a peculiar kind

of crystallized sugar, that is found in the bamboo cane, though, at

the same time, he thinks it not improbable that he may have heard of

the genuine sugar-cane; as Strabo, B. xv., speaks of a honey found in

India, prepared without the aid of bees, and Lucan has the line-

"Quique bibunt tener dulces ab arundine succos,"

evidently referring to a sugar in the form of a syrup, and not of crystal,

like that of the Bambos arundinacea. It is by no means improbable, that

Pliny, or rather Dioscorides, from whom he copies, confuses the two kinds

of sugar; as it is well known that the Saccharum officinarum, or sugarcane, has been cultivated from a very early period in Arabia Felix.




18. Chap. 18.-Trees Of Abiana, Gedrosia, And Hyrcania.


CHAP. 18.-TREES OF ABIANA, GEDROSIA, AND HYRCANIA.



On the frontiers of India is a country called Ariana, which

produces a thorny shrub,[1] rendered precious by the tears

which it distils. It bears some resemblance to myrrh, but is

very difficult of access, by reason of the thorns with which it

is armed. Here, too, a poisonous shrub is found, with a root

like the radish,[2] and leaves like those of the laurel, By its

powerful odour it attracts horses, and was very nearly depriving Alexander of all his cavalry upon his first arrival there,

an accident which also happened in Gedrosia. A thorny

shrub[3] has been also spoken of as a native of the same

country, with leaves like those of the laurel, the juice of

which, if sprinkled upon the eyes, is productive of blindness

in all animals. Another plant is also mentioned, with a most

remarkable odour, and full of diminutive serpents,[4] the sting

of which is sure to cause instant death. Onesicritus states,

that in the vallies of Hyrcania, there is a tree resembling the

fig, and known as the occhus,[5] from which a honey distils

for two hours every morning.













1. It is unknown what plant is here alluded to by Pliny, but Sprengel

suggests that it is the Acacia latronum.

2. From the description, this would appear to be a sort of poisonous

horse-radish.

3. There is a tree in India, as we are informed by Fe, which is known

as the Excaria Agallochum, the juice of which is remarkably acrid.

Sailors, on striking it with a hatchet, and causing the juice to spirt into

their eyes, have been in danger of losing their sight. It is possible that

this may be the tree here alluded to by Pliny.

4. He borrows the account of this marvellous shrub from Theophrastus.

No such plant is likely to have ever existed; though small, and even large,

snakes may occasionally take refuge among shrubs and hollow trees.

5. There is little doubt that the Hedysarum Alhagi of Linnus is here

meant, from which a kind of honey or manna flows, known as "Eastern "

manna, or tereniabin. It is not so high as the fig-tree, and is found in

Khorasan, Syria, Mesopotamia, and elsewhere. The manna distils prin-

cipally in the morning.




19. Chap. 19. (9.)-Trees Of Bactriana, Bdellium, Or Brochon, Otherwise Malacha, Or Maldacon, Scordastum. Adulterations Used In All Spices And Aromatics; The Various Tests Of Them And Their Respective Values.


CHAP. 19. (9.)-TREES OF BACTRIANA, BDELLIUM, OR BROCHON,

OTHERWISE MALACHA, OR MALDACON, SCORDASTUM. ADULTERATIONS USED IN ALL SPICES AND AROMATICS; THE VARIOUS

TESTS OF THEM AND THEIR RESPECTIVE VALUES.



In the vicinity, too, of India, is Bactriana, in which region

we find bdellium,[1] that is so highly esteemed. This tree is of a

black colour, and about the size of the olive; it has leaves like

those of the robur, and bears a fruit similar to that of the wild

fig, and in nature resembling a kind of gum. This fruit is

by some persons called brochon, by others malacha, and by

others, again, maldacon. When of a black colour, and rolled

up in cakes, it bears the name of hadrobolon. This substance

ought to be transparent and the colour of wax, odoriferous,

unctuous when subjected to friction, and bitter to the taste,

though without the slightest acidity. When used for sacred

purposes, it is steeped in wine, upon which it emits a still

more powerful odour. The tree is a native of both India and

Arabia, as well as Media and Babylon; some persons give to

the bdellium that is imported by way of Media, the name of

peraticum.[2] This last is remarkable for its brittleness, while,

at the same time, it is harder and more bitter than the other

kinds; that of India, on the other hand, is moister, and gummy.

This last sort is adulterated by means of almonds, while the

various other kinds are falsified with the bark of scordastum,

that being the name of a tree[3] the gum of which strongly resembles bdellium. These aduiterations, however, are to be

detected-and let it suffice to mention it here, in relation to all

other perfumes as well-by the smell, the colour, the weight,

the taste, and the action of fire. The bdellium of Bactriana

is shining and dry, and covered with numerous white spots

resembling the finger-nails; besides which, it should be of a

certain weight, heavier or lighter than which it ought not to

be. The price of bdellium, in its pure state, is three denarii

per pound.











1. Fe remarks, that it is singular that a resinous gum, such as bdellium, should have been used in commerce for now two thousand years,

and yet its origin remain unknown. Kmpfer and Rumphus are of

opinion, that the tree which produces it is the one known to naturalists as

the Borassus flabelliformis of Linnus, or the Lontarus of others. It is

imported into Europe from Arabia and India, and is often found mixed

with gum Arabic.

2. Peratiko\n; from per|ata\ gh=s "the remotest parts of the earth,"

from which it was brought.

3. The modern name of this tree is unknown.




20. Chap. 20.-Trees Of Persis.


CHAP. 20.-TREES OF PERSIS.



Adjoining the countries which we have previously mentioned

is Persis, lying along the shores of the Red Sea, which, when

describing[1] it, we have mentioned as the Persian Sea, the tides

of which penetrate far into the land. The trees in these

regions are of a marvellous nature; for, corroded by the action

of the salt, and bearing a considerable resemblance to vegetable substances that have been thrown up and abandoned by

the tide, they are seen to embrace the arid sands of the seashore with their naked roots, just like so many polypi. When

the tide rises, buffeted by the waves, there they stand, fixed

and immoveable; nay, more, at high water they are completely

covered; a fact which proves to conviction, that they derive

their nutriment from the salt contained in the water. The

size of these trees is quite marvellous; in appearance they

strongly resemble the arbute; the fruit, which on the outside

is very similar to the almond, has a spiral kernel within.[2]







1. B. vi. c. 28.

2. It is supposed that the Rhizophora Mangle of Linnus is the tree

that is here described. It grows on all the coasts of India, from Siam to

the entrance of the Persian Gulf. It takes root on spots which have been

inundated by the sea, and its boughs bend downwards, and taking root in

the earth, advance gradually towards the sea. The leaf and fruit have the

characteristics of those of the arbute and almond as here mentioned.




21. Chap. 21. (10.)-Trees Of The Islands Of The Persian Sea. The Cotton Tree.


CHAP. 21. (10.)-TREES OF THE ISLANDS OF THE PERSIAN SEA.

THE COTTON TREE.



In the same gulf, there is the island of Tylos,[1] covered with

a forest[2] on the side which looks towards the East, where it

is washed also by the sea at high tides. Each of the trees

is in size as large as the fig; the blossoms are of an indescribable sweetness, and the fruit is similar in shape to a lupine,

but so rough and prickly, that it is never touched by any animal. On a more elevated plateau of the same island, we find

trees that bear wool, but of a different nature from those of the

Seres;[3] as in these trees the leaves produce nothing at all,

and, indeed, might very readily be taken for those of the vine,







were it not that they are of smaller size. They bear a kind of

gourd, about the size of a quince;[4] which, when arrived at

maturity, bursts asunder and discloses a ball of down, from

which a costly kind of linen cloth is made.



(11.) This tree is known by the name of gossypinus:[5]

the smaller island of Tylos, which is ten miles distant from the

larger one, produces it in even greater abundance.







1. B. vi. c. 32.

2. Fe suggests that some kind of mangrove is probably alluded to, of

the kind known as avicennia, or bruguiera.

3. See B. vi. c. 20

4. "Cotonei." To this resemblance of its fruit to the quince, the cotton-tree, which is here alluded to, not improbably owes its modern name.

5. The cotton-tree, or Gossypium arboreum of Linnus. It is worthy

of remark, that Pliny copies here almost literally from Theophrastus. According to Philostratus, the byssus, or fine tissues worn by the Egyptian

priests, were made of cotton.




22. Chap. 22.-The Tree Called Cyna. Trees From Which Fabrics For Clothing Are Made In The East.


CHAP. 22.-THE TREE CALLED CYNA. TREES FROM WHICH

FABRICS FOR CLOTHING ARE MADE IN THE EAST.



Juba states, that about a certain shrub there grows a woolly

down, from which a fabric is manufactured, preferable even to

those of India. He adds, too, that certain trees of Arabia,

from which vestments are made, are called cyn, and that they

have a leaf similar to that of the palm. Thus do their very

trees afford clothing for the people of India. In the islands of

Tylos, there is also another tree, with a blossom like the white

violet[1] in appearance, though four times as large, but it is

destitute of smell, a very remarkable fact in these climates.







1. The Malthiola incana.




23. Chap. 23.-A Country Where The Trees Never Lose Their Leaves.


CHAP. 23.-A COUNTRY WHERE THE TREES NEVER LOSE THEIR

LEAVES.



There is also another tree similar to the preceding one, but

with a thicker foliage, and a blossom like the rose. This flower

shuts[1] at night, and, beginning to open towards sun-rise,

appears in full blow by mid-day; the natives are in the habit

of saying that in this way it goes to sleep. The same island

bears also the palm, the olive, the vine, and the fig, with

various other kinds of fruit. None of the trees in this island

lose their leaves;[2] it is abundantly watered by cool streams,

and receives the benefit of rain.











1. Fe suggests that this may be a Magnolia; but, as he remarks, most

plants open and shut at certain hours; consequently, this cannot be regarded as any peculiar characteristic, sufficient to lead with certainty to

its identification.

2. Theophrastus, from whom our author is copying, says that this is the

case only with the fig-tree there.




24. Chap. 24.-The Various Useful Products Of Trees.


CHAP. 24.-THE VARIOUS USEFUL PRODUCTS OF TREES.



Arabia, which is in the vicinity of these islands, requires

that we should make some distinction in its vegetable products,

seeing that here the various parts of trees which are employed for useful purposes are the root, the branches, the

bark, the juices, the gum, the wood, the shoots, the blossoms,

the leaves, and the fruit.










25. Chap. 25. (12.)-Costus.


CHAP. 25. (12.)-COSTUS.



A root and a leaf, however, are the productions which are

held in the very highest estimation in India. The root is that

of the costus;[1] it has a burning taste in the mouth, and a

most exquisite odour; in other respects, the branches are good

for nothing. In the island of Patale,[2] situate at the very

mouth of the river Indus, there are two kinds of costus found,

the black and the white; the last is considered the best. The

price of it is five denarii per pound.







1. According to most commentators, this is the Costus Arabicus of Linnus. Dioscorides mentions three varieties of costus: the Arabian, which

is of the best quality, and is white and odoriferous; the Indian, which is

black and smooth; and the Syrian, which is of the colour of wax, dusky, and

strong smelling. Fe, however, doubts whether the modern costus is the

same thing as that of the ancients; for, as he says, although it has a sweet

odour, it does not deserve the appellation of a "precious aromatic," which

we find constantly given to it by the ancients.

2. See B. vi. c. 23.




26. Chap. 26.-Nard. The Twelve Varieties Of The Plant.


CHAP. 26.-NARD. THE TWELVE VARIETIES OF THE PLANT.



Of the leaf, which is that of the nard,[1] it is only right to

speak somewhat more at length, as it holds the principal place

among our unguents. The nard is a shrub with a heavy,

thick root, but short, black, brittle, and yet unctuous as well;







it has a musty smell, too, very much like that of the cyperus,

with a sharp, acrid taste, the leaves being small, and growing

in tufts. The heads of the nard spread out into ears; hence

it is that nard is so famous for its two-fold production, the

spike or ear, and the leaf. There is another kind, again, that

grows on the banks of the Ganges, but is altogether condemned, as being good for nothing; it bears the name of

oznitis,[2] and emits a fetid odour. Nard is adulterated

with a sort of plant called pseudo-nard,[3] which is found

growing everywhere, and is known by its thick, broad leaf,

and its sickly colour, which inclines to white. It is sophisticated, also, by being mixed with the root of the genuine

nard, which adds very considerably to its weight. Gum is

also used for the same purpose, antimony, and cyperus; or,

at least, the outer coat of the cyperus. Its genuineness is tested

by its lightness, the redness of its colour, its sweet smell, and

the taste more particularly, which parches the mouth, and

leaves a pleasant flavour behind it; the price of spikenard is

one hundred denarii per pound.



Leaf[4] nard varies in price according to the size; for that

which is known by the name of hadrosphrum, consisting of

the larger leaves, sells at forty denarii per pound; when the

leaves are smaller, it is called mesosphrum, and is sold at

sixty. But that which is considered the most valuable of all,

is known as microsphrum, and consists of the very smallest

of the leaves; it sells at seventy-five denarii per pound. All

these varieties of nard have an agreeable odour, but it is most

powerful when fresh. If the nard is old when gathered, that

which is of a black colour is considered the best.



In our part of the world, the Syrian[5] nard is held in the







next highest esteem next to this; then the Gallic;[6] and in

the third place, that of Crete,[7] which by some persons is

called "agrion," and by others "phu." This last has exactly the

leaf of the olusatrum,[8] with a stalk a cubit in length, knotted,

of a whitish colour, inclining to purple, and a root that runs

sideways; it is covered, too, with long hair, and strongly

resembles the foot of a bird. Field nard is known by the

name of baccar.[9] We shall have further occasion to mention

it when we come to speak of the flowers. All these kinds of

nard, however, are to be reckoned as herbs, with the exception

of Indian nard. Of these, the Gallic kind is pulled up along

with the root, and washed in wine; after which it is dried in

the shade, and wrapped up in paper, in small parcels. It is

not very different from the Indian nard, but is lighter than

that of Syria; the price at which it sells is three denarii per

pound. The only way of testing the leaves of all these

varieties of nard, is to see that they are not brittle and parched,

instead of being dried naturally and gradually. Together

with the nard that grows in Gaul, there always[10] springs up

a herb, which is known by the name of hirculus, or the

"little goat," on account of its offensive smell, it being very

similar to that of the goat. This herb, too, is very much used

in the adulteration of nard, though it differs from it in the

fact that it has no stem, and its leaves are smaller; the root,

too, is not bitter, and is entirely destitute of smell.







1. It is probable that the nard of the ancients, from which they extracted

the famous nard-oil, was not the same plant which we know as the Indian

nard, or Andropogon nardus of Linnus. Indeed, it has been pretty conclusively established by Sir William Jones, in his "Asiatic Researches,"

that the Valeriana Jatamansi is the plant from which they obtained the oil.

Among the Hindoos, it is known as djatmansi, and by the Arabs under

the name of sombul, or "spike," from the fact of the base being surrounded

with ears or spikes, whence, probably, the Roman appellation. This species of valerian grows in the more distant and mountainous parts of India,

Bootan and Nepaul, for instance.

2. From the Greek, o(/zaina, "a putrid sore." Fe suggests that this

may have been the Nardus hadrosphrum of the moderns.

3. Fe supposes that this is not lavender, as some have thought, but the

Allium victorialis of modern naturalists, which is still mixed with the nard

from the Andropogon. He doubts the possibility of its having been adulterated with substances of such a different nature as those mentioned here

by Pliny.

4. Fe is of opinion, that the Greek writers, from whom Pliny copied

this passage, intended to speak of the ears of nard, or spikenard.

5. According to Dioscorides, this appellation only means such nard as is

cultivated in certain mountains of India which look toward Syria, and

which, according to that author, was the best nard of all. Dalechamps and

Hardouin, however, ridicule this explanation of the term.

6. Generally supposed to be the Valeriana Celtica of modern naturalists.

See B. xxi. c. 79.

7. Probably the Valeriana Italica of modern naturalists.

8. See B. xix. c. 48.

9. Known in this country as fox-glove, our Lady's gloves, sage of Jerusalem, or clown's spikenard. See B. xxi. c. 16.

10. Not always, but very seldom, Brotier says. Clusius has established,

from observation, that this plant is only a variety of the Valeriana Celtica.




27. Chap. 27. (13.)-Asarum, Or Foal-Foot.


CHAP. 27. (13.)-ASARUM, OR FOAL-FOOT.



The herb asarum,[1] too, has the properties of nard, and,

indeed, by some persons is known as wild nard. It has a leaf,







however, more like that of the ivy, only that it is rounder and

softer. The flower is purple, the root very similar to that of

the Gallic nard, and the seed is like a grape. It is of a warm

and vinous flavour, and blossoms twice a year, growing upon

hill sides that are densely shaded. The best kind is that found

in Pontus, and the next best that of Phrygia; that of Illyricum being only of third-rate quality. The root is dug up

when it is just beginning to put forth its leaves, and then dried

in the sun. It very soon turns mouldy, and loses its properties.

There has, also, been lately found a certain herb in some parts

of Greece, the leaves of which do not differ in the slightest

degree from those of the Indian nard.







1. Fe remarks, that the name "baccara," in Greek, properly belonged

to this plant, but that it was transferred by the Romans to the field nard,

with which the Asarum had become confounded. It is the same as the

Asarum Europum of modern naturalists; but it does not, as Pliny asserts,

flower twice in the year.




28. Chap. 28.-Amomum.-Amomis.


CHAP. 28.-AMOMUM.-AMOMIS.



The clustered amomum[1] is very extensively used; it

grows upon a kind of wild vine that is found in India, though

some persons have been of opinion that it is borne by a shrub,

resembling the myrtle in appearance, and about the same

height as the palm. This plant, also, is plucked along with

the root, and is carefully pressed together with the hands; for

it very soon becomes brittle. That kind is held in the highest

esteem, the leaves of which bear a strong resemblance to those

of the pomegranate, being free from wrinkles, and of a red

colour. The second quality is that which is of a pallid hue.

That which has a green, grassy appearance, is not so good,

and the white is the worst of all; it assumes this appearance

when old. The price of clustered amomum is sixty denarii per

pound, but in dust it sells at only forty-nine. Amomum is produced, also, in that part of Armenia which is known as Otene;

as, also, in Media and Pontus. It is adulterated with the leaves

of the pomegranate and a solution of gum, which is employed







in order to make the leaves adhere and form clusters, like

those of the grape.



There is another substance, also, which is known by the

name of amomis;[2] it is not so full of veins as amomum,

harder, and not so odoriferous; from which it would appear,

either that it is altogether a different plant, or else that it is

amomum gathered in an unripe state.







1. It is by no means settled among naturalists, what plant the Amomum

of the ancients was; indeed, there has been the greatest divergence of

opinion. Tragus takes it to be a kind of bindweed: Matthioli, the Piper

thiopicum of Linnus: Cordus and Scaliger, the rose of Jericho, the

Anastatica hierocuntica of Linnus. Gesner thinks it to have been the

garden pepper, the Solanum bacciferum of Tournefort: Csalpinus the

cubeb, the Piper cubeba of Linnus: Plukenet and Sprengel the Cissus

vitiginea, while Fe and Paulet look upon it as not improbably identical

with the Amomum racemosum of Linnus. The name is probably derived

from the Arabic hahmma, the Arabians having first introduced it to the

notice of the Greeks.

2. Supposed to have been only the Amomum, in an unripe state, as Pliny

himself suggests.




29. Chap. 29.-Cardamomum.


CHAP. 29.-CARDAMOMUM.



Similar to these substances, both in name as well as the

shrub which produces it, is the cardamomum,[1] the seeds of

which are of an oblong shape. It is gathered in the same

manner both in India and Arabia. There are four different

kinds of cardamomum. That which is of a very green colour,

unctuous, with sharp angles, and very difficult to break, is the

most highly esteemed of all. The next best is of a reddish

white tint, while that of third-rate quality is shorter and

blacker, the worst of all being mottled and friable, and emitting but little smell; which, in its genuine[2] state ought to be

very similar to costum. Cardamomum grows also in Media.

The price of the best is three denarii per pound.







1. Still known in pharmacy as "cardamum." It is not, however, as

Pliny says, found in Arabia, but in India; from which it probably reached

the Greeks and Romans by way of the Red Sea. There are three kinds

known in modern commerce, the large, the middle size, and the small.

M. Bonastre, "Journal de Pharmacie," May, 1828, is of opinion, that the

word cardamomum signifies "amomum in pods," the Egyptian kardh

meaning "pod," or "husk." It is, however, more generally supposed,

that the Greek word, kardi/a, "heart," enters into its composition.

2. "Verus" seems a preferable reading here to "vero," which has been

adopted by Sillig.




30. Chap. 30.-The Country Of Frankincense.


CHAP. 30.-THE COUNTRY OF FRANKINCENSE.



Next in affinity to cardamomum would have been cinnamomum,[1] and this we should have now proceeded to speak of, were

it not more convenient first to make mention of the treasures

of Arabia, and the reasons for which that country has received

the names of "Happy" and "Blest." The chief productions

of Arabia are frankincense and myrrh, which last it bears in







common with the country of the Troglodyt. (14.) There is

no country in the world that produces frankincense except

Arabia,[2] and, indeed, not the whole of that. Almost in the

very centre of that region, are the Atramit,[3] a community of

the Sabi, the capital of whose kingdom is Sabota, a place

situate on a lofty mountain. At a distance of eight stations

from this is the incense-bearing region, known by the name

of Saba. The Greeks say that the word signifies a "secret

mystery." This district looks towards the north-east, and

is rendered inaccessible by rocks on every side, while it is

bounded on the right by the sea, from which it is shut out by

cliffs of tremendous height. The soil of this territory is said

to be of a milky white, a little inclining to red. The forests

extend twenty schni in length, and half that distance in

breadth. The length of the schnus, according to the estimate of Eratosthenes, is forty stadia, or, in other words, five

miles; some persons, however, have estimated the schnus at

no more than thirty-two stadia. In this district some lofty

hills take their rise, and the trees, which spring up spontaneously, run downwards along the declivities to the plains.

It is generally agreed that the soil is argillaceous, and that

the springs which there take their rise are but few in number,

and of a nitrous quality. Adjoining are the Mini, the people

of another community, through whose country is the sole transit for the frankincense, along a single narrow road. The







Mini were the first people who carried on any traffic in

frankincense, which they still do to a greater extent than any

other persons, and hence it is that it has received the appellation of "Minan." It is the Sabi alone, and no other

people among the Arabians, that behold the incense-tree; and,

indeed, not all of them, for it is said that there are not more

than three thousand families which have a right to claim that

privilege, by virtue of hereditary succession; and that for this

reason those persons are called sacred, and are not allowed,

while pruning the trees or gathering the harvest, to receive

any pollution, either by intercourse with women, or coming in

contact with the dead; by these religious observances it is

that the price of the commodity is so considerably enhanced.

Some persons, however, say, that the right of gathering incense in the forests belongs to all these people in common,

while others again state, that they take their turns year by

year.







1. See c. 42 of the present Book.

2. Virgil, Georg. B. ii. 1. 139, mentions Panchaia, in Arabia, as being

more especially the country of frankincense. That region corresponds with

the modern Yemen. It is, however, a well-ascertained fact, that it grows

in India as well, and it is supposed that the greater part of it used by

the ancients was in reality imported from that country. The Indian incense is the product of a tree belonging to the terebinth class, named by

Roxburgh, who first discovered it, Boswellia thurifera. It is more especially found in the mountainous parts of India. On the other hand, it has

been asserted that the Arabian incense was the product of a coniferous tree,

either the Juniperus Lycia, the Juniperus Phnicea, or the Juniperus

thurifera of Linnus. But, as Fe justly remarks, it would appear more

reasonable to look among the terebinths of Arabia for the incense tree, if

one of that class produces it in India, and more especially because the coniferous trees produce only resins, while the terebinths produce gum resins,

to which class of vegetable products frankincense evidently belonged. In

commerce, the gum resin, Olibanum, the produce of the Boswellia serrata,

and imported from the Levant, bears the name of frankincense.

3. See B. vi. c. 32. Their name is still preserved in the modern Hadra-

maut, to the east of Aden.




31. Chap. 31.-The Trees That Bear Frankincense.


CHAP. 31.-THE TREES THAT BEAR FRANKINCENSE.



Nor is it by any means agreed what is the appearance of

the incense-tree. We have sent several expeditions against

Arabia, and the Roman arms have penetrated into the greater

part of that country; indeed, Caius Csar,[1] the son of Augustus, even earned considerable renown there; and yet this tree

has been described by no Latin writer, at least that I know

of. The descriptions given of it by the Greek writers vary

very considerably: some of them say that it has exactly the

leaf of the pear-tree, only somewhat smaller, and of a grass-green colour. Others, again, say, that it has a rather reddish

leaf, like that of the mastich, and others, that it is a kind of

terebinth,[2] and that King Antigonus, to whom a branch of it

was brought, was of that opinion. King Juba, in the work

which he wrote and dedicated to Caius Csar, the son of

Augustus, who was inflamed by the wide-spread renown of

Arabia, states, that the tree has a spiral stem, and that the

branches bear a considerable resemblance to those of the Pontic

maple, while it secretes a sort of juice very similar to that of







the almond-tree. Such, he says, is the appearance of the tree

as seen in Carmania and Egypt, where it was introduced and

planted under the auspices of the Ptolemies when reigning

there. It is well known that it has a bark not unlike that of

the laurel, and, indeed, some persons have asserted that their

leaves are similar. At all events, such was the case with the

tree as it grew at Sardes: for the kings of Asia also took considerable care to have it planted there. The ambassadors

who in my time have come to Rome from Arabia, have made

all these matters more uncertain, even, than they were before;

a thing at which we may justly be surprised, seeing that

some sprigs even of the incense-tree have been brought among

us, from which we have some reason to conclude that the

parent tree is round and tapering, and that it puts forth its

shoots from a trunk that is entirely free from knots.







1. See B. vi. cc. 31 and 32. He was the son of Agrippa and Julia, the

daughter of Augustus, by whom he was adopted.

2. This seems the most probable among these various surmises and con-

jectures.




32. Chap. 32.-Various Kinds Of Frankincense.


CHAP. 32.-VARIOUS KINDS OF FRANKINCENSE.



In former times, when they had fewer opportunities of

selling it, they used to gather the frankincense only once a

year; but at the present day, as there is a much greater demand for it, there is a second crop as well. The first, and

what we may call the natural, vintage, takes place about the

rising of the Dog-star, a period when the heat is most intense;

on which occasion they cut the tree where the bark appears

to be the fullest of juice, and extremely thin, from being distended to the greatest extent. The incision thus made is gradually extended, but nothing is removed; the consequence of

which is, that an unctuous foam oozes forth, which gradually

coagulates and thickens. When the nature of the locality requires it, this juice is received upon mats of palm-leaves, though

in some places the space around the tree is made hard by being

well rammed down for the purpose. The frankincense that

is gathered after the former method, is in the purest state,

though that which falls on the ground is the heaviest in

weight: that which adheres to the tree is pared off with an

iron instrument, which accounts for its being found mingled

with pieces of bark.



The forest is allotted in certain portions, and such is the

mutual probity of the owners, that it is quite safe from all

depredation; indeed, there is no one left to watch the trees

after the incisions are made, and yet no one is ever known to







plunder his neighbour. But, by Hercules! at Alexandria,

where the incense is dressed for sale, the workshops can never

be guarded with sufficient care; a seal is even placed upon the

workmen's aprons, and a mask put upon the head, or else a

net with very close meshes, while the people are stripped

naked before they are allowed to leave work. So true it is

that punishments afford less security among us than is to be

found by these Arabians amid their woods and forests! The

incense which has accumulated during the summer is gathered

in the autumn: it is the purest of all, and is of a white colour.

The second gathering takes place in spring, incisions being

made in the bark for that purpose during the winter: this,

however, is of a red colour, and not to be compared with the

other incense. The first, or superior kind of incense, is known

as carfiathum,[1] the latter is called dathiathum. It is thought,

also, that the incense which is gathered from the tree while

young is the whitest, though the produce of the old trees has

the most powerful smell; some persons, too, have an impression that the best incense is found in the islands, but Juba

asserts that no incense at all is grown there.



That incense which has hung suspended in globular drops is

known to us as "male" frankincense, although it is mostly

the case that we do not use the term "male" except in contradistinction to the word "female:" it has been attributed,

however, to religious scruples, that the name of the other sex

was not employed as a denomination for this substance. Some

persons, again, are of opinion that the male frankincense has

been so called from its resemblance[2] to the testes of the male.

The incense, however, that is the most esteemed of all is that

which is mammose, or breast-shaped, and is produced when

one drop has stopped short, and another, following close upon

it, has adhered, and united with it. I find it stated that one

of these lumps used to make quite a handful, at a time when

men displayed less eagerness to gather it, and it was allowed

more time to accumulate. The Greeks call such lumps as







these by the name of stagonia[3] and atomus,[4] while the smaller

pieces are called orobia.[5] The fragments which are broken off

by shaking the tree are known to us as manna.[6] Even at the

present day, however, there are drops found which weigh one-third of a mina, or, in other words, twenty-eight denarii.

Alexander the Great, when a boy, was on one occasion loading

the altars with frankincense with the greatest prodigality,

upon which his tutor Leonides[7] remarked to him that it

would be time to worship the gods in such a lavish manner

as that, when he had conquered the countries that produced

the frankincense. After Alexandria had conquered Arabia,

he despatched to Leonides a ship freighted with frankincense,

and sent him word, requesting that he would now worship the

gods without stint or limit.



The incense, after being collected, is carried on camels'

backs to Sabota,[8] at which place a single gate is left open for

its admission. To deviate from the high road while conveying it, the laws have made a capital offence. At this place the

priests take by measure, and not by weight, a tenth part in

honour of their god, whom they call Sabis; indeed, it is not

allowable to dispose of it before this has been done: out of

this tenth the public expenses are defrayed, for the divinity

generously entertains all those strangers who have made a certain number of days' journey in coming thither. The incense

can only be exported through the country of the Gebanit,

and for this reason it is that a certain tax is paid to their

king as well. Thomna,[9] which is their capital, is distant

from Gaza, a city of Juda, on the shores of our sea, 4436[10]



[11]







miles, the distance being divided into sixty-five days' journey

by camel. There are certain portions also of the frankincense

which are given to the priests and the king's secretaries: and

in addition to these, the keepers of it, as well as the soldiers

who guard it, the gate-keepers, and various other employes,

have their share as well. And then besides, all along the

route, there is at one place water to pay for, at another fodder,

lodging at the stations, and various taxes and imposts besides;

the consequence of which is, that the expense for each camel

before it arrives at the shores of our[12] sea is six hundred aud

eighty-eight denarii; after all this, too, there are certain payments still to be made to the farmers of the revenue of our

empire. Hence it is that a pound of the best frankincense

sells at six denarii, the second quality five, and the third

three. Among us, it is adulterated with drops of white resin,

a substance which bears a strong resemblance to it: but the

fraud may be easily detected by the methods which have

been already mentioned.[13] It is tested by the following qualities; its whiteness, size, brittleness, and the readiness with

which it takes fire when placed on heated coals; in addition

to which, it should not give to the pressure of the teeth, but

from its natural brittleness crumble all to pieces.







1. These words are said by some to be derived from the Greek, karfo\s,

"a hollow stalk," on account of its lightness, and da|di/on, "a torch," on

account of its resinous and inflammable qualities. It is, however, much

more probable that they were derived from the Arabic, and not from the

Celto-Scythic, as Poinsinet conjectures.

2. Fe is probably right in his conjecture, that it was so called solely in

consequence of its superior strength.

3. Meaning "drop" incense.

4. "Undivided" incense.

5. From their being the size of an o)/robos, or "chick-pea."

6. There is some doubt as to the correctness of this reading. The "manna"

here mentioned is quite a different substance to the manna of modern commerce, obtained from the Fraxinus ornus of naturalists.

7. He was a kinsman of Olympias, the mother of Alexander, and a man

of very austere habits. Plutarch says, that on this occasion Alexander

sent to Leonidas 600 talents' weight of incense and myrrh.

8. See B. vi. c. 32.

9. As to this place and the Gehanit, see B. vi. c. 32.

10. There must surely be some mistake in these numbers.

11. Probably the same as the deity, Assabinus, mentioned by Pliny in c.

42 of the present Book. Theophrastus mentions him as identical with the

sun, others, again, with Jupiter. Theophrastus says that the god received

not a tenth part, but a third.

12. The Mediterranean.

13. In c. 19 of the present Book.




33. Chap. 33. (15.)-Myrrh.


CHAP. 33. (15.)-MYRRH.



According to some authors, myrrh[1] is the produce of a tree

that grows in the same forests as the incense-tree, though

most say that they grow in different places: but the fact is

that myrrh grows in many parts of Arabia, as will be seen

when we come to speak of the several varieties of it. A sort

that is highly esteemed is brought from the islands[2] also, and

the Sabi even cross the sea to procure it in the country of

the Troglodyt. It is grown also by being transplanted, and

when thus cultivated is greatly preferred to that which is

grown in the forests. The plant is greatly improved by raking







and baring the roots; indeed, the cooler the roots are kept, the

better it is.







1. It is supposed to be the product of an amyris, but is not now esteemed

as a perfume; but is used in medicine as a tonic. Forskhal has attributed

to the Amyris kataf, or kafal, the production of myrrh. According to

Ehrenberg, a very similar tree, though constituting a different species, the

Balsamodendrum myrrha, also produces this substance. It is imported

into Europe from both Abyssinia and Arabia. It was much used by the

ancients, to flavour their wines.

2. See B. vi. c. 32.




34. Chap. 34.-The Trees Which Produce Myrrh.


CHAP. 34.-THE TREES WHICH PRODUCE MYRRH.



The tree grows to the height of five cubits, and has thorns

upon it: the trunk is hard and spiral, and thicker than that

of the incense-tree, and much more so at the root than at the

upper part of the tree. Some authors have said that the bark

is smooth like that of the arbute, others, that it is rough and

covered with thorns: it has the leaf of the olive, but more wavy,

with sharp points at the edges: Juba says, however, that it

resembles the leaf of the olusatrum. Some again say that it

resembles the juniper,[1] only that it is rougher and bristling

with thorns, and that the leaves are of a rounder shape, though

they have exactly the taste of the juniper. There have been

some writers who have incorrectly asserted that both myrrh

and frankincense are the product of the same tree.







1. Theophrastus says the terebinth.




35. Chap. 35.-The Nature And Various Kinds Of Myrrh.


CHAP. 35.-THE NATURE AND VARIOUS KINDS OF MYRRH.



Incisions are made in the myrrh-tree also twice a year, and at

the same season as in the incense-tree; but in the case of the

myrrh-tree they are all made the way up from the root as far as

the branches which are able to bear it. The tree spontaneously

exudes, before the incision is made, a liquid which bears the

name of stacte,[1] and to which there is no myrrh that is superior. Second only in quality to this is the cultivated myrrh:

of the wild or forest kind, the best is that which is gathered in

summer. They give no tithes of myrrh to the god, because it

is the produce of other countries as well; but the growers pay

the fourth part of it to the king of the Gebanit. Myrrh is

bought up indiscriminately by the common people, and then

packed into bags; but our perfumers separate it without any

difficulty, the principal tests of its goodness being its unctuousness and its aromatic smell. (16.) There are several[2] kinds







of myrrh; the first among the wild myrrhs is the Troglodytic; and the next are the Minan, which includes the

Atramitic, and that of Ausaritis, in the kingdom of the Gebanit. A third kind is the Dianitic,[3] and a fourth is the

mixed myrrh, or "all-sorts;"[4] a fifth, again, is the Sambracenian, which is brought from a city in the kingdom of the

Sabi, near the sea; and a sixth is known by the name of

Dusaritic. There is a white myrrh also, which is produced in

only one spot, and is carried for sale to the city of Messalum.

The Troglodytic myrrh is tested by its unctuousness, and its

peculiarly dry appearance: it has also a dirty, rough look

with it, but is more acrid than the other kinds. The Sambracenian myrrh has none of these faults, and is more sightly in

appearance than any of them, though it is far from being

so powerful. In general, however, the proof of its goodness

consists in its being separated in little pieces of uneven shape,

formed by the concretion of a whitish juice, which dries up

little by little. When broken it ought to exhibit white marks

like the finger-nails, and to be slightly bitter to the taste.

That of second quality is of a mottled appearance within;

while of worse quality is that which is of a black colour

within; the very worst of all is that which is black on the

outside as well.



The price of myrrh varies according to the number of purchasers. Stacte is sold at prices which vary from three denarii to forty per pound, while the very highest price of the

cultivated myrrh is eleven denarii. Erythran myrrh, the

same, it is pretended, as Arabian myrrh, is sixteen denarii per

pound, Troglodytic also, is sixteen denarii; and that known as

odoraria, or odoriferous myrrh, sells at fourteen. Myrrh is

adulterated with pieces of mastich, and other gums; it is also

drugged with the juice of wild cucumber, in order to produce

a certain bitterness, and with litharge for the purpose of increasing its weight. Other sophistications may be discovered

on tasting it, and the gum will adhere to the teeth. But the







cleverest mode of adulterating it is with Indian myrrh,[5] a

substance which is gathered from a certain prickly shrub which

grows there. This is the only thing that India produces of

worse quality than the corresponding produce of other countries: they may, however, be very easily distinguished, that

of India being so very much inferior.







1. From the Greek sta/zw, "to drop." Fe observes, that the moderns

know nothing positive as to the mode of extracting myrrh from the tree.

See the account given by Ovid, Met. B. x. 1. 500 et seq. of the transformation of Myrrha into this tree,-" The warm drops fall from the tree. The

tears, even, have their own honour; and the myrrh that distils from the

bark bears the name of its mistress, and in no age will remain unknown."

2. Fe remarks, that at the present day we are acquainted only with one

kind of myrrh; the fragments which bear an impression like those of nails

being not a distinct kind, but a simple variety in appearance only. He

thinks, also, that Pliny may very possibly be describing several distinct

resinous products, under the one name of myrrh. An account of these

various districts will be found in B. vi. c. 32.

3. Hardouin suggests that it may be so called from the island of Dia,

mentioned by Strabo, B. xvi.

4. "Collatitia." The reading, however, is very doubtful.

5. What this was is now unknown. Fe suggests that it may have been

bdellium, which is found in considerable quantities in the myrrh that is

imported at the present day.




36. Chap. 36. (17.)-Mastich.


CHAP. 36. (17.)-MASTICH.



The transition, therefore,[1] is very easy to mastich, which

grows upon another prickly shrub of India and Arabia, known

by the name of laina. Of mastich as well there are two different kinds; for in Asia and Greece there is also found a herb

which puts forth leaves from the root, and bears a thistly

head, resembling an apple, and full of seeds. Upon an incision being made in the upper part of this plant drops distil

from it, which can hardly be distinguished from the genuine

mastich. There is, again, a third sort,[2] found in Pontus, but

more like bitumen than anything else. The most esteemed,

however, of all these, is the white mastich of Chios, the price

of which is twenty denarii per pound, while the black mastich

sells at twelve. It is said that the mastich of Chios exudes

from the lentisk in the form of a sort of gum: like frankincense, it is adulterated with resin.







1. This is most probably the meaning of Pliny's expression-"Ergo

transit in mastichen;" though Hardouin reads it as meaning that myrrh

sometimes degenerates to mastich: and Fe, understanding the passage in

the same sense, remarks that the statement is purely fabulous. Mastich,

he says, is the produce of the Pistacia lentiscus of Linnus, which abounds

in Greece and the other parts of southern Europe. The greater part of

the mastich of commerce comes from the island of Chio. It is impossible

to conjecture to what plant Pliny here alludes, with the head of a thistle.

2. This kind, Fe says, is quite unknown to the moderns.




37. Chap. 37.-Ladanum And Stobolon.


CHAP. 37.-LADANUM AND STOBOLON.



Arabia, too, still boasts of her ladanum.[1] Many writers







have stated that this substance is the fortuitous result of an accidental injury inflicted upon a certain odoriferous plant, under

the following circumstances: the goat, they say, which is in

general an animal that is extremely mischievous to foliage, is

particularly fond of the shrubs that are odoriferous, as if, indeed, it were really sensible of the value that is set upon

them. Hence it is that as the animal crops the sprouting

shoots of the branches which are swollen with a liquid juice

of remarkable sweetness, these juices drop and become mingled together, and are then wiped up by the shaggy hairs of

its unlucky beard. Being there mingled with the dust, these

juices form knots and tufts, and are then dried by the sun;

and hence the circumstance is accounted for that in the ladanum which is imported by us we find goats' hairs. This,

however, we are told, occurs nowhere but among the Nabati,[2] a people of Arabia, who border upon Syria. The more

recent writers call this substance by the name of stobolon, and

state that in the forests of Arabia the trees are broken by the

goats while browzing, and that the juices in consequence adhere to their shaggy hair; but the genuine ladanum, they

assure us, comes from the island of Cyprus. I make mention of

this in order that every kind of odoriferous plant may be taken

some notice of, even though incidentally and not in the order

of their respetive localities. They say also that this Cyprian

ladanum is collected in the same manner as the other, and

that it forms a kind of greasy substance or sypum,[3] which

adheres to the beards and shaggy legs of the goats; but that

it is produced from the flowers of the ground-ivy, which they

have nibbled when in quest of their morning food, a time at

which the whole island is covered with dew. After this, they

say, when the fogs are dispersed by the sun, the dust adheres

to their wet coats, and the ladanum is formed, which is afterwards taken off of them with a comb.



There are some authors who give to the plant of Cyprus,

from which it is made, the name of leda; and hence it is that







we find it also called ledanum. They say, also, that a viscous

substance settles upon this plant, and, that, by the aid of

strings wound around it, its leaves are rolled into balls, from

which a kind of cake is made. Hence it is, that in Cyprus, as

well as in Arabia, there are two kinds of ladanum; the one

natural, and mingled with earth, and the other artificial: the

former is friable, while the latter is of a viscous nature.



It is stated, also, that this substance is the produce of a

shrub originally found in Carmania, and propagated by plants,

by order of the Ptolemies, in the parts beyond Egypt; while

other authorities are found, which say that it grows on the

incense tree, and is gathered like gum, from incisions made in

the bark, after which it is collected in bags of goat-skin. That

of the most approved quality, sells at the rate of forty asses

per pound. Ladanum is adulterated with myrtle berries, and

filth taken from the fleeces of other animals besides the goat.

If genuine, it ought to have a wild and acrid smell, in some

measure redolent of the desert places where it is produced: it

is dry and parched in appearance, but becomes soft the moment

it is touched. When ignited, it gives a brilliant flame, and

emits a powerful but pleasant odour; if mixed with myrtle

berries, its spurious quality is immediately discovered by their

crackling in the fire. In addition to this, the genuine ladanum has more grits, or stony particles, adhering to it, than

dust.







1. This substance is still gathered from the Cistus creticus of Linnus,

which is supposed to be the same as the plant leda, mentioned by Pliny.

It is also most probably the same as the Cisthon, mentioned by Pliny in

B. xxiv. c. 48. It is very commonly found in Spain. The substance is

gathered from off the leaves, not by the aid of goats, but with whips furnished with several thongs, with which the shrubs are beaten. There are

two sorts of ladanum known in commerce; the one friable, and mixed with

earthy substances, and known as "ladanum in tortis;" the other black, and

soft to the fingers, the only adventitious substances in which are a little

sand and a few hairs.

2. See B. vi. c. 32.

3. For some further account of this substance, see B. xxix. c. 10. Filthy

as it was, the sypum, or sweat and grease of sheep, was used by the

Roman ladies as one of their most choice cosmetics. Ovid, in his "Art of

Love," more than once inveighs against the use of it.




38. Chap. 38.-Enhmon.


CHAP. 38.-ENHMON.



In Arabia, too, the olive-tree distils a sort of tear, with

which the Indians make a medicament, known by the Greeks

as enhmon;[1] it is said to be of wonderful efficacy in contracting and healing wounds and sores. These trees,[2] situate

on the coasts there, are covered by the sea at high water,

without the berries suffering the slightest injury, although it

is a well-known fact, that the salt collects upon the leaves.







All these trees are peculiar to Arabia, but it has some few

besides, in common with other countries, of which we shall

make mention elsewhere, the kinds growing in Arabia being

of inferior quality. The people of that country have a wonderful regard for the perfumes of foreign parts, and import

them from places at a considerable distance; so soon are men

sated with what they have of their own, and so covetous are

they of what belongs to others.







1. From the Greek e)/naimon, "styptic," or "blood-stopping." It is at

the present day called gum "de lecce" in Italy. Fe says that it is not

often procured from the olive-trees of France, though it is found very commonly on those of Naples and Calabria. It has no active powers, he says,

as a medicine.

2. Hardouin suggests that they may be the pelagi, mentioned again in

B. xiii. c. 51.




39. Chap. 39.-The Tree Called Bratus.


CHAP. 39.-THE TREE CALLED BRATUS.



Hence it is, that they import from the country of the

Elymi[1] the wood of a tree called bratus,[2] which is similar in

appearance to a spreading cypress. Its branches are of a

whitish colour, and the wood, while burning, emits a pleasant

odour; it is highly spoken of by Claudius Csar, in his

History,[3] for its marvellous properties. He states that the

Parthians sprinkle the leaves of it in their drink, that its smell

closely resembles that of the cedar, and that the smoke of it is

efficacious in counteracting the effects of smoke emitted by

other wood. This tree grows in the countries that lie beyond

the Pasitigris,[4] in the territory of the city of Sittaca, upon

Mount Zagrus.







1. See B. vi. c. 31.

2. Although the savin shrub, the Juniperus Sabina of Linnus, bears

this name in Greek, it is evident, as Fe says, that Pliny does not allude

to it, but to a coniferous tree, as it is that family which produces a resinous

wood with a balsamic odour when ignited. Bauhin and others would

make the tree meant to be the Thuya occidentalis of Linnus; but, as Fe

observes, that tree is in reality a native originally of Canada, while the

Thuya orientalis is a native of Japan. He suggests, however, that the

Thuya articulata of Mount Atlas may have possibly been the citrus of

Pliny.

3. See end of B. v.

4. All these are mentioned in B. vi. c. 31.




40. Chap. 40.-The Tree Called Stobrum.


CHAP. 40.-THE TREE CALLED STOBRUM.



The Arabians import from Carmania also the wood of a

tree called stobrum,[1] which they employ in fumigations, by

steeping it in palm wine, and then setting fire to it. The

odour first ascends to the ceiling, and then descends in volumes







to the floor; it is very agreeable, but is apt to cause an

oppression of the head, though unattended with pain; it is

used for promoting sleep in persons when ill. For these

branches of commerce, they have opened the city of Carr,[2]

which serves as an entrepot, and from which place they were

formerly in the habit of proceeding to Gabba, at a distance of

twenty days' journey, and thence to Palstina, in Syria. But

at a later period, as Juba informs us, they began to take the

road, for the purposes of this traffic, to Charax[3] and the

kingdom of the Parthians. For my own part, it would appear

to me that they were in the habit of importing these commodities among the Persians, even before they began to convey

them to Syria or Egypt; at least Herodotus bears testimony to

that effect, when he states that the Arabians paid a yearly

tribute of one thousand talents, in frankincense, to the kings

of Persia.



From Syria they bring back storax,[4] which, burnt upon

the hearth, by its powerful smell dispels that loathing of their

own perfumes with which these people are affected. For in

general there are no kinds of wood in use among them, except

those which are odoriferous; indeed, the Sabi are in the

habit of cooking their food with incense wood, while others,

again, employ that of the myrrh tree; and hence, the smoke

and smells that pervade their cities and villages are no other

than the very same which, with us, proceed from the altars.

For the purpose of qualifying this powerful smell, they burn

storax in goat-skins, and so fumigate their dwellings. So true

it is, that there is no pleasure to be found, but what the continual enjoyment of it begets loathing. They also burn this

substance to drive away the serpents, which are extremely

numerous in the forests which bear the odoriferous trees.







1. It is not known what wood is meant under this name. Aloe, and

some other woods, when ignited are slightly narcotic.

2. See B. v. c. 21.

3. See B. vi. c. 30.

4. See c. 55 of the present Book.




41. Chap. 41. (18.)-Why Arabia Was Called "Happy."


CHAP. 41. (18.)-WHY ARABIA WAS CALLED "HAPPY."



Arabia produces neither cinnamon nor cassia; and this is

the country styled "Happy" Arabia! False and ungrateful

does she prove herself in the adoption of this surname, which

she would imply to have been received from the gods above;

whereas, in reality, she is indebted for it far more to the gods







below.[1] It is the luxury which is displayed by man, even in

the paraphernalia of death, that has rendered Arabia thus

"happy;" and which prompts him to burn with the dead

what was originally understood to have been produced for the

service of the gods. Those who are likely to be the best

acquainted with the matter, assert that this country does not

produce, in a whole year, so large a quantity of perfumes as

was burnt by the Emperor Nero at the funeral obsequies of

his wife Poppa. And then let us only take into account

the vast number of funerals that are celebrated throughout the

whole world each year, and the heaps of odours that are

piled up in honour of the bodies of the dead; the vast quantities, too, that are offered to the gods in single grains; and yet,

when men were in the habit of offering up to them the salted

cake, they did not show themselves any the less propitious;

nay, rather, as the facts themselves prove, they were even

more favourable to us than they are now. But it is the sea of

Arabia that has even a still greater right to be called "happy,"

for it is this that furnishes us with pearls. At the very lowest

computation, India, the Seres, and the Arabian Peninsula,

withdraw from our empire one hundred millions of sesterces

every year-so dearly do we pay for our luxury and our

women. How large a portion, too, I should like to know, of

all these perfumes, really comes to the gods of heaven, and the

deities of the shades below?







1. Because its perfumes were held in such high esteem, for burning on

the piles of the dead. This, of course, was done primarily to avoid the

offensive smell.




42. Chap. 42. (19.)-Cinnamomum. Xylocinnamum.


CHAP. 42. (19.)-CINNAMOMUM.[1] XYLOCINNAMUM.



Fabulous antiquity, and Herodotus[2] more particularly, have

related that cinnamomum and cassia are found in the nests of

certain birds, and principally that of the phnix, in the districts where Father Liber was brought up; and that these substances either fall from the inaccessible rocks and trees in

which the nests are built, in consequence of the weight of the

pieces of flesh which the birds carry up, or else are brought

down by the aid of arrows loaded with lead. It is said, also,







that cassia grows around certain marshes, but is protected by

a frightful kind of bat armed with claws, and by winged serpents as well. All these tales, however, have been evidently

invented for the purpose of enhancing the prices of these

commodities. Another story, too, bears them company, to the

effect that under the rays of the noon-day sun, the entire

peninsula exhales a certain indescribable perfume composed of

its numerous odours; that the breezes, as they blow from it,

are impregnated with these odours, and, indeed, were the first

to announce the vicinity of Arabia to the fleets of Alexander

the Great, while still far out at sea. All this, however, is

false; for cinnamomum, or cinnamum, which is the same thing,

grows in the country of the thiopians,[3] who are united by

intermarriages with the Troglodyt. These last, after buying

it of their neighbours, carry it over vast tracts of sea, upon

rafts, which are neither steered by rudder, nor drawn or

impelled by oars or sails. Nor yet are they aided by any of the

resources of art, man alone, and his daring boldness, standing

in place of all these; in addition to which, they choose the

winter season, about the time of the equinox, for their voyage,

for then a south easterly wind is blowing; these winds guide

them in a straight course from gulf to gulf, and after they

have doubled the promonotory of Arabia, the north east wind

carries them to a port of the Gebanit, known by the name of

Ocilia.[4] Hence it is that they steer for this port in preference;

and they say that it is almost five years before the merchants are able to effect their return, while many perish on

the voyage. In return for their wares, they bring back articles of glass and copper, cloths, buckles, bracelets, and necklaces; hence it is that this traffic depends more particularly

upon the capricious tastes and inclinations of the female sex.

The cinnamon shrub[5] is only two cubits in height, at the

most, the lowest being no more than a palm in height. It is

about four fingers in breadth, and hardly has it risen six

fingers from the ground, before it begins to put forth shoots and







suckers. It has then all the appearance of being dry and

withered, and while it is green it has no odour at all. The leaf is

like that of wild marjoram, and it thrives best in dry localities,

being not so prolific in rainy weather; it requires, also, to be

kept constantly clipped. Though it grows on level ground, it

thrives best among tangled brakes and brambles, and hence

it is extremely difficult to be gathered. It is never gathered

unless with the permission of the god, by whom some suppose

Jupiter to be meant; the thiopians, however, call him

Assabinus.[6] They offer the entrails of forty-four oxen, goats,

and rams, when they implore his permission to do so, but after

all, they are not allowed to work at it before sunrise or after

sunset. A priest divides the branches with a spear, and sets

aside one portion of them for the god; after which, the dealer

stores away the rest in lumps. There is another account given,

which states that a division is made between the gatherers and

the sun, and that it is divided into three portions, after which

lots are twice drawn, and the share which falls to the sun is

left there, and forthwith ignites spontaneously.



The thinnest parts in the sticks, for about a palm in length,

are looked upon as producing the finest cinnamon; the part

that comes next, though not quite so long, is the next best,

and so on downwards. The worst of all is that which is

nearest the roots, from the circumstance that in that part

there is the least bark, the portion that is the most esteemed:

hence it is that the upper part of the tree is preferred, there

being the greatest proportion of bark there. As for the wood,

it is held in no esteem at all, on account of the acrid taste

which it has, like that of wild marjoram; it is known as

xylocinnamum.[7] The price of cinnamomum is ten denarii per

pound. Some writers make mention of two kinds of cinnamon, the white and the black: the white was the one that was

formerly preferred, but now, on the contrary, the black is held

in the highest estimation, and the mottled, even, is preferred to

the white. The most certain test, however, of the goodness of

cinnamon is its not being rough, and the fact that the pieces

when rubbed together do not readily crumble to powder. That

which is soft is more particularly rejected, which is the case,

also, when the outer bark too readily falls off.







The right of regulating the sale of the cinnamon belongs

solely to the king of the Gebanit, who opens the market for it

by public proclamation. The price of it was formerly as much

as a thousand denarii per pound; which was afterwards increased

to half as much again, in consequence, it is said, of the forests

having been set on fire by the barbarians, from motives of

resentment; whether this took place through any injustice

exercised by those in power, or only by accident, has not been

hitherto exactly ascertained. Indeed, we find it stated by

some authors, that the south winds that prevail in these parts

are sometimes so hot as to set the forests on fire. The Emperor Vespasianus Augustus was the first to dedicate in the

temples of the Capitol and the goddess Peace chaplets of cinnamon inserted in embossed[8] gold. I, myself, once saw in the

temple of the Palatium, which his wife Augusta[9] dedicated to

her husband the late emperor Augustus, a root of cinnamon

of great weight, placed in a patera of gold: from it drops used

to distil every year, which congealed in hard grains. It remained there until the temple was accidentally destroyed by fire.







1. The bark of the Cinnamomum Zeylanicum of the modern naturalists,

the cinnamon-tree of Ceylon.

2. B. iii.

3. See B. vi. c. 34.

4. See B. vi. c. 26.

5. As Fe observes, this description does not at all resemble that of the

cinnamon-tree of Ceylon, as known to us. M. Bonastre is of opinion that

the nutmeg-tree was known to the ancients under this name; but, as Fe

observes, the nutmeg could never have been taken for a bark, and cinnamon

is described as such in the ancient writers. He inclines to think that their

cinnamon was really the bark of a species of amyris.

6. See c. 33 of the present Book, and the Note.

7. Or "wood of cinnamon."

8. "Interrasili." Gold partly embossed, and partly left plain, was thus

called.

9. The Empress Livia.




43. Chap. 43.-Cassia.


CHAP. 43.-CASSIA.



Cassia[1] is a shrub also, which grows not far from the plains

where cinnamon is produced, but in the mountainous localities; the branches of it are, however, considerably thicker than

those of cinnamon. It is covered with a thin skin rather than

a bark, and, contrary to what is the case with cinnamon, it

is looked upon as the most valuable when the bark falls off

and crumbles into small pieces. The shrub is three cubits in

height, and the colours which it assumes are threefold: when

it first shoots from the ground, for the length of a foot, it is

white; after it has attained that height, it is red for half a

foot, and beyond that it is black. This last is the part that

is held in the highest esteem, and next to it the portion that

comes next, the white part being the least valued of all. They

cut the ends of the branches to the length of two fingers, and







then sew them in the fresh skins of cattle that have been

killed expressly for the purpose; the object being that the

skins may putrefy, and the maggots generated thereby may

eat away the woody parts, and so excavate[2] the bark; which

is so intensely bitter, that it is quite safe from their attacks.

That which is the freshest is the most highly esteemed; it

has a very delicate smell, and is so extremely hot to the taste,

that it may be said to burn the tongue, rather than gradually

warm the mouth. It is of a purple colour, and though of

considerable volume, weighs but very little in comparison; the

outer coat forms into short tubes which are by no means easily

broken: this choice kind of cassia, the barbarians call by the

name of lada. There is another sort, again, which is called

balsamodes,[3] because it has a smell like that of balsam, but it

is bitter; for which reason it is more employed for medicinal

purposes, just as the black cassia is used for unguents. There

is no substance known that is subject to greater variations in

price: the best qualities sell at fifty denarii per pound, others,

again, at five.



(20.) To these varieties the dealers have added another,

which they call daphnoides,[4] and give it the surname of isocinnamon;[5] the price at which it sells is three hundred

denarii per pound. It is adulterated with storax, and, in

consequence of the resemblance of the bark, with very small

sprigs of laurel. Cassia is also planted in our[6] part of the

world, and, indeed, at the extreme verge of the Empire, on the

banks of the river Rhenus, where it flourishes when planted

in the vicinity of hives of bees. It has not, however, that

scorched colour which is produced by the excessive heat of the

sun; nor has it, for the same reason, a similar smell to that

which comes from the south.







1. There has been considerable doubt what plant it was that produced

the cassia of the ancients. Fe, after diligently enquiring into the subject,

inclines to think that it was the Laurus cassia of Linnus, the same tree

that produces the cassia of the present day.

2. There is little doubt that all this is fabulous.

3. Or, "smelling like balsam."

4. "Looking like laurel."

5. "Equal to cinnamon." Fe thinks that it is a variety of the Laurus

cassia.

6. He probably alludes to the Daphne Cnidium of Linnus, which, as

Fe remarks, is altogether different from the Laurus cassia, or genuine

cassia.




44. Chap. 44.-Cancamum And Tarum.


CHAP. 44.-CANCAMUM AND TARUM.



From the confines of the country which produces cinnamon







and cassia, cancamum[1] and tarum[2] are imported; but these

substances are brought by way of the Nabatan Troglodyt,

a colony of the Nabati.







1. A gum resin of some unknown species, but not improbably, Fe

thinks, the produce of some of the Amyrides. Sprengel thinks that it was

produced from the Gardenia gummifera.

2. Aloe-wood.




45. Chap. 45. (21.)-Serichatum And Gabalium.


CHAP. 45. (21.)-SERICHATUM AND GABALIUM.



Thither, too, are carried serichatum[1] and gabalium, aroma.

tics which the Arabians rear for their own consumption, and

which are only known by name in our part of the world,

though they grow in the same country as cinnamon and cassia.

Still, however, serichatum does reach us occasionally, and is

employed by some persons in the manufacture of unguents. It

is purchased at the rate of six denarii per pound.







1. According to Poinsinet, these Arabic words derive their origin from

the Slavonic; the first signifying a "cordial drug," or "alexipharmic," and

the other a drug "which divides itself into tablets." It is impossible to

divine what drugs are meant by these names.




46. Chap. 46.-Myrobalanum.


CHAP. 46.-MYROBALANUM.



In the country of the Troglodyt, the Thebais, and the parts

of Arabia which separate Juda from Egypt, myrobalanum[1] is

commonly found; it is provided by Nature for unguents, as

from its very name would appear. From its name, also, it is

evident that it is the nut of a tree, with a leaf similar to that

of the heliotropium, which we shall have to mention when

speaking of the herbs. The fruit of this tree is about the size

of a filbert. The kind that grows in Arabia is known as

Syriaca, and is white, while, on the other hand, that which

grows in the Thebais is black: the former is preferred for the

quality of the oil extracted from it, though that which is pro-







duced in the Thebais yields it in larger quantities. Among

these various kinds, that which is sent from the country of the

Troglodyt is the worst of all. There are some persons who

prefer that of thiopia[2] to all of these, the nut of which is

black, and not oleaginous; it has only a very small kernel, but

the liquid which is extracted from it is more odoriferous than

that of the other kinds; it grows, too, in a champaign, open

country. It is said that the Egyptian nut is even more oleaginous, being of a reddish colour with a thicker shell, and

that the plant, although it grows in wet, marshy spots, is

shorter and drier than the other kinds. The Arabian nut,

again, is said to be of a green colour and of smaller size, but

harder and more compact, from the circumstance that it grows

in mountainous districts. The best of all, however, is that of

Petra, which comes from a city mentioned[3] on a previous

occasion; it has a black shell, but the kernel is white. The

perfumers, however, only extract the juices from the shells;

but medical men pound the kernels, pouring warm water on

them, little by little, as they do it.







1. Signifying the "unguent acorn," or "nut." There is little doubt

that the behen or ben nut of the Arabians is meant, of which there are

several sorts. It is used by the Hindoos for calico printing and pharmacy

and was formerly employed in Europe in the arts, and for medical purposes. It is no longer used as a perfume. The "oil of ben" used in

commerce is extracted from the fruit of the Moringa oleifera of naturalists.

It is inodorous; for which reason, Fe is of opinion that the name signifies

"the oily nut," and quotes Dioscorides, who says, B. iv., that an oil is extracted from this balanus, which is used as an ingredient in unguents, in

place of other oils. Fe also says that at the present day it is used by perfumers, to fix or arrest the evanescent odours of such flowers as the jasmine

and the lily.

2. This thiopian variety is quite unknown, and is, as Fe remarks,

most probably of a different species from the genuine myrobalanus.

3. See B. vi. c. 32.




47. Chap. 47. (22.)-Phnicobalanus.


CHAP. 47. (22.)-PHNICOBALANUS.



The fruit of the palm in Egypt, which is known by the

name of adipsos,[1] is put to a similar use in unguents, and is

held next in esteem after the myrobalanum. It is of a green

colour, has exactly the smell of a quince, and has no stone or

nut within. It is gathered a little before it begins to ripen.

That which is left ungathered is known as phnicobalanus;[2]

it turns black, and has a tendency to inebriate the person who

eats of it. The price of myrobalanum is two denarii per pound.

The shop-keepers give this name also to the dregs of the

unguent that is made with it.











1. "Curing thirst." Dioscorides, B. i. c. 148, says that it was so called

from being full of juice, which quenched thirst like water.

2. "Palm-nut." Fe thinks it not improbable that one of the date-

palms is meant, if we may judge from the name. He suggests that possi-

bly the Elais or avoira of Guinea, the Elais Guineensis, which is found as

far as Upper Egypt, and which produces a fine oil known as palm-oil, is

meant, or possibly the Douma Thebaica, a palm-tree frequently met with

in Egypt. On fermentation, a vinous drink is extracted from the last,

which is capable of producing intoxication.




48. Chap. 48.-The Sweet-Scented Calamus; The Sweet-Scented Rush.


CHAP. 48.-THE SWEET-SCENTED CALAMUS;[1] THE SWEET-SCENTED

RUSH.



Scented calamus also, which grows in Arabia, is common to

both India and Syria, that which grows in the last country

being superior to all the rest. At a distance of one hundred

and fifty stadia from the Mediterranean, between Mount

Libanus and another mountain of no note (and not, as some

have supposed, Antilibanus), there is a valley of moderate

size, situate in the vicinity of a lake, the marshy swamps of

which are dried up every summer. At a distance of thirty

stadia from this lake grow the sweet-scented calamus and

rush. We shall here make some further mention of this rush

as well, although we have set apart another Book for plants

of that description, seeing that it is our object here to describe all the different materials used for unguents. These

plants differ in appearance in no respect from others of their

kind; but the calamus, which has the more agreeable smell of

the two, attracts by its odour at a considerable distance, and

is softer to the touch than the other. The best is the kind

which is not so brittle, but breaks into long flakes, and not

short, like a radish. In the hollow stalk there is a substance

like a cobweb, which is generally known by the name of the

"flower:" those plants which contain the most of it are

esteemed the best. The other tests of its goodness are its

being of a black colour-those which are white not being

esteemed; besides which, to be of the very best quality it

should be short, thick, and pliant when broken. The price of

the scented calamus is eleven, and of the rush fifteen denarii

per pound. It is said that the sweet-scented rush is to be met

with also in Campania.







1. Fe remarks, that this must not be confounded with the Calamus

aromaticus of the moderns, of which Pliny speaks in B. xxv. c. 100, with

sufficient accuracy to enable us to identify it with the Acorus calamus of

Linnus. It is not ascertained by naturalists what plant is meant by

Pliny in the present instance, though Fe is of opinion that a gramineous

plant of the genus Andropogon is meant. M. Guibourt has suggested that

the Indian Gentiana chirayta is the plant. From what Pliny says in B.

xiii. c. 21, it appears that this calamus grew in Syria, which is also the

native country of the Andropogon schnauthus.




49. Chap. 49.-Haimoniacum.


CHAP. 49.-HAIMONIACUM.



We have now departed from the lands which look towards









the ocean to enter upon those which have an aspect towards

our seas. (23.) Africa, which lies below thiopia, distils

a tear-like gum in its sands, called hammoniacum,[1] the name of

which has passed to the oracle of Hammon, situate near the tree

which produces it. This substance, which is also called meto

pion,[2] bears a strong resemblance to a resin or a gum. There

are two kinds of ammoniacum; that to which the name is

given of thrauston, and which bears a resemblance to male

frankincense, being the kind that is the most esteemed, and

that which is known as phyrama, being of an unctuous and

resinous nature. This substance is adulterated by means of

sand, which has all the appearance of having adhered to it

during its growth: hence it is greatly preferred when the

pieces are extremely small, and in the purest state possible.

The price of hammoniacum of the best quality is forty asses

per pound.







1. See B. xxiv. c. 14. The gum resin ammoniacum is still imported

into Europe from Africa and the East, in the form of drops or cakes.

It is a mildly stimulating expectorant, and is said to be the produce of the

Dorema ammoniacum. There are still two sorts in commerce: the first

in large masses of a yellow, dirty colour, mingled with heterogeneous substances, and of a plastic consistency. This is the phyrama of Pliny, or

mixed ammoniac. The other is in tears, of irregular form and a whitish

colour, brittle and vitreous when broken. This is the thrauston, or

"friable" ammoniac of Pliny. Jackson says, that the plant which produces it is common in Morocco, and is called feskouk, resembling a large

stalk of fennel The ammoniac of Morocco is not, however, imported into

this country, being too much impregnated with sand, in consequence of

not being gathered till it falls to the ground.

2. Solinus tells us, that the tree itself is called Metops.




50. Chap. 50.-Sphagnos.


CHAP. 50.-SPHAGNOS.



Below these countries, and in the province of Cyrenaica, the

perfume called sphagnos[1] is found in the highest state of per-

fection: there are some who call it by the name of bryon.

The sphagnos of Cyprus holds the second rank, and that of

Phnicia the third. It is said that this plant is produced in

Egypt also, and in Gaul as well, and I see no reason to doubt

that such is the fact, for this name is given to certain white







shaggy tufts upon trees, such as we often see upon the quercus:

those, however, of which we are speaking, emit a most exquisite odour. The most esteemed of all are the whitest, and

those situate at the greatest height upon the tree. Those of

second quality are red, while those which are black are not of

the slightest value. The sphagnos, too, that is produced on

islands and among rocks,[2] is held in no esteem, as well as all

those varieties which have the odour of the palm-tree, and not

that which is so peculiarly their own.







1. It is clear that, under this name, certain lichens of a hairy or filamentary nature are meant. They adhere, Dioscorides tells us, to the

cedar, the white poplar, and the oak. The white ones belong, probably,

to the Usnea florida of Linnus, the red ones to the Usuea barbata, and

the black ones to the Alectoria jubata, an almost inodoruus liohen.

2. Probably the Roccella tinctoria of Linnus, a lichen most commonly

found upon rocks.




51. Chap. 51.-Cypros.


CHAP. 51.-CYPROS.



The cyprus[1] is a tree of Egypt, with the leaves of the ziziphus,[2] and seeds like coriander,[3] white and odoriferous.

These seeds are boiled in olive oil, and then subjected to

pressure; the product is known to us as cypros. The price of

it is five denarii per pound. The best is that produced on the

banks of the Nile, near Canopus, that of second quality coming

from Ascalon in Juda, and the third in estimation for the

sweetness of its odour, from the island of Cyprus. Some people

will have it that this is the same as the tree which in Italy we

call ligustrum.[4]







1. The henn, the Lawsonia inermis of the modern naturalists, a shrub

found in Egypt, Syria, and Barbary. From this tree the henna is made

with which the women of the East stain the skin of their hands and feet.

2. The jujube-tree. See B. xv. c. 14.

3. See B. xx. c. 82.

4. Or privet.




52. Chap. 52.-Aspalathos, Or Erysisceptrum.


CHAP. 52.-ASPALATHOS, OR ERYSISCEPTRUM.



In the same country,[1] too, grows aspalathos,[2] a white,

thorny shrub, the size of a moderate tree, and with flowers

like the rose, the root of which is in great request for unguents. It is said that every shrub over which the rainbow

is extended is possessed of the sweet odour that belongs to

the aspalathos, but that if the aspalathos is one of them, its







scent is something quite indescribable. Some persons call this

plant erysisceptrum,[3] and others, again, sceptrum. The proof

of its genuineness is its red or fiery colour; it is also compact

to the touch, and has the smell of castoreum:[4] it is sold at

the rate of five denarii per pound.







1. But in B. xxiv. c. 68, he says that this plant grows in the island of

Rhodes.

2. According to Fe, this is the same as the Lignum Rhodianum, or

wood of Rhodes, of commerce, sometimes also called, but incorrectly, wood

of roses. It is, probably, the same as the Convolvulus scoparius of Lin-

nus

3. Or "red sceptre," probably so called from the flowers clustering along

the whole length of the branches.

4. A liquid matter extracted from the beaver.




53. Chap. 53.-Maron.


CHAP. 53.-MARON.



In Egypt, too, grows marum,[1] though of inferior quality

to that of Lydia, which last has larger leaves, covered with

spots. Those of the other are shorter and smaller, and give

out a powerful scent.







1. Generally regarded as identical with the Teucrium Marum of Linnus,

a sweet-smelling shrub found in the south of Europe and the East, by us

commonly known as "herb mastich," somewhat similar to marjoram.

Fe says that the marum of Egypt is a kind of sage, the Salvia thiopis

of Linnus.




54. Chap. 54. (25.)-Balsamum; Opobalsamum; And Xylobal- Samum.


CHAP. 54. (25.)-BALSAMUM; OPOBALSAMUM; AND XYLOBAL-

SAMUM.



But to all other odours that of balsamum[1] is considered

preferable, a plant that has been only bestowed by Nature

upon the land of Juda. In former times it was cultivated in

two gardens only, both of which belonged to the kings of that

country: one of them was no more than twenty jugera in

extent, and the other somewhat smaller. The emperors Ves-

pasianus and Titus had this shrub exhibited at Rome; indeed,

it is worthy of signal remark, that since the time of Pompeius

Magnus, we have been in the habit of carrying trees even in

our triumphal processions. At the present day this tree pays

us homage and tribute along with its native land, but it has

been found to be of altogether a different nature to that which







our own as well as foreign writers had attributed to it: for, in

fact, it bears a much stronger resemblance to the vine than to

the myrtle. This recent acquisition by conquest has learned,

like the vine, to be reproduced by mallet[2]-shoots, and it

covers declivities just like the vine, which supports its own

weight without the aid of stays. When it puts forth branches

it is pruned in a similar manner, and it thrives by being well

raked at the roots, growing with remarkable rapidity, and

bearing fruit at the end of three years. The leaf bears a very

considerable resemblance to that of rue, and it is an evergreen. The Jews vented their rage upon this shrub just as

they were in the habit of doing against their own lives and

persons, while, on the other hand, the Romans protected it; indeed, combats have taken place before now in defence of a shrub.

At the present day the reproduction of it has become a duty

of the fiscal authorities, and the plants were never known to

be more numerous or of larger growth; they never exceed the

height, however, of a couple of cubits.



There are three different kinds of balsamum. The first has

a thin and hair-like foliage, and is known by the name of

eutheriston.[3] The second is of a rugged appearance, bending

downwards, full of branches, and more odoriferous than the

first; the name of this is trachy. The third kind is the

eumeces, so called, because it is taller than the others; it has

a smooth, even, bark. It is the second in quality, the eutheriston being inferior to the trachy. The seed of this plant

has a flavour strongly resembling that of wine; it is of a

reddish colour, and not without a certain amount of unctuousness; the grains of inferior quality are lighter in weight and

of a greener hue: the branches of the shrub are thicker than

those of the myrtle. Incisions are made in it either with

glass, or else a sharp stone, or knives made of bone: it being

highly injurious to touch the vital parts with iron, for in such

case it will immediately wither away and die. On the other

hand, it will allow of all the superfluous branches being pruned

away with an instrument of iron even. The hand of the







person who makes the incision is generally balanced by an

artificial guide, in order that he may not accidentally inflict a

wound in the wood beyond the bark.



A juice distils from the wound, which is known to us

as opobalsamum; it is of extraordinary sweetness,[4] but only

exudes in tiny drops, which are then collected in wool, and

deposited in small horns. When taken from out of these, the

substance is placed in new earthen vessels; it bears a strong

resemblance to a thick oil, and is of a white colour when fresh.

It soon, however, turns red, and as it hardens loses its transparency. When Alexander the Great waged war in those

parts, it was looked upon as a fair summer day's work to fill a

single concha[5] with this liquid; the entire produce of the

larger garden being six congii, and of the smaller one a single

congius; the price, too, at which it was sold was double its

weight in silver. At the present day the produce of a single

tree, even, is larger; the incisions are made three times every

summer, after which the tree is pruned.



The cuttings, too, form an article of merchandize: the fifth

year after the conquest of Juda, these cuttings, with the

suckers, were sold for the price of eight hundred thousand

sesterces. These cuttings are called xylobalsamum,[6] and are

boiled down for mixing with unguents, and in the manufactories have been substituted for the juices of the shrub. The

bark is also in great request for medicinal purposes, but it is

the tears that are so particularly valuable; the seed holding







the second rank in estimation, the bark the third, and the

wood being the least esteemed of all. Of the wood, that kind

which resembles boxwood is considered the best: it has also

the strongest smell. The best seed is that which is the largest

in size and the heaviest in weight; it has a biting or rather

burning taste in the mouth. Balsamum is adulterated with

hypericon:[7] from Petra, but the fraud is easily detected, from

the fact that the grains of the latter are larger, comparatively

empty, and longer than those of balsamum; they are destitute

also of any pungency of smell, and have a flavour like that

of pepper.



As to the tears of balsamum, the test of their goodness is

their being unctuous to the touch, small, of a somewhat reddish

colour, and odoriferous when subjected to friction. That of

second-rate quality is white; the green and coarse is inferior,

and the black is the worst of all; for, like olive-oil, it is apt

to turn rancid when old. Of all the incisions, the produce is

considered the best of those from which the liquid has flowed

before the formation of the seed. In addition to what has

been already stated, it is often adulterated with the juice of

the seed, and it is with considerable difficulty that the fraud is

detected by a slight bitterness in the taste, which ought to be

delicate and without the slightest mixture of acidity, the only

pungency being that of the smell. It is adulterated also with

oil of roses, of cyprus, of mastich, of balanus, of turpentine,

and of myrtle, as also with resin, galbanum, and Cyprian wax,

just as occasion may serve. But the very worst adulteration

of all, is that which is effected with gum, a substance which

is dry when emptied into the hand, and falls to the bottom

when placed in water; both of which are characteristics of the

genuine commodity. Balsamum, in a genuine state, should be

quite hard, but when it is mixed with gum a brittle pellicle

forms upon it. The fraud can also be detected by the taste,

and when placed upon hot coals it may easily be seen if there

has been any adulteration with wax and resin; the flame too, in

this case, burns with a blacker smoke than when the balsamum

is pure. When mixed with honey its qualities are immediately changed, for it will attract flies even in the hand. In

addition to these various tests, a drop of pure balsamum, if

placed in luke-warm water will settle to the bottom of the







vessel, whereas, if it is adulterated, it will float upon the surface like oil, and if it has been drugged with metopion or

hammoniacum, a white circle will form around it. But the

best test of all is, that it will cause milk to curdle, and leave

no stain upon cloth. In no commodity are there practised

more palpable frauds than in this, for a sextarius of balsamum

which is sold by the fiscal authorities at three hundred denarii,

is sold again for a thousand, so vast is the profit to be derived

from increasing this liquid by sophistication. The price of

xylobalsamum is six denarii per pound.







1. Balsam (or balm of Mecca, as it is sometimes called) is the produce

of two trees, probably varieties of one another, of the terebinth family,

belonging to the genus Amyris. So far from being a native solely of

Juda, Bruce assures us that its original country was that which produces

myrrh, in the vicinity of Babelmandel, and that the inhabitants use the

wood solely for fuel. In Juda it appears to have been cultivated solely

in gardens; and it was this tree which produced the famous balm of Gilead

of Scripture. The balsam trees known to us do not at all correspond with

Pliny's description, as they do not resemble either the vine or myrtle, nor

are their leaves at all like those of rue.

2. "Malleolis." So called when the new shoot of the tree springing from

a branch of the former year, is cut off for the sake of planting, with a bit

of the old wood on each side of it, in the form of a mallet.

3. "Easily cut." This and the other kinds, the names of which mean

"rough barked," and "good length," are probably only varieties of the

same tree, in different states.

4. This is said, probably, in allusion to the smell, and not the taste.

Fe remarks, that Pliny speaks with a considerable degree of exaggeration,

as its odour is very inferior to that of several balsams which contain benzoic acid. The balsam obtained by incision, as mentioned by Pliny, is not

brought to Europe, but only that obtained by the process of decoction;

which is known as "balm of Mecca," or of Juda. It is difficult to believe.

according to Fe, that it was adulterated with the substances here mentioned by Pliny; oil of roses having been always a very precious com-

modity, wax being likely to change its nature entirely, and gums not being

of a nature to combine with it. Its asserted effects upon milk he states to

be entirely fabulous; the statement is derived from Dioscorides.

5. The concha, or "shell," was a Greek and Roman liquid measure, of

which there were two sizes. The smaller was half a cyathus, .0412 of an

English pint; the larger was about three times the size of the former, and

was known also as the oxybaphum.

6. Or "wood of balsam." It is still known in European commerce by

its ancient name. The fruit is called Carpobalsamum.

7. See B. xxvi. cc. 53, 54.




55. Chap. 55.-Storax.


CHAP. 55.-STORAX.



That part of Syria joining up to Juda, and lying above

Phnicia, produces storax, which is found in the vicinity of

Gabala and Marathus,[1] as also of Casius, a mountain of Seleucia. The tree[2] bears the same name, and has a strong

resemblance to, the quince. The tear has a harsh taste, with a

pleasant smell; in the interior it has all the appearance of a reed,

and is filled with a liquid juice. About the rising of the Dog-

star, certain small winged worms hover about this substance

and eat it away, for which reason it is often found in a rotten

state, with worm-holes full of dust. The storax next in esti-

mation after that already mentioned, comes from Pisidia,

Sidon, Cyprus, and Cilicia; that of Crete being considered the

very worst of all. That which comes from Mount Amanus,

in Syria, is highly esteemed for medicinal purposes, and even

more so by the perfumers. From whatever country it comes,

that which is of a red colour is preferred, and it should be

both unctuous as well as viscous to the touch; the worst kind

is that which crumbles like bran, and is covered all over with

a whitish mould. This substance is adulterated with the resin

of cedar or with gum, and sometimes with honey or bitter al-







monds; all which sophistications may, however, be detected by

the taste. The price of storax of the best quality is seventeen

denarii per pound. It comes also from Pamphylia, but this

last is more arid, and not so full of juice.







1. These localities are mentioned in B. v.

2. The Storax officinalis of Linnus, a tree found in the south of

Europe and the Levant. The variety found in France, and known as the

Aliboufier, produces no storax, or at least a very small proportion. The

storax of commerce appears in three states-grain storax, with which Pliny

does not appear to have been acquainted; amygdalite, which is perhaps

the sort which he speaks of as adulterated with bitter almonds; and lump

storax, of reddish brown colour, which is frequently mixed with wood dust,

or worm dust, as mentioned by Pliny, and is but little esteemed. The tree

is also called Liquidambar styraciflua.




56. Chap. 56.-Galbanum.


CHAP. 56.-GALBANUM.



Syria produces galbanum too, which grows upon the same

mountain of Amanus: it exudes from a kind of giant-fennel[1]

of the same name as the resin, though sometimes it is known

as stagonitis. The kind that is the most esteemed is cartilaginous, clear like hammoniacum, and free from all ligneous

substances. Still, however, it is sometimes adulterated with

beans, or with sacopenium.[2] If ignited in a pure state, it

has the property of driving away serpents[3] by its smoke, It

is sold at five denarii per pound, and is only employed for

medicinal purposes.







1. A shrub of the family of Ombellifer, belonging to the genus bubon.

It is a native of Asia Minor and Syria.

2. See B. xix. c. 52, and B. xx. c. 75.

3. This was a common notion with the Romans. Virgil, Georg. B. iii.

1. 415, says:-

"Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros."

Though considered to produce a pleasant perfume by the ancients, it is no

longer held in estimation for that quality, and is only employed in some

slight degree for medical purposes.




57. Chap. 57. (26.)-Panax.


CHAP. 57. (26.)-PANAX.



Syria, too, furnishes panax,[1] an ingredient used in unguents.

This plant grows also at Psophis in Arcadia, about the sources

of the Erymanthus, in Africa also, and in Macedonia. This is

a peculiar kind of giant-fennel, which stands five cubits in

height: it first throws out four leaves, and then six, which lie

close to the ground, round, and of very considerable size; those.

however, which grow towards the top resemble the leaves of

the olive. It bears its seed in certain tufts, which hang down,

just as in the fennel. The juice is obtained by incisions







made in the stalk at harvest-time, and in the root in autumn.

When in a coagulated state, it is esteemed according to its

whiteness. The next in value is that of a pallid colour, while

the black is held in no esteem. The price of that of the best

quality is two denarii per pound.







1. The produce of the Pastinaca opopanax of Linnus, or the Panax

Copticum of Bauhin, an umbelliferous plant which abounds in the East,

and is not uncommon in the south of France. The gum called Opopanax

was formerly used, and its supposed virtues are indicated by its name.

which signifies "the juice which is the universal remedy."




58. Chap. 58.-Spondylium.


CHAP. 58.-SPONDYLIUM.



The difference between this kind of giant-fennel and that

known as spondylium,[1] consists only in the leaf, which is

smaller, and divided like that of the plane tree. It grows in

shady places only. The seed bears the same name as the plant,

and has a strong resemblance to that of hart-wort: it is only

employed in medicine.







1. The umbelliferous plant known as the Heracleum spondylium of Linnus. It is commonly found in France, where it is called Berce-branc-

ursine. It received its name from the resemblance of its smell to that of

the sphondyle, a fetid kind of wood-beetle.




59. Chap. 59.-Malobathrum.


CHAP. 59.-MALOBATHRUM.



Syria produces the malobathrum[1] also, a tree which bears a

folded leaf, with just the colour of a leaf when dried. From

this plant an oil is extracted for unguents. Egypt produces it

in still greater abundance; but that which is the most esteemed

of all comes from India, where it is said to grow in the marshes

like the lentil. It has a more powerful odour than saffron,

and has a black, rough appearance, with a sort of brackish

taste. The white is the least approved of all, and it very soon

turns musty when old. In taste it ought to be similar to

nard, when placed under the tongue. When made luke-warm

in wine, the odour which it emits is superior to any other.

The prices at which this drug ranges are something quite

marvellous, being from one denarius to four hundred per pound;

as for the leaf, it generally sells at sixty denarii per pound.







1. Some suppose this tree to be the Laurus cassia of Linnus, or wild

cinnamon; others take it for the betel, the Piper betel of Linnus. Clusius thinks that the name is derived from the Indian Tamalpatra, the name

given from time immemorial to the leaf of a tree known by the Arabs as

the Cadegi-indi, possibly the same as the Katou-carua of the Malabars.




60. Chap. 60. (27.)-Omphacium.


CHAP. 60. (27.)-OMPHACIUM.



Omphacium[1] is also a kind of oil, which is obtained from







two trees, the olive and the vine, by two different methods.

It is produced from the former by pressing the olive while it

is still in the white state. That is of an inferior quality which

is made from the druppa-such being the name that is given

to the olive before it is ripe and fit for food, but already

beginning to change its colour. The difference between them

is, that the latter kind is green, the former white. The omphacium that is made from the vine is extracted from either

the psythian[2] or the Aminean grape, when the grapes are

about the size of a chick-pea, just before the rising of the Dogstar. The grape is gathered when the first bloom is appearing

upon it, and the verjuice is extracted, after which the residue[3]

is left to dry in the sun, due precautions being taken against

the dews of the night. The verjuice, after being collected, is

put into earthen vessels, and then, after that, stored in jars

of Cyprian copper.[4] The best kind is that which is of a

reddish colour, acrid, and dry to the taste? The price at

which it sells is six denarii per pound. Omphacium is also

made another way-the unripe grape is pounded in a mortar,

after which it is dried in the sun, and then divided into

lozenges.







1. From the Greek o)mfa/kion, being made of unripe grapes. As Fe

remarks, that made from the olive is correctly described as a kind of oil,

but that made from the grape must have been a rob, or pure verjuice.

These two liquids must have had totally different qualities, and resembled

each other in nothing but the name. That extracted from the olive is

mentioned again in B. xxiii. c. 4, in reference to its medicinal properties.

2. These grapes are described in B. xiv. c. 4 and c. 11.

3. "Reliquum corpus." It is not clear what is the meaning of this.

The passage is either in a corrupt state, or defective.

4. A singular metal, one would think, for keeping verjuice in.




61. Chap. 61. (28.)-Bryon, nanthe, And Massaris.


CHAP. 61. (28.)-BRYON, NANTHE, AND MASSARIS.



Bryon[1] also bears an affinity to these substances, being the

clusters of berries produced by the white poplar. The best

kinds grow in the vicinity of Cnidos, or in Caria, in spots that

are destitute of water, or else in dry and rugged localities. A







bryon of second-rate quality is produced from the cedar of

Lycia.[2] nanthe, too, bears an affinity to these substances,

being the clusters of the wild vine: it is gathered when it is

in flower, or, in other words, when it has the finest smell:

after which it is dried in the shade upon a linen sheet spread

beneath it, and then stored away in casks. The best sort is

that which comes from Parapotamia;[3] the next best kinds are

those made at Antiochia and Laodicea in Syria; and that of

third-rate quality, comes from the mountainous parts of Media;

this last, however, is preferable for medicinal purposes. Some

persons give the preference over all to that grown in the

island of Cyprus. As to that which comes from Africa, it

is solely used for medicinal purposes, being known by the

name of massaris.[4] Whatever country it may happen to be,

the white wild vine produces an nanthe of superior quality

to the black.







1. From the Greek bo|u/on, "moss." He speaks again of these grapes

of the white poplar in B. xxiv. c. 34; also in c. 51 of the present Book.

Hardouin thinks that he is speaking of moss. Fe is of opinion, that the

blossoms or buds of the tree are meant, which have a fragrant smell. This

is the more probable, as we find Pliny here speaking of the nanthe, or vine-flower, by which Fe supposes that he means the blossom of the Vitis

vinifera of Linnus, which exhales a delightful perfume.

2. The bud, probably, of the Juniperus Lycia.

3. See B. vi. c. 31.

4. Said to have been a surname given by some nations to the god Bacchus.




62. Chap. 62.-Elate Or Spathe.


CHAP. 62.-ELATE OR SPATHE.



There is another tree[1] also, that contributes to the manufacture of unguents, by some persons known under the name

of elate, but which we call abies; others again call it a palm,

and others give it the name of spathe. That of Hammonium

is the most esteemed, and that of Egypt next, after which

comes the Syrian tree. It is only odoriferous, however, in

places that are destitute of water. The tears of it are of an

unctuous nature, and are employed as an ingredient in unguents, to modify the harshness of the oil.







1. It is generally supposed by the commentators, that Pliny makes a

mistake here, and that the elate or spathe was not a tree, but the envelope

or capsule, containing the flowers and fruit of a tree, which is supposed by

some to have been really the Phnix dactylifera, or date-palm. There

can be little doubt that he is mistaken in his mention of the abies or fir-tree here. See B. xxiii. c. 53.




63. Chap. 63.-Cinnamon Or Comacum.


CHAP. 63.-CINNAMON OR COMACUM.



In Syria, too, is produced that kind of cinnamon which is also

known as comacum.[1] This is a juice which is extracted from







a nut, and very different from the extract of the real cinnamomum, though it somewhat resembles it in its agreeable smell.

The price at which it sells is forty asses per pound.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

nine hundred and seventy-four.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[2] Mucianus,[3] Virgil,[4]

Fabianus,[5] Sebosus,[6] Pomponius Mela,[7] Flavius,[8] Procilius,[9]

Hyginus,[10] Trogus,[11] Claudius Csar,[12] Cornelius Nepos,[13] Sextus Niger[14] who wrote a Greek treatise on Medicine, Cassius

Hemina,[15] L. Piso,[16] Tuditanus,[17] Antias.[18]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Theophrastus,[19] Herodotus,[20] Cal-







listhenes,[21] Isigonus,[22] Clitarchus,[23] Anaximenes,[24] Duris,[25] Nearchus,[26] Onesicritus,[27] Polycritus,[28] Olympiodorus,[29] Diognetus,[30] Nicobulus,[31] Anticlides,[32] Chares[33] of Mitylene, Men-

mechmus,[34] Dorotheus[35] of Athens, Lycus,[36] Antseus,[37] Ephippus,[38]

Dion,[39] Demodes,[40] Ptolemy Lagus,[41] Marsyas[42] of Macedon,







Zoilus[43] of Macedon, Democritus,[44] Amphilochus,[45] Aristomachus,[46] Alexander Polyhistor,[47] Juba,[48] Apollodorus[49] who

wrote on Perfumes, Heraclides[50] the physician, Archidemus[51]

the physician, Dionysius[52] the physician, Democlides[53] the

physician, Euphron[54] the physician, Muesides[55] the physician,

Diagoras[56] the physician, Iollas[57] the physician, Heraclides"[58]

of Tarentum, Xenocrates[59] of Ephesus, Eratosthenes.[60]









1. Bauhin thinks that this juice or oil was extracted from the nutmeg,

the Myristica moschata of Thunberg, and Bonastre is of the same opinion.

But, as Fe observes, the nutmeg is a native of India, and Pliny speaks of

the Comacum as coming from Syria. Some authors, he adds, who are of

this opinion, think also that the other cinnamomum mentioned by Pliny

was no other than the nutmeg, which they take to be the same as the

chrysobalanos, or "golden nut," of Galen.

2. See end of B. ii.

3. See end of B. ii.

4. See end of B. vii.

5. Fabianus Papirius: see end of B. ii.

6. See end of B. ii.

7. See end of B. iii.

8. The son of a freedman; some further particulars are given of him by

Pliny in B. xxxiii. c. 1. By his talents and eloquence, he attained considerable distinction at Rome. He was made a senator by Appius Claudius,

and was curule dile B.C. 303. He published a collection of legal rules,

entitled the "Jus Flavianum."

9. See end of B. viii.

10. See end of B. iii.

11. See end of B. vii.

12. See end of B. v.

13. See end of B. ii.

14. Probably the same as the Niger mentioned by Dioscorides as a writer

on Materia Medica. He is also mentioned by Epiphanius and Galen; but

Dioscorides charges him with numerous blunders in his accounts of vegetable productions.

15. A compiler of Roman history, who wrote at the beginning of the

second century before Christ. He wrote Annals of Rome from the earliest

to his own times: only a few fragments of his work have survived.

16. See end of B. ii.

17. C. Sempronius Tuditanus, consul of Rome, B.C. 129. He wrote a

book of historical Commentaries. He was maternal grandfather of the

orator Hortensius.

18. See end of B. ii.

19. See end of B. iii.

20. See end of B. ii.

21. A native of Olynthus. His mother, Hero, was a cousin of the philosopher Aristotle, under whose tutelage he was educated. It is generally

supposed that he was put to death by order of Alexander the Great, but in

what manner is a matter of uncertainty. He wrote a History of Greece,

and numerous other learned works. Some MSS. are still extant, professing to be his writings; but they are generally looked upon as spurious.

22. See end of B. vii.

23. See end of B. vii.

24. A native of Lampsacus, and disciple of Diogenes the Cynic. He accompanied Alexander the Great in his Asiatic expedition. He wrote a

history of the reigns of Philip and Alexander, and a history of Greece, in

twelve books. Only a few fragments of his works are left.

25. See end of B. vii.

26. See end of B. vi.

27. See end of B. ii.

28. There was a native of Mend. in Sicily, of this name, who wrote a

history of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse. It was, probably, a different

person of this name who wrote a work on the East; if such is the case,

Pliny most probably quotes from the work of the latter.

29. Nothing seems to be known of this writer; but it is suggested that

he may have accompanied Nearchus and Onesicritus in the East.

30. See end of B. vi.

31. Nothing is known of him; but Hardouin suggests that he may have

accompanied Alexander the Great in his Eastern expedition.

32. See end of B. iv.

33. An officer at the court of Alexander the Great, who wrote a collection

of anecdotes respecting the private life and reign of that emperor, some

fragments of which are preserved by Athenus.

34. See end of B. iv.

35. He is supposed to have been the same with the person of that name

who wrote a history of Alexander the Great; but nothing further is known

of him.

36. A physician of Neapolis, who is supposed to have lived in the early

part of the first century after Christ.

37. A writer on medicine, of whom all further particulars have perished.

38. Possibly Ephippus of Olynthus, a Greek historian of the reign of

Alexander the Great.

39. See end of B. viii.

40. An ancient Greek historian, mentioned also by Strabo; but no further

particulars are known of him.

41. The founder of the dynasty of the Egyptian Ptolemies, which ended

in Cleopatra, B.C. 38: he wrote a narrative of the wars of Alexander, which

is frequently quoted by the later writers, and served as the groundwork for

Arrian's history.

42. A native of Pella, who wrote a history of Macedonia down to the

wars of Alexander the Great. There was another writer of the same name,

a native of Philippi, who also wrote a treatise, either geographical or historical, relative to Macedonia.

43. A native of Amphipolis, though some make him to have been an

Ephesian. The age in which he lived is not exactly known. He attacked

the writings of Homer with such uncalled-for asperity, that his name has

been proverbial for a snarling, captious critic. He is said to have met

with a violent death. His literary productions were numerous, but none

of them have come down to us.

44. See end of B. ii.

45. See end of B. viii.

46. See end of B. xi.

47. See end of B. iii.

48. See end of B. v.

49. See end of B. xi.

50. A physician of Heraclea, near Ephesus. He wrote commentaries on

the works of Hippocrates.

51. Nothing is known of him; but it has been suggested that he may

have been the author of a few fragments on veterinary surgery which still

exist.

52. There were many physicians and surgeons of this name, but probably

Dionysius of Samos is meant, or else Sallustius Dionysius, quoted by Pliny,

B. xxxii. c. 26.

53. Also called Democedes, a physician of Crotona, who practised at

gina. He was afterwards physician to Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos,

and King Darius, whose foot he cured. His work on medicine has perished.

54. Nothing whatever is known of this writer.

55. Nothing is known relative to this writer.

56. Nothing is known of him.

57. Or Ilaus, a native of Bithynia, who wrote a work on Materia Medica.

He was probably a contemporary of Heraclides of Tarentum, in the third

century B.C.

58. A physician of Tarentum, who belonged to the Empiric sect. He

wrote several medical works, and is highly commended by Galen. Only a

few fragments of his writings remain.

59. An historical and geographical writer, frequently quoted by Pliny.

From the mention made of him in B. xxxvii. c. 2, it would appear that the

flourished during the time of Pliny, or very shortly before.

60. See end of B. ii.




0. > Book Xiii. The Natural History Of Exotic Trees, And An Account Of Unguents.


BOOK XIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EXOTIC TREES, AND AN

ACCOUNT OF UNGUENTS.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Unguents-At What Period They Were First Introduced.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-UNGUENTS-AT WHAT PERIOD THEY WERE FIRST

INTRODUCED.



THUS far we have been speaking of the trees which are

valuable for the odours they produce, and each of which is a

subject for our wonder in itself. Luxury, however, has

thought fit to mingle all of these, and to make a single odour

of the whole; hence it is that unguents have been invented.[1]

Who was the first to make unguents is a fact not recorded.

In the times of the Trojan war[2] they did not exist, nor did

they use incense when sacrificing to the gods; indeed, people

knew of no other smell, or rather stench,[3] I may say, than that

of the cedar and the citrus,[4] shrubs of their own growth, as it

arose in volumes of smoke from the sacrifices; still, however,

even then, the extract of roses was known, for we find it mentioned as conferring additional value on olive-oil.



We ought, by good rights, to ascribe the first use of unguents to the Persians, for they quite soak themselves in it,

and so, by an adventitious recommendation, counteract the

bad odours which are produced by dirt. The first instance of

the use of unguents that I have been able to meet with is that of

the chest[5] of perfumes which fell into the hands of Alexander,

with the rest of the property of King Darius, at the taking of his







camp.[6] Since those times this luxury has been adopted by

our own countrymen as well, among the most prized and, indeed, the most elegant of all the enjoyments of life, and has

begun even to be admitted in the list of honours paid to the

dead; for which reason we shall have to enlarge further on

that subject. Those perfumes which are not the produce of

shrubs[7] will only be mentioned for the present by name: the

nature of them will, however, be stated in their appropriate

places.







1. Fe remarks, that most of the unguents and perfumes of which Pliny

here speaks would find but little favour at the present day.

2. This does not appear to be exactly the case, for in the twenty-third

Book of the Iliad, 1. 186, we find "rose-scented" oil mentioned, indeed,

Pliny himself alludes to it a little further on.

3. "Nidorem." This term was used in reference to the smell of burnt or

roasted animal substances. It is not improbable that he alludes to the

stench arising from the burnt sacrifices.

4. The "Thuya articulata." See c. 29 of the present Book.

5. "Serinium." See B. vii. c. 30.

6. The use of perfumes more probably originated in India, than among

the Persians.

7. But of seeds or plants




2. Chap. 2.-The Various Kinds Of Unguents-Twelve Prin- Cipal Compositions.


CHAP. 2.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF UNGUENTS-TWELVE PRIN-

CIPAL COMPOSITIONS.



The names of unguents are due, some of them, to the original place of their composition, others, again, to the extracts

which form their bases, others to the trees from which they

are derived, and others to the peculiar circumstance under

which they were first made: and it is as well, first of all, to

know that in this respect the fashion has often changed, and

that the high repute of peculiar kinds has been but transitory.

In ancient times, the perfumes the most esteemed of all were

those of the island of Delos,[1] and at a later period those of

Mendes.[2] This degree of esteem is founded, not only on the

mode of mixing them and the relative proportions, but according to the degree of favour or disfavour in which the various

places which produce the ingredients are held, and the comparative excellence or degeneracy of the ingredients themselves.

The perfume of iris,[3] from Corinth, was long held in the

highest esteem, till that of Cyzicus came into fashion. It was

the same, too, with the perfume of roses,[4] from Phaselis,[5] the







repute of which was afterwards eclipsed by those of Neapolis,

Capua, and Prneste. Oil of saffron,[6] from Soli in Cilicia,

was for a long time held in repute beyond any other, and then

that from Rhodes; after which perfume of nanthe,[7] from Cyprus, came into fashion, and then that of Egypt was preferred.

At a later period that of Adramytteum came into vogue, and

then was supplanted by unguent of marjoram,[8] from Cos,

which in its turn was superseded by quince blossom[9] unguent

from the same place. As to perfume of cyprus,[10] that from

the island of Cyprus was at first preferred, and then that of

Egypt; when all on a sudden the unguents of Mendes and

metopium[11] rose into esteem. In later times Phnicia eclipsed

Egypt in the manufacture of these last two, but left to that

country the repute of producing the best unguent of cyprus.



Athens has perseveringly maintained the repute of her

panathenaicon.[12] There was formerly a famous unguent,

known as "pardalium,"[13] and made at Tarsus; at the present

day its very composition and the mode of mixing it are quite

unknown there: they have left off, too, making unguent of

narcissus[14] from the flowers of that plant.



There are two elements which enter into the composition of

unguents, the juices and the solid parts. The former generally

consist of various kinds of oils, the latter of odoriferous substances. These last are known as hedysmata, while the oils

are called stymmata.[15] There is a third element, which occu-







pies a place between the two, but has been much neglected,

the colouring matter, namely. To produce a colour, however,

cinnabar[16] and alkanet[17] are often employed. If salt[18] is

sprinkled in the oil, it will aid it in retaining its properties;

but if alkanet has been employed, salt is never used. Resin

and gum are added to fix the odour in the solid perfumes;

indeed it is apt to die away and disappear with the greatest

rapidity if these substances are not employed.



The unguent which is the most readily prepared of all,

and indeed, in all probability, the very first that was ever

made, is that composed of bryon[19] and oil of balanus,[20] substances of which we have made mention already. In later

times the Mendesian unguent was invented, a more complicated mixture, as resin and myrrh were added to oil of balanus, and at the present day they even add metopion[21] as

well, an Egyptian oil extracted from bitter almonds; to which

have been added omphacium,[22] cardamum,[23] sweet rush,[24] honey,[25]

wine, myrrh, seed of balsamum,[26] galbanum,[27] and resin of

terebinth,[28] as so many ingredients. Among the most common

unguents at the present day, and for that reason supposed to

be the most ancient, is that composed of oil of myrtle,[29] calamus, cypress,[30] cyprus, mastich,[31] and pomegranate-rind.[32] I am







of opinion, however, that the unguents which have been the

most universally adopted, are those which are compounded of

the rose, a flower that grows everywhere; and hence for

a long time the composition of oil of roses was of the most

simple nature, though more recently there have been added

omphacium, rose blossoms, cinnabar, calamus, honey, sweet-rush, flour of salt or else alkanet,[33] and wine. The same

is the case, too, with oil of saffron, to which have been lately

addedcinnabar, alkanet, and wine; and with oil of sampsuchum,[34]

with which omphacium and calamus have been compounded.

The best comes from Cyprus and Mitylene, where sampsuchum

abounds in large quantities.



The commoner kinds of oil, too, are mixed with those of

myrrh and laurel, to which are added sampsuchum, lilies,

fenugreek, myrrh, cassia,[35] nard,[36] sweet-rush, and cinnamon.[37]

There is an oil, too, made of the common quince and the

sparrow quince, called melinum, as we shall have occasion to

mention hereafter;[38] it is used as an ingredient in unguents,

mixed with omphacium, oil of cyprus, oil of sesamum,[39] balsamum,[40] sweet-rush, cassia, and abrotonum.[41] Susinum[42] is

the most fluid of them all: it is made of lilies, oil of balanus,

calamus, honey, cinnamon, saffron,[43] and myrrh; while the

unguent of cyprus[44] is compounded of cyprus, omphacium







and cardamum, calamus, aspalathus,[45] and abrotonum. There

are some persons who, when making unguent of cyprus, employ myrrh also, and panax:[46] the best is that made at Sidon,

and the next best that of Egypt: care must be taken not to

add oil of sesamum: it will keep as long as four years, and its

odour is strengthened by the addition of cinnamon. Telinum[47]

is made of fresh olive-oil, cypirus,[48] calamus, melilote,[49] fenugreek, honey, marum,[50] and sweet marjoram. This last was

the perfume most in vogue in the time of the Comic poet

Menander: a considerable time after that known as "megalium" took its place, being so called as holding the very

highest rank;[51] it was composed of oil of balanus, balsamum,

calamus, sweet-rush, xylobalsamum,[52] cassia, and resin. One

peculiar property of this unguent is, that it requires to be

constantly stirred while boiling, until it has lost all smell:

when it becomes cold, it recovers its odour.[53]



There are some single essences also which, individually,

afford unguents of very high character: the first rank is due

to malobathrum,[54] and the next to the iris of Illyricum and

the sweet marjoram of Cyzicus, both of them herbs. There

are perfumers who sometimes add some few other ingredients

to these: those who use the most, employ for the purpose

honey, flour of salt, omphacium, leaves of agnus,[55] and panax,

all of them foreign ingredients.[56] The price of unguent[57] of







cinnamon is quite enormous; to cinnamon there is added oil

of balanus, xylobalsamum, calamus, sweet-rush, seeds of

balsamum, myrrh, and perfumed honey: it is the thickest in

consistency of all the unguents; the price at which it sells

ranges from thirty-five to three hundred denarii per pound.

Unguent of nard,[58] or foliatum, is composed of omphacium or

else oil of balanus, sweet-rush, costus,[59] nard, amomum,[60]

myrrh, and balsamum.



While speaking on this subject, it will be as well to bear in

mind that there are nine different kinds of plants of a similar

kind, of which we have already made mention[61] as being employed for the purpose of imitating Indian nard; so abundant are the materials that are afforded for adulteration. All

these perfumes are rendered still more pungent by the addition of costus and amomum, which have a particularly powerful effect on the olfactory organs; while myrrh gives them

greater consistency and additional sweetness, and saffron makes

them better adapted for medicinal purposes. They are most

pungent, however, when mixed with amomum alone, which

will often produce head-ache even. There are some persons who

content themselves with sprinkling the more precious ingredients upon the others after boiling them down, for the purpose of economy; but the strength of the unguent is not so

great as when the ingredients have been boiled together.

Myrrh used by itself, and without the mixture of oil, forms

an unguent, but it is stacte[62] only that must be used, for otherwise it will be productive of too great bitterness. Unguent of

cyprus turns other unguents green, while lily unguent[63] makes

them more unctuous: the unguent of Mendes turns them

black, rose unguent makes them white, and that of myrrh

of a pallid hue.



Such are the particulars of the ancient inventions, and the

various falsifications of the shops in later times; we will now

pass on to make mention of what is the very height of refinement in these articles of luxury, indeed, I may say, the beau

ideal[64] of them all.



[65]







(2.) This is what is called the "regal" unguent, from the

fact that it is composed in these proportions for the kings of

the Parthians. It consists of myrobalanus,[66] costus, amomum,

cinnamon, comacum,[67] cardamum, spikenard, marum, myrrh,

cassia, storax,[68] ladanum,[69] opobalsamum, Syrian calamus[70] and

Syrian sweet-rush,[71] nanthe, malobathrum, serichatum,[72]

cyprus, aspralathus, panax, saffron, cypirus, sweet marjoram,

lotus,[73] honey, and wine. Not one of the ingredients in this

compound is produced either in Italy, that conqueror of the

world, or, indeed, in all Europe, with the exception of the

iris, which grows in Illyricum, and the nard, which is to be

found in Gaul: as to the wine, the rose, the leaves of myrtle, and the olive-oil, they are possessed by pretty nearly all

countries in common.







1. The perfumes of Delos themselves had nothing in particular to recommend them; but as it was the centre of the worship of Apollo, it is not

improbable that exquisite perfumes formed a large proportion of the offerings brought thither from all parts of the world.

2. In Egypt. See B. v. c. 11. The unguents of Mendes are again mentioned in the present Chapter.

3. Or flower-de-luce. This perfume was called Irinum. The Iris Florentina of the botanists, Fe says, has the smell of the violet. For the

composition of this perfume, see Dioscorides, B. i.. c. 67.

4. Rhodinum.

5. See B. v. c. 26.

6. Crocinum; made from the Crocus sativus of naturalists.

7. See B. xii. c. 62. It was made from the flowers of the vine, mixed

with omphacium.

8. Amaracinum. The amaracus is supposed to have been the Origanum

majoranoides of the moderns. Dioscorides, B. i. c. 59, says that the best

was made at Cyzicus.

9. Melinum. See B. xxiii. c. 54.

10. Cyprinum. See B. xii. c. 51. The cyprus was the modern Lawsonia inermis.

11. Made from the oil of bitter almonds. See B. xv. c. 7.

12. Or "all Athenian." We find in Athenus, B. xv. c. 15, the composition of this unguent.

13. From what is said by Apollonius in the passage of Athenus last

quoted, it has been thought that this was the same as the unguent called nardinum. It is very doubtful, however.

14. Narcissinum. See B. xxi. c. 75. Dioscorides gives the composition

of this unguent, B. i. c. 54.

15. Among the stymmata, Dioscorides ranges the sweet-rush, the sweet-

scented calamus and xylo-balsamum; and among the hedysmata amomum,

nard, myrrh, balsam, costus, and marjoram. The latter constituted the

base of unguents, the former were only added occasionally.

16. Cinnabar is never used to colour cosmetics at the present day, from

its tendency to excoriate the skin. See B. xxiii. c. 39.

17. This is still used for colouring cosmetics at the present day. See B.

xxii, c. 23.

18. Fe remarks, that salt can be of no use; but by falling to the bottom

without dissolving, would rather tend to spoil the unguent.

19. See B. xii. c. 60. The name "bryon" seems also to have been extended to the buds of various trees of the Conifera class and of the white

poplar. It is probably to the buds of the last tree that Pliny here

alludes.

20. Oil of ben. See B. xii. c. 48.

21. Or metopium. See Note 18 above.

22. Made from olives. See B. xii. c. 60.

23. See B. xii. c. 29.

24. The modern Andropogon schnanthus. See B. xii. c. 48.

25. See B. xii. c. 48.

26. Carpobalsamum. See. B. xii, c. 54.

27. See B. xii. c. 56.

28. Fluid resin of coniferous trees of Europe.

29. See B. xv. c. 35.

30. Cupressus semper-virens. He does not say what part of the tree

was employed.

31. See B. xii. c. 36.

32. See c. 34 of the present Book.

33. The alkanet and cinnabar were only used for colouring.

34. "Sampsuchinum." It is generally supposed that the sampsuchum,

and the amaracus were the same, the sweet marjoram, or Origanum marjorana of Linnus. Fe, however, is of a contrary opinion, See B. xxi.

c. 35. In Dioscorides, B. i. c. 59, there is a difference made between

sampsuchinum and amaracinum, though but a very slight one.

35. The bark of the Cassia lignea of the pharmacopa, the Laurus cassia

of botany. See B. xii. c. 43.

36. See B. xii. c. 26. The Andropogon nardus of Linnus.

37. See B. xii. c. 41.

38. See B. xxiii. c. 64, also B. xv. c. 10. The Malun struthium, or

"sparrow quince," was an oblong variety of the fruit.

39. Sesamum orientale of Linnus. See B. xviii. c. 22, and B. xxii.

c. 54.

40. Balm of Gilead. See B. xii. c. 54.

41. Southernwood. The Artemisia abrotonum of Linnus.

42. Or lily unguent, made of the lily of Susa, which had probably a

more powerful smell than that of Europe. Dioscorides gives its composition, B. i. c. 63.

43. The Crocus sativus of Linnus.

44. Cyprinum. It has been previously mentioned in this Chapter.

45. See B. xii. c. 52.

46. The gum resin of the Pastinaca opopanax of Linnus. See B. xii.

c. 57.

47. Or unguent of fenugreek, from the Greek th=lis, meaning that plant,

the Trigonella fnum Grcum of Linnus. See B. xxiv. c. 120.

48. See B. ii. c. 26, and B. xxi. c. 6870.

49. The Trifolium melilotus of Linnus. See B. xxi. c. 30.

50. See B. xii. c. 53.

51. He would imply that it was so called from the Greek mega\s, "great;"

but it was more generally said that it received its name from its inventor,

Megalus.

52. See B. xii. c. 5.

53. Fe does not appear to credit this statement. By the use of the

word "ventiletur" "fanned" may be possibly implied.

54. See B. xii. c. 59.

55. The Agnus castus of Linnus. See B. xxiv. c. 38. The leaves are

quite inodorous, though the fruit of this plant is slightly aromatic.

56. "Externa." The reading is doubtful, and it is difficult to say what is

the exact meaning of the word.

57. Cinnamomino.

58. Or leaf unguent, so called from being made of leaves of nard. See

B. xii. c. 27.

59. See B. xii. c. 25.

60. See B. xii. c. 28.

61. See B. xii. c. 26, 27, where the list is given.

62. See B. xii. c. 35.

63. Susinum. See p. 163.

64. Summa auctoritas rei.

65. Nardinum.

66. See B. xii. c. 46.

67. See B. xii. c. 53.

68. See B. xii. c. 55.

69. See B. xii. c. 37.

70. See B. xii. c. 48.

71. See B. xii. c. 48.

72. See B. xii. c. 45.

73. Fe suggests that this may be the Nympha crulea of Savigny, a

plant that is common in the Nile, and the flowers of which exhale a sweet

odour.




3. Chap. 3.-Diapasma, Magma; The Mode Of Testing Unguents.


CHAP. 3.-DIAPASMA, MAGMA; THE MODE OF TESTING UNGUENTS.



Those unguents which are known by the name of "dia-

pasma,"[1] are composed of dried perfumes. The lees[2] of unguents are known by the name of "magma.[3] In all these

preparations the most powerful perfume is the one that is

added the last of all. Unguents keep best in boxes of alabaster,[4] and perfumes[5] when mixed with oil, which conduces

all the more to their durability the thicker it is, such as the

oil of almonds, for instance. Unguents, too, improve with age;

but the sun is apt to spoil them, for which reason they are

usually stowed away in a shady place in vessels of lead.

When their goodness is being tested, they are placed on the

back of the hand, lest the heat of the palm, which is more

fleshy, should have a bad effect upon them.











1. The diapasmata were dry, odoriferous powders, similar to those used

at the present day in sachets and scent-bags.

2. "Fcem unguenti."

3. This word is still used in pharmacy to denote the husks or residuary

matter left after the extraction of the juice.

4. See B. xxxvi. c. 12. See also Mark xiv. 7, and John xii. 3. Leaden

boxes were also used for a similar purpose.

5. Odores.




4. Chap. 4. (3.)-The Excesses To Which Luxury Has Run In Unguents.


CHAP. 4. (3.)-THE EXCESSES TO WHICH LUXURY HAS RUN IN

UNGUENTS.



These perfumes form the objects of a luxury which may be

looked upon as being the most superfluous of any, for pearls

and jewels, after all, do pass to a man's representative,[1] and

garments have some durability; but unguents lose their

odour in an instant, and die away the very hour they are

used. The very highest recommendation of them is, that

when a female passes by, the odour which proceeds from her

may possibly attract the attention of those even who till then

are intent upon something else. In price they exceed so large

a sum even as four hundred denarii per pound: so vast is the

amount that is paid for a luxury made not for our own enjoyment, but for that of others; for the person who carries the

perfume about him is not the one, after all, that smells it.



And yet, even here, there are some points of difference that

deserve to be remarked. We read in the works of Cicero,[2]

that those unguents which smell of the earth are preferable to

those which smell of saffron; being a proof, that even in a

matter which most strikingly bespeaks our state of extreme

corruptness, it is thought as well to temper the vice by a little

show of austerity.[3] There are some persons too who look more

particularly for consistency[4] in their unguents, to which they

accordingly give the name of "spissum;[5] thus showing that

they love not only to be sprinkled, but even to be plastered over,

with unguents. We have known the very soles[6] even of the

feet to be sprinkled with perfumes; a refinement which was

taught, it is said, by M. Otho[7] to the Emperor Nero. How,







I should like to know, could a perfume be at all perceptible,

or, indeed, productive of any kind of pleasure, when placed

on that part of the body? We have heard also of a private

person giving orders for the walls of the bath-room to be

sprinkled with unguents, while the Emperor Caius[8] had the

same thing done to his sitting-bath:[9] that this, too, might not

be looked upon as the peculiar privilege of a prince, it was

afterwards done by one of the slaves that belonged to Nero.



But the most wonderful thing of all is, that this kind of

luxurious gratification should have made its way into the camp

even: at all events, the eagles and the standards, dusty as

they are, and bristling with their sharpened points, are

anointed on festive[10] days. I only wish it could, by any possibility, be stated who it was that first taught us this practice.

It was, no doubt, under the corrupting influence of such temptations as these, that our eagles achieved the conquest[11] of the

world: thus do we seek to obtain their patronage and sanction for our vices, and make them our precedent for using

unguents even beneath the casque.[12]







1. "Heres." The person was so called who succeeded to the property,

whether real or personal, of an intestate.

2. See B. xvii. c. 3, where he quotes this passage from Cicero at length.

It appears to be from De Orat. B. iii. c. 69. Both Cicero and Pliny profess to find a smell that arises from the earth itself, through the agency of

the sun. But, as Fe remarks, pure earth is perfectly inodorous. He suggests, however, that this odour attributed by the ancients to the earth, may

in reality have proceeded from the fibrous roots of thyme and other plants.

If such is not the real solution, it seems impossible to suggest any other.

3. By giving preference to the more simple odours.

4. "Crassitudo."

5. Or "thick" unguent.

6. We learn from Athenus, and a passage in the Aulularia of Plautus,

that this was done long before Nero's time, among the Greeks.

7. Who succeeded Galba. He was one of Nero's favourite companions

in his debaucheries.

8. Caligula.

9. Solium.

10. After victories, for instance, or when marching orders were given.

11. This is said in bitter irony.

12. Sub casside.




5. Chap. 5.-When Unguents Were First Used By The Romans.


CHAP. 5.-WHEN UNGUENTS WERE FIRST USED BY THE ROMANS.



I cannot exactly say at what period the use of unguents

first found its way to Rome. It is a well-known fact, that

when King Antiochus and Asia[1] were subdued, an edict was

published in the year of the City 565, in the censorship of P.

Licinius Crassus and L. Julius Csar, forbidding any one to

sell exotics;[2] for by that name unguents were then called.

But, in the name of Hercules! at the present day, there are

some persons who even go so far as to put them in their drink,

and the bitterness produced thereby is prized to a high degree,

in order that by their lavishness on these odours they may

thus gratify the senses of two parts[3] of the body at the same

moment.[4] It is a well-known historical fact, that L. Plotius,[5]







the brother of L. Plancus, who was twice consul and censor,

after being proscribed by the Triumvirs, was betrayed in his

place of concealment at Salernum by the smell of his unguents, a disgrace which more than outweighed all the guilt[6]

attending his proscription. For who is there that can be of

opinion that such men as this do not richly deserve to come to

a violent end?







1. Asia Minor more particularly.

2. Exotica.

3. The organs of taste and of smell.

4. We have this fact alluded to in the works of Plautus, Juvenal, Martial,

and lian. The Greeks were particularly fond of mixing myrrh with

their wine. Nard wine is also mentioned by Plautus. Miles Gl. iii. 2, 11.

5. Or Lucius Plautius Plancus. He was proscribed by the triumvirs,

with the sanction of his brother. In consequence of his use of perfumes,

the place of his concealment "got wind;" and in order to save his slaves,

who were being tortured to death because they would not betray him, he

voluntarily surrendered himself.

6. Attaching to the triumvirate.




6. Chap. 6.-The Palm-Tree.


CHAP. 6.-THE PALM-TREE.



In other respects, Egypt is the country that is the best suited

of all for the production of unguents; and next to it, Campania,[1] from its abundance of roses.



(4.) Juda, too, is greatly renowned for its perfumes, and

even still more so for its palm-trees,[2] the nature of which I

shall take this opportunity of enlarging upon. There are some

found in Europe also. They are not uncommon in Italy, but

are quite barren there.[3] The palms on the coast of Spain bear

fruit, but it is sour.[4] The fruit of those of Africa is sweet,

but quickly becomes vapid and loses its flavour; which, however is not the case with the fruit of those that grow in the

East.[5] From these trees a wine is made, and bread by some

nations,[6] and they afford an aliment for numerous quadrupeds.

It will be with very fair reason then, that we shall confine our

description to the palm-tree of foreign countries. There are







none in Italy that grow spontaneously,[7] nor, in fact, in any

other part of the world, with the exception of the warm countries: indeed, it is only in the very hottest climates that this

tree will bear fruit.







1. Capua, its capital, was the great seat of the unguent and perfume

manufacture in Italy.

2. The Phnix dactylifera of Linnus. See also B. xii. c. 62, where he

seems also to allude to this tree.

3. At the present day this is not the fact. The village of La Bordighiera,

situate on an eminence of the Apennines, grows great quantities of dates,

of good quality. At Hieres, Nice, San Remo, and Genoa, they are also

grown.

4. This, too, is not the fact. The dates of Valencia, Seville, and other

provinces of Spain, are sweet, and of excellent quality.

5. Pliny is wrong again in this statement. The date of Barbary, Tunis,

Algiers, and Bildulgerid, the "land of dates," is superior in every respect

to that of the East.

6. The thiopians, as we learn from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.

7. Or in a wild state.




7. Chap. 7.-The Nature Of The Palm-Tree.


CHAP. 7.-THE NATURE OF THE PALM-TREE.



The palm-tree grows in a light and sandy soil, and for the

most part of a nitrous quality. It loves the vicinity of flowing

water; and as it is its nature to imbibe the whole of the year,

there are some who are of opinion that in a year of drought

it will receive injury from being manured even, if the manure

is not first mixed with running water: this, at least, is the idea

entertained by some of the Assyrians.



The varieties of the palm are numerous. First of all, there

are those which do not exceed the size of a shrub; they are

mostly barren, though sometimes they are known to produce

fruit; the branches are short, and the tree is well covered with

leaves all round. In many places this tree is used as a kind

of rough-cast,[1] as it were, to protect the walls of houses

against damp. The palms of greater height form whole

forests, the trunk of the tree being protected all round by

pointed leaves, which are arranged in the form of a comb;

these, it must be understood, are wild palms, though sometimes,

by some wayward fancy or other, they are known to make

their appearance among the cultivated varieties. The other

kinds are tall, round, and tapering; and being furnished with

dense and projecting knobs or circles in the bark, arranged in

regular gradation, they are found easy of ascent by the people

in the East; in order to do which, the climber fastens a loop

of osier round his body and the trunk, and by this contrivance

ascends the tree with astonishing[2] rapidity. All the foliage is

at the summit, and the fruit as well; this last being situate,

not among the leaves, as is the case with other trees, but

hanging in clusters from shoots of its own among the

branches, and partaking of the nature both of the grape and

the apple. The leaves terminate in a sharp edge, like that of

a knife, while the sides are deeply indented-a peculiarity







which first gave the idea of a troop of soldiers presenting face

on two sides at once; at the present day they are split asunder[3]

to form ropes and wythes for fastening, as well as light umbrellas[4] for covering the head.



The more diligent[5] enquirers into the operations of Nature

state that all trees, or rather all plants, and other productions

of the earth, belong to either one sex or the other; a fact

which it may be sufficient to notice on the present occasion,

and one which manifests itself in no tree more than in the

palm. The male tree blossoms at the shoots; the female buds

without blossoming, the bud being very similar to an ear of

corn. In both trees the flesh of the fruit shows first, and

after that the woody part inside of it, or, in other words, the

seed: and that this is really the case, is proved by the fact, that

we often find small fruit on the same shoot without any seed in

it at all. This seed is of an oblong shape, and not rounded

like the olive-stone. It is also divided down the back by a

deep indentation, and in most specimens of this fruit there

is exactly in the middle a sort of navel, as it were, from which

the root of the tree first takes its growth.[6] In planting this

seed it is laid on its anterior surface, two being placed side

by side, while as many more are placed above; for when

planted singly, the tree that springs up is but weak and

sickly, whereas the four seeds all unite and form one strong

tree. The seed is divided from the flesh of the fruit by several

coats of a whitish colour, some of which are attached to the

body of it; it lies but loosely in the inside of the fruit, adhering only to the summit by a single thread.[7]



The flesh of this fruit takes a year to ripen, though in some

places, Cyprus[8] for instance, even if it should not reach maturity, it is very agreeable, for the sweetness of its flavour:

the leaf of the tree too, in that island, is broader than elsewhere, and the fruit rounder than usual: the body of the fruit







however, is never eaten, but is always spit[9] out again, after

the juice has been extracted. In Arabia, the palm fruit is

said to have a sickly sweet taste, although Juba says that he

prefers the date found among the Arabian Scenit,[10] and to

which they give the name of dablan," before those of any

other country for flavour. In addition to the above particulars, it is asserted that in a forest of natural growth the

female[11] trees will become barren if they are deprived of the

males, and that many female trees may be seen surrounding a

single male with downcast heads and a foliage that seems to be

bowing caressingly towards it; while the male tree, on the

other hand, with leaves all bristling and erect, by its exhalations, and even the very sight of it and the dust[12] from

off it, fecundates the others: if the male tree, too, should

happen to be cut down, the female trees, thus reduced to a state

of widowhood, will at once become barren and unproductive.

So well, indeed, is this sexual union between them understood,

that it has been imagined even that fecundation may be ensured through the agency of man, by means of the blossoms

and the down[13] gathered from off the male trees, and, indeed,

sometimes by only sprinkling the dust from off them on the

female trees.







1. "Tectorii vicem." They were probably planted in rows, close to the

wall.

2. This mode of ascending the date-palm is still practised in the East.

3. See B. xvi. c. 37.

4. "Umbracula." The fibres of the leaves were probably platted or woven,

and the "umbracula" made in much the same manner as the straw and

fibre hats of the present day.

5. Most of this is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. ii. 9.

6. Fe remarks, that this account is quite erroneous.

7. This he copies also from Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8.

8. Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 8, mentions this as a kind of date peculiar to

Cyprus.

9. This is said solely in relation to the date of Cyprus.

10. Or dwellers in tents;" similar to the modern Bedouins.

11. Fe remarks, that in these words we find the first germs of the sexual

system that has been established by the modern botanists. He thinks that

it is clearly shown by this account, that Pliny was acquainted with the

fecundation of plants by the agency of the pollen.

12. In allusion to the pollen, possibly. See the last Note.

13. "Lanugine." It is possible that in the use of this word, also, he

may allude to the pollen. Under the term "pulvis," "dust," he probably

alludes in exaggerated terms to the same theory.




8. Chap. 8.-How The Palm-Tree Is Planted.


CHAP. 8.-HOW THE PALM-TREE IS PLANTED.



Palm-trees are also propagated by planting;[1] the trunk is

first divided with certain fissures two cubits in length which

communicate with the pith of the tree, and is then buried in

the earth. A slip also torn away from the root will produce

a sucker with vitality, and the same may be obtained from the

more tender among the branches. In Assyria, the tree itself







is sometimes laid level, and then covered over in a moist soil;

upon which it will throw out roots all over, but it will grow

only to be a number of shrubs, and never a tree: hence it is

that they plant nurseries, and transplant the young trees when

a year old, and again when two years old, as they thrive all

the better for being transplanted; this is done in the spring

season in other countries, but in Assyria about the rising of the

Dog-star. In those parts they do not touch the young trees

with the knife, but merely tie up the foliage that they may

shoot upwards, and so attain considerable height. When

they are strong they prune them, in order to increase their

thickness, but in so doing leave the branches for about half a

foot; indeed, if they were cut off at any other place, the operation would kill the parent tree. We have already[2] mentioned that they thrive particularly well in a saltish soil;

hence, when the soil is not of that nature, it is the custom to

scatter salt, not exactly about the roots, but at a little distance

off. There are palm-trees in Syria and in Egypt which divide

into two trunks, and some in Crete into three and as many as

five even.[3] Some of these trees bear immediately at the end of

three years, and in Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt, when they are

four years old; others again at the end of five years: at which

period the tree is about the height of a man. So long as the

tree is quite young the fruit has no seed within, from which

circumstance it has received the nickname of the "eunuch."[4]







1. The same methods of propagating the palm are still followed in the

East, and in the countries near the tropics.

2. In c. 7 of the present Book. See also B. xvii. c. 3.

3. Fe mentions one near Elvas in Spain, which shot up into seven distinct

trees, as it were, from a single trunk. The Douma Thebaica, he says, of

Syria and Egypt, a peculiar kind of palm, is also bifurcated. The fruit

of it, he thinks, are very probably the Phnicobalanus of B. xii. c. 47.

4. "Spado." Represented by the Greek eu)/nouxos and e)/norxos.




9. Chap. 9.-The Different Varieties Of Palm-Trees, And Their Characteristics.


CHAP. 9.-THE DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF PALM-TREES, AND THEIR

CHARACTERISTICS.



There are numerous varieties of the palm-tree. In Assyria,

and throughout the whole of Persis, the barren kinds are made

use of for carpenters' work, and the various appliances of

luxury. There are whole forests also of palm-trees adapted

for cutting,[1] and which, after they are cut, shoot again from







the root; the pith of them towards the top, which is usually

called the brain[2] of the tree, is sweet to the taste, and the

tree will live even after it has been extracted, which is the case

with no other kind. The name of this tree is "chammereps;"[3]

it has a broader and softer leaf than the others, which is extremely useful for various kinds of wickerwork;[4] these trees are

very numerous in Crete, and even more so in Sicily. The

wood of the palm-tree, when ignited, burns both brightly and

slowly.[5] In some of those that bear fruit,[6] the seed of the fruit

is shorter than in others, while in some, again, it is longer; in

some it is softer than in others, and in some harder; in some

it is osseous and crescent-shaped; polished with a tooth, superstition employs the stone as an antidote against charms and fascination. This stone is enclosed in several coats, more or less

in number; sometimes they are of a thick texture, and sometimes very thin.



Hence it is that we find nine and forty different kinds of

palm-trees, if any one will be at the trouble of enumerating all

their various barbarous names, and the different wines that are

extracted from them. The most famous of all, are those

which, for the sake of distinction, have received the name of

"royal" palms, because they were preserved solely by the

kings of Persia; these used to grow nowhere but at Babylon,

and there only in the garden of Bagus,[7] that being the

Persian for an eunuch, several of whom have even reigned

over that country! This garden was always carefully retained

within[8] the precincts of the royal court.



In the southern parts of the world, the dates known as







"syagri,[9] hold the highest rank, and next after them those

that are called "margarides." These last are short, white,

and round, and bear a stronger resemblance to grapes than to

dates; for which reason it is that they have received their

name, in consequence of their close resemblance to "margarit," or pearls. It is said that there is only one tree that

bears them, and that in the locality known as Chora.[10] The

same is the case also with the tree that bears the syagri. We

have heard a wonderful story too, relative to this last tree, to

the effect that it dies and comes to life again in a similar

manner to the phoenix, which, it is generally thought, has

borrowed its name from the palm-tree, in consequence of this

peculiarity; at the moment that I am writing this, that tree

is still bearing fruit. As for the fruit itself, it is large, hard,

and of a rough appearance, and differing in taste from all other

kinds, having a sort of wild flavour peculiar to itself, and

not unlike that of the flesh of the wild boar; it is evidently

this circumstance from which it has derived its name of

"syagrus."



In the fourth rank are the dates called "sandalides," from

their resemblance to a sandal in shape. It is stated, that on

the confines of thiopia there are but five of these trees at

the most, no less remarkable for the singular lusciousness of

their fruit, than for their extreme rarity. Next to these, the

dates known as "caryot"[11] are the most esteemed, affording

not only plenty of nutriment, but a great abundance of juice;

it is from these that the principal wines[12] are made in the

East; these wines are apt to affect the head, a circumstance

from which the fruit derives its name. But if these trees are

remarkable for their abundance and fruitfulness, it is in Juda

that they enjoy the greatest repute; not, indeed, throughout

the whole of that territory, but more particularly at Hiericus,[13]

although those that grow at Archelais, Phaselis, and Livias,

vallies in the same territory, are highly esteemed. The more







remarkable quality of these is a rich, unctuous juice; they are

of a milky consistency, and have a sort of vinous flavour, with

a remarkable sweetness, like that of honey. The Nicolan[14]

dates are of a similar kind, but somewhat drier; they are

of remarkable size, so much so, indeed, that four of them,

placed end to end, will make a cubit in length. A less fine

kind, but of sister quality to the caryot for flavour, are the

"adelphides,"[15] hence so called; these come next to them in

sweetness, but still are by no means their equals. A third

kind, again, are the patet, which abound in juice to excess,

so much so, indeed, that the fruit bursts, in its excess of liquor,

even upon the parent tree, and presents all the appearance of

having been trodden[16] under foot.



There are numerous kinds of dates also, of a drier nature,

which are long and slender, and sometimes of a curved shape.

Those of this sort which we consecrate to the worship of the

gods are called "chydi[17] by the Jews, a nation remarkable

for the contempt which they manifest of the divinities. Those

found all over Thebais and Arabia are dry and small, with a

shrivelled body: being parched up and scorched by the constant heat, they are covered with what more nearly resembles

a shell[18] than a skin. In thiopia the date is quite brittle

even, so great is the driness of the climate; hence the people

are able to knead it into a kind of bread, just like so much







flour.[19] It grows upon a shrub, with branches a cubit in

length: it has a broad leaf, and the fruit is round, and larger

than an apple. The name of this date is "cox."[20] It comes

to maturity in three years, and there is always fruit to be

found upon the shrub, in various stages of maturity. The

date of Thebais is at once packed in casks, with all its natural heat and freshness; for without this precaution, it quickly

becomes vapid; it is of a poor, sickly taste, too, if it is not

exposed, before it is eaten, to the heat of an oven.



The other kinds of dates appear to be of an ordinary nature,

and are generally known as "tragemata;"[21] but in some parts of

Phnicia and Cilicia, they are commonly called "balani," a

name which has been also borrowed by us. There are numerous kinds of them, which differ from one another in being

round or oblong; as also in colour, for some of them are black,

and others red-indeed it is said that they present no fewer

varieties of colour than the fig: the white ones, however, are

the most esteemed. They differ also in size, according to the

number which it requires to make a cubit in length; some,

indeed, are no larger than a bean. Those are the best adapted

for keeping which are produced in salt and sandy soils, Sudca,

and Cyrenaica in Africa, for instance: those, however, of Egypt,

Cyprus, Syria, and Seleucia in Assyria, will not keep: hence

it is that they are much used for fattening swine and other

animals. It is a sign that the fruit is either spoilt or old,

when the white protuberance disappears, by which it has adhered to the cluster. Some of the soldiers of Alexander's army

were choked by eating green dates;[22] and a similar effect is

produced in the country of the Gedrosi, by the natural quality

of the fruit; while in other places, again, the same results arise

from eating them to excess. Indeed, when in a fresh state, they

are so remarkably luscious, that there would be no end to







eating them, were it not for fear of the dangerous consequences

that would be sure to ensue.







1. "Cdu." Though this is the fact as to some palm-trees, the greater

part perish after being cut; the vital bud occupying the summit, and the

trunk not being susceptible of any increase.

2. Cerebrum.

3. The Chamreps humilis of the modern botanists. It is found, among

other countries, in Spain, Morocco, and Arabia.

4. Vitilia.

5. "Vivaces." Perhaps it may mean that the wood retains the fire for a

long time, when it burns.

6. Fe suggests that Pliny may possibly have confounded the fruit of

other palms with the date.

7. This seems to have been a general name, as Pliny says, meaning an

eunuch; but it is evident that it was also used as a proper name, as in the

case of the eunuch who slew Artaxerxes, Ochus, B.C. 338, by poison,

and of another eunuch who belonged to Darius, but afterwards fell into

the hands of Alexander, of whom he became an especial favourite. The

name is sometimes written "Bagos," and sometimes "Bagoas."

8. Dominantis in aula.

9. From the Greek su/agros, "a wild boar," as Pliny afterwards states;

they being so called from their peculiar wild taste.

10. See B. vi. c. 39.

11. Said to have been so called from the Greek ka/rh, "the head," and

u(wdi/a, "stupidity," owing to the heady nature of the wine extracted from

the fruit.

12. See B. vi. c. 32, and B. xiv. c. 19.

13. The Jericho of Scripture.

14. Athenus, B. xiv. c. 22, tells us that these dates were thus called

from Nicolaus of Damascus, a Peripatetic philosopher, who, when visiting

Rome with Herod the Great, made Augustus a present of the finest fruit

of the palm-tree that could be procured. This fruit retained its name of

"Nicolan," down to the middle ages.

15. Pliny would imply that they are so called from the Greek a)de/lfia,

"a sister," as being of sister quality to the caryot; but it is much more

probable, as Fe remarks, that they got this name from being attached in

pairs to the same pedicie or stalk.

16. Pliny certainly seems to imply that they are so called from the Greek

pate/w, "to tread under foot," and Hardouin is of that opinion. Fe,

however, thinks the name is from the Hebrew or Syriac "patach," "to expand," or "open," or else from the Hebrew "pathah," the name of the first

vowel, from some fancied resemblance in the form.

17. From the Greek xudai=os, "vulgar," or "common," it is supposed. The

Jews probably called them so, as being common, or offered by the Gentiles

to their idols and divinities. Pliny evidently considers that in the name

given to them no compliment was intended to the deities of the heathen

mythology.

18. From its extreme driness, and its shrivelled appearance.

19. From Theophrastus, B. i. c. 16.

20. Ku/kws, in the Greek. It is supposed by Sprengel to be the same as

the Cycas circinnalis of Linnus; but, as Fe remarks, that is only found in

India.

21. From the Greek, meaning "sweetmeats," or "dessert fruit:" he probably means that in Syria and some parts of Phnicia they were thus called.

22. This story, which is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 5, is

doubted by Fe, who says that in the green state they are so hard and

nauseous, that it is next to impossible to eat sufficient to be materially incommoded by them.




11. Chap. 11.-The Cedar. Trees Which Have On Them The Fruit Of Three Years At Once.


CHAP. 11.-THE CEDAR. TREES WHICH HAVE ON THEM THE FRUIT

OF THREE YEARS AT ONCE.



Phnicia, too, produces a small cedar, which bears a strong

resemblance to the juniper.[1] Of this tree there are two

varieties; the one found in Lycia, the other in Phnicia.[2] The

difference is in the leaf: the one in which it is hard, sharp,

and prickly, being known as the oxycedros,[3] a branchy tree

and rugged with knots. The other kind is more esteemed for

its powerful odour. The small cedar produces a fruit the size

of a grain of myrrh, and of a sweetish taste. There are two

kinds of the larger cedar[4] also; the one that blossoms bears







no fruit, while, on the other hand, the one that bears fruit has

no blossom, and the fruit, as it falls, is being continually replaced

by fresh. The seed of this tree is similar to that of the cypress. Some persons give this tree the name of "cedrelates."

The resin produced from it is very highly praised, and the

wood of it lasts for ever, for which reason it is that they have

long been in the habit of using it for making the statues of the

gods. In a temple at Rome there is a statue of Apollo Sosianus[5] in cedar, originally brought from Seleucia. There is a

tree similar to the cedar, found also in Arcadia; and there is

a shrub that grows in Phrygia, known as the "cedrus."







1. The Juniperus communis of Linnus.

2. The Juniperus Lycia, and the Juniperus Phnicia, probably, of Lin-

nus. It has been supposed by some, that it is these trees that produce

the frankincense of Africa; but, as Fe observes, the subject is enveloped

in considerable obscurity.

3. The "sharp-leaved" cedar. The Juniperus oxycedrus of Linnus.

4. The "Pinus cedrus" of Linnus. The name "cedrus" was given by

the ancients not only to the cedar of Lebanon, but to many others of the

Conifer as well, and more particularly to several varieties of the juniper.

5. See B. xxxvi. c. 4.




12. Chap. 12. (6.)-The Terebinth.


CHAP. 12. (6.)-THE TEREBINTH.[1]



Syria, too, produces the terebinth, the male tree of which

bears no fruit, and the female consists of two different varieties;[2] one of these bears a red fruit, the size of a lentil,

while the other is pale, and ripens at the same period as

the grape. This fruit is not larger than a bean, is of a very

agreeable smell, and sticky and resinous to the touch. About

Ida in Troas, and in Macedonia, this tree is short and shrubby,

but at Damascus, in Syria, it is found of very considerable size.

Its wood is remarkably flexible, and continues sound to a very

advanced age: it is black and shining. The blossoms appear

in clusters, like those of the olive-tree, but are of a red colour;

the leaves are dense, and closely packed. It produces follicules, too, from which issue certain insects like gnats, as also a

kind of resinous liquid[3] which oozes from the bark.







1. Pistacia terebinthus of Linnus.

2. These varieties, Fe says, are not observed by modern naturalists.

3. Garidel has remarked, that the trunk of this tree produces coriaceous

vesicles, filled with a clear and odoriferous terebinthine, in which pucerons,

or aphides, are to be seen floating.




13. Chap. 13.-The Sumach-Tree.


CHAP. 13.-THE SUMACH-TREE.



The male sumach-tree[1] of Syria is productive, but the

female is barren. The leaf resembles that of the elm, though

it is a little longer, and has a downy surface. The footstalks

of the leaves lie always alternately in opposite directions, and







the branches are short and slender. This tree is used in the

preparation of white skins.[2] The seed, which strongly re-

sembles a lentil in appearance, turns red with the grape; it

is known by the name of "ros," and forms a necessary in-

gredient in various medicaments."[3]







1. "Rhus." The Rhus coriaria of Linnus. Pliny is wrong in distinguishing this tree into sexes, as all the flowers are hermaphroditical, and

therefore fruitful.

2. It is still used by curriers in preparing leather.

3. See B. xxiv. c. 79. The fruit, which has a pleasant acidity, was

used the culinary purposes by the ancients, as it is by the Turks at the

present day.




14. Chap. 14. (7.)-The Trees Of Egypt. The Fig-Tree Of Alexandria.


CHAP. 14. (7.)-THE TREES OF EGYPT. THE FIG-TREE OF

ALEXANDRIA.



Egypt, too, has many trees which are not to be found elsewhere, and the kind of fig more particularly, which fur this

reason has been called the Egypitian fig.[1] In leaf this tree

resembles the mulberry-tree, as also in size and general appearance. It bears fruit, not upon branches, but upon the trunk

itself: the fig is remarkable for its extreme sweetness, and

has no seeds[2] in it. This tree is also remarkable for its fruitfulness, which, however, can only be ensured by making incisions[3] in the fruit with hooks of iron, for otherwise it will

not come to maturity. But when this has been done, it may

he gathered within fur days, immediately upon which another

shoots up in its place. Hence it is that in the year it produces

seven abundant crops, and throughout all the summer there is

an abundance of milky juice in the fruit. Even if the incisions are not made, the fruit will shoot afresh four times

during the summer, the new fruit supplanting the old, and

forcing it off before it has ripened. The wood, which is of a

very peculiar nature, is reckoned among the most useful

known. When cut down it is immediately plunged into

standing water, such being the means employed for drying[4] it.

At first it sinks to the bottom, after which it begins to float,

and in a certain length of time the additional moisture sucks

it dry, which has the effect of penetrating and soaking all[5]







other kinds of wood. It is a sign that it is fit for use[6] when

it begins to float.







1. The Ficus sycamorus of Linnus. It receives its name from being

a fig-tree that bears a considerable resemblance to the "morus," or mulberry-tree.

2. This is not the case.

3. This appears to be doubtful, although, as Fe says, the fruit ripens

but very slowly.

4. This, Fe says, is a fallacy

5. "Aliam" omanem." This reading seems to be very doubtful.

6. This wood was very extensively used in Egypt for making the outer

cases, or coffins, in which the mummies were enclosed.




15. Chap. 15.-The Fig-Tree Of Cyprus.


CHAP. 15.-THE FIG-TREE OF CYPRUS.



The fig-tree that grows in Crete, and is known there as the

Cyprian fig,[1] bears some resemblance to the preceding one; for

it bears fruit upon the trunk of the tree, and upon the branches

as well, when they have attained a certain degree of thickness.

This tree, however, sends forth buds without any leaves,[2] but

similar in appearance to a root. The trunk of the tree is

similar to that of the poplar, and the leaves to those of the elm.

It produces four crops in the year, and germinates the same

number of times, but its green[3] fruit will not ripen unless an

incision is made in it to let out the milky juice. The sweetness of the fruit and the appearance of the inside are in all

respects similar to those of the fig, and in size it is about as

large as a sorb-apple.







1. This account is borrowed almost entirely from Theophrastus, Hist.

Plant. B. iv. c. 2. A variety of the sycamore is probably meant. It is

still found in the Isle of Crete.

2. He seems to mean that the buds do not shoot forth into leaves; the

reading, however, varies in the editions, and is extremely doubtful.

3. Grossus.




16. Chap. 16. (8.)-The Carob-Tree.


CHAP. 16. (8.)-THE CAROB-TREE.



Similar to this is the carob-tree, by the Ionians known as

the "ceraunia,"[1] which in a similar manner bears fruit front

the trunk, this fruit being known by the name of "siliqua,"

or "pod." For this reason, committing a manifest error,

some persons[2] have called it the Egyptian fig; it being the

fact that this tree does not grow in Egypt, but in Syria and

Ionia, in the vicinity, too, of Cnidos, and in the island of

Rhodes. It is always covered with leaves, and bears a white

flower with a very powerful odour. It sends forth shoots at







the lower part, and is consequently quite yellow on the surface, as the young suckers deprive the trunk of the requisite

moisture. When the fruit of the preceding year is gathered,

about the rising of the Dog-star, fresh fruit immediately makes

its appearance; after which the tree blossoms while the constellation of Arcturus[3] is above the horizon, and the winter

imparts nourishment to the fruit.







1. The Ceratonia siliqua of Linnus. It is of the same size as the sycamore, but resembles it in no other respect. It is still common in the

localities mentioned by Pliny, and in the south of Spain.

2. Theophrastus in the number, Hist. Plant. i. 23, and iv. 2. It bears

no resemblance to the fig-tree, and the fruit is totally different from the

fig. Pliny, too, is wrong in saying that it does not grow in Egypt; the

fact being that it is found there in great abundance.

3. See B. xviii. c. 74.




17. Chap. 17. (9.)-The Persian Tree. In What Trees The Fruits Germinate The One Below The Other.


CHAP. 17. (9.)-THE PERSIAN TREE. IN WHAT TREES THE FRUITS

GERMINATE THE ONE BELOW THE OTHER.



Egypt, too, produces another tree of a peculiar description,

the Persian[1] tree, similar in appearance to the pear-tree, but

retaining its leaves during the winter. This tree produces

without intermission, for if the fruit is pulled to-day, fresh

fruit will make its appearance to-morrow: the time for ripening is while the Etesian[2] winds prevail. The fruit of this

tree is more oblong than a pear, but is enclosed in a shell and

a rind of a grassy colour, like the almond; but what is found

within, instead of being a nut as in the almond, is a plum,

differing from the almond[3] in being shorter and quite soft. This

fruit, although particularly inviting for its luscious sweetness,

is productive of no injurious effects. The wood, for its goodness, solidity, and blackness, is in no respect inferior to that

of the lotus: people have been in the habit of making statues

of it. The wood of the tree which we have mentioned as

the "balanus,"[4] although very durable, is not so highly esteemed as this, as it is knotted and twisted in the greater

part: hence it is only employed for the purposes of shipbuilding.











1. Fe identifies it with the Egyptian almond, mentioned by Pliny in

B. xv. c. 28; the Myrobalanus chebulus of Wesling, the Balanites

gyptiaca of Delille, and the Xymenia gyptiaca of Linnus. Schreber

and Sprengel take it to be the Cordia Sebestana of Linnus; but that is a

tree peculiar to the Antilles. The fruit is in shape like a date, enclosing a

large stone with five sides, and covered with a little viscous flesh, of somewhat bitter, though not disagreeable flavour. It is found in the vicinity

of Sennaar, and near the Red Sea. The Arabs call it the "date of the

Desert."

2. See B. xviii. c. 68.

3. See B. xv. c. 34.

4. Or ben. See B. xii. cc. 46, 47.




18. Chap. 18.-The Cucus.


CHAP. 18.-THE CUCUS.



On the other hand, the wood of the cucus[1] is held in very

high esteem. It is similar in nature to the palm, as its leaves

are similarly used for the purposes of texture: it differs from

it, however, in spreading out its arms in large branches. The

fruit, which is of a size large enough to fill the hand, is of a

tawny colour, and recommends itself by its juice, which is a

mixture of sweet and rough. The seed in the inside is large

and of remarkable hardness, and turners use it for making

curtain rings.[2] The kernel is sweet, while fresh; but when

dried it becomes hard to a most remarkable degree, so much

so, that it can only be eaten after being soaked in water for

several days. The wood is beautifully mottled with circling

veins,[3] for which reason it is particularly esteemed among the

Persians.







1. Many have taken this to be the cocoa-nut tree; but, as Fe remarks,

that is a tree of India, and this of Egypt. There is little doubt that it is

the doum of the Arabs, the Cucifera Thebaica of Delille. The timber of

the trunk is much used in Egypt, and of the leaves carpets, bags, and

panniers are made. In fact, the description of it and its fruit is almost

identical with that here given by Pliny.

2. The seed or stone of the doum is still used in Egypt for making the

beads of chaplets: it admits of a very high polish.

3. Materies crispioris eleganti.




19. Chap. 19.-The Egyptian Thorn.


CHAP. 19.-THE EGYPTIAN THORN.



No less esteemed, too, in the same country, is a certain kind

of thorn,[1] though only the black variety, its wood being imperishable, in water even, a quality which renders it particularly valuable for making the sides of ships: on the other hand,

the white kinds will rot very rapidly. It has sharp, prickly

thorns on the leaves even, and bears its seeds in pods; they

are employed for the same purposes as galls in the preparation

of leather. The flower, too, has a pretty effect when made

into garlands, and is extremely useful in medicinal preparations.

A gum, also, distils from this tree; but the principal merit

that it possesses is, that when it is cut down, it will grow

again within three years. It grows in the vicinity of Thebes,

where we also find the quercus, the Persian tree, and the olive:

the spot that produces it is a piece of woodland, distant three







hundred stadia from the Nile, and watered by springs of its

own.



(10.) Here we find, too, the Egyptian[2] plum-tree, not much

unlike the thorn last mentioned, with a fruit similar to the

medlar, and which ripens in the winter. This tree never loses

its leaves. The seed in the fruit is of considerable size, but

the flesh of it, by reason of its quality, and the great abundance in which it grows, affords quite a harvest to the inhabitants of those parts; after cleaning it, they subject it to pressure,

and then make it up into cakes for keeping. There was formerly[3] a woodland district in the vicinity of Memphis, with

trees of such enormous size, that three men could not span

one with their arms: one of these trees is remarkable, not for

its fruit, or any particular use that it is, but for the singular

phnomenon that it presents. In appearance it strongly resembles a thorn,[4] and it has leaves which have all the appearance of wings, and which fall immediately the branch is

touched by any one, and then immediately shoot again.







1. See B. xxiv. c. 67. This is, no doubt, the Acacia Nilotica of Linnus,

which produces the gum Arabic of modern commerce.

2. This is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 3. Fe suggests

that it may have been a kind of myrobalanus. Sprengel identifies it with

the Cordia sebestana of the botanists.

3. "Fuit." From the use of this word he seems uncertain as to its existence in his time; the account is copied from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant.

B. iv. c. 3. Fe suggests that he may here allude to the Baobab, the

Adansonia digitata, which grows in Senegal and Sennaar to an enormous

size. Prosper Alpinus speaks of it as existing in Egypt. The Arabs call

it El-omarah, and the fruit El-kongles.

4. The Mimosa polyacanthe, probably. Fe says that the mimos, respectively known as casta, pudibunda, viva, and sensitiva, with many of

the inga, and other leguminous trees, are irritable in the highest degree.

The tree here spoken of he considers to be one of the acacias. The passage in Theophrastus speaks of the leaf as shrinking, and not falling,

and then as simply reviving.




20. Chap. 20. (11.)-Nine Kinds Of Gum. The Sarcocolla.


CHAP. 20. (11.)-NINE KINDS OF GUM. THE SARCOCOLLA.



It is universally agreed, that the best gum is that produced

from the Egyptian thorn;[1] it is of variegated appearance, of

azure colour, clean, free from all admixture of bark, and

adheres to the teeth; the price at which it sells is three

denarii per pound. That produced from the bitter almond-







tree and the cherry[2] is of an inferior kind, and that which is

gathered from the plum-tree is the worst of all. The vine,

too, produces a gum,[3] which is of the greatest utility in healing

the sores of children; while that which is sometimes found on

the olive-tree[4] is used for the tooth-ache. Gum is also found

on the elm[5] upon Mount Corycus in Cilicia, and upon the

juniper,[6] but it is good for nothing; indeed, the gum of the

elm found there is apt to breed gnats. From the sarcocolla[7]

also-such is the name of a certain tree-a gum exudes that is

remarkably useful to painters[8] and medical men; it is similar

to incense dust in appearance, and for those purposes the white

kind is preferable to the red. The price of it is the same as

that mentioned above.[9]







1. The Acacia Nilotica of Linnus, from which we derive the gum

Arabic of commerce; and of which a considerable portion is still derived

from Egypt.

2. These gums are chemically different from gum Arabic, and they are

used for different purposes in the arts.

3. The vine does not produce a gum; but when the sap ascends, a juice

is secreted, which sometimes becomes solid on the evaporation of the

aqueous particles. This substance contains acetate of potassa, which, by

the decomposition of that salt, becomes a carbonate of the same base.

4. This is not a gum, but a resinous product of a peculiar nature. It is

known to the moderns by the name of "olivine."

5. The sap of the eim leaves a saline deposit on the bark, principally

formed of carbonate of potassa. Fe is at a loss to know whether Pliny

here alludes to this or to the manna which is incidentally formed by certain

insects on some trees and reeds. But, as he justly says, would Pliny say

of the latter that it is "ad nihil utile"-"good for nothing"?

6. A resinous product, no doubt. The frankincense of Africa has been

attributed by some to the Juniperus Lycia and Phoenicia.

7. The Pena Sarcocolla of Linnus. The gum resin of this tree is

still brought from Abyssinia, but it is not used in medicine. This account

is from is Dioscorides, B. iii. c. 99. The name is from the Greek sarc,

"flesh," and ko/lla, "glue."

8. See B. xxiv. c. 7.

9. Three denarii per pound.




22. Chap. 22.-The Mode Of Making Paper.


CHAP. 22.-THE MODE OF MAKING PAPER.



Papyrus grows either in the marshes of Egypt, or in the

sluggish waters of the river Nile, when they have overflowed

and are lying stagnant, in pools that do not exceed a couple of

cubits in depth. The root lies obliquely,[1] and is about the







thickness of one's arm; the section of the stalk is triangular,

and it tapers gracefully upwards towards the extremity,

being not more than ten cubits at most in height. Very much

like a thyrsus[2] in shape, it has a head on the top, which has

no seed[3] in it, and, indeed, is of no use whatever, except as a

flower employed to crown the statues of the gods. The

natives use the roots by way of wood, not only for firing, but

for various other domestic purposes as well. From the papyrus itself they construct boats[4] also, and of the outer coat they

make sails and mats, as well as cloths, besides coverlets and

ropes; they chew it also, both raw and boiled, though they

swallow the juice only.



The papyrus grows in Syria also, on the borders of the same

lake around which grows the sweet-scented calamus;[5] and

King Antiochus used to employ the productions of that country

solely as cordage for naval purposes; for the use of spartum[6]

had not then become commonly known. More recently it has

been understood that a papyrus grows in the river Euphrates,

in the vicinity of Babylon, from which a similar kind of paper

may easily be produced: still, however, up to the present time

the Parthians have preferred to impress[7] their characters upon

cloths







1. Brachiali radicis oblique crassitudine.

2. This was a pole represented as being carried by Bacchus and his Bacchanalian train. It was mostly terminated by the fir cone, that tree being

dedicated to Bacchus, in consequence of the use of its cones and turpentine

in making wine. Sometimes it is surmounted by vine or fig leaves, with

grapes or berries arranged in form of a cone.

3. This is not the fact: it has seed in it, though not very easily percep.

tible. The description here given is otherwise very correct.

4. Among the ancients the term papyrus was used as a general appellation

for all the different plants of the genus Cyperus, which was used for making

mats, boats, baskets, and numerous other articles: but one species only

was employed for making paper, the Cyperus papyrus, or Byblos. Fee

states that the papyrus is no longer to be found in the Delta, where it formerly abounded.

5. See B. xii. c. 48.

6. Sometimes translated hemp. A description will be given of it in B.

xix. c. 7.

7. "Intexere." This would almost appear to mean that they embroidered

or interwove the characters. The Persians still write on a stuff made of

white silk, gummed and duly prepared for the purpose.




23. Chap. 23. (12)-The Nine Different Kinds Of Paper.


CHAP. 23. (12)-THE NINE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PAPER.



Paper is made from the papyrus, by splitting it with a







needle into very thin leaves, due care being taken that they

should be as broad as possible. That of the first quality is

taken from the centre of the plant, and so in regular succession,

according to the order of division. "Hieratica"[1] was the name

that was anciently given to it, from the circumstance that it

was entirely reserved for the religious books. In later times,

through a spirit of adulation, it received the name of "Augusta," just as that of second quality was called "Liviana,"

from his wife, Livia; the consequence of which was, that the

name "hieratica" came to designate that of only third-rate

quality. The paper of the next quality was called "amphitheatrica," from the locality[2] of its manufacture. The skilful

manufactory that was established by Fannius[3] at Rome, was in

the habit of receiving this last kind, and there, by a very

careful process of insertion, it was rendered much finer; so

much so, that from being a common sort, he made it a paper of

first-rate quality, and gave his own[4] name to it: while that

which was not subjected to this additional process retained

its original name of "amphitheatrica." Next to this is the

Saitic paper, so called from the city of that name,[5] where

it is manufactured in very large quantities, though of cuttings

of inferior[6] quality. The Tniotic paper, so called from a

place in the vicinity,[7] is manufactured from the materials that

lie nearer to the outside skin; it is sold, not according to its

quality, but by weight only. As to the paper that is known







as "emporetica,"[8] it is quite useless for writing upon, and is

only employed for wrapping up other paper, and as a covering

for various articles of merchandize, whence its name, as being

used by dealers. After this comes the bark of the papyrus,

the outer skin of which bears a strong resemblance to the

bulrush, and is solely used for making ropes, and then only

for those which have to go into the water.[9]



All these various kinds of paper are made upon a table,

moistened with Nile water; a liquid which, when in a

muddy state, has the peculiar qualities of glue.[10] This table

being first inclined,[11] the leaves of papyrus are laid upon it

lengthwise, as long, indeed, as the papyrus will admit of, the

jagged edges being cut off at either end; after which a cross

layer is placed over it, the same way, in fact, that hurdles are

made. When this is done, the leaves are pressed close together,

and then dried in the sun; after which they are united to one

another, the best sheets being always taken first, and the inferior ones added afterwards. There are never more than

twenty of these sheets to a roll.[12]







1. Or "holy" paper. The priests would not allow it to be sold, lest it

might be used for profane writing; but after it was once written upon, it

was easily procurable. The Romans were in the habit of purchasing it

largely in the latter state, and then washing off the writing, and using it

as paper of the finest quality. Hence it received the name of "Augustus,"

as representing in Latin its Greek name "hieraticus," or "sacred." In

length of time it became the common impression, as here mentioned, that

this name was given to it in honour of Augusus Csar.

2. Near the amphitheatre, probably, of Alexandria.

3. He alludes to Q. Remmius Fannius Palmon, a famous grammarian

of Rome, though originally a slave. Being mantumitted, he opened a school

at Rome, which was resorted to by great numbers of pupils, notwithstanding his notoriously bad character lie appears to have established, also,

a manufactory for paper at Rome. Suetonius, in his treatise on Illustrious

Grammarians, gives a long account of him. He is supposed to have been

the preceptor of Quintilian.

4. Fanniana.

5. In Lower Egypt.

6. Ex vilioribus ramentis.

7. Of Alexandria, probably.

8. "Shop-paper," or "paper of commerce."

9. Otherwise, probably, the rope would not long hold together.

10. Fe remarks, that this is by no means the fact. With M. Poiret, he

questions the accuracy of Pliny's account of preparing the papyrus, and is

of opinion that it refers more probably to the treatment of some other

vegetable substance from which paper was made.

11. Primo supin tabule sched.

12. "Scapus." This was, properly, the cylinder on which the paper was

rolled.




24. Chap. 24.-The Mode Of Testing The Goodness Of Paper.


CHAP. 24.-THE MODE OF TESTING THE GOODNESS OF PAPER.



There is a great difference in the breadth of the various

kinds of paper. That of best quality[1] is thirteen fingers wide,

while the hieratica is two fingers less. The Fanniana is ten

fingers wide, and that known as "amphitheatrica," one less.

The Saitic is of still smaller breadth, indeed it is not so

wide as the mallet with which the paper is beaten; and the

emporetica is particularly narrow, being not more than six

fingers in breadth.



In addition to the above particulars, paper is esteemed

according to its fineness, its stoutness, its whiteness, and its

smoothness. Claudius Csar effected a change in that which







till then had been looked upon as being of the first quality:

for the Augustan paper had been found to be so remarkably

fine, as to offer no resistance to the pressure of the pen; in

addition to which, as it allowed the writing upon it to run

through, it was continually causing apprehensions of its being

blotted and blurred by the writing on the other side; the remarkable transparency, too, of the paper was very unsightly to

the eye. To obviate these inconveniences, a groundwork of

paper was made with leaves of the second quality, over which

was laid a woof, as it were, formed of leaves of the first. He

increased the width also of paper; the width [of the common

sort] being made a foot, and that of the size known as "macrocollum,"[2] a cubit; though one inconvenience was soon detected

in it, for, upon a single leaf[3] being torn in the press, more

pages were apt to be spoilt than before.[4] In consequence of

the advantages above-mentioned, the Claudian has come to be

preferred to all other kinds of paper, though the Augustan is

still used for the purposes of epistolary correspondence. The

Livian, which had nothing in common with that of first quality,

but was entirely of a secondary rank, still holds its former

place.







1. Augustan.

2. Or "long glued" paper: the breadth probably consisted of that of

two or more sheets glued or pasted at the edges, the seam running down

the roll.

3. Scheda. One of the leaves of the papyrus, of which the roll of

twenty, joined side by side, was formed.

4. This passage is difficult to be understood, and various attempts have

been made to explain it. It is not unlikely that his meaning is that the

breadth being doubled, the tearing of one leaf or half breadth entailed of

necessity the spoiling of another, making the corresponding half breadth.




25. Chap. 25.-The Peculiar Defects In Paper.


CHAP. 25.-THE PECULIAR DEFECTS IN PAPER.



The roughness and inequalities in paper are smoothed down

with a tooth[1] or shell; but the writing in such places is very

apt to fade. When it is thus polished the paper does not take

the ink so readily, but is of a more lustrous and shining surface.

The water of the Nile that has been originally employed in

its manufacture, being sometimes used without due precaution,

will unfit the paper for taking writing: this fault, however,

may be detected by a blow with the mallet, or even by

the smell,[2] when the carelessness has been extreme. These







spots, too, may be detected by the eye; but the streaks that

run down the middle of the leaves where they have been

pasted together, though they render the paper spongy and of

a soaking nature, can hardly ever be detected before the ink

runs, while the pen is forming the letters; so many are the

openings for fraud to be put in practice. The consequence is,

that another labour has been added to the due preparation

of paper.







1. He perhaps means a portion of an elephant's tusk.

2. Meaning a damp, musty smell.




26. Chap. 26.-The Paste Used In The Preparation Of Paper.


CHAP. 26.-THE PASTE USED IN THE PREPARATION OF PAPER.



The common paper paste is made of the finest flour of wheat

mixed with boiling water, and some small drops of vinegar

sprinkled in it: for the ordinary workman's paste, or gum,

if employed for this purpose, will render the paper brittle.

Those, however, who take the greatest pains, boil the crumb

of leavened bread, and then strain off the water: by the

adoption of this method the paper has the fewest seams caused

by the paste that lies between, and is softer than the nap of

linen even. All kinds of paste that are used for this purpose,

ought not to be older or newer than one day. The paper is

then thinned out with a mallet, after which a new layer of

paste is placed upon it; then the creases which have formed

are again pressed out, and it then undergoes the same process

with the mallet as before. It is thus that we have memorials

preserved in the ancient handwriting of Tiberius and Caius

Gracchus, which I have seen in the possession of Pomponius

Secundus,[1] the poet, a very illustrious citizen, almost two

hundred years since those characters were penned. As for the

handwriting of Cicero, Augustus, and Virgil, we frequently

see them at the present day.







1. See B. vii. c. 18, and B. xiv. c. 6. Also the Life of Pliny, in the

Introduction to Vol. i. p. vii.




27. Chap. 27. (13.)-The Books Of Numa.


CHAP. 27. (13.)-THE BOOKS OF NUMA.



There are some facts of considerable importance which make

against the opinion expressed by M. Varro, relative to the

invention of paper. Cassius Hemina, a writer of very great

antiquity, has stated in the Fourth Book of his Annals, that

Cneius Terentius, the scribe, while engaged in digging on his







land in the Janiculum, came to a coffer, in which Numa had

been buried, the former king of Rome, and that in this coffer

were also found some books[1] of his. This took place in the

consulship of Publius Cornelius Cethegus, the son of Lucius,

and of M. Bbius Tamphilus, the son of Quintus, the interval

between whose consulship and the reign of Numa was five

hundred and thirty-five years. These books were made of

paper, and, a thing that is more remarkable still, is the fact

that they lasted so many years buried in the ground. In

order, therefore, to establish a fact of such singular importance, I shall here quote the words of Hemina himself-"Some

persons expressed wonder how these books could have possibly

lasted so long a time-this was the explanation that Terentius gave: 'In nearly the middle of the coffer there lay a square

stone, bound on every side with cords enveloped in wax;[2]

upon this stone the books had been placed, and it was through

this precaution, he thought, that they had not rotted. The

books, too, were carefully covered with citrus leaves,[3] and it

was through this, in his belief, that they had been protected

from the attacks of worms.' In these books were written

certain doctrines relative to the Pythagorean philosophy; they

were burnt by Q. Petilius, the prtor, because they treated

of philosophical subjects."[4]



Piso, who had formerly been censor, relates the same facts

in the First Book of his Commentaries, but he states in addition,

That there were seven books on Pontitical Rights, and seven on

the Pythagorean philosophy.[5] Tuditanus, in his Fourteenth

Book, says that they contained the decrees of uma: Varro, in

the Seventh Book of his "Antiquities of Mankind,"[6] states that

they were twelve in number; and Antias, in his Second Book,

says that there were twelve written in Latin, on pontifical







matters, and as many in Greek, containing philosophical precepts. The same author states also in his Third Book why

it was thought proper to burn them.



It is a fact acknowledged by all writers, that the Sibyl[7]

brought three books to Tarquinius Superbus, of which two

were burnt by herself, while the third perished by fire with

the Capitol[8] in the days of Sylla. In addition to these facts,

Mucianus, who was three times consul, has stated that he had

recently read, while governor of Lycia, a letter written upon

paper, and preserved in a certain temple there, which had

been written from Troy, by Sarpedon; a thing that surprises

me the more, if it really was the fact that even in the time

of Homer the country that we call Egypt was not in existence.[9]

And why too, if paper was then in use, was it the

custom, as it is very well known it was, to write upon leaden

tablets and linen cloths? Why, too, has Homer[10] stated that

in Lycia tablets[11] were given to Bellerophon to carry, and not

a paper letter?



Papyrus, for making paper, is apt to fail occasionally; such

a thing happened in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, when

there was so great a scarcity[12] of paper that members of the

senate were appointed to regulate the distribution of it: had

not this been done, all the ordinary relations of life would

have been completely disarranged.







1. This story, no doubt, deserves to be rejected as totally fabulous, even

though we have Hemina's word for it.

2. See B. xvi. c. 70.

3. B. xii. c. 7, and B. xiii. c. 31. It was thought that the leaves

and juices of the cedar and the citrus preserved books and linen from the

attacks of noxious insects.

4. And because, as Livy says, their doctrines were inimical to the then

existing religion.

5. Val. Maximus says that there were some books written in Latin, on

the pontifical rights, and others in Greek on philosophical subjects.

6. Human, Antiquitates.

7. See B. xxxiv. c. 11.

8. See B. xxxiii. c. 5.

9. He implies that it could not have been written upon paper, as the

papyrus and the districts which produced it were not in existence in the

time of Homer. No doubt this so-called letter, if shown at all, was a for-

gery, a "pia fraus." See c. 21 of the present Book.

10. Il. B. vi. 1. 168.

11. "Codicillos," as meaning characters written on a surface of wood.

pinac, as Homer calls it.

12. It was probably then that the supply of it first began to fail; in the

sixth century it was still used, but by the twelfth it had wholly fallen

into disuse.




28. Chap. 28. (14.)-The Trees Of thiopia.


CHAP. 28. (14.)-THE TREES OF THIOPIA.



thiopia, which borders upon Egypt, has in general no

remarkable trees, with the exception of the wool-bearing[1]

ones, of which we have had occasion to speak[2] in our description of the trees of India and Arabia. However, the produce







of the tree of thiopia bears a much stronger resemblance to

wool, and the follicule is much larger, being very similar in

appearance to a pomegranate; as for the trees, they are otherwise similar in every respect. Besides this tree, there are

some palms, of which we have spoken already.[3] In describing

the islands along the coast of thiopia, we have already made

mention[4] of their trees and their odoriferous forests.







1. The cotton-tree, Gossypium arboreum of Linnus.

2. See B. xii. c. 21, 22.

3. In c. 9 of the present Book.

4. See B. vi. c. 36, 37.




29. Chap. 29. (15.)-The Trees Of Mount Atlas. The Citrus, And The Tables Made Of The Wood Thereof.


CHAP. 29. (15.)-THE TREES OF MOUNT ATLAS. THE CITRUS, AND

THE TABLES MADE OF THE WOOD THEREOF.



Mount Atlas is said to possess a forest of trees of a peculiar

character,[1] of which we have already spoken.[2] In the vicinity

of this mountain is Mauretania, a country which abounds in

the citrus,[3] a tree which gave rise to the mania[4] for fine

tables, an extravagance with which the women reproach the

men, when they complain of their vast outlay upon pearls.

There is preserved to the present day a table which belonged

to M. Cicero,[5] and for which, notwithstanding his comparatively moderate means, and what is even more surprising still,

at that day too, he gave no less than one"[6] million sesterces:

we find mention made also of one belonging to Gallus Asinius,

which cost one million one hundred thousand sesterces. Two

tables were also sold by auction which had belonged to King

Juba; the price fetched by one was one million two hundred

thousand sesterces, and that of the other something less.

There has been lately destroyed by fire, a table which came

down from the family of the Cethegi, and which had been sold

for the sum of one million four hundred thousand sesterces,

the price of a considerable domain, if any one, indeed, could be

found who would give so large a sum for an estate.







The largest table that has ever yet been known was one

that belonged to Ptolemus, king of Mauretania; it was made

of two semicircumferences joined together down the middle,

being four Feet and a half in diameter, and a quarter of a foot

in thickness: the most wonderful fact, however, connected

with it, was the surprising skill with which the joining had

been concealed,[7] and which rendered it more valuable than if

it had been by nature a single piece of wood. The largest

table that is made of a single piece of wood, is the one that

takes its name[8] from Nomius, a freedman of Tiberius Csar.

The diameter of it is four Feet, short by three quarters of an

inch, and it is half a foot in thickness, less the same fraction.

While speaking upon this subject, I ought not to omit to mention that the Emperor Tiberius had a table that exceeded four

Feet in diameter by two inches and a quarter, and was an inch

and a half in thickness: this, however, was only covered with

a veneer of citrus-wood, while that which belonged to his

freedman Nomius was so costly, the whole material of which

it was composed being knotted[9] wood.



These knots are properly a disease or excrescence of the

root, and those used for this purpose are more particularly

esteemed which have lain entirely concealed under ground;

they are much more rare than those that grow above ground,

and that are to be found on the branches also. Thus, to speak

correctly, that which we buy at so vast a price is in reality a

defect in the tree: of the size and root of it a notion may be

easily formed from the circular sections of its trunk. The

tree resembles the wild female cypress[10] in its foliage, smell,

and the appearance of the trunk. A spot called Mount Ancorarius, in Nearer Mauretania, used formerly to furnish the

most esteemed citrus-wood, but at the present day the supply

is quite exhausted.







1. Desfontaines observed in the vicinity of Atlas, several trees peculiar to that district. Among others of this nature, he names the Pistacia

Atlantica, and the Thuya articulata.

2. See B. v. c. 1.

3. Generally supposed to be the Thuya articulata of Desfontaines, the

Cedrus Atlantica of other botanists.

4. This rage for fine tables made of the citrus is alluded to, among others,

by Martial and Petronius Arbiter. See also Lucan, A. ix. B. 426, et. seq.

5. It is a rather curious fact that it is in Cicero's works that we find

the earliest mention made of citrus tables, 2nd Oration ag. Verres, s. 4:-

"You deprived Q. Lutatius Diodorus of Lilybum of a citrus table of remarkable age and beauty."

6. Somewhere about 9000.

7. This is considered nothing remarkable at the present day, such is the

skill displayed by our cabinet-makers.

8. Called "Nomiana."

9. Tuber.

10. The European cyprus, the Cupressus sempervirens of Linnus.




30. Chap. 30.-The Points That Are Desirable Or Otherwise In These Tables.


CHAP. 30.-THE POINTS THAT ARE DESIRABLE OR OTHERWISE IN

THESE TABLES.



The principal merit of these tables is to have veins[1] arranged







in waving lines, or else forming spirals like so many little

whirlpools. In the former arrangement the lines run in an

oblong direction, for which reason these are called "tiger"[2]

tables; while in the latter the marks are circling and spiral,

and hence they are styled "panther"[3] tables. There are

some tables also with wavy, undulating marks, and which are

more particularly esteemed if these resemble the eyes on a

peacock's tail. Next in esteem to these last, as well as those

previously mentioned, is the veined wood,[4] covered, as it were,

with dense masses of grain, for which reason these tables have

received the name of "apiat."[5] But the colour of the wood

is the quality that is held in the highest esteem of all: that

of wine mixed with honey[6] being the most prized, the veins being

peculiarly refulgent. Next to the colour, it is the size that is

prized; at the present day whole trunks are greatly admired,

and sometimes several are united in a single table.



The peculiar defects in these kinds of tables are woodiness,[7]

such being the name given to the table when the wood is dull,

common-looking, indistinct, or else has mere simple marks

upon it, resembling the leaves of the plane-tree; also, when

it resembles the veins of the holm-oak or the colour of that

tree; and, a fault to which it is peculiarly liable from the

effect of heat or wind, when it has flaws in it or hair-like lines

resembling flaws; when it has a black mark, too, running

through it resembling a murena in appearance, various streaks

that look like crow scratches, or knots like poppy heads, with a

colour all over nearly approaching to black, or blotches of a

sickly hue. The barbarous tribes bury this wood in the

ground while green, first giving it a coating of wax. When

it comes into the workmen's hands, they put it for seven days

beneath a heap of corn, and then take it out for as many







more: it is quite surprising how greatly it loses in weight by

this process. Shipwrecks have recently taught us also that this

wood is dried by the action of sea-water, and that it thereby

acquires a hardness[8] and a degree of density which render it

proof against corruption no other method is equally sure to

produce these results. These tables are kept best, and shine

with the greatest lustre, when rubbed with the dry hand,

more particularly just after bathing. As if this wood had

been created for the behoof of wine, it receives no injury

from it.



(16.) As this tree is one among the elements of more civilized life, I think that it is as well on the present occasion to

dwell a little further upon it. It was known to Homer even,

and in the Greek it is known by the name of "thyon,"[9] or

sometimes "thya." He says that the wood of this tree was

among the unguents that were burnt for their pleasant odour

by Circe,[10] whom he would represent as being a goddess; a

circumstance which shows the great mistake committed by

those who suppose that perfumes are meant under that name,[11]

seeing that in the very same line he says that cedar and larch

were burnt along with this wood, a thing that clearly proves

that it is only of different trees that he is speaking. Theophrastus, an author who wrote in the age succeeding that of

Alexander the Great, and about the year of the City of Rome

440, has awarded a very high rank to this tree, stating that it

is related that the raftering of the ancient temples used to be

made of this wood, and that the timber, when employed in

roofs, will last for ever, so to say, being proof against all decay,-quite incorruptible, in fact. He also says that there is

nothing more full of wavy veins[12] than the root of this tree, and

that there is no workmanship in existence more precious than

that made of this material. The finest kind of citrus grows,

he says, in the vicinity of the Temple of Jupiter Hammon;

he states also that it is produced in the lower part of Cyre-

naica. He has made no mention, however, of the tables that

are made of it; indeed, we have no more ancient accounts of







them than those of the time of Cicero, from which it would

appear that they are a comparatively recent invention.







1. These veins were nothing in reality but the lines of the layers or

strata lignea, running perpendicularly in the trunk, and the number of

which denotes the age of the tree.

2. "Tigrin."

3. "Pantherin." The former tables were probably made of small pieces

from the trunk, the latter from the sections of the tubers or knots.

4. "Crispis."

5. Or "parsley-seed" tables. It has also been suggested that the word

comes from "apis," a bee; the wood presenting the appearance of being

covered with swarms of bees.

6. "Mulsum." This mixture will be found frequently mentioned in the

next Book.

7. Lignum.

8. Fe remarks that this is incorrect, and that this statement betrays an

entire ignorance of the vegetable physiology.

9. Qu/on, "wood of sacrifice."

10. Od. B. v. 1. 60. Pliny makes a mistake in saying "Circe;" it should

be "Calypso.

11. Qu/on.

12. Crispius




31. Chap. 31.-The Citron-Tree.


CHAP. 31.-THE CITRON-TREE.



There is another tree also which has the same name of

"citrus,"[1] and bears a fruit that is held by some persons in

particular dislike for its smell and remarkable bitterness;

while, on the other hand, there are some who esteem it very

highly. This tree is used as an ornament to houses; it requires, however, no further description.







1. He alludes to the citron, the Citrus Medica of Linnus. See B. xii. c. 7.




32. Chap. 32. (17.)-The Lotus.


CHAP. 32. (17.)-THE LOTUS.



Africa, too, at least that part of it which looks towards

our shores, produces a remarkable tree, the lotus,[1] by some

known as the "celtis," which has also been naturalized in Italy,[2]

though it has been somewhat modified by the change of soil.

The finest quality of lotus is that found in the vicinity of the

Syrtes and among the Nasamones. It is the same size as the

pear-tree, although Cornelius Nepos states to the effect that it

is but short. The leaves have numerous incisions, just as with

those of the holm-oak. There are many varieties of the lotus,

which are characterized more particularly by the difference in

their respective fruits. The fruit is of about the size of a

bean, and its colour is that of saffron, though before it is ripe

it is continually changing its tints, like the grape. It has

branches thickly set with leaves, like the myrtle, and not,

as with us in Italy, like the cherry. In the country to

which this tree is indigenous, the fruit of it is so remarkably

sweet and luscious, that it has even given its name to a whole

territory, and to a nation[3] who, by their singular hospitality,

have even seduced strangers who have come among them, to

lose all remembrance of their native country. It is said also,

that those who eat this fruit are subject to no maladies of the

stomach. The fruit which has no stone in the inside is the

best: this stone in the other kind seems to be of an osseous

nature. A wine is also extracted from this fruit very similar







to honied wine; according to Nepos, however, it will not last

above ten days; he states also that the berries are chopped up

with alica,[4] and then put away in casks for the table. Indeed, we read that armies have been fed upon this food when

marching to and fro through the territory of Africa. The

wood is of a black colour, and is held in high esteem for making

flutes; from the root also they manufacture handles for knives,

and various other small articles.



Such is the nature of the tree that is so called in Africa; the

same name being also given to a certain[5] herb, and to a stalk[6]

that grows in Egypt belonging to the marsh plants. This last

plant springs up when the waters of the Nile have retired after

its overflow: its stalk is similar to that of the bean, and its

leaves are numerous and grow in thick clusters, but are shorter

and more slender than those of the bean. The fruit grows on

the head of the plant, and is similar in appearance to a poppy

in its indentations[7] and all its other characteristics; within

there are small grains, similar to those of millet.[8] The inhabitants lay these heads in large heaps, and there let them

rot, after which they separate the grain from the residue by

washing, and then dry it; when this is done they pound it,

and then use it as flour for making a kind of bread. What is

stated in addition to these particulars, is a very singular[9] fact;

it is said that when the sun sets, these poppy-heads shut and

cover themselves in the leaves, and at sun-rise they open

again; an alternation which continues until the fruit is perfectly ripe, and the flower, which is white, falls off.



(18.) Even more than this, of the lotus of the Euphrates,[10]

it is said that the head and flower of the plant, at nightfall,

sink into the water, and there remain till midnight, so deep in

the water, that on thrusting in one's arm, the head cannot be

reached: after midnight it commences to return upwards, and

gradually becomes more and more erect till sunrise, when it







emerges entirely from the water and opens its flower; after

which it still continues to rise, until at last it is to be seen

raised quite aloft, high above the level of the water. This

lotus has a root about the size of a quince, enveloped in a black

skin, similar to that with which the chesnut is covered. The

substance that lies within this skin is white, and forms very

pleasant food, but is better cooked, either in water or upon

hot ashes, then in a raw state. Swine fatten upon nothing

better than the peelings of this root.







1. The Rhamnus lotus of Linnus; the Zizyphus lotus of Desfontaines.

2. The Celtis australis of Linnus. Fe remarks that Pliny is in error

in giving the name of Celtis to the lotus of Africa.

3. The Lotophagi. See B. v. c. 7.

4. A kind of grain diet. See B. xviii. c. 29, and B. xxii. c. 61.

5. The Melilotus officinalis of Linnus.

6. The Nymphaa Nelumbo of Linnus, or Egyptian bean.

7. He speaks of the indentations on the surface of the poppy-head.

8. See B. xxii. c. 28.

9. Fe remarks that there is nothing singular about it, the sun more or

less exercising a similar influence on all plants.

10. The same as the Nympha Nelumbo of the Nile, according to Fe .




33. Chap. 33. (19.)-The Trees Of Cyenaica. The Paliurus.


CHAP. 33. (19.)-THE TREES OF CYENAICA. THE PALIURUS.



The region of Cyrenaica places before the lotus its paliurus,[1]

which is more like a shrub in character, and bears a fruit of

a redder colour. This fruit contains a nut, the kernel of which

is eaten by itself, and is of a very agreeable flavour. The

taste of it is improved by wine, and, in fact, the juices are

thought to be an improvement to wine. The interior of

Africa, as far as the Garamantes and the deserts, is covered

with palms, remarkable for their extraordinary size and the

lusciousness of their fruit. The most celebrated are those in

the vicinity of the Temple of Jupiter Hammon.







1. Probably the Rhamnus paliurus of Linnus; the Spina Christi of

other botanists.




34. Chap. 34.-Nine Varieties Of The Punic Apple. Balaustium.


CHAP. 34.-NINE VARIETIES OF THE PUNIC APPLE. BALAUSTIUM.



But the vicinity of Carthage is claimed more particularly as

its own by the fruit the name of which is the "Punic apple;"[1]

though by some it is called "granatum."[2] This fruit has

been distinguished into a variety of kinds; the name of

"apyrenum"[3] being given to the one which has no[4] woody

seeds inside, but is naturally whiter than the others, the pips

being of a more agreeable flavour, and the membranes by

which they are separated not so bitter. Their conformation in



[5]







other respects, which is very similar to the partitions of the

cells in the honeycomb, is much the same in all. Of those

that have a kernel there are five kinds, the sweet, the acrid,

the mixed, the acid, and the vinous: those of Samos and

Egypt are distinguished into those with red, and those with

white foliage.[6] The skin, while the fruit is yet sour, is held

in high esteem for tanning leather. The flower of this tree is

known by the name of "balaustium," and is very useful for

medicinal purposes;[7] also for dyeing cloths a colour which

from it has derived its name.[8]







1. The pomegranate, the Punica granatum of botanists.

2. Or "grained apple."

3. From the Greek a)pu/rhnon, "without kernel." This Fe would not

translate literally, but as meaning that by cultivation the grains had been

reduced to a very diminutive size. See B. xxiii. c. 67.

4. This variety appears to be extinct. Fe doubts if it ever existed.

5. See B. xxiii. c. 57

6. See B xxiii. c. 57.

7. See B. xxiii. c. 60.

8. "Puniceus," namely, a kind of purple.




35. Chap. 35. (20.)-The Trees Of Asia And Greece; The Epipactis, The Erica, The Cnidian Grain Or Thymela, Pyrosachne, Cnestron, Or Cneoron.


CHAP. 35. (20.)-THE TREES OF ASIA AND GREECE; THE EPIPACTIS,

THE ERICA, THE CNIDIAN GRAIN OR THYMELA, PYROSACHNE,

CNESTRON, OR CNEORON.



In Asia and Greece are produced the following shrubs, the

epipactis,[1] by some known as "elleborine," the leaves of

which are of small size, and when taken in drink, are an

antidote against poison; just in the same way that those of

the erica[2] are a specific against the sting of the serpent.



(21.) Here is also found another shrub, upon which grows

the grain of Cnidos,[3] by some known as "linum;" the name

of the shrub itself being thymela,[4] while others, again, call it

"chamela,[5] others pyrosachne, others cnestron, and others

cneorum; it bears a strong resemblance to the wild olive, but

has a narrow leaf, which has a gummy taste in the mouth.

The shrub is of about the size of the myrtle; its seed is of the

same colour and appearance, but is solely used for medicinal

purposes.







1. See B. xxvii. c. 52. Sprengel thinks that this is the Neottia spiralis

of Schwartz; but Fe is of opinion that it has not hitherto been identified.

2. Probably the Erica arborea of Linnus, or "heath" in its several

varieties.

3. Granum Cnidium. The shrub is the Daphne Cnidium of Linnus.

4. The "thyme-olive."

5. The "ground olive," or "small olive." Dioscorides makes a distinction between these two last; and Sprengel has followed it, naming the

last Daphne Cnidium, and the first Daphne Cneorum.




37. Chap. 37.-The Tragos Or Scorpio; The Myrica Or Brya; The Ostrys.


CHAP. 37.-THE TRAGOS OR SCORPIO; THE MYRICA OR BRYA; THE

OSTRYS.



Asia, too, produces the tragos[1] or scorpio, a thorny shrub,

destitute of leaves, with red clusters upon it that are employed

in medicine. Italy produces the myrica, which some persons

call the "tamarix;"[2] and Achaia, the wild brya,[3] remarkable

for the circumstance that it is only the cultivated kind that

bears a fruit, not unlike the gall-nut. In Syria and Egypt

this plant is very abundant. It is to the trees of this last

country that we give the name of "unhappy;"[4] but yet those

of Greece are more unhappy still, for that country produces the

tree known as "ostrya," or, as it is sometimes called, "ostrya,"[5]

a solitary tree that grows about rocks washed by the water,

and very similar in the bark and branches to the ash. It re-







sembles the pear-tree in its leaves, which, however, are a little

longer and thicker, with wrinkled indentations running down

the whole length of the leaf. The seed of this tree resembles

barley in form and colour. The wood is hard and solid; it is

said, that if it is introduced into a house, it is productive of

painful deliveries and of shocking deaths.







1. See B. xxvii. c. 116. Sprengel identifies it with the Salsola tragus

of Linnus.

2. Probably the Tamarix Gallica of Linnus. Fe says, in relation to

the myrica, that it would seem that the ancients united in one collective

name, several plants which resembled each other, not in their botanical

characteristics, but in outward appearance. To this, he says, is owing

the fact that Dioscorides calls the myrica a tree, Favorinus a herb;

Dioscorides says that it is fruitful, Nicander and Pliny call it barren;

Virgil calls it small, and Theophrastus says that it is large.

3. Fee thinks that it is the Tamarix orientalis of Delille.

4. "Infelix," meaning "sterile." He seems to say this more particularly

in reference to the brya, which Egypt produces. As to this use of the word

"infelix," see B. xvi. c. 46.

5. Sprengel and Fe identify this with the Ostrya vulgaris of Willdenow,

the Carpinus ostrya of Linnus.




38. Chap. 38. (22.)-The Euonymos.


CHAP. 38. (22.)-THE EUONYMOS.



There is no tree productive of a more auspicious presage

than one which grows in the Isle of Lesbos, and is known by

the name of euonymos.[1] It bears some resemblance to the

pomegranate tree, the leaf being in size between the leaf of

that and the leaf of the laurel, while in shape and softness it

resembles that of the pomegranate tree: it has a white blossom,[2] by which it immediately gives us notice of its dangerous

properties.[3] It bears a pod[4] very similar to that of sesame,

within which there is a grain of quadrangular shape, of coarse

make and poisonous to animals. The leaf, too, has the same

noxious effects; sometimes, however, a speedy alvine discharge

is found to give relief on such occasions.







1. Or the "luckily named." It grew on Mount Ordymnus in Lesbos.

See Theophrastus, B. ii. c. 31.

2. The Evonymus Europus, or else the Evonymus latifolius of botanists, is probably intended to be indicated; but it is a mistake to say that

it is poisonous to animals. On the contrary, Fe says that sheep will

fatten on its leaves very speedily.

3. "Statim pestem denuntians." Pliny appears to be in error here.

In copying from Theophrastus, he seems to have found the word fo/nos,

used, really in reference to a blood-red juice which distils from the plant;

but as the same word also means slaughter, or death, he seems to have

thought that it really bears reference to the noxious qualities of the plant.

4. Fe censures the use of the word "siliqua," as inappropriate, although the seed does resemble that of sesamum, the Sesamum orientale

of Linnus.




39. Chap. 39.-The Tree Called Eon.


CHAP. 39.-THE TREE CALLED EON.



Alexander Cornelius has called a tree by the name of

"eon,"[1] with the wood of which, he says, the ship Argo was

built. This tree has on it a mistletoe similar to that of the

oak, which is proof against all injury from either fire or water,







in the same manner, in fact, as that of no other tree known.

This tree, however, appears to have been known to no other

author, that I am aware of.







1. Or eonis. Fe suggests that in this story, which probably belongs

to the region of Fable, some kind of oak may possibly be alluded to.




40. Chap. 40.-The Andrachle.


CHAP. 40.-THE ANDRACHLE.[1]



Nearly all the Greek writers interpret the name of the tree

called "andrachle," as meaning the same as "purslain:"[2]

whereas purslain is, in reality, a herb, and, with the difference

of a single letter, is called "andrachne." The andrachne is a

wild tree, which never grows in the plain country, and is similar to the arbute tree in appearance, only that its leaves are

smaller, and never fall off. The bark, too, is not rough, but

might be taken to be frozen all over, so truly wretched is its

appearance.







1. In the former editions, "adrachne"-the Arbutus integrifolia, Fee

says, and not the Arbutus andrachne of Linnus, as Sprengel thinks.

2. "Porcillaca." The Portulaca oleracea of Linnus.




41. Chap. 41.-The Coccygia; The Apharce.


CHAP. 41.-THE COCCYGIA; THE APHARCE.



Similar, too, in leaf to the preceding tree, is the coccygia,[1]

though not so large; it has this peculiarity, that it loses its

fruit while still in the downy[2] state-they then call it

"pappus"-a thing that happens to no other tree. The

apharce[3] is another tree that is similar to the andrachle, and

like it, bears twice in the year: just as the grape is beginning

to flower the first fruit is ripening, while the second fruit

ripens at the commencement of winter; of what nature this

fruit is we do not find stated.







1. The Rhus cotinus of Linnus, a sort of sumach.

2. This is not the fact; the seeds when ripe are merely lost to view in

the large tufts of down which grow on the stems.

3. Generally supposed to be the same as the alaternus, mentioned in

B. xvi. c. 45. Some writers identify it with the Phyllirea angustifolia

of Linnus.




42. Chap. 42.-The Ferula.


CHAP. 42.-THE FERULA.



We ought to place the ferula[1] also in the number of the

exotics, and as making one of the trees. For, in fact, we distinguish the trees into several different kinds: it is the nature

of some to have wood entirely in place of bark, or, in other







words, on the outside; while, in the interior, in place of wood,

there is a fungous kind of pith, like that of the elder;

others, again, are hollow within, like the reed. The ferula

grows in hot countries and in places beyond sea, the stalk

being divided into knotted joints. There are two kinds of it;

that which grows upwards to a great height the Greeks call

by the name of "narthex,"[2] while the other, which never

rises far from the ground, is known as the "narthecya."[3]

From the joints very large leaves shoot forth, the largest lying

nearest to the ground: in other respects it has the same nature as the anise, which it resembles also in its fruit. The

wood of no shrub is lighter than this; hence it is very easily

carried, and the stalks of it make good walking-sticks[4] for

the aged.







1. Probably the Ferula communis of Linnus, the herb or shrub

known as ".fennel giant."

2. The Ferula glauca of Linnus.

3. The Ferula nodiflora of Linnus.

4. It is still used for that purpose in the south of Europe. The Roman

schoolmasters, as we learn from Juvenal, Martial, and others, employed it

for the chastisement of their scholars. Pliny is in error in reckoning it

among the trees, it really having no pretensions to be considered such.

It is said to have received its name from "ferio," to "beat."




43. Chap. 43.-The Thapsia.


CHAP. 43.-THE THAPSIA.



The seed of the ferula has been by some persons called

"thapsia;"[1] deceived, no doubt, by what is really the fact,

that the thapsia is a ferula, but of a peculiar kind, with leaves

like those of fennel, and a hollow stalk not exceeding a walking-stick in length; the seed is like that of the ferula, and

the root of the plant is white. When an incision is made in

the thapsia, a milky juice oozes from it, and, when pounded,

it produces a kind of juice; the bark even is never thrown[2]

away. All these parts of the shrub are poisonous, and, indeed, it is productive of injurious effects to those engaged in

digging it up; for if the slightest wind should happen to be

blowing towards them from the shrub, the body begins to

swell, and erysipelas attacks the face: it is for this reason that,

before beginning work, they anoint the face all over with a

solution of wax. Still, however, the medical men say that,

mixed with other ingredients, it is of considerable use in the







treatment of some diseases. It is employed also for the cure

of scald-head, and for the removal of black and blue spots

upon the skin, as if, indeed, we were really at a loss for remedies in such cases, without having recourse to things of so

deadly a nature. These plants, however, act their part in

serving as a pretext for the introduction of noxious agents;

and so great is the effrontery now displayed, that people would

absolutely persuade one that poisons are a requisite adjunct to

the practice of the medical art.



The thapsia of Africa[3] is the most powerful of all. Some

persons make an incision in the stalk at harvest-time, and bore

holes in the root, too, to let the juice flow; after it has become quite dry, they take it away. Others, again, pound the

leaves, stalk, and root in a mortar, and after drying the juice

in the sun, divide it into lozenges.[4] Nero Csar, at the beginning of his reign, conferred considerable celebrity on this

plant. In his nocturnal skirmishes[5] it so happened that he

received several contusions on the face, upon which he

anointed it with a mixture composed of thapsia, frankincense,

and wax, and so contrived the next day effectually to give the

lie to all rumours, by appearing with a whole skin.[6] It is a

well-known fact, that fire[7] is kept alight remarkably well in

the hollow stalk of the ferula, and that for this purpose those

of Egypt are the best.







1. Sprengel thinks that this is the Thapsia asclepium of the moderns;

but Fe takes it to be the Thapsia villosa of Linnus.

2. It was valued, Dioscorides says, for its cathartic properties.

3. Either the Thapsia garganica of Willdenow, or the Thapsia villosa,

found in Africa and the south of Europe, though, as Pliny says, the

thapsia of Europe is mild in its effects compared with that of Africa. It

is common on the coast of Barbary.

4. Pastillos.

5. Nocturnis grassationibus.

6. It is still used in Barbary for the cure of tetter and ringworm.

7. The story was, that Prometheus, when he stole the heavenly fire from

Jupiter, concealed it in a stalk of narthex.




44. Chap. 44. (23.)-The Capparis Or Cynosbaton, Otherwise Ophiostaphyle.


CHAP. 44. (23.)-THE CAPPARIS OR CYNOSBATON, OTHERWISE

OPHIOSTAPHYLE.



In Egypt, too, the capparis[1] is found, a shrub with a wood







of much greater solidity. The seed of it is a well-known

article of food,[2] and is mostly gathered together with the stalk.

It is as well, however, to be on our guard against the foreign

kinds;[3] for that of Arabia has certain deleterious properties,

that from Africa is injurious to the gums, and that from

Marmarica is prejudicial to the womb and causes flatulence

in all the organs. That of Apulia, too, is productive of vomiting, and causes derangement in the stomach and intestines.

Some persons call this shrub "cynosbaton,"[4] others, again,

"ophiostaphyle."[5]







1. The "caper-tree," the Capparis spinosa of Linnus. Fe suggests

that Pliny may possibly allude, in some of the features which he describes,

to kinds less known; such, for instance, as the Capparis inermis of Forsk-

hal, found in Arabia; the Capparis ovata of Desfontaines, found in Barbary; the Capparis Sinaica, found on Mount Sinai, and remarkable for

the size of its fruit; and the Capparis gyptiaca of Lamarck, commonly

found in Egypt.

2. The stalk and seed were salted or pickled. The buds or unexpanded

flowers of this shrub are admired as a pickle or sauce of delicate flavour.

3. Fe remarks that this is not the truth, all the kinds possessing the

same qualities. There may, however, have been some difference in the

mode of salting or pickling them, and possibly productive of noxious

effects.

4. Probably from its thorns, that being the name of the sweet-briar, or

dog-rose.

5. "Serpent grapes."




45. Chap. 45.-The Saripha.


CHAP. 45.-THE SARIPHA.



The saripha,[1] too, that grows on the banks of the Nile, is

one of the shrub genus. It is generally about two cubits in

height, and of the thickness of one's thumb: it has the foliage

of the papyrus, and is eaten in a similar manner. The root,

in consequence of its extreme hardness, is used as a substitute

for charcoal in forging iron.







1. Sprengel and Fe take this to be the Cyperus fastigiatus of Linnus,

which Forskhal found in the river Nile.




46. Chap. 46. (24.)-The Royal Thorn.


CHAP. 46. (24.)-THE ROYAL THORN.



We must take care, also, not to omit a peculiar shrub that

is planted at Babylon, and only upon a thorny plant there,

as it will not live anywhere else, just in the same manner as

the mistletoe will live nowhere but upon trees. This shrub,

however, will only grow upon a kind of thorn, which is known

as the royal thorn.[1] It is a wonderful fact, but it germinates

the very same day that it has been planted. This is done







at the rising of the Dog-star, after which it speedily takes

possession of the whole tree. They use it in the preparation

of wine, and it is for this purpose that it is planted. This

thorn grows at Athens also, upon the Long Walls there.[2]







1. Spina regia. Some writers have considered this to be the same with

the Centaurea solstitialis of Linnus. .Sprengel takes it to be the Cassyta

filiformis of Linnus, a parasitical plant of India. We must conclude,

however, with Fe, that both the thorn and the parasite have not hitherto

been identified.

2. The Makron Teichos. See B. iv. c. 11.




47. Chap. 47.-The Cytisus.


CHAP. 47.-THE CYTISUS.



The cytisus[1] is also a shrub, which, as a food for sheep; has

been extolled with wonderful encomiums by Aristomachus the

Athenian, and, in a dry state, for swine as well: the same

author, too, pledges his word that a jugerum of very middling land, planted with the cytisus, will produce an income

of two thousand sesterces per annum. It is quite as useful as

the ervum,[2] but is apt to satiate more speedily: very little of

it is necessary to fatten cattle; to such a degree, indeed, that

beasts of burden, when fed upon it, will very soon take a dislike to barley. There is no fodder known, in fact, that is

productive of a greater abundance of milk, and of better quality; in the medical treatment of cattle in particular, this

shrub is found a most excellent specific for every kind of malady. Even more than this, the same author recommends it,

when first dried and then boiled in water, to be given to nursing women, mixed with wine, in cases where the milk has

failed them: and he says that, if this is done, the infant will

be all the stronger and taller for it. In a green state, or, if

dried, steeped in water, he recommends it for fowls. Both

Democritus and Aristomachus promise us also that bees will

never fail us so long as they can obtain the cytisus for food.

There is no crop that we know of, of a similar nature, that

costs a smaller price. It is sown at the same time as barley,

or, at all events, in the spring, in seed like the leek, or else

planted in the autumn, and before the winter solstice, in the stalk.

When sown in grain, it ought to be steeped in water, and if







there should happen to be no rain, it ought to be watered

when sown: when the plants are about a cubit in height,

they are replanted in trenches a foot in depth. It is transplanted at the equinoxes, while the shrub is yet tender, and in

three years it will arrive at maturity. It is cut at the vernal

equinox, when the flower is just going off; a child or an old

woman is able to do this, and their labour may be had at a

trifling rate. It is of a white appearance, and if one would

wish to express briefly what it looks like, it is a trifoliated

shrub,[3] with small, narrow leaves. It is always given to

animals at intervals of a couple of days, and in winter, when it is

dry, before being given to them, it is first moistened with water.

Ten pounds of cytisus will suffice for a horse, and for smaller

animals in proportion: if I may here mention it by the way,

it is found very profitable to sow garlic and onions between

the rows of cytisus.



This shrub has been found in the Isle of Cythnus, from

whence it has been transplanted to all the Cyclades, and more

recently to the cities of Greece, a fact which has greatly increased the supply of cheese: considering which, I am much

surprised that it is so rarely used in Italy. This shrub is proof,

too, against all injuries from heat, from cold, from hail, and

from snow: and, as Hyginus adds, against the depredations of

the enemy even, the wood[4] produced being of no value whatever.







1. From the various statements of ancient authors, Fe has come to the

conclusion that this name was given to two totally different productions.

The cytisus which the poets speak of as grateful to bees and goats, and

sheep, he takes to be the Medicago arborea of Linnus, known to us as

Medic trefoil, or lucerne; while the other, a tree with a black wood, he

considers identical with the Cytisus laburnum of Linnus, the laburnum,

or false ebony tree.

2. A kind of vetch or tare. See B. xviii.

3. "Frutex." When speaking of it as a shrub, he seems to be confounding the tree with the plant.

4. Evidently in allusion to the tree.




48. Chap. 48. (25.)-The Trees And Shrubs Of The Mediter- Ranean. The Phycos, Prason, Or Zoster.


CHAP. 48. (25.)-THE TREES AND SHRUBS OF THE MEDITER-

RANEAN. THE PHYCOS, PRASON, OR ZOSTER.



Shrubs and trees grow in the sea[1] as well; those of our

sea[2] are of inferior size, while, on the other hand, the Red Sea

and all the Eastern Ocean are filled with dense forests. No

other language has any name for the shrub which is known to

the Greeks as the "phycos,"[3] since by the word "alga"[4] a







mere herb is generally understood, while the "phycos" is a

complete shrub. This plant has a broad leaf of a green colour, which is by some called "prason,"[5] and by others is

known as "zoster."[6] Another kind,[7] again, has a hairy sort

of leaf, very similar to fennel, and grows upon rocks, while

that previously mentioned grows in shoaly spots, not far from

the shore. Both kinds shoot in the spring, and die in autumn.[8]

The phycos[9] which grows on the rocks in the neighbourhood

of Crete, is used also for dyeing purple; the best kind being

that produced on the north side of the island, which is the

case also with sponges of the very best quality. A third kind,[10]

again, is similar in appearance to grass; the root of it is

knotted, and so is the stalk, which resembles that of a reed.







1. He alludes to various kinds of fucus or sea-weed, which grows to a

much larger size in the Eastern seas.

2. The Mediterranean.

3. Whence the word "fucus" of the naturalists.

4. Fe suggests that this may be the Laminaria saccharina of Linnus,

being one of the "ulv" often thrown up on the coasts of Europe.

5. The "green" plant.

6. The "girdle" plant.

7. The Fucus barbatus, probably, of Linnus, or else the Fucus erodes.

8. They are in reality more long-lived than this.

9. Fe suggests that it is the Roccella tinctoria of Linnus.

10. The Zostera marina of Linnus, according to Fe .




49. Chap. 49.-The Sea Bryon.


CHAP. 49.-THE SEA BRYON.



There is another kind of marine shrub, known by the name

of "bryon;"[1] it has the leaf of the lettuce, only that it is

of a more wrinkled appearance; it grows nearer land, too, than

the last. Far out at sea we find a fir-tree[2] and an oak,[3]

each a cubit in height; shells are found adhering to their

branches. It is said that this sea-oak is used for dyeing wool,

and that some of them even bear acorns[4] in the sea, a fact which

has been ascertained by shipwrecked persons and divers. There

are other marine trees also of remarkable size, found in the

vicinity of Sicyon; the sea-vine,[5] indeed, grows everywhere.

The sea-fig[6] is destitute of leaves, and the bark is red. There







is a palm-tree[7] also in the number of the sea-shrubs. Beyond

the columns of Hercules there is a sea-shrub that grows with

the leaf of the leek, and others with those of the carrot,[8] and

of thyme. Both of these last, when thrown up by the tide,

are transformed [9] into pumice.







1. The Ulva lactuca of the moderns, a very common sea-weed.

2. The Fucus ericodes, Fe suggests, not unlike a fir in appearance.

3. Quercus. According to Gmellin, this is the Fucus vesiculosus of Linnus. Its leaves are indented, somewhat similarly to those of the oak.

4. Polybius, as quoted by Athenus, says that in the Lusitanian Sea

there are oaks that bear acorns, on which the thunnies Feed and grow fat.

5. On the contrary, Theophrastus says, B. iv. c. 7, that the sea-vine

grows near the sea, from which Fe is disposed to consider it a phanerogamous plant. If, on the other hand, it is really a fucus, he thinks that the

Fucus uvarius may be meant, the vesicles of which resemble a grape in

shape.

6. He speaks of a madrepore, Fe thinks, the identity of which it is

difficult to determine. Professor Pallas speaks of an Alcyonidium ficus,

which lives in the Mediterranean and in the ocean, and which resembles a

fig, and has no leaves, but its exterior is not red.

7. Fe queries whether this may not be the Gorgonia palma of Linnus,

which has received its name from its resemblance to a small palm-tree.

8. These three, Fe thinks, are madrepores or zoophytes, which it would

be vain to attempt to identify.

9. That is, they dry up to the consistency of pumice.




50. Chap. 50.-Plants Of The Red Sea.


CHAP. 50.-PLANTS OF THE RED SEA.



In the East, it is a very remarkable thing, that immediately

after leaving Coptos, as we pass through the deserts, we find

nothing whatever growing, with the exception of the thorn that

is known as the "thirsty"[1] thorn; and this but very rarely.

In the Red Sea, however, there are whole forests found growing, among which more particularly there are plants that bear

the laurel-berry and the olive;[2] when it rains also certain

fungi make their appearance, which, as soon as they are touched

by the rays of the sun, are turned into pumice.[3] The size of the

shrubs is three cubits in height; and they are all filled with

sea-dogs,[4] to such a degree, that it is hardly safe to look at

them from the ship, for they will frequently seize hold of the

very oars.







1. "Sitiens." Delille considers this as identical with his Acacia seyal, a

thorny tree, often to be seen in the deserts of Africa.

2. Probably zoophytes now unknown.

3. Fe suggests that he may allude to the Madrepora fungites of Linnus, the Fungus lapideus of Bauhin, These are found in the Red Sea

and the Indian Ocean; but, of course, the story of their appearance during

rain is fabulous.

4. Sharks; see B. ix. c. 70.




51. Chap. 51.-Plants Of The Indian Sea.


CHAP. 51.-PLANTS OF THE INDIAN SEA.



The officers[1] of Alexander who navigated the Indian seas,

have left an account of a marine tree, the foliage of which is

green while in the water; but the moment it is taken out, it







dries and turns to salt. They have spoken also of bulrushes[2]

of stone bearing a strong resemblance to real ones, which grew

along the sea-shore, as also certain shrubs[3] in the main sea,

the colour of an ox's horn, branching out in various directions, and red at the tips. These, they say, were brittle, and

broke like glass when touched, while, on the other hand, in

the fire they would become red-hot like iron, and when cool

resume their original colour.



In the same part of the earth also, the tide covers the

forests that grow on the islands, although the trees there are

more lofty[4] than the very tallest of our planes and poplars!

The leaves of these trees resemble that of the laurel, while the

blossom is similar to the violet, both in smell and colour: the

berries resemble those of the olive, and they, too, have an

agreeable smell: they appear in the autumn, and the leaves

of the trees never fall off. The smaller ones are entirely

covered by the waves, while the summits of those of larger

size protrude from the water, and ships are made fast to them;

when the tide falls the vessels are similarly moored to the roots.

We find the same persons making mention of certain other

trees which they saw out at sea, which always retained their

leaves, and bore a fruit very similar to the lupine.







1. The companions of Onesicritus and Nearchus.

2. Fe hazards a conjecture that this may be the Gorgonia scirpea of

Pallas, found in the Indian Seas.

3. One of the Gorgoni, Fe thinks; but its characteristics are not sufficiently stated to enable us to identify it.

4. A fable worthy of Sinbad the Sailor!




0. > Book Xiv. The Natural History Of The Fruit Trees.


BOOK XIV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRUIT TREES.








1. Chaps. 1 & 2. (1.)-The Nature Of The Vine. Its Mode Of Fructification.


CHAPS. 1 & 2. (1.)-THE NATURE OF THE VINE. ITS MODE OF

FRUCTIFICATION.



Those which have been hitherto mentioned, are, nearly all

of them, exotic trees, which it is impossible to rear in any

other than their native soil, and which are not to be naturalized

in strange countries.[1] It is now for us to speak of the more

ordinary kinds, of all of which Italy may be looked upon

as more particularly the parent.[2] Those who are well acquainted with the subject, must only bear in mind that for

the present we content ourselves with merely stating the

different varieties of these trees, and not the mode of cultivating

them, although there is no doubt that the characteristics of a

tree depend very considerably upon its cultivation. At this

fact I cannot sufficiently express my astonishment, that of

some trees all memory has utterly perished, and that the

very names of some, of which we find various authors making

mention, have wholly disappeared.[3] And yet who does not

readily admit that now, when intercommunications have been

opened between all parts of the world, thanks to the majestic

sway of the Roman empire, civilization and the arts of life

have made a rapid progress, owing to the interchange of commodities and the common enjoyment by all of the blessings of

peace, while at the same time a multitude of objects which







formerly lay concealed, are now revealed for our indiscriminate

use?



Still, by Hercules! at the present day there are none to be

found who have any acquaintance with much that has been

handed down to us by the ancient writers; so much more

comprehensive was the diligent research of our forefathers, or

else so much more happily employed was their industry. It

is a thousand years ago since Hesiod,[4] at the very dawn, so to

say, of literature, first gave precepts for the guidance of the

agriculturist, an example which has since been followed by no

small number of writers. Hence have originated considerable

labours for ourselves, seeing that we have not only to enquire

into the discoveries of modern times, but to ascertain as well

what was known to the ancients, and this, too, in the very

midst of that oblivion which the heedlessness of the present

day has so greatly tended to generate. What causes then are

we to assign for this lethargy, other than those Feelings which

we find actuating the public in general throughout all the

world? New manners and usages, no doubt, have now come

into vogue, and the minds of men are occupied with subjects

of a totally different nature; the arts of avarice, in fact, are

the only ones that are now cultivated.



In days gone by, the sway and the destinies of states were

bounded by their own narrow limits, and consequently the

genius of the people was similarly circumscribed as well,

through a sort of niggardliness that was thus displayed by

Fortune: hence it became with them a matter of absolute

necessity to employ the advantages of the understanding:

kings innumerable received the homage of the arts, and in

making a display of the extent of their resources, gave the

highest rank to those arts, entertaining the opinion that it was

through them that they should ensure immortality. Hence it

was that due rewards, and the various works of civilization, were

displayed in such vast abundance in those times. For these

later ages, the enlarged boundaries of the habitable world,

and the vast extent of our empire, have been a positive injury.

Since the Censor has been chosen for the extent of his property,

since the judge has been selected according to the magnitude of

his fortune, since it has become the fashion to consider that







nothing reflects a higher merit upon the magistrate and the

general than a large estate, since the being destitute of heirs[5]

has begun to confer upon persons the very highest power and

influence, since legacy-hunting[6] has become the most lucrative

of all professions, and since it has been considered that the

only real pleasures are those of possessing, all the true enjoyments of life have been utterly lost sight of, and all those arts

which have derived the name of liberal, from liberty,[7] that

greatest blessing of life, have come to deserve the contrary

appellation, servility alone being the passport to profit.



This servility each one has his own peculiar way of making

most agreeable, and of putting in practice in reference to

others, the motives and the hopes of all tending to the one

great object, the acquisition of wealth: indeed, we may everywhere behold men even of naturally excellent qualities preferring to foster the vicious inclinations of others rather than

cultivate their own talents. We may therefore conclude, by

Hercules! that pleasure has now begun to live, and that life,

truly so called, has ceased to be.[8] As to ourselves, however,

we shall continue our researches into matters now lost in oblivion, nor shall we be deterred from pursuing our task by the

trivial nature[9] of some of our details, a consideration which

has in no way influenced us in our description of the animal

world. And yet we find that Virgil, that most admirable

poet, has allowed this to influence him, in his omission to enlarge

upon the beauties of the garden; for, happy and graceful poet

as he is, he has only culled what we may call the flower of

his subject: indeed, we find that he has only named[10] in all

some fifteen varieties of the grape, three of the olive, the same

number of the pear, and the citron of Assyria, and has passed

over the rest in silence altogether.



(2). With what then ought we to begin in preference to the

vine, the superiority in which has been so peculiarly con-







ceded to Italy, that in this one blessing we may pronounce her

to have surpassed those of all other nations of the earth, with

the sole exception of those that bear the various perfumes?

and even there, when the vine is in flower, there is not a perfume known which in exquisite sweetness can surpass it.

The vine has been justly reckoned[11] by the ancients among the

trees, on account of its remarkable size. In the city of Populonium, we see a statue of Jupiter formed of the trunk of a

single vine, which has for ages remained proof against all

decay; and at Massilia, there is a patera made of the same

wood. At Metapontum, the temple of Juno has long stood

supported by pillars formed of the like material; and even at

the present day we ascend to the roof of the temple of Diana at

Ephesus, by stairs constructed, it is said, of the trunk of a single

vine, that was brought from Cyprus; the vines of that island

often attaining a most remarkable size. There is not a wood in

existence of a more lasting nature than this; I am strongly

inclined, however, to be of opinion that the material of which

these various articles were constructed was the wild vine.







1. This must be understood with considerable modification-many of

the tropical trees and plants have been naturalized, and those of America

more particularly, in Europe.

2. He is probably wrong in looking upon the vine as indigenous to Italy.

It was known in very early times in Egypt and Greece, and it is now

generally considered that it is indigenous throughout the tract that

stretches to the south, from the the mountains of Mazandiran on the Caspian to the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Sea, and eastward

through Khorassan and Cabul to the base of the Himalayas.

3. The art of printing, Fe remarks, utterly precludes the recurrence of

such a fact as this.

4. In allusion to his poem, the "Works and Days," the prototype of

Virgil's Georgics.

5. He alludes to the legacy-hunters with which Rome abounded in his

time. They are spoken of by Seneca, Tacitus, and Juvenal, in terms of

severe reprobation.

6. This seems to be the meaning of "captatio;" much like what we call

"toadying," or "toad-eating."

7. The "liberales artes," were those, the pursuit of which was not considered derogatory to the dignity of a free man.

8. Vita ipsa desiit.

9. Humilitas.

10. In the Georgics.

11. Theophrastus reckons it among the trees; Columella, B. ii., considers

it to occupy a middle position between a tree and a shrub. Horace, B. i.

Ode 18, calls it a tree, "arbor.'




2. Chap. 3.The Nature Of The Grape, And The Cultivation Of The Vine.


CHAP. 3.THE NATURE OF THE GRAPE, AND THE CULTIVATION OF

THE VINE.



The cultivated vine is kept down by pruning every year,

and all the strength of the tree is drawn as much as possible

into the shoots, or else thrown downwards to the sets;[1] indeed,

it is only allowed to expand with the view of ensuring an

abundant supply of juice, a result which is obtained in various

modes according to the peculiarities of the climate and the

nature of the soil. In Campania they attach[2] the vine to the

poplar: embracing the tree to which it is thus wedded, the

vine grasps the branches with its amorous arms, and as it

climbs, holds on with its knotted trunk, till it has reached the

very summit; the height being sometimes so stupendous that

the vintager when hired is wont to stipulate for his funeral

pile and a grave at the owner's expense. The vine keeps







continually on the increase, and it is quite impossible to separate the two, or rather, I may say, to tear them asunder.

Valerianus Cornelius has regarded it as one of the most remarkable facts that could be transmitted to posterity, that

single vines have been known to surround villas and country houses with their shoots and creeping tendrils ever on the

stretch. At Rome, in the porticoes of Livia, a single vine,

with its leaf-clad trellises, protects with its shade the walks

in the open air; the fruit of it yields twelve amphor of

must.[3]



Everywhere we find the vine overtopping the elm even,

and we read that Cineas,[4] the ambassador of King Pyrrhus,

when admiring the great height of the vines at Aricia,

wittily making allusion to the peculiar rough taste of wine,

remarked that it was with very good reason that they had

hung the parent of it on so lofty a gibbet. There is a tree

in that part of Italy which lies beyond the Padus,[5] known

as the "rumpotinus,"[6] or sometimes by the name of "opulus," the broad circular[7] storeys of which are covered with

vines, whose branches wind upwards in a serpentine form to

the part where the boughs finally divide,[8] and then, throwing out their tendrils, disperse them in every direction among

the straight and finger-like twigs which project from the

branches. There are vines also, about as tall as a man of

moderate height, which are supported by props, and, as they

throw out their bristling tendrils, form whole vineyards: while

others, again, in their inordinate love for climbing, combined

with skill on the part of the proprietor, will cover even the

very centre[9] of the court-yard with their shoots and foliage.







So numerous are the varieties of the vine which even Italy

alone presents.



In some of the provinces the vine is able to stand of itself

without anything to support it, drawing in its bending

branches, and making up in its thickness for its stunted size.

In other places, again, the winds will not allow of this mode of

culture, as in Africa, for instance, and various parts of the

province of Gallia Narbonensis. These vines, being prevented

from growing beyond the first branches, and hence always

retaining a resemblance to those plants which stand in need

of the hoe, trail along the ground just like them, and every

here and there suck[10] up the juices from the earth to fill their

grapes: it is in consequence of this, that in the interior of Africa

the clusters[11] are known to exceed the body of an infant in size.

The wine of no country is more acid than those of Africa, but

there is nowhere to be found a grape that is more agreeable

for its firmness, a circumstance which may very probably have

given rise to its name of the "hard grape."[12] As to the

varieties of the grape, although they are rendered innumerable

by the size, the colour, and the flavour of the berry, they are

multiplied even still more by the wines that they produce.

In one part they are lustrous with a rich purple colour, while

in another, again, they glow with a rosy tint, or else are glossy

with their verdant hue. The grapes that are merely white

or black are the common sorts. The bumastus[13] swells out

in form like a breast, while that known as the "dactylus,"[14]

has a berry of remarkable length. Nature, too, displays such

varieties in these productions of hers, that small grapes are

often to be found adhering to the largest vines, but of surpassing sweetness; they are known by the name of "leptorrag."[15] Some, again, will keep throughout the winter, if

care is taken to hang them to the ceiling[16] with a string;







while others, again, will keep by virtue of their own natural

freshness and vigour, if put into earthen jars, which are then

enclosed in dolia,[17] and covered up with the fermenting husks

of grapes. Some grapes receive from the smoke of the blacksmith's forge that remarkable flavour which it is also known

to impart to wines: it was the high name of the Emperor

Tiberius that brought into such great repute the grapes that

had been smoked in the smithies of Africa. Before his time

the highest rank at table was assigned to the grapes of Rhtia,[18] and to those growing in the territory of Verona.



Raisins of the sun have the name of "passi," from having

been submitted[19] to the influence of the sun. It is not uncommon to preserve grapes in must, and so make them drunk

with their own juices; while there are some that are all the

sweeter for being placed in must after it has been boiled;

others, again, are left to hang on the parent tree till a new

crop has made its appearance, by which time they have become as clear and as transparent[20] as glass. Astringent

pitch, if poured upon the footstalk of the grape, will impart

to it all that body and that firmness which, when placed in

dolia or amphor, it gives to wine. More recently, too, there

has been discovered a vine which produces a fruit that imparts

to its wine a strong flavour of pitch: it is the famous grape

that confers such celebrity on the territory of Vienne,[21] and of

which several varieties have recently enriched the territories

of the Arverni, the Sequani, and the Helvii:[22] it was unknown in the time of the poet Virgil, who has now been dead

these ninety years.[23]



In addition to these particulars, need I make mention of the

fact that the vine[24] has been introduced into the camp and







placed in the centurion's hand for the preservation of the

supreme authority and command? that this is the high reward

which summons the lagging ranks to the eagles raised aloft,[25]

and that even in chastisement for faults it tends to reflect

honour upon the punishment?[26] It was the vineyard, too,

that first afforded a notion,[27] the practical utility of which has

been experienced in many a siege. Among the medicinal preparations, too, the vine holds so high a place, that its very

wines taken by themselves are efficacious as remedies for

disease.[28]







1. Or "layers," "propagines."

2. Nubunt, properly "marry." This is still done in Naples, and other

parts of Italy, The use of vine stays there are unknown.

3. "Mustum." Pure, unfermented juice of the grape.

4. See B. vii. c. 24.

5. Italia Transpadana.

6. See B. xxiv. c. 112. The Bauhins are of opinion that this is the

Acer opulus of Willdenow, common in Italy, and very branchy.

7. "Tabulata in orbem patula." He probably alludes to the branches

extending horizontally from the trunk.

8. "In palmam ejus."

9. There is no doubt that the whole of this passage is in a most corrupt state, and we can only guess at its meaning. Sillig suggests a new

reading, which, unsupported as it is by any of the MSS., can only be

regarded as fanciful, and perhaps as a very slight improvement on the

attempts to obtain a solution of the difficulty. Pliny's main object seems

to be to contrast the vines that entwine round poles and rise perpendi-

cularly with those that creep horizontally.

10. By throwing out fresh shoots every here and there. Fe , however,

seems to think that he means that the grapes themselves, as they trail

along the ground, suck up the juices with their pores. These are known

in France as "running vines," and are found in Berry and Anjou.

11. He must evidently be speaking of the size of the bunches. See the

account of the grapes of Canaan, in Numbers xiii. 24.

12. "Durus acinus," or, according to some readings, "duracinus."

13. From the Greek boumasto\s, a cow's teat, mentioned by Virgil, Georg.

ii. 102.

14. Or finger-grape.

15. From the Greek leptora=ges, "small-berried."

16. Pensili concamarat nodo.

17. We have no corresponding word for the Latin "dolium." It was

an oblong earthen vessel, used for much the same purpose as our vats;

new wine was generally placed in it. In times later than that of Pliny

the dolia were made of wood.

18. Hardouin speaks of these grapes as still growing in his time in the

Valtelline, and remarkable for their excellence.

19. "A patientia." Because they have suffered from the action of the

heat.

20. From the thinness of the skin.

21. See c. 24, also B. xxiii. c. 24.

22. See B. iii. c. 5, and B. xxxiii. c. 24.

23. He died in the year B.C. 19.

24. A vine sapling was the chief mark of the centurion's authority.

25. The reading "elatas," has been adopted. If "lentas" is retained,

it may mean, "promotion, slow though it be," for the word "aquila"

was often used to denote the rank of the "primipilus," who had the

charge of the eagle of the legion.

26. Because it was the privilege solely of those soldiers who were Roman

citizens to be beaten with the vine sapling.

27. He alludes to the "vinea" used in besieging towns; the first notion

of which was derived from the leafy roof afforded by the vines when creeping

on the trellis over-head. It was a moveable machine, affording a roof

under which the besiegers protected themselves against darts, stones, fire,

and other missiles. Raw hides or wet cloths constituted the uppermost

layer.

28. See B. xxiii. c. 19.




3. Chap. 4. (2.)-Ninety-One Varieties Of The Vine.


CHAP. 4. (2.)-NINETY-ONE VARIETIES OF THE VINE.



Democritus, who has declared that he was acquainted with

every variety of the grape known in Greece, is the only person

who has been of opinion that every kind could be enumerated;

but, on the other hand, the rest of the authors have stated that

they are quite innumerable[1] and of infinite extent, an assertion

the truth of which will be more evident, if we only consider

the vast number of wines. I shall not attempt, then, to speak

of every kind of vine, but only of those that are the most remarkable, seeing that the varieties are very nearly as numberless as the districts in which they grow. It will suffice, then,

to point out those which are the most remarkable among the

vines, or else are peculiar for some wonderful property.



The very highest rank is given to the Aminean[2] grape, on







account of the body and durability of its wine, which improves

with old age. There are five varieties of the Aminean grape;

of these, the smaller germana, or "sister" grape, has a smaller

berry than the rest, and flowers more strongly, being able to

tear up against rain and tempestuous weather; a thing that

is not the case with the larger germana, though it is less exposed to danger when attached to a tree than when supported

only by a trellis. Another kind, again, has obtained the

name of the "gemella," or "twin" grape, because the clusters

always grow[3] in couples: the flavour of the wine is extremely

rough, but it is remarkable for its strength. Of these several

varieties the smaller one suffers from the south wind, but receives nutriment from all the others, upon Mount Vesuvius,

for instance, and the hills of Surrentum: in the other parts of

Italy it is never grown except attached to trees. The fifth

kind is that known as the lanata, or "woolly" grape; so that

we need not be surprised at the wool-bearing trees[4] of the

Seres or the Indians, for this grape is covered with a woolly

down of remarkable thickness. It is the first of the Aminean vines that ripens, but the grape decays with remarkable

rapidity.



The second rank belongs to the vines of Nomentum,[5] the

wood of which is red, from which circumstance the vines have

received from some the name of "rubell." The grapes of

this vine produce less wine than usual, in consequence of the

extraordinary quantity of husk and lees they throw off: but

the vine is remarkably strong, is well able to stand the frost,

and is apt to receive more detriment from drought than from

rain, from heat than from cold; hence it is that those are

looked upon as the best that are grown in cold and moist

localities. That variety which has the smallest grape is con-







sidered the most fruitful: the one which has a jagged leaf is

less productive.



The vine known as the "apiana,"[6] has received that name

from the bee, an insect which is remarkably fond of it: there

are two varieties of this vine. This grape, too, is covered in

its young state with a kind of down; the main difference between the two varieties is, that the one ripens more rapidly

than the other, though this last ripens with considerable

quickness. A cold locality is not at all hurtful to them,

although there is no grape that ripens sooner: these grapes,

however, very soon rot in the rain. The wines produced by

this grape are sweet at first, but contract a rough flavour in

the course of years. This vine is cultivated more than any

other in Etruria. Thus far we have made mention of the

more celebrated vines among those which are peculiar and indigenous to Italy; the rest have been introduced from Chios

or Thasos.



The small Greek[7] grape is not inferior to the Aminean for

the excellence of its quality: the berry is remarkably thin-

skinned, and the cluster so extremely small,[8] that it is not

worth while cultivating it, except on a soil of remarkable

richness. The eugenia,[9] so called from its high qualities, has

been introduced into the Alban territory from the hills of

Tauromenium:[10] it is found, however, to thrive only there,

for if transplanted elsewhere it degenerates immediately: in

fact, there is in some vines so strong an attachment to their

native soil, that they leave behind them all their high repute,

and are never transplanted in their full entirety. This is the

case, too, with the Rhtian and the Allobrogian grapes, of

which we have made mention above as the pitch-flavoured[11]

grape; these are justly deemed excellent in their own coun-







try, while elsewhere they are held in no esteem at all. Still,

however, in consequence of their remarkable fertility, they

make up for quality by abundance: the eugenia thrives in

spots which are scorching hot, the Rhtian vine in places of a

more moderate temperature, and the Allobrogian in cold, exposed situations, the fruit being of a black colour, and ripened

by the agency of frost.



The wines produced from the vines of which we have

hitherto made mention, even though the grapes are black,

become, all of them, when old, of a white[12] complexion. The

other vines are of no note in particular, though sometimes,

thanks to some peculiarity either in the climate or the soil,

the wines produced from them attain a mature old age; such,

for instance, as the Fecenian[13] vine, and the Biturigian,[14] which

blossoms at the same time with it, but has not so many grapes.

The blossoms of these last-mentioned vines are not liable to

receive injury, both because they are naturally but transitory, and have the power of resisting the action of both wind

and storm; still, however, those that grow in cold spots are

considered superior to those produced in a warm site, and those

found in moist places superior to those grown in dry, thirsty

localities.



The vine known as the "visula"[15] * * * * more

than abundance of fruit, being unable to endure the extreme

variations of the atmosphere, though it is very well able to

stand a continuation of either cold or heat. Of this last kind

the smaller one is the best, but difficult to please in its choice;

in a rich earth it is apt to rot, while in a thin soil it will come

to nothing at all: in its fastidiousness it requires a soil of

middling quality, and hence it is that it is so commonly found

on the hills of the Sabine territory. Its grape is unsightly in

appearance, but has a very pleasant flavour: if it is not gathered

at the very moment that it is ripe, it will fall, even before it

decays. The extreme size of the leaves, and its natural hardi-







ness, are its great protection against the disastrous effects of

hail.



The grapes known as "helvol"[16] are remarkable for the

peculiarity of their colour, which is a sort of midway between

purple and black, but varies so frequently that it has made

some persons give them the name of "varian." Of the two

sorts of helvol, the black is the one generally preferred: they

both of them produce every other year, but the wine is best

when the vintage has been less abundant.



The vine that is known as the "precia"[17] is also divided

into two varieties, distinguished by the size of the grape.

These vines produce a vast quantity of wood, and the grape is

very good for preserving in jars;[18] the leaves are similar in

appearance to that of parsley.[19] The people of Dyrrhachium

hold in high esteem the vine known as the "basilica," the

same which in Spain is called the "cocolobis."[20] The grapes

of this vine grow in thin clusters, and it can stand great heat,

and the south winds. The wine produced from it is apt to fly

to the head:[21] the produce of the vine is very large. The

people in Spain distinguish two kinds of this vine, the one

with the oblong, the other with the round grape; they gather

this fruit the very last of all. The sweeter the cocolobis is,

the more it is valued; but even if it has a rough taste, the wine

will become sweet by keeping, while, on the other hand, that

which was sweet at first, will acquire a certain roughness; it

is in this last state that the wine is thought to rival that of

Alba.[22] It is said that the juice of this grape is remarkably

efficacious when drunk as a specific for diseases of the bladder.







The "albuelis"[23] produces most of its fruit at the top of

the tree, the visula at the bottom; hence, when planted around

the same tree, in consequence of these peculiarities in their

nature, they bear between them a two-fold crop. One of the

black grape vines has been called the "inerticula,"[24] though

it might with more propriety have been styled the "sobria;"[25]

the wine from it is remarkably good, and more particularly

when old; but though strong, it is productive of no ill effects,

and, indeed, is the only wine that will not cause intoxication.



The abundance of their produce again recommends other

vines to us, and, in the first place, that known as the "helvennaca."[26] Of this vine there are two kinds; the larger, which

is by some called the "long" helvennaca, and the smaller

kind, which is known as the "emarcum,"[27] not so prolific as

the first, but producing a wine of more agreeable flavour; it

is distinguished by its rounded leaf, but they are both of

them of slender make. It is requisite to place forks beneath

these vines for the support of their branches, as otherwise it

would be quite impossible for them to support the weight of

their produce: they receive nutriment from the breezes that

blow from the sea, and foggy weather is injurious to them.

There is not one among the vines that manifests a greater

aversion to Italy, for there it becomes comparatively leafless

and stunted, and soon decays, while the wine which it produces

there will not keep beyond the summer: no vine, however,

thrives better in a poor soil. Grcinus, who has copied from

the works of Cornelius Celsus, gives it as his opinion that it is

not that the nature of this vine is repugnant to the climate

of Italy, but that it is the mode of cultivating it that is







wrong, and the anxiety to force it to put forth its shoots; a

mode of treatment, he thinks, which absorbs all its fertility,

unless the soil in which it is planted happens to be remarkably

rich, and by its support prevents it from being exhausted. It

is said that this vine is never carbuncled,[28] a remarkable quality, if, indeed, it really is the fact that there is any vine in

existence that is exempt from the natural influences of the

climate.



The spionia, by some called the "spinea,"[29] is able to bear

heat very well, and thrives in the autumn and rainy weather:

indeed, it is the only one among all the vines that does well

amid fogs, for which reason it is peculiar to the territory of

Ravenna.[30] The venicula[31] is one of those that blossom the

strongest, and its grapes are particularly well adapted for preserving in jars. The Campanians, however, prefer to give it

the name of "scircula," while others, again, call it "stacula."

Tarracina has a vine known as the "numisiana;" it has no

qualities of its own, but has characteristics just according to

the nature of the soil in which it is planted: the wine, however, if kept in the earthen casks[32] of Surrentum, is remarkable for its goodness, that is to say, as far south as Vesuvius.

On arriving in that district, we find the Murgentina,[33] the very

best among all those that come from Sicily. Some, indeed,

call the vine "Pompeiana,"[34] and it is more particularly fruitful

when grown in Latium, just as the "horconia"[35] is productive

nowhere but in Campania. Of a contrary nature is the vine

known as the "argeica," and by Virgil called "argitis:"[36]

it makes the ground all the more[37] productive, and is remark-







ably stout in its resistance to rain and the effects of old age,

though it will hardly produce wine every year; it is remarkable for the abundant crops which it bears, though the grapes

are held but in small esteem for eating. The vine known as

the "metica" lasts well for years, and offers a successful resistance to all changes of weather; the grape is black, and the

wine assumes a tawny hue when old.



(3.) The varieties that have been mentioned thus far are

those that are generally known; the others belong to peculiar

countries or individual localities, or else are of a mixed nature,

the produce of grafting. Thus the vine known as the "Tudernis,"[38] is peculiar to the districts of Etruria, and so too is the

vine that bears the name of "Florentia." At Arretium the

talpona, the etesiaca, and the consemina, are particularly excellent.[39] The talpona,[40] which is a black grape, produces a

pale, straw-coloured[41] must: the etesiaca[42] is apt to deceive;

the more the wine it produces the better the quality, but it

is a remarkable fact, that just as it has reached that point its

fecundity ceases altogether. The consemina[43] bears a black

grape, but its wine will not keep, though the grape itself is

a most excellent keeper; it is gathered fifteen days later than

any other kind of grape: this vine is very fruitful, but its

grape is only good for eating. The leaves of this tree, like

those of the wild vine, turn the colour of blood just before the

fall: the same is the case also with some[44] other varieties, but

it is a proof that they are of very inferior quality.



The irtiola[45] is a vine peculiar to Umbria and the terri-







tories of Mevania and Picenum, while the pumula[46] belongs

to Amiternum. In the same districts we find the vine called

bannannica,[47] which is very deceptive, though the people are

remarkably fond of its fruit. The municipal town of Pompeii has given its name to the Pompeia,[48] although it is to be

found in greater abundance in the territory of Clusium. The

Tiburina, also, is so called from the municipal town of Tibr,

although it is in this district that they have lately discovered

the grape known as the "oleaginea," from its strong resemblance to an olive: this being the very last kind of grape that

has been introduced. The Sabines and the Laurentes are the

only people acquainted with the vinaciola.[49] As to the vines

of Mount Gaurus,[50] I am aware that, as they have been transplanted from the Falernian territory, they bear the name of

"Falernian:" but it is a fact that the Falernian vine, when

transplanted, rapidly degenerates. Some persons, too, have

made out a Tarentine variety, with a grape of remarkable

sweetness: the grapes of the "capnios,"[51] the "bucconiatis,"[52]

and the "tarrupia," grow on the hills of Thurii, and are

never gathered till after the frost commences. Pis enjoys

the Parian vine, and Mutina the prusinian,[53] with a black

grape, the wine of which turns pale within four years. It is

a very remarkable thing, but there is a grape here that turns

round with the sun, in its diurnal motion, a circumstance from

which it has received the name of "streptos."[54] In Italy, the



[55]







Gallic vine is a great favourite, while beyond the Alps that of

Picenum[56] is preferred. Virgil has made mention[57] of the

Thasian vine, the Mareotis, the lagea, and several other foreign

varieties, which are not to be found in Italy.



There are some vines, again, that are remarkable, not for

their wine, but for their grapes, such, for instance, as the ambrosia,[58] one of the "duracinus"[59] kind, a grape which requires

no potting, but will keep perfectly well if left on the vine, so

remarkable is the strength with which it is endowed for withstanding the effects of cold, heat, and stormy weather. The

"orthampelos,"[60] too, is a vine that requires neither tree nor

stay, as it is well able to sustain its own weight. This, however, is not the case with the "dactylis,"[61] the stem of which

is no thicker than the finger. The "columbina"[62] is one of

those with the finest clusters, and still more so is the purple

"bimammia;" it does not bear in clusters,[63] but only secondary

bunches. There is the tripedanea,[64] too, a name which it owes

to the length of its clusters, and the scirpula,[65] with its shrivelled

berry; the Rhtica,[66] too, so called in the Maritime Alps, though

very different from the grape of that name which is so highly

esteemed, and of which we have previously spoken; for in

this variety the clusters are small, the grapes lie closely packed,







and it produces but a poor wine. It has, however, the thinnest skin of all the grapes, and a single stone,[67] of very diminutive size, which is known as the "Chian;"[68] one or two of

the grapes on the cluster are remarkably large. There is also

the black Aminean, to which the name of Syriaca is given:

the Spanish vine, too, the very best of all those of inferior

quality.



The grapes that are known as escari,[69] are grown on trellises. Of the duracinus[70] kind, there are those known as the

white and the black varieties; the bumastus, too, is similarly

distinguished in colour. Among the vines too, that have

not as yet been mentioned, there are the gian and the

Rhodian[71] kinds, as also the uncialis, so called, it would seem,

from its grape being an ounce in weight. There is the picina[72]

too, the blackest[73] grape known, and the stephanitis,[74] the

clusters of which Nature, in a sportive mood, has arranged in

the form of a garland, the leaves being interspersed[75] among

the grapes; there are the grapes, too, known as the "forenses,"[76]

and which quickly come to maturity, recommend themselves

to the buyer by their good looks, and are easily carried from

place to place.



On the other hand, those known as the "cinerea"[77] are

condemned by their very looks, and so are the rabuscula[78] and

the asinusca;[79] the produce of the alopecis,[80] which resembles

in colour a fox's tail, is held in less disesteem. The Alexandrina[81] is the name of a vine that grows in the vicinity of Pha-







lacra: it is of stunted growth, and has branches a cubit in

length; the grape is black, about the size of a bean, with a

berry that is soft, and remarkably small: the clusters hang in

a slanting direction, and are remarkably sweet; the leaves are

small and round, without any division.[82] Within the last

seven years there has been introduced at Alba Helvia,[83] in the

province of Gallia Narbonensis, a vine which blossoms but a

single day, and is consequently proof against all accidents:

the name given to it is "Narbonica," and it is now planted

throughout the whole of that province.







1. Many years ago, there were in the gardens of the Luxembourg one

thousand four hundred varieties of the French grape, and even then there

were many not to be found there; while, at the same time, it was considered that the French kinds did not form more than one-twentieth part

of the species known in Europe.

2. This vine was said to be of Grecian origin, and to have been con-

veyed by a Thessalian tribe to Italy, where it was grown at Aminea, a

village in the Falernian district of Campania. It is supposed to have

been the same as the gros plant of the French. The varieties mentioned

by Pliny seem not to have been recognized by the moderns.

3. Fe does not give credit to this statement.

4. In allusion to the cotton-tree, or else the mulberry leaves covered

with the cocoons of the silkworm. See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xii. c. 21.

Virgil, in the Georgics, has the well-known line:

"Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres."

5. See B. iii. c. 9. There are many vines, the wood of which is red,

but this species has not been identified.

6. From "apis," a "bee." He alludes, it is thought, to the muscatel

grape, said to have had its name from "musca," a "fly;" an insect which

is greatly attracted by its sweetness.

7. Grcula.

8. Fe is inclined to think that he alludes to the vine of Corinth, the

dried fruit of which are the currants of commerce.

9. From the Greek e)uge/neia,

10. Now Taormina, in Sicily, where, Fe says, it is still to be found.

The grapes are red, similar to those of Mascoli near Etna, and much

esteemed.

11. Picata. Seep. 221.

12. I. e., pale straw colour.

13. It has been supposed that this vine received its name from "fx;" the

wine depositing an unusually large quantity of lees.

14. It is doubtful whether this vine had its name from being grown in

the district now called Bourges, or that of Bourdeaux. Dalechamps identifies it with the plant d' Orleans.

15. The origin of its name is unknown. The text is evidently defective.

16. By this name it would be understood that they were of an intermediate colour between rose and white, a not uncommon colour in the

grape. Pliny, however, says otherwise, and he is supported by Columella.

17. C. Bauhin took this to mean one of the garden currant trees, the

Ribes uva crispa of Linnus, called by Bauhin Grossularia simplici acino,

or else Spinosa agrestis. But, as Fe observes, the ancients were not so

ignorant as to confound a vine with a currant-bush.

18. Like the Portuguese grapes of the present day.

19. Crisped and indented.

20. This variety, according to Christian de la Vega, was cultivated

abundantly in Grenada he word cocolab, according to some, meant

cock's comb. It is mentioned as a Spanish word by Columella.

21. Dalechamps says, that a similar wine was made at Montpellier, and

that it was called "piquardant."

22. See B. xxiii. cc. 20, 21.

23. Probably from "albus," "white." Poinsinct thinks that it may

have been so called from the Celtic word alb, or alp, a mountain, and that

it grew on elevated spots. This, however, is probably fanciful.

24. Called by the Greeks a)me/quston, from its comparatively harmless

qualities.

25. Or "sober" vine.

26. Hardouin says that in his time it was still cultivated about Macerata,

in the Roman States. Fe thinks that it may be one of the climbing

vines, supported by forks, cultivated in the central provinces of France.

See also B. xxiii. c. 19, as to the effects produced by its wine.

27. Poinsinet gives a Celto-Scythian origin to this word, and says that it

means "injured by fogs." This appears to be supported in some measure

by what is stated below.

28. See B. xvii. c. 37.

29. Or "thorny" vine. Fe queries why it should be thus called.

30. This humid, marshy locality was noted for the badness of its grapes,

and consequently of its wine.

31. Hardouin thinks that this is the "Marze mina" of the Venetians:

whence, perhaps, its ancient name.

32. "Testis." See B. xxxv. c. 46.

33. From Murgentum, in Sicily. See B. iii. c. 14.

34. From Pompeii, afterwards destroyed. See B. iii c. 9.

35. Hardouin, as Fe thinks, without good reason, identifies this with

the "Arelaca" of Columella.

36. Georgics, ii. 99.

37. This seems to be the meaning of "ultro solum ltius facit." These

two lines have been introduced by Sillig, from one of the MSS., for the

first time.

38. Hardouin thinks that it is so called from Tuder, a town of Etruria.

See B. iii. c. 19.

39. Sillig suggests that the reading here is corrupt, and that Pliny

means to say that the vine called Florentia is particularly excellent, and

merely to state that the talpona, &c., are peculiar to Arretium: for, as

he says, speaking directly afterwards in disparagement of them, it is not

likely he would pronounce them "opima," of "first-rate quality."

40. From "talpa," a "mole," in consequence of its black colour.

41. "Album."

42. Probably so called from the Etesian winds, which improved its growth.

43. Perhaps meaning "double-seeded." We may here remark, that the

wines of Tuscany, though held in little esteem in ancient times, are highly

esteemed at the present day.

44. The leaves of most varieties turn red just before the fall.

45. And Baccius thinks that this is the kind from which the raisins of the

sun, common in Italy, and more particularly in the Valley of Bevagna, the

Mevania of Pliny, are made.

46. Perhaps from "pumilio," a dwarf.

47. The "royal" vine, according to Poinsinet, who would derive it from

the Sclavonic "ban."

48. Previously mentioned, p. 228.

49. Baccius says that the wine of this grape was thin like water, and that

the vine was trained on lofty trees, a mode of cultivation still followed in

the vicinity of Rome. Laurentum was situate within a short distance of

it, near Ostia.

50. See B. iii. c. 9.

51. So called from the smoky or intermediate colour of its grapes. Fee

suggests that this may be the slow-ripening grape of France, called the

"verjus," or "rognon de coq."

52. Possibly meaning the "mouthful."

53. Perhaps so called from Prusa in Bithynia, a district which bore ex-

cellent grapes.

54. Or the "turning" grape. A fabulous story no doubt, originating in

the name, probably. Fe suggests that it may have originated in the not

uncommon practice of letting the bunches hang after they were ripe, and

then twisting them, which was thought to increase the juice.

55. The residence of Horace, now Tivoli.

56. In the modern Marches of Ancona.

57. Georgics, ii. 91, et seq.

Sunt Thasi vites, sunt et Mareotides albs:

Et passo Psithia utilior, tenuisque Lageos,

Tentatura pedes olim, vincturaque linguam,

Purpure, Precique--

58. A muscatel, Fe thinks.

59. Or "hard-berried." Fe thinks that the maroquin, or Morocco

grape, called the "pied de poule" (or fowl's foot), at Montpellier, may be

the duracinus.

60. Or "upright vine." In Anjou and Herault the vines are of similar

character.

61. The "finger-like" vine.

62. The "pigeon" vine.

63. Though very fruitful, it does not bear in large clusters (racemi), but

only in small bunches (uv).

64. The "three-foot" vine.

65. Perhaps meaning the "rush" grape, from its shrivelled appearance.

66. See c. 3 of this Book.

67. The ordinary number of pips or stones is five. It is seldom that we

find but one. Virgil mentions this grape, Georg. ii. 95.

68. "Chium." This reading is doubtful. Fe says that between Narni

and Terni, eight leagues from Spoleto, a small grape is found, without

stones. It is called "uva passa," or "passerina." So, too, the Sultana

raisin of commerce.

69. "Grown for the table."

70. Or "hard-berry."

71. Mentioned by Virgil, Georg. ii. 101.

72. Or pitch-grape.

73. Perhaps the "noirant," or "teinturier" of the French.

74. Or "garland-clustered" vine.

75. Fe says that this is sometimes accidentally the case, but is not the

characteristic of any variety now known.

76. Or "market-grapes."

77. The "ash-coloured."

78. The "russet-coloured."

79. Probably so called from its grey colour, like that of the ass.

80. Or "fox" vine. This variety is unknown.

81. So called from Alexandria, in Troas, not in Egypt. Phalacra was

in the vicinity of Mount Ida.

82. As the leaves of the vine are universally divided, it has been considered

by many of the commentators that this is not in reality a vine, but the

Arbutus uva ursi of Linnus. The fruit, however, of that ericaceous

plant is remarkably acrid, and not sweet, as Pliny states. Fe rejects this

solution.

83. Aubenns, in the Vivarais, according to Hardouin; Alps, according to

Brotier. We must reject this assertion as fabulous.




4. Chap. 5. (4.)-Remarkable Facts Connected With The Culture Of The Vine.


CHAP. 5. (4.)-REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE

CULTURE OF THE VINE.



The elder Cato, who was rendered more particularly illustrious by his triumph[1] and the censorship, and even more so

by his literary fame, and the precepts which he has given to

the Roman people upon every subject of utility, and the

proper methods of cultivation in particular; a man who, by

the universal confession, was the first husbandman of his age

and without a rival-has mentioned a few varieties only of

the vine, the very names of some of which are by this utterly

forgotten.[2] His statement on this subject deserves our

separate consideration, and requires to be quoted at length, in

order that we may make ourselves acquainted with the different varieties of this tree that were held in the highest esteem

in the year of the City of Rome 600, about the time of the

capture of Carthage and Corinth, the period of his death: it

will show too, what great advances civilization has made in

the last two hundred and thirty years. The following are the

remarks which he has made on the subject of the vine and the

grape.







"Where the site is considered to be most favourable to the

growth of the vine, and exposed to the warmth of the sun,

you will do well to plant the small[3] Aminean, as well as the

two eugenia,[4] and the smaller helvia.[5] On the other hand,

where the soil is bf a denser nature or more exposed to fogs,

the greater Aminean should be planted, or else the Murgentine,[6] or the Apician of Lucania. The other varieties of the

grape are, for the most part, adapted to any kind of soil; they

are best preserved in a lora.[7] The best for keeping by hanging, are the duracinus kind, the greater Aminean, and the

Scantian;[8] these, too, will make excellent raisins for keeping

if dried at the blacksmith's forge." There are no precepts in

the Latin language on this subject more ancient than these, so

near are we to the very commencement of all our practical

knowledge! The Aminean grape, of which mention has been

made above, is by Varro called the "Scantian."



In our own times we have but few instances of any consummate skill that has been manifested in reference to this subject:

the less excuse then should we have for omitting any particular

which may tend to throw a light upon the profits that may

be derived from the culture of the vine, a point which on all

occasions is regarded as one of primary importance. Acilius

Sthenelus, a man of plebeian rank, and the son of a freedman,

acquired very considerable repute from the cultivation of a vineyard in the territory of Nomentum, not more than sixty jugera

in extent, and which he finally sold for four hundred thousand

sesterces. Vetulenus gialus too, a freedman as well, acquired very considerable note in the district of Liternum,[9] in

Campania, and, indeed, received a more extensive share of

the public favour, from the fact that he cultivated the spot







which had been the place of exile of Scipio Africanus.[10] The

greatest celebrity of all, however, was that which, by the

agency of the same Sthenelus, was accorded to Rhemmius

Palmon, who was also equally famous as a learned grammarian. This person bought, some twenty years ago, an estate

at the price of six hundred thousand sesterces in the same

district of Nomentum, about ten miles distant from the City of

Rome. The low price of property[11] in the suburbs, on every

side of the City, is well known; but in that quarter in particular, it had declined to a most remarkable extent; for the

estate which he purchased had become deteriorated by long-continued neglect, in addition to which it was situate in the

very worst part of a by no means favourite locality.[12] Such

was the nature of the property of which he thus undertook the

cultivation, not, indeed, with any commendable views or intentions at first, but merely in that spirit of vanity for which he

was notorious in so remarkable a degree. The vineyards were

all duly dressed afresh, and hoed, under the superintendence of

Sthenelus; the result of which was that Palmon, while thus

playing the husbandman, brought this estate to such an almost

incredible pitch of perfection, that at the end of eight years

the vintage, as it hung on the trees, was knocked down to a

purchaser for the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces;

while all the world was running to behold the heaps upon heaps

of grapes to be seen in these vineyards. The neighbours, by

way of finding some excuse for their own indolence, gave all

the credit of this remarkable success to Palmon's profound

erudition; and at last Annus Seneca,[13] who both held the

highest rank in the learned world, and an amount of power and

influence which at last proved too much for him-this same

Seneca, who was far from being an admirer of frivolity, was

seized with such vast admiration of this estate, as not to Feel

ashamed at conceding this victory to a man who was otherwise the object of his hatred, and who would be sure to make

the very most of it, by giving him four times the original cost







for those very vineyards, and that within ten years from the

time that he had taken them under his management. This

was an example of good husbandry worthy to be put in

practice upon the lands of Ccuba and of Setia; for since then

these same lands have many a time produced as much as seven

culei to the jugerum, or in other words, one hundred and forty

amphor of must. That no one, however, may entertain the

belief that ancient times were surpassed on this occasion, I

would remark that the same Cato has stated in his writings, that

the proper return was seven culei to the jugerum: all of them

so many instances only tending most convincingly to prove

that the sea, which in our rashness we trespass upon, does not

make a more bounteous return to the merchant, no, not even

the merchandize that we seek on the shores of the Red and

the Indian Seas, than does a well-tilled homestead to the

agriculturist.







1. In B.C. 194, for his successes in Spain.

2. Mode of culture, locality, climate, and other extraneous circumstances,

work, no doubt, an entire change in the nature of the vine.

3. Probably the first of the five that he has mentioned in c. 4.

4. He has only mentioned one sort in c. 4.

5. See c. 4.

6. See c. 4.

7. We have no corresponding word for this beverage in the English

language-a thin, poor liquor, made by pouring water on the husks and

stalks after being fully pressed, allowing them to soak, pressing them again,

and then fermenting the liquor. It was also called "vinum operarium,"

or "labourer's wine." As stated in the present instance, grapes were

sometimes stored in it for keeping.

8. A variety of the Aminean, as stated below.

9. See B. iii. c. 9.

10. The elder Africanus. He retired in voluntary exile to his countryseat at Liternum, where he died.

11. Mercis.

12. The suggestion of Sillig has been adopted, for the ordinary reading

is evidently corrupt, and absurd as well-"not in the very worst part of a

favourite locality"-just the converse of the whole tenor of the story.

13. The philosopher, and tutor of Nero.




5. Chap. 6.-The Most Ancient Wines.


CHAP. 6.-THE MOST ANCIENT WINES.



The wine of Maronea,[1] on the coast of Thrace, appears to

have been the most celebrated in ancient times, as we learn

from the writings of Homer. I dismiss, however, all the fabulous stories and various traditions which we find relative to

its origin, except, indeed, the one which states that Aristus,[2] a

native of the same country, was the first person that mixed

honey[3] with wine, natural productions, both of them, of the

highest degree of excellence. Homer[4] has stated that the

Maronean wine was mixed with water in the proportion of

twenty measures of water to one of wine. The wine that is

still produced in the same district retains all its former

strength, and a degree of vigour that is quite insuperable.[5]

Mucianus, who thrice held the consulship, and one of our

most recent authors, when in that part of the world was

witness himself to the fact, that with one sextarius of this

Wine it was the custom to mix no less than eighty sextarii of







water: he states, also, that this wine is black,[6] has a strong

bouquet, and is all the richer for being old.



The Pramnian wine, too, which Homer[7] has also similarly

eulogized, still retains its ancient fame: it is grown in the

territory of Smyrna, in the vicinity of the shrine of the

Mother[8] of the Gods.



Among the other wines now known, we do not find any

that enjoyed a high reputation in ancient times. In the

year of the consulship of L. Opimius, when C. Gracchus,[9] the

tribune of the people, engaging in sedition, was slain, the

growth of every wine was of the very highest quality. In

that year, the weather was remarkable for its sereneness, and

the ripening of the grape, the "coctura,"[10] as they call it,

was fully effected by the heat of the sun. This was in the

year of the City 633. There are wines still preserved of this

year's growth, nearly two hundred years ago; they have

assumed the consistency of honey, with a rough taste; for

such, in fact, is the nature of wines, that, when extremely

old, it is impossible to drink them in a pure state; and they

require to be mixed with water, as long keeping renders them

intolerably bitter.[11] A very small quantity of the Opimian

wine, mixed with them, will suffice for the seasoning of other

wines. Let us suppose, according to the estimated value of

these wines in those days, that the original price of them was

one hundred sesterces per amphora: if we add to this six per-

cent. per annum, a legal and moderate interest, we shall

then be able to ascertain what was the exact price of the

twelfth part of an amphora at the beginning of the reign of

Caius Csar, the son of Germanicus, one hundred and sixty

years after that consulship. In relation to this fact, we have

a remarkable instance,[12] when we call to mind the life of Pom-







ponius Secundus, the poet, and the banquet which he gave

to that prince[13]-so enormous is the capital that lies buried in

our cellars of wine! Indeed, there is no one thing, the value

of which more sensibly increases up to the twentieth year, or

which decreases with greater rapidity after that period, supposing that the value of it is not by that time greatly enhanced.[14] Very rarely, indeed, up to the present day, has it

been known for a single[15] piece of wine to cost a thousand

sesterces, except, indeed, when such a sum may have been paid

in a fit of extravagance and debauchery. The people of

Vienne, it is said, are the only ones who have set a higher price

than this upon their "picata," wines, the various kinds of

which we have already mentioned;[16] and this, it is thought,

they only do, vying with each other, and influenced by a sort

of national self-esteem. This wine, drunk in a cool state, is

generally thought to be of a colder[17] temperature than any

other.







1. Said to have been so called from Maron, a king of Thrace, who dwelt

in the vicinity of the Thracian Ismarus. See B. iv. c. 18. Homer mentions this wine in the Odyssey, B. ix. c. 197, et seq. It was red, honeysweet, fragrant. The place is still called Marogna, in Roumelia, a country

the wines of which are still much esteemed.

2. See B. vii. c. 57.

3. Thus making "mulsum."

4. B. ix. c. 208.

5. Indomitus.

6. By "black" wines he means those that had the same colour as our

port.

7. Il. xi. 638. Od. x. 234.

8. Cybele. A wine called "Pramnian" was also grown in the island of

Icaria, in Lesbos, and in the territory of Ephesus. The scholiast on Nicander says that the grape of the psythia was used in making it. Dios-

corides says that it was a "protropum," first-class wine, made of the juice

that voluntarily flowed from the grapes, in consequence of their own pressure.

9. B.C. 121.

10. "Cooking," literally, or "boiling."

11. The wines of Burgundy, in particular, become bitter when extremely

old.

12. See B. vii. c. 18.

13. Caligula.

14. By some remarkable and peculiar quality, such as in the Opimian

wine.

15. "Testa," meaning the amphora.

16. See c. 3 of the present Book, where these "picata," or "pitched-

wines," have been further described.

17. On the contrary, Fe says, the coldest wines are those that contain

the least alcohol, whereas those of Vienne (in modern Dauphin) contain

more than the majority of wines.




6. Chap. 7. (5.)-The Nature Of Wines.


CHAP. 7. (5.)-THE NATURE OF WINES.



It is the property of wine, when drunk, to cause a Feeling

of warmth in the interior of the viscera, and, when poured

upon the exterior of the body, to be cool and refreshing. It

will not be foreign to my purpose on the present occasion to

state the advice which Androcydes, a man famous for his

wisdom, wrote to Alexander the Great, with the view of putting a check on his intemperance: "When you are about to

drink wine, O king!" said he, "remember that you are about

to drink the blood of the earth: hemlock is a poison to man,

wine a poison[1] to hemlock." And if Alexander had only followed this advice, he certainly would not have had to answer







for slaying his friends[2] in his drunken fits. In fact, we may

Feel ourselves quite justified in saying that there is nothing

more useful than wine for strengthening the body, while, at

the same time, there is nothing more pernicious as a luxury,

if we are not on our guard against excess.







1. He implies that wine is an antidote to the poisonous effects of hemlock. This is not the case, but it is said by some that vinegar is. It is

the plant hemlock (cicuta) that is meant, and not the fatal draught that

was drunk by Socrates and Philopmen. See further in B. xxiii. c. 23,

and B. xxv. c. 95.

2. Clitus and Callisthenes.




7. Chap. 8. (6.)-Fifty Kinds Of Generous Wines.


CHAP. 8. (6.)-FIFTY KINDS OF GENEROUS WINES.



Who can entertain a doubt that some kinds of wine are

more agreeable to the palate than others, or that even out

of the very same vat[1] there are occasionally produced wines

that are by no means of equal goodness, the one being much

superior to the other, whether it is that it is owing to the

cask,[2] or to some other fortuitous circumstance? Let each

person, therefore, constitute himself his own judge as to which

kind it is that occupies the pre-eminence. Livia[3] Augusta,

who lived to her eighty-second year,[4] attributed her longevity

to the wine of Pucinum,[5] as she never drank any other. This

wine is grown near a bay of the Adriatic, not far from Mount

Timavus, upon a piece of elevated rocky ground, where the

sea-breeze ripens a few grapes, the produce of which supplies

a few amphor: there is not a wine that is deemed superior

to this for medicinal purposes. I am strongly of opinion that

this is the same wine, the produce of the Adriatic Gulf, upon

which the Greeks have bestowed such wonderful encomiums,

under the name of Prtetianum.



The late Emperor Augustus preferred the Setinum to all

others, and nearly all the emperors that have succeeded him

have followed his example, having learnt from actual experience that there is no danger of indigestion and flatulence

resulting from the use of this liquor: this wine is grown in

the country[6] that lies just above Forum Appii.[7] In former

times the Ccubum enjoyed the reputation of being the most







generous of all the wines; it was grown in some marshy

swamps, planted with poplars, in the vicinity[8] of the Gulf of

Amycl. This vineyard has, however, now disappeared, the

result of the carelessness of the cultivator, combined with its

own limited extent, and the works on the canal which Nero

commenced, in order to provide a navigation from Lake Avernus to Ostia.



The second rank belonged to the wine of the Falernian territory, of which the Faustianum was the most choice variety;

the result of the care and skill employed upon its cultivation.

This, however, has also degenerated very considerably, in consequence of the growers being more solicitous about quantity[9]

than quality. The Falernian[10] vineyards begin at the bridge of

Campania, on the left-hand as you journey towards the Urbana

Colonia of Sylla, which was lately a township of the city of

Capua. As to the Faustian vineyards, they extend about four

miles from a village near Cdicix,[11] the same village being six

miles from Sinuessa. There is now no wine known that ranks

higher than the Falernian; it is the only one, too, among all

the wines that takes fire on the application of flame.[12] There

are three varieties of it-the rough, the sweet, and the thin.

Some persons make the following distinctions: the Caucinum,

they say, grows on the summit of this range of hills, the Faustianum on the middle slopes, and the Falernum at the foot:

the fact, too, should not be omitted, that none of the grapes

that produce these more famous wines have by any means an

agreeable flavour.



To the third[13] rank belonged the various wines of Alba, in the

vicinity of the City, remarkable for their sweetness, and some-







times, though rarely, rough[14] as well: the Surrentine[15] wines,

also, the growth of only stayed vines, which are especially

recommended to invalids for their thinness and their wholesomeness. Tiberius Csar used to say that the physicians had

conspired thus to dignify the Surrentinum, which was, in fact,

only another name for generous vinegar; while Caius Csar,

who succeeded him, gave it the name of "noble vappa."[16]

Vying in reputation with these are the Massic wines, from the

spots which look from Mount Gaurus towards Puteoli and

Bai.[17] As to the wines of Stata, in the vicinity of Falernum,

there is no doubt that they formerly held the very highest

rank, a fact which proves very clearly that every district has

its own peculiar epochs, just as all other things have their rise

and their decadence. The Calenian[18] wines, too, from the same

neighbourhood, used to be preferred to those last mentioned,

as also the Fundanian,[19] the produce of vines grown on stays,

or else attached to shrubs. The wines, too, of Veliternum[20]

and Priverna,[21] which were grown in the vicinity of the City,

used to be highly esteemed. As to that produced at Signia,[22]

it is by far too rough to be used as a wine, but is very useful

as an astringent, and is consequently reckoned among the

medicines for that purpose.



The fourth rank, at the public banquets, was given by the

late Emperor Julius-he was the first, in fact, that brought







them into favour, as we find stated in his Letters[23]-to the

Mamertine wines, the produce of the country in the vicinity

of Messana,[24] in Sicily. The finest of these was the Potulanum,[25] so called from its original cultivator, and grown on

the spots that lie nearest to the mainland of Italy. The Tauromenitanum also, a wine of Sicily, enjoys a high repute, and

fiaggons[26] of it are occasionally passed off for Mamertinum.



Among the other wines, we find mentioned upon the Upper

Sea those of Prtutia and Ancona, as also those known as

the "Palmensia,"[27] not improbably because the cluster springs

from a single shoot.[28] In the interior we find the wines of

Csena[29] and that known as the Mcenatian,[30] while in the

territory of Verona there are the Rhtian wines, only inferior,

in the estimation of Virgil, to the Falernian.[31] Then, too, at

the bottom of the Gulf[32] we find the wines of Adria.[33] On

the shores of the Lower Sea there are the Latiniensian[34]

wines, the Graviscan,[35] and the Statonian:[36] in Etruria, the

wines of Luna bear away the palm, and those of Genua[37] in

Liguria. Massilia, which lies between the Pyrenees and the

Alps, produces two varieties of wine, one of which is richer

and thicker than the other, and is used for seasoning other

wines, being generally known as "succosum."[38] The repu-







tation of the wine of Beterr[39] does not extend beyond the

Gallic territories;[40] and as for the others that are produced in

Gallia Narbonensis, nothing can be positively stated, for the

growers of that country have absolutely established manufactories for the purposes of adulteration, where they give a dark

hue to their wines by the agency of smoke; I only wish I

could say, too, that they do not employ various herbs and

noxious drugs for the same purpose;[41] indeed, these dealers are

even known to use aloes for the purpose of heightening the

flavour and improving the colour of their wines.



The regions of Italy that are at a greater distance from the

Ausonian Sea, are not without their wines of note, such as

those of Tarentum,[42] Servitia,[43] and Consentia,[44] and those, again,

of Tempsa, Babia, and Lucania, among which the wines of

Thurii hold the pre-eminence. But the most celebrated of all

of them, owing to the fact that Messala[45] used to drink it, and

was indebted to it for his excellent health, was the wine

of Lagara,[46] which was grown not far from Grumentum.[47] In

Campania, more recently, new growths under new names have

gained considerable credit, either owing to careful cultivation,

or else to some other fortuitous circumstances: thus, for instance, we find four miles from Neapolis the Trebellian,[48] near







Capua the Cauline,[49] wine, and the wine of Trebula[50] grown in

the territory so called, though but of a common sort: Campania

boasts of all these, as well as of her Trifoline[51] wines. As to

the wines of Pompeii,[52] they have arrived at their full perfection

in ten years, after which they gain nothing by age: they are

found also to be productive of headache, which often lasts

so long as the sixth hour[53] of the next day.



These illustrations, if I am not greatly mistaken, will go far

to prove that it is the land and the soil that is of primary

importance, and not the grape, and that it is quite superfluous

to attempt to enumerate all the varieties of every kind, seeing

that the same vine, transplanted to several places, is productive

of features and characteristics of quite opposite natures. The

vineyards of Laletanum[54] in Spain[55] are remarkable for the

abundance of wine they produce, while those of Tarraco[56] and

of Lauron[57] are esteemed for the choice qualities of their

wines: those, too, of the Balearic Isles[58] are often put in comparison with the very choicest growths of Italy.



I am by no means unaware that most of my readers will be

of opinion that I have omitted a vast number of wines, seeing

that every one has his own peculiar choice; so much so, that

wherever we go, we hear the same story told, to the effect

that one of the freedmen of the late Emperor Augustus, who

was remarkable for his judgment and his refined taste in wines,

while employed in tasting for his master's table, made this

observation to the master of the house where the emperor

was staying, in reference to some wine the growth of that

particular country: "The taste of this wine," said he, "is







new to me, and it is by no means of first-rate quality; the

emperor, however, you will see, will drink of no other."[59]

Indeed I have no wish to deny that there may be other wines

deserving of a very high reputation, but those which I have

already enumerated are the varieties upon the excellence of

which the world is at present agreed.







1. Lacus.

2. The testa or amphora, made of earth.

3. As the wife of Augustus is meant, this reading appears preferable to

"Julia."

4. Dion Cassius says "eighty-sixth."

5. See B. iii. c. 22, and B. xvii. c. 3. Pucinum was in Istria, and the

district is said still to produce good wine; according to Dalechamps, the

place is called Pizzino d'Istria.

6. The hills of Setia, looking down on the Pomptine Marshes: now

Sezza, the wine of which is of no repute.

7. See B. iii. c. 9.

8. See B. iii. c. 9. Between Fundi and Setia; a locality now of no

repute for its wines. In B. xxiii. c. 19, Pliny says, that the Ccuban vine

was extinct: but in B. xvii. c. 3, he says that in the Pomptine Marshes it

was to be found.

9. This was the case, it has been remarked, with Madeira some years ago.

10. This is the most celebrated of all the ancient wines, as being more

especially the theme of the poets.

11. See B. xi. c. 97. The wines of the Falernian district are no longer

held in any esteem; indeed, all the Campanian wines are sour, and of a

disagreeable flavour.

12. It appears to have been exceedingly rich in alcohol.

13. But in B. xxiii. c. 20, he assigns the first rank to the Albanum; possibly, however, as a medicinal wine. The wines of Latium are no longer

held in esteem.

14. See B. xxiii. c. 21.

15. From Surrentum, the promontory forming the southern horn of the

Bay of Naples. Ovid and Martial speak in praise of these wines; they

were destitute of richness and very dry, in consequence of which they required twenty-five years to ripen.

16. Or "dead vinegar." "Vappa" was vinegar exposed to the air, and so

destitute of its properties, and quite insipid.

17. Excellent wines are still produced in the vicinity of this place. Massicum was one of the perfumed wines. Gaurus itself produced the "Gauranum," in small quantity, but of high quality, full-bodied and thick.

18. For the Calenian Hills, see B. iii. c. 9; see also B. xxiii. c. 12, for

some further account of the wines of Stata. The wines of that district are

now held in no esteem.

19. From Fundi. See B. iii. c. 9.

20. Now Castel del Volturno: although covered with vineyards, its wines

are of no account. This wine always tasted as if mixed with some foreign

substance.

21. Now Piperno. It was a thin and pleasant wine.

22. Now Segni, in the States of the Church.

23. Written to the Senate, also to Cicero. We learn from Suetonius that

they were partly written in cipher.

24. Messina, at the present day, exports wines of very good quality, and

which attain a great age.

25. It was sound, light, and not without body.

26. "Lagen." The same spot, now Taormina in Sicily, between Catania

and Messina, still produces excellent wines.

27. See B. iii. c. 18. Fe says that this is thought to have been the

wine of Syrol, of last century, grown near Ancona.

28. "Palma." Notwithstanding this suggestion, it is more generally supposed that they had their name from the place called Palma, near Marano,

on the Adriatic. Its wines are still considered of agreeable flavour.

29. The wines of modern Cezena enjoy no repute, owing, probably, to the

mode of making them.

30. Probably so called because it was brought into fashion by Mcenas.

31. See Georg. ii. 95. The wines of the Tyrol, the ancient Rhtia, are

still considered as of excellent quality.

32. Of Adria, or the Adriatic Sea.

33. See B. iii. c. 20. These wines are of little repute.

34. In Latium. See B. iii. c. 9.

35. From Gravisc. See B. iii. c. 8.

36. See B. ii. c. 96, B. iii. c. 9, and B. xxxvi. c. 49.

37. The wines of Genoa are of middling quality only, and but little known.

38. Or "juicy" wine.

39. Now Beziers, in the south of France. The wines of this part are

considered excellent at the present day. That of Frontignan grows in its

vicinity. Fe is inclined to think, from Pliny's remarks here, that the

ancients and the moderns differed entirely in their notions as to what constitutes good or bad wine.

40. He means, beyond modern Provence, and Languedoc: districts famous for their excellent wines, more particularly the latter.

41. Fe deems all this quite incredible. Our English experience, however,

tells us that it is by no means so; much of the wine that is drunk in this

country is indebted for flavour as well as colour to anything but the grape.

42. The wines of modern Otranto are ordinarily of good quality.

43. Baccius reads "Seberiniana," but is probably wrong. If he is not, it

might allude to the place now known as San Severino, and which produces

excellent wine. Fe thinks that these wines were grown in the territory

of Salerno, which still enjoys celebrity for its muscatel wines.

44. See B. iii. c. 10. The wines of modern Cosenza still enjoy a high

reputation.

45. M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, the writer and partisan of Augustus.

See end of B. ix.

46. A place supposed to have been situated near Thurii.

47. See B. iii. c. 15.

48. Said by Galen to be very wholesome, as well as pleasant. The wines

of the vicinity of Naples are still held in high esteem.

49. Galen says that it was very similar to the Falernian.

50. See B. iii. c. 9.

51. The Trifoline territory was in the vicinity of Cum. It is possible

that the wine may have had its name from taking three years to come to

maturity; or possibly it was owing to some peculiarity in the vine.

52. They have been already mentioned in c. 4. See B. iii. c. 9.

53. Twelve o'clock in the day.

54. See B. iii. c. 4.

55. In Catalonia, which still produces abundance of wine, but in general

of inferior repute.

56. The wines of Tarragona are still considered good.

57. A place in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis, destroyed by Sertorius.

58. They still enjoy a high repute. The fame of their Malvoisie has

extended all over the world.

59. He means to illustrate the capricious tastes that existed as to the

merits of wines.




8. Chap. 9. (7.)-Thirty-Eight Varieties Of Foreign Wines.


CHAP. 9. (7.)-THIRTY-EIGHT VARIETIES OF FOREIGN WINES.



We will now, in a similar manner, give a description of the

varieties found in the parts beyond sea. After the wines

mentioned by Homer, and of which we have already spoken,[1]

those held in the highest esteem were the wines of Thasos

and Chios,[2] and of the latter more particularly the sort known

as "Arvisium."[3] By the side of these has been placed the

wine of Lesbos,[4] upon the authority of Erasistratus, a famous

physician, who flourished about the year of the City of Rome

450. At the present day, the most esteemed of all is the wine

of Clazomen,[5] since they have learned to season it more

sparingly with sea-water. The wine of Lesbos has naturally

a taste of sea-water. That from Mount Tmolus[6] is not so

much esteemed by itself[7] for its qualities as a wine, as for its

peculiar sweetness. It is on account of this that it is mixed

with other wines, for the purpose of modifying their harsh

flavour, by imparting to them a portion of its own sweetness;

while at the same time it gives them age, for immediately

after the mixture they appear to be much older than they

really are. Next in esteem after these are the wines of







Sicyon,[8] Cyprus,[9] Telmessus,[10] Tripolis,[11] Berytus,[12] Tyre,[13]

and Sebennys, this last is grown in Egypt, being the produce

of three varieties of grape of the very highest quality, known

as the Thasian,[14] the thalus,[15] and the peuce.[16] Next in

rank are the hippodamantian[17] wine, the Mystic,[18] the cantharite,[19] the protropum[20] of Cnidos, the wine of the catacecaumene,[21] the Petritan,[22] and the Myconian;[23] as to the

Mesogitic,[24] it has been found to give head-ache, while that of

Ephesus is far from wholesome, being seasoned with sea-water

and defrutum.[25] It is said that the wine of Apamea[26] is remarkably well adapted for making mulsum,[27] like that of Pr-

tutia in Italy: for this is a quality peculiar to only certain

kinds of wine, the mixture of two sweet liquids being in







general not attended with good results. The protagion[28] is

quite gone out of date, a wine which the school of Asclepiades

has reckoned as next in merit to those of Italy. The physician

Apollodorus, in the work which he wrote recommending King

Ptolemy what wines in particular to drink-for in his time

the wines of Italy were not generally known-has spoken in

high terms of that of Naspercene in Pontus, next to which he

places the Oretic,[29] and then the neatian,[30] the Leucadian,[31]

the Ambraciotic,[32] and the Peparethian,[33] to which last he gives

the preference over all the rest, though he states that it enjoyed an inferior reputation, from the fact of its not being

considered fit for drinking until it had been kept six years.







1. In c. 6 of this Book.

2. The Chian held the first rank, the Thasian the second.

3. From Arvisium, or Ariusium, a hilly district in the centre of the

island. The wine of Chios still retains its ancient celebrity.

4. It was remarkable for its sweetness, and aromatics were sometimes

mixed with it. Homer calls it harmless. Lesbos still produces choice

wines.

5. Near Smyrna. Probably similar to the Pramnian wine, mentioned

in c. 6.

6. See B. v. c. 30. This wine is mentioned again in the next page; it is

generally thought, that he is wrong in making the Tmolites and the Mesogites distinct wines, for they are supposed to have been identical.

7. If drunk by itself, and not as a flavouring for other wines.

8. Bacchus had a temple there.

9. The wines of Cyprus are the most choice of all the Grecian wines at

the present day.

10. In Lycia.

11. In Syria. Wine is no longer made there, but the grapes are excellent, and are dried for raisins.

12. Now Beyrout. It does not seem that wine is made there now. The

Mahometan religion may have tended to the extinction of many of these

wines.

13. At the village of Sour, on the site of ancient Tyre, the grape is only

cultivated for raisins.

14. See also c. 22: probably introduced from Thasos.

15. The "smoky" grape.

16. The "pitchy" grape.

17. A strong wine, Hardouin thinks, from whence its name-"strong

enough to subdue a horse."

18. From the small island of Mystus, near Cephallenia.

19. So called from the vine the name of which was "canthareus."

20. Made, as already stated, from the juice that flowed spontaneously from

the grapes. See also p. 250.

21. Or the "burnt up" country, a volcanic district of Mysia, which still

retains its ancient fame for its wine. Virgil alludes to this wine in

Georg. iv. 1. 380:-

-Cape Monii carchesia Bacchi.

22. Perhaps from Petra in Arabia: though Fe suggests Petra in the

Balearic Islands.

23. See B. iv. c. 22. In the island of Myconos in the Archipelago an excellent wine is still grown.

24. From Mount Mesogis, which divides the tributaries of the Cayster

from those of the Meander. It is generally considered the same as the

Tmolites.

25. Must or grape-juice boiled down to one half.

26. See B. v. c. 29.

27. "Mulsum," or honied wine, was of two kinds; honey mixed with

wine, and honey mixed with must or grape-juice.

28. From its Greek name, it would seem to mean" of first quality."

29. So called from a place in Euba, the modern Negropont. See. B. iv.

c. 20. Negropont produces good wines at the present day.

30. The locality is unknown.

31. From Leucadia, or Leucate; see B. iv. c. 2; the vine was very abundant there.

32. From Ambracia. See B. iv. c 2.

33. From the island of Peparethus. See. B. iv. c. 23, where be says that

from its abundance of vines it was called e)uoino\s, or" Evenus."




9. Chap. 10. (8.)-Seven Kinds Of Salted Wines.


CHAP. 10. (8.)-SEVEN KINDS OF SALTED WINES.



Thus far we have treated of wines, the goodness of which is

due to the country of their growth. In Greece the wine that

is known by the name of "bion," and which is administered

for its curative qualities in several maladies (as we shall have

occasion to remark when we come to speak on the subject of

Medicine[1]), has been justly held in the very highest esteem.

This wine is made in the following manner: the grapes are

plucked before they are quite ripe, and then dried in a hot

sun: for three days they are turned three times a day, and on

the fourth day they are pressed, after which the juice is put

in casks,[2] and left to acquire age in the heat of the sun.[3]



The people of Cos mix sea-water in large quantities with

their wines, an invention which they first learned from a slave,

who adopted this method of supplying the deficiency that had

been caused by his thievish propensities. When this is mixed

with white must, the mixture receives the name of "leu-







cocoum."[4] In other countries again, they follow a similar

plan in making a wine called "tethalassomenon."[5] They

make a wine also known as "thalassites,"[6] by placing vessels

full of must in the sea, a method which quickly imparts to the

wine all the qualities of old age.[7] In our own country too,

Cato has shown the method of making Italian wine into Coan:

in addition to the modes of preparation above stated, he tells us

that it must be left exposed four years to the heat of the sun,

in order to bring it to maturity. The Rhodian[8] wine is

similar to that of Cos, and the Phorinean is of a still salter

flavour. It is generally thought that all the wines from

beyond sea arrive at their middle state of maturity in the

course of six[9] or seven years.







1. B. xxiii. c. 1, and c. 26.

2. "Cadis."

3. Fe remarks that this method is still adopted in making several of

the liqueurs.

4. White wine of Cos. Fe thinks that Pliny means to say that the sea

water turns the must of a white or pale straw colour, and is of opinion that

he has been wrongly informed.

5. "Sea-water" wine.

6. "Sea-seasoned" wine.

7. Fe says, that if the vessels were closed hermetically this would have

little or no appreciable effect; if not, it would tend to spoil the wine.

8. Athenus says that the Rhodian wine will not mix so well with seawater as the Coan. Fe remarks that if Cato's plan were followed, the

wine would become vinegar long before the end of the four years.

9. Sillig thinks that the proper reading is "in six" only.




10. Chap. 11. (9.)-Eighteen Varieteis Of Sweet Wine. Raisin-Wine And Hepsema.


CHAP. 11. (9.)-EIGHTEEN VARIETEIS OF SWEET WINE. RAISIN-WINE AND HEPSEMA.



All the luscious wines have but little[1] aroma: the thinner

the wine the more aroma it has. The colours of wines are

four, white,[2] brown,[3] blood-coloured,[4] and black.[5] Psythium[6]

and melampsythium[7] are varieties of raisin-wine which have

the peculiar flavour of the grape, and not that of wine. Seybelites[8] is a wine grown in Galatia, and Aluntium[9] is a

wine of Sicily, both of which have the flavour of mulsum.[10]







As to sirum, by some known as "hepsema," and which in

our language is called "sapa,"[11] it is a product of art and not

of Nature, being prepared from must boiled down to one-third:

when must is boiled down to one-half only, we give it the

name of " defrutum." All these mixtures have been devised for the adulteration of honey.[12] As to those varieties

which we have previously mentioned, their merits depend

upon the grape, and the soil in which it is grown. Next

after the raisin-wine of Crete,[13] those of Cilicia and Africa are

held in the highest esteem, both in Italy as well as the adjoining provinces. It is well known that it is made of a grape

to which the Greeks have given the name of "stica," and which

by us is called "apiana:"[14] it is also made of the scirpula.[15]

The grapes are left on the vine to dry in the sun, or else are

boiled in the dolium.[16] Some persons make this wine of the

sweet and early white[17] grape: they leave the grapes to

dry in the sun, until they have lost pretty nearly half their

weight, after which they crush them and subject them to a

gentle pressure. They then draw off the juice, and add to

the pulp that is left an equal quantity of well-water, the product of which is raisin-wine of second quality.[18] The more

careful makers not only do this, but take care also after drying

the grapes to remove the stalks, and then steep the raisins in

wine of good quality until they swell, after which they press

them. This kind of raisin-wine is preferred to all others:

with the addition of water, they follow the same plan in

making the wine of second quality.



The liquor to which the Greeks give the name of" aigleucos,"[19] is of middle quality, between the sirops and what is

properly called wine; with us it is called "semper mustum."[20]

It is only made by using great precaution, and taking care

that the must does not ferment;[21] such being the state of the







must in its transformation into wine. To attain this object, the

must is taken from the vat and put into casks, which are immediately plunged into water, and there left to remain until

the winter solstice is past, and frosty weather has made its

appearance. There is another kind, again, of natural aigleucos,

which is known in the province of Narbonensis by the name

of "dulce,"[22] and more particularly in the district of the

Vocontii. In order to make it, they keep the grape hanging

on the tree for a considerable time, taking care to twist the

stalk. Some, again, make an incision in the bearing shoot, as

deep as the pith, while others leave the grapes to dry on tiles.

The only grape, however, that is used in these various processes is that of the vine known as the "helvennaca."[23]



Some persons add to the list of these sweet wines that

known as "diachyton."[24] It is made by drying grapes in the

sun, and then placing them for seven days in a closed place

upon hurdles, some seven Feet from the ground, care being

taken to protect them at night from the dews: on the eighth

day they are trodden out: this method, it is said, produces a

liquor of exquisite bouquet and flavour. The liquor known as

melitites[25] is also one of the sweet wines: it differs from

mulsum, in being made of must; to five congii of rough-fla-

voured must they put one congius of honey, and one cyathus

of salt, and they are then brought to a gentle boil: this mixture is of a rough flavour. Among these varieties, I ought to

place what is known as "protropum;"[26] such being the name

given by some to the must that runs spontaneously from the

grapes before they are trodden out. Directly it flows it is

put into flaggons, and allowed to ferment; after which it is

left to ripen for forty days in a summer sun, about the rising

of the Dog-star.











1. The sweet wines, in modern times, have the most bouquet or aroma.

2. "Albus," pale straw-colour.

3. "Fulvus," amber-colour.

4. Bright and glowing, like Tent and Burgundy.

5. "Niger," the colour of our port.

6. Supposed to be a species of Pramnian wine, mentioned in c. 6. This

was used, as also the Aminean, for making omphacium, as mentioned in B.

xii. c. 60. See also c. 18 of this Book.

7. "Black psythian"

8. Mentioned by Galen among the sweet wines.

9. See B. iii. c. 14. Now Solana in Sicily, which produces excellent

wine.

10. Honied wine.

11. This was evidently a kind of grape sirop, or grape jelly. "Rob"

is perhaps, as Hardouin suggests, a not inappropriate name for it.

12. When cold, they would have nearly the same consistency.

13. The raisin wine of Crete was the most prized of all as a class.

14. Mentioned in c. 4. Probably a muscatel grape.

15. See c. 4 of this Book.

16. Or "vat." The common reading was "oleo," which would imply that

hey were plunged into boiling oil. Columella favours the latter reading,

B. xii. c. 16.

17. The reading is probably defective here.

18. Passum secundarium.

19. Or "always sweet."

20. "Always must."

21. Fervere, "boil," or "effervesce."

22. "Sweet" drink. Fe seems to think that this sweet wine must have

been something similar to champagne. Hardouin says that it corresponds

to the vin doux de Limoux, or blanquette de Limoux, and the vin Muscat d'Azile.

23. See c. 3 of this Book.

24. "Poured," or "strained through."

25. "Honey wine." A disagreeable medicament, Fe thinks, rather than

a wine.

26. Somewhat similar to the vin de premiere goutte of the French. It

would seem to have been more of a liqueur than a wine. Tokay is made

in a somewhat similar manner.




11. Chap. 12. (10.)-Three Varieties Of Second-Rate Wine.


CHAP. 12. (10.)-THREE VARIETIES OF SECOND-RATE WINE.



Those cannot properly be termed wines, which by the

Greeks are known under the name of "deuteria,"[1] and to

which, in common with Cato, we in Italy give the name of

"lora,"[2] being made from the husks of grapes steeped in

water. Still, however, this beverage is reckoned as making

one of the "labourers'"[3] wines. There are three varieties of

it: the first[4] is made in the following manner:-After the

must is drawn off, one-tenth of its amount in water is added

to the husks, which are then left to soak a day and a night,

and then are again subjected to pressure. A second kind,

that which the Greeks are in the habit of making, is prepared

by adding one-third in water of the quantity of must that has

been drawn off, and after submitting the pulp to pressure, the

result is reduced by boiling to one-third of its original quantity. A third kind, again, is pressed out from the wine-lees;

Cato gives it the name of "fcatum."[5] None of these beverages, however, will keep for more than a single year.







1. Or "second" press wines.

2. De Re Rust. c. 153.

3. Vinum operarium.

4. This method is still adopted, Fe says, in making " piquette," or

small wine," throughout most of the countries of Europe.

5. Or "wine-lee drink." It would make an acid beverage, of disagreeable taste.




12. Chap. 13. (11.)-At What Period Generous Wines Were First Commonly Made In Italy.


CHAP. 13. (11.)-AT WHAT PERIOD GENEROUS WINES WERE FIRST

COMMONLY MADE IN ITALY.



While treating of these various details, it occurs to me to

mention that of the eighty different kinds throughout the

whole earth, which may with propriety be reckoned in the

class of generous[1] wines, fully two-thirds[2] are the produce

of Italy, which consequently in this respect far surpasses any

other country: and on tracing this subject somewhat higher

up, the fact suggests itself, that the wines of Italy have not

been in any great favour from an early period, their high







repute having only been acquired since the six hundredth year

of the City.







1. "Nobilia." In c. 29 he speaks of 195 kinds, and, reckoning all the

varieties, double that number.

2. Fe observes that the varieties of the modern wines are quite innumerable. He remarks also that Pliny does not speak of the Asiatic wines

mentioned by Athenus, which were kept in large bottles, hung in the

chimney corner; where the liquid, by evaporation, acquired the consistency

of salt. The wines of other countries evidently were little known to Pliny.




13. Chap. 14. (12.)-The Inspection Of Wine Ordered By King Romulus.


CHAP. 14. (12.)-THE INSPECTION OF WINE ORDERED BY KING ROMULUS.



Romulus made libations, not with wine but with milk; a

fact which is fully established by the religious rites which

owe their foundation to him, and are observed even to the

present day. The Posthumian Law, promulgated by King

Numa, has an injunction to the following effect:-" Sprinkle

not the funeral pyre with wine;" a law to which he gave his

sanction, no doubt, in consequence of the remarkable scarcity

of that commodity in those days. By the same law, he also

pronounced it illegal to make a libation to the gods of wine that

was the produce of an unpruned vine, his object being to compel

the husbandmen to prune their vines; a duty which they

showed themselves reluctant to perform, in consequence of the

danger which attended climbing the trees.[1] M. Varro informs us, that Mezentius, the king of Etruria, succoured the

Rutuli against the Latini, upon condition that he should receive all the wine that was then in the territory of Latium.



(13.) At Rome it was not lawful for women to drink wine.

Among the various anecdotes connected with this subject, we

find that the wife of Egnatius Mecenius[2] was slain by her husband with a stick, because she had drunk some wine from the vat,

and that he was absolved from the murder by Romulus. Fabius

Pictor, in his Book of Annals, has stated that a certain lady,

for having opened a purse in which the keys of the wine-cellar

were kept, was starved to death by her family: and Cato tells

us, that it was the usage for the male relatives to give the

females a kiss, in order to ascertain whether they smelt of

"temetum;" for it was by that name that wine was then

known, whence our word "temulentia," signifying drunkenness. Cn. Domitius, the judge, once gave it as his opinion,

that a certain woman appeared to him to have drunk more

wine than was requisite for her health, and without the knowledge of her husband, for which reason he condemned her to

lose her dower. For a very long time there was the greatest







economy manifested at Rome in the use of this article. L. Papirius,[3] the general, who, on one occasion, commanded against

the Samnites, when about to engage, vowed an offering to Jupiter

of a small cupfull of wine, if he should gain the victory. In fact,

among the gifts presented to the gods, we find mention made

of offerings of sextarii of milk, but never of wine.



The same Cato, while on his voyage to Spain, from which

he afterwards returned triumphant,[4] would drink of no other

wine but that which was served out to the rowers-very different, indeed, to the conduct of those who are in the habit of

giving to their guests even inferior wine[5] to that which they

drink themselves, or else contrive to substitute inferior in the

course of the repast.[6]







1. "Circa pericula arbusti." This is probably the meaning of this very

elliptical passage. See p. 218.

2. Called Metellus, by Valerius Maximus, B. vi. c. 3.

3. See B. xvii. c. 11.

4. Over the Celtiberi.

5. The younger Pliny, B. ii. Ep. 2, censures this stingy practice. See

also Martial, B. iii. Epig. 60.

6. That this, however, was not uncommonly done, we may judge from the

remark made by the governor of the feast, John ii. 10, to the bridegroom.




14. Chap. 15.-Wines Drunk By The Ancient Romans.


CHAP. 15.-WINES DRUNK BY THE ANCIENT ROMANS.



The wines that were the most esteemed among the ancient

Romans were those perfumed with myrrh,[1] as mentioned in the

play of Plautus, entitled the "Persian,"[2] though we find it there

stated that calamus[3] ought to be added to it. Hence it is,

that some persons are of opinion that they were particularly

fond of aromatites:[4] but Fabius Dossennus quite decides

the question, in the following line:-"I sent them good

wine, myrrh-wine;"[5] and in his play called "Acharistio," we

find these words-" Bread and pearled barley, myrrh-wine

too." I find, too, that Scvola and L. lius, and Ateius

Capito, were of the same opinion; and then we read in the

play known as the "Pseudolus:"[6]-" But if it is requisite for

him to draw forth what is sweet from the place, has he aught

of that?" to which Charinus makes answer," Do you ask







the question? He has myrrh wine, raisin wine, defrutum,[7]

and honey;" from which it would appear that myrrh wine

was not only reckoned among the wines, but among the sweet

wines too.







1. Called "myrrhina." Fe remarks that the flavour of myrrh is acrid

and bitter, its odour strong and disagreeable, and says that it is difficult to

conceive how the ancients could drink wine with this substance in solution.

2. As the "Persa" has come down to us, we find no mention of myrrh

in the passage alluded to.

3. See B. xii. c. 49. This is mentioned in the Persa, A. i. sc. 3, 1. 7.

4. Aromatic or perfumed wines.

5. Murrhinam.

6. The Cheat or Impostor: a play of Plautus. See A. ii. sc. 4, 1. 51, et seq.

7. Must boiled down to half its original quantity.




15. Chap. 16. (14.)-Some Remarkable Facts Connected With Wine-Lofts. The Opimian Wine.


CHAP. 16. (14.)-SOME REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH WINE-LOFTS. THE OPIMIAN WINE.



The fact of the existence of the Opimian wine gives undoubted proof that there were wine-lofts,[1] and that wine was

racked off in the year of Rome 633, Italy being already alive

to the blessings she enjoyed. Still, however, the several

varieties that are now so celebrated were not so in those days;

and hence it is that all the wines that were grown at that

period have only the one general name of "Opimian" wines,

from the then consul Opimius. So, too, for a long time afterwards, and, indeed, so late as the times of our grandfathers, the

wines from beyond sea were held in the highest esteem, even

though Falernian was already known, a fact which we learn

from the line of the Comic writer,[2] "I shall draw five cups of

Thasian and two of Falernian."



P. Licinius Crassus, and L. Julius Csar, who were Censors in the year from the Building of the City 665, issued an

edict forbidding the sale of either Greek or Aminean wine at

a higher price than eight asses the quadrantal[3]-for such, in

fact, are the exact words of the edict. Indeed, the Greek

wines were so highly valued, that not more than a single cup

was served to a guest during the repast.







1. Apothecas. The " apothec" were rooms at the top of the house, in

which the wines were placed for the purpose of seasoning. Sometimes a

current of smoke was directed through them. They were quite distinct

from the "cella vinaria," or "wine-cellar." The Opimian wine is mentioned in c. 4.

2. This writer is unknown.

3. Or amphora.




16. Chap. 17.-At What Period Four Kinds Of Wine Were First Served At Table.


CHAP. 17.-AT WHAT PERIOD FOUR KINDS OF WINE WERE FIRST SERVED AT TABLE.



M. Varro gives us the following statement as to the wines

that were held in the highest esteem at table in his day:

"L. Lucullus, when a boy, never saw an entertainment at his

father's house, however sumptuous it might be, at which Greek







wine was handed round more than once during the repast:

whereas he himself, when he returned from Asia, distributed

as a largess among the people more than a hundred thousand

congiaria[1] of the same wine. C. Sentius, whom we have seen

Prtor, used to say that Chian wine never entered his house

until his physician prescribed it to him for the cardiac[2] disease. On the other hand, Hortensius left ten thousand casks

of it to his heir." Such is the statement made by Varro.



(15.) And besides, is it not a well-known fact that Csar,

when Dictator, at the banquet given on the occasion of his

triumph, allotted to each table an amphora of Falernian and a

cadus of Chian? On the occasion, too, of his triumph for his

victories in Spain, he put before the guests both Chian as well

as Falernian; and again, at the banquet given on his third

consulship,[3] he gave Falernian, Chian, Lesbian, and Marmertine; indeed, it is generally agreed that this was the first

occasion on which four different kinds of wine were served at

table. It was after this, then, that all the other sorts came

into such very high repute, somewhere about the year of the

City 700.







1. Vessels containing a congius, or the eighth of an amphora, nearly six

pints English.

2. As to this malady, see B. xi. c. 71.

3. B.C. 46.




17. Chap. 18. (16.)-The Uses Of The Wild Vine. What Juices Are Naturally The Coldest Of All.


CHAP. 18. (16.)-THE USES OF THE WILD VINE. WHAT JUICES ARE NATURALLY THE COLDEST OF ALL.



I am not surprised, then, that for these many ages there

have been invented almost innumerable varieties of artificial

wines, of which I shall now make some mention; they are all

of them employed for medicinal purposes. We have already

stated in a former Book how omphacium,[1] which is used for

unguents, is made. The liquor known as "nanthinum" is

made from the wild vine,[2] two pounds of the flowers of which

are steeped in a cadus of must, and are then changed at the

end of thirty days. In addition to this, the root and the







husks of the grapes are employed in dressing leather. The

grapes, too, a little after the blossom has gone off, are singularly efficacious as a specific for cooling the feverish heat of

the body in certain maladies, being, it is said, of a nature remarkable for extreme coldness. A portion of these grapes

wither away, in consequence of the heat, before the rest,

which are thence called solstitial[3] grapes; indeed, the whole

of them never attain maturity; if one of these grapes, in

an unripe state, is given to a barn-door fowl to eat, it is productive of a dislike to grapes for the future.[4]







1. B. xii. c. 61.

2. Or "labrusca." "nanthinum" means "made of vine flowers." The

wild vine is not a distinct species from the cultivated vine: it is only a

variety of it, known in botany as the Vitis silvestris labrusca of Tournefort.

Fe thinks that as the must could only be used in autumn, when the wild

vine was not flowering, the flowers of it must have been dried.

3. "Solstitiales." Because they withstand the heat of the solstice. Marcellus Empiricus calls them "caniculati," because they bear the heat of the

Dog-star.

4. Fe remarks that this assertion is quite erroneous.




18. Chap. 19.-Sixty-Six Varieties Of Artificial Wine.


CHAP. 19.-SIXTY-SIX VARIETIES OF ARTIFICIAL WINE.



The first of the artificial wines has wine for its basis; it is

called "adynamon,"[1] and is made in the following manner.

Twenty sextarii of white must are boiled down with half that

quantity of water, until the amount of the water is lost by

evaporation. Some persons mix with the must ten sextarii of

sea-water and an equal quantity of rain-water, and leave the

whole to evaporate in the sun for forty days. This beverage

is given to invalids to whom it is apprehended that wine may

prove injurious.



The next kind of artificial wine is that made of the ripe

grain of millet;[2] a pound and a quarter of it with the straw

is steeped in two congii of must, and the mixture is poured off

at the end of six months. We have already stated[3] how

various kinds of wine are made from the tree, the shrub, and

the herb, respectively known as the lotus.



From fruit, too, the following wines are made, to the list of

which we shall only add some necessary explanations:-First

of all, we find the fruit of the palm[4] employed for this pur-







pose by the Parthians as well as the Indians, and, indeed.

throughout all the countries of the East. A modius of the

kind of ripe date called "chyd"[5] is added to three congii

of water, and after being steeped for some time, they are

subjected to pressure. Sycites[6] is a preparation similarly

made from figs: some persons call it "palmiprimum,"[7] others,

again, "catorchites:" if sweetness is not the maker's object,

instead of water there is added the same quantity of husk

juice[8] of grapes. Of the Cyprian fig[9] a very excellent vinegar,

too, is made, and of that of Alexandria[10] a still superior.



A wine is made, too, of the pods of the Syrian carob,[11] of

pears, and of all kinds of apples. That known as" rhoites"[12]

is made from pomegranates, and other varieties are prepared

from cornels, medlars, sorb apples, dried mulberries, and pinenuts;[13] these last are left to steep in must, and are then pressed;

the others produce a sweet liquor of themselves. We shall

have occasion before long to show how Cato[14] has pointed out

the method of making myrtites:[15] the Greeks, however, adopt

a different method in making it. They first boil tender sprigs

of myrtle with the leaves on in white must, and after pounding them, boil down one pound of the mixture in three congii

of must, until it is reduced to a couple of congii. The beverage that is prepared in this manner with the berries of

wild myrtle is known as "myrtidanum;"[16] it will stain the

hands.



Among the garden plants we find wines made of the following kinds: the radish, asparagus, cunila, origanum, parsley-







seed, abrotonum,[17] wild mint, rue,[18] catmint,[19] wild thyme,[20]

and horehound.[21] A couple of handfuls of these ingredients

are put into a cadus of must, as also one sextarius of sapa,[22] and

half a sextarius of sea-water. A wine is made of the naphew[23]

turnip by adding two drachms of naphew to two sextarii of

must. A wine is made also from the roots of squills.[24] Among

the flowers, that of the rose furnishes a wine: the leaves are

put in a linen cloth and then pounded, after which they are

thrown into must with a small weight attached to make them

sink to the bottom, the proportion being forty drachms of leaves

to twenty sextarii of must; the vessel in which it is kept

must not be opened before the end of three months. A wine,

too, is made of Gallic nard,[25] and another kind of the wild[26]

variety of that plant.



I find, also, that various kinds of aromatites[27] are prepared, differing but very little in their mode of composition

from that of the unguents, being made in the first instance,

as I have already stated,[28] of myrrh, and then at a later period

of Celtic nard,[29] calamus, and aspalathus,[30] of which cakes are

made, and are then thrown into either must or sweet wine.

Others, again, make these wines of calamus, scented rush,[31]

costus,[32] Syrian nard,[33] amomum,[34] cassia,[35] cinnamon, saffron,[36]

palm-dates, and foal-foot,[37] all of which are made up into cakes

in a similar manner. Other persons, again, put half a pound

of nard and malobathrum[38] to two congii of must; and it is

in this manner that at the present day, with the addition of







pepper and honey, the wines are made by some known as confection wines,[39] and by others as peppered[40] wines. We find

mention made of nectarites also, a beverage extracted from a

herb known to some as "helenion,"[41] to others as "Medica,"[42] and to others, again, as symphyton,[43] Idea, Orestion,

or nectaria, the root of which is added in the proportion of

forty drachms to six sextarii of must, being first similarly

placed in a linen cloth.



As to other kinds of herbs, we find wormwood wine,[44] made

of Pontic wormwood in the proportion of one pound to forty

sextarii of must, which is then boiled down until it is reduced

to one third, or else of slips of wormwood put in wine. In a

similar manner, hyssop wine[45] is made of Cilician hyssop,[46] by

adding three ounces of it to two congii of must, or else by

pounding three ounces of hyssop, and adding them to one

congius of must. Both of these wines may be made also in

another method, by sowing these plants around the roots of

vines. It is in this manner, too, that Cato tells us how to

make hellebore[47] wine from black hellebore; and a similar

method is used for making scammony[48] wine. The vine has a

remarkable propensity[49] of contracting the flavour of any plant

that may happen to be growing near it; and hence it is that

in the marshy lands of Patavium, the grape has the peculiar

flavour of the willow. So, in like manner, we find at Thasos

hellebore planted among the vines, or else wild cucumber, or

scammony; the wine that is produced from these vines is

known by the name of "phthorium," it being productive of

abortion.







Wines are made, too, of other herbs, the nature of which will

be mentioned in their respective places, the stchas[50] for

instance, the root of gentian,[51] tragoriganum,[52] dittany,[53] foal-foot,[54] daucus,[55] elelisphacus,[56] panax,[57] acorus,[58] conyza,[59]

thyme,[60] mandragore,[61] and sweet rush.[62] We find the names

mentioned, also, of scyzinum,[63] itomelis, and lectisphagites,

compounds of which the receipt is now lost.



The wines that are made from the shrubs are mostly extracted from the two kinds of cedar,[64] the cypress,[65] the laurel,[66]

the juniper,[67] the terebinth,[68] and in Gaul the lentisk.[69] To

make these wines, they boil either the berries or the new wood

of the shrub in must. They employ, also, the wood of the

dwarf olive,[70] the ground-pine,[71] and the germander[72] for a

similar purpose, adding at the same time ten drachms of the

flower to a congius of must.











1. From the Greek, meaning" without strength." The mixture, Fee

remarks, would appear to be neither potable nor wholesome.

2. See B. xviii. c. 24. A kind of beer might be made with it, Fe says;

but this mixture must have been very unpalatable.

3. See B. xiii. c. 32.

4. A vinous drink may be made in the manner here stated; but the palm.

wine of the peoples of Asia and Africa is only made of the fermented sap

of the tree. See B. xiii. c. 9.

5. He says "caryot," and not chyd, in B. xiii. c. 4. The modius

was something more than our peck.

6. From the Greek su/kh, a "fig." This wine was made, Fe thinks,

from the produce of some variety of the sycamore. See B. xiii. c. 14.

7. "Prime palm" apparently.

8. Tortivum, probably: the second squeezing.

9. See B. xiii. c. 15.

10. See B. xiii. c. 14.

11. See B. xiii. c. 16.

12. From r(o/a, a "pomegranate."

13. Dioscorides calls it "strobilites." Fe says that they could be of no

service in producing a vinous drink.

14. See B. xv. c. 37.

15. Or "myrtle wine."

16. Myrtle will not make a wine, but simply a medicament, in which wine

is the menstruum.

17. Artemisia abrotonum of Linnus.

18. Ruta graveolens of Linnus.

19. Nepeta cataria of Linnus.

20. Thymus serpyllum of Linnus.

21. Marrubium vulgare of Linnus.

22. Grape-juice boiled down to one-third.

23. Brassica napus of Linnus.

24. Scilla marina of Linnus.

25. Nardus Gallicus, or Valeriana Celtica of Linnus. See B. xii. c. 26.

26. Nardus silvestris or baccaris.

27. Aromatic wines.

28. In c. 15 of this Book.

29. Valeriana Celtica.

30. Convolvulus scoparius of Linnus.

31. Andropogon schnanthus of Linnus.

32. Costus Indicus of Linnus.

33. Andropogon nardus of Linnus.

34. See B. xiii. c. 2.

35. See B. xii. c. 43.

36. Crocus sativus of Linnus.

37. Asarum Europum of Linnus.

38. See B. xii. c. 59.

39. Condita.

40. Piperata.

41. Inula helenium of Linnus. See B. xxi. c. 91.

42. Medicago sativa of Linnus.

43. Symphytum officinale of Linnus, being all different varieties.

44. "Absinthites;" made of the Artemisia Pontica of Linnus. A medicinal wine is still prepared with wormwood; and "apsinthe," a liqueur

much esteemed in France, is made from it.

45. Hyssopites.

46. Hyssopites officinalis of Linnus.

47. Helleborites.

48. Scammonites.

49. Fe says that this is not the fact; and queries whether the vulgar

notion still entertained on this subject, may not be traced up to our author.

It is a not uncommon belief that roses smell all the sweeter if onions are

planted near them.

50. Lavendula stchas of Linnus. See B. xxvii. c. 107.

51. Gentiana lutea of Linnus. See B. xxv. c. 34. Gentian wine is

still made.

52. Thymus tragoriganum of Linnus. See B. xx. c. 68.

53. Origanum dictamnus of Linnus. See B. xxv. c. 63.

54. Asarum Europum of Linnus. See B. xii. c. 27.

55. Query, if not carrot? See B. xxv. c. 64.

56. A variety of salvia or sage: it will be mentioned again, further on.

57. Laserpitium hirsutum of Linnus. See B. xxv. cc. 11, 12, and 13.

58. Acorus calamus of Linnus. See B. xxv. c. 100.

59. See B. xxi. c. 32.

60. See B. xxi. c. 31.

61. Atrapora mandragora of Linnus. This wine would act as a narcotic

poison, it would appear.

62. Andropogon schnanthus of Linnus. See B. xxi. c. 72.

63. The origin and meaning of these names are unknown.

64. See B. xii. c. 11. Juniperus Lycia, and Juniperus Phnicea of

Linnus.

65. Cupressus sempervirens of Linnus.

66. Laurus nobilis of Linnus. See B. xv. c. 39.

67. Juniperus communis of Linnus.

68. See B. xiii. c. 12. The Pistacia terebinthus of Linnus.

69. See B. xii. c. 36. The Pistacia lentiscus of Linnus.

70. "Chamel." The Granium Cnidium, Daphne Cnidium, and Daphne

cneorum of Linnus. See B. xiii. c. 35. Venomous plants, which, taken

internally, would be productive of dangerous results.

71. Champitrys. The Teucrium champitrys of Linnus. See B. xxv.

c. 20.

72. Chamdrys. The Teucrium chamdrys of Linnus. See B. xxiv.

c. 80. Dioscorides mentions most of these so-called wines.




19. Chap. 20. (1 7.)-Hydromeli, Or Melicraton.


CHAP. 20. (1 7.)-HYDROMELI, OR MELICRATON.



There is a wine also made solely of honey and water.[1] For

this purpose it is recommended that rain-water[2] should be

kept for a period of five years. Those who shew greater skill,

content themselves with taking the water just after it has

fallen, and boiling it down to one third, to which they then

add one third in quantity of old honey, and keep the mixture

exposed to the rays of a hot sun[3] for forty days after the

rising of the Dog-star; others, however, rack it off in the

course of ten days, and tightly cork the vessels in which it is

kept. This beverage is known as "hydromeli," and with age

acquires the flavour of wine. It is nowhere more highly

esteemed than in Phrygia.[4]







1. Mead, or metheglin, See B. xxii. c. 51.

2. There is no ground, Fe says, for this recommendation.

3. Stoves are now used for this purpose.

4. "Hydromelum," on the other hand, made of water and apples, was

the same as our modern cider.




20. Chap. 21.-Oxymeli.


CHAP. 21.-OXYMELI.



Vinegar[1] even has been mixed with honey; nothing, in

fact, has been left untried by man. To this mixture the name

of oxymeli has been given; it is compounded of ten pounds of

honey, five semi-sextarii of old vinegar, one pound of sea-salt,

and five sextarii of rain-water. This is boiled gently till the

mixture has bubbled in the pot some ten times,[2] after which it

is drawn off, and kept till it is old;[3] all these wines, however, are condemned[4] by Themison, an author of high authority. And really, by Hercules! the use of them does appear to be somewhat forced,[5] unless, indeed, we are ready to

maintain that these aromatic wines are so many compounds

taught us by Nature, as well as those that are manufactured of

perfumes, or that shrubs and plants have been generated only

for the purpose of being swallowed in drink. However, all

these particulars, when known, are curious and interesting,

and show how successfully the human intellect has pried into

every secret.







None of these wines, however, will keep beyond a year,[6]

with the sole exception of those which we have spoken of as

requiring age; many of these, indeed, there can be no doubt,

do not improve after being kept so little as thirty days.







1. See B. xxiii. c. 9.

2. "Subfervefactis." "Just come on the boil."

3. The oxymel of modern times contains no salt, and is only used as a

medicament.

4. As drinks, no doubt; and with good reason, as to most of them.

5. Coactus.

6. Our medicinal wines will mostly keep longer than this, owing probably

to the difference in the mode of making the real wines that form their

basis.




21. Chap. 22. (18.)-Twelve Kinds Of Wine With Miraculous Properties.


CHAP. 22. (18.)-TWELVE KINDS OF WINE WITH MIRACULOUS PROPERTIES.



There are some miraculous properties, too, in certain wines.

It is said that in Arcadia there is a wine grown which is

productive of fruitfulness[1] in women, and of madness in men;

while in Achaia, and more especially in the vicinity of Carynia, there is a wine which causes abortion; an effect which is

equally produced if a woman in a state of pregnancy happens

only to eat a grape of the vine from which it is grown, although

in taste it is in no way different from ordinary grapes: again,

it is confidently asserted that those who drink the wine of

Trzen never bear children. Thasos, it is said, produces two

varieties of wine with quite opposite properties. By one kind

sleep is produced,[2] by the other it is prevented. There is

also in the same island a vine known as the "theriaca,"[3] the

wine and grapes of which are a cure for the bites of serpents.

The libanian vine[4] also produces a wine with the smell of

frankincense, with which they make libations to the gods, while,

on the other hand, the produce of that known as "aspendios,"[5]

is banished from all the altars: it is said, too, that this last

vine is never touched by any bird.



The Egyptians call by the name of "Thasian,"[6] a certain

grape of that country, remarkable for its sweetness and its







laxative qualities. On the other hand, there is in Lycia a

certain grape which proves astringent to the stomach when

relaxed. Egypt has a wine, too, known as "ecbolas,"[7] which

is productive of abortion. There are some wines, which at

the rising of the Dog-star change their nature in the wine-lofts[8] where they are kept, and afterwards recover[9] their

original quality. The same is the case, too, with wines when

carried across the seas: those that are able to withstand the

motion of the waves, appear afterwards to be twice as old[10] as

they really are.







1. There is little doubt that this is fabulous: wine taken in excess, we

know, is productive of loss of the senses, frenzy in the shape of delirium

tremens.

2. This is not unlikely; for, as Fe remarks, the red wines, containing

a large proportion of alcohol, act upon the brain and promote sleep, while

the white wines, charged with carbonic gas, are productive of wakefulness.

3. Or healing vine. See B. xxiii. c. 11.

4. "Libanios." Probably incense was put in this wine, to produce the

flavour.

5. From a), "not," and spe/ndein, to make libation."

6. See c. 9 of this Book. It was introduced, probably, from Thasos.

7. From e)kaba/llw, "to eject."

8. Apothecis.

9. He alludes to the working of wines in periods of extreme heat; also

in the spring.

10. Of our modern wines, Madeira and Bourdeaux improve by being carried

across sea. Burgundy, if any thing, deteriorates, by the diminution of its

bouquet.




22. Chap. 23. (19.)-What Wines It Is Not Lawful To Use In The Sacred Rites.


CHAP. 23. (19.)-WHAT WINES IT IS NOT LAWFUL TO USE IN THE SACRED RITES.



As religion is the great basis of the ordinary usages of life,

I shall here remark that it is considered improper to offer

libations to the gods with any wines which are the produce of

an unpruned vine, or of one that has been struck by lightning

or near to which a dead man has been hung, or of grapes that

have been trodden out by sore Feet, or made of must from

husks that have been cut,[1] or from grapes that have been

polluted by the fall of any unclean thing upon them. The

Greek wines are excluded also from the sacred ministrations,

because they contain a portion of water.



The vine itself is sometimes eaten; the tops of the shoots[2]

are taken off and boiled, and are then pickled in vinegar[3]

and brine.







1. After the grapes had been trodden and pressed, the husks were taken

out and their edges cut, and then again subjected to pressure: the result

was known as "tortivum," or "circumcisivum," a wine of very inferior

quality.

2. He alludes to the young shoots, which have an agreeable acidity,

owing to acetic and tartaric acids.

3. Acetic acid; the result, no doubt, of the faulty mode of manufacture

universally prevalent; their wines contained evidently but little alcohol.




23. Chap. 24.-How Must Is Usually Prepared.


CHAP. 24.-How MUST IS USUALLY PREPARED.



It will be as well now to make some mention of the methods







used in preparing wines; indeed, several of the Greeks have

written separate treatises on this subject, and have made a

complete art of it, such, for instance, as Euphronius, Aristomachus, Commiades, and Hicesius. The people of Africa are

in the habit of neutralizing such acidity[1] as may be found

with gypsum, and in some parts with lime. The people of

Greece, on the other hand, impart briskness to their wines

when too flat, with potters' earth, pounded marble, salt, or

sea-water; while in Italy, again, brown pitch is used for that

purpose in some parts, and it is the universal practice both

there as well as in the adjoining provinces to season their new

wines with resin: sometimes, too, they season them with old

wine-lees or vinegar[2] They make various medicaments, also,

for this purpose with the must itself. They boil it down till

it becomes quite sweet, and has lost a considerable portion of

its strength; though thus prepared, they say it will never last

beyond a single year. In some places they boil down the

must till it becomes sapa,[3] and then mix it with their wines

for the purpose of modifying their harshness. Both for

these kinds of wines, as, indeed, all others, they always employ

vessels which have themselves received an inner coat of pitch;

the method of preparing them will be set forth in a succeeding

Book.[4]







1. See B. xxiii. c. 24, and B. xxxvi. c. 48.

2. A process very likely, as Fe remarks, to turn the wines speedily to

vinegar.

3. Down to one-third. This practice of using boiled grape-juice as a

seasoning, is still followed in Spain in making some of the liqueurs; but it

is not generally recommended.

4. B. xvi. c. 21.




24. Chap. 25. (20.)-Pith And Resin.


CHAP. 25. (20.)-PITH AND RESIN.



Of the trees from which pitch and resin distil, there are

some which grow in the East, and others in Europe: the province of Asia,[1] which lies between the two, has also some of

both kinds. In the East, the very best commodity of this

kind, and of the finest quality, is that produced by the terebinth,[2] and, next to it, that from the lentisk,[3] which is also

known as the mastich. The next in quality to these is the juice

of the cypress,[4] being of a more acrid flavour than any other.







All the above juices are liquid and of a resinous nature only,

but that of the cedar[5] is comparatively thick, and of a proper

consistency for making pitch. The Arabian resin[6] is of a

pale colour, has an acrid smell, and its fumes are stifling to

those employed in boiling it. That of Juda is of a harder

nature, and has a stronger smell than that from the terebinth[7]

even. The Syrian[8] resin has all the appearance of Attic

honey, but that of Cyprus is superior to any other; it is the

colour of honey, and is of a soft, fleshy nature. The resin of

Colophon[9] is yellower than the other varieties, but when

pounded it turns white; it has a stifling smell, for which

reason the perfumers do not employ it. That prepared in

Asia from the produce of the pitch-tree is very white, and is

known by the name of "spagas."



All the resins are soluble in oil;[10] some persons are of opinion also that potters' chalk may be so dissolved:[11] I feel

ashamed[12] to avow that the principal esteem in which the

resins are held among us is as depilatories for taking the hair

off men's bodies.



The method used for seasoning wines is to sprinkle pitch

in the must during the first fermentation, which never lasts

beyond nine days at the most, so that a bouquet is imparted

to the wine,[13] with, in some degree, its own peculiar piquancy

of flavour. It is generally considered, that this is done most

effectually by the use of raw flower[14] of resin, which imparts

a considerable degree of briskness to wine: while, on the

other hand, it is thought that crapula[15] itself, if mixed, tends







to mitigate the harshness of the wine and subdue its asperity,

and when the wine is thin and flat, to give it additional

strength and body. It is in Liguria more particularly, and

the districts in the vicinity of the Padus, that the utility is

recognized of mixing crapula with the must, in doing which

the following rule is adopted: with wines of a strong and

generous nature they mix a larger quantity, while with those

that are poor and thin they use it more sparingly. There are

some who would have the wine seasoned with both crapula

and flower of resin at the same time.[16] Pitch too, when used

for this purpose, has much the same properties as must when

so employed.



In some places, the must is subject to a spontaneous fermentation a second time: when this unfortunately happens it loses

all its flavour, and then receives the name of "vappa,"[17] a word

which is applied as an opprobrious appellation even to worthless men of degenerate spirit: in vinegar, on the other hand,

notwithstanding its tart and acrid taste, there are very considerable virtues, and without it we should miss many of the

comforts[18] of civilized life.



In addition to what we have already stated, the treatment

and preparation of wines are the object of such remarkable attention, that we find some persons employing ashes, and others

gypsum and other substances of which we have already[19]

spoken, for the purpose of improving its condition: the ashes,[20]

however, of the shoots of vines or of the wood of the quercus, are

in general preferred for this purpose. It is recommended also,







to take sea-water far out at sea, and to keep it in reserve,[21]

to be employed for this purpose: at all events, it ought to be

taken up in the night and during the summer solstice, while

the north-east wind is blowing; but if taken at the time of

the vintage, it should be boiled before being used.



The pitch most highly esteemed in Italy for preparing

vessels for storing wine, is that which comes from Bruttium.

It is made from the resin that distils from the pitch-tree; that

which is used in Spain is held in but little esteem, being the

produce of the wild pine; it is bitter, dry, and of a disagreeable smell. While speaking of the wild trees in a succeeding

Book,[22] we shall make mention of the different varieties of pitch,

and the methods used in preparing it. The defects in resin,

besides those which[23] we have already mentioned, are a certain

degree of acridity, or a peculiar smoky flavour, while the great

fault in pitch is the being over-burnt. The ordinary test

of its goodness is a certain luminous appearance when broken

to pieces; it ought to stick, too, to the teeth, with a pleasant,

tart flavour.



In Asia, the pitch which is most esteemed is that of Mount

Ida, in Greece of Pieria; but Virgil[24] gives the preference to

the Narycian[25] pitch. The more careful makers mix with

the wine black mastich, which comes from Pontus,[26] and resembles bitumen in appearance, as also iris[27]-root and oil. As to

coating the vessels with wax, it has been found that the wine

is apt to turn acid:[28] it is a better plan to put wine in vessels

that have held vinegar, than in those which have previously

contained sweet wine or mulsum. Cato[29] recommends that

wines should be got up-concinnari is his word-by putting

of lie-ashes boiled down with defrutum, one-fortieth part to the

culeus, or else a pound and a half of salt, with pounded

marble as well: he makes mention of sulphur also, but only gives

the very last place to resin. When the fermentation of the wine

is coming to an end, he recommends the addition of the must







to which he gives the name of "tortivum,"[30] meaning that

which is pressed out the very last of all. For the purpose of

colouring wine we also add certain substances as a sort of pigment, and these have a tendency to give it a body as well.

By such poisonous sophistications is this beverage compelled

to suit our tastes, and then we are surprised that it is inju-

rious in its effects!



It is a proof that wine is beginning to turn bad, if a plate of

lead, on being put in it, changes its colour.[31]







1. Asia Minor, namely.

2. B. xiii. c. 12.

3. B. xii. c. 37.

4. It produces but a very minute quantity of resin, which is no longer

an article of commerce.

5. See B. xiii. c. 11, and B. xvi. c. 21. Not the cedar of Lebanon,

probably, which only gives a very small quantity of resin, but one of the

Junipers.

6. Fe suggests that this may have been the resin of the Arabian terebinth.

7. See B. xxiv. c. 22.

8. Perhaps from the Pistacia terebinthus of Linnus.

9. This was made from the terebinth: but the modern resin of Colophon

is extracted from varieties of the conifer.

10. See B. xxiv. c. 22.

11. Earths are not soluble in oils.

12. As being a mark of extreme effeminacy.

13. The greater the quantity of alcohol, the more resin the wine would

be able to hold in solution.

14. See B. xvi. c. 22.

15. "Crapula" properly means head-ache, and what is not uncommonly

known as "seedness." Resined wine was thought to be productive of

these effects, and hence obtained the name. This kind of wine was used

itself, as we see above, in seasoning the other kinds. Fe remarks, that

in reality resins have no such effect as imparting body to weak wines.

16. The whole of this passage is hopelessly corrupt, and we can only

guess at the meaning.

17. We have already stated that "vappa" is properly vinegar, which

has been exposed to the air and has lost its flavour. In this fresh chemical change, which he calls a second fermentation, the wine becomes

vinegar; and probably in the cases he mentions, for some peculiar reason,

its speedy transition to "vappa" could not be arrested.

18. Mixed with water, it was the "posca," or common drink of the Roman

soldiers; and it was used extensively both by Greeks and Romans in their

cooking, and at meals.

19. In c. 24.

20. By the mixture of ashes, Fe says, the wines would lose their colour,

and have a detestable alkaline flavour.

21. A perfect absurdity, Fe remarks.

22. B. xvi. cc. 16-23.

23. Bitterness, driness, and a disagreeable smell.

24. Georg. ii. 498.

25. See B. iv. c. 12.

26. See B. xii. c. 36.

27. See B. xxi. c. 19.

28. Bees' wax, Fe remarks, would not have this effect, but vinegar

vessels would.

29. De Re Rust. c. 23.

30. The second "squeezings."

31. If the wine is turning to vinegar, subacetate of lead will be formed.




25. Chap. 26.-Vinegar-Lees Of Wine.


CHAP. 26.-VINEGAR-LEES OF WINE.



It is a peculiarity of wine, among the liquids, to become

mouldy, or else to turn to vinegar. There are whole volumes

which treat of the various methods of preventing this.



The lees of wine when dried will take fire and burn without

the addition of fuel: the ashes so produced have very much the

nature of nitre,[1] and similar virtues; the more so, indeed, the

more unctuous they are to the touch.







1. They are tartrates, and have no affinity at all with nitre.




26. Chap. 27. (21.)-Wine-Vessels-Wine-Cellars.


CHAP. 27. (21.)-WINE-VESSELS-WINE-CELLARS.



The various methods of keeping and storing wines in the

cellar are very different. In the vicinity of the Alps, they put

their wines in wooden vessels hooped around;[1] during their

cold winters, they even keep lighted fires, to protect the wines

from the effects of the cold. It is a singular thing to mention, but still it has been occasionally seen, that these vessels

have burst asunder, and there has stood the wine in frozen

masses; a miracle almost, as it is not ordinarily the nature of

wine to freeze, cold having only the effect of benumbing it.

In more temperate climates, they place their wines in dolia,[2]

which they bury in the earth, either covering them entirely or

in part, according to the temperature. Sometimes, again, they

expose their wines in the open air, while at others they are

placed beneath sheds for protection from the atmosphere.







The following are among the rules given for the proper

management of wines:-One side of the wine-cellar, or, at

all events, the windows, ought to face the north-east, or at least

due east. All dunghills and roots of trees, and everything of

a repulsive smell, ought to be kept at as great a distance as

possible, wine being very apt to contract an odour. Fig-trees

too, either wild or cultivated, ought not to be planted in the

vicinity. Intervals should also be left between the vessels,

in order to prevent infection, in case of any of them turning

bad, wine being remarkably apt to become tainted. The

shape, too, of the vessels is of considerable importance: those

that are broad and bellying[3] are not so good.[4] We find it recommended too, to pitch them immediately after the rising of

the Dog-star, and then to wash them either with sea or salt

water, after which they should be sprinkled with the ashes of

tree-shoots or else with potters' earth; they ought then to be

cleaned out, and perfumed with myrrh, a thing which ought

to be frequently done to the wine-cellars as well. Weak,

thin wines should be kept[5] in dolia sunk in the ground, while

those in which the stronger ones are kept should be more exposed to the air. The vessels ought on no account to be entirely

filled, room being left for seasoning, by mixing either raisin

wine or else defrutum flavoured with saffron; old pitch and

sapa are sometimes used for the same purpose. The lids, too,

of the dolia ought to be seasoned in a similar manner, with

the addition of mastich and Bruttian pitch.



It is strongly recommended never to open the vessels, except in fine weather; nor yet while a south wind is blowing,

or at a full moon.



The flower[6] of wine when white is looked upon as a good

sign; but when it is red, it is bad, unless that should happen

to be the colour of the wine. The vessels, too, should not be

hot to the touch, nor should the covers throw out a sort of

sweat. When wine very soon flowers on the surface and

emits an odour, it is a sign that it will not keep.



As to defrutum and sapa, it is recommended to commence

boiling them when there is no moon to be seen, or, in other







words, at the conjunction of that planet, and at no other time.

Leaden[7] vessels should be used for this purpose, and not copper[8]

ones, and walnuts are generally thrown into them, from a

notion that they absorb[9] the smoke. In Campania they expose the very finest wines in casks in the open air, it being the

opinion that it tends to improve the wine if it is exposed to the

action of the sun and moon, the rain and the winds.







1. Casks, in fact, similar to those used in France at the present day. In

Spain they use earthen jars and the skins of animals.

2. Oblong earthen vessels, used as vats.

3. Ventruosa." He means "round."

4. As oblong ones, probably.

5. While fermenting, and before racking off.

6. Flos vini, the Mycoderma vini of Desmazieres, a mould or pellicule

which forms on the surface, and afterwards falls and is held in suspension.

7. Vessels of lead are never used for this purpose at the present day; as

that metal would oxidize too rapidly, and liquids would have great difficulty in coming to a boil. A slow fire must have been used by the ancients.

8. They were thought to give a bad flavour to the sapa or defrutum.

9. A mere puerility, as Fe remarks.




27. Chap. 28. (22.)-Drunkenness.


CHAP. 28. (22.)-DRUNKENNESS.



If any one will take the trouble duly to consider the matter,

he will find that upon no one subject is the industry of man

kept more constantly on the alert than upon the making of wine;

as if Nature had not given us water as a beverage, the one, in

fact, of which all other animals make use. We, on the other

hand, even go so far as to make our very beasts of burden

drink[1] wine: so vast are our efforts, so vast our labours, and

so boundless the cost which we thus lavish upon a liquid

which deprives man of his reason and drives him to frenzy

and to the commission of a thousand crimes! So great, however, are its attractions, that a great part of mankind are of

opinion that there is nothing else in life worth living for.

Nay, what is even more than this, that we may be enabled to

swallow all the more, we have adopted the plan of diminishing

its strength by pressing it through[2] filters of cloth, and have

devised numerous inventions whereby to create an artificial

thirst. To promote drinking, we find that even poisonous

mixtures have been invented, and some men are known to

take a dose of hemlock before they begin to drink, that they

may have the fear of death before them to make them take

their wine:[3] others, again, take powdered pumice[4] for the







same purpose, and various other mixtures, which I should

Feel quite ashamed any further to enlarge upon.



We see the more prudent among those who are given to this

habit have themselves parboiled in hot-baths, from whence they

are carried away half dead. Others there are, again, who cannot wait till they have got to the banqueting couch,[5] no, not

so much as till they have got their shirt on,[6] but all naked

and panting as they are, the instant they leave the bath they

seize hold of large vessels filled with wine, to show of, as it

were, their mighty powers, and so gulp down the whole of the

contents only to vomit them up again the very next moment.

This they will repeat, too, a second and even a third time,

just as though they had only been begotten for the purpose of

wasting wine, and as if that liquor could not be thrown away

without having first passed through the human body. It is

to encourage habits such as these that we have introduced the

athletic exercises[7] of other countries, such as rolling in the

mud, for instance, and throwing the arms back to show off a

brawny neck and chest. Of all these exercises, thirst, it is

said, is the chief and primary object.



And then, too, what vessels are employed for holding wine!

carved all over with the representations of adulterous intrigues,

as if, in fact, drunkenness itself was not sufficiently capable of

teaching us lessons of lustfulness. Thus we see wines quaffed

out of impurities, and inebriety invited even by the hope of a

reward,-invited, did I say?-may the gods forgive me for

saying so, purchased outright. We find one person induced

to drink upon the condition that he shall have as much to eat

as he has previously drunk, while another has to quaff as

many cups as he has thrown points on the dice. Then it is

that the roving, insatiate eyes are setting a price upon the

matron's chastity; and yet, heavy as they are with wine, they

do not fail to betray their designs to her husband. Then

it is that all the secrets of the mind are revealed; one man is

heard to disclose the provisions of his will, another lets fall

some expression of fatal import, and so fails to keep to himself

words which will be sure to come home to him with a cut







throat. And how many a man has met his death in this fashion!

Indeed, it has become quite a common proverb, that "in wine[8]

there is truth."



Should he, however, fortunately escape all these dangers,

the drunkard never beholds the rising sun, by which his life

of drinking is made all the shorter. From wine, too, comes

that pallid hue,[9] those drooping eyelids, those sore eyes, those

tremulous hands, unable to hold with steadiness the overflowing vessel, condign punishment in the shape of sleep agitated by Furies during the restless night, and, the supreme

reward of inebriety, those dreams of monstrous lustfulness and

of forbidden delights. Then on the next day there is the breath

reeking of the wine-cask, and a nearly total obliviousness of

everything, from the annihilation of the powers of the memory.

And this, too, is what they call "seizing the moments of life![10]

whereas, in reality, while other men lose the day that has gone

before, the drinker has already lost the one that is to come.



They first began, in the reign of Tiberius Claudius, some

forty years ago, to drink fasting, and to take whets of wine

before meals; an outlandish[11] fashion, however, and only patronized by physicians who wished to recommend themselves

by the introduction of some novelty or other.



It is in the exercise of their drinking powers that the Parthians look for their share of fame, and it was in this that

Alcibiades among the Greeks earned his great repute. Among

ourselves, too, Novellius Torquatus of Mediolanum, a man

who held all the honours of the state from the prefecture to the

pro-consulate, could drink off three congii[12] at a single draught,

a feat from which he obtained the surname of "Tricongius:" this he did before the eyes of the Emperor Tiberius,

and to his extreme surprise and astonishment, a man who in

his old age was very morose,[13] and indeed very cruel in general; though in his younger days he himself had been too

much addicted to wine. Indeed it was owing to that recommendation that it was generally thought that L. Piso was







selected by him to have the charge and custody[14] of the City of

Rome; he having kept up a drinking-bout at the residence of

Tiberius, just after he had become emperor, two days and two

nights without intermission. In no point, too, was it generally said that Drusus Csar took after his father Tiberius

more than this.[15] Torquatus had the rather uncommon glory-for this science, too, is regulated by peculiar laws of its own-of never being known to stammer in his speech, or to relieve

the stomach by vomiting or urine, while engaged in drinking.

lie was always on duty at the morning guard, was able to

empty the largest vessel at a single draught, and yet to take

more ordinary cups in addition than any one else; he was always to be implicitly depended upon, too, for being able to drink

without taking breath and without ever spitting, or so much

as leaving enough at the bottom of the cup to make a plash

upon the pavement;[16] thus showing himself an exact observer

of the regulations which have been made to prevent all shirking on the part of drinkers.



Tergilla reproaches Cicero, the son of Marcus Cicero, with

being in the habit of taking off a couple of congii at a single

draught, and with having thrown a cup, when in a state of

drunkenness, at M. Agrippa;[17] such, in fact, being the ordinary

results of intoxication. But it is not to be wondered at that

Cicero was desirous in this respect to eclipse the fame of M.

Antonius, the murderer of his father; a man who had, before

the time of the younger Cicero, shown himself so extremely

anxious to maintain the superiority in this kind of qualifica-

tion, that he had even gone so far as to publish a book upon

the subject of his own drunkenness.[18] Daring in this work to

speak in his own defence, he has proved very satisfactorily, to

lay thinking, how many were the evils he had inflicted upon

the world through this same vice of drunkenness. It was but

a short time before the battle of Actium that he vomited forth







this book of his, from which we have no great difficulty in

coming to the conclusion, that drunk as lie already was with

the blood of his fellow-citizens, the only result was that he

thirsted for it all the more. For, in fact, such is the infallible

characteristic of drunkenness, the more a person is in the

habit of drinking, the more eager he is for drink; and the

remark of the Scythian ambassador is as true as it is well

known-the more the Parthians drank, the thirstier they were

for it.







1. He does not state the reason, nor does it appear to be known. At

the present day warmed wine is sometimes given to a jaded horse, to put

him on his legs again.

2. Though practised by those who wished to drink largely, this was considered to diminish the flavour of delicate wines.

3. See B. xxii. c. 23, and B. xxv. c. 95; also c. 7 of the present Book.

Wine is no longer considered an antidote to cicuta or hemlock.

4. See B. xxxvi. c. 42.

5. This seems to be the meaning of "lectum;" but the passage is obscure.

6. Tunicam.

7. He satirizes, probably, some kind of gymnastic exercises that had

been introduced to promote the speedy passage of the wine through the body.

8. "In vino veritas."

9. Fe remarks that this is one proof that the wine of the ancients was

essentially different in its nature from ours. In our day wine gives anything but a "pallid" hue.

10. "Rapere vitam."

11. See B. xxiii. c. 23.

12. Three gallons and three pints!! There must have been some jugglery

in this performance.

13. Probably towards those guilty of excesses in wine.

14. As Prfectus Urbis.

15. Love of drinking.

16. The mode of testing whether any "heeltaps" were left or not. It

was this custom, probably, that gave rise to the favourite game of the

cottabus.

17. Dr. Middleton, in his Life of Cicero, in his unlimited partiality for the

family, quotes this as an instance of courage and high spirit.

18. According to Paterculus, lie was fond of driving about in a chariot,

crowned with ivy, a golden goblet in his hand, and dressed like Bacchus,

by which title he ordered himself to be addressed.




28. Chap. 29.-Liquors With The Strength Of Wine Made From Water And Corn.


CHAP. 29.-LIQUORS WITH THE STRENGTH OF WINE MADE FROM WATER AND CORN.



The people of the Western world have also their intoxicating drinks, made from corn steeped in water.[1] These

beverages are prepared in different ways throughout Gaul

and the provinces of Spain; under different names, too,

though in their results they are the same. The Spanish

provinces have even taught us the fact that these liquors are

capable of being kept till they have attained a considerable

age. Egypt,[2] too, has invented for its use a very similar beverage made from corn; indeed, in no part of the world is

drunkenness ever at a loss. And then, besides, they take these

drinks unmixed, and do not dilute them with water, the way

that wine is modified; and yet, by Hercules! one really might

have supposed that there the earth produced nothing but corn

for the people's use. Alas! what wondrous skill, and yet

how misplaced! means have absolutely been discovered for

getting drunk upon water even.



There are two liquids that are peculiarly grateful to the

human body, wine within and oil without; both of them

the produce of trees, and most excellent in their respective

kinds. Oil, indeed, we may pronounce an absolute necessary,

nor has mankind been slow to employ all the arts of invention

in the manufacture of it. How much more ingenious, however, man has shown himself in devising various kinds of

drink will be evident from the fact, that there are no less







than one hundred and ninety-five different kinds of it; indeed, if all the varieties are reckoned, they will amount to

nearly double that number. The various kinds of oil are

much less numerous-we shall proceed to give an account of

them in the following Book.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

five hundred and ten.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Cornelius Valerianus,[3] Virgil,[4]

Celsus,[5] Cato the Censor,[6] Saserna,[7] father and son, Scrofa,[8]

M. Varro,[9] D. Silanus,[10] Fabius Pictor,[11] Trogus,[12] Hyginus,[13]

Flaccus Verrius,[14] Grcinus,[15] Julius Atticus,[16] Columella,[17]

Massurius Sabinus,[18] Fenestella,[19] Tergilla,[20] Maccius Plautus,[21]

Flavius,[22] Dossennus,[23] Scvola,[24] lius,[25] Ateius Capito,[26]







cotta Messalinus, L. Piso,[27] Pompeius Lenus,[28] Fabianus,[29]

Sextius Niger,[30] Vibius Rufus.[31]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Hesiod,[32] Theophrastus,[33] Aristotle,[34] Democritus,[35] King Hiero,[36] King Attalus Philometor,[37]

Archytas,[38] Xenophon,[39] Amphilochus[40] of Athens, Anaxipolis[41]

of Thasos, Apollodorus[42] of Lemnos, Aristophanes[43] of Miletus,

Antigonus[44] of Cym, Agathocles[45] of Chios, Apollonius[46] of

Pergamus, Aristander[47] of Athens, Botrys[48] of Athens, Bacchius[49]

of Miletus, Bion[50] of Soli, Chrea[51] of Athens, Christus[52] of

Athens, Diodorus[53] of Priene, Dion[54] of Colophon, Epigenes[55]

of Rhodes, Euagon[56] of Thasos, Euphronius[57] of Athens, Androtion[58] who wrote on agriculture, schrion[59] who wrote on

agriculture, Lysimachus[60] who wrote on agriculture, Dionysius[61] who translated Mago, Diophanes[62] who made an

Epitome of the work of Dionysius, Asclepiades[63] the Physician.

Onesicritus,[64] King Juba.[65]



[66]









1. He alludes to beer, or rather sweet wort, for hops were not used till

the latter part, probably, of the middle ages. Lupines were sometimes used

for flavouring beer.

2. Diodorus Siculus says that the Egyptian beer was nearly equal to

wine in strength and flavour.

3. See end of B. iii.

4. See end of B. vii.

5. See end of B. vii.

6. See end of B. iii.

7. See end of B.. x.

8. See end of B. xi.

9. See end of B. ii.

10. Decimus Junius Silanus. He was commissioned by the senate, about

B.C. 146, to translate into Latin the twenty-eight books of Mago, the

Carthaginian, on Agriculture. See B. xviii. c. 5.

11. See end of B. x.

12. See end of B. vii.

13. See end of B. iii.

14. See end of B. iii.

15. Julius Greecinus. He was one of the most distinguished orators of

his time. Having refused to accuse M. Julius Silanus, he was put to death

A.D. 39. He wrote a work, in two books, on the culture of the vine.

16. He was a contemporary of Celsus and Columella, the latter of whom

states that he wrote a work on a peculiar method of cultivating the vine.

See also B. xvii. c. 18.

17. See end of B. viii.

18. See end of B. vii.

19. See end of B. viii.

20. Nothing is known of him. He may possibly have written on Husbandry, and seems to have spoken in dispraise of the son of Cicero. See

c 28 of the present Book.

21. The famous Roman Comic poet, born B.C. 184. Twenty of his comedies are still in existence.

22. For Alfius Flavius, see end of B. ix.; for Cneius Flavius, see end of

B. xii.

23. Or Dorsenus Fabius, an ancient Comic dramatist, censured by Horace

for the buffoonery of his characters, and the carelessness of his productions.

In the 15th Chapter of this Book, Pliny quotes a line from his Acharistio.

24. Q. Mutius Scvola, consul B.C. 95, and assassinated by C. Flavius

Fimbria, having been proscribed by the Marian faction. He wrote several

works on the Roman law, and Cicero was in the number of his disciples.

25. Sextus lius Ptus Catus, a celebrated jurisconsult, and consul B.C.

198. He wrote a work on the Twelve Tables.

26. See end of B. iii.

27. A freedman of Pompey, by whose command he translated into Latin

the work of Mithridates on Poisons. After Pompey's death, he maintained

himself by keeping a school at Rome.

28. See end of B. ii.

29. For Fabianus Papirius, see end of B. ii. Fabianus Sabinus is supposed to have been the same person.

30. See end of B. xii.

31. He is mentioned by the elder Seneca, but nothing whatever is known

of him.

32. See end of B. vii.

33. See end of B. iii.

34. See end of B. ii.

35. See end of B. ii.

36. See end of B. viii.

37. See end of B. viii.

38. See end of B. viii.

39. See end of B. iv.

40. See end of B. viii.

41. See end of B. viii.

42. See end of B. viii.

43. See end of B. viii.

44. See end of B. viii.

45. See end of B. viii.

46. See end of B. viii.

47. See end of B. viii.

48. See end of B. xiii.

49. See end of B. viii.

50. See end of B. vi.

51. See end of B. viii.

52. Supposed to have been a writer on Agriculture, but nothing further is

known of him.

53. See end of B. viii.

54. See end of B. viii.

55. See end of B. ii.

56. See end of B. x.

57. See end of B. viii.

58. See end of B. viii.

59. See end of B. viii.

60. See end of B. viii.

61. See end of B. xii.

62. See end of B. viii.

63. See end of B vii.

64. See end of B. ii.

65. See end of B. v.

66. Son of Corvinus Messala. He appears to have been a man of bad repute: of his writings nothing seems to be known.




0. > Book Xv. The Natural History Of The Fruit-Trees.


BOOK XV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FRUIT-TREES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Olive.-How Long It Existed Only In Greece. At What Period It Was First Introduced Into Italy, Spain, And Africa.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE OLIVE.-HOW LONG IT EXISTED ONLY IN GREECE.

AT WHAT PERIOD IT WAS FIRST INTRODUCED INTO ITALY, SPAIN,

AND AFRICA.



THEOPHRASTUS,[1] one of the most famous among the Greek

writers, who flourished about the year 440 of the City of

Rome, has asserted that the olive[2] does not grow at a distance

of more than forty[3] miles from the sea. Fenestella tells us

that in the year of Rome 173, being the reign of Tarquinius

Priscus, it did not exist in Italy, Spain, or Africa;[4] whereas

at the present day it has crossed the Alps even, and has been

introduced into the two provinces of Gaul and the middle of

Spain. In the year of Rome 505, Appius Claudius, grandson

of Appius Claudius Ccus, and L. Junius being consuls, twelve

pounds of oil sold for an as; and at a later period, in the year

680, M. Seius, son of Lucius, the curule dile, regulated the

price of olive oil at Rome, at the rate of ten pounds for the as,

for the whole year. A person will be the less surprised at

this, when he learns that twenty-two years after, in the third

consulship of Cn. Pompeius, Italy was able to export olive oil

to the provinces.



Hesiod,[5] who looked upon an acquaintance with agriculture







as conducive in the very highest degree to the comforts of life,

has declared that there was no one who had ever gathered fruit

from the olive-tree that had been sown by his own hands, so

slow was it in reaching maturity in those times; whereas, now

at the present day, it is sown in nurseries even, and if transplanted will bear fruit the following year.







1. Hist. Plant. iv. c.

2. The Olea Europa of Linnus. See B. xxi. c. 31.

3. This has not been observed to be the fact. It has been known to

grow in ancient Mesopotamia, more than one hundred leagues from the sea.

4. It is supposed that it is indigenous to Asia, whence it was introduced

into Africa and the South of Europe. There is little doubt that long

before the period mentioned by Pliny, it was grown in Africa by the Car-

thaginians, and in the South of Gaul, at the colony of Massilia.

5. This work of Hesiod is no longer in existence; but the assertion is

exaggerated, even if he alludes to the growth of the tree from seed. Fee

remarks that a man who has sown the olive at twenty, may gather excellent fruit before he arrives at old age. It is more generally propagated

by slips or sets. If the trunk is destroyed by accident, the roots will throw

out fresh suckers.




2. Chap. 2.-The Nature Of The Olive, And Of New Olive Oil.


CHAP. 2.-THE NATURE OF THE OLIVE, AND OF NEW OLIVE OIL.



Fabianus maintains that the olive will grow[1] neither in

very cold climates, nor yet in very hot ones. Virgil[2] has

mentioned three varieties of the olive, the orchites,[3] the

radius,[4] and the posia;[5] and says that they require no raking

or pruning, nor, in fact, any attention whatever. There is no

doubt that in the case of these plants, soil and climate are the

things of primary importance; but still, it is usual to prune

them at the same time as the vine, and they are improved by

lopping between them every here and there. The gathering of

the olive follows that of the grape, and there is even a greater

degree of skill required in preparing[6] oil than in making

wine; for the very same olives will frequently give quite

different results. The first oil of all, produced from the raw[7]

olive before it has begun to ripen, is considered preferable

to all the others in flavour; in this kind, too, the first[8] droppings of the press are the most esteemed, diminishing gradually

in goodness and value; and this, whether the wicker-work[9]

basket is used in making it, or whether, following the more







recent plan, the pulp is put in a stick strainer, with narrow

spikes and interstices.[10] The riper the berry, the more unctuous the juice, and the less agreeable the taste.[11] To obtain a

result both abundant and of excellent flavour, the best time to

gather it is when the berry is just on the point of turning

black. In this state it is called "druppa" by us, by the

Greeks, "drypetis."



In addition to these distinctions, it is of importance to

observe whether the berry ripens in the press or while on the

branch; whether the tree has been watered, or whether the

fruit has been nurtured solely by its own juices, and has

imbibed nothing else but the dews of heaven.







1. This is the case. We may remark that the tree will grow in this

country, but the fruit never comes to maturity.

2. Georg. ii. 85, also ii. 420.

3. Probably the Olea maximo fructu of Tournefort. It has its name

from the Greek o)/rxis,, the "testis," a name by which it is still known in

some parts of Provence.

4. Or "shuttle" olive. Probably the modern pickoline, or long olive.

5. Probably the Olea media rotunda prcox of Tournefort. It is

slightly bitter.

6. This is so much the case, that though the olives of Spain and Portugal are among the finest, their oils are of the very worst quality.

7. It does not appear that the method of preparing oil by the use of

boiling water was known to the ancients. Unripe olives produce an excellent oil, but in very small quantities. Hence they are rarely used for

the purpose.

8. Called "virgin," or "native" oil in France, and very highly esteemed.

9. Sporta.

10. "Exilibus regulis." A kind of wooden strainer, apparently invented

to supersede the wicker, or basket strainer.

11. It is more insipid the riper the fruit, and the less odorous.




4. Chap. 4.-Fifteen Varieties Of Olives.


CHAP. 4.-FIFTEEN VARIETIES OF OLIVES.



The first olive that is gathered after the autumn is that







known as the "posia,"[1] the berry of which, owing to a vicious

method of cultivation, and not any fault on the part of Nature, has the most flesh upon it. Next to this is the orchites,

which contains the greatest quantity of oil, and then, after

that, the radius. As these are of a peculiarly delicate nature,

the heat very rapidly takes effect upon them, and the amurca

they contain causes them to fall. On the other hand, the

gathering of the tough, hard-skinned olive is put off so late as

the month of March, it being well able to resist the effects of

moisture, and, consequently, very small. Those varieties known

as the Licinian, the Cominian, the Contian, and the Sergian,

by the Sabines called the "royal"[2] olive, do not turn black

before the west winds prevail, or, in other words, before the

sixth day before[3] the ides of February. At this period it is

generally thought that they begin to ripen, and as a most excellent oil is extracted from them, experience would seem to

give its support to a theory which, in reality, is altogether

wrong. The growers say that in the same degree that cold

diminishes the oil, the ripeness of the berry augments it;

whereas, in reality, the goodness of the oil is owing, not to

the period at which the olives are gathered, but to the natural

properties of this peculiarvariety, in which the oil is remarkably slow in turning to amurca.



A similar error, too, is committed by those who keep the

olives, when gathered, upon a layer of boards, and do not

press the fruit till it has thrown out a sweat; it being the

fact that every hour lost tends to diminish the oil and increase

the amurca: the consequence is, that, according to the ordinary computation, a modius of olives yields no more than six

pounds of oil. No one, however, ever takes account of the

quantity of amurca to ascertain, in reference to the same

kind of berry, to what extent it increases daily in amount.

Then, again, it is a very general error[4] among practical persons to suppose that the oil increases proportionably to the

increased size of the berry; and more particularly so when it

is so clearly proved that such is not the case, with reference to







the variety known as the royal olive, by some called majorina,

and by others phaulia;[5] this berry being of the very largest

size, and yet yielding a minimum of juice. In Egypt,[6] too,

the berries, which are remarkably meaty, are found to produce

but very little oil; while those of Decapolis, in Syria, are so

extremely small, that they are no bigger than a caper; and

yet they are highly esteemed for their flesh.[7] It is for this

reason that the olives from the parts beyond sea are preferred

for table to those of Italy, though, at the same time, they are

very inferior to them for making oil.



In Italy, those of Picenum and of Sidicina[8] are considered

the best for table. These are kept apart from the others and

steeped in salt, after which, like other olives, they are put in

amurca, or else boiled wine; indeed, some of them are left to

float solely in their own oil,[9] without any adventitious mode

of preparation, and are then known as colymbades: sometimes

the berry is crushed, and then seasoned with green herbs to

flavour it. Even in an unripe state the olive is rendered fit

for eating by being sprinkled with boiling water; it is quite

surprising, too, how readily it will imbibe sweet juices, and

retain an adventitious flavour from foreign substances. With

this fruit, as with the grape, there are purple[10] varieties, and

the posia is of a complexion approaching to black. Besides

those already mentioned, there are the superba[11] and a remarkably luscious kind, which dries of itself, and is even sweeter

than the raisin: this last variety is extremely rare, and is to







be found in Africa and in the vicinity of Emerita[12] in Lusi-

tania.

The oil of the olive is prevented from getting[13] thick and

rancid by the admixture of salt. By making an incision in

the bark of the tree, an aromatic odour may be imparted[14] to

the oil. Any other mode of seasoning, such, for instance, as

those used with reference to wine, is not at all gratifying to

the palate; nor do we find so many varieties in oil as there

are in the produce of the grape, there being, in general, but

three different degrees of goodness. In fine oil the odour is

more penetrating, but even in the very best it is but short-

lived.







1. More commonly spelt "pausia."

2. "Regia." It is impossible to identify these varieties.

3. 8th of February.

4. This assertion of Pliny is not generally true. The large olives of

Spain yield oil very plentifully.

5. Probably a member of the variety known to naturalists as the Olea

fructu majori, carne crass, of Tournefort, the royal olive or "triparde" of

the French. The name is thought to be from the Greek fa=ulos, the

fruit being considered valueless from its paucity of oil.

6. There are but few olive-trees in either Egypt or Decapolis at the

present day, and no attempts are made to extract oil from them.

7. "Carnis." He gives this name to the solid part, or pericarp.

8. See B. iii. c. 9.

9. These methods are not now adopted for preserving the olive. The

fruit are first washed in an alkaline solution, and then placed in salt and

water. The colymbas was so called from kolumba/w, "to swim," in its

own oil, namely. Dioscorides descants on the medicinal properties of the

colymbades. B. i. c. 140.

10. There are several varieties known of this colour, and more particularly

the fruit of the Olea atro-rubens of Gouan.

11. The Spanish olive, Hardouin says. Fe thinks that the name "superba," "haughty," is given figuratively, as meaning rough and austere.

12. The olives of the present Merida, in Spain, are of a rough, disagree-

able flavour.

13. This seems to be the meaning of "pinguis;" but, as Fe observes,

salt would have no such effect as here stated, but would impart a disagree.

able flavour to the oil.

14. Fe regards this assertion as quite fabulous.




5. Chap. 5. (4.)-The Nature Of Olive Oil.


CHAP. 5. (4.)-THE NATURE OF OLIVE OIL.



It is one of the properties of oil to impart warmth to the

body, and to protect it against the action of cold; while at

the same time it promotes coolness in the head when heated.

The Greeks, those parents of all vices, have abused it by mak-

ing it minister to luxury, and employing it commonly in the

gymnasium: indeed, it is a well-known fact that the gover-

nors of those establishments have sold the scrapings[1] of the

oil used there for a sum of eighty thousand sesterces. The

majesty of the Roman sway has conferred high honour upon

the olive: crowned with it, the troops of the Equestrian order

are wont to defile upon the ides of July;[2] it is used, too, by

the victor in the minor triumphs of the ovation.[3] At Athens,







also, they are in the habit of crowning the conqueror with

olive; and at Olympia, the Greeks employ the wild olive[4] for

a similar purpose.







1. It will be stated in B. xxviii. c. 13, to what purposes this abominable

collection of filth was applied.

2. 15th of July. He alludes to the inspection of the Equites, which

originally belonged to the Censors, but afterwards to the Emperors. On

this occasion there was "recognitio," or "review," and then a "trans-

vectio," or "procession" of the horsemen.

3. The ovation was a lesser triumph, at which the general entered the

city not in a chariot, but on foot. In later times, however, the victor en-

tered on horseback: and a wreath of myrtle, sometimes laurel, was worn

by him. For further particulars as to the ovation, see c. 38 of the present

Book.

4. Or "oleaster."




7. Chap. 7. (7.)-Forty-Eight Varieties Of Artificial Oils. The Cicus-Tree Or Croton, Or Sili, Or Sesamum.


CHAP. 7. (7.)-FORTY-EIGHT VARIETIES OF ARTIFICIAL OILS. THE CICUS-TREE OR CROTON, OR SILI, OR SESAMUM.



In those times artificial oils had not been introduced, and







hence it is, I suppose, that we find no mention made of them

by Cato; at the present day the varieties are very numerous.

We will first speak of those[1] which are produced from trees,

and among them more particularly the wild olive.[2] This

olive is small, and much more bitter than the cultivated one,

and hence its oil is only used in medicinal preparations: the

oil that bears the closest resemblance to it is that extracted

from the chamela,[3] a shrub which grows among the rocks,

and not more than a palm in height; the leaves and berries

being similar to those of the wild olive. A third oil is that

made of the fruit of the cicus,[4] a tree which grows in Egypt

in great abundance; by some it is known as croton, by others

as sili, and by others, again, as wild sesamumn: it is not so very

long since this tree was first introduced here. In Spain, too,

it shoots up with great rapidity to the size of the olive-tree,

having a stem like that of the ferula, the leaf of the vine,

and a seed that bears a resemblance to a small pale grape.

Our people are in the habit of calling it "ricinus,"[5] from the

resemblance of the seed to that insect. It is boiled in water,[6]

and the oil that swims on the surface is then skimmed off:

but in Egypt, where it grows in a greater abundance, the oil is

extracted without employing either fire or water for the purpose, the seed being first sprinkled with salt, and then subjected to pressure: eaten with food this oil is repulsive, but it

is very useful for burning in lamps.



Amygdalinum, by some persons known as "metopium,"[7]







is made of bitter almonds dried and beaten into a cake, after

which they are steeped in water, and then beaten again. An

oil is extracted from the laurel also, with the aid of olive oil.

Some persons use the berries only for this purpose, while

others, again, employ the leaves[8] and the outer skin of the

berries: some add storax also, and other odoriferous substances. The best kind for this purpose is the broad-leaved or

wild laurel,[9] with a black berry. The oil, too, of the black

myrtle is of a similar nature; that with the broad leaf[10] is

reckoned also the best. The berries are first sprinkled with

warm water, and then beaten, after which they are boiled:

some persons take the more tender leaves, and boil them in

olive oil, and then subject them to pressure, while others, again,

steep them in oil, and leave the mixture to ripen in the sun.

The same method is also adopted with the cultivated myrtle,

but the wild variety with small berries is generally preferred;

by some it is known as the oxymyrsine, by others as the chammyrsine, and by others, again, as the acoron,[11] from its

strong resemblance to that plant, it being short and branching.



An oil is made, too, from the citrus,[12] and from the cypress;

also, from the walnut,[13] and known by the name of "caryinon,"[14] and from the fruit of the cedar, being generally

known as "pisselon."[15] Oil is extracted from the grain of

Cnidos,[16] the seed being first thoroughly cleaned, and then







pounded; and from mastich[17] also. As to the oil called

"cyprinum,"[18] and that extracted from the Egyptian[19] berry,

we have already mentioned the mode in which they are prepared as perfumes. The Indians, too, are said to extract oils

from the chesnut,[20] sesamum, and rice,[21] and the Ichthyophagi[22] from fish. Scarcity of oil for the supply of lamps

sometimes compels us to make it from the berries[23] of the planetree, which are first steeped in salt and water.



nanthinum,[24] again, is made from the nanthe, as we have

already stated when speaking of perfumes. In making gleucinum,[25] must is boiled with olive-oil at a slow heat; some

persons, however, do not employ fire in making it, but leave a

vessel, filled with oil and must, surrounded with grape husks,

for two and twenty days, taking care to stir it twice a day:

by the end of that period the whole of the must is imbibed

by the oil. Some persons mix with this not only sampsuchum, but perfumes of still greater price: that, too, which is

used in the gymnasia is scented with perfumes as well, but

those of the very lowest quality. Oils are made, too, from aspalathus,[26] from calamus,[27] balsamum,[28] cardamum,[29] melilot,

Gallic nard, panax,[30] sampsuchum,[31] helenium, and root of

cinnamomum,[32] the plants being first left to steep in oil, and

then pressed. In a similar manner, too, rhodinum[33] is made

from roses, and juncinum from the sweet rush, bearing a remarkable[34] resemblance to rose-oil: other oils, again, are extracted







from henbane,[35] lupines,[36] and narcissus. Great quantities of

oil are made in Egypt, too, of radish[37] seed, or else of a

common grass known there as chortinon.[38] Sesamum[39] also

yields an oil, and so does the nettle,[40] its oil being known as

"enidinum."[41] In other countries, too, an oil is extracted

from lilies[42] left to steep in the open air, and subjected to the

influence of the sun, moon, and frosts. On the borders of

Cappadocia and Galatia, they make an oil from the herbs of

the country, known as "Selgicum,"[43] remarkably useful for

strengthening the tendons, similar, in fact, to that of Iguvium[44]

in Italy. From pitch an oil[45] is extracted, that is known as

pissinum;" it is made by boiling the pitch, and spreading

fleeces over the vessels to catch the steam, and then wringing them out: the most approved kind is that which comes

from Bruttium, the pitch of that country being remarkably

rich and resinous: the colour of this oil is yellow.



There is an oil that grows spontaneously in the maritime

parts of Syria, known to us as "elomeli;"[46] it is an unctuous

substance which distils from certain trees, of a thicker consistency than honey, but somewhat thinner than resin; it has a

sweet flavour, and is employed for medicinal purposes. Old

olive oil[47] is of use for some kinds of maladies; it is thought to







be particularly useful, too, in the preservation of ivory from

decay:[48] at all events, the statue of Saturn, at Rome, is filled

with oil in the interior.







1. It may be remarked, that in this Chapter Pliny totally confounds

fixed oils, volatile oils, and medicinal oils. Those in the list which he here

gives, and which are not otherwise noticed in the Notes, may be considered

to belong to this last class.

2. The oleaster furnishes but little oil, and it is seldom extracted. The

oil is thinner than ordinary olive oil, and has a stronger odour.

3. The Daphne Centrum and Daphne Cilium of botanists. See B.

xiii. c. 35, also 1. xliv. c. 82. Fe doubts if an oil was ever made from

the chamela.

4. See B. xxiii. c. 41: the Ricinus communis of Linnus, which

abounds in Egypt at the present day. Though it appears to have been

formerly sometimes used for the table, at the present day the oil is only

known as "castor" oil, a strong purgative. It is one of the fixed oils. The

Jews and Abyssinian Christians say that it was under this tree that Jonah

sat.

5. A "tick."

6. This method, Fe says, is still pursued in America.

7. See B. xiii. c. 2. One of the fixed oils.

8. An essential oil may be extracted from either; it is of acrid taste,

green, and aromatic; but does not seem to have been known to the an-

cients. The berries give by decoction a fixed oil, of green colour, sweet,

and odoriferous. The oils in general here spoken of by Pliny as extracted

from the laurel, are medicinal oils.

9. The Laurus latifolia of Bauhin.

10. The Myrtus latifolia Romana of Bauhin. It yields an essential oil,

and by its decoction might give a fixed oil, in small quantity, but very

odoriferous. As boiled with olive oil, he treats it as a volatile oil.

11. See B. xxv. c. 100. This myrtle is the Ruscus aculeatus of Linnus.

12. See B. xiii. c. 29, and B xxiii. c. 45. A volatile oil might be extracted from the citrus, if one of the thuyp, as also from the cypress.

13. See B. xxiii. c. 45. It is a fixed oil, still considerably used in some

parts of Europe.

14. From the Greek karu/a, a "walnut."

15. "Pitch oil." See B. xxiv. c. 11. This would be a volatile oil.

16. See B. xxiii. c. 45, also B. xiii. c. 35. Fe is of opinion, that as no

fixed oil can be extracted from the Daphne Cnidium or Daphne Cneoruni,

Pliny must allude to a medicinal composition, like the oil of wild myrtle,

previously mentioned.

17. A fixed oil. See B. xii. c. 36. The seeds were used for making it.

See B. xxiii. c. 45.

18. See B. xii. c. 51, and B. xxiii. c. 45. The leaves of the Lawsonia

are very odoriferous.

19. The myrobalanus, or ben. See B. xii. c. 46, and B. xxiii. c. 46.

20. Neither the chesnut nor rice produce any kind of fixed oil.

21. See B. xvii. c. 13.

22. Or Fish-eaters. See B. xxxii. c. 38. This is one of the fixed oils.

23. In reality, no fixed oil can be obtained from them.

24. Or wild vine. See B. xii. c. 61, and B. xiii. c. 2.

25. Not an oil, so much as a medicinal preparation. Dioscorides mentions

as component parts of it, omphacium, sweet rush, Celtic nard, aspalathus,

costus, and must. It received its name from gleu=kos, "must."

26. The Convolvulus scoparius of Linnus. See B. xii. c. 52, and B. xiii.

c. 2.

27. See B. xii. c. 95.

28. See B. xii. c. 54, and B. xiii. c. 2.

29. See B. xii. c. 29.

30. See B. xii. c. 57.

31. See B. xiii. c. 2, p. 163.

32. See B. xii. c. 41.

33. See B. xiii. c. 2.

34. Fe doubts the possibility of such a resemblance.

35. Hyoseyamus. A medicinal oil is still extracted from it. See B. xxiii.

c. 49.

36. This medicinal oil is no longer used. The Lupinus albus was formerly

held in greater esteem than it is now.

37. The Raphanus sativus of Linnus. See B. xix. c. 26. This is one

of the fixed oils; varieties of it are rape oil, and colza oil, now so extensively used.

38. From the Greek xo/rtos,, "grass." This medicinal oil would be totally without power or effect.

39. A fixed oil is still extracted in Egypt from the grain known as sesamum.

40. See B. xxii. c. 15.

41. From kni/dh, a "nettle." The nettle, or Urtica urens of Linnus, has

no oleaginous principles in its seed.

42. Lily oil is still used as a medicinal composition: it is made from the

petals of the white lily, Lilium candidum of Linnus.

43. From Selga, a town of Pisidia. See B. xxiii. c. 49.

44. See B. iii. c. 9, and B. xxiii. c. 49.

45. A volatile oil, mixed with a small proportion of empyreumatic oil and

carbon.

46. "Oil-honey." Probably a terebinthine, or oleo-resin. See B. xxiii.

c. 50.

47. When rancid and oxygenized by age, it has an irritating quality, and

may be found useful for herpetic diseases.

48. It very probably will have this effect; but at the expense of the colour

of the ivory, which very soon will turn yellow.




8. Chap. 8. (8.)-Amurca.


CHAP. 8. (8.)-AMURCA.



But it is upon the praises of amurca[1] more particularly, that

Cato[2] has enlarged. He recommends that vats and casks[3]

for keeping oil should be first seasoned with it, to prevent

them from soaking up the oil; and he tells us that threshing-floors should be well rubbed with it, to keep away ants,[4]

and to prevent any chinks or crannies from being left.

The mortar, too, of walls, he says, ought to be seasoned with

it, as well as the roofs and floors of granaries; and he recommends that wardrobes should be sprinkled with amurca as a

preservative against wood-worms and other noxious insects.

He says, too, that all grain of the cereals should be steeped in

it, and speaks of it as efficacious for the cure of maladies in

cattle as well as trees, and as useful even for ulcerations in

the inside and upon the face of man. We learn from him, also,

that thongs, all articles made of leather, sandals, and axletrees used to be anointed with boiled amurca; which was

employed also to preserve copper vessels against verdigrease,[5]

and to give them a better colour; as also for the seasoning of

all utensils made of wood, as well as the earthen jars in which

dried figs were kept, or of sprigs of myrtle with the leaves

and berries on, or any other articles of a similar nature: in

addition to which, he asserts that wood which has been steeped

in amurca will burn without producing a stifling smoke.[6]



According to M. Varro,[7] an olive-tree which has been

licked by the tongue of the she-goat, or upon which she has







browsed when it was first budding,[8] is sure to be barren.

Thus much in reference to the olive and the oils.







1. It has quite lost its ancient repute: the only use it is now put to is

the manufacture of an inferior soap. See B. xxiii. c. 37.

2. De Re Rust. cc. 130, 169.

3. Dolia and cadi. Fe observes, that this, if done with the modern

vessels, would have a tendency to make the oil turn rancid.

4. On the contrary, Fe is inclined to think it would attract them, from

its mucilaginous properties.

5. Olive oil, however, has a tendency to generate verdigrease in copper

vessels.

6. This, as Fe remarks, is probably so absurd as not to be worth discussing.

7. Re Rust. B. i. c. 2.

8. If she happens to have destroyed the buds, but not otherwise.




9. Chap. 9. (9.)-The Various Kinds Of Fruit-Trees And Their Natures. Four Varieties Of Pine-Nuts.


CHAP. 9. (9.)-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF FRUIT-TREES AND THEIR

NATURES. FOUR VARIETIES OF PINE-NUTS.



The other fruits found on trees can hardly be enumerated,

from their diversity in shape and figure, without reference to

their different flavours and juices, which have again been

modified by repeated combinations and graftings.



(10.) The largest fruit, and, indeed, the one that hangs at

the greatest height, is the pine-nut. It contains within a

number of small kernels, enclosed in arched beds, and covered

with a coat of their own of rusty iron-colour; Nature thus manifesting a marvellous degree of care in providing its seeds with

a soft receptacle. Another variety of this nut is the terentina,[1] the shell of which may be broken with the fingers; and

hence it becomes a prey to the birds while still on the tree. A

third, again, is known as the "sappinia,"[2] being the produce

of the cultivated pitch-tree: the kernels are enclosed in a

skin more than a shell, which is so remarkably soft that it is

eaten together with the fruit. A fourth variety is that known

as the "pityis;" it is the produce of the pinaster,[3] and is

remarkable as a good specific for coughs. The kernels are

sometimes boiled in honey[4] among the Taurini, who then call

them "aquiceli." The conquerors at the Isthmian games are

crowned with a wreath of pine-leaves.







1. The Pinus cembro, probably, of Linnus.

2. See B. xvi. c. 23. The nuts of the pine are sweet, and have an

agreeable flavour.

3. Probably the wild pine, the Pinus silvestris of the moderns. The

nuts are slightly resinous.

4. Neither the people of Turin nor of any other place are known at the

present day to make this preparation.




10. Chap. 10. (11.)-The Quince. Four Kinds Of Cydonia, And Four Varieties Of The Struthea.


CHAP. 10. (11.)-THE QUINCE. FOUR KINDS OF CYDONIA, AND

FOUR VARIETIES OF THE STRUTHEA.



Next in size after these are the fruit called by us "cotonea,"[1] by the Greeks "Cydonia,"[2] and first introduced







from the island of Crete. These fruit bend the branches with

their weight, and so tend to impede the growth of the parent

tree. The varieties are numerous. The chrysomelum[3] is

marked with indentations down it, and has a colour inclining

to gold; the one that is known as the "Italian" quince, is of a

paler complexion, and has a most exquisite smell: the quinces

of Neapolis, too, are held in high esteem. The smaller varieties of the quince which are known as the "struthea,"[4] have

a more pungent smell, but ripen later than the others; that

called the "musteum,"[5] ripens the soonest of all. The cotoneum engrafted[6] on the strutheum, has produced a peculiar

variety, known as the "Mulvianum," the only one of them

all that is eaten raw.[7] At the present day all these varieties

are kept shut up in the antechambers of great men,[8] where they

receive the visits of their courtiers; they are hung, too, upon

the statues[9] that pass the night with us in our chambers.



There is a small wild[10] quince also, the smell of which, next

to that of the strutheum, is the most powerful; it grows in

the hedges.







1. The quince, the Pirus Cydonia of Linnus.

2. From Cydonia, a city of Crete. The Latin name is only a corruption

of the Greek one: in England they were formerly called "melicotones."

3. Or "golden apple." The quince was sacred to Venus, and was an

emblem of love.

4. Apparently meaning the "sparrow quince." Dioscorides, Galen, and

Athenus, however, say that it was a large variety. Qy. if in such case,

it might not mean the ostrich quince?

5. "Early ripener."

6. Quinces are not grafted on quinces at the present day, but the pear is.

7. Fe suggests that this is a kind of pear.

8. Probably on account of the fragrance of their scent.

9. We learn from other sources that the bed-chambers were frequently

ornamented with statues of the divinities.

10. The Mala cotonea silvestris of Bauhin; the Cydonia vulgaris of modern botanists.




11. Chap. 11.-Six Varieties Of The Peach.


CHAP. 11.-SIX VARIETIES OF THE PEACH.



Under the head of apples,[1] we include a variety of fruits,

although of an entirely different nature, such as the Persian[2]

apple, for instance, and the pomegranate, of which, when

speaking of the tree, we have already enumerated[3] nine varieties. The pomegranate has a seed within, enclosed in a







skin; the peach has a stone inside. Some among the pears,

also, known as "libralia,"[4] show, by their name, what a

remarkable weight they attain.



(12.) Among the peaches the palm must be awarded to the

duracinus:[5] the Gallic and the Asiatic peach are distinguished

respectively by the names of the countries of their origin.

They ripen at the end of autumn, though some of the early.[6]

kinds are ripe in the summer. It is only within the last thirty

years that these last have been introduced; originally they

were sold at the price of a denarius a piece. Those known as

the "supernatia"[7] come from the country of the Sabines, but

the "popularia" grow everywhere. This is a very harmless

fruit, and a particular favourite with invalids: some, in fact,

have sold before this as high as thirty sesterces apiece, a price

that has never been exceeded by any other fruit. This, too, is

the more to be wondered at, as there is none that is a worse

keeper: for, when it is once plucked, the longest time that it

will keep is a couple of days; and so sold it must be, fetch

what it may.







1. "Mala." The term "malum," somewhat similar to "pome" with

us, was applied to a number of different fruits: the orange, the citron,

the pomegranate, the apricot, and others.

2. Or peach.

3. See B. xiii. c. 34.

4. Or "pound-weight" pears: the Pirus volema of Linnus.

5. Or "hard-berry"-probably in reference to the firmness of the flesh.

It is generally thought to be the nectarine.

6. "Prcocia." It is generally thought that in this name originates

the word "apricot," the Prunus Armeniaca of Linnus. There is, however, an early peach that ripens by the middle of July, though it is very

doubtful if it was known to Pliny.

7. "From above."




12. Chap. 12. (13).-Twelve Kinds Of Plums.


CHAP. 12. (13).-TWELVE KINDS OF PLUMS.



Next comes a vast number of varieties of the plum, the

parti-coloured, the black,[1] the white,[2] the barley[3] plum-so called, because it is ripe at barley-harvest-and another of

the same colour as the last, but which ripens later, and is of a

larger size, generally known as the "asinina,"[4] from the little

esteem in which it is held. There are the onychina, too, the







cerina,[5]-more esteemed, and the purple[6] plum: the Armenian,[7] also an exotic from foreign parts, the only one among the

plums that recommends itself by its smell. The plum-tree

grafted on the nut exhibits what we may call a piece of impudence quite its own, for it produces a fruit that has all the appearance of the parent stock, together with the juice of the

adopted fruit: in consequence of its being thus compounded of

both, it is known by the name of "nuci-pruna."[8] Nut-prunes,

as well as the peach, the wild plum,[9] and the cerina, are often

put in casks, and so kept till the crop comes of the following

year. All the other varieties ripen with the greatest rapidity,

and pass off just as quickly. More recently, in Btica, they have

begun to introduce what they call "malina," or the fruit of

the plum engrafted on the apple-tree,[10] and "amygdalina," the

fruit of the plum engrafted on the almond-tree,[11] the kernel

found in the stone of these last being that of the almond;[12] indeed, there is no specimen in which two fruits have been more

ingeniously combined in one.



Among the foreign trees we have already spoken[13] of the

Damascene[14] plum, so called from Damascus, in Syria, but

introduced long since into Italy; though the stone of this plum

is larger than usual, and the flesh smaller in quantity. This

plum will never dry so far as to wrinkle; to effect that, it

needs the sun of its own native country. The myxa,[15] too,







may be mentioned, as being the fellow-countryman of the

Damascene: it has of late been introduced into Rome, and

has been grown engrafted upon the sorb.







1. Perhaps the Prunus ungarica of naturalists, the black damask plum;

or else the Prunus perdrigona, the perdrigon.

2. Probably the Prunus galatensis of naturalists.

3. "Hordearia:" the Prunus prcox of naturalists; probably our

harvest plum.

4. Or "ass"-plum. The Prunus acinaria of naturalists: the cherry

plum of the French.

5. Or "wax plum." The Prunus cereola of naturalists: the mirabelle

of the French.

6. Possibly the Prunus enucleata of Lamarck: the myrobalan of the

French. Many varieties, however, are purple.

7. There are two opinions on this: that it is the Prunus Claudiana of

Lamarck, the "Reine Claude" of the French; or else that it is identical

with the apricot already mentioned, remarkable for the sweetness of its

smell.

8. Or nut-prune.

9. The Prunus insititia of Linnus.

10. The result of this would only be a plum like that of the tree from

which the graft was cut.

11. The same as with reference to the graft on the apple.

12. This is probably quite fabulous.

13. B. xiii. c. 10.

14. The Prunus Damascena of the naturalists; our common damson, with

its numerous varieties.

15. Probably the Cordia myxa of Linnus; the Sebestier of the French.

It has a viscous pulp, and is much used as a pectoral. It grows only in

Syria and Egypt; and hence Fe is inclined to reject what Pliny says as

to its naturalization at Rome, and the account he gives as to its being engrafted on the sorb.




13. Chap. 13.-The Peach.


CHAP. 13.-THE PEACH.



The name of "Persica," or "Persian apple," given to this

fruit, fully proves that it is an exotic in both Greece as well

as Asia,[1] and that it was first introduced from Persis. As to

the wild plum, it is a well-known fact that it will grow anywhere; and I am, therefore, the more surprised that no mention has been made of it by Cato, more particularly as he has

pointed out the method of preserving several of the wild

fruits as well. As to the peach-tree, it has been only introduced of late years, and with considerable difficulty; so much

so, that it is perfectly barren in the Isle of Rhodes, the first

resting-place[2] that it found after leaving Egypt.



It is quite untrue that the peach which grows in Persia is

poisonous, and produces dreadful tortures, or that the kings

of that country, from motives of revenge, had it transplanted

in Egypt, where, through the nature of the soil, it lost all its

evil properties-for we find that it is of the "persea"[3] that

the more careful writers have stated all this,[4] a totally different

tree, the fruit of which resembles the red myxa, and, indeed,

cannot be successfully cultivated anywhere but in the East.

The learned have also maintained that it was not introduced

from Persis into Egypt with the view of inflicting punishment,

but say that it was planted at Memphis by Perseus; for

which reason it was that Alexander gave orders that the victors should be crowned with it in the games which he instituted there in honour of his[5] ancestor: indeed, this tree has

always leaves and fruit upon it, growing immediately upon the

others. It must be quite evident to every one that all our

plums have been introduced since the time of Cato.[6]











1. I. e. Asia Minor.

2. Hospitium.

3. See B. xiii. c. 17. The Balanites gyptiaca of Delille.

4. It was this probably, and not the peach-tree, that would not bear

fruit in the isle of Rhodes.

5. Perseus.

6. Fe remarks that the wild plum, the Prunus silvestris or insititia of

Linnus, was to be found in Italy before the days of Cato.




14. Chap. 14. (14.)-Thirty Different Kinds Of Pomes. At What Period Foreign Fruits Were First Introduced Into Italy, And Whence.


CHAP. 14. (14.)-THIRTY DIFFERENT KINDS OF POMES. AT WHAT

PERIOD FOREIGN FRUITS WERE FIRST INTRODUCED INTO ITALY,

AND WHENCE.



There are numerous varieties of pomes. Of the citron[1] we

have already made mention when describing its tree; the

Greeks gave it the name of "Medica,"[2] from its native country. The jujube[3]-tree and the tuber[4] are equally exotics;

indeed, they have, both of them, been introduced only of late

years into Italy; the latter from Africa, the former from Syria.

Sextus Papinius, whom we have seen consul,[5] introduced them

both in the latter years of the reign of Augustus, produced

from slips which he had grown within his camp. The fruit

of the jujube more nearly resembles a berry than an apple:

the tree sets off a terrace[6] remarkably well, and it is not uncommon to see whole woods of it climbing up to the very roofs

of the houses.



Of the tuber there are two varieties; the white, and the one

called "syricum,"[7] from its colour. Those fruits, too, may

be almost pronounced exotic which grow nowhere in Italy but

in the territory of Verona, and are known as the wool-fruit.[8]

They are covered with a woolly down; this is found, it is true,

to a very considerable extent, on both the strutheum variety of

quince and the peach, but still it has given its name to this

particular fruit, which is recommended to us by no other

remarkable quality.







1. See B. xii. c. 7.

2. Of Media.

3. Its fruit will ripen in France, as far north as Tours. It is the Zizyphus vulgaris of Lamarck. It resembles a small plum, and is sometimes used

as a sweetmeat. The confection sold as jujube paste is not the dried jelly

of this fruit, but merely gum arabic and sugar, coloured.

4. A variety of the jujube, Fe is inclined to think. A nut-peach has

also been suggested.

5. A.U.C. 779.

6. Or perhaps embankment: "agger."

7. A reddish colour. For the composition of this colour, see B.

xxxv. c. 24.

8. "Lanata;" perhaps rather the "downy" fruit; a variety of quince,

Fe thinks. Pliny probably had never seen this fruit, in his opinion,

and only speaks after Virgil, Eel. ii. 1. 51. "Ipse ego cana legam tenera

lanugine mala."




15. Chap. 15.-The Fruits That Have Been Most Recently Introduced.


CHAP. 15.-THE FRUITS THAT HAVE BEEN MOST RECENTLY

INTRODUCED.



Why should I hesitate to make some mention, too, of other







varieties by name, seeing that they have conferred everlasting

remembrance on those who were the first to introduce them,

as having rendered some service to their fellow-men? Unless

I am very much mistaken, an enumeration of them will tend

to throw some light upon the ingenuity that is displayed in the

art of grafting, and it will be the more easily understood that

there is nothing so trifling in itself from which a certain

amount of celebrity cannot be ensured. Hence it is that we

have fruits which derive their names from Matius,[1] Cestius,

Mallius, and Scandius.[2] Appius, too, a member of the

Claudian family, grafted the quince on the Scandian fruit, in

consequence of which the produce is known as the Appian.

This fruit has the smell of the quince, and is of the same size

as the Scandian apple, and of a ruddy colour. Let no one,

however, imagine that this name was merely given in a spirit

of flattery to an illustrious family, for there is an apple known

as the Sceptian,[3] which owes its name to the son of a freedman, who was the first to introduce it: it is remarkable for

the roundness of its shape. To those already mentioned,

Cato[4] adds the Quirinian and the Scantian varieties, which

last, he says, keep remarkably well in large vessels.[5] The

latest kind of all, however, that has been introduced is the

small apple known as the Petisian,[6] remarkable for its delightful flavour: the Amerinian[7] apple, too, and the little Greek[8]

have conferred renown on their respective countries.



The remaining varieties have received their name from

various circumstances-the apples known as the "gemella"[9]

are always found hanging in pairs upon one stalk, like twins,







and never growing singly. That known as the "syricum"[10]

is so called from its colour, while the "melapium"[11] has its

name from its strong resemblance to the pear. The "musteum"[12] was so called from the rapidity with which it ripens;

it is the melimelum of the present day, which derives its appellation from its flavour, being like that of honey. The

"orbiculatum,"[13] again, is so called from its shape, which is

exactly spherical-the circumstance of the Greeks having called

it the "epiroticum" proves that it came originally from

Epirus. The orthomastium[14] has that peculiar appellation

from its resemblance to a teat; and the "spadonium"[15] of the

Belg is so nicknamed from the total absence of pips. The

melofolium[16] has one leaf, and occasionally two, shooting from

the middle of the fruit. That known as the "pannuceum"[17]

shrivels with the greatest rapidity; while the "pulmoneum"[18]

has a lumpish, swollen appearance.



Some apples are just the colour of blood, owing to an original

graft of the mulberry; but they are all of them red on the

side which is turned towards the sun. There are some small

wild[19] apples also, remarkable for their fine flavour and the

peculiar pungency of their smell. Some, again, are so remarkably[20] sour, that they are held in disesteem; indeed their

acidity is so extreme, that it will even take the edge from off

a knife. The worst apples of all are those which from their

mealiness have received the name of "farinacea;"[21] they are







the first, however, to ripen, and ought to be gathered as soon

as possible.







1. See B. xii. c. 6. The Matian and the Cestian apple are thought by

Dalechamps to have been the French "court-pendu," or "short stalk."

2. The Scandian is thought to have been a winter pear.

3. Adrian Junius takes this to be the "kers-appel" of the Flemish.

4. De Re Rust. cc. 7 and 143.

5. Dolia.

6. Hardouin says that this is the "Pomme d'api" of the French; it is

the "Court-pendu" with Adrian Junius.

7. The "Pomme de Saint Thomas," according to Adrian Junius: Dalechamps identifies it with the pomme de Granoi. See B. iii. c. 19, and cc. 17

and 18 of the present Book.

8. "Grcula." So called, perhaps, from Tarentum, situated in Magna

Grcia.

9. Twins. This variety is unknown.

10. Or "red" apple. The red calville of the French, according to Hardouin; the Pomme suzine, according to Dalechamps.

11. The Girandotte of the French; the appel-heeren of the Dutch.

12. The "early ripener." Dalechamps identifies it with the pomme

Saint Jean, the apple of St. John.

13. The Pomme rose, or rose apple, according to Dalechamps.

14. Or "erect teat." The Pomme taponne of the French, according to

Dalechamps.

15. Or eunuch. The Passe pomme, or Pomme grillotte of the French.

16. Or "leaf apple." Fe remarks that this occasionally happens, but the

apple does not form a distinct variety.

17. The Pomme pannete, according to Dalechamps: the Pomme gele

of Provence.

18. Or "lung" apple. The Pomme folane, according to Dalechamps.

19. The Pirus malus of Linnus, the wild apple, or estranguillon of the

French.

20. It is doubtful whether he does not allude here to a peculiar variety.

21. Or "mealy" apples.




16. Chap. 16. (15.)-Forty-One Varieties Of The Pear.


CHAP. 16. (15.)-FORTY-ONE VARIETIES OF THE PEAR.



A similar degree of precocity has caused the appellation of

"superbum"[1] to be given to one species of the pear: it is a

small fruit, but ripens with remarkable rapidity. All the

world are extremely partial to the Crustumian[2] pear; and next

to it comes the Falernian,[3] so called from the drink[4] which

it affords, so abundant is its juice. This juice is known by

the name of "milk" in the variety which, of a black colour,

is by some called the pear of Syria.[5] The denominations

given to the others vary according to the respective localities of

their growth. Among the pears, the names of which have been

adopted in our city, the Decimian pear, and the Pseudo-

Decimian-an offshoot from it-have conferred considerable

renown upon the name of those who introduced them. The

same is the case, too, with the variety known as the "Dolabellian,"[6] remarkable for the length of its stalk, the Pomponian,[7] surnamed the mammosum,[8] the Licerian, the

Sevian, the Turranian, a variety of the Sevian, but distinguished from it by the greater length of the stalk, the Favonian,[9] a red pear, rather larger than the superbum,together

with the Laterian[10] and the Anician, which come at the end

of autumn, and are pleasant for the acidity of their flavour.







One variety is known as the "Tiberian,"[11] from its having

been a particular favourite with the Emperor Tiberius; it is

more coloured by the sun, and grows to a larger size, otherwise

it would be identical with the Licerian variety.



The following kinds receive their respective names from

their native countries: the Amerinian,[12] the latest pear of all,

the Picentine, the Numantine, the Alexandrian, the Numidian, the Greek, a variety of which is the Tarentine, and the

Signine,[13] by some called "testaceum," from its colour, like

earthenware; a reason which has also given their respective

names to the "onychine"[14] and the "purple" kinds. Then,

again, we have the "myrapium,"[15] the "laureum," and the

"nardinum,"[16] so called from the odour they emit; the "hordearium,"[17] from the season at which it comes[18] in; and the

"ampullaceum,"[19] so called from its long narrow neck. Those,

again, that are known as the "Coriolanian"[20] and the "Brut.

tian," owe their names to the places of their origin; added to

which we have the cucurbitinum,[21] and the "acidulum," so

named from the acidity of its juice. It is quite uncertain for

what reason their respective names were given to the varieties

known as the "barbaricum" and the "Venerium,"[22] which last

is known also as the "coloratum;"[23] the royal pear[24] too, which







has a remarkably short stalk, and will stand on its end, as also

the patricium, and the voconium,[25] a green oblong kind. In

addition to these, Virgil[26] has made mention of a pear called the

"volema,"[27] a name which he has borrowed from Cato,[28] who

makes mention also of kinds known as the "sementivum"[29]

and the "musteum."[30]







1. Or "proud" pear. The Petite muscadelle, according to Dalechamps.

Adrian Junius says that it is the water-peere of the Dutch.

2. From Crustumium in Italy; the Poire perle, or pearl pear, according

to Dalechamps: the Jacob's peere of the Flemish.

3. The Poire sucre, or "sugar-pear," according to Hardouin; the Bergamotte, according to Dalechamps.

4. "Potu." He would appear to allude to the manufacture of perry.

5. The Syrian pear is commended by Martial; it has not been identified,

however.

6. The Poire musot, according to Dalechamps. Adrian Junius says that

it is the Engelsche braet-peere of the Flemish.

7. The Pirus Pompeiana of Linnus. Dalechamps identifies it with

the Bon chretien, and Adrian Junius with the Taffel-peere of the Flemish.

8. The "breast-formed."

9. The Pirus Favonia of Linnus: the Grosse poire muscadelle of the

French.

10. The Poire prevost, according to Dalechamps.

11. The Poire fore, according to Dalechamps.

12. The Saint Thomas's pear of the Flemish.

13. The Poire chat of the French, according to Dalechamps; the Riet-peere

of the Flemish.

14. "Like onyx." The Cuisse-madame, according to Dalechamps.

15. The Calveau rosat, according to Dalechamps. Perhaps the Poire

d'ambre, or amber pear, of the French.

16. The Poire d'argent, or silver pear, according to Dalechamps.

17. Or "barley pear." The Poire de Saint Jean, according to Dalechamps;

the musquette or muscadella, according to Adrian Junius.

18. Barley-harvest.

19. So called from its resemblance to the "ampulla," a big-bellied vessel

with a small neck, identified with the Poire d'angoisse by Dalechamps.

20. The Poire de jalousie, according to Dalechamps.

21. Or gourd-pear. This is the "isbout" according to Adrian Junius,

the Poire courge of Dalechamps, and the Poire de sarteau, or de campane

of others.

22. The Poire de Venus, according to Adrian Junius; the Poire acciole,

according to Dalechamps.

23. Coloured pear.

24. "Regium." The Poire carmagnole, according to Dalechamps; the Mispeel-peere of the Flemish, according to Adrian Junius.

25. The Poire sarteau, according to Dalechamps.

26. Georgics, ii. 87.

27. "A handful"-probably the pound or pounder pear: the Bergamotte,

according to Hardouin; the Bon chretien of summer, according to Adrian

Junius.

28. De Re Rust. c. 7.

29. Or "Seedling."

30. The "early ripener." Fe suggests that this may be a variety of the

Bon chretien.




17. Chap. 17.-Various Methods Of Grafting Trees. Expiations For Lightning.


CHAP. 17.-VARIOUS METHODS OF GRAFTING TREES. EXPIATIONS FOR LIGHTNING.



This branch of civilized life has long since been brought to

the very highest pitch of perfection, for man has left nothing

untried here. Hence it is that we find Virgil[1] speaking of

grafting the nut-tree on the arbutus, the apple on the plane,

and the cherry on the elm. Indeed, there is nothing further

in this department that can possibly be devised, and it is a

long time since any new variety of fruit has been discovered.

Religious scruples, too, will not allow of indiscriminate grafting; thus, for instance, it is not permitted to graft upon the

thorn, for it is not easy, by any mode of expiation, to avoid

the disastrous effects of lightning; and we are told[2] that as

many as are the kinds of trees that have been engrafted on the

thorn, so many are the thunderbolts that will be hurled against

that spot in a single flash.



The form of the pear is turbinated; the later kinds remain

on the parent tree till winter, when they ripen with the frost;

such, for instance, as the Greek variety, the ampullaceum, and

the laureum; the same, too, with apples of the Amerinian

and the Scandian kinds. Apples and pears are prepared for







keeping just like grapes, and in as many different ways; but,

with the exception of plums, they are the only fruit that are

stored in casks.[3] Apples and pears have certain vinous[4]

properties, and like wine these drinks are forbidden to invalids by

the physicians. These fruits are sometimes boiled up with wine

and water, and, so make a preserve[5] that is eaten with bread;

a preparation which is never made of any other fruit, with the

exception of the quinces, known as the "cotoneum" and the

"strutheum."







1. Georgics, ii. 69. This statement of Virgil must be regarded as fabu-

lous; grafting being impracticable with trees not of the same family, and

not always successful even then.

2. This was probably some superstition taught by the augurs for the

purpose of enveloping their profession in additional mystery and awe.

3. Cadis.

4. He probably alludes here to cider and perry. See p. 300, and B. xxiii.

c. 62.

5. "Pulmentarii vicem;" properly "a substitute for pulmentarium," which

was anything eaten with bread, such as meat, vegetables, &c. He alludes

to marmalade. The French raisine is a somewhat similar preparation

from pears and quinces boiled in new wine.




18. Chap. 18. (16.)-The Mode Of Keeping Various Fruits And Grapes.


CHAP. 18. (16.)-THE MODE OF KEEPING VARIOUS FRUITS AND

GRAPES.



For the better preserving of fruits it is universally recommended that the storeroom should be situate in a cool, dry

spot, with a well-boarded floor, and windows looking towards

the north; which in fine weather ought to be kept open. Care

should also be taken to keep out the south wind by window

panes,[1] while at the same time it should be borne in mind that

a north-east wind will shrivel fruit and make it unsightly. Apples are gathered after the autumnal equinox; but the gathering should never begin before the sixteenth day of the moon,

or before the first hour of the day. Windfalls should always

be kept separate, and there ought to be a layer of straw, or

else mats or chaff, placed beneath. They should, also, be

placed apart from each other, in rows, so that the air may circulate freely between them, and they may equally gain the

benefit of it. The Amerinian apple is the best keeper, the

melimelum the very worst of all.



(17.) Quinces ought to be stored in a place kept perfectly

closed, so as to exclude all draughts; or else they should be

boiled in honey[2] or soaked in it. Pomegranates are made







hard and firm by being first put in boiling[3] sea-water, and

then left to dry for three days in the sun, care being taken that

the dews of the night do not touch them; after which they

are hung up, and when wanted for use, washed with fresh

water. M. Varro[4] recommends that they should be kept in

large vessels filled with sand: if they are not ripe, he says

that they should be put in pots with the bottom broken out,

and then buried[5] in the earth, all access to the air being carefully shut, and care being first taken to cover the stalk with

pitch. By this mode of treatment, he assures us, they will

attain a larger size than they would if left to ripen on the tree.

As for the other kinds of pomes, he says that they should be

wrapped up separately in fig-leaves, the windfalls being carefully excluded, and then stored in baskets of osier, or else

covered over with potters' earth.



Pears are kept in earthen vessels pitched inside; when

filled, the vessels are reversed and then buried in pits. The

Tarentine pear, Varro says, is gathered very late, while the

Anician keeps very well in raisin wine. Sorb apples, too, are

similarly kept in holes in the ground, the vessel being turned

upside down, and a layer of plaster placed on the lid: it should be

buried two feet deep, in a sunny spot; sorbs[6] are also hung, like

grapes, in the inside of large vessels, together with the branches.



Some of the more recent authors are found to pay a more

scrupulous degree of attention to these various particulars, and

recommend that the gathering of grapes or pomes, which are

intended for keeping, should take place while the moon is on

the wane,[7] after the third hour of the day, and while the

weather is clear, or dry winds prevail. In a similar manner,

the selection, they say, ought to be made from a dry spot, and

the fruit should be plucked before it is fully ripe, a moment

being chosen while the moon is below the horizon. Grapes,

they say, should be selected that have a strong, hard mallets-talk, and after the decayed berries have been carefully removed with a pair of scissors, they should be hung up inside of







a large vessel which has just been pitched, care being taken to

close all access to the south wind, by covering the lid with a

coat of plaster. The same method, they say, should be adopted

for keeping sorb apples and pears, the stalks being carefully

covered with pitch; care should be taken, too, that the vessels are kept at a distance from water.



There are some persons who adopt the following method for

preserving grapes. They take them off together with the

branch, and place them, while still upon it, in a layer of

plaster,[8] taking care to fasten either end of the branch in a

bulb of squill.[9] Others, again, go so far as to place them

within vessels containing wine, taking care, however, that the

grapes, as they hang, do not touch it. Some persons put

apples in plates of earth, and then leave them to float in wine,

a method by which it is thought that a vinous flavour is imparted to them: while some think it a better plan to preserve all

these kinds of fruit in millet. Most people, however, content

themselves with first digging a hole in the ground, a couple of

feet in depth; a layer of sand is then placed at the bottom,

and the fruit is arranged upon it, and covered with an earthen

lid, over which the earth is thrown. Some persons again even

go so far as to give their grapes a coating of potters' chalk, and

then hang them up when dried in the sun; when required for

use, the chalk is removed with water.[10] Apples are also preserved in a similar manner; but with them wine is employed

for getting off the chalk. Indeed, we find a very similar plan

pursued with apples of the finest quality; they have a coating

laid upon them of either plaster or wax; but they are apt, if

not quite ripe when this was done, by the increase in their

size to break their casing.[11] When apples are thus prepared,

they are always laid with the stalk downwards.[12] Some

persons pluck the apple together with the branch, the ends of

which they thrust into the pith of elder,[13] and then bury it in







the way already pointed out.[14] There are some who assign to

each apple or pear its separate vessel of clay, and after care-

fully pitching the cover, enclose it again in a larger vessel:

occasionally, too, the fruit is placed on a layer of flocks of

wool, or else in baskets,[15] with a lining of chaff and clay.

Other persons follow a similar plan, but use earthen plates for

the purpose; while others, again, employ the same method,

but dig a hole in the earth, and after placing a layer of sand,

lay the fruit on top of it, and then cover the whole with dry

earth. Persons, too, are sometimes known to give quinces a

coating of Pontic[16] wax, and then plunge them in honey.

Columella[17] informs us, that fruit is kept by being carefully

put in earthen vessels, which then receive a coating of pitch, and

are placed in wells or cisterns to sink to the bottom. The people

of maritime Liguria, in the vicinity of the Alps, first dry their

grapes in the sun,[18] and wrap them up in bundles of rushes,

which are then covered with plaster. The Greeks follow a

similar plan, but substitute for rushes the leaves of the plane-

tree, or of the vine itself, or else of the fig, which they dry

for a single day in the shade, and then place in a cask in

alternate layers with husks[19] of grapes. It is by this method

that they preserve the grapes of Cos and Berytus, which are

inferior to none in sweetness. Some persons, when thus pre-

paring them, plunge the grapes into lie-ashes the moment they

take them from the vine, and then dry them in the sun; they

then steep them in warm water, after which they put them to

dry again in the sun: and last of all, as already mentioned,

wrap them up in bundles formed of layers of leaves and grape

husks. There are some who prefer keeping their grapes in

sawdust,[20] or else in shavings of the fir-tree, poplar, and ash:

while others think it the best plan to hang them up in the

granary, at a careful distance from the apples, directly after the

gathering, being under the impression that the very best cover-

ing for them as they hang is the dust[21] that naturally arises







from the floor. Grapes are effectually protected against the

attacks of wasps by being sprinkled with oil[22] spirted from the

mouth. Of palm-dates we have already spoken.[23]







1. "Specularibus." the alludes to windows of transparent stone, lapis

specularis, or mica; windows of glass being probably unknown in his time.

The ordinary windows were merely openings closed with shutters. See B.

xxxvi. c. 45.

2. He must allude to a kind of quince marmalade.

3. As Fe remarks, the fruit, if treated thus, would soon lose all the

properties for which it is valued.

4. De Re Rust. B.i.c. 59.

5. A faulty proceeding, however dry it may be.

6. This fruit, Fe remarks, keeps but indifferently, and soon becomes

soft, vinous, and acid.

7. An absurd superstition.

8. A method not unlikely to spoil the grape, from the difficulty of removing the coat thus given to it.

9. A very absurd notion, as Fe observes. To keep fruit in millet is

also condemned.

10. Which, of course, must deteriorate the flavour of the grape.

11. It is doubtful if they will increase in size, when once plucked.

12. The modern authorities recommend the precisely opposite plan.

13. As absurd as the use of the bulb of squill.

14. In a pit two feet deep, &c. See above.

15. Caps.

16. See B. xxi. c. 49.

17. De Re Rust. B. xii. c. 43.

18. These must make raisins of the sun.

19. These must have been perfectly dry, or else they would tend to rot

the grapes or raisins.

20. Columella, for instance, B. xii. c. 43.

21. The dust is in reality very liable to spoil the fruit, from the tenacity

with which it adheres. In all these methods, little attention would seem

to be paid to the retention of the flavour of the fruits.

22. A detestable practice, Fe says, as the oil makes an indelible mark

on the grape, and gives it an abominable flavour. It is the best method

to put the fruit in bags of paper or hair.

23. See B. xiii. c. 19.




19. Chap. 19. (18.)-Twenty-Nine Varieties Of The Fig.


CHAP. 19. (18.)-TWENTY-NINE VARIETIES OF THE FIG.



Of all the remaining fruits that are included under the

name of "pomes," the fig[1] is the largest: some, indeed, equal

the pear, even, in size. We have already mentioned, while

treating of the exotic fruits, the miraculous productions of

Egypt and Cyprus[2] in the way of figs. The fig of Mount

Ida[3] is red, and the size of an olive, rounder however, and

like a medlar in flavour; they give it the name of Alexandrian in those parts. The stem is a cubit in thickness; it is

branchy, has a tough, pliant wood, is entirely destitute of all

milky juice,[4] and has a green bark, and leaves like those of the

linden tree, but soft to the touch. Onesicritus states that in

Hyrcania the figs are much sweeter than with us, and that the

trees are more prolific, seeing that a single tree will bear as

much as two hundred and seventy modii[5] of fruit. The fig

has been introduced into Italy from other countries, Chalcis

and Chios, for instance, the varieties being very numerous:

there are those from Lydia also, which are of a purple colour,

and the kind known as the "mamillana,"[6] which is very

similar to the Lydian. The callistruthi are very little superior to the last in flavour; they are the coldest by nature of

all the figs. As to the African fig, by many people preferred

to any other, it has been made the subject of very considerable discussion, as it is a kind that has been introduced very

recently into Africa, though it bears the name of that country.







As to the fig of Alexandria,[7] it is a black variety, with the

cleft inclining to white; it has had the name given to it of

the "delicate"[8] fig: the Rhodian fig, too, and the Tiburtine,[9]

one of the early kinds, are black. Some of them, again, bear

the name of the persons who were the first to introduce them,

such, for instance, as the Livian[10] and the Pompeian[11] figs: this

last variety is the best for drying in the sun and keeping for

use, from year to year; the same is the case, too, with the

marisca,[12] and the kind which has a leaf spotted all over like

the reed.[13] There is also the Herculanean fig, the albicerata,[14]

and the white aratia, a very large variety, with an extremely

diminutive stalk.



The earliest of them all is the porphyritis,[15] which has a

stalk of remarkable length: it is closely followed by the popularis,[16] one of the very smallest of the figs, and so called from

the low esteem in which it is held: on the other hand, the

chelidonia[17] is a kind that ripens the last of all, and to-

wards the beginning of winter. In addition to these, there are

figs that are at the same time both late and early, as they bear

two crops in the year, one white and the other black,[18] ripening at harvest-time and vintage respectively. There is another

late fig also, that has received its name from the singular

hardness of its skin; one of the Chalcidian varieties bears as

many as three times in the year. It is at Tarentum only that

the remarkably sweet fig is grown which is known by the

name of "ona."



Speaking of figs, Cato has the following remarks: "Plant

the fig called the 'marisca' on a chalky or open site, but for

the African variety, the Herculanean, the Saguntine,[19] the







winter fig and the black Telanian[20] with a long stalk, you

must select a richer soil, or else a ground well manured."

Since his day there have so many names and kinds come up,

that even on taking this subject into consideration, it must be

apparent to every one how great are the changes which have

taken place in civilized life.



There are winter figs, too, in some of the provinces, the

Msian, for instance; but they are made so by artificial means,

such not being in reality their nature. Being a small

variety of the fig-tree, they cover it up with manure at the end

of autumn, by which means the fruit on it is overtaken by

winter while still in a green state: then when the weather,

becomes milder the fruit is uncovered along with the tree, and

so restored to light. Just as though it had come into birth

afresh, the fruit imbibes the heat of the new sun with the

greatest avidity-a different sun, in fact, to that[21] which originally gave it life-and so ripens along with the blossom of

the coming crop; thus attaining maturity in a year not its

own, and this in a country,[22] too, where the greatest cold

prevails.







1. There are about forty varieties now known.

2. B. xiii. c. 14, 15. These are the Ficus sycomorus of Linnus.

3. In Troas; called the Alexandrian fig, from the city of Alexandria

there. Fe doubts if this was really a fig, and suggests that it might be

the fruit of a variety of Diospyros.

4. No fig-tree now known is destitute of this.

5. Fe treats this as an exaggeration.

6. From "mamilla," a teat.

7. In Egypt. The Figue servantine, or cordeliere.

8. "Delicata." The "bon-bouche."

9. Fe suggests that this may have been the small early fig.

10. From Livia, the wife of Augustus.

11. From Pompeius Magnus.

12. Apparently meaning the "marsh" fig.

13. The Laconian reed, Theophrastus says, B. iv. c. 12.

14. The "white-wax" fig.

15. Fe queries whether it may not be the Grosse bourjasotte.

16. Or "people's" fig. The small early white fig.

17. Or "swallow"-fig.

18. Or it may mean "white and black," that being the colour of the

fig. Such a variety is still known.

19. A Spanish variety; those of the south of Spain are very highly

esteemed.

20. The modern "black" fig.

21. The sun of the former year.

22. In Msia-the present Servia and Bulgaria.




20. Chap. 20.-Historical Anecdotes Connected With The Fig.


CHAP. 20.-HISTORICAL ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH THE FIG.



[1] The mention by Cato of the variety which bears the name

of the African fig, strongly recalls to my mind a remarkable

fact connected with it and the country from which it takes

its name.



Burning with a mortal hatred to Carthage, anxious, too, for the

safety of his posterity, and exclaiming at every sitting of the

senate that Carthage must be destroyed, Cato one day brought

with him into the Senate-house a ripe fig, the produce of that

country. Exhibiting it to the assembled senators, "I ask you,"

said he, "when, do you suppose, this fruit was plucked from the

tree?" All being of opinion that it had been but lately gathered,

-Know then," was his reply, "that this fig was plucked at

Carthage but the day before yesterday[2]-so near is the enemy







to our walls." It was immediately after this occurrence that

the third Punic war commenced, in which Carthage was

destroyed, though Cato had breathed his last, the year after this

event. In this trait which are we the most to admire? was it

ingenuity[3] and foresight on his part, or was it an accident that

was thus aptly turned to advantage? which, too, is the most

surprising, the extraordinary quickness of the passage which

must have been made, or the bold daring of the man? The

thing, however, that is the most astonishing of all-indeed, I

can conceive nothing more truly marvellous-is the fact that a

city thus mighty, the rival of Rome for the sovereignty of the

world during a period of one hundred and twenty years, owed

its fall at last to an illustration drawn from a single fig!



Thus did this fig effect that which neither Trebia nor Thrasimenus, not Cann itself, graced with the entombment of the

Roman renown, not the Punic camp entrenched within three

miles of the city, not even the disgrace of seeing Hannibal

riding up to the Colline Gate, could suggest the means of

accomplishing. It was left for a fig, in the hand of Cato, to

show how near was Carthage to the gates of Rome!



In the Forum even, and in the very midst of the Comitium[4]

of Rome, a fig-tree is carefully cultivated, in memory of the

consecration which took place on the occasion of a thunderbolt[5] which once fell on that spot; and still more, as a memorial of the fig-tree which in former days overshadowed

Romulus and Remus, the founders of our empire, in the Lupercal Cave. This tree received the name of "ruminalis,"

from the circumstance that under it the wolf was found giving

the breast-rumis it was called in those days-to the two

infants. A group in bronze was afterwards erected to consecrate the remembrance of this miraculous event, as, through

the agency of Attus Navius the augur, the tree itself had







passed spontaneously from its original locality[6] to the Comitium in the Forum. And not without some direful presage is

it that that tree has withered away, though, thanks to the

care of the priesthood, it has been since replaced.[7]



There was another fig-tree also, before the temple of Saturn,[8] which was removed on the occasion of a sacrifice made

by the Vestal Virgins, it being found that its roots were gradually undermining the statue of the god Silvanus. Another

one, accidentally planted there, flourished in the middle of the

Forum,[9] upon the very spot, too, in which, when from a direful presage it had been foreboded that the growing empire

was about to sink to its very foundations, Curtius, at the price

of an inestimable treasure-in other words, by the sacrifice of

such unbounded virtue and piety-redeemed his country by a

glorious death. By a like accident, too, a vine and an olive-tree have sprung up in the same spot,[10] which have ever since

been carefully tended by the populace for the agreeable shade

which they afford. The altar that once stood there was afterwards removed by order of the deified Julius Csar, upon the

occasion of the last spectacle of gladiatorial combats[11] which

he gave in the Forum.







1. Another war is said to have originated in this fruit. Xerxes Was

tempted by the fine figs of Athens to undertake the invasion of Greece.

2. Tertium ante diem." In dating from an event, the Romans in-

cluded both days in the computation; the one they dated from, and the

day of, the event.

3. In sending for the fig, and thinking of this method of speaking to

the feelings of his fellow-countrymen.

4. A place in the Forum, where public meetings were held, and certain

offences tried.

5. He alludes to the Puteal, or enclosed space in the Forum, consecrated

by Scribonius Libo, in consequence of the spot having been struck by

lightning.

6. On the banks of the Tiber, below the Palatine Mount. The whole

of this passage is in a most corrupt siate, and it is difficult to extract a

meaning from it.

7. By slips from the old tree, as Tacitus seems to say-" in novos ftus

revivisceret."

8. At the foot of the Capitoline Hill.

9. Probably near where the Curtius Lacus had stood in the early days of

Rome. The story of Metius Curtius, who leaped into the yawning gulph

in the Forum, in order to save his country, is known to every classical

reader.

10. The Forum.

11. See B. xix. c. 6.




21. Chap. 21.-Caprification.


CHAP. 21.-CAPRIFICATION.



The fig, the only one among all the pomes, hastens to maturity

by the aid of a remarkable provision of Nature. (19.) The

wild-fig,[1] known by the name of "caprificus," never ripens

itself, though it is able to impart to the others the principle

of which it is thus destitute; for we occasionally find Nature

making a transfer of what are primary causes, and being generated from decay. To effect this purpose the wild fig-tree







produces a kind of gnat.[2] These insects, deprived of all sustenance from their parent tree, at the moment that it is hastening to rottenness and decay, wing their flight to others of

kindred though cultivated kind. There feeding with avidity

upon the fig, they penetrate it in numerous places, and by

thus making their way to the inside, open the pores of the

fruit.[3] The moment they effect their entrance, the heat of

the sun finds admission too, and through the inlets thus made

the fecundating air is introduced. These insects speedily

consume the milky juice that constitutes the chief support

of the fruit in its infant[4] state, a result which would otherwise be spontaneously effected by absorption: and hence it is

that in the plantations of figs a wild fig is usually allowed to

grow, being placed to the windward of the other trees in

order that the breezes may bear from it upon them. Improving

upon this discovery, branches of the wild fig are sometimes

brought from a distance, and bundles tied together are placed

upon the cultivated tree. This method, however, is not necessary when the trees are growing on a thin soil, or on a site

exposed to the north-east wind; for in these cases the figs will

dry spontaneously, and the clefts which are made in the fruit

effect the same ripening process which in other instances is

brought about by the agency of these insects. Nor is it requisite

to adopt this plan on spots which are liable to dust, such, for

instance, as is generally the case with fig-trees planted by the

side of much-frequented roads: the dust having the property

of drying up[5] the juices of the fig, and so absorbing the

milky humours. There is this superiority, however, in an ad.

vantageous site over the methods of ripening by the agency of

dust or by caprification, that the fruit is not so apt to fall; for

the secretion of the juices being thus prevented, the fig is not

so heavy as it would otherwise be, and the branches are less

brittle.



All figs are soft to the touch, and when ripe contain grains[6]







in the interior. The juice, when the fruit is ripening, has the

taste of milk, and when dead ripe, that of honey. If left on

the tree they will grow old; and when in that state, they

distil a liquid that flows in tears[7] like gum. Those that are

more highly esteemed are kept for drying, and the most approved kinds are put away for keeping in baskets.[8] The figs

of the island of Ebusus[9] are the best as well as the largest,

and next to them are those of Marrucinum.[10] Where figs are

in great abundance, as in Asia, for instance, huge jars[11]

are filled with them, and at Ruspina, a city of Africa, we find

casks[12] used for a similar purpose: here, in a dry state, they

are extensively used instead of bread,[13] and indeed as a general

article of provision.[14] Cato,[15] when laying down certain definite regulations for the support of labourers employed in agriculture, recommends that their supply of food should be

lessened just at the time[16] when the fig is ripening: it has

been a plan adopted in more recent times, to find a substitute

for salt with cheese, by eating fresh figs. To this class of

fruit belong, as we have already mentioned,[17] the cottana and

the carica, together with the cavnea,[18] which was productive of

so bad an omen to M. Crassus at the moment when he was

embarking[19] for his expedition against the Parthians, a dealer

happening to be crying them just at that very moment. L.

Vitellius, who was more recently appointed to the censorship,[20] introduced all these varieties from Syria at his country-

seat at Alba,[21] having acted as legatus in that province in the

latter years of the reign of Tiberius Csar.











1. The Ficus Carica of Linnus. It does bear fruit, though small, and

disagreeable to the taste.

2. This insect is one of the Hymenoptera; the Cynips Psenes of Linnus

and Fabricius. There is another insect of the same genus, but not so

well known.

3. Fe observes that the caprification accelerates the ripeness of the

fruit, but at the expense of the favour. For the same purpose the upper

part of the fig is often pricked with a pointed quill.

4. "Infantiam pomi"-literally, "the infancy of the fruit."

5. Fe denies the truth of this assertion.

6. Frumenta.

7. A mixture of the sugar of the fruit with the milky juice of the tree,

which is a species of caoutchouc.

8. Capsis.

9. See B. iii. c. 11. The Balearic Isles still produce great quantities of

excellent dried figs.

10. See B. iii. c. 17.

11. Orc.

12. Cadi.

13. Ground, perhaps, into a kind of flour.

14. Opsonii vicem. "Opsonium" was anything eaten with bread, such as

vegetables, meat, and fish, for instance.

15. De Re Rust. c. 56.

16. Because they would be sure, under any circumstances, to eat plenty,

them.

17. See B. xiii. c. 10.

18. These were so called from Caunus, a city of Caria, famous for its dried

figs. Pronounced "Cavneas," it would sound to the superstitious, "Cave

ne eas," "Take care that you go not."

19. At Brundisium.

20. A.U.C. 801.

21. Alba Longa. See B. iii. c. 9.




22. Chap. 22. (20.)-Three Varieties Of The Medlar.


CHAP. 22. (20.)-THREE VARIETIES OF THE MEDLAR.



The medlar and the sorb[1] ought in propriety to be ranked

under the head of the apple and the pear. Of the medlar[2]

there are three varieties, the anthedon,[3] the setania,[4] and a

third of inferior quality, which bears a stronger resemblance

to the anthedon, and is known as the Gallic[5] kind. The setania is the largest fruit, and the palest in colour; the woody seed

in the inside of it is softer, too, than in the others, which are of

smaller size than the setania, but superior to it in the fragrance

of their smell, and in being better keepers. The tree itself is

one of very ample[6] dimensions: the leaves turn red before they

fall: the roots are numerous, and penetrate remarkably deep,

which renders it almost impossible to grub it up. This tree[7]

did not exist in Italy in Cato's time.







1. The sorb belongs to the genus pirus of the naturalists.

2. The Mespilus germanica of the botanists.

3. The azarolier, a tree of the south of Europe, the Mespilus apii folio

laciniato of C. Bauhin.

4. The Mespilus Italica folio laurino serrato of C. Bauhin, the Mespilus

cotoneaster of J. Bauhin.

5. Its identity is matter of uncertainty; but it has been thought to be the

Cratgus oxyacantha of modern botanists.

6. By "amplissimus," he must mean that it spreads out very much in proportion to its height, as it is merely a shrub.

7. Fe thinks it a tree indigenous to the north.




23. Chap. 23. (21).-For Varieties Of The Sorb.


CHAP. 23. (21).-FOR VARIETIES OF THE SORB.



There are four varieties of the sorb: there being some that

have all the roundness[1] of the apple, while others are conical

like the pear,[2] and a third sort are of an oval[3] shape, like

some of the apples: these last, however, are apt to be remarkably acid. The round kind is the best for fragrance and

sweetness, the others having a vinous flavour; the finest,

however, are those which have the stalk surrounded with

tender leaves. A fourth kind is known by the name of "torminalis:"[4] it is only employed, however, for remedial pur-







poses. The tree is a good bearer, but does not resemble the

other kinds, the leaf being nearly that of the plane-tree; the

fruit, too, is particularly small. Cato[5] speaks of sorbs being

preserved in boiled wine.







1. The ordinary sorb-apple of horticulturists.

2. The sorb-pear.

3. Varying but little, probably, from the common sorb, the Sorbus domestica of Linnus.

4. Fe is inclined to think that it is the Sorbus terminalis of Lamarck.

Anguillara thinks that it is the Cratgus of Theophrastus, considered by

Sprengel to be identical with the Cratgus azarolus of Linnus. In

ripening, the fruit of the sorb undergoes a sort of vinous fermentation:

hence a kind of cider made of it.

5. De Re Rust. cc. 7 and 145.




24. Chap. 24. (22.)-Nine Varieties Of The Nut.


CHAP. 24. (22.)-NINE VARIETIES OF THE NUT.



The walnut,[1] which would almost claim precedence of the

sorb in size, yields the palm to it in reference to the esteem[2]

in which they are respectively held; and this, although it is

so favourite an accompaniment of the Fescennine[3] songs at

nuptials. This nut, taken as a whole, is very considerably

smaller than the pine nut, but the kernel is larger in proportion. Nature, too, has conferred upon it a peculiar honour, in

protecting it with a two-fold covering, the first of which forms

a hollowed cushion for it to rest upon, and the second is a

woody shell. It is for this reason that this fruit has been

looked upon as a symbol consecrated to marriage,[4] its offspring being thus protected in such manifold ways: an explanation which bears a much greater air of probability than that

which would derive it from the rattling which it makes when

it bounds from the floor.[5] The Greek names that have been

given to this fruit fully prove that it, like many others, has

been originally introduced from Persis; the best kinds being

known in that language by the names of "Persicum,"[6] and

"basilicon;,[7] these, in fact, being the names by which they







were first known to us. It is generally agreed, too, that one

peculiar variety has derived its name of "caryon,"[8] from the

headache which it is apt to produce by the pungency[9] of

its smell.



The green shell of the walnut is used for dyeing[10] wool, and

the nuts, while still small and just developing themselves, are

employed for giving a red hue to the hair:[11] a discovery owing

to the stains which they leave upon the hands. When old,

the nut becomes more oleaginous. The only difference in the

several varieties consists in the relative hardness or brittleness

of the shell, it being thin or thick, full of compartments or

smooth and uniform. This is the only fruit that Nature has

enclosed in a covering formed of pieces soldered together; the

shell, in fact, forming a couple of boats, while the kernel is

divided into four separate compartments[12] by the intervention

of a ligneous membrane.



In all the other kinds, the fruit and the shell respectively

are of one solid piece, as we find the case with the hazel-nut,[13]

and another variety of the nut formerly known as "Abellina,"[14] from the name[15] of the district in which it was first

produced: it was first introduced into Asia and Greece from

Pontus, whence the name that is sometimes given to it-the

"Pontic nut." This nut, too, is protected by a soft beard,[16]

but both the shell and the kernel are round, and formed of a

single piece: these nuts are sometimes roasted.[17] In the

middle of the kernel we find a germen or navel.



A third class of nuts is the almond,[18] which has an outer







covering, similar to that of the walnut, but thinner, with a

second coat in the shape of a shell. The kernel, however, is

unlike that of the walnut, in respect of its broad, flat shape,

its firmness, and the superior tastiness of its flavour. It is a

matter of doubt whether this tree was in existence in Italy in

the time of Cato; we find him speaking of Greek nuts,[19] but

there are some persons who think that these belong to the

walnut class. He makes mention, also, of the hazel-nut, the

calva,[20] and the Prnestine[21] nut, which last he praises beyond

all others, and says[22] that, put in pots, they may be kept fresh

and green by burying them in the earth.



At the present day, the almonds of Thasos and those of

Alba are held in the highest esteem, as also two kinds that

are grown at Tarentum, one with a thin,[23] brittle shell, and the

other with a harder[24] one: these last are remarkably large,

and of an oblong shape. There is the almond known as

the "mollusk,"[25] also, which breaks the shell of itself. There

are some who would concede a highly honourable interpretation to the name given to the walnut, and say that "juggles"

means the "glens," or" acorn of Jove." It is only very lately

that I heard a man of consular rank declare, that he then

had in his possession walnut-trees that bore two[26] crops in

the year.



Of the pistachio, which belongs also to the nut class, we

have already spoken[27] in its appropriate place: Vitellius introduced this tree into Italy at the same time as the others that







we mentioned;[28] and Flaccus Pompeius, a Roman of Equestrian rank, who served with him, introduced it at the same

period into Spain.







1. The Juglans regia of Linnus.

2. Tastes have probably altered since this was written.

3. These were rude and sometimes obscene songs sung at festivals, and

more particularly marriages. While these songs were being sung at the

door of the nuptial chamber, it was the custom for the husband to scramble

walnuts among the young people assembled there. The walnut is the nut

mentioned in Solomon's Song, vi. 11.

4. Or, more probably, from the union of the two portions of the inner shell.

5. "Tripudium sonivium:" implying that it was considered sacred to marriage, from the use made of it by the friends of the bridegroom when

thrown violently against the nuptial chamber, with the view of drowning

the cries of the bride. A very absurd notion, to all appearance.

6. The "Persian" nut.

7. The "king's" nut. The walnut-tree still abounds in Persia, and

is found wild on the slopes of the Himalaya.

8. Implying that it comes from the Greek ka/rh,, "the head." Some etymologists think that it is from the Celto-Seythian carw, a boat; such being

the shape of the two parts of the inner shell.

9. It is still a common notion, Fe says, that it is highly injurious to

sleep beneath a walnut-tree.

10. It is still used for this purpose.

11. Red hair was admired by the Romans. The Roman females used

this juice also for dyeing their hair when grey.

12. They are not entirely separate.

13. The Corylus avellana maxima of Willdenow.

14. The filbert, the Corylus tubulosa of Willdenow.

15. Abellinum, in Campania. See B. iii. c. 9.

16. The down on the nut is more apparent when it is young; but it is

easily rubbed off. The outer coat is probably meant.

17. Hazel nuts are sometimes roasted in some parts of Europe, but not

with us.

18. The Amygdalus communis of Linnus.

19. De Re Rust. c. 8. Some think that this was the bitter almond; and

the word "acriore," used by Pliny, would almost seem to imply that such

is the case.

20. Apparently the "smooth" or "bald" nut. May not a variety something like the hickory nut of America be meant?

21. Festus says that a kind of nut was so called, because the Prnestines,

when besieged by Hannibal at Casilinum, subsisted upon them. See

Livy, B. xxiii. Fe considers it only another name for the common hazel

nut.

22. De Re Rust, c. 145.

23. The soft-shelled almond, or princess almond of the French: the

Amygdalus communis fragilis of naturalists.

24. This last variety does not seem to have been identified: the hard-shell almonds do not appear to be larger than the others.

25. Or "soft" almond, a variety only of the Amygdalus fragilis.

26. There is little doubt that Fe is right in his assertion, that this great

personage imposed on our author; as no trees of this family are known to

bear two crops.

27. B. xiii. c. 10.

28. In c. xxi. of this Book.




25. Chap. 25. (23.)-Eighteen Varieties Of The Chesnut.


CHAP. 25. (23.)-EIGHTEEN VARIETIES OF THE CHESNUT.



We give the name of nut, too, to the chesnut,[1] although it

would seem more properly to belong to the acorn tribe. The

chesnut has its armour of defence in a shell bristling with

prickles like the hedge-hog, an envelope which in the acorn

is only partially developed. It is really surprising, however,

that Nature should have taken such pains thus to conceal an

object of so little value. We sometimes find as many as

three nuts beneath a single outer shell. The skin[2] of the nut

is limp and flexible: there is a membrane, too, which lies

next to the body of the fruit, and which, both in this and in

the walnut, spoils the flavour if not taken off, Chesnuts are

the most pleasant eating when roasted:[3] they are sometimes

ground also, and are eaten by women when fasting for religious scruples,[4] as bearing some resemblance to bread. It is

from Sardes[5] that the chesnut was first introduced, and hence

it is that the Greeks have given it the name of the "Sardian

acorn;" for the name "Dios balanon"[6] was given at a later

period, after it had been considerably improved by cultivation.



At the present day there are numerous varieties of the

chesnut. Those of Tarentum are a light food, and by no

means difficult of digestion; they are of a flat shape. There

is a rounder variety, known as the "balanitis;"[7] it is very

easily peeled, and springs clean out of the shell, so to say, of







its own accord. The Salarian[8] chesnut has a smooth outer

shell, while that of Tarentum is not so easily handled.[9] The

Corellian is more highly esteemed, as is the Etereian, which is

an offshoot from it produced by a method upon which we shall

have to enlarge when we come to speak of grafting.[10] This

last has a red skin,[11] which causes it to be preferred to the

three-cornered chesnut and our black common sorts, which

are known as "coctiv."[12] Tarentum and Neapolis in Campania are the most esteemed localities for the chesnut: other

kinds, again, are grown to feed pigs upon,[13] the skin of which

is rough and folded inwards, so as to penetrate to the heart of

the kernel.







1. The tree is the Fagus castanea of Linnus.

2. Cortex.

3. The common mode of eating it at the present day. The Italians also

take off the skin and dry the nut; thus keeping it from year to year.

When required for eating, it is softened by the steam of boiling water.

4. Not improbably said in allusion to the fasts introduced by the Jews,

who had become very numerous in Rome.

5. It was said to have come from Castana, a city of Pontus, whence its

name "Castanea." It is probably indigenous to Europe.

6. The Greek for "Jove's acorn."

7. Or "acorn chesnut." The same variety, Fe says, that is found in

the vicinity of Perigueux, small, nearly round, and without any particular

flavour.

8. The Ganebelone chesnut of Perigueux, Fe says, answers to this

description.

9. On account of the prickles on the outer shell.

10. B. xvii. c. 26.

11. Fe says that the royal white chesnut of the vicinity of Perigueux

answers to this.

12. "Boiling" chesnuts.

13. He alludes to wild or horse chesnuts, probably.




26. Chap. 26. (24.)-The Carob.


CHAP. 26. (24.)-THE CAROB.



The carob,[1] a fruit of remarkable sweetness, does not ap-

pear to be so very dissimilar to the chesnut, except that the

skin[2] is eaten as well as the inside. It is just the length of

a finger, and about the thickness of the thumb, being sometimes of a curved shape, like a sickle. The acorn cannot be

reckoned in the number of the fruits; we shall, therefore,

speak of it along with the trees of that class.[3]







1. See B. xiii. c. 16.

2. This skin is not eatable. It is fibrous and astringent.

3. In B. xvi. c. 6.




27. Chap. 27.-Te Fleshy Fruits. The Mulberry.


CHAP. 27.-TE FLESHY FRUITS. THE MULBERRY.



The other fruits belong to the fleshy kind, and differ both

in the shape and the flesh. The flesh of the various berries,[1] of the mulberry, and of the arbute, are quite different from one another-and then what a difference, too,

between the grape, which is only skin and juice,[2] the myxa

plum, and the flesh of some berries,[3] such as the olive, for







instance! In the flesh of the mulberry there is a juice of a

vinous flavour, and the fruit assumes three different colours,

being at first white, then red, and ripe when black. The

mulberry blossoms one of the very last,[4] and yet is among

the first to ripen: the juice of the fruit, when ripe, will stain

the hands, but that of the unripe fruit will remove the marks.

It is in this tree that human ingenuity has effected the least

Improvement[5] of all; there are no varieties here, no modifications effected by grafting, nor, in fact, any other improvement

except that the size of the fruit, by careful management, has

been increased. At Rome, there is a distinction made between

the mulberries of Ostia and those of Tusculum. A variety

grows also on brambles, but the flesh of the fruit is of a very

different nature.[6]







1. "Acinis." The grape, ivy-berry, elder-berry, and others.

2. "Inter cutem succumque."

3. Baccis. Some confusion is created by the non-existence of English

words to denote the difference between a acinus" and "bacca." The latter is properly the "berry;" the grape being the type of the "acinus."

4. See B. xvi. c. 41. The mulberry is the Morus nigra of modern

naturalists. It is generally thought that this was the only variety known

to the ancients; but Fe queries, from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe,

which represents the mulberry as changing from white to blood colour,

that the white mulberry was not unknown to them; but through some

cause, now unknown, was gradually lost sight of.

5. This is still the case with the mulberry.

6. See B. xvi. c. 71, and B. xxiv. c. 73. He alludes to the blackberry.




28. Chap. 28.-The Fruit Of The Arbutus.


CHAP. 28.-THE FRUIT OF THE ARBUTUS.



The flesh of the ground-strawberry[1] is very different to

that of the arbute-tree,[2] which is of a kindred kind: indeed,

this is the only instance in which we find a similar fruit growing upon a tree and on the ground. The tree is tufted and

bushy; the fruit takes a year to ripen, the blossoms of the

young fruit flowering while that of the preceding year is

arriving at maturity. Whether it is the male tree or the

female that is unproductive, authors are not generally agreed.



This is a fruit held in no esteem, in proof of which it has







gained its name of "unedo,"[3] people being generally content with eating but one. The Greeks, however, have found

for it two names-"comaron" and "memecylon," from which

it would appear[4] that there are two varieties. It has also

with us another name besides that of "unedo," being known

also as the "arbutus." Juba states that in Arabia this tree

attains the height of fifty cubits.







1. The common strawberry, the Fragaria vesca of Linnus. See B. xxi.

c. 50. A native of the Alps and the forests of Gaul, it was unknown to

the Greeks.

2. The Arbutus unedo of Linnus. It is one of the ericaceous trees,

and its fruit bears a considerable resemblance to the strawberry-otherwise

there is not the slightest affinity between them. The taste of the arbute

is poor indeed, compared to that of the strawberry.

3. He suggests that it is so called from "unum edo," "I eat but one;"

a rather fanciful etymology, it would seem.

4. This supposition is not warranted, from merely the fact of there being

two names.




29. Chap. 29.-The Relative Natures Of Berry Fruits.


CHAP. 29.-THE RELATIVE NATURES OF BERRY FRUITS.



There is a great difference also among the various acinus

fruits. First of all, among the grapes, we find considerable

difference in respect to their firmness, the thinness or thickness of the skin, and the stone inside the fruit, which in some

varieties is remarkably small, and in others even double in

number: these last producing but very little juice. Very different, again, are the berries of the ivy[1] and the elder;[2] as

also those in the pomegranate,[3] these being the only ones that

are of an angular shape. These last, also, have not a membrane for each individual grain, but one to cover them all in

common, and of a pale colour. All these fruits consist, too,

of juice and flesh, and those more particularly which have but

small seeds inside.



There are great varieties, too, among the berry[4] fruits;

the berry of the olive being quite different from that of the

laurel, the berry of the lotus[5] from that of the cornel, and

that of the myrtle from the berry of the lentisk. The berry,

however, of the aquifolium[6] and the thorn[7] is quite destitute

of juice.



The cherry[8] occupies a middle place between the berry and

the acinus fruit: it is white at first, which is the case also







with nearly all the berries. From white, some of the berries

pass to green, the olive and the laurel, for instance; while in

the mulberry, the cherry, and the cornel, the change is to red;

and then in some to black, as with the mulberry, the cherry,

and the olive, for instance.







1. See B. xvi. c. 52.

2. See B. xxiv. c. 35.

3. See B. xiii. c. 34.

4. "Baccis." Berries, properly so called.

5. The Celtis Australis of Linnus.

6. Supposed by some to be the holly. See B. xxv. c. 72.

7. He alludes to a variety of the crategus.

8. The Cerasus vulgaris of modern botanists. It is said to have obtained

its name from Cerasus, in Asia Minor, where Lucullus found it.




30. Chap. 30. (25.)-Nine Varieties Of The Cherry.


CHAP. 30. (25.)-NINE VARIETIES OF THE CHERRY.



The cherry did not exist in Italy before the period of the

victory gained over Mithridates by L. Lucullus, in the year

of the City 680. He was the first to introduce this tree from

Pontus, and now, in the course of one hundred and twenty

years, it has travelled beyond the Ocean, and arrived in Bri-

tannia even. The cherry, as we have already stated,[1] in spite

of every care, it has been found impossible to rear in Egypt.

Of this fruit, that known as the "Apronian[2] is the reddest

variety, the Lutatian[3] being the blackest, and the Ccilian[4]

perfectly round. The Junian[5] cherry has an agreeable flavour,

but only, so to say, when eaten beneath the tree, as they are

so remarkably delicate that they will not bear carrying. The

highest rank, however, has been awarded to the duracinus[6]

variety, known in Campania as the "Plinian"[7] cherry, and in

Belgica to the Lusitanian[8] cherry, as also to one that grows

on the banks of the Rhenus. This last kind has a third

colour, being a mixture[9] of black, red, and green, and has

always the appearance of being just on the turn to ripening.

It is less than five years since the kind known as the "laurel-

cherry" was introduced, of a bitter but not unpleasant flavour,







the produce of a graft[10] upon the laurel. The Macedonian

cherry grows on a tree that is very small,[11] and rarely exceeds

three cubits in height; while the chamcerasus[12] is still smaller,

being but a mere shrub. The cherry is one of the first trees

to recompense the cultivator with its yearly growth; it loves

cold localities and a site exposed to the north.[13] The fruit

are sometimes dried in the sun, and preserved, like olives, in

casks.







1. He must allude to what he has stated in B. xii. c. 3, for he has nowhere said that the cherry will not grow in Egypt. It is said that the

cherry is not to he found in Egypt at the present day.

2. The gnotte cherry of the French, the mazzard of the English.

3. A variety of the mazzard, Fe thinks.

4. Some take this for the Cerasus Juliana, the guignier of the French,

our white heart; others, again, for the merisier, our morello

5. It is most generally thought that this is the Cerasus avium of bota-

nists, our morello, which is a very tender cherry.

6. Or "hard berry," the Prunus bigarella of Linnus, the red biga-

roon.

7. Fe queries whether it may not have received its name of "Pliniaua"

in compliment to our author, or one of his family.

8. Hardouin thinks that this Portuguese cherry is the griotte, or mazzard.

9. No such cherry is known at the present day.

10. Such a graft is impossible; the laurel-cherry must have had some

other origin.

11. Fe suggests that this may be the early dwarf cherry.

12. Or "ground-cherry;" a dwarf variety, if, indeed, it was a cherry-tree

at all, of which Fe expresses some doubt.

13. This explains, Fe says, why it will not grow in Egypt.




31. Chap. 31. (26.)-The Cornel. The Lentisk.


CHAP. 31. (26.)-THE CORNEL. THE LENTISK.



The same degree of care is expended also on the cultivation

of the cornel[1] and the lentisk;[2] that it may not be thought,

forsooth, that there is anything that was not made for the

craving appetite of man! Various flavours are blended to-

gether, and one is compelled to please our palates by the aid

of another-hence it is that the produce of different lands

and various climates are so often mingled with one another.

For one kind of food it is India that we summon to our

aid, and then for another we lay Egypt under contribution,

or else Crete, or Cyrene, every country, in fact: no, nor does

man stick at poisons[3] even, if he can only gratify his longing

to devour everything: a thing that will be still more evident

when we come to treat of the nature of herbs.







1. The Cornus mas of Linnus. The fruit of the cornel has a tart

flavour, but is not eaten in modern Europe, except by school-boys.

2. That produces mastich. See B. xii. c. 36.

3. He alludes more especially, perhaps, to the use of cicuta or hemlock

by drunkards, who looked upon it as an antidote to the effects of wine.

See B. xiv. c. 7.




32. Chap. 32. (27.)-Thirteen Different Flavours Of Juices.


CHAP. 32. (27.)-THIRTEEN DIFFERENT FLAVOURS OF JUICES.



While upon this subject, it may be as well to state that

there are no less than thirteen different flavours[1] belonging







in common to the fruits and the various juices: the sweet, the

luscious, the unctuous, the bitter, the rough, the acrid,[2] the

pungent, the sharp, the sour, and the salt; in addition to

which, there are three other kinds of flavours of a nature that is

truly singular. The first of these last kinds is that flavour in

which several other flavours are united, as in wine, for instance; for in it we are sensible of the rough, the pungent,[3]

and the luscious, all at the same moment, and all of them

flavours that belong to other substances. The second of these

flavours is that in which we are sensible at the same instant

of a flavour that belongs to another substance, and yet of one

that is peculiar to the individual object of which we are tasting, such as that of milk, for instance: indeed, in milk we

cannot correctly say that there is any pronounced flavour that

is either sweet, or unctuous, or luscious, a sort of smooth taste[4]

in the mouth being predominant, which holds the place of a

more decided flavour. The third instance is that of water,

which has no flavour whatever, nor, indeed, any flavouring

principle;[5] but still, this very absence of flavour is considered

as constituting one of them, and forming a peculiar class[6] of

itself; so much so, indeed, that if in water any taste or flavouring principle is detected, it is looked upon as impure.



In the perception of all these various flavours the smell

plays a very considerable[7] part, there being a very great

affinity between them. Water, however, is properly quite inodorous: and if the least smell is to be perceived, it is not

pure water. It is a singular thing that three of the principal

elements[8] of Nature-water, air, and fire-should have neither

taste nor smell, nor, indeed, any flavouring principle whatever.











1. Fe remarks, that in this enumeration there is no method. Linnus

enumerates eleven principal flavours in the vegetable kingdom-dry or

insipid, aqueous, viscous, salt, acrid, styptic, sweet, fat, bitter, acid, and

nauseous; these terms, however seem, some of them, to be very indefinite.

2. It requires considerable discernment to appropriate nicely its English

synonym to these four varieties of tastes, "acer, acutus, acerbus, and

acidus," more especially when we find that the "bitter" and the "rough"

are occupied already by the "amarus" and the "austerus."

3. In allusion, probably, to the pungency of the aroma or bouquet.

4. Lenitate.

5. This seems to be the meaning of "succus."

6. The "insipid."

7. This is so much the case, that the most nauseous medicine may be

taken almost with impunity-so far as taste is concerned-by tightly pressing the nostrils while taking it.

8. Fe remarks that this is true of fire, and of distilled or perfectly pure

water; but that physiologists are universally agreed that the air has its

own peculiar smell.




33. Chap. 33. (28.)-The Colour And Smell Of Juices.


CHAP. 33. (28.)-THE COLOUR AND SMELL OF JUICES.



Among the juices, those of a vinous[1] flavour belong to the

pear, the mulberry, and the myrtle, and not to the grape, a

very singular fact. An unctuous taste is detected in the olive,[2]

the laurel, the walnut, and the almond; sweetness exists in

the grape, the fig, and the date; while in the plum class we

find a watery[3] juice. There is a considerable difference, too,

in the colours assumed by the various juices. That of the

mulberry, the cherry, the cornel, and the black grape resembles the colour of blood, while in the white grape the juice is

white. The humour found in the summit of the fig[4] is of a

milky nature, but not so with the juice found in the body of

the fruit. In the apple it is the colour of foam,[5] while in the

peach it is perfectly colourless, and this is the case, too, with

the duracinus,[6] which abounds in juice; for who can say that

he has ever detected any colour in it?



Smell, too, presents its own peculiar marvels; in the apple

it is pungent,[7] and it is weak in the peach, while in the sweet[8]

fruits we perceive none at all: so, too, the sweet wines are

inodorous, while the thinner ones have more aroma, and are

much sooner fit for use than those of a thicker nature.[9] The

odoriferous fruits are not pleasing to the palate in the same

degree, seeing that the flavour[10] of them does not come up to

their smell: hence it is that in the citron we find the smell







so extremely penetrating,[11] and the taste sour in the highest

degree. Sometimes the smell is of a more delicate[12] nature,

as in the quince, for instance; while the fig has no odour

whatever.







1. All fruits that are rich in sugar and amidine, Fe says, either have,

or acquire in time, a vinous flavour, by the development of a certain quantity of alcohol.

2. In the fruit with a fixed oil, this principle succeeds, when they are

ripe, to the mucilaginous.

3. He must mean a thinner juice, though still sweet.

4. About the peduncle or stalk of the fig. The juice here, Fe says, is a

real sugar, of the same nature as that which circulates throughout the

whole fruit: the juice in the interior of which is produced by another order

of vessels.

5. The juice is only foamy when the vinous fermentation is established.

It has that appearance, however, when the fruit is bitten with the teeth.

6. The "hard-berry," or nectarine.

7. In the sense of aromatic, or penetrating.

8. He probably means those of a luscious or sirupy nature, without any

acidity whatever.

9. He seems to mean that the thick, luscious wines require longer keeping, before they will gain any aroma at all. This would be done, probably,

at the expense of their sweetness.

10. Or he may mean, that a fine flavour and a fine smell cannot co-exist.

11. The reading here should be "acutissimus," probably, instead of

"acerrimus." The odour exists in the rind of the citron and in the outer

coat of the quince; if these are removed, the fruit becomes inodorous.

12. "Tenuis." He may possibly mean "faint."




34. Chap. 34.-The Various Natures Of Fruit.


CHAP. 34.-THE VARIOUS NATURES OF FRUIT.



Thus much, then, for the various classes and kinds of fruit:

it will be as well now to classify their various natures within

a more limited scope. Some fruits grow in a pod which is

sweet itself, and contains a bitter seed: whereas in most kinds

of fruit the seed is agreeable to the palate, those which grow

in a pod are condemned. Other fruits are berries, with the

stone within and the flesh without, as in the olive and the

cherry: others, again, have the berry within and the stone

without, the case, as we have already stated, with the berries

that grow in Egypt.[1]



Those fruits, known as "pomes," have the same characteristics as the berry fruits; in some of them we find the body of

the fruit within and the shell without, as in the nut, for example; others, again, have the meat of the fruit without and

the shell within, the peach and the plum, for instance: the

refuse part being thus surrounded with the flesh, while in

other fruits the flesh is surrounded by the refuse part.[2]

nuts are enclosed in a shell, chesnuts in a skin; in chesnuts

the skin is taken off, but in medlars it is eaten with the rest.

Acorns are covered with a crust, grapes with a husk, and

pomegranates with a skin and an inner membrane. The mulberry is composed of flesh and juice, while the cherry consists

of juice and skin. In some fruits the flesh separates easily

from the woody part, the walnut and the date, for instance;

in others it adheres, as in the case of the olive and the laurel

berry: some kinds, again, partake of both natures, the peach,

for example; for in the duracinus[3] kind the flesh adheres to

the stone, and cannot be torn away from it, while in the other







sorts they are easily separated. In some fruits there is no

stone or shell[4] either within or without, one variety of the

date,[5] for instance. In some kinds, again, the shell is eaten,

just the same as the fruit; this we have already mentioned as

being the case with a variety of the almond found in Egypt.[6]

Some fruits have on the outside a twofold refuse covering, the

chesnut, the almond, and the walnut, for example. Some,

again, are composed of three separate parts-the body of the

fruit, then a woody shell, and inside of that a kernel, as in the

peach.



Some fruits grow closely packed together, such as grapes

and sorbs: these last, just like so many grapes in a cluster,

cling round the branch and bend it downwards with their

weight. On the other hand, some fruits grow separately, at a

distance from one another; this is the case with the peach.

Some fruits are enclosed in a sort of matrix, as with the grains

of the pomegranate: some hang down from a stalk, such as

the pear, for instance: others hang in clusters, grapes and

dates, for example. Others, again, grow upon stalks and

bunches united: this we find the case with the berries of the

ivy and the elder. Some adhere close to the branches, like

the laurel berry, while other varieties lie close to the branch

or hang from it, as the case may be: thus we find in the olive

some fruit with short stalks, and others with long. Some fruits

grow with a little calyx at the top, the pomegranate, for example, the medlar, and the lotus[7] of Egypt and the Euphrates.



Then, too, as to the various parts of fruit, they are held in

different degrees of esteem according to their respective recommendations. In the date it is the flesh that is usually

liked, in those of Thebais it is the crust;[8] the grape and the

caryota date are esteemed for their juice, the pear and the

apple for their firmness, the melimelum[9] for its soft meat,







the mulberry for its cartilaginous consistency, and nuts for

their kernels. Some fruits in Egypt are esteemed for their

skin; the carica,[10] for instance. This skin, which in the

green fig is thrown away as so much refuse peeling, when the

fig is dried is very highly esteemed. In the papyrus,[11]

the ferula,[12] and the white thorn[13] the stalk itself constitutes

the fruit, and the shoots of the fig-tree[14] are similarly

employed.



Among the shrubs, the fruit of the caper[15] is eaten along

with the stalk; and in the carob,[16] what is the part that is

eaten but so much wood? Nor ought we to omit one peculiarity that exists in the seed of this fruit-it can be called

neither flesh, wood, nor cartilage, and yet no other name has

been found for it.







1. The fruit of the ben, or myrobalanus, the Balanites gyptiaca. See

B. xiii. cc. 17 and 19.

2. Viaticum,.

3. Hard-berry or nectarine. See c. 11.

4. Lignum: literally, "wood." "There is no wood, either within or

without." He has one universal name for what we call shell, seed, stones,

pips, grains, &c.

5. The "spado," or "eunuch" date. See B. xiii. c. 8.

6. See B. xiii. c. 17. The fruit of the ben is alluded to, but, as Fe

observes, Pliny is wrong in calling it an almond, as it is a pulpy fruit.

7. The Nympha nelumbo of Linnus.

8. Or shell, which, as Fe remarks, participates but very little in the

properties of the flesh.

9. Or "honey" apple; see c. 15 of this Book.

10. Or "Carian" fig. See c. 19 of this Book.

11. See B. xiii. c. 11.

12. See B. xiii. c. 42, and B. xx. cc. 9 and 23.

13. See B. xiii. c. 26, and B. xxiv. c. 66.

14. See B. xiii. c. 22. Fe remarks that it is singular how the, ancients

could eat the branches of the fig-tree, the juice being actually a poison.

15. See B. xiii. c. 44.

16. See c. 26 of this Book.




35. Chap. 35. (29).-The Myrtle.


CHAP. 35. (29).-THE MYRTLE.



The nature of the juices that are found in the myrtle are

particularly remarkable, for it is the only one[1] of all the trees, the

berries of which produce two kinds of oil[2] as well as of wine,

besides myrtidanum,[3] of which we have already spoken. The

berry of this was also put to another use in ancient times, for

before pepper[4] was known it was employed in place of it as a

seasoning; so much so, indeed, that a name has been derived

from it for the highly-seasoned dish which to this day is known

by the name of "myrtatum."[5] It is by the aid of these berries, too, that the flavour of the flesh of the wild boar is

improved, and they generally form one of the ingredients in

the flavouring of our sauces.







1. He is wrong: the same is the case with the berries of the laurel, and,

indeed, many other kinds of berries.

2. See c. 7 of this Book.

3. See B. xiv. c. 9.

4. See B. xii. c. 14.

5. A kind of sausage, seasoned with myrtle. See also B. xxvii c. 49.




36. Chap. 36.-Historical Anecdotes Relative To The Myrtle.


CHAP. 36.-HISTORICAL ANECDOTES RELATIVE TO THE MYRTLE.



This tree was seen for the first time in the regions of







Europe, which commence on this side of the Ceraunian mountains,[1] growing at Circeii,[2] near the tomb of Elpenor there:[3]

it still retains its Greek[4] name, which clearly proves it to be

an exotic. There were myrtles growing on the site now occupied by Rome, at the time of its foundation; for a tradition

exists to the effect that the Romans and the Sabines, after

they had intended fighting, on account of the virgins who had

been ravished by the former, purified themselves, first laying

down their arms, with sprigs of myrtle, on the very same spot

which is now occupied by the statues of Venus Cluacina; for

in the ancient language "cluere" means to purify.



This tree is employed, too, for a species of fumigation;[5] being

selected for that purpose, because Venus, who presides over all

unions, is the tutelary divinity of the tree.[6] I am not quite

sure, too, whether this tree was not the very first that was

planted in the public places of Rome, the result of some ominous presage by the augurs of wondrous import. For at the

Temple of Quirinus, or, in other words, of Romulus himself,

one of the most ancient in Rome, there were formerly two

myrtle-trees, which grew for a long period just in front of

the temple; one of these was called the Patrician tree, the

other the Plebeian. The Patrician myrtle was for many years

the superior tree, full of sap and vigour; indeed, so long as the

Senate maintained its superiority, so did the tree, being of

large growth, while the Plebeian tree presented a meagre,

shrivelled appearance. In later times, however, the latter tree

gained the superiority, and the Patrician myrtle began to fail

just at the period of the[7] Marsic War,[8] when the power of

the Senate was so greatly weakened: and little by little did

this once majestic tree sink into a state of utter exhaustion

and sterility. There was an ancient altar[9] also, consecrated'







to Venus Myrtea, known at the present day by the name of

Murcia.







1. He means the Acroceraunian chain in Epirus, mentioned in B. iii.

2. See B. iii. c. 9.

3. He was one of the companions of Ulysses, fabled by Homer and Ovid

to have been transformed by Circe into a swine.

4. Mursi)nh, was its Greek name.

5. See B. xxv. c. 59.

6. See B. xii. c. 2. Ovid, Fasti, B. iv. 1. 15, et seq., says that Venus concealed herself from the gaze of the Satyrs behind this tree.

7. Either this story is untrue, or we have a right to suspect that some

underhand agency was employed for the purpose of imposing on the superstitious credulity of the Roman people.

8. Or Social War. See B. ii. c. 85.

9. Near the altar of Census, close to the meta of the Circus.




37. Chap. 37.-Eleven Varieties Of The Myrtle.


CHAP. 37.-ELEVEN VARIETIES OF THE MYRTLE.



Cato[1] makes mention of three varieties of the myrtle, the

black, white, and the conjugula, perhaps so called from

its reference to conjugal unions, and belonging to the same

species as that which grew where Cluacina's statues now

stand: at the present day the varieties are differently distinguished into the cultivated and the wild[2] myrtle, each of

which includes a kind with a large leaf. The kind known as

"oxymyrsine,"[3] belongs only to the wild variety: ornamental

gardeners classify several varieties of the cultivated kind; the

"Tarentine,"[4] they speak of as a myrtle with a small leaf,

the myrtle of this country[5] as having a broad leaf, and the

hexasticha[6] as being very thickly covered with leaves, growing

in rows of six: it is not, however, made any use of. There

are two other kinds, that are branchy and well covered. In

my opinion, the conjugula is the same that is now called the

Roman myrtle. It is in Egypt that the myrtle is most

odoriferous.



Cato[7] has taught us how to make a wine from the black

myrtle, by drying it thoroughly in the shade, and then putting

it in must: he says, also, that if the berries are not quite dry,

it will produce an oil. Since his time a method has been discovered of making a pale wine from the white variety; two

sextarii of pounded myrtle are steeped in three semi-sextarii of

wine, and the mixture is then subjected to pressure.



The leaves[8] also are dried by themselves till they are capable of being reduced to a powder, which is used for the treatment of sores on the human body: this powder is of a slightly

corrosive nature, and is employed also for the purpose of

checking the perspiration. A thing that is still more re-







markable, this oil is possessed of a certain vinous flavour,

being, at the same time, of an unctuous nature, and remarkably

efficacious for improving[9] wines. When this is done, the

wine strainer[10] is dipped in the oil before it is used, the result

of which is that it retains the lees of the wine, and allows

nothing but the pure liquor to escape, while at the same time

it accompanies the wine and causes a marked improvement in

its flavour.



Sprigs of myrtle, if carried by a person when travelling on

foot, are found to be very refreshing[11] on a long journey.

Rings, too, made of myrtle which has never been touched by

iron, are an excellent specific for swellings in the groin.[12]







1. De Re Rust. c. 8,

2. The so-called wild myrtle does not in reality belong to the genus

Myrtus.

3. See B. xxiii. c. 83; the Ruscus aculeatus of the family of the Asparagea.

4. The common myrtle, Myrtus communis of the naturalists.

5. Or Roman myrtle, a variety of the Myrtus communis.

6. The "six row" myrtle. Fe thinks that it belongs to the Myrtus

angustifolia Btica of Bauhin.

7. De Re Rust. 125.

8. See B. xxiii. c. 81.

9. A new proof, as Fe remarks, that the ancients had peculiar notions

of their own, as to the flavour of wine; myrtle berries, he says, would

impart to wine a detestable aromatic flavour.

10. "Saccis:" the strainer being made of cloth.See B. xiv. e. 28.

11. They would be of no assistance whatever, and this statement is entirely fictitious.

12. He may possibly mean hernia.




38. Chap. 38.-The Myrtle Used At Rome In Ovations.


CHAP. 38.-THE MYRTLE USED AT ROME IN OVATIONS.



The myrtle has played[1] its part, also, in the successes of

war. Posthumius Tubertus, who gained a victory over the

Sabines in his consulship,[2] was the first person who entered

the City enjoying the honour of an ovation,[3] for having

achieved this success with ease and without bloodshed; upon

which occasion he made his entry crowned with the myrtle of

Venus Victrix, and thereby rendered her tree an object of

regard[4] to our enemies even. Ever since this occasion, the

wreath of those who have enjoyed an ovation has been made

of myrtle, with the exception of M. Crassus,[5] who, on his victory over the fugitive slaves and Spartacus, made his entry

crowned with laurels. Massurius informs us, also, that some

generals, on the occasion of a triumph even, have worn a

wreath of myrtle in the triumphal car. L. Piso states that







Papirius Maso, who was the first to enjoy a triumph for a

victory over the Marsi-it was on the Alban Mount[6]-was

in the habit of attending at the games of the Circus, wearing

a wreath of myrtle: he was the maternal grandfather of the

second Scipio Africanus. Marcus Valerius[7] wore two wreaths,

one of laurel, the other of myrtle; it was in consequence of

a vow which he had made to that effect.







1. In addition to all those particulars, he might have stated that the

Lares, or household gods, were crowned with myrtle, and that it was not

allowed to enter the Temple of Bona Dea.

2. A.U.C. 251.

3. See the Notes to c. 35 of this Book.

4. Because the enemy would be less likely to envy us a bloodless triumph.

5. He disdained the more humble myrtle crown, and intrigued successfully with the Senate to allow him to wear a wreath of laurel.

6. The Senate refused him a triumph; and he accordingly celebrated

one on the Alban Mount, B.C. 231. Paulus Diaconus says that his

reason for wearing a myrtle crown was his victory over the Corsicans on

the Myrtle Plains, though where they were, or what victory is alluded to,

is not known.

7. The brother of Valerius Publicola.




39. Chap. 39. (30.)-The Laurel; Thirteen Varieties Of It.


CHAP. 39. (30.)-THE LAUREL; THIRTEEN VARIETIES OF IT.



The laurel is especially consecrated to triumphs, is remarkably

ornamental to houses, and guards the portals of our emperors[1]

and our pontiffs: there suspended alone, it graces the palace, and

is ever on guard before the threshold. Cato[2] speaks of two

varieties of this tree, the Delphic[3] and the Cyprian. Pompeius

Lenus has added another, to which he has given the name of

"mustax," from the circumstance of its being used for putting

under the cake known by the name of "mustaceum."[4] He

says that this variety has a very large leaf, flaccid, and of a

whitish hue; that the Delphic laurel is of one uniform colour,

greener than the other, with berries of very large size, and of

a red tint approaching to green. He says, too, that it is with

this laurel that the victors at Delphi[5] are crowned, and warriors

who enjoy the honours of a triumph at Rome. The Cyprian

laurel, he says, has a short leaf, is of a blackish colour, with

an imbricated[6] edge, and crisped.







Since his time, however, the varieties have considerably

augmented. There is the tinus[7] for instance, by some considered as a species of wild laurel, while others, again, regard

it as a tree of a separate class; indeed, it does differ from the

laurel as to the colour, the berry being of an azure blue. The

royal[8] laurel, too, has since been added, which has of late

begun to be known as the "Augustan:" both the tree, as

well as the leaf, are of remarkable size, and the berries have

not the usual rough taste. Some say, however, that the royal

laurel and the Augustan are not the same tree, and make out

the former to be a peculiar kind, with a leaf both longer and

broader than that of the Augustan. The same authors, also,

make a peculiar species of the bacalia the commonest laurel

of all, and the one that bears the greatest number of berries.

With them, too, the barren laurel[9] is the laurel of the triumphs, and they say that this is the one that is used by warriors when enjoying a triumph-a thing that surprises me

very much; unless, indeed, the use of it was first introduced

by the late Emperor Augustus, and it is to be considered as

the progeny of that laurel, which, as we shall just now have

occasion to mention, was sent to him from heaven; it being the

smallest of them all, with a crisped[10] short leaf; and very rarely

to be met with.



In ornamental gardening we also find the taxa[11] employed,

with a small leaf sprouting from the middle of the leaf, and

forming a fringe, as it were, hanging from it; the spadonia,[12]

too, without this fringe, a tree that thrives remarkably well

in the shade: indeed, however dense the shade may be, it will

soon cover the spot with its shoots. There is the chamdaphne,[13] also, a shrub that grows wild; the Alexandrian[14]







laurel, by some known as the Idean, by others as the "hypoglottion,"[15] by others as the "carpophyllon,"[16] and by others,

again, as the "hypelates."[17] From the root it throws out

branches three quarters of a foot in length; it is much used

in ornamental gardening, and for making wreaths, and it has

a more pointed leaf than that of the myrtle, and superior to it

in softness, whiteness, and size: the seed, which lies between

the leaves, is red. This last kind grows in great abundance

on Mount Ida and in the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus: it is

only found, however, in mountainous districts.



The laurel, too, known as the daphnoides,[18] is a variety that

has received many different names: by some it is called the

Pelasgian laurel, by others the euthalon, and by others the

stephanon Alexandri.[19] This is also a branchy shrub, with a

thicker and softer leaf than that of the ordinary laurel: if

tasted, it leaves a burning sensation in the mouth and throat:

the berries are red, inclining to black. The ancient writers

have remarked, that in their time there was no species of

laurel in the island of Corsica. Since then, however, it has been

planted there, and has thrived well.







1. We learn from two passages in Ovid that the laurel was suspended

over the gates of the emperors. This, as Fe remarks, was done for two

reasons: because it was looked upon as a protection against lightning, and

because it was considered an emblem of immortality.

2. De Re Rust. 133.

3. Or "laurel of Apollo:" it was into this tree that Daphne was fabled

to have been changed. See Ovid's Met. B. i. 1. 557, et seq.

4. Cato, De Re Rust. c. 121, tells us that this cake was made of fine wheat,

must, anise, cummin, suet, cheese, and scraped laurel sprigs. Laurel leaves

were placed under it when baked. This mixture was considered a light

food, good for the stomach!

5. At the Pythian Games celebrated there.

6. Meaning that it curves at the edge, something like a pent-house.

7. Or tine tree, the Viburnum tinus of Linnus, one of the caprifolia.

It is not reckoned as one of the laurels, though it has many of the same

characteristics.

8. Regia.

9. The barren laurel of the triumphs was the Laurus nobilis of Linnus,

which has only male flowers.

10. The Laurus vulgaris folio undulato of the Parisian Hortus, Fe says.

11. Not a laurel, nor yet a dicotyledon, Fe says, but one of the Asparagea, probably the Ruscus hypoglossum of Linnus, sometimes known,

however, as the Alexandrian laurel.

12. Or "eunuch" laurel; a variety, probably, of the Laurus nobilis.

13. The "ground laurel:" according to Sprengel, this is the Ruscus racemosus of Linnus. See B. xxiv. c. 81.

14. From Alexandria in Troas: the Ruscus hypophyllum of Linnus, it

is supposed.

15. "The tongue below." This, Fe justly says, would appear to be

a more appropriate name for the taxa, mentioned above.

16. From the berry being attached to the leaf.

17. "The thrower out from below," perhaps.

18. Sprengel thinks that it is the Clematis vitalba of Linnus. Fuch-

sius identifies it with the Daphne laureola of Linnus; and Fe thinks it

may be either that or the Daphne mezereum of Linnus.

19. "Crown of Alexander."




40. Chap. 40.-Historical Anecdotes Connected With The Laurel.


CHAP. 40.-HISTORICAL ANECDOTES CONNECTED WITH THE LAUREL.



This tree is emblematical of peace:[1] when a branch of it

is extended, it is to denote a truce between enemies in arms.

For the Romans more particularly it is the messenger of joyful

tidings, and of victory: it accompanies the despatches[2] of the

general, and it decorates the lances and javelins of the soldiers

and the fasces which precede their chief. It is of this tree

that branches are deposited on the lap of Jupiter All-good and

All-great,[3] so often as some new victory has imparted uni-







versal gladness. This is done, not because it is always green,

nor yet because it is an emblem of peace-for in both of those

respects the olive would take the precedence of it-but because

it is the most beauteous tree on Mount Parnassus, and was

pleasing for its gracefulness to Apollo even; a deity to whom

the kings of Rome sent offerings at an early period, as we

learn from the case of L. Brutus.[4] Perhaps, too, honour is

more particularly paid to this tree because it was there that

Brutus[5] earned the glory of asserting his country's liberties,

when, by the direction of the oracle, he kissed that laurel-bearing soil. Another reason, too, may be the fact, that of all

the shrubs that are planted and received in our houses, this is

the only one that is never struck by lightning.[6] It is for

these reasons, in my opinion, that the post of honour has been

awarded to the laurel more particularly in triumphs, and not,

as Massurius says, because it was used for the purposes of

fumigation and purification from the blood of the enemy.



In addition to the above particulars, it is not permitted to

defile the laurel and the olive by applying them to profane

uses; so much so, indeed, that, not even for the propitiation of

the divinities, should a fire be lighted with them at either

altar or shrine.[7] Indeed, it is very evident that the laurel protests against such usage by crackling[8] as it does in the fire,

thus, in a manner, giving expresssion to its abhorrence of such

treatment. The wood of this tree when eaten is good as a

specific for internal maladies and affections of the sinews.[9]



It is said that when it thundered, the Emperor Tiberius was







in the habit of putting on a wreath of laurel to allay his apprehensions of disastrous effects from the lightning.[10] There

are also some remarkable facts connected with the laurel in

the history of the late Emperor Augustus: once while Livia

Drusilla, who afterwards on her marriage with the Emperor

assumed the name of Augusta, at the time that she was

affianced to him, was seated, there fell into her lap a hen of

remarkable whiteness, which an eagle let fall from aloft without its receiving the slightest injury: on Livia viewing it

without any symptoms of alarm, it was discovered that miracle

was added to miracle, and that it held in its beak a branch of

laurel covered with berries. The aruspices gave orders that

the hen and her progeny should be carefully preserved, and

the branch planted and tended with religious care. This was

accordingly done at the country-house belonging to the Csars,

on the Flaminian Way, near the banks of the Tiber, eight

miles from the City; from which circumstance that road has

since received the title "Ad gallinas."[11] From the branch

there has now arisen, wondrous to relate, quite a grove: and

Augustus Csar afterwards, when celebrating a triumph, held

a branch of it in his hand and wore a wreath of this laurel on

his head; since which time all the succeeding emperors have

followed his example. Hence, too, has originated the custom of

planting the branches which they have held on these occasions,

and we thus see groves of laurel still existing which owe their

respective names to this circumstance. It was on the above

occasion, too, that not improbably a change was effected in

the usual laurel of the triumph.[12] The laurel is the only one

among the trees that in the Latin language has given an

appellation to a man,[13] and it is the only one the leaf of which

has a distinct name of its own,-it being known by the name

of "laurea." The name of this tree is still retained by one

place in the city of Rome, for we find a spot on the Aventine







Mount still known by the name of "Loretum,"[14] where formerly a laurel-grove existed. The laurel is employed in

purifications, and we may here mention, incidentally, that it

will grow from slips[15]-though Democritus and Theophrastus

have expressed their doubts as to that fact.



We shall now proceed to speak of the forest trees.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

one hundred and twenty.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Fenestella,[16] Fabianus,[17] Virgil,[18]

Corn. Valerianus,[19] Celsus,[20] Cato the Censor,[21] Saserna[22] father

and son, Scrofa,[23] M. Varro,[24] D. Silanus,[25] Fabius Pictor,[26] Trogus,[27] Hyginus,[28] Flaccus Verrius,[29] Grcinus,[30] Atticus Julius,[31]

Columella,[32] Massurius Sabinus,[33] Tergilla,[34] Cotta Messalinus,[35]

L. Piso,[36] Pompeius Lenus,[37] Maccius Plautus,[38] Flavius,[39]

Dossenus,[40] Scvola,[41] lius,[42] Ateius Capito,[43] Sextius Niger,[44]

Vibius Rufus.[45]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Aristotle,[46] Democritus,[47] King

Hiero,[48] King Attalus Philometor,[49] Archytas,[50] Xenophon,[51]

Amphilochus[52] of Athens, Anaxipolis[53] of Thasos, Apollodorus[54]

of Lemnos, Aristophanes[55] of Miletus, Antigonus[56] of Cym,







Agathocles[57] of Chios, Apollonius[58] of Pergamus, Aristander[59]

of Athens, Bacchius[60] of Miletus, Bion[61] of Soli, Chreas[62] of

Athens, Christus[63] of Athens, Diodorus[64] of Priene, Dion[65]

of Colophon, Epigenes[66] of Rhodes, Euagon[67] of Thasos, Euphronius[68] of Athens, Androtion[69] who wrote on Agriculture,

schrion[70] who wrote on Agriculture, Lysimachus[71] who wrote

on Agriculture, Dionysius[72] who translated Mago,[73] Diophanes[74]

who made an Epitome of the work of Dionysius, Asclepiades[75]

the Physician, Erasistratus[76] the Physician, Commiades[77] who

wrote on the preparation of Wines, Aristomachus[78] who wrote

on the same subject, Hicesius[79] who wrote on the same subject,

Themiso[80] the Physician, Onesicritus,[81] King Juba.[82]









1. Curiously enough, it is generally considered now more suggestive of

war than of peace.

2. The despatches were wrapped in laurel leaves.

3. Optimus Maximus.

4. L. Junius Brutus, the nephew of Tarquin. Pliny alludes to the message

sent to Delphi, for the purpose of consulting the oracle on a serpent being

seen in the royal palace.

5. He alludes to the circumstance of the priestess being asked who should

reign at Rome after Tarquin; upon which she answered, "He who first

kisses his mother;" on which Brutus, the supposed idiot, stumbled to the

ground, and kissed the earth, the mother of all.

6. A mere absurdity; the same has been said of the beech, and with

equal veracity.

7. He makes a distinction between "altar" and "ara" here. The

former was the altar of the superior Divinities, the latter of the superior

and inferior as well.

8. The crackling of the laurel is caused by efforts of the essential oil to

escape from the parenchyma or cellular tissue of the leaf, which it breaks

with considerable violence when burning.

9. Nervorum. See B. xxiii. c. 80.

10. Suetonius, c. 66, confirms this. Fe says that the same superstition

still exists in some parts of France. See B. ii. c. 56.

11. "The Poultry."

12. See c. 39 of this Book.

13. See B. xxxi. c. 3. As Poinsinet remarks, this is not strictly true;

the name "Vinucius" most probably came from "vinea," a vineyard.

Numerous names were derived also from seeds and vegetables; Piso,

Cicero, and Lactuca, for instance, among a host of others. "Scipio," too,

means a "walking-stick."

14. The "laurel-grove."

15. See B. xvii. c. 11.

16. See end of B. viii

17. See end of B. ii.

18. See end of B. vii

19. See end of B. iii.

20. See end of B. vii.

21. See end of B. iii.

22. See end of B. x.

23. See end of B. xi.

24. See end of B. ii.

25. See end of B. xiv.

26. See end of B. x.

27. See end of B. vii.

28. See end of B. iii.

29. See end of B. iii.

30. See end of B. xiv.

31. See end of B. xiv.

32. See end of B. viii.

33. See end of B. vii.

34. See end of B. xiv.

35. See end of B. xiv.

36. See end of B. ii.

37. See end of B. xiv.

38. See end of B. xiv.

39. See end of B. xii.

40. See end of B. xiv.

41. See end of B. xiv.

42. See end of B. xiv.

43. See end of B. iii.

44. See end of B. xii.

45. See end of B. xiv.

46. See end of B. ii.

47. See end of B. ii.

48. See end of B. viii.

49. See end of B. viii.

50. See end of B. viii.

51. See end of B. iv.

52. See end of B. viii

53. See end of B. viii.

54. See end of B. viii.

55. See end of B. viii.

56. See end of B. viii.

57. See end of B. viii.

58. See end of B. viii.

59. See end of B. viii.

60. See end of B. viii.

61. See end of B. vi.

62. See end of B. viii.

63. See end of B. xiv.

64. He is mentioned also by Varro and Columella, as a writer upon agri-

culture; but all further particulars of him are unknown.

65. See end of B. viii.

66. See end of B. ii.

67. See end of B. x.

68. See end of B. viii.

69. See end of B. viii.

70. See end of B. viii.

71. See end of B. viii.

72. See end of B. xii.

73. See end of B. viii.

74. See end of B. viii.

75. See end of B. vii.

76. See end of B. xi.

77. Beyond what Pliny here says, nothing is known of him.

78. See end of B. xi.

79. A physician who lived probably at the end of the first century B.C.

He was a disciple of Erasistratus, and founded a medical school at Smyrna.

He is quoted by Athenus, and in B. xxvii. c. 14, Pliny calls him "a physician of no small authority." He seems to have been a voluminous writer;

but none of his works have survived.

80. See end of B. xi.

81. See end of B. ii.

82. See end of B. v.




0. > Book Xvi. The Natural History Of The Forest Trees.


BOOK XVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FOREST TREES.








1. Chap. I.-Countries That Have No Trees.


CHAP. I.-COUNTRIES THAT HAVE NO TREES.



WE have given the precedence in this account to the fruit-trees and others which, by their delicious juices, first taught

man to give a relish to his food and the various aliments

requisite for his sustenance, whether it is that they spontaneously produce these delightful flavours, or whether we have

imparted them by the methods of adoption and intermarriage,[1]

thus bestowing a favour, as it were, upon the very beasts and

birds. The next thing, then, would be to speak of the glandi-

ferous trees, the trees which proffered the earliest nutriment

to the appetite of man, and proved themselves his foster-

mothers in his forlorn and savage state-did I not feel myself

constrained on this occasion to make some mention of the surprise which I have felt on finding by actual experience what

is the life of mortals when they inhabit a country that is without either tree or shrub.



(1.) I have already stated[2] that in the East many nations

that dwell on the shores of the ocean are placed in this necessitous state; and I myself have personally witnessed the condition of the Chauci,[3] both the Greater and the Lesser, situate

in the regions of the far North. In those climates a vast tract

of land, invaded twice each day and night by the overflowing

waves of the ocean, opens a question that is eternally proposed

to us by Nature, whether these regions are to be looked upon

as belonging to the land, or whether as forming a portion of

the sea?



Here a wretched race is found, inhabiting either the more

elevated spots of land, or else eminences artificially constructed,

and of a height to which they know by experience that the

highest tides will never reach. Here they pitch their cabins;







and when the waves cover the surrounding country far and

wide, like so many mariners on board ship are they: when,

again, the tide recedes, their condition is that of so many

shipwrecked men, and around their cottages they pursue the

fishes as they make their escape with the receding tide. It is

not their lot, like the adjoining nations, to keep any flocks for

sustenance by their milk, nor even to maintain a warfare with

wild beasts, every shrub, even, being banished afar. With the

sedge[4] and the rushes of the marsh they make cords, and

with these they weave the nets employed in the capture of the

fish; they fashion the mud,[5] too, with their hands, and drying

it by the help of the winds more than of the sun, cook their

food by its aid, and so warm their entrails, frozen as they

are by the northern blasts; their only[6] drink, too, is rainwater, which they collect in holes dug at the entrance of their

abodes: and yet these nations, if this very day they were vanquished by the Roman people, would exclaim against being

reduced[7] to slavery! Be it so, then-Fortune is most kind to

many, just when she means to punish them.[8]







1. The methods of grafting and inoculation.

2. B. xiii. c. 50. They dwelt between the Ems and the Elbe.

3. See B. iv. c. 29.

4. "Ulv." This appears to be a general name for all kinds of aquatic

fresh-water plants; as "alga" is that of the various sea-weeds.

5. He alludes to turf for firing; the Humus turfa of the naturalists.

6. Of course this applies only to those who dwelt near the sea-shore, and

not those more inland.

7. Guichardin remarks, that Pliny does not here bear in mind the sweets

of liberty.

8. So Laberius says, "Fortuna multis parcere in pnam solet;" "Fortune is the saving of many, when she means to punish them."




2. Chap. 2.-Wonders Connected With Trees In The Northern Regions.


CHAP. 2.-WONDERS CONNECTED WITH TREES IN THE NORTHERN

REGIONS.



Another marvel, too, connected with the forests! They

cover all the rest of Germany, and by their shade augment the

cold. But the highest of them all are those not far distant

from the Chauci already mentioned, and more particularly in

the vicinity of the two lakes[1] there. The very shores are lined

with oaks,[2] which manifest an extraordinary eagerness to







attain their growth: undermined by the waves or uprooted by

the blasts, with their entwining roots they carry vast forests

along with them, and, thus balanced, stand upright as they float

along, while they spread afar their huge branches like the

rigging of so many ships. Many is the time that these trees

have struck our fleets with alarm, when the waves have driven

them, almost purposely it would seem, against their prows as

they stood at anchor in the night; and the men, destitute of

all remedy and resource, have had to engage in a naval combat with a forest of trees!



(2.) In the same northern regions, too, is the Hercynian[3]

Forest, whose gigantic oaks,[4] uninjured by the lapse of ages,

and contemporary with the creation of the world, by their near

approach to immortality surpass all other marvels known. Not

to speak of other matters that would surpass all belief, it is a

well-known fact that their roots,[5] as they meet together, up-heave vast hills; or, if the earth happens not to accumulate

with them, rise aloft to the very branches even, and, as they

contend for the mastery, form arcades, like so many portals

thrown open, and large enough to admit of the passage of a

squadron of horse.



(3.) All these trees, in general, belong to the glandiferous

class,[6] and have ever been held in the highest honour by the

Roman people.







1. He alludes to the vicinity of the Zuyder Zee. See B. iv. c. 29. The

spots where these forests once stood are now cultivated plains, covered with

villages and other works of the industry of man.

2. "Quercus." We shall see, in the course of this Book, that its identity

has not been satisfactorily established.

3. See B. iv. c. 28, and the Note, Vol. i. p. 348. The village of Hercingen, near Waldsee, is supposed to retain the ancient name.

4. "Robora." It will be seen in this Book that the robur has not been

identified, any more than the quercus.

5. Fe treats this story as utterly fabulous. The branches of the Ficus

Indica grow downwards, and so form arcades certainly; but such is not the

case with any European tree.

6. Not only oaks, but a variety of other trees, were included under this

name by the ancients; the "glans" embracing not only the acorn, but

the mast of the beech, and the hard fruits of other trees.




3. Chap. 3. (4.)-The Acorn Oak. The Civic Crown.


CHAP. 3. (4.)-THE ACORN OAK. THE CIVIC CROWN.



It is with the leaves of this class of trees that our civic

crown is made, the most glorious reward that can be bestowed

on military valour, and, for this long time past, the emblem of

the imperial[1] clemency; since the time, in fact, when, after







the impiety of civil war, it was first deemed a meritorious

action not to shed the blood of a fellow-citizen. Far inferior

to this in rank are the mural[2] crown, the vallar,[3] and the

golden[4] one, superior though they may be in the value of the

material: inferior, too, in merit, is the rostrate[5] crown, though

ennobled, in recent times more particularly, by two great names,

those of M. Varro,[6] who was presented with it by Pompeius

Magnus, for his great achievements in the Piratic War, and of

M. Agrippa, on whom it was bestowed by Csar, at the end

of the Sicilian War, which was also a war against pirates.



In former days the beaks[7] of vessels, fastened in front of the

tribunal, graced the Forum, and seemed, as it were, a crown

placed upon the head of the Roman people itself. In later

times, however, they began to be polluted and trodden under

foot amid the seditious movements of the tribunes, the public

interest was sacrificed to private advantage, each citizen

sought solely his own advancement, and everything looked

upon as holy was abandoned to profanation-still, from amid

all this, the Rostra[8] emerged once again, and passed from

beneath the feet of the citizens to their heads. Augustus

presented to Agrippa the rostrate crown, while he himself

received the civic crown[9] at the hands of all mankind.







1. He alludes to the crown of oak-leaves, which was suspended on the

gates before the palace of the emperors. A civic crown had been voted by

the senate to Julius Csar, on the ground of having saved his country.

2. Given to the first man who scaled the wall of a besieged place. It

was made of gold, and decorated with turrets.

3. Given to the first soldier who surmounted the vallum or entrenchments. It was made of gold, and ornamented with "valli," or palisades.

4. One of the varieties of the triumphal crown was the "corona aurea,"

or "golden crown."

5. Made of gold, and decorated with the "rostra," or "beaks" of ships.

6. See B. vii. c. 31.

7. The orator's stage in the Forum was decorated with the "rostra," or

"beaks" of the ships of the Antiates; hence it received the name of "Rostrum." The locality of the Rostra was changed by Julius Csar.

8. Alluding to the prostitution of the Rostra by the tribunes and others

for the purposes of sedition, and the presentation by Augustus of the rostrate crown to Agrippa.

9. Which was suspended, as already mentioned, at the gate of his palace.




4. Chap. 4.-The Origin Of The Presentation Of Crowns.


CHAP. 4.-THE ORIGIN OF THE PRESENTATION OF CROWNS.



In ancient times crowns[1] were presented to none but a







divinity, hence it is that Homer[2] awards them only to the

gods of heaven and to the entire army; but never to an individual, however great his achievements in battle may have

been. It is said, too, that Father Liber was the first of all

who placed a crown on his head, and that it was made of ivy.[3]

In succeeding times, those engaged in sacrifices in honour of

the gods began to wear them, the victims being decked with

wreaths as well. More recently, again, they were employed

in the sacred games;[4] and at the present day they are bestowed on such occasions, not upon the victor, indeed, but

upon his country, which receives, it is proclaimed, this crown at

his hands.[5] Hence arose the usage of conferring wreaths upon

warriors when about to enjoy a triumph, for them to consecrate in the temples: after which it became the custom to

present them at our games. It would be a lengthy matter,

and, indeed, foreign to the purpose of this work, to enter upon

a discussion who was the first Roman that received each kind

of crown; in fact, they were acquainted with none but such as

were given as the reward of military prowess. It is a well-known fact, however, that this people has more varieties of

crowns than those of all other nations put together.







1. Athenus and Fabius Pictor say that Janus was the first wearer of a

crown: Pherecydes says it was Saturn, Diodorus Siculus Jupiter, and Leo

gyptiacus Isis, who wore one of wheat.

2. II. xiii. 736.

3. See cc. 34 and 35 of the present Book.

4. The Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Neman games.

5. See B. vii. c. 27.




5. Chap. 5.-Persons Presented With A Crown Of Leaves.


CHAP. 5.-PERSONS PRESENTED WITH A CROWN OF LEAVES.



Romulus presented Hostus Hostilius[1] with a crown of leaves,

for being the first to enter Fidense. This Hostus was the

grandfather of King Tullus Hostilius. P. Decius the elder,

the military tribune, was presented with a crown of leaves by

the army which had been saved by his valour, under the command of Cornelius Cossus,[2] the consul, in the war with the

Samnites. This crown was made at first of the leaves of the

holm oak, but afterwards those of the sculus[3] were preferred, as being a tree sacred to Jupiter: this, however, was

soon employed indifferently with the quercus, according as







each might happen to present itself, the honourable distinction

given to the acorn being the only thing observed. Rigorous

laws were, however, enacted, to maintain the lofty glories of

this wreath, by which it was placed upon an equality even

with the supreme honours of the wreath that is given by

Greece in presence of Jove[4] himself, and to receive which the

exulting city of the victor is wont to break[5] a passage through

its very walls. These laws are to the effect that the life of a

fellow-citizen must be preserved, and an enemy slain; that

the spot where this takes place must have been held by the

enemy that same day; that the person saved shall admit the

fact, other witnesses being of no use at all; and that the person

saved shall have been a Roman citizen.



To preserve an ally merely, even though it should be the

life of a king that is so saved, confers no right to this high reward, nor is the honour at all increased, even if it is the

Roman general that has been thus preserved, it being the intention of the framers of the law that it should be the status

of the citizen that is everything. When a man has received

this wreath, it is his privilege to wear it for the rest of his

life. When he makes his appearance at the celebration of the

games,[6] it is customary for the Senate even to rise from their

seats, and he has the right of taking his seat next to the senators.

Exemption, too, from all civic duties is conferred upon him as

well as his father and his father's father. Siccius Dentatus, as we

have already mentioned[7] on an appropriate occasion, received

fourteen civic crowns, and Manlius Capitolinus[8] six,[9] one,

among the rest, for having saved the life of his general, Servilius. Scipio Africanus declined to accept the civic crown

for having saved the life of his father at the battle of Trebia.

Times these, right worthy of our everlasting admiration,

which accorded honour alone as the reward of exploits so

mighty, and which, while other crowns were recommended by

being made of gold, disdained to set a price upon the safety of

a citizen, and loudly proclaimed thereby that it is unrighteous

to save the life of a man for motives of lucre.











1. He is called Tullus Hostilius by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the same

as his grandson.

2. A.U.C. 411. The leaves of the holm-oak were employed by Romulus

on the occasion above-mentioned.

3. These varieties of the oak will be considered in the next chapter.

4. At the Olympic games celebrated in honour of Jupiter. At Olympia

there was a statue of that god, one of the master-pieces of Phidias.

5. Implying thereby, that the city that could produce a man who could

so distinguish himself, stood in no need of walls.

6. In the Circus.

7. In B. vii. c. 29.

8. B. vii. c. 29.

9. Livy says eight. He saved the life of Servilius, the Master of the Horse.




6. Chap. 6. (5.)-Thirteen Varieties Of The Acorn.


CHAP. 6. (5.)-THIRTEEN VARIETIES OF THE ACORN.



It is a well-known fact that acorns[1] at this very day constitute the wealth of many nations, and that, too, even amid

these times of peace. Sometimes, also, when there is a scarcity

of corn they are dried and ground, the meal being employed

for making a kind of bread. Even to this very day, in the

provinces of Spain,[2] we find the acorn introduced at table in

the second course: it is thought to be sweeter when roasted

in the ashes. By the law of the Twelve Tables, there is a

provision made that it shall be lawful for a man to gather his

acorns when they have fallen upon the land of another.



The varieties of the glandiferous trees are numerous, and

they are found to differ in fruit, locality, sex, and taste; the

acorn of the beech having one shape, that of the quercus

another, and that, again, of the holm-oak another. The various

species also, among themselves, offer a considerable number of

varieties. In addition to this, some of these trees are of a

wild nature, while the fruits of others are of a less acrid

flavour, owing to a more careful cultivation. Then, too, there

is a difference between the varieties which grow on the mountains and those of the plains; the males differ from the

females, and there are considerable modifications in the flavour

of their fruit. That of the beech[3] is the sweetest of all; so

much so, that, according to Cornelius Alexander, the people of

the city of Chios, when besieged, supported themselves wholly

on mast. The different varieties cannot possibly be distinguished by their respective names, which vary according to







their several localities. The quercus[4] and the robur[5] we

see growing everywhere, but not so with the sculus;[6] while

a fourth kind, known as the cerrus,[7] is not so much as known

throughout the greater part of Italy. We shall distinguish

them, therefore, by their characteristic features, and when

circumstances render it necessary, shall give their Greek names

as well.







1. "Glandes." Under this name, for which we do not appear to have any

English equivalent, were included, as already mentioned, not only the

acorn of the oak, but the nut or mast of the beech, and probably most of

the hard or kernel fruits. In the present instance Pliny probably alludes

only to the fruit of the oak and the beech. Acorns are but little used as

an article of food in these days. Roasted, they have been proposed as a

substitute for coffee.

2. The acorn of the Quercus ballota of Linnus is probably meant, which

is still much used in the province of Salamanca, and forms an agreeable

article of food. This acorn, Fe says, contains a considerable proportion

of saccharine matter, and is better roasted in the ashes than boiled in water.

It is not, however, used as a dessert, as in the time of the Romans. These

acorns are sold at market in Andalusia in the month of October.

3. So far as it goes, the kernel of the mast or beech-nut is not unpalatable; but in the English beech it is very diminutive.

4. The word "quercu" is frequently used as a general name for the

oak; but throughout the present Book it is most employed as meaning a

distinct variety of the oak, one of the larger kinds, Fe says, and answering

to the Quercus racemosa of Lamarck, the Quercus robur of Linnus, and

the Rouvre of the French.

5. This also has been much employed as a general name for the oak; but

here, and in other parts of this Book, it is applied to one variety. Fee

thinks that it answers to the Quercus sessiliflora of Smith, sometimes also

called "rouvre" by the French.

6. The Quercus sculus of Linnus. It is not improbable that this oak

is a different tree from the "sculus" of Horace and Virgil, which was

perhaps either a walnut, or a variety of the beech.

7. It has been suggested that this is the same with the Quercus cerrus of

Linnus, and the Quercus crinita of Lamarck, the gland of which is placed

in a prickly cupule. It is rarely found in France, but is often to be met

with in Piedmont and the Apennines.




7. Chap. 7. (6.)-The Beech.


CHAP. 7. (6.)-THE BEECH.



The acorn of the beech[1] is similar in appearance to a kernel,

enclosed in a shell of triangular shape. The leaf is thin and

one of the very lightest, is similar in appearance to that of the

poplar, and turns yellow with remarkable rapidity. From the

middle of the leaf, and upon the upper side of it, there mostly

shoots a little green berry, with a pointed top.[2] The beech is

particularly agreeable to rats and mice; and hence it is, that

where this tree abounds, those creatures are sure to be plentiful also. The leaves are also very fattening for dormice,

and good for thrushes too. Almost all trees bear an average

crop but once in two years; this is the case with the beech

more particularly.







1. The Fagus silvatica of Lamarck. Its Latin name, "fagus," is supposed

to have been derived from the Greek fa/gw, "to eat." An oil is extracted

from the acorns or nuts, that is much used in some parts of France.

2. He speaks probably of one of the galls which are found attached to

the leaves of the forest trees.




8. Chap. 8.-The Other Acorns-Wood For Fuel.


CHAP. 8.-THE OTHER ACORNS-WOOD FOR FUEL.



The other trees that bear acorns, properly so called, are the







robur, the sculus, the cerrus, the holm-oak,[1] and the corktree:[2] it is contained in a rivelled calyx, which embraces

more or less of it, according to the several varieties. The

leaves of these trees, those of the holm-oak excepted, are

weighty, pulpy, long, and jagged at the edges, and they do

not turn yellow before they fall, as with the beech: they are

also longer or shorter, as the case may be.



There are two kinds[3] of holm-oak: one of them, which

belongs to Italy, has a leaf not very unlike that of the olive;

some of the Greeks give it the name of "milax,"[4] and in our

provinces it is known as the aquifolia. The acorn of these

two kinds is shorter and more slender than in the others:

Homer[5] calls it "acylos," and by that name distinguishes it

from the ordinary acorn: it is generally said that the male

tree of the holm-oak bears no fruit.



The best acorn, and the very largest, is that which grows

upon the quercus, and the next to it is the fruit of the ascu-

lus: that of the robur, again, is diminutive, and the fruit of

the cerrus has a meagre, wretched look, being enclosed in a

calyx covered with prickles, like the outer coat of the chesnut. With reference to the acorn of the quercus, that which

grows upon the female tree[6] is sweeter and more tender,

while that of the male is more solid and compact. The acorn,

however, of the latifolia[7] is the most esteemed, an oak so







called from the remarkable broadness of its leaves. The acorns

differ also among themselves in size, and the comparative

fineness of the outer shell; as also in the circumstance that

some have beneath the shell a rough coat of a rusty colour,

while in others a white flesh immediately presents itself.

Those, too, are more particularly esteemed, the two extremities of the nut of which, taken lengthwise, are as hard as a

stone: and it is considered preferable that this peculiarity

should present itself rather in the shell than in the flesh: in

either case, however, it only exists in the fruit of the male tree.

In some kinds, again, the acorn is oval, in others round;

while in others it is of a more pointed form. The colour, too,

varies considerably, according as it is blacker or whiter; this

last being held in the highest esteem. The extremities of the

acorn are bitter, but the flesh in the middle of it is sweet;[8]

another difference, too, consists in the comparative length or

shortness of the stalk.



As for the trees themselves, the one that bears the acorn of

largest size is known as the "hemeris;"[9] a small tree with

a thick bushy foliage all around it, and often hollowed at the

place where the branch is joined to the trunk. The quercus

has a stronger wood, and less susceptible of decay: this also is

a very branchy tree, but is much taller than the last, while

the trunk is considerably thicker. The gilops,[10] however, is

the highest of them all, and is much attached to wild, uncultivated spots. Next to this in height is the latifolia, but its

wood is far from being so useful either for building purposes

or for charcoal. When rough-hewn it is very apt to spoil,

hence it is that it is generally used in an unhewn state. As

charcoal, it is considered only economical in smelting copper;

for the moment the workman ceases to blow, the fire dies out,

and hence it requires to be repeatedly rekindled; while at the

same time it gives out great quantities of sparks. The best







charcoal is that obtained from the wood of young trees.[11]

Square billets of wood, newly cut, are piled compactly together

with clay, and built up in the form of a chimney; the pile is

then set fire to, and incisions are made in the coat of clay as it

gradually hardens, by the aid of long poles, for the purpose of

letting the moisture of the wood evaporate.



The worst kind of all, however, both for timber and for

making charcoal, is the oak known as the "haliphlos,"[12] the

bark of which is remarkably thick, and the trunk of considerable size, but mostly hollow and spongy: it is the only one

of this species that rots while the tree is still alive. In

addition to this, it is very frequently struck by lightning,

although it is not so remarkably lofty in height: for this

reason it is not considered lawful to employ its wood for the

purposes of sacrifice. It is but rarely that it bears any acorns,

and when it does they are bitter: no animal will touch them,

with the sole exception of swine, and not even they, if they

can get any other food. An additional reason also for its exclusion from all religious ceremonials, is the circumstance

that the fire is very apt to go out in the middle of the

sacrifice when the wood of it is used for fuel.



The acorn of the beech, when given to swine,[13] makes them

brisk and lively, and renders the flesh tender for cooking, and

light and easy of digestion; while, on the other hand, that of

the holm oak has the effect of making them thin, pallid,

meagre, and lumpish. The acorn of the quercus is of a broad

shape, and is the heaviest as well as the sweetest of them

all. According to Nigidius, the acorn of the cerrus occupies

the next rank to this, and, indeed, there is no acorn that

renders the flesh of swine more firm, though at the same time

it is apt to impart a certain degree of hardness. The same

author assures us also, that the acorn of the holm oak is a

trying diet for swine, unless it is given in very small quan-







tities at a time. He says, too, that this acorn is the last

to fall, and that the flesh of swine, if fed upon the acorns

of the sculus, the robur, or the cork-tree, will be of a

spongy nature.







1. "Ilex." Fe thinks that the varieties known as the Prinos and the

Ballota were often confounded by the ancients with the "ilex" or "holm-oak." This tree, he says, bears no resemblance to the ordinary oak, except

in the blossoms and the fruit. It is the Ilex of Linnus, the "yeuse," or

green oak," of the French.

2. The Quercus suber of Linnus; it is found more particularly in the

department of the Landes in France.

3. As Fe remarks, Pliny is clearly in error here; one kind being the

veritable ilex or holm oak, the other, the aquifolium or holly, quite a dif-

ferent tree.

4. The smilax or milax was a real holm oak, but the aquifolia was the holly.

5. Od. xi. 242. Fe remarks that the berry of the holly has no resem

blance to the acorn whatever, and he says that this statement of Pliny almost leads him to think that the second variety here mentioned by him was

not in reality the holly, but a variety of the quercus.

6. Fe observes that, properly speaking, there is no sex in the oak, the

individuals being neither male nor female. The Flora Danica however, as

he observes, gives the name of "Quercus fmina" to the Quercus racemosa

of Lamarck.

7. Or "broad-leaved" oak; one of the varieties of the Quercus sessiliflora of Smith-For. Brit.

8. This statement is contrary to general experience in modern times,

the flavour of the acorn being uniformly acrid and bitter throughout. It

is not impossible, however, that the flavour may have been more palatable

in ancient times.

9. A variety of the common oak, the Quercus racemosa of Lamarck;

Sprengel takes it to be the Quercus ballota of Desfontaines.

10. The Quercus gilops of Linnus. It is a native of Piedmont, some

parts of Italy, and the island of Crete.

11. Pliny's account of making charcoal is derived from Theophrastus,

B. iii. c. 10. Fe remarks that it differs little from the method adopted in

France at the present day.

12. The Quercus Hispanica, probably, of Lamarck, of which Fe thinks

the Quercus pseudo-suber of Desfontaines is a variety; it is found in

Greece and on the shores of the Mediterranean, near Gibraltar. The Greek

name signifies the "sea cork-tree."

13. The statement here given as to the effect of beech-mast on swine, is

destitute, Fe remarks, of all foundation. If fed upon it, their flesh will

naturally be of a soft, spongy nature.




9. Chap. 9.-The Gall-Nut.


CHAP. 9.-THE GALL-NUT.



All[1] the glandiferous trees produce the gall-nut as well:

they only bear acorns, however, in alternate years. The gallnut of the hemeris[2] is considered the choicest of all, and the

best adapted for the preparation of leather: that of the latifolia closely resembles it, but is somewhat lighter, and not by

any means so highly approved. This last tree produces the

black gall-nut also-for there are two varieties of it-this last

being deemed preferable for dyeing wool.



(7.) The gall-nut begins to grow just as the sun is leaving

the sign of Gemini,[3] and always bursts forth in its entirety in a

single night.[4] The white variety grows, too, in a single day, but

if the heat happens to overtake it, it shrinks immediately, and

never arrives at its proper size, which is about that of a bean.

The black gall-nut will remain green for a longer period, and

sometimes attains the size of an apple[5] even. The best kind is

that which comes from Commagene,[6] and the most inferior

are those produced by the robur: it may easily be tested by

means of certain holes in it which admit of the passage of the

light.[7]







1. This assertion is perhaps too general; gall-nuts are produced in very

small quantities by the holm-oak.

2. A variety of the Quercus racemosa, which produces the green gallnut of Aleppo, considered in modern, as in ancient, times the choicest in

quality.

3. Theophrastus says the end of June.

4. Its growth, in reality, is not so rapid as this.

5. Such a thing is never seen at the present day.

6. In Syria. We have mentioned the galls of Aleppo in Note 62.

7. This is the case when the inside has been eaten away by the insect

that breeds there; of course, in such case it is hollow, light, and worthless.




10. Chap. 10.-Other Productions On These Trees Besides The Acorn.


CHAP. 10.-OTHER PRODUCTIONS ON THESE TREES BESIDES THE ACORN.



The robur, in addition to its fruit, has a great number of

other productions: it bears[1] the two varieties of the gall-nut,







and a production which closely resembles the mulberry,[2] except that it differs from it in being dry and hard: for the most

part it bears a resemblance to a bull's head, and in the inside

there is a fruit very similar to the stone of the olive. Little

balls[3] also are found growing on the robur, not unlike nuts in

appearance, and containing within them a kind of soft wool,

which is used for burning in lamps; for it will keep burning

without oil, which is the case also with the black gall-nut.

It bears another kind, too, of little ball, covered with hair,[4] but

used for no purpose: in spring, however, this contains a juice like

honey. In the hollows formed by the union of the trunk and

branches of this tree there are found also small round balls,[5]

which adhere bodily to the bark, and not by means of a stalk:

at the point of junction they are white, but the rest of the

body is spotted all over with black: inside they are of a scarlet

colour, but on opening them they are found to be empty, and

are of a bitter taste.



Sometimes, too, the robur bears a kind of pumice,[6] as well

as little balls, which are formed of the leaves rolled up; upon

the veins of the leaves, too, there are watery pustules, of a

whitish hue, and transparent while they are soft; in these a

kind of gnat[7] is produced, and they come to maturity just in

the same way that the ordinary gall-nut does.







1. The ancients were not aware that the gall was produced from the eggs

of the cynips, deposited upon the leaf or bark of the tree. Tan and gallic

acid are its principal component parts.

2. A substance quite unknown now; but it is very doubtful if Pliny is

rightly informed here.

3. A fungous gall, produced by the Cynips fungosa. It is not used for

any domestic purpose at the present day.

4. This kind of gall is now unknown. Fe questions the assertion about

its juice.

5. The Cynips quercus baccarum of Linnus, one of the common galls.

6. The root cynips, the Cynips radicum of Fourcroi, produces these

galls, which lie near the root, and have the appearance of ligneous nodo-

sities. It is harder than wood, and contains cells, in which the larva of the

insect lies coiled up.

7. This is a proof, as Fe remarks, that the ancients had observed the

existence of the cynips; though, at the same time, it is equally evident

that they did not know the important part it acts in the formation of the

gall.




11. Chap. 11. (8.)-Cachrys.


CHAP. 11. (8.)-CACHRYS.



The robur bears cachrys,[1] too; such being the name given







to a small round ball that is employed in medicine for its

caustic properties. It grows on the fir likewise, the larch,

the pitch-tree, the linden, the nut-tree, and the plane, and

remains on the tree throughout the winter, after the leaves have

fallen. It contains a kernel very similar to that of the pinenut, and increases in size during the winter. In spring the

ball opens throughout, and it finally drops when the leaves

are beginning to grow.



Such is the multiplicity of the products borne by the robur

in addition to its acorns; and not only these, but mushrooms[2]

as well, of better or worse quality, the most recent stimulants

that have been discovered for the appetite; these last are found

growing about its roots. Those of the quercus are the most

highly esteemed, while those of the robur, the cypress, and

the pine are injurious.[3] The robur produces mistletoe[4] also,

and, if we may believe Hesiod,[5] honey as well: indeed, it is

a well-known fact, that a honey[6]-like dew falling from heaven, as

we have already mentioned,[7] deposits itself upon the leaves of

this tree in preference to those of any other. It is also well

known that the wood of this tree, when burnt, produces a

nitrous[8] ash.











1. This word, as employed by Theophrastus, means a catkin, the Julus

amentum of the botanists; but it is doubtful if Pliny attaches this meaning

to the word, as the lime or linden-tree has no catkin, but an inflorescence

of a different character. It is not improbable that, under this name, he

alludes to some excrescence.

2. These were the "boletus" and the suillus;" the last of which seem

only to have been recently introduced at table in the time of Pliny. See

B. xxii. c. 47.

3. He alludes clearly to fungi of radically different qualities, as the nature of the trees beneath which they grow cannot possibly influence them,

any further than by the various proportions of shade they afford. The soil,

however, exercises great influence on the quality of the fungus; growing

upon a hill, it may be innoxious, while in a wet soil it may be productive

of death.

4. See cc. 93, 94, and 95, of this Book.

5. Works and Days, 1. 230.

6. Pliny seems to have here taken in a literal sense, what has been said

figuratively by Virgil, Eel. iv. 1. 26:

"Et dur quercus sudabunt roscida mella;"

and by Ovid, in relation to the Golden Age, Met. i. 113:

"Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella."

Fe remarks, that we find on the leaf of the lime-tree a thin, sugary deposit, left by insects; and that a species of manna exudes from the Conifer,

as also the bark of the beech. This, however, is never the case with the

oak.

7. B. xi. c. 12.

8. By this word, Fe observes, we must not understand the word "nitre,"

in the modern sense, but the sub-carbonate of potash; while the ashes of

trees growing on the shores of the sea produce a sub-carbonate of soda.




12. Chap. 12.-The Kermes Berry.


CHAP. 12.-THE KERMES BERRY.



The helm oak, however, by its scarlet berry[1] alone challenges competition with all these manifold productions. This

grain appears at first sight to be a roughness on the surface of

the tree, as it were, a small kind of the aquifolia[2] variety

of holm oak, known as the cusculium.[3] To the poor in Spain

it furnishes[4] the means of paying one half of their tribute.

We have already, when speaking[5] of the purple of the murex,

mentioned the best methods adopted for using it. It is produced also in Galatia, Africa, Pisidia, and Cilicia: the most

inferior kind is that of Sardinia.







1. "Coccus." This is not a gall, but the distended body of an insect, the

kermes, which grows on a peculiar oak, the "Quercus coccifera," found in

the south of Europe.

2. We have previously mentioned, that he seems to have confounded the

holly with the holm oak.

3. Poinsinet, rather absurdly, as it would appear, finds in this word the

origin of our word "cochineal."

4. The kermes berry is but little used in Spain, or, indeed, anywhere else,

since the discovery of the cochineal of America.

5. B. ix. c. 65.




13. Chap. 13.-Agaric.


CHAP. 13.-AGARIC.



It is in the Gallic provinces more particularly that the glandiferous trees produce agaric;[1] such being the name given to

a white fungus which has a strong odour, and is very useful as

an antidote. It grows upon the top of the tree, and gives

out a brilliant light[2] at night: this, indeed, is the sign by

which its presence is known, and by the aid of this light it

may be gathered during the night. The gilops is the only

one among the glandiferous trees that bears a kind of dry

cloth,[3] covered with a white mossy shag, and this, not only

attached to the bark, but hanging down from the branches as

well, a cubit even in length: this substance has a strong







odour, as we have already[4] stated, when speaking of the

perfumes.



The cork is but a very small tree, and its acorn is of the

very worst[5] quality, and rarely to be found as well: the

bark[6] is its only useful product, being remarkably thick, and

if removed it will grow again. When straitened out, it has

been known to form planks as much as ten feet square. This

substance is employed more particularly attached as a buoy

to the ropes[7] of ships' anchors and the drag-nets of fishermen.

It is employed also for the bungs of casks and as a material

for the winter shoes[8] of females; for which reason the Greeks

not inappropriately call them[9] "the bark of a tree."



There are some writers who speak of it as the female of the

holm oak; and in the countries where the holm does not

grow, they substitute for it the wood of the cork-tree, more

particularly in cartwrights' work, in the vicinity of Elis and

Lacedmon for instance. The cork-tree does not grow throughout the whole of Italy, and in no[10] part whatever of Gaul.







1. Not the white agaric, Fe says, of modern pharmacy; but, as no kind

of agaric is found in the oak, it does not seem possible to identify it. See

B. xxv. c. 57.

2. It is evident that no fungus would give out phosphoric light; but it

may have resulted from old wood in a state of decomposition.

3. It is pretty clear that one of the lichens of the genus usnea is here

referred to. Amadue, or German tinder, seems somewhat similar.

4. B. xii. c. 50.

5. On the contrary, Fe says, the acorn of the Quercus suber is of a sweet

and agreeable flavour, and is much sought as a food for pigs. The hams

of Bayonne are said to owe their high reputation to the acorns of the corktree.

6. The word "cork" is clearly derived from the Latin "cortex," "bark"

See Beckmann's History of Inventions, V. i. p. 320, et seq., Bolrn's Edition,

for a very interesting account of this tree.

7. This passage, the meaning of which is so obvious, is discussed at some

length by Beckmann, Vol. i. pp. 321, 322.

8. It is still employed for making soles which are impervious to the wet.

9. It is doubtful whether this name was given to the shoes, or the females who wore them, and we have therefore preserved the doubt, in the

ambiguous "them." Beckmann also discusses this passage, p. 321. He

informs us, p. 322, that the Roman ladies who wished to appear taller than

they really were, were in the habit of putting plenty of cork under their

soles.

10. At the present day, it grows in the greatest abundance in France, the

Landes more particularly.




14. Chap. 14. (9.)-Trees Of Which The Bark Is Used.


CHAP. 14. (9.)-TREES OF WHICH THE BARK IS USED.



The bark also of the beech, the lime, the fir, and the pitch-tree is extensively used by the peasantry. Panniers and

baskets are made of it, as also the large flat hampers which

are employed for the carriage of corn and grapes: roofs of







cottages,[1] too, are made of this material. When a spy has

been sent out he often leaves information for his general,

written upon fresh bark, by cutting letters in the parts of it

that are the most juicy. The bark of the beech is also employed for religious purposes in certain sacred rites.[2] This

tree, however, when deprived of its bark, will not survive.







1. This is still the case in some of the poorer provinces of Spain.

2. As Fe remarks, Mars is no longer the Divinity in honour of whom

characters are traced on the bark of trees.




15. Chap. 15. (10.)-Shingles.


CHAP. 15. (10.)-SHINGLES.



The best shingles are those made of the wood of the robur;

the next best being those furnished by the other glandiferous

trees and the beech. Those most easily made are cut from

the wood of the resinous trees, but they do not last,[1]

with the exception of those made of pine. Cornelius

Nepos informs us, that Rome was roofed solely with shingles

down to the time of the war with Pyrrhus, a period of four

hundred and seventy years. It is well known that it was

remarkable for the fine forests in its vicinity. Even at the

present day, the name of Jupiter Fagutalus points out in

what locality there stood a grove of beeches;[2] the Querquetulan Gate shows where the quercus once stood, and the Viminal Hill is the spot where the "vimen"[3] was sought in

ancient times. In many other parts, too, there were groves

to be found, and sometimes as many as two. Q. Hortensius,

the Dictator, on the secession of the plebeians to the Janiculum, passed a law in the sculetum,[4] that what the plebeians had enacted should be binding upon every Roman

citizen.[5]







1. On the contrary, Fe says, the resinous woods are the most proof of

all against the action of the air.

2. Festus says that the Fagutal, a shrine of Jupiter, was so called from

a beech tree (fagus) that stood there, and was sacred to that god.

3. Or osier.

4. Or "plantation of the sculus."

5. A.U.C. 367.




16. Chap. 16.-The Pine.


CHAP. 16.-THE PINE.



In those days they regarded as exotics, because they did not

exist in the vicinity[1] of the City, the pine and the fir, as well

as all the other varieties that produce pitch; of which we shall

now proceed to speak, in order that the method of seasoning







wine, from the very first, may be fully known. Whereas

there are several among the trees already mentioned in Asia

or the East, that produce pitch, in Europe there are but

six varieties of kindred trees that supply it. In this number

there are the pine[2] and the pinaster,[3] which have long thin

leaves like hair, and pointed at the end. The pine yields the

least resin of them all: in the pine nut, indeed, of which we

have previously spoken,[4] it is sometimes to be found, but

hardly in sufficient quantities to warrant us in reckoning the

pine among the resinous trees.







1. Fe regards this as an extremely doubtful assertion.

2. The Pinus pinea of Linnus, the cultivated pine.

3. The Pinus silvestris of Linnus, the wild pine; the Pinus maritima of

Lamarck is a variety of it.

4. B. xv. c. 9.




17. Chap. 17.-The Pinaster.


CHAP. 17.-THE PINASTER.



The pinaster is nothing else but a wild pine: it rises to a

surprising height, and throws out branches from the middle,

just as the pine does from the top. This tree yields a more

copious supply of resin than the pine: the mode in which this

is done we shall set forth[1] on a future occasion. It grows

also in flat countries. Many people think that this is the

same tree that grows along the shores of Italy, and is known

as the "tibulus;"[2] but this last is slender, and more com-

pact than the pine; it is likewise free from knots, and hence

is used in the construction of light gallies;[3] they are both almost

entirely destitute of resin.







1. In c. 23 of this Book.

2. A variety of the Pinus silvestris of Linnus.

3. "Liburnic." See B. ix. cc. 5 and 48.




20. Chap. 20.-The Yew.


CHAP. 20.-THE YEW.



Not to omit any one of them, the yew[1] is similar to these

other trees in general appearance. It is of a colour, however,

but slightly approaching to green, and of a slender form; of

sombre and ominous aspect, and quite destitute of juice: it is

the only one, too, among them all, that bears a berry. In the

male tree the fruit is injurious; indeed, in Spain more particularly, the berries contain a deadly poison.[2] It is an ascertained

fact that travellers' vessels,[3] made in Gaul of this wood, for the

purpose of holding wine, have caused the death of those who

used them. Sextius says, that in Greece this tree is known by

the name of "smilax, "and that in Arcadia it is possessed of so

active a poison, that those who sleep beneath it, or even take

food[4] there, are sure to meet their death from it. There are

authors, also, who assert that the poisons which we call at

the present day "toxica," and in which arrows are dipped,

were formerly called taxica,[5] from this tree. It has been

discovered, also, that these poisonous qualities are quite neutralized by driving a copper nail into the wood of the tree.











1. The Taxus baccata of Linnus. The account here given is in general

very correct.

2. It is supposed that Pliny derives this notion as to the yew berry from

Julius Csar, who says that "Cativulcus killed himself with the yew, a

tree which grows in great abundance in Gaul and Germany." It is, however, now known that the berry is quite innocuous; but the leaves and

shoots are destructive of animal life.

3. "Viatoria;" probably not unlike our travelling flasks and pocket-pis-

tols. This statement made by Pliny is not at all improbable.

4. This statement does not deserve a serious contradiction.

5. It is not improbable, however, that to/con, an "arrow," is of older

date than "taxus," as signifying the name of the yew.




21. Chap. 21. (11.)-Methods Of Making Tar-How Cedrium Is Made.


CHAP. 21. (11.)-METHODS OF MAKING TAR-HOW CEDRIUM IS MADE.



In Europe, tar is extracted from the torch-tree[1] by the

agency of fire; it is employed for coating ships and for many

other useful purposes.[2] The wood of the tree is chopped[3]

into small billets, and then put into a furnace, which is heated

by fires lighted on every side. The first steam that exudes

flows in the form of water into a reservoir made for its reception: in Syria this substance is known as "cedrium;"[4] and

it possesses such remarkable strength, that in Egypt the bodies

of the dead, after being steeped in it, are preserved from all

corruption.[5]







1. Numerous varieties of the conifer supply us with tar, and Pliny is

in error in deriving it solely from the torch-tree, the Pinus mugho of Linnus.

2. See B. xxiv. c. 23.

3. It is still obtained in a similar way.

4. Fe remarks, that Pliny is in error here; this red, watery fluid formed

in the extraction of tars, being quite a different thing from "cedrium," the

alkitran or kitran of the Arabs; which is not improbably made from a

cedar, or perhaps the Juniperus Phnicea, called "Cedrus" by the two

Bauhins and Tournefort. He says that it is not likely that the Egyptians

would use this red substance for the purpose of preserving the dead, charged

as it is with empyreumatic oil, and destitute of all properties peculiar to

resins.

5. See B. xxi. c. 3, and B. xxiv. c. 23.




22. Chap. 22.-Methods By Which Thick Pitch Is Prepared.


CHAP. 22.-METHODS BY WHICH THICK PITCH IS PREPARED.



The liquid that follows is of a thicker consistency, and constitutes pitch, properly so called. This liquid, thrown again

into a brazen cauldron, and mixed with vinegar, becomes still[1]

thicker, and when left to coagulate, receives the name of

"Bruttian"[2] pitch. It is used, however, only for pitching the

insides of dolia[3] and other vessels, it differing from the other

kinds in being more viscous, of a redder colour, and more

unctuous than is usually the case. All these varieties of pitch

are prepared from the pitch-tree, by putting red-hot stones,

with the resinous wood, in troughs made of strong oak; or

if these troughs are not attainable, by piling up billets of the







wood in the method employed for the manufacture of charcoal.[4] It is this pitch that is used for seasoning wine, being

first pounded and reduced to a fine powder: it is of a blacker

colour, too, than the other sort. The same resin, if boiled gently

with water, and then strained off, becomes viscous, and assumes

a red colour; it is then known as "distilled"[5] pitch:" for

making this, the refuse portions of the resin and the bark of

the tree are generally selected.



Another method is adopted for the manufacture of that used

as crapula.[6] Raw flower of resin is taken, direct from the

tree, with a plentiful sprinkling of small, thin chips of the

wood. These are then pounded[7] down and passed through a

sieve, after which they are steeped in water, which is heated

till it comes to a boil. The unctuous portion that is extracted

from this is the best resin: it is but rarely to be met with,

and then only in a few places in Italy, in the vicinity of the

Alps: it is in considerable request for medicinal purposes.

For this, they generally boil a congius of white resin to two

congii of rain-water:[8] some persons, however, think it better[9]

to boil it without water for one whole day by a slow fire,

taking care to use a vessel of white copper.[10] Some, again,

are in the habit of boiling the resin of the terebinth[11] in a flat

pan[12] placed upon hot ashes, and prefer it to any other kind.

The resin of the mastich[13] is held in the next degree of estimation.[14]











1. This is impracticable; neither vinegar, wine, nor water, will mingle

with pitch. These resins, however, if stirred up briskly in hot water, become of a paler colour, and acquire an additional suppleness.

2. Perhaps so called from Calabria, a country where the pine abounded,

and part of which was called Bruttium.

3. Or wine-vats.

4. See c. 8 of the present Book.

5. Stillaticia.

6. See B. xiv. c. 25.

7. This operation removes from the pitch a great portion of its essential

oil, and disengages it of any extraneous bodies that may have been mixed

with it.

8. Fe remarks that there is no necessity for this selection, though no

doubt rain-water is superior to spring or cistern water, for some purposes,

from its holding no terreous salts in solution.

9. This would colour the resin more strongly, Fe says, and give it a

greater degree of friability.

10. See B. xxxiv. c. 20.

11. See B. xiv. c. 25, and B. xxiv. c. 22.

12. "Sartago." Generally understood to be the same as our frying-pan.

Fe remarks that this method would most inevitably cause the mass in

fusion to ignite; and should such not be the case, a coloured resin would

be the result, coloured with a large quantity of carbon, and destitute of all

the essential oil that the resin originally contained.

13. See B. xiv. c. 20.

14. The terebinthine of the mastich, Fe says, is an oleo-resin, or in

other words, composed of an essential oil and a resin.




23. Chap. 23. (12.)-How The Resin Called Zopissa Is Prepared.


CHAP. 23. (12.)-HOW THE RESIN CALLED ZOPISSA IS PREPARED.



We must not omit, too, that the Greeks call by the name of

zopissa[1] the pitch mixed with wax which has been scraped

from off the bottoms of sea-going ships;[2] for there is nothing,

in fact, that has been left untried by mankind. This composition is found much more efficient for all those purposes in

which pitch and resin are employed, in consequence of the

superior hardness which has been imparted to it by the sea-salt.



The pitch-tree is opened[3] on the side that faces the sun,

not by means of an incision, but of a wound made by the removal of the bark: this opening being generally two feet in

width and one cubit from the ground, at the very least. The

body of the tree, too, is not spared in this instance, as in others,

for even the very chips from off it are considered as having

their use; those, however, from the lower part of the tree are

looked upon as the best, the wood of the higher parts giving

the resin a bitter[4] taste. In a short time all the resinous

juices of the entire tree come to a point of confluence in the

wound so inflicted: the same process is adopted also with the

torch-tree. When the liquid ceases to flow, the tree is opened

in a similar manner in some other part, and then, again, elsewhere: after which the whole tree is cut down, and the pith[5]

of it is used for burning.[6]



So, too, in Syria they take the bark from off the terebinth;

and, indeed, in those parts they do not spare even the root or

branches, although in general the resin obtained from those

parts is held in disesteem. In Macedonia they subject the

whole of the male larch to the action of fire, but of the female[7]







only the roots. Theopompus has stated in his writings that in

the territory of the Apolloniates there is found a kind of mineral

pitch,[8] not inferior to that of Macedonia. The best pitch[9]

everywhere is that obtained from trees planted on sunny spots

with a north-east aspect; while that which is produced from

more shaded localities has a disagreeable look and a repulsive

odour. Pitch, too, that is produced amid the cold of winter is

of inferior quality, being in smaller quantity, too, and comparatively colourless. Some persons are of opinion that in mountainous localities this liquid is produced in the greatest abundance, and that it is of superior colour and of a sweeter taste

and has a finer smell so long as it remains in a state of resin;

but that when, on the other hand, it is subjected to boiling, it

yields a smaller quantity of pitch, because so much of it goes[10]

off in a serous shape. They say that the resinous trees, too,

that grow on mountains are thinner than those that are found

on plains, but that they are apt, both of them, to be unproductive in clear, dry weather.



Some trees, too, afford a flow of resinous juice the year after

the incision is made, some, again, in the second year, and

others in the third. The wound so made is filled with resin,

but not with bark, or by the cicatrization of the outer coat;

for the bark in this tree never unites. Among these varieties some authors have made the sappium[11] to constitute a

peculiar kind, because it is produced from the seed of a kindred variety, as we have already stated when speaking of the

nuts[12] of trees; and they have given the name of tda[13] to

the lower parts of the tree; although in reality this tree is nothing else but a pitch-tree, which by careful cultivation has

lost some small portion of its wild character. The name

"sappinus" is also given to the timber of these trees when

cut, as we shall have occasion to mention[14] hereafter.











1. Apparently meaning "boiled pitch."

2. See B. xxiv. c. 26.

3. This account has been borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B is.

c. ii. The modern method of extracting the resin of the pine is very

similar.

4. There is no foundation whatever for this statement.

5. The pith of the pine cannot be separated from the wood, and, indeed,

is not easily distinguished from it. Fe says that in some of these trees

masses of resin are found in the cavities which run longitudinally with the

fibres, and queries whether this may not be the "marrow" or "pith" of

the tree mentioned by Pliny.

6. As a torch or candle, probably.

7. This division of the larch into sexes, as previously mentioned, is only

fanciful, and has no foundation in fact. The result of this operation, Fe

says, would be only a sort of tar.

8. See B. xxxv. c. 51. He alludes to the bitumen known as asphalt,

bitumen of Juda, mineral pitch, mountain pitch, malthe, pissalphate.

9. These particulars, borrowed from Theophrastus, are in general correct.

10. This is not the fact; the essential oil in which the resin so greatly

abounds, becomes volatile with remarkable facility.

11. Most probably one of the varieties of the pine; but the mode in which

Pliny expresses himself renders it impossible to identify it with any

precision.

12. B. xv. c. 9.

13. The name borne also by the torch-tree.

14. See c. 76 of this Book.




24. Chap. 24. (13.)-Trees The Wood Of Which Is Highly Valued. Four Varieties Of The Ash.


CHAP. 24. (13.)-TREES THE WOOD OF WHICH IS HIGHLY VALUED.

FOUR VARIETIES OF THE ASH.



It is for the sake of their timber that Nature has created the

other trees, and more particularly the ash,[1] which yields it in

greater abundance. This is a tall, tapering tree, with a

feather-like leaf: it has been greatly ennobled by the encomiums of Homer, and the fact that it formed the spear of

Achilles:[2] the wood of it is employed for numerous purposes.

The ash which grows upon Mount Ida, in Troas, is so extremely like the cedar,[3] that, when the bark is removed, it

will deceive a purchaser.



The Greeks have distinguished two varieties of this tree,

the one long and without knots, the other short, with a harder

wood, of a darker colour, and a leaf like that of the laurel.

In Macedonia they give the name of "bumelia"[4] to an ash

of remarkably large size, with a wood of extreme flexibility.

Some authors have divided this tree into several varieties, ac-

cording to the localities which it inhabits, and say that the

ash of the plains has a spotted wood, while that of the mountain ash is more compact. Some Greek writers have stated

hat the leaf of the ash is poisonous[5] to beasts of burden, but

harmless to all the animals that ruminate[6] The leaves of

his tree in Italy, however, are not injurious to beasts of burden even; so far from it, in fact, that nothing has been found

to act as so good a specific for the bites of serpents[7] as to drink

the juice extracted from the leaves, and to apply them to the

wounds. So great, too, are the virtues of this tree, that no

serpent will ever lie in the shadow thrown by it, either in the







morning or the evening, be it ever so long; indeed, they will

always keep at the greatest possible distance from it. We

state the fact from ocular demonstration,[8] that if a serpent

and a lighted fire are placed within a circle formed of the leaves

of the ash, the reptile will rather throw itself into the fire than

encounter the leaves of the tree. By a wonderful provision

of Nature, the ash has been made to blossom before the serpents leave their holes, and the fall of its leaf does not take

place till after they have retired for the winter.







1. He does not speak in this place of the "ornus" or "mountain ash;"

nor, as Fe observes, does he mention the use of the bark of the ash as a

febrifuge, or of its leaves as a purgative. This ash is the Fraxinus excelsior of Decandolles.

2. Il. xxiv. 277.

3. Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theophrastus, who says

that it is the yew that bears so strong a resemblance to the cedar.

4. Or "bull's-ash." This variety does not seem to have been identified.

5. This statement results from his misinterpretation of the language of

Theophrastus, who is really speaking of the yew, which Pliny mistakes

or the ash.

6. Miller asserts that, if given to cows, this leaf will impart a bad flavour

to the milk; a statement which, Fe says, is quite incorrect.

7. A merely fanciful notion, without apparently the slightest foundation:

the same, too, may be said of the alleged antipathy of the serpent to the

beech-tree, which is neither venomous nor odoriferous.

8. This story of Pliny has been corroborated by M. de Verone, and as

strongly contradicted by Camerarius and Charras: with M. Fe, then, we

must leave it to the reader to judge which is the most likely to be speaking

the truth. It is not improbable that Pliny may have been imposed upon,

as his credulity would not at all times preclude him from being duped.




25. Chap. 25. (14.)-Two Varieties Of The Linden-Tree.


CHAP. 25. (14.)-TWO VARIETIES OF THE LINDEN-TREE.



In the linden-tree the male[1] and the female are totally different. In the male the wood is hard and knotty, of a redder

hue, and with a stronger smell; the bark, too, is thicker, and,

when taken off, has no flexibility. The male bears neither

seed nor blossom as the female does, the trunk of which is

thicker, and the wood white and of excellent quality. It is a

singular[2] thing, but no animal will touch the fruit of this

tree, although the juice of the leaves and the bark is sweet.

Between the bark and the wood there are a number of thin

coats, formed by the union of numerous fine membranes; of

these they make those bands[3] which are known to us as "tili."

The finer membranes are called "philyr," and are rendered

famous by the honourable mention that the ancients have

made of them as ribbons for wreaths[4] and garlands. The







wood of this tree is proof against the attacks of worms:[5] it is

of moderate height[6] only, but of very considerable utility.







1. There is no such distinction in the linden or lime, as the flowers are

hermaphroditical. They are merely two varieties: the male of Pliny being

the Tilia microphylla of Decandolles, and a variety of the Tilia Europa

of Linnus; and the female being the Tilia platyphyllos, another variety

of the Tilia Europa of Linnus.

2. Not at all singular, Fe says, the fruit being dry and insipid.

3. In France these cords are still made, and are used for well-ropes,

wheat-sheafs, &c. In the north of France, too, brooms are made of the

outer bark, and the same is the case in Westphalia.

4. See B. xxi. c. 4. Ovid, Fasti, B. v. 1. 337, speaks of the revellers at

drunken banquets binding their hair with the philyra.

5. "Teredo." If he means under this name to include the tinea as

well, the assertion is far too general, as this wood is eaten away by insects,

though more slowly than the majority of the non-resinous woods. It is

sometimes perforated quite through by the larva of the byrrhus, our deathwatch.

6. This is incorrect. It attains a very considerable height, and sometimes an enormous size. The trunk is known to grow to as much as forty

or fifty feet in circumference.




26. Chap. 26. (15.)-Ten Varieties Of The Maple.


CHAP. 26. (15.)-TEN VARIETIES OF THE MAPLE.



The maple, which is pretty nearly of the same[1] size as the

lime, is inferior to the citrus[2] only for the beauty of its wood

when employed for cabinet work, and the exquisite finish it

admits of. There are numerous varieties[3] of this tree; the

light maple, remarkable for the extreme whiteness of its wood,

is known as the "Gallic"[4] maple in Italy beyond the Padus,

being a native of the countries beyond the Alps. Another

kind is covered with wavy spots running in all directions.

In consequence of its superior beauty it has received its name,[5]

from its strong resemblance to the marks which are seen in

the tail of the peacock; the finest kinds are those which grow

in Istria and Rhtia. An inferior sort of maple is known as

"crassivenium."[6]



The Greeks distinguish the varieties according to their respective localities. The maple of the plains,[7] they say, is

white, and not wavy; they give it the name of "glinon."

On the other hand, the mountain maple,[8] they say, is of a

more variegated appearance, and harder, the wood of the male

tree being more particularly so, and the best adapted for spe-







cimens of elegant workmanship. A third kind, again, according to the Greeks, is the zygia,[9] with a red wood, which is

easily split, and a pale, rough bark. Other authors, however,

prefer to make of this last a peculiar species, and give it in

Latin the name of "carpinus."







1. The maple is much less in size than what the lime or linden really is.

2. See B. xiii. c. 29.

3. Fe says there are but five varieties of the maple known in France.

He doubts whether the common maple, the Acer campestre of Linnus,

was known to the ancients.

4. Fe identifies it with the Acer pseudo-platanus of Linnus, the Acer

montanum candidum of C. Bauhin. This tree is not uncommon in Italy.

5. "Acer pavonaceum:" "peacock maple." He gives a similar account

of the spots on the wood of the citrus, B. xiii. c. 19.

6. Or "thick-veined" maple.

7. Supposed by Fe to be the Acer Monspessulanus of Linnus, also the

Acer trilobum of Linnus.

8. A variety of the Acer pseudo-platanus of Linnus, according to Fe.

9. The Carpinus betulus of Linnus; the horn-beam or yoke-elm.




28. Chap. 28.-Three Varieties Of The Box-Tree.


CHAP. 28.-THREE VARIETIES OF THE BOX-TREE.



One of the most highly esteemed of all the woods is the







box,[1] but it is seldom veined, and then only the wood of the

root. In other respects, it is a wood, so to say, of quiet and

unpretending appearance, but highly esteemed for a certain

degree of hardness and its pallid hue: the tree, too, is very

extensively employed in ornamental gardening.[2] There are

three[3] varieties of it: the Gallic[4] box, which is trained to

shoot upwards in a pyramidal form, and attains a very considerable height; the oleaster,[5] which is condemned as being

utterly worthless, and emits a disagreeable odour; and a third,

known as the "Italian" box,[6] a wild variety, in my opinion,

which has been improved by cultivation. This last spreads

more than the others, and forms a thick hedge: it is an evergreen, and is easily clipped.



The box-tree abounds on the Pyrenean[7] range, the mountains of Cytorus, and the country about Berecynthus.[8] The

trunk grows to the largest size in the island of Corsica,[9] and

its blossom is by no means despicable; it is this that causes

the honey there to be bitter.[10] The seed of the box is held in

aversion by all animals. That which grows upon Mount

Olympus in Macedonia is not more slender than the other

kinds, but the tree is of a more stunted growth. It loves

spots exposed to the cold winds and the sun: in fire, too, it

manifests all the hardness of iron; it gives out no flame, and

is of no use whatever for the manufacture of charcoal.[11]











1. The Buxus sempervirens of Linnus.

2. It is still extensively used for a similar purpose.

3. There are only two species now known: that previously mentioned,

and the Buxus Balearica of Lamarck. The first is divided into the four

varieties, arborescens, angustifolia, suffruticosa, and myrtifolia.

4. The Buxus sempervirens of Linnus; very common in the south of

France, and on the banks of the Loire.

5. It is doubtful if this is a box at all. The wild olive, mentioned in B.

xv. c. 7, has the same name; all the varieties of the box emit a disagreeable smell.

6. A variety of the Buxus sempervirens, the same as the Buxus suffruticosa of Lamarck.

7. The Pyrenean box is mostly of the arborescent kind.

8. In Phrygia. See B. v. c. 29.

9. The arborescent variety.

10. This is doubted by Fe, but it is by no means impossible. In Pennsylvania the bees collect a poisonous honey from the Kalmia latifolia.

11. A very good charcoal might be made from it, but the wood is too

valuable for such a purpose. It burns with a bright, clear flame, and

throws out a considerable heat.




29. Chap. 29. (17.)-Four Varieties Of The Elm.


CHAP. 29. (17.)-FOUR VARIETIES OF THE ELM.



Midway between the preceding ones and the fruit-trees

stands the elm, partaking of the nature of the former in its

wood, and being akin to the latter in the friendship which it

manifests for the vine.[1] The Greeks distinguish two varieties of

this tree: the mountain[2] elm, which is the larger of the two,

and that of the plains, which is more shrubby. Italy gives

the name of "Atinia"[3] to the more lofty kinds, and gives the

preference to those which are of a dry nature and will not

grow in damp localities. Another variety is the Gallic elm,[4]

and a third, the Italian,[5] with leaves lying closer together, and

springing in greater numbers from a single stalk. A fourth

kind is the wild elm. The Atinia does not produce any

samara,[6] that being the name given to the seed of the elm.

All the elms will grow from slips or cuttings, and all of them,

with the exception of the Atinia, may be propagated from

seed.







1. Although (in common, too, with other trees) it is used as a support for

the vine, that does not any the more make it of the same nature as the

fruit-trees.

2. The Ulmus effuse of Willdenow; the Ulmus montana of Smith: Flor.

Brit.

3. The Ulmus campestris of Linnus; the Ulmus marita of other betanists.

4. The ordinary elm, Fe thinks.

5. A variety of the Ulmus campestris, probably.

6. This name is still preserved by botanists. Pliny is incorrect in saying

that the large elm produces no seed, the only difference being that the seed

is smaller than in the other kinds. Columella, B. v. c. 6, contradicts the

statement here made by Pliny, but says that it appears to be sterile, in

comparison with the others.




32. Chap. 32. (19.)-Division Of Trees Into Various Species.


CHAP. 32. (19.)-DIVISION OF TREES INTO VARIOUS SPECIES.



In addition to these particulars, some of the trees lose their

leaves, while others, again, are evergreens. Before, however,

we treat of this distinction, it will be necessary first to touch

upon another. There are some trees that are altogether of a

wild nature, while there are others, again, that are more

civilized, such being the names[1] by which man has thought

fit to distinguish the trees. Indeed, these last, which by their

fruits or some other beneficial property, or else by the shade

which they afford, show themselves the benefactors of man,

are not inappropriately called "civilized"[2] trees.







1. Silvestres," and "urbaniores."

2. Urban.




33. Chap. 33. (20.)-Trees Which Do Not Lose Their Foliage. The Rhododoendron. Trees Which Do Not Lose The Whole Of Their Foliage. Places In Which There Are No Trees.


CHAP. 33. (20.)-TREES WHICH DO NOT LOSE THEIR FOLIAGE.

THE RHODODOENDRON. TREES WHICH DO NOT LOSE THE WHOLE

OF THEIR FOLIAGE. PLACES IN WHICH THERE ARE NO TREES.



Belonging to this last class, there are the following trees

which do not lose their leaves: the olive, the laurel, the

palm, the myrtle, the cypress, the pine, the ivy, the rhododendron,[1] and, although it may be rather called a herb than a

tree, the savin.[2] The rhododendron, as its name indicates,

comes from Greece. By some it is known as the nerium,[3]

and by others as the rhododaphne. It is an evergreen, bear-







ing a strong resemblance to the rose-tree, and throwing out

numerous branches from the stem; to beasts of burden, goats,

and sheep it is poisonous, but for man it is an antidote[4] against

the venom of serpents.



(21.) The following among the forest-trees do not lose their

haves: the fir, the larch, the pinaster, the juniper, the cedar,

the terebinth, the box, the holm-oak, the aquifolia, the cork,

the yew, and the tamarisk.[5] A middle place between the

evergreens and those which are not so, is occupied by the an-

drachle[6] in Greece, and by the arbutus[7] in all parts of the

world; as they lose all their leaves with the exception of those

on the top of the tree. Among certain of the shrubs, too, the

bramble and the calamus, the leaves do not fall. In the territory

of Thurii, where Sybaris formerly stood, from the city there

was a single oak[8] to be seen that never lost its leaves, and

never used to bud before midsummer: it is a singular thing

that this fact, which has been so often alluded to by the Greek

writers, should have been passed over in silence by our own.[9]

Indeed, so remarkable are the virtues that we find belonging

to some localities, that about Memphis in Egypt, and at Ele-

phantina, in Thebais, the leaves[10] fall from none of the trees,

not the vine even.







1. The Nerion oleander of Linnus; the laurel-rose, or rose of St. An.

thony of the French; it has some distant resemblance to the olive-tree,

but its leaf is that of the laurel, and its flower very similar to that of

the rose.

2. See B. xxiv. c. 61.

3. "Nerion" is the Greek name.

4. It has certain dangerous properties, which cause the herbivorous ani-

mals to avoid touching it. It acts strongly on the muscular system, and,

as Fe remarks, used as an antidote to the stings of serpents, it is not improbable that its effect would be the worst of the two.

5. See B. xiii. c. 37. The tamarisk of the moderns is not an evergreen,

which has caused writers to doubt if it is identical with the tamariscus of

the ancients, and to be disposed to look for it among the larger eric or

heaths. The leaves of the larch fall every year; those of the other evergreens mostly every two or three years.

6. See B. xiii. c. 40.

7. See B. xiii. c. 40. This assertion of Pliny is erroneous, as these trees

are in reality evergreens, though all trees of that class are liable to lose their

leaves through certain maladies.

8. "Quercus." The ilex or holm-oak is an evergreen.

9. Pliny is in error here. Varro, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 7, has made mention of this tree.

10. The hot climates possess a greater number of evergreens than the temperate regions, but not of the same species or genus. The vine invariably

loses its leaves each year.




34. Chap. 34. (22.)-The Nature Of The Leaves Which Wither And Fall.


CHAP. 34. (22.)-THE NATURE OF THE LEAVES WHICH WITHER

AND FALL.



All the trees, with the exception of those already men-







tioned-a list which it would be tedious to enumerate-lose

their leaves, and it has been observed that the leaf does not

dry up and wither unless it is thin, broad, and soft; while,

on the other hand, the leaves that do not fall are those which

are fleshy, thick, and narrow.[1] It is an erroneous theory

that the leaf does not fall in those trees the juices of which

are more unctuous than the rest; for who could make out that

such is the case with the holm-oak, for instance? Timus,

the mathematician, is of opinion that the leaves fall while the

sun is passing through the sign of Scorpio, being acted upon by

the influences of that luminary, and a certain venom which

exists in the atmosphere: but then we have a right to wonder

how it is that, the same reasons existing, the same influence

is not exercised equally on all.



The leaves of most trees fall in autumn, but in some at a

later period, remaining on the tree till the approach of winter,

it making no difference whether they have germinated at an

earlier period or a later, seeing that some that are the very

first to bud are among the last to lose their leaves-the

almond, the ash, and the elder, for instance: the mulberry,

on the other hand, buds the last of all, and loses its leaves

among the very first. The soil, too, exercises a very considerable influence in this respect: the leaves falling sooner

where it is dry and thin, and more particularly when the tree

is old: indeed, there are many trees that lose them before the

fruit is ripe, as in the case of the late fig, for instance, and the

winter pear: on the pomegranate, too, the fruit, when ripe,

beholds nothing but the trunk of the parent tree. And not

even upon those trees which always retain their foliage do the

same leaves always remain, for as others shoot up beneath them,

the old leaves gradually wither away: this takes place about

the solstices more particularly.







1. This last assertion, Fe says, is far from true, in relation to the coni-

ferous trees.




35. Chap. 35.-Trees Which Have Leaves Of Various Colours; Trees With Leaves Of Various Shapes. Three Varieties Of The Poplar.


CHAP. 35.-TREES WHICH HAVE LEAVES OF VARIOUS COLOURS;

TREES WITH LEAVES OF VARIOUS SHAPES. THREE VARIETIES

OF THE POPLAR.



The leaves continue the same upon every species of tree,







with the exception of the poplar, the ivy, and the croton,

which we have already mentioned as being called the "cicus."[1]



(23.) There are three kinds of poplar; the white,[2] the

black,[3] and the one known as the Libyan[4] poplar, with a very

diminutive leaf, and extremely black; much esteemed also for

the fungi which grow from it. The white poplar has a parti-

coloured leaf, white on the upper side and green beneath.

This poplar, as also the black variety, and the croton, have a

rounded leaf when young, as though it had been described with

a pair of compasses, but when it becomes older the leaf throws

out angular projections. On the other hand, the leaf of the

ivy,[5] which is angular at first, becomes rounder, the older the

tree. From the leaves of the poplar there falls a very thick

down;[6] upon the white poplar, which, it is said, has a greater

quantity of leaves than the others, this down is quite white,

resembling locks of wool. The leaves of the pomegranate and

the almond are red.







1. See B. xv. c. 7.

2. The Populus alba of Linnus.

3. The Populus nigra of Linnus.

4. The Populus tremula of Linnus. This statement as to the leaves of

the poplar is verified by modern experience.

5. This does not appear to be exactly correct as to the ivy. The leaves

on the young suckers or the old and sterile branches are divided into three

or five regular lobes, while those which grow on the branches destined

to bear the blossoms are ovals or lanceolated ovals in shape.

6. It is not from the leaves, but from the fruit of the tree that this down

falls; the seeds being enveloped with a cottony substance. This passage

is hopelessly corrupt.




36. Chap. 36.-Leaves Which Turn Round Every Year.


CHAP. 36.-LEAVES WHICH TURN ROUND EVERY YEAR.



We find a most remarkable and, indeed, a marvellous peculiarity[1] existing in the elm, the lime, the olive, the white poplar, and the willow; for immediately after the summer solstice

the leaves of these trees turn completely round; indeed, we

have no sign which indicates with greater certainty that that

period has past.



(24.) These trees also present in their leaves the same difference that is to be observed in those of all the rest: the

underside, which looks towards the ground, is of a green,







grassy colour, and has a smooth surface;[2] while the veins, the

callous skin, and the articulations, lie upon the upper face, the

veins making incisions in the parts beneath, like those to be

seen upon the human hand. The leaf of the olive is whiter

above, and not so smooth; the same is the case, too, with that

of the ivy. The leaves of all trees turn[3] every day towards the sun, the object being that the under side may be

warmed by its heat. The upper surface of them all has a

down upon it, in however small quantity it may be; in some

countries this down is used as a kind of wool.[4]







1. See B. xviii. c. 68, where he enlarges still further on this asserted

peculiarity; he borrows his statement from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant.

B. i. c. 16.

2. These statements are quite conformable with the fact.

3. This statement is quite true, so far as the fact that the leaves have

not the same position in the day-time as during the night: the changes of

position vary greatly, however, in the different kinds. It is generally thought

that an organic irritability is the cause of this phenomenon.

4. This seems to be the meaning of "In aliis gentium lana est." He

alludes, probably, to cotton or silk: see B. vi. c. 20. Thunberg tells us that

at Roodesand, near the Cape of Good Hope, there grows so thick a down

on the Buplevrum giganteum of Lamarck, that it is employed to imitate a

sort of white velvet, and is used for bonnets, gloves, stockings, &c.




37. Chap. 37.-The Care Bestowed On The Leaves Of The Palm, And The Uses To Which They Are Applied.


CHAP. 37.-THE CARE BESTOWED ON THE LEAVES OF THE PALM,

AND THE USES TO WHICH THEY ARE APPLIED.



We have already said[1] that in the East strong ropes are

made of the leaves of the palm, and that they are improved by

lying in the water. Among ourselves, too, the leaves of the

palm are generally plucked immediately after harvest, the best

being those that have no divisions in them. These leaves are

left to dry under cover for four days, after which they are

spread out in the sun, and left out in the open air all night,

till they have become quite white and dry: after this they

are split before they are put to any use.







1. B. xiii. c. 7.




38. Chap. 38.-Remarkable Facts Connected With Leaves.


CHAP. 38.-REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH LEAVES.



The broadest leaves are those of the fig, the vine, and the

plane; while those of the myrtle, the pomegranate, and the

olive are narrow. The leaf of the pine and the cedar is fine

and resembles hair, while that of the holly and one variety of

the holm oak[1] is prickly-indeed, in the juniper, we find a







thorn in place of a leaf. The leaf of the cypress and the tamarisk[2] is fleshy, and that of the alder is remarkable for its

thickness.[3] In the reed, the willow, and the palm,[4] the leaf

is long, and in the latter tree it is double as well: that of the

pear is rounded, and it is pointed in the apple.[5] In the ivy

the leaf is angular, and in the plane divided.[6] In the pitch-tree[7] and the fir the leaf is indented like the teeth of a comb;

while in the robur it is sinuous on the whole of the outer

margin: in the bramble it has a spiny surface. In some

plants the leaf has the property of stinging, the nettle for instance; while in the pine,[8] the pitch-tree, the fir, the larch,

the cedar, and the holly, it is prickly. In the olive and the

holm-oak it has a short stalk, in the vine a long one: in the

poplar the stalk of the leaf is always quivering,[9] and the leaves

of this tree are the only ones that make a crackling noise[10]

when coming in contact with another.



In one variety of the apple-tree[11] we find a small leaf protruding from the very middle of the fruit, sometimes, indeed,

a couple of them. Then, again, in some trees the leaves are

arranged all round the branches, and in others at the extremities

of them, while in the robur they are found upon the trunk

itself. They are sometimes thick and close, and at others

thinly scattered, which is more particularly the case where the

leaf is large and broad. In the myrtle[12] they are symmetrically







arranged, in the box, concave, and, upon the apple, scattered

without any order or regularity. In the apple and the pear

we find several leaves issuing from the same stalk, and in the

elm and the cytisus[13] they are covered with ramified veins.

To the above particulars Cato[14] adds that the leaves of the

poplar and the quercus should not be given to cattle after they

have fallen and become withered, and he recommends the

leaves of the fig,[15] the holm-oak, and the ivy for oxen: the

leaves, too, of the reed and the laurel are sometimes given

them to eat. The leaves of the service-tree fall all at once,

but in the others only by degrees. Thus much in reference

to the leaves.







1. "Genere ilicum." It is not improbable that he here refers to the variety of the holm-oak which he has previously called "aquifolia," apparently

confounding it with the holly. See c. 8 of this Book.

2. See B. xiii. c. 37.

3. This must be understood of the young leaf of the alder, which has a

sort of thick gummy varnish on it.

4. B. xiii. c. 7.

5. B. xv. c. 15. Pliny is not correct here; the leaf of the pear is oval

or lanceolated, while that of the apple is oval and somewhat angular, though

not exactly "mucronata," or sharply pointed.

6. Not exactly "divided," but strongly lobed.

7. If this is the case, the pitch-tree can hardly be identical with the

false fir, the Abies excelsa of Decandolles. See c. 18 of this Book, and

the Note.

8. This passage would be apt to mislead, did we not know that the leaves

of the coniferous trees here mentioned are not prickly, in the same sense

as those of the holly, which are armed with very formidable weapons.

9. More particularly in the Populus tremula, the "quivering" poplar.

10. Crepitantia.

11. See B. xv. c. 15. Not a species, but an accidental monstrosity.

12. See B. xv. c. 37, where he speaks of the Hexastich myrtle.

13. The leaves of the elm and the tree supposed to be identical with the

cytisus of the ancients have no characteristics in common. See B. xiii.

c. 47, and the Notes.

14. De Re Rust. cc. 5, 30, 45.

15. Very inappropriate food for cattle, it would appear: the fig leaf being

charged with a corrosive milky juice; the leaf of the holm oak, hard and

leathery; and that of the ivy, bitter and nauseous in the highest degree.




39. Chap. 39. (25.)-The Natural Order Of The Production Of Plants.


CHAP. 39. (25.)-THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE PRODUCTION OF

PLANTS.



The following is the order in which the operations of Nature take place throughout the year. The first is fecundation,

which takes place when the west wind begins to prevail, generally about the sixth day before the ides of February.[1] By

the agency of this wind all the productions of the earth are

impregnated; to such an extent, indeed, that the mares even

in Spain are impregnated by it, as we have already stated.[2]

This is the generating principle of the universe, and it receives its name of Favonius, as some think, from our word

"fovere," which means "to warm and cherish:" it blows

from due west at the opening of the spring. The peasantry

call this period of the year the "time of heat,"[3] because Nature is then longing to receive the seeds of her various productions, and is imparting life to everything that is planted.

The vegetables conceive[4] on various days, each according to







its respective nature: some immediately, as with animals,

others, again, more slowly, carrying with them for a longer

period the produce of their conception, a state which has from

that circumstance obtained the name of "germination." When

the plant flowers, it may be said to bring forth, and the flower

makes its appearance by bursting its little capsule, which has

acted to it as an uterus. The period of training and education

is the growth of the fruit. This, as well as that of germination, is a laborious process.







1. Eighth of February.

2. See B. viii. c. 67.

3. Catlitio.

4. He alludes to the period of the rising of the sap; an entirely distinct process from germination.




40. Chap. 40.-Trees Which Never Blossom. The Juniper


CHAP. 40.-TREES WHICH NEVER BLOSSOM. THE JUNIPER



The appearance of the blossom bespeaks the arrival of the

spring and the birth anew of the year; this blossom is the

very pride and delight of the trees. Then it is that they

show themselves quite renewed, and altogether different from

what they really are; then it is that they quite revel in the contest with each other which shall excel in the various hues

and tints which they display. This merit has, however, been

denied to many of them; for they do not all blossom, and

there are certain sombre trees which do not participate in this

joyous season of the year. The holm-oak, the pitch-tree, the

larch, and the pine are never bedecked with blossoms, and

with them there is no particular forerunner sent forth to announce the yearly birth of their respective fruits. The same

is the case, too, with the cultivated and the wild fig,[1] which

immediately present their fruit in place of any blossom. Upon

the fig, too, it is remarkable that there are abortive fruit to be

seen which never ripen.



The juniper, also, is destitute[2] of blossom; some writers,

however, distinguish two varieties of it, one of which blossoms

but bears no fruit,[3] while the other has no blossom, but presents the berries immediately, which remain on the tree

for so long a period as two years: this assertion, however, is







utterly fallacious, and all the junipers always present the same

sombre appearance. So, too, in life, the fortunes of many

men are ever without their time of blossoming.







1. This statement, as also that relative to the holm oak, and other trees

previously mentioned, is quite incorrect. The blossoms of the fig-tree are

very much concealed, however, from view in the involucre of the clinanthium.

2. This is not the fact, though the blossom of the juniper is of humble

character, and not easily seen. Theophrastus, B. iii. c. 6, only says that

it is a matter of doubt, what Pliny so positively affirms.

3. This is the fact; the male tree is sterile, but it fecundates the female.




42. Chap. 42.-In What Order The Trees Blossom.


CHAP. 42.-IN WHAT ORDER THE TREES BLOSSOM.



Of the trees which, as we have already stated,[1] bud in winter at the rising of the Eagle, the almond blossoms the first

of all, in the month of January[2] namely, while by March the

fruit is well developed. Next to it in blossoming is the plum[3]

of Armenia, and then the tuber and the early peach,[4] the first

two being exotics, and the latter forced by the agency of cultivation. Among the forest trees, the first that blossoms in the

course of nature is the elder,[5] which has the most pith of any,

and the male cornel, which has none[6] at all. Among the

cultivated trees we next have the apple, and immediately after

-so much so, indeed, that it would almost appear that they

blossom simultaneously-the pear, the cherry, and the plum.

Next to these is the laurel, and then the cypress, and after

that the pomegranate and the fig: the vine, too, and the olive

are budding when these last trees are in flower, the period of

their conception[7] being the rising of the Vergili,[8] that being







their constellation.[9] As for the vine, it blossoms at the summer

solstice, and the olive begins to do so a little later. All blossoms remain on the trees seven days, and never fall sooner;

some, indeed, fall later, but none remain on more than twice

seven days. The blossoms are always off before the eighth

day[10] of the ides of July, the period of the prevalence of the

Etesian[11] winds.







1. In the last Chapter.

2. In Paris, Fe says, the almond does not blossom till March. If the

tree should blossom too soon, it is often at the expense of the fruit.

3. Probably the apricot. See B. xv. c. 12.

4. See B. xv. c. 11.

5. See B. xxiv. c. 8.

6. This, of course, is not the fact. As to the succeeding statements,

they are borrowed mostly from Theophrastus, and are in general correct.

7. The rising of the sap.

8. The Pleiades. See B. xviii. cc. 59, 60.

9. It was supposed in astrology that the stars exercised an effect equally

upon animal and vegetable life.

10. 25th of July.

11. See R. xviii. c. 68.




43. Chap. 43. (26.)-At What Period Each Tree Bears Fruit. The Cornel.


CHAP. 43. (26.)-AT WHAT PERIOD EACH TREE BEARS FRUIT.

THE CORNEL.



Upon some trees the fruit does not follow immediately upon

the fall of the blossom. The cornel[1] about the summer solstice puts forth a fruit that is white at first, and after that

the colour of blood. The female[2] of this tree, after autumn,

bears a sour berry, which no animal will touch; its wood,

too, is spongy and quite useless, while, on the other hand, that

of the male tree is one of the very strongest and hardest[3] woods

known: so great a difference do we find in trees belonging to

the same species. The terebinth, the maple, and the ash produce their seed at harvest-time, while the nut-trees, the apple,

and the pear, with the exception of the winter or the more

early kinds, bear fruit in autumn. The glandiferous trees

bear at a still later period, the setting of the Vergili,[4] with

the exception of the sculus,[5] which bears in the autumn only;

while some kinds of the apple and the pear, and the cork-tree,

bear fruit at the beginning of winter.



The fir puts forth blossoms of a saffron colour about the

summer solstice, and the seed is ripe just after the setting of

the Vergili. The pine and the pitch-tree germinate about

fifteen days before the fir, but their seed is not ripe till after

the setting of the Vergili.











1. The Cornus mas of botanists; probably the Frutex sanguineus mentioned in c. 30. See also B. xv. c. 31.

2. Probably the Lonicera Alpiena of Linnus; the fruit of which resembles a cherry, but is of a sour flavour, and produces vomiting.

3. The wood is so durable, that a tree of this kind in the forest of Montmorency is said to be a thousand years old.

4. See B. xviii. cc. 59,60.

5. See c. 6 of this Book.




44. Chap. 44.-Trees Which Bear The Whole Year. Trees Which Have On Them The Fruit Of Three Years.


CHAP. 44.-TREES WHICH BEAR THE WHOLE YEAR. TREES WHICH

HAVE ON THEM THE FRUIT OF THREE YEARS.



The citron-tree,[1] the juniper, and the holm-oak are looked

upon as having fruit on them the whole year through, and

upon these trees we see the new fruit hanging along with that

of the preceding year. The pine, however, is the most remarkable of them all; for it has upon it at the same moment

the fruit that is hastening to maturity, the fruit that is to

come to maturity in the ensuing year, and the fruit that is to

ripen the next year but one.[2] Indeed, there is no tree that

is more eager to develope its resources; for in the same month

in which a nut is plucked from it, another will ripen in the

same place; the arrangement being such, that there is no

month in which the nuts of this tree are not ripening. Those

nuts which split while still upon the tree, are known by the

name of azani;[3] they are productive of injury to the others,

if not removed.







1. See B. xii. c. 7.

2. This supposed marvel merely arises from the fact that the fruit has a

strong ligneous stalk, which almost precludes the possibility of its drop

ping off. This is the case, too, not only with the pine, but with numerous

other trees as well.

3. "Dried" nuts.




46. Chap. 46.-Trees Which Lose Their Fruit Or Flowers Most Readily.


CHAP. 46.-TREES WHICH LOSE THEIR FRUIT OR FLOWERS MOST

READILY.



Young trees are unproductive[1] so long as they are growing.

The fruits which fall most readily before they come to maturity

are the date, the fig, the almond, the apple, the pear, and the

pomegranate, which last tree is also very apt to lose its blossom

through excessive dews and hoar frosts. For this reason it is,

too, that the growers bend the branches of the pomegranate, lest,

from being straight, they may receive and retain the moisture

that is so injurious to them. The pear and the almond,[2] even

if it should not rain, but a south wind happen to blow or the

weather become cloudy, are apt to lose their blossoms, and their

first fruit as well, if, after the blossom has fallen, there is a

continuance of such weather. But it is the willow that loses

its seed the most speedily of all, long, indeed, before it is ripe;

hence it is that Homer has given it the epithet of "fruit-

losing."[3] Succeeding ages, however, have given to this term

an interpretation conformable to their own wicked practices, it

being a well-known fact that the seed of the willow has the

effect of producing barrenness in females.

In this respect, however, Nature has employed her usual

foresight, bestowing but little care upon the seed of a tree

which is produced so easily, and propagated by slips. There

is, however, it is said, one variety of willow,[4] the seed of which

arrives at maturity: it is found in the Isle of Crete, at the

descent from the grotto of Jupiter: the seed is unsightly and

ligneous, and in size about as large as a chick-pea.











1. This must not be taken to the letter; indeed, Fe thinks that the

proper meaning is:-"Young trees do not produce fruit till they have

arrived at a certain state of maturity." Trees mostly continue on the

increase till they die.

2. See B. xvii. c. 2. The assertion here made has not been confirmed

by experience.

3. "Frugiperda:" in the Greek, w)lesi/karpon. See Homer. Od. x. 1. 510.

It has been suggested, Pliny says, that the willow seed had this epithet

from its effect in causing abortion; but he does not seem to share the

opinion.

4. This cannot be a willow, Fe remarks; indeed, Theophrastus, E. iii.

c. 5, speaks of a black poplar as growing there.




47. Chap. 47.-Trees Which Are Unproductive In Certain Places.


CHAP. 47.-TREES WHICH ARE UNPRODUCTIVE IN CERTAIN PLACES.



Certain trees also become unproductive, owing to some fault

in the locality, such, for instance, as a coppice-wood in the

island of Paros, which produces nothing at all: in the Isle of

Rhodes, too, the peach-trees[1] never do anything more than

blossom. This distinction may arise also from the sex; and

when such is the case, it is the male[2] tree that never produces.

Some authors, however, making a transposition, assert that it

is the male trees only that are prolific. Barrenness may also

arise from a tree being too thickly covered with leaves.







1. See B. xv. c 13. It is not impossible that Pliny may have mistaken

here the Persea, or Balanites gyptiaca, for the Persica, or peach. See p. 296.

2. Fe remarks, that this expression is remarkable as giving a just notion

of the relative functions of the male and female in plants. He says that

one might almost be tempted to believe that they suspected something

of the nature and functions of the pistils and stamens.




48. Chap. 48.-The Mode In Which Trees Bear.


CHAP. 48.-THE MODE IN WHICH TREES BEAR.



Some among the fruit-trees[1] bear on both the sides of the

branches and the summit, the pear, for instance, the fig-tree, and the myrtle. In other respects the trees are pretty

nearly of a similar nature to the cereals, for in them we find

the ear growing from the summit, while in the leguminous

varieties the pod grows from the sides. The palm, as we have

already[2] stated, is the only one that has fruit hanging down

in bunches enclosed in capsules.







1. This statement, which is drawn from Theophrastus, is rather fanciful

than rigorously true.

2. B. xiii. c. 7.




49. Chap. 49.-Trees In Which The Fruit Appears Before The Leaves.


CHAP. 49.-TREES IN WHICH THE FRUIT APPEARS BEFORE THE

LEAVES.



The other trees, again, bear their fruit beneath the leaves,

for the purpose of protection, with the exception of the fig, the

leaf of which is very large, and gives a great abundance of

shade; hence it is that we find the fruit placed above it; in

addition to which, the leaf makes its appearance after the fruit.

There is said to be a remarkable peculiarity connected with

one species of fig that is found in Cilicia, Cyprus, and Hellas;

the fruit grows beneath the leaves, while at the same time the

green abortive fruit, that never reaches maturity, is seen growing on the top of them. There is also a tree that produces an







early fig, known to the Athenians by the name of " prodro-

mos."[1] In the Laconian varieties of this fruit more particularly, we find trees that bear two crops[2] in the year.







1. Or "forerunner." The Spaniards call a similar fig "brevas," the

ready ripener."

2. See B. xv. c. 19.




50. Chap. 50. (27.)-Trees That Bear Two Crops In A Year. Trees That Bear Three Crops.


CHAP. 50. (27.)-TREES THAT BEAR TWO CROPS IN A YEAR. TREES

THAT BEAR THREE CROPS.



In the island of Cea there are wild figs that bear three times

in one year. By the first crop the one that succeeds is summoned forth, and by that the third. It is by the agency of

this last crop that caprification[1] is performed. In the wild

fig, too, the fruit grows on the opposite side of the leaves.

There are some pears and apples, too, that bear two crops in

the year, while there are some early varieties also. The wild

apple bears twice[2] in the year, its second crop coming on after

the rising of Arcturus,[3] in sunny localities more particularly.

There are vines, too, that will even bear three times in the

year, a circumstance that has procured for them the name of

"frantic"[4] vines. On these we see grapes just ripening, others

beginning to swell, and others, again, in blossom, all at the

same moment.



M. Varro[5] informs us, that there was formerly at Smyrna,

near[6] the Temple of the Mother of the Gods, a vine that bore

two crops in the year, as also an apple-tree of a similar nature

in the territory of Consentia. This, however, is constantly to

be witnessed in the territory of Tacapa,[7] in Africa, of which

we shall have to speak more fully on another occasion,[8] so

remarkable is the fertility of the soil. The cypress also bears

three times in the year, for its berries are gathered in the







months of January, May, and September, being all three of

different size.



There are also certain peculiarities observed in the different

modes in which the trees bear their fruit, the arbutus and the

quercus being most fruitful in the upper part, the walnut and

the marisca[9] fig in the lower. All trees, the older they grow,

the more early they bear, and this more particularly in sunny

spots and where the soil is not over-rich. All the forest-trees

are slower in bringing their fruit to maturity; and indeed, in

some of them the fruit never becomes fully ripe.[10] Those trees,

too, about the roots of which the earth is ploughed or broken

and loosened, bring their fruit to maturity more speedily than

those in which this has been neglected; by this process they

are also rendered more fruitful.







1. See B. xv. c. 21.

2. This does not happen in the northern climates; though sometimes it

is the case that a fruit-tree blossoms again towards the end of summer, and

it the autumn is fine and prolonged, these late fruits will ripen. Such a

phenomenon, however, is of very rare occurrence.

3. See B. xviii. c. 74.

4. "Insan." There are some varieties of the vine which blossom more

than once, and bear green grapes and fully ripe ones at the same moment.

5. De Re Rust. c. 7.

6. The suggested reading, "apud matrem magnam," seems preferable

to "apud mare," and receives support from what is said relative to Smyrna

in B. xiv. c. 6.

7. See B. v. c. 3.

8. B. xviii. c. 51.

9. B. xv. c. 19.

10. This is not the fact: the fruits of all trees have their proper time for

ripening.




51. Chap. 51.-Which Trees Become Old With The Greatest Rapidity, And Which Most Slowly.


CHAP. 51.-WHICH TREES BECOME OLD WITH THE GREATEST

RAPIDITY, AND WHICH MOST SLOWLY.



There are great differences also in trees in respect to age.

The almond and the pear[1] are the most fruitful when old, which

is the case also with the glandiferous trees and a certain species of fig. Others, again, are most prolific when young,

though the fruit is later in coming to maturity, a thing particularly to be observed in the vine; for in those that are old

the wine is of better quality, while the produce of the younger

trees is given in greater abundance. The apple-tree becomes

old very early, and the fruit which it produces when old is of

inferior quality, being of smaller size and very liable to be

attacked by maggots: indeed, these insects will breed in the

tree itself. The fig is the only one of all the fruit-trees that is

submitted to any process with the view of expediting the

ripening of the fruit,[2] a marvellous thing, indeed, that a greater

value should be set upon produce that comes out of its proper

season! All trees which bear their fruit before the proper

time become prematurely[3] old; indeed, some of them wither







and die all of a sudden, being utterly exhausted by the too

favourable influence of the weather, a thing that happens to

the vine more particularly.



(28.) On the other hand, the mulberry becomes aged[4] but

very slowly, and is never exhausted by its crops. Those trees,

too, the wood of which is variegated, arrive at old age but

slowly,-the palm, the maple, and the poplar, for instance.



(29.) Trees grow old more rapidly when the earth is

ploughed and loosened about the[5] roots; forest trees at a later

period. Speaking in general terms, we may say that care

employed in the culture of trees seems to promote their fertility, while increased fertility accelerates old age. Hence it

is that the carefully tended trees are the first to blossom, and

the first to bud; in a word, are the most precocious in every

respect: but all natural productions which are in any way

weakened are more susceptible of atmospheric influences.







1. He speaks here in too general terms: the pear, for instance, is not

more fruitful when old than when young.

2. He speaks of the process of caprification. See B. xv. c. 21.

3. So our proverb, " Soon ripe, soon rotten;" applicable to mankind as

well as trees. See B. xxiii. c. 23.

4. See B. xv. c. 27. The mulberry tree will live for several centuries.

5. This stimulates the sap, and adds to its activity: but the tree grows

old all the sooner, being the more speedily exhausted.




52. Chap. 52.-Trees Which Bear Various Products. Cratgum.


CHAP. 52.-TREES WHICH BEAR VARIOUS PRODUCTS. CRATGUM.



Many trees bears more than one production, a fact which

we have already mentioned[1] when speaking of the glandiferous trees. In the number of these there is the laurel,

which bears its own peculiar kind of grape, and more particularly the barren laurel,[2] which bears nothing else; for

which reason it is looked upon by some persons as the male

tree. The filbert, too, bears catkins, which are hard and compact, but of no use[3] whatever.



(30.) But it is the box-tree that supplies us with the greatest number of products, not only its seed, but a berry also,

known by the name of cratgum;[4] while on the north side







it produces mistletoe, and on the south hyphear; two products of which I shall shortly have to speak more[5] at length.

Sometimes, indeed, this tree has all four of these products

growing upon it at the same moment.







1. In cc. 914 of the present Book.

2. This passage is quite unintelligible; and it is with good reason that

Fe questions whether Pliny really understood the author that he copied

from.

3. Fe remarks, that Pliny does not seem to know that the catkin is an

assemblage of flowers, and that without it the tree would be totally barren.

4. Pliny blunders sadly here, in copying from Theophrastus, B. iii. c. 16.

He mixes up a description of the box and the cratgus, or holm-oak, making

the latter to be a seed of the former: and he then attributes a mistletoe to

the box, which Theophrastus speaks of as growing on the cratgus.

5. See c. 93, where he enlarges on the varieties of the mistletoe.




53. Chap. 53.-Differences In Trees In Respect Of The Trunks And Branches.


CHAP. 53.-DIFFERENCES IN TREES IN RESPECT OF THE TRUNKS

AND BRANCHES.



Some trees are of a simple form, and have but a single trunk

rising from the root, together with numerous branches; such

as the olive, for instance, the fig, and the vine; others again are

of a shrubby nature, such as the paliurus,[1] the myrtle, and

the filbert; which last, indeed, is all the better, and the

more abundant its fruit, the more numerous its branches. In

some trees, again, there is no trunk at all, as is the case with

one species of box,[2] and the lotus[3] of the parts beyond sea.

Some trees are bifurcated, while there are some that branch

out into as many as five parts. Others, again, divide in the

trunk but have no branches, as in the case of the elder; while

others have no division in the trunk but throw out branches,

such as the pitch-tree, for instance.



In some trees the branches are symmetrically arranged, the

pitch-tree and the fir, for example; while with others they

are dispersed without any order or regularity, as in the robur,

the apple, and the pear. In the fir the branches are thrown

out from the trunk straight upwards, pointing to the sky, and

not drooping downwards from the sides of the trunk. It is

a singular thing,[4] but this tree will die if the ends of its

branches are cut, though, if taken off altogether, no bad effect

is produced. If it is cut, too, below the place where the

branches were, the part of the tree which is left will continue

to live; but if, on the other hand, the top only of the tree is

removed, the whole of it will die.







Some trees, again, throw out branches from the roots, the

elm for example; while others are branchy at the top, the

pine for instance, and the lotus[5] or Grecian bean, the fruit of

which, though wild, resembles the cherry very closely, and is

called the lotus at Rome, on account of its sweetness. For

sheltering houses these trees are more particularly esteemed,

as they throw out their branches to a considerable distance,

from a short trunk, thus affording a very extensive shade, and

very frequently encroaching upon the neighbouring mansions.

There is no tree, however, the shade afforded by which is less

long-lived than this, and when it loses its leaves in winter,

it affords no shelter from the sun. No tree has a more sightly

bark, or one which has greater attractions for the eye; or

branches which are longer, stouter, or more numerous; indeed, one might almost look upon them as forming so many

trees. The bark[6] of it is used for dyeing skins, and the root

for colouring wool.



The branches of the apple-tree have a peculiar conformation;

knots are formed which resemble the muzzles[7] of wild beasts,

several smaller ones being united to a larger.







1. See B. xxiv. c. 71.

2. He means the garden or border-box mentioned in c. 28 of this Book.

3. See B. xiii. c. 17: the African lotus, probably; the Zizyphus lotus

of Desfontaines.

4. This statement is entirely incorrect. If a tree loses the terminal bud,

it will grow no higher, but it will not die if the extremities of the branches

are cut. Such, in fact, is much more likely to happen when they are all

cut off, from the extreme loss of juices which must naturally ensue at the

several cicatrices united.

5. The Celtis australis of Linnus. Pliny is in error in calling this tree

the "Grecian bean." In B. xiii. c. 22, he erroneously calls the African

lotus by the name of "celtis," which only belongs to the lotus of Italy;

that of Africa being altogether different.

6. The bark, which is astringent, is still used in preparing skins, and a

black colouring matter extracted from the root is employed in dyeing wool.

7. Quite an accidental resemblance, if, indeed, it ever existed.




54. Chap. 54.-The Branches Of Trees.


CHAP. 54.-THE BRANCHES OF TREES.



Some of the branches are barren, and do not germinate; this

takes place either from a natural deficiency of strength, or else

some injury received in consequence of having been cut, and

the cicatrix impeding the natural functions. The same that the

branch is in the trees that spread out, is the eye[1] in the vine,

and the joint in the reed. All trees are naturally the thickest

in the parts that are nearest the ground. The fir, the larch, the

palm, the cypress, and the elm, and, indeed, every tree that

has but a single trunk, develope themselves in their remarkable height. Among the branchy trees the cherry is sometimes[2] found to yield a beam forty cubits in length by two in







thickness throughout. Some trees divide into branches from

the very ground, as in the apple-tree, for example.







1. "Oculus"-the bud on the trunk.

2. This must be either a mistake or an exaggeration; the cherry never

being a very large tree.




55. Chap. 55. (31.)-The Bark Of Trees.


CHAP. 55. (31.)-THE BARK OF TREES.



In some trees the bark[1] is thin, as in the laurel and the

lime; in others, again, it is thick, as in the robur; in some it is

smooth, as in the apple and the fig, while in the robur and the

palm it is rough: in all kinds it becomes more wrinkled when

the tree is old. In some trees the bark bursts spontaneously,

as in the vine for instance, while in others it falls off even, as

we see in the apple and the arbutus. In the cork-tree and

the poplar, the bark is substantial and fleshy; in the vine and

the reed it is membraneous. In the cherry it is similar to

the coats of the papyrus, while in the vine, the lime, and the

fir, it is composed of numerous layers. In others, again, it is

single, the fig and the reed for instance.







1. It is evident that he is speaking of the epidermis only, and not the

cortical layers and the liber.




56. Chap. 56.-The Roots Of Trees.


CHAP. 56.-THE ROOTS OF TREES.



There are great differences, too, in the roots of trees. In the

fig, the robur, and the plane, they are numerous; in the apple

they are short and thin, while in the fir and the larch they

are single; and by this single root is the tree supported, although we find some small fibres thrown out from it laterally

They are thick and unequal in the laurel and the olive, in

which last they are branchy also; while in the robur they

are solid and fleshy.[1] The robur, too, throws its roots downwards to a very considerable depth. Indeed, if we are to believe Virgil,[2] the sculus has a root that descends as deep

into the earth as the height to which the trunk ascends in the

air. The roots of the olive, the apple, and the cypress, creep

almost upon the very surface: in some trees they run straight

and horizontally, as in the laurel and the olive; while in others

they have a sinuous course-the fig for example. In some

trees the roots are bristling with small filaments, as in the

fir, and many of the forest trees; the mountaineers cut off







these fine filaments, and weave with them very handsome

flasks,[3] and various other articles.



Some writers say that the roots of trees do not descend

below the level to which the sun's heat is able to penetrate;

which, of course, depends upon the nature of the soil, whether

it happens to be thin or dense. This, however, I look upon[4]

as a mistake: and, in fact, we find it stated by some authors

that a fir was transplanted, the roots of which had penetrated

eight cubits in depth, and even then the whole of it was nut

dug up, it being torn asunder.[5] The citrus has a root that

goes the very deepest of all, and is of great extent; next after

it come the plane, the robur, and the various glandiferous

trees. In some trees, the laurel for instance, the roots are

more tenacious of life the nearer they are to the surface:

hence, when the trunk withers, it is cut down, and the tree

shoots again with redoubled vigour. Some think that the

shorter the roots are, the more rapidly the tree decays; a supposition which is plainly contradicted by the fig, the root of

which is among the very largest, while the tree becomes aged

at a remarkably early period. I regard also as incorrect what

some authors have stated, as to the roots of trees diminishing[6]

when they are old; for I once saw an ancient oak, uprooted

by a storm, the roots of which covered a jugerum of ground.







1. The roots of trees being ligneous, " carnos," Fe remarks, is an inappropriate term.

2. Georg. ii. 291.

3. "Lagenas." Fe takes this to mean here vessels to hold liquids, and

remarks that the workers in wicker cannot attain this degree of perfection

at the present day.

4. Pliny is in error in rejecting this notion.

5. See B. xii. c. 5, and B. xiii. c. 29. What Pliny states of the fir, or

Abies pectinata, Theophrastus relates of the peu/kh,, or Abies excelsa of

Decandolles. There is little doubt that in either case the statement is incorrect.

6. On the contrary, the roots of trees increase in size till the period of

their death.




57. Chap. 57.-Trees Which Have Grown Spontaneously From The Ground.


CHAP. 57.-TREES WHICH HAVE GROWN SPONTANEOUSLY FROM THE

GROUND.



It is a not uncommon thing for trees when uprooted to receive new strength when replanted, the earth about their roots

forming a sort of cicatrix[1] there. This is particularly the







case with the plane, which, from the density of its branches,

presents a remarkably broad surface to the wind: when this

happens, the branches are cut off, and the tree, thus lightened,

is replaced in its furrow: this, too, has also been done before

now with the walnut, the olive, and many others.



(32.) We have many instances cited also of trees falling to

the ground without there being any storm or other perceptible

cause, but merely by way of portentous omen, and then rising

again of themselves. A prodigy of this nature happened to

the citizens of Rome during their wars with the Cimbri: at

Nuceria, in the grove consecrated to Juno, an elm inclined

to such a degree, even after the top had been cut off, as

to overhang the altar there, but it afterwards recovered itself

to such an extent as to blossom immediately: it was from that

very moment, too, that the majesty of the Roman people began

to flourish once again after it had been laid low by disaster

and defeat. A similar circumstance is said to have taken

place also at Philippi, where a willow, which had fallen down,

and the top of which had been taken off, rose again; and at

Stagira, in the Museum[2] there, where the same thing occurred

to a white poplar; all which events were looked upon as

favourable omens. But what is most wonderful of all, is the

fact that a plane, at Antandros, resumed its original position even after its sides had been rough-hewn all round with

the adze,[3] and took root again: it was a tree fifteen cubits

long, and four uln in thickness.







1. By preventing the action of the air from drying the roots, and so killing the tree.

2. A grove, probably, consecrated to the Muses.

3. These stories must be regarded as either fables or impostures; though

it is very possible for a tree to survive after the epidermis has been removed

with the adze.




58. Chap. 58.-How Trees Grow Spontaneously-Diversities In Their Nature, The Same Trees Not Growing Everywhere.


CHAP. 58.-HOW TREES GROW SPONTANEOUSLY-DIVERSITIES IN

THEIR NATURE, THE SAME TREES NOT GROWING EVERYWHERE.



The trees which we owe to Nature are produced in three

different ways; spontaneously, by seed sown, or by a slip

which throws out a root. Art has multiplied the methods of

reproduction, as we shall have occasion to state in its own

appropriate Book[1] at present our sole subject is the operations

of Nature, and the manifold and marvellous methods she adopts.

The trees, as we have already stated,[2] do not all of them grow







in every locality, nor will they live, many of them,[3] when

transplanted: this happens sometimes through a natural antipathy on the part of the tree, sometimes through an innate

stubbornness, but more frequently through the weakness of

the variety so transplanted, either the climate being unfavourable, or the soil repulsive to it.







1. See B. xvii. c. 9.

2. In c. 7 of this Book.

3. It is not improbable that he has in view here the passage in Virgil's

Georgics, B. ii. 1. 109, et seq.




59. Chap. 59.-Plants That Will Not Grow In Certain Places.


CHAP. 59.-PLANTS THAT WILL NOT GROW IN CERTAIN PLACES.



Balsamum[1] will grow nowhere but [in[2] Juda]: and the

citron of Assyria refuses to bear fruit in any other country.

The palm, too, will not grow everywhere, and even if it does

grow in some places, it will not bear: sometimes, indeed, it

may make a show and promise of bearing, but even then its

fruit comes to nothing, it seeming to have borne them thus far

in spite of itself. The cinnamon[3] shrub has not sufficient

strength to acclimatize itself in the countries that lie in the

vicinity of Syria. Amomum,[4] too, and nard,[5] those most

delicate of perfumes, will not endure the carriage from India

to Arabia, nor yet conveyance by sea; indeed, King Seleucus

did make the attempt, but in vain. But what is more particularly wonderful, is the fact that most of the trees by care

may be prevailed upon to live when transplanted; for sometimes the soil may be so managed as to nourish the foreigner

and give support to the stranger plant; climate, however, can

never be changed. The pepper-tree[6] will live in Italy, and

cassia[7] in the northern climates even, while the incense-tree[8]







has been known to live in Lydia: but how are we to impart

to these productions the requisite warmth of the sun, in order

to make all the crude juices go off by evaporation, and ripen

the resins that distil from them?



Nearly as great a marvel, too, is the fact that the nature of

the tree may be modified by circumstances, and yet the tree

itself be none the less vigorous in its growth. Nature originally gave the cedar[9] to localities of burning heat, and yet

we find it growing in the mountains of Lycia and Phrygia.

She made the laurel, too, averse to cold, and yet there is no

tree that grows in greater abundance on Mount Olympus. At

the city of Panticapum, in the vicinity of the Cimmerian Bosporus, King Mithridates and the inhabitants of the place used

every possible endeavour, with a view to certain religious

ceremonies, to cultivate the myrtle[10] and the laurel: they could

not succeed, however, although trees abound there which require a hot climate, such as the pomegranate and the fig, as

well as apples and pears of the most approved quality. In the

same country, too, the trees that belong to the colder climates,

such as the pine, the fir, and the pitch-tree, refuse to grow.

But why go search for instances in Pontus? In the vicinity

of Rome itself it is only with the greatest difficulty[11] that the

cherry and the chesnut will grow, and the peach-tree, too, at

Tusculum: the Greek nut, too, is grown there from grafts

only at a cost of considerable labour, while Tarracina abounds

with whole woods of it.







1. Or balm of Gilead. See B. xii. c. 54. Bruce assures us that it is

indigenous to Abyssinia; if so, it has been transplanted in Arabia. It is

no more to be found in Juda.

2. This is inserted, as it is evident that the text without it is imperfect.

Fe says that even in Juda it was transplanted from Arabia.

3. As to the identification of the cinnamomum of Pliny, see B. xii. cc.

41 and 42, and the Notes.

4. As to the question of the identity of the amomum, see B. xii. c. 28.

5. See B. xii. c. 26.

6. This cannot be the ordinary Piper nigrum, or black pepper, which

does not deserve the title " arbor." It is, no doubt, the pepper of Italy,

which he mentions in B. xii. c. 14.

7. The Cassia Italicta, probably, of B. xii. c. 43. The cassia of the East

could not possibly survive in Italy. The fact is, no doubt, that the Romans

gave the names of cassia, piper, and amomunm, to certain indigenous plants,

and then persuaded themselves that they had the genuine plants of the

East.

8. See B. xii. c. 30.

9. Under the name of Cedrus, no doubt, several of the junipers have

been included. See B. xiii. c. 11.

10. Fe is inclined to doubt this statement. The myrtle has been known

to stand the winters of Lower Brittany.

11. Owing, no doubt, as Fe says, solely to bad methods of cultivation.

The same, too, with the grafted peach and the Greek nut or almond.




60. Chap. 60. (33.)-The Cypress.


CHAP. 60. (33.)-THE CYPRESS.



The cypress[1] is an exotic, and has been reckoned one of the

trees that are naturalized with the greatest difficulty; so much

so, indeed, that Cato[2] has expatiated upon it at greater length

and more frequently than any of the others. This tree is

naturally of a stubborn[3] disposition, bears a fruit that is utterly







useless, a berry that causes a wry[4] face when tasted, and a leaf

that is bitter: it also gives out a disagreeable pungent smell,[5]

and its shade is far from agreeable. The wood that it furnishes

is but scanty, so much so indeed, that it may be almost regarded

as little more than a shrub. This tree is sacred to Pluto,

and hence it is used as a sign of mourning[6] placed at the

entrance of a house: the female[7] tree is for a long time barren.

The pyramidal appearance that it presents has caused it not to

be rejected, but for a long time it was only used for marking

the intervals between rows of pines: at the present day, however, it is clipped and trained to form hedge-rows, or else is

thinned and lengthened out in the various designs[8] employed in

ornamental gardening, and which represent scenes of hunting,

fleets, and various other objects: these it covers with a thin

small leaf, which is always green.



There are two varieties of the cypress; the one[9] tapering

and pyramidal, and which is known as the female; while the

male tree[10] throws its branches straight out from the body, and

is often pruned and employed as a rest for the vine. Both

the male and the female are permitted to throw out their

branches, which are cut and employed for poles and props,

being worth, after thirteen years' growth, a denarius a-piece.

In respect of income, a plantation of cypress is remarkably

profitable, so much so, indeed, that it was a saying in old times

that a cypress-wood is a dowry for a daughter.[11] The native

country of this tree is the island of Crete, although Cato[12]

calls it Tarentine, Tarentum being the first place, I suppose,

in which it was naturalized: in the island of naria,[13] also,







if the cypress is cut down, it will grow again[14] from the root.

But, in the Isle of Crete, in whatever place the earth is moved,

this tree will shoot up[15] of its own natural vigour, and immediately appear above the soil; indeed, in that island there is

no occasion even to solicit the soil, for it grows spontaneously

there, on the mountains of Ida more particularly, and those

known as the White Mountains. On the very summit of

these elevations, from which the snows never depart, we find

the cypress growing in great abundance; a thing that is truly

marvellous-seeing that, in other countries, it will only grow

in warm localities; from which it would appear to have a great

dislike to its native climate.







1. The Cupressus sempervirens of Linnus, the Cupressus fastigiata of

Decandolle.

2. De Re Rust. cc. 48,151.

3. Morosa;" meaning that it reaches maturity but very slowly.

4. Tristis tentantum sensu torquebit amaror.-Virg. Georg. ii. 247.

5. This statement is exaggerated.

6. It is still to be seen very frequently in the cemeteries of Greece and

Constantinople.

7. The cypress is in reality moncious, the structure of the same plant

being both male and female.

8. This was formerly done with the cypress, in England, to a considerable extent. Such absurdities are now but rare.

9. The Cupressus fastigiata of Decandolle; and a variety of the

Cupressus sempervirens of Linnus.

10. The Cupressus horizontalis of Miller; the variety B of the C. sempervirens of Linnus.

11. The present name given to this tree in the island of Crete, is the

"daughter's dowry."

12. De Re Rust. cc. 151.

13. B. iii. c. 12.

14. This, Fe says, is the case with none of the coniferous trees.

15. Of course this spontaneous creation of the cypress is fabulous; and,

indeed, the whole account, which is borrowed from Theophrastus, is greatly

exaggerated.




61. Chap. 61.-That The Earth Often Bears Productions Which It Has Never Borne Before.


CHAP. 61.-THAT THE EARTH OFTEN BEARS PRODUCTIONS WHICH

IT HAS NEVER BORNE BEFORE.



It is not only the quality of the soil and the unchanging

influences of the climate that affect the nature of trees, but

wet and showery weather also, temporarily at least. Indeed,

the torrents very often bring down with them seeds, and sometimes we find those of unknown kinds even floating along.

This took place in the territory of Cyrenaica, at the period

when laser was first grown there, as we shall have occasion to

mention when we speak of the nature of the various herbs.[1]

A forest, too, sprang[2] up in the vicinity of the city of Cyrene,

just after a shower of rain, of a dense, pitchy nature, about

the year of the City of Rome 430.







1. B. xix. c. 15.

2. This story, which is borrowed from Theophrastus, is evidently fabu-

lons.




62. Chap. 62. (34.)-The Ivy-Twenty Varieties Of It.


CHAP. 62. (34.)-THE IVY-TWENTY VARIETIES OF IT.



It is said that the ivy now grows in Asia,[1] though Theophrastus[2] has denied that such is the fact, and asserts that it

grows nowhere in India, except upon Mount Meros.[3] He says,

too, that Harpalus used every possible exertion to naturalize







it in Media, but to no purpose; and that Alexander, in consequence of the rarity of this plant, had himself crowned[4]

with it, after the example of Father Liber, when returning

victorious with his army from India: and at the present day

even, it is used to decorate the thyrsus of that god, and the

casques and bucklers employed by the nations of Thrace in

their sacred ceremonials. The ivy is injurious[5] to all trees

and plants, and makes its way through tombs and walls; it

forms a haunt much frequented by serpents, for its refreshing

coolness; so that it is a matter for astonishment that there

should have been such remarkable veneration for this plant.



The two principal kinds in the ivy, as in other plants, are

the male tree and the female.[6] The male is said to have a

larger trunk than the female, and a leaf that is harder and

more unctuous, with a flower nearly approaching to purple:

indeed, the flower of both the male and female tree strongly

resembles the wild[7]-rose, were it not destitute of smell. Each

of these kinds of ivy is divided into three other varieties:

the white[8] ivy, the black,[9] and a third known as the helix."[10]

These varieties are again subdivided into others, as there is

one in which the fruit only is white, and another in which it

is only the leaf that is so. In those which have a white fruit,

the berry in some cases is closely packed and large, the clusters,

which are known as "corymbi," being of a spherical form.

So, too, with the selenitium, which has a smaller berry, and

fewer clusters; and the same is the case with the black ivy.

One kind has a black seed, and another a seed of a saffron[11]

colour-it is this last that poets use for their chaplets,[12] and

the leaves of it are not so black as in the other kinds: by some







it is known as the ivy of Nysa, by others as that of Bacchus:[13]

it is the one that among the black varieties has the largest

clusters of all. Some of the Greek writers even distinguish

in this last kind two varieties, according to the colour of the

berries, the erythranum[14] and the chrysocarpus.[15]



It is the helix, however, that has the most peculiarities of

all, and in the appearance of the leaf more particularly, which

is small, angular, and of a more elegant shape, the leaf in all

the other kinds being plain and simple. It differs, too, in the

distance between the joints, and in being barren more especially, as it never bears fruit. Some authors, however, think

that this difference exists solely in respect of age and not of

kind, and are of opinion that what is the helix when young,

becomes the ordinary ivy when old. This, however, is clearly

proved to be an error upon their part, for we find more varieties

of the helix than one, and three in particular-that of a grass-green colour, which is the most abundant of all, the kind with

a white leaf, and a third, which is parti-coloured, and known

as the Thracian helix. In that of a grass-green colour, the

leaves are smaller, more closely packed together, and symmetrically arranged; while in the other kinds the features are altogether different. In the parti-coloured kind, also, one variety

has a smaller leaf than usual, similarly arranged, and lying

closer together, while in the other none of these features are

observed. The leaves, too, are either greater or smaller and

differ in the disposition of the spots upon them, and in the

white helix some of them are whiter than others: the grass-green variety, however, is the one that grows to the greatest

height.



The white helix is in the habit of killing trees by depriving

them of their juices, and increases to such a degree of density

as to be quite a tree itself. Its characteristics are, a very

large, broad, leaf, and projecting buds, which in all the other

kinds are bent inwards; its clusters, too, stand out erect.

Although, too, all the ivies have arms that throw out a root,

those of this variety are particularly branchy and strong; next

to it in strength, are those of the black ivy.







It is a peculiarity of the white ivy to throw out arms from

the middle of the leaves, with which it invariably embraces any

object that may be on either side of it; this is the case, too,

with walls, even though it should not be able to clasp them.

If the trunk is cut across in ever so many places, it will still

live and thrive, having as many fresh roots as it has arms, by

means of which it ensures safety and impunity, while at the

same time it sucks and strangles the trees to which it clings.

There are great differences also in the fruit of both the white

ivy and the black; for in some of them the berry is so bitter

that birds will not touch it. There. is an ivy also which grows

upright,[16] and stands without any support; being the only

one that does so among all the varieties, it has thence obtained the distinctive name of "cissos." The chamcissos,[17]

on the other hand, is never found except creeping upon the

ground.







1. Meaning Asia Minor.

2. Hist. Plant. B. iii c. 10.

3. See B. vi. c. 23.

4. Bacchus, after the alleged conquest by him of India, was said to

have returned crowned with ivy, and seated in a car drawn by tigers.

5. It is a mistake to suppose that the ivy exhausts the juices of trees.

Its tendrils fasten upon the cortical fissures; and, if the tree is but small,

its development is apt to be retarded thereby. It is beneficial, rather

than destructive, to walls.

6. This plant is really moncious or androgynous.

7. The Rosa Eglanteria.

8. The Hedera helix of Linnus, or, possibly, a variety of it with variegated leaves.

9. The Hedera arborea of C. Bauhin, the common ivy.

10. The Hedera major sterilis of C. Bauhin.

11. The first variety of the common ivy, the Hedera helix of Linnus.

12. A wreath of ivy was the usual prize in the poetic contests.

13. See B. v. c. 16, and B. vi. c. 23.

14. The "red berry" and the "golden fruit."

15. The berries are yellow in the first variety of the common ivy, the

Hedera poetica of C. Bauhin.

16. This is the case sometimes with the black ivy, the Hedera arborea of

C. Bauhin. Only isolated cases, however, are to be met with.

17. There is an ivy of this kind, the Hedera humi repens cf botanists;

but most of the commentators are of opinion that it is the ground ivy, the

Glechoma hederacea of Linnus, that is spoken of. Sprengel takes it to

be the Anthirrinum Azarina, from which opinion, however, Fe dissents.




63. Chap. 63. (35.)-The Smilax.


CHAP. 63. (35.)-THE SMILAX.



Very similar to the ivy is a plant which first came from

Cilicia, but is now more commonly found in Greece, and

known by the name of smilax.[1] It has numerous thick stalks

covered with joints, and thorny branches of a shrub-like form:

the leaf resembles that of the ivy, but is not angular, while

from the foot-stalk it throws out tendrils; the flower is white,

and has the smell of the lily. It bears clusters like those of

the wild vine and not the ivy, and of a reddish colour. The

larger berries contain three stones, the smaller but one only:

these berries are black and hard. This plant is looked upon

as ill-omened, and is consequently banished from all sacred

rites, and is allowed to form no part of chaplets; having received this mournful character from the maiden Smilax, who

upon her love being slighted by the youth Crocus, was transformed into this shrub. The common people, being mostly

ignorant of this, not unfrequently take it for ivy, and pollute

their festivities with its presence; for who, in fact, is unaware







that the ivy is used as a chaplet by poets, as also by Father

Liber and Silenus? Tablets are made[2] of the wood of the

smilax, and it is a peculiarity of this wood to give out a slight

sound,[3] if held close to the ear. It is said that ivy is remarkably efficacious for testing wine, and that a vessel made of this

wood will let the wine pass through it, while the water will

remain behind, if there has been any mixed with it.[4]







1. The Smilax aspera of Linnus; the sarsaparilla plant.

2. Fe is inclined to question this; but the breadth of the tablets may

have been very small in this instance.

3. Of course this is fabulous: though it is not impossible that the

writing on the tablets may sometimes have caused " a noise in the world,"

and that hence the poets may have given rise to this story.

4. Pliny borrows this fabulous story from Cato, De Re Rust. c. 3.




65. Chap. 65.-Reeds Used For Arrows, And For The Purpose Of Writing.


CHAP. 65.-REEDS USED FOR ARROWS, AND FOR THE PURPOSE

OF WRITING.



It is by the aid of the reed[1] that the nations of the East

decide their wars; fixing in it a barbed point, they inflict a

wound from which the arrow cannot be withdrawn. By the

addition of feathers they accelerate the flight of this instrument of death, and the weapon, if it breaks in the wound,

furnishes the combatants with a weapon afresh. With these

missiles the warriors darken the very rays of the sun.[2] It is

for this reason more particularly that they desire a clear and

serene sky, and hold in abhorrence all windy and rainy weather,

which has the effect of compelling them, in spite of themselves, to be at peace with one another.



If a person were carefully to enumerate the peoples of

thiopia, Egypt, Arabia, India, Scythia, Bactria, and Sarmatia,

together with all the numerous peoples of the East, and the

vast realms of the Parthians, he would find that fully one-half

of mankind throughout the whole world live under a dominion

imposed by the agency of the arrow. It was their surpassing

excellence in this arm that so ennobled the warriors of Crete,

though in this respect, as well as in all others, Italy has

gained the mastery; there being no reed in existence better

adapted for making arrows than that found in the Rhenus, a

river of the territory of Bononia: filled with a greater quantity of pith than any of the others, it is light, and easily

cleaves the air, while at the same time it has sufficient weight

to resist the action of the wind; an advantage that is not

possessed in an equal degree by those employed among the

Belg. These advantages, however, are possessed by the

most approved kinds that are found in Crete, although those







of India are preferred; in the opinion of some persons, however, these last are of a totally different nature, for by adding a

point to them, the natives are able to use them as lances even.

Indeed, we find that in India the reed grows to the thickness

of a tree, a fact which is proved by the specimens which are

everywhere to be seen in our temples. The Indians assure

us that in this plant, too, there is the distinction of male and

female; the body of the male being more compact, and that

of the female of a larger size. In addition to this, if we can

credit the fact, a single compartment between the joints is

sufficiently large to answer the purposes of a boat.[3] These

reeds are found more particularly on the banks of the river

Acesines.



In every variety of the reed a single root gives birth to

numerous stems, and if cut down, they will shoot again with

increased fecundity. The root, which is naturally tenacious

of life, is also jointed as well as the stem. The reeds of India

are the only ones in which the leaves are short; but in all the

varieties these leaves take their rise at the joints, and surround

the stem with a fine tissue about half way upwards to the

next joint, and then leave the stem and droop downwards.

The reed, as well as the calamus, although rounded, has two

sides, which throw out leaves alternately from above the joints,

in such a way that when one springs from the right side, the

next issues from the joint above it on the left, and so in

turns. Branches, too, shoot occasionally from the stem, being

themselves reeds of diminutive growth.







1. "Claus." The so-called reed of the East, used for making darts and

arrows, does not belong to the genus Arundo, but to those of the Bambos

and Nastus.

2. Few readers of history will fail to recollect the report made to King

Henry V. by Davy Gam, before the battle of Agincourt:-" The enemy

are so numerous," said the messenger, "that their arrows will darken the

sun." "We must e'en be content to fight in the dark then," was the

warrior's reply.

3. See B. vii. c. 2. This is probably an exaggeration. He alludes to

the Bambos arundinacea of Lamarck, the Arundo arbor of C. Bauhin.




67. Chap. 67.-The Vine-Dressers' Reed.


CHAP. 67.-THE VINE-DRESSERS' REED.



The reed is employed in Italy more particularly, as a sup-







port for the vine. Cato[1] recommends that it should be

planted in a damp situation, the soil being first turned up with

a double mattock, and a distance of three feet left between the

young[2] layers; he says, too, that the wild asparagus[3] from

which the cultivated species is produced, may be planted together with it, as they agree particularly well together.



(37.) He says also that the willow may be planted in its

vicinity, than which there is no aquatic plant of more general

utility, although the poplar may be preferred for the training

of the vine, and the support of the Ccuban grape; although,

too, the alder affords a more efficient protection by the hedges

it forms, and, planted in the very water, makes a rampart

along the banks in defence of the adjoining country against

the violence of the rivers when they overflow; when cut down,

too, this last tree is useful for the innumerable suckers which

it throws out.







1. De Re Rust. c. 6. It was the donax that was thus employed; as it

is in France at the present day.

2. Oculis. See B. xvii. c. 33.

3. See B. xix c. 42.




69. Chap. 69.-Trees In Addition To The Willow, Which Are Of Use In Making Withes.


CHAP. 69.-TREES IN ADDITION TO THE WILLOW, WHICH ARE OF

USE IN MAKING WITHES.



Cato[1] considers the culture of the willow as deserving to

hold the third rank in estimation, and he gives it precedence

to the cultivation of the olive, tillage for corn, or laying out

land for pasture. It is not, however, because the willow is

the only tree that produces withes; for they may be procured

also from the broom, the poplar, the elm, the blood-red cornel,

the birch, and the reed itself when split, or else the leaves of that

plant, as we know to be the case in Liguria. The vine, also,

will furnish them; the bramble, too, with the thorns removed, as well as the twisted hazel. It is a very singular thing,

that a wood after it has been beaten and pounded should be

found all the stronger for making withes, but such is a striking

peculiarity that exists in the willow. The Greek red[2] willow is

split for this purpose: while the willow[3] of Ameria is whiter

but more brittle, for which reason it is used in an uncut state for

tying. In Asia there are three varieties known of the willow;

the black[4] willow, which is best adapted for making withes,

the white willow, employed for various agricultural purposes,

and a third, which is shorter than the others, and known as

the helix.[5]



With us, also, there is the same number of denominations

given to as many varieties of the willow; one being known







as the viminal or purple willow,[6] another as the nitelina,[7]

from its resemblance to the colour of the nitela, thinner in

the trunk than the preceding one, and the third as the

Gallic[8] kind, being the thinnest of them all.







1. De Re Rust. c. 6. Fe remarks that the notions of modern agriculturists are very different on this point.

2. The Salix purpurea of Linnus: the Salix vulgaris rubens of C.

Bauhin.

3. This belongs, probably, to the Salix helix of Linnus.

4. F equeries whether this may not be the Salix incana of Schrank and

Hoffmann, the bark of which is a brown green.

5. Belonging to the Salix helix of Linnus.

6. Belonging to the Salix purpurea of Linnus.

7. Field-mouse or squirrel colour. See B. viii. c. 82. The same, probably, as the Salix vitellina of Linnus.

8. A variety, Fe thinks, of the Salix rubens.




72. Chap. 72. (38.)-The Juices Of Trees.


CHAP. 72. (38.)-THE JUICES OF TREES.



There is a juice in the bark of trees, which must be looked

upon as their blood, though it is not of a similar nature in all.

In the fig it is of a milky consistency, and has the peculiar

property of curdling milk, and so forming cheese.[1] In the

cherry-tree this juice is gummy, in the elm clammy, in the

apple viscous and fatty, while in the vine and the pear it is

watery. The more viscous this humour is, the more long-lived the tree. In a word, we find in the bodies of trees-as

with all other beings that are animated-skin, blood, flesh,

sinews, veins, bones, and marrow; the bark serving them in

place of skin. It is a singular fact connected with the mulberry-tree, that when the medical men wish to extract its juice,

if the incision is lightly made, by a blow with a stone, and at

the second hour of the day in spring, the juice will flow: but

if, on the other hand, a wound is inflicted to any depth, it has

all the, appearance of being dried up.



Immediately beneath the bark in most trees there is a fatty

substance, which, from its colour, has obtained the name of

alburnum:[2] it is soft, and is the very worst part of the wood,







and in the robur even will very easily rot, being particularly

liable to wood-worm, for which reason it is invariably removed.

Beneath this fat lies the flesh[3] of the tree, and then under

that, its bones, or, in other words, the choicest part of the wood.

Those trees which have a dry wood, the olive, for instance,

bear fruit every other year only: this is more the case with

them than with those the wood of which is of a fleshy nature,

such as the cherry, for instance. It is not all trees, too, that

have this fat and flesh in any abundance, the same as we find

to be the case among the more active animals. The box, the

cornel, and the olive have none at all, nor yet any marrow, and

a very small proportion, too, of blood. In the same way, too,

the service-tree has no bones, and the elder no flesh, while

both of them have marrow in the greatest abundance. Reeds,

too, have hardly any flesh.







1. Though the acid it contains would curdle milk, still its natural

acridity would disqualify it from being used for making cheese.

2. The white sap or inner bark; the aubier of the French. Fe remarks, that its supposed analogy with fat is incorrect.

3. He means the outer ligneous layers of the wood. They differ only

in their relative hardness.




73. Chap. 73.-Te Veins And Fibres Of Trees.


CHAP. 73.-TE VEINS AND FIBRES OF TREES.



In the flesh of some trees we find both fibres[1] and veins:

they are easily distinguished. The veins[2] are larger, while

the fibres are of whiter material, and are to be found in those

woods more particularly which are easily split. Hence it is that

if the ear is applied to the extremity of a beam of wood, however long, a tap with a graver[3] even upon the other end may

be distinctly heard, the sound penetrating by the passages

which run straight through it: by these means it is that we

ascertain whether timber runs awry, or is interrupted by knots.

The tuberosities which we find on trees resemble the kernels[4]

that are formed in flesh: they contain neither veins nor fibres,

but only a kind of tough, solid flesh, rolled up in a sort of

ball: it is these tuberosities that are the most esteemed parts[5]

in the citrus and the maple. As to the other kinds of wood







which are employed for making tables, the trees are split into

planks lengthwise, and the parts are then selected along which

the fibres run, and properly rounded; for the wood would be

too brittle to use if it were cut in segments crosswise.[6] in

the beech, the grain of the fibrous part runs crosswise;[7] hence

it is that the ancients held in such high esteem all vessels made

with the wood of it. Manius Curius made oath, on one occasion, that he had not touched an article of all the spoil except

a single oil cruet[8] of beech, to use for sacrificing. Wood

is always put lengthwise into the water to season, as that part

which was nearest the root will sink to a greater[9] depth than

the other. In some wood there is fibre, without veins, and merely

consisting of filaments slightly knit together: wood of this

nature is remarkably fissile. Other wood, again, is more easily

broken across than split, such as the wood of those trees that

have no fibre, the olive and the vine, for instance: on the other

hand, in the fig-tree, the whole of the body consists of flesh.[10]

The holm-oak, the cornel, the robur, the cytisus, the mulberry,

the ebony, the lotus, and the other trees which we have

mentioned[11] as being destitute of marrow, consist entirely of

bone.[12] All these woods are of a blackish colour, with the

exception of the cornel, of which glossy yellow hunting-spears

are made, marked with incisions for their further embellishment. In the cedar, the juniper, and the larch, the wood

is red.



(39.) In Greece the female larch furnishes a wood[13] which

is known as gis, and is just the colour of honey. This wood

has been found to be proof against decay, and forms the pannels

used by painters, being never known to gape or split; the

portion thus employed is that which lies nearest to the pith. In

the fir-tree this part is called "leuson" by the Greeks. In the

cedar, too, the hardest part is the wood that lies nearest to the







sap: after the slimys[14] pith has been carefully removed, it has

a similar degree of hardness to the bones in the bodies of

animals. It is said, too, that in Greece the inner part of the

elder is remarkably firm: indeed, those whose business it is to

make hunting spears, prefer this material to all others, it being

a wood composed wholly of skin and bone.







1. "Pulp." The ligneous fibres which form the tissue of the bark.

2. "Ven." By this term he probably means the nutritive vessels and the

ligneous fibres united. It was anciently the general belief that the fibres

acted their part in the nutriment of the tree.

3. "Graphium." Properly a stylus or iron pen.

4. "Glandia." This analogy, Fe remarks, does not hold good.

5. See B. xiii. c. 29, and c. 27 of this Book.

6. And at an angle with the grain or fibre of the wood.

7. And at right angles. In the Dicotyledons, the disposition of the fibres

is longitudinal and transversal.

8. Guttum.

9. For the simple reason, because the part near the root is of greater

diameter.

10. Soft ligneous layers.

11. In c. 72 of this Book.

12. Hard wood-such as we know generally as "heart;" "heart of

oak" for instance.

13. Probably that of the ligneous layers near the pith or sap.

14. "Limo:" the alburnum previously mentioned.




74. Chap. 74.-The Felling Of Trees.


CHAP. 74.-THE FELLING OF TREES.



The proper time for felling trees that are wanted for

barking, the round, tapering trees, for instance, that are employed in temples and for other purposes, is at the period of

germination:[1] for at other times it is quite impossible to

detach the bark from the rotten wood that adheres to it, while

the wood itself assumes a blackish hue. Squared logs, and

wood from which the bark has been lopped, are generally cut

in the period that intervenes between the winter solstice and

the prevalence of the west winds; or else, if it is necessary

to anticipate that period, at the setting of Arcturus and

before that of the Lyre, the very earliest period being the

summer solstice: the days of these respective constellations

will be mentioned in the appropriate place.[2]



In general it is looked upon as quite sufficient to use all

due precaution that a tree is not rough-hewn before it has

borne its yearly crop. The robur, if cut in spring, is subject

to the attacks of wood-worm, but if cut in winter, will neither

rot nor warp: otherwise it is very liable to bend and become

awry, as well as to crack; the same is the case, too, with the

cork-tree, even if cut down at the proper time. The state of

the moon,[3] too, is of infinite importance, and it is generally

recommended that trees should be cut only between the twentieth and the thirtieth days of the month. It is generally

agreed, however, by all, that it is the very best time for

felling timber, when the moon is in conjunction with the

sun, a day which is called by some persons the interlu-

nium, and by others the moon's silence. At all events, it was







under these circumstances that Tiberius Csar gave orders

for the larches to be cut in Rhtia, that were required for

the purpose of rebuilding the bridge of the Naumachia[4] after

it had been destroyed by fire. Some persons say that the

moon ought not only to be in conjunction, but below the horizon as well, a thing that can only happen in the night. If the

conj unction should chance to fall on the very day of the winter

solstice, the timber, they say, that is then felled will be of everlasting duration; the next best being the timber that is cut

when the conjunction coincides with the constellations previously mentioned. There are some, too, who add the rising

of the Dog-star as a favourable time, and say that it was at

this period that the timber was cut which was employed in

building the Forum of Augustus.



Wood which is intended for timber ought to be cut neither

when too young nor too old. Some persons, too-and the practice is by no means without its utility-cut round[5] the tree as

far as the pith, and then leave the timber standing, so that all

the juices may be enabled to escape. Going back to ancient

times, it is a remarkable fact, that in the first Punic War the

fleet commanded by Duillius was on the water within sixty

days from the time the timber was cut: and, what is still

more so, Piso relates that King Hiero had two hundred and

twenty ships wholly constructed in forty-five days: in the

second Punic War, too, the fleet of Scipio was at sea the fortieth

day after the axe had been put to the tree. Such is the

energy and dispatch that can be displayed on occasions of

emergency.







1. This practice was formerly forbidden by the forest laws of France.

2. In B. xviii.

3. Pliny borrows this superstition from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant.

B. vi. c. 1.

4. This was the name of mimic sea-fights, exhibited at Rome in the

Circus or amphitheatres, or else in lakes dug expressly for the purpose.

Hardouin says, there were five Naumachi at Rome, in the 14th region of

the City.

5. This practice is no longer followed.




75. Chap. 75.-Te Opinion Of Cato On The Felling Of Timber.


CHAP. 75.-TE OPINION OF CATO ON THE FELLING OF TIMBER.



Cato,[1] a man of consummate authority in all practical matters, expresses himself in relation to timber to the following

effect:-"For making presses, employ the wood of the sappinus

in preference. When you root up the elm, the pine, the nut-







tree, or, indeed, any other kind of tree, mind and do so when

the moon is on the wane, after midday, and when there is no

south wind blowing. The proper time for cutting a tree is

when the seed[2] is ripe, but be careful not to draw it away or

plane it while the dew is falling." He then proceeds to say[3]

-" Never touch the timber, except when the moon is on the

change, or else at the end of the second quarter: at those

periods you may either root up the tree, or fell it as it stands.

The next seven days after the full moon are the best of all for

grubbing up a tree. Be particularly careful, too, not to rough-

hew timber, or, indeed, to cut or touch it, unless it is perfectly

dry; and by no means while it is covered with frost or dew."



The Emperor Tiberius used also to observe the changes of

the moon for cutting his hair.[4] M. Varro[5] has recommended

that the hair should be cut at full moon only, if we would

avoid baldness.







1. De Re Rust. c. 31; also cc. 17 and 37.

2. This practice is observed in modern times.

3. C. 37.

4. Pliny, no doubt, observes an analogy between the hair of the human

head, and trees as forming the hair of the earth. The superstition here

mentioned, Fe says, was, till very recently, observed in France to a con-

siderable extent.

5. De Re Rust. 1, 37.




77. Chap. 77.-Methods Of Obtaining Fire From Wood.


CHAP. 77.-METHODS OF OBTAINING FIRE FROM WOOD.



This is a method[1] which has been employed by the outposts

of armies, and by shepherds, on occasions when there has not

been a stone at hand to strike fire with. Two pieces of wood

are rubbed briskly together, and the friction soon sets them on

fire; which is caught on dry and inflammable substances, fun-

guses and leaves being found to ignite the most readily. There

is nothing superior to the wood of the ivy for rubbing against,







or to that of the laurel for rubbing with. A species of wild

vine,[2] too-not the same as the labrusca-which climbs up

other trees like the ivy, is highly approved of. The coldest[3]

woods of all are those of the aquatic trees; but they are the

most flexible also, and for that reason the best adapted for the

construction of bucklers. On an incision being made in them,

they will contract immediately, and so close up their wounds,

at the same time rendering it more difficult for the iron to penetrate: in the number of these woods are the fig, the willow,

the lime, the birch, the elder, and both varieties of the poplar.



The lightest of all these woods, and consequently the most

useful, are the fig and the willow. They are all of them employed, however, in the manufacture of baskets and other

utensils of wicker-work; while, at the same time, they possess a degree of whiteness and hardness which render them

very well adapted for carving. The plane has considerable

flexibility, but it is moist and slimy like the alder. The elm,

too, the ash, the mulberry, and the cherry, are flexible, but of

a drier nature; the wood, however, is more weighty. The

elm is the best of all for retaining its natural toughness, and

hence it is more particularly employed for socket beams for

hinges, and cases for the pannelling of doors, being proof

against warping. It is requisite, however, that the beam to

receive the hinge should be inverted when set up, the top of

the tree answering to the lower hinge, the root to the upper.

The wood of the palm and the cork-tree is soft, while that of

the apple and the pear is compact. Such, however, is not the

case with the maple, its wood being brittle, as, in fact, all

veined woods are. In every kind of tree, the varieties in the

wood are still more augmented by the wild trees and the males.

The wood, too, of the barren tree is more solid than that of the

fruit-bearing ones, except in those species in which the male

trees[4] bear fruit, the cypress and the cornel, for instance.







1. The savages of North America, and, indeed, of all parts of the globe,

seem to have been acquainted with this method of kindling fire from the

very earliest times.

2. See B. xxiv. c. 49. The Viticella, belonging to the genus clematis.

3. This unfounded notion is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. v. c. 4.

4. In the modern botanical sense of the word, the male trees do not

bear at all.




79. Chap. 79.-Historical Facts Connected With The Durability Of Wood.


CHAP. 79.-HISTORICAL FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE DURABILITY

OF WOOD.



Of all the woods, the ebony, the cypress, and the cedar are

considered to be the most durable, a good proof of which is to

be seen in the timber of which the Temple of Diana at Ephesus

is built: it being now four hundred years since it was erected,

at the joint expense of the whole of Asia;[1] and, what is a well-known fact, the roof is wholly constructed of planks of cedar.

As to the statue of the goddess, there is some doubt of what

wood it is made; all the writers say that it is ebony, with the

exception of Mucianus, who was three times consul, one of

the very latest among the writers that have seen it; he declares that it is made of the wood of the vine, and that it has

never been changed all the seven times that the temple has

been rebuilt. He says, too, that it was Endus who made

choice of this wood, and even goes so far as to mention the

artist's name, a thing that really surprises me very much, seeing that he attributes to it an antiquity that dates before the

times of Father Liber, and of Minerva even. He states, also,

that, by the aid of numerous apertures, it is soaked with

nard, in order that the moist nature of that drug may preserve

the wood and keep the seams[2] close together: I am rather

surprised, however, that there should be any seams in the

statue, considering the very moderate size it is. He informs

us, also, that the doors are made of cypress, and that the

wood, which has now lasted very nearly four hundred years,

has all the appearance of new.[3] It is worthy of remark, too,

that the wood of these doors, after the pieces had been glued

together, was left to season four years before they were put







up: cypress was made choice of from the circumstance that it

is the only kind of wood that maintains its polish to all future

time.



And have we not the statue of Vejovis,[4] also, made of cypress,

still preserved in the Capitol, where it was consecrated in the

year of the City 661? The Temple of Apollo, too, at Utica,

is equally celebrated: there we may see beams of cedar still

in existence, and in just the same condition in which they

were when erected at the first building of that city, eleven

hundred and seventy-eight years ago. At Saguntum, too, in

Spain, there is a temple of Diana, which was brought thither

by the original founders of the place, from the island of Zacynthus, in the year 200 before the taking of Troy, Bocchus

says-It is preserved beneath the town, they say. Hannibal,

being induced thereto by feelings of religious veneration,

spared this temple, and its beams, made of juniper, are still

in existence at this very day. But the most memorable instance of all is that of the temple which was dedicated to the

same goddess at Aulis, several ages before the Trojan War: of

what wood, however, it was originally built is a fact that has

been long lost in oblivion. Speaking in general terms, we

may say that those woods are of the greatest durability which

are the most odoriferous.[5]



Next to those woods of which we have just spoken, that of

the mulberry is held in the highest degree of esteem, and it

will even turn black when old. There are some trees, again,

that are more durable than others, when employed for certain

purposes. The wood of the elm lasts the best in the open air,

that of the robur when buried in the ground, and that of the

quercus when exposed to the action of water: indeed, the

wood of this last, if employed in works above ground, is apt

to split and warp. The wood of the larch thrives best in the

midst of moisture; the same is the case, too, with that of the

black alder. The wood of the robur spoils by exposure to the

action of sea-water. The beech and the walnut are far from

disapproved of for constructions under water, and, in fact,

these are the principal woods, too, that are used for works







under ground: the same is the case, also, with the juniper;

which is equally serviceable when exposed to the atmosphere.

The woods of the beech and the cirrus[6] very quickly deteriorate, and that of the sculus will not withstand the action

of water. On the other hand, the alder, when driven into the

ground in marshy localities, is of everlasting duration, and

able to support the very heaviest weights. The wood of the

cherry is strong, while those of the elm and the ash are pliable, though apt to warp: these last will still retain their

flexibility, and be less liable to warp, if the wood is left to

stand and dry upon the trunk after the pith has been cut

around.[7] It is said that the larch, when used for sea-going

ships, is liable to the attacks[8] of the teredo, as, in fact, all the

woods are, with the exception of the wild and cultivated olive.

It is a fact, too, that there are some woods that are more liable

to spoil in the sea, and others in the ground.







1. Asia Minor, namely. See B. xxxv. c. 21.

2. The junctures where the pieces of wood are united by glue. This is

to be observed very easily in the greater part of the oaken statuary that is

so plentiful in the churches of Belgium.

3. Cypress is perhaps the most lasting of all woods.

4. One of the earliest appellations, probably, of Jupiter among the Romans. See Ovid's Fasti, B. iii. 1. 445, et seq.

5. This is correct. Their resin defends them from the action of the air,

from damp, and the attacks of noxious insects.

6. A variety of the oak. See c. 6 of this Book.

7. As mentioned at the end of c. 74.

8. See B. i. c. 2.




80. Chap. 80. (41.)-Varieties Of The Teredo.


CHAP. 80. (41.)-VARIETIES OF THE TEREDO.



There are four kinds of insects that attack wood. The

teredo has a head remarkably large in proportion to the other

part of the body, and gnaws away the wood with its teeth:

its attacks, however, are confined solely to the sea, and it is

generally thought that this is the only insect that is properly

so called. The wood-worm that prevails on the land is known

as the " tinea," while those which resemble a gnat in appearance are called "thripes." The fourth kind of wood-worm

belongs to the maggot class; some of them being engendered

by the corruption of the juices of the wood itself, and others

being produced, just as in the trees, by the worm known as

the cerastes.[1] When this worm has eaten away enough of

the wood to enable it to turn round, it gives birth to another.

The generation of these insects is prevented, however, by the

bitterness that exists in some woods, the cypress, and the

hardness of others, the box, for instance.



It is said, too, that the fir, if barked about the time of budding, and at the period of the moon already mentioned,[2] will

never spoil in water. The followers of Alexander the Great

have left a statement that, at Tylos, an island in the Red Sea,







there are trees, of which ships are built, the wood of which

has been found uninjured at the end of two hundred years,[3]

even if it has been under water all that time. They say, also,

that in the same island there is a certain shrub,[4] about the

thickness of a walking-stick only, and spotted like a tiger's

skin: it is very heavy, and will break like glass if it happens

to fall upon a hard substance.







1. See B. xvii. c. 37.

2. In c. 74.

3. There is nothing very surprising in this, as most woods are preserved

better when completely immersed in water, than when exposed to the variations of the atmosphere.

4. He borrows this fable from Theophrastus, B. v. c. 5.




81. Chap. 81. (42.)-The Woods Used In Building.


CHAP. 81. (42.)-THE WOODS USED IN BUILDING.



We have in Italy some woods that are apt to split of

themselves: to prevent this, architects recommend that they

should be first seasoned in manure[1] and then dried, in order

to render them proof against the action of the atmosphere.

The woods of the fir and larch are well adapted, even when

used transversely, for the support of heavy burdens; while the

robur and the olive are apt to bend and give way under a

weight. The wood of the poplar and the palm are also strong,

but this last will bend, though in a manner different from

the others; for, while in all other instances the wood bends

downwards, in the palm it bends in the contrary direction,[2]

and forms an arch. The woods of the pine and the cypress

are proof against decay and all attacks of wood-worm. The

walnut is easily warped, but we sometimes see beams even

made of it. It gives warning, however, before it breaks, by a

loud cracking noise; such was the case at Antandros, at the

public baths there-the bathers took the alarm upon hearing

the beams crack, and made their escape. The pine, the pitch-tree, and the alder are employed for making hollow pipes for

the conveyance, of water, and when buried in the earth will

last for many years. If, however, they are not well covered

over, they will very soon rot; and the resistance they offer to

decay will increase in a most surprising degree if the outer

surface as well is left in contact with the water.











1. This process, Fe says, would be attended with no success.

2. It is not quite clear whether he intends this observation to apply to the

poplar and the palm, or to the last only. It is true, however, in neither

case, and is contrary, as Fe observes, to all physical laws.




82. Chap. 82.-Carpenters' Woods.


CHAP. 82.-CARPENTERS' WOODS.



The wood of the fir is strongest in a vertical[1] position: it

is remarkably well adapted for the pannels of doors, and all

kinds of in-door joiners' work, whether in the Grecian, the

Campanian, or the Sicilian style. The shavings of this wood

when briskly planed, always curl up in circles like the tendrils

of the vine. This wood, too, unites particularly well with

glue: it is used in this state for making vehicles, and is found

to split sooner in the solid parts than in a place where the

pieces have been glued together.







1. The resistance that woods offer when placed vertically is in the same

ratio as that presented by them when employed horizontally. This paragraph is borrowed from Theophrastus, B. iii. c. 4, and B. v. cc. 6, 7, 8.




83. Chap. 83. (43.)-Woods United With Glue.


CHAP. 83. (43.)-WOODS UNITED WITH GLUE.



Glue, too, plays one of the principal parts in all veneering

and works of marqueterie. For this purpose, the workmen

usually employ wood with a threaded vein, to which they give

the name of "ferulea," from its resemblance to the grain of

the giant fennel,[1] this part of the wood being preferred from

its being dotted and wavy. In every variety there are some

woods to be found that will not take the glue, and which refuse to unite either with wood of the same kind or of any

other; the wood of the robur for example. Indeed, it is

mostly the case that substances will not unite unless they are

of a similar nature; a stone, for instance, cannot be made to

adhere to wood. The wood of the service-tree, the yoke-elm,

the box, and, in a less degree, the lime, have a particular

aversion to uniting with the cornel. All the yielding woods

which we have already spoken[2] of as flexible readily adapt

themselves to every kind of work; and in addition to them,

the mulberry and the wild fig. Those which are moderately

moist are easily sawn and cut, but dry woods are apt to give

way beyond the part that is touched by the saw; while, on

the other hand, the green woods, with the exception of the

robur and the box, offer a more obstinate resistance, filling the

intervals between the teeth of the saw with sawdust, and

rendering its edge uniform and inert; it is for this reason

that the teeth are often made to project right and left in turns,







a method by which the saw-dust is discharged. The ash is

found the most pliable wood of all for working; and, indeed,

for making[3] spears it is better even than the hazel, being

lighter than the cornel, and more pliable than the wood of

the service-tree. The Gallic variety is so supple, that it is

employed in the construction of vehicles even. The elm

would rival the trunk of the vine[4] for some purposes, were

it not that its weight is so much against it.







1. Ferula.

2. In c. 77.

3. See c. 24.

4. Fe thinks, from the context, that the meaning is, that the vine was

employed in the construction of chariots; it depends entirely on the punctuation adopted.




84. Chap. 8.-Veneering.


CHAP. 8.-VENEERING.



The wood, too, of the beech is easily worked, although it is

brittle and soft. Cut into thin layers of veneer, it is very

flexible, but is only used for the construction of boxes and

desks. The wood, too, of the holm-oak is cut into veneers

of remarkable thinness, the colour of which is far from unsightly; but it is more particularly where it is exposed to

friction that this wood is valued, as being one to be depended

upon; in the axle-trees of wheels, for instance; for which the

ash is also employed, on account of its pliancy, the holm-oak

for its hardness, and the elm, for the union in it of both

those qualities. There are also various workman's tools made

of wood, which, though but small, are still remarkably useful;

in this respect, it is said that the best materials for making

auger handles are the wild olive, the box, the holm-oak, the

elm, and the ash. Of the same woods also mallets are made;

the larger ones, however, are made of the pine and the holm-

oak. These woods, too, have a greater degree of strength and

hardness if cut in season than when hewn prematurely; indeed,

it has been known for hinge-jambs, made of olive, a wood of

remarkable hardness, after having remained a considerable

time on the spot, to put out buds[1] like a growing plant. Cato[2]

recommends levers to be made of holly, laurel, or elm; and

Hyginus speaks highly of the yoke-elm, the holm-oak, and

the cerrus, for the handles of agricultural implements.



The best woods for cutting into layers, and employing as a







veneer for covering others, are the citrus, the terebinth, the

different varieties of the maple, the box, the palm,[3] the holly,

the holm-oak, the root of the elder, and the poplar. The alder

furnishes also, as already stated,[4] a kind of tuberosity, which

is cut into layers like those of the citrus and the maple. In

all the other trees the tuberosities are of no value whatever.

It is the central part of trees that is most variegated, and the

nearer we approach to the root the smaller are the spots and

the more wavy. It was in this appearance that originated

that requirement of luxury which displays itself in covering

one tree with another, and bestowing upon the more common

woods a bark of higher price. In order to make a single

tree sell many times over, lamin of veneer have been devised; but that was not thought sufficient-the horns of animals must next be stained of different colours, and their teeth

cut into sections, in order to decorate wood with ivory, and,

at a later period, to veneer it all over. Then, after all this, man

must go and seek his materials in the sea as well! For this

purpose he has learned to cut tortoise-shell into sections; and

of late, in the reign of Nero, there was a monstrous invention

devised of destroying its natural appearance by paint, and

making it sell at a still higher price by a successful imitation

of wood.



It is in this way that the value of our couches is so greatly

enhanced; it is in this way, too, that they bid the rich lustre of

the terebinth to be outdone, a mock citrus to be made that

shall be more valuable than the real one, and the grain of the

maple to be feigned. At one time luxury was not content

with wood; at the present day it sets us on buying tortoiseshell in the guise of wood.







1. This could only have happened in the first year that they were so

employed.

2. De Re Rust. c. 31.

3. It is singular. Fe says, to find the wood of the palm, and that of the

poplar, which are destitute of veins, enumerated among those employed for

veneering.

4. In c. 27.




85. Chap. 85. (44.)-The Age Of Trees. A Tree That Was Planted By The First Scipio Africanus. A Tree At Rome Five Hundred Years Old.


CHAP. 85. (44.)-THE AGE OF TREES. A TREE THAT WAS

PLANTED BY THE FIRST SCIPIO AFRICANUS. A TREE AT

ROME FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.



The life of some trees might really be looked upon as of

infinite[1] duration, if we only think of the dense wilds and







inaccessible forests in some parts of the world. In relation,

however, to those, the date of which is still within the memory of man, there are some olive-trees still in existence at

Liternum, which were planted by the hand of the first

Scipio Africanus, as also a myrtle there of extraordinary size;

beneath them there is a grotto, in which, it is said, a dragon

keeps watch over that hero's shade. There is a lotus[2] tree

in the open space before the Temple of Lucina at Rome, which

was built in the year of the City 379, a year in which the

republic had no[3] magistrates. How much older the tree is

than the temple, is a matter of doubt; but that it is older is

quite certain, for it was from that same grove that the goddess

Lucina[4] derived her name; the tree in question is now about

four hundred and fifty years old. The lotus tree, which is

known as the Capillata, is still older than this, though it is

uncertain what is its age; it received that name from the

circumstance of the Vestal Virgins suspending locks of their

hair[5] from it.







1. According to Adanson, the baobab will live for more than six thousand years.

2. The Celtis australis of Linnus.

3. In consequence of the disputes between the patricians and plebeians.

4. Thus deriving Lucina from "lucus," a grove.

5. Capillos.




86. Chap. 86.-Trees As Old As The City.


CHAP. 86.-TREES AS OLD AS THE CITY.



There is another lotus in the Vulcanal,[1] which Romulus

erected with the tenth part of the spoil taken from the enemy:

according to Massurius, it is generally considered to be as old

as the City. The roots of this tree penetrate as far as the

Forum of Csar, right across the meeting-places of the municipalities.[2] There was a cypress of equal age growing with it

till towards the latter part of Nero's reign, when it fell to the

ground, and no attempts were made to raise it again.







1. An area before the temple of Vulean.

2. "Stationes municipiorum." A sort of exchange, near the Forum,

where the citizens met to discuss the topics of the day.




87. Chap. 87.-Trees In The Suburban Districts Older Than The City.


CHAP. 87.-TREES IN THE SUBURBAN DISTRICTS OLDER THAN THE

CITY.



Still older than the City is the holm-oak that stands on the

Vaticanian Hill: there is an inscription in bronze upon it,

written in Etruscan characters, which states that even in those







days it was an object of religious veneration. The foundation

of the town of Tibur, too, dates many years before that of the

City of Rome: there are three holm-oaks there, said to be

more ancient than Tiburnus even, who was the founder of

that place; the tradition is that in their vicinity he was inaugurated. Tradition states also that he was a son of Amphiaras, who died before Thebes, one generation before the period

of the Trojan war.










90. Chap. 90.-Trees Which Are The Most Short-Lived.


CHAP. 90.-TREES WHICH ARE THE MOST SHORT-LIVED.



On the other hand, the pomegranate,[1] the fig, and the apple

are remarkably short-lived; the precocious trees being still

more so than the later ripeners, and those with sweet fruit than

those with sour: among the pomegranates, too, that variety

which bears the sweetest fruit lives the shortest time. The

same is the case, too, with the vine,[2] and more particularly

the more fruitful varieties. Grcinus informs us that vines

have lasted so long as sixty years. It appears, also, that the

aquatic trees die the soonest. The laurel,[3] the apple, and

the pomegranate age rapidly, it is true, but then they throw

out fresh shoots at the root. The olive must be looked upon,

then, as being one of the most long-lived, for it is generally

agreed among authors that it will last two hundred years.







1. The pomegranate, on the contrary, has been known to live many cen-

turies.

2. He has elsewhere said that the vine is extremely long-lived.

3. In the last Chapter he has spoken of a laurel having existed for many

centuries.




91. Chap. 91.-Trees That Have Been Rendered Famous By Remarkable Events.


CHAP. 91.-TREES THAT HAVE BEEN RENDERED FAMOUS BY REMARKABLE EVENTS.



In the territory about the suburbs of Tusculum, upon a hill

known by the name of Corne, there is a grove which has been

consecrated to Diana by the people of Latium from time immemorial; it is formed of beeches, the foliage of which has all







the appearance of being trimmed by art. Passienus Crispus,

the orator, who in our time was twice consul, and afterwards

became still more famous as having Nero for his step-son, on

marrying his mother Agrippina, was passionately attached to

a fine tree that grew in this grove, and would often kiss and

embrace it: not only would he lie down, too, beneath it, but

he would also moisten its roots with wine.[1] In the vicinity

of this grove there is a holm-oak, likewise of very considerable

celebrity, the trunk of which is no less[2] than thirty-four feet

in circumference; giving birth to ten other trees of remarkable

size, it forms of itself a whole forest.







1. To its great detriment, probably.

2. Fe says that no holm-oak is ever known to attain this size.




93. Chap. 93.-Three Varieties Of Mistletoe. The Nature Of Mistletoe And Similar Plants.


CHAP. 93.-THREE VARIETIES OF MISTLETOE. THE NATURE OF

MISTLETOE AND SIMILAR PLANTS.



There are three varieties of the mistletoe.[1] That which

grows upon the fir and the larch has the name of[2] stelis in

Euba; and there is the hyphear[3] of Arcadia. It grows

also upon the quercus,[4] the robur, the holm-oak, the wild

plum, and the terebinth, but upon no other tree.[5] It is most

plentiful of all upon the quercus, and is then known as

"adasphear." In all the trees, with the exception of the holmoak and the quercus, there is a considerable difference in its

smell and pungency, and the leaf of one kind has a disagreeable odour; both varieties, however, are sticky and bitter.

The hyphear is the best for fattening[6] cattle with; it begins,

however, by purging off all defects, after which it fattens all

such animals as have been able to withstand the purging. It

is generally said, however, that those animals which have any

radical malady in the intestines cannot withstand its drastic

effects. This method of treatment is generally adopted in the

summer for a period of forty days.



Besides the above, there is yet another difference[7] in the

mistletoe; that which grows upon the trees which lose their

leaves, loses its leaves as well; while, on the other hand, that

which grows upon evergreens always retains its leaves. In

whatever way the seed may have been sown, it will never

come to anything, unless it has been first swallowed[8] and







then voided by birds, the wood-pigeon more particularly, and

the thrush: such being the nature of the plant, that it will

not come to anything unless the seed is first ripened in the

crop of the bird. It never exceeds a single cubit in height,

and is always green and branchy. The male[9] plant is fruitful, the female barren; sometimes, indeed, the male even

bears no berry.







1. The Viscum Europum of modern naturalists.

2. The Viscum album of Linnus; but Sprengel takes it to be the

Loranthus Europus.

3. Fe questions whether this may not be the Loranthus Europus.

4. The Viscum album of Linnus; the oak mistletoe or real mistletoe.

5. This is not the fact: it grows upon a vast multitude of other trees.

6. It is no longer used for this purpose.

7. The mistletoe never in any case loses its leaves, upon whatever tree

it may grow.

8. This is, of course, untrue; but the seeds, after being voided by birds,

are more likely to adhere to the bark of trees, and so find a nidus for ger-

mination.

9. The exact opposite is the case, the female being the fruitful plant.




94. Chap. 94.-The Method Of Making Birdlime.


CHAP. 94.-THE METHOD OF MAKING BIRDLIME.



Birdlime is made of the berries of the mistletoe, which are

gathered at harvest, and while in an unripe state; for if the

rainy season comes on, though they increase in size, the viscous

juice is apt to lose its virtues. They are then dried,[1] and

when brought to a state of perfect aridity, are first pounded,

and then put in water, in which they are left to rot for twelve

days; this being, in fact, the only thing that finds improve-

ment in decay. After this, they are again beaten in running

water with a mallet, and after losing the outer coat there is

only the viscous inner pulp remaining. This substance is

birdlime; and after it has been thinned by the addition of

walnut oil, it is found particularly useful for catching birds,

it being quite sufficient if they only touch it with the wings.







1. The method used in Italy for making bird-lime is very similar at the

present day.




95. Chap. 95.-Historical Facts Connected With The Mistletoe.


CHAP. 95.-HISTORICAL FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE MISTLETOE.



Upon this occasion we must not omit to mention the admiration that is lavished upon this plant by the Gauls. The

Druids-for that is the name they give to their magicians[1]-

held nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree

that bears it, supposing always that tree to be the robur.[2]

Of itself the robur is selected by them to form whole groves,

and they perform none of their religious rites without em-

ploying branches of it; so much so, that it is very probable

that the priests themselves may have received their name







from the Greek name[3] for that tree. In fact, it is the notion

with them that everything that grows on it has been sent

immediately from heaven, and that the mistletoe upon it is a

proof that the tree has been selected by God himself as an

object of his especial favour.



The mistletoe, however, is but rarely found upon the robur;

and when found, is gathered with rites replete with religious

awe. This is done more particularly on the fifth day of the

moon, the day which is the beginning of their months and

years, as also of their ages, which, with them, are but thirty

years. This day they select because the moon, though not

yet in the middle of her course, has already considerable

power and influence; and they call her by a name which signifies, in their language, the all-healing.[4] Having made all

due preparation for the sacrifice and a banquet beneath the

trees, they bring thither two white bulls, the horns of which

are bound then for the first time. Clad in a white robe the

priest ascends the tree, and cuts the mistletoe with a golden

sickle, which is received by others in a white cloak.[5] They

then immolate the victims, offering up their prayers that God

will render this gift of his propitious to those to whom he has

so granted it. It is the belief with them that the mistletoe,

taken in drink, will impart fecundity to all animals that are

barren, and that it is an antidote for all poisons.[6] Such are

the religious feelings which we find entertained towards trifling

objects among nearly all nations.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

one thousand one hundred and thirty-five.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.--M. Varro,[7] Fetialis,[8] Nigidius,[9]

Cornelins Nepos,[10] Hyginus,[11] Massurius,[12] Cato,[13] Mucianus,[14]







L. Piso,[15] Trogus,[16] Calpurnius Bassus,[17] Cremutius,[18] Sextius

Niger,[19] Cornelius Bocchus,[20] Yitruvius,[21] Grcinus.[22]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Alexander Polyhistor,[23] Hesiod,[24]

Theophrastus,[25] Democritus,[26] Homer, Timus[27] the mathematician.









1. Magos.

2. Decandolle was of opinion, that the mistletoe of the Druids was not

a viscum, but the Loranthus Europus, which is much more commonly

found on oaks.

3. Dru=s, an "oak." It is much more probable that it was of Celtic

origin.

4. Omnia sanantem.

5. "Sagum." Properly, a "military cloak."

6. It was, in comparatively recent times, supposed to be efficacious for

epilepsy.

7. See end of B. ii.

8. Author of a History or Annals of Rome. Nothing further is known

of him.

9. See end of B. vi.

10. See end of B. ii.

11. See end of B. iii.

12. See end of B. vii.

13. See end of B. iii.

14. See end of B. ii.

15. See end of B. ii.

16. See end of B. vii.

17. He is wholly unknown: but is conjectured to have lived in the reign

of Caligula or Tiberius.

18. See end of B. vii.

19. See end of B. xii.

20. He is unknown; but Solinus speaks of him as a valuable writer.

21. M. Vitruvius Pollio, an eminent architect, employed by Augustus.

His valuable work on architecture is still extant.

22. See end of B. xiv.

23. See end of B. iii.

24. See end of B. vii.

25. See end of B. iii.

26. See end of B. ii.

27. See end of B. ii.




0. > Book Xvii. The Natural History Of The Cultivated Trees.


BOOK XVII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CULTIVATED TREES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Trees Which Have Been Sold At Enormous Prices.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-TREES WHICH HAVE BEEN SOLD AT ENORMOUS

PRICES.



WE have described the trees which grow spontaneously on

land and in the sea,[1] and it now remains for us to speak of

those which owe their formation, properly speaking, rather than

birth, to art and the inventive genius of man.[2] Here, however, I cannot but express my surprise, that after the state of

penury in which man lived, as already described,[3] in primitive

times, holding the trees of the forest in common with the wild

beasts, and disputing with them the possession of the fruits

that fell, and with the fowls of the air that of the fruits as they

hung on the tree, luxury has now attached to them prices so

enormous.



The most famous instance, in my opinion, of this excess, was

that displayed by L. Crassus and Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus. Crassus was one of the most celebrated of the Roman

orators; his house was remarkable for its magnificence, though

in some measure surpassed even by that of Q. Catulus,[4]

also upon the Palatine Hill; the same Catulus, who, in conjunction with C. Marius, defeated the Cimbri. But by far

the finest house of all that period, it was universally acknowledged, was that of C. Aquilius, a Roman of Equestrian rank,

situate upon the Viminal Hill; a house, indeed, that conferred

a greater degree of celebrity upon him than even his acquaintance with the civil law. This, however, did not prevent

Crassus being reproached with the magnificence of his. Crassus and Domitius, members, both of them, of the most illus-







trious families, after holding the consulship,[5] were appointed

jointly to the censorship, in the year from the building of the

City 662, a period of office that was fruitful in strife, the

natural result of their dissimilarity of character. On one occasion, Cneius Domitius, naturally a man of hasty temper, and

inflamed besides by a hatred that rivalry only tends to stimulate, gravely rebuked Crassus for living, and he a Censor too,

in a style of such magnificence, and in a house for which, as

he said, he himself would be ready to pay down ten millions

of sesterces. Crassus, a man who united to singular presence

of mind great readiness of wit, made answer that, deducting

six trees only, he would accept the offer; upon which Domitius replied, that upon those terms he would not give so much

as a single denarius for the purchase. "Well then, Domitius," was the rejoinder of Crassus, "which of the two is it

that sets a bad example, and deserves the reproof of the censorship; I, who live like a plain man in a house that has

come to me by inheritance, or you, who estimate six trees

at a value of ten millions of sesterces?"[6] These trees were

of the lotus[7] kind, and by the exuberance of their branches

afforded a most delightful shade. Ccina Largus, one of the

grandees of Rome, and the owner of the house, used often to

point them out to me in my younger days; and, as I have already made mention[8] of the remarkable longevity of trees, I

would here add, that they were in existence down to the period when the Emperor Nero set fire to the City, one hundred

and eighty years after the time of Crassus; being still green

and with all the freshness of youth upon them, had not that

prince thought fit to hasten the death of the very trees even.



Let no one, however, imagine that the house of Crassus was

of no value in other respects, or that, from the rebuke of Domitius, there was nothing about it worthy of remark with the

exception of these trees. There were to be seen erected in the

atrium four columns of marble from Mount Hymettus,[9] which

in his dileship he had ordered to be brought over for the decoration of the stage;[10] and this at a time, too, when no public







buildings even as yet possessed any pillars made of that material. Of such recent date is the luxury and opulence which

we now enjoy, and so much greater was the value which in

those days trees were supposed to confer upon a property!

A pretty good proof of which, was the fact that Domitius even,

with all his enmity, would not keep to the offer he had made,

if the trees were not to be included in the bargain.



The trees have furnished surnames also to the ancients,[11] such,

for instance, as that of Fronditius to the warrior who swam

across the Volturnus with a wreath of leaves on his head, and

distinguished himself by his famous exploits in the war against

Hannibal; and that of Stolo[12] to the Licinian family, such being

the name given by us to the useless suckers that shoot from

trees; the best method of clearing away these shoots was

discovered by the first Stolo, and hence his name. The ancient

laws also took the trees under their protection; and by the

Twelve Tables it was enacted, that he who should wrongfully

cut down trees belonging to another person, should pay twenty-five asses for each. Is it possible then to imagine that they,

who estimated the fruit-trees at so low a rate as this, could ever

have supposed that so exorbitant a value would be put upon the

lotus as that which I have just mentioned? And no less mar-

vellous, too, are the changes that have taken place in the value

of fruit; for at the present day we find the fruit alone of many

of the trees in the suburbs valued at no less a sum than two

thousand sesterces; the profits derived from a single tree thus

being more than those of a whole estate in former times. It

was from motives of gain that the grafting of trees and the

propagation thereby of a spurious offspring was first devised,

so that the growth of the fruits even might be a thing interdicted to the poor. We shall, therefore, now proceed to

state in what way it is that such vast revenues are derived

from these trees, and with that object shall set forth the true

and most approved methods of cultivation; not taking any

notice of the more common methods, or those which we find

generally adopted, but considering only those points of doubt

and uncertainty, in relation to which practical men are most

apt to find themselves at a loss: while, at the same time, to







affect any scrupulous exactness in cases where there is no

necessity for it, will be no part of our purpose. In the first

place, however, we will consider in a general point of view,

those influences of soil as well as weather which are exercised

upon all the trees in common.







1. He alludes to the various shrubs and trees, mentioned as growing in

the sea, B. xiii. c. 48; but which there is little doubt, in reality belong to

the class of fuci.

2. "Fiunt verius quam nascuntur;" a distinction perpetuated in the

adage, "Poeta nascitur, non fit."

3. He probably alludes to his remark in B. xvi. c. 1.

4. Q. Luctatius Catulus, the colleague of Marius. Being afterwards condemned to die by Marius, he suffocated himself with the fumes of charcoal,

5. A.U.C. 659.

6. Valerius Maximus, B. ix. c. 1, relates this story somewhat differently.

7. The Celtis Australis of Linnus.

8. See B. xxxvi. cc. 3 and 24.

9. See B. xxxvi. cc. 3 and 24.

10. When, in his capacity of dile, he gave theatrical representations for

the benefit of the public.

11. As Fe remarks, this usage has been reversed in modern times, and

plants often receive their botanical names from men.

12. See B. xviii. c. 4.




3. Chap. 3.-What Soils Are To Be Considered The Best.


CHAP. 3.-WHAT SOILS ARE TO BE CONSIDERED THE BEST.



Next after the influences of the heavens, we have to treat of

those of the earth, a task that is in no way more easy than the

previous one. It is but rarely that the same soil is found

suited to trees as well as corn: indeed, the black[1] earth which

prevails in Campania is not everywhere found suited to the vine,

nor yet that which emits light exhalations, or the red[2] soil

that has been so highly praised by many. The cretaceous earth

that is found in the territory of Alba Pompeia, and an argillaceous soil, are preferred to all others for the vine, although,

too, they are remarkably rich, a quality that is generally looked

upon as not suited to that plant. On the other hand, again,

the white sand of the district of Ticinum, the black sand of

many other places, and the red sand as well, even though mixed

with a rich earth, will prove unproductive.



The very signs, also, from which we form our judgment are

often very deceptive; a soil that is adorned with tall and

graceful trees is not always a favourable one, except, of course,

for those trees. What tree, in fact, is there that is taller than

the fir? and yet what other plant could possibly exist in the

same spot? Nor ought we always to look upon verdant pastures as so many proofs of richness of soil; for what is there

that enjoys a greater renown than the pastures of Germany?

and yet they consist of nothing but a very thin layer of turf,

with sand immediately beneath. Nor yet is the soil which

produces herbage[3] of large growth always to be looked upon as

humid; no, by Hercules! no more than a soil is to be looked

upon as unctuous and rich, which adheres to the fingers-a







thing that is proved in the case of the argillaceous earths.[4]

The earth when thrown back into the hole from which it has

just been dug will never[5] fill it, so that it is quite impossible

by that method to form any opinion as to its density or thinness. It is the fact, too, that every[6] soil, without exception,

will cover iron with rust. Nor yet can we determine[7] the

heaviness or lightness of soils in relation to any fixed and ascertained weight: for what are we to understand as the

standard weight of earth? A soil, too, that is formed from

the alluvion[8] of rivers is not always to be recommended, for

there are some crops that decay all the sooner in a watery soil;

indeed, those soils even of this description which are highly

esteemed, are never found to be long good for any kind of

vegetation but the willow.



Among other proofs of the goodness of soil, is the comparative

thickness of the stem in corn. In Laborium, a famous champaign country of Campania, the stalk is of such remarkable

thickness, that it may be used even to supply the place of

wood:[9] and yet this very soil, from the difficulty that is everywhere experienced in cultivating it, and the labour required

in working it, may be almost said to give the husbandman

more trouble by its good qualities than it could possibly have

done by reason of any defects. The soil, too, that is generally

known as charcoal earth, appears susceptible of being improved by being planted with a poor meagre vine: and tufa,[10]







which is naturally rough and friable, we find recommended

by some authors. Virgil,[11] too, does not condemn for the vine

a soil which produces fern:[12] while a salted earth[13] is thought

to be much better entrusted with the growth of vegetation than

any other, from the fact of its being comparatively safe from

noxious insects breeding there. Declivities, too, are far from

unproductive, if a person only knows how to dig them properly; and it is not all[14] champaign spots that are less accessible to the sun and wind than is necessary for their benefit.

We have already[15] alluded to the fact, that there are certain

vines which find nutriment in hoar frosts and fogs.



In every subject there are certain deep and recondite

secrets, which it is left to the intelligence of each to penetrate.

Do awe not, for instance, find it the fact, that soils which have

long offered opportunities for a sound judgment being formed on

their qualities have become totally altered? In the vicinity

of Larissa, in Thessaly, a lake was drained;[16] and the consequence was, that the district became much colder, and the

olive-trees which had formerly borne fruit now ceased to bear.

When a channel was cut for the Hebrus, near the town of

nos, the place was sensible of its nearer approach, in finding

its vines frost-bitten, a thing that had never happened before;

in the vicinity, too, of Philippi, the country having been

drained for cultivation, the nature of the climate became entirely altered. In the territory of Syracuse, a husbandman,

who was a stranger to the place, cleared the soil of all the

stones, and the consequence was, that he lost his crops front

the accumulation of mud; so that at last he was obliged to

carry the stones back again. In Syria again, the plough-







share which they use is narrow, and the furrows are but very

superficial, there being a rock beneath the soil that in summer

scorches up the seeds.



Then, too, the effects of excessive cold and heat in various

places are similar; thus, for instance, Thrace is fruitful in

corn, by reason of the cold, while Africa and Egypt are so in

consequence of the heat that prevails there. At Chalcia,[17] an

island belonging to the Rhodians, there is a certain place which

is so remarkably fertile, that after reaping the barley that has

been sown at the ordinary time, and gathering it in, they immediately sow a fresh crop, and reap it at the same time as the

other corn. A gravelly soil is found best suited for the olive

in the district of Venafrum,[18] while one of extreme richness is

required for it in Btica. The wines of Pucinum[19] are ripened upon a rock, and the vines of Ccubum[20] are moistened

by the waters of the Pomptine[21] marshes; so great are the differences that have been detected by human experience in the

various soils. Csar Vopiscus, when pleading a cause before

the Censors, said that the fields of Rosia[22] are the very marrow[23]

of Italy, and that a stake, left in the ground there one day,

would be found covered by the grass the next:[24] the soil, however, is only esteemed there for the purposes of pasturage. Still,

however, Nature has willed that we should not remain uninstructed, and has made full admission as to existing defects in

soil, even in cases where she has failed to give us equal information as to its good qualities: we shall begin, therefore,

by speaking of the defects that are found in various soils.



(5.) If it is the wish of a person to test whether a soil is

bitter, or whether it is thin and meagre, the fact may be easily

ascertained from the presence of black and undergrown herbs.

If, again, the herbage shoots up dry and stunted, it shows that

the soil is cold, and if sad and languid, that it is moist and

slimy. The eye, too, is able to judge whether it is a red earth

or whether it is argillaceous, both of them extremely difficult

to work, and apt to load the harrow or ploughshare with







enormous clods; though at the same time it should be borne

in mind that the soil which entails the greatest amount of

labour is not always productive of the smallest amount of

profit. So, too, on the other hand, the eye can distinguish a

soil that is mixed with ashes or with white sand, while earth

that is sterile and dense may be easily detected by its peculiar

hardness, at even a single stroke of the mattock.



Cato,[25] briefly and in his peculiar manner, characterizes the

defects that exist in the various soils. "Take care," he says,

"where the earth is rotten not to shake it either with carts or

by driving cattle over it." Now what are we to suppose that

this term "rotten" means, as applied to a soil, about which

he is so vastly apprehensive as to almost forbid our setting

foot upon it? Let us only form a comparison 'by thinking

what it is that constitutes rottenness in wood, and we shall

find that the faults which are held by him in such aversion are

the being arid, full of holes, rough, white, mouldy, worm

eaten, in fact, just like pumice-stone; and thus has Cato said

more in a single word than we could have possibly found

means to express in a description, however long. Indeed, if

we could find means of expressing the various defects that

exist in soils, we should find that there are some of them that

are old, not with age (for age cannot[26] be concerned in relation

to the earth), but of their own nature, and are hence unfruitful and powerless for every purpose from the first. The same

writer,[27] too, considers that as the very best of soils, which,

situate at the foot of a declivity, runs out into a champaign

country, taking a southward direction; such, in fact, being

the aspect of the whole of Italy:[28] he says[29] also, that the earth

generally known as black[30] earth is of a tender nature, and

is consequently the most easily worked and the best for cereals.

If we only appreciate with due care the signification of this

word "tender,"[31] we shall find that it expresses its intended

meaning remarkably well, and that in this word is comprised

every quality that is desirable for the purposes of cultivation.







In a tender soil we shall find fertility combined with moderation, a softness and a pliancy easily adapted to cultivation,

and an equal absence of humidity and of dryness. Earth

of this nature will shine again after the plough-share has

passed through it, just as Homer,[32] that great fountain-head of

all genius, has described it sculptured by the Divinity[33] upon

the arms [of Achilles], adding, too, a thing that is truly marvellous, that it was of a blackish hue, though gold was the material in which it was wrought. This, too, is that kind of earth,

which, when newly turned up, attracts the ravenous birds that

follow the plough-share, the ravens even going so far as to peck

at the heels of the ploughman.



We may in this place appropriately make mention of an

opinion that has been pronounced by an Italian writer also

with reference to a matter of luxury. Cicero,[34] that other

luminary of literature, has made the following remark: "Those

unguents which have a taste of earth[35] are better," says he,

"than those which smack of saffron;" it seeming to him

more to the purpose to express himself by the word " taste"[36]

than "smell." And such is the fact, no doubt; that soil

is the best which has the flavour of a perfume.[37] If the

question should be put to us, what is this odour of the earth

that is held in such estimation, our answer is, that it is the

same that is often to be recognized at the moment of sunset,

without the necessity even of turning up the ground, at the

spots where the extremities of the rainbow[38] have been observed to meet the earth; as also when, after long-continued

drought, the rain has soaked the ground. Then it is that the

earth exhales this divine odour, that is so peculiarly its own,

and to which, imparted to it by the sun, there is no perfume,

however sweet, that can possibly be compared. It is this

odour that the earth, when turned up, ought to emit, and

which, when once found, can never deceive a person; and

this will be found the best criterion for judging of the quality

of the soil. Such, too, is the odour that is usually perceived







on land newly cleared,[39] when an ancient forest has been just

cut down; its excellence is a thing that is universally admitted.



For the culture of the cereals, too, the same land is generally looked upon as the more improved the oftener it has

been allowed to rest[40] from cultivation, a thing that is not the

case with vineyards; for which reason all the greater care is

required in the selection of their site, if we would not have

the opinions of those to appear well founded who entertain the

notion that the soil of Italy is already worn out.[41] In other

kinds of soil the work of cultivation depends entirely upon the

weather; as, for instance, in those which cannot be ploughed

just after rain, because the natural exuberance of the earth

renders it viscous and cloggy. On the other hand, in Byza-

cium, a district of Africa, and a champaign country of such

singular fertility as to render grain one hundred and fifty fold,[42]

the soil is such, that in time of drought, not even bulls are

able to plough it; while, on another occasion, just after a shower

of rain, one poor ass, with an old woman to guide it, is quite

sufficient,[43] as ourselves we have witnessed, to do the plough-

ing. But as to amending one soil by the agency of another,

as some persons recommend, by throwing rich earth over one

that is poor and thin, or by laying a soaking light soil over

one that is humid and unctuous, it is a labour of perfect

madness.[44] What can a man possibly hope for who cultivates

such a soil as this?







1. A rich black mould, probably.

2. A ferruginous argilla.

3. It must of necessity denote a soil rich in humus, though not, of

course, adapted for all kinds of cultivation.

4. He alludes to the difficulty with which argilla, from its tenacity, is

employed in cultivation.

5. Columella says the contrary, and so does Virgil, Georg. ii. 226,

speaking of this fact as a method of ascertaining the respective qualities of

the earth.

6. Virgil, Georg. ii. 220, says the contrary.

7. In allusion to what Virgil says, Georg. ii. 254:-

"Qu gravis est, ipso tacitam se pondere prodit,

Quque levis--"

Fe remarks, however, that it is easy enough to analyse the earth, and

ascertain the proportions of humus, and of the siliceous, cretaceous, or

argillaceous earths; the relative proportions of which render it strong or

light, as the case may be.

8. As Fe says, these earths vary according to the nature of the soils

that are brought down by the streams; in general, however, they are extremely prolific.

9. Fe says that Pliny is here guilty of some degree of exaggeration.

See B. iii. c. 9, p. 195 of Vol. 1: also B. xviii. c. 29.

10. "Tophus;" formed of volcanic scori. Fe remarks, that it is some-

what similar in nature to marl, and that though unproductive by itself, it

is beneficial when mixed with vegetable earth. Tufa and marl appear to

have been often confounded by the ancient writers.

11. Georg. ii. 189.

12. The Pteris aquilina of the modern botanists.

13. Marine salt, or sub-hydrochlorate of soda, Fe thinks, is here alluded

to. It is still used with varied success in some parts of the west of

France.

14. Hardouin says, that he here alludes to the proverbial saying among

the ancients, "Perflare altissima ventos"-" The winds blow only on the

most elevated ground."

15. In B. xiv. cc. 4 and 12.

16. "Emisso." Fe would appear to think that the lake suddenly made it

appearance, after an earthquake, and from the context he would appear to

be right. These accounts are all of them borrowed from Theophrastus.

17. See B. v. c. 36.

18. See B. xv. c. 2.

19. See B. xiv. c. 8.

20. See B. xiv. c. 8.

21. See B. iii. c. 9.

22. See B. iii. c. 17.

23. Sumen. Properly, "udder." A cow's udder was considered one or

the choicest of delicacies by the Romans.

24. This is, of course, an exaggeration. The stake must have been

driven in very deep to disappear so speedily.

25. De Re Rust. 5.

26. This he says in reference to his belief, with Epicurus, in the eternity

of matter.

27. De Re Rust. 1.

28. See B. iii. c. 6.

29. De Re Rust. 151.

30. "Pulla." The "vegetable" earth of modern botanists.

31. "Teneram."

32. Iliad, xviii. 541 and 548.

33. Vulcan.

34. De Oratore, sec. 39.

35. See B. xiii. c. 4.

36. "Sapiunt," rather than "redolent."

37. This supposed flavour of the earth is, in reality, attributable to the

extraneous vegetable matter which it contains.

38. See B. xii. c. 52, as to this notion.

39. The reason being, that in such cases the soil is saturated with thyme,

orianum, mint, and other odoriferous herbs.

40. This opinion is contrary to that expressed by Columella, B. ii. c. 1

but the justice of it is universally recognized. Upon this theory, too, is

based the modern practice of alternating the crops in successive years, the

necessity of providing for heavy rents, not allowing the land to enjoy absolute rest.

41. This has not come to pass even yet, nearly two thousand years since

the days of Pliny.

42. See B. v. c. 3, and B. xviii. c. 21.

43. Fe taxes our author here with exaggeration. For Byzacium, see B.

v. c. 3, and B. xviii. c. 21.

44. Nevertheless, as Fe remarks, the method is often practised with

great success. Pliny is at issue here with Theophrastus, De Causis, B. iii.

c. 25.




4. Chap. 4. (6.)-The Eight Kinds Of Earth Boasted Of By The Gauls And Greeks.


CHAP. 4. (6.)-THE EIGHT KINDS OF EARTH BOASTED OF BY THE

GAULS AND GREEKS.



There is another method, which has been invented both in







Gaul and Britain, of enriching earth by the agency of itself,

being * * * * and that kind known as marl.[1] This

soil is looked upon as containing a greater amount of fecundating principles, and acts as a fat in relation to the earth, just

as we find glands existing in the body, which are formed by a

condensation of the fatty particles into so many kernels.

(7.) This mode of proceeding, too, has not been overlooked by

the Greeks; indeed, what subject is there that they have not

touched upon? They call by the name of leucargillon[2] a

white argillaceous earth which is used in the territory of

Megara, but only where the soil is of a moist, cold nature.



It is only right that I should employ some degree of care

and exactness in treating of this marl, which tends so greatly

to enrich the soil of the Gallic provinces and the British islands.

There were formerly but two varieties known, but more recently, with the progress of agricultural knowledge, several[3]

others have begun to be employed; there being, in fact, the

white, the red, the columbine, the argillaceous, the tufaceous,

and the sandy marls. It has also one of these two peculiarities, it is either rough or greasy to the touch; the proper

mode of testing it being by the hand. Its uses, too, are of a

twofold nature-it is employed for the production of the

cereals only, or else for the enrichment of pasture land as

well. The tufaceous[4] kind is nutrimental to grain, and so

is the white; if found in the vicinity of springs, it is fertile

to an immeasurable extent; but if it is rough to the touch,

when laid upon the land in too large a quantity, it is apt to

burn up the soil. The next kind is the red marl, known as

acaunumarga,[5] consisting of stones mingled with a thin sandy







earth. These stones are broken upon the land itself, and it is

with considerable difficulty during the earlier years that the

stalk of the corn is cut, in consequence of the presence of these

stones; however, as it is remarkably light, it only costs for

carriage one-half of the outlay required in using the other

varieties. It is laid but very thinly on the surface, and it is

generally thought that it is mixed with salt. Both of these

varieties, when once laid on the land, will fertilize it for

fifty[6] years, whether for grain or for hay.

(8.) Of the marls that are found to be of an unctuous na-

ture, the best is the white. There are several varieties of it:

the most pungent and biting being the one already mentioned.

Another kind is the white chalk that is used for cleaning[7]

silver; it is taken from a considerable depth in the ground,

the pits being sunk, in most instances, as much as one hundred

feet. These pits are narrow at the mouth, but the shafts enlarge very considerably in the interior, as is the case in mines;

it is in Britain more particularly that this chalk is employed.

The good effects of it are found to last full eighty years; and

there is no instance known of an agriculturist laying it twice

on the same land during his life.[8] A third variety of white

marl is known as glisomarga;[9] it consists of fullers' chalk [10]

mixed with an unctuous earth, and is better for promoting the

growth of hay than grain; so much so, in fact, that between

harvest and the ensuing seed-time there is cut a most abundant

crop of grass. While the corn is growing, however, it will

allow no other plant to grow there. Its effects will last so

long as thirty years; but if laid too thickly on the ground, it

is apt to choke up the soil, just as if it had been covered with

Signine[11] cement. The Gauls give to the columbine marl in







their language the name of eglecopala;[12] it is taken up in

solid blocks like stone, after which it is so loosened by the

action of the sun and frost, as to split into lamin of extreme

thinness; this kind is equally beneficial for grass and grain.

The sandy[13] marl is employed if there is no other at hand, and

on moist slimy soils, even when other kinds can be procured.



The Ubii are the only people that we know of, who, having

an extremely fertile soil to cultivate, employ methods of enriching it; wherever the land may happen to be, they dig to

a depth of three feet, and, taking up the earth, cover the soil

with it in other places a foot in thickness; this method, however, to be beneficial, requires to be renewed at the end of

every ten years. The dui and the Pictones have rendered

their lands remarkably fertile by the aid of limestone, which

is also found to be particularly beneficial to the olive and the

vine.[14] Every marl, however, requires to be laid on the land

immediately after ploughing, in order that the soil may at

once imbibe its properties; while at the same time, it requires

a little manure as well, as it is apt, at first, to be of too acrid

a nature, at least where it is not pasture land that it is laid

upon; in addition to which, by its very freshness it may possibly injure the soil, whatever the nature of it may be; so

much so, indeed, that the land is never fertile the first year

after it has been employed. It is a matter of consideration

also for what kind of soil the marl is required; if the soil is

moist, a dry marl is best suited for it; and if dry, a rich

unctuous marl. If, on the other hand, the land is of a medium

quality, chalk or columbine[15] marl is the best suited for it.







1. A natural mixture of argilla and calcareous stones, or subcarbonate of

chalk. Fe remarks, that the ancients were not acquainted with the

proper method of applying it. Marl only exercises its fertilizing influence

after being reduced to dust by the action of the atmosphere, by absorbing

the oxygen of the air, and giving to vegetation the carbonic acid that is

necessary for their nourishment.

2. "White argilla." This, Fe thinks, is the calcareous marl, three

varieties of which are known, the compact, the schistoid, and the friable.

3. At the present day there are only two varieties of marl recognized, the

argillaceous and the calcareous; it is to the latter, Fe thinks, that the

varieties here mentioned as anciently recognized, belonged.

4. The Marga terrea of Linnus. It abounds in various parts of

Europe.

5. From the Greek, meaning "not bitter marl."

6. Marl does not begin to fertilize till several years after it has been laid

down; hence, it is generally recommended to marl the land a little at a

time, and often. If the ground is fully marled, it requires to be marled

afresh in about eight or ten years, and not fifty, as Pliny says.

7. "Argentaria." Used, probably, in the same way as whitening in

modem times. See B. xxxv. c. 58.

8. An exaggeration, no doubt.

9. Probably meaning "smooth marl;" a variety, Fe thinks, of argillaceous marl, and, perhaps, the potter's argillaceous marl, or potter's argil.

He suggests, also that it may have possibly been the Marga fullonum

saponacea lamellosa of Valerius; in other words, fullers' earth.

10. Creta fullonia.

11. See B. xxxv. c. 46.

12. This would rather seem to be a name borrowed from the Greek,

a)iglh/eis, "shining," and pelio\s, "white." Notwithstanding the resemblance, however, it is just possible that it may have been derived from

the Gallic. Fe queries whether this is the schistoid calcareous marl, or

the schistoid argillaceous marl, the lamin of which divide with great facility, and the varieties of which display many colours.

13. A variety of the terreous marl.

14. It has the effect of augmenting their fruitfulness, and ameliorating

the quality of the fruit. Lime is still considered an excellent improver for

strong, humid soils.

15. From this passage, Fe thinks that the Columbine marl must have

been of the white, slightly sparkling kind.




5. Chap. 5. (9.)-The Employment Of Ashes.


CHAP. 5. (9.)-THE EMPLOYMENT OF ASHES.



The agriculturists of the parts of Italy beyond the river







Padus, are such admirers of ashes[1] for this purpose, that they

even prefer it as a manure to the dung of beasts of burden;

indeed, they are in the habit of burning dung for this purpose, on account of its superior lightness. They do not, however, use them indiscriminately upon the same soil, nor do

they employ ashes for promoting the growth of shrubs, nor, in

fact, of some of the cereals, as we shall have occasion[2] to

mention hereafter. There are some persons who are of opinion

also that dust[3] imparts nutriment to grapes, and cover them

with it while they are growing, taking care to throw it also

upon the roots of the vines and other trees. It is well

known that this is done in the province of Gallia Narbonensis,

and it is a fact even better ascertained that the grape ripens

all the sooner for it; indeed, the dust there contributes more

to its ripeness than the heat of the sun.







1. Though ashes fertilize the ground, more particularly when of an ar-

gillaceous nature, they are not so extensively used now as in ancient times.

Pliny alludes here more particularly to wood and dunghill ashes.

2. This, however, he omits to do.

3. He alludes, probably, to Theophrastus, De Causis, B. iii. c. 22.




6. Chap. 6.-Manure.


CHAP. 6.-MANURE.



There are various kinds of manure, the use of which is of

very ancient date. In the times of Homer[1] even, the aged

king is represented as thus enriching the land by the labour of

his own hands. Tradition reports that King Augeas was the

first in Greece to make use of it, and that Hercules introduced

the practice into Italy; which country has, however, immortalized the name of its king, Stercutus,[2] the son of Faunus,

as claiming the honour of this invention. M. Varro[3] assigns

the first rank for excellence to the dung of thrushes kept in

aviaries, and lauds it as being not only good for land, but

excellent food for oxen and swine as well; indeed, he goes so

far as to assert that there is no food that they will grow fat upon

more speedily. We really have some reason to augur well of

the manners of the present day, if it is true that in the days

of our ancestors there were aviaries of such vast extent as to

be able to furnish manure for the fields.







Columella[4] gives the second rank to pigeon manure,[5] and

the next to that of the poultry-yard; but he condemns that

of the aquatic birds. Some authors, again, are agreed in regarding the residue of the human food[6] as the very best of

all manures; while others would only employ the superfluous

portion of our drink,[7] mixing with it the hair that is to be

found in the curriers' workshops. Some, however, are for

employing this liquid by itself, though they would mix water

with it once more, and in larger quantities even than when

originally mixed with the wine at our repasts; there being a

double share of noxious qualities to correct, not only those

originally belonging to the wine,[8] but those imparted to it

by the human body as well. Such are the various methods

by which we vie with each other in imparting nutriment to

the earth even.



Next to the manures above mentioned, the dung of swine is

highly esteemed, Columella being the only writer that condemns it. Some, again, speak highly of the dung of all

quadrupeds that have been fed on cytisus, while there are

others who prefer that of pigeons. Next to these is the

dung of goats, and then of sheep; after which comes that of

oxen, and, last of all, of the beasts of burden. Such were

the distinctions that were established between the various manures among the ancients, such the precepts that they have left

us, and these I have here set forth as being not the mere subtle

inventions of genius, but because their utility has been proved

in the course of a long series of years. In some of the provinces, too, which abound more particularly in cattle, by rea-







son of their prolific soil, we have seen the manure passed

through a sieve like so much flour, and perfectly devoid,

through lapse of time,[9] of all bad smell or repulsive look,

being changed in its appearance to something rather agreeable

than otherwise. In more recent times it has been found that

the olive thrives more particularly in soil that has been manured with the ashes[10] of the lime-kiln. To the ancient rules

Varro[11] has added, that corn land should be manured with horsedung, that being the lightest manure of all, while meadow

land, he says, thrives better with a manure of a more heavy

nature, and supplied by beasts that have been fed upon barley;

this last tending more particularly to the better growth of

grass.[12] Some persons, indeed, prefer the dung of the beasts

of burden to that of oxen even, the manure of the sheep to

that of the goat, and the manure of the ass to all others, the

reason being that that animal masticates the most slowly of

them all. Experience, however, has pronounced against these

dicta of Varro and Columella; but it is universally agreed by

all writers that there is nothing more beneficial than to turn[13]

up a crop of lupines, before they have podded, with either the

plough or the fork, or else to cut them and bury them in

heaps at the roots of trees and vines. It is thought, also,

that in places where no cattle are kept, it is advantageous to

manure the earth with stubble or even fern. " You can make

manure," Cato[14] says, "of litter, or else of lupines, straw,

beanstalks, or the leaves of the holm-oak and quercus. Pull

up the wallwort from among the crops of corn, as also the

hemlock that grows there, together with the thick grass and

sedge that you find growing about the willow-plots; of all this,

mixed with rotten leaves,[15] you may make a litter for sheep and







oxen. If a vine should happen to be but poor and meagre,

prune[16] the shoots of it, and plough them in round about it."

The same author says, also,[17] "When you are going to sow corn

in a field, fold your sheep[18] there first."







1. Odyssey xxiv. 225.

2. From "stercus," "dang." A fabulous perscnage, most probably.

3. De Re Rust. i. 38.

4. De Re Rust. ii. 15.

5. Mixed with other manures, it is employed at the present day in Normandy.

6. This manure is still extensively employed in Flanders, Switzerland,

and the vicinity of Paris. In the north of England it is mixed with ashes,

and laid on the fields. There was an old prejudice, that vegetation grown

with it has a fetid odour, but it has for some time been looked upon as

exploded.

7. Or urine. In the vicinity of Paris, a manure is employed called

urate, of which urine forms the basis.

8. Fe seems to think that this passage means that the bad smell of urine

is imparted to it by the wine that is drunk. It is difficult to say what

could have been the noxious qualities imparted by wine to urine as a ma-

nure, and Pliny probably would have been somewhat at a loss to explain

his meaning.

9. In lapse of time, if exposed to the air, it is reduced to the state of

humus or mould.

10. Consisting of lime mixed with vegetable ashes.

11. De Re Rust. i. 38.

12. "Herbas." This would appear to mean grass only here; though

Fe seems to think that it means various kinds of herbs.

13. This method is sometimes adopted in England with buckwheat, trefoil,

peas, and other leguminous plants; and in the south of France lupines are

still extensively used in the same manner, after the usage of the ancient

Romans here described. The French also employ, but more rarely, for

the same purpose, the large turnip, vetches, peas, trefoil, Windsor beans,

sanfoin, lucerne, &c.; but it is found a very expensive practice.

14. De Re Rust. 37.

15. "Frondam putidam." Fe thinks that this expression is used in

reference to the "ebulum," dane-wort, wall-wort, or dwarf-elder, previously

mentioned.

16. "Concidito." Sillig adopts the reading "comburito," "burn the

shoots, and dig in, &c." But in the original the word is " concidito."

17. De Re Rust. 30.

18. This is still extensively practised in England and France, and other

countries. The azote, even, that exhales from the bodies of the animals,

is supposed to have a fertilizing influence, to say nothing of the dung,

grease of the body, and urine.




8. Chap. 8.-The Proper Mode Of Using Manure.


CHAP. 8.-THE PROPER MODE OF USING MANURE.



It is recommended,[1] also, that the dung-heap should be

kept in the open air, in a spot deep sunk and well adapted

to receive the moisture: it should be covered, too, with straw,

that it may not dry up with the sun, care being taken to drive

a stake of robur into the ground, to prevent serpents from

breeding[2] there. It is of the greatest consequence that the







manure should be laid upon the land while[3] the west winds

prevail, and during a dry moon. Most persons, however, misunderstand this precept, and think this should be done when

the west winds are just beginning to blow, and in the month

of February only: it being really the fact that most crops

require manuring in other months as well. At whatever

period, however, it may be thought proper to manure the

land, the greatest care should be taken that the wind is blowing due west at the time, and that the moon is on the wane,

and quite dry. Such precautions as these will increase in a

most surprising degree the fertilizing effects of manure.







1. Fe is of opinion, that, with reference to this branch of agriculture,

the ancients displayed more skill and intelligence than the moderns.

2. This absurdity is copied from Varro and Columella.

3. I. e. in the early part of spring. In modern times, the period for

manuring varies, according to the usage of different localities, being practised in all the four seasons of the year, according to the crops, weather,

and climate.




9. Chap. 9. (10.)-The Modes In Which Trees Bear.


CHAP. 9. (10.)-THE MODES IN WHICH TREES BEAR.



Having now treated at sufficient length of the requisite conditions of the weather and the soil, we shall proceed to speak

of those trees which are the result of the care and inventive

skill of man. Indeed, the varieties of them are hardly less

numerous than of those which are produced by Nature,[1] so

abundantly have we testified our gratitude in return for her

numerous bounties. For these trees, we find, are reared either

from seed, or else by transplanting, by layers, by slips torn from

the stock, by cuttings, by grafting, or by cutting into the trunk

of the tree. But as to the story that the leaves of the palm

are planted by the Babylonians, and so give birth[2] to a tree,

I am really surprised that Trogus should have ever believed

it. Some of the trees are reproduced by several of the methods above enumerated, others, again, by all of them.







1. See B. xvi. c. 58.

2. The palm is grown in Africa from shoots thrown out from the axill

of the leaves; and it is in this circumstance, Fe thinks, that the story told

by Trogus must have originated. Some of the ferns throw out adventitious

buds from the summit of the leaf, and the orange tree and some others

occasionally have them at the base of the leaf.




10. Chap. 10.-Plants Which Are Propagated By Seed.


CHAP. 10.-PLANTS WHICH ARE PROPAGATED BY SEED.



It is Nature herself that has taught us most of these methods, and more particularly that of sowing seed, as it was

very soon evident how the seed on falling to the ground revived







again in germination. Indeed, there are some trees that are

capable of being propagated in no other way, the chesnut[1]

and the walnut, for instance; with the sole exception, of course,

of such as are employed for coppice wood. By this method,

too, as well as the others, some trees are propagated, though

from a seed of a different nature, such, for instance, as the

vine, the apple, and the pear;[2] the seed being in all these

cases in the shape of a pip, and not the fruit itself, as in that of

the chesnut and the walnut. The medlar, too, can also be

propagated by the agency of seed. All trees, however, that are

grown by this method are very slow in coming to maturity,[3]

degenerate[4] very rapidly, and must often be renewed by grafting: indeed, the chesnut even sometimes requires to be grafted.







1. Virgil says, Georgics ii. 14:

"Pars autem posito surgunt de semine; ut alt

Castane nemorumque Jovi qu maxime frondet."

2. This method of reproduction is seldom or never employed; plants or

cuttings only being used for the purpose.

3. Besides which, it is doubtful if they will reproduce the variety, the

seed of which was originally sown.

4. In some cases, they are more particularly liable to disease-the apple,

for instance.




11. Chap. 11.-Trees Which Never Degenerate.


CHAP. 11.-TREES WHICH NEVER DEGENERATE.



On the other hand, there are some trees which have the property of never degenerating, in whatever manner they are reproduced, the cypress, palm, and laurel,[1] for instance: for we

find that the laurel is capable of being propagated in several

ways. We have already made mention[2] of the various kinds

of laurel; those known as the Augustan, the baccalis, and the

tinus[3] are all reproduced in a similar manner. The berries

are gathered in the month of January, after they have been

dried by the north-east winds which then prevail; they are

then kept[4] separate and exposed to the action of the air, being

liable to ferment if left in a heap. After this, they are first







seasoned with smoke, and then steeped in urine, preparatory

to sowing.[5] Some persons put them in baskets of osier, and

tread them down with the feet in running water, until the

outer skin is removed, as it is found that the moisture[6] which

they contain is detrimental to them, and prevents them from

germinating. A trench is then dug, about a palm in depth,

and somewhere about twenty of the berries are then put into

it, being laid in a heap: this is usually done in the month of

March. These kinds of laurel admit of being propagated

from layers also; but the triumphal[7] laurel can be reproduced

from cuttings only.



All the varieties of the myrtle[8] are produced in Campania

from the berry only, but at Rome from layers. Democritus,

however, says that the Tarentine myrtle may be re-produced

another way.[9] They take the largest berries and pound them

lightly so as not to crush the pips: with the paste that is thus

made a rope is covered, and put lengthwise in the ground;

the result of which is that a hedge is formed as thick as a wall,

with plenty of slips for transplanting. In the same way, too,

they plant brambles to make a hedge, by first covering a rope

of rushes with a paste made of bramble-berries. In case of

necessity, it is possible at the end of three years to transplant

the suckers of the laurel and the myrtle that have been thus

re-produced.



With reference to the plants that are propagated from seed,

Mago treats at considerable length of the nut-trees-he says

that the almond[10] should be sown in a soft argillaceous earth,

upon a spot that looks towards the south-that it thrives also

in a hard, warm soil, but that in a soil which is either unctuous

or moist, it is sure to die, or else to bear no fruit. He recom-

mends also for sowing those more particularly which are of a

curved shape like a sickle, and the produce of a young tree,







and he says that they should be steeped for three days in

diluted manure, or else the day before they are sown in honey

and water.[11] He says, also, that they should be put in the

ground with the point downwards, and the sharp edge towards

the north-east; and that they should be sown in threes and

placed triangularly, at the distance of a palm from each other,

care being taken to water them for ten days, until such time

as they have germinated.



Walnuts when sown are placed lengthwise,[12] lying upon

the sides where the shells are joined; and pine nuts are

mostly put, in sevens, into perforated pots, or else sown in the

same way as the berries are in the laurels which are re-produced

by seed. The citron[13] is propagated from pips as well as layers,

and the sorb from seed, by sucker, or by slip: the citron, however, requires a warm site, the sorb a cold and moist one.







1. Because the mode of cultivation adopted has little or no influence upon

them. The palm, however, to bear good fruit, requires the careful attention of man. It is not capable of being grafted.

2. In B. xv. c. 39. The laurel may be grown from cuttings or shoots,

and from seed.

3. Known as the Laurus tinus, or Viburnum tinus of Linnus.

4. This is not done at the present day, as it is found that the oil which

they contain turns rancid, and prevents germination.

5. These methods of preparation are no longer employed.

6. It is for this reason, as already stated, that they should be sown at

once.

7. See B. xv. c. 39. He there calls it "sterilis," "barren."

8. See B. xv. c. 37. The myrtle reproduces itself in its native countries

with great facility, but in such case the flowers are only single. Where a

double flower is required, it is grown from layers.

9. No better, Fe says, than the ordinary method of making a myrtle

hedge.

10. The almond requires a dry, light earth, and a southern aspect.

11. These precautions are no longer observed at the present day.

12. This precaution, too, is no longer observed.

13. The citron is produced, at the present day, from either the pips, plants,

or cuttings.




12. Chap. 12.-Propagation By Suckers.


CHAP. 12.-PROPAGATION BY SUCKERS.



Nature, too,[1] has taught us the art of forming nurseries;

when from the roots of many of the trees we see shooting up a

dense forest of suckers, an offspring that is destined to be

killed by the mother that has borne them. For by the shade

of the tree these suckers are indiscriminately stifled, as we

often see the case in the laurel, the pomegranate, the plane,

the cherry, and the plum. There are some few trees, the elm

and the palm for instance, in which the branches spare the

suckers; however, they never make their appearance in any

of the trees except those in which the roots, from their fondness for the sun and rain, keep close, as they range, to the

surface of the ground. It is usual not to place all these suckers at once in the ground upon the spot which they are finally

to occupy, but first to entrust them to the nursery, and to

allow them to grow in seed-plots, after which they are finally

transplanted. This transplanting softens down, in a most remarkable manner, those trees even which grow wild; whether

it is that trees, like men, are naturally fond of novelty and







change of scene, or that, on leaving the spots of their original

growth, or to which they have been transplanted, they lay

aside their bad qualities and become tame, like the wild animals, the moment they are separated from the parent stock.







1. This passage is borrowed almost verbatim from Virgil, Georgics ii.

50, et seq.




13. Chap. 13.-Propagation By Slips And Cuttings.


CHAP. 13.-PROPAGATION BY SLIPS AND CUTTINGS.



Nature has also discovered another method, which is very

similar to the last-for slips torn away from the tree will live.

In adopting this plan, care should be taken to pull out the

haunch[1] of the slip where it adheres to the stock, and so remove with it a portion of the fibrous body of the parent tree.

It is in this way that the pomegranate, the hazel, the apple,

the sorb, the medlar, the ash, the fig, and more particularly

the vine, are propagated. The quince, however, if planted in

this way will degenerate,[2] and it has been consequently found

a better plan to cut slips and plant them: a method which

was at first adopted for making hedges, with the elder, the

quince, and the bramble, but came afterwards to be applied to

cultivated trees, such as the poplar, the alder, and the willow,

which last will grow if even the slip is planted upside down.[3]

In the case of cuttings, they are planted at once in the spot

which it is intended they should occupy: but before we pass

on to the other methods of propagation, it seems as well to

mention the care that should be expended upon making seedplots.[4]







1. "Perna." This method of reproduction is still adopted, but it is not

to be recommended, as the young tree, before it throws out a root, is liable

to be overthrown by high winds. Virgil mentions it, Georg. ii. 23.

2. Palladius only says that the growth of the quince in such case is very

slow.

3. This experiment has been tried for curiosity's sake, and has succeeded;

the roots become dry, lose their fibres, and then develop buds, from which

branches issue; while the buds of the summit become changed into roots.

4. "Seminarii:" "nurseries," as they are more commonly called.




14. Chap. 14.-Seed-Plots.


CHAP. 14.-SEED-PLOTS.



In laying out a seed-plot it is necessary that a soil of the

very highest quality should be selected; for it is very often

requisite that a nurse should be provided for the young plants,

who is more ready to hamour them than their parent soil. The

ground should therefore be both dry and nutritious, well







turned up with the mattock, replete with hospitality to the

stranger plants, and as nearly as possible resembling the soil to

which it is intended they should be transplanted. But, a

thing that is of primary importance, the stones must be carefully gathered from off the ground, and it should be walled in,

to ensure its protection from the depredations of poultry; the

soil too, should have as few chinks and crannies as possible,

so that the sun may not be enabled to penetrate and burn up

the roots. The young trees should be planted at distances[1] of

a foot and a-half; for if they happen to touch one another, in

addition to other inconveniences, they are apt to breed worms;

for which reason it is that they should be hoed as often as

possible, and all weeds pulled up, the young plants themselves

being carefully pruned, and so accustomed to the knife.



Cato[2] recommends, too, that hurdles should be set up upon

forks, the height of a man, for the purpose of intercepting the

rays of the sun, and that they should be covered with straw

to keep off the cold.[3] He says that it is in this way that the

seeds of the apple and the pear are reared, the pine-nut also,

and the cypress,[4] which is propagated from seed as well. In

this last, the seed is remarkably[5] small, so much so, in fact, as

to be scarcely perceptible. It is a marvellous fact, and one which

ought not to be overlooked, that a tree should be produced

from sources so minute, while the grains of wheat and of

barley are so very much larger, not to mention the bean.

What proportion, too, is there between the apple and the

pear tree, and the seeds from which they take their rise? It

is from such beginnings, too, as these that springs the timber

that is proof against the blows of the hatchet, presses[6] that

weights of enormous size even are unable to bend, masts that

support the sails of ships, and battering-rams that are able to







shake even towers and walls! Such is the might, such is the

power that is displayed by Nature. But, a marvel that transcends all the rest, is the fact of a vegetable receiving its birth

from a tear-like drop, as we shall have occasion to mention[7] in

the appropriate place.



To resume, however: the tiny balls which contain the seed

are collected from the female cypress-for the male, as I have

already[8] stated, is barren. This is done in the months which

I have previously[9] mentioned, and they are then dried in the

sun, upon which they soon burst, and the seed drops out,

a substance of which the ants are remarkably fond; this fact,

too, only serves to enhance the marvel, when we reflect that

an insect so minute is able to destroy the first germ of a tree

of such gigantic dimensions. The seed is sown in the month

of April, the ground being first levelled with rollers, or else

by means of rammers;[10] after which the seed is thickly sown,

and earth is spread upon it with a sieve, about a thumb deep.

If laid beneath a considerable weight, the seed is unable to

spring up, and is consequently thrown back again into the

earth; for which reason it is often trodden only into the

ground. It is then lightly watered after sunset every three

days, that it may gradually imbibe the moisture until such

time as it appears above ground. The young trees are transplanted at the end of a year, when about three-quarters of a

foot in length, due care being taken to watch for a clear day

with no wind, such being the best suited for the process of

transplanting. It is a singular thing, but still it is a fact, that

if, on the day of transplanting, and only that day, there is the

slightest drop of rain or the least breeze stirring, it is attended

with danger[11] to the young trees; while for the future they

are quite safe from peril, though at the same time they

have a great aversion to all humidity.[12] The jujube-tree[13] is







propagated from seed sown in the month of April. As to the

tuber,[14] it is the best plan to graft it upon the wild plum, the

quince, and the calabrix,[15] this last being the name that is

given to a wild thorn. Every kind of thorn, too, will receive

grafts remarkably well from the myxa plum,[16] as well as

from the sorb.



(11.) As to recommending transferring the young plants from

the seed-plot to another spot before finally planting them out,

I look upon it as advice that would only lead to so much unnecessary trouble, although it is most confidently urged that by

this process the leaves are sure to be considerably larger than

they otherwise would.







1. The distance, in reality, ought to vary according to the nature and

species of the trees, and the height they are to be allowed to attain.

2. De Re Rust. 48.

3. These precautions are not looked upon as necessary for the indigenous

trees at the present day. For the first year, however, Fe says, the hurdles

night be found very useful.

4. As the young cypress is very delicate, in the northern climates, Fee

says, this mode of protecting it in the nursery might prove advantageous.

5. There is some exaggeration in this account of the extreme smallness

of the seed of the cypress.

6. Wine and oil-presses, for instance.

7. B. xix. c. 48, and B. xx. c. 11. As Fe remarks, this is a fabulous

assertion, which may still be based upon truth; as in gum-resin, for instance, we find occasionally the seeds of the parent tree accidentally enclosed

in the tear-like drops.

8. In B. xvi. c. 47.

9. In c. 11 of this Book.

10. "Volgiolis." This word is found nowhere else, and the reading is

doubtful.

11. This is, at least, an exaggeration.

12. See B. xvi. c. 31, and c. 60.

13. It is propagated at the present day both from seed and suckers, but

mostly from the latter, as the seed does not germinate for two years.

14. See B. xv. c. 14. Probably a variety of the jujube; but if so, it

could hardly be grafted on trees of so different a nature as those here mentioned.

15. This tree has not been identified. Dalechamps thinks that it is a species

of gooseberry, probably the sane as the Ribes grossularia of Linnus. It

has been also suggested that it may be the Spina cervina of the Italians,

the Rhamnus catharticus of Linnus, the purgative buckthorn.

16. Fe doubts if the plum can be grafted on the thorn.




15. Chap. 15.-The Mode Of Propagating The Elm.


CHAP. 15.-THE MODE OF PROPAGATING THE ELM.



The elm seed is collected about the calends of March,[1]

before the tree is covered with leaves, but is just beginning to

have a yellow tint. It is then left to dry two days in the

shade, after which it is thickly sown in a broken soil, earth

that has been riddled through a fine sieve being thrown upon

it, to the same thickness as in the case of the cypress.[2] It

there should happen to be no rain, it is necessary to water the

seed. From the nursery the young plants are carried at the

end of a year to the elm-plots, where they are planted at intervals of a foot each way. It is better to plant elms in autumn

that are to support the vine, as they are destitute[3] of seed

and are only propagated from plants. In the vicinity of the

City, the young elms are transplanted into the vineyard at

five years old, or, according to the plan adopted by some, when

they are twenty feet in height. A furrow is first drawn for







the purpose, the name given to which is "novenarius,"[4] being

three feet in depth, and the same in breadth or even more;

into this the young tree is put, and the earth is moulded up

around it to the height of three feet every way. These mounds

are known by the name of "arula"[5] in Campania. The

intervals are arranged according to the nature of the spot; but

where the country is level, it is requisite that the trees should

be planted wider apart. Poplars and ashes, too, as they ger-

minate with greater rapidity, ought to be planted out at an

earlier period, or, in other words, immediately after the ides of

February.[6] In arranging trees and shrubs for the support of

the vine, the form of the quincunx[7] is the one that is gene-

rally adopted, and, indeed, is absolutely necessary: it not only

facilitates the action of the wind, but presents also a very

Pleasing appearance, for whichever way you look at the plantation the trees will always present themselves in a straight

Line. The same method is employed in propagating the poplar

from seed as the elm, and the mode of transplanting it from

the seed-plot is the same as that adopted in transplanting it

from the forests.







1. First of March.

2. The thickness of the thumb. See the last Chapter.

3. He alludes to the Atinian elm, of which he has already said the same

in B. xvi. c. 29.

4. From being about nine feet in circumference.

5. A "little altar."

6. 13th of February.

7. I. e. each at an angle with the other, in this form:-

* * *

* *

* * *

It was probably so called from the circumstance that each triangle resembles

V, or five.




16. Chap. 16.-The Holes For Transplanting.


CHAP. 16.-THE HOLES FOR TRANSPLANTING.



But it is more particularly necessary in transplanting, that

the trees should always be removed to a soil that is similar, or

else superior,[1] to the one in which they grew before. If taken

from warm or early ripening localities, they ought not to be re-

moved to cold or backward sites, nor yet, on the other hand, from

these last to the former. If the thing can possibly be done,

the holes for transplanting should be dug sufficiently long before to admit of their being covered throughout with a thick coat

of grass. Mago recommends that they should be dug a whole







year beforehand, in order that they may absorb the heat of

the sun and the moisture of the showers; or, if circumstances

do not admit of this, that fires should be made in the middle

of them some two months before transplanting, that being only

done just after rain has fallen. He says, too, that in an argillaceous[2] or a hard soil, the proper measurement is three cubits

every way, and on declivitous spots one palm more, care being

taken in every case to make the hole like the chimney of a

furnace, narrower at the orifice than at the bottom. Where

the earth is black, the depth should be two cubits and a palm,

and the hole dug in a quadrangular form.



The Greek writers agree in pointing out much the same

proportions, and are of opinion that the holes ought not to be

more than two feet and a half in depth, or more than two feet

wide: at the same time, too, they should never be less than

a foot and a half in depth, even though the soil should be wet,

and the vicinity of water preclude the possibility of the soil

going any deeper. "If the soil is watery," says Cato,[3] "the

hole should be three feet in width at the orifice, and one palm

and a foot at the bottom, and the depth four feet. It should

be paved, too, with stones,[4] or, if they are not at hand, with

stakes of green willow, or, if these cannot be procured, with a

layer of twigs; the depth of the layer so made being a foot

and a half."



It appears to me that I ought here to add, after what has

been said with reference to the nature of trees, that the holes

should be sunk deeper for those which have a tendency to run

near the surface of the earth, such as the ash and the olive,

for instance. These trees, in fact, and others of a similar

nature, should be planted at a depth of four feet, while for the

others three feet will be quite sufficient. "Cut down that

stump," said Papirius Cursor, the general,[5] when to the great







terror of the prtor of Prneste, he had ordered the lictors to

draw[6] their axes. And, indeed, there is no harm in cutting

away those portions [of the root] which have become exposed.

Some persons recommend that a bed should be formed at the

bottom, of potsherds or round pebbles,[7] which both allow the

moisture to pass and retain as much as is wanted; while at

the same time they are of opinion that flat stones are of no use

in such a case, and only prevent the root from penetrating[8]

the earth. To line the bottom with a layer of gravel would be

to follow a middle course between the two opinions.



Some persons recommend that a tree should not be transplanted before it is two years old, nor yet after three, while

others, again, are of opinion that if it is one year old it is

quite sufficient; Cato[9] thinks that it ought to be more than

five fingers in thickness at the time. The same author, too,

would not have omitted, if it had been of any importance, to

recommend that a mark[10] should be made on the bark for the

purpose of pointing out the southern aspect of the tree; so

that, when transplanted, it may occupy exactly the same posi-

tion that it has previously done; from an apprehension that

the north side of the tree, on finding itself opposite to a southern sun, might split, and the south side be nipped by the

north-eastern blasts. Indeed, there are some persons who

follow a directly opposite practice even in the vine and the fig,[11]

by placing the north side of the tree, when transplanted, towards the south, and vice versa; being, of opinion that by







adopting this plan the foliage becomes all the thicker[12] and the

better able to protect the fruit, which is less liable to fall off in

consequence, and that the tree is rendered all the better for

climbing. Most people, however, take the greatest care to turn

to the south that part of the tree from which the branches have

been lopped at the top, little thinking that they expose it

thereby to a chance of splitting[13] from the excessive heat. For

my own part, I should prefer that this part of the tree should

face that point of the heavens which is occupied by the sun at

the fifth[14] or even the eighth hour of the day. People are also

equally unaware that they ought not, through neglect, to let

the roots be exposed to the air long enough to get dry; and

that the ground should not be worked about the roots of trees

while the wind is blowing from the north, or, indeed, from

any point of the heavens that lies between north and southeast; or, at all events, that the roots should not be left to lie

exposed to these winds; the result of such modes of proceeding

being, that the trees die, the grower being all the while in

total ignorance of the cause.



Cato[15] disapproves, too, of all wind and rain whenever the

work of transplanting is going on. When this is the case, it

will be beneficial to let as much adhere to the roots as possible

of the earth in which the tree has grown, and to cover them

all round with clods[16] of earth: it is for this reason that Cato[17]

recommends that the young trees should be conveyed in baskets,

a very desirable method, no doubt. The same writer, too, approves of the earth that has been taken from the surface being

laid at the bottom of the hole. Some persons say,[18] that if a

layer of stones is placed beneath the root of the pomegranate,

the fruit will not split while upon the tree. In transplanting, it







is the best plan to give the roots a bent position, but it is absolutely necessary that the tree should be placed in such a manner

as to occupy exactly the centre of the hole. The fig-tree,

it the slip when planted is stuck in a squill[19]-such being the

name of a species of bulb-is said to bear with remarkable

rapidity, while the fruit is exempt from all attacks of the

worm: the same precaution, too, in planting, will preserve

the fruit of all other trees in a similar manner. Who is

there, too, that can entertain a doubt that the very greatest

care ought to be taken of the roots of the fig-tree when transplanted?-indeed, it ought to bear every mark of being taken,

and not torn, from out of the earth. Upon this subject I omit

various other practical precepts, such, for instance, as the necessity of moulding up the roots with a rammer, a thing that

Cato[20] looks upon as of primary importance; while, at the

same time, he recommends that the wound made in the stock

should be first covered with dung, and then bound with a

layer of leaves.[21]







1. This is the reason why a soil of only middling quality is generally

selected for nurseries and seed-plots; otherwise it might be difficult to

transplant the young trees to an improved soil.

2. The ordinary depth, at the present day, is about two feet; but when

in an argillaceous soil, as Pliny says, the hole is made deeper. If the soii.

is black mould, the hole is not so deep, and of a square form, just as recom-

mended by Pliny.

3. De Re Rust. 43.

4. This would be either useless, or positively injurious to the tree.

5. See B. xiv. c. 14. It seems impossible to say with exactness how

this passage came to be inserted in the context; but Sillig is probably right

in suspecting that there is a considerable lacuna here. It is not improbable

that Pliny may have enlarged upon the depth of the roots of trees, and the

method of removing them in ancient times. Such being the case, he might

think it not inappropriate to introduce the story of Papirius, who, when

only intending to have a stump cut down that grew in the way, took the

opportunity of frightening the prtor of Prncste, by the suddenness of

the order to his lictor, and probably the peremptory tone in which it was

given. This was all the more serious to the prtor, as Papirius had been

rebuking him just before in the severest terms.

6. From the bundle of fasces, or rods.

7. This precept is borrowed from Virgil, Georg. ii. 348, et seq.

8. There is little doubt that they took the right view.

9. De Re Rust. 28.

10. This precaution is omitted by the modern nurserymen, though Fe is

inclined to think it might be attended with considerable advantage, as the

fibres of the side that has faced the south are not likely to be so firm as

those of the northern side. This precaution, however, would be of more

importance with exotic trees than indigenous ones. It is still practised to

some extent with the layers of the vine.

11. Fe suggests that Pliny may have here misunderstood a passage in

Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. ii. 8, with reference to the planting of the fig.

12. There would be no such result, Fe says.

13. This is a useless precaution; but at the same time, Pliny's fears of its

consequences are totally misplaced.

14. At 11 A.M., or 2 P.M.; i.e. between south and south-east, and south

and south-west.

15. De Re Rust. 28.

16. Wet moss, or moist earth, is used for the purpose at the present day.

17. De Re Rust. 28. It is most desirable to transplant trees with a layer

of the earth in which they have grown; but if carried out to any extent,

it would be an expensive process.

18. "Tradunt." This expression shows that Pliny does not give credit

to the statement. Columella and Palladius speak of three stones being laid

under the root, evidently as a kind of charm.

19. See B. xix. c. 30. A somewhat similar practice is also recommended

in B. xv. C. 18; but, of course, as Fe remarks, it can lead to no results.

20. De Re Rust. 28.

21. Fe remarks that this is a useful precaution, more particularly in the

case of the coniferous trees, the fig, and others that arc rich in juice; but

if universally used, would be attended with great expense. The French

use for the purpose a mixture of fresh earth and cow-dung, to which they

give the name of "onguent Saint-Fiacre." See p. 481.




17. Chap. 17. (12.)-The Intervals To Be Left Between Trees.


CHAP. 17. (12.)-THE INTERVALS TO BE LEFT BETWEEN TREES.



The present seems to me to be the proper occasion for making

some mention of the intervals[1] that ought to be left between

the trees. Some persons have recommended that pomegra-

nates, myrtles, and laurels should be planted closer together than

the other trees, leaving, however, a space of nine feet between

them. Apple-trees, they say, should be planted a little wider

apart, and pear-trees, almonds, and figs even still more so.

The best rule, however, is to consult the length of the branches,

and the nature of the spot, as well as the shade that is formed

by the tree; for it is of great importance to take this last into

consideration. The shadow thrown by the large trees even is

but of small dimensions, when the branches are disposed around







the body of the tree in a spherical form, as in the apple and

the pear, for instance. In the cherry, on the other hand, and

the laurel, the shadow projected is of enormous extent.







1. This is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. ii. 7. The question, however, depends entirely upon the nature of the tree, the quality of the soil,

and various other considerations, as Pliny himself admits.




18. Chap. 18.-The Nature Of The Sad Thrown By Trees.


CHAP. 18.-THE NATURE OF THE SAD THROWN BY TREES.



The shadows of trees are possessed of certain properties.

That of the walnut is baneful[1] and injurious to man, in whom

it is productive of head-ache, and it is equally noxious to

everything that grows in its vicinity. The shadow, too, of

the pine has the effect of killing[2] the grass beneath it; but

in both of these trees the foliage presents an effectual resistance to the winds, while, at the same time, the vine is destitute of such protection.[3] The drops of water that fall from

the pine, the quercus, and the holm-oak are extremely heavy,

but from the cypress none fall; the shadow, too, thrown by

this last tree is extremely small, its foliage being densely

packed.[4] The shadow of the fig, although widely spread, is

but light, for which reason it is allowed to be planted among

vines. The shadow of the elm is refreshing and even nutrimental to whatever it may happen to cover; though, in the

opinion of Atticus, this tree is one of the most injurious of

them all; and, indeed, I have no doubt that such may be the

case when the branches are allowed to become too long;

but at the same time I am of opinion that when they are

kept short it can be productive of no possible harm. The

plane also gives a very pleasant shade,[5] though somewhat

dense: but in this case we must look more to the luxuriant

softness of the grass beneath it than the warmth of the sun;

for there is no tree that forms a more verdant couch on which

to recline.



The poplar[6] gives no shade whatever, in consequence of the







incessant quivering of its leaves: while that of the alder is very

dense, but remarkably nutritive to plants. The vine affords

sufficient shade for its wants, the leaf being always in motion,

and from its repeated movement tempering the heat of the sun

with the shadow that it affords; at the same time too it

serves as an effectual protection against heavy rains. In

nearly all trees the shade is thin, where the footstalks of the

leaves are long.



This branch of knowledge is one by no means to be despised

or deserving to be placed in the lowest rank, for in the case of

every variety of plant the shade is found to act either as a

kind nurse or a harsh step-mother. There is no doubt that

the shadow of the walnut, the pine, the pitch-tree, and the fir

is poisonous to everything it may chance to light upon.







1. See B. xv. c. 24. This notion, Fe remarks, still prevails to a very

considerable extent.

2. By depriving it of the light, and the heat of the sun; but, most

probably, from no other reason.

3. "Quoniam et protecta vinearum ratione egent." This passage is

probably in a mutilated state.

4. "In se convoluta."

5. The plane was much valued for its shade by convivial parties. Hence

we find in Virgil, Georg. iv. 146-"Atque ministrantem platanum

potantibus umbram."

6. He clearly alludes to the quivering poplar, Populus tremula of

Linnus.




19. Chap. 19.-The Droppings Of Water From The Leaves.


CHAP. 19.-THE DROPPINGS OF WATER FROM THE LEAVES.



A very few words will suffice for the water that drops from

the leaves of trees. In all those which are protected by a

foliage so dense that the rain will not pass through, the drops

are of a noxious nature.[1] In our enquiries, therefore, into

this subject it will be of the greatest consequence what will

be the nature developed by each tree in the soil in which we

are intending to plant it. Declivities, taken by themselves,

require smaller[2] intervals between the trees, and in localities

that are exposed to the wind it is beneficial to plant them

closer together. However, it is the olive that requires the

largest intervals to be left, and on this point it is the opinion

of Cato,[3] with reference to Italy, that the very smallest interval ought to be twenty-five feet, and the largest thirty:

this, however, varies according to the nature of the site. The

olive is the largest[4] of all the trees in Btica: and in Africa

-if, indeed, we may believe the authors who say so-there

are many olive-trees that are known by the name of milliari,[5]







being so called from the weight of oil that they produce each

year. Hence it is that Mago has prescribed an interval between these trees of no less than seventy-five feet every way,

or of forty-five at the very lowest, when the soil happens to be

meagre, hard, and exposed to the winds. There is no doubt,

however, that Btica reaps the most prolific harvests from

between her olives.



It will be generally agreed that it is a most disgraceful

piece of ignorance to lop away the branches more than is absolutely necessary in trees of vigorous growth, and so precipitate old age; as also, on the other hand, what is generally tantamount to an avowal of unskilfulness on the part of those

who have planted them, to have to cut them down altogether.

Nothing can reflect greater disgrace upon agriculturists than

to have to undo what they have done, and it is therefore much

the best to commit an error in leaving a superfluity of room.







1. This is quite a fallacy. Even in the much more probable cases of

the upas and mangineel, it is not the fact.

2. Theophrastus, De Causis, B. iii. c. 8, says, that trees that grow on

declivities have shorter branches than those of the same kind growing on

plains.

3. De Re Rust. c. 16.

4. This assertion is doubtful; at the present day, in Andalusia, the

palm, the poplar, and many other trees are much larger than the olive.

5. "Thousand pounders." This, as Fe remarks, is clearly an exaggeration.




21. Chap. 21.-Trees Propagated From Layers.


CHAP. 21.-TREES PROPAGATED FROM LAYERS.



Nature; too, has taught us the art of reproduction from

layers. The bramble, by reason of its thinness and the exces-







sive length to which it grows, bends downwards, and throws

the extremities of its branches into the earth; these immediately take root again, and would fill every place far and

wide, were it not that the arts of cultivation put a check to

it; so much so, indeed, that it would almost appear that men

are born for nothing else but to take care of the earth. Hence

it is, that a thing that is in itself most noxious and most

baneful, has taught us the art of reproduction by layers and

quicksets. The ivy, too, has a similar property.



Cato[1] says, that in addition to the vine, the fig, as well as

the olive, the pomegranate, every variety of the apple, the

laurel, the plum, the myrtle, the filbert, the nut of Prste,

and the plane, are capable of being propagated by layers.



Layers[2] are of two kinds; in the one, a branch, while still

adhering to the tree, is pressed downwards into a hole that

measures four feet every way: at the end of two years it is

cut at the part where it curves, and is then transplanted at

the expiration of three years more. If it is intended to carry

the plant to any distance, it is the best plan to place the layer,

directly it is taken up, either in an osier basket or any earthen

vessel, for its better security when carried. The other[3] mode

of reproduction by layers is a more costly one, and is effected

by summoning forth a root from the trunk of the tree even.

For this purpose, earthen vessels or baskets are provided, and

are then well packed with earth; through these the extremities of the branches are passed, and by this mode of encouragement a root is obtained growing amid the fruit itself, and

at the very summit of the tree; for it is at the summit that

this method is generally adopted. In this way has a bold and

daring inventiveness produced a new tree aloft and far away

from the ground. At the end of two years, in the manner

already stated, the layer is cut asunder, and then planted in

the ground, basket and all.



The herb savin[4] is reproduced by layers, as also by slips; it







is said, too, that lees of wine or pounded wall-bricks make it

thrive wonderfully well. Rosemary[5] also is reproduced in a

similar manner, as also from cuttings of the branches; neither

savin nor rosemary having any seed. The rhododendrum[6] is

propagated by layers and from seed.







1. De Re Rust. c. 51.

2. The French call cultivation by layers "marcotte," as applied to trees

in general; and " provignage," as applicable to the vine. The two methods

described by Pliny are still extensively practised.

3. Taken from Cato, De Re Rust. c. 133.

4. The Juniperus sabina of Linnus: see B. xxiv. c. 61. It produces

seed, and there is only one variety that is barren; the plant being, in reality, diceous.

5. The rosemary, in reality, is a hermaphroditic plant, and in all cases

produces seed.

6. See B. xvi. c. 33.




23. Chap. 23.-Inoculation Or Budding.


CHAP. 23.-INOCULATION OR BUDDING.



In this, too, the art of inoculating[1] took its rise. By the

aid of an instrument similar to a shoe-maker's paring-knife

an eye is opened in a tree by paring away the bark, and

another bud is then enclosed in it, that has been previously removed with the same instrument from another tree. This was the

ancient mode of inoculation with the fig and the apple. That

again, described by Virgil,[2] requires a slight fissure to be

made in the knot of a bud which has burst through the bark,

and in this is enclosed a bud taken from another tree. Thus

far has Nature been our instructor in these matters.







1. Still used for the reproduction of fruit-trees and shrubs in the pleasure

garden.

2. Georg. ii. 73




24. Chap. 24.-The Various Kinds Of Grafting.


CHAP. 24.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF GRAFTING.



A different mode of engrafting, however, has been taught us







by chance, another great instructor, and one from whom, perhaps, we have learnt a still greater number of lessons. A

careful husbandman,[1] being desirous, for its better protection,

to surround his cottage with a palisade, thrust the stakes

into growing ivy, in order to prevent them from rotting.

Seized by the tenacious grasp of the still living ivy, the stakes

borrowed life from the life of another wood, and it was found

that the stock of a tree acted in place of earth.



For this method of grafting the surface is made level with a

saw, and the stock carefully smoothed with the pruning-knife.

This done, there are two modes of proceeding, the first of

which consists in grafting between the bark and the wood.

The ancients were fearful at first of cutting into the wood, but

afterwards they ventured to pierce it to the very middle, and

inserted the graft in the pith, taking care to enclose but one,

because the pith, they thought, was unable to receive more. An

improved method has, however, in more recent times, allowed

of as many as six grafts being inserted, it being considered

desirable by additional numbers to make a provision for the

contingency of some of them not surviving. With this view,

an incision is carefully made in the middle of the stock, a thin

wedge being inserted to prevent the sides from closing, until

the graft, the end of which is first cut to a point, has been let

into the fissure. In doing this many precautions are necessary, and more particularly every care should be taken that

the stock is that of a tree suitable for the purpose, and that

the graft is taken from one that is proper for grafting. The

sap,[2] too, is variously distributed in the several trees, and does

not occupy the same place in all. In the vine and the fig[3] the

middle of the tree is the driest, and it is in the summit that

the generative power resides; hence it is, that from the top

the grafts are selected. In the olive, again, the sap lies in the







middle of the tree, and the grafts are accordingly taken from

thence: the upper part being comparatively dry. The graft

takes most easily in a tree, the bark of which is of a similar[4]

nature to its own, and which, blossoming at the same time as

itself, has an affinity with it in the development of the natural

juices. On the other hand, the process of uniting is but slow

where the dry is brought in contact with the moist, and the

hard bark with the soft.



The other points to be observed are the following: the incision must not be made in a knot, as such an inhospitable rigidity

will certainly repel the stranger plant; the incision should be

made, too, in the part which is most compact, and it must not

be much more than three fingers in length, not in a slanting

direction, nor yet such as to pierce the tree from side to side.

Virgil[5] is of opinion, that the grafts should not be taken from the

top, and it is universally agreed that it is best to select them from

the shoulders of the tree which look towards the north-east;[6]

from a tree, too, that is a good bearer, and from a young shoot,[7]

unless, indeed, the graft is intended for an old tree, in which

case it should be of a more robust growth. In addition to this,

the graft ought to be in a state of impregnation, that is to say,

swelling[8] with buds, and giving every promise of bearing the

same year; it ought, too, to be two years old, and not thinner

than the little finger. The graft is inserted at the smaller

end, when it is the object of the grower that it should not

grow to any considerable length, but spread out on either side.

But it is more particularly necessary that the buds upon the

graft should be smooth and regular, and there must be nothing

upon it at all scabbed or shrivelled. Success may be fully

reckoned on if the pith of the graft is brought in contact with

the wood and bark of the stock; that being a much better plan

than merely uniting them bark to bark. In pointing the graft,







the pith ought not to be laid bare; still, however, it should be

pared with a small knife, so that the point may assume the form

of a fine wedge, not more than three fingers in length, a thing

that may be very easily effected by first steeping it in water

and then scraping it. The graft, however, must not be pointed

while the wind is blowing, and care must be taken that the

bark is not rubbed off from either graft or stock. The graft

must be thrust into the stock up to the point where the bark

begins; care, too, must be taken not to wrench off the bark

during the process of insertion, nor must it be thrust back so

as to form any folds or wrinkles. It is for this reason that a

graft should not be used that is too full of sap, no, by Hercules!

no more than one that is dry and parched; for by doing so, in

the former case, from the excess of moisture, the bark becomes

detached, and in the latter, from want of vitality, it yields

no secretions, and consequently will not incorporate with the

stock.



It is a point most religiously[9] observed, to insert the graft

during the moon's increase, and to be careful to push it down

with both hands; indeed, it is really the fact, that in this operation, the two hands, acting at the same moment, are of necessity productive of a more modified and better regulated effort.

Grafts that have been inserted with a vigorous effort are later

in bearing, but last all the longer; when inserted more ten-

derly, the contrary is the result. The incision in the stock

should not be too open or too large; nor ought it to be too

small, for in such case it would either force out the graft or

else kill it by compression. But the most necessary precaution

of all is to see that the graft is fairly inserted, and that it

occupies exactly the middle of the fissure in the stock.



Some[10] persons are in the habit of making the place for the

fissure in the stock with the knife, keeping the edges of the

incision together with bands of osier bound tightly round

the stock; they then drive in the wedges, the bands keeping the stock from opening too wide. There are some trees







that are grafted in the seed-plot and then transplanted the

very same day. If the stock used for grafting is of very considerable thickness, it is the best plan to insert the graft between the bark and the wood; for which purpose a wedge

made of bone is best, for fear lest when the bark is loosened

the wood should be bruised. In the cherry, the bark is removed

before the incision in the stock is made; this, too, is the only

tree that is grafted after the winter solstice. When the bark

is removed, this tree presents a sort of downy substance, which,

if it happens to adhere to the graft, will very speedily destroy

it. When once the graft is safely lodged by the aid of the

wedge, it is of advantage to drive it home. It is an excellent

plan, too, to graft as near the ground as possible, if the conformation of the trunk land knots will admit of it. The graft

should not project from the stock more than six fingers in

length.



Cato[11] recommends a mixture of argil[12] or powdered chalk,

and cow-dung, to be stirred together till it is of a viscous consistency, and then inserted in the fissure and rubbed all round

it. From his writings on the subject it is very evident that

at that period it was the practice to engraft only between the

wood and the bark, and in no other way; and that the graft

was never inserted beyond a couple of fingers in depth.[13] He

recommends, too, that the pear and the apple should be grafted

in spring, as also during fifty days at the time of the summer

solstice, and during the time of vintage; but that the olive

and the fig should be grafted in spring only, in a thirsting, or

in other words, a dry moon: he says also, that it should be

done in the afternoon, and not while a south wind is blowing.

It is a singular thing, that, not content with protecting the

graft in the manner already mentioned, and with sheltering

it from showers and frosts by means of turfs and supple bands

of split osiers, he recommends that it should be covered with

bugloss[14] as well-a kind of herb so called-which is to be

tied over it and then covered up with straw. At the present

day, however, it is thought sufficient to cover the bark with a







mixture of mud and chaff, allowing the graft to protrude a

couple of fingers in length.



Those who wait for spring to carry on these operations, will

find themselves pressed for time; for the buds are then just

bursting, except, indeed, in the case of the olive, the buds of

which are remarkably long in developing themselves, the tree

itself having extremely little sap beneath the bark; this,

too, is apt, when in too large quantities, to injure the grafts.

As to the pomegranate, too, the fig, and the rest of the trees

that are of a dry nature, it is far from beneficial to them to

put off the process of grafting till a late period. The pear

may be grafted even when in blossom, so that with it the

operation may be safely delayed to the month of May even.

If grafts of fruit trees have to be carried to any distance, it

is considered the best plan, with the view of preserving the

juices, to insert them in a turnip; they may also be kept alive

by placing them near a stream or a pond, between two hollow

tiles covered up at each end with earth. (15.) The grafts of

vines, however, are kept in dry holes, in which they are

covered over with straw, and then with earth, care being taken

to let the tops protrude.[15]







1. This story is borrowed from Theophrastus, De Caus. B. ii. c. 19.

Fee remarks, that it is very doubtful if an operation of so coarse a nature

could be productive of such results; and he says, that, at all events, the two

woods must have been species of the same genus, or else individuals of the

same family. The mode of grafting here described is called by agriculturists in foreign countries, "Pliny's graft."

2. These statements as to the locality of the sap are erroneous.

3. The fig is the only fruit that is not improved by grafting; but then

it is not similar to most fruit, being, as Fe says, nothing more than a

fleshy floral receptacle.

4. This remark is founded on sound notions of vegetable physiology;

but at the same time it is contradictory to what he states in the sequel as

to grafting the pear on the plane, the apple on the cornel, &c.

5. Georg. ii. 78.

6. An unnecessary precaution. It is not the situation of the branches

so much as the nature of the soil, traversed by the roots, corresponding to

them, that would be likely to have an influence on the graft. There is

little doubt that Pliny borrowed the present passage from Columella, De

Re Rust. v. 11; and De Arbor. 20.

7. This is sound advice.

8. See B. xvi. c. 39, 40, and 41.

9. In reprehending this absurd notion, Fe bestows a passing censure

on the superstitions of this nature, contained in the English Vox Stellarum, one of our almanacks; and in the French "Almanach des Bergers,"

Shepherds' Almanack."

10. This is borrowed by Palladius, in the operations of February, tit.

17, and October, tit. 12.

11. De Re Rust. 40.

12. This is the onguent Saint-Fiacre of the French, and is still used to

protect the graft from all contact with the exterior air.

13. "Altitudinem," as Dalechamps suggests, would appear to be a better

reading than "latitudinem."

14. See B. xxv. c. 40.

15. Borrowed from Columella, B. iv. c. 29. This method is still employed for young plants; in France it is called "salting" the plants.




25. Chap. 25.-Grafting The Vine.


CHAP. 25.-GRAFTING THE VINE.



Cato[1] speaks of three[2] methods of grafting the vine. The

first consists in piercing the stock to the pith, and then inserting the grafts, sharpened at the end, in manner already mentioned, care being taken to bring the pith of the two in contact. The second is adopted in case the two vines are near

one another, the sides of them both being cut in a slanting

direction where they face each other; after which the pith of

the two trees is united by tying them together. In employing the third method, the vine is pierced obliquely to the

pith, and grafts are inserted a couple of feet in length; they

are then tied down and covered over with prepared earth, care

being taken to keep them in an upright position. In our







time, however, this method has been greatly improved by

making use of the Gallic angler.[3] which pierces the tree with-

out scorching it; it being the fact, that everything that burns

the tree weakens its powers. Care, too, is taken to select a

graft that is just beginning to germinate, and not to leave

more than a couple of the buds protruding from the stock.

The vine, too, should be carefully bound with withes of elm,

incisions being made in it on either side, in order that the

slimy juices may exude through them in preference, which

are so particularly injurious to the vine. After this, when

the graft has grown a couple of feet, the withe by which it is

fastened should be cut, and the graft left to increase of its own

natural vigour.



The proper time[4] for grafting the vine has been fixed as

from the autumnal equinox to the beginning of the budding

season. The cultivated plants are generally grafted on the

roots of wild ones, where these last are of a drier nature. But if

a cultivated tree should be grafted on a wild one, it will very

soon degenerate and become wild.[5] The rest depends entirely

on the weather. Dry weather is the best suited for grafting;

an excellent remedy for any evil effects that may possibly be

caused by the drought, being a few pots of earth placed near

the stock and filled with ashes; through which a little water

is slowly filtered. Light dews are extremely favourable to

grafting by inoculation.







1. De Re Rust. 41.

2. The first of these methods is now the only one at all employed

with the vine; indeed, it is more generally reproduced by means of layers

and suckers.

3. It is not accurately known what was the form or particular merit of

this auger or wimble.

4. Fe remarks, that the period here named is very indefinite. May

and the early part of June are the periods now selected for grafting the

vine.

5. This is borrowed from Varro, De Re Rust. B. i. c 40. In reality,

it makes no difference whether the stock is that of a wild tree or of the

cultivated species.




26. Chap. 26. (16 )-Grafting By Sutcheons.


CHAP. 26. (16 )-GRAFTING BY SUTCHEONS.[1]



Grafting by scutcheons would appear to owe its origin to

that by inoculation; but it is suited more particularly to a

thick bark, such as that of the fig-tree for instance. For this

purpose, all the branches are cut off, in order that they may

not divert the sap, after Which the smoothest part is selected







in the stock, and a scutcheon[2] of the bark removed, due care

being taken that the knife does not go below it. A similar

piece of bark from another tree, with a protuberant bud upon

it, is then inserted in its place, care being taken that the union

is so exact that there is no room left for a cicatrix to form, and

the juncture so perfect as to leave no access to either damp or

air: still, however, it is always the best plan to protect the

scutcheon by means of a plaster of clay and a band. Those who

favour the modern fashions pretend that this method has been

only discovered in recent times; but the fact is, that we find

it employed by the ancient Greeks, and described by Cato,[3]

who recommends it for the olive and the fig; and he goes so

far as to determine the very dimensions even, in accordance

with his usual exactness. The scutcheon, he says, when taken

off with the knife should be four[4] fingers in length, and three

in breadth. It is then fitted to the spot which it is to occupy,

and anointed with the mixture of his which has been previosly described.[5] This method, too, he recommends for the



Some persons have adopted another plan with the vine,

which consists partly of that of grafting by scutcheon, and

partly by fissure; they first remove a square piece of bark

from the stock, and then insert a slip in the place that is thus

laid bare. I once saw at Thuli,[6] near Tibur, a tree that had

been grafted[7] upon all these various ways, and loaded with fruit

of every kind. Upon one branch there were nuts to be seen,

upon another berries, upon another grapes, upon another

pears, upon another figs, and upon others pomegranates, and







several varieties of the apple; the tree, however, was but

very short-lived. But, with all our experiments, we find

it quite impossible to rival Nature; for there are some

plants that can be reproduced in no other manner than spontaneously, and then only in wild and desert spots. The plane[8]

is generally considered the best adapted to receive every kind

of graft, and next to it the robur; both of them, however,

are very apt to spoil the flavour of the fruit. Some trees

admit of grafting upon them in any fashion, the fig and the

pomegranate for instance; the vine, however, cannot be

grafted upon by scutcheon, nor, indeed, any other of the trees

which has a bark that is thin, weak, or cracked. So, too,

those trees which are dry, or which contain but little moisture,

will not admit of grafting by inoculation. This last method is

the most prolific of them all, and next to it that by scutcheon,

but neither of them can be depended upon, and this last more

particularly; for when the adherence of the bark is the only

point of union the scutcheon is liable to be immediately displaced by the slightest gust of wind. Grafting by insertion is

the most reliable method, and the tree so produced will bear

more fruit than one that is merely planted.



(17.) We must not here omit one very singular circumstance. Corellius, a member of the Equestrian order at Rome,

and a native of Ateste, grafted a chesnut, in the territory of

Neapolis, with a slip taken from the same tree, and from this

was produced the chesnut which is so highly esteemed, and

from him has derived its name. At a later period again,

Etereius, his freedman, grafted the Corellian[9] chesnut afresh.

There is this difference between the two; the Corellian is

more prolific, but the Etereian is of superior quality.







1. "Emplastrum." Properly, the little strip of bark, which is fitted in with

the eye, and which is plastered or soldered down.

2. "Scutula." So called from its resemblance to a "little shield."

3. De Re Rust. 42.

4. Cato says, three and a-half.

5. Chalk and cow-dung. See c. 24 of this Book.

6. Perhaps "Tuli;" which would mean, according to Festus, the

"cascades" or "waterfalls" of Tibur, now Tivoli.

7. Fe says, that if we take the word "rafted" here in the strictest

sense, Pliny must have seen as great a marvel as any of those mentioned

in the "Arabian Nights;" in fact, utter impossibilities. He thinks it

possible, however, that a kind of mock grafting may have been produced

in the case, still employed in some parts of Italy, and known as the

"greffe-Diane." A trunk of an orange tree is split, and slips of numerous

trees are than passed into it, which in time throw out their foliage and

blossoms in various parts of the tree, or at the top; the consequence of

which is, that the stock appears to bear several varieties of blossoms at the

same moment. It is lot improbable that Pliny was thus imposed upon.

8. The plane and the oak are no longer employed for the purpose.

9. See B. xv. c. 25.




27. Chap. 27.-Plants Which Grow From A Branch.


CHAP. 27.-PLANTS WHICH GROW FROM A BRANCH.



It is accident that has the credit of devising the other methods of reproduction, and has taught us how to break off a

branch of a tree and plant it in the earth, from seeing stakes,

when driven in the earth, take root, and grow. It is in this

way that many of the trees are reproduced, and the fig more

particularly; which may be propagated also by all the methods

previously stated, with the exception, indeed, of that by cuttings.







The best plan, however, is to take a pretty large branch, and,

after sharpening it like a stake,[1] to drive it to a considerable

depth in the earth, taking care to leave only a small portion

above ground, and then to cover it over with sand. The pomegranate, too, may be planted in a similar manner, the hole

being first widened with a stake; the same, too, with the myrtle.

For all trees of this nature a branch is required three feet in

length, and not quite the thickness of the arm, care being

taken to keep the bark on, and to sharpen the branch to a

point at the lower end.







1. See c. 29 of this Book.




28. Chap. 28.-Trees Which Grow From Cuttings; The Mode Of Planting Them.


CHAP. 28.-TREES WHICH GROW FROM CUTTINGS; THE MODE OF

PLANTING THEM.



The myrtle, too, may be propagated from cuttings, and the

mulberry is grown no other way, the religious observances

relative to lightning[1] forbidding it to be grafted on the elm;[2]

hence it would appear that the present is a fitting opportunity

for speaking of reproduction from cuttings. Care should be

taken more particularly to select the slips from fruitful trees,

and it should be seen that they are neither bent, scabbed, nor

bifurcated. The cuttings, too, should be thick enough to fill

the hand, and not less than a foot in length: the bark, too,

should be uninjured, and the end which is cut and lies nearest

the root should always be the one inserted in the earth. While

the work of germination is going on, the slip should be kept

well moulded up, until such time as it has fully taken root.







1. See B. xv. c. 17.

2. The mulberry is incapable of being grafted on the elm.




29. Chap. 29. (18.)-The Cultivation Of The Olive.


CHAP. 29. (18.)-THE CULTIVATION OF THE OLIVE.



Cato[1] has treated so well of the precautions that are necessary in cultivating the olive, that we cannot do better than

employ his own words on the subject. "Let the slips of

olive," says he, "which you are about to plant in the hole, be

three feet long, and be very careful in your treatment of them,

so as not to injure the bark when you are smoothing or cutting

them. Those that you are going to plant in the nursery,

should be a foot in length; and you should plant them the

following way: let the spot be turned up with the mattock,







and the soil be well loosened. When you put the cutting in the

ground, press it down with the foot only. If there is any

difficulty in making it descend, drive it down with a mallet or

the handle of the dibble, but be careful not to break the bark

in doing so. Take care, too, not to make a hole first with the

dibble, for the slip will have the better chance of surviving the

other way. When the slip is three years old, due care must be

taken to observe the direction in which each side of the bark is

situate. If you are planting in holes or furrows, you must

put in the cuttings by threes, but be careful to keep them

separate. Above ground, however, they should not be more

than four fingers distant from one another, and each of them

must have a bud or eye above ground. In taking up the olive

for transplanting, you must use the greatest caution, and see

that there is as much earth left about the roots as possible.

When you have covered the roots well up, tread down the

earth with the foot, so that nothing may injure the plant."







1. De Re Rust. 45. The method of planting here described is still the

one most generally approved of for the olive.




30. Chap. 30.-Transplanting Operations As Distributed Throughout The Various Seasons Of The Year.


CHAP. 30.-TRANSPLANTING OPERATIONS AS DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT

THE VARIOUS SEASONS OF THE YEAR.



If the enquiry is made what is the proper season for planting the olive, my answer will be, " where the soil is dry, at

seed-time; where it is rich, in spring." The following is the

advice given by Cato[1] on the subject: "Begin pruning your

olive-yard fifteen days before the vernal equinox; from that

period for forty days will be a good time for doing so. In

pruning, adopt the following rules: when the ground is extremely productive, remove all the dry branches or such as

may have been broken by the wind; where it is not so prolific, you must cut away still more, then tie them well up,

and remove all tangled branches, so as to lighten the roots.

In autumn clear away the roots of the olive, and then manure

them. The man who labours most assiduously and most

earnestly will remove the very smallest fibres that are attached

to the roots. If, however, he hoes negligently, the roots will

soon appear again above ground, and become thicker than

ever; the consequence of which will be, that the vigour of the

tree will be expended in the roots."



We have already stated, when speaking on the subject of







oil,[2] what are the different varieties of the olive, in what kind

of soil it ought to be planted, and what is the proper aspect

for the olive-yard. Mago recommends that the olive should

be planted on declivities and in dry spots, in an argillaceous

soil, and between autumn and the winter equinox. If, on the

other hand, the soil is thick, humid, or somewhat damp even,

it ought to be planted between harvest and the winter solstice;

advice, however, it should be remembered, applicable to Africa

more particularly. At the present day, it is mostly the custom

in Italy to plant the olive in spring, but if it is thought desirable to do so in the autumn as well, there are only four days

in the forty between the equinox and the setting of the Vergili that are unfavourable for planting it.[3] It is a practice

peculiar to Africa, to engraft the olive on the wild olive only,

a tree which is made to be everlasting, as it were; for when it

becomes old the best of the suckers are carefully trained for

adoption by grafting, and in this way in another tree it

grows young again; an operation which may be repeated continuously as often as needed; so much so, indeed, that the

same olive-yard will last for ages.[4] The wild olive also is

propagated both by insertion and inoculation.



It is not advisable to plant the olive in a site where the

quercus has been lately rooted up; for the earth-worms, known

as "rau" which breed in the root of the quercus, are apt

to get into that of the olive. It has been found, from practical

experience, that it is not advisable to bury the cuttings in the

ground nor yet to dry them before they are planted out. Experience has also taught us that it is the best plan to clean an

old olive-yard every other year, between the vernal equinox

and the rising of the Vergili, and to lay moss about the roots;

to dig holes also round the trees every year, just after the

summer solstice, two cubits wide by a foot in depth, and to

manure them every third year.



Mago, too, recommends that the almond should be planted

between the setting of Arcturus[5] and the winter solstice. All







the varieties, however, of the pear, he says, should not be

planted at the same time, as they do not all blossom together.

Those with oblong or round fruit should be planted between

the setting of the Vergili and the winter solstice, and the

other kinds in the middle of the winter, after the setting of the

constellation of the Arrow,[6] on a site that looks towards the

east or north. The laurel should be planted between the

setting of the Eagle and that of the Arrow; for we find that

the proper time for planting is equally connected with the aspect

of the heavenly bodies. For the most part it has been recommended that this should be done in spring and autumn; but

there is another appropriate period also, though known to but

few, about the rising of the Dog-star, namely; it is not, however, equally advantageous in all localities. Still, I ought not

to omit making mention of it, as I am not setting forth the

peculiar advantages of any one country in particular, but am

enquiring into the operations of Nature taken as a whole.



In the region of Cyrenaica, the planting is generally done

while the Etesian[7] winds prevail, and the same is the case in

Greece, and with the olive more particularly in Laconia. At

this period, also, the vine is planted in the island of Cos; and

in the rest of Greece they do not neglect to inoculate and graft,

though they do not[8] plant, their trees just then. The natural

qualities, too, of the respective localities, exercise a very considerable influence in this respect; for in Egypt they plant in

any month, as also in all other countries where summer rains

do not prevail, India and thiopia, for instance. When trees

are not planted in the spring they must be planted in autumn,

as a matter of course.



There are three stated periods, then, for germination;[9] spring,

the rising of the Dog-star, and that of Arcturus. And, indeed,

it is not the animated beings only that are ardent for the propagation of their species, for this desire is manifested in even

a greater degree by the earth and all its vegetable productions;

to employ this tendency at the proper moment is the most







advantageous method of ensuring an abundant increase. These

moments, too, are of peculiar importance in relation to the

process of grafting, as it is then that the two productions manifest a mutual desire of uniting. Those who prefer the spring

for grafting commence operations immediately after the vernal

equinox, reckoning on the fact that then the buds are just

coming out, a thing that greatly facilitates the union of the

barks. On the other hand, those who prefer the autumn graft

immediately after the rising of Arcturus, because then the graft

at once takes root in some degree, and becomes seasoned for

spring, so as not to exhaust its strength all at once in the process of germination. However, there are certain fixed periods

of the year, in all cases, for certain trees; thus, the cherry,

for instance, and the almond, are either planted or grafted about

the winter solstice. For many trees the nature of the locality

will be the best guide; thus, where the soil is cold and moist

it is best to plant in spring, and where it is dry and hot, in

autumn.



Taking Italy in general, the proper periods for these operations may be thus distributed:-The mulberry is planted at

any time between the ides of February[10] and the vernal equinox; the pear, in the autumn, but not beyond the fifteenth

day before the winter solstice; the summer apples, the quince,

the sorb, and the plum, between mid-winter and the ides of

February: the Greek carob[11] and the peach, at any time in

autumn before the winter solstice; the various nuts, such as

the walnut, pine, filbert, almond, and chesnut, between the

calends of March[12] and the ides of that month;[13] the willow

and the broom about the calends of March. The broom is

grown from seed, and in a dry soil, the willow from plants, in

a damp locality, as already stated on former occasions.[14]



(19.) That I may omit nothing to my knowledge of the

facts that I have anywhere been able to ascertain, I shall here

add a new method of grafting, which has been discovered by

Columella,[15] as he asserts, by the aid of which trees even of a

heterogeneous or dissociable nature may be made to unite;







such, for instance, as the fig and the olive. In accordance

with this plan, he recommends that a fig-tree should be planted

near an olive, at a distance sufficiently near to admit of the fig

being touched by a branch of the olive when extended to its

full length; as supple and pliant a one as possible being selected

for' the purpose, and due care being taken all the time to

render it seasoned by keeping it constantly on the stretch.

After this, when the fig has gained sufficient vigour, a thing

that generally happens at the end of three or five years at

most, the top of it is cut off, the end of the olive branch being

also cut to a point in the manner already stated.[16] This

point is then to be inserted in the trunk of the fig, and made

secure with cords, lest, being bent, it should happen to rebound:

in this way we find the method of propagating by layers combined with that of grafting. This union between the two parent trees is allowed to continue for three years, and then in

the fourth the branch is cut away and left entirely upon the

tree that has so adopted it. This method however, is not

at present universally known, at all events, so far as I have

been able to ascertain.







1. De Re Rust. 44. The rules here given are still very generally observed.

2. B. xv. c. 6.

3. See c. 2 of this Book, and B. xviii. c. 69.

4. The olive is an extremely long-lived tree; it has been known to live

as long as nine or ten centuries. A fragment of the bark, with a little

wood attached, if put in the ground, will throw out roots and spring up.

Hence it is not to be wondered at, that the ancients looked upon it as immortal.

5. B. xviii. c. 74.

6. B. xviii. c. 74.

7. B. ii. c. 47, and B. xviii. c. 68,

8. There is a contradiction here; a few lines above, he says that they

do plant their trees in Greece at this period. He may possibly mean "sow."

9. See B. xvi. c. 41. The rules here laid down by Pliny are, as Fee

remarks, much too rigorous, and must be modified according to extraneous

circumstances.

10. 13th of February.

11. B. xv. c 26.

12. 1st of March.

13. 15th of March.

14. B. xvi. cc. 30, 46, 67, and 78.

15. De Re Rust. B. v. c. 11. A very absurd and useless method, Fe

remarks.

16. In c. 24 of this Book.




31. Chap. 31.-Cleaning And Baring The Roots, And Moulding Them.


CHAP. 31.-CLEANING AND BARING THE ROOTS, AND MOULDING

THEM.



In addition to these particulars, the same considerations

that I have already[1] mentioned in reference to warm or cold,

moist or dry soils, have also taught us the necessity of trenching around the roots. These trenches, however, in a moist,

watery soil, should be neither wide nor deep; while the contrary is the case where the ground is hot and dry; it being the

object, in the latter instance, to let them receive and retain as

much water as possible. This rule is applicable to the culture

of old trees as well; for in very hot places the roots are well

moulded in summer, and carefully covered up, to prevent the

heat of the sun from parching them. In other places, again,

the ground is cleared away from the roots, in order to give free

access to the air, while in winter they are carefully moulded

to protect them from the frost. The contrary is the case, however, in hot climates, for there they bare the roots in winter







for the purpose of ensuring a supply of moisture to the

parched fibres.



In all places the rule is to make a circular trench three

feet in width at the foot of the tree; this, however, it is not

possible to do in meadows, where the roots, in their fondness

for the sun and showers, range near the surface far and wide.

Such, then, are the general observations that we have to make

in reference to the planting and grafting of trees that we value

for their fruits.







1. At the precepts given in this Chapter have been already given in cc.

3 and 4 of the present Book.




32. Chap. 32. (20.)-Willow-Beds.


CHAP. 32. (20.)-WILLOW-BEDS.



It now remains to give an account of those trees which are

planted for the sake of others-the vine[1] more particularly-and the wood of which is cut from time to time. Holding the

very first rank among these we find the willow, a tree that is

always planted in a moist soil. The hole, however, should be

two feet and a half in depth, and the slip a foot and a half

only in length. Willow stakes are also used for the same

purpose, and the stouter they are the better: the distance left

between these last should be six feet. When they are three

years old their growth is checked by cutting them down

within a couple of feet from the ground, the object being to

make them spread out, so that by the aid of their branches

they may be cleared without the necessity of using a ladder;

for the willow is the more productive the nearer its branches

are to the ground. It is generally recommended to trench

round the willow every year, in the month of April. Such

is the mode of cultivation employed for the osier willow.[2]



The stake willow[3] is reproduced both from suckers and

cuttings, in a trench of the same dimensions. Stakes may be

cut from it at the end of about three years mostly. These

stakes are also used to supply the place of the trees as they

grow old, being fixed in the ground as layers, and cut away

from the trunk at the end of a year. A single jugerum of







osier willows will supply osiers[4] sufficient for twenty-five jugera

of vines. It is for a similar purpose that the white poplar[5]

is grown; the trenches being two feet deep and the cutting a

foot and a half in length. It is left to dry for a couple of days

before it is planted, and a space is left between the plants a foot

and a palm in width, after which they are covered with earth

to the depth of a couple of cubits.







1. The maple, linden, elm, and arundo donax, are still employed, as well

as the willow, for this purpose; the latter, however, but very rarely. The

account of its cultivation here given is borrowed from Columella, De Re

Rust. B. iv. c. 30.

2. The Salix viminalis of Linnus, or white osier.

3. The Salix alba of Linnus. These stakes, or props, are for the support of the vine.

4. For making baskets and bindings.

5. The Populus canescens of Willdenow.




33. Chap. 33.-Reed-Beds


CHAP. 33.-REED-BEDS



The reed[1] requires a soil still moister even than that employed for the willow. It is planted by placing the bulb of

the root, that part which some people call the "eye,"[2] in a

trench three quarters of a foot in depth, at intervals of two

feet and a half. A reed-bed will renew itself spontaneously

after the old one has been rooted up, a circumstance which it

has been found more beneficial to take advantage of than

merely to thin them, as was formerly the practice; the roots

being in the habit of creeping and becoming interlaced, a

thing that ends eventually in the destruction of the bed. The

proper time for planting reeds is before the eyes begin to swell,

or, in other words, before the calends of March.[3] The reed

continues to increase until the winter solstice but ceases to do

so when it begins to grow hard, a sign that it is fit for cutting.

It is generally thought, too, that the reed requires to be

trenched round as often as the vine.



The reed also is planted in a horizontal position,[4] and then

covered with earth to a very great depth; by this method as

many plants spring up as there are eyes. It is propagated, also,

by planting out in trenches a foot in depth, care being taken to

cover up two of the eyes, while a third knot is left just on a

level with the ground; the head, too, is bent downwards, that

it may not become charged with dew. The reed is usually cut

when the moon is on the wane.[5] When required for the

vineyard, it is better dried for a year than used in a green

state.











1. The Arundo donax of Linnus. This account is mostly from Columella, B. iv. c. 32.

2. B. xvi. c. 67.

3. First of March.

4. This method is condemned by Columella, De Arbor. 29, as the pro-

duce is poor, meagre, and weak. It is but little practised at the present

day.

5. A mere superstition, of course.




34. Chap. 34.-Other Plants That Are Cut For Poles And Stakes.


CHAP. 34.-OTHER PLANTS THAT ARE CUT FOR POLES AND

STAKES.



The chesnut is found to produce better stays[1] for the vine

than any other tree, both from the facility with which they

are worked, their extremely lasting qualities, and the circumstance that, when cut, the tree will bud again more speedily

than the willow[2] even. It requires a soil that is light without

being gravelly, a moist, sandy one more particularly, or else a

charcoal earth,[3] or a fine tufa[4] even; while at the same time

a northern aspect, however cold and shady, and if upon a

declivity even, greatly promotes its growth. It refuses to

grow, however, in a gravelly soil, or in red earth, chalk, or,

indeed, any kind of fertilizing ground. We have already

stated,[5] that it is reproduced from the nut, but it will

only grow from those of the largest size, and then only when

they are sown in heaps of five together. The ground above

the nuts should be kept broken from the month of November

to February, as it is at that period that the nuts lose their

hold and fall of themselves from the tree, and then take

root. There ought to be intervals of a foot in width left

between them,[6] and the hole in which they are planted should

be nine inches every way. At the end of two years or more

they are transplanted from this seed plot into another, where

they are laid out at intervals of a couple of feet.



Layers are also employed for the reproduction of this tree,

and there is none to which they are better[7] adapted: the root

of the plant is left exposed, and the layer is placed in the

trench at full length, with the summit also protruding from

the earth; the result being, that it shoots from the top as well







as the root. When transplanted, however, it is very hard to be

reconciled, as it stands in dread of all change. Hence it is,

that it is nearly two years before it will begin to shoot upward;

from which circumstance it is generally preferred to rear the

slips in the nursery from the nut itself, to obtaining them from

quicksets. The mode of cultivation does not differ from that

employed with the plants already mentioned.[8] It is trenched

around, and carefully lopped for two successive years; after

which it is able to take care of itself, the shade it gives sufficing

to stifle all superfluous suckers: before the end of the sixth

year it is fit for cutting.



A single jugerum of chesnuts will provide stays for twenty

jugera of vineyard, and the branches that are taken from near

the roots afford a supply of two-forked uprights; they will last,

too, till after the next cutting of the tree.



The sculus,[9] too, is grown in a similar manner, the time

for cutting being three years at the latest. Being less difficult, too, to propagate, it may be planted in any kind of earth,

the acorn-and it is only with the sculus that this is done-being sown in spring, in a hole nine inches in depth, with intervals between the plants of two feet in width. This tree is

lightly hoed, four times a year. This kind of stay is the least

likely to rot of them all; and the more the tree is cut, the

more abundantly it shoots. In addition to the above, they

also grow other trees for cutting that we have already mentioned-the ash for instance, the laurel, the peach, the hazel,

and the apple; but then they are of slower growth, and the

stays made from them, when fixed in the ground, are hardly

able to withstand the action of the earth, and much less any

moisture. The elder, on the other hand, which affords stakes

of the very stoutest quality, is grown from cuttings, like the

poplar. As to the cypress, we have already spoken of it at

sufficient length.[10]







1. "Pedamenta," uprights, stays, stakes, or props.

2. This is not the fact, for the chesnut both grows and buds very slowly.

3. A black, hot kind of earth. See c. 3 of this Book.

4. In reality, the chesnut will not thrive in a tufaccous or, indeed, in any

kind of calcareous, soil.

5. In B. xv. c. 26.

6. The heaps of five in which they are sown.

7. The chesnut is grown with the greatest dfficulty from layers and slips,

and never from suckers. Pliny borrows this erroneous assertion from

Columella, I. iv. c. 32. In mentioning the heaps of five nuts, Pliny seems

to have had some superstitious observance in view, for Columella only says

that they must be sown thickly, to prevent accident. The same is done at

the present day, in order to making provision for the depredations of field-

mice, rats, and mice, which are particularly fond of them.

8. The willow and the reed.

9. See B. xvi. cc. 5. 6, and 56.

10. In B. xvi. c. 60.




35. Chap. 35. (21.)-The Culture Of The Vine And The Various Shrubs Which Support It.


CHAP. 35. (21.)-THE CULTURE OF THE VINE AND THE VARIOUS

SHRUBS WHICH SUPPORT IT.



Having now described what we may call the armoury[1] of







the vine, it remains for us to treat with a particular degree of

care of the nature of the vine itself.



The shoots of the vine, as also of certain other trees, the

interior of which is naturally of a spongy quality, have certain

knots or joints upon the stem that intercept the pith. The intervals between these joints in the branches are short, and

more particularly so towards the extremities. The pith, in

itself the vivifying spirit of the tree, is always taking an

onward direction, so long as the knot, by being open in the

centre, allows it a free passage. If, however, the knot should

become solidified and deny it a passage, the pith is then thrown

downward upon the knot that lies next below it, and making

its escape, issues forth there in the shape of a bud, these buds

always making their appearance on each side alternately, as

already mentioned in the case of the reed and the giant-fennel;[2] in other words, here one bud makes its appearance

at the bottom of a knot to the right, the next one takes its place

on the left, and so on alternately. In the vine this bud is known

as the "gem,"[3] as soon as the pith has formed there a small

round knob; but before it has done this, the concavity that is

left upon the surface is merely called the "eye:"[4] when situate

at the extremity of the shoot, it is known as the " germ."[5]

It is in the same way, too, that the stock branches, suckers,

grapes, leaves, and tendrils of the vine are developed: and it

is a very surprising tact, that all that grows on the right[6]

side of the tree is stronger and stouter than on the left.



Hence it is, that when slips of this tree are planted, it is

necessary to cut these knots in the middle, in order to prevent

the pith from making its escape. In the same way, too,

when planting the fig, suckers are taken, nine inches in length,

and after the ground is opened they are planted with the part

downwards that grew nearest to the tree, and with a couple of

eyes protruding from the earth-in slips of trees, that part is

properly called the eye which is to give birth to the: future

bud. It is for this reason that, in the seed-plots even the







slips that are thus planted sometimes bear the same year the

fruit that they would have borne if they had remained upon

the tree: this takes place when they have been planted in

good seasons and are replete with fecundity, for then they

bring to maturity the fruits the conception of which was commenced in another spot. Fig-trees that are thus planted may

very easily be transplanted in the third year. As some compensation for the rapidity with which this tree becomes[7] old,

it has thus received the privilege of coming to maturity[8] at a

very early period.



The vine throws out a great number of shoots. In the first

place, however, none of them are ever used for planting,

except those which are useless, and would have been cut away

as mere brushwood; while, on the other hand, every part is

pruned off that has borne fruit the previous year. In former

times, it was the custom to plant the slip with a head at the

extremity, consisting of a piece of the hard wood on each side

of it, the same, in fact, that is called a mallet shoot[9] at the

present day. In more recent times, however, the practice

has been adopted of pulling it off merely with a heel attached

to it, as in the fig;[10] and there is no kind of slip that takes

with greater certainty. A third method, again, has been added

to the former ones, and a more simple one as well, that of

taking the slip without any heel at all. These slips are

known by the name of arrow-[11] shoots, when they are twisted

before planting; and the same, when they are neither cut

short nor twisted, are called three-budded[12] slips. The same

sucker very often furnishes several slips of this kind. To

plant a stock-shoot[13] of the vine is unproductive, and, indeed,

no shoots will bear unless they are taken from a part that has

borne fruit already. A slip that has but few knots upon it, is

looked upon as likely not to bear; while a great number of

buds is considered an indication of fruitfulness. Some persons

say that no suckers ought to be planted, but those which have

already blossomed. It is far from advantageous[14] to plant







arrow-slips, for after being twisted, they are apt to break in

transplanting. The slips when planted should be a foot in

length,[15] and not less, and they ought to have five or six knots

upon them; with the dimensions above stated, they cannot,

however, possibly have less than three buds. It is considered

the most advantageous plan to plant them out the same day

that they are cut; but if it is found necessary to plant them

some time after, they should be kept in the way that we have

already mentioned;[16] particular care being taken not to let

them protrude from the earth, lest they should become dried

by the action of the sun, or nipped by the wind or frost.

When they have been kept too long in a dry place, they must

be put in water for several days, for the purpose of restoring

their verdancy and freshness.



The spot selected, whether for nursery or vineyard, ought

to be exposed to the sun, and of as great extent as possible;

the soil being turned up to a depth of three feet with a two-pronged fork. The earth, on being thrown up with the mattock,[17] swells naturally,[18] and ridges are formed with it four feet

in height, intersected by trenches a couple[19] of feet in depth.

The earth in the trenches is carefully cleansed and raked out,[20]

so that none of it may be left unbroken, care being taken also

to keep it exactly level; if the ridges are unequal, it shows

that the ground has been badly dug. At the same time the

breadth should be measured of each ridge that lies between

the trenches. The slips are planted either in holes or else in

elongated furrows, and then covered with very fine earth;

but where it is a light soil, the grower will lose his pains

should he neglect to place a layer of richer mould beneath.

Not less than a couple of slips should be planted together,

keeping them exactly on a level with the adjoining earth,

which should be pressed down and made compact with the

dibble. In the seed-plot there should be intervals left between

each two settings a foot and a half in breadth and half a foot

in length: when thus planted, it is usual, at the end of two

years, to cut the mallet-shoots at the knot nearest the ground,







unless there is some good reason for sparing them. When this

is done, they throw out eyes, and with these upon them at the

end of three years the quicksets are transplanted.



There is another method, also, of planting[21] the vine, which

a luxurious refinement in these matters has introduced. Four

mallet-shoots are tightly fastened together with a cord in tile

greenest part, and when thus arranged are passed through the

shank-bone of an ox or else a tube of baked earth, after which

they are planted in the ground, care being taken to leave a

couple of buds protruding: in this way they become impregnated with moisture, and, immediately on being cut, throw out

fresh wood. The tube is then broken, upon which the root,

thus set at liberty, assumes fresh vigour, and the clusters[22] ultimately bear upon them grapes belonging to the four kinds

thus planted together.



In consequence of a more recent discovery, another method

has been adopted. A mallet-shoot is split down the middle

and the pith extracted, after which the two portions are fastened

together, every care being taken not to injure the buds. The

mallet-shoot is then planted in a mixture of earth and manure,

and when it begins to throw out branches it is cut, the ground

being repeatedly dug about it. Columella[23] assures us that the

grapes of this plant will have no stones, but it is a more surprising thing that the slip itself should survive when thus deprived of the pith.[24] Still, however, I think I ought not to

omit the fact that there are some slips that grow without the ordinary articulations of trees upon them; thus, for instance, five

or six very small sprigs of box[25] if tied together and put in

the ground, will take root. It was formerly made a point to

take these sprigs from a box-tree that had not been lopped, as

it was fancied that in the last case they would not live; experience, however, has since put an end to that notion.



The culture of the vineyard naturally follows the training

of the nursery. There are five[26] different kinds of vine: that







with the branches running[27] along the ground, the vine that

stands without support,[28] the vine that is propped and requires no cross-piece,[29] the vine that is propped and requires

a single cross-piece, and the vine that requires a trellis of four

compartments.[30] The mode of cultivation requisite for the

propped vine may be understood as equally adapted to the one

that stands by itself and requires no support, for this last method is only employed where there is a scarcity of wood for stays.

The stay with the single cross-piece in a straight line is known

by the name of "canterius." It is the best of all for the

wine, for then the tree throws no shadow, and the grape is

ripened continuously by the sun, while, at the same time, it

derives more advantage from the action of the wind, and disengages the dew with greater facility: the superfluous leaves

and shoots, too, are more easily removed, and the breaking up

of the earth and other operations about the tree are effected

with greater facility. But, above all, by the adoption of this

method, the tree sheds its blossoms more beneficially than

under any other circumstances. This cross-piece is generally

made of a stake, or a reed, or else of a rope of hair or hemp,

as is usually the case in Spain and at Brundisium. When the

trellis is employed, wine is produced in greater quantities;

this method has its name of "compluviata" from the "compluvium" or square opening in the roofs of our houses; the

trellis is divided into four compartments by as many crosspieces. This mode of planting the vine will now be treated

of, and it will be found equally applicable to every kind, with

the only difference that under this last method the operation

is somewhat more complicated.



The vine is planted three different ways; in a soil that has

been turned up with the spade-the best of the three; in furrows, which is the next best; and in holes, the least advisable

method of all: of the way in which ground is prepared by

digging, we have made sufficient mention already. (22.) In

preparing the furrows[31] for the vine it will be quite sufficient







if they are a spade in breadth; but if holes are employed for

the purpose, they should be three feet every way. The depth

required for every kind of vine is three feet; it should, therefore, be made a point not to transplant any vine that is less

than three feet in length, allowing then two buds to be above

the ground. It will be necessary, too, to soften the earth by

working little furrows at the bottom of the hole, and mixing

it up with manure. Where the ground is declivitous, it is

requisite that the hole should be deeper, in addition to which

it should be artificially elevated on the edge of the lower side.

Holes of this nature, which are made a little longer, to receive

two vines, are known as "alvei," or beds. The root of the

vine should occupy the middle of the hole, and when firmly

fixed in the ground it should incline at the top due east; its

first support it ought to receive from a reed.[32] The vineyard

should be bounded by a decuman[33] path eighteen feet in width,

sufficiently wide, in fact, to allow two carts to pass each other;

others, again, should run at right angles to it, ten feet in

width, and passing through the middle of each jugerum; or

else, if the vineyard is of very considerable extent, cardinal[34]

paths may be formed instead of them, of the same breadth as

the decuman path. At the end, too, of every five of the stays a

path should be made to run, or, in other words, there should

be one continuous cross-piece to every five stays; each space

that is thus included from one end to the other forming a

bed.[35]



Where the soil is dense and hard it must be turned up only

with the spade, and nothing but quicksets should be planted

there; but where, on the other hand, it is thin and loose,

mallet-shoots even may be set either in hole or furrow. Where

the ground is declivitous it is a better plan to draw furrows

across than to turn up all the soil with the spade, so that the

falling away of the earth may be counteracted by the position

of the cross-pieces.[36] It will be best, too, where the weather







is wet or the soil naturally dry, to plant the mallet-shoots in

autumn, unless, indeed, there is anything in the nature of the

locality to counteract it; for while a dry, hot soil makes it

necessary to plant in autumn, in a moist, cold one it may be

necessary to defer it until the end of spring even. In a

parched soil, too, it would be quite in vain to plant quicksets,

and it is far from advantageous to set mallet-shoots in a dry

ground, except just after a fall of rain. On the other hand,

in moist localities, a vine in leaf even may be transplanted and

thrive very well, and that, too, even as late as the summer

solstice, in Spain, for example. It is of very considerable advantage that there should be no wind stirring on the day of

planting, and, though many persons are desirous that there

should be a south wind blowing at the time, Cato[37] is of quite

a different way of thinking.



In a soil of medium quality, it is best to leave an interval of

five[38] feet between every two vines; where it is very fertile

the distance should be five feet at least, and where it is poor

and thin eight at the very most. The Umbri and the Marsi

leave intervals between their vines of as much as twenty feet

in length, for the purpose of ploughing between them; such

a plot of ground as this they call by the name of "porculetum." In a rainy, foggy locality, the plants ought to be set

wider apart, but in dry spots nearer to one another. Careful

observation has discovered various methods of economizing

space; thus, for instance, when a vineyard is planted in

shaded ground, a seed-plot is formed there as well; or, in

other words, at the same time that the quickset is planted in

the place which it is finally to occupy, the mallet-shoot intended for transplanting is set between the vines, as well as

between the rows. By adopting this method, each jugerum

will produce about sixteen thousand quicksets; and the result

is, that two years' fruit is gained thereby, a cutting planted

being two years later in bearing than a quickset transplanted.

Quicksets, when growing in a vineyard, are cut down at

the end of a year, leaving only a single eye above ground;







some manure is then placed upon the spot, and a stay driven

in close to the plant. In the same manner it is again cut

down at the end[39] of the second year, and from this it acquires

additional strength, and receives nutriment to enable it to

endure the onerous task of reproduction. If this is neglected,

in its over-haste to bear it will shoot up slim and meagre,

like a bulrush, and from not being subjected to such a training, will grow to nothing but wood. In fact, there is no tree

that grows with greater eagerness than the vine, and if its

strength is not carefully husbanded for the bearing of fruit, it

will be sure to grow to nothing but wood.



The best props for supporting the vine are those which we

have already mentioned,[40] or else stays made of the robur and

the olive; if these cannot be procured, then props of juniper,

cypress, laburnum, or elder,[41] must be employed. If any other

wood is used for the purpose, the stakes should be cut at the

end each year: reeds tied together in bundles make excellent

cross-rails for the vine, and will last as long as five years.

Sometimes the shorter stock-branches of the vines are brought

together and tied with vine-cuttings, like so many cords: by

this method an arcade is formed, known to us by the name of

"funetum."



The vine, by the end of the third year, throws out strong

and vigorous stock-branches with the greatest rapidity, and

these in due time form the tree; after this, it begins to mount

the cross-piece. Some persons are in the habit of "blinding"

the vine at this period, by removing the eyes with the end of

the pruning-knife turned upwards, their object being to increase the length of the branches-a most injurious practice,

however; for it is far better to let the tree become habituated

to grow of itself, and to prune away the tendrils every now

and then when they have reached the cross-rail, so long as it

may be deemed proper to add to its strength. There are some

persons who forbid the vine to be touched for a whole year

after it has been transplanted, and who say that the pruning-knife ought never to be used before it is five years old; and







then at that period they are for cutting it down so completely

as to leave three buds only. Others, again, cut down the vine

within a year even after it has been transplanted, but then

they take care to let the stem increase every year by three or

four joints, bringing it on a level with the cross-piece by the

fourth. These two methods, however, both of them, retard the

fruit and render the tree stunted and knotty, as we see the

case in all dwarf trees. The best plan is to make the parent

stem as robust and vigorous as possible, and then the wood

will be sure to be strong and hardy. It is far from safe, too,

to take slips from a cicatrized stem; such a practice is erro-

neous, and only the result of ignorance. All cuttings of this

nature are sure to be the offspring of acts of violence, and not

in reality of the tree itself. The vine, while growing, should

be possessed of all its natural strength; and we find that

when left entirely to itself, it will throw out wood in every

part; for there is no portion of it that Nature does not act

upon. When the stem has grown sufficiently strong for the

purpose, it should at once be trained to the cross-piece; if, how-

ever, it is but weak, it should be cut down so as to lie below

the hospitable shelter of the cross-piece. Indeed, it is the

strength of the stem, and not its age, that ought to decide the

matter. It is not advisable[42] to attempt to train a vine before

the stem has attained the thickness of the thumb; but in the

year after it has reached the frame, one or two stock-branches

should be preserved, according to the strength developed by

the parent tree. The same, too, must be done the succeeding

year, if the weakness of the stem demands it; and in the next,

two more should be added. Still, however, there should never

be more than four branches allowed to grow; in one word,

there must be no indulgence shown, and every exuberance in

the tree must in all cases be most carefully repressed; for

such is the nature of the vine, that it is more eager to bear

than it is to live. It should be remembered, too, that all that

is subtracted from the wood is so much added to the fruit.

The vine, in fact, would much rather produce shoots and ten-

drils than fruit, because[43] its fruit, after all, is but a transitory

possession: hence it is that it luxuriates to its own undoing,

and instead of really gaining ground, exhausts itself.







The nature, too, of the soil will afford some very useful

suggestions. Where it is thin and hungry, even though the

vine should display considerable vigour, it should be pruned

down below the cross-piece and kept there, so that all the

shoots may be put forth below it. The interval, however, between the top of the vine and the cross-piece ought to be but

very small; so much so, indeed, as to leave it hopes, as it

were, of reaching it, which, however, it must never be suffered

to do; for it should never be allowed to recline thereon and

spread and run on at its ease. This mode of culture ought, in

fact, to be so nicely managed, that the vine should show an

inclination rather to grow in body than to run to wood.



The main branch should have two or three buds left below

the cross-piece that give promise of bearing wood, and it

should be carefully trained along the rail, and drawn close

to it in such a manner as to be supported by it, and not

merely hang loosely from it. When this is done, it should

be tightly fastened also with a binding three buds off, a

method which will greatly contribute to check the too abundant growth of the wood, while stouter shoots will be thrown

out below the ligature: it is absolutely forbidden, however, to tie the extremity of the main branch. When all

this is done, Nature operates in the following way-the parts

that are allowed to fall downward, or those which are held fast

by the ligature, give out fruit, those at the bend of the branch

more particularly. On the other hand, the portion that lies

below the ligature throws out wood; by reason, I suppose, of

the interception of the vital spirit and the marrow or pith, previously mentioned:[44] the wood, too, that is grown under these

circumstances will bear fruit in the following year. In this

way there are two kinds of stock branches: the first of which,

issuing from the solid stock, gives promise of wood only for

this year, and is known as the leaf stock-branch;[45] while that

which grows beyond the mark made by the ligature is a fruit

stock-branch.[46] There are other kinds, again, that shoot from

the stock-branches when they are a year old, and these are in

all cases fruit stock-branches. There is left, also, beneath the

cross-piece a shoot that is known as the reserve[47] shoot, being

always a young stock-branch, with not more than three buds

upon it. This is intended to give out wood the next year, in







case the vine by over-luxuriance should happen to exhaust

itself. Close to it there is another bud left, no bigger than a

wart; this is known as the "furunculus,"[48] and is kept in

readiness in case the reserve shoot should fail.



The vine, if enticed to bear fruit before the seventh year

from its being planted as a slip, will pine[49] away, become as

slim as a bulrush, and die. It is thought equally undesirable,

too, to let an old stock-branch range far and wide, and extend

as far as the fourth stay from the stem; to such a branch the

name of dragon[50]-branch is given by some, and of juniculus by

others; if these are allowed to spread, they will run to wood

only, and make male vines, as they are called. When a vine

has become quite hard, it is an extremely bad plan to use it

for reproduction by layers. When the vine is five years old

the stock-branches are twisted, but each is allowed to throw

out some new wood; and so from one to another, care being

taken to prune away the old wood. It is always the best

plan, however, to leave a reserve shoot; but this should always

be very near the main stem of the vine, not at a greater distance, in fact, than that already mentioned.[51] If, too, the

stock branches should throw out too luxuriantly, they must

be twisted, the object being that the vine may put forth no

more than four secondary branches, or even two only, if it

happens to be a single cross-railed vine.



If the vine is to be trained to grow without any stay at all,

still it will stand in need, at first, of some support or other,

until it has learnt to support itself: in all other respects the

mode of proceeding will be the same at first. When pruning,

it will be necessary that the thumb-branches[52] should be arranged in equal numbers on either side, in order that the fruit

may not overload one side of the tree; and we may here remark

by the way, that the fruit by its weight is apt to bear down

the tree and counteract any tendency to increase in height.

The vine, unsupported, when more than three feet in height,

begins to bend, but the others do not, until they are five feet







high at the least; care should be taken, however, never to let

them exceed the height of a man of moderate stature. Growers

are in the habit of surrounding the vines that creep along the

ground with a low fence[53] for them to lean upon; and round

this fence they dig a trench by way of precaution, for fear lest

the branches in their range should meet one another and so

come into collision. The greater part of the world, in fact,

gather grapes at their vintage, grown in this fashion, and lying

upon the ground-at all events, it is so in Africa, Egypt, and

Syria; throughout the whole of Asia, too, and in many parts

of Europe as well, this method prevails. In such cases the

vine ought to be kept down close to the ground, and the root

should be nurtured at the same time and in just the same way

as in the case of the vine that grows on the cross-piece. Care,

too, should be taken to leave only the young thumb-shoots,

together with three buds, where it is a prolific soil, two where

it is poor and thin: it is better, too, that the shoots should be

numerous than individually long. The influences of soil, of

which we have made mention already, will make themselves

felt all the more powerfully the nearer the grapes grow to the

ground.



It is a very advantageous plan to separate[54] the various

species of vines and to set them in different compartments-for the mixture of different varieties is apt to deteriorate the

flavour not only of the must, but the wine even as well. If,

again, for some reason or other, the different kinds must be

intermingled, it will be requisite to keep all those together

which ripen at exactly the same period. The more fertile and

the more level the soil, the higher the cross-pieces must he

placed.[55] High cross-pieces, too, are best suited to localities

that are subject to heavy dews and fogs, but not to those

that are exposed to high winds; on the other hand, where the

soil is thin, parched, and arid, or exposed to the wind, the

cross-pieces should be set lower. The cross-piece should be

fastened to the stay with cords tied as tight as possible, while

the bindings used for tying the vine should be thin. As to

the various species of vines, and the soils and climates requi-







site for the growth of each, we have already treated[56] of them,

when enumerating the several varieties of the vine and the

wines which they produce.



With reference to other points connected with the culture

of the vine, there are very considerable doubts. Many persons recommend that the vineyard should be turned up with

the spade after every dew that falls in the summer. Others,

again, forbid this practice when the vine is in bud; for the

clothes, they say, of the people coming and going to and fro

are apt to catch the buds, and either knock or rub them off;

it is for this reason, too, that they are so careful to keep all

animals away from the vines, those with long wool in particular, as it is very apt to pull off the buds. Raking, too,

they say, is very injurious to the vine while the grape is forming; and it will be quite sufficient, they assure us, if the

ground is turned up three times in the year, after the vernal

equinox-first, at the rising of the Vergili,[57] the second at

the rising of the Dog-star, and the third time just as the grape

is turning black. Some persons make it a rule that an old

vineyard shall have one turning up between the time of vintage and the winter solstice, though others, again, are of opinion that it is quite sufficient to bare the roots and manure

them. They turn up the ground again after the ides of April,[58]

but before the time for germination, or, in other words, the

sixth of the ides of May;[59] then again before the tree begins

to blossom, after it has shed its blossom, and, last of all,

when the grape is just on the turn. The most skilful growers

say that if the ground is dug up oftener than necessary, the

grapes will become so remarkably thin-skinned as to burst.

When the ground is turned up, care should be taken to do it

before the hot hours of the day; a clayey soil, too, should

never be ploughed or dug. The dust that is raised in digging

is beneficial[60] to the vine, it is said, by protecting it from the

heat of the sun and the injurious effects of fogs.



The spring clearing ought to be done, it is universally admitted, within ten days after the ides of May,[61] and before the







blossoming begins; in addition to which, it should always be

done below the cross-piece. As to the second clearing, opinions differ very considerably. Some think it ought to be done

when the blossoming is over, others, again, when the grapes

are nearly at maturity. This point, however, may be decided

by following the advice of Cato on the subject; for we must

now pass on to a description of the proper' mode of pruning

the vine.



Immediately after[62] the vintage, and while the weather is still

warm, the work of pruning[63] begins; this, however, ought never

to be done, for certain physical reasons,[64] before the rising of the

Eagle, as we shall have occasion to explain in the following

Book. Nor should it be done either when the west winds

begin to prevail, for even then there is great doubt whether a

fault may not be committed by being in too great haste to

commence the work. If any return of wintry weather should

chance to nip the vines, while still labouring under the wounds

recently inflicted on them in pruning, there is little doubt

that their buds will become quite benumbed with cold, the

wounds will open again, and the eyes, moistened by the juices

that distil from the tree, will become frost-bitten by the rigour

of the weather. For who is there,[65] in fact, that does not know

that the buds are rendered brittle by frost? All this, however, depends upon accurate calculations in the management of

large grounds, and the blame of precipitation cannot with any

justice be laid upon Nature. The earlier the vine is pruned,

in suitable weather, the greater is the quantity of wood, while

the later the pruning, the more abundant is the fruit. Hence

it is that it is most advisable to prune the poor meagre vines

first, and to defer pruning the more thriving ones to the very

last. In pruning, due care should always be taken to cut in

a slanting direction, in order[66] that the rain may run off with

all the greater facility. The wounds, too, should look down-







wards towards the ground, and should be made as lightly as

possible, the edge of the knife being well-sharpened for the

purpose, so as to make a clean cut each time. Care should be

taken, too, to cut always between two buds, and that the eyes

are not injured in the operation. It is generally thought that

wherever the vine is black, all those parts may be cut off, the

healthy parts not being touched; as no useful shoots can be

put forth by wood that is bad in itself. If a meagre vine has

not good stock-shoots, the best plan is to cut it down to the

ground, and then to train new ones. In clearing away the

leaves, too, those leaves should not be removed which accompany

the clusters, for by so doing the grapes are made to fall off, except where the vine happens to be young. Those leaves are

regarded as useless which grow on the sides of the trunk and

not from an eye; and so, too, are the bunches which shoot

from the hard, strong wood, and are only to be removed by the

aid of the knife.



Some persons are of opinion that it is a better plan to fix

the stay midway between two vines; and, indeed, by the adoption of this method the roots are cleared with greater facility.

It is best, however, where the vine needs but a single cross-

rail, due care being taken that the rail is a strong one, and the

locality not exposed to high winds. In the case of those

vines which require trellissed cross-rails, the stay should be

placed as near as possible to the burden it has to support; in

order, however, that there may be no impediment thrown in

the way of clearing the roots, it may be placed at the distance

of one cubit from the stock, but not more. It is generally

recommended to clear the roots before the pruning[67] is commenced.



Cato[68] gives the following general precepts in relation to the

culture of the vine:-" Let the vine grow as high as possible,

and fasten it firmly, but not too tight. You should treat it in

the following manner. Clean the roots of the vine at seedtime, and after pruning it dig about it, and then begin to

labour at the ground, by tracing with the plough continuous

furrows every way. Plant the young vines in layers as early

as possible, and then break up the ground about them. If the







vine is old, take care and prune it as little as possible. In

preference, bend the vine into the ground for layers, if necessary, and cut it at the end of two years. The proper time for

cutting the young vine, is when it has gained sufficient

strength. If the vineyard is bald of vines, then draw furrows

between them, and plant quicksets there: but let no shadow

be thrown on the furrows, and take care and dig them often.

If the vineyard is old, sow ocinum[69] there, in case the trees are

meagre: but take care and sow there nothing that bears seed.

Put manure, chaff, and grape-husks about the roots, or, indeed, anything of a similar nature that will give the tree additional strength. As soon as the vine begins to throw out

leaves, set about clearing them. Fasten the young trees in

more places than one, so that the stem may not break. As

soon as it begins to run along the stay, fasten down the young

branches lightly, and extend them, in order that they may gain

the right position. When the grape begins to be mottled,

then tie down the vine. The first season for grafting the vine

is the spring, the other when the grape is in blossom; the last

period is the best. If it is your wish to transplant an old

vine, you will only be able to do so in case it is no thicker than

the arm: first, however, you must prune it, taking care not to

have more than two buds upon the stem. Then dig it well up

by the roots, being careful to trace them, and using every

possible precaution not to injure them. Place it in the hole or

furrow exactly in the position in which it has stood before,

then cover it with earth, which should be well trodden down.

You must then prop it up, fasten it, and turn it in the same

direction as before; after which, dig about it repeatedly." The

ocinum that Cato here recommends to be sown in the vineyards, is a fodder known by that name by the ancients; it

thrives in the shade remarkably well, and received its name[70]

from the rapidity with which it grows.



(23.) We come now to speak of the method of growing

vines upon trees,[71] a mode that has been condemned[72] in the

strongest terms by the Saserna's, both father and son, and up-







held by Scrofa, these being our most ancient writers on agri-

culture next to Cato, and men of remarkable skill. Indeed,

Scrofa himself will not admit that it is beneficial anywhere

except in Italy. The experience of ages, however, hats sufficiently proved that the wines of the highest quality are only

grown upon vines attached to trees, and that even then the

choicest wines are produced by the upper part of the tree, the

produce of the lower part being more abundant; such being the

beneficial results of elevating the vine. It is with a view to

this that the trees employed for this purpose are selected. In

the first rank of all stands the elm,[73] with the exception of the

Atinian variety, which is covered with too many leaves; and

next comes the black poplar, which is valued for a similar

reason, being not so densely covered with leaves. Most people,

too, by no means hold the ash and the fig in disesteem, as

also the olive, if it is not overshadowed with branches. We

have treated at sufficient length already of the planting and

culture of these several trees.



They must not be touched with the knife before the end of

three years; and then the branches are preserved, on each side

in its turn, the pruning being done in alternate years. In the

sixth year the vine is united to the tree. In Italy beyond the

Padus, in addition to the trees already mentioned, they plant

for their vines the cornel, the opulus, the linden, the maple,

the ash, the yoke-elm, and the quercus; while in Venetia they

grow willows for the purpose, on account of the humidity[74] of

the soil. The top of the elm is lopped away, and the branches

of the middle are regularly arranged in stages; no tree in

general being allowed to exceed twenty feet in height. The

stories begin to spread out in the tree at eight feet from the

ground, in the hilly districts and upon dry soils, and at twelve

in champaign and moist localities. The hand[75] of the trunk

ought to have a southern aspect, and the branches that project

from them should be stiff and rigid like so many fingers; at

the same time due care should be taken to lop off the thin

beardlike twigs, in order to check the growth of all shade.

The interval best suited for the trees, if it is the grower's intention to keep the soil turned up with the plough, is forty feet

back and front, and twenty at the side; if it is not to be turned







up, then twenty feet[76] every way will do. A single tree is

often made to support as many as ten vines, and the grower is

greatly censured who attaches less than three. It is worse

than useless to attach the vine before the tree has gained its

full strength, as in such case its rapidity of growth would

only tend to kill the tree. It is necessary to plant the vine

in a trench three feet in depth, leaving an interval of one

foot between it and the tree. In this case there is no necessity for using mallet shoots, or for going to any expense in

spading or digging; for this method of training on trees has

this advantage in particular, that it is beneficial even to the

vine that corn should be sown in the same soil; in addition to

which, from its height, it is quite able to protect itself, and

does not call for the necessity, as in the case of an ordinary

vineyard, of enclosing it with walls and hedges or ditches,

made at a considerable expense, to protect it from injury by

animals.



In the method of training upon trees, reproduction from

quicksets or from layers is the only mode employed of all

those that have been previously described; the growing by

layers being effected two different ways, as already mentioned.

The plan, however, of growing from layers in baskets set upon

the stages[77] of the tree is the most approved one, as it ensures

an efficient protection from the ravages of cattle; while, according to another method, a vine or else a stock-branch is bent

into the ground near the tree it has previously occupied, or else

the nearest one that may be at liberty. It is recommended

that all parts of the parent tree that appear above ground

should then be scraped, so that it may not throw out wood;

while at the same time there are never less than four buds on

the part that is put into the ground for the purpose of taking

root; there are also two buds left above ground at the head.

The vine intended for training on a tree is planted in a furrow

four feet long, three broad, and two and a half in depth. At

the end of a year the layer is cut to the pith, to enable it to

strengthen gradually at the root; after which, the end of the

branch is pruned down to within two buds from the ground.

At the end of two years the layer is completely separated

from the stock, and buried deeper in the ground, that it may







not shoot at the place where it has been cut. As to the quicksets, they ought to be removed directly after the vintage.



In more recent times, a plan has been discovered of planting

a dragon branch near the tree-that being the name given to

an old stock-branch that has become hard and tough in the

course of years. For this purpose, it is cut as long as possible, and the bark is taken off from three-fourths of its length,

that being the portion which is to be buried in the ground;

hence it is, too, that it is called a "barked"[78] plant. It is

then laid at full length in the furrow, the remaining part protruding from the ground and reclining against the tree. This

method is the most speedy one that can be adopted for growing

the vine. If the vine is meagre or the soil impoverished, it is

usual to keep it cut down as near to the ground as possible,

until such time as the root is strengthened. Care, too, should

be taken not to plant it covered with dew,[79] nor yet while the

wind is blowing from the north. The vine itself ought to

look towards the north-east, but the young stock-shoots should

have a southern aspect.



There should not be too great haste[80] in pruning a young

vine, but a beginning should be made by giving the wood and

foliage a circular form, care being taken not to prune it until

it has become quite strong; it should be remembered, too,

that the vine, when trained upon a tree, is generally a year

later in bearing fruit than when grown on the cross-piece.

There are some persons, again, who altogether forbid that a

vine should be pruned until such time as it equals the tree in

height. At the first pruning it may be cut to within six feet

from the ground, below which a shoot must be left, and encouraged to run out by bending the young wood. Upon this

shoot, when pruned, there should not be more than three buds

left. The branches that take their rise from these buds should

be trained in the following year upon the lowermost stages of

the tree, and so in each successive year taught to climb to the

higher ones. Care, too, should always be taken to leave one

hard, woody branch at each stage, as well as one breeding

shoot, at liberty to mount as high as it pleases. In addition

to these precautions, in all pruning, those shoots should be cut

off which have borne fruit the last year, and after the ten-







drils[81] have been cut away on every side fresh branches should

be trained to run along the stages. In Italy the pruning is so

managed that the shoots and tendrils of the vines are arranged

so as to cover the branches of the tree, while the shoots of the

vine in their turn are surrounded with clusters of grapes. In

Gallia, on the other hand, the vine is trained to pass from tree

to tree. On the milian Way, again, the vine is seen embracing the trunks of the Atinian elms that line the road,

while at the same time it carefully avoids their foliage.[82]



It is a mark of ignorance in some persons to suspend the

vine with a cord beneath the branches of the tree, to the great

risk of stifling it; for it ought to be merely kept up with a

withe of osier, and not tightly laced. Indeed, in those places

where the willow abounds, the withes that it affords are preferred, on account of their superior suppleness, while the Sicilians employ for the purpose a grass, which they call "ampelodesmos:"[83] throughout the whole of Greece, rushes, cyperus,

and sedge[84] are similarly employed. When at any time the

vine has been liberated from its bonds, it should be allowed to

range uncontrolled for some days, and to spread abroad at

pleasure, as well as to recline upon the ground which it has

been looking down upon the whole year through. For in the

same manner that beasts of burden when released from the

yoke, and dogs when they have returned from the chase, love

to roll themselves on the ground, just so does the vine delight

to stretch its loins. The tree itself, too, seems to rejoice, and,

thus relieved from the continuous weight which has burdened

it, to have all the appearance of now enjoying a free respiration. Indeed, there is no object in all the economy of Nature

that does not desire certain alternations for the enjoyment of

rest, witness the succession of night and day, for instance. It

is for this reason that it is forbidden to prune the vine directly

the vintage is over, and while it is still exhausted by the

process of reproduction.



Directly the vine has been pruned, it ought to be fastened

again to the tree, but in another place; for there is no doubt

that it feels very acutely the indentations that are made in it







by the holdfasts. In the Gallic method of cultivation they

train out two branches at either side, if the trees are forty feet

apart, and four if only twenty; where they meet, these branches

are fastened together and made to grow in unison; if, too, they

are anywhere deficient in number or strength, care is taken

to fortify them by the aid of small rods. In a case, however,

where the branches are not sufficiently long to meet, they are

artificially prolonged by means of a hook, and so united to the

tree that desires their company. The branches thus trained to

unite they used to prime at the end of the second year. But

where the vine is aged, it is a better plan to give them a longer

time to reach the adjoining tree, in case they should not have

gained the requisive thickness; besides which, it is always

good to encourage the growth of the hard wood in the dragon

branches.



There is yet another method,[85] which occupies a middle

place between this mode of propagation and that by layers.

It consists of laying the entire vine in the earth, and then

splitting the stock asunder by means of wedges; the fibrous

portions are then trained out in as many furrows, care being

taken to support each of the slender plants by fastening it to

a stake, and not to cut away the branches that shoot from the

sides. The growers of Novara, not content with the multitude of shoots that run from tree to tree, nor yet with an

abundance of branches, encourage the stock-branches to entwine around forks planted in the ground for the purpose; a

method, however, which, in addition to the internal defects

arising from the soil, imparts a harshness to the wine.



There is another fault, too, that is committed by the people

of Varracina,[86] near Rome-they only prune their vines every

other year; not, indeed, because it is advantageous to the tree,

but from a fear lest, from the low prices fetched by their wines,

the expense might exceed the profits. At Carseoli they adopt

a middle course, by pruning away only the rotten parts of

the vine, as well as those which are beginning to wither, and

leaving the rest to bear fruit, after thus clearing away all

superfluous incumbrances. The only nutriment they give

it is this exemption from frequent pruning; but unless the

soil should happen to be a very rich one, the vine, under such







a method of cultivation, will very soon degenerate to a wild

state.



The vine that is thus trained requires the ground to be

ploughed very deep, though such is not the case for the sowing

there of grain. It is not customary to cut away the leaves

in this case, which, of course, is so much labour spared.

The trees themselves require pruning at the same period

as the vine, and are thinned by clearing away all useless

branches, and such parts as would only absorb the nutriment.

We have already[87] stated that the parts that are lopped should

never look north or south: and it will be better still, if they

have not a western aspect. The wounds thus made are very

susceptible for a considerable time, and heal with the greatest

difficulty, if exposed to excesses of cold or heat. The vine

when trained on a tree enjoys advantages that are not possessed by the others; for the latter have certain fixed aspects,

.while in the former, it is easy to cover up the wounds made

in pruning, or to turn them whichever way you please. When

trees are pruned at the top, cup-like cavities should be formed[88]

there, to prevent the water from lodging.







1. "Armamentis." More properly, "rigging," or "tackle." He al-

luides to the trees from which the uprights or stays for the vine are cut, or

which produce osiers for baskets and bindings required in the vintage.

2. See B. xiii. c. 42, and B. xvi. c. 65.

3. "Gemma." A name now given by botanists to the buds in general.

4. "Oculus." A bud undeveloped is still so called.

5. Germen.

6. This remark is not confirmed by experience.

7. On the contrary, the fig-tree has been known to live to a very great

age.

8. See B. xvi. c. 51.

9. This method of planting the vine is still extensively used; especially

the low kinds.

10. See c. 13 of this Book.

11. Sagitt.

12. Trigemmes.

13. "Pampinarius." This assertion has been found to be erroneous.

14. This practice has been condemned by modern cultivators.

15. From Columella, B. iii. c. 19.

16. In c. 24 of this Book.

17. "Marra." Probably a mattock, with several prongs.

18. Occupies more space when thus loosened.

19. As compared with the original level of the ground.

20. Query, if this is the meaning of "extendi"?

21. This method is no longer used.

22. This, Fe remarks, is not the case: the tree might bear four kinds of

grapes, but not four kinds on the same bunch.

23. De Arbor. c. 9. This is not the fact.

24. He was little aware, Fe says, that all ligneous plants have a radiating

pith, distinct from the central one.

25. See B. xvi. c. 72.

26. Oliver de Serres distinguishes only three-the low, middling, and tall

vines.

27. See B. xiv. c. 4.

28. See B. xiv. O. 4.

29. "Jugum." The cross-piece running along the top of the stay at right

angles; a rail or trail.

30. "Compluviat quadruplici." Four cross-pieces running at right

angles to the prop or stay. See B. xvi. c. 68.

31. When these trenches and furrows are employed by the moderns, they

are made to run as much as possible from east to west. Most of the rules

here mentioned by Pliny are still adopted in France.

32. Fe regards this precept as a puerility.

33. See B. xviii. c. 77.

34. See B. xviii. c. 77. Decuman roads or paths ran from east to west;

cardinal roads were those at right angles to them.

35. "Pagina." A set, compartment, or bed.

36. "Transtris." "Ridges," would appear to be the proper reading here;

more especially as it agrees with what has been previously said in this

Chapter in reference to declivitous ground.

37. De Re Rust. 40.

38. He differs somewhat in these measurements from Columella, B.

iv. c. 11.

39. This is condemned by Columella, B. iv. c. 11; but is approved of by

Virgil, Cato, and other authors.

40. In c. 34 of this Book.

41. Stays of elder would be utterly worthless, as they would soon rot, and

break directly, upon the least strain.

42. This applies solely, Fe observes, to the vine trained on the trail or

cross-piece.

43. This certainly appears to be a non seqitur, as applied to the vine.

44. In the present Chapter.

45. Pampinarium.

46. Fructuarium.

47. custos.

48. The pilferer, "or little thief," apparently,

49. This, Fe observes, is not in accordance with the fact.

50. "Draco." Male vines appear to have been a kind that threw out no

stock-branches, but ran to wood.

51. Than three buds, as already mentioned in the present Chapter.

52. "Pollices." Branches, so called from the resemblance, being cut off

above the first eye. See Columella, De Re Rust. B. iv. c. 24.

53. Small forks of hazel are still used for the purpose, in Berri and the

Orleanais.

54. This plan is highly recommended by the modern growers.

55. This, as Fe remarks, is based upon sound reason.

56. In B. xiv. cc. 4 and 5.

57. B xviii. c. 66.

58. 13th of April.

59. 10th of May.

60. A mere puerility-the dust, in fact, being injurious to the grape, by

obstructing the natural action of heat and humidity.

61. 15th of May. This clearing of the leaves, though still practised, Fee

says, is by no means beneficial; the only result is, that the grapes become of a higher colour, but in no degree riper than they otherwise would have

been.

62. The proper period for pruning varies in reality according to the

climate.

63. See B. xviii. c 59.

64. See Columella, De Re Rust. B. iv. c. 29.

65. See Columella, De Re Rust. B. iv. c. 29.

66. The real reason, as Fe remarks, is the comparative facility of cutting

aslant rather than horizontally; indeed, if the latter were attempted, injury

to the wood would be the certain result.

67. The pruning should come first, in every case, Fe says.

68. De Re Rust. C. 33. The advice given by him, though good, is not

applicable to all vineyards.

69. A sort of clover, probably. See B. xviii. c. 42, and a few lines

below.

70. From the Greek w)ke/ws, "quickly"-Varro says.

71. See c. 15 of this Book.

72. It is still practised in Dauphin and the department of the Basses

Alpes. It is very prevalent, also, in the South of Italy.

73. All these trees are still employed for the purpose in Italy.

74. B. xvi. c. 68.

75. Palm.

76. From Columella, B. v. c. 7.

77. This method is no longer employed.

78. Rasilis.

79. Columella, B. v. c. 6.

80. Columella, B. v. c. 6.

81. Capreolis.

82. As being too dense and shady.

83. From the Greek, meaning the "vine-band." It was, probably, a

kind of rush.

84. Fe thinks that he may mean the Festuca fluitans more particularly,

by the name ulva.

85. It is no longer used, and Fe doubts its utility.

86. Hardouin suggests "Tarracina."

87. In c. 16 of this Book.

88. To drain the upper part of the tree.




36. Chap. 36.-How Grapes Are Protected From The Ravages Of Insects.


CHAP. 36.-HOW GRAPES ARE PROTECTED FROM THE RAVAGES

OF INSECTS.



Stays, too, should be given to the vine for it to take hold of

and climb upwards, if they are taller than it. (24.) Espaliers[1]

for vines of a high quality should be cut, it is said, at the

Quinquatria,[2] and when it is intended to keep the grapes,

while the moon is on the wane. We are assured, moreover,

that those which are cut at the change of the moon, are exempt

from the attacks of all insects.[3] According to another system,

it is said that vines should be pruned by night at full moon,

and while it is in Leo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, or Taurus: and

that, in general, they ought to be planted either when the

moon is at full or on the increase. In Italy, ten workmen

will suffice for one hundred jugera of vineyard.







1. Pergulas. See B. xiv. c. 3.

2. See B. xviii. c. 56. These, of course, are mere superstitions.

3. Animalium.




37. Chap. 37.-The Diseases Of Trees.


CHAP. 37.-THE DISEASES OF TREES.



Having now treated sufficiently at length of the planting







and cultivation of trees-(for we have already said enough of

the palm[1] and the cytisus,[2] when speaking of the exotic

trees)-we shall proceed, in order that nothing may be omitted,

to describe other details relative to their nature, which are of

considerable importance, when taken in connection with all

that precedes. Trees, we find, are attacked by maladies;

and, indeed, what created thing is there that is exempt from

these evils? Still however, the affections of the forest trees,

it is said, are not attended[3] with danger to them, and the

only damage they receive is from hail-storms while they are

budding and blossoming; with the exception, indeed, of being

nipped either by heat or cold blasts in unseasonable weather;

for frost, when it comes at the proper times, as we have already

stated,[4] is serviceable to them. "Well but," it will be said,

"is not the vine sometimes killed with cold?" No doubt it is,

and this it is through which we detect inherent faults in the

soils, for it is only in a cold soil that the vine will die. Just in

the same way, too, in winter we approve of cold, so long as

it is the cold of the weather, and not of the ground. It is not

the weakest trees, too, that are endangered in winter by frost,

but the larger ones. When they are thus attacked, it is the

summit that dries away the first, from the circumstance that

the sap becomes frozen before it is able to arrive there.



Some diseases of trees are common to them all, while

others, again, are peculiar to individual kinds, Worms[5] are

common to them all, and so, too, is sideration,[6] with pains in

the limbs,[7] which are productive of debility in the various

parts. Thus do we apply the names of the maladies that prevail among mankind to those with which the plants are

afflicted. In the same way, too, we speak of their bodies being

mutilated, the eyes of the buds being burnt up, with many

other expressions of a similar nature. It is in accordance

with the same phraseology that we say that trees are afflicted

with hunger or indigestion, both of which result from the







comparative amount of sap that they contain; while some,

again, are troubled with obesity, as in the case of all the resinous trees, which, when suffering from excessive fatness, are

changed into a torch-tree.[8] When the roots, too, begin to

wax fat, trees, like animals, are apt to perish from excess of

fatness. Sometimes, too, a pestilence[9] will prevail in certain

classes of trees, just as among men, we see maladies attack,

at one time the slave class, and at another the common people,

in cities or in the country, as the case may be.



Trees are more or less attacked by worms; but still, nearly

all are subject to them in some degree, and this the birds[10] are

able to detect by the hollow sound produced on tapping at

the bark. These worms even have now begun to be looked

upon as delicacies[11] by epicures, and the large ones found in

the robur are held in high esteem; they are known to us by

the name of" cossis;" and are even fed with meal, in order

to fatten them! But it is the pear, the apple, and the fig[12]

that are most subject to their attacks, the trees that are bitter

and odoriferous enjoying a comparative exemption from them.

Of those which infest the fig, some breed in the tree itself,

while others, again, are produced by the worm known as the

cerastes; they all, however, equally assume the form of the

cerastes,[13] and emit a small shrill noise. The service-tree is

infested, too, with a red hairy worm, which kills it; and the

medlar, when old, is subject to a similar malady.



The disease known as sideration entirely depends upon the

heavens; and hence we may class under this head, the ill







effects produced by hail-storms, carbunculation,[14] and the

damage caused by hoar-frosts. When the approach of spring

tempts the still tender shoots to make their appearance, and

they venture to burst forth, the malady attacks them, and

scorches up the eyes of the buds, filled as they are with

their milky juices: this is what upon flowers they call " charcoal"[15] blight. The consequences of hoar-frost to plants are

even more dangerous still, for when it has once settled, it

remains there in a frozen form, and there is never any wind to

remove it, seeing that it never prevails except in weather that

is perfectly calm and serene. Sideration, however, properly

so called, is a certain heat and dryness that prevails at the

rising of the[16] Dog-star, and owing to which grafts and young

trees pine away and die, the fig and the vine more particularly. The olive, also, besides the worm, to which it is equally

subject with the fig, is attacked by the measles,[17] or as some

think fit to call it, the fungus or platter; it is a sort of blast

produced by the heat of the sun. Cato[18] says that the red

moss[19] is also deleterious to the olive. An excessive fertility,

too, is very often injurious to the vine and the olive. Scab is a

malady common to all trees. Eruptions,[20] too, and the attacks

of a kind of snail that grows on the bark, are diseases peculiar

to the fig, but not in all countries; for there are some maladies

that are prevalent in certain localities only.



In the same way that man is subject to diseases of the sinews, so are the trees as well, and, like him, in two different

ways. Either[21] the virulence of the disease manifests itself in

the feet, or, what is the same thing, the roots of the tree, or

else in the joints of the fingers, or, in other words, the extremities of the branches that are most distant from the trunk.

The parts that are thus affected become dry and shrivel up:

the Greeks have appropriate names[22] by which to distinguish







each of these affections. In either case the first symptoms are

that the tree is suffering from pain, and the parts affected become emaciated and brittle; then follows rapid consumption

and ultimately death; the juices being no longer able to enter

the diseased parts, or, at all events, not circulating in them.

The fig is more particularly liable to this disease: but the

wild fig is exempt from all that we have hitherto mentioned.

Scab[23] is produced by viscous dews which fall after the rising

of the Vergili; but if they happen to fall copiously, they

drench the tree, without making the bark rough. When the

fig is thus attacked, the fruit falls off while green; and so, too,

if there is too much rain. The fig suffers also from a superfluity of moisture in the roots.



In addition to worms and sideration, the vine is subject to

a peculiar disease of its own, which attacks it in the joints,

and is produced from one of the three following causes:-

either the destruction of the buds by stormy weather, or else

the fact, as remarked by Theophrastus, that the tree, when

pruned, has been cut with the incisions upwards,[24] or has been

injured from want of skill in the cultivator. All the injury

that is inflicted in these various ways is felt by the tree in the

joints more particularly. It must be considered also as a

species of sideration, when the cold dews make the blossoms

fall off, and when the grapes harden[25] before they have attained

their proper size. Vines also become sickly when they are

perished with cold, and the eyes are frost-bitten just after they

have been pruned. Heat, too, out of season, is productive of

similar results: for everything is regulated according to a fixed

order and certain determinate movements. Some maladies,

too, originate in errors committed by the vine-dresser; when

they are tied too tight, for instance, as already mentioned,[26] or

when in trenching round them the digger has struck them an

unlucky blow, or when in ploughing about them the roots have

been strained through carelessness, or the bark has been

stripped from off the trunk: sometimes, too, contusions are

produced by the use of too blunt a pruning-knife. Through

all the causes thus enumerated the tree is rendered more sen-







sitive to either cold or heat, as every injurious influence from

without is apt to concentrate in the wounds thus made. The

apple, however, is the most delicate of them all, and more

particularly the one that bears the sweetest fruit. In some

trees weakness induced by disease is productive of barrenness,

and does not kill the tree; as in the pine[27] for instance, or the

palm, when the top of the tree has been removed; for in such

case the tree becomes barren, but does not die. Sometimes, too,

the fruit itself is sickly, independently of the tree; for example,

when there is a deficiency of rain, or of warmth, or of wind,

at the periods at which they usually prevail, or when, on the

other hand, they have prevailed in excess; for in such cases the

fruit will either drop off or else deteriorate. But the worst

thing of all that can befall the vine or the olive, is to be pelted

with heavy showers just when the tree is shedding its blossom,

for then the fruit is sure to fall off[28] as well.



Rain, too, is productive of the caterpillar, a noxious insect

that eats away the leaves, and, some of them, the blossoms as

well; and this in the olive even, as we find the case at Miletus;

giving to the half-eaten tree a most loathsome appearance. This

pest is produced by the prevalence of a damp, languid heat;

and if the sun should happen to shine after this with a more

intense heat and burn them up, this pest only gives place to

another[29] just as bad, the aspect only of the evil being changed.



There is still one other affection that is peculiar to the olive

and the vine, known as the "cobweb," [30] the fruit being enveloped in a web, as it were, and so stifled. There are certain

winds, too, that are particularly blighting to the olive and the

vine, as also to other fruits as well: and then besides, the fruits

themselves, independently of the tree, are very much worm-eaten in some years, the apple, pear, medlar, and pomegranate

for instance. In the olive the presence of the worm may be







productive of a twofold result: if it grows beneath the skin,

it will destroy the fruit, but if it is in the stone, it will only

gnaw it away, making the fruit all the larger. The prevalence

of showers after the rising of Arcturus[31] prevents them from

breeding; but if the rains are accompanied with wind from

the south, they will make their appearance in the ripe fruit

even, which are then very apt to fall. This happens more

particularly in moist, watery localities; and even if they do

not fall, the olives that are so affected are good for nothing.

There is a kind of fly also that is very troublesome to some

fruit, acorns and figs for instance: it would appear that they

breed from the juices[32] secreted beneath the bark, which at

this period are sweet. These trees, too, are generally in a

diseased state when this happens.



There are certain temporary and local influences which cause

instantaneous death to trees, but which cannot properly be

termed diseases; such, for example, as consumption, blast, or

the noxious effects of some winds that are peculiar to certain

localities; of this last nature are the Atabulus[33] that prevails

in Apulia, and the Olympias[34] of Euba. This wind, if it

happens to blow about the winter solstice, nips the tree with

cold, and shrivels it up to such a degree that no warmth of the

sun can ever revive it. Trees that are planted in valleys, and

are situate near the banks of rivers, are especially liable to

these accidents, the vine more particularly, the olive, and the

fig. When this has been the case, it may instantly be detected

the moment the period for germination arrives, though, in the

olive, somewhat later. With all of these trees, if the leaves

fall off, it is a sign that they will recover; but if such is not

the case, just when you would suppose that they have escaped

uninjured, they die. Sometimes, however, the leaves will

become green again, after being dry and shrivelled. Other

trees, again, in the northern regions, Pontus and Phrygia, for

example, suffer greatly from cold or frost, in case they should

continue for forty days after the winter solstice. In these

countries, too, as well as in other parts, if a sharp frost or copious rains should happen to come on immediately after fructification, the fruit is killed in a very few days even.







Injuries inflicted by the hand of man are productive also of

bad effects. Thus, for instance, pitch, oil, and grease,[35] if applied to trees, and young ones more particularly, are highly

detrimental. They may be killed, also, by removing a circular

piece of the bark from around them, with the exception, indeed, of the cork-tree,[36] which is rather benefitted than otherwise by the operation; for the bark as it gradually thickens

tends to stifle and suffocate the tree: the andrachle,[37] too, receives no injury from it, if care is taken not to cut the body

of the tree. In addition to this, the cherry, the lime, and the

vine shed their bark;[38] not that portion of it, indeed, which is

essential to life, and grows next the trunk, but the part that

is thrown off, in proportion as the other grows beneath. In

some trees the bark is naturally full of fissures, the plane for

instance: in the linden it will all but grow again when removed. Hence, in those trees the bark of which admits of

cicatrization, a mixture of clay and dung[39] is employed by way

of remedy; and sometimes with success, in case excessive cold

or heat does not immediately supervene. In some trees, again,

by the adoption of these methods death is only retarded, the

robur and the quercus,[40] for example. The season of the year

has also its peculiar influences; thus, if the bark is removed

from the fir and the pine, while the sun is passing through

Taurus or Gemini, the period of their germination, they will

instantly die, while in winter they are able to withstand the

injurious effects of it much longer: the same is the case, too,

with the holm-oak, the robur, and the quercus. In the trees

above mentioned, if it is only a narrow circular strip of bark

that is removed, no injurious effects will be perceptible; but

in the case of the weaker trees, as well as those which grow in

a thin soil, the same operation, if performed even on one side

only, will be sure to kill them. The removal of the top,[41] in







the pitch-tree, the cedar, and the cypress is productive of a

similar result; for if it is either cut off or destroyed by fire,

the tree will not survive: the same is the case, too, if they

are bitten by the teeth of animals.



Varro[42] informs us, too, as we have already stated,[43] that the

olive, if only licked by a she-goat, will be barren.[44] When

thus injured, some trees will die, while in others the fruit becomes deteriorated, the almond,[45] for instance, the fruit of which

changes from sweet to bitter. In other cases, again, the tree is

improved[46] even-such, for instance, as the pear known in Chios

as the Phocian pear. We have already mentioned[47] certain

trees, also, that are all the better for having the tops removed.

Most trees perish when the trunk is split; but we must except

the vine, the apple, the fig, and the pomegranate. Others,

again, will die if only a wound is inflicted: the fig, however,

as well as all the resinous trees, is proof against such injury.

It is far from surprising that, when the roots of a tree are cut,

death should be the result; most of them perish, however,

when, not all the roots, but only the larger ones, and those

which are more essential to life, have been severed.



Trees, too, will kill one another[48] by their shade, or the

density of their foliage, as also by the withdrawal of nourishment. Ivy,[49] by clinging to a tree, will strangle[50] it. The

mistletoe, too, is far from beneficial, and the cytisus is killed

by the plant to which the Greeks have given the name of

halimon.[51] It is the nature of some plants not to kill, but to

injure, by the odour they emit, or by the admixture of their

juices; such is the influence exercised by the radish and the

laurel upon the vine.[52] For the vine may reasonably be looked







upon as possessed of the sense of smell, and affected by odours

in a singular degree; hence, when it is near a noxious exhalation, it will turn away and withdraw from it. It was from

his observation of this fact that Androcydes borrowed the

radish[53] as his antidote for drunkenness, recommending it to

be eaten on such occasions. The vine, too, abhors all coleworts and garden herbs, and the hazel[54] as well; indeed it will

become weak and ailing if they are not removed to a distance

from it. Nitre, alum, warm sea-water, and the shells of beans[55]

and fitches act as poisons on the vine.







1. In B. xiii. c. 6.

2. In B. xiii. c. 47.

3. This is the opinion of Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16.

4. In c. 2 of this Book.

5. "Vermiculatio." Fe understands this to apply to the attacks of insects

in general, the Dermestes typographus more particularly.

6. Or, in other words, the evil influences of the heavenly bodies: this, of

course, is not believed in at the present day.

7. Necrosis, in particular portions of the plant.

8. See B. xvi. c. 19. He alludes to an exuberant secretion of resin, in

which case the tree becomes charged with it like a torch.

9. He alludes to the epidemic and contagious maladies by which trees

are attacked. The causes of these attacks are often unknown, but they

may probably proceed, in many instances, from springs of hot water, or

gaseous emanations secreted in the earth.

10. The woodpecker more particularly. See B. x. c. 20.

11. It is not known, with certainty, what these worms or caterpillars

were. The larva of the capricorn beetle, or of the stag-beetle, has been

suggested. Geoffroi thinks that it may have been the larva of the palmweevil. This taste for caterpillars, probably, no longer prevails in any

part of Europe.

12. This passage, which is quite conformable to truth, is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. .16, and B. iii. c. 12.

13. See B. xvi. c. 80.

14. The effects produced upon young shoots by frost, are still so called.

15. Probably from the black colour which it turns.

16. In this case it would be very similar to what we call sun-stroke.

17. "Clavum," a nail. He appears to allude to a gall that appears on the

bark of the olive, the eruption forming the shape of a nail, and, in some

instances, a "patella," or platter. The Coccus adonideum is an insect

that is very destructive to the olive.

18. De Re Rust. 6.

19. A sort of Erineum, Fe suggests. See B. xv. c. 6.

20. "Impetigo." "Tetter," or " ringworm," literally.

21. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16.

22. Sfakelismo\s and kr|a/dos.

23. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant, B. iv. c. 16. Fe is at a loss to

know what is meant by these viscous dews, and is unable to identify the

disease here mentioned as "scabies." It is not improbable that it was

caused by an insect.

24. See cc. 35 and 50 of this Book.

25. See B. xviii. c. 69.

26. In c. 35. See also c. 45 of this Book.

27. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 16. If the terminal bud

of the palm is taken off, it will mostly die.

28. Decidunt." The French use a similar word-couler. In this case the

pollen, being washed off by the showers, has not the opportunity of fecundating the ovary of the flower.

29. The insect Ichneumon or Pupivora, probably, which breeds in the

larv or else in the body of the caterpillar. The passage is from Theophrastus, B. iv. c. 16.

30. Caused probably by a maggot or moth passing from one grape or olive

to another, and spinning its web in vast quantities. See Theophrastus,

B iv. c. 17.

31. See B. xviii. c. 74.

32. On the contrary, this sweet juice is secreted by the insect itself, an

aphis or vine-fretter.

33. The north-west wind. See Horace, Sat. B, i. s. v. 1. 71.

34. See B. ii. c. 46.

35. He probably means if applied to the bark of young trees.

36. The cork-tree forms no exception to the rule-if a complete ring of

the bark that lies under the epidermis is removed, the death of the tree is

the inevitable result. See B. xvi. c. 13.

37. Probably the Arbutus integrifolia. See B. xiii. c. 40.

38. This in reality is not the bark, but merely the epidermis, which is

capable of reproduction in many trees.

39. See c. 16 of this Book.

40. This method, however, is often found efficacious in preserving the life

of the oak, as well as many other trees, by excluding the action of the

air and water.

41. It prevents them from increasing in height, but does not cause their

death.

42. De Re Rust. B. i. c. 2.

43. In B. viii. c. 76, and B. xv. c. 8.

44. This statement is fabulous. Goats are apt to injure trees by biting

the buds and young shoots. Fabulous as it is, however, Fe remarks that

it still obtains credit among the peasantry in France.

45. This fabulous story is taken from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. v. c. 25.

46. Also from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. iv. cc. 1920, and De Causis,

B. v. c. 22. It is just possible that on some of the branches being torn

off by an animal, the tree may have grown with increased vigour.

47. In B. xiii. c. 9, and in c. 30 of this Book.

48. See B. xvi. c. 47.

49. It must be remembered that ivy is not a parasite, and that it has no

suckers to absorb the nutriment of another tree.

50. See B. xvi. c. 62.

51. C. Bauhin gives this name to several species of Atriplex. Lacuna

was of opinion that the Halimon of Dioscorides was the same as the

Viburnum.

52. A superstitious belief only, as Fe remarks.

53. See B. xix. c. 26.

54. Virgil shared this belief: see Georg. ii. 1. 299.

55. This may be true in some measure as to nitre, alum, and warm seawater; but not so as to the shells of beans and pigeon-pease, which would

make an excellent manure for it.




38. Chap. 38. (25.)-Prodigies Connected With Trees.


CHAP. 38. (25.)-PRODIGIES CONNECTED WITH TREES.



Among the maladies which affect the various trees, we may

find room for portentous prodigies also. For we find some

trees that have never had a leaf upon them; a vine and a pome-

granate bearing[1] fruit adhering to the trunk, and not upon

the shoots or branches; a vine, too, that bore grapes but had

no leaves; and olives that have lost their leaves while the fruit

remained upon the tree. There are some marvels also connected

with trees that are owing to accident; an olive that was completely burnt, has been known to revive, and in Botia, some

fig-trees that had been quite eaten away by locusts budded

afresh.[2] Trees, too, sometimes change their colour, and turn

from black to white; this, however, must not always be looked

upon as portentous, and more particularly in the case of those

which are grown from seed; the white poplar, too, often becomes

black. Some persons are of opinion also that the service-tree,

if transplanted to a warmer locality, will become barren. But

it is a prodigy, no doubt, when sweet fruits become sour, or

sour fruits sweet; and when the wild fig becomes changed

into the cultivated one, or vice versa. It is sadly portentous,[3]

too, when the tree becomes deteriorated by the change, the

cultivated olive changing into the wild, and the white grape

or fig becoming black: such was the case, also, when upon the

arrival of Xerxes there, a plane-tree at Laodicea was trans-







formed into an olive. In such narratives as these, the book

written in Greek by Aristander abounds, not to enter any further on so extended a subject; and we have in Latin the Commentaries of C. Epidius, in which we find it stated that trees

have even been known to speak. In the territory of Cum, a tree,

and a very ominous presage it was, sank into the earth shortly

before the civil wars of Pompeius Magnus began, leaving only

a few of the branches protruding from the ground. The Sibylline Books were accordingly consulted, and it was found that

a war of extermination was impending, which would be attended with greater carnage the nearer it should approach the

city of Rome.



Another kind of prodigy, too, is the springing up of a tree

in some extraordinary and unusual place, the head of a statue,

for instance, or an altar, or upon another tree even.[4] A fig-tree shot forth from a laurel at Cyzicus, just before the siege

of that city; and so in like manner, at Tralles, a palm issued

from the pedestal of the statue of the Dictator Csar, at the

period of his civil wars. So, too, at Rome, in the Capitol

there, in the time of the wars against Perseus, a palm-tree

grew from the head of the statue of Jupiter, a presage of impending victory and triumphs. This palm, however, having

been destroyed by a tempest, a fig-tree sprang up in the very

same place, at the period of the lustration made by the censors

M. Messala and C. Cassius,[5] a time at which, according to Piso,

an author of high authority, all sense of shame had been utterly

banished. Above all the prodigies, however, that have ever

been heard of, we ought to place the one that was seen in our

own time, at the period of the fall of the Emperor Nero, in the

territory of Marrucinum; a plantation of olives, belonging to

Vectius Marcellus, one of the principal members of the Equestrian order, bodily crossed the public highway, while the fields

that lay on the opposite side of the road passed over to supply

the place which had been thus vacated by the olive-yard.[6]







1. This, as Fe remarks, is not by any means impossible, nor, indeed,

are any other of the cases mentioned in this paragraph, owing to some

accidental circumstance.

2. See B. xxix. c. 29.

3. These stories can, of course, be only regarded as fabulous.

4. This may easily be accounted for, by the seed accidentally lodging in

a crevice of the tree.

5. A.U.C. 600.

6. An exaggerated account merely of a land-slip.




39. Chap. 39. (26.)-Treatment Of The Diseases Of Trees.


CHAP. 39. (26.)-TREATMENT OF THE DISEASES OF TREES.



Having set forth the various maladies by which trees are attacked, it seems only proper to mention the most appropriate







remedies as well. Some of these remedies may be applied to

all kinds of trees in common, while others, again, are peculiar

to some only. The methods that are common to them all, are,

baring the roots, or moulding them up, thus admitting the air

or keeping it away, as the case may be; giving them water, or

depriving them of it, refreshing them with the nutritious juices

of manure, and lightening them of their burdens by pruning.

The operation, too, of bleeding,[1] as it were, is performed upon

them by withdrawing their juices, and the bark is scraped all

round[2] to improve them. In the vine, the stock branches are

sometimes lengthened out, and at other times repressed; the

buds too are smoothed, and in a measure polished up, in case

the cold weather has made them rough and scaly. These remedies are better suited to some kinds of trees and less so to

others: thus the cypress, for instance, has a dislike to water,

and manifests an aversion to manure, spading round it, pruning,

and, indeed, remedial operations of every kind; nay, what is

more, it is killed by irrigation, while, on the other hand, the

vine and the pomegranate receive their principal nutriment

from it. In the fig, again, the tree is nourished by watering,

while the very same thing will make the fruit pine and die:

the almond, too, if the ground is spaded about it, will lose its

blossom. In the same way, too, there must be no digging

about the roots of trees when newly grafted, or indeed until

such time as they are sufficiently strong to bear. Many

trees require that all superfluous burdens should be pruned

away from them, just as we ourselves cut the nails and hair.

Old trees are often cut down to the ground, and then shoot up

again from one of the suckers; this, however, is not the case

with all of them, but only those, the nature of which, as we

have already stated,[3] will admit of it.







1. See c. 43 of this Book.

2. See c. 45 of this Book.

3. In B. xvi. cc. 53, 56, 66, 67, and 90.




40. Chap. 40.-Methods Of Irrigation.


CHAP. 40.-METHODS OF IRRIGATION.



Watering is good for trees during the heats of summer, but

injurious in winter; the effects of it are of a varied nature in

autumn, and depend upon the peculiar nature of the soil.

Thus, in Spain for instance, the vintager gathers the grapes

while the ground beneath is under water; on the other hand,

in most parts of the world, it is absolutely necessary to carry

off the autumn rains by draining. It is about the rising of the







Dog-star that irrigation is so particularly beneficial; but even

then it ought not to be in excess, as the roots are apt to become

inebriated, and to receive injury therefrom. Care should be

taken, too, to proportion it to the age of the tree, young trees

being not so thirsty as older ones; those too which require the

most water, are the ones that have been the most used to it.

On the other hand, plants which grow in a dry soil, require no

more moisture than is absolutely necessary to their existence.










41. Chap. 41.-Remarkable Facts Connected With Irrigation.


CHAP. 41.-REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH IRRIGATION.



In the Fabian district, which belongs to the territory of

Sulmo[1] in Italy, where they are in the habit, also, of irrigating

the fields, the natural harshness of the wines makes it necessary to water the vineyards; it is a very singular thing, too,

that the water there kills all the weeds, while at the same

time it nourishes the corn, thus acting in place of the weeding-

hook. In the same district, too, at the winter solstice, and

more particularly when the snow is on the ground or frosts

prevail, they irrigate the land, a process which they call

"warming" the soil. This peculiarity, however, exists in the

water of one river[2] only, the cold of which in summer is

almost insupportable.







1. This was the native place of Ovid, who alludes to its cold streams,

Tristia, B. iv. El. x. 11. 3, 4:-

"Sulmo mihi patria est, gelidis uberrimus undis,

Millia qui novies distat ab urbe decem."

Irrigation of the vine is still practised in the east, in Italy, and in Spain;

but it does not tend to improve the quality of the wine.

2. The Sagrus, now the Sangro.




42. Chap. 42. (27.)--Incisions Made In Trees.


CHAP. 42. (27.)--INCISIONS MADE IN TREES.



The proper remedies for charcoal-blight and mildew[1] will

be pointed out in the succeeding Book.[2] In the meantime,

however, we may here observe that among the remedies may

be placed that by scarification.[3] When the bark becomes

meagre and impoverished by disease, it is apt to shrink, and so

compress the vital parts of the tree to an excessive degree:

upon which, by means of a sharp pruning knife held with both

hands, incisions are made perpendicularly down the tree, and

a sort of looseness, as it were, imparted to the skin. It is a







proof that the method has been adopted with success, when

the fissures so made remain open and become filled with wood

of the trunk growing between the lips.







1. "Uredo rubigo" and "uredo caries."

2. Cc. 45 and 70.

3. Still practised upon the cherry-tree.




43. Chap. 43.-Other Remedies For The Diseases Of Trees.


CHAP. 43.-OTHER REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF TREES.



The medical treatment of trees in a great degree resembles

that of man, seeing that in certain cases the bones of them both

are perforated even.[1] The bitter almond will become sweet, if,

after spading round the trunk and cleaning it, the lowermost

part of it is pierced all round, so that the humours may have

a passage for escape and ensure being removed. In the elm,

too, the superfluous juices are drawn off, by piercing the tree

above ground to the pith when it is old, or when it is found

to suffer from an excess of nutriment. So, too, when the bark

of the fig is turgid and swollen, the confined juices are discharged by means of light incisions made in a slanting direction; by the adoption of which method the fruit is prevented

from falling off. When fruit-trees bud but bear no fruit, a

fissure is made in the root, and a stone inserted; the result of

which is, that they become productive.[2] The same is done

also with the almond, a wedge of robur being employed for

the purpose. For the pear and the service tree a wedge of

torch-wood is used, and then covered over with ashes and earth.

It is even found of use, too, to make circular incisions around

the roots of the vine and fig, when the vegetation is too luxuriant, and then to throw ashes over the roots. A late crop of

figs is ensured, if the first fruit is taken off when green and

little larger than a bean; for it is immediately succeeded by

fresh, which ripens at a later period than usual. If the tops of

each branch are removed from the fig, just as it is beginning

to put forth leaves, its strength and productiveness are greatly

increased. As to caprification, the effect of that is to ripen the

fruit.







1. He alludes to the medical operation for the removal of carious bones,

described by Celsus, B. viii. c. 3.

2. This is still done by some persons; but it can be productive of no

beneficial result.




44. Chap. 44.-Caprification, And Particulars Connected With The Fig.


CHAP. 44.-CAPRIFICATION, AND PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH

THE FIG.



It is beyond all doubt that in caprification the green fruit

gives birth to a kind of gnat;[1] for when they have taken







flight, there are no seeds to be found within the fruit: from

this it would appear that the seeds have been transformed

into these gnats. Indeed, these insects are so eager to take

their flight, that they mostly leave behind them either a leg

or a part of a wing on their departure. There is another

species of gnat,[2] too, that grows in the fig, which in its indolence and malignity strongly resembles the drone of the beehive, and shows itself a deadly enemy to the one that is of

real utility; it is called centrina, and in killing the others

it meets its own death.



Moths, too, attack the seeds of the fig: the best plan of getting

rid of them, is to bury a slip of mastich,[3] turned upside down, in

the same trench. The fig, too, is rendered extremely productive[4]

by soaking red earth in amurca, and laying it, with some manure, upon the roots of the tree, just as it is beginning to

throw out leaves. Among the wild figs, the black ones, and

those which grow in rocky places, are the most esteemed, from

the fact of the fruit containing the most seed. Caprification

takes place most advantageously just after rain.







1. See B. xv. c. 21: the Cynips psenes of Linn. It penetrates the fig at the base, and deposits an egg in each seed, which is ultimately eaten by

the larva; hence the supposed transformation.

2. A kind of wasp, probably.

3. A puerility borrowed from Columella, B. v. c. 10.

4. From Columella, B. v. c. 10.




45. Chap. 45.-Errors That May Be Committed In Pruning.


CHAP. 45.-ERRORS THAT MAY BE COMMITTED IN PRUNING.



But, before everything, especial care should be taken that

intended remedies are not productive of ill results; as these

may arise from either remedial measures being applied in excess or at unseasonable times. Clearing away the branches is

of the greatest benefit to trees, but to slaughter[1] them this

way every year, is productive of the very worst results. The

vine is the only tree that requires lopping every year, the

myrtle, the pomegranate, and olive every other; the reason

being that these trees shoot with great rapidity. The other

trees are lopped less frequently, and none of them in autumn;

the trunk even is never scraped,[2] except in spring. In prun-

ing a tree, all that is removed beyond what is absolutely necessary, is so much withdrawn from its vitality.







1. Trucidatio.

2. For the removal of moss and lichens, which obstruct evaporation, and

collect moisture to an inconvenient degree, besides harboring insects.




46. Chap. 46.-The Proper Mode Of Manuring Trees.


CHAP. 46.-THE PROPER MODE OF MANURING TREES.



The same precautions, too, are to be regarded in manuring.







Though manure is grateful to the tree, still it is necessary to

be careful not to apply it while the sun is hot, or while it

is too new, or more stimulating than is absolutely necessary.

The dung of swine will burn[1] up the vine, if used at shorter

intervals than those of five years; unless, indeed, it is mixed

with water. The same is the case, too, with the refuse of the cur-

rier's workshop, unless it is well diluted with water: manure

will scorch also, if laid on land too plentifully. It is generally

considered the proper proportion, to use three modii to every ten

feet square; this, however, the nature of the soil must decide.







1. Agriculturists, Fe says, are not agreed upon this question.




47. Chap. 47.--Medicaments For Trees.


CHAP. 47.--MEDICAMENTS FOR TREES.



Wounds and incisions of trees are treated also with pigeon

dung and swine manure. If pomegranates are acid, the roots

of the tree are cleared, and swine's dung is applied to them:

the result is, that in the first year the fruit will have a vinous

flavour, but in the succeeding one it will be sweet. Some

persons are of opinion that the pomegranate should be watered

four times a year with a mixture of human urine and water,

at the rate of an amphora to each tree; or else that the ex-

tremities of the branches should be sprinkled with silphium[1]

steeped in wine. The stalk of the pomegranate should be

twisted, if it is found to split while on the tree. The fig, too,

should be drenched with the amurca of olives, and other trees

when they are ailing, with lees of wine; or else lupines may

be sown about the roots. The water, too, of a decoction of

lupines is beneficial to the fruit, if poured upon the roots of

the tree. When it thunders at the time of the Vulcanalia,[2]

the figs fall off; the only remedy for which is to have the area

beneath ready covered with barley-straw. Lime applied to

the roots of the tree makes cherries come sooner to maturity,

and ripen more rapidly. The best plan, too, with the cherry,

as with all other kinds, is to thin the fruit, so that that which

is left behind may grow all the larger.



(28.) There are some trees, again, which thrive all the better

for being maltreated,[3] or else are stimulated by pungent substances; the palm and the mastich for instance, which derive

nutriment from salt water.[4] Ashes have the same virtues as







salt, only in a more modified degree; for which reason it is,

that fig-trees are sprinkled with them; as also with rue,[5] to

keep away worms, and to prevent the roots from rotting.

What is still more even, it is recommended to throw salt[6]

water on the roots of vines, if they are too full of humours;

and if the fruit falls off, to sprinkle them with ashes and

vinegar, or with sandarach if the grapes are rotting.[7] If,

again, a vine is not productive, it should be sprinkled and

rubbed with strong vinegar and ashes; and if the grapes, instead of ripening, dry and shrivel up, the vine should be lopped

near the roots,[8] and the wound and fibres drenched with strong

vinegar and stale urine; after which, the roots should be

covered up with mud annealed with these liquids, and the

ground spaded repeatedly.



As to the olive, if it gives promise of but little fruit, the

roots should be bared, and left exposed to the winter cold,[9] a

mode of treatment for which it is all the better.



All these operations depend each year upon the state of the

weather, and require to be sometimes retarded, and at other

times precipitated. The very element of fire even has its own

utility, in the case of the reed for instance; which, after the

reed-bed has been burnt, will spring up all the thicker and

more pliable.[10]



Cato,[11] too, gives receipts for certain medicaments, specifying the proportions as well; for the roots of the large trees

he prescribes an amphora, and for those of the smaller ones,

an urna, of amphora of olives, mixed with water in equal proportions, recommending the roots to be cleared, and the

mixture to be gradually poured upon them. In addition to

this, in the case of the olive and the fig, he recommends that

a layer of straw should be first placed around them. In the

fig, too, more particularly, he says that in spring the roots

should be well moulded up; the result of which is, that the

fruit will not fall off while green, and the tree will be all the

more productive, and not affected with roughness of the bark.







In the same way, too,[12] to prevent the vine-fretter[13] from attacking the tree, he recommends that two congii of amurca of

olives should be boiled down to the consistency of honey, after

which it must be boiled again with one-third part of bitumen,

and one-fourth of sulphur; and this should be done, he says, in

the open air, for fear of its igniting if prepared in-doors; with

this mixture, the vine is to be anointed at the ends of the

branches and at the axils; after which, no more fretters will

be seen. Some persons are content to make a fumigation

with this mixture while the wind is blowing towards the vine,

for three days in succession.



Many persons, again, attribute no less utility and nutritious

virtue to urine than Cato does to amurca; only they add to

it an equal proportion of water, it being injurious if employed

by itself. Some give the name of " volucre"[14] to an insect

which eats away the young grapes: to prevent this, they rub

the pruning-knife, every time it is sharpened, upon a beaver-skin, and then prune the tree with it: it is recommended also,

that after the pruning, the knife should be well rubbed with

the blood of a bear.[15] Ants, too, are a great pest to trees;

they are kept away, however, by smearing the trunk with red

earth and tar: if a fish, too, is hung up in the vicinity of the

tree, these insects will collect in that one spot. Another

method, again, is to pound lupines in oil,[16] and anoint the

roots with the mixture. Many people kill both ants as well

as moles[17] with amurca, and preserve apples from caterpillars

as well as from rotting, by touching the top of the tree with

the gall of a green lizard.



Another method, too, of preventing caterpillars, is to make

a woman,[18] with her monthly courses on her, go round each

tree, barefooted and ungirt. Again, for the purpose of pre-







venting animals from doing mischief by browsing upon the

leaves, they should be sprinkled with cow-dung each time after

rain, the showers having the effect of washing away the

virtues of this application.



The industry of man has really made some very wonderful

discoveries, and, indeed, has gone so far as to lead many

persons to believe, that hail-storms may be averted by means of

a certain charm, the words of which I really could not venture

seriously to transcribe; although we find that Cato[19] has given

those which are employed as a charm for sprained limbs, employing splints of reed in conjunction with it. The same

author,[20] too, has allowed of consecrated trees and groves being

cut down, after a sacrifice has first been offered: the form of

prayer, and the rest of the proceedings, will be found fully set

forth in the same work of his.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives; and observations,

eight hundred and eighty.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Cornelius Nepos,[21] Cato[22] the

Censor, M. Varro,[23] Celsus,[24] Virgil,[25] virginus,[26] Saserna[27] father

and son, Scrofa,[28] Calpurnius Bassus,[29] Trogus,[30] milius

Macer,[31] Grcinus,[32] Columella,[33] Atticus Julius,[34] Fabianus,[35]

Mamilius Sura,[36] Dossenus Mundus,[37] C. Epidius,[38] L. Piso.[39]







FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Hesiod,[40] Theophrastus,[41] Aristotle,[42] Democritus,[43] Theopompus,[44] King Hiero,[45] King Attalus[46] Philometor, King Archelaus,[47] Archytas,[48] Xenophon,[49]

Amphilochus[50] of Athens, Anaxipolis[51] of Thasos, Apollodorus[52]

of Lemnos, Aristophanes[53] of Miletus, Antigonus[54] of Cym,

Agathocles[55] of Chios, Apollonius[56] Pergamus, Bacchius[57] of

Miletus, Bion[58] of Soli, Chreas[59] of Athens, Christus[60] of

Athens, Diodorus[61] of Priene, Dion[62] of Colophon, Epigenes[63]

of Rhodes, Euagon[64] of Thasos, Euphronius[65] of Athens, Androtion[66] who wrote on Agriculture, schrion[67] who wrote on

Agriculture, Lysimachus[68] who wrote on Agriculture, Dionysius[69] who translated Mago, Diophanes[70] who made an Epitome of Dionysius, Aristander[71] who wrote on Portents.



J. BILLING, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, WOKING, SURREY.







1. Or laser. See B. xix. c. 15.

2. See B. xviii. c. 35.

3. Pn emendantur.

4. It is very doubtful whether this is not likely to prove very injurious

to them. This passage is from Theophrastus, De Causis, B. iii. c. 23.

5. Without any efficacy, beyond a doubt.

6. The action of salt upon vegetation is, at the best, very uncertain.

7. These recipes are worthless, and almost impracticable.

8. This method is still adopted, but with none of the accessories here

mentioned by Pliny.

9. A dangerous practice, Fe remarks, and certainly not to be adopted.

10. Mitior.

11. De Re Rust. 93.

12. At the present day, fumigations are preferred to any such mixtures

as those here described. Caterpillars are killed by the fames of sulphur,

bitumen, or damp straw.

13. "Convolvulus." He alludes to the vine Pyralis, one of the Lepidoptera,

the caterpillar of which rolls itself up in the leaves of the tree, after eating

away the foot-stalk.

14. The "fly," or "winged" insect. The grey weevil, Fe thinks, that

eats the buds and the young grapes.

15. An absurd superstition.

16. This may possibly be efficacious, but the other precepts here given are

full of absurdity.

17. It might possibly drive them to a distance, but would do no more.

18. An absurd notion, very similar to some connected with the same subject, which have prevailed even in recent times.

19. De Re Rust. 160. The words of this charm over the split reed while

held near the injured limb, were as follow:-"Sanitas fracto-motas

danata daries dardaries astataries"-mere gibberish.

20. De Re Rust. 139. This prayer was offered to the deity of the sacred

grove, after a pig had been first offered-"If thou art a god, or if thou

art a goddess, to whom this grove is sacred, may it be allowed me, through

the expiation made by this pig, and for the purpose of restraining the

overgrowth of this grove, &c." It must be remembered that it was considered a most heinous offence to cut down or lop a consecrated grove. See Ovid, Met. B. viii. c. 743.

21. See end of B. ii.

22. See end of B. iii.

23. See end of B. ii.

24. See end of B. vii.

25. See end of B. vii.

26. See end of B. iii.

27. See end of B. x.

28. See end of B. xi.

29. See end of B. xvi.

30. See end of B. vii.

31. See end of B. ix.

32. See end of B. xiv.

33. See end of B. viii.

34. See end of B. xiv.

35. Fabianus Papirius; see end of B. ii.

36. See end of B. x.

37. See end of B. xiv.

38. A Roman rhetorician, preceptor of Antony and Augustus. He is

said to have claimed descent from Epidius, a deity worshipped on the

banks of the Sarnus.

39. See end of B. ii.

40. See end of B. vii.

41. See end of B. iii.

42. See end of B. ii.

43. See end of B. ii.

44. See end of B. ii.

45. See end of B. viii.

46. See end of B. viii.

47. See end of B. viii.

48. See end of B. viii.

49. For Xenophon of

Lampsacus, see end of B. iii.

50. See end of B. viii.

51. See end of B. viii.

52. See end of B. viii.

53. See end of B. viii.

54. See end of B. viii.

55. See end of B. viii.

56. See end of B. viii.

57. See end of B. viii.

58. See end of B. vi.

59. See end of B. viii.

60. See end of B. xiv.

61. See end of B. viii.

62. See end of B. viii.

63. See end of B. ii.

64. See end of B. x.

65. See end of B. viii.

66. See end of B. viii.

67. See end of B. viii.

68. See end of B. viii.

69. See end of B. xii.

70. See end of B. viii.

71. See end of B. viii.




0. > Book Xviii. The Natural History Of Grain.


BOOK XVIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF GRAIN.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Taste Of The Ancients For Agriculture.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-TASTE OF THE ANCIENTS FOR AGRICULTURE.



WE now pass on to the Natural History of the various grains,

of the garden plants and flowers, and indeed of all the other

productions, with the exception of the trees and shrubs, which

the Earth, in her bounteousness, affords us-a boundless field

for contemplation, if even we regard the herbs alone, when we

take into consideration the varieties of them, their numbers,

the flowers they produce, their odours, their colours, their

juices, and the numerous properties they possess-all of which

have been engendered by her with a view to either the preservation or the gratification of the human race.



On entering, however, upon this branch of my subject, it is

my wish in the first place to plead the cause of the Earth, and

to act as the advocate of her who is the common parent of all,

although in the earlier[1] part of this work I have already had

occasion to speak in her defence. For my subject matter, as I

proceed in the fulfillment of my task, will now lead me to consider her in the light of being the producer of various noxious

substances as well; in consequence of which it is that we are

in the habit of charging her with our crimes, and imputing to

her a guilt that is our own. She has produced poisons, it is

true; but who is it but man that has found them out? For

the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, it is sufficient to

be on their guard against them, and to keep at a distance from

them. The elephant, we find, and the gurus, know how to







sharpen[2] and renovate their teeth against the trunks of trees,

and the rhinoceros against rocks; wild boars, again, point

their tusks like so many poniards by the aid of both rocks and

trees; and all animals, in fact, are aware how to prepare themselves for the infliction of injury upon others; but still, which

is there among them all, with the exception of man, that dips

his weapons in poison? As for ourselves, we envenom the

point of the arrow,[3] and we contrive to add to the destructive

powers of iron itself; by the aid of poisons we taint the waters

of the stream, and we infect the various elements of Nature;

indeed, the very air even, which is the main support of life,

we turn into a medium for the destruction of life.



And it is not that we are to suppose that animals are ignorant of these means of defence, for we have already had occasion to point out[4] the preparations which they make against the

attacks of the serpent, and the methods they devise for effecting

a cure when wounded by it; and yet, among them all, there

is not one that fights by the aid of the poison that belongs to

another, with the sole exception of man. Let us then candidly

confess our guilt, we who are not contented even with the

poisons as Nature has produced them; for by far the greater

portion of them, in fact, are artificially prepared by the human

hand!



And then besides, is it not the fact, that there are many

men, the very existence of whom is a baneful poison, as it

were? Like that of the serpent, they dart their livid tongue,

and the venom of their disposition corrodes every object upon

which it concentrates itself. Ever vilifying and maligning,

like the ill-omened birds of the night, they disturb the repose

of that darkness which is so peculiarly their own, and break

in upon the quiet of the night even, by their moans and wailings, the only sounds they are ever heard to emit. Like

animals of inauspicious presage, they only cross our path to







prevent us from employing our energies or becoming useful to

our fellow-men; and the only enjoyment that is sought by

their abominable aspirations is centred in their universal hatred

of mankind.



Still, however, even in this respect Nature has asserted her

majestic sway; for how much more numerous[5] are the good

and estimable characters which she has produced! just in the

same proportion that we find her giving birth to productions

which are at once both salutary and nutritious to man. It is in

our high esteem for men such as these, and the commendations

they bestow, that we shall be content to leave the others, like

so many brakes and brambles, to the devouring flames of their

own bad passions, and to persist in promoting the welfare of

the human race; and this, with all the more energy and perseverance, from the circumstance that it has been our object

throughout, rather to produce a work of lasting utility than to

ensure ourselves a widely-spread renown. We have only to

speak, it is true, of the fields and of rustic operations; but

still, it is upon these that the enjoyment of life so materially

depends, and that the ancients conferred the very highest rank

in their honors and commendations.







1. In B. ii. c. 63.

2. Of course this is only mere declamation; it is not probable that the animals have any notion at all of sharpening the weapons that nature has given; in addition to which, this mode of sharpening them against hard substances would only wear away the enamel, and ultimately destroy them. The acts of animals in a moment of rage or frenzy have evidently been mistaken here for the dictates of instinct, or even a superior intelligence.

3. See B. xxv. c. 25, and B. Xavier. c. 76.

4. In B. viii. c. 36. 41, 42. The works of the ancients, Fe remarks, are full of these puerilities.

5. This sentiment is not at all akin to the melancholy view which our author takes of mankind at the beginning of B. vii. and in other parts of this work. It is not improbable that his censures here are levelled against some who had endeavoured to impede him in the progress of his work.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-When The First Wreaths Of Corn Were Used At Rome.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-WHEN THE FIRST WREATHS OF CORN WERE USED AT ROME.



Romulus was the first who established the Arval[1] priesthood

at Rome. This order consisted of the eleven sons of Accra

Placentia, his nurse,[2] together with Romulus himself, who assumed the appellation of the twelfth of the brotherhood. Upon

this priesthood he bestowed, as being the most august dis-

tinction that he could confer upon it, a wreath of years of corn,

tied together with a white fillet; and this in fact, was the

first chaplet that was ever used at Rome.This dignity is only

ended with life itself, and whether in exile or in captivity, it







always attends its owner. In those early days, two jugera of

land were considered enough for a citizen of Rome, and to none

was a larger portion than this allotted. And yet, at the present

day, men who but lately were the slaves of the Emperor Nero

have been hardly content with pleasure-gardens that occupied

the same space as this; while they must have fishponds, forsooth, of still greater extent, and in some instances I might

add, perhaps, kitchens even as well.



Numa first established the custom of offering corn to the

gods, and of propitiating them with the salted[3] cake; he was

the first, too, as we learn from Hemina, to parch spelt, from

the fact that, when in this state, it is more wholesome as an

aliment[4] This method, however, he could only establish one

way: by making an enactment, to the effect that spelt is not

in a pure state for offering, except when parched. He it was,

too, who instituted the Fornacalia,[5] festivals appropriated

for the parching of corn, and others,[6] observed with equal

solemnity, for the erection and preservation of the "termini,"

or boundaries of the fields: for these termini, in those days,

they particularly regarded as gods; while to other divinities

they gave the names of Seia,[7] from "sero," "to sow," and of

Segesta, from tile "segetes," or "crops of standing corn," the

statues of which goddesses we still see erected in the Circus.

A third divinity it is forbidden by the rules of our religion to

name even[8] beneath a roof. In former days, too, they would

not so much as taste the corn when newly cut, nor yet wine

when just made, before the priests had made a libation of the

first-fruits.







1. "Arvorum sacerdotal," the priests of the fields.

2. Or foster-mother. It has been suggested that the Rogations of the Roman church may have possibly originated in the Ambarvalia, or ceremonial presided over by the Arval priesthood.

3. Made of salt and the meal or flour of spelt. Salt was the emblem of wisdom, friendship, and other virtues.

4. This, Fe observes, is not the case with any kind of wheat; with manioc, which has an acrid principle, the process may be necessary, in order to make it fit for food.

5. Or Feast of the Furnace or Oven. See Ovid's Fasti, B. ii. 1. 5-25.

6. Called the Terminalia. See Ovid's Fasti, B. ii. 1. 641, et seq.

7. Tertullian, De Spect. i. 16, calls this goddess by the name of Sessia.

8. Clius Rhodiginus, Turnebus, and Vossius, conjecture that the name of this goddess, who might only be named in the field, was Tutelina. Hardouin thinks that it was Segesta, here mentioned.




3. Chap. 3. (3.-The Jugerum Of Land.


CHAP. 3. (3.-THE JUGERUM OF LAND.



That portion of land used to be known as a "jugerum,"







which was capable of being ploughed by a single "jugum," or

yoke of oxen, in one day; an "actus"[1] being as much as the

oxen could plough at a single spell, fairly estimated, without

stopping. This last was one hundred and twenty feet in length;

and two in length made a jugerum. The most considerable

recompense that could be bestowed upon generals and valiant

citizens, was the utmost extent of land around which a person

could trace a furrow with the plough in a single day. The

whole population, too, used to contribute a quarter[2] of a sextarius of spelt, or else half a one, per head.



From agriculture the earliest surnames were derived. Thus,

for instance, the name of Pilumnus was given to him who invented the "pilum," or pestle of the bake-house, for pounding

corn; that of Piso was derived from "piso," to grind corn;

and those of Fabius, Lentulus, and Cicero, from the several

varieties[3] of leguminous plants in the cultivation of which respectively these individuals excelled. One individual of the

family of the Junii received the name of "Bubuleus,"[4] from

the skill he displayed in breeding oxen. Among the sacred

ceremonials, too, there was nothing that was held more holy

than the marriage by confarreation,[5] and the woman just

married used to present a cake made of spelt.[6] Careless cultivation of the land was in those times an offence that came

under the cognizance of the censors; and, as we learn from

Cato,[7] when it was said that such and such a man was a good

agriculturist or a good husbandman, it was looked upon as the

very highest compliment that could be paid him. A man

came to be called "locuples," or "rich," from being "loci

plenus," or "full of earth." Money, too, received its name

of "pecunia,"[8] from "pecus," "cattle." At the present







day, even, in the registers of the censors, we find set down

under the head of "pascua," or "pasture lands," everything

from which the public revenues are derived, from the fact that

for a long period of time pasture lands were the only sources

of the public revenue. Fines, too, were only imposed in the

shape of paying so many sheep or so many oxen; and the benevolent spirit of the ancient laws deserves remark, which

most considerately enjoined that the magistrate, when he in-

flicted a penalty, should never impose a fine of an ox before

having first condemned the same party to the payment of a

sheep.



Those who celebrated the public games in honour of the ox

received the name of Bubetii.[9] King Servius was the first

who impressed upon our copper coin[10] the figures of sheep and

oxen. To depasture cattle secretly by night upon the unripe

crops on plough lands, or to cut them in that state, was made

by the Twelve Tables[11] a capital offence in the case of an

adult; and it was enacted that the person guilty of it should

be hanged, in order to make due reparation to the goddess

Ceres, a punishment more severe, even, than that inflicted for

murder. If, on the other hand, the offender was not an adult,

he was beaten at the discretion of the prtor; a penalty double

the amount of the damage was also exacted.



The various ranks, too, and distinctions in the state had no

other origin than the pursuits of agriculture. The rural

tribes held the foremost rank, and were composed of those

who possessed lands; while those of the city, a place to which

it was looked upon as ignominious to be transferred, had the

discredit thrown upon them of being an indolent race. Hence

it was that these last were only four in number, and received

their names from the several parts of the City which they respectively inhabited; being the Suburran, the Palatine, Colline, and Exquiline tribes. Every ninth day[12] the rural tribes

used to visit the city for the purpose of marketing, and it was

for this reason that it was made illegal to hold the comitia upon







the Nundina; the object being that the country people might

not be called away thereby from the transaction of their business. In those days repose and sleep were enjoyed upon

straw. Even to glory itself, in compliment to corn, the name

was given of "adorea."[13]



For my own part, I greatly admire[14] the modes of expression employed in our ancient language: thus, for instance,

we read in the Commentaries of the Priesthood to the follow-

ing effect:-"For deriving an augury from the sacrifice of a

bitch,[15] a day should be set apart before the ear of corn appears

from out of the sheath,[16] and then again before it enters the

sheath."







1. Four Roman feet in width, and 120 in length.

2. Quartarius.

3. "Faba," a bean; "Lens," a lentil; and "Cicer," a chick-pea.

4. A "bubus," from "oxen." Caius Junius Bubulcus was twice Consul, and once Master of the Horse.

5. "Farreum" was a form of marriage, in which certain words were used, in presence of ten witnesses, and were accompanied by a certain religious ceremony, in which "panis farreus" was employed; hence this form of marriage was called "confarreatio."

6. Farreum.

7. De Re Rust. Preface.

8. See B. xxxiii. c. 13.

9. St Augustin, De Civ. Dei., mentions a goddess, Bubona, the tutelar divinity of oxen. Nothing seems to be known of these games.

10. See B. xxxiii. c. 13. Macrobius says that it was Janus.

11. Table vii. s. 2.

12. On the "Nundin," or ninth-day holiday: similar to our market-days. According to our mode of reckoning, it was every eighth day.

13. From "ador," the old name for "spelt:" because corn was the chief reward given to the conqueror, and his temples were graced with a wreath of corn.

14. In the first place, it is difficult to see what there is in this passage to admire, or "wonder at," if that is the meaning of "admiror;" and then, besides, it has no connection with the context. The text is probably in a defective state.

15. See c. 69 of this Book.

16. "Vagina." The meaning of this word here has not been exactly ascertained. It has been suggested that the first period alludes to the appearance of the stalk from its sheath of leaves, and the second to the formation of the ear.




4. Chap. 4.-How Often And On What Occasions Corn Has Sold At A Remarkably Low Price.


CHAP. 4.-HOW OFTEN AND ON WHAT OCCASIONS CORN HAS SOLD AT A REMARKABLY LOW PRICE.



The consequence was, that when the Roman manners were

such as these, the corn that Italy produced was sufficient for

its wants, and it had to be indebted to no province for its

food; and not only this, but the price of provisions was incredibly cheap. Manius Marcius, the dile[1] of the people,

was the first who gave corn to the people at the price of one

as for the modius. L. Minutius Augurinus,[2] the same who

detected, when eleventh tribune of the people, the projects of

Spurius Mlius, reduced the price of corn on three market

days,[3] to one as per modius; for which reason a statue was

erected in honour of him, by public subscription, without the

Trigeminian Gate.[4] T. Seius distributed corn to the people,







in his dileship,[5] at one as per modius, in remembrance of

which statues were erected in honour of him also in the Capitol and the Palatium: on the day of his funeral he was borne to

the pile on the shoulders of the Roman people. In the year,[6]

too, in which the Mother of the Gods was brought to Rome, the

harvest of that summer, it is said, was more abundant than it

had been for ten years before. M. Yarro informs us, that in the

year[7] in which L. Metellus exhibited so many elephants in

his triumphal procession, a modius of spelt was sold for one as,

which was the standard price also of a congius of wine, thirty

pounds' weight of dried figs, ten pounds of olive oil, and

twelve pounds of flesh meat. Nor did this cheapness originate

in the wide-spread domains of individuals encroaching continually upon their neighbours, for by a law proposed by Licinius Stolo, the landed property of each individual was limited

to five hundred jugera; and he himself was convicted under

his own law of being the owner of more than that amount,

having as a disguise prevailed upon his son to lend him his

name. Such were the prices of commodities at a time when

the fortunes of the republic were rapidly on the increase. The

words, too, that were uttered by Manius Curius[8] after his

triumphs and the addition of an immense extent of territory

to the Roman sway, are well known: "The man must be

looked upon," said he, "as a dangerous citizen, for whom

seven jugera of land are not enough;" such being the amount

of land that had been allotted to the people after the expulsion

of the kings.



What, then, was the cause of a fertility so remarkable as

this? The fact, we have every reason to believe, that in

those days the lands were tilled by the hands of generals

even, the soil exulting beneath a plough-share crowned with

wreaths of laurel, and guided by a husbandman graced with

triumphs: whether it is that they tended the seed with the

same care that they had displayed in the conduct of wars, and

manifested the same diligent attention in the management of

their fields that they had done in the arrangement of the camp,







or whether it is that under the hands of honest men everything prospers all the better, from being attended to with a

scrupulous exactness. The honours awarded to Serranus[9]

found him engaged in sowing his fields, a circumstance to

which he owes his surname.[10] Cincinnatus was ploughing his

four jugera of land upon the Vaticanian Hill-the same that are

still known as the "Quintian Meadows,"[11] when the messenger brought him the dictatorship-finding him, the tradition says, stripped to the work, and his very face begrimed

with dust. "Put on your clothes," said he, "that I may deliver to you the mandates of the senate and people of Rome."

In those days these messengers bore the name of "viator," or

"wayfarer," from the circumstance that their usual employ-

ment was to fetch the senators and generals from their fields.



But at the present day these same lands are tilled by slaves

whose legs are in chains, by the hands of malefactors and men

with a branded face! And yet the Earth is not deaf to our

adjurations, when we address her by the name of "parent,"

and say that she receives our homage[12] in being tilled by

hands such as these; as though, forsooth, we ought not to believe that she is reluctant and indignant at being tended in

such a manner as this! Indeed, ought we to feel any surprise

were the recompense she gives us when worked by chastised

slaves,[13] not the same that she used to bestow upon the labours

of warriors?







1. A.U.C. 298.

2. See B. xxxiv. c. 11. A.U.C. 317.

3. Nundinis.

4. On the road to Ostia. It was said to have received its name from the Horatii and Curiatii.

5. As A.U.C. 345.

6. A.U.C. 550. He alludes to the introduction of Cybele, from Pessinus in Galatia, in the Second Punic war.

7. A.U.C. 604. See B. viii. c. 6.

8. Manius Curius Dentatus, Consul a.u.c. 464.

9. A.U.C. 497.

10. From "sero," to sow. See the neid, B. vi. 1. 844, where this circumstance is alluded to.

11. "Prata Quintia." Hardouin says that in his time this spot was still

called I Prati: it lay beyond the Tiber, between the vineyard of the Medici and the castle of Sant Angelo.

12. He alludes to the twofold meaning of the word "coli," "to be tilled,"

or "to receive homage from."

13. "Ergastulorum." The "Ergastula" were places of punishment attached to the country houses of the wealthy, for the chastisement of

refractory slaves, who were usually made to work in chains.




5. Chap. 5.-Illustrious Men Who Have Written Upon Agriculture.


CHAP. 5.-ILLUSTRIOUS MEN WHO HAVE WRITTEN UPON AGRICULTURE.



Hence it was that to give precepts upon agriculture became

one of the principal occupations among men of the highest

rank, and that in foreign nations even. For among those who







have written on this subject we find the names of kings even,

Hiero, for instance, Attalus Philometor, and Archelas, as well as

of generals, Xenophon, for example, and Mago the Carthaginian.

Indeed, to this last writer did the Roman senate award such

high honours, that, after the capture of Carthage, when it

bestowed the libraries of that city upon the petty kings of

Africa, it gave orders, in his case only, that his thirty-two

Books should be translated into the Latin language, and this,

although M. Cato had already compiled his Book of Precepts;

it took every care also to entrust the execution of this task to

men who were well versed in the Carthaginian tongue, among

whom was pre-eminent D. Silanus, a member of one of the

most illustrious families of Rome. I have already indicated,[1]

at the commencement of this work, the numerous learned

authors and writers in verse, together with other illustrious

men, whose authority it is any intention to follow; but among

the number I may here more particularly distinguish M. Yarro,

who, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, thought it

his duty to publish a treatise upon this subject.



(4.) Among the Romans the cultivation of the vine was

introduced at a comparatively recent period, and at first, as

indeed they were obliged to do, they paid their sole attention

to the culture of the fields. The various methods of cultivating the land will now be our subject; and they shall be treated

of by us in no ordinary or superficial manner, but in the same

spirit in which we have hitherto written; enquiry shall be

made with every care first into the usages of ancient days, and

then into the discoveries of more recent times, our attention

being devoted alike to the primary causes of these operations,

and the reasons upon which they are respectively based. We

shall make mention,[2] too, of the various constellations, and of

the several indications which, beyond all doubt, they afford to

the earth; and the more so, from the fact that those writers

who have hitherto treated of them with any degree of exact-

ness, seem to have written their works for the use of any class

of men but the agriculturist.











1. In the First Book, as originally written. This list of writers is ap-

pended in the present Translation to each respective Book.

2. This is probably written in humable imitation of the splendid exordium

of the Georgies of Virgil.




6. Chap. 6.-Points To Be Observed In Buying Land.


CHAP. 6.-POINTS TO BE OBSERVED IN BUYING LAND.



First of all, then, I shall proceed in a great measure according to the dicta of the oracles of agriculture; for there is no

branch of practical life in which we find them more numerous

or more unerring. And why should we not view in the light

of oracles those precepts which have been tested by the infallibility of time and the truthfulness of experience?



(5.) To make a beginning, then, with Cato[1]-"The agricul-

tural population," says he, "produces the bravest men, the

most valiant soldiers,[2] and a class of citizens the least given of

all to evil designs.-Do not be too eager in buying a farm.-

In rural operations never be sparing of your trouble, and, above

all, when you are purchasing land.-A bad bargain is always

a ground for repentance.-Those who are about to purchase

land, should always have an eye more particularly to the water

there, the roads, and the neighbourhood." Each of these

points is susceptible of a very extended explanation, and

replete with undoubted truths. Cato[3] recommends, too, that

an eye should be given to the people in the neighbourhood, to

see how they look: "For where the land is good," says he,

"the people will look well-conditioned and healthy."



Atilius Regulus, the same who was twice consul in the

Punic War, used to say[4] that a person should neither buy an

unhealthy piece of land in the most fertile locality, nor yet the

very healthiest spot if in a barren country. The salubrity of

land, however, is not always to be judged of from the looks of

the inhabitants, for those who are well-seasoned are able to

withstand the effects of living in pestilent localities even. And

then, besides, there are some localities that are healthy during

certain periods of the year only; though, in reality, there is

no soil that can be looked upon as really valuable that is not

healthy all the year through. "That[5] is sure to be bad land

against which its owner has a continual struggle." Cato

recommends us before everything, to see that the land which







we are about to purchase not only excels in the advantages of

locality, as already stated, but is really good of itself We

should see, too, he says, that there is an abundance of manual

labour in the neighbourhood, as well as a thriving town; that

there are either rivers or roads, to facilitate the carriage of the

produce; that the buildings upon the land are substantially

erected, and that the land itself bears every mark of having

been carefully tilled-a point upon which I find that many

persons are greatly mistaken, as they are apt to imagine that

the negligence of the previous owner is greatly to the purchaser's advantage; while the fact is, that there is nothing more

expensive than the cultivation of a neglected soil.



For this reason it is that Cato[6] says that it is best to buy

land of a careful proprietor, and that the methods adopted by

others ought not to be hastily rejected-that it is the same

with land as with mankind-however great the proceeds, if at

the same time it is lavish and extravagant, there will be no

great profits left. Cato looks upon a vineyard as the most[7]

profitable investment; and he is far from wrong in that opinion, seeing that he takes such particular care to retrench all

superfluous expenses. In the second rank he places gardens that have a good supply of water, and with good reason,

too, supposing always that they are near a town. The ancients

gave to meadow lands the name of "parata," or lands "always

ready."[8]



Cato being asked, on one occasion, what was the most certain source of profit, "Good pasture land," was his answer;

upon which, enquiry was made what was the next best. "Pretty

good[9] pasture lands," said he-the amount of all which is, that

he looked upon that as the most certain source of income

which stands in need of the smallest outlay. This, however,

will naturally vary in degree, according to the nature of the

respective localities; and the same is the case with the maxim[10]

to which he gives utterance, that a good agriculturist must be







fond of selling. The same, too, with his remark, that in his

youth a landowner should begin to plant without delay, but

that he ought not to build until the land is fully brought into

cultivation, and then only a little at a time: and that the best

plan is, as the common proverb has it, "To profit by the folly

of others;"[11] taking due care, however, that the keeping up of

a farm-house does not entail too much expense. Still, however, those persons are guilty of no falsehood who are in the

habit of saying that a proprietor who is well housed comes all

the oftener to his fields, and that "the master's forehead is

of more use than his back."[12]







1. De Re Rust. Preface.

2. Fe remarks, that we still recruit our armies mostly from the agricultural class.

3. De Re Rust. c. 1.

4. Quoted by Columella, De Re Rust. B. i. 4. The sad fate of Regulus

is known to all readers of Roman history.

5. From Columella, B. i. c. 3.

6. De Re Rust. c. 1.

7. It is still thought so in France, Fe says, and nothing has tended

more than this notion to the depreciation of the prices of wine.

8. Hence the usual Latin name, "prata."

9. "Si sat bene." Cicero, De Officiis, B. ii. n. 88, gives this anecdote

somewhat more at length.

10. De Re Rust. c. 2.

11. "Alien insani frui." We have a saying to a similar effect "Fools

build houses, and wise men buy them."

12. "Frons domini plus prodest quam occipitium." See Cato, De Re

Rust. c. 4; also Phdrus, B. iv. Fab. 19.




7. Chap. 7. (6.)-The Proper Arrangements For A Farm-House.


CHAP. 7. (6.)-THE PROPER ARRANGEMENTS FOR A FARM-HOUSE.



The proper plan to be pursued is this:[1] the farm-house must

not be unsuitable for the farm, nor the farm for the house; and

we must be on our guard against following the examples of L.

Lucullus and Q. Scvola, who, though living in the same age,

fell into the two opposite extremes; for whereas the farm-house

of Scvola was not large enough for the produce of his farm,

the farm of Lucullus was not sufficiently large for the house he

built upon it; an error which gave occasion to the reproof of

the censors, that on his farm there was less of ground for

ploughing than of floor for sweeping. The proper arrange-

ments for a farm-house are not to be made without a certain

degree of skill. C. Marius, who was seven times consul, was

the last person who had one built at Misenum;[2] but he erected

it with such a degree of that artistic skill which he had displayed in castrametation, that Sylla Felix[3] even made the

remark, that in comparison with Marius, all the others had

been no better than blind.[4]



It is generally agreed, that a farm-house ought neither to

be built near a marsh, nor with a river in front of it; for, as







Homer[5] has remarked, with the greatest correctness, unwholesome vapours are always exhaled from rivers before the rising

of the sun. In hot localities, a farm-house should have a

northern aspect, but where it is cold, it should look towards

the south; where, on the other hand, the site is temperate, the

house should look due east. Although, when speaking[6] of

the best kinds of soil, I may seem to have sufficiently discussed

the characteristics by which it may be known, I shall take the

present opportunity of adding a few more indications, employing the words of Cato[7] more particularly for the purpose.

"The dwarf-elder," says he, "the wild plum,[8] the bramble,

the small bulb,[9] trefoil, meadow grass,[10] the quercus, and the

wild pear and wild apple, are all of them indicative of a corn

land. The same is the case, too, where the land is black, or

of an ashy colour. All chalky soils are scorching, unless they

are very thin; the same, too, with sand, unless it is remarkably

fine. These remarks, however, are more applicable to champaign localities than declivities."



The ancients were of opinion, that before everything, moderation should be observed in the extent of a farm; for it was

a favourite maxim of theirs, that we ought to sow the less, and

plough the more: such too, I find, was the opinion entertained

by Virgil,[11] and indeed, if we must confess the truth, it is the

wide-spread domains that have been the ruin[12] of Italy, and

soon will be that of the provinces as well. Six proprietors

were in possession of one half of Africa,[13] at the period when







the Emperor Nero had them put to death. With that greatness of mind which was so peculiarly his own, and of which

he ought not to lose the credit, Cneius Pompeius would never

purchase the lands that belonged to a neighbour. Mago has

stated it as his opinion, that a person, on buying a farm, ought

at once to sell his town house;[14] an opinion, however, which

savours of too great rigidity, and is by no means conformable to

the public good. It is with these words, indeed, that he begins

his precepts; a good proof, at all events, that he looks upon the

personal inspection of the owner as of primary importance.



The next point which requires our care is to employ a farmsteward[15] of experience, and upon this, too, Cato[16] has given

many useful precepts. Still, however, it must suffice for

me to say that the steward ought to be a man nearly as clever

as his master, though without appearing to know it. It is the

very worst plan of all, to have land tilled by slaves let loose

from the houses of correction, as, indeed, is the case with all

work entrusted to men who live without hope. I may possibly

appear guilty of some degree of rashness in making mention of

a maxim of the ancients, which will very probably be looked

upon as quite incredible-"That nothing is so disadvantageous

as to cultivate land in the highest style of perfection." L.

Tarius Rufus, a man who, born in the very lowest ranks of

life, by his military talents finally attained the consulship,[17]

and who in other respects adhered to the old-fashioned notions

of thriftiness, made away with about one hundred millions of

sesterces, which, by the liberality of the late Emperor Augustus, he had contrived to amass, in buying up lands in Picenum,

and cultivating them in the highest style, his object being to

gain a name thereby; the consequence of which was, that his

heir renounced[18] the inheritance. Are we of opinion, then,

that ruin and starvation must be the necessary consequence of

such a course as this? Yes, by Hercules! and the very best

plan of all is to let moderation guide our judgment in all things.

To cultivate land well is absolutely necessary, but to cultivate







it in the very highest style is mere extravagance, unless, indeed, the work is done by the hands of a man's own family, his

tenants, or those whom he is obliged to keep at any rate. But

besides this, even when the owner tills the land itself, there

are some crops which it is really not worth the while to gather,

if we only take into account the manual labour expended upon

them. The olive, too, should never be too highly[19] cultivated,

nor must certain soils, it is said, be too carefully tilled, those

of Sicily,[20] for instance; hence it is, that new comers there so

often find themselves deceived.[21]







1. Cato, c. 3. Varro and Columella give the same advice.

2. See B. iii. c. 9.

3. Sylla the Fortunate, the implacable enemy of Marius.

4. Because, though the last comer, he had obtained the best site in the

locality.

5. Od. v. 469. If the river has a bed of sand and high banks, it is

really advantageous than otherwise.

6. In B. xvii. c. 3.

7. Not to be found in his works which have come down to us.

8. Prunus spinosa of Linnus

9. See B. xix. c. 30; probably one of the genus Allium sphroce-

phalum of Linnus.

10. "Herba pratensis." It is not known with certainty to what plant he

alludes. Fe suggests that it may be the Poa pratensis, or else a phleum,

alopecurus, or dactylis. All the plants here mentioned by Pliny will thrive

in a calcareous soil, and their presence, as Fe remarks, is of bad augury.

11. He alludes to the famous maxim in the Georgics, B. ii. 1. 412:-

--Laudato ingentia rura,

Exiguum colito--

"Praise a large farm, cultivate a small one."

12. By introducing slovenly cultivation.

13. That small part of it known to the Romans. Hardouin says that the

province of Zeugitana is alluded to, mentioned in B. v. c. 3.

14. And reside on the farm.

15. Villicus.

16. De Re Rust. c. 5.

17. A.U.C. 737.

18. Probably because it entailed too great an expense. It may have

been deeply mortgaged: otherwise it is not clear why the heir refused to

take it, as he might have sold a part.

19. He means to say that it is so much labour lost, as it will take care of

itself; but this is hardly in accordance with his numerous directions

given in B. xv. Virgil, Geor. B. ii. 421, et seq., speaks of the olive as requiring no attention when it has once taken root.

20. See B. xvii. c. 3.

21. In throwing away money and labour upon land that does not require it.




8. Chap. 8.-Maxims Of The Ancients On Agriculture.


CHAP. 8.-MAXIMS OF THE ANCIENTS ON AGRICULTURE.



In what way, then, can land be most profitably cultivated?

Why, in the words of our agricultural oracles, "by making

good out of bad." But here it is only right that we should say

a word in justification of our forefathers, who in their precepts

on this subject had nothing else in view but the benefit of

mankind: for when they use the term "bad" here, they only

mean to say that which costs the smallest amount of money.

The principal object with them was in all cases to cut down

expenses to the lowest possible sum; and it was in this spirit

that they made the enactments which pronounced it criminal

for a person who had enjoyed a triumph, to be in possession,

among his other furniture, of ten pounds' weight of silver

plate: which permitted a man, upon the death of his farmsteward, to abandon all his victories, and return to the cultivation of his lands-such being the men the culture of whose

farms the state used to take upon itself; and thus, while they

led our armies, did the senate act as their steward.



It was in the same spirit, too, that those oracles of ours

have given utterance to these other precepts, to the effect that

he is a bad agriculturist who has to buy what his farm might

have supplied him with; that the man is a bad manager who

does in the day-time what he might have done in the night,

except, indeed, when the state of the weather does not allow







it; that he is a worse manager still, who does on a work-day

what he might have done on a feast-day;[1] but that he is the

very worst of all, who works under cover in fine weather, in-

stead of labouring in the fields.



I cannot refrain from taking the present opportunity of

quoting one illustration afforded us by ancient times, from

which it will be found that it was the usage in those days to

bring before the people even questions connected with the

various methods employed in agriculture, and will be seen in

what way men were accustomed to speak out in their own

defence. C. Furius Chresimus, a freedman, having found himself able, from a very small piece of land, to raise far more

abundant harvests than his neighbours could from the largest

farms, became the object of very considerable jealousy among

them, and was accordingly accused of enticing away the crops

of others by the practice of sorcery. Upon this, a day was

named by Spurius Calvinus, the curule dile, for his appearance. Apprehensive of being condemned, when the question

came to be put to the vote among the tribes, he had all his

implements of husbandry brought into the Forum, together

with his farm servants, robust, Well-conditioned, and well-clad

people, Piso says. The iron tools were of first-rate quality,

the mattocks were stout and strong, the plough-shares ponderous and substantial, and the oxen sleek and in prime condition. When all this had been done, "Here, Roman citizens," said he, "are my implements of magic; but it is impossible for me to exhibit to your view, or to bring into this

Forum, those midnight toils of mine, those early watchings

those sweats, and those fatigues." Upon this, by the unanimous voice of the people, he was immediately acquitted.

Agriculture, in fact, depends upon the expenditure of labour

and exertion; and hence it is that the ancients were in the

habit of saying, that it is the eye of the master that does more

towards fertilizing a field than anything else.



We shall give the rest of these precepts in their appropriate

places, according as we find them adapted to each variety of

cultivation; but in the meantime we must not omit some of a

general nature, which here recur to our recollection, and more







particularly that maxim of Cato, as profitable as it is humane:

"Always act in such away as to secure the love of your neighbours." He then proceeds to state his reasons for giving this

advice, but it appears to me that no one surley can entertain

the slightest doubt upon the subject. One of the very first

recommendations that he gives is to take every care that the

farm servants are kept in good condition.[2] It is a maxim

universally agred upon in agriculture, that nothing must be

done too late; and again, that everything must be done at its

proper season; while there is a third precept, which reminds

us that opportunities lost can never be regained. The male-

diction uttered by Cato against rotten ground has been treated

of at some length already;[3] but there is another precept which

he is never tired of repeating, "Whatever can be done by the

help of the ass, will cost the least money."



Fern will be sure to die at the end of a couple of years, if

you prevent it from putting forth leaves; the most efficient method of ensuring this is to beat the branches with a stick while

they are in bud; for then the juices that drop from it will kill

the roots.[4] It is said, too, that fern will not spring up again

if it is pulled up by the roots about the turn of the summer

solstice, or if the stalks are cut with the edge of a reed, or if it

is turned up with a plough-share with a reed placed[5] upon it.

In the same way, too, we are told that reeds may be effectually

ploughed up, if care is taken to place a stalk of fern upon the

share. A field infested with rushes should be turned up with

the spade, or, if the locality is stony, with a two-pronged

mattock: overgrown shrubs are best removed by fire. Where

ground is too moist, it is an advantageous plan to cut trenches

in it and so drain it; where the soil is cretaceous, these trenches

should be left open; and where it is loose, they should be

strengthened with a hedge to prevent them from falling in.

When these drains are made on a declivity, they should have

a layer of gutter tiles at the bottom, or else house tiles with the

face upwards: in some cases, too, they should be covered[6]







with earth, and made to run into others of a larger size and

wider; the bottom, also, should, if possible, have a coating of

stones or of gravel. The openings, too, should be strengthened

with two stones placed on either side, and another laid upon

the top. Democritus has described a method of rooting up a

forest, by first macerating the flower of the lupine[7] for one day

in the juice of hemlock, and then watering the roots of the

trees with it.







1. Virgil, Georg. I. 268, et seq., speaks of the work that might be done

on feast days-making hedges, for instance, irrigating land, catching

birds, washing sheep, and burning weeds.

2. "Ne famili male sit."

3. In B. xvii. c. 3.

4. The Pteris aquilina, or female fern. No such juices drop from it as

here mentioned by Pliny, Fe says.

5. A superstition quite unworthy of our author and the same with

respect to that mentioned in the next line.

6. Sub-soil drainage is now universally employed, with the agency of

draining-tiles, made for the purpose.

7. The flower of the lupine could not possibly produce any such effect;

and the juice of cicuta, or hemlock, in only a very trifling degree.




9. Chap. 9. (7.)-The Different Kinds Of Grain.


CHAP. 9. (7.)-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF GRAIN.



As the field is now prepared, we shall proceed to speak of

the nature of the various kinds of grain; we must premise,

however, that there are two principal classes of grain, the

cereals,[1] comprising wheat and barley, and the legumina, such

as the bean and the chick-pea, for instance. The difference

between these two classes is too well known to require any

further description.







1. This word answers to the Latin "frumenta," which indicates all those

kinds of corn from which bread was prepared by the ancients.




10. Chap. 10.-The History Of The Various Kinds Of Grain.


CHAP. 10.-THE HISTORY OF the VARIOUS KINDS OF GRAIN.



The cereals are divided again into the same number of

varieties, according to the time of the year at which they

are sown. The winter grains are those which are put in

the ground about the setting of the Vergili,[1] and there receive their nutriment throughout the winter, for instance,

wheat,[2] spelt,[3] and barley.[4] The summer grains are those

which are sown in summer, before the rising of the Vergili,[5]







such as millet,[6] panic,[7] sesame,[8] horminum,[9] and irio,[10] in

accordance, however, with the usage of Italy only; for in

Greece and Asia all the grains are sown just after the setting of

the Vergili. There are some, again, that ar sown at either

season in Italy, and others at a third period, or, ill other

words, in the spring. Some authors give the name of spring-

grain to millet, panic, lentils,[11] chick-peas,[12] and alica,[13]

while they call wheat, barely, beans, turnips, and rape, sementive or early sowing seeds. Certain species of wheat are only

sown to make fodder for cattle, and are known by the name of

"farrago,"[14] or mixed grain; the same, too, with the leguminous plants, the vetch, for instance. The lupine.[15] however, is

grown in common as food for both cattle and men.



All the leguminous[16] plants, with the exception of the bean,

have a single root, hard and tough, like wood, and destitute of

numerous ramifications; the chick-pea has the deepest root of

all. Corn has numerous fibrous roots, but no ramifications.

Barley makes its appearance[17] above ground the seventh day

after sowing; the leguminous plants on the fourth, or at the

very latest, the seventh; the bean from the fifteenth day to

the twentieth: though in Egypt the leguminous plants appear

as early as the third day after they are sown. In barley, one

extremity of the grain throws out the root, and the other the







blade; this last flowers, too, before the other grain. In the

cereals in general it is the thicker end of the seed that throws

out the root, the thinner end the blossom; while in the other

seeds both root and blossom issue from the same part.



During the winter, corn is in the blade; but in the spring

winter corn throws out a tall stem. As for millet and panic,

they grow with a jointed and grooved[18] stalk, while sesame has

a stem resembling that of fennel-giant. The fruit of all these

seeds is either contained in an ear, as in wheat and barley, for

instance, and protected from the attacks of birds and small

animals by a prickly beard bristling like so many plisades; or

else it is enclosed in pods, as in the leguminous plants, or in

capsules, as in sesame and the poppy. Millet and panic can

only be said to belong to the grower and the small birds in

common, as they have nothing but a thin membrane to cover

them, without the slightest protection. Panic receives that

name from the panicule[19] or down that is to be seen upon it;

the head of it droops languidly, and the stalk tapers gradually in thickness, being of almost the toughness and consistency of wood: the head is loaded with grain closely packed,

there being a tuft upon the top, nearly a foot in length. In

millet the husks which embrace the grain bend downward with

a wavy tuft upon the edge. There are several varieties of

panic, the mammose, for instance, the ears of which are in

clusters with small edgings of down, the head of the plant

being double; it is distinguished also according to the colour,

the white, for instance, the black, the red, and the purple

even. Several kinds of bread are made from millet, but very

little from panic: there is no grain known that weighs heavier

than millet, and which swells more in baking. A modius of

millet will yield sixty pounds' weight of bread; and three

sextarii steeped in water will make one modius of fermenty.[20]

A kind of millet[21] has been introduced from India into Italy

within the last ten years, of a swarthy colour, large grain, and a







stalk like that of the reed. This stalk springs up to the height

of seven feet, and has tufts of a remarkable size, known by the

name of "phob."[22] This is the most prolific of all the cereals,

for from a single grain no less than three sextarii[23] are produced: it requires, however, to be sown in a humid soil.



Some kinds of corn begin to form the ear at the third joint,

and others at the fourth, though at its first formation the ear

remains still concealed. Wheat, however, has four[24] articulations, spelt[25] six, and barley eight. In the case of these last,

the ear does not begin to form before the number of joints, as

above mentioned, is complete. Within four or five days, at

the very latest, after the ear has given signs of forming, the

plant begins to flower, and in the course of as many days or a

little more, sheds its blossom: barley blossoms at the end of

seven days at the very latest. Varro says that the grains are

perfectly formed at the end of four times[26] nine days from their

flowering, and are ready for cutting at the ninth month.



The bean, again, first appears in leaf, and then throws out

a stalk, which has no articulations[27] upon it. The other legu-

minous plants have a tough, ligneous stalk, and some of them

throw out branches, the chick-pea, the fitch, and the lentil,

for instance. In some of the leguminous plants, the pea, for

example, the stem creeps along the ground, if care is not taken

to support it by sticks: if this precaution is omitted, the

quality is deteriorated. The bean and the lupine are the only

ones among the leguminous plants that have a single stem: in

all the others the stem throws out branches, being of a ligneous nature, very thin, and in all cases hollow. Some of

these plants throw out the leaves from the root, others at the

top.[28] Wheat, barley, and the vetch, all the plants, in fact,

which produce straw, have a single leaf only at the summit:

in barley, however, this leaf is rough, while in the others it







is smooth. * * * In the bean, again, the chick-pea, and the

pea, the leaves are numerous and divided. In corn the leaf

is similar to that of the reed, while in the bean it is round, as

also in a great proportion of the leguminous plants. In the

ervilia[29] and the pea the leaf is long,[30] in the kidney-bean

veined, and in sesame[31] and irio the colour of blood. The

lupine and the poppy are the only ones among these plants that

lose[32] their leaves.



The leguminous plants remain a longer time in flower, the

fitch and the chick-pea more particularly; but the bean is in

blossom the longest of them all, for the flower remains on it

forty days; not, indeed, that each stalk retains its blossom

for all that length of time, but, as the flower goes off in

one, it comes on in another. In the bean, too, the crop is not

ripe all at once, as is the case with corn; for the pods make

their appearance at different times, at the lowest parts first,

the blossom mounting upwards by degrees.



When the blossom is off in corn, the stalk gradually thickens,

and it ripens within forty days at the most. The same is the

case, too, with the bean, but the chick-pea takes a much shorter

time to ripen; indeed, it is fit for gathering within forty days

from the time that it is sown. Millet, panic, sesame, and all the

summer grains are ripe within forty days after blossoming

with considerable variations, of course, in reference to soil and

weather. Thus, in Egypt, we find barley cut at the end of

six months, and wheat at the end of seven, from the time of

sowing. In Hellas, again, barley is cut in the seventh month,

and in Peloponnesus in the eighth; the wheat being got in at

a still later period.



Those grains which grow on a stalk of straw are enclosed

in an envelope protected by a prickly beard; while in the bean

and the leguminous plants in general they are enclosed in pods

upon branches which shoot alternately from either side. The

cereals are the best able to withstand the winter, but the leguminous plants afford the most substantial food. In wheat, the







grain has several coats, but in barley,[33] more particularly, it is

naked and exposed; the same, too, with arinca,[34] but most of

all, the oat. The stem is taller in wheat than it is in barley,

but the ear is more bearded[35] in the last. Wheat, barley, and

winter-wheat[36] ar threshed out; they are cleaned, too, for

sowing just as they are prepared for the mill, there being no

necessity for parching[37] them. Spelt, on the other hand, millet,

and panic, cannot be cleaned without parching them; hence it

is that they are always sown raw and with the chaff on. Spelt

is preserved in the husk, too, for sowing, and, of course, is not

in such case parched by the action of fire.







1. See c. 59 of this Book.

2. Triticum hibernum of Linnus, similar to the "siligo" mentioned in

the sequel. Winter wheat was greatly cultivated in Apulia.

3. "Far." This name is often used in the classics, to signify corn in

general; but in the more restricted sense in which it is here employed, it is

"Triticum dicoccum," the "Zea" of the Greeks. It consists of two varieties, the single grained, the Triticum monococcum of Linus, and the

double-grained, the Triticum spelta of Linnus, which is still called "farra"

in Friuli.

4. Hordeum sativum of Linnus.

5. See c. 66 of this Book.

6. Panicum Italicum of Linnus.

7. Panicum miliaccum of Linnus. This was probably one of the first

grains from which bread was made.

8. The Sesamum orientale of Linnus. It is no longer cultivated in

Europe, thouhgh formerly it was much used in Greece.

9. It is very doubtful if this is the same as early, the Salvia horminum

of Linnus, as that is one of the Labiat, whereas here, most probably, a

leguminous plant is spoken of.

10. It has been asserted that this is identical with the Sisymbrium poly-

ceratium of Linnus, rock-gentle, rock-gallant, or winter-cress. Fe, however, is strongly of opinion that it can only be looked for in the Sisym-

brium irio of Linnus.

11. Ervum lens of Linnus.

12. The Cicer arietinum of naturalists, the Garbanzo of the Spaniards.

It abounds in the south of Europe and in India.

13. A variety of spelt was called by this name; but it was more gene-

rally applied to a kind of flummery pottage or gruel.

14. Hence our word "forage."

15. Lupinus hirsutus and pilosus of Linnus.

16. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii c. 2.

17. All this, of course, depends upon numerous circumstances.

18. This is certainly the fact, as Fe says, but it is the same with all the

graminea.

19. A characteristic of the Panicum miliaceum in particular.

20. Or porridge; "puls."

21. It has been suggested that this was maize, but that is indigenous to

South America. Fe has little doubt that it is the Holcus sorgho of Lin-

nus, the "Indian millet," that is meant.

22. From the Greek fo/bh. The stalk and husk of the sorgho is covered

with a fine down. The reading "cornis" has been adopted.

23. This is considered by Fe to be very improbable.

24. In reality these vary, according to the rapidity of the growth.

25. Strictly speaking, spelt has seven.

26. This depends upon the time when it is sown, and numerous other cir-

cumstances.

27. Strictly speaking, he is right; but still there is a swelling in the

stalk, to be perceived at the points where the leaves take their rise.

28. This is incorrect; they all of them throw out leaves from the root.

29. The same as the "Ervum" probably, the fitch, orobus, or bitter vetch.

30. Not so with the pea, as known to us.

31. This is only true at the end of the season, and when the plant is

dying.

32. These annuals lose their leaves only that have articulations on the

stem; otherwise they die outright at the fall of the leaf.

33. If by "tunica" he means the husk of chaff, which surrounds the

grain, the assertion is contrary to the fact, in relation to barley and the

oat.

34. Only another name, Fe thinks, for the Triticum hibernum, or winter-

wheat. Spelt or zea has been suggested, as also the white barley of the

south of Europe; see c. 20.

35. Egyptian wheat, or rather what is called mummy-wheat, is bearded

equally to barley.

36. Siligo.

37. Before grinding.




11. Chap. 11.-Spelt.


CHAP. 11.-SPELT.



Of all these grains barley is the lightest,[1] its weight rarely

exceeding fifteen pounds to the modius, while that of the bean

is twenty-two. Spelt is much heavier than barley, and wheat

heavier than spelt. In Egypt they make a meal[2] of olyra,[3]

a third variety of corn that grows there. The Gauls have

also a kind of spelt peculiar to that country: they give it the

name of "brace,"[4] while to us it is known as "sanldala:" it

has a grain of remarkable whiteness. Another difference,

again, is the fact that it yields nearly four pounds more of

bread to the modius than any other kind of spelt. Verrius

states that for three hundred years the Romans made use of no

other meal than that of corn.











1. Oats and rye excepted.

2. Here the word "far" means "a meal," or "flour," a substitute for

that of "far," or "spelt."

3. Triticum monococcum, according to some. Fe identifies it with

the Triticum spelta of Linnus.

4. A variety, probably, of the Triticum hibernum of Linnus, with white

grains; the white-wheat of the French, from which the ancient Gauls

made their malt; hence the French word "brasser," to "brew."




12. Chap. 12.-Wheat.


CHAP. 12.-WHEAT.



There are numerous kinds of wheat which have received

their names from the countries where they were first produced.

For my part, however, I can compare no kind of wheat to

that of Italy either for whiteness or weight, qualities for which

it is more particularly distinguished: indeed it is only with

the produce of the more mountainous parts of Italy that the

foreign wheats can be put in comparison. Among these the

wheat of Botia[1] occupies the first rank, that of Sicily the

second, and that of Africa the third. The wheats of Thrace,

Syria, and, more recently, of Egypt, used to hold the third rank

for weight, these facts having been ascertained through the

medium of the athletes; whose powers of consumption, equal

to those of beasts of burden, have established the gradations in

weight, as already stated. Greece, too, held the Pontic[2] wheat

in high esteem; but this has not reached Italy as yet. Of

all the varieties of grain, however, the Greeks gave the preference to the kinds called dracontion, strangia, and Selinusium,

the chief characteristic of which is a stem of remarkable thickness: it was this, in the opinion of the Greeks, that marked

them as the peculiar growth of a rich soil. On the other hand,

they recommended for sowing in humid soils an extremely

light and diminutive species of grain, with a remarkably thin

stalk, known to them as speudias, and standing in need of an

abundance of nutriment. Such, at all events, were the opi-

nions generally entertained in the reign of Alexander the Great,

at a time when Greece was at the height of her glory, and the

most powerful country in the world. Still, however, nearly

one hundred and forty-four years before the death of that

prince we find the poet Sophocles, in his Tragedy of "Triptolemus," praising the corn of Italy before all others. The

passage, translated word for word, is to the following effect:-

"And favour'd Italy grows white with hoary wheat."

And it is this whiteness that is still one of the peculiar merits

of the Italian wheat; a circumstance which makes me the more

surprised to find that none of the Greek writers of a later

period have made any reference to it.







Of the various kinds of wheat which are imported at the

present day into Rome, the lightest in weight are those which

come from Gaul and Chersonnesus; for, upon weighing them,

it will be found that they do not yield more than twenty

pounds to the modius. The grain of Sardinia weighs half a

pound more, and that of Alexandria one-third of a pound more

than that of Sardinia; the Sicilian wheat is the same in

weight as the Alexandrian. The Botian wheat, again, weighs

a whole pound more than these last, and that of Africa a pound

and three quarters. In Italy beyond the Padus, the spelt, to

my knowledge, weighs twenty-five pounds to the modius, and,

in the vicinity of Clusium, six-and-twenty. We find it a

rule, universally established by Nature, that in every kind of

commissariat bread[3] that is made, the bread exceeds the weight

of the grain by one-third; and in the same way it is generally

considered that that is the best kind of wheat, which, in

kneading, will absorb one congius of water.[4] There are some

kinds of wheat which give, when used by themselves, an additional weight equal to this; the Balearic wheat, for instance,

which to a modius of grain yields thirty-five pounds weight of

bread. Others, again, will only give this additional weight

by being mixed with other kinds, the Cyprian wheat and the

Alexandrian, for example; which, if used by themselves, will

yield no more than twenty pounds to the modius. The wheat

of Cyprus is swarthy, and produces a dark bread; for which

reason it is generally mixed with the white wheat of Alexandria; the mixture yielding twenty-five pounds of bread to the

modius of grain. The wheat of Thebais, in Egypt, hen

made into bread, yields twenty-six pounds to the modius. To

knead the meal with sea-water, as is mostly done in the maritime districts, for the purpose of saving the salt, is extremely

pernicious; there is nothing, in fact, that will more readily

predispose the human body to disease. In Gaul and Spain,

where they make a drink[5] by steeping corn in the way that

has been already described-they employ the foam[6] which

thickens upon the surface as a leaven: hence it is that

the bread in those countries is lighter than that made else-

where.







There are some differences, also, in the stem of wheat; for

the better the kind the thicker it is. In Thrace, the stem of

the wheat is covered with several coats,[7] which are rendered

absolutely necessary by the excessive cold of those regions.

It is the cold, also, that led to the discovery there of the three-month[8] wheat, the ground being covered with snow most

of the year. At the end mostly of three months after it has

been sown, this wheat is ready for cutting, both in Thrace and

in other parts of the world as well. This variety is well known,

too, throughout all the Alpine range, and in the northern pro-

vinces there is no kind of wheat that is more prolific; it has

a single stem only, is by no means of large size in any part of

it, and is never sown but in a thin, light soil. There is a two-month[9] wheat also found in the vicinity of nos, in Thrace,

which ripens the fortieth day after sowing; and yet it is a

surprising fact, that there is no kind of wheat that weighs

heavier than this, while at the same time it produces no bran.

Both Sicily and Achaia grow it, in the mountainous districts

of those countries; as also Euba, in the vicinity of Carystus.

So greatly, then, is Columella in error,[10] in supposing that

there is no distinct variety of three-month wheat even; the

fact being that these varieties have been known from the very

earliest times. The Greeks give to these wheats the name

of "setanion." It is said that in Bactria the grains of wheat

are of such an enormous size, that a single one is as large as

our ears of corn.[11]







1. From Theophrastus, De Causis, B. iv.

2. That of the Ukraine and its vicinity, which is still held in high esteem.

3. Panis militaris.

4. To the modius of wheat.

5. He alludes to beer, or sweet-wort. See B. xiv. c. 29.

6. He alludes to yeast. See B. xxii. c. 82.

7. This assertion, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii. c. 4, is not

based on truth. It is possible that he may allude in reality to some other

gramineous plant.

8. Trimestre.

9. Bimestre.

10. Columella (B. ii. c. 6) does not state to this effect; on the contrary,

he speaks of the existence of a three months' wheat; but he asserts, and with

justice, that wheat sown in the autumn is better than that sown in March.

11. If he alludes here to what Theophrastus says, his assertion is simply

that, in Bactria, the grains are as large as an olive-stone.




14. Chap. 14.-Polenta.


CHAP. 14.-POLENTA.



Barley is one of the most ancient aliments of man, a fact

that is proved by a custom of the Athenians, mentioned by

Menander,[1] as also by the name of "hordearii,"[2] that used to

be given to gladiators. The Greeks, too, prefer barley to anything else for making polenta.[3] This food is made in various

ways: in Greece, the barley is first steeped in water, and then

left a night to dry. The next day they parch it, and then

grind it in the mill. Some persons parch it more highly, and

then sprinkle it again with a little water; after which they

dry it for grinding. Others shake the grain from out of the

ear while green, and, aftr cleaning and soaking it in water,

pound it in a mortar. They then wash the paste in baskets,

and leave it to dry in the sun; after which they pound it again,

clean it, and grind it in the mill. But whatever the mode of

preparation adopted, the proportions are always twenty pounds

of barley to three pounds of linseed,[4] half a pound of coriander,

and fifteen drachm[5] of salt: the ingredients are first parched,

and then ground in the mill.



Those who want it for keeping, store it in new earthen

vessels, with fine flour and bran. In Italy, the barley is

parched without being steeped in water, and then ground to a







fine meal, with the addition of the ingredients already mentioned, and some millet as well. Barley bread, which was

extensively used by the ancients, has now fallen into universal

disrepute, and is mostly used as a food for cattle only.







1. The barley was, originally, the prize given to the victor in the Eleu-

sinian games.

2. Or "barley-fed."

3. The a)lfi/ton of the Greeks.

4. This, as Fe observes, would tend to give it a very disagreeable flavour.

5. "Acetabulum."




15. Chap. 15.-Ptisan.


CHAP. 15.-PTISAN.



With barley, too, the food called ptisan[1] is made, a most

substantial and salutary aliment, and one that is held in very

high esteem. Hippocrates, one of the most famous writers on

medical science, has devoted a whole volume to the praises of

this aliment. The ptisan of the highest quality is that which

is made at Utica; that of Egypt is prepared from a kind of

barley, the grain of which grows with two points.[2] In Baltic

and Africa, the kind of barley from which this food is made is

that which Turranius calls the "smooth"[3] barley: the same

author expresses an opinion, too, that olyra[4] and rice are the

same. The method of preparing ptisan is universally known.







1. Similar to our pearl barley, probably.

2. "Anguli." Dalechamps interprets this as two rows of grain; but

Fe thinks that it signifies angles, and points. The Polygonum fagopyrum

of Linnus, he says, buck-wheat, or black-wheat, has an angular grain,

but he doubts whether that can possibly be the grain here alluded to.

3. There is no barley without a beard; it is clearly a variety of wheat

that is alluded to.

4. Triticum spelta of Linnus.




16. Chap. 16.-Tragum.


CHAP. 16.-TRAGUM.



In a similar manner, too, tragum is prepared from seed[1]

wheat, but only in Campania and Egypt.







1. "Semen," the same as zea, or spelt.




17. Chap. 17.-Amylum.


CHAP. 17.-AMYLUM.



Amylum is prepared from every kind of wheat, and from

winter-wheat[1] as well; but the best of all is that made from

three-month wheat. The invention of it we owe to the island

of Chios, and still, at the present day, the most esteemed kind

comes from there; it derives its name from its being made

without the help of the mill.[2] Next to the amylum made

with three-month wheat, is that which is prepared from the

lighter kinds of wheat. In making it, the grain is soaked in







fresh water, placed in wooden vessels; care being taken to keep

it covered with the liquid, which is changed no less than five

times in the course of the day. If it can be changed at night

as well, it is all the better for it, the object being to let it

imbibe the water gradually and equally. When it is quit

soft, but before it turns sour, it is passed through linen cloth,

or else wicker-work, after which it is poured out upon a tile

covered with leaven, and left to harden in the sun. Next to

the amylum of Chios, that of Crete is the most esteemed, and

next to that the gyptian. The tests of its goodness are its

being light and smooth: it should be used, too, while it is

fresh. Cato,[3] among our writers, has made mention of it.







1. Siligo.

2. )/Amulon.

3. De Re Rust. c. 87. This "amylum" seems somewhat to resemble our

starch.




18. Chap. 18.-The Nature Of Barley.


CHAP. 18.-the NATURE OF BARLEY.



Barley-meal, too, is employed for medicinal purposes; and

it is a curious fact, that for beasts of burden they make a paste

of it, which is first hardened by the action of fire, and then

ground. It is then made up into balls, which are introduced

with the hand into the paunch, the result of which is, that the

vigour and muscular strength of the animal is considerably

increased. In some kinds of barley, the ears have two rows

of grains,[1] and in others more; in some cases, as many as six.[2]

The grain itself, too, presents certain differences, being long

and thin, or else short or round, white, black,[3] or, in some

instances, of a purple colour. This last kind is employed for

making polenta: the white is ill adapted for standing the severity of the weather. Barley is the softest of all the grains:

it can only be sown in a dry, loose soil,[4] but fertile withal.

The chaff of barley ranks among the very best; indeed, for

litter there is none that can be compared with it. Of all grain,

barley is the least exposed to accidents, as it is gathered before

the time that mildew begins to attack wheat; for which reason

it is that the provident agriculturist sows only as much wheat







as may be required for food. The saying is, that "barley is

sown in a money-bag," because it so soon returns a profit.

The most prolific kind of all is that which is got in at Carthage,[5] in Spain, in the month of April. It is in the same

month that it is sown in Celtiberia, and yet it yields two harvests in the same year. All kinds of barley are cut sooner than

other grain, and immediately after they are ripe; for the straw

is extremely brittle, and the grain is enclosed in a husk of remarkable thinness. It is said, too, that a better polenta[6] is

made from it, if it is gathered before it is perfectly ripe.







1. The Hordeum distichum of Linnus.

2. Hordeum hexastichum of Linnus. The Hordeum vulgare, or com-

mon barley, has but four rows.

3. These varieties are not known at the present day, and Fe questions

if they ever existed. There is a black barley found in Germany, the Hor-

deum nigrum of Willdenow.

4. A caleareous soil is the best adapted for barley.

5. Nova Carthago, or New Carthage.

6. This fallacious opinion is shared with Galen, De Facult. Anim.

B. vi. c. 11.




19. Chap. 19. (8.)-Arinca, And Other Kinds Of Grain That Are Grown In The East.


CHAP. 19. (8.)-ARINCA, AND OTHER KINDS OF GRAIN THAT ARE GROWN IN THE EAST.



The several kinds of corn are not everywhere the same; and

even where they are the same, they do not always bear a similar name. The kinds most universally grown are spelt, by the

ancients known as "adorea," winter wheat,[1] and wheat;[2] all

these being common to many countries. Arinca was originally

peculiar to Gaul, though now it is widely diffused over Italy

as well. Egypt, too, Syria, Cilicia, Asia, and Greece, have their

own peculiar kinds, known by the names of zea,[3] olyra, and

wheat.[4] In Egypt, they make a fine flour from wheat of their

own growth, but it is by no means equal to that of Italy.

Those countries which employ zea, have no spelt. Zea, however, is to be found in Italy, and in Campania more particularly,

where it is known by the name of "seed."[5] The grain that

bears this name enjoys a very considerable celebrity, as we

shall have occasion to state[6] on another occasion; and it is in

honour of this that Homer[7] uses the expression, zei/dwros a)/roura,

and not, as some suppose, from the fact of the earth

giving life.[8] Amylum is made, too, from this grain, but of a







coarser[9] quality than the kind already mentioned;[10] this,

however, is the only difference that is perceptible.



The most hardy kind, however, of all the grains is spelt, and

the best to stand the severity of the weather; it will grow in

the very coldest places, as also in localities that are but half

tilled, or soils that are extremely hot, and destitute of water.

This was the earliest food of the ancient inhabitants of Latium;

a strong proof of which is the distributions of adorea that

were made in those times, as already stated.[11] It is evident,

too, that the Romans subsisted for a long time upon pottage,[12]

and not bread; for we find that from its name of "puls," certain kinds of food are known, even at the present day, as "pulmentaria."[13] Ennius, too, the most ancient of our poets, in

describing the famine in a siege, relates how that the parents

snatched away the messes of pottage[14] from their weeping

children. At the present day, even, the sacrifices in conformity

with the ancient rites, as well as those offered upon birthdays,

are made with parched pottage.[15] This food appears to have

been as much unknown in those days in Greece as polenta was

in Italy.







1. Siligo.

2. Triticum.

3. The Triticum dicoccum, or spelt.

4. Probably rye. See the next Chapter.

5. Semen.

6. In c. 20, also in c. 29. This grain, which was in reality a kind of

spelt, received its name probably from having been the first cultivated.

7. Il. ii. c. 548: "the land that produces zea."

8. Not a)po\ td= zh=n, from "living."

9. Merely, as Fe says, from the faulty method employed in its preparation, as starch has, in all cases, the same physical appearance.

10. In c. 17 of this Book.

11. In c. 3 of this Book.

12. "Puls," like our porridge.

13. Any food that was originally eaten with "puls," and afterwards with

bread, was so called, such as meat, vegetables, &c.

14. "Offam." This word, which in the later writers signifies a "cake,"

originally meant a hardened lump of porridge.

15. Pulte fritill.




20. Chap. 20.-Winter Wheat. Similago, Or Fine Flour.


CHAP. 20.-WINTER WHEAT. SIMILAGO, OR FINE FLOUR.



There is no grain that displays a greater avidity than wheat,

and none that absorbs a greater quantity of nutriment. With

all propriety I may justly call winter wheat[1] the very choicest

of all the varieties of wheat. It is white, destitute of all

flavour,[2] and not oppressive[3] to the stomach. It suits moist







localities particularly well, such as we find in Italy and Gallia

Comata; but beyond the Alps it is found to maintain its character only in the territory of the Allobroges and that of the

Memini; for in the other parts of those countries it degenerates at the end of two years into common wheat.[4] The only

method of preventing this is to take care and sow the heaviest

grains only.



(9.) Winter wheat furnishes bread of the very finest quality

and the most esteemed delicacies of the bakers. The best

bread that is known in Italy is made from a mixture of Cam-

panian winter wheat with that of Pis. The Campanian kind

is of a redder colour, while the latter is white; when mixed

with chalk,[5] it is increased in weight. The proper proportion

for the yield of Campanian wheat to the modius of grain is

four sextarii of what is known as bolted flour;[6] but when it

is used in the rough and has not been bolted, then the yield

should be five sextarii of flour. In addition to this, in either

case there should be half a modius of white meal, with four

sextarii of coarse meal, known as "seconds," and the same

quantity of bran.[7] The Pisan wheat produces five sextarii of

fine flour to the modius; in other respects it yields the same

as that of Campania. The wheat of Clusium and Arretium

gives another sextarius of fine flour, but the yield is similar to

that of the kinds already mentioned in all other respects.

If, however, as much of it as possible is converted into fine

wheat meal, the modius will yield sixteen pounds weight of

white bread, and three of seconds, with half a modius of bran.

These differences, however, depend very materially upon the

grinding; for when the grain is ground quite dry it produces

more meal, but when sprinkled with salt water[8] a whiter

flour, though at the same time a greater quantity of bran. It

is very evident that "firina," the name we give to meal, is

derived from "far." A modius of meal made from Gallic winter







wheat, yields twenty-two pounds of bread; while that of Italy,

if made into bread baked in tins,[9] will yield two or three

pounds more. When the bread is baked in the oven,[10] two

pounds must be added in weight in either case.



(10.) Wheat yields a fine flour[11] of the very highest quality.

In African wheat the modius ought to yield half a modius of

fine flour and five sextarii of pollen, that being the name

given to fine wheat meal, in the same way that that of winter

wheat is generally known as "fos," or the "flower." This

fine meal is extensively used in copper works and paper manufactories. In addition to the above, the modius should yield

four sextarii of coarse meal, and the same quantity of bran.

The finest wheaten flour will yield one hundred[12] and twenty-two pounds of bread, and the fine meal of winter wheat one

hundred[13] and seventeen, to the modius of grain. When the

prices of grain are moderate, meal sells at forty asses the modius, bolted wheaten flour at eight asses more, and bolted

flour of winter wheat, at sixteen asses more. There is another

distinction again in fine wheaten flour, which originated formerly in the days of L. Paul's. There were three classes of

wheat; the first of which would appear to have yielded seventeen pounds of bread, the second eighteen, and the third nineteen pounds and a third: to these were added two pounds and

a half of seconds,[14] and the same quantity of brown[15] bread,

with six sextarii of bran.[16]



Winter wheat never ripens all at once, and yet there is none

of the cereals that can so ill brook any delay; it being of so

delicate a nature, that the ears directly they are ripe will begin

to shed their grain. So long, however, as it is in stalk, it is

exposed to fewer risks than other kinds of wheat, from the fact







of its always having the ear upright, and not retaining the

dew, which is a prolific cause of mildew.



From arinca[17] a bread of remarkable sweetness is made.

The grains in this variety lie closer than they do in spelt; the

ear, too, is larger and more weighty. It is rarely the case

that a modius of this grain does not weigh full sixteen pounds.

In Greece they find great difficulty in threshing it; and hence

it is that we find Homer[18] saying that it is given to beasts of

burden, this being the same as the grain that he calls "olyra."

In Egypt it is threshed without any difficulty, and is remarkably prolific. Spelt has no beard, and the same is the case

with winter wheat, except[19] that known as the Laconion

variety. To the kinds already mentioned we have to add

bromos,[20] the winter wheat just excepted, and tragos,[21] all of

them exotics introduced from the East, and very similar to

rice. Tiphe[22] also belongs to the same class, from which in

our part of the world a cleaned grain resembling rice is prepared. Among the Greeks, too, there is the grain known

as zea; and it is said that this, as well as tiphe, when cleaned

from the husk and sown, will degenerate[23] and assume the

form of wheat; not immediately, but in the course of three

years.







1. "Siligo." There are numerous contradictions in Pliny with reference

to this plant, but it is now pretty generally agreed that it is the Triticum

hibernum of Linnus: the "froment tousselle" of the French. It was

formerly the more general opinion that it was identical with spelt; but

that cannot be the case, as spelt is red, and siligo is described as white.

2. "Sine virtute" It is doubtful what is the meaning of this.

3. Sine pondere.

4. In other places he says, most unaccountably, that wheat "degenerates

into siligo."

5. As to this practice, see c. 29.

6. "Quam vocant castratam."

7. From this account, it would appear that there were twenty-four sextarii to the modius; but the account in general is very contradictory.

8. Salt water is rarely used for this purpose in modern times. See

this passage discussed in Beckmann on Inventions, Bohn's Ed. vol. i. p.

9. "Artopticio." See c. 27 of this Book.

10. Without tin, probably; or the tin bread may have been baked

before the fire, similar to the method adopted at the present day with the

American ovens.

11. "Similago." Founders still use meal occasionally for making moulds;

it is also employed in making paper.

12. The mention of "hundreds" here is evidently faulty, unless the other

part of the passage is corrupt. Fe suggests twenty-two and twenty seven.

13. The mention of "hundreds" here is evidently faulty, unless the other

part of the passage is corrupt. Fe suggests twenty-two and twenty seven.

14. the mention of "hundreds" here is evidently faulty, unless the other part of passage is corrupt. Fe suggests twenty-two and twenty-seven

15. But above we find him stating that "secundarius," "seconds"

flour, and "cibarius," or "coarse," meal, are the same thing. His contradictions cannot apparently be reconciled.

16. The whole of this passage, as Brotier remarks, is evidently corrupt.

17. Fe has no doubt that this was siligo, or winter-wheat, in a very

high state of cultivation.

18. Il. v. 1. 195.

19. There are still some varieties both of winter-wheat and spelt that

have the beard.

20. It is generally thought that this is the oat, the Avena sativa of Linnus, while some have suggested rice. Fe thinks that by the name,

some exotic gramineous plant is meant.

21. Probably a variety of spelt, as Sprengel conjectures, from Galen and

other writers. See c. 16 of this Book.

22. Fe thinks that it is the grain of the Festuca fluitans of Linnus

that is here alluded to, and identifies it with the "ulva palustris" of Virgil,

Geor. iii. 174.

23. The Latin word "degener" cannot here mean "degenerate," in our

sense of the word, but must merely imply a change of nature in the plant.




21. Chap. 21.-The Fruitfulness Of Africa In Wheat.


CHAP. 21.-THE FRUITFULNESS OF AFRICA IN WHEAT.

There is no grain more prolific than wheat, Nature having

bestowed upon it this quality, as being the substance which she

destined for the principal nutriment of man. A modius of







wheat, if the soil is favourable, as at Byzacium,[1] a champaign

district of Africa, will yield as much as one hundred and fifty[2]

modii of grain. The procurator of the late Emperor Augustus

sent him from that place-a fact almost beyond belief-little

short of four hundred shoots all springing from a single grain;

and we have still in existence his letters on the subject. In

a similar manner, too, the procurator of Nero sent him three

hundred and sixty stalks all issuing from a single grain.[3] The

plains of Leontium in Sicily, and other places in that island,

as well as the whole of Btica, and Egypt more particularly,

yield produce a hundred-fold. The most prolific kinds of

wheat are the ramose wheat,[4] and that known as the "hun-

dred-grain"[5] wheat. Before now, as many as one hundred

beans, too, have been found on a single stalk.







1. See B. xvii. c. 3.

2. We know of no such fruitfulness as this in the wheat of Europe.

Fieen-fold, as Fe remarks, is the utmost amount of produce that can be

anticipated.

3. Fe mentions instances of 150, 92, and 63 stalks arising from a single

grain; but all these fall far short of the marvls here mentioned by

Pliny.

4. The Triticum composition of Linnus; supposed to have originally

come from Egypt or Barbary.

5. "Centigranium." Probably the same as the last.




22. Chap. 22.-Sesame. Erysimum, Or Irio. Horminutm.


CHAP. 22.-SESAME. ERYSIMUM, OR IRIO. HORMINUTM.



We have spoken[1] of sesame, millet, and panic as belonging

to the summer grains. Sesame[2] comes from India, where they

extract an oil from it; the colour of its grain is white.

Similar in appearance to this is the erysimum of Asia and

Greece, and indeed it would be identical with it were it not

that the grain is better filled.[3] It is the same grain that is

known among us as "irio;" and strictly speaking, ought rather

to be classed among the medicaments than the cereals. Of the

same nature, too, is the plant called "horminum"[4] by the

Greeks, though resembling cummin[5] in appearance; it is sown

at the same time as sesame: no animal will eat either this or

irio while green.







1. In c. 10 of this Book.

2. See c. 10.

3. Pinguius.

4. Already mentioned in c. 10.

5. B. xix. c. 17; and B. xx. c. 57.




23. Chap. 23.-The Mode Of Grinding Corn.


CHAP. 23.-THE MODE OF GRINDING CORN.



All the grains ar not easily broken. In Etruria they first







parch the spelt in the ear, and then pound it with a pestle

shod with iron at the end. In this instrument the iron is

notched[1] at the bottom, sharp ridges running out like the

edge of a knife, and concentrating in the form of a star; so

that if care is not taken to hold the pestle perpendicularly

while pounding, the grains will only be splintered and the iron

teeth broken. Throughout the greater part of Italy, however,

they employ a pestle that is only rough[2] at the end, and

wheels turned by water, by means of which the corn is gradually ground. I shall here set forth the opinions given by

Mago as to the best method of pounding corn. He says that

the wheat should be steeped first of all in water, and then

cleaned from the husk; after which it should be dried in the

sun, and then pounded with the pestle; the same plan, he

says, should be adopted in the preparation of barley. In the

latter case, however, twenty sextarii of grain require only two

sextarii of water. When lentils are used, they should be first

parched, and then lightly pounded with, the bran; or else,

adopting another method, a piece of unbaked brick and half a

modius of sand[3] should be added to every twenty sextarii of

lentils.



Ervilia should be treated in the same way as lentils. Sesame

should be first steeped in warm water, and then laid out to

dry, after which it should be rubbed out briskly, and then

thrown into cold water, so that the chaff may be disengaged

by floating to the surface. After this is done, the grain should

again be spread out in the sun, upon linen cloths, to dry. Care,

however, should be taken to lose no time in doing this, as it is

apt to turn musty, and assume a dull, livid colour. The grains,

too, which are just cleaned from the husk, require various

methods of pounding. When the beard is ground by itself,

without the grain, the result is known as "acus,"[4] but it is

only used by goldsmiths.[5] If, on the other hand, it is beaten







out on the threshing-floor, together with the straw, the chaff

has the name of "palea," * * * * and in most parts of

the world is employed as fodder for beasts of burden. The

residue of millet, panic, and sesame, is known to us as

"apluda;" but in other countries it is called by various other

names.







1. This would rather grate the grain than pound it, as Beckmann observes. See his Hist. Inv., vol. i. pp. 147 and 164, Bohn's Ed., where the

meaning of this passage has been commented upon. Gesner, also, in his

Lexicon Rusticum, has endeavoured to explain it.

2. Ruido.

3. It is surprising to find the Romans, not only kneading their bread

with sea-water, but putting in it pounded bricks, chalk, and sand!

4. Beard chaff; so called, probably, from the sharpness of the points,

like needles (acus).

5. See 13. xxxiii. c. 3; where he says, that a fire lighted with this chaff,

fuses gold more speedily than one made with maple wood.




24. Chap. 24.-Millet.


CHAP. 24.-MILLET.



Campania is particularly prolific in millet, and a fine white

porridge is made from it: it makes a bread, too, of remarkable

sweetness. The nations of Sarmatia[1] live principally on this

porridge, and even the raw meal, with the sole addition of

mares' milk, or else blood[2] extracted from the thigh of the

horse. The thiopians know of no other grain but millet and

barley.







1. The Tartars still employ millet as one of their principal articles of

food. They also extract a kind of wine from it.

2. Virgil alludes to this, georg. iii. 463.




25. Chap. 25.-Panic.


CHAP. 25.-PANIC.



The people of Gaul, and of Aquitania[1] more particularly,

make use of panic; the same is the case, too, in Italy beyond

the Padus, with the addition, however, of the bean, without

which they prepare none of their food. There is no aliment

held in higher esteem than panic by the nations of Pontus.

The other summer grains thrive better in well-watered soils

than in rainy localities; but water is by no means beneficial

to millet or panic when they are coming into blade. It is recommended not to sow them among vines or fruit-trees, as it

is generally thought that these crops impoverish the soil.







1. Panic is still employed more than any other grain in the south of

France.




26. Chap. 26. (11)-The Various Kinds Of Leaven.


CHAP. 26. (11)-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF LEAVEN.



Millet is more particularly employed for making leaven; and

if kneaded with must,[1] it will keep a whole year. The same

is done, too, with the fine wheat-bran of the best quality; it

is kneaded with white must three days old, and then dried in

the sun, after which it is made into small cakes. When required for making bread, these cakes are first soaked in water,







and then boiled with the finest spelt flour, after which the whole

is mixed up with the meal; and it is generally thought that

this is the best method of making bread. The Greeks have

established a rule that for a modius of meal eight ounces of

leaven is enough.



These kinds of leaven, however, can only be made at the

time of vintage, but there is another leaven which may be prepared with barley and water, at any time it may happen to be

required. It is first made up into cakes of two pounds in

weight, and these are then baked upon a hot hearth, or else in

an earthen dish upon hot ashes and charcoal, being left till

they turn of a reddish brown. When this is done, the cakes

are shut close in vessels, until they turn quite sour: when

wanted for leaven, they are steeped in water first. When

barley bread used to be made, it was leavened with the meal

of the fitch,[2] or else the chicheling vetch,[3] the proportion

being, two pounds of leaven to two modii and a half of barley

meal. At the present day, however, the leaven is prepared

from the meal that is used for making the bread. For this

purpose, some of the meal is kneaded before adding the salt,

and is then boiled to the consistency of porridge, and left till

it begins to turn sour. In most cases, however, they do not

warm it at all, but only make use of a little of the dough that

has been kept from the day before. It is very evident that the

principle which causes the dough to rise is of an acid nature,

and it is equally evident that those persons who are dieted

upon fermented bread are stronger[4] in body. Among the

ancients, too, it was generally thought that the heavier wheat

is, the more wholesome it is.







1. Or grape-juice. This must have tended to affect the taste of the

bread.

2. Ervum.

3. "Cicercula." See B. xxii. c. 72.

4. This remark is founded upon just notions.




28. Chap. 28.-When Bakers Were First Introduced At Rome.


CHAP. 28.-WHEN BAKERS WERE FIRST INTRODUCED AT ROME.



There were no bakers at Rome until[1] the war with King

Perseus, more than five hundred and eighty years after the

building of the City. The ancient Romans used to make their

own bread, it being an occupation which belonged to the women, as we see the case in many nations even at the present

day. Plautus speaks of the artopta, or bread-tin, in his

Comedy of the Alularia,[2] though there has been considerable

discussion for that very reason among the learned, whether or







not that line really belongs to him. We have the fact, too,

well ascertained, in the opinion of Ateius Capito, that the

cooks in those days were in the habit of making the bread for

persons of affluence, while the name of "pistor"[3] was only

given to the person who pounded, or "pisebat," the spelt. In

those times, they had no cooks in the number of their slaves

but used to hire them for the occasion from the market. The

Gauls were the first to employ the bolter that is made of

horse-hair; while the people of Spain make their sieves and

meal-dressers of flax,[4] and the Egyptians of papyrus and

rushes.







1. Which ended A.U.C. 586.

2. A. ii. s. 9, 1. 4. "Ego hine artoptam ex proxumo utendam peto."

It is thought by some commentators, that the word used by Pliny here

was, in reality, "Artoptasia," a female baker; and that he alludes to a

passage in the Aulularia, which has now perished.

3. Which in Pliny's time signified "baker."

4. The Stipa tenacissima of Linnus, Fe says; or else the Lygeum

spartum of Linnus.




29. Chap. 29.-Altca.


CHAP. 29.-ALTCA.



But among the very first things of all, we ought to speak of

the method employed in preparing alica,[1] a most delightful

and most wholesome food, and which incontestably confers

upon Italy the highest rank among the countries that produce

the cereals. This delicacy is prepared, no doubt, in Egypt

as well, but of a very inferior quality, and not worth our notice. In Italy, however, it is prepared in numerous places,

the territories of Verona and Pis, for example; but that of

Campania is the most highly esteemed. There, at the foot of

mountains capped with clouds, runs a plain, not less in all than

forty miles in extent. The land here-to give a description

first of the nature of the soil-is dusty on the surface, but

spongy below, and as porous as pumice. The inconveniences

that generally arise from the close vicinity of mountains are

here converted into so many advantages: for the soil, acting

on it as a sort of filter, absorbs the water of the abundant

rains that fall; the consequence of which is, that the water not

being left to soak or form mud on the surface, the cultivation

is greatly facilitated thereby. This land does not return, by

the aid of any springs, the moisture it has thus absorbed, but

thoroughly digests it, by warming it in its bosom, in a heated

oven as it were. The ground is kept cropped the whole year

through, once with panic, and twice with spelt; and yet in the

spring, when the soil is allowed to have a moment's repose,







it will produce roses more odoriferous by far than the cultivated

rose: for the earth here is never tired of producing, a circumstance in which originated the common saying, that Campania

produces more unguents[2] than other countries do oil.



In the same degree, however, that the Campanian soil excels

that of all other countries, so does that part of it which is

known to us as Labori,[3] and to the Greeks as Phlegrum,

surpass all the rest. This district is bounded on two sides by

the consular high road, which leads from Puteoli to Capua on

the one side, and from Cum on the other.



Alica is prepared from the grain called zea, which we have

already mentioned[4] as being known to us as "seed" wheat.

The grain is cleansed in a wooden mortar, for fear lest stone,

from its hardness, should have the effect of grating it. The

motive power for raising the pestle, as is generally known, is

supplied by slaves working in chains, the end of it being enclosed in a case of iron. After the husks have been removed

by this process, the pure grain is broken to pieces, the same

implements being employed. In this way, there are three

different kinds of alica made, the finest, the seconds, and the

coarse, which last is known as "aphrema."[5] Still, however,

these various kinds have none of them that whiteness as yet

for which they are so distinguished, though even now they are

preferable to the Alexandrian alica. With this view-a most

singular fact-chalk[6] is mixed with the meal, which, upon

becoming well incorporated with it, adds very materially to

both the whiteness and the shortness[7] of the mixture. This

chalk is found between Puteoli and Neapolis, upon a hill called

Leucogum;[8] and there is still in existence a decree of the

late Emperor Augustus, (who established a colony at Capua),

which orders a sum of twenty thousand sesterces to be paid

annually from his exchequer to the people of Neapolis, for the

lease of this hill. His motive for paying this rent, he stated,

was the fact that the people of Campania had alleged that it







was impossible to make their alica without the help of this

mineral. In the same hill, sulphur is found as well, and the

springs of Araxus issue from its declivities, the waters of which

are particularly efficacious for strengthening the sight, healing

wounds, and preventing the teeth from becoming loose.



A spurious kind of alica is made, more particularly of a degenerate kind of zea grown in Africa; the ears of it are larger

and blacker than those of the genuine kind, and the straw is

short. This grain is pounded with sand, and even then it is

with the greatest difficulty that the outer coats are removed;

when stripped, the grain fills one half only of the original

measure. Gypsum, in the proportion of one fourth, is then

sprinkled[9] over it, and after the mixture has been well incorporated, it is bolted through a meal-sieve. The portion that

remains behind, after this is done, is known as "excepticia,"[10]

and consists of the coarser parts; while that which has passed

through is submitted to a second process, with a finer sieve;

and that which then refuses to pass has the name of "secun-

daria."[11] That, again, which, in a similar manner, is submitted

to a third sifting, with a sieve of the greatest fineness, which

will only admit of sand passing through it, is known as "cribraria,"[12] when it remains on the top of the sieve.



There is another method, again, that is employed every

where for adulterating it. They pick out the whitest and

largest grains of wheat, and parboil them in earthen pots; these

are then dried in the sun till they have regained their original

size, after which they are lightly sprinkled with water, and

then ground in a mill. A better granum[13] is made from zea

than from wheat, although it is nothing else, in fact, but a

spurious alica: it is whitened by the addition of boiled milk,

in place of chalk.







1. As to the cereal so called, see c. 10 of this Book.

2. Or perfumed oils.

3. See B. iii. c. 9. A volcanic district.

4. In c. 20 of this Book.

5. Grain from which the husk is removed.

6. A sub-carbonate of lime; it is still known in those parts of Campania, and is called "lumera."

7. Teneritatem.

8. From the Greek, meaning "white earth."

9. Fe enquires, and with good reason, how the African mixture accommodated itself to the stomachs of those who ate it.

10. Residue.

11. Seconds.

12. Sieve flour.

13. A porridge or pap, made of ground grain. It is mentioned by

Cato, c. 86.




31. Chap. 31.-Lentils. Pease.


CHAP. 31.-LENTILS. PEASE.



Among the leguminous plants the lentil is sown in the

month of November, and the pea,[1] among the Greeks. The

lentil thrives best in a soil that is rather thin than rich, and

mostly stands in need of dry weather. There are two kinds

of lentil grown in Egypt; one of which is rounder and blacker

than the other, which has a peculiar shape of its own. The

name of this plant has been applied to various uses, and

among others has given origin to our word "lenticula."[2] I

find it stated in some authors that a lentil diet is productive of

evenness of temper. The pea requires to be sown in a warm,

sunny spot, and is ill able to endure cold; hence in Italy and

the more rigorous climates, it is sown in the spring only, a light,

loose soil being chosen for the purpose.







1. Pisum sativum of Linnus.

2. Meaning a wart or pimple on the face.




32. Chap. 32.-The Several Kinds Of Chick-Pease.


CHAP. 32.-THE SEVERAL KINDS OF CHICK-PEASE.



The chick-pea[1] is naturally salt,[2] for which reason it is apt

to scorch the ground, and should only be sown after it has

been steeped a day in water. This plant presents considerable differences in reference to size, colour,[3] form, and taste.

One variety resembles in shape a ram's head, from which circumstance it has received the name of "arietinum;" there

are both the white and the black arietinum. There is also the

columbine chick-pea, by some known as the "pea of Venus;"

it is white, round, and smooth, being smaller than the arietinum, and is employed in the observances of the night festivals

or vigils. The chicheling vetch,[4] too, is a diminutive kind of

chick-pea, unequal and angular, like[5] the pea. The chickpea that is the sweetest in flavour is the one that bears the

closest resemblance to the fitch; the pod in the black and the

red kinds is more firmly closed than in the white ones.











1. Cicer arietinum of the botanists.

2. "Gigni cum salsilagine." It abounds in India, and while blossoming, it distils a corrouive acid, which corrodes the shoes of those who tread

upon it.

3. There are still the red and the white kinds, the large and the small.

4. Cicercula: the Lathyrus sativus of Linnus. It is difficult to cook,

and hard of digestion. See c. 26.

5. This must be said in reference to some of the pease when in a dried

state.




33. Chap. 33.-The Kidney-Bean.


CHAP. 33.-THE KIDNEY-BEAN.



The pod of the chick-pea is rounded, while in other legu-

minous plants it is long and broad, like the seed which it

contains; in the pea, again, it is of a cylindrical form. In

the case of the kidney-bean[1] it is usual to eat the pod together

with the seed. This last may be sown in all kinds of soils

indifferently, between the ides of October[2] and the calends of

November.[3] As soon as ever the leguminous plants begin to

ripen, they ought to be plucked, for the pods will very soon

open and the seed fall out, in which case it is very difficult to

find: the same is the case, too, with the lupine. But before

we pass on to the lupine, it will be as well to make some mention of the rape.[4]







1. A variety of the Phaseolus vulgaris of Linnus: the "haricot" of

the French. The French bean and the scarlet-runner are cooked in a

similar manner among us.

2. 15th of October.

3. 1st of November.

4. The Napo-brassica of Linnus. The turnip cabbage, or rape-colewort.




34. Chap. 34. (13.)-The Rape.


CHAP. 34. (13.)-THE RAPE.



The Latin writers have only treated of this plant in a cursory manner, while those of Greece have considered it a little

more attentively; though even they have ranked it among the

garden plants. If, however, a methodical arrangement is to

be strictly observed, it should be spoken of immediately after

corn, or the bean, at all events; for next to these two produc-

tions, there is no plant that is of more extensive use. For, in

the first place, all animals will feed upon it as it grows; and

it is far from being the least nutritious plant in the fields for

various kinds of birds, when boiled in water more particularly.

Cattle, too, are remarkably fond of the leaves of rape; and

the stalks and leaves, when in season, are no less esteemed

as a food for man than the sprouts of the cabbage;[1] these,

too, when turned yellow and left to die in the barn, are even

more highly esteemed than[2] when green. As to the rape

itself, it will keep all the better if left in its mould, aftr which

it should be dried in the open air till the next crop is nearly

ripe, as a resource in case of scarcity. Next to those of the







grape and corn, this is the most profitable harvest of all for the

countries that lie beyond the Padus. The rape is by no means

difficult to please in soil, for it will grow almost anywhere,

indeed where nothing else can be sown. It readily derives

nutriment from fogs and hoar-frosts, and grows to a marvellous size; I have seen them weighing upwards of forty pounds.[3]

It is prepared for table among us in several ways, and is made

to keep till the next crop, its Fermentation[4] being prevented by

preserving it in mustard. It is also tinted with no less than

six colours in addition to its own, and with purple even; in-

deed, that which is used by us as food ought to b of no other

colour.[5]



The Greeks have distinguished two principal species of rape,

the male and the female,[6] and have discovered a method of obtaining them both from the same seed; for when it is sown thick,

or in a hard, cloggy soil, the produce will be male. The smaller

the seed the better it is in quality. There are three kinds of

rape in all; the first is broad and flat, the second of a spherical

shape, and tile third, to which the name of "wild" rape[7]

has been given, throws out a long root, similar in appearance

to a radish, with an angular, rough leaf, and an acrid juice,

which, if extracted about harvest, and mixed with a woman's

milk, is good for cleansing the eves and improving defective

sight. The colder the weather the sweeter they are, and the

larger, it is generally thought; heat makes them run to leaf.

The finest rape of all is that grown in the district of Nurslia:

it is valued at as much as one sesterce[8] per pound, and, in

times of scarcity, two even. That of the next best quality is

produced on Mount Algidus.







1. The Napo-brassica of Linnus. Th turnip cabbage, or rapecolewort.

2. This taste, it is most probable, is nowhere in existence at the present

day.

3. This is not by any means an exaggeration.

4. Acrimonia.

5. These coloured varieties, Fe says, belong rather to the Brassica

oleraeca, than to the Brassica rapa. It is not improbable, from the struc-

ture of this passage, that Pliny means to say that the colours are artifici-

ally produced.

6. In reality, belonging to the Crucifera, the rape is hermaphroditical.

7. Wild horse-radish, which is divided into two varieties, the Rapha-

nus raphanistrum of Linnus, and the Cochleara Armoracia, may possibly

be meant, but their roots bear no resemblance to the radish.

8. An enormous price, apparently.




35. Chap. 35.-The Turnip.


CHAP. 35.-THE TURNIP.



The turnip[1] of Amiternum, which is pretty nearly of the











same nature as the rape, thrives equally well in a cold soil.

It is sown just before the calends of March,[2] four sextarii of

seed to the jugerum. The more careful growers recommend

that the ground should be turned up five times before putting

in the turnip, and four for rape, care being taken, in both

cases, to manure it well. Rape, they say, will thrive all the

better, if it is sown together with some chaff. They will

have it, too, that the sower ought to be stripped, and that he

should offer up a prayer while sowing, and say: "I sow this

for myself and for my neighbours." The proper time for sowing both kinds is the period that intervenes between the festivals[3] of the two divinities, Neptune and Vulcan. It is said,

too-and it is the result of very careful observation-that

these plants will thrive wonderfully well, if they are sown as

many days after the festival of Neptune as the moon was old

when the first snow fell the previous winter. They are sown

in spring as well, in warm and humid localities.







1. The Brassica <*>apus of Linnus.

2. 1st of March.

3. The Neptunalia and the Vulcanalia; 23rd of July and 23rd of

August.




36. Chap. 36. (14.)-The Lupine.


CHAP. 36. (14.)-THE LUPINE.



The lupine is the next among the leguminous plants that

is in extensive use, as it serves for food for man in common

with the hoofed quadrupeds. To prevent it from springing

out of the pod[1] while being gathered, and so lost, the best

plan is to gather it immediately after a shower. Of all the

seeds that are sown, there is not one of a more marvellous nature than this, or more favoured by the earth. First of all,

it turns every day with the sun,[2] and shows the hour to the

husbandman, even though the weather should happen to be

cloudy and overcast. It blossoms, too, no less than three

times, and so attached is it to the earth, that it does not require to be covered with the soil; indeed, this is the only seed

that does not require the earth to be turned up for sowing it.

It thrives more particularly on a sandy, dry, and even gravelly

soil; and requires no further care to be taken in its cultivation. To such a degree is it attached to the earth, that even







though left upon a soil thickly covered with brambles, it will

throw out a root amid the leaves and brakes, and so con-

trive to reach the ground. We have already stated[3] that the

soil of a field or vineyard is enriched by the growth of a

crop of lupines; indeed, so far is it from standing in need of

manure, that the lupines will act upon it as well as the very

best. It is the only seed that requires no outlay at all, so

much so, in fact, that there is no necessity to carry it even to the

spot where it is sown; for it may be sown the moment it is

brought from the threshing-floor:[4] and from the fact that it

falls from the pod of its own accord, it stands in need of no

one to scatter it.



This is[5] the very first grain sown and the last that is gathered,

both operations generally taking place in the month of September; indeed, if this is not done before winter sets in, it is

liable to receive injury from the cold. And then, besides, it

may even be left with impunity to lie upon the ground, in case

showers should not immediately ensue and cover it in, it being

quite safe from the attacks of all animals, on account of its

bitter taste: still, however, it is mostly covered up in a slight

furrow. Among the thicker soils, it is attached to a red earth

more particularly. In order to enrich[6] this earth, it should be

turned up just after the third blossom; but where the soil is

sandy, after the second. Chalky and slimy soils are the only

ones that it has an aversion to; indeed, it will never come to

anything when sown in them. Soaked in warm water, it is

used as a food, too, for man. One modius is a sufficient meal

for an ox, and it is found to impart considerable vigour to

cattle; placed, too, upon the abdomen[7] of children, it acts as

a remedy in certain cases. It is an excellent plan to season

the lupine by smoking it; for when it is kept in a moist state,

maggots are apt to attack the germ, and render it useless for

reproduction. If cattle have eaten it off while in leaf, as a

matter of necessity it should be ploughed in as soon as possible.











1. In consequence of the brittleness of the pod.

2. This is an exaggeration of certain phnomena observed in the leaves

of all leguminous plants.

3. In B. xvii. c. 6.

4. "Ex are." This reading is favoured by the text of Columella. B. ii.

c. 10, who says the same. But "ex arvo," from the field, i. e. the "moment it is gathered"-seems preferable, as being more consistent with the context.

5. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii. c. 1. 11, &c.

6. It is still thought that the lupine enriches the soil in which it grows.

7. Marcellus Empiricus says, that boiled lupine meal, spread as a plaster,

and laid on the abdomen, will destroy intestinal worms.




37. Chap. 37. (15.)-The Vetch.


CHAP. 37. (15.)-THE VETCH.



The vetch,[1] too, enriches the soil, and its cultivation en-

tails no labour on the agriculturist. It is sown after the

ground has been but once turned up, and requires neither hoe-

ing nor manuring; nothing at all, indeed, except harrowing

there are three periods for sowing it; the first is about the

setting of Arcturus, when it is intended for feeding cattle

in the month of December, while in the blade; this crop, too,

is the best of all for seed, for, although grazed upon, it will

bear just as well. The second crop is sown in the month of

January, and the last in March; this last being the best crop

for fodder. Of all the seeds this is the one that thrives best

in a dry soil; still, however, it manifests no repugnance to

a shaded locality. This grain, if gathered when quite ripe,

produces a chaff superior to that of any other. If sown near

vines supported by trees, the vetch will draw away the juices

from the vines, and make them languid.







1. Vicia sativa of Linnus.




38. Chap. 38.-The Fitch.


CHAP. 38.-THE FITCH.



The cultivation of the fitch,[1] too, is attended with no difficulty. It requires weeding, however, more than the vetch.

Like it, the fitch has certain medicinal[2] properties; for we

find the fact still kept in remembrance by some letters of his,

that the late Emperor Augustus was cured by its agency. Five

modii will sow as much ground as a yoke of oxen can plough

in a day. If sown in the month of March,[3] it is injurious,

they say, to oxen: and when sown in autumn, it is apt to produce head-ache. If, however, it is put in the ground at the

beginning of spring, it will be productive of no bad results.







1. Or orobus, the Ervum ervilia of Linnus.

2. It is thought by many that the ervum is unwholesome, being productive of muscular weakness. The blade of it is said to act as a poison on

pigs. However, we find the farina, or meal, extolled by some persons for

its medicinal qualities; and if we are to trust to the advertisements in the

newspapers, it is rising rapidly in esteem. See B. xxii. c. 73.

3. From Columella, B. ii. c. 11




39. Chap. 39. (16.)-Silicia.


CHAP. 39. (16.)-SILICIA.



Silicia,[1] or, in other words, fenugreek, is sown after alight

ploughing[2] merely, the furrows being no more than some four







fingers in depth; the less the pains that are bestowed upon it

the better it will thrive-a singular fact that there should be

anything that profits from neglect. The kinds, however, that

are known as "secale" and "farrago" require harrowing only.







1. Trigonella fum Grcum of Linnus.

2. "Scarificatio."




40. Chap. 40.-Secale Or Asia.


CHAP. 40.-SECALE OR ASIA.



The people of Taurinum, at the foot of the Alps, give to

secale[1] the name of "asia;" it is a very inferior[2] grain, and

is only employed to avert positive famine. It is prolific, but

has a straw of remarkable thinness; it is also black and

sombre-looking, but weighs extremely heavy. Spelt is mixed

with this grain to modify its bitterness,[3] and even then it is

very disagreeable to the stomach. It will grow upon any soil,

and yields a hundred-fold; it is employed also as a manure

for enriching the land.







1. Probably the Secale cereale of Linnaus, cultivated rye.

2. It is now held in high esteem in many parts of Europe.

3. Rye has no bitterness, and this assertion has led some to doubt if it is

identical with the "secale" of Pliny.




43. Chap. 43.-Lucerne.


CHAP. 43.-LUCERNE.



Lucerne[1] is by nature an exotic to Greece even, it having

been first introduced into that country from Media,[2] at the time

of the Persian wars with King Darius; still it deserves to be

mentioned among the very first of these productions. So superior are its qualities, that a single sowing will last more

than thirty[3] years. It resembles trefoil in appearance, but the

stalk and leaves are articulated. The longer it grows in the

stalk, the narrower is the leaf. Amphilochus has devoted a

whole book to this subject and the cytisus.[4] The ground in

which it is sown, being first cleaned and cleared of stones, is

turned up in the autumn, after which it is ploughed and harrowed. It is then harrowed a second and a third time, at intervals of five days; after which manure is laid upon it. This

seed requires either a soil that is dry, but full of nutriment, or

else a well-watered one. After the ground has been thus pre-

pared, the seed is put in the month of May;[5] for if sown

earlier, it is in danger from the frosts. It is necessary to sow

the seed very thick, so that all the ground may be occupied,

and no room left for weeds to shoot up in the intervals; a

result which may be secured by sowing twenty modii to the

jugerum. The seed must be stirred at once with the rake, to

prevent the sun from scorching it, and it should be covered

over with earth as speedily as possible. If the soil is naturally

damp or weedy, the lucerne will be overpowered, and the spot







degenerate into an ordinary pasture; it is necessary, therefore,

directly the crop is an inch in height, to disengage it from

all weeds, by hand, in preference to the weeding-hook.



It is cut when it is just beginning to flower, and this is repeated as often as it throws out new blossoms; which happens

mostly six[6] times in the year, and four at the very least.

Care should be taken to prevent it from running to seed, as it

is much more valuable as fodder, up to the third year. It

should be hoed in the spring, and cleared of all other plants;

and in the third year the surface should be well worked with

the weeding-hook. By adopting this method, the weeds will

be effectually destroyed, though without detriment to the lucerne, in consequence of the depth of its roots. If the weeds

should happen to get ahead of it, the only remedy is to turn it

up repeatedly with the plough, until the roots of the weeds are

thoroughly destroyed. This fodder should never be given to

cattle to satiety, otherwise it may be necessary to let blood; it

is best, too, when used while green. When dry, it becomes

tough and ligneous, and falls away at last into a thin, useless

dust. As to the cytisus, which also occupies the very foremost

rank among the fodders, we have already spoken[7] of it at sufficient length when describing the shrubs. It remains for us

now to complete our account of all the cereals, and we shall

here devote a portion of it to the diseases to which they are

subject.







1. "Medica," in Latin, a kind of clover, the Medicago sativa of Linnus.

2. Fe is inclined to doubt this.

3. Pliny exaggerates here: Columella, B. ii. c. 11, says, only "ten:" a

field, however, sown with it will last, with a fresh sowing, as long as

twenty years.

4. See B. xiii. c. 47.

5. Columella, B. ii. c. 11, says April.

6. By the aid of careful watering, as many as eight to fourteen cuttings

are obtained in the year, in Italy and Spain. In the north of Europe

there is but one crop.

7. In B. xiii. c. 47.




45. Chap. 45.-The Best Remedies For The Diseases Of Grain.


CHAP. 45.-THE BEST REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF GRAIN.



The best remedy for these maladies, so long as grain is in

the blade, is the weeding-hook, and, at the moment of sowing,

ashes.[1] As to those diseases which develop themselves in the

seed and about the root, with due care precautions may be effectually employed against them. It is generally supposed that

if seed has been first steeped in wine,[2] it will be less exposed

to disease. Virgil[3] recommends that beans should be drenched

with nitre and amurca of olives; and he says that if this is

done, they will be all the larger. Some persons, again, are of

opinion, that they will grow of increased size, if the seed is

steeped for three days before it is sown in a solution of urine

and water. If the ground, too, is hoed three times, a modius

of beans in the pod, they say, will yield not less than a modius







of shelled[4] beans. Other seeds, again, it is said, will be

exempt from the attacks of maggots, if bruised cypress[5] leaves

are mixed with them, or if they are sown just at the moon's

conjunction. Many persons, for the more effectual protection

of millet, recommend that a bramble-frog should be carried at

night round the field before the hoeing is done, and then buried

in an earthen vessel in the middle of it. If this is done, they

say, neither sparrows nor worms will attack the crop. The

frog, however, must be disinterred before the millet is cut; for

if this is neglected, the produce will be bitter. It is pretended,

too, that all seeds which have been touched by the shoulders

of a mole are remarkably productive.



Democritus recommends that all seeds before they are sown

should be steeped in the juice of the herb known as "aizom,"[6]

which grows on tiles or shingles, and is known to us by the

Latin name of "sedum" or "digitellum."[7] If blight pre-

vails, or if worms are found adhering to the roots, it is a very

common remedy to sprinkle the plants with pure amurca of

olives without salt, and then to hoe the ground. If, however,

the crop should be beginning to joint, it should be stubbed at

once, for fear lest the weeds should gain the upper hand. I

know for certain[8] that flights of starlings and sparrows, those

pests to millet and panic, are effectually driven away by means

of a certain herb, the name of which is unknown to me, being

buried at the four corners of the field: it is a wonderful thing

to relate, but in such case not a single bird will enter it. Mice

are kept away by the ashes of a weasel or a cat being steeped

in water and then thrown upon the seed, or else by using the

water in which the body of a weasel or a cat has been boiled.

The odour, however, of these animals makes itself perceived

in the bread even; for which reason it is generally thought a

better plan to steep the seed in ox-gall.[9] As for mildew,

that greatest curse of all to corn, if branches of laurel are







fixed in the ground, it will pass away from the field into the

leaves of the laurel. Over-luxuriance in corn is repressed by

the teeth of cattle,[10] but only while it is in the blade; in which

case, if depastured upon ever so often, no injury to it when

in the ear will be the result. If the ear, too, is once cut off,

the grain, it is well known, will assume a larger[11] form, but

will be hollow within and worthless, and if sown, will come

to nothing.



At Babylon, however, they cut the blade twice, and then

let the cattle pasture on it a third time, for otherwise it would

run to nothing but leaf. Even then, however, so fertile is the

soil, that it yields fifty, and, indeed, with care, as much as a

hundred, fold. Nor is the cultivation of it attended with any

difficulty, the only object being to let the ground be under

water as long as possible, in order that the extreme richness

and exuberance of the soil may be modified. The Euphrates,

however, and the Tigris do not deposit a slime, in the same

way that the Niles does in Egypt, nor does the soil produce

vegetation spontaneously; but still, so great is the fertility,

that, although the seed is only trodden in with the foot, a crop

springs up spontaneously the following year. So great a dif-

ferrous in soils as this, reminds me that I ought to take this

opportunity of specifying those which are the best adapted

for the various kinds of grain.







1. This will only prevent the young plants from becoming a prey to

snails and slugs.

2. This plan is attended with no good results.

3. Georg. i. 193. It is generally said that if seed is steeped in a solution of nitre, and more particularly hydrochloric acid, it will germinate

with accelerated rapidity; the produce, however, is no finer than at other

times.

4. "Fract." Perhaps, more properly "crushed."

5. The odour of cypress, or savin, Fe thinks, might possibly keep

away noxious insects.

6. The "always living," or perennial plant, our "house-leek," the

Sedum acre of Linnus. See E. xxv. c. 102.

7. "Little finger," from the shape of the leaves.

8. He must have allowed himself to be imposed upon in this case.

9. Fe thinks that this may possibly be efficacious against the attacks

of rats, as the author of the Geoponica, B. x., states.

10. Virgil, Georg. i. 111, recommends the same plan, and it is still followed by agriculturists. It is not without its inconveniences, however.

11. This is not consistent with truth, for no fresh ear will assume its place.




46. Chap. 46.-The Crops That Should Be Sown In The Different Soils.


CHAP. 46.-THE CROPS THAT SHOULD BE SOWN IN THE DIFFERENT SOILS.

This, then, is the opinion expressed by Cato[1] on the subject:

"In a dense and fertile soil wheat should be sown: but if the

locality is subject to fogs, rape, radishes, millet, and panic.

Where the land[2] is cold and moist, sowing should be commenced earlier; but where it is hot, at a later period. In a

red, black, or gravelly soil, provided it is not watery, lupines

should be sown; but in chalk, red earth, or a watery soil,

spelt.[3] Where a locality is dry, free from weeds, and not

overshadowed, wheat should be put; in; and where the soil is







strong and powerful, beans. Vetches should be grown in a

soil as free from water and weeds as possible; while wheat

and winter wheat are best adapted to an open, elevated locality, fully exposed to the warmth of the sun, the lentil

thrives best in a meager, red earth, free from weeds. Barley is

equally suited for fallow land and for a soil that is not intended

to be fallow, and three-month wheat, for a soil upon which a

crop of ordinary wheat would never ripen, but strong enough

to bear."



The following, too, is sound advice:[4] Those plants should

be sown in a thin soil which do not stand in need of much

nutriment, the cytisus, for instance, and such of the leguminous

plants, with the exception of the chick-pea, as are taken up

by the roots and not cut. From this mode of gathering them

-"legers"-the leguminous derive their name. Where it is a

rich earth, those plants should be grown which require a

greater proportion of nutriment, codeword for instance, wheat,

winter-wheat, and flax. The result, then, will be, that a

light soil will be given to barley-the root of that grain standing in need of less nutriment-while a more dense, though

easily-worked soil, will be assigned to wheat. In humid localities spelt should be sown in preference to wheat; but where

the soil is of moderate temperature, either wheat or barley

may be grown. Declivities produce a stronger growth of

wheat, but in smaller quantities. Spelt and winter-wheat

adopt a moist, cretaceous soil in preference to any other.



(18.) The only occasion on which there ever was a prodigy

connected with grain, at least that I am aware of, was in the

consulship of P. lias and Census Cornelius, the year[5] in

which Hannibal was vanquished: on that occasion, we find

it stated, corn was seen growing upon trees.[6]







1. De Re Rust. c. 6.

2. De Re Rust. c. 34.

3. "Adore." See c. 10 of this Book.

4. From Varro; Deer Rust. i. 23.

5. A.U.C. 553.

6. There is nothing wonderful in a few grains of corn germinating in

the cleft of a tree.




47. Chap. 47.-The Different Systems Of Cultivation Employed By Various Nations.


CHAP. 47.-THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF CULTIVATION EMPLOYED BY VARIOUS NATIONS.



As we have now spoken at sufficient length of the several

varieties of grain and soil, we shall proceed to treat of the

methods adopted in tilling the ground, taking care, in the very







first place, to make mention of the peculiar facilities enjoyed

by Egypt in this respect. In that country, performing the

duties of the husbandman, the Nile begins to overflow, as

already stated,[1] immediately after the summer solstice or the

new moon, gradually at first, but afterwards with increased

impetuosity, as long as the sun remains in the sign of Leo,

When the sun has passed into Virgo, the impetuosity of the

overflow begins to slacken, and when he has entered Libra the

river subsides. Should it not have exceeded twelve cubits in

its overflow, famine is the sure result; and this is equally the

case if it should chance to exceed sixteen; for the higher it

has risen, the more slowly it subsides, and, of course, the seedtime

is impeded in proportion. It was formerly a very general

belief that immediately upon the subsiding of the waters the

Egyptians were in the habit of driving herds of swine over

the ground, for the purpose of treading the seed into the moist

soil-and it is my own impression that this was done in ancient

times. At the present day even, the operation is not attended

with much greater labour. It is well known, however, that

the seed is first laid upon the slime that has been left by the

river on its subsidence, and then ploughed in; this being done

at the beginning of November. After this is done, a few persons are

employed in stubbing, an operation known there as

"botanismos." The rest of the labourers, however, have no

occasion to visit the land again till a little before the calends

of April,[2] and then it is with the reaping-hook. The harvest

is completed in the month of May. The stem is never so

much as a cubit in length, as there is a stratum of sand beneath the slime, from which last alone the grain receives its

support. The best wheat of all is that of the region of

Thebais, Egypt[3] being of a marshy character.



The method adopted at Seleucia in Babylonia is very similar

to this, but the fertility there is still greater, owing to the

overflow of the Euphrates and Tigris,[4] the degree of

irrigation being artificially modified in those parts. In Syria, too,

the furrows are made extremely light, while in many parts of







Italy, again, it takes as many as eight oxen to pant and blow

at a single plough. All the operations of agriculture, but this

in particular, should be regulated by the oracular precept-

"Remember that every locality has its own tendencies."







1. In B. v. c. 10.

2. First of April.

3. I. e. Egypt Proper, the Delta, or Lower Egypt, Thebais being in

Upper Egypt.

4. The overflow of these rivers is by no means to be compared with

that of the Nile.




48. Chap. 48.-The Various Kinds Of Ploughs.


CHAP. 48.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF PLOUGHS.



Ploughs are of various kinds. The coulter[1] is the iron part

that cuts up the dense earth before it is broken into pieces, and

traces beforehand by its incisions the future furrows, which the

share, reversed,[2] is to open out with its teeth. Another

kind-the common plough-share-is nothing more than a lever,

furnished with a pointed beak; while another variety, which is only

used in light, easy soils, does not present an edge projecting from

the share-beam throughout, but only a small point at the extremity.

In a fourth kind again, this point is larger and formed

with a cutting edge; by the agency of which implement, it

both cleaves the ground, and, with the sharp edges at the sides,

cuts up the weeds by the roots. There has been invented, at a

comparatively recent period, in that part of Gaul[3] known as

Rhtia, a plough with the addition of two small wheels, and

known by the name of "plaumorati."[4] The extremity of the

share in this has the form of a spade: it is only used, however,

for sowing in cultivated lands, and upon soils which are nearly

fallow. The broader the plough-share, the better it is for

turning up the clods of earth. Immediately after ploughing,

the seed is put into the ground, and then harrows[5] with long

teeth are drawn over it. Lands which have been sown in this

way require no hoeing, but two or three pairs of oxen are employed in

ploughing. It is a fair estimate to consider that a

single yoke of oxen can work forty jugera of land in the year,

where the soil is light, and thirty where it is stubborn.







1. Fe remarks, that the plough here described differs but little from

that used in some provinces of France.

2. Resupinus.

3. Gallia Togata. Rhtia is the modern country of the Grisons.

4. According to Goropius Becanus, from plograt, the ancient

Gallic for

a plough-wheel. Hardouin thinks that it is from the Latin "plaustra

rati;" and Poinsinet derives it from the Belgic ploum, a

plough, and rat,

or radt, a wheel.

5. "Crates;" probably made of hurdles; see Virgil, Georg. i. 95.




49. Chap. 49. (19,)-The Mode Of Ploughing.


CHAP. 49. (19,)-THE MODE OF PLOUGHING.



In ploughing, the most rigid attention should be paid to the







oracular precepts given by Cato[1] on the subject. "What is

the essence of good tillage? Good ploughing. What is the

second point? Ploughing again. What is the third point?

Manuring. Take care not to make crooked furrows. Be

careful to plough at the proper time." In warm localities it

is necessary to open the ground immediately after the winter

solstice, but where it is coke, directly after the vernal equinox:

this, too, should be done sooner in dry districts than in wet ones,

in a dense soil than a loose one, in a rich land than a meagre

one. In countries where the summers are hot and oppressive,

the soil cretaceous or thin, it is the best plan to plough between

the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. Where, on

the other hand, the heat is moderate, with frequent falls of rain,

and the soil rich and full of vegetation, the ploughing should

be done during the prevalence of the heat. A deep, heavy

soil, again, should be ploughed in winter; but one that is very

thin and dry, only just before putting in the seed.



Tillage, too, has its own particular rules[2]-Never touch the

ground while it is wet and cloggy; plough with all your might;

loosen the ground before you begin to plough. This method

has its advantages, for by turning up the clods the roots of the

weeds are killed. Some persons recommend that in every case

the ground should be turned up immediately after the vernal

equinox. Land that has been ploughed once in spring, from

that circumstance has the name of "vervactum."[3] This, too,

is equally necessary in the case of fallow land, by which term

is meant land that is sown only in alternate years. The oxen

employed in ploughing should be harnessed as tightly as possible, to

make them plough with their heads up; attention

paid to this point will prevent them from galling the neck. If

it is among trees and vines that you are ploughing, the oxen

should be muzzled, to prevent them from eating off the tender

buds. There should be a small bill-hook, too, projecting from

the plough-tail, for the purpose of cutting up the roots; this

plan being preferable to that of turning them up with the share,

and so straining the oxen. When ploughing, finish the furrow

at one spell, and never stop to take breath in the middle.







It is a fair day's work to plough one jugerum, for the first

time, nine inches in depth; and the second time, one jugerum

and a half-that is to say, if it is an easy soil. If this, however,

is not the case, it will take a day to turn up half a

jugerum for the first time, and a whole jugerum the second; for

Nature has set limits to the powers of animals even. The

furrows should be made, in every case, first in a straight line,

and then others should be drawn, crossing them obliquely.[4]

Upon a hill-side the furrows are drawn transversely[5] only,

the point of the share inclining upwards at one moment and

downwards[6] at another. Man, too, is so well fitted for labour,

that he is able to supply the place of the ox even; at all events,

it is without the aid of that animal that the mountain tribes

plough, having only the hoe to help them.[7]



The ploughman, unless he stoops to his work, is sure to

prevaricate,[8] a word which has been transferred to the Forum,

as

a censure upon those who transgress-at any rate, let those be

on their guard against it, where it was first employed. The

share should be cleaned every now and then with a stick pointed

with a scraper. The ridges that are left between every two

furrows, should not be left in a rough state, nor should large

clods be left protruding from the ground. A field is badly

ploughed that stands in need of harrowing after the seed is in;

but the work has been properly done, when it is impossible to

say in which direction the share has gone. It is a good plan,

too, to leave a channel every now and then, if the nature of the

spot requires it, by making furrows of a larger size, to draw off

the water into the drains.



(20.) After the furrows have been gone over again transversely,

the clods are broken, where there is a necessity for it, with

either the harrow or the rake;[9] and this operation is repeated







after the seed has been put in. This last harrowing is done,

where the usage of the locality will allow of it, with either a

toothed harrow, or else a plank attached to the plough. This operation

of covering in the seed is called "lirare," from which is

derived the word "deliratio."[10] Virgil,[11] it is

generally thought,

intends to recommend sowing after four ploughings, in the

passage where he says that land will bear the best crop, which

has twice felt the sun and twice the cold. Where the soil is

dense, as in most parts of Italy, it is a still better plan to go

over the ground five times before sowing; in Etruria, they give

the land as many as nine ploughings first. The bean, however,

and the vetch may be sown with no risk, without turning up

the land at all; which, of course, is so much labour saved.



We must not here omit to mention still one other method of

ploughing, which the devastations of warfare have suggested

in Italy that lies beyond the Padus. The Salassi,[12] when

ravaging the territories which lay at the foot of the Alps, made

an attempt to lay waste the crops of panic and millet that were

just appearing above the ground. Finding, however, that

Nature resisted all their endeavours, they passed the plough

over the ground, the result of which was that the crops were

more abundant than ever; and this it was that first taught us

the method of ploughing in, expressed by the word "artrare,"

otherwise "aratrare," in my opinion the original form. This

is done either just as the stem begins to develope itself, or else

when it has put forth as many as two or three leaves. Nor

must we withhold from the reader a more recent method, which

was discovered the year but one before this,[13] in the territory

of the Treviri. The crops having been nipped by the extreme

severity of the winter, the people sowed the land over again

in the month of March, and had a most abundant harvest.



We shall now proceed to a description of the peculiar methods

employed in cultivating each description of grain.











1. De Re Rust. c. 61.

2. These rules are borrowed mostly from Varro, B. i. c. 19, and

Cojumella, B. ii. c. 4.

3. "Vere actum;" "worked in spring."

4. Virgil says the same, Georg. i. 9.

5. Crosswise, or horizontally.

6. Zig-zag, apparently.

7. A rude foreshadowing of the spade husbandry so highly spoken of

at the present day.

8. "Prevaricare," "to make a balk," as we call it, to make a tortuous

furrow diverging from the straight line.

9. He probably means the heavy "rastrum," or rake, mentioned by

Virgil, Georg, i. 164. It is impossible to say what was the shape of this

heavy rake, or how it was used. Light, or hand rakes were in common

use as well.

10. "A gong crooked;" hence its meaning of, folly, dotage, or madness.

11. Georg. i. 47. Servius seems to understand it that the furrow should

be untouched for two days and two nights before it is gone over again.

12. Fe declines to give credit to this story.

13. A.U.C. 830.




50. Chap. 50. (21.)-The Methods Of Harrowing, Stubbing, And Hoeing, Employed For Each Description Of Grain. The Use Of The Harrow.


CHAP. 50. (21.)-THE METHODS OF HARROWING, STUBBING, AND

HOEING, EMPLOYED FOR EACH DESCRIPTION OF GRAIN. THE

USE OF THE HARROW.



For winter wheat, spelt, wheat, zea,[1] and barley, harrow,

hoe and stub upon the days which will be mentioned[2] in the

sequel. A single hand per jugerum will be quite enough for

any one of these kinds of grain. The operation of hoeing

loosens the ground in spring when it has been hardened and

saddened by the rigours of the winter, and admits the early

sun to the interior. In hoeing, every care must be taken not

to go beneath the roots of the corn; in the case of wheat, zea,

and barley, it is best to give a couple of hoeings. Stubbing,[3]

when the crop is just beginning to joint, cleanses it of all

noxious weeds, disengages the roots of the corn, and liberates

the growing blade from the clods. Among the leguminous

plants, the chick-pea requires the same treatment that spelt

does. The bean requires no stubbing, being quite able of itself

to overpower all weeds; the lupine, too, is harrowed only.

Millet and panic are both harrowed and hoed; but this operation is

never repeated, and they do not require stubbing.

Fenugreek and the kidney-bean require harrowing only.



There are some kinds of ground, the extreme fertility of

which obliges the grower to comb down the crops while in the

blade-this is done with a sort of harrow[4] armed with pointed

iron teeth-and even then he is obliged to depasture cattle upon

them. When, however, the blade has been thus eaten down,

it stands in need of hoeing to restore it to its former vigour.



But in Bactria, and at Cyren in Africa, all this trouble has

been rendered quite unnecessary by the indulgent benignity of

the climate, and after the seed is in, the owner has no occasion

to return to the field till the time has come for getting in the

harvest. In those parts the natural dryness of the soil prevents

noxious weeds from springing up, and, aided by the night dews

alone, the soil supplies its nutriment to the grain. Virgil[5]

recommends that the ground should be left to enjoy repose every

other year; and this, no doubt, if the extent of the farm will

admit of it, is the most advantageous plan. If, however, cir-







cumstances will not allow of it, spelt should be sown upon the

ground that has been first cropped with lupines, vetches, or

beans; for all these have a tendency to make the soil more

fertile. We ought to remark here more particularly, that here

and there certain plants are sown for the benefit of others,

although, as already stated in the preceding Book,[6] not to

repeat the same thing over again, they are of little value

themselves. But it is the nature of each soil that is of the greatest

importance.







1. "Semen," "seed-wheat," a variety only of spelt.

2. In c. 65 of this Book.

3. Runcatio.

4. Crates.

5. Georg. i. 71.

6. In B. xvii. c. 7.




51. Chap. 51. (22.)-Extreme Fertility Of Soil.


CHAP. 51. (22.)-EXTREME FERTILITY OF SOIL.



There is a city of Africa, situate in the midst of the sands

as you journey towards the Syrtes and Great Leptis, Tacape[1]

by name. The soil there, which is always well-watered, enjoys a degree of fertility quite marvellous. Through this

spot, which extends about three miles each way, a spring of

water flows-in great abundance it is true-but still, it is only

at certain hours that its waters are distributed among the

inhabitants. Here, beneath a palm of enormous size, grows the

olive, beneath the olive the fig, beneath the fig, again, the

pomegranate, beneath the pomegranate the vine, and beneath the

vine we find sown, first wheat, then the leguminous plants, and

after them garden herbs-all in the same year, and all growing

beneath another's shade. Four cubits square of this same

ground-the cubit[2] being measured with the fingers contracted

and not extended-sell at the rate of four denarii.[3] But what

is more surprising than all, is the fact that here the vine bears

twice, and that there are two vintages in the year. Indeed,

if the fertility of the soil were not distributed in this way

among a multitude of productions, each crop would perish from

its own exuberance: as it is, there is no part of the year that

there is not some crop or other being gathered in; and yet, it

is a well-known fact, that the people do nothing at all to promote

this fruitfulness.







There are very considerable differences, too, in the nature of

water, as employed for the purposes of irrigation. In the

province of Gallia Narbonensis there is a famous fountain,

Orge by name; within it there grow plants which are sought

for with such eagerness by the cattle, that they will plunge

over head into the water to get at them; it is a well ascertained[4]

fact, however, that these plants, though growing in the water,

receive their nutriment only from the rains that fall. It is

as well then that every one should be fully acquainted with the

nature, not only of the soil, but of the water too.







1. See B. v. c. 3, and B. xvi. c. 50. It is also mentioned by Ptolemy

and Procopius. It was situate evidently in an oasis.

2. Or arm's length from the elbow.

3. He surely does not mention this as an extravagant price, more

especially when he has so recently spoken (i c. 34) of rape selling

at a sesterce per pound

4. How was this ascertained? Fe seems to think that it is the

Festuca fluitans of Linnus that is alluded to, it being eagerly

sought by cattle.




52. Chap. 52. (23.)-The Method Of Sowing More Than Once In The Year.


CHAP. 52. (23.)-THE METHOD OF SOWING MORE THAN ONCE

IN THE YEAR.



If the soil is of that nature which we have already[1] spoken

of as "tender,"[2] after a crop of barley has been grown upon

it, millet may be sown, and after the millet has been got in,

rape. In succession to these, again, barley may be put in, or

else wheat, as in Campania; and it will be quite enough, in

such case, to plough the ground when the seed is sown. There

is another rotation again-when the ground has been cropped

with spelt,[3] it should lie fallow the four winter months; after

which, spring beans should be put in, to keep it occupied till

the time comes for cropping it with winter beans. Where the

soil is too rich, it may lie fallow one year, care being taken after

sowing it with corn to crop it with the leguminous plants the

third year.[4] Where, on the other hand, it is too thin, the land

should lie fallow up to the third year even. Some persons recommend that corn should never be sown except in land which

has lain fallow the year before.







1. In B. xvii. c. 3.

2. Tenerum.

3. Adoreum.

4. "Tertio" may possibly mean the "third time," i. e. for

every third crop.




53. Chap. 53.-The Manuring Of Land.


CHAP. 53.-THE MANURING OF LAND.



The proper method of manuring is here a very important

subject for consideration-we have already treated of it at

some length in the preceding Book.[1] The only point that is







universally agreed upon is, that we must never sow without

first manuring the ground; although in this respect even there

are certain rules to be observed. Millet, panic, rape, and turnips should never be sown in any but a manured soil. If, on

the other hand, the land is not manured, sow wheat there in

preference to barley. The same, too, with fallow lands;

though in these it is generally recommended that beans should

be sown. It should be remembered, however, that wherever

beans are sown, the land should have been manured at as recent a period as possible. If it is intended to crop ground in

autumn, care must be taken to plough in manure in the month

of September, just after rain has fallen. In the same way,

too, if it is intended to sow in spring, the manure should be

spread in the winter. It is the rule to give eighteen cart-loads

of manure to each jugerum, and to spread it well before

ploughing it in,[2] or sowing the seed.[3] If this manuring,

however, is omitted, it will be requisite to spread the land

with aviary dust just before hoeing is commenced. To clear

up any doubts with reference to this point, I would here observe that the fair price for a cart-load of manure is one

denarius; where, too, sheep furnish one cart-load, the larger

cattle should furnish ten:[4] unless this result is obtained, it

is a clear proof that the husbandman has littered his cattle

badly.



There are some persons who are of opinion that the best

method of manuring land is to pen sheep there, with nets

erected to prevent them from straying. If land is not manured, it will get chilled; but if, on the other hand, it is over-manured, it becomes burnt up: it is a much better plan, too,

to manure little and often than in excess. The warmer the

soil is by nature, the less manure it requires.







1. In B. xvii. c. 6.

2. "Ares" seems to be a preferable reading to "arescat," "before it dries."

3. Schneider, upon Columella, B. ii. c. 15, would reject these words,

and they certainly appear out of place.

4. Poinsinet would supply here "tricenis diebus," "in thirty days," from

Columella, B. ii. c. 15.




54. Chap. 54. (24.)-How To Ascertain The Quality Of Seed.


CHAP. 54. (24.)-HOW TO ASCERTAIN THE QUALITY OF SEED.



The best seed of all is that which is of the last year's growth.

That which is two years old is inferior, and three the worst of all







-beyond that, it is unproductive.[1] The same definite rule

which applies to one kind of seed is applicable to them all:

the seed which falls to the bottom[2] on the threshing-floor,

should be reserved for sowing, for being the most weighty it

is the best in quality: there is no better method, in fact, of

ascertaining its quality. The grains of those ears which have

intervals between the seed should be rejected. The best grain

is that which has a reddish hue,[3] and which, when broken

between the teeth, presents the same[4] colour; that which has

more white within is of inferior quality. It is a well-known

fact that some lands require more seed than others, from which

circumstance first arose a superstition that exists among the

peasantry; it is their belief that when the ground demands the

seed with greater avidity than usual, it is famished, and devours

the grain. It is consistent with reason to put in the seed

where the soil is humid sooner than elsewhere, to prevent the

grain from rotting in the rain: on dry spots it should be sown

later, and just before the fall of a shower, so that it may not

have to lie long without germinating and so come to nothing.

When the seed is put in early it should be sown thick, as it is

a considerable time before it germinates; but when it is put

in later, it should be sown thinly, to prevent it from being

suffocated. There is a certain degree of skill, too, required in

scattering the seed evenly; to ensure this, the hand must keep

time[5] with the step, moving always with the right foot.

There are certain persons, also, who have a secret method[6] of

their own, having been born[7] with a happy hand which imparts

fruitfulness to the grain. Care should be taken not to

sow seed in a warm locality which has been grown in a cold







one, nor should the produce of an early soil be sown in a late

one. Those who give advice to the contrary have quite misapplied their pains.







1. "Sterile." This is not necessarily the case, as we know with reference

to what is called mummy wheat, the seed of which has been recovered

at different times from the Egyptian tombs.

2. The threshing floor was made with an elevation in the middle, and

the sides on an incline, to the bottom of which the largest grains would

be the most likely to fall.

3. "Far" or spelt is of a red hue in the exterior.

4. This appearance is no longer to be observed, if, indeed, Pliny

is correct: all kinds of corn are white in the interior of the

grain.

5. Hand-sowing is called by the French, "semer la vole."

6. This occult or mysterious method of which Pliny speaks, consists

solely of what we should call a "happy knack," which some men have of

sowing more evenly than others.

7. Sors genialis atque fecunda est.




55. Chap. 55.-What Quantity Of Each Kind Of Grain Is Requislte For Sowing A Jugebrum.


CHAP. 55.-WHAT QUANTITY OF EACH KIND OF GRAIN IS REQUISlTE

FOR SOWING A JUGEBRUM.



[1]In a soil of middling quality, the proper proportion of seed

is five modii of wheat or winter-wheat to the jugerum, ten of

spelt or of seed-wheat-that being the name which we have

mentioned[2] as being given to one kind of wheat-six of

barley, one-fifth more of beans than of wheat, twelve of

vetches, three of chick-pease, chicheling vetches, and pease,

ten of lupines, three of lentils-(these last, however, it is said,

must be sown with dry manure)-six of fitches, six of fenugreek,

four of kidney-beans, twenty of hay grass,[3] and four

sextarii of millet and panic. Where the soil is rich, the proportion

must be greater, where it is thin, less.[4]



There is another distinction, too, to be made; where the

soil is dense, cretaceous, or moist, there should be six modii of

wheat or winter-wheat to the jugerum, but where the land is

loose, dry, and prolific, four will be enough. A meagre soil,

too, if the crop is not very thinly sown, will produce a diminutive,

empty ear. Rich lands give a number of stalks to each

grain, and yield a thick crop from only a light sowing. The

result, then, is, that from four to six modii must be sown,

according to the nature of the soil; though there are some

who make it a rule that five modii is the proper proportion for

sowing, neither more nor less, whether it is a densely-planted

locality, a declivity, or a thin, meagre soil. To this subject

bears reference an oracular precept which never can be too

carefully observed[5]-"Don't rob the harvest."[6]

Attius, in his

Praxidicus,[7] has added that the proper time for sowing is,







when the moon is in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, and Aquarius.

Zoroaster says it should be done when the sun has passed twelve

degrees of Scorpio, and the moon is in Taurus.







1. This Chapter is mostly from Columella, B. ii. c. 9.

2. In c. 19 of this Book.

3. Probably the mixture called "farrago" in c. 10 and c. 41.

4. Upon this point the modern agriculturists are by no means agreed.

5. From Cato, De Re Rust. c. 5.

6. "Segetem ne defrudes." The former editions mostly read "defruges,"

in which case the meaning would be, "don't exhaust the land."

7. This passage of Attius is lost, but Hermann supposes his words to

have run thus:-

-serere, cum est

Luna in Ariete, Geminis, Leone, Libra, Aquario.




56. Chap. 56.-The Proper Times For Sowing.


CHAP. 56.-THE PROPER TIMES FOR SOWING.



We now come to a subject which has been hitherto deferred

by us, and which requires our most careful attention-the

proper times for sowing. This is a question that depends in

a very great degree upon the stars; and I shall therefore make

it my first care to set forth all the opinions that have been

written in reference to the subject. Hesiod, the first writer

who has given any precepts upon agriculture, speaks of one

period only for sowing-the setting of the Vergili: but then

he wrote in Botia, a country of Hellas, where, as we have

already stated,[1] they are still in the habit of sowing at that

period.



It is generally agreed by the most correct writers, that with

the earth, as with the birds and quadrupeds, there are certain

impulses for reproduction; and the epoch for this is fixed by

the Greeks at the time when the earth is warm and moist.

Virgil[2] says that wheat and spelt should be sown at the setting

of the Vergili, barley between the autumnal equinox and

the winter solstice, and vetches,[3] kidney-beans, and lentils at

the setting of Botes:[4] it is of great importance, therefore,

to ascertain the exact days of the rising and setting of these

constellations, as well as of the others. There are some, again,

who recommend the sowing to be done before the setting of

the Vergili, but only in a dry soil, and in those provinces

where the weather is hot; for the seed, they say,[5] if put in the

ground will keep, there being no moisture to spoil it, and

within a single day after the next fall of rain, will make its

appearance above ground. Others, again, are of opinion that

sowing should begin about seven days after the setting of the

Vergili, a period which is mostly followed by rain. Some

think that cold soils should be sown immediately after the

autumnal equinox, and a warm soil later, so that the blade

may not put forth too luxuriantly before winter.



It is universally agreed, however, that the sowing should







not be done about the period of the winter solstice; for this

very good reason-the winter seeds, if put in before the

winter solstice, will make their appearance above ground on

the seventh day, whereas, if they are sown just after it, they

will hardly appear by the fortieth. There are some, however,

who begin very early, and have a saying to justify their doing

so, to the effect that if seed sown too early often disappoints,

seed put in too late always does so. On the other hand, again,

there are some who maintain that it is better to sow in

spring than in a bad autumn; and they say that if they find

themselves obliged to sow in spring, they would choose the

period that intervenes between the prevalence of the west

winds[6] and the vernal equinox. Some persons, however, take

no notice of the celestial phenomena, and only regulate their

movements by the months. In spring they put in flax, the

oat, and the poppy, up to the feast of the Quinquatria,[7] as we

find done at the present day by the people of Italy beyond the

Padus. There, too, they sow beans and winter-wheat in the

month of November, and spelt at the end of September, up

to the ides of October:[8] others, however, sow this last after

the ides of October, as late as the calends of November.[9]



The persons who do this take no notice, consequently, of the

phnomena of Nature, while others, again, lay too much stress

upon them, and hence, by these refined subtleties and distinctions,

only add to their blindness; for here are ignorant

rustics, not only dealing with a branch of learning, but that

branch astronomy! It must still, however, be admitted that

the observation of the heavens plays a very important part in

the operations of agriculture; and Virgil,[10] we find, gives it as

his advice, that before any thing else, we should learn the

theory of the winds, and the revolutions of the stars; for, as he

says, the agriculturist, no less than the mariner, should regulate

his movements thereby. It is an arduous attempt, and

almost beyond all hope of success, to make an endeavour to introduce

the divine science of the heavens to the uninformed







mind of the rustic; still, however, with a view to such vast

practical results as must be derived from this kind of knowledge, I

shall make the attempt. There are some astronomical

difficulties, however, which have been experienced by the

learned even, that ought to be first submitted for consideration,

in order that the mind may feel some encouragement on abandoning the

study of the heavens, and may be acquainted with

facts at least, even though it is still unable to see into futurity.







1. In c. 8 of this Book.

2. Georg. i. 208.

3. Georg. i. 227.

4. See c. 74 of this Book.

5. Columella, B. ii. e. 8.

6. Favonius. See B. ii. c. 47.

7. The five days' festival in honour of Minerva. It begins on the

fourteenth before the calends of April, or on the nineteenth of

March. Virgil,

Georg. i. 208, says that flax and the poppy should be sown in autumn.

8. Fifteenth of October

9. First of November.

10. Georg. i. 204.




57. Chap. 57. (25.)-Arrangement Of The Stars According To The Terrestrial Days And Nights.


CHAP. 57. (25.)-ARRANGEMENT OF THE STARS ACCORDING TO THE

TERRESTRIAL DAYS AND NIGHTS.



In the first place, it is almost an utter impossibility to

calculate with a fair degree of accuracy the days of the year and

the movements of the sun. To the three hundred and sixty-five days

there are still to be added the intercalary days, the

result of the additional quarters of a day and night: hence it

is, that it is found impossible to ascertain with exactness the

proper periods for the appearance of the stars. To this we

must add, too, a certain degree of uncertainty connected with

these matters, that is universally admitted; thus, for instance,

bad and wintry weather will often precede, by several days,

the proper period for the advent of that season, a state of things

known to the Greeks as proxeima/zein;[1] while at another time,

it will last longer than usual, a state of circumstances known as

e)pixeima/zein.[2] The effects, too, of the changes that

take place

in the seasons will sometimes be felt later, and at other times

earlier, upon their reaching the face of the earth; and we not

unfrequently hear the remark made, upon the return of fine

weather, that the action of such and such a constellation is

now completed.[3] And then, again, as all these phnomena

depend upon certain stars, arranged and regulated in the vault of

heaven, we find intervening, in accordance with the movements

of certain stars, hailstorms and showers, themselves productive

of no slight results, as we have already observed,[4] and apt to

interfere with the anticipated regular recurrence of the seasons.

Nor are we to suppose that these disappointments fall upon the

human race only, for other animated beings, as well as ourselves,







are deceived in regard to them, although endowed with even a

greater degree of sagacity upon these points than we are, from

the fact of their very existence depending so materially upon

them. Hence it is, that we sometimes see the summer birds

killed by too late or too early cold, and the winter birds by

heat coming out of the usual season. It is for this reason,

that Virgil[5] has recommended us to study the courses of the

planets, and has particularly warned us to watch the passage

of the cold star Saturn.



There are some who look upon the appearance of the butterfly as the surest sign of spring, because of the extreme delicacy

of that insect. In this present year,[6] however, in which I

am penning these lines, it has been remarked that the flights

of butterflies have been killed three several times, by as many

returns of the cold; while the foreign birds, which brought

us by the sixth of the calends of February[7] every indication

of an early spring, after that had to struggle against a winter

of the greatest severity. In treating of these matters, we have

to meet a twofold difficulty: first of all, we have to ascertain

whether or not the celestial phnomena are regulated by

certain laws, and then we have to seek how to reconcile those

laws with apparent facts. We must, however, be more particularly

careful to take into account the convexity of the earth,

and the differences of situation in the localities upon the face

of the globe; for hence it is, that the same constellation shows

itself to different nations at different times, the result being,

that its influence is by no means perceptible everywhere at the

same moment. This difficulty has been considerably enhanced,

too, by various authors, who, after making their observations

in different localities, and indeed, in some instances, in the same

locality, have yet given us varying or contradictory results.



There have been three great schools of astronomy, the Chaldan,

the gyptian, and the Grecian. To these has been

added a fourth school, which was established by the Dictator

Csar among ourselves, and to which was entrusted the duty

of regulating the year in conformity with the sun's revolution,[8]

under the auspices of Sosigenes, an astronomer of considerable

learning and skill. His theory, too, upon the discovery of certain

errors, has since been corrected, no intercalations having







been made for twelve[9] successive years, upon its being found

that the year which before had anticipated the constellations,

was now beginning to fall behind them. Even Sosigenes himself, too,

though more correct than his predecessors, has not

hesitated to show, by his continual corrections in the three

several treatises which he composed, that he still entertained

great doubts on the subject. The writers, too, whose names are

inserted at the beginning of this work,[10] have sufficiently

revealed the fact of these discrepancies, the opinions of one being

rarely found to agree with those of another. This, however,

is less surprising in the case of those whose plea is the difference

of the localities in which they wrote. But with reference to

those who, though living in the same country, have still arrived

at different results, we shall here mention one remarkable

instance of discrepancy. Hesiod-for under his name, also,

we have a treatise extant on the Science of the Stars[11]-has

stated that the morning setting of the

Vergili takes place at

the moment of the autumnal equinox; whereas Thales, we

find, makes it the twenty-fifth day after the equinox, Anaximander

the twenty-ninth, and Euctemon the forty-eighth.



As for ourselves, we shall follow the calculations made by

Julius Csar,[12] which bear reference more particularly to Italy;

though at the same time, we shall set forth the dicta of various

other writers, bearing in mind that we are treating not of an

individual country, but of Nature considered in her totality.

In doing this, however, we shall name, not the writers themselves,

for that would be too lengthy a task, but the countries

in reference to which they speak. The reader must bear in

mind, then, that for the sake of saving space, under the head

of Attica, we include the islands of the Cyclades as well; under

that of Macedonia, Magnesia and Thracia; under that of Egypt,







Phnice, Cyprus, and Cilicia; under that of Botia, Locris,

Phocis, and the adjoining countries; under that of Hellespont,

Chersonesus, and the contiguous parts as far as Mount Athos;

under that of Ionia, Asia[13] and the islands of Asia; under that

of Peloponnesus, Achaia, and the regions lying to the west of

it. Chalda, when mentioned, will signify Assyria and Babylonia, as well.



My silence as to Africa,[14] Spain, and the provinces of Gaul,

will occasion no surprise, from the fact that no one has published

any observations made upon the stars in those countries.

Still, however, there will be no difficulty in calculating them,

even for these regions as well, on reference being made to the

parallels which have been set forth in the Sixth Book.[15] By

adopting this course, an accurate acquaintance may be made

with the astronomical relations, not only of individual nations,

but of cities even as well. By taking the circular parallels

which we have there appended to the several portions of the

earth respectively, and applying them to the countries in question,

that are similarly situate, it will be found that the rising

of the heavenly bodies will be the same for all parts within

those parallels, where the shadows projected are of equal length.

It is also deserving of remark, that the seasons have their

periodical recurrences, without any marked difference, every

four years, in consequence of the influence[16] of the sun, and that

the characteristics of the seasons are developed in excess every

eighth year, at the revolution of every hundredth moon.







1. "To be an early winter."

2. "To be a long winter."

3. Confectum sidus.

4. In B. xvii. c. 2.

5. Georg. i 335.

6. A.U.C. 830.

7. Twenty-seventh of January.

8. Ad solis cursum.

9. Soon after the corrections made by order of Julius Csar, the

Pontifices mistook the proper method of intercalation, by making it

every

third year instead of the fourth; the consequence of which was, that

Augustus was obliged to correct the results of their error by omitting the

intercalary day for twelve years.

10. He most probably refers to the list of writers originally appended to

the First Book; but which in the present Translation is distributed at the

end of each Book. For the list of astronomical writers here referred to,

see the end of the present Book.

11. Or )Astrikh\ bi/blos. It is now lost.

12. In his work mentioned at the end of this Book. It is now lost.

13. I. e. Asia Minor.

14. I. e. the north-west parts of Africa.

15. See c. 39 of that Book.

16. "Ratione solis." This theory of the succession of changes every four

years, was promulgated by Eudoxus See B. ii. c. 48.




58. Chap. 58.-The Rising And Setting Of The Stars.


CHAP. 58.-THE RISING AND SETTING OF THE STARS.



The whole of this system is based upon the observation of

three branches of the heavenly phnomena, the rising of the

constellations, their setting, and the regular recurrence of the

seasons. These risings and settings may be observed in two

different ways:-The stars are either concealed, and cease to

be seen at the rising of the sun, or else present themselves to

our view at his setting-this last being more generally known

by the name of "emersion" than of "rising," while their dis-







appearance is rather an "occultation" than a "setting."-

Considered, again, in another point of view, when upon certain days

they begin to appear or disappear, at the setting

or the rising of the sun, as the case may be, these are called

their morning or their evening settings or risings, according

as each of these phenomena takes place at day-break or twilight.

It requires an interval of three quarters of an hour at least before

the rising of the sun or after his setting, for the stars to

be visible to us. In addition to this, there are certain stars

which rise and set twice.[1] All that we here state bears

reference, it must be remembered, to the fixed stars only.







1. See c. 69, as to Arcturus and Aquila.




59. Chap. 59.-The Epochs Of The Seasons.


CHAP. 59.-THE EPOCHS OF THE SEASONS.



The year is divided into four periods or seasons, the recurrence

of which is indicated by the increase or diminution of the

daylight. Immediately after the winter solstice the days begin

to increase, and by the time of the vernal equinox, or in other

words, in ninety days and three hours, the day is equal in

length to the night. After this, for ninety-four days and

twelve hours, the days continue to increase, and the nights to

diminish in proportion, up to the summer solstice; and from

that point the days, though gradually decreasing, are still in

excess of the nights for ninety-two days, twelve hours, until the

autumnal equinox. At this period the days are of equal

length with the nights, and after it they continue to decrease

inversely to the nights until the winter solstice, a period

of eighty-eight days and three hours. In all these calculations, it

must be remembered, equinoctial[1] hours are spoken

of, and not those measured arbitrarily in reference to the

length of any one day in particular. All these seasons, too,

commence at the eighth degree of the signs of the Zodiac.

The winter solstice begins at the eighth degree of Capricorn,

the eighth[2] day before the calends of January, in

general;[3] the

vernal equinox at the eighth degree of Aries; the summer

solstice, at the eighth degree of Cancer; and the autumnal

equinox at the eighth degree of Libra: and it is rarely that







these days do not respectively give some indication of a change

in the weather.



These four seasons again, are subdivided, each of them, into

two equal parts. Thus, for instance, between the summer

solstice and the autumnal equinox, the setting of the Lyre,[4]

on the forty-sixth day, indicates the beginning of autumn; between

the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, the morning setting of

the Vergili, on the forty-fourth day, denotes

the beginning of winter; between the winter solstice and the

vernal equinox, the prevalence of the west winds on the forty-fifth

day, denotes the commencement of spring; and between

the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, the morning rising

of the Vergili, on the forty-eighth day, announces the

commencement of summer. We shall here make seed-time, or in

other words, the morning setting of the Vergili, our

starting-point;[5] and shall not interrupt the thread of our

explanation

by making any mention of the minor constellations, as such a

course would only augment the difficulties that already exist.

It is much about this period that the stormy constellation of

Orion departs, after traversing a large portion of the heavens.[6]







1. He speaks of Equinoctial hours, these being in all cases of the same

length, in contradistinction to the Temporal, or Unequal hours, which

with the Romans were a twelfth part of the Natural day, from sunrise to

sunset, and of course were continually varying.

2. Twenty-fifth of December.

3. Fore.

4. In this Translation, the names of the Constellations are given in

English, except in the case of the signs of the Zodiac, which are

universally known by their Latin appellations.

5. He begins in c. 64, at the winter solstice, and omits the

period between the eleventh of November and the winter solstice

altogether, so far as the mention of individual days.

6. "Cum sidus vehemens Orionis iisdem diebus longo decedat spatio."

This passage is apparently unintelligible, if considered, as

Sillig reads

it, as dependent on the preceding one.




60. Chap. 60.-The Proper Time For Winter Sowing.


CHAP. 60.-THE PROPER TIME FOR WINTER SOWING.



Most persons anticipate the proper time for sowing, and begin to

put in the corn immediately after the eleventh day of

the autumnal equinox, at the rising of the Crown, when we

may reckon, almost to a certainty, upon several days of rainy

weather in succession. Xenophon[1] is of opinion, that sowing

should not be commenced until the Deity has given us the

signal for it, a term by which Cicero understands the rains that

prevail in November. The true method to be adopted, however, is not

to sow until the leaves begin to fall. Some persons are of opinion

that this takes place at the setting of the







Vergili, or the third day before the ides of November, as

already stated,[2] and they carefully observe it, for it is a

constellation very easily remarked in the heavens, and warns us

to resume our winter clothes.[3] Hence it is, that immediately

on its setting, the approach of winter is expected, and care is

taken by those who are on their guard against the exorbitant

charges of the shop-keepers, to provide themselves with an

appropriate dress. If the Vergili set with cloudy weather,

it forebodes a rainy winter, and the prices of cloaks[4]

immediately rise; but if, on the other hand, the weather is clear at

that period, a sharp winter is to be expected, and then the

price of garments of other descriptions is sure to go up. But

as to the husbandman, unacquainted as he is with the phnomena of

the heavens, his brambles are to him in place of

constellations, and if he looks at the ground he sees it covered

with their leaves. This fall of the leaves, earlier in one place

and later in another, is a sure criterion of the temperature of

the weather; for there is a great affinity between the effects

produced by the weather in this respect, and the nature of the

soil and climate. There is this peculiar advantage, too, in the

careful observation of these effects, that they are sure to be

perceptible throughout the whole earth, while at the same time

they have certain features which are peculiar to each individual

locality.-A person may perhaps be surprised at this, who does

not bear in mind that the herb pennyroyal,[5] which is hung up

in our larders, always blossoms on the day of the winter solstice; so

firmly resolved is Nature that nothing shall remain

concealed from us, and in that spirit has given us the fall of

the leaf as the signal for sowing.



Such is the true method of interpreting all these phenomena,

granted to us by Nature as a manifestation of her will. It

is in this way that she warns us to prepare the ground, makes

us a promise of a manure, as it were, in the fall of the leaves,

announces to us that the earth and the productions thereof are

thus protected by her against the cold, and warns us to hasten

the operations of agriculture.











1. In his conomica.

2. In B. ii. c. 47.

3. "Vestis institor est." This passage is probably imperfect.

4. "Lacernarum."

5. "Puleium." See B. ii. c. 41.




61. Chap. 61.-When To Sow The Leguminous Plants And The Poppy.


CHAP. 61.-WHEN TO SOW THE LEGUMINOUS PLANTS AND THE

POPPY.



Varro[1] has given no other sign but this[2] for our guidance

in sowing the bean. Some persons are of opinion that it should

be sown at full moon, the lentil between the twenty-fifth and

thirtieth day of the moon, and the vetch on the same days of

the moon; and they assure us that if this is done they will be

exempt from the attacks of slugs. Some say, however, that

if wanted for fodder, they may be sown at these periods, but

if for seed, in the spring. There is another sign, more evident

still, supplied us by the marvellous foresight of Nature, with

reference to which we will give the words employed by Cicero[3]

himself:

"The lentisk, ever green and ever bent

Beneath its fruits, affords a threefold crop:

Thrice teeming, thrice it warns us when to plough."



One of the periods here alluded to, is the same that is now

under consideration, being the appropriate time also for sowing

flax and the poppy.[4] With reference to this last, Cato gives the

following advice: "Burn, upon land where corn has been grown,

the twigs and branches which are of no use to you, and when

that is done, sow the poppy there." The wild poppy, which

is of an utility that is quite marvellous, is boiled in honey as a

remedy for diseases in the throat,[5] while the cultivated kind is

a powerful narcotic. Thus much in reference to winter sowing.







1. De Re Rust. i. 34.

2. The setting of the Vergili.

3. De Divinat. B. i. c. 15. They are a translation from Aratus.

4. De Re Rust. c. 38. Pliny has said above, that flax and the poppy

should be sown in the spring.

5. The Papaver Rhas of Linnus is still used for affections of the

throat.




62. Chap. 62.-Work To Be Done In The Country In Each Month Respectively.


CHAP. 62.-WORK TO BE DONE IN THE COUNTRY IN EACH

MONTH RESPECTIVELY.



And now, in order to complete what we may call in some

measure an abridgment of the operations of agriculture, it is as

well to add that it will be a good plan at the same period to

manure the roots of trees, and to mould up the vines-a single

hand being sufficient for one jugerum. Where, too, the nature

of the locality will allow it, the vines, and the trees upon which

they are trained, should be lopped, and the soil turned up with







the mattock for seed plots; trenches, too, should be opened out,

and the water drained from off the fields, and the presses[1]

should be well washed and put away. Never put eggs beneath

the hen between the calends of November[2] and the winter

solstice:[3] during all the summer and up to the calends of November, you may put thirteen under the hen; but the number

must be smaller in winter, not less than nine, however.

Democritus is of opinion, that the winter will turn out of the

same character[4] as the weather on the day of the winter

solstice and the three succeeding days; the same too with the

summer and the weather at the summer solstice. About the

winter solstice, for about twice seven days mostly, while the

halcyon[5] is sitting, the winds are lulled, and the weather

serene;[6] but in this case, as in all others, the influence of the

stars must only be judged of by the result, and we must not

expect the changes of the weather, as if out upon their

recognizances,[7] to make their appearance exactly on certain

predetermined days.







1. For the grape and the olive.

2. First of November.

3. In the more northern climates this is never done till the spring.

4. This is merely imaginary.

5. Or king-fisher. It was a general belief that this bird incubated on

the surface of the ocean.

6. Hence the expression, "Halcyon days."

7. Vadimonia.




63. Chap. 63.-Work To Be Done At The Winter Solstice.


CHAP. 63.-WORK TO BE DONE AT THE WINTER SOLSTICE.



Be careful never to touch the vine at the winter solstice.

Hyginus recommends us to strain and even rack-off wine at

the seventh day after the winter solstice, provided the moon is

seven days old. About this period, also, the cherry-tree, he

says, should be planted. Acorns, too, should now be put in

soak for the oxen, a modius for each pair. If given in larger

quantities, this food will prove injurious to their health; and

whenever it is given, if they are fed with it for less than thirty

days in succession, an attack of scab in the spring, it is said,

will be sure to make you repent.



This, too, is the period that we have already assigned[1] for

cutting timber-other kinds of work, again, may be found for

the hours of the night, which are then so greatly prolonged.

There are baskets, hurdles, and panniers to be woven, and wood







to be cut for torches: squared stays[2] for the vine may be prepared,

too, thirty in the day time, and if rounded,[3] as many as

sixty. In the long hours of the evening, too, some five squared

stays, or ten rounded ones may be got ready, and the same

number while the day is breaking.







1. In B. xvi. c. 74.

2. "Ridicas."

3. "Palos."




64. Chap. 64.-Work To Be Done Between The Winter Solstice And The Prevalence Of The West Winds.


CHAP. 64.-WORK TO BE DONE BETWEEN THE WINTER SOLSTICE

AND THE PREVALENCE OF THE WEST WINDS.



Between the winter solstice and the period when the west

winds begin to prevail, the following, according to Csar, are the

more important signs afforded by the constellations: the Dog

sets in the morning, upon the third[1] day before the calends of

January; a day on the evening of which the Eagle sets to the

people of Attica and the adjoining countries. On the day be-

fore[2] the nones of January, according to Csar's computation,

the Dolphin rises in the morning, and on the next day, the

Lyre, upon the evening of which the Arrow sets to the people of

Egypt. Upon the sixth[3] day before the ides of January, the Dolphin

sets in the evening, and Italy has many days

of continuous cold; the same is the case also when the sun

enters Aquarius, about the sixteenth[4] day before the calends of

February. On the eighth[5] before the calends of February, the

star which Tubero calls the Royal Star[6] sets in the morning in

the breast of Leo, and in the evening of the day before[7] the

nones of February, the Lyre sets.



During the latter days of this period, whenever the nature

of the weather will allow of it, the ground should be turned

up with a double mattock, for planting the rose and the vine

-sixty men to a jugerum. Ditches, too, should be cleaned

out, or new ones made; and the time of day-break may be usefully

employed in sharpening iron tools, fitting on handles,

repairing such dolia[8] as may have been broken, and rubbing

up and cleaning their staves.











1. Thirtieth of December. According to the Roman reckoning, the third

day would be the day but one before.

2. Fourth of January.

3. Eighth of January.

4. Seventeenth of January.

5. Twenty-fifth of January.

6. "Regia Stella."

7. Fourth of February.

8. Or wine-vats; by the use of the word "laminas," he seems to be

speaking not of the ordinary earthen dolia, but the wooden ones used in

Gaul and the north of Italy.




65. Chap. 65.-Work To Be Done Between The Prevalence Of The West Winds And The Vernal Equinox.


CHAP. 65.-WORK TO BE DONE BETWEEN THE PREVALENCE OF

THE WEST WINDS AND THE VERNAL EQUINOX.



Between the prevalence of the west winds and the vernal

equinox, the fourteenth day before[1] the calends of March,

according to Csar, announces three days of changeable weather;

the same is the case, too, with the eighth[2] before the calends

of March, at the first appearance of the swallow, Arcturus

rising on the evening of the next day. Csar has observed,

that the same takes place on the third[3] before the nones of

March, at the rising of Cancer; and most authorities say the same

with reference to the emersion of the Vintager.[4] On the eighth[5]

before the ides of March, the northern limb of Pisces[6] rises,

and on the next day Orion, at which period also, in Attica, the

Kite is first seen. Csar has noted, too, the setting of Scorpio

on the ides of March,[7] a day that was so fatal to him; and on

the fifteenth[8] before the calends of April, the Kite appears in

Italy. On the twelfth[9] before the calends of April, the Horse

sets in the morning.



This interval of time is a period of extreme activity for the

agriculturist, and affords him a great number of occupations,

in reference to which, however, he is extremely liable to be deceived. He is summoned to the commencement of these

labours, not upon the day on which the west winds ought to

begin, but upon the day on which they really do begin, to blow.

This moment then must be looked for with the most careful

attention, as it is a signal which the Deity has vouchsafed us

in this month, attended with no doubts or equivocations, if

only looked for with scrupulous care. We have already stated

in the Second Book,[10] the quarter in which this wind blows,

and the exact point from which it comes, and before long we

shall have occasion to speak of it again still more in detail.



In the mean time, however, setting out from the day, what-







ever it may happen to be, on which the west winds begin to

prevail (for it is not always on the seventh before the ides of

February[11] that they do begin), whether, in fact, they begin

to blow before the usual time, as is the case with an early

spring, or whether after, which generally happens when the

winter is prolonged-there are subjects innumerable to engage

the attention of the agriculturist, and those, of course, should

be the first attended to, which will admit of no delay. Three

month wheat must now be sown, the vine pruned in the way

we have already[12] described, the olive carefully attended to,

fruit-trees put in and grafted, vineyards cleaned and hoed,

seedlings laid out, and replaced in the nursery by others, the

reed, the willow, and the broom planted and lopped, and the

elm, the poplar, and the plane planted in manner already mentioned. At this period, also, the crops of corn ought to be

weeded,[13] and the winter kinds, spelt more particularly, well

hoed. In doing this, there is a certain rule to be observed, the

proper moment being when four blades have made their appearance, and

with the bean this should never be done until three

leaves have appeared above ground; even then, however, it is a

better plan to clean them only with a slight hoeing, in preference

to digging up the ground-but in no case should they ever be

touched the first fifteen days of their blossom. Barley must

never be hoed except when it is quite dry: take care, too, to

have all the pruning done by the vernal equinox. Four men

will be sufficient for pruning a jugerum of vineyard, and each

hand will be able to train fifteen vines to their trees.[14]



At this period, too, attention should be paid to the gardens

and rose-beds, subjects which will be separately treated of in

succeeding Books; due care should be given to ornamental

gardening as well. It is now, too, the very best time for

making ditches. The ground should now be opened for future

purposes, as we find recommended by Virgil[15] in particular,

in order that the sun may thoroughly warm the clods. It is a

piece of even more sound advice, which recommends us to

plough no lands in the middle of spring but those of middling

quality; for if this is done with a rich soil, weeds will be

sure to spring up in the furrows immediately; and if, on the







other hand, it is a thin, meagre land, as soon as the heat comes

on, it will be dried up, and so lose all the moisture which

should be reserved to nourish the seed when sown. It is a much

better plan, beyond a doubt, to plough such soils as these in

autumn.



Cato[16] lays down the following rules for the operations of

spring. "Ditches," he says, "should be dug in the seed-plots, vines

should be grafted, and the elm, the fig, the olive,

and other fruit-trees planted in dense and humid soils. Such

meadows[17] as are not irrigated, must be manured in a dry

moon, protected from the western blasts, and carefully cleaned;

noxious weeds must be rooted up, fig-trees cleared, new seed-plots made, and the old ones dressed: all this should be done

before you begin to hoe the vineyard. When the pear is in

blossom, too, you should begin to plough, where it is a meagre,

gravelly soil. When you have done all this, you may plough

the more heavy, watery soils, doing this the last of all."



The proper time for ploughing, then,[18] is denoted by these

two signs, the earliest fruit of the lentisk[19] making its

appearance, and the blossoming of the pear. There is a third sign,

however, as well, the flowering of the squill among the bulbous,[20]

and of the narcissus among the garland, plants. For

both the squill and the narcissus, as well as the lentisk, flower

three times, denoting by their first flowering the first period

for ploughing, by the second flowering the second, and by the

third flowering the last; in this way it is that one thing affords

hints for another. There is one precaution, too, that is by no

means the least important among them all, not to let ivy touch

the bean while in blossom; for at this period the ivy is noxious[21]

to it, and most baneful in its effects. Some plants, again,

afford certain signs which bear reference more particularly to

themselves, the fig for instance; when a few leaves only are

found shooting from the summit, like a cup in shape, then it is

more particularly that the fig-tree should be planted.







1. Sixteenth of February.

2. Twenty-second of February.

3. Fifth of March.

4. On the fifth of March, Ovid says, Fasti, iii. 1. 407. Columella makes

it rise on the sixth of the nones, or the second of March.

5. Eighth of March.

6. Or, more literally, the "Northern Fish."

7. Fifteenth of March, the day on which he

was assassinated, in

accordance, it is said, with the prophecy of a diviner, who

had warned him to beware of the ides of March.

8. Eighteenth of March.

9. Twenty-first of March.

10. In c. 46 and c. 47.

11. Seventh of February.

12. In I. xvii. c. 35.

13. Fe approves of this method of weeding before the corn is in ear.

14. In a day, probably.

15. Georg. i. 63.

16. De Re Rust. 40.

17. See B. xvii. c. 8.

18. Alluding to his quotation from Cicero in c. 61.

19. Or mastich.

20. See c. 7 of this Book.

21. It is not known whence he derived this unfounded notion.




66. Chap. 66.-Work To Be Done After The Vernal Equinox.


CHAP. 66.-WORK TO BE DONE AFTER THE VERNAL EQUINOX.



The vernal equinox appears to end on the eighth[1] day be-







fore the calends of April. Between the equinox and the

morning rising of the Vergili, the calends[2] of April announce,

according to Csar, [stormy weather].[3] Upon the third[4]

before the nones of April, the Vergili set in the evening

in Attica, and the day after in Botia, but according to Csar

and the Chaldans, upon the nones.[5] In Egypt, at this time,

Orion and his Sword begin to set. According to Csar, the

setting of Libra on the sixth before[6] the ides of April announces

rain. On the fourteenth before[7] the calends of May,

the Sucul set to the people of Egypt in the evening, a stormy

constellation, and significant of tempests both by land and sea.

This constellation sets on the sixteenth[8] in Attica, and on the

fifteenth, according to Csar, announcing four days of bad

weather in succession: in Assyria it sets upon the twelfth[9]

before the calends of May. This constellation has ordinarily the

name of Parilicium, from the circumstance that the eleventh[10]

before the calends of May is observed as the natal day of the

City of Rome; upon this day, too, fine weather generally returns, and

gives us a clear sky for our observations. The

Greeks call the Sucul by the name of "Hyades,"[11] in consequence

of the rain and clouds which they bring with them;

while our people, misled by the resemblance of the Greek name

to another word[12] of theirs, meaning a "pig," have imagined

that the constellation receives its name from that word, and

have consequently given it, in their ignorance, the name of

"Sucul," or the "Little Pigs."



In the calculations made by Csar, the eighth[13] before the

calends of May is a day remarked, and on the seventh[14] before

the calends, the constellation of the Kids rises in Egypt. On

the sixth before[15] the calends, the Dog sets in the evening in

Botia and Attica, and the Lyre rises in the morning. On

the fifth[16] before the calends of May, Orion has wholly set







to the people of Assyria, and on the fourth[17] before the calends

the Dog. On the sixth before[18] the nones of May, the Sucul

rise in the morning, according to the calculation of Csar, and

on the eighth before[19] the ides, the She-goat, which announces

rain. In Egypt the Dog sets in the evening of the same day.

Such are pretty nearly the movements of the constellations up

to the sixth before[20] the ides of May, the period of the rising

of the Vergili.



In this interval of time, during the first fifteen days, the

agriculturist must make haste and do all the work for which

he has not been able to find time before the vernal equinox;

and he should bear in mind that those who are late in pruning

their vines are exposed to jibes and taunts, in imitation of the

note of the bird of passage known to us as the cuckoo.[21] For it

is looked upon as a disgrace, and one that subjects him to

well-merited censure, for that bird, upon its arrival, to find him

only then pruning his vines. Hence it is, too, that we find

those cutting jokes,[22] of which our peasantry are the object, at

the beginning of spring. Still, however, all such jokes are to

be looked upon as most abominable, from the ill omens[23] they

convey.



In this way, then, we see that, in agricultural operations,

the most trifling things are construed as so many hints supplied

us by Nature. The latter part of this period is the proper

time for sowing panic and millet; the precise moment, however, is

just after the barley has ripened. In the case of the

very same land, too, there is one sign that points in common

both to the ripening of the barley and the sowing of panic and

millet-the appearance of the glow-worm, shining in the fields

at night. "Cicindel"[24] is the name given by the country

people to these flying stars, while the Greeks call them

"lampyrides,"-another manifestation of the incredible bounteousness

of Nature.







1. Twenty-fifth of March.

2. First of April.

3. This passage is omitted in the original, but was probably left out by

inadvertence.

4. Third of April.

5. Fifth of April.

6. Eighth of April.

7. Eighteenth of April.

8. Sixteenth of April.

9. Twentieth of April.

10. Twenty-first of April. See B. xix. c. 24.

11. From u(/ein, to rain.

12. "Sus," apig.

13. Twenty-fourth of April.

14. Twenty-fifth of April.

15. Twenty-sixth of April.

16. Twenty-seventh of April.

17. Twenty-eighth of April.

18. Second of May.

19. Eighth of May.

20. Tenth of May.

21. "Cuculus." See B. x. c. 11,

22. "Petulanti vales." Perhaps "indecent," or "wanton jokes:" at least,

Hardouin thinks so.

23. By causing quarrels, probably.

24. See B. xi. c. 34.




68. Chap. 68.-The Summer Solstice.


CHAP. 68.-THE SUMMER SOLSTICE.



We have already stated[1] that the summer solstice arrives at

the eighth degree of Cancer, and upon the eighth day before[2]

the calends of July: this is an important crisis in the year,

and of great interest to the whole earth. Up to this period

from the time of the winter solstice the days have gone on

increasing, and the sun has continued for six months making

his ascension towards the north; having now surmounted the

heights of the heavens, at this point he reaches the goal, and







after doing so, commences his return towards the south; the

consequence of which is, that for the next six months he

increases the nights and subtracts from the length of the days.

From this period, then, it is the proper time to gather in and

store away the various crops in succession, and so make all

due preparations for the rigour and severity of the winter.



It was only to be expected that Nature should point out to

us the moment of this change by certain signs of an indubitable

character; and she has accordingly placed them beneath

the very hands of the agriculturist, bidding the leaves turn

round[3] upon that day, and so denote that the luminary has now

run its course. And it is not the leaves of trees only that are

wild and far remote that do this, nor have those persons who

are on the look-out for these signs to go into devious forests

and mountain tracts to seek them. Nor yet, on the other

hand, are they to be seen in the leaves of trees only that are

grown in the vicinity of cities or reared by the hand of the

ornamental gardener, although in them they are to be seen

as well. Nature upon this occasion turns the leaf of the

olive which meets us at every step; she turns the leaf of

the linden, sought by us, as it is, for a thousand purposes;

she turns the leaf of the white poplar, too, wedded to the vine

that grows upon its trunk. And still, for her, all this is not

enough. "You have the elm," she says, "reared for the support of the

vine, and the leaf of that I will make to turn as

well. The leaves of this tree you have to gather for fodder, the

leaves of the vine you prune away. Only look upon them,

and there you behold the solstice;[4] they are now pointing

towards a quarter of the heavens the reverse of that towards

which they looked the day before. The twigs of the withy,

that most lowly of trees, you employ for tying things without

number. You are a head taller than it-I will make its

leaves to turn round as well. Why complain, then, that you

are but a rustic peasant? It shall be no fault of mine if

you do not understand the heavens and become acquainted

with the movements of the celestial bodies. I will give

another sign, too, that shall address itself to your ear-only

listen for the cooing of the ring-doves; and beware of sup-







posing that the summer solstice is past, until you see the

wood-pigeon sitting on her eggs."



Between the summer solstice and the setting of the Lyre, on

the sixth day before the calends of July,[5] according to Csar's

reckoning, Orion rises, and upon the fourth[6] before the nones

of July, his Belt rises to the people of Assyria. Upon-the

morning of the same day, also, the scorching constellation of

Procyon rises. This last constellation has no name with the

Romans, unless, indeed, we would consider it as identical with

Canicula,[7] or Lesser Dog, which we find depicted among

the stars; this last is productive of excessive heat, as we shall

shortly have further occasion to state. On the fourth[8] before

the nones of July, the Crown sets in the morning to the people

of Chalda, and in Attica, the whole of Orion has risen by

that day. On the day before[9] the ides of July, the rising of

Orion ends to the Egyptians also; on the sixteenth[10] before

the calends of August, Procyon rises to the people of Assyria,

and, the day but one after, of nearly all other countries as well,

indicating a crisis that is universally known among all nations,

and which by us is called the rising of the Dog-star; the sun

at this period entering the first degree of Leo. The Dog-star

rises on the twenty-third day after the summer solstice; the

influence of it is felt by both ocean, and earth, and even by many

of the animals as well, as stated by us elsewhere on the appropriate

occasions.[11] No less veneration, in fact, is paid to this

star, than to those that are consecrated to certain gods; it

kindles the flames of the sun, and is one great source of the

heats of summer.



On the thirteenth[12] day before the calends of August, the

Eagle sets in the morning to the people of Egypt, and the

breezes that are the precursors of the Etesian winds, begin to

blow; these, according to Csar, are first perceived in Italy,

on the tenth before[13] the calends of August. The Eagle sets

in the morning of that day to the people of Attica, and on tile







third before[14] the calends of August, the Royal Star in the

breast of Leo rises in the morning, according to Csar. On

the eighth before[15] the ides of August, one half of Arcturus

has ceased to be visible, and on the third before[16] the ides the

Lyre, by its setting, opens the autumn,-according to Csar at

least; though a more exact calculation has since shown, that

this takes place on the sixth day before[17] the ides of that month.



The time that intervenes between these periods is one that

is of primary importance in the cultivation of the vine; as

the constellation of which we have spoken, under the name of

Canicula, has now to decide upon the fate of the grape. It is

at this period that the grapes are said to be charred,[18] a blight

falling upon them which burns them away, as though red-hot

coals had been applied to them. There is no hail that can be

compared with this destructive malady, nor yet any of those

tempests, which have been productive of such scarcity and

dearth. For the evil effects of these, at the very utmost, are

only felt in isolated districts, while the coal blight,[19] on the other

hand, extends over whole countries, far and wide. Still, however, the

remedy would not be very difficult, were it not that

men would much rather calumniate Nature, than help themselves. It is

said that Democritus,[20] who was the first to comprehend and

demonstrate that close affinity which exists between the heavens and

the earth, finding his laborious researches upon that

subject slighted by the more opulent of his

fellow-citizens, and presaging the high price of oil, which was

about to result upon the rising of the Vergili, (as we have

already mentioned,[21] and shall have to explain more fully

hereafter), bought up all the oil in the country, which was then at

a very low figure, from the universal expectation of a fine crop

of olives; a proceeding which greatly surprised all who knew

tlat a life of poverty and learned repose was so entirely the

object of his aspirations. When, however, his motives had

been fully justified by the result, and vast riches had flowed in

upon him apace, he returned all his profits to the disappointed







proprietors, whose avarice had now taught them to repent,

thinking it quite sufficient to have thus proved how easy it

was for him to acquire riches whenever he pleased. At a

more recent period, again, Sextius,[22] a Roman philosopher residing

at Athens, made a similar application of his knowledge.

Such, then, is the utility of science, the instruction provided

by which it shall be my aim, as clearly and as perspicuously

as possible, to apply to the various occupations of a country

life.



Most writers have said that it is the dew, scorched by a

burning sun, that is the cause of mildew[23] in corn, and of

coal-blight in the vine; this, however, seems to me in a great

measure incorrect, and it is my opinion that all blights result

entirely from cold, and that the sun is productive of no injurious

effects whatever. This, in fact, will be quite evident, if only a

little attention is paid to the subject; for we find that the blight

makes its appearance at first in the night time only, and before

the sun has shone with any vigour. The natural inference is,

that it depends entirely upon the moon, and more particularly

as such a calamity as this is never known to happen except at the

moon's conjunction, or else at the full moon, periods at which

the influence of that heavenly body is at its greatest height.

For at both of these periods, as already[24] stated by us more

than once, the moon is in reality at the full; though during

her conjunction she throws back to the heavens all the light

which she has received from the sun. The difference in the

effects produced by the moon at these two periods is very great,

though at the same time equally apparent; for at the conjunction,

that body is extremely hot in summer, but cold in winter; while, on

the other hand, at the full moon, the nights are

cold in summer, but warm in winter. The reason of this.

although Fabianus and the Greek writers adopt another method of explaining it, is quite evident. During the moon's

conjunction in summer, she must of necessity move along with

the sun in an orbit nearer to the earth, and so become warmed







by the heat which she receives by reason of her closer vicinity

to the sun. In winter, again, at the time of the conjunction,

she is farther off from us, the sun being also removed to a

greater distance. On the other hand, again, when the moon

is at the full in summer, she is more remote from the earth,

and in opposition with the sun; while, in winter, she approaches

nearer to us at that period, by adopting the same

orbit as at her conjunction in summer. Naturally humid herself, as

often as from her position she is cold, she congeals to

an unlimited extent the dews which fall at that period of the

year.







1. In c. 59 of this Book.

2. Twenty-fourth of June. See the last Chapter.

3. On this subject see B. xvi. c. 36. See also Varro, De Re Rust. B. i.

c. 46, and Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 7.

4. "Tenes Sidus."

5. Twenty-sixth of June.

6. Fourth of July.

7. There is some confusion, apparently, here. Canicula, Syrius, or the

Dog-star, belongs to the Constellation Canis Major while Canis Minor,

a Constellation which contains the star Procyon, ("the forerunner of the

Dog,") precedes it.

8. Fourth of July.

9. Fourteenth of July.

10. Seventeenth of July.

11. B. ii. c. 40, and B. xix. c. 25.

12. Twentieth of July.

13. Twenty-third of July.

14. Thirtieth of July.

15. Sixth of August.

16. Eleventh of August.

17. Eighth of August.

18. See B. xvii. c. 37.

19. Carbunculus.

20. Cicero. I)e Div., B. ii. 201, Aristotle, Polit. B. i. c. 7, and Diogenes

Lacrtius tell this story of Thales the philosopher; Pliny being the only

one that applies it to Democritus.

21. In the last Chapter. This passage is corrupt.

22. Mentioned by Seneca, Ep. 59.

23. It was reserved for the latter part of the last century to discover that

mildew operated on vegetation through the medium of minute, parasitical

fungi. It is mostly attributed to detects in the light or the atmosphere,

or else humidity in excess. See c. 44 of this Book.

24. In B. ii. c. 6, for instance.




69. Chap. 69.-Causes Of Sterility.


CHAP. 69.-CAUSES OF STERILITY.



But we ought always to bear in mind, more particularly,

that there are two varieties of evils that are inflicted upon the

earth by the heavens. The first of these, known by us under

the name of "tempests," comprehends hail-storms, hurricanes

and other calamities of a similar nature; when these take place

at the full moon, they come upon us with additional intensity.

These tempests take their rise in certain noxious constellations,

as already stated by us on several occasions, Arcturus, for instance,

Orion, and the Kids.



The other evils that are thus inflicted upon us, supervene with

a bright, clear sky, and amid the silence of the night, no one

being sensible of them until we have perceived their effects.

These dispensations are universal and of a totally different

character from those previously mentioned, and have various

names given to them, sometimes mildew, sometimes blast, and

sometimes coal blight; but in all cases sterility is the infallible

result. It is of these last that we have now to speak, entering

into details which have not hitherto been treated of by any

writer; and first of all we will explain the causes of them.



(29.) Independently of the moon, there are two principal

causes of these calamities, which emanate more particularly

from two quarters of the heavens of but limited extent. On

the one hand, the Vergili exercise an especial influence on our

harvests, as it is with their rising that the summer begins, and

with their setting, the winter; thus embracing, in the space of

six months, the harvest, the vintage, and the ripening of all the

vegetable productions. In addition to this, there is a circular

tract in the heavens, quite visible to the human eye even, known







as the Milky Way. It is the emanations from this, flowing as

it were from the breast, that supply their milky[1] nutriment to

all branches of the vegetable world. Two constellations more

particularly mark this circular tract, the Eargle in the north,

and Canicula in the south; of this last, we have already made

mention[2] in its appropriate place. This circle traverses also

Sagittarius and Gemini, and passing through the centre of the

sun, cuts the equinoctial line below, the constellation of the

Eagle making its appearance at the point of intersection on

the one side, and Canicula on the other. Hence it is that the

influences of both these constellations develope themselves

upon all cultivated lands; it being at these points only that the

centre of the sun is brought to correspond with that of the

earth. If, then, at the moments of the rising and the setting

of these constellations, the air, soft and pure, transmits these

genial and milky emanations to the earth, the crops will thrive

and ripen apace; but if on the other hand, the moon, as already[3]

mentioned, sheds her chilling dews, the bitterness thereof infuses

itself into these milky secretions, and so kills the

vegetation in its birth. The measure of the injury so inflicted

on the earth depends, in each climate, upon the combination of

the one or other of these causes; and hence it is that it is not

felt in equal intensity throughout the whole earth, nor even

precisely at the same moment of time. We have already[4] said

that the Eagle rises in Italy on the thirteenth day[5] before the

calends of January, and the ordinary course of Nature does

not permit us before that period to reckon with any degree of

certainty upon the fruits of the earth; for if the moon should

happen to be in conjunction at that time, it will be a necessary

consequence, that all the winter fruits, as well as the early

ones, will receive injury more or less.



The life led by the ancients was rude and illiterate; still,

as will be readily seen, the observations they made were not

less remarkable for ingenuity than are the theories of the present

day. With them there were three set periods for gathering in the

produce of the earth, and it was in honour of these

periods that they instituted the festive days, known as the







Robigalia,[6] the Floralia, and the Vinalia. The Robigalia were

established by Numa in the fortieth year of his reign, and are

still celebrated on the seventh day before the calends of May,

as it is at this period that mildew[7] mostly makes its first

attacks upon the growing corn. Varro fixes this crisis at the

moment at which the sun enters the tenth degree of Taurus,

in accordance with the notions that prevailed in his day: but

the real cause is the fact, that thirty-one[8] days after the vernal

equinox, according to the observations of various nations, the

Dog-star sets between the seventh and fourth before the calends of

May, a constellation baneful in itself, and to appease

which a young dog should first be sacrificed.[9] The same people

also, in the year of the City 513, instituted the Floralia, a

festival held upon the fourth before[10] the calends of May, in

accordance with the oracular injunctions of the Sibyl, to secure

a favourable season for the blossoms and flowers. Varro fixes

this day as the time at which the sun enters the fourteenth

degree of Taurus. If there should happen to be a full moon

during the four days at this period, injury to the corn and all

the plants that are in blossom, will be the necessary result.

The First Vinalia, which in ancient times were established on

the ninth before[11] the calends of May, for the purpose of

tasting[12] the wines, have no signification whatever in reference to

the fruits of the earth, any more than the festivals already

mentioned have in reference to the vine and the olive; the

germination of these last not commencing, in fact, till the

rising of the Vergili, on the Sixth day before[13] the ides of







May, as already mentioned on previous occasions.[14] This, again,

is another period of four days, which should never be blemished

by dews, as the chilling constellation of Arcturus, which sets

on the following day, will be sure to nip the vegetation; stili

less ought there to be a full moon at this period.



On the fourth before[15] the nones of June, the Eagle rises

again in the evening, a critical day for the olives and vines in

blossom, if there should happen to be a full moon. For my

part, I am of opinion that the eighth[16] before the calends of

July, the day of the summer solstice, must be a critical day, for

a similar reason; and that the rising of the Dog-star, twenty-three

days after the summer solstice, must be so too, in case

the moon is then in conjunction; for the excessive heat is productive

of injurious effects, and the grape becomes prematurely

ripened, shrivelled, and tough. Again, if there is a full noon

on the fourth before[17] the nones of July, when Canicula rises to

the people of Egypt, or at least on the sixteenth before[18] the

calends of August, when it rises in Italy, it is productive of

injurious results. The same is the case, too, from

the thirteenth day before[19] the calends of August, when the

Eagle sets, to the tenth before[20] the calends of that month.

The Second Vinalia, which are celebrated on the fourteenth[21]

before the calends of September, bear no reference to these

influences. Varro fixes them at; the period at which the Lyre

begins its morning setting, and says that this indicates the

beginning of autumn, the day having been set apart for the purpose of

propitiating the weather: at the present day, however,

it is observed that the Lyre sets on the sixth before[22] the ides

of August.



Within these periods there are exerted the sterilizing influences

of the heavens, though I am far from denying that

they may be considerably modified by the nature of the locality

according as it is cold or hot. Still, however, it is sufficient for

me to have demonstrated the theory; the modifications of its results

depending, in a great degree, upon attentive observation.

It is beyond all question too, that either one of these two causes







will be always productive of its own peculiar effects, the full

moon, I mean, or else the moon's conjunction. And here it

suggests itself how greatly we ought to admire the bounteous

provisions made for us by Nature; for, in the first place, these

calamitous results cannot by any possibility befall us every year,

in consequence of the fixed revolutions of the stars; nor indeed,

when they do happen, beyond a few nights in the year, and it

may be easily known beforehand which nights those are likely

to be. In order, too, that we might not have to apprehend these

injuries to vegetation in all the months, Nature has so ordained

that the times of the moon's conjunction in summer, and of the

full moon in winter, with the exception of two days only at

those respective periods, are well ascertained, and that there is

no danger to be apprehended on any but the nights of summer,

and those nights the shortest of all; in the day-time, on the

other hand, there is nothing to fear. And then, besides, these

phnomena may be so easily understood, that the ant even,

that most diminutive of insects, takes its rest during the moon's

conjunction, but toils on, and that during the night as well, when

the moon is at the full; the bird, too, called the "parra"[23]

disappears upon the day on which Sirius rises, and never reappears

until that star has set; while the witwall,[24] on the

other hand, makes its appearance on the day of the summer

solstice. The moon, however, is productive of no noxious

effects at either of these periods, except when the nights are

clear, and every movement of the air is lulled; for so long as

clouds prevail, or the wind is blowing, the night dews never

fall. And then, besides, there are certain remedies to counteract

these noxious influences.







1. An onomatic prejudice, as Fe says, solely founded on the peculiarity

of the name.

2. In the preceding Chapter.

3. In the preceding Chapter.

4. In B. xvi. c. 42.

5. Twentieth of December.

6. Or festival in honour of Robigo, the Goddess of mildew, on the

twenty-fifth of April. See Ovid's Fasti, B. iv. 1. 907, et seq.

7. "Nineteen" is the proper number.

8. Robigo.

9. "Et cui proccidere caniculam necesse est." The real meaning of

this passage would seem to be,-"Before which, as a matter of course,

Canicula must set." But if so, Pliny is in error, for Canicula, or Procyon,

sets heliacally after the Dog-star, though it rises before it.

Hardouin observes, that it is abundantly proved from the ancient

writers that it was

the custom to sacrifice a puppy to Sirius, or the Dog-star, at the Robigalia.

As Tittr justly remarks, it would almost appear that Pliny intended, by

his ambiguous language, to lead his readers into error.

10. Twenty-eighth of April. The festival of Flora.

11. Twenty-third of April. This was the first, or Urban Vinalia: the

second, or Rustic Vinalia, were held on the nineteenth of August.

12. The same as the Greek Piqo/igia, or "opening of the Casks."

13. Tenth of May.

14. In B. xvi. c. 42, and in c. 66 of this Book.

15. Second of June.

16. Twenty-fourth of June.

17. Fourth of July.

18. Seventeenth of July.

19. Twentieth of July.

20. Twenty-third of July.

21. Nineteenth of August.

22. Eighth of August.

23. See B. x. c. 45, and c. 50. The popinjay, lapwing, and tit-mouse

have been suggested.

24. Virio. See B. x. c. 45.




70. Chap. 70.-Remedies Against These Noxious Influences.


CHAP. 70.-REMEDIES AGAINST THESE NOXIOUS INFLUENCES.



When you have reason to fear these influences, make bonfires in

the fields and vineyards of cuttings or heaps of chaff, or

else of the weeds that have been rooted up; the smoke[1] will

act as a good preservative. The smoke, too, of burning chaff

will be an effectual protection against the effects of fogs, when

likely to be injurious. Some persons recommend that three







crabs should be burnt[2] alive among the trees on which the

vines are trained, to prevent these from being attacked by coal

blight; while others say that the flesh of the silurus[3]

should be burnt in a slow fire, in such a way that the smoke may be

dispersed by the wind throughout the vineyard.



Varro informs us, that if at the setting of the Lyre, which

is the beginning of autumn, a painted grape[4] is consecrated in

the midst of the vineyard, the bad weather will not be pro-

ductive of such disastrous results as it otherwise would.

Archibius[5] has stated, in a letter to Antiochus,

king of Syria, that

if a bramble-frog[6] is burried in a new earthen vessel, in the

middle of a corn-field, there will be no storms to cause injury.







1. Columella, De Arborib. c. 13, gives similar advice.

2. This absurd practice is mentioned in the Geoponica, B. v. c. 31.

3. As to this fish, see B. ix. c. 17.

4. "Uva picta" This absurdity does not seem to be found in any of

Varro's works that have come down to us.

5. Nothing whatever is known of him or his works; and, as Fe says,

apparently the loss is little to be regretted.

6. Rubeta rana.




71. Chap. 71.-Work To Be Done After The Summer Solstice.


CHAP. 71.-WORK TO BE DONE AFTER THE SUMMER SOLSTICE.



The following are the rural occupations for this interval

of time-the ground must have another turning up, and the

trees must be cleared about the roots and moulded up, where

the heat of the locality requires it. Those plants, however,

which are in bud must not be spaded at the roots, except where

the soil is particularly rich. The seed-plots, too, must be well

cleared with the hoe, the barley-harvest got in, and the

threshing-floor prepared for the harvest with chalk, as Cato[1]

tells us, slackened with amurca of olives; Virgil[2] makes mention

of a method still more laborious even. In general, however, it is

considered sufficient to make it perfectly level, and

then to cover it with a solution of cow-dung[3] and water; this

being thought sufficient to prevent the dust from rising.











1. De Re Rust. 129. Cato, however, does not mention chalk, but Virgil

(Georg. i. 178) does. Poinsinet thinks that this is a "lapsus memori"

in Pliny, but Fe suggests that there may have been an omission by the

copyists.

2. See the last Note. He recommends that it should be turned up with

the hand, rammed down with "tenacious chalk," and levelled with a large

roller.

3. Both cow-dung and mare of olives are still employed in some parts of

France, in preparing the threshing floor.




72. Chap. 72. (30.)-The Harvest.


CHAP. 72. (30.)-THE HARVEST.



The mode of getting in the harvest varies considerably. In

the vast domains of the provinces of Gaul a large hollow

frame,[1] armed with teeth and supported on two wheels, is

driven through the standing corn, the beasts being yoked[2]

behind it; the result being, that the ears are torn off and

fall within the frame. In other countries the stalks are cut

with the sickle in the middle, and the ears are separated by

the aid of paddle-forks.[3] In some places, again, the corn is

torn up by the roots; and it is asserted by those who adopt

this plan, that it is as good as a light turning up for the ground,

whereas, in reality, they deprive it of its juices.[4] There are

differences in other respects also: in places where they thatch

their houses with straw, they keep the longest haulms for that

purpose; and where hay is scarce, they employ the straw for

litter. The straw of panic is never used for thatching, and

that of millet is mostly burnt; barley-straw, however, is

always preserved, as being the most agreeable of all as a food

for oxen. In the Gallic provinces panic and millet are gathered,

ear by ear, with the aid of a comb carried in the hand.



In some places the corn is beaten out by machines[5] upon

the threshing-floor, in others by the feet of mares, and in







others with flails. The later wheat is cut, the more prolific[6]

it is; but it is got in early, the grain is finer and stronger.

The best rule is to cut it before the grain hardens, and just

as it is changing colour:[7] though the oracles on husbandry

say that it is better to begin the harvest two days too soon

than two days too late. Winter and other wheat must be

treated exactly the same way both on the threshing-floor and

in the granary. Spelt, as it is difficult to be threshed, should

be stored with the chaff on, being only disengaged of the straw

and the beard.



Many countries make use of chaff[8] for hay: the smoother

and thinner it is, and the more nearly resembling dust, the

better; hence it is that the chaff[9] of millet is considered the

best, that of barley being the next best, and that of wheat the

worst of all, except for beasts that are hard worked. In stony

places they break the haulms, when dry, with staves, for the

cattle to lie upon: if there is a deficiency of chaff, the straw

as well is ground for food. The following is the method employed in

preparing it: it is cut early and sprinkled with bay

salt,[10] after which it is dried and rolled up in trusses, and given

to the oxen as wanted, instead of hay. Some persons set fire

to the stubble in the fields, a plan that has been greatly extolled

by Virgil:[11] the chief merit of it is that the seed of the

weeds is effectually destroyed. The diversity of the methods

employed in harvesting mainly depends upon the extent of the

crops and the price of labour.







1. Palladius gives a long description of this contrivance, which seems to

have been pushed forward by the ox; the teeth, which were sharp at the

edge and fine at the point, catching the ears and tearing them off. But,

as Fe says, the use of it must have been very disadvantageous, in

consequence of the unequal height of the stalks. The straw, too, was

sacrificed by the employment of it.

2. In contrarium juncto.

3. "Merges." Supposed to be the same as the "batillum" of Varro.

Its form is unknown, and, indeed, the manner in which it was used. It is

not improbable that it was a fork, sharp at the edge, and similar to an

open pair of scissars, with which the heads of corn were driven off, as it

were; this, however, is only a mere conjecture. By the use of "atque,"

it would almost appear that the "merges" was employed after the sickle

had been used; but it is more probable that he refers to two

different methods of gathering the ears of corn.

4. The roots and the stubble are, in reality, as good as a manure to the

land.

5. Called "tribulum;" a threshing-machine moved by oxen. Varro,

De Re Rust. i. 52, gives a description of it. Fe says that it is still used

in some parts of Europe.

6. On the contrary, Fe says, the risk is greater from the depredations

of birds, and the chance of the grain falling out in cutting, and gathering

in. Spelt and rye may be left much longer than wheat or oats.

7. Columella, B. ii. c. i., gives the same advice.

8. "Palea" seems here to mean "chaff;" though Fe understands it

as meaning straw.

9. The chaff of millet, and not the straw, must evidently be intended here,

for he says above that the straw-"culmns"-of millet is generally

burnt.

10. Muria dura.

11. Georg. i. 84, et seq. Fe says that Virgil has good

reason for his

commendations, as it is a most excellent plan.




73. Chap. 73-The Methods Of Storing Corn.


CHAP. 73-THE METHODS OF STORING CORN.



Connected with this branch of our subject is the method of

storing corn. Some persons recommend that granaries should

be built for the purpose at considerable expense, the walls







being made of brick, and not less than three[1] feet thick; the

corn, they say, should be let in from above, the air being

carefully excluded, and no windows allowed. Others, again,

say that the granary should have an aspect in no direction but

the north-east or north, and that the walls should be built

without lime, that substance being extremely injurious[2] to

corn; as to what we find recommended in reference to amurca

of olives, we have already mentioned it on a former[3] occasion.

In some places they build their granaries of wood, and upon

pillars,[4] thinking it the best plan to leave access for the air on

every side, and from below even. Some persons think, how-

ever, that the grain diminishes in bulk if laid on a floor above

the level of the ground, and that it is liable to ferment beneath

a roof of tiles. Many persons say, too, that the grain should

never be stirred up to air[5] it, as the weevil is never known to

penetrate beyond four fingers in depth; consequently, beyond

that depth there is no danger. According to Columella,[6] the

west wind is beneficial to grain, a thing that surprises me, as

that wind is generally a very parching[7] one. Some persons

recommend that, before housing the corn, a bramble-frog

should be hung up by one of the hind legs at the threshold of

the granary. To me it appears that the most important precaution of

all is to house the grain at the proper time; for if

it is unripe when cut, and not sufficiently firm, or if it is got

in a heated state, it follows of necessity that noxious insects

will breed in it.



There are several causes which contribute to the preservation of

grain; the outer[8] coats in some kinds are more numerous, as in

millet, for instance; the juices are of an oleaginous nature,[9] and so

supply ample moisture, as in sesame,

for example; while in other kinds, again, they are naturally







bitter,[10] as in the lupine and the chicheling vetch. It is in

wheat more particularly that insects breed, as it is apt to heat

from the density of its juices, and the grain is covered with a

thick bran. In barley the chaff is thinner, and the same is the

case with all the leguminous seeds: it is for this reason that they

do not ordinarily breed insects. The bean, however, is covered

with a coat of a thicker substance: and hence it is that it ferments.

Some persons sprinkle wheat, in order to make it

keep the longer, with amurea[11] of olives, a quadrantal to a

thousand modii: others, again, with powdered Chalcidian or

Carian chalk, or with worm-wood.[12] There is a certain earth

found at Olynthus, and at Cerinthus, in Euba, which prevents grain

from spoiling. If garnered in the ear, grain is

hardly ever found to suffer any injury.



The best plan, however, of preserving grain, is to lay it up

in trenches, called "siri," as they do in Cappadocia, Thracia,

Spain, and at * * * in Africa. Particular care is taken to

dig these trenches in a dry soil, and a layer of chaff is then

placed at the bottom the grain, too, is always stored in the

ear. In this case, if no air is allowed to penetrate to the corn,

we may rest assured that no noxious insects will ever breed

in it. Varro[13] says, that wheat, if thus stored, will keep as

long as fifty years, and millet a hundred; and he assures us

that beans and other leguminous grain, if put away in oil jars

with a covering of ashes, will keep for a great length of time.

He makes a statement, also, to the effect that some beans were

preserved in a cavern in Ambracia from the time of King

Pyrrhus until the Piratical War of Pompeius Magnus, a period

of about two hundred and twenty years.



The chick-pea is the only grain in which no insect will

breed while in the granary. Some persons place upon the

heaps of the leguminous grains pitchers full of vinegar and

coated with pitch, a stratum of ashes being laid beneath; and

they fancy that if this is done, no injury will happen. Some,

again, store them in vessels which have held salted provisions,

with a coating of plaster on the top, while other persons are







in the habit of sprinkling lentils with vinegar scented with

laser,[14] and, when dry, giving them a covering of oil. But

the most effectual method of all is to get in everything

that you would preserve from injury at the time of the

moon's conjunction; and hence it is of the greatest importance to

know, when getting in the harvest, whether it is

for garnering or whether for immediate sale. If cut during the

increase of the moon, grain will increase in size.







1. Palladius, i. 19, says two feet.

2. On account of the damp. Columella, however, recommends a mixture of

sand, lime, and marc of olives for the floor; B. i. c. 6.

3. In B. xv. c. 8.

4. This is still done in the Valais, and has the great merit of preserving

the corn from house and field-mice.

5. "Ventilare." On the contrary, the weevil penetrates deep, and does

not keep near the surface.

6. De Re Rust. ii. 21.

7. See B. ii. c. 48.

8. Those keep the best, Fe says, which have a farinaceous per sperm.

Millet has but one coat.

9. This, in reality, would tend to make them turn rancid all the

sooner.

10. And so repel the attacks of insects.

11. This would not only spoil the flavour, but absolutely injure the corn

as well.

12. This also, if practised to any extent, would infallibly spoil

the grain.

13. De Re Rust. i. 57.

14. See B. xix. c. 15: also Columella, De Re Rust. B. ii. c. 10.




74. Chap. 74. (31.)-The Vintage, And The Works Of Autumn.


CHAP. 74. (31.)-THE VINTAGE, AND THE WORKS OF AUTUMN.



In accordance with the ordinary divisions of the year, we

now come to autumn, a period which extends from the setting

of the Lyre to the autumnal equinox, and from that to the

setting of the Vergili and the beginning of winter. In these

intervals, the more important periods are marked by the rising

of the Horse to the people of Attica, in the evening of the day

before[1] the ides of August; upon which day also the Dolphin

sets in Egypt, and, according to Csar, in Italy. On the

eleventh[2] before the calends of September, the star called the

Vintager begins to rise in the morning, according to Csar's

reckoning, and to the people of Assyria; it announces the

ripening of the vintage, a sure sign of which is the change of

colour in the grape. On the fifth[3] before the calends of

September, the Arrow sets in Assyria, and the Etesian winds cease

to blow: on the nones[4] of September, the Vintager rises in

Egypt, and in the morning of that day, Arcturus rises to the

people of Attica: on the same morning, too, the Arrow sets.

On the fifth before[5] the ides of September, according to Csar,

the She-Goat rises in the evening; and one half of Arcturus

becomes visible on the day before[6] the ides of September, being

portentous[7] of boisterous weather for five days, both by land

and sea.



The theory relative to the effects produced by Arcturus, is

stated in the following terms: if showers prevail, it is said, at

the setting of the Dolphin, they will not cease so long as

Arcturus is visible. The departure of the swallows may be







looked upon as the sign of the rising of Arcturus; for if overtaken

by it, they are sure to perish.



On the sixteenth day before[8] the calends of October, the

Ear of Corn, which Virgo holds, rises to the people of Egypt in

the morning, and by this day the Etesian winds have quite

ceased to blow. According to Csar, this constellation rises on

the fourteenth[9] before the calends, and it affords its prognostics

to the Assyrians on the thirteenth. On the eleventh before[10]

the calends of October, the point of junction[11] in Pisces

disappears, and upon the eighth[12] is the autumnal equinox. It is

a remarkable fact, and rarely the case, that Philippus, Callip-

pus, Dositheus, Parmeniscus, Conon,[13] Criton, Democritus, and

Eudoxus, all agree that the She-Goat rises in the morning of

the fourth before[14] the calends of October, and on the third[15]

the Kids. On the sixth day before[16] the nones of October, the

Crown rises in the morning to the people of Attica, and upon

the morning of the fifth,[17] the Charioteer sets. On the fourth

before[18] the nones of October, the Crown, according to Csar's

reckoning, begins to rise, and on the evening of the day after

is the setting of the constellation of the Kids. On the eighth

before[19] the ides of October, according to Csar, the bright

star rises that shines in the Crown, and on the evening of the

sixth before[20] the ides the Vergili, rise. Upon the ides[21] of

October, the Crown has wholly risen. On the seventeenth before[22]

the calends of November, the Sucul rise in the evening,

and on the day before the calends, according to Csar's reckoning,

Arcturus sets, and the Sucul[23] rise with the sun. In the

evening of the fourth day before[24] the nones of November,

Arcturus sets. On the fifth before[25] the ides of November,

Orion's Sword begins to set; and on the third[26] before the

ides the Vergili set.







In this interval of time, the rural operations consist in sowing

rape and turnips, upon the days which have been mentioned on

a previous occasion.[27] The people in the country are of opinion,

that it is not a good plan to sow rape after the departure of the

stork; but for my own part, I am of opinion that it should

be sown after the Vulcanalia, and the early kind at the same

time as panic. After the setting of the Lyre, vetches should

be sown, kidney-beans and hay-grass: it is generally recommended that

this should be done while the moon is in conjunction. This, too, is

the proper time for gathering in the

leaves: it is fair work for one woodman, to fill four baskets[28]

in the day. If the leaves are gathered while the moon is on

the wane, they will not decay; they ought not to be dry,

however, when gathered.



The ancients were of opinion, that the vintage is never ripe

before the equinox; but at the present day I find that it is

gathered in before that period; it will be as well, therefore,

to give the signs and indications by which the proper moment

may be exactly ascertained. The rules for getting in the vintage are

to the following effect: Never gather the grape in a

heated state,[29] or in other words, when the weather is dry, and

before the rains have fallen; nor ought it to be gathered when

covered with dew,-or in other words, when dews have fallen

during the night,-nor yet before the dews have been dispelled

by the sun. Commence the vintage when the bearing-shoots

begin to recline upon the stem, or when, after a grape is removed

from the bunch, the space left empty is not filled up;

this being a sure proof that the berry has ceased to increase in

size. It is of the greatest consequence to the grape, that it

should be gathered while the moon is on the increase. Each

pressing should fill twenty culei,[30] that being the fair

proportion. To fill twenty culei and vats[31] from twenty jugera of

vineyard, a single press will be enough. In pressing the grape,

some persons use a single press-board, but it is a better plan







to employ two, however large the single ones may be. It is the

length of them that is of the greatest consequence, and not the

thickness: if wide, however, they press the fruit all the better.

The ancients used to screw down the press-boards with ropes

and leather thongs, worked by levers. Within the last hundred

years the Greek press has been invented, with thick spiral

grooves running down the[32] stem. To this stem there are

spokes attached, which project like the rays of a star, and by

means of which the stem is made to lift a box filled with stones

-a method that is very highly approved of. It is only within

the last two-and-twenty years, that a plan has been discovered

of employing smaller press-boards, and a less unwieldy press:

to effect this, the height has been reduced, and the stem of the

screw placed in the middle, the whole pressure being concentrated

upon broad planks[33] placed over the grapes, which are

covered also with heavy weights above.



This is the proper time for gathering fruit; the best moment

for doing so is when it has begun to fall through ripeness,

and not from the effects of the weather. This is the season,

too, for extracting the lees of wine, and for boiling defrutum:[34]

this last must be done on a night when there is no moon, or if

it is a full moon, in the day-time. At other times of the year,

it must be done either before the moon has risen, or after it

has set. The grapes employed for this purpose should never

be gathered from a young vine, nor yet from a tree that is

grown in a marshy spot, nor should any grapes be used but

those that are perfectly ripe: the liquor, too, should never be

skimmed with anything but a leaf;[35] for if the vessel should

happen to be touched with wood, the liquor, it is generally

thought, will have a burnt and smoky flavour.



The proper time for the vintage is between the equinox and

the setting of the Vergili, a period of forty-four days. It is

a saying among the growers, that to pitch wine-vessels after

that day, in consequence of the coldness of the weather, is only

so much time lost. Still, however, I have seen, before now,

persons getting in the vintage on the calends of January[36]







even, in consequence of the want of wine-vessels, and putting

the must into receivers,[37] or else pouring the old wine out of

its vessels, to make room for new liquor of a very doubtful

quality. This, however, happens not so often in consequence

of an over-abundant crop, as through carelessness, or else the

avarice which leads people to wait for a rise in prices. The

method that is adopted by the most economical managers, is

to use the produce supplied by each year,[38] and this, too, is

found in the end the most lucrative mode of proceeding. As

for the other details relative to wines, they have been discussed

at sufficient length already;[39] and it has been stated on a

previous occasion,[40] that as soon as the vintage is got in,

the olives

should at once be gathered, with other particulars relative

to the olive after the setting of the Vergili.







1. Twelfth of August.

2. Twenty-second of August.

3. Twenty-eighth of August.

4. Fifth of September.

5. Ninth of September.

6. Twelfth of September.

7. See the Rudens of Plautus, Prol. 1. 69.

8. Sixteenth of September.

9. Eighteenth of September.

10. Twenty-first of September.

11. Commissura.

12. Twenty-fourth of September.

13. Mentioned by Virgil, Eccl. iii. 1. 38, and by Propertius, Eleg. iv. 1.

14. Twenty-eighth of September.

15. Twenty-ninth of September.

16. Second of October.

17. Third of October.

18. Fourth of October.

19. Eighth of October.

20. Tenth of October.

21. Fifteenth of October.

22. Sixteenth of October.

23. Or Hyades, see C. 66.

24. Second of November.

25. Ninth of November.

26. Eleventh of November.

27. In c. 35 of this Book.

28. "Frondarias fiscinas." These must have been baskets of a very large

size. The leaves were used for fodder.

29. This, Fe says. is diametrically opposite to the modern

practice.

30. The "culeus," it is supposed, was of the same measure of capacity as the

"dolium," and held twenty amphor. The "pressura," or "pressing." was

probably the utmost quantity that the pressing vat would hold at one

time.

31. "Lacus."

32. "Mali rugis per cocleas bullantibus." The whole of this passage is

full of difficulties.

33. "Tympana;" literally, "drums."

34. Grape juice boiled down to one half; see B. xiv. c. 9.

35. Virgil mentions this in the Georgics, B i. 295. Of course, it is

nothing but an absurd superstition.

36. First of Jaunary.

37. Piscinis.

38. I. c. before getting in the next year's crop. Of course, he

alludes only to wines of an inferior class, used for domestic

consumption.

39. In B. xiv.

40. In B. xv. c. 3.




75. Chap. 75. (32.)-The Revolutions Of The Moon.


CHAP. 75. (32.)-THE REVOLUTIONS OF THE MOON.



I shall now proceed to add some necessary information re-

lative to the moon, the winds, and certain signs and prognostics, in

order that I may complete the observations I have to

make with reference to the sidereal system. Virgil[1] has even

gone so far, in imitation of Democritus, as to assign certain

operations to certain days[2] of the moon; but my sole object

shall be, as, indeed, it has been throughout this work, to consult

that utility which is based upon a knowledge and

appreciation of general principles.



All vegetable productions are cut, gathered, and housed to

more advantage while the moon is on the wane than while it

is on the increase. Manure must never be touched except

when the moon is on the wane; and land must be manured

more particularly while the moon is in conjunction, or else at

the first quarter. Take care to geld your boars, bulls, rams,

and kids, while the moon is on the wane. Put eggs under the

hen at a new moon. Make your ditches in the night-time,

when the moon is at full. Cover up the roots of trees, while

the moon is at full. Where the soil is humid, put in seed







at the moon's conjunction, and during the four days about

that period. It is generally recommended, too, to give an airing

to corn and the leguminous grains, and to garner them, towards

the end of the moon; to make seed-plots when the moon

is above the horizon; and to tread out the grape, to fell timber, and

to do many other things that have been mentioned

in their respective places, when the moon is below it.



The observation of the moon, in general, as already observed in

the Second Book,[3] is not so very easy, but what I

am about here to state even rustics will be able to comprehend:

so long as the moon is seen in the west, and during the earlier

hours of the night, she will be on the increase, and one half

of her disk will be perceived; but when the moon is seen to

rise at sun-set and opposite to the sun, so that they are both

perceptible at the same moment, she will be at fall. Again,

as often as the moon rises in the east, and does not give her

light in the earlier hours of the night, but shows herself

during a portion of the day, she will be on the wane, and one

half of her only will again be perceptible: when the moon has

ceased to be visible, she is in conjunction, a period known to

us as "interlunium."[4] During the conjunction, the moon will

he above the horizon the same time as the sun, for the whole

of the first day: on the second, she will advance upon the

night ten-twelfths of an hour and one-fourth of a twelfth;[5]

on the third day, the same as on the second, and * * * so on

in succession up to the fifteenth day, the same proportional parts

of an hour being added each day. On the fifteenth day she will

be above the horizon all night, and below it all day. On the

sixteenth, she will remain below the horizon ten-twelfths of

an hour, and one-fourth of a twelfth, at the first hour of the

night, and so on in the same proportion day after day, up to

the period of her conjunction; and thus, the same time which

by remaining under the horizon, she withdraws from the first

part of the night, she will add to the end of the night by

remaining above the horizon. Her revolutions, too, will

occupy thirty days one month, and twenty-nine the next, and

so on alternately. Such is the theory of the revolutions of

the moon.











1. Georg. i. 276.

2. In contradistinction to the two periods of full moon, and change of

the moon, the only epochs in reference to it noticed by Pliny.

3. In Chapters 6. 7, 8 and 11.

4. Or "between moons." The "change of the noon." as we call it

5. 51 1/4 minutes.




76. Chap. 76. (33.)-The Theory Of The Winds.


CHAP. 76. (33.)-THE THEORY OF THE WINDS.



The theory of the winds[1] is of a somewhat more intricate

nature. After observing the quarter in which the sun rises

on any given day, at the sixth[2] hour of the day take your

position in such a manner as to have the point of the sun's

rising on your left; you will then have the south directly

facing you, and the north at your back: a line drawn through

a field in this direction[3] is called the "cardinal"[4] line. The

observer must then turn round, so as to look upon his shadow,

for it will be behind him. Having thus changed his position,

so as to bring the point of the sun's rising on that day to the

right, and that of his setting to the left, it will be the sixth

hour of the day, at the moment when the shadow straight

before him is the shortest. Through the middle of this

shadow, taken lengthwise, a furrow must be traced in the

ground with a hoe, or else a line drawn with ashes, some

twenty feet in length, say; in the middle of this line, or, in

other words, at the tenth foot in it, a small circle must then

be described: to this circle we may give the name of the

"umbilicus," or "navel." That point in the line which lies

on the side of the head of the shadow will be the point from

which the north wind blows. You who are engaged in pruning trees, be

it your care that the incisions made in the wood

do not face this point; nor should the vine-trees[5] or the vines

have this aspect, except in the climates of Africa,[6] Cyren, or

Egypt. When the wind blows, too, from this point, you must

never plough, nor, in fact, attempt any other of the operations

of which we shall have to make mention.[7]



That part of the line which lies between the umbilicus and

the feet of the shadow will look towards the south, and indicate the

point from which the south wind[8] blows, to which,

as already mentioned,[9] the Greeks have given the name of

Notus. When the wind comes from this quarter, you, hasbandman, must

never fell wood or touch the vine. In Italy







this wind is either humid or else of a burning heat, and in

Africa it is accompanied with intense heat[10] and fine clear

weather. In Italy the bearing branches should be trained to

face this quarter, but the incisions made in the trees or vines

when pruned must never face it. Let those be on their guard

against this wind upon the four[11] days at the rising of the

Vergili, who are engaged in planting the olive, as well as

those who are employed in the operations of grafting or inoculating.



It will be as well, too, here to give some advice, in reference

to the climate of Italy, as to certain precautions to be observed

at certain hours of the day. You, woodman, must never lop

the branches in the middle of the day; and you, shepherd,

when you see midday approaching in summer, and the shadow

gradually decreasing, drive your flocks from out of the sun

into some well-shaded spot. When you lead the flocks to pasture in

summer, let them face the west before midday,[12] and

after that time, the east: if this precaution is not adopted,

calamitous results will ensue; the same, too, if the flocks are

led in winter or spring to pastures covered with dew. Nor

must you let them feed with their faces to the north, as already

mentioned;[13] for the wind will either close their eyes or else

make them bleared, and they will (lie of looseness. If you wish

to have females,[14] you should let the dams have their faces towards

the north while being covered.







1. Many of his statements are drawn from Aristotle's Treatise, "De

Mundo."

2. Our mid-day.

3. From due north to due south.

4. Cardo.

5. "Arbusta." The trees on which the vines were trained.

6. I. e. the north-west of Africa; the Roman province so called.

7. In the next Chapter.

8. Ventus Auster.

9. In B. ii. c. 46.

10. Incendia.

11. See B. xvii. c. 2.

12. See B. viii. c. 75.

13. He seems to be in error here, as he has nowhere made mention of this.

14. Aristotle, on the other hand, and Columella, B. vii. c. 3, say "males."

See also B. viii. c. 72, where males are mentioned in connection with the

north-wind. Also the next Chapter in this Book.




77. Chap. 77. (34.)-The Laying Out Of Lands According To The Points Of The Wind.


CHAP. 77. (34.)-THE LAYING OUT OF LANDS ACCORDING TO THE

POINTS OF THE WIND.



We have already stated[1] that the umbilicus should be described

in the middle of the line. Let another line be drawn

transversely through the middle of it, and it will be found to

run from due east to due west; a trench cut through the land

in accordance with this line is known by the name of "decumanus." Two

other lines must then be traced obliquely

across them in the form of the letter X, in such a way as to







run exactly from right and left of the northern point to left

and right of the southern one. All these lines must pass

through the centre of the umbilicus, and all must be of corresponding length, and at equal distances. This method should

always be adopted in laying out land; or if it should be found

necessary to employ it frequently, a plan[2] of it may be made

in wood, sticks of equal length being fixed upon the surface

of a small tambour,[3] but perfectly round. In the method

which I am here explaining, it is necessary to point out one

precaution that must always be observed by those who are

unacquainted with the subject. The point that must he verified first

of all is the south, as that is always the same; but

the sun, it must be remembered, rises every day at a point in

the heavens different to that of his rising on the day before,

so that the east must never be taken as the basis for tracing

the lines.



Having now ascertained the various points of the heavens,

the extremity of the line that is nearest to the north, but lying

to the east of it, will indicate the solstitial rising, or, in other

words, the rising of the sun on the longest day, as also the

point from which the wind Aquilo[4] blows, known to the Greeks

by the name of Boreas. You should plant all trees and vines

facing this point, but take care never to plough, or sow corn,

or plant in seed plots, while this wind is blowing, for it has the

effect of drying up and blasting the roots of the trees while

being transplanted. Be taught in time-one thing is good for

grown trees, another for them while they are but young. Nor

have I forgotten the fact, that it is at this point of the heavens

that the Greeks place the wind, to which they give the name

of Ccias; Aristotle, a man of most extensive learning, who

has assigned to Ccias this position, explains that it is in

consequence of the convexity of the earth, that Aquilo blows in

an opposite direction to the wind called Africus.



The agriculturist, however, has nothing to fear from Aquilo,

in respect to the operations before mentioned, all the year

through; for this wind is softened by the sun in the middle of







the summer, and, changing its name, is known by that of Etesias.[5]

When you feel the cold, then, be on your guard; for,

whatever the noxious effects that are attributed to Aquilo, the

more sensibly will they be felt when the wind blows from due

north. In Asia, Greece, Spain, the coasts of Italy, Campania,

and Apulia, the trees that support the vines, as well as the

vines themselves, should have an aspect towards the north-east.

If you wish to have male produce, let the flock feed in such

a way, that this wind may have the opportunity of fecundating the

male, whose office it is to fecundate the females. The

wind Africus, known to the Greeks by the name of Libs, blows

from the south-west, the opposite point to Aquilo; when

animals, after coupling, turn their heads towards this quarter,[6]

you may be sure that female produce has been conceived.



The third[7]: line from the north, which we have drawn

transversely through the shadow, and called by the name of

"decumanus," will point due east, and from this quarter the wind

Subsolanus blows, by the Greeks called Apeliotes. It is to

this point that, in healthy localities, farm-houses and vineyards

are made to look. This wind is accompanied with soft, gentle

showers; Favonius, however, the wind that blows from due

west, the opposite quarter to it, is of a drier nature; by the

Greeks it is known as Zephyrus. Cato has recommended that

olive-yards should look due west. It is this wind that begins

the spring, and opens the earth; it is moderately cool, but

healthy. As soon as it begins to prevail, it indicates that the

time has arrived for pruning the vine, weeding the corn, planting trees, grafting fruit-trees, and trimming the olive; for its

breezes are productive of the most nutritious effects.



The fourth[8] line from the north, and the one that lies nearest

the south on the eastern side, will indicate the point of the

sun's rising at the winter solstice, and the wind Volturnus,

known by the name of Eurus to the Greeks. This wind is

warm and dry, and beehives and vineyards, in the climates of

Italy and the Gallic provinces, should face this quarter.

Directly opposite to Volturnus, the wind Corus blows; it indicates

the point of the sun's setting at the summer solstice,







and lies on the western side next to the north. By the Greeks

it is called Argestes, and is one of the very coldest of the winds,

which, in fact, is the case with all the winds that blow from the

north; this wind, too, brings hailstorms with it, for which

reason it is necessary to be on our guard against it no less than

the north. If Volturnus begins to blow from a clear quarter

of the heavens, it will not last till night; but if it is

Subsolanus, it will prevail for the greater part of the night.

Whatever the wind that may happen to be blowing, if it is

accompanied by heat, it will be sure to last for several days. The

earth announces the approach of Aquilo, by drying on a sudden,

while on the approach of Auster, the surface becomes moist

without any apparent cause.







1. In the last Chapter

2. Very similar to our compass, but describing only eight points of

the wind, instead of thirty-two.

3. "Tympanum," a drum, similar in shape to our tambourines or else

kettle-drums.

4. See B. ii. c. 46.

5. Or the "summer" wind.

6. Africus, or south-west.

7. Or, according to our mode of expression, the "second," or "next

but one."

8. Or, as we say, the "third."




78. Chap. 78. (35.)-Prognostics Derived From The Sun.


CHAP. 78. (35.)-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM THE SUN.



Having now explained the theory of the winds, it seems to

me the best plan, in order to avoid any repetition, to pass on to

the other signs and prognostics that are indicative of a change

of weather. I find, too, that this is a kind of knowledge that

greatly interested Virgil,[1] for he mentions the fact, that during

the harvest even, he has often seen the winds engage in a

combat that was absolutely ruinous to the improvident agriculturist.

There is a tradition, too, to the effect that Democritus,

already mentioned, when his brother Damasus was getting in

his harvest in extremely hot weather, entreated him

to

leave the rest of the crop, and house with all haste that which

had been cut; and it was only within a very few hours that

his prediction was verified by a most violent storm. On the

other hand, it is particularly recommended never to plant reeds

except when rain is impending, and only to sow corn just before a

shower; we shall therefore briefly touch upon the

prognostics of this description, making enquiry more particularly

into those among them that have been found the most useful.



In the first place, then, we will consider those prognostics

of the weather which are derived from the sun.[2] If the sun is

bright at its rising, and not burning hot, it is indicative of fine







weather, but if pale, it announces wintry weather accompanied

with hail. If the sun is bright and clear when it sets, and

it' it rises with a similar appearance, the more assured of fine

weather may we feel ourselves. If it is hidden in clouds at

its rising, it is indicative of rain, and of wind, when the clouds

are of a reddish colour just before sunrise; if black clouds are

intermingled with the red ones, they betoken rain as well.

When the sun's rays at its rising or setting appear to unite,

rainy weather may be looked for. When the clouds are red at

sunset, they give promise[3] of a fine day on the morrow; but

if, at the sun's rising, the clouds are dispersed in various quarters, some to the south, and some to the north-east, even though

the heavens in the vicinity of the sun may be bright, they are

significant of rain and wind. If at the sun's rising or setting, its rays appear contracted, they announce the approach of

a shower. If it rains at sunset, or if the sun's rays attract the

clouds towards them, it is portentous of stormy weather on the

following day. When the sun, at its rising, does not emit

vivid rays, although there are no clouds surrounding it, rain

may be expected. If before sunrise the clouds collect into

dense masses, they are portentous of a violent storm; but if

they are repelled from the east and travel westward, they indicate

fine weather. When clouds are seen surrounding the

face of the sun, the less the light they leave, the more violent

the tempest will be: but if they form a double circle round

the sun, the storm will be a dreadful one. If this takes place

at sunrise or sunset, and the clouds assume a red hue, the approach

of a most violent storm is announced: and if the clouds

hang over the face of the sun without surrounding it, they

presage wind from the quarter from which they are drifting,

and rain as well, if they come from the south.



If, at its rising, the sun is surrounded with a circle, wind

may be looked for in the quarter in which the circle breaks;

but if it disappears equally throughout, it is indicative of fine

weather. If the sun at its rising throws out its rays afar

through the clouds, and the middle of its disk is clear, there

will be rain; and if its rays are seen before it rises, both rain

and wind as well. If a white circle is seen round the sun at

its setting, there will be a slight storm in the night; but if there







is a mist around it, the storm will be more violent. If the sun

is pale at sunset, there will be wind, and if there is a dark

circle round it, high winds will arise in the quarter in which

the circle breaks.







1. Georg. i. 313, et seq.

"Spe ego, quum flavis messorem induceret arvis

Agricola, et fragili jam stringeret hordea culmo,

Omnia ventorum concurrere prlia vidi."

2. See the Treatise of Theophrastus on the Prognostics of the

Weather.

3. This, Fe observes, is confirmed by experience. Aratus, as translated

by Avienus, states to a similar effect.




79. Chap. 79.-Prognostics Derived From The Moon.


CHAP. 79.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM THE MOON.



The prognostics derived from the moon, assert their right to

occupy our notice in the second place. In Egypt, attention is

paid, more particularly, to the fourth day of the moon. If,

when the moon rises, she shines with a pure bright light, it is

generally supposed that we shall have fine weather; but if she

is red, there will be wind, and if of a swarthy[1] hue, rain. If

upon the fifth day of the moon her horns are obtuse, they are

always indicative of rain, but if sharp and erect, of wind, and

this on the fourth day of the moon more particularly. If her

northern horn is pointed and erect, it portends wind; and if it

is the lower horn that presents this appearance, the wind will

be from the south; if both of them are erect, there will be

high winds in the night. If upon the fourth day of the moon

she is surrounded by a red circle, it is portentous of wind and

rain.



In Varro we find it stated to the following effect:-"If, at

the fourth day of the moon, her horns are erect, there will be

great storms at sea, unless, indeed, she has a circlet[2] around her,

and that circlet unblemished; for by that sign we are informed

that there will be no stormy weather before full moon. If, at

the full moon, one half of her disk is clear, it is indicative of

fine weather, but if it is red, of wind, and if black, of rain. If

a darkness comes over the face of the moon, covered with clouds,

in whatever quarter it breaks, from that quarter wind may be

expected. If a twofold circle surrounds the moon, the storm

will be more violent, and even more so still, if there are three

circles, or if they are black, broken, and disjointed. If the new

moon at her rising has the upper horn obscured, there will be a

prevalence of rainy weather, when she is on the wane; but if

it is the lower horn that is obscured, there will be rain before

full moon; if, again, the moon is darkened in the middle of her

disk, there will be rain when she is at full. If the moon, when

full, has a circle round her, it indicates wind from the quarter

in the circle which is the brightest; but if at her rising the







horns are obtuse, they are portentous of a frightful tempest.

If, when the west wind prevails, the moon does not make her

appearanc before her fourth day, there will be a prevalence

of stormy weather throughout the month. If on the sixteenth

day the moon has a bright, flaming appearance, it is a presage

of violent tempests."



There are eight different epochs of the moon, or periods at

which she makes certain angles of incidence with the sun, and

most persons only notice the prognostics derived from the

moon, according to the places which they occupy between these

angles. The periods of these angles are the third day, the

seventh, the eleventh, the fifteenth, the nineteenth, the

twenty-third, the twenty-seventh, and that of the conjunction.







1. So Virgil, Georg. i. 427.

2. Coronam.




80. Chap. 80.-Prognostics Derived From The Stars.


CHAP. 80.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM THE STARS.



In the third rank must be placed the prognostics derived

from the stars. These bodies are sometimes to be seen shooting

to and fro;[1] when this happens, winds immediately ensue,

in that part of the heavens in which the presage has been

afforded. When the heavens are equally bright throughout

their whole expanse, at the periods previously mentioned,[2] the

ensuing autumn will be fine and cool. If the spring and summer have

passed not without some rain, the autumn will be

fine and settled,[3] and there will be but little wind: when the

autumn is fine, it makes a windy winter. When the brightness of the stars is suddenly obscured, though without[4] clouds

or fog, violent tempests may be expected. If numerous stars

are seen to shoot,[5] leaving a white track behind them, they

presage wind from that quarter.[6] If they follow in quick

succession from the same quarter, the wind will blow steadily,

but if from various quarters of the heavens, the wind will shift

in sudden gusts and squalls. If circles are seen to surround

any of the planets, there will be rain.[7] In the constellation







of Cancer, there are two small stars to be seen, known as the

Aselli,[8] the small space that lies between them being occupied

by a cloudy appearance, which is known as the Manger;[9] when

this cloud is not visible in a clear sky, it is a presage of a

violent storm. If a fog conceals from our view the one of these

stars which lies to the north-east, there will be high winds from

the south; but if it is the star which lies to the south that is so

obscured, then the wind will be from the north-east. The

rainbow, when double, indicates the approach[10] of rain; but

if seen after rain, it gives promise, though by no means a certain one, of fine weather. Circular clouds around some of the

stars are indicative of rain.







1. See B. ii. c. 6 and c. 36.

2. In c. 59 of this Book

3. "Densum." Fe says that this is in general confirmed by experience.

4. This results, Fe says, from the presence of thin, aqueous vapours,

which portend a change in the atmosphere.

5. Fe attributes this phnomenon to hydrosulphuric gas, ignited in the

air by an electric spark. The notion that these meteors are stars, was

prevalent to a very recent period.

6. To which they proceed.

7. This, Fe says, is confirmed by experience.

8. Or "Little Asses."

9. Prsepia.

10. This, as Fe remarks, is consistent with experience.




81. Chap. 81.-Prognostics Derived From Thunder.


CHAP. 81.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM THUNDER.



When, in summer, there is more thunder than lightning,

wind may be expected from that quarter; but if, on the other

hand, there is not so much thunder as lightning, there will be

a fall of rain. When it lightens in a clear sky, there will be

rain, and if there is thunder as well, stormy weather; but if

it lightens from all four quarters of the heavens, there will

be a dreadful tempest. When it lightens from the north-east

only, it portends rain on the following day; but when from

the north, wind may be expected from that quarter. When it

lightens on a clear night from the south, the west, or the

north-west, there will be wind and rain from those quarters.

Thunder[1] in the morning is indicative of wind, and at midday

of rain.







1. This, Fe remarks, appears to be consistent with general

experience.




82. Chap. 82.-Prognostics Derived From Clouds.


CHAP. 82.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM CLOUDS.



When clouds are seen moving in a clear sky, wind may be

expected in the quarter from which they proceed; but if they

accumulate in one spot, as they approach the sun they will

disperse. If the clouds are dispersed by a north-east wind, it

is a presage of high winds, but if by a wind from the south, of

rain. If at sunset the clouds cover the heavens on either side

of the sun, they are indicative of tempest; if they are black

and lowering in the east, they threaten rain in the night, but

if in the west, on the following day. If the clouds spread in







large numbers from the east, like fleeces of wool in appearance,

they indicate a continuance of rain for the next three days.

When the clouds settle on the summits of the mountains,[1] there

will be stormy weather; but if the clouds clear away, it will

be fine. When the clouds are white and lowering, a hailstorm,

generally known as a "white"[2] tempest, is close at

hand. An isolated cloud, however small,[3] though seen in a

clear sky, announces wind and storm.







1. Theophrastus states to a similar effect, and it is confirmed by

the experience of those who live in mountainous countries.

2. We still hear of the "white squalls" of the Mediterranean.

3. "`Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's

hand.'-And it came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven was

black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain."-1 Kings, xviii.

44, 45.




83. Chap. 83.-Prognostics Derived From Mists.


CHAP. 83.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM MISTS.



Mists descending from the summits of mountains, or from the

heavens, or settling in the vallies,[1] give promise of fine weather.







1. The truth of this, Fe says, he has personally experienced in the

vallies of the Alps.




84. Chap. 84.-Prognostics Derived From Fire Kindled By Man.


CHAP. 84.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM FIRE KINDLED BY MAN.



Next to these are the prognostics that are derived from fire

kindled upon the earth.[1] If the flames are pallid, and emit a

murmuring noise, they are considered to presage stormy

weather; and fungi upon the burning wick of the lamp are a

sign of rain.[2] If the flame is spiral and flickering, it is an

indication of wind, and the same is the case when the lamp goes

out of itself, or is lighted with difficulty. So, too, if the snuff

hangs down, and sparks gather upon it, or if the burning coals

adhere[3] to vessels taken from off the fire, or if the fire, when

covered up, sends out hot embers or emits sparks, or if the cinders

gather into a mass upon the hearth, or the coals burn

bright and glowing.







1. Terreni ignes.

2. This, and the other phnomena here mentioned, result, as Fe says,

from the hygrometric state of the air. Virgil mentions this appearance on

the wick of the lamp, Georg. i. 392.

3. Fe thinks that this indicates fine weather rather than

rain, as showing a pure state of the atmosphere.




85. Chap. 85.-Prognostics Derived From Water.


CHAP. 85.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM WATER.



There are certain prognostics, too, that may be derived from







water. If, when the sea is calm, the water ripples in the harbour,

with a hollow, murmuring noise, it is a sign of wind,

and if in winter, of rain as well. If the coasts and shores reecho while the sea is calm, a violent tempest may be expected;

and the same when the sea, though calm, is heard to roar, or

throws up foam and bubbling spray. If sea pulmones[1] are

to be seen floating on the surface, they are portentous of stormy

weather for many days to come. Very frequently, too, the sea

is seen to swell in silence, and more so than when ruffled by an

ordinary breeze; this is an indication that the winds are at

work within its bosom already.







1. Sea-"lungs." See B. ix. c. 71.




86. Chap. 86.-Prognostics Derived From Tempests Themselves.


CHAP. 86.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM TEMPESTS THEMSELVES.



The reverberations, too, of the mountains, and the roaring

of the forests, are indicative of certain phnomena; and the

same is the case when the leaves are seen to quiver,[1] without

a breath of wind, the downy filaments of the poplar or thorn

to float in the air, and feathers to skim along the surface of

the water.[2] In champaign countries, the storm gives notice of

its approach by that peculiar muttering[3] which precedes it;

while the murmuring that is heard in the heavens affords us no

doubtful presage of what is to come.







1. Ludentia.

2. Virgil mentions these indications, Georg. i. 3689.

3. "Suus fragor." The winds, Fe remarks, however violent they may

be, make no noise unless they meet with an obstacle which arrests their

onward progress.




87. Chap. 87.-Prognostics Derived From Aquatic Animals, And Birds.


CHAP. 87.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS,

AND BIRDS.



The animals, too, afford us certain presages; dolphins, for

instance, sporting in a calm sea, announce wind in the quarter

from which they make their appearance.[1] When they throw

up the water in a billowy sea, they announce the approach of

a calm. The loligo,[2] springing out of the water, shell-fish

adhering to various objects, sea-urchins fastening by their

stickles upon the sand, or else burrowing in it, are so many in-







dications of stormy weather: the same, too, when frogs[3] croak

more than usual, or coots[4] make a chattering in the morning.

Divers, too, and ducks, when they clean their feathers with

the bill, announce high winds; which is the case also when the

aquatic birds unite in flocks, cranes make for the interior, and

divers[5] and sea-mews forsake the sea or the creeks. Cranes

when they fly aloft in silence announce fine weather, and so

does the owlet,[6] when it screeches during a shower; but it

is heard in fine weather, it presages a storm. Ravens, too,

when they croak with a sort of gurgling noise and shake their

feathers, give warning of the approach of wind, if their

note is continuous: but if, on the other hand, it is smothered,

and only heard at broken intervals, we may expect rain, accompanied

with high winds. Jackdaws, when they return

late from feeding, give notice of stormy weather, and the same

with the white birds,[7] when they unite in flocks, and the

land birds, when they descend with cries to the water and

besprinkle themselves, the crow more particularly. The

swallow,[8] too, when it skims along the surface of the water,

so near as to ripple it every now and then with its wings, and

the birds that dwell in the trees, when they hide themselves

in their nests, afford similar indications; geese, too, when

they set up a continuous gabbling,[9] at an unusual time, and

the heron,[10] when it stands moping in the middle of the sands.







1. Theophrastus, Cicero, and Plutarch state to a similar effect; and it

is corroborated by the experience of most mariners.

2. The ink-fish; Sepia loligo of Linnus. See B. ix. c. 21.

3. Virgil says the same, Georg. i. 378.

4. "Fulic." See B. x. c. 61, and B. xi. c. 44.

5. Virgil says the same of the diver, or didapper,Georg. i. 361; and Lucan,

Pharsalia, v. 553.

6. Both Theophrastus and lian mention this.

7. It is not known what bird is here alluded to, but Fe is probably

right in suggesting a sort of sea-mew, or gull.

8. This is still considered a prognostic of rain. Fe says that

the swallow descends thus near to the surface to catch the insects on

the wing, which are now disabled from rising by the hygrometric state

of the atmosphere.

9. This is confirmed by experience.

10. On the contrary, Lucan says (Pharsalia, B. v. 1. 549), that on the

approach of rain, the heron soars in the upper regions of the air;

and Virgil says the same, Georg. i. 364.




88. Chap. 88.-Prognostics Derived From Quadrupeds.


CHAP. 88.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM QUADRUPEDS.



Nor, indeed, is it surprising that the aquatic birds, or any

birds, in fact, should have a perception of the impending







changes of the atmosphere. Sheep, however, when they skip

and frisk with their clumsy gambols,[1] afford us similar

prognostics; oxen, when they snuff upwards towards the sky, and

lick[2] themselves against the hair; unclean swine, when they

tear to pieces the trusses of hay that are put for other animals;[3]

bees, when, contrary to their natural habits of industry,

they keep close within the hive; ants, when they hurry

to and fro, or are seen carrying forth their eggs; and

earthworms,[4] emerging from their holes-all these indicate

approaching changes in the weather.







1. Indecor lascivi.

2. Fe suggests that they probably do this to diminish the electric fluid

with which the air is charged.

3. Alienos sibi manipulos.

4. This is confirmed by common experience.




89. Chap. 89.-Prognostics Derived From Plants.


CHAP. 89.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM PLANTS.



It is a well-known fact, that trefoil bristles up, and its leaves

stand erect, upon the approach of a tempest.










90. Chap. 90.-Prognostics Derived From Food.


CHAP. 90.-PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM FOOD.



At our repasts, too, and upon our tables, when we see the

vessels sweat in which the viands are served, and leave marks

upon the side-board,[1] it is an indication that a dreadful storm

is impending.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

two thousand and sixty.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Massurius Sabinus,[2] Cassius

Hemina,[3] Verrius Flaccus,[4] L. Piso,[5] Cornelius Celsus,[6]

Turranius Gracilis,[7] D. Silanus,[8] M.

Varro,[9] Cato the Censor,[10]

Scrofa,[11] the Sasern,[12] father and son, Domitius Calvinus,[13]







Hyginus,[14] Virgil,[15] Trogus,[16] Ovid,[17] Grcinus,[18] Columella,[19]

Tubero,[20] L. Tarutius,[21] who wrote in Greek on the Stars,

Csar[22] the Dictator, who wrote upon the Stars, Sergins

Paulus,[23] Sabinus Fabianus,[24] M. Cicero,[25] Calpurnius Bassus,[26]

Ateius Capito,[27] Mamilius Sura,[28] Attius,[29] who wrote the

Praxidica.



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Hesiod,[30] Theophrastus,[31] Aristotle,[32] Democritus,[33] King Hiero,[34] King Attalus Philometor,[35]

King Archelas,[36] Archytas,[37] Xenophon,[38] Amphilochus[39] of







Athens, Anaxipolis[40] of Thasos, Aristophanes[41] of Miletus,

Apollodorus[42] of Lemnos, Antigonus[43] of Cym, Agathocles[44] of

Chios, Apollonius[45] of Pergamus, Aristander[46] of Athens,

Bacchius[47] of Miletus, Bion[48] of Soli,

Chreas[49] of Athens, Christus[50] of

Athens, Diodorus[51] of Priene, Dion[52] of Colophon,

Epigenes[53] of Rhodes, Euagon[54] of Thasos, Euphronius[55] of

Athens, Androtion[56] who wrote on Agriculture, schrion[57]

who wrote on Agriculture, Lysimachus[58] who wrote on Agriculture,

Dionysius[59] who translated Mago, Diophanes[60] who

made an Epitome from Dionysius, Thales,[61] Eudoxus,[62]

Philippus,[63] Calippus,[64] Dositheus,[65]

Parmeniscus,[66] Meton,[67]

Criton,[68]







nopides,[69] Zenon,[70] Euctemon,[71]

Harpalus,[72]

Hecatus,[73]

Anaximander,[74] Sosigenes,[75] Hipparchus,[76]

Aratus,[77] Zoroaster,[78]

Archibius.[79]









1. "Repositoriis." See B. xix. c. 13, and B. xxx. c. 49.

2. See end of B. vii.

3. See end of B. xii.

4. See end of B. iii.

5. See end of B. ii.

6. See end of B. vii.

7. See end of B. iii.

8. See end of B. xiv.

9. See end of B. ii.

10. See end of B. iii.

11. See end of B. xi.

12. See end of B. x.

13. See end of B. xi.

14. See end of B. iii.

15. See end of B. vii.

16. See end of B. vii.

17. A native of Sulmo, in the country of the Peligni, and one of the

greatest poets of the Augustan age. It is most probable that his "Fasti"

was extensively consulted by Pliny in the compilation of the present Book.

Six Books of the Fasti have come down to us, but the remaininig six have

perished, if, indeed, they were ever written, which has been doutbted by

many of the learned.

18. See end of B. xiv.

19. See end of B. viii.

20. See end of B. ii. It is supposed that there were several writers of

this name, but it is impossible to say with certainty which of them is the

one here referred to. It is probable, however, that it is either L. lius

Tubero, the friend of Cicero, or else Q. lius Tubero, his son, that is

alluded to.

21. L. Tarutius Firmianus, a mathematician and astronomer, and a

friend and contemporary of Cicero and M. Varro. At the request of the

latter, he took the horoscope of Romulus. It is generally supposed that

he was of Etrusean descent.

22. The founder of the imperial dignity at Rome. His Commentaries

are the only work written by him that has come down to us. His treatise on the Stars, which Pliny frequently quotes throughout this Book,

was probably written under the inspection of the astronomer, Sosigenes.

23. See end of B. ii.

24. Nothing is known of this writer. It has been suggested, however,

that he may have been the same person as Papirius Fabianus, mentioned

at the end of B. ii.

25. See end of B. vii.

26. See end of B. xvi.

27. See end of B. iii.

28. See end of B x.

29. L. Accius, or Attius, an early Roman tragic poet, and the son of a

freedman, born about B.C. 170. His tragedies were chiefly imitations from

the Greek. He is highly praised by Cicero. The "Praxidica" here mentioned, is probably the same as the "Pragmatica" spoken of by Aulus

Gellius, B. xx. c. 3. Only some fragments of his Tragedies are left.

30. See end of B. vii.

31. See end of B. iii.

32. See end of B. ii.

33. See end of B. ii.

34. See end of B. viii.

35. See end of B. viii.

36. See end of B. viii.

37. See end of B. viii.

38. See end of B. iv.

39. See end of B. viii.

40. See end of B. ix.

41. See end of B. viii.

42. See end of B. viii.

43. See end of B. viii.

44. See end of B. viii.

45. See end of B. viii.

46. See end of B. viii.

47. See end of B. viii.

48. See end of B. vi.

49. See end of B. viii.

50. See end of B. xiv.

51. See end of B. xv.

52. See end of B. viii.

53. See end of B. ii.

54. See end of B. x.

55. See end of B. viii.

56. See end of B viii.

57. See end of B. viii.

58. See end of B. viii.

59. See end of B. xii.

60. See end of B. viii.

61. Of Miletus, the most ancient of the Greek philosophers, and the

founder of the Ionian school of Philosophy. He is said to have writtten

upon the Solstice and the Equinox, and a work on Astronomy, in verse,

was also attributed to him. It is, however, more generally believed, that

he left no written works behind him, and that those attributed to him

were forgeries.

62. See end of B. ii.

63. An astronomer of Medama, or Medma, in Magna Grcia, and a

disciple of Plato. He is said to have written a treatise on the

winds, and

Plutarch states that he demonstrated the figure of the moon.

64. An astronomer of Cyzicus, and a friend of Aristotle, whom he assisted

in completing the discoveries of Eudoxus. He invented the cycle of

seventy-six years, called after him the Calippie.

65. Of Colonus, a geometrician, to whom Archimedes dedicated his

works on the sphere and cylinder, and on spirals.

66. A grammarian, who is supposed to have written a commentary on

Aratus. Varro, De Ling. Lat. x. 10, speaks of him as making the

distinctive characteristics of words to be eight in number.

67. A famous astronomer of Athens, to whom the discovery of the cycle

of nineteen years has been attributed.

68. There were several learned men of this name, but it appears

impossible to say which of them is the one here alluded to; probably

it is either

the Pythagorean philosopher of g, who wrote on Predestination, or

else the historian, a native of Pieria in Macedonia. There was also an

astronomer of this name, a native of Naxos, and a friend of Eudoxus of

Cnidos.

69. A famous astronomer, a native of Chios. He is said to have claimed

the discovery of the obliquity of the Ecliptic.

70. Probably Zenon of Elea, one of the most famous philosophers of

antiquity. All of his works had perished at a very early period.

71. An Athenian astronomer, the friend and assistant of Meton, about

430 B.C.

72. An astronomer mentioned by Censorinus, as having corrected the

intercalation of Cleostratus. Nothing

further appears to be known of him.

73. For Hecatus of Miletus, see B. iv. For Hecntus of Abdera,

see B. vi.

74. See end of B. iv.

75. See end of B. ii.

76. See end of B. ii.

77. A native of Soli, or else Tarsus, in Cilicia. He was the author of

two Greek astronomical poems which have come down to us. He

flourished about B.C. 270.

78. Nothing can be said of him with any degree of historical certainty.

By the Persians he was called Zerdusht, and was said to have been the

fonder of the Magian religion. There were several works in Greek

bearing his name, but which, no doubt, were forgeries of a later age than

that usually assigned to him.

79. He is mentioned in c. 70 of this Book, as writing a letter to

Antiochus, king of Syria; but nothing further seems to be known to him.




0. > Book Xix. The Nature And Cultivation Of Flax, And An Account Of Various Garden Plants.


BOOK XIX.



THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF FLAX, AND AN

ACCOUNT OF VARIOUS GARDEN PLANTS.










1. Chap. 1.-The Nature Of Flax-Marvellous Facts Relative Thereto.


CHAP. 1.-THE NATURE OF FLAX-MARVELLOUS FACTS RELATIVE

THERETO.



WE have now imparted a knowledge[1] of the constellations

and of the seasons, in a method unattended with difficulty for

the most ignorant even, and free from every doubt; indeed,

to those who understand these matters aright, the face of the

earth contributes in no less a degree to a due appreciation of

the celestial phenomena, than does the science of astronomy

to our improvement in the arts of agriculture.



Many writers have made it their next care to treat of

horticulture; but, for my own part, it does not appear to me

altogether advisable to pass on immediately to that subject, and,

indeed, I am rather surprised to find that some among the

learned, who have either sought the pleasures of knowledge in

these pursuits, or have grounded their celebrity upon them,

have omitted so many particulars in reference thereto; for no

mention do we find in their writings of numerous vegetable

productions, both wild as well as cultivated, many of which

are found, in ordinary life, to be of higher value and of more

extended use to man than the cereals even.



To commence, then, with a production which is of an utility that

is universally recognized, and is employed not only

upon dry land but upon the seas as well, we will turn our attention to flax,[2] a plant which is reproduced from seed, but

which can neither be classed among the cereals nor yet among

the garden plants. What department is there to be found of

active life in which flax is not employed? and in what production of

the earth are there greater marvels[3] revealed to us







than in this? To think that here is a plant which brings

Egypt in close proximity to Italy!-so much so, in fact, that

Galerius[4] and Balbillus,[5] both of them prefects of Egypt, made

the passage to Alexandria from the Straits of Sicily, the one

in six days, the other in five! It was only this very last summer,

that Valerius Marianus, a senator of prtorian rank,

reached Alexandria from Puteoli in eight days, and that, too,

with a very moderate breeze all the time! To think that

here is a plant which brings Gades, situate near the Pillars of

Hercules, within six days of Ostia, Nearer Spain within three,

the province of Gallia Narbonensis within two, and Africa

within one!-this last passage having been made by C. Flavius, when

legatus of Vibius Crispus, the proconsul, and that,

too, with but little or no wind to favour his passage!



What audacity in man! What criminal perverseness! thus

to sow a thing in the ground for the purpose of catching the

winds and the tempests, it being not enough for him, forsooth,

to be borne upon the waves alone! Nay, still more than this,

sails even that are bigger than the very ships themselves will

not suffice for him, and although it takes a whole tree to

make a mast to carry the cross-yards, above those cross-yards

sails upon sails must still be added, with others swelling at the

prow and at the stern as well-so many devices, in fact, to

challenge death! Only to think, in fine, that that which

moves to and fro, as it were, the various countries of the earth,

should spring from a seed so minute, and make its appearance

in a stem so fine, so little elevated above the surface of the

earth! And then, besides, it is not in all its native strength

that it is employed for the purposes of a tissue; no, it must

first be rent asunder, and then tawed and beaten, till it is

reduced to the softness of wool; indeed, it is only by such

violence done to its nature, and prompted by the extreme

audacity of man, and[6] * * * that it is rendered subservient to his

purposes. The inventor of this art has been







already mentioned by us on a more appropriate occasion;[7] not

satisfied that his fellow-men should perish upon land, but

anxious that they should meet their end with no sepulchral

rites to await them, there are no execrations[8] to be found that

can equal his demerits!



It is only in the preceding Book[9] that I was warning the

agriculturist, as he values the grain that is to form our daily

sustenance, to be on his guard against the storm and the tempest; and

yet, here we have man sowing with his own hand,

man racking his invention how best to gather, an object the

only aspirations of which upon the deep are the winds of

heaven! And then, too, as if to let us understand all the better

how highly favoured is this instrument of our punishment,

there is no vegetable production that grows with greater facility;[10]

and, to prove to us that it is in despite of Nature her-

self that it exists, it has the property of scorching[11] the ground

where it is grown, and of deteriorating the quality of the very

soil itself.







1. More particularly in B. xvii. cc. 2 and 3, and B. xviii. cc. 5775.

2. The Linum usitatissimum of Linnus.

3. What would he have said to the application of the powers of steam,

and the electric telegraph?

4. Possibly Galerius Trachalus, Consul A.D. 68, a relation of Galeria

Fundana, the wife of the Emperor Vitellius.

5. Governor of Egypt in the reign of Nero, A.D. 55. He is mentioned

by Seneca, Qust. Nat. B. iv. c. 2, and is supposed to have written a work

on Egypt and his journeys in that Country.

6. Or, as Sillig suggest, "after ill treatment such as this, that it

arrives at the sea." The passage is evidently defective.

7. In B. vii. c. 57. He alludes to Ddalus.

8. He probably has in view here the imprecation uttered by Horace:-

"Illi robur, et s triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci

Commisit pelago ratem."-Odes, i. 3.

At the present day hemp forms a material part in the manufacture of

sails. In addition to flax, the ancients employed broom, rushes, leather,

and various skins of animals for the purpose.

9. In c. 76.

10. On the contrary, as Fe observes, the cultivation of flax is attended

with the greatest difficulties.

11. See B. xvii. c. 7. Virgil says, Georg. i. 77, "Urit enim lini campum

seges"-but in the sense, as Fe remarks, of exhausting,

not scorching the soil.




3. Chap. 3.-The Mode Of Preparing Flax.


CHAP. 3.-THE MODE OF PREPARING FLAX.



In our part of the world the ripeness of flax is usually

ascertained by two signs, the swelling of the seed, and its

assuming a yellowish tint. It is then pulled up by the roots,

made up into small sheaves that will just fill the hand, and

hung to dry in the sun. It is suspended with the roots

upwards the first day, and then for the five following days the

heads of the sheaves are placed, reclining one against the other,

in such a way that the seed which drops out may fall into the

middle. Linseed is employed for various medicinal[1] purposes,

and it is used by the country-people of Italy beyond the Padus

in a certain kind of food, which is remarkable for its sweet-







ness: for this long time past, however, it has only been in general

use for sacrifices offered to the divinities. After the wheat

harvest is over, the stalks of flax are plunged in water that

has been warmed in the sun, and are then submitted to pressure with a

weight; for there is nothing known that is more

light and buoyant than this. When the outer coat is loosened,

it is a sign that the stalks have been sufficiently steeped; after

which[2] they are again turned with the heads downwards, and

left to dry as before in the sun: when thoroughly dried, they

are beaten with a tow-mallet on a stone.



The part that lies nearest to the outer coat is known by the

name of "stuppa;" it is a flax of inferior quality, and is

mostly employed for making the wicks of lamps. This, however,

requires to be combed out with iron hatchels, until the

whole of the outer skin is removed. The inner part presents

numerous varieties of flax, esteemed respectively in proportion to

their whiteness and their softness. Spinning flax is

held to be an honourable[3] employment for men even: the

husks, or outer coats, are employed for heating furnaces and

ovens. There is a certain amount of skill required in hatchelling

flax and dressing it: it is a fair proportion for fifty pounds

in the sheaf to yield fifteen pounds of flax combed out. When

spun into thread, it is rendered additionally supple by being

soaked in water and then beaten out upon a stone; and after

it is woven into a tissue, it is again beaten with heavy maces:

indeed, the more roughly it is treated the better it is.







1. It is the mucilage of the perisperm that is so useful in medicine.

As an article of food, the farina of linseed is held in no esteem whatever.

In times of scarcity, attempts have been made to mix it with flour or meal,

but the result has been found to be heavy and indigestible, and has caused,

it is said, the death even of those who have eaten of it in considerable

quantities.

2. There are various other methods employed of dressing flax at the

present day; but they are all of them long and tedious.

3. And not feminine or servile.




4. Chap. 4.-Linen Made Of Asbestos.


CHAP. 4.-LINEN MADE OF ASBESTOS.



There has been invented also a kind of linen which is

incombustible by flame. It is generally known as "live"[1] linen,

and I have seen, before now, napkins[2] that were made of it







thrown into a blazing fire, in the room where the guests were

at table, and after the stains were burnt out, come forth from

the flames whiter and cleaner than they could possibly have

been rendered by the aid of water. It is from this material

that the corpse-cloths of monarchs are made, to ensure the

separation of the ashes of the body from those of the pile.

This substance grows[3] in the deserts of India,[4] scorched by

the burning rays of the sun: here, where no rain is ever

known to fall, and amid multitudes of deadly serpents, it becomes habituated to resist the action of fire. Rarely to be

found, it presents considerable difficulties in weaving it into a

tissue, in consequence of its shortness; its colour is naturally

red, and it only becomes white through the agency of fire.

By those who find it, it is sold at prices equal to those given

for the finest pearls; by the Greeks it is called "asbestinon,"[5]

a name which indicates its peculiar properties. Anaxilas[6]

makes a statement to the effect that if a tree is surrounded

with linen made of this substance, the noise of the blows

given by the axe will be deadened thereby, and that the tree may

be cut down without their being heard. For these qualities it

is that this linen occupies the very highest rank among all the

kinds that are known.



The next rank is accorded to the tissue known as "byssus,"[7]

an article which is held in the very highest estimation by

females, and is produced in the vicinity of Elis, in Achaia.[8] I

find it stated by some writers that a scruple of this sold for-







merly at four denarii, the same rate, in fact, as gold. The

downy nap of linen, and more particularly that taken from

the sails of sea-going ships, is very extensively employed for

medicinal purposes, and the ashes of it have the same virtues

as spodium.[9] Among the poppies, too,[10] there is a variety which

imparts a remarkable degree of whiteness to fabrics made of

linen.







1. "Vivum."

2. He evidently considers asbestus, or amianthus, to be a vegetable, and

not a mineral production. It is, in reality, a mineral, with long flexible

filaments, of a silky appearance, and is composed of silica, magnesia, and

lime. The wicks of the inextinguishable lamps of the middle ages, the

existence of which was an article of general belief, were said to be made

of asbestus. Paper and lace, even, have been made of it in modern

times.

3. "Nascitur." In the year 1702 there was found near the Nvian

Gate, at Rome, a funereal urn, in which there was a skull, calcined bones,

and other ashes, enclosed in a cloth of asbestus, of a marvellous length.

It is still preserved in the Vatican.

4. On the contrary, it is found in the Higher Alps in the vicinity of

the Glaciers, in Scotland, and in Siberia, even.

5. Signifying "inextinguishable," from a, "not," and sbe/nnumi, "to

extinguish." See B. xxxvii. c. 54.

6. See end of this Book.

7. He evidently alludes to cotton fabrics under this name. See Note 37

to c. 2 of this Book.

8. Pausanias, in his Eliaca, goes so far as to say, that byssus was found

only in Elis, and nowhere else. Judging from the variable temperature

of the climate, it is very doubtful, Fe says, if cotton was grown there

at all. Arrian, Apollonius, and Philostratus say that the tree which produced the byssus had the leaves of the willow, and the shape of the poplar, characteristics which certainly do not apply to the cotton-tree.

9. Impure oxide of metals, collected from the chimneys of smelting-houses.

Fe says that Pliny on this occasion is right.

10. In B. xx. c. 79, he speaks of the "heraclion" poppy, supposed by

some of the commentators to be identical with the one mentioned here.




5. Chap. 5.-At What Period Linen Was First Dyed.


CHAP. 5.-AT WHAT PERIOD LINEN WAS FIRST DYED.



Attempts, too, have even been made to dye linen, and to

make it assume the frivolous colours[1] of our cloths. This was

first done in the fleet of Alexander the Great, while sailing

upon the river Indus; for, upon one occasion, during a battle

that was being fought, his generals and captains distinguished

their vessels by the various tints of their sails, and astounded

the people on the shores by giving their many colours to the

breeze, as it impelled them on. It was with sails of purple,

too, that Cleopatra accompanied M. Antonius to the battle of

Actium, and it was by their aid that she took to flight: such

being the distinguishing mark of the royal ship.







1. "Vestium insaniam."




6. Chap. 6.-At What Period Coloured Awnings Were First Employed In The Theatres.


CHAP. 6.-AT WHAT PERIOD COLOURED AWNINGS WERE FIRST EMPLOYED IN THE THEATRES.



In more recent[1] times linens alone have been employed

for the purpose of affording shade in our theatres; Q. Catulus

having been the first who applied them to this use, on

the occasion of the dedication by him of the Capitol. At a

later period, Lentulus Spinther, it is said, was the first to

spread awnings of fine linen[2] over the theatre, at the celebration of the Games in honour of Apollo. After this, Csar,







when Dictator, covered with a linen awning the whole of the

Roman Forum, as well as the Sacred Way, from his own house

as far as the ascent to the Capitol, a sight, it is said, more wonderful even than the show of gladiators which he then exhibited. At a still later period, and upon the occasion of no

public games, Marcellus, the son of Octavia, sister of Augustus, during his dileship, and in the eleventh consulship of his

uncle, on the * * * day before the calends of August, covered

in the Forum with awnings, his object being to consult the

health of those assembled there for the purposes of litigation

-a vast change, indeed, from the manners prevalent in the

days of Cato the Censor, who expressed a wish that the

Forum was paved with nothing else but sharp pointed stones.



Awnings have been lately extended, too, by the aid of ropes,

over the amphitheatres of the Emperor Nero, dyed azure, like

the heavens, and bespangled all over with stars. Those which

are employed by us to cover the inner court[3] of our houses

are generally red: one reason for employing them is to protect

the moss that grows there from the rays[4] of the sun. In

other respects, white fabrics of linen have always held the

ascendancy in public estimation. Linen, too, was highly

valued as early as the Trojan war; for why else should it not

have figured as much in battles as it; did in shipwrecks? Thus

Homer,[5] we find, bears witness that there were but few among

the warriors of those days who fought with cuirasses[6] on

made of linen; while, as for the rigging of the ships, of

which that writer speaks, it is generally supposed by the more

learned among the commentators, that it was made of this material; for the word "sparta,"[7] which he employs, means

nothing more than the produce of a seed.







1. "Postea." Sillig would reject this word, as being a corruption, and

not consistent with fact, Catulus having lived before the time of Cleopatra. He suggests that the reading should be "Populo Romano ea in the-

atris spectanti umbram fecere." "Linen, too, has provided a shade for

the Roman people, when viewing the spectacles of the theatre." Lucretius,

B. iv l. 73, et seq., speaks of these awnings as being red, yellow, and

iron grey.

2. "Carbasina." Cambric.

3. The cavadium is generally supposed to have been the same as the

"atrium," the large inner apartment, roofed over, with the exception of

an opening in the middle, which was called the "compluvium," or "impluvium," over which the awning here mentioned was stretched. Here

the master of the house received his visitors and clients.

4. White would be much preferable to red for this purpose.

5. Il. ii. ll. 529 and 830.

6. Il. viii. l. 63.

7. Il. ii. l. 135. See B. xxiv. c. 40.




7. Chap. 7. (2.)-The Nature Of Spartum.


CHAP. 7. (2.)-THE NATURE OF SPARTUM.



For the fact is that spartum[1] did not begin to be employed







till many ages after the time of Homer; indeed, not before the

first war that the Carthaginians waged in Spain. This, too,

is a plant that grows spontaneously,[2] and is incapable of being

reproduced by sowing, it being a species of rush, peculiar to a

dry, arid soil, a morbid production confined to a single country

only; for in reality it is a curse to the soil, as there is nothing

whatever that can be sown or grown in its vicinity. There is

a kind of spartum grown in Africa,[3] of a stunted nature, and

quite useless for all practical purposes. It is found in one

portion of the province of Carthage[4] in Nearer Spain, though

not in every part of that; but wherever it is produced, the

mountains, even, are covered all over with it.



This material is employed by the country-people there for

making[5] their beds; with it they kindle their fires also, and

prepare their torches; shoes[6] also, and garments for the shepherds, are made of it. As a food for animals, it is highly injurious,[7] with the sole exception of the tender tops of the

shoots. When wanted for other uses, it is pulled up by the

roots, with considerable labour; the legs of the persons so employed being protected by boots, and their hands with gloves,

the plant being twisted round levers of bone or holm-oak, to

get it up with the greater facility. At the present day it is

gathered in the winter, even; but this work is done with the

least difficulty between the ides of May[8] and those of June,

that being the period at which it is perfectly ripe.







1. The Stipa tenacissima of Linnus; a kind of broom, called "Esparto"

by the Spaniards.

2. Although, as Fe says, this is still the fact, it is a plant which would

readily admit of cultivation. Varro, however, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 23,

speaks of it in conjunction with hemp, flax, and rushes, as being sown.

3. This kind, Fe thinks, may possibly have been identical with the

Spartum Lygeum of Linnus, false esparto, or alvarde.

4. At the present day it is only in the provinces on the Mediterranean

that spartum is found; the other provinces producing nothing but alvarde.

5. It is still used in the southern parts of Spain for the same purposes.

6. The shoes now made of it are known as "espartenas" and "alpargatas."

7. It is not dangerous in itself, but is too tough to be a favourite

article of food with cattle.

8. Fifteenth of May and thirteenth of June.




8. Chap. 8.-The Mode Of Preparing Spartum.


CHAP. 8.-THE MODE OF PREPARING SPARTUM.



When taken up it is made into sheaves, and laid in heaps

for a couple of days, while it retains its life and freshness; on

the third day the sheaves are opened out and spread in the sun







to dry, after which it is again made up into sheaves, and placed

under cover. It is then put to soak in sea-water, this being the

best of all for the purpose, though fresh water will do in case

sea-water cannot be procured: this done, it is again dried in

the sun, and then moistened afresh. If it is wanted for immediate use, it is put in a tub and steeped in warm water, after

which it is placed in an upright position to dry: this being

universally admitted to be the most expeditious method of preparing it. To make it ready for use, it requires to be beaten

out. Articles made of it are proof, more particularly, against

the action of fresh or sea-water; but on dry land, ropes of hemp

are generally preferred. Indeed, we find that spartum receives

nutriment even from being under water, by way of compensation, as it were, for the thirst it has had to endure upon its

native soil.



By nature it is peculiarly well adapted for repairing, and

however old the material may be, it unites very well with new.

The person, indeed, who is desirous duly to appreciate this

marvellous plant, has only to consider the numerous uses to

which, in all parts of the world, it is applied: from it are

made, the rigging of ships, various appliances of mechanism

employed in building, and numerous other articles which supply

the wants of daily life. To suffice for all these requirements,

we find it growing solely on a tract of ground which lies upon

the sea-line of the province of New Carthage, somewhat less

than thirty miles in breadth by one hundred in length. The

expense precludes its being transported to any very considera-

ble distance.










9. Chap. 9.-At What Period Spartum Was First Employed.


CHAP. 9.-AT WHAT PERIOD SPARTUM WAS FIRST EMPLOYED.



The Greeks used formerly to employ the rush for making

ropes; so, at least, we are led to believe, from the name[1] given

by them to that plant; and at a later period they made them,

it is very clear, from the leaves of the palm, and the inner

bark of the linden-tree. It seems to me very probable, too,

that it was from them that the Carthaginians borrowed the

first hint for applying spartum to a similar purpose.







1. The same word, sxoinos, signifying both a "rush" and a "rope."




10. Chap. 10.-The Bulb Eriophorus.


CHAP. 10.-THE BULB ERIOPHORUS.



Theophrastus[1] informs us, that there is a kind of bulb, which







grows on the banks of rivers, and which encloses between the

outer coat and the portion that is eaten a sort of woolly substance, of which felt socks, and other articles of dress, are made;

but, in the copies, those at least which have fallen in my way,

there is no mention made of the country in which it grows, or

of any details in connection with it, beyond the fact that

the name given to it is "eriophoron."[2] As to spartum,

he makes no[3] mention of it whatever, although he has given

the history, with the greatest exactness, of all the known

plants, three hundred and ninety years before our time-a fact

to which I have already[4] alluded on other occasions: from

this it would appear that spartum has come into use since his

day.







1. Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 13. Athenus B. ii., mentions it also.

2. Fe is at a loss to identify this plant, but considers it quite clear

that it is not the same with the Eriophorum augustifolium of Linnus, a

cyperaceous plant, of which the characteristics are totally different. Dodonus, however, was inclined to consider them identical.

3. On the contrary, Theophrastus does mention it, in the Hist. Plant.

B. i. c. 8, and speaks of it as having a bark composed of several tunics or

membranes.

4. In B. xiii. c. 13, and B. xv. c. l.




11. Chap. 11.-Plants Which Spring Up And Grow Without A Root-Plants Which Grow, But Cannot Be Reproduced From Seed.


CHAP. 11.-PLANTS WHICH SPRING UP AND GROW WITHOUT A ROOT-PLANTS WHICH GROW, BUT CANNOT BE REPRODUCED FROM SEED.



As we have here made a beginning of treating of the marvels

of Nature, we shall proceed to examine them in detail; and

among them the very greatest of all, beyond a doubt, is the

fact that any plant should spring up and grow without a root.

Such, for instance, is the vegetable production known as the

truffle;[1] surrounded on every side by earth, it is connected

with it by no fibres, not so much as a single thread even, while

the spot in which it grows, presents neither protuberance nor

cleft to the view. It is found, in fact, in no way adhering to

the earth, but enclosed within an outer coat; so much so, indeed, that though we cannot exactly pronounce it to be composed of earth, we must conclude that it is nothing else but a

callous[2] concretion of the earth.







Truffles generally grow in dry, sandy soils, and spots that

are thickly covered with shrubs; in size they are often larger

than a quince, and are found to weigh as much[3] as a pound.

There are two kinds of them, the one full of sand, and consequently injurious to the teeth, the other free from sand and

all impurities. They are distinguished also by their colour,

which is red or black, and white within; those of Africa[4]

are the most esteemed. Whether the truffle grows gradually,

or whether this blemish of the earth-for it can be looked upon

as nothing else-at once assumes the globular form and magnitude which it presents when found; whether, too, it is possessed of vitality or not, are all of them questions, which, in

my opinion, are not easy to be solved. It decays and rots in

a manner precisely similar to wood.



It is known to me as a fact, that the following circumstance

happened to Lartius Licinius, a person of prtorian rank, while

minister of justice,[5] a few years ago, at Carthage in Spain;

upon biting a truffle, he found a denarius inside, which all but

broke his fore teeth-an evident proof that the truffle is nothing else but an agglomeration of elementary earth. At all

events, it is quite certain that the truffle belongs to those

vegetable productions which spring up spontaneously, and are

incapable of being reproduced from seed.[6]







1. "Tuber." The Tuber cibarium of Linnus, the black truffle; and

probably the grey truffle, the Tuber griseum.

2. This callous secretion of the earth, or corticle, is, as Fe says, a sort

of hymenium, formed of vesicles, which, as they develope themselves, are

found to contain diminutive truffles. Pliny is wrong in saying that the

truffle forms neither cleft nor protuberance, as the exact contrary is the

fact.

3. Haller speaks of truffles weighing as much as fourteen pounds.

Valmont de Bomare speaks of a truffle commonly found in Savoy, which

attains the weight of a pound.

4. Those of Africa are in general similar to those found in Europe, but

there is one peculiar to that country, possibly the same that is mentioned

in the following Chapter under the name of "misy."

5. "Jura reddenti."

6. It is really propagated by spores, included in sinuous chambers in

the interior; but, notwithstanding the attempts that have been made, it

has never yet been cultivated with any degree of success. In c. 13, Pliny

seems to recognize the possibility of its multiplication by germs, where he

says that its formation is attributed by some to water.




12. Chap. 12. (3.)-Misy; Iton; And Geranion.


CHAP. 12. (3.)-MISY; ITON; AND GERANION.



Of a similar nature, too, is the vegetable production known

in the province of Cyrenaica by the name of "misy,"[1] re-







markable for the sweetness of its smell and taste, but more

fleshy than the truffle: the same, too, as to the iton[2] of the

Thracians, and the geranion of the Greeks.







1. Fe takes this to be the Tuber niveum of Desfentaines, the snow-

white truffle. It is globular and somewhat piriform, grows to the size of a

walnut, and sometimes of an orange, and is said to be most delicate eating.

2. These truffles or morels do not appear to have been identified.




13. Chap. 13.-Particulars Connected With The Truffle.


CHAP. 13.-PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE TRUFFLE.



The following peculiarities we find mentioned with reference

to the truffle. When there have been showers in autumn, and

frequent thunder-storms, truffles are produced, thunder[1] contributing more particularly to their developement; they do

not, however, last beyond a year, and are considered the most

delicate eating when gathered in spring. In some places the

formation of them is attributed to water; as at Mytilene,[2] for

instance, where they are never to be found, it is said, unless

the rivers overflow, and bring down the seed from Tiara, that

being the name of a place at which they are produced in the

greatest abundance. The finest truffles of Asia are those found

in the neighbourhood of Lampsacus and Alopeconnesus; the

best in Greece are those of the vicinity of Elis.







1. Juvenal alludes to this absurd notion, Sat. v. l. 116. "The long

wished-for thunder will provide a more ample repast."

2. Theophrastus, as quoted by Athenus, B. ii. peaks of this.




14. Chap. 14.-The Pezica.


CHAP. 14.-THE PEZICA.



Belonging to the mushroom genus, also, there is a species,

known to the Greeks by the name of "pezica,"[1] which grows

without either root or stalk.







1. "Peziza" was a name given by the ancients to a kind of cupuliform

mushroom; in which, however, we cannot recognize the "pezica" of

Pliny. Some writers think that this was the same as the lycoperdon and

geastrum of botanists, our putt-ball: while others take it to be the morel,

the Morchella esculenta, Sprengel in the number. Fe is inclined to be

of opinion that an edible mushroom is meant, but is quite at a loss to

identify it.




15. Chap. 15.-Laserpitium, Laser, And Maspetum.


CHAP. 15.-LASERPITIUM, LASER, AND MASPETUM.



Next to these, laserpitium[1] claims our notice, a very re-







markable plant, known to the Greeks by the name of "silphion," and originally a native of the province of Cyrenaica.

The juice of this plant is called "laser," and it is greatly in

vogue for medicinal as well as other purposes, being sold at

the same rate as silver. For these many years past, however,

it has not been found in Cyrenaica,[2] as the farmers of the

revenue who hold the lands there on lease, have a notion that

it is more profitable to depasture flocks of sheep upon them.

Within the memory of the present generation, a single stalk[3]

is all that has ever been found there, and that was sent as a

curiosity to the Emperor Nero. If it so happen that one of

the flock, while grazing, meets with a growing shoot[4] of it, the

fact is easily ascertained by the following signs; the sheep, after

eating of it, immediately falls asleep, while the goat is seized

with a fit of sneezing.[5] For this long time past, there has

been no other laser imported into this country, but that produced in either Persis, Media, or Armenia, where it grows in

considerable abundance, though much inferior[6] to that of Cyrenaica; and even then it is extensively adulterated with gum,

sacopenium,[7] or pounded beans. I ought the less then to







omit the facts, that in the consulship[8] of C. Valerius and M.

Herennius, there was brought to Rome, from Cyren, for the

public service, thirty pounds' weight of laserpitium, and that

the Dictator Csar, at the beginning of the Civil War, took

from out of the public treasury, besides gold and silver, no

less than fifteen hundred pounds of laserpitium.



We find it stated by the most trustworthy among the Greek

writers,[9] that this plant first made its appearance in the vicinity

of the gardens of the Hesperides and the Greater Syrtis, immediately after the earth had been soaked on a sudden by a

shower as black as pitch. This took place seven years before

the foundation of the city of Cyren, and in the year of Rome

143. The virtues of this remarkable fall of rain extended,

it is said, over no less than four thousand stadia of the African

territory; and upon this soil laserpitium began universally to

grow, a plant that is in general wild and stubborn, and which,

it attempted to be cultivated, will leave the spot where it has

been sown quite desolate and barren. The roots of it are

numerous and thick, the stalk being like that of fennel-giant,

and of similar thickness. The leaves of this plant were known

as "maspetum," and bore a considerable resemblance to parsley;

the seeds of it were foliaceous, and the plant shed its leaves

every year. They used to feed the cattle there upon it; at

first it purged them, but afterwards they would grow fat, the

flesh being improved in flavour in a most surprising degree.

After the fall of the leaf, the people themselves were in the

habit of eating[10] the stalk, either roasted or boiled: from the

drastic effects of this diet the body was purged for the first

forty days, all vicious humours being effectually removed.[11]



The juices of this plant were collected two different ways,

either from the root or from the stalk; in consequence of which

these two varieties of the juice were known by the distinguish-

ing names of "rhizias" and "caulias,"[12] the last being of inferior quality to the other, and very apt to turn putrid. Upon







the root there was a black bark, which was extensively employed for the purposes of adulteration. The juice of the

plant was received in vessels, and mixed there with a layer of

bran; after which, from time to time it was shaken, till it had

reached a proper state of maturity; indeed, if this precaution

was neglected, it was apt to turn putrid. The signs that it

had come to maturity were its colour, its dryness, and the absorption of all humidity.



There are some authors, however, who state that the root of

laserpitium was more than a cubit in length, and that it presented a tuberosity above the surface of the earth. An incision,

they say, was made in this tuberosity, from which a juice would

flow, like milk in appearance; above the tuberosity grew a

stalk, to which they give the name of "magydaris;"[13] the

leaves that grew upon this stalk were of the colour of gold, and,

falling at the rising of the Dog-star, when the south winds

begin to prevail, they acted as seed for the purposes of reproduction. It was from these leaves, too, they say, that laserpitium[14] was produced, the root and the stalk attaining their

full growth in the space of one year. The same writers also

state, that it was the practice to turn up the ground about the

plant, and that it had no such effect as purging the cattle that

were fed upon it; though one result of using it as food was,

that such cattle as were ailing were either cured of their distempers, or else died immediately upon eating of it, a thing,

however, that but rarely happened. The first description,

however, is found to agree more nearly with the silphium

that comes from Persis.







1. Possibly the Ferula asaftida of Linnus; or, according to some, the

Thapsia silphium of Viviani, Flor. Lib. It was a plant common, accord-

ing to ancient writers, to Syria, Armenia, Media, and Liba; but it was

the produce of this last country, probably, that afforded the juice or gum

resin here mentioned as "laser," and so highly esteemed by the ancients, as

forming a component part of their perfumes. Fe is inclined to think

that the Laserpitium here spoken of was the Thapsia silphium, and to

reject the more general opinion that it is identical with the Ferula asaftida. Pliny has probably caused some confusion by blending the description of other writers with that given by Theophrastus, each having

in view a different plant. Indeed, whatever the Laserpitium or Silphium

of other countries may have been, it is not improbable that the odoriferous

plant of Cyrenaica was not identical with the Ferula asaftida of Linnus.

The foliage of the Thapsia silphium is exactly similar to that of the

Laserpitium as depicted on medals of Cyrenaica, still extant. We learn

from Littr, that Dr. Guyon showed, in 1842, to the Acadmie des

Sciences, a plant which the Arabs of Algeria employ as a purgative, and

which they call bonnefa. It is the Thapsia Garganica of Desfontaines,

and is considered by Guyon to be identical with the Silphium of the

ancients.

2. See B. xxii. c. 48. In the "Rudens" of Plautus, the scene of which is

near Cyrene, frequent allusion is made to the growth of laserpitium there,

and the preparation and export of the resin, as forming the staple article

of commerce.

3. Scribonius Largus, who lived in the time of Tiberius, speaks of using

in a prescription laser of Cyrenaica, "if it can be met with;" "si poterit

inveniri."

4. "In spem nascentis."

5. Fe remarks that Pliny has not found this absurd story in any of the

works from which he has compiled his account, but that it is entirely his

own.

6. This was probably the Ferula asaftida of Linnus.

7. See B. xx. c. 75.

8. A.U.C. 661.

9. Fe remarks, that if Pliny here alludes to Theophrastus, Hist.

Plant. B vi. c. 3, he has mistaken his meaning.

10. This, as Fe says, could hardly apply to the Ferula asaftida of

Linnus, the stalk of it being extremely acrid, and the juice fetid in the

highest degree.

11. "Vitia his omnibus." The reading here is probably corrupt.

12. "Root-juice," and "stalk-juice."

13. Poinsinet fancies that this name means "staff of the Magi."

14. Or "laser," these names being indifferently applied to the gum-resin.




16. Chap. 16.-Magydaris.


CHAP. 16.-MAGYDARIS.



There is another[1] variety of this plant, known as "magydaris,"[2] of a more delicate nature, less active in its effects, and

destitute of juice. It grows in the countries adjacent to Syria,[3]

but is not to be found in the regions of Cyrenaica. There







grows also upon Mount Parnassus,[4] in great abundance, a plant

to which some persons give the name of "laserpitium:" by

means of all these varieties, adulterations are effected of a production that is held in the highest esteem for its salutary

qualities and its general usefulness. The chief proofs of its

genuineness consist in its colour, which ought to be slightly

red without, and when broken quite white and transparent

within; the drops of it, too, should melt very rapidly on the

application of spittle. It is extensively employed for medi-

cinal purposes.[5]







1. The whole of this paragraph has been borrowed from Theophrastus,

Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. iii.

2. Sprengel takes this to be the Laserpitium ferulaceum of Linnus,

but Fe thinks it is more than doubtful if the identity can be established.

3. From Theophrastus. Dioscorides says, on the other hand, that it

grows in Libya.

4. From Littr we learn that M. Fraas has suggested that the Magydaris and Laserpitium are possibly the Ferula Tingitana, and the Ptychotis

verticillata of Decandolle, which last he has found upon high mountains in

the lower region of pines, on Mount Parnassus, among others.

5. See B. xxii. cc. 48, 49.




17. Chap. 17.-Madder.


CHAP. 17.-MADDER.



There are two other plants also, which are but little known

to any but the herd of the sordid and avaricious, and this because of the large profits that are derived from them. The

first of these is madder,[1] the employment of which is necessary in dyeing wool and leather. The madder of Italy is the

most esteemed, and that more particularly which is grown in

the suburbs of the City; nearly all our provinces, too, produce it in great abundance.[2] It grows spontaneously, but is

capable of reproduction by sowing, much after the same manner as the fitch. The stem,[3] however, is prickly, and articulated, with five leaves arranged round each joint: the seed is

red. Its medicinal properties we shall have occasion to mention in the appropriate place.[4]







1. The Rubia tinctorum of Linnus.

2. Dioscorides speaks of the madder of Ravenna as being the most

esteemed. It is much cultivated at the present day in the South of

France, Holland, and the Levant. That of Lille enjoys a high reputation.

3. It is covered with bristly hairs, or rather, fine, hooked teeth. There

is, however, no resemblance whatever between it and ervilia or orobus,

the fitch.

4. B. xxiv. c. 56.




18. Chap. 18.-The Radicula.


CHAP. 18.-THE RADICULA.



The plant known to us by the name of "radicula,"[1] is the







second of these productions. It furnishes a juice that is extensively employed in washing wool, and it is quite wonderful

how greatly it contributes to the whiteness and softness of

wool. It may be produced anywhere by cultivation, but that

which grows spontaneously in Asia, and Syria,[2] upon rugged,

rocky sites, is more highly esteemed. That, however, which

is found beyond the Euphrates has the highest repute of all.

The stalk of it is ferulaceous[3] and thin, and is sought by the

inhabitants of those countries as an article of food. It is employed also for making unguents, being boiled up with the

other ingredients, whatever they may happen to be. In leaf

it strongly resembles the olive. The Greeks have given it the

name of "struthion." It blossoms in summer, and is agreeable to the sight, but entirely destitute of smell. It is somewhat

thorny, and has a stalk covered with down. It has an extremely diminutive seed, and a large root, which is cut up and

employed for the purposes already mentioned.







1. Or "little root;" though, in reality, as Pliny says, it had a large

root. Some writers have supposed, that by this name is meant the

Reseda luteola of Linnus, the "dyer's weed" of the moderns; but neither

Pliny nor any of the Greek writers mention the Radicula as being used

for dyeing. Some, again, identify it with the Gypsophila struthium of

Linnus, without sufficient warranty, however, as Fe thinks.

2. The Gypsophila struthium grows in Spain, and possibly, Fe says,

in other countries. Linnus has "pretended," he says, that the Spaniards

still employ the root and stalk of the Gypsophila for the same purposes as

the ancients did the same parts of the Radicula. He himself, however,

though long resident in Spain, had never observed such to be the fact.

3. This description, Fe says, does not correspond with that of the Gypsophila struthium, the stalk of which does not at all resemble that of the

ferulaceous plants, and the leaf is quite different in appearance from that

of the olive.




19. Chap. 19. (4.)-The Pleasures Of The Garden.


CHAP. 19. (4.)-THE PLEASURES OF THE GARDEN.



Having made mention of these productions, it now remains

for us to return to the cultivation of the garden,[1] a subject

recommended by its own intrinsic merits to our notice: for we

find that in remote antiquity, even, there was nothing looked

upon with a greater degree of admiration than the gardens of

the Hesperides,[2] those of the kings Adonis[3] and Alci-







nos,[4] and the Hanging Gardens, whether they were the work of

Semiramis, or whether of Cyrus, king of Assyria, a subject of

which we shall have to speak in another work.[5] The kings of

Rome cultivated their gardens with their own hands; indeed,

it was from his garden that Tarquinius Superbus[6] sent to his

son that cruel and sanguinary message of his. In our laws of

the Twelve Tables, we find the word "villa," or "farm,"

nowhere mentioned; it is the word "hortus" that is always

used with that signification, while the term "heredium" we

find employed for "garden."



There are certain religious impressions, too, that have been

attached to this species of property,[7] and we find that it is in

the garden and the Forum only that statues of satyrs are con-

secrated, as a protection against the evil effects[8] of spells and

sorcery; although in Plautus, we find the gardens spoken

of as being under the tutelage of Venus. At the present day,

under the general name of gardens,[9] we have pleasure-grounds

situate in the very heart of the City, as well as extensive fields

and villas.



Epicurus, that connoisseur[10] in the enjoyments of a life of

ease, was the first to lay out a garden at Athens;[11] up to his

time it had never been thought of, to dwell in the country in

the middle of the town. At Rome, on the other hand, the

garden[12] constituted of itself the poor man's field, and it was

from the garden that the lower classes procured their daily

food-an aliment how guiltlessly obtained! But still, it is a

great deal better, no doubt,[13] to dive into the abysses of the







deep, and to seek each kind of oyster at the risk and peril of

shipwreck, to go searching for birds beyond the river Phasis[14]

even, which, protected as they are by the terrors invented by

fable,[15] are only rendered all the more precious thereby-to go

searching for others, again, in Numidia,[16] and the very sepulchres of thiopia,[17] or else to be battling with wild beasts,

and to get eaten one's self while trying to take a prey which

another person is to eat! And yet, by Hercules! how little do

the productions of the garden cost us in comparison with these!

How more than sufficient for every wish and for every want!-

were it not, indeed, that here, as in every thing else, turn which

way we will, we find the same grounds for our wrath and in-

dignation. We really might be content to allow of fruits being

grown of the most exquisite quality, remarkable, some of

them for their flavour, some for their size, some, again, for the

monstrosities of their growth, morsels all of them forbidden to

the poor![18] We might allow of wines being kept till they are

mellowed with age, or enfeebled by being passed through[19]

cloth strainers, of men, too, however prolonged their lives,

never drinking any but a wine that is still older than themselves! We might allow of luxury devising how best to extract the very aroma, as it were, and marrow[20] only from grain;

of people, too, living upon nothing but the choicest productions

of the confectioner, and upon pastes fashioned in fantastic

shapes: of one kind of bread being prepared for the rich, and

another for the multitude; of the yearly produce of the field

being classified in a descending scale, till it reaches the humble

means of the very lowest classes-but do we not find that

these refined distinctions have been extended to the very

herbs even, and that riches have contrived to establish points

of dissimilarity in articles of food which ordinarily sell for

a single copper coin?[21]



In this department even, humble as it is, we are still des-







tined to find certain productions that are denied to the community at large, and the very cabbages pampered to such an

enormous extent that the poor man's table is not large enough

to hold them. Asparagus, by Nature, was intended to grow

wild,[22] so that each might gather it where he pleased-but,

lo and behold! we find it in the highest state of cultivation,

and Ravenna produces heads that weigh as much as three

pounds[23] even! Alas for the monstrous excess of gluttony!

It would be surprising indeed, for the beasts of the field to be

forbidden the thistle for food, and yet it is a thing forbidden[24]

to the lower classes of the community! These refined distinctions, too, are extended to the very water even, and, thanks

to the mighty influence of money, there are lines of demarcation drawn in the very elements themselves. Some persons

are for drinking ice, others for quaffing snow, and thus is the

curse of the mountain steep turned into an appetizing stimulus for the palate![25] Cold is carefully treasured up for the

summer heats, and man's invention is racked how best to keep

snow freezing in months that are not its own. Some again

there are who first boil the water,[26] and then bring it to the

temperature of winter-indeed, there is nothing that pleases

man in the fashion in which Nature originally made it.



And is it the fact, then, that any herb of the garden is

reared only for the rich man's table? It is so-but still let

no one of the angered populace think of a fresh secession to

Mount Sacer or Mount Aventine; for to a certainty, in the long

run, all-powerful money will bring them back to just the

same position as they were in when it wrought the severance.

For, by Hercules![27] there was not an impost levied at Rome







more grievous than the market-dues, an impost that aroused

the indignation of the populace, who repeatedly appealed with

loud clamours to all the chief men of the state to be relieved from

it. At last they were relieved from this heavy tax upon their

wares; and then it was found that there was no tax more

lucrative, more readily collected, or less obnoxious to the caprices of chance, than the impost that was levied in exchange

for it, in the shape of a property-tax, extended to the poorest

classes: for now the very soil itself is their surety that paid

the tax will be, their means are patent to the light of day, and

the superficial extent of their possessions, whatever the weather

may chance to be, always remains the same.



Cato,[28] we find, speaks in high praise of garden cabbages:-

indeed, it was according to their respective methods of garden

cultivation that the agriculturists of early times were appreciated, and it was immediately concluded that it was a sign of a

woman being a bad and careless manager of her family, when

the kitchen-garden-for this was looked upon as the woman's

department more particularly-was negligently cultivated; as

in such case her only resource was, of course, the shambles or

the herb-market. But cabbages were not held in such high

esteem in those days as now: indeed, all dishes were held in

disrepute which required something else to help them down,

the great object being to economize oil as much as possible;

and as to the flesh-market, so much as a wish even to taste its

wares was visited with censure and reproach. The chief thing

that made them so fond of the garden was the fact that its

produce needs no fire and ensures economy in fuel, and that it

offers resources which are always ready and at hand. These

articles of food, which from their peculiar nature we call

"vinegar-diets,"[29] were found to be easy of digestion, by no

means apt to blunt and overload the senses, and to create but little

craving for bread as an accompaniment. A portion of them which

is still used by us for seasonings, attests that our forefathers used







only to look at home for their resources, and that no Indian

peppers were in request with them, or any of those other condi-

ments which we are in the habit of seeking beyond the seas.

In former times the lower classes of Rome, with their mimic

gardens in their windows, day after day presented the reflex

of the country to the eye, when as yet the multitudes of atrocious burglaries, almost innumerable, had not compelled us to

shut out all such sights with bars to the passers by.



Let the garden, then, have its due meed of honour, and let

not things, because they are common, enjoy for that the less

share of our consideration-and the more so, as we find that

from it men of the very highest rank have been content to

borrow their surnames even; thus in the Valerian family,

for instance, the Lactucini have not thought themselves

disgraced by taking their name from the lettuce. Perhaps,

too, our labours and research may contribute some slight recommendation to this our subject; although, with Virgil,[30] we

are ready to admit how difficult it is, by language however

elevated, to ennoble a subject that is so humble in itself.







1. As Fe observes, by the word "hortus" the Romans understood

solely the "vegetable" or "kitchen-garden;" the pleasure garden being

generally denominated "horti."

2. See B. v. c. 1.

3. A fabulous king of Phnicia, probably, whose story was afterwards

transferred, with considerable embellishments, to the Grecian mythology.

Adonis is supposed to have been identical with the Thammuz of Scripture,

mentioned by Ezekiel, viii. 14, where he speaks of the "women weep-

ing for Thammuz." Hardouin considers him to have been a Syrian deity,

identical with the Moon.

4. Celebrated by Homer, Old. B. vi. and xiii.

5. "Alio volumine." As no further mention is made by Pliny of the

Hanging Gardens of Babylon, it is most probable that he contemplated

giving a description of them in another work, an intention which he did

not live to realize.

6. See further on this subject, c. 53 of the present Book.

7. The reading, "quam rem," seems preferable to "quam ob rem,"

adopted by Sillig.

8. "Effascinationes." The effects of the evil eye.

9. "Hortorum." "Pleasure-gardens."

10. "Otii magister."

11. For the purpose of teaching philosophy there.

12. "Hortus." The "kitchen-garden."

13. Ironically said.

14. He alludes to the pheasant. See B. x. c. 67.

15. He alludes to Colchis, the country of Medea, the scene of the ex-

ploits of Jason and the Argonauts and the land of prodigies and fable.

16. See B. x. cc. 38 and 67. He alludes to "meleagrides," or Guinea-fowls.

17. See B. x. c. 37. He alludes to the birds called "Memnonides."

18. See B. xvii. c. l.

19. See B. xiv. c. 28.

20. He alludes to the finest and most delicate kinds of wheaten flour.

See B. xviii. c. 29.

21. "Uno asse."

22. As "corruda," or "wild asparagus." The Brassica capitata alba of C.

Bauhin, or white cabbage, sometimes attains a weight of ten or twelve pounds.

23. This is an exaggeration, probably.

24. He alludes to tie artichoke, or Cinara cardunculus of the botanists

which bears some resemblance to the common thistle.

25. Martial and Aulus Gellius speak of ice and snow drinks. The latter

must have been very injurious to the stomach.

26. See B. xxxi. c. 23.

27. In this corrupt and otherwise unintelligible pasaage, we have adopted

the proposed emendations of Sillig, who is of opinion that it bears

reference to the abolition of the market-dues, or "portorium," by Augustus Csar, and the substitution of a property tax of one twentieth of the

land, a method of taxation which inflicted greater hardships than the

former one, as it was assessed according to the superficies, not the produce

of the land. His proposed emendations of the text are as follows:"mox

enim certe quabit eos pecunia quos pecunia separaverit. Itaque--ac

minore fortun jure, quam cum hereditate datur pensio ea pauperum; his

in solo sponsor est," &c.

28. De Re Rust. cc. 156, 157. He speaks of it as being eaten either

boiled or raw, but in the latter case with vinegar. Fe thinks that even

then it would make a very acrid and indigestible diet.

29. "Acetaria." Salads.

30. He alludes, no doubt, to the words of Virgil, in Georg. iv. l. 6.

"In tenui labor, at tenuis non gloria--"

though in that instance the poet is speaking of bees.




20. Chap. 20.-The Laying Out Of Garden Ground.


CHAP. 20.-THE LAYING OUT OF GARDEN GROUND.



There is no doubt that the proper plan is, to have the gar-

dens adjoining the country-house; and they should be watered,

more particularly, by a river running in front of it, if possible;

or else with water drawn from a well by the aid of a wheel

or of pumps, or by swipes.[1] The ground should be opened

just as the west winds are beginning to prevail; fourteen

days after which it should be got ready for autumn, and then

before the winter solstice it should have another turning up.

It will require eight men to dig a jugerum, manure being

mixed with the earth to a depth of three feet: the ground,

too, should be divided into plots or beds with raised and

rounded edges, each of which should have a path dug round it,

by means of which access may be afforded to the gardener and

a channel formed for the water needed for irrigation.











1. "Tollenonum haustu." These would be used in the case of well-water; they are still to be seen occasionally in this country, and are very

common on the continent. The wheel is also used for drawing well-water,

and is frequently employed in Barbary and Spain.




21. Chap. 21.-Plants Other Than Grain And Shrubs.


CHAP. 21.-PLANTS OTHER THAN GRAIN AND SHRUBS.



Among the garden plants there are some that recommend

themselves by their bulbs, others by the head, others by the

stalk, others by the leaf, others by both: some, again, are

valued for their seed, others for the outer coat, others for their

membranous tissues, others for their cartilaginous substance,

others for the firmness of their flesh, and others for the fleshy

tunics in which they are enveloped.










22. Chap. 22.-The Natural History Of Twenty Different Kinds Of Plants Which Grow In Gardens-The Proper Methods To Be Followed In Sowing Them Respectively.


CHAP. 22.-THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TWENTY DIFFERENT KINDS OF PLANTS WHICH GROW IN GARDENS-THE PROPER METHODS TO BE FOLLOWED IN SOWING THEM RESPECTIVELY.



Of some plants the fruits[1] are in the earth, of others both in

the earth and out of it, and of others, again, out of the earth

solely. Some of them increase as they lie upon the ground,

gourds and cucumbers, for instance; the same products will

grow also in a hanging position, but they are much heavier

even then than any of the fruits that grow upon trees. The

cucumber, however, is composed of cartilage and a fleshy substance, while the gourd consists of rind and cartilage: this last

is the only vegetable production the outer coat of which becomes of a ligneous nature, when ripe. Radishes, turnips,

and rape are hidden in the earth, and so, too, are elecampane,[2]

skirrets,[3] and parsnips,[4] though in a different manner. There

are some plants, again, to which we shall give the name of

"ferulaceous," anise[5] and mallows, for instance; indeed, we

find it stated by some writers that in Arabia[6] the mallow be-







comes arborescent at the sixth month, so much so, in fact,

as to admit of its being used for walking-sticks. We have

another instance, again, in the mallow-tree of Mauretania,

which is found at Lixus, a city built upon an stuary

there; and at which spot, it is said, were formerly the gardens

of the Hesperides, at a distance of two hundred paces from the

Ocean, near the shrine of Hercules, more ancient, tradition says,

than the temple at Gades. This mallow-tree[7] is twenty feet

in height, and of such a thickness that there is not a person in

existence who is able with his arms to span its girth.



In the class of ferulaceous plants we must include hemp[8]

also. There are some plants, again, to which we must give

the appellation of "fleshy;"[9] such as those spongy[10] productions

which are found growing in damp meadows. As to the fungus,

with a hard, tough flesh, we have already[11] made mention of

it when speaking of wood and trees; and of truffles, which

form another variety, we have but very recently given a de-

scription.[12]







1. By the word "fructus" he no doubt means the edible parts solely,

the leaf, stalk, or root, as the case may be.

2. Fe is surprised to find elecampane figuring among the garden vegetables. It has a powerful odour, is bitter, and promotes expectoration.

Though not used as a vegetable it is still used as a preserve, or sweetmeat,

mixed with sugar. See further on it in c. 29 of this Book.

3. See c. 28 of this Book.

4. See c. 27 of this Book.

5. Fe remarks that this juxtaposition of anise and mallows betokens

the most complete ignorance of botany on the part of our author; there

being few plants which differ more essentially. The field-mallow, or

Malva silvestris of Linnus, or perhaps several varieties of it, are here

referred to. The anise will be further mentioned in c. 74 of this Book.

6. Fe suggests that the plant here mentioned may have been an annual,

probably the Lavatorea arborea of botanists, or some kindred species. In

a few months it is known to attain a height of ten feet or more.

7. In Fe's opinion this tree cannot have belonged to the family of Malvace; the Adansonia and some other exotics of the family, with which

Pliny undoubtedly was not acquainted, being the only ones that attain

these gigantic proportions.

8. There is no resemblance between mallows and hemp, any more than

there is between mallows and anise.

9. "Carnosa."

10. Hardonin thinks that he alludes to the Conferva, or river sponge.

again mentioned in B. xxvii. c. 45. Fe, however, dissents from that

opinion.

11. In B. xvi. cc. 11 and 13, and in cc. 12 and 14 of the present Book.

12. In c. 11 of the present Book.




23. Chap. 23. (5.)-Vegetables Of A Cartilaginous Nature-Cucumbers. Pepones.


CHAP. 23. (5.)-VEGETABLES OF A CARTILAGINOUS NATURE-CUCUMBERS. PEPONES.



The cucumber[1] belongs to the cartilaginous class of plants,

and grows above the ground. It was a wonderful favourite

with the Emperor Tiberius, and, indeed, he was never without

it; for he had raised beds made in frames upon wheels,

by means of which the cucumbers were moved and exposed to

the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn,

and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirror-stone.[2] We find it stated, also, by the ancient Greek writers,







that the cucumber ought to be propagated from seed that has

been steeped[3] a couple of days in milk and honey, this method

having the effect of rendering them all the sweeter to the taste.

The cucumber, while growing, may be trained to take any form

that may be wished: in Italy the cucumbers are green[4] and

very small, while those grown in some of the provinces are

remarkably large, and of a wax colour or black.[5] Those of

Africa, which are also remarkably prolific, are held in high

esteem; the same, too, with the cucumbers of Mesia, which

are by far the largest of all. When the cucumber acquires a

very considerable volume, it is known to us as the "pepo."[6]

Cucumbers when eaten remain on the stomach till the following day, and are very difficult[7] of digestion; still, for all that,

in general they are not considered very unwholesome. By

nature they have a wonderful hatred to oil, and no less affection for water, and this after they have been cut from the stem

even.[8] If water is within a moderate distance of them, they

will creep towards it, while from oil, on the other hand, they

will shrink away: if any obstacle, too, should happen to arrest

their progress, or if they are left to hang, they will grow

curved and crooked. Of these facts we may be satisfactorily

convinced in a single night even, for if a vessel filled with

water is placed at four fingers' distance from a cucumber, it

will be found to have descended to it by the following morning; but if the same is done with oil, it will have assumed the

curved form of a hook by the next day. If hung in a tube

while in blossom, the cucumber will grow to a most surprising







length.[9] It is only of late, too, that a cucumber of entirely

new shape has been produced in Campania, it having just the

form of a quince.[10] It was quite by accident, I am told, that

the first one acquired this shape in growing, and it was from

the seed of this that all the others have been reproduced.

The name given to this variety is "melopepo." These last do

not grow hanging, but assume their round shape as they lie

on the ground. A thing that is very remarkable in them, in

addition to their shape, colour, and smell, is the fact that,

when ripe, although they do not hang from the stem, they

separate from it at the stalk.



Columella[11] has given us a plan of his, by which we may

have cucumbers the whole year round: the largest bramble-bush that can be procured is transplanted to a warm, sunny

spot, and then cut down, about the time of the vernal equinox,

to within a couple of fingers of the ground; a cucumber-seed

is then inserted in the pith of the bramble, and the roots are

well moulded up with fine earth and manure, to withstand the

cold. According to the Greeks, there are three kinds of cu-

cumbers, the Laconian, the Scytalic, and the Botian,[12] the

Laconian being the only one among them that is fond[13] of the

water.



There are some persons who recommend steeping the seed of

the cucumber in the juice of the herb known as the "culix;"[14]

the produce, they say, will be sure to grow without seeds.







1. The Cucumis sativus of Linnus.

2. "Lapis specularis." See B. xxxvi. c. 45. Coiumella, De Re Rust.

B. xi. c. 3, speaks of this mode of ripening cucumber, and the fondness

of the Emperor Tiberius for them.

3. Theophrastus and Columella say the same of the cucumber, and

Palladius of the melon, but there is no ground, probably, for the belief. In

very recent times, however, Fe says, it was the usage to steep the seeds of the

melon in milk. This liquid, in common with any other, would have the

effect of softening the exterior integuments, and thereby facilitating the

germination, but no more.

4. Still known as the "green" or "gherkin" cucumber, and much used,

when young, for pickling.

5. Probably in the sense of a very dark green, for black cucumbers are

a thing unheard of.

6. He is evidently speaking of the pompion, or pumpkin, the Cucurbita

pepo of Linnus: quite distinct from the cucumber.

7. Cucumbers are not difficult of digestion to the extent that Pliny

would have us to believe.

8. Fe says, it is a loss of time to combat such absurd prejudices as

these.

9. This is conformable with modern experience.

10. Fe says that this is the melon, the Cucumis melo of Linnus.

11. B. xi. c. 3. Columella professes to borrow it from the people of

Mendes in Egypt.

12. Theophrastus enumerates these varieties Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.

13. Theophrastus only says that the Laconian cucumber thrives better

with watering than the others.

14. It is impossible to identify this plant, as no ancient writer has given

any description of it: it has been suggested, however, that it may have

been the Plantago Psyllium, or else the Inula pulicaria of Linnus. Of

course there is no truth in the story here told of the effects of its juice

upon the cucumber.




24. Chap. 24.-Gourds.


CHAP. 24.-GOURDS.



Gourds resemble the cucumber in nature, at least in their

manner of growing; they manifest an equal aversion to the

winter, too, while they require constant watering and manure.







Both cucumbers and gourds are sown in holes a foot and

a half[1] deep, between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, at the time of the Parilia[2] more particularly. Some persons, however, think it better to sow gourds after the calends

of March,[3] and cucumbers after the nones,[4] and at the time of

the Quinquatria.[5] The cucumber and the gourd climb upwards in a precisely similar manner, their shoots creeping along

the rough surface of the walls, even to the very roof, so great

is their fondness for elevated spots. They have not sufficient

strength, however, to support themselves without the aid of

stays. Shooting upwards with the greatest rapidity, they soon

cover with their light shade the arched roofs of the houses and

the trellises on which they are trained. From this circum-

stance it is that we find the gourd classified into two primary

kinds, the roof-gourd,[6] and the common gourd, which creeps

upon the ground. In the first kind, from a stalk of remarkable thinness is suspended a fruit of considerable weight and

volume, and quite immoveable by the action of the wind. The

gourd, too, as well as the cucumber, admits of being lengthened

to any extent, by the aid of osier tubes more particularly. Just

after the blossom has fallen off, the plant is introduced into

these tubes, and as it grows it can be made to assume any form

that may be wished, that of a serpent coiled up being the one

that is mostly preferred; if left at liberty to grow as it hangs,

it has been known before now to attain to no less than[7] nine

feet in length.



The cucumber flowers gradually, blossom succeeding blossom; and it adapts itself perfectly well to a dry soil. It is







covered with a white down, which increases in quantity as the

plant gains in size.



The gourd admits of being applied to more numerous uses

than the cucumber even: the stem is used as an article of

food[8] when young, but at a later period it changes its nature,

and its qualities become totally different: of late, gourds have

come to be used in baths for jugs and pitchers, but for this

long time past they have been employed as casks[9] for keeping

wine. The rind is tender while the fruit is green, but still it

is always scraped off when the gourd is used for food. It admits of being eaten several ways, and forms a light and wholesome aliment, and this although it is one of those fruits that

are difficult of digestion by the human stomach, and are apt to

swell out those who eat of them. The seeds which lie nearest

to the neck of the gourd produce fruit of remarkable[10] length,

and so do those which lie at the lower extremities, though not

at all comparable with the others. Those, on the other hand,

which lie in the middle, produce gourds of a round shape, and

those on the sides fruit that are thick and short. The seeds

are dried by being placed in the shade, and when wanted for

sowing, are steeped in water first. The longer and thinner the

gourd is, the more agreeable it is to the palate, and hence it is

that those which have been left to grow hanging are reckoned

the most wholesome: these, too, have fewer seeds than the

others, the hardness of which is apt to render the fruit less

agreeable for eating.



Those which are intended for keeping seed, are usually not cut

before the winter sets in; they are then dried in the smoke,

and are extensively employed for preserving[11] seeds, and

for making other articles for domestic use. There has been a

method discovered, also, of preserving the gourd for table, and

the cucumber as well, till nearly the time when the next year's

crop is ripe; this is done by putting them in brine. We are

assured, too, that if put in a hole dug in a place well shaded







from the sun, with a layer of sand beneath, and dry hay and

earth on the top of them, they may be kept green for a very

long time. We also find wild[12] cucumbers and gourds; and,

indeed, the same is the case with pretty nearly all the garden

plants. These wild varieties, however, are only possessed of

certain medicinal properties, and for this reason we shall defer

any further mention of them till we come to the Books appropriated to that subject.







1. This depth would probably have the effect of retarding, or else utterly

impeding, the growth of the plant.

2. See c. 44 of this Book. The Parilia was a festival celebrated on the

nineteenth of April, the anniversary of the foundation of Rome.

3. First of March.

4. Seventh of March.

5. See B. xviii. c. 56.

6. The "camerarium," and the "plebeium." The former, Fe thinks,

is the Cucurbita longior of Dodonus and J. Bauhin, the long gourd, and

other varieties probably of the calabash gourd, the Cucurbita leucantha of

Duchesne. The latter is probably the Cucurbita pepo and its varieties.

Fe thinks that the name "cucurbita," as employed by Pliny, extends

not only to the gourd, but the citrul or small pumpkin as well.

7. As Fe says, he must be speaking of the fruit here, and not the

plant, which attains a far greater length than nine feet.

8. The young shoots of the gourd, Fe says, would afford an insipid

food, with but little nutriment.

9. The varieties thus employed, Fe says, must have been the Cucurbita

lagenaria of Linnus, and the Cucurbita latior of Dodonus.

10. This is not the fact. The seed produces fruit similar to that from

which it was taken, and no more.

11. The trumpet gourd, the Cucurbita longior of Dodonus, is still employed, Fe says, by gardeners for this purpose.

12. See B. xx. c. 2.




25. Chap. 25.-Rape. Turnips.


CHAP. 25.-RAPE. TURNIPS.



The other plants that are of a cartilaginous nature are concealed, all of them, in the earth. In the number of these is

the rape, a subject upon which it would almost appear that

we have treated[1] at sufficient length already, were it not that

we think it as well to observe, that; medical men call those

which are round "male,"[2] while those which are larger and

more elongated, are known to them as "female" rape: these

last are superior in sweetness, and better for keeping, but by

successive sowings they are changed into male rape.[3]



The same authors, too, have distinguished five different va-

rieties of the turnip:[4] the Corinthian, the Cleonan, the

Liothasian, the Botian, and the one which they have characterized as peculiarly the "green" turnip. The Corinthian

turnip[5] grows to a very large size, and the root is all but out

of the ground; indeed, this is the only kind that, in growing,

shoots upwards, and not as the others do, downwards into the

ground. The Liothasian is known by some persons as the

Thracian turnip;[6] it is the one that stands extreme cold the

best of all. Next to it, the Botian kind is the sweetest; it is remarkable, also, for the roundness of its shape and its shortness;







while the Cleonan turnip,[7] on the other hand, is of an elongated form. Those, in general, which have a thin, smooth leaf,

are the sweetest; while those, again, the leaf of which is rough,

angular, and prickly, have a pungent taste. There is a kind

of wild turnip,[8] also, the leaves of which resemble those of

rocket.[9] At Rome, the highest rank is given to the turnips

of Amiternum,[10] and those of Nursia; after them, those grown

in the neighbourhood of the City[11] are held in the next degree of esteem. The other particulars connected with the

sowing of the turnip have been already mentioned[12] by us when

speaking of the rape.







1. In B. xviii. c. 34.

2. Though borrowed from Theophrastus and the Greek school, this distinction is absurd and unfounded.

3. It is not the fact that the seed of the round kind, after repeated

sowings, will produce long roots. Pliny, however, has probably miscopied

Theophrastus, who says, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4, that this transformation

takes place when the seed is sown very thick. This assertion, however,

is no more founded on truth than that of Pliny.

4. Also from Theophrastus, B. vii. c. 4; though that author is speaking

of radishes, rafani/des, and not turnips.

5. Properly radish.

6. Properly radish.

7. Radish.

8. Properly radish.

9. See B. xx. c. 49. Fe queries whether this radish may not be the

Raphanus raphanistrum of botanists. See B. xviii. c. 34.

10. See B. xviii. c. 35.

11. "Nostratibus." Poinsinet would render this, "Those of my native

country," i. e. the parts beyond the Padus. As Pliny resided at Rome

during the latter part of his life, there can be little doubt but that he alludes to the vicinity of Rome.

12. See B. xviii. c. 34.




26. Chap. 26.-Radishes.


CHAP. 26.-RADISHES.



Radishes are composed of an outer coat and a cartilaginous

substance, and in many instances the rind is found to be thicker

than the bark of some trees. This plant is remarkable for its

pungency, which increases in proportion to the thickness of the

rind: in some cases, too, the surface of it assumes a ligneous

nature. Radishes are flatulent[1] to a remarkable degree, and

are productive of eructations; hence it is that they are looked

upon as an aliment only fit for low-bred people,[2] and this

more particularly if coleworts are eaten directly after them.

If, on the other hand, they are eaten with green olives, the

eructations produced are not so frequent, and less offensive.

In Egypt the radish is held in very high esteem, on account

of the abundance of oil[3] that is extracted from the seed. In-







deed, the people of that country sow this plant in preference

to any other, whenever they can get the opportunity, the profits

derived from it being larger than those obtained from the cultivation of corn, and the imposts levied upon it considerably less:

there is no grain known that yields a larger quantity of oil.



The Greeks have distinguished the radish[4] into three different kinds, according to the characteristic features of the

leaves, there being the crisped leaf, the smooth leaf, and the

wild radish, the leaf of which is smooth, but shorter than that

of the others; it is round also, grows in great abundance, and

spreads like a shrub. The taste of this last variety is acrid,

and it acts medicinally as a strong purgative. In the first kind,

again, there are certain differences, determined by the seed, for

in some varieties the seed is of an inferior quality, and in others

remarkably small: these defects, however, are only found to

exist in the kind that has the crisped leaf.



Our own people, again, have found other varieties of the

radish: there is the Algidan[5] radish, long and transparent, so

called from the place of its growth: another, similar to the

rape in form, is known as the Syrian radish; it is pretty

nearly the mildest and the most tender of them all, and is well

able to bear the winter. The very best of all, however, is the

one that has been brought from Syria, very recently it would

seem, as we do not find it mentioned by any of our writers:

it lasts the whole of the winter through. In addition to these

kinds, there is another, a wild variety, known by the Greeks as

"agrion,"[6] and to the people of Pontus as "armon," while

others, again, call it "leuce,[7] and our people "armoracia;"[8]

it has more leaves, however, than root.



In testing the quality of the radish, it is the stem more par-







ticularly, that is looked at; in those which are acrid to the

taste, for instance, it is rounder and thicker than in the others,

and grooved with long channels, while the leaves are more unsightly to the eye, being angular and covered with prickles.



The radish requires to be sown in a loose, humid soil, has a

great aversion to manure, and is content with a dressing solely

of chaff: so fond is it of the cold, that in Germany it is known

to grow as large as an infant in size.[9] For the spring crop,

it is sown immediately after the ides of February;[10] and then

again about the time of the Vulcanalia,[11] this last crop being

looked upon as the best: many persons, however, sow radishes

in March, April, and September. When the plant begins to

grow to any size, it is considered a good plan to cover up the

leaves successively, and to earth up the root as well; for the

part of it which appears above ground is apt to become hard

and pithy. Aristomachus recommends the leaves to be taken

off in winter, and the roots to be well moulded up, to prevent

the water from accumulating about them; and he says, that

by using these precautions, they will be all the finer in summer.

Some authors have mentioned a plan of making a hole with a

dibble, and covering it at the bottom with a layer of chaff, six

fingers in depth; upon this layer the seed is put, and then

covered over with manure and earth; the result of which is,

according to their statement, that radishes are obtained full as

large as the hole so made. It is salt, however, that conduces

more particularly to their nutriment, and hence it is that they are

often watered with brine; in Egypt, too, the growers sprinkle

nitre[12] over them, the roots being remarkable for their mildness

The salt, too, has the similar effect of removing all their pungency, and when thus treated, they become very similar in

their qualities to radishes that have been boiled: for when

boiled they become sweet and mild, and eat, in fact, just like

turnips.







Medical men recommend raw radishes to be eaten fasting,

with salt, for the purpose[13] of collecting the crude humours of

the viscera; and in this way they prepare them for the action

of emetics. It is said, too, that the juices of this plant are

absolutely necessary for the cure of certain diseases of the

diaphragm; for it has been found by experiment, in Egypt,

that the phthiriasis[14] which attaches itself to the internal parts

of the heart, cannot possibly be eradicated by any other remedy,

the kings of that country having ordered the bodies of the

dead to be opened and examined, for the purpose of enquiring

into certain diseases.



Such, too, is the frivolity of the Greeks, that, in the temple

of Apollo at Delphi, it is said, the radish is so greatly preferred to all other articles of diet, as to be represented there in

gold, the beet in silver, and the rape in lead.-You might be

very sure that Manius Curius was not a native of that country,

the general whom, as we find stated in our Annals, the ambassadors of the Samnites found busy roasting rape at the fire,

when they came to offer him the gold which he so indignantly

refused. Moschion, too, a Greek author, has written a volume

on the subject of the radish. These vegetables are considered

a very useful article of food during the winter; but they are at

all times very injurious to the teeth, as they are apt to wear

them away; at all events, they give a polish to ivory. There

is a great antipathy between the radish[15] and the vine; which

last will shrink from the radish, if sown in its vicinity.







1. This property extends to most of the Crucifer.

2. "Cibus illiberalis."

3. The variety Oleifera of the Raphanus sativus is still cultivated extensively in Egypt and Nubia for the extraction of the oil. The variety

Oleifera of the Brassica napus is also greatly cultivated in Egypt. Fe

suggests that Pliny may possibly confound these two plants under the one

name of "raphanus." It is worthy of remark, too, that the Colza oil, so

much used in France and Belgium for burning in lamps, is expressed from

the seed of the Brassica oleracea, a species of cabbage.

4. The Raphanus sativus of Linnus. This passage, however, down to

"crisped leaf," properly applies to the cabbage, and not the radish, Pliny

having copied the Greek, and taken the word ra/fanos, properly "cabbage,"

to mean "radish;" which in the later Greek writers it sometimes does,

though not in this instance.

5. Mount Algidus was near Tusculum, fifteen miles from Rome. Its

coldness contributed greatly to the goodness of its radishes.

6. Or "wild." Fe suggests that this is the Raphanus rusticanus of

Lobellius, the Cochllearia Armoracia of Linnus, the wild radish, or horse-

radish.

7. Or "white." From the extreme whiteness of the roots.

8. Probably meaning, "radish of Armorica."

9. Fe suggests that he is here speaking of the beet-root, in reality a

native of the north of Europe.

10. Thirteenth of February.

11. The festival of Vulcan, beginning on the twenty-third of August, and

lasting eight days.

12. A natural production, the carbonate of sodium of the chemists, known

from time immemorial by the name of "natron." See B. xxx. c. 46;

from which passage it would appear that it was generally employed for

watering the leguminous plants.

13. Dioscorides recommends these puerilities with the cabbage, and not

the radish; though Celsus gives similar instructions with reference to the

radish.

14. It was a general belief with the ancients that the phthiriasis, or morbus pediculosus, has its seat in the heart. It was supposed also that the

juice of the radish was able, by reason of its supposed subtlety, to penetrate

the coats of that organ.

15. This is said by other ancient authors, in reference to the cabbage and

the vine. See B. xxiv. c. i.




27. Chap. 27.-Parsnips.


CHAP. 27.-PARSNIPS.



The other kinds which have been classified by us among the

cartilaginous plants, are of a more ligneous nature; and it is

a singular thing, that they have, all of them, a strong flavour.

Among these, there is one kind of wild parsnip which grows







spontaneously; by the Greeks it is known as "staphylinos."[1]

Another kind[2] of parsnip is grown either from the root transplanted, or else from seed, at the beginning of spring or in the

autumn; Hyginus says that this may be done in February,

August, September, and October, the ground being dug to a

very considerable depth for the purpose. The parsnip begins

to be fit for eating at the end of a year, but it is still better at

the end of two: it is reckoned more agreeable eating in autumn,

and more particularly if cooked in the saacepan; even then,

however, it preserves its strong pungent flavour, which it is

found quite impossible to get rid of.



The hibiscum[3] differs from the parsnip in being more slender:

it is rejected as a food, but is found useful for its medicinal

properties. There is a fourth kind,[4] also, which bears a similar

degree of resemblance to the parsnip; by our people it is

called the "gallica," while the Greeks, who have distinguished

four varieties of it, give it the name of "daucus." We shall

have further occasion[5] to mention it among the medicinal

plants.







1. There is some doubt as to the identity of this plant, but Fe, after

examining the question, comes to the conclusion that it is the Daucus

Carota, or else Mauritanicus of Linnus, the common carrot, or that of

Mauritania. Sprengel takes it to be either this last or the Daucus guttatus,

a plant commonly found in Greece.

2. The Pastinaca sativa of Linnus, or common parsnip.

3. The marsh-mallow, probably, the Altha officinalis of Linnus.

4. The carrot. The Daucus Carota of Linnus.

5. In B. xxv. c. 64.




28. Chap. 28.-The Skirret.


CHAP. 28.-THE SKIRRET.



The skirret,[1] too, has had its reputation established by the

Emperor Tiberius, who demanded a supply of it every year

from Germany. It is at Gelduba,[2] a fortress situate on the

banks of the Rhenus, that the finest are grown; from which

it would appear that they thrive best in a cold climate.

There is a string running through the whole length of the

skirret, and which is drawn out after it is boiled; but still,

for all this, a considerable proportion of its natural pungency







is retained; indeed, when modified by the addition of honied

wine, this is even thought to impart to dishes an additional

relish. The larger parsnip has also a similar sting inside, but

only when it is a year old. The proper time for sowing the

skirret is in the months of February, March, April, August,

September, and October.







1. "Siser." The Sium sisarum of Linnus. See also B. xx. c. 17.

It is said to have been originally a native of China.

2. It is supposed that this is the same with Gelb, near Neuss, in Germany, mentioned by Tacitus, Hist. B. iv. cc. 26. 32.




29. Chap. 29.-Elecampane.


CHAP. 29.-ELECAMPANE.



Elecampane[1] is not so elongated as the preceding roots, but

more substantial and more pungent; eaten by itself it is very

injurious to the stomach, but when mixed with other condiments of a sweet nature, it is extremely wholesome. There

are several methods employed for modifying[2] its natural

acridity and rendering it agreeable to the palate: thus, for instance, when dried it is reduced to a fine flour, and then mixed

with some sweet liquid or other, or else it is boiled in vinegar

and water, or kept in soak in it; it is also steeped in various

other ways, and then mixed with boiled[3] grape-juice, or else

incorporated with honey or raisins, or dates with plenty of

meat on them. Other persons, again, have a method of preparing it with quinces, or else sorbs or plums, while sometimes

the flavour is varied by the addition of pepper or thyme.



This plant is particularly good for weakness of the stomach,

and it has acquired a high reputation from the circumstance

that Julia[4] Augusta used to eat it daily. The seed of it is

quite useless, as the plant is reproduced, like the reed, from

eyes extracted from the root. This vegetable, as well as the

skirret and the parsnip, is sown both in spring and autumn, a

considerable distance being left between the plants; indeed, for

elecampane, a space of no less than three feet is required, as







it throws out its shoots to a very considerable distance.[5]

Skirrets, however, are best transplanted.







1. The Inula Helenium of Linnus. Its English name is derived from

Inula campana, that under which it is so highly recommended in the precepts of the School of Health at Salerno. See also B. xx. c. 19. At the

present day it is universally rejected as an article of food in any shape.

2. The School of Salerno says that it may be preserved by being pickled

in brine, or else in the juice of rue, which, as Fe remarks, would produce neither more nor less than a veritable poison. The modern Pharmacopias give the receipt of a conserve of elecampane, which, however, is no

longer used.

3. "Defrutum." Must, boiled down to one half.

4. The daughter of Augustus Csar.

5. The same account nearly is given in Columella, De Re Rust. B. xi.

c. 3.




30. Chap. 30.-Bulbs, Squills, And Arum.


CHAP. 30.-BULBS, SQUILLS, AND ARUM.



Next in affinity to these plants are the bulbs,[1] which Cato,

speaking in high terms of those of Megara,[2] recommends most

particularly for cultivation. Among these bulbs, the squill,[3]

we find, occupies the very highest rank, although by nature it

is medicinal, and is employed for imparting an additional sharpness to vinegar:[4] indeed, there is no bulb known that grows

to a larger size than this, or is possessed of a greater degree of

pungency. There are two varieties of it employed in medicine, the male squill, which has white leaves, and the female

squill, with black[5] ones. There is a third kind also, which is

good to eat, and is known as the Epimenidian[6] squill; the leaf

is narrower than in the other kinds, and not so rough. All

the squills have numerous seeds, but they come up much more

quickly if propagated from the offsets that grow on the sides.

To make them attain a still greater size, the large leaves that

grow around them are turned down and covered over with

earth; by which method all the juices are carried to the

heads. Squills grow spontaneously and in vast numbers in

the Baleares and the island of Ebusus, and in the Spanish provinces.[7] The philosopher Pythagoras has written a whole volume on the merits of this plant, setting forth its various me-







dicinal properties; of which we shall have occasion to speak

more at length in the succeeding Book.[8]



The other species of bulbs are distinguished by their colour,

size, and sweetness; indeed, there are some that are eaten raw

even-those found in the Tauric Chersonesus, for instance.

Next to these, the bulbs of Africa are held in the highest

esteem, and after them those of Apulia. The Greeks have

distinguished the following varieties: the bulbine,[9] the seta-

nion,[10] the opition,[11] the cyix,[12] the leucoion,[13] the gilips,[14] and

the sisyrinchion[15]-in the last there is this remarkable feature,

that the extremities of the roots increase in winter, but during

the spring, when the violet appears, they diminish in size and

gradually contract, and then it is that the bulb begins to increase in magnitude.

Among the varieties of the bulb, too, there is the plant

known in Egypt by the name of "aron."[16] In size it is very

nearly as large as the squill, with a leaf like that of lapathum,

and a straight stalk a couple of cubits in length, and the thickness of a walking-stick: the root of it is of a milder nature,

so much so, indeed, as to admit of being eaten raw.



Bulbs are taken up before the spring, for if not, they are

apt to spoil very quickly. It is a sign that they are ripe when

the leaves become dry at the lower extremities. When too

old they are held in disesteem; the same, too, with the long

and the smaller ones; those, on the other hand, which are red

and round are greatly preferred, as also those of the largest

size. In most of them there is a certain degree of pungency

in the upper part, but the middle is sweet. The ancients have







stated that bulbs are reproduced from seed only, but in the

champaign country of Prneste they grow spontaneously,

and they grow to an unlimited extent in the territory of the

Remi.[17]







1. Under this general name were included, probably, garlic, scallions,

chives, and some kinds of onions; but it is quite impossible to identify the

ancient "bulbus" more closely than this.

2. It has been suggested that this was probably the onion, the Allium

cepa of Linnus.

3. The Scilla maritima of Linnus, the sea-squill.

4. See B. xx. c. 39. He might have added that it renders vinegar both

an emetic, and a violent purgative.

5. The leaves are in all cases green, and no other colour; but in one

kind the squam, or bracted leaves, are white, and in another, red.

6. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 11, gives it this name. As

none of the sea-squills can be eaten with impunity, Fe is inclined to

doubt if this really was a squill.

7. They still abound in those places. The Spanish coasts on the Mediterranean, Fe says, as well as the vicinity of Gibraltar, are covered with

them.

8. In c. 39.

9. Fe thinks that this may be the Muscaria botryodes of Miller, Diet. No. I. See also B. xx. c. 41.

10. A variety, probably, of the common onion, the Allium cepa of Linnus.

11. Some variety of the genus Allium, Fe thinks.

12. Fe queries whether this may not be some cyperaceous plant with a

bulbous root.

13. A white bulb, if we may judge from the name. The whole of this

passage is from Theopbrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 11.

14. This has not been identified. The old reading was "gilops," a

name now given to a kind of grass.

15. The Iris sisyrinchium of Linnus.

16. The Arum colocasia of Linnus, held in great esteem by the ancient

Egyptians as a vegetable. The root is not a bulb, but tubercular, and the

leaf bears no resemblance to that of the Lapathum, dock or sorrel. It

was sometimes known by the name of "lotus."

17. In Gaul. See B. iv. c. 31.




31. Chap. 31. (6.)-The Roots, Flowers, And Leaves Of All These Plants. Garden Plants Which Lose Their Leaves.


CHAP. 31. (6.)-THE ROOTS, FLOWERS, AND LEAVES OF ALL THESE

PLANTS. GARDEN PLANTS WHICH LOSE THEIR LEAVES.



Nearly all[1] the garden plants have a single[2] root only,

radishes, beet, parsley, and mallows, for example; it is lapathum, however, that has the longest root of them all, it attaining the length of three cubits even. The root of the wild

kind is smaller and of a humid nature, and when up it will

keep alive for a considerable period. In some of these plants,

however, the roots are fibrous, as we find the case in parsley

and mallows, for instance; in others, again, they are of a

ligneous nature, as in ocimum, for example; and in others they

are fleshy, as in beet, and in saffron even more so. In some,

again, the root is composed of rind and flesh, as in the radish

and the rape; while in others it is jointed, as in hay grass[3].

Those plants which have not a straight root throw out immediately a great number of hairy fibres, orage[4] and blite,[5] for

instance: squills again, bulbs, onions, and garlic never have

any but a vertical root. Among the plants that grow spontaneously, there are some which have more numerous roots

than leaves, spalax,[6] for example, pellitory,[7] and saffron.[8]



Wild thyme, southernwood, turnips, radishes, mint, and rue

blossom all[9] at once; while others, again, shed their blossom

directly they have begun to flower. Ocimum[10] blossoms gradu-







ally, beginning at the lower parts, and hence it is that it is so

very long in blossom: the same is the case, too, with the plant

known as heliotropium.[11] In some plants the flower is white,

in others yellow, and in others purple. The leaves fall first[12]

from the upper part in wild-marjoram and elecampane, and

in rue[13] sometimes, when it has been injured accidentally.

In some plants the leaves are hollow, the onion and the scallion,[14] more particularly.







1. This passage, and indeed nearly the whole of the Chapter, is borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. i. c. 9.

2. Fe thinks that by the expression mono/r)r(iza, Theophrastus means a

root that strikes vertically, instead of spreading.

3. Gramen. See B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xxiv. c. 118.

4. Atriplex. See B. xx. c. 83.

5. See B. xx. c. 93.

6. Poinsinet suggests that this may mean the "mole-plant," a)spa/lac

being the Greek for "mole."

7. "Perdicium." See B. xxii. cc. 19, 20.

8. "Crocus." See B. xxi. c. 17, ct seq.

9. This is not the fact. All these assertions are from Theophrastus,

Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 3.

10. Fe thinks that the ocimum of Pliny is not the basil of the moderns,

the Ocimum basilicum of the naturalists. The account, however, here

given would very well apply to basil.

11. The Heliotropium Europum of botany. See B. xxii. c. 19.

12. These assertions, Fe says, are not consistent with modern experience.

13. See c. 45 of this Book.

14. "Gethyum." The Allium schnoprasum, probably, of botany, the

ciboul or scallion.




32. Chap. 32.-Varieties Of The Onion.


CHAP. 32.-VARIETIES OF THE ONION.



Garlic and onions[1] are invoked by the Egyptians[2], when

taking an oath, in the number of their deities. The Greeks

have many varieties[3] of the onion, the Sardian onion, the

Samothracian, the Alsidenian, the setanian, the schistan, and

the Ascalonian,[4] so called from Ascalon,[5] a city of Juda.

They have, all of them, a pungent smell, which[6] draws tears

from the eyes, those of Cyprus more particularly, and those of

Cnidos the least of all. In all of them the body is composed

of a cartilage of an unctuous[7] nature. The variety known as

the setanian is the smallest of them all, with the exception of

the Tusculan[8]

onion, but it is sweet to the taste. The schistan[9] and the Ascalonian kinds are used for storing. The

schistan onion is left during the winter with the leaves on; in

the spring it is stripped of them, upon which offsets make







their appearance at the same divisions as the leaves; it is to

this circumstance that this variety owes its name. Taking

the hint from this fact, it is recommended to strip the other

kinds of their leaves, to make them bulb all the better, instead

of running to seed.



The Ascalonian onion is of a peculiar nature, being barren

in some measure in the root; hence it is that the Greeks have

recommended it to be reproduced from seed, and not from roots:

the transplanting, too, they say, should be done later in the

spring, at the time the plant germinates, the result being that

it bulbs with all the greater rapidity, and hastens, as it were,

to make up for lost time; great dispatch, however, is requisite

in taking it up, for when ripe it rots with the greatest rapidity. If propagated from roots, it throws out a long stalk,

runs rapidly to seed, and dies.



There are considerable differences, too, in the colour of the

onion; the whitest of all are those grown at Issus and Sardes.

The onions, too, of Crete are held in high esteem, but there

is some doubt whether they are not the same as the Ascalonian

variety; for when grown from seed they produce a fine bulb,

but when planted they throw out a long stalk and run to seed;

in fact, they differ from the Ascalonian kind only in the sweetness of their flavour.



Among us there are two principal varieties known of the

onion; the scallion, employed for seasonings, is one, known to

the Greeks by the name of "gethyon," and by us as the "pallacana;" it is sown in March, April, and May. The other

kind is the bulbed or headed[10] onion; it is sown just after the

autumnal equinox, or else after the west winds have begun to

prevail. The varieties of this last kind, ranged according to

their relative degrees of pungency, are the African onion, the

Gallic, the Tusculan, the Ascalonian, and the Amiternian: the

roundest in shape are the best. The red onion, too, is more

pungent than the white, the stored than the fresh, the raw

than the cooked, and the dried than the preserved. The onion

of Amiternum is cultivated in cold, humid localities, and is

the only one that is reproduced from heads,[11] like garlic, the

other kinds being grown from seed. This last kind yields no







seed in the ensuing summer, but a bulb only, which dries and

keeps; but in the summer after, the contrary is the case, for

seed is produced, while the bulb very quickly spoils. Hence

it is that every year there are two separate sowings, one of

seed for the reproduction of bulbs, and one of bulbs for the

growth of seed; these onions keep best in chaff. The scallion

has hardly any bulb at all, but a long neck only-hence it is

nothing but leaf, and is often cut down, like the leek; for this

reason, too, like the leek, it is grown from seed, and not from

plants.



In addition to these particulars, it is recommended that the

ground intended for sowing onions should be turned up three

times, care being taken to remove all roots and weeds; ten

pounds of seed is the proper proportion for a jugerum. Savory

too, they say, should be mixed with them, the onions being all

the finer for it; the ground, too, should be stubbed and hoed

four times at least, if not oftener. In Italy, the Ascalonian

onion is sown in the month of February. The seed of the

onion is gathered when it begins to turn black, and before it

becomes dry and shrivelled.







1. The Allium cepa of Linnus

2. The inhabitants of Pelusium, more particularly, were devoted to the

worship of the onion. They held it, in common with garlic, in great

aversion as an article of food. At Pelusium there was a temple also in

which the sea-squill was worshipped.

3. With some little variation, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.

4. Supposed to be identical with the Allium Ascalonicum of Linnus,

the clalotte. Pliny is the only writer who mentions the Alsidenian onion.

5. To the Ascalonian onion, the scallion, or ciboul, owes its English name.

6. Owing to the acetic acid which the bulb contains, and which acts on

the membranes of the eye.

7. "Pinguitudinis."

8. Fe queries whether the early white onion of Florence, the smallest

now known among the cultivated kinds, may not possibly be identical with

the setanian, or else the Tusculan, variety.

9. From sxi/zw, to "divide" or "tear off."

10. "Capitata."

11. For this reason, Fe is inclined to regard it as a variety either of

garlic, Allium sativum, or of the chalotte, Allium Ascaionicum of Linnus.




33. Chap. 33.-The Leek.


CHAP. 33.-THE LEEK.



While upon this subject, it will be as well, too, to speak of

the leek,[1] on account of the affinity which it bears to the plants

just mentioned, and more particularly because cut-leek has

recently acquired considerable celebrity from the use made of

it by the Emperor Nero. That prince, to improve his voice,[2]

used to eat leeks and oil every month, upon stated days, abstaining from every other kind of food, and not touching so

much as a morsel of bread even. Leeks are reproduced from

seed, sown just after the autumnal equinox; if they are intended for cutting,[3] the seed is sown thicker than otherwise.

The leeks in the same bed are cut repeatedly, till it is quite exhausted, and they are always kept well manured. If they are







wanted to bulb before being cut, when they have grown to

some size they are transplanted to another bed, the extremities

of the leaves being snipped off without touching the white part,

and the heads stripped of the outer coats. The ancients were

in the habit of placing a stone or potsherd upon the leek, to

make the head grow all the larger, and the same with the

bulbs as well; but at the present day it is the usual practice

to move the fibrous roots gently with the weeding-hook, so that

by being bent they may nourish the plant, and not withdraw

the juices from it.



It is a remarkable fact, that, though the leek stands in need

of manure and a rich soil, it has a particular aversion to water;

and yet its nature depends very much upon the natural properties of the soil. The most esteemed leeks are those grown in

Egypt, and next to them those of Ostia and Aricia.[4] Of the

leek for cutting, there are two varieties: that with grass-green[5] leaves and incisions distinctly traced on them, and the

leek with paler and rounder leaves, the incisions being more

lightly marked. There is a story told, that Mela[6], a member

of the Equestrian order, being accused of mal-administration

by order of the Emperor Tiberius, swallowed in his despair

leek-juice to the amount of three denarii in weight of silver,

and expired upon the spot without the slightest symptom of

pain. It is said, however, that a larger dose than this is productive of no injurious effects whatever[7].







1. The Allium porrum of Linnus.

2. This prejudice in favour of the leek, as Fe remarks, still exists. It

is doubtful, however, whether its mucilage has any beneficial effect upon

the voice. See B. xx. c. 21.

3. Fe says, that it is a practice with many gardeners, more harmful

than beneficial, to cut the leaves of the leek as it grows, their object being

to increase the size of the stalk.

4. Martial, B. xiii. Epig. 19, mentions the leeks of Aricia.

5. Fe thinks that this may be the wild leek, which is commonly found

as a weed in Spain.

6. M. Annus Mela, the brother of L. Seneca the philosopher, and the

father of the poet Lucan.

7. Though Pliny would seem inclined, as Fe says, to credit this story,

the juice of the leek is in reality quite harmless.




34. Chap. 34-Garlic.


CHAP. 34-GARLIC.



Garlic[1] is generally supposed, in the country more particularly, to be a good specific[2] for numerous maladies. The ex-







ternal coat consists of membranes of remarkable fineness, which

are universally discarded when the vegetable is used; the inner

part being formed by the union of several cloves, each of which

has also a separate coat of its own. The flavour of it is pungent, and the more numerous the cloves the more pungent it

is. Like the onion, it imparts an offensive smell to the breath;

but this is not the case when it is cooked. The various species

of garlic are distinguished by the periods at which they ripen:

the early kind becomes fit for use in sixty days. Another distinction, too, is formed by the relative size of the heads. Ulpicum[3], also, generally known to the Greeks as "Cyprian garlic,"

belongs to this class; by some persons it is called "antiscorodon," and in Africa more particularly it holds a high rank

among the dishes of the rural population; it is of a larger size

than ordinary garlic. When beaten up with oil and vinegar,

it is quite surprising what a quantity of creaming foam is produced.



There are some persons who recommend that neither ulpicum

nor garlic should be sown on level ground, but say that they

should be planted in little mounds trenched up, at a distance of

three feet apart. Between each clove, they say, there should

be a distance of four fingers left, and as soon as ever three

leaves are visible, the heads should be hoed; the oftener they

are hoed, the larger the size they will attain. When they

begin to ripen, the stalks are bent downwards, and covered

over with earth, a precaution which effectually prevents them

from running to leaf. In cold soils, it is considered better to

plant them in spring than in autumn.



For the purpose of depriving all these plants of their strong

smell, it is recommended to set them when the moon is below

the horizon, and to take them up when she is in conjunction.

Independently of these precautions, we find Menander, one

of the Greek writers, recommending those who have been

eating garlic to eat immediately afterwards a root of beet







roasted on hot coals; if this is done, he says, the strong smell

of the garlic will be effectually neutralized. Some persons are of

opinion, that the proper period for planting garlic and ulpicum

is between the festival of the Compitalia[4] and that of the

Saturnalia[5]. Garlic, too, can be grown from seed, but it is

very slow, in such case, in coming to maturity; for in the first

year, the head attains the size only of that of a leek, in the

second, it separates into cloves, and only in the third it arrives

at maturity; there are some, however, who think that garlic

grown this way is the best. Garlic should never be allowed

to run to seed, but the stalk should be twisted, to promote its

growth, and to make the head attain a larger size.



If garlic or onions are wanted to keep some time, the heads

should be dipped in salt water, made luke-warm; by doing

this, they will be all the better for keeping, though quite

worthless for reproduction. Some persons content themselves

with hanging them over burning coals, and are of opinion that

this is quite sufficient to prevent them from sprouting: for it

is a well-known fact, that both garlic and onions sprout when

out of the ground, and that after throwing out their thin shoots

they shrivel away to nothing. Some persons are of opinion,

too, that the best way of keeping garlic is by storing it in chaff.

There is a kind[6] of garlic that grows spontaneously in the

fields, and is known by the name of "alum." To preserve

the seeds that are sown there from the remorseless ravages of

the birds, this plant is scattered over the ground, being first

boiled, to prevent it from shooting. As soon as ever they have

eaten of it, the birds become so stupefied as to be taken with

the hand even[7], and if they remain but a few moments only

on the spot, they fall fast asleep. There is a wild garlic,

too, generally known as "bear's" garlic[8]; it has exactly the

smell of millet, with a very small head and large leaves.











1. The Allium sativum of Linnus. It was much eaten by the Roman

soldiers and sailors, and by the field labourers. It is in reference to this

vegetable, "more noxious than hemlock," that Horace exclaims-

"O dura messorum ilia!"

2. It was thought to have the property of neutralizing the venom of

serpents; and though persons who had just eaten of it were not allowed to

enter the Temple of the Mother of the Gods, it was prescribed to those

who wished to be purified and absolved from crimes. It is still held in

considerable esteem in the south of Europe, where, by the lower classes,

great medicinal virtues are ascribed to it.

3. Theophrastus says, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4, that this is the largest

of all the varieties of garlic.

4. Second of May.

5. Seventeenth of December.

6. The Allium oleraceum of Linnus.

7. Fe refuses credence to this story.

8. "Ursinum." The Allium ursinum of Linnus. Instead, however,

of having the comparatively mild smell of millet, its odour is powerful; so

much so, as to impart a strong flavour to the milk of the cows that eat of

it. It is very common, Fe says, in nearly every part of France.




35. Chap. 35. (7.)-The Number Of Days Required For The Re- Spective Plants To Make Their Appearance Above Ground.


CHAP. 35. (7.)-THE NUMBER OF DAYS REQUIRED FOR THE RE-

SPECTIVE PLANTS TO MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE ABOVE GROUND.



Among the garden[1] plants which make their appearance

most speedily above ground, are ocimum, blite, the turnip, and

rocket; for they appear above the surface the third day after

they are sown. Anise, again, comes up on the fourth day, the

lettuce on the fifth, the radish on the sixth, the cucumber and

the gourd on the seventh-the cucumber rather the first of the

two-cresses and mustard on the fifth, beet on the sixth day

in summer and the tenth in winter, orage on the eighth, onions

on the nineteenth or twentieth, and scallions on the tenth

or twelfth. Coriander, again, is more stubborn in its growth,

cunila and wild marjoram do not appear till after the thirtieth

day, and parsley comes up with the greatest difficulty of all,

for at the very earliest it is forty days before it shows itself,

and in most instances as much as fifty.



The age[2], too, of the seed is of some importance in this respect; for fresh seed comes up more rapidly in the case of the

leek, the scallion, the cucumber, and the gourd, while in that

of parsley, beet, cardamum, cunila, wild majoram, and coriander, seed that has been kept for some time is the best.



There is one remarkable circumstance[3] in connection with

the seed of beet; it does not all germinate in the first year, but

some of it in the second, and some in the third even; hence

it is that a considerable quantity of seed produces only a very

moderate crop. Some plants produce only in the year in which

they are set, and some, again, for successive years, parsley,

leeks, and scallions[4] for instance; indeed, these plants, when

once sown, retain their fertility, and produce for many years.











1. The whole nearly of this Chapter is borrowed from Theophrastus,

Hist. Plant. B. vii. cc. 1 and 2. It must be borne in mind that what the

Romans called the "third" day would with us be the "second," and so

on; as in reckoning, they included the day reckoned from, as well as the

day reckoned to.

2. Fe remarks, that most of the observations made in this Chapter are

well founded.

3. This statement, Fe remarks, is entirely a fiction, it being impos-

sible for seed to acquire, the second year, a faculty of germinating which

it has not had in the first.

4. This is true, but, as Fe observes, the instances might be greatly

extended.




36. Chap. 36.-The Nature Of The Various Seeds.


CHAP. 36.-THE NATURE OF THE VARIOUS SEEDS.



In most plants the seed is round, in some oblong; it is broad

and foliaceous in some, orage for instance, while in others it is

narrow and grooved, as in cummin. There are differences,

also, in the colour of seeds, which is either black or white;

while some seeds are woody and hard, in radishes, mustard,

and rape, the seeds are enclosed in pods. In parsley, coriander, anise, fennel, and cummin, the seed has no covering at all,

while in blite, beet, orage, and ocimum, it has an outer coat,

and in the lettuce it is covered with a fine down. There is no

seed more prolific than that of ocimum[1]; it is generally recommended[2] to sow it with the utterance of curses and imprecations, the result being that it grows all the better for it;

the earth, too, is rammed down when it is sown, and prayers

offered that the seed may never come up. The seeds which are

enveloped in an outer coat, are dried with considerable difficulty, that of ocimum more particularly; hence it is that all

these seeds are dried artificially, their fruitfulness being greatly

promoted thereby.



Plants in general come up better when the seed is sown in

heaps than when it is scattered broad-cast: leeks, in fact, and

parsley are generally grown by sowing the seed in little bags[3]:

in the case of parsley, too, a hole is made with the dibble, and a

layer of manure inserted.



All garden plants grow either from seed or from slips, and

some from both seed and suckers, such as rue, wild marjoram,

and ocimum[4], for example-this last being usually cut when

it is a palm in height. Some kinds, again, are reproduced

from both seed and root, as in the case of onions, garlic, and

bulbs, and those other plants of which, though annuals themselves, the roots retain their vitality. In those plants which

grow from the root, it lives for a considerable time, and throws

out offsets, as in bulbs, scallions, and squills for example.-







Others, again, throw out offsets, though not from a bulbous

root, such as parsley and beet, for instance. When the stalk

is cut, with the exception[5] of those which have not a rough

stem, nearly all these plants put forth fresh shoots, a thing that

may be seen in ocimum[6], the radish[7], and the lettuce[8], which

are in daily use among us; indeed, it is generally thought that

the lettuce which is grown from a fresh sprouting, is the

sweetest. The radish, too, is more pleasant eating when the

leaves have been removed before it has begun to run to stalk.

The same is the case, too, with rape; for when the leaves are

taken off, and the roots well covered up with earth, it grows

all the larger for it, and keeps in good preservation till the en-

suing summer.







1. Fe says that basil, the Ocimum basilicum of Linnus, is not meant

here, nor yet the leguminous plant that was known to the Romans by that

name.

2. A singular superstition truly! Theophrastus says the same in

relation to cummin seed.

3. This is not done at the present day.

4. This can hardly be our basil, the Ocimum basilicum, for that plant is

an annual.

5. Fe suggests that Pliny may have intended here to except the Monocotyledons, for otherwise his assertion would be false.

6. This, Fe says, cannot be basil, for when cut it will not shoot again.

7. The radish is not mentioned in the parallel passage by Theophrastus.

8. The lettuce, as Fe remarks, will not shoot again when cut down.




37. Chap. 37.-Plants Of Which There Is But A Single Kind Plants Of Which There Are Several Kinds.


CHAP. 37.-PLANTS OF WHICH THERE IS BUT A SINGLE KIND

PLANTS OF WHICH THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS.



Of ocimum, lapathum, blite, cresses, rocket, orage, coriander,

and anise respectively, there is but a single kind, these plants

being the same everywhere, and no better in one place than

in another. It is the general belief that stolen[1] rue grows

the best, while, on the other hand, bees[2] that have been stolen

will never thrive. Wild mint, cat-mint, endive, and pennyroyal, will grow even without any cultivation. With reference to the plants of which we have already spoken, or shall

have occasion to speak, there are numerous varieties of many

of them, parsley more particularly.



(8.) As to the kind of parsley[3] which grows spontaneously

in moist localities, it is known by the name of "helioselinum;"[4]

it has a single leaf[5] only, and is not rough at the edges. In







dry places, we find growing the kind known as "hipposelinum,"[6] consisting of numerous leaves, similar to helioselinum.

A third variety is the oreoselinum[7], with leaves like those of

hemlock, and a thin, fine, root, the seed being similar to that

of anise, only somewhat smaller.



The differences, again, that are found to exist in cultivated

parsley[8], consist in the comparative density of the leaves, the

crispness or smoothness of their edges, and the thinness or

thickness of the stem, as the case may be: in some kinds, again,

the stem is white, in others purple, and in others mottled.







1. This puerility, Fe observes, runs counter to the more moral adage,

that "stolen goods never prosper."

2. See B. xi. c. 15.

3. This variety, Fe says, is the Apium graveolens of Linnus.

4. Or marsh-parsley.

5. Pliny has mistranslated, or rather misread, the passage of Theo-

phrastus, who says, B. vii. c. 6, that this kind of parsley is mano/fullon,

"thinly covered with leaves," and not mono/fullon, "having a single

leaf." Palladius (In Aprili.) translates it, "molli folio," "with a soft

leaf;" but, though Fe commends this version, it is not correct.

6. Or "horse-parsley." Hardouin takes this to be Macedonian parsley,

the Bubon Macedonicum of Linnus. Fe, following C. Bauhin and

Sprengel, is inclined to identify it with Macerona, the Smyrnium olusatrum of Linnus.

7. Or "mountain-parsley." Probably the Athamanta oreoselinum of

Linnus. Some commentators, however, take it to be the Laserpitium

formosum of Wilidenow. Sprengel identifies it with the Selinum oreoselinum of Linnus.

8. The Apium petroselinum, probably, of Linnus.




38. Chap. 38.-The Nature And Varieties Of Twenty-Three Garden Plants. The Lettuce; Its Different Varieties.


CHAP. 38.-THE NATURE AND VARIETIES OF TWENTY-THREE

GARDEN PLANTS. THE LETTUCE; ITS DIFFERENT VARIETIES.



The Greeks have distinguished three varieties of the lettuce[1];

the first with a stalk so large, that small garden gates[2], it is

said, have been made of it: the leaf of this lettuce is somewhat larger than that of the herbaceous, or green lettuce, but

extremely narrow, the nutriment seeming to be expended on

the other parts of the plant. The second kind is that with a

rounded[3] stalk; and the third is the low, squat lettuce[4] generally known as the Laconian lettuce.







Some persons[5] have made distinctions in reference to their

respective colours, and the times for sowing them: the black

lettuce is sown in the month of January, the white in March,

and the red in April; and they are fit for transplanting, all of

them, at the end of a couple of months. Those, again, who

have pursued these enquiries even further than this, have distinguished a still greater number of varieties of them-the

purple, the crisped, the Cappadocian,[6] and the Greek lettuce,

this last having a longer leaf than the rest, and a broad stalk:

in addition to which, there is one with a long, narrow leaf,

very similar to endive in appearance. The most inferior kind,

however, of all, is the one to which the Greeks, censuring it

for its bitterness, have given the name of "picris."[7] There is

still another variety, a kind of white lettuce, called "meconis,"[8]

a name which it derives from the abundance of milk, of a

narcotic quality, which it produces; though, in fact, it is generally thought that they are all of them of a soporific tendency.

In former times, this last was the only kind of lettuce that

was held in any esteem[9] in Italy, the name "lactuca" having

been given it on account of the milk[10] which it contains.



The purple kind, with a very large root, is generally known

as the Ccilian[11] lettuce; while the round one, with an extremely diminutive root and broad leaves, is known to some

persons as the "astytis,"[12] and to others as the "eunychion,"

it having the effect, in a remarkable degree, of quenching the

amorous propensities. Indeed, they are, all of them, possessed

of cooling and refreshing properties, for which reason it is,

that they are so highly esteemed in summer; they have the

effect, also, of removing from the stomach distaste for food,

and of promoting the appetite. At all events, we find it

stated, that the late Emperor Augustus, when ill, was saved







on one occasion[13], thanks to the skill of his physician, Musa[14],

by eating lettuces, a food which the excessive scruples of his

former physician, C. milius, had forbidden him. At the

present day, however, lettuces have risen into such high estimation, that a method has been discovered even of preserving

them during the months in which they are out of season, by

keeping them in oxymel[15]. It is generally supposed, also,

that lettuces have the effect of making blood.



In addition to the above varieties, there is another kind of

lettuce known as the "goats' lettuce,"[16] of which we shall have

occasion to make further mention when we come to the medicinal plants: at the moment, too, that I am writing this, a

new species of cultivated lettuce has been introduced, known

as the Cilician lettuce, and held in very considerable esteem;

the leaf of it is similar to that of the Cappadocian lettuce,

except that it is crisped, and somewhat larger.







1. The Lactuca sativa of Linnus. This account of the Greek varieties

is from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.

2. This, no doubt, is fabulous, and on a par with the Greek tradition

that Adonis concealed himself under the leaves of a lettuce, when he was

attacked and killed by the wild boar. The Coss, or Roman, lettuce, as

Fe remarks, is the largest of all, and that never exceeds fifteen to twenty

inches in height, leaves, stalk and all.

3. This would seem not to be a distinct variety, as the rounded stalk is

a characteristic of them all.

4. "Sessile." A cabbage-lettuce, probably; though Hardouin dissents

from that opinion.

5. Columella more particularly. There are still varieties known respec-

tively as the black, brown, white, purple, red, and blood-red lettuce.

6. Martial, 13. v. Epig. 79, gives to this lettuce the epithet of "vile."

7. It has been suggested that this may have been wild endive, the Cichoreum intubus of botanists.

8. Or "poppy-lettuce." See B. xx. c. 26. The Lactuca virosa, probably, of modern botany, the milky juice of which strongly resembles

opium in its effects.

9. For its medicinal qualities, most probably.

10. "Lac."

11. So called, Columella informs us, from Ccilius Metellus, Consul

A.U.C. 503.

12. Meaning "antaphrodisiac." The other name has a kindred meaning.

13. A.U.C. 731.

14. Antonius Musa. For this service he received a large sum of money,

and the permission to wear a gold ring, and a statue was erected by public subscription in honour of him, near that of sculapius. He is supposed to be the person described by Virgil in the neid, B. xii. 1. 390, et seq., under the name of lapis. See B. xxix. c. 5 of this work.

15. Vinegar and honey; a mixture very ill-adapted, as Fe observes, to

preserve either the medicinal or alimentary properties of the lettuce.

16. "Caprina lactuca." See B. xx. c. 24.




39. Chap. 39.-Endive.


CHAP. 39.-ENDIVE.



Endive, though it cannot exactly be said to be of the same

genus as the lettuce, still cannot be pronounced to belong to

any other[1]. It is a plant better able to endure the rigours

of the winter than the lettuce[2], and possessed of a more acrid

taste, though the flavour of the stalk[3] is equally agreeable.

Endive is sown at the beginning of spring, and transplanted

at the end of that season. There is also a kind of spreading[4] endive, known in Egypt as "cichorium,"[5] of which we

shall have occasion[6] to speak elsewhere more at length.







A method has been discovered of preserving all the thyrsi

or leaves of the lettuce in pots, the object being to have them

fresh when wanted for boiling. Lettuces may be sown all the

year[7] through in a good soil, well-watered and carefully manured[8]; two months being allowed to intervene between sowing and transplanting, and two more between transplanting

and gathering them when ripe. The rule is, however, to sow

them just after the winter solstice, and to transplant when the

west winds begin to prevail, or else to sow at this latter period,

and to plant out at the vernal equinox. The white lettuce is

the best adapted for standing the rigours of the winter.



All the garden plants are fond of moisture; lettuces thrive,

more particularly, when well manured, and endive even more

so. Indeed, it is found an excellent plan to plant them out with

the roots covered up in manure, and to keep up the supply, the

earth being cleared away for that purpose. Some, again, have

another method of increasing their size; they cut them[9] down

when they have reached half a foot in height, and cover them

with fresh swine's dung. It is the general opinion that those

lettuces only will admit of being blanched which are produced

from white seed; and even then, as soon as they begin to

grow, sand from the sea-shore should be spread over them,

care being taken to tie the leaves as soon as ever they begin

to come to any size.







1. Endive, in fact, belongs to the same family as the lettuce.

2. This is not the case; unless, indeed, under the name "lactuca,"

Pliny would include several plants, that in reality are not lettuces.

3. The stalk, in fact, is more intensely bitter than the leaves.

4. "Erraticun." Wild endive.

5. From which comes the French "chicore," and our "chicory," or

"succory."

6. In B. xx. c. 29, and B. xxi. c. 52.

7. The usual times for sowing the lettuce are before winter and after

February.

8. An excess of manure is injurious to the lettuce.

9. As already stated in a previous Note (p. 179), lettuces when cut down

will not grow again, with the exception of a few worthless lateral branches.




41. Chap. 41-Cabbages; The Several Varieties Of Them.


CHAP. 41-CABBAGES; THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THEM.



Cabbage and coleworts, which at the present day are the

most highly esteemed of all the garden vegetables, were held

in little repute, I find, among the Greeks; but Cato,[1] on the

other hand, sings the wondrous praises of the cabbage, the

medicinal properties of which we shall duly enlarge[2] upon

when we come to treat of that subject. Cato distinguishes

three varieties of the cabbage; the first, a plant with leaves

wide open, and a large stalk; a second, with crisped leaves, to

which he gives the name of "apiaca;"[3] and a third, with a

thin stalk, and a smooth, tender leaf, which with him ranks

the lowest of all. Cabbages may be sown the whole year

through, as we find that they are cut at all periods of the year;

the best time, however, for sowing them is at the autumnal

equinox, and they are usually transplanted as soon as five

leaves are visible. In the ensuing spring after the first cutting, the plant yields sprouts, known to us as "cym."[4]

These sprouts, in fact, are small shoots thrown out from the

main stem, of a more delicate and tender quality than the

cabbage itself. The exquisite palate, however, of Apicius[5]

rejected these sprouts for the table, and his example was followed by the fastidious Drusus Csar; who did not escape,

however, the censures of his father, Tiberius, for being so

over-nice. After the cym have made their appearance the

cabbage throws out its summer and autumn shoots, and then

its winter ones; after which, a new crop of cym is produced,

there being no plant so productive as this, until, at last, it is

quite exhausted by its extreme fertility. A second time for

sowing cabbages is immediately after the vernal equinox, the

plants of this growth being transplanted at the end of spring,

that they may not run up into sprouts before coming to a top:

and a third sowing takes place about the summer solstice, the

transplanting being done in summer if the soil is moist, but,

if too dry, in autumn. When moisture and manure are supplied in small quantities, the flavour of the cabbage is all the







more agreeable, but when they are supplied in greater abundance, the plants attain a larger size. Asses' dung is the best

adapted for its growth.



The cabbage, too, is one of those articles so highly esteemed

by epicures; for which reason it will not be amiss if we speak

of it at somewhat greater length. To obtain plants equally

remarkable for their size and flavour, care must be taken first

of all to sow the seed in ground that has had a couple of turnings up, and then to follow up the shoots as they appear above

ground by moulding them up, care being taken to throw up

the earth over them as they increase in luxuriance, and to let

nothing but the summit appear above the surface. This kind

is known as the Tritian[6] cabbage: in money and labour it

costs twice as much as any of the others.



The other varieties of the cabbage[7] are numerous-there is

the Cumanian cabbage, with leaves that lie close to the ground,

and a wide, open head; the Aricinian[8] cabbage, too, of no

greater height, but with more numerous leaves and thinner-this last is looked upon as the most useful of them all, for

beneath nearly all of the leaves there are small shoots thrown

out, peculiar to this variety. The cabbage, again, of Pompeii[9]

is considerably taller, the stalk, which is thin at the root,

increasing in thickness as it rises among the leaves, which are

fewer in number and narrower; the great merit of this cabbage is its remarkable tenderness, although it is not able to

stand the cold. The cabbage of Bruttium,[10] on the other hand,

thrives all the better for cold; the leaves of it are remarkably

large, the stalk thin, and the flavour pungent. The leaves,

again, of the Sabine[11] cabbage are crisped to such a degree as

to excite our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite

exhaust the stem; in sweetness, however, it is said to surpass

all the others.



There have lately come into fashion the cabbages known as

the "Lacuturres;"[12] they are grown in the valley of Aricia,







where there was formerly a lake, now no longer in existence,

and a tower which is still standing. The head of this cabbage

is very large, and the leaves are almost without number, some

of them being round and smooth, and others long and sinewy;

indeed, there is no cabbage that runs to a larger head than this,

with the sole exception of the Tritian variety, which has a

head sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and throws out

its cym the latest of all.



In all kinds of cabbages, hoar-frost contributes very materially to their sweetness; but it is apt to be productive of considerable injury, if care is not taken to protect the pith by

cutting them aslant. Those plants which are intended for

seed are never cut.



There is another kind, again, that is held in peculiar esteem,

and which never exceeds the height of an herbaceous plant;

it is known by the name of "halmyridia,"[13] from the circumstance of its growing on the sea-shore[14] only. It will keep green

and fresh during a long voyage even, if care is taken not to let

it touch the ground from the moment that it is cut, but to put

it into oil-vessels lately dried, and then to bung them so as

to effectually exclude all air. There are some[15] who are of

opinion, that the plant will come to maturity all the sooner

if some sea-weed is laid at the root when it is transplanted,

or else as much pounded nitre as can be taken up with three

fingers; and others, again, sprinkle the leaves with trefoil seed

and nitre pounded together.[16] Nitre, too, preserves the greenness of cabbage when cooked, a result which is equally ensured

by the Apician mode of boiling, or in other words, by steeping

the plants in oil and salt before they are cooked.



There is a method of grafting vegetables by cutting the

shoots and the stalk, and then inserting in the pith the seed







of another plant; a plan which has been adopted with the wild

cucumber even. There is another kind of wild cabbage, also,

the lapsana,[17] which has become famous since the triumphs of

the late Emperor Julius, in consequence of the songs and jokes

of his soldiers more particularly; for in the alternate lines sung

by them, they used to reproach him for having made them live

on lapsana at the siege of Dyrrhachium, and to rally him upon

the parsimonious scale on which he was in the habit of recompensing their services. The lapsana is nothing more than a

wild cyma.[18]







1. De Re Rust. cc. 156, 157.

2. In B. xx. c. 33.

3. Or "parsley" cabbage, so called from its crisped leaves: the curled

colcwort, or Brassica viridis crispa of C. Bauhin.

4. The same as our Brussels sprouts. Columella, however, B. xi. c. 3,

and B. xii. c. 7, speaks of the Brassica cyma as a distinct variety of cabbage.

5. See B. viii. c. 77.

6. The Brassica oleracea capitata of Lamarck, and its varieties.

7. The ordinary cabbage, or Brassica oleracea of Linnus.

8. A variety, Fe thinks, of the Lacuturrian cabbage.

9. The Brassica oleracea botrytis of Linnus, the cauliflower.

10. Or Calabrian cabbage: it has not been identified.

11. The Brassica oleracea Sabellica of Linnus, or fringed cabbage.

12. Or "Lake-towers." The turnip-cabbage or rape-colewort, the Brassica oleracea gongyloides of Linnus.

13. Generally thought to be the Crambe maritima of botanists, sea-cab-

bage, or sea-kale. Some, however, take it to be the Convolvulus solda-

nella of Linnus. See B. xx. c. 38.

14. From alls(/, the "sea."

15. He alludes to the statement made by Columella, probably, De Re

Rust. B. xi. c. 3.

16. Fe remarks, that probably we here find the first germs of the practice which resulted in the making of sour-krout (sauer-kraut). Dalechamps

censures Pliny for the mention of trefoil here, the passage which he has

translated speaking not of that plant, but of the trefoil or three-leaved

cabbage.

17. The same as the "chara," probably, mentioned by Csar, Bell. Civ.

B. iii. Hardouin thinks that it is the common parsnip, while Clusius and

Cuvier would identify it with the Crambe Tatarica of Hungary, the roots

of which are eaten in time of scarcity at the present day. Fe suggests

that it may belong to the Brassica napo-brassica of Linnus, the rape-colewort. See B. xx. c. 37.

18. Or cabbage-sprout.




42. Chap. 42.-Wild And Cultivated Asparagus.


CHAP. 42.-WILD AND CULTIVATED ASPARAGUS.



Of all the garden plants, asparagus is the one that requires

the most delicate attention in its cultivation. We have already[1]

spoken at considerable length of its origin, when treating of

the wild plants, and have mentioned that Cato[2] recommends

it to be grown in reed-beds. There is another kind, again, of

a more uncultivated nature than the garden asparagus, but less

pungent than corruda;[3] it grows upon the mountains in different countries, and the plains of Upper Germany are quite

full of it, so much so, indeed, that it was a not unhappy remark

of Tiberius Csar, that a weed grows there which bears a remarkably strong resemblance to asparagus. That which grows

spontaneously upon the island of Nesis, off the coast of Campania, is looked upon as being by far the best of all.



Garden asparagus is reproduced from roots,[4] the fibres of

which are exceedingly numerous, and penetrate to a considerable depth. When it first puts forth its shoots, it is green;

these in time lengthen out into stalks, which afterwards throw







out streaked branches from the head: asparagus admits, also,

of being grown from seed.



Cato[5] has treated of no subject with greater care than this,

the last Chapter of his work being devoted to it, from which

we may conclude that it was quite new to him, and a subject

which had only very recently occupied his attention. He recommends that the ground prepared for it should be a moist or

dense soil, the seed being set at intervals of half a foot every

way, to avoid treading upon the heads; the seed, he says,

should be put two or three into each hole, these being made

with the dibble as the line runs-for in his day, it should be

remembered, asparagus was only grown from seed-this being

done about the vernal equinox. It requires, he adds, to be

abundantly manured, and to be kept well hoed, due care being

taken not to pull up the young plants along with the weeds.

The first year, he says, the plants must be protected from the

severity of the winter with a covering of straw, care being

taken to uncover them in the spring, and to hoe and stub up

the ground about them. In the spring of the third year, the

plants must be set fire to, and the earlier the period at which

the fire is applied, the better they will thrive. Hence it is,

that as reed-beds[6] grow all the more rapidly after being fired,

asparagus is found to be a crop remarkably well suited for

growing with them. The same author recommends, however,

that asparagus should not be hoed before the plants have made

their appearance above-ground, for fear of disturbing the roots;

and he says that in gathering the heads, they should be cut

close to the root, and not broken off at the surface, a method

which is sure to make them run to stalk and die. They should

be cut, he says, until they are left to run to seed, and after the

seed is ripe, in spring they must be fired, care being taken, as

soon as they appear again, to hoe and manure them as before.

After eight or nine years, he says, when the plants have become old, they must be renewed, after digging and manuring

the ground, by replanting the roots at intervals of a foot, care

being taken to employ sheep's dung more particularly for the

purpose, other kinds of manure being apt to produce weeds.



No method of cultivating this plant that has since been tried

has been found more eligible than this, with the sole exception

that the seed is now sown about the ides of February, by laying







it in heaps in small trenches, after steeping it a considerable

time in manure; the result of which is that the roots become

matted, and form into spongy tufts, which are planted out at

intervals of a foot after the autumnal equinox, the plants continuing to be productive so long as ten years even. There is

no soil more favourable to the growth of asparagus, than that

of the gardens of Ravenna.[7]



We have already[8] spoken of the corruda, by which term I

mean the wild asparagus, by the Greeks called "orminos," or

"myacanthos," as well as by other names. I find it stated, that

if rams' horns are pounded, and then buried in the ground,

asparagus will come up.[9]







1. In B. xvi. c. 67. The Asparagus officinalis of Linnus.

2. De Re Rust. c. 161.

3. Or wild sperage. See B. xvi. c. 67; also B. xx. c. 43.

4. "Spongiis." Fe is at a loss to know why the name "spongia"

should have been given to the roots of asparagus. Probably, as Facciolati

says, from their growing close and matted together. See the end of this

Chapter.

5. D Re Rust. c. 161.

6. See B. xvii. c. 47.

7. On the contrary, Martial says that the asparagus of Ravenna was no

better than so much wild asparagus.

8. In B. xvi. c. 67. See also c. 19 of this Book.

9. Dioscorides mentions this absurdity, but refuses to credit it.




43. Chap. 43.-Thistles.


CHAP. 43.-THISTLES.



It really might have been thought that I had now given an

account of all the vegetable productions that are held in any

degree of esteem, did there not still remain one plant, the

cultivation of which is extremely profitable, and of which I

am unable to speak without a certain degree of shame. For

it is a well-known fact, that some small plots of land, planted

with thistles,[1] in the vicinity of Great Carthage and of Corduba more particularly, produce a yearly income of six thousand

sesterces;[2] this being the way in which we make the monstrous productions even of the earth subservient to our gluttonous appetites, and that, too, when the very four-footed

brutes[3] instinctively refuse to touch them.



Thistles are grown two different ways, from plants set in

autumn, and from seed sown before the nones of March;[4] in

which latter case they are transplanted before the ides of November,[5] or, where the site is a cold one, about the time that

the west winds prevail. They are sometimes manured even,







and if[6] such is the will of heaven, grow all the better for it.

They are preserved, too, in a mixture of honey and vinegar,[7]

with the addition of root of laser and cummin-so that a day

may not pass without our having thistles at table.[8]







1. Probably the artichoke, the Cinara scolymus of Linnus. See further on this subject, B. xx. c. 99.

2. About 24 sterling. "Sestertia" has been suggested, which would

make the sum a thousand times as much.

3. The ass, of course, excepted, which is fond of thistles.

4. Seventh of March.

5. Thirteenth of November.

6. "Si Ds placet."

7. Oxymel.

8. This is evidently said contemptuously.




45. Chap. 45.-Rue.


CHAP. 45.-RUE.



Rue,[1] too, is generally sown while the west winds prevail,

as well as just after the autumnal equinox. This plant has an

extreme aversion to cold, moisture, and dung; it loves dry,

sunny localities, and a soil more particularly that is rich in

brick clay; it requires to be nourished, too, with ashes, which







should be mixed with the seed as well, as a preservative against

the attacks of caterpillars. The ancients held rue in peculiar

esteem; for I find that honied wine flavoured with rue was

distributed to the people, in his consulship,[2] by Cornelius

Cethegus, the colleague of Quintus Flamininus, after the

closing of the Comitia. This plant has a great liking[3] for the

fig-tree, and for that tree only; indeed, it never thrives better

than when grown beneath that tree. It is generally grown

from slips, the lower end of which is inserted in a perforated[4]

bean, which holds it fast, and so nurtures the young plant

with its juices. It also reproduces itself;[5] for the ends of the

branches bending downwards, the moment they reach the

ground, they take root again. Ocimum[6] is of a very similar

nature to rue, except that it dries with greater difficulty.

When rue has once gained strength, there is considerable difficulty in stubbing it, as it causes itching ulcerations on the

hands, if they are not covered or previously protected by being

rubbed with oil. Its leaves, too, are preserved, being packed

in bundles for keeping.







1. The Ruta graveolens of Linnus. See B. xx. c. 51. This offensive

herb, though looked upon by the Romans as a vegetable, is now only regarded as an active medicament of almost poisonous qualities.

2. A.U.C. 421.

3. It so happens that it thrives best on the same soil as the fig-tree.

4. This practice has no beneficial effect whatever.

5. This is not the fact; for its branches never come in contact with the

ground.

6. Pliny has derived the greater part of this Chapter from Theophrastus,

Hist. Plant. B vii. c. 5, and Columella, B. xi. c. 3.




46. Chap. 46.-Parsley.


CHAP. 46.-PARSLEY.



Parsley is sown immediately after the vernal equinox, the

seed being lightly beaten[1] first in a mortar. It is thought

that, by doing this, the parsley will be all the more crisped,

or else by taking care to beat it down when sown with a roller

or the feet. It is a peculiarity of this plant, that it changes

colour: it has the honour, in Achaia, of forming the wreath

of the victors in the sacred contests of the Nemean Games.







1. For the purpose of separating the seeds, which are slightly joined together; and of disengaging a portion of the perisperm. At the present

day this is not done, for fear of bursting the kernel of the seed.




47. Chap. 47.-Mint.


CHAP. 47.-MINT.



It is at the same season, too, that mint[1] is transplanted; or,







if it has not yet germinated, the matted tufts of the old roots

are used for the purpose. This plant, too, is no less fond of a

humid soil than parsley; it is green in summer and turns

yellow in winter. There is a wild kind of mint, known to us

as "mentastrum:"[2] it is reproduced by layers, like the vine,

or else by planting the branches upside down. It was the

sweetness of its smell that caused this plant to change its name

among the Greeks, its former name with them being "mintha,"

from which the ancient Romans derived their name[3] for it;

whereas now, of late, it has been called by them h(du/osmon.[4]

The mint that is used in the dishes at rustic entertainments

pervades the tables far and wide with its agreeable odour.

When once planted, it lasts a considerable length of time; it

bears, too, a strong resemblance to pennyroyal, a property of

which is, as mentioned by us more than once,[5] to flower when

kept in our larders.



These other herbs, mint, I mean, and catmint, as well as

pennyroyal, are all kept for use in a similar manner; but it is

cummin[6] that is the best suited of all the seasoning herbs to

squeamish and delicate stomachs. This plant grows on the

surface of the soil, seeming hardly to adhere to it, and raising

itself aloft from the ground: it ought to be sown in the middle

of the summer, in a crumbly, warm soil, more particularly.

There is another wild kind[7] of cummin, known by some persons as "rustic," by others as "Thebaic" cummin: bruised

and drunk in water, it is good for pains in the stomach. The

cummin most esteemed in our part of the world is that of

Carpetania,[8] though elsewhere that of Africa and thiopia

is more highly esteemed; with some, indeed, this last is pre-

ferred to that of Egypt.







1. See B. xx. c. 53.

2. Called by the Greeks kalami/nqh, according to Apuleius.

3. Or "Mentha."

4. "Sweet-smelling."

5. "Spius." See B. xviii. c. 60.

6. The Cuminum cyminum of botanists. See B. xx. c. 57.

7. See B. xx. c. 57.

8. In Hispania Tarraconensis. See B. iii. c. 4.




48. Chap. 48.-Olusatrum.


CHAP. 48.-OLUSATRUM.



But it is olusatrum,[1] more particularly, that is of so singular







a nature, a plant which by the Greeks is called "hippose-

linum,"[2] and by others "smyrnium." This plant is repro-

duced from a tear-like gum[3] which exudes from the stem: it

is also grown from the roots as well. Those whose business

it is to collect the juice of it, say that it has just the flavour of

myrrh; and, according to Theophrastus,[4] it is obtained by

planting myrrh. The ancients recommended that hipposelinum

should be grown in uncultivated spots covered with stones,

and in the vicinity of garden walls; but at the present day it

is sown in ground that has been twice turned up, between the prevalence of the west winds and the autumnal equinox.



The caper,[5] too, should be sown in dry localities more particularly, the plot being hollowed out and surrounded with an

embankment of stones erected around it: it this precaution is

not taken, it will spread all over the adjoining land, and entail

sterility upon the soil. The caper blossoms in summer, and

retains its verdure till the setting of the Vergili; it thrives

the best of all in a sandy soil. As to the bad qualities of the

caper which grows in the parts beyond the sea, we have

already[6] enlarged upon them when speaking of the exotic

shrubs.







1. Or "black-herb:" the herb Alexander, the Smyrnium olusatrun, of

Linnus. See B. xx. c. 46.

2. "Horse-parsley."

3. See B. xvii. c. 14, and B. xxi. c. 14.

4. Hist. Plant. B. ix. c. 1. This story originated, no doubt, in the fan-

cied resemblance of its smell to that of myrrh.

5. The Capparis spinosa of Linnus. See B. xiii. e. 44, also B. xx.

c. 59.

6. In B. xiii. c. 44.




49. Chap. 49.-The Caraway.


CHAP. 49.-THE CARAWAY.



The caraway[1] is an exotic plant also, which derives its

name, "careum," from the country[2] in which it was first

grown; it is principally employed for culinary purposes. This

plant will grow in any kind of soil, and requires to be cultivated just the same way as olusatrum; the most esteemed,

however, is that which comes from Caria, and the next best is

that of Phrygia.







1. The Carum carvi of Linnus.

2. Caria, in Asia Minor.




50. Chap. 50.-Lovage.


CHAP. 50.-LOVAGE.



Lovage[1] grows wild in the mountains of Liguria, its native







country, but at the present day it is grown everywhere. The

cultivated kind is the sweetest of the two, but is far from

powerful; by some persons it is known as "panax." Crateuas, a Greek writer, gives this name, however, to the plant

known to us as "cunila bubula;"[2] and others, again, call

the conyza[3] or cunilago, cunila, while they call cunila,[4]

properly so called, by the name of "thymbra." With us

cunila has another appellation, being generally known as

"satureia," and reckoned among the seasoning plants. It is

usually sown in the month of February, and for utility rivals

wild marjoram. These two plants are never used together,

their properties being so extremely similar; but it is only

the wild marjoram of Egypt that is considered superior to

cunila.







1. The Ligusticum levisticum of Linnus.

2. "Ox cunila." One of the Labiat, probably; but whether one of

the Satureia or of the Thymbra is not known. See B. xx. cc. 60, 61.

3. See B. xxi. c. 32.

4. Scribonius Largus gives this name to savory, the Satureia hortensis

of Linnus. The whole of this passage is very confused, and its mean-

ing is by no means clear.




51. Chap. 51.-Dittander.


CHAP. 51.-DITTANDER.



Dittander,[1] too, was oiginally an exotic plant: it is usually

sown after the west winds have begun to prevail. As soon as

it begins to shoot, it is cut down close to the ground, after

which it is hoed and manured, a process which is repeated the

succeeding year. After this, the shoots are fit for use, if the

rigour of the winter has not injured them; for it is a plant

quite unable to withstand any inclemency[2] of the weather. It

grows to the height of a cubit, and has a leaf like that of the

laurel,[3] but softer; it is never used except in combination

with milk.







1. The Lepidium sativum of Linnus. See B. xx. c. 70.

2. It is an annual, in fact.

3. Its leaf has no resemblance whatever to that of the laurel.




52. Chap. 52.-Gith.


CHAP. 52.-GITH.



Gith[1] is employed by bakers, dill and anise by cooks and

medical men. Sacopenium,[2] so extensively used for adulter-







ating laser, is also a garden plant, but is only employed for

medicinal purposes.







1. The Nigella sativa of Linnus. See B. xx. c. 71.

2. Or sagapenum. See B. xx. c. 75. It is mentioned also in B. xii.

c. 56, as being used for adulterating galbanum. As to laser, see c. 15 of

the present Book.




53. Chap. 53.-The Poppy.


CHAP. 53.-THE POPPY.



There are certain plants which are grown in company[1] with

others, the poppy, for instance, sown with cabbages and purs-

lain, and rocket with lettuce. Of the cultivated poppy[2] there

are three kinds, the first being the white[3] poppy, the seed of

which, parched, and mixed with honey, used to be served up

in the second course at the tables of the ancients; at the present day, too, the country people sprinkle it on the upper crust

of their bread, making it adhere by means of the yolk of eggs,

the under crust being seasoned with parsley and gith to

heighten the flavour of the flour. The second kind is the

black[4] poppy, from which, upon an incision being made in the

stalk, a milky juice distils; and the third is that known to the

Greeks by the name of "rhas;"[5] and by us as the wild

poppy. This last grows spontaneously, but in fields, more

particularly, which have been sown with barley: it bears a

strong resemblance to rocket, grows to the height of a cubit,

and bears a red flower, which quickly fades; it is to this

flower that it is indebted for its Greek name.[6]



As to the other kinds of poppies which spring up spontaneously, we shall have occasion to speak of them when treating of the medicinal plants.[7] That the poppy has always been

held in esteem among the Romans, we have a proof in the

story related of Tarquinius[8] Superbus, who, by striking down

the tallest poppies in his garden, surreptitiously conveyed,







unknown to them, his sanguinary message through the envoys

who had been sent by his son.







1. This practice, as Fe remarks, is not followed; and indeed, unless it

is intended to transplant them, it would be attended with injurious results

to the young plants.

2. As to the poppy, for further particulars see B. xx. c. 76 and the Note.

3. The variety Album of the Papaver somniferum of modern botanists.

4. The variety Nigrum of the Papaver somniferum. The white poppy

has also a milky juice.

5. The Papaver rhas of modern botanists, the corn-poppy, or wild

poppy. The seed of the poppy does not partake of the qualities of its

capsular envelope, and at the present day it is extensively employed in

the South of Europe for sprinkling over pastry.

6. "Rhas," the "crimson," or "pomegranate" poppy.

7. See B. xx. cc. 7679.

8. See c. 17 of this Book, also Ovid's Fasti, B. ii. 1. 703, et seq.




54. Chap. 54.-Other Plants Which Require To Be Sown At The Autumnal Equinox.


CHAP. 54.-OTHER PLANTS WHICH REQUIRE TO BE SOWN AT THE

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX.



There are some other plants, again, which require to be

sown together at the time of the autumnal equinox; coriander,

for instance, anise, orage, mallows, lapathum, chervil, known to

the Greeks as "pderos,"[1] and mustard,[2] which has so pun-

gent a flavour, that it burns like fire, though at the same time

it is remarkably wholesome for the body. This last, though

it will grow without cultivation, is considerably improved by

being transplanted; though, on the other hand, it is extremely

difficult to rid the soil of it when once sown there, the seed

when it falls germinating immediately. This seed, when

cooked in the saucepan,[3] is employed even for making ragouts,

its pungency being rendered imperceptible by boiling; the

leaves, too, are boiled just the same way as those of other

vegetables.



There are three different kinds of mustard,[4] the first of a

thin, slender form, the second, with a leaf like that of the

rape, and the third, with that of rocket: the best seed comes

from Egypt. The Athenians have given mustard the name of

"napy,"[5] others, "thapsi,"[6] and others, again, "saurion."[7]







1. "Lad's love."

2. Black mustard, Fe thinks.

3. He can hardly mean a pottage made of boiled mustard-seed alone,

as Fe seems to think. If so, however, Fe no doubt is right in thinking

that it would be intolerable to a modern palate.

4. See B. xx. c. 87.

5. Perhaps a corruption of its Greek name, si/nhpi.

6. Hardouin suggests "thlaspi."

7. Its bite being as sharp as the venom of the "saurus," or lizard.




55. Chap. 55.-Wild Thyme; Sisymbrium.


CHAP. 55.-WILD THYME; SISYMBRIUM.



Most mountains abound with wild thyme and sisymbriurm,

those of Thrace, for example, where[1] branches of these wild

plants are torn up and brought away for planting, So, too.

the people of Sicyon seek for wild thyme on their mountains,







and the Athenians on the slopes of Hymettus. Sisymlbrium,

too, is planted in a similar manner; it grows to the greatest

perfection upon the walls of wells, and around fish preserves

and ponds.[2]







1. Hardouin, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 7, suggests a

reading, "whence the streams bring down branches of them torn off, and

so plant them."

2. The plants, Fe says, that we find in these localities, are nearly

always ferns, or else Marchantia, or mosses of the genus Hypnum. Fe

queries whether one of these may not have been the sisymbrium of Pliny.

Water-cresses, again, have been suggested.




56. Chap. 56. (9.)-Four Kinds Of Ferulaceous Plants. Hemp.


CHAP. 56. (9.)-FOUR KINDS OF FERULACEOUS PLANTS. HEMP.



The other garden plants are of the ferulaceous kind, such as

fennel, for instance, very grateful to serpents, as already

stated,[1] and used for numerous seasonings when dried; thapsia,

too, which bears a close resemblance to fennel, and already

mentioned by us when speaking[2] of the exotic shrubs. Then,

too, there is hemp,[3] a plant remarkably useful for making

ropes, and usually sown after the west winds have begun to

prevail: the more thickly it is sown, the thinner are the

stalks. The seed is gathered when ripe, just after the autumnal

equinox, and is dried by the agency of the sun, the wind, or

smoke.[4] The hemp itself is plucked just after vintage-time,

and is peeled and cleaned by the labourers at night.



The best hemp is that of Alabanda,[5] which is used more

particularly for making hunting-nets, and of which there are

three varieties. The hemp which lies nearest the bark or the

pith is the least valuable, while that which lies in the middle,

and hence has the name of "mesa," is the most esteemed.

The hemp of Mylasa[6] occuplies the second rank. With reference to the size to which it grows, that of Rosea[7] in the

Sabine territory, equals the trees in height.[8]



We have already mentioned two kinds of fennel-giant when

speaking[9] of the exotic shrubs: the seed of it is used in Italy

for food; the plant, too, admits of being preserved, and, if

stored in earthen pots, will keep for a whole year. There are







two parts of it that are used for this purpose, the upper stalks

and the umbels of the plant. This kind of fennel is sometimes known by the name of "corymbia," and the parts preserved are called "corymbi."







1. In B. viii. c. 41. The Anthum fniculum of Linnus.

2. In B. xiii. c. 42.

3. The Cannabis sativa of Linnus. See B. xx. c. 97.

4. Hemp-seed is never smoke-dried now.

5. See B. v. c 29. The same hemp is mentioned as being used for

making hunting-nets, by Gratius, in the Cynegeticon.

6. See B. v. c. 29.

7. See B. iii. c. 17, and B. xvii. c. 3

8. This, as Fe says, is no doubt erroneous. It is seldom known to attain a couple of inches in circumference.

9. In B. xiii. c. 42.




57. Chap. 57. (10.)-The Maladies Of Garden Plants.


CHAP. 57. (10.)-THE MALADIES OF GARDEN PLANTS.



The garden plants, too, like the rest of the vegetable productions, are subject to certain maladies. Thus, for[1] instance,

ocimum, when old, degenerates into wild thyme, and sisymbrium[2] into mint, while the seed of an old cabbage produces

rape, and vice vers. Cummin, too, if not kept well hoed, is

killed by hmodorum,[3] a plant with a single stalk, a root si-

milar to a bulb in appearance, and never found except in a

thin, meagre soil. Besides this, cummin is liable to a peculiar

disease of its own, the scab:[4] ocimum, too, turns pale at the

rising of the Dog-star. All plants, indeed, will turn of a

yellow complexion on the approach of a woman who has the

menstrual discharge[5] upon her.



There are various kinds of insects,[6] too, that breed upon the

garden plants-fleas, for instance, upon turnips, and caterpillars and maggots upon radishes, as well as lettuces and cabbages; besides which, the last two are exposed to the attacks

of slugs and snails. The leek, too, is infested with peculiar

insects of its own; which may very easily be taken, however,

by laying dung upon the plants, the insects being in the habit

of burrowing in it. Sabinus Tiro says, in his book entitled

"Cepurica,"[7] which he dedicated to Mcenas, that it is not

advisable to touch rue, cunila, mint, or ocimum with any implement of iron.











1. These absurd notions are borrowed from Theophrastus, De Causis, c. 8.

2. See B. xx. c. 91.

3. Or, according to some readings, "limodorum," a parasitical plant,

probably the Lathra phelypea of Sprengel. Fe suggests that this plant

may be the Polygonum convolvulus of Linnus, or else one of the Cuscut,

or a variety of Orobanche.

4. "Scabies." A fungous excrescence, Fe thinks, now known as "puccinia," or "uredo."

5. See B. xvii. c. 47. Fe says that he has met with persons, in their

sound senses, who obstinately defend the notion here mentioned by Pliny.

6. See Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 5. Many of these insects, however, do not breed upon the plants, but are only attracted to them.

7. "Book on Gardening."




58. Chap. 58.-The Proper Remedies For These Maladies. How Ants Are Best Destroyed. The Best Remedies Against Cater- Pillars And Flies.


CHAP. 58.-THE PROPER REMEDIES FOR THESE MALADIES. HOW

ANTS ARE BEST DESTROYED. THE BEST REMEDIES AGAINST CATER-

PILLARS AND FLIES.



The same author recommends as a remedy against ants,

which are by no means the slightest plague in a garden that is

not kept well watered, to stop up the mouths of their holes with

sea-slime or ashes. But the most efficient way of destroying

them is with the aid of the plant heliotropium;[1] some persons, too, are of opinion that water in which an unburnt brick

has been soaked is injurious to them. The best protection for

turnips is to sow a few fitches with them, and for cabbages chickpeas, these having the effect of keeping away caterpillars. If,

however, this precaution should have been omitted, and the

caterpillars have already made their appearance, the best remedy

is to throw upon the vegetables a decoction of wormwood,[2] or

else of house-leek,[3] known to some as "azom," a kind of

herb already mentioned by us. If cabbage-seed, before it is

sown, is steeped in the juice of house-leek, the cabbages, it is

said, are sure not be attacked by any insect.



It is said, too, that all caterpillars may be effectually exterminated, if the skull[4] of a beast of burden is set up upon a

stake in the garden, care being taken to employ that of a female

only. There is a story related, too, that a river crab, hung

up in the middle of the garden, is a preservative against the

attacks of caterpillars. Again, there are some persons who are

in the habit of touching with slips of blood-red cornel[5] such

plants as they wish to preserve from caterpillars. Flies,[6] too,

infest well-watered gardens, and more particularly so, if there

happen to be any shrubs there; they may be got rid of; how-

ever, by burning galbanum.[7]



(11.) With reference to the deterioration to which seed is

subject,[8] there are some seeds which keep better than others,







such, for instance, as that of coriander, beet, leeks, cresses,

mustard, rocket, cunila, nearly all the pungent plants in fact.

The seed, on the other hand, of orage, ocimum, gourds,

and cucumbers, is not so good for keeping. All the summer

seeds, too, last longer than the winter ones; but scallion seed

is the very worst for keeping of them all. But of those, even,

which keep the very longest, there is none that will keep beyond four

years-for sowing[9] purposes, at least; for culinary

purposes, they are fit for use beyond that period.







1. The Heliotropium Europum of botanists. See B. xxii. c. 29.

2. This may possibly, Fe says, be efficacious against some insects.

3. See B. xviii. c. 45.

4. A mere puerility, of course, though it is very possible that the insects

may collect in it, and so be more easily taken. Garden-pots, on sticks,

are still employed for this purpose.

5. See B. xvi. c. 30.

6. "Culices," including both flies and gnats, probably.

7. See B. xii. c. 56.

8. An almost literal translation of Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 6.

9. This is certainly not true with reference to the leguminous and gramineous plants. It is pretty generally known as a fact, that wheat has

germinated after being buried in the earth two thousand years: mummy-wheat, at the present day, is almost universally known.




59. Chap. 59.-What Plants Are Benefitted By Salt Water.


CHAP. 59.-WHAT PLANTS ARE BENEFITTED BY SALT WATER.



A peculiar remedy for the maladies to which radishes, beet,

rue, and cunila are subject, is salt water, which has also the

additional merit of conducing very materially to their sweetness and fertility. Other plants, again, are equally benefitted

by being watered with fresh water, the most desirable for the

purpose being that which is the coldest and the sweetest to

drink: pond and drain-water, on the other hand, are not so

good, as they are apt to carry the seeds of weeds along with

them. It is rain,[1] however, that forms the principal aliment

of plants; in addition to which, it kills the insects as they

develope themselves upon them.







1. Rain-water, if collected in cisterns, and exposed to the heat of the

sun, is the most beneficial of all rain has the effect also of killing numerous insects which have bred in the previous drought.




60. Chap. 60. (12.)-The Proper Method Of Watering Gardens.


CHAP. 60. (12.)-THE PROPER METHOD OF WATERING GARDENS.



The proper times[1] for watering are the morning and the

evening, to prevent the water from being heated[2] by the sun

with the sole exception, however, of ocimum, which requires

to be watered at midday; indeed, this plant, it is generally

thought, will grow with additional rapidity, if it is watered

with boiling water when sown. All plants, when trans-







planted, grow all the better and larger for it, leeks and turnips

more particularly. Transplanting, too, is attended with certain

remedial effects, and acts as a preservative to certain plants,

such as scallions, for instance, leeks, radishes, parsley, lettuces,

rape, and cucumbers. All the wild plants[3] are generally

smaller in the leaf and stalk than the cultivated ones, and have

more acrid juices, cunila, wild marjoram, and rue, for example.

Indeed, it is only the lapathum[4] that is better in a wild state

than cultivated: in its cultivated state it is the same plant

that is known to us as the "rumix," being the most vigorous[5]

by far of all the plants that are grown; so much so, indeed,

that it is said that when it has once taken root, it will last for

ever, and can never be extirpated from the soil, more particu-

larly if water happens to be near at hand. Its juices, which

are employed only in ptisans,[6] as an article of food, have the

effect of imparting to them a softer and more exquisite flavour.

The wild variety[7] is employed for many medicinal purposes.



So true it is, that the careful research of man has omitted

nothing, that I have even met with a poem,[8] in which I find

it stated, that if pellets of goats' dung, the size of a bean, are

hollowed out, and the seed of leeks, rocket, lettuces, parsley,

endive, and cresses is inserted in them, and then sown, the

plants will thrive in a marvellous degree. Plants[9] in a wild

state, it is generally thought, are more dry and acrid than when

cultivated.







1. From Theophrastus, B. vii. c. 5. Evening is generally preferred to

morning for this purpose; the evaporation not being so quick, and the

plant profiting more from the water.

2. It should, however, be of a middling temperature, and warmed to

some extent by the rays of the sun.

3. These statements are consistent with modern experience.

4. See B. xx. c. 85.

5. He says this probably in reference partly to the large leaves which

characterize the varieties of dock.

6. Dishes made of rice or barley. See B. xviii. c. 13.

7. See B. xx. c. 85.

8. He does not give the name of the poet, but, as Fe says, we do not

experience any great loss thereby.

9. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant, B. vii. c. 6.




61. Chap. 61.-The Juices And Flavours Of Garden Herbs.


CHAP. 61.-THE JUICES AND FLAVOURS OF GARDEN HERBS.



This, too, reminds me that I ought to make some mention

of the difference between the juices and flavours of the garden

herbs, a difference which is more perceptible here than in the

fruits even.[1] In cunila, for instance, wild marjoram, cresses,

and mustard, the flavour is acrid; in wormwood[2] and cen-







taury,[3] bitter; in cucumbers, gourds, and lettuces, watery;

and in parsley, anise, and fennel, pungent and odoriferous.

The salt flavour is the only one that is not to be found[4] in

plants, with the sole exception, indeed, of the chicheling[5]

vetch, though even then it is to be found on the exterior

surface only of the plant, in the form of a kind of dust which

settles there.







1. See B. xv. c. 32.

2. "Absinthium." See B. xxvii. c. 28.

3. See B. xxv. c. 30.

4. Fe remarks, that though rarely to be met with, the salt flavour is

still to be found in the vegetable kingdom.

5. The "cicercula," or Lathyrus sativus of Linnus. See B. xviii. c. 32.




62. Chap. 62.-Piperitis, Libanotis, And Smyrnium.


CHAP. 62.-PIPERITIS, LIBANOTIS, AND SMYRNIUM.



To come to a full understanding, too, both here as elsewhere,

how unfounded are the notions which are generally entertained,

I shall take this opportunity of remarking that panax[1] has the

flavour of pepper, and siliquastrum even more so, a circum-

stance to which it owes its name of piperitis:[2] libanotis[3]

again, has just the odour of frankincense, and smyrnium[4] of

myrrh. As to panax, we have spoken of it at sufficient length

already.[5] Libanotis grows in a thin, crumbly soil, and is

generally sown in spots exposed to the falling dews; the root,

which is just like that of olusatrum,[6] has a smell in no way

differing from that of frankincense; when a year old, it is extremely

wholesome for the stomach; some persons give it the

name of rosmarinum.[7] Smyrnium is a garden herb that grows

in similar soils, and has a root which smells like myrrh:

siliquastrum, too, is grown in a similar manner.



Other plants, again, differ from the preceding ones, both in

smell and taste, anise[8] for example; indeed, so great is the

difference in this respect, and in their relative virtues, that not

only are the properties of each modified by the other, but quite

neutralized even. It is in this way that our cooks correct

the flavour of vinegar in their dishes with parsley, and our

butlers employ the same plant, enclosed in sachets, for removing

a bad odour in wine.







[9]Thus far, then, we have treated of the garden plants, viewed

as articles of food only; it remains for us now (for up to the

present we have only spoken of their various methods of culti-

vation, with some succinct details relative thereto), to enlarge

upon the more elaborate operations of Nature in this respect;

it being quite impossible to come to a full understanding as to

the true characteristics of each individual plant, without a

knowledge of its medicinal effects, a sublime and truly mysterious

manifestation of the wisdom of the Deity, than which

nothing can possibly be found of a nature more elevated. It

is upon principle that we have thought proper not to enlarge

upon the medicinal properties of each plant when treating of

it; for it is a quite different class of persons that is interested

in knowing their curative properties, and there is no doubt

that both classes of readers would have been inconvenienced in

a very material degree, if these two points of view had engaged

our attention at the same moment. As it is, each class will

have its own portion to refer to, while those who desire to do

so, will experience no difficulty in uniting them, with reference

to any subject of which we may happen to treat.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

one thousand one hundred and forty-four.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Maccius Plautus,[10]. M. Varro,[11]

D. Silanus,[12] Cato the Censor,[13] Hyginus,[14] Virgil,[15] Mucianus,[16]

Celsus,[17] Columella,[18] Calpurnius Bassus,[19] Mamilius Sura,[20]

Sabinus Tiro,[21] Licinius Macer,[22] Quintus Hirtius,[23] Vibius







Rufus,[24] Csennius[25] who wrote the Cepurica, Castritius[26] who

wrote on the same subject, Firmus[27] who wrote on the same

subject, Petrichus[28] who wrote on the same subject.



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Herodotus,[29] Theophrastus,[30]

Democritus,[31] Aristomachus,[32] Menander[33] who wrote the

Biochresta, Anaxilus.[34]









1. See B. xii. c. 57.

2. Or pepper-wort. See B. xx. c. 66.

3. See B. xx. c. 54.

4. The same, probably, as olusatrum. See cc. 37 and 48 of this Book,

and B. xx. c. 46: also B. xxvii. c. 109.

5. In B. xii. c. 57.

6. See c. 48 of this Book.

7. Rosemary, or "sea-dew."

8. See B. xx. c. 74.

9. Fe suggests, though apparently without any good reason, that this

paragraph, to the end of the Book, is an interpolation of the copyists.

10. See end of B. xiv.

11. See end of B. ii.

12. See end of B. xiv.

13. See end of B. iii.

14. See end of B. iii.

15. See end of B. vii.

16. See end of B. ii.

17. See end of B. vii.

18. See end of B. viii.

19. See end of B. xvi.

20. See end of B. x.

21. Beyond the mention made of this writer in c. 57, nothing whatever is

known of him.

22. C. Licinius Macer, a Roman annalist and orator, born about

B.C. 110. Upon being impeached by Cicero, he committed

suicide. He wrote a History or Annals of Rome, which are frequently

referred to by Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

23. Nothing whatever appears to be known of this writer.

24. See end of B. xiv.

25. Nothing whatever is known relative to this writer on Horticulture.

26. Nothing certain is known of him; but it has been suggested that he

may have been the father of the rhetorician Castritius, so often mentioned

by Aulus Gellius, and who lived in the time of the Emperor Adrian.

27. Nothing whatever is known relative to this writer.

28. The author of a Greek poem on venomous serpents, mentioned in B. xx.

c. 96, and B. xxii. c. 40, and by the Scholiast on the Theriaca of

Nicander.

29. See end of B. ii.

30. See end of B. iii.

31. See end of B. ii.

32. See end of B. xi.

33. Nothing whatever is known of him. His Book seems to have been a

compendium of "Things useful to life."

34. A physician and Pythagorean philosopher, born at one of the cities

called Larissa, but which, is now unknown. He was banished by the

Emperor Augustus, B.C. 28, on the charge of practising

magic, a charge

probably based on his superior skill in natural philosophy. He is

frequently mentioned by Pliny in the course of this work.




0. > Book II. An Account Of The World And The Elements.


BOOK II. AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS.



[I have adopted the division of the chapters from Hardouin, as given

in the editions of Valpy, Lemaire, Ajasson, and Sillig.; the Roman figures,

enclosed between brackets, are the numbers of the chapters in Dalechamps,

De Lat, Gronovius, Holland, and Poinsinet. The titles of the chapters

are nearly the same with those in Valpy, Lemaire, and Ajasson.]










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Whether The World Be Finite, And Whether There Be More Than One World.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-WHETHER THE WORLD BE FINITE, AND

WHETHER THERE BE MORE THAN ONE WORLD.



The world[1], and whatever that be which we otherwise







call the heavens[2], by the vault of which all things are

enclosed,







we must conceive to be a Deity[3], to be eternal, without bounds, neither created, nor subject, at any time, to

destruction[4]. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of

man, nor can the human mind form any conjecture respecting

it. It is sacred, eternal, and without bounds, all in all; indeed including everything in itself; finite, yet like what is

infinite; the most certain of all things, yet like what is uncertain, externally and internally embracing all things in

itself; it is the work of nature, and itself constitutes

nature[5].



It is madness to harass the mind, as some have done, with

attempts to measure the world, and to publish these attempts;

or, like others, to argue from what they have made out,

that there are innumerable other worlds, and that we must

believe there to be so many other natures, or that, if only

one nature produced the whole, there will be so many suns

and so many moons, and that each of them will have immense

trains of other heavenly bodies. As if the same question

would not recur at every step of our inquiry, anxious as we

must be to arrive at some termination; or, as if this infinity,

which we ascribe to nature, the former of all things, cannot

be more easily comprehended by one single formation,







especially when that is so extensive. It is madness, perfect

madness, to go out of this world and to search for what is

beyond it, as if one who is ignorant of his own dimensions

could ascertain the measure of any thing else, or as if the

human mind could see what the world itself cannot contain.







1. "Mundus." In translating from one language into another, it is

proper, as a general principle, always to render the same word in the

original by the same word in the translation. But to this rule there are

two exceptions; where the languages do not possess words which precisely correspond, and where the original author does not always use the

same word in the same sense. Both these circumstances, I apprehend,

apply to the case in question. The term Mundus is used by Pliny,

sometimes to mean the earth and its immediate appendages, the visible

solar system; and at other times the universe; while I think we may

venture to assert, that in some instances it is used in rather a vague

manner, without any distinct reference to either one or other of the above

designations. I have, in almost all cases, translated it by the term world,

as approaching nearest to the sense of the original. The word mundus

is frequently employed by Lucretius, especially in his fifth book, and

seems to be almost always used in the more extended sense of universe.

There are, indeed, a few passages where either meaning would be equally

appropriate, and in one line it would appear to be equivalent to

firmament or heavens; "et mundi speciem violare

serenam," iv. 138. Cicero,

in his treatise De Natura Deorum, generally uses the term mundus in the

sense of universe, as in ii. 22, 37, 58 and 154; while in one passage, ii.

132, it would appear to be employed in the more limited sense of the

earth. It occasionally occurs in the Fasti of Ovid, but it is not easy to

ascertain its precise import; as in the line "Post chaos, ut primum data

sunt tria corpora mundo," v. 41, where from the connexion it may be

taken either in the more confined or in the more general sense. Manilius

employs the word very frequently, and his commentators remark, that he

uses it in two distinct senses, the visible firmament and the universe; and

I am induced to think that he attaches still more meaning to the term.

It occurs three times in the first eleven lines of his poem. In the third

line, "deducere mundo aggredior," mundus may be considered as

equivalent to the celestial regions as opposed to the earth. In the

ninth

line,

"concessumque patri mundo," we may consider it as signifying the

celestial regions generally; and in the eleventh, "Jamque favet mundus,"

the whole of the earth, or rather its inhabitants. We meet with it again

in the sixty-eighth line, "lumina mundi," where it seems more properly

to signify the visible firmament; again in the 139th, "Et mundi struxere

globum," it seems to refer especially to the earth, synonymous with the

general sense of the English term world; while in the 153rd line, "per

inania mundi," it must be supposed to mean the universe. Hyginus,

in his Poeticon Astronomicon, lib. i. p. 55, defines the term as follows:

"Mundus appellatur is qui constat in sole et luna et terra et omnibus

stellis;" and again, p. 57, "Terra mundi media regione collocata." We may

observe the different designations of the term mundus in Seneca; among

other passages I may refer to his Nat. Qust. vii. 27 & iii. 30; to his

treatise De Consol. 18 and De Benef. iv. 23, where I conceive the precise

meanings are, respectively, the universe, the terrestrial globe, the firmament, and the heavenly bodies. The Greek term ko/smos, which corresponds

to the Latin word mundus, was likewise employed to signify, either the

visible firmament or the universe. In illustration of this, it will

be sufficient to refer to the treatise of Aristotle Peri\ Ko/smou, cap. 2. p. 601. See

also Stephens's Thesaurus, in loco. In Apuleius's treatise De Mundo,

which is a free translation of Aristotle's Peri\ Ko/smou, the term may be

considered as synonymous with universe. It is used in the same sense

in various parts of Apuleius's writings: see Metam. ii. 23; De Deo

Socratis, 665, 667; De Dogmate Platonis, 574, 575, et alibi.

2. Cicero, in his Timus, uses the same phraseology; "Omne igitur

clum, sive mundus, sive quovis alio vocabulo gaudet, hoc a nobis

nuncupatum est," 2. Pomponius Mela's work commences with a

similar expression; "Omne igitur hoc, quidquid est, cui mundi clique

nomen indideris, unum id est." They were probably taken from a

passage in Plato's Timus, "Universum igitur hoc, Clum, sive Mundum,

sive quo alio vocabulo gaudet, cognominemus," according to the

translation of Ficinus; Platonis Op. ix. p. 302. The word clum,

which is

employed in the original, in its ordinary acceptation, signifies

the heavens,

the visible firmament; as in Ovid, Met. i. 5, "quod tegit omnia, clum."

It is, in most cases, employed in this sense by Lucretius and by Manilius,

as in i. 2. of the former and in i. 14. of the latter. Occasionally, however, it is employed by both of these writers in the more general sense

of celestial regions, in opposition to the earth, as by Lucretius, i. 65, and

by Manilius, i. 352. In the line quoted by Cicero from Pacuvius, it

would seem to mean the place in which the planets are situated; De

Nat. Deor. ii. 91. The Greek word ou)rano\s may be regarded as exactly

corresponding to the Latin word clum, and employed with the same

modifications; see Aristotle, De Mundo and De Clo, and Ptolemy,

Mag. Const. lib. i. passim; see also Stephens's Thesaurus,

in loco. Aratus

generally uses it to designate the visible firmament, as in 1. 10, while in

1. 32 it means the heavenly regions. Gesner defines clum, "Mundus

exclusa terra," and mundus, "Clum et quidquid cceli ambitu

continetur." In the passage from Plato, referred to above, the words

which

are translated by Ficinus clum and mundus, are in

the original ou)rano\s

and ko/smos; Ficinus, however, in various parts of the Timus, translates

ou)ranbo\s by the word mundus: see t. ix. p. 306, 311, et alibi.

3. The following passage from Cicero may serve to illustrate the doctrine

of Pliny: "Novem tibi orbibus, vel potius globis, connexa sunt omnia:

quorum unus est ccelestis, extimus, qui reliquos omnes complectitur,

summus ipse Deus, arcens et continens clum;" Som. Scip. 4. I may

remark, however, that the term here employed by our author is not Deus

but Numen.

4. We have an interesting account of the opinions of Aristotle on this

subject, in a note in M. Ajasson's translation, ii. 234 et seq., which, as

well as the greater part of the notes attached to the second book of the

Natural History, were written by himself in conjunction with M. Marcus.

5. The philosophers of antiquity were divided in their opinions respecting the great question, whether the active properties of material bodies,

which produce the phenomena of nature, are inherent in them, and

necessarily attached to them, or whether they are bestowed upon them

by some superior power or being. The Academics and Peripatetics

generally adopted the latter opinion, the Stoics the former: Pliny adopts

the doctrine of the Stoics; see Enfield's Hist. of Phil. i. 229, 283, 331.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-Of The Form Of The World .


CHAP. 2. (2.)-OF THE FORM OF THE WORLD[1].



That it has the form of a perfect globe we learn from

the name which has been uniformly given to it, as well as

from numerous natural arguments. For not only does a

figure of this kind return everywhere into itself[2] and sustain

itself, also including itself, requiring no adjustments, not

sensible of either end or beginning in any of its parts, and is

best fitted for that motion, with which, as will appear hereafter, it

is continually turning round; but still more, because

we perceive it, by the evidence of the sight, to be, in every

part, convex and central, which could not be the case were

it of any other figure.







1. I may remark, that the astronomy of our author is, for the most

part, derived from Aristotle; the few points in which they differ will be

stated in the appropriate places.

2. This doctrine was maintained by Plato in his Timus, p. 310, and

adopted by Aristotle, De Clo, lib. ii. cap. 14, and by Cicero, De Nat.

Deor. ii 47. The spherical form of the world, ou)rano\s, and its circular

motion are insisted upon by Ptolemy, in the commencement of his

astronomical treatise Mega/lh Su/ntacis, Magna Constructio, frequently referred

to by its Arabic title Almagestum, cap. 2. He is

supposed to have

made his observations at Alexandria, between the years 125 and 140 A.D.

His great astronomical work was translated into Arabic in the year 827;

the original Greek text was first printed in 1538 by Grynus, with a

commentary by Theon. George of Trebisond published a Latin version

of it in 1541, and a second was published by Camerarius in 1551, along

with Ptolemy's other works. John Muller, usually called Regiomontanus,

and Purback published an abridgement of the Almagest in 1541. For an

account of Ptolemy I may refer to the article in the Biog. Univ. xxxv.

263 et seq., by Delambre, also to Hutton's Math. Diet., in

loco,
and to

the high character of him by Whewell, Hist. of the Inductive Sciences,

p. 214.




3. Chap. 3. (3.)-Of Its Nature; Whence The Name Is Derived.


CHAP. 3. (3.)-OF ITS NATURE; WHENCE THE NAME IS DERIVED.



The rising and the setting of the sun clearly prove,

that this globe is carried round in the space of twenty-four

hours, in an eternal and never-ceasing circuit, and with in-







credible swiftness[1]. I am not able to say, whether the sound

caused by the whirling about of so great a mass be excessive,

and, therefore, far beyond what our ears can perceive, nor,

indeed, whether the resounding of so many stars, all carried

along at the same time and revolving in their orbits, may

not produce a kind of delightful harmony of incredible sweetness[2]. To

us, who are in the interior, the world appears to

glide silently along, both by day and by night.



Various circumstances in nature prove to us, that there

are impressed on the heavens innumerable figures of animals

and of all kinds of objects, and that its surface is not perfectly polished like the eggs of birds, as some celebrated

authors assert[3]. For we find that the seeds of all bodies fall

down from it, principally into the ocean, and, being mixed

together, that a variety of monstrous forms are in this way

frequently produced. And, indeed, this is evident to the eye;

for, in one part, we have the figure of a wain, in another of

a bear, of a bull, and of a letter[4]; while, in the middle of them,

over our heads, there is a white circle[5].



(4.) With respect to the name, I am influenced by the

unanimous opinions of all nations. For what the Greeks,

from its being ornamented, have termed ko/smos, we, from its

perfect and complete elegance, have termed mundus. The

name clum, no doubt, refers to its being engraven, as it







were, with the stars, as Varro suggests[6]. In confirmation of

this idea we may adduce the Zodiac[7], in which are twelve

figures of animals; through them it is that the sun has continued its

course for so many ages.







1. See Ptolemy, ubi supra.

2. This opinion, which was maintained by Pythagoras, is noticed and

derided by Aristotle, De Clo, lib. ii. cap. 9. p. 4623. A brief account

of Pythagoras's doctrine on this subject is contained in Enfield's Philosophy, i. 386.

3. Pliny probably here refers to the opinion which Cicero puts into the

mouth of one of the interlocutors in his treatise De Nat. Deor. ii. 47,

"Quid enim pulchrius ea figura, qu sola omnes alias figuras complexa

continet, quque nihil asperitatis habere, nihil offensionis potest, nihil

incisum angulis, nihil anfractibus, nihil eminens, nihil lacunosum?"

4. The letter D, in the

constellation of the triangle; it is named

Deltwto\n by Aratus, 1. 235; also by Manilius, i. 360. We may

remark, that,

except in this one case, the constellations have no visible resemblance to

the objects of which they bear the name.

5. "Locum hunc Plinii de

Galaxia, sive Lactea via, interpretantur omnes

docti." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 227. It may be remarked, that the

word vertex is here used in the sense of the astronomical term zenith,

not to signify the pole.

6. De Ling. Lat. lib. iv. p. 7, 8. See also the remarks on the derivation of

the word in Gesner, Thes., in loco.

7. "Signifer." The English term is taken from the Greek word

Zwdiako\s, derived from Zw=on; see Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. 2. p. 602.

The word Zodiacus does not occur in Pliny, nor is it employed by

Ptolemy; he names it loco(s ku/klos, obliquus circulus; Magn. Const. i.

7, 13, et alibi. It is used by Cicero, but professedly as a Greek term;

Divin. ii. 89, and Arati Phnom. 1. 317. It occurs in Hyginus, p. 57

et alibi, and in A. Gellius, 13. 9. Neither signifer taken substantively,

nor zodiacus occur in Lucretius or in Manilius.




4. Chap. 4. (5.)-Of The Elements And The Planets .


CHAP. 4. (5.)-OF THE ELEMENTS[1] AND THE PLANETS[2].



I do not find that any one has doubted that there are

four elements. The highest of these is supposed to be fire,

and hence proceed the eyes of so many glittering stars. The

next is that spirit, which both the Greeks and ourselves call

by the same name, air[3]. It is by the force of this vital principle,

pervading all things and mingling with all, that the

earth, together with the fourth element, water, is balanced in







the middle of space. These are mutually bound together, the

lighter being restrained by the heavier, so that they cannot

fly off; while, on the contrary, from the lighter tending upwards, the heavier are so suspended, that they cannot fall

down. Thus, by an equal tendency in an opposite direction,

each of them remains in its appropriate place, bound together

by the never-ceasing revolution of the world, which always

turning on itself, the earth falls to the lowest part and is in

the middle of the whole, while it remains suspended in the

centre[4], and, as it were, balancing this centre, in which it is

suspended. So that it alone remains immoveable, whilst all

things revolve round it, being connected with every other

part, whilst they all rest upon it.



(6.) Between this body and the heavens there are suspended, in

this arial spirit, seven stars[5], separated by determinate

spaces, which, on account of their motion, we call wander-







ing, although, in reality, none are less so[6]. The sun is carried

along in the midst of these, a body of great size and power,

the ruler, not only of the seasons and of the different climates,

but also of the stars themselves and of the heavens[7]. When

we consider his operations, we must regard him as the life,

or rather the mind of the universe, the chief regulator and

the God of nature; he also lends his light to the other stars[8].

He is most illustrious and excellent, beholding all things

and hearing all things, which, I perceive, is ascribed to him

exclusively by the prince of poets, Homer[9].







1. The account of the elements, of their nature, difference, and, more

especially, the necessity of their being four, are fully discussed by

Aristotle in various parts of his works, more particularly in his treatise

De Clo, lib. iii. cap. 3, 4 and 5, lib. iv. cap. 5, and De Gener. et Cor.

lib. ii. cap. 2, 3, 4 and 5. For a judicious summary of the opinions of

Aristotle on this subject, I may refer to Stanley's History of Philosophy;

Aristotle, doctrines of, p. 2. 1. 7, and to Enfield, i. 764 et seq. For

the Epicurean doctrine, see Lucretius, i. 764 et seq.

2. Although the word planeta, as taken from the Greek planh/ths, is

inserted in the title of this chapter, it does not occur in any part of the

text. It is not found either in Lucretius, Manilius, or Seneca, nor, I

believe, was it used by any of their contemporaries, except Hyginus, p. 76.

The planets were generally styled stell erratic, errantes, or vag,

sidera palantia, as in Lucretius, ii. 1030, or simply the five stars, as in

Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 51, and in Seneca, Nat. Qust. vii. 24. Pliny,

by including the sun and moon, makes the number seven. Aratus calls

them pe/nt' a)/steres, l. 454.

3. "Ar." "Circumfusa undique est (terra) hac animabili spirabilique

natura, cui nomen est ar; Grcum illud quidem, sed perceptum jam

tamen usu a nobis;" Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 91.

4. "universi cardine." "Revolutionis, ut aiunt, centro. Idem Plinius,

hoc ipso libro, cap. 64, terram cli cardinem esse dicit; "Alexandre, in

Lem. i. 228. On this subject I may refer to Ptolemy, Magn. Const.

lib. i. cap. 3, 4, 6. See also Apuleius, near the commencement of his

treatise De Mundo.

5. "Sidera." The word sidus is used, in most cases, for one of the

heavenly bodies generally, sometimes for what we term a constellation,

a particular assemblage of them, and sometimes specially for an individual

star. Manilius employs the word in all these senses, as will appear by

the three following passages respectively; the first taken from the opening of his poem,

"Carmine divinas artes, et conscia fati

Sidera...."

The second, "Hc igitur texunt quali sidera tractu

Ignibus in varias clum laqueantia formas." i. 275, 276.

The third "....pectus, fulgenti sidere clarius;"i. 356.

In the Fasti of Ovid, we have examples of the two latter of these

significations:-

"Ex Ariadno sidere nosse potes;" v. 346.

"Et canis (Icarium dicunt) quo sidere noto

Tosta sitit tellus;" iv. 939, 940.

Lucretius appears always to employ the term in the general sense. J.

Obsequens applies the word sidus to a meteor; "sidus ingens clo

demissum," cap. 16. In a subsequent part of this book, chap. 18 et seq.,

our author more particularly restricts the term sidus to the planets.



6. Cicero remarks concerning them; "qu (stell) falso vocantur

errantes; "De Nat. Deor. ii. 51.

7. "....vices cierum alternat et noctium, quum sidera prsens

occultat, illustrat absens;" Hard. in Lem. i. 230.

8. "ceteris sideribus." According to Hardouin, ubi supra, "nimium

stellis errantibus." There is, however, nothing in the expression of our

author which sanctions this limitation.

9. See Iliad, iii. 277, and Od. xii. 323.




5. Chap. 5. (7.)-Of God .


CHAP. 5. (7.)-OF GOD[1].



I consider it, therefore, an indication of human weakness

to inquire into the figure and form of God. For whatever

God be, if there be any other God[2], and wherever he exists, he is

all sense, all sight, all hearing, all life, all mind[3],

and all within himself. To believe that there are a number

of Gods, derived from the virtues and vices of man[4], as

Chastity, Concord, Understanding, Hope, Honour, Clemency,







and Fidelity; or, according to the opinion of Democritus,

that there are only two, Punishment and Reward[5], indicates

still greater folly. Human nature, weak and frail as it is,

mindful of its own infirmity, has made these divisions, so

that every one might have recourse to that which he supposed

himself to stand more particularly in need of[6]. Hence we

find different names employed by different nations; the

inferior deities are arranged in classes, and diseases and

plagues are deified, in consequence of our anxious wish to

propitiate them. It was from this cause that a temple was

dedicated to Fever, at the public expense, on the Palatine

Hill[7], and to Orbona[8], near the Temple of the Lares, and

that an altar was elected to Good Fortune on the Esquiline.

Hence we may understand how it comes to pass that there

is a greater population of the Celestials than of human beings,

since each individual makes a separate God for himself,

adopting his own Juno and his own Genius[9]. And there

are nations who make Gods of certain animals, and even

certain obscene things[10], which are not to be spoken of,

swearing by stinking meats and such like. To suppose

that marriages are contracted between the Gods, and that,

during so long a period, there should have been no issue







from them, that some of them should be old and always grey-

headed and others young and like children, some of a dark

complexion, winged, lame, produced from eggs, living and

dying on alternate days, is sufficiently puerile and foolish.

But it is the height of impudence to imagine, that adultery

takes place between them, that they have contests and

quarrels, and that there are Gods of theft and of various

crimes[11]. To assist man is to be a God; this is the path to

eternal glory. This is the path which the Roman nobles

formerly pursued, and this is the path which is now pursued

by the greatest ruler of our age, Vespasian Augustus, he

who has come to the relief of an exhausted empire, as well

as by his sons. This was the ancient mode of remunerating

those who deserved it, to regard them as Gods[12]. For the

names of all the Gods, as well as of the stars that I have

mentioned above[13], have been derived from their services to

mankind. And with respect to Jupiter and Mercury, and

the rest of the celestial nomenclature, who does not admit

that they have reference to certain natural phnomena[14]?

But it is ridiculous to suppose, that the great head of all

things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs[15].







Can we believe, or rather can there be any doubt, that it is

not polluted by such a disagreeable and complicated office?

It is not easy to determine which opinion would be most

for the advantage of mankind, since we observe some who

have no respect for the Gods, and others who carry it to a

scandalous excess. They are slaves to foreign ceremonies;

they carry on their fingers the Gods and the monsters whom

they worship[16]; they condemn and they lay great stress on

certain kinds of food; they impose on themselves dreadful

ordinances, not even sleeping quietly. They do not marry

or adopt children, or indeed do anything else, without the

sanction of their sacred rites. There are others, on the contrary,

who will cheat in the very Capitol, and will forswear

themselves even by Jupiter Tonans[17], and while these thrive

in their crimes, the others torment themselves with their

superstitions to no purpose.



Among these discordant opinions mankind have discovered

for themselves a kind of intermediate deity, by which our

scepticism concerning God is still increased. For all over

the world, in all places, and at all times, Fortune is the only

god whom every one invokes; she alone is spoken of, she

alone is accused and is supposed to be guilty; she alone is

in our thoughts, is praised and blamed, and is loaded with

reproaches; wavering as she is, conceived by the generality

of mankind to be blind, wandering, inconstant, uncertain,

variable, and often favouring the unworthy. To her are referred all

our losses and all our gains, and in casting up the

accounts of mortals she alone balances the two pages of our

sheet[18]. We are so much in the power of chance, that change

itself is considered as a God, and the existence of God becomes doubtful.



But there are others who reject this principle and assign

events to the influence of the stars[19], and to the laws of our







nativity; they suppose that God, once for all, issues his

decrees and never afterwards interferes. This opinion begins to gain ground, and both the learned and the unlearned

vulgar are falling into it. Hence we have the admonitions

of thunder, the warnings of oracles, the predictions of soothsayers, and things too trifling to be mentioned, as sneezing

and stumbling with the feet reckoned among omens[20]. The

late Emperor Augustus[21] relates, that he put the left shoe on

the wrong foot, the day when he was near being assaulted

by his soldiers[22]. And such things as these so embarrass

improvident mortals, that among all of them this alone is

certain, that there is nothing certain, and that there is nothing more proud or more wretched than man. For other

animals have no care but to provide for their subsistence,

for which the spontaneous kindness of nature is all-sufficient; and

this one circumstance renders their lot more

especially preferable, that they never think about glory, or

money, or ambition, and, above all, that they never reflect

on death.



The belief, however, that on these points the Gods superintend human affairs is useful to us, as well as that the

punishment of crimes, although sometimes tardy, from the

Deity being occupied with such a mass of business, is never

entirely remitted, and that the human race was not made

the next in rank to himself, in order that they might be degraded like brutes. And indeed this constitutes the great

comfort in this imperfect state of man, that even the Deity







cannot do everything. For he cannot procure death for

himself, even if he wished it, which, so numerous are the

evils of life, has been granted to man as our chief good. Nor

can he make mortals immortal, or recall to life those who

are dead; nor can he effect, that he who has once lived shall

not have lived, or that he who has enjoyed honours shall not

have enjoyed them; nor has he any influence over past

events but to cause them to be forgotten. And, if we illustrate the nature of our connexion with God by a less serious

argument, he cannot make twice ten not to be twenty, and

many other things of this kind. By these considerations the

power of Nature is clearly proved, and is shown to be what

we call God. It is not foreign to the subject to have digressed into these matters, familiar as they are to every one,

from the continual discussions that take place respecting

God[23].







1. It is remarked by Enfield, Hist. of Phil. ii. 131, that "with respect

to philosophical opinions, Pliny did not rigidly adhere to any sect....

He reprobates the Epicurean tenet of an infinity of worlds; favours the

Pythagorean notion of the harmony of the spheres; speaks of the universe

as God, after the manner of the Stoics, and sometimes seems to pass over

into the field of the Sceptics. For the most part, however, he leans to

the doctrine of Epicurus."

2. "Si alius est Deus quam sol," Alexandre in Lem. i. 230. Or rather,

if there be any God distinct from the world; for the latter part of the

sentence can scarcely apply to the sun. Poinsinet and Ajasson, however,

adopt the same opinion with M. Alexandre; they translate the passage,

"s'il en est autre que le soleil," i. 17 and ii. 11.

3. "totus anim, totus animi;" "Anima est qua vivinus, animus quo

sapimus." Hard. in Lem. i. 230, 231. The distinction between these two

words is accurately pointed out by Lucretius, iii. 137 et seq.

4. "fecerunt (Athenienses) Contumeli fanum et Impudenti." Cicero,

De Leg. ii. 28. See also Bossuet, Discours sur l'Histoire univ. i. 250.

5. The account which Cicero gives us of the opinions of Democritus

scarcely agrees with the statement in the text; see De Nat. Deor. i. 120.

6. "In varios divisit Deos numen unicum, quod Plinio clum est aut

mundus; ejusque singulas partes, aut, ut philosophi aiunt, attributa, separatim coluit; "Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 231.

7. "Febrem autem ad minus nocendum, templis celebrant, quorum adhue unum in Palafio...." Val. Max. ii. 6; see also lian, Var. Hist.

xii. 11. It is not easy to ascertain the precise meaning of the terms

Fanum, des, and Templum, which are employed in this place by Pliny

and Val. Maximus. Gesner defines Fanum "area templi et solium,

templum vero dificium;" but this distinction, as he informs us, is not

always accurately observed; there appears to be still less distinction

between des and Templum; see his Thesaurus in loco, also Bailey's

Facciolati in loco.

8. "Orbona est Orbitalis dea." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 231.

9. "Appositos sibi statim ab ortu custodes credebant, quos viri Genios,

Junones fmin vocabant." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 232. See Tibullus,

4. 6. 1, and Seneca, Epist. 110, sub init.

10. We may suppose that our author here refers to the popular mythology

of the Egyptians; the "ftidi cibi" are mentioned by Juvenal; "Porrum

et cpe nefas violare et frangere morsu," xv. 9; and Pliny, in a subsequent

part of his work, xix. 32, remarks, "Allium ceepeque inter Deos in jurejurando habet gyptus."

11. See Cicero, De Nat. Deor. i. 42 et alibi, for an illustration of these

remarks of Pliny.

12. This sentiment is elegantly expressed by Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 62,

and by Horace, Od. iii. 3. 9 et seq. It does not appear, however, that

any of the Romans, except Romulus, were deified, previous to the adulatory

period of the Empire.

13. "Planetarum nempe, qui omnes nomina mutuantur a diis." Alexandre

in Lemaire, i. 234.

14. This remark may be illustrated by the following passage from Cicero,

in the first book of his treatise De Nat. Deor. Speaking of the doctrine

of Zeno, he says, "neque enim Jovem, neque Junonem, neque Vestam,

neque quemquam, qui ita appelletur, in deorum habet numero: sed rebus

manimis, atque mutis, per quandam significationem, hc docet tributa

nomina." "Idemque (Chrysippus) disputat, thera esse eum, quem

homines Jovem appellant: quique ar per maria manaret, eum esse Nep-

tunum: terramque eam esse, qu Ceres diceretur: similique ratione

persequitur vocabula reliquorum deorum."

15. The following remarks of Lucretius and of Cicero may serve to illustrate the opinion here expressed by our author:-

"Omnis enim per se Divum natura necesse est

Immortal vo summa cum pace fruatur,

Semota ab nostris rebus, sejunctaque longe; "Lucretius, i. 5769.

"Quod ternum beatumque sit, id nec habere ipsum negotii quidquam,

nec exhibere alteri; itaque neque ira neque gratia teneri, quod,

qu

talia essent, imbecilla essent omnia." Cicero, De Nat. Deor. i. 45.

16. The author here alludes to the figures of the Egyptian deities that

were engraven on rings.

17. His specific office was to execute vengeance on the impious.

18. "sola utramque paginam facit." The words utraque pagina

generally refer to the two sides of the same sheet, but, in this

passage, they

probably mean the contiguous portions of the same surface.

19. "astroque suo eventu assignat;" the word astrum appears to be

synonymous with sidus, generally signifying a single star, and, occasionally, a constellation; as in Manilius, i. 541, 2.

"....quantis bis sena ferantur

Finibus astra...."

It is also used by synecdoche for the heavens, as is the case with the

English word stars. See Gesner's Thesaurus.

20. "Qu si suscipiamus, pedis offensio nobis...et sternutamenta erunt

observanda." Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 84.

21. "Divus Augustus." The epithet divus may be regarded as merely a

term of court etiquette, because all the Emperors after death were deified

ex officio.

22. We learn the exact nature of this ominous

accident from Suetonius;

"....si mane sibi calceus perperam, et sinister pro dextro induceretur;"

Augustus, Cap. 92. From this passage it would appear, that the Roman

sandals were made, as we term it, right and left.

23. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the opinions here stated respecting the Deity are taken partly from the tenets of the Epicureans,

combined with the Stoical doctrine of Fate. The examples which are adduced to prove the power of fate over the Deity are, for the most part,

rather verbal than essential.




6. Chap. 6. (8.)-Of The Nature Of The Stars; Of The Motion Of The Planets.


CHAP. 6. (8.)-OF THE NATURE OF THE STARS; OF THE

MOTION OF THE PLANETS.



Let us return from this digression to the other parts

of nature. The stars which are described as fixed in the

heavens[1], are not, as the vulgar suppose, attached each of

them to different individuals[2], the brighter to the rich, those

that are less so to the poor, and the dim to the aged, shining

according to the lot of the individual, and separately assigned

to mortals; for they have neither come into existence, nor







do they perish in connexion with particular persons, nor

does a falling star indicate that any one is dead. We are

not so closely connected with the heavens as that the shining

of the stars is affected by our death[3]. When they are supposed to

shoot or fall[4], they throw out, by the force of their

fire, as if from an excess of nutriment, the superabundance

of the humour which they have absorbed, as we observe to

take place from the oil in our lamps, when they are burning[5].

The nature of the celestial bodies is eternal, being interwoven, as

it were, with the world, and, by this union, rendering it solid; but

they exert their most powerful influence

on the earth. This, notwithstanding its subtilty, may be

known by the clearness and the magnitude of the effect, as

we shall point out in the proper place[6]. The account of the

circles of the heavens will be better understood when we

come to speak of the earth, since they have all a reference to

it; except what has been discovered respecting the Zodiac,

which I shall now detail.



Anaximander the Milesian, in the 58th olympiad[7], is said

to have been the first who understood its obliquity, and thus

opened the road to a correct knowledge of the subject[8].







Afterwards Cleostratus made the signs in it, first marking

those of Aries and Sagittarius; Atlas had formed the sphere

long before this time[9]. But now, leaving the further consideration of this subject, we must treat of the bodies that

are situated between the earth and the heavens[10].



It is certain that the star called Saturn is the highest, and

therefore appears the smallest, that he passes through the

largest circuit, and that he is at least thirty years in completing

it[11]. The course of all the planets, and among others

of the Sun, and the Moon, is in the contrary direction to

that of the heavens[12], that is towards the left, while the hea-







vens are rapidly carried about to the right[13]. And although,

by the stars constantly revolving with immense velocity,

they are raised up, and hurried on to the part where they

set, yet they are all forced, by a motion of their own, in an

opposite direction[14]; and this is so ordered, lest the air, being

always moved in the same direction, by the constant whirling

of the heavens, should accumulate into one mass, whereas

now it is divided and separated and beaten into small pieces,

by the opposite motion of the different stars. Saturn is a

star of a cold and rigid nature, while the orbit of Jupiter is

much lower, and is carried round in twelve years[15]. The next

star, Mars, which some persons call Hercules[16], is of a fiery

and burning nature, and from its nearness to the sun is carried

round in little less than two years[17]. In consequence of

the excessive heat of this star and the rigidity of Saturn,

Jupiter, which is interposed between the two, is tempered

by both of them, and is thus rendered salutary. The path

of the Sun consists of 360 degrees; but, in order that the

shadow may return to the same point of the dial[18], we are

obliged to add, in each year, five days and the fourth part of

a day. On this account an intercalary day is given to every

fifth year[19], that the period of the seasons may agree with

that of the Sun.







Below the Sun[20] revolves the great star called Venus, wandering

with an alternate motion[21], and, even in its surnames,

rivalling the Sun and the Moon. For when it precedes the

day and rises in the morning, it receives the name of Lucifer,

as if it were another sun, hastening on the day. On the

contrary, when it shines in the west, it is named Vesper, as

prolonging the light, and performing the office of the moon.

Pythagoras, the Samian, was the first who discovered its

nature[22], about the 62nd olympiad, in the 222nd year of the

City[23]. It excels all the other stars in size, and its brilliancy

is so considerable, that it is the only star which produces a

shadow by its rays. There has, consequently, been great

interest made for its name; some have called it the star of







Juno[24], others of Isis, and others of the Mother of the Gods.

By its influence everything in the earth is generated. For,

as it rises in either direction, it sprinkles everything with

its genial dew, and not only matures the productions of the

earth, but stimulates all living things[25]. It completes the

circuit of the zodiac in 348 days, never receding from the

sun more than 46 degrees, according to Timus[26].



Similarly circumstanced, but by no means equal in size

and in power, next to it, is the star Mercury, by some called

Apollo[27]; it is carried in a lower orbit, and moves in a course

which is quicker by nine days, shining sometimes before the

rising of the sun, and at other times after its setting, but

never going farther from it than 23 degrees[28], as we learn

from Timus and Sosigenes[29]. The nature of these two stars

is peculiar, and is not the same with those mentioned above,

for those are seen to recede from the sun through one-third

or one-fourth part of the heavens, and are often seen opposite

to it. They have also other larger circuits, in which they







make their complete revolutions, as will be described in the

account of the great year[30].



(9.) But the Moon[31], which is the last of the stars, and the

one the most connected with the earth, the remedy provided

by nature for darkness, excels all the others in its admirable

qualities. By the variety of appearances which it assumes, it

puzzles the observers, mortified that they should be the most

ignorant concerning that star which is the nearest to them.

She is always either waxing or waning; sometimes her disc

is curved into horns, sometimes it is divided into two equal

portions, and at other times it is swelled out into a full orb;

sometimes she appears spotted[32] and suddenly becomes very

bright; she appears very large with her full orb and suddenly becomes invisible; now continuing during all the night,

now rising late, and now aiding the light of the sun during

a part of the day; becoming eclipsed and yet being visible

while she is eclipsed; concealing herself at the end of the

month and yet not supposed to be eclipsed[33]. Sometimes

she is low down, sometimes she is high up, and that not according to one uniform course, being at one time raised up







to the heavens, at other times almost contiguous to the

mountains; now elevated in the north, now depressed in the

south; all which circumstances having been noticed by Endymion, a report was spread about, that he was in love with

the moon[34]. We are not indeed sufficiently grateful to those,

who, with so much labour and care, have enlightened us with

this light[35]; while, so diseased is the human mind, that we

take pleasure in writing the annals of blood and slaughter,

in order that the crimes of men may be made known to those

who are ignorant of the constitution of the world itself.



Being nearest to the axis[36], and therefore having the smallest orbit, the Moon passes in twenty-seven days and the one-third part of a day[37], through the same space for which Saturn,

the highest of the planets, as was stated above, requires thirty

years. After remaining for two days in conjunction with the

sun, on the thirtieth day she again very slowly emerges to pursue her accustomed course[38]. I know not whether she ought

not to be considered as our instructress in everything that can

be known respecting the heavens; as that the year is divided

into the twelve divisions of the months, since she follows the

sun for the same number of times, until he returns to the

commencement of his course; and that her brightness, as

well as that of the other stars, is regulated by that of the

sun, if indeed they all of them shine by light borrowed from

him, such as we see floating about, when it is reflected from

the surface of water. On this account it is that she dissolves

so much moisture, by a gentle and less perfect force, and

adds to the quantity of that which the rays of the sun con-







sume[39]. On this account she appears with an unequal light,

because being full only when she is in opposition, on all the

remaining days she shows only so much of herself to the

earth as she receives light from the sun[40]. She is not seen

in conjunction, because, at that time, she sends back the

whole stream of light to the source whence she has derived

it. That the stars generally are nourished by the terrestrial

moisture is evident, because, when the moon is only half visible she is sometimes seen spotted, her power of absorbing

moisture not having been powerful enough; for the spots

are nothing else than the dregs of the earth drawn up along

with the moisture[41]. (10.) But her eclipses and those of the

sun, the most wonderful of all the phnomena of nature, and

which are like prodigies, serve to indicate the magnitude of

these bodies and the shadow[42] which they cast.











1. "affixa mundo." The peculiar use of the word mundus in this passage is worthy of remark, in connexion with note1, ch. 1. page 13.

2. We have many references in Pliny to the influence of the stars upon

the earth and its inhabitants, constituting what was formerly regarded as

so important a science, judicial astrology. Ptolemy has drawn up a

regular code of it in his "Centum dicta," or "Centiloquiums." We

have a highly interesting account of the supposed science, its origin, progress, and general principles, in Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences, p. 293 et seq. I may also refer to the same work for a sketch of

the history of astronomy among the Greeks and the other nations of

antiquity.

3. There are certain metaphorical expressions, which have originated

from this opinion, adopted by the moderns; "his star is set;" "the

star of his fortune," &c.

4. Ovid, when he compares Phaton to a falling star, remarks, concerning this meteor,-

"Etsi non cecidit, potuit ceeidisse videri." Metam. ii. 322.

5. Manilius supposes that comets are produced and rendered luminous

by an operation very similar to the one described in the text; i. 815 et seq.

Seneca, in the commencement of his Nat. Qust., and in other parts of

the same treatise, refers to this subject. His remarks may be worth

perusing by those who are curious to learn the hypotheses of the ancients

on subjects of natural science. We may remark, that Seneca's opinions

are, on many points, more correct than our author's.

6. The author probably refers to that part of his work in which he

treats on agriculture, particularly to the 17th and 18th books.

7. The ra of the Olympiads commenced in the year 776 before Christ;

each olympiad consists of 4 years; the 58th olympiad will therefore

include the interval 548 to 544 B.C. The 21st vol. of the "Universal

History" consists entirely of a "chronological table," and we have a

useful table of the same kind in Brewster's Encycl., article "Chronology."

8. "rerum fores aperuisse....traditur." An account of the

astronomy of Anaximander is contained in Brewster's Encycl., article

"Astronomy," p. 587, and in the article "Anaximander" in the

supplement to the same work by Scott of Aberdeen. I may remark, that these two

accounts do not quite agree in their estimate of his merits; the latter

author considers his opinions more correct. We have also an account of

Anaximander in Stanley, pt. 2. p. 1 et seq., and in Enfield,

i. 154 et seq.

9. In the translation of Ajasson, ii. 2617, we have some

valuable observations by Marcus, respecting the origin and progress

of astronomy

among the Greeks, and the share which the individuals mentioned in the

text respectively had in its advancement; also some interesting remarks

on the history of Atlas. Diodorus Siculus says, that "he was the first

that discovered the knowledge of the sphere; whence arose the common

opinion, that he carried the world upon his shoulders." Booth's trans.

p. 115.

10. "nune relicto mundi ipsius corpore, reliqua inter clum terrasque

tractentur." I have already had occasion to remark upon the various

modes in which the author uses the word mundius; by clum, in this

passage, he means the body or region beyond the planets, which is conceived to contain the fixed stars. Sphra, in the preceding sentence,

may be supposed to mean the celestial globe.

11. "ac trigesimo anno ad brevissima sedis su principia regredi;" I

confess myself unable to offer any literal explanation of this passage; nor

do the remarks of the commentators appear to me satisfactory; see Hardouin and Alexandre in Lemaire, ii. 241, 2. It is translated by Ajasson

"en trente ans il reviens l'espace minime d'o il est parti." The period of the sidereal revolutions of the planets, as stated by Mrs. Somerville, in her "Mechanism of the Heavens," and by Sir J. Herschel, in

his "Treatise on Astronomy," are respectively as follows:-



days.days.

Mercury87c970587c9692580

Venus224c7224c7007869

Earth365c2564365c2563612

Mars686c99686c9796458

Jupiter4332c654332c5848212

Saturn10759c410759c2198174

Somerville, p. 358.Herschel, p. 416.


12. "'mundo;' hoc est, clo inerrantium stellarum." Hardouin, in

Lemaire, ii. 242.



13. Our author supposes, that the spectator has his face directed towards

the south, as is the case with the modern observers. We are, however,

informed by Hardouin, that this was not the uniform practice among the

ancients; see the remarks of Alexandre in Lemaire, ii. 242, and of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 269.

14. The constant revolution refers to the apparent daily motion; the

opposite direction to their annual course through the zodiac. Ptolemy

gives an account of this double motion in his Magna Constructio, i. 7.

15. For the exact period, according to Somerville and Herschel, see

note3, p. 27.

16. Aristotle informs us, that Mars was also called Hercules or Pyrosis;

De Mundo, cap. ii. p. 602. See also Apuleius, De Mundo, 710. Hyginus is said by Hardouin to give the name of Hercules to the planet

Mars, but this appears to be an inaccuracy; he describes the planet under

its ordinary appellation; lib. ii. p. 62; and ii. 78, 9.

17. Cicero, speaking of the period of Mars, says, "Quatuor et viginti

mensibus, sex, ut opinor, diebus minus;" De Nat. Deor. For the exact

period, see note3, p. 27.

18. "Sed ut observatio umbrarum ejus redeat ad notas." According to

the interpretation ot Hardouin, "Ad easdem lineas in solari horologio."

Lemaire, ii. 243.

19. This is an example of the mode of computation which we meet with

among the ancients, where, in speaking of the period of a revolution, both

the time preceding and that following the interval are included.

20. The division of the planets into superior and inferior was not known

to Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. ii. p. 602, to Plato, Timus, p. 318, 319, or

the older Greek astronomers. It was first made by the Egyptians, and

was transferred from them to the Romans. It is one of the points in

which our author differs from Aristotle. See the remarks of Marcus in

Ajasson, ii. 242 et seq. Marcus notices the various points which prove

the deficiency of Pliny's knowledge of astronomy; he particularizes the

four following :-his ignorance of the true situation of the constellations;

his erroneous opinion respecting the cause of the seasons; his account of

the phases of the moon, and of the position of the cardinal points. He

appears not to have been aware, that certain astronomical phnomena

undergo a regular progression, but supposed that they remained, at the

time when he wrote, in the same state as in the age of Hipparchus or

the original observers. Columella, when treating on these subjects, describes the phnomena according to the ancient calculation, but he informs

us, that he adopts it, because it was the one in popular use, and better

known by the farmers (De Re Rust. ix. 14), while Pliny appears not to

have been aware of the inaccuracy.

21. "Modo solem antegrediens, modo subsequens." Hardouin in Lemaire, ii. 243.

22. It was not known to the earlier writers that Lucifer and Vesper were

the same star, differently situated with respect to the Sun. Playfair

remarks, that Venus is the only planet mentioned in the sacred

writings,

and in the most ancient poets, such as Hesiod and Homer; Outlines,

ii. 156.

23. There has been much discussion among the commentators respecting

the correctness of the figures in the text; according to the sera of the

olympiads, the date referred to will be between the years 750 and 754 B.C.;

the foundation of Rome is commonly referred to the year 753 B.C. See

the remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 278, 9.

24. Aristotle informs us, that it was called either Phosphorus, Juno, or

Venus; De Mundo, cap. 2. t. i. p. 602. See also Hyginus, Poet. Astr.

lib. iii. p. 76, 7; and Apuleius, De Mundo, 710.

25. It will be scarcely necessary to refer the reader to the well-known

commencement of Lucretius's poem for the illustration of this passage;

it is remarkable that Pliny does not refer to this writer.

26. The periodical revolution of Venus is 224c7 days, see

note3, p. 27. Its

greatest elongation is 471?; Somerville, 641. p. 391.

27. According to Aristotle, this planet had the three appellations of

Stilbon, Mercury, and Apollo; De Mundo, cap. 2. p. 602; see also Apuleius, De Mundo, 710. Cicero inverts the order of the planets; he

places Mercury next to Mars, and says of Venus, that it is "infima

quinque errantium, terrque proxima;" De Nat. Deor. ii. 53. Aristotle

places the stars in the same order, ubi supra, and he is followed in this

by Apuleius, ubi supra; this appears to have been the case with the

Stoics generally; see Enfield's Phil. i. 339.

28. For the periodical revolution of Mercury see note3, p. 27. Its greatest

elongation, according to Playfair, p. 160, is 28 . Mrs. Somerville,

p. 386, states it to be 288?. Ptolemy supposed it to be

26c5 degrees;

Almagest, ix. 7. We learn from Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 246, that there

is considerable variation in the MSS. with respect to the greatest elongation of Mercury.

29. Sosigenes was an Egyptian mathematician and astronomer, who is

said to have assisted Csar in the formation of his Kalendar, as our

author informs us in a subsequent part of his work, xviii. 25; see also

Aikin, Gen. Biog., in loco; Enfield's Phil. ii. 96; Whewell, p. 210; and

Hardouin's "Index Auctorum," in Lemaire, i. 213.

30. Concerning the "magnus annus" Cicero remarks, "efficitur cum

solis et lun et quinque errantium ad eandem inter se comparationem,

confectis omnibus spatiis, est facta conversio." De Nat. Deor. ii. 51.

See the remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 2813.

31. For the various appellations which the moon has received in the

ancient and modern languages, and their relation to each other, the reader

is referred to the learned remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 2835.

32. Marcus conceives that the epithet maculosa does not refer to what

are called the spots on the moon, but to the circumstance of the edge of

the disc being not illuminated when it is near the full; Ajasson, ii. 286.

But, from the way in which the word is employed at the end of the

chapter, and from the explanation which is given of the cause of the

"macul," I think it ought to be referred to the spotted appearance of

the face of the moon.

33. "Quum laborare non creditur." It was a vulgar notion among the

ancients, that when the moon is eclipsed, she is suffering from the influence of magicians and enchanters, who are endeavouring to draw her

down to the earth, in order to aid them in their superstitious ceremonies.

It was conceived that she might be relieved from her sufferings by loud

noises of various kinds which should drown the songs of the magicians.

Allusion is frequently made to this custom by the ancient poets, as Virgil,

n. i. 742, Manilius, i. 227, and Juvenal, vi. 444; and the language has

been transferred to the moderns, as in Beattie's Minstrel, ii. 47, "To

ease of fancied pangs the labouring moon."

34. We have some interesting remarks by Marcus respecting Endymion,

and also on the share which Solon and Thales had in correcting the lunar

observations; Ajasson, ii. 288290.

35. "Lucem nobis aperuere in hac luce."

36. "Cardo."

37. Astronomers describe two different revolutions or periods of the

moon; the synodical and the sidereal. The synodical marks the time

in which the moon passes from one conjunction with the sun to the next

conjunction, or other similar position with respect to the sun. The sidereal period is the time in which the moon returns to the same position

with respect to the stars, or in which it makes a complete revolution round

the earth. These numbers are, for the synodical period,

29d 12h 44m 287s,

and for the sidereal, 27d 7h 43m

11c5s; Herschel, pp. 213, 224.

38. Our author, as Marcus remarks, "a compt par nombres ronds;"

Ajasson, ii. 291; the correct number may be found in the preceding

note.

39. It was a general opinion among the ancients, and one which was

entertained until lately by many of the moderns, that the moon

possessed

the power of evaporating the water of the ocean. This opinion appears

to have been derived, at least in part, from the effect which the moon

produces on the tides.

40. "quantum ex sole ipsa concipiat;" from this passage, taken singly,

it might be concluded, that the author supposed the quantity of light

received by the moon to differ at different times; but the succeeding

sentence seems to prove that this is not the case; see the remarks of

Alexandre in Lemaire, ii. 249. Marcus, however, takes a different

view of the

subject; Ajasson, ii. 291, 292. He had previously pointed out Pliny's

opinion respecting the phases of the moon, as one of the circumstances

which indicate his ignorance of astronomy, ut supra, ii. 245, 246.

41. This doctrine is maintained by Seneca, Qust. Nat. lib. ii.

5. p. 701,

702. From the allusion which is made to it by Anacreon, in his 19th

ode, we may presume that it was the current opinion among the ancients.

42. I may remark, that Poinsinet, in this passage, substitutes "umbra"

for "umbrque," contrary to the authority of all the MSS., merely because it accords better with his ideas of correct reasoning. Although it

may be of little consequence in this particular sentence, yet, as

such liberties are not unfrequently taken, I think it necessary to

state my opinion,

that this mode of proceeding is never to be admitted, and that it has

proved a source of serious injury to classical literature. In this account

of the astronomical phenomena, as well as in all the other scientific

dissertations that occur in our author, my aim has been to transfer

into our

language the exact sense of the original, without addition or correction.

Our object in reading Pliny is not to acquire a knowledge of natural philosophy, which might be better learned from the commonest elementary

work of the present day, but to ascertain what were the opinions of the

learned on such subjects when Pliny wrote. I make this remark, because

I have seldom if ever perused a translation of any classical author, where,

on scientific topics, the translator has not endeavoured, more or less, to

correct the mistakes of the original, and to adapt his translation to the

state of modern science.




7. Chap. 7.-Of The Eclipses Of The Moon And The Sun.


CHAP. 7.-OF THE ECLIPSES OF THE MOON AND THE SUN.



For it is evident that the sun is hid by the intervention[1]

of the moon, and the moon by the opposition[2] of the earth,

and that these changes are mutual, the moon, by her interposition[3],

taking the rays of the sun from the earth, and the

earth from the moon. As she advances darkness is suddenly

produced, and again the sun is obscured by her shade; for

night is nothing more than the shade of the earth. The

figure of this shade is like that of a pyramid or an inverted

top[4]; and the moon enters it only near its point, and it does

not exceed the height of the moon, for there is no other star

which is obscured in the same manner, while a figure of this

kind always terminates in a point. The flight of birds, when

very lofty, shows that shadows do not extend beyond a certain

distance; their limit appears to be the termination of the

air and the commencement of the ther. Above the moon

everything is pure and full of an eternal light. The stars

are visible to us in the night, in the same way that other

luminous bodies are seen in the dark. It is from these causes

that the moon is eclipsed during the night[5]. The two kinds

of eclipses are not, however, at the stated monthly periods,

on account of the obliquity of the zodiac, and the irregularly

wandering course of the moon, as stated above; besides that

the motions of these stars do not always occur exactly at the

same points[6].











1. The terms here employed are respectively interventus, objectio, and

interpositus; it may be doubted whether the author intended to employ

them in the precise sense which is indicated by their etymology.

2. The terms here employed are respectively interventus, objectio, and

interpositus; it may be doubted whether the author intended to employ

them in the precise sense which is indicated by their etymology.

3. The terms here employed are respectively interventus, objectio, and

interpositus; it may be doubted whether the author intended to employ

them in the precise sense which is indicated by their etymology.

4. "met et turbini inverso." The met were small pyramids placed

at the two extremities of the spina, or central division of the circus: see

Montfaucon, v. iii. p. 176; Adam, p. 341.

5. The eclipses of the moon are only visible when the spectator is so

situated as to be able to observe the shadow of the earth, or is on that

side of the earth which is turned from the sun.

6. "non semper in scrupulis partium congruente siderum motu." On

the term scrupulus Hardouin remarks, "Scrupuli, nodi sunt, in quibus

circuli, quos in suo cursu Sol et Luna efficiunt, se mutuo secant."

Lemaire, ii. 251. Ptolemy, Magn. Const. vi. 611, gives a full and

generally correct account of the principal phenomena of

eclipses.




8. Chap. 8. (11.)-Of The Magnitude Of The Stars.


CHAP. 8. (11.)-OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE STARS.



This kind of reasoning carries the human mind to the

heavens, and by contemplating the world as it were from

thence, it discloses to us the magnitude of the three greatest

bodies in nature[1]. For the sun could not be entirely concealed from the earth, by the intervention of the moon, if the

earth were greater than the moon[2]. And the vast size of

the third body, the sun, is manifest from that of the other

two, so that it is not necessary to scrutinize its size, by arguing from its visible appearance, or from any conjectures of

the mind; it must be immense, because the shadows of rows

of trees, extending for any number of miles, are disposed in

right lines[3], as if the sun were in the middle of space. Also,

because, at the equinox, he is vertical to all the inhabitants

of the southern districts at the same time[4]; also, because

the shadows of all the people who live on this side of the

tropic fall, at noon, towards the north, and, at sunrise, point

to the west. But this could not be the case unless the sun

were much greater than the earth; nor, unless it much exceeded Mount Ida in breadth, could he be seen when he

rises, passing considerably beyond it to the right and to the

left, especially, considering that it is separated by so great

an interval[5].







The eclipse of the moon affords an undoubted argument

of the sun's magnitude, as it also does of the small size of

the earth[6]. For there are shadows of three figures, and it is

evident, that if the body which produces the shadow be equal

to the light, then it will be thrown off in the form of a pillar,

and have no termination. If the body be greater than the

light, the shadow will be in the form of an inverted cone[7],

the bottom being the narrowest part, and being, at the same

time, of an infinite length. If the body be less than the

light, then we shall have the figure of a pyramid[8], terminating in a

point. Now of this last kind is the shadow which

produces the eclipse of the moon, and this is so manifest that

there can be no doubt remaining, that the earth is exceeded

in magnitude by the sun, a circumstance which is indeed indicated by the silent declaration of nature herself. For why

does he recede from us at the winter half of the year[9]? That

by the darkness of the nights the earth may be refreshed,

which otherwise would be burned up, as indeed it is in certain parts; so great is his size.







1. Marcus conceives that our author must here mean, not the actual,

but the apparent size of these bodies; Ajasson, ii. 295; but I do not perceive that the text authorizes this interpretation.

2. I have given the simple translation of the original as it now stands

in the MSS.; whether these may have been corrupted, or the author

reasoned incorrectly, I do not venture to decide. The commentators

have, according to their usual custom, proposed various emendations and

explanations, for which I may refer to the note of Hardouin in Lemaire,

ii. 252, with the judicious remarks of Alexandre, and to those of Marcus

in Ajasson, ii. 295298, who appear to me to take a correct view of the

subject.

3. Alexandre remarks, "Hinc tamen potius distantia quam magnitudo

Solis colligi potest." Lemaire, ii. 252. And the same remark applies

to the two next positions of our author.

4. Alexandre remarks on the argument of our author, perhaps a little

too severely, "Absurde dictum; nam aliis oritur, aliis occidit, dum aliis

est a vertice; quod vel pueri sentiunt." Lemaire, ii. 253. But we may

suppose, that Pliny, in this passage, only meant to say, that as the sun

became vertical to each successive part of the equinoctial district, no

shadows were formed in it.

5. The commentators have thought it necessary to discuss the question,

whether, in this passage, Pliny refers to the Ida of Crete or of Asia Minor.

But the discussion is unnecessary, as the statement of the author is equally

inapplicable to both of them. Mela appears to refer to this opinion in

the following passage, where he is describing the Ida of Asia Minor;

"ipse mens...orientem solem aiter quam in aliis terris solet aspici,

ostentat." lib. i. cap. 18.

6. "Ut dictum est superiore capite, quo Plinius falso contendit Terram

esse Luna minorem." Alexandre in Lemaire, ii. 253. The words of the

text, however, apply equally to the comparative size of the earth and the

sun, as of the earth and the moon.

7. "turbo rectus;" literally an upright top.

8. "meta."

9. This has been pointed out as one of our author's erroneous opinions

on astronomy. The earth is really about 1/30 nearer the sun in our winters

than in our summers. The greater degree of heat produced by his rays

in the latter case depends upon their falling on the surface of the earth

less obliquely. This is the principal cause of the different temperatures

of the equatorial and polar regions.




9. Chap. 9. (12.)-An Account Of The Observations That Have Been Made On The Heavens By Different Individuals.


CHAP. 9. (12.)-AN ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS THAT

HAVE BEEN MADE ON THE HEAVENS BY DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS.



The first among the Romans, who explained to the people

at large the cause of the two kinds of eclipses, was Sulpicius

Gallus, who was consul along with Marcellus; and







when he was only a military tribune he relieved the army

from great anxiety the day before king Perseus was conquered by

Paulus[1]; for he was brought by the general into

a public assembly, in order to predict the eclipse, of which

he afterwards gave an account in a separate treatise. Among

the Greeks, Thales the Milesian first investigated the subject, in the fourth year of the forty-eighth olympiad, predicting the eclipse of the sun which took place in the reign

of Alyattes, in the 170th year of the City[2]. After them Hipparchus calculated the course of both these stars for the term

of 600 years[3], including the months, days, and hours, the

situation of the different places and the aspects adapted to

each of them; all this has been confirmed by experience,

and could only be acquired by partaking, as it were, in the

councils of nature. These were indeed great men, superior

to ordinary mortals, who having discovered the laws of these

divine bodies, relieved the miserable mind of man from the

fear which he had of eclipses, as foretelling some dreadful







events or the destruction of the stars. This alarm is freely

acknowledged in the sublime strains of Stesichorus and Pindar, as being produced by an eclipse of the sun[4]. And with

respect to the eclipse of the moon, mortals impute it to

witchcraft, and therefore endeavour to aid her by producing

discordant sounds. In consequence of this kind of terror it

was that Nicias, the general of the Athenians, being ignorant

of the cause, was afraid to lead out the fleet, and brought

great distress on his troops[5]. Hail to your genius, ye interpreters

of heaven! ye who comprehend the nature of

things, and who have discovered a mode of reasoning by

which ye have conquered both gods and men[6]! For who is

there, in observing these things and seeing the labours[7]

which the stars are compelled to undergo (since we have

chosen to apply this term to them), that would not cheerfully submit

to his fate, as one born to die? I shall now,

in a brief and summary manner, touch on those points in

which we are agreed, giving the reasons where it is necessary

to do so; for this is not a work of profound argument, nor

is it less wonderful to be able to suggest a probable cause for

everything, than to give a complete account of a few of

them only.







1. This eclipse is calculated to have occurred on the 28th of June, 168

B.C.; Brewster's Encyc. "Chronology," p. 415, 424. We have an account

of this transaction in Livy, xliv. 37, and in Plutarch, Life of Paulus

milius, Langhorne's trans. ii. 279; he however does not mention the

name of Gallus. See also Val. Maximus, viii. 11. 1, and Quintilian, i.

10. Val. Maximus does not say that Gallus predicted the eclipse, but

explained the cause of it when it had occurred; and the same statement

is made by Cicero, De Repub. i. 15. For an account of Sulpicius, see

Hardouin's Index auctorum, Lemaire, i. 214.

2. An account of this event is given by Herodotus, Clio, 74. There

has been the same kind of discussion among the commentators,

respecting the dates in the text, as was noticed above, note 4, p.

29: see the

remarks of Brotier and of Marcus in Lemaire and Ajasson, in

loco.
Astronomers have calculated that the eclipse took place May

28th, 585 B.C.;

Brewster, ut supra, pp. 414,419.

3. Hipparchus is generally regarded as the first astronomer who

prosecuted the science in a regular and systematic manner. See

Whewell,

C. 3. p. 169 et seq., 177179. He is supposed to have made

his observations between the years 160 and 125 B.C. He made a

catalogue of the

fixed stars, which is preserved in Ptolemy's Magn. Const. The only

work of his now extant is his commentary on Aratus; it is contained in

Petau's Uranologie. We find, among the ancients, many traces of their

acquaintance with the period of 600 years, or what is termed the great

year, when the solar and lunar phenomena recur precisely at the same

points. Cassini, Mem. Acad., and Bailly, Hist. Anc. Astron., have shown

that there is an actual foundation for this opinion. See the remarks of

Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 302, 303.

4. Seneca, the tragedian, refers to this superstitious opinion in some

beautiful verses, which are given to the chorus at the termination of the

fourth act of the Thyestes.

5. We have an account of this event in Thucydides, Smith's trans. ii.

244, and in Plutarch, Langhorne's trans. iii. 406. It is calculated to

have happened Aug. 27th, 413 B.C.; Brewster, ut supra, p. 415, 421.

6. The elegant lines of Ovid, in his Fasti, i. 297 et seq., express the

same sentiment: "Felices animos, quibus hoc cognoscere primis," &c.

7. I have already remarked upon the use of this term as applied to the

eclipses of the moon in note4, p. 31.




10. Chap. 10. (13.)-On The Recurrence Of The Eclipses Of The Sun And The Moon.


CHAP. 10. (13.)-ON THE RECURRENCE OF THE ECLIPSES OF

THE SUN AND THE MOON.



It is ascertained that the eclipses complete their whole

revolution in the space of 223 months[1], that the eclipse

of the sun takes place only at the conclusion or the commencement of

a lunation, which is termed conjunction[2],







while an eclipse of the moon takes place only when she is

at the full, and is always a little farther advanced than the

preceding eclipse[3]. Now there are eclipses of both these

stars in every year, which take place below the earth, at

stated days and hours; and when they are above it[4] they are

not always visible, sometimes on account of the clouds, but

more frequently, from the globe of the earth being opposed

to the vault of the heavens[5]. It was discovered two hundred

years ago, by the sagacity of Hipparchus, that the moon is

sometimes eclipsed after an interval of five months, and the

sun after an interval of seven[6]; also, that he becomes invisible,

while above the horizon, twice in every thirty days,

but that this is seen in different places at different times.

But the most wonderful circumstance is, that while it is admitted that the moon is darkened by the shadow of the earth,

this occurs at one time on its western, and at another time

on its eastern side. And farther, that although, after the

rising of the sun, that darkening shadow ought to be below

the earth, yet it has once happened, that the moon has been

eclipsed in the west, while both the luminaries have been above

the horizon[7]. And as to their both being invisible in the

space of fifteen days, this very thing happened while the

Vespasians were emperors, the father being consul for the

third time, and the son for the second[8].











1. According to the remarks of Marcus, it appears probable that this

sol-lunar period, as it has been termed, was discovered by the Chaldeans;

Ajasson, ii. 306, 307.

2. "coitus."

3. "Hoc enim periodo (223 mensium) plerumque redeunt eclipses, non

multum differentes, denis tamen gradibus zodiaci antecedentes;" Kepler,

as quoted by Alexandre, in Lemaire, ii. 238.

4. The terms "sub terra" and "superne" are interpreted, by most of the

commentators, below and above the horizon respectively; see Marcus in

Ajasson, ii. 307.

5. "globo terr obstante convexitatibus mundi." The term convexus,

as applied to the heavens, or visible firmament, simply signifies

arched;

not opposed to concave, like the English word convex.

6. This point is discussed by Ptolemy, Magn. Const. vi. 6; "De distantia

eclipticorum mensium." See also the remarks of Hardouin in Lemaire,

ii. 260, 261; and of Poinsinet, i. 67.

7. These are styled horizontal eclipses; they depend on the refractive

power of the atmosphere, causing the sun to be visible above the horizon,

although it is actually below it. Brotier states, that eclipses of this description occurred on the 17th July, 1590, on the 30th November, 1648,

and on the 16th January, 1660; Lemaire, ii. 260.

8. This is supposed to have been in the year 72 of our ra, when it is

said that the sun was eclipsed, in Italy, on the 8th, and the moon on the

22nd of February; see Hardouin and Alexandre, in Lemaire, ii. 261.




11. Chap. 11. (14.)-Of The Motion Of The Moon.


CHAP. 11. (14.)-OF THE MOTION OF THE MOON.



It is certain that the moon, having her horns always turned

from the sun, when she is waxing, looks towards the east;

when she is waning, towards the west. Also, that, from the

second day after the change, she adds 47 1/2 minutes[1] each day,

until she is full, and again decreases at the same rate, and

that she always becomes invisible when she is within 14 degrees of the sun. This is an argument of the greater size of

the planets than of the moon, since these emerge when they

are at the distance of 7 degrees only[2]. But their altitude

causes them to appear much smaller, as we observe that,

during the day, the brightness of the sun prevents those

bodies from being seen which are fixed in the firmament,

although they shine then as well as in the night: that this

is the case is proved by eclipses, and by descending into very

deep wells.







1. In a subsequent part of the work, xviii. 75, the author gives a

different rate of increase, viz. 51 1/2 minutes; neither of these

numbers is

correct; the mean rate of increase being, according to Alexandre, about

54? or 55?; Lemaire, ii. 261, 262. See also Marcus in Ajasson,

ii. 31114.

2. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the effect, as here stated, has

no connexion with the supposed cause.




12. Chap. 12. (15.)-Of The Motions Of The Planets And The General Laws Of Their Aspects .


CHAP. 12. (15.)-OF THE MOTIONS OF THE PLANETS AND

THE GENERAL LAWS OF THEIR ASPECTS[1].



The three planets, which, as we have said, are situated

above the sun[2], are visible when they come into conjunction

with him. They rise visibly[3] in the morning, when they are

not more than 11 degrees from the sun[4]; they are afterwards

directed by the contact of his rays[5], and when they attain

the trine aspect, at the distance of 120 degrees, they take

their morning stationary positions[6], which are termed pri-







mary; afterwards, when they are in opposition to the sun, they

rise at the distance of 180 degrees from him. And again advancing on the other side to the 120th degree, they attain their

evening stations, which are termed secondary, until the sun

having arrived within 12 degrees of them, what is called their

evening setting becomes no longer visible[7]. Mars, as being

nearer to the sun, feels the influence of his rays in the quadrature,

at the distance of 90 degrees, whence that motion receives

its name, being termed, from the two risings, respectively the

first and the second nonagenarian[8]. This planet passes from

one station to another in six months, or is two months in each

sign; the two other planets do not spend more than four

months in passing from station to station.



The two inferior planets are, in like manner, concealed in

their evening conjunction, and, when they have left the sun,

they rise in the morning the same number of degrees distant

from him. After having arrived at their point of greatest

elongation[9], they then follow the sun, and having overtaken







him at their morning setting, they become invisible and pass

beyond him. They then rise in the evening, at the distances

which were mentioned above. After this they return back

to the sun and are concealed in their evening setting. The

star Venus becomes stationary when at its two points of

greatest elongation, that of the morning and of the evening,

according to their respective risings. The stationary points

of Mercury are so very brief, that they cannot be correctly

observed.







1. "luminum canonica."

2. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

3. They are then said, in astronomical language, to rise heliacally.

4. In the last chapter this distance was stated to be 7 degrees; see the

remarks of Alexandre, in Lemaire, ii. 263.

5. "radiorum ejus contactu reguntur." The doctrine of the ancient

astronomers was, that the motions of the planets are always governed by

the rays of the sun, according to its position, attracting or repelling them.

6. A planet appears to be stationary, i. e. to be referred to the same

point of the zodiac, when it is so situated with respect to the earth, that

a straight line passing through the two bodies forms a tangent to the

smaller orbit. The apparent motion of the planets, sometimes direct and at

other times retrograde, with their stationary positions, is occasioned by the

earth and the planets moving in concentric orbits, with different

velocities. One hundred and twenty degrees is the mean distance at

which

the three superior planets become stationary. We have an elaborate

dissertation by Marcus, on the unequal velocities of the planets, and on

their stations and retrogradations, as well according to the system of

Aristotle as to that of Copernicus; Ajasson, ii. 316 et seq. He remarks,

and, I conceive, with justice, "...ce n'est pas dans les traits d'astronomie

de nos savans que l'on doit puiser les dtails destins

claircir le texte

des chapitres xii, xiii, xiv et xv du second livre de Pline...Je ne dis

rien des commentaires de Poinsinet, d'Hardouin et d'autres savans peu

verss en matire d'astronomie, qui ont fait dire Pline les plus grandes

absurdits."

7. "Occasus planet vespertinus dicitur, quo die desinit post occasum

sois supra horizontem oculis se prbere manifestum;" Alexandre in

Lemaire, ii. 265. It is then said to set heliacally.

8. The interpretation of this passage has given rise to much discussion

among the commentators and translators; I may refer the reader to the

remarks of Poinsinet, i. 70, 71; of Alexandre in Lemaire, ii. 266; and

of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 328. I conceive the meaning of the author to be,

that while the other planets become stationary, when at 120 degrees from the

sun, Mars becomes so at 90 degrees, being detained by the rays, which act

upon him more powerfully, in consequence of his being nearer to their

source.

9. I may refer to the remarks of Marcus on the respective distances

from the sun at which Venus and Mercury become stationary, and when

they attain their greatest elongations; Ajasson, ii. 328, 329. According

to Ptolemy, Magn. Constr. lib. viii. cap. 7, the evening setting of Venus

is at 540? from the sun, and that of Mercury at 1130?.




13. Chap. 13.-Why The Same Stars Appear At Some Times More Lofty And At Other Times More Near.


CHAP. 13.-WHY THE SAME STARS APPEAR AT SOME TIMES

MORE LOFTY AND AT OTHER TIMES MORE NEAR.



The above is an account of the aspects and the occultations

of the planets, a subject which is rendered very complicated

by their motions, and is involved in much that is wonderful;

especially, when we observe that they change their size and

colour, and that the same stars at one time approach the

north, and then go to the south, and are now seen near the

earth, and then suddenly approach the heavens. If on this

subject I deliver opinions different from my predecessors, I

acknowledge that I am indebted for them to those individuals who first pointed out to us the proper mode of inquiry;

let no one then ever despair of benefiting future ages.



But these things depend upon many different causes. The

first cause is the nature of the circles described by the stars,

which the Greeks term apsides[1], for we are obliged to use

Greek terms. Now each of the planets has its own circle,

and this a different one from that of the world[2]; because the

earth is placed in the centre of the heavens, with respect to

the two extremities, which are called the poles, and also in







that of the zodiac, which is situated obliquely between them.

And all these things are made evident by the infallible results

which we obtain by the use of the compasses[3]. Hence the

apsides of the planets have each of them different centres, and

consequently they have different orbits and motions, since it

necessarily follows, that the interior apsides are the shortest.



(16.) The apsides which are the highest from the centre

of the earth are, for Saturn, when he is in Scorpio, for Jupiter

in Virgo, for Mars in Leo, for the Sun in Gemini, for Venus

in Sagittarius, and for Mercury in Capricorn, each of them

in the middle of these signs; while in the opposite signs,

they are the lowest and nearest to the centre of the earth[4].

Hence it is that they appear to move more slowly when

they are carried along the highest circuit; not that their

actual motions are accelerated or retarded, these being fixed

and determinate for each of them; but because it necessarily

follows, that lines drawn from the highest apsis must approach

nearer to each other at the centre, like the spokes of a wheel;

and that the same motion seems to be at one time greater,

and at another time less, according to the distance from the

centre.



Another cause of the altitudes of the planets is, that their

highest apsides, with relation to their own centres, are in

different signs from those mentioned above[5]. Saturn is in

the 20th degree of Libra, Jupiter in the 15th of Cancer,

Mars in the 28th of Capricorn, the Sun in the 19th of Aries,

Venus in the 27th of Pisces, Mercury in the 15th of Virgo,

and the Moon in the 3rd of Taurus.



The third cause of the altitude depends on the form of the

heavens, not on that of the orbits; the stars appearing to

the eye to mount up and to descend through the depth of

the air[6]. With this cause is connected that which depends







on the latitude of the planets and the obliquity of the zodiac.

It is through this belt that the stars which I have spoken of

are carried, nor is there any part of the world habitable, except what lies under it[7]; the remainder, which is at the poles,

being in a wild desert state. The planet Venus alone exceeds

it by 2 degrees, which we may suppose to be the cause why

some animals are produced even in these desert regions of

the earth. The moon also wanders the whole breadth of the

zodiac, but never exceeds it. Next to these the planet Mercury moves

through the greatest space; yet out of the 12 degrees (for there are

so many degrees of latitude in the zodiac[8]),

it does not pass through more than 8, nor does it go equally

through these, 2 of them being in the middle of the zodiac,

4 in the upper part, and 2 in the lower part[9]. Next to these

the Sun is carried through the middle of the zodiac, winding

unequally through the two parts of his tortuous circuit[10].

The star Mars occupies the four middle degrees; Jupiter

the middle degree and the two above it; Saturn, like the







sun, occupies two[11]. The above is an account of the latitudes as they descend to the south or ascend to the north[12].

Hence it is plain that the generality of persons are mistaken

in supposing the third cause of the apparent altitude to

depend on the stars rising from the earth and climbing up

the heavens. But to refute this opinion it is necessary to

consider the subject with very great minuteness, and to

embrace all the causes.



It is generally admitted, that the stars[13], at the time of

their evening setting, are nearest to the earth, both with

respect to latitude and altitude[14], that they are at the commencement of both at their morning risings, and that they

become stationary at the middle points of their latitudes,

what are called the ecliptics[15]. It is, moreover, acknowledged, that

their motion is increased when they are in the

vicinity of the earth, and diminished when they are removed

to a greater altitude[16]; a point which is most clearly proved

by the different altitudes of the moon. There is no doubt

that it is also increased at the morning risings[17], and that the

three superior planets are retarded, as they advance from

the first station to the second. And since this is the case, it







is evident, that the latitudes are increased from the time of

their morning risings, since the motions afterwards appear

to receive less addition; but they gain their altitude in the

first station, since the rate of their motion then begins to

diminish[18], and the stars to recede.



And the reason of this must be particularly set forth.

When the planets are struck by the rays of the sun, in the,

situation which I have described, i. e. in their quadrature,

they are prevented from holding on their straight forward

course, and are raised on high by the force of the fire[19]. This

cannot be immediately perceived by the eye, and therefore

they seem to be stationary, and hence the term station is

derived. Afterwards the violence of the rays increases, and

the vapour being beaten back forces them to recede.



This exists in a greater degree in their evening risings, the

sun being then turned entirely from them, when they are

drawn into the highest apsides; and they are then the least

visible, since they are at their greatest altitude and are

carried along with the least motion, as much less indeed as

this takes place in the highest signs of the apsides. At the

time of the evening rising the latitude decreases and becomes

less as the motion is diminished, and it does not increase

again until they arrive at the second station, when the altitude is also diminished; the sun's rays then coming from

the other side, the same force now therefore propels them

towards the earth which before raised them into the heavens,

from their former triangular aspect[20]. So different is the

effect whether the rays strike the planets from below or

come to them from above. And all these circumstances

produce much more effect when they occur in the evening

setting. This is the doctrine of the superior planets; that







of the others is more difficult, and has never been laid down

by any one before me[21].







1. "(Ayi\s, ligneus rot circulus, ab a(/ptw necto;"

Hederic in loco. The

term is employed in a somewhat different sense by the modern astronomers, to signify the point in the orbit of a planet, when it is either at the

greatest or the least distance from the earth, or the body about which it

revolves; the former being termed the apogee, aphelion, or the higher

apsis; the latter the perigee, perhelion, or lower apsis; Jennings on the

Globes, pp. 64, 65.

2. "mundo."

3. "ratione circini semper indubitata."

4. In consequence of the precession of the equinoxes these points are

continually advancing from W. to E., and are now about 30 degrees from

the situation they were in when the observations were first made by

the modern astronomers.

5. Our author here probably refers to the motions of the planets through

their epicycles or secondary circles, the centres of which were supposed

to be in the peripheries of the primary circles. See Alexandre in Lemaire, ii. 270.

6. It is to this visible appearance of convexity in the heavens that Ovid

refers in the story of Phaton, where he is describing the daily path of

the sun; Metam. ii. 6367.

7. "quam quod illi subjacet;" under this designation the author obviously meant to include the temperate zones, although it technically applies only to the part between the tropics. It is scarcely necessary to

remark, that modern discoveries have shown that this opinion respecting

the Arctic zone is not strictly correct.

8. The breadth of the zodiac, which was limited by the ancients to 12

degrees, has been extended by the modern astronomers to 18, and would

require to be much farther extended to include the newly discovered

planet. Herschel's Astronomy, 254.

9. There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the meaning of the

terms employed by our author in describing the course of the planet

Mercury through the zodiac; "medio ejus," "supra," and "infra."

Hardouin's comment is as follows: "Duas zodiaci partes seu gradus

pererrat, quum ipse per medium incedit signiferum: supra, quum deflectit

ad Aquilonem, per quatuor alias ejusdem partes vagatur: infra, quum

descendit ad Austrum, discedit duabus." Lemaire, ii. 271, 272. But

Marcus has shown that the opinion of Hardouin is inadmissible and inconsistent with the facts; Ajasson, ii. 338341. He proposes one, which

he conceives to be more correct, but we may probably be led to the conclusion, that the imperfect knowledge and incorrect opinions of our author on these subjects must render it impossible to afford an adequate

explanation.

10. "flexuoso draconum meatu;" Poinsinet remarks, "Les Grecs...

appellaient dragons les bracelets, les hausse-cols, les chainettes, et gnralement tout ce qui avait une figure armillaire;" i. 79, 80.

11. As this remark appears to contradict what was said in the last

sentence respecting the sun, we may suspect some error in the text;

see Poinsinet, Alexandre, and Marcus, in loco.

12. The following comparative statement is given by Alexandre of the

geocentric latitudes of the planets, as assigned by Pliny, and as laid down

by the moderns. Lemaire, ii. 273:-



Pliny.Moderns.

Venus8 922?

Moon66 0

Mercury56 54

Mars20?151?

Jupiter1 301 30

Saturn1 (or 2 ?2 30


13. It appears from the remark at the end of this chapter, that this explanation applies to the superior planets alone.

14. It is not easy, as Marcus observes, Ajasson, ii. 344, 345, to comprehend the exact meaning of this passage, or to reconcile it with the other

parts of our author's theory.

15. "Ecliptica," called by the moderns the nodes; i. e. the two points

where the orbits of the planets cut the ecliptic. See the remarks of Marcus on this term; Ajasson, ii. 345, 346.

16. We may presume that our author here refers to the apparent motion

of the planets, not to their actual acceleration or retardation.

17. The editors have differed in the reading of this passage; I have followed that of Lemaire.

18. "incipit detrahi numerus." According to the explanation of

Alexandre, "numerus nempe partium quas certo temporis intervallo

emetiuntur." Lemaire, ii. 275. Marcus remarks in this place, "Dans

tout ce chapitre et dans le suivant, Pline a plac dans une

correlation de causit, tout ce qu'il croit arriver en mme

temps; mais il n'a pas prouv par-l que les phnomnes

clestes qui sont contemporains sont engendrs les uns par les

autres." Ajasson, ii. 349.

19. The hypothesis of Pliny appears to be, that the planets are affected

by the rays of the sun, and that according to the angle at which they

receive the impulse, they are either accelerated or retarded in their

course.

20. "ex priore triquetro."

21. Alexandre supposes, as I conceive justly, that our author, in this

passage, only refers to the writings of his own countrymen; Lemaire, ii.

276.




14. Chap. 14. (17.)-Why The Same Stars Have Different Motions.


CHAP. 14. (17.)-WHY THE SAME STARS HAVE DIFFERENT

MOTIONS.



I must first state the cause, why the star Venus never

recedes from the sun more than 46 degrees, nor Mercury more

than 23[1], while they frequently return to the sun within this

distance[2]. As they are situated below the sun, they have

both of them their apsides turned in the contrary direction;

their orbits are as much below the earth as those of the

stars above mentioned are above it, and therefore they cannot

recede any farther, since the curve of their apsides has no

greater longitude[3]. The extreme parts of their apsides

therefore assign the limits to each of them in the same

manner, and compensate, as it were, for the small extent of

their longitudes, by the great divergence of their latitudes[4].

It may be asked, why do they not always proceed as far as

the 46th and the 23rd degrees respectively? They in reality

do so, but the theory fails us here. For it would appear

that the apsides are themselves moved, as they never pass

over the sun[5]. When therefore they have arrived at the







extremities of their orbits on either side, the stars are then

supposed to have proceeded to their greatest distance; when

they have been a certain number of degrees within their

orbits, they are then supposed to return more rapidly, since

the extreme point in each is the same. And on this account

it is that the direction of their motion appears to be changed.

For the superior planets are carried along the most quickly

in their evening setting, while these move the most slowly;

the former are at their greatest distance from the earth

when they move the most slowly, the latter when they move

the most quickly. The former are accelerated when nearest

to the earth, the latter when at the extremity of the circle;

in the former the rapidity of the motion begins to

diminish at their morning risings, in the latter it begins to

increase; the former are retrograde from their morning to

their evening station, while Venus is retrograde from the

evening to the morning station. She begins to increase her

latitude from her morning rising, her altitude follows the

sun from her morning station, her motion being the quickest

and her altitude the greatest in her morning setting. Her

latitude decreases and her altitude diminishes from her

evening rising, she becomes retrograde, and at the same

time decreases in her altitude from her evening station.



Again, the star Mercury, in the same way, mounts up in

both directions[6] from his morning rising, and having followed

the sun through a space of 15 degrees, he becomes almost stationary for four days. Presently he diminishes his altitude,

and recedes from his evening setting to his morning rising.

Mercury and the Moon are the only planets which descend

for the same number of days that they ascend. Venus

ascends for fifteen days and somewhat more; Saturn and

Jupiter descend in twice that number of days, and Mars in

four times. So great is the variety of nature! The reason

of it is, however, evident; for those planets which are forced

up by the vapour of the sun likewise descend with difficulty.







1. According to Ptolemy, these numbers are respectively 4751? and

243?; the modern astronomers have ascertained them to be 48and 29 .

The least elongations of the planets are, according to Ptolemy, 447? and

1850?, and according to the observations of the moderns,

45and 16 ;

Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 354.

2. I have not translated the clause, "quum sint divers stell," as,

according to Hardouin, it is not found "in probatissimis codd.," and

appears to have little connexion with the other parts of the sentence;

it is omitted by Valpy and Lemaire, but is retained by Poinsinet and

Ajasson.

3. When these inferior planets have arrived at a certain apparent

distance from the sun, they are come to the extent of their orbits, as seen

from the earth.

4. "Quum ad illam Solis distantiam pervenerunt, ultra procedere non

possunt, deficiente circuli longitudine, id est, amplitudine." Alexandre in

Lemaire, ii. 277.

5. The transits of the inferior planets had not been observed by the

ancients.

6. "utroque modo;" "latitudine et altitudine;" Hardouin in Lemaire, ii. 279.




15. Chap. 15.-General Laws Of The Planets.


CHAP. 15.-GENERAL LAWS[1] OF THE PLANETS.



There are many other secrets of nature in these points, as







well as the laws to which they are subject, which might be

mentioned. For example, the planet Mars, whose course is

the most difficult to observe[2], never becomes stationary when

Jupiter is in the trine aspect, very rarely when he is 60 degrees

from the sun, which number is one-sixth of the circuit of the

heavens[3]; nor does he ever rise in the same sign with Jupiter,

except in Cancer and Leo. The star Mercury seldom has

his evening risings in Pisces, but very frequently in Virgo,

and his morning risings in Libra; he has also his morning

rising in Aquarius, very rarely in Leo. He never becomes

retrograde either in Taurus or in Gemini, nor until the 25th

degree of Cancer. The Moon makes her double conjunction

with the sun in no other sign except Gemini, while Sagittarius is the only sign in which she has sometimes no conjunction at all. The old and the new moon are visible on

the same day or night in no other sign except Aries, and

indeed it has happened very seldom to any one to have witnessed it. From this circumstance it was that the tale of

Lynceus's quick-sightedness originated[4]. Saturn and Mars

are invisible at most for 170 days; Jupiter for 36, or, at the

least, for 10 days less than this; Venus for 69, or, at the least,

for 52; Mercury for 13, or, at the most, for 18[5].







1. "Catholica."

2. "....qu (stella Martis) ut maxime excentrica volvitur, motus

etiam maxime dissonos habere diu visa est....;" Alexandre in Lemaire,

ii. 180.

3. "....qui numerus sexangulas mundi efficit formas."

4. Lynceus was one of the Argonauts and was celebrated for the acuteness of his vision; Val. Flaccus, i. 462 et seq.

5. The relative situation of these astronomical phnomena has changed

since the time of Pliny, in consequence of the precession of the equinoxes.

For an illustration and explanation of the various statements in this

chapter I may refer to the remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 368370.




16. Chap. 16. (18.)-The Reason Why The Stars Are Of Different Colours.


CHAP. 16. (18.)-THE REASON WHY THE STARS ARE OF DIFFERENT COLOURS.



The difference of their colour depends on the difference in

their altitudes; for they acquire a resemblance to those planets

into the vapour of which they are carried, the orbit of each

tinging those that approach it in each direction. A colder

planet renders one that approaches it paler, one more hot







renders it redder, a windy planet gives it a lowering aspect,

while the sun, at the union of their apsides, or the extremity

of their orbits, completely obscures them. Each of the

planets has its peculiar colour[1]; Saturn is white, Jupiter

brilliant, Mars fiery, Lucifer is glowing, Vesper refulgent,

Mercury sparkling, the Moon mild; the Sun, when he rises,

is blazing, afterwards he becomes radiating. The appearance

of the stars, which are fixed in the firmament, is also affected

by these causes. At one time we see a dense cluster of stars

around the moon, when she is only half-enlightened, and

when they are viewed in a serene evening; while, at another

time, when the moon is full, there are so few to be seen, that

we wonder whither they are fled; and this is also the case when

the rays of the sun, or of any of the above-mentioned bodies[2],

have dazzled our sight. And, indeed, the moon herself is,

without doubt, differently affected at different times by the

rays of the sun; when she is entering them, the convexity

of the heavens[3] rendering them more feeble than when they

fall upon her more directly[4]. Hence, when she is at a right

angle to the sun, she is half-enlightened; when in the trine

aspect, she presents an imperfect orb[5], while, in opposition,

she is full. Again, when she is waning, she goes through

the same gradations, and in the same order, as the three stars

that are superior to the sun[6].







1. Ptolemy's account of the colours of the planets is nearly similar to

that of our author; "Candidus color Jovialis est, rutilus Martius,

flavus

Veneris, varius Mercurii;" De Jur. Astrol. ii. 9.

2. This effect cannot be produced by any of the planets, except perhaps,

to a certain extent, by Venus.

3. "mundi."

4. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the method which Pliny

employs to explain the different phases of the moon betrays his ignorance,

not only of the cause of these particular phenomena, but of the general

principles which affect the appearance of the heavenly bodies.

5. "seminani ambitur orbe." According to the interpretation of Hardouin, "Orbe non perfecto et absoluto;" "major dimidia, minor plena;"

Lemaire, ii. 284.

6. As Alexandre justly remarks, our author refers here to the aspects

only of the planets, not to their phases; ii 284.




17. Chap. 17. (19.)-Of The Motion Of The Sun And The Cause Of The Irregularity Of The Days.


CHAP. 17. (19.)-OF THE MOTION OF THE SUN AND THE CAUSE

OF THE IRREGULARITY OF THE DAYS.



The Sun himself is in four different states; twice the night







is equal to the day, in the Spring and in the Autumn,

when he is opposed to the centre of the earth[1], in the 8th

degree of Aries and Libra[2]. The length of the day and the

night is then twice changed, when the day increases in length,

from the winter solstice in the 8th degree of Capricorn, and

afterwards, when the night increases in length from the

summer solstice in the 8th degree of Cancer[3]. The cause of

this inequality is the obliquity of the zodiac, since there is,

at every moment of time, an equal portion of the firmament

above and below the horizon. But the signs which mount

directly upwards, when they rise, retain the light for a longer

space, while those that are more oblique pass along more

quickly.







1. "centrum terr;" the equator, the part equally distant from the

two poles or extremities.

2. It may be remarked, that the equinoxes did not actually take place

at this period in the points mentioned by Pliny, but in the 28th degrees

of Pisces and Virgo respectively; he appears to have conformed to the

popular opinion, as we may learn from Columella, lib. ix. cap. 14. The

degrees mentioned above were those fixed by the Greek astronomers who

formed the celestial sphere, and which was about 138 years before the

Christian ra. See the remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 246 & 373, 374.

3. The same remark applies to this as to the former observation.




18. Chap. 18. (20.)-Why Thunder Is Ascribed To Jupiter.


CHAP. 18. (20.)-WHY THUNDER IS ASCRIBED TO JUPITER.



It is not generally known, what has been discovered by

men who are the most eminent for their learning, in consequence of their assiduous observations of the heavens, that

the fires which fall upon the earth, and receive the name of

thunder-bolts, proceed from the three superior stars[1], but

principally from the one which is situated in the middle. It

may perhaps depend on the superabundance of moisture from

the superior orbit communicating with the heat from the

inferior, which are expelled in this manner[2]; and hence it

is commonly said, the thunder-bolts are darted by Jupiter.

And as, in burning wood, the burnt part is cast off with a

crackling noise, so does the star throw off this celestial fire,

bearing the omens of future events, even the part which is







thrown off not losing its divine operation. And this takes

place more particularly when the air is in an unsettled state,

either because the moisture which is then collected excites

the greatest quantity of fire, or because the air is disturbed,

as if by the parturition of the pregnant star.







1. "siderum."

2. The hypothesis of the author is, that the excess of moisture in the

orbit of Saturn, and the excess of heat in that of Mars, unite in the orbit

of Jupiter and are discharged in the form of thunder.




19. Chap. 19. (21.)-Of The Distances Or The Stars.


CHAP. 19. (21.)-OF THE DISTANCES OR THE STARS.



Many persons have attempted to discover the distance of

the stars from the earth, and they have published as the

result, that the sun is nineteen times as far from the moon,

as the moon herself is from the earth[1]. Pythagoras, who

was a man of a very sagacious mind, computed the distance

from the earth to the moon to be 126,000 furlongs, that

from her to the sun is double this distance, and that it is

three times this distance to the twelve signs[2]; and this was

also the opinion of our countryman, Gallus Sulpicius[3].







1. Alexandre remarks, that Pliny mentions this, not as his own opinion,

but that of many persons; for, in chap. 21, he attempts to prove mathematically, that the moon is situated at an equal distance between the sun

and the earth; Lemaire, ii. 286.

2. Marcus remarks upon the inconsistency between the account here

given of Pythagoras's opinion, and what is generally supposed to have

been his theory of the planetary system, according to which the sun, and

not the earth, is placed in the centre; Enfield's Philosophy, i. 288, 289.

Yet we find that Plato, and many others among the ancients, give us the

same account of Pythagoras's doctrine of the respective distances of the

heavenly bodies; Ajasson, ii. 374. Plato in his Timus, 9. p. 312315,

details the complicated arrangement which he supposes to constitute the

proportionate distances of the planetary bodies.

3. Sulpicius has already been mentioned, in the ninth chapter of this

book, as being the first among the Romans who gave a popular

explanation of the cause of eclipses.




20. Chap. 20. (22.)-Of The Harmony Of The Stars.


CHAP. 20. (22.)-OF THE HARMONY OF THE STARS.



Pythagoras, employing the terms that are used in music,

sometimes names the distance between the Earth and the

Moon a tone; from her to Mercury he supposes to be half

this space, and about the same from him to Venus. From

her to the Sun is a tone and a half; from the Sun to Mars is

a tone, the same as from the Earth to the Moon; from him

there is half a tone to Jupiter, from Jupiter to Saturn also







half a tone, and thence a tone and a half to the zodiac.

Hence there are seven tones, which he terms the diapason

harmony[1], meaning the whole compass of the notes. In

this, Saturn is said to move in the Doric time, Jupiter in the

Phrygian[2], and so forth of the rest; but this is a refinement

rather amusing than useful.







1. "Dia\ pasw=n, omnibus tonis contextam harmoniam." Hardouin in

Lemaire, ii. 287.

2. These appellations appear to have originated from different nations

having assumed different notes as the foundation or commencement of

their musical scale. The Abb Barthelemi informs us, that "the Dorians

executed the same air a tone lower than the Phrygians, and the latter a

tone still higher than the Lydians; hence the denomination of the Dorian,

Phrygian, and Lydian modes." It appears to have been a general practice to employ the lowest modes for the slowest airs; Anacharsis's Travels,

iii. 73, 74.




21. Chap. 21. (23.)-Of The Dimensions Of The World.


CHAP. 21. (23.)-OF THE DIMENSIONS OF THE WORLD.



The stadium is equal to 125 of our Roman paces, or 625 feet[1].

Posidonius[2] supposes that there is a space of not less than

40 stadia around the earth, whence mists[3], winds and clouds[4]

proceed; beyond this he supposes that the air is pure and

liquid, consisting of uninterrupted light; from the clouded

region to the moon there is a space of 2,000,000 of stadia,







and thence to the sun of 500,000,000[5]. It is in consequence

of this space that the sun, notwithstanding his immense

magnitude, does not burn the earth. Many persons have

imagined that the clouds rise to the height of 900 stadia.

These points are not completely made out, and are difficult

to explain; but we have given the best account of them that

has been published, and if we may be allowed, in any degree,

to pursue these investigations, there is one infallible geometrical principle, which we cannot reject. Not that we can

ascertain the exact dimensions (for to profess to do this

would be almost the act of a madman), but that the mind

may have some estimate to direct its conjectures. Now it is

evident that the orbit through which the sun passes consists

of nearly 366 degrees, and that the diameter is always the third

part and a little less than the seventh of the circumference[6].

Then taking the half of this (for the earth is placed in the

centre) it will follow, that nearly one-sixth part of the immense space, which the mind conceives as constituting the

orbit of the sun round the earth, will compose his altitude.

That of the moon will be one-twelfth part, since her course

is so much shorter than that of the sun; she is therefore

carried along midway between the sun and the earth[7]. It

is astonishing to what an extent the weakness of the mind

will proceed, urged on by a little success, as in the abovementioned instance, to give full scope to its impudence!

Thus, having ventured to guess at the space between the sun

and the earth, we do the same with respect to the heavens,

because he is situated midway between them; so that we may

come to know the measure of the whole world in inches.

For if the diameter consist of seven parts, there will be

twenty-two of the same parts in the circumference; as if we

could measure the heavens by a plumb-line!



The Egyptian calculation, which was made out by Petosi-







ris and Necepsos, supposes that each degree of the lunar

orbit (which, as I have said, is the least) consists of little

more than 33 stadia; in the very large orbit of Saturn the

number is double; in that of the sun, which, as we have

said, is in the middle[8], we have the half of the sum of these

numbers. And this is indeed a very modest calculation[9],

since if we add to the orbit of Saturn the distance from him

to the zodiac, we shall have an infinite number of degrees[10].







1. Hence the passus will be equal to 5 Roman feet. If we estimate

the Roman foot at 11c6496 English inches, we shall have the miliare of

8 stadia equal to 1618 English yards, or 142 yards less than an English

statute mile. See Adam's Roman Antiquities, p. 503; also the articles

Miliare and Pes in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities;

and for the varieties of the stadium, as employed at different periods and

in different countries, see the article Stadium. The stadium which Herodotus employed in measurements of Babylon has been supposed to

consist of 490 English feet, while that of Xenophon and Strabo has been

estimated at 505; see Ed. Rev. xlviii. 190. The Abb Barthelemi

supposes the stadium to be equal to 604 English feet; Anach. Travels,

vii. 284.

2. There appears to have been two individuals of this name, who have

been confounded with each other; the one referred to by Pliny was an

astronomer of Alexandria, who flourished about 260 years B.C.; the other

was a native of Apamea, a stoic philosopher, who lived about two

centuries later; see Aikin's Biog. in loco; also Hardouin's

Index Auctorum,

Lemaire, i. 209.

3. The terms in the original are respectively nubila and

nubes. The

lexicographers and grammarians do not appear to have accurately

discriminated between these two words.

4. The terms in the original are respectively nubila and

nubes. The

lexicographers and grammarians do not appear to have accurately

discriminated between these two words.

5. The words in the text are "vicies centum millia "and "quinquies

millia."

6. Archimedes estimated that the diameter of a circle is to its circumference as 1 to 3c1416; Hutton's Diet. in loco. Ptolemy states it to be

precisely as 1 to 3; Magn. Const. i. 12.

7. The author's reasoning is founded upon the supposition of the length

of the sun's path round the earth being twelve times greater than that

of the moon's; the orbit therefore would be twelve times greater and the

radius in the same proportion.

8. "Non inter Lunam et Saturnum, sed inter Lunam et clum

affixarum stellarum, medium esse Solem modo dixerat. Quam parum sui

meminit! "Alexandre in Lem. i. 291.

9. "Qui computandi modus plurimum habet verecundi et modesti,

quum ibi sistit, nec ulterius progreditur." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 292.

10. "....ad Saturni circulum addito Signiferi ipsius intervallo,..."




22. Chap. 22. (24.)-Or The Stars Which Appear Suddenly, Or Of Comets .


CHAP. 22. (24.)-OR THE STARS WHICH APPEAR SUDDENLY,

OR OF COMETS[1].



A few things still remain to be said concerning the world;

for stars are suddenly formed in the heavens themselves; of

these there are various kinds.



(25.) The Greeks name these stars comets[2]; we name them

Crinit, as if shaggy with bloody locks, and surrounded with

bristles like hair. Those stars, which have a mane hanging

down from their lower part, like a long beard, are named

Pogoni[3]. Those that are named Aconti[4] vibrate like a dart

with a very quick motion. It was one of this kind which the

Emperor Titus described in his very excellent poem, as

having been seen in his fifth consulship; and this was the

last of these bodies which has been observed. When they

are short and pointed they are named Xiphi[5]; these are the







pale kind; they shine like a sword and are without any rays;

while we name those Discei[6], which, being of an amber colour,

in conformity with their name, emit a few rays from their

margin only. A kind named Pitheus[7] exhibits the figure of

a cask, appearing convex and emitting a smoky light. The

kind named Cerastias[8] has the appearance of a horn; it is

like the one which was visible when the Greeks fought at

Salamis. Lampadias[9] is like a burning torch; Hippias[10] is

like a horse's mane; it has a very rapid motion, like a circle

revolving on itself. There is also a white comet, with silver

hair, so brilliant that it can scarcely be looked at, exhibiting,

as it were, the aspect of the Deity in a human form. There

are some also that are shaggy, having the appearance of a

fleece, surrounded by a kind of crown. There was one,

where the appearance of a mane was changed into that of a

spear; it happened in the 109th olympiad, in the 398th year

of the City[11]. The shortest time during which any one of

them has been observed to be visible is 7 days, the longest

180 days.







1. We may remark, that our author, for the most part, adopts the

opinions of Aristotle respecting comets and meteors of all kinds, while he

pays but little attention to those of his contemporary Seneca, which however, on some points, would appear to be more correct. See the remarks

of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 244. Under the title of comets he includes, not

only those bodies which are permanent and move in regular orbits, but

such as are transient, and are produced from various causes, the nature of

which is not well understood. See Aristotle, Meteor. lib. i. cap. 6, 7,

and Seneca, Nat. Qust. lib. 7, and Manilius, i. 807 et seq.

2. a ko/mh, coma.

3. a pwgwni/os, barbatus. Most of these terms are employed by

Aristotle and by Seneca.

4. ab a)ko/ntion, jaculum.

5. a ci/fos, ensis.

6. a di/skos, orbis.

7. a pi/qos, dolium. Seneca describes this species as

"magnitudo vasti

rotundique ignis dolio similis;" Nat. Qust. lib. i. 14. p. 964.

8. a ke/ras, cornu.

9. a lampa)s, fax.

10. ab i(/ppos, equus. Seneca mentions the fax, the jaculum, and the

lampas among the prodigies that preceded the civil wars; Phars. i.

528 et seq.

11. Alexandre remarks, that these dates do not correspond, and adds,

"Desperandum est de Pliniana chronologia; nec satis interdum scio,

utrum librarios, an scriptorem ipsum incusem,...." Lemaire, i. 295.

According to the most approved modern chronology, the middle of the

109th olympiad corresponds to the 211th year of the City.




23. Chap. 23.-Their Nature, Situation, And Species.


CHAP. 23.-THEIR NATURE, SITUATION, AND SPECIES.



Some of them move about in the manner of planets[1], others

remain stationary. They are almost all of them seen towards

the north[2], not indeed in any particular portion of it, but







generally in that white part of it which has obtained the

name of the Milky Way. Aristotle informs us that several

of them are to be seen at the same time[3], but this, as far as

I know, has not been observed by any one else; also that

they prognosticate high winds and great heat[4]. They are

also visible in the winter months, and about the south pole,

but they have no rays proceeding from them. There was a

dreadful one observed by the thiopians and the Egyptians,

to which Typhon, a king of that period, gave his own name;

it had a fiery appearance, and was twisted like a spiral; its

aspect was hideous, nor was it like a star, but rather like a

knot of fire[5]. Sometimes there are hairs attached to the

planets and the other stars. Comets are never seen in the

western part of the heavens. It is generally regarded as a

terrific star, and one not easily expiated; as was the case with

the civil commotions in the consulship of Octavius, and also

in the war of Pompey and Csar[6]. And in our own age,

about the time when Claudius Csar was poisoned and

left the Empire to Domitius Nero, and afterwards, while the

latter was Emperor[7], there was one which was almost constantly seen

and was very frightful. It is thought important

to notice towards what part it darts its beams, or from what

star it receives its influence, what it resembles, and in what

places it shines. If it resembles a flute, it portends some-







thing unfavourable respecting music; if it appears in the

parts of the signs referred to the secret members, something

respecting lewdness of manners; something respecting wit

and learning, if they form a triangular or quadrangular

figure with the position of some of the fixed stars; and that

some one will be poisoned, if they appear in the head of either

the northern or the southern serpent.



Rome is the only place in the whole world where there is

a temple dedicated to a comet; it was thought by the late

Emperor Augustus to be auspicious to him, from its appearing during the games which he was celebrating in honour of

Venus Genetrix, not long after the death of his father Csar,

in the College which was founded by him[8]. He expressed

his joy in these terms: "During the very time of these games

of mine, a hairy star was seen during seven days, in the part

of the heavens which is under the Great Bear. It rose about

the eleventh hour of the day[9], was very bright, and was conspicuous

in all parts of the earth. The common people supposed the star to

indicate, that the soul of Csar was admitted

among the immortal Gods; under which designation it was

that the star was placed on the bust which was lately consecrated in

the forum[10]." This is what he proclaimed in public,

but, in secret, he rejoiced at this auspicious omen, interpreting

it as produced for himself; and, to confess the truth, it really

proved a salutary omen for the world at large[11].



Some persons suppose that these stars are permanent, and

that they move through their proper orbits, but that they are

only visible when they recede from the sun. Others suppose

that they are produced by an accidental vapour together

with the force of fire, and that, from this circumstance, they

are liable to be dissipated[12].











1. "errantium modo;" this may mean, that they move in orbits like

those of the planets and exhibit the same phnomena, or simply that

they change their situation with respect to the fixed stars.

2. Seneca remarks on this point, "Placet igitur nostris (Stoicis) cometas

....denso ari creari. Ideo circa Septemtrionem frequentissime

apparent, quia illic plurimi est aris frigor." Qusest. Nat. i. 7.

Aristotle, on the contrary, remarks that comets are less frequently

produced in the

northern part of the heavens; Meteor. lib. i. cap. 6. p. 535.

3. Ubi supra.

4. See Aristotle, ut supra, p. 537.

5. "Videtur is non cometes fuisse, sed meteorus quidam ignis;"

Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 296.

6. Virgil, Geor. i. 488 et seq., Manilius, i. 904 et seq., and Lucan, i.

526 et seq., all speak of the comets and meteors that were observed

previous to the civil wars between Pompey and Csar. In reference to

the existence of a comet about the time of Julius Csar, Playfair remarks,

that Halley supposed the great comet of 1680 to have been the same that

appeared in the year 44 A.C., and again in Justinian's time, 521 P.C., and

also in 1106; Elem. Nat. Phil. ii. 197, 198. See Ptolemy's Cent. Dict.

no. 100, for the opinion, that comets presented an omen especially

unfavourable to kings. To this opinion the following passage in the

Paradise Lost obviously refers; "And with fear of change perplexes

monarchs."

7. Seneca refers to the four comets that were seen, after the death of

Csar, in the time of Augustus, of Claudius, and of Nero; Qust. Nat. i. 7.

Suetonius mentions the comet which appeared previous to the death of

Claudius, cap. 46, and Tacitus that before the death of Nero, Ann. xiv. 22.

8. "A Julio Csare. Is enim paulo ante obitum collegium his ludis

faciendis instituerat, confecto Veneris templo; "Hardouin in Lemaire, i.

299. Jul. Obsequens refers to a "stella crinita," which appeared during

the celebration of these games, cap. 128.

9. "Hoc est, hora fere integra ante solis occasum;" Hardouin in

Lemaire, i. 299.

10. All these circumstances are detailed by Suetonius, in Julio,

88.p. 178.

11. "terris."

12. Seneca remarks, "...quidam nullos esse cometas existimant, sed

species illorum per repercussionem vicinorum siderum,....Quidam aiunt

esse quidem, sed habere cursus suos et post certa lustra in conspectum

mortalium exire." He concludes by observing, "Veniet tempus, quo ista

qu nune latent, in lucem dies extrahat, et longioris diei diligentia;"

Nat. Qust. lib. 7. 19. p. 807.




24. Chap. 24. (26.)-The Doctrine Of Hipparchus About The Stars.


CHAP. 24. (26.)-THE DOCTRINE OF HIPPARCHUS[1] ABOUT

THE STARS.



This same Hipparchus, who can never be sufficiently

commended, as one who more especially proved the relation

of the stars to man, and that our souls are a portion of

heaven, discovered a new star that was produced in his own

age, and, by observing its motions on the day in which it

shone, he was led to doubt whether it does not often happen,

that those stars have motion which we suppose to be fixed.

And the same individual attempted, what might seem presumptuous even in a deity, viz. to number the stars for

posterity and to express their relations by appropriate names;

having previously devised instruments[2], by which he might

mark the places and the magnitudes of each individual star.

In this way it might be easily discovered, not only whether

they were destroyed or produced, but whether they changed

their relative positions, and likewise, whether they were increased or diminished; the heavens being thus left as an

inheritance to any one, who might be found competent to

complete his plan.







1. For some account of Hipparchus, see note3, p. 37.

2. Nothing is known respecting the nature of these instruments, nor

have we any means of forming even a conjecture upon the subject.




25. Chap. 25.-Examples From History Of Celestial Prodigies; Faces, Lampades, And Bolides .


CHAP. 25.-EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY OF CELESTIAL PRODIGIES;

FACES, LAMPADES, AND BOLIDES[1].



The faces shine brilliantly, but they are never seen

excepting when they are falling[2] one of these darted across the







heavens, in the sight of all the people, at noon-day, when

Germanicus Csar was exhibiting a show of gladiators[3].

There are two kinds of them; those which are called lampades

and those which are called bolides, one of which latter was

seen during the troubles at Mutina[4]. They differ from each

other in this respect, that the faces produce a long train of

light, the fore-part only being on fire; while the bolides, being

entirely in a state of combustion, leave a still longer track

behind them.







1. The terms "faces," "lampades," "bolides," and "trabes," literally

torches, lamps, darts, and beams, which are employed to express different

kinds of meteors, have no corresponding words in English which would

correctly designate them.

2. From this account it would appear, that the "fax" was what we

term a falling star. "Meteora ista, super cervices nostras transeuntia,

diversaque a stellis labentibus, modo arolithis ascribenda sunt,

modo vaporibus incensis aut electrica vi prognata videntur, et

quamvis frequentissime recurrant, explicatione adhuc incerta

indigent." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 302.

3. Seneca refers to this meteor; "Vidimus non semel flammam ingenti

pil specie, qu tamen in ipso cursu suo dissipata est....nec Germanici

mors sine tali demonstratione fuit;" Nat. Qust. lib. i. cap. 1. p.

683.

4. This meteor is mentioned by Dion Cassius, lib. xlv. p. 278, but is

described by him as a lampas.




26. Chap. 26.- Trabes Celestes; Chasma Cli.


CHAP. 26.-TRABES CELESTES; CHASMA CLI.



The trabes also, which are named dokoi\[1], shine in the same

manner; one of these was seen at the time when the Lacedmonians, by

being conquered at sea, lost their influence

in Greece. An opening sometimes takes place in the firmament, which

is named chasma[2].







1. We may presume that the trabes are, for the most part,

to be referred

to the aurora borealis. The chasma and the appearances described in

the twenty-seventh chapter are probably varieties of this meteor. On

these phnomena we have the following remarks by Seneca: "Lucem in

are, seu quamdam albedinem, angustam quidem, sed oblongam, de

noctu quandoque visam, sereno clo, si parallelo situ sit, Trabem vocant;

si perpendiculari, Columnam; si, cum cuspide Bolida, siveJaculum." Nat.

Qust. vii. 4, and again, vii. 5, "Trabes autem non transcurrunt

nec prtervolant, ut faces, sed commorantur, et in

eadem parte cceli collucent."

2. Seneca describes this meteor, ubi supra, i. 14. "Sunt

chasmata, cum

aliquando cli spatium discedit, et flammam dehiscens velut in abdito

ostentat. Colores quoque horum omnium plurimi sunt. Quidam ruboris

acerrimi, quidam evanid et levis flamm, quidam candid lucis, quidam

micantes, quidam quabiliter et sine eruptionibus aut radiis

fulvi." Aristotle's account of chasmata is contained in his Meteor.

lib. i. cap. 5. p. 534.




27. Chap. 27. (27.)-Of The Colours Of The Sky And Of Celestial Flame.


CHAP. 27. (27.)-OF THE COLOURS OF THE SKY AND OF

CELESTIAL FLAME.



There is a flame of a bloody appearance (and nothing is







more dreaded by mortals) which falls down upon the earth[1],

such as was seen in the third year of the 103rd olympiad,

when King Philip was disturbing Greece. But my opinion

is, that these, like everything else, occur at stated, natural

periods, and are not produced, as some persons imagine, from a

variety of causes, such as their fine genius may suggest. They

have indeed been the precursors of great evils, but I conceive

that the evils occurred, not because the prodigies took place,

but that these took place because the evils were appointed

to occur at that period[2]. Their cause is obscure in consequence of

their rarity, and therefore we are not as well

acquainted with them as we are with the rising of the stars,

which I have mentioned, and with eclipses and many other

things.







1. The meteor here referred to is probably a peculiar form of the

aurora borealis, which occasionally assumes a red colour. See the

remarks of Fouch, in Ajasson, i. 382.

2. The doctrine of the author appears to be, that the prodigies are not

the cause, but only the indication of the events which succeed them.

This doctrine is referred to by Seneca; "Videbimus an certus omnium

rerum ordo ducatur, et alia aliis ita complexa sint, ut quod antecedit,

aut causa sit sequentium aut signum." Nat. Qust. i. 1.




28. Chap. 28. (28.)-Of Celestial Coron.


CHAP. 28. (28.)-OF CELESTIAL CORON.



Stars are occasionally seen along with the sun, for whole

days together, and generally round its orb, like wreaths made

of the ears of corn, or circles of various colours[1]; such as

occurred when Augustus, while a very young man, was

entering the city, after the death of his father, in order to

take upon himself the great name which he assumed[2]. (29.)

The same coron occur about the moon and also about the

principal stars, which are stationary in the heavens.











1. It would appear that, in this passage, two phenomena are confounded

together; certain brilliant stars, as, for example, Venus, which have been

occasionally seen in the day-time, and the formation of different kinds of

halos, depending on certain states of the atmosphere, which affect its

transparency.

2. This occurrence is mentioned by Seneca, Nat. Qust. i. 2; he enters

into a detailed explanation of the cause; also by V. Paterculus, ii. 59,

and by Jul. Obsequens, cap. 128. We can scarcely doubt of the reality

of the occurrence, as these authors would not have ventured to relate

what, if not true, might have been so easily contradicted.




29. Chap. 29.-Of Sudden Circles.


CHAP. 29.-OF SUDDEN CIRCLES.



A bow appeared round the sun in the consulship of L.

Opimius and L. Fabius[1], and a circle in that of C. Porcius

and M. Acilius. (30.) There was a little circle of a red

colour in the consulship of L. Julius and P. Rutilius.







1. The term here employed is "arcus," which is a portion only of a circle

or "orbis." But if we suppose that the sun was near the horizon, a

portion only of the halo would be visible, or the condition of the atmosphere adapted for forming the halo might exist in one part only, so that

a portion of the halo only would be obscured.




30. Chap. 30.-Of Unusually Long Eclipses Of The Sun.


CHAP. 30.-OF UNUSUALLY LONG ECLIPSES OF THE SUN.



Eclipses of the sun also take place which are portentous

and unusually long, such as occurred when Csar the Dictator

was slain, and in the war against Antony, the sun remained

dim for almost a whole year[1].







1. The dimness or paleness of the sun, which is stated by various writers

to have occurred at the time of Csar's death, it is unnecessary to remark,

was a phnomenon totally different from an eclipse, and depending on a

totally different cause.




31. Chap. 31. (31.)-Many Suns.


CHAP. 31. (31.)-MANY SUNS.



And again, many suns have been seen at the same time[1]; not

above or below the real sun, but in an oblique direction, never

near nor opposite to the earth, nor in the night, but either

in the east or in the west. They are said to have been seen

once at noon in the Bosphorus, and to have continued from

morning until sunset. Our ancestors have frequently seen

three suns at the same time[2], as was the case in the consulship of

Sp. Postumius and L. Mucius, of L. Marcius and

M. Portius, that of M. Antony and Dolabella, and that of

M. Lepidus and L. Plancus. And we have ourselves seen

one during the reign of the late Emperor Claudius, when he







was consul along with Corn. Orfitus. We have no account

transmitted to us of more than three having been seen at

the same time.







1. Aristotle, Meteor. lib. iii. cap. 2. p. 575, cap. 6. p. 582, 583, and

Seneca, Qust. Nat. lib. i. 11, describe these appearances under the

title which has been retained by the moderns of

parh/lia. Aristotle remarks on their

cause as depending on the refraction

(a)na/klasis) of the

sun's rays. He extends the remark to the production of halos (a(/lws?

and the rainbow, ubi supra.

2. This occurrence is referred to by Livy, xli. 21.




32. Chap. 32, (32.)-Many Moons.


CHAP. 32, (32.)-MANY MOONS.



Three moons have also been seen, as was the case in the

consulship of Cn. Domitius and C. Fannius; they have

generally been named nocturnal suns[1].







1. This meteor has been named paraselh/nh; they are supposed to

depend upon the same cause with the Parhelia. A phnomenon of this

description is mentioned by Jul. Obsequens, cap. 92, and by Plutarch, in

Marcellus, ii. 360. In Shakspeare's King John the death of Prince

Arthur is said to have been followed by the ominous appearance of five

moons.




33. Chap. 33. (33.)-Daylight In The Night.


CHAP. 33. (33.)-DAYLIGHT IN THE NIGHT.



A bright light has been seen proceeding from the heavens

in the night time, as was the case in the consulship of C.

Ccilius and Cn. Papirius, and at many other times, so that

there has been a kind of daylight in the night[1].







1. This phnomenon must be referred to the aurora borealis. See

Livy, xxviii. 11. and xxix. 14.




34. Chap. 34. (34.)-Burning Shields .


CHAP. 34. (34.)-BURNING SHIELDS[1].



A burning shield darted across at sunset, from west to east,

throwing out sparks, in the consulship of L. Valerius and

C. Marius[2].







1. "clypei."

2. Probably an arolite. Jul. Obsequens describes a meteor as "orbis

dypei similis," which was seen to pass from west to east, cap. 105.




35. Chap. 35. (35.)-An Ominous Appearance In The Heavens, That Was Seen Once Only.


CHAP. 35. (35.)-AN OMINOUS APPEARANCE IN THE HEAVENS,

THAT WAS SEEN ONCE ONLY.



We have an account of a spark falling from a star, and increasing

as it approached the earth, until it became of the

size of the moon, shining as through a cloud[1]; it afterwards

returned into the heavens and was converted into a lampas;

this occurred in the consulship of Cn. Octavius and C. Scri-







bonius. It was seen by Silanus, the proconsul, and his

attendants[2].







1. "ceu nubilo die."

2. It would be difficult to reconcile this phnomenon with any

acknowledged atmospherical phnomenon.




36. Chap. 36. (36.)-Of Stars Which Move About In Various Directions.


CHAP. 36. (36.)-OF STARS WHICH MOVE ABOUT IN VARIOUS

DIRECTIONS.



Stars are seen to move about in various directions, but

never without some cause, nor without violent winds proceeding from

the same quarter[1].







1. Perhaps the phnomena here alluded to ought to be referred to some

electric action; but they are stated too generally to admit of our forming

more than a conjecture on the subject. Virgil refers to the occurrence of

storms of wind after the appearance of a falling star; Geor. i. 2656.




37. Chap. 37. (37.)-Or The Stars Which Are Named Castor And Pollux .


CHAP. 37. (37.)-OR THE STARS WHICH ARE NAMED CASTOR

AND POLLUX[1].



These stars occur both at sea and at land. I have seen,

during the night-watches of the soldiers, a luminous appearance, like

a star, attached to the javelins on the ramparts.

They also settle on the yard-arms and other parts of ships

while sailing, producing a kind of vocal sound, like that of birds

flitting about. When they occur singly they are mischievous,

so as even to sink the vessels, and if they strike on the lower

part of the keel, setting them on fire[2]. When there are two

of them they are considered auspicious, and are thought to

predict a prosperous voyage, as it is said that they drive

away that dreadful and terrific meteor named Helena. On

this account their efficacy is ascribed to Castor and Pollux,

and they are invoked as gods. They also occasionally shine

round the heads of men in the evening[3], which is considered







as predicting something very important. But there is great

uncertainty respecting the cause of all these things, and they

are concealed in the majesty of nature.







1. These phnomena are admitted to be electrical; they are referred to

by Seneca, Nat. Qust. i. 1. This appearance is noticed as of frequent

occurrence in the Mediterranean, where it is named the fire of St. Elmo;

see Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 311, and Fouch in Ajasson, ii. 382.

2. Perhaps this opinion may be maintained on the principle, that, when

there is a single luminous appearance only, it depends upon the discharge

of a quantity of electrical fluid in a condensed state; its effects are, hi

this case, those that would follow from a stroke of lightning.

3. This is said by Livy to have occurred to Servius Tullius while he was

a child; lib. i. cap. 39; and by Virgil to Ascanius, n. ii. 6325.




38. Chap. 38. (38.)-Or The Air And On The Cause Of The Showers Of Stones.


CHAP. 38. (38.)-OR THE AIR AND ON THE CAUSE OF THE

SHOWERS OF STONES.



So far I have spoken of the world itself and of the stars.

I must now give an account of the other remarkable phnomena of the

heavens. For our ancestors have given the

name of heavens, or, sometimes, another name, air, to all the

seemingly void space, which diffuses around us this vital

spirit. It is situated beneath the moon, indeed much lower,

as is admitted by every one who has made observations on

it, and is composed of a great quantity of air from the upper

regions, mixed with a great quantity of terrestrial vapour, the

two forming a compound. Hence proceed clouds, thunder

and lightning of all kinds; hence also hail, frost, showers,

storms and whirlwinds; hence proceed many of the evils

incident to mortals, and the mutual contests of the various

parts of nature. The force of the stars keeps down all terrestrial

things which tend towards the heavens, and the same

force attracts to itself those things which do not go there

spontaneously. The showers fall, mists rise up, rivers are

dried up, hail-storms rush down, the rays of the sun parch

the earth, and impel it from all quarters towards the centre.

The same rays, still unbroken, dart back again, and carry

with them whatever they can take up. Vapour falls from

on high and returns again to the same place. Winds arise

which contain nothing, but which return loaded with spoils.

The breathing of so many animals draws down the spirit from

the higher regions; but this tends to go in a contrary direction, and

the earth pours out its spirit into the void space

of the heavens. Thus nature moving to and fro, as if impelled by some

machine[1], discord is kindled by the rapid

motion of the world. Nor is the contest allowed to cease,

for she is continually whirled round and lays open the causes

of all things, forming an immense globe about the earth,

while she again, from time to time, covers this other firma-







ment with clouds[2]. This is the region of the winds. Here

their nature principally originates, as well as the causes of

almost all other things[3]; since most persons ascribe the

darting of thunder and lightning to their violence. And to

the same cause are assigned the showers of stones, these

having been previously taken up by the wind, as well as

many other bodies in the same way. On this account we

must enter more at large on this subject.







1. "Ut circumagendo balist vel fund impetus augetur." Alexandre

in Lemaire, i. 313.

2. "sed assidue rapta (natura) convolvitur, et circa terram immenso rerum

causas globo ostendit, subinde per nubes clum aliud obtexens." On the

words "immenso globo," Alexandre has the following comment: "Immensis

cli fornicibus appicta sidera, dumcircumvolvitur, terris ostendit;"

and on the words "clum aliud," "obduct scilicet nubes falsum quasi

clum vero prtexunt." Lemaire, i. 313.

3. The author probably means to speak of all the atmospheric

phnomena that have been mentioned above.




39. Chap. 39. (39.)-Or The Stated Seasons.


CHAP. 39. (39.)-OR THE STATED SEASONS.



It is obvious that there are causes of the seasons and of

other things which have been stated, while there are some

things which are casual, or of which the reason has not yet

been discovered. For who can doubt that summer and

winter, and the annual revolution of the seasons are caused

by the motion of the stars[1]? As therefore the nature of the

sun is understood to influence the temperature of the year,

so each of the other stars has its specific power, which produces its

appropriate effects. Some abound in a fluid retaining its liquid

state, others, in the same fluid concreted

into hoar frost, compressed into snow, or frozen into hail;

some are prolific in winds, some in heat, some in vapours,

some in dew, some in cold. But these bodies must not be

supposed to be actually of the size which they appear, since

the consideration of their immense height clearly proves,

that none of them are less than the moon. Each of them

exercises its influence over us by its own motions; this is

particularly observable with respect to Saturn, which produces a great quantity of rain in its transits. Nor is this

power confined to the stars which change their situations,

but is found to exist in many of the fixed stars, whenever







they are impelled by the force of any of the planets, or excited by the impulse of their rays; as we find to be the case

with respect to the Sucul[2], which the Greeks, in reference

to their rainy nature, have termed the Hyades[3]. There are

also certain events which occur spontaneously, and at stated

periods, as the rising of the Kids[4]. The star Arcturus

scarcely ever rises without storms of hail occurring.







1. Marcus has made some remarks on this subject which may be read

with advantage; Ajasson, ii. 2456.

2. The diminutive of Sus.

3. Ab u(/w, pluo.

4. The Hdi were in the constellation Auriga.




40. Chap. 40. (40.)-Of The Rising Of The Dog-Star.


CHAP. 40. (40.)-OF THE RISING OF THE DOG-STAR.



Who is there that does not know that the vapour of the

sun is kindled by the rising of the Dog-star? The most

powerful effects are felt on the earth from this star. When

it rises, the seas are troubled, the wines in our cellars ferment, and stagnant waters are set in motion. There is a

wild beast, named by the Egyptians Oryx, which, when the

star rises, is said to stand opposite to it, to look steadfastly

at it, and then to sneeze, as if it were worshiping it[1]. There

is no doubt that dogs, during the whole of this period, are

peculiarly disposed to become rabid[2].







1. We have the same account of the Oryx in lian, lib. vii. cap. 8.

2. Our author again refers to this opinion, viii. 63, and it was generally

adopted by the ancients; but it appears to be entirely unfounded.




41. Chap. 41. (41.)-Of The Regular Influence Of The Different Seasons.


CHAP. 41. (41.)-OF THE REGULAR INFLUENCE OF THE DIFFERENT SEASONS.



There is moreover a peculiar influence in the different

degrees of certain signs, as in the autumnal equinox, and

also in the winter solstice, when we find that a particular

star is connected with the state of the weather[1]. It is not

so much the recurrence of showers and storms, as of various

circumstances, which act both upon animals and vegetables.

Some are planet-struck[2], and others, at stated times, are affected

in the bowels, the sinews, the head, or the intellect.







The olive, the white poplar, and the willow turn their leaves

round at the summer solstice. The herb pulegium, when

dried and hanging up in a house, blossoms on the very day

of the winter solstice, and bladders burst in consequence of

their being distended with air[3]. One might wonder at this,

did we not observe every day, that the plant named heliotrope always

looks towards the setting sun, and is, at all

hours, turned towards him, even when he is obscured by

clouds[4]. It is certain that the bodies of oysters and of

whelks[5], and of shell-fish generally, are increased in size and

again diminished by the influence of the moon. Certain

accurate observers have found out, that the entrails of the

field-mouse[6] correspond in number to the moon's age, and

that the very small animal, the ant, feels the power of this

luminary, always resting from her labours at the change of

the moon. And so much the more disgraceful is our ignorance, as every one acknowledges that the diseases in the

eyes of certain beasts of burden increase and diminish according to the age of the moon. But the immensity of the

heavens, divided as they are into seventy-two[7] constellations,

may serve as an excuse. These are the resemblances of certain things, animate and inanimate, into which the learned

have divided the heavens. In these they have announced

1600 stars, as being remarkable either for their effects or

their appearance; for example, in the tail of the Bull there

are seven stars, which are named Vergili[8]; in his forehead







are the Sucul; there is also Bootes, which follows the seven

northern stars[9].







1. "cum tempestatibus confici sidus intelligimus."

2. "afflantur." On this term Hardouin remarks, "Siderantur.

Sideratio morbi genus est, partem aliquam corporis, ipsumque ssepe

totum corpus percutientis subito: quod quum repentino eveniat impetu, e clo

vi quadam sideris evenire putatur." Lemaire, i. 317.

3. Cicero alludes to these opinions in his treatise De Divin. ii. 33; see

also Aul. Gellius, ix. 7.

4. The heliotropium of the moderns has not the property here assigned

to it, and it may be doubted whether it exists in any plant, except in a

very slight and imperfect degree: the subject will be considered more

fully in a subsequent part of the work, xxii. 29, where the author gives a

more particular account of the heliotrope.

5. "conchyliorum;" this term appears to have been specifically applied

to the animal from which the Tyrian dye was procured.

6. "soricum fibras;" Alexandre remarks on these words, "fibras

jecoris intellige, id est, lobos infimos.....;" Lemaire, i. 318; but

I do not see any ground for this interpretation.

7. It does not appear from what source our author derived this number;

it is considerably greater than that stated by Ptolemy and the older

astronomers. See the remarks of Hardouin and of Brotier; Lemaire. i.

319.

8. The Vergili or Pleiades are not in the tail of the Bull,

according to the celestial atlas of the moderns.

9. "Septemtriones."




42. Chap. 42. (42.)-Or Uncertain States Of The Weather.


CHAP. 42. (42.)-OR UNCERTAIN STATES OF THE WEATHER.



But I would not deny, that there may exist showers and

winds, independent of these causes, since it is certain that

an exhalation proceeds from the earth, which is sometimes

moist, and at other times, in consequence of the vapours,

like dense smoke; and also, that clouds are formed, either

from the fluid rising up on high, or from the air being compressed

into a fluid[1]. Their density and their substance is

very clearly proved from their intercepting the sun's rays,

which are visible by divers, even in the deepest waters[2].







1. The doctrine of Aristotle on the nature and formation of mists and

clouds is contained in his treatises De Meteor. lib. i. cap. 9. p. 540, and

De Mundo, cap. 4. p. 605. He employs the terms a)tmis\s,

ne/fos, and

nefe/lh, which are translated vapor, nubes and

nebula, respectively. The

distinction, however, between the two latter does not appear very clearly

marked either in the Greek or the Latin, the two Greek words being

indiscriminately applied to either of the Latin terms.

2. It is doubtful how far this statement is correct; see the remarks of

Hardouin, Lem. i. 320.




43. Chap. 43. (43.)-Or Thunder And Lightning.


CHAP. 43. (43.)-OR THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.



It cannot therefore be denied, that fire proceeding from

the stars which are above the clouds, may fall on them, as

we frequently observe on serene evenings, and that the air is

agitated by the impulse, as darts when they are hurled whiz

through the air. And when it arrives at the cloud, a discordant kind of vapour is produced, as when hot iron is

plunged into water, and a wreath of smoke is evolved. Hence

arise squalls. And if wind or vapour be struggling in the

cloud, thunder is discharged; if it bursts out with a flame,

there is a thunderbolt; if it be long in forcing out its way,

it is simply a flash of lightning[1]. By the latter the cloud is

simply rent, by the former it is shattered. Thunder is pro-







duced by the stroke given to the condensed air, and hence

it is that the fire darts from the chinks of the clouds. It is

possible also that the vapour, which has risen from the earth,

being repelled by the stars, may produce thunder, when it is

pent up in a cloud; nature restraining the sound whilst the

vapour is struggling to escape, but when it does escape, the

sound bursting forth, as is the case with bladders that are

distended with air. It is possible also that the spirit, whatever it

be, may be kindled by friction, when it is so violently

projected. It is possible that, by the dashing of the two

clouds, the lightning may flash out, as is the case when two

stones are struck against each other. But all these things

appear to be casual. Hence there are thunderbolts which

produce no effect, and proceed from no immediate actual

cause; by these mountains and seas are struck, and no injury is done. Those which prognosticate future events proceed from on high and from stated causes, and they come

from their peculiar stars[2].







1. The words in the original are respectively fulmen and

fulgetrum;

Seneca makes a similar distinction between fulmen and fulguratio: "Fulguratio est late ignis explicitus; fulmen est coactus ignis ot impetu

jactus." Nat. Qust. lib. ii. cap. 16. p. 706.

2. "Prsertim ex tribus superioribus planetis, uti dictum est, cap. 18."

Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 322.




44. Chap. 44.-The Origin Of Winds.


CHAP. 44.-THE ORIGIN OF WINDS.



In like manner I would not deny that winds, or rather

sudden gusts, are produced by the arid and dry vapours of

the earth; that air may also be exhaled from water, which

can neither be condensed into a mist, nor compressed into a

cloud; that it may be also driven forward by the impulse of

the sun, since by the term 'wind' we mean nothing more than

a current of air, by whatever means it may be produced[1].

For we observe winds to proceed from rivers and bays, and

from the sea, even when it is tranquil; while others, which

are named Altani, rise up from the earth; when they come

back from the sea they are named Tropi, but if they go

straight on, Apogi[2].







(44.) The windings and the numerous peaks of mountains,

their ridges, bent into angles or broken into defiles, with the

hollow valleys, by their irregular forms, cleaving the air which

rebounds from them (which is also the cause why voices are,

in many cases, repeated several times in succession), give rise

to winds.



(45.) There are certain caves, such as that on the coast of

Dalmatia, with a vast perpendicular chasm, into which, if a

light weight only be let down, and although the day be calm,

a squall issues from it like a whirlwind. The name of the

place is Senta. And also, in the province of Cyrenaica, there

is a certain rock, said to be sacred to the south wind, which

it is profane for a human hand to touch, as the south wind

immediately rolls forwards clouds of sand[3]. There are also,

in many houses, artificial cavities, formed in the walls[4], which

produce currents of air; none of these are without their

appropriate cause.







1. Our author's opinion respecting the origin of winds nearly agrees

with that of Aristotle; "nihil ut aliud ventus

(a)/nemos) sit, nisi ar multus

fluctuans et compressus, qui etiam spiritus (pneu=ma) appellatur;" De

Meteor. This treatise contains a full account of the phnomena of

winds. Seneca also remarks, "Ventus est ar fluens;" Nat. Qust. lib. 3

& 5.

2. Aristotle informs us, that the winds termed apogi

(a)po/gaioi) proceed from a marshy and moist soil; De Mundo,

cap. 4. p. 605. For the

origin and meaning of the terms here applied to the winds, see the

remarks of Hardouin and Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 323.

3. This is mentioned by Pomp. Mela.

4. "In domibus etiam multis manu facta inclusa opacitate

conceptacula....." Some of the MSS. have madefacta for

manu facta, and

this reading has been adopted by Lemaire; but nearly all the editors, as

Dalechamps, Lat, Grovonius, Poincinet and Ajasson, retain the former

word.




45. Chap. 45.-Various Observations Respecting Winds.


CHAP. 45.-VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS RESPECTING

WINDS.



But there is a great difference between a gale and a wind[1].

The former are uniform and appear to rush forth[2]; they are

felt, not in certain spots only, but over whole countries, not

forming breezes or squalls, but violent storms[3]. Whether

they be produced by the constant revolution of the world

and the opposite motion of the stars, or whether they both

of them depend on the generative spirit of the nature of







things, wandering, as it were, up and down in her womb, or

whether the air be scourged by the irregular strokes of the

wandering stars[4], or the various projections of their rays, or

whether they, each of them, proceed from their own stars,

among which are those that are nearest to us, or whether

they descend from those that are fixed in the heavens, it is

manifest that they are all governed by a law of nature, which

is not altogether unknown, although it be not completely

ascertained.



(46.) More than twenty old Greek writers have published

their observations upon this subject. And this is the more remarkable, seeing that there is so much discord in the world,

and that it is divided into different kingdoms, that is into

separate members, that there should have been so many who

have paid attention to these subjects, which are so difficult

to investigate. Especially when we consider the wars and

the treachery which everywhere prevail; while pirates, the

enemies of the human race, have possession of all the modes

of communication, so that, at this time, a person may acquire

more correct information about a country from the writings

of those who have never been there, than from the inhabitants themselves. Whereas, at this day, in the blessed

peace which we enjoy, under a prince who so greatly encourages the advancement of the arts, no new inquiries are

set on foot, nor do we even make ourselves thoroughly masters

of the discoveries of the ancients. Not that there were

greater rewards held out, from the advantages being distributed to a greater number of persons, but that there were

more individuals who diligently scrutinized these matters,

with no other prospect but that of benefiting posterity. It

is that the manners of men are degenerated, not that the

advantages are diminished. All the seas, as many as there

are, being laid open, and a hospitable reception being given

us at every shore, an immense number of people undertake

voyages; but it is for the sake of gain, not of science. Nor

does their understanding, which is blinded and bent only on

avarice, perceive that this very thing might be more safely

done by means of science. Seeing, therefore, that there are

so many thousands of persons on the seas, I will treat of the







winds with more minuteness than perhaps might otherwise

appear suitable to my undertaking.







1. The terms in the original are "flatus" and "ventus."

2. "illos (flatus) states atque perspirantes."

3. "qui non aura, non procella, sed mares appellatione quoque ipsa venti

sunt." This passage cannot be translated into English, from our

language not possessing the technical distinction of genders, as

depending

on the termination of the substantives.

4. "Septem nimirum errantibus." Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 306.




46. Chap. 46. (47.)-The Different Kinds Of Winds .


CHAP. 46. (47.)-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF WINDS[1].



The ancients reckoned only four winds (nor indeed does

Homer mention more[2]) corresponding to the four parts of

the world; a very poor reason, as we now consider it. The

next generation added eight others, but this was too refined

and minute a division; the moderns have taken a middle

course, and, out of this great number, have added four to the

original set. There are, therefore, two in each of the four

quarters of the heavens. From the equinoctial rising of the

sun[3] proceeds Subsolanus[4], and, from his brumal rising,

Vulturnus[5]; the former is named by the Greeks Apeliotes[6], the

latter Eurus. From the south we have Auster, and from the

brumal setting of the sun, Africus; these were named Notos







and Libs. From the equinoctial setting proceeds Favonius[7],

and from the solstitial setting, Corus[8]; these were named

Zephyrus and Argestes. From the seven stars comes Septemtrio, between

which and the solstitial rising we have

Aquilo, named Aparctias and Boreas[9]. By a more minute

subdivision we interpose four others, Thrascias, between

Septemtrio and the solstitial setting; Ccias, between Aquilo

and the equinoctial rising; and Phnices, between the brumal

rising and the south. And also, at an equal distance from

the south and the winter setting, between Libs and Notos,

and compounded of the two, is Libonotos. Nor is this all.

For some persons have added a wind, which they have named

Meses, between Boreas and Ccias, and one between Eurus

and Notos, named Euronotus[10].



There are also certain winds peculiar to certain countries,

which do not extend beyond certain districts, as Sciron in

Attica, deviating a little from Argestes, and not known in

the other parts of Greece. In other places it is a little

higher on the card and is named Olympias; but all these







have gone by the name of Argestes. In some places Ccias

is named Hellespontia, and the same is done in other cases.

In the province of Narbonne the most noted wind is Circius;

it is not inferior to any of the winds in violence, frequently

driving the waves before it, to Ostia[11], straight across the Ligurian

sea. Yet this same wind is unknown in other parts,

not even reaching Vienne, a city in the same province; for

meeting with a high ridge of hills, just before it arrives at

that district, it is checked, although it be the most violent of

all the winds. Fabius also asserts, that the south winds

never penetrate into Egypt. Hence this law of nature is

obvious, that winds have their stated seasons and limits.







1. In his account and nomenclature of the winds, Pliny has, for the

most part, followed Aristotle, Meteor. lib. ii. cap. 4. pp. 558560, and

cap. 6. pp. 563565. The description of the different winds by Seneca

is not very different, but where it does not coincide with Aristotle's, our

author has generally preferred the former; see Nat. Qust. lib. 5. We

have an account of the different winds, as prevailing at particular seasons, in Ptolemy, De Judiciis Astrol. 1. 9. For the nomenclature and

directions of the winds, we may refer to the remarks of Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 328 et seq.

2. Odyss. v. 295, 296.

3. In giving names to the different winds, the author designates the

points of the compass whence they proceed, by the place where the sun

rises or sets, at the different periods of the year. The following are the

terms which he employs :-"Oriens quinoctialis," the place where the

sun rises at the equinox, i. e. the East. "Oriens brumalis," where he

rises on the shortest day, the S.E. "Occasus brumalis," where he sets

on the shortest day, the S.W. "Occasus quinoctialis," where he sets

at the equinox, the W. "Occasus solstitialis," where he sets on the

longest day, the N.W. "Exortus solstitialis," where he rises on the

longest day, the N.E. "Inter septemtrionem et occasum solstitialem,"

between N. and N.W., N.N.W. "Inter aquilonem et exortum

quinoctialem," between N. and N.E., N.N.E. "Inter ortum brumalem et

meridiem," between S. and S.E., S.S.E. Inter meridiem et hybernum

occidentem," between S. and S.W., S.S.W.

4. "Quod sub sole nasci videtur."

5. This name was probably derived from the town Vulturnum in Campania.

6. Seneca informs us, that what the Latins name Subsolanus, is named

by the Greeks )Afhliw/ths; Qust. Nat. lib. 5. 16. p.

764.

7. "quia favet rebus nascentibus."

8. "....semper spirantes frigora Cauri." Virgil, Geor. iii. 356.

9. The eight winds here mentioned will bear the following relation to

our nomenclature: Septemtrio, N.; Aquilo, N.E.; Subsolanus, E.;

Vulturnus, S.E.; Auster, S.; Africus, N.W.; Favonius, W.; and Corus,

N.W.

10. The four winds here mentioned, added to eight others, making, in

the whole, twelve, will give us the following card:-



N. Septemtrio.S. Notos or Auster.

N.N.E. Boreas or Aquilo.S.S.W. Libonotos.

E.N.E. Ccias.W.S.W. Libs or Africus.

E. Apeliotes or Subsolanus.W. Zephyrus or Favonius.

E.S.E. Eurus or Vulturnus.W.N.W. Argestes or Corus.

S.S.E. Euronotus or Phnices.N.N.W. Thrascias.


We are informed by Alexandre, Lemaire, i. 330, that there is an

ancient dial plate in the Vatican, consisting of twelve sides, in

which the

names of the twelve winds are given both in Greek and in Latin. They

differ somewhat from those given above, both absolutely and relatively;

they are as follows:-



)Aparkti/as, Septemtrio.No/tos, Auster.

Bore/as, Aquilo.Aibo/notos, Austroafricus.

Kaiki/as, Vulturnus.Ai\y, Africus.

)Afhliw/ths, Solanus.Ze/furos, Zephyrus.

Eu=ros, Eurus.)Ia/puc, Corus.

Eu)ro/notos, Euronotus.qraski/as, Circius.



11. This wind must have been N.N.W.; it is mentioned by Strabo, iv.

182; A. Gellius, ii. 22; Seneca, Nat. Qust. v. 17; and again by

our author, xvii. 2.




47. Chap. 47.-The Periods Of The Winds .


CHAP. 47.-THE PERIODS OF THE WINDS[1].



The spring opens the seas for the navigators. In the beginning of

this season the west winds soften, as it were, the

winter sky, the sun having now gained the 25th degree of

Aquarius; this is on the sixth day before the Ides of February[2].

This agrees, for the most part, with all the remarks that I

shall subsequently make, only anticipating the period by one

day in the intercalary year, and again, preserving the same

order in the succeeding lustrum[3]. After the eighth day before the

Calends of March[4], Favonius is called by some Chelidonias[5], from

the swallows making their appearance. The

wind, which blows for the space of nine days, from the seventy-first

day after the winter solstice[6], is sometimes called Ornithias, from

the arrival of the birds[7]. In the contrary direction to

Favonius is the wind which we name Subsolanus, and







this is connected with the rising of the Vergili, in the 25th

degree of Taurus, six days before the Ides of May[8], which is

the time when south winds prevail: these are opposite to

Septemtrio. The dog-star rises in the hottest time of the

summer, when the sun is entering the first degree of Leo[9];

this is fifteen days before the Calends of August. The north

winds, which are called Prodromi[10], precede its rising by about

eight days. But in two days after its rising, the same north

winds, which are named Etesi[11], blow more constantly during

this period; the vapour from the sun, being increased twofold

by the heat of this star, is supposed to render these winds

more mild; nor are there any which are more regular. After

these the south winds become more frequent, until the appearance of

Arcturus[12], which rises eleven days before the autumnal

equinox. At this time Corus sets in; Corus is an autumnal

wind, and is in the opposite direction to Vulturnus. After

this, and generally for forty-four days after the equinox, at

the setting of the Vergili, the winter commences, which

usually happens on the third of the Ides of November[13]. This

is the period of the winter north wind, which is very unlike

the summer north wind, and which is in the opposite direction to

Africus. For seven days before the winter solstice,

and for the same length of time after it, the sea becomes

calm, in order that the king-fishers may rear their young;

from this circumstance they have obtained the name of the

halcyon days[14]; the rest of the season is winterly[15]. Yet the







severity of the storms does not entirely close up the sea.

In former times, pirates were compelled, by the fear of death,

to rush into death, and to brave the winter ocean; now we

are driven to it by avarice[16].







1. We may learn the opinions of the Romans on the subject of this

chapter from Columella, xi. 2.

2. corresponding to the 8th day of the month.

3. ...lustro sequenti...; "tribus annis sequentibus." Alexandre, in

Lemaire, i. 334.

4. corresponding to the 22nd of February.

5. a xelidw\n, hirundo.

6. This will be either on March 2nd or on February 26th, according as

we reckon from December the 21st, the real solstitial day, or the 17th, when,

according to the Roman calendar, the sun is said to enter Capricorn.

7. "quasi Avicularem dixeris." Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 334.

8. Corresponding to the 10th of May.

9. According to the Roman calendar, this corresponds to the 20th July,

but, according to the text, to the 17th. Columella says, that the sun

enters Leo on the 13th of the Calends of August; xi. 2.

10. "quasi prcursores;" Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 335. Cicero refers

to these winds in one of his letters to Atticus; xiv. 6.

11. e)thsi/ai, ab e)/tos, annus.

12. This will be on the 13th of September, as, according to our author,

xviii. 24, the equinox is on the 24th.

13. This corresponds to the 11th of November; forty-four days before

this will be the 29th of September.

14. Or Halcyonides. This topic is considered more at length in a subsequent part of the work; x. 47.

15. The author, as it appears, portions out the whole of the year into

fourteen periods, during most of which certain winds are said to blow,

or, at least, to be decidedly prevalent. Although the winds of Italy are

less irregular than those of England, Pliny has considerably exaggerated

the real fact.

16. On this subject the reader may peruse the remarks of Seneca, Nat.

Qust. v. 18, written in his style of flowery declamation.




48. Chap. 48.-Nature Of The Winds .


CHAP. 48.-NATURE OF THE WINDS[1].



Those are the coldest winds which are said to blow from

the seven stars, and Corus, which is contiguous to them;

these also restrain the others and dispel the clouds. The

moist winds are Africus, and, still more, the Auster of Italy.

It is said that, in Pontus, Ccias attracts the clouds. The

dry winds are Corus and Vulturnus, especially when they

are about to cease blowing. The winds that bring snow are

Aquilo and Septemtrio; Septemtrio brings hail, and so does

Corus; Auster is sultry, Vulturnus and Zephyrus are warm.

These winds are more dry than Subsolanus, and generally

those which blow from the north and west are more dry than

those which blow from the south and east. Aquilo is the

most healthy of them all; Auster is unhealthy, and more so

when dry; it is colder, perhaps because it is moist. Animals

are supposed to have less appetite for food when this wind is

blowing. The Etesi generally cease during the night, and

spring up at the third hour of the day[2]. In Spain and in

Asia these winds have an easterly direction, in Pontus a

northerly, and in other places a southerly direction. They

blow also after the winter solstice, when they are called

Ornithi[3], but they are more gentle and continue only for a

few days. There are two winds which change their nature

with their situation; in Africa Auster is attended with a

clear sky, while Aquilo collects the clouds[4]. Almost all







winds blow in their turn, so that when one ceases its opposite

springs up. When winds which are contiguous succeed

each other, they go from left to right, in the direction of the

sun. The fourth day of the moon generally determines their

direction for the whole of the monthly period[5]. We are able

to sail in opposite directions by means of the same wind, if

we have the sails properly set; hence it frequently happens

that, in the night, vessels going in different directions run

against each other. Auster produces higher winds than

Aquilo, because the former blows, as it were, from the bottom of the

sea, while the latter blows on the surface; it is

therefore after south winds that the most mischievous earthquakes

have occurred. Auster is more violent during the

night, Aquilo during the day; winds from the east continue

longer than from the west. The north winds generally cease

blowing on the odd days, and we observe the prevalence of

the odd numbers in many other parts of nature; the male

winds are therefore regulated by the odd numbers[6]. The

sun sometimes increases and sometimes restrains winds;

when rising and setting it increases them; while, when on

the meridian, it restrains them during the summer. They

are, therefore, generally lulled during the middle of the day

and of the night, because they are abated either by excessive

cold or heat; winds are also lulled by showers. We generally expect

them to come from that quarter where the clouds

open and allow the clear sky to be seen. Eudoxus[7] supposes that the

same succession of changes occurs in them

after a period of four years, if we observe their minute revolutions;

and this applies not only to winds, but to whatever concerns the

state of the weather. He begins his lustrum at the rising of the

dog-star, in the intercalary year. So far concerning winds in general.











1. The greatest part of the remarks on the nature of the winds, in this

chapter, would appear to be taken from Aristotle's Treatise De Meteor.,

and it may be stated generally, that our author has formed his opinions

more upon those of the Greek writers than upon actual observation.

2. A.M.

3. In the last chapter Ornithias is said to be a west wind.

4. This obviously depends upon the geographical situation of the

northern parts of Africa, to which the observation more particularly

applies,

with respect to the central part of the Continent and the Mediterranean.

See the remarks of Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 340.

5. The influence of the fourth day of the moon is referred to by Virgil,

Geor. i. 432 et seq. "Sin ortu quarto," &c.

6. This refers to the genders of the names of the winds, analogous to

the remark in note5, p. 71.

7. Eudoxus was a native of Cnidus, distinguished for his knowledge in

astrology and science generally; he was a pupil of Plato, and is referred

to by many of the ancients; see Hardouin's Index Auctorum, in Lemaire,

i. 187, and Enfield's Hist. of Phil. i. 412, with the very copious list of

references.




49. Chap. 49. (48.)-Ecnephias And Typhon.


CHAP. 49. (48.)-ECNEPHIAS AND TYPHON.



And now respecting the sudden gusts[1], which arising from

the exhalations of the earth, as has been said above, and

falling down again, being in the mean time covered by a

thin film of clouds, exist in a variety of forms. By their

wandering about, and rushing down like torrents, in the

opinion of some persons, they produce thunder and lightning[2]. But if

they be urged on with greater force and

violence, so as to cause the rupture of a dry cloud, they produce a

squall[3], which is named by the Greeks Ecnephias[4].

But, if these are compressed, and rolled up more closely together,

and then break without any discharge of fire, i. e.

without thunder, they produce a squall, which is named

Typhon[5], or an Ecnephias in a state of agitation. It carries

along a portion of the cloud which it has broken off, rolling

it and turning it round, aggravating its own destruction by

the weight of it, and whirling it from place to place. This

is very much dreaded by sailors, as it not only breaks their

sail-yards, but the vessels themselves, bending them about

in various ways. This may be in a slight degree counteracted by

sprinkling it with vinegar, when it comes near us,

this substance being of a very cold nature[6]. This wind,

when it rebounds after the stroke, absorbs and carries up

whatever it may have seized on.











1. "flatus repentini."

2. Cicero refers to an opinion very similar to this as maintained by the

Stoics; De Div. ii. 44.

3. "procella."

4. "e)k ne/fous, erumpente spiritu." Hardouin, in Lemaire, i.343.

Perhaps it most nearly corresponds to the term "hurricane."

5. a tu/fw, incendo, ardeo. We have no distinct term in our language

which corresponds to the account of the typhon; it may be considered

as a combination of a whirlwind and a hurricane.

6. Plutarch, Sympos. Qust. iii. 5, refers to the extraordinary power of

vinegar in extinguishing fire, but he ascribes this effect, not to

its coldness, but to the extreme tenuity of its parts. On this

Alexandre remarks, "Melius factum negassent Plinius et Plutarchus, quam causam

inanera rei absurdissim excogitarent." Lemaire, i. 344.




50. Chap. 50.-Tornadoes; Blasting Winds; Whirlwinds , And Other Wonderful Kinds Of Tempests.


CHAP. 50.-TORNADOES; BLASTING WINDS; WHIRLWINDS[1],

AND OTHER WONDERFUL KINDS OF TEMPESTS.



But if it burst from the cavity of a cloud which is more

depressed, but less capacious than what produces a squall,

and is accompanied by noise, it is called a whirlwind, and

throws down everything which is near it. The same, when

it is more burning and rages with greater heat, is called a

blasting wind[2], scorching and, at the same time, throwing

down everything with which it comes in contact. (49.) Typhon never

comes from the north, nor have we Ecnephias

when it snows, or when there is snow on the ground. If it

breaks the clouds, and, at the same time, catches fire or

burns, but not until it has left the cloud, it forms a thunderbolt.

It differs from Prester as flame does from fire; the

former is diffused in a gust, the latter is condensed with a

violent impulse[3]. The whirlwind, when it rebounds, differs

from the tornado in the same manner as a loud noise does

from a dash.



The squall differs from both of them in its extent, the

clouds being more properly rent asunder than broken into

pieces. A black cloud is formed, resembling a great animal,

an appearance much dreaded by sailors. It is also called a

pillar, when the moisture is so condensed and rigid as to be

able to support itself. It is a cloud of the same kind, which,

when drawn into a tube, sucks up the water[4].







1. The terms here employed are respectively "turbines," "presteres,"

and "vortices."

2. prhsth\o, a prh/qw, incendo. Seneca calls it

"igneus turbo;" Nat. Qust. v. 13. p. 762. See also Lucretius, vi.

423.

3. Plutarch.

4. A water-spout. We have a description of this phenomenon in Lucretius, vi. 425 et seq.




51. Chap. 51. (50.)-Of Thunder ; In What Countries It Does Not Fall, And For What Reason.


CHAP. 51. (50.)-OF THUNDER[1]; IN WHAT COUNTRIES IT

DOES NOT FALL, AND FOR WHAT REASON.



Thunder is rare both in winter and in summer[2], but from







different causes; the air, which is condensed in the winter,

is made still more dense by a thicker covering of clouds,

while the exhalations from the earth, being all of them rigid

and frozen, extinguish whatever fiery vapour it may receive.

It is this cause which exempts Scythia and the cold districts

round it from thunder. On the other hand, the excessive

heat exempts Egypt; the warm and dry vapours of the earth

being very seldom condensed, and that only into light clouds.

But, in the spring and autumn, thunder is more frequent,

the causes which produce summer and winter being, in each

season, less efficient. From this cause thunder is more frequent in

Italy, the air being more easily set in motion, in

consequence of a milder winter and a showery summer, so

that it may be said to be always spring or autumn. Also in

those parts of Italy which recede from the north and lie towards the

south, as in the district round our city, and in

Campania, it lightens equally both in winter and in summer,

which is not the case in other situations.







1. "fulmen."

2. This has been pointed out by Alexandre, Lemaire, i. 346, as one of

the statements made by our author, which, in consequence of his following

the Greek writers, applies rather to their climate than to that of Italy.

The reader may form a judgement of the correctness of this remark by

comparing the account given by Aristotle and by Seneca; the former in

Meteor. iii. 1. p. 573, 574, the latter in Nat. Qust. ii. 32 et seq.




52. Chap. 52. (51.)-Of The Different Kinds Of Lightning And Their Wonderful Effects.


CHAP. 52. (51.)-OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF LIGHTNING[1]

AND THEIR WONDERFUL EFFECTS.



We have accounts of many different kinds of thunder-storms.

Those which are dry do not burn objects, but dissipate them;

while those which are moist do not burn, but blacken them.

There is a third kind, which is called bright lightning[2], of a

very wonderful nature, by which casks are emptied, without

the vessels themselves being injured, or there being any other

trace left of their operation[3]. Gold, copper, and silver are

melted, while the bags which contain them are not in the

least burned, nor even the wax seal much defaced. Marcia,

a lady of high rank at Rome, was struck while pregnant;

the ftus was destroyed, while she herself survived without







suffering any injury[4]. Among the prognostics which took

place at the time of Catiline's conspiracy, M. Herennius, a

magistrate of the borough of Pompeii, was struck by lightning when the sky was without clouds[5].







1. "fulgur." The account of the different kinds of thunder seems to

be principally taken from Aristotle; Meteor. iii. 1. Some of the

phnomena mentioned below, which would naturally appear to the

ancients

the most remarkable, are easily explained by a reference to their electrical

origin.

2. "quod clarum vocant."

3. This account seems to be taken from Aristotle, Meteor. iii 1. p. 574;

see also Seneca, Nat. Quest. ii. 31. p. 711. We have an account of the

peculiar effects of thunder in Lucretius, vi. 227 et seq.

4. This effect may be easily explained by the agitation into which the

female might have been thrown. The title of "princeps Romanarum,"

which is applied to Marcia, has given rise to some discussion among the

commentators, for which see the remarks of Hardouin and Alexandre, in

Lemaire, i. 348.

5. Sometimes a partial thunder-cloud is formed, while the atmosphere

generally is perfectly clear, or, as Hardouin suggests, the effect might

have been produced by a volcanic eruption. See Lemaire, i. 348.




53. Chap. 53. (52.)-The Etrurian And The Roman Observations On These Points.


CHAP. 53. (52.)-THE ETRURIAN[1] AND THE ROMAN

OBSERVATIONS ON THESE POINTS.



The Tuscan books inform us, that there are nine Gods

who discharge thunder-storms, that there are eleven different kinds

of them, and that three of them are darted out by

Jupiter. Of these the Romans retained only two, ascribing

the diurnal kind to Jupiter, and the nocturnal to Summanus[2]; this

latter kind being more rare, in consequence of

the heavens being colder, as was mentioned above. The

Etrurians also suppose, that those which are named Infernal

burst out of the ground; they are produced in the winter

and are particularly fierce and direful, as all things are which

proceed from the earth, and are not generated by or proceeding from

the stars, but from a cause which is near at hand,

and of a more disorderly nature. As a proof of this it is

said, that all those which proceed from the higher regions

strike obliquely, while those which are termed terrestrial

strike in a direct line. And because these fall from matter

which is nearer to us, they are supposed to proceed from the

earth, since they leave no traces of a rebound; this being

the effect of a stroke coming not from below, but from an

opposite quarter. Those who have searched into the subject







more minutely suppose, that these come from the planet

Saturn, as those that are of a burning nature do from Mars.

In this way it was that Volsinium, the most opulent town of

the Tuscans, was entirely consumed by lightning[3]. The

first of these strokes that a man receives, after he has come

into possession of any property, is termed Familiar[4], and is

supposed to prognosticate the events of the whole of his life.

But it is not generally supposed that they predict events of

a private nature for a longer space than ten years, unless

they happen at the time of a first marriage or a birth-day;

nor that public predictions extend beyond thirty years[5], unless with

respect to the founding of colonies[6].







1. Seneca gives us an account of the opinions of the Tuscans; Nat.

Qust. ii. 32; and Cicero refers to the "libri fulgurales" of the Etrurians;

De Divin. i. 72.

2. According to Hardouin, "Summanus est Deus summus Manium,

idem Orcus et Pluto dictus." Lemaire, i. 349; he is again referred to

by our author, xxix. 14; Ovid also mentions him, Fast. vi. 731, with the

remark, "quisquis is est."

3. The city of Bolsena is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient

Volsinium. From the nature of the district in which it is situate, it is

perhaps more probable, that the event alluded to in the text was produced

by a volcanic eruption, attended by lightning, than by a simple thunderstorm.

4. "Vocant et familiaria.....qu prima fiunt familiam suam cuique

indepto." This remark is explained by the following passage from Seneca;

Nat. Qust. ii. 47. "Hc sunt fulmina, qu primo accepto patrimonio,

in novo hominis aut urbis statu fiunt." This opinion, as well as most of

those of our author, respecting the auguries to be formed from thunder,

is combated by Seneca; ubi supra, 48.

5. This opinion is also referred to by Seneca. in the following passage;

"privata autem fulmina negant ultra decimum annum, publica ultra

trigesimum posse deferri;" ubi supra.

6. "in deductione oppidorum;" according to Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 350,

"quum in oppida coloniee deducuntur."




54. Chap. 54. (53.)-Of Conjuring Up Thunder.


CHAP. 54. (53.)-OF CONJURING UP THUNDER.



It is related in our Annals, that by certain sacred rites

and imprecations, thunder-storms may be compelled or invoked[1]. There is an old report in Etruria, that thunder was

invoked when the city of Volsinium had its territory laid

waste by a monster named Volta[2]. Thunder was also in-







voked by King Porsenna. And L. Piso[3], a very respectable

author, states in the first book of his Annals, that this had

been frequently done before his time by Numa, and that

Tullus Hostilius, imitating him, but not having properly

performed the ceremonies, was struck with the lightning[4].

We have also groves, and altars, and sacred places, and, among

the titles of Jupiter, as Stator, Tonans, and Feretrius, we

have a Jupiter Elicius[5]. The opinions entertained on this

point are very various, and depend much on the dispositions

of different individuals. To believe that we can command

nature is the mark of a bold mind, nor is it less the mark of

a feeble one to reject her kindness[6]. Our knowledge has

been so far useful to us in the interpretation of thunder,

that it enables us to predict what is to happen on a certain

day, and we learn either that our fortune is to be entirely

changed, or it discloses events which are concealed from us;

as is proved by an infinite number of examples, public and

private. Wherefore let these things remain, according to

the order of nature, to some persons certain, to others doubtful, by

some approved, by others condemned. I must not,

however, omit the other circumstances connected with them

which deserve to be related.







1. The following conjecture is not without a degree of probability; "Ex

hoc multisque aliis auctorum locis, plerique conjiciunt Etruscis auguribus

haud ignotam fuisse vim electricam, licet eorum arcana nunquam

divulgata sint." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 3, 50.

2. Alexandre remarks in this place, "An morbus aliquis fuit, qui

primum in agros debacchatus, jam urbi minabatur, forsitan ab aris

siccitate

natus, quem advenientes cum procella imbres discusserunt? "Lemaire,

i. 350.

3. For a notice of Piso, see Lemaire, i. 208.

4. We have an account of the death of Tullus Hostilius in Livy, i. 31.

5. "ab eliciendo, seu quod precationibus clo evocaretur, id nomen

traxit." This is confirmed by the following lines from Ovid, Fast. iii.

327, 328:-

"Eliciunt clo te, Jupiter: unde minores

Nunc quoque te celebrant, Eliciumque vocant."

6. "beneficiis abrogare vires."




55. Chap. 55. (54.)-General Laws Of Lightning.


CHAP. 55. (54.)-GENERAL LAWS OF LIGHTNING.



It is certain that the lightning is seen before the thunder

is heard, although they both take place at the same time.

Nor is this wonderful, since light has a greater velocity than

sound. Nature so regulates it, that the stroke and the sound

coincide[1]; the sound is, however, produced by the discharge

of the thunder, not by its stroke. But the air is impelled







quicker than the lightning[2], on which account it is that everything

is shaken and blown up before it is struck, and that a

person is never injured when he has seen the lightning and

heard the thunder. Thunder on the left hand is supposed

to be lucky, because the east is on the left side of the heavens[3].

We do not regard so much the mode in which it comes

to us, as that in which it leaves us, whether the fire rebounds

after the stroke, or whether the current of air returns when

the operation is concluded and the fire is consumed. In relation to this object the Etrurians have divided the heavens into

sixteen parts[4]. The first great division is from north to east;

the second to the south; the third to the west, and the fourth

occupies what remains from west to north. Each of these has

been subdivided into four parts, of which the eight on the east

have been called the left, and those on the west the right divisions. Those which extend from the west to the north have

been considered the most unpropitious. It becomes therefore

very important to ascertain from what quarter the thunder

proceeds, and in what direction it falls. It is considered a

very favourable omen when it returns into the eastern divisions. But it prognosticates the greatest felicity when the

thunder proceeds from the first-mentioned part of the heavens

and falls back into it; it was an omen of this kind which, as we

have heard, was given to Sylla, the Dictator. The remaining

quarters of the heavens are less propitious, and also less to

be dreaded. There are some kinds of thunder which it is

not thought right to speak of, or even to listen to, unless

when they have been disclosed to the master of a family or

to a parent. But the futility of this observation was detected when

the temple of Juno was struck at Rome, during







the consulship of Scaurus, he who was afterwards the Prince

of the Senate[5].



It lightens without thunder more frequently in the night

than in the day[6]. Man is the only animal that is not always

killed by it, all other animals being killed instantly, nature

having granted to him this mark of distinction, while so many

other animals excel him in strength. All animals fall down

on the opposite side to that which has been struck; man,

unless he be thrown down on the parts that are struck, does

not expire. Those who are struck directly from above sink

down immediately. When a man is struck while he is awake,

he is found with his eyes closed; when asleep, with them

open. It is not considered proper that a man killed in this

way should be burnt on the funeral pile; our religion enjoins

us to bury the body in the earth[7]. No animal is consumed

by lightning unless after having been previously killed.

The parts of the animal that have been wounded by lightning are colder than the rest of the body.







1. "ictum autem et sonitum congruere, ita modulante natura." This

remark is not only incorrect, but appears to be at variance both with

what precedes and what follows.

2. The following remark of Seneca may be referred to, both as

illustrating our author and as showing how much more correct the

opinions of

Seneca were than his own, on many points of natural philosophy;

"....necesse est, ut impetus fulminis et prmittat spiritus, et agat ante

se, et a tergo trahat ventum....;" Nat. Qust. lib. ii. 20. p. 706.

3. "quoniam lva parte mundi ortus est." On this passage Hardouin

remarks; "a Deorum sede, quum in meridiem spectes, ad sinistram sunt

partes mundi exorientes;" Lemaire, i. 353. Poinsinet enters into a long

detail respecting opinions of the ancients on this point and the circumstances which induced them to form their opinions; i. 34 et seq.

4. See Cicero de Divin. ii 42.

5. "Junonis quippe templum fulmine violatum ostendit non a Jove,

non a Deis mitti fulmina." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 354. The consulate

of Scaurus was in the year of Rome 638. Lucan, i. 155, and Horace,

Od. i. 2. refer to the destruction of temples at Rome by lightning.

6. Obviously because faint flashes are more visible in the night.

7. We have an explanation of this peculiar opinion in Tertullian, as

referred to by Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 355; "Qui de clo tangitur, salvus

est, ut nullo igne decinerescat."




56. Chap. 56. (55.)-Objects. Which Are Never Struck.


CHAP. 56. (55.)-OBJECTS. WHICH ARE NEVER STRUCK.



Among the productions of the earth, thunder never strikes

the laurel[1], nor does it descend more than five feet into the

earth. Those, therefore, who are timid consider the deepest

caves as the most safe; or tents made of the skins of the

animal called the sea-calf, since this is the only marine animal which is never struck[2]; as is the case, among birds, with

the eagle; on this account it is represented as the bearer of







this weapon[3]. In Italy, between Terracina and the temple

of Feronia, the people have left off building towers in time

of war, every one of them having been destroyed by thunderbolts.







1. Although it has been thought necessary by M. Fe, in the notes to

Ajasson's trans., ii. 384, 385, to enter into a formal examination of this

opinion of the author's, I conceive that few of our readers will agree with

him in this respect.

2. Suetonius informs us, that Augustus always wore a seal's skin for

this purpose; Octavius, 90.

3. The eagle was represented by the ancients with a thunderbolt in its

claws.




57. Chap. 57. (56.)-Showers Of Milk, Blood, Flesh, Iron, Wool, And Baked Tiles .


CHAP. 57. (56.)-SHOWERS OF MILK, BLOOD, FLESH, IRON,

WOOL, AND BAKED TILES[1].



Besides these, we learn from certain monuments, that from

the lower part of the atmosphere[2] it rained milk and blood,

in the consulship of M'Acilius and C. Porcius, and frequently

at other times[3]. This was the case with respect to flesh, in

the consulship of P. Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius, and it

is said, that what was not devoured by the birds did not become

putrid. It also rained iron among the Lucanians, the

year before Crassus was slain by the Parthians, as well as all

the Lucanian soldiers, of whom there was a great number in

this army. The substance which fell had very much the appearance of

sponge[4]; the augurs warned the people against







wounds that might come from above. In the consulship of

L. Paulus and C. Marcellus it rained wool, round the castle

of Carissanum, near which place, a year after, T. Annius Milo

was killed. It is recorded, among the transactions of that

year, that when he was pleading his own cause, there was a

shower of baked tiles.







1. There is strong evidence for the fact, that, at different times, various

substances have fallen from the atmosphere, sometimes apparently of mineral, and, at other times, of animal or vegetable origin. Some of these

are now referred to those peculiar bodies termed arolites, the nature and

source of which are still doubtful, although their existence is no longer

so. These bodies have, in other instances, been evidently discharged from

distant volcanoes, but there are many cases where the substance could not

be supposed to have proceeded from a volcano, and where, in the present

state of our knowledge, it appears impossible to offer an explanation of

their nature, or the source whence they are derived. We may, however,

conclude, that notwithstanding the actual occurrence of a few cases of

this description, a great proportion of those enumerated by the ancients

were either entirely without foundation or much exaggerated. We meet

with several variations of what we may presume to have been arolites in

Livy; for example, xxiv. 10, xxx. 38, xli. 9, xliii. 13, and xliv. 18, among

many others. As naturally may be expected, we have many narratives of

this kind in Jul. Obsequens.

2. The same region from which lightning was supposed to proceed.

3. We have several relations of this kind in Livy, xxiv. 10, xxxix. 46 and

56, xl. 19, and xliii. 13. The red snow which exists in certain

alpine regions, and is found to depend upon the presence of the Uredo

nivalis, was

formerly attributed to showers of blood.

4. This occurrence may probably be referred to an arolite, while the

wool mentioned below, i.e. a light flocculent substance, was perhaps

volcanic.




58. Chap. 58. (57.)-Rattling Of Arms And The Sound Of Trumpets Heard In The Sky.


CHAP. 58. (57.)-RATTLING OF ARMS AND THE SOUND OF

TRUMPETS HEARD IN THE SKY.



We have heard, that during the war with the Cimbri, the

rattling of arms and the sound of trumpets were heard through

the sky, and that the same thing has frequently happened

before and since[1]. Also, that in the third consulship of

Marius, armies were seen in the heavens by the Amerini and

the Tudertes, encountering each other, as if from the east and

west, and that those from the east were repelled[2]. It is not

at all wonderful for the heavens themselves to be in flames[3],

and it has been more frequently observed when the clouds

have taken up a great deal of fire.







1. Armorum sonitum toto Germania clo

Audiit.-Virgil, Geor. i. 474, 475.

"....in Jovis Vicilini templo, quod in Compsano agro est, arma

concrepuisse." Livy, xxiv. 44.

2. See Plutarch, by Langhorne; Marius, iii. 133.

3. See Livy, iii. 5 & 10, xxxi. 12, xxxii. 9, et alibi.




59. Chap. 59. (58.)-Or Stones That Have Fallen From The Clouds . The Opinion Of Anaxagoras Respecting Them.


CHAP. 59. (58.)-OR STONES THAT HAVE FALLEN FROM THE

CLOUDS[1]. THE OPINION OF ANAXAGORAS RESPECTING

THEM.



The Greeks boast that Anaxagoras[2], the Clazomenian, in

the second year of the 78th Olympiad, from his knowledge

of what relates to the heavens, had predicted, that at a certain







time, a stone would fall from the sun[3]. And the thing accordingly

happened, in the daytime, in a part of Thrace, at

the river gos. The stone is now to be seen, a waggonload in size

and of a burnt appearance; there was also a

comet shining in the night at that time[4]. But to believe

that this had been predicted would be to admit that the divining

powers of Anaxagoras were still more wonderful, and

that our knowledge of the nature of things, and indeed every

thing else, would be thrown into confusion, were we to suppose either that the sun is itself composed of stone, or that

there was even a stone in it; yet there can be no doubt that

stones have frequently fallen from the atmosphere. There

is a stone, a small one indeed, at this time, in the Gymnasium of Abydos, which on this account is held in veneration,

and which the same Anaxagoras predicted would fall in the

middle of the earth. There is another at Cassandria, formerly

called Potida[5], which from this circumstance was built in

that place. I have myself seen one in the country of the

Vocontii[6], which had been brought from the fields only a

short time before.







1. I have already had occasion to remark, concerning this class of

phnomena, that there is no doubt of their actual occurrence,

although their

origin is still unexplained.

2. The life of Anaxagoras has been written by Diogenes Lartius. We

have an ample account of him by Enfield in the General Biography, in

loco; he was born B.C. 500 and died B.C. 428.

3. There is some variation in the exact date assigned by different authors

to this event; in the Chronological table in Brewster's Encyc. vi. 420, it

is said to have occurred 467 B.C.

4. Aristotle gives us a similar account of this stone; that it fell in the

daytime, and that a comet was then visible at night; Meteor. i. 7. It is

scarcely necessary to remark, that the authority for this fact must

be referred entirely to Aristotle, without receiving any additional

weight from

our author. The occurrence of the comet at the same time with the

arolite must have been entirely incidental.

5. "Deductis eo sacri lapidis causa colonis, extructoque oppido, cui

nomen a colore adusto lapidis, est inditum, Potida. Est enim poti\

Dorice pro\s, ad, apud; dai/omai, uror." Hardouin, in

Lemaire, i. 361. It was situated in the peninsula of Pallene, in

Macedonia.

6. The Vocontii were a people of Gallia Narbonensis, occupying a portion of the modern Dauphin.




60. Chap. 60. (59.)-The Rainbow.


CHAP. 60. (59.)-THE RAINBOW.



What we name Rainbows frequently occur, and are not

considered either wonderful or ominous; for they do not

predict, with certainty, either rain or fair weather. It is

obvious, that the rays of the sun, being projected upon a

hollow cloud, the light is thrown back to the sun and is re-







fracted[1], and that the variety of colours is produced by a

mixture of clouds, air, and fire[2]. The rainbow is certainly

never produced except in the part opposite to the sun, nor even

in any other form except that of a semicircle. Nor are they

ever formed at night, although Aristotle asserts that they are

sometimes seen at that time; he acknowledges, however, that

it can only be on the 14th day of the moon[3]. They are seen

in the winter the most frequently, when the days are shortening,

after the autumnal equinox[4]. They are not seen when

the days increase again, after the vernal equinox, nor on the

longest days, about the summer solstice, but frequently at

the winter solstice, when the days are the shortest. When

the sun is low they are high, and when the sun is high they

are low; they are smaller when in the east or west, but are

spread out wider; in the south they are small, but of a

greater span. In the summer they are not seen at noon,

but after the autumnal equinox at any hour: there are never

more than two seen at once,







1. "Manifestum est, radium Solis immissum cav nubi, repulsa acie in

Solem, refringi."

2. Aristotle treats of the Rainbow much in detail, principally in his

Meteor. iii. 2, 3, 4, and 5, where he gives an account of the phnomena,

which is, for the most part, correct, and attempts to form a theory for

them; see especially cap. 4. p. 577 et seq. In the treatise De Mundo he

also refers to the same subject, and briefly sums up his doctrine with the

following remark: "arcus est species segmenti solaris vel lunaris, edita in

nube humida, et cava, et perpetua; quam velut in speculo intuemur, imagine relata in speciem circularis ambitis." cap. 4. p. 607. Seneca also

treats very fully on the phenomena and theory of the Rainbow, in his

Nat. Qust. i. 38.

3. Vide supra, also Meteor. iii. 2, and Seneca, Nat. Qust. i. 3.

4. Aristotle, Meteor. iii. 5. p. 581, observes, that the rainbow is less

frequently seen in the summer, because the sun is more elevated, and that,

consequently, a less portion of the arch is visible. See also Seneca, Nat.

Qust. i. 8. p. 692.




61. Chap. 61.-The Nature Of Hail, Snow, Hoar, Mist, Dew; The Forms Of Clouds.


CHAP. 61.-THE NATURE OF HAIL, SNOW, HOAR, MIST,

DEW; THE FORMS OF CLOUDS.



I do not find that there is any doubt entertained respecting the

following points. (60.) Hail is produced by frozen rain,

and snow by the same fluid less firmly concreted, and hoar







by frozen dew[1]. During the winter snow falls, but not hail;

hail itself falls more frequently during the day than the night,

and is more quickly melted than snow. There are no mists

either in the summer or during the greatest cold of winter.

There is neither dew nor hoar formed during great heat or

winds, nor unless the night be serene. Fluids are diminished

in bulk by being frozen, and, when the ice is melted, we do

not obtain the same quantity of fluid as at first[2].



(61.) The clouds are varied in their colour and figure according as the fire which they contain is in excess or is absorbed

by them.







1. Aristotle treats at some length of dew, snow, and hail, in his Meteor. i.

cap. 10, 11 & 12 respectively.

2. When water is frozen, its bulk is increased in consequence of

its assuming a crystalline structure. Any diminution which may be

found to

have taken place in the bulk of the fluid, when thawed, must be ascribed

to evaporation or to some accidental circumstance.




62. Chap. 62. (62.)-The Peculiarities Of The Weather In Different Places.


CHAP. 62. (62.)-THE PECULIARITIES OF THE WEATHER IN

DIFFERENT PLACES.



There are, moreover, certain peculiarities in certain places.

In Africa dew falls during the night in summer. In Italy,

at Locri, and at the Lake Velinum, there is never a day

in which a rainbow is not seen[1]. At Rhodes and at Syracuse

the sky is never so covered with clouds, but that the sun is

visible at one time or another; these things, however, will

be better detailed in their proper place. So far respecting

the air.







1. "Velini lacus.....prcipiti cursu in gurgitem subjectum defertur,

et illo aquarum lapsu, dispersis in ara guttis

humidis,.....iridis multiplicis phnomenon efficit....." Alexandre,

in Lemaire, i. 365.




63. Chap. 63. (63.)-Nature Of The Earth.


CHAP. 63. (63.)-NATURE OF THE EARTH.



Next comes the earth, on which alone of all parts of nature we

have bestowed the name that implies maternal veneration. It is

appropriated to man as the heavens are to God.

She receives us at our birth, nourishes us when born, and

ever afterwards supports us; lastly, embracing us in her

bosom when we are rejected by the rest of nature, she then

covers us with especial tenderness; rendered sacred to us,

inasmuch as she renders us sacred, bearing our monuments







and titles, continuing our names, and extending our memory,

in opposition to the shortness of life. In our anger we imprecate her

on those who are now no more[1], as if we were

ignorant that she is the only being who can never be angry

with man. The water passes into showers, is concreted into

hail, swells into rivers, is precipitated in torrents; the air is

condensed into clouds, rages in squalls; but the earth, kind,

mild, and indulgent as she is, and always ministering to the

wants of mortals, how many things do we compel her to

produce spontaneously! What odours and flowers, nutritive

juices, forms and colours! With what good faith does she

render back all that has been entrusted to her! It is the

vital spirit which must bear the blame of producing noxious

animals; for the earth is constrained to receive the seeds of

them, and to support them when they are produced. The

fault lies in the evil nature which generates them. The

earth will no longer harbour a serpent after it has attacked

any one[2], and thus she even demands punishment in the

name of those who are indifferent about it themselves[3]. She

pours forth a profusion of medicinal plants, and is always

producing something for the use of man. We may even

suppose, that it is out of compassion to us that she has ordained

certain substances to be poisonous, in order that when

we are weary of life, hunger, a mode of death the most foreign

to the kind disposition of the earth[4], might not consume us

by a slow decay, that precipices might not lacerate our

mangled bodies, that the unseemly punishment of the halter

may not torture us, by stopping the breath of one who seeks







his own destruction, or that we may not seek our death in

the ocean, and become food for our graves, or that our bodies

may not be gashed by steel. On this account it is that nature has produced a substance which is very easily taken, and

by which life is extinguished, the body remaining undefiled

and retaining all its blood, and only causing a degree of

thirst. And when it is destroyed by this means, neither

bird nor beast will touch the body, but he who has perished

by his own hands is reserved for the earth.



But it must be acknowledged, that everything which the

earth has produced, as a remedy for our evils, we have converted into the poison of our lives. For do we not use iron,

which we cannot do without, for this purpose? But although

this cause of mischief has been produced, we ought not to

complain; we ought not to be ungrateful to this one part of

nature[5]. How many luxuries and how many insults does

she not bear for us! She is cast into the sea, and, in order

that we may introduce seas into her bosom, she is washed

away by the waves. She is continually tortured for her iron, her

timber, stone, fire, corn, and is even much more subservient

to our luxuries than to our mere support. What indeed she

endures on her surface might be tolerated, but we penetrate

also into her bowels, digging out the veins of gold and silver,

and the ores of copper and lead; we also search for gems and

certain small pebbles, driving our trenches to a great depth.

We tear out her entrails in order to extract the gems with

which we may load our fingers. How many hands are worn

down that one little joint may be ornamented! If the infernal regions

really existed, certainly these burrows of avarice and luxury would

have penetrated into them. And truly

we wonder that this same earth should have produced anything noxious!

But, I suppose, the savage beasts protect

her and keep off our sacrilegious hands[6]. For do we not dig

among serpents and handle poisonous plants along with those

veins of gold? But the Goddess shows herself more propitious to us,

inasmuch as all this wealth ends in crimes,







slaughter, and war, and that, while we drench her with our

blood, we cover her with unburied bones; and being covered

with these and her anger being thus appeased, she conceals

the crimes of mortals[7]. I consider the ignorance of her

nature as one of the evil effects of an ungrateful mind.







1. We have an example in Martial, v. 34. 9, of the imprecation which

has been common in all ages:

Mollia nec rigidus cespes tegat ossa, nec illi

Terra gravis fueris;

and in Seneca's Hippolytus, sub finem:

.....istam terra defossam premat,

Gravisque tellus impio capiti incubet.

2. The author refers to this opinion, xxix. 23, when describing the effects

of venomous animals.

3. inertium; "ultione abstinentium," as explained by Alexandre, in

Lemaire, i. 367.

4. "Qued mortis genus a terr meritis et benignitate valde abhorret."

Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 367.

5. "Terra, inquit, sola est, e quatuor natur partibus sive

elementis, adversus quam ingrati simus." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i.

368.

6. "Est ironif formula. Quid, ait, feras et serpentes et venena terr

exprobramus, qu ne ad tuendam quidem illam satis valent?" Alexandre,

in Lemaire, i. 369.

7. "ossa vel insepulta cum tempore tellus occultat, deprimentia pondere

suo mollitam pluviis humum." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 370.




64. Chap. 64. (64.)-Of The Form Of The Earth.


CHAP. 64. (64.)-OF THE FORM OF THE EARTH.



Every one agrees that it has the most perfect figure[1].

We always speak of the ball of the earth, and we admit it

to be a globe bounded by the poles. It has not indeed the

form of an absolute sphere, from the number of lofty mountains and flat plains; but if the termination of the lines be

bounded by a curve[2], this would compose a perfect sphere.

And this we learn from arguments drawn from the nature of

things, although not from the same considerations which we

made use of with respect to the heavens. For in these the

hollow convexity everywhere bends on itself, and leans upon

the earth as its centre. Whereas the earth rises up solid

and dense, like something that swells up and is protruded

outwards. The heavens bend towards the centre, while the

earth goes from the centre, the continual rolling of the

heavens about it forcing its immense globe into the form of

a sphere[3].







1. "figura prima." I may refer to the second chapter of this book,

where the author remarked upon the form of the earth as perfect in all

its parts, and especially adapted for its supposed position in the centre of

the universe.

2. "....si capita linearum comprehendantur ambitu;" the meaning

of this passage would appear to be: if the extremities of the lines drawn

from the centre of the earth to the different parts of the surface were connected together, the result of the whole would be a sphere. I must, however, remark, that Hardouin interprets it in a somewhat different manner;

"Si per extremitates linearum ductarum a centro ad summos quosque

vertices montium circulus exigatur." Lemaire, i. 370.

3. "....immensum ejus globum in formam orbis assidua circa eam

mundi volubilitate cogente." As Hardouin remarks, the word mundus

is here used in the sense of clum. Lemaire, i. 371.




65. Chap. 65. (65.)-Whether There Be Antipodes?


CHAP. 65. (65.)-WHETHER THERE BE ANTIPODES?



On this point there is a great contest between the learned







and the vulgar. We maintain, that there are men dispersed

over every part of the earth, that they stand with their feet

turned towards each other, that the vault of the heavens appears alike to all of them, and that they, all of them, appear to

tread equally on the middle of the earth. If any one should

ask, why those situated opposite to us do not fall, we directly

ask in return, whether those on the opposite side do not

wonder that we do not fall. But I may make a remark, that

will appear plausible even to the most unlearned, that if the

earth were of the figure of an unequal globe, like the seed of a

pine[1], still it may be inhabited in every part.



But of how little moment is this, when we have another

miracle rising up to our notice! The earth itself is pendent

and does not fall with us; it is doubtful whether this be from

the force of the spirit which is contained in the universe[2], or

whether it would fall, did not nature resist, by allowing of

no place where it might fall. For as the seat of fire is nowhere but

in fire, nor of water except in water, nor of air

except in air, so there is no situation for the earth except in

itself, everything else repelling it. It is indeed wonderful

that it should form a globe, when there is so much flat surface of

the sea and of the plains. And this was the opinion

of Dicarchus, a peculiarly learned man, who measured the

heights of mountains, under the direction of the kings, and

estimated Pelion, which was the highest, at 1250 paces perpendicular, and considered this as not affecting the round

figure of the globe. But this appears to me to be doubtful,

as I well know that the summits of some of the Alps rise

up by a long space of not less than 50,000 paces[3]. But what







the vulgar most strenuously contend against is, to be compelled to believe that the water is forced into a rounded

figure[4]; yet there is nothing more obvious to the sight among

the phnomena of nature. For we see everywhere, that

drops, when they hang down, assume the form of small globes,

and when they are covered with dust, or have the down of

leaves spread over them, they are observed to be completely

round; and when a cup is filled, the liquid swells up in the

middle. But on account of the subtile nature of the fluid

and its inherent softness, the fact is more easily ascertained

by our reason than by our sight. And it is even more

wonderful, that if a very little fluid only be added to a cup

when it is full, the superfluous quantity runs over, whereas

the contrary happens if we add a solid body, even as much

as would weigh 20 denarii. The reason of this is, that what

is dropt in raises up the fluid at the top, while what is poured

on it slides off from the projecting surface. It is from

the same cause[5] that the land is not visible from the body

of a ship when it may be seen from the mast; and that

when a vessel is receding, if any bright object be fixed to the

mast, it seems gradually to descend and finally to become

invisible. And the ocean, which we admit to be without

limits, if it had any other figure, could it cohere and exist

without falling, there being no external margin to contain

it? And the same wonder still recurs, how is it that the

extreme parts of the sea, although it be in the form of a

globe, do not fall down? In opposition to which doctrine,

the Greeks, to their great joy and glory, were the first to

teach us, by their subtile geometry, that this could not happen, even if the seas were flat, and of the figure which they

appear to be. For since water always runs from a higher to







a lower level, and this is admitted to be essential to it, no

one ever doubted that the water would accumulate on any

shore, as much as its slope would allow it. It is also certain,

that the lower anything is, so much the nearer is it to the

centre, and that all the lines which are drawn from this point

to the water which is the nearest to it, are shorter than those

which reach from the beginning of the sea to its extreme

parts[6]. Hence it follows, that all the water, from every part,

tends towards the centre, and, because it has this tendency,

does not fall.







1. As our author admits of the existence of antipodes, and expressly

states that the earth is a perfect sphere, we may conclude that the

resemblance to the cone of the pine is to be taken in a very general

sense.

How far the ancients entertained correct opinions respecting the globular

figure of the earth, or rather, at what period this opinion became generally

admitted, it is perhaps not easy to ascertain. The lines in the Georgics,

i. 242, 243, which may be supposed to express the popular opinion in the

time of Virgil, certainly do not convey the idea of a sphere capable of

being inhabited in all its parts:

Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis; at illum

Sub pedibus Styx atra videt, manesque profundi.

2. "spiritus vis mundo inclusi."

3. ".....Alpium vertices, iongo tractu, nee breviore quinquaginta

millibus passuum assurgere." To avoid the apparent improbability of the

author conceiving of the Alps as 50 miles high, the commentators have,

according to their usual custom, exercised their ingenuity in altering the

text. See Poinsinet, i. 206, 207, and Lemaire, i. 373. But the expression does not imply that he conceived them as 50 miles in perpendicular

height, but that there is a continuous ascent of 50 miles to get to the

summit. This explanation of the passage is adopted by Alexandre; Lemaire,

ut supra. For what is known of Dicarchus I may refer to Hardouin,

Index Auctorum, in Lemaire, i. 181.

4. "coactam in verticem aquarum quoque figuram."

5. "aqunrum nempe convexitas." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 374.

6. "Quam qu ad extremum mare a primis aquis." I profess myself

altogether unable to follow the author's mode of reasoning in this

paragraph, or to throw any light upon it. He would appear to be

arguing

in favour of the actual flatness of the surface of the ocean, whereas his

previous remarks prove its convexity.




66. Chap. 66.-How The Water Is Connected With The Earth. Of The Navigation Of The Sea And The Rivers.


CHAP. 66.-How THE WATER IS CONNECTED WITH THE EARTH.

OF THE NAVIGATION OF THE SEA AND THE RIVERS.



We must believe, that the great artist, Nature, has so

arranged it, that as the arid and dry earth cannot subsist by

itself and without moisture, nor, on the other hand, can the

water subsist unless it be supported by the earth, they are

connected by a mutual union. The earth opens her harbours,

while the water pervades the whole earth, within, without,

and above; its veins running in all directions, like connecting links, and bursting out on even the highest ridges;

where, forced up by the air, and pressed out by the weight

of the earth, it shoots forth as from a pipe, and is so far from

being in danger of falling, that it bounds up to the highest

and most lofty places. Hence the reason is obvious, why

the seas are not increased by the daily accession of so many

rivers[1].



(66.) The earth has, therefore, the whole of its globe girt,

on every side, by the sea flowing round it. And this is not a







point to be investigated by arguments, but what has been

ascertained by experience.







1. Alexandre remarks on this passage, "Nempe quod remotissimos etiam

fontes alat oceanus. Sed omittit Plinius vaporationis intermedia ope

hoc fieri." Lemaire, i. 376. Aristotle has written at considerable length

on the origin of springs, in his Meteor. i. 13. p. 543 et seq. He argues

against the opinion of those who suppose that the water of springs is

entirely derived from evaporation. Seneca's account of the origin of

springs is found in his Nat. Qust. iii. 1.




67. Chap. 67. (67.)-Whether The Ocean Surrounds The Earth.


CHAP. 67. (67.)-WHETHER THE OCEAN SURROUNDS THE

EARTH.



The whole of the western ocean is now navigated, from Gades

and the Pillars of Hercules, round Spain and Gaul. The

greater part of the northern ocean has also been navigated,

under the auspices of the Emperor Augustus, his fleet having

been carried round Germany to the promontory of the Cimbri[1];

from which spot they descried an immense sea, or became acquainted

with it by report, which extends to the country of

the Scythians, and the districts that are chilled by excessive

moisture[2]. On this account it is not at all probable, that

the ocean should be deficient in a region where moisture so

much abounds. In like manner, towards the east, from the

Indian sea, all that part which lies in the same latitude[3], and

which bends round towards the Caspian[4], has been explored

by the Macedonian arms, in the reigns of Seleucus and Antiochus,

who wished it to be named after themselves, the

Seleucian or Antiochian Sea. About the Caspian, too,

many parts

of the shores of the ocean have been explored, so that nearly

the whole of the north has been sailed over in one direction

or another. Nor can our argument be much affected by the

point that has been so much discussed, respecting the Palus

Motis, whether it be a bay of the same ocean[5], as is, I

understand, the opinion of some persons, or whether it be the

overflowing of a narrow channel connected with a different

ocean[6]. On the other side of Gades, proceeding from

the same western point, a great part of the southern ocean,







along Mauritania, has now been navigated. Indeed the

greater part of this region, as well as of the east, as far as the

Arabian Gulf, was surveyed in consequence of Alexander's

victories. When Caius Csar, the son of Augustus[7], had the

conduct of affairs in that country, it is said that they found the

remains of Spanish vessels which had been wrecked there.

While the power of Carthage was at its height, Hanno published an

account of a voyage which he made from Gades to

the extremity of Arabia[8]; Himilco was also sent, about the

same time, to explore the remote parts of Europe. Besides,

we learn from Corn. Nepos, that one Eudoxus, a contemporary

of his[9], when he was flying from king Lathyrus, set out from

the Arabian Gulf, and was carried as far as Gades[10]. And long

before him, Clius Antipater[11] informs us, that he had seen

a person who had sailed from Spain to thiopia for the purposes of

trade. The same Cornelius Nepos, when speaking of

the northern circumnavigation, tells us that Q. Metellus Celer,

the colleague of L. Afranius in the consulship, but then a

proconsul in Gaul[12], had a present made to him by the king

of the Suevi, of certain Indians, who sailing from India for

the purpose of commerce, had been driven by tempests into

Germany[13]. Thus it appears, that the seas which flow com-







pletely round the globe, and divide it, as it were, into two

parts[14], exclude us from one part of it, as there is no way open

to it on either side. And as the contemplation of these

things is adapted to detect the vanity of mortals, it seems

incumbent on me to display, and lay open to our eyes, the

whole of it, whatever it be, in which there is nothing which

can satisfy the desires of certain individuals.







1. The voyage which is here alluded to was probably that performed

by Drusus; it is mentioned by Dio, lib. iv., Suetonius, Claud. 1, Vel.

Paterculus, ii. 106, and by Tacitus, Germ. 34.

2. What is here spoken of we may presume to have been that part of

the German Ocean which lies to the N.W. of Denmark; the term Scythian was applied by the ancients in so very general a way, as not to

afford any indication of the exact district so designated.

3. "Sub eodem sidere;" "which lies under the same star."

4. The ancients conceived the Caspian to be a gulf, connected with

the northern ocean. Our author gives an account of it, vi. 15.

5. That is, of the Caspian Sea.

6. The remarks which our author makes upon the Palus Motis, in the

different parts of his work, ii. 112 and vi. 7, appear so inconsistent with

each other, that we must suppose he indiscriminately borrowed them from

various writers, without comparing their accounts, or endeavouring to

reconcile them to each other. Such inaccuracies may be thought almost

to justify the censure of Alexandre, who styles our author, "indiligens

plane veri et falsi compilator, et ubi dissentiunt auctores, nunquam aut

raro sibi constans." Lemaire, i. 378.

7. The son of Agrippa, whom Augustus adopted. Hardouin, in Lemaire,

i. 378.

8. See Beloe's Herodotus, ii. 393, 394, for an account of the voyage

round Africa that was performed by the Phnicians, who were sent to

explore those parts by Necho king of Egypt.

9. It is generally supposed that C. Nepos lived in the century previous

to the Christian ra. Ptolemy Lathyrus commenced his reign U.C. 627

or B.C. 117, and reigned for 36 years. The references made to C. Nepos

are not found in any of his works now extant.

10. We have previously referred to Eudoxus, note3, p. 78.

11. We have a brief account of Antipater in Hardouin's Index Auctorum;

Lemaire, i. 162.

12. We are informed by Alexandre that this was in the year of the City 691,

the same year in which Cicero was consul; see note in Lemaire, i. 379.

13. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the account here given must

be incorrect; the reader who may be disposed to learn the opinions of

the commentators on this point, may consult the notes in Poinsinet and

Lemaire in loco.

14. Dividuo globo; "Eoas partes a vespertinis dividente oceano."

Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 380.




68. Chap. 68. (68.)-What Part Of The Earth Is Inhabited.


CHAP. 68. (68.)-WHAT PART OF THE EARTH IS INHABITED.



In the first place, then, it appears, that this should be estimated at half the globe[1], as if no portion of this half was

encroached upon by the ocean. But surrounding as it does

the whole of the land, pouring out and receiving all the other

waters, furnishing whatever goes to the clouds, and feeding the

stars themselves, so numerous and of such great size as they

are, what a great space must we not suppose it to occupy!

This vast mass must fill up and occupy an infinite extent.

To this we must add that portion of the remainder which the

heavens[2] take from us. For the globe is divided into five

parts[3], termed zones, and all that portion is subject to severe

cold and perpetual frost which is under the two extremities,

about each of the poles, the nearer of which is called the

north, and the opposite the south, pole. In all these regions

there is perpetual darkness, and, in consequence of the aspect

of the milder stars being turned from them, the light is malignant,

and only like the whiteness which is produced by

hoar frost. The middle of the earth, over which is the orbit

of the sun, is parched and burned by the flame, and is consumed by

being so near the heat. There are only two of the

zones which are temperate, those which lie between the torrid

and the frigid zones, and these are separated from each other,

in consequence of the scorching heat of the heavenly bodies.







It appears, therefore, that the heavens take from us three

parts of the earth; how much the ocean steals is uncertain.



And with respect to the part which is left us, I do not

know whether that is not even in greater danger. This same

ocean, insinuating itself, as I have described it, into a number of

bays, approaches with its roaring[4] so near to the inland seas, that

the Arabian Gulf is no more than 115 miles

from the Egyptian Sea[5], and the Caspian only 375 miles from

the Euxine. It also insinuates itself into the numerous seas

by which it separates Africa, Europe, and Asia; hence how

much space must it occupy? We must also take into account the extent of all the rivers and the marshes, and we

must add the lakes and the pools. There are also the mountains, raised up to the heavens, with their precipitous fronts;

we must also subtract the forests and the craggy valleys, the

wildernesses, and the places, which, from various causes, are

desert. The vast quantity which remains of the earth[6], or

rather, as many persons have considered it, this speck of a

world[7] (for the earth is no more in regard to the universe),

this is the object, the seat of our glory-here we bear our

honours, here we exercise our power, here we covet wealth,

here we mortals create our disturbances, here we continually

carry on our wars, aye, civil wars, even, and unpeople the

earth by mutual slaughter. And not to dwell on public feuds,

entered into by nations against each other, here it is that we

drive away our neighbours, and enclose the land thus seized

upon within our own fence[8]; and yet the man who has most

extended his boundary, and has expelled the inhabitants for

ever so great a distance, after all, what mighty portion of the

earth is he master of? And even when his avarice has been

the most completely satisfied, what part of it can he take

with him into the grave?











1. "Jam primum in dimidio computari videtur."

2. "Clum;" the rigour of the climate.

3. The division of the globe into five zones is referred to by Virgil, Geor.

i. 233239, and by Ovid, Met. i. 45, 46.

4. "...interna maria allatrat,..."

5. This is considerably more than the distance in the present day.

The Isthmus of Suez appears, according to the statement of the most

accurate geographers, to be about 70 miles in breadth.

6. H tot portiones terr, as Alexandre correctly remarks, "ironice

dictum. Quam pauc enim supersunt!" Lemaire, i. 383.

7. "Mundi punctus." This expression, we may presume, was taken

from Seneca; "Hoc est illud punctum, quod inter tot gentes ferro et

igni dividitur." Nat. Qust. i. prf. p. 681.

8. Nostro solo adfodimus; "addimus, adjungimus, annectimus, ut una

fossione aretur." Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 383.




69. Chap. 69. (69.)-That The Earth Is In The Middle Of The World.


CHAP. 69. (69.)-THAT THE EARTH IS IN THE MIDDLE OF

THE WORLD.



It is evident from undoubted arguments, that the earth is

in the middle of the universe[1], but it is the most clearly

proved by the equality of the days and the nights at the equinox[2]. It is demonstrated by the quadrant[3], which affords

the most decisive confirmation of the fact, that unless the

earth was in the middle, the days and nights could not be

equal; for, at the time of the equinox, the rising and setting

of the sun are seen on the same line, and the rising of the

sun, at the summer solstice, is on the same line with its

setting at the winter solstice; but this could not happen if

the earth was not situated in the centre







1. "Mundi totius."

2. "quinoctii paribus horis."

3. Dioptra. "Grce dio/ptra, instrumentum est geometricum, un

quart de cerele,
quo apparentes rerum inter se distanti anguli apertura

dijudicantur." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 384.




70. Chap. 70. (70.)-Of The Obliquity Of The Zones .


CHAP. 70. (70.)-OF THE OBLIQUITY OF THE ZONES[1].



The three circles[2], which are connected with the abovementioned

zones, distinguish the inequalities of the seasons;

those are, the solstitial circle, which proceeds from the part

of the Zodiac the highest to us and approaching the nearest

to the district of the north; on the other side, the brumal,

which is towards the south pole; and the equinoctial, which

traverses the middle of the Zodiac.







1. This title does not correspond with the contents of the chapter.

2. "Tropici duo, cum quinoctiali circulo;" Hardouin, in Lemaire, i.

884.




71. Chap. 71.-Of The Inequality Of Climates.


CHAP. 71.-OF THE INEQUALITY OF CLIMATES.



The cause of the other things which are worthy of our

admiration depends on the figure of the earth itself, which,

together with all its waters, is proved, by the same arguments, to be

a globe. This certainly is the cause why the

stars of the northern portion of the heavens never set to us,

and why, on the other hand, those in the south never rise,

and again, why the latter can never be seen by the former,

the globe of the earth rising up and concealing them. The







Northern Wain is never seen in Troglodytice[1], nor in Egypt,

which borders on it[2]; nor can we, in Italy, see the star Canopus[3],

or Berenice's Hair[4]; nor what, under the Emperor

Augustus, was named Csar's Throne, although they are,

there[5], very brilliant stars. The curved form of the earth is

so obvious, rising up like a ridge, that Canopus appears to a

spectator at Alexandria to rise above the horizon almost the

quarter of a sign; the same star at Rhodes appears, as it

were, to graze along the earth, while in Pontus it is not seen

at all; where the Northern Wain appears considerably

elevated. This same constellation cannot be seen at Rhodes,

and still less at Alexandria. In Arabia, in the month of

November, it is concealed during the first watch of the

night, but may be seen during the second[6]; in Mero it is

seen, for a short time, in the evening, at the solstice, and it

is visible at day-break, for a few days before the rising of

Arcturus[7]. These facts have been principally ascertained

by the expeditions of navigators; the sea appearing more

elevated or depressed in certain parts[8]; the stars suddenly

coming into view, and, as it were, emerging from the water,

after having been concealed by the bulging out of the globe[9].

But the heavens do not, as some suppose, rise higher at one







pole, otherwise[10] its stars would be seen from all parts of the

world; they indeed are supposed to be higher by those who

are nearest to them, but the stars are sunk below the horizon

to those who are more remote. As this pole appears to be

elevated to those who are beneath it; so, when we have

passed along the convexity of the earth, those stars rise up,

which appear elevated to the inhabitants of those other districts;

all this, however, could not happen unless the earth

had the shape of a globe.







1. The Troglodytice of the ancients may be considered as nearly corresponding to the modern Abyssinia and Nubia.

2. This remark is incorrect, as far as respects nearly the whole of Egypt;

see the remarks of Marcus, in Ajasson, ii. 245.

3. This is a star of the first magnitude in the southern constellation of

Argo; we have a similar statement in Manilius, i. 216, 217.

4. The commentators suppose that the star or constellation here referred

to cannot be the same with what bears this name on the modern celestial

atlas; vide Hardouin in loco, also Marc. in Ajasson, ut

supra.
The

constellation of Berenice's hair forms the subject of Catullus's 67th

poem.

5. In Troglodytice and in Egypt.

6. The first watch of the night was from 6 P.M. to 9;

the second from

9 to midnight.

7. According to Columella, xi. 2. 369, this was 9 Calend. Mart.,

corresponding to the 21st of February.

8. "In alia adverso, in alia prono mari." I have adopted the opinion

of Alexandre, who explains the terms "adverso" and "prono,"

"ascendenti ad polum," and "ad austrum devexo;" a similar sense is

given to

the passage by Poinsinet and Ajasson, in their translations.

9. "Anfractu pil." See Manilius, i. 206 et seq. for a

similar mode of

expression.

10. "Aut;" as Poinsinet remarks, "aut est ici pour

alioqui;" and he

quotes another passage from our author, xix. 3, where the word is employed

in a similar manner.




72. Chap. 72.-In What Places Eclipses Are Invisible, And Why This Is The Case.


CHAP. 72.-IN WHAT PLACES ECLIPSES ARE INVISIBLE, AND

WHY THIS IS THE CASE.



Hence it is that the inhabitants of the east do not see

those eclipses of the sun or of the moon which occur in the

evening, nor the inhabitants of the west those in the morning, while such as take place at noon are more frequently

visible[1]. We are told, that at the time of the famous victory of

Alexander the Great, at Arbela[2], the moon was

eclipsed at the second hour of the night, while, in Sicily, the

moon was rising at the same hour. The eclipse of the sun

which occurred the day before the calends of May, in the

consulship of Vipstanus and Fonteius[3], not many years ago,

was seen in Campania between the seventh and eighth hour

of the day; the general Corbulo informs us, that it was seen







in Armenia, between the eleventh and twelfth hour[4]; thus the

curve of the globe both reveals and conceals different objects

from the inhabitants of its different parts. If the earth had

been flat, everything would have been seen at the same time,

from every part of it, and the nights would not have been

unequal; while the equal intervals of twelve hours, which are

now observed only in the middle of the earth, would in that

case have been the same everywhere.







1. We may presume that the author meant to convey the idea, that

the eclipses which are visible in any one country are not so in those

which are situated under a different meridian. The terms

"vespertinos," "matutinos," and "meridianos," refer not to the time

of the day,

but to the situation of the eclipse, whether recurring in the western,

eastern, or southern parts of the heavens.

2. Brewster, in the art. "Chronology," p. 415, mentions this eclipse as

having taken place Sept. 21st, U.C. 331, eleven days before

the battle of

Arbela; while, in the same art. p. 423, the battle is said to have taken

place on Oct. 2nd, eleven days after a total eclipse of the moon.

3. It took place on the 30th of April, in the year of the City 811,

A.D. 59; see Brewster, ubi supra. It is simply

mentioned by Tacitus,

Ann. xiv. 12, as having occurred among other prodigies which took place

at this period.

4. We have an account of Corbulo's expedition to Armenia in Dion Cassius, lx. 1924, but there is no mention of the eclipse or of any peculiar

celestial phnomenon.




73. Chap. 73. (71.)-What Regulates The Daylight On The Earth.


CHAP. 73. (71.)-WHAT REGULATES THE DAYLIGHT ON THE

EARTH.



Hence it is that there is not any one night and day the same,

in all parts of the earth, at the same time; the intervention of

the globe producing night, and its turning round producing

day[1]. This is known by various observations. In Africa and

in Spain it is made evident by the Towers of Hannibal[2], and in

Asia by the beacons, which, in consequence of their dread of

pirates, the people erected for their protection; for it has been

frequently observed, that the signals, which were lighted at

the sixth hour of the day, were seen at the third hour of the

night by those who were the most remote[3]. Philonides, a







courier of the above-mentioned Alexander, went from Sicyon

to Elis, a distance of 1200 stadia, in nine hours, while he

seldom returned until the third hour of the night, although

the road was down-hill[4]. The reason is, that, in going, he

followed the course of the sun, while on his return, in the

opposite direction, he met the sun and left it behind him.

For the same reason it is, that those who sail to the west,

even on the shortest day, compensate for the difficulty of

sailing in the night and go farther[5], because they sail in the

same direction with the sun.







1. The terms employed in the original are "oppositu" and "ambitu."

Alexandre's explanation of the first is, "quum globi terraquei crassitudo

interposita solis arcet radios;" and of the second, "quum nostra hujus

globi pars a sole ambitur." Lemaire, i. 389.

2. One of these towers is mentioned by Livy, xxxiii. 48; it is said to

have been situated between Acholla and Thapsus, on the sea-coast.

3. Hardouin, according to his usual custom, employs all his learning

and ingenuity to give a plausible explanation of this passage. Alexandre,

as it must be confessed, with but too much reason, remarks, "Frustra

desudavit Harduinus ut sanum aliquem sensum ex illis Plinii deliramentis excuteret." He correctly refers the interval of time, which was

said to occur between these signals, not to any astronomical cause, but to

the necessary delay which took place in the transmission of them. He

concludes, "Sed ad cursum solis hoc referre, dementi est. Nam ut tanta

horarum differentia intersit, si moram omnem in speculandis ac

transmittendis signis sustuleris, necesse erit observatores illos

ultimos 135

gradibus, id est, sesquidimidio hemisphrio, a primis distare turribus.

Recte igitur incredibilem Plinii credulitatem ludibrio

vertit Baylius in

Dictionario suo." Lemaire, i. 389.

4. The distance, as here stated, is about 150 miles, which he is said to

have performed in nine hours, but that the same distance, in returning,

required fifteen hours. We have here, as on the former occasion, a note

of Hardouin's to elucidate the statement of the author. On this Alexandre observes, "Optime; sed in tam parva locorum distantia, Elidis et

Sicyonis horologia vix quinque unius hore sexagesimis differre poterant;

quare eunti ac redeunti ne discrimen quidem quadrantis hor intererat.

Ineptos igitur auctores sequitur hoc quoque loco Plinius." Lemaire, i.

390, 391.

5. "Vincunt spatia nocturn navigationis." This expression would

appear to imply, that the author conceived some physical difficulty

in sailing during the night, and so it seems to be understood by

Alexandre;

vide not. in loco.




74. Chap. 74. (72.)-Remarks On Dials, As Connected With This Subject.


CHAP. 74. (72.)-REMARKS ON DIALS, AS CONNECTED WITH

THIS SUBJECT.



The same dial-plates[1] cannot be used in all places, the

shadow of the sun being sensibly different at distances of

300, or at most of 500 stadia[2]. Hence the shadow of the dial-pin,

which is termed the gnomon, at noon and at the summer

solstice, in Egypt, is a little more than half the length of the

gnomon itself At the city of Rome it is only 1/9 less than

the gnomon, at Ancona not more than 1/35 less, while in

the part of Italy which is called Venetia, at the same hour,

the shadow is equal to the length of the gnomon[3].











1. "Vasa horoscopica." "Vasa horoscopica appellat horologia in plano

descripta, horizonti ad libellam respondentia. Vasa dicuntur, quod area

in qua line ducebantur, labri interdum instar et conch erat, cujus in

margine describebantur hor. Horoscopa, ab w(/ra et

skope/w, hoc est,

ab inspiciendis horis." Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 391.

2. These distances are respectively about 38 and 62 miles.

3. We are not to expect any great accuracy in these estimates, and we

accordingly find, that our author, when referring to the subject in his

6th book, ch. 39, makes the shadow at Ancona 1/35 greater than the gnomon,

while, in Venetia, which is more northerly, he says, as in the present

chapter, that the shadow and the gnomon are equal in length. See the

remarks of M. Alexandre in Lemaire, ut supra.




75. Chap. 75. (73.)-When And Where There Are No Shadows.


CHAP. 75. (73.)-WHEN AND WHERE THERE ARE NO

SHADOWS.



It is likewise said, that in the town of Syene, which is

5000 stadia south of Alexandria[1], there is no shadow at noon,

on the day of the solstice; and that a well, which was sunk

for the purpose of the experiment, is illuminated by the sun

in every part. Hence it appears that the sun, in this place,

is vertical, and Onesicritus informs us that this is the case,

about the same time, in India, at the river Hypasis[2]. It is

well known, that at Berenice, a city of the Troglodyt, and

4820 stadia beyond that city, in the same country, at the

town of Ptolemais, which was built on the Red Sea, when

the elephant was first hunted, this same thing takes place

for forty-five days before the solstice and for an equal length

of time after it, and that during these ninety days the shadows

are turned towards the south[3]. Again, at Mero, an island

in the Nile and the metropolis of the thiopians, which is

5000 stadia[4] from Syene, there are no shadows at two periods

of the year, viz. when the sun is in the 18th degree of Taurus

and in the 14th of Leo[5]. The Oretes, a people of India, have

a mountain named Maleus[6], near which the shadows in sum-







mer fall towards the south and in winter towards the north.

The seven stars of the Great Bear are visible there for fifteen

nights only. In India also, in the celebrated sea-port Patale[7], the

sun rises to the right hand and the shadows fall

towards the south. While Alexander was staving there it

was observed, that the seven northern stars were seen only

during the early part of the night[8]. Onesicritus, one of his

generals, informs us in his work, that in those places in India

where there are no shadows, the seven stars are not visible[9];

these places, he says, are called "Ascia[10]," and the people there

do not reckon the time by hours[11].







1. This would be about 625 miles. Strabo, ii. 114, and Lucan, ii. 587,

give the same distance, which is probably nearly correct. Syene is,

however, a little to the north of the tropic.

2. This remark is not correct, as no part of this river is between the

tropics. For an account of Onesicritus see Lemaire, i. 203, 204.

3. "In meridiem umbras jaci." M. Ajasson translates this passage, "les

ombres tombent pendant quatre-vingt-dix jours sur le point central du

mridien." ii. 165. But I conceive that Holland's version is more correct, "for 90 days' space all the shadows are cast into the south." i. 36.

The remarks of M. Alexandre are to the same effect; ".....ut bis solem

in zenitho haberet (Ptolemais), Malii mensis et Augusti initio; interea

vero, solem e septemtrione haberet." Lemaire, i. 393.

4. About 625 miles.

5. These days correspond to the 8th of May and the 4th of August

respectively.

6. There is considerable uncertainty respecting the identity of this mountain; our author refers to it in a subsequent part of his work, where it is

said to be in the country of the Monedes and Suari; vi. 22. See the note

of Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 394.

7. Our author, in a subsequent part of his work, vi. 23, describes the

island of Patale as situated near the mouth of the Indus; he again refers

to it, xii. 25. His account of the position of the sun does not, however,

apply to this place.

8. If we may suppose this to have been actually the case, we might

calculate the time of the year when Alexander visited this place and the

length of his stay.

9. We may presume, that our author means to say no more than that,

in those places, they are occasionally invisible; literally the observation

would not apply to any part of India.

10. a)/skia, shadowless.

11. If this really were the case, it could have no relation to the

astronomical position of the country.




76. Chap. 76. (74.)-Where This Takes Place Twice In The Year And Where The Shadows Fall In Opposite Directions.


CHAP. 76. (74.)-WHERE THIS TAKES PLACE TWICE IN THE

YEAR AND WHERE THE SHADOWS FALL IN OPPOSITE

DIRECTIONS.



Eratosthenes informs us, that in the whole of Troglodytice,

for twice forty-five days in the year, the shadows fall in the

contrary direction[1].







1. "In contrarium," contrary to what takes place at other times, i. e.

towards the south. This observation is not applicable to the whole of

this country, as its northern and southern parts differ from each other by

seven or eight degrees of latitude. For an account of Eratosthenes see

Lemaire, i. 186.




77. Chap. 77. (75.)-Where The Days Are The Longest And Where The Shortest.


CHAP. 77. (75.)-WHERE THE DAYS ARE THE LONGEST AND

WHERE THE SHORTEST.



Hence it follows, that in consequence of the daylight

increasing in various degrees, in Mero the longest day







consists of twelve quinoctial hours and eight parts of an

hour[1], at Alexandria of fourteen hours, in Italy of fifteen, in

Britain of seventeen; where the degree of light, which exists

in the night, very clearly proves, what the reason of the thing

also obliges us to believe, that, during the solstitial period,

as the sun approaches to the pole of the world, and his orbit

is contracted, the parts of the earth that lie below him have

a day of six months long, and a night of equal length when

he is removed to the south pole. Pytheas, of Marseilles[2],

informs us, that this is the case in the island of Thule[3], which

is six days' sail from the north of Britain. Some persons

also affirm that this is the case in Mona, which is about 200

miles from Camelodunum[4], a town of Britain.







1. "Hora duodecim in partes, ut as in totidem uncias dividebatur.

Octonas igitur partes hor antiqu, sive bessem, ut Martianus vocat,

nobis probe reprsentant horarum nostratium 40 sexagesim, quas

miuntas vocamus." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 396.

2. For a notice of Pytheas see Lemaire, i. 210. He was a geographer

and historian who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus; but his

veracity does not appear to have been highly estimated by his

contemporaries.

3. The Thule of Pliny has been generally supposed to be the Shetland

Isles. What is here asserted respecting the length of the day, as well as

its distance from Britain, would indeed apply much more correctly to

Iceland than to Shetland; but we have no evidence that Iceland was

known to the ancients. Our author refers to the length of the day in

Thule in two subsequent parts of his work, iv. 30 and vi. 36.

4. Supposed to be Colchester in Essex; while the Mona of Pliny appears

to have been Anglesea. It is not easy to conceive why the author

measured the distance of Mona from Camelodunum.




78. Chap. 78. (76.)-Of The First Dial.


CHAP. 78. (76.)-OF THE FIRST DIAL.



Anaximenes the Milesian, the disciple of Anaximander,

of whom I have spoken above[1], discovered the theory of

shadows and what is called the art of dialling, and he was

the first who exhibited at Lacedmon the dial which they

call sciothericon[2].











1. Chap. 6 of this book.

2. a skia\, umbra, and qhra/w, sector. It has been a subject for discussion

by the commentators, how far this instrument of Anaximenes is entitled

to the appellation of a dial, whether it was intended to mark the hours,

or to serve for some other astronomical purpose. See Hardouin in

Lemaire, i. 398, 399. It has been correctly remarked by Brotier, that

we have an account of a much more ancient dial in the 2nd book of Kings,

xx. 9, 11.




79. Chap. 79. (77.)-Of The Mode In Which The Days Are Computed.


CHAP. 79. (77.)-OF THE MODE IN WHICH THE DAYS ARE

COMPUTED.



The days have been computed by different people in different ways.

The Babylonians reckoned from one sunrise

to the next; the Athenians from one sunset to the next; the

Umbrians from noon to noon; the multitude, universally,

from light to darkness; the Roman priests and those who

presided over the civil day, also the Egyptians and Hipparchus, from

midnight to midnight[1]. It appears that the interval from one sunrise

to the next is less near the solstices

than near the equinoxes, because the position of the zodiac

is more oblique about its middle part, and more straight

near the solstice[2].







1. A. Gellius, iii. 3, informs us, that the question concerning the

commencement of the day was one of the topics discussed by Varro, in

his

book "Rerum Humanarum:" this work is lost. We learn from the

notes of Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 399, that there are certain countries in

which all these various modes of computation are still practised; the

last-mentioned is the one commonly employed in Europe.

2. It has been supposed, that in this passage the author intended to

say no more than that the nights are shorter at the summer solstice than

at the other parts of the year; see Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 399, 400.

But to this, I conceive, it may be objected, that the words "inter ortus

solis" can scarcely apply to the period while the sun is below the horizon,

and that the solstices generally would seem to be opposed to the equinoxes

generally. Also the words "obliquior" and "rectior" would appear to

have some farther reference than merely to the length of time during

which the sun is above or below the horizon.




80. Chap. 80. (78.)-Of The Difference Of Nations As Depending On The Nature Of The World.


CHAP. 80. (78.)-OF THE DIFFERENCE OF NATIONS AS DEPENDING ON THE

NATURE OF THE WORLD.



To these circumstances we must add those that are connected with certain celestial causes. There can be no doubt,

that the thiopians are scorched by their vicinity to the

sun's heat, and they are born, like persons who have been

burned, with the beard and hair frizzled[1]; while, in the

opposite and frozen parts of the earth, there are nations with

white skins and long light hair. The latter are savage

from the inclemency of the climate, while the former are

dull from its variableness[2]. We learn, from the form of the







legs, that in the one, the fluids, like vapour, are forced into

the upper parts of the body, while in the other, being a

gross humour, it is drawn downwards into the lower parts[3].

In the cold regions savage beasts are produced, and in the

others, various forms of animals, and many kinds of birds[4].

In both situations the body grows tall, in the one case by

the force of fire, and in the other by the nutritive moisture.



In the middle of the earth there is a salutary mixture of

the two, a tract fruitful in all things, the habits of the body

holding a mean between the two, with a proper tempering

of colours; the manners of the people are gentle, the intellect

clear[5], the genius fertile and capable of comprehending every

part of nature. They have formed empires, which has never

been done by the remote nations; yet these latter have never

been subjected by the former, being severed from them and

remaining solitary, from the effect produced on them by

their savage nature.







1. "Vibrato;" the same term is applied by Turnus to the hair of neas;

n. xii. 100.

2. "Mobilitate hebetes;" it is not easy to see the connexion between

these two circumstances.

3. There is a passage in Galen, De Temperamentis, iii. 6, which may

appear to sanction the opinion of our author; "Siccos esse, quibus macra

sunt crura; humidos, quibus crassa."

4. The latter part of the remark is correct, but the number of ferocious

animals is also greater in the warmer regions; there is, in fact, a greater

variety in all the productions of nature in the warmer districts of the

globe, except in those particular spots where animal or vegetable life is

counteracted by some local circumstances, as in many parts of Asia and

Africa by the want of water.

5. "Sensus liquidus;" Alexandre explains this expression, "judicium

sanum, mens intelligendo apta." Lemaire, i. 401.




81. Chap. 81. (79.)-Of Earthquakes.


CHAP. 81. (79.)-OF EARTHQUAKES.



According to the doctrine of the Babylonians, earthquakes

and clefts of the earth, and occurrences of this kind, are

supposed to be produced by the influence of the stars,

especially of the three to which they ascribe thunder[1]; and

to be caused by the stars moving with the sun, or being in

conjunction with it, and, more particularly, when they are

in the quartile aspect[2]. If we are to credit the report, a







most admirable and immortal spirit, as it were of a divine

nature, should be ascribed to Anaximander the Milesian,

who, they say, warned the Lacedmonians to beware of their

city and their houses[3]. For he predicted that an earthquake

was at hand, when both the whole of their city was destroyed

and a large portion of Mount Taygetus, which projected in

the form of a ship, was broken off, and added farther ruin to

the previous destruction. Another prediction is ascribed to

Pherecydes, the master of Pythagoras, and this was divine;

by a draught of water from a well, he foresaw and predicted

that there would be an earthquake in that place[4]. And if

these things be true, how nearly do these individuals approach to the

Deity, even during their lifetime! But I

leave every one to judge of these matters as he pleases. I

certainly conceive the winds to be the cause of earthquakes;

for the earth never trembles except when the sea is quite

calm, and when the heavens are so tranquil that the birds

cannot maintain their flight, all the air which should support

them being withdrawn[5]; nor does it ever happen until after

great winds, the gust being pent up, as it were, in the

fissures and concealed hollows. For the trembling of the

earth resembles thunder in the clouds; nor does the yawning

of the earth differ from the bursting of the lightning; the

enclosed air struggling and striving to escape[6].







1. Saturn, Jupiter and Mars: see the 8th chapter of this book.

2. "Vel quando meant cum Sole in conjunctione cum eo, vel quando

cum eo conveniunt in aspectu, maxime vero in quadrato, qui fit, qunm

distant a Sole quarta mundi sive cli parte." Hardouin in Lemaire, i.

401.

3. "Ut urbem et tecta custodirent." This anecdote is referred to by

Cicero, who employs the words "ut urbem et tecta linquerent." De Divin.

i. 112.

4. This anecdote is also referred to by Cicero, de Div. ii.

5. It has been observed that earthquakes, as well as other great

convulsions of nature, are preceded by calms; it has also been

observed

that birds and animals generally exhibit certain presentiments of the

event, by something peculiar in their motions or proceedings; this

circumstance is mentioned by Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 8, and by Seneca,

Nat.

Qust. vi. 12.

6. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this supposed resemblance

or analogy is entirely without foundation. The phnomena of

earthquakes are described by Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. 4, and Meteor.

ii. 7 and 8; also by Seneca in various parts of the 6th book of his

Qusest. Nat.




82. Chap. 82. (80.)-Of Clefts Of The Earth.


CHAP. 82. (80.)-OF CLEFTS OF THE EARTH.



The earth is shaken in various ways, and wonderful effects

are produced[1]; in one place the walls of cities being thrown







down, and in others swallowed up by a deep cleft[2]; some-

times great masses of earth are heaped up, and rivers forced

out, sometimes even flame and hot springs[3], and at others

the course of rivers is turned. A terrible noise precedes

and accompanies the shock[4]; sometimes a murmuring, like

the lowing of cattle, or like human voices, or the clashing of

arms. This depends on the substance which receives the

sound, and the shape of the caverns or crevices through

which it issues; it being more shrill from a narrow opening,

more hoarse from one that is curved, producing a loud reverberation from hard bodies, a sound like a boiling fluid[5] from

moist substances, fluctuating in stagnant water, and roaring

when forced against solid bodies. There is, therefore, often

the sound without any motion. Nor is it a simple motion,

but one that is tremulous and vibratory. The cleft some-

times remains, displaying what it has swallowed up; some-

times concealing it, the mouth being closed and the soil

being brought over it, so that no vestige is left; the city

being, as it were, devoured, and the tract of country engulfed.

Maritime districts are more especially subject to shocks.

Nor are mountainous tracts exempt from them; I have found,

by my inquiries, that the Alps and the Apennines are fre-

quently shaken. The shocks happen more frequently in the

autumn and in the spring, as is the case also with thunder.

There are seldom shocks in Gaul and in Egypt; in the latter

it depends on the prevalence of summer, in the former, of

winter. They also happen more frequently in the night than

in the day. The greatest shocks are in the morning and the

evening; but they often take place at day-break, and some-

times at noon. They also take place during eclipses of the

sun and of the moon, because at that time storms are lulled.

They are most frequent when great heat succeeds to showers,

or showers succeed to great heat[6].











1. On this subject we shall find much curious matter in Aristotle's

Treatise de Mundo, cap. 4.

2. Poinsinet enters into a long detail of some of the most remarkable

earthquakes that have occurred, from the age of Pliny to the period when

he wrote, about fifty years ago; i. 249. 2.

3. See Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 8.

4. See Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 8, and Seneca, Nat. Qust. vi. 13.

5. "Fervente;" "Fremitum aque ferventis imitante." Alexandre in

Lemaire, i. 404.

6. The reader will scarcely require to be informed, that many of the

remarks in the latter part of this chapter are incorrect. Our author has

principally followed Aristotle, whose treatise on meteorology, although

abounding in curious details, is perhaps one of the least correct of

his works.




83. Chap. 83. (81.)-Signs Of An Approaching Earthquake.


CHAP. 83. (81.)-SIGNS OF AN APPROACHING EARTHQUAKE.



There is no doubt that earthquakes are felt by persons on

shipboard, as they are struck by a sudden motion of the

waves, without these being raised by any gust of wind.

And things that are in the vessels shake as they do in houses,

and give notice by their creaking; also the birds, when they

settle upon the vessels, are not without their alarms. There

is also a sign in the heavens; for, when a shock is near at

hand, either in the daytime or a little after sunset, a cloud

is stretched out in the clear sky, like a long thin line[1]. The

water in wells is also more turbid than usual, and it emits a

disagreeable odour[2].







1. This observation is taken from Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 8.

2. Phnomena of this kind have been frequently noticed, and are not

difficult of explanation.




84. Chap. 84. (82.)-Preservatives Against Future Earthquakes.


CHAP. 84. (82.)-PRESERVATIVES AGAINST FUTURE

EARTHQUAKES.



These same places[1], however, afford protection, and this is

also the case where there is a number of caverns, for they

give vent to the confined vapour; a circumstance which has

been remarked in certain towns, which have been less shaken

where they have been excavated by many sewers. And, in

the same town, those parts that are excavated[2] are safer than

the other parts, as is understood to be the case at Naples in

Italy, the part of it which is solid being more liable to injury.

Arched buildings are also the most safe, also the angles of

walls, the shocks counteracting each other; walls made of

brick also suffer less from the shocks[3]. There is also a great







difference in the nature of the motions[4], where various motions are

experienced. It is the safest when it vibrates and

causes a creaking in the building, and where it swells and

rises upwards, and settles with an alternate motion. It is

also harmless when the buildings coming together butt

against each other in opposite directions, for the motions

counteract each other. A movement like the rolling of waves

is dangerous, or when the motion is impelled in one direction.

The tremors cease when the vapour bursts out[5]; but if

they do not soon cease, they continue for forty days; generally,

indeed, for a longer time: some have lasted even for

one or two years.







1. "In iisdem;" "Iidem, inquit, putei inclusum terra spiritum libero

meatu emittentes, terr motus avertunt." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 406.

2. "Qu pendent." M. Ajasson translates this passage, "qui sont

comme suspendues." Hardouin's explanation is, "Structis fornice

cameris imposita dificia intelligit; quod genus camerarum

spiramenta

plerumque habet non pauca, quibus exeat ad libertatem aer." Lemaire,

i. 407.

3. Many of these circumstances are referred to by Seneca, Nat. Qust.

vi. 30. On the superior security of brick buildings, M. Alexandre

remarks, "Muri e lateribus facti difficilius quam ceeteri dehiscunt, unde

fit ut in urbibus muniendis id constructionum genus plerumque

prferatur. Ex antiqu Itali palatiis templisve nihil fere

prter immensas

laterum moles hodie superest."

4. These remarks upon the different kinds of shocks are probably taken

from Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 8.

5. This observation is also in Aristotle, ii. 8.




85. Chap. 85. (83.)-Prodigies Of The Earth Which Have Occurred Once Only.


CHAP. 85. (83.)-PRODIGIES OF THE EARTH WHICH HAVE

OCCURRED ONCE ONLY.



A great prodigy of the earth, which never happened more

than once, I have found mentioned in the books of the Etruscan

ceremonies, as having taken place in the district of Mutina,

during the consulship of Lucius Martius and Sextus Julius[1].

Two mountains rushed together, falling upon each other

with a very loud crash, and then receding; while in the daytime flame

and smoke issued from them; a great crowd of

Roman knights, and families of people, and travellers on the

milian way, being spectators of it. All the farm-houses

were thrown down by the shock, and a great number of

animals that were in them were killed; it was in the year

before the Social war; and I am in doubt whether this event

or the civil commotions were more fatal to the territory of

Italy. The prodigy which happened in our own age was no

less wonderful; in the last year of the emperor Nero[2], as I

have related in my history of his times[3], when certain fields

and olive grounds in the district of Marrucinum, belonging

to Vectius Marcellus, a Roman knight, the steward of Nero,







changed places with each other[4], although the public highway was interposed.







1. In the year of the city 663; A.C. 90.

2. In the year of the city 821; A.D. 68.

3. The continuation of Aufidius Bassus' history; our author refers

to it in the first book.

4. We have no authentic accounts of this mutual change of place

between two portions of land, nor can we conceive of any cause

capable of

effecting it. Our author mentions this circumstance again in book xvii.

ch. 38.




86. Chap. 86. (81.)-Wonderful Circumstances Attending Earthquakes.


CHAP. 86. (81.)-WONDERFUL CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING

EARTHQUAKES.



Inundations of the sea take place at the same time with

earthquakes[1]; the water being impregnated with the same

spirit[2], and received into the bosom of the earth which

subsides. The greatest earthquake which has occurred in

our memory was in the reign of Tiberius[3], by which twelve

cities of Asia were laid prostrate in one night. They occurred

the most frequently during the Punic war, when we had

accounts brought to Rome of fifty-seven earthquakes in the

space of a single year. It was during this year[4] that the

Carthaginians and the Romans, who were fighting at the

lake Thrasimenus, were neither of them sensible of a very

great shock during the battle[5]. Nor is it an evil merely

consisting in the danger which is produced by the motion;

it is all equal or a greater evil when it is considered as a

prodigy[6]. The city of Rome never experienced a shock,

which was not the forerunner of some great calamity.







1. See Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 8.

2. "Eodem videlicet spiritu infusi (maris) ac terr residentis sinu

recept i."

3. U.C. 770; A.D. 17. We have an account of this event in Strabo,

xii. 57; in Tacitus, Ann. ii. 47; and in the Universal History, xiv. 129,

130. We are informed by Hardouin, that coins are still in existence

which were struck to commemorate the liberality of the emperor on the

occasion, inscribed "civitatibus Asi restitutis." Lemaire, i. 410.

4. U.C. 537; A.C. 217.

5. This circumstance is mentioned by Livy, xxii. 5, and by Florus, ii. 6.

6. "Prsagiis, inquit, quam ipsa clade, sviores sunt terr motus."

Alexander in Lemaire, i. 410.




87. Chap. 87. (85.)-In What Places The Sea Has Receded.


CHAP. 87. (85.)-IN WHAT PLACES THE SEA HAS RECEDED.



The same cause produces an increase of the land; the

vapour, when it cannot burst out forcibly lifting up the







surface[1]. For the land is not merely produced by what is

brought down the rivers, as the islands called Echinades are

formed by the river Achelous, and the greater part of Egypt

by the Nile, where, according to Homer, it was a day and a

night's journey from the main land to the island of Pharos[2];

but, in some cases, by the receding of the sea, as, according

to the same author, was the case with the Circan isles[3].

The same thing also happened in the harbour of Ambracia,

for a space of 10,000 paces, and was also said to have taken

place for 5000 at the Pirus of Athens[4], and likewise at

Ephesus, where formerly the sea washed the walls of the

temple of Diana. Indeed, if we may believe Herodotus[5], the

sea came beyond Memphis, as far as the mountains of Ethiopia, and

also from the plains of Arabia. The sea also surrounded Ilium and the

whole of Teuthrania, and covered the

plain through which the Mander flows[6].







1. This phnomenon is distinctly referred to by Seneca, Nat. Qust.

vi. 21. It presents us with one of those cases, where the scientific deductions of the moderns have been anticipated by the speculations of the

ancients.

2. Odyss. iv. 354357; see also Arist. Meteor. i. 14; Lucan, x. 509511;

Seneca, Nat. Qust. vi. 26; Herodotus, ii. 4, 5; and Strabo, i. 59.

3. These form, at this day, the Monte Circello, which, it is remarked,

rises up like an island, out of the Pontine marshes. It seems, however,

difficult to conceive how any action of the sea could have formed these

marshes.

4. See Strabo, i. 58. ii.

5. ii. 5. et alibi.

6. The plain in which this river flows, forming the windings from which

it derives its name, appears to have been originally an inlet of the sea,

which was gradually filled up with alluvial matter.




88. Chap. 88. (86.)-The Mode In Which Islands Rise Up.


CHAP. 88. (86.)-THE MODE IN WHICH ISLANDS RISE UP.



Land is sometimes formed in a different manner, rising

suddenly out of the sea, as if nature was compensating the

earth for its losses[1], restoring in one place what she had

swallowed up in another.











1. "Paria secum faciente natura." This appears to have been a

colloquial or idiomatic expression among the Romans. See Hardouin in

Lemaire, 1. 412.




89. Chap. 89. (87.)-What Islands Have Been Formed, And At What Periods.


CHAP. 89. (87.)-WHAT ISLANDS HAVE BEEN FORMED, AND

AT WHAT PERIODS.



Delos and Rhodes[1], islands which have now been long

famous, are recorded to have risen up in this way. More

lately there have been some smaller islands formed; Anapha,

which is beyond Melos; Nea, between Lemnos and the

Hellespont; Halone, between Lebedos and Teos; Thera[2] and

Therasia, among the Cyclades, in the fourth year of the

135th Olympiad[3]. And among the same islands, 130 years

afterwards, Hiera, also called Automate[4], made its appearance; also

Thia, at the distance of two stadia from the

former, 110 years afterwards, in our own times, when M.

Junius Silanus and L. Balbus were consuls, on the 8th of

the ides of July[5].



(88.) Opposite to us, and near to Italy, among the olian

isles, an island emerged from the sea; and likewise one near

Crete, 2500 paces in extent, and with warm springs in it;

another made its appearance in the third year of the 163rd

Olympiad[6], in the Tuscan gulf, burning with a violent

explosion. There is a tradition too that a great number of

fishes were floating about the spot, and that those who employed them for food immediately expired. It is said that

the Pithecusan isles rose up, in the same way, in the bay

of Campania, and that, shortly afterwards, the mountain

Epopos, from which flame had suddenly burst forth, was

reduced to the level of the neighbouring plain. In the same

island, it is said, that a town was sunk in the sea; that in







consequence of another shock, a lake burst out, and that, by

a third, Prochytas was formed into an island, the neighbouring mountains being rolled away from it.







1. It may be remarked, that the accounts of modern travellers and

geologists tend to confirm the opinion of the volcanic origin of many of

the islands of the Archipelago.

2. Brotier remarks, that, according to the account of Herodotus, this

island existed previous to the date here assigned to it; Lemaire, i. 412,

413: it is probable, however, that the same name was applied to two

islands, one at least of which was of volcanic origin.

3. U.C. 517, A.C. 237; and U.C. 617,

A.C. 107; respectively.

4. Hiera, Automata; ab i(era\, sacer, et au)toma/th,

sponte nascens.

Respecting the origin of these islands there would appear to be some

confusion in the dates, which it is difficult to reconcile with each other;

it is, I conceive, impossible to decide whether this depends upon an error

of our author himself, or of his transcribers.

5. July 25th, U.C. 771; A.C. 19.

6. U.C. 628; A.C. 125.




90. Chap. 90.-Lands Which Have Been Separated By The Sea.


CHAP. 90.-LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN SEPARATED BY

THE SEA.



In the ordinary course of things islands are also formed

by this means. The sea has torn Sicily from Italy[1], Cyprus

from Syria, Euba from Botia[2], Atalante and Macris[3]

from Euba, Besbycus from Bithynia, and Leucosia from

the promontory of the Sirens.







1. See Ovid, Metam. xv. 290, 291; also Seneca, Nat. Qust. vi. 29.

2. This event is mentioned by Thucydides, lib. 3, Smith's Trans. i. 293;

and by Diodorus, xii. 7, Booth's Trans. p. 287, as the consequence of an

earthquake; but the separation was from Locris, not from Euba. See

the remarks of Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 415.

3. It is somewhat uncertain to what island our author applied this

name; see the remarks of Alexandre in Lemaire.




91. Chap. 91. (89.)-Islands Which Have Been United To The Main Land.


CHAP. 91. (89.)-ISLANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN UNITED TO

THE MAIN LAND.



Again, islands are taken from the sea and added to the

main land; Antissa[1] to Lesbos, Zephyrium to Halicarnassus,

thusa to Myndus, Dromiscus and Perne to Miletus, Narthecusa to the promontory of Parthenium. Hybanda,

which was formerly an island of Ionia, is now 200 stadia

distant from the sea. Syries is now become a part of

Ephesus, and, in the same neighbourhood, Derasidas and Sophonia form part of Magnesia; while Epidaurus and Oricum

are no longer islands[2].







1. See Ovid, Metam. xv. 287.

2. It is not improbable, from the situation and geological structure of

the places here enumerated, that many of the changes mentioned above

may have actually occurred but there are few of them of which we have

any direct evidence.




92. Chap. 92. (90.)-Lands Which Have Been Totally Changed Into Seas.


CHAP. 92. (90.)-LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN TOTALLY

CHANGED INTO SEAS.



The sea has totally carried off certain lands, and first of







all, if we are to believe Plato[1], for an immense space where

the Atlantic ocean is now extended. More lately we see

what has been produced by our inland sea; Acarnania has

been overwhelmed by the Ambracian gulf, Achaia by the

Corinthian, Europe and Asia by the Propontis and Pontus.

And besides these, the sea has rent asunder Leucas, Antirrhium, the

Hellespont, and the two Bosphori[2].







1. This celebrated narrative of Plato is contained in his Timus, Op. ix.

p. 296, 297; it may be presumed that it was not altogether a fiction on

the part of the author, but it is, at this time, impossible to determine

what part of it was derived from ancient traditions and what from the

fertile stores of his own imagination. It is referred to by various ancient

writers, among others by Strabo. See also the remarks of Brotier in

Lemaire, i. 416, 417.

2. Many of these changes on the surface of the globe, and others

mentioned by our author in this part of his work, are alluded to by

Ovid, in

his beautiful abstract of the Pythagorean doctrine, Metam. xv.

passim.




93. Chap. 93. (91.)-Lands Which Have Been Swallowed Up.


CHAP. 93. (91.)-LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN

SWALLOWED UP.



And not to speak of bays and gulfs, the earth feeds on

itself; it has devoured the very high mountain of Cybotus,

with the town of Curites; also Sipylus in Magnesia[1], and

formerly, in the same place, a very celebrated city, which

was called Tantalis; also the land belonging to the cities

Galanis and Gamales in Phnicia, together with the cities

themselves; also Phegium, the most lofty ridge in thiopia[2].

Nor are the shores of the sea more to be depended upon.







1. See Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 8, and Strabo, i. For some account of the

places mentioned in this chapter the reader may consult the notes of

Hardouin in loco.

2. Poinsinet, as I conceive correctly, makes the following clause the

commencement of the next chapter.




94. Chap. 94. (92.)-Cities Which Have Been Absorbed By The Sea.


CHAP. 94. (92.)-CITIES WHICH HAVE BEEN ABSORBED BY

THE SEA.



The sea near the Palus Motis has carried away Pyrrha

and Antissa, also Elice and Bura[1] in the gulf of Corinth,

traces of which places are visible in the ocean. From the







island Cea it has seized on 30,000 paces, which were suddenly torn off, with many persons on them. In Sicily also

the half of the city of Tyndaris, and all the part of Italy

which is wanting[2]; in like manner it carried off Eleusina in

Botia[3].







1. See Ovid, Metam. xv. 293295; also the remarks of Hardouin in

Lemaire, i. 418.

2. "Spatium intelligit, fretumve, quo Sicilia nunc ab Italia dispescitur."

Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 419.

3. See Strabo, ix.




95. Chap. 95. (93.)-Of Vents In The Earth.


CHAP. 95. (93.)-OF VENTS[1] IN THE EARTH.



But let us say no more of earthquakes and of whatever

may be regarded as the sepulchres of cities[2]; let us rather

speak of the wonders of the earth than of the crimes of

nature. But, by Hercules! the history of the heavens themselves would

not be more difficult to relate:-the abundance

of metals, so various, so rich, so prolific, rising up[3] during so

many ages; when, throughout all the world, so much is,

every day, destroyed by fire, by waste, by shipwreck, by

wars, and by frauds; and while so much is consumed by

luxury and by such a number of people:-the figures on

gems, so multiplied in their forms; the variously-coloured

spots on certain stones, and the whiteness of others, excluding

everything except light:-the virtues of medicinal springs,

and the perpetual fires bursting out in so many places, for

so many ages:-the exhalation of deadly vapours, either

emitted from caverns[4], or from certain unhealthy districts;

some of them fatal to birds alone, as at Soracte, a district

near the city[5]; others to all animals, except to man[6], while







others are so to man also, as in the country of Sinuessa and

Puteoli. They are generally called vents, and, by some

persons, Charon's sewers, from their exhaling a deadly

vapour. Also at Amsanctum, in the country of the Hirpini,

at the temple of Mephitis[7], there is a place which kills all

those who enter it. And the same takes place at Hierapolis in

Asia[8], where no one can enter with safety, except the priest

of the great Mother of the Gods. In other places there are

prophetic caves, where those who are intoxicated with the

vapour which rises from them predict future events[9], as at

the most noble of all oracles, Delphi. In which cases, what

mortal is there who can assign any other cause, than the

divine power of nature, which is everywhere diffused, and

thus bursts forth in various places?







1. "Spiracula."

2. "Busta urbium."

3. "Suboriens," as M. Alexandre explains it, "renascens;" Lemaire,

i. 420.

4. "Scrobibus;" "aut quum terra fossis excavatur, ut in Pomptina

palude, aut per naturales hiatus." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 420.

5. This circumstance is mentioned by Seneca, Nat. Qust. vi. 28,

as occurring "pluribus Itali locis;" it may be ascribed to the

exhalations from

volcanos being raised up into the atmosphere. It does not appear that

there is, at present, any cavern in Mount Soracte which emits mephitic

vapours. But the circumstance of Soracte being regarded sacred to

Apollo, as we learn from our author, vii. 2, and from Virgil, n. xi. 785,

may lead us to conjecture that something of the kind may formerly have

existed there.

6. The author may probably refer to the well-known Grotto del Cane,

where, in consequence of a stratum of carbonic acid gas, which occupies

the lower part of the cave only, dogs and other animals, whose mouths

are near the ground, are instantly suffocated.

7. Celebrated in the well-known lines of Virgil, n. vii. 563 et

seq.,
as

the "svi spiracula Ditis."

8. Apuleius gives us an account of this place from his own observation;

De Mundo, 729. See also Strabo, xii.

9. See Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. iv.




96. Chap. 96. (94.)-Of Certain Lands Which Are Always Shaking, And Of Floating Islands.


CHAP. 96. (94.)-OF CERTAIN LANDS WHICH ARE ALWAYS

SHAKING, AND OF FLOATING ISLANDS.



There are certain lands which shake when any one passes

over them[1]; as in the territory of the Gabii, not far from the

city of Rome, there are about 200 acres which shake when

cavalry passes over it: the same thing takes place at Reate.



(95.) There are certain islands which are always floating[2],

as in the territory of the Ccubum[3], and of the above-mentioned

Reate, of Mutina, and of Statonia. In the lake of

Vadimonis and the waters of Cutili there is a dark wood,

which is never seen in the same place for a day and a night

together. In Lydia, the islands named Calamin are not







only driven about by the wind, but may be even pushed at

pleasure from place to place, by poles: many citizens saved

themselves by this means in the Mithridatic war. There are

some small islands in the Nymphus, called the Dancers[4],

because, when choruses are sung, they are moved by the

motions of those who beat time. In the great Italian lake of

Tarquinii, there are two islands with groves on them, which

are driven about by the wind, so as at one time to exhibit

the figure of a triangle and at another of a circle; but they

never form a square[5].







1. "Ad ingressum ambulantium, et equorum cursus, terr quoque

tremere sentiuntur in Brabantino agro, qu Belgii pars, et

circa S.

Audomari fanum." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 421, 422.

2. See Seneca, Nat. Qust. iii. 25.

3. Martial speaks of the marshy nature of the Ccuban district, xiii. 115.

Most of the places mentioned in this chapter are illustrated by the

remarks of Hardouin; Lemaire, i. 422, 423.

4. "Saltuares." In some of the MSS. the term here employed is

Saliares, or Saltares; but in all the editions which I am in the habit of

consulting, it is Saltuares.

5. There is, no doubt, some truth in these accounts of floating islands,

although, as we may presume, much exaggerated. There are frequently

small portions of land detached from the edges of lakes, by floods or

rapid currents, held together and rendered buoyant by a mass of roots

and vegetable matter. In the lake of Keswick, in the county of Cumberland, there are two small floating islands, of a few yards in circumference, which are moved about by the wind or by currents; they appear

to consist, principally, of a mass of vegetable fibres.




97. Chap. 97. (96.)-Places In Which It Never Rains.


CHAP. 97. (96.)-PLACES IN WHICH IT NEVER RAINS.



There is at Paphos a celebrated temple of Venus, in a

certain court of which it never rains; also at Nea, a town

of Troas, in the spot which surrounds the statue of Minerva:

in this place also the remains of animals that are sacrificed

never putrefy[1].







1. It has been observed, that there are certain places where bodies

remain for a long time without undergoing decomposition; it depends

principally upon a dry and cool condition of the air, such as is occasionally found in vaults and natural caverns. See the remarks of

Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 424.




98. Chap. 98.-The Wonders Of Various Countries Collected Together.


CHAP. 98.-THE WONDERS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES

COLLECTED TOGETHER.



Near Harpasa, a town of Asia, there stands a terrific rock,

which may be moved by a single finger; but if it be pushed

by the force of the whole body, it resists[1]. In the Tauric

peninsula, in the state of the Parasini, there is a kind of







earth which cures all wounds[2]. About Assos, in Troas, a

stone is found, by which all bodies are consumed; it is called

Sarcophagus[3]. There are two mountains near the river

Indus; the nature of one is to attract iron, of the other to

repel it: hence, if there be nails in the shoes, the feet cannot

be drawn off the one, or set down on the other[4]. It has

been noticed, that at Locris and Crotona, there has never

been a pestilence, nor have they ever suffered from an earthquake; in Lycia there are always forty calm days before an

earthquake. In the territory of Argyripa the corn which is

sown never springs up. At the altars of Mucius, in the

country of the Veii, and about Tusculum, and in the Cimmerian Forest, there are places in which things that are

pushed into the ground cannot be pulled out again. The

hay which is grown in Crustuminium is noxious on the spot,

but elsewhere it is wholesome[5].







1. We may conceive of a large mass of rock being so balanced upon the

fine point of another rock, as to be moved by the slightest touch; but,

that if it be pushed with any force, it may be thrown upon a plane surface, and will then remain immovable.

2. Perhaps the author may refer to some kind of earth, possessed of

absorbent or astringent properties, like the Terra Sigillata or Armenian

Bole of the old Pharmacopias.

3. A sa\rc, caro, and fa/gw, edo We may conceive this

stone to have

contained a portion of an acrid ingredient, perhaps of an alkaline nature,

which, in some degree, might produce the effect here described. It does

not appear that the material of which the stone coffins are composed, to

which this name has been applied, the workmanship of which is so much

an object of admiration, are any of them possessed of this property.

4. Alexandre remarks on this statement, "Montes ist videntur originem dedisse fabul qu in Arabicis Noctibus legitur....;" Lemaire,

i. 425. Fouch, indeed, observes, that there are mountains composed

principally of natural loadstone, which might sensibly attract a shoe

containing iron nails. Ajasson, ii. 386. But I conceive that we have no

evidence of the existence of the magnetic iron pyrites having ever been

found in sufficient quantity to produce any sensible effect of the kind

here described.

5. We may remark generally, that of the "miracula" related in this

chapter, the greatest part are entirely without foundation, and the remainder much exaggerated.




99. Chap. 99. (97)-Concerning The Cause Of The Flowing And Ebbing Of The Sea.


CHAP. 99. (97)-CONCERNING THE CAUSE OF THE FLOWING

AND EBBING OF THE SEA.



Much has been said about the nature of waters; but the

most wonderful circumstance is the alternate flowing and

ebbing of the tides, which exists, indeed, under various forms,

but is caused by the sun and the moon. The tide flows

twice and ebbs twice between each two risings of the moon,







always in the space of twenty-four hours. First, the moon

rising with the stars[1] swells out the tide, and after some time,

having gained the summit of the heavens, she declines from

the meridian and sets, and the tide subsides. Again, after she

has set, and moves in the heavens under the earth, as she

approaches the meridian on the opposite side, the tide flows

in; after which it recedes until she again rises to us. But

the tide of the next day is never at the same time with that of

the preceding; as if the planet was in attendance[2], greedily

drinking up the sea, and continually rising in a different place

from what she did the day before. The intervals are, however,

equal, being always of six hours; not indeed in respect of any

particular day or night or place[3], but equinoctial hours, and

therefore they are unequal as estimated by the length of common

hours, since a greater number of them[4] fall on some certain days or

nights, and they are never equal everywhere

except at the equinox. This is a great, most clear, and even

divine proof of the dullness of those, who deny that the stars

go below the earth and rise up again, and that nature presents the same face in the same states of their rising and

setting[5]; for the course of the stars is equally obvious in the

one case as in the other, producing the same effect as when

it is manifest to the sight.



There is a difference in the tides, depending on the moon,

of a complicated nature, and, first, as to the period of seven

days. For the tides are of moderate height from the new

moon to the first quarter; from this time they increase, and

are the highest at the full: they then decrease. On the

seventh day they are equal to what they were at the first







quarter, and they again increase from the time that she is at

first quarter on the other side. At her conjunction with

the sun they are equally high as at the full. When the

moon is in the northern hemisphere, and recedes further

from the earth, the tides are lower than when, going towards

the south, she exercises her influence at a less distance[6].

After an interval of eight years, and the hundredth revolution of the moon, the periods and the heights of the tides

return into the same order as at first, this planet always

acting upon them; and all these effects are likewise increased by the

annual changes of the sun[7], the tides rising

up higher at the equinoxes, and more so at the autumnal

than at the vernal; while they are lower[8] about the winter

solstice, and still more so at the summer solstice; not

indeed precisely at the points of time which I have mentioned, but a

few days after[9]; for example, not exactly at

the full nor at the new moon, but after them; and not

immediately when the moon becomes visible or invisible, or

has advanced to the middle of her course, but generally

about two hours later than the equinoctial hours[10]; the effect

of what is going on in the heavens being felt after a short

interval; as we observe with respect to lightning, thunder,

and thunderbolts.



But the tides of the ocean cover greater spaces and produce

greater inundations than the tides of the other seas; whether

it be that the whole of the universe taken together is more

full of life than its individual parts, or that the large open

space feels more sensibly the power of the planet, as it moves

freely about, than when restrained within narrow bounds.







On which account neither lakes nor rivers are moved in the

same manner. Pytheas[11] of Massilia informs us, that in

Britain the tide rises 80 cubits[12]. Inland seas are enclosed

as in a harbour, but, in some parts of them, there is a more

free space which obeys the influence[13]. Among many other

examples, the force of the tide will carry us in three days

from Italy to Utica, when the sea is tranquil and there is no

impulse from the sails[14]. But these motions are more felt

about the shores than in the deep parts of the seas, as in the

body the extremities of the veins feel the pulse, which is the

vital spirit, more than the other parts[15]. And in most estuaries, on account of the unequal rising of the stars in each

tract, the tides differ from each other, but this respects the

period, not the nature of them; as is the case in the Syrtes.







1. "Mundo;" the heavens or visible firmament, to which the stars and

planets appear to be connected, so as to be moved along with it.

2. "Ancillante; ""Credas ancillari sidus, et indulgere mari, ut non ab

eadem parte, qua pridie, pastum ex oceano hauriat." Hardouin in

Lemaire, i. 427.

3. Not depending on the time of the rising and setting of the sun or

the latitude of the place, but determinate portions of the diurnal period.

4. By a conjectural variation of a letter, viz. by substituting "eos "for

"eas," Dalechamp has, as he conceives, rendered this passage more clear;

the alteration is adopted by Lemaire.

5. "In iisdem ortus occasusque operibus;" "Eodem modo utrinque

orientibus occidentibusque sideribus," as interpreted by Alexandre in

Lemaire, i. 428.

6. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that both the alleged fact and the

supposed cause are incorrect. And this is the case with what our author

says in the next sentence, respecting the period of eight years, and the

hundred revolutions of the moon.

7. "Solis annuis causis." The circumstances connected with the

revolution of the sun, acting as causes of the period and height of

the tides,

in addition to the effect of the moon.

8. "Inanes;" "Depressiores ac minus tumentes." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 429.

9. According to the remark of Alexandre, "Uno die et dimidio altero,

36 circiter horis, in Gallia." Lemaire, i. 429.

10. Alexandre remarks on this passage, "Variat pro locis hoc intervallum

a nullo fere temporis momento ad undecim horas et amplius;" Lemaire,

i 429.

11. Our author has already referred to Pytheas, in the 77th chapter of

this book.

12. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the space here mentioned,

which is nearly 120 feet, is far greater than the actual fact.

13. "Ditioni paret;" "Lun solisque efficienti, qu ciet stum."

Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 430.

14. The effect here described could not have depended upon the tides,

but upon some current, either affecting the whole of the Mediterranean,

or certain parts of it. See the remarks of Hardouin in Lemaire.

15. Pliny naturally adopted the erroneous opinions respecting the state

of the blood-vessels, and the cause of the pulse, which were universally

maintained by the ancients.




100. Chap. 100.-Where The Tides Rise And Fall In An Unusual Manner.


CHAP. 100.-WHERE THE TIDES RISE AND FALL IN AN

UNUSUAL MANNER.



There are, however, some tides which are of a peculiar

nature, as in the Tauromenian Euripus[1], where the ebb and

flow is more frequent than in other places, and in Euba,

where it takes place seven times during the day and the

night. The tides intermit three times during each month,

being the 7th, 8th and 9th day of the moon[2]. At Gades,

which is very near the temple of Hercules, there is a spring







enclosed like a well, which sometimes rises and falls with the

ocean, and, at other times, in both respects contrary to it.

In the same place there is another well, which always agrees

with the ocean. On the shores of the Btis[3], there is a town

where the wells become lower when the tide rises, and fill

again when it ebbs; while at other times they remain stationary. The

same thing occurs in one well in the town of

Hispalis[4], while there is nothing peculiar in the other wells.

The Euxine always flows into the Propontis, the water

never flowing back into the Euxine[5].







1. The name of Euripus is generally applied to the strait between

Botia and Euba, but our author here extends it to that between Italy

and Sicily. A peculiarity in the tide of this strait is referred to by

Cicero, De Nat. Deor. iii. 24.

2. "Estus idem triduo in mense consistit." "Consistentia, sive mediocritas aquarum non solum septima die sentitur, sed et octava, ac nona

durat," as Hardoum explains this passage, Lemaire, i. 431.

3. Now called the Guadalquivir.

4. The modern Seville.

5. This circumstance is noticed by most of the ancients, as by Aristotle,

Meteor. ii. 1; by Seneca, Nat. Qust. iv. 2; and by Strabo. It has,

however, no relation to the tide, but depends upon the quantity of water

transmitted into the Euxine by the numerous large rivers that empty

themselves into it.




101. Chap. 101. (9S.)-Wonders Of The Sea.


CHAP. 101. (9S.)-WONDERS OF THE SEA.



All seas are purified at the full moon[1]; some also at stated

periods. At Messina and Myl refuse matter, like dung[2],

is cast up on the shore, whence originated the story of the

oxen of the Sun having had their stable at that place. To

what has been said above (not to omit anything with which

I am acquainted) Aristotle adds, that no animal dies except

when the tide is ebbing. The observation has been often

made on the ocean of Gaul; but it has only been found true

with respect to man[3].







1. It has been suggested, with some plausibility, that the greater height

of the tides at this period will cause a greater quantity of matter to be

cast on shore. This circumstance is referred to by Seneca, Nat. Qust.

iii. 26; and by Strabo.

2. Alexandre observes on this supposed fact, "Algarum molles qudam

species intelligend sunt, qu convolut et marcid in littus

ejiciuntur." Lemaire, i. 432.

3. It may cause some surprise to find that such an opinion has been

entertained even in modern times; but more correct observation has

shown it to be without foundation. Lemaire.




102. Chap. 102. (99.)-The Power Of The Moon Over The Land And The Sea.


CHAP. 102. (99.)-THE POWER OF THE MOON OVER THE

LAND AND THE SEA.



Hence we may certainly conjecture, that the moon is not







unjustly regarded as the star of our life[1]. This it is that

replenishes the earth[2]; when she approaches it, she fills all

bodies, while, when she recedes, she empties them. From

this cause it is that shell-fish grow with her increase[3], and

that those animals which are without blood more particularly

experience her influence; also, that the blood of man is

increased or diminished in proportion to the quantity of her

light; also that the leaves and vegetables generally, as I shall

describe in the proper place[4], feel her influence, her power

penetrating all things.







1. "Spiritus sidus;" "Quod vitalem humorem ac spiritus in

corporibus rebusque omnibus varie temperet." Hardouin in Lemaire, i.

433.

2. "Terras saturet;" as Alexandre interprets it, "succo impleat;"

Lemaire.

3. This circumstance is alluded to by Cicero, De Divin. ii. 33, and by

Horace, Sat. ii. 4, 30. It is difficult to conceive how an opinion so

totally unfounded, and so easy to refute, should have obtained general

credence.

4. Lib. xviii. chap. 75.




103. Chap. 103. (100.)-The Power Of The Sun.


CHAP. 103. (100.)-THE POWER OF THE SUN.



Fluids are dried up by the heat of the sun; we have

therefore regarded it as a masculine star, burning up and

absorbing everything[1].







1. Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 1, remarks, that as the sun is

continually evaporating the water of the sea, it must eventually be

entirely dried up.

But we have reason to believe, that all the water which is evaporated by

the solar heat, or any other natural process, is again deposited in the form

of rain or dew.




104. Chap. 104.-Why The Sea Is Salt.


CHAP. 104.-WHY THE SEA IS SALT.



Hence it is that the widely-diffused sea is impregnated

with the flavour of salt, in consequence of what is sweet and

mild being evaporated from it, which the force of fire easily

accomplishes; while all the more acrid and thick matter is

left behind; on which account the water of the sea is less

salt at some depth than at the surface. And this is a more

true cause of the acrid flavour, than that the sea is the continued perspiration of the land[1], or that the greater part of

the dry vapour is mixed with it, or that the nature of the

earth is such that it impregnates the waters, and, as it were,







medicates them[2]. Among the prodigies which have occurred,

there is one which happened when Dionysius, the tyrant of

Sicily, was expelled from his kingdom; that, for the space

of one day, the water in the harbour became sweet.



(101.) The moon, on the contrary, is said to be a feminine

and delicate planet, and also nocturnal; also that it resolves

humours and draws them out, but does not carry them off.

It is manifest that the carcases of wild beasts are rendered

putrid by its beams, that, during sleep, it draws up the

accumulated torpor into the head, that it melts ice, and

relaxes all things by its moistening spirit[3]. Thus the

changes of nature compensate each other, and are always

adequate to their destined purpose; some of them congealing

the elements of the stars and others dissolving them. The

moon is said to be fed by fresh, and the sun by salt water.







1. "Terr sudor;" according to Aristotle, Meteor. ii. 4: this opinion.

was adopted by some of the ancients.

2. The commentators discuss at considerable length the relative merits

of the three hypotheses here proposed, to account for the saltness of the

ocean; all of which are equally unfounded. See Hardouin in Lemaire,

i. 434, 435. Aristotle's opinion on this subject is contained in his Meteor.

3. It is not easy to ascertain the origin of the very general opinion respecting the peculiar physical action of the moon. The alleged facts are,

for the most part, without foundation, and I am not aware of any circumstance which could, originally, have made them a part of the popular

creed of so many nations, ancient as well as modern. Perhaps some of

the effects which have been ascribed to the specific action of the moon,

may be explained by the lower temperature and greater dampness of the

air, during the absence of the sun.




105. Chap. 105. (102.)-Where The Sea Is The Deepest.


CHAP. 105. (102.)-WHERE THE SEA IS THE DEEPEST.



Fabianus[1] informs us that the greatest depth of the sea is

15 stadia[2]. We learn from others, that in the Euxine,

opposite to the nation of the Coraxi, at what is called the

Depths of the Euxine[3]. about 300 stadia[4] from the main land,

the sea is immensely deep, no bottom having been found.











1. There appears to be some doubt respecting the history of the person

here referred to: according to the account of Hardouin, Fabianus was a

naturalist, who enjoyed a high repution; he lived in the time of Tiberius:

see Lemaire, i. 188.

2. This would be a depth of 3125 yards, not very far short of two

miles; see Adam's Rom. Antiq. p. 503.

3. "Baqe/a Ponti;" Aristotle refers to this as one of those

parts where

the sea is unfathomable; Meteor. i. 13.

4. A distance of nearly nine and a half miles.




106. Chap. 106. (103.)-The Wonders Of Fountains And Rivers.


CHAP. 106. (103.)-THE WONDERS OF FOUNTAINS AND

RIVERS.

It is very remarkable that fresh water should burst out

close to the sea, as from pipes. But there is no end to the

wonders that are connected with the nature of waters. Fresh

water floats on sea water, no doubt from its being lighter;

and therefore sea water, which is of a heavier nature[1], supports better what floats upon

it. And, in some places,

different kinds of fresh water float upon each other; as that

of the river which falls into the Fucinus; that of the Addua

into the Larius; of the Ticinus into the Verbanus; of the

Mincius into the Benacus; of the Ollius into the Sevinus;

and of the Rhone into the Leman lake[2] (this last being

beyond the Alps, the others in Italy): all which rivers passing

through the lakes for many miles, generally carry off no more

water than they bring with them. The same thing is said to

occur in the Orontes, a river of Syria, and in many others



Some rivers, from a real hatred of the sea, pass under it,

as does Arethusa, a fountain of Syracuse, in which the substances are found that

are thrown into the Alpheus; which,

after flowing by Olympia, is discharged into the sea, on the

shore of the Peloponnesus[3]. The

Lycus in Asia[4], the

Era-







sinus in Argolis, and the Tigris[5] in Mesopotamia, sink into the

earth and burst out again. Substances which are thrown

into the fountain of sculapius at Athens[6] are cast up at

the fountain of Phalerum. The river which sinks into the

ground in the plain of Atinum[7] comes up again at the

distance of twenty miles, and the Timavus does the same

in Aquileia[8].



In the lake Asphaltites, in Juda, which produces bitumen,

no substance will sink, nor in the lake Arethusa[9], in the

Greater Armenia: in this lake, although it contains nitre,

fish are found. In the country of the Salentini, near the

town of Manduria, there is a lake[10] full to the brim, the

waters of which are never diminished by what is taken out

of it, nor increased by what is added. Wood, which is

thrown into the river of the Cicones[11], or into the lake Velinus

in Picenum, becomes coated with a stony crust, while in the

Surius, a river of Colchis, the whole substance becomes as

hard as stone. In the same manner, in the Silarus[12], beyond







Surrentum, not only twigs which are immersed in it, but

likewise leaves are petrified; the water at the same time

being proper for drinking. In the stream which runs from

the marsh of Reate[13] there is a rock, which continues to

increase in size, and in the Red Sea olive-trees and green

shrubs are produced[14].



There are many springs which are remarkable for their

warmth. This is the case even among the ridges of the

Alps[15], and in the sea itself, between Italy and naria, as in

the bay of Bai, and in the Liris and many other rivers[16].

There are many places in which fresh water may be procured

from the sea, as at the Chelidonian Isles, and at Arados, and

in the ocean at Gades. Green plants are produced in the

warm springs of Padua, frogs in those of Pisa, and fish in

those of Vetulonia in Etruria, which is not far from the sea.

In Casinas there is a cold river called Scatebra, which in summer is more full

of water[17]. In this, as in the river Stymphalis,

in Arcadia, small water-mice are produced. The fountain

of Jupiter in Dodona, although it is as cold as ice, and

extinguishes torches that are plunged into it, yet, if they be

brought near it, it kindles them again[18]. This spring always

becomes dry at noon, from which circumstance it is called







Anapauo/menon[19] it then increases and becomes full at midnight, after which it again

visibly decreases. In Illyricum

there is a cold spring, over which if garments are spread

they take fire. The pool of Jupiter Ammon, which is cold

during the day, is warm during the night[20]. In the country

of the Troglodyt[21], what they call the Fountain of the Sun,

about noon is fresh and very cold; it then gradually grows

warm, and, at midnight, becomes hot and saline[22].



In the middle of the day, during summer, the source of

the Po, as if reposing itself, is always dry[23]. In the island

of Tenedos there is a spring, which, after the summer solstice, is full of

water, from the third hour of the night to

the sixth[24]. The fountain Inopus, in the island of Delos,

decreases and increases in the same manner as the Nile,

and also at the same periods[25]. There is a small island in

the sea, opposite to the river Timavus, containing warm







springs, which increase and decrease at the same time with

the tides of the sea[26]. In the territory of Pitinum, on the

other side of the Apennines, the river Novanus, which

during the solstice is quite a torrent, is dry in the winter[27].



In Faliscum, all the water which the oxen drink turns

them white; in Botia, the river Melas turns the sheep

black; the Cephissus, which flows out of a lake of the same

name, turns them white[28]; again, the Peneus turns them

black, and the Xanthus, near Ilium, makes them red, whence

the river derives its name[29]. In Pontus, the river Astaces

waters certain plains, where the mares give black milk, which

the people use in diet. In Reate there is a spring called

Neminia, which rises up sometimes in one place and sometimes

in another, and in this way indicates a change in the produce

of the earth[30]. There is a spring in the harbour of Brundisium

that yields water which never becomes putrid at sea. The

water of the Lyncestis, which is said to be acidulous, intoxicates like

wine[31]; this is the case also in Paphlagonia[32] and in

the territory of Calenum[33]. In the island of Andros,

at the

temple of Father Bacchus, we are assured by Mucianus,

who was thrice consul, that there is a spring, which, on the

nones of January, always has the flavour of wine; it is called







Dio\s Qeodosi/a[34]. Near Nonacris, in Arcadia, the Styx[35], which

is not unlike it either in odour or in colour, instantly destroys those who

drink it. Also in Librosus, a hill in the

country of the Tauri, there are three springs which inevitably produce death,

but without pain. In the territory

of the Carrinenses in Spain[36], two springs burst out close

together, the one of which absorbs everything, the other

throws them out. In the same country there is another

spring, which gives to all the fish the appearance of gold,

although, when out of the water, they do not differ in any

respect from other fish. In the territory of Como, near the

Larian lake, there is a copious spring, which always swells

up and subsides again every hour[37]. In the island of Cydonea[38], before Lesbos, there is a warm fountain, which flows

only during the spring season. The lake Sinnaus[39], in Asia,

is impregnated with wormwood, which grows about it. At

Colophon, in the cave of the Clarian Apollo, there is a pool,

by the drinking of which a power is acquired of uttering

wonderful oracles; but the lives of those who drink of it are

shortened[40]. In our own times, during the last years of

Nero's life, we have seen rivers flowing backwards, as I have

stated in my history of his times[41].



And indeed who can be mistaken as to the fact, that all

springs are colder in summer than in winter[42], as well as







these other wonderful operations of nature; that copper and

lead sink when in a mass, but float when spread out[43]; and

of things that are equally heavy, some will sink to the bottom, while others

will remain on the surface[44]; that heavy

bodies are more easily moved in water[45]; that a stone from

Scyros, although very large, will float, while the same, when

broken into small pieces, sinks[46]; that the body of an animal,

newly deprived of life, sinks, but that, when it is swelled

out, it floats[47]; that empty vessels are drawn out of the water

with no more ease than those that are full[48]; that rain-water

is more useful for salt-pits than other kinds of water[49];

that salt cannot be made, unless it is mixed with fresh water[50];

that salt water freezes with more difficulty[51], and is more readily

heated[52]; that the sea is warmer in winter[53] and more salt

in







the autumn[54]; that everything is soothed by oil, and that

this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it

from their mouths, because it smoothes any part which is

rough[55] and transmits the light to them; that snow never

falls in the deep part of the sea[56]; that although water generally has a tendency downwards, fountains rise

up[57], and that

this is the case even at the foot of tna[58], burning as it does,

so as to force out the sand like a ball of flame to the distance

of 150 miles?







1. The specific gravity

of sea water varies from 1c0269 to 1c0285. The

saline contents of the water of the English Channel are stated to be 27 grs.

in 1000. Turner's Chem. p. 1289, 1290.

2. The modern names of the rivers and

lakes here mentioned are the

Liris, communicating with the Lago di Celano; the Adda, with the Lago

di Como; the Ticino, with the Lago Maggiore; the Mincio, with the

Lago di Guarda; the Oglio, with the Lago di Sero; and the Rhone with

the Lake of Geneva. There may be some foundation for the alleged fact,

because the specific gravity and the temperature of the lake may differ a

little from that of the river which passes through it.

3. According to Brotier, "fons ille olim

nobilissimus, nunc ignobile

est lavacrum, cujus aqua marino sapore inficitur." He conceives that

there is no actual foundation for this so frequently repeated story; and

conjectures that it originated from the similitude of the names, the

fountain in Sicily and the river in the Peloponnesus being both named

Alpheus. He goes on to mention some examples of springs of fresh

water rising up on the sea-coast; Lemaire, i. 438. The allusion to the

fountain of Arethusa, by Virgil, in the commencement of the 10th eclogue,

is well known to all classical scholars. The lines of Virgil have been

elegantly imitated by Voltaire, in the Henriade, ix. 269, 270.

4. This is mentioned by Ovid, Met. xv. 273, 274.

5. This is again referred to by our author,

vi. 31; also by Strabo, and

by Seneca, Nat. Qust. iii. 26.

6. Pausanias.

7. The river here referred to is the Tanager,

the modern Rio Negro. See

the remarks of Hardouin and Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 439.

8. From a note in Pomsinet, i. 302, we learn that there has been

some

doubt respecting the locality of this river. It is mentioned by Virgil,

n. i. 244, and it forms the subject of Heyne's 7th Excursus, ii. 124 et

seq.
Virgil also speaks of the Timavus, Ec. viii. 6; and Heyne, in a note,

gives the following description of it: "Timavus in ora Adri, non longe

ab Aquileia fluvius ex terra novem fontibus seu capitibus progressus,

brevi cursu, in unum alveum collectus, lato altoque flumine in mare

exit." i. 127, 128.

9. This remark is not to be

taken in its full extent; the water of these

lakes contains a large quantity of saline and other substances dissolved

in it, and, consequently, has its specific gravity so much increased, that

various substances float on it which sink in pure water.

10. According to Hardouin, this is now called

the Lake of Andoria, near

the town of Casalnuovo; Lemaire, i. 439. Poinsinet calls it Anduria,

i. 303.

11. The petrifying quality of this river

is referred to by Ovid, Met. xv.

313, 314; Seneca quotes these lines when treating on this subject, Nat.

Qust. iii. 20.

12. Aristotle, Strabo, and

Silius Italicus, viii. 582, 583, refer to this property of the Silarus; but,

according to Brotier, it does not appear to be

known to the present inhabitants of the district through which it flows.

Lemaire, i. 440.

13. In a subsequent part of the work, xxxi. 8, our author

remarks,

"Reatinis tantum paludibus ungulas jumentorum indurari." We may

presume that the water contained some saline, earthy or metallic substance,

either in solution, or in a state of minute division, which would produce

these effects. It does not appear that anything of this kind has been

observed by the moderns in this water.

14. The coral beds with which the Red Sea abounds may have

given

rise to this opinion: see the remarks of Alexandre in loco. Hardouin

informs us, that this clause respecting the Red Sea is not found in any

of the MSS. Lemaire, i. 441. A similar observation occurs in a subsequent part

of the work, xiii. 48.

15. There are thermal springs in the Alpine valleys, but not any in the

elevated parts of the Alps themselves.

16. The volcanic

nature of a large portion of the south of Italy and the

neighbouring islands may be regarded as the cause of the warm springs

which are found there.

17. This river may be supposed to have been principally supplied by

melted snow; it would appear to be colder, because its temperature would

be less elevated than the other streams in the neighbourhood.

18. The statement, if correct, may be

referred to the discharge of a quantity of inflammable gas from the surface of

the water. The fact is men-

tioned by Lucretius, vi. 879, 880, and by Mela.

19. "Quasi alternis requiescens, ac meridians: diem

diffindens, ut Varro

loquitur, insititia quiete." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 443. He says that

there is a similar kind of fountain in Provence, called Collis Martiensis.

20. There has been considerable

difference of opinion among the commentators, both as to the reading of the text

and its interpretation, for

which I shall refer to the notes of Poinsinet, i. 307, of Hardouin and

Alexandre, Lemaire, i. 443, and of Richelet, Ajasson, ii. 402.

21. We have an account of the Troglodyts in a subsequent

part of the

work, v. 5. The name is generally applied by the ancients to a tribe of

people inhabiting a portion of thiopia, and is derived from the circumstance

of their dwellings being composed of caverns; a trwglh\ and du/nw.

Alexandre remarks, that the name was occasionally applied to other tribes,

whose habitations were of the same kind; Lemaire, i. 443. They are referred to

by Q. Curtius as a tribe of the thiopians, situated to the south

of Egypt and extending to the Red Sea, iv. 7.

22. Q. Curtius gives nearly the

same account of this fountain.

23. The Po derives its water from

the torrents of the Alps, and is therefore much affected by the melting of the

snow or the great falls of rain,

which occur at different seasons of the year; but the daily diminution of

the water, as stated by our author, is without foundation.

24. "Fontem ibi intermittentem frustra qussivit cl. Le Chevalier,

Voyage

de la Troade, t. i. p. 219." Lemaire, i. 444.

25. Strabo, in allusion to this circumstance,

remarks, that some persons

make it still more wonderful, by supposing that this spring is connected

with the Nile. We learn from Tournefort, that there is a well of this

name in Delos, which he found to contain considerably more water in

January and February than in October, and which is supposed to be connected with

the Nile or the Jordan: this, of course, he regards as an idle

tale. Lemaire.

26. Hardouin informs us, that these warm springs are

called "i bagni di

Monte Falcone," or "di S. Antonio." They are situate so very near the

sea, that we may suppose some communication to exist, which may produce the

alleged effect. Lemaire.

27. According to

Hardouin this is the modern Torre di Pitino; he conceives that the river here

mentioned must be the Vomanus. The effect

here described is, to a certain extent, always the case with rivers which

proceed from mountains that are covered with snow. Lemaire, i. 445.

28. Seneca, Nat. Qust. iii. 25, makes the same

remark: the fact would

seem to be, that in certain districts the cattle are found to be for the most

part white, and in other places black; but we have no reason to suppose

that their colour has any connexion with the water which they employ.

29. This is asserted by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. iii.

12. We have a similar

statement made by lian respecting the Scamander; viii. 21.

30. "Annon mutationem significans."

31. The peculiar nature of the water of the Lyncestis is referred to by

many of the ancients: we may suppose that it was strongly impregnated

with carbonic acid gas. See Ovid, Met. xv. 329331; also Aristotle,

Meteor. ii. 3, and Seneca, Nat. Qust. iii. 20.

32. Vitruvius and Athenus.

33. Calenum was a town in Campania; this peculiar

property of its

water is referred to by Val. Maximus, i. 8, 18.

34. Literally, Jovis cultus; as interpreted by Hardouin,

"tanquam si

dixeris, divinum Jovis munus hunc fontem esse." Lemaire, i. 447.

35. Seneca affirms its poisonous

nature; Nat. Qust. iii. 25. Q. Curtius

refers to a spring in Macedonia of the same name, "quo pestiferum virus

emanat." x. 10.

36. There appears to be some uncertainty respecting

the locality of this

district; see the remarks of Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 447.

37. "Hunc fontem describit eximie Plinius jun.

lib. iv. epist. ult. Est

ad orientalem Larii lacus plagam, Lago di Como, x mill. pass. a Como."

Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 448.

38. Our author, in a subsequent passage, v.

39, speaks of Cydonea, "cum

fonte calido."

39. According to Hardouin,

i. 448, there is a considerable variation in

the MSS. with respect to this name: he informs us that "Sunao\s urbs

est Magn Phrygi Ptolemo, v. 2."

40. Tacitus gives an account of this oracle as having been visited by

Germanicus; Ann. ii. 54.

41. Our author refers to this history in the

First book of the present work.

42. "Comparatos scilicet cum

aris externi temperie." Alexandre in

Lemaire, i. 448.

43. Thin leaves or films of

metal have little affinity for water, and have,

generally, bubbles of air attached to them; so that, when placed upon

the water, the fluid is prevented from adhering to them, and thus they

remain on the surface.

44. Depending not upon their absolute, but their

specific gravity.

45. Being partly supported by the water.

46. The stone may have floated in consequence

of its being full of pores:

these are more quickly filled with water when it is broken into small

pieces. It was probably of the nature of pumice or some other volcanic

product.

47. This is well known to depend upon the commencement of the

decomposition of some part of the viscera, by which there is an evolution

of gaseous matter.

48. This is an erroneous statement;

it is not easy to ascertain what was

the source of the error.

49. Rain, as it falls

from the clouds, is nearly pure; and rivers, or receptacles of any kind, that

are supplied by it, are considerably more free from

saline impregnations than the generality of springs.

50. This

statement is altogether incorrect.

51. When salt water freezes, it is

disengaged from the saline matter which

it previously held in solution; a greater degree of cold is therefore required

to overcome the attraction of the water for the salt, and to form

the ice, than when pure water is congealed.

52. "Celerius accendi." We can scarcely suppose that by this term our

author intended to express the actual burning or inflaming of the water,

which is its literal and ordinary meaning. This, however, would appear

to be the opinion of Hardouin and Alexandre; Lemaire, i. 449. Holland

translates it, "made hot and set a-seething," i. 46; Poinsinet, "s'hauffe

le plus vte," i. 313; and Ajasson, "plus prompte s'chauffer," ii.

217.

53. The temperature of the ocean, in

consequence of its great mass and

the easy diffusion and mixture of its various parts, may be conceived to be

longer in becoming raised or depressed than any particular portion

of the land, where contemporary observations may be made.

54. The evaporation that is going on during the heats of summer, and

the heavy rains which in many countries fall during the autumn, may

produce the effects here described, in confined seas or inlets.

55. The statement is true to a certain extent, as is proved by the

well-known experiments of Franklin and others; but the degree of the effect

is considerably exaggerated. See the observations of Hardouin, Brotier,

and Alexandre; Lemaire, i. 450, 451.

56. In the Mediterranean the warm vapours

rising from the water and

its shores may melt the snow as it descends; but this is not the case in

the parts of the main ocean which approach either to the Arctic or the

Antarctic regions.

57. The theory of springs is well understood, as depending upon the

water tending to rise to its original level, so as to produce an equilibrium

of pressure.

58. When we consider the great

extent of the base of tna, and that

the crater is in the form of an inverted cone, we shall perceive that there

is ample space for the existence of springs in the lower part of the mountain,

without their coming in contact with the heated lava.




107. Chap. 107.-The Wonders Of Fire And Water United.


CHAP. 107.-THE WONDERS OF FIRE AND WATER UNITED.

And now I must give an account of some of the wonders

of fire, which is the fourth element of nature; but first those

produced by means of water.










108. Chap. 108. (104.)-Of Maltha.


CHAP. 108. (104.)-OF MALTHA.

In Samosata, a city of Commagene[1], there is a pool which

discharges an inflammable mud, called Maltha[2]. It adheres







to every solid body which it touches, and moreover, when

touched, it follows you, if you attempt to escape from it.

By means of it the people defended their walls against

Lucullus, and the soldiers were burned in their armour[3]. It

is even set on fire in water. We learn by experience that

it can be extinguished only by earth.







1. Samosata is situated on the Euphrates,

in the north of Syria.

2. The Petroleum or Bitumen of

the modern chemists; it is a tarry

substance, more or less fluid, which has probably been produced by carbonaceous

matter, as affected by heat or decomposition, below the surface of the earth.

Our author has exaggerated its properties and action

upon other bodies.

3. Respecting the

transaction here mentioned, I shall refer to the note

of Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 452.




109. Chap. 109. (105.)-Of Naphtha.


CHAP. 109. (105.)-OF NAPHTHA.

Naphtha is a substance of a similar nature[1] (it is so called

about Babylon, and in the territory of the Astaceni, in

Parthia[2]), flowing like liquid bitumen. It has a great affinity to fire, which

instantly darts on it wherever it is seen[3].

It is said, that in this way it was that Medea burned Jason's mistress; her

crown having taken fire, when she approached the altar for the purpose of

sacrificing[4].







1. The substance here mentioned

may be considered as not differing

essentially from the Maltha of the last chapter, except in being of a more

fluid consistence.

2. The Astaceni are supposed to have inhabited a district near the

sources of the Indus, probably corresponding to the modern Cabul.

3. We may conceive of a quantity of

inflammable vapour on the surface

of the naphtha, which might, in some degree, produce the effect here

described.

4. Horace, in one of his Epodes, where he refers to the magical

arts of

Medea, says, that it was a cloak, "palla," which was sent to Cresa;

v. 65. So far as there is any foundation for the story, we may suppose

that some part of her dress had been impregnated with an inflammable

substance, which took fire when she approached the blazing altar.




110. Chap. 110. (106.)-Places Which Are Always Burning.


CHAP. 110. (106.)-PLACES WHICH ARE ALWAYS BURNING.

Among the wonders of mountains there is tna, which

always burns in the night[1], and for so long a period has

always had materials for combustion, being in the winter

buried in snow, and having the ashes which it has ejected

covered with frost. Nor is it in this mountain alone that

nature rages, threatening to consume the earth[2]; in Pha-







selis, the mountain Chimra burns, and indeed with a continual flame, day and

night[3]. Ctesias of Cnidos informs us,

that this fire is kindled by water, while it is extinguished

by earth and by hay[4]. In the same country of Lycia, the

mountains of Hephstius, when touched with a flaming

torch[5], burn so violently, that even the stones in the river

and the sand burn, while actually in the water: this fire is

also increased by rain. If a person makes furrows in the

ground with a stick which has been kindled at this fire, it

is said that a stream of flame will follow it. The summit of

Cophantus, in Bactria[6], burns during the night; and this is

the case in Media and at Sittacene[7], on the borders of Persia; likewise in Susa, at the White Tower, from

fifteen apertures[8], the greatest of which also burns in

the daytime.

The plain of Babylon throws up flame from a place like a fishpond[9], an acre in extent. Near Hesperium, a

mountain of

the thiopians[10], the fields shine in the night-time like stars;

the same thing takes place in the territory of the Megalopo-







litani. This fire, however, is internal[11], mild, and not burning the foliage of a dense wood which is over

it[12]. There is

also the crater of Nymphum[13], which is always burning, in

the neighbourhood of a cold fountain, and which, according

to Theopompus, presages direful calamities to the inhabitants

of Apollonia[14]. It

is increased by rain[15], and it throws out

bitumen, which, becoming mixed with the fountain, renders

it unfit to be tasted; it is, at other times, the weakest of all

the bitumens. But what are these compared to other

wonders? Hiera, one of the olian isles, in the middle of

the sea, near Italy, together with the sea itself, during the

Social war, burned for several days[16], until expiation was

made, by a deputation from the senate. There is a hill in

thiopia called Qew=n o)/xhma[17], which burns with the greatest

violence, throwing out flame that consumes everything, like

the sun[18]. In so many places, and with so many

fires, does

nature burn the earth!







1. When the volcanos are less active the flame is

visible in the night

only.

2. The observations of modern

travellers and geologists have proved, that the number of extinct volcanos is

considerably greater than those

now in action.

3. Chimra was a volcano in Lycia, not far from the Xanthus; the

circumstance of its summit emitting flame, while its sides were the resort

of various savage animals, probably gave rise to the fabulous story of the

Centaur of this name, a ferocious monster who was continually vomiting

forth flame.

4. The word in the text is "fnum"; Hardouin suggests

that the

meaning of the author may have been litter, or the refuse of stables.

Lemaire, i. 454.

5. The emission of a gas, which may be kindled by the application of

flame, is a phenomenon of no very rare occurrence; but the effects are,

no doubt, much exaggerated. See the remarks of Alexandre in Lemaire,

i. 454.

6. The country of the Bactrians was a district to the

S.E. of the Caspian

Sea, and to the north of the sources of the Indus, nearly corresponding

to the modern Bucharia.

7. There would appear to be some

uncertainty as to the locality of this

place: our author derived his statement from the writer of the treatise

de Mirab. Auscult.

8. "Caminis."

9. Probably

the crater of a former volcano.

10. This mountain, as well as the Qew=n o)/xhma,

mentioned below, has

been supposed to be situated on the west of Africa, near Sierra Leone, or

Cape Verd; but, as I conceive, without sufficient authority. See Alexandre in

Lemaire, i. 455.

11. "Internus." "In interiore nemore

abditus." Hardouin in Lemaire,

i. 455.

12. If this account be not altogether fabulous, the appearance here

described may be, perhaps, referred to the combustion of an inflammable

gas which does not acquire a very high temperature.

13. We have an account of this place in Strabo,

vii. 310. Our author has

already referred to it in the 96th chapter of this book, as a pool or lake,

containing floating islands; and he again speaks of it in the next

chapter.

14. We have an account of this volcano in lian, Var. Hist.

xiii. 16.

It would appear, however, that it had ceased to emit flame previous to

the calamitous events of which it was supposed to be the harbinger.

15. This circumstance is mentioned by Dion Cassius, xli.

174. We may

conceive that a sudden influx of water might force up an unusually large

quantity of the bitumen.

16. We have a full account of this

circumstance in Strabo, vi. 277.

17. "Currum deorum Latine licet

interpretari." Hardouin in Lemaire,

i. 456.

18. "torrentesque solis ardoribus flammas egerit;" perhaps the author

may mean, that the fires of the volcano assist those of the sun in parch-

ing the surface of the ground.




111. Chap. 111. (107.)-Wonders Of Fire Alone.


CHAP. 111. (107.)-WONDERS OF FIRE ALONE.

But since this one element is of so prolific a nature as to

produce itself, and to increase from the smallest spark, what

must we suppose will be the effect of all those funeral piles







of the earth[1] ? What must be the nature of that thing,

which, in all parts of the world, supplies this most greedy

voracity without destroying itself? To these fires must be

added those innumerable stars and the great sun itself. There

are also the fires made by men[2],

those which are innate in

certain kinds of stones, those produced by the friction of

wood[3], and those in the clouds, which give rise to lightning.

It really exceeds all other wonders, that one single day

should pass in which everything is not consumed, especially

when we reflect, that concave mirrors placed opposite to the

sun's rays produce flame more readily than any other kind of

fire; and that numerous small but natural fires abound everywhere. In Nymphum

there issues from a rock a fire which

is kindled by rain; it also issues from the waters of the Scantia[4]. This indeed is a

feeble flame, since it passes off, remaining only a short time on any body to

which it is applied:

an ash tree, which overshadows this fiery spring, remains

always green[5]. In the territory of Mutina fire issues from

the ground on the days that are consecrated to Vulcan[6].

It is stated by some authors, that if a burning body falls

on the fields below Aricia[7], the ground is set on fire; and

that the stones in the territory of the Sabines and of the

Sidicini[8], if they be oiled, burn with flame. In

Egnatia[9], a







town of Salentinum, there is a sacred stone, upon which, when

wood is placed, flame immediately bursts forth. In the altar

of Juno Lacinia[10], which is in the open air, the ashes remain

unmoved, although the winds may be blowing from all

quarters.



It appears also that there are sudden fires both in waters

and even in the human body; that the whole of Lake Thrasymenus was on fire[11];

that when Servius Tullius, while a child,

was sleeping, flame darted out from his head[12]; and Valerius

Antias informs us, that the same flame appeared about L.

Marcius, when he was pronouncing the funeral oration over

the Scipios, who were killed in Spain; and exhorting the

soldiers to avenge their death. I shall presently mention

more facts of this nature, and in a more distinct manner; in

this place these wonders are mixed up with other subjects.

But my mind, having carried me beyond the mere interpretation of nature, is anxious to lead, as it were by the hand,

the thoughts of my readers over the whole globe.







1. "Tot rogis terr ?" in reference to the remark in a former

chapter,

"natura terras cremat."

2. "Humani ignes," according to Hardouin, "Hi

nostri ignes, quos vit

usus requirit, ut Tullius ait de Nat. Deor. ii. 67;" Lemaire, i. 457.

3. This is the mode which many savage tribes employ for exciting

flame.

4. It is not

known whether the Scantia was a river or a lake, or where

it was situated; see Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 457.

5. This may have been owing to the emission of an inflammable gas

which burns at a comparatively low temperature, as was observed on a

former occasion.

6. These are said by

Columella, xi. 3, to occur in August; the statement as to the fire occurring on

these particular days we may presume

is erroneous.

7. Aricia was a town in Campania, near the modern

Lake of Nemi:

this place, as well as the other places mentioned by our author, were

probably of volcanic origin.

8. Sidicinum was a town in Campania, also called Teanum; probably

the modern Teano.

9. Egnatia was a town in Calabria, on the coast of the Adriatic: the

circumstance mentioned by our author is ridiculed by Horace, in his well-known

lines, Sat. i. 5, 97; but it is not improbable that there may be

some foundation for it.

10. This circumstance is referred to by Val. Maximus, i. 8, 18. The altar

was probably in the neighbourhood of the Lacinian Promontory, at the

S.W. extremity of the Bay of Tarentum, the modern Capo delle Colonne.

11. This may be referred to the inflammable vapours mentioned above,

unless we regard the whole narrative as fabulous.

12. See Livy, i. 39, and Val. Maximus, i. 6. 2. Although it would be

rash to pronounce this occurrence and the following anecdotes respecting Marcius to be absolutely impossible, we must regard them as highly

improbable, and resting upon very insufficient evidence.




112. Chap. 112. (108.)-The Dimensions Of The Earth.


CHAP. 112. (108.)-THE DIMENSIONS OF THE EARTH.

Our part of the earth, of which I propose to give an account, floating as it were in the ocean which surrounds it

(as I have mentioned above[1]), stretches out to the greatest

extent from east to west, viz. from India to the Pillars consecrated to Hercules at Gades, being a distance of 8568

miles[2], according to the statement of Artemidorus[3], or ac-







cording to that of Isidorus[4], 9818 miles. Artemidorus adds

to this 491 miles, from Gades, going round by the Sacred

Promontory, to the promontory of Artabrum[5], which is the

most projecting part of Spain.



This measurement may be taken in two directions. From

the Ganges, at its mouth, where it discharges itself into the

Eastern ocean, passing through India and Parthyene, to

Myriandrus[6], a city of Syria, in the bay of Issus, is a distance of 5215 miles[7]. Thence, going directly by sea, by the

island of Cyprus, Patara in Lycia, Rhodes, and Astypala,

islands in the Carpathian sea, by Tnarum in Laconia,

Lilybum in Sicily and Calaris in Sardinia, is 2103 miles.

Thence to Gades is 1250 miles, making the whole distance

from the Eastern ocean 8568 miles[8].



The other way, which is more certain, is chiefly by land.

From the Ganges to the Euphrates is 5169 miles; thence to

Mazaca, a town in Cappadocia, is 319 miles; thence, through

Phrygia and Caria, to Ephesus is 415 miles; from Ephesus,

across the gean sea to Delos, is 200 miles; to the Isthmus

is 212 1/2 miles; thence, first by land and afterwards by the

sea of Lechum and the gulf of Corinth, to Patr in Peloponnesus, 90 miles; to the promontory of Leucate 87 1/2 miles;

as much more to Corcyra; to the Acroceraunian mountains

132 1/2, to Brundisium 87 1/2, and to Rome 360 miles. To the

Alps, at the village of Scingomagum[9], is 519 miles; through

Gaul to Illiberis at the Pyrenees, 927; to the ocean and the







coast of Spain, 331 miles; across the passage of Gades 7 1/2

miles; which distances, according to the estimate of Artemidorus, make altogether 8945 miles.



The breadth of the earth, from south to north, is commonly

supposed to be about one-half only of its length, viz. 4490

miles; hence it is evident how much the heat has stolen from

it on one side and the cold on the other: for I do not suppose that the land is actually wanting, or that the earth has

not the form of a globe; but that, on each side, the uninhabitable parts have not been discovered. This measure

then extends from the coast of the thiopian ocean, the

most distant part which is habitable, to Mero, 1000 miles[10];

thence to Alexandria 1250; to Rhodes 562; to Cnidos 87 1/2;

to Cos 25; to Samos 100; to Chios 94; to Mitylene 65; to

Tenedos 44; to the promontory of Sigum 12 1/2; to the entrance of the Euxine 312 1/2; to the promontory of Carambis

350; to the entrance of the Palus Motis 312 1/2; and to the

mouth of the Tanais 275 miles, which distance, if we went

by sea, might be shortened 89 miles. Beyond the Tanais

the most diligent authors have not been able to obtain any

accurate measurement. Artemidorus supposes that everything beyond is undiscovered, since he confesses that, about

the Tanais, the tribes of the Sarmat dwell, who extend

towards the north pole. Isidorus adds 1250 miles, as the

distance to Thule[11]; but this is mere conjecture. For my

part, I believe that the boundaries of Sarmatia really extend

to as great a distance as that mentioned above: for if it

were not very extensive, how could it contain the innumerable tribes that are always changing their residence ? And

indeed I consider the uninhabitable portion of the world to

be still greater; for it is well known that there are innu-







merable islands lying off the coast of Germany[12], which have

been only lately discovered.



The above is all that I consider worth relating about the

length and the breadth of the earth[13]. But Eratosthenes[14],

a man who was peculiarly well skilled in all the more subtle

parts of learning, and in this above everything else, and a

person whom I perceive to be approved by every one, has

stated the whole of this circuit to be 252,000 stadia, which,

according to the Roman estimate, makes 31,500 miles. The

attempt is presumptuous, but it is supported by such subtle

arguments that we cannot refuse our assent. Hipparchus[15],

whom we must admire, both for the ability with which he

controverts Eratosthenes, as well as for his diligence in everything else, has added to the above number not much less

than 25,000 stadia.



(109.) Dionysodorus is certainly less worthy of confidence[16]; but I cannot omit this most remarkable instance of

Grecian vanity. He was a native of Melos, and was celebrated for his knowledge of geometry; he died of old age in

his native country. His female relations, who inherited his

property, attended his funeral, and when they had for several

successive days performed the usual rites, they are said to

have found in his tomb an epistle written in his own name

to those left above; it stated that he had descended from

his tomb to the lowest part of the earth, and that it was a

distance of 42,000 stadia. There were not wanting certain

geometricians, who interpreted this epistle as if it had been

sent from the middle of the globe, the point which is at the

greatest distance from the surface, and which must necessarily

be the centre of the sphere. Hence the estimate has been

made that it is 252,000 stadia in circumference.











1. In the 66th chapter of this book.

2. In the estimate of distances I have given the numbers as they occur

in the text of Lemaire, although, in many cases, there is considerable

doubt as to their accuracy. See the observations of Hardouin and Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 460.

3. Artemidorus was an Ephesian, who wrote on geography; see Hardouin's Index Auct., Lemaire, i. 167.

4. Isidorus was a native of Nica; he appears to have been a writer

on various topics in natural history, but not much estimated; see Hardouin's Index Auct., in Lemaire, i. 194.

5. The modern Cape St. Vincent and Cape Finisterre.

6. This was a city on the Sinus Issicus, the present Gulf of Aiasso,

situated, according to Brotier, between the sites of the modern towns of

Scanderoon and Rosos. See Lemaire, i. 461.

7. Respecting this and the other distances mentioned in this chapter, I

may refer the reader to the remarks of Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 461.

8. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the calculations of our author

do not indicate the real distance between the extreme points of the habitable parts of the globe, as known to the ancients, but the number of miles

which must be passed over by a traveller, in going from place to place;

in the first instance, a considerable part of the way by sea, and, in the

second, almost entirely by land.

9. It appears to be difficult to ascertain the identity of the place here

mentioned; I may refer to the remarks of Hardouin and Brotier in Le-

maire, i. 464.

10. The same remarks may be made upon this and the following numbers as upon those in the former paragraph; for further information I

shall refer my readers to the notes of Hardouin, Brotier, and Alexandre,

in Lemaire, i. 465468.

11. There is great uncertainty respecting the locality of the Thule of

the ancients; there was, in fact, nothing known respecting the locality

or identity of any of the places approaching to the Arctic circle; the

name appears to have been vaguely applied to some country lying to the

north of the habitable parts of Europe. In note3, p. 109, I have already

had occasion to offer some remarks on the locality of Thule. Our author

speaks of Thule in two subsequent parts of his work, iv. 30 and vi. 39.

12. It is probable, that these supposed "immense islands," if they were

not entirely imaginary, were the countries of Sweden and Norway, the

southern extremities alone of which had been visited by the ancients.

13. Strabo, ii.; Vitruvius, i. 6; Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. ii. 20.

14. Our author has previously referred to Eratosthenes, in the 76th

chapter of this book.

15. Our author has referred to Hipparchus, in the 9th chapter of this

book.

16. "Aliter, inquit, et cautius multo Dionysodorus est audiendus, qui

miraculo solo nititur, quam Hipparchus et Eratosthenes, qui geometricis

nituntur principiis." Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 469. Nothing further is

known of Dionysodorus; see Hardouin's Index Auct. in Lemaire, i. 123.




113. Chap. 113.-The Harmonical Proportion Of The Universe.


CHAP. 113.-THE HARMONICAL PROPORTION OF THE UNIVERSE.

That harmonical proportion, which compels nature to be

always consistent with itself, obliges us to add to the above

measure, 12,000 stadia; and this makes the earth one

ninety-sixth part of the whole universe.



Summary.-The facts, statements, and observations contained in this Book amount in number to 417.



Roman Authors Quoted.-M. Varro[1], Sulpicius Gallus[2],

Titus Csar[3] the Emperor, Q. Tubero[4], Tullius Tiro[5], L. Piso[6],

T. Livius[7], Cornelius Nepos[8], Sebosus[9], Clius Antipater[10],







Fabianus[11], Antias[12], Mucianus[13], Ccina[14], who wrote on the

Etruscan discipline, Tarquitius[15], who did the same, Julius

Aquila[16], who also did the same, and Sergius[17].



Foreign Authors Quoted.-Plato[18], Hipparchus[19], Timus[20], Sosigenes[21], Petosiris[22], Necepsos[23], the Pythago-







rean[24] Philosophers, Posidonius[25], Anaximander[26], Epigenes[27]

the philosopher who wrote on Gnomonics, Euclid[28], Coeranus[29] the philosopher, Eudoxus[30], Democritus[31], Critodemus[32],

Thrasyllus[33], Serapion[34], Dicarchus[35], Archimedes[36], Onesi-







critus[37], Eratosthenes[38], Pytheas[39], Herodotus[40], Aristotle[41],

Ctesias[42], Artemidorus[43] of Ephesus, Isidorus[44] of Charax, and

Theopompus[45].









1. Marcus Terentius Varro. He was born B.C. 116, espoused the cause

of Pompey against Csar, and served as his lieutenant in Spain. He

afterwards became reconciled to Csar, and died in the year B.C. 26. He

is said to have written 500 volumes, but nearly all his works are lost

(destroyed, it is said, by order of Pope Gregory VII.). His only remains are a Treatise on Agriculture, a Treatise on the Latin Tongue,

and the fragments of a work called Analogia.

2. C. Sulpicius Gallus was Consul in the year 166 B.C. He wrote a

Roman History, and a work on the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon.

3. Titus Vespasianus, the Emperor, to whom Pliny dedicates his work.

His poem is mentioned in c. 22 of this Book. See pages 1, 2, and 55 of

the present volume.

4. It is most probable that Quintus lius Ptus Tubero is here meant.

He was son-in-law, and, according to Cicero, nephew of milius Paulus,

and Consul in the year B.C. 167. There are two other persons found

mentioned of the name of Q. lius Tubero.

5. The freedman and amanuensis of Cicero. He was a man of great

learning, and was supposed to have invented short-hand. He also wrote

a Life of Cicero.

6. Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi. He was Consul in the year B.C. 133,

and was a stout opponent of the Gracchi. He wrote Annals of the History

of Rome from the earliest periods.

7. Livy, the well-known Roman historian.

8. He was the intimate friend of Cicero, and wrote Chronicles or Annals, in

three books, a Life of Cicero, and some other historical works. A work still

exists, called "Lives of Eminent Commanders," which is ascribed sometimes to him and sometimes to one milius Probus, a writer of the reign

of Theodosius. The latter probably abridged the original work of Nepos.

9. Statius Sebosus. He is mentioned by Cicero as the friend of Catulus.

He wrote a work called the "Periplus," and another on the Wonders of

India.

10. A Roman historian and lawyer, who flourished about B.C. 124. He

wrote a Book of Annals, in which was contained a valuable account of

the Second Punic war. This work was epitomized by Brutus and held

in high estimation by the Emperor Adrian.

11. Fabianus Papirius, a Roman rhetorician and naturalist, whose works

are highly commended by Pliny and Seneca. He wrote a History of Animals, and a book on Natural Causes.

12. Quintus Valerius Antias. He flourished about B.C. 80, and wrote

the Annals of Rome, down to the time of Sylla.

13. Marcus Licinius Crassus Mucianus. He was instrumental in raising

the Emperor Vespasian to the throne, and was Consul in the years

A.D. 52, 70, and 74. He published three Books of Epistles, and a History

in eleven Books, which appears to have treated chiefly of Eastern affairs.

14. Aulus Ccina. He was sent into exile by Csar, joined the Pompeians in Africa, and was taken prisoner by Csar, but his life was spared.

Cicero wrote several letters to him, and commends his abilities. His

work appears to have been on Divination as practised by the Etrurians.

15. He appears to have been a diviner or soothsayer of Etruria, and to

have written a work on Etruscan prodigies.

16. He also wrote a work on Etruscan divination, but it does not appear

that anything further is known of him.

17. Sergius Paulus. He is also mentioned in the Index to the 18th Book.

Nothing further seems to be known of him.

18. The greatest, with the exception of Aristotle, of the Greek Philosophers, and the disciple of Socrates.

19. A native of Nica in Bithynia, who flourished B.C. 160. He is called

the "Father" of Astronomy. He wrote a Commentary on the Phnomena of Aratus and Eudoxus, which is still extant. His works, including

those on the Lunar Month and the Fixed Stars, have not come down to

us. His Catalogue of the Stars is preserved in the Almagest of Ptolemy.

20. Timus of Locri in Italy, a Pythagorean philosopher, said to have

been the instructor of Plato. He wrote a work on Mathematics. A work

"On the Soul of the World and of Nature," which is still extant, has

been ascribed to him, but on doubtful grounds.

21. An astronomer and peripatetic philosopher of Alexandria. He was

employed by Julius Csar to superintend his revision of the Calendar.

It is supposed that he wrote a work on the Celestial Revolutions, and a

Commentary on the works of Aristotle.

22. A priest, mathematician, and astrologer of Egypt. A Letter on

the Astrological Sciences, written by him to King Necepsos, is said to be

extant in the Royal Library at Vienna, as also a work called the "Organum Astrologicum," dedicated to the same king. Juvenal seems to use

his name as a common term for an astrologer.

23. He is mentioned by Julius Firmicus as "a most just emperor of Egypt,

and a very good astronomer." A work by him is quoted by Galen in his

tenth Book on Simples, but it was most probably of spurious origin.

24. "Pythagoricis" here may either mean the works of the followers of

Pythagoras of Samos, or the books which were written by that philosopher. Pliny, in Books 19, 20, and 24, speaks of several writings of Pythagoras, and Diogenes Laertius mentions others; but it is more generally supposed that he wrote nothing, and that everything that passed by

his name in ancient times was spurious.

25. A Stoic philosopher of Apamea in Syria. He was the instructor of

Cicero, and the friend of Pompey. He wrote works on history, divination, the tides, and the nature of the gods. Some fragments only have

survived.

26. Of Miletus, was born B.C. 610, and was the successor of Thales, the

founder of the Ionian school of philosophy. He is said to have first

taught the obliquity of the ecliptic and the use of the gnomon.

27. A philosopher of Rhodes or Byzantium. Seneca says that he boasted

of having studied astronomy among the Chaldeans. He is mentioned by

Varro and Columella as having written on rural matters, and is praised

by Censorinus.

28. Of Alexandria, the great geometrician, and instructor of Ptolemy I.

He was the founder of the mathematical school of Alexandria.

29. He was a Greek by birth, and lived in the time of Nero. He is

extolled by Tacitus, B. 14, for his superlative wisdom, beyond which

nothing is known of him.

30. Of Cnidus, an astronomer and legislator who flourished B.C. 366. He

was a friend and disciple of Plato, and said to have been the first who

taught in Greece the motions of the planets. His works on astronomy

and geometry are lost, but his Phnomena have been preserved by Aratus,

who turned his prose into verse.

31. Born at Abdera in Thrace, about B.C. 460. He was one of the founders

of the atomic theory, and looked upon peace of mind as the summum bonum

of mortals. He wrote works on the nature and organization of the world,

on physics, on contagious maladies, on the chameleon, and on other subjects.

32. A Grecian astronomer. A work of his, called "Apotelesmatica," is

said to be preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna.

33. An astrologer of Rhodes, patronized by Augustus and Tiberius. He

wrote a work on Stones, and a History of Egypt. Tacitus, in his Annals,

B. vi., speaks highly of his skill in astrology.

34. A geographer of Antioch, and an opponent of the views of Eratosthenes. Cicero declares that he himself was unable to understand a

thousandth part of his work.

35. A Peripatetic philosopher and geographer, of Messina in Sicily. He

studied under Aristotle and wrote several works, the principal of which

was an account of the history, geography, and moral and religious condition of Greece. A few fragments only are extant.

36. Of Syracuse, the most famous mathematician of antiquity, born B.C. 287. A few only of his works have come down to us, published at Oxford in 1792, by Torelli.

37. Born either at Astypala or gina. He was chief pilot of the

fleet of Alexander during the descent of the Indus and the voyage to the

Persian Gulf. He wrote a work called the "Alexandropdia," or Education of Alexander. In his description of what he saw in India, many

fables and falsehoods are said to have been interwoven, so much so that

the work (which is now lost) is said to have resembled a fable more than

a history.

38. Of Cyrene, born B.C. 276. He was invited from Athens by Ptolemy

Euergetes, to become keeper of the library at Alexandria. He was a man

of most extensive erudition, as an astronomer, geographer, philosopher,

historian and grammarian. All of his writings have perished, with the

exception of a few fragments on geographical subjects.

39. Of Massilia, now Marseilles, a celebrated navigator who flourished

about the time of Alexander the Great. In his voyages he visited Britain

and Thule, of which he probably gave some account in his work "on the

Ocean." He has been wrongfully accused of falsehood by Strabo. Another work written by him was his "Periplus," or 'Circumnavigation'

from Gades to the Tanais, probably, in this instance, the Elbe.

40. Of Halicarnassus, the father of Grecian history; born B.C. 484.

Besides his great work which has come down to us, he is supposed to

have written a history of Arabia.

41. Probably the most learned of the Greek philosophers. His works

were exceedingly numerous, and those which have survived to us treat of

natural history, metaphysics, physical science, ethics, logic, and general

literature.

42. A native of Cnidus in Caria, and private physician to Artaxerxes

Mnemon, having been made prisoner by him at the battle of Cunaxa. He

wrote a History of Persia in 23 books, which, with the exception of a small

abridgement by Photius and a few fragments, is now lost. He also wrote

a book on India. He was much censured, probably without sufficient

reason, for the credulity displayed in his works.

43. Of Ephesus, a geographer, who lived about B.C. 100. He wrote a Periplus, and a work on Geography; a few fragments only of abridgements

of these have survived.

44. Of Charax in Parthia, of which country he wrote an account which

still exists. He flourished in the reign of Augustus.

45. Of Chios, a celebrated historian, and disciple of the orator Isocrates.

His principal works were a History of Greece, and a Life of Philip of

Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.




0. > Book Iii. An Account Of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, Mountains, Rivers, Distances, And Peoples Who Now Exist Or Formerly Existed.


BOOK III. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.








1. Introduction


INTRODUCTION.

Thus far have I treated of the position and the wonders of

the earth, of the waters, the stars, and the proportion of

the universe and its dimensions. I shall now proceed to

describe its individual parts; although indeed we may with

reason look upon the task as of an infinite nature, and one

not to be rashly commenced upon without incurring censure.

And yet, on the other hand, there is nothing which ought less

to require an apology, if it is only considered how far from

surprising it is that a mere mortal cannot be acquainted

with everything. I shall therefore not follow any single

author, but shall employ, in relation to each subject, such

writers as I shall look upon as most worthy of credit. For,

indeed, it is the characteristic of nearly all of them, that

they display the greatest care and accuracy in the description of the countries in which they respectively flourished;

so that by doing this, I shall neither have to blame nor contradict any one.



The names of the different places will here be simply

given, and as briefly as possible; the account of their celebrity, and the events which have given rise thereto, being

deferred to a more appropriate occasion; for it must be

remembered that I am here speaking of the earth as a whole,

and I wish to be understood as using the names without any

reference whatever to their celebrity, and as though the

places themselves were in their infancy, and had not as yet

acquired any fame through great events. The name is men-

tioned, it is true, but only as forming a part of the world

and the system of the universe.



The whole globe is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia,

and Africa. Our description commences where the sun sets

and at the Straits of Gades[1], where the Atlantic ocean, bursting







in, is poured forth into the inland seas. As it makes its

entrance from that side, Africa is on the right hand and

Europe on the left; Asia lies between them[2]; the boundaries

being the rivers Tanais[3] and Nile. The Straits of the ocean,

of which I have just spoken, extend fifteen miles in length and

five[4] in breadth, measured from the village of Mellaria[5] in

Spain to the Album Promontorium[6] or White Promontory in

Africa, as we learn from Turranius Gracilis, who was born in

that vicinity. Titus Livius and Cornelius Nepos however

have stated the breadth, where it is least, to be seven miles,

and where greatest, ten; from so small a mouth as this does

so immense an expanse of water open upon us! Nor is our

astonishment diminished by the fact of its being of great

depth; for, instead of that, there are numerous breakers and

shoals, white with foam, to strike the mariner with alarm.

From this circumstance it is, that many have called this spot

the threshold of The Inland Sea.



At the narrowest part of the Straits, there are mountains

placed to form barriers to the entrance on either side,

Abyla[7] in Africa, and Calpe[8] in Europe, the boundaries

formerly of the labours of Hercules[9]. Hence it is that the

inhabitants have called them the Columns of that god; they







also believe that they were dug through by him; upon which

the sea, which was before excluded, gained admission, and

so changed the face of nature.







1. Now the Straits of Gibraltar.

2. This is said more especially in reference to the western parts of Asia,

the only portion which was perfectly known to the ancients. His meaning is, that Asia as a portion of the globe does not lie so far north as

Europe, nor so far south as Africa.

3. Now the Don. It was usually looked upon as the boundary between

Europe and Asia. Pliny's meaning seems to be, that the Tanais divides

Asia from Europe, and the Nile, Asia from Africa, the more especially

as the part to the west of the Nile was sometimes considered as belonging

to Asia. It has been however suggested that he intends to assign these

rivers as the extreme eastern boundaries of the internal or Mediterranean

sea.

4. At no spot are the Straits less than ten miles in width; although

D'Anville makes the width to be little less than five miles. This passage

of our author is probably in a corrupt state.

5. This probably stood near the site of the town of Tarifa of the present day.

6. Probably the point called 'Punta del Sainar' at the present day.

7. Now called Ximiera, Jebel-el-Mina, or Monte del Hacho.

8. The Rock of Gibraltar.

9. The fable was that they originally formed one mountain, which was

torn asunder by Hercules, or as Pliny says, "dug through."




2. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Boundaries And Gulfs Of Europe First Set Forth In A General Way.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE BOUNDARIES AND GULFS OF EUROPE FIRST SET FORTH IN A GENERAL WAY.

I shall first then speak of Europe, the foster-mother of that

people which has conquered all other nations, and itself by

far the most beauteous portion of the earth. Indeed, many

persons have, not without reason[1], considered it, not as a

third part only of the earth, but as equal to all the rest,

looking upon the whole of our globe as divided into two

parts only, by a line drawn from the river Tanais to the

Straits of Gades. The ocean, after pouring the waters of the

Atlantic through the inlet which I have here described, and,

in its eager progress, overwhelming all the lands which have

had to dread its approach, skirts with its winding course the

shores of those parts which offer a more effectual resistance,

hollowing out the coast of Europe especially into numerous

bays, among which there are four Gulfs that are more particularly remarkable. The first of these begins at Calpe, which

I have previously mentioned, the most distant mountain of

Spain; and bends, describing an immense curve, as far as

Locri and the Promontory of Bruttium[2].







1. This was the opinion of Herodotus, but it had been so strenuously

combated by Polybius and other writers before the time of Pliny, that it

is difficult to imagine how he should countenance it.

2. He probably alludes to Leucopetra, now called Capo dell' Armi.

Locri Epizephyrii was a town of Bruttium, situate north of the promontory of Zephyrium, now called Capo di Bruzzano.




3. Chap. 2.-Of Spain Generally.


CHAP. 2.-OF SPAIN GENERALLY.

The first land situate upon this Gulf is that which is called

the Farther Spain or Btica[1]; next to which, beginning at

the frontier town of Urgi[2], is the Nearer, or Tarraconensian[3]







Spain, extending as far as the chain of the Pyrenees. The

Farther Spain is divided lengthwise into two provinces,

Lusitania[4] and Btica, the former stretching along the

northern side of the latter, and being divided from it by the

river Ana[5].

The source of this river is in the district of Laminium[6], in

the Nearer Spain. It first spreads out into a number of

small lakes, and then again contracts itself into a narrow

channel, or entirely disappears under ground[7], and after

frequently disappearing and again coming to light, finally dis-

charges itself into the Atlantic Ocean. Tarraconensian Spain

lies on one side, contiguous to the Pyrenees, running down-

wards along the sides of that chain, and, stretching across from

the Iberian Sea to the Gallic ocean[8], is separated from Btica

and Lusitania by Mount Solorius[9], the chains of the Oretani[10]

and the Carpetani[11], and that of the Astures[12].







1. So called from the Btis, now the Guadalquivir or Great River.

2. The situation of this town is not known, but it is supposed to have

been about five leagues from the present city of Mujacar, or Moxacar.

It was situate on the Sinus Urgitanus.

3. So called from the city of Tarraco, on the site of the present Tarragona.

4. Corresponding nearly in extent with the present kingdom of Portugal.

5. Now Gaudiana, a corruption of the Arabic Wadi Ana, "the river Ana."

6. According to Hardouin this place is the modern town of Montiel,

but Pinet and D'Anville make it the same as Alhambra.

7. According to modern writers it conceals itself in this manner for a

distance of fifteen miles.

8. From the Balearic Channel to the Gulf of Gascony or Bay of Biscay.

9. Probably the Sierra Nevada is meant by this name; Hardouin considers it the same as the Sierra de los Vertientes.

10. Probably the Sierra Morena.

11. The Monte de Toledo.

12. The Sierra de las Asturias.




4. Chap. 3.-Of Btica.


CHAP. 3.-OF BTICA.

Btica, so called from the river which divides it in the

middle, excels all the other provinces in the richness of its

cultivation and the peculiar fertility and beauty of its vegetation.



It consists of four jurisdictions, those of Gades[1], of Corduba[2], of Astigi[3], and of Hispali[4]. The total number of

its towns is 175; of these nine are colonies[5], and eight muni-







cipal towns[6]; twenty-nine have been long since presented with

the old Latin rights[7]; six are free towns[8], three federate[9],

and 120 tributary.



In this district, the things that more especially deserve notice, or are more easily explained in the Latin tongue, are the

following, beginning at the river Ana, along the line of the seashore; the town of Onoba, surnamed stuaria[10]; the rivers

Luxia and Urium[11], flowing through this territory between

the Ana and the Btis; the Marian[12] Mountains; the river

Btis; the coast of Corum[13], with its winding bay; opposite







to which is Gades, of which we shall have occasion to speak

among the islands[14]. Next comes the Promontory of Juno[15],

and the port of Bsippo[16]; the towns of Blo[17] and Mellaria[18],

at which latter begin the Straits of the Atlantic; Carteia[19],

called by the Greeks Tartessos[20]; and the mountain of Calpe.



Along the coast of the inland sea[21] is the town of Barbesula[22]

with its river; also Salduba[23]; the town of Suel[24]; and then

Malaca[25], with its river, one of the federate towns. Next to this

comes Mnoba[26], with its river; then Sexifirmum[27], surnamed







Julium; Selambina[28]; Abdera[29]; and Murci[30], which is at the

boundary of Btica. M. Agrippa supposed that all this

coast was peopled by colonists of Punic origin. Beyond the

Anas, and facing the Atlantic, is the country of the Bastuli[31]

and the Turditani. M. Varro informs us, that the Iberians,

the Persians, the Phnicians, the Celts, and the Carthaginians spread themselves over the whole of Spain; that the

name "Lusitania" is derived from the games (lusus) of

Father Bacchus, or the fury (lyssa[32]) of his frantic attendants,

and that Pan[33] was the governor of the whole of it. But the

traditions respecting Hercules[34] and Pyrene, as well as Saturn,

I conceive to be fabulous in the highest degree.



The Btis does not rise, as some writers have asserted,

near the town of Mentisa[35], in the province of Tarraco, but

in the Tugiensian Forest[36]; and near it rises the river Tader[37],

which waters the territory of Carthage[38]. At Ilorcum[39] it







turns away from the Funeral Pile[40] of Scipio; then taking a

sweep to the left, it falls into the Atlantic Ocean, giving its

name to this province: at its source it is but small, though

during its course it receives many other streams, which it deprives as well of their waters as their renown. It first enters

Btica in Ossigita-nia[41], and glides gently, with a smooth

current, past many towns situate on either side of its banks.



Between this river and the sea-shore the most celebrated

places inland are Segida[42], also surnamed Augurina; Julia[43],

called Fidentia; Urgao[44] or Alba, Ebora[45] or Cerealis, Iliberri[46] or Liberini, Ilipula[47] or Laus, Artigi[48] or Julienses,

Vesci[49] or Faventia, Singili[50], Attegua[51], Arialdunum, Agla

Minor[52], Bbro[53], Castra Vinaria[54], Cisimbrium[55], Hippo







Nova or New Hippo[56], Ilurco[57], Osca[58], Escua[59], Sucubo[60], Nuditanum, Old Tuati[61]; all which towns are in that part of Bastitania which extends towards the sea, but in the jurisdiction[62] of

Corduba. In the neighbourhood of the river itself is Ossigi[63],

also surnamed Laconicum, Iliturgi[64] or Forum Julium, Ipasturgi[65] or Triumphale, Setia, and, fourteen miles inland,

Obulco[66], which is also called Pontificense.



Next to these comes Epora[67], a federate town, Sacili[68]

Martialium, and Onoba[69]. On the right bank is Corduba,

a Roman colony, surnamed Patricia[70]; here the Btis first

becomes navigable. There are also the towns of Carbula







and Detunda[71], and the river Singulis[72], which falls into the

Btis on the same side.



The towns in the jurisdiction of Hispalis are the following:

Celti, Arua[73], Canama[74], Evia, Ilipa[75], surnamed Illa, and Italica[76]. On the left of the river is the colony of Hispalis[77] named

Romuliensis, and, on the opposite side[78], the town of Osset[79],

surnamed Julia Constantia, Vergentum, or Juli Genius[80],

Orippo, Caura[81], Siarum, and the river Menoba[82], which

enters the Btis on its right bank. Between the stuaries

of the Btis lie the towns of Nebrissa[83], surnamed Veneria,

and of Colobona[84]. The colonies are, Asta[85], which is also

called Regia, and, more inland, that of Asido[86], surnamed

Csariana.



The river Singulis, discharging itself into the Btis at the

place already mentioned, washes the colony of Astigi[87], sur-







named Augusta Firma, at which place it becomes navigable.

The other colonies in this jurisdiction which are exempt from

tribute are Tucci, surnamed Augusta Gemella[88], Itucci called

Virtus Julia[89], Attubi or Claritas Julia[90], Urso[91] or Genua Urbanorum; and among them in former times Munda[92], which was

taken with the son of Pompey. The free towns are Old Astigi[93] and Ostippo[94]; the tributary towns are Callet, Callecula,

Castra Gemina, the Lesser Ilipula, Merucra, Sacrana, Obulcula[95], and Oningis. As you move away from the sea-coast,

near where the river Menoba is navigable, you find, at no

great distance, the Alontigiceli and the Alostigi[96].



The country which extends from the Btis to the river

Anas, beyond the districts already described, is called Bturia, and is divided into two parts and the same number of

nations; the Celtici[97], who border upon Lusitania, in the ju-







risdiction of Hispalis, and the Turduli, who dwell on the

verge[98] of Lusitania and Tarraconensis, and are under the

protection of the laws of Corduba. It is evident that the

Celtici have sprung from the Celtiberi, and have come from

Lusitania, from their religious rites, their language, and the

names of their towns, which in Btica are distinguished by

the following epithets[99], which have been given to them.

Seria has received the surname of Fama Julia[100], Nertobriga that of Concordia Julia[101], Segida that of Restituta

Julia[102], and Contributa[103] that of Julia. What is now Curiga

was formerly Ucultuniacum, Constantia Julia[104] was Laconimurgis, the present Fortunales were the Tereses[105], and the

Emanici were the Callenses[106]. Besides these, there are in

Celtica the towns of Acinippo[107], Arunda[108], Aruci[109], Turobriga, Lastigi, Salpesa, Spone, and Serippo.



The other Bturia, which we have mentioned, is inhabited

by the Turduli, and, in the jurisdiction of Corduba, has some

towns which are by no means inconsiderable; Arsa[110],







Mellaria[111], Mirobriga[112], and Sisapo[113], in the district of

Osintias.



To the jurisdiction of Gades belongs Regina, with Roman

citizens; and Lpia, Ulia[114], Carisa[115] surnamed Aurelia, Urgia[116]

or Castrum Julium, likewise called Csaris Salutariensis,

all of which enjoy the Latian rights. The tributary towns

are Besaro, Belippo[117], Barbesula, Lacippo, Bsippo, Callet,

Cappacum, Oleastro, Ituci, Brana, Lacibi, Saguntia[118], and

Audoris.



M. Agrippa has also stated the whole length of this province to be 475 miles[119], and its breadth 257; but this was at

a time when its boundaries extended to Carthage[120], a circumstance which has often caused great errors in calculations;

which are generally the result either of changes effected in the

limits of provinces, or of the fact that in the reckoning of distances the length of the miles has been arbitrarily increased or

diminished. In some parts too the sea has been long making

encroachments upon the land, and in others again the shores

have advanced; while the course of rivers in this place has

become more serpentine, in that more direct. And then,

besides, some writers begin their measurements at one place,







and some at another, and so proceed in different directions;

and hence the result is, that no two accounts agree.



(2.) At the present day the length of Btica, from the

town of Castulo[121], on its frontier, to Gades is 250 miles, and

from Murci, which lies on the sea-coast, twenty-five miles

more. The breadth, measured from the coast of Carteia, is

234 miles. Who is there that can entertain the belief that

Agrippa, a man of such extraordinary diligence, and one who

bestowed so much care on his subject, when he proposed to

place before the eyes of the world a survey of that world, could

be guilty of such a mistake as this, and that too when seconded

by the late emperor the divine Augustus ? For it was that

emperor who completed the Portico[122] which had been begun

by his sister, and in which the survey was to be kept, in conformity with the plan and descriptions of M. Agrippa.







1. The present Cadiz. It was originally a Phnician colony.

2. Now Cordova.

3. Now Ecija.

4. Now Seville.

5. The Roman colonies or colonies "civium Romanorum" are those

here meant. The colonists in such case enjoyed all the rights of Roman

citizens, the town in which they lived being founded under the supervision of the Roman magistracy.

6. "Municipia." These were towns in conquered countries which were

not founded by the Romans, but whose inhabitants retained their original

institutions, at the same time receiving certain of the rights of Roman

citizens; most frequently, immunity to a greater or less degree from

payment of tribute.

7. "Latium ;" also called "Jus Latii" and "Latinitas." This was the

name given to those circumscribed or limited rights as Roman citizens

which were at first bestowed upon the conquered states of Italy, before

the time of the Social War. Indeed the Latinus held a kind of intermediate state between the Civis Romanus with all his rights, and the

peregrinus or foreigner with all his disabilities. These Latin rights were

afterwards extended to the people of other countries, but retained their

original name.

8. The free towns were those, the inhabitants of which were at liberty

to enjoy their ancient institutions and modes of internal government,

though at the same time they enjoyed none of the privileges of Roman

citizens.

9. "Fderati civitates ;" the inhabitants of which were called 'federati'

or 'socii.' They were in alliance with the Romans, but in some cases

paid them tribute in the same manner as the 'stipendiaria' next mentioned. In some instances they also enjoyed the Latin rights.

10. From the numerous creeks or estuaries with which the coast is here

indented. Commentators are at a loss for the site of the town of

Onoba (or Ossonoba according to some readings). D'Anville considers

it to be the same with the present town of Moguer; other commentators

have suggested Gibraleon, and the vicinity of Palos.

11. The Odiel and the Tinto; the Urium being supposed to be the same

with the Tinto of the present day.

12. Some readings have "Hareni montes," and others "Aren montes,"

the "mountains of sand." There is no doubt that the sandy heights or

downs on this coast are here meant, which are called at the present day

"Dunes" by the French, and by the natives "Arenas gordas."

13. Probably the line of sea-shore between Roia and the city of Cadiz,

skirting the Bay of Cadiz. Hardouin however thinks that the coast

between the Guadalquivir and the Guadalete is meant, now occupied in

part by the town of San Lucar de Barameda.

14. In the Fourth Book, c. 36.

15. The present Cape Trafalgar.

16. Hardouin says that the present Vejer is the place meant, while others

have suggested Puerto de Santa Maria, or Cantillana. Others again

identify it with Bejer de la Frontera, though that place probably lies too

far inland. The Roman ruins near Porto Barbato were probably its site.

17. Hardouin and other commentators suggest that the site of the present Tarifa is here meant; it is more probable however that D'Anville is

right in suggesting the now deserted town of Bolonia.

18. Probably the present Tarifa.

19. The exact site of Carteia is unknown; but it is generally supposed

to have stood upon the bay which opens out of the straits on the west of

the Rock of Gibraltar, now called the Bay of Algesiras or Gibraltar; and

upon the hill at the head of the bay of El Rocadillo, about half-way

between Algesiras and Gibraltar.

20. We learn also from Strabo, that Tartessus was the same place as

Carteia; it is not improbable that the former was pretty nearly the

Phoenician name of the place, and the latter a Roman corruption of it,

and that in it originated the 'Tarshish' of Scripture, an appellation

apparently given to the whole of the southern part of the Spanish peninsula. Probably the Greeks preserved the appellation of the place more

in conformity with the original Phoenician name.

21. By the "inland sea" Pliny means the Mediterranean, in contradistinction to the Atlantic Ocean without the Straits of Cadiz.

22. The ruins of this place, probably, are still to be seen on the east bank

of the river Guadiaro, here alluded to.

23. With its river flowing by it. This place is probably the present

Marbella, situate on the Rio Verde.

24. Probably the present Castillo de Torremolinos, or else Castillo de

Fuengirola.

25. The present city of Malaga. Hardouin thinks that the river Guadalquivirejo is here meant, but as that is some miles distant from the city,

it is more probable that the Guadalmedina, which is much nearer to it,

is the stream alluded to.

26. Not improbably Velez Malaga, upon a river of the same name.

Hardouin thinks that the place is the modern Torrox on the Fiu Frio,

and D'Anville the present city of Almunecar, on the Rio Verde.

27. Most probably the present Almunecar, but it is uncertain. D'Anville says the present Torre de Banas; others have suggested the town

of Motril.

28. Now Salobrena.

29. Either the present Adra or Abdera: it is uncertain which.

30. Probably the present Mujacar. D'Anville suggests Almeria.

31. Also called Bastitani, a mixed race, partly Iberian and partly Phnician.

32. The Greek Lu/ssa, "frantic rage" or "madness." The etymologies

here suggested are puerile in the extreme.

33. Plutarch, quoting from the Twelfth Book of the Iberica of Sosthenes,

tells us that, "After Bacchus had conquered Iberia [the present Spain],

he left Pan to act as his deputy, and he changed its name and called the

country Pania, after himself, which afterwards became corrupted into

Spania."

34. He alludes to the expedition of Hercules into Spain, of which Diodorus Siculus makes mention; also his courtship of the nymph Pyrene,

the daughter of Bebryx, who was buried by him on the Pyrenan

mountains, which thence derived their name.

35. It is unknown where this town was situate; Hardouin and D'Anville think it was on the site of the present village of San Thome, once

an episcopal see, now removed to Jaen. The people of Mentisa, mentioned in c. 4, were probably inhabitants of a different place. D'Anville

in his map has two Mentisas, one 'Oretana,' the other 'Bastitana.

36. According to D'Anville, the place now called Toia.

37. Now the Segura.

38. 'Nova' or 'New' Carthage, so called from having been originally

founded by a colony of Carthaginians B.C. 242. It was situate a little to

the west of the Saturni Promontorium, or Promontory of Palos. It

was taken by Scipio Africanus the elder B.C. 210.

39. The present Lorca.

40. This place is even now called by the inhabitants Sepulcro de Scipion.

Cneius Cornelius Scipio Calvus, after the defeat of his brother P. Cornelius Scipio, in the year B.C. 211, by the forces of Asdrubal and Mago,

fled to a tower at this spot, which was set fire to by the troops of Asdrubal,

and he perished in the flames.

41. So called from the town of Ossigi afterwards mentioned.

42. It is unknown where this place stood; Medina Sidonia has been

suggested.

43. Probably the present Fuentes del Rey, between Andujar and Jaen,

according to Pinet.

44. D'Anville suggests that this is the present Arjona; but more probably it was the village of Arjonilla, two leagues south of Andujar.

Gruter has an inscription found here, "MUNIC ALBENSE URGOANON."

45. There were five cities of this name in Spain. Hardouin thinks that

this is the modern Alcala la Real, between Granada and Cordova.

46. Most probably the modern Sierra de Elvira, though some writers

have suggested the city of Granada.

47. Probably near the modern Montilla. Hardouin takes it to be the

present Granada.

48. Poinsinet thinks that this is the present Ecija, but other writers take

it to be Alhama, between Granada and Malaga.

49. Perhaps the present Archidona. Some writers have suggested the

modern Faventia and Velez.

50. Probably near the present Puente de Don Gonzalo, on the banks of

the Rio Genil.

51. Probably near Aguilar on the river Cabra; or else the present Teba,

between Osuna and Antequera.

52. Agla the Less.

53. Probably the present Cabra. The sites of the two preceding towns

are not known.

54. "The Encampment in the Vineyards." Probably this was the same

as the Castra Postumiana mentioned by Hirtius in his Book on the Spanish War as being four miles from Attegua. It appears to be the present Castro, or Castro el Rio, situate on the banks of the river Guadajoz.

55. In some readings "Episibrium." Probably the present Espeja.

56. Its present site is unknown.

57. According to D'Anville, the present Puente de Pinos, six leagues north

of Granada. Others take it to be Illora, south of Alcala la Real.

58. The present Huesca, according to Hardouin; more probably, however, Huector, on the banks of the river Genil.

59. Perhaps Escusar, five leagues from Granada. But according to some

it is the same as Truelo or Eruelo.

60. Called Ucubis by Hirtius. Morales suggests that it is Sierra la

Ronda, but Pinet says Stoponda.

61. The sites of this and the preceding place are unknown.

62. In relation to the 'conventus juridicus,' we may here observe that

under the Roman sway, in order to facilitate the administration of justice, a province was divided into a number of districts or circuits, each of

which was so called, as also 'forum' or 'jurisdictio.' At certain times of

the year fixed by the proconsul or chief magistrate, the people assembled

in the chief town of the district (whence the name 'conventus'), upon

which judges were selected to try the causes of litigant parties.

63. Probably near the town at the present day called Espelui. Strabo,

in Book iii., tells us that Laconian institutions and customs were prevalent

in some parts of Spain.

64. This place was ravaged by fire and levelled with the ground by the

troops of Scipio, in consequence of the vigorous defence they had made,

and the losses they had caused to the Roman army. It probably stood

about four miles from the present city of Baeza.

65. The sites of this place and the next are unknown.

66. Most probably the present town of Porcuna. Ubeda or Ubedos

has also been suggested.

67. The present town of Montoro.

68. Now Alcoorrucen, near Perabad.

69. Ansart suggests that the reading is not Sacili of the Martiales,

but Onoba of the Martiales, to distinguish it from Onoba stuaria,

previously mentioned. It is not improbable that the place was so called

from the Martian or Martial legion having originally colonized it. The

site of Onoba is unknown.

70. Cordova was so called from the great number of patricians, who were

among the original colonists, when it was founded by Marcellus. To the present day it is noted for the pride of its nobles. The Great Captain

Gonzalo de Cordova used to say, that "other towns might be better to

live in, but there was none better to be born in." It was the birth-place

of Lucan and the two Senecas.

71. The site of these two places is unknown at the present day.

72. Now called by the similar name of Genil or Xenil.

73. Perhaps the present Alcolea.

74. Perhaps the Cantillana of the present day: there is, however, the

greatest uncertainty as to the sites of these places.

75. According to Hardouin, the modern city of Penaflor: D'Anville

places it about two leagues thence, and near the city of Lora.

76. Now Sevilla la Vieja, or Old Seville; called by the lower classes

Santi-pone.

77. Now Seville. This colony was founded by Julius Csar, and also

bore the name of Julia Romula.

78. Or north side of the river.

79. Probably on the site of the present Alcala del Rio.

80. 'The [good] genius of Julius,' probably meaning Csar. Nothing

seems to be known of its site.

81. Caura may be the present Coria, a town three leagues from Seville.

82. Probably the Rio Guadalete.

83. Either the present Sebrija, or in the vicinity of the city of San

Lucar.

84. Probably the present Bonania.

85. Probably between Trebujena and the city of Xeres. It was the

usual place of meeting for the people of the territory of Gades; and its

importance may be judged from its appellation 'Regia' or 'royal,' and its

numerous coins. Its ruins are still to be seen on a hill there.

86. It is not improbable that this was the present city of Xeres. Some

geographers however take it to be that of Medina Sidonia, and look

upon Xeres as the site of the ancient Asta.

87. Now Ecija. It stood on the plain of the Btis, some distance south

of the river, on its tributary the Singulis or Xenil.

88. The site of this place is unknown. It probably obtained its name

from being a colony of one of the legions, the 7th, 10th, 13th or 14th;

which were called 'gemin' or 'gemell,' from being composed of the

men of two legions originally.

89. "The Valour of Julius." Sanson places it not far from Miragenil.

90. "The Fame of Julius." Perhaps the present Olivera, or else Teba,

six leagues to the south of Estepa.

91. The present city of Ossuna. "Genua Urbanorum" would seem to

mean "the knees of the citizens." Though all the MSS. agree in this reading, it probably is an error for "gemina Urbanorum," and it may have been

a colony of one of the legions called 'gemin' or 'gemell,' as previously

mentioned. The other part of its appellation may possibly have originated

in the fact of its first inhabitants being all natives of the city of Rome.

92. The use of the word fuit, 'was,' implies that the place had been

destroyed. Cneius Pompeius, the eldest son of Pompey the Great, was

defeated at Munda, in the year B.C. 45, and the town destroyed. Pompey escaped from the battle, but was taken a short time after and

put to death. The site of the ancient town is very generally supposed

to be the modern village of Monda, S.W. of Malaga, and about three

leagues from the sea. It is more probable however that it was in the

vicinity of Cordova, and there are ruins of ancient walls and towers between Martos, Alcandete, Espejo and Baena, which are supposed to denote

its site.

93. Now Alameda; eight leagues from the other Astiji or Ecija.

94. Now Estepa, six leagues from Ecija.

95. Perhaps Mancloua, between the towns of Ecija and Carmona; the

sites of all the other places here mentioned appear to be quite unknown.

96. Sanson supposes the Alostigi to have inhabited the territory near

Almagia, between Malaga and Antiqueira.

97. The Celtici are supposed to have inhabited the country between the Guadiana and Guadalquivir, the eastern parts of Alentejo and the west

of Estremadura, as far as the city of Badajoz.

98. Probably part of Estremadura, and the vicinity of Badajoz in an

easterly direction.

99. The exact meaning of this passage is somewhat obscure, but he probably means to say that the Celtici have an identity of sacred rites, language, and names of towns with the Celtiberians; though it had become

the usage in Btica more generally to distinguish the towns by their

Roman names.

100. "The Fame of Julius." Its site is not known.

101. "The Concord of Julius." Probably the same as the modern Valera

la Vega, near Frejenal.

102. Probably meaning "Restored by Julius." Nothing is known of its site.

103. According to an authority quoted by Hardouin, this may possibly be

Medina de las Torres.

104. Probably Constantina in Andalusia, to the north of Penaflor.

105. The tribe or nation of the Tereses are supposed to have dwelt in the

vicinity of the modern San Nicolo del Puerto.

106. Calentum was their town; probably the present Cazalla near Alaniz.

This place will be found mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxv. c. 14.

107. The ruins two leagues north of Ronda la Vieja are supposed to be

those of this place. There are the remains of an aqueduct and theatre,

and numerous coins are found here.

108. Probably the present Ronda la Vieja.

109. Identified by inscriptions with the present Aroche. The sites of

several of the following places are unknown.

110. The Azuaga of modern times; but, according to Hardouin, Argallen.

111. According to Hardouin this was on the site of the modern Fuente

de la Ovejuna, fourteen leagues from Cordova.

112. This has been identified by inscriptions with the modern Villa de

Capilla.

113. According to Hardouin, the modern Almaden de la Plata.

114. Probably the same as the modern Monte Major.

115. The ruins of this place are probably those seen at Carixa, near

Bornos, in the vicinity of Seville.

116. According to Hardouin, the same as the modern Las Cabezas, not

far from Lebrija.

117. The sites of these two towns are unknown. Bsippo, Barbesula and

Callet have been already mentioned.

118. The ruins of Saguntia are to be seen between Arcos and Xeres della

Frontera, on the river Guadalete; they bear their ancient name under

the form of Cigonza. Mela, B. iii. c. 1, says that Oleastro was a grove

near the Bay of Cadiz. Brana was probably the same place that is mentioned by Ptolemy under the name of Urbona.

119. We may here mention for the more correct information of the reader

that the Roman mile consisted of 1000 paces, each pace being five English

feet. Hence its length was 1618 English yards (taking the Roman

foot at 11c6496 English inches), or 142 yards less than the English

statute mile.

120. Nova Carthago, or New Carthage.

121. Now Cazlona, on the confines of New Castile and the kingdom of

Granada. It was a place of great importance, and the chief town of the

Oretani. Himilce, the rich wife of Hannibal, was a native of this place.

122. This was the 'porticus Octavi,' which, having been commenced by

his sister Octavia, the wife of Marcellus and Antony, was completed by

Augustus. It lay between the Circus Flaminius and the Theatre of Marcellus, occupying the site of the former portico, which had been built by

Q. Ccilius Metellus, and enclosing the two temples of Juno and of Jupiter Stator. It contained a public library, in which the Senate often

met, and it was in this probably that the map or plan, mentioned by

Pliny, was deposited. It also contained a great number of statues,

paintings, and other works of art, which, with the library, were destroyed

by fire in the reign of Titus.




5. Chap. 4. (3.)-Of Nearer Spain.


CHAP. 4. (3.)-OF NEARER SPAIN.

The ancient form of the Nearer Spain, like that of many

other provinces, is somewhat changed, since the time when

Pompey the Great, upon the trophies which he erected in

the Pyrenees, testified that 877 towns, from the Alps to the

borders of the Farther Spain, had been reduced to subjection

by him. The whole province is now divided into seven jurisdictions, those of Carthage[1], of Tarraco, of Csar Augusta[2], of







Clunia[3], of Asturica[4], of Lucus[5], and of the Bracari[6]. To these

are to be added the islands, which will be described on

another occasion, as also 293 states which are dependent on

others; besides which the province contains 179 towns. Of

these, twelve are colonies, thirteen, towns with the rights of

Roman citizens, eighteen with the old Latian rights, one

confederate, and 135 tributary.



The first people that we come to on the coast are the

Bastuli; after whom, proceeding according to the order which

I shall follow, as we go inland, there are the Mentesani, the

Oretani, and the Carpetani on the Tagus, and next to

them the Vacci, the Vectones, and the Celtiberian Arevaci.

The towns nearest to the coast are Urci, and Barea[7] included

in Btica, the district of Mavitania, next to it Deitania, and

then Contestania, and the colony of Carthago Nova; from

the Promontory of which, known as the Promontorium Saturni[8], to the city of Csarea[9] in Mauritania, the passage is

a distance of 187 miles. The remaining objects worthy of

mention on the coast are the river Tader[10], and the free colony

of Ilici[11], whence the Ilicitanian Gulf[12] derives its name; to

this colony the Icositani are subordinate.



We next have Lucentum[13], holding Latian rights; Dianium[14],

a tributary town; the river Sucro[15], and in former times a

town of the same name, forming the frontier of Contestania.







Next is the district of Edetania, with the delightful expanse

of a lake[16] before it, and extending backward to Celtiberia.

Valentia[17], a colony, is situate three miles from the sea, after

which comes the river Turium[18], and Saguntum[19] at the same

distance, a town of Roman citizens famous for its fidelity,

the river Uduba[20], and the district of the Ilergaones[21]. The

Iberus[22], a river enriched by its commerce, takes its rise in

the country of the Cantabri, not far from the town of Juliobriga[23], and flows a distance of 450 miles; 260 of which, from

the town of Varia[24] namely, it is available for the purposes of

navigation. From this river the name of Iberia has been

given by the Greeks to the whole of Spain.



Next comes the district of Cossetania, the river Subi[25],

and the colony of Tarraco, which was built by the Scipios as

Carthage[26] was by the Carthaginians. Then the district of the

Ilergetes, the town of Subur[27], and the river Rubricatum[28],

beyond which begin the Laletani and the Indigetes[29]. Behind these, in the order in which they will be mentioned,







going back from the foot of the Pyrenees, are the Ausetani[30],

the Lacetani[31], and along the Pyrenees, the Cerretani[32], next to

whom are the Vascones[33]. On the coast is the colony of

Barcino[34], surnamed Faventia; Btulo[35] and Iluro[36], towns with

Roman citizens; the river Larnum[37], Bland[38], the river Alba[39];

Empori[40], a city consisting of two parts, one peopled by the

original inhabitants, the other by the Greek descendants

of the Phocans; and the river Ticher[41]. From this to the

Venus Pyrena[42], on the other side of the Promontory, is a

distance of forty miles.



I shall now proceed to give an account of the more remarkable things in these several jurisdictions, in addition to

those which have been already mentioned. Forty-three

different peoples are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of

Tarraco: of these the most famous are-holding the rights

of Roman citizens, the Dertusani[43] and the Bisgargitani;

enjoying Latian rights, the Ausetani, and the Cerretani, both

Julian and Augustan, the Edetani[44], the Gerundenses[45], the







Gessorienses[46], and the Teari[47], also called Julienses. Among

the tributaries are the Aquicaldenses[48], the Onenses, and the

Bculonenses[49].



Csar Augusta, a free colony, watered by the river Iberus,

on the site of the town formerly called Salduba, is situate in

the district of Edetania, and is the resort of fifty-five nations.

Of these there are, with the rights of Roman citizens, the

Bellitani[50], the Celsenses[51], a former colony, the Calagurritani[52],

surnamed the Nassici, the Ilerdenses[53], of the nation of the

Surdaones, near whom is the river Sicoris, the Oscenses[54] in

the district of Vescitania, and the Turiasonenses[55]. Of those

enjoying the rights of the ancient Latins, there are the

Cascantenses[56] the Ergavicenses[57], the Graccuritani[58], the Leo-







nicenses[59], and the Osicerdenses; of federate states, there

are the Tarragenses[60]; and of tributaries, the Arcobrigenses[61], the Andologenses[62], the Aracelitani[63], the Bursaonenses[64], the Calagurritani[65], who are also surnamed the

Fibularenses, the Complutenses[66], the Carenses[67], the Cincenses[68], the Cortonenses, the Damanitani[69], the Larnenses[70], the Lursenses[71], the Lumberitani[72], the Lacetani,

the Lubienses, the Pompelonenses[73], and the Segienses.







Sixty-five different nations resort to Carthage[74], besides

the inhabitants of the islands. Of the Accitanian[75] colony,

there are the Gemellenses, and the town of Libisosona[76], surnamed Foroaugustana, to both of which have been granted

Italian[77] rights. Of the colony of Salaria[78], there are the people

of the following towns, enjoying the rights of ancient Latium: the Castulonenses, also called the Csari Venales, the

Stabitani[79] or Augustani, and the Valerienses[80]. The best

known among the tributaries are the Alabanenses[81], the Bastitani[82], the Consaburrenses[83], the Dianenses[84], the Egelestani[85],







the Ilorcitani[86], the Laminitani, the Mentesani[87], both those

called Oritani and those called Bastuli, and the Oretani

who are surnamed Germani[88], the people of Segobriga[89] the

capital of Celtiberia, those of Toletum[90] the capital of Carpetania, situate on the river Tagus, and after them the Viatienses and the Virgilienses[91].



To the jurisdiction of Clunia[92] the Varduli contribute fourteen nations, of whom we need only particularize the Albanenses[93], the Turmodigi[94], consisting of four tribes, among

which are the Segisamonenses[95] and the Segisamaiulienses.

To the same jurisdiction belong the Carietes[96] and the Vennenses with five states, among which are the Velienses.

Thither too resort the Pelendones of the Celtiberians, in

four different nations, among whom the Numantini[97] were

especially famous. Also, among the eighteen states of the

Vacci, there are the Intercatienses[98], the Pallantini[99], the

Lacobrigenses, and the Caucenses[100]. But among the seven







peoples belonging to the Cantabri, Juliobriga[101] is the only

place worthy of mention; and of the ten states of the Autrigones, Tritium and Virovesca[102]. The river Areva[103] gives

its name to the Arevaci; of whom there are six towns, Segontia[104] and Uxama[105], names which are frequently given to

other places, as also Segovia[106] and Nova Augusta, Termes[107],

and Clunia itself, the frontier of Celtiberia. The remaining

portion turns off towards the ocean, being occupied by the

Varduli, already mentioned, and the Cantabri.



Next upon these touch the twenty-two nations of the

Astures, who are divided into the Augustani[108] and the Transmontani, with the magnificent city of Asturica. Among

these we have the Cigurri[109], the Psici, the Lancienses[110], and

the Zol[111]. The total number of the free population amounts

to 240,000 persons.



The jurisdiction of Lucus[112] embraces, besides the Celtici

and the Lebuni, sixteen different nations, but little known







and with barbarous names. The number however of the free

population amounts to nearly 166,000.



In a similar manner the twenty-four states of the jurisdiction of

the Bracari contain a population of 175,000, among

whom, besides the Bracari[113] themselves, we may mention,

without wearying the reader, the Bibali, the Clerni, the

Gallci, the Hequsi, the Limici, and the Querquerni.



The length of the Nearer Spain, from the Pyrenees to the

frontier of Castulo, is 607[114] miles, and a little more if we follow

the line of the coast; while its breadth, from Tarraco to

the shore of Olarson[115], is 307[116] miles. From the foot of the

Pyrenees, where it is wedged in by the near approach of the

two seas, it gradually expands until it touches the Farther

Spain, and thereby acquires a width more than double[117].



Nearly the whole of Spain abounds in mines[118] of lead, iron,







copper, silver, and gold; in the Nearer Spain there is also

found lapis specularis[119]; in Btica there is cinnabar. There

are also quarries of marble. The Emperor Vespasianus

Augustus, while still harassed by the storms that agitated

the Roman state, conferred the Latian rights on the whole

of Spain. The Pyrenean mountains divide Spain from Gaul,

their extremities projecting into the two seas on either side.







1. Nova Carthago or New Carthage, now Carthagena.

2. Now Zaragoza or Saragossa, on the right bank of the river Ebro. Its

original name was Salduba, but it was changed in honour of Augustus,

who colonized it after the Cantabrian war, B.C. 25.

3. This was the most remote place of any consideration in Celtiberia, on

the west. Its ruins are still to be seen on the summit of a hill surrounded

with rocks, forming a natural wall between Corunna del Conde and Pennalda de Castro.

4. This was Asturica Augusta, the chief city of the nation of the Astures,

and situate on one of the tributaries of the Astura, now Esta. On its

site is situate the present Astorga: its ruins are very extensive.

5. Now Lugo.

6. Or Bracara Augusta, now Braga. Among the ruins of the ancient

city there are the remains of an aqueduct and amphitheatre.

7. Probably the present town of Vera near Muxacra.

8. The "Promontory of Saturn," now Cabo de Palos.

9. D'Anville takes this place to be the port of Vacur; if so, the distance

from Cape Palos is exactly 170 miles.

10. Now Segura.

11. The modern town of Elche was probably built from the ruins of

this place.

12. Now called the Gulf of Alicant.

13. With the Arabian El prefixed, this has formed the name of the

famous port of Alicant.

14. Now Denia, a thriving town.

15. Now called the Xucar.

16. Now called Albufera.

17. The present city of Valencia.

18. Or Turia, now the Guadalaviar.

19. Or Saguntus, famed for the fidelity of its inhabitants to the Roman

cause: after a siege of nine months, rather than submit to the Carthaginians

under Hannibal, they set fire to their town and perished in the flames, B.C.

219. It was rebuilt eight years afterwards and made a Roman colony. The

ruins of the ancient town, which was said to have been originally founded

by Greeks from Zacynthus, are still to be seen, and the ancient walls (muri

veteres
) give name to the present Murviedro, which is built on its site.

20. Now the Murviedro, which flows past the city of that name and the

town of Segorbe.

21. Dertosa, the present Tortosa, is supposed to have been inhabited by

them.

22. Now the Ebro.

23. Hardouin places this on the site of the modern Fuente de Ivero.

The Ebro takes its rise in the Val de Vieso.

24. According to D'Anville, the present Logrono. At present the Ebro

only becomes navigable at Tudela, 216 miles from the sea. Other writers,

however, take Varia to be the present Valtierra, near Tudela.

25. Or the Subur, now the Francoli. It flows into the sea at the port

of Tarraco, now Tarragona.

26. The more ancient commentators think that Carthago Vetus, or the

colony of Old Carthage (now Carta la Vieja), is here alluded to, but more

probably it is Carthago Nova that is meant.

27. On the Subi, previously mentioned; now called Villa Nova.

28. Now the Llobregat.

29. Their territory was situate around the present Gulf of Ampurias.

30. Their chief cities were Gerunda, the present Gerona, and Ausa or

Vicus Aus, now Vic d'Osona.

31. In the country beyond Gerona.

32. Living in the upper valley of the river Sicoris or Segre, which still

retains, from them, the name of Cerdague.

33. The people of the modem Navarre and Guipuzcoa.

34. In the later writers Barcelo, now Barcelona. It was said to have

been originally founded by Hercules, and afterwards rebuilt by Hamilcar

Barcas, who gave it the name of his family. Its name as a Roman colony

was Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino. The modern city

stands somewhat to the east of the ancient one.

35. The modern Badalona, two leagues from Barcelona.

36. On the sea-shore,-the present Pineda.

37. Now the Tordera.

38. The modern city of Blanos stands on its site.

39. Probably the present Ter or Tet.

40. The modem Ampurias. We learn from Strabo that a wall divided

the town of the Greeks from that of the old inhabitants. It was the

usual landing-place for travellers from Gaul. It was originally colonized

by the Phocans from Massilia or Marseilles.

41. Hardouin says that the Ticher or Tichis is the same with the modern

Ter, but in such case Pliny would have mentioned it before coming to Empori. Its present name however does not appear to be accurately known.

42. A promontory extending from the Pyrenan chain, on which a

temple of Venus was situate. It is now called Cabo de Cruz. The

distance mentioned by Pliny is probably too great.

43. The people of the present Tortosa.

44. Probably not the same people as the Edetani, in whose district Saguntum and Valencia were situate.

45. The people of Gerunda or Gerona.

46. They are nowhere else mentioned. Ukert supposes that their city

stood in the district between the Sicoris and Nucaria.

47. Their city was Tiara Julia.

48. The people of Aqu Calid or the 'Hot Springs,' called at the present day Caldes, four leagues from the city of Barcelona.

49. Ptolemy places Bcula between Ausa and Gerunda.

50. The people of the present Belchite.

51. The people of the present Xelsa, on the Ebro.

52. The inhabitants of Calagurris, now Calahorra, a city of the Vascones,

on the banks of the Ebro. They remained faithful to Sertorius to the last,

and after slaughtering their wives and children and eating their flesh, their

city was taken and destroyed; which event put an end to the Sertorian

war. It was called" Nassica," in contradistinction to Calagurris Fibularia,

which is afterwards mentioned by Pliny. The latter is mentioned by

Csar as forming one community with Osca (now Huesca), and was probably the present Loarre, though some writers take the first-named Calagurris to be that place, and the latter one to be the present Calahorra.

53. The people of Ilerda, the present Lerida, on the Sicoris or Segre. It

is memorable for its siege by Csar, when the Pompeian forces under

Afranius and Petreius had retired thither. It was a most flourishing city,

though in the times of the later Roman emperors it had fallen into decay.

54. The people of the present Huesca.

55. The inhabitants of Turiazo, the present Tarazona, five leagues south

of Tudela.

56. The people of Cascantum, the present town of Cascante in Navarre.

57. The people of Ergavica. Its ruins, at the confluence of the Guadiela

and Tagus, are still to be seen, and are called Santaver. By some writers

this place is considered to be the same as the modern Fraga, on the river

Cinca, five leagues from Lerida.

58. The people of Graccuris. Its former name of Ilurcis was changed

in honour of Sempronius Gracchus, who placed new settlers there after

the conquest of Celtiberia. It is supposed to be the same as the modern

Agreda, four leagues from Tarazona.

59. The people of Leonica, probably the modern Alcaniz, on the river

Guadalope, in Arragon.

60. The people of Tarraga, the present Tarrega, nine leagues east of

Lerida, in Catalonia.

61. The people of Arcobriga, now Los Arcos, in Navarre, five leagues

south of Estella.

62. Perhaps the same as the Andosini, a people mentioned by Polybius,

B. iii. c. 35, as situate between the Iberus and the Pyrenees. There is a

small town of Navarre called Androilla.

63. The people probably of the site now occupied by Huarte Araquil,

six leagues to the west of Pampeluna.

64. Probably the same as the Bursaones of Livy, the Bursavolenses of

Hirtius, and the Bursadenses of Ptolemy. Their exact locality is unknown.

65. Mention has been made of Calagurris Fibularensis or Fibulicensis

under Calagurris Nassica: see p. 168.

66. The people of Complutum, the modern Alcala de Henares, on the

river Henares, six leagues to the east of Madrid. It is not quite certain

whether it stood on the exact site of Alcala, or on the hill of Zulema, on

the other side of the Henares.

67. The town of Cares, adjoining the more modern one of Puente la

Reyna, probably marks their site.

68. Probably so called from the river Cinga, the modern Cinca: or they

may have given their name thereto.

69. The people probably of the present Mediana on the Ebro, six

leagues below Zaragoza.

70. Their town was Larnum, situate on a river of the same name. It

was probably the present Torderas, situate on the river of that name.

71. Of this people nothing appears to be known. In the old editions the

next people mentioned are the "Ispalenses," but since the time of Hardouin, they have been generally omitted, as wrongly introduced, and as utterly unknown. Spanish coins have however been more recently discovered

with the name 'Sblaie' or 'Splaie,' inscribed in Celliberian characters,

and numismatists are of opinion that they indicate the name of the town

of this people, which in Latin would be Ispala. This at all events is the

opinion of M. de Saulcy.

72. The people of the present town of Lumbier in Navarre, called by its

inhabitants Irumberri.

73. The people of the present city of Pampeluna.

74. Carthago Nova, or New Carthage.

75. The colony of Acci was called Colonia Julia Gemella Accitana. The

town of Acci or Accis was on the site of the present Guadix el Viejo,

between Granada and Baza. It was colonized by the third and sixth

legions under Julius or Augustus, from which it obtained the name

of' Gemella,' the origin of which name is previously mentioned, p. 161.

76. The ruins of this place are supposed to be those seen at Lebazuza or

Lezuza, not far from the city of Cuena.

77. The "jus Italicum" or "Itali," "Italian rights" or "privileges,"

differed from the "jus Latinum." It was granted to provincial towns

which were especially favoured by the magistracy of Rome, and consisted

of exemption from taxes, a municipal constitution, after the manner of

the Italian towns, and many other rights and exemptions.

78. According to Hardouin, the people of the town formerly called Saliotis, now Cazorla. They are called "Csari venales," from the circumstance of their territory having been purchased by Csar.-Castulo or

Cazlona has been previously mentioned.

79. The people of Stabis, now Xativa in Valencia. This town was famous for its manufacture of fine table-napkins, to which reference is made

by Pliny at the beginning of his Introduction addressed to Titus, in his

quotation from the lament of Catullus on the loss of his table-napkins

which his friends had filched from him. See p. 1 of the present volume.

80. According to some writers, the present Cuena was the ancient Valeria; but perhaps it was situate at the present village of Valera la Vieja,

or Old Valeria, eight leagues south of Cuena.

81. The people of Alaba, not far from the present town of Ergavica.

82. They were so called from their town of Basti, now Baza, on the river

Guadalentin in Granada.

83. Their town was probably the present Consuegra, twelve leagues from

the city of Toledo.

84. So called from the promontory Dianium or Artemisium, named from

a temple of Diana there situate, and having in its vicinity a town of the

same name. The present town of Denia still retains nearly the original

name. Its lake, now called Albufera de Valencia, has been previously

mentioned, p. 166.

85. The modern Yniesta marks the site of their town.

86. The people probably of Eliocroca, now Lorca, on the high road from

Carthago Nova to Castulo.

87. There were two places of the name of Mentesa, one in the district of

the Oritani, and the other in that of the Bastitani or Bastuli.

88. Ptolemy, B. ii., mentions a city of this nation, called 'Oretum Grermanorum.' It has been supposed that it was the present Calatrava, five

leagues from Ciudad Real.

89. Supposed to be in the vicinity of the present Calatajud.

90. The present Toledo.

91. Their town is supposed to have stood on the site of the present Murcia.

92. Now Corua del Conde.

93. The people of the present Alava on the Ebro.-A small town there

still bears the name of Alvana.

94. This nation is not mentioned elsewhere. Possibly they are the Murbogi, mentioned by Ptolemy.

95. Their town Segisamon was either the present Veyzama in Guipuzcoa, or, more probably, Sasamon, eight leagues north-west of Burgos.

96. The people of Carissa, on the site of the present Carixa near Seville.

97. Strabo assigns the Numantini to the Arevac, and not the Pelendones. The ruins of the city of Numantia were still to be seen at Puente

Garray near the city of Soria, in Hardouin's time, the 17th century.

98. D'Anville places their city, Intercatia, at the place called Villa nueva

de Azuague, forty miles from the present Astorga; others again make it to

have been sixty miles from that place.

99. Their town was on the site of the modern city of Palencia, on the

river Carion.

100. The people of Cauca, the present Coca, situate between Segovia and

Valladolid, on the river Eresma.

101. This was the chief city of the Cantabri. It has been already mentioned, but we may add that it stood near the sources of the Ebro, on

the eminence of Retortillo, south of Reynosa. Five stones still mark

the boundaries which divided the territory from that of the Fourth Legio.

102. Supposed to be the present Briviesca; the site of Tritium does not

appear to be known, but it has been suggested that it was near Najara,

in the vicinity of Logrono.

103. It does not appear to be certain whether the Areva was the present

Ucero, or the Arlanzon, which flows near Valladolid.

104. The modern Siguenza.

105. Now El Burgo d'Osma, in the province of Soria.

106. This must not be mistaken for the modern Segovia, between Madrid

and Valladolid: it was a small town in the vicinity of Numantia.

107. Probably the present Lerma, on the river Arlanza.

108. The people of Asturica Augusta, now Astorga, in the province of

Leon. The ruins of this fine city are said still to give a perfect idea of a

fortified Roman town.

109. Their chief city stood on the site of the present Cigarrosa, or San

Estevan de Val de Orres. Its ruins are still to be seen, and a Roman

bridge, the people preserving a tradition that an old town once stood

there called Guigurra.

110. The people of Lance or Lancia, probably the present Lollanco or

Mansilla; though Oviedo has been suggested. This however may be

the Ovetum mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxiv. c. 17.

111. Mentioned by Pliny in B. xix. c. 2, as famous for their flax. Their

locality near the coast does not appear to be exactly known. The Psici

previously mentioned were situate on the peninsula of Cabo de Penas.

112. Now the city of Lugo in Gallicia.

113. The people of Bracara Augusta, now Braga. Among the ruins of

the ancient city are the remains of an aqueduct and an amphitheatre.

This people probably derived their name from their fashion of wearing

bracc, "breeches" or "trowsers," like their neighbours of Gallia

Braccata. The exact localities of the various other tribes

here mentioned do

not appear to be exactly known.

114. Our author is mistaken here, even making allowance for the

shortness of the Roman mile (1618 yards), as the length is only 470

miles. Coastwise it is 620.

115. Now Oyarzun. It is also mentioned in B. iv. c. 34.

116. He is also in error here; for, taken in a straight line, this distance

is but 210 miles.

117. The distance is about 560 miles.

118. It may be worth while here to take some notice of the mineral

productions of Spain in modern times, from which we shall be able to

form

a more accurate judgement as to the correctness of the statement here

made by Pliny. Grains of gold are still to be found in the rivers Tagus

and Douro; but there is not found sufficient of the precious metal to pay

for the search. Silver is found in the mines of the Guadal canal. Copper

and lead are to be found in abundance. There is a mine of plumbago

four leagues from Ronda; and tin is found in Gallicia. In every

province there are iron mines, those in Biscay being the most

remarkable.

Lodestone is found in Seville, cobalt on the Pyrenees, quicksilver and

cinnabar at Almaden, arsenic in Asturias, and coal in Asturias and

Arragon. There are salt-mines at Mingrilla and Cardona; alum is found

in Arragon, antimony at Alcaraz. On the Sierra Morena, and in

Gallicia, there

is saltpetre in numerous localities; amber in Asturias and Valencia, and

sulphur in Murcia, Arragon, and Seville. Pipe-clay of a peculiar quality is

found in the vicinity of Andujar. Gypsum and marble are found in great

abundance, and stone for building purposes, of the best quality.

Amethysts, white cornelians, rubies, agates, garnets, and rock

crystals, with

other precious stones, are also found in abundance and of the finest

quality.

119. Transparent stone. Further mention is made of it by Pliny in

B. xxxv. c. 45.




6. Chap. 5. (4.)-Of The Province Of Gallia Narbonensis.


CHAP. 5. (4.)-OF THE PROVINCE OF GALLIA NARBONENSIS.



That part of the Gallias which is washed by the inland sea[1]

is called the province of [Gallia] Narbonensis[2], having

formerly borne the name of Braccata[3]. It is divided from

Italy by the river Varus[4], and by the range of the Alps, the

great safeguards of the Roman Empire. From the remainder

of Gaul, on the north, it is separated by the mountains

Cebenna[5] and Jura[6]. In the cultivation of the soil, the

manners and civilization of the inhabitants, and the extent of its

wealth, it is surpassed by none of the provinces, and, in short,

might be more truthfully described as a part of Italy than

as a province. On the coast we have the district of the

Sordones[7], and more inland that of the Consuarani[8]. The







rivers are the Tecum and the Vernodubrum[9]. The towns

are Illiberis[10], the scanty remains of what was formerly a great

city, and Ruscino[11], a town with Latian rights. We then

come to the river Atax[12], which flows from the Pyrenees, and

passes through the Rubrensian Lake[13], the town of Narbo

Martius, a colony of the tenth legion, twelve miles distant

from the sea, and the rivers Arauris[14] and Liria[15]. The towns

are otherwise but few in number, in consequence of the

numerous lakes[16] which skirt the sea-shore. We have Agatha[17],

formerly belonging to the Massilians, and the district of

the Volc Tectosages[18]; and there is the spot where Rhoda[19],

a Rhodian colony, formerly stood, from which the river takes

its name of Rhodanus[20]; a stream by far the most fertilizing

of any in either of the Gallias. Descending from the Alps

and rushing through lake Lemanus[21], it carries along with it

the sluggish Arar[22], as well as the torrents of the Isara and

the Druentia[23], no less rapid than itself. Its two smaller

mouths are called Libica[24], one being the Spanish, and the







other the Metapinian mouth; the third and largest is called

the Massiliotic[25]. There are some authors who state that there

was formerly a town called Heraclea[26] at the mouth of the

Rhodanus or Rhone.



Beyond this are the Canals[27] leading out of the Rhone, a

famous work of Caius Marius, and still distinguished by his

name; the Lake of Mastramela[28], the town of Maritima[29] of the

Avatici, and, above this, the Stony Plains[30], memorable for the







battles of Hercules; the district of the Anatilii[31], and more

inland, that of the Desuviates[32] and the Cavari. Again, close

upon the sea, there is that of the Tricorii[33], and inland, there

are the Tricolli[34], the Vocontii[35], and the Segovellauni, and,

after them, the Allobroges[36].



On the coast is Massilia, a colony of Phocan[37] Greeks,

and a federate[38] city; we then have the Promontory of Zao[39],

the port of Citharista[40], and the district of the

Camatullici[41];

then the Suelteri[42], and above them the Verrucini[43]. Again,







on the coast, we find Athenopolis[44], belonging to the Massilians, Forum Julii[45] Octavanorum, a colony, which is also

called Pacensis and Classica, the river Argenteus[46], which

flows through it, the district of the Oxubii[47] and that of the

Ligauni[48]; above whom are the Suetri[49], the

Quariates[50] and the

Adunicates[51]. On the coast we have Antipolis[52], a town with

Latian rights, the district of the Deciates, and the river Varus,

which proceeds from Mount Cema, one of the Alps.



The colonies in the interior are Arelate Sextanorum[53],

Beterr Septimanorum[54], and Arausio[55] Secundanorum;

Valentia[56] in the territory of the Cavari, and Vienna[57]

in that of

the Allobroges. The towns that enjoy Latian rights are Aqu

Sexti[58] in the territory of the Saluvii, Avenio[59] in

that of the







Cavari, Apta Julia[60] in that of the Volgientes, Alebece[61]

in that

of the Reii Apollinares, Alba[62] in that of the Helvi, and

Augusta[63] in that of the Tricastini, Anatilia, Aeria[64],

the Bormanni[65], the Comaci, Cabellio[66], Carcasum[67]

in the territory of

the Volc Tectosages, Cessero[68], Carpentoracte[69] in

the territory of the Memini, the Cenicenses[70], the

Cambolectri[71], surnamed the Atlantici, Forum[72] Voconi,

Glanum Livi[73], the

Lutevani[74], also called the Foroneronienses[75],

Nemausum[76] in







the territory of the Arecomici, Piscen[77], the Ruteni[78], the

Sanagenses[79], the Tolosani[80] in the territory of the Tectosages

on the confines of Aquitania, the Tasconi[81], the

Tarusconienses[82], the Umbranici[83], Vasio[84] and

Lucus Augusti[85], the two

capitals of the federate state of the Vocontii. There are also

nineteen towns of less note, as well as twenty-four belonging

to the people of Nemausum. To this list[86] the Emperor Galba

added two tribes dwelling among the Alps, the Avantici[87]

and the Bodiontici, to whom belongs the town of Dinia[88].

According to Agrippa the length of the province of Gallia

Narbonensis is 370 miles, and its breadth 248[89].







1. Or Mediterranean.

2. From the chief city Narbo Martius, and later Narbona, now Narbonne, situate on the river Atax, now Aude. It was made a Roman

colony by the Consul Q. Martius B.C. 118, and from him

received its surname. It was the residence of the Roman governor of

the province and

a place of great commercial importance. There are scarcely any remains

of the ancient city, but some vestiges of the canal, by which it was

connected with the sea at twelve miles' distance.

3. From the linen breeches which the inhabitants wore, a fashion which

was not adopted by the Romans till the time of the Emperors. Severus

wore them, but the use of them was restricted by Honorius.

4. Still called the 'Var.' It divides France from Nice, a province of

Sardinia.

5. Now the Cevennes. They lie as much to the west as the north of

Gallia Narbonensis.

6. The range of the Jura, north of the Lake of Geneva.

7. Inhabiting the former Comte de Roussillon, or Dpartement

des Pyrnes Orientales. They were said to have been originally

a Bebrycian or Thracian colony.

8. Probably the inhabitants of the present Conserans, on the west of

the Dpartement de l' Arrige.

9. Probably the Tech, and the Verdouble, which falls into the Gly.

10. Probably the present Elne, on the Tech.

11. The present Castel Roussillon.

12. The Aude of the present day.

13. The bodies of water now called Etangs de Bages et de Sigean.

14. Now the Herault.

15. Now called the Lez, near the city of Montpellier.

16. Now called Etangs de Leucate, de Sigean, de Gruissan, de Vendres,

de Thau, de Maguelonne, de Perols, de Mauguio, du Repausset; Marais

d'Escamandre, de Lermitane et de la Souteyrane, and numerous others.

17. Now the town of Agde. Strabo also informs us that this place was

founded by the Massilians.

18. This people seems to have inhabited the eastern parts of the

departments of l'Arrige and the Haute Garonne, that of Aude, the

south of that of Tarn, and of that of Herault, except the arrondissement of

Montpellier.

19. Dalechamp takes this to be Foz les Martigues; but the locality is

doubtful. Most probably this is the same place that is mentioned by

Strabo as Rho, in conjunction with the town of Agathe or Agde, and

the Rodanusia of Stephen of Byzantium, who places it in the district of

Massilia or Marseilles.

20. Now the Rhone.

21. Now the Lake of Geneva.

22. The modern Saone.

23. Now the rivers Isre and Durance.

24. Most probably from Libici, a town in the south of Gaul, of which

there are coins in existence, but nothing else seems to be known. At

the present day there are four mouths of the Rhone, the most westerly

of which is called the "Dead" Rhone; the next the "Lesser" Rhone;

the third the "Old" Rhone; and the fourth simply the Rhone. D'Anville

considers the "Lesser" Rhone to have been the "Spanish" mouth

of the ancients. In consequence of the overflowings of this river there is

great confusion upon this subject.

25. This mouth of the Rhone was much used by the Massilians for the

purposes of commerce with the interior of Gaul, and the carriage of the

supplies of tin which they obtained thence.

26. The manner in which Pliny here expresses himself shows that he

doubts the fact of such a place having even existed; it is mentioned by

none of the preceding geographers, and of those who followed him Stephen

of Byzantium is the only one who notices it. An inscription was found

however in the reign of Charles V. of France, in which it was stated that

Ataulphus, king of the Visigoths, selected Heraclea as his place of residence. On the faith of this inscription, Spon and Ducange have placed

Heraclea at the modern Saint-Gilles, and other writers at Saint-Remy,

where the inscription was found. Unfortunately, however, Messrs. Devic

and Vaissette, in their "History of Languedoc," have proved that this

inscription is of spurious origin.

27. The "Foss Marian" are also mentioned by Ptolemy and Solinus;

though they differ in the situation which they have respectively assigned

them. They were formed by Marius when advancing to dispute the

passage of the Rhone with the Cimbri, who had quitted Spain for the

purpose of passing the Pyrenees and invading Italy, in the year B.C. 102.

There is considerable difficulty in determining their position, but they

are supposed to have commenced at the place now called the Camp of

Marius, and to have terminated at the eastern mouth of the Rhone near

the present Arles.

28. Pliny is the first who mentions the name of this lake, though

previous writers had indicated its existence. Strabo informs us that

above

the mouth of the Rhone there is a large lake that communicates with the

sea, and abounds in fish and oysters. Brotier and D'Anville identify it

with the present lake of Martigues or of Berre.

29. D'Anville takes this place to be the present town of Martigues;

Brotier thinks that it was situate on the spot now called Le Cap

d'il, near

the town of Saint-Chamas; and Bouche, the historian of the Province,

places it at Marignane, on the east side of the lake already mentioned.

30. "Campi Lapidei," called by the natives at the present day "LaCrau;"

probably from the same Celtic root as our word "Crags;" though Bochart

derives it from the Hebrew. schylus and Hyginus speak of this

combat of Hercules, and Mela relates that being engaged in a mortal

struggle

with Albion and Geryon, the sons of Neptune, he invoked the aid of

Jupiter, on which a shower of stones fell from the heavens and destroyed

his antagonists. Those on this plain are said to be the remains of the

stony shower. It is supposed by the scientific that many of these stones

are arolites, and that tradition has ingeniously adapted this story to

their real origin. The vicinity of Tunbridge Wells presents a somewhat

similar appearance.

31. The people probably of the site of the present isle of Camargue.

32. They probably inhabited the district south of the Durance, between

it and the Rhone.

33. They inhabited the country in which the present Avignon, Orange,

Cavaillon, and perhaps Carpentras are situate.

34. They are thought by Hardouin to have dwelt in the vicinity of the

present town of Talard in the department of the Hautes Alpes.

35. They inhabited the eastern part of the departments of the Drme and

the Vaucluse.

36. Their territory comprehended the southern part of the department

of the Ain, the department of the Isre, the canton of Geneva, and part

of Savoy.

37. It was said to have been colonized from Phoca, a town of Ionia in

Asia Minor. Lucan in his Third Book more than once falls into the

error of supposing that it was colonized from Phocis in Greece.

38. We learn from Justin, B. xliii., that this privilege, as well as others,

and a seat at the public shows, were granted to the Massilians by the

Roman Senate, in return for their sympathy and assistance after the city

had been taken and plundered by the Gauls.

39. According to D'Anville the present Cap de l'Aigre, though Mannert

takes it to be the Cap de la Croisette.

40. D'Anville takes this to be the same as the present Port de la

Ciotat.

41. Probably occupying the south-east of the department of the Var.

It is supposed by Hardouin that the village of Ramatuelle, near the coast,

south of the Gulf of Grimaud, represents the ancient name; and

D'Anville and other writers are of the same opinion.

42. Probably the country around the modern Brignole and Draguignan

was inhabited by them.

43. They inhabited Verignon and Barjols in the southern part of the

department of the Var.

44. D'Anville takes this to be the place called Aga, between Frejus and

La Napoule: but in so doing he disregards the order in which they are

given by Pliny.

45. "The Forum of Julius." Now Frejus. As its name implies, it was a

colony of the Eighth Legion. It was probably called 'Pacensis,' on some

occasion when peace had happily been made with the original inhabitants,

and 'Classica' from the fleet being stationed there by Augustus.

46. Still known as the Argens, from the silvery appearance of the water.

It has choked up the harbour with sand, in which probably the ships

of Augustus rode at anchor.

47. They inhabited the coast, in the vicinity of the modern Cannes.

48. They are supposed to have inhabited the country of Grasse, in the

south-east of the department of the Var.

49. According to Ptolemy they had for their capital the town of Salin;

which some take to be the modern Saluces, others Castellane, and others

again Seillans, according to Holstein and D'Anville.

50. D'Anville thinks that they lived in the valley of Queyras, in

the department of the Hautes Alpes, having a town of the same

name.

51. The Adunicates are supposed by Hardouin to have inhabited the

department of the Basses Alpes, between the towns of Senez and Digne.

52. The modem Antibes. Mount Cema is the present Monte-Cemelione.

53. "Arelate of the Sixth Legion," a military colony; now the city of

Arles. It is first mentioned by Csar, who had some ships built there

for the siege of Massilia or Marseilles. It was made a military colony in

the time of Augustus.

54. "Beterr of the Seventh Legion." The modern town of Beziers.

55. "Arausio of the Second Legion," now Orange, a town in the

department of Vaucluse.

56. Now Valence, in the department of the Drme.

57. Now Vienne, in the department of the Isre.

58. Aix, in the department of the Bouches du Rhne.

59. Avignon, in the Vaucluse.

60. Apt, in the department of Vaucluse.

61. Riez, in the department of the Basses Alpes.

62. The modern Alps, near Viviers, is probably built on the site of this

town. The text shows that it was different from Augusta, probably the

Alba Augusta mentioned by Ptolemy, though D'Anville supposes them

to have been the same place.

63. Some writers take this place to be the present Saint-Paul-Trois-Chteaux, in the department of the Drme.

64. Probably so called from its lofty position, and supposed by D'Anville

to have been situate on the modern Mont Ventoux, or "Windy Mountain."

Other writers place it at La Croix Haute, near the city of Avignon.

65. There is a village in the department of the Var, six leagues from

Toulon, called Bormes, not improbably from these people.

66. The modern Cavaillon, in the department of the Vaucluse.

67. Now Carcassone, in the department of the Aude.

68. Probably Saint Tibry, on the river Hrault.

69. Now Carpentras. Ptolemy also makes mention of the Memini.

70. Probably situate on the river Cnus of Ptolemy, between the eastern

mouth of the Rhone and Massilia. Probably the name in Pliny should

be "Cnienses."

71. Walckenaer places this people in the vicinity of Cambo, in the

arrondissement of Bayonne, in the department of the Basses

Pyrenees.

72. In names similar to this, as Festus remarks, "Forum" has the

meaning of "Market;" much as that word is used as a compound in our

names, such as Market Drayton, &c. Bouche thinks that by this place

is meant the modern Le Canet: but D'Anville takes it to be Gonfaron,

a corruption, he thinks, of Voconfaron from the Latin name.

73. The site of Glanum was about a mile to the south of the village

of Saint Remi, between Cavaillon and Aries. On the spot there are the

remains of a Roman mausoleum and a triumphal arch.

74. The people of Luteva, now Lodve, in the department of the

Hrault.

75. "The people of Forum Neronis," which place has been supposed by

some to have been the same with Carpentoracte: D'Anville supposes Forcalquier to have been Forum Neronis, while Walckenaer takes Momas to

have been that place. From the text it would appear to have been

identical with Luteva.

76. The modern Nismes, which in its ruins contains abundant marks of

its ancient splendour. The family of the Antonines came from this place.

The remains of its aqueduct still survive, containing three rows of arches,

one above the other, and 180 feet in height.

77. The people of the present Pzenas, in the department of the

Hrault.

78. Their chief town is supposed to have been Albiga, now Albi, in the

department of Tarn.

79. The inhabitants of the present Senez in the Basses Alpes. De la

Saussaye says that their coins read 'Samnagenses,' and not' Sanagenses,'

and that they inhabited Senas, a town in the vicinity of Aix.

80. Their chief town was Tolosa, now Toulouse, in the department of the

Haute-Garonne.

81. They probably lived in the vicinity of the present Montauban, in the

department of the Tarn et Garonne.

82. Probably the inhabitants of the site of the modern town of Tarascon.

There is, however, considerable doubt as to these two names.

83. Poinsinet thinks that they occupied Vabres, a place situate in the

south of the department of Aveyron.

84. Now Vaison, in the department of Vaucluse.

85. "The Grove of Augustus." This town appears to have been

overflowed by the river Druma, which formed a lake on its site. Its

remains

were still to be seen in the lake in modern times, and from it the town

on the margin of the lake takes its name of Le Luc.

86. Under the name "formula" Pliny perhaps alludes to the official list

of the Roman government, which he had consulted for the purposes of

accuracy.

87. Bouche places the site of this people at the village of

Avanon, between Chorges and Gap, in the department of the Hautes

Alpes.

88. The present town of Digne, in the department of the Basses Alpes.

89. It is not known from what points these measurements of our author

are taken.




7. Chap. 6. (5.)-Of Italy.


CHAP. 6. (5.)-OF ITALY.



Next comes Italy, and we begin with the Ligures[1], after







whom we have Etruria, Umbria, Latium, where the mouths of

the Tiber are situate, and Rome, the Capital of the world,

sixteen miles distant from the sea. We then come to the

coasts of the Volsci and of Campania, and the districts of

Picenum, of Lucania, and of Bruttium, where Italy extends

the farthest in a southerly direction, and projects into the

[two] seas with the chain of the Alps[2], which there forms

pretty nearly the shape of a crescent. Leaving Bruttium

we come to the coast of [Magna] Grcia, then the Salentini,

the Pediculi, the Apuli, the Peligni, the Frentani, the Marrucini,

the Vestini, the Sabini, the Picentes, the Galli, the

Umbri, the Tusci, the Veneti, the Carni, the Iapydes, the

Histri, and the Liburni.



I am by no means unaware that I might be justly accused

of ingratitude and indolence, were I to describe thus briefly

and in so cursory a manner the land which is at once the

foster-child[3] and the parent of all lands; chosen by the

providence of the Gods to render even heaven itself more glorious[4],

to unite the scattered empires of the earth, to bestow a

polish upon men's manners, to unite the discordant and uncouth

dialects of so many different nations by the powerful

ties of one common language, to confer the enjoyments of

discourse and of civilization upon mankind, to become, in

short, the mother-country of all nations of the Earth.



But how shall I commence this undertaking? So vast is

the number of celebrated places (what man living could

enumerate them all?), and so great the renown attached

to each individual nation and subject, that I feel myself quite







at a loss. The city of Rome alone, which forms a portion

of it, a face well worthy of shoulders so beauteous, how

large a work would it require for an appropriate description!

And then too the coast of Campania, taken singly by itself!

so blest with natural beauties and opulence, that it is evident

that when nature formed it she took a delight in accumulating

all her blessings in a single spot-how am I to do justice to

it? And then the climate, with its eternal freshness and so

replete with health and vitality, the sereneness of the weather

so enchanting, the fields so fertile, the hill sides so sunny,

the thickets so free from every danger, the groves so cool and

shady, the forests with a vegetation so varying and so luxuriant, the

breezes descending from so many a mountain, the

fruitfulness of its grain, its vines, and its olives so transcendent;

its flocks with fleeces so noble, its bulls with necks so

sinewy, its lakes recurring in never-ending succession, its

numerous rivers and springs which refresh it with their waters

on every side, its seas so many in number, its havens and the

bosom of its lands opening everywhere to the commerce of

all the world, and as it were eagerly stretching forth into

the very midst of the waves, for the purpose of aiding as it

were the endeavours of mortals!



For the present I forbear to speak of its genius, its manners, its

men, and the nations whom it has conquered by

eloquence and force of arms. The very Greeks themselves,

a race fond in the extreme of expatiating on their own praises,

have amply given judgment in its favour, when they named

but a small part of it 'Magna Grcia[5].' But we must be

content to do on this occasion as we have done in our description of

the heavens; we must only touch upon some of

these points, and take notice of but a few of its stars. I

only beg my readers to bear in mind that I am thus hasten-







ing on for the purpose of giving a general description of

everything that is known to exist throughout the whole earth.



I may premise by observing that this land very much resembles in shape an oak leaf, being much longer than it is

broad; towards the top it inclines to the left[6], while it terminates in the form of an Amazonian buckler[7], in which the spot

at the central projection is the place called Cocinthos, while it

sends forth two horns at the end of its crescent-shaped bays,

Leucopetra on the right and Lacinium on the left. It extends in

length 1020 miles, if we measure from the foot of

the Alps at Prtoria Augusta, through the city of Rome and

Capua to the town of Rhegium, which is situate on the

shoulder of the Peninsula, just at the bend of the neck as it

were. The distance would be much greater if measured to

Lacinium, but in that case the line, being drawn obliquely,

would incline too much to one side. Its breadth is variable;

being 410 miles between the two seas, the Lower and the

Upper[8], and the rivers Varus and Arsia[9]: at about the middle,

and in the vicinity of the city of Rome, from the spot where

the river Aternus[10] flows into the Adriatic sea, to the mouth

of the Tiber, the distance is 136 miles, and a little less from

Castrum-novum on the Adriatic sea to Alsium[11] on the Tuscan;

but in no place does it exceed 200 miles in breadth.







The circuit of the whole, from the Varus to the Arsia, is 3059

miles[12].



As to its distance from the countries that surround it-

Istria and Liburnia are, in some places[13], 100 miles from it,

and Epirus and Illyricum 50; Africa is less than 200, as we

are informed by M. Varro; Sardinia[14] is 120, Sicily 1 1/2, Corsica

less than 80, and Issa[15] 50. It extends into the two seas

towards the southern parts of the heavens, or, to speak with

more minute exactness, between the sixth[16] hour and the first

hour of the winter solstice.



We will now describe its extent and its different cities;

in doing which, it is necessary to premise, that we shall follow the

arrangement of the late Emperor Augustus, and

adopt the division which he made of the whole of Italy into

eleven districts; taking them, however, according to their

order on the sea-line, as in so hurried a detail it would not be

possible otherwise to describe each city in juxtaposition with

the others in its vicinity. And for the same reason, in describing

the interior, I shall follow the alphabetical order

which has been adopted by that Emperor, pointing out the

colonies of which he has made mention in his enumeration.

Nor is it a very easy task to trace their situation and origin;

for, not to speak of others, the Ingaunian Ligurians have had

lands granted to them as many as thirty different times.







1. The modern names of these localities will form the subject of consideration when we proceed, in c. 7, to a more minute description of

Italy.

2. This passage is somewhat confused, and may possibly be in a corrupt

state. He here speaks of the Apennine Alps. By the "lunata juga"

he means the two promontories or capes, which extend east and west

respectively.

3. This seems to be the meaning of "alumna," and not "nurse" or

"foster-mother," as Ajasson's translation has it. Pliny probably

implies by this antithesis that Rome has been "twice blessed," in

receiving

the bounties of all nations of the world, and in being able to bestow a

commensurate return. Compared with this idea, "at once the nurse and

mother of the world" would be tame indeed!

4. By adding its deified emperors to the number of its divinities. After

what Pliny has said in his Second Book, this looks very much like pure

adulation.

5. Or "Great Greece." This is a poor and frivolous argument used by

Pliny in support of his laudations of Italy, seeing that in all

probability it was not the people of Greece who gave this name to

certain cities

founded by Greek colonists on the Tarentine Gulf, in the south of Italy;

but either the Italian tribes, who in their simplicity admired their

splendour and magnificence, or else the colonists themselves, who, in

using

the name, showed that they clung with fondness to the remembrance of

their mother-country; while at the same time the epithet betrayed some

vanity and ostentation in wishing thus to show their superiority to the

people of their mother-country.

6. The comparison of its shape to an oak leaf seems rather fanciful;

more common-place observers have compared it to a boot: by the top

(cacumen) he seems to mean the southern part of Calabria about

Brundisium and Tarentum; which, to a person facing the south, would

incline to the coast of Epirus on the left hand.

7. The 'Parma' or shield here alluded to, would be one shaped like a

crescent, with the exception that the inner or concave side would be

formed of two crescents, the extremities of which join at the central

projection. He says that Cocinthos (now Capo di Stilo) would in such

case form the central projection, while Lacinium (now Capo delle Colonne)

would form the horn at the extreme right, and Leucopetra (now Capo

dell' Armi) the horn on the extreme left.

8. The Tuscan or Etrurian sea, and the Adriatic.

9. The Varus, as already mentioned, was in Gallia Narbonensis, while the

Arsia, now the Arsa, is a small river of Istria, which became the boundary

between Italy and Illyricum, when Istria was annexed by order of Augustus to the former country. It flows into the Flanaticus Sinus, now

Golfo di Quarnero, on the eastern coast of Istria, beyond the town of

Castel Nuovo, formerly Nesactium.

10. Now the Pescara.

11. Now Palo, a city on the coast of Etruria, eighteen miles from Portus

Augusti, at the mouth of the Tiber.

12. This distance is overstated: the circuit is in reality about

2500 miles.

13. For instance, from Pola to Ravenna, and from Iadera to Ancona.

14. Sardinia is in no part nearer to Italy than 140 miles.

15. Issa, now Lissa, is an island of the Adriatic, off the coast of

Liburnia; it is not less than eighty miles distant from the nearest

part of the coast of Italy.

16. That is to say, the south, which was so called by the Romans: the

meaning being that Italy extends in a south-easterly direction.




8. Chap. 7.-Of The Ninth Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 7.-OF THE NINTH[1] REGION OF ITALY.



To begin then with the river Varus; we have the town of

Nica[2], founded by the Massilians, the river Paulo[3], the Alps







and the Alpine tribes, distinguished by various names[4], but

more especially the Capillati[5], Cemenelio[6], a town of the state

of the Vediantii, the port of Hercules Moncus[7], and the

Ligurian coast. The more celebrated of the Ligurian tribes

beyond the Alps are the Salluvii, the Deciates, and the

Oxubii[8]; on this side of the Alps, the Veneni[9], and the

Vagienni, who are derived from the Caturiges[10], the

Statielli[11],

the Bimbelli[12], the Magelli, the Euburiates, the Casmonates[13],

the Veleiates[14], and the peoples whose towns we shall describe

as lying near the adjoining coast. The river Rutuba[15], the

town of Albium Intemelium[16], the river Merula[17], the town

of Albium Ingaunum[18], the port of Vadum Sabatiorum[19], the

river Porcifera[20], the town of Genua, the river Feritor[21], the

Portus Delphini[22], Tigullia[23], Tegesta[24] of the

Tigullii, and

the river Macra[25], which is the boundary

of Liguria.







Extending behind all the before-mentioned places are the

Apennines, the most considerable of all the mountains of

Italy, the chain of which extends unbroken from the

Alps[26] to the Sicilian sea. On the other side of the Apennines,

towards the Padus[27], the richest river of Italy, the

whole country is adorned with noble towns; Libarna[28], the

colony of Dertona[29], Iria[30], Barderate[31], Industria[32], Pollentia[33],

Carrea surnamed Potentia[34], Foro Fulv or Valentinum[35],

Augusta[36] of the Vagienni, Alba Pompeia[37], Asta[38], and

Aqu Statiellorum[39]. This is the ninth region, according to

the arrangement of Augustus. The coast of Liguria extends

211 miles[40], between the rivers Varus and Macra.







1. Italy was divided by Augustus into eleven districts; the ninth of

which nearly corresponded to the former republic of Genoa.

2. The modern Nizza of the Italians, or Nice of the French.

3. Now the Paglione.

4. Livy mentions four of these tribes, the Celelates, the Cerdiciates,

the Apuani, and the Friniates.

5. Or "Long-haired." Lucan, B. i. 1. 442, 3, refers to this characteristic

of the Alpine Ligurians:

Et nunc tonse Ligur, quondam per colla decora

Crinibus effusis toti prlate Comat.

6. It is probably the ruins of this place that are to be seen at

the present day at Cimiez in the vicinity of Nice.

7. The modern Monaco.

8. These tribes have been already mentioned in c. 5, as belonging to the

province of Gallia Narbonensis.

9. It is supposed that they dwelt near the present Vinadio in

Piedmont.

10. It is supposed that they inhabited the vicinity of the present town of

Chorges, between Embrun and Gap.

11. They probably dwelt near the modern town of Montserrat.

12. They probably dwelt near the modern Biela, eight leagues from

Verceil in Piedmont.

13. Some writers place them near the modern city of Casale.

14. Their locality is supposed by some writers to be near the present

Cortemiglia, five leagues from the town of Alba.

15. Now the Roya, flowing between very high banks.-Lucan, B. ii.

1. 422, speaks of the Rutuba as "Cavus," "flowing in deep cavities."

16. Probably the present Vintimiglia.

17. The modern Arozia.

18. The present town of Albenga.-Livy, B. xxix. c. 5, calls the

inhabitants Albingauni.

19. Now called Va or Ve, and Savona.

20. The modern Bisagna, which waters Genua, the modern Genoa.

21. Now the Lavagna, which also washes Genoa.

22. "The Port of the Dolphin;" now Porto Fino.

23. Probably the ruins called those of Tregesa or Trigoso are those of

Tigullia.

24. Now Sestri di Levante.

25. The modern Magra.

26. Of which they were considered as a chain, and called the Apennine

Alps.

27. Now the Po.

28. According to D'Anville, now Castel Arqua.

29. Now Tortona. It was a city of importance, and there are

considerable ruins still in existence.

30. The modern Voghera, upon the river Staffora.

31. Probably the present Verrua.

32. Called by the Ligurians Bodincomagus, by the Romans Industria.

Its remains are to be found at Monte di Po, a few miles below Chevasso,

on the right bank of the river.

33. The modern Pollenza, a small town on the river Tenaro near Alba.

34. Its site has been placed at Chieri near Turin, and at Carr on the

Tanaro, a few miles south of Bene, which is perhaps the most probable.

35. The modern Valenza.

36. Placed by D'Anville at Vico near Mondovi, and by other writers at

Carmagnole and Saluzzo: but Durandi has shown that the ruins still to

be seen near Bene in Piedmont are those of Augusta Vagiennorum. Bene

is supposed to be a corruption of Bagienna, the name of the town in the

middle ages. The name of the Vagienni also probably survives in that

of Viozenna, an obscure place in that vicinity.

37. Still called Alba; a town near the northern foot of the Apennines.

It probably had its appellation from Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of

Pompey the Great, who conferred many privileges on the Cisalpine Gauls.

It was the birth-place of the Emperor Helvius Pertinax.

38. The modern Aste.

39. The modern Acqui, so called from its mineral springs. It is again

mentioned by Pliny in B. XXXI. Numerous remains of the ancient

town have been discovered.

40. Ansart observes that this measurement is nearly correct.




9. Chap. 8.-The Seventh Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 8.-THE SEVENTH REGION OF ITALY.



Next to this comes the seventh region, in which is Etruria,







a district which begins at the river Macra, and has often

changed its name. At an early period the Umbri were expelled from it

by the Pelasgi; and these again by the Lydians,

who from a king of theirs[1] were named Tyrrheni, but

afterwards, from the rites observed in their sacrifices, were called,

in the Greek language[2], Tusci. The first town in Etruria is

Luna[3], with a noble harbour, then the colony of Luca[4],

at some distance from the sea, and nearer to it again the

colony of Pis[5], between the rivers Auser[6] and

Arnus[7], which

owes its origin to Pelops and the Pisans[8], or else to the

Teutani, a people of Greece. Next is Vada[9] Volaterrana, then

the river Cecinna[10], and Populonium[11] formerly belonging

to the Etrurians, the only town they had on this coast.

Next to these is the river Prile[12], then the Umbro[13], which is

navigable, and where the district of Umbria begins, the port

of Telamon[14], Cosa[15] of the Volcientes, founded by the Roman







people, Gravisc[16], Castrum novum[17], Pyrgi[18], the

river Cretanus[19], and Cre[20] itself, four miles

inland, called Agylla by

the Pelasgi who founded it, Alsium[21], Fregen[22], and

the river

Tiber, 284[23] miles from the Macra.



In the interior we have the colonies of Falisci[24], founded by

the Argives, according to the account of Cato[25], and surnamed

Falisci Etruscorum, Lucus Feroni[26], Rusellana, the

Senienses[27], and Sutrina[28]. The remaining peoples are the







Arretini[29] Veteres, the Arretini Fidentes, the Arretini

Julienses, the Amitinenses, the Aquenses, surnamed Taurini[30], the Blerani[31], the Cortonenses[32], the Capenates[33], the

Clusini Novi, the Clusini Veteres[34], the Florentini[35], situate on

the stream of the Arnus, Fsul[36], Ferentinum[37], Fescennia[38],







Hortanum[39], Herbanum[40], Nepeta[41], Novem Pagi[42], the Claudian prfecture of Foroclodium[43], Pistorium[44], Perusia[45], the

Suanenses, the Saturnini, formerly called the Aurinini, the

Subertani[46], the Statones[47], the Tarquinienses[48], the Tuscanienses[49], the Vetulonienses[50], the Veietani[51], the Vesentini[52],

the Volaterrani[53], the Voleentini[54], surnamed Etrusci, and

the Volsinienses[55]. In the same district the territories of







Crustumerium[56] and Caletra[57] retain the names of the ancient

towns.







1. For an account of this see Herodotus, B. i. c. 94, Tacitus, Ann. B. iv.

c. 55, and Velleius Paterculus, B. i. c. 1. These writers all agree as to the

fact of the migration of a colony of Lydians under the conduct of

Tyrrhenus to the part of Italy afterwards called Etruria. This

subject however, as well as the migrations of the Pelasgi, is

involved in the greatest obscurity.

2. From the Greek verb qu/ein "to sacrifice," he

implies:-from their

custom of frequently sacrificing, says Servius, on the Xth Book of

the neid. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that they were from their

frequent sacrifices called quo/skooi. These are

probably fanciful derivations; but there is no doubt that the people

of Etruria were for several

centuries the instructors of the Romans in the arts of sacrifice, augury,

and divination.

3. The ruins of Luna, which was destroyed by the Normans in the

middle ages, are still visible on the banks of the Magra. The modern

name of the port is Golfo della Spezzia.

4. The modern city of Lucca has its site and name.-Livy, B. xli. c. 13,

informs us that this colony was founded in the year of the city 576, during

the Consulship of Claudius Pulcher and Sempronius Gracchus.

5. The modern city of Pisa. See Virgil, B. x. 1. 179, as to the origin

of this place.

6. The modern Serchio.

7. Now the Arno.

8. The people of Pisa or Pis, a city of Elis in the Peloponnesus.

9. Now Vadi, a small village on the sea-shore.

10. Still called the Cecina. It entered the Tyrrhenian sea, near the

port of Vada Volaterrana just mentioned.

11. The present Piombino is supposed to have arisen from the ruins of

this place.

12. Now the Bruno.

13. The modern Ombrone.

14. Now known as Telamone Vecchio.

15. There are ruins near lake Orbitello, which bear the name of Cosa:

Ansedonia was said to have risen from its ruins, and in its turn fallen to

decay.

16. Two localities have been mentioned as the site of Gravisc, at both

of which there are ancient remains: one on the right bank of the Marta,

about a mile from its mouth, and the other on the sea-coast at a spot

called Santo Clementino or Le Saline, a mile south of the mouth of the

Marta. Probably the latter are the remains of Gravisc, although

Dennis (Etruria, i. pp. 387395) inclines to be in favour of the

former.

17. The modern Torre Chiaruccia, five miles south of Civita Vecchia.

18. The modern Torre di Santa Severa.

19. Now the Vaccina.

20. The remains of this once powerful city are marked by the village of

Cervetri or Old Cre. According to Strabo it received its name from

the Greek word xai=re "hail!" with which the inhabitants saluted the

Tyrrhenian or Lydian invaders. It was to this place that the Romans

sent their most precious sacred relics when their city was taken by the

Gauls. Its most interesting remains are the sepulchres, of which an

account is given in Dennis's Etruria.

21. Its remains are to be seen in the vicinity of the modern

village of Palo.

22. Its site is supposed to have been at the spot now called the Torre di

Maccarese, midway between Palo and Porto, and at the mouth of the

river Arone. Its situation was marshy and unhealthy.

23. This exceeds the real distance, which is about 230 miles.

24. The site of the Etruscan Falerii or Falisci is probably occupied by the

present Civita Castellana; while that of the Roman city of the same

name, at a distance of four miles, is marked by a single house and the ruins

of a church, called Santa Maria di Falleri. The ancient city was

captured by the Romans under Camillus.

25. In his book of "Origines," which is now lost.

26. "The Grove of Feronia." The town was so called from the grove

of that Sabine goddess there situate. In the early times of Rome there

was a great resort to this spot not only for religious purposes, but for

those of trade as well. Its traces are still to be seen at the village of Saint

Orestes, near the south-east extremity of the hill there, which is still called

Felonica. This is in southern Etruria, but Ptolemy mentions another

place of the same name in the north-west extremity of Etruria, between

the Arnus and the Macra.

27. The people of the spot now called Siena, in Tuscany.

28. Now Sutri, on the river Pozollo.

29. The people of Arretium, one of the most powerful cities of Etruria.

The three tribes or peoples here mentioned probably did not occupy distinct towns, but constituted separate communities or municipal bodies,

being distinct colonies or bodies of settlers. The Julienses were the

colonists settled there by Augustus. The Fidentes had probably settled

at an earlier period. The modern Arezzo has risen on the remains of the

Roman city, while the remains of the Etruscan city are pointed out on

an elevated spot called Poggio di San Cornellio, two or three miles southeast of Arezzo. Many valuable relics of antiquity have been discovered

here. The family of Mcenas sprang from this place.

30. The people of Aqu Tauri, a watering-place of Etruria, situate about

three miles north of the present Civita Vecchia, and now called Bagni di

Ferrata. The baths are described by Rutilius in his Itinerary, who calls

them Tauri Therm (the Bull's Baths), and ascribes their name to the

fact of their having been accidentally discovered by a bull.

31. The people of Blera, on the site of the modern village of Bieda, about

twelve miles south of Viterbo. Numerous remains of Etruscan antiquity

have been found here.-See Dennis's Etruria, vol. i. pp. 260272.

32. The people of Cortona, a powerful city of Etruria, which is still

known by the same name. It was probably in the number of the cities

of Etruria that were ravaged by Sylla, and then recolonized by him.

Numerous remains of Etruscan antiquity have been discovered there.

33. The people of Capena, an ancient and important city of Etruria,

which, after long opposing the inroads of the Romans, was reduced to

submission shortly after the fall of Veii, B.C. 393. It existed and held

municipal rank till the time of the Emperor Aurelian, after which all

traces of its name or existence were lost, till 1750, when Galetti fixed its

site with great accuracy at Civitucola or San Martino, about 24 miles

from Rome. It was situate on the banks of a small river now called the

Grammiccia, and in its territory was the celebrated 'Lucus Feronin' previously mentioned.

34. The new and old colonists of the city of Clusium, who probably enjoyed distinct municipal rights. The modern Chiusi stands on its site.

35. The modern Fiorenze or Florence occupies the site of their city.

36. The village of Fiesole stands on its site. Extensive remains of the

ancient city are still to be found.

37. The site of Ferentinum is now uninhabited, but is still known by the

name of Ferento. The rivers of the ancient city are very considerable;

it was finally destroyed by the people of Viterbo in the 12th century.

38. An ancient town of Etruria near Falisci. Cluver thinks that it was

situate at Gallese, a village nine miles north of Civita Castellana; but

Dennis considers its site to have been between Borghetto on the Tiber

and Corchiano, where there are considerable remains of an Etruscan city.

The spot is named San Silvestro, from a ruined church there.

39. Or Horta; the spot now called Orte, where numerous Etruscan remains are found; it probably derived its name from the Etruscan goddess Horta. Hortanum, the name given to it by Pliny, is perhaps an

adjective form of the name, "oppidun" being understood.

40. Possibly the same as 'Urbs Vetus,' on the side of which the present

Orvieto stands.

41. Now Nepi, near the river Pozzolo.

42. According to Hardouin the site of the Novem Pagi, or nine Boroughs,

is occupied by the modern Il Mignone, near Civita Vecchia.

43. Its site is generally supposed to have been at Oriuolo, about five miles

north of Bracciano; but Dennis informs us that there are no ancient

remains at that place. Being a prfecture it may have consisted of only

a number of little villages, united in one jurisdiction.

44. The modern Pistoia stands on its site.

45. Now Perugia.

46. Supposed by Hardouin to have inhabited the site of the modern

Sovretto.

47. Probably situate in the modern duchy of Castro.

48. The people of Tarquinii near Rome, the head of the Etruscan confederation. It was here that Demaratus the Corinthian, the father of

Tarquinius Priscus, settled. It was deserted by its inhabitants in the

eighth or ninth century, who founded the town of Corneto on a hill

opposite to it. The ruins are known as Turchina, a corruption of the

ancient name.

49. The site of their town is probably marked by the modern Toscanella.

50. The ruins of their town still retain somewhat of their ancient name

in that of "Vetulia."

51. The people of the powerful city of Veii, subdued by Camillus. Its

ruins have been discovered in the vicinity of the village of Isola Farnese.

52. Their town stood on the site of the present Bisontia.

53. The people of Volaterr, the present Volterra, one of the twelve cities

of the Etruscan Confederation. It was for a time the residence of the

kings of Lombardy. The modern town covers only a small portion of

the area of the ancient city, of which there are some interesting remains.

54. The people of Volci or Vulci, of which the ruins bear the same name.

Its sepulchres have produced vast treasures of ancient art.

55. The people of Volsinii or Vulsinii, now called Bolsena. This was

one of the most ancient and powerful of the twelve cities of the Etruscan

confederation. On their subjugation by the Romans the Etruscan city

was destroyed, and its inhabitants were compelled to settle on a less defensible site. The new city was the birth-place of Sejanus, the worthless

favourite of Tiberius. Of the ancient city there are scarcely any remains.

56. Called also Crustumeria, Crustumium, and Crustuminium. It was

a city of Latium on the borders of the Sabine country, and was subdued

by Romulus, though it afterwards appears as independent in the time of

Tarquinius Priscus. The territory was noted for its fertility. The exact

site of the city is unknown; a place called Marcigliana Vecchia, about

nine miles from Rome, seems the most probable.

57. The site of Caletra is quite unknown. It was situate at some point

in the present valley of the Albegna.




10. Chap. 9.-The First Region Of Italy ; The Tiber; Rome.


CHAP. 9.-THE FIRST REGION OF ITALY[1]; THE TIBER; ROME.

The Tiber or Tiberis, formerly called Thybris, and previously Albula[2], flows down from nearly the central part of

the chain of the Apennines, in the territory of the Arretini.

It is at first small, and only navigable by means of sluices,

in which the water is dammed up and then discharged, in the

same manner as the Timia[3] and the Glanis, which flow into

it; for which purpose it is found necessary to collect the water

for nine days, unless there should happen to be a fall of rain.

And even then, the Tiber, by reason of its rugged and uneven

channel, is really more suitable for navigation by rafts than

by vessels, for any great distance. It winds along for a

course of 150 miles, passing not far from Tifernum[4], Perusia,

and Ocriculum[5], and dividing Etruria from the Umbri[6] and

the Sabini[7], and then, at a distance of less than sixteen







miles from the city, separating the territory of Veii from

that of Crustuminum, and afterwards that of the Fidenates

and of Latium from Vaticanum.



Below its union with the Glanis from Arretinum the Tiber

is swollen by two and forty streams, particularly the Nar[8]

and the Anio, which last is also navigable and shuts in

Latium at the back; it is also increased by the numerous

aqueducts and springs which are conveyed to the City. Here

it becomes navigable by vessels of any burden which may come

up from the Italian sea; a most tranquil dispenser of the

produce of all parts of the earth, and peopled and embellished

along its banks with more villas than nearly all the other

rivers of the world taken together. And yet there is no

river more circumscribed than it, so close are its banks shut

in on either side; but still, no resistance does it offer, although

its waters frequently rise with great suddenness, and no part

is more liable to be swollen than that which runs through

the City itself. In such case, however, the Tiber is rather

to be looked upon[9] as pregnant with prophetic warnings to

us, and in its increase to be considered more as a promoter

of religion than a source of devastation.



Latium[10] has preserved its original limits, from the Tiber

to Circeii[11], a distance of fifty miles: so slender at the beginning were the roots from which this our Empire sprang.

Its inhabitants have been often changed, and different

nations have peopled it at different times, the Aborigines,







the Pelasgi, the Arcades, the Seculi, the Aurunci, the Rutuli,

and, beyond Circeii, the Volsci, the Osci, and the Ausones

whence the name of Latium came to be extended as far as

the river Liris[12].



We will begin with Ostia[13], a colony founded by a king of

Rome, the town of Laurentum[14], the grove of Jupiter Indiges[15], the river Numicius[16], and Ardea[17], founded by Dana, the

mother of Perseus. Next come the former site of Aphrodisium[18], the colony of Antium[19], the river and island called

Astura[20], the river Nymphus[21], the Clostra Romana[22], and

Circeii[23], formerly an island, and, if we are to believe Homer,

surrounded by the open sea, though now by an extensive plain.

The circumstances which we are enabled to publish on this

subject for the information of the world are very remarkable.

Theophrastus, the first foreigner who treated of the affairs of

Rome with any degree of accuracy (for Theopompus, before

whose time no Greek writer had made mention of us, only







stated the fact that the city had been taken by the Gauls,

and Clitarchus, the next after him, only spoke of the embassy

that was sent by the Romans to Alexander)-Theophrastus,

I say, following something more than mere rumour, has

given the circuit of the island of Circeii as being eighty stadia,

in the volume which he wrote during the archonship of Nicodorus at Athens[24], being the 440th year of our city. Whatever land therefore has been annexed to that island beyond the

circumference of about ten miles, has been added to Italy

since the year previously mentioned.



Another wonderful circumstance too.-Near Circeii are

the Pomptine Marshes[25], formerly the site, according to

Mucianus, who was thrice consul, of four-and-twenty cities.

Next to this comes the river Ufens[26], upon which is the

town of Terracina[27], called, in the language of the Volsci,

Anxur; the spot too where Amycl[28] stood, a town destroyed by serpents. Next is the site of the Grotto[29], Lake

Fundanus[30], the port of Caieta[31], and then the town of Formi[32], formerly called Hormi, the ancient seat of the Lstrygones[33], it is supposed. Beyond this, formerly stood the







town of Pyr; and we then come to the colony of Minturn[34], which still exists, and is divided[35] by the river Liris,

also called the Glanis. The town of Sinuessa[36] is the last in

the portion which has been added to Latium; it is said by

some that it used to be called Sinope.



At this spot begins that blessed country Campania[37], and

in this vale first take their rise those hills clad with vines, the

juice of whose grape is extolled by Fame all over the world;

the happy spot where, as the ancients used to say, father

Liber and Ceres are ever striving for the mastery. Hence

the fields of Setia[38] and of Ccubum[39] extend afar. and, next

to them those of Falernum[40] and of Calinum[41]. As soon as we

have passed these, the hills of Massica[42], of Gaurus[43], and of

Surrentum rise to our view. Next, the level plains of Laborium[44] are spread out far and wide, where every care is bestowed on cultivating crops of spelt, from which the most delicate fermenty is made. These shores are watered by warm

springs[45], while the seas are distinguished beyond all others

for the superlative excellence of their shell and other fish.







In no country too has the oil of the olive a more exquisite

flavour. This territory, a battle-ground as it were for the

gratification of every luxurious pleasure of man, has been

held successively by the Osci, the Greeks, the Umbri, the

Tusci, and the Campani.



On the coast we first meet with the river Savo[46], the town

of Volturnum with a river[47] of the same name, the town of

Liternum[48], Cum[49], a Chalcidian colony, Misenum[50], the port

of Bai[51], Bauli[52], the Lucrine Lake[53], and Lake Avernus, near

which there stood formerly a town[54] of the Cimmerians. We

then come to Puteoli[55], formerly called the colony of Dic-







archia, then the Phlegrn[56] Plains, and the Marsh of

Acherusia[57] in the vicinity of Cum.



Again, on the coast we have Neapolis[58], also a colony of

the Chalcidians, and called Parthenope from the tomb there

of one of the Sirens, Herculaneum[59], Pompeii[60], from which

Mount Vesuvius may be seen at no great distance, and

which is watered by the river Sarnus[61]; the territory of

Nuceria, and, at the distance of nine miles from the sea, the

town of that name[62], and then Surrentum[63], with the Promontory of Minerva[64], formerly the abode of the Sirens. The

distance thence by sea to Circeii is seventy-eight miles This







region, beginning at the Tiber, is looked upon as the first of

Italy according to the division of Augustus.



Inland there are the following colonies:-Capua[65], so

called from its champaign country, Aquinum[66], Suessa[67], Venafrum[68], Sora[69], Teanum surnamed Sidicinum[70], Nola[71];

and the towns of Abella[72], Aricia[73], Alba Longa[74], the Acer-







rani[75], the Allifani[76], the Atinates[77], the Aletrinates[78], the

Anagnini[79], the Atellani[80], the Affilani[81], the Arpinates[82],

the Auximates[83], the Abellani[84], the Alfaterni (both those

who take their names from the Latin, the Hernican

and the Labicanian territory), Bovill[85], Calatia[86], Casi-







num[87], Calenum[88], Capitulum[89] of the Hernici, the Cereatini[90], surnamed Mariani, the Corani[91], descended from the

Trojan Dardanus, the Cubulterini, the Castrimnienses[92],

the Cingulani[93], the Fabienses[94] on the Alban Mount,

the Foropopulienses[95] of the Falernian district, the Frusinates[96], the Ferentinates[97], the Freginates[98], the old

Frabaterni[99], the new Frabaterni, the Ficolenses[100], the Fre-







gellani[101], Forum App[102], the Forentani[103], the Gabini[104], the

Interamnates Succasini[105], also surnamed Lirinates, the

Ilionenses Lavinii[106], the Norbani[107], the Nomentani[108], the Prnestini[109] (whose city was formerly called Stephan), the Privernates[110], the Setini[111], the Signini[112], the Suessulani[113], the







Telesini[114], the Trebulani, surnamed Balinienses[115], the Trebani[116], the Tusculani[117], the Verulani[118], the Veliterni[119], the

Ulubrenses[120], the Urbinates[121], and, last and greater than

all, Rome herself, whose other name[122] the hallowed mysteries

of the sacred rites forbid us to mention without being guilty

of the greatest impiety. After it had been long kept buried

in secresy with the strictest fidelity and in respectful and

salutary silence, Valerius Soranus dared to divulge it, but

soon did he pay the penalty[123] of his rashness.



It will not perhaps be altogether foreign to the purpose,

if I here make mention of one peculiar institution of our

forefathers which bears especial reference to the inculcation

of silence on religious matters. The goddess Angerona[124],

to whom sacrifice is offered on the twelfth day before the

calends of January [21st December], is represented in her

statue as having her mouth bound with a sealed fillet.



Romulus left the city of Rome, if we are to believe those







who state the very greatest number, having three[125] gates and

no more. When the Vespasians were emperors[126] and censors,

in the year from its building 826, the circumference of the

walls which surrounded it was thirteen miles and two-fifths.

Surrounding as it does the Seven Hills, the city is divided

into fourteen districts, with 265 cross-roads[127] under the

guardianship of the Lares. If a straight line is drawn

from the mile-column[128] placed at the entrance of the

Forum, to each of the gates, which are at present thirty-seven in number (taking care to count only once the

twelve double gates, and to omit the seven old ones, which

no longer exist), the result will be [taking them altogether],

a straight line of twenty miles and 765 paces[129]. But if we

draw a straight line from the same mile-column to the very

last of the houses, including therein the Prtorian encampment, and follow throughout the line of all the streets, the

result will then be something more than seventy miles. Add

to these calculations the height of the houses, and then a

person may form a fair idea of this city, and will certainly

be obliged to admit that there is not a place throughout the

whole world that for size can be compared to it. On the







eastern side it is bounded by the agger of Tarquinius Superbus, a work of surpassing grandeur; for he raised it

so high as to be on a level with the walls on the side

on which the city lay most exposed to attack from the neighbouring plains. On all the other sides it has been fortified

either with lofty walls or steep and precipitous hills[130], but so

it is, that its buildings, increasing and extending beyond all

bounds, have now united many other cities to it[131].



Besides those previously mentioned, there were formerly

in the first region the following famous towns of Latium:

Satricum[132], Pometia[133], Scaptia, Politorium[134], Tellene, Tifata,

Cnina[135], Ficana[136], Crustumerium, Ameriola[137], Medullum[138],

Corniculum[139], Saturnia[140], on the site of the present city of







Rome, Antipolis[141], now Janiculum, forming part of Rome,

Antemn[142], Carnerium[143], Collatia[144], Amitinum[145], Norbe,

Sulmo[146], and, with these, those Alban nations[147] who used to

take part in the sacrifices[148] upon the Alban Mount, the Albani, the sulani[149], the Accienses, the Abolani, the Bube-







tani[150], the Bolani[151], the Cusuetani, the Coriolani[152], the Fidenates[153], the Foretii, the Hortenses[154], the Latinienses, the

Longulani[155], the Manates, the Macrales, the Mutucumenses, the Munienses, the Numinienses, the Olliculani, the

Octulani, the Pedani[156], the Polluscini, the Querquetulani, the

Sicani, the Sisolenses, the Tolerienses, the Tutienses, the Vimitellarii, the Velienses, the Venetulani, and the Vitellenses.

Thus we see, fifty-three peoples of ancient Latium have

passed away without leaving any traces of their existence.



In the Campanian territory there was also the town of

Stabi[157], until the consulship of Cneius Pompeius and L.

Cato, when, on the day before the calends of May [30th of

April], it was destroyed in the Social War by L. Sulla the

legatus, and all that now stands on its site is a single farmhouse. Here also Taurania has ceased to exist, and the

remains of Casilinum[158] are fast going to ruin. Besides these,







we learn from Antias that king L. Tarquinius took Apiol[159],

a town of the Latins, and with its spoils laid the first foundations of the Capitol. From Surrentum[160] to the river

Silarus[161], the former territory of Picentia[162] extends for a

distance of thirty miles. This belonged to the Etruscans,

and was remarkable for the temple of the Argive Juno,

founded by Jason[163]. In it was Picentia, a town[164] of the territory of Salernum[165].







1. The First Region extended from the Tiber to the Gulf of Salernum,

being bounded in the interior by the Apennines. It consisted of ancient

Latium and Campania, comprising the modern Campagna di Roma, and

the provinces of the kingdom of Naples.

2. Livy, B. i. c. 3, and Ovid, Fasti, B. iii. 1. 389, inform us that the

name of Albula was changed into Tiberis in consequence of king Tiberinus

being accidentally drowned in it.

3. Still known by that name. The Glanis is called la Chiana.

4. According to D'Anville, now known as Citta di Castello.

5. A municipal town of Umbria, situate near the confluence of the

rivers Nar and Tiber, and on the Flaminian Way. There are the ruins

of an aqueduct, an amphitheatre, and some temples, now the modern

Otricoli.

6. The territory of Umbria extended from the left bank of the Tiber,

near its rise, to the Adriatic.

7. The Sabines occupied the left bank of the Tiber from the Umbri

to the Anio. The Crustumini and the Fidenates probably occupied the

southern part of the district about the river Alba.

8. The Nera and the Tevcrone. The exact situation of the district of

Vaticanum has not been ascertained with exactness.

9. As not so much causing mischief by its inundations, as giving

warning thereby of the wrath of the gods and of impending dangers;

which might be arrested by sacrifices and expiatory rites.-See Horace,

Odes, B. i. 2. 29.

10. The frontier of ancient Latium was at Circeii, but that of modern

Latium extended to Sinuessa.

11. A town of Latium, situate at the foot of the Mons Circeius, now

Monte Circello. It was used as a place of retirement, and Tiberius and

Domitian had villas there. The Triumvir Lepidus was banished thither

by Octavius after his deposition. It was also famous for its oysters,

which were of the finest quality. Considerable remains of it are still

to be seen on the hill called Monte di Citadella, about two miles from

the sea.

12. Now the Garigliano, the same river which he previously calls the

Glanis. It was the boundary between Latium and Campania.

13. Founded by Ancus Martius, as we learn from Livy. It was abandoned under the Emperor Claudius, who built the Portus Romanus or

Portus Augusti in its vicinity; and it only continued famous for its salt-works, which had been established there by Ancus Martius. Its ruins,

still called Ostia, are nearly three miles from the coast, in consequence of

the receding of the sea.

14. Now San Lorenzo. It was between Ostia and Antium.

15. By some, neas was supposed to have been worshiped by that

name.

16. Now the river Numico.

17. The ruins of this once great city may still be seen near the present

village of the same name. Its situation was peculiarly unhealthy. Another tradition, besides the one mentioned by Pliny, was, that it was

founded by a son of Ulysses and Circe. It was twenty-four miles distant

from Rome.

18. A temple of Venus, of which the ruins are still to be seen.

19. Its few ruins are still known as Anzio Rovinato. It was famous for

its temple of Fortune, addressed by Horace, Odes, i. 35. Near the site is

the modern village of Porto d'Anzo.

20. This island was occupied by villas of the Roman nobility, and was

the resort of Cicero, Augustus and Tiberius. There is still a fortified

town called the Torre di Astura.

21. The modern Ninfa.

22. "The Roman Bulwarks." They were thrown up to protect the

frontier of the ancient kingdom of Rome from the inroads of the Volscians

23. To our previous note we may add that this spot was supposed to

have been once inhabited by the enchantress Circe, the daughter of the

Sun, and from her to have taken its name.

24. This has been also translated "dedicated to Nicodorus, the Archon

of Athens," but nothing appears to be known of such a fact as the

dedication to Nicodorus of any of his works.

25. Now called the "Palude Pontine." They are again mentioned in

B. xxvi. c. 9.

26. Now called Il Portatore.

27. It was situate fifty-eight miles from Rome; the modern town of

Terracina stands on its site. The remains of the ancient citadel are

visible on the slope of Montecchio.

28. The exact site of this place is unknown. Servius, in his Commentary on B. x. of the neid, l. 564, tells the same story of the serpents.

29. This was near Amycl. A villa was situate there called "Spelunc,"

from the cavities in the rock, in one of which the Emperor Tiberius nearly

lost his life by the falling in of the roof. The modern village of Sperlonga,

eight miles west of Gata, marks its site.

30. Now Lago di Fondi.

31. Now Gata, said to have received its name from being the burial place of Caieta, the nurse of neas. The shore was studded with numerous villas of the Roman nobility. It is now a city of great opulence; in

its vicinity extensive ruins are to be seen.

32. On the spot now called Mola di Gata. Many of the wealthy Romans,

and among them Cicero, had villas here: and at this place he was put to

death. It was destroyed by the Saracens in the year 856. The remains

of antiquity to be seen on this spot are very extensive.

33. Homer places these Cannibals on the coast of Sicily, but the Romans

in general transplanted them to the vicinity of Circeii, and suppose Formi to have been built by Lamus, one of their kings. It is more probable however that it was founded by the Laconians, from whom it may

have received its name of Hormi (from the Greek o(/rmos), as being a good

roadstead for shipping.

34. Its site is occupied by the present Trajetta. In its marshes, formed

by the overflow of the Liris, Caius Marius was taken prisoner, concealed

in the sedge.

35. The town of Minturn stood on both banks of the river.

36. Its ruins are probably those to be seen in the vicinity of Rocca di

Mondragone. It was a place of considerable commercial importance.

On its site Livy says there formerly stood the Greek city of Sinope.

37. "Felix illa Campania."

38. Now Sezza.

39. A marshy district of Latium, extending about eight miles along the

coast from Terracina to Spelunc, famous in the time of Horace for the

first-rate qualities of its wines.

40. A district famous for its wines, extending from the Massican Hills

to the north bank of the Volturnus.

41. According to Hardouin, the town of Calenum was on the site of the

present Calvi near Capua.

42. Now called Monte Marsico, and as famous for its wine (called Museatella) as it was in the Roman times.

43. Now Monte Barbaro. The wines of most of these places will be

found fully described by Pliny in B. xiv.

44. More fully mentioned, B. xviii. c. 29, where the 'alic' or fermenty

made from the spelt grown here is again referred to.

45. Of Bai, Puteoli, and Stabi, for instance.

46. The modern Saove.

47. Now called the Volturno, with a small place on its banks called

Castel Volturno.

48. The present village of Torre di Patria is supposed to occupy its site.

49. Strabo describes Cum as a joint colony of the Chalcidians of Euba

and the Cymans of olis. Its sea-shore was covered with villas of the

Roman aristocracy, and here Sylla spent the last years of his life. Its

site is now utterly desolate and its existing remains inconsiderable.

50. Now Capo or Punta di Miseno; a town built on a promontory of

Campania, by neas, it was said, in honour of his trumpeter, Misenus,

who was drowned there. It was made by Augustus the principal station

of the Roman fleet. Here was the villa of Marius, which afterwards belonged to Lucullus and the Emperor Tiberius, who died here.

51. Famous for its warm springs, and the luxurious resort of the Roman

patricians. Marius, Lucullus, Pompey, and Csar had villas here. In

later times it became the seat of every kind of pleasure and dissipation.

It is now rendered unwholesome by the Malaria, and the modern Castello

di Baja, with numerous ruins, alone marks its site.

52. The modern village of Baolo stands near its site. It was here that

Hortensius had his fish-ponds, mentioned by Pliny in B. ix. c. 55. It

rivalled its neighbour Bai in ministering to the luxury of the wealthy

Romans, and was occupied by numerous villas so late as the reign of

Theodosius.

53. Probably the inner part of the Gulf of Cum or Puteoli, but separated from the remainder by an embankment eight stadia in length. It

was famous for its oyster-beds. Behind it was the Lake Avernus, occupying the crater of an extinct volcano, and supposed by the Greeks to be

the entrance to the Infernal Regions. Agrippa opened a communication

with the Lucrine Lake to render Lake Avernus accessible to ships. The

Lucrine Lake was filled up by a volcanic eruption in 1538, and a mountain rose in its place. The Lake Avernus is still called the Lago di

Averno.

54. Or "the town Cimmerium." Nothing is known of it.

55. Now Pozzuolo. The Romans called it Puteoli, from the strong

smell of its mineral springs. There are still many ruins of the ancient

town, which was destroyed by Alaric, Genseric, and Totila, and as many

times rebuilt.

56. Now called Salpatara. This was the name given to the volcanic

plain extending from Cum to Capua, and supposed to have been once

covered with fire; whence the name, from fle/gw, "to burn."

57. Now the Lago di Fusaro. It seems to have had its name from its

vicinity to Avernus, the supposed entrance to the infernal regions. Its

banks were, in the later times of the Roman republic, adorned with the

villas of the wealthy.

58. Neapolis, or the "New City," was founded by the Chalcidians of

Cum on the site of Parthenope, the supposed burial-place of the Siren

of that name. It was so called as being only a 'new quarter' of the

neighbouring city of Cum. The modern city of Naples stands nearly

on its site.

59. Said to have been founded by Hercules. It was on the occasion of

its destruction by an eruption of Vesuvius, A.D. 79, that our author unfortunately met his death, a martyr to his thirst for knowledge. Its

closer proximity to Vesuvius caused it to be buried under a more solid

body of materials ejected from the mountain than was the case with

Pompeii; which seems to have been suffocated with ashes, while Herculaneum was covered with volcanic tufa most probably hardened by the

agency of water. A few scattered inhabitants are supposed to have afterwards settled upon the site where it was buried, which for many centuries was utterly forgotten, till brought to light in 1738. Part of the site

over the buried town is occupied by the villages of Resina and Portici.

The works of art found here far exceed in value and interest those discovered at Pompeii.

60. This seems to have been a town of Oscan origin. The first traces of

it were found in 1689, but excavations were not commenced till 1721.

It perished in the same eruption of Vesuvius as Herculaneum.

61. Now the Sarno. Its course was changed by the great eruption of

Vesuvius previously mentioned.

62. The modern Nocera stands on its site. Pompeii was used as its

harbour.

63. Now Sorrento.

64. Now also called Capo della Minerva.

65. It probably had its name from Campania, of which it was the capital, and which was so called from its extensive campi or plains. The

site of this luxurious and magnificent city is now occupied by the village

of Santa Maria di Capoua, the modern city of Capua being on the site

of ancient Casilinum. Of ancient Capua there are but few remains. It

was made a Roman colony by Julius Csar.

66. Originally a city of the Volscians: Cicero had a villa there, and

Juvenal and the emperor Pescennius Niger were natives of it. The present Aquino stands on its site, and there are considerable remains of it

to be seen.

67. Or Suessa Aurunca, to distinguish it from the Volscian city of

Suessa Pometia. The poet Lucilius was a native of it. The modern

Sessa stands in its vicinity.

68. The modern Venafri stands near its site. It was famous for the

excellence of its olives.

69. On the banks of the Suris, and the most northerly town of the

Volsci. The modern Sora is in its vicinity, and the remains of its walls

are still to be seen.

70. The modern Teano occupies its site. It was famous for the medicinal

springs in its vicinity. There was another Teanum, in Apulia.

71. The town on its site still preserves the name. Bells were made

here, whence in the later writers they are called "Nol." There is also

an ecclesiastical tradition that church bells were first used by Saint Paulinus, bishop of this place, whence they were called 'Campan.' The

emperor Augustus died here.

72. The remains of the ancient town, of which the ruins are very extensive, are called Avella Vecchia. It was famous for its fruit, especially

its filberts, to which it gives name in the French "Avelines." It was

first a Greek colony, and then a town of the Oscans.

73. A city of Latium, sixteen miles from Rome, and said to have been of

Sicilian origin. The modern town of La Riccia occupies the site of its

citadel. It was celebrated for the temple and grove of Diana, whose

high priest was always a fugitive slave who had killed his predecessor,

and was called "Rex nemorensis," or "king of the grove." See Ovid,

Fasti, B. vi. 1. 59; Art of Love, B. i. 1. 260; and Lucan, B. vi. 1. 74.

74. The ancient city was destroyed by Tullus Hostilius, king of Rome.

The Roman colony here was probably but small. The Roman patrician

families, the Julii, Servilii, Tullii, and Quintii, are said to have migrated

from Alba Longa, which, according to tradition, had given to Rome her

first king.

75. The people of Acerra, still called by the same name; it was plundered and burnt by Hannibal, B.C. 216, but was rebuilt by order of the

Roman senate.

76. The people of Allif, a former city of Samnium, on the borders of

Campania. The modern city of A life, a decayed place, stands on its site.

There are considerable remains.

77. The people of Atina, an ancient city of the Volscians. The modern

city of Atina, noted for the bleakness of its situation, stands on its site.

There are extensive ruins of the ancient city.

78. The people of Aletrium or Alatrium, an ancient city of the Hernici.

The modern Alatri stands on its site; there are but few ancient remains.

79. The people of Anagnia in Latium, still called Anagni. There are

scarcely any remains of the ancient place, which was of considerable

importance.

80. The people of Atella, an ancient city of Campania. Some remains

of its ruins are to be seen two miles east of the town of Aversa, near the

villages of San Arpino and San Elpidio.

81. The people of Affil, an ancient Hernican town. It is still called

Affile, and has many ancient remains.

82. The people of Arpinum, once a famous city of the Volscians. The

present Arpino occupies its site; there are few Roman remains, but its

ancient walls, of Cyclopean construction, still exist. It was the birthplace of Marius and Cicero. The villa of the latter was on the banks of

the adjoining river Fibrenus. It was, and is still, famous for its woollen

manufactures.

83. The people of Auximum, a city of Picenum. Its site is occupied by

the modern Osimo; there are numerous remains of antiquity to be seen.

84. Or perhaps "Abellini," people of Abelliacum; which, if meant,

ought not to be included in this division, being a city of the Hirpini.

This city was finally destroyed in the wars of the Greeks and Lombards,

and the modern Avellino rose on its site. There are considerable ruins in

the vicinity. According to Hardouin, this place also claimed the honour

of giving name to filberts, which grew abundantly in its vicinity. If such

is the case, it seems probable that both it and Abella took their names

from that fruit as called by the early inhabitants. See Note in p. 198.

85. An ancient city of Latium. Its ruins are to be seen in the vicinity

of the Via Appia. See a curious story connected with it in Ovid's Fasti,

B. iii. 1. 667 et seq.

86. There were two cities of this name on the confines of Samnium and

Campania, one in the valley of the Volturnum, the modern Caiazzo, the

other in Campania, between Capua and Beneventum, whose ruins are

probably those to be seen at Le Galazzi, between Caserta and Maddaloni.

87. Once a considerable city of Latium. The modern city of San Germano has risen on its ruins, while the name of Monte Casino has been

retained by the monastery founded near it by St. Bernard A.D. 529.

88. The present Calvi probably occupies its site.

89. It is not named in history. Its site was probably between Palestrina

and Il Piglio.

90. The people of Cereat, a town of Latium. It is supposed that the

ancient monastery of Casamari occupied its site.

91. The people of Cora, an ancient city of Latium. The present Cori

stands on its site, and there are considerable remains of the ancient walls

and other buildings.

92. The people of Castrimnium, a colony of Sylla. It has been suggested

that these were the same people whom Pliny speaks of at a subsequent

place in this chapter as the Munienses, an extinct people of Latium. If

so, the name was perhaps changed on the establishment here by Sylla

of his colony. It probably stood near the modern city of Marino.

93. The people of Cingulum, a city of Picenum, the site of which is

occupied by the modern Cingoli.

94. It is conjectured that Fabia was on the same site as the present

village of Rocca di Papa.

95. The inhabitants of Forum Popilii in Campania; its site is unknown.

96. The people of Frusino, originally a Volscian city. The modern

Frosinone occupies its site.

97. The people of Ferentinum, a city of the Hernici: the present city

of Ferentino stands on its site. The ruins are very extensive.

98. Probably the people of Fregell, an ancient city of the Volscians.

Its site is now unknown, but it was probably on the banks of the Liris,

opposite to the modern Ceprano.

99. The people of Fabrateria or Frabateria, a Volscian city. A Roman

colony was placed there B.C. 124, by C. Gracchus, and probably the old

inhabitants for that reason styled themselves "Veteres." The ruins at

San Giovanni in Cerico, about three miles from Falvaterra, are supposed

to be those of this place, or at least of the new town or colony. In such

case Falvaterra may occupy the site of the original city.

100. The people of Ficulnea or Ficulia, a city of ancient Latium, on the

Via Nomentana. It is supposed to have decayed soon after the reign of

M. Aurelius. Its site was probably on the modern domain of Cesarini,

though some separate the ancient Latin city from the Roman town, and

fix the locality of the former on the hill called Monte Gentile, or that

of the Torre Lupara.

101. These are omitted in most editions, but if a correct reading, the

word must signify the "people of Fregell," and the Freginates must be

the people of Fregen in Etruria; although they do not appear properly

to belong to this locality.

102. "The Market of Appius." It was distant forty-three miles from

Rome, and we learn from Horace, that it was the usual resting-place

for travellers at the end of one day's journey from Rome. It is also

mentioned in the account of the journey of St. Paul (Acts xxviii. 15) as

one of the usual resting-places on the Appian way. There are now no

inhabitants on the spot, but considerable ruins still exist, as well as the

forty-third milestone, which is still to be seen.

103. Probably the inhabitants of Ferentium or Ferentinum, now Ferento,

five miles from Viterbo, a city of Etruria, of which very considerable

remains exist.

104. The people of Gabii, formerly one of the most famous cities of

Latium. On its site the ruins of a medival fortress now stand, known

as Castiglione. Some remains of the walls still exist.

105. The people of Interamna Lirmas, a Roman colony on the banks

of the Liris; and as there were several cities of the same name, it was

generally distinguished by the epithet "Lirinas." Pliny no doubt calls it

"Succasina," from its vicinity to Casinum. Its site, though uninhabited,

is still called Terame, and there are numerous remains of antiquity.

106. Probably the people of Lavinium were thus called from their supposed Trojan descent. The town was said to have been founded by neas

in honour of his wife Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus. In the times of

the Antonines it was united with Laurentum; their ruins are to be

seen at Casale di Copocotta.

107. The people of Norba, a town of Latium. It is now called Norma,

and there are still some remains of the ancient walls.

108. Nomentum, now called La Mentana, was a Latin town, fourteen

miles from Rome.

109. The people of Prneste, one of the most ancient towns of Latium.

It was originally a Pelasgic city, but claimed a Greek origin, and was said

to have been built by Telegonus, the son of Ulysses. During summer it

was much frequented by the Romans for its delightful coolness. The

remains of its ancient walls are still to be seen at Palestrina.

110. The people of Privernum, now Piperno, an ancient city of Latium.

111. The people of Setia, now Sesse or Sezza, an ancient town of Latium,

to the east of the Pomptine marshes. It was famous for its wine.

112. The people of Signia, now Segni, a town of Latium founded by Tarquinius Priscus. There are still some remains of its walls.

113. The people of Suessula, now Castel di Sessola.

114. The people of Telesia, a town of Samnium seven leagues from Capua,

now called Telese.

115. Trebula was distinguished probably by this surname from a town

of that name in Samnium. There seem to have been two places of the

name in the Sabine territory, but it is not known which is here meant. The

ruins of one of them are supposed to be those not far from Maddaloni.

116. The people of Treba, now Trevi, a town of Latium.

117. The people of Tusculum, an ancient town of Latium, the ruins of

which are to be seen on a hill about two miles distant from the modern

Frascati. Cicero's favourite residence was his Tusculan villa, and Cato

the censor was a native of this place.

118. The people of Verul, a town of the Hernici, in Latium, now Veroli.

119. The people of Velitr, an ancient town of the Volsci, now Velletri.

It was the birth-place of the emperor Augustus.

120. The people of Ulubr, a small town of Latium, near the Pomptine

Marshes; its site is unknown.

121. The people of Urbinum; there were two places of that name in

Umbria, now called Urbeno and Urbania.

122. The name probably by which the city was called in the mystical

language of the priesthood. It has been said that this mysterious name

of Rome was Valentia; if so, it appears to be only a translation of her

name Grcized-(Rw/mh, "strength." This subject will be found again

mentioned in B. xxviii. c. 4.

123. Solinus says that he was put to death as a punishment for his rashness. M. Sichel has suggested that this mysterious name was no other

than Angerona.

124. It is not known whether this mystical divinity was the goddess of

anguish and fear, or of silence, or whether she was the guardian deity of

Rome. Julius Modestus says that she relieved men and cattle when

visited by the disease called "angina," or "quinsy," whence her name.

125. The Carmental, the Roman, and the Pandanian or Saturnian gates,

according to Varro.

126. Titus was saluted Imperator after the siege of Jerusalem, and was

associated with his father Vespasian in the government. They also acted

together as Censors.

127. The Lares Compitales presided over the divisions of the city, which

were marked by the compita or points where two or more streets crossed

each other, and where 'dicul' or small chapels were erected in their

honour. Statues of these little divinities were erected at the corner of

every street. It was probably this custom which first suggested the idea

of setting up images of the Virgin and Saints at the corners of the streets,

which are still to be seen in many Roman Catholic countries at the present day.

128. This was a gilded column erected by Augustus in the Forum, and

called "milliarium aureum;" on it were inscribed the distances of the

principal points to which the "vi" or high-roads conducted.

129. Supposing the circuit of the city to have been as he says, 13 2/5 miles, he

must either make a great miscalculation here, or the text must be very corrupt. The average diameter of the city would be in such case about 4 1/2 miles,

the average length of each radius drawn from the mile-column 2 1/4 miles,

and the total amount 83 1/4 miles, whereas he makes it but 20 3/4 miles,

or little better than an average of half-a-mile for each radius. We may also

remark that the camp of the Prtorian cohorts here mentioned was

established by the emperor Tiberius, by the advice of Sejanus. Ajasson's

translation makes the measurement to be made to twelve gates only, but

the text as it stands will not admit of such a construction.

130. The Aventine, Clian, and Quirinal hills.

131. Such as Ocriculum, Tibur, Aricia, &c.

132. Near Antium. Casale di Conca stands on its site.

133. Sussa Pometia. It was destroyed by the consul Servilius, and its

site was said, with that of twenty-two other towns, to have been covered

by the Pomptine Marsh, to which it gave its name.

134. A town of Latium destroyed by Ancus Martius.

135. An ancient city of Latium, conquered by Romulus; on which occasion he slew its king Acron and gained the spolia opima. Nibby suggests that it stood on the Magugliano, two miles south-east of Monte

Gentile. Holstein says that it stood where the present Sant' Angelo or

Monticelli stands.

136. Also destroyed by Ancus Martius. A farm called Dragonello,

eleven miles from Rome, is supposed to have stood upon its site. Tellene was also destroyed by the same king. Tifata was a town of Campania.

137. A city of Latium, which was conquered by Tarquinius Priscus. It

has been suggested that its ruins are visible about a mile to the north of

Monte Sant' Angelo.

138. A Sabine town, the people of which were incorporated by Tarquinius

Priscus with the Roman citizens. It is supposed to have stood on the

present Monte Sant' Angelo.

139. An ancient city of Latium, subdued by Tarquinius Priscus, on which

occasion Ocrisia, the mother of Servius Tullius, fell into the hands of the

Romans as a captive. It was probably situate on one of the isolated

hills that rise from the plain of the Campagna.

140. Both Virgil and Ovid allude to this tradition.

141. Said to have been so called from being "opposite" to the ancient

city of Saturnia. The Janiculus or Janiculum was a fortress on the

opposite bank of the Tiber, and a suburb of Rome, connected with it by

the Sublician bridge.

142. A very ancient city situate three miles from Rome, and said to have

been so called from its position on the Tiber, ante amnem. In the

time of Strabo it had become a mere village. It stood at the confluence

of the Anio and the Tiber.

143. An ancient city of Latium reduced by Tarquinius Priscus. It has

been suggested that the town of Palombara, near the foot of Monte

Gennaro, stands on its site.

144. An ancient city of Latium. It probably gradually fell into decay.

Lucius Tarquinius, the husband of Lucretia, is represented as dwelling here

during the siege of Ardea. Its site is thought by some to have been at

Castellaccio or Castel dell' Osa, and by others at Lunghezza, which is

perhaps the most probable conjecture.

145. An ancient city of the Sabines. Its ruins are visible at San Vittorino,

a village near Aquila.

146. An ancient town of the Volsci, five leagues from Velletri. Sermonata now stands on its site. It must not be confounded with the town

of the Peligni, the birth-place of Ovid.

147. "Populi Albenses." It does not appear to be exactly known what

is the force of this expression, but he probably means either colonies from

Alba, or else nations who joined in the confederacy of which Alba was the

principal. Niebuhr looks upon them as mere demi or boroughs of the

territory of Alba.

148. "Accipere carnem." Literally, "to take the flesh." It appears that

certain nations, of which Alba was the chief, were in early times accustomed to meet on the Alban Mount for the purposes of sacrifice. The

subject is full of obscurity, but it has been suggested that this minor confederacy co-existed with a larger one including all the Latin cities, and

there can be little doubt that the common sacrifice was typical of a bond

of union among the states that partook therein. It does not necessarily

appear from the context that more than the thirty-one states after mentioned took part therein, though the text may be so construed as to imply

that the Latin nations previously mentioned also shared in the sacrifice;

if so, it would seem to imply that Alba was the chief city of the whole

Latin confederacy. See this subject ably discussed in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography, under the article Latini.

149. The people of sul. Of this Latin city nothing is known. The

territory is mentioned by Horace, and Gell places its site on the Monte

Affiliano.

150. The people of Bubentum. Nothing is known of this Latin city or

of the preceding ones.

151. Bola was an ancient city of Latium, taken successively by Coriolanus

and M. Postumius. Its site is supposed to have been five miles from

the modern Palestrina, at the modern village of Lugnano.

152. The people of Corioli. It was probably a Latian town, but fell

into the possession of the Volsci, from whom it was taken by Cn. Marcius,

who thence obtained the name of "Coriolanus." Monte Giove, nineteen

miles from Rome, has been suggested as its site.

153. Pliny is supposed to be in error in representing Fiden, the early

antagonist of Rome, as being extinct in his time, and he will be found in

the sequel reckoning it in the Fourth Region. This ancient Latian town

never lost its municipal rank, though it had no doubt in his time become a

mere country town. The present Castel Giubileo is supposed to be

situate on its site.

154. The people of Horta, a town of Etruria, now Horte. Many Etruscan

remains have been discovered there.

155. The people of Longula, a Volscian town. Buon Riposo now occupies its site.

156. The people of Pedum; nothing is known of it. The rest of these

nations are either almost or entirely unknown.

157. This was an ancient town between Pompeii and Surrentum. After

its overthrow, as mentioned by Pliny, it was in some measure rebuilt,

possibly after this passage was penned. It was finally destroyed by the

great eruption of Vesuvius in the year A.D. 79, and it was here that

our author breathed his last.

158. A town three miles west of Capua. It was of much importance as a

military position, and played a considerable part in the second Punic war.

The period of its final destruction is unknown; but modern Capua is

built on its site.

159. This city took the lead in the war of the Latin cities against Tarquinius Priscus. Gell and Nibby think that it was situate about eleven

miles from Rome, a mile to the south of the Appian way, where there

are some remains that indicate the site of an ancient city, near the stream

called the Fosso delle Fratocche. Livy tells us that with the spoils

thence derived, Tarquinius celebrated the Ludi Magni for the first time.

160. Opposite Capre, and situate on the Promontory of Minerva. Sorrento now stands on its site.

161. The modern Silaro; it was the boundary between Lucania and

Campania, and rises in the Apennines.

162. A town in the south of Campania, at the head of the Gulf of

Pstum. In consequence of the aid which they gave to Hannibal, the

inhabitants were forced to abandon their town and live in the adjoining

villages. The name of Picentini was given, as here stated, to the inhabitants of all the territory between the Promontory of Minerva and the

river Silarus. They were a portion of the Sabine Picentes, who were

transplanted thither after the conquest of Picenum, B.C. 268. The modern Vicenza stands on its site.

163. The Argonaut. Probably this was only a vague tradition.

164. By using the genitive 'Salerni,' he would seem to imply that the

Roman colony of Salernum then gave name to the district of which Picentia was the chief town. Ajasson however has translated it merely

"Salernum and Picentia." 'Intus' can hardly mean "inland," as

Picentia was near the coast, and so was Salernum.

165. This was an ancient town of Campania, at the innermost corner of

the Gulf of Pstum, situate near the coast, on a height at the foot of

which lay its harbour. It attained great prosperity, as Salerno, in the

middle ages, and was noted for its School of Health established there;

which issued periodically rules for the preservation of health in Latin

Leonine verse.




11. Chap. 10.-The Third Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 10.-THE THIRD REGION OF ITALY.

At the Silarus begins the third region of Italy, consisting

of the territory of Lucania and Bruttium; here too there

have been no few changes of the population. These districts







have been possessed by the Pelasgi, the notrii, the Itali,

the Morgetes, the Siculi, and more especially by people who

emigrated from Greece[1], and, last of all, by the Leucani, a

people sprung from the Samnites, who took possession under

the command of Lucius. We find here the town of Pstum[2],

which received from the Greeks the name of Posidonia, the

Gulf of Pstum[3], the town of Elea, now known as Velia[4],

and the Promontory of Palinurum[5], a point at which the land

falls inwards and forms a bay[6], the distance across which to

the pillar[7] of Rhegium is 100 miles. Next after Palinurum

comes the river Melpes[8], then the town of Buxentum[9],

called in [Magna] Grcia Pyxus, and the river Laus; there

was formerly a town[10] also of the same name.



At this spot begins the coast of Bruttium, and we come

to the town of Blanda[11], the river Batum[12], Parthenius, a

port of the Phocians, the bay of Vibo[13], the place[14] where







Clampetia formerly stood, the town of Temsa[15], called Temese

by the Greeks, and Terina founded by the people of Crotona[16],

with the extensive Gulf of Terina; more inland, the town of

Consentia[17]. Situate upon a peninsula[18] is the river Acheron[19], from which the people of Acherontia derive the name

of their town; then Hippo, now called Vibo Valentia,

the Port of Hercules[20], the river Metaurus[21], the town of

Tauroentum[22], the Port of Orestes, and Medma[23]. Next, the

town of Scyllum[24], the river Cratis[25], the mother of Scylla

it is said; then the Pillar of Rhegium, the Straits of Sicily,

and the two promontories which face each other, Cnys[26] on

the Italian, and Pelorus[27] on the Sicilian side, the distance between them being twelve stadia. At a distance thence of

twelve miles and a half, we come to Rhegium[28], after which

begins Sila[29], a forest of the Apennines, and then the pro-







montory of Leucopetra[30], at a distance of fifteen miles; after

which come the Locri[31], who take their surname from the

promontory of Zephyrium[32], being distant from the river

Silarus 303 miles.



At this spot ends the first[33] great Gulf of Europe; the

seas in which bear the following names:-That from

which it takes its rise is called the Atlantic, by some the

Great Atlantic, the entrance of which is, by the Greeks,

called Porthmos, by us the Straits of Gades. After its

entrance, as far as it washes the coasts of Spain, it is called

the Hispanian Sea, though some give it the name of the

Iberian or Balearic[34] Sea. Where it faces the province of

Gallia Narbonensis it has the name of the Gallic, and after

that, of the Ligurian, Sea. From Liguria to the island of

Sicily, it is called the Tuscan Sea, the same which is called

by some of the Greeks the Notian[35], by others the Tyrrhenian, while many of our people call it the Lower Sea.

Beyond Sicily, as far as the country of the Salentini, it is

styled by Polybius the Ausonian Sea. Eratosthenes however gives to the whole expanse that lies between the inlet

of the ocean and the island of Sardinia, the name of the

Sardoan Sea; thence to Sicily, the Tyrrhenian; thence to

Crete, the Sicilian; and beyond that island, the Cretan Sea.







1. "Grci maxime populi." This may also be rendered "a people

who mostly emigrated from Greece," in reference to the Siculi or Sici-

lans, but the other is probably the correct translation.

2. A town of Lucania, colonized by the Sybarites about B.C. 524. In

the time of Augustus it seems to have been principally famous for the

exquisite beauty of its roses. Its ruins are extremely magnificent.

3. Now the Golfo di Salerno.

4. A Greek town founded by the Phocans. It was the birth-place of

the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno, who founded a school of philosophy

known as the Eleatic. Castell' a Mare della Brucca stands on its site.

5. Now Capo di Palinuro; said to have received its name from Palinurus, the pilot of neas, who fell into the sea there and was murdered

by the natives. See Virgil, neid, B. vi. 1. 381 et seq.

6. Now the Golfo di Policastro.

7. This tower or column was erected in the vicinity of Rhegium on the

Straits of Sicily. It was 100 stadia, or about eight miles, from the town,

and at it passengers usually embarked for Sicily. The spot is now called

Torre di Carallo.

8. Now the Faraone.

9. A Greek colony. The present Policastro occupies very nearly its

site. It seems to have received its name from the cultivation of box

trees in its vicinity.

10. Or more properly Laos, originally a Greek colony. In the vicinity

is the modern town of Laino, and the river is called the Lao.

11. Ptolemy mentions it as an inland town, and Livy speaks of it as a

Lucanian city. It probably stood near the modern Maratea, twelve miles

south-east of Policastro.

12. The modern Bato.

13. The bay of Bivona, formerly Vibo, the Italian name for the Greek

city of Hippo or Hippona. On its site stands the modern Bivona.

14. "Locus Clampeti." Clampetia or Lampetia stood in the vicinity

of the modern Amantia. From other authors we find that it was still

existing at this time. If such is the fact, the meaning will be "the place

where the former municipal town of Clampetia stood," it being supposed

to have lost in its latter years its municipal privileges.

15. One of the ancient Ausonian towns, and afterwards colonized by the

tolians. Like its namesake in Cyprus it was famous for its copper.

Its site is now occupied by Torre di Lupi.

16. A Greek city, almost totally destroyed by Hannibal; Santa Eufemia

occupies its site.

17. One of the cities of the Bruttii; now Cosenza.

18. The part which now constitutes the Farther Calabria.

19. Supposed to be the same as the Arconte, which falls into the

Crathis near Consentia. Nothing is known of the town here alluded to,

but it must not be confounded with Acherontia, the modern Acerenza, in

Apulia, which was a different place.

20. Supposed to have been the same as the modern port of Tropea.

21. The modern Marro.

22. Its ruins are supposed to be those seen near Palmi.

23. Probably the modern Melia stands on its site.

24. A town on the promontory of the same name, now called Scilla or

Sciglio, where the monster Scylla was fabled to have dwelt.

25. Homer says (Odyssey, xii. 124), that it had its name from the nymph

Cratis, the mother of Scylla. It is probably the small stream now called

Fiume di Solano or dei Pesci.

26. The modern Capo di Cavallo, according to the older commentators;

but more recent geographers think that the Punta del Pezzo was the point

so called.

27. Now called Capo di Faro, from the lighthouse there erected.

28. Originally a Greek colony; a Roman colony was settled there by

Augustus. The modern city of Reggio occupies its site.

29. It extended south of Consentia to the Sicilian Straits, a distance of

700 stadia. It produced the pitch for which Bruttium was so celebrated.

Its site still has the name of Sila.

30. Or White Rock, now Capo dell' Armi. It forms the extremity of

the Apennine Chain.

31. The site of the city of Locri is supposed to have been that of the

present Motta di Burzano.

32. He says that they were called Epizephyrii, from the promontory of

Zephyrium, now the Capo di Burzano; but according to others, they

had this name only because their colony lay to the west of their native

Greece. Strabo says that it was founded by the Locri Ozol, and not

the Opuntii, as most authors have stated.

33. This expression is explained by a reference to the end of the First

Chapter of the present Book.

34. Called by some the Canal de Baleares.

35. Or Southern Sea.




12. Chap. 11.-Sixty-Four Islands, Among Which Are The Baleares.


CHAP. 11.-SIXTY-FOUR ISLANDS, AMONG WHICH ARE THE BALEARES.

The first islands that we meet with in all these seas are







the two to which the Greeks have given the name of Pityuss[1],

from the pine-tree[2], which they produce. These islands now

bear the name of Ebusus, and form a federate state. They

are separated by a narrow strait[3] of the sea, and are forty-six[4]

miles in extent. They are distant from Dianium[5] 700 stadia,

Dianium being by land the same distance[6] from New Carthage. At the same distance[7] from the Pityuss, lie, in the

open sea, the two Baleares, and, over against the river Sucro[8],

Colubraria[9]. The Baleares[10], so formidable in war with

their slingers[11], have received from the Greeks the name of

Gymnasi.



The larger island is 100[12] miles in length, and 475 in circumference. It has the following towns; Palma[13] and Pollentia[14], enjoying the rights of Roman citizens, Cinium[15] and

Tucis, with Latin rights: Bocchorum, a federate town, is

no longer in existence. At thirty miles' distance is the







smaller island, 40 miles in length, and 150[16] in circumference;

it contains the states of Jamnon[17], Sanisera, and Magon[18].



In the open sea, at twelve miles' distance from the larger

island, is Capraria[19] with its treacherous coast, so notorious for

its numerous shipwrecks; and, opposite to the city of Palma,

are the islands known as the Mnari[20], Tiquadra[21], and Little

Hannibalis[22].



The earth of Ebusus has the effect of driving away serpents,

while that of Colubraria produces them; hence the latter spot

is dangerous to all persons who have not brought with them

some of the earth of Ebusus. The Greeks have given it

the name of Ophiusa[23]. Ebusus too produces no[24] rabbits to

destroy the harvests of the Baleares. There are also about

twenty other small islands in this sea, which is full of shoals.

Off the coast of Gaul, at the mouth of the Rhodanus, there

is Metina[25], and near it the island which is known as Blascon[26],

with the three Stchades, so called by their neighbours the

Massilians[27], on account of the regular order in which they

are placed; their respective names are Prote[28], Mese[29], also







called Pomponiana, and Hypa[30]. After these come Sturium[31], Phnice, Phila, Lero, and, opposite to Antipolis[32],

Lerina[33], where there is a remembrance of a town called

Vergoanum having once existed.







1. The modern Iviza and Formentera.

2. The Greek for which is pi/tus.

3. Less than two leagues in width.

4. The real distance is 34 miles from the northern point of Iviza, called

Punta de Serra, to the southern point of Formentera, namely-across Iviza

22 miles, across the sea 5, and across Formentera 7.

5. Now Denia.

6. This is not correct: the distance is but 45 miles.

7. This is incorrect: taken at the very greatest, the distance is only

522 stadia, eight to the mile.

8. The Xucar in Spain.

9. We more generally find it stated that the isle of Formentera, one of

the Pityusse, was called Colubraria. He probably refers to the islands

of the group about twenty leagues from the coast of Spain, now known

by the name of Columbrete; but they are not near the Xucar, from

which, as well as from the Pityusss, they are distant about seventy miles.

The latter islands are now generally considered as part of the group of

the Baleares.

10. Now Majorca and Minorca, with the ancient Pityuss.

11. They served as mercenaries, first under the Carthaginians and afterwards under the Romans. The ancient writers generally derive the name

of the people from their skill as archers-balearei=s, from ba/llw, "to

throw "; but Strabo assigns to the name a Phnician origin, as being

equivalent to the Greek gumnh=tai "light-armed soldiers." It is probably

from their light equipment that the Greeks gave to the islands the name

of Gumnhsi(ai. Livy says that they used to go naked during the summer.

12. Seventy miles is the real length of Majorca, and the circumference

is barely 250 miles.

13. Still called Palma. This and Pollentia were Roman colonies settled

by Metellus.

14. Now Pollenza.

15. Now Sineu on the Borga.

16. The circumference is about 110 miles, the length 32.

17. Now Ciudadela.

18. Now Port Mahon. The site of Sanisera, which was probably more

inland, is unknown.

19. Now Cabrera. The distance is not twelve, but nine miles.

20. Now called the Malgrates.

21. Now Dragonera.

22. Now El Torre.

23. As already mentioned he seems to confound Formentera, which was

called Ophiusa, with the present group of Columbrete, which islands were

probably called Colubraria.

24. The former editions mostly omit "nec"; and so make it that Ebusus

does produce the rabbits. Certainly, it does seem more likely that he would

mention that fact than the absence of it, which even to Pliny could not

appear very remarkable.

25. D'Anville thinks that this is Metapina, but D'Astruc thinks that

the flat islands, called Les Tignes, are meant.

26. Now called Brescon, near Agde, according to D'Anville.

27. Who were of Greek origin, and so called them, because they stood

in a row, stoi=xos.

28. Now called Porqueroles. Prote signifies the first, Mese the middle

one, and Hypa the one below the others.

29. Now Port Croz. D'Anville considers that Pliny is mistaken in

identifying this island with Pomponiana or Pompeiana, which he considers to be the same with the peninsula now called Calle de Giens, which

lies opposite to Porqueroles.

30. Now called the Ile du Levant or du Titan. The group is called the

Islands of Hires or Calypso.

31. These are probably the little islands now known as Ratoneau, Pomgue, and If. It has however been suggested that these names belong to

the islands of Hires already mentioned in the text, and that Sturium is

the present Porquerolles, Phnice Port-Croz, and Phila, Levant or Titan.

32. Now Antibes, or Antiboul in the Provenal idiom.

33. Now Saint Honorat de Lrins. The island of Lero is the present

Sainte Marguerite de Lrins, and is nearer to Antibes than Lerina. The

Lerinian monastery was much resorted to in the early ages of Christianity.




13. Chap. 12. (6.)-Corsica.


CHAP. 12. (6.)-CORSICA.

In the Ligurian Sea, but close to the Tuscan, is Corsica,

by the Greeks called Cyrnos, extending, from north to

south 150 miles, and for the most part 50 miles in breadth,

its circumference being 325. It is 62 miles distant from

the Vada Volaterrana[1]. It contains thirty-two states, and

two colonies, that of Mariana[2], founded by C. Marius, and

that of Aleria, founded by the Dictator Sylla. On this

side of it is Oglasa[3], and, at a distance of less than sixty

miles from Corsica, Planaria[4], so called from its appearance, being nearly level with the sea, and consequently

treacherous to mariners.



We next have Urgo[5], a larger island, and Capraria, which

the Greeks have called gilion[6]; then Igilium[7] and Dianium[8], which they have also called Artemisia, both of them

opposite the coast of Cosa; also Barpana[9], Mnaria, Co-







lumbaria, and Venaria. We then come to Ilva[10] with its iron

mines, an island 100 miles in circumference, 10 miles distant

from Populonium, and called thalia by the Greeks: from

it the island of Planasia[11] is distant 28 miles. After these,

beyond the mouths of the Tiber, and off the coast of Antium,

we come to Astura[12], then Palmaria and Sinonia, and, opposite to Formi, Ponti. In the Gulf of Puteoli are Pandateria[13], and Prochyta, so called, not from the nurse of

neas, but because it has been poured forth[14] or detached

from naria[15], an island which received its name from having been the anchorage of the fleet of neas, though called

by Homer Inarime[16]; it is also called Pithecusa, not, as

many have fancied, on account of the multitudes of apes

found there, but from its extensive manufactories of pottery.

Between Pausilipum[17] and Neapolis lies the island of Megaris[18], and then, at a distance of eight miles from Surrentum,

Capre[19], famous for the castle of the emperor Tiberius: it

is eleven miles in circumference.











1. In ancient Etruria, now Torre di Vada. The distance is, in reality,

about ninety miles.

2. Mariana was situate in the northern part of the island, and the ruins

of Aleria are still to be seen on the banks of the river Tavignano, near

the coast.

3. Probably near the present Monte Cristo.

4. He probably means the group of islands called Formicole, which are

situate only thirty-three miles from Corsica, and not near sixty.

5. Now La Gorgona.

6. Both of these names meaning "Goat island." It is now called

Capraia.

7. The modern Giglio.

8. Now Gianuto, opposite Monte Argentaro on the main-land.

9. These are probably the small islands now called Formiete or Formicole di Grossetto, Troja, Palmajola, and Cervoli.

10. The modern Elba.

11. Now Pianosa.

12. Astura still retains its ancient name, Palmaria is the present Palmarola, Sinonia is now Senone, and Ponti is the modern Isola di Ponza.

13. Now Ventotiene.

14. Deriving its name from the Greek word proxuto\s, meaning "poured

forth."

15. The present island of Ischia, off the coasts of Campania. The name

of Pithecus appears to have been given by the Greeks to the two islands

of naria and Prochyta collectively.

16. Ovid, like many other writers, mentions Inarime as though a different

island from Pithecus. See Met. B. xiv. 1.89. As is here mentioned by

Pliny, many persons derived the name "Pithecus" from pi/qhkos "an

ape," and, according to Strabo, "Aremus" was the Etrurian name for an

ape. Ovid, in the Metamorphoses, loc. cit., confirms this tradition by

relating the change of the natives into apes. The solution of its name

given by Pliny appears however extremely probable, that it gained its

name from its manufacture of piqhka\, or earthen vessels. Virgil is supposed to have coined the name of "Inarime."

17. Now Posilippo. It is said to have derived its name from the Greek

pausi)lupon, as tending to drive away care by the beauty of its situation.

Virgil was buried in its vicinity.

18. The modern Castel del' Ovo.

19. Now Capri. Here Tiberius established his den of lustfulness and

iniquity. He erected twelve villas in the island, the remains of several

of which are still to be seen.




14. Chap. 13.-Sardinia.


CHAP. 13.-SARDINIA.

Leucothea comes next, and after it, but out of sight, as it

lies upon the verge of the African Sea, Sardinia. It is situate

somewhat less[1] than eight miles from the nearest point of

Corsica, and the Straits between them are even still more

reduced by the small islands there situate, called the Cuniculari[2], as also those of Phintonis[3] and Foss, from

which last the Straits themselves have obtained the name of

Taphros[4].



(7.) Sardinia extends, upon the east side, a distance of

188 miles, on the west 175, on the south 77, and on the

north 125, being 565 miles in circumference. Its promontory of Caralis[5] is distant from Africa 200, and from

Gades 1400 miles. Off the promontory of Gordis[6] it has

two islands called the Isles of Hercules[7], off that of Sulcis,

the island of Enosis[8], and off that of Caralis, Ficaria[9]. Some

writers place Beleris not far from it, as also Callodis, and the

island known as Heras Lutra[10].



The most celebrated peoples of this island are the Ilienses[11],

the Balari, and the Corsi; and among its eighteen towns,

there are those of the Sulcitani[12], the Valentini[13], the Neapoli-







tani[14], the Bosenses[15], the Caralitani[16], who enjoy the rights of

Roman citizens, and the Norenses[17]. There is also one colony

which is called Ad Turrim Libysonis[18]. Timus has called

this island Sandaliotis, on account of the similarity of its shape

to the sole of a shoe, while Myrtilus has given it the name of

Ichnusa[19], from its resemblance to the print of a footstep.

Opposite to the Gulf of Pstum is Leucasia[20], so called from

a Siren who is buried there; opposite to Velia are Poiitia

and Isacia, both known by one name, that of notrides, a

proof that Italy was formerly possessed by the notrians.

Opposite to Vibo are the little islands called Ithacesi[21]

from the watch-tower of Ulysses situate there.







1. The distance between is hardly five miles.

2. These rocks appear at the present day to be nameless. The old name

seems to mean, the "Rabbit Warrens."

3. Phintonis, according to Hardouin, is the modern Isola di Figo, according to Mannert, Caprera. Cluver makes Foss to be the present Isola

Rossa, while Mannert considers it to be the same with Santa Maddalena.

4. Tafro\s being the Greek for the Latin word "fossa," the ordinary

meaning of which is an "excavation."

5. Probably the Cape of Carbonara, from which however Africa is distant

only 121 miles, and the gulf of Gades or Cadiz 980.

6. Now Capo Falcone.

7. Now Asinara or Zavara, and Isola Piana.

8. Now called Santo Antiocho, off La Punta dell' Ulga.

9. According to Cluver, the modern Coltelalzo.

10. The "Baths of Juno." The identity of these islands does not

appear to have been ascertained.

11. Said by Pausanias to have been descended from persons who escaped

on the fall of Troy under the command of Iolas.

12. Of the town of Sulcis. Its ruins are probably those seen at the

village of Sulci, near the port Palma di Solo.

13. Their town was probably on the site of the present Iglesias.

14. Their town was probably either the present Napoli or Acqua di Corsari.

15. Their town is probably indicated by the ruins on the river Gavino.

16. Their town was Caralis, the present Cagliari.

17. Their town was probably Nora, the present Torre Forcadizo.

18. "At Libyso's Tower."

19. From the Greek i)/xnos, "a footstep."

20. Now La Licosa, a small rocky island.

21. Now Torricella, Praca, and Brace, with other rocks.




15. Chap. 14. (8.)-Sicily.


CHAP. 14. (8.)-SICILY.

But more celebrated than all is Sicily, called Sicania by

Thucydides, and by many writers Trinacria or Trinacia, from

its triangular appearance. According to Agrippa it is 618[1]

miles in circumference. In former times it was a continuation of the territory of Bruttium, but, in consequence of

the overflowing of the sea, became severed from it; thus forming a strait of 15 miles in length, and a mile and a half in

width in the vicinity of the Pillar of Rhegium. It was from

this circumstance of the land being severed asunder that

the Greeks gave the name of Rhegium[2] to the town situate

on the Italian shore.



In these Straits is the rock of Scylla, as also Charybdis[3], a

whirlpool of the sea, both of them noted for their perils. Of

this triangle, the promontory, which, as we have already[4]







mentioned, is called Pelorus, faces Scylla and juts out towards

Italy, while Pachynum[5] extends in the direction of Greece,

Peloponnesus being at a distance from it of 440 miles, and

Lilybum[6], towards Africa, being distant 180 miles from the

promontory of Mercury[7], and from that of Caralis in Sardinia 190. These promontories and sides are situate at the

following distances from each other: by land it is 186 miles

from Pelorus to Pachynum, from Pachynum to Lilybum

200, and from Lilybum to Pelorus 170[8].



In this island there are five colonies and sixty-three cities

or states. Leaving Pelorus and facing the Ionian Sea, we

have the town of Messana[9], whose inhabitants are also called

Mamertini and enjoy the rights of Roman citizens; the

promontory of Drepanum[10], the colony of Tauromenium[11],

formerly called Naxos, the river Asines[12], and Mount tna,

wondrous for the flames which it emits by night. Its crater

is twenty stadia in circumference, and from it red-hot

cinders are thrown as far as Tauromenium and Catina, the

noise being heard even at Maroneum[13] and the Gemellian

Hills. We then come to the three rocks of the Cyclopes[14],

the Port of Ulysses[15], the colony of Catina[16], and the rivers

Symthus[17] and Terias; while more inland lie the Lstrygonian Plains.



To these rivers succeed the towns of Leontinum[18] and

Megaris, the river Pantagies[19], the colony of Syracuse[20], with

the fountain of Arethusa[21], (the people in the Syracusan ter-







ritory drink too of the fountains of Temenitis[22], Archidemia,

Maga, Cyane, and Milichie,) the port of Naustathmus[23], the

river Elorus, and the promontory of Pachynum. This

side[24] of Sicily begins with the river Hirminius[25], then follow the town of Camarina[26], the river Gelas[27], and the town

of Agragas[28], which our people have named Agrigentum. We

next come to the colony of Therm[29], the rivers Achates[30],

Mazara, and Hypsa; the town of Selinus[31], and then the

Promontory of Lilybum, which is succeeded by Drepana[32],

Mount Eryx[33], the towns of Panhormus[34], Solus[35] and Himera[36],

with a river of the same name, Cephaldis[37], Aluntium[38],







Agathyrnum, the colony of Tyndaris[39], the town of Myl[40],

and then Pelorus, the spot at which we began.



In the interior there are the following towns enjoying

Latin privileges, those of the Centuripini[41], the Netini[42], and

the Segestani[43]; tributary towns are those of the Assorini[44],

the tnenses[45], the Agyrini[46], the Acesti, the Acrenses[47], the

Bidini[48], the Cetarini[49], the Cacyrini[50], the Drepanitani,

the Ergetini[51], the Echetlienses[52], the Erycini[53], the Entellini[54], the Enini[55], the Enguini[56], the Gelani[57], the Gala-







tini[58], the Halesini[59], the Hennenses, the Hyblenses[60], the

Herbitenses[61], the Herbessenses[62], the Herbulenses, the Halicyenses[63], the Hadranitani[64], the Imacarenses, the Ipanenses,

the Ietenses[65], the Mytistratini[66], the Magellini, the Murgentini[67], the Mutycenses[68], the Menanini[69], the Naxii[70], the

Noi[71], the Petrini[72], the Paropini[73], the Phthinthienses[74], the

Semellitani, the Scherini, the Selinuntii[75], the Symthii, the







Talarienses, the Tissinenses[76], the Triocalini[77], the Tyraci-

nenses, and the Zancli[78], a Messenian colony on the Straits

of Sicily. Towards Africa, its islands are Gaulos[79], Melita,

87 miles from Camerina, and 113 from Lilybum, Cosyra[80],

Hieronnesos[81], Cne[82], Galata[83], Lopadusa, thusa, written

by some gusa, Bucinna[84], Osteodes[85], distant from Soluntum

75 miles, and, opposite to Paropus, Ustica.



On this side of Sicily, facing the river Metaurus, at a di-

stance of nearly 25[86] miles from Italy, are the seven[87] islands

called the olian, as also the Liparan islands; by the

Greeks they are called the Hephstiades, and by our writers

the Vulcanian[88] Isles; they are called "olian" because in

the Trojan times olus was king there.



(9.) Lipara[89], with a town whose inhabitants enjoy the

rights of Roman citizens, is so called from Liparus, a former

king who succeeded[90] olus, it having been previously called

Melogonis or Meligunis. It is 25 miles[91] distant from Italy,

and in circumference a little less. Between this island and

Sicily we find another, the name of which was formerly

Therasia, but now called Hiera, because it is sacred to

Vulcan[92]: it contains a hill which at night vomits forth







flames. The third island is Strongyle[93], lying one mile[94] to

the east of Lipara, over which olus reigned as well; it

differs only from Lipara in the superior brilliancy of its

flames. From the smoke of this volcano it is said that some

of the inhabitants are able to predict three days beforehand

what winds are about to blow; hence arose the notion that

the winds are governed by olus. The fourth of these

islands is Didyme[95], smaller than Lipara, the fifth Ericusa,

the sixth Phnicusa, left to be a pasture-ground for the

cattle of the neighbouring islands, and the last and smallest

Euonymos. Thus much as to the first great Gulf of

Europe.







1. Posidonius, quoted by Strabo, says 550.

2. Meaning that it comes from the Greek verb r(hlnumi, "to break."

This is probably only a fanciful origin of the name.

3. The present Garofalo. At the present day small boats approach it

without danger.

4. In Chap. x. Pelorus is the modern Capo di Faro.

5. Now Capo di Passaro.

6. The present Capo di Boco Marsala.

7. Now Cape Bon. The real distance is but seventy-eight miles.

8. The following are more probably the correct distances: 150, 210,

and 230 miles.

9. Now Messina.

10. The modern Capo di Santo Alessio.

11. Now called Taormini; the remains of the ancient town are very

considerable.

12. Probably the present Alcantara.

13. The present Madonia and Monte di Mele.

14. Now called I Fariglioni.

15. In modern times called "Lognina Statione," according to Hardouin.

16. The modern city of Catania stands on its site.

17. The Fiume di Santo Leonardo, according to Hardouin, but Mannert

says the river Lentini. Ansart suggests the Guarna Lunga.

18. Now Lentini. The ruins of Megaris are still to be seen, according

to Mannert.

19. Now the Porcaro.

20. The modern city of Siracosa.

21. See B. xxxi. c. 30, for particulars of this fountain.

22. According to Mirabella, these springs are in modern times called

Fonte di Canali, Cefalino, Fontana della Maddalena, Fonte Ciane, and

Lampismotta.

23. The modern Fonte Bianche. The Elorus, according to Hardouin,

is the modern Acellaro, according to Mannert, the Abisso.

24. The southern side.

25. Now the Maulo, or Fiume di Ragusa.

26. Still called Camarina. Scarcely any vestiges of the ancient city now

remain.

27. According to Hardouin the Fiume Salso; but according to D'Anville and Mannert, the Fiume Ghiozzo.

28. Now Girgenti. Gigantic remains of the ancient city are still to be

seen.

29. See note 15 in this page.

30. The Achates is the modern Belice, the Mazara retains its name, and

the Hypsa is now the Marsala.

31. So called by the Greeks from its abundant growth of parsley, called by

them se/linon. Its remains are still to be seen at the spot called Selenti.

32. Now Trapani. Some vestiges of its ancient mole are to be seen.

33. The present Monte San Juliano.

34. The great city of Palermo stands on its site. It was founded by

the Phnicians.

35. The modern Solunto.

36. Himera was destroyed by the Carthaginians, B.C. 408, upon which

its inhabitants founded Therm, so called from its hot springs. This

was probably the colony of Therm mentioned above by Pliny, though

wrongly placed by him on the southern coast between Selinus and Agrigentum. The modern town of Termini stands on the site of Therm; remains of its baths and aqueduct are still to be seen. Himera stood on a river

of the same name, most probably the present Fiume Grande, and Fazello

is of opinion that the town was situate on the site now occupied by the

Torre di Bonfornello. Himera was the birthplace of the poet Stesichorus.

37. Or Cphaldium. Some remains of it are to be seen at the spot

called Cefalu.

38. Probably on the site now occupied by the town of San Marco.

Fazello and Cluver however place Aluntium near San Filadelfo, where

some ruins were formerly visible, and regard San Marco as the site of

Agathyrna or Agathyrnum.

39. Probably situate near the church of Santa Maria at Tindari, now the

Capo di Mongioio.

40. Now called Melazzo.

41. Their city was Centuripa, on a hill S.W. of tna. The modern

Centorbi occupies its site, and some of its ruins may still be seen.

42. Netum probably stood on the spot now known as Noto Anticho.

43. The ruins of Segesta are supposed to be those near the river San

Bartolomeo, twelve miles south of Alcamo.

44. Asaro occupies its site.

45. A people dwelling at the foot of Mount tna, according to D'Anville, at a place now called Nicolosi.

46. The people of Agyrium; the site of which is now called San Filippo

d'Argiro. Diodorus Siculus was a native of this place.

47. Acr occupied a bleak hill in the vicinity of the modern Pallazolo,

where its ruins are still to be seen.

48. Their town was Bidis near Syracuse. The modern Bibino or San

Giovanni di Bidini is supposed to stand on its site.

49. The people of Cetaria, between Panormus and Drepanum. Its site

is unknown.

50. The people of Cacyrum, supposed to have stood on the site of the

modern Cassaro. The Drepanitani were so called from living on the

promontory of Drepanum.

51. The ruins near La Cittadella are probably those of Ergetium.

52. The people of Echetla. According to Faziello and Cluver its ruins

were those to be seen at the place called Occhiala or Occhula, two miles

from the town of Gran Michele.

53. The inhabitants of the city of Eryx, on the mountain of that name,

now San Giuliano. The ancient city stood probably half-way down the

mountain.

54. The town of Entella survived till the thirteenth century, when it

was destroyed by the Emperor Frederic II. The ruins were formerly to

be seen near Poggio la Reale.

55. Perhaps the people of Enna, once a famous city. According to the

story as related by Ovid and Claudian, it was from this spot that Proserpine was carried off by Pluto. It stood on the same site as the town of

Castro Giovanni. This note may however be more applicable to the

Hennenses, mentioned below.

56. The ruins of Enguinum are probably those in the vicinity of the

modern town of Gangi.

57. The people of Gela, one of the most important cities of Sicily. Its

site was probably the modern Terranova, near the river Fiume di

Terranova.

58. The people probably of Galata or Galaria; on the site of which the

modern village of Galata is supposed to stand.

59. The people probably, of Halesa; its ruins are supposed to be those

near the village of Tysa, near the river Pettineo.

60. The people of Hybla. There were three cities of this name in Sicily,

the Greater, the Less, and Hybla Megara. The name was probably

derived from the local divinity mentioned by Pausanias as being so

called.

61. The people of Herbita; the site of which was probably at Nicosia,

or else at Sperlinga, two miles south of it.

62. There were two places in Sicily known as Herbessus or Erbessusone near Agrigentum, the other about sixteen miles from Syracuse, on

the site, it is supposed, of the present Pantalica.

63. The people of Halicy, in the west of Sicily. The modern town of

Salemi is supposed to occupy its site.

64. The people of Adranum or Hadranum, a town famous for its temple

of the Sicilian deity Adranus. Its site is occupied by the modern town

of Aderno. The ruins are very considerable.

65. The people of Iet; the site of which town is said by Fazello to be

the modern Iato. The sites of the places previously mentioned cannot

be identified.

66. The site of their town is situate at the modern Mistretta, where some

ruins are still to be seen.

67. The site of their town was probably the present village of Mandri

Bianchi on the river Dittaino.

68. Probably the people of Motuca, mentioned by Ptolemy, now Modica.

69. Their town probably stood on the site of the present Mineo.

70. It has been suggested that these are the same as the people of Tauromenium, said to have been a Naxian colony.

71. They are supposed to have dwelt on the site of the present Noara.

72. The ruins of the town of Petra are supposed to have been those to

be seen near Castro Novo, according to Mannert.

73. Fazello is of opinion that the present Colisano occupies the site of

the ancient Paropus.

74. The city of Phthinthias was peopled by the inhabitants of Gela, by

command of Phthinthias the despot of Agrigentum. Its ruins are probably those seen in the vicinity of the modern Alicata.

75. The people of Selinus previously mentioned in p. 218.

76. Randazzo, at the foot of tna, is supposed to occupy the site of the

ancient Tissa.

77. The people of Triocala, now Troccoli, near Calata Bellota.

78. Zancle was the ancient Greek name of Messina, which was so called

from its similarity in shape to a sickle. The Messenian colony of the

Zancli probably dwelt in its vicinity.

79. Gaulos is the present Gozo, and Melita the important island of

Malta. The distance here mentioned is in reality only sixty-one miles

from Camerina.

80. Now Pantellaria.

81. The modern island of Maretimo.

82. Probably the present island of Limosa.

83. Galata still has the name of Calata, Lopadusa is the present Lam-

pedosa, and thusa, according to Mannert, is called Favignana.

84. Now Levanzo.

85. According to Mannert, this is the island Alicur, to the west of the

olian or Liparian islands. Ustica still retains its ancient name.

86. The least distance between these localities is forty-five miles.

87. There are now eleven, some of which are supposed to have risen

from the sea since the time of Pliny.

88. From Vulcan the god of fire, the Greek Hephaestus.

89. Now called the Great Lipara.

90. According to Solinus, c. vi., olus succeeded him. Its name Me-

logonis was by some ascribed to its great produce of honey.

91. The shortest distance between these localities is forty-six miles.

92. Now called Volcano.

93. Now Strongoli and Stromboli. It is the only one of these mountains that is continually burning. Notwithstanding the dangers of their locality, this island is inhabited by about fifty families.

94. Strabo makes the same mistake; the distance is twenty miles.

95. According to Hardouin and D'Anville this is the modern Saline, but Mannert says Panaria. The geographers differ in assigning their ancient names to the other three, except that Euonymos, from its name, the "lefthand" island, is clearly the modern Lisca Bianca.




16. Chap. 15. (10.)-Magna Grcia, Beginning At Locri.


CHAP. 15. (10.)-MAGNA GRCIA, BEGINNING AT LOCRI.

At Locri begins the fore-part of Italy, called Magna

Grcia, whose coast falls back in three bays[1] formed by the

Ausonian sea, so called from the Ausones, who were the

first inhabitants of the country. According to Varro it is

86 miles in extent; but most writers have made it only 75.

Along this coast there are rivers innumerable, but we shall

mention those only that are worthy of remark. After

leaving Locri we come to the Sagra[2], and the ruins of the

town of Caulon, Mysti[3], Consilinum Castrum[4], Cocinthum[5], in the opinion of some, the longest headland of Italy,

and then the Gulf of Scylacium[6], and Scylacium[7] itself,







which was called by the Athenians, when they founded it,

Scylletium. This part of Italy is nearly a peninsula, in consequence of the Gulf of Terinum[8] running up into it on the

other side; in it there is a harbour called Castra Hannibalis[9]:

in no part is Italy narrower than here, it being but twenty

miles across. For this reason the Elder Dionysius entertained the idea of severing[10] this portion from the main-land

of Italy at this spot, and adding it to Sicily. The navigable rivers in this district are the Carcines[11], the Crotalus,

the Semirus, the Arocas, and the Targines. In the interior

is the town of Petilia[12], and there are besides, Mount Clibanus[13], the promontory of Lacinium, in front of which lies

the island of Dioscoron[14], ten miles from the main-land, and

another called the Isle of Calypso, which Homer is supposed

to refer to under the name of Ogygia; as also the islands of

Tiris, Eranusa, and Meloessa. According to Agrippa, the

promontory of Lacinium[15] is seventy miles from Caulon.



(11.) At the promontory of Lacinium begins the second

Gulf of Europe, the bend of which forms an are of great

depth, and terminates at Acroceraunium, a promontory of

Epirus, from which it is distant[16] seventy-five miles. We

first come to the town of Croton[17], and then the river







Nethus[18], and the town of Thurii[19], situate between the two

rivers Crathis and Sybaris, upon the latter of which there was

once a city[20] of the same name. In a similar manner Heraclia[21], sometimes called Siris, lies between the river of that

name and the Aciris. We next come to the rivers Acalandrus and Casuentum[22], and the town of Metapontum[23],

with which the third region of Italy terminates. In the

interior of Bruttium, the Aprustani[24] are the only people;

but in Lucania we find the Atinates, the Bantini, the Eburini[25], the Grumentini, the Potentini, the Sontini[26], the Sirini,

the Tergilani, the Ursentini, and the Volcentani[27], whom

the Numestrani join. Besides these, we learn from Cato[28]

that Thebes in Lucania has disappeared, and Theopompus

informs us that there was formerly a city of the Lucani called

Pandosia[29], at which Alexander, the king of Epirus, died.











1. These are the Gulf of Locri, the Gulf of Scyllacium, and the Gulf of Tarentum.

2. Now called the Sagriano, though some make it to be the modern Alaro. The site of the town of Caulon does not appear to be known:, it is by some placed at Castel Vetere on the Alaro.

3. Said by Hardouin to be the modern Monasteraci or Monte Araci.

4. Supposed to have been situate on a hill near the modern Padula.

5. The modern Punta di Stilo, or "Point of the Column."

6. The modern Gulf of Squillace.

7. Now Squillace.

8. Now the Gulf of Saint Eufemia.

9. Hannibal's Camp." This was the seaport of Scyllacium, and its site was probably near the mouth of the river Corace.

10. According to Strabo, B. vi., he intended to erect a high wall across, and so divide it from the rest of Italy; but if we may judge, from the use by Pliny of the word "intercisam," it would seem that it was his design to cut a canal across this neck of land.

11. According to Hardouin, the Carcines is the present river Corace, the Crotalus the Alli, the Semirus the Simari, the Arocas the Crocchio, and the Targines the Tacina.

12. The present Strongolo, according to D'Anville and Mannert.

13. The present Monte Monacello and Monte Fuscaldo are supposed to form part of the range called Clibanus.

14. Meaning that it was sacred to Castor and Pollux. Such are the changes effected by lapse of time that these two islands are now only bleak rocks. The present locality of the other islands does not appear to be known.

15. Now Capo di Colonne.

16. The real distance from Acroceraunimn, now Capo Linguetta, is 153 miles, according to Ansart.

17. Or Crotona, one of the most famous Greek cities in the south of Italy. No ruins of the ancient city, said by Livy to have been twelve miles in circumference, are now remaining. The modern Cotrone occupies a part of its site. Pythagoras taught at this place.

18. The modern Neto.

19. Now called Turi, between the rivers Crati and Sibari or Roscile.

20. A Greek town, famous for the inordinate love of luxury displayed by its inhabitants, whence a voluptuary obtained the name of a "Sybarite." It was destroyed by the people of Crotona, who turned the waters of the Crathis upon the town. Its site is now occupied by a pestilential swamp.

21. A famous Greek city founded on the territory of the former Ionian colony of Siris. The foundations of it may still be seen, it is supposed, near a spot called Policoro, three miles from the sea. The rivers are now called the Sinno and the Agri.

22. The modern Salandra or Salandrella, and the Basiento.

23. So called from its lying between the two seas. It was once a celebrated Greek city, but was in ruins in the time of Pausanias. The place called Torre di Mare now occupies its site.

24. The site of Aprustum is supposed to be marked by the village of Argusto, near Chiaravalle, about five miles from the Gulf of Squillace. Atina was situate in the valley of the Tanager, now the Valle di Diano. The ruins of Atina, which are very extensive, are to be seen near the village of Atena. Livy and Acron speak of Bantia as in Apulia, and not in Lucania. An ancient abbey, Santa Maria di Vanze, still marks its site.

25. The ruins of Eburi are supposed to be those between the modern Eboli and the right bank of the Silarus. The remains of Grumentum, a place of some importance, are still to be seen on the river Agri, half a mile from the modern Saponara. Potenza occupies the site of ancient Potentia.

26. The Sontini were probably situate on the river Sontia, now the Sanza, near Policastro. The Sirini probably had their name from the river Siris.

27. Volcentum was situate near the Silarus, probably on the spot now called Bulcino or Bucino. The site of Numistro appears to be unknown.

28. In his work "De Originibus."

29. Livy, B. viii., and Justin mention how that Alexander I. (in the year B.C. 326) was obliged to engage under unfavourable circumstances near Pandosia, on the Acheron, and fell as he was crossing the river; thus accomplishing a prophecy of Dodona which had warned him to beware of Pandosia and the Acheron. He was uncle to Alexander the Great, being the brother of Olympias. The site of Pandosia is supposed to have been the modern Castro Franco.




17. Chap. 16.-The Second Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 16.-THE SECOND REGION OF ITALY.

Adjoining to this district is the second region of Italy, which

embraces the Hirpini, Calabria, Apulia, and the Salentini, extending a distance of 250 miles along the Gulf of Tarentum,

which receives its name from a town of the Laconians so

called, situate at the bottom of the Gulf; to which was annexed

the maritime colony which had previously settled there.

Tarentum[1] is distant from the promontory of Lacinium 136

miles, and throws out the territory of Calabria opposite to it

in the form of a peninsula. The Greeks called this territory

Messapia, from their leader[2]; before which it was called Peucetia, from Peucetius[3], the brother of notrius, and was

comprised in the territory of Salentinum. Between the

two promontories[4] there is a distance of 100 miles. The

breadth across the peninsula from Tarentum[5] to Brundusium

by land is 35 miles, considerably less if measured from the

port of Sasina[6]. The towns inland from Tarentum are Varia[7]

surnamed Apulia, Messapia, and Aletium[8]; on the coast,

Senum, and Callipolis[9], now known as Anxa, 75 miles from







Tarentum. Thence, at a distance of 32 miles, is the Pro-

montory of Acra Iapygia[10], at which point Italy projects

the greatest distance into the sea. At a distance of 19 miles

from this point is the town of Basta[11], and then Hydruntum[12],

the spot at which the Ionian is separated from the Adriatic

sea, and from which the distance across to Greece is the

shortest. The town of the Apolloniates[13] lies opposite to it,

and the breadth of the arm of the sea which runs between is

not more than fifty miles. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was the

first who entertained the notion of uniting these two points

and making a passage on foot, by throwing a bridge across,

and after him M. Varro[14], when commanding the fleet of

Pompey in the war against the Pirates. Other cares however

prevented either of them from accomplishing this design.

Passing Hydruntum, we come to the deserted site of

Soletum[15], then Fratuertium, the Portus Tarentinus, the

haven of Miltopa, Lupia[16], Balesium[17], Clia[18], and then Brundusium[19], fifty miles from Hydruntum. This last place is







one of the most famous .ports of Italy, and, although more

distant, affords by far the safest passage across to Greece,

the place of disembarkation being Dyrrachium, a city of

Illyria; the distance across is 225 miles.



Adjoining Brundusium is the territory of the Pediculi[20];

nine youths and as many maidens, natives of Illyria, became

the parents of sixteen nations. The towns of the Pediculi

are Rudi[21], Egnatia[22], and Barium[23]; their rivers are the Iapyx

(so called from the son of Ddalus, who was king there, and

who gave it the name of Iapygia), the Pactius[24], and the

Aufidus, which rises in the Hirpinian mountains and flows

past Canusium[25].



At this point begins Apulia, surnamed the Daunian, from the

Daunii, who take their name from a former chief, the father-in-law of Diomedes. In this territory are the towns of Salapia[26],

famous for Hannibal's amour with a courtezan, Sipontum[27],







Uria, the river Cerbalus[28], forming the boundary of the Daunii,

the port of Agasus[29], and the Promontory of Mount Garganus[30], distant from the Promontory of Salentinum or Iapygia

234 miles. Making the circuit of Garganus, we come to the

port of Garna[31], the Lake Pantanus[32], the river Frento, the

mouth of which forms a harbour, Teanum of the Apuli[33], and

Larinum, Cliternia[34], and the river Tifernus, at which the

district of the Frentani[35] begins. Thus there were three

different nations of the Apulians, [the Daunii,] the Teani, so

called from their leader, and who sprang from the Greeks, and

the Lucani, who were subdued by Calchas[36], and whose country

is now possessed by the Atinates. Besides those already mentioned, there are, of the Daunii, the colonies of Luceria[37] and

Venusia[38], the towns of Canusium[39] and Arpi, formerly called

Argos Hippium[40] and founded by Diomedes, afterwards called

Argyrippa. Here too Diomedes destroyed the nations of the

Monadi and the Dardi, and the two cities of Apina and







Trica[41], whose names have passed into a by-word and a

proverb.



Besides the above, there is in the interior of the second

region one colony of the Hirpini, Beneventum[42], so called by

an exchange of a more auspicious name for its old one of

Maleventum; also the culani[43], the Aquilonii[44], the Abellinates surnamed Protropi, the Compsani, the Caudini, the

Ligures, both those called the Corneliani and Bebiani, the

Vescellani, the clani, the Aletrini, the Abellinates[45] surnamed Marsi, the Atrani, the cani[46], the Alfellani[47], the







Atinates[48], the Arpani, the Borcani, the Collatni, the Cori-

nenses, the Cannenses[49], rendered famous by the defeat of the

Romans, the Dirini, the Forentani[50], the Genusini[51], the Herdo-

nienses, the Hyrini[52], the Larinates surnamed Frentani[53], the

Merinates[54] of Garganus, the Mateolani, the Netini[55], the Ru-

bustini[56], the Silvini[57], the Strapellini[58], the Turmentini, the

Vibinates[59], the Venusini, and the Ulurtini. In the interior

of Calabria there are the getini, the Apamestini[60], the

Argentini, the Butuntinenses[61], the Deciani, the Grumbestini,







the Norbanenses, the Palionenses, the Sturnini[62], and the

Tutini: there are also the following Salentine nations; the

Aletini[63], the Basterbini[64], the Neretini, the Uxentini, and

the Veretini[65].







1. This word is understood in the text, and Ansart would have it to mean that the "Gulf of Tarentum is distant," &c., but, as he says, such an assertion would be very indefinite, it not being stated what part of the Gulf is meant. He therefore suggests that the most distant point from Lacinium is meant; which however, according to him, would make but 117 miles straight across, and 160 by land. The city of Tarentum would be the most distant point.

2. Messapus, a Beotian, mentioned by Strabo, B. ix.

3. A son of Lycaon.

4. Of Lacinium and Acra Iapygia. About seventy miles seems to be the real distance; certainly not, as Pliny says, 100.

5. The modern Taranto to Brindisi.

6. Probably situate at the further extremity of the bay on which Tarentum stood.

7. According to D'Anville and Mannert, the modern Oria. Messapia is the modern Mesagna.

8. The modern Santa Maria dell' Alizza, according to D'Anville.

9. The modern Gallipoli, in the Terra di Otranto. The real distance from Tarentum is between fifty and sixty miles.

10. The "Iapygian Point," the present Capo di Santa Maria di Leuca.

11. Its site is occupied by the little village of Vaste near Poggiordo, ten miles S.W. of Otranto. In the sixteenth century considerable remains of Basta were still to be seen.

12. The modern Otranto stands on its site. In the fourth century it became the usual place of passage from Italy to Greece, Apollonia, and Dyrrhachium. Few vestiges of the ancient city are now to be seen.

13. Anciently Apollonia, in Illyria, now called Pallina or Pollona.

14. This was M. Terentius Varro, called "the most learned of the Romans." His design, here mentioned, seems however to have evinced neither learning nor discretion.

15. Now called Soleto. The ruins of the ancient city, described by Galateo as existing at Muro, are not improbably those of Fratuertium, or, perhaps more rightly, Fratuentum.

16. The modern Lecce is supposed to occupy its site.

17. Called Valetium by Mela. Its ruins are still to be seen near San Pietro Vernotico, on the road from Brindisi to Lecce. The site is still called Baleso or Valesio.

18. Ansart takes this to be the modern village of Cavallo, on the promontory of that name; but it is more probably the modern Ceglie, situate on a hill about twelve miles from the Adriatic, and twenty-seven miles west of Brindisi. Extensive ruins still exist there. There was another town of the same name in the south of Apulia.

19. Now Brindisi. Virgil died here. The modern city, which is an impoverished place, presents but few vestiges of antiquity. The distance to Dyrrhachium is in reality only about 100 miles.

20. They occupied probably a portion of the modern Terra di Bari.

21. Said by Hardouin to be the modern Carouigna or Carovigni; but Mannert asserts it to be the same as the modern Ruvo.

22. Or Gnatia, called by Strabo and Ptolemy a city of Apulia. It was probably the last town of the Peucetians towards the frontiers of Calabria. Horace, in the account of his journey to Brundusium (I. Sat. i. 97100), makes it his last halting-place, and ridicules a pretended miracle shown by the inhabitants, who asserted that incense placed on a certain altar was consumed without fire being applied. The same story is referred to by Pliny, B. ii. c. 111, where he incorrectly makes Egnatia a town of the Salentini. Its ruins are visible on the sea-coast, about six miles S.E. of Monopali, and an old town still bears the name of Torre d'Agnazzo.

23. Now Bari, a considerable city. In the time of Horace it was only a fishing town. It probably had a considerable intercourse with Greece, if we may judge from the remains of art found here.

24. It is difficult to identify these rivers, from the number of small torrents between Brindisi and the Ofanto or Aufidus. According to Mannert, the Pactius is the present Canale di Terzo.

25. An important city of Apulia, said to have been founded by Diomedes. Horace alludes to its deficiency of water. The modern Canosa is built on probably the site of the citadel of the ancient city, the ruins of which are very extensive.

26. The ruins of this place are still to be seen at some little distance from the coast, near the village of Salpi. The story about Hannibal was very probably of Roman invention, for Justin .and Frontinus speak in praise of his continence and temperance. Appian however gives some further particulars of this alleged amour.

27. The present Manfredonia has arisen from the decay of this town, in consequence of the unhealthiness of the locality. Ancient Uria is supposed to have occupied the site of Manfredonia, and the village of Santa Maria di Siponto stands where Siponti stood.

28. Probably the Cervaro. Hardouin says the Candelaro.

29. The present Porto Greco occupies its site.

30. Still known as Gargano.

31. Probably the present Varano.

32. Now Lago di Lesina. The Frento is now called the Fortore.

33. To distinguish it from Teanum of the Sidicini, previously mentioned.

34. Between the Tifernus and the Frento. Its remains are said to be still visible at Licchiano, five miles from San Martino. The Tifernus is now called the Biferno.

35. A people of Central Italy, occupying the tract on the east coast of the peninsula, from the Apennines to the Adriatic, and from the frontiers of Apulia to those of the Marrucini.

36. Strabo (B. vi.) refers to this tradition, where he mentions the oracle of Calchas, the soothsayer, in Daunia in Southern Italy. Here answers were given in dreams, for those who consulted the oracle had to sacrifice a black ram, and slept a night in the temple, lying on the skin of the victim.

37. The modern Lucera in the Capitanata.

38. The birth-place of Horace; now Verosa in the Basilicata.

39. The modern Canosa stands on the site of the citadel of ancient Canusium, an Apulian city of great importance. The remains of the ancient city are very considerable.

40. So called, it was said, in remembrance of Argos, the native city of Diomedes. It was an Apulian city of considerable importance. Some slight traces of it are still to be seen at a spot which retains the name of Arpa, five miles from the city of Foggia.

41. The names of these two defunct cities were used by the Romans to signify anything frivolous and unsubstantial; just as we speak of "castles in the air," which the French call "chataux en Espagne."

42. Livy and Ptolemy assign this place to Samnium Proper, as distinguished from the Hirpini. It was a very ancient city of the Sanmites, but in the year B.C. 268, a Roman colony was settled there, on which occasion, prompted by superstitious feelings, the Romans changed its name Maleventum, which in their language would mean "badly come," to Beneventun or "well come." The modern city of Benevento still retains numerous traces of its ancient grandeur, among others a triumphal arch, erected A.D. 114 in honour of the emperor Trajan.

43. The remains of culanum are to be seen at Le Grotte, one mile from Mirabella. The ruins are very extensive.

44. There were probably two places called Aquilonia in Italy; the remains of the present one are those probably to be seen at La Cedogna. That mentioned by Livy, B. x. c. 3843, was probably a different place.

45. These are supposed by some to be the people of Abellinum mentioned in the first region of Italy. Nothing however is known of these or of the Abellinates Marsi, mentioned below.

46. AEc is supposed to have been situate about nineteen miles from Herdonia, and to have been on the site of the modern city of Troja, an episcopal see. The Compsani were the people of Compsa, the modern Conza; and the Caudini were the inhabitants of Caudium, near which were the Fauces Caudin or "Caudine Forks," where the Roman army was captured by the Samnites. The site of this city was probably between the modern Arpaja and Monte Sarchio; and the defeat is thought to have taken place in the narrow valley between Santa Agata and Moirano, on the road from the former place to Benevento, and traversed by the little river Iselero. The enumeration here beginning with the clani is thought by Hardouin to be of nations belonging to Apulia, and not to the Hirpini. The clani, here mentioned, were probably the people of the place now called Ascoli di Satriano, not far from the river Carapella. Of the Aletrini and Atrani nothing appears to be known.

47. Probably the people of Afiil, still called Affile, and seven miles from Subiaco. Inscriptions and fragments of columns are still found there.

48. The people of Atinum, a town of Lucania, situate in the upper valley of the Tanager, now the Valle di Diano. Its site is ascertained by the ruins near the village of Atena, five miles north of La Sala. Collatia was situate on the Anio, now called the Teverone.

49. The ruins of the town of Canu are still visible at a place called Canne, about eight miles from Canosa. The Romans were defeated by Hannibal, on the banks of the Aufidus in its vicinity, but there is considerable question as to the exact locality. The ruins of the town are still considerable.

50. Forentum was the site of the present Forenza in the Basilicate. It is called by Horace and Diodorus Siculus, Ferentum. The ancient town probably stood on a plain below the modern one. Some remains of it are still to be seen.

51. On the site of Genusium stands the modern Ginosa. The ruins of the ancient city of Herdonea are still to be seen in the vicinity of the modern Ordona, on the high road from Naples to Otranto. This place witnessed the defeat by Hannibal of the Romans twice in two years.

52. The mention of the Hyrini, or people of Hyrium or Hyria, is probably an error, as he has already mentioned Uria, the same place, among the Daunian Apulians, and as on the sea-shore. See p. 228. It is not improbably a corrupted form of some other name.

53. From the Frento, on the banks of which they dwelt.

54. Viesta, on the promontory of Gargano, is said to occupy the site of the ancient Merinum.

55. According to Mannert, the modern town of Noja stands on the site of ancient Netium.

56. They inhabited Ruvo, in the territory of Bari, according to Hardouin.

57. Their town was Silvium; probably on the site of the modern Savigliano.

58. According to D'Anville their town was Strabellum, now called Rapolla.

59. Their town is supposed to have been on the site of the modern Bovino, in the Capitanata.

60. The people of Apamest; probably on the site of the modern San Vito, two miles west of Polignano.

61. The people of Butuntum, now Bitonto, an inland city of Apulia, twelve miles from Barium, and five from the sea. No particulars of it are known. All particulars too of most of the following tribes have perished.

62. D'Anville places their city, Sturni, at the present Ostuni, not far from the Adriatic, and fourteen leagues from Otranto.

63. The people of Aletium already mentioned.

64. Their town possibly stood on the site of the present village of Veste, to the west of Castro. The Neretini were probably the people of the present Nardo.

65. Probably the people of the town which stood on the site of the present San Verato.




18. Chap. 17. (12.)-The Fourth Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 17. (12.)-THE FOURTH REGION OF ITALY.

We now come to the fourth region, which includes the

most valiant probably of all the nations of Italy. Upon the

coast, in the territory of the Frentani[1], after the river Tifernus,

we find the river Trinium[2], with a good harbour at its mouth,

the towns of Histonium[3], Buca[4], and Ortona, and the river

Aternus[5]. In the interior are the Anxani surnamed Frentani,

the Higher and Lower Carentini[6], and the Lanuenses; in the

territory of the Marrucini, the Teatini[7]; in that of the Peligni,

the Corfinienses[8], the Superquani[9], and the Sulmonenses[10];







in that of the Marsi, the Anxantini[11], the Atinates[12], the

Fucentes[13], the Lucenses[14], and the Marruvini[15]; in that of

the Albenses, the town of Alba on Lake Fucinus; in that

of the quiculani, the Cliternini[16], and the Carseolani[17]; in

that of the Vestini, the Angulani[18], the Pinnenses, and the

Peltuinates, adjoining to whom are the Aufinates[19] Cismontani; in that of the Samnites, who have been called

Sabelli[20], and whom the Greeks have called Saunit, the

colony of old Bovianum[21], and that of the Undecumani,







the Aufidenates[22], the Esernini[23], the Fagifulani, the Ficolenses[24], the Spinates[25], and the Tereventinates; in that of

the Sabini, the Amiternini[26], the Curenses[27], Forum Dec[28],

Forum Novum, the Fidenates, the Interamnates[29], the Nursini[30], the Nomentani[31], the Reatini[32], the Trebulani, both

those called Mutusci[33] and those called Suffenates[34], the Tiburtes, and the Tarinates.



In these districts, the Comini[35], the Tadiates, the Cdici,







and the Alfaterni, tribes of the quiculi, have disappeared.

From Gellianus we learn that Archippe[36], a town of the

Marsi, built by Marsyas, a chieftain of the Lydians, has

been swallowed up by Lake Fucinus, and Valerianus informs

us that the town of the Viticini in Picenum was destroyed

by the Romans. The Sabini (called, according to some

writers, from their attention to religious[37] observances and

the worship of the gods, Sevini) dwell on the dew-clad hills

in the vicinity of the Lakes of the Velinus[38]. The Nar, with

its sulphureous waters, exhausts these lakes, and, descending

from Mount Fiscellus[39], unites with them near the groves of

Vacuna[40] and Reate, and then directs its course towards the

Tiber, into which it discharges itself. Again, in another

direction, the Anio[41], taking its rise in the mountain of the

Trebani, carries into the Tiber the waters of three lakes remarkable for their picturesque beauty, and to which Subla-







queum[42] is indebted for its name. In the territory of Reate

is the Lake of Cutili[43], in which there is a floating island,

and which, according to M. Varro, is the navel or central

point of Italy. Below the Sabine territory lies that of La-

tium, on one side Picenum, and behind it Umbria, while

the range of the Apennines flanks it on either side.







1. They occupied what is now called the Abruzzo Inferiore.

2. Now the Trigno.

3. On the site of the present Vasto d'Ammone, five miles south of the Punta della Penna. There are numerous remains of the ancient city.

4. According to Strabo Buca bordered on the territory of Teanum, which would place its site at Termoli, a seaport three miles from the mouth of the Biferno or Tifernus. Other writers, however, following Pliny, have placed it on the Punta della Penna, where considerable remains were visible in the 17th century. Ortona still retains its ancient name.

5. Now the Pescara.

6. The sites of their towns are unknown; but D'Anville supposes the Higher or Upper Carentum to have occupied the site of the modern Civita Burella, and the Lower one the Civita del Conte.

7. Teate is supposed to be the present Chieti.

8. The people of Corfinium, the chief city of the Peligni. It is supposed to have remained in existence up to the tenth century. Its ruins are seen near Pentima, about the church of San Pelino.

9. The site of Superquum is occupied by the present Castel Vecchio Subequo.

10. The people of Sulmo, a town ninety miles from Rome. It was the birth-place of Ovid, and was famous for the coldness of its waters, a circumstance mentioned by Ovid in his Tristia, B. iv. ch. x. 1. 4. It is now called Sulmona.

11. The people of Anxanum or Anxa, on the Sangro, now known as the city of Lanciano; in the part of which, known as Lanciano Vecchio, remains of the ancient town are to be seen.

12. The people probably of Atina in Samnium, which still retains the same name.

13. They probably took their name from the Lake Fucinus, the modern Lago Fucino, or Lago di Celano.

14. They dwelt in a town on the verge of Lake Fucinus, known as Lucus.

15. The ruins of Marruvium may still be seen at Muria, on the eastern side of Lake Fucinus.

16. It has been suggested, from the discovery of a sepulchral inscription there, that Capradosso, about nine miles from Rieti in the upper valley of the Salto, is the site of ancient Cliternia. The small village of Alba retains the name and site of the former city of Alba Fucensis, of which there are considerable remains.

17. The modern town of Carsoli is situate three miles from the site of ancient Carseoli, the remains of which are still visible at Civita near the Ostoria del Cavaliere. Ovid tells us that its climate was cold and bleak, and that it would not grow olives, though fruitful in corn. He also gives some other curious particulars of the place.-Fasti, B. iv. 1. 683 et seq.

18. The modern Civita Sant Angelo retains nearly its ancient name as that of its patron saint. It is situate on a hill, four miles from the Adriatic, and south of the river Matrinus, which separated the Vestini from the territories of Adria and Picenum.

19. The village of Ofena, twelve miles north of Popoli, is supposed to retain the site of ancient Aufina. Numerous antiquities have been found here.

20. Cato in his 'Origines' stated that they were so called from the fact of their being descended from the Sabines.

21. The site of the town of Bovianum is occupied by the modern city of Bojano; the remains of the walls are visible. Mommsen however considers Bojano to be the site of only Bovianum Undecumanorum, or "of the Eleventh Legion," and considers that the site of the ancient Samnite city of Bovianum Vetus is the place called Piettrabondante, near Agnone, twenty miles to the north, where there appear to be the remains of an ancient city.

22. The people of Aufidena, a city of northern Samnium, in the upper valley of the Sagrus or Sagro. Its remains, which show it to have been a place of very great strength, are to be seen near the modern village of Alfidena, on a hill on the left bank of the modern Sangro.

23. The people of Esernia, now Isernia.

24. The people of Ficulia or Ficolea, a city of ancient Latium on the Via Nomentana. It is supposed that it was situate within the confines of the domain of Cesarini, and upon either the hill now called Monte Gentile, or that marked by the Torre Lupara.

25. Spinum is supposed to be the same with the modern Supino or Sipicciano.

26. The ruins of the ancient Sabine city of Amiternum are still visible at San Vittorino, a village about five miles north of Aquila. Considerable remains of antiquity are still to be seen there.

27. The people of Cures, an ancient city of the Sabines, to the left of the Via Salaria, about three miles from the left bank of the Tiber, and twenty-four from Rome. It was the birth-place of Numa Pompilius. Its site is occupied by the present villages of Correse and Arci, and considerable remains of the ancient city are still to be seen.

28. Nothing is known of this place; but it has been suggested that it stood in the neighbourhood of Forum Novum (or 'New Market'), next mentioned, the present Vescovio.

29. This Interamna must not be confounded with Interamna Lirinas, mentioned in C. 9, nor Interamna Nartis, mentioned in C. 19. It was a city of Picenum in the territory of the Prtutii. The city of Teramo stands on its site; and extensive remains of the ancient city are still in existence.

30. From their town, Norsia in the duchy of Spoleto is said to derive its name.

31. The people of Nomentum, now La Mentana.

32. The people of Reate, now Rieti, below Mursia.

33. The people of Trebule Mutusc, said to have stood on the site of the present Monte Leone della Sabina, below Rieti. This place is mentioned in the seventh neid of Virgil, as the "Olive-bearing Mutusca."

34. Their town was Trebula Suffena, on the site of the present Montorio di Romagna. The Tiburtes were the people of Tibur, the modern Tivoli; and the Tarinates were the inhabitants of Tarinum, now Tarano.

35. The people of Cominium, the site of which is uncertain. It is supposed that there were three places of this name. One Cominiun is mentioned in the Samnite wars as being about twenty miles from Aquilonia, while Cominium Ceritum, probably another place, is spoken of by Livy in his account of the second Punic War. The latter, it is suggested, was about sixteen miles north-west of Beneventum, and on the site of the modern Cerreto. The Comini here mentioned by Pliny, it is thought, dwelt in neither of the above places. The sites of the towns of many of the peoples here mentioned are also equally unknown.

36. Solinus, B. ii., also states, that this place was founded by Marsyas, king of the Lydians. Hardouin mentions that in his time the remains of this town were said to be seen on the verge of the lake near Transaco.

37. From the Greek te/besqai "to worship."

38. The river Velinus, now Velino, rising in the Apennines, in the vicinity of Reate, overflowed its banks and formed several small lakes, the largest of which was called Lake Velinus, now Pie di Lugo or Lago, while a smaller one was called Lacus Reatinus, now Lago di Santa Susanna. In order to carry off these waters, a channel was cut through the rocks by Curius Dentatus, the conqueror of the Sabines, by means of which the waters of the Velinus were carried through a narrow gorge to a spot where they fall from a height of several hundred feet into the river Nar. This fall is now known as the Fall of Terni or the Cascade Delle Marmore.

39. Still called Monte Fiscello, near the town of Civita Reale. Virgil calls the Nar (now the Nera), "Sulphure Nar albus aqu," "The white Nar with its sulphureous waters."-neid, vii. 517.

40. A Sabine divinity said to have been identical with Victory. The Romans however made her the goddess of leisure and repose, and represented her as being worshiped by the husbandmen at harvest home, when they were "vacui," or at leisure. She is mentioned by Ovid in the Fasti, B. vi. 1. 307. The grove here alluded to was one of her sanctuaries.

41. The modern Teverone, which rises near Tervi or Trevi.

42. A town of the qui, now known as Subiaco. In its vicinity was the celebrated villa of Claudius and Nero, called the Villa Sublacencis.

43. This was a town of the Sabines between Reate and Interocrea, in the vicinity of a small lake of the same name. It was a mere pool, according to Dionysius, being but 400 feet in diameter. It is supposed that the floating island was formed from the incrustations of carbonate of lime on the banks, which, becoming detached, probably collected in the middle. The lake still exists, but the floating island has disappeared. There are some fine ruins of Roman baths in the vicinity of the lake.




19. Chap. 18. (13.)-The Fifth Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 18. (13.)-THE FIFTH REGION OF ITALY.

The fifth region is that of Picenum, once remarkable for

the denseness of its population; 360,000 Picentines took the

oaths of fidelity to the Roman people. They are descended

from the Sabines, who had made a vow to celebrate a holy

spring[1]. Their territory commenced at the river Aternus[2],

where the present district and colony of Adria[3] is, at a distance

of six miles from the sea. Here we find the river Vomanus,

the territories of Prtutia and Palma[4], Castrum Novum[5],







the river Batinus; Truentum[6], with its river of the same name,

which place is the only remnant of the Liburni[7] in Italy; the

river Albula[8]; Tervium, at which the Prtutian district ends,

and that of Picenum begins; the town of Cupra[9], Castellum

Firmanorum[10], and above it the colony of Asculum[11], the most

illustrious in Picenum; in the interior there is the town

of Novana[12]. Upon the coast we have Cluana[13], Potentia,

Numana, founded by the Siculi, and Ancona[14], a colony

founded by the same people on the Promontory of Cumerus,

forming an elbow of the coast, where it begins to bend in-

wards, and distant from Garganus 183 miles. In the interior







are the Auximates[15], the Beregrani[16], the Cingulani, the Cuprenses surnamed Montani[17], the Falarienses[18], the Pausulani,

the Planinenses, the Ricinenses, the Septempedani[19], the

Tollentinates, the Treienses, and the Pollentini of Urbs

Salvia[20].







1. It was a custom with the early Italian nations, especially the Sabines, in times of danger and distress, to vow to the deity the sacrifice of all the produce of the ensuing spring, that is, of the period from the first day of March till the last day of April. It is probable that in early times human sacrifices were the consequence; but at a later period the following custom was adopted instead. The children were allowed to grow up, and in the spring of their twentieth or twenty-first year were with covered faces driven across the frontier of their native country, to go whithersoever chance or the guidance of the deity might lead them. The Mamertini in Sicily were said to have had this origin.

2. Now the Aterno, which falls into the sea at Atri or Ortona.

3. A famous city of Etruscan origin, which still retains its name of Adria or Atri. It had very considerable intercourse with Greece, and there are extensive remains of antiquity in its vicinity, towards Ravegnano. The river is still called the Vomano.

4. These places are again mentioned in B. xiv. c. 8.

5. Or "New Castle." It probably occupied the site of the now deserted town of Santo Flaviano, near the banks of the river Tordino, the Batinus of Pliny, and below the modern town of Giulia Nova.

6. The river still has the name of Tronto; Porto di Martin Scuro occupies the site of the town.

7. Who had crossed over as colonists from the opposite coast of Illyricum.

8. According to Mannert the river Tesino is the same as the Albula, and Tervium is the modern town of Grotte a Mare; but D'Anville makes the latter to be the town of Cupra next mentioned.

9. This was called Cupra Maritima, to distinguish it from the town of the Cuprenses Montani, afterwards mentioned. It is said by Strabo to have had its name from the Tyrrhenian name of Juno. From the discovery of an inscription belonging to her temple here, there is little doubt that D'Anville is right in his suggestion that the site of Cupra is at Grotte a Mare, eight miles from the mouth of the Truentus or Tronto.

10. The Fortress of the Firmani," five miles from Firmum, an important city of Picenum. The Fortress was situate at the mouth of the Leta, and was the port of the city. It is still called Porto di Fermo.

11. Often called "Asculum Picenum" to distinguish it from Asculum in Apulia. It was a place of considerable strength, and played a great part in the Social War. It is unknown at what period it became a Roman colony. The modern city of Ascoli stands on its site.

12. Now called Monte Novano, according to D'Anville and Brotier.

13. Its site is supposed to have been that of the small town called Santo Elpidio a Mare, four miles from the sea, and the same distance north of Fermo. The remains of Potentia are supposed to be those in the vicinity of the modern Porto di Recanati. Numana is supposed to be the modern Umana, near the Cuscione, where, in the seventeenth century, extensive ruins were to be seen.

14. It still retains its ancient name, which was derived from the Greek a)gkw\n "the elbow," it being situate on a promontory which forms a curve, and almost encloses the port. The promontory is still called Monte Comero. A triumphal arch, erected in honour of Trajan, who constructed a new mole for the port, is still in fine preservation, and there are remains of an amphitheatre.

15. The modern city of Osimo stands on the site of Auximum, about twelve miles south-west of Ancona. Numerous inscriptions, statues, and other remains have been found there.

16. Cluver conjectures that Beregra stood at Civitella di Tronto, ten miles north of Teramo; but nothing further relative to it is known. Cingulum was situate on a lofty mountain; the modern town of Cingoli occupies its site.

17. The mountaineers." They inhabited Cupra Montana, which is supposed to have stood on the same site as the modern Ripa Transone.

18. The people of Falaria or Faleria. There are considerable remains of this town about a mile from the village of Falerona, among which a theatre and amphitheatre are most conspicuous. The remains of Pausula are supposed to be those seen on the Monte dell' Olmo. The town of the Ricinenses is supposed to have been on the banks of the Potenza, two miles from Macerata, where some remains were to be seen in the seventeenth century.

19. Septempeda is supposed to have occupied the site of the modern San Severino, on the river Potenza. Tollentinum or Tollentum was probably on the site of the modern Tolentino. The town of the Treienses is supposed to have occupied a site near the modern San Severino, in the vicinity of Montecchio.

20. A colony of the people of Pollentia was established at Urbs Salvia, occupying the site of the modern Urbisaglia on the bank of the Chiento.




20. Chap. 19. (14.)-The Sixth Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 19. (14.)-THE SIXTH REGION OF ITALY.

Adjoining to this is the sixth region, which includes Umbria and the Gallic territory in the vicinity of Ariminum.

At Ancona begins the coast of that part of Gaul known as

Gallia Togata[1]. The Siculi and the Liburni possessed the

greater part of this district, and more particularly the territories of Palma, of Prtutia, and of Adria. These were

expelled by the Umbri, these again by the Etrurians, and

these in their turn by the Gauls. The Umbri are thought

to have been the most ancient race in Italy, it being supposed that they were called "Ombrii" by the Greeks, from the

fact of their having survived the rains[2] which had inundated







the earth. We read that 300 of their towns were conquered

by the Tusci; at the present day we find on their coast the

river sis[3], Senogallia[4], the river Metaurus, the colonies of

Fanum Fortun[5] and Pisaurum[6], with a river of the same

name; and, in the interior, those of Hispellum[7] and Tuder.



Besides the above, there are the Amerini[8], the Attidiates[9],

the Asisinates[10], the Arnates[11], the sinates[12], the Camertes[13],

the Casuentillani, the Carsulani[14], the Dolates surnamed







Salentini, the Fulginiates[15], the Foroflaminienses[16], the Forojulienses surnamed Concupienses, the Forobrentani, the Forosempronienses[17], the Iguvini[18], the Interamnates surnamed

Nartes, the Mevanates[19], the Mevanionenses, the Matilicates[20],

the Narnienses[21], whose town used formerly to be called

Nequinum; the Nucerini[22], both those surnamed Favonienses

and those called Camellani; the Ocriculani[23], the Ostrani[24],

the Pitulani, both those surnamed Pisuertes and the others

called Mergentini; the Plestini[25], the Sentinates[26], the Sarsi-







nates[27], the Spoletini[28], the Suasini[29], the Sestinates[30], the

Suillates[31], the Tadinates[32], the Trebiates[33], the Tuficani[34], the

Tifernates[35] surnamed Tiberini, and the others called Metaurenses, the Vesinicates, the Urbinates, both those surnamed

Metaurenses[36] and the others called Hortenses, the Vettonenses[37], the Vindinates, and the Viventani. In this district

there exist no longer the Feliginates who possessed Clusiolum above Interamna, and the Sarranates, with their

towns of Acerr[38], surnamed Vafri, and Turocelum, also

called Vettiolum; as also the Solinates, the Curiates, the

Fallienates, and the Apiennates. The Arienates also have

disappeared with the town of Crinovolum, as well as the

Usidicani, the Plangenses, the Psinates, and the Clestini.







Cato writes that Ameria above-mentioned was founded 964

years before the war with Perseus.







1. Cisalpine Gaul was so called because the inhabitants adopted the use of the Roman toga.

2. This fanciful derivation would make their name to come from the Greek o)/mbros "a shower."

3. Now the Esino.

4. So called from the Galli Senones. The modern city of Sinigaglia occupies its site. The river Metaurus is still called the Metauro.

5. The Temple of Fortune." At this spot the Flaminian Way joined the road from Ancona and Picenum to Ariminum. The modern city of Fano occupies the site, but there are few remains of antiquity.

6. The modern Pesaro occupies the site of the town; the river is called the Foglia.

7. This was a flourishing town of Umbria. Augustus showed it especial favour and bestowed on it the Grove and Temple of Clitumnus, though at twelve miles' distance from the town. The modern town of Spello occupies its site, and very extensive remains of antiquity are still to be seen. It probably received two Roman colonies, as inscriptions mention the "Colonia Julia Hispelli" and the "Colonia Urbana Flavia." It is considered probable that Hispellum, rather than Mevania, was the birth-place of the poet Propertius. Tuder is supposed to have occupied the site of the modern Todi, on the Tiber.

8. The people of Ameria, an important and flourishing city of Umbria. There are still remains of the ancient walls; the modern town of Amelia occupies its site.

9. The site of Attidium is marked by the modern village of Attigio, two miles south of the city of Fabriano, to which the inhabitants of Attidium are supposed to have migrated in the middle ages.

10. The people of Asisium. The modern city of Assisi (the birth-place of St. Francis) occupies its site. There are considerable remains of the ancient town.

11. The people of Arna, the site of which is now occupied by the town of Civitella d'Arno, five miles east of Perugia. Some inscriptions and other objects of antiquity have been found here.

12. The people of sis, situate on the river of the same name. It is still called Iesi. Pliny, in B. xi. c. 97, mentions it as famous for the excellence of its cheeses.

13. The people of Camerinum, a city of Umbria. The present Camerino occupies its site. Its people were among the most considerable of Umbria. The site of the Casuentillani does not appear to be known.

14. The people of Carsul, an Umbrian town of some importance. Its ruins are still visible about half way between San Germino and Acqua Sparta, ten miles north of Narni. Holsten states that the site was still called Carsoli in his time, and there existed remains of an amphitheatre and a triumphal arch in honour of Trajan. Nothing seems to be known of the Dolates.

15. The people of Fulginium. From Cicero we learn that it was a municipal town. The modern city of Foligno has risen on its site. An inscription discovered here has preserved the name of Fulginia, probably a local divinity.

16. The people of Forum Flaminii, situated on the Flaminian Way, where it first entered the Apennines, three miles from Fulginium. It was here that the Emperors Gallus and Volusianus were defeated and slain by milianus, A.D. 256. The ruins at the spot called Giovanni pro Fiamma mark its site. The site of Forum Julii appears to be unknown, as also that of Forum Brentani.

17. The people of Forum Sempronii, the only town in the valley of the Metaurus. The modern city of Fossombrone, two miles distant, has thence taken its name. Considerable vestiges of the ancient town are still to be seen. The battle in which Hasdrubal was defeated by the Roman consuls Livius and Nero, B.C. 207, was probably fought in its vicinity.

18. The people of Iguvium, an ancient and important town of Umbria. Its site is occupied by the modern city of Gubbio. Interamna on the Nar has been previously mentioned.

19. The people of the town of Mevania, now called Bevagna, in the duchy of Spoleto. The Mevanionenses were the people of Mevanio, or Mevaniol, in the vicinity of Mevania, and thought by Cluver to be the modern Galeata.

20. Their town was Matilica, which still retains that name. It is situate in the Marches of Ancona.

21. Their town still retains the name of Narni.

22. Their town was surnamed Favonia and Camellaria, to distinguish it from several others of the same name. The present Nocera stands on its site.

23. The people of Ocriculum, now Otricoli, previously mentioned.

24. According to Hardouin, the ruins of Ostra are those near Monte Nuovo, now Sinigaglia, but D'Anville thinks that the modern Corinaldo marks its site.

25. Nothing is known of the Plestini, nor yet of the Pitulani, who seem to have been a different people to those mentioned in the First Region.

26. The town of Sentis, according to D'Anville and Mannert, was in the vicinity of the modern town of Sasso Ferrato.

27. The people of Sarsina, an important town of Umbria, famous as being the birth-place of the comic poet Plautus. It is now called Sassina, on the Savio.

28. The people of Spoletum, now Spoleto. It was a city of Umbria on the Via Flaminia, colonized by the Romans B.C. 242. In the later days of the Empire it was taken by Totilas, and its walls destroyed. They were however restored by Narses.

29. The people of Suasa; the remains of which, according to D'Anville and Mannert, are those seen to the east of the town of San Lorenzo, at a place called Castel Leone.

30. The monastery of Sestino is supposed to stand on the site of Sestinum, their town, at the source of the river Pesaro.

31. The site of their town is denoted by the modern Sigello in the Marches of Ancona.

32. Their town is supposed to have been also situate within the present Marches of Ancona, where they join the Duchy of Spoleto.

33. Their town was Trebia. The modern Trevi stands on its site.

34. The people of Tuficum, which Holsten thinks was situate between Matelica and Fabrianum, on the river called the Cesena.

35. The site of Tifernum Tiberinum is occupied by the present Citta di Castello, and that of Tifernum Metaurense, or "on the Metaurus," by Sant Angelo in Vado in the Duchy of Urbino. The first-named place was in the vicinity of the estates of the Younger Pliny.

36. D'Anville and Mannert are of opinion that Urbania on the Metaurus, two leagues south-east of Urbino, marks the site of their town. The Hortenses probably dwelt on the site of the present Urbino.

37. The site of their town was probably the present Bettona. The site of the towns of the peoples next mentioned is unknown.

38. Nothing is known of its position. There were cities in Campania and Cisalpine Gaul also called Acerr. The first has been mentioned under the First Region. Of the other places and peoples mentioned in this Chapter no particulars seem to have come down to us.




21. Chap. 20. (15.)-The Eighth Region Of Italy; The Padus.


CHAP. 20. (15.)-THE EIGHTH REGION OF ITALY; THE PADUS.

The eighth region is bounded by Ariminum, the Padus,

and the Apennines. Upon the coast we have the river

Crustumium[1], and the colony of Ariminum[2], with the rivers

Ariminus and Aprusa. Next comes the river Rubico[3], once

the boundary of Italy, and after it the Sapis[4], the Vitis, and

the Anemo, and then, Ravenna, a town of the Sabines[5], with

the river Bedesis, 105 miles from Ancona; and, not far from

the sea, Butrium[6], a town of the Umbri. In the interior there

are the colonies of Bononia[7], formerly called Felsina, when







it was the chief place of Etruria[8], Brixillum[9], Mutina[10], Parma[11],

and Placentia[12]. There are also the towns of Csena[13], Claterna, Forum Clod[14], Forum Liv, Forum Popil, Forum

Truentinorum[15], Forum Cornel, Forum Licin, the Faventini[16], the Fidentini[17], the Otesini, the Padinates[18], the Regi-







enses[19], who take their name from Lepidus, the Solonates[20],

the Saltus Galliani[21], surnamed Aquinates, the Tannetani[22],

the Veliates[23], who were anciently surnamed Regiates, and

the Urbanates[24]. In this district the Boii[25] have disappeared,

of whom there were 112 tribes according to Cato; as also

the Senones, who captured Rome.



(16.) The Padus[26] descends from the bosom of Mount

Vesulus, one of the most elevated points of the chain of the

Alps, in the territories of the Ligurian Vagienni[27], and rises

at its source in a manner that well merits an inspection by

the curious; after which it hides itself in a subterranean

channel until it rises again in the country of the Forovibienses. It is inferior in fame to none whatever among the

rivers, being known to the Greeks as the Eridanus and famous

as the scene of the punishment of Phaton[28]. At the rising of

the Dog-star it is swollen by the melted snows; but, though

it proves more furious in its course to the adjoining fields







than to the vessels that are upon it, still it takes care to carry

away no portion of its banks, and when it recedes, renders

them additionally fertile. Its length from its source is 300

miles, to which we must add eighty-eight for its sinuosities;

and it receives from the Apennines and Alps not only several

navigable rivers, but immense lakes as well, which discharge

themselves into its waters, thus conveying altogether as many

as thirty streams into the Adriatic Sea.



Of these the best known are the following-flowing from

the range of the Apennines, the Jactus, the Tanarus[29], the

Trebia which passes Placentia, the Tarus, the Incia, the

Gabellus, the Scultenna, and the Rhenus: from the chain of

the Alps, the Stura[30], the Orgus, the two Duri, the Sessites,

the Ticinus, the Lambrus, the Addua, the Ollius, and the

Mincius. There is no river known to receive a larger increase

than this in so short a space; so much so indeed that it is

impelled onwards by this vast body of water, and, invading

the land[31], forms deep channels in its course: hence it is

that, although a portion of its stream is drawn off by rivers

and canals between Ravenna and Altinum, for a space of

120 miles, still, at the spot where it discharges the vast body

of its waters, it is said to form seven seas.



By the Augustan Canal the Padus is carried to Ravenna,

at which place it is called the Padusa[32], having formerly borne

the name of Messanicus. The nearest mouth to this spot







forms the extensive port known as that of Vatrenus, where

Claudius Csar[33], on his triumph over the Britons, entered

the Adriatic in a vessel that deserved rather the name of a

vast palace than a ship. This mouth, which was formerly

called by some the Eridanian, has been by others styled the

Spinetic mouth, from the city of Spina, a very powerful place

which formerly stood in the vicinity, if we may form a conclusion from the amount of its treasure deposited at Delphi;

it was founded by Diomedes. At this spot the river Vatrenus[34], which flows from the territory of Forum Corneli, swells

the waters of the Padus.



The next mouth to this is that of Caprasia[35], then that

of Sagis, and then Volane, formerly called Olane; all of

which are situate upon the Flavian Canal[36], which the Tuscans formerly made from Sagis, thus drawing the impetuous stream of the river across into the marshes of the

Atriani, which they call the Seven Seas; and upon which is

the noble port of Atria[37], a city of the Tuscans, from which

place the sea was formerly called the Atriatic, though now

the Adriatic.



We next come to the overflowing mouths of Carbonaria, and the Fosses of Philistina[38], by some called Tarta-







rus[39], all of which originate in the overflow of the waters in

the Philistinian Canal, swollen by the streams of the Atesis,

descending from the Tridentine Alps, and of the Togisonus[40],

flowing from the territory of the Patavini. A portion of them

also forms the adjoining port of Brundulum[41], in the same

manner as Edron[42] is formed by the two rivers Meduacus and

the Clodian Canal. With the waters of these streams the

Padus unites, and with them discharges itself into the sea,

forming, according to most writers, between the Alps and

the sea-shore a triangular figure, 2000 stadia in circumference, not unlike the Delta formed by the Nile in Egypt.

I feel somewhat ashamed to have to borrow from the Greeks

any statement in reference to Italy; Metrodorus of Scepsos,

however, informs us that this river has obtained its name of

Padus from the fact, that about its source there are great

numbers of pine-trees, which in the Gallic language are

called "padi." In the tongue of the Ligurians this river is

called "Bodincus," which signifies "the bottomless." This

derivation is in some measure supported by the fact that

near this river there is the town of Industria[43], of which the

ancient name was Bodincomagum, and where the river begins to be of greater depth than in other parts.







1. Now the Conca. It is called "rapax Crustumium" by Lucan, B. ii. l. 406.

2. One of the most important cities of Umbria. It played a conspicuous part in most of the internal wars of the Romans. The modern city of Rimini which stands on its site, still retains two striking monuments of its grandeur; the Roman bridge of marble, which crosses the river Ariminus, erected by Augustus and Tiberius, and a triumphal arch of marble, erected in honour of Augustus. The river Ariminus is now called the Marocchia, and the Aprusa is the Ausa.

3. A papal decree, issued in 1756, declared the river Lusa to have been the ancient Rubicon, but the more general opinion is that the Pisatello, a little to the north of it, has better claims to that honour. On the north bank of the Rubicon a pillar was placed by a decree of the Senate, with an inscription giving notice that whoever should pass in arms into the Roman territory would be deemed an enemy to the state. It is especially celebrated in history by Csar's passage across it at the head of his army, by which act he declared war against the republic. See Lucan, B. i. 1. 200230.

4. The Sapis is the modern Savio, or Rio di Cesena; the Vitis is the Bevano, and the Anemo is the Roncone.

5. Strabo and Zosimus however state that it was first founded by the Thessalians. Ravenna first came into notice on being made one of the two chief stations of the Roman fleet. The harbour which was made for it was called "Classes," and between it and Ravenna sprang up the town of Csarea. Though not deemed unhealthy, it lay in a swampy district. Theodoric made it the capital of the kingdom of the Goths. The modern city stands on the site of the ancient town. The river Bedesis is now called the Montone.

6. No remains of it are extant; but it is supposed that it stood near the entrance of the Lagunes of Comacchio.

7. The modern Bologna stands on its site, and there are but few remains of antiquity to be seen.

8. He probably means only the Etruscan cities north of the Apennines.

9. The modern town of Brescello occupies its site. Here the Emperor Otho put an end to his life on learning the defeat of his troops by Vitellius. It appears to have been a strong fortress in the time of the Lombard kings.

10. The modern Modena stands on its site. It was famous in the history of the civil wars after Csar's death. Decimus Brutus was besieged here by M. Antonius, in the years B.C. 44 and 43, and under its walls the consuls Hirtius and Pansa were slain. Its vicinity, like that of Parma, was famous for the excellence of its wool.

11. This was a Roman colony, which was enlarged by Augustus, and from him received the name of Colonia Julia Augusta. It was called, after the fall of the Western Empire, Chrysopolis or the "Golden City." The modern city of Parma occupies its site.

12. A Roman colony. The present city of Piacenza stands on its site.

13. It still retains the name of Cesena, and is a considerable place. After the fall of the Western Empire it was used as a fortress of great strength. We shall find Pliny again mentioning it in B. xiv. c. 6, as famous for the goodness of its wines, a reputation which it still maintains. The name of Claterna, once a municipal town of importance, is still retained in part by a small stream which crosses the road nine miles from Bologna, and is called the Quaderna. An old church and a few houses, called Santa Maria di Quaderna, probably mark the site of the vicinity of the town, which was situate on the high road.

14. This Forum Clodii is said by D'Anville to be the modern Fornocchia. Forum Livii is supposed to have occupied the site of the present city of Forli. Forum Popili or Forli Piccolo occupies the site of Forum or Foro Popili.

15. This place is supposed to have stood on the spot where the episcopal town of Bertinoro now stands. In inscriptions it is called Forodruentinorum. Forum Cornelii, said to have been so called from the Dictator Sylla, occupied the site of the modern town of Imola. The poet Martial is said to have resided for some time in this town.

16. The people of Faventia, now Faenza. Pliny, B. xix. c. i., speaks of the whiteness of its linen, for the manufacture of which it was celebrated. At this place Carbo and Norbanus were defeated with great loss by Metellus, the partisan of Sylla, in B.C. 82.

17. The people of Fidentia. The present Borga di San Donnino stands on its site, which is between Parma and Placentia, fifteen miles from the former city.

18. Cluver thinks that their town was on the site of the modern Castel Bondino.

19. So named after milius Lepidus. The people of Regium Lepidum, the site of whose town is occupied by the modern Reggio.

20. Solonatium is supposed to have had the site of the modern Citta di Sole or Torre di Sole.

21. Nothing certain is known of this people or their town, but it is thought by Rezzonico that by this name were meant those who occupied the wood-clad heights of the Apennines, above Modena and Parma. Cicero mentions a Saltus Gallicanus as being a mountain of Campania, but that is clearly not the spot meant here.

22. Their town is thought to have stood on the same site as the modern Tenedo.

23. Their town was perhaps on the same site as the modern Villac, on the river Nura.

24. The modern city of Ombria probably stands on the site of Urbana, their town, of which considerable remains are still to be seen.

25. These and the Senones were nations of Cisalpine Gaul. The Boii emigrated originally from Transalpine Gaul, by the Penine Alps, or the Pass of Great St. Bernard. They were completely subdued by Scipio Nasica in B.C. 191, when he destroyed half of their population, and deprived them of nearly half of their lands. They were ultimately driven from their settlements, and established themselves in the modern Bohemia, which from them takes its name. The Senones, who had taken the city of Rome in B.C. 390, were conquered and the greater part of them destroyed by the Consul Dolabella in B.C. 283.

26. The Po, which rises in Monte Viso in Savoy.

27. Already mentioned in C. 7 of the present Book.

28. Ovid in his account of the adventure of Phaton (Met. B. ii.) states that he fell into the river Padus.

29. The Tanarus is still called the Tanaro. The Trebia, now the Trebbia, is memorable for the defeat on its banks of the Romans by Hannibal, B.C. 218. The Incia is the modern Enza or Lenza, the Tarus the Taro, the Gabellus the Secchia, the Scultenna the Panaro, and the Rhenus the Reno.

30. The Stura still has the same name; the Orgus is the modern Orco. The streams called Duri are known as the Dora Baltea and the Dora Riparia; the Sessites is the Sesia, the Ticinus the Tessino, the Lambrus the Lambro, the Addua the Adda, the Ollius the Oglio, and the Mincius the Menzo.

31. This seems to be the meaning of "gravis terr," unless it signifies "pressing heavily upon the land," and so cutting out channels for its course. He has previously stated that, though rapid, it is not in the habit of carrying away its banks. See a very able article on the question whether the name Eridanus belonged originally to this river or to some other in the north of Europe, in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography under the word "Eridanus."

32. That is to say, the canal made by Augustus was so called.

33. It was on this occasion that, after a stay of only a few days in Britain, he quitted the island, returned to Rome, and celebrated a splendid triumph. This outlet of the Po has now the name of Po di Primero.

34. Now the Santerno, noted for the sluggishness of its waters.

35. The Ostium Caprasi is now called the Porto Interito di Bell' Ochio, the Ostium Sagis the Porto di Magnavacca; Volane, or Volana, is the south main branch of the river. The Ostia Carbonaria, mentioned below, was the north main branch, subdivided into several small branches; and the Foss or Fossiones Philistin connected the river, by means of the Tartarus, with the Athesis.

36. The reading is doubtful here, and even this, which is perhaps the best, appears to be corrupt; for it is difficult to conceive how all the mouths previously mentioned could have been upon one canal, and besides it would seem that Olane was one of the natural mouths of the river.

37. More generally Adria, from which, as Pliny says, the Adriatic takes its name. Either a Greek, or, what is more probable, as Pliny states, an Etruscan colony, it became the principal emporium of trade with the Adriatic, in consequence of which it was surrounded with canals and other works to facilitate its communications with other rivers. It is still called Adria, and in its vicinity to the south, considerable remains of the ancient city are still to be seen.

38. So called from the Philisti, said to have been the ancient inhabitants of the spot. They are now called the Bocca della Gnoca, the Bocca della Scovetta, the Busa delle Tole, the Sbocco dell'Asinino, &c. The Ostia Carbonaria and the Fosse Philistin were to the north of the ones previously mentioned.

39. He seems to confound the Fosses of Philistina with the Tartarus (now Tartaro). That river however connected the Fosses of Philistina with the Athesis, now the Adige.

40. Now the Bacchiglione.

41. The modern Brondolo.

42. Now Chioggia, formed by the rivers Brenta and Brentella. Hardouin thinks the Clodian Canal to be the same as the modern Fossa Paltana.

43. Now Monteu di Po, below Chevasso, mentioned in the 7th Chapter.




22. Chap. 21. (17.)-The Eleventh Region Of Italy; Italia Transpaidana.


CHAP. 21. (17.)-THE ELEVENTH REGION OF ITALY; ITALIA TRANSPAIDANA.

From the river Padus the eleventh region receives its

name of Transpadana; to which, situate as it is wholly in

the interior, the river, by its bounteous channel, conveys

the gifts of all the seas. The towns are Vib Forum[1] and







Segusio; and, at the foot of the Alps, the colony of Augusta

Taurinorum[2], at which place the Padus becomes navigable,

and which was founded by the ancient race of the Ligurians,

and of Augusta Prtoria[3] of the Salassi, near the two passes

of the Alps, the Grecian[4] and the Penine (by the latter it is

said that the Carthaginians passed into Italy, by the Grecian,

Hercules)-the town of Eporedia[5], the foundation of which

by the Roman people was enjoined by the Sibylline books;

the Gauls call tamers of horses by the name of "Epore-

di"-Vercell[6], the town of the Libici, derived its origin

from the Salluvii, and Novaria[7], founded by the Vertacoma-

cori, is at the present day a district of the Vocontii, and not,

as Cato supposes, of the Ligurians; of whom two nations,

called the Lvi and the Marici, founded Ticinum[8], not far

from the Padus, as the Boii, descended from the Transalpine

nations, have founded Laus Pompeia[9] and the Insubres Me-

diolanum[10].







From Cato we also learn that Comum, Bergomum[11], and

Licinforum[12], and some other peoples in the vicinity, originated with the Orobii, but he admits that he is ignorant as

to the origin of that nation. Cornelius Alexander however

informs us that they came from Greece, interpreting their

name as meaning "those who live upon the mountains[13]."

In this district, Parra has disappeared, a town of the Orobii,

from whom, according to Cato, the people of Bergomum are

descended; its site even yet shows that it was situate in a

position more elevated than fruitful[14]. The Caturiges have

also perished, an exiled race of the Insubres, as also Spina

previously mentioned; Melpum too, a place distinguished

for its opulence, which, as we are informed by Cornelius

Nepos, was destroyed by the Insubres, the Boii, and the

Senones, on the very day on which Camillus took Veii.







1. This place is supposed to have been situate in the vicinity of the modern Saluzzo, on the north bank of the Po. Segusio occupied the site of the modern Susa.

2. Augusta of the Taurini. The present city of Turin stands on its site. It was made a Roman colony by Augustus. With the exception of some inscriptions, Turin retains no vestiges of antiquity.

3. The present city of Aosta occupies its site. This was also a Roman colony founded by Augustus, after he had subdued the Salassi. It was, as Pliny says in C. 5, the extreme point of Italy to the north. The remains of the ancient city are of extreme magnificence.

4. The Grecian pass of the Alps was that now known as the Little St. Bernard; while the Penine pass was the present Great St. Bernard. Livy in his History, B. xxi. c. 38, points out the error of taking these mountains to have derived their name from the Pni or Carthaginians. There is no doubt that they took their name from the Celtic word signi fying a mountain, which now forms the "Pen" of the Welsh and the "Ben" of the Scotch.

5. Now called Ivrea or Lamporeggio, at the entrance of the valley of the Salassi, the present Val d'Aosta. There are some remains of the ancient town to be seen.

6. The present town of Vercelli stands on its site.

7. Now called Novara, in the Duchy of Milan.

8. It became a Roman municipal town, but owes its greatness to the Lombard kings who made it their capital, and altered the name to Papia, now Pavia.

9. Pompey's Praises." The present Lodi Vecchio marks its site.

10. It was the capital of the Insubres, a Gallic nation, and was taken by the Romans in B.C. 222, on which it became a municipium and Roman colony. On the division of the empire by Diocletian, it became the residence of his colleague Maximianus, and continued to be the abode of the Emperors of the West till it was plundered by Attila, who transferred the seat of government to Ravenna. It afterwards became the capital of the kingdom of the Ostro-Goths, and was again sacked by the Goths in A.D. 539, and its inhabitants put to the sword. The present city, known to us as Milan, contains no remains of antiquity.

11. The modern Como and Bergamo stand on their sites.

12. From its name, signifying the "market of Licinius," it would appear to be of Roman origin. Its site is supposed to have been at a place called Incino, near the town of Erba, between Como and Lecco, where inscriptions and other antiquities have been found.

13. Deriving it from the Greek o)/ros, "a mountain," and bi/os, "life."

14. Etiamnum prodente se altius quam fortunatius situm." Hardouin seems to think that "se" refers to Cato, and that he informs us to that effect; but to all appearance, it relates rather to the town, which even yet, by its ruins, showed that it was perched too high among the mountains to be a fertile spot.




23. Chap. 22. (18.)-The Tenth Region Of Italy.


CHAP. 22. (18.)-THE TENTH REGION OF ITALY.

We now come to the tenth region of Italy, situate on the

Adriatic Sea. In this district are Venetia[1], the river Silis[2],

rising in the Tarvisanian[3] mountains, the town of Alti-







num[4], the river Liquentia rising in the mountains of Opitergium[5], and a port with the same name, the colony of Concordia[6]; the rivers and harbours of Romatinum[7], the greater

and less Tiliaventum[8], the Anaxum[9], into which the Varamus

flows, the Alsa[10], and the Natiso with the Turrus, which flow

past the colony of Aquileia[11] at a distance of fifteen miles

from the sea. This is the country of the Carni[12], and adjoining to it is that of the lapydes, the river Timavus[13], the







fortress of Pucinum[14], famous for its wines, the Gulf of Tergeste[15], and the colony of that name, thirty-three miles from

Aquileia. Six miles beyond this place lies the river Formio[16],

189 miles distant from Ravenna, the ancient boundary[17] of

enlarged Italy, and now the frontier of Istria. That this

region takes its name from the river Ister which flows from

the Danube, also called the Ister, into the Adriatic opposite

the mouth of the Padus, and that the sea which lies between

them is rendered fresh by their waters running from opposite

directions, has been erroneously asserted by many, and among

them by Nepos even, who dwelt upon the banks of the Padus.

For it is the fact that no river which runs from the Danube

discharges itself into the Adriatic. They have been misled,

I think, by the circumstance that the ship Argo came down

some river into the Adriatic sea, not far from Tergeste;

but what river that was is now unknown. The most careful

writers say that the ship was carried across the Alps on

men's shoulders, having passed along the Ister, then along

the Savus, and so from Nauportus[18], which place, lying between mona[19] and the Alps, from that circumstance derives

its name.











1. The district of the Veneti. These people, taking refuge in the adjoining islands in the fifth century to escape the Huns under Attila, founded the modern city of Venice.

2. Now called the Sile, which flows past Trevigio or Treviso.

3. The mountainous district in the vicinity of Tarvisium, the modern Treviso.

4. Situate in a marsh or lagune on the river Sile. It became a Roman colony after Pliny's time, under the Emperor Trajan. Its villas are described by Martial as rivalling those of Bai. The Emperor Verus died here A.D. 169. The modern village of Altino is a very impoverished place. The Liquentia is now called the Livenza.

5. Now called Oderzo, on the river Montegano, which flows into the Liquenza. The conduct of the people of this place, in the wars between Pompey and Csar, is mentioned by Lucan, in his Pharsalia, B. iv. 1. 462.

6. From inscriptions we find that this place was called Colonia Julia Concordia, from which it seems probable that it was one of the colonies founded by Augustus to celebrate the restoration of peace. It rapidly rose into importance, and is often mentioned during the later ages of the Roman Empire, as one of the most important cities in this part of Italy. It is now a poor village, with the same name, and no remains of antiquity beyond a few inscriptions.

7. The Romatinum is the modern Lemene. Pliny seems to imply, (though from the uncertainty of the punctuation it is not clear,) that on the Romatinum there was a port of that name. If so, it would probably occupy the site of the present Santa Margherita, at the mouth of the Lemene.

8. The greater Tiliaventum is the modern Tagliamento; and Hardouin suggests that the smaller river of that name is the Lugugnana.

9. This river is supposed to be the same with the modern Stella, and the Varamus the Revonchi, which joins the Stella.

10. Now called the Ansa. The Natiso is the modern Natisone, and the Turrus the Torre; the former flowed past Aquileia on the west, the latter on the east, in former times, but their course is probably now changed, and they fall into the Isonzo, four miles from the city.

11. The capital of Venetia, and one of the most important cities of Northern Italy. In the year A.D. 452 it was besieged by Attila, king of the Huns, taken by storm, and plundered and burnt to the ground. On its site, which is very unhealthy, is the modern village of Aquileia, with about 1400 inhabitants. No ruins of any buildings are visible, but the site abounds with coins, shafts of columns, inscriptions, and other remains of antiquity.

12. Ptolemy states that Concordia and Aquileia were situate in the district of the Carni.

13. Still called the Timavo.

14. Castel Duino stands on its site. It will be found again mentioned in B. xiv. C. 8, for the excellence of its wines.

15. Now the Gulf of Trieste. Tergeste was previously an insignificant place, but made a Roman colony by Vespasian. The modern city of Trieste occupies its site.

16. Most probably the modern Risano. Cluver and D'Anville are of that opinion, but Walckenaer thinks that it was a small stream near Muja Vecchia; which seems however to be too near Trieste.

17. In the time of Augustus, and before Istria was added as a province to Italy.

18. He alludes to an old tradition that the Argonauts sailed into the Ister or Danube, and then into the Save, till they came to the spot where the modern town of Upper Laybach stands, and that here they built Nauportus, after which they carried their ship across the mountains on men's shoulders into the Adriatic. He intends to suggest therefore that the place had its name from the Greek nau=s "a ship" and porymo\s "a passage."

19. The modem town of Laybach stands on its site. It is situate on the Save, and on the road from Aquileia to Celeia. The Roman remains prove that the ancient city exceeded the modern one in magnitude. According to tradition it was founded by the Argonauts. It subsequently became a Roman colony, with the title of Julia Augusta. It is again mentioned in C. 28.




24. Chap. 23. (19.)-Istria, Its People And Locality.


CHAP. 23. (19.)-ISTRIA, ITS PEOPLE AND LOCALITY.

Istria projects in the form of a peninsula. Some writers

have stated its length to be forty miles, and its circumference

125; and the same as to Liburnia which adjoins it, and the

Flanatic Gulf[1], while others make it 225[2]; others again

make the circumference of Liburnia 180 miles. Some persons too extend Iapydia, at the back of Istria, as far as the

Flanatic Gulf, a distance of 130 miles, thus making Liburnia

but 150 miles. Tuditanus[3], who subdued the Istri, had this

inscription on his statue which was erected there: "From

Aquileia to the river Titus is a distance of 1000 stadia."



The towns of Istria with the rights of Roman citizens are

gida[4], Parentium, and the colony of Pola[5], now Pietas Julia,

formerly founded by the Colchians, and distant from Tergeste 100 miles: after which we come to the town of Nesactium[6], and the river Arsia, now[7] the boundary of Italy.

The distance across from Ancona to Pola is 120 miles. In







the interior of the tenth region are the colonies of Cremona,

Brixia in the territory of the Cenomanni[8], Ateste[9] belonging

to the Veneti, and the towns of Acelum[10], Patavium[11], Opitergium,

Belunum[12], and Vicetia; with Mantua[13], the only

city of the Tuscans now left beyond the Padus. Cato informs us that

the Veneti are descendants of the Trojans[14],

and that the Cenomanni[15] dwelt among the Volc in the vicinity of

Massilia. There are also the towns of the Fertini[16],

the Tridentini[17], and the Beruenses, belonging to the Rhti,

Verona[18], belonging to the Rhti and the Euganei, and Ju-







lienses[19] to the Carni. We then have the following peoples,

whom there is no necessity to particularize with any degree

of exactness, the Alutrenses, the Asseriates, the Flamonienses[20] with

those surnamed Vanienses, and the others

called Culici, the Forojulienses[21] surnamed Transpadani, the

Foretani, the Nedinates[22], the Quarqueni[23], the Taurisani[24],

the Togienses, and the Varvari. In this district there have

disappeared-upon the coast-Iramene, Pellaon, and Palsatium, Atina and

Clina belonging to the Veneti, Segeste

and Ocra to the Carni, and Noreia to the Taurisci. L. Piso

also informs us that although the senate disapproved of his

so doing, M. Claudius Marcellus[25] razed to the ground a

tower situate at the twelfth mile-stone from Aquileia.



In this region also and the eleventh there are some celebrated

lakes[26], and several rivers that either take their rise in

them or else are fed by their waters, in those cases in which

they again emerge from them. These are the Addua[27], fed by

the Lake Larius, the Ticinus by Lake Verbannus, the Mincius

by Lake Benacus, the Ollius by Lake Sebinnus, and the Lambrus by Lake

Eupilis-all of them flowing into the Padus.







Clius states that the length of the Alps from the Upper

Sea to the Lower is 1000 miles, a distance which Timagenes shortens

by twenty-two. Cornelius Nepos assigns to

them a breadth of 100 miles, and T. Livius of 3000 stadia;

but then in different places. For in some localities they

exceed 100 miles; where they divide Germany, for instance,

from Italy; while in other parts they do not reach seventy,

being thus narrowed by the providential dispensation of

nature as it were. The breadth of Italy, taken from the

river Var at the foot of these mountains, and passing along

by the Vada[28] Sabatia, the Taurini, Comum, Brixia, Verona,

Vicetia, Opitergium, Aquileia, Tergeste, Pola, and Arsia, is

745 miles.







1. Now the Golfo di Quarnaro. Liburnia was separated from Istria on the north-west by the river Arsia, and from Dalnatia on the south by the river Titus or Kerka, corresponding to the western part of modern Croatia, and the northern part of modern Dalmatia. Iapydia was situate to the north of Dalmatia and east of Liburnia, or the present military frontier of Croatia, between the rivers Kulpa and Korana to the north and east, and the Velebich mountains to the south. Istria consisted of the peninsula which still bears the same appellation.

2. This passage, "while others make it 225," is omitted in many of the MSS. and most of the editions. If it is retained, it is not improbable that his meaning is, "and the circumference of Liburnia which joins it, with the Flanatic Gulf, some make 225, while others make the compass of Liburnia to be 180 miles." It depends on the punctuation and the force of "item," and the question whether the passage is not in a corrupt state; and it is not at all clear what his meaning really is.

3. He alludes to C. Sempronius Tuditanus, Consul B.C. 129. He gained his victory over the lapydes chiefly through the skill of his legatus, D. Junius Brutus. He was a distinguished orator and historian. He was the maternal grandfather of the orator Hortensius.

4. This place is only mentioned by Pliny, but from an inscription found, it appears that the emperor Justin II. conferred on it the title of Justinopolis. It is thought that it occupied the site of the present town of Capo d'Istria.-Parentium stood on the site of the present Parenzo.

5. It still retains its name.

6. Supposed to have occupied the site of the modern Castel Nuovo, past which the Arsia, now the Arsa, flows.

7. Since Istria had been added to it by Augustus.

8. Livy seems to imply that Cremona was originally included in the

territory of the Insubres. A Roman colony being established there it

became a powerful city. It was destroyed by Antonius the general of

Vespasian, and again by the Lombard king Agilulfus in A.D. 605. No

remains of antiquity, except a few inscriptions, are to be seen in the

modern city.

9. The modern city of Este stands on the site of Ateste. Beyond

inscriptions there are no remains of this Roman colony.

10. Asolo stands on its site.

11. It was said to have been founded by the Trojan Antenor. Under the

Romans it was the most important city in the north of Italy, and by its

commerce and manufactures attained great opulence. It was plundered

by Attila, and, by Agilulfus, king of the Lombards, was razed to the

ground. It was celebrated as being the birth-place of Livy. Modern

Padua stands on its site, but has no remains of antiquity.

12. Now called Belluno. Vicetia has been succeeded by the modem

Vicenza.

13. Mantua was not a place of importance, but was famous as being the

birth-place of Virgil; at least, the poet, who was born at the village of

Andes, in its vicinity, regarded it as such. It was said to have had its

name from Manto, the daughter of Tiresias. Virgil, in the neid, B. x.,

alludes to its supposed Tuscan origin.

14. Led by Antenor, as Livy says, B. i.

15. The Cenomanni, a tribe of the Cisalpine Gauls, seem to have

occupied the country north of the Padus, between the Insubres on the

west

and the Veneti on the east. From Polybius and Livy we learn that they

had crossed the Alps within historical memory, and had expelled the

Etruscans and occupied their territory. They were signalized for their

amicable feelings towards the Roman state.

16. Their town was Fertria or Feltria, the modern Feltre.

17. The modern city of Trento or Trent occupies the site of Tridentum,

their town. It is situate on the Athesis or Adige. It became famous in

the middle ages, and the great ecclesiastical council met here in 1545.

18. It was a Roman colony under the name of Colonia Augusta,

having originally been the capital of the Euganei, and then of the

Cenomanni. It was the birth-place of Catullus, and according to some

accounts,

of our author, Pliny. Modern Verona exhibits many remains of antiquity.

19. D'Anville says that the ruins of this town are to be seen at the

modern Zuglio.

20. Hardouin thinks that their town, Flamonia, stood on the site of the

modern Flagogna.

21. Their town, Forum Julii, a Roman colony, stood on the site of the

modern Friuli. Paulus Diaconus ascribes its foundation to Julius

Csar.

22. Supposed by Miller to have inhabited the town now called Nadin

or Susied.

23. Their town was probably on the site of the modern Quero, on the

river Piave, below Feltre.

24. Probably the same as the Tarvisani, whose town was Tarvisium,

now Treviso.

25. The conqueror of Syracuse. The fact here related probably took

place in the Gallic war.

26. This must be the meaning; and we must not, as Holland does,

employ the number as signifying that of the lakes and rivers; for the

Ticinus

is in the eleventh region.

27. Now the Adda, running through Lago di Como, the Tesino through

Lago Maggiore, the Mincio through Lago di Garda, the Seo through

Lago di Seo, and the Lambro now communicating with the two small

lakes called Lago di Pusiano and Lago d'Alserio, which in Pliny's time

probably formed one large lake.

28. Now Vado in Liguria, the harbour of Sabbata or Savo. Using the

modern names, the line thus drawn runs past Vado, Turin, Como,

Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, Oderzo, Aquileia, Trieste, Pola,

and the Arsa.




25. Chap. 24. (20.)-The Alps, And The Alpine Nations.


CHAP. 24. (20.)-THE ALPS, AND THE ALPINE NATIONS.



Many nations dwell among the Alps; but the more

remarkable, between Pola and the district of Tergeste, are

the Secusses, the Subocrini, the Catali, the Menocaleni, and

near the Carni the people formerly called the Taurisci, but

now the Norici. Adjoining to these are the Rhti and the

Vindelici, who are all divided into a multitude of states. It

is supposed that the Rhti are the descendants of the Tuscans, who

were expelled by the Gauls and migrated hither

under the command of their chief, whose name was Rhtus.

Turning then to the side of the Alps which fronts Italy, we

have the Euganean[1] nations enjoying Latin rights, and of

whom Cato enumerates thirty-four towns. Among these are

the Triumpilini, a people who were sold[2] with their territory; and

then the Camuni, and several similar tribes, each

of them in the jurisdiction of its neighbouring municipal

town. The same author also considers the Lepontii[3] and







the Salassi to be of Tauriscan origin, but most other

writers, giving a Greek[4] interpretation to their name, consider the Lepontii to have been those of the followers of

Hercules who were left behind in consequence of their limbs

being frozen by the snow of the Alps. They are also of

opinion that the inhabitants of the Grecian Alps are descended from a portion of the Greeks of his army, and that

the Euganeans, being sprung from an origin so illustrious,

thence took their name[5]. The head of these are the Stni[6].

The Vennonenses[7] and the Sarunetes[8], peoples of the

Rhti, dwell about the sources of the river Rhenus, while

the tribe of the Lepontii, known as the Uberi, dwell in the

vicinity of the sources of the lhodanus, in the same district

of the Alps. There are also other native tribes here,

who have received Latin rights, such as the Octodurenses[9],

and their neighbours the Centrones[10], the Cottian[11] states,

the Ligurian Vagienni, descended from the Caturiges[12], as

also those called Montani[13]; besides numerous nations of the

Capillati[14], on the confines of the Ligurian Sea.







It may not be inappropriate in this place to subjoin the

inscription now to be seen upon the trophy[15] erected on the

Alps, which is to the following effect:-"To the Emperor

Csar-The son[16] of Csar now deified, Augustus,

Pontifex Maximus, and emperor fourteen years, in

the seventeenth[17] year of his holding the tribuni-

tial authority, the Senate and the Roman people, in

remembrance that under his command and auspices

all the Alpine nations which extended from the

upper sea to the lower were reduced to subjection

by the Roman people-The Alpine nations so sub-

dued were: the Triumpilini, the Camuni, the Ve-

nostes[18], the Vennonenses, the Isarci, the Breuni,

the Genaunes[19], the Focunates, four nations of the

Vindelici, the Consuanetes, the Rucinates, the

Licates[20], the Catenates, the Ambisontes, the Ru-

gusci, the Suanetes[21], the Calucones, the Brixentes, the Lepontii, the Uberi, the Nantuates, the

Seduni, the Varagri, the Salassi, the Acitavones,







the Medulli, the Uceni[22], the Caturiges, the Bri-

giani, the Sogiontii, the Brodiontii, the Nemaloni,

the Edenates[23], the Esubiani, the Veamini, the Gal-

lit, the Triulatti, the Ecdini, the Vergunni, the

Eguituri[24], the Nementuri, the Oratelli, the Nerusi,

the Velauni, and the Suetri."



The twelve states of the Cottiani[25] were not included in

the list, as they had shown no hostility, nor yet those which

had been placed by the Pompeian law under the jurisdiction

of the municipal towns.



Such then is Italy, sacred to the gods, such are the nations, such

the cities of her peoples; to which we may add,

that this is that same Italy, which, when L. milius Paulus[26]

and C. Attilius Regulus were Consuls, on hearing of the rising

in Gaul, unaided, and without any foreign assistance whatever,

without the help even of that portion which lies beyond the

Padus, armed 80,000 horse and 700,000 foot. In abundance of metals of

every kind. Italy yields to no land whatever;

but all search for them has been prohibited by an ancient

decree of the Senate, who gave orders thereby that Italy

shall be exempted[27] from such treatment.







1. It is from this people that the group of volcanic

hills between Padua

and Verona derive their present name of Colli Euganei or the "Euganean

Hills." From the Triumpilini and the Camuni, the present Val Camonica

and Val Trompia derive their names.

2. Probably meaning, that for a sum of money they originally acknowledged their subjection to the Roman power.

3. The Lepontii probably dwelt in the modern Val Leventina and the

Val d'Osula, near Lago Maggiore; the Salassi in the Val d'Aosta.

4. Making it to come from the Greek verb lei/pw, "to leave behind."

5. As though being evyevetot or eu)ge/neioi or

eu)genei=s, "of honourable descent," or "parentage."

6. Strabo mentions the Stoni or Stni among the minor Alpine tribes.

Mannert thinks that they dwelt near the sources of the river Chiese,

about the site of the modern village of Storo.

7. It has been suggested that from them the modern Valtelline takes

its name.

8. Hardouin suggests that the Suanetes, who are again mentioned,

are the people here meant.

9. They are supposed to have dwelt in the present canton of Martignac

in the Valais, and the Vaudois.

10. They dwelt in the Tarantaise, in the duchy of Savoy. The village

called Centron still retains their name.

11. The states subject to Cottius, an Alpine chief, who having gained the

favour of Augustus, was left by him in possession of this portion of the

Alps, with the title of Prfect. These states, in the vicinity of

the modern Mount Cenis, seem to have extended from Ebrodunum or Embrun

in Gaul, to Segusio, the modern Susa, in Italy, including the Pass of

Mont Grenvre. The territory of Cottius was united by Nero to the

Roman empire, as a separate province called the "Alpes Cotti."

12. They dwelt in the vicinity of Ebrodunum or Embrun already mentioned.

13. The "mountaineers." Some editions read here "Appuani," so called

from the town of Appua, now Pontremoli.

14. The Vagienni, and the Capillati Ligures, or "Long-haired

Ligurians," have been previously mentioned in Chap. 7.

15. The trophy or triumphal arch which bore this inscription is that

which was still to be seen at Torbia near Nica in Illyria,

in the time of

Gruter, who has given that portion of the inscription which remained

unobliterated, down to "gentes Alpin," "the Alpine nations."

Hardouin speaks of another triumphal arch in honour of Augustus at

Segusio

or Susa in Piedmont, which appears to have commenced in a somewhat

similar manner, but only the first twelve words were remaining in 1671.

16. Adopted son of his great uncle Julius Csar.

17. Most of the MSS. omit the figures XVII here, but it is evidently

an accident; if indeed they were omitted in the original.

18. They are supposed to have occupied the Val Venosco, at the sources

of the Adige. The Isarci dwelt in the Val de Sarra or Sarcha, near Val

Camonica; and the Breuni in the Val Brounia or Bregna, at the source

of the Tessino.

19. D'Anville thinks that they inhabited the Val d'Agno, near Trento,

between Lake Como and the Adige. He also detects the name of the

Focunates in the village of Vogogna.

20. They inhabited the banks of the river Lech, their town being,

according to Strabo, Damasia, afterwards Augusta Vindelicorum, now

Augsburg.

21. Probably the Sarunetes, already mentioned. The Brixentes

inhabited the modern Brixen in the Tyrol. The Lepontii have been

previously mentioned. The Seduni occupied the present Sion, the

capital

of the Valais. The Salassi have been already mentioned. According to

Bouche, the Medulli occupied the modern Maurienne in Savoy. The

Varagri dwelt in Le Chablais.

22. The Uceni, according to Hardouin, occupied Le Bourg d'Oysans in

the modern Graisivaudan; the Caturiges, the modern Chorges according

to Ansart; the Brigiani, probably Brianon, and the Nemaloni, as

Hardouin thinks, the place called Miolans.

23. They probably dwelt in the Ville de Seyne, in Embrun; the Esubiani

near the river Hubaye, in the Valle de Barcelone in Savoy; the Veamini

in Senez, the Triulatti at the village of Alloz, the Ecdini near the river

Tinea, and the Vergunni in the vicinity of the district of Vergons.

24. The Eguituri probably dwelt near the modern town of Guillaumes, the

Oratelli at the place now called Le Puget de Thniers, and the

Velauni

near the modern Bueil.

25. Or subjects of Cottius, previously mentioned.

26. A mistake for L. milus Papus. He and C. Regulus were Consuls

in B.C. 225. They successfully opposed the Cisalpine Gauls,

who invaded

Italy; but Regulus was slain in the engagement.

27. It is difficult to say what is the exact force of "parci" here; whether

in fact it means that Italy shall be wholly exempted from such treatment,

as an indignity offered to her soil, or whether her minerals were to be

strictly kept in reserve as a last resource. Ajasson, in his Translation,

seems to take the former view, Littr the latter.




26. Chap. 25. (21.)-Liburnia And Illyricum.


CHAP. 25. (21.)-LIBURNIA AND ILLYRICUM.



The nation of the Liburni adjoins the river Arsia[1], and







extends as far as the river Titus. The Mentores, the Hymani[2],

the Enchele, the Buni, and the people whom Callimachus

calls the Peuceti, formerly formed part of it; but now the

whole in general are comprised under the one name of

Illyricum. But few of the names of these nations are worthy

of mention, or indeed very easy of pronunciation. To the

jurisdiction of Scardona[3] resort the Iapydes and fourteen

cities of the Liburni, of which it may not prove tedious if I

mention the Lacinienses, the Stlupini, the Burnist, and

the Olbonenses. Belonging to the same jurisdiction there

are, in the enjoyment of Italian rights, the Alut[4], the

Flanates[5], from whom the Gulf takes its name, the Lopsi,

and the Varvarini; the Assesiates, who are exempt from

tribute; and upon the islands, the Fertinates and the Curictt[6].



Besides these, there are on the coast, after leaving

Nesactium, Alvona[7], Flanona, Tarsatica, Senia,

Lopsica, Ortopula,

Vegium, Argyruntum, Corinium[8], nona, the city of

Pasinum, and the river Tedanius, at which Iapydia terminates. The

islands of this Gulf, with their towns, besides

those above mentioned, are Absyrtium[9], Arba[10], Crexa, Gissa,







and Portunata. Again, on the mainland there is the colony

of Iadera[11], distant from Pola 160 miles; then, at a

distance of thirty miles, the island of Colentum[12], and of

eighteen, the mouth of the river Titus.







1. From the river now called the Arsa to that called the Kerka.

2. Hardouin thinks that "Ismeni" is the proper reading here; but all

the MSS. seem to be against him.

3. Mentioned in the next Chapter.

4. Their town was Aluus or Aloiis.

5. Their town was Flanona, which gave name to the Sinus Flanaticus

or Golfo di Quarnero. The chief town of the Lopsi was Lopsica, and

of the Varvarini, Varvaria.

6. The island of Fertina is supposed to have been the modern Berwitch

or Parvich. Curicta is now called Karek or Veglia. The Illyrian snails

mentioned by our author, B. ix. c. 56, are very numerous here. Caius

Antonius, the brother of Marcus, acting under Julius Csar,

was besieged here by Libo. See the interesting account in

Lucan's Pharsalia, B. iv. 1. 402464.

7. The places on their sites are now called Albona, Fianona, Tersact or

Tersat near Fiume, Segna, Lopsico, Ortopia, and Veza.

8. Now Carin. nona is now called Nona, and the Tedanius is the

modern Zermagna.

9. The whole of this group of islands were sometimes called the Absyrtides, from Absyrtus, the brother of Medea, who according to tradition

was slain there. See the last Chapter, p. 266.. Ovid, however, in his

"Tristia," states that this took place at Tomi, on the Pontus Euxinus or

Black Sea, the place of his banishment.

10. Said by D'Anville to be now called Arbe, and Crexa to be the modern

Cherso. Gissa is thought to have been the modern Pago.

11. It was the capital of Liburnia. The city of Zara or Zara Vecchia

stands on its site. There are but little remains of the ancient city.

12. Supposed to be the present Mortero.




27. Chap. 26. (22.)-Dalmatia.


CHAP. 26. (22.)-DALMATIA.



Scardona, situate upon the river[1], at a distance of twelve

miles from the sea, forms the boundary of Liburnia and the

beginning of Dalmatia. Next to this place comes the ancient

country of the Autariatares and the fortress of Tariona, the

Promontory of Diomedes[2], or, as others call it, the peninsula

of Hyllis, 100 miles[3] in circuit. Then comes Tragurium, a

place with the rights of Roman citizens, and celebrated for

its marble, Sicum, a place to which Claudius, the emperor

lately deified, sent a colony of his veterans, and Salona[4], a

colony, situate 112 miles from ladera. To this place resort

for legal purposes, having the laws dispensed according to

their divisions into decuries or tithings, the Dahmat, forming 342

decuries, the Deurici 22, the Ditiones 239, the

Mazi 269, and the Sardiates 52. In this region are Burnum[5],

Andetrium[6], and Tribulium, fortresses ennobled by

the battles of the Roman people. To the same jurisdiction

also belong the Issi[7], the Colentini, the Separi, and the







Epetini, nations inhabiting the islands. After these come

the fortresses of Peguntium[8] and of Rataneum, with the

colony of Narona[9], the seat of the third jurisdiction, distant

from Salona eighty-two miles, and situate upon a river of the

same name, at a distance of twenty miles from the sea. M.

Varro states that eighty-nine states used to resort thither, but

now nearly the only ones that are known are the Cerauni[10]

with 24 decuries, the Daorizi with 17, the Dsitiates with 103,

the Docleat with 33, the Deretini with 14, the Deremist

with 30, the Dindari with 33, the Glinditiones with 44, the

Melcomani with 24, the Naresii with 102, the Scirtarii with

72, the Siculot with 24, and the Vardi, once the scourges

of Italy, with no more than 20 decuries. In addition to

these, this district was possessed by the Ozui, the Partheni,

the Hemasini, the Arthit, and the Armist. The colony

of Epidaurum[11] is distant from the river Naron 100 miles.

After Epidaurum come the following towns, with the rights

of Roman citizens:-Rhizinium[12], Acruvium[13], Butua,

Olcinium, formerly called Colchinium, having been founded by

the Colchians; the river Drilo[14], and, upon it, Scodra[15], a

town with the rights of Roman citizens, situate at a distance

of eighteen miles from the sea; besides in former times many

Greek towns and once powerful states, of which all remem-







brance is fast fading away. For in this region there were

formerly the Labeat, the Enderini[16], the Sasi, the

Grabi[17],

properly called Illyrii, the Taulantii[18], and the Pyrei. The

Promontory of Nymphum on the sea-coast still retains its

name[19]; and there is Lissum, a town enjoying the rights of

Roman citizens, at a distance from Epidaurum of 100 miles.



(23.) At Lissum begins the province of Macedonia[20], the

nations of the Parthini[21], and behind them the Dassaret[22].

The mountains of Candavia[23] are seventy-eight miles from

Dyrrhachium. On the coast lies Denda, a town with the

rights of Roman citizens, the colony of Epidamnum[24], which,

on account of its inauspicious name, was by the Romans

called Dyrrhachium, the river Aus[25], by' some called as,

and Apollonia[26], formerly a colony of the Corinthians, at a

distance of four miles from the sea, in the vicinity of which







the celebrated Nymphum[27] is inhabited by the barbarous

Amantes[28] and Buliones. Upon the coast too is the town of

Oricum[29], founded by the Colchians. At this spot begins

Epirus, with the Acroceraunian[30] mountains, by which we have

previously mentioned[31] this Gulf of Europe as bounded.

Oricum is distant from the Promontory of Salentinum in

Italy eighty[32] miles.







1. The Titus or Kerka. Scardona still retains its name.

2. Now called the Cabo di San Nicolo.

3. This measurement would make it appear that the present Sabioncello

is meant, but that it ought to come below, after Narona. He probably

means the quasi peninsula upon which the town of Tragurium, now Trau

Vecchio, was situate; but its circumference is hardly fifty miles. So, if

Sicum is the same as the modern Sebenico, it ought to have been

mentioned previously to Tragurium.

4. Spalatro, the retreat of Diocletian, was in the vicinity of Salona. Its

ancient name was Spolatum, and at the village of Dioclea near it, that

emperor was born. On the ruins of the once important city of Salona,

rose the modern Spalato or Spalatro.

5. Its site is unknown, though D'Anville thinks that it was probably

that of the modern Tain.

6. Clissa is supposed to occupy its site. Tribulium is probably the

modern Ugliane.

7. The people of the island of Issa, now Lissa, off the coast of

Liburnia. It was originally peopled by a Parian or a Syracusan

colony. It

was famous for its wine, and the beaked ships "Lembi Issaici," rendered

the Romans good service in the war with Philip of Macedon.

8. The modern Almissa stands on its site; and on that of Rataneum,

Mucarisca.

9. Now called Narenta; the river having the same name.

10. The localities of all these peoples are unknown.

11. Or Epidaurus. It is not noticed in history till the civil war between

Pompey and Csar, when, having declared in favour of the latter, it was

besieged by M. Octavius. The site of it is known as Ragusa Vecchia, or

Old Ragusa, but in the Illyric language it is called Zaptal. Upon its

destruction, its inhabitants moved to Rausium, the present Ragusa.

There are no remains extant of the old town.

12. It still retains the name of Risine, upon the Golfo di Cattaro, the

ancient Sinus Rhizonicus.

13. In the former editions called "Ascrivium." The modern Cattaro is

supposed to occupy its site. Butua is the modern Budua, and Olcinium,

Dulcigno. It is probable that the derivation of the name of this last

place, as suggested by Pliny, is only fanciful.

14. Now called Drin and Drino.

15. Now called Scutari or Scodar, the capital of the province called by

the Turks Sangiac de Scodar.

16. According to Hardouin, the modern Endero stands on the site of

their capital.

17. Grabia, mentioned by Pouqueville, in his "Voyage de la Grece," seems

to retain the name of this tribe.

18. Pouqueville is of opinion that they occupied the district now known

as Musach.

19. Dalechamp thinks that the two words "Retinet nomen" do not belong

to the text, but have crept in from being the gloss of some more recent

commentator. They certainly appear to be out of place. This promontory

is now called Cabo Rodoni.

20. The modern Albania.

21. Pouqueville is of opinion that they inhabited the district about the

present village of Presa, seven leagues N.E. of Durazzo.

22. From Ptolemy we learn that Lychnidus was their town; the site of

which, according to Pouqueville, is still pointed out at a spot about four

leagues south of Ochrida, on the eastern bank of the Lake of Ochrida.

23. Now called El Bassan; though Pouqueville says Tomoros or De

Caulonias. Commencing in Epirus, they separated Illyricum from

Macedonia. See Lucan's Pharsalia, B. vi. 1. 331.

24. The Romans are said to have changed its Greek name Epidamnum,

from an idea that it was inauspicious, as implying "damnum" or "ruin."

It has been asserted that they gave it the name of Durrhachium or

Dyrrhachium, from "durum," rugged, on account of the ruggedness of its

locality. This however cannot be the case, as the word, like its

predecessor, is of Greek origin. Its unfortunate name, "Epidamnus,"

is the

subject of several puns and witticisms in that most amusing perhaps of all

the plays of Plautus, the Menchmi. It was of Corcyrean origin, and

after playing a distinguished part in the civil wars between Pompey and

Csar, was granted by Augustus to his veteran troops. The modern

Durazzo stands on its site.

25. Now called the Voioussa.

26. The monastery of Pollina stands on its site. It was founded by

the Corinthians and Corcyreans. There are scarcely any vestiges of it

remaining.

27. See further mention of this spot in B. ii. c. 110.

28. Pouqueville states that the ruins of Amantia are to be seen near the

village of Nivitza, on the right bank of the river Suchista. The remains

of Bullis, the chief town of the Buliones, according to the same traveller,

are to be seen at a place called Gradista, four miles from the sea.

29. The same writer states that Oricum was situate on the present Gulf

De la Vallona or d'Avlona, and that its port was the place now called by

the Greeks Porto Raguseo, and by the Turks Liman Padisha.

30. The "Heights of Thunder." They were so called from the frequent

thunderstorms with which they were visited. The range however

was more properly called the "Ceraunii Montes," and the promontory

terminating it "Acroceraunii" or "Acroceraunia," meaning "the end of

the Ceraunii." The range is now called the Mountains of Khimara, and

the promontory, Glossa, or in Italian, Linguetta, meaning "the Tongue."

31. In C. 15 of the present Book.

32. About 70 English miles is the distance.




28. Chap. 27. (24.)-The Norici.


CHAP. 27. (24.)-THE NORICI.



In the rear of the Carni and the Iapydes, along the course

of the great river Ister[1], the Rhti touch upon the Norici[2]:

their towns are Virunum[3], Celeia, Teurnia,

Aguntum[4], Vianiomina[5], Claudia[6], and

Flavium Solvense[7]. Adjoining to the Norici is Lake

Peiso[8], and the deserts of







the Boii[9]; they are however now inhabited by the people

of Sabaria[10], a colony of the now deified emperor Claudius,

and the town of Scarabantia Julia[11].







1. The Donau or Danube.

2. Noricum corresponded to the greater part of the present Styria and

Carinthia, and a part of Austria, Bavaria, and Salzburg.

3. According to D'Anville the modern Wolk-Markt, on the river

Drau or Drave. Celeia is the modern Cilley in Carniola. Teurnia,

according to Mannert, is the Lurnfelde, near the small town of Spital.

4. According to Mannert it was situate near the modern town of

Innichen, near the sources of the Drave.

5. Supposed to be the same as the Vindobona or Vindomona of

other authors, standing on the site of the modern city of Vienna.

6. According to Cluver, it stood on the site of the modern Clausen in

Bavaria.

7. Mannert says that this place was the same with the modern Solfeld,

near Klagenfurt.

8. D'Anville and other writers think that this is the Neusiedler See, not

far from Vienna. Mannert, however, is of opinion that the name ought

to be written Pelso, and that the modern Balaton or Platten See is meant.

9. The mountainous and woody tract in the vicinity of the Lake

Balaton, on the confines of ancient Noricum and Pannonia.

10. Now Sarvar on the river Raab, on the confines of Austria and

Hungary.

11. According to Hardouin, the modern Sopron or denburg.




29. Chap. 28. (25.)-Pannonia.


CHAP. 28. (25.)-PANNONIA.



Next to them comes acorn-bearing Pannonia[1], along

which the chain of the Alps, gradually lessening as it runs

through the middle of Illyricum from north to south, forms

a gentle slope on the right hand and the left. The portion

which looks towards the Adriatic Sea is called Dalmatia

and Illyricum, above mentioned, while Pannonia stretches

away towards the north, and has the Danube for its extreme

boundary. In it are the colonies of mona[2] and Siscia.

The following rivers, both known to fame and adapted for

commerce, flow into the Danube; the Draus[3], which rushes

from Noricum with great impetuosity, and the Savus[4], which

flows with a more gentle current from the Carnic Alps, there

being a space between them of 120 miles. The Draus runs

through the Serretes, the Serrapilli[5], the Iasi, and the

Andizetes; the Savus through the Colapiani[6] and the Breuci;

these are the principal peoples. Besides them there are

the Arivates, the Azali, the Amantini, the Belgites, the

Catari, the Cornacates, the Eravisci, the Hercuniates[7], the







Latovici, the Oseriates, the Varciani, and, in front of Mount

Claudius, the Scordisci, behind it the Taurisci. In the Savus

there is the island of Metubarris[8], the greatest of all the

islands formed by rivers. Besides the above, there are

these other rivers worthy of mention:-the Colapis[9], which

flows into the Savus near Siscia, where, dividing its channel,

it forms the island which is called Segestica[10] a; and the river

Bacuntius[11], which flows into the Savus at the town of Sirmium,

where we find the state of the Sirmienses and the

Amantini. Forty-five miles thence is Taurunum[12], where

the Savus flows into the Danube; above which spot the

Valdanus[13] and the Urpanus, themselves far from ignoble

rivers, join that stream.







1. This province corresponded to the eastern part of Austria, Styria,

Carinthia, Carniola, the whole of Hungary between the Danube and

Saave, Slavonia, and part of Croatia and Bosnia. It was reduced by

fiberius, acting under the orders of Augustus.

2. Now Laybach, previously mentioned in c. 22. Sissia has been

succeeded by the modern Sissek on the Saave.

3. The modern Draave or Drau.

4. Now the Sau or Saave.

5. According to Hardouin the Serretes and the Serrapilli inhabited

the modern Carinthia on both sides of the Draave. The sites of the other

nations here mentioned are unknown.

6. So called from the river Colapis. The other tribes are unknown.

7. Probably the same as the mountain range near Warasdin on the

Draave. The nations mentioned here dwelt on the western and eastern

slopes of this range.

8. Now known as Zagrabia.

9. Now the Culpa.

10. Dion Cassius, B. xix., says that the river Colapis or Colops flowed

past the walls of the town of Siscia, but that Tiberius Csar caused a

trench to be dug round the town, and so drew the river round it, leading

it back on the other side into its channel. He calls the island Segetica.

11. Now the Bossut. Sirmium occupied the site of the present Sirmich.

12. The modern Tzeruinka, according to D'Anville and Brotier.

13. Now the Walpo and the Sarroiez, according to Hardouin; or the

Bosna and the Verbas, according to Brotier and Mannert.




30. Chap. 29. (26.)-Msia.


CHAP. 29. (26.)-MSIA.



Joining up to Pannonia is the province called Msia[1], which

runs, with the course of the Danube, as far as the Euxine.

It commences at the confluence[2] previously mentioned. In it

are the Dardani, the Celegeri, the Triballi, the Timachi, the

Msi, the Thracians, and the Scythians who border on the Euxine.

The more famous among its rivers are the

Margis[3], which

rises in the territory of the Dardani, the Pingus, the Timachus, the

scus which rises in Mount Rhodope, and,

rising

in Mount Hmus, the Utus[4], the Asamus, and the Ieterus.







The breadth of Illyricum[5] at its widest part is 325 miles,

and its length from the river Arsia to the river Drinius

530; from the Drinius to the Promontory of Acroceraunia

Agrippa states to be 175 miles, and he says that the entire

circuit of the Italian and Illyrian Gulf is 1700 miles. In

this Gulf, according to the limits which we have drawn,

are two seas, the Ionian[6] in the first part, and the Adriatic,

which runs more inland and is called the Upper Sea.







1. Corresponding to the present Servia and Bulgaria.

2. Of the Danube with the Saave or Savus just mentioned.

3. Now the Morava, which runs through Servia into the Danube.

The Pingus is probably the Bek, which joins the Danube near Gradistic.

The Timachus is the modern Timoch, and the scus is the Iscar in

Bulgaria.

4. Now called the Vid, the Osma, and the Jantra, rising in the

Balkan chain.

5. Ajasson remarks here that the name of Illyricum was very vaguely

used by the ancients, and that at different periods, different countries

were so designated. In Pliny's time that region comprised the country

between the Arsia and the mouth of the Drilo, bounding it on the side

of Macedonia. It would thus comprehend a part of modern Carniola,

with part of Croatia, Bosnia, Dahnatia, and Upper Albania. In later

times this name was extended to Noricum, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia,

Macedonia, Thessalia, Achaia, Epirus, and even the Isle of Crete.

6. Here meaning that part of the Mediterranean which lies between

Italy and Greece south of the Adriatic. In more ancient times the

Adriatic was included in the Ionian Sea, which was probably so called

from the Ionian colonies which settled in Cephallenia and the other

islands on the western coast of Greece.




31. Chap. 30.-Islands Of The Ionian Sea And The Adriatic.


CHAP. 30.-ISLANDS OF THE IONIAN SEA AND THE ADRIATIC.



In the Ausonian Sea there are no islands worthy of

notice beyond those which we have already mentioned, and

only a few in the Ionian; those, for instance, upon the Calabrian coast, opposite Brundusium, by the projection of which

a harbour is formed; and, over against the Apulian coast,

Diomedia[1], remarkable for the monument of Diomedes, and

another island called by the same name, but by some Teutria.







The coast of Illyricum is clustered with more than 1000

islands, the sea being of a shoaly nature, and numerous

creeks and stuaries running with their narrow channels

between portions of the land. The more famous are those

before the mouths of the Timavus, with warm springs[2] that

rise with the tides of the sea, the island of Cissa near the

territory of the Istri, and the Pullaria[3] and Absyrtides[4], so

called by the Greeks from the circumstance of Absyrtus,

the brother of Medea, having been slain there. Some islands

near them have been called the Electrides[5], upon which

amber, which they call "electrum," was said to be found;

a most assured instance however of that untruthfulness[6] which

is generally ascribed to the Greeks, seeing

that it has never vet been ascertained which of the islands

were meant by them under that name. Opposite to the Iader

is Lissa, and other islands whose names have been already

mentioned[7]. Opposite to the Liburni are some islands

called the Crate, and no smaller number styled Liburniec

and Celaduss[8]. Opposite to Surium is Bavo, and Brattia[9],







famous for its goats, Issa with the rights of Roman citizens,

and Pharia with a town. At a distance of twenty-five miles

from Issa is Corcyra[10], surnamed Melna, with a town founded

by the Cnidians; between which and Illyricum is Melite[11],

from which, as we learn from Callimachus, a certain kind

of little dogs were called Meliti; fifteen miles from it we

find the seven Elaphites[12]. In the Ionian Sea, at a distance

of twelve miles from Oricum, is Sasonis[13], notorious from

having been a harbour of pirates.



Summary.-The towns and nations mentioned are in

number****[14]. The rivers of note are in number****.

The mountains of note are in number****. The islands

are in number****. The towns or nations which have

disappeared are in number****. The facts, statements,

and observations are in number 326.



Roman Authors quoted.-Turannius Gracilis[15],

Cornelius Nepos[16], T. Livius[17], Cato the Censor[18], M. Agrip-







pa[19], M. Varro[20], the Emperor Augustus[21] now

deified, Varro Atacinus[22], Antias[23], Hyginus[24], L.

Vetus[25], Pomponius Mela[26],







Curio[27] the Elder, Clius[28], Arruntius[29], Sebosus[30], Licinius

Mucianus[31], Fabricius Tuscus[32], L. Ateius[33],

Capito[34], Verrius Flaccus[35], L. Piso[36],

Gellianus[37], and Valerianus[38].



Foreign Authors quoted.-Artemidorus[39], Alexander







Polyhistor[40], Thucydides[41], Theophrastus[42], Isidorus[43], Theopompus[44], Metrodorus of Scepsis[45], Callicrates[46], Xenophon

of Lampsacus[47], Diodorus of Syracuse[48], Nymphodorus[49],

Calliphanes[50], and Timagenes[51].









1. More properly "Diomede," being a group of small islands off the

coast of Apulia now called Isole di Tremiti, about eighteen miles from

the mouth of the Fortore. They were so called from the fable that here

the companions of Diomedes were changed into birds. A species of seafowl (which Pliny mentions in B. x. c. 44) were said to be the descendants of these Greek sailors, and to show a great partiality for such

persons as were of kindred extraction. See Ovid's Metamorphoses,

B. xiv. 1. 500. The real number of these islands was a matter of dispute

with the ancients, but it seems that there are but three, and some mere

rocks. The largest of the group is the island of San Domenico, and the

others are San Nicola and Caprara. The small island of Pianosa, eleven

miles N.E., is not considered one of the group, but is not improbably

the Teutria of Pliny. San Domenico was the place of banishment of Julia,

the licentious daughter of Augustus.

2. Now called the Bagni di Monte Falcone. See B. ii. c. 106.

3. Now called Cherso and Osero, off the Illyrian coast. Ptolemy

mentions only one, Apsorrus, on which he places a town of that name

and another called Crepsa. The Pullaria are now called Li Brioni, in

the Sinus Flanaticus, opposite the city of Pola.

4. See p. 258.

5. In B. xxxvii. c. 11, lie again mentions this circumstance, and states

that some writers have placed them in the Adriatic opposite the mouths

of the Padus. Scymnus of Chios makes mention of them in conjunction

with the Absyrtides. This confusion probably arose from the fact previously noted that the more ancient writers had a confused idea that the

Ister communicated with the Adiatic, at the same time mistaking it probably for the Vistula, which flows into the Baltic. At the mouth of this

last-mentioned river, there were Electrides or "amber-bearing "islands.

6. "Vanitatis."

7. Crexa, Gissa, and Colentun, in c. 25.

8. According to Brotier, these are situate between the islands of Zuri

and Sebenico, and are now called Kasvan, Capri, Smolan, Tihat, Sestre,

Parvich, Zlarin, &c. Some writers however suggest that there were

no islands called Celadussse, and that the name in Pliny is a corruption of

Dyscelados in Pomponius Mela; which in its turn is supposed to have been

invented from what was really an epithet of Issa, in a line of Apollonius

Rhodius, B. iv. 1. 565. )Issa\ te duske/lados, "and

inauspicious Issa." See Brunck's remarks on the passage.

9. Now Brazza. According to Brotier the island is still celebrated

for the delicate flavour of the flesh of its goats and lambs. Issa is now

called Lissa, and Pharia is the modern Lesina. Baro, now Bua, lies off

the coast of Dalmatia, and was used as a place of banishment under the

emperors.

10. Now Curzola, or, in the Sclavonic, Karkar. It obtained its name of

Nigra or Melna, "black," from the dark colour of its pine woods.

Sir G. Wilkinson describes it in his "Dalmatia and Montenegro," vol. i.

11. Now called Meleda or Zapuntello. It is more generally to the

other island of Melita or Malta that the origin of the "Meliti" or Maltese

dogs is ascribed. Some writers are of opinion that it was upon this

island that St. Paul was shipwrecked, and not the larger Melita.

12. So called from their resemblance to a stag, e)/lafos, of which the

modern Giupan formed the head, Ruda the neck, Mezzo the body, Calamotta the haunches, and the rock of Grebini or Pettini the tail. They

produce excellent wine and oil, and are looked upon as the most valuable

part of the Ragusan territory.

13. Still known as Sasino. It is ten miles from Ragusa, the port of

Oricum, according to Pouqueville.

14. The original numbers are lost.

15. He was a Spaniard by birth, a native of Mellaria in Hispania Btica.

He is mentioned by Cicero as a man of great learning, and is probably

the same person that is mentioned by Ovid in his Pontic Epistles, B. iv.

ep. xvi. 1. 29, as a distinguished tragic writer.

16. See end of B. ii.

17. See end of B. ii.

18. M. Porcius Cato, or Cato the Elder; famous as a statesman, a

patriot, and a philosopher. He wrote "De Re Rustica," a work which

still survives, and "Letters of Instruction to his Son," of which only some

fragments remain. He also wrote a historical work called "Origines,"

of which Pliny makes considerable use. Of this also only a few fragments

are left. His life has been written by Cornelius Nepos, Plutarch, and

Aurelius Victor.

19. M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the distinguished partisan of Augustus, to

whose niece Marcella he was married, but he afterwards divorced her

for Julia, the daughter of Augustus by Scribonia, and the widow of

Marcellus. He distinguished himself in Gaul, at Actium, and in Illyria.

He constructed many public works at Rome, and among then the

Pantheon; he also built the splendid aqueduct at Nismes. He died

suddenly

in his 51st year. His body was buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus,

who pronounced his funeral oration. He wrote memoirs of his own life.

Pliny often refers to the "Commentarii" of Agrippa, by which are meant,

it is supposed, certain official lists drawn up by him in the measurement

of the Roman world under Augustus. His map of the world is also

mentioned by Pliny in c. 3 of the present Book.

20. See end of B. ii.

21. From Servius, Suetonius and Plutarch we learn that Augustus wrote

Memoirs of his Life, in thirteen books; from Suetonius, that he composed a Summary of the Empire (which was probably that referred to in

the above note on Agrippa); and from Quintilian, Aulus Gellius, and Pliny,

B. xviii. c. 38, that he published Letters written to his grandson Caius.

22. P. Terentius Varro, surnamed Atacinus, from the Atax, a river of

Gallia Narbonensis, in which province he was born, B.C. 82. Of his

"Argonautica," his "Cosmographia" (probably the same with his "Iter"),

his "Navales Libri," and his Heroic and Amatory Poems, only a few

fragments now exist. Of his life nothing whatever is known.

23. Valerias Antias. See end of B. ii.

24. C. Julius Hyainus, a native of Spain, and freedman of Augustus, by

whom he was placed at the Palatine Library. He lived upon terms of

intimacy with Ovid. He wrote works on the sites of the cities of Italy,

the Nature of the Gods, an account of the Penates, an account of Virgil

(probably the same as the work called "Commentaries on Virgil"), on the

Families of Trojan descent, on Agriculture, the "Propempticon Cinn,"

the Lives of Illustrious Men (quoted by John of Salisbury in his "Polycraticon "), a book of Examples, and a work on the Art of War, also mentioned by John of Salisbury. A book of Fables, and an Astronomical

Poem, in four books, are ascribed to him, but they are probably productions of a later age.

25. L. Antistius Vetus, Consul with Nero, A.D. 55. While commanding in Germany he formed the project of connecting the Moselle and the

Saone by a canal, thus establishing a communication between the Mediterranean and the Northern Ocean. Nero having resolved on his death,

he anticipated his sentence by opening his veins in a warm bath. His

mother-in-law Sextia, and his daughter Pollentia, in a similar manner

perished with him.

26. He was born, it is supposed, at Tingentera, or Cingentera, on the bay

of Algesiras, and probably flourished in the reign of Claudius. He was

the first Roman author who wrote a treatise on Geography. It is still

extant, and bears marks of great care, while it is written in pure

and unaffected language.

27. C. Scribonius Curio, the third known of that name. He was the

first Roman general who advanced as far as the Danube. Like his son

of the same name, he was a violent opponent of Julius Csar. He was

eloquent as an orator, but ignorant and uncultivated. His orations were

published, as also an invective against Csar, in form of a dialogue, in

which his son was introduced as one of the interlocutors. He died B.C. 53.

28. L. Clius Antipater. See end of B. ii.

29. L. Arruntius, Consul, A.D. 6. Augustus declared in his last illness

that he was worthy of the empire. This, with his riches and talents,

rendered him an object of suspicion to Tiberius. Being charged as an

accomplice in the crimes of Albucilla, he put himself to death by opening

his veins. It appears not to be certain whether it was this person or his

father who wrote a history of the first Punic war, in which he imitated

the style of Sallust.

30. Statius Sebosus. See end of B. ii.

31. Licinius Crassus Mucianus. See end of B. ii.

32. Of this writer no particulars whatever are known.

33. In most editions this name appears as L. Ateius Capito, but Sillig

separates them, and with propriety it would appear, as the name of

Capito the great legist was not Lucius. Ateius here mentioned was

probably the person surnamed Prtextatus, and Philologus, a freedman

of the jurist Ateius Capito. For Sallust the historian he composed an

Abstract of Roman History, and for Asinius Pollio he compiled precepts

on the Art of Writing. His Commentaries were numerous, but a few

only were surviving in the time of Suetonius.

34. C. Ateius Capito, one of the most famous of the Roman legists, and

a zealous partisan of Augustus, who had him elevated to the Consulship

A.D. 5. He was the rival of Labeo, the republican jurist. His legal

works were very voluminous, and extracts from them are to be found in

the Digest. He also wrote a work on the Pontifical Rights and the Law

of Sacrifices.

35. A distinguished grammarian of the latter part of the first century

B.C. He was entrusted by Augustus with the education of his grandsons

Caius and Lucius Csar. He died at an advanced age in the reign of

Tiberius. He wrote upon antiquities, history, and philosophy: among

his numerous works a History of the Etruscans is mentioned, also a

treatise on Orthography. Pliny quotes him very frequently.

36. See end of B. ii.

37. He is mentioned in c. 17, but nothing more is known of him.

38. Nothing is known of him. The younger Pliny addressed three

Epistles to a person of this name, B. ii. Ep. 15, B. v. Ep. 4. 14.

39. See end of B. ii.

40. Also called by Pliny Cornelius Alexander. Suidas states that he

was a native of Ephesus and a disciple of Crates, and during the war of

Sylla in Greece was made prisoner and sold as a slave to C. Lentulus, who

made him the tutor of his children, and afterwards restored him to freedom. Servius however says that he received the franchise from L. Cornelius Sylla. He was burnt with his house at Laurentum. Other writers

say that he was a native of Catium in Lesser Phrygia. The surname of

"Polyhistor" was given to him for his prodigious learning. His greatest

work seems to have been a historical and geographical account of the

world, in forty-two books. Other works of his are frequently mentioned

by Plutarch, Photius, and other writers.

41. The historian of the Peloponnesian war, and the most famous,

perhaps, of all the ancient writers in prose.

42. Of Eresus in Lesbos; the favourite disciple of Aristotle, and designated by him as his successor in the presidency of the Lyceum. He

composed more than 200 works on various subjects, of which only a very

few survive.

43. See end of B. ii.

44. See end of B. ii.

45. He is frequently mentioned by Cicero, and was famous for his

eloquence. Pliny informs us in his 34th book, that from his hatred of

the

Romans he was called the "Roman-hater." It is probable that he was

the writer of a Periegesis, or geographical work, from which Pliny seems

to quote.

46. No particulars of this author are known. He probably wrote on

geography.

47. He is again mentioned by Pliny in B. iv. c. 13, and B. vi. c. 31, and

by Solinus, c. xxii. 60. It is supposed that he was the author of a Periplus or Circumnavigation of the Earth, mentioned by Pliny B. vii. c. 48;

but nothing further is known of him.

48. Diodorus Siculus was a native of Agyra or Agyrium, and not of

Syracuse, though lie may possibly have resided or studied there. It

cannot be doubted that he is the person here meant, and Pliny refers

in his

preface by name to his Biblioqh/kh, "Library," or Universal

History.

A great portion of this miscellaneous but valuable work has perished.

We have but few particulars of his life; but he is supposed to have

written his work after B.C. 8.

49. Of Syracuse; an historian probably of the time of Philip and

Alexander. He was the author of a Periplus of

Asia, and an account of Sicily

and Sardinia. From his stories in the last he obtained the name of

"Thaumatographus "or "writer of wonders."

50. Of Calliphanes the Geographer nothing is known.

51. Probably Timagenes, the rhetorician of Alexandria. He was taken

prisoner and brought to Rome, but redeemed from captivity by Faustus,

the son of Sylla. He wrote many works, but it is somewhat doubtful

whether the "Periplus," in five Books, was written by this Timagenes. He

is also supposed to have written a work on the Antiquities of Gaul.




0. > Book Iv. An Account Of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, Mountains, Rivers, Distances, And Peoples Who Now Exist Or Formerly Existed.


BOOK IV. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS,

HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR

FORMERLY EXISTED.








1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Epirus.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-EPIRUS.



The third great Gulf of Europe begins at the mountains

of Acroceraunia[1], and ends at the Hellespont, embracing an

extent of 2500 miles, exclusive of the sea-line of nineteen

smaller gulfs. Upon it are Epirus, Acarnania, tolia, Phocis,

Locris, Achaia, Messenia, Laconia, Argolis, Megaris, Attica,

Botia; and again, upon the other sea[2], the same Phocis

and Locris, Doris, Phthiotis, Thessalia, Magnesia, Macedonia

and Thracia. All the fabulous lore of Greece, as well as the

effulgence of her literature, first shone forth upon the banks

of this Gulf. We shall therefore dwell a little the longer

upon it.



Epirus[3], generally so called, begins at the mountains of

Acroceraunia. The first people that we meet are the Chaones,

from whom Chaonia[4] receives its name, then the Thesproti[5],

and then the Antigonenses[6]. We then come to the place

where Aornos[7] stood, with its exhalations so deadly to the

feathered race, the Cestrinis[8], the Perrhbi[9], in whose coun-







try Mount Pindus is situate, the Cassiopi[10], the Dryopes[11],

the Sell[12], the Hellopes[13], the Molossi, in whose territory is

the temple of the Dodonan Jupiter, so famous for its oracle;

and Mount Tomarus[14], so highly praised by Theopompus,

with its hundred springs gushing from its foot.



(2.) Epirus, properly so called, advances towards Magnesia and

Macedonia, having at its back the Dassaret,

previously[15] mentioned, a free nation, and after them the

Dardani, a savage race. On the left hand, before the Dardani

are extended the Triballi and the nations of Msia, while in

front of them the Medi and the Denselat join, and next to

them the Thracians, who stretch away as far as the Euxine:

in such a manner is a rampart raised around the lofty heights

of Rhodope, and then of Hmus.



On the coast of Epirus is the fortress of Chimr[16],

situate upon the Acroceraunian range, and below it the

spring known as the Royal Waters[17]; then the towns of







Mandria, and Cestria[18], the Thyamis[19], a river of Thesprotia,

the colony of Buthrotum[20], and the Ambracian Gulf[21], so

famed in history; which, with an inlet only half a mile in

width, receives a vast body of water from the sea, being

thirty-seven miles in length, and fifteen in width. The river

Acheron, which runs through Acherusia, a lake of Thesprotia, flows

into it[22] after a course of thirty-six miles; it is considered

wonderful for its bridge, 1000 feet in length, by a

people who look upon everything as wonderful that belongs

to themselves. Upon this Gulf is also situate the town of

Ambracia. There are also the Aphas and the Arachthus[23],

rivers of the Molossi; the city of Anactoria[24], and the place

where Pandosia[25] stood.







1. Now called Monti della Chimera, or Mountains of Khimara. See

p. 262.

2. The gean Sea, the present Archipelago.

3. This country contained, according to Pouqueville, the present

Sangiacs of Janina, Delvino, and Chamouri, with the Vavodilika or

Principality of Arta. This name was originally given to the whole of

the west of

Greece, from the Promontory of Acroceraunia to the entrance of the

Corinthian Gulf, in contradistinction to Corcyra and the island of

Cephallenia.

4. This district, according to Pouqueville, occupied the present Cantons

of Chimera, Iapouria, Arboria, Paracaloma, and Philates.

5. They occupied the site of the present Paramythia, according to

Pouqueville.

6. Antigonia was about a mile distant, Pouqueville says, from the

modern town of Tebelen.

7. From 'A "not," and o)/rnis "a bird." Its site is now

unknown. There were many places of this name. Avernus or Aornos in

Campania has been previously mentioned.

8. The remains of Cestria are still to be seen at Palea Vnetia, near

the town of Filiates. Pouqueville calls the place Chamouri.

9. According to Pouqueville, the modern Zagori stands on the site of

Perrhbia. Pindus is sometimes called Grammos, but is still known by

its ancient name.

10. Cassiope or Cassope stood near the sea, and near the present village

of Kamarina. Its extensive ruins are still to be seen.

11. Their district, according to Pouqueville, was in the present Canton

of Drynopolis.

12. The Selli or Sell lived in the vicinity of the temple of Jupiter at

Dodona, in the modern canton of Souli, according to Pouqueville.

13. The country about Dodona is called Hellopia by Hesiod. By some

the Helli or Hellopes are considered the same as the Selli. Pouqueville

thinks that the Hellopes dwelt in the modern cantons of Janina, Pogoniani, Sarachovitzas, and Courendas, and that the temple of Jupiter stood

at the spot now called Proskynisis, near Gardiki, the town of Dodona

being near Castritza. Leake is of the same opinion as to the site of the

town; but, as has been a subject of remark, it is the only place of celebrity

in Greece of which the situation is not exactly known. Leake however

thinks that the temple stood on the peninsula now occupied by the

citadel of Joanina.

14. Pouqueville thinks that this is the hill to be seen at the modern village of Gardiki. He is also of opinion that the springs here mentioned

are those at the modern village of Besdounopoulo. His opinions however

on these points have not been implicitly received.

15. B. iii. c. 26. The Dardani, Triballi, and Msi are mentioned in

c. 29. The localities of the other tribes here mentioned are not known

with any exactness.

16. It retains the same name or that of Khimara, and gives its name to

the Acroceraunian range. It was situate at the foot of the chain, which

begins at this spot.

17. "Aqu regi." Pouqueville suggests, without good reason, as Ansart thinks, that this spring was situate near the modern Drimodez or

Dermadez.

18. The place called Palo-Kistes now stands on its site, and some

remains of antiquity are to be seen.

19. Now the Calama.

20. Its ruins are to be seen near the modern Butrinto. It was said to

have been founded by Helenus, the son of Priam. Pamponius Atticus

had an estate here.

21. This corresponds to the present Gulf of Arta, and was especially famous

for being the scene of the battle of Actium. The city of Ambracia lay to

the north of it. The present Arta is generally believed to occupy its site.

22. Pouqueville has shown that Pliny is in error here, and he says that

the Acheron is the modern Mavro Potamos; but according to Leake,

the name of it is Gurla, or the river of Suli. It flows into the Port Fanari, formerly called Glykys Limen, or Sweet Harbour, from the freshness of the water there. The Acherusian Lake is probably the great

marsh that lies below Kastri.

23. It is now called the Arta, and gives name to the Gulf.

24. The site of Anactoria or Anactorium, like that of its neighbour Actium, has been a subject of much dispute; but it is now pretty generally

agreed that the former stood on the modern Cape Madonna, and Actium

on the headland of La Punta.

25. Pouqueville takes the ruins in the vicinity of Turco Palaka, eight

miles from Margariti, to be those of Pandosia.




2. Chap. 2.-Acarnania.


CHAP. 2.-ACARNANIA.



The towns of Acarnania[1], the ancient name of which was

Curetis, are Heraclia[2], Echinus[3], and, on the coast, Actium,







a colony founded by Augustus, with its famous temple of

Apollo and the free city of Nicopolis[4]. Passing out of the

Ambracian Gulf into the Ionian Sea, we come to the coast

of Leucadia, with the Promontory of Leucate[5], and then the

Gulf and the peninsula of Leucadia[6], which last was formerly

called Neritis[7]. By the exertions of the inhabitants it was

once cut off from the mainland, but was again joined to it

by the vast bodies of sand accumulated through the action

of the winds. This spot is called Dioryctos[8], and is three

stadia in length: on the peninsula is the town of Leucas,

formerly called Neritus[9]. We next come to Alyzia[10], Stratos[11], and Argos[12], surnamed Amphilochian, cities of the

Acarnanians: the river Achelos[13] flows from the heights

of Pindus, and, after separating Acarnania from tolia, is

fast adding the island of Artemita[14] to the mainland by the

continual deposits of earth which it brings down its stream.











1. This district probably occupied the present cantons of Vonitza and

Xeromeros. It was called Curetis from the Curetes, who are said to have

come from tolia and settled in Acarnania after their expulsion by tolus

and his followers.

2. The modern Vonitza is supposed to stand on its site.

3. Leake places its site at Ai Vasili, where some ruins are to be seen.

4. "The city of Victory." Founded by Augustus on the spot where he

had pitched his camp before the battle of Actium.

5. Now called Capo Ducato or Capo tis Kiras. It is situate at the

extremity of the island of Leucas, and opposite to Cephallenia.

Sappho is

said to have leapt from this rock on finding her love for Phaon

unrequited: the story however is devoid of all historical

truth.

6. Now the island of Santa Maura. It was originally a peninsula, and

Homer speaks of it as such; but the Corinthians cut a canal through the

isthmus and converted it into an island. After the canal had been choked

up for some time with sand, the Romans reopened it. It is at present

dry in some parts.

7. Probably from its town Nericus, mentioned by Homer.

8. From the Greek word diorukto\s, a "foss" or "trench."

9. It probably had this name from the circumstance of the inhabitants

of Nericus being removed thither by the Corinthians under Cypselus.

The remains of Leucas, which was ravaged by the Romans B.C. 197, are

still to be seen.

10. Its remains are still to be seen in the valley of Kandili, south of

Vonitza.

11. Pouqueville says that very extensive and perfect ruins of this place

are to be seen near the village of Lepenou.

12. This famous city was deserted on the foundation of Nicopolis by

Augustus. The place of its site has been a subject of much dispute, but

it is considered most probable that Leake has rightly suggested that the

ruins in the plain of Vlikha, at the village of Neokhori, are those of this

city.

13. Now the Aspropotamo.

14. One of the group of the Echinades; small islands off the coast of

Acarnania, which are mentioned by Pliny, in C. 19 of the present Book.

It is now quite united to the mainland.




3. Chap. 3. (2.)-tolia.


CHAP. 3. (2.)-TOLIA.



The peoples of tolia are the Athamanes[1], the Tymphi[2],

the Ephyri[3], the nienses, the Perrhbi[4], the

Dolopes[5], the

Maraces, and the Atraces[6], in whose territory rises the river

Atrax, which flows into the Ionian Sea. Calydon[7] is a city

of tolia, situate at a distance of seven miles from the sea,

and near the banks of the river Evenus[8]. We then come to

Macynia[9], and Molycria, behind which lie Mounts Chalcis[10]

and Taphiassus. On the coast again, there is the promontory

of Antirrhium[11], off which is the mouth of the Corinthian

Gulf, which flows in and separates tolia from the Peloponnesus,

being less[12] than one mile in width. The promontory

which faces it on the opposite side is called Rhion[13]. The

towns of tolia, however, on the Corinthian Gulf are

Naupactus[14] and Pylene[15]; and, more inland, Pleuron

and Hali-







cyrna[16]. The most famous mountains are Tomarus, in the

district of Dodona, Crania[17] in Ambracia, Aracynthus[18] in

Acarnania, and Acanthon[19], Pantolium[20], and Macynium[21], in

tolia.







1. Pouqueville says that Athamania occupied the localities now known

as Djoumerca and Radovitch. It properly belonged to Epirus, and Pliny

makes a mistake in considering it as a part of tolia.

2. According to Pouqueville the ruins of Tympha are to be seen near

the village of Paliouri, four miles from Janina.

3. Ephyre, a town of the Agreei, is also mentioned by Strabo, but

nothing whatever is known of it.

4. The main body of the Perrhbi were a people of Thessaly.

5. Dolopia, now called Anovlachia, was properly reckoned part of

Epirus.

6. They are probably not the same people as the inhabitants of Atrax in

Thessaly, which will be found mentioned in the 15th Chapter of this

Book.

7. The most famous city of tolia in its day, and the residence of

neus, father of Meleager and Tydeus, and grandfather of Diomedes.

The greater part of its inhabitants were removed by Augustus to his new

city of Nicopolis. Leake supposes its ruins to be those seen by him at

Kurt-Aga, to the east of the river Evenus.

8. Now called the Fidaris.

9. Pouqueville supposes the site of Macynia to have been that of the

modern Koukio-Castron, and that of Molycria the present Manaloudi.

10. Probably the present Varassova; there was a town called Chalcis,

or Hypochalcis, at its foot. The present Kaki-Skala was probably the

mountain of Taphiassus.

11. Opposite the Promontory of Rhium, at the entrance of the

Corinthian Gulf. It is now called the Castle of Roumelia, or the

Punta of the

Dardanelles of Roum Ili.

12. Leake and Dodwell make it a mile and a half.

13. Or Rhium. It is now called the Castle of the Morea.

14. The modern Enebatch or Lepanto; whence the Corinthian Gulf

takes its modern name.

15. Proschium was built at a later period on the site of Pylene. Its site

appears to be unknown. The modern Kyra-tis-Irinis is thought to

occupy the site of Pleuron.

16. Leake supposes some ruins between Kurt-aga, the site of Chalcedon,

and the east end of the Lagoon of Missolonghi, to be the remains of

Halicyrna.

17. Leake supposes it to be identical with the high mountain now called

Kelberini. Others again identify it with Gribovo.

18. Pliny erroneously places this mountain in Acarnania. It was a range

of tolia, now called Zygos.

19. Perhaps the modern Djourmerca.

20. Either the present Plocopari, or perhaps, more probably, Viena.

21. A part of Mount Taphiassus. It is mentioned only by Pliny.




4. Chap. 4. (3.)-Locris And Phocis.


CHAP. 4. (3.)-LOCRIS AND PHOCIS.



Next to tolia are the Locri[1], surnamed Ozol; a people

exempt from tribute. Here is the town of anthe[2],

the port[3] of Apollo Phstius, and the Gulf of Crissa[4]. In

the interior are the towns of Argyna, Eupalia[5], Phstum,

and Calamisus. Beyond are the Cirrhaean plains of Phocis,

the town of Cirrha[6], and the port of Chalon[7], seven miles







from which, in the interior, is situate the free town of Delphi[8],

at the foot of Mount Parnassus[9], and having the most

celebrated oracle of Apollo throughout the whole world. There is

the Fountain too of Castalia[10], and the river Cephisus[11] which

flows past Delphi, rising in the former city of Lila[12]. Besides

these, there is the town of Crissa[13] and that of Anticyra[14], with

the Bulenses[15]; as also Naulochum[16], Pyrrha, Amphissa[17],

exempt from all tribute, Tithrone, Tritea[18], Ambrysus[19], and

Dryma[20], which district has also the name of Daulis. The

extremity of the gulf washes one corner of Botia, with its

towns of Siph[21] and Thebes[22], surnamed the Corsian, in the







vicinity of Helicon[23]. The third town of Botia on this

sea is that of Pag[24], from which point the Isthmus of the

Peloponnesus projects in the form of a neck.







1. They are supposed to have inhabited the modern districts of

Malandrino and Salone. They were called "Ozol" or

'strong-smelling,'

either from the undressed skins worn by them, or from the quantities of

asphodel that grew in their country; or else from the vapours thrown

off by the mineral springs in those parts.

2. Pouqueville imagines its ruins to be those seen about two leagues

from the modern Galaxidi.

3. Lapie marks this in his map as the modern port of Ianakhi.

4. So called from the ancient town of Crissa, which stood on it. It is

the same as the modern Gulf of Salona.

5. Or Eupalium. Leake supposes it to have stood in the plain of

Marathia, opposite the islands of Trazonia, where some ruins still

exist.

6. Pausanias makes this town to be the same with the Homeric Crissa,

but Strabo distinguishes the two places, and his opinion is now generally

followed; Cirrha being thought to have been built at the head of the

Crissan gulf, as the port of Crissa. Its ruins are thought to be those

which bear the modern name of Magula.

7. Or Chalum. Pliny erroneously calls it a town of Phocis, it being

on the coast of the Locri Ozol. He is wrong also in placing it seven

miles from Delphi, and not improbably confounded it with Cirrha. Leake

suggests that its site was the present Larnaki.

8. The modern village of Kastri stands on part of the site of ancient

Delphi. Its ruins have been explored by Chandler, Leake, and Ulrichs.

9. The two highest summits of the range of Parnassus in the vicinity

of Delphi were Tithorea, now Velitza, to the N.W., and Lycorea, now

Liakura, to the N.E. Its rocks above Delphi were called the Phdriades

or "Resplendent."

10. The famed Castalian spring is now called the Fountain of St. John,

from the chapel of that saint which stands close to its source.

11. Now the Mavro-Potamo.

12. Its ruins are still to be seen about three leagues from Kastri.

13. Or Crisso. It was situate inland to the S.W. of Delphi. Its ruins

are to be seen at a short distance from the modern village of Chryso.

14. It is supposed that the few ruins seen near the modern Aspra Spitia

are those of this place. It was famous for its hellebore, which was extensively used for the cure of madness. There were two other places or

the same name.

15. The people of Bulis, near the Crissan Gulf. Its ruins are situate

at a short distance from the monastery of Dob.

16. Ansart suggests that this was the present port of Agio-Sideri or

Djesphina.

17. It occupied the site of the modern Salona; the walls of its ancient

Acropolis are still to be seen. It was the chief town of the Locri

Ozol.

18. Pouqueville thinks that the ruins seen near Moulki are those of

Tithrone, and that Tritea stood on the site of the present

Turcochorion.

19. Or Amphrysus, famous for the strength of its fortifications and its

scarlet berries for dyeing. Some remains of it are to be seen at the

modern village of Dhistomo.

20. On the frontiers of Doris and Phocis. Leake thinks that its ruins

are those seen midway between Kamares and Glamista. Daulis was also

the name of an ancient town of Phocis, the ruins of which are to be seen

at the modern village of Dhavlia.

21. Probably the present Palo Kastro, at the Port de Dobrena or

Polaca.

22. Leake thinks that the Corsian Thebes, a port of Botia, is

represented by the modern Khosia.

23. Helicon is a range of mountains with several summits, the loftiest of

which is now called Paleovuni. Helicon was a grove of the Muses, and

the fountain of Aganippe was supposed to impart poetic inspiration to

those who drank of it.

24. See p. 288.




5. Chap. 5. (4.)-The Peloponnesus.


CHAP. 5. (4.)-THE PELOPONNESUS.



The Peloponnesus, which was formerly called Apia[1] and

Pelasgia, is a peninsula, inferior in fame to no land upon the

face of the earth. Situate between the two seas, the gan

and the Ionian, it is in shape like the leaf of a plane-tree, in

consequence of the angular indentations made in its shores.

According to Isidorus, it is 563 miles in circumference; and

nearly as much again, allowing for the sea-line on the

margin of its gulfs. The narrow pass at which it commences

is know by the name of the Isthmus. At this spot the two

seas, which we have previously mentioned, running from the

north and the east, invade the land from opposite sides[2],

and swallow up its entire breadth, the result being that

through these inroads in opposite directions of such vast

bodies of water, the sides of the land are eaten away to such

an extent, that Hellas[3] only holds on to the Peloponnesus

by the narrow neck, five miles in width, which intervenes.

The Gulfs thus formed, the one on this side, the other on

that, are known as the Corinthian[4] and the Saronic Gulfs.

The ports of Leche[5], on the one side, and of Cenchre on

the other, form the frontiers of this narrow passage, which

thus compels to a tedious and perilous circumnavigation

such vessels as from their magnitude cannot be carried across

by land on vehicles. For this reason it is that both King







Demetrius[6], Csar the Dictator, the prince Caius[7],

and Domitius Nero[8], have at different times made the attempt to

cut through this neck by forming a navigable canal; a profane design,

as may be clearly seen by the result[9] in every

one of these instances.



Upon the middle of this intervening neck which we have

called the Isthmus, stands the colony of Corinth, formerly

known by the name of Ephyre[10], situate upon the brow of a

hill, at a distance of sixty stadia from the shore of either

sea. From the heights of its citadel, which is called Acrocorinthos,

or the "Heights of Corinth," and in which is the

Fountain of Pirene, it looks down upon the two seas which

lie in the opposite directions. From Leucas to Patr upon

the Corinthian gulf is a distance of eighty-eight miles. The

colony of Patr[11] is founded upon the most extensive

promontory of the Peloponnesus, facing tolia and the river

Evenus, the Corinthian Gulf being, as we have previously[12]

stated, less than a mile in width at the entrance there,

though extending in length as far as the isthmus, a distance

of eighty-five miles.











1. From Apis, the son of Phoroneus, or Telchines, according to

Pausanias. After the arrival of Pelops, it took from him its name of

Peloponnesus, or the "Island of Pelops."

2. The Ionian from the north, and the gean, or rather, Myrtoan, Sea

from the east.

3. That part of Greece proper which lies to the north of the Isthmus.

4. Now the Gulfs of Lepanto and Egina.

5. Leche was the harbour of Corinth on the Corinthian, and Cenchre

on the Saronic Gulf. The name of the latter is still preserved in the

modern appellation Kechries, which is given to its ruins.

6. Demetrius Poliorcetes, king of Macedonia, son of Antigonus, king of

Asia.

7. Caius Caligula, the Emperor.

8. The Emperor Nero actually commenced the work, having opened

the undertaking with great pomp, and cut away a portion of the earth

with his own hands. He had advanced four stadia, when the work was

interrupted by the insurrection of Julius Vindex in Gaul.

9. We cannot agree with Hardouin that "exitus" here means "death,"

in allusion to the unfortunate end of all those who had made the attempt.

The opinion of Spanheim seems rather deserving of support (though

censured by Hardouin), that it merely means "the result" in each case;

it being the fact, that in all the instances the contemplated undertaking

was interrupted by some unforeseen event. Periander and Herodes

Atticus also contemplated the formation of this channel.

10. It is not known when it exchanged this name for that of Corinth; being

called by both names in Homer. Scarcely any remains of it are now

to be seen. The small town on its site is called Gortho, a corruption of

its ancient name. The water of the famed spring of Pirene is now only

used for washing clothes.

11. Now Patras. There are few remains of the ancient city, which was

one of the twelve cities of Achaia. It was made a Roman colony by

Augustus.

12. See C. 3 of the present Book, p. 275.




6. Chap. 6. (5.)-Achaia.


CHAP. 6. (5.)-ACHAIA.



The province called Achaia[1] begins at the Isthmus; from

the circumstance of its cities being ranged in regular succession on

its coast, it formerly had the name of gialos[2].

The first place there is Leche, already mentioned, a port of

the Corinthians; next to which is Olyros[3], a fortress of the

people of Pellene[4]; then the former towns of Helice and

Bura[5], and the places in which their inhabitants took refuge

after their towns had been swallowed up by the sea, Sicyon[6]

namely, gira[7], gium, and Erineos[8]. In the interior are

Cleon and Hysi[9]; then come the port of Panormus[10], and

Rhium already mentioned; from which promontory, Patr,

of which we have previously spoken, is distant five miles; and

then the place where Pher[11] stood. Of the nine mountains

of Achaia, Scioessa is the most famous; there is also the

Fountain of Cymotho. Beyond Patr we find the town of

Olenum[12], the colony of Dyme[13], the places where Bupra-







sium[14] and Hyrmine once stood, the Promontory of Araxus[15],

the Bay of Cyllene, and the Promontory of Chelonates, at five

miles' distance from Cyllene[16]. There is also the fortress of

Phlius[17]; the district around which was called by Homer

Arthyrea[18], and, after his time, Asopis.



The territory of the Eleans then begins, who were formerly

called Epei, with the city of Elis[19] in the interior, and, at a

distance of twelve miles from Phlius, being also in the interior, the

temple of Olympian Jupiter, which by the universal celebrity of its

games, gives to Greece its mode of

reckoning[20]. Here too once stood the town of Pisa[21], the river

Alpheus flowing past it. On the coast there is the Promontory of

Ichthys[22]. The river Alpheus is navigable six miles,

nearly as far as the towns of Aulon[23] and Leprion. We next

come to the Promontory of Platanodes[24]. All these localities

lie to the west.











1. Originally a district in the south of Thessaly had this name; but to

distinguish it from that in the Peloponnesus, its people were called the

Phthiotian Achi.

2. From the Greek word ai)gialo\s, "the sea-shore."

3. Situate on the coast, about five miles from the present Vostitza.

4. In the interior. The modern Trikala stands on its site.

5. Helice was the place of meeting of the Achan league; when, in

B.C. 373, together with Bura, it was swallowed up by an

earthquake, and

their sites were covered by the sea. Such of the people as escaped fled to

the places mentioned above by Pliny. Pouqueville says that some remains

of these places may still be seen emerging from the sea.

6. The modern Basilico or Vasilika stands on its site.

7. The places called Paleo-Kastro and Vostitza are supposed to

occupy the sites of gira and gium. To the east of Vostitza

considerable ruins are still to be seen.

8. Supposed to be the present Artotina.

9. Towns of Roman Argolis. The ruins of the former are supposed to

be those at a spot still called Klenes, near the village of Curtesi. The

remains of Hysie, on the road from Argos to Tegea, stand on a hill

above the plain of Achladokampos.

10. Now called Tekieh; fifteen stadia from Rhium.

11. Or Phar; 150 stadia from Patre.

12. The modern Kato-Achaia.

13. Its remains are to be seen near the modern village of Karavostasi.

Pliny is mistaken probably in calling it a colony, as we know that it was

placed under the authority of the colony of Patr, which alone was

allowed to enjoy the privilege of self-government.

14. Pouqueville thinks that it was situate on the river now called the

Verga. Leake supposes that the town of Hyrmine stood on the site of

the present Kastro Tornese on the peninsula of Khlemutzi; but Boblaye

and Curtius place it further north, at the modern harbour of Kunupeli,

where there are some ancient ruins.

15. Now Capo Papa.

16. The locality of Cyllene is doubtful. Most writers place it at

Glarentza, but Pouqueville suggests Andravida or Andravilla, and

Mannert

places it near Clarenza. Chelinates or Chelonatas was probably the

name originally of the whole peninsula of Khlemutzi, but the point here

mentioned was most probably the modern Cape Tornese.

17. It lay in the interior, south of Sicyonia, and north of Argos.

Pouqueville found its ruins on the banks of the Asopus.

18. Strabo says that this was the name of the most ancient town of

Phliasia, and that the inhabitants afterwards deserted it for Phlius.

19. Some small ruins of it are to be seen at the foot of the hill of

Kaloskopi, its ancient Acropolis.

20. By Olympiads, which were reckoned according to the order of

celebration of the Olympic games: they were established in the year

B.C. 776,

and were celebrated every fourth year.

21. It was destroyed in the year B.C. 572 by the Eleans, not a vestige

of it being left. The Alpheus retains the name of Alfio.

22. Or "the Fish," from its peculiar shape. It is now called Katakolo.

23. Probably situate in the valley between Elis and Messenia, which was

so called. It is not elsewhere mentioned; and its ruins are thought to

be those near the sea, on the right bank of the river Cyparissus. Leprion

is again mentioned in c. x.

24. Or Platamodes. Supposed to be the present Aja Kyriaki.




7. Chap. 7.-Messenia.


CHAP. 7.-MESSENIA.



Further south is the Gulf of Cyparissus, with the city of

Cyparissa[1] on its shores, the line of which is seventy-two

miles in length. Then, the towns of Pylos[2] and Methone[3],

the place where Helos stood, the Promontory of Acritas[4],

the Asinan Gulf, which takes its name from the town of

Asine[5], and the Coronean, so called from Corone; which gulfs

terminate at the Promontory of Tanarum[6]. These are all in

the country of Messenia, which has eighteen mountains, and

the river Pamisus[7] also. In the interior are Messene[8], Ithome,

chalia, Arene[9], Pteleon, Thryon, Dorion[10], and

Zancle[11],

all of them known to fame at different periods. The margin

of this gulf measures eighty miles, the distance across being

thirty.











1. This city survived through the middle ages, when it was called

Arkadia. In 1525 it was destroyed by the Turks, and when rebuilt

resumed nearly its ancient name as Cyparissia, by which it is now called.

The bay or gulf is called the Gulf of Arkadia.

2. Messenian Pylos probably stood on the site of the modem Erana;

Pouqueville says however that it is still called Pilo, and other writers

place it at Zonchio. It stood on the modern Bay of Navarino.

3. Its site was at the spot called Palo Kastro, near the modern town of

Modon. The site of Messenian Helos, so called from its position in the

marshes, to\ e(/los, is now unknown.

4. Now Capo Gallo.

5. It stood on the western side of the Messenian Gulf, which from

it was called the Asinan Gulf. Grisso, or, according to some, Iaratcha,

occupies its site. Koroni however is most probably the spot where it

stood, the inhabitants of ancient Corone having removed to it. Petalidhi

stands on the site of Corone. A small portion of the Messenian Gulf

was probably called the Coronean.

6. Now Cape Matapan.

7. Now the Pyrnatza.

8. Its ruins, which are extensive, are to be seen in the vicinity of the

modern village of Mavromati. Ithome was the citadel of Messene, on

a mountain of the same name, now called Vourcano.

9. It is supposed that in ancient times it occupied the site of the

more modern Samos or Samia in Triphylia. The modern Sareni is

thought to occupy its site.

10. Dorion or Dorium, the spot where, according to Homer, the Muses

punished Thamyris with blindness, is supposed to have been situate on

the modern plain of Sulima.

11. Nothing seems to be known of this place; but it is not improbable

that it gave its name to the place so called in Sicily, originally a

Messenian colony.




8. Chap. 8.-Laconia.


CHAP. 8.-LACONIA.



At Tnarum begins the territory of Laconia, inhabited by

a free nation, and situate on a gulf 106 miles in circuit, and

38 across. The towns are, Tnarum[1], Amycl[2], Pher[3],

and Leuctra[4]; and, in the interior, Sparta[5], Theramne[6], and

the spots where Cardamyle[7], Pitane[8], and Anthea formerly

stood; the former site of Thyrea[9], and Gerania[10]. Here is

also Mount Taygetus[11], the river Eurotas, the Gulf of

Egilodes[12], the town of Psamathus, the Gulf of

Gytheum[13], so

called from the town of that name, from which place the

passage is the safest across to the island of Crete. All these

places are bounded by the Promontory of Malea[14].











1. Or Tnarus, afterwards called Cnopolis. The present town of

Kisternes, or Kimaros, occupies its site.

2. Its site is generally placed at Sklavokhori, six miles from Sparta;

but Leake supposes it to have been situate on the hill called Aghia

Kyriaki, between that place and Sparta.

3. Or Pharis. The present Chitries occupies its site.

4. Or Leuctrum, on the river Pamisus, now called Levtros. It must

not be confounded with the town in Botia where the Thebans defeated

the Spartans, B.C. 371.

5. Or Lacedmon. Its site is occupied by the modern villages of

Magula and Psykhiko. The principal modern town in the vicinity

is Mistra.

6. Or Therapne, on the left bank of the Eurotas. Some ruins of it

are still to be seen.

7. Considerable ruins of it are still to be seen to the N.E. of the modern

town of Skarhamula.

8. Authors are not agreed as to the site of this town and that of

Anthea or Anthene.

9. Memorable for the pitched battle between 300 Argives and 300

Spartans,-Othryades being the sole survivor of the Spartans, and

Alcenor and Chromius of the Argives.

10. By Homer called Enope.

11. Pente Dactylon, or Pente Dactyli, the "Five Fingers," is the

present name of the range of Taygetus. Its principal summits are now

St.

Elias and Paixamadhi. The river Eurotas is now called Iris and Niris in

its upper and middle course, and Basili-potamo from the Spartan plain

to the sea.

12. gila, according to Leake, occupied the site of the present Scutari;

if so, this gulf was probably the Gulf of Scutari. Psamathus was near

the point of Tnarum.

13. Or Gythium, near the mouth of the Eurotas. It was famous for its

cheeses. The ruins are called Paleopoli, a little to the north of

Marathonisi.

14. Now Capo Santo Angelo.




9. Chap. 9.-Argolis.


CHAP. 9.-ARGOLIS.



The next gulf, which extends as far as Scyllum[1], is called

the Argolic Gulf, being fifty miles across, and 162 in circuit.

The towns upon it are, Ba[2], Epidaurus[3], surnamed Limera,

Zarax[4], and the port of Cyphanta[5]. The rivers are the

Inachus[6] and the Erasinus, between which lies Argos, surnamed

Hippium[7], situate beyond the place called Lerna[8], and

at a distance of two miles from the sea. Nine miles farther is

Mycen[9], and the place where, it is said, Tiryns[10] stood; the

site, too, of Mantinea[11]. The mountains are, Artemius,

Apesantus[12], Asterion[13], Parparus, and some others,

eleven in

number. The fountains are those of Niobe[14], Amymone, and

Psamathe.



From Scyllum to the Isthmus of Corinth is a distance

of 177 miles. We find here the towns of Hermione[15],

Trzen[16], Coryphasium[17], and Argos, sometimes called "Ina-







chian," sometimes "Dipsian"[18] Argos. Then comes the port

of Schnites[19], and the Saronic Gulf, which was formerly

encircled with a grove of oaks[20], from which it derives its

present name, oaks in ancient Greece having been so called.

Upon this gulf is the town of Epidaurus, famous for its

temple of sculapius[21], the Promontory of Spirum[22], the port

of Anthedus[23], Bucephalus[24], and then Cenchre, previously

mentioned, on this side of the Isthmus, with its temple of

Neptune[25], famous for the games celebrated there every five

years. So many are the gulfs which penetrate the shores of

the Peloponnesus, so many the seas which howl around it.

Invaded by the Ionian on the north, it is beaten by the

Sicilian on the west, buffeted by the Cretan on the south,

by the gean on the S.E., and by the Myrtoan on the N.E.;

which last sea begins at the Gulf of Megara, and washes all

the coast of Attica.







1. Now Capo Skillo.

2. Or BϾ. Its ruins are to be seen at the head of the Gulf of

Vatika.

3. It stood on the site of the place called Palee-Emvasia, above

Monembasia.

4. Its site is the modern Porto Kari, according to Ansart.

5. Leake places Cyphanta either at Cyparissi, or farther north, at

Lenidhi. Ansart makes it the modern Porto Botte, or Stilo.

6. Now the Banitza. The Erasinus is the modern Kephalari.

7. So called from its breed of horses. It is now also called Argos;

three leagues from Napoli di Romania.

8. Its site is now called Milos. In the marshes in its vicinity Hercules

was said to have killed the Lernan Hydra.

9. Karvata is the name of the place on its site. Its ruins are numerous,

and of great magnificence.

10. Its ruins are of the most interesting nature, presenting enormous

masses of stone, of Cyclopian architecture. The spot is at the present day

called Pal-Nauplia.

11. It must not be confounded with the place in Arcadia, where

Epaminondas fell. Its site appears to be unknown.

12. Or Apesas, in the territory of Cleon, now called Fuka. Artemius

is probably the present Malvouni, or Malcyo.

13. A river of the same name rose in this mountain; its identity is

unknown.

14. So called from Niobe, the sister of Pelops and wife of Amphion,

king of Thebes. The spring of Amymone ran into the lake of Lerna.

15. Its ruins are to be seen in the vicinity of the modem village of Castri:

they are very extensive.

16. The modern Dhamala occupies the site of Trzen.

17. The identity of this Coryphasium seems to be unascertained. There

was a promontory of that name in Messenia; but it cannot be the place

here spoken of.

18. It is supposed that Pliny here alludes to Argos Hippium, which he

has previously mentioned; but only in connection with the rivers Inachus

and Erasinus, and not as included in the list of the towns of Argolis.

The origin of the term "Dipsian" is probably unknown. It could hardly

allude to drought, as Argos was abundantly supplied with water. But

see B. vii. c. 57.

19. Ansart says that this is the modern Porto Estremo, at the mouth of

the Saronic Gulf.

20. Hesychius says that oaks were called sarwnide\s in

the language of

ancient Greece. This gulf is now called the Gulf of Egina, or of

Athens.

21. He was worshipped here under the form of a serpent; and his

temple, five miles from Epidaurus, was resorted to by patients from all

parts of Greece for the cure of their diseases. The ruins of this temple

are still to be seen, and those of the theatre at Epidaurus are very

extensive. The village of Pidharvo stands in the midst of the ruins.

22. The modern Capo Franco.

23. Lapie takes Anthedus, or Anthedon, to be the place now called

Porto d'Athene.

24. This appears to have been a port of Corinth, on a promontory of the

same name, meaning, probably from its shape, the "Bull's Head Point."

25. Called the 'Posideium'; in its vicinity the games were celebrated.

The Isthmian Sanctuary was especially famous as a place of refuge.




10. Chap. 10. (6.)-Arcadia.


CHAP. 10. (6.)-ARCADIA.



Its interior is occupied for the greater part by Arcadia,

which, remote from the sea on every side, was ori-







ginally called Drymodes[1], and at a later period Pelasgis.

The cities of Arcadia are, Psophis[2], Mantinea[3], Stymphalus[4], Tegea[5], Antigonea[6], Orchomenus[7], Pheneum[8], Palantium[9] (from which the Palatium[10] at Rome derives its

name), Megalopolis[11], Gortyna[12], Bucolium, Carnion, Parrhasia[13], Thelpusa[14], Meln[15], Hera[16], Pyl[17], Pallene,

Agr, Epium, Cynth[18], Lepreon of Arcadia[19], Parthe-







nium[20], Alea, Methydrium[21], Enispe, Macistum, Lampia,

Clitorium[22], and Cleon[23]; between which two last towns is

the district of Nemea, commonly known as Bembinadia[24].



The mountains of Arcadia are, Phole[25], with a town of the

same name, Cyllene[26], Lycus[27], upon which is the temple of

Lycan Jupiter; Mnalus[28], Artemisius[29],

Parthenius[30], Lampeus[31], and Nonacris[32], besides

eight others of no note.

The rivers are the Ladon[33], which rises in the marshes of

Pheneus[34], and the Erymanthus[35], which springs from a

mountain of the same name, and flows into the Alpheus.



The other cities of Achaia worthy of mention are those

of the Aliphiri[36], the Abeat[37], the

Pyrgenses[38], the Paro-







reat[39], the Paragenit, the Tortuni, the Typanei[40], the

Thriasii[41], and the Tritienses[42]. Domitius Nero [the emperor]

granted liberty to the whole of Achaia[43]. The Peloponnesus,

from the Promontory of Malea to the town of gium[44] on

the Corinthian Gulf, is 190 miles in length, and 125 miles

across from Elis to Epidaurus; the distance being, from

Olympia to Argos, through Arcadia, sixty-eight miles. The

distance from Olympia to Phlius has been already mentioned[45].

Throughout the whole of this region, as though

nature had been desirous to compensate for the inroads of

the sea, seventy-six mountains raise their lofty heads.







1. From drumwdh\s, "woody," it being filled with groves and

forests.

2. Now called the Khan of Tripotamo.

3. Now called Paleopoli. Here Epaminondas fell, fighting against

the Spartans, B.C. 362.

4. In the N.E. of Arcadia. Its ruins are supposed to be those seen

near the modern Chionia. It was in the vicinity of the lake of the same

name, the scene of one of the labours of Hercules.

5. An important city: the modern Piali marks its site.

6. Built upon the ruins of the ancient Mantinea.

7. An ancient town mentioned by Homer, N.W. of Mantinea. The

modern Kalpaki stands on its site.

8. Or Pheneus, on the N.W. of Arcadia. Phonia stands on its site.

9. Near Tegea; said to have been the birth-place of Evander. On the

foundation of Megalopolis, it was nearly deserted, but was restored by

Antoninus Pius. Its ruins are supposed to be those seen near the

modern village of Thana, according to Ansart.

10. It being said to have been so called in compliment to Evander, a

native, as above stated, of Palantium.

11. Founded by the advice of Epaminondas, after the battle of Leuctra,

B.C. 371, near the frontiers of Messenia. The ruins of its

theatre, once

the largest in Greece, are the only remains of it now to be seen, near the

modern village of Sinano.

12. It contained a famous temple of sculapius. Its ruins are to be

seen near the village of Atzikolo. The exact site of Bucolion, which was

near Megalopolis, is probably unknown, though Ansart says that the

spot is called Troupiais. Of Carnion nothing is known.

13. The town of Parrhasia, which is mentioned by Homer, seems to

have given name to the Parrhasian district. Leake thinks it to be the

same as Lycosura.

14. On the river Ladon: its ruins are seen near the modern Vanena.

15. In the west of Arcadia, on the river Alpheus.

16. Or "Juno's Town." It was a place of great importance, situate

on the lower Alpheus. Its remains are to be seen on a hill west of the

village of Aianni, or St. John. They are very inconsiderable. Its wine

was highly esteemed, and still maintains its ancient celebrity.

17. Of Pyl, Pallene, Agree, and Epium, nothing appears to be known.

18. Or Cyntha, in the north of Arcadia, upon the Aroanian mountains,

beyond the natural boundaries of Arcadia. The modern village of

Kalavryta occupies its site; but there are scarcely any traces of its

remains.

19. Or Lepreum, so called to distinguish it from Lepreum in Elis.

20. Nothing seems to be known of this Parthenium. Alea lay between

Orchomenus and Stymphalus. Its ruins have been discovered in the

dark valley of Skotini, a mile to the N.E. of the village of Buyati.

21. Its site has the modern name of Palopyrgos. The sites of Enispe,

mentioned by Homer, and Macistum, are unknown.

22. Or Cleitor, a famous town of Arcadia. Its ruins are to be seen on

the plain of Kalzana, or Katzanes. One of the rivulets that ran past it

still retains the name of Clitora.

23. Its ruins, few in number, but testifying its importance, are found

near the modern village of Kleves, not far from Kurtesi. The Nemean

games were celebrated in honour of Hercules in the grove of Nemea,

between Cieon and Phlius.

24. From the village of Bembina there, mentioned by Strabo, and on

which Koutzomati probably now stands.

25. Now called Olono. It received its name from the Centaur Pholus,

accidentally slain by one of the poisoned arrows of Hercules.

26. The modern Zyria.

27. Nomiai and Hellenitza are modern names given to this mountain.

28. In the south of Arcadia. It is now called Roinon.

29. Or Artemisium, forming the boundary between Argolis and Arcadia.

It is now called Turniki.

30. The pass by this mountain from Argolis to Tegea is still called

Partheni.

31. Now called Zembi, according to Ansart.

32. The town of Nonacris stood at its foot. The river Styx took its rise

in these mountains.

33. Now called the Landona.

34. The town now called Fonia, already mentioned by Pliny. The

waters of its marshes were discharged by a subterranean passage, said to

have been made by Hercules.

35. Now called the Dogana. The two principal heights of Mount

Erymanthus are Olonos and Kalefoni.

36. The people of Aliphira, a town of Arcadia, in the district of Cynura.

Considerable remains of it are still to be seen on the hill of

Nerovitza.

37. The people of Abea, in Messenia.

38. people of Pyrgos, in Arcadia.

39. The people of Parorea, in Arcadia. Of the two next, nothing appears

to be known.

40. The inhabitants of Typane, in Elis.

41. The people of Thrius, in Elis, near Patr.

42. The people of Tritia, in Achaia, now Chalanthistra.

43. Nero abolished the institutions of the Roman province of

Achaia, which had been assigned to the Roman senate, and governed by

a proconsul, granting it its liberty. Vespasian, however, again

established the provincial government, and compelled the Greeks to

pay a yearly tribute.

44. Now Vostitza.

45. See p. 281.




11. Chap. 11. (7.)-Attica.


CHAP. 11. (7.)-ATTICA.



At the narrow neck of the Isthmus, Hellas begins, by our

people known as Grcia. The first state that presents

itself is Attica, anciently called Acte[1]. It touches the

Isthmus in that part of it which is called Megaris, from the

colony of Megara[2], lying on the opposite side to Pag[3].



These two towns are situate at the spot where the Peloponnesus

projects to the greatest distance; being placed, one

on each side, upon the very shoulders of Hellas as it were.

The Pagans, as well as the people of gosthena[4], belong

to the jurisdiction of Megara. On the coast there is the

port of Schnos[5], the towns of Sidus[6] and

Cremmyon[7], the







Scironian Rocks[8], six miles in length, Geranea, Megara, and

Eleusis[9]. no[10] and Probalinthos also formerly existed

here; the ports of Pirus and Phalerum[11] are distant from the

Isthmus fifty-five miles, being united to Athens, which lies

in the interior, by a wall[12] five miles in length. Athens is a free

city, and needs[13] not a word more from us in its commendation; of fame it enjoys even more than enough. In

Attica there are the Fountains of Cephisia[14], Larine,

Callirrho Enneacrunos[15], and the mountains of Brilessus[16], gialeus, Icarius, Hymettus[17], Lycabettus[18], and

the place where Ilissus[19] stood. At the distance of forty-five miles from the Pirus is the Promontory of Sunium[20].

There is also the Promontory of Thoricos[21]; Potamos[22],







Steria[23], and Brauron[24], once towns, the borough of

Rhamus[25], the place where Marathon[26] stood, the

Thriasian[27] plain,

the town of Melite[28], and Oropus[29] upon the confines of

Botia.







1. From the Greek a)kth\, "the sea-shore."

2. It still retains its ancient name.

3. Or Peg. It lay on the borders of the Corinthian Gulf, being, as

Pliny says, the utmost point of the Peloponnesus on that side, as Megara

was on the Saronic Gulf. According to Kruse, Psato occupies its site, but

according to Lapie, Alepochori. The former is most probably correct.

4. On the Corinthian Gulf. Porto Ghermano occupies its site.

5. On the Saronic Gulf, to the north of Cenchre. The present

Porto Cocosi occupies its site.

6. Now Leandra, according to Ansart.

7. Or Crommyon. It was the chief place on the Saronic Gulf, between

the Isthmus, properly so called, and Megara. Its rains are thought to

be those seen near the chapel of Saint Theodorus. It was said to have

been the haunt of the wild boar killed by Theseus.

8. So called from being the scene of the ravages of the robber Sciron.

They are now called Kaki Scala.

9. Famous as the principal seat of the worship of the goddesses Demeter

and Persephone. Its remains are to be seen at the modern Lefsina.

10. Pera Chora marks its site. It was a member of the Tetrapolis of

Attica, and Probalinthos another.

11. Ulrichs, the best authority, places the port of Phalerum at the east

corner of the great Phaleric Bay, in the vicinity of Tripirghi, or the

Three Towers. The three harbours of the Pirus are the present

Phanari, Stratiotiki or Paschalimani, and Drako or Porto Leone.

12. The Pirus was united to the city by two walls, called the "Long

Walls," forty stadia in length. The length of the Phaleric wall was

thirty-five stadia.

13. It is to be regretted that such was his opinion. He could have well

spared space for a description of it.

14. The city of Cephisia, still called Kivisia, was one of the twelve cities

of Cecrops. The fountain of transparent water is still to be seen here.

15. Or the "Nine Springs." It was the only source of good water for

drinking purposes in Athens. This spring is still called by its ancient

name. Of Larine nothing seems to be known.

16. This is thought to have been the ancient name of the mountain

afterwards known as Pentelicus, so famous for its marble, now called

Mendeli or Penteli.

17. The northern or Greater Hymettus is now called Telo-Vuni, the

southern or Lesser Mavro-Vuni.

18. On the N.E. of Athens, now called the Hill of Saint George.

19. Probably on the river of the same name.

20. Now Capo Colonna.

21. North of Sunium and the modern bay of Panorimo. Thoricus was

one of the Demi of Attica.

22. This was the name of two Demi, though probably one place. It lay

on the east coast to the north of Thoricus. Its harbour was probably

the modern Dhaskalio; and the town is placed by Leake at the ruins called

Paleokastro, to the south of the village of Dardheza.

23. On the east coast, between Prasi and Brauron.

24. One of the twelve ancient cities of Cecrops, on the eastern coast.

Its name is supposed to be preserved in those of the villages Vraona and

Paleo Vraona.

25. A Demus belonging to the tribe antis. It was famous for its temple

of Nemesis, the goddess of retribution. The present Obrio Castro

occupies its site.

26. Memorable for the defeat of the Persians by the Athenians,

B.C. 490.

The site of the ancient town of Marathon is thought not to have been at

the modern village of Marathon, but a place called Vrana, to the south

of it.

27. The eastern part of the Eleusinian plain was thus called, from the

Demus of Thria. Its exact site is uncertain.

28. Melite was a Demus of the tribe Cecropis, of Athens, west of the

inner Ceramicus.

29. Now Oropo, on the eastern frontiers of Botia and Attica, near the

Euripus. It originally belonged to the Botians.




12. Chap. 12.-Botia.


CHAP. 12.-BOTIA.



In this country are Anthedon[1], Onchestus[2], the free town

of Thespi[3], Lebadea[4], and then Thebes[5], surnamed

Botian[6], which does not yield the palm to Athens even in

celebrity; the native land, according to the common notion,

of the two Divinities Liber and Hercules. The birth-place

of the Muses too is pointed out in the grove of Helicon.

To this same Thebes also belong the forest of Cithron[7],







and the river Ismenus. Besides these, there are in Botia

the Fountains of dipodia, Psamathe, Dirce, Epicrane,

Arethusa, Hippocrene[8], Aganippe, and Gargaphie; and, besides

the mountains already mentioned, Mycalesos, Hadylius,

and Acontius. The remaining towns between Megara and

Thebes are Eleuther[9], Haliartus[10],

Plat[11], Pher, Aspledon[12], Hyle[13], Thisbe[14],

Erythr[15], Glissas[16], and Cop[17]; near

the river Cephisus, Larymna and Anchoa[18]; as also Medeon,

Phlygone, Acrphia[19], Coronea[20], and

Chronea[21]. Again,







on the coast and below Thebes, are Ocalea[22], Heleon, Scolos,

Schnos[23], Peteon[24], Hyri[25],

Mycalesos[26], Iresion, Pteleon,

Olyros, and Tanagra[27], the people of which are free; and,

situate upon the very mouth of the Euripus[28], a strait formed

by the opposite island of Euba, Aulis[29], so famous for its

capacious harbour. The Botians formerly had the name

of Hyantes.



After them come the Locrians, surnamed Epicnemidii[30],

formerly called Leleges, through whose country the river

Cephisus passes, in its course to the sea. Their towns are

Opus[31]; from which the Opuntian Gulf[32] takes its name, and

Cynos. Daphnus[33] is the only town of Phocis situate on the

coast. In the interior of Locris is Elatea[34], and on the

banks of the Cephisus, as we have previously stated[35], Lila,

and, facing Delphi, Cnemis[36] and Hyampolis[37]. Again, upon







the coast of the Locrians, are Larymna[38], and Thronium[39],

near which last the river Boagrius enters the sea. Also, the

towns of Narycion, Alope[40], and Scarphia[41]; and then the

gulf which receives the name of the Maliac[42] from the people

who dwell there, and upon which are the towns of Halcyone,

Econia, and Phalara[43].







1. Its ruins are supposed to be those seen eight miles from Egripo.

Lukisi has also been suggested.

2. Its ruins are still to be seen on the S.W. slope of Mount Faga.

3. On the S.E. slope of Mount Helicon. Its ruins are to be seen at

the modern Eremo or Rimokastro.

4. Now Livadhia. The celebrated cave of Trophonius stood in its

vicinity.

5. Extensive remains of it are still to be seen; but the modern town

of Theba or Stiva stands only on the site of its ancient Cadmea or citadel.

6. To distinguish it from places of the same name in Egypt, Phthiotis,

and Lucania.

7. On the range of mountains of that name separating Botia from

Megaris and Attica. The forest abounded in game, and the vicinity was

a favourite scene of the poetic legends. Paleovuni is the highest summit

of the Heliconian range. Leake fixes the Grove of the Muses at the

present church of Saint Nicholas, at the foot of Mount Marandali, one

of the summits of Helicon.

8. These fountains or springs are very difficult to identify, but

Hippocrene, or the "Iorse-Spring" (said to have been produced by

Pegasus

striking the ground with his feet), was probably at the present

Makariotissa; while Aganippe is the fountain that flows midway between

Paleo-panaghia and Pyrgaki.

9. This place was originally a member of the Botian confederacy, but

joined the Athenians, though it did not become an Attic Demus. Leake

thinks that its ruins are those seen at Myupoli. Ross thinks that it

stood to the east of Ghyfto-kastro, while other writers are of opinion that

it stood more to the west, near the modern village of Kundara.

10. Razed to the ground by the Roman prtor Lucretius, for having

espoused the cause of king Perseus. Its remains are seen about a mile

from the village of Mazi, on the road from Thebes to Lebada.

11. Memorable for the defeat of the Persians under Mardonius,

B.C. 479.

12. Distant twenty stadia from Orchomenus. Leake places it at the

modern Izamali, Forchhammer at Avro-Kastro.

13. Its site is uncertain. Leake supposes it to be at Paleokastro, between

the north end of Lake Hylica and the foot of Mount Palea. Ulrichs places

it at the south end of the lake.

14. The modern Kakosia occupies its site.

15. At the foot of Mount Cithron. Leake places it eastward of

Katzula, at the foot of the rocks there.

16. Leake identifies it with the ruins on the torrent of Plataniki, below

the mountain of Siamata. Pausanias says it was situate seven stadia

beyond Teumessus, and at the foot of Hypatus, now Siamata.

17. On Lake Copas. The modern village of Topolia occupies its

site.

18. The waters of the Cephisus here burst forth from their

subterraneous channel.

19. On Lake Copas. Its ruins are at a short distance to the south of

the modern Kardhitza.

20. South of Mount Helicon. Its principal remains are those of its

theatre, a temple of Hera, and the agora or market-place.

21. On the borders of Phocis; famous for the battles fought in its

vicinity between the Athenians and Botians, B.C. 447, and between

Philip of Macedon and the Athenians and Botians, B.C. 338, and that

in which Sylla defeated the generals of Mithridates B.C. 86.

It stood on

the site of the modern village of Kapurna.

22. On the river Copais, at the foot of Mount Tilphusion.

23. On the river of that name, and on the road from Thebes to Anthedon.

24. Its site appears to be unknown.

25. Enumerated by Homer with Aulis. Ancient critics have, without

sufficient reason, identified it with Hysi.

26. It was sacked by the Athenians, B.C. 413, and in ruins

in the time

of Pausanias.

27. The modern Grimadha or Grimala occupies its site.

28. The modern channel of Egripo.

29. The place where the Grecian fleet assembled when about to sail for

Troy. Leake says that its harbour is now called Vathy, evidently from

the Greek baqu\s, "wide."

30. So called from dwelling near Mount Cnemis.

31. Its ruins are to be seen three miles from the modern Talanti.

32. Now the Golfo di Talanti.

33. On the Euban Sea, which here extended to the Corinthian Gulf.

It was in ruins in the time of Strabo. Cynus was the chief sea-port

of the Locri Opuntii. Its site is marked by a tower called Palopyrgo,

and some ruins to the south of the village of Livanates.

34. The modern village of Lefti stands on its site, and there are some

ruins to be seen.

35. In C. iv. of this Book.

36. Or Cnemides, a fortress built on the range of Mount Cnemis, near

the modern Nikoraki.

37. Ravaged by Philip of Macedon. Its ruins are near the modern

village of Vogdhani.

38. The Lower Larymna. Its ruins are seen between the modern Matzumadi and Martini.

39. Its ruins are to be seen near the modern Andera.

40. Between Daphnus and Cynus. Gell found its ruins on a hill near

the sea-shore.

41. Its ruins are to be seen three miles from those of Thronium.

42. Now called the Gulf of Zeitoun. The people from whom it received

its name were the Malienses.

43. Its ruins are two leagues from the modern town of Zeitoun.




13. Chap. 13.-Doris.


CHAP. 13.-DORIS.



Doris comes next, in which are Sperchios[1], Erineon[2],

Boion[3], Pindus, and Cytinum[4]. Behind Doris lies Mount

ta.







1. Or Sperchia.

2. Strabo says that it lay below the town of Pindus. It is perhaps the

present Palo Choria.

3. Its ruins are placed by Leake near the modern Mariolates.

4. Like Pindus, one of the four towns or Tetrapolis of Doris. Its site

corresponds to the modern Gravia.




14. Chap. 14.-Phthiotis.


CHAP. 14.-PHTHIOTIS.



Hmonia follows, a country which has often changed its

name, having been successively called Pelasgic Argos, Hellas, Thessaly, and Dryopis, always taking its surname from

its kings. In this country was born the king whose name

was Grcus; and from whom Grcia was so called; and here

too was born Hellen[1], from whom the Hellenes derive their

name. The same people Homer has called by three different

names, Myrmidones, Hellenes, and Achi.



That portion of these people which inhabit the country

adjacent to Doris are called Phthiot. Their towns are

Echinus[2], at the mouth of the river Sperchius, and, at four







miles from the narrow pass of Thermopyl[3], Heraclea, which

from it takes its surname of Trachin[4]. Here too is Mount

Callidromus[5], and the celebrated towns of Hellas[6], Halos[7],

Lamia[8], Phthia[9], and Arne[10].







1. He seems to think that the name Grcus is older than that of

Hellen, in which he is supported by Apollodorus.

2. So called from Echion, fabled to have sprung from the dragon's

teeth. Its site is marked by the modern village called Akhino. The

Sperchius is now called the Ellada.

3. This famous spot still retains its name. It is also called

Bocca di Lupo.

4. From tracu\s, "narrow," in allusion to the narrowness of

the mountain passes. Brotier places it on the site of the modern

Zeitoun, but he is probably in error.

5. A peak of the range of ta.

6. The name of a town and small district of Phthiotis: it eventually

gave its name to the whole of Greece, which by its inhabitants was called

Hellas.

7. Near the river Amphrysus. Leake places it at Kefalosi, at the

extremity of Mount Othrys.

8. The modern Zeitoun.

9. Said to have been the city of Achilles.

10. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, Cierium was identical with

Arne. Leake places it at the modern Mataranga.




15. Chap. 15. (8.)-Thessaly Proper.


CHAP. 15. (8.)-THESSALY PROPER.



In Thessaly is Orchomenus, formerly called the Minyan[1],

and the towns of Almon, by some called Salmon, Atrax[2],

and Pelinna; the Fountain of Hyperia; the towns also of

Pher[3], at the back of which is Pieria[4], extending

to Macedonia, Larisa[5], Gomphi[6],

Thebes[7] of Thessaly, the grove

of Pteleon, the Gulf of Pagasa, the town of Pagasa[8], which

was afterwards called Demetrias[9], the Plains of Pharsalia,







with a free city of similar name[10], Crannon[11], and Iletia.

The mountains of Phthiotis are Nymphus, once so beautiful for its

garden scenery, the work of nature; Busygus,

Donacesa, Bermius[12], Daphusa, Chimerion, Athamas, and

Stephane. In Thessaly there are thirty-four, of which the

most famous are Cercetii, Olympus[13], Pierus, and Ossa, opposite

to which last are Pindus and Othrys, the abodes of the

Lapith. These mountains look towards the west, Pelion[14]

towards the east, all of them forming a curve like an amphitheatre,

in the interior of which, lying before them, are no

less than seventy-five cities. The rivers of Thessaly are the

Apidanus[15], the Phnix[16], the Enipeus[17], the

Onochonus[18], and

the Pamisus. There is also the Fountain of Messeis, and

the lake Bbeis[19]. The river Peneus[20] too, superior to all

others in celebrity, takes its rise near Gomphi, and flows

down a well-wooded valley between Ossa and Olympus, a







distance of five hundred stadia, being navigable half that

distance. The vale, for a distance of five miles through which

this river runs, is called by the name of Tempe; being a

jugerum[21] and a half nearly in breadth, while on the right

and left, the mountain chain slopes away with a gentle

elevation, beyond the range of human vision, the foliage

imparting its colour to the light within. Along this vale

glides the Peneus, reflecting the green tints as it rolls along

its pebbly bed, its banks covered with tufts of verdant

herbage, and enlivened by the melodious warblings of the

birds. The Peneus receives the river Orcus, or rather, I

should say, does not receive it, but merely carries its waters,

which swim on its surface like oil, as Homer says[22]; and then,

after a short time, rejects them, refusing to allow the waters

of a river devoted to penal sufferings and engendered for

the Furies to mingle with his silvery streams.







1. So called from the people called Miny, who derived their name

from Minyas, the father of Orchomenus. In the time of Strabo, this

city, the capital of the Minyan empire, was in ruins. Its site is now

called Seripu.

2. Leake places its site on the left bank of the Peneius, opposite the

village of Gunitza.

3. The residence of Admetus, and in later times of the tyrants of

Thessaly. The modern Valestina occupies its site.

4. Spoken of in C. 17 of the present book.

5. The ancient capital of the Pelasgi. It is now called Larissa, Larza,

or Ienitchen.

6. Leake places Gomphi on the heights now called Episkopi, on the

left bank of the Bliuri.

7. Its ruins are said to be seen about eight miles from the modern

city of Volo.

8. The city of Volo stands on its site. The Gulf is called the Bay

of Volo.

9. This is not strictly correct. Demetrias was founded by Demetrius

Poliorcetes, about two or three miles to the west of Pagasa, the inhabit-

ants of which were removed to that place. Its remains are to be seen,

according to Leake, on the face of a maritime height called Goritza.

10. Pharsalus, now Farsa or Fersala, in Thessaliotis. On its plain

Pompey was defeated by Csar, B.C. 48.

11. Or Cranon; said to have been anciently called Ephyre. Leake

places its site at some ruins called Palea Larissa, distant two hours and

twenty-seven minutes' journey from Larissa. It was the residence of the

powerful family of the Scopad.

12. This range in Macedonia is now called Verria. Herodotus states

that it was impassable for cold, and that beyond were the gardens of

Midas, where roses grew spontaneously.

13. The name of the eastern part of the great mountain chain extending

west and east from the Promontory of Acroceraunia on the Adriatic to

the Thermaic Gulf. It is now called by the Greeks Elymbo, and by the

Turks Semavat-Evi, the "Abode of the Celestials." A portion of this range

was called Pierus; and Ossa, now Kissavo, the "ivy-clad," was divided

from Olympus on the N.W. by the Vale of Tempe. Othrys extended

from the south of Mount Pindus, to the eastern coast and the Promontory between the Gulf of Pagasa and the northern point of Euba.

14. Now called Plessedhi or Zagora; situate in the district of Magnesia

in Thessaly, between lake Bbeis and the Pagasan Gulf.

15. Now the Gouropotamo.

16. Flowing into the Asopus near Thermopyl.

17. In Pieria. Supposed to be the modern Litokhoro.

18. The modern Rajani.

19. This lake received the rivers Onchestus, Amyrus, and others. It is

now called Karla, from an adjoining village which has ceased to exist.

The town of Bbe was in its vicinity.

20. Now the Salambria or Salamria.

21. The jugerum was properly 240 feet long and 120 broad, but Pliny

uses it here solely as a measure of length; corresponding probably to the

Greek ple/qron, 100 Grecian or 104 Roman feet long. Tempe is the

only channel through which the waters of the Thessalian plain flow into

the sea.

22. Il. B. ii. c. 262. He alludes to the poetical legend that the Orcus or

Titaresius was a river of the infernal regions. Its waters were

impregnated with an oily substance, whence probably originated the

story of

the unwillingness of the Peneus to mingle with it. It is now called the

Elasonitiko or Xeraghi.




16. Chap. 16. (9.)-Magnesia.


CHAP. 16. (9.)-MAGNESIA.



To Thessaly Magnesia joins, in which is the fountain of

Libethra[1]. Its towns are Iolcos[2], Hormenium, Pyrrha[3],

Methone[4], and Olizon[5]. The Promontory of Sepias[6] is here

situate. We then come to the towns of Casthanea[7] and Spa-







lathra[8], the Promontory of antium[9], the towns of Meliba[10],

Rhizus, and Erymn[11]; the mouth of the Peneus, the towns

of Homolium[12], Orthe, Thespi, Phalanna[13], Thaumacie[14],

Gyrton[15], Crannon[16], Acharne[17], Dotion[18], Melita, Phylace[19],

and Potni[20]. The length of Epirus, Achaia, Attica, and

Thessaly is said altogether to amount to 490 miles, the

breadth to 287.







1. Near Libethrum; said to be a favourite haunt of the Muses, whence

their name "Libethrides." It is near the modern Goritza.

2. Leake places its site on the height between the southernmost houses

of Volo and Vlakho-Makhala. No remains of it are to be seen.

3. Ansart says that on its site stands the modern Korakai Pyrgos.

4. Near Neokhori, and called Eleutherokhori.

5. Now Kortos, near Argalisti, according to Ansart.

6. Now Haghios Georgios, or the Promontory of St. George.

7. At the foot of Mount Pelion. Leake places it at some ruins near a

small port called Tamukhari. The chestnut tree derived its Greek and

modern name from this place, in the vicinity of which it still abounds.

8. Probably near the village of Hagia Eutimia, according to Ansart.

9. Now Trikeri.

10. Meliba was near the modern Mintzeles, and Rhizus near Pesi

Dendra, according to Ansart.

11. Ansart says, in the vicinity of the modern Conomio.

12. Situate at the foot of Mount Homole, between Tempe and the village

of Karitza. Leake thinks that the Convent of St. Demetrius, on the

lower part of Mount Kissavo, stands on its site.

13. Now Tournovo, according to Ansart.

14. Now called Democo, according to Ansart.

15. Between the Titaresius and the Peneus. The modern village of

Tatari stands on its site.

16. Probably the place of the same name mentioned in the last Chapter.

17. Probably the same as Acharr on the river Pamisus, mentioned

by Livy, B. xxxii. c. 13.

18. On the Dotian Plain, mentioned by Hesiod, and probably the same

place that Pindar calls Lacereia.

19. The birth-place of Protesilas, the first victim of the Trojan war.

20. Nothing is known of this place. The word "porro" appears instead

of it in some editions.




17. Chap. 17. (10.)-Macedonia.


CHAP. 17. (10.)-MACEDONIA.



Macedonia comes next, including 150 nations, and renowned for its

two kings[1] and its former empire over the

world; it was formerly known by the name of Emathia[2].

Stretching away towards the nations of Epirus on the west

it lies at the back of Magnesia and Thessaly, being itself

exposed to the attacks of the Dardani[3]. Ponia and Pelagonia protect its northern parts from the Triballi[4]. Its







towns are gi[5], at which place its kings were usually

buried, Bera[6], and, in the country called Pieria from the

grove of that name, ginium[7]. Upon the coast are

Heraclea[8], the river Apilas[9], the towns of

Pydna[10] and Aloros[11],

and the river Haliacmon[12]. In the interior are the Alorit[13],

the Valli[14], the Ph1lylaci, the Cyrrhest[15],

the Tyrissi,

the colony of Pella[16], and Stobi[17], a town with the rights of

Roman citizens. Next comes Antigonea[18], Europus[19] upon

the river Axius, and another place of the same name by

which the Rhmdias flows, Scydra, Eorda, Mieza, and Gordyni.

Then, upon the coast, Ichne[20], and the river Axius:

along this frontier the Dardani, the Treres[21], and the Pieres,

border on Macedonia. Leaving this river, there are the







nations of Ponia[22], the Parori[23], the

Eordenses[24], the Almopii[25], the Pelagones, and the

Mygdones[26].



Next come the mountains of Rhodope, Scopius, and Orbelus; and, lying along the extent of country in front of these

mountains, the Arethusii[27], the Antiochienses[28], the Idomenenses[29], the Doberi[30], the strenses, the Allantenses, the

Audaristenses, the Morylli, the Garesci[31], the Lyncest[32], the

Othryonei[33], and the Amantini[34] and Orest[35],

both of them

free peoples; the colonies of Bullis[36] and Dium[37], the Xylopolit, the Scotussi, a free people, Heraclea Sintica[38], the

Tymphi[39], and the Toroni.



Upon the coast of the Macedonian Gulf there are the

town of Chalastra[40], and, more inland, Piloros; also Lete,







and at the extreme bend of the Gulf, Thessalonica[41], a free

city; (from this place to Dyrrhachium it is 245 miles[42],)

and then Therm[43]. Upon the Gulf[44] of Therm are the

towns of Dica, Pydna[45], Derra, Scione[46], the Promontory of

Canastrum[47], and the towns of Pallene[48] and Phlegra. In this

region also are the mountains Hypsizorus, Epitus, Halcyone,

and Leoomne; the towns of Nyssos[49], Phryxelon, Mend, and

what was formerly Potida[50] on the isthmus of Pallene, but

now the Colony of Cassandria; Anthemus[51], Olophyxus[52], and

the Gulf of Mecyberna[53]; the towns of Miscella, Ampelos[54],

Torone[55], Singos[56], and the canal, a mile and a half in length,

by means of which Xerxes, king of the Persians, cut off Mount

Athos[57] from the main land. This mountain projects from







the level plain of the adjacent country into the sea, a distance

of seventy-five[58] miles; its circumference at its base being 150

miles in extent. There was formerly upon its summit the

town of Acroathon[59]: the present towns are Uranopolis[60],

Palorium, Thyssus, Cleon[61], and Apollonia, the inhabitants

of which have the surname of Macrobii[62]. The town also of

Cassera, and then the other side of the Isthmus, after which

come Acanthus[63], Stagira[64], Sithone[65],

Heraclea[66], and the country of Mygdonia that lies below, in

which are situate, at some

distance from the sea, Apollonia[67] and Arethusa. Again, upon

the coast we have Posidium[68], and the bay with the town of

Cermorus, Amphipolis[69], a free town, and the nation of the







Bisalt. We then come to the river Strymon[70] which takes

its rise in Mount Hmus[71] and forms the boundary of Macedonia: it is worthy of remark that it first discharges itself

into seven lakes before it proceeds onward in its course.



Such is Macedonia, which was once the mistress of the

world, which once extended[72] her career over Asia, Armenia,

Iberia, Albania, Cappadocia, Syria, Egypt, Taurus, and Caucasus, which reduced the whole of the East under her power,

and triumphed over the Bactri, the Medes, and the Persians.

She too it was who proved the conqueror of India, thus

treading in the footsteps of Father Liber[73] and of Hercules;

and this is that same Macedonia, of which our own general

Paulus milius sold to pillage seventy-two[74] cities in one day.

So great the difference in her lot resulting from the actions

of two[75] individuals!







1. Philip, the Conqueror of Greece, and Alexander, the Conqueror of

Asia.

2. The original Emathia, as mentioned by Homer, is coupled with

Pieria as lying between the Hellenic cities of Thessaly and Ponia, and

Thrace.

3. A tribe of the south-west of Msia, and extending over a part of

Illyricum. According to Strabo, they were a wild race, of filthy habits,

living in caves under dunghills, but fond of music.

4. A people of Msia, mentioned in C. 29 of the last Book.

5. Supposed by some writers to be the same place as Edessa. Ansart

says it is the spot now known as Moglena.

6. Now Verria in Roumeia. St. Paul and Silas withdrew to this place

from Thessalonica. The remains are very considerable.

7. Described by Livy as of great strength. It occupied the site of the

modern Stagus.

8. Surnamed Lyncestis; the chief town of Upper Macedonia. It must

have stood not far from the modern town of Felurina.

9. Now the Platamona.

10. Now Kitron. The Romans usually called it Citron or Citrus.

11. In the inmost recess of the Thermaic Gulf. Leake supposes it to

have occupied the site of the present Palea Khora, near Kapsokhori.

12. Now the Vistritza, by the Turks called Inje-Karra. Csar calls it

the boundary between Macedonia and Thessaly.

13. The people apparently of Aloros just mentioned.

14. Vall and Phylac appear to have been two towns of Pieria.

15. The people of Cyrrhus; probably on the site of the present

Vistritza. Leake however makes a place called Paleokastro to occupy its

site. Tyriss was probably in its vicinity.

16. Now Alaklisi, upon a lake formed by the Lydias. Philip made it

the capital of Macedonia, and it was the birth-place of Alexander the

Great. It was made a Roman colony under the name of Julia Augusta

Pella.

17. Its ruins are still called Stoli.

18. There were two places of this name in Macedonia; one called

Antigonia Psaphara in Chalcidice, and the other in Ponia.

19. Between Idomene and the plains of Pella. As Pliny here says, it

was a different place from Europus of Almopia, by which the Rhdias

flows. Of the following places nothing seems to be known.

20. Coupled by Herodotus with Pella. Eorda seems to have been the

name of the district on the river Eordaicus, identified with the modern

Devol.

21. They dwelt in the vicinity of Mount Scomium. The river Axius is

the modern Vardhari.

22. Or Thrace.

23. People of Parora in Thrace.

24. The people probably of Eorda, already mentioned.

25. Leake thinks that Almopia was the name of the district now called

Moglena.

26. The Mygdones were a Thracian people in the east of Macedonia, on

the Thermaic Gulf.

27. The people of Arethusa, a town of Bisaltia in Macedonia, in the pass

of Aulon. Euripides, the tragic poet, was buried here.

28. A town of Mygdonia.

29. The people of Idomene, a town about twelve miles from the pass of

Stena, now Demirkapi, or the 'Iron Gate,' on the river Vardhari.

30. Their district of Doberus is supposed to have been near the modern

Doghiran.

31. It has been suggested that Garescus stood on the same site as the

modern Nurocopo. Many of these peoples are now entirely unknown.

32. The people of Lyncestis, in Macedonia, of Illyrian origin and on the

frontiers of Illyria. Lyncus was the ancient capital, Heracla the more

modern one.

33. Probably the inhabitants of the slopes of Mount Othrys.

34. Amantia was properly in Illyria, to the south of the river Aos.

Leake places it at Nivitza.

35. A people of the north of Epirus, on the borders of Macedonia. They

were said to have derived their name from Orestes, who, after the murder

of his mother, founded in their territory the town of Argos Oresticum.

36. A Greek city of Illyria. Dr. Holland discovered its remains at

Graditza on the Aos or Viosa.

37. The bulwark of the Macedonian maritime frontier to the south.

Leake discovered its site near the modern Malathria.

38. On the right bank of the river Strymon in Thracian Macedonia. It

stood on the site of the modern Zervokhori.

39. A people of Epirus on the borders of Thessaly.

40. In Mygdonia, at the mouth of the Axius-King Perseus put all its

male inhabitants to death. Its site was at or near the modern Kulakia.

41. Now Saloniki. Its original name was Therm, but it was first made

an important city by Cassander, B.C. 315, who gave it its new name in

honour of his wife, the sister of Alexander the Great: S, Paul visited it

about A.D. 53, and two years after addressed from Corinth two Epistles

to his converts in the city.

42. Polybius says, in Strabo, B. vii., 267 miles.

43. As already mentioned, Therm became merged in Thessalonica, when

refounded by Cassander under that name.

44. Now the Gulf of Saloniki.

45. This is probably an error. Pydna, already mentioned, lay far inland

in the district of Pieria.

46. On the peninsula of Pallene. Its male inhabitants were put to death

by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war.

47. Now Capo Paliuri, the extreme point of the Isthmus of Pallene.

48. The most westerly of the three peninsulas of Chalcidice. Phlegra is

generally understood to have been its former name.

49. Perhaps the same as Nyssa, between the rivers Nestus or Mestus, and

Strymon.

50. Its ruins are now called Pinaka. It was a colony of the Corinthians,

but refounded by Cassander, King Philip having previously destroyed the

city.

51. South-east of Thessalonica, and north of Chalcidice. It was given

by King Philip to the Olynthians.

52. Near Mount Athos.

53. Now Molivo, at the head of the Toronaic Gulf, part of which thence

took its name.

54. The name of a promontory at the extremity of the peninsula of Si-

thonia, in Chalcidice. It seems to correspond with the modern Cape

Kartali.

55. In the district of Chalcidice, on the S.W. of the peninsula of

Sithonia.

56. On the east of the peninsula of Sithonia. It gave its name to the

Sinus Singiticus or Singitic Gulf.

57. Now Monte Santo, at the end of the long peninsula running out

from Chalcidice.

58. This is a mistake. It is only forty miles in length. From Lieut.

Smith (Journal of Royal Geogr. Soc. vol. vii. p. 65) we learn that its

average breadth is about four miles; consequently Pliny's statement as to

its circumference must be greatly exaggerated. Juvenal, Sat. x. l. 174,

mentions the story of the canal as a specimen of Greek falsehood; but

distinct traces have survived, to be seen by modern travellers, all the way

from the Gulf of Monte Santo to the Bay of Erso in the Gulf of

Contessa, except about 200 yards in the middle, which has been

probably

filled up.

59. Or Acrothum. Pliny, with Strabo and Mela, errs in thinking that

it stood on the mountain. It stood on the peninsula only, probably on

the site of the modern Lavra.

60. Or the 'Heaven City,' from its elevated position. It was founded

by Alexarchus, brother of Cassander, king of Macedon.

61. Probably on the west side of the peninsula, south of Thyssus.

62. Or "long-lived."

63. Now Erisso; on the east side of the Isthmus, about a mile and a half

from the canal of Xerxes. There are ruins here of a large mole.

64. A little to the north of the Isthmus now called Stavro. It was the

birth-place of Aristotle the philosopher, commonly called the Stagirite, and was, in consequence, restored by Philip, by whom it had been

destroyed; or, as Pliny says in B. vii. c. 30, by Alexander the Great.

65. The name of the central one of the three peninsulas projecting from

Chalcidice. The poets use the word Sithonius frequently as signifying

'Thracian.'

66. Possibly not the same as the Heraclea Sintica previously mentioned.

67. Now called Pollina, south of Lake Bolbe, on the road from Thessalonica to Amphipolis.

68. Sacred to Poseidon or Neptune. Now Capo Stavros in Thessaly,

the west front of the Gulf of Pagasa, if indeed this is the place here

meant.

69. On the left or eastern bank of the river Strymon, which flowed round

it, whence its name Amphi-polis, "round the city." Its site is now

occupied by a village called Neokhorio, in Turkish Jeni-Keni or "New-

town." A few remains are still to be seen. The bay at the mouth of

the Strymon, now Struma or Kara-Sou, is called the Gulf of Orphano.

70. A Thracian people, extending from the river Strymon on the east

to Crestonica on the west.

71. In Mount Scomius namely, one of the Hmus or Balkan range.

72. Under Alexander the Great. On his death his empire was torn in

pieces by the contentions of his generals.

73. In allusion to the legendary accounts of the Indian expeditions of

Bacchus and Hercules.

74. On the conquest of Perseus. Plutarch says that these seventy cities

were pillaged in one and the same hour. They were thus punished for

their support of Perseus.

75. Alexander the Great and Paulus milius.




18. Chap. 18. (11.)-Thrace; The gean Sea.


CHAP. 18. (11.)-THRACE; THE GEAN SEA.

Thrace now follows, divided into fifty strategies[1], and to

be reckoned among the most powerful nations of Europe.

Among its peoples whom we ought not to omit to name are

the Denselet and the Medi, dwelling upon the right bank

of the Strymon, and joining up to the Bisalt above[2]

mentioned; on the left there are the Digerri and a number of

tribes of the Bessi[3], with various names, as far as the river

Mestus[4], which winds around the foot of Mount Pan-







gum[5], passing among the Elethi, the Diobessi[6], the

Carbilesi; and then the Brys, the Sapi, and the Odomanti.

The territory of the Odrys[7] gives birth to the Hebrus[8], its

banks being inhabited by the Cabyleti, the Pyrogeri, the

Drugeri, the Cnici, the Hypsalti, the Beni, the Corpili,

the Bottii, and the Edoni[9]. In the same district are also the

Sellet, the Priant, the Dolonc, the Thyni, and the

Greater Clet, below Mount Hmus, the Lesser at the

foot of Rhodope. Between these tribes runs the river Hebrus. We then

come to a town at the foot of Rhodope,

first called Poneropolis[10], afterwards Philippopolis[11] from the

name of its founder, and now, from the peculiarity of its

situation, Trimontium[12]. To reach the summit of Hmus

you have to travel six[13] miles. The sides of it that look in

the opposite direction and slope towards the Ister are inhabited by

the Msi[14], the Get, the Aorsi, the Gaud, and

the Clari; below them, are the Arri Sarmat[15], also called

Arreat, the Scythians, and, about the shores of the Euxine,

the Moriseni and the Sithonii, the forefathers of the poet

Orpheus[16], dwell.







Thus is Thrace bounded by the Ister on the north, by the

Euxine, and the Propontis[17] on the east, and by the gean

Sea on the south; on the coast of which, after leaving the

Strymon, we come in turn to Apollonia[18], syma[19],

Neapolis[20]

and Datos. In the interior is the colony of Philippi[21],

distant from Dyrrhachium 325 miles; also Scotussa[22], the

city of Topiris, the mouth of the river Mestus[23], Mount

Pangus, Heraclea[24], Olynthos[25], Abdera[26], a

free city, the

people of the Bistones[27] and their Lake. Here was formerly

the city of Tirida, which struck such terror with its stables

of the horses[28] of Diomedes. At the present day we find

here Dica[29], Ismaron[30], the place where Parthenion stood,

Phalesina, and Maronea[31], formerly called Orthagorea. We







then come to Mount Serrium[32] and Zone[33], and then the

place called Doriscus[34], capable of containing ten thousand

men, for it was in bodies of ten thousand that Xerxes here

numbered his army. We then come to the mouth of the

Hebrus[35], the Port of Stentor, and the free town of nos[36],

with the tomb there of Polydorus[37], the region formerly of

the Cicones.



From Doriscus there is a winding coast as far as Macron

Tichos[38], or the "Long Wall," a distance of 122 miles;

round Doriscus flows the river Melas, from which the Gulf

of Melas[39] receives its name. The towns are, Cypsela[40],

Bisanthe[41], and Macron Tichos, already mentioned, so called

because a wall extends from that spot between the two

seas,-that is to say, from the Propontis to the Gulf of

Melas, thus excluding the Chersonesus[42], which projects

beyond it.



The other side of Thrace now begins, on the coast[43]

of the Euxine, where the river Ister discharges itself; and

it is in this quarter perhaps that Thrace possesses the finest

cities, Histropolis[44], namely, founded by the Milesians,







Tomi[45], and Callatis[46], formerly called Acervetis. It also

had the cities of Heraclea and Bizone, which latter was

swallowed up by an earthquake; it now has Dionysopolis[47],

formerly called Cruni, which is washed by the river Zyras.

All this country was formerly possessed by the Scythians,

surnamed Aroteres; their towns were, Aphrodisias, Libistos,

Zygere, Rocobe, Eumenia, Parthenopolis, and Gerania[48],

where a nation of Pigmies is said to have dwelt; the barbarians

used to call them Cattuzi, and entertain a belief

that they were put to flight by cranes. Upon the coast,

proceeding from Dionysopolis, is Odessus[49], a city of the

Milesians, the river Panysus[50], and the town of Tetranaulo-

chus. Mount Hmus, which, with its vast chain, overhangs the Euxine, had in former times upon its summit

the town of Aristum[51]. At the present day there are upon

the coast Mesembria[52], and Anchialum[53], where Messa formerly stood. The region of Astice formerly had a town

called Anthium; at the present day Apollonia[54] occupies

its site. The rivers here are the Panisos, the Riras, the

Tearus, and the Orosines; there are also the towns of

Thynias[55], Halmydessos[56], Develton[57], with its

lake, now known

as Deultum, a colony of veterans, and Phinopolis, near

which last is the Bosporus[58]. From the mouth of the Ister

to the entrance of the Euxine, some writers have made to be







a distance of 555 miles; Agrippa, however, increases the

length by sixty miles. The distance thence to Macron Tichos,

or the Long Wall, previously mentioned, is 150 miles; and,

from it to the extremity of the Chersonesus, 125.



On leaving the Bosporus we come to the Gulf of Casthenes[59],

and two harbours, the one called the Old Men's

Haven, and the other the Women's Haven. Next comes

the promontory of Chrysoceras[60], upon which is the town of

Byzantium[61], a free state, formerly called Lygos, distant from

Dyrrhachium 711 miles,-so great being the space of land

that intervenes between the Adriatic Sea and the Propontis.

We next come to the rivers Bathynias and Pydaras[62], or

Athyras, and the towns of Selymbria[63] and Perinthus[64], which

join the mainland by a neck only 200 feet in width. In the

interior are Bizya[65], a citadel of the kings of Thrace, and hated

by the swallows, in consequence of the sacrilegious crime

of Tereus[66]; the district called Cnica[67], and the colony of

Flaviopolis, where formerly stood a town called Cla. Then,

at a distance of fifty miles from Bizya, we come to the colony

of Apros, distant from Philippi 180 miles. Upon the coast

is the river Erginus[68]; here formerly stood the town of

Ganos[69]; and Lysimachia[70] in the Chersonesus is being now

gradually deserted.



At this spot there is another isthmus[71], similar in name

to the other[72], and of about equal width; and, in a manner







by no means dissimilar, two cities formerly stood on the shore,

one on either side, Pactye on the side of the Propontis, and

Cardia[73] on that of the Gulf of Melas, the latter deriving its

name from the shape[74] which the land assumes. These, however,

were afterwards united with Lysimachia[75], which stands

at a distance of five miles from Macron Tichos. The Chersonesus formerly had, on the side of the Propontis, the towns

of Tiristasis, Crithotes, and Cissa[76], on the banks of the river

gos[77]; it now has, at a distance of twenty-two[78] miles from

the colony of Apros, Resistos, which stands opposite to the

colony of Parium. The Hellespont also, which separates,

as we have already[79] stated, Europe from Asia, by a channel

seven stadia in width, has four cities facing each other,

Callipolis[80] and Sestos[81] in Europe, and Lampsacus[82] and

Abydos[83] in Asia. On the Chersonesus, there is the promontory

of Mastusia[84], lying opposite to Sigeum[85]; upon

one side of it stands the Cynossema[86] (for so the tomb of

Hecuba is called), the naval station[87] of the Achans, and a

tower; and near it the shrine[88] of Protesilas. On the ex-







treme front of the Chersonesus, which is called olium, there

is the city of Els. Advancing thence towards the Gulf of

Melas, we have the port of Clos[89], Panormus, and then

Cardia, previously mentioned.



In this manner is the third great Gulf of Europe bounded.

The mountains of Thrace, besides those already mentioned,

are Edonus, Gigemoros, Meritus, and Melamphyllos; the

rivers are the Bargus and the Syrmus, which fall into the

Hebrus. The length of Macedonia, Thrace, and the Hellespont has been

already[90] mentioned; some writers, however, make it 720 miles,

the breadth being 384.



What may be called a rock rather than an island, lying

between Tenos and Chios, has given its name to the gean

Sea; it has the name of x[91] from its strong resemblance

to a goat, which is so called in Greek, and shoots precipitately

from out of the middle of the sea. Those who are sailing towards the

isle of Andros from Achaia, see this rock on

the left, boding no good, and warning them of its dangers.

Part of the gean Sea bears the name of Myrtoan[92], being

so called from the small island [of Myrtos] which is seen

as you sail towards Macedonia from Gerstus, not far from

Carystus[93] in Euba. The Romans include all these seas

under two names,-the Macedonian, in those parts where it

touches the coasts of Macedonia or Thrace, and the Grecian

where it washes the shores of Greece The Greeks, however, divide the

Ionian Sea into the Sicilian and the Cretan

Seas, after the name of those islands; and they give the

name of Icarian to that part which lies between Samos and

Myconos. The gulfs which we have already mentioned,

have given to these seas the rest of their names. Such,







then, are the seas and the various nations which are comprehended in the third great Gulf of Europe.







1. Or prfectures, as the Romans called them.

2. In the last Chapter.

3. An extensive tribe occupying the country about the rivers Axius,

Strymon, and Nestus or Mestus.

4. This river is now called the Mesto or Kara-Sou.

5. A range between the Strymon and the Nestus, now the Pangea or

Despoto-Dagh.

6. Probably a canton or division of the Bessi.

7. The most powerful people of Thrace; dwelling on both sides of the

Artiscus, and on the plain of the Hebrus.

8. Now the Maritza. It rises near the point where Mount Scomius

joins Mount Rhodope. The localities of most of the tribes here named

are unknown.

9. The name of this people is often used by the poets to express the

whole of Thrace. The district of Edonis, on the left bank of the Strymon,

properly extended from Lake Cercinitis as far east as the river Nestus.

10. Or "Trouble City," also called Eumolpias.

11. Or "Philip's City;" founded by Philip of Macedon; still called

Philippopoli.

12. Because it stood on a hill with three summits. Under the Roman

empire it was the capital of the province of Thracia.

13. On account probably of the winding nature of the roads; as the

height of the Balkan range in no part exceeds 3000 feet. With

Theopompus probably originated the erroneous notion among the

ancients as to its exceeding height.

14. The people of Msia. The Aorsi and Get are again mentioned in

C. 25 of this Book.

15. The inhabitants of the present Bulgaria, it is supposed.

16. Following the account which represent him as a king of the Cicones,

and dwelling in the vicinity of Mount Rhodope. The Sithonii here

mentioned dwelt about the mouth of the Ister, or Danube, and were a

different people from those of Sithonia, in Chalcidice, referred to in a

previous note.

17. The Sea of Marmora.

18. It is difficult to conceive which place of this name is here alluded to,

as there seem to have been four places on this coast so called, and all

mentioned by Pliny in the present Book.

19. Call syma by Homer; between the rivers Strymon and Nestus.

20. Now called Kavallo, on the Strymonic Gulf. The site of Datos

appears to be unknown.

21. Now called Filiba, or Felibejik, on a height of Mount Pangus, on

the river Gangites, between the Nestus and the Strymon. It was founded

by Philip, on the site of the ancient town of Crenides, in the vicinity of

the gold mines. Here Augustus and Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius,

B.C. 42; and here the Apostle Paul first preached the Gospel in Europe,

A.D. 53. See Acts xvi. 12.

22. Its site seems unknown, but it is evidently a different place from

that mentioned in the last Chapter.

23. Also called Mestus.

24. Sintica, previously mentioned.

25. Now Aco Mamas, at the head of the Toronaic Gulf. It was the

most important Greek city on the coast of Macedon. It was taken and

destroyed by Philip, B.C. 347, and its inhabitants sold as

slaves. Mecyberna, already mentioned, was used as its sea-port.

26. On the coast, and east of the river Nestus. Its people were

proverbial for their stupidity, though it produced the philosophers

Democritus, Protagoras, and Anaxarchus. No traces of its site are to

be found.

27. Now called the Lagos Buru. The name of the Bistones is

sometimes used by the poets for that of the Thracians in general.

28. Or mares rather. Diomedes was the son of Ares, or Mars, and king

of the Bistones. He was slain by Hercules.

29. By some identified with the modern Curnu, by others with Bauron.

30. Or Ismarus, at the foot of Mount Ismarus.

31. Now Marogna.

32. A promontory opposite the island of Samothrace.

33. A town on a promontory of the same name, said to have been

frequented by Orpheus.

34. The Plain of Doriscus is now called the Plain of Romigik. Parisot

suggests the true reading here to be 100,000, or, as some MSS. have

it, 120,000, there being nothing remarkable in a plain containing 10,000

men. Pliny however does not mention it as being remarkable, but

merely suggests that the method used by Xerxes here for numbering

his host is worthy of attention.

35. Now the Maritza. At its mouth it divides into two branches, the

eastern forming the port of Stentor.

36. Still called Enos.

37. A son of Priam and Hecuba, murdered by Polymnestor, king of the

Thracian Chersonesus, to obtain his treasures. See the neid, B. iii.

38. From the Greek, ma/kron tei=xos.

39. Now the Gulf of Enos.

40. Now Ipsala, or Chapsylar, near Keshan.

41. Now Rodosto, or Rodostshig, on the coast of the Propontis, or Sea

of Marmora.

42. Now called the Peninsula of the Dardanelles, or of Gallipoli. The

wall was built to protect it from incursions from the mainland.

43. He here skips nearly five degrees of latitude, and at once proceeds to

the northern parts of Thrace, at the mouth of the Danube, and moves to

the south.

44. Or, the "city of the Ister," at the south of Lake Halmyris, on the

Euxine. Its site is not exactly known; but by some it is supposed to

have been the same with that of the modern Kostendsje.

45. Now Temesvar, or Jegni Pangola, the capital of Scythia Minor. It

was said to have been so called from the Greek te/mnw, "to cut," because

Medea here cut to pieces the body of her brother Absyrtus. It is famous

as the place of Ovid's banishment; and here he wrote his 'Tristia' and his

'Pontic Epistles.'

46. Usually identified with the modern Collat, or Collati.

47. Its site does not appear to be known, nor yet those of many of the

towns here mentioned.

48. This story no doubt arose from the similarity of its name to

ge/ranos,

"a crane;" the cranes and the Pigmies, according to the poets, being in

a state of continual warfare.

49. Supposed to be the present Varna.

50. Now called Daphne-Soui, according to D'Anville.

51. Said to have been built by Aristus, son of Apollo.

52. Now Missivri.

53. Or Anchiale, now Akiali.

54. Now Sizeboli, famous for its temple of Apollo, with his statue, thirty

cubits in height, which Lucullus carried to Rome. In later times it

was called Sozopolis.

55. Now Tiniada.

56. The present Midjeh, according to D'Anville.

57. Afterwards called Zagora, which name it still bears.

58. Or Straits of Constantinople.

59. Between Galata and Fanar, according to Brotier.

60. Or Golden Horn; still known by that name.

61. The site of the present Constantinople.

62. These rivers do not appear to have been identified.

63. The present Silivri occupies its site.

64. An important town of Thrace. Eski Erekli stands on its site.

65. Now Vizia, or Viza.

66. He alludes to the poetical story of Tereus, king of Thrace, Progne,

and Philomela. Aldrovandus suggests that the real cause of the absence

of the swallow is the great prevalence here of northern winds, to which

they have an aversion.

67. So called probably from the Thracian tribe of the Cnici, or Cni.

68. Now called Erkene, a tributary of the Hebrus.

69. All that is known of it is, that it is mentioned as a fortress on the

Propontis.

70. Hexamila now occupies its site.

71. The isthmus or neck of the Peninsula of Gallipoli, or the Dardanelles.

72. That of Corinth. They are both about five miles wide at the narrowest part.

73. Now Cardia, or Caridia. It was the birth-place of king Eumenes.

74. From kardi/a, in consequence of its supposed resemblance to a heart.

75. Lysimachus destroyed Cardia, and, building Lysimachia, peopled it

with the inhabitants.

76. Mannert identifies it with the ancient gos and the modern Galata.

77. More generally called gospotamos, the "Goat River," upon which

the town of gos stood. It was here that Lysander defeated the

Athenian fleet, B.C. 405, which put an end to the

Peloponnesian war.

78. Antoninus, in his Itinerary, makes this distance twenty-six miles.

79. B. ii. c. 92. The present Straits of Gallipoli.

80. Now Gallipoli, a place of considerable commercial importance.

81. Now Ialova; famous in Grecian poetry, with Abydos, for the loves

of Hero and Leander.

82. Now Lamsaki.

83. The village of Aidos, or Avido, probably marks its site. To the

north, Xerxes passed over to Sestos on his bridge of boats,

B.C. 480.

84. Now Capo Helles.

85. Now Jeni-Hisari, the N.W. promontory of Troas. Here Homer

places the Grecian camp during the Trojan war.

86. Meaning the "Bitch's tomb," the fable being that Hecuba, in her

old age, was changed into that animal. It was near the town of Madytus.

87. Meaning that their fleet was anchored off here during the Trojan war.

88. A magnificent temple was erected near his tomb at Eleus, where he

also had a sacred grove. It was greatly enriched by the votive offerings

of Greek travellers. According to D'Anville, its site lay to the south of

Mastusia.

89. Now called Kilidbahr. Near this place the Spartans were

defeated by the Athenians, who erected a trophy near the tomb of

Hecuba.

90. In the present Chapter; where he says that the distance from

Byzantium to Dyrrhachium is 711 miles. See p. 305.

91. Ai)\c, "a goat." Other authors give other derivations

for the name of

gean,-from the town of g in Euba, or from geus, the father

of Theseus, who threw himself into it; or from ga, a queen of the

Amazons, who perished there; or from gon, a god of the sea; or

from the Greek ai)gi\s, "a squall," on account of its storms.

92. See c. 5 of this Book.

93. Both places in Euba, mentioned in c. 21 of this Book.




19. Chap. 19. (12.)-The Islands Which Lie Before The Lands Already Mentioned.


CHAP. 19. (12.)-THE ISLANDS WHICH LIE BEFORE THE LANDS ALREADY

MENTIONED.

Lying opposite to Thesprotia, at a distance of twelve

miles from Buthrotus, and of fifty from Acroceraunia, is the

island of Corcyra[1], with a city of the same name, the citizens of which are free; also a town called Cassiope[2], and a

temple dedicated to Jupiter Cassius. This island is ninety-seven miles in length, and in Homer has the names of

Scheria and Phacia; while Callimachus calls it Drepane.

There are some other islands around it, such as Thoronos[3],

lying in the direction of Italy, and the two islands of Paxos[4]

in that of Leucadia, both of them five miles distant from

Corcyra. Not far[5] from these, and in front of Corcyra, are

Ericusa, Marathe, Elaphusa, Malthace, Trachie, Pythionia,

Ptychia, Tarachie, and, off Phalacrum[6], a promontory of

Corcyra, the rock into which (according to the story, which

arises no doubt from the similarity of appearance) the ship

of Ulysses was changed.



Before Leucimna[7] we find the islands of Sybota, and between Leucadia and Achaia a great number of islands, among

which are those called Telebodes[8], as also Taphi; by the

natives, those which lie before Leucadia are called by the

names of Taphias, Oxi, and Prinoessa[9]; while those that

are in front of tolia are the Echinades[10], consisting of

gialia, Cotonis, Thyatira, Geoaris, Dionysia, Cyrnus,

Chalcis, Pinara, and Mystus.







In front of these, and lying out at sea, are Cephallenia[11] and

Zacynthus[12], both of them free, Ithaca[13],

Dulichium[14], Same[15],

and Crocyle[16]. Cephallenia, formerly known as Melna[17],

lies at a distance of eleven miles from Paxos, and is ninety-three miles in circumference: its city of Same has been

levelled to the ground by the Romans; but it still possesses three

others[18]. Between this island and Achaia lies

the island of Zacynthus, remarkable for its city of the

same name, and for its singular fertility. It formerly had

the name of Hyrie, and lies to the south of Cephallenia, at

a distance of twenty-five miles; in it there is the famous

mountain of Elatus[19]. This island is thirty-six miles in circumference. At a distance of fifteen miles from Zacynthus

is Ithaca, in which is Mount Neritus[20]; its circumference

in all is twenty-five miles. Twelve miles distant from

this island is Araxus[21], a promontory of the Peloponnesus.

Before Ithaca, lying out in the main sea, are Asteris[22] and

Prote; and before Zacynthus, at a distance of thirty-five miles in the direction of the south-east wind, are the

two Strophades[23], by some known as the Plot. Before

Cephallenia lies Letoia[24], before Pylos the three Sphagi[25],

and before Messene the nuss[26], as many in number.







In the Asinan Gulf there are the three Thyrides[27], and in

that of Laconia Theganusa[28], Cothon, and Cythera[29], with the

town of that name, the former name of which island was

Porphyris. It is situate five miles from the promontory of

Malea[30], thus forming a strait very dangerous to navigation. In

the Gulf of Argolis are Pityusa[31], Irine, and Ephyre; opposite

the territory of Hermione[32], Tiparenus, Aperopia[33],

Colonis[34],

and Aristera; and, opposite that of Trzen, Calauria[35], at a

distance of half a mile, Plateis[36], Belbina, Lasia, and

Baucidias. Opposite Epidaurus is Cecryphalos[37], and

Pityonesos[38], six miles distant from the mainland; and, at a

distance of fifteen miles from this last, gina[39], a free island,

the length of which, as you sail past it, is eighteen miles.

This island is twenty miles distant from Pirus, the port of

Athens: it used formerly to be called none. Opposite

the promontory of Spirum[40], lie Eleusa[41],

Adendros[42], the

two islands called Craugi, the two Cci, Selachusa

Cenehreis, and Aspis; as also, in the Gulf of Megara, the

four Methurides. gila[43] lies at a distance of fifteen miles







from Cythera, and of twenty-five from Phalasarna, a city

of Crete.







1. Now Corfu. Of its city of Corcyra only a few ruins now exist.

2. There are still some remains of it near the village called Cassopo.

3. Now Fano, or Merlere.

4. Now Paxo and Antipaxo.

5. On the contrary, they lie at the other end of the isle of Corcyra.

Some of them are mere rocks, and cannot be distinguished by their ancient

names. The present names of four are Sametraki, Diaplo, Boaia, and

the Isle of Ulysses.

6. Now Capo Drasti.

7. Now Capo Levkimo. The islands are those of Santo Niccolo.

8. Or Islands of the Teleboans.

9. These three seem to be those now called Magnisi, Kalamota, and

Kastus. These lie facing the promontory of Leucadia, the others opposite

tolia.

10. Opposite Acarnania: by the Venetians they were called the Islands of

Kurtzolari. Some of them are cultivated, others again are mere rocks.

11. Now called Cephallenia.

12. Now Zante.

13. Now Thiaki, or Cefalogna Piccola-Little Cephallenia.

14. The general opinion is, that Strabo is right in identifying this island

with one of the Echinades; but it seems impossible now to say which

of them was so called.

15. Sometimes confounded with Cephallenia; but, according to Virgil

and Mela, as well as Pliny, they were different islands.

16. Crocyla was a town of Acarnania, referred to by Homer; and there

was a district of Ithaca called Crocyleium. Pliny is probably in error in

mentioning Crocyle as an island.

17. Or the "Black Island;"

probably from its thick foliage.

18. Pale, Cranii, and Proni.

19. So called from its fir-trees. It now has the name of Scopo.

20. Now Monte Stefano.

21. See c. 6 of this Book.

22. Supposed by some writers to be the same with the rocky isle now

called Dyscallio. Though mentioned by Homer, its existence was

disputed by many of the ancient commentators.

23. The modern Strivali and Stamphane.

24. The present Guardiania, according to Lapie.

25. According to Ansart, these were Prote, now Prodano, and Sphagia,

formerly Sphacteria, before Pylos, now called Zonchio, or Old Navarino;

the third being perhaps the isle of Bechli, in the Bay of Navarino.

26. Now called Sapienza, Santa Maria, and Cabrera.

27. Venetico and Formignes are the names of two of them.

28. Now Servi.

29. The modern Cerigo.

30. It is much further from the Cape of Malea or Santo Angelo than

the distance here mentioned. It derived its name of Porphyris from the

purple fishery established here by the Phnicians.

31. The modern Isle of Port Tolon. Irine is the present Hipsyli

according to Leake, who also identifies Ephyre with Spetzia.

32. At the south of Argolis.

33. The modern Dhoko, according to Leake. Some authorities think

that Tiparenus, and not Ephyre, is the modern Spetzia.

34. Leake thinks that Colonis and Hydreia, now called Hydra, were the

same island; but Kiepert thinks it the same as the small island to the

south of Spetzia.

35. Now Poros.

36. These are the islands now called Moni Jorench, Kophinidia, and

San Giorgio d'Arbora. It is perhaps impossible to identify them, except

that Belbina is generally supposed to be the island of San Giorgio.

37. Now Kyra.

38. The modern Angistri.

39. Which name, or Eghina, it still retains.

40. See c. 9 of this Book.

41. Probably the modern Laoussa, one of this group.

42. By Brotier said to be the modern Pentenesia. The other islands

here mentioned seem not to have been identified.

43. Now Cerigotto.




20. Chap. 20.-Crete.


CHAP. 20.-CRETE.

Crete itself lies from east to west, the one side facing the

south, the other the north, and is known to fame by the

renown of its hundred cities. Dosiades says, that it took

its name from the nymph Crete, the daughter of Hesperides[1];

Anaximander, from a king of the Curetes, Philistides of Mallus

* * * * *; while Crates says that it was at first called Aria,

and after that Curetis; and some have been of opinion

that it had the name of Macaron[2] from the serenity of its

climate. In breadth it nowhere exceeds fifty miles, being

widest about the middle. In length, however, it is full 270

miles, and 589 in circumference, forming a bend towards

the Cretan Sea, which takes its name from it. At its

eastern extremity is the Promontory of Sammonium[3], facing

Rhodes, while towards the west it throws out that of

Criumetopon[4], in the direction of Cyrene.



The more remarkable cities of Crete are, Phalasarna, Eta[5],

Cisamon[6], Pergamum, Cydonia[7], Minoium[8],

Apteron[9], Pantomatrium, Amphimalla[10], Rhithymna,

Panormus, Cytum, Apollonia, Matium[11], Heraclea, Miletos,

Ampelos, Hierapytna[12],







Lebena[13], and Hierapolis; and, in the interior, Gortyna[14], Phstum, Cnossus[15], Polyrrenium, Myrina, Lycastus, Rhamnus,

Lyctus, Dium[16], Asus, Pyloros, Rhytion, Elatos, Phar,

Holopyxos, Lasos, Eleuthern[17], Therapn, Marathusa, and

Tylisos; besides some sixty others, of which the memory only exists. The mountains are those of Cadistus[18],

Ida, Dictynnus, and Corycus[19]. This island is distant, at

its promontory of Criumetopon, according to Agrippa, from

Phycus[20], the promontory of Cyrene, 125 miles; and at Cadistus, from Malea in the Peloponnesus, eighty. From the

island of Carpathos[21], at its promontory of Sammonium it

lies in a westerly direction, at a distance of sixty miles; this

last-named island is situate between it and Rhodes.



The other islands in its vicinity, and lying in front of the







Peloponnesus, are the two isles known as Coryc, and the

two called Myl[22]. On the north side, having Crete on the

right, and opposite to Cydonia, is Leuce[23], and the two islands

known as Budro[24]. Opposite to Matium lies Dia[25]; opposite

to the promontory of Itanum[26], Onisia and Leuce; and over

against Hierapytna, Chrysa and Gaudos[27]. In the same

neighbourhood, also, are Ophiussa, Butoa, and Aradus; and,

after doubling Criumetopon, we come to the three islands

known as Musagorus. Before the promontory of Sammonium lie the islands of Phoc, the Plati, the Sirnides,

Naulochos, Armedon, and Zephyre.



Belonging to Hellas, but still in the gean Sea, we have

the Lichades[28], consisting of Scarphia, Coresa, Phocaria,

and many others which face Attica, but have no towns

upon them, and are consequently of little note. Opposite

Eleusis, however, is the far-famed Salamis[29]; before it,

Psyttalia[30]; and, at a distance of five miles from Sunium, the

island of Helene[31]. At the same distance from this last is

Ceos[32], which some of our countrymen have called Cea, and

the Greeks Hydrussa, an island which has been torn away

from Euba. It was formerly 500 stadia in length; but

more recently four-fifths of it, in the direction of Botia, have

been swallowed up by the sea. The only towns it now has







left are Iulis and Cartha[33]; Coresus[34] and

Pϑessa[35] have

perished. Varro informs us, that from this place there used to

come a cloth of very fine texture, used for women's dresses.







1. Dalechamps suggests Hesperus.

2. The island "of the Blessed."

3. Now Capo Salomon.

4. From the Greek kriou= me/twpon, "the ram's forehead"; now called

Capo Crio.

5. Also called Ela. Pococke speaks of it as a promontory called

Chaule-burnau.

6. Hardouin calls it Chisamo.

7. The modern Khania. The quince derived its Latin name, "Malum

Cydonium," from this district, to which it was indigenous. From its

Latin name it was called melicotone by the writers of the Elizabethan

period.

8. Now Minolo, according to Hardouin.

9. The port of Apteron, or Aptera, which Mr. Pashley supposes to be

denoted by the ruins of Palokastro; he also thinks that its port was

at or near the modern Kalyres.

10. Now La Suda, according to Hardouin, who says that Rhithymna is

called Retimo; Panormus, Panormo; and Cytum, Setia.

11. Supposed by Ansart to have stood in the vicinity of the modern city

of Candia.

12. Strabo says that it stood on the narrowest part of the island, opposite

Minoa. Vestiges of it have been found at the Kastle of Hierapetra.

Its foundation was ascribed to the Corybantes.

13. Now Lionda.

14. Next to Cnossus in splendour and importance. Mr. Pashley places

its site near the modern Haghius Dheka, the place of the martyrdom of

the ten Saints, according to tradition, in the Decian persecution.

15. It has been remarked, that Pliny is mistaken here if he intends to

enumerate Cnossus among the towns of the interior of Crete. The only

remains of this capital of Crete, situate on the north of the island, are

those seen at Makro-Teikho, or the "Long Walls," so called from the

masses of Roman brick-work there seen.

16. Though an inland town, it probably stood in the vicinity of the

headland or promontory of the same name, which is now called Kavo

Stavro. Many of these names are utterly unknown.

17. One of the most important towns of Crete, on the N.W. slope of

Mount Ida, about fifty stadia from the port of Astale. Mr. Pashley

says that some remains probably of tills place are still to be seen on a

hill near a place called Eletherna, five miles south of the great convent

of Arkadhi.

18. The loftiest point of the mountain-range that traverses the island of

Crete from west to east. Its head is covered with snow. The modern

name is Psiloriti, looking down on the plain of Mesara. The word Ida

is supposed to mean a mountain in which mines are worked, and the

Idi Dactyli of Crete were probably among the first workers in iron and

bronze. The position of Mount Cadistus, belonging to the range of

White Mountains, has been fixed by Hoeck at Cape Spadha, the most

northerly point of the island. It is thought that Pliny and Solinus are

in error in speaking of Cadistus and Dictynnus as separate peaks,

these being, both of them, names of the mountain of which the cape was

formed; the latter name having been given in later times, from the

worship and temple there of Dictynna.

19. Now Grabusa, the N.W. promontory of Crete.

20. Now Ras-al-Sem, or Cape Rasat, in Africa. The distance, according

to Brotier, is in reality about 225 miles.

21. Now Skarpanto.

22. According to Hardouin, all of these are mere rocks rather than

islands.

23. The modern Haghios Theodhoros.

24. According to Hoeck, they are now called Turlure.

25. Now called Standiu.

26. Now Capo Xacro, on the east, though Cape Salomon, further north,

has been suggested. In the latter case, the Grandes islands would

correspond with Onisia and Leuce, mentioned by Pliny.

27. Now Gaidurognissa. None of the other islands here mentioned seem

to have been identified.

28. Between Euba and Locris. They are now called Ponticonesi.

29. Now Koluri. It is memorable for the naval battle fought off its

coast, when Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks, B.C. 480.

30. Now called Lypsokutali.

31. Now Makronisi, or "the Long Island." Its ancient name was also

Macris. Strabo identifies it with the Homeric Crana, to which Paris

fled with Helen.

32. Usually called Cea, one of the Cyclades, about thirteen miles S.E. of

Sunium. Its modern name is Zea. Iulis was the most important town,

and the birth-place of the poets Simonides and Bacchylides, of the

sophist Prodicus, the physician Erasistratus, and the Peripatetic

philosopher Ariston. Extensive remains of it still exist.

33. There are considerable remains of this town, called by the inhabit-

ants Stais Palais.

34. Or Coresia. It was the harbour of Iulis, to which place we learn

from Strabo that its inhabitants were transferred.

35. On the S.W. side of the island. Its ruins are inconsiderable, but

retain their ancient name.




21. Chap. 21.-Euba.


CHAP. 21.-EUBA.

Euba[1] itself has also been rent away from Botia; the

channel of the Euripus, which flows between them, being so

narrow as to admit of the opposite shores being united by

a bridge[2]. At the south, this island is remarkable for its

two promontories, that of Gerstus[3], which looks towards

Attica, and that of Caphareus[4], which faces the Hellespont;

on the north it has that of Cenum[5]. In no part does

this island extend to a greater breadth than forty miles,

while it never contracts to less than two. In length it

runs along the whole coast of Botia, extending from

Attica as far as Thessaly, a distance of 150 miles[6]. In

circumference it measures 365, and is distant from the

Hellespont, on the side of Caphareus, 225 miles. The cities

for which it was formerly famous were, Pyrrha, Porthmos,

Nesos, Cerinthos[7], Oreum, Dium, depsos[8], Ocha, and

chalia; at present it is ennobled by those of Chalcis[9]







(opposite which, on the mainland, is Aulis), Gerstus[10],

Eretria[11], Carystus[12], Oritanum, and Artemisium[13]. Here are

also the Fountain of Arethusa[14], the river Lelantus, and the

warm springs known as Ellopi; it is still better known,

however, for the marble of Carystus. This island used

formerly to be called Chalcodontis and Macris[15], as we learn

from Dionysius and Ephorus; according to Aristides, Macra;

also, as Callidemus says, Chalcis, because copper was first

discovered here. Menchmus says that it was called

Abantias[16], and the poets generally give it the name of

Asopis.







1. Now called Euba, as also Egripo, or Negropont,-a corruption of

the former word and "pont," "a bridge."

2. Hardouin speaks of this as existing in his time, 1670, and being 250

feet in length. It is supposed to have been first constructed about

B.C.

411, for the purpose of uninterrupted communication with Botia.

3. Now Capo Mandili.

4. Now Kavo Doro, or Xylofago.

5. Now Lithadha, with a mountain 2837 feet above the sea.

6. These measurements are not exactly correct. The length from north

to south is about ninety miles; the extreme breadth across, thirty, and

in one part, not more than four miles.

7. Still extant in the time of Strabo, who speaks of it as an inconsiderable place.

8. Its site is now called Lipso. It contained warm baths sacred to

Hercules, and used by the Dictator Sylla. They are still to be seen.

9. Now Egripo, or Negropont, having given name to the rest of the

island. The Euripus is here only forty yards across, being crossed by a

bridge, partly of stone, partly of wood. The poet Lycophron and the

orator Isus were natives of this place, and Aristotle died here.

10. Near the promontory of that name, now Capo Mandili. In the

town there was a famous temple of Poseidon, or Neptune. According

to Hardouin, the modern name is Iastura.

11. One of the most powerful cities of Euba. It was destroyed by the

Persians under Darius, and a new town was built to the south of the old

one. New Eretria stood, according to Leake, at the modern Kastri, and

old Eretria in the neighbourhood of Vathy. The tragic poet Achus, a

contemporary of schylus, was born here; and a school of philosophy

was founded at this place by Menedemus, a disciple of Plato.

12. Now Karysto, on the south of the island, at the foot of Mount

Ocha, upon which are supposed to have been its quarries of marble.

There are but few remains of the ancient city. The historian Antigonus,

the comic poet Apollodorus, and the physician Diocles, were natives of

this place.

13. Probably on the promontory of the same name. It was off this

coast that the Greek fleet engaged that of Xerxes, B.C. 480.

14. There were tame fish kept in this fountain; and its waters were

sometimes disturbed by volcanic agency. Leake says that it has now

totally disappeared.

15. From the fact of its producing copper, and of its being in shape long

and narrow.

16. Strabo remarks, that Homer calls its inhabitants Abantes, while he

gives to the island the name of Euba. The poets say that it took its

name from the cow (Bou=s) Io, who gave birth to Epaphus on this

island.




22. Chap. 22.-The Cyclades.


CHAP. 22.-THE CYCLADES.

Beyond Euba, and out in the Myrtoan[1] Sea, are numerous

other islands; but those more especially famous are, Glau-







connesos and the gila[2]. Off the promontory, too, of

Gerstus are the Cyclades, lying in a circle around Delos,

from which circumstance[3] they derive their name. The

first of them is the one called Andros[4] with a city of the

same name, distant from Gerstus ten miles, and from Ceos

thirty-nine. Myrsilus tells us that this island was at first

called Cauros, and after that Antandros; Callimachus calls

it Lasia, and others again Nonagria, Hydrussa, and Epagris.

It is ninety-three miles in circumference. At a distance of

one mile from Andros and of fifteen from Delos, is Tenos[5],

with a city of the same name; this island is fifteen miles

in length. Aristotle says that it was formerly called Hydrussa, from the abundance of water found here, while some

writers call it Ophiussa[6]. The other islands are, Myconos[7],

with the mountain of Dimastus[8], distant from Delos fifteen[9]

miles; Siphnus[10], formerly called Meropia and Acis,

twenty-eight miles in circumference; Seriphus[11], twelve miles

in

circuit; Prepesinthus[12]; Cythnos[13]; and then, by far the most

famous among the Cyclades, and lying in the very middle

of them, Delos[14] itself; so famous for its temple of Apollo,

and its extensive commerce. This island long floated on the

waves, and, as tradition says, was the only one that had never







experienced an earthquake, down to the time of M. Varro[15];

Mucianus however has informed us, that it has been twice

so visited. Aristotle states that this island received its

name from the fact of its having so suddenly made its

appearance[16] on emerging from the sea; Aglaosthenes, however, gives it the name of Cynthia, and others of Ortygia[17],

Asteria, Lagia, Chlamydia, Cynthus, and, from the circumstance of fire having been first discovered here, Pyrpile. Its

circumference is five miles only; Mount Cynthus[18] here

raises his head.



Next to this island is Rhene[19], which Anticlides calls by

the name of Celadussa, and Callidemus, Artemite; Scyros[20],

which the old writers have stated to be twenty miles in circumference, but Mucianus 160; Oliaros[21]; and Paros[22], with

a city of the same name, distant from Delos thirty-eight

miles, and famous for its marble[23]; it was first called Platea,







and after that, Minois. At a distance of seven miles from

this last island is Naxos[24], with a town of the same name;

it is eighteen miles distant from Delos. This island was

formerly called Strongyle[25], then Dia, and then Dionysias[26],

in consequence of the fruitfulness of its vineyards; others

again have called it the Lesser Sicily, or Callipolis[27]. It is

seventy-five[28] miles in circumference-half as large again as

Paros.







1. Hardouin remarks here, that Pliny, Strabo, Mela, and Pausanias use

the term "Myrtoan Sea," as meaning that portion of it which lies

between Crete and Attica, while Ptolemy so calls the sea which lies off

the coast of Caria.

2. Now called Spitilus, and the group of Micronisia, or "Little Islands,"

according to Hardouin.

3. From ku/klos, "a circle."

4. Now Andro. It gives name to one of the comedies of Terence. The

ruins of the ancient city were found by the German traveller Ross, who

has published a hymn to Isis, in hexameter verse, which he discovered

here. It was famous for its wines.

5. Now Tino.

6. From its abounding in snakes (o)/feis) and scorpions.

7. Now Mycono, south-east of Tenos and east of Delos. It was famous

in ancient mythology as one of the places where Hercules was said to

have defeated the Giants. It was also remarkable for the great proportion

of bald persons among its inhabitants.

8. So called from its resemblance to two breasts, mazoi.

9. Wheeler says that the distance is but three miles; Tournefort, six.

10. Once famous for its gold and silver mines, but equally notorious for

the bad character of its people. It is now called Siphno.

11. Now Serpho, lying between Cythnos and Siphnus.

12. Now Fermina, according to Hardouin.

13. Between Ceos and Seriphus. It is now called Thermia. Cydias the

painter was born here, and it was famous for its cheeses. Its modern

name is derived from its hot springs, which are much frequented.

14. Still called Delos; and, though so celebrated, nothing more than a

mere rock, five miles in circumference.

15. That is, according to Varro, whose statement is ridiculed by Seneca.

Some of the editors, however, punctuate this passage differently, making

it to mean, "the only island that has never experienced an earthquake.

Mucianus however has informed us, that down to the time of M. Varro,

it has been twice so visited."

16. From its then becoming dh=los, "plain," or "manifest." It was

after the fall of Corinth that Delos became so famous for its commerce.

Its bronze was in great request.

17. From o)/rtuc, "a quail"; the legend being, that Latona was changed

into that bird by Jupiter, in order to effect her escape thither from the anger

of Juno. Its name of Asteria was derived from a)/stron, "a star," either

in consequence of its being devoted to the worship of the great luminary

Apollo, or of its being considered by the gods the star of the earth. It was

also called Lagia, from lagw\s, "a hare," that animal

abounding there; and Cynthus, from ku/wn, "a dog," it being

famous for its hounds.

18. A bare granite rock, not more than 500 feet in height. The island

is now a mass of ruins; a great part of its remains having been carried

away in the middle ages to Venice and Constantinople.

19. Divided by a strait of four stadia in width from Delos. Nicias

connected the two islands by a bridge. Its name of Celadussa was said

to be derived from the noise of the waves, ke/lados, and of

Artemite, from Artemis, or Diana.

20. Now Syra; famous for its wine and corn.

21. Now Antiparos; famous for its stalactite grotto, which is not

mentioned by the ancient writers.

22. Now Paro; south of Delos and west of Naxos. The ruins of its

town are still to be seen at the modern Paroikia. The Parian Chronicle,

inscribed on marble, and containing a chronicle of Grecian history from

Cecrops, B.C. 1582, to B.C. 264, was found here. It

is preserved at Oxford.

23. Chiefly obtained from a mountain called Marpessa.

24. Now Naxia, famous both in ancient and modern times for its re-

markable fertility.

25. From stroggu/los, "round," its shape being somewhat inclined to

circular, though by Eustathius it is compared to the shape of a vine-leaf.

It is commonly called Dia by the poets. Tournefort says that it is distant

forty miles from Delos.

26. From Dio/nusos, or Bacchus, the god of wine.

27. Or "Fine City." It took its other name from the fact of its rivalling

the fertility of Sicily.

28. According to Brotier, the Jesuit Babin, on visiting it, found

its circumference estimated at thirty-six miles only.




23. Chap. 23.-The Sporades.


CHAP. 23.-THE SPORADES.

The islands thus far are considered as belonging to the

Cyclades; the rest that follow are the Sporades[1]. These

are, Helene[2], Phacussa, Nicasia, Schinussa, Pholegandros,

and, at a distance of thirty-eight miles from Naxos, Icaros[3],

which has given its name to the surrounding sea, and is the

same number of miles in length[4], with two cities, and a

third now no longer in existence: this island used formerly

to be called Doliche, Macris, and Ichthyossa[5]. It is situate

fifty miles to the north-east of Delos, and thirty-five from the

island of Samos. Between Euba and Andros, there is an

arm of the sea ten miles in width, and from Icaros to

Gerstus is a distance of 112 1/2 miles.







After we pass these, no regular order can be well observed;

the rest must therefore be mentioned indiscriminately.

There is the island of Scyros[6], and that of los[7], eighteen miles

distant from Naxos, and deserving of all veneration for the

tomb there of Homer; it is twenty-five miles in length, and

was formerly known by the name of Phnice; also Odia,

Oletandros, and Gyara[8], with a city of the same name, the

island being twelve miles in circumference, and distant from

Andros sixty-two. At a distance of eighty miles from

Gyara is Syrnos, then Cynthus, Telos[9], noted for its

unguents, and by Callimachus called Agathussa, Donusa[10],

Patmos[11], thirty miles in circumference, the Corassi[12], Le-







binthus[13], Leros[14], Cinara[15]; Sicinus[16],

formerly called noe[17];

Hieracia, also called Onus; Casos[18], likewise called Astrabe;

Cimolus[19], or Echinussa; and Melos[20], with a city of that name,

which island Aristides calls Memblis, Aristotle Zephyria, Callimachus Mimallis, Heraclides Siphis and Acytos. This last

is the most circular[21] in form of all these islands. After this

comes Machia, then Hypere, formerly Patage, or, as others

have it, Platage, but now called Amorgos[22], Polygos[23],

Phyle, and Thera[24], known as Calliste when it first sprang

from the waves. From this, at a later period, the island of







Therasia[25] was torn away, and between the two afterwards

arose Automate, also called Hiera, and Thia, which in our

own times came into existence in the vicinity of these islands.

Ios is distant from Thera twenty-five miles.



Next to these follow Lea, Ascania[26], Anaphe[27], Hippuris,

and Astypala[28], a free state. This island is eighty-eight

miles in circumference, and 125 miles distant from Cadistus,

in Crete. From Astypala, Platea is distant sixty miles,

and Caminia thirty-eight from this last. We then come to

the islands of Azibintha, Lanise, Traga, Pharmacussa,

Techedia, Chalcia[29], Calymna[30], in which is the town of Cos,

Calymna, at a distance of twenty-five miles from which

is Carpathum[31], which has given its name to the Carpathian

Sea. The distance thence to Rhodes[32], in the direction of the

south-west wind, is fifty miles. From Carpathum to Casus

is seven miles, and from Casus to Sammonium, the promontory of Crete,

thirty[33]. In the Euripus of Euba, almost

at the very mouth of it, are the four islands called Petali[34];







and, at its outlet, Atalante[35]. The Cyclades and the Sporades

are bounded on the east by the Asiatic shores of the Icarian

Sea, on the west by the Attic shores of the Myrtoan Sea,

on the north by the gean, and on the south by the Cretan

and Carpathian seas, extending 700 miles in length, and 200

in breadth.



The Gulf of Pagasa[36] has in front of it Euthia[37],

Cicynethus[38],

Scyros, previously mentioned[39], and the very furthermost

of the Cyclades and Sporades, Gerontia and Scandila[40]; the

Gulf of Therm[41], Irsia, Solimnia, Eudemia, and Nea, which

last is sacred to Minerva. Athos has before it four islands;

Peparethus[42], formerly called Evnus, with a city of that name,

at a distance from Athos of nine miles; Sciathus[43], at a

distance of fifteen, and Imbros[44], with a city of the same

name, at a distance of eighty-eight, miles. This last island

is distant from Mastusia, in the Chersonesus, twenty-five

miles; it is sixty-two[45] miles in circumference, and is washed

by the river Ilisus. At a distance of twenty-two miles from

it is Lemnos[46], being distant from Mount Athos eighty-

seven; it is 112 miles in circumference, and has the cities

of Hephstia and Myrina[47]; into the market-place of which

last city Athos throws its shadow at the summer solstice.

The island of Thasos[48], constituting a free state, is six miles







distant from Lemnos; it formerly had the name of Aria,

or thria. Abdera[49], on the mainland, is distant from

Thasos twenty-two miles, Athos sixty-two[50]. The island of

Samothrace[51], a free state, facing the river Hebrus, is the

same distance from Thasos, being also thirty-two[52] miles

from Imbros, twenty-two from Lemnos, and thirty-eight[53]

from the coast of Thrace; it is thirty-two miles in circumference,

and in it rises Mount Saoce[54], ten miles in height.

This island is the most inaccessible of them all. Callimachus

mentions it by its ancient name of Dardania.



Between the Chersonesus and Samothrace, at a distance

of about fifteen miles from them both, is the island of

Halonnesos[55], and beyond it Gethone, Lamponia, and

Alopeconnesus[56], not far from Clos, a port[57] of the

Chersonesus,

besides some others of no importance. The following names

may be also mentioned, as those of uninhabited islands in

this gulf, of which we have been enabled to discover the

names:-Desticos, Sarnos, Cyssiros, Charbrusa, Calathusa,

Scylla, Draconon, Arconnesus, Diethusa, Scapos, Capheris,

Mesate, antion, Pateronnesos, Pateria, Calate, Neriphus,

and Polendos[58].











1. So called from lying scattered at random as it were,

spora\s "scattered."

2. Helene is supposed to be the modern Pira; Phacussa, Fecussa;

Nicasia, Rachia; Schinussa, Schinusa; and Pholegandros, Policandro.

3. Now Nikaria, to the west of Samos. According to tradition, it

derived its name from Icarus, the son of Ddalus, who was believed to

have fallen into the sea in its vicinity.

4. Its length is not so great as is here mentioned by Pliny. Its towns

were Drepanum, or Dracanum, no, and Isti.

5. The first two names are from the Greek, in allusion to its long,

narrow shape, and the last bears reference to the fact of its shores

abounding in fish.

6. Now Scyro, east of Euba, and one of the Sporades. Here Achilles

was said to have been concealed by his mother Thetis, in woman's

attire.

7. Now Nio, one of the Sporades, inaccurately called by Stephanus one

of the Cyclades. The modern town is built on the site of the ancient

one, of which there are some remains. It was said that Homer died

here, on his voyage from Smyrna to Athens, and that his mother,

Clymene, was a native of this island. In 1773, Van Krienen, a Dutch

nobleman, asserted that he had discovered the tomb of Homer here, with

certain inscriptions relative to him; but they have been generally

regarded by the learned as forgeries. Odia and Oletandros seem not to

have been identified.

8. Now called Gioura, or Jura. It was little better than a barren rock,

though inhabited; but so notorious for its poverty, that its mice

were said to be able to gnaw through iron. It was used as a place

of banishment under the Roman emperors, whence the line of Juvenal,

i. 73-

"Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum."

"Dare some deed deserving of the little Gyara and the gaol." It is now

uninhabited, except by a few shepherds in the summer.

9. Now Telos, or Piskopi, a small island in the Carpathian Sea, and one

of the Sporades. It lies off the coast of Caria. Syrnos appears not to

have been identified.

10. Near Naxos. Virgil calls it 'viridis,' or 'green,' which

Servius explains by the colour of its marble. Like Gyara, it was used

as a place

of banishment under the Roman Empire. In C. 22, Pliny has mentioned

Cynthus as one of the names of Delos.

11. Now Patmo, one of the Sporades, and west of the Promontory of

Posidium, in Caria. To this place St. John was banished, and here he

wrote the Apocalypse.

12. A group between Icaria and Samos. They are now called Phurni

and Krusi.

13. One of the Sporades, now Lebitha.

14. Now Lero. Its inhabitants were of Milesian origin, and of

indifferent character. In its temple of Artemis, the sisters of

Meleager were

said to have been changed into guinea-fowls. It was opposite the coast

of Caria.

15. Now Zinari, N.E. of Amorgos. The artichoke (called ki/nara in

Greek) is said to have given name to it.

16. Now Sikino; between Pholegandros and Ios.

17. So called, according to Stephanus, from its cultivation of the vine

and produce of wine, oi=/nos. It was situate between

Pholegandros and Ios.

It was said to have had the name of Sicinus from a son of Thoas and

no. Hieracia seems to be unknown.

18. Still known by that name, and lying between Carpathus and Crete.

The ruins of the ancient town of Casos are still to be seen at the village

of Polin. It is mentioned by Homer.

19. Now Kimoli, one of the Cyclades, between Siphnos and Melos. It

took its name of Echinussa from the 'Echinus,' or Sea-urchin, of which

various fossil specimens are still found on the coast; but nowhere else in

these islands, except the opposite coast of Melos. There are considerable

ruins of its ancient town.

20. Now Milo, the most westerly of the Cyclades. It is remarkable for

its extreme fertility. Its town, which, according to most authorities,

was called Byblis, was situate on the north of the island.

21. Ansart remarks, that our author is mistaken in this assertion, for

not only are many others of these islands more circular in form, but

even that of Kimolo, which stands next to it.

22. Now Amorgo, S.E. of Naxos. It was the birth-place of the Iambic

poet Simonides. It is noted for its fertility. Under the Roman

emperors, it was used as a place of banishment.

23. Now Polybos, or Antimelos, an uninhabited island near Melos.

Phyle seems not to have been identified.

24. Now Santorin, south of the island of Ios. The tradition was, that

it was formed from a clod of earth, thrown from the ship Argo. It is

evidently of volcanic origin, and is covered with pumice-stone. It was

colonized by Lacedmonians and Minyans of Lemnos, under the Spartan

Theras, who gave his name to the island.

25. A small island to the west of Thera, still known by the same name.

26. In Lapie's map, Ascania is set down as the present Christiana.

27. Now Anaphe, Namfi, or Namphio, one of the Sporades. It was

celebrated for the temple of Apollo gletes, the foundation of which

was ascribed to the Argonauts, and of which considerable remains still

exist. It abounds in partridges, as it did also in ancient times.

28. Now Astropalea, or Stamphalia. By Strabo it is called one of the

Sporades, by Stephanus one of the Cyclades. It probably was favoured

by the Romans for the excellence and importance of its harbours. From

Hegesander we learn that it was famous for its hares, and Pliny tells us,

in B. viii. c. 59, that its mussels were (as they still are) very

celebrated.

29. None of these islands can be now identified, except perhaps Chalcia,

also mentioned by Strabo, and now known as Karki.

30. Now Kalymno, the principal island of the group, by Homer called

Calydne. According to most of the editions, Pliny mentions here

Calydna and Calymna, making this island, which had those two names, into

two islands. Although Pliny here mentions only the town of Cos, still,

in B. v. c. 36, he speaks of three others, Notium, Nisyrus, and

Mendeterus. There are still some remains of antiquity to be seen

here.

31. Or Carpathus, now Skarpanto. It gave name to the sea between

Crete and Rhodes.

32. It still preserves its ancient name, and presents some interesting

remains of antiquity.

33. Brotier says that the distance is really fifty-two miles.

34. So called from the town of Petalia, on the mainland. Ansart says

that their present name is Spili.

35. Now Talanti, giving name to the Channel of Talanti.

36. The present Gulf of Volo, mentioned in C. 15 of the present Book.

37. Ansart suggests that this may possibly be the small island now

called Agios Nicolaos.

38. Now Trikeri.

39. In the present Chapter.

40. Now Seangero, or Skantzoura, according to Ansart.

41. Now the Gulf of Saloniki, mentioned in C. 17. The islands here

mentioned have apparently not been identified.

42. Off the coast of Thessaly, now Piperi.

43. Now Skiathos. It was famous for its wine.

44. Now called Embro, or Imru. Both the island and city of Imbros

are mentioned by Homer.

45. This is double the actual circumference of the island.

46. Now called Stalimene.

47. Its site is now called Palo Kastro. Hephstia, or Vulcan's Town,

stood near the modern Rapanidi. That god was said to have fallen into

this island when thrown from heaven by Jupiter.

48. Now Thaso, or Tasso. Its gold mines were in early periods very

valuable.

49. Mentioned in C. 17 of this Book.

50. Ansart says that "forty-two" would be the correct reading here, that

being also the distance between Samothrace and Thasos.

51. Its modern name is Samothraki. It was the chief seat of the

mysterious worship of the Cabiri.

52. Only twelve, according to Ansart.

53. Barely eighteen, according to Brotier.

54. Now Monte Nettuno. Of course the height here mentioned by

Pliny is erroneous; but Homer says that from this mountain Troy

could be seen.

55. Now called Skopelo, if it is the same island which is mentioned

by Ptolemy under the name of Scopelus. It exports wine in large

quantities.

56. Or the Fox Island, so called from its first settlers having been

directed by an oracle to establish a colony where they should first meet a

fox with its cub. Like many others of the islands here mentioned, it

appears not to have been identified.

57. See C. 18 of this Book.

58. None of these islands appear to have been identified by modern

geographers.




24. Chap. 24.-The Hellespont.-The Lake Motis.


CHAP. 24.-THE HELLESPONT.-THE LAKE MOTIS.

The fourth great Gulf of Europe begins at the Hellespont

and ends at the entrance of the Motis[1]. But in order

that the several portions of the Euxine and its coasts may

be the better known, we must briefly embrace the form

of it in one general view. This vast sea, lying in front of

Asia, is shut out from Europe by the projection of the shores

of the Chersonesus, and effects an entrance into those countries by a narrow channel only, of the width, as already

mentioned, of seven stadia, thus separating Europe from

Asia. The entrance of these Straits is called the Hellespont; over it

Xerxes, the king of the Persians, constructed a bridge of boats,

across which he led his army.

A narrow channel extends thence a distance of eighty-six

miles, as far as Priapus[2], a city of Asia, at which Alexander

the Great passed over. At this point the sea becomes

wider, and after some distance again takes the form of a

narrow strait. The wider part is known as the Propontis[3],

the Straits as the Thracian Bosporus[4], being only half-a-

mile in width, at the place where Darius, the father of

Xerxes, led his troops across by a bridge. The extremity of

this is distant from the Hellespont 239 miles.



We then come to the vast sea called the Euxine, which

invades the land as it retreats afar, and the name of which

was formerly Axenus[5]. As the shores bend inwards, this

sea with a vast sweep stretches far away, curving on both

sides after the manner of a pair of horns, so much so that in

shape it bears a distinct resemblance to a Scythian bow[6].







In the middle of the curve it is joined by the mouth of

Lake Motis, which is called the Cimmerian[7] Bosporus,

and is two miles and a half in width. Between the two

Bospori, the Thracian and the Cimmerian, there is a distance

in a straight line, of 500 miles, as Polybius informs us. We

learn from Varro and most of the ancient writers, that the

circumference of the Euxine is altogether 2150 miles; but

to this number Cornelius Nepos adds 350 more; while

Artemidorus makes it 2919 miles, Agrippa 2360, and Mucianus 2425. In

a similar manner some writers have fixed

the length of the European shores of this sea at 1478 miles,

others again at 1172. M. Varro gives the measurement as

follows:-from the mouth of the Euxine to Apollonia 187

miles, and to Callatis the same distance; thence to the

mouth of the Ister 125 miles; to the Borysthenes 250; to

Chersonesus[8], a town of the Heracleot, 325; to

Panticapum[9], by some called Bosporus, at the very extremity

of

the shores of Europe, 212 miles: the whole of which added

together, makes 1337[10] miles. Agrippa makes the distance

from Byzantium to the river Ister 560 miles, and from

thence to Panticapum, 635.



Lake Motis, which receives the river Tanais as it flows

from the Riphan Mountains[11], and forms the extreme boundary

between Europe and Asia, is said to be 1406 miles in

circumference; which however some writers state at only

1125. From the entrance of this lake to the mouth of the

Tanais in a straight line is, it is generally agreed, a distance

of 375 miles.



The inhabitants of the coasts of this fourth great Gulf of







Europe, as far as Istropolis, have been already[12] mentioned in

our account of Thrace. Passing beyond that spot we come

to the mouths of the Ister. This river rises in Germany in

the heights of Mount Abnoba[13], opposite to Rauricum[14], a

town of Gaul, and flows for a course of many miles beyond

the Alps and through nations innumerable, under the name

of the Danube. Adding immensely to the volume of its

waters, at the spot where it first enters Illyricum, it assumes

the name of Ister, and, after receiving sixty rivers, nearly

one half of which are navigable, rolls into the Euxine by

six[15] vast channels. The first of these is the mouth of

Peuce[16], close to which is the island of Peuce itself, from

which the neighbouring channel takes its name; this mouth

is swallowed up in a great swamp nineteen miles in length.

From the same channel too, above Istropolis, a lake[17] takes

its rise, sixty-three miles in circuit; its name is Halmyris.

The second mouth is called Naracu-Stoma[18]; the third, which

is near the island of Sarmatica, is called Calon-Stoma[19]; the

fourth is known as Pseudo-Stomon[20], with its island

called Conopon-Diabasis[21]; after which come the Boreon-







Stoma[22] and the Psilon-Stoma[23]. These mouths are each of

them so considerable, that for a distance of forty miles, it is

said, the saltness of the sea is quite overpowered, and the

water found to be fresh.







1. Now generally known as the Palus Motis or Sea of Azof.

2. The modern Caraboa, according to Brotier, stands on its site.

Priapus was the tutelary divinity of Lampsacus in this

vicinity.

3. Or "entrance of Pontus"; now the Sea of Marmora.

4. "Ox Ford," or "passage of the cow," Io being said to have crossed

it in that form: now called the "Straits of Constantinople."

5. Said to have been called a)/cenos or "inhospitable,"

from its frequent

storms and the savage state of the people living on its shores. In later

times, on the principle of Euphemism, or abstaining from words of ill

omen, its name was changed to eu)/ceinos "hospitable."

6. This was a favourite comparison of the ancients; the north coast,

between the Thracian Bosporus and the Phasis, formed the bow, and the

southern shores the string. The Scythian bow somewhat resembled in

form the figure S, the capital Sigma of the Greeks.

7. Now the Straits of Kaffa or Enikale.

8. This town lay about the middle of the Tauric Chersonesus or Crimea,

and was situate on a small peninsula, called the Smaller Chersonesus, to

distinguish it from the larger one, of which it formed a part. It was

founded by the inhabitants of the Pontic Heraclea, or Heracleium, the

site of which is unknown. See note9 to p. 333.

9. Now Kertsch, in the Crimea. It derived its name from the river

Panticapes; and was founded by the Milesians about B.C. 541. It was

the residence of the Greek kings of Bosporus, and hence it was

sometimes so called.

10. "Thirty-six" properly.

11. The Tanais or Don does not rise in the Riphan Mountains, or

western branch of the Uralian chain, but on slightly elevated ground in

the centre of European Russia.

12. Chap. 18 of the present Book. Istropolis is supposed to be the

present Istere, though some would make it to have stood on the site of

the present Kostendsje, and Brotier identifies it with Kara-Kerman.

13. Now called the Schwarzwald or Black Forest. The Danube or Ister

rises on the eastern side at the spot called Donaueschingen.

14. So called from the Raurici, a powerful people of Gallia Belgica, who

possessed several towns, of which the most important were Augusta, now

Augst, and Basilia, now Ble.

15. Only three of these are now considered of importance, as being the

main branches of the river. It is looked upon as impossible by modern

geographers to identify the accounts given by the ancients with the

present channels, by name, as the Danube has undergone in lapse of time,

very considerable changes at its mouth. Strabo mentions seven mouths,

three being lesser ones.

16. So called, as stated by Pliny, from the island of Peuce, now Piczina.

Peuce appears to have been the most southerly of the mouths.

17. Now called Kara-Sou, according to Brotier. Also called Rassefu

in the maps.

18. Now called Hazrali Bogasi, according to Brotier. It is called by

Ptolemy the Narakian Mouth.

19. Or the "Beautiful Mouth." Now Susie Bogasi, according to Brotier.

20. Or the "False Mouth": now the Sulina Bogasi, the principal mouth

of the Danube, so maltreated by its Russian guardians.

21. Or the "Passage of the Gnats," so called from being the resort of

swarms of mosquitoes, which were said at a certain time of the year to

migrate to the Palus Motis. According to Brotier the present name

of this island is Ilan Adasi, or Serpent Island.

22. The "Northern Mouth ": near the town of Kilia.

23. Or the "Narrow Mouth."




25. Chap. 25.-Dacia, Sarmatia.


CHAP. 25.-DACIA, SARMATIA.

On setting out from this spot, all the nations met

with are Scythian in general, though various races have

occupied the adjacent shores; at one spot the Get[1], by the

Romans called Daci; at another the Sarmat, by the Greeks

called Sauromat, and the Hamaxobii[2] or Aorsi, a branch

of them; then again the base-born Scythians and descendants of slaves, or else the Troglodyt[3]; and then, after

them, the Alani[4] and the Rhoxalani. The higher[5] parts

again, between the Danube and the Hercynian Forest[6], as

far as the winter quarters of Pannonia at Carnuntum[7], and

the borders of the Germans, are occupied by the Sarmatian

lazyges[8], who inhabit the level country and the plains,







while the Daci, whom they have driven as far as the river

Pathissus[9], inhabit the mountain and forest ranges. On

leaving the river Marus[10], whether it is that or the Duria[11],

that separates them from the Suevi and the kingdom of

Vannius[12], the Bastern, and, after them, other tribes of

the Germans occupy the opposite sides[13]. Agrippa considers

the whole of this region, from the Ister to the ocean, to be

2100 miles in length, and 4400 miles in breadth to the river

Vistula in the deserts[14] of Sarmatia. The name "Scythian"

has extended, in every direction, even to the Sarmat and the

Germans; but this ancient appellation is now only given to

those who dwell beyond those nations, and live unknown to

nearly all the rest of the world.







1. Though Strabo distinguishes the Get from the Daci, most of the

ancient writers, with Pliny, speak of them as identical. It is not known,

however, why the Get in later times assumed the name of Daci.

2. "Dwellers in waggons." These were a Sarmatian tribe who wandered with their waggons along the banks of the Volga. The chief seats

of the Aorsi, who seem in reality to have been a distinct people from the

Hamaxobii, was in the country between the Tanais, the Euxine, the

Caspian, and the Caucasus.

3. "Dwellers in Caves." This name appears to have been given to

various savage races in different parts of the world.

4. There were races of the Alani in Asia on the Caucasus, and in Europe on the Motis and the Euxine; but their precise geographical

position is not clearly ascertained.

5. The present Transylvania and Hungary.

6. The name given in the age of Pliny to the range of mountains extending around Bohemia, and through Moravia into Hungary.

7. Its ruins are still to be seen on the south bank of the Danube near

Haimburg, between Deutsch-Altenburg and Petronell. The Roman fleet

of the Danube, with the 14th legion, was originally established there.

8. In Pliny's time this migratory tribe seems to have removed to the

plains between the Lower Theiss and the mountains of Transylvania,

from which places they had expelled the Dacians.

9. The Lower Theiss.

10. Now the river Mark, Maros, or Morava.

11. The name of the two streams now known as the Dora Baltea and

Dora Riparia, both of which fall into the Po. This passage appears to

be in a mutilated state.

12. A chief of the Quadi; who, as we learn from Tacitus, was made king

of the Suevi by Germanicus, A.D. 19. Being afterwards expelled by his

nephews Vangio and Sido, he received from the emperor Claudius a

settlement in Pannonia. Tacitus gives the name of Suevia to the whole

of the east of Germany from the Danube to the Baltic.

13. According to Hardouin, Pliny here speaks of the other side of the

mountainous district called Higher Hungary, facing the Danube and

extending from the river Theiss to the Morava.

14. This, according to Sillig, is the real meaning of a

desertis
here, the

distance being measured from the Danube, and not between the Vistula

and the wilds of Sarmatia. The reading "four thousand" is probably

corrupt, but it seems more likely than that of 404 miles, adopted by

Littre, in his French translation.




26. Chap. 26.-Scythia.


CHAP. 26.-SCYTHIA.

Leaving the Ister, we come to the towns of Cremniscos[1],

polium, the mountains of Macrocremnus, and the famous

river Tyra[2], which gives name to a town on the spot where

Ophiusa is said formerly to have stood. The Tyraget

inhabit a large island[3] situate in this river, which is distant







from Pseudostomos, a mouth of the Ister, so called, 130

miles. We then come to the Axiac, who take their name

from the river Axiaces[4], and beyond them, the Crobyzi, the

river Rhodes[5], the Sagarian Gulf[6], and the port of

Ordesos[7].

At a distance of 120 miles from the Tyra is the river

Borysthenes[8], with a lake and a people of similar name, as also

a town[9] in the interior, at a distance of fifteen miles from the

sea, the ancient names of which were Olbiopolis and Miletopolis. Again, on the shore is the port of the Achi, and

the island of Achilles[10], famous for the tomb there of that

hero, and, at a distance of 125 miles from it, a peninsula

which stretches forth in the shape of a sword, in an oblique

direction, and is called, from having been his place of exercise,

Dromos Achilleos[11]: the length of this, according to Agrippa,

is eighty miles. The Taurian Scythians and the Siraci[12]

occupy all this tract of country.



At this spot begins a well-wooded district[13], which has







given to the sea that washes its banks the name of the

Hylan Sea; its inhabitants are called Enchadl[14]. Beyond them is the river Pantieapes[15], which separates the

Nomades[16] and the Georgi, and after it the Acesinus[17]. Some

authors say that the Panticapes flows into the Borysthenes

below Olbia[18]. Others, who are more correct, say that it is

the Hypanis[19]: so great is the mistake made by those who

have placed it[20] in Asia.



The sea runs in here and forms a large gulf[21], until there

is only an intervening space[22] of five miles between it and the

Lake Motis, its margin forming the sea-line of extensive

tracts of land, and numerous nations; it is known as the Gulf

of Carcinites. Here we find the river Pacyris[23], the towns of

Navarum and Carcine[24], and behind it Lake Buges[25], which







discharges itself by a channel into the sea. This Buges is

separated by a ridge of rocks[26] from Coretus, a gulf in the

Lake Motis; it receives the rivers Buges[27], Gerrus[28], and

Hypacaris[29], which approach it from regions that lie in

various directions. For the Gerrus separates the Basilid

from the Nomades, the Hypacaris flows through the Nomades and the

Hyli, by an artificial channel into Lake

Buges, and by its natural one into the Gulf of Coretus:

this region bears the name of Scythia Sindice.



At the river Carcinites, Scythia Taurica[30] begins, which

was once covered by the sea, where we now see level

plains extended on every side: beyond this the land rises into

mountains of great elevation. The peoples here are thirty

in number, of which twenty-three dwell in the interior, six

of the cities being inhabited by the Orgocyni, the Chara-

ceni[31], the Lagyrani, the Tractari, the Arsilachit, and the

Caliordi. The Scythotauri possess the range of mountains:

on the west they are bounded by the Chersonesus, and on

the east by the Scythian Satarch[32]. On the shore, after

we leave Carcinites, we find the following towns; Taphr[33],

situate on the very isthmus of the peninsula, and

then Heraclea Chersonesus[34], to which its freedom has been

granted[35] by the Romans. This place was formerly called







Megarice, being the most polished city throughout all these

regions, in consequence of its strict preservation of Grecian

manners and customs. A wall, five miles in length, surrounds it. Next

to this comes the Promontory of Parthenium[36], the city of the

Tauri, Placia, the port of the Symboli[37], and the Promontory of

Criumetopon[38], opposite to

Carambis[39], a promontory of Asia, which runs out in the

middle of the Euxine, leaving an intervening space between

them of 170 miles, which circumstance it is in especial that

gives to this sea the form of a Scythian bow. After leaving

this headland we come to a great number of harbours and

lakes of the Tauri[40]. The town of Theodosia[41] is distant

from Criumetopon 125 miles, and from Chersonesus 165.

Beyond it there were, in former times, the towns of Cyt,

Zephyrium, Acr, Nymphum, and Dia. Panticapum[42], a

city of the Milesians, by far the strongest of them all, is

still in existence; it lies at the entrance of the Bosporus,

and is distant from Theodosia eighty-seven miles and a half,

and from the town of Cimmerium, which lies on the other

side of the Strait, as we have previously[43] stated, two miles

and a half. Such is the width here of the channel which

separates Asia from Europe, and which too, from being

generally quite frozen over, allows of a passage on foot.







The width of the Cimmerian Bosporus[44] is twelve miles and

a half: it contains the towns of Hermisium[45], Myrmecium,

and, in the interior[46] of it, the island of Alopece. From the

spot called Taphr[47], at the extremity of the isthmus, to the

mouth of the Bosporus, along the line of the Lake Motis,

is a distance of 260 miles.



Leaving Taphr, and going along the mainland, we find

in the interior the Auchet[48], in whose country the Hypanis

has its rise, as also the Neur, in whose district the Borysthenes

has its source, the Geloni[49], the Thyssaget, the Budini,

the Basilid, and the Agathyrsi[50] with their azure-coloured

hair. Above them are the Nomades, and then a nation of

Anthropophagi or cannibals. On leaving Lake Buges, above

the Lake Motis we come to the Sauromat and the

Essedones[51]. Along the coast, as far as the river

Tanais[52], are







the Mot, from whom the lake derives its name, and the

last of all, in the rear of them, the Arimaspi. We then

come to the Riphan[53] mountains, and the region known by

the name of Pterophoros[54], because of the perpetual fall of

snow there, the flakes of which resemble feathers; a part of

the world which has been condemned by the decree of

nature to lie immersed in thick darkness; suited for nothing

but the generation of cold, and to be the asylum of the

chilling blasts of the northern winds.



Behind these mountains, and beyond the region of the

northern winds, there dwells, if we choose to believe it, a

happy race, known as the Hyperborei[55], a race that lives to an

extreme old age, and which has been the subject of many marvellous

stories[56]. At this spot are supposed to be the hinges

upon which the world revolves, and the extreme limits of the

revolutions of the stars. Here we find light for six months

together, given by the sun in one continuous day, who does

not, however, as some ignorant persons have asserted, conceal

himself from the vernal equinox[57] to autumn. On the contrary,

to these people there is but one rising of the sun for the year,

and that at the summer solstice, and but one setting, at the

winter solstice. This region, warmed by the rays of the

sun, is of a most delightful temperature, and exempt from







every noxious blast. The abodes of the natives are the

woods and groves; the gods receive their worship singly

and in groups, while all discord and every kind of sickness are

things utterly unknown. Death comes upon them

only when satiated with life; after a career of feasting,

in an old age sated with every luxury, they leap from a

certain rock there into the sea; and this they deem the

most desirable mode of ending existence. Some writers have

placed these people, not in Europe, but at the very verge of

the shores of Asia, because we find there a people called the

Attacori[58], who greatly resemble them and occupy a very

similar locality. Other writers again have placed them midway between the two suns, at the spot where it sets to the

Antipodes and rises to us; a thing however that cannot

possibly be, in consequence of the vast tract of sea which

there intervenes. Those writers who place them nowhere[59]

but under a day which lasts for six months, state that in the

morning they sow, at mid-day they reap, at sunset they

gather in the fruits of the trees, and during the night conceal

themselves in caves. Nor are we at liberty to entertain any

doubts as to the existence of this race; so many authors[60]

are there who assert that they were in the habit of sending

their first-fruits to Delos to present them to Apollo, whom

in especial they worship. Virgins used to carry them, who

for many years were held in high veneration, and received

the rites of hospitality from the nations that lay on the

route; until at last, in consequence of repeated violations

of good faith, the Hyperboreans came to the determination

to deposit these offerings upon the frontiers of the people

who adjoined them, and they in their turn were to convey







them on to their neighbours, and so from one to the other,

till they should have arrived at Delos. However, this

custom, even, in time fell into disuse.



The length of Sarmatia, Scythia, and Taurica, and of the

whole of the region which extends from the river Borysthenes, is, according to Agrippa, 980 miles, and its breadth

717. I am of opinion, however, that in this part of the

earth all estimates of measurement are exceedingly doubtful.







1. Placed by Forbiger near Lake Burmasaka, or near Islama.

2. The Dniester. The mountains of Macrocremnus, or the "Great

Heights," seem not to have been identified.

3. According to Hardouin, the modern name of this island is Tandra.

4. Now called the Teligul, east of the Tyra or Dniester.

5. Now called Sasik Beregen, according to Brotier.

6. The modern Gulf of Berezen, according to Brotier.

7. Probably the modern Okzakow.

8. The modern Dnieper. It also retains its ancient name of Borysthenes.

9. We learn from Strabo that the name of this town was Olbia, and

that from being founded by the Milesians, it received the name of

Miletopolis. According to Brotier, the modern Zapurouski occupies its

site,

between the mouths of the river Buzuluk.

10. This was adjacent to the strip of land called "Dromos Achilleos," or

the 'race-course of Achilles.' It is identified by geographers with the

little island of Zmievoi or Oulan Adassi, the 'Serpents Island.' It was

said that it was to this spot that Thetis transported the body of Achilles.

By some it was made the abode of the shades of the blest, where Achilles

and other heroes of fable were the judges of the dead.

11. A narrow strip of land N.W. of the Crimea and south of the mouth

of the Dnieper, running nearly due west and cast. It is now divided

into two parts called Kosa Tendra and Kosa Djarilgatch. Achilles was

said to have instituted games here.

12. According to Hardouin, the Siraci occupied a portion of the present

Podolia and Ukraine, and the Tauri the modern Bessarabia.

13. According to Herodotus, this region, called Hyla, lay to the east of

the Borysthenes. It seems uncertain whether there are now any traces

of this ancient woodland; some of the old maps however give the name

of the "Black Forest" to this district. From the statements of modern

travellers, the woody country does not commence till the river Don has

been reached. The district of Hyla has been identified by geographers

with the great plain of Janboylouk in the steppe of the Nogai.

14. For Enchadl, Hardouin suggests that we should read

Inde Hyl,

"hence the inhabitants are called by the name of Hyli."

15. The Panticapes is usually identified with the modern Somara, but

perhaps without sufficient grounds. It is more probably the Kouskawoda.

16. The Nomades or wandering, from the Georgi or agricultural Scythians.

17. The Acesinus does not appear to have been identified by modern

geographers.

18. Above called Olbiopolis or Miletopolis.

19. The Bog or Bong. Flowing parallel with the Borysthenes or

Dnieper, it discharged itself into the Euxine at the town of Olbia, at no

great distance from the mouth of the Borysthenes.

20. Probably meaning the mouth or point at which the river discharges

itself into the sea.

21. The modern Gulf of Negropoli or Perekop, on the west side of the

Chersonesus Taurica or Crimea.

22. Forming the present isthmus of Perekop, which divides the Sea of

Perekop from the Sea of Azof.

23. Called by Herodotus Hypacyris, and by later writers Carcinites. It

is generally supposed to be the same as the small stream now known as

the Kalantchak.

24. Hardouin says that the city of Carcine has still retained its name,

but changed its site. More modern geographers however are of opinion

that nothing can be determined with certainty as to its site. Of the site

also of Navarum nothing seems to be known.

25. Or Buces or Byce. This is really a gulf, almost

enclosed, at the end

of the Sea of Azof. Strabo gives a more full description of it under the

name of the Sapra Limn "the Putrid Lake," by which name it is still

called, in Russian, Sibach or Sivach Mor. It is a vast lagoon, covered

with water when an east wind blows the water of the Sea of Azof into it,

but at other times a tract of slime and mud, sending forth pestilential

vapours.

26. It is rather a ridge of sand, that almost separates it from the waters

of the gulf.

27. This river has not been identified by modern geographers.

28. According to Herodotus the Gerrhus or Gerrus fell into the Hypacaris; which must be understood to be, not the Kalantchak, but the

Outlook. It is probably now represented by the Moloschnijawoda,

which forms a shallow lake or marsh at its mouth.

29. It is most probable that the Pacyris, mentioned above, the Hypacaris, and the Carcinites, were various names for the same river, generally supposed, as stated above, to be the small stream of Kalantchak.

30. Now the Crimea.

31. It does not appear that the site of any of these cities has been identified. Charax was a general name for a fortified town.

32. Mentioned again by Pliny in B. vi. c. 7. Solinus says that in order

to repel avarice, the Satarch prohibited the use of gold and silver.

33. On the site of the modern Perekop, more commonly called Orkapi.

34. Or Chersonesus of the Heracleans. The town of Kosleve or Eupatoria is supposed to stand on its site.

35. After the conquest of Mithridates, when the whole of these regions

fell into the hands of the Romans.

36. The modern Felenk-burun. So called from the Parthenos or Virgin

Diana or Artemis, whose temple stood on its heights, in which human

sacrifices were offered to the goddess.

37. Supposed to be the same as the now-famed port of Balaklava.

38. The modern Aia-burun, the great southern headland of the Crimea.

According to Plutarch, it was called by the natives Brixaba, which,

like the name Criumetopon, meant the "Rain's Head."

39. Now Kerempi, a promontory of Paphlagonia in Asia Minor. Strabo

considers this promontory and that of Criumetopon as dividing the

Euxine into two seas.

40. According to Strabo, the sea-line of the Tauric Chersonesus, after

leaving the port of the Symboli, extended 125 miles, as far as Theodosia.

Pliny would here seem to make it rather greater.

41. The modern Kaffa occupies its site. The sites of many of the places

here mentioned appear not to be known at the present day.

42. The modern Kertsch, situate on a hill at the very mouth of the

Cimmerian Bosporus, or Straits of Enikale or Kaffa, opposite the town

of Phanagoria in Asia.

43. In C. 24 of the present Book. Clark identifies the town of Cimmerium with the modern Temruk, Forbiger with Eskikrimm. It is

again mentioned in B. vi. c. 2.

44. He alludes here, not to the Strait so called, but to the Peninsula

bordering upon it, upon which the modern town of Kertsch is situate,

and which projects from the larger Peninsula of the Crimea, as a sort of

excrescence on its eastern side.

45. Probably Hermes or Mercury was its tutelar divinity: its site

appears to be unknown.

46. Probably meaning the Straits or passage connecting the Lake Motis

with the Euxine. The fertile district of the Cimmerian Bosporus was

at one time the granary of Greece, especially Athens, which imported

thence annually 400,000 medimni of corn.

47. A town so called on the Isthmus of Perekop, from a ta/fros or

trench, which was cut across the isthmus at this point.

48. Lomonossov, in his History of Russia, says that these people were

the same as the Sclavoni: but that one meaning of the name 'Slavane'

being "a boaster," the Greeks gave them the corresponding appellation

of Auchet, from the word au)xh\, which signifies "boasting."

49. Of the Geloni, called by Virgil "picti," or "painted," nothing certain seems to be known: they are associated by Herodotus with the

Budini, supposed to belong to the Slavic family by Schafarik. In B. iv.

c. 108,109, of his History, Herodotus gives a very particular account of

the Budini, who had a city built entirely of wood, the name of which was

Gelonus. The same author also assigns to the Geloni a Greek origin.

50. The Agathyrsi are placed by Herodotus near the upper course of the

river Maris, in the S.E. of Dacia or the modern Transylvania. Pliny

however seems here to assign them a different locality.

51. Also called "Assedones" and "Issedones." It has been suggested by

modern geographers that their locality must be assigned to the east of

Ichim, on the steppe of the central horde of the Kirghiz, and that of the

Arimaspi on the northern declivity of the chain of the Alta.

52. Now the Don.

53. Most probably these mountains were a western branch of the Ura-

lian chain.

54. From the Greek pteroforo\s, "wing-bearing" or "feather-bearing."

55. This legendary race was said to dwell in the regions beyond Boreas,

or the northern wind, which issued from the Riphan mountains, the

name of which was derived from ripai\ or "hurricanes "issuing from

a cavern, and which these heights warded off from the Hyperboreans and

sent to more southern nations. Hence they never felt the northern

blasts, and enjoyed a life of supreme happiness and undisturbed repose.

"Here," says Humboldt, "are the first views of a natural science which

explains the distribution of heat and the difference of climates by local

causes-by the direction of the winds-the proximity of the sun, and the

action of a moist or saline principle."-Asie Ceatrale, vol. i.

56. Pindar says, in the "Pytha," x. 56, "The Muse is no stranger to

their manners. The dances of girls and the sweet melody of the lyre

and pipe resound on every side, and wreathing their locks with the

glistening bay, they feast joyously. For this sacred race there is no doom

of sickness or of disease; but they live apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the exacting Nemesis."

57. Hardouin remarks that Pomponius Mela, who asserts that the

sun rises here at the vernal and sets at the autumnal equinox, is right in

his position, and that Pliny is incorrect in his assertion. The same

commentator thinks that Pliny can have hardly intended to censure Mela,

to whose learning he had been so much indebted for his geographical

information, by applying to him the epithet "imperitus," 'ignorant'

or 'unskilled'; he therefore suggests that the proper reading here is,

"ut non imperiti dixere," "as some by no means ignorant persons have

asserted."

58. The Attacori are also mentioned in B. vi. c. 20.

59. Sillig omits the word "non" here, in which case the reading would

be, "Those writers who place them anywhere but, &c.;" it is difficult to

see with what meaning.

60. Herodotus, B. iv., states to this effect, and after him, Pomponius

Mela, B. iii. c. 5.




27. Chap. 27.-The Islands Of The Euxine. The Islands Of The Northern Ocean.


CHAP. 27.-THE ISLANDS OF THE EUXINE. THE ISLANDS OF THE NORTHERN

OCEAN.

But now, in conformity with the plan which I originally

proposed, the remaining portions of this gulf must be described. As

for its seas, we have already made mention of them.



(13.) The Hellespont has no islands belonging to Europe

that are worthy of mention. In the Euxine there are, at a

distance of a mile and a half from the European shore, and

of fourteen from the mouth of the Strait, the two Cyanan[1]

islands, by some called the Symplegades[2], and stated in

fabulous story to have run the one against the other; the reason

being the circumstance that they are separated by so short

an interval, that while to those who enter the Euxine opposite

to them they appear to be two distinct islands, but if viewed

in a somewhat oblique direction they have the appearance of

becoming gradually united into one. On this side of the

Ister there is the single island[3] of the Apolloniates, eighty

miles from the Thracian Bosporus; it was from this place

that M. Lucullus brought the Capitoline[4] Apollo. Those







islands which are to be found between the mouths of the

Ister we have already mentioned[5]. Before the Borysthenes

is Achillea[6] previously referred to, known also by the names

of Leuce and Macaron[7]. Researches which have been made

at the present day place this island at a distance of 140 miles

from the Borysthenes, of 120 from Tyra, and of fifty from

the island of Peuce. It is about ten miles in circumference.

The remaining islands in the Gulf of Carcinites are Cephalonnesos, Rhosphodusa, and Macra. Before we leave the

Euxine, we must not omit to notice the opinion expressed

by many writers that all the interior[8] seas take their rise in

this one as the principal source, and not at the Straits of

Gades. The reason they give for this supposition is not an

improbable one-the fact that the tide is always running

out of the Euxine and that there is never any ebb.



We must now leave the Euxine to describe the outer

portions[9] of Europe. After passing the Riphan mountains we







have now to follow the shores of the Northern Ocean on the

left, until we arrive at Gades. In this direction a great







number of islands[10] are said to exist that have no name; among

which there is one which lies opposite to Scythia, mentioned

under the name of Raunonia[11], and said to be at a distance

of the day's sail from the mainland; and upon which, according to

Timus, amber is thrown up by the waves in the spring

season. As to the remaining parts of these shores, they are

only known from reports of doubtful authority. With reference to the

Septentrional[12] or Northern Ocean; Hecatus

calls it, after we have passed the mouth of the river Parapanisus,

where it washes the Scythian shores, the Amalchian







sea, the word 'Amalchian' signifying in the language of these

races, frozen. Philemon again says that it is called Morimarusa or

the "Dead Sea" by the Cimbri, as far as the Promontory of Rubeas,

beyond which it has the name of the Cronian[13]

Sea. Xenophon of Lampsacus tells us that at a distance

of three days' sail from the shores of Scythia, there is an

island of immense size called Baltia[14], which by Pytheas is

called Basilia[15]. Some islands[16] called On are said to be







here, the inhabitants of which live on the eggs of birds

and oats; and others again upon which human beings

are produced with the feet of horses, thence called Hippopodes. Some

other islands are also mentioned as those of

the Panotii, the people of which have ears of such extraordinary size

as to cover the rest of the body, which is

otherwise left naked.



Leaving these however, we come to the nation of the

Ingvones[17], the first in Germany; at which we begin to have

some information upon which more implicit reliance can be

placed. In their country is an immense mountain called

Sevo[18], not less than those of the Riphan range, and which

forms an immense gulf along the shore as far as the Promontory of the Cimbri. This gulf, which has the name of the

'Codanian,' is filled with islands; the most famous among

which is Scandinavia[19], of a magnitude as yet unascertained:

the only portion of it at all known is inhabited by the nation

of the Hilleviones, who dwell in 500 villages, and call it a

second world: it is generally supposed that the island of







Eningia[20] is of not less magnitude. Some writers state that

these regions, as far as the river Vistula, are inhabited by the

Sarmati, the Venedi[21], the Sciri, and the Hirri[22], and that there

is a gulf there known by the name of Cylipenus[23], at the mouth

of which is the island of Latris, after which comes another

gulf, that of Lagnus, which borders on the Cimbri. The

Cimbrian Promontory, running out into the sea for a great

distance, forms a peninsula which bears the name of Cartris[24].

Passing this coast, there are three and twenty islands which

have been made known by the Roman arms[25]: the most

famous of which is Burcana[26], called by our people Fabaria,

from the resemblance borne[27] by a fruit which grows there

spontaneously. There are those also called Glsaria[28] by our







soldiers, from their amber; but by the barbarians they are

known as Austeravia and Actania.







1. These islands, or rather rocks, are now known as Fanari, and lie at

the entrance of the Straits of Constantinople.

2. From su\n and plhgh\, "a striking together." Tournefort has explained the ancient story of these islands running together, by remarking

that each of them consists of one craggy island, but that when the sea is

disturbed the water covers the lower parts, so as to make the different

points of each resemble isolated rocks. They are united to the mainland

by a kind of isthmus, and appear as islands only when it is inundated in

stormy weather.

3. Upon which the city of Apollonia (now Sizeboli), mentioned in

C. 18 of the present Book, was situate.

4. So called because it was dedicated by Lucullus in the Capitol. It

was thirty cubits in height.

5. In C. 24 of the present Book.

6. Mentioned in the last Chapter as the "Island of Achilles."

7. From the Greek makarw=n," (The island) of the Blest." It was also

called the "Island of the Heroes."

8. Meaning all the inland or Mediterranean seas.

9. As the whole of Pliny's description of the northern shores of Europe

is replete with difficulties and obscurities, we cannot do better than transcribe the learned remarks of M. Parisot, the Geographical Editor of Ajasson's Edition, in reference to this subject. He says, "Before entering on

the discussion of this portion of Pliny's geography, let us here observe, once

for all, that we shall not remark as worthy of our notice all those ridiculous

hypotheses which could only take their rise in ignorance, precipitation, or

a love of the marvellous. We shall decline then to recognize the Doffrefelds in the mountains of Sevo, the North Cape in the Promontory of

Rubeas, and the Sea of Greenland in the Cronian Sea. The absurdity

of these suppositions is proved by-I. The impossibility of the ancients

ever making their way to these distant coasts without the aid of large

vessels, the compass, and others of those appliances, aided by which European skill finds the greatest difficulty in navigating those distant seas.

II. The immense lacune which would be found to exist in the

descriptions of these distant seas and shores: for not a word do we

find about

those numerous archipelagos which are found scattered throughout the

North Sea, not a word about Iceland, nor about the numberless seas and

fiords on the coast of Norway. III. The absence of all remarks upon

the local phnomena of these spots. The North Cape belongs to the

second polar climate, the longest day there being two months and a half.

Is it likely that navigators would have omitted to mention this remarkable

phnomenon, well known to the Romans by virtue of their astronomical

theories, but one with which practically they had never made themselves

acquainted?-The only geographers who here merit our notice are those

who are of opinion that in some of the coasts or islands here mentioned

Pliny describes the Scandinavian Peninsula, and in others the Coast of

Finland. The first question then is, to what point Pliny first carries us?

It is evident that from the Black Sea he transports himself on a

sudden to the shores of the Baltic, thus passing over at a single

leap a considerable space filled with nations and unknown deserts.

The question

then is, what line has he followed? Supposing our author had had before

his eyes a modern map, the imaginary line which he would have drawn

in making this transition would have been from Odessa to the Kurisch-

Haff. In this direction the breadth across Europe is contracted to a

space, between the two seas, not more than 268 leagues in length. A

very simple mode of reasoning will conclusively prove that Pliny has

deviated little if anything from this route. If he fails to state in precise

terms upon what point of the shores of the Baltic he alights after leaving

the Riphan mountains, his enumeration of the rivers which discharge

themselves into that sea, and with which he concludes his account of

Germany, will supply us with the requisite information, at all events in

great part. In following his description of the coast, we find mention

made of the following rivers, the Guttalus, the Vistula, the Elbe, the Weser,

the Ems, the Rhine, and the Meuse. The five last mentioned follow in

their natural order, from east to west, as was to be expected in a description starting from the east of Europe for its western extremity and the

shores of Cadiz. We have a right to conclude then that the Guttalus

was to the east of the Vistula. As we shall now endeavour to show,

this river was no other than the Alle, a tributary of the Pregel, which

the Romans probably, in advancing from west to east, considered as the

principal stream, from the circumstance that they met with it, before

coming to the larger river. The Pregel after being increased by the waters

of the Alle or Guttalus falls into the Frisch-Haff, about one degree

further west than the Kurisch-Haff. It may however be here remarked,

Why not find a river more to the east, the Niemen, for instance, or the

Duna, to be represented by the Guttalus? The Niemen in especial would

suit in every respect equally well, because it discharges itself into the

Kurisch-Haff. This conjecture however is incapable of support, when

we reflect that the ancients were undoubtedly acquainted with some

points of the coast to the east of the mouth of the Guttalus, but which,

according to the system followed by our author, would form part of the

Continent of Asia. These points are, 1st. The Cape Lytarinis

(mentioned by Pliny, B. vi. c. 4). 2ndly. The mouth of the river

Carambucis

(similarly mentioned by him), and 3rdly, a little to the east of Cape

Lytarmis, the mouth of the Tanais. The name of Cape Lytarmis suggests

to us Lithuania, and probably represents Domess-Ness in Courland; the

Carambucis can be no other than the Niemen; while the Tanais, upon

which so many authors, ancient and modern, have exhausted their

conjectures, from confounding it with the Southern Tanais which falls

into

the Sea of Azof, is evidently the same as the Dwina or Western Duna.

This is established incontrovertibly both by its geographical position (the

mouth of the Dwina being only fifty leagues to the east of Domess-Ness)

and the identity evidently of the names Dwina and Tanais. Long since,

Leibnitz was the first to remark the presence of the radical

T. n, or D. n,

either with or without a vowel, in the names of the great rivers of Eastern

Europe; Danapris or Dnieper, Danaster or Dniester, Danube (in German Donau, in Hungarian Duna), Tanais or Don, for example; all

which rivers however discharge themselves into the Black Sea. There

can be little doubt then of the identity of the Duna with the Tanais, it

being the only body of water in these vast countries which bears a name

resembling the initial Tan, or Tn, and at the same time

belongs to the

basin of the Baltic. We are aware, it is true, that the White Sea

receives a river Dwina, which is commonly called the Northern Dwina,

but there can be no real necessity to be at the trouble of combating the

opinion that this river is identical with the Northern Tanais. As the

result then of our investigations, it is at the eastern extremity of the

Frisch-Haff and near the mouth of the Pregel, that we would place the

point at which Pliny sets out. As for the Riphan mountains, they have

never existed anywhere but in the head of the geographers from whom

our author drew his materials. From the mountains of Ural and Poias,

which Pliny could not possibly have in view, seeing that they lie in a

meridian as eastern as the Caspian Sea, the traveller has to proceed 600

leagues to the south-west without meeting with any chains of mountains

or indeed considerable elevations."

10. It is pretty clear that he refers to the numerous islands scattered over

the face of the Baltic Sea, such as Dago, Oesel, Gothland, and Aland.

11. The old reading here was Bannomanna, which Dupinet would

translate by the modern Bornholm. Parisot considers that the modern

Runa,

a calcareous rock covered with vegetable earth, in the vicinity of Domess-

Ness, is the place indicated.

12. It has been suggested by Brotier that Pliny here refers to the Icy

Sea, but it is more probable that he refers to the north-eastern part of

the Baltic, which was looked upon by the ancients as forming part of

the open sea.

13. With reference to these divisions of land and sea, a subject which is

involved in the greatest obscurity, Parisot states it as his opinion that

the Amalchian or Icy Sea is that portion of the Baltic which extends

from Cape Rutt to Cape Grinea, while on the other hand the Cronian

Sea comprehends all the gulfs which lie to the east of Cape Rutt, such

as the Haff, the gulfs of Stettin and Danzic, the Frisch-Haff, and the Kurisch-Haff. He also thinks that the name of 'Cronian' originally belonged

only to that portion of the Baltic which washes the coast of Courland,

but that travellers gradually applied the term to the whole of the sea.

He is also of opinion that the word "Cronium" owes its origin to the

Teutonic and Danish adjective groen or "green." The extreme verdure

which characterizes the islands of the Danish archipelago has given to

the piece of water which separates the islands of Falster and Moen the

name of Groensund, and it is far from improbable that the same epithet

was given to the Pomeranian and Prussian Seas, which the Romans would

be not unlikely to call 'Gronium' or 'Cronium fretum,' or 'Cronium

mare.' In the name 'Parapanisus' he also discovers a resemblance to that

of modern Pomerania.

14. Upon this Parisot remarks that on leaving Cape Rutt, at a distance

of about twenty-five leagues in a straight line, we come to the island of

Funen or Fyen, commonly called Fionia, the most considerable of the

Danish archipelago next to Zealand, and which lying between the two

Belts, the Greater and the Smaller, may very probably from that circumstance have obtained the name of Baltia. Brotier takes Baltia to

be no other than Nova Zembla-so conflicting are the opinions of

commentators!

15. Parisot suggests that under this name may possibly lie concealed

that of the modern island of Zealand or Seeland, and that it may have

borne on the side of it next to the Belt the name of Baltseeland, easily

corrupted by the Greeks into Basilia.

16. Brotier takes these to be the islands of Aloo, and Bieloi or Ostrow,

at the mouth of the river Paropanisus, which he considers to be the same

as the Obi. Parisot on the other hand is of opinion that islands of the

Baltic are here referred to; that from the resemblance of the name On

to the Greek w)o\n, "an egg," the story that the natives

subsisted on the

eggs of birds was formed; that not improbably the group of the Hippopodes resembled the shape of a horse-shoe, from which the story men-

tioned by Pliny took its rise; and that the Fanesii (or, as the reading here

has it, the Panotii, "all-ears") wore their hair very short, from which

circumstance their ears appeared to be of a larger size than usual.

17. Tacitus speaks of three great groups of the German tribes, the Ingvones forming the first thereof, and consisting of those which dwelt on

the margin of the ocean, the Hermiones in the interior, and the Istvones

in the east and south of Germany. We shall presently find that Pliny

adds two groups, the Vandili as the fourth, and the Peucini and Bastern

as the fifth. This classification however is thought to originate in a mistake, for Zeuss has satisfactorily shown that the Vandili belonged to the

Hermiones, and that Peucini and Bastern are only names of individual

tribes and not of groups of tribes.

18. Brotier and other geographers are of opinion that by this name the

chain of the Doffrefeld mountains is meant; but this cannot be the case

if we suppose with Parisot that Pliny here returns south from the

Scandinavian islands and takes his departure from Cape Rutt in the

territory

of the Ingvones. Still, it is quite impossible to say what mountains he

would designate under the name of Sevo. Parisot suggests that it is a form

of the compound word "seevohner," "inhabitants of the sea," and that it

is a general name for the elevated lands along the margin of the

sea-shore.

19. Parisot supposes that under this name the isle of Funen is meant,

but it is more generally thought that Norway and Sweden are thus designated, as that peninsula was generally looked upon as an island by the

ancients. The Codanian Gulf was the sea to the east of the Cimbrian

Chersonesus or Jutland, filled with the islands which belong to the modern

kingdom of Denmark. It was therefore the southern part of the Baltic.

20. By Eningia Hardouin thinks that the country of modern Finland is

meant. Poinsinet thinks that under the name are included Ingria,

Livonia, and Courland; while Parisot seems inclined to be of opinion

that

under this name the island of Zealand is meant, a village of which, about

three-fourths of a league from the western coast, according to him, still

bears the name of Heinnge.

21. Parisot is of opinion that the Venedi, also called Vinid and

Vindili, were of Sclavish origin, and situate on the shores of the

Baltic. He

remarks that this people, in the fifth century, founded in Pomerania, when

quitted by the Goths, a kingdom, the chiefs of which styled themselves

the Konjucs of Vinland. Their name is also to be found in Venden, a

Russian town in the government of Riga, in Windenburg in Courland, and

in Wenden in the circle of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg Schwerin.

22. Parisot remarks that these two peoples were probably only tribes

of the Venedi.

23. Parisot feels convinced that Pliny is speaking here of the Gulf of

Travemunde, the island of Femeren, and then of the gulf which extends

from that island to Kiel, where the Eider separates Holstein from

Jutland. On the other hand, Hardouin thinks that by the Gulf of

Cylipenus the Gulf of Riga is meant, and that Latris is the modern

island of

Osel. But, as Parisot justly remarks, to put this construction on

Pliny's

language is to invert the order in which he has hitherto proceeded,

evidently from east to west.

24. The modern Cape of Skagen on the north of Jutland.

25. When Drusus held the command in Germany, as we learn from

Strabo, B. vii.

26. It is generally agreed that this is the modern island of Borkhum, at

the mouth of the river Amaiius or Ems.

27. To a bean, from which (faba) the island had its name of Fabaria.

In confirmation of this Hardouin states, that in his time there was a

tower still standing there which was called by the natives Het

boon huys,
"the bean house."

28. From the word gles or glas, which primarily means

'glass,' and then

figuratively "amber." Probably land and Gothland. They will be

found again mentioned in the Thirtieth Chapter of the present Book.

See p. 351.




28. Chap. 28.-Germany.


CHAP. 28.-GERMANY.

The whole of the shores of this sea as far as the Scaldis[1],

a river of Germany, is inhabited by nations, the dimensions

of whose respective territories it is quite impossible to state,

so immensely do the authors differ who have touched upon

this subject. The Greek writers and some of our own

countrymen have stated the coast of Germany to be 2500

miles in extent, while Agrippa, comprising Rhtia and Noricum in

his estimate, makes the length to be 686[2] miles, and

the breadth 148[3]. (14.) The breadth of Rhtia alone however

very nearly exceeds that number of miles, and indeed

we ought to state that it was only subjugated at about the

period of the death of that general; while as for Germany,

the whole of it was not thoroughly known to us for many

years after his time. If I may be allowed to form a conjecture, the

margin of the coast will be found to be not far short

of the estimate of the Greek writers, while the distance in a

straight line will nearly correspond with that mentioned by

Agrippa.



There are five German races; the Vandili[4], parts of whom







are the Burgundiones[5], the Varini[6], the Carini[7], and the

Gutones[8]: the Ingvones, forming a second race, a portion of

whom are the Cimbri[9], the Teutoni[10], and the tribes







of the Chauci[11]. The Istvones[12], who join up to the Rhine,

and to whom the Cimbri[13] belong, are the third race; while

the Hermiones, forming a fourth, dwell in the interior,

and include the Suevi[14], the Hermunduri[15], the Chatti[16], and







the Cherusci[17]: the fifth race is that of the Peucini[18], who are

also the Bastern, adjoining the Daci previously mentioned.

The more famous rivers that flow into the ocean are the

Guttalus[19], the Vistillus or Vistula, the Albis[20], the

Visurgis[21],

the Amisius[22], the Rhine, and the Mosa[23]. In the interior is

the long extent of the Hercynian[24] range, which in grandeur

is inferior to none.











1. Now the Scheldt.

2. In a straight line, of course. Parisot is of opinion that in forming

this estimate Agrippa began at the angle formed by the river Piave in

lat. 464?, measuring thence to Cape Rubeas (now Rutt) in lat. 5425?.

This would give 821?, to which, if we add some twenty leagues for obliquity or difference of longitude, the total would make exactly the distance

here mentioned.

3. As Parisot remarks, it is totally impossible to conceive the source

of such an erroneous conclusion as this. Some readings make the amount

248, others 268.

4. As already mentioned, Zeuss has satisfactorily shown that the Vandili or Vindili properly belonged to the Hermiones. Tacitus mentions

but three groups of the German nations; the Ingvones on the ocean,

the Hermiones in the interior, and the Istvones in the east and south

of Germany. The Vandili, a Gothic race, dwelt originally on the northern

coast of Germany, but afterwards settled north of the Marcomanni on the

Riesengebirge. They subsequently appeared in Dacia and Pannonia, and

in the beginning of the fifth century invaded Spain. Under Genseric they

passed over into Africa, and finally took and plundered Rome in A.D. 455.

Their kingdom was finally destroyed by Belisarius.

5. It is supposed that the Burgundiones were a Gothic people dwelling

in the country between the rivers Viadus and Vistula, though Ammianus

Marcellinus declares them to have been of pure Roman origin. How

they came into the country of the Upper Maine in the south-west of

Germany in A.D. 289, historians have found themselves at a

loss to inform us. It is not improbable that the two peoples were not

identical,

and that the similarity of their name arose only from the circumstance that

they both resided in "burgi" or burghs. See Gibbon, iii. 99.

Bohn's Ed.

6. The Varini dwelt on the right bank of the Albis or Elbe, north of the

Langobardi. Ptolemy however, who seems to mention them as the Avarini, speaks of them as dwelling near the sources of the Vistula, on the

site of the present Cracow. See Gibbon, iv. 225. Bohn's Ed.

7. Nothing whatever is known of the locality of this people.

8. They are also called in history Gothi, Gothones, Gotones and Gut.

According to Pytheas of Marseilles (as mentioned by Pliny, B. xxxvii.

c. 2), they dwelt on the coasts of the Baltic, in the vicinity of what is

now called the Fritsch-Haff. Tacitus also refers to the same district,

though he does not speak of them as inhabiting the coast. Ptolemy

again speaks of them as dwelling on the east of the Vistula, and to the

south of the Venedi. The later form of their name, Gothi, does

not occur

till the time of Caracalla. Their native name was Gutthinda. They are

first spoken of as a powerful nation at the beginning of the third

century, when we find them mentioned as 'Get,' from the

circumstance of

their having occupied the countries formerly inhabited by the Sarmatian

Get. The formidable attacks made by this people, divided into the

nations of the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, upon the Roman power during

its decline, are too well known to every reader of Gibbon to require

further notice.

9. The inhabitants of Chersonesus Cimbrica, the modern peninsula of

Jutland. It seems doubtful whether these Cimbri were a Germanic

nation or a Celtic tribe, as also whether they were the same race

whose

numerous hordes successively defeated six Roman armies, and were finally

conquered by C. Marius, B.C. 101, in the Campi Raudii. The more

general impression, however, entertained by historians, is that they were

a Celtic or Gallic and not a Germanic nation. The name is said to have

signified "robbers." See Gibbon, i. 273, iii. 365. Bohn's Ed.

10. The Teutoni or Teutones dwelt on the coasts of the Baltic, adjacent

to the territory of the Cimbri. Their name, though belonging originally

to a single nation or tribe, came to be afterwards applied collectively to

the whole people of Germany. See Gibbon, iii. 139. Bohn's Ed.

11. Also called Cauchi, Cauci, and Cayci, a German tribe to the east of

the Frisians, between the rivers Ems and Elbe. The modern Oldenburg and Hanover are supposed to pretty nearly represent the country

of the Chauci. In B. xvi. c. 1. 2, will be found a further account of them

by Pliny, who had visited their country, at least that part of it which lay

on the sea-coast. They are mentioned for the last time in the third century, when they had extended so far south and west that they are spoken

of as living on the banks of the Rhine.

12. Mentioned by Tacitus as dwelling in the east and south of Germany.

13. It has been suggested by Titzius that the words "quorum Cimbri,"

"to whom the Cimbri belong," are an interpolation; which is not improbable, or at least that the word "Cimbri" has been substituted for

some other name.

14. This appears to be properly the collective name of a great number of

the German tribes, who were of a migratory mode of life, and spoken of

in opposition to the more settled tribes, who went under the general name

of Ingvones. Csar speaks of them as dwelling east of the Ubii and

Sygambri, and west of the Cherusci. Strabo makes them extend in an

easterly direction beyond the Albis or Elbe, and southerly as far as the

sources of the Danube. Tacitus gives the name of Suevia to the whole

of the east of Germany, from the Danube to the Baltic. The name of

the modern Suabia is derived from a body of adventurers from various

German tribes, who assumed the name of Suevi in consequence of their

not possessing any other appellation.

15. A large and powerful tribe of Germany, which occupied the

extensive tract of country between the mountains in the north-west of

Bohemia and the Roman Wall in the south-west, which formed the

boundary

of the Agri Decumates. On the east they bordered on the Narisci, on

the north-east on the Cherusci, and on the north-west on the Chatti.

There is little doubt that they originally formed part of the Suevi. At

a later period they spread in a north-easterly direction, taking possession

of the north-western part of Bohemia and the country about the sources

of the Maine and Saale, that is, the part of Franconia as far as Kissingen

and the south-western part of the kingdom of Saxony. The name

Hermunduri is thought by some to signify highlanders, and to be a

compound of Her or Ar, "high," and Mund, "man."

16. One of the great tribes of Germany, which rose to importance after

the decay of the power of the Cherusci. It is thought by ethnographers

that their name is still preserved in the word "Hessen." They formed the

chief tribe of the Hermiones here mentioned, and are described by Csar

as belonging to the Suevi, though Tacitus distinguishes them, and no

German tribe in fact occupied more permanently its original locality than

the Chatti. Their original abode seems to have extended from the Wester-

wald in the west to the Saale in Franconia, and from the river Maine

in the south as far as the sources of the Elison and the Weser, so that

they occupied exactly the modern country of Hessen, including perhaps

a portion of the north-west of Bavaria. See Gibbon, vol. iii. 99.

Bohn's Ed.

17. The Cherusci were the most celebrated of all the German tribes, and

are mentioned by Csar as of the same importance as the Suevi, from

whom they were separated by the Silva Bacensis. There is some difficulty in stating their exact locality, but it is generally supposed that

their country extended from the Visurgis or Weser in the west to the

Albis or Elbe in the east, and from Melibocus in the north to the neighbourhood of the Sudeti in the south, so that the Chamavi and Langobardi were their northern neighbours, the Chatti the western, the Hermunduri the southern, and the Silingi and Semnones their eastern

neighbours. This tribe, under their chief Arminius or Hermann, forming a confederation with many smaller tribes in A.D. 9, completely defeated

the Romans in the famous battle of the Teutoburg Forest. In later times

they were conquered by the Chatti, so that Ptolemy speaks of them

only as a small tribe on the south of the Hartz mountain. Their name

afterwards appears, in the beginning of the fourth century, in the con

federation of the Franks.

18. The Peucini are mentioned here, as also by Tacitus, as identical with

the Bastern. As already mentioned, supposing them to be names for

distinct nations, they must be taken an only names of individual tribes,

and not of groups of tribes. It is generally supposed that their first

settlements in Sarmatia were in the highlands between the Theiss and

the March, whence they passed onward to the lower Danube, as far as

its mouth, where a portion of them, settling in the island of Peuce, obtained the name of Peucini. In the later geographers we find them

settled between the Tyrus or Dniester, and the Borysthenes or Dnieper,

the Peucini remaining at the mouth of the Danube.

19. According to Parisot, the Guttalus is the same as the Alle, a tributary of the Pregel. Cluver thinks that it is the same as the Oder.

Other writers again consider it the same as the Pregel.

20. Or Elbe.

21. Now the Weser.

22. The modern Ems.

23. The Meuse.

24. The 'Hercynia Silva,' Hercynian Forest or Range, is very differently

described by the writers of various ages. The earliest mention of it is

by Aristotle. Judging from the accounts given by Csar, Pomponius

Mela, and Strabo, the 'Hercynia Silva' appears to have been a general

name for almost all the mountains of Southern and Central Germany,

that is, from the sources of the Danube to Transylvania, comprising the

Schwarzwald, Odenwald, Spessart, Rhn, Thuringer Wald, the Hartz

mountain (which seems in a great measure to have retained the ancient

name), Raube Alp, Steigerwald, Fichtelgebirge, Erzgebirge, and

Riesengebirge. At a later period when the mountains of Germany had

become

better known, the name was applied to the more limited range extending

around Bohemia, and through Moravia into Hungary.




29. Chap. 29. (15.)-Ninety-Six Islands Of The Gallic Ocean.


CHAP. 29. (15.)-NINETY-SIX ISLANDS OF THE GALLIC OCEAN.

In the Rhine itself, nearly 100 miles in length, is the

most famous island[1] of the Batavi and the Canninefates, as

also other islands of the Frisii[2], the Chauci, the

Frisiabones[3], the Sturii[4], and the Marsacii, which lie

between Helium[5] and Flevum[6]. These are the names of the

mouths







into which the Rhine divides itself, discharging its waters on

the north into the lakes there, and on the west into the river

Mosa. At the middle mouth which lies between these two,

the river, having but a very small channel, preserves its own

name.







1. This island appears to have been formed by the bifurcation of the

Rhine, the northern branch of which enters the sea at Katwyck, a few

miles north of Leyden, by the Waal and the course of the Maas, after it has

received the Waal, and by the sea. The Waal or Vahalis seems to have

undergone considerable changes, and the place of its junction with the

Maas may have varied. Pliny makes the island nearly 100 miles in length,

which is about the distance from the fort of Schenkenschanz, where the

first separation of the Rhine takes place, to the mouth of the Maas. The

name of Batavia was no doubt the genuine name, which is still preserved

in Betuwe, the name of a district at the bifurcation of the Rhine and the

Waal. The Canninefates, a people of the same race as the Batavi, also

occupied the island, and as the Batavi seem to have been in the eastern

part, it is supposed that the Canninefates occupied the western. They

were subdued by Tiberius in the reign of Augustus.

2. The Frisii or Frisones were one of the great tribes of north-western

Germany, properly belonging to the group of the Ingvones. They in-

habited the country about Lake Flevo and other lakes, between the Rhine

and the Ems, so as to be bounded on the south by the Bructeri, and on

the east by the Chauci. Tacitus distinguishes between the Frisii Majores and Minores, and it is supposed that the latter dwelt on the east of

the canal of Drusus in the north of Holland, and the former between the

rivers Flevus and Amisia, that is, in the country which still bears the

name of Friesland. The Chauci have been previously mentioned.

3. The Frisiabones or Frisvones are again mentioned in C. 31 of the

present Book as a people of Gaul. In what locality they dwelt has not

been ascertained by historians.

4. The Sturii are supposed to have inhabited the modern South Holland,

while the Marsacii probably inhabited the island which the Meuse forms

at its junction with the Rhine, at the modern Dortrecht in Zealand.

5. Supposed to be the site of the modern fortress of Briel, situate at

the mouth of the Meuse.

6. Probably the same as the modern Vlieland (thus partly retaining its

ancient name), an island north of the Texel. The more ancient writers

speak of two main arms, into which the Rhine was divided on entering

the territory of the Batavi, of which the one on the east continued to bear

the name of Rhenus, while that on the west into which the Masa, Maas

or Meuse, flowed, was called Vahalis or Waal. After Drusus, B.C. 12,

had connected the Flevo Lacus or Zuvder-Zee with the Rhine by means

of a canal, in forming which he probably made use of the bed of the

Yssel, we find mention made of three mouths of the Rhine. Of these

the names, as given by Pliny, are, on the west, Helium (the Yahalis of

other writers), in the centre Rhenus, and at the north Flevum; but at

a later period we again find mention made of only two mouths.




30. Chap. 30. (16.)-Britannia.


CHAP. 30. (16.)-BRITANNIA.

Opposite to this coast is the island called Britannia, so

celebrated in the records of Greece[1] and of our own country.

It is situate to the north-west, and, with a large tract of

intervening sea, lies opposite to Germany, Gaul, and Spain,

by far the greater part of Europe. Its former name was

Albion[2]; but at a later period, all the islands, of which we

shall just now briefly make mention, were included under the

name of "Britanni." This island is distant from Gesoriacum,

on the coast of the nation of the Morini[3], at the spot where

the passage across is the shortest, fifty miles. Pytheas and

Isidorus say that its circumference is 4875 miles. It is

barely thirty years since any extensive knowledge of it was

gained by the successes of the Roman arms, and even as yet

they have not penetrated beyond the vicinity of the Caledonian[4] forest. Agrippa believes its length to be 800 miles, and







its breadth 300; he also thinks that the breadth of Hibernia

is the same, but that its length is less by 200 miles. This

last island is situate beyond Britannia, the passage across

being the shortest from the territory of the Silures[5], a distance

of thirty miles. Of the remaining islands none is said to

have a greater circumference than 125 miles. Among these

there are the Orcades[6], forty in number, and situate within

a short distance of each other, the seven islands called

Acmod[7], the Hbudes, thirty in number, and, between

Hibernia and Britannia, the islands of

Mona[8], Monapia[9], Ricina[10],

Vectis[11], Limnus[12], and Andros[13]. Below it are the islands

called Samnis and Axantos[14], and opposite, scattered in the

German Sea, are those known as the Glsari[15], but which







the Greeks have more recently called the Electrides, from

the circumstance of their producing electrum or amber.

The most remote of all that we find mentioned is Thule[16], in

which, as we have previously stated[17], there is no night at the

summer solstice, when the sun is passing through the sign

of Cancer, while on the other hand at the winter solstice

there is no day. Some writers are of opinion that this state

of things lasts for six whole months together. Timus the

historian says that an island called Mictis[18] is within six days'

sail of Britannia, in which white load[19] is found; and that the

Britons sail over to it in boats of osier[20], covered with sewed

hides. There are writers also who make mention of some

other islands, Scandia[21] namely, Dumna, Bergos, and, greater







than all, Nerigos, from which persons embark for Thule.

At one day's sail from Thule is the frozen ocean, which by

some is called the Cronian Sea.







1. Britain was spoken of by some of the Greek writers as superior to

all other islands in the world. Dionysius, in his Periegesis, says, "that

no other islands whatsoever can claim equality with those of Britain."

2. Said to have been so called from the whiteness of its cliffs opposite

the coast of Gaul.

3. Afterwards called Bononia, the modern Boulogne. As D'Anville

remarks, the distance here given by Pliny is far too great, whether we

measure to Dover or to Hythe; our author's measurement however is

probably made to Rutupi (the modern Richborough), near Sandwich,

where the Romans had a fortified post, which was their landing-place

when crossing over from Gaul. This would make the distance given by

Pliny nearer the truth, though still too much.

4. Probably the Grampian range is here referred to.

5. The people of South Wales.

6. The Orkney islands were included under this name. Pomponius

Mela and Ptolemy make them but thirty in number, while Solinus fixes

their number at three only.

7. Also called mod or Hmod, most probably the islands now

known as the Shetlands. Camden however and the older antiquarians

refer the Hmod to the Baltic sea, considering them different from the

Acmod here mentioned, while Salmasius on the other hand considers the

Acmod or Hmod and the Hebrides as identical. Parisot remarks

that off the West Cape of the Isle of Skye and the Isle of North Uist,

the nearest of the Hebrides to the Shetland islands, there is a vast gulf

filled with islands, which still bears the name of Mamaddy or Maddy,

from which the Greeks may have easily derived the words Ai( Maddai\,

whence the Latin Hmod.

8. The Isle of Anglesea.

9. Most probably the Isle of Man.

10. Camden and Gosselin (Rech. sur la Gogr. des Anciens) consider

that under this name is meant the island of Racklin, situate near the

north-eastern extremity of Ireland. A Ricina is spoken of by Ptolemy,

but that island is one of the Hebrides.

11. This Vectis is considered by Gosselin to be the same as the small

island of White-Horn, situate at the entrance of the Bay of Wigtown in

Scotland. It must not be confounded with the more southern Vectis, or

Isle of Wight.

12. According to Gosselin this is the island of Dalkey, at the entrance of

Dublin Bay.

13. Camden thinks that this is the same as Bardsey Island, at the south

of the island of Anglesea, while Mannert and Gosselin think that it is

the island of Lambay.

14. According to Brotier these islands belong to the coast of Britanny,

being the modern isles of Sian and Ushant.

15. As already mentioned, he probably speaks of the islands of land

and Gothland, and Ameland, called Austeravia or Actania, in which

glsum or amber was found by the Roman soldiers. See p. 344.

16. The opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous

in the extreme. We may here mention six:-1. The common, and

apparently the best founded opinion, that Thule is the island of

Iceland. 2. That it is either the Ferroe group, or one of those

islands. 3. The

notion of Ortelius, Farnaby, and Schnning, that it is identical with

Thylemark in Norway. 4. The opinion of Malte Brun, that the

continental portion of Denmark is meant thereby, a part of which is

to the

present day called Thy or Thyland. 5. The opinion of Rudbeck and of

Calstron, borrowed originally from Procopius, that this is a general

name for the whole of Scandinavia. 6. That of Gosselin, who thinks

that under this name Mainland, the principal of the Shetland Islands, is

meant. It is by no means impossible that under the name of Thule

two or more of these localities may have been meant, by different authors

writing at distant periods and under different states of geographical

knowledge. It is also pretty generally acknowledged, as Parisot remarks, that the Thule mentioned by Ptolemy is identical with Thylemark

in Norway.

17. B. ii. c. 77.

18. Brotier thinks that under this name a part of Cornwall is meant, and

that it was erroneously supposed to be an island. Parisot is of opinion

that the copyists, or more probably Pliny himself, has made an error in

transcribing Mictis for Vectis, the name of the Isle of Wight. It is not

improbable however that the island of Mictis had only an imaginary

existence.

19. "White lead": not, however, the metallic substance which we

understand by that name, but tin.

20. Commonly known as "coracles," and used by the Welch in modern

times. See B. vii. c. 57 of this work, and the Note.

21. Brotier, with many other writers, takes these names to refer to

various parts of the coast of Norway. Scandia he considers to be the

same

as Scania, Bergos the modern Bergen, and Nerigos the northern part of

Norway. On the other hand, Gosselin is of opinion that under the name

of Bergos the Scottish island of Barra is meant, and under that of

Nerigos, the island of Lewis, the northern promontory of which is in

the old

maps designated by the name of Nary or Nery. Ptolemy makes mention of

an island called Doumna in the vicinity of the Orcades.




31. Chap. 31. (17.)-Gallia Belgica.


CHAP. 31. (17.)-GALLIA BELGICA.

The whole of Gaul that is comprehended under the one

general name of Comata[1], is divided into three races of

people, which are more especially kept distinct from each

other by the following rivers. From the Scaldis to the Sequana[2] it is

Belgic Gaul; from the Sequana to the Garumna[3]

it is Celtic Gaul or Lugdunensis[4]; and from the Garumna

to the promontory of the Pyrenan range it is Aquitanian

Gaul, formerly called Aremorica[5]. Agrippa makes the entire

length of the coast of Gaul to be 1800 miles, measured from the Rhine

to the Pyrenees: and its length,

from the ocean to the mountains of Gebenna and Jura,

excluding there from Gallia Narbonensis, he computes at

420 miles, the breadth being 318.



Beginning at the Scaldis, the parts beyond[6] are inhabited

by the Toxandri, who are divided into various peoples with

many names; after whom come the Menapii[7], the Morini[8],

the Oromarsaci[9], who are adjacent to the burgh which is

known as Gesoriacum[10], the Britanni[11], the

Ambiani[12], the Bel-







lovaci[13], the Hassi[14], and, more in the interior, the

Catoslugi[15],

the Atrebates[16], the Nervii[17], a free people, the

Veromandui[18],

the Suuconi[19], the Suessiones[20], a free people, the

Ulmanetes[21],

a free people, the Tungri[22], the Sunuci[23], the

Frisiabones[24],

the Betasi[25], the Leuci[26], a free people, the

Treveri[27], who were







formerly free, and the Lingones[28], a federal state, the federal

Remi[29], the Mediomatrici[30], the Sequani[31], the Raurici[32], and

the Helvetii[33]. The Roman colonies are Equestris[34] and

Rauriaca[35]. The nations of Germany which dwell in this

province, near the sources of the Rhine, are the Nemetes[36],

the Triboci[37], and the Vangiones[38]; nearer again[39], the Ubii[40],

the Colony[41] of Agrippina, the Cugerni[42], the Batavi[43], and

the peoples whom we have already mentioned as dwelling

on the islands of the Rhine.







1. Transalpine Gaul, with the exception of that part of it called

Narbonensis, was called Gallia Comata, from the custom of the people

allowing their hair to grow to a great length.

2. From the Scheldt to the Seine.

3. From the Seine to the Garonne.

4. Lyonese Gaul, from Lugdunum, the ancient name of the city of Lyons.

5. Said by Camden to be derived from the Celtic words Ar - mor, "by

the Sea."

6. The provinces of Antwerp and North Brabant.

7. Inhabiting Western Flanders.

8. So called, it is supposed, from the Celtic word Mor, which means

"the sea." Trouane and Boulogne are supposed to occupy the site of

their towns, situate in the modern Pas de Calais.

9. D'Anville places them between Calais and Gravellines, in the Pas de

Calais, and on the spot now known as the Terre de Marck or Merk.

10. Boulogne, previously mentioned.

11. Cluver thinks that "Brianni" would be the correct reading here; but

D'Anville places the Britanni on the southern bank of the stream called

La Canche in the Pas de Calais.

12. According to Parisot and Ansart they occupied the department of

the Somme, with places on the site of Amiens (derived from their name)

and Abbeville for their chief towns.

13. They dwelt in the modern department of the Oise, with Beauvais

(which still retains their name) for their chief town.

14. D'Anville is of opinion that the place called Haiz or Hez in the

diocese of Beauvais, received its name from this people, of whom nothing

else is known. The name is omitted in several of the editions.

15. D'Anville is of opinion that their chief town was situate at the

modern Chaours, at the passage of the river Serre, not far from Vervins

in the department of the Aisne.

16. According to Ptolemy their chief town would be on the site of the

modern Orchies in the department du Nord, but Csar makes it to be

Nemetacum, the modern Arras, the capital of the department of the

Pas de Calais.

17. According to Ansart their chief town was Bavai, in the department

du Nord. They are called "Liberi," or free, because they were left at

liberty to enjoy their own laws and institutions.

18. Their capital was Augusta Veromanduorum, and it has been

suggested that the place called Vermand, in the department de

l'Aisne, denotes its site; but according to Bellay and D'Anville the

city of St.

Quentin, which was formerly called Aouste, marks the spot.

19. Nothing whatever is known of them, and it is suggested by the

commentators that this is a corrupted form of the name of the

Suessiones, which follows.

20. They gave name to Soissons in the southern part of the department

de l'Aisne.

21. It has been suggested that these are the same as the Silvanectes,

the inhabitants of Senlis in the department de l'Oise.

22. The people of Tongres, in the provinces of Namur, Lige, and

Limbourg.

23. They are supposed to have dwelt in the eastern part of the province

of Limbourg.

24. They probably dwelt between the Sunuci and the Betasi.

25. They are supposed to have dwelt in the western part of the province

of Limbourg, on the confines of that province and South Brabant, in the

vicinity probably of the place which still bears the name of Beetz, upon

the river Gette, between Leau and Haclen, seven miles to the east of

Louvain.

26. According to Ptolemy the Leuci dwelt on the sites of Toul in the

department of the Meurthe, and of Nais or Nays in that of the Meuse.

27. From them Trves or Trier, in the Grand Duchy of the Lower

Rhine, takes its name.

28. Their chief town was on the site of Langres, in the department of the Haute Marne.

29. gave name to the city of Rheims in the department of the Marne.

30. Their chief town stood on the site of the modern Metz, in the department of the Moselle.

31. Besanon stands on the site of their chief town, in the department of the Doubs, extending as far as Bale.

32. The inhabitants of the district called the Haut Rhin or Higher Rhine.

33. The inhabitants of the west of Switzerland.

34. Or the "Equestrian Colony," probably founded by the Roman Equites. It is not known where this colony was situate, but it is suggested by Cluver and Monetus that it may have been on the lake of Geneva, in the vicinity of the modern town of Nyon.

35. Littr, in a note, remarks that Rauriaca is a barbarism, and that the reading properly is "Raurica."

36. Spire was their chief city, in the province of the Rhine.

37. They are supposed to have occupied Strasbourg, and the greater part of the department of the Lower Rhine.

38. They dwelt in the modern Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt; Worms was their chief city.

39. That is, nearer the mouths of the Rhine.

40. They originally dwelt on the right bank of the Rhine, but were transported across the river by Agrippa in B.C. 37, at their own request, from a wish to escape the attacks of the Suevi.

41. Now known as the city of Cologne. It took its name from Agrippina, the wife of Claudius and the mother of Nero, who was born there, and who, as Tacitus says, to show off her power to the allied nations, planted a colony of veteran soldiers in her native city, and gave to it her own name.

42. Their district was in the modern circle of Clves, in the province of Juliers-Berg-Clves.

43. Dwelling in the Insula Batavorum, mentioned in C. 29 of the present Book.




32. Chap. 32. (18.)-Gallia Lugdunensis.


CHAP. 32. (18.)-GALLIA LUGDUNENSIS.

That part of Gaul which is known as Lugdunensis[1] con-







tains the Lexovii[2], the Vellocasses[3], the Galeti[4], the Veneti[5],

the Abrincatui[6], the Ossismi[7], and the celebrated river Ligeris[8], as also a most remarkable peninsula, which extends into

the ocean at the extremity[9] of the territory of the Ossismi,

the circumference of which is 625[10] miles, and its breadth at

the neck 125[11]. Beyond this are the Nannetes[12], and in the

interior are the dui[13], a federal people, the Carnuti[14], a federal

people, the Boii[15], the Senones[16], the Aulerci, both those surnamed Eburovices[17] and those called Cenomanni[18], the

Meldi[19], a free people, the Parisii[20], the Tricasses[21], the An-







decavi[22], the Viducasses[23], the Bodiocasses[24], the Venelli[25], the

Cariosvelites[26], the Diablinti[27], the Rhedones[28], the Turones[29],

the Atesui[30], and the Secusiani[31], a free people, in whose territory is the colony of Lugdunum[32].







1. He first speaks of the nations on the coast, and then of those more in the interior.

2. Dwelling in the west of the department of Calvados, and the east of the department of the Eure. From them Lisieux takes its name.

3. They occupied the department of the Lower Seine.

4. They are supposed to have dwelt in the vicinity of Lillebonne, in the department of the Lower Seine.

5. They gave name to the town of Vannes in the department of Morbihan.

6. From them the city of Avranches, in the department of La Manche, derives its name.

7. They occupied the modern department of Finisterre.

8. The Loire.

9. This spot is placed by D'Anville near the modern city of Saint Brieuc. He refers here to the peninsula of Brittany, which ends in Finisterre.

10. Ansart remarks that the circuit of the peninsula from Saint Brieuc to the mouth of the river Vilaine is only 450 miles, but that if taken from the city of Avranches to the mouth of the Loire, it is 650.

11. Ansart states that from Avranches to the mouth of the Loire, in a straight line, is twenty miles less than the distance here given by Pliny.

12. Inhabitants of the department of the Lower Loire or Loire Infrieure.

13. This extensive people inhabited the present departments of the Saone et Loire, Allier, Nievre, Rhone nord, and Loire nord. Autun and Chalonssur-Marne stand on the site of their ancient towns.

14. They inhabited the departments of the Eure et Loire, and portions of those of the Seine et Oise, of the Loire et Cher, and of the Loiret. Chartres occupies the site of their town.

15. They occupied a part of the department of the Allier. Moulins stands on the site of their chief town.

16. Sens, in the department of the Yonne, stands on the site of their chief town.

17. The chief town of the Aulerci Eburovices was on the site of the present Passy-sur-Eure, called by the inhabitants Old Evreux, in the department of the Eure.

18. They dwelt in the vicinity of the city of Le Mans, in the department of the Sarthe.

19. Meaux, in the department of the Seine et Marne, denotes the site of their principal town.

20. Paris, anciently Lutetia, denotes their locality.

21. The city of Troyes, in the department of the Aube, denotes their locality.

22. Their chief town stood on the site of Angers, in the department of the Maine et Loire.

23. D'Anville says that their chief town stood on the spot now known as Vieux, two leagues from Caen, in the department of Calvados.

24. The reading here is not improbably "Vadicasses." If so, they were a people situate at a great distance from the other tribes here mentioned by Pliny. They dwelt in the department De l'Oise, in the district formerly known as Valois, their chief town or city occupying the site of Vez, not far from Villers Cotterets.

25. D'Anville assigns to the Venelli, or Unelli, as some readings have it, the former district of Cotantin, now called the department of La Manche.

26. According to D'Anville, Corseuil, two leagues from Dinan, in the department of the Ctes du Nord, denotes the site of their chief town. Hardouin takes Quimper to mark the locality.

27. They are supposed by Ansart to have occupied that part of the department of La Mayenne where we find the village of Jublains, two leagues from the city of Mayenne.

28. D'Anville assigns to them the greater part of the department of the Ile et Vilaine, and is of opinion that the city of Rennes occupies the site of Condate, their chief town.

29. Tours, in the department of the Indre et Loire, marks the site of their chief town.

30. They are supposed to have occupied a portion of the department of the Loire.

31. They probably occupied a part of the department of the Loire, as also of that of the Rhone. Their town, Forum Secusianorum, stood on the site of the present Feurs, in the department of the Loire.

32. The city of Lyons occupies the site of ancient Lugdunum. It is suggested by Hardouin, that the name Lugdunum is a corruption of "Lucudunum," a compound of the Latin word lucus, "a grove," and the Celtic dun, "a hill" or "mountain."




33. Chap. 33. (19.)-Gallia Aquitanica.


CHAP. 33. (19.)-GALLIA AQUITANICA.

In Aquitanica are the Ambilatri[1], the Anagnutes[2], the







Pictones[3], the Santoni[4], a free people, the Bituriges[5], surnamed Vivisci, the Aquitani[6], from whom the province derives

its name, the Sediboviates[7], the Conven[8], who together

form one town, the Begerri[9], the Tarbelli Quatuorsignani[10],

the Cocosates Sexsignani[11], the Venami[12], the Onobrisates[13],







the Belendi[14], and then the Pyrenan range. Below these

are the Monesi[15], the Oscidates[16] a mountain race, the Sibyllates[17], the Camponi[18], the Bercorcates[19], the Pindedunni[20],

the Lassunni[21], the Vellates[22], the Tornates[23], the Consoranni[24],

the Ausci[25], the Elusates[26], the Sottiates[27], the Oscidates

Campestres[28], the Succasses[29], the Tarusates[30], the Basabocates[31], the Vassei[32], the Sennates, and the Cambolectri Agessinates[33]. Joining up to the Pictones are the Bituriges[34], a







free people, who are also known as the Cubi, and then the

Lemovices[35], the Arverni[36], a free people, and the Gabales[37].



Again, adjoining the province of Narbonensis are the Ruteni[38], the Cadurci[39], the Nitiobriges[40], and the Petrocori[41],

separated by the river Tarnis from the Tolosani. The seas

around the coast are the Northern Ocean, flowing up to

the mouth of the Rhine, the Britannic Ocean between the

Rhine and the Sequana, and, between it and the Pyrenees,

the Gallic Ocean. There are many islands belonging to the

Veneti, which bear the name of "Venetic,[42]" as also in the

Aquitanic Gulf, that of Uliarus[43].







1. They are mentioned by Csar (B. C. iii. 9), in conjunction with the Nannetes, Morini, and others, but nothing can be inferred as to the precise position they occupied.

2. Their locality also is unknown, but it is supposed that they dwelt in the vicinity of the department of La Vende.

3. From them ancient Poitou received its name. They are supposed to have occupied the department of the Haute-Vienne, and portions of the departments of La Vende, the Loire Infrieure, the Maine et Loire, the Deux-Svres, and La Vienne.

4. They gave name to the former Saintonge, now the department of Charente and Charente Infrieure. The town of Saintes occupies the site of their chief town.

5. They occupied the modern department of the Gironde. The city of Bordeaux occupies the site of their chief town.

6. They gave name to Aquitaine, which became corrupted into Guyenne. Pliny is the only author that makes the Aquitani a distinct people of the province of Aquitanica. The Tarusates are supposed to have afterwards occupied the site here referred to by him, with Atures for their chief town, afterwards called Aire, in the department of the Landes.

7. Their locality is unknown, but it has been suggested that they occupied the departments of the Basses Pyrnes, or Lower Pyrenees.

8. So called from the Latin verb convenire, "to assemble" or "meet together." They are said to have received this name from the circumstance that Ptolemy, after the close of the Sertorian war, finding a pastoral people of predatory habits inhabiting the range of the Pyrenees, ordered them to unite together and form a community in a town or city. From them the present town of Saint Bertrand de Comminges, in the S.W. of the department of the Haute Garonne, derives its Latin name "Lugdunum Convenarum."

9. By Csar called the Bigerriones. Their name was preserved in that of the district of Bigorre, now the department of the Hautes-Pyrnes. Their chief town was Turba, now Tarbes.

10. By calling the Tarbelli Quatuorsignani, he seems to imply that their chief town was a place garrisoned by four maniples of soldiers, each with a signum or standard. Aqu Tarbellic was their chief town, the modern Acqs or Dax, in the S.W. of the department of the Landes.

11. Their chief town was probably garrisoned by six signa or maniples. Cocosa, or Coequosa, as it is written in the Antonine Itinerary, is the first place on a road from Aque Tarbellicse or Dax to Burdegala or Bordeaux, now called Marensin. Their locality was in the southern part of the department of the Landes, the inhabitants of which are still divided into two classes, the Bouges, those of the north, or of the Tte de Buch; and the Cousiots, those of the south.

12. Their locality is unknown.

13. D'Anville would read "Onobusates," and thinks that they dwelt in the district called Nbousan, in the department of the Hautes Pyrnes. He is also of opinion that their town stood on the site of the modern Cioutat, between the rivers Adour and Neste.

14. They occupied the southern part of the department of the Gironde.

15. From them Hardouin suggests that Moneins, in the department of the Basses Pyrnes, takes its name.

16. D'Anville is of opinion that they inhabited and gave name to the Valle d'Ossun, between the Pyrenees and the city of Olron in the department of the Basses Pyrnes.

17. D'Anville places them in the Valle de Soule, in the department of the Basses Pyrnes.

18. From them Campon, a place in the department of the Hautes Pyrnes, is supposed to have received its name.

19. Biscarosse, not far from Tte de Buch in the department of the Landes, is supposed to derive its name from this tribe.

20. Nothing whatever is known of them.

21. The more general reading is "Sassumini." Ansart suggests that the town of Sarrum, between Cognac and Prigueux, in the department of the Dordogne, may have received its name from them.

22. Ansart suggests that Rieumes, in the department of the Haute Garonne, occupies the site of Ryesium, their chief town, mentioned by Ptolemy.

23. They are supposed to have given name to Tournay, in the department of the Hautes Pyrnes.

24. Supposed to be the same as the Consuarini, mentioned in B. iii. c. 5.

25. They probably gave name to Auch, in the department of Gers.

26. Their chief town occupied the site of Euse or Eause, in the department of Gers.

27. Their locality is marked by Soz, in the department of the Lot-et-Garonne.

28. Or "Oscidates of the Plains." They probably gave name to Ossun, two miles from Tarbes, in the department of the Hautes Pyrnes.

29. From them the village of Cestas, three leagues from Bordeaux, in the department of the Gironde, is supposed to derive its name.

30. The village of Tursan, in the department of the Landes, probably derived its name from this tribe.

31. Their town was Cossio, afterwards Vasates, now Bazas, in the department of the Gironde.

32. The site of the Vassei and the Sennates appears to be unknown.

33. D'Anville is of opinion that this tribe gave name to Aisenay or Azenay, a village four leagues distant from Bourbon-Vende, in the department of La Vende.

34. They occupied the district formerly known as Berry, but now the departments of the Indre, the Cher, and the west of the department of the Allier. Their chief town was Avaricum, now Bourges.

35. They inhabited the district formerly known as the Limosin, now the departments of the Creuse, the Haute Vienne, and the Correze. Their chief town was Augustoritum, afterwards Lemovices, now Limoges.

36. They occupied the district formerly known as Auvergne, forming the present department of the Allier, and the southern part of the Puy de Dme and the Cantal. Augustonemetum was their chief town, now Clermont.

37. Situate in the district formerly known as Gevaudan, now the department of La Lozre. Their chief town stood on the site of the present small town of Javoulx, four leagues from Mende.

38. They are supposed to have occupied the former district of Rouergue, now known as the department of Aveyron. Their chief town was Segodunum, afterwards Ruteni, now known as Rhodez.

39. They occupied the former district of Querci, the present department of Lot and Lot-et-Garonne. Divona, afterwards Cadurci, now Cahors, was their principal town.

40. According to Ptolemy their town was Aginnum, probably the modern Agen, in the present department of Lot-et-Garonne. "Antobroges," however, is the more common reading.

41. They occupied the district formerly known as Prigord, in the department of the Dordogne; their town was Vesanna, afterwards Petrocori, now Prigueux.

42. Ansart says they are about 200 in number, consisting of Belle Isle, Groaix, Houat, Hoedic, and others. Also probably Morbihan.

43. The Isle of Oleron, the fountain-head of the maritime laws of Europe.




34. Chap. 34. (20.)-Nearer Spain, Its Coast Along The Gallic Ocean.


CHAP. 34. (20.)-NEARER SPAIN, ITS COAST ALONG THE GALLIC OCEAN.

At the Promontory of the Pyrenees Spain begins, more

narrow, not only than Gaul, but even than itself[1] in its







other parts, as we have previously mentioned[2], seeing to what

an immense extent it is here hemmed in by the ocean on the

one side, and by the Iberian Sea on the other. A chain of

the Pyrenees, extending from due east to south-west[3], divides

Spain into two parts, the smaller one to the north, the

larger to the south. The first coast that presents itself is

that of the Nearer Spain, otherwise called Tarraconensis.

On leaving the Pyrenees and proceeding along the coast, we

meet with the forest ranges of the Vascones[4], Olarso[5], the

towns of the Varduli[6], the Morosgi[7], Menosca[8], Vesperies[9],

and the Port of Amanus[10], where now stands the colony of

Flaviobriga. We then come to the district of the nine

states of the Cantabri[11], the river Sauga[12], and the Port of

Victoria of the Juliobrigenses[13], from which place the sources

of the Iberus[14] are distant forty miles. We next come to

the Port of Blendium[15], the Orgenomesci[16], a people of the

Cantabri, Vereasueca[17] their port, the country of the As-







tures[18], the town of Noega[19], and on a peninsula[20], the Psici.

Next to these we have, belonging to the jurisdiction of

Lucus[21], after passing the river Navilubio[22], the Cibarci[23], the

Egovarri, surnamed Namarini, the Iadoni, the Arrotreb[24],

the Celtic Promontory, the rivers Florius[25] and Nelo, the

Celtici[26], surnamed Neri, and above them the Tamarici[27], in

whose peninsula[28] are the three altars called Sestian, and

dedicated[29] to Augustus; the Capori[30], the town of Noela[31],

the Celtici surnamed Prsamarci, and the Cilen[32]: of the

islands, those worthy of mention are Corticata[33] and Aunios.

After passing the Cileni, belonging to the jurisdiction of the

Bracari[34], we have the Heleni[35], the Gravii[36], and the fortress

of Tyde, all of them deriving their origin from the Greeks.







Also, the islands called Cic[37], the famous city of Abobrica[38], the river Minius[39], four miles wide at its mouth, the

Leuni, the Seurbi[40], and Augusta[41], a town of the Bracari,

above whom lies Gallcia. We then come to the river

Limia[42], and the river Durius[43], one of the largest in Spain,

and which rises in the district of the Pelendones[44], passes

near Numantia, and through the Arevaci and the Vacci,

dividing the Vettones from Asturia, the Gallci from Lusitania, and separating the Turduli from the Bracari. The

whole of the region here mentioned from the Pyrenees is

full of mines of gold, silver, iron, and lead, both black and

white[45].







1. He means to say that it gradually increases in breadth after leaving the narrow neck of the Pyrenees and approaching the confines of Lusitania.

2. B. iii. c. 3.

3. From Ruscino to Gades.

4. In the province now known as Guipuzcoa.

5. Supposed to be the present Cabo do la Higuera.

6. Probably inhabiting the eastern part of the provinces of Biscay and Alava, the eastern portion of Navarre, and, perhaps, a part of the province of Guipuzcoa.

7. According to Hardouin the modern San Sebastian occupies the site of their town.

8. On the same site as the modern Bermeo, according to Mannert. Hardouin thinks, however, and with greater probability, that it was situate at the mouth of the river Orio.

9. D'Anville considers this to be the site of the city of Bermeo.

10. Poinsinet thinks that this is Flavio in Bilbao, D'Anville calls it Portugalette, and Mannert thinks that it is the same as Santander, with which opinion Ansart agrees.

11. According to Ptolemy, the Cantabri possessed the western part of the province of La Montana, and the northern parts of the provinces of Palencia and Toro.

12. Most probably the present Rio de Suancs, by Mannert called the Saya, into which the Besanga flows. Hardouin however calls it the Nervio.

13. Ansart suggests that this is the modern San Vicente de la Barquera. If the river Sauga is the same with the Suancs, this cannot be the port of Santander, as has been suggested.

14. Or Ebro.

15. According to Ansart, this is either the modern Ensenada de Ballota or else the Puerta de P

16. According to Ansart, the Orgenomesci occupied the same territory which Ptolemy has assigned to the Cantabri in general. See Note 10 above.

17. Hardouin takes this to be Villaviciosa. Ansart thinks that Ria de Cella occupies its site.

18. They are supposed to have occupied the greater part of the principality of the Asturias and the province of Leon.

19. Hardouin and Mannert consider this to be identical with Navia or Nava, six miles to the east of Oviedo, an obscure place in the interior. Ansart however would identify it with Villaviciosa.

20. No doubt the headland now known as the Cabo de Penas.

21. Now Lugo in Gallicia.

22. Supposed by Ansart to be the Rio Caneiro, into which the Rio Labio discharges itself.

23. Supposed by Ansart to have dwelt in the vicinity of the Celtic promontory, now Cabo de Finisterra or Cape Finisterre. Of the Egovarri and Iadoni nothing whatever is known.

24. Their towns are mentioned by Ptolemy as being situate on a bay near Nerium or the promontory of Cape Finisterre.

25. Mannert thinks that the Nelo is the same as the Rio Allones; the Florius seems not to have been identified.

26. The inhabitants of Cape Finisterre.

27. Dwelling on the banks of the river which from them takes its modern name of Tambre.

28. Mannert and Ansart are of opinion that this peninsula was probably the modern Cabo Taurinan or Cabo Villano, most probably the latter.

29. On the occasion probably of his expedition against the Cantabri.

30. Their towns, Iria Flavia and Lacus Augusti, lay in the interior, on the sites of the present Santiago de Compostella and Lugo.

31. Probably the modern Noya.

32. They are supposed to have occupied the district in which the warm springs are found, which are known as Caldas de Contis and Caldas deRey.

33. It is suggested by Ansart that the islands here meant are those called Carreira, at the mouth of the river Ulla, and the Islas de Ons, at the mouth of the Tenario.

34. See B. iii. c. 4.

35. Inhabiting the vicinity of the modern Pontevedra.

36. According to Ptolemy also their town was Tudse, the modern Tuy.

37. The modern Islas de Scyas or of Bayona.

38. The town of Bayona, about six leagues from the mouth of the river Minho.

39. The Minho.

40. They occupied the tract of country lying between the rivers, and known as Entre Douro y Minho.

41. Now Braga on the Cavado.

42. The Lima.

43. The river Douro.

44. See B. iii. c. 3.

45. Both lead, properly so called, and tin.




35. Chap. 35. (21.)-Lusitania.


CHAP. 35. (21.)-LUSITANIA.

After passing the Durius, Lusitania[1] begins. We here have

the ancient Turdul[2], the Psuri, the river Vaga[3], the town

of Talabrica, the town and river[4] of minium, the towns of

Conimbrica[5], Collippo[6], and Eburobritium[7]. A promontory[8]

then advances into the sea in shape of a large horn; by some

it has been called Artabrum[9], by others the Great Promon-







tory, while many call it the Promontory of Olisipo, from

the city[10] near it. This spot forms a dividing line in the

land, the sea, and the heavens. Here ends one side[11] of

Spain; and, when we have doubled the promontory, the

front of Spain begins. (22.) On one side of it lie the North

and the Gallic Ocean, on the other the West and the Atlantic.

The length of this promontory has been estimated by some

persons at sixty miles, by others at ninety. A considerable

number of writers estimate the distance from this spot to

the Pyrenees at 1250 miles; and, committing a manifest

error, place here the nation of the Artabri, a nation

that never[12] was here. For, making a slight change in the

name, they have placed at this spot the Arrotreb, whom

we have previously spoken of as dwelling in front of the

Celtic Promontory.



Mistakes have also been made as to the more celebrated

rivers. From the Minius, which we have previously mentioned, according to Varro, the river minius[13] is distant

200 miles, which others[14] suppose to be situate elsewhere,

and called Lima. By the ancients it was called the "River

of Oblivion," and it has been made the subject of many

fabulous stories. At a distance of 200 miles from the

Durius is the Tagus, the Munda[15] lying between them.

The Tagus is famous for its golden sands[16]. At a distance







of 160 miles from it is the Sacred Promontory[17], projecting

from nearly the very middle of the front[18] of Spain. From

this spot to the middle of the Pyrenees, Varro says, is a

distance of 1400 miles; while to the Anas, by which we

have mentioned[19] Lusitania as being separated from Btica,

is 126 miles, it being 102 more to Gades.



The peoples are the Celtici, the Turduli, and, about the

Tagus, the Vettones[20]. From the river Anas to the Sacred

Promontory[21] are the Lusitani. The cities worthy of mention on the coast, beginning from the Tagus, are that of

Olisipo[22], famous for its mares, which conceive[23] from the

west wind; Salacia[24], which is surnamed the Imperial

City; Merobrica[25]; and then the Sacred Promontory, with

the other known by the name of Cuneus[26], and the towns of

Ossonoba[27], Balsa[28], and Myrtili[29].



The whole of this province is divided into three jurisdictions, those of Emerita, Pax, and Scalabis. It contains in

all forty-six peoples, among whom there are five colonies,







one municipal town of Roman citizens, three with the

ancient Latin rights, and thirty-six that are tributaries.

The colonies are those of Augusta Emerita[30], situate on the

river Anas, Metallinum[31], Pax[32], and Norba[33], surnamed Csariana. To this last place of jurisdiction the people of

Castra Servilia[34] and Castra Ccilia[35] resort. The fifth jurisdiction is that of Scalabis[36], which also has the name of

Prsidium Julium[37]. Olisipo, surnamed Felicitas Julia[38], is a

municipal city, whose inhabitants enjoy the rights of Roman

citizens. The towns in the enjoyment of the ancient Latin

rights are Ebora[39], which also has the name of Liberalitas Julia[40], and Myrtili and Salacia, which we have previously mentioned. Those among the tributaries whom it

may not be amiss to mention, in addition to those already[41]

alluded to among the names of those in Btica, are the

Augustobrigenses[42], the Ammienses[43], the Aranditani, the

Arabricenses, the Balsenses, the Cesarobricenses, the Caperenses[44], the Caurenses[45], the Colarni, the Cibilitani, the

Concordienses[46], the Elbocorii, the Interannienses, the Lan-







cienses[47], the Mirobrigenses, surnamed[48] Celtici, the Medubrigenses[49], surnamed Plumbarii, the Ocelenses[50] or Lancienses, the Turduli, also called Barduli, and the Tapori.

Agrippa states, that Lusitania, with Asturia and Gallcia,

is 540 miles in length, and 536 in breadth. The provinces of Spain, measured from the two extreme[51] promontories

of the Pyrenees, along the sea-line of the entire coast, are

thought to be 3922 miles in circumference; while some

writers make them to be but 2600.







1. In a great degree corresponding with modern Portugal, except that the latter includes the tract of country between the Minho and Douro.

2. To distinguish them from the nation of the same name sprung from them, and occupying the Farther Spain. (B. iii. c. 3.) The Psuri occupied the site of the present towns of Lamego and Arouca.

3. The modern Vouga, which runs below the town of Aveiro, raised from the ruins of ancient Talabrica.

4. Agueda, which, according to Hardouin, is the name of both the river and the town.

5. Coimbra, formerly Condeja la Veja.

6. Leiria is supposed to occupy its site.

7. According to Hardouin, the modern Ebora de Alcobaza, ten leagues from Leiria.

8. The modern Cabo de la Roca, seven leagues from Lisbon.

9. Pliny, in C. 34, places the Arrotreb, belonging to the Conventus of Lucus Augusti, about the Promontorium Celticum, which, if not the same as the Nerium (or Cape Finisterre) of the others, is evidently in its immediate neighbourhood; but he confuses the whole matter by a very curious error. He mentions a promontory called Artabrum as the headland at the N. W. extremity of Spain; the coast on the one side of it looking to the north and the Gallic Ocean, on the other to the west and the Atlantic Ocean. But he considers this promontory to be the west headland of the estuary of the Tagus, and adds, that some called it Magnum Promontorium, or the "Great Promontory," and others Olisiponense, from the city of Olisipo, or Lisbon. He assigns, in fact, all the west coast of Spain, down to the mouth of the Tagus, to the north coast, and, instead of being led to detect his error by the resemblance of name between his Artabrum Promontorium and his Arrotreb (the Artabri of his predecessors, Strabo and Mela), he perversely finds fault with those who had placed above the promontory Artabrum, a people of the same name who never were there.

10. On the site of which the present city of Lisbon stands.

11. See note 18 in the preceding page.

12. See note18.

13. See note13 in the preceding page.

14. Among these is Pomponius Mela, who confounds the river Limia, mentioned in the last chapter, with the minius, or Agueda.

15. Now the river Mondego.

16. See B. xxxiii. c. 21.

17. Now Cape St. Vincent.

18. Pliny continues his error here, in taking part of the western side of Spain for the north, and part of the southern coast for the western.

19. B. iii. c. 2.

20. With the Vettones, situate in the province of the Alentejo. See B. iii. c. 3.

21. In the present province of Algarve.

22. Now Lisbon. Both Strabo, Solinus, and Martianus Capella make mention of a story that Ulysses came to Spain and founded this city.

23. See B. viii. c. 67 of the present work.

24. According to Hardouin, followed by D'Anville and Uckert, this place gives name to Alcazar do Sal, nearly midway between Evora and the sea-shore. Mannert says Setuval, which D'Anville however supposes to be the ancient Cetobriga.

25. On its site stands Santiago de Cacem, nearly midway between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent.

26. Or the "Wedge," generally supposed to be Cabo de Santa Maria. Ansart however thinks that it is the Punta de Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent. Pliny's words indeed seem to imply a closer proximity than that of Capes St. Vincent and Santa Maria.

27. According to Hardouin, the modern Estombar; according to D'Anville, in the vicinity of Faro; but ten leagues from that place, according to Mannert.

28. Hardouin and D'Anville are of opinion that Tavira occupies its site.

29. Now Mertola, on the river Guadiana.

30. Now Merida, on the Guadiana. A colony of veterans (Emeriti) was planted there by Augustus.

31. Now Medellin, in the province of Estremadura.

32. Pax Julia, or Pax Augusta, in the country of the Turduli, or Turdetani; now Beja, in the province of the Alentejo

33. Now Alcantara, in the province of Estremadura.

34. Now Truxillo, so called from Turis Julia.

35. Now Caceres.

36. Now called Santarem, from Saint Irene, the Virgin.

37. "The Garrison of Julius."

38. "The Success of Julius."

39. Evora, between the Guadiana and the Tagus.

40. "The Liberality of Julius."

41. B. iii. c. 3.

42. Hardouin takes Augustobriga to have stood on the site of Villar del Pedroso on the Tagus. Other writers think that it is represented by the present Ponte del Arcobispo.

43. From Ammia, now Portalegre, on the frontier of Portugal. The sites of Arabrica and Balsa do not appear to have been ascertained.

44. Capera stood on the site now called Las Ventas de Capara, between Alcantara and Coria. The site of Csarobrica has not been ascertained.

45. Coria, in Estremadura, probably occupies the site of Caura.

46. Hardouin suggests that the modern Tomar occupies the site of Concordia.

47. Mannert is of opinion that the city of Lancia was situate in the north of Lusitania, on the river Durius, or Douro, near the modern Zamora.

48. To distinguish them from the Mirobrigenses, surnamed Turduli, mentioned in B. iii. c. 3. Some writers think that this Mirobriga is the present Ciudad Rodrigo; but Ambrose Morales takes it to be the place called Malabriga, in the vicinity of that city.

49. The name of Medubriga was afterwards Aramenha, of which Hardouin says the ruins only were to be seen. They were probably called Plumbarii, from lead mines in their vicinity.

50. According to Hardouin, Ocelum was in the vicinity of the modern Capara.

51. From Cape de Creuz to the Promontory between the cities of Fontarabia and Saint Sebastian.




36. Chap. 36.-The Islands In The Atlantic Ocean.


CHAP. 36.-THE ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.

Opposite to Celtiberia are a number of islands, by the

Greeks called Cassiterides[1], in consequence of their abounding

in tin: and, facing the Promontory[2] of the Arrotreb, are

the six Islands of the Gods, which some persons have

called the Fortunate Islands[3]. At the very commencement







of Btica, and twenty-five miles from the mouth of the

Straits of Gades, is the island of Gadis, twelve miles long

and three broad, as Polybius states in his writings. At its

nearest part, it is less than 700 feet[4] distant from the mainland, while in the remaining portion it is distant more than

seven miles. Its circuit is fifteen miles, and it has on it a

city which enjoys the rights of Roman citizens[5], and whose

people are called the Augustani of the city of Julia

Gaditana. On the side which looks towards Spain, at about

100 paces distance, is another long island, three miles wide,

on which the original city of Gades stood. By Ephorus and

Philistides it is called Erythia, by Timus and Silenus Aphrodisias[6], and by the natives the Isle of Juno. Timus says,

that the larger island used to be called Cotinusa[7], from its







olives; the Romans call it Tartessos[8]; the Carthaginians

Gadir[9], that word in the Punic language signifying a hedge.

It was called Erythia because the Tyrians, the original an-

cestors of the Carthaginians, were said to have come from

the Erythrn, or Red Sea. In this island Geryon is by

some thought to have dwelt, whose herds were carried off

by Hercules. Other persons again think, that his island

is another one, opposite to Lusitania, and that it was there

formerly called by that name[10].







1. From the Greek kassi/teros, "tin." It is generally supposed that the "Tin Islands" were the Scilly Isles, in the vicinity of Cornwall. At the same time the Greek and Roman geographers, borrowing their knowledge from the accounts probably of the Phoenician merchants, seem to have had a very indistinct notion of their precise locality, and to have thought them to be nearer to Spain than to Britain. Thus we find Strabo, in B. iii., saying, that "the Cassiterides are ten in number, lying near each other in the ocean, towards the north from the haven of the Artabri." From a comparison of the accounts, it would almost appear that the ancient geographers confused the Scilly Islands with the Azores, as those, who enter into any detail, attribute to the Cassiterides the characteristics almost as much of the Azores and the sea in their vicinity, as of the Scilly Islands.

2. Cape Finisterre.

3. Or the "Islands of the Blest." We cannot do better than quote a portion of the article on this subject in Dr. Smith's "Dictionary of Ancient Geography." "' Fortunat Insul' is one of those geographical names whose origin is lost in mythic darkness, but which afterwards came to have a specific application, so closely resembling the old mythical notion, as to make it almost impossible to doubt that that notion was based, in part at least, on some vague knowledge of the regions afterwards discovered. The earliest Greek poetry places the abode of the happy departed spirits far beyond the entrance of the Mediterranean, at the extremity of the earth, and upon the shores of the river Oceanus, or in islands in its midst; and Horner's poetical description of the place may be applied almost word for word to those islands in the Atlantic, off the west coast of Africa, to which the name was given in the historical period. (Od. iv. 1. 563, seq.) 'There the life of mortals is most easy; there is no snow, nor winter, nor much rain, but Ocean is ever sending up the shrill breathing breezes of Zephyrus to refresh men.' Their delicious climate, and their supposed identity of situation, marked out the Canary Islands, the Madeira group, and the Azores, as worthy to represent the Islands of the Blest. In the more specific sense, however, the name was applied to the two former groups; while, in its widest application, it may have even included the Cape de Verde Islands, its extension being in fact adapted to that of maritime discovery." Pliny gives a further description of them in B. vi. c. 37.

4. The strait between the island and the mainland is now called the River of Saint Peter. The circuit of the island, as stated by Pliny, varies in the MSS. from fifteen to twenty-five miles, and this last is probably correct.

5. Julius Csar, on his visit to the city of Gades, during the Civil War in Spain, B.C. 49, conferred the citizenship of Rome on all the citizens of Gades. Under Augustus it became a municipium, with the title of 'Augusta urbs Julia Gaditana.' The modern city of Cadiz is built upon its site.

6. Or the Island of Venus.

7. From the Greek word ko/tinos, "an olive-tree."

8. If Gades was not the same as Tartessus (probably the Tarshish of Scripture), its exact locality is a question in dispute. Most ancient writers place it at the mouth of the river Btis, while others identify it, and perhaps with more probability, with the city of Carteia, on Mount Calpe, the Rock of Gibraltar. The whole country west of Gibraltar was called Tartessis. See B. iii. c. 3.

9. Or more properly 'Agadir,' or 'Hagadir.' It probably received this name, meaning a 'hedge,' or 'bulwark,' from the fact of its being the chief Phnician colony outside of the Pillars of Hercules.

10. Of Erythr, or Erytheia. The monster Geryon, or Geryones, fabled to have had three bodies, lived in the fabulous Island of Erytheia, or the "Red Isle," so called because it lay under the rays of the setting sun in the west. It was originally said to be situate off the coast of Epirus, but was afterwards identified either with Gades or the Balearic islands, and was at all times believed to be in the distant west. Geryon was said to have been the son of Chrysaor, the wealthy king of Iberia.




37. Chap. 37. (23.)-The General Measurement Of Europe.


CHAP. 37. (23.)-THE GENERAL MEASUREMENT OF EUROPE.

Having thus made the circuit of Europe, we must now

give the complete measurement of it, in order that those

who wish to be acquainted with this subject may not feel

themselves at a loss. Artemidorus and Isidorus have given

its length, from the Tanais to Gades, as 8214 miles. Polybius in his writings has stated the breadth of Europe, in a

line from Italy to the ocean, to be 1150 miles. But, even

in his day, its magnitude was but little known. The distance

of Italy, as we have previously[1] stated, as far as the Alps, is

1120 miles, from which, through Lugdunum to the British

port of the Morini[2], the direction which Polybius seems to







follow, is 1168 miles. But the better ascertained, though

greater length, is that taken from the Alps through the

Camp of the Legions[3] in Germany, in a north-westerly

direction, to the mouth of the Rhine, being 1543 miles.

We shall now have to speak of Africa and Asia.



Summary.-Towns and nations mentioned * * * *. Noted

rivers * * * *. Famous mountains * * * *. Islands * * * *.

People or towns no longer in existence * * * *. Remarkable

events, narratives, and observations * * * *.



Roman Authors Quoted.-Cato the Censor[4], M. Varro[5],

M. Agrippa[6], the late Emperor Augustus[7], Varro Atacinus[8],

Cornelius Nepos[9], Hyginus[10], L. Vetus[11], Mela Pomponius[12],

Licinius Mucianus[13], Fabricius Tuscus[14], Ateius Capito[15],

Ateius the Philologist[16].



Foreign Authors Quoted.-Polybius[17], Hecatus[18],







Hellanicus[19], Damastes[20], Eudoxus[21], Dicarchus[22], Timosthenes[23], Eratosthenes[24], Ephorus[25], Crates the Grammarian[26],

Serapion[27] of Antioch, Callimachus[28], Artemidorus[29], Apollodorus[30], Agathocles[31], Eumachus[32], Timus the Sici-







lian[33], Myrsilus[34], Alexander Polyhistor[35], Thucydides[36],

Dosiades[37], Anaximander[38], Philistides Mallotes[39], Dionysius[40], Aristides[41], Callidemus[42] Menchmus[43], Agla-







osthenes[44], Anticlides[45], Heraclides[46], Philemon[47], Xenophon[48],

Pytheas[49], Isidorus[50], Philonides[51], Xenagoras[52], Astynomus[53],

Staphylus[54], Aristocritus[55], Metrodorus[56], Cleobulus[57], Posidonius[58].









1. Alluding to B. iii. c. 6. From Rhegium to the Alps. But there the reading is 1020.

2. Meaning Gessoriacum, the present Boulogne. He probably calls it Britannicum, from the circumstance that the Romans usually embarked there for the purpose of crossing over to Britain.

3. The present Santen in the Duchy of Cleves.

4. See end of B. iii.

5. See end of B. ii.

6. See end of B. iii.

7. See end of B. iii.

8. See end of B. iii.

9. See end of B. ii.

10. See end of B. iii.

11. See end of B. iii.

12. See end of B. iii.

13. See end of B. ii.

14. See end of B. iii.

15. See end of B. iii.

16. Ateius, surnamed Prtextatus, and also Philologus, which last name he assumed to indicate his learning, was born at Athens, and was one of the most celebrated grammarians of Rome, in the latter part of the first century B.C. He was originally a freedman of the jurist Ateius Capito, by whom he was described as "a rhetorician among grammarians, and a grammarian among rhetoricians." He was on terms of intimacy with Sallust the historian, and Asinius Pollio. It is supposed that he assisted Sallust in the compilation of his history; but to what extent is not known. But few of his numerous commentaries were extant even in the time of Suetonius.

17. A native of Megalopolis in Arcadia, born about B.C. 204. He was trained probably in political knowledge and the military art under Philopmen, and was sent as a prisoner to Rome, with others, to answer the charge of not aiding the Romans in their war against Perseus. Here, by great good fortune, he secured the friendship of Scipio Africanus, with whom he was present at the destruction of Carthage. His history is one of the most valuable works that has come down to us from antiquity.

18. Of Miletus, one of the earliest and most distinguished Greek historians and geographers. He lived about the 65th Olympiad, or B.C. 520. A few fragments, quoted, are all that are left of his historical and geographical works. There is little doubt that Herodotus extensively availed himself of this writer's works, though it is equally untrue that he has transcribed whole passages from him, as Porphyrius has ventured to assert.

19. Of Mitylene, supposed to have flourished about B.C. 450. He appears to have written numerous geographical and historical works, which, with the exception of a considerable number of fragments, are lost.

20. Of Sigum, a Greek historian, contemporary with Herodotus. He wrote a history of Greece, and several other works, all of which, with a few unimportant exceptions, are lost.

21. See end of B. ii.

22. See end of B. ii.

23. A Rhodian by birth. He was admiral of the fleet of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who reigned from B.C. 285 to 247. He wrote a work "On Harbours," in ten books, which was copied by Eratosthenes, and is frequently quoted by ancient writers. Strabo also says that he composed poetry.

24. See end of B. ii.

25. Of Cum, or Cym, in Ionia. He flourished about B.C. 408. He studied under Isocrates, and gained considerable fame as a historian. Though anxious to disclose the truth, he has been accused of sometimes forcing his authorities to suit his own views. Of his history of Greece, and his essays on various subjects, a few fragments only survive.

26. A grammarian of Mallus, in Cilicia. He lived in the time of Ptolemy Philopater, and resided at Pergamus, under the patronage of Eumenes II. and Attalus II. In his grammatical system he made a strong distinction between criticism and grammar, the latter of which sciences he regarded as quite subordinate to the former. Of his learned commentaries on the Iliad and the Odyssey, only a few fragments have come down to us.

27. See end of B. ii.

28. Of Cyrene, an Alexandrian grammarian and poet. He flourished at Alexandria, whither Ptolemy Philadelphus had invited him to a place in the Museum. Of his Hymns and Epigrams many are still extant. His Elegies, which were of considerable poetical merit, with the exception of a few fragments, have all perished. Of his numerous other works in prose, not one is extant in an entire state.

29. See end of B. ii.

30. Probably Apollodorus of Artemita, in Mesopotamia. It is probably to him that a Treatise on Islands and Cities has been ascribed by Tzetzes, as also a History of the Parthians, and a History of Pontus.

31. Probably the author of that name, who wrote the history of Cyzicus, is the person here referred to. He is called by Athenus both a Babylonian and a Cyzican. His work is entirely lost; but it appears to have been extensively read, and is referred to by Cicero and other ancient writers.

32. Of Neapolis. He wrote a History of Hannibal, and to him has been ascribed a Description of the Universe, of which a fragment still survives.

33. Of Tauromenium, in Sicily; a celebrated historian, who flourished about the year B.C. 300. He was banished from Sicily by Agathocles, and passed his exile at Athens. He composed a History of Sicily, from the earliest times to the year B.C. 264. The value of his history has been gravely attacked by Polybius; but there is little doubt that it possessed very considerable merit. Of this, and other works of Timus, only a few fragments survive.

34. A Greek historian; a native of Lesbos. When he lived is unknown. Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, has borrowed from him a portion of his account of the Pelasgians. He is said to have been the author of the notion that the Tyrrhenians, in consequence of their wanderings after they left their original settlement, got the name of pelargoi\, or "storks." He is supposed to have written a History of Lesbos, as also a work called "Historical Paradoxes."

35. See end of B. iii.

36. See end of B. iii.

37. Of this author nothing whatever seems to be known.

38. Of Miletus, born B.C. 610. One of the earliest philosophers of the Ionian school, and said to be a pupil of Thales. Unless Pherecydes of Scyros be an exception, he was the first author of a philosophical treatise in Greek prose. Other writings are ascribed to him by Suidas; but, no doubt, on insufficient grounds. Of his treatise, which seems to have contained summary statements of his opinions, no remains exist.

39. Of this writer nothing whatever is known, beyond the fact that, from his name, he seems to have been a native of Mallus, in Cilicia.

40. It seems impossible to say which, out of the vast number of the authors who bore this name, is the one here referred to. It is not improbable that Dionysius of Chalcis, a Greek historian who lived before the Christian era, is meant. He wrote a work on the Foundation of Towns, in five books, which is frequently referred to by the ancients. It is not probable that the author of the Periegesis, or "Description of the World," is referred to, as that book bears internal marks of having been compiled in the third or fourth century of the Christian era.

41. Of Miletus. He was the author of the "Milesiaca," a romance of licentious character, which was translated into Latin by L. Cornelius Sisenna. He is looked upon as the inventor of the Greek romance, and the title of his work is supposed to have given rise to the term Milesian, as applied to works of fiction.

42. A Greek author, of whom nothing is known, except that Pliny, and after him Solinus, refer to him as the authority for the statement that Euba was originally called Chalcis, from the fact of (xalko\s) copper being first discovered there.

43. Probably Menchmus of Sicyon, who wrote a book on Actors, a History of Alexander the Great, and a book on Sicyon. Suidas says that he flourished in the time of the successors of Alexander.

44. When he flourished is unknown. He is said by Hyginus to have written a History of the Island of Naxos.

45. He lived after the time of Alexander the Great; but his age is unknown. He wrote a book, peri\ no/stwn, on the returns of the Greeks from their various expeditions, an account of Delos, a History of Alexander the Great, and other works, all of which have perished.

46. Of Heracla, in Pontus. He was a pupil of Plato, and, after him, of Aristotle. His works upon philosophy, history, mathematics, and other subjects, were very numerous; but, unfortunately, they are nearly all of them lost. He wrote a Treatise upon Islands, and another upon the Origin of Cities.

47. A geographical writer, of whom nothing further is known.

48. The Greek historian, the disciple of Socrates, deservedly styled the "Attic Bee." His principal works are the Anabasis, or the History of the Expedition of the younger Cyrus and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand; the Hellenica, or History of Greece, from the time when that of Thucydides ends to the battle of Mantinea, B.C. 362; and the Cyropdia, or Education of Cyrus. The greater portion of his works is now lost.

49. See end of B. ii.

50. See end of B. ii.

51. There were two physicians of this name, one of Catana, in Sicily, the other of Dyrrhachium, in Illyricum, who, like his namesake, was the author of numerous works. It is doubtful, however, whether Pliny here refers to either of those authors.

52. A Greek historian, quoted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. If the same person as the father of the historian Nymphis, he must have lived in the early part of the second century B.C. He wrote a work on Islands, and another entitled Xrf/noi, or Chronicles.

53. A Greek geographer, who seems to have written an account of Cyprus.

54. He is quoted by Strabo, Athenus, and the Scholiasts; but all that is known of him is, that he wrote a work on Thessaly, olia, Attica, and Arcadia.

55. He wrote a work relative to Miletus; but nothing further is known of him.

56. See end of B. iii.

57. Probably a writer on geography, of whom no particulars are known.

58. See end of B. ii.




0. > Book V. An Account Of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, Mountains, Rivers, Distances, And Peoples Who Now Exist Or Formerly Existed.


BOOK V.

AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.










1. Chap. 1.-The Two Mauritanias.


CHAP. 1.-THE TWO MAURITANIAS.

The Greeks have given the name of Libya[1] to Africa, and

have called the sea that lies in front of it the Libyan Sea.

It has Egypt for its boundary, and no part of the earth is

there that has fewer gulfs or inlets, its shores extending in a

lengthened line from the west in an oblique direction. The

names of its peoples, and its cities in especial, cannot possibly be pronounced with correctness, except by the aid of

their own native tongues. Its population, too, for the most

part dwells only in fortresses[2].



(1.) On our entrance into Africa, we find the two Mauritanias, which, until the time of Caius Csar[3], the son

of Germanicus, were kingdoms; but, suffering under his

cruelty, they were divided into two provinces. The extreme

promontory of Africa, which projects into the ocean, is called

Ampelusia[4] by the Greeks. There were formerly two towns,

Lissa and Cotte[5], beyond the Pillars of Hercules; but, at

the present day, we only find that of Tingi[6], which was for-







merly founded by Antus, and afterwards received the name

of Traducta Julia[7], from Claudius Csar, when he established a colony there. It is thirty miles distant from

Belon[8], a town of Btica, where the passage across is the

shortest. At a distance of twenty-five miles from Tingi,

upon the shores of the ocean[9], we come to Julia Constantia Zilis[10], a colony of Augustus. This place is exempt

from all subjection to the kings of Mauritania, and is included in the legal jurisdiction of Btica. Thirty-two

miles distant from Julia Constantia is Lixos[11], which was

made a Roman colony by Claudius Csar, and which has

been the subject of such wondrous fables, related by the

writers of antiquity. At this place, according to the

story, was the palace of Antaeus; this was the scene of his

combat with Hercules, and here were the gardens of the

Hesperides[12]. An arm of the sea flows into the land here,







with a serpentine channel, and, from the nature of the

locality, this is interpreted at the present day as having been

what was really represented by the story of the dragon

keeping guard there. This tract of water surrounds an

island, the only spot which is never overflowed by the tides

of the sea, although not quite so elevated as the rest of the

land in its vicinity. Upon this island, also, there is still in

existence the altar of Hercules; but of the grove that bore

the golden fruit, there are no traces left, beyond some wild

olive-trees. People will certainly be the less surprised at

the marvellous falsehoods of the Greeks, which have been

related about this place and the river Lixos[13], when they reflect that some of our own[14] countrymen as well, and that

too very recently, have related stories in reference to them

hardly less monstrous; how that this city is remarkable for

its power and extensive influence, and how that it is even

greater than Great Carthage ever was; how, too, that it is

situate just opposite to Carthage, and at an almost immeasurable distance from Tingi, together with other details

of a similar nature, all of which Cornelius Nepos has believed

with the most insatiate credulity[15].



In the interior, at a distance of forty miles from Lixos, is

Babba[16], surnamed Julia Campestris, another colony of Augustus; and, at a distance of seventy-five, a third, called Banasa[17],







with the surname of Valentia. At a distance of thirty-five

miles from this last is the town of Volubilis, which is just

that distance also from both[18] seas. On the coast, at a

distance of fifty miles from Lixos, is the river Subur[19], which

flows past the colony of Banasa, a fine river, and available

for the purposes of navigation. At the same distance from

it is the city of Sala[20], situate on a river which bears the

same name, a place which stands upon the very verge of the

desert, and though infested by troops of elephants, is much

more exposed to the attacks of the nation of the Autololes,

through whose country lies the road to Mount Atlas, the

most fabulous[21] locality even in Africa.



It is from the midst of the sands, according to the story,

that this mountain[22] raises its head to the heavens; rugged

and craggy on the side which looks toward the shores of the

ocean to which it has given its name, while on that which

faces the interior of Africa it is shaded by dense groves

of trees, and refreshed by flowing streams; fruits of all

kinds springing up there spontaneously to such an extent,

as to more than satiate every possible desire. Throughout

the daytime, no inhabitant is to be seen; all is silent, like

that dreadful stillness which reigns in the desert. A religious

horror steals imperceptibly over the feelings of those who

approach, and they feel themselves smitten with awe at the

stupendous aspect of its summit, which reaches beyond the

clouds, and well nigh approaches the very orb of the moon.

At night, they say, it gleams with fires innumerable lighted







up; it is then the scene of the gambols of the gipans[23] and

the Satyr crew, while it re-echoes with the notes of the flute

and the pipe, and the clash of drums and cymbals. All this

is what authors of high character have stated, in addition to

the labours which Hercules and Perseus there experienced.

The space which intervenes before you arrive at this mountain is immense, and the country quite unknown.



There formerly existed some Commentaries written by

Hanno[24], a Carthaginian general, who was commanded, in

the most flourishing times of the Punic state, to explore

the sea-coast of Africa. The greater part of the Greek

and Roman writers have followed him, and have related,

among other fabulous stories, that many cities there were

founded by him, of which no remembrance, nor yet the

slightest vestige, now exists.



While Scipio milianus held the command in Sicily,

Polybius the historian received a fleet from him for the

purpose of proceeding on a voyage of discovery in this part

of the world. He relates, that beyond[25] Mount Atlas, pro-







ceeding in a westerly direction, there are forests filled with

wild beasts, peculiar to the soil of Africa, as far as the

river Anatis[26], a distance of 485 miles, Lixos being distant

from it 205 miles. Agrippa says, that Lixos is distant from

the Straits of Gades 112 miles. After it we come to a

gulf which is called the Gulf of Saguti[27], a town situate on

the Promontory of Mulelacha[28], the rivers Subur and Salat[29],

and the port of Rutubis[30], distant from Lixos 213 miles

We then come to the Promontory of the Sun[31], the port of

Risardir[32], the Gtulian Autololes, the river Cosenus[33], the

nations of the Selatiti and the Masati, the river Masathat[34],

and the river Darat[35], in which crocodiles are found. After

this we come to a large gulf, 616[36] miles in extent, which is

enclosed by a promontory of Mount Barce[37], which runs

out in a westerly direction, and is called Surrentium[38].

Next comes the river Salsus[39], beyond which lie the thiopian Perorsi, at the back of whom are the Pharusii[40], who







are bordered upon by the Gtulian Dar[41], lying in the

interior. Upon the coast again, we find the thiopian

Daratit, and the river Bambotus[42], teeming with crocodiles and hippopotami. From this river there is a continuous range[43] of mountains till we come to the one which

is known by the name of Theon Ochema[44], from which to the

Hesperian Promontory[45] is a voyage of ten days and nights;

and in the middle of this space he[46] has placed Mount Atlas,

which by all other writers has been stated to be in the extreme parts of Mauritania.



The Roman arms, for the first time, pursued their conquests into Mauritania, under the Emperor Claudius, when

the freedman demon took up arms to avenge the death of

King Ptolemy[47], who had been put to death by Caius Csar;







and it is a well-known fact, that on the flight of the barbarians our troops reached Mount Atlas. It became a boast,

not only among men of consular rank, and generals selected

from the senate, who at that time held the command, but

among persons of equestrian rank as well, who after that

period held the government there, that they had penetrated as

far as Mount Atlas. There are, as we have already stated, five

Roman colonies in this province; and it may very possibly appear, if we listen only to what report says, that this mountain

is easily accessible. Upon trial, however, it has been pretty

generally shown, that all such statements are utterly fallacious; and it is too true, that men in high station, when

they are disinclined to take the trouble of inquiring into

the truth, through a feeling of shame at their ignorance arc

not averse to be guilty of falsehood; and never is implicit

credence more readily given, than when a falsehood is supported by the authority of some personage of high consideration. For my own part, I am far less surprised that there are

still some facts remaining undiscovered by men of the equestrian order, and even those among them who have attained

senatorial rank, than that the love of luxury has left anything unascertained; the impulse of which must be great

indeed, and most powerfully felt, when the very forests are

ransacked for their ivory and citron-wood[48], and all the rocks

of Gtulia are searched for the murex and the purple.



From the natives, however, we learn, that on the coast, at

a distance of 150 miles from the Salat, the river Asana[49] presents itself; its waters are salt, but it is remarkable for its

fine harbour. They also say that after this we come to a

river known by the name of Fut[50], and then, after crossing

another called Vior which lies on the road, at a distance of

200 miles we arrive at Dyris[51], such being the name which in

their language they give to Mount Atlas. According to their







story there are still existing in its vicinity many vestiges which

tend to prove that the locality was once inhabited; such as

the remains of vineyards and plantations of palm-trees.



Suetonius Paulinus[52], whom we have seen Consul in our

own time, was the first Roman general who advanced a

distance of some miles beyond Mount Atlas. He has given

us the same information as we have received from other

sources with reference to the extraordinary height of this

mountain, and at the same time he has stated that all the

lower parts about the foot of it are covered with dense

and lofty forests composed of trees of species hitherto unknown. The height of these trees, he says, is remarkable;

the trunks are without knots, and of a smooth and glossy

surface; the foliage is like that of the cypress, and besides

sending forth a powerful odour, they are covered with a

flossy down, from which, by the aid of art, a fine cloth might

easily be manufactured, similar to the textures made from the

produce of the silk-worm. He informs us that the summit

of this mountain is covered with snow even in summer, and

says that having arrived there after a march of ten days, he

proceeded some distance beyond it as far as a river which

bears the name of Ger[53]; the road being through deserts

covered with a black sand[54], from which rocks that bore the

appearance of having been exposed to the action of fire, projected every here and there; localities rendered quite uninhabitable by the intensity of the heat, as he himself experienced,







although it was in the winter season that he visited them.

We also learn from the same source that the people who

inhabit the adjoining forests, which are full of all kinds of

elephants, wild beasts, and serpents, have the name of Canarii; from the circumstance that they partake of their food

in common with the canine race, and share with it the

entrails of wild beasts.



It is a well-known fact, that adjoining to these localities

is a nation of thiopians, which bears the name of Perorsi.

Juba, the father of Ptolemy, who was the first king[55] who

reigned over both the Mauritanias, and who has been rendered

even more famous by the brilliancy of his learning than by

his kingly rank, has given us similar information relative to

Mount Atlas, and states that a certain herb grows there,

which has received the name of 'euphorbia'[56] from that of his

physician, who was the first to discover it. Juba extols with

wondrous praises the milky juice of this plant as tending to

improve the sight, and acting as a specific against the bites

of serpents and all kinds of poison; and to this subject alone

he has devoted an entire book. Thus much, if indeed not

more than enough, about Mount Atlas.



(2.) The province of Tingitana is 170 miles in length[57].

Of the nations in this province the principal one was formerly that of the Mauri[58], who have given to it the name of

Mauritania, and have been by many writers called the

Maurusii[59]. This nation has been greatly weakened by the

disasters of war, and is now dwindled down to a few families only[60]. Next to the Mauri was formerly the nation of







the Masssyli[61]; they in a similar manner have become extinct. Their country is now occupied by the Gtulian nations[62], the Baniur[63], the Autololes[64], by far the most powerful people among them all, and the Vesuni, who formerly

were a part of the Autololes, but have now separated from

them, and, turning their steps towards the thiopians[65],

have formed a distinct nation of their own. This province,

in the mountainous district which lies on its eastern side

produces elephants, as also on the heights of Mount Abyla[66]

and among those elevations which, from the similarity of

their height, are called the Seven Brothers[67]. Joining the

range of Abyla these mountains overlook the Straits of Gades.

At the extremity of this chain begin the shores of the inland sea[68] and we come to the Tamuda[69], a navigable stream,

with the site of a former town of the same name, and then







the river Laud[70], which is also navigable for vessels, the town

and port of Rhysaddir[71], and Malvane[72], a navigable stream.



The city of Siga[73], formerly the residence of King Syphax, lies

opposite to that of Malaca[74] in Spain: it now belongs to the

second[75] Mauritania. But these countries, I should remark,

for a long time retained the names of their respective kings,

the further Mauritania being called the "land of Bogud[76],"

while that which is now called Csariensis was called the

"country of Bocchus." After passing Siga we come to the

haven called "Portus Magnus[77]" from its great extent, with a

town whose people enjoy the rights of Roman citizens, and

then the river Mulucha[78], which served as the limit between

the territory of Bocchus and that of the Masssyli. Next

to this is Quiza Xenitana[79], a town founded by strangers,

and Arsenaria[80], a place with the ancient Latin rights, three

miles distant from the sea. We then come to Cartenna[81], a







colony founded under Augustus by the second legion, and

Gunugum[82], another colony founded by the same emperor, a

prtorian cohort being established there; the Promontory

of Apollo[83], and a most celebrated city, now called

Csarea[84], but formerly known by the name of Iol; this

place was the residence of King Juba, and received the

rights of a colony from the now deified Emperor Claudius.

Oppidum Novum[85] is the next place; a colony of veterans

was established here by command of the same emperor.

Next to it is Tipasa[86], which has received Latin rights, as

also Icasium[87], which has been presented by the Emperor

Vespasianus with similar rights; Rusconi[88], a colony

founded by Augustus; Rusucurium[89], honoured by Claudius

with the rights of Roman citizens; Ruzacus[90], a colony

founded by Augustus; Salde[91], another colony founded

by the same emperor; Igilgili[92], another; and the town of







Tucca[93], situate on the sea-shore and upon the river Ampsaga.

In the interior are the colony of Augusta, also called

Succabar[94], Tubusuptus[95], the cities of Timici and Tigav[96],

the rivers Sardabal[97], Aves[98], and Nabar[99], the nation of the

Macurebi, the river Usar[100], and the nation of the Nababes.

The river Ampsaga is distant from Csarea 322[101] miles. The

length of the two Mauritanias is 1038, and their breadth

467 miles.







1. Not reckoning under that appellation the country of Egypt, which was more generally looked upon as forming part of Asia. Josephus informs us that Africa received its name from Ophir, great-grandson of Abraham and his second wife, Keturah.

2. Castella,' fortified places, erected for the purpose of defence; not towns formed for the reception of social communities.

3. The Emperor Caligula, who, in the year 41 A.D., reduced the two Mauritanias to Roman provinces, and had King Ptolemy, the son of Juba, put to death.

4. Now Cape Spartel. By Scylax it is called Hermum, and by Ptolemy and Strabo Cote, or Coteis. Pliny means "extreme," with reference to the sea-line of the Mediterranean, in a direction due west.

5. Mentioned again by Pliny in B. xxxii. c. 6. Lissa was so called, according to Bochart, from the Hebrew or Phnician word liss, 'a lion.' At the present day there is in this vicinity a headland called the 'Cape of the Lion.' Bochart thinks that the name 'Cotta,' or 'Cotte,' was derived from the Hebrew quothef, a 'vine-dresser.'

6. The modern Tangier occupies its site. It was said to have derived its name from Tinge, the wife of Antus, the giant, who was slain by Hercules. His tomb, which formed a hill, in the shape of a man stretched out at full length, was shown near the town of Tingis to a late period. It was also believed, that whenever a portion of the earth covering the body was taken away, it rained until the hole was filled up again. Sertorius is said to have dug away a portion of the hill; but, on discovering a skeleton sixty cubits in length, he was struck with horror, and had it immediately covered again. Procopius says, that the fortress of this place was built by the Canaanites, who were driven by the Jews out of Palestine.

7. It has been supposed by Salmasius and others of the learned, that Pliny by mistake here attributes to Claudius the formation of a colony which was really established by either Julius Csar or Augustus. It is more probable, however, that Claudius, at a later period, ordered it to be called "Traducta Julia," or "the removed Colony of Julia," in remembrance of a colony having proceeded thence to Spain in the time of Julius Csar. Claudius himself, as stated in the text, established a colony here.

8. Its ruins are to be seen at Belonia, or Bolonia, three Spanish miles west of the modern Tarifa.

9. At this point Pliny begins his description of the western side of Africa.

10. Now Arzilla, in the territory of Fez. Ptolemy places it at the mouth of the river Zileia. It is also mentioned by Strabo and Antoninus.

11. Now El Araiche, or Larache, on the river Lucos.

12. Mentioned again in B. ix. c. 4 and c. 5 of the present Book, where Pliny speaks of them as situate elsewhere. The story of Antus is further enlarged upon by Solinus, B. xxiv.; Lucan, B. iv. 1. 589, et seq.; and Martianus Capella, B. vi.

13. Now the Lucos.

14. Hardouin is of opinion, that he here has a hit at Gabinius, a Roman author, who, in his Annals of Mauritania, as we learn from Strabo (B. xvii.), inserted numerous marvellous and incredible stories.

15. When we find Pliny accusing other writers of credulity, we are strongly reminded of the proverb, 'Clodius accusat mchos.'

16. Or the "Julian Colony on the Plains." Marcus suggests that the word Babba may possibly have been derived from the Hebrew or Phnician word beab or beaba, "situate in a thick forest." Poinsinet takes Babba to be the Beni-Tuedi of modern times. D'Anville thinks that it is Naranja.

17. There is considerable difficulty about the site of Banasa. Moletius thinks that it is the modern Fanfara, or Pefenfia as Marmol calls it. D'Anville suggests that it may be Old Mahmora, on the coast; but, on the other hand, Ptolemy places it among the inland cities, assigning to it a longitude at some distance from the sea. Pliny also appears to make it inland, and makes its distance from Lixos seventy-five miles, while he makes the mouth of the Subur to be fifty miles from the same place.

18. From both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. According to Poinsinet, Volubilis was the synonym of the African name Fez, signifying a 'band,' or 'swathe.' Mannert conjectures that it is the same as the modern Walili, or Qualili. D'Anville calls it Guulili, and says that there are some remains of antiquity there.

19. The modern Subu, or Sebou. D'Anville is of opinion that this river has changed a part of its course since the time of Pliny.

20. Most probably the modern Sallee stands on its site.

21. Not in reference to the fact of its existence, but the wonderful stories which were told respecting it.

22. Like others of the ancient writers, Pliny falls into the error of considering Atlas, not as an extensive chain of mountains, but as an isolated mountain, surrounded by sands. With reference to its height, the whole range declines considerably from west to east; the highest summits in Morocco reaching near 13,000 feet, in Tunis not 5000.

23. Or "Goat-Pans;" probably another name for the Fauni, or Fauns. More usually, there is but one gipan mentioned,-the son, according to Hyginus, of Zeus or Jupiter, and a goat,-or of Zeus and ga, the wife of Pan. As a foundation for one part of the stories here men- tioned, Brotier suggests the fact, that as the Kabyles, or mountain tribes, are in the habit of retiring to their dwellings and reposing during the heat of the day, it would not, consequently, be improbable that they would devote the night to their amusements, lighting up fires, and dancing to the music of drums and cymbals.

24. Under his name we still possess a "Periplus," or account of a voyage round a part of Libya. The work was originally written in Punic, but what has come down to us is a Greek translation. We fail, however, to discover any means by which to identify him with any one of the many Carthaginians of the same name. Some writers call him king, and others dux, or imperator of the Carthaginians; from which we may infer, that he held the office of suffetes. This expedition has by some been placed as far back as the time of the Trojan war, or of Hesiod, while others again place it as late as the reign of Agathocles. Falconer, Bougainville, and Gail, place the time of Hanno at about B.C. 570, while other critics identify him with Hanno, the father or son of Hamilcar, who was killed at Himera, B.C. 480. Pliny often makes mention of him; more particularly see B. viii. c. 21.

25. M. Gosselin thinks that the spot here indicated was at the south-western extremity of the Atlas range, and upon the northern frontier of the Desert of Zahara.

26. Supposed by some geographers to be the same as that now called the Ommirabih, or the Om-Rabya. This is also thought by some to have been the same river as is called by Pliny, in p. 381, by the name of Asana; but the distances do not agree.

27. Supposed by Gosselin to be the present bay of Al-cazar, on the African coast, in the Straits of Cadiz; though Hardouin takes it to be the ko/lpos e)mporiko\s, or "Gulf of Commerce," of Strabo and Ptolemy. By first quoting from one, and then at a tangent from another, Pliny involves this subject in almost inextricable confusion.

28. Probably the place called Thymiaterion in the Periplus of Hanno.

29. The present Subu, and the river probably of Sallee, previously mentioned.

30. The modern Mazagan, according to Gosselin.

31. Cape Cantin, according to Gosselin; Cape Blanco, according to Marcus.

32. Probably the Safi, Asafi, or Saffee of the present day.

33. The river Tensift, which runs close to the city of Morocco, in the interior.

34. The river Mogador of the present day.

35. The modern river Sus, or Sous.

36. The learned Gosselin has aptly remarked, that this cannot be other than an error, and that "ninety-six" is the correct reading, the Gulf of Sainte-Croix being evidently the one here referred to.

37. Mount Barce seems to be here a name for the Atlas, or Daran chain.

38. Supposed by Gosselin to be the present Cape Ger.

39. The river Assa, according to Gosselin. There is also a river Suse placed here in the maps.

40. These two tribes probably dwelt between the modern Capes Ger and Non.

41. Marcus believes these to have been the ancestors of the present race of the Touaricks, while the Melanogtuli were the progenitors of the Tibbos, of a darker complexion, and more nearly resembling the negroes in bodily conformation.

42. Supposed by Gosselin to be the present river Nun, or Non. According to Bochart, this river received its name from the Hebrew or Phoenician word behemoth or bamoth, the name by which Job (xl. 15) calls the crocodile [or rather the hippopotamus]. Bochart, however, with Mannert, Bougainville, De Rennet, and De Heeren, is of opinion, that by this name the modern river Senegal is meant. Marcus is of opinion that it is either the Non or the modern Sobi.

43. Marcus here observes, that from Cape Alfach, below Cape Non, there are no mountains, but continual wastes of sand, bordering on the sea-shore. Indeed there is no headland, of any considerable height, between Cape Sobi and Cape Bajador.

44. The Chariot of the Gods." Marcus is of opinion that it is the modern Cape Verde; while, on the other hand, Gosselin takes it to be Cape Non. Brotier calls it Cape Ledo.

45. In B. vi. c. 36, Pliny speaks of this promontory as the "Hesperian Horn," and says that it is but four days' sail from the Theon Ochema. Brotier identifies this promontory with the modern Cape Roxo. Marcus is of opinion that it was the same as Cape Non ; but there is considerable difficulty in determining its identity.

46. Alluding to Polybius; though, according to the reading which Sillig has adopted a few lines previously, Agrippa is the last author mentioned. Pliny has here mistaken the meaning of Polybius, who has placed Atlas midway between Carthage, from which he had set out, and the Promontory of Theon Ochema, which he reached.

47. Ptolemy the son of Juba II. and Cleopatra, was summoned to Rome in the year A.D. 40, by Caligula, and shortly after put to death by him, his riches having excited the emperor's cupidity. Previously to this, he had been on terms of strict alliance with the Roman people, who had decreed him a toga picta and a sceptre, as a mark of their friendship.

48. Ivory and citron-wood, or cedar, were used for the making and inlaying of the tables used by the Roman nobility. See B. xiii. c. 23.

49. Supposed by some geographers to be the modern Wadi-Tensift. It has been also confounded with the Anatis (see note 1, p. 369); while others again identify it with the Anidus. It is more commonly spelt 'Asama.'

50. Or Phuth. It does not appear to have been identified.

51. The range is still called by the name of Daran.

52. The same general who afterwards conquered the Britons under Boadicea or Bonduca. While Proprtor in Mauritania under the Emperor Claudius, in the year A.D. 42, he defeated the Mauri who had risen in revolt, and advanced, as Pliny here states, as far as Mount Atlas. It is not known from what point Paulinus made his advance towards the Atlas range. Mannert and Marcus are of opinion that he set out from Sala, the modern Sallee, while Latreille, Malte Brun, and Walkenaer think that his point of departure was the mouth of the river Lixos. Sala was the most southerly town on the western coast of Africa that in the time of Pliny had submitted to the Roman arms.

53. Some of the editions read 'Niger' here. Marcus suggests that that river may have been called 'Niger' by the Phnician or Punic colonists of the western Mauritania, and 'Ger' or' Gar' in another quarter. The same writer also suggests that the Sigilmessa was the river to which Paulinus penetrated on his march beyond Atlas.

54. The Sigilmessa, according to Marmol, flows between several mountains which appear to be of a blackish hue.

55. Bocchus however, the kinsman of Massinissa, had previously for some time reigned over both the Mauritanias, consisting of Mauritania Tingitana and Mauritania Csariana.

56. See B. xxv. c. 7. 12, and B. xxvi. c. 8.

57. Extending from the sea to the river Moluga, now called the Molucha and Molochath, or Malva and Malvana.

58. From whom the Moors of the present day take their name. Marcus observes here, that though Pliny distinguishes the Mauri from the Gtuli, they essentially belonged to the same race and spoke the same language, the so-called Berber, and its dialects, the Schellou and the Schoviah.

59. Maursii' was the Greek name, 'Mauri' the Latin, for this people. Marcus suggests that Mauri was a synonym only for the Greek word nomades, 'wanderers.'

60. As Marcus observes, Pliny is here greatly in error. On the inroads of Paulinus, the Mauri had retreated into the interior and taken refuge in the deserts of Zahara, whence they had again emerged in the time of the geographer Ptolemy.

61. From the time of the second Punic War this people had remained in undisputed possession of the country situate between the rivers Molochath or Moluga and Ampsaga, which formed the Csarian Mauritania. Ptolemy speaks of finding some remains of them at Siga, a town situate on a river of the same name, and at which King Syphax had formerly resided.

62. While Pomponius Mela does not make any difference between the Mauri and the Gtuli, Pliny here speaks of them as being essentially different.

63. Derived, according to Marcus, from the Arabic compound bani-our, 'child of nakedness,' as equivalent to the Greek word gymnetes, by which name Pliny and other ancient writers designate the wandering naked races of Western Africa.

64. The Autololes or, as Ptolemy calls them, the Autolole, dwelt, it is supposed, on the western coast of Africa, between Cape Cantin and Cape Ger. Their city of Autolala or Autolal is one of Ptolemy's points of astronomical observation, having the longest day thirteen hours and a half, being distant three hours and a half west of Alexandria, and having the sun vertical once a year, at the time of the winter solstice. Reichard takes it for the modern Agulon or Aquilon.

65. The thiopian Daratit, Marcus says.

66. The present Ceuta.

67. They were so called from the circumstance, Marcus says, of their peaks being so numerous, and so strongly resembling each other. They are now called, according to D'Anville, 'Gebel Mousa,' which means "the Mountain of Apes," an animal by which they are now much frequented, instead of by elephants as in Pliny's time.

68. Or Mediterranean.

69. The modern Bedia, according to Olivarius, the Tasanel, according to Dupinet, and the Alamos or Kerkal, according to Ansart. Marcus says that it is called the Setuan, and is the largest stream on the northern shores of Western Africa.

70. The modern Gomera according to Hardouin, the Nocor according

to Mannert.

71. The modern Melilla most probably.

72. The modern Maluia. Antoninus calls it Malva, and Ptolemy Maloua.

73. Its site is occupied by the modern Aresgol, according to Mariana,

Guardia or Sereni according to Dupinet, Ned-Roma according to Mannert

and D'Anville, and Tachumbrit according to Shaw. Marcus is inclined

to be of the same opinion as the last-mentioned geographer.

74. Now the city of Malaga.

75. Mauritania Csariensis, or Csarian Mauritania, now forming the

French province of Algiers.

76. "Bogudiana;" from Bogud or Bogoas. The last king Bogud was

deprived of his kingdom by Bocchus, king of Mauritania Csariensis, a

warm partisan of Csar.

77. Or the "Great Harbour," now Arzeu according to D'Anville, and

Mars-el-Kebir according to Marcus.

78. The same river probably as the Malva or Malvana previously mentioned,

the word mulucha or malacha coming from the Greek molo/xh, "a

marsh mallow," which malva, as a Latin word, also signifies. See p. 383.

79. From the Greek word ce/nos, "a stranger." Pomponius Mela and

Antoninus call this place Guiza, and Ptolemy Quisa. D'Anville places

it on the right side of the river Malvana or Mulucha, and Shaw says

that it was situate in the vicinity of the modern town of Oran.

80. Now Marz-Agolet, or situate in its vicinity, according to Hardouin

and Ansart, and the present Arzen, according to Marcus, where numerous

remains of antiquity are found.

81. Now Tenez, according to D'Anville, and Mesgram, according to

Mannert; with which last opinion Marcus agrees.

82. Ptolemy and Antoninus place this colony to the east of the Promontory

of Apollo, and not the west as Pliny does.

83. The present Cape Mestagan.

84. According to Dupinet and Mannert, the modern Tenez occupies its

site, Zershell according to Hardouin and Shaw, Vacur according to

D'Anville and Ansart, and Algiers according to others. It is suggested

by Marcus that the name Iol is derived from the Arabic verb galla, "to

be noble" or "famous." There is no doubt that the magnificent ruins

at Zershell are those of Iol, and that its name is an abbreviation of

Csarea Iol.

85. Or New Town.

86. Scylax calls it Thapsus; Ammianus Marcellinus, Tiposa. According

to Mannert it was situate in the vicinity of the modern Damas.

87. Or Icosium. It has been identified by inscriptions discovered by

the French as standing on the same site as the modern Algiers. D'Anville,

Mannert and others identify it with Scherchell or Zershell, thus placing

it too far west. Mannert was evidently misled by an error in the Antonine

Itinerary, whereby all the places along this coast are, for a considerable

distance, thrown too far to the west; the researches however

which followed the French conquest of the country have revealed inscriptions

which completely set the question at rest.

88. According to Mannert, this was situate on the modern Cape Arbatel.

Marcus thinks that the Hebrew ros, or Arab ras, "a rock," enters into

the composition of the word.

89. Now Hur according to D'Anville, Colcah according to Mannert.

90. The modern Acor, according to Marcus.

91. The modern Pedeles or Delys, according to Ortellius and Mannert,

Tedles according to D'Anville.

92. The modern Jigeli or Gigeri. It was probably in ancient times the

emporium of the surrounding country.

93. Destroyed, according to Hardouin, and probably by the incursions

of the sea. At the mouth of the Ampsaga (now called the Wad-El-Kebir

or Sufjimar, and higher up the Wadi Roumel) there is situate a small

sea-port called Marsa Zeitoun.

94. Near the present Mazuaa, according to Mannert.

95. The modern Burgh, according to D'Anville and Mannert, but more

probably considerably to the east of that place.

96. The modern El-Herba, according to Mannert.

97. Marcus suggests that this is the Chinalaph of Ptolemy, and probably

the modern Schellif.

98. The same that is called Savis by Ptolemy, who places Icosium on

its banks.

99. By Mela called the Vabar. Marcus supposes it to be the same as

the modern Giffer.

100. By Ptolemy called the Sisar; the Ajebbi of modern geographers,

which falls into the Mediterranean, near the city of Budja.

101. Brotier says that this reading is incorrect, and that 222 is the proper

one, that being the true distance between the river Ampsaga or Wadel-Kebir

and the city of Csarea, the modern Zershell.




2. Chap. 2. (3.)-Numidia.


CHAP. 2. (3.)-NUMIDIA.

At the river Ampsaga Numidia begins, a country rendered

illustrious by the fame of Masinissa. By the Greeks this

region was called Metagonitis[1]; and the Numidians received

the name of "Nomades" from their frequent changes of pasturage;

upon which occasions they were accustomed to carry[2]

their mapalia, or in other words, their houses, upon waggons.







The towns of this country are Cullu[3] and Rusicade[4]; and

at a distance of forty-eight miles from the latter, in the interior,

is the colony of Cirta[5], surnamed "of the Sitiani;"

still more inland is another colony called Sicca[6], with

the free town of Bulla Regia[7]. On the coast are Tacatua[8],

Hippo Regius[9], the river Armua[10], and the town of Tabraca[11],

with the rights of Roman citizens. The river Tusca[12] forms

the boundary of Numidia. This country produces nothing

remarkable except its marble[13] and wild beasts.







1. It was not only Numidia that bore this name, but all the northern

coast of Africa from the frontiers of the kingdom of Carthage near Hippo

Regius to the Columns of Hercules. It was thus called from the Greek

metagonos, a "descendant" or "successor;" as the Carthaginians

established a number of small towns and villages on the coast, which

were thus posterior in their origin to the large cities already founded

there.

2. Hardouin says that the Moors in the interior still follow the same

usage, carrying their houses from pasture to pasture on waggons.

3. Now Chollum or Collo.

4. The modern Sgigada or Stora, according to Mannert, D'Anville,

and Shaw.

5. The modern Constantina occupies its site. Numerous remains of

the ancient town are still discovered. Sitius was an officer who served

under Csar, and obtained a grant of this place after the defeat of Juba.

6. Called Urbs, or Kaff, according to D'Anville and Shaw; the latter

of whom found an inscription there with the words Ordo Siccensium.

7. Or 'Royal Bulla'; which epithet shows that it was either a residence

or a foundation of the kings of Numidia, and distinguishes it from a small

place called Bulla Mensa, south of Carthage. Bulla Regia was four days'

journey south-west of Carthage, on a tributary of the river Bagrada, the

valley of which is still called Wad-el-Boul. This place was one of the

points of Ptolemy's recorded astronomical observations, having its longest

day fourteen hours and one-eighth, and being distant from Alexandria

two hours to the west.

8. The modern Tamseh, according to Shaw and Mannert, and Tagodet,

according to D'Anville.

9. Its ruins are south of the modern Bona. It received the name of

Regius or 'Royal' from being the residence of the Numidian kings. It

was also famed as being the see of St. Augustine. It was a colony of

Tyre, and stood on the bay now forming the Gulf of Bona. It was one

of the most flourishing cities of Africa till it was destroyed by the Vandals

A.D. 430.

10. Now the Mafragg, according to Mannert.

11. Still called Tabarca, according to Hardouin.

12. Now the Zaina, according to Marcus.

13. For the character of the Numidian marble, see Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 7.




3. Chap. 3. (4.)-Africa.


CHAP. 3. (4.)-AFRICA.

Beyond the river Tusca begins the region of Zeugitana[1],

and that part which properly bears the name of Africa[2].







We here find three promontories; the White Promontory[3],

the Promontory of Apoll[4], facing Sardinia, and that of

Mercury[5], opposite to Sicily. Projecting into the sea these

headlands form two gulfs, the first of which bears the name

of "Hipponensis" from its proximity to the city called

Hippo Dirutus[6], a corruption of the Greek name Diarrhytus,

which it has received from the channels made for irrigation.

Adjacent to this place, but at a greater distance from

the sea-shore, is Theudalis[7], a town exempt from tribute.

We then come to the Promontory of Apollo, and upon

the second gulf, we find Utica[8], a place enjoying the rights

of Roman citizens, and famous for the death of Cato; the

river Bagrada[9], the place called Castra Cornelia[10], the co-







lony[11] of Carthage, founded upon the remains of Great Carthage[12],

the colony of Maxula[13], the towns of Carpi[14], Misua,

and Clypea[15], the last a free town, on the Promontory of

Mercury; also Curubis, a free town[16], and Neapolis[17].



Here commences the second division[18] of Africa properly

so called. Those who inhabit Byzacium have the name of

Libyphnices[19]. Byzacium is the name of a district which

is 250 miles in circumference, and is remarkable for its extreme

fertility, as the ground returns the seed sown by the

husbandman with interest a hundred-fold[20]. Here are the







free towns of Leptis[21], Adrumetum[22], Ruspina[23], and Thapsus[24];

and then Then[25], Macomades[26], Tacape[27], and Sabrata[28] which

touches on the Lesser Syrtis; to which spot, from the

Ampsaga, the length of Numidia and Africa is 580 miles,

and the breadth, so far as it has been ascertained, 200.

That portion which we have called Africa is divided into

two provinces, the Old and the New; these are separated

by a dyke which was made by order of the second Scipio

Africanus[29] and the kings[30], and extended to Then, which

town is distant from Carthage 216 miles.







1. Extending from the river Tusca, or Zaina, to the northern frontiers

of Byzacium. It corresponds with the Turkish province or beylik of

Tunis.

2. He says this not only to distinguish it from Africa, considered as

one-third of the globe, but also in contradistinction to the proconsular

province of the Roman empire of the same name, which contained not

only the province of Zeugitana, but also those of Numidia, Byzacium,

and Tripolis.

3. Candidum: now Ras-el-Abiad.

4. The references to this headland identify it with Cape Farina, or Ras

Sidi Ali-al-Mekhi, and not, as some have thought, the more westerly Cape

Zibeeb or Ras Sidi Bou-Shoushe. Shaw however applies the name of

Zibeeb to the former.

5. Now Cape Bon, or Ras-Addar.

6. More properly called Hippo Diarrhytus or Zaritus, a Tyrian colony,

situate on a large lake which communicated with the sea, and received

the waters of another lake. Its situation exposed it to frequent inundations,

whence, as the Greeks used to state, the epithet dia/r)r(utos. It

seems more probable however that this is the remnant of some Phnician

title, as the ancients were not agreed on the true form of the name,

and of this uncertainty we have a further proof in the Hippo Dirutus

of our author.

7. This is placed by Ptolemy to the south-east of Hippo, and near the

southern extremity of Lake Sisar.

8. This important city stood on the north part of the Carthaginian

Gulf, west of the mouth of the Bagrada, and twenty-seven Roman miles

N.W. of Carthage; but the site of its ruins at the modern Bou-Shater is

now inland, in consequence of the changes made by the Bagrada in the

coast-line. In the Third Punic war Utica took part with the Romans

against Carthage, and was rewarded with the greater part of the Carthaginian

territory.

9. Now called the Mejerdah, and though of very inconsiderable size, the

chief river of the Carthaginian territory. The main stream is formed

by the union of two branches, the southern of which, the ancient Bagrada,

is now called the Mellig, and in its upper course the Meskianah. The

other branch is called the Hamiz.

10. Or the "Cornelian Camp." The spot where Cornelius Scipio Africa-

nus the Elder first encamped, on landing in Africa, B.C. 204. Csar describes

this spot, in his description of Curio's operations against Utica,

B. C. b. ii. c. 24, 25. This spot is now called Ghellah.

11. This colony was first established by Caius Gracchus, who sent 6000

settlers to found on the site of Carthage the new city of Junonia. The

Roman senate afterwards annulled this with the other acts of

Gracchus. Under Augustus however the new city of Carthage was

founded, which, when Strabo wrote, was as prosperous as any city in

Africa. It was made, in place of Utica, which had favoured the Pompeian

party, the seat of the proconsul of Old Africa. It stood on the

peninsula terminated by Ras-Sidi-Bou-Said, Cape Carthage or Carthagena.

As Gibbon has remarked, "The place might be unknown if

some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the

inquisitive traveller."

12. The original city of Carthage was called 'Carthago Magna' to distinguish

it from New Carthage and Old Carthage, colonies in Spain.

13. Now Rhades, according to Marcus.

14. Marcus identifies it with the modern Gurtos.

15. By the Greeks called 'Aspis.' It derived its Greek and Roman names

from its site on a hill of a shield-like shape. It was built by Agathocles,

the Sicilian, B.C. 310. In the first Punic war it was the landing-place

of Manlius and Regulus, whose first action was to take it, B.C. 256. Its

site is still known as Kalebiah, and its ruins are peculiarly interesting.

The site of Misua is occupied by Sidi-Doud, according to Shaw and

D'Anville.

16. Shaw informs us that an inscription found on the spot designates this

place as a colony, not a free city or town. Its present name is Kurbah.

17. The present Nabal, according to D'Anville.

18. Zeugitana extended from the river Tusca to Horrea-Clia, and Byzacium

from this last place to Then.

19. As sprung partly from the Phnician immigrants, and partly from

the native Libyans or Africans.

20. Pliny says, B. xvii. c. 3, "A hundred and fifty fold." From Shaw

we learn that this fertility no longer exists, the fields producing not more

than eight- or at most twelve-fold.

21. The modern Lempta occupies its site.

22. Originally a Phnician colony, older than Carthage. It was the capital of Byzacium, and stood within the southern extremity of the Sinus Neapolitanus or Gulf of Hammamet. Trajan made it a colony, under the high-sounding name, as we gather from inscriptions, of Colonia Concordia Ulpia Trajana Augusta Frugifera Hadrumetana, or, as set forth on coins, Colonia Concordia Julia Hadrumetana Pia. The epithet Frugifera refers to the fact that it was one of the chief sea-ports for the corn-producing country of Byzacium. It was destroyed by the Vandals, but restored by the Emperor Justinian under the name of Justiniana or Justinianopolis. The modern Sousa stands on its site; and but slight traces of the ancient city are to be found.

23. Situate in the vicinity of the modern Monastir.

24. Shaw discovered its ruins at the modern town of Demas.

25. Now Taineh, according to D'Anville. This place formed the boundary between the proconsular province of Africa and the territory of the Numidian king Masinissa and his descendants.

26. The present Mahometa, according to Marcus, El Mahres according to D'Anville.

27. Now Cabs, according to D'Anville, giving name to the Gulf of Cabs. Marcus calls it Gaps.

28. Now Tripoli Vecchio; also called Sabart according to D'Anville.

29. Scipio milianus, the son-in-law of milius Paulus.

30. Micipsa, the son of Masinissa, and his two legitimate brethren. Scipio having been left by Masinissa executor of his will, the sovereign power was divided by him between Micipsa and his two brethren Gulussa and Mastanabal. On this occasion also he separated Numidia from Zeugitana and Byzacium, by a long dyke drawn from Then, due south, to the borders of the Great Desert, and thence in a north-westerly direction to the river Tusca.




4. Chap. 4.-The Syrtes.


CHAP. 4.-THE SYRTES.

A third Gulf is divided into two smaller ones, those of

the two Syrtes[1], which are rendered perilous by the shallows







of their quicksands and the ebb and flow of the sea. Polybius

states the distance from Carthage to the Lesser Syrtis,

the one which is nearest to it, to be 300 miles. The inlet

to it he also states to be 100 miles across, and its circumference

300. There is also a way[2] to it by land, to find

which we must employ the guidance of the stars and cross

deserts which present nothing but sand and serpents. After

passing these we come to forests filled with vast multitudes

of wild beasts and elephants, then desert wastes[3], and beyond

them the Garamantes[4], distant twelve days' journey from

the Augyl[5]. Above the Garamantes was formerly the na-







tion of the Psylli[6], and above them again the Lake of Lycomedes[7],

surrounded with deserts. The Augyl themselves

are situate almost midway between thiopia which faces

the west[8], and the region which lies between[9] the two Syrtes,

at an equal distance from both. The distance along the

coast that lies between the two Syrtes is 250 miles. On it

are found the city of a[10], the river Cinyps[11], and the country

of that name, the towns of Neapolis[12], Graphara[13], and Abrotonum[14],

and the second, surnamed the Greater, Leptis[15].



We next come to the Greater Syrtis, 625 miles in circumference,

and at the entrance 312 miles in width; next

after which dwells the nation of the Cisippades. At the

bottom of this gulf was the coast of the Lotophagi, whom

some writers have called the Alachro[16], extending as far as

the Altars of the Philni[17]; these Altars are formed of heaps







of sand. On passing these, not far from the shore there is

a vast swamp[18] which receives the river Triton[19] and from it

takes its name: by Callimachus it is called Pallantias[20], and

is said by him to be on the nearer side of the Lesser Syrtis;

many other writers however place it between the two Syrtes.

The promontory which bounds the Greater Syrtis has the

name of Borion[21]; beyond it is the province of Cyrene.



Africa, from the river Ampsaga to this limit, includes

516 peoples, who are subject to the Roman sway, of which

six are colonies; among them Uthina[22] and Tuburbi[23], besides

those already mentioned. The towns enjoying the

rights of Roman citizens are fifteen in number, of which

I shall mention, as lying in the interior, those of Assur[24],

Abutucum, Aborium, Canopicum[25], Cilma[26], Simithium, Thunusidium,

Tuburnicum, Tynidrumum, Tibiga, the two towns

called Ucita, the Greater and the Lesser, and vaga. There

is also one town with Latin rights, Uzalita by name, and

one town of tributaries, Castra Cornelia[27]. The free towns

are thirty in number, among which we may mention, in the

interior, those of Acholla[28], Aggarita, Avina, Abzirita, Cano-







pita, Melizita, Matera, Salaphita, Tusdrita[29], Tiphica, Tunica[30],

Theuda, Tagasta[31], Tiga[32], Ulusubrita, a second Vaga, Visa, and

Zama[33]. Of the remaining number, most of them should be

called, in strictness, not only cities, but nations even; such

for instance as the Natabudes, the Capsitani[34], the Musulami,

the Sabarbares, the Massyli[35], the Nisives, the Vamacures,

the Cinithi, the Musuni, the Marchubii[36], and the whole

of Gtulia[37], as far as the river Nigris[38], which separates

Africa proper from thiopia.







1. The Syrtes or 'Quicksands' are now called, the Lesser Syrtes the Gulf of Cabs, and the Greater the Gulf of Sydra. The country situate between the two Syrtes is called Tripoli, formerly Tripolis, a name which, according to Solinus, it owed to its three cities, Sabrata, Leptis, and a.

2. Marcus observes with reference to this passage, that both Hardouin and Poinsinet have mistaken its meaning. They evidently think that Pliny is speaking here of a route to the Syrtes leading from the interior of Africa, whereas it is pretty clear that he is speaking of the dangers which attend those who approach it by the line of the sea-coast, as Cato did, on his march to Utica, so beautifully described by Lucan in his Ninth Book. This is no doubt the same route which was taken by the caravans on their passage from Lebida, the ancient Leptis, to Berenice in Cyrenaica.

3. Those which we find at the middle of the coast bordering upon the Greater Syrtis, and which separate the mountains of Fezzan and Atlas from Cyrenaca and Barca.

4. In its widest sense this name is applied to all the Libyan tribes inhabiting the Oases on the eastern part of the Great Desert, as the Gtulians inhabited its western part, the boundary between the two nations being drawn at the sources of the Bagrada and the mountain Usargala. In the stricter sense however, and in which the term must be here understood, the name 'Garamantes' denoted the people of Phazania, the modern Fezzan, which forms by far the largest oasis in the Grand Desert of Zahara.

5. Augyl, now Aujelah, was an oasis in the desert of Barca, in the region of Cyrenaica, about 3 1/2 south of Cyrene. It has been remarked that Pliny, here and in the Eighth Chapter of the present Book, in abridging the account given by Herodotus of the tribes of Northern Africa, has transferred to the Augyl what that author really says of the Nasamones. This oasis forms one of the chief stations on the caravan route from Cairo to Fezzan. It is placed by Rennell in 303? North Lat. and 2246? East Long., 180 miles south-east of Barca, 180 west by north of Siwah, the ancient Ammonium, and 426 east by north of Mourzouk. Later authorities, however, place the village of Aujelah in 2915? North Lat. and 2155? East Long.

6. For an account of the Psylli see B. vii. c. 2. They probably dwelt in the vicinity of the modern Cape Mesurata.

7. Now Lake Lynxama, according to Marcus.

8. Marcus observes that in order properly to understand this passage we must remember that the ancients considered Africa as terminating north of the Equator, and imagined that from the Straits of Hercules the western coast of Africa ran, not towards the south-west, but slanted in a southeasterly direction to the Straits of Babelmandel.

9. The modern Tripoli.

10. A flourishing city with a mixed population of Libyans and Sicilians. It was at this place that Apuleius made his eloquent and ingenious defence against the charge of sorcery brought against him by his step-sons. According to some writers the modern Tripoli is built on its site, while other accounts make it to have been situate six leagues from that city.

11. Now called the Wady-el-Quaham.

12. Mannert is of opinion that this was only another name for the city of Leptis Magna or the "Greater Leptis" here mentioned by Pliny. There is little doubt that his supposition is correct.

13. The more common reading is Taphra or Taphara. D'Anville identifies it with the town of Sfakes.

14. Scylax identifies it with Neapolis or Leptis, and it is generally looked upon as being the same place as Sabrata or Old Tripoli.

15. Now called Lebida. It was the birth-place of the Emperor Septimius Severus. It was almost destroyed by an attack from a Libyan tribe A.D. 366, and its ruin was completed by the invasion of the Arabs. Its ruins are considerable.

16. Men of sea complexion," is the meaning of this Greek name. According to Marcus they dwelt between the Greater Leptis and the Lake Tritonis, at the present day called Schibkah-el-Loudeah. For a further account of the Lotophagi, see B. xiii. c. 32.

17. Two brothers, citizens of Carthage, who in a dispute as to their respective territories with the people of Cyrene, submitted to be buried alive in the sand, at the boundary-line between the two countries. Sallust (Jugurthine War) is the main authority for the story. It is also related by Pomponius Mela, B. i. c. 7, and Valerius Maximus, B. v. c. 6, but from the Greek name of the brothers, meaning "lovers of praise," it is doubtful whether the story is not of spurious origin.

18. The Lake Tritonis mentioned in note11, p. 393.

19. Now called El Hammah, according to Shaw.

20. According to some accounts the goddess Pallas or Minerva was born on the banks of Lake Tritonis.

21. The modern Cape of Tajuni.

22. Now called Udina, according to Marcus.

23. Now called Tabersole, according to Marcus.

24. In the north of Byzacium, near the Bagrada and the confines of Numidia. It was the station of a Roman garrison, and considerable remains of it are still visible near the modern Zanfour.

25. Called Cannopiss by Ptolemy, who places it to the east of Tabraca.

26. There is great doubt as to the correct orthography of these places, most of which can be no longer identified.

27. According to Marcus the present Porto Tarina.

28. Also called Achilla and Achulla, the ruins of which are to be seen at the modern El Aliah. It stood on the sea-coast of Byzacium, a little above the northern extremity of the Lesser Syrtis. It was a colony from the island of Melita, now Malta.

29. Now called El-Jemma, according to Marcus.

30. From it modern Tunis takes its name.

31. The birth-place of St. Augustin. It was to the north-west of Hippo Regius.

32. In the vicinity of this place, if it is the same as the Tigisis mentioned by Procopius, there were two columns to be seen in his day, upon which was written in the Phnician language, "We fled from before the robber, Joshua the son of Nun."

33. There were two towns of this name in the proconsular province of Africa. The first was situate in the country of Zeugitana, five days' journey west of Carthage, and it was here that Scipio defeated Hannibal. The other bore the surname of Regia or Royal, from being the frequent residence of the Numidian kings. It lay in the interior, and at the present day its site bears the name of 'Zowarin' or 'Zewarin.'

34. The ruins of Capsa still bear the name of Cafsa or Ghafsah. It was an important city in the extreme south of Numidia, situate in an oasis, in the midst of an arid desert abounding in serpents. In the Jugurthine war it was the treasury of Jugurtha, and was taken and destroyed by Marius; but was afterwards rebuilt and made a colony.

35. They dwelt between the river Ampsaga or Wady-El-Kebir and the Tusca or Wady-Zain, the western boundary of the Carthaginian territory.

36. Dwelling to the east of the mountain Zalycus, now known as the Wanashrise, according to Shaw.

37. The ancients called by the name of 'Gtulians' all the people of Africa who dwelt south of the Mauritanias and Numidia, as far as the line which, according to their ideas, separated Africa from thiopia.

38. The Quorra most probably of modern geographers.




5. Chap. 5. (5.)-Cyrenaica.


CHAP. 5. (5.)-CYRENAICA.

The region of Cyrenaica, also called Pentapolis[1], is rendered

famous by the oracle of Hammon[2], which is distant

400 miles from the city of Cyrene; also by the Fountain of







the Sun[3] there, and five cities in especial, those of Berenice[4],

Arsino[5], Ptolemais[6], Apollonia[7], and Cyrene[8] itself.

Berenice is situate upon the outer promontory that bounds

the Syrtis; it was formerly called the city of the Hesperides

(previously mentioned[9]), according to the fables of the







Greeks, which very often change their localities. Not far

from the city, and running before it, is the river Lethon,

and with it a sacred grove, where the gardens of the Hesperides

are said to have formerly stood; this city is distant

from Leptis 375 miles. From Berenice to Arsino, commonly

called Teuchira, is forty-three miles; after which, at

a distance of twenty-two, we come to Ptolemais, the ancient

name of which was Barce; and at a distance of forty miles

from this last the Promontory of Phycus[10], which extends far

away into the Cretan Sea, being 350 miles distant from Tnarum[11],

the promontory of Laconia, and from Crete 225. After

passing this promontory we come to Cyrene, which stands

at a distance of eleven miles from the sea. From Phycus

to Apollonia[12] is twenty-four miles, and from thence to the

Chersonesus[13] eighty-eight; from which to Catabathmos[14] is a

distance of 216 miles. The Marmarid[15] inhabit this coast,

extending from almost the region of Partonium[16] to the

Greater Syrtis; after them the Ararauceles, and then, upon

the coasts of the Syrtis, the Nasamones[17], whom the Greeks







formerly called Mesammones, from the circumstance of

their being located in the very midst of sands[18]. The territory

of Cyrene, to a distance of fifteen miles from the shore,

is said to abound in trees, while for the same distance

beyond that district it is only suitable for the cultivation of

corn: after which, a tract of land, thirty miles in breadth

and 250 in length, is productive of nothing but laser [or

silphium[19]].



After the Nasamones we come to the dwellings of the

Asbyst and the Mac[20], and beyond them, at eleven days'

journey to the west of the Greater Syrtis, the Amantes[21], a

people also surrounded by sands in every direction. They

find water however without any difficulty at a depth mostly

of about two cubits, as their district receives the overflow of

the waters of Mauritania. They build houses with blocks

of salt[22], which they cut out of their mountains just as we

do stone. From this nation to the Troglodyt[23] the distance

is seven days' journey in a south-westerly direction, a people

with whom our only intercourse is for the purpose of

procuring from them the precious stone which we call the

carbuncle, and which is brought from the interior of thiopia.

Upon the road to this last people, but turning off towards

the deserts of Africa, of which we have previously[24] made

mention as lying beyond the Lesser Syrtis, is the region of

Phazania[25]; the nation of Phazanii, belonging to which, as







well as the cities of Alele[26] and Cilliba[27], we have subdued

by force of arms, as also Cydamus[28], which lies over against

Sabrata. After passing these places a range of mountains

extends in a prolonged chain from east to west: these have

received from our people the name of the Black Mountains[29],

either from the appearance which they naturally bear

of having been exposed to the action of fire, or else from the

fact that they have been scorched by the reflection of the

sun's rays. Beyond it[30] is the desert, and then Talg, a city of

the Garamantes, and Debris, at which place there is a spring[31],

the waters of which, from noon to midnight, are at boiling

heat, and then freeze for as many hours until the following

noon; Garama too, that most famous capital of the Garamantes;

all which places have been subdued by the Roman

arms. It was on this occasion that Cornelius Balbus[32] was

honoured with a triumph, the only foreigner indeed that was

ever honoured with the triumphal chariot, and presented

with the rights of a Roman citizen; for, although by birth

a native of Gades, the Roman citizenship was granted to him

as well as to the elder Balbus[33], his uncle by the father's side.

There is also this remarkable circumstance, that our writers







have handed down to us the names of the cities above-men-

tioned as having been taken by Balbus, and have informed

us that on the occasion of his triumph[34], besides Cydamus

and Garama[35], there were carried in the procession the

names and models of all the other nations and cities, in

the following order: the town of Tabudium[36], the nation

of Niteris, the town of Nigligemella, the nation or town of

Bubeium[37], the nation of Enipi, the town of Thuben, the

mountain known as the Black Mountain, Nitibrum, the

towns called Rapsa, the nation of Discera[38], the town of

Debris[39], the river Nathabur[40], the town of Thapsagum[41],

the nation of Nannagi, the town of Boin, the town of

Pege[42], the river Dasibari; and then the towns, in the

following order, of Baracum, Buluba, Alasit, Galia, Balla,

Maxalla[43], Zizama, and Mount Gyri[44], which was preceded by







an inscription stating that this was the place where precious

stones were produced.



Up to the present time it has been found impracticable

to keep open the road that leads to the country of the

Garamantes, as the predatory bands of that nation have filled

up the wells with sand, which do not require to be dug for

to any great depth, if you only have a knowledge of the

locality. In the late war[45] however, which, at the beginning

of the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, the Romans carried

on with the people of a, a short cut of only four days'

journey was discovered; this road is known as the "Pter

Caput Saxi[46]." The last place in the territory of Cyrenaica

is Catabathmos, consisting of a town, and a valley with a

sudden and steep descent. The length of Cyrenean Africa,

up to this boundary from the Lesser Syrtis, is 1060 miles;

and, so far as has been ascertained, it is 800[47] in breadth.







1. So called, as mentioned below, from its five principal cities.

2. Where Jupiter Ammon or Hammon was worshiped under the form of a ram, the form he was said to have assumed when the deities were dispersed in the war with the Giants. Ancient Ammonium is the present oasis of Siwah in the Libyan Desert.

3. The same that has been already mentioned in B. ii. c. 106. It is mentioned by Herodotus and Pomponius Mela.

4. Previously called Hesperis or Hesperides. It was the most westerly city of Cyrenaica, and stood just beyond the eastern extremity of the Greater Syrtis, on a promontory called Pseudopenias, and near the river Lethon. Its historical importance only dates from the times of the Ptolemies, when it was named Berenice, after the wife of Ptolemy III. or Euergetes. Having been greatly reduced, it was fortified anew by the Emperor Justinian. Its ruins are to be seen at the modern Ben Ghazi.

5. So called from Arsino, the sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Its earlier name was Taucheira or Teucheira, which name, according to Marcus, it still retains.

6. Its ruins may still be seen at Tolmeita or Tolometa. It was situate on the N.W. coast of Cyrenaica, and originally bore the name of Barca. From which of the Ptolemies it took its name is not known. Its splendid ruins are not less than four miles in circumference.

7. Its ruins are still to be seen, bespeaking its former splendour, at the modern Marsa Sousah. It was originally only the port of Cyrene, but under the Ptolemies it flourished to such an extent as to eclipse that city. It is pretty certain that it was the Sozusa of the later Greek writers. Eratosthenes was a native of this place.

8. The chief city of Cyrenaica, and the most important Hellenic colony in Africa, the early settlers having extensively intermarried with wives of Libyan parentage. In its most prosperous times it maintained an extensive commerce with Greece and Egypt, especially in silphium or assaftida, the plantations of which, as mentioned in the present chapter, extended for miles in its vicinity. Great quantities of this plant were also exported to Capua in Southern Italy, where it was extensively employed in the manufacture of perfumes. The scene of the 'Rudens,' the most picturesque (if we may use the term) of the plays of Plautus, is laid in the vicinity of Cyrene, and frequent reference is made in it to the extensive cultivation of silphium; a head of which plant also appears on the coins of the place. The philosophers Aristippus and Carneades were born here, as also the poet Callimachus. Its ruins, at the modern Ghrennah, are very extensive, and are indicative of its former splendour.

9. In C. 1 of the present Book. It was only the poetical fancy of the Greeks that found the fabled gardens of the Hesperides in the fertile regions of Cyrenaica. Scylax distinctly mentions the gardens and the lake of the Hesperides in this vicinity, where we also find a people called Hesperid, or, as Herodotus names them, Euesperid. It was probably in consequence of this similarity of name, in a great degree, that the gardens of the Hesperidcs were assigned to this locality.

10. Now called Ras-Sem or Ras-El-Kazat. It is situate a little to the west of Apollonia and N.W. of Cyrene.

11. According to Ansart, 264 miles is the real distance between Capes Ras-Sem and Tnarum or Matapan.

12. As already mentioned, Apollonia formed the harbour of Cyrene.

13. This was called the Chersonesus Magna, being so named in contradistinction to the Chersonesus Parva, on the coast of Egypt, about thirty-five miles west of Alexandria. It is now called Ras-El-Tin, or more commonly Raxatin.

14. So called from the peculiar features of the locality, the Greek word katabaqmo\s, signifying "a descent." A deep valley, bounded east and west by ranges of high hills, runs from this spot to the frontiers of Egypt. It is again mentioned by Pliny at the end of the present Chapter. The spot is still known by a similar name, being called Marsa Sollern, or the "Port of the Ladder." In earlier times the Egyptian territory ended at the Gulf of Plinthinethes, now Lago Segio, and did not extend so far as Catabathmos.

15. This name was unknown to Herodotus. As Marcus observes, it was probably of Phnician origin, signifying "leading a wandering life," like the term "nomad," derived from the Greek.

16. Now called El Bareton or Marsa-Labeit. This city was of considerable importance, and belonged properly to Marmaria, but was included politically in the Nomos Libya of Egypt. It stood near the promontory of Artos or Pythis, now Ras-El-Hazeit.

17. So called from the words Mat-Ammon, "the tribe of Ammon," according to Bochart. The Nasamones were a powerful but savage people of Libya, who dwelt originally on the shores of the Greater Syrtis, but were driven inland by the Greek settlers of Cyrenaica, and afterwards by the Romans.

18. From meso\s "the middle," and a)/mmos "sand."

19. See note6 in p. 396.

20. Herodotus places this nation to the west of the Nasamones and on the river Cinyps, now called the Wadi-Quaham.

21. In most of the editions they are called 'Hammanientes.' It has been suggested that they were so called from the Greek word a)/mmos "sand."

22. This story he borrows from Herodotus, B. iv. c. 158.

23. From the Greek word trwglodu/tai, "dwellers in caves." Pliny has used the term already (B. iv. c. 25) in reference to the nations on the banks of the Danube. It was a general name applied by the Greek geographers to various uncivilized races who had no abodes but caves, and more especially to the inhabitants of the western coasts of the Red Sea, along the shores of Upper Egypt and thiopia.

24. At the beginning of C. 4.

25. Which gives name to the modern Fezzan.

26. Now called Tanet-Mellulen, or the station of Mellulen, on the route from Gadamez to Oserona.

27. Zaouila or Zala, half way between Augyla and Mourzouk.

28. Now Gadamez, which, according to Marcus, is situate almost under the same meridian as Old Tripoli, the ancient Sabrata.

29. According to Marcus this range still bears the name of Gibel-Assoud, which in the Arabic language means the "Black Mountain."

30. In a southerly direction. He alludes probably to the Desert of Bildulgerid.

31. This spring is also mentioned by Pliny in B. ii. c. 106. Marcus suggests that the Debris of Pliny is the same as the Bedir of Ptolemy. He also remarks that the English traveller Oudney discovered caverns hewn out of the sides of the hills, evidently for the purposes of habitation, but of which the use is not known by the present people. These he considers to have been the abodes of the ancient Troglodyt or "cave-dwellers." In the Tibesti range of mountains, however, we find a race called the Rock Tibboos, from the circumstance of their dwelling in caves.

32. Cornelius Balbus Gaditanus the Younger, who, upon his victories over the Garamantes, obtained a triumph in the year B.C. 19.

33. L. Cornelius Balbus the Elder, also at native of Gades. He obtained the consulship in B.C. 40, the first instance, as we find mentioned by Pliny, B. vii. c. 44, in which this honour had been conferred upon one who was not a Roman citizen.

34. On the occasion of a triumph by a Roman general, boards were carried aloft on "fercula," on which were painted in large letters the names of vanquished nations and countries. Here too models were exhibited in ivory or wood of the cities and forts captured, and pictures of the mountains, rivers, and other great natural features of the subjugated region, with appropriate inscriptions. Marcus is of opinion that the names of the places here mentioned do not succeed in any geographical order, but solely according to their presumed importance as forming part of the conquest of Balbus. He also thinks that Balbus did not penetrate beyond the fifteenth degree of north latitude, and that his conquests did not extend so far south as the banks of Lake Tchad.

35. The site of Garama still bears the name of 'Gherma,' and presents very considerable remains of antiquity. It is four days' journey north of Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan.

36. Now Tibesti, according to Marcus.

37. Marcus suggests that this is probably the Febabo of modem geographers, to the N.E. of Belma and Tibesti.

38. Discera was the Im-Zerah of modern travellers, on the road from Sockna to Mourzouk, according to Marcus, who is of opinion that the places which follow were situate at the east and north-east of Thuben and the Black Mountain.

39. Om-El-Abid, to the N.W. of Garama or Gherma, according to Marcus, and Oudney the traveller.

40. The same, Marcus thinks, as the modem Tessava in Fezzan.

41. Marcus suggests that this may be the modern Sana.

42. The town of Winega mentioned by Oudney, was probably the ancient Pega, according to Marcus.

43. The modern Missolat, according to Marcus, on the route from Tripoli to Murmuck.

44. According to Marcus, this was the Mount Goriano of the English travellers Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, where, confirming the statement here made by Pliny, they found quartz, jasper, onyx, agates, and cornelians.

45. Mentioned by Tacitus, B. iv. c. 50. The town of a has been alluded to by Pliny in C. 4.

46. Past the head of the rock." Marcus suggests that this is the Gibel-Gelat or Rock of Gelat spoken of by the English travellers Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, forming a portion of the chain of Guriano or Gyr. He says, that at the foot of this mountain travellers have to pass from Old and New Tripoli on their road to Missolat, the Maxala of Pliny, and thence to Gerama or Gherma, the ancient capital of Fezzan.

47. As Marcus observes, this would not make it to extend so far south as the sixteenth degree of north latitude.




6. Chap. 6. (6.)-Libya Mareotis.


CHAP. 6. (6.)-LIBYA MAREOTIS.

The region that follows is called Libya Mareotis[1], and

borders upon Egypt. It is held by the Marmarid, the

Adyrmachid, and, after them, the Mareot. The distance

from Catabathmos to Partonium is eighty-six







miles. In this district is Apis[2], a place rendered famous by

the religious belief of Egypt. From this town Partonium

is distant sixty-two miles, and from thence to Alexandria

the distance is 200 miles, the breadth of the district being

169. Eratosthenes says that it is 525 miles by land from

Cyrene to Alexandria; while Agrippa gives the length of

the whole of Africa from the Atlantic Sea, and including

Lower Egypt, as 3040 miles. Polybius and Eratosthenes,

who are generally considered as remarkable for their extreme

correctness, state the length to be, from the ocean to Great

Carthage 1100 miles, and from Carthage to Canopus, the

nearest mouth of the Nile, 1628 miles; while Isidorus speaks

of the distance from Tingi to Canopus as being 3599 miles.

Artemidorus makes this last distance forty miles less than

Isidorus.







1. The Mareotis of the time of the Ptolemies extended from Alexandria to the Gulf of Plinthinethes; and Libya was properly that portion of territory which extended from that Gulf to Catabathmos. Pliny is in error here in confounding the two appellations, or rather, blending them into one. It includes the eastern portion of the modern Barca, and the western division of Lower Egypt. It most probably received its name from the Lake Mareotis, and not the lake from it.

2. This was a seaport town on the northern coast of Africa, probably about eleven or twelve miles west of Partonium, sometimes spoken of as belonging to Egypt, sometimes to Marmorica. Scylax places it at the western boundary of Egypt, on the frontier of the Marmarid. Ptolemy, like Pliny, speaks of it as being in the Libyan Nomos. The distances given in the MSS. of Pliny of this place from Partonium are seventy-two, sixty-two, and twelve miles; the latter is probably the correct reading, as Strabc, B. xvii., makes the distance 100 stadia. It is extremely doubtful whether the Apis mentioned by Herodotus, B. ii. c. 18, can be the same place: but there is little doubt, from the words of Pliny here, that it was dedicated to the worship of the Egyptian god Apis, who was represented under the form of a bull.




7. Chap. 7. (7.)-The Islands In The Vicinity Of Africa.


CHAP. 7. (7.)-THE ISLANDS IN THE VICINITY OF AFRICA.

These seas contain not so very many islands. The most

famous among them is Meninx[1], twenty-five miles in length

and twenty-two in breadth: by Eratosthenes it is called

Lotophagitis. This island has two towns, Meninx on the

side which faces Africa, and Troas on the other; it is situate

off the promontory which lies on the right-hand side of the

Lesser Syrtis, at a distance of a mile and a half. One hundred

miles from this island, and opposite the promontory

that lies on the left, is the free island of Cercina[2], with a







city of the same name. It is twenty-five miles long, and

half that breadth at the place where it is the widest, but

not more than five miles across at the extremity: the diminutive

island of Cercinitis[3], which looks towards Carthage,

is united to it by a bridge. At a distance of nearly

fifty miles from these is the island of Lopadusa[4], six miles

in length; and beyond it Gaulos and Galata, the soil of which

kills the scorpion, that noxious reptile of Africa. It is

also said that the scorpion will not live at Clypea; opposite

to which place lies the island of Cosyra[5], with a town of the

same name. Opposite to the Gulf of Carthage are the two

islands known as the gimuri[6]; the Altars[7], which are

rather rocks than islands, lie more between Sicily and Sardinia.

There are some authors who state that these rocks

were once inhabited, but that they have gradually subsided

in the sea.







1. Now called Zerbi and Jerba, derived from the name of Girba, which even in the time of Aurelius Victor, had supplanted that of Meninx. It is situate in the Gulf of Cabes. According to Solinus, C. Marius lay in concealment here for some time. It was famous for its purple. See B. ix. c. 60.

2. Now called Kerkni, Karkenah, or Ramlah.

3. Now Gherba. It was reckoned as a mere appendage to Cercina, to which it was joined by a mole, and which is found often mentioned in history.

4. Still called Lampedusa, off the coast of Tunis. This island, with Gaulos and Galata, has been already mentioned among the islands off Sicily; see B. iii. c. 14.

5. Now Pantellaria. See B. iii. c. 14.

6. A lofty island surrounded by dangerous cliffs, now called Zowamour or Zembra.

7. In the former editions the word "Ar" is taken to refer to the gimuri, as meaning the same islands. Sillig is however of opinion that totally distinct groups are meant, and punctuates accordingly. The "Ar" were probably mere rocks lying out at sea, which received their name from their fancied resemblance to altars. They are mentioned by Virgil in the neid, B. i. l. 113, upon which lines Servius says, that they were so called because there the Romans and the people of Africa on one occasion made a treaty.




8. Chap. 8. (8.)-Countries On The Other Side Of Africa.


CHAP. 8. (8.)-COUNTRIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF AFRICA.

If we pass through the interior of Africa in a southerly

direction, beyond the Gtuli, after having traversed the

intervening deserts, we shall find, first of all the Liby-

Egyptians[1], and then the country where the Leucthio-







pians[2] dwell. Beyond[3] these are the Nigrit[4], nations of

thiopia, so called from the river Nigris[5], which has been

previously mentioned, the Gymnetes[6], surnamed Pharusii,

and, on the very margin of the ocean, the Perorsi[7], whom

we have already spoken of as lying on the boundaries

of Mauritania. After passing all these peoples, there are

vast deserts towards the east until we come to the Garamantes,

the Augyl, and the Troglodyt; the opinion of

those being exceedingly well founded who place two thiopias

beyond the deserts of Africa, and more particularly

that expressed by Homer[8], who tells us that the thiopians

are divided into two nations, those of the east and those of

the west. The river Nigris has the same characteristics as

the Nile; it produces the calamus, the papyrus, and just

the same animals, and it rises at the same seasons of the

year. Its source is between the Tarrlian thiopians

and the calic. Magium, the city of the latter people,

has been placed by some writers amid the deserts, and, next







to them the Atlantes; then the gipani, half men, half

beasts, the Blemmy[9], the Gamphasantes, the Satyri, and

the Himantopodes.



The Atlantes[10], if we believe what is said, have lost all

characteristics of humanity; for there is no mode of distinguishing

each other among them by names, and as they look

upon the rising and the setting sun, they give utterance to

direful imprecations against it, as being deadly to themselves

and their lands; nor are they visited with dreams[11], like

the rest of mortals. The Troglodyt make excavations in

the earth, which serve them for dwellings; the flesh of serpents

is their food; they have no articulate voice, but

only utter a kind of squeaking noise[12]; and thus are they

utterly destitute of all means of communication by language.

The Garamantes have no institution of marriage among

them, and live in promiscuous concubinage with their

women. The Augyl worship no deities[13] but the gods of the

infernal regions. The Gamphasantes, who go naked, and

are unacquainted with war[14], hold no intercourse whatever

with strangers. The Blemmy are said to have no heads,







their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts. The

Satyri[15], beyond their figure, have nothing in common with

the manners of the human race, and the form of the gipani[16]

is such as is commonly represented in paintings. The

Himantopodes[17] are a race of people with feet resembling

thongs, upon which they move along by nature with a serpentine,

crawling kind of gait. The Pharusii, descended

from the ancient Persians, are said to have been the companions

of Hercules when on his expedition to the Hesperides.

Beyond the above, I have met with nothing relative to

Africa[18] worthy of mention.







1. The greater portion of this Chapter is extracted almost verbatim from the account given by Mela. Ptolemy seems to place the Liby-Egyptians to the south of the Greater and Lesser Oasis, on the route thence to Darfour.

2. Or "White thiopians," men though of dark complexion, not negroes. Marcus is of opinion that the words "intervenientibus desertis" refer to the tract of desert country lying between the Leucthiopians and the Liby-Egyptians, and not to that between the Gtulians on the one hand and the Liby-Egyptians and the Leucthiopians on the other.

3. Meaning to the south and the south-east of these three nations, according to Marcus. Rennel takes the Leucthiopians to be the present Mandingos of higher Senegambia: Marcus however thinks that they are the Azanaghis, who dwell on the edge of the Great Desert, and are not of so black a complexion as the Mandingos.

4. Probably the people of the present Nigritia or Soudan.

5. Marcus is of opinion that Pliny does not here refer to the Joliba of Park and other travellers, as other commentators have supposed; but that he speaks of the river called Zis by the modern geographers, and which Jackson speaks of as flowing from the south-east towards north-west. The whole subject of the Niger is however enwrapped in almost impenetrable obscurity, and as the most recent inquirers have not come to any conclusion on the subject, it would be little more than a waste of time and space to enter upon an investigation of the notions which Pliny and Mela entertained on the subject.

6. From gumno\s, "naked."

7. Mentioned in C. 1 of the present Book.

8. 7 He refers to the words in the Odyssey, B. i. l. 23, 24.-

Ai)qi/opas toi\ di/xqa dedaia/tai, e)/sxatoi a)/ndrwn)

Oi( me\n dusome/nou (Uperi/onos, oi( d) a)nio/ntos.

"The hiopians, the most remote of mankind, are divided into two

parts, the one at the setting of Hyperion, the other at his rising."

9. A tribe of thiopia, whose position varied considerably at different epochs of history. Their predatory and savage habits caused the most extraordinary reports to be spread of their appearance and ferocity. The more ancient geographers bring them as far westward as the region beyond the Libyan Desert, and into the vicinity of the Oases. In the time however of the Antonines, when Ptolemy was composing his description of Africa, they appear to the south and east of Egypt, in the wide and almost unknown tract which lay between the rivers Astapus and Astobores.

10. Mela speaks of this race as situate farthest to the west. The description of them here given is from Herodotus, B. iv. c. 183185, who speaks of them under the name of "Atarantes."

11. The people who are visited by no dreams, are called Atlantes by Herodotus, the same name by which Pliny calls them. He says that their territory is ten days' journey from that of the Atarantes.

12. This also is borrowed from Herodotus. As some confirmation of this account, it is worthy of remark, that the Rock Tibboos of the present day, who, like the ancient Troglodyt, dwell in caves, have so peculiar a kind of speech, that it is compared by the people of Aujelah to nothing but the whistling of birds. The Troglodyt of Fezzan are here referred to, not those of the coasts of the Red Sea.

13. Mela says that they look upon the Manes or spirits of the departed as their only deities.

14. This is said, in almost the same words, of the Garamantes, by Herodotus. The mistake was probably made by Mela in copying from Herodotus, and continued by Pliny when borrowing from him.

15. So called from their supposed resemblance in form to the Satyrs of the ancient mythology, who were represented as little hairy men with horns, long ears, and tails. They were probably monkeys, which had been mistaken for men.

16. Half goat, half man. See the Note relative to gipan, in C. 1 of the present Book, p. 378.

17. Evidently intended to be derived from the Greek i(ma\s "a thong," and po/des "the feet." It is most probable that the name of a savage people in the interior bore a fancied resemblance to this word, upon which the marvellous story here stated was coined for the purpose of tallying with the name. From a statement in the thiopica of Heliodorus, B. x., Marcus suggests that the story as to the Blemmyee having no heads arose from the circumstance, that on the invasion of the Persians they were in the habit of falling on one knee and bowing the head to the breast, by which means, without injury to themselves, they afforded a passage to the horses of the enemy.

18. It must be remembered, as already mentioned, that the ancients looked upon Egypt as forming part of Asia, not of Africa. It seems impossible to say how this supposition arose, when the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez form so natural and so palpable a frontier between Asia and Africa.




9. Chap. 9. (9.)-Egypt And Thebais.


CHAP. 9. (9.)-EGYPT AND THEBAIS.

Joining on to Africa is Asia, the extent of which, according

to Timosthenes, from the Canopic mouth of the Nile

to the mouth of the Euxine, is 2639 miles. From the

mouth of the Euxine to that of Lake Motis is, according to

Eratosthenes, 1545 miles. The whole distance to the Tanais,

including Egypt, is, according to Artemidorus and

Isidorus, 6375[1] miles. The seas of Egypt, which are several







in number, have received their names from those who dwell

upon their shores, for which reason they will be mentioned

together.



Egypt is the country which lies next to Africa; in the interior

it runs in a southerly direction, as far as the territory

of the thiopians, who lie extended at the back of it. The

river Nile, dividing itself, forms on the right and left the

boundary of its lower part, which it embraces on every side[2].

By the Canopic mouth of that river it is separated from

Africa, and by the Pelusiac from Asia, there being a distance

between the two of 170 miles. For this reason it is that

some persons have reckoned Egypt among the islands, the

Nile so dividing itself as to give a triangular form to the

land which it encloses: from which circumstance also

many persons have named Egypt the Delta[3], after that of

the Greek letter so called. The distance from the spot

where the channel of the river first divides into branches, to

the Canopic mouth, is 146 miles, and to the Pelusiac, 166.



The upper part of Egypt, which borders on thiopia, is

known as Thebais. This district is divided into prefectures

of towns, which are generally designated as "Nomes."

These are Ombites[4], Apollopolites[5], Hermonthites[6], Thinites[7],

Phaturites[8], Coptites[9], Tentyrites[10], Diopolites[11], An-







topolites[12], Aphroditopolites[13], and Lycopolites[14]. The district

which lies in the vicinity of Pelusium contains the

following Nomes, Pharbthites, Bubastites[15], Sethroites,

and Tanites[16]. The remaining Nomes are those called the

Arabian; the Hammonian, which lies on the road to the

oracle of Jupiter Hammon; and those known by the names

of Oxyrynchites, Leontopolites, Athribites[17], Cynopolites[18],

Hermopolites[19], Xoites, Mendesim, Sebennytes[20], Cabasites,

Latopolites, Heliopolites, Prosopites, Panopolites, Busirites[21],

Onuphites[22], Sates[23], Ptenethu, Phthemphu[24], Naucratites[25],

Metelites, Gyncopolites, Menelaites,-all in the region of

Alexandria, besides Mareotis in Libya.



Heracleopolites[26] is a Nome on an island[27] of the Nile,







fifty miles in length, upon which there is a city, called the

'City of Hercules.' There are two places called Arsinotes[28]:

these and Memphites[29] extend to the apex[30] of the Delta; adjoining

to which, on the side of Africa, are the two Nomes

of Oasites[31]. Some writers vary in some of these names and

substitute for them other Nomes, such as Heropolites[32]

and Crocodilopolites[33]. Between Arsinotes and Memphites,

a lake[34], 250 miles, or, according to what Mucianus

says, 450 miles in circumference and fifty paces deep,

has been formed by artificial means: after the king by

whose orders it was made, it is called by the name of Mris.

The distance from thence to Memphis is nearly sixty-two

miles, a place which was formerly the citadel of the kings of

Egypt; from thence to the oracle of Hammon it is twelve

days' journey. Memphis is fifteen miles from the spot where

the river Nile divides into the different channels which we

have mentioned as forming the Delta.











1. It is not improbable that these numbers are incorrectly stated in the MSS. of our author.

2. Parisot remarks that Pliny is in error in this statement. A considerable part of Lower Egypt lay both on the right and left of the Delta or island formed by the branches of the Nile. It must be remembered, however, that our author has already included a portion of what was strictly Egypt, in his description of Libya Mareotis.

3. By reason of its triangular form, D.

4. The Ombite nome worshipped the crocodile as the emblem of Sebak. Its capital was Ombos.

5. This nome destroyed the crocodile and worshipped the sun. Its capital was Apollinopolis Magna.

6. It worshipped Osiris and his son Orus. The chief town was Thermonthis.

7. Probably the original kingdom of Menes of This, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy. It worshipped Osiris. Its capital was This, afterwards called Abydos.

8. The nome of Thebes, which was its chief town.

9. Its capital was Coptos.

10. Its chief town was Tentyra. This nome worshipped Athor or Venus, Isis, and Typhon. It destroyed the crocodile.

11. Perhaps the same as the Panopolite or Chemmite nome, which had for its chief town Chemmis or Panopolis. It paid divine honours to a deified hero.

12. It probably worshipped Typhon. Its capital was Antopolis.

13. Probably an offshoot from a nome in the Heptanomis of similar name.

14. Dedicated to the worship of the wolf. Its chief town was Lycopolis. It should be remarked that these names do not appear to be given by Pliny in their proper geographical order.

15. Some of these nomes were inconsiderable and of little importance. The Bubastite nome worshipped Bubastis, Artemis, or Diana, of whom it contained a fine temple.

16. Its chief town was Tanis. In this nome, according to tradition, Moses was born.

17. Its capital was Athribis, where the shrew-mouse and crocodile were worshipped.

18. The seat of the worship of the dog-headed deity Anubis. Its capital was Cynopolis; which is to be distinguished from the Deltic city and other places of that name, as this was a nome of the Heptanomis or Middle Egypt, to which also the Hammonian nome belonged.

19. The border nome of Upper and Middle Egypt.

20. Its capital was Pachnamunis. It worshipped a goddess corresponding to the Greek Leto, or the Latona of the Romans.

21. Its capital was Busiris. It worshipped Isis, and at one period was said to have sacrificed the nomad tribes of Syria and Arabia.

22. Its chief town was Onuphis.

23. Its chief city was Sais, and it worshipped Neith or Athene, and contained the tomb and a sanctuary of Osiris.

24. Its capital was Tava.

25. Its chief town was Naucratis on the coast, the birth-place of Athenus, the Deipnosophist. By some authors it is made part of the Saitic nome. The names given by Pliny vary very considerably from those found in others of the ancient writers.

26. The capital of this nome was Heracleopolis, 'The city of Hercules,' as Pliny calls it, situate, as he says, on an island, at the entrance of the nome of Arsinotes, formed by the Nile and a canal. After Memphis and Heliopolis, it was probably the most important city couth of the Thebaid. Its ruins are inconsiderable; a portion of them are to be seen at the modern hamlet of Amasieh.

27. The capital of this nome was Heracleopolis, 'The city of Hercules,' as Pliny calls it, situate, as he says, on an island, at the entrance of the nome of Arsinotes, formed by the Nile and a canal. After Memphis and Heliopolis, it was probably the most important city couth of the Thebaid. Its ruins are inconsiderable; a portion of them are to be seen at the modern hamlet of Amasieh.

28. He probably means Arsino or Arsinotis, the chief town of the nome of that name, and the city so called at the northern extremity of the Heropolite Gulf in the Red Sea. The former is denoted by the modern district of El-Fayoom, the most fertile of ancient Egypt. At this place the crocodile was worshipped. The Labyrinth and Lake Mris were in this nome. Extensive ruins at Medinet-el-Fayoom, or El-Fares, represent its site. The modern Ardscherud, a village near Suez, corresponds to Arsino on the Red Sea. There is some little doubt however whether this last Arsino is the one here meant by Pliny.

29. Memphis was the chief city of this nome, which was situate in Middle Egypt, and was the capital of the whole country, and the residence of the Pharaohs, who succeeded Psammetichus, B.C. 616. This nome rose in importance on the decline of the kingdom of Thebais, but was afterwards eclipsed by the progress of Alexandria under the successors of Alexander the Great.

30. At which Middle Egypt terminates.

31. They are more generally looked upon as forming one nome only, and included under the name of Hammonium.

32. Its chief town was Heropolis, a principal seat of the worship of Typhon, the evil or destroying genius.

33. The same as the nome of Arsinotes, the capital of which, Arsino, was originally called Crocodilopolis.

34. Now known as Birket-el-Keroum. This was a vast lake on the western side of the Nile in Middle Egypt, used for the reception and subsequent distribution of a part of the overflow of the Nile. The supposition that it was formed by artificial means is now pretty generally exploded, and it is regarded as of natural formation. It was situate in the nome of Arsinotes or Crocodilopolites. Its length seems to be overstated by our author, as at the present day it is only thirty miles in length and five in breadth at the widest part.




10. Chap. 10.-The River Nile.


CHAP. 10.-THE RIVER NILE.

The sources of the Nile[1] are unascertained, and, travelling

as it does for an immense distance through deserts and burning

sands, it is only known to us by common report, having

neither experienced the vicissitudes of warfare, nor been

visited by those arms which have so effectually explored all

other regions. It rises, so far indeed as King Juba was

enabled to ascertain, in a mountain[2] of Lower Mauritania,

not far from the ocean; immediately after which it forms a

lake of standing water, which bears the name of Nilides[3].

In this lake are found the several kinds of fish known by

the names of alabeta[4], coracinus, and silurus; a crocodile

also was brought thence as a proof that this really is the

Nile, and was consecrated by Juba himself in the temple of

Isis at Csarea[5], where it may be seen at the present day.

In addition to these facts, it has been observed that the

waters of the Nile rise in the same proportion in which the







snows and rains of Mauritania increase. Pouring forth from

this lake, the river disdains to flow through arid and sandy

deserts, and for a distance of several days' journey conceals

itself; after which it bursts forth at another lake of greater

magnitude in the country of the Masssyli[6], a people of

Mauritania Csariensis, and thence casts a glance around, as

it were, upon the communities of men in its vicinity, giving

proofs of its identity in the same peculiarities of the animals

which it produces. It then buries itself once again in the

sands of the desert, and remains concealed for a distance of

twenty days' journey, till it has reached the confines of thiopia.

Here, when it has once more become sensible of the presence

of man, it again emerges, at the same source, in all probability,

to which writers have given the name of Niger, or

Black. After this, forming the boundary-line between Africa

and thiopia, its banks, though not immediately peopled by

man, are the resort of numbers of wild beasts and animals

of various kinds. Giving birth in its course to dense

forests of trees, it travels through the middle of thiopia,

under the name of Astapus, a word which signifies, in the

language of the nations who dwell in those regions, "water

issuing from the shades below." Proceeding onwards, it

divides[7] innumerable islands in its course, and some of them

of such vast magnitude, that although its tide runs with the

greatest rapidity, it is not less than five days in passing

them. When making the circuit of Mero, the most

famous of these islands, the left branch of the river is called

Astobores[8], or, in other words, "an arm of the water that

issues from the shades," while the right arm has the name

of Astosapes[9], which adds to its original signification the







meaning of "side[10]." It does not obtain the name of "Nile"

until its waters have again met and are united in a single

stream; and even then, for some miles both above and

below the point of confluence, it has the name of Siris.

Homer has given to the whole of this river the name of

gyptus, while other writers again have called it Triton[11].

Every now and then its course is interrupted by islands which

intervene, and which only serve as so many incentives to

add to the impetuosity of its torrent; and though at last

it is hemmed in by mountains on either side, in no part is

the tide more rapid and precipitate. Its waters then hastening

onwards, it is borne along to the spot in the country of

the thiopians which is known by the name of "Catadupi[12];"

where, at the last Cataract[13], the complaint is, not that it

flows, but that it rushes, with an immense noise between the

rocks that lie in its way: after which it becomes more

smooth, the violence of its waters is broken and subdued,

and, wearied out as it were by the length of the distance it

has travelled, it discharges itself, though by many mouths[14],

into the Egyptian sea. During certain days of the year, however,

the volume of its waters is greatly increased, and as it

traverses the whole of Egypt, it inundates the earth, and,

by so doing, greatly promotes its fertility.



There have been various reasons suggested for this increase

of the river. Of these, however, the most probable are,







either that its waters are driven back by the Etesian winds[15],

which are blowing at this season of the year from an opposite

direction, and that the sea which lies beyond is driven

into the mouths of the river; or else that its waters are

swollen by the summer rains of thiopia[16], which fall from

the clouds conveyed thither by the Etesian winds from

other parts of the earth. Timus the mathematician has

alleged a reason of an occult nature: he says that the source

of the river is known by the name of Phiala, and that the

stream buries itself in channels underground, where it sends

forth vapours generated by the heat among the steaming

rocks amid which it conceals itself; but that, during the days

of the inundation, in consequence of the sun approaching

nearer to the earth, the waters are drawn forth by the

influence of his heat, and on being thus exposed to the

air, overflow; after which, in order that it may not be

utterly dried up, the stream hides itself once more. He

says that this takes place at the rising of the Dog-Star,

when the sun enters the sign of Leo, and stands in a vertical

position over the source of the river, at which time at

that spot there is no shadow thrown. Most authors, however,

are of opinion, on the contrary, that the river flows in greater

volume when the sun takes his departure for the north, which

he does when he enters the signs of Cancer and Leo, because

its waters then are not dried up to so great an extent; while

on the other hand, when he returns towards the south pole and

re-enters Capricorn, its waters are absorbed by the heat,

and consequently flow in less abundance. If there is

any one inclined to be of opinion, with Timus, that the

waters of the river may be drawn out of the earth by the

heat, it will be as well for him to bear in mind the fact, that

the absence of shadow is a phnomenon which lasts continuously[17]

in these regions.







The Nile begins to increase at the next new moon after

the summer solstice, and rises slowly and gradually as the

sun passes through the sign of Cancer; it is at its greatest

height while the sun is passing through Leo, and it falls as

slowly and gradually as it arose while he is passing through

the sign of Virgo. It has totally subsided between its

banks, as we learn from Herodotus, on the hundredth day,

when the sun has entered Libra. While it is rising it has been

pronounced criminal for kings or prefects even to sail upon

its waters. The measure of its increase is ascertained by

means of wells[18]. Its most desirable height is sixteen cubits[19];

if the waters do not attain that height, the overflow is not

universal; but if they exceed that measure, by their slowness

in receding they tend to retard the process of cultivation.

In the latter case the time for sowing is lost, in consequence

of the moisture of the soil; in the former, the ground is so

parched that the seed-time comes to no purpose. The country

has reason to make careful note of either extreme. When

the water rises to only twelve cubits, it experiences the

horrors of famine; when it attains thirteen, hunger is still

the result; a rise of fourteen cubits is productive of gladness;

a rise of fifteen sets all anxieties at rest; while an

increase of sixteen is productive of unbounded transports of

joy. The greatest increase known, up to the present time,

is that of eighteen cubits, which took place in the time

of the Emperor Claudius; the smallest rise was that of five,

in the year of the battle of Pharsalia[20], the river by this

prodigy testifying its horror, as it were, at the murder of

Pompeius Magnus. When the waters have reached their

greatest height, the people open the embankments and admit

them to the lands. As each district is left by the waters,

the business of sowing commences. This is the only river

in existence that emits no vapours[21].



The Nile first enters the Egyptian territory at Syene[22], on







the frontiers of thiopia; that is the name of a peninsula a

mile in circumference, upon which Castra[23] is situate, on the

side of Arabia. Opposite to it are the four islands of

Phil[24], at a distance of 600 miles from the place where

the Nile divides into two channels; at which spot, as

we have already stated, the Delta, as it is called, begins.

This, at least, is the distance, according to Artemidorus,

who also informs us that there were in it 250 towns; Juba

says, however, that the distance between these places is 400

miles. Aristocreon says that the distance from Elephantis

to the sea is 750 miles; Elephantis[25] being an inhabited

island four miles below the last Cataract, sixteen[26] beyond

Syene, 585 from Alexandria, and the extreme limit of the

navigation of Egypt. To such an extent as this have the

above-named authors[27] been mistaken! This island is the

place of rendezvous for the vessels of the thiopians: they

are made to fold up[28], and the people carry them on their

shoulders whenever they come to the Cataracts.











1. And it is generally supposed that they are so up to the present day. The ethnographer Jablonski is of opinion that this river derives its name from the Coptish word tneialei "to rise at stated times." Servius, the commentator on Virgil, says that it is derived from the two Greek words ne/a i)lu\s "fresh mud," in allusion to the fresh mud or slime which it leaves after each inundation. Singularly enough, Champollion prefers this silly etymology to that suggested by Jablonski.

2. An interesting disquisition on the probable sources of the Nile, as viewed by the ancients, is to be found in the Ninth Book of Lucan's Pharsalia. The Indian word "nilas," "black," has also been suggested as its possible origin.

3. What spot is meant under this name, if indeed it is anything more than the creation of fancy, it is impossible to ascertain with any degree of precision. It is possible however that the ancients may have had some knowledge of Lake Tchad, and the Mountains of the Moon, or Djebel-Kumri, though at the same time it is more than doubtful that the Nile has its source in either of those localities, the former especially.

4. Perhaps a kind of river lamprey. As to the Coracinus, see B. ix. c. 24, 32, and B. xxxii. c. 19, 24, 34, 44, and 53; and as to the Silurus, B. ix. c. 17, 25, and B. xxxii. c. 31, 36, 40, 43, 44, &c.

5. The modern Vacur in Northern Africa.

6. A district which in reality was at least 1200 or 1500 miles distant from any part of the Nile, and probably near 3000 from its real source.

7. Spargit." It is doubtful whether this word means here "waters," or "divides." Probably however the latter is its meaning.

8. This is the third or eastern branch of the river, now known as the Tacazze. It rises in the highlands of Abyssinia, in about 1140? north lat. and 3940? east long., and joins the main stream of the Nile, formed by the union of the Abiad and the Azrek, in 1745? north lat. and about 345? east long.; the point of junction being the apex of the island of Mero, here mentioned by Pliny.

9. Possibly by this name he designates the Bahr-el-Abied, or White River, the main stream of the Nile, the sources of which have not been hitherto satisfactorily ascertained. The Astapus is supposed to have been really the name of the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue River, the third branch of the Nile, the sources of which are in the highlands of Abyssinia, in about 1140? north lat. and 3940? east long.

10. Or "side of the water that issues from the shades." As Hardouin says, this does not appear to be a very satisfactory explanation.

11. Said by Tzetzes to have been derived from the Greek tri(tos, "the third," because it had three times changed its name: having been called, first, the Ocean; secondly, Atus, or the Eagle; and thirdly, gyptus.

12. Or the "Cataracts," for which it is the Greek name. The most northerly of these cataracts, called the First Cataract, is, and always has been, the southern boundary of Egypt. According to the most recent accounts, these Cataracts are devoid of any stupendous features, such as characterize the Falls of Niagara.

13. The one now called the First Cataract.

14. Seven mouths in ancient times, which have now dwindled down to two of any importance, the Damietta mouth on the east, and the Rosetta on the west.

15. The Etesians are periodical winds, which blow steadily from one quarter for forty days each year, during the season of the Dog-days. The opinion here stated was that promulgated by Thales the philosopher. Seneca refutes it in B. iv. c. 2. of his Qust. Nat.

16. This was the opinion of Democritus of Abdera, and of Agatharchidas of Cnidos. It is combated by Diodorus Siculus, B. i., but it is the opinion most generally received at the present day. See the disquisition on the subject introduced in the Ninth book of Lucan's Pharsalia.

17. And that the high tide or inundation would be consequently continuous as well.

18. The principal well for this purpose was called the "Nilometer," or "Gauge for the Nile."

19. On this subject see Pliny, B. xviii. c. 47, and B. xxxvi. c. 11.

20. Seneca says that the Nile did not rise as usual in the tenth and eleventh years of the reign of Cleopatra, and that the circumstance was said to bode ruin to her and Antony.-Nat. Qust. B. iv. c. 2.

21. He means dense clouds, productive of rain, not thin mists. See what is said of the Borysthenes by our author, B. xxxi. c. 30.

22. Syene was a city of Upper Egypt, on the eastern bank of the Nile just below the First Cataract, and was looked upon as the southern

frontier city of Egypt against thiopia. It was an important point in

the geography and astronomy of the ancients; for, lying just under the

tropic of Cancer, it was chosen as the place through which they drew

their chief parallel of latitude. The sun was vertical to Syene at the

time of the summer solstice, and a well was shown there where the face

of the sun was seen at noon at that time. Its present name is Assouan

or Ossouan.

23. If this word means the "Camp," it does not appear to be known what camp is meant. Most editions have "Cerast," in which case it would mean that at Syene the Cerastes or horned serpent is found.

24. One of these (if indeed Phil did consist of more than a single island, which seems doubtful) is now known as Djeziret-el-Birbe, the "Island of the Temple."

25. This island was seated just below the Lesser Cataract, opposite Syene, and near the western bank of the Nile. At this point the river becomes navigable downward to its mouths, and the traveller from Mero or thiopia enters Egypt Proper. The original name of this island was "Ebo," Eb being in the language of hieroglyphics the symbol of the elephant and ivory. It was remarkable for its fertility and verdure, and the Arabs of the present day designate the island as Djesiret-el-Sag, or "the Blooming."

26. This is a mistake of Pliny's, for it was opposite to Syene. Brotier thinks that Pliny intended to write' Phil,' but by mistake inserted Syene.

27. Artemidorus, Juba, and Aristocreon.

28. They were probably made of papyrus, or else of hides, like the British coracles.




11. Chap. 11.-The Cities Of Egypt.


CHAP. 11.-THE CITIES OF EGYPT.

Egypt, besides its boast of extreme antiquity, asserts that

it contained, in the reign of King Amasis[1], 20,000 inhabited

cities: in our day they are still very numerous, though no

longer of any particular note. Still however we find the

following ones mentioned as of great renown-the city of

Apollo[2]; next, that of Leucothea[3]; then Great Diospolis[4],

otherwise Thebes, known to fame for its hundred gates;

Coptos[5], which from its proximity to the Nile, forms its

nearest emporium for the merchandise of India and Arabia;

then the town of Venus[6], and then another town of Jupi-







ter[7]. After this comes Tentyris[8], below which is Abydus[9], the

royal abode of Memnon, and famous for a temple of Osiris[10],

which is situate in Libya[11], at a distance from the river of

seven miles and a half. Next to it comes Ptolemais[12], then

Panopolis[13], and then another town of Venus[14], and, on the

Libyan side, Lycon[15], where the mountains form the boundary

of the province of Thebais. On passing these, we come

to the towns of Mercury[16], Alabastron[17], the town of







Dogs[18], and that of Hercules already mentioned[19]. We next

come to Arsino[20], and Memphis[21], which has been previously

mentioned; between which last and the Nome of Arsinotes,

upon the Libyan side, are the towers known as the

Pyramids, the Labyrinth[22] on Lake Mris, in the construction

of which no wood was employed, and the town of

Crialon[23]. Besides these, there is one place in the interior,

on the confines of Arabia, of great celebrity, the City of

the Sun[24].







(10.) With the greatest justice, however, we may lavish

our praises upon Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great

on the shores of the Egyptian Sea, upon the soil of Africa,

at twelve miles' distance from the Canopic Mouth and near

Lake Mareotis[25]; the spot having previously borne the name

of Rhacotes. The plan of this city was designed by the

architect Dinochares[26], who is memorable for the genius which

he displayed in many ways. Building the city upon a wide

space[27] of ground fifteen miles in circumference, he formed

it in the circular shape of a Macedonian chlamys[28], uneven

at the edge, giving it an angular projection on the right and

left; while at the same time he devoted one-fifth part of the

site to the royal palace.



Lake Mareotis, which lies on the south side of the city,

is connected by a canal which joins it to the Canopic mouth,

and serves for the purposes of communication with the interior.

It has also a great number of islands, and is thirty







miles across, and 150 in circumference, according to Claudius

Csar. Other writers say that it is forty schni in length,

making the schnum to be thirty stadia; hence, according

to them, it is 150 miles[29] in length and the same in

breadth.



There are also, in the latter part of the course of the Nile,

many towns of considerable celebrity, and more especially

those which have given their names to the mouths of the

river-I do not mean, all the mouths, for there are no less

than twelve of them, as well as four others, which the people

call the False Mouths[30]. I allude to the seven more famous

ones, the Canopic[31] Mouth, next to Alexandria, those of Bolbitine[32],

Sebennys[33], Phatnis[34], Mendes[35], Tanis[36], and, last of all,

Pelusium[37]. Besides the above there are the towns of Butos[38],







Pharbthos[39], Leontopolis[40], Athribis[41], the town of Isis[42],

Busiris[43], Cynopolis[44], Aphrodites[45], Sais[46], and Naucratis[47], from

which last some writers call that the Naucratitic Mouth,

which is by others called the Heracleotic, and mention it

instead[48] of the Canopic Mouth, which is the next to it.











1. The last king of the line of Psammetichus, B.C. 569. He succeeded Apries, whom the Egyptians put to death. He died just before the invasion by Cambyses, having displayed great abilities as a ruler.

2. There was the Greater Apollinopolis, the modem Edfoo, in the Thebaid, on the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 25 north, about thirteen miles below the lesser Cataract: its inhabitants were enemies of the crocodile and its worshippers. The remains of two temples there are considered second only to the temple of Denderah as specimens of the sacred structures of Egypt. A Lesser Apollinopolis was in Upper Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 27 north. Another Lesser Apollinopolis was a town of the Thebaid in the Coptite Nome, in lat. 26 north, situate between Thebes and Coptos. It was situate at the present Kuss.

3. Its site is unknown. Hardouin suggests that it is the Eilethuia of Ptolemy, the modern El-Kab.

4. City of Jupiter," the Greek name for Thebes, the No or No Ammon of Scripture. It stood in the centre of the Thebaid, on both banks of the Nile, above Coptos, and in the Nomos Coptites. Its ruins, which are the most magnificent in the world, enclose within their site the four villages of Carnac, Luxor, Medinet Abou, and Gournou.

5. Its hieroglyphical name was Kobto, and its site is now occupied by the modern town of Kouft or Keft. It was situate in lat. 26 north, on the right bank of the Nile, about a mile from its banks. As a halting place or rather watering-place for the caravans, it was enriched by the commerce between Libya and Egypt on the one hand, and Arabia and India and Egypt on the other, the latter being carried on through the port of Berenice on the Red Sea, founded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 266. In the seventh century of the Christian era, it bore for some time the name of Justinianopolis. There are a few remains of Roman buildings to be seen on its site.

6. Also called Aphrodite or Aphroditopolis. Of this name there were several towns or cities in ancient Egypt. In Lower Egypt there was Atarbechis, thus named, and a town mentioned by Strabo in the nome of Leontopolites. In the Heptanomis or Middle Egypt there was the place, the ruins of which are called Aftyeh, on the east side of the Nile, and the capital of the nome of Aphroditopolites. In Upper Egypt or the Thebais there was the present Tachta, on the west side of the Nile, between Ptolemais and Panopolis, capital of another nome of Aphroditopolites, and that one the ruins of which are now called Deir, on the west bank of the Nile, higher up than the former, and, like it, some distance from the river. It was situate in the nome Hermonthites.

7. Another Diospolis. Great Diospolis is mentioned in the preceding page.

8. Or Tentyra. The modern Dendera of the Arabs, called Dendri or Hidendri by the ancient Egyptians.

9. In ancient times called This, and in Coptic Ebt, the ruins of which are now known as Arbat-el-Matfoon. It was the chief town of the Nomos Thinites, and was situate in lat. 2610? north and long. 323? east. In the Thebaid it ranked next to Thebes itself. Here according to general belief was the burial-place of Osiris. In the time of Strabo it had sunk into a mere village. Its ruins, though nearly buried in the sand, are very extensive. There is, however, some uncertainty as to the exact identity of This with Abydus.

10. The ruins of these places are still to be seen at Abydus.

11. He calls the whole of the country on the western bank of the Nile by this name.

12. Called Absou or Absa by the Arabs, and Pso by the ancient Egyptians. It has been suggested that it was the same place as This, more generally identified with Abydus.

13. Its site is now called Ekhmin or Akhmin by the Arabs, Khmim being its ancient Egyptian name. It was the chief town of the nome of Panopolites, and the deity Phthah was worshipped there under the form of Priapus.

14. Another Aphroditopolis, the present Tachta, mentioned above, in Note6 in the last page. Pliny distinguishes it from that now called Deir, mentioned above.

15. Now known as Es-Siout.

16. Or Hermopolis-the modern Esh-moon or Ash-mounion, on the eastern bank of the Nile, in lat. 2754? north. It was the capital of the Hermopolite nome in the Heptanomis. It was a place of great opulence and densely populated. The deities Typhon and Thoth were principally worshipped at this place. The latter, the inventor of the pen and letters, nearly corresponded with the Hermes of the Greeks (the Mercury of the Romans), from which the Hellenized name of the place. Its ruins are very extensive.

17. This town was no doubt connected with the alabaster quarries of Mount Alabasternus, now Mount St. Anthony, and the hill of Alabastrites, now the Cteau Hessan.

18. Or Cynopolis, the chief place of the Cynopolite nome. The Dog-headed deity Anubis was worshipped here. The modern Samallus occupies its site. This place was in the Heptanomis, but there were several other towns of the same name, one of which was situate in the Delta or Lower Egypt.

19. In C. 9, when speaking of the nome of Heracleopolites; of which nome, this place, called Heracleopolis, was the capital. It was situate at the entrance of the valley of the Fayoum, on an island formed by the Nile and a canal. After Memphis and Heliopolis it was probably the most important city north of the Thebaid. It furnished two dynasties of kings to Egypt. The ichneumon was worshipped here, from which it may be inferred that the people were hostile to the crocodile. Its ruins are inconsiderable; the village of Anasieh covers part of them.

20. The capital of the nome of Arsinoites, seated on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and Lake Mris, south-west of Memphis, in lat. 29 north. It was called under the Pharaohs, "the City of Crocodiles," from the reverence paid by the people to that animal. Its ruins are to be seen at Medinet-el-Fayoom or El-Fares.

21. Its magnificent ruins, known by the name of Menf and Metrabenny, are to be seen about ten miles above the pyramids of Gizeh.

22. This lay beyond Lake Mris, or Birket-el-Keroun, at a short distance from the city of Arsino. It had 3000 apartments, 1500 of which were underground. The accounts given by modern travellers of its supposed ruins do not agree with what we have learned from the ancients respecting its architecture and site. The purposes for which it was built are unknown. Its supposed site is called Havara.

23. If this is not an abbreviation or corruption for Crocodilon, as Hardouin suggests, it may probably mean the "town of Rams," from the worship perhaps of that animal there.

24. Heliopolis or Rameses. In Scripture it is called by the names of On and No-Gen. xli. 45 and Ezek. xxx. 15. It stood on the eastern side of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, near the right bank of the Great Canal which connected the river with the Red Sea, and close adjoining to the present overland route for travellers to India. It was one of the most ancient of the Egyptian cities; here the father-in-law of Joseph exercised the office of high-priest, and here the prophet Jeremiah is supposed to have written his Book of Lamentations. Its priests were the great depositaries of the theological and historical learning of Egypt. Solon, Thales, and Plato were reputed each to have visited its schools. According to Macrobius, Baalbec, the Syrian City of the Sun, was a colony from this place. It was the capital of the nome Heliopolites, and paid worship to the sun and the bull Mnevis, the rival of Apis. From Josephus we learn that after the dispersion and fall of the tribes of Judah and Israel, great numbers of the Jews took refuge at this place, forming almost one-half of its population. The ruins, which were extremely magnificent, occupied in the twelfth century an area nearly three miles in extent. Pliny speaks of the great obelisk there, which is still standing. (See B. xxxvi. c. 9.) The village of Matarieh occupies a part of its site, and besides the obelisk of red granite, there are a few remains of the Temple of the Sun.

25. Now called Birk-el-Mariout.

26. Or Dinocrates. He was the architect of the new temple of Diana at Ephesus, which was built after the destruction of the former one by Herostratus. It was this architect who formed a design for cutting Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander, with a city in the right hand and a reservoir of the mountain streams in the left.

27. Holland seems to think that the word "laxitate" applies to chlamys.

28. The chlamys was a scarf or cloak worn over the shoulders, and especially used by military persons of high rank. It did not reach lower than the knees, and was open in front, covering only the neck, back, and shoulders.

29. Its real dimensions were something less than 300 stadia, or thirty geographical miles long, and rather more than 150 stadia wide.

30. Or "Pseudostomata." These were crossed in small boats, as they were not navigable for ships of burden.

31. In the Pharaonic times Canopus was the capital of the nome of Menelates, and the principal harbour of the Delta. It probably owed its name to the god Canobus, a pitcher full of holes, with a human head, which was worshipped here with peculiar pomp. It was remarkable for the number of its festivals and the general dissoluteness of its morals. Traces of its ruins are to be seen about three miles from the modern Aboukir.

32. Corresponding to the modern Raschid or Rosetta. It is supposed that this place was noted for its manufactory of chariots.

33. The town of Sebennys or Sebennytum, now Samannoud, gave name to one of the nomes, and the Sebennytic Mouth of the Nile.

34. Or the Pathinetic or Bucolic Mouth, said to be the same as the modern Damietta Mouth.

35. The capital of the Mendesian nome, called by the Arabs Ochmoun. This mouth is now known as the Deibeh Mouth.

36. Now called Szan or Tzan. The Tanitic Mouth, which is sometimes called the Saitic, is at the present day called Omm-Faredj.

37. Its ruins are to be seen at the modern Tineh. This city in early times had the name of Abaris. It was situate on the eastern side of the most easterly mouth of the Nile, which, after it, was called the Pelusiac Mouth, about two miles from the sea, in the midst of morasses. Being the fiontier city towards Syria and Arabia it was strongly fortified. It was the birth-place of Ptolemy the geographer.

38. Butos or Buto stood on the Sebennytic arm of the Nile near its mouth, on the southern shores of the Butic Lake. It was the chief seat of the worship of the goddess Buto, whom the Greeks identified with Leto or Latona. The modern Kem Kasir occupies its site.

39. Called Harbait by the Arabs, and Farbait by the ancient Egyptians.

40. In the Delta. It was the capital of the nome of Leontopolites, and probably of late foundation, as no writer previous to Pliny mentions it. Its site is uncertain, but Thall-Essabouah, the "Hill of the Lion," has been suggested.

41. The chief town of the Athribitic nome in Lower Egypt. It stood on the eastern bank of the Tanitic branch of the Nile. This nome and town derived their name from the goddess Thriphis, whom the inscriptions there and at Panopolis designate as the "most great goddess." The ruins at Atrieb or Trieb, at the spot where the modern canal of Moueys turns off from the Nile, represent the ancient Athribis. They are very extensive, and among them are considerable remains of the Roman era.

42. This was situate near the city or town of Busiris in the Delta. The modern village of Bahbeyt is supposed to cover the ruins of the temple of Isis.

43. The modern Busyr or Abousir, where considerable ruins of the ancient city are still to be seen. It was the chief town of the nome of Busirites, and stood south of Sais, near the Phatnitic mouth, on the western bank of the Nile. This was also the name of a town in Middle Egypt, in the neighbourhood of Memphis, and represented by another village of the name of Abousir. Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 16, speaks of the Catacombs in its vicinity.

44. The place of that name in the Delta is here meant.

45. Probably the town of that name, otherwise called Aphroditopolis, in the nome of Leontopolites.

46. The ruins of which are now called Sa-el-Hajjar. It was situate in the Delta, on the east side of the Canopic branch of the Nile. It was the ancient capital of Lower Egypt and contained the palace and burial-place of the Pharaohs. It was the chief seat of the worship of the Egyptian goddess Neith, also known as Sais. It gave its name to the nome of Sates.

47. It was situate in the Delta of Egypt and in the nome of Sates, on the eastern bank of the Canopic branch of the Nile. It was a colony of the Milesians, founded probably in the reign of Amasis, about B.C. 550, and remained a pure Greek city. It was the only place in Egypt in which, in the time of the later Pharaohs, foreigners were permitted to settle and trade. In later times it was famous for the worship of Aphrodite or Venus, and rivalled Canopus in the dissoluteness of its manners.

48. Ptolemy the geographer does this.




12. Chap. 12. (11.)-The Coasts Of Arabia, Situate On The Egyptian Sea.


CHAP. 12. (11.)-THE COASTS OF ARABIA, SITUATE ON THE EGYPTIAN SEA.

Beyond the Pelusiac Mouth is Arabia[1], which extends to

the Red Sea, and joins the Arabia known by the surname of

Happy[2], so famous for its perfumes and its wealth. This[3]

is called Arabia of the Catabanes[4], the Esbonit[5], and the

Scenit[6]; it is remarkable for its sterility, except in the parts

where it joins up to Syria, and it has nothing remarkable

in it except Mount Casius[7]. The Arabian nations of the

Canchli[8] join these on the east, and, on the south the

Cedrei[9], both of which peoples are adjoining to the Nabati[10].

The two gulfs of the Red Sea, where it borders upon







Egypt, are called the Heropolitic[11] and the lanitic[12]. Between

the two towns of lana[13] and Gaza[14] upon our sea[15]

there is a distance of 150 miles. Agrippa says that Arsino[16],

a town on the Red Sea, is, by way of the desert, 125 miles

from Pelusium. How different the characteristics impressed

by nature upon two places separated by so small a distance!







1. Arabia Petra; that part of Arabia which immediately joins up to Egypt.

2. Called Arabia Felix to the present day.

3. The part of Arabia which joins up to Egypt, Arabia Petra namely.

4. Strabo places this people as far south as the mouth of the Red Sea, i.e. on the east of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Forster (in his 'Arabia,' vol. ii.) takes this name to be merely an inversion of Beni Kahtan, the great tribe which mainly peoples, at the present day, central and southern Arabia.

5. Probably the people of Esebon, the Heshbon of Scripture, spoken of by Jerome as being the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites.

6. The "tent-people," from the Greek skhnh\, "a tent." This seems to have been a name common to the nomadic tribes of Arabia. Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of them as being the same as the Saraceni or Saracens.

7. The modern El Katieh or El Kas; which is the summit of a lofty range of sandstone hills on the borders of Egypt and Arabia Petra, immediately south of the Sirbonian Lake and the Mediterranean Sea. On its western side was the tomb of Pompey the Great.

8. The same as the Amalekites of Scripture, according to Hardouin. Bochart thinks that they are the same as the Chavili, who are mentioned as dwelling in the vicinity of Babylon.

9. The position which Pliny assigns to this nation would correspond with the northern part of the modern district of the Hedjaz. Forster identifies them with the Caurait, or Cadrait of Arrian, and the Darr of Ptolemy, tracing their origin to the Cedar or Kedar, the son of Ishmael, mentioned in Genesis xxv. 13, and represented by the modern Harb nation and the modern town of Kedeyre. See Psalm cxx. 5: "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!"

10. An Arabian people, said to have descended from the eldest son of Ishmael, who had their original abodes in the north-western part of the Arabian peninsula, east and south-east of the Moabites and Edomites. Extending their territory, we find the Nabati of Greek and Roman history occupying nearly the whole of Arabia Petra, along the northeast coast of the Red Sea, on both sides of the lanitic Gulf, and on the Iduman mountains, where they had their capital, Petra, hewn out of the rock.

11. Now the Bahr-el-Soueys, or Gulf of Suez.

12. The Bahr-el-Akabah, or Gulf of Akabah.

13. Now Akabah, an Iduman town of Arabia Petra, situate at the head of the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, which was called after this town "laniticus Sinus." It was annexed to the kingdom of Judah, with the other cities of Iduma, by David, 2 Sam. viii. 14, and was one of the harbours on the Red Sea from which the ships of Solomon sailed for Ophir. See 1 Kings ix. 26 and 2 Chron. viii. 17. It was a place of commercial importance under the Romans and the head-quarters of the Tenth Legion. A fortress now occupies its site.

14. Its site is now known as Guzzah. It was the last city on the south-west frontier of Palestine, and from the earliest times was a strongly fortified place. It was taken from the Philistines by the Jews more than once, but as often retaken. It was also taken by Cyrus the Great and Alexander, and afterwards by Ptolemy Lagus, who destroyed it. It afterwards recovered, and was again destroyed by Alexander Jannus, B.C. 96, after which, it was rebuilt by Gabinius and ultimately united to the Roman province of Syria. In A.D. 65 it was again destroyed, but was rebuilt, and finally fell into the hands of the Arabs, in A.D. 634.

15. Meaning the Mediterranean.

16. The present Suez. See B. vi. c. 33.




13. Chap. 13. (12.)-Syria.


CHAP. 13. (12.)-SYRIA.

Next to these countries Syria occupies the coast, once the

greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names; for the

part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palstina,

Juda, Cle[1], and Phnice. The country in the interior

was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the

south, Babylonia. The part that lies between the Euphrates







and the Tigris was called Mesopotamia, that beyond Taurus

Sophene, and that on this side of the same chain Comagene.

Beyond Armenia was the country of Adiabene, anciently

called Assyria, and at the part where it joins up to Cilicia,

it was called Antiochia. Its length, between Cilicia and

Arabia[2], is 470 miles, and its breadth, from Seleucia Pieria[3] to

Zeugma[4], a town on the Euphrates, 175. Those who make

a still more minute division of this country will have it that

Phnice is surrounded by Syria, and that first comes the

maritime coast of Syria, part of which is Iduma and Juda,

after that Phnice, and then Syria. The whole of the tract

of sea that lies in front of these shores is called the Phnician

Sea. The Phnician people enjoy the glory of having

been the inventors of letters[5], and the first discoverers of the

sciences of astronomy, navigation, and the art of war.







1. Or the "Hollow" Syria. This was properly the name given, after the Macedonian conquest, to the great valley between the two great ranges of Mount Lebanon, in the south of Syria, bordering upon Phnicia on the west, and Palestine on the south. In the wars between the Ptolemies and the Seleucid, the name was applied to the whole of the southern portion of Syria, which became subject for some time to the kings of Egypt; but under the Romans, it was confined to Clesyria proper with the district east of Anti-Libanus, about Damascus, and a portion of Palestine east of Jordan.

2. Or Ostracine, the northern point of Arabia.

3. This was a great fortress of Syria founded by Seleucus B.C. 300, at the foot of Mount Pieria and overhanging the Mediterranean, four miles north of the Orontes and twelve miles west of Antioch. It had fallen entirely to decay in the sixth century of our era. There are considerable ruins of its harbour and mole, its walls and necropolis. They bear the name of Seleukeh or Kepse.

4. From the Greek zeu=gma, "a junction ;" built by Seleucus Nicator on the borders of Commagene and Cyrrhestice, on the west bank of the Euphrates, where the river had been crossed by a bridge of boats constructed by Alexander the Great. The modern Rumkaleh is supposed to occupy its site.

5. On this subject see B. vii. c. 57. The invention of letters and the first cultivation of the science of astronomy have been claimed for the Egyptians and other nations. The Tyrians were probably the first who applied the science of astronomy to the purposes of navigation. There is little doubt that warfare must have been studied as an art long before the existence of the Phnician nation.




14. Chap. 14.-Iduma, Palstina, And Samaria.


CHAP. 14.-IDUMA, PALSTINA, AND SAMARIA.

On leaving Pelusium we come to the Camp of Chabrias[1],

Mount Casius[2], the temple of Jupiter Casius, and the

tomb of Pompeius Magnus. Ostracine[3], at a distance of

sixty-five miles from Pelusium, is the frontier town of Ara-







bia. (13.) After this, at the point where the Sirbonian

Lake[4] becomes visible, Iduma and Palstina begin. This

lake, which some writers have made to be 150 miles in circumference,

Herodotus has placed at the foot of Mount Casius;

it is now an inconsiderable fen. The towns are Rhinocolura[5],

and, in the interior, Rhaphea[6], Gaza, and, still more inland,

Anthedon[7]: there is also Mount Argaris[8]. Proceeding along

the coast we come to the region of Samaria; Ascalo[9], a free

town, Azotus[10], the two Jamni[11], one of them in the in-







terior; and Joppe[12], a city of the Phnicians, which existed,

it is said, before the deluge of the earth. It is situate on

the slope of a hill, and in front of it lies a rock, upon which

they point out the vestiges of the chains by which Andromeda

was bound[13]. Here the fabulous goddess Ceto[14] is

worshipped. Next to this place comes Apollonia[15], and

then the Tower of Strato[16], otherwise Csarea, built by







King Herod, but now the Colony of Prima Flavia, established

by the Emperor Vespasianus: this place is the frontier

town of Palstina, at a distance of 188 miles from the

confines of Arabia; after which comes Phnice[17]. In the interior

of Samaria are the towns of Neapolis[18], formerly called

Mamortha, Sebaste[19], situate on a mountain, and, on a still

more lofty one, Gamala[20].







1. Strabo places this between Mount Casius and Pelusium.

2. See C. 12 of the present Book. Chabrias the Athenian aided Nectanebus II. against his revolted subjects.

3. Its ruins are to be seen on the present Ras Straki.

4. Now called the Sabakat Bardowal. It lay on the coast of Egypt, east of Mount Casius, and it is not improbable that the boundary-line between Egypt and Palstina or Iduma ran through the middle of its waters. It was strongly impregnated with asphaltus. A connection formerly existed between it and the Mediterranean, but this being stopped up, it gradually grew smaller by evaporation and is now nearly dry.

5. The present Kulat-el-Arich or El Arish, situate at the mouth of the brook El-Arish, called by the Scriptures the "river of Egypt." Its name signifies in Greek, "cutting off of noses," and is probably derived from the fact of its having been the place of exile for criminals who had been so mutilated, under the thiopian kings of Egypt. Poinsinet suggests however that the name means the "town of the circumcised."

6. The place on its site is still called Refah, but it was really situate on the coast. Gaza has been already mentioned in a Note to C. 12, p. 423.

7. Anthedon was on the coast of Palestine, although Pliny says to the contrary. It was situate about three miles to the south-west of Gaza, and was destroyed by Alexander Jannus. In the time of Julian it was addicted to the worship of Astarte, the Syrian Venus. According to Dupinet the present name of its site is Daron.

8. Brotier says that this is the same as the Mount Gerizim of Scripture, but that was situate in Samaria, a considerable distance from the southern coast of Palstina. Pliny is the only author that mentions it.

9. The Ascalon of Scripture, one of the five cities of the Philistines, situate on the coast of the Mediterranean, between Gaza and Jamnia. In early times it was the seat of the worship of Derceto, a fish with a woman's head. The ruins, which still bear the name of Askuln, are very extensive, and indicative of great strength. The shalot or scallion was originally a native of this place, and thence derived its name.

10. The Ashdod of Scripture. It was one of the five cities of the Philistines and the chief seat of the worship of Dagon. Herodotus states that it stood a siege of twenty-nine years from Psammetichus, king of Egypt. It was afterwards taken and retaken several times. It was situate between Ascalon and Jamnia, and its site is indicated by the modern village of Esdad, but no ruins of the ancient city are visible.

11. One of these was a city of the Philistines, assigned to the tribe of Judah in the fifteenth Chapter of Joshua, 45, according to the Septuagint version, but omitted in the Hebrew, which only mentions it in 2 Chron. xxvi. 6 (where it is called Jabneh in the English version), as one of the cities of the Philistines taken and destroyed by King Uzziah. The place of this name that lay in the interior, is probably the one spoken of by Josephus as in that part of the tribe of Judah occupied by the children of Dan, as also in the 1 Maccabees, x. 6971. The one was probably the port of the other. The ruins of the port still retain the name of Yebora, and are situate on an eminence about an hour's distance from the sea, on the banks of the river Rbin.

12. Or Joppa of Scripture, now called Yfa or Jaffa. The timber from Lebanon intended for both the first and second Temples was landed here. It was taken and retaken more than once during the wars of the Maccabees, and was finally annexed by Pompey to the Roman province of Syria. It is mentioned several times in the New Testament in connection with Saint Peter. In the Jewish war, having become a refuge for pirates, it was taken by Cestius and destroyed, and even the very ruins were demolished by Vespasian. It was afterwards rebuilt, and in the time of the Crusades was alternately in the hands of the Christians and the Moslems.

13. To be devoured by the sea monster, from which she was delivered by Perseus, who had borrowed for the occasion the talaria or winged shoes of Mercury. In B. ix. c. 4, Pliny states that the skeleton of the monster was exhibited at Rome by M. milius Scaurus, when he was Curule dile.

14. Probably the same as Derceto or Atargatis, the fish-goddess with a woman's head, of the Syrians.

15. Situate between Csarea and Joppa. It is probable that it owed its name to the Macedonian kings of either Egypt or Syria. Arsf, a deserted village, but which itself was of considerable importance in the time of the Crusades, represents the ancient Apollonia.

16. The site of the Turris Stratonis was afterwards occupied by Csarea, a city on the coast, founded by Herod the Great, and named Csarea in honour of Augustus Csar. It was renowned for the extent and magnificence of its harbour, which was secured by a breakwater of stupendous construction. For some time it was considered the principal city of Palestine and the chief seat of the Roman government. Although it again changed its name, as Pliny states, it still retained its name of Csarea as the Metropolitan See of the First Palestine. It was also of considerable importance during the occupation of the Holy Land by the Crusaders. Its ruins are still visible, but have served as a quarry for many generations, and Jaffa, Sidon, Acre and Beyrout have been supplied with stones from this site. Massive remains of its mole or break-water and its towers still exist.

17. Or Phnicia.

18. By some regarded as the Scriptural town of Sichem, but by others as a distinct place, though in its immediate vicinity. Its present name is Naplous or Nabolos, situate between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Its proper name under the Romans was Flavia Neapolis. It was the birth-place of Justin Martyr.

19. The city of Samaria, so called from Shemer, the owner of the hill which Omri, King of Israel, purchased, about B.C. 922, for its site. Herod greatly renovated this city, which he called Sebaste, in honour of his patron Augustus, in Greek "Sebastos." Its site is now occupied by a poor village, which bears the name of Sebustieh.

20. A town of Palstina, frequently mentioned by Josephus as remarkable for the strength of its fortifications, and situate on the Lake Tiberias, opposite to Taricha. After a spirited defence, it was taken by Vespasian, who slaughtered 4000 of the survivors, upon which 5000 threw themselves from the walls, and were dashed to pieces below. The site had been forgotten for nearly eighteen centuries, when Lord Lindsay discovered it on a lofty hill on the east of Lake Tiberias, and nearly opposite the town of that name. It is now called El-Hossn, and the ruins of the fortifications are very extensive.




15. Chap. 15. (14.)-Juda.


CHAP. 15. (14.)-JUDA.

Beyond Iduma and Samaria, Juda extends far and

wide. That part of it which joins up to Syria[1] is called

Galila, while that which is nearest to Arabia and Egypt

bears the name of Pera[2]. This last is thickly covered with

rugged mountains, and is separated from the rest of Juda

by the river Jordanes. The remaining part of Juda is

divided into ten Toparchies, which we will mention in the

following order:-That of Hiericus[3], covered with groves of







palm-trees, and watered by numerous springs, and those of

Emmas[4], Lydda[5], Joppe, Acrabatena[6], Gophna[7], Thamna[8],

Bethleptephene[9], Orina[10], in which formerly stood Hierosolyma[11],

by far the most famous city, not of Juda only,

but of the East, and Herodium[12], with a celebrated town

of the same name.



(15.) The river Jordanes[13] rises from the spring of Panias[14],

which has given its surname to Csarea, of which we shall







have occasion to speak[15]. This is a delightful stream, and,

so far as the situation of the localities will allow of, winds

along[16] in its course and lingers among the dwellers upon

its banks. With the greatest reluctance, as it were, it

moves onward towards Asphaltites[17], a lake of a gloomy and

unpropitious nature, by which it is at last swallowed up,

and its be praised waters are lost sight of on being mingled

with the pestilential streams of the lake. For this reason

it is that, as soon as ever the valleys through which it runs

afford it the opportunity, it discharges itself into a lake, by

many writers known as Genesara[18], sixteen miles in length

and six wide; which is skirted by the pleasant towns of

Julias[19] and Hippo[20] on the east, of Tarichea[21] on the south

(a name which is by many persons given to the lake itself),

and of Tiberias[22] on the west, the hot springs[23] of which are

so conducive to the restoration of health.



(16.) Asphaltites[24] produces nothing whatever except bitu-







men, to which indeed it owes its name. The bodies of

animals will not sink[25] in its waters, and even those of bulls

and camels float there. In length it exceeds 100 miles

being at its greatest breadth twenty-five, and at its smallest

six. Arabia of the Nomades[26] faces it on the east, and

Machrus on the south[27], at one time, next to Hierosolyma,

the most strongly fortified place in Juda. On the same

side lies Callirrho[28], a warm spring, remarkable for its medicinal

qualities, and which, by its name, indicates the celebrity

its waters have gained.



(17.) Lying on the west of Asphaltites, and sufficiently

distant to escape its noxious exhalations, are the Esseni[29], a







people that live apart from the world, and marvellous beyond

all others throughout the whole earth, for they have no women

among them; to sexual desire they are strangers; money

they have none; the palm-trees are their only companions.

Day after day, however, their numbers are fully recruited by

multitudes of strangers that resort to them, driven thither

to adopt their usages by the tempests of fortune, and wearied

with the miseries of life. Thus it is, that through thousands

of ages, incredible to relate, this people eternally prolongs

its existence, without a single birth taking place there; so

fruitful a source of population to it is that weariness of

life which is felt by others. Below this people was formerly

the town of Engadda[30], second only to Hierosolyma in

the fertility of its soil and its groves of palm-trees; now,

like it, it is another heap of ashes. Next to it we come to

Masada[31], a fortress on a rock, not far from Lake Asphaltites.

Thus much concerning Juda.







1. Antiochian Syria.

2. Pera was the general name of that part of Palstina which lay east of the river Jordan; but more usually, in a restricted sense, it signified a part only of that region, namely the district between the rivers Hieromax on the north, and Arnon on the south.

3. Jericho, so often mentioned in Scripture. It was celebrated for its palm-grove, which was presented by Antony to Cleopatra. A Bedouin encampment called Riha is all that now occupies its site.

4. A city eight or ten miles from the village Emmas of the New Testament. It was called Nicopolis, in commemoration, it has been suggested, of the destruction of Jerusalem. Its site is still marked by a village called Ammious, on the road from Jerusalem to Jaffa.

5. So often mentioned in the New Testament. This town lay to the S.E. of Joppa, and N.W. of Jerusalem, at the junction of several roads which lead from the sea-coast. It was destroyed by the Romans in the Jewish war, but was soon after rebuilt, and called Diospolis. A village called Lud occupies its site.

6. So called from Acrabbim, its chief town, situate nine miles from Nicopolis. The toparchy of Acrabbim, which formerly formed part of Samaria, was the most northerly of those of Juda.

7. Situate in the country of Benjamin. Josephus reckons it second in importance only to Jerusalem, from which, according to Eusebius, it was distant fifteen miles, on the road to the modern Nablous. That author also identifies it with the Eshcol of Scripture. Its site is marked by a small Christian village, called by the natives Jufia.

8. Like the two preceding ones, this toparchy for a long time belonged to Samaria. Thamna, or Thamnis, was the Timnath-Serah in Mount Ephraim, mentioned in Joshua xix. 50, and xxiv. 30, as the place where Joshua was buried.

9. The toparchy of Bethleptepha of other authors. It appears to have been situate in the south of Juda, and in that part which is by Josephus commonly called Iduma. Reland has remarked, that the name resembles Beth-lebaoth, a city of the tribe of Simeon, mentioned in Joshua xix. 6.

10. From the Greek, meaning the "mountain district," or the "hill country," as mentioned in Luke i. 39.

11. Or "Sacred Solyma."

12. A fortress of Palstina, erected by Herod the Great, at a distance of about sixty stadia from Jerusalem, and not far from Tekoa. Its site has been identified by modern travellers with El-Furedis, or the Paradise; probably the same as the spot called the "Frank Mountain," on the top of which the ruined walls of the fortress are still to be seen.

13. Called by the Arabs Bahr-el-Arden.

14. Situate on Mount Panias, or Paneas, on the range of Anti-Libanus.

15. In C 16 of the present Book.

16. On the contrary, as Parisot observes, the Jordan runs in a straight line almost into the Dead Sea.

17. The Lake of Sodom, or the Dead Sea, in which the Cities of the Plain were swallowed up.

18. In Scripture also called the Lake Tiberias, and the Sea of Gennesareth, or Chinnereth. It is now called the Sea of Tabariah, or Tabarieh.

19. The one of the two Bethsaidas, which was situate on the north of the Sea of Tiberias. It was enlarged by Philip the Tetrarch, who greatly beautified it, and changed its name to Julias, in honour of the daughter of Augustus, the wife of Tiberius. It is generally supposed by the learned world, that this was not the Bethsaida mentioned so often in the New Testament. Its ruins are probably those now seen on a hill called Et-Tell, on the north-western extremity of the lake.

20. On the east of the lake. From it the district of Hippene took its name.

21. Its ruins are to be seen at El-Kereh, on the south side of the lake. It was strongly fortified, and made a vigorous resistance against the Romans in the Jewish War. It received its name from the great quantities of fish which were salted there, ta/rixoi.

22. Now Tabariah, or Tabarieh, a miserable village. It was built by Herod Antipas, in honour of the Emperor Tiberius. After the destruction of Jerusalem, it became the seat of the Jewish Sanhedrim.

23. These hot springs are by Josephus called Emmas, probably a form of the Hebrew name Hammath. Dr. Robinson, in his Biblical Researches, identifies this with the town of Hammath, of the tribe of Naphthali, mentioned in Joshua xix. 35.

24. From the Greek a)/sfaltos.

25. This is an exaggeration, though it is the fact that many heavy substances, which in ordinary water would sink immediately, will float on the surface of this lake. It has been suggested, that the story here mentioned arose from the circumstance of the name of 'bulls,' or 'cows,' having been applied by the ancient Nabati to the large masses of asphaltum which floated on its surface.

26. The country of the Arabian Scenit, or "tent people."

27. It lay on the east of the Dead Sea, and not the south, as here mentioned by Pliny, being a border fortress in the south of Pera, and on the confines of the Nabati. There was a tradition that it was at this place that John the Baptist was beheaded. The city now bears the name of Mascra.

28. A Greek name, signifying the "Fine Stream." These were warm springs, situate on the eastern side of Jordan, to which Herod the Great resorted during his last illness, by the advice of his physicians. The valley of Callirho was visited by Captains Irby and Mangles in 1818, and an interesting account of it is to be found in their 'Travels,' pp. 467469. The waters are sulphureous to the taste.

29. The Essenes, or Hessenes. These properly formed one of the great sects into which the Jews were divided in the time of Christ. They are not mentioned by name in the New Testament, but it has been conjectured that they are alluded to in Matt. xix. 12, and Col. ii. 18, 23. As stated here by Pliny, they generally lived at a distance from large towns, in communities which bore a great resemblance to the monkish societies of later times. They sent gifts to the Temple at Jerusalem, but never offered sacrifices there. They were divided into four classes, according to the time of their initiation. Their origin is uncertain. Some writers look upon them as the same as the Assidians, or Chasidim, mentioned in 1 Maccabees, ii. 42, vii. 13. Their principal society was probably the one mentioned by Pliny, and from this other smaller ones proceeded, and spread over Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. The Essenes of Egypt were divided into two sects; the practical Essenes, whose mode of life was the same as those of Palestine; and the contemplative Essenes, who were called Therapeut. Both sects maintained the same doctrines; but the latter were distinguished by a more rigid mode of life. It has been suggested by Taylor, the editor of 'Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible,' that John the Baptist belonged to this sect.

30. Or Engedi. Its ancient name was Hazezon-Tamar, when it was inhabited by the Amorites. See Gen. xiv. 7; 2 Chron. xx. 2. According to Josephus, it gave name to one of the fifteen toparchies of Juda. It still retains its name, Ain-Jedey, or "Fountain of the Goats," and was so called from a spring which issued out of the limestone rock at the base of a lofty cliff.

31. Its site is now known as Sebbeh, on the south-west of the Dead Sea.




16. Chap. 16. (18.)-Decapolis.


CHAP. 16. (18.)-DECAPOLIS.

On the side of Syria, joining up to Juda, is the region

of Decapolis[1], so called from the number of its cities; as to

which all writers are not agreed. Most of them, however,

agree in speaking of Damascus[2] as one, a place fertilized







by the river Chrysorros[3], which is drawn off into its

meadows and eagerly imbibed; Philadelphia[4], and Rhaphana[5],

all which cities fall back towards Arabia; Scythopolis[6]

(formerly called Nysa by Father Liber, from his

nurse having been buried there), its present name being

derived from a Scythian colony which was established

there; Gadara[7], before which the river Hieromix[8] flows;

Hippo, which has been previously mentioned; Dion[9], Pella[10],

rich with its waters; Galasa[11], and Canatha[12]. The Tetrar-







chies[13] lie between and around these cities, equal, each of

them, to a kingdom, and occupying the same rank as so

many kingdoms. Their names are, Trachonitis[14], Panias[15],

in which is Csarea, with the spring previously mentioned[16],

Abila[17], Arca[18], Ampelossa[19], and Gabe[20].







1. Deka\ polei=s, the "Ten Cities." He alludes to the circumstance, that the number of cities varied from time to time in this district; one being destroyed in warfare, and others suddenly rising from its foundation.

2. The capital city of Syria, both in ancient and modern times. It is now called Es-Sham. The only epithet given to it by the ancient poets is that of "ventosa," or "windy," found in the Pharsalia of Lucan, B. iii. 1. 215, which, it has been remarked, is anything but appropriately chosen.

3. Or the "Golden River." It is uncertain whether this was the Abana or Pharpar, mentioned in 2 Kings v. 12. Strabo remarks, that the waters of the Chrysorros "are almost entirely consumed in irrigation, as it waters a large extent of deep soil."

4. The ancient Rabbath Ammon, a city of the Ammonites. It was afterwards called Astarte, and then Philadelphia, in honour of Ptolemy Philadelphus. According to D'Anville, the present name of its site is Amman.

5. Thirty-three miles from Apamea. Its ruins are probably those mentioned by Abulfeda under the name of Rafaniat. William of Tyre says, that it was taken in the year 1125 by the Count of Tripoh.

6. Previously called Beth-shan. It was the next city of the Decapolis in magnitude after Damascus. It was situate in the land of the tribe of Issachar, though it belonged to the Manasites. At this place the bodies of Saul and his sons were hung up by the Philistines; see 1 Sam. xxxi. 1012. Reland suggests that it received the name of Scythopolis, not from a Scythian colony, but from the Succoth of Gen. xxxiii. 17, which appears to have been in its vicinity. Its ruins, which still bear the name of Baisan, are very extensive.

7. Called by Josephus the capital of Pera, and the chief place of the district of the Gadarenes of the Evangelists. Its ruins, about six miles south-east of the Sea of Galilee, are very extensive.

8. Still called the Yarmak, evidently from its ancient name. Hippo has been mentioned in the last Chapter.

9. Or Dium, between Pella and Gadara. In later times, this place was included in Roman Arabia.

10. Also called Butis. It was the most southerly of the ten cities which comprised the Decapolis, standing about five miles south of Scythopolis, or Beth-shan. Its exact site seems not to have been ascertained; but it has been suggested that it is the modern El-Bujeh. From the expression used by Pliny, it would appear to have had mineral waters in its vicinity.

11. Of this place nothing is known; but it is most probable that the Gerasa of Ptolemy and Josephus is meant. According to the former writer, it was thirty-five miles from Pella. Its site is marked by extensive ruins, thirty-five miles east of the Jordan, known by the name of Gerash, and on the borders of the Great Desert of the Hauvan. According to Dr. Keith, the ruins bear extensive marks of splendour.

12. Ptolemy mentions a city of this name in Clesyria.

13. So called from having been originally groups of four principalities, held by princes who were vassals to the Roman emperors, or the kings of Syria.

14. Containing the northern district of Palestine, beyond the Jordan, between Antilibanus and the mountains of Arabia. It was bounded on the north by the territory of Damascus, on the east by Auranitis, on the south by Itura, and on the west by Gaulanitis. It was so called from its ranges of rocky mountains, or traxw=nes, the caves in which gave refuge to numerous bands of robbers.

15. So called from the mountain of that name. Csarea Philippi also bore the name of Panias. It was situate at the south of Mount Hermon, on the Jordan, just below its source. It was built by Philip the Tetrarch, B.C. 3. King Agrippa called it Neronias; but it soon lost that name.

16. In C. xiv. of the present Book, as that in which the Jordan takes its rise.

17. A place of great strength in Cle-Syria, now known as Nebi Abel, situate between Heliopolis and Damascus.

18. Situate between Tripolis and Antaradus, at the north-west foot of Mount Libanus. It lay within a short distance of the sea, and was famous for the worship paid by its inhabitants to Astarte, the Syrian Aphrodite. A temple was erected here to Alexander the Great, in which Alexander Severus, the Roman Emperor, was born, his parents having resorted thither to celebrate a festival, A.D. 205. From this circumstance, its name was changed to Csarea. Burckhardt fixes its site at a hill called Tel-Arka.

19. Of this place, which probably took its name from its numerous vines, nothing whatever is known.

20. Called by Pliny, in B. xii. c. 41, Gabba. It was situate at the foot of Mount Carmel between Csarea and Ptolemais, sixteen miles from the former. No remains of it are to be seen. It must not be confounded with Gabala, in Galilee, fortified by Herod the Great.




17. Chap. 17. (19.)-Punice.


CHAP. 17. (19.)-PUNICE.

We must now return to the coast and to Phnice. There

was formerly a town here known as Crocodilon; there is still

a river[1] of that name: Dorum[2] and Sycaminon[3] are the names







of cities of which the remembrance only exists. We then

come to the Promontory of Carmelus[4], and, upon the mountain,

a town[5] of that name, formerly called Acbatana. Next

to this are Getta[6], Jeba, and the river Pacida, or Belus[7],

which throws up on its narrow banks a kind of sand from

which glass[8] is made: this river flows from the marshes of

Cendebia, at the foot of Mount Carmelus. Close to this

river is Ptolemais, formerly called Ace[9], a colony of Claudius

Csar; and then the town of Ecdippa[10], and the promontory

known as the White Promontory[11]. We next come

to the city of Tyre[12], formerly an island, separated from

the mainland by a channel of the sea, of great depth, 700

paces in width, but now joined to it by the works which

were thrown up by Alexander when besieging it,-the

Tyre so famous in ancient times for its offspring, the cities

to which it gave birth, Leptis, Utica, and Carthage[13],-

that rival of the Roman sway, that thirsted so eagerly for the







conquest of the whole earth; Gades, too, which she founded

beyond the limits of the world. At the present day, all her

fame is confined to the production of the murex and the

purple[14]. Its circumference, including therein Paltyrus[15], is

nineteen miles, the place itself extending twenty-two stadia.

The next towns are Sarepta[16] and Ornithon[17], and then

Sidon[18], famous for its manufacture of glass, and the parent

of Thebes[19] in Botia.



(20.) In the rear of this spot begins the chain of Libanus,

which extends 1500 stadia, as far as Simyra; this district

has the name of Cle Syria. Opposite to this chain, and

separated from it by an intervening valley, stretches away

the range of Antilibanus, which was formerly connected

with Libanus[20] by a wall. Beyond it, and lying in the interior,

is the region of Decapolis, and, with it, the Tetrarchies

already mentioned, and the whole expanse of Palstina. On

the coast, again, and lying beneath Libanus, is the river

Magoras[21], the colony of Berytus[22], which bears the name of

Felix Julia, the town of Leontos[23], the river Lycos[24], Palbyblos[25],

the river Adonis[26], and the towns of Byblos[27],







Botrys[28], Gigarta[29], Trieris[30], Calamos[31], Tripolis[32], inhabited

by the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Aradians; Orthosia[33], the

river Eleutheros[34] the towns of Simyra and Marathos[35]; and

opposite, Arados[36], a town seven stadia long, on an island,

distant 200 paces from the mainland. After passing

through the country in which the before-named mountains

end and the plains that lie between, Mount Bargylus[37]

is seen to rise.







1. The town was situate between Csarea and Ptolemais. The river has been identified with the modern Nahl-el-Zerka, in which, according to Pococke, crocodiles have been found.

2. Called Dor, before the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. See Joshua xvii. 11, and Judges i. 27. It afterwards belonged to the half-tribe of Manasseh. Its site is now called Tortura.

3. Its site is now called Atlik, according to D'Anville. Parisot suggests that it is the modern Keufah; others that it is Hepha, near Mount Carmel.

4. Insignificant in height and extent, but celebrated in Scripture history. It still bears the name of Cape Carmel.

5. It is not improbable that he means the town of Porphyrium, now Khaifa, at the foot of the mountain.

6. Probably the Gitta of Polybius. Of it and Jeba, nothing is known.

7. The Nahr-Naman, or Abou, on which Ptolemais was situate.

8. Employed in the extensive manufacture of that article at Tyre and Sidon, to the north of this district.

9. A corruption of Acco, the native name; from which the English name Acre, and the French St. Jean d'Acre. The earliest mention of it is in the Book of Judges, i. 31. It is supposed that it was Ptolemy I., the son of Lagus, who enlarged it and gave it the name of Ptolemais. Its citadel, however, still retained the name of Ace. Under the Romans, Ptolemais, as mentioned by Pliny, was a colony, and belonged to Galilee. The modern city of Acre occupies its site.

10. The Ach-Zib of Scripture, mentioned in Joshua xix. 29, and Judges I. 31. Its ruins are to be seen near the sea-shore, about three hours' journey north of Acre. The spot is still called Es-Zib.

11. Still called the Ras-el-Abiad, or White Promontory.

12. A colony of the Sidonians: its scanty ruins are still to be seen at the poor village of Sur. The wars of the Crusades completed its downfall. The island is still joined to the mainland by the mole which was erected by Alexander the Great during the siege of the place; or, according to some, by the Syrians themselves.

13. Carthage is supposed to have been colonized immediately by the people of Utica.

14. From which was made the famous Tyrian purple.

15. Or "ancient Tyre," which was built on the mainland.

16. The Zarephath of 1 Kings xvii. 9, 10, whither Elijah was sent to the widow, whose son he afterwards raised from the dead. Its site is now known as Sarfand.

17. Probably meaning "City of the Birds," perhaps from the quantities of game in its vicinity. Its site now bears the name of Adlan.

18. Its site is now called Sada. In the time of David and Solomon, it was probably subject to the kings of Tyre.

19. Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, was said to have been the son of its king Agenor.

20. The Lebanon of Scripture. This intervening space, the ancient Cle-Syria, is now inhabited by the Druses.

21. Perhaps the modern Nahr-el-Damur.

22. Now Beyrout. By some it has been identified with the Berotha, or Berothai, of the Hebrew Scriptures. Its full name as a Roman colony was, "Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Berytus." It was colonized by the veterans of the Fifth, or Macedonian, and the Eighth, or Augustan, Legions. Beyrout, or Berut, is now, in a commercial point of view, the most important place in Syria.

23. Nothing is known of this place. The name seems to mean, the "Town of the Lion."

24. Now the Nahr-el-Kelb, or "Dog's River."

25. The site of this place seems not to be known.

26. Now the Nahr-el-Ibrahim.

27. The modern town which stands on its site is called Jebeil. It is situate at the foot of Lebanon. The ancient name seems to have been Gebal, and the Geblites are mentioned in Joshua, xiii. 5; 1 Kings, v. 18; and Ezek. xxvii. 9. The ruins of the ancient city are very extensive. Astarte and Isis seem to have been worshipped here.

28. Now Batrun, a small town about twelve miles north of Byblus, said to have been founded by Ithobal, king of Tyre.

29. Now Gazir, according to D'Anville.

30. Twelve miles from Tripolis. Its name would seem to bear reference to a trireme, or galley. It has been said that this is the place referred to in the Book of Daniel, xi. 30.

31. Polybius speaks of this place as being burnt by Antiochus. Its site still bears the name of Calamon, according to D'Anville.

32. This properly consisted of three distinct cities, 600 feet apart, each with its own walls, but all connected in a common constitution; having one place of assembly, and forming in reality one city only. They were colonies, as here suggested by Pliny, of Tyre, Sidon, and Arados respectively. It is still a considerable place, called Tarabolos, or Tarablis, by the Turks.

33. Its site is still known as Ortosa, or Tortosa.

34. Probably the same as the Nahr-el-Kebir, or "Great River," to the north of Tripolis. It may have derived its Greek name, which signifies "free," from its similarity to that given to it by the people of the country.

35. This was an important city, near Antarados. Its ruins are spoken of as very extensive. Simyra is still called Sumira.

36. Now called Ruad; an island off the northern coast of Phnicia, at a distance of twenty stadia from the mainland, Pliny falling short here in his measurement. The city of Arados was very populous, though built on a mere rock; and, contrary to Eastern custom, the houses contained many stories. It is spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel under the name of Arvad: see c. xxvii. 8, 11. In importance, it ranked next to the cities of Tyre and Sidon.

37. Its modern name does not appear to be known.




18. Chap. 18.-Syria Antiochia.


CHAP. 18.-SYRIA ANTIOCHIA.

Here Phnicia ends, and Syria recommences. The towns







are, Carne[1], Balanea[2], Paltos[3], and Gabale[4]; then the promontory

upon which is situate the free town of Laodicea[5];

and then Diospolis[6], Heraclea[7], Charadrus[8], and Posidium[9].



(21.) We then come to the Promontory of Syria Antiochia.

In the interior is the free city of Antiochia[10] itself,

surnamed Epidaphnes[11], and divided by the river Orontes[12].







On the promontory is Seleucia[13], called Pieria, a free city.

(22.) Beyond it lies Mount Casius[14], a different one from the

mountain of the same name[15] which we have already mentioned.

The height of this mountain is so vast, that, at the fourth

watch[16] of the night, you can see from it, in the midst of the

darkness, the sun rising on the east; and thus, by merely

turning round, we may at one and the same time behold both

day and night. The winding road which leads to its summit

is nineteen miles in length, its perpendicular height four.

Upon this coast there is the river Orontes, which takes its

rise near Heliopolis[17], between the range of Libanus and Antilibanus.

The towns are, Rhosos[18], and, behind it, the Gates

of Syria[19], lying in the space between the chain of the Rhosian

mountains and that of Taurus. On the coast there is the

town of Myriandros[20], and Mount Amanus[21], upon which is the

town of Bomit[22]. This mountain separates Cilicia from Syria.







1. Also called Antarados, as lying nearly opposite to the city of Arados. According to Strabo, the port of Antarados was called Carne, or Carnos. In the time of the Crusades, it was known under the name of Tortosa. Its present name is Tartus.

2. Now Banias. It was situate twenty-four miles north of Antarados. Its name is supposed to have originated in the baths in its vicinity. The site is deserted; but a few ruins of the ancient town are still to be seen.

3. Eight miles from Balanea. Its ruins are known by the name of Boldo.

4. Its site is now known as Djebeleh, a small village in the vicinity of Laodicea, or Latakia. The sun was probably worshipped here, and hence the Emperor Heliogabalus derived his name.

5. About fifty miles south of Antioch, now called Ladikiyeh, or Latakia, noted for the excellence of its tobacco, which has an European reputation. It was built by Seleucus I., on the site of an earlier city, called Ramitha. It was afterwards greatly favoured by Julius Csar. Herod the Great built an aqueduct here, the ruins of which are still in existence. It is now a poor Turkish village; but there are considerable remains of the ancient city to be seen in its vicinity.

6. It has been suggested, that Pliny means the city of Lydda, in the tribe of Benjamin, which of course would be very much to the south, and quite out of the order in which he is proceeding. If that is not the place meant, this Diospolis is utterly unknown.

7. At some miles' distance to the north of Laodicea. Pococke found some traces of its site at a spot called Minta Baurdeleh, or the Bay of the Tower.

8. Pliny is in error here most probably, and is speaking of a place as being in Syria which in reality was in Cilicia, between Platanus and Cragus. The name implies its situation near a mountain torrent.

9. On a small bay, some miles north of Heraclea.

10. Or Antioch, the capital of the Greek kings of Syria, and the most famous of the sixteen cities built by Seleucus Nicator, and called after the name of his father, (or son, as some say,) Antiochus. It was built on the Orontes, and formed one of the most beautiful and pleasant cities of the ancient world. The modern Antakieh is a poor town, built on the north-western part of the site of the ancient city, by the river. The walls, built by Justinian, may still be traced for a circuit of four miles. Here the followers of our Saviour first obtained the name of "Christians."

11. That is, "Near Daphne," there being a celebrated grove of that name, consecrated to Apollo, in its immediate vicinity.

12. Now called the Nahr-el-Asy.

13. Now Seleuca, or Kepse, at the foot of Mount Pieria. It has been referred to in a previous note.

14. Now known as Djebel-el-Akra.

15. In the extreme north-east of Egypt. See pp. 422 and 424.

16. The beginning of the fourth watch was three o'clock in the morning. The height of this mountain does not in reality appear to be anything remarkable, and has been ascertained to be but 5318 feet. There is probably no foundation for the marvellous story here told by Pliny; nevertheless, we are told by Spartianus, that the Emperor Adrian passed a night upon the mountain, for the purpose of seeing this extraordinary sight; but a storm arising, it prevented the gratification of his curiosity. It lay near Nymphum and Seleucia, and its base was washed by the waters of the Orontes.

17. Or Baalbec, in the interior of Syria.

18. According to Ansart, it still retains that name.

19. Now called Bylan. This was the name of the narrow pass between a portion of Mount Taurus and the Rock of Rossicum. According to Ansart, the spot is called at the present day Saggal Doutan.

20. This was a Phnician colony, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Issus; it is said by Ansart still to retain its ancient name.

21. Now called Aima-Dagh, a branch of Mount Taurus, running from the head of the Gulf of Issus, north-east, to the principal chain, and dividing Syria from Cilicia and Cappadocia. There were two passes in it, the Syrian Gates and the Amanian Gates. It is often spoken of by Cicero, who was the Roman governor of Cilicia.

22. The locality of this place is unknown, as Pliny is the only author who mentions it.




19. Chap. 19. (23.)-The Remaining Parts Of Syria.


CHAP. 19. (23.)-THE REMAINING PARTS OF SYRIA.

We must now speak of the interior of Syria. Cle Syria







has the town of Apamea[1], divided by the river Marsyas from

the Tetrarchy of the Nazerini[2]; Bambyx, the other name of

which is Hierapolis[3], but by the Syrians called Mabog[4],

(here the monster Atargatis[5], called Derceto by the Greeks,

is worshipped); and the place called Chalcis[6] on the Belus[7],

from which the region of Chalcidene, the most fertile part of

Syria, takes its name. We here find also Cyrrhestice, with

Cyrrhum[8], the Gazat, the Gindareni, the Gabeni, the two

Tetrarchies called Granucomat[9], the Emeseni[10], the Hyla-







t[11], the nation of the Ituri, and a branch of them, the

people called the Btarreni; the Mariamitani[12], the Tetrarchy

known as Marnmisea, Paradisus[13], Pagr[14], the

Pinarit[15], two cities called Seleucia, besides the one already

mentioned, the one Seleucia on the Euphrates[16], and

the other Seleucia[17] on the Belus, and the Cardytenses.

The remaining part of Syria (except those parts which will

be spoken of in conjunction with the Euphrates) contains

the Arethusii[18], the Berenses[19], and the Epiphanenses[20];







and on the east, the Laodiceni[21], who are called the Laodiceni

on the Libanus, the Leucadii[22], and the Larissi, besides

seventeen other Tetrarchies, divided into kingdoms and

bearing barbarous names.







1. Now Kulat-el-Mudik, situate in the valley of the Orontes, and capital of the province of Apamene. It was fortified and enlarged by Seleucus Nicator, who gave it its name, after his wife Apama. It also bore the Macedonian name of Pella. It was situate on a hill, and was so far surrounded by the windings of the Orontes, as to become a peninsula, whence its name of Chersonesus. Very extensive ruins of this place still exist.

2. It is suggested, that these are the Phylarchi Arabes of Strabo, now called the Nosairis, who were situate to the east of Apamea. The river Marsyas here mentioned was a small tributary of the Orontes, into which it falls on the east side, near Apamea.

3. This was situate in Cyrrhestica, in Syria, on the high road from Antioch to Mesopotamia, twenty-four miles to the west of the Euphrates, and thirty-six to the south-west of Zeugma; two and a half days' journey from Bera, and five from Antioch. It obtained its Greek name of the "Sacred City" from Seleucus Nicator, owing to its being the chief seat of the worship of the Syrian goddess Astarte. Its ruins were first discovered by Maundrell.

4. In the former editions it is "Magog;" but Sillig's reading of "Mabog" is correct, and corresponds with the Oriental forms of Munbedj, Manbesja, Manbesjun, Menba, Manba, Manbegj, and the modern name, Kara Bambuche, or Buguk Munbedj.

5. Astarte, the semi-fish goddess.

6. This Chalcis is supposed to have been situate somewhere in the district of the Buckaa, probably south of Heliopolis, or Baalbec. It has been suggested, that its site may have been at, or near Zahle; in the vicinity of which, at the village of Heusn Nieba, are to be seen some remarkable remains. Or else, possibly, at Majdel Anjar, where Abulfeda speaks of great ruins of hewn stone.

7. Ansart suggests, that Belus is here the name of a mountain, and that it may be the same that is now called Djebel-il-Semmaq.

8. To the north of Chalcidene, a town of Syria, on the slopes of the Taurus, eighty miles to the north-east of Antioch. In the Roman times, it was the head-quarters of the Tenth Legion. The ruins near the modern village of Corus represent the ancient Cyrrhus. Of the Gazat and Gindareni, nothing is known.

9. Possibly meaning the "Burghers of Granum." Nothing is known of these people.

10. The people of Emesa, a city in the district of Apamene, on the right, or eastern bank of the Orontes, to which, in C. 26 of the present Book, Pliny assigns a desert district beyond Palmyra. It was celebrated in ancient times for its magnificent temple of the sun, and the appointment of its priest, Bassianus, or Heliogabalus, to the imperial dignity, in his fourteenth year. It was made a colony, with the jus Italicum, by Caracalla, and afterwards became the capital of Phnicia Libanesia. The present name of its site is Hems.

11. The Hylat are totally unknown. Itura was situate in the north-east of Palestine, and, with Trachonitis, belonged to the tetrarchy of Philip. Its boundaries cannot be precisely determined; but it may probably be traversed by a line drawn from the Lake of Tiberias to Damascus.

12. According to Ptolemy, the people of Mariama, some miles to the west of Emesa.

13. In the district of Laodicea, according to Ptolemy.

14. Near the Port Amani, or "Passes of Amanus."

15. Pinara was near Pagr, in Pieria, last mentioned.

16. Probably Seleucia, in Mesopotamia, now called Bir, on the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite to the ford of Zeugma, a fortress of considerable importance.

17. Its site is doubtful. Sebj d'Aboulgazi has been suggested.

18. The people of Arethusa, a city of Syria, not far from Apamea, situate between Epiphania and Emesa. In later times, it took the name of Restan.

19. The people of Bera, a town of Syria, midway between Antioch and Hierapolis. Seleucus Nicator gave to it the Macedonian name of Bera; but, in A.D. 638, it resumed its ancient name of Chaleb, or Chalybon. The modern Haleb, or Aleppo, occupies its site. Some excavations, on the eastern side of it, are the only vestiges of ancient remains in the neighbourhood.

20. The people of Epiphana, placed by Ptolemy in the district of Cassiotis, in which also Antioch and Larissa were situate. The Itinerary of Antoninus places it sixteen miles from Larissa, thirty-two from Emesa, and 101 from Antioch of Syria. It is supposed to have been identical with the ancient Hamath, mentioned in 2 Sam. viii. 9; 1 Kings viii. 65; Isaiah x. 9, and called "Hamath the great" in Amos vi. 2, which name it also retained in the time of St. Jerome.

21. The people of Laodicea ad Libanum, a city of Cle-Syria, at the

northern entrance to the narrow valley, between Libanus and Anti-

Libanus. During the possession of Cle-Syria by the Greek kings of

Egypt, it was the south west border fortress of Syria. It was the chief

city of a district called Laodicene.

22. Of Leucas, or Leucadia, nothing is known. Larissa, in Syria, was

a city in the district of Apamene, on the western bank of the Orontes,

about half-way between Apamea and Epiphania. The site is now called

Kulat-Seijar.




20. Chap. 20. (24.)-The Euphrates.


CHAP. 20. (24.)-THE EUPHRATES.

This place, too, will be the most appropriate one for

making some mention of the Euphrates. This river rises in

Caranitis[1], a prfecture of Greater Armenia, according to

the statement of those who have approached the nearest to

its source. Domitius Corbulo says, that it rises in Mount

Aba; Licinius Mucianus, at the foot of a mountain which

he calls Capotes[2], twelve miles above Zimara, and that at its

source it has the name of Pyxurates. It first flows past

Derxene[3], and then Anaitica[4], shutting out[5] the regions of

Armenia from Cappadocia. Dascusa[6] is distant from Zimara

seventy-five miles; from this spot it is navigable as far as







Sartona[7], a distance of fifty miles, thence to Melitene[8], in

Cappadocia, distant seventy-four[9] miles, and thence to Elegia[10],

in Armenia, distant ten miles ; receiving in its course the

rivers Lycus[11], Arsanias[12], and Arsanus. At Elegia it meets

the range of Mount Taurus, but no effectual resistance is

offered to its course, although the chain is here twelve

miles in width. At its passage[13] between the mountains,

the river bears the name of Omma[14]; but afterwards, when it

has passed through, it receives that of Euphrates. Beyond

this spot it is full of rocks, and runs with an impetuous

tide. It then divides that part of Arabia which is called

the country of the Orei[15], on the left, by a channel three







schni[16] in width, from the territory of the Commageni[17] on

the right, and it admits of a bridge being thrown across it,

even where it forces a passage through the range of Taurus.

At Claudiopolis[18], in Cappadocia, it takes an easterly direction;

and here, for the first time in this contest, Taurus

turns it out of its course; though conquered before, and

rent asunder by its channel, the mountain-chain now gains

the victory in another way, and, breaking its career, compels

it to take a southerly direction. Thus is this warfare

of nature equally waged,-the river proceeding onward to

the destination which it intends to reach, and the mountains

forbidding it to proceed by the path which it originally

intended. After passing the Cataracts[19], the river again

becomes navigable; and, at a distance of forty miles from

thence, is Samosata[20], the capital of Commagene.







1. In the western branch of the plateau of Iran, a portion of the Taurus

chain. Considerable changes in the course of the lower portion of the

river have taken place since the time when Pliny wrote. Caranitis is

the modern Arzrum, or Erzrm, of the Turks.

2. Now called Dujik Tagh, a mountain of Armenia.

3. It has been suggested, that the proper reading here would be

Xerxene.

4. Probably the district where the goddess Anais was worshipped,

who is mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxiii. c. 24.

5. From the place of confluence where the two mountain streams

forming the Euphrates unite. This spot is now known as Kebban

Ma'den.

6. A fortress upon the river Euphrates, in Lesser Armenia. It

has been identified with the ferry and lead-mines of Kebban Ma'den,

the points where the Kara Su is joined by the Myrad-Cha, at a distance

of 270 miles from its source; the two streams forming, by their confluence,

the Euphrates.

7. Other readings have "Pastona" here, said by D'Anville to be the

modern Pastek.

8. Called the metropolis of Lesser Armenia by Procopius. It was

situate between Anti-Taurus and the Euphrates, and celebrated for its

fertility, more especially in fruit-trees, oil, and wine. The site of the

city Melitene is now called Malatiyah, on a tributary of the Euphrates,

and near that river itself.

9. It is generally supposed that "twenty-four" would be the correct

reading here.

10. There were two places of this name. The one here spoken of was a

town of Lesser Armenia, on the right bank of the Euphrates, at the

first, or principal curve, which takes place before the river enters Mount

Taurus. It is represented by the modern Iz Oghlu.

11. No other writer is found to make mention of the Lycus, which

flows into the Euphrates, though there is a river formerly so called, which

flows into the Tigris below Larissa, the modern Nimroud. D'Anville

is of opinion, that it is formed from the numerous springs, called by the

people of the district Bing-gheul, or the "Thousand Springs."

12. Now called the Myrad-Cha. Ritter considers it to be the south

arm of the Euphrates. The Arsanus is mentioned by no writer except

Pliny.

13. The defile at this place is now called the Cataract of Nachour, according

to Parisot.

14. The more general reading here is "Omira." Hardouin is of opinion,

that this is the district referred to in the Book of Judith, ii. 24. In the

Vulgate, it appears to be twice called the river >Mambre; but in our

version it is called Arbona.

15. Burnouf has concluded, from a cuneiform inscription which he

deciphered, that the name of this people was Ayur, and that Hardouin

is wrong in conjecturing that it was a name derived from the Greek

o)/ros, "a mountain," and designating the people as a mountain tribe.

If Burnouf is right, the proper reading here would seem to be Ari, or

Arrhi.

16. The length of the schnus has been mentioned by our author in

C. 11 of the present Book. M. Saigey makes the Persian parasang to be

very nearly the same length as the schnus of Pliny.

17. Commagene was a district in the north of Syria, bounded by the

Euphrates on the east, by Cilicia on the west, and by Amanus on the

north. Its capital was Samosata.

18. The place here spoken of by Pliny is probably the same mentioned

by Ptolemy as in Cataonia, one of the provinces of Cappadocia. According

to Parisot, the site of the place is called at the present day

'Ra Claudie.'

19. Salmasius has confounded these cataracts with those of Nachour, or

Elegia, previously mentioned. It is evident, however, that they are not

the same.

20. Now called Someisat. In literary history, it is celebrated as being

the birth-place of the satirist Lucian. Nothing remains of it but a heap

of ruins, on an artificial mound.




21. Chap. 21-Syria Upon The Euphrates.


CHAP. 21-SYRIA UPON THE EUPHRATES.

Arabia, above mentioned, has the cities of Edessa[1], formerly

called Antiochia, and, from the name of its fountain,

Callirho[2], and Carrh[3], memorable for the defeat of Crassus







there. Adjoining to this is the prfecture of Mesopotamia,

which derives its origin from the Assyrians, and in which are

the towns of Anthemusia[4] and Nicephorium[5]; after which

come the Arabians, known by the name of Prtavi, with Singara[6]

for their capital. Below Samosata, on the side of Syria,

the river Marsyas[7] flows into the Euphrates. At Cingilla

ends the territory of Commagene, and the state of the

Immei begins. The cities which are here washed by the

river are those of Epiphania[8] and Antiochia[9], generally

known as Epiphania and Antiochia on the Euphrates; also

Zeugma, seventy-two miles distant from Samosata, famous

for the passage there across the Euphrates. Opposite

to it is Apamia[10], which Seleucus, the founder of both

cities, united by a bridge. The people who join up to

Mesopotamia are called the Rhoali. Other towns in Syria

are those of Europus[11], and what was formerly Thapsa-







cus[12], now Amphipolis. We then come to the Arabian

Scenit[13]. The Euphrates then proceeds in its course till

it reaches the place called Ura[14], at which, taking a turn

to the east, it leaves the Syrian Deserts of Palmyra[15],

which extend as far as the city of Petra[16] and the regions

of Arabia Felix.



(25.) Palmyra is a city famous for the beauty of its site,

the riches of its soil, and the delicious quality and abundance

of its water. Its fields are surrounded by sands on every

side, and are thus separated, as it were, by nature from the rest

of the world. Though placed between the two great empires

of Rome and Parthia, it still maintains[17] its independence;

never failing, at the very first moment that a rupture

between them is threatened, to attract the careful attention

of both. It is distant 337 miles from Seleucia[18] of the

Parthians, generally known as Seleucia on the Tigris, 203

from the nearest part of the Syrian coast, and twenty-seven

less from Damascus.







(26.) Below the deserts of Palmyra is the region of

Stelendene[19], and Hierapolis, Bera, and Chalcis, already

mentioned[20]. Beyond Palmyra, Emesa[21] takes to itself a

portion of these deserts; also Elatium, nearer to Petra by

one-half than Damascus. At no great distance from Sura[22]

is Philiscum, a town of the Parthians, on the Euphrates.

From this place it is ten days' sail to Seleucia, and nearly

as many to Babylon. At a distance of 594 miles beyond

Zeugma, near the village of Massice, the Euphrates

divides into two channels, the left one of which runs through

Mesopotamia, past Seleucia, and falls into the Tigris as it

flows around that city. Its channel on the right runs towards

Babylon, the former capital of Chalda, and flows through

the middle of it; and then through another city, the name of

which is Otris[23], after which it becomes lost in the marshes.

Like the Nile, this river increases at stated times, and at

much about the same period. When the sun has reached

the twentieth degree of Cancer, it inundates[24] Mesopotamia;

and, after he has passed through Leo and entered Virgo,

its waters begin to subside. By the time the sun has

entered the twenty-ninth degree of Virgo, the river has fully

regained its usual height.







1. In the district of Osrhone, in the northern part of Mesopotamia.

It was situate on the Syrtus, now the Daisan, a small tributary of the

Euphrates. Pliny speaks rather loosely when he places it in Arabia.

It is supposed that it bore the name of Antiochia during the reign of

the Syrian king, Antiochus IV. The modern town of Orfahor Uufah is

supposed to represent its site.

2. "The beautiful stream." It is

generally supposed that this was another name of Edessa.

3. Supposed to be the Haran, or Charan, of the Old Testament. It

was here, as alluded to by Pliny, that Crassus was defeated and slain by

the Parthian general, Surena. It was situate in Osrone, in Mesopotamia,

and not far from Edessa. According to Stephanus, it had its

name from Carrha, a river of Syria, and was celebrated in ancient times

for its temple of Luna, or Lunus.

4. According to Strabo, the Aborras, now the Khabur, flowed round this town. By Tacitus it is called Anthemusias. According to Isidorus of Charax, it lay between Edessa and the Euphrates.

5. Now Rakkah, a fortified town of Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates, near the mouth of the river Bilecha. It was built by order of Alexander the Great, and completed probably by Seleucus. It is supposed to have been the same place as Callinicum, the fortifications of which were repaired by Justinian. Its name was changed in later times to Leontopolis by the Emperor Leo.

6. Now called Sinjar, according to Brotier. Some writers imagine that this was the site of "the plain in the land of Shinar," on which the Tower of Babel was built, mentioned in the Book of Genesis, xi. 2.

7. Mentioned in C. 17 of the present Book.

8. Probably not that in the district of Cassiotis, and on the western bank of the Orontes, mentioned in C. 19 of the present Book. Of this locality nothing seems to be known, except that Dupinet states that it is now called Adelphe by the Turks.

9. Probably the "Antiochia ad Taurum" mentioned by the geographer Stephanus, and by Ptolemy. Some writers place it at the modern Aintab, seventy-five miles north-east of Aleppo.

10. Now called Roum-Cala, or the "Roman Castle." For Zeugma see p. 424.

11. In the north-east of the district of Astropatene, originally called Rhaga. It was rebuilt by Seleucus Nicator, and by him called Europus. Colonel Rawlinson has identified it with the present Veramin, at no great distance from the ancient Rhages.

12. Its ruins are to be seen at the ford of El Hamman, near the modern Rakkah. It stood on the banks of the Euphrates; and here was the usual, and, for a long time, the only ford of the Euphrates. It is supposed to have derived its name from the Aramean word "Thiphsach," signifying "a ford."

13. Or "Dwellers in Tents." See p. 422.

14. According to Ortelius and Hardouin, this is the place called Sura by Pliny, in C. 26 of the present Book; but Parisot differs from that opinion. Bochart suggests, that "Ur, of the Chaldees," is the place referred to under this name; but, as Hardouin observes, that place lay at a considerable distance to the south.

15. So called from the circumstance that Palmyra stood in the midst of them. It was built by King Solomon, in an oasis of the Desert, in the midst of palm groves, from which it received its Greek name, which was a translation also of the Hebrew "Tadmor," "the city of palm-trees." It lay at a considerable distance from the Euphrates. Its site presents considerable ruins; but they are all of the Roman period, and greatly inferior to those of Baalbec or Heliopolis.

16. The rock fortress of the Idumans in Arabia Petra, now called Wady-Musa, half-way between the head of the Gulf of Akabah and the Dead Sea.

17. Which it continued to do until it was conquered under its queen, Zenobia, by the Emperor Aurelian, in A.D. 270. It was partially destroyed by him, but was afterwards fortified by Justinian; though it never recovered its former greatness.

18. See B. vi. c. 30.

19. Pliny is the only author that makes mention of Stelendene.

20. In C. 19 of the present Book.

21. Previously mentioned by Pliny. See p. 439. Of Elatium nothing is known.

22. The same place that is also mentioned in history as Flavia Firms Sura. The site of Philiscum is totally unknown.

23. Nothing is known of this place.

24. Parisot remarks, that it is true that the Euphrates increases periodically, much in the same manner as the Nile; but that its increase does not arise from similar causes, nor are the same results produced by it, seeing that the river does not convey the same volume of water as the Nile, and that the country in the vicinity of its bed does not, like Egypt, form a valley pent up between two ranges of hills.




22. Chap. 22. (27.)-Cilicia And The Adjoining Nations.


CHAP. 22. (27.)-CILICIA AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.

But let us now return to the coast of Syria, joining up

to which is Cilicia. We here find the river Diaphanes[1],







Mount Crocodilus, the Gates[2] of Mount Amanus, the rivers

Androcus[3], Pinarus[4], and Lycus[5], the Gulf of Issos[6], and the

town of that name; then Alexandria[7], the river Chlorus[8],

the free town of g[9], the river Pyramus[10], the Gates[11] of

Cilicia, the towns of Mallos[12] and Magarsos[13], and, in the

interior, Tarsus[14]. We then come to the Aleian Plains[15], the

town of Cassipolis, Mopsos[16], a free town on the river Pyramus,

Thynos, Zephyrium, and Anchiale[17]. Next to these







are the rivers Saros[18] and Cydnus[19], the latter of which, at

some distance from the sea, runs through the free city of

Tarsus, the region of Celenderitis with a town[20] of similar

name, the place where Nymphum[21] stood, Soli of Cilicia[22],

now called Pompeiopolis, Adana[23], Cibyra[24], Pinare[25], Pedalie[26],

Ale, Selinus[27], Arsino[28], Iotape[29], Doron, and, near the sea,







Corycos, there being a town[30], port, and cave[31] all of the same

name. Passing these, we come to the river Calycadnus[32],

the Promontory of Sarpedon[33], the towns of Holm[34] and

Myle, and the Promontory and town of Venus[35], at a short

distance from the island of Cyprus. On the mainland there

are the towns of Myanda, Anemurium[36], and Coracesium[37],

and the river Melas[38], the ancient boundary of Cilicia. In

the interior the places more especially worthy of mention

are Anazarbus[39], now called Csarea, Augusta, Castabala[40],

Epiphania[41], formerly called niandos, Eleusa[42], Iconium[43],







Seleucia[44] upon the river Calycadnus, surnamed Tracheotis,

a city removed[45] from the sea-shore, where it had the name of

Holmia. Besides those already mentioned, there are in the

interior the rivers Liparis[46], Bombos, Paradisus, and Mount

Imbarus[47].







1. So called probably from the Greek diafanh\s, "transparent." It has not been identified, but it was no doubt a small stream falling into the Gulf of Issus.

2. Or "Passes." As to Mount Amanus, see C. 18 of the present Book.

3. Parisot suggests that this is the Chersos of Xenophon, the modern Kermes.

4. The Deli-Su of modern times according to D'Anville, the Maher-Su according to Pococke.

5. Pliny is the only writer that mentions this river Lycus.

6. The Gulf of Issos is now called the Gulf of Scanderoon or Iskenderun, from the town of that name, the former Alexandria ad Issum, mentioned here by Pliny. In the vicinity of Issus, Alexander defeated the army of Darius. The exact site of the town appears not to have been ascertained.

7. Which still preserves its name in Iskenderun, on the east side of the Gulf. It probably received its name in honour of Alexander the Great.

8. Or the "Green" River. Its identity is unknown.

9. Now called Ayas Kala or Kalassy. It was a place, in the Roman period, of some importance.

10. The modern river Jihan.

11. Or "Passes" of Cilicia, through the range of Taurus.

12. Called Mallo in modern times, according to Hardouin and Dupinet.

13. At the mouth of the Pyramus, according to Tzetzes.

14. Famous as the birth-place of St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles. Its ruins still bear the name of Tersus. During the civil war it took part with Julius Csar, and from him received the name of Juliopolis.

15. They lie between the rivers Djihoun and Syhoun, according to Ansart.

16. Now called Messis, according to D'Anville and Mannert. The site of Cassipolis, or Cassiopolis according to some readings, is unknown.

17. The sites of Thynos and Zephyrium appear to be unknown. Anchiale was situate on the coast, upon the river Anchialcus, according to the geographer Stephanus. Aristobulus, quoted by Strabo, says that at this place was the tomb of Sardanapalus, and on it a relief in stone representing a man snapping the fingers of the right hand. He adds, "It is said that there is an Assyrian inscription also, recording that Sardanapalus built Anchiale and Tarsus in one day, and exhorting the reader to eat, drink, &c., as everything else is not worth That, the meaning of which was shown by the attitude of the figure." Athenus however cites Amyntas as his authority for stating that the tomb of Sardanapalus was at Nineveh. Leake is of opinion that a mound on the banks of the river beyond the modern villages of Kazalu and Karaduar forms the remains of Anchiale.

18. The modern Syhou, according to Ansart.

19. Now called the Tersoos Chai. It is remarkable for the coldness of its waters, and it was here that Alexander the Great nearly met with his death from bathing when heated, in the stream.

20. Now Chelendreh. It was a strong place on the coast, situate on a high rock nearly surrounded by the sea. None of its ruins seem older than the early period of the Roman empire. The Turks call it Gulnare.

21. Probably so called from a temple to the Sea Nymphs there.

22. To distinguish it from Sol or Soli of Cyprus. It was situate between the rivers Cydnus and Lamus, and was said to have been colonized by Argives and Lydians from Rhodes. Alexander mulcted its inhabitants of 200 talents, for their adhesion to the Persians. It was celebrated as the birth-place of the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus, the comic poet Philemon, and the poet and astronomer Aratus. Its name is perpetuated in the word Solecism, which is said to have been first applied to the corrupt dialect of Greek spoken by the inhabitants of this city, or as some say, of Soli in Cyprus.

23. It still retains its ancient name, and is situate on the western side of the Sarus, now the Syhoun or Syhan. Pompey settled here some of the Cilician pirates whom he had conquered.

24. Leake, in his 'Asia Minor,' p. 196, says, "The vestiges of Cibyra are probably those observed by Captain Beaufort upon a height which rises from the right bank of a considerable river about eight miles to the eastward of the Melas, about four miles to the west of Cape Karburnu, and nearly two miles from the shore." Ptolemy mentions Cibyra as an inland town of Cilicia Trachea, but Scylax places it on the coast.

25. Its ruins are still called Pinara or Minara. It was an inland city of Lycia, some distance west of the river Xanthus, and at the foot of Mount Cragus.

26. Or perhaps 'Podalie.' Of it nothing seems to be known.

27. Or Selinuntum, now Selenti, on the coast of Cilicia. In consequence of the death here of the Emperor Trajan, it received the name of Trajanopolis. Of Ale, if that is the correct reading, nothing whatever is known.

28. On the coast of Cilicia; mentioned by Strabo as having a port. Leake places it at or near the ruined castle called Sokhta Kalesi, below which is a port, and a peninsula on the east side of the harbour covered with ruins.

29. In the district of Selenitis. It has been identified with the site of the modern fortress of Lambardo. It is also suggested that it may have been the same place as Laerte, the native city of Diogenes Laertius. Of Doron nothing seems to be known.

30. Its ruins are supposed to be those seen by Leake near the island of Crambusa. Here the walls of an ancient city may still be traced, and a mole of unhewn rocks projects from one angle of the fortress about 100 yards across the bay.

31. Strabo describes this cave as a vast hollow of circular form, surrounded by a margin of rock on all sides of considerable height; on descending it, the ground was found full of shrubs, both evergreens and cultivated, and in some parts the best saffron was grown. He also says that there was a cave which contained a large spring, from which arose a river of clear water which immediately afterwards sank into the earth and flowed underground into the sea. It was called the Bitter Water. This cave, so famed in ancient times, does not appear to have been examined by any modem traveller. It was said to have been the bed of the giant Typhon or Typhus.

32. Now known as the Ghiuk-Su.

33. Supposed to be the same as the modern Lessan-el-Kahpeh.

34. Or Holmi, on the coast of Cilicia Tracheia, a little to the south-west of Seleucia. Leake thinks that the modern town of Aghaliman occupies the site of Holm.

35. Probably the same place as the Aphrodisias mentioned by Livy, Diodorus Siculus, and Ptolemy.

36. On the headland now called Cape Anemour, the most southerly part of Asia Minor. Beaufort discovered on the point indications of a considerable ancient town.

37. Its site is now called Alaya or Alanieh. This spot was Strabo's boundary-line between Pamphylia and Cilicia. Some slight remains of the ancient town were seen here by Beaufort, but no inscriptions were found.

38. Identified by Beaufort with the modern Manaugat-Su.

39. So called, either from an adjacent mountain of that name, or its founder, Anazarbus. Its later name was Csarea ad Anazarbum. Its site is called Anawasy or Amnasy, and is said to display considerable remains of the ancient town. Of Augusta nothing is known: Ptolemy places it in a district called Bryelice.

40. Identified by Ainsworth with the ruins seen at Kara Kaya in Cilicia.

41. Pompey settled some of the Cilician pirates here after his defeat of them. It was thirty miles east of Anazarbus, but its site does not appear to have been identified.

42. An island off the shore of Cilicia, also called Sebaste.

43. Some of the MSS. read "Riconium" here.

44. Its ruins are called Selefkeh. This was an important city of Seleucia Aspera, built by Seleucus I. on the western bank of the river Calycadnus. It had an oracle of Apollo, and annual games in honour of Zeus Olympius. It was a free city under the Romans. It was here that Frederick Barbarossa, the emperor of Germany, died. Its ruins are picturesque and extensive.

45. Meaning that the inhabitants of Holmia were removed by Seleucus to his new city of Seleucia.

46. Said by Vitruvius to have had the property of anointing those who bathed in its waters. If so, it probably had its name from the Greek word liparo\s, "fat." It flowed past the town of Solo. Bombos and Paradisus are rivers which do not appear to have been identified.

47. A branch of the Taurus range.




23. Chap. 23.-Isauria And The Homonades.


CHAP. 23.-ISAURIA AND THE HOMONADES.

All the geographers have mentioned Pamphylia as joining

up to Cilicia, without taking any notice of the people of

Isauria[1]. Its cities are, in the interior, Isaura[2], Clibanus,

and Lalasis; it runs down towards the sea by the side of

Anemurium[3] already mentioned. In a similar manner also,

all who have treated of this subject have been ignorant of

the existence of the nation of the Homonades bordering upon

Isauria, and their town of Homona[4] in the interior. There

are forty-four other fortresses, which lie concealed amid

rugged crags and valleys.











1. It bordered in the east on Lycaonia, in the north on Phrygia, in the west on Pisidia, and in the south on Cilicia and Pamphylia.

2. A well-fortified city at the foot of Mount Taurus. It was twice destroyed, first by its inhabitants when besieged by Perdiccas, and again by the Roman general Servilius Isauricus. Strabo says that Amyntas of Galatea built a new city in its vicinity out of the ruins of the old one. D'Anville and others have identified the site of Old Isauria with the modern Bei Sheher, and they are of opinion that Seidi Sheher occupies the site of. New Isaura, but Hamilton thinks that the ruins on a hill near the village of Olou Bounar mark the site of New Isaura. Of the two next places nothing seems to be known at the present day.

3. In the last Chapter.

4. In Pisidia, at the southern extremity of Lake Caralitis. Tacitus, Annals, iii. 48, says that this people possessed forty-four fortresses: whereas Strabo speaks of them as the most barbarous of all the Pisidian tribes, dwelling only in caves. They were conquered by the consul Quirinius in the time of Augustus.




24. Chap. 24.-Pisidia.


CHAP. 24.-PISIDIA.

The Pisid[1], formerly called the Solymi, occupy the higher

parts of the mountains. In their country there is the colony

of Csarea, also called Antiochia[2], and the towns of Oroanda[3]

and Sagalessos.







1. Pisidia was a mountainous region formed by that part of the main chain of Mount Taurus which sweeps round in a semicircle parallel to the shore of the Pamphylian Gulf; the shore itself at the foot of the mountains forming the district of Pamphylia. On the south-east it was bounded by Cilicia, on the east and north-east by Lycaonia and Isauria, and by Phrygia Parorios on the north, where its boundaries greatly varied at different times.

2. Generally called "Antioch of Pisidia," was situate on the south side of the mountain boundary between Phrygia and Pisidia. The modern Yalobatch is supposed to occupy its site. The remains of the ancient town are numerous. Its title of Csarea was probably given to it on its becoming a Roman colony early in the imperial period.

3. D'Anville suggests that the modern Haviran occupies its site, and that Sadjakla stands on that of Sagalessos.




25. Chap. 25-Lycaonia.


CHAP. 25-LYCAONIA.

These people are bounded by Lycaonia[1], which belongs to

the jurisdiction of the province of Asia[2], to which also resort

the people of Philomelium[3], Tymbrium[4], Leucolithium[5],

Pelta, and Tyrium. To this jurisdiction is also added a







Tetrarchy of Lycaonia in that part which joins up to Galatia,

containing fourteen states, with the famous city of Iconium[6].

In Lycaonia itself the most noted places are Thebasa[7] on

Taurus, and Hyde, on the confines of Galatia and Cappadocia.

On the [western] side of Lycaonia, and above Pamphylia,

come the Mily[8], a people descended from the

Thracians; their city is Arycanda.







1. This country was bounded on the north by Galatia, on the east by Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia Aspera, on the south-west by Isauria and Phrygia Parorios, and on the north-west by Great Phrygia. It was assigned under the Persian empire to the satrapy of Cappadocia, but considered by the Greek and Roman geographers the south-east part of Phrygia.

2. Phrygia, or the western part of Asia, the first part of the Asiatic continent that received the name of Asia. See Chapters 28 & 29 of the present Book.

3. D'Anville thinks that the place called II-Goun occupies the site of Philomela.

4. Hardouin suggests that the reading here is "Tibriani," the people of Tibrias. Ansart is of opinion that Thymbrium is meant, the place at which Cyrus defeated the army of Crsus.

5. Its site is unknown. It was probably so called from the quarries of white stone or marble in its vicinity. Pelta and Tyrium are also equally unknown.

6. Iconium was regarded in the time of Xenophon as the easternmost town of Phrygia, while all the later authorities described it as the principal city of Lycaonia. In the Acts of the Apostles it is described as a very populous city, inhabited by Greeks and Jews. Its site is now called Kunjah or Koniych.

7. It has been suggested that this may be the Tarbassus of Artemidorus, quoted by Strabo. Hyde was in later times one of the episcopal cities of Lycaonia.

8. Their district is called Melyas by Herodotus, B. i. c. 173. The city of Arycanda is unknown.




26. Chap. 26.-Pamphylia.


CHAP. 26.-PAMPHYLIA.

The former name of Pamphylia[1] was Mopsopia[2]. The

Pamphylian Sea[3] joins up to that of Cilicia. The towns of

Pamphylia are Side[4], Aspendum[5], situate on the side of a

mountain, Pletenissum[6], and Perga[7]. There is also the Promontory

of Leucolla, the mountain of Sardemisus, and the







rivers Eurymedon[8], which flows past Aspendus, and Catarractes[9],

near to which is Lyrnesus: also the towns of

Olbia[10], and Phaselis[11], the last on this coast.







1. United with Cilicia it now forms the province of Caramania or Kermanieh. It was a narrow strip of the southern coast of Asia Minor, extending in an arch along the Pamphylian Gulf between Lycia on the west, Cilicia on the east, and on the north bordering on Pisidia.

2. Tradition ascribed the first Greek settlements in this country to Mopsus, son of Apollo (or of Rhacius), after the Trojan war.

3. Now called the Gulf of Adalia, lying between Cape Khelidonia and Cape Anemour.

4. Now called Candeloro, according to D'Anville and Beaufort.

5. Or Aspendus, an Argeian colony on the river Eurymedon. The "mountain" of Pliny is nothing but a hill or piece of elevated ground. It is supposed that it still retains its ancient name. In B. xxxi. c. 7, Pliny mentions a salt lake in its vicinity.

6. Hardouin suggests that the correct reading is 'Petnelessum.'

7. A city of remarkable splendour, between the rivers Catarrhactes and Cestrus, sixty stadia from the mouth of the former. It was a celebrated seat of the worship of Artemis or Diana. In the later Roman empire it was the capital of Pamphylia Secunda. It was the first place visited by St. Paul in Asia Minor. See Acts, xiii. 13 and xiv. 25. Its splendid ruins are still to be seen at Murtana, sixteen miles north-east of Adalia.

8. Now known as the Kapri-Su.

9. Now called Duden-Su. It descends the mountains of Taurus in a great broken waterfall, whence its name.

10. Probably occupying the site of the modern Atalieh or Satalieh.

11. On the borders of Lycia and Pamphylia, at the foot of Mount Solyma. Its ruins now bear the name of Tekrova.




27. Chap. 27.-Mount Taurus.


CHAP. 27.-MOUNT TAURUS.

Adjoining to Pamphylia is the Sea of Lycia and the country

of Lycia[1] itself, where the chain of Taurus, coming from

the eastern shores, terminates the vast Gulf[2] by the Promontory

of Chelidonium[3]. Of immense extent, and separating

nations innumerable, after taking its first rise at the Indian

Sea[4], it branches off to the north on the right-hand side,

and on the left towards the south. Then taking a direction

towards the west, it would cut through the middle of Asia,

were it not that the seas check it in its triumphant career

along the land. It accordingly strikes off in a northerly

direction, and forming an arc, occupies an immense tract of

country, nature, designedly as it were, every now and then

throwing seas in the way to oppose its career; here the Sea

of Phnicia, there the Sea of Pontus, in this direction the

Caspian and Hyrcanian[5], and then, opposite to them, the

Lake Motis. Although somewhat curtailed by these obstacles,

it still winds along between them, and makes its







way even amidst these barriers; and victorious after all, it

then escapes with its sinuous course to the kindred chain

of the Riphan mountains. Numerous are the names

which it bears, as it is continuously designated by new ones

throughout the whole of its course. In the first part of its

career it has the name of Imas[6], after which it is known

successively by the names of Emodus, Paropanisus, Circius,

Cambades, Paryadres, Choatras, Oreges, Oroandes, Niphates,

Taurus, and, where it even out-tops itself, Caucasus. Where

it throws forth its arms as though every now and then it

would attempt to invade the sea, it bears the names of Sarpedon,

Coracesius, Cragus, and then again Taurus. Where

also it opens and makes a passage to admit mankind, it still

claims the credit of an unbroken continuity by giving the

name of "Gates" to these passes, which in one place are

called the "Gates of Armenia[7]," in another the "Gates of the

Caspian," and in another the "Gates of Cilicia." In addition

to this, when it has been cut short in its onward career, it

retires to a distance from the seas, and covers itself on the

one side and the other with the names of numerous nations,

being called, on the right-hand side the Hyrcanian and the

Caspian, and on the left the Parvadrian[8], the Moschian, the

Amazonian, the Coraxican, and the Scythian chain. Among

the Greeks it bears the one general name of Ceraunian[9].











1. It was inclosed by Caria and Pamphylia on the west and east, and on the north by the district of Cibyrates in Phrygia.

2. The Gulf of Satalieh or Adalia.

3. Still known as Cape Khelidonia or Cameroso.

4. Parisot remarks here, "Pliny describes on this occasion, with an exactness very remarkable for his time, the chain of mountains which runs through the part of Asia known to the ancients, although it is evident that he confines the extent of them within much too small a compass."

5. The Caspian and the Hyrcanian Seas are generally looked upon as identical, but we find them again distinguished by Pliny in B. vi. c. 13, where he says that this inland sea commences to be called the Caspian after you have passed the river Cyrus (or Kr), and that the Caspii live near it; and in C. 16, that it is called the Hyrcanian Sea, from the Hyrcani who live along its shores. The western side would therefore in strictness be called the Caspian, and the eastern the Hyrcanian Sea.

6. The name of Imas was, in the first instance, applied by the Greek geographers to the Hind-Ksh and to the chain parallel to the equator, to which the name of Himlaya is usually given at the present day. The name was gradually extended to the intersection running north and south, the meridian axis of Central Asia, or the Bolor range. The divisions of Asia into 'intra et extra Imaum,' were unknown to Strabo and Pliny, though the latter describes the knot of mountains formed by the intersections of the Himalaya, the Hind-Ksh, and Bolor, by the expression 'quorum (Montes Emodi) promontorium Imas vocatur.' The Bolor chain has been for ages, with one or two exceptions, the boundary between the empires of China and Turkestan."-Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography.

7. The Gates of Armenia are spoken of in B. vi. c. 12, the Gates of the Caspian in C. 16 of the same Book, and the Gates of Cilicia in C. 22 of the present Book.

8. See C. ix. of the next Book.

9. Strabo gives this name to only the eastern portion of the Caucasian chain which overhangs the Caspian Sea and forms the northern boundary of Albania, and in which he places the Amazons. Mela seems to apply the name to the whole chain which other writers call Caucasus, confining the latter term to a part of it. Pliny (B. v. c. 27 & B. vi. c. 11) gives precisely the same representation, with the additional error of making the Ceraunii (i. e. the Caucasus of others) part of the Great Taurus Chain. He seems to apply the name of Caucasus to the spurs which spread out both to the north-east and the south-east from the main chain near its eastern extremity, and which he regarded as a continuous range, bordering the western shores of the Caspian. See B. vi. c. 10."-Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Geography.




28. Chap. 28.-Lycia.


CHAP. 28.-LYCIA.

In Lycia, after leaving its promontory[1], we come to the

town of Simena, Mount Chimra[2], which sends forth flames

by night, and the city of Hephstium[3], the heights above

which are also frequently on fire. Here too formerly stood the

city of Olympus[4]; now we find the mountain places known

as Gag[5], Corydalla[6], and Rhodiopolis[7]. Near the sea is

Limyra[8] with a river of like name, into which the Arycandus







flows, Mount Masycites[9], the state of Andriaca[10], Myra[11], the

towns of Aperr[12] and Antiphellos[13], formerly called Habessus,

and in a corner Phellos[14], after which comes Pyrra,

and then the city of Xanthus[15], fifteen miles from the sea,

as also a river known by the same name. We then come

to Patara[16], formerly Pataros, and Sidyma, situate on a moun-







tain. Next comes the Promontory of Cragus[17], and beyond

it a gulf[18], equal to the one that comes before it; upon it are

Pinara[19], and Telmessus[20], the frontier town of Lycia.



Lycia formerly contained seventy towns, now it has but

thirty-six. Of these, the most celebrated, besides those

already mentioned, are Canas[21], Candyba, so celebrated for

the nian Grove, Podalia, Choma, past which the river

desa flows, Cyane[22], Ascandalis, Amelas, Noscopium,

Tlos[23], and Telandrus[24]. It includes also in the interior the

district of Cabalia, the three cities of which are nianda,

Balbura[25], and Bubon[26].







On passing Telmessus we come to the Asiatic or Carpathian

Sea, and the district which is properly called Asia.

Agrippa has divided this region into two parts; one of which

he has bounded on the east by Phrygia and Lycaonia, on the

west by the gean Sea, on the south by the Egyptian Sea,

and on the north by Paphlagonia, making its length to be

473 miles and its breadth 320. The other part he has

bounded by the Lesser Armenia on the east, Phrygia, Lycaonia,

and Pamphylia on the west, the province of Pontus

on the north, and the Sea of Pamphylia on the south, making

it 575 miles in length and 325 in breadth.







1. Of Chelidonium, now Kheidonia, formed by the range of Taurus.

2. See B. ii. c. 116. The flame which continually burned on this mountain has been examined by Beaufort, the modern traveller. The name of the mountain is now Yanar: it is formed of a mass of scaglia with serpentine. Spratt says that the flame is nothing more than a stream of inflammable gas issuing from a crevice, such as is seen in several places in the Apennines. By Homer it is represented as a fabulous monster, which is explained by Servius, the commentator of Virgil, in the following manner. He says that flames issue from the top of the mountain, and that there are lions in the vicinity; the middle part abounds in goats, and the lower part with serpents. Simena appears to be unknown.

3. So called from (/Hfaists, the Greek name of Vulcan. Pliny mentions this spot also in B. ii. c. 110. The flame probably proceeded from an inflammable gas, or else was ignited by a stream of naphtha.

4. More generally known as Phnicus, a flourishing city on Mount Olympus; now Yanar Dagh, a volcano on the eastern coast of Lycia, with which it often exchanged names. Having become the head-quarters of the pirates, it was destroyed by the Roman general Servilius Isauricus. Its ruins are to be seen at a spot called Deliktash.

5. Mentioned again in B. xxxvi. c. 34, as the spot whence the gagates lapis or 'agate' took its name. The ruins at Aladja are regarded by Leake as marking the site of Gag; but Sir Charles Fellowes identifies the place with the modern village of Hascooe, the vicinity of which is covered with ruins.

6. On the road from Phaselis in Lycia to Patara. Its site is a village called Hadgivella, about sixteen miles south-west of Phaselis. The remains are very considerable.

7. The remains of Rhodiopolis were found by Spratt and Forbes in the vicinity of Corydalla.

8. On the Limyrus, probably the modern Phineka; the ruins to the north of which are supposed to be those of Limyra.

9. The modern Akhtar Dagh.

10. Now Andraki. This was the port of Myra, next mentioned. It stood at the mouth of the river now known as the Andraki. Cramer observes that it was here St. Paul was put on board the ship of Alexandria, Acts xxvii. 5, 6.

11. Still called Myra by the Greeks, but Dembre by the Turks. It was built on a rock twenty stadia from the sea. St. Paul touched here on his voyage as a prisoner to Rome, and from the mention made of it in Acts xxvii. 5, 6, it would appear to have been an important sea-port. There are magnificent ruins of this city still to be seen, in part hewn out of the solid rock.

12. From an inscription found by Cockerell at the head of the Hassac Bay, it is thought that Aperl is the proper name of this place, though again there are coins of Gordian which give the name as Aperr. It is fixed by the Stadismus as sixty stadia west of Somena, which Leake supposes to be the same as the Simena mentioned above by Pliny.

13. Now called Antephelo or Andifilo, on the south coast of Lycia, at the head of a bay. Its theatre is still complete, with the exception of the proscenium. There are also other interesting remains of antiquity.

14. Fellowes places the site of Phellos near a village called Saaret, west-north-west of Antiphellos, where he found the remains of a town; but Spratt considers this to mark the site of the Pyrra of Pliny, mentioned above-judging from Pliny's words. Modern geographers deem it more consistent with his meaning to look for Phellos north of Antiphellos than in any other direction, and the ruins at Tchookoorbye, north of Antiphellos, on the spur of a mountain called Fellerdagh, are thought to be those of Phellos.

15. The most famous city of Lycia. It stood on the western bank of the river of that name, now called the Echen Chai. It was twice besieged, and on both occasions the inhabitants destroyed themselves with their property, first by the Persians under Harpagus, and afterwards by the Romans under Brutus. Among its most famous temples were those of Sarpedon and of the Lycian Apollo. The ruins now known by the name of Gunik, have been explored by Sir C. Fellows and other travellers, and a portion of its remains are now to be seen in the British Museun, under the name of the Xanthian marbles.

16. Its ruins still bear the same name. It was a flourishing seaport, on a promontory of the same name, sixty stadia east of the mouth of the Xanthus. It was early colonized by the Dorians from Crete, and became a chief seat of the worship of Apollo, from whose son Patarus it was said to have received its name. Ptolemy Philadelphus enlarged it, and called it Arsino, but it still remained better known by its old name. This place was visited by St. Paul, who thence took ship for Phnicia. See Acts xxi. 1.

17. This was more properly the name of a mountain district of Lycia. Strabo speaks of Cragus, a mountain with eight summits, and a city of the same name. Beaufort thinks that Yedy-Booroon, the Seven Capes, a group of high and rugged mountains, appear to have been the ancient Mount Cragus of Lycia.

18. Probably the Gulf of Macri, equal in size to the Gulf of Satalia, which is next to it.

19. This place lay in the interior at the base of Cragus, and its ruins are still to be seen on the east side of the range, about half-way between Telmessus and the termination of the range on the south coast.

20. Its ruins are to be seen at Mei, or the modern port of Macri.

21. Its site is unknown. That of Candyba has been ascertained to be a place called Gendevar, east of the Xanthus, and a few miles from the coast. Its rock-tombs are said to be beautifully executed. The nian grove or forest, it has been suggested, may still be recognized in the extensive pine forest that now covers the mountain above the city. The sites of Podalia and Choma seem to be unknown.

22. In some editions "Cyane." Leake says that this place was discovered to the west of Andriaca by Cockerell. It appears from Scott and Forbes's account of Lycia, that three sites have been found between port Tristorus and the inland valley of Kassabar, which from the inscriptions appeared anciently to have borne this name, Yarvoo, Ghiouristan, and Toussa. The former is the chief place and is covered with ruins of the Roman and middle-age construction. At Ghiouristan there are Lycian rock-tombs.

23. Its ruins are to be seen near the modern Doover, in the interior of Lycia, about two miles and a half east of the river Xanthus. Of the three places previously mentioned the sites appear to be unknown.

24. Mentioned by the geographer Stephanus as being in Caria.

25. Its site is fixed at Katara, on both sides of the Katara Su, the most northern branch of the Xanthus. The ruins are very considerable, lying on both sides of the stream. Balbura is a neuter plural.

26. It lay to the west of Balbura, near a place now called Ebajik, on a small stream that flows into the Horzoom Tchy. In B. xxxv. c. 17, Pliny mentions a kind of chalk found in the vicinity of this place. Its ruins are still to be seen, but they are not striking.




29. Chap. 29-Caria.


CHAP. 29-CARIA.

Upon the adjoining coast is Caria[1], then Ionia, and beyond

it olis. Caria surrounds Doris, which lies in the middle,

and runs down on both sides of it to the sea. In it[2] is the

Promontory of Pedalium[3], the river Glaucus[4], into which

the Telmedium[5] discharges itself, the towns of Ddala[6],

Crya[7], peopled by fugitives, the river Axon[8], and the town

of Calynda[9].







(28.) The river Indus[10], which rises in the mountains of

the Cibyrat[11], receives sixty-five rivers which are constantly

flowing, besides upwards of 100 mountain torrents. Here

is the free town of Caunos[12], then the town of Pyrnos[13], the

port of Cressa[14], from which the island of Rhodes is distant

twenty miles; the place where Loryma formerly stood, the

towns of Tisanusa[15], Paridion[16], and Larymna[17], the Gulf of

Thymnias[18], the Promontory of Aphrodisias[19], the town of

Hyda, the Gulf of Schnus, and the district of Bubasus[20].

There was formerly the town of Acanthus here, another







name of which was Dulopolis. We then come to Cnidos[21],

a free town, situate on a promontory, Triopia[22], and after

that the towns of Pegusa and Stadia.



At this last town Doris begins; but, first, it may be as

well to describe the districts that lie to the back of Caria

and the several jurisdictions in the interior. The first of

these[23] is called Cibyratica; Cibyra being a town of Phrygia.

Twenty-five states resort to it for legal purposes, together

with the most famous city of Laodicea[24].



(29.) This place at first bore the name of Diospolis, and

after that of Rhoas, and is situate on the river Lycus, the

Asopus and the Caprus[25] washing its sides. The other people

belonging to the same jurisdiction, whom it may be not

amiss to mention, are the Hydrelit[26], the Themisones[27], and

the Hierapolit[28]. The second jurisdiction receives its title







from Synnas[29]; to it resort the Lycaones[30], the Appiani[31],

the Eucarpeni[32], the Doryli[33], the Midi, the Julienses[34], and

fifteen other peoples of no note. The third jurisdiction has

its seat at Apamea[35], formerly called Celn[36], and after that

Cibotos. This place is situate at the foot of Mount Signia,

the Marsyas, the Obrima, and the Orga, rivers which fall

into the Mander, flowing past it. Here the Marsyas,

rising from the earth, again makes its appearance, but soon

after buries itself once more at Aulocrene[37], the spot where







Marsyas had the musical contest with Apollo as to superiority of skill in playing on the flute. Aulocren is the

name given to a valley which lies ten miles on the road

towards Phrygia from Apamea. As belonging to this jurisdiction, it may be as well to mention the Metropolit[38], the

Dionysopolit[39], th>e Euphorbeni[40], the Aemonenses[41], the Pelteni[42], and the Silbiani[43], besides nine other nations of no note.



Upon the Gulf of Doris[44] we have Leucopolis, Hamaxitos,

Eleus, and Euthene[45]. We then come to Pitaium, Eutane[46],

and Halicarnassus[47], towns of Caria. To the jurisdiction of

this last place six towns were appended by Alexander the

Great, Theangela[48], Sibde, Medmasa, Euralium, Pedasus,

and Telmissus[49]. Halicarnassus lies between two gulfs,

those of Ceramus[50] and Iasus[51]. We then come to Myn-







dos[52], and the former site of Palomyndos; also Nariandos,

Neapolis[53], Caryanda[54], the free town of Termera[55], Bargyla[56],

and the town of Iasus[57], from which the Iasian Gulf takes

its name.



Caria is especially distinguished for the fame of its places

in the interior; for here are Mylasa[58], a free town, and that

of Antiochia[59], on the site of the former towns of Symmthos and Cranaos: it is now surrounded by the rivers

Mander[60] and Orsinus[61]. In this district also was formerly

Mandropolis[62]; we find also Eumenia[63], situate on the river

Cludros, the river Glaucus[64], the town of Lysias and Orthosa[65],







the district of Berecynthus[66], Nysa[67], and Tralles[68], also called

Euanthia[69], Seleucia, and Antiochia: it is washed by the

river Eudon, while the Thebais runs through it. Some

authors say that a nation of Pygmies formerly dwelt here.

Besides the preceding towns, there are Thydonos, Pyrrha[70],

Eurome[71], Heraclea[72], Amyzon[73], the free town of Alabanda[74],

which has given name to that jurisdiction, the free town of

Stratonicea[75], Hynidos, Ceramus[76], Trzene[77], and Phorontis.







At a greater distance[78], but resorting to the same place of

jurisdiction, are the Orthronienses, the Alindienses[79] or Hippini, the Xystiani[80], the Hydissenses, the Apolloniata[81], the

Trapezopolit[82], and the Aphrodisienses[83], a free people. Besides the above, there are the towns of Coscinus[84], and Harpasa[85], situate on the river Harpasus[86], which also passed the

town of Trallicon when it was in existence.







1. In the south-west corner of Asia Minor, bounded on the north and

north-east by the mountains Messagis and Cadmus, dividing it from

Lydia and Phrygia, and adjoining to Phrygia and Lycia on the south-east.

2. Caria.

3. Now Cape Ghinazi. It was also called Artemisium, from the temple

of Artemis or Diana situate upon it.

4. Discharging itself into the bay of Telmissus, now Makri.

5. "Telmissus" is the reading here in some editions.

6. Situate in the district of Caria called Pera. It was also the name

given to a mountainous district. In Hoskyn's map the ruins of Ddala

are placed near the head of the Gulf of Glaucus, on the west of a small

river called Inegi Chai, probably the ancient Ninus, where Ddalus was

bitten by a water-snake, in consequence of which he died.

7. On the Gulf of Glaucus: Stephanus however places it in Lycia.

Mela speaks only of a promontory of this name.

8. Leake places this river immediately west of the Gulf of Glaucus.

9. Placed by Strabo sixty stadia from the sea, west of the Gulf of

Glaucus, and east of Carinus. Its site is uncertain, but it may possibly

be the place discovered by Fellows, which is proved by inscriptions to

have been called Cadyanda, a name otherwise unknown to us. This lies N.N.E. of Makri, on the Gulf of Glaucus or Makri, at a place called

Hoozoomlee, situate on an elevated plain.

10. The same as the river Calbis of Strabo and Mela, at present the Dalamon Tchy, Quingi or Taas, having its sources in Mount Cadmus above Cibyra. It was said to have derived its name from an Indian, who had been thrown into it from an elephant.

11. Their district was Cibyratis, of which the chief city was Cibyra. This place, uniting with the towns of Balbura, Bubon, and nianda, had the name of Tetrapolis; of which league Cibyra was the head, mustering 30,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry. The iron found in this district was easily cut with a chisel or other sharp tool. The site of this powerful city has been ascertained to be at Horzoom, on the Horzoom Tchy, a branch of the Dalamon Tchy or Indus. The ruins are very extensive, and the theatre in fine preservation.

12. Placed by Strabo west of Calynda. The ancient descriptions of its locality vary, but the place now known as Kaiguez is said to denote its site. The Caunii are frequently mentioned in the Persian, Grecian, and Roman histories. It was noted for its dried figs, mentioned by Pliny in B. xv. c. 19.

13. Supposed by Mannert to be the Physcus of Strabo and the Phusc of Ptolemy.

14. Leake says that this harbour is now called Aplothka by the Greeks, and Porto Cavaliere by the Italians. He also says that on its western shore are the ruins of an Hellenic fortress and town, which are undoubtedly those of Loryma.

15. It had a port of the same name.

16. Called Pandion by Mela, according to Parisot.

17. Parisot suggests that it is the same as Loryma previously mentioned.

18. Like the Gulf of Schnus, a portion probably of the Dorian Gulf, now the Gulf of Syme.

19. The modern name of this promontory is not given by Hamilton, who sailed round it. It has been confounded with the Cynos Sema of Strabo, now Cape Velo. The site of Hyda or Hyde is unknown.

20. There was a town of this name as well. Stephen of Byzantium tells us that it received its name from a shepherd who saved the life of Podalirius, when shipwrecked on the coast of Caria.

21. Part of it was situate on an island now called Cape Krio, connected by a causeway with the mainland. Its site is covered with ruins of a most interesting character in every direction. The Triopian promontory, evidently alluded to by Pliny, is the modern Cape Krio.

22. It has been remarked that in his description here Pliny is very brief and confused, and that he may intend to give the name of Triopia either to the small peninsula or island, or may include in this term the western part of the whole of the larger peninsula.

23. Of these conventus. For an account of Cibyra see last page.

24. On the Lycus, now known as the Choruk-Su. By different writers it has been assigned to Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia, but in the ultimate division of the Roman provinces it was assigned to the Greater Phrygia. It was founded by Antiochus II. on the site of a previous town, and named in honour of his wife Laodice. Its site is occupied by ruins of great magnificence. In the Apostolic age it was the seat of a flourishing Christian Church, which however very soon gave signs of degeneracy, as we learn from St. John's Epistle to it, Revel. ii. 1422. St. Paul also addresses it in common with the neighbouring church of Coloss. Its site is now called Eski-Hissar, or the Old Castle.

25. A tributary of the Phrygian Mander.

26. The people of Hydrela, a town of Caria, said to have been founded by one of three brothers who emigrated from Sparta.

27. The people of Themisonium, now called Tseni.

28. The people of Hierapolis, a town of Phrygia, situate on a height between the rivers Lycus and Mander, about five miles north of Laodicea, on the road from Apamea to Sardis. It was celebrated for its warm springs, and its Plutonium, or cave of Pluto, from which issued a mephitic vapour of a poisonous nature; see B. ii. c. 95. The Christian Church here is alluded to by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians, iv. 13. Its ruins are situate at an uninhabited place called Pambuk-Kalessi.

29. Situate in the north of Phrygia Salutaris; its ruins being probably those to be seen at Afiour-Kara-Hisar. From the time of Constantine this place became the capital of Phrygia Salutaris. It stood in a fiuitful plain, near a mountain quarry of the celebrated Synnadic marble, which was white with red veins and spots. This marble was also called "Docimiticus," from Docimia, a nearer place.

30. As already mentioned in C. 25 of the present Book.

31. The site of Appia does not appear to be known. Cicero speaks of an application made to him by the Appiani, when he was governor of Cilicia, respecting the taxes with which they were burdened, and the buildings of their town.

32. Eucarpia was a town of Phrygia, not far from the sources of the Mander, on the road from Dorylum to Apamea Cibotus. The vine grew there in great luxuriance, and to its fruitfulness the town probably owed its name. Kiepert places it in the vicinity of Segielar, but its exact site is unknown.

33. The site of Dorylum is now called Eski-Shehr. The hot-baths here are mentioned by Athenus, and its waters were pleasant to the taste. Sheep-feeding appears to have been carried on here to a great extent, and under the Greek empire it was a flourishing place. The site of Midum does not seem to be known.

34. The people of Julia, Juliopolis, or Julianopolis, a town of Lydia, probably to the south of Mount Tmolus.

35. This place was built near Celn by Antiochus Soter, and named after his mother Apama. Strabo says that it lay at the mouth of the river Marsyas. Its site has been fixed at the modern Denair. Some ancient ruins are to be seen.

36. Pliny commits an error here; Celn was a different place from Apamea, though close to it.

37. Meaning the "Fountains of the Pipe," and probably deriving its name from the legend here mentioned by Pliny, and in B. xvi. c. 44. Strabo describes the Marsyas and Mander as rising, according to report, in one lake above Celn, which produced reeds adapted for making the mouth-pieces of musical instruments, but he gives no name to the lake. Hamilton found near Denair or Apamea, a lake nearly two miles in circumference, full of reeds and rushes, which he looks upon as the lake on the mountain Aulocrene, described by Pliny in the 31st Chapter of the present Book. His account however is very confused, as he mentions on different occasions a region of Aulocrene, a valley of Aulocrene, and a mountain of Aulocrene.

38. People of "the Mother City," said by Stephen of Byzantium to have received that name from Cybele, the Mother of the Gods.

39. Nothing is known of the site of Dionysopolis. It is mentioned in a letter of Cicero's to his brother Quintus, in which he speaks of the people of this place as being very hostile to the latter.

40. The site of Euphorbium is denoted, according to Leake, by the modern Sandukli. It lay between Synnas and Apamea, and not improbably, like Eucarpia, received its name from the fertility of its territory.

41. The site of Acmona has been fixed at Ahatkoi, but it seems doubtful.

42. The site of Pelta is by D'Anville called Ris-Chak or Hou-Chak.

43. The people of Silbium or Silbia, near Metropolis.

44. The Dorian settlements on the coast of Caria were so called. The Dorian Gulf was probably the Sinus Ceramicus mentioned below.

45. Of these places nothing whatever seems to be known.

46. Pitaium and Eutane seem to be unknown.

47. A member of the Dorian Hexapolis, or League of the Six Cities. The site of this famous city is occupied by the modern Boodroum, and its ruins are very extensive. It was famous as being the birth-place of the two historians Herodotus and Dionysius. It was the largest and best fortified city of Caria.

48. According to Parisot the site of this place is now called Angeli and Karabaglas.

49. This place must not be confounded with Tehnessus or Telmissus in Lycia, which has been previously mentioned. It was situate six miles from Halicarnassus. Of the other places here mentioned nothing seems to be known.

50. Now the Gulf of Staneo, Kos, or Boodroum. It took its name from the port of Ceramus, now Keramo, according to D'Anville.

51. Now the Gulf of Mandeliyeh. It took its name from the city of lasus, the site of which is now called Askem or Asyn-Kalessi.

52. Its ruins are to be seen at the port called Gumshlu. This was a Dorian colony on the coast of Caria, founded probably on the site of the old town of the Leleges.

53. It has been suggested that this was only another name for the new town of Myndos, in contradistinction to Palomyndos, or "old Myndos."

54. Scylax the geographer is supposed to have been a native of this place. The town is supposed to have been built partly on the mainland and partly on an island. Pastra Linani is supposed to have been the harbour of Caryanda.

55. A Dorian city on the Promontory of Termerium.

56. Situate near lasus and Myndos. Leake conjectures that it may have been on the bay between Pastra Limne and Asyn Kalesi. There was a statue here of Artemis Cindyas, under the bare sky, of which the incredible story was told that neither rain nor snow ever fell on it.

57. See note14 on the last page.

58. Its ruins are to be seen at the spot still called Melasso. It was a very flourishing city, eight miles from the coast of the Gulf of Iasus, and situate at the foot of a rock of fine white marble. It was partly destroyed in the Roman civil wars by Labienus. Its ruins are very extensive.

59. Hamilton has fixed the site of this place between four and five miles south-east of Kuyuja, near the mouth of the valley of the Kara-Su. The surrounding district was famous for the excellence of its figs. The city was built by Antiochus, the son of Seleucus.

60. Now called the Mendereh or Meinder.

61. Pococke thinks that the present Jenjer is the Orsinus, while Mannert takes it to be the Hadchizik, a little winding river that falls into the Mander.

62. Now called Guzel-Hissar, according to Ansart.

63. On the road from Dorylum to Apamea. It is said to have received its name from Attalus II., who named the town after his brother and predecessor EumenesII. Its site is known as Ishekle, and it is still marked by numerous ruins and sculptures.

64. A tributary of the Mander. Its modern name is not mentioned.

65. Mannert takes the ruins to be seen at Jegni-Chehr to be those of ancient Orthosia. The town of Lysias does not appear to have been identified.

66. The situation of this district is not known. See B. xvi. c. 16, where it appears that this region was famous for its boxwood.

67. One of the numerous places of that name devoted to the worship of Bacchus. It was built on both sides of the ravine of the brook Eudon, which fell into the Meander. Its ruins are to be seen at Sultan-Hissar, a little to the west of Hazeli.

68. Its ruins are to be seen at Ghiuzel-Hissar, near Aidin. This was a flourishing commercial city, included sometimes in Ionia, sometimes in Caria. It stood on the banks of the Eudon, a tributary of the river Mander. Under the Seleucid it was called Antiochia and Seleucia.

69. From the beauty and fertility of the surrounding country.

70. An Ionic town of Caria, on the north side of the Sinus Latmicus, fifty stadia from the mouth of the Mander.

71. Or Euromus, a town of Caria, at the foot of Mount Grion, which runs parallel with Latmos. Ruins of a temple to the north-west of Alabanda are considered to belong to Euromus.

72. A town of uncertain site. It must not be confounded with the place of the same name, mentioned in c. 31 of the present Book.

73. The ruins of its citadel and walls still exist on the east side of Mount Latmos, on the road from Bafi to Tchisme.

74. Situate about twenty miles south of Tralles. The modern site is doubtful, but Arab Hissa, on a branch of the Mander, now called the Tchina, is supposed to represent Alabanda. It was notorious for the luxuriousness of its inhabitants. A stone found in the vicinity was used for making glass and glazing vessels. See B. xxxvi. c. 13.

75. Built by Antiochus I. Soter, and named, in honour of his wife, Stratonice. It stood south of Alabanda, near the river Marsyas. It is supposed that it stood on the site of a former city called Idrias, and still earlier, Chrysaoris.

76. D'Anville identifies it with a place called Keramo, but no such place appears to be known. Strabo places it near the sea between Cnidus and Halicarnassus, and Ceramus comes next after Cnidus. Ptolemy seems to place it on the south side of the bay. Of Hynidos nothing appears to be known.

77. Its situation is unknown; but there can be little doubt that it was founded by the Dorians who emigrated to the coast of Asia Minor from Argolis and Trzene in the Peloponnesus. Phorontis appears to be unknown.

78. Parisot observes that many of the towns here mentioned belonged to the northern part of Phrygia.

79. The people of Alinda in Caria, which was surrendered to Alexander the Great by Alinda, queen of Caria. It was one of the strongest places in Caria. Its position has been fixed by Fellowes at Demmeergee-derasy, between Arab-Hissa and Karpuslee, on a steep rock.

80. Of Xystis, as also of Hydissa, nothing appears to be known.

81. Inhabitants of Apollonia in Caria, of which place nothing appears to be known.

82. Pococke says that the modern site of Trapezopolis is called Karadche.

83. The people of Aphrodisias, an ancient city of Caria, situate at the modern Ghera or Geyra, south of Antiochia on the Mander. Aphrodite or Venus seems to have been principally worshipped at this place. Strabo places it in Phrygia.

84. Or Coscinia, a place in Caria, which, as we may gather from Strabo, ranked below a town. Leake thinks that Tshina, where Pococke found considerable remains, is the site of this place.

85. On the eastern bank of the Harpasus, a tributary of the Mander. Its ruins are supposed to be those seen at a place called Harpas Kalessi. In B. ii. c. 98, Pliny speaks of a wonderful rock at this place.

86. Now known as the Harpa.




30. Chap. 30.-Lydia.


CHAP. 30.-LYDIA.

Lydia, bathed by the sinuous and ever-recurring windings

of the river Mander, lies extended above Ionia; it is joined

by Phrygia on the east and Mysia on the north, while on the

south it runs up to Caria: it formerly had the name of Monia[1].

Its place of the greatest celebrity is Sardes[2], which lies on

the side of Mount Tmolus[3], formerly called Timolus. From

this mountain, which is covered with vineyards, flows the







river Pactolus[4], also called the Chrysorroas, and the sources

of the Tarnus: this famous city, which is situate upon the

Gygan Lake[5], used to be called Hyde[6] by the people of

Monia. This jurisdiction is now called that of Sardes,

and besides the people of the places already mentioned, the

following now resort to it-the Macedonian Cadueni[7], the

Loreni, the Philadelpheni[8], the Monii, situate on the river

Cogamus at the foot of Mount Tmolus, the Tripolitani, who

are also called the Antoniopolit, situate on the banks of

the Mander, the Apollonihierit[9], the Mesotimolit[10], and

some others of no note.







1. By this name alone it is known to Homer.

2. Its ruins, now called Sart, are very extensive, though presenting nothing of importance. Its citadel, situated on a rock, was considered to be almost impregnable.

3. Now called Kisilja Musa Dagh. It was famous for its wine, saffron, and gold.

4. Now called the Sarabat. It was famous for its gold-producing sands.

5. On the road between Thyatira and Sardes: near it was situate the necropolis of Sardes.

6. Strabo says that some persons called the citadel only by that name.

7. There was a city of Mysia or Phrygia of the name of Cadus or Cadi; but nothing is known of the place here alluded to, whose people would appear to have been a colony from Macedonia.

8. The people of Philadelphia, now Ala-Cher, or the "Fine City," twelve leagues south-east of Sardes, and nine leagues south of Attalia.

9. So called from the Greek )Apo/llwnos i(ero\n, "the temple of Apollo," in the vicinity of which, south-east of Pergamus, their town was probably situate. Nothing is known of these localities.

10. Dwellers in Mesotmolus, a town which, from its name, would appear to have been situate on the middle of Mount Tmolus.




31. Chap. 31.-Ionia.


CHAP. 31.-IONIA.

Ionia begins at the Gulf of Iasos, and has a long winding

coast with numerous bays. First comes the Gulf of Basilicum[1], then the Promontory[2] and town of Posideum, and the

oracle once called the oracle of the Branchid[3], but now of

Didyman Apollo, a distance of twenty stadia from the seashore. One hundred and eighty stadia thence is Miletus[4],







the capital of Ionia, which formerly had the names of Lelegis, Pityusa, and Anactoria, the mother of more than ninety

cities, founded upon all seas; nor must she be deprived of the

honour of having Cadmus[5] for her citizen, who was the first

to write in prose. The river Mander, rising from a lake in

Mount Aulocrene, waters many cities and receives numerous

tributary streams. It is so serpentine in its course, that it

is often thought to turn back to the very spot from which

it came. It first runs through the district of Apamea, then

that of Eumenia, and then the plains of Bargyla; after

which, with a placid stream it passes through Caria, watering all that territory with a slime of a most fertilizing quality,

and then at a distance of ten stadia from Miletus with a

gentle current enters the sea. We then come to Mount

Latmus[6], the towns of Heraclea[7], also called by the same

name as the mountain, Carice, Myus[8], said to have been first

built by Ionians who came from Athens, Naulochum[9], and

Priene[10]. Upon that part of the coast which bears the name

of Trogilia[11] is the river Gessus. This district is held sacred

by all the Ionians, and thence receives the name of Panionia.

Near to it was formerly the town of Phygela, built by







fugitives, as its name implies[12], and that of Marathesium[13].

Above these places is Magnesia[14], distinguished by the surname of the "Mandrian," and sprung from Magnesia in Thessaly: it is distant from Ephesus fifteen miles, and three more

from Tralles. It formerly had the names of Thessaloche and

Androlitia, and, lying on the sea-shore, it has withdrawn from

the sea the islands known as the Derasid[15] and joined them

to the mainland. In the interior also is Thyatira[16], washed

by the Lycus; for some time it was also called Pelopia and

Euhippia[17].



Upon the coast again is Mantium, and Ephesus[18], which

was founded by the Amazons[19], and formerly called by so

many names: Alopes at the time of the Trojan war, after that

Ortygia and Morges, and then Smyrna, with the surname of

Trachia, as also Samornion and Ptelea. This city is built

on Mount Pion, and is washed by the Caster[20], a river which

rises in the Cilbian range and brings down the waters of

many streams[21], as also of Lake Pegasus[22], which receives







those discharged by the river Phyrites[23]. From these streams

there accumulates a large quantity of slime, which vastly

increases the soil, and has added to the mainland the island

of Syrie[24], which now lies in the midst of its plains. In this

city is the fountain of Calippia[25] and the temple of Diana,

which last is surrounded by two streams, each known by the

name of Selenus, and flowing from opposite directions.



After leaving Ephesus there is another Mantium, belonging

to the Colophonians, and in the interior Colophon[26] itself,

past which the river Halesus[27] flows. After this we come to

the temple[28] of the Clarian Apollo, and Lebedos[29]: the city

of Notium[30] once stood here. Next comes the Promontory

of Coryceium[31], and then Mount Mimas, which projects 150

miles into the sea, and as it approaches the mainland sinks

down into extensive plains. It was at this place that Alexander

the Great gave orders for the plain to be cut through, a

distance of seven miles and a half, for the purpose of joining

the two gulfs and making an island of Erythr[32] and Mimas.







Near Erythr formerly stood the towns of Pteleon, Helos,

and Dorion; we now find the river Aleon, Corynum, a

Promontory of Mount Mimas, Clazomen[33], Parthenie[34], and

Hippi[35], known by the name of Chytrophoria, when it

formed a group of islands; these were united to the continent

by the same Alexander, by means of a causeway[36] two

stadia in length. In the interior, the cities of Daphnus,

Hermesia, and Sipylum[37], formerly called Tantalis, and the

capital of Monia, where Lake Sale now stands, are now

no longer in existence: Archopolis too, which succeeded

Sipylum, has perished, and in their turns Colpe and Libade,

which succeeded it.



On returning thence[38] towards the coast, at a distance of

twelve miles we find Smyrna[39], originally founded by an

Amazon [of that name], and rebuilt by Alexander; it is refreshed

by the river Meles, which rises not far off. Through

this district run what may almost be called the most famous

mountains of Asia, Mastusia in the rear of Smyrna, and

Termetis[40], joining the foot of Olympus. Termetis is joined







by Draco, Draco running into Tmolus, Tmolus into Cadmus[41],

and Cadmus into Taurus. Leaving Smyrna, the river Hermus

forms a tract of plains, and gives them its own name. It

rises near Dorylum[42], a city of Phrygia, and in its course

receives several rivers, among them the one called the Phryx,

which divides Caria from the nation to which it gives

name; also the Hyllus[43] and the Cryos, themselves swollen

by the rivers of Phrygia, Mysia, and Lydia. At the mouth

of the Hermus formerly stood the town of Temnos[44]: we

now see at the extremity of the gulf[45] the rocks called

Myrmeces[46], the town of Leuce[47] on a promontory which

was once an island, and Phoca[48], the frontier town of

Ionia.



A great part also of olia, of which we shall have presently

to speak, has recourse to the jurisdiction of Smyrna;

as well as the Macedones, surnamed Hyrcani[49], and the Magnetes[50]

from Sipylus. But to Ephesus, that other great luminary

of Asia, resort the more distant peoples known as the







Csarienses[51], the Metropolit[52], the Cilbiani[53], both the

Lower and Upper, the Mysomacedones[54], the Mastaurenses[55],

the Briulit[56], the Hyppeni[57], and the Diosherit[58].







1. Now called the Gulf of Melasso.

2. Now the Cape of Melasso.

3. The remains of the Temple of Didyman Apollo at Branchid are still visible to those sailing along the coast. It was in the Milesian territory, and above the harbour Panormus. The name of the site was probably Didyma or Didymi, but the place was also called Branchid, from that being the name of a body of priests who had the care of the temple. We learn from Herodotus that Crsus, king of Lydia, consulted this oracle, and made rich presents to the temple. The temple, of which only two columns are left, was of white marble.

4. The ruins of this important city are difficult to discover on account of the great changes made on the coast by the river Meander. They are usually supposed to be those at the poor village of Palatia on the south bank of the Mendereh; but Forbiger has shown that these are more probably the remains of Myus, and that those of Miletus are buried in a lake formed by the Mendereh at the foot of Mount Latmus.

5. See B. vii. c. 57. Josephus says that he lived very shortly before the Persian invasion of Greece.

6. Now called the Monte di Palatia.

7. Generally called "Heraclea upon Latmus," from its situation at the western foot of Mount Latmus. Ruins of this town still exist at the foot of that mountain on the borders of Lake Baffi.

8. Its ruins are now to be seen at Palatia. It was the smallest city of the Ionian Confederacy, and' was situate at the mouth of the Mander, thirty stadia from its mouth.

9. Mannert says that its ruins are to be seen at a spot called by the Turks Sarasun-Kalesi.

10. One of the twelve Ionian cities, situate at the foot of Mount Mycale. It stood originally on the shore, but the change in the coast by the alluvial deposits of the Mander left it some distance from the land. It was celebrated as being the birth-place of the philosopher Bias. Its ruins are to be seen at the spot called Samsun.

11. Now called Cape Santa Maria, or Samsun.

12. He implies that it is derived from fulh\ "C flight."

13. Between Ephesus and Neapolis. It belonged to the Samians who exchanged with the Ephesians for Neapolis, which lay nearer to their island. The modern Scala Nova occupies the site of one of them, it is uncertain which.

14. Its ruins are to be seen at the modern Inek-Bazar. It was situate on the river Lethus, a tributary of the Mander. It was famous for its temple of Artemis Leucophryene, the ruins of which still exist.

15. See B. ii. c. 91.

16. Now known as Ak-Hissar or the "White Castle." Strabo informs us that it was founded by Seleucus Nicator.

17. From the excellence of its horses.

18. Its ruins are to be seen near the modern Ayazaluk. It was the chief of the twelve Ionian cities on the coast of Asia Minor, and devoted to the worship of Artemis, whose temple here was deemed one of the wonders of the world. Nothing, except some traces of its foundations, is now to be seen of this stupendous building.

19. It was more generally said to have been founded by the Carians and the Leleges.

20. Now called the Kara-Su, or Black River, or Kuchuk-Meinder, or Little Mander.

21. It has been observed that though Pliny seems to say that the Caster receives many streams, they must have had but a short course, and could only be so many channels by which the rivers descend from the mountain slopes that shut in the contracted basin of the river.

22. This lake or marsh seems to be the morass situate on the road from Smyrna to Ephesus, into which the Phyrites flows, and out of which it comes a considerable stream.

23. The Phyrites is a small river that is crossed on the road from Ephesus to Smyrna, and joins the Caster on the right bank ten or twelve miles above Ayazaluk, near the site of Ephesus.

24. See B. ii. c. 91. for further mention of this island.

25. Said to be derived from the Greek, meaning "The beautiful (stream) from Pion."

26. One of the twelve Ionian cities of Asia, founded by Andrmon. Notium was its port. There do not seem to be any remains of either of these places.

27. Called also the Hales or Ales, and noted for the coolness of its waters.

28. At Clarus, near Colophon. When Germanicus was on his way to the East, this oracle foretold to him his speedy death. Chandler is of opinion that he discovered the site of this place at Zill, where he found a spring of water with marble steps to it, which he considers to have been the sacred fountain. Others again suggest that these ruins may be those of Notium.

29. Its site was probably near the modern Ekklesia, but no traces of the city itself are to be found.

30. Implying that in his time Notium was not in existence, whereas in reality Notium superseded Old Colophon, of which it was the port, and was sometimes known as New Colophon.

31. Now known as Cape Curco.

32. The site of this place is now known as Ritri, on the south side of a small peninsula, which projects into the bay of Erythr. The ruins are considerable.

33. On the south side of the bay of Smyrna. In Strabo's time this city appears to have been removed from Chytrium, its original site. Chandler found traces of the city near Vourla, from which he came to the conclusion that the place was very small and inconsiderable.

34. According to Nicander, this was a mountain of the territory of Clazomen, almost surrounded by sea.

35. Or "the Horses," originally four islands close to the mainland, off Clazomen.

36. This was probably the same causeway that was observed by Chandler in the neighbourhood of Vourla, the site of ancient Clazomen.

37. See B. ii. c. 91, where he speaks of this place as being swallowed up in the earth.

38. From Clazomen.

39. Now called Izmir by the Turks, Smyrna by the western nations of Europe; the only one of the great cities on the western coast of Asia Minor that has survived to the present day. This place stood at the head of the cities that claimed to be the birth-place of Homer; and the poet was worshipped here for a hero or demi-god in a magnificent building called the Homereum. There are but few remains of the ancient city: the modern one is the greatest commercial city of the Levant.

40. Hardouin takes this to be the name of a town, but Ortelius and Pinetus seem to be more correct in thinking it to be the name of a mountain.

41. It does not appear that all these mountains have been identified. Cadmus is the Baba Dagh of the Turks.

42. Mentioned in C. 29 of the present Book.

43. In the time of Strabo this tributary of the Hermus seems to have been known as the Phrygius.

44. Its site is now called Menemen, according to D'Anville. The Cryus was so called from the Greek kru/os, "cold."

45. The present Gulf of Smyrna.

46. Or the "Ants."

47. Probably so called from the whiteness of the promontory on which it was situate. It was built by Tachos, the Persian general, in B.C. 352, and remarkable as the scene of the battle between the Consul Licinius Crassus and Aristonicus in B.C. 131. The modern name of its site is Lefke.

48. Its ruins are to be seen at Karaja-Fokia or Old Fokia, south-west of Fouges or New Fokia. It was said to have been founded by Phocian colonists under Philogenes and Damon.

49. The people of Hyrcania, one of the twelve cities which were prostrated by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius Csar; see B. ii. c. 86.

50. The people of Magnesia "ad Sipylum," or the city of Magnesia on the Sipylus. It was situate on the south bank of the Hermus, and is famous in history as the scene of the victory gained by the two Scipios over Antiochus the Great, which secured to the Romans the empire of the East, B.C. 190. This place also suffered from the great earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, but was still a place of importance in the fifth century.

51. The people, it is supposed, of a place called Hierocsarea.

52. The people probably of Metropolis in Lydia, now Turbali, a city on the plain of the Caster, between Ephesus and Smyrna. Cilbis, perhaps the present Durgut, was their chief place.

53. A people dwelling in the upper valley of Caster.

54. Or Mysian Macedonians.

55. The people of Mastaura in Lydia. Its site is still known as Mastaura-Kalesi.

56. The people of Briula, the site of which is unknown.

57. The people of Hypp, a small town of Lydia, on the southern slope of Mount Tmolus, forty-two miles from Ephesus. Under the Persian supremacy, the worship of Fire was introduced at this place. Arachne, the spinner, and competitor with Minerva, is represented by Ovid as dwelling at this place; he calls it on two occasions "the little Hypp." Leake is of opinion that the ruins seen at Bereki belong to this place.

58. The people of Dios Hieron, or the "Temple of Jupiter." This was a small place in Ionia between Lebedus and Colophon. It has been suggested that it was on the banks of the Caster, but its site is uncertain.




32. Chap. 32. (30.)-olis.


CHAP. 32. (30.)-OLIS.

olis[1] comes next, formerly known as Mysia, and Troas

which is adjacent to the Hellespont. Here, after passing

Phoca, we come to the Ascanian Port, then the spot where

Larissa[2] stood, and then Cyme[3], Myrina, also called Sebastopolis[4],

and in the interior, g[5], Attalia[6], Posidea, Neon-







tichos[7], and Temnos[8]. Upon the shore we come to the river

Titanus, and the city which from it derives its name. Grynia[9]

also stood here on an island reclaimed from the sea and joined

to the land: now only its harbours are left[10]. We then come

to the town of Ela[11], the river Cacus[12], which flows from

Mysia, the town of Pitane[13], and the river Canaus. The following

towns no longer exist-Can[14], Lysimachia[15], Atarnea[16],

Carene[17], Cisthene[18], Cilla[19], Cocylium[20], Theba[21], Astyre[22],







Chrysa[23], Palscepsis[24], Gergitha[25], and Neandros[26]. We

then come to the city of Perperene[27], which still survives,

the district of Heracleotes, the town of Coryphas[28], the

rivers Grylios and Ollius, the region of Aphrodisias[29],

which formerly had the name of Politice Orgas, the district

of Scepsis[30], and the river Evenus[31], on whose banks

the towns of Lyrnesos[32] and Miletos have fallen to decay.

In this district also is Mount Ida[33], and on the coast Adramytteos[34],

formerly called Pedasus, which gives its name to

the gulf and the jurisdiction so called. The other rivers are

the Astron, Cormalos, Crianos, Alabastros, and Hieros, flowing

from Mount Ida: in the interior is Mount Gargara[35],







with a town of the same name. Again, on the coast we

meet with Antandros[36], formerly called Edonis, and after

that Cimmeris and Assos, also called Apollonia. The town

of Palamedium also formerly stood here. The Promontory

of Lecton[37] separates olis from Troas. In olis there

was formerly the city of Polymedia, as also Chrysa, and a

second Larissa. The temple of Smintheus[38] is still standing;

Colone[39] in the interior has perished. To Adramyttium

resort upon matters of legal business the Apolloniat[40],

whose town is on the river Rhyndacus[41], the Erizii[42], the

Miletopolit[43], the Pmaneni[44], the Macedonian Asculac,

the Polichni[45], the Pionit[46], the Cilician Mandacadeni,

and, in Mysia, the Abrettini[47], the people known as the

Hellespontii[48], and others of less note.











1. AEolis, properly so called, extended as far north as the promontory of Lectum, at the northern entrance of the bay of Adramyttium.

2. Near Cyme, a place of Pelasgian origin. It was called Egyptian Larissa, because Cyrus the Great settled here a body of his Egyptian soldiers. According to D'Anville its site is still known as Larusar.

3. Said to have been so called from Cyme an Amazon. It was on the northern, side of the Hermus: Herodotus gives it the surname of Phriconis. Its site is supposed to be at the modern Sanderli or Sandarlio. The father of the poet Hesiod was a native of this place.

4. It was probably so called in honour of the Emperor Augustus.

5. Situate at a short distance from the coast. We learn from Tacitus that it suffered from the great earthquake in the time of Tiberius. Its site is called Guzel-Hissar, according to D'Anville.

6. Originally named Agroeira or Alloeira. There is a place still called Aala, on the river Hermus, but Hamilton found no remains of antiquity there.

7. Or the "New Walls." Strabo speaks of it as distant thirty stadia from Larissa.

8. Its site is unknown; but it must not be confounded with the place of that name mentioned in the last Chapter, which stood on the sea-coast. It suffered from the great earthquake in the reign of Tiberius Csar.

9. Or Grynium, forty stadia from Myrina, and seventy from Ela. It contained a sanctuary of Apollo with an ancient oracle and a splendid temple of white marble. Parmenio, the general of Alexander, took the place by assault and sold the inhabitants as slaves. It is again mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxii. c. 21.

10. This passage seems to be in a corrupt state, and it is difficult to arrive at Pliny's exact meaning.

11. The port of the Pergameni. Strabo places it south of the river Cacus, twelve stadia from that river, and 120 from Pergamum. Its site is uncertain, but Leake fixes it at a place called Kliseli, on the road from the south to Pergamum.

12. Its modern name is said to be Ak-Su or Bakir.

13. On the coast of the Elaitic gulf. It was almost destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of the Emperor Titus. Its site is by some thought to have been at Sanderli.

14. Supposed to have been situate near the modern Cape Coloni. It was here that in the war with Antiochus, B.C. 191190, the Roman fleet was hauled up for the winter and protected by a ditch or rampart.

15. So called from Lysimachus, the son of Agathocles.

16. A strong place opposite to Lesbos. It was on the road from Adramyttium to the plain of the Cacus. Its site is generally fixed at Dikeli Koi.

17. Or Carine. The army of Xerxes, on its route to the Hellespont, marched through this place. Its site is unknown.

18. It lay outside of the bay of Adramyttium and the promontory of Pyrrha.

19. Mentioned in the Iliad with Chryse and Tenedos.

20. A place called Kutchulan, or, as some write it, Cotschiolan-Kuni, is supposed to occupy its site.

21. Or Thebes, in the vicinity of Troy.

22. In the plain of Thebes between Antandros and Adramyttium. It had a temple of Artemis, of which the Antandrii had the superintendence, Its site does not appear to have been ascertained.

23. Not improbably the Chryse, mentioned by Homer in the Iliad, B. i. II. 37, 390, 431; but there were several places of this name.

24. See the note to Scepsis in the present Chapter.

25. Or Gergis, Gergithus, or Gergithes, a town in the Troad, north of Scamander. It was a place with an acropolis and strong walls. Attalus, king of Pergamus, transplanted the people of Gergis to another spot near the sources of the Cacus, whence we afterwards find a place called Gergetha or Gergithion, in the vicinity of Larissa. The old town of Gergis was by some said to have been the birth-place of the Sibyl, and its coins have her image impressed on them.

26. Also called Neandria, upon the Hellespont.

27. South of Adramyttium; in its vicinity were copper-mines and celebrated vineyards. It was here that Thucydides is said to have died.

28. In the district of Coryphantes, opposite to Lesbos, and north of Atarneus. Pliny speaks of the oysters of Coryphas, B. xxxii. c. 6.

29. This Aphrodisias does not appear to have been identified.

30. Again mentioned by Pliny in B. xi. c. 80. Scepsis was an ancient city in the interior of the Troad, south-east of Alexandria, in the mountains of Ida. Its inhabitants were removed by Antigonus to Alexandria; but being permitted by Lysimachus to return to their homes, they built a new city, and the remains of the old town were then called Palscepsis. This place is famous in literary history for being the spot where certain MSS. of Aristotle and Theophrastus were buried to prevent their transfer to Pergamus. When dug up they were found nearly destroyed by mould, and in this condition were removed by Sylla to Athens.

31. Sometimes called the Lycormas, now known as the Fidhari or Fidharo.

32. Frequently mentioned by Homer.

33. Still known as Ida or Kas-Dagh.

34. More generally known as Adramyttium or Adramyteum, now Adramiti or Edremit. According to tradition it was founded by Adramys, the brother of Crsus, king of Lydia. It is mentioned as a sea-port in the Acts, xxvii. 2. There are no traces of ancient remains on its site.

35. One of the heights of Mount Ida in the Troad, now called Kaz-Dag. The territory in this vicinity, as we learn from Virgil and Seneca, was famous for its fertility. The modern village of In is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient town of Gargara.

36. Now Antandro, at the head of the Gulf of Adramyttium. Aristotle also says that its former name was Edonis, and that it was inhabited by a Thracian tribe of Edoni. Herodotus as well as Aristotle also speak of the seizure of the place by the Cimmerii in their incursion into Asia.

37. Now Cape Baba or Santa Maria, the south-west promontory of the Troad.

38. Or Sminthian Apollo. This appears to have been situate at the Chrysa last mentioned by Pliny as no longer in existence. Strabo places Chrysa on a hill, and he mentions the temple of Smintheus and speaks of a symbol which recorded the etymon of that name, the mouse which lay at the foot of the wooden figure, the work of Scopas. According to an ancient tradition, Apollo had his name of Smintheus given him as being the mouse-destroyer, for, according to Apion, the meaning of Smintheus was a "mouse."

39. According to tradition this place was in early times the residence of Cycnus, a Thracian prince, who possessed the adjoining country, and the island of Tenedos, opposite to which Colone was situate on the mainland. Pliny however here places it in the interior.

40. The site of this Apollonia is at Abullionte, on a lake of the same name, the Apolloniatis of Strabo. Its remains are very inconsiderable.

41. Or Lycus, now known as the Edrenos.

42. Of this people nothing whatever is known.

43. D'Anville thinks that the modern Bali-Kesri occupies the site of Miletopolis.

44. Stephanus Byzantinus mentions a place called Pmaninum near Cyzicus.

45. The inhabitants of Polichna, a town of the Troad.

46. The people of Pionia, near Scepsis and Gargara.

47. They occupied the greater part of Mysia Proper. They had a native divinity to which they paid peculiar honours, by the Greeks cailed Zeu/s )Abpetthno\s.

48. The same as the Olympeni or Olympieni, in the district of Olympene at the foot of Mount Olympus; next to whom, on the south and west, were the Abretteni.




33. Chap. 33.-Troas And The Adjoining Nations.


CHAP. 33.-TROAS AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.

The first place in Troas is Hamaxitus[1], then Cebrenia[2],

and then Troas[3] itself, formerly called Antigonia, and now

Alexandria, a Roman colony. We then come to the town

of Nee[4], the Scamander[5], a navigable river, and the spot

where in former times the town of Sigeum[6] stood, upon a

promontory. We next come to the Port of the Achans[7], into

which the Xanthus[8] flows after its union with the Simois[9],

and forms the Palscamander[10], which was formerly a lake.

The other rivers, rendered famous by Homer, namely, the

Rhesus, the Heptaporus, the Caresus, and the Rhodius, have

left no vestiges of their existence. The Granicus[11], taking a

different route, flows into the Propontis[12]. The small city of

Scamandria, however, still exists, and, at a distance of a mile







and a half from its harbour, Ilium[13], a place exempt from

tribute[14], the fountain-head of universal fame. Beyond the

gulf are the shores of Rhteum[15], peopled by the towns of

Rhteum[16], Dardanium[17], and Arisbe[18]. There was also in

former times a town of Achilleon[19], founded near the tomb of

Achilles by the people of Mitylene, and afterwards rebuilt

by the Athenians, close to the spot where his fleet had been

stationed near Sigeum. There was also the town of antion[20],

founded by the Rhodians upon the opposite point,

near the tomb of Ajax, at a distance of thirty stadia from

Sigeum, near the spot where his fleet was stationed. Above

olis and part of Troas, in the interior, is the place called

Teuthrania[21], inhabited in ancient times by the Mysians.

Here rises the river Caicus already mentioned. Teuthrania

was a powerful nation in itself, even when the whole of olis

was held by the Mysians. In it are the Pioni[22], Andera[23],







Cale, Stabulum, Conisium, Teium, Balcea[24], Tiare, Teuthranie,

Sarnaca, Haliserne, Lycide, Parthenium, Thymbre, Oxyopum,

Lygdamum, Apollonia, and Pergamum[25], by far the most famous

city in Asia, and through which the river Selinus runs;

the Cetius, which rises in Mount Pindasus, flowing before

it. Not far from it is Ela, which we have mentioned[26] as

situate on the sea-shore. The jurisdiction of this district is

called that of Pergamus; to it resort the Thyatireni[27], the

Mosyni, the Mygdones[28], the Bregmeni, the Hierocomet[29],

the Perpereni, the Tiareni, the Hierolophienses, the Hermocapelit,

the Attalenses[30], the Panteenses, the Apollonidienses,

and some other states unknown to fame. The little

town of Dardanum[31] is distant from Rhteum seventy stadia.

Eighteen miles thence is the Promontory of Trapeza[32], from

which spot the Hellespont first commences its course.



Eratosthenes tells us that in Asia there have perished the

nations of the Solymi[33], the Leleges[34], the Bebryces[35], the







Colycantii, and the Tripsedri. Isidorus adds to these the

Arimi[36], as also the Capret, settled on the spot where Apamea[37]

stands, which was founded by King Seleucus, between

Cilicia, Cappadocia, Cataonia, and Armenia, and was at first

called Damea[38], from the fact that it had conquered nations

most remarkable for their fierceness.







1. On the south-western coast of the Troad, fifty stadia south of Larissa. In the time of Strabo it had ceased to exist. No ruins of this place have been known to be discovered, but Prokesch is induced to think that the architectural remains to be seen near Cape Baba are those of Hamaxitus.

2. Or Cebrene or Cebren. It was separated from the territory of Scepsis by the river Menander. Leake supposes it to have occupied the higher region of Ida on the west, and that its site may have been at a place called Kushunlu Tepe, not far from Baramitsh.

3. Mentioned in Acts xvi. 8. It is now called Eski Stambul or Old Stambul. It was situate on the coast of Troas, opposite to the south-eastern point of the island of Tenedos, and north of Assus. It was founded by Antigonus, under the name of Antigonia Troas, and peopled with settlers from Scepsis and other neighbouring towns. The ruins of this city are very extensive.

4. Or Nea, mentioned in B. ii. c. 97.

5. Now called the Mendereh-Chai.

6. On the north-west promontory of Troas. Here Homer places the Grecian fleet and camp during the Trojan war. The promontory is now called Yenisheri.

7. Now called Jeni-Scher, according to Ansart. It was at this spot that the Greeks landed in their expedition against Troy.

8. Usually identified with the Mendereh-Chai or Scamander.

9. The modern Gumbrek.

10. Or "ancient Scamander."

11. Now known as the Koja-Chai; memorable as the scene of the three great victories by which Alexander the Great overthrew the Persian empire, B.C. 334. Here also a victory was gained by Lucullus over Mithridates, B.C. 78.

12. Or Sea of Marmora.

13. It is not exactly known whether New Ilium was built on the same site as the Ilium or Troy which had been destroyed by the Greeks; but it has been considered improbable that the exploits mentioned in the Iliad should have happened in so short a space as that lying between the later Ilium and the coast. The site of New Ilium is generally considered to be the spot covered with ruins, now called Kissarlik, between the villages called Kum-kioi, Kalli-fath, and Tchiblak.

14. The Dictator Sylla showed especial favour to Ilium.

15. Now called Cape Intepeh or Barbieri.

16. The modern Paleo Castro probably occupies its site.

17. More generally called Dardanus, or Dardanum, said to have been built by Dardanus. It was situate about a mile south of the promontory Dardanis or Dardanium. Its exact site does not appear to be known: from it the modern Dardanelles are supposed to have derived their name.

18. Situate between Percote and Abydus, and founded by Scamandrius and Ascanius the son of neas. The village of Moussa is supposed to occupy its site. The army of Alexander mustered here after crossing the Hellespont.

19. Alexander the Great visited this place on his Asiatic expedition in B.C. 334, and placed chaplets on the tomb of Achilles.

20. So called from as, the Greek name of Ajax.

21. Teuthrania was in the south-western corner of Mysia, between Temnus and the borders of Lydia, where in very early times Teuthras was said to have founded a Mysian kingdom, which was early subdued by the kings of Lydia: this part was also called Pergamene.

22. Called Pionit in the preceding Chapter.

23. A town in the Troad, the site of which is unknown.

24. A town on the Propontis, according to Stephanus. The sites of most of the places here mentioned are utterly unknown.

25. Also called Pergama or Pergamus. Its ruins are to be seen at the modern Pergamo or Bergamo. It was the capital of the kingdom of Pergamus, and situate in the Tcuthranian district of Mysia, on the northern bank of the river Cacus. Under its kings, its library almost equalled that of Alexandria, and the formation of it gave rise to the invention of parchment, as a writing material, which was thence called Charta Pergamena. This city was an early seat of Christianity, and is one of the seven churches of Asia to whom the Apocalyptic Epistles are addressed. Its ruins are still to be seen.

26. At the beginning of the preceding Chapter.

27. The people of Thyatira, mentioned in B. v. c. 31.

28. The people of Mygdonia, a district between Mount Olympus and the coast, in the east of Mysia and the west of Bithynia.

29. The people of the Holy Village." Hierocome is mentioned by Livy as situate beyond the river Mander.

30. The people of Attalia, mentioned in C. 32.

31. Previously mentioned in the present Chapter.

32. Or "the Table." Now known as Capo de Janisseri.

33. Also called the Mily, probably of the Syro-Arabian race; they were said to have been the earliest inhabitants of Lycia.

34. The Leleges are now considered to have been a branch of the great Indo-Germanic race, who gradually became incorporated with the Hellenic race, and thus ceased to exist as an independent people.

35. A nation belonging probably more to mythology than history. Strabo supposes them to have been of Thracian origin, and that their first place of settlement was Mysia.

36. By some supposed to have been a people of Phrygia.

37. Mentioned in C. 29 of the present Book.

38. From the Greek dama/w "to subdue." Hardouin thinks that this appellation is intended to be given by Pliny to Asia in general, and not to the city of Apamea in particular, as imagined by Ortelius and others.




34. Chap. 34. (31.)-The Islands Which Lie In Front Of Asia.


CHAP. 34. (31.)-THE ISLANDS WHICH LIE IN FRONT OF ASIA.

Of the islands which lie before Asia the first is the one

situate in the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, and which received

its name, it is said, from Canopus, the pilot of Menelas. A

second, called Pharos, is joined by a bridge to Alexandria,

and was made a colony by the Dictator Csar. In former

times it was one day's sail[1] from the mainland of Egypt; at

the present day it directs ships in their course by means of

the fires which are lighted at night on the tower[2] there; for

in consequence of the insidious nature of the shoals, there

are only three channels by which Alexandria can be approached,

those of Steganus[3], Posideum[4] and Taurus.



In the Phnician Sea, before Joppe there is the island of

Paria[5], the whole of it forming a town. Here, they say,

Andromeda was exposed to the monster: the island also of

Arados, already mentioned[6], between which and the continent,

as we learn from Mucianus, at a depth of fifty cubits

in the sea, fresh water is brought up from a spring at the

very bottom by means of leather pipes[7].











1. It is so described by Homer.

2. This was the light-house built upon it by Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, whence the name of pharus came to be applied to similar structures. It was here also that, according to the common story, the seventy Translators of the Greek version of the Old Testament, hence called the Septuagint, were confined while completing their work.

3. The narrow or fortified channel.

4. The Neptunian channel.

5. Mentioned also in C. 14 of the present Book.

6. In C. 17 of the present Book.

7. The boatmen of Ruad, the ancient Aradus, still draw fresh water from the spring Ain Ibrahim, in the sea, a few rods from the shore of the opposite coast.




35. Chap. 35.-Cyprus.


CHAP. 35.-CYPRUS.

The Pamphylian Sea contains some islands of little note.

The Cilician, besides four others of very considerable size, has

Cyprus[1], which lies opposite to the shores of Cilicia and Syria,

running east and west; in former times it was the seat

of nine kingdoms. Timosthenes states that the circumference

of this island is 427 miles, Isidorus[2] 375; its length,

between the two Promontories of Din[3] and Acamas[4] lying

on the west, is, according to Artemidorus, 160 1/2 miles, according

to Timosthenes, 200. Philonides says that it was

formerly called Acamantis, Xenagoras that it had the

names of Cerastis[5], Aspelia, Amathusia, and Macaria[6],

while Astynomus gives it the names of Cryptos[7] and Colinia.

Its towns are fifteen in number, Neapaphos[8],

Palpaphos[9], Curias[10], Citium[11], Corineum, Salamis[12], Ama-







thus[13], Lapethos[14], Sol, Tamasos[15], Epidarum,

Chytri[16], Arsino[17], Carpasimn[18], and

Golgi[19]. The towns of Cinyria, Marium, and

Idalium[20] are no longer in existence. It

is distant

from Anemurium[21] in Cilicia fifty miles; the sea which runs

between the two shores being called the Channel of Cilicia[22].

In the same locality[23] is the island of Eleusa[24], and the four







islands known as the Clides[25], lying before the promontory

which faces Syria; and again at the end of the other cape[26]

is Stiria: over against Neapaphos is Hierocepia[27], and opposite to Salamis are the Salainini.



In the Lycian Sea are the islands of Illyris, Telendos,

and Attelebussa[28], the three barren isles called Cypri, and

Dionysia, formerly called Caretha. Opposite to the Promontory of

Taurus are the Chelidoni[29], as many in number, and extremely

dangerous to mariners. Further on we

find Leucolla with its town, the Pacty[30], Lasia, Nymphis,

Macris, and Megista, the city on which last no longer exists.

After these there are many that are not worthy of notice.

Opposite, however, to Cape Chimra is Dolichiste[31],

Chrogylion, Crambussa[32], Rhoge[33], Enagora, eight miles

in circumference, the two islands of Ddala[34], the three of

Crya[35],







Strongyle, and over against Sidyma[36] the isle of Antiochus.

Towards the mouth of the river Glaucus[37], there are Lagussa[38],

Macris, Didym Helbo, Scope, Aspis, Telandria, the town

of which no longer exists, and, in the vicinity of Caunus[39],

Rhodussa.







1. Now called Kibris.

2. Strabo makes it 425. Hardouin remarks that Isidorus has not made allowance for the margin of the creeks and bays.

3. The north-eastern extremity of Cyprus. It is now called Capo Sant Andreas. It is more generally known in the editions of Pliny by the name of Dinaretum.

4. Now called Capo Sant Epifanio, or Pifano, after the celebrated metropolitan of Cyprus. It is the western extremity of the island.

5. From the Greek ke/ras"a horn." It was not improbably so called from the numerous horns or promontories on its coast.

6. From the Greek maka/rios "blessed," in compliment to its fertile soil and delightful temperature.

7. Apparently from the Greek krupto\s "concealed." Stephanus Byzantinus says that it was so called because it was frequently hidden beneath the surface of the sea.

8. Or New Paphos. The spot is still called Bafa or Bafo.

9. Or Old Paphos, now Kukala or Konuklia. Old Paphos was situate near the promontory Zephyrium on the river Bocarno, where it had a good harbour; while New Paphos lay more inland, in the midst of a fertile plain, sixty stadia from the former. Old Paphos was the chief seat of worship of Aphrodite or Venus, who was said to have landed at that place after her ascent from the sea.

10. Situate on the most southerly point in the island; now Capo Gavatta or delle Gatte.

11. A town situate on the south coast of Cyprus. Its ruins are to be seen between Larnika and the port now known as Salines; they are very extensive. In B. xxx. c. 9, Pliny speaks of the salt lakes near this place, which are worked at the present day.

12. In the middle of the east coast. It was said to have been founded by Teucer the son of Telamon, who gave it the name of his native land from which he had been banished by his father.

13. Now called Old Limasol, a town on the south coast, celebrated for

its worship of Aphrodite or Venus. It was a Phnician settlement, and

Stephanus calls it the most ancient city in the island. It long preserved

its oriental customs, and here the Tyrian Hercules was worshipped under

his name of Melkart.

14. Its site is now called Lapitho or Lapta.

15. Probably the same as the Temncse of Homer. It was situate in a

fertile district in the middle of Cyprus, and in the neighbourhood of

extensive copper mines. Near it was a celebrated plain,

sacred to Venus, mentioned by Ovid.

16. Now called Chytria, a town of Cyprus on the road from Cerinea to

Salamis.

17. In the east of Cyprus, near the Promontory of Acamas, formerly

called Marion. Ptolemy Soter destroyed this town, and removed the

inhabitants to Paphos. The modern name of its site is Polikrusoko or

Crisophou, from the gold mines in the neighbourhood. There was more

than one city of this name in Cyprus, which was probably bestowed on

them during its subjection to the princes of the line of Lagus. Another

Arsino is placed near Ammochostus to the north of the island, and a

third of the same name appears in Strabo with a harbour, temple and

grove, between Old and New Paphos.

18. Or Carpasia, to the north-east of the island, facing the Promontory

of Sarpedon on the Cilician coast. It was said to have been founded by

Pygmalion, king of Tyre. Pococke speaks of remains at Carpas, the site

of this place, especially a long wall and a pier.

19. Or Golgos, famous for the worship of Aphrodite or Venus, which

had existed here even before its introduction at Paphos by Agapenor.

Its position is unknown.

20. Or Idalia, adjoining to which was a forest sacred to Aphrodite. The

poets, who connect this place with her worship, give us no indications

whatever of its precise locality. Engel identifies it with the modern

Dalin, situate to the south of Leucosia, at the foot of Mount Olympus.

21. Now Cape Anamur.

22. "Aulon Cilicium," now the Sea of Caramania or Cyprus.

23. The Cilician Sea, namely.

24. There were several islands of this name. It is not improbable that

Pliny alludes to the one lying off the coast of Caria between the isle of

Rhodes and the mainland, and which seems to be the island marked

Alessa in the maps. There was another of the same name close to the

shore of Cilicia, afterwards known by the name of Sebaste.

25. Or Cleides, meaning the "Keys." This was a group of small islands

lying to the north-east of Cyprus. The name of the islands was after-

wards transferred by some geographer to the Cape which Pliny above

calls Din, and others Dinaretum.

26. Cape Acamas, now Pifano.

27. Or the "Sacred Garden." The names of this and the Salamini do

not appear to be known to the modern geographers.

28. This is identified by Beaufort with the islet called Bshat, which is

separated by a narrow channel from the Lycian shore. The others do

not seem to have been identified. Attelebussa is supposed to take its

name from a kind of destructive grasshopper without wings, called by

the Greeks a)tte/lebos.

29. Situate off the commencement of the sea-coast of Pamphylia, on the

borders of Lycia. Beaufort speaks of them as five in number; he did

not meet with any of the dangers of the navigation here mentioned by

Pliny. The Greeks still call them Chelidoni, and the Italian sailors

Celidoni, which the Turks have corrupted into Shelidan.

30. Hardouin supposes these four islands to be the names of the group

forming the Pacty. The names given appear to signify, the "Wild"

or "Rough Islands," the "Isle of the Nymphs," the "Long Island," and

the "Greatest Island." They were off the coast of Lycia, and seem to

have belonged to the Rhodians. The modern name of Megista is Kastelorizo, according to Ansart.

31. Or Doliche, the "Long Island," in the Lycian Sea, west of the ruins

of Myra. Its modern name is Kakava. It is now uninhabited.

32. Still known as Grambousa, a small island off the east coast of Lycia.

There seems to have been another of the same name off the Lycian coast.

33. An island off the coast of Lycia.

34. Hardouin thinks that they were opposite to the city of Ddala on

the coast of Caria.

35. Off the city of Crya, probably, in Caria.

36. On the coast of Lycia.

37. In Lycia. See C. 29 of the present Book.

38. Probably so called from the number of hares found there.

39. On the coast of Caria.




36. Chap. 36-Rhodes.


CHAP. 36-RHODES.

But the fairest of them all is the free island of Rhodes,

125, or, if we would rather believe Isidorus, 103 miles in

circumference. It contains the inhabited cities of Lindos,

Camirus[1], and Ialysus[2], now called Rhodos. It is distant

from Alexandria in Egypt, according to Isidorus, 583 miles;

but, according to Eratosthenes, 469. Mucianus says, that

its distance from Cyprus is 166. This island was formerly

called Ophiussa[3], Asteria[4], thria[5],

Trinacrie[6], Corymbia[7],

Pessa[8], Atabyria[9], from the name of one of its

kings; and,

in later times, Macaria[10] and Oloessa[11]. The islands of the

Rhodians are Carpathus[12], which has given its name to the







surrounding sea; Casos[13], formerly known as Achne[14];

Nisyros[15], twelve miles distant from Cnidos, and formerly

called Porphyris[16]; and, in the same vicinity, midway between

Rhodes and Cnidos, Syme[17]. This island is thirty-seven miles

and a half in circumference, and welcomes us with eight fine

harbours. Besides these islands, there are, in the vicinity

of Rhodes, those of Cyclopis, Teganon, Cordylussa[18], the

four islands called Diabet[19], Hymos, Chalce[20], with its city

of that name, Sentlussa[21], Narthecussa[22], Dimastos, Progne;

and, off Cnidos, Cisserussa, Therionarce, and Calydne[23], with

the three towns of Notium, Nisyros, and Mendeterus. In

Arconnesus[24] there is the town of Ceramus. Off the coast

of Caria, there are the islands known as the Argi, twenty

in number; also Hyetussa[25], Lepsia, and Leros.



The most noted island, however, in this gulf is that of

Cos[26], fifteen miles distant from Halicarnassus, and 100 in

circumference, according to the opinion of many writers.

It was formerly called Merope; according to Staphylus, Cea;







Meropis, as Dionysius tells us; and, after that, Nympha.

In this island there is Mount Prion. Nisyros[27], formerly

called Porphyris, is supposed to have been severed from the

island of Cos. We next come to the island of Caryanda[28],

with a city of that name, and that of Pidosus[29], not far

from Halicarnassus. In the Gulf of Ceramicus we also find

Priaponnesos[30], Hipponnesos, Psyra, Mya, Lampsa. myndus,

Passala, Crusa, Pinnicussa, Sepiussa[31], and Melano. At a

short distance from the mainland is an island which bears

the name of Cindopolis, from the circumstance that King

Alexander left behind there certain persons of a most

disgraceful character.







1. Still known as Lindo and Camiro, according to D'Anville.

2. One of the three ancient Doric cities of Rhodes. It lay three-quarters

of a mile to the south-west of the city of Rhodes, with which Pliny

seems here to confound it. Its site is occupied by a village which still

bears the name of Ialiso, and where a few ancient remains are to be found.

3. From its productiveness of serpents.

4. Either from Asterius, its former king, or from its being a "constellation" of the sea.

5. Probably because of the clearness and serenity of its atmosphere.

See B. ii. c. 62.

6. From its three-cornered shape.

7. Perhaps so called from its fruitfulness in ivy, in Greek

korumbh/qra,

or else from ko/rumbos, "a summit," from its elevated position.

8. From its verdant and grassy soil.

9. Either from King Atabyrius, or the mountain Atabyrion; or else

from the temple of Jupiter Tabyrius, which Appian speaks of as situate

in this island.

10. The "fortunate," or "blessed" island.

11. "Venomous," or "deadly." This name it most probably had in

early times (and not more recently, as Pliny says), when it was covered

with dense forests, the retreats of serpents and noxious reptiles.

12. Now known as Skarpanto.

13. Mentioned by Homer, II. ii. 676. See also B. iv. c. 23

of the present

work. It is described by Ross as a single ridge of mountains, of

considerable height.

14. Signifying "sea-foam."

15. Still known as Nicero.

16. From its production of the 'murex,' or 'purple.'

17. Now called Symi, a small island off the south-west coast of Caria,

at the mouth of the Gulf of Doris, to the west of the Promontory of

Cynossema.

18. Now called the Island of St. Catherine, according to Ansart.

19. Stephlanus Byzantinus mentions these islands as lying in the vicinity

at Syme. Perhaps they are the group lying to the south of it, now

called Siskle.

20. Distant about fifty miles from Carpathus, or Skarpanto. It was

probably subject to Rhodes, in the vicinity of which it was situate. Its

present name is Chalki.

21. An island, according to Hardouin, not far from Halicarnassus, on

the cost of Ionia.

22. So called from its productiveness of the na/rqhc, or ferula.

23. More probably Calydn, because there were several islands forming

the group, of which Calymna was the chief. See B. iv. c. 23, where

Pliny mentions only one town, that of Cos. There are some remains

of the ancient towns still to be seen.

24. A small island of Caria, south of Halicarnassus. It is now called

Orak-Ada.

25. Probably so called from the almost continual rains there.

26. Now called Stanko, or Stanclio, a corruption of e)s ta\n

*kw=.


27. Which has been previously mentioned in this Chapter.

28. In C. 29, Pliny has mentioned a Caryanda on the mainland. It is

probable that there was a town on the mainland and another in the

island of the same name. Leake says, that there can be little doubt that

the large peninsula, towards the west end of which is the fine harbour

called by the Turks Pasha Limani, is the ancient island of Caryanda, now

joined to the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus.

29. The island of Hyali, near the harbour of Meffi, on the coast of

Caria, according to Dupinet.

30. Probably so called from the worship of the god Priapus there.

31. Few, if any, of these islets can now be recognized. Sepiussa was

probably so called from the abundance of the sepia, or cuttle-fish, there.




37. Chap. 37.-Samos.


CHAP. 37.-SAMOS.

The coast of Ionia has the islands of Trage, Corse[1],

and Icaros, which has been previously[2] mentioned; Lade[3],

formerly called Late; and, among others of no note, the two

Camelid[4], in the vicinity of Miletus; and the three

Trogili[5], near Mycale, consisting of Philion, Argennon, and

Sandalion. There is Samos also, a free[6] island, eighty-seven

miles in circumference, or, according to Isidorus, 100. Aristotle

tells us, that it was at first called Parthenia[7], after







that Dryussa[8], and then Anthemussa[9]. To these names

Aristocritus has added Melamphllus[10] and Cyparissia[11]:

other writers, again, call it Parthenoarussa[12] and Stephane[13].

The rivers of tis island are the Imbrasus, the Chesius, and

the Ibettes. There are also the fountains of Gigartho and

Leucothea; and Mount Cercetius. In the vicinity of Samos

are the islands of Rhypara, Nympha, and Achillea.







1. Over against the isle of Samos.

2. B. iv. c. 23.

3. Near the city of Miletus.

4. So called from their resemblance to camels.

5. Lying before the Promontory of Trogilium, mentioned in C. 31.

6. Augustus gave their liberty to the Samians. The island is still

called by the Greeks Samo, and by the Turks Susam Adassi.

7. The "Virgin's Island," if so called after Juno, as some say; but

according to Strabo, it received its name from the river Parthenius.

8. From its numerous oaks.

9. From the abundance of its flowers.

10. "Of dark," or "black foliage;" in allusion probably to its cypresses.

11. "Cypress-bearing."

12. This is note improbably a compound, formed by a mistake of the

copyists, of the two names, Parthenia and Aryusa, mentioned by

Heraclides.

13. "The Crown." This island was the birth-place of Pythagoras.




38. Chap. 38.-Chios.


CHAP. 38.-CHIOS.

At a distance of ninety-four miles from Samos is the free

island of Chios[1], its equal in fame, with a town of the same

name. Ephorus says, that the ancient name of this island

was thalia: Metrodorus and Cleobulus tell us, that it had

the name of Chia from the nymph Chione; others again say,

that it was so called from the word signifying snow[2]; it was

also called Macris and Pityusa[3]. It has a mountain called

Pelennus; and the Chian Marble is well known. It is 125[4]

miles in circumference, according to the ancient writers; Isidorus however makes it nine more. It is situate between

Samos and Lesbos, and, for the most part, lies opposite to

Erythr[5].



The adjacent islands are Thallusa[6], by some writers called

Daphnusa[7], nussa, Elaphitis, Euryanassa, and Arginusa,

with a town of that name. All these islands are in the vicinity of Ephesus, as also those called the Islands of Pisistratus,

Anthin, Myonnesos, Diarreusa,-in both of these last

there were cities, now no longer in existence,-Poroselene[8],







with a city of that name, Cerci, Halone[9], Commone,

Illetia, Lepria and Rhesperia, Procus, Bolbul, Phan,

Priapos, Syce, Melane, nare, Sidusa, Pele, Drymusa[10],

Anhydros, Scopelos[11], Sycussa, Marathussa, Psile, Perirreusa,

and many others of no note. In the main sea lies the

celebrated island of Teos, with a city[12] of that name, seventy-one miles and a half distant from Chios, and the same from

the Erythr.



In the vicinity of Smyrna are the Peristerides[13], Carteria,

Alopece, Elussa, Bachina, Pystira, Crommyonnesos, and

Megale[14]. Facing Troas there are the Ascani, and the

three islands called Plate. We find also the Lami, the

two islands called Plitani, Plate, Scopelos, Getone, Arthedon,

Cl, Laguss, and Didym.







1. Now known as Khio, Scio, Saka Adassi, or Saksadasi. Chios was

declared free by the Dictator Sulla.

2. *xiw\n gen. *xio/nos.

3. Macris, from its length, and Pityusa, from its pine-trees.

4. Dalechamps says 112 is the correct measurement.

5. Mentioned in C. 31 of the present Book.

6. Meaning "green and flourishing."

7. "Productive of laurels." None of these islets appear to have been

recognized by their modern names.

8. By Strabo called Pordoselene. He says that the islands in its

vicinity were forty in number; of which Pliny here gives the names of

two-and-twenty.

9. South of Proconncsus; now called Aloni.

10. Near the city of Clazomen. It is now called Vourla, according

to Ansart.

11. Now Koutali, according to Ansart.

12. We learn from Strabo and other writers, that this city was on a

peninsula, and that it stood on the southern side of the isthmus,

connecting

Mount Mimas with the mainland of Lydia. It was the birth-place of

Anacreon and Hecatus.

13. Or the "Dove Islands;" probably from the multitude of those birds

found on those islands.

14. Now called Antigona, according to Ansart.




39. Chap. 39.-Lesbos.


CHAP. 39.-LESBOS.

But Lesbos[1], distant from Chios sixty-five miles, is the

most celebrated of them all. It was formerly called Himerte,

Lasia, Pelasgia, gira, thiope, and Macaria, and is

famous for its nine cities. Of these, however, that of Pyrrha

has been swallowed up by the sea, Arisbe[2] has perished by

an earthquake, and Methymna is now united to Antissa[3];

these lie in the vicinity of nine cities of Asia, along a

coast of thirty-seven miles. The towns of Agamede and







Hiera have also perished. Eresos[4], Pyrrha, and the free

city of Mitylene[5], still survive, the last of which was a

powerful city for a space of 1500 years. The circumference

of the whole island is, according to Isidorus, 168 miles[6],

but the older writers say 195. Its mountains are, Lepethymnus, Ordymnus, Maicistus, Creon, and Olympus. It is

distant seven miles and a half from the nearest point of the

mainland. The islands in its vicinity are, Sandaleon, and

the five called Leuc[7]; Cydonea[8], which is one of them,

contains a warm spring. The Arginuss[9] are four miles

distant from ge[10]; after them come Phellusa[11] and Pedna.

Beyond the Hellespont, and opposite the shore of Sigeum,

lies Tenedos[12], also known by the names of Leucophrys[13],

Phnice, and Lyrnesos. It is distant from Lesbos fifty-six

miles, and twelve and a half from Sigeum.







1. Now Mitylene, or Metelin.

2. We find it also stated by Herodotus, that this island was destroyed

by the Methymnans. The cities of Mitylene, Methymna, Eresus,

Pyrrha, Antissa, and Arisbe, originally formed the olian Hexapolis,

or Confederation of Six Cities.

3. The ruins found by Pococke at Calas Limneonas, north-east of Cape

Sigri, may be those of Antissa. This place was the birth-place of

Terpander, the inventor of the seven-stringed lyre.

4. Or Eressus, according to Strabo. It stood on a hill, reaching down

to the sea. Its ruins are said to be near a place still called Eresso. It

was the birth-place of the philosopher Theophrastus, the disciple of

Aristotle.

5. Still called Mitylene, or Metelin.

6. Strabo makes it about only 137 miles.

7. Or the White Islands.

8. So called from its fruitfulness in quinces, or "Mala Cydonia."

9. These were three small islands, near the mainland of olis. It

was off these islands that the ten generals of the Athenians gained

a victory over the Spartans, B.C. 406. The modern name of these

islands is said to be Janot.

10. One of the Leuc, previously mentioned.

11. So called from the fello\s, or "cork," which it produced.

12. Still known as Tenedos, near the mouth of the Hellespont. Here

the Greeks were said to have concealed their fleet, to induce the Trojans

to think that they had departed, and then introduce the wooden horse

within their walls.

13. "Having white eye-brows;" probably from the whiteness of its cliffs.




40. Chap. 40. (32.)-The Hellespont And Mysia


CHAP. 40. (32.)-THE HELLESPONT AND MYSIA

The tide of the Hellespont now begins to run with greater

violence, and the sea beats against the shore, undermining

with its eddies the barriers that stand in its way, until it

has succeeded in separating Asia from Europe. At this

spot is the promontory which we have already mentioned

as Trapeza[1]; ten miles distant from which is the city of







Abydos[2], where the straits are only seven stadia wide; then

the town of Percote[3]; Lampsacus[4], at first called Pityusa;

the colony of Parium[5], which Homer calls by the name of

Adrastia; the town of Priapos[6]; the river sepus[7];

Zelia[8];

and then the Propontis[9], that being the name given to

the tract of sea where it enlarges. We then come to the

river Granicus[10], and the harbour of Artace[11], where a town

formerly stood. Beyond this is an island which Alexander

joined to the continent, and upon which is Cyzicus[12], a city

of the Milesians, which was formerly called Arctonnesos[13],

Dolionis, and Dindymis; above it are the heights of

Mount Dindymus[14]. We then come to the towns of Placia,

Ariace[15], and Scylace; in the rear of which places is Mount

Olympus, known as the "Mysian Olympus," and the city of

Olympena. There are also the rivers Horisius[16] and

Rhyndacus[17], formerly called the Lycus; this last river rises

in

Lake Artynias, near Miletopolis, and receives the Macestos,

and many other streams, dividing in its course Asia[18] from

Bithynia[19].







This country was at first called by the name of Cronia,

after that, Thessalis, and then Malianda and Strymonis. The

people of it are by Homer called Halizones[20], from the fact

that it was a nation begirt by the sea. There was formerly

a vast city here, Attussa by name; at present there are

twelve cities in existence; among which is Gordiucome[21],

otherwise Juliopolis; and, on the coast, Dascylos[22]. We

then come to the river Gelbes[23]; and, in the interior, the

town of Helgas, or Germanicopolis, which has also the

other name of Boosete[24] Apamea[25], now more generally

known as Myrlea of the Colophonians: the river Etheleus

also. the ancient boundary of Troas, and the commencement

of Mysia. Next to this comes the gulf[26] into which the

river Ascanius flows, the town of Bryllion[27], and the rivers

Hylas and Cios, with a town of the same name as the last-

mentioned river; it was founded by the Milesians at a place

which was called Aseania of Phrygia, as an entrept for the

trade of the Phrygians who dwelt in the vicinity. We may

therefore look upon this as a not ineligible opportunity for

making further mention of Phrygia.







1. In C. 33 of the present Book.

2. Opposite to Sestos, made famous by the loves of Hero and Leander.

Aidos, or Avido, a village on the Hellespont, is thought to occupy its site.

3. Now called Bergase, according to D'Anville.

4. Its ruins are still known as Lapsaki. This important city was celebrated for its wine, and was the chief seat of the worship of the god

Priapus.

5. Its site is now called Camanar, according to D'Anville.

6. According to Ansart, the modern Caraboa marks its site.

7. Now called the Satal-dere, according to Ansart.

8. Its locality was not far from the modern Biga, according to Ansart.

9. Now the Sea of Marmora.

10. Mentioned in C. 33 of the present Book.

11. Now called Artaki, or Erdek, a town of Mysia, and a Milesian

colony. A poor town now occupies its site.

12. Its ruins are called by the Turks Bal Kiz, probably meaning "Old

Cyzicus." There are many subterraneous passages, and the ruins are of

considerable extent. Its temples and storehouses appear to have been

built on a scale of great magnificence. See Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 15.

13. The "Island of the Bears," which animals frequented the mountain in its vicinity.

14. Called Dindymum by Herodotus;

probably the modern Morad Dagh, in which the river Hermus rises.

15. Now called Saki, according to Ansart.

16. Now called the Lartaeho, according to Ansart.

17. Previously mentioned in C. 32 of the present Book.

18. In its limited sense; considered as a portion only of Asia Minor.

19. On the west it bordered on Mysia, and on the south on Phrygia and

Galatia, while the eastern boundary seems to have been less definite.

20. Ephorus, as quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus, says, that the

Halizones inhabited the district lying between Caria, Mysia, and

Lydia.

Hesyehius incorrectly places them in Paphlagonia.

21. Meaning the "Village of Gordius," one of its ancient kings. It was

also called Gordium. After falling to decay, it was rebuilt by Augustus,

and called Juliopolis. It is celebrated in history as the place where

Alexander the Great cut the Gordian knot; the scene of the adventure

being the Acropolis of the town, the former palace of King Gordius.

22. There were several Asiatic cities of the similar name of Dascylium. The

site of the one here mentioned does not appear to have been ascertained.

23. More generally read "Gebes."

24. The "Bull's Bed," or "Den."

It probably took its second name from the Roman general Germanicus.

25. Now called Medania, or Mutania. It received its name of Apamea

from Prusias, king of Bithynia, in compliment to his wife. In the time

of the first Csars, it was made a Roman colony.

26. The Bay of Cios. The river runs into a lake, formerly known as

Lake Ascanius; probably that mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxi. c. 10.

27. Stephanus Byzantinus says that it was the same as the town of Cios,

or Cius, here mentioned as near to it. It was on the shores of the

Propontis.




41. Chap. 41.-Phrygia.


CHAP. 41.-PHRYGIA.

Phrygia lies above Troas, and the peoples already men-







tioned as extending from the Promontory of Lectum[1] to

the river Etheleus. On its northern side it borders upon

Galatia, on the south it joins Lyeaonia, Pisidia, and Mygdonia,

and, on the east, it touches upon Cappadocia. The

more celebrated towns there, besides those already mentioned,

are Ancyra[2], Andria, Celn[3], Coloss[4], Carina[5],

Cotyaion[6], Ceraine, Conium, and Midaium. There are

authors who say that the Msi, the Brygi, and the Thyni

crossed over from Europe, and that from them are descended

the peoples called the Mysi, Phryges, and Bithyni.







1. Cape Baba, or Santa Maria; the south-western promontory of

the Troad.

2. In Phrygia Epictetus, or "Conquered Phrygia," so called from its

conquest by certain of the kings of Bithynia. Strabo calls this place a

"small city, or hill-fortress, towards Lydia." It was probably situate

near the source of the Macestus, now the Susugherli Su, or the Simaul

Su, as it is called in its upper course.

3. The place from which the citizens were removed to Apamea, as mentioned

in C. 29 of the present Book. Hamilton (Researches, &c., p. 499)

supposes its acropolis to have been situate about half a mile from the

sources of the river Marsyas.

4. First mentioned by Herodotus, and situate on the Lycus, a branch

of the Mander. It had greatly declined in Strabo's time, and in the

middle ages there rose near it a town of the name of Chon, and Coloss

disappeared. Hamilton found extensive ruins of an ancient city about

three miles north of the modern Khonos. It was one of the early Christian

churches of Asia, and the Apostle Paul addressed one of his Epistles

to the people of this place. It does not appear from it that he had ever

visited the place; indeed, from Chap. ii. 1 we may conclude that he

had not.

5. This does not appear to be the same as the Carine mentioned in

C. 32 of this Book, as having gone to decay. Its site is unknown.

6. Or Cotium, or Cotyum. It was on the Roman road from

Dorylum to Philadelphia, and in Phrygia Epictetus, according to

Strabo. The modern Kutahiyah is supposed to denote its site; but

there are no remains of antiquity.




42. Chap. 42.-Galatia And The Adjoining Nations.


CHAP. 42.-GALATIA AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.

On this occasion also it seems that we ought to speak of

Galatia[1], which lies above Phrygia, and includes the greater

part of the territory taken from that province, as also its







former capital, Gordium[2]. The Gauls[3] who have settled in

these parts, are called the Tolistobogi, the Voturi, and the

Ambitouti; those who dwell in Monia and Paphlagonia

are called the Trocmi. Cappadocia stretches along to the

north-east of Galatia, its most fertile parts being possessed

by the Tectosages and the Teutobodiaci. These are the

nations by which those parts are occupied; and they are

divided into peoples and tetrarchies, 195 in number. Its

towns are, among the Tectosages, Ancyra[4]; among the

Troemi, Tavium[5]; and, among the Tolistobogi, Pessinus[6].

Besides the above, the best known among the peoples of

this region are the Actalenses, the Arasenses, the Comenses[7],

the Didienses, the Hierorenses, the Lystreni[8], the

Neapolitani, the andenses, the Seleucenses[9], the Sebas-







teni[10], the Timoniacenses[11], and the Thebaseni[12].

Galatia also touches upon Carbalia in Pamphylia, and the

Mily[13], about Baris; also upon Cyllanticum and

Oroandicum[14], a district of Pisidia, and Obizene, a part of

Lvcaonia. Besides those already mentioned[15], its rivers are the

Sangarius[16] and the Gallus[17], from which last the

priests[18] of the Mother of the gods have taken their name.







1. 7 It was bounded on the west, south, and south-east by those

countries; and on the north-east, north, and north-west by Pontus,

Paphlagouia, and Bithynia.

2. Mentioned in C. 40, under the name of Gordiucome.

3. Who invaded and settled in Asia Minor, at various periods during the third century B.C.

4. Near a small stream, which seems to enter the Sangarius. It originally belonged to Phrygia, and its mythical founder was Midas, the son of Gordius, who was said to have found an anchor on the spot, and accordingly given the name to the town; which story would, however, as it has been observed, imply that the name for anchor (a)/gkura) was the same in the Greek and the Phrygian languages. The Tectosages, who settled here about B.C. 277, are supposed to have been from the neighbourhood of Toulouse. It is now called Angora, or Engareh; and the fine hair of the Angora goat may have formed one of the staple commodities of the place, which had a very considerable trade. The chief monument of antiquity here is the marble temple of the Emperor Augustus, built in his honour during his lifetime. In the inside is the Latin inscription known as the monumentum, or marmor Ancyranum, containing a record of the memorable actions of Augustus. The ruins here are otherwise interesting in a high degree.

5. Now Tchoroum, according to Ansart.

6. Its ruins are called Bala-Hisar, in the south-west of Galatia, on the southern slope of Mount Didymus. This place was celebrated as a chief seat of the worship of the goddess Cybele, under the surname of Agdistis, whose temple, filled with riches, stood on a hill outside of the city.

7. Hardouin suggests that these are the Chomenses, the people of the city of Choma, in the interior of Lycia, mentioned in C. 28 of the present Book.

8. The people of Lystra, a city of Lycaonia, on the confines of Isauria, celebrated as one of the chief scenes of the preaching of Paul and Barnabas. See Acts xiv.

9. The people of Seleucia, in Pisidia.

10. The people of Sebaste, a town of the Tectosages.

11. The people of Timonium, a town of Paphlagonia, according to Stephanus Byzantinus.

12. Thebasa, a town of Lycaonia, has been mentioned in C. 25 of the present Book.

13. See C. 25 of the present Book.

14. The town of Oroanda, giving name to this district, is mentioned at the end of C. 24 of the present Book.

15. The Caster, the Rhyndacus, and the Cios.

16. Now called the Sakariyeh, the largest river of Asia Minor after the ancient Halys.

17. Now called the Lefke, which discharges itself into the Tangarius, or Sakariyeh.

18. Called "Galli." They were said to become mad from drinking of the waters of this river, and to mutilate themselves when in a frantic state. See Ovid's Fasti, B. iv. 1. 364 et seq.




43. Chap. 43.-Bithynia.


CHAP. 43.-BITHYNIA.

And now as to the remaining

places on this coast. On the road from Cios into the interior is

Prusa[1], in Bithynia, founded by Hannibal at the foot of

Olympus, at a distance of twenty-five miles from Nica, Lake

Ascanius[2] lying between them. We then come

to Nica[3], formerly called







Olbia, and situate at the bottom of the Ascanian

Gulf; as also a second place called Prusa[4], at the foot of

Mount Hypius. Pythopolis, Parthenopolis,

and Coryphanta are no longer in existence. Along

the coast we find the rivers sius,

Bryazon, Plataneus, Areus,

syros, Geodos, also called Chrysorroas[5],

and the promontory[6] upon which once stood the

town of Megarice. The gulf that here

runs inland received the name of Craspedites from

the circumstance of that town lying, as

it were, upon its skirt[7]. Astacum[8], also,

formerly stood here, from which the same

gulf has received the name of the 'Astacenian': the town of

Libyssa[9] formerly stood at the spot where we now

see nothing but the tomb of Hannibal. At the

bottom of the gulf lies

Nicomedia[10], a famous city of Bithynia;

then comes the Promontory of Leucatas[11], by which the

Astacenian Gulf is bounded, and thirty-seven miles

distant from Nicomedia; and then, the land again

approaching the other side, the straits[12] which extend as far

as the







Thracian Bosporus. Upon these are situate Chalcedon[13],

a free town, sixty-two miles from Nicomedia, formerly

called Procerastis[14], then Colpusa, and after that the "City

of the Blind," from the circumstance that its founders

did not know where to build their city, Byzantium being

only seven stadia distant, a site which is preferable in every

respect.



In the interior of Bithynia are the colony of Apamea[15],

the Agrippenses, the Juliopolit, and Bithynion[16]; the rivers

Syrium, Laphias, Pharnacias, Alces, Serinis, Lilus, Scopius,

and Hieras[17], which separates Bithynia from Galatia. Beyond

Chalcedon formerly stood Chrysopolis[18], and then Nicopolis,

of which the gulf, upon which stands the Port of

Amycus[19], still retains the name; then the Promontory of

Naulochum, and Esti[20], a temple of Neptune[21]. We then

come to the Bosporus, which again separates Asia from

Europe, the distance across being half a mile; it is distant

twelve miles and a half from Chalcedon. The first entrance

of this strait is eight miles and three-quarters wide, at the







place where the town of Spiropolis[22] formerly stood. The Thyni

occupy the whole of the coast, the Bithyni the interior. This is the

termination of Asia, and of the 282 peoples, that are to be found

between the Gulf of Lycia[23] and this spot. We have

already[24] mentioned the length of the Hellespont and Propontis

to the Thracian Bosporus as being 239 miles; from Chalcedon to

Sigeum, Isidorus makes the distance 322 1/2.







1. Now called Brusa. It stood on the north side of Mount Olympus, fifteen Roman miles from Cius. According to most accounts, it was built by Prusias, king of Bithynia. It is most probable that Hannibal superintended the works, while staying as a refugee at the court of Prusias.

2. Now Lake Iznik.

3. Its ruins are to be seen at Iznik, on the east side of the lake of that name. Its site is supposed to have been originally occupied by the town of Atta, and afterwards by a settlement of the Bottians, called Ancore, or Helicore, which was destroyed by the Mysians. On this spot, shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, Antigonus built a city which he named after himself, Antigonea; but Lysimachus soon afterwards changed the name into Nica, in honour of his wife. Under the kings of Bithynia, it was often the royal residence, and it long disputed with Nicomedia the rank of capital of Bithynia. The modern Iznik is only a poor village, with about 100 houses. Considerable ruins of the ancient city are still in existence. Littr seems to think that there are two Nicas meant in these passages; but it would seem that the same place is alluded to in both lines. The only thing that seems to give countenance to Littr's supposition (in which he is supported by Hardouin) is, the expression "Et Prusa item altera."

4. It has been suggested, that this is only another name for the town of Cios, previously mentioned; but it is most probable that they were distinct places, and that this was originally called Cierus, and belonged to the territory of Heraclea, but was conquered by King Prusias, who named it after himself. It stood to the north-west of the other Prusa.

5. Or the "Golden Stream."

6. Suggested by Parisot to be the modern Cape Fagma.

7. From the Greek kra/spedon, a "skirt."

8. Or Astacus, a colony originally from Megara and Athens. From Scylax it would appear that this city was also called Olbia. Its site is placed by some of the modern geographers at a spot called Ovaschik, and also Bashkele.

9. Called Gebiseh, according to Busbequis,-at least in his day. The modern Hereket, on the coast, has been suggested.

10. Its ruins now bear the name of Izmid, or Iznikmid, at the northeastern corner of the Sinus Astacenus, or Gulf of Izmid. It was the chief residence of the kings of Bithynia, and one of the most splendid cities in the world. Under the Romans it was made a colony, and was a favourite residence of Diocletian and Constantine the Great. Arrian the historian was born here.

11. Now Akrita. It is also called Akritas by Ptolemy.

12. The Straits, or Channel of Constantinople.

13. Its site is supposed to have been about two miles south of the modern Scutari, and it is said that the modern Greeks call it Chalkedon, and the Turks Kadi-Kioi. Its destruction was completed by the Turks, who used its materials for the construction of the mosques and other buildings of Constantinople.

14. So called, Hardouin thinks, from its being opposite to the Golden Horn, or promontory on which Byzantium was built.

15. Or Myrlea, mentioned above in C. 40. See p. 490.

16. Or Bithynium, lying above Tius. Its vicinity was a good feeding country for cattle, and noted for the excellence of its cheese, as mentioned by Pliny, B. xi. c. 42. Antinos, the favourite of the Emperor Adrian, was born here, as Pausanias informs us. Its site does not appear to be known.

17. These rivers do not appear to have been identified by the modern geographers.

18. The modern Scutari occupies its site. Dionysius of Byzantimn states, that it was called Chrysopolis, either because the Persians made it the place of deposit for the gold which they levied from the cities, or else from Chryses, a son of Agamemnon and Chryseis.

19. A king of the Bebrycians. For some further particulars relative to this place, see B. xvi. c. 89 of the present Book.

20. Situate on a promontory, which is represented by the modern Algiro, according to Hardouin and Parisot.

21. Other writers say that it was erected in honour of the Twelve Greater Divinities.

22. Called Phinopolis in most of the editions. It is very doubtful whether this passage ought not to be translated, "At a distance thence of eight miles and three-quarters is the first entrance to this strait, at the spot," &c. We have, however, adopted the rendering of Holland, Ajasson, and Littr.

23. Mentioned in C. 28 of the present Book.

24. In B. iv. c. 24.




44. Chap. 44.-The Islands Of The Propontis.


CHAP. 44.-THE ISLANDS OF THE PROPONTIS.

The islands of the Propontis

are, before Cyzicus, Elaphonnesus[1], from whence

comes the Cyzican marble; it is also known by the

names of Neuris and Proconnesus. Next

come Ophiussa[2], Acanthus, Phbe,

Scopelos, Porphyrione, Halone[3], with a city of that

name, Delphacia, Polydora, and Artaceon, with its city.

There is also, opposite to Nicomedia,

Demonnesos[4]; and, beyond Heraclea, and opposite to

Bithynia, the island of Thynias, by the barbarians

called Bithynia; the island of Antiochia: and, at the mouth

of the Rhyndacus, Besbicos[5], eighteen

miles in circumference; the islands also of Ela, the

two called Rhoduss, and those of

Erebinthus[6], Megale, Chalcitis[7], and

Pityodes[8].







Summary.-Towns and nations spoken of * * * *, Noted

rivers * * * *. Famous mountains * * * *. Islands, 118 in

number. People or towns no longer in existence * * * *.

Remarkable events, narratives, and observations * * * *.



Roman Authors Quoted.-Agrippa[9], Suetonius Paulinus[10],

M. Varro[11], Varro Atacinus[12], Cornelius Nepos[13],

Hyginus[14]. L. Vetus[15], Mela[16], Domitius Corbulo[17], Licinius

Mucianus[18], Claudius Csar[19], Arruntius[20], Livius the Son[21],

Sebosus[22], the Register of the Triumphs[23].







foreign authors quoted.-King Juba[24] Hecatus[25]

Hellanicus[26], Damastes[27], Dicarchus[28], Bton[29], Timosthenes[30],

Philonides[31], Zenagoras[32], Astynomus[33], Staphylus[34], Aristoteles[35],

Aristocritus[36], Dionysius[37], Ephorus[38], Eratosthenes[39],

Hipparchus[40], Pantius[41], Serapion[42] of Antioch,

Callimachus[43], Agathocles[44], Polybius[45], Timus[46] the

mathematician, Herodotus[47], Myrsilus[48], Alexander Polyhistor[49],

Metrodorus[50], Posidonius[51], who wrote the Periplus

and the Periegesis, Sotades[52], Periander[53], Aristar-







chus[54] of Sicyon, Eudoxus[55], Antigenes[56], Callicrates[57], Xenophon[58]

of Lampsacus, Diodorus[59] of Syracuse, Hanno[60], Himilco[61],

Nymphodorus[62], Calliphanes[63], Artemidorus[64], Megasthenes[65],

Isidorus[66], Cleobulus[67], and Aristocreon[68].







APPENDIX OF CORRECTIONS.



Page 1, line 9, The allusion, otherwise obscure, is to the fact that

some friends of Catullus had filched a set of table

napkins, which had been given to him by Veranius

and Fabius, and substituted others in their place.



Page 13, line 2, for Roman figures, read other figures.



Page 20, line 7, for the God of nature; he also tends, down to and

most excellent. read the God of nature. He supplies

light to the universe, and dispels all darkness; He

both conceals and reveals the other stars. It is He

that regulates the seasons, and, in the course of

nature, governs the year as it ever springs anew into

birth; it is He that dispels the gloom of the heavens,

and sheds his light upon the clouds of the human

mind. He, too, lends his brightness to the other

stars. He is most brilliant and most excellent.



Page 21, line 13, for elected, read erected.



Page 21, line 13, for good fortune, read evil fortune.



Page 23, line 18, for our scepticism concerning God is still increased,

read our conjectures concerning God become more

vague still.



Page 23, line 31, for and the existence of God becomes doubtful, read

whereby the very existence of a God is shewn to be

uncertain.



Page 33, line 4, for as she receives, read as receives.



Page 54, line 15, for the seventh of the circumference, read the seventh

of the third of the circumference.



Page 59, line 36, for transeuntia, read trascurrentia.



Page 67, line 26, for circumstances, read influences.



Page 78, line 9, for higher winds, read higher waves.



Page 78, line 17, for the male winds are therefore regulated by the odd

numbers, read hence it is that the odd numbers are

generally looked upon as males.



Page 79, line 15, for of the cloud, read of the icy cloud.



Page 79, line 21, for sprinkling it with vinegar, read throwing vinegar

against it.



Page 79, line 22, for this substance, read that liquid.



Page 80, line 13, for but not until, read and not after.



Page 80, line 14, for the former is diffused, down to impulse, read the

the latter is diffused in the blast, the former is condensed by the violent impulse.



Page 80, line 17. for dash, read crash.



Page 81, line 21, for thunder-storms, read thunder-bolts.



Page 81, line 27, for their operation, read its operation.



Page 82, line 8, for thunder-storms, read thunder-bolts.



Page 85, line 2, for blown up, read blasted.



Page 88, line 15, for the east, read the west.



Page 89, line 11, for even a stone, read ever a stone.



Page 92, line 9, for how many things do we compel her to produce

spontaneously, read how many things do we compel

her to produce! How many things does she pour

forth spontaneously!



Page 92, line 10, for odours and flowers read odours and flavours.



Page 93, line 16, for luxuries, read caprices.







1. Or "Deer Island."

2. Now Afzia, according to D'Anville.

3. There is still an island in the Sea of Marmora known by the name Alon, which is separated from the north-western extremity of the Peninsula of Cyzicus by a narrow channel.

4. Hesychius says, that there were two islands near Byzantium called by the common name of Demonnesi, but severally having the names of Chalcitis and Pityusa. Pliny, on the other hand, places Demonnesus opposite to Nicomedia, and at the same time mentions Chalcitis and Pityodes probably the same as Pityusa) as distinct places. D'Anville calls Demonnesus "The Isle of Princes."

5. The position assigned to this island by Pliny and Strabo corresponds with that of Kalolimno, a small island ten miles north of the mouth of the Rhyndacus.

6. Now called Prota, according to Parisot.

7. So called from its copper-mines; now called Khalki, or Karki.

8. Now called Prinkipo, east of Khalki.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. A celebrated Roman general, who was successively governor of Numidia and Britain, where he defeated Queen Boadicea. He was a supporter of the Emperor Otho, but afterwards obtained a pardon from Vitellius on the plea that he had betrayed Otho at the battle of Bedriacum, and so contributed to his defeat; which, however, was not the case.

11. See end of B. ii.

12. See end of B. iii.

13. See end of B. ii.

14. See end of B. iii.

15. See end of B. iii.

16. See end of B. iii.

17. Brother of Csonia, the wife of Caligula, and father of Domitia Longina, the wife of Domitian. He was the greatest general of his day, and conquered Tiridates, the powerful king of Parthia. He slew himself at Cenchre, A.D. 67, upon hearing that Nero had given orders for his execution.

18. See end of B. ii.

19. The Roman emperor, grandson of Livia, the wife of Augustus. As an author, the character in which he is here referred to, he occupied himself chiefly with history, and was encouraged in the pursuit by Livy the historian. At an early age he began to write a history from the death of the Dictator Csar, a plan which he afterwards abandoned, and began his work with the restoration of peace, after the battle of Actium. Of the earlier period he had written only four books, but the latter work he extended to forty-four. He also wrote memoirs of his own life, which Suetonius describes as written with more silliness than inelegance. A fourth work was a defence of Cicero against the attacks of Asinius Pollio. He also wrote histories of Carthage and of Etruria in Greek. All of his literary works have perished.

20. See end of B. iii.

21. Nothing whatever is known of this son of T. Livius, the great Roman historian. It is not improbable that the transcribers have committed an error in inserting the word filio, and that the historian himself is the person meant.

22. See end of B. ii.

23. Acta Triumphorum" probably mean the registers kept in the Capitol, in which were inscribed the names of those who were honoured with triumphs, and the decrees of the senate or the people in their favour. This register must not be confounded with the "Tabul Consulares."

24. Juba II., king of Mauritania. After the defeat of his father at Thapsus, he was carried a prisoner to Rome, though quite a child, and compelled to grace the conqueror's triumph. Augustus Csar afterwards restored to him his kingdom, and gave him in marriage Cleopatra, or Selene, the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. To his literary pursuits he is chiefly indebted for his reputation. His works are continually quoted by Pliny, who regards his authority with the utmost deference. Among his numerous works he seems to have written a History of Africa, Assyria, Arabia, and Rome; as also Treatises on the Stage, Music, Grammar, and Painting.

25. Of Miletus. See end of B. iv.

26. See end of B. iv.

27. See end of B. iv.

28. See end of B. ii.

29. He was employed by Alexander the Great in measuring distances in his marches. He wrote a work upon this subject, entitled, "Distances of the Marches of Alexander."

30. See end of B. iv.

31. See end of B. iv.

32. See end of B. iv.

33. See end of B. iv.

34. See end of B. iv.

35. See end of B. ii.

36. See end of B. iv.

37. Of Chalcis. See end of B. iv.

38. See end of B. iv.

39. See end of B. ii.

40. See end of B. ii.

41. Of Rhodes, the friend of P. Scipio milianus and Llius. He was the head of the Stoic School at Athens, where he died. His principal work was a Treatise on Moral Duties, which served as a model for Cicero in the composition of his work, "De Officiis." He also wrote a work on the philosophical sects.

42. See end of B. ii.

43. See end of B. iv.

44. See end of B. iv.

45. See end of B. iv.

46. See end of B. ii.

47. See end of B. ii.

48. See end of B. iv.

49. See end of B. iii.

50. See end of B. iii.

51. See end of B. ii.

52. There are four literary persons mentioned of this name. 1. An Athenian comic poet of the middle comedy. 2. A native of Marona, in Thrace, or else of Crete, who wrote lascivious and abusive verses, and was at last put to death by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He was the inventor of the Sotadean verse, or Ionic a Majore, Tetrameter Brachycatalectic. 3. An Athenian Philosopher, who wrote a book on mysteries. 4. A Byzantine philosopher, of whom nothing whatever is known.

53. There were two writers of this name, before the time of Pliny. 1. Periander of Corinth, one of the Seven Wise Men, who wrote a didactic poem, containing moral and political precepts, in 2000 lines; and, 2. a physician and bad poet, contemporary with Archidamas, the son of Agesilas. It is uncertain to which Pliny here refers.

54. Probably a writer on geography. Nothing appears to be known of him.

55. Of Cyzicus, see end of B. ii.; of Cnidos, see end of B. iv.

56. A Greek historian, who appears, from Plutarch, to have written a history of the expeditions of Alexander the Great.

57. See end of B. iii.

58. See end of B. iii.

59. See end of B. iii.

60. The author of the Periplus, or voyage which he performed round a part of Libya, of which we have a Greek translation from the Punic original. His age is not known, but Pliny states (B. ii. c. 67, and B. v. c. 1) that the voyage was undertaken in the most flourishing days of Carthage. It has been considered on the whole, that he may be probably identified with Hanno, the son or the father of Hamilcar, who was slain at Himera, B.C. 480.

61. Mentioned also by Pliny, B. ii. c. 67, as having conducted a voyage of discovery from Gades towards the north, along the western shores of Europe, at the same time that Hanno proceeded on his voyage along the western coast of Africa. He is repeatedly quoted by Festus Avienus, in his geographical poem called Ora Maritima. His voyage is said to have lasted four months, but it is impossible to judge how far it extended.

62. See end of B. iii.

63. See end of B. iii.

64. See end of B. ii.

65. A Greek geographer, and friend of Seleucus Nicator, by whom he was sent on an embassy to Sandrocottus, king of the Prasii, whose capital was Palibothra, a town probably in the vicinity of the present Patna. Whether he had accompanied Alexander on his invasion of India is quite uncertain. He wrote a work on India in four books, to which the subsequent Greek writers were chiefly indebted for their accounts of India. Arrian speaks highly of him as a writer, but Strabo impeaches his veracity; and we find Pliny hinting the same in B. vi. c. 21. Of his work only a few fragments survive.

66. See end of B. ii.

67. See end of B. iv.

68. There was a philosopher of this name, a nephew of Chrysippus, and his pupil; but it is not known whether he is the person referred to, in C. 10, either as having written a work on universal geography, or on that of Egypt.




0. > Book Vi. An Account Of Countries, Nations, Seas, Towns, Havens, Mountains, Rivers, Distances, And Peoples Who Now Exist, Or Formerly Existed.


BOOK VI. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS,

HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES

WHO NOW EXIST, OR FORMERLY EXISTED.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Euxine And The Maryandini.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE EUXINE AND THE MARYANDINI.



THE Euxine[1] Sea, which in former times had the name of

Axenus,[2] from the savage and inhospitable character of the

nations living on its borders, by a peculiar whim of nature,

which is continually giving way before the greedy inroads of

the sea, lies between Europe and Asia. It was not enough

for the ocean to have surrounded the earth, and then deprived us of a considerable portion of it, thus rendering still

greater its uninhabitable proportion; it was not enough

for it to have forced a passage through the mountains, to

have torn away Calpe from Africa, and to have swallowed up

a much larger space than it left untouched; it was not enough

for it to have poured its tide into the Propontis through the

Hellespont, after swallowing up still more of the dry land

-for beyond the Bosporus, as well, it opens with its insatiate

appetite upon another space of immense extent, until the

Motian lakes[3] unite their ravening waters with it as it ranges far and wide.



That all this has taken place in spite, as it were, of the

earth, is manifested by the existence of so many straits and

such numbers of narrow passages formed against the will of







Nature-that of the Hellespont,[4] being only eight hundred

and seventy-five paces in width, while at the two Bospori[5] the

passage across may be effected by oxen[6] swimming, a fact from

which they have both derived their name. And then besides,[7]

although they are thus severed, there are certain points on

which these coasts stand in the relation of brotherhood towards

each other-the singing of birds and the barking of dogs on

the one side can be heard on the other, and an intercourse can

be maintained between these two worlds by the medium even

of the human voice,[8] if the winds should not happen to carry

away the sound thereof.



The length of the borders of the Euxine from the Bosporus

to the Lake Motis has been reckoned by some writers at

fourteen hundred and thirty-eight miles; Eratosthenes, however, says that it is one hundred less. According to Agrippa,

the distance from Chalcedon to the Phasis is one thousand miles,

and from that river to the Cimmerian Bosporus three hundred

and sixty. We will here give in a general form the distances as

they have been ascertained in our own times; for our arms have

even penetrated to the very mouth of the Cimmerian Straits.



After passing the mouth of the Bosporus we come to the

river Rhebas,[9] by some writers called the Rhesus. We next

come to Psillis,[10] the port of Calpas,[11] and the Sagaris,[12] a famous







river, which rises in Phrygia and receives the waters of other

rivers of vast magnitude, among which are the Tembrogius[13]

and the Gallus,[14] the last of which is by many called the Sangarius. After leaving the Sagaris the Gulf of the Mariandyni[15]

begins, and we come to the town of Heraclea,[16] on the river

Lycus;[17] this place is distant from the mouth of the Euxine two

hundred miles. The sea-port of Acone[18] comes next, which has

a fearful notoriety for its aconite or wolf's-bane, a deadly

poison, and then the cavern of Acherusia,[19] the rivers Pdopides, Callichorus, and Sonautes, the town of Tium,[20] distant from Heraclea thirty-eight miles, and the river Billis.







1. Or the "Hospitable" Sea, now the Black Sea.

2. Or the "Inhospitable."

3. The streams which discharge their waters into the Palus Motis, or

Sea of Azof.

4. Straits of the Dardanelles or of Gallipoli, spoken of in B. iv. c. 18, as seven stadia in width.

5. The Thracian Bosporus, now the Channel or Straits of Constantinople, and the Cimmerian Bosporus or Straits of Kaffa, or Yeni Kale.

6. From bou=s, an ox, andporo/s, "a passage." According to the legend, it was at the Thracian Bosporus that the cow Io made her passage from one continent to the other, and hence the name, in all probability, celebrated alike in the fables and the history of antiquity. The Cimmerian Bosporus not improbably borrowed its name from the Thracian. See sch. Prom. Vine. 1. 733.

7. This sentence seems to bear reference to the one that follows, and not, as punctuated in the Latin, to the one immediately preceding it.

8. It is not probable that this is the case at the Straits of Kaffa, which are nearly four miles in width at the narrowest part.

9. Now the Riva, a river of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, falling into the Euxine north-east of Chalcedon.

10. Probably an obscure town.

11. On the river Calpas or Calpe, in Bithynia. Xenophon, in the Anabasis, describes it as about half way between Byzantium and Heraclea. The spot is identified in some of the maps as Kirpeh Limn, and the promontory as Cape Kirpeh.

12. Still known as the Sakaria.

13. Now called the Sursak, according to Parisot.

14. Now the Lef-ke. See the end of c. 42 of the last Book.

15. The modern Gulf of Sakaria. Of the Mariandyni, who gave the ancient name to it, little or nothing is known.

16. Its site is now known as Harakli or Eregli. By Strabo it is erroneously called a colony of Miletus. It was situate a few miles to the north of the river Lycus.

17. Now called the Kilij.

18. Stephanus Byzantinus speaks of this place as producing whetstones, or a)konai\, as well as the plant aconite.

19. This name was given to the cavern in common with several other

lakes or caverns in various parts of the world, which, like the various rivers of the name of Acheron, were at some time supposed to be connected with the lower world.

20. Now called Falios (or more properly Filiyos), according to D'Anville,

from the river of that name in its vicinity, supposed by him and other geographers to be the same as the ancient Billis, here mentioned by Pliny. By others of the ancient writers it is called Billus.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-Paphlagonia.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-PAPHLAGONIA.



Beyond this river begins the nation of Paphlagonia,[1] by

some writers called Pylmenia;[2] it is closed in behind by the

country of Galatia. In it are Mastya,[3] a town founded by the







Milesians, and then Cromna,[4] at which spot Cornelius Nepos also

places the Heneti,[5] from whom he would have us believe that

the Veneti of Italy, who have a similar name, are descended.

The city also of Sesamon, now called Amastris,[6] Mount

Cytorus,[7] distant sixty-three miles from Tium, the towns of

Cimolis[8] and Stephane,[9] and the river Parthenius.[10] The

promontory of Carambis,[11] which extends a great distance into

the sea, is distant from the mouth of the Euxine three hundred

and twenty-five miles, or, according to some writers, three

hundred and fifty, being the same distance from the Cimmerian

Bosporus, or, as some persons think, only three hundred and

twelve miles. There was formerly also a town of the same

name, and another near it called Armene; we now find there

the colony of Sinope,[12] distant from Mount Cytorus one hundred

and sixty-four miles. We then come to the river Evarchus,[13]







and after that a people of the Cappadocians, the towns of Gaziura[14] and Gazelum,[15] the river Halys,[16] which runs from the

foot of Mount Taurus through Cataonia and Cappadocia, the

towns of Gangre[17] and Carusa,[18] the free town of Amisus,[19]

distant from Sinope one hundred and thirty miles, and a gulf

of the same name, of such vast extent[20] as to make Asia assume

the form of a peninsula, the isthmus of which is only some

two hundred[21] miles in breadth, or a little more, across to the

gulf of Issus in Cilicia. In all this district there are, it is

said, only three races that can rightly be termed Greeks, the

Dorians, the Ionians, and the olians, all the rest being of

barbarian origin.[22] To Amisus was joined the town of Eupatoria,[23] founded by Mithridates: after his defeat they were

both included under the name of Pompeiopolis.











1. Paphlagonia was bounded by Bithynia on the west, and by Pontus on the east, being separated from the last by the river Halys; on the south it was divided by the chain of Mount Olympus from Phrygia in the earlier times, from Galatia at a later period; and on the north it bordered on the Euxine.

2. In the Homeric catalogue we find Pylmenes leading the Paphlagonians as allies of the Trojans; from this Pylmenes the later princes of

Paphlagonia claimed their descent, and the country was sometimes from

them called Pylmenia.

3. Suspected by Hardouin to have been the same as the Moson or Moston mentioned by Ptolemy as in Galatia.

4. It is mentioned by Homer, Il. ii. 855, as situate on the coast of Paphlagonia.



5. Strabo also, in B. xii., says that these people afterwards established themselves in Thrace, and that gradually moving to the west, they finally settled in the Italian Venetia, which from them took its name. But in his Fourth Book he says that the Veneti of Italy owe their origin to the Gallic Veneti, who came from the neighbourhood known as the modern

Vannes.

6. This city, ninety stadia east of the river Parthenius, occupied a peninsula, and on each side of the isthmus was a harbour. The original city,

as here mentioned, seems to have had the name of Sesamus or Sesamum,

and it is spoken of by that name in Homer, Il. ii. 853, in conjunction

with Cytorus. The territory of Amastris was famous for its growth of the

best box-wood, which grew on Mount Cytorus. The present Amasra or

Hanasserall occupies its site.

7. See the last Note.

8. Otherwise called "Cinolis." There is a place called Kinla or Kinoglu in the maps, about half-way between Kerempeh and Sinope, which is the Kinuli of Abulfeda, and probably the Cirolis or Cimolis of the Greek geographers.

9. The modern Estefan or Stefanos.

10. Now known by the name of Bartin, a corruption of its ancient appellation.

11. It still retains its ancient appellation in its name of Cape Kerempeh: of the ancient town nothing is known.

12. Now called Sinope, or Sinoub. Some ruins of it are still to be seen. The modern town is but a poor place, and has probably greatly declined since the recent attack upon it by the Russian fleet. Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, was a native of ancient Sinope.

13. The boundary, according to Stephanus Byzantinus, also of the nations of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia. As Parisot remarks, this is an error, arising from the circumstance of a small tribe bearing the name of Cappadocians, having settled on its banks, between whom and the Paphlagonians it served as a limit.

14. On the river Iris. It was the ancient residence of the kings of Pontus, but in Strabo's time it was deserted. It has been suggested that the modern Azurnis occupies its site.

15. In the north-west of Pontus, in a fertile plain between the rivers Halys and Amisus. It is also called Gadilon by Strabo. D'Anville makes it the modern Aladgiam; while he calls Gaziura by the name of Guedes.

16. Now called the Kisil Irmak, or Red River. It has been remarked

that Pliny, in making this river to come down from Mount Taurus and

flow at once from south to north, appears to confound the Halys with one

of its tributaries, now known as the Izchel Irmak.

17. Its site is now called Kiengareh, Kangreh, or Changeri. This was a town of Paphlagonia, to the south of Mount Olgasys, at a distance of thirty-five miles from Pompeiopolis.

18. A commercial place to the south of Sinope. Its site is the modern Gherseh on the coast.

19. Now called Eski Samsun; on the west side of the bay or gulf, anciently called Sinus Amisenus. According to Strabo, it was only 900 stadia from Sinope, or 112 1/2 Roman miles. The walls of the ancient city are to be seen on a promontory about a mile and a half from the modern town.

20. He means the numerous indentations which run southward into the coast, from the headland of Sinope to a distance of about one degree to the south.

21. On examining the map, we shall find that the distance is at least 300 miles across to the gulf of Issus or Iskenderoon.

22. Not speaking the Greek language.

23. A part of it only was added to Eupatoria; and it was separated from the rest by a wall, and probably contained a different population from that of Amisus. This new quarter contained the residence of the king, Mithridates Eupator, who built Eupatoria.




3. Chap. 3. (3.)-Cappadocia.


CHAP. 3. (3.)-CAPPADOCIA.



Cappadocia[1] has in the interior Archelais,[2] a colony founded

by Claudius Csar, and past which the river Halys flows; also

the towns of Comana,[3] watered by the Sarus, Neocsarea,[4]

by the Lycus,[5] and Amasia,[6] in the region of Gazacene,

washed by the Iris. In Colopene it has Sebastia and Sebastopolis;[7] these are insignificant places, but still equal in importance to those just mentioned. In its remaining districts

there is Melita,[8] founded by Semiramis, and not far from the Euphrates, Diocsarea,[9] Tyana,[10] Castabala,[11] Magnopolis,[12]







Zela,[13] and at the foot of Mount Argus[14] Mazaca, now called

Csarea.[15] That part of Cappadocia which lies stretched out

before the Greater Armenia is called Melitene, before Commagene Cataonia, before Phrygia Garsauritis, Sargarausene,[16]

and Cammanene, before Galatia Morimene, where their territories are divided by the river Cappadox,[17] from which this

people have taken their name; they were formerly known as

the Leucosyri.[18] From Neocsarea above mentioned, the

lesser Armenia is separated by the river Lycus. In the interior also there is the famous river Ceraunus,[19] and on the

coast beyond the town of Amisus, the town and river of

Chadisia,[20] and the town of Lycastum,[21] after which the region

of Themiseyra[22] begins.











1. The boundaries of Cappadocia varied under the dominion of the Persians, after the Macedonian conquest, and as a Roman province under the emperors.

2. Founded by Archelas, the last king of Cappadocia. In Hamilton's Researches, the site has been assumed to be the modern Ak-serai, but that place is not on the river Halys, as Leake supposes. It is, however, considered that Ak-serai agrees very well with the position of Archelais as laid down in the Itineraries, and that Pliny may have been misled in supposing that the stream on which it stood was the Halys.

3. Also called by the name of Chryse, or "Golden," to distinguish it from another place of the same name in Pontus. It is generally supposed that the town of Al-Bostan, on the Sihoon or Sarus, is on or near the site of this Comana.

4. Now called Niksar, according to D'Anville, though Hardouin says

that it is Tocat. Parisot remarks, that this place belonged rather to

Pontus than to Cappadocia.

5. A small tributary of the Iris, or Yeshil-Irmak, mentioned in the next

Chapter.

6. Both to the west of Neo-Csarea. According to Tavernier, as quoted

by Hardouin, the modern name of Sebastia is Sivas.

7. Still called Amasia, or Amasiyeh, and situate on the river Iris, or Yeshil Ermak. It was at one time the residence of the princes of Pontus, and the birth-place of the geographer Strabo. The remains of antiquity here are very considerable, and extremely interesting.

8. Which gave name to the district of Melitene, mentioned in c. 20 of the last Book.

9. Near Nazianzus, in Cappadocia, the birth-place of Gregory Nazianzen. The traveller Ainsworth, on his road from Ak Serai to Kara Hissar, came to a place called Kaisar Koi, and he has remarked that by its name and position it might be identified with Diocsarea. Some geographers, indeed, look upon Diocsarea and Nazianzus as the same place.

10. Its ruins are still to be seen at Kiz Hisar. It stood in the south

of Cappadocia, at the northern foot of Mount Taurus. Tyana was the native place of Apollonius, the supposed worker of miracles, whom the

enemies of Christianity have not scrupled to place on a par with Jesus

Christ.

11. Some ruins, nineteen geographical miles from Ayas, are supposed to

denote the site of ancient Castabala or Castabulum.

12. This place was first called Eupatoria, but not the same which Mithridates united with a part of Amisus. D'Anville supposes that the modern town of Tchenikeb occupies its site.

13. Or Ziela, now known as Zillah, not far south of Amasia. It was here that Julius Csar conquered Pharnaces, on the occasion on which he wrote his dispatch to Rome, "Veni, vidi, vici."

14. Still known by the name of Ardgeh-Dagh.

15. Its site is still called Kaisiriyeh. It was a city of the district Cilicia, in Cappadocia, at the base of the mountain Argus. It was first called Mazaca, and after that, Eusebeia. There are considerable remains of the ancient city.

16. Hardouin remarks, that the district of Sargarausene was not situate in front of Phrygia, but lay between Morimene and Colopenene, in the vicinity of Pontus.

17. Now known as the Konax, a tributary of the Halys, rising in Mount Littarus, in the chain of Paryadres.

18. Or "White Syrians." Strabo says that in his time both the Cappadocian peoples, those situate above the Taurus and those on the Euxine, were called Leucosyri, or White Syrians, as there were some Syrians who were black, and who dwelt to the east of the Amanus.

19. It is doubtful whether this is the name of a river or a town. Notwithstanding its alleged celebrity, nothing is known of it.

20. Hecatus, as quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus, speaks of Chadisia as

a city of the Leucosyri, or Cappadocians. Neither the river nor the town

appears to have been identified.

21. Probably on the river of that name, which has been identified with the Mers Imak, a river two or three miles east of the Acropolis of Amisus.

22. The extensive plain on the coast of Pontus, extending east of the river Iris, beyond the Thermodon, and celebrated as the country of the Amazons. At the mouth of the Thermodon was a city of the same name, which had been destroyed by the time of Augustus. It is doubtful whether the modern Thermeh occupies its site.




4. Chap. 4.-The Region Of Themiscyra, And The Nations Therein.


CHAP. 4.-THE REGION OF THEMISCYRA, AND THE NATIONS THEREIN.



The river Iris brings down to the sea the waters of the

Lycus. In the interior is the city of Ziela,[1] famous for the

defeat of Triarius[2] and the victory of C. Csar.[3] Upon the

coast there is the river Thermodon, which rises at the fortified

place called Phanara,[4] and flows past the foot of Mount

Amazonius.[5] There was formerly a town of the same name

as the river, and five others in all, Amazonium, Themiseyra,

Sotira, Amasia, and Comana,[6] now only a Manteium. (4.) We

find here the nations of the Genet,[7] the Chalybes,[8] the town

of Cotyorum,[9] the nations of the Tibareni and the Mossyni,

who make marks upon their bodies,[10] the people called Macro-







cephali,[11] the town of Cerasus,[12] the port of Chordule, the

nations called the Bechires[13] and the Buzeri, the river Melas,[14]

the people called the Macrones, and Sidene with its river

Sidenus,[15] by which the town of Polemonium[16] is washed, at a

distance from Amisus of one hundred and twenty miles. We

next come to the rivers Iasonius[17]

on the site of the older city of Side, at the mouth of the Sidenus and Melanthius,[18] and at a

distance of eighty miles from Amisus, the town of Pharnacea,[19]

the fortress and river of Tripolis;[20] the fortress and river of

Philocalia, the fortress of Liviopolis, but not upon a river, and

at a distance of one hundred miles from Pharnacea, the free

city of Trapezus,[21] shut in by a mountain of vast size. Beyond this town is the nation of the Armenochalybes[22] and the







Greater Armenia, at a distance of thirty miles. On the coast,

before Trapezus, flows the river Pyxites, and beyond it is the

nation of the Sanni[23] Heniochi. Next comes the river Absarus,[24] with a fortress of the same name at its mouth, distant

from Trapezus one hundred and forty miles.



At the back of the mountains of this district is Iberia,

while on the coast are the Heniochi, the Ampreut,[25] the Lazi,

the rivers Acampsis,[26] Isis,[27] Mogrus, and Bathys,[28] the nations

of the Colchi, the town of Matium,[29] the river Heracleum and

the promontory of the same name,[30] and the Phasis,[31] the most

celebrated river of Pontus. This river rises among the Moschi,

and is navigable for the largest vessels a distance of thirty-eight

miles and a half, and for small ones very much higher up;

it is crossed by one hundred and twenty bridges. It formerly

had many cities of note on its banks, the more famous of

which were Tyndaris, Circum, Cygnus, and Phasis[32] at its

mouth. But the most celebrated of them all was a, fifteen

miles[33] distant from the sea, where the Hippos and the Cyaneos,[34] rivers of vast size, flow into it from opposite directions.

At the present day its only place of note is Surium, which







derives its name from the river which flows at that spot into

the Phasis, and up to which place the Phasis is navigable for

large vessels, as we have already[35] mentioned. It receives also

some other rivers, wonderful for their number and magnitude,

and among them the Glaucus.[36] At the mouth of the Phasis,

at a distance of seventy miles from Absarus, are some islands,

which, however, have no name. After passing this, we come

to another river, the Charieis,[37] and the nation of the Sal,

by the ancients called Phthirophagi,[38] as also Suani.[39] The

river Chobus[40] flows from the Caucasus through the country of

the Suani. The river Rhoas comes next, then the region of

Ecrectice, the rivers Singames,[41] Tarsuras,[42] Astelephus,[43] Chrysorrhoas, the nation of the Absil, the castle of Sebastopolis,[44]

one hundred miles distant from Phasis, the nation of the Sannig, the town of Cygnus,[45] and the river and town of Penius.[46]

We then come to the tribes of the Heniochi,[47] who are distinguished by numerous names.







1. The same place apparently as is mentioned in the last Chapter under the name of Zela.

2. Valerius Triarius, one of the legates of Lucullus, in the war against Mithridates. Plutarch tells us that Lucullus was obliged to conceal Triarius from the fury of his troops.

3. Over Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates.

4. Now called the Thermea.

5. Still called Mason-Dagh.

6. He alludes to Comana, in Pontus, the site of which is now called Gumenek, near to which, on the Tocat-su, the modern name of the Iris, Hamilton found some remains of a Roman town, and part of a bridge apparently of Roman construction. The language of Pliny seems to imply that it had become in his day nothing beyond a manteium or seat of an

oracle.

7. Strabo speaks of a promontory called Genetes; and Stephanus Byzantinus mentions a river and port of the same name.

8. Strabo places the Chaldei, who, he says, were originally called Chalybes, in that part of the country which lies above Pharnacia (the modern Kerasunt).

9. Or Cotyora. According to Xenophon, this was a colony of Sinope, which furnished supplies for the Ten Thousand in their retreat. The place was on a bay called after the town. Hamilton, in his Researches, &c., Vol. i., is of opinion that Cotyorum may have stood on the site of Ordou, where some remains of an ancient port, cut out of the solid rock, are still visible. He remarks, however, that some writers suppose that Cotvora was the modern bay of Pershembah, which is more sheltered than Ordou. Cotyora was the place of embarkation of the Ten Thousand.

10. Similar to what we call tatooing. Parisot suggests that these people may have been the ancestors of the Mongol tribes who still dwell in tents similar to those mentioned by Mela as used by the Mossyni.

11. Or the "long-headed people."

12. Its site is not improbably that of the modern Kheresoun, on the coast

of Asia Minor, and west of Trebizond. Lucullus is said to have brought

thence the first cherry-trees planted in Europe.

13. It has been remarked, that Pliny's enumeration of names often rather confuses than helps, and that it is difficult to say where he intends to place the Bechires. We may perhaps infer from Mela that they were west of Trapezus and east of the Thermodon.

14. Now the Kara Su, or Black River, still retaining its ancient appellation. It rises in Cappadocia, in the chain of Mount Argus.

15. Still called by the same name, according to Parisot, though sometimes it is called the river of Vatisa. More recent authorities, however,

call it Poleman Chai.

16. On the coast of Pontus, built by king Polmon, perhaps the Second,

17. Probably near the promontory of Jasonium, 130 stadia to the northeast of Polemonium. It was believed to have received its name from

Jason the Argonaut having landed there. It still bears the name of

Jasoon, though more commonly called Bona or Vona.

18. Sixty stadia, according to arrian, from the town of cotyora

19. Supposed to have stood on almost the same site as the modern Kheresoun or Kerasunda. It was built near, or, as some think, on the site of Cerasus.

20. Still known by the name of Tireboli, on a river of the same name, the Tireboli Su.

21. Now called Tarabosan, Trabezun, or Trebizond. This place was originally a colony of Sinope, after the loss of whose independence Trapezus belonged, first to Lesser Armenia, and afterwards to the kingdom of Pontus. In the middle ages it was the seat of the so-called empire of Trebizond. It is now the second commercial port of the Black Sea, ranking next after Odessa.

22. The "Chalybes of Armenia." See p. 21.

23. Theodoret says that the Sanni, and the Lazi, subsequently mentioned, although subdued by the Roman arms, were never obedient to the Roman laws. The Heniochi were probably of Grecian origin, as they were said to have been descended from the charioteers of the Argonauts, who had been wrecked upon these coasts.

24. Or Apsarus, or Absarum. Several geographers have placed the site of this town near the modern one known as Gonieh. Its name was connected with the myth of Medea and her brother Absyrtus. It is not improbable that the names Acampsis and Absarus have been given to the same river by different writers, and that they both apply to the modern Joruk.

25. It is suggested by Hardouin that these are the same as the Zydret mentioned in the Periplus of Arrian, and by him placed between the Heniochi and the Lazi.

26. See note 91.

27. Supposed to be the same as the modem Tshorok.

28. Or "Deep" River. This stream may possibly be identified by observing that Pliny places only one river between it and the Phasis.

29. Probably the Madia of Ptolemy, who places it in the interior.

30. At the present day called Eraklia, according to Parisot.

31. Now called the Faz or Poti.

32. Still called El Faz or Poti.

33. This place was in reality thirty-seven miles and a half from the sea. It was said to have been the native place of the enchantresses Circe and Medea.

34. The rivers Hippos and Cyaneos do not appear to have been identified.

35. In the previous page.

36. Now called the Tehorocsu.

37. It is doubtful whether this is the same river as that mentioned by Strabo under the name of Chares. D'Anville says that its modern name is Enguri.

38. Or "Feeders on Lice;" so called, according to Strabo, from the extreme filthiness of their habits.

39. There is a nation in this vicinity still called by a similar name. Professor Pallas, who visited them, says that nothing can equal their dishonesty,

rapacity, and voracity. Parisot suggests that they are probably the

descendants of the Phthirophagi of Pliny.

40. Now called the Khalira, according to D'Anville.

41. Now called the Hati-Scari, according to D'Anville.

42. Now the Okhum, according to D'Anville.

43. Now the Mosti-Skari, according to D'Anville.

44. Still called Savastopoli, according to Hardouin.

45. This must not be confounded with the other place of the same name

mentioned in the present Chapter. See p. 10.

46. Hermolus suggests Pityus as the correct reading.

47. The Sanni Heniochi; one of these nations has been already mentioned in the last page.




5. Chap. 5. (5)-The Region Of Colica, The Nations Of The Achi, And Other Nations In The Same Parts.


CHAP. 5. (5)-THE REGION OF COLICA, THE NATIONS OF THE ACHI, AND OTHER NATIONS IN THE SAME PARTS.



Below this lies the region of Pontus known as Colica,[1] in







which the mountain chain of Caucasus bends away towards the

Riphan mountains, as we have previously[2] mentioned; one

side running down towards the Euxine and the Lake Motis,

the other towards the Caspian and the Hyrcanian sea. The

remaining portion of these shores is peopled by savage nations,

the Melanchlni,[3] and the Coraxi, who formerly dwelt in Dios-

curias,[4] near the river Anthemus, now deserted, but once a

famous city; so much so, indeed, that we learn from Timos-

thenes, that three hundred nations, all of different languages,

were in the habit of resorting to it, and in later times we had

there one hundred and thirty interpreters for the purpose of

transacting business. There are some authors who are of

opinion that this place was built by Amphitus and Telchius,

the charioteers[5] of Castor and Pollux, from whom it is generally understood that the nation of the Heniochi sprang. After

passing Dioscurias we come to the town of Heracleium,[6]

seventy miles distant from Sebastopolis, and then the Achi,[7]

the Mardi,[8] and the Cercet,[9] and, behind them, the Cerri and

the Cephalotomi.[10] In the innermost part[11] of this district

there was Pityus,[12] a city of very considerable opulence, but







destroyed by the Heniochi: behind it are the Epagerit, a

people of Sarmatian origin, dwelling upon the range of the

Caucasus, and beyond them, the Sauromat. It was with

these people that Mithridates[13] took refuge in the reign of the

Emperor Claudius: and from him we learn that the Thalli[14]

join up to them, a people who border on the eastern side upon

the mouth[15] of the Caspian sea: he tells us also that at the

reflux the channel is dry there. Upon the coast of the

Euxine, near the country of the Cercet, is the river Icarusa,[16]

with the town and river of Hierus , distant from Heracleium

one hundred and thirty-six miles. Next to this, is the promontory of Cruni, after passing which, we find the Toret upon

a lofty ridge of mountains. The city of Sindos[17] is distant

from Hierus sixty-seven miles and a half; after passing which,

we come to the river Setheries. (6.) From thence to the entrance of the Cimmerian Bosporus the distance is eighty-eight

miles and a half.







1. 16 Inhabited anciently by the Coli, and constituting the northern portion of ancient Colchis.

2. In B. v. c. 27.

3. Or nation "with the black cloaks," from some peculiarity in their

dress.

4. This was the great trading-place of the wild tribes in the interior;

and so numerous were they, that the Greeks asserted that there were seventy

different languages spoken in the market of Dioscurias.

5. Whence the appellation Heniochi, from the Greek h(nioxo\s.

6. There were two places called Heracleium on this coast, one north and the other south of the river Achus: probably the latter is here meant.

7. Probably meaning the "martial people," or the "people of Mars."

8. Said to have been descended from the Achns or Greeks who accompanied Jason in the Argonautic Expedition, or, according to Ammianus, who resorted thither after the conclusion of the Trojan war.

9. This was the title, not of a single nation, but of a number of peoples distinguished for their predatory habits.

10. This people occupied the N.E. shore of the Euxine, between the Cimmerian Bosporus and the frontier of Colchis. Their name is still in existence, and is applied to the whole western district of the Caucasus, in the forms of Tcherkas, as applied to the people, and Tcherkeskaia or Circassia, to the country.

11. Meaning, nearly in the extreme corner of Pontus.



12. In the time of Strabo this was a considerable sea-port, and after its destruction by the Heniochi, it was restored, and served as an important

frontier fortress of the Roman empire against the Scythians.

13. This was Mithridates, king of Bosporus, which sovereignty he obtained by the favour of the emperor Claudius, in A.D. 41. The circumstances are unknown which led to his subsequent expulsion by the Romans, who placed his younger brother Cotys on the throne in his stead.

14. Hardouin thinks that the Thalli inhabited the present country of Astrakan.

15. It was the ancient opinion, to which we shall find frequent reference made in the present Book, that the northern portion of the Caspian communicated with the Scythian or Septentrional ocean.

16. Mentioned only by Pliny. It is supposed to answer to the present Ukrash river; and the town and river of Hierus are probably identical with the Hieros Portus of Arrian, which has been identified with the modern Sunjuk-Kala.

17. Inhabited by the Sindi, a people of Asiatic Sarmatia. They probably dwelt in and about the modern peninsula of Taman, between the Sea of Azof and the Black Sea, to the south of the river Hypanis, the modern Kouban. The site of their capital, Sindos, or Sinda, is supposed to have been the modern Anapa. Parisot conjectures that this place was one of the ancient settlements of the Zigeunes, the modern Bohemians or Gypsies. He seems to found his opinion upon some observations of Malte Brun (Prcis de Geographie, vol. vi.) upon the origin of the Gypsy race, which will amply repay the perusal.




6. Chap. 6.-The Cimmerian Bosporus.


CHAP. 6.-THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS.



The length of the peninsula[1] which projects between the







Euxine and Lake Motis, is not more than sixty-seven

miles and a half, and the width across never less than two

jugera:[2] it has the name of Eion.[3] The shores of the Bosporus then take a curve both on the side of Europe and of

Asia, thus forming the Motis. The towns at the entrance of

the Bosporus are, first Hermonassa,[4] next Cepi,[5] founded by

the Milesians, and then Stratoclia and Phanagoria,[6] and the

almost deserted town of Apaturos,[7] and, at the extremity of

the mouth, Cimmerium,[8] which was formerly called Cerberion.

(7.) We then come to Lake Motis, which has been already

mentioned[9] in the description of Europe.







1. The peninsula on which Taman or Timoutarakan is situate.

2. The jugerum was 100 Grecian or 104 Roman feet in length.



3. Signifying in Greek the "sea-shore."

4. Lying between Singa and Phanagoria. Rennell fixes it at the opening of the lake into which the Kouban flows.

5. Or the "gardens," from the Greek kh=poi. A town of the Cimmerian Bosporus, founded by the Milesians. Dr. Clarke identifies the modern Sienna with it, and the curious Milesian sculptures found there confirm the supposition.

6. Its ruins are supposed to be those near Taman, on the eastern side of the Straits of Kaffa. It was the great emporium for all the traffic between the coasts of the Palus Motis and the countries on the south of the Caucasus, and was chosen by the kings of Bosporus as their capital in Asia.

7. A town of the Sind; it possessed, like Phanagoria, a celebrated temple of Aphrodite Apaturos, or Venus "the Deceiver," whence probably its name.

8. Clarke identifies it with the modern Temruk, but Forbiger with

Eskikrimm.

9. See B. iv. c. 24.




7. Chap. 7.-Lake Mieotis And The Adjoining Nations.


CHAP. 7.-LAKE MIEOTIS AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.



After passing Cimmerium, the coast[1] is inhabited by the

Motici, the Vali, the Serbi,[2] the Arrechi, the Zingi, and the

Psessi. We then come to the river Tanais,[3] which discharges







itself into the sea by two mouths, and the banks of which are

inhabited by the Sarmat, the descendants of the Medi, it is

said, a people divided into numerous tribes. The first of these

are the Sauromat Gyncocratumeni,[4] the husbands of the

Amazons. Next to them are the vaz,[5] the Coit,[6] the Cicimeni, the Messeniani, the Costobocci, the Choatr, the Zig,[7] the Dandarii, the Thyssaget, and the

Iyrc,[8] as far as

certain rugged deserts and densely wooded vallies, beyond which

again are the Arimphi,[9] who extend as far as the Riphan

Mountains.[10] The Scythians call the river Tanais by the name

of Silis, and the Motis the Temarunda, meaning the "mother

of the sea." There is[11] a city also at the mouth of the Ta-







nais. The neighbouring country was inhabited first by the

Carians, then by the Clazomenii and Mones, and after them

by the Panticapenses.[12]



There are some writers who state that there are the following nations dwelling around the Motis, as far as the Ceraunian mountains;[13] at a short distance from the shore, the Napit, and beyond them, the Essedones, who join up to the Colchians, and dwell upon the summits of the mountains: after

these again, the Camac, the Orani, the Autac, the Mazacasi, the Cantioc, the Agamath, the Pici, the Rimosoli,

the Acascomarci, and, upon the ridges of the Caucasus, the

Itacal, the Imadochi, the Rami, the Anclac, the Tydii, the

Carastasei, and the Anthiand. The river Lagos runs from the

Cathan[14] mountains, and into it flows the Opharus. Upon

it are the tribes of the Cauthad, and the Opharit. Next

to these are the rivers Menotharus and Imityes, which flow

from the Cissian mountains, among the peoples called the Acdei,

the Carn, the Oscardei, the Accisi, the Gabri, the Gogari,

and, around the source of the Imityes, the Imityi, and the

Apatri. Some writers say that the Auchet, the Athernei,

and the Asampat, Scythian tribes, have made inroads upon

this territory, and have destroyed the Tanait and the Inapi

to a man. Others again represent the Ocharius as running

through the Cantici and the Sapi, and the Tanais as passing

through the territories of the Sarcharcei, the Herticei, the

Spondolici, the Synhiet, the Anasi, the Issi, the Catet, the

Tagor, the Caroni, the Neripi, the Agandei, the Mandarei,

the Satarchei, and the Spalei.







1. That lying on the east of the Sea of Azof. It seems impossible to identify the spot inhabited by each of these savage tribes. Hardouin says that the modern name of that inhabited by the Motici is Coumania.

2. Parisot suggests that this tribe afterwards emigrated to the west, and after establishing themselves in Macedonia, finally gave its name to modern Servia. He remarks, that most of these names appear to have been greatly mutilated, through the ignorance or carelessness of the transcribers, no two of the manuscripts agreeing as to the mode in which they should be spelt.

3. Or Don. It flows into the Sea of Azof by two larger mouths and several smaller ones. Strabo says that the distance between the two larger

mouths is sixty stadia. several smaller ones. Strabo says that the distance between the two larger mouths is sixty stadia.

4. From the Greek gunaikokratoumenoi\, "ruled over by women." It is

not improbable that this name was given by some geographer to these Sarmatian tribes on finding them, at the period of his visit, in subjection to the

rule of a queen. Parisot remarks, that this passage affords an instance of

the little care bestowed by Pliny upon procuring the best and most correct

information, for that the Roman writers had long repudiated the use of the

term "Sauromat." He also takes Pliny to task for his allusion to these

tribes as coupling with the Amazons, the existence of such a people being

in his time generally disbelieved.

5. Hardouin suggests from eu(a/zw, "to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus."

6. Perhaps from koi/tn, a "den" or "cavern," their habitation.

7. Parisot suggests that they may have been a Caucasian or Circassian

tribe, because in the Circassian language the word zig has the meaning of "man." He also suggests that they were probably a distinct race from the Zingi previously mentioned, whom he identifies with the ancestors of the Zingari or Bohemians, the modern Gypsies.

8. The more common reading is "Ture" a tribe also mentioned by Mela, and which gave name to modern Turkistan.

9. The Argippi of Herodotus and other ancient authors. These people were bald, flat-nosed, and long-chinned. They are again mentioned by Pliny in C. 14, who calls them a race not unlike the Hyperborei, and then, like Mela, abridges the description given by Herodotus. By different writers these people have been identified with the Chinese, the Brahmins or Lamas, and the Calmucks. The last is thought to be the most probable opinion, or else that the description of Herodotus, borrowed by other writers, may be applied to the Mongols in general. The mountains, at the foot of which they have been placed, are identified with either the Ural, the western extremity of the Altai chain, or the eastern part of the Altai.

10. Generally regarded as the western branch of the Ural Mountains.

11. The former editions mostly have "there was," implying that in the time of Pliny it no longer existed. The name of this place was Tanais; its ruins are still to be seen in the vicinity of Kassatchei. It was founded by a colony from Miletus, and became a flourishing seat of trade. The

modern town of Azof is supposed to occupy nearly its site.

12. The people of Panticapum, on the opposite side of the Palus Motis, occupying the site of the present Kertch. It was founded by the Milesians B.C. 541, and took its name from the neighbouring river Panticapes.

13. The Ceraunian mountains were a range belonging to the Caucasian chain, and situate at its eastern extremity; the relation of this range to the chain has been variously stated by the different writers.

14. He may possibly allude to a range of mountains in the Punjaub and the vicinity of the modern Lahore, by his reference to the Cathei, who are supposed to have been the ancient inhabitants of that district. The localities of the various races here mentioned are involved in great obscurity.




8. Chap. 8. (8.)-The Situation Of Cappadocia.


CHAP. 8. (8.)-THE SITUATION OF CAPPADOCIA.



We have now gone over the coast which borders upon the







Inner[1] Sea, and have enumerated the various nations that dwell

thereon; let us now turn to those vast tracts of land which lie

further in the interior. I do not deny that in my description

I shall differ very materially from the ancient writers, but still

it is one that has been compiled with the most anxious research,

from a full examination into the events which have transpired

of late in these countries under the command of Domitius

Corbulo,[2] and from information received either from kings

who have been sent thence to Rome, as suppliants for our

mercy, or else the sons of kings who have visited us in the

character of hostages.



We will begin then with the nation of the Cappadocians.



Of all the countries of Pontus, this[3] extends the greatest

distance into the interior.[4] On the left[5] it leaves behind the

Lesser and the Greater Armenia, as well as Commagene, and

on the right all the nations of the province of Asia which

we have previously described. Spreading over numerous

peoples, it rises rapidly in elevation in an easterly direction

towards the range of Taurus. Then passing Lycaonia, Pisidia,

and Cilicia, it advances above the district of Antiochia, the

portion of it known as Cataonia extending as far as Cyrrhestica,

which forms part of that district. The length of Asia[6] here

is twelve hundred and fifty miles, its breadth six hundred

and forty.[7]







1. Or Mediterranean.

2. See Vol. i. p. 497.

3. He includes under the term "Cappadocia," the northern part originally called "Cappadocia ad Pontum," and in later times simply Pontus, and the southern part, originally called "Cappadocia ad Taurum," and more recently simply Cappadocia.

4. Running from the shores of the Euxine to the borders of Syria.

5. I. e. on the eastern side.

6. Meaning that part of Asia which we now call Asia Minor.

7. This ill agrees with what he has said in c. 2, that the distance across from Sinope to the Gulf of Issus is but 200 miles.




9. Chap. 9. (9.)-The Lesser And The Greater Armenia.


CHAP. 9. (9.)-THE LESSER AND THE GREATER ARMENIA.



Greater Armenia,[1] beginning at the mountains known as the







Paryadres,[2] is separated, as we have already stated,[3] from

Cappadocia by the river Euphrates, and, where that river turns

off[4] in its course, from Mesopotamia, by the no less famous

river Tigris. Both of these rivers take their rise in Armenia,

which also forms the commencement of Mesopotamia, a tract

of country which lies between these streams; the intervening space between them being occupied by the Arabian

Orei.[5] It thus extends its frontier as far as Adiabene, at

which point it is stopped short by a chain of mountains

which takes a cross direction; whereupon the province extends in width to the left, crossing the course of the Araxes,[6]

as far as the river Cyrus;[7] while in length it reaches as

far as the Lesser Armenia,[8] from which it is separated by

the river Absarus, which flows into the Euxine, and by the

mountains known as the Paryadres, in which the Absarus

takes its rise.







1. Greater Armenia, now known as Erzeroum, Kars, Van, and Erivan, was bounded on the north-east and north by the river Cyrus, or Kur of the present day; on the north-west and west by the Moschian mountains, the prolongation of the chain of the Anti-Taurus, and the Euphrates, or Frat of the present day; and on the south and south-east by the mountains called Masius, Niphates, and Gordii (the prolongation of the Taurus), and the lower course of the Araxes. On the east the country comes to a point at the confluence of the Syrus and Araxes.

2. Now known as the Kara-bel-Dagh, or Kut-Tagh, a mountain chain

running south-west and north-east from the east of Asia Minor into the

centre of Armenia, and forming the chief connecting link between the

Taurus and the mountains of Armenia.

3. In B. v. c. 20.

4. He means, where the river Euphrates runs the farthest to the west.

5. Littr suggests that the reading should be "Aroei."

6. The modern Eraskh or Aras.

7. The modern Kur.

8. This district was bounded on the east by the Euphrates, on the north and north-west by the mountains Scodises, Paryadres, and Anti-Taurus, and on the south by the Taurus.




10. Chap. 10.-The Rivers Cyrus And Araxes.


CHAP. 10.-THE RIVERS CYRUS AND ARAXES.



The river Cyrus[1] takes its rise in the mountains of the

Heniochi, by some writers called the Coraxici; the Araxes rises

in the same mountains as the river Euphrates, at a distance from

it of six miles only;[2] and after being increased by the waters







of the Usis, falls itself, as many authors have supposed, into

the Cyrus, by which it is carried into the Caspian Sea.



The more famous towns in Lesser Armenia are Csarea,[3]

Aza,[4] and Nicopolis;[5] in the Greater Arsamosata,[6] which

lies near the Euphrates, Carcathiocerta[7] upon the Tigris,

Tigranocerta[8] which stands on an elevated site, and, on a

plain adjoining the river Araxes, Artaxata.[9] According to

Aufidius, the circumference of the whole of Armenia is five

thousand miles, while Claudius Csar makes the length, from

Dascusa[10] to the borders of the Caspian Sea, thirteen[11] hundred

miles, and the breadth, from Tigranocerta to Iberia,[12] half that

distance. It is a well-known fact, that this country is divided

into prefectures, called "Strategies," some of which singly

formed a kingdom in former times; they are one hundred







and twenty in number, with barbarous and uncouth names.[13]

On the east, it is bounded, though not immediately, by the

Ceraunian Mountains and the district of Adiabene. The

space that intervenes is occupied by the Sopheni, beyond

whom is the chain of mountains,[14] and then beyond them the

inhabitants of Adiabene. Dwelling in the valleys adjoining

to Armenia are the Menobardi and the Moscheni. The Tigris

and inaccessible mountains surround Adiabene. To the left[15]

of it is the territory of the Medi, and in the distance is seen

the Caspian Sea; which, as we shall state in the proper place,

receives its waters from the ocean,[16] and is wholly surrounded

by the Caucasian Mountains. The inhabitants upon the confines of Armenia shall now be treated of.







1. This river is said by Ammianus to have taken its name from Cyrus.

It appears, however, to have been a not uncommon name of the rivers of

Persia.

2. It is probable that these rivers take their rise near each other, but it

is not improbable that the intervening distance mentioned in the present

passage is much too small.

3. Hardouin thinks that this is Neo-Csarea, mentioned as having been

built on the banks of the Euphrates.

4. Now called Ezaz, according to D'Anville. Parisot suggests that it

ought to be Gaza or Gazaca, probably a colony of Median Gaza, now

Tauris.

5. Originally called Tephrice. It stood on the river Lycus, and not far

from the sources of the Halys, having been founded by Pompey, where he

gained his first victory over Mithridates, whence its name, the "City of

Victory." The modern Enderez or Devrigni, probably marks its site.

6. Ritter places it in Sophene, the modern Kharpat, and considers that

it may be represented by the modern Sert, the Tigranocerta of D'Anville.

7. The capital of Sophene, one of the districts of Armenia. St. Martin

thinks that this was the ancient heathen name of the city of Martyropolis,

but Ritter shows that such cannot be the case. It was called by the

Syrians Kortbest; its present name is Kharput.

8. Generally supposed, by D'Anville and other modern geographers, to

be represented by the ruins seen at Sert. It was the later capital of Armenia,

built by Tigranes.

9. The ancient capital of Armenia. Hannibal, who took refuge at the

court of Artaxias when Antiochus was no longer able to afford him protection, superintended the building of it. Some ruins, called Takt Tiridate,

or Throne of Tiridates, near the junction of the Aras and the Zengue,

were formerly supposed to represent Artaxata, but Colonel Monteith has

fixed the site at a bend in the river lower down, at the bottom of which

were the ruins of a bridge of Greek or Roman architecture.

10. A fortress in Lesser Armenia, upon the Euphrates, seventy-five miles

from Zimara, as mentioned in B. v. c. 20. It has been identified with the

modern ferry and lead mines of Kebban Ma'den, the points where the Kara

Su is joined by the Murad Cha, 270 miles from its source

11. Justin makes it only 1100, and that estimate appears to be several hundreds too much.

12. 81 A country lying to the north of Armenia.

13. We find in Strabo the names of some of them mentioned, such as

Sophene, Acilisene, Gorgodylene, Sacassene, Gorgarene, Phanene, Comisene, Orchestene, Chorsene, Cambysene, Odomantis, &c.

14. The Ceraunian Mountains. Parisot remarks that in this description,

Pliny, notwithstanding his previous professions, does not appear to have

made any very great use of the list drawn up by Corbulo.

15. That is, looking towards the south.

16. The Septentrional Ocean, with which the ancients imagined that the

northern part of the Caspian Sea is connected. See c. 15.




11. Chap. 11. (10.)-Albania, Iberia, And The Adjoining Nations.


CHAP. 11. (10.)-ALBANIA, IBERIA, AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.



The whole plain which extends away from the river Cyrus

is inhabited by the nation of the Albani,[1] and, after them,[2]

by that of the Iberi,[3] who are separated from them by the river

Alazon,[4] which flows into the Cyrus from the Caucasian







chain. The chief cities are Cabalaca,[5] in Albania, Harmastis,[6]

near a river[7] of Iberia, and Neoris; there is the region also

of Thasie, and that of Triare, extending as far as the mountains known as the Paryadres. Beyond these[8] are the deserts

of Colchios, on the side of which that looks towards the Ceraunian Mountains dwell the Armenochalybes;[9] and there is

the country of the Moschi, extending to the river Iberus,

which flows into the Cyrus; below them are the Sacassani,

and after them the Macrones, upon the river Absarus. Such

is the manner in which the plains and low country are parcelled out. Again, after passing the confines of Albania, the

wild tribes of the Silvi inhabit the face of the mountains,

below them those of the Lubieni, and after them the Diduri

and the Sodii.







1. According to Strabo, Albania was bounded on the east by the Caspian,

and on the north by the Caucasus. On the west it joined Iberia, while on

the south it was divided from the Greater Armenia by the river Cyrus.

By later writers, the northern and western boundaries are differently

given. It was found to be the fact that the Albani occupied the country

on both sides of the Caucasus, and accordingly Pliny, in c. 15, carries

the country further north, as far as the river Casius, while in this Chapter

he makes the river Alazon, the modern Alasan, the western boundary towards Iberia. To the west of Albania.

2. To the west of Albania

3. Iberia lay south of the great chain of the Caucasus, forming an extensive tract bounded on the west by Colchis, on the east by Albania, and

on the south by Armenia, and watered by the river Cyrus. It corresponded

very nearly with modern Georgia.

4. The modern Alasan.

5. Now called Kablas-Var, according to Parisot.

6. Parisot says that this can be no other than Harmoza on the river

Cyrus, in the vicinity of the modern Akhalzik.

7. Probably meaning "of the same name."

8. To the west.

9. "The Armenian workers in iron," or "Chalybes of Armenia." See p. 9.




12. Chap. 12. (11.)-The Passes Of The Caucasus.


CHAP. 12. (11.)-THE PASSES OF THE CAUCASUS.



After passing the last, we come to the Gates of Caucasus,[1]

by many persons most erroneously called the Caspian Passes;

a vast work of nature, which has suddenly wrenched asunder

in this place a chain of mountains. At this spot are gates

barred up with beams shod with iron, while beneath the

middle there runs a stream which emits a most fetid odour;

on this side of it is a rock, defended by a fortress, the name of

which is Cumania,[2] erected for the purpose of preventing the

passage of the innumerable tribes that lie beyond. Here, then,

we may see the habitable world severed into two parts by a pair







of gates; they are just opposite to Harmastis, a town of the

Iberi.



Beyond the Gates of Caucasus, in the Gordyan Mountains, the Valli and the Suani, uncivilized tribes, are found;

still, however, they work the mines of gold there. Beyond

these nations, and extending as far away as Pontus, are numerous nations of the Heniochi, and, after them, of the Achi.

Such is the present state of one of the most famous tracts upon

the face of the earth.



Some writers have stated that the distance between the

Euxine and the Caspian Sea is not more than three hundred

and seventy-five miles; Cornelius Nepos makes it only two

hundred and fifty. Within such straits is Asia pent up in this

second instance[3] by the agency of the sea! Claudius Csar

has informed us that from the Cimmerian Bosporus to the

Caspian Sea is a distance of only one hundred and fifty[4] miles,

and that Nicator Seleucus[5] contemplated cutting through this

isthmus just at the time when he was slain by Ptolemy

Ceraunus. It is a well-known fact that the distance from

the Gates of Caucasus to the shores of the Euxine is two

hundred miles.







1. There are two chief passes over the chain of the Caucasus, both of

which were known to the ancients. The first is between the eastern

extremity of its chief north-eastern spur and the Caspian sea, near the

modern Derbend. This was called "Albani," and sometimes, "Caspi

Pylie," the "Albanian" or "Caspian Gates." The other, which was

nearly in the centre of the Caspian range, was called "Caucasi" or

"Sarmatic Pyl," being the same as the modern pass of Dariyel, and

probably the one here referred to.

2. Probably the same as the present fortress of Dariyel.

3. The first instance was that of the narrow isthmus to which the continent of Asia is reduced from Sinope across to the Gulf of Issus, as mentioned in c. 2.

4. The shortest distance across, in a straight line, is in reality little less

than 600 miles.

5. The ancestor of the Seleucid, kings of Syria, treacherously slain by

Ptolemy Ceraunus, brother of Ptolemy Philadelphus.




13. Chap. 13. (12.)-The Islands Of The Euxine.


CHAP. 13. (12.)-THE ISLANDS OF THE EUXINE.



The islands of the Euxine are the Placate or Cyane,[1]

otherwise called Symplegades, and Apollonia, surnamed Thynias,[2] to distinguish it from the island of that name[3] in

Europe; it is four miles in circumference, and one mile

distant from the mainland. Opposite to Pharnacea[4] is Chalceritis, to which the Greeks have given the name of Aria,[5]







and consecrated it to Mars; here, they say, there were birds

that used to attack strangers with blows of their wings.







1. Already mentioned in B. iv. c. 27.

2. Mentioned in c. 44 of the last Book.

3. The one lying at the mouth of the Danube, and mentioned in B. iv.

c. 27.

4. Mentioned in c. 4 of the present Book. See p. 9.

5. Or "Mars' Island," also called Aretias; at this island, in the south of the Euxine, the two queens of the Amazons, Otrere and Antiope, built a

temple in honour of Ares or Mars. It is thought to be the rocky islet

called by the Turks Kerasunt Ada, between three and four miles from

Kerasunt, the ancient Pharnacea.




14. Chap. 14. (13.)-Nations In The Vicinity Of The Scythian Ocean.


CHAP. 14. (13.)-NATIONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE SCYTHIAN OCEAN.



Having now stated all that bears reference to the interior

of Asia, let us cross in imagination the Riphan[1] Mountains,

and traverse the shores of the ocean to the right. On three

sides does this ocean wash the coasts of Asia, as the Scythian

Ocean on the north, the Eastern Ocean on the east, and the

Indian Ocean on the south; and it is again divided into

various names, derived from the numerous gulfs which it

forms, and the nations which dwell upon its shores. A great

part of Asia, however, which lies exposed to the north,

through the noxious effects of those freezing climates, consists of nothing but vast deserts. From the extreme north northeast to the point[2] where the sun rises in the summer, it is

the country of the Scythians. Still further than them, and

beyond[3] the point where north north-east begins, some writers

have placed the Hyperborei, who are said, indeed, by the

majority to be a people of Europe.[4] After passing this point,[5]







the first place that is known is Lytarmis,[6] a promontory of

Celtica, and next to it the river Carambucis,[7] where the chain

of the Riphan Mountains terminates, and with it the extreme

rigour of the climate; here, too, we have heard of a certain

people being situate, called the Arimphi,[8] a race not much

unlike the Hyperborei.[9] Their habitations are the groves, and

the berries their diet; long hair is held to be disgraceful by the

women as well as the men, and they are mild in their manners.

Hence it is that they are reported to be a sacred[10] race, and

are never molested even by the savage tribes which border

upon them, and not only they, but such other persons as well

as may have fled to them for refuge. Beyond these we

come straight to the Scythians, the Cimmerii, the Cisianthi,

the Georgi, and a nation of Amazons.[11]

These last extend

to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea.[12]







1. It is difficult to say what chain of mountains, if indeed any in particular,

he would designate by this name. Parisot remarks that these mountains

would seem to belong rather to the region of poetry and fable than of fact,

and states that it is pretty clear that the Balkan chain, the districts in

which the Danube takes its rise, the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Hercynian

mountains, and even the chain of Taurus and Caucasus, have at different

times been described or mentioned under the name of Riphan Mountains.

It was evidently Pliny's belief that the great Northern or Scythian Ocean

skirted the northern shores of Asia, a little above the latitude perhaps

of the northern extremity of the Caspian. In B. iv. c. 26, we find him

crossing these, perhaps imaginary, mountains, and then proceeding to the

left, along, as he supposes, the extreme northern shores of Europe; here

he seems to start from the same point, but turns to the right, and proceeds

along the northern, eastern, and southern shores of Asia.

2. North-east.

3. I. e. more to the west.

4. See B. iv. c. 26.

5. The extremity of the supposed shores of the Hyperborei

6. D'Anville supposes that he means the headland called Cande-Noss or

Kanin-Noss, in the White Sea. Parisot, who thinks that Pliny had no

idea of the regions which lie in those high latitudes, supposes that he

refers to Domnes-Ness in the Baltic, and that by the Carambucis he means

the river Niemen.

7. Ansart thinks that he means the Dwina, which falls into the Gulf of

Archangel.

8. Previously mentioned in c. 7.

9. For a full description of them, see B. iv. c. 26.

10. See the Note to c. 7, p. 15. This description is borrowed from that

given by Herodotus. Their sacred character has been explained as referring to the class or caste of priests among this Eastern people, whoever

they may have been.

11. Ansart thinks that the Cicianthi, the Georgi, and the Amazons, inhabited the modern governments of Archangel and Vologda. It seems

almost akin to rashness to hazard a conjecture.

12. It has been already stated that the Caspian Sea was, in one portion

of it, so called, and in another the Hyrcanian Sea .




15. Chap. 15.-The Caspian And Hyrcanian Sea.


CHAP. 15.-THE CASPIAN AND HYRCANIAN SEA.



Bursting through, this sea makes a passage from the Scythian

Ocean into the back of Asia,[1] receiving various names from the







nations which dwell upon its banks, the two most famous of which

are the Caspian and the Hyrcanian races. Clitarchus is of

opinion that the Caspian Sea is not less in area than the Euxine. Eratosthenes gives the measure of it on the south-east,

along the coast of Cadusia[2] and Albania, as five thousand four

hundred stadia; thence, through the territories of the Anariaci,

the Amardi, and the Hyrcani, to the mouth of the river Zonus

he makes four thousand eight hundred stadia, and thence to the

mouth of the Jaxartes[3] two thousand four hundred; which makes

in all a distance of one thousand five hundred and seventy-five

miles. Artemidorus, however, makes this sum smaller by twenty-five miles. Agrippa bounds the Caspian Sea and the nations

around it, including Armenia, on the east by the Ocean of the

Seres,[4] on the west by the chain of the Caucasus, on the south

by that of Taurus, and on the north by the Scythian Ocean; and

he states it, so far as its extent is known, to be four hundred

and eighty miles in length, and two hundred and ninety in

breadth. There are not wanting, however, some authors who

state that its whole circumference, from the Straits,[5] is two

thousand five hundred miles.



Its waters make their way into this sea by a very narrow

mouth,[6] but of considerable length; and where it begins to

enlarge, it curves obliquely with horns in the form of a crescent, just as though it would make a descent from its mouth

into Lake Motis, resembling a sickle in shape, as M. Varro

says. The first[7] of its gulfs is called the Scythian Gulf;

it is inhabited on both sides, by the Scythians, who hold communication with each other across the Straits,[8] the Nomades

being on one side, together with the Sauromat, divided into







tribes with numerous names, and on the other, the Abzo, who

are also divided into an equal number. At the entrance, on

the right hand side,[9] dwell the Udini, a Scythian tribe, at the

very angle of the mouth. Then along[10] the coast there are the

Albani, the descendants of Jason, it is said; that part of the sea

which lies in front of them, bears the name of ' Albanian.' This

nation, which lies along the Caucasian chain, comes down, as

we have previously stated,[11] as far as the river Cyrus, which

forms the boundary of Armenia and Iberia. Above the maritime coast of Albania and the nation of the Udini, the Sarmat,

the Utidorsi, and the Aroteres stretch along its shores, and in

their rear the Sauromatian Amazons, already spoken of[12]



The rivers which run through Albania in their course to the

sea are the Casius[13] and the Albanus,[14] and then the Cambyses,[15]

which rises in the Caucasian mountains, and next to it the

Cyrus, rising in those of the Coraxici, as already mentioned.[16] Agrippa states that the whole of this coast, inaccessible from rocks of an immense height, is four hundred and

twenty-five miles in length, beginning from the river Casius.

After we pass the mouth of the Cyrus, it begins to be called

the 'Caspian Sea;' the Caspii being a people who dwell upon

its shores.



In this place it may be as well to correct an error into which

many persons have fallen, and even those who lately took part

with Corbulo in the Armenian war. The Gates of Iberia,

which we have mentioned[17] as the Caucasian, they have

spoken of as being called the 'Caspian,' and the coloured

plans which have been sent from those parts to Rome have

that name written upon them. The menaced expedition,

too, that was contemplated by the Emperor Nero, was said

to be designed to extend as far as the Caspian Gates, where-







as it was really intended for those which lead through

Iberia into the territory of the Sarmat; there being hardly

any possibility of approach to the Caspian Sea, by reason of the

close juxtaposition of the mountains there. There are, however, other Caspian Gates, which join up to the Caspian tribes;

but these can only be distinguished from a perusal of the narrative of those who took part in the expedition of Alexander the

Great.







1. His meaning is, that the Scythian ocean communicates on the northern

shores of Asia with the Caspian Sea. Hardouin remarks, that Patrocles,

the commander of the Macedonian fleet, was the first to promulgate this

notion, he having taken the mouth of the river Volga for a narrow passage,

by means of which the Scythian or Northern Ocean made its way into the

Caspian Sea.

2. The country of the Cadusii, in the mountainous district of Media

Atropatene, on the south-west shores of the Caspian Sea, between the parallels of 390 and 370 north latitude. This district probably corresponds

with the modern district of Gilan.

3. Now the Syr-Daria or Yellow River, and watering the barren steppes

of the Kirghiz-Cossacks. It really discharges itself into the Sea of Aral,

and not the Caspian.

4. The supposed Eastern Ocean of the ancients.

5. The imaginary passage by which it was supposed to communicate with

the Scythian Ocean.

6. This being in reality the mouth of the Rha or Volga, as mentioned

in Note 18, p. 24.

7. On the eastern side.

8. Across the mouths of the Volga.

9. On a promontory, on the right or eastern side of the mouth of the

river Volga.

10. He here means the western shores of the Caspian, after leaving the

mouth of the Volga.

11. In c. 11.

12. See the end of c. 14.

13. The Csius of Ptolemy, and the Koisou of modern times.

14. Probably the modern river Samour.

15. It is difficult to determine the exact locality of this river, but it would

seem to have been near the Amardus, the modern Sefid-Rd.

16. In c. 10.

17. See the beginning of c. 12, and the Note, p. 21.




16. Chap. 16.-Adiabene.


CHAP. 16.-ADIABENE.



The kingdom of the Persians, by which we now understand

that of Parthia, is elevated upon the Caucasian chain between

two seas, the Persian and the Hyrcanian. To the Greater

Armenia, which in the front slopes towards Commagene, is

joined Sophene, which lies upon the descent[1] on both sides

thereof, and next to it is Adiabene, the most advanced frontier

of Assyria; a part of which is Arbelitis,[2] He alludes to the town of Arbela, where, as it is generally said, the

army of Darius was defeated by Alexander the Great; by which engage-

ment the conflict was terminated. It was the fact, however, that Darius

left his baggage and treasures at Arbela, while the battle really took place

near the village of Gaugamela, about twenty miles to the north-west of

Arbela. This place still retains its name of Arbil, where Alexander con-

quered Darius, and which joins up to Syria. The whole of this

country was called Mygdonia by the Macedonians, on account of

the resemblance it bore to Mygdonia[3] in Europe. Its cities are

Alexandria,[4] and Antiochia, also called Nisibis;[5] this last

place is distant from Artaxata seven hundred and fifty miles.

There was also in former times Ninus,[6] a most renowned city,

on the banks of the Tigris, with an aspect towards the west.

Adjoining the other front of Greater Armenia, which runs

down towards the Caspian Sea, we find Atropatene,[7] which







is separated from Otene, a region of Armenia, by the river

Araxes; Gaz[8] is its chief city, distant from Artaxata four

hundred and fifty miles, and the same from Ecbatana in Media,

to which country Atropatene belongs.







1. 35 See c. 10.

2. He alludes to the town of Arbela, where, as it is generally said, the

army of Darius was defeated by Alexander the Great; by which engage-

ment the conflict was terminated. It was the fact, however, that Darius

left his baggage and treasures at Arbela, while the battle really took place

near the village of Gaugamela, about twenty miles to the north-west of

Arbela. This place still retains its name of Arbil.

3. A district in the east of Macedonia, bordering on the Thermaic gulf

and the Chalcidic peninsula.

4. Nothing is known of this place. Hardouin suggests that it may have

been built on the spot where Alexander defeated Darius.

5. Also known as Antiochia Mygdoni, the capital of Mygdonia. Its

ruins are still to be seen near a place called Nisibin. It stood on the river

Mygdonius, now the Nahral Huali.

6. Or Nineveh, the capital of the great Assyrian monarchy, destroyed

by the Medes and Babylonians about B.C. 606.

7. There is great difficulty in ascertaining, from the accounts given by

the ancient writers, the exact limits of this district, but it is supposed to have included a considerable portion of the province now known by the

name of Azerbaijan. It derived its name from Atropates or Atropes, who

was governor of this district under the last Darius.

8. Most probably the place now known as Gaza, the royal residence of

the Parthian kings, and, as its name would imply, their treasure city.

Colonel Rawlinson thinks that this place underwent many changes of name

according to the rulers who successively occupied it; among other names, it

appears to have borne that of Ecbatana.




17. Chap. 17. (14.)-Media And The Caspian Gates.


CHAP. 17. (14.)-MEDIA AND THE CASPIAN GATES.



Ecbatana,[1] the capital of Media, was built[2] by king Seleucus,

at a distance from Great Seleucia of seven hundred and fifty

miles, and twenty miles from the Caspian Gates. The remaining towns of the Medians are Phazaca, Aganzaga, and

Apamea,[3] surnamed Rhagiane. The reason of these passes

receiving the name of "Gates," is the same that has been

stated above.[4] The chain of mountains is suddenly broken by

a passage of such extreme narrowness that, for a distance of

eight miles, a single chariot can barely find room to move along:

the whole of this pass has been formed by artificial means.

Both on the right hand and the left are overhanging rocks,

which look as though they had been exposed to the action of

fire; and there is a tract of country, quite destitute of water,







twenty-eight miles in extent. This narrow pass, too, is rendered still more difficult by a liquid salt which oozes from the

rocks, and uniting in a single stream, makes its way along the

pass. Besides this, it is frequented by such multitudes of

serpents, that the passage is quite impracticable except in

winter.



(15.) Joining up to Adiabene are the people formerly known

as the 'Carduchi,' now the Cordueni,[5] in front of whom the

river Tigris flows: and next to them are the Pratit, entitled

the Par Odon,[6] who hold possession of the Caspian Gates.[7]

On the other side[8] of these gates we come to the deserts[9] of

Parthia and the mountain chain of Cithenus; and after that,

the most pleasant locality of all Parthia, Choara[10] by name.

Here were two cities of the Parthians, built in former times for

their protection against the people of Media, Calliope,[11] and

Issatis, the last of which stood formerly[12] on a rock. Hecatompylos,[13] the capital of Parthia, is distant from the Caspian

Gates one hundred and thirty-three miles. In such an effectual

manner is the kingdom of Parthia shut out by these passes.

After leaving these gates we find the nation of the Caspii, extending as far as the shores of the Caspian, a race which has

given its name to these gates as well as to the sea: on the left







there is a mountainous district. Turning back[14] from this

nation to the river Cyrus, the distance is said to be two hundred and twenty miles; but if we go from that river as far

down as the Caspian Gates, the distance is seven hundreds[15]

miles. In the itineraries of Alexander the Great these gates

were made the central or turning point in his expeditions;

the distance from the Caspian Gates to the frontier of India

being there set down as fifteen thousand six hundred and

eighty[16] stadia, to the city of Bactra,[17] commonly called Zariaspa, three thousand seven hundred, and thence to the river

Jaxartes[18] five thousand stadia.







1. A city of great magnitude, pleasantly situate near the foot of Mount

Orontes, in the northern part of Greater Media. Its original foundation

was attributed by Diodorus Siculus to Semiramis, and by Herodotus to

Deioces. It was the capital of the Median kingdom, and afterwards the

summer residence of the Persian and Parthian kings. The genuine orthography of the name seems to be Agbatana. The ruins seen at the modern

Hamadan are generally supposed to represent those of the ancient Ecbatana; but it is most probable that at different times, if not contemporaneously, there were several cities of this name in Media.

2. Pliny in this statement, as also in the distances which he here assigns

to Ecbatana, is supposed to have confounded Ecbatana with Europus, now

Veramin, rebuilt by Seleucus Nicator.

3. This was a city in the vicinity of Rhag, which was distant about

500 stadia from the Caspian Gates. It was built by the Greeks after the

Macedonian conquest of Asia. The other places here mentioned do not

appear to have been identified.

4. See the beginning of c. 12, p. 21.

5. This was the name of the wild tribes which occupied the high mountainous district between the great upland of Persia and the low plains of

Mesopotamia. In addition to the name mentioned by Pliny, they were

called Gordy, Cardaces, and Curtii. The present Kurds, inhabiting Kurdistan, are supposed to be descended from them.

6. The Greek par' o(do\n, "on the road"-meaning, probably, to the

Caspian Gates. Hardouin says that the Pratit were so called from the

Greek prati=tai, "merchants."

7. Although dwelling at a considerable distance, the custody of these

gates was delivered to them, Hardouin says, by the kings of Media.

8. To the south-east of them.

9. Mentioned in c. 29 of the present Book.

10. Or Choarene.

11. Its site is unknown; but it is mentioned by Appian as one of the

many towns erected by Seleucus.

12. By the use of the word "quondam," he implies that in his time it

was in ruins.

13. A place of considerable importance, which seems to have derived its

name from its "hundred gates." It was one of the capitals of the Arsacidan princes; but, extensive though it may have been, there is great

doubt where it was situate, the distance recorded by ancient writers not

corresponding with any known ruins.

14. In a northern direction, along the western shores of the Caspian.

15. According to Hardouin, Eratosthenes, as quoted by Strabo, makes

the distance 5060 stadia, or about 633 miles. He has, however, mistranslated the passage, which gives 5600 stadia, or 700 miles exactly,

as stated by Pliny.

16. Or 1960 miles.

17. Bactra, Bactrum, or Bactrium, was one of the chief cities, if not the

capital, of the province of Bactriana. It was one of the most ancient

cities in the world, and the modern Balkh is generally supposed to occupy

its site. Strabo, as well as Pliny, evidently considers that Bactra and

Zareispa were the same place, while Appian distinguishes between the

two, though he does not clearly state their relative positions.

18. The modern Syr-Daria, mentioned in c. 15. See p. 25.




18. Chap. 18. (16.)-Nations Situate Around The Hyrcanian Sea.


CHAP. 18. (16.)-NATIONS SITUATE AROUND THE HYRCANIAN SEA.



Lying to the east of the Caspii is the region known as Apavortene,[1] in which there is a place noted for its singular fertility, called Dareium.[2] We then come to the nations of the

Tapyri,[3] the Anariaci, the Staures, and the Hyrcani, past

whose shores and beyond the river Sideris[4] the Caspian begins

to take the name of the 'Hyrcanian' Sea: on this side of

that stream are also the rivers Maxeras and Strato: all of

them take their rise in the Caucasian chain. Next comes







the district of Margiane,[5] so remarkable for its sunny climate.

It is the only spot in all these regions that produces the vine,

being shut in on every side by verdant and refreshing hills.

This district is fifteen hundred stadia in circumference, but is

rendered remarkably difficult of access by sandy deserts, which

extend a distance of one hundred and twenty miles: it lies

opposite to the country of Parthia, and in it Alexander founded

the city of Alexandria. This place having been destroyed

by the barbarians, Antiochus,[6] the son of Seleucus, rebuilt it

on the same site as a Syrian city.[7] For, seeing that it was

watered by the Margus,[8] which passes through it, and is afterwards divided into a number of streams for the irrigation of

the district of Zothale, he restored it, but preferred giving

it the name of Antiochia.[9] The circumference of this city is

seventy stadia: it was to this place that Orodes conducted such

of the Romans as had survived the defeat of Crassus. From

the mountain heights of this district, along the range of

Caucasus, the savage race of the Mardi, a free people, extends

as far as the Bactri.[10] Below the district inhabited by them,

we find the nations of the Orciani, the Commori, the Berdrig,

the Harmatotropi,[11] the Citomar, the Comani, the Maruci,

and the Mandruani. The rivers here are the Mandrus and the

Chindrus.[12] Beyond the nations already mentioned, are the







Chorasmii,[13] the Candari,[14] the Attasini, the Paricani, the

Sarang, the Marotiani, the Aorsi,[15] the Gali, by the Greek

writers called Cadusii,[16] the Matiani, the city of Heraclea,[17]

which was founded by Alexander, but was afterwards destroyed, and rebuilt by Antiochus, and by him called Achas; the

Derbices also,[18] through the middle of whose territory the river

Oxus[19] runs, after rising in Lake Oxus,[20] the Syrmat, the Oxydrac, the Heniochi, the Bateni, the Sarapar, and the Bactri,

whose chief city is Zariaspe, which afterwards received the name

of Bactra, from the river[21] there. This last nation lies at the







back of Mount Paropanisus,[22] over against the sources of the

river Indus, and is bounded by the river Ochus.[23] Beyond it

are the Sogdiani,[24] the town of Panda, and, at the very extremity

of their territory, Alexandria,[25] founded by Alexander the

Great. At this spot are the altars which were raised by Hercules and Father Liber, as also by Cyrus, Semiramis, and

Alexander; for the expeditions of all these conquerors stopped

short at this region, bounded as it is by the river Jaxartes,

by the Scythians known as the Silis, and by Alexander and

his officers supposed to have been the Tanais. This river was

crossed by Demodamas, a general of kings Seleucus and Antiochus, and whose account more particularly we have here

followed. He also consecrated certain altars here to Apollo

Didymus.[26]







1. By some writers called Apavareticene, in the south-eastern part of

Parthia. Ansart says that it is now known as Asterabad and Ghilan.

2. Or Dara. A strongly fortified place, built by Arsaces I., and situate

on the mountains of the Zapaorteni.

3. According to Ansart, the district now known as Tabaristan, or

Mazanderan, derives the first of those names from the Tapyri.

4. D'Anville remarks that this river still retains its "starry" name,

being the modern Aster or Ester, on which Asterabad is situate.

5. This district occupied the southern part of modern Khiva, the southwestern part of Bokhara, and the north-eastern part of Khorassan. This

province of the ancient Persian empire received its name from the river

Margus, now the Moorghab. It first became known to the Greeks by

the expeditions of Alexander and Antiochus I.

6. Antiochus Soter, the son of Seleucus Nicator.

7. The meaning of this, which has caused great diversity of opinion

among the Commentators, seems to be, that on rebuilding it, he preferred

giving it a name borne by several cities in Syria, and given to them in

honour of kings of that country. To this he appears to have been

prompted by a supposed resemblance which its site on the Margus bore to

that of Antiochia on the Orontes.

8. The modern Moorghab; it loses itself in the sands of Khiva.

9. Its remains are supposed to be those of an ancient city, still to be seen

at a spot called Merv, on the river Moorghab.

10. The people of modern Bokhara.

11. This appears to mean the nations of "Chariot horse-breeders."

12. In former editions, called the 'Gridinus.' It is impossible to identify

many of these nations and rivers, as the spelling varies considerably in the

respective MSS.

13. An extensive tribe of Sogdiana, now represented by the district of

Khawarezm, in the desert country of Khiva.

14. A tribe in the north-western part of Sogdiana. They appear to have

been situate to the east of the district of Khawarezm. It has been suggested that they derived their name from the Sanscrit Gandharas, a tribe

beyond the Indus.

15. The chief seat of the Aorsi, who appear to have been a numerous

and powerful people both of Europe and Asia, was in the country

between the Tanais, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the Caucasus. It seems

doubtful, however, whether it is these people who are alluded to in the

present passage.

16. These would almost seem to be a different people from those mentioned in c. 15 of the present Book, as dwelling in Atropatene. The present

appears to have been a tribe of Sogdiana.

17. Strabo mentions a town of this name, which he places, together with

Apamea, in the direction of Rhag. If Pliny has observed anything

like order in his recital of nations and places, the Heraclea here mentioned

cannot be that spoken of by Strabo, but must have been distant nearly

1000 miles from it.

18. This was a tribe, apparently of Scythian origin, settled in Margiana,

on the left bank of the Oxus. Strabo says that they worshipped the

earth, and forbore to sacrifice or slay any female; but that they put to

death their fellow-creatures as soon as they had passed their seventieth

year, it being the privilege of the next of kin to eat the flesh of the deceased person. The aged women, however, they used to strangle, and

then consign them to the earth.

19. The modern Jihoun or Amou. It now flows into the Sea of Aral,

but the ancients universally speak of it as running into the Caspian; and

there are still existing distinct traces of a channel extending in a southwesterly direction from the sea of Aral to the Caspian, by which at least a

portion, and probably the whole of the waters of the Oxus found their way.

into the Caspian; and not improbably the Sea of Aral itself was connected

with the Caspian by this channel.

20. Most probably under this name he means the Sea of Aral.

21. The Bactrus. This river is supposed to be represented by the modern

Dakash. Hardouin says that Ptolemy, B. vi. c. 11, calls this river the

Zariaspis, or Zariaspes. See the Note at the end of c, 17, p. 30.

22. Now known as the Hindoo-Koosh; a part of the great mountainchain which runs from west to east through the centre of the southern

portion of the highlands of Central Asia, and so divides the part of the

continent which slopes down to the Indian ocean from the great central

table-land of Tartary and Thibet. The native term, Hindoo-Koosh, is

only a form of the ancient name "Indicus Caucasus," which was sometimes given to this chain. The ancient name was derived probably from

the Persian word paru,a "mountain."

23. Flowing from the north side of the Paropanisus. According to Pliny

and Ptolemy, this river flowed through Bactria into the Oxus; but ac-

cording to Strabo, through Iyrcania into the Caspian Sea. Some suppose

it to have been only another name for the Oxus. Ansart suggests that it

may have been the river now known as the Bash.

24. D'Anville says that there is still the valley of Al Sogd, in Tartary,

beyond the Oxus. The district called Sogdiana was probably composed

of parts of modern Turkistan and Bokhara. The site of Panda does not

appear to be known.

25. It was built on the Jaxartes, to mark the furthest point reached by

Alexander in his Scythian expedition. It has been suggested that the

modern Kokend may possibly occupy its site.

26. The "twin," of the same birth with Diana.




19. Chap. 19. (17.)-The Nations Of Scythia And The Countries On The Eastern Ocean.


CHAP. 19. (17.)-THE NATIONS OF SCYTHIA AND THE COUNTRIES ON THE EASTERN OCEAN.



Beyond this river are the peoples of Scythia. The Persians

have called them by the general name of Sac,[1] which properly







belongs to only the nearest nation of them. The more ancient

writers give them the name of Aramii. The Scythians themselves give the name of "Chorsari" to the Persians, and they call

Mount Caucasus Graucasis, which means "white with snow."

The multitude of these Scythian nations is quite innumerable:

in their life and habits they much resemble the people of Parthia.

The tribes among them that are better known are the Sac, the

Massaget,[2] the Dah,[3] the Essedones,[4] the Ariac,[5] the

Rhymmici, the Psici, the Amardi,[6] the Histi, the Edones, the

Came, the Camac, the Euchat,[7] the Cotieri, the Anthusiani,

the Psac, the Arimaspi,[8] the Antacati, the Chroasai, and the







tei; among them the Napi[9] are said to have been destroyed

by the Pali. The rivers in their country that are the best

known, are the Mandragus and the Carpasus. Indeed upon

no subject that I know of are there greater discrepancies among

writers, from the circumstance, I suppose, of these nations

being so extremely numerous, and of such migratory habits.

Alexander the Great has left it stated that the water of this

sea[10] is fresh, and M. Varro informs us, that some of it, of a

similar character, was brought to Pompey, when holding the

chief command in the Mithridatic war in its vicinity; the salt,[11]

no doubt, being overpowered by the volume of water discharged

by the rivers which flow into it. He adds also, that under the

direction of Pompey, it was ascertained that it is seven days'

journey from India to the river Icarus,[12] in the country of the

Bactri, which discharges itself into the Oxus, and that the

merchandize of India being conveyed from it[13] through the

Caspian Sea into the Cyrus, may be brought by land to Phasis

in Pontus, in five days at most. There are numerous islands

throughout the whole of the Caspian sea: the only one that is

well known is that of Tazata.[14]







1. The Sac probably formed one of the most numerous and most powerful of the Scythian Nomad tribes, and dwelt to the east and north-east

of the Massaget, as far as Servia, in the steppes of Central Asia, which are now peopled by the Kirghiz Cossacks, in whose name that of their

ancestors, the Sac, is traced by some geographers.

2. Meaning the "Great Get." They dwelt beyond the Jaxartes and

the Sea of Aral, and their country corresponds to that of the Khirghiz

Tartars in the north of Independent Tartary.

3. The Dah were a numerous and warlike Nomad tribe, who wandered

over the vast steppes lying to the east of the Caspian Sea. Strabo has

grouped them with the Sac and Massaget, as the great Scythian tribes

of Inner Asia, to the north of Bactriana.

4. See also B. iv. c. 20, and B. vi. c. 7. The position of the Essedones,

or perhaps more correctly, the Issedones, may probably be assigned to the

east of Ichim, in the steppes of the central border of the Kirghiz, in the

immediate vicinity of the Arimaspi, who dwelt on the northern declivity

of the Alta chain. A communication is supposed to have been carried on

between these two peoples for the exchange of the gold that was the produce

of those mountain districts.

5. They dwelt, according to Ptolemy, along the southern banks of the

Jaxartes.

6. Or the Mardi, a warlike Asiatic tribe. Stephanus Byzantinus, following Strabo, places the Amardi near the Hyrcani, and adds, "There

are also Persian Mardi, without the a;" and, speaking of the Mardi, he

mentions them as an Hyrcanian tribe, of predatory habits, and skilled in

archery.

7. D'Anville supposes that the Euchat may have dwelt at the modern

Koten, in Little Bukharia. It is suggested, however, by Parisot, that

they may have possibly occupied a valley of the Himalaya, in the midst

of a country known as "Cathai," or the "desert."

8. The first extant notice of them is in Herodotus; but before him there

was the poem of Aristeas of Proconnesus, of which the title was 'Arimaspea;' and it is mainly upon the statements in it that the stories told relative to this people rest-such as their being one-eyed, and as to their stealing

the gold from the Gryphes, or Griffins, under whose custody it was placed.

Their locality is by some supposed to have been on the left bank of the

Middle Volga, in the governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov: a locality which is sufficiently near the gold districts of the Uralian chain

to account for the legends connecting them with the Gryphes, or guardians

of the gold.

9. The former reading was, "The Napi are said to have perished as

well as the Apelli." Sillig has, however, in all probability, restored the

correct one. "Finding," he says, "in the work of Diodorus Siculus,

that two peoples of Scythia were called, from their two kings, who were

brothers, the Napi and the Pali, we have followed close upon the footsteps

of certain MSS. of Pliny, and have come to the conclusion that some

disputes arose between these peoples, which ultimately led to the destruction

of one of them."

10. Of the Caspian Sea.

11. Said on the supposition that it is a bay or gulf of the Scythian or

Septentrional Ocean.

12. Ansart suggests that this is the modern Rocsha.

13. From the Oxus.

14. Ansart suggests that this island is that now called Idak, one of the

Ogurtchinski group.




20. Chap. 20.-The Seres.


CHAP. 20.-THE SERES.



After we have passed the Caspian Sea and the Scythian

Ocean, our course takes an easterly direction, such being the







turn here taken by the line of the coast. The first portion[1]

of these shores, after we pass the Scythian Promontory, is

totally uninhabitable, owing to the snow, and the regions adjoining are uncultivated, in consequence of the savage state

of the nations which dwell there. Here are the abodes of the

Scythian Anthropophagi,[2] who feed on human flesh. Hence

it is that all around them consists of vast deserts, inhabited by

multitudes of wild beasts, which are continually lying in wait,

ready to fall upon human beings just as savage as themselves.

After leaving these, we again come to a nation of the Scythians,

and then again to desert tracts tenanted by wild beasts, until

we reach a chain of mountains which runs up to the sea, and

bears the name of Tabis.[3] It is not, however, before we have

traversed very nearly one half of the coast that looks towards

the north-east, that we find it occupied by inhabitants.



The first people that are known of here are the Seres,[4] so

famous for the wool that is found in their forests.[5] After steeping it in water, they comb off a white down that adheres to the

leaves; and then to the females of our part of the world they

give the twofold task[6] of unravelling their textures, and of weav-







ing the threads afresh. So manifold is the labour, and so distant are the regions which are thus ransacked to supply a dress

through which our ladies may in public display[7] their charms.

The Seres are of inoffensive manners, but, bearing a strong resemblance therein to all savage nations, they shun all intercourse with the rest of mankind, and await the approach[8] of

those who wish to traffic with them. The first river that is

known in their territory is the Psitharas,[9] next to that the

Cambari, and the third the Laros; after which we come to the

Promontory of Chryse,[10] the Gulf of Cynaba, the river Atianos,

and the nation of the Attacori on the gulf of that name, a people

protected by their sunny hills from all noxious blasts, and living

in a climate of the same temperature as that of the Hyperborei. Amometus has written a work entirely devoted to the

history of these people, just as Hecatus has done in his treatise

on the Hyperborei. After the Attacori, we find the nations

of the Phruri and the Tochari, and, in the interior, the Casiri,

a people of India, who look toward the Scythians, and feed







on human flesh. Here are also numerous wandering Nomad

tribes of India. There are some authors who state that in a

north-easterly direction these nations touch upon the Cicones[11]

and the Brysari.







1. This would apply to the north-eastern coasts of Siberia, if Pliny had

had any idea of land situate in such high latitudes; but, on the contrary,

as already remarked, he appears to have supposed that the continent of

Asia terminated a little above the northern extremity of the Caspian. It

would be a loss of time to guess what locality is meant by the Scythian

Promontory.

2. Or "man-eaters."

3. This, it would appear, he looks upon as the extreme north-eastern

point of Asia. Parisot suggests that the word Tabis is allied to the

Mongol Daba, which signifies "mountain;" or else that it may have some

affinity with Thibet."

4. The people of Serica, which country with Ptolemy corresponds to the

north-western part of China, and the adjacent portions of Tibet and Chinese

Tartary. The capital, Sera, is by most supposed to be Singan, on the

Hoang-ho, but by some Peking. Pliny evidently refers to the same people,

and has some notion of the locality of their country.

5. This is generally supposed to bear reference to the cloths exported by

the Seres, as Serica, and corresponding to our silks. On examination, however, it will appear that he rather refers to some textures of cotton, such as

calicos or muslins; it being not unknown to Pliny that silks or bombycina

were the produce of the bombyx or silk-worm; see B. xi. c. 22. The use

of the word "canities" points strongly to cotton as being the substance

meant.

6. Whether it is silk or cotton that is here referred to, Pliny seems in this passage to allude to some peculiarity in the texture, which was perhaps

so close, that when brought to the Western world it was the custom to draw

out a portion of tie threads. In such case it perhaps strongly resembled

the Chinese crapes of the present day. Speaking of Cleopatra in B. x.

141, of the Pharsalia, Lucan says, "Her white breasts are resplendent

through the Sidonian fabric, which, wrought in close texture by the sley

of the Seres, the needle of the workman of the Nile has separated, and has

loosened the warp by stretching out the web."

7. He either refers to dresses consisting of nothing but open work, or

what we may call fine lace, and made from the closely woven material imported from China, or else to the 'Coan vestments' which were so much

worn by the Roman women, especially those of light character, in the

Augustan age. This Coan tissue was remarkable for its extreme transparency. It has been supposed that these dresses were made of silk, as in

the island of Cos silk was spun and woven at an early period, so much so

as to obtain a high celebrity for the manufactures of that island. Seneca,

B. vii. De Benef. severely censures the practice of wearing these thin garments. For further information on this subject, see B. xi. c. 26, 27, and

B. xii. c. 22.

8. Meaning that they do not actively seek intercourse with the rest of

the world, but do not refuse to trade with those who will take the trouble

of resorting to them. This coincides wonderfully with the character of

the Chinese even at the present day.

9. Ptolemy speaks of it as the chordas.

10. The headland of Malacca, in the Aurea Chersonnesns, was also

called by this name, but it is hardly probable that that is the place here

meant.

11. See B. iv. c. 18.




21. Chap. 21.-The Nations Of India.


CHAP. 21.-THE NATIONS OF INDIA.



But we come now to nations as to which there is a more general agreement among writers. Where the chain of Emodus[1]

rises, the nations of India begin, which borders not only on the

Eastern sea, but on the Southern as well, which we have already mentioned[2] as being called the Indian Ocean. That

part which faces the east runs in a straight line a distance of

eighteen hundred and seventy-five miles until it comes to a

bend, at which the Indian Ocean begins. Here it takes a turn

to the south, and continues to run in that direction a distance

of two thousand four hundred and seventy-five miles, according to Eratosthenes, as far as the river Indus, the boundary

of India on the west.[3] Many authors have represented the

entire length of the Indian coast as being forty days' and

nights' sail, and as being, from north to south, two thousand

eight hundred and fifty miles. Agrippa states its length to be

three thousand three hundred miles, and its breadth, two thousand three hundred. Posidonius has given its measurement as

lying from north-east to south-east, placing it opposite to Gaul,

of which country he has given the measurement as lying

from north-west to south-west; making the whole of India

to lie due west of Gaul. Hence, as he has shewn by undoubted proofs, India lying opposite to Gaul must be refreshed







by the blowing of that wind,[4] and derive its salubrity there-

from.



In this region, the appearance of the heavens is totally

changed, and quite different is the rising of the stars; there

are two summers in the year, and two harvests, while the winter

intervenes between them during the time that the Etesian[5]

winds are blowing: during our winter too, they enjoy light

breezes, and their seas are navigable. In this country there are

nations and cities which would be found to be quite innumerable,

if a person should attempt to enumerate them. For it has been

explored not only by the arms of Alexander the Great and of the

kings who succeeded him, by Seleucus and Antiochus, who

sailed round even to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea, and by

Patrocles,[6] the admiral of their fleet, but has been treated of by

several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian

kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius,

who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose:

all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources

of these nations. Still, however, there is no possibility of

being rigorously exact, so different are the accounts given, and

often of a nature so incredible. The followers of Alexander

the Great have stated in their writings, that there were no less

than five thousand cities in that portion of India which they







vanquished by force of arms, not one of which was smaller than

that of Cos;[7] that its nations were eight in number, that India

forms one-third of the whole earth, and that its populations

are innumerable-a thing which is certainly far from improbable, seeing that the Indians are nearly the only race of people

who have never migrated from their own territories. From

the time of Father Liber[8] to that of Alexander the Great, one

hundred and fifty-three kings of India are reckoned, extending

over a period of six thousand four hundred and fifty-one years

and three months. The vast extent of their rivers is quite

marvellous; it is stated that on no one day did Alexander the

Great sail less than six hundred stadia[9] on the Indus, and still

was unable to reach its mouth in less than five months and

some few days: and yet it is a well-known fact that this

river is not so large as the Ganges.[10] Seneca, one of our fellow-countrymen, who has written a treatise[11] upon the subject of

India, has given its rivers as sixty-five in number, and its

nations as one hundred and eighteen. The difficulty too would

be quite as great, if we were to attempt to enumerate its mountains. The chains of Emas, of Emodus, of Paropanisus,

and of Caucasus, are all connected, the one with the other;

and from their foot, the country of India runs down in the

form of a vast plain, bearing a very considerable resemblance to

that of Egypt.



However, that we may come to a better understanding relative to the description of these regions, we will follow in

the track of Alexander the Great. Diognetus and Bton, whose

duty it was to ascertain the distances and length of his

expeditions, have written that from the Caspian Gates to

Hecatompylon, the city of the Parthians, the distance is the

number of miles which we have already[12] stated; and that from

thence to Alexandria,[13] of the Arii, which city was founded by the

same king, the distance is five hundred and seventy-five miles;

from thence to Prophthasia,[14] the city of the Drang, one







hundred and ninety-nine; from thence to the city of the

Arachosii,[15] five hundred and sixty-five; from thence to

Ortospanum,[16] one hundred and seventy-five; and from

thence to the city built by Alexander,[17] fifty, miles. In some

copies, however, the numbers are found differently stated;

and we find this last city even placed at the very foot of

Mount Caucasus! From this place to the river Cophes[18] and

Peucolaitis, a city of India, is two hundred and thirty-seven

miles; from thence to the river Indus and the city of Taxilla[19] sixty; from thence to the famous river Hydaspes[20] one

hundred and twenty; and from thence to the Hypasis,[21] a

river no less famous, two hundred and ninety miles, and three

hundred and ninety paces. This last was the extreme limit

of the expedition of Alexander, though he crossed the river

and dedicated certain altars[22] on the opposite side. The dispatches written by order of that king fully agree with the

distances above stated.



The remaining distances beyond the above point were ascertained on the expedition of Seleucus Nicator. They are,

to the river Sydrus,[23] one hundred and sixty-eight miles; to

the river Jomanes, the same; some copies, however, add







to this last distance five miles; thence to the Ganges, one

hundred and twelve miles; to Rhodapha, five hundred and

sixty-nine-though, according to some writers, this last distance is only three hundred and twenty-five miles; to the town

of Calinipaxa,[24] one hundred and sixty-seven, according to

some, two hundred and sixty-five; thence to the confluence

of the river Jomanes[25] and Ganges, six hundred and twenty-five; most writers, however, add thirteen miles to this last

distance; thence to the city of Palibothra,[26] four hundred and

twenty-five-and thence to the mouth of the Ganges, six hundred and thirty-seven miles and a half.



The nations whom it may be not altogether inopportune to

mention, after passing the Emodian Mountains, a cross range of

which is called "Imaus," a word which, in the language of the

natives, signifies "snowy,"[27] are the Isari, the Cosyri, the Izi,

and, upon the chain of mountains, the Chisiotosagi, with numerous peoples, which have the surname of Brachman,[28]

among whom are the Maccocaling. There are also the

rivers Prinas and Cainas,[29] which last flows into the Ganges,

both of them navigable streams. The nation of the Caling[30]







comes nearest to the sea, and above them are the Mandei and

the Malli.[31] In the territory of the last-named people is a

mountain called Mallus: the boundary of this region is the

river Ganges.







1. The Emodi Montes (so called probably from the Indian hemdri, or

the "golden") are supposed to have formed that portion of the great

lateral branch of the Indian Caucasus, the range of the Himalaya, which

extends along Nepaul, and probably as far as Bhotan.

2. In c. 14 of the present Book.

3. The whole of this passage seems very intricate, and it is difficult to

make sense of it. His meaning, however, is probably this: that the

coast of India, running from extreme north-east to south-east, relatively to

Greece, the country of Eratosthenes, is exactly opposite to the coast of

Gaul, running from extreme north-west to south-west-India thus lying

due west of Gaul, without any intervening land. This, it will be remembered, was the notion of Columbus, when contemplating the possibility of

a western passage to India.

4. This appears also to be somewhat obscure. It is clear that if India

lies to the west of Gaul, it cannot be Pliny's meaning that it is refreshed

by the west wind blowing to it from Gaul. He may possibly mean that

the west wind, which is so refreshing to the west of Europe, and Gaul in

particular, first sweeps over India, and thus becomes productive of that

salubrity which Posidonius seems to have discovered in India, but for

which we look in vain at the present day. Amid, however, such multiplied

chances of a corrupt text, it is impossible to assume any very definite position as to his probable meaning. The French translators offer no assistance in solving the difficulty, and Holland renders it, "This west wind

which from behind Gaul bloweth upon India, is very healthsome," &c.

5. As to the Etesian winds, see 1. ii. c. 48.

6. In the geographical work which Patrocles seems to have published,

he is supposed to have given some account of the countries bordering on the

Caspian Sea, and there is little doubt that, like other writers of that period,

he regarded that sea as a gulf or inlet of the Septentrional Ocean, and probably maintained the possibility of sailing thither by sea from the Indian

Ocean. This statement, however, seems to have been strangely misinterpreted by Pliny in his present assertion, that Patrocles had himself accomplished this circumnavigation.

7. See B. v. c. 36.

8. Or Bacchus.

9. Or seventy-five miles.

10. This is the statement of Arrian.

11. Among the lost works of that philosopher.

12. In c. 17 of the present Book.

13. See c. 25 of the present Book.

14. See c. 25 of the present Book.

15. See c. 25 of the present Book.

16. A town placed by Strabo on the confines of Bactriana, and by Ptolemy

in the county of the Paropanisid.

17. See c. 25 of the present Book.

18. See c. 24 of the present Book.

19. The present Attok, according to D'Anville.

20. One of the principal rivers of that part of India known as the Punjaub. It rises in the north-western Himalayah mountains in Kashmere, and

after flowing nearly south, falls into the Acesines or Chenab. Its present

most usual name is the Jhelum.

21. The most eastern, and most important of the five rivers which water

the country of the Punjaub. Rising in the western Himalaya, it flows in

two principal branches, in a course nearly south-west (under the names respectively of Vipasa and Satadru), which it retains till it falls into the

Indus at Mittimkote. It is best known, however, by its modern name of

Sutlej, probably a corrupt form of the Sanscrit Satadru.

22. See c. 18 of the present Book. The altars there spoken of, as consecrated by Alexander the Great, appear to have been erected in Sogdiana,

whereas those here mentioned were dedicated in the Indian territory.

23. It does not appear that this river has been identified. In most of

the editions it is called Hesidrus; but, as Sillig observes, there was a town

of India, near the Indus, called Sydros, which probably received its name

from this river.

24. It has been suggested that this place is the modern Kanouge, on the

Ganges.

25. The modern Jumna. It must be borne in mind by the reader, that

the numbers given in this Chapter vary considerably in the different MSS.

26. See the next Chapter.

27. The Sanscrit for "snowy" is "himrarat." The name of Emodus,

combined with Imaiis, seems here to be a description of the knot of

mountains formed by the intersections of the Himalaya, the Hindoo Koosh,

and the Bolor range; the latter having been for many ages the boundary

between the empires of China and Turkistan. It is pretty clear, that,

like Ptolemy, Pliny imagined that the Imaiis ran from south to north; but

it seems hardly necessary, in this instance at least, to give to the word

"promontorium" the meaning attached to our word "promontory," and

to suppose that he implies that the range of the Imas runs down to the

verge of the eastern ocean.

28. A name evidently given to numerous tribes of India, from the circumstance that Alexander and his followers found it borne by the Brahmins

or priestly caste of the Hindoos.

29. Still called the Cane, a navigable river of India within the Ganges,

falling into the Ganges, according to Arrian as well as Pliny, though in

reality it falls into the Jumna.

30. The Caling, who are further mentioned in the next Chapter, probably

dwelt in the vicinity of the promontory of Calingon, upon which was the

town of Dandaguda, mentioned in c. 23 of the present Book. This promontory and city are usually identified with those of Calinapatnam, about half-way between the rivers Mahanuddy and Godavery; and the territory

of the Caling seems to correspond pretty nearly to the district of Circars,

lying along the coast of Orissa.

31. By the Malli, Parisot is of opinion that the people of Moultan are

meant.




22. Chap. 22. (18.)-The Ganges.


CHAP. 22. (18.)-THE GANGES.



Some writers have stated that this river, like the Nile,

takes its rise from unknown sources,[1] and, in a similar manner,

waters the neighbouring territory; others, again, say that it rises

in the mountains of Scythia. They state also that nineteen

rivers discharge their waters into it; those among them that

are navigable, besides the rivers already mentioned,[2] are the

Condochates,[3] the Erannoboas,[4] the Cosoagus,[5] and the

Sonus. Other writers again say that it bursts forth at its

very source with a loud noise, hurling itself over rocks and

precipices; and that after it has reached the plains, its waters

become more tranquil, and it pauses for a time in a certain

lake, after which it flows gently on. They say also that it

is eight miles in breadth, where it is the very narrowest, and







one hundred stadia where it is but moderately wide, and

that it is nowhere less than twenty paces in depth. The

last nation situate on the banks of the Ganges is that of the

Gangarides[6] Caling; the city where their king dwells has

the name of Protalis.[7]

(19.) This king has sixty thousand foot-soldiers, one thousand

horse, and seven hundred elephants, always caparisoned ready

for battle. The people of the more civilized nations of India

are divided into several classes.[8] One of these classes tills

the earth, another attends to military affairs, others again

are occupied in mercantile pursuits, while the wisest and the

most wealthy among them have the management of the affairs

of state-act as judges, and give counsel to the king. The

fifth class,[9] entirely devoting themselves to the pursuit of wisdom, which in these countries is almost held in the same veneration as religion, always[10] end their life by a voluntary death

upon the lighted pile. In addition to these, there is a

class[11] in a half-savage state, and doomed to endless labour;

by means of their exertions, all the classes previously mentioned are supported. It is their duty to hunt[12] the elephant,

and to tame him when captured; for it is by the aid of these

animals that they plough; by these animals they are conveyed







from place to place; these in especial they look upon as

constituting their flocks and herds; by their aid they wage

their wars, and fight in defence of their territories. Strength,

age, and size, are the points usually considered in making

choice of these animals.



In the Ganges there is an island of very considerable

size, inhabited by a single nation; it is called Modogalinga.[13] Beyond the Ganges are situate the Modub, the

Molind, the Uber, with a magnificent city of the same

name, the Modresi, the Preti, the Calo, the Sasuri, the

Passal, the Colob, the Orumcol, the Abali, and the Thalut. The king of the last-named people has fifty thousand

foot-soldiers, four thousand horse, and four hundred armed

elephants. We next come to a still more powerful nation,

the Andar,[14] who dwell in numerous villages, as well as thirty

cities fortified with walls and towers. They furnish for

their king one hundred thousand foot, two thousand horse,

and a thousand elephants. The country of the Dard[15] is

the most productive of gold, that of the Set of silver.



But more famous and more powerful than any nation, not

only in these regions, but throughout almost the whole of

India, are the Prasii, who dwell in a city of vast extent and

of remarkable opulence, called Palibothra;[16] from which circumstance some writers have given to the people themselves

the name of Palibothri, and, indeed, to the whole tract of

country between the Ganges and the Indus. These people

keep on daily pay in their king's service an army, consisting of

six hundred thousand foot, thirty thousand horse, and nine

thousand elephants, from which we may easily form a conjecture as to the vast extent of their resources. Behind these







people, and lying still more in the interior, are the Monedes,

and the Suari,[17] among whom is a mountain known as Maleus,

upon which the shadow falls to the north in winter, and to

the south in summer, six months alternately. In this district

the Constellation of the Greater Bear[18] is seen at only one

period in the year, and then but for fifteen days, according

to what Bton states. Megasthenes, however, informs us

that the same is the case also in many other localities of India.

The South Pole is by the Indians called Diamasa.



The river Jomanes runs into the Ganges through the territory of the Palibothri, between the cities of Methora[19] and

Chrysobora.[20] In the regions which lie to the south[21] of the

Ganges, the people are tinted by the heat of the sun, so much

so as to be quite coloured, but yet not burnt black, like the

thiopians. The nearer[22] they approach the Indus, the

deeper their colour, a proof of the heat of the climate. After

leaving the nation of the Prasii, we immediately come to the

Indus; in the mountains of the Prasii a race of Pygmies

is said to exist. Artemidorus says that between these two

rivers there is a distance of two thousand one hundred

miles.







1. So much so, indeed, that its sources were unknown to the learned

world till the beginning of the present century, although the Chinese emperor Tang-Hi on one occasion sent a body of Llamas for the purpose of

inquiring into the subject. It is now ascertained that the river Ganges is

the result of the confluence of three separate streams, which bear the respective names of the Gannavi, the Bhagirathi, and the Alakananda. The

second is of the most sacred character, and is the one to which the largest

concourse of pilgrims resort. The ancients held various opinions as to

the sources of the river.

2. The Cainas and the Jomanes, mentioned in the last Chapter.

3. The modern Gandaki or Gundk is generally supposed to be represented by the Condochates.

4. Represented as flowing into the Ganges at Palimbothra, the modern

Patna. There has been considerable discussion among the learned as to

what river is indicated by this name. It has, however, been considered

most probable that it is the same as the Sonus of Pliny, the modern Soane,

though both that author, as well as Arrian, speaks of two rivers, which

they call respectively Erannoboas and Sonus. The name was probably

derived from the Sanscrit Hyranyavahas, the poetical name of the Sonus.

5. Supposed to be the same as the river Cosi or Coravaha.

6. The wide diffusion of the Caling and their close connection with the

Gangarid, are shown by the fact that Pliny here calls them "Caling;

Gangarides," and mentions the Modogaling on a large island in the

Ganges, and the Maccocaling on the upper course of that river. See note

43, p. 42.

7. Called Parthalis in most of the editions.

8. Or castes, as we call them. These institutions prevail equally at the

present day, and the divisions of the duties of the respective castes are

pretty much as Pliny states them to be, except that the husbandmen and

merchants form one class, called the Vaisya, the Brahmins being the ministers

of religion, the Kshatriya forming the warlike class, the Sudra constituting the menial or servant class. Pliny here represents the rulers and

councillors as forming a distinct class. Such, however, does not appear to

be the fact; for we find that the sovereign is chosen from the Kshatriya or

military class, while from the Brahmins are selected the royal councillors,

judges, and magistrates of the country.

9. He alludes to the Brahmins, who seem to have been called by the Greek

writers "Gymnosophists," or "naked wise men." The Brahmin Calanus is a memorable example of this kind of self-immolation.

10. It is extremely doubtful if, even in his own day, Pliny was correct in

venturing upon so sweeping an assertion.

11. The Sudra or menial caste.

12. He is incorrect here; these duties devolve on the Vaisya class.

13. Inhabited, probably, by a branch of the Caling previously mentioned.

14. Ansart suggests that this may be the modern kingdom of Pegu. He

thinks also that the preceding kingdom may be that now called Arracan.

15. These may possibly be the Daradr of Ptolemy, but it seems impossible to guess their locality.

16. Probably the present Patna. D'Anville, however, identifies it with

Allahabad, while Welford and Wahl are inclined to think it the same as

Radjeurah, formerly called Balipoutra or Bengala. The Prasii are probably the race of people mentioned in the ancient Sanscrit books under the

name of the "Pragi" or the Eastern Empire, while the Gangarides are mentioned in the same works under the name of "Gandaressa" or Kingdom of

the Ganges.

17. Hardouin is of opinion that these nations dwelt in the localities occupied by the districts of Gwalior and Agra.

18. The Septentriones or "Seven Trions," in the original. Parisot is

of opinion that under this name of Mount Maleus he alludes to the

Western Ghauts, and that the name still survives in the word Malabar.

He also remarks that this statement of Pliny is not greatly exaggerated.

19. Ansart says that this is the same as the modern town of Muttra or

Matra upon the Jumna, and to the north of Agra.

20. Or Clisobora, according to Hardouin. It does not appear to have

been identified.

21. In the Indian Peninsula, constituting more especially the presidency

of Madras.

22. It is clear that he looks upon the countries of the Indus as lying to

the south of the Ganges.




23. Chap. 23. (20.)-The Indus.


CHAP. 23. (20.)-THE INDUS.



The Indus, called Sindis by the natives, rises in that branch

of the Caucasian range which bears the name of Paropanisus,[1]







and runs in an easterly direction, receiving in its course the

waters of nineteen rivers. The most famous of these are the

Hydaspes,[2] into which four other rivers have already discharged themselves, the Cantaba,[3] which receives three other

rivers, the Acesinus, and the Hypasis,[4] which last two are

navigable themselves. Still however, so moderate, as it were,

do the waters of this river show themselves in their course,

that it is never more than fifty stadia in width, nor does it

ever exceed fifteen paces in depth. Of two islands, which it

forms in its course, the one, which is known as Prasiane, is of

very considerable size; the other, which is smaller, is called

Patale. According to the accounts given by the most moderate writers, this river is navigable for a distance of twelve

hundred and fifty miles, and after following the sun's course to

the west, in some degree, discharges itself into the ocean. I will

here give the distances of various places situate on the coast to

the mouth of this river, in a general way, just as I find them

stated, although they none of them tally with each other.



From the mouth of the Ganges to the Promontory of the

Calingi and the town of Dandaguda,[5] is six hundred and

twenty-five miles; from thence to Tropina twelve hundred and

twenty-five; from thence to the promontory of Perimula,

where is held the most celebrated mart in all India, seven

hundred and fifty, and from thence to the city of Patala, in the

island just mentioned, six hundred and twenty miles.



The mountain races between the Indus and the Jomanes are

the Cesi,[6] the Cetriboni, who dwell in the woods, and after them

the Megall, whose king possesses five hundred elephants, and

an army of horse and foot, the numbers of which are unknown;

then the Chrysei, the Parasang, and the Asmagi,[7] whose territory is infested by wild tigers; these people keep in arms thirty







thousand foot, three hundred elephants, and eight hundred

horse. They are bounded by the river Indus, and encircled by

a range of mountains and deserts for a distance of six hundred

and twenty-five miles. Below these deserts are the Dari and

the Surve, and then deserts again for one hundred and eighty-seven miles, sands in general encircling these spots just as

islands are surrounded by the sea. Below these deserts, again,

are the Maltecor, the Sing, the Maroh, the Rarung,

and the Morontes. These last peoples, who possess the

mountains throughout the whole range of country as far

as the shores of the ocean, are free, and independent of all

kings, and hold numerous cities upon the declivities of the

mountains. After them come the Nare,[8] who are bounded

by Capitalia, the most lofty of all the Indian peaks: the inhabitants who dwell on the other side of it have extensive

mines of gold and silver. After these again are the Orat, whose

king possesses only ten elephants, but a large army of foot;

next come the Suaratarat, who live under the rule of a king

as well, but breed no elephants, as they depend solely on their

horse and foot; then the Odonbeores, the Arabastree, and the

Horac, which last inhabit a fine city fortified by trenches cut

in the marshes. It is quite impossible to approach the city,

except by the bridge, as the water in the trenches is full of

crocodiles, an animal most insatiate for human flesh. There

is another city also in their territory, which has been greatly

extolled, Automula by name, situate on the sea-shore, a

famous mart, lying at the point of confluence of five rivers:

their king possesses sixteen hundred elephants, one hundred

and fifty thousand foot, and five thousand horse. The king of

the Charm is a less opulent potentate; he has only sixty

elephants and some small remains of his former strength.

After these we come to the nation of the Pand,[9] the only one

throughout all India which is ruled by women. It is said

that Hercules had but one child of the female sex, for which

reason she was his especial favourite, and he bestowed upon

her the principal one of these kingdoms. The sovereigns who







derive their origin from this female, rule over three hundred

towns, and have an army of one hundred and fifty thousand

foot, and five hundred elephants. After passing through this

list of three hundred cities, we come to the Darang,[10] the

Posing, the But, the Gogari, the Umbr, the Nere, the

Brancosi, the Nobund, the Cocond, the Nesei, the Palatit,

the Salobrias, and the Olostr, who reach up to the island

of Patala, from the extremity of whose shores to the Caspian

Gates it is a distance of nineteen hundred and twenty-five

miles.



After passing this island, the other side of the Indus is occupied, as we know by clear and undoubted proofs, by the

Atho, the Boling, the Gallitalut, the Dimuri, the Megari,

the Ardab, the Mes, and after them, the Uri and the Sil;

beyond which last there are desert tracts, extending a distance

of two hundred and fifty miles. After passing these nations,

we come to the Organag, the Abort, the Bassuert, and,

after these last, deserts similar to those previously 'mentioned.

We then come to the peoples of the Sorofages, the Arb,

the Marogomatr, the Umbritt, of whom there are twelve nations, each with two cities, and the Asini, a people who dwell

in three cities, their capital being Bucephala,[11] which was

founded around the tomb of the horse belonging to king Alexander, which bore that name. Above these peoples there are

some mountain tribes, which lie at the foot of Caucasus, the

Sosead and the Sondr, and, after passing the Indus and

going down its stream, the Samarabri, the Sambraceni, the

Bisambrit, the Orsi, the Anixeni, and the Taxil, with a

famous city, which lies on a low but level plain, the general

name of the district being Amenda: there are four nations







here, the Peucolait,[12] the Arsagalit, the Geret, and the

Asso.



The greater part of the geographers, in fact, do not look

upon India as bounded by the river Indus, but add to it the

four Satrapies of the Gedrosi,[13] the Arachot,[14] the Arii,[15] and

the Paropauisid,[16] the river Cophes[17] thus forming the extreme

boundary of India. All these territories, however, according

to other writers, are reckoned as belonging to the country of

the Arii. (21.) Many writers, too, place in India the city of

Nysa,[18] and the mountain of Merus, sacred to Father Bacchus;

in which circumstance[19] originated the story that he sprang from

the thigh of Jupiter. They also place here the nation of the

Astacani, whose country abounds in the vine, the laurel, the

box-tree, and all the fruits which are produced in Greece. As

to those wonderful and almost fabulous stories which are related about the fertility of the soil, and the various kinds of

fruits and trees, as well as wild beasts, and birds, and other

sorts of animals, they shall be mentioned each in its proper







place, in a future portion of this work. I shall also very

shortly have to make some further mention of the four Satrapies,

it being at present my wish to hasten to a description of the

island of Taprobane.



But first there are some other islands of which we must

make mention. Patala,[20] as we have already stated, lies at

the mouth of the Indus: it is of a triangular figure, and is two

hundred and twenty miles in breadth. Beyond the mouth of

the Indus are the islands of Chryse and Argyre,[21] abounding in

metals, I believe; but as to what some persons have stated,

that their soil consists of gold and silver, I am not so willing

to give a ready credence to that. After passing these islands

we come to Crocala,[22] twenty miles in breadth, and then, at

twelve miles' distance from it, Bibraga,[23] abounding in oysters

and other bell-fish. At eight miles' distance from Bibraga we

find Toralliba, and many others of no note.







1. Or Hindoo Koosh. In this statement he is supported by Arrian,

Strabo, Mela, and Quintus Curtius. It rises, however, a considerable distance on the north-east side of the Himalaya.

2. The modern Jhelum.

3. Some writers suppose that this must be the same as the Hydraotes,

or modern Ravi, because the latter is not otherwise found mentioned in the

list given by Pliny. The name, however, leaves but little doubt that Pliny

had heard of the Acesines under its Indian name of Chandabragha, and

out of it has made another river.

4. The modern Sutlej.

5. Probably in the vicinity of the modern Calingapatam; none of the

other places seem to be identified.

6. Ansart suggests that the Cesi may be the same race as the modern

Sikhs.

7. Perhaps the people of modern Ajmere.

8. These peoples are supposed by Hardouin to have occupied the southern

parts of the peninsula now known as Bisnagar, Calicut, and the Deccan,

with the Malabar and Coromandel coasts.

9. Hardouin suggests that this people dwelt on the present peninsula of

Guzerat.

10. None of these appear to have been identified; indeed, it appears to

be next to impossible, owing to the corrupt state in which they have come

down to us.

11. Built on the Hydaspes by Alexander after his victory over Porus, B. C.

326, at the spot where he had crossed the river before the battle, and in

memory of his celebrated charger Bucephalus, who had expired during the

battle from fatigue and old age, or from wounds. The exact site of this

place is not known, but the probabilities appear in favour of Jhelum, at

which place is the usual passage of the river, or else of Jellapoor, about

sixteen miles lower down.

78 Probably the same that is mentioned in c. 21 of the present Book.

12. Parisot supposes that these were the inhabitants of the district which

now bears the name of Pekheli.

13. Gedrosia comprehended probably the same district as is now known

by the name of Mekran, or, according to some, the whole of modern Beloochistan.

14. The people of the city and district of Arachotus, the capital of Ara-

ehosia. M. Court has identified some ruins on the Argasan river, near

Kandahar, on the road to Shikarpur, with those of Arachotus; but Professor Wilson considers them to be too much to the south-east. Colonel

Rawlinson thinks they are those to be seen at a place called Ulan Robat.

He states that the most ancient name of the city, Cophen, (mentioned by

Pliny in c. 25 of the present Book), has given rise to the territorial desig-

nation. See p. 57.

15. The people of Aria, consisting of the eastern part of Khorassan, and

the western and north-western part of Afghanistan. This was one of the

most important of the eastern provinces or satrapies of the Persian empire.

16. This was the collective name of several peoples dwelling on the

southern slopes of the Hindoo Koosh, and of the country which they inhabited which was not known by any other name. It corresponded to the

eastern part of modern Afghanistan and the portion of the Punjaub lying

to the west of the Indus.

17. It is supposed that the Cophes is represented by the modern river of

Kabul.

18. The place here alluded to was in the district of Goryra, at the

north-western corner of the Punjaub, near the confluence of the rivers

Cophen and Choaspes being probably the same place as Nagara or Dionysopolis, the modern Nagar or Naggar.

19. The word mn/ros, in Greek, signifying a "thigh."

20. Supposed by some to have been Lower Scinde, and the vicinity of

Kurrachee, with its capital Potala.

21. Ansart suggests that these may be the Laccadives. Their name means

the "gold" and "silver" islands.

22. Probably an island near the mouths of the Indus.

23. Probably the same as the Bibacta of Arrian. The present name of it

is Chilney Isle.




24. Chap. 24. (22.)-Taprobane.


CHAP. 24. (22.)-TAPROBANE.



Taprobane,[1] under the name of the "land of the Antich-

thones,"[2] was long looked upon as another world: the age and

the arms of Alexander the Great were the first to give satisfactory proof that it is an island. Onesicritus, the commander of

his fleet, has informed us that the elephants of this island are

larger, and better adapted for warfare than those of India; and

from Megasthenes we learn that it is divided by a river, that

the inhabitants have the name of Paleogoni,[3] and that their







country is more productive of gold and pearls of great size than

even India. Eratosthenes has also given the dimensions of

this island, as being seven thousand stadia in length, and five

thousand in breadth: he states also that there are no cities, but

villages to the number of seven hundred.[4] It begins at the

Eastern sea, and lies extended opposite to India, east and west.

This island was in former times supposed to be twenty days'

sail from the country of the Prasii,[5] but in later times, whereas the navigation was formerly confined to vessels constructed

of papyrus with the tackle peculiar to the Nile, the distance

has been estimated at no more than seven days'[6] sail, in reference to the speed which can be attained by vessels of our

construction. The sea that lies between the island and the

mainland is full of shallows, not more than six paces in depth;

but in certain channels it is of such extraordinary depth, that no

anchor has ever found a bottom. For this reason it is that the

vessels are constructed with prows at either end; so that there

may be no necessity for tacking while navigating these channels,

which are extremely narrow. The tonnage of these vessels is

three thousand amphor.[7] In traversing their seas, the people

of Taprobane take no observations of the stars, and indeed the

Greater Bear[8] is not visible to them; but they carry birds out

to sea, which they let go from time to time, and so follow their

course as they make for the land. They devote only four

months in the year to the pursuits of navigation, and are particularly careful not to trust themselves on the sea during the

next hundred days after our summer solstice, for in those seas

it is at that time the middle of winter.







Thus much we learn from the ancient writers; it has fallen

to our lot, however, to obtain a still more accurate knowledge

of these people; for during the reign of the Emperor Claudius,

an embassy came from even this distant island to Rome. The

circumstances under which this took place were as follow:

Annius Plocamus had farmed from the treasury the revenues

arising from the Red Sea. A certain freedman of his, while

sailing around Arabia, was carried away by a gale from the

north beyond the coast of Carmania. In the course of fifteen

days he had drifted to Hippuros, a port of Taprobane, where

he was most kindly and hospitably received by the king; and

having, after a study of six months, become well acquainted

with the language, was enabled to answer all his enquiries relative to the Romans and their emperor. But of all that he

heard, the king was more particularly struck with surprise at

our rigid notions of justice, on ascertaining that among the

money found on the captive, the denarii were all of equal

weight, although the different figures on them plainly showed

that they had been struck in the reigns of several emperors.

By this circumstance in especial, the king was prompted to form

an alliance with the Romans, and accordingly sent to Rome an

embassy, consisting of four persons, the chief of whom was

Itachias.[9]



From these persons we learned that in Taprobane there are

five hundred towns, and that there is a harbour that lies facing

the south, and adjoining the city of Palsimundus,[10] the most

famous city in the isle, the king's place of residence, and containing a population of two hundred thousand. They also informed us that in the interior there is a lake called Megisba, three

hundred and seventy-five miles in circumference, and containing

islands which are fertile, though for pasturage only. In this lake

they informed us two rivers take their rise, one of which, called

Palesimundus, flows into the harbournear the city of that name,

by three channels, the narrowest of which is five stadia in width,

the largest fifteen; while the other, Cydara by name, takes a direction northward, towards the Indian coast. We learned also







that the nearest point of the Indian coast is a promontory

known as Coliacum,[11] distant from the island four days' sail, and

that midway between them lies the island of the Sun. They

stated also that those seas are of a deep green tint; besides

which, there are numerous trees growing at the bottom, so much

so, that the rudders of the vessels frequently break off portions

of their foliage.[12] They were much astonished at the constellations which are visible to us, the Greater Bear and the Pleiades,[13] as though they had now beheld a new expanse of the

heavens; and they declared that in their country the moon

can only be seen above the horizon[14] from the eighth to its

sixteenth day. They also stated that Canopus, a large bright

star, gives light to them by night. But what surprised them

more than anything, was that the shadow of their bodies was

thrown towards our hemisphere[15] and not theirs, and that the

sun arose on the left hand and set on the right, and not in the

opposite direction.[16] They also informed us that the side of

their island which lies opposite to India is ten thousand stadia

in length, and runs in a south-easterly direction-that beyond

the Emodian Mountains they look towards[17] the Serve, whose







acquaintance they had also made in the pursuits of commerce;

that the father of Rachias had frequently visited their country,

and that the Ser always came to meet them on their arrival.

These people, they said, exceeded the ordinary human height,

had flaxen hair, and blue eyes, and made an uncouth sort of noise

by way of talking, having no language of their own for the pur-

pose of communicating their thoughts. The rest of their information[18] was of a similar nature to that communicated by our

merchants. It was to the effect that the merchandize on sale

was left by them upon the opposite bank of a river on their

coast, and it was then removed by the natives, if they thought

proper to deal on terms of exchange. On no grounds ought

luxury with greater reason to be detested by us, than if we only

transport our thoughts to these scenes, and then reflect, what

are its demands, to what distant spots it sends in order to

satisfy them, and for how mean and how unworthy an end!



But yet Taprobane even, isolated as it is by nature from the

rest of the world, is not exempt from our vices. Gold and

silver are held in esteem even there. They have a marble

which resembles tortoise-shell in appearance; this, as well

as their pearls and precious stones, is highly valued; all our

luxuries in fact, those even of the most exquisite nature, are

there carried to the very highest pitch. They asserted that their

wealth is much greater than ours, but admitted that we know

better than they how to obtain real enjoyment from opulence.



In this island no slavery exists; they do not prolong their

sleep to day-break, nor indeed during any part of the day;

their buildings are only of a moderate height from the ground;

the price of corn is always the same; they have no courts of

law and no litigation. Hercules is the deity whom they worship;





SABTUL



and their king is chosen by the people, an aged man always,

distinguished for his mild and clement disposition, and without

children. If after he has been elected king, he happens to

become the father of children, his abdication is the consequence;

this is done that there may be no danger of the sovereign power

becoming hereditary. Thirty advisers are provided for him by

the people, and it is only by the advice of the majority of them

that any man is condemned to capital punishment. Even then,

the person so condemned has a right of appealing to the people,

in which case a jury consisting of seventy persons is appointed.

Should these acquit the accused, the thirty counsellors are no

longer held in any estimation, but are visited with the greatest

disgrace. The king wears the costume of Father Liber,[19] while

the rest of the people dress like the natives of Arabia. The

king, if he is found guilty of any offence, is condemned to death;

but no one slays him; all turn their backs upon him, and refuse

to hold any communication or even discourse with him. Their

festivals are celebrated[20] with the chase, the most valued sports

being the pursuit of the tiger and the elephant. The lands

are carefully tilled; the vine is not cultivated there, but of other

fruits there is great abundance. They take great delight in

fishing, and especially in catching turtles; beneath the shells[21]

of which whole families find an abode, of such vast size are

they to be found. These people look upon a hundred years as

a comparatively short life. Thus much have we learned respecting Taprobane.







1. Although Poinsinet will not admit its identity, it is now universally

agreed among the learned that the island of Taprobana is the modern

Ceylon. As Gosselin observes, in the accounts said to have been given of

Ceylon by the ambassadors to Claudius, great allowance must be made for

the wrong interpretation which, owing to their ignorance of the language,

the Romans must have given to much of their narrative.

2. From a)nti, "opposite," and xqw/n, "the earth." Its people being

supposed to be the antipodes of those of Europe.

3. "The ancient race." As Ansart observes, the island contains a

mountain, the name of which is "Adam's" Peak.

4. lian makes the villages to be 750 in number.

5. A general term probably, as already stated, for the great peninsula of

India, below the Ganges.

6. This expression has been relied upon by those who do not admit that

Ceylon is identical with the ancient Taprobana. But it is not improbable

that the passage here referred to is from Cape Comorin to Ceylon, and not

from Cape Ramanan Cor, the nearest part of the continent. In such case,

the distance would be sixty-five or sixty-six leagues, and we can easily

conceive that Greek vessels, sailing from nine to ten leagues per day,

might occupy seven days in making the passage from Cape Comorin, past

Ramanan Cor, to the coasts of Ceylon.

7. The amphora, as a measure, contained eight congii, or forty-eight

sextarii.

8. Or "Septentrio;" "the Seven Trions," which was more especially

employed by the nations of Europe for the purposes of navigation.

9. Parisot suggests that the word "Radijah," or "Rajah," denoting

the rank which he held, may have been here taken by Pliny for his name.

10. Ptolemy says that the ancient name of the island was Simundi, or

Palsimundi, but speaks of no such city as the one here mentioned, nor

indeed of any other of the localities described by Pliny.

11. It is difficult to say whether by this name is meant the modern Cape

Comorin, or that known as Ramanan Cor, which is in reality the nearest

point to the coast of Ceylon. Perhaps the latter is meant; in which case

it is not improbable that the Island of the Sun will be represented by the

islet called Rameserum in the maps, or else the one adjoining called

Manaar. It must not be confounded with the Island of the Sun, mentioned in c. 26. See p. 60.

12. It is not improbable that he alludes to coral reefs.

13. This assertion Gosselin would either reject as a fabulous falsehood, or

as having originated in some misconception on the part of the Romans;

for, as he remarks, it is quite impossible that the Pleiades should be a

constellation unknown at that time to the people of Ceylon; but, on the

other hand, it would be equally true that the Greater Bear was concealed

from them.

14. This was also a fable, or else originated in misapprehension of their

language on the part of the Romans.

15. Gosselin remarks that their story may have been that for about

seven months in the year the shadows fell to the north, and during the

remaining five to the south, which would not have been inconsistent with

the truth.

16. This also is classed by Gosselin under the head either of fabulous

stories or misapprehensions.

17. "Scras-ab ipsis aspici." It is difficult to say whether this does not

mean that they were in sight of the coast of the Ser.-Under any circumstances, the Ser here spoken of must not be taken for the Seres or supposed Chinese. Gosselin remarks that under this name the people of

a district called Sera are probably referred to, and that in fact such is the

name of a city and a whole province at the present day, situate on the

opposite coast, beyond the mountains which terminate the plains of the

Carnatic. It is equally impossible that under the name of "Emodi"

Pliny can allude to the Himalaya chain, distant more than 2000 miles.

The mountains, on the verge of the plains of the Carnatic, are not improbably those here referred to, and it is not impossible that they may be

discerned from the shores of Ceylon. Gosselin is of opinion that the

name of the ancient Ser may still be traced in that of Seringapatam,

and of the city of Seringham, situate on the river Godavery.

18. Relative to the Ser, or inhabitants of the opposite shores.

19. Or "Bacchus." This means that he wears a long robe with a train;

much like the dress, in fact, which was worn on the stage by tragic actors.

20. "Festa venatione absumi, gratissimam earn tigribus elephantisque

constare." Holland gives this sentence quite a different meaning, fancying that it bears reference to the mode in which the guilty king comes to

his end, which, indeed, otherwise does not appear to be stated. "But to

doe him to death in the end, they appoint a solemne day of hunting,

right pleasant and agreable unto tigres and elephants, before which beasts

they expose their king, and so he is presently by them devoured." It is

difficult to say, however, where he finds all this.

21. It is much more probable that they used the shells for the purpose

of making roofs for their habitations.




25. Chap. 25.-The Ariani And The Adjoining Nations.


CHAP. 25.-THE ARIANI AND THE ADJOINING NATIONS.



We will now proceed to give some further particulars







relative to the four Satrapies, of which we have postponed

further mention[1] till the present occasion.



(23). After passing the nations in the vicinity of the Indus,

we come to the mountain districts. The territory of Capisene formerly had a city, called Capisa,[2] which was destroyed

by Cyrus. Arachosia[3] has a river and a city of the same

name; the city was built by Semiramis; by some writers

it is called Cophen. The river Erymanthus[4] flows past

Parabeste,[5] which belongs to the Arachosii. Writers make

the Dexendrusi come next, forming the boundary of the

Arachot on the southern side, and of the Paropanisad on

the north. The city of Cartana[6] lies at the foot of Caucasus; in later times it has been called Tetragonis.[7] This

region lies over against that of the Bactri, who come next,

and whose chief city is Alexandria,[8] so called from the

name of its founder. We then come to the Syndraci,[9] the







Dangal[10] the Parapin,[11] the Catuces, and the Mazi; and

then at the foot of Caucasus, to the Cadrusi, whose town[12] was

built by Alexander.



Below all these countries, is the line of coast which we come

to after leaving the Indus. Ariana[13] is a region parched by the

sun and surrounded by deserts; still, however, as the face of

the country is every here and there diversified with well-shaded

spots, it finds communities grouped together to cultivate it,

and more especially around the two rivers, known as the

Tonberos[14] and the Arosapes.[15] There is also the town of

Artacoana,[16] and the river Arius,[17] which flows past Alexandria,[18] a city founded by Alexander; this place is thirty

stadia in extent. Much more beautiful than it, as well as

of much greater antiquity, is Artacabane,[19] fortified a second

time by Antiochus, and fifty stadia in breadth. We then

come to the nation of the Dorisdorsigi, and the rivers Phar-







naracotis,[20] and Ophradus; and then to Prophthasia,[21] a city of

the Zaraspades, the Drang,[22] the Everget,[23] the Zarang,

and the Gedrusi;[24] the towns of Pucolis, Lyphorta, the desert

of the Methorgi,[25] the river Manais,[26] the nation of the

Acutri, the river Eorum, the nation of the Orbi, the Pomanus,

a navigable river in the territories of the Pandares, the Apirus

in the country of the Suari, with a good harbour at its mouth,

the city of Condigramma, and the river Cophes;[27] into which

last flow the navigable streams of the Saddaros,[28] the Parospus, and the Sodanus. Some writers will also have it that

Daritis[29] forms part of Ariana, and give the length of them

both as nineteen hundred and fifty miles, and the breadth one

half of that[30] of India. Others again have spread the Gedrusi

and the Pasires over an extent of one hundred and thirty-eight miles, and place next to them the Ichthyophagi Orit,[31]

a people who speak a language peculiar to themselves, and not

the Indian dialect, extending over a space of two hundred miles.

Alexander forbade the whole of the Ichthyophagi[32] to live any







longer on fish. Next after these the writers have placed extensive deserts, and then Carmania, Persia, and Arabia.







1. Mentioned already, towards the conclusion of c. 23 of the present

Book. See p. 51.

2. This place was included in the district of the Paropanisus or Hindoo

Koosh. It is doubtful whether Pliny is correct in saying that it was destroyed by Cyrus, as we have no reason for supposing that he ever

advanced so far to the north-east. It is supposed by some that Capisene

represents the valley of the Kabul river, and Capisa the town on the

Indus, now known as Peshawar. Lassen, in his researches, has found in

the Chinese annals a kingdom called Kiapiche, in the valley of Ghurbend,

to the east of Bamian. It is not improbable that Capisa and Kiapiche

were different forms of the same name.

3. See the Notes in p. 50.

4. The principal river of Drangiana, which rises in the lower range of the

Paropanisus or Hindoo Koosh, and enters Lake Zarah. Its present name

is Ilmend or Helmend. Burnouf has supposed it to be the same as the

Arachotus; but Professor Wilson is of opinion that the Arachotus was

one of the tributaries of the Erymanthus or Erymandrus, and probably

the modern Arkand-Ab.

5. Parisot takes the meaning of this word to be "valley," and is of

opinion that it is the modern Chabul; not to be confounded, however,

with the country of Cabul, to the east of which it is situate.

6. Now called Birusen, according to Parisot, and not the city of Cabul,

as supposed by Hardouin.

7. Or the "four-cornered city."

8. This place has not been identified. It has been suggested that it is

the same as the modern city of Candahar; but that was really Alexandria

of the Paropanisad, quite a different place.

9. Inhabiting the district now called Arassen, according to Parisot.

10. Inhabiting the modern Danra, according to Parisot.

11. Inhabitants of the modern Parasan, according to Parisot.

12. The modern Candahar is generally supposed to occupy its site.

13. Pliny is thought to have here confounded the extensive district of

Ariana with the smaller province of Aria, which only formed a portion of

it. Ariana comprehended nearly the whole of what had been previously

ancient Persia

14. The river known in modern times as the Ilincut, according to Parisot.

15. This is supposed by Forbiger to be the modern Arghasan, one of the

tributaries of the Helmend. Parisot says that it was the same as the

modern Sat.

16. 27 Supposed to be the same as the "Aria civitas," or "city of Aria" of

other authors, which, however, is most probably represented by Alexandria,

the modern Herat, situate on the small stream now called the Heri-Rud.

At all events, Artacoana (proved by M. Court to be a word of Persian origin

-Arde Koun) was, if not the same place, at a very small distance from it.

M. Barbie de Bocage is of opinion that it occupied the site of Fushing,

a town on the Heri river, one stage from Herat; and by M. Court it is

thought to have been at Obeh, near the same place.

17. Now called the Heri-Rud, which runs to the west of Herat.

18. It is said that, judging from a traditional verse still current among

the people of Herat, that town is believed to unite the claims of the

ancient capital built by Alexander the Great, or indeed, more properly,

repaired by him, as he was but a short time in Aria. The distance also

from the Caspian Gates to Alexandria favours its identification with the

modern Herat.

19. This place does not appear to have been identified.

20. Ansart suggests that the river Pharnacotis is the same as the modern

Ferrichround, and the Ophradus probably the Kouchround.

21. Ansart suggests that the modern name is Zarang. Parisot says that

it is Corcharistan.

22. The inhabitants of Drangiana, a district at the eastern end of the

modern kingdom of Persia, and comprehending part of the present

Sejestan or Seistan.

23. They gave its name to the modern Eudras, according to Parisot.

24. It is doubtful whether these are the same as the Gedrosi, mentioned

by Pliny in c. 23, 24. Parisot censures Hardouin for confounding them,

and says that these inhabited the modern Bassar. In Dr. Smith's Dic-

tionary, they are looked upon as the same people.

25. Parisot says that this is the desert region now known as Eremaier, to

the east of Mount Maugracot.

26. As Parisot remarks, our author is now approaching the sea-shore;

these places, however, do not appear to have been identified.

27. Not the same as the river Cophen or Cophes mentioned in c. 24, the

modern Kabul. Hardouin takes it to be the same as the Arbis or Arabius

of Ptolemy, the modern Hilmend or Ilmend.

28. Parisot seems to think that the modern names of these rivers are the Sal,

the Ghir, and the Ilmentel, which, according to him, flow into the Ilmend.

29. Situate, according to Ptolemy, in the eastern parts of Media.

30. For this measurement see c. 21.

31. Meaning the "Fish-eating Mountaineers." According to Parisot

they occupied the site of the modern Dulcidan, and Goadel, which are

bounded by mountains, whence the name.

32. Not only the Orit, but all those mentioned in the following Chapter. For further particulars as to the Ichthyophagi, see B. vii. c. 2.




26. Chap. 26.-Voyages To India.


CHAP. 26.-VOYAGES TO INDIA.



But before we enter into any details respecting these

countries, it will be as well to mention what Oncsicritus[1]

has stated, who commanded the fleet of Alexander, and sailed

from India[2] into the heart of Persia, and what has been

more recently related by Juba; after which I shall speak of the

route along these seas which has been discovered in later years,

and is followed at the present day. The journal of the voyage

of Onesicritus and Nearchus has neither the names of the

stations, nor yet the distances set down in it; and first of all,

it is not sufficiently explained where Xylenepolis was, and

near what river, a place founded by Alexander, and from

which, upon setting out, they took their departure. Still, however, the following places are mentioned by them, which are

worthy of our notice. The town of Arbis, founded by Nearchus on the occasion of this voyage; the river Nabrus,[3]

navigable for vessels, and opposite to it an island, at a distance

of seventy stadia; Alexandria, built by Leonnatus[4] by order

of Alexander in the territories of this people; Argenus, with

a very convenient harbour; the river Tonberos,[5] a navigable

stream, around whose banks are the Pasir; then come the Ichthyophagi, who extend over so large a tract of coast that it

took thirty days[6] to sail past their territory; and an island

known by the names of the "Island of the Sun"[7] and the "Bed







of the Nymphs," the earth of which is red, and in which every

animal instantly dies; the cause of which, however, has not been

ascertained.[8] Next to these is the nation of the Ori, and then

the Hyctanis,[9] a river of Carmania, with an excellent harbour

at its mouth, and producing gold; at this spot the writers

state that for the first time they caught sight of the Great

Bear.[10] The star Arcturus too, they tell us, was not to be seen

here every night, and never, when it was seen, during the

whole of it. Up to this spot extended the empire of the

Achmenid,[11] and in these districts are to be found mines of

copper, iron, arsenic, and red lead.



They next came to the Promontory of Carmania,[12] from

which the distance across to the opposite coast, where the

Mac, a nation of Arabia, dwell, is fifty miles; and then to

three islands, of which that of Oracla[13] is alone inhabited, being

the only one supplied with fresh water; it is distant from the

mainland twenty-five miles; quite in the Gulf, and facing

Persia, there are four other islands. About these islands sea-serpents[14] were seen swimming towards them, twenty cubits

in length, which struck the fleet with great alarm. They

then came to the island of Athothradus, and those called the

Gaurat, upon which dwells the nation of the Gyani; the

river Hyperis,[15] which discharges itself midway into the Persian Gulf, and is navigable for merchant ships; the river







Sitiogagus, from which to Pasargad[16] is seven days' sail;

a navigable river known as the Phristimus, and an island

without a name; and then the river Granis,[17] navigable

for vessels of small burden, and flowing through Susiane;

the Deximontani, a people who manufacture bitumen, dwell

on its right bank. The river Zarotis comes next, difficult of

entrance at its mouth, except by those who are well acquainted with it; and then two small islands; after which the

fleet sailed through shallows which looked very much like a

marsh, but were rendered navigable by certain channels which

had been cut there. They then arrived at the mouth of the

Euphrates, and from thence passed into a lake which is formed

by the rivers Eulus[18] and Tigris, in the vicinity of Charax,[19]

after which they arrived at Susa,[20] on the river Tigris. Here,

after a voyage of three months, they found Alexander celebra-

ting a festival, seven months after he had left them at Patale.[21]

Such was the voyage performed by the fleet of Alexander.



In later times it has been considered a well-ascertained

fact that the voyage from Syagrus,[22] the Promontory of

Arabia, to Patale, reckoned at thirteen hundred and thirty-five miles, can be performed most advantageously with the







aid of a westerly wind, which is there known by the name

of Hippalus.



The age that followed pointed out a shorter route, and a

safer one, to those who might happen to sail from the same

promontory for Sigerus, a port of India; and for a long time

this route was followed, until at last a still shorter cut was

discovered by a merchant, and the thirst for gain brought

India even still nearer to us. At the present day voyages are

made to India every year: and companies of archers are carried

on board the vessels, as those seas are greatly infested with

pirates.



It will not be amiss too, on the present occasion, to set forth

the whole of the route from Egypt, which has been stated to

us of late, upon information on which reliance may be placed,

and is here published for the first time. The subject is one well

worthy of our notice, seeing that in no year does India drain

our empire of less than five hundred and fifty millions[23] of

sesterces, giving back her own wares in exchange, which are

sold among us at fully one hundred times their prime cost.



Two miles distant from Alexandria is the town of Juliopolis.[24]

The distance thence to Coptos, up the Nile, is three hundred

and eight miles; the voyage is performed, when the Etesian

winds are blowing, in twelve days. From Coptos the journey

is made with the aid of camels, stations being arranged at

intervals for the supply of fresh water. The first of these

stations is called Hydreuma,[25] and is distant[26] twenty-two

miles; the second is situate on a mountain, at a distance of one

day's journey from the last; the third is at a second Hydreuma,







distant from Coptos ninety-five miles; the fourth is on a mountain; the next to that is at another Hydreuma, that of Apollo,

and is distant from Coptos one hundred and eighty-four miles;

after which, there is another on a mountain. There is then

another station at a place called the New Hydreuma, distant from

Coptos two hundred and thirty miles: and next to it there is

another, called the Old Hydreuma, or the Troglodytic, where a

detachment is always on guard, with a caravansary that affords

lodging for two thousand persons. This last is distant from the

New Hydreuma seven miles. After leaving it we come to the

city of Berenice,[27] situate upon a harbour of the Red Sea, and

distant from Coptos two hundred and fifty-seven miles. The

greater part of this distance is generally travelled by night,

on account of the extreme heat, the day being spent at the

stations; in consequence of which it takes twelve days to perform the whole journey from Coptos to Berenice.



Passengers generally set sail at midsummer, before the

rising of the Dog-star, or else immediately after, and in about

thirty days arrive at Ocelis[28] in Arabia, or else at Cane,[29] in the

region which bears frankincense. There is also a third port

of Arabia, Muza[30] by name; it is not, however, used by persons

on their passage to India, as only those touch at it who deal

in incense and the perfumes of Arabia. More in the interior there is a city; the residence of the king there is called

Sapphar,[31] and there is another city known by the name of

Save. To those who are bound for India, Ocelis is the best







place for embareation. If the wind, called Hippalus,[32] happens to be blowing, it is possible to arrive in forty days at the

nearest mart of India, Muziris[33] by name. This, however, is

not a very desirable place for disembarcation, on account of the

pirates which frequent its vicinity, where they occupy a

place called Nitrias; nor, in fact, is it very rich in articles

of merchandize. Besides, the road-stead for shipping is a

considerable distance from the shore, and the cargoes have to

be conveyed in boats, either for loading or discharging. At

the moment that I am writing these pages, the name of the

king of this place is Clobothras. Another port, and a much

more convenient one, is that which lies in the territory of the

people called Neacyndi, Barace by name. Here king Pandion

used to reign, dwelling at a considerable distance from the

mart in the interior, at a city known as Modiera. The district from which pepper is carried down to Barace in boats

hollowed out of a single tree,[34] is known as Cottonara.[35] None

of these names of nations, ports, and cities are to be found in

any of the former writers, from which circumstance it would

appear that the localities have since changed their names.

Travellers set sail from India on their return to Europe, at the

beginning of the Egyptian month Tybis, which is our December, or at all events before the sixth day of the Egyptian month

Mechir, the same as[36] our ides of January: if they do this,

they can go and return in the same year. They set sail from

India with a south-east wind, and upon entering the Red Sea,

catch the south-west or south. We will now return to our

main subject.











1. See the Notes at the end of this Book.

2. By descending the Indus, and going up the Persian Gulf.

3. Near the mouth of the Indus, Hardouin says.

4. One of Alexander's most distinguished officers, and a native of Pella.

He commanded the division of cavalry and light-armed troops which ac-

companied the fleet of Alexander down the Indus, along the right bank of

the river. The Alexandria here mentioned does not appear to have been

identified. It is not to be confounded with Alexandria in Arachosia, nor

yet with a place of the same name in Carmania, the modern Kerman.

5. A river Tomerus is spoken of by Arrian as lying between the Indus

and the river Arabis or Arbis.

6. They seem to have dwelt along the shores of the modern Mukran,

south of Beloochistan, and probably part of Kerman.

7. Called Nosala by Arrian. Ansart suggests that it is the island now

known by the name of Sengadip. It lay probably off the promontory or

headland of the Sun, on the eastern coast of Arabia.

8. Mela suggests the reason, but gives to the island a different locality-

"over against the mouth of the Indus." He says that the air of the

island is of such a nature as to take away life instantaneously, and appears

to imply that the heat is the cause.

9. Possibly that now known as the Rud Shur.

10. Properly the "Seven Trions."

11. The Persian kings, descendants of Achmenes. He was said to have

been reared by an eagle.

12. Called the Promontory of Harmozon by Strabo. Hardouin says that

the modern name is Cape Jash, but recent writers suggest that it is represented by the modern Cape Bombaruk, nearly opposite Cape Mussendom.

13. Perhaps the modern Kishon, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf; or

that may be one of the four islands next mentioned.

14. The story of Pontoppidan's Kraken or Korven, the serpent of the Norwegian Seas, is as old as Pliny, we find, and he derived his information

from older works.

15. Forbiger has suggested that this may be the same as the modern

Djayrah.

16. Mentioned again in c. 29 of the present Book. Its modern name is

Pasa or Fasa-Kuri, according to Parisot.

17. Supposed to be the stream called by D'Anville and Thevenot the

Boschavir, the river of Abushir or Busheer.

18. A river of ancient Susiana, the present name of which is Karun.

Pliny states, in c. 31 of the present Book, that the Eulus flowed round

the citadel of Susa; he mistakes it, however, for the Coprates, or, more

strictly speaking, for a small stream now called the Shapr river, the ancient name of which has not been preserved. He is also in error, most

probably, in making the river Eulus flow through Messabatene, it being

most likely the present Mah-Sabaden, in Laristan, which is drained by the

Kerkbah, the ancient Choaspes, and not by the Eulus.

19. Called, for the sake of distinction, Charax Spasinu, originally founded

by Alexander the Great. It was afterwards destroyed by a flood, and rebuilt by Antiochus Epiphanes, under the name of Antiochia. It is mentioned in c. 31.

20. The Shushan of Scripture, now called Shu. It was the winter residence of the kings of Persia, and stood in the district Cersia of the province Susiana, on the eastern bank of the river Choaspes. The site of

Sisa is now marked by extensive mounds.

21. The island of Patala or Patale, previously mentioned in c. 23.

22. Most probably the Cape Ras-el-Bad, the most easterly peninsula of

Arabia.

23. 35,000,000 francs, according to Ansart, which would amount to

1,400,000 of our money.

24. Pliny is the only writer that mentions this place among the towns of

Lower Egypt. Some suppose it to have been Nicopolis, or the City of

Victory, founded by Augustus B.C. 29, partly to commemorate the reduction of Egypt to a Roman province, and partly to punish the Alexandrians

for their adhesion to the cause of Antony and Cleopatra. Mannert, however, looks upon it as having been merely that suburb of Alexandria which

Strabo (B. xvii.) calls Eleusis.

25. From the Greek u(/dreuma, a "watering-place."

26. From Coptos, the modern Kouft or Keft. Ptolemy Philadelphus,

when he constructed the port of Berenice, erected several caravansaries or

watering-places between the new city and Coptos. Coptos was greatly

enriched by the commerce between Lybia and Egypt on the one hand, and

Arabia and India on the other.

27. Belzoni found traces of several of the stations here mentioned. The

site of Berenice, as ascertained by Moresby and Carless, 18303, was nearly

at the bottom of the inlet known as the Sinus Immundus, or Foul Bay.

Its ruins still exist.

28. Now called Gehla, a harbour and emporium at the south-western

point of Arabia Felix.

29. An emporium or promontory on the southern coast of Arabia, in the

country of the Adramit, and, as Arrian says, the chief port of the

increase-bearing country. It has been identified by D'Anville with Cava

Canim Bay, near a mountain called Hissan Ghorab, at the base of which

there are ruins to be seen.

30. Probably the modern Mosch, north of Mokha, near the southern

extremity of Arabia Felix.

31. Its ruins are now known as Dhafar. It was one of the chief cities

of Arabia, standing near the southern coast of Arabia Felix, opposite the

modern Cape Guardafui.

32. Or Favonius, the west wind, previously mentioned in the present

Chapter.

33. The modern Mangalore, according to Du Bocage.

34. Or canoes.

35. The Cottiara of Ptolemy, who makes it the chief city of the i, a tribe

who occupied the lower part of the peninsula of Hindostan. It has been

supposed to be represented by the modern Calicut or Travancore. Cochin,

however, appears to be the most likely.

36. Marcus observes that we may conclude that either Pliny or the author

from whom he transcribed, wrote this between the years of the Christian

era 48 and 51; for that the coincidence of the 6th of the month Mechir

with the Ides of January, could not have taken place in any other year

than those on which the first day of Thoth or the beginning of the year

fell on the 11th of August, which happened in the years 48, 49, 50, and 51

of the Christian era.




27. Chap. 27.-Carmania.


CHAP. 27.-CARMANIA.



Nearchus states in his writings that the coast of Carmania[1]

extends a distance of twelve hundred and fifty miles. From

its frontier to the river Sabis[2] is one hundred miles. At this

spot begins the cultivation of the vine; which with the tillage of the fields, extends as far as the river Ananis,[3] a distance of twenty-five miles. This region is known by the name

of Armuzia. The cities of Carmania are Zetis and Alexandria.[4]







1. An extensive province of Asia, along the northern shores of the Persian Gulf, supposed to have comprehended the coast-line of the modern

Laristan, Kirman, and Moghostan.

2. Ptolemy mentions an inland town of Carmania of the same name.

3. Supposed to be that known now as the Ibrahim Rud, which falls into

the Persian Gulf.

4. These sites are unknown.




28. Chap. 28.-The Persian And The Arabian Gulfs.


CHAP. 28.-THE PERSIAN AND THE ARABIAN GULFS.



The sea then makes a two-fold indentations[1] in the land

upon these coasts, under the name of Rubrum[2] or "Red,"

given to it by our countrymen; while the Greeks have called

it Erythrum, from king Erythras,[3] or, according to some

writers, from its red colour, which they think is produced by

the reflection of the sun's rays; others again are of opinion

that it arises from the sand and the complexion of the soil,

others from some peculiarity in the nature of the water.

(24.) Be this as it may, this body of water is divided into two

gulfs. The one which lies to the east is called the Persian Gulf,

and is two thousand five hundred miles in circumference, according to Eratosthenes. Opposite to it lies Arabia, the length

of which is fifteen hundred miles. On the other side again,

Arabia is bounded by the Arabian Gulf. The sea as it enters







this gulf is called the Azanian[4] Sea. The Persian Gulf, at the

entrance, is only five[5] miles wide; some writers make it four.

From the entrance to the very bottom of the gulf, in a straight

line, has been ascertained to be nearly eleven hundred and

twenty-five miles: in outline it strongly resembles[6] the human

head. Onesicritus and Nearchus have stated in their works

that from the river Indus to the Persian Gulf, and from thence

to Babylon, situate in the marshes of the Euphrates, is a distance of seventeen hundred miles.



In the angle of Carmania are the Chelonophagi,[7] who cover

their cabins with the shells of turtles, and live upon their

flesh; these people inhabit the next promontory that is seen

after leaving the river Arbis;[8] with the exception of the head,

they are covered all over with long hair, and are clothed in

the skins of fishes.



(25.) Beyond their district, in the direction of India, is said

to be the desert island of Caicandrus, fifty miles out at sea; near

to which, with a strait flowing between them, is Stoidis, celebrated for its valuable pearls. After passing the promontory[9]

are the Armozei,[10] joining up to the Carmani; some writers,

however, place between them the Arbii,[11] extending along the

shore a distance of four hundred and twenty-one miles. Here

is a place called Portus Macedonum,[12] and the Altars of Alexander, situate on a promontory, besides the rivers Saganos,

Daras, and Salsa. Beyond the last river we come to the promontory of Themisteas, and the island of Aphrodisias, which

is peopled. Here Persis begins, at the river Oratis,[13] which







separates it from Elymais.[14] Opposite to the coast of Persis,

are the islands of Psilos, Cassandra, and Aracia, the last

sacred to Neptune,[15] and containing a mountain of great height.

Persis[16] itself, looking towards the west, has a line of coast

five hundred and fifty miles in length; it is a country opulent

even to luxury, but has long since changed its name for that

of "Parthia."[17] I shall now devote a few words to the Parthian

empire.







1. Forms two bays or gulfs in succession.

2. He gives this name to the whole expanse of sea that lies between

Arabia and Africa on the west, and India on the east, including the Red

Sea and the Persian Gulf.

3. Or Erythrus. In all probability entirely a mythical personage. The

sea having been called in Greek e)ruqrai=a, or "red"-the legend most

probably thence took its rise. No very satisfactory reason has vet been

given for its being so called. The Hebrew name of it signifies the "Sedgy

Sea."

4. From Azania in thiopia, mentioned again in c. 34 of the present

Book.

5. The maps appear to make it considerably more.

6. The only feature of resemblance appears to be its comparative narrowness at the neck.

7. Or "turtle-eaters."

8. Different probably from the Cophis mentioned in c. 25, which was

also called Arabius or Arbis, and probably represented by the modern

Purali.

9. Of Harmozon, probably the modern Bombareek.

10. Their district is supposed to denote the vicinity of the modern Ormuz,

an island off this coast, which is now known as Moghostan.

11. Taking their name probably from the river Arbis, previously men-

tioned.

12. The "Port of the Macedonians."

13. Now the Tab, falling into the Persian Gulf.

14. A district of Susiana, extending from the river Euleus on the west,

to the Oratis on the east, deriving its name perhaps from the Elymi, or

Elymi, a warlike people found in the mountains of Greater Media. In the

Old Testament this country is called Elam.

15. Ptolemy says that this last bore the name of "Alexander's Island."

16. Persis was more properly a portion only or province of the ancient

kingdom of Persia. It gave name to the extensive Medo-Persian kingdom under Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, B.C. B.C. 559.

17. The Parthi originally inhabited the country south-east of the Caspian,

now Khorassan. Under Arsaces and his descendants, Persis and the other

provinces of ancient Persia became absorbed in the great Parthian empire.

Parthia, with the Chorasmii, Sogdii, and Arii, formed the sixteenth satrapy under the Persian empire. See c. 16 of this Book.




29. Chap. 29.-The Parthian Empire.


CHAP. 29.-THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE.



The kingdoms[1] of Parthia are eighteen in all: such being

the divisions of its provinces, which lie, as we have already

stated, along the Red Sea to the south, and the Hyrcanian to

the north. Of this number the eleven, called the Higher provinces, begin at the frontiers of Armenia and the shores of the

Caspian, and extend to the Scythians, whose mode of life is

similar in every respect. The other seven kingdoms of Parthia

bear the name of the Lower provinces. As to the Parthi

themselves, Parthia[2] always lay at the foot of the mountains[3]

so often mentioned, which overhang all these nations. On the

east it is bounded by the Arii, on the south by Carmania and

the Ariani, on the west by the Pratit, a people of the Medi,

and on the north by the Hyrcani: it is surrounded by deserts

on every side. The more distant of the Parthi are called

Nomades;[4] on this side of them there are deserts. On the







west are the cities of Issatis and Calliope, already mentioned,[5]

on the north-east Europus,[6] on the south-east Maria; in the

middle there are Hecatompylos,[7] Arsace, and Nisia, a fine

district of Parthiene, in which is Alexandropolis, so called from

its founder.

(26.) It is requisite in this place to trace the localities of the

Medi also, and to describe in succession the features of the country as far as the Persian Sea, in order that the account which

follows may be the better understood. Media[8] lies crosswise to

the west, and so presenting itself obliquely to Parthia, closes the

entrance of both kingdoms[9] into which it is divided. It has,

then, on the east, the Caspii and the Parthi; on the south,

Sittacene, Susiane, and Persis; on the west, Adsiabene; and

on the north, Armenia. The Pers have always inhabited

the shores of the Red Sea, for which reason it has received

the name of the Persian Gulf. This maritime region of Persis

has the name of Ciribo;[10] on the side on which it runs up

to that of the Medi, there is a place known by the name of

Climax Megale,[11] where the mountains are ascended by a

steep flight of stairs, and so afford a narrow passage which leads

to Persepolis,[12] the former capital of the kingdom, destroyed by







Alexander. It has also, at its extreme frontier, Laodicea,[13]

founded by Antiochus. To the east of this place is the

fortress of Passagarda,[14] held by the Magi, at which spot is

the tomb of Cyrus; also Ecbatana,[15] a city of theirs, the inhabitants of which were removed by Darius to the mountains.

Between the Parthi and the Ariani projects the territory of

the Partaceni.[16] By these nations and the river Euphrates

are the Lower kingdoms of Parthia bounded; of the others

we shall speak after Mesopotamia, which we shall now describe, with the exception of that angle of it and the peoples of

Arabia, which have been already mentioned in a former

book.[17]







1. The provinces of Parthia have been already mentioned in detail in

the preceding Chapters, except Susiana and Elymais, which are mentioned

in c. 31.

2. The original Parthia, the modern Khorassan.

3. The so-called Caucasian chain. See c. 16 of the present Book.

4. Or "Wandering Parthians," lying far to the east.

5. In c. 17 of the present Book.

6. Not to be confounded with the place in Atropatene, mentioned in

c. 21 of the present Book.

7. It has been supposed that the modern Damgham corresponds with

this place, but that is too near the Port Caspie. It is considered most

probable that the remains of Hecatompylos ought to be sought in the

neighbourhood of a place now known as Jah Jirm. It is mentioned in

c. 17 and 21 of the present Book.

8. Media occupied the extreme west of the great table-land of the modern

Iran. It corresponded very nearly to the modern province of Irak-Ajemi.

9. The Upper and the Lower, as already mentioned.

10. Hardouin suggests that this should be Syrtibolos. His reasons for

so thinking will be found alluded to in a note to c. 31. See p. 80, Note 98.

11. Or the "Great Ladder." The Baron de Bode states, in his Travels

in Luristan and Arabistan, that he discovered the remains of a gigantic

causeway, in which he had no difficulty in recognizing one of the most

ancient and most mysterious monuments of the East. This causeway,

which at the present day bears the name of Jaddehi-Atabeg, or the "road

of the Atabegs," was looked upon by several historians as one of the

wonders of the world, who gave it the name of the Climax Megale or "Great

Ladder." At the time even of Alexander the Great the name of its con-

structor was unknown.

12. Which was rebuilt after it was burnt by Alexander, and in the middle ages had the name of Istakhar; it is now called Takhti Jemsheed,

the throne of Jemsheed, or Chil-Minar, the Forty Pillars. Its foundation

is sometimes ascribed to Cyrus the Great, but more generally to his son,

Cambyses. The ruins of this place are very extensive.

13. Its site is unknown; but Dupinet translates it the "city of Lor."

14. The older of the two capitals of Persia, Persepolis being the later

one. It was said to have been founded by Cyrus the Great, on the spot

where he gained his victory over Astyages. Its exact site is doubtful, but

most modern geographers identify it with Murghab, to the north-east of

Persepolis, where there are the remains of a great sepulchral monument

of the ancient Persians, probably the tomb of Cyrus. Others place it at

Farsa or at Dorab-Gherd, both to the south-east of Persepolis, the direction mentioned by Strabo, but not in other respects answering his description so well as Murghab.

15. It is most probable that he does not allude here to the Ecbatana,

mentioned in c. 17 of this Book.

16. There were several mountainous districts called Partacene in the Persian empire, that being the Greek form of a Persian word signifying

"mountainous."

17. In B. v. c. 21. He returns to the description of Susiana, Elymais,

and Characene in c. 31 of the present Book.




30. Chap. 30.-Mesopotamia.


CHAP. 30.-MESOPOTAMIA.



The whole of Mesopotamia formerly belonged to the Assyrians, being covered with nothing but villages, with the

exception of Babylonia[1] and Ninus.[2] The Macedonians







formed these communities into cities, being prompted thereto

by the extraordinary fertility of the soil. Besides the cities

already mentioned, it contains those of Seleucia,[3] Laodicea,[4]

Artemita;[5] and in Arabia, the peoples known as the

Orei[6] and the Mardani, besides Antiochia,[7] founded by Nicanor, the governor of Mesopotamia, and called Arabis. Joining up to these in the interior is an Arabian people, called

the Eldamani, and above them, upon the river Pallaconta, the

town of Bura, and the Arabian peoples known as the Salmani and the Masei. Up to the Gordyi[8] join the Aloni,

through whose territory runs the river Zerbis, which falls into

the Tigris; next are the Azones, the Silici, a mountain

tribe, and the Orontes, to the west of whom lies the town of

Gaugamela,[9] as also Su, situate upon the rocks. Beyond

these are the Silici, surnamed Classit, through whose district runs the river Lycus on its passage from Armenia, the

Absithris[10] running south-east, the town of Accobis, and then in

the plains the towns of Diospage, Polytelia,[11] Stratonice, and

Anthermis.[12] In the vicinity of the Euphrates is Nicephorion,

of which we have[13] already stated that Alexander, struck with







the favourable situation of the spot, ordered it to be built. We

have also similarly made mention[14] of Apamea on the Zeugma.

Leaving that city and going eastward, we come to Caphrena,

a fortified town, formerly seventy stadia in extent, and called

the "Court of the Satraps." It was to this place that the

tribute was conveyed; now it is reduced to a mere fortress.

Thbata is still in the same state as formerly: after which

comes Oruros, which under Pompeius Magnus formed the extreme limit of the Roman Empire, distant from Zeugma two

hundred and fifty miles. There are writers who say that

the Euphrates was drawn off by an artificial channel by the

governor Gobares, at the point where we have stated[15] that it

branches off,[16] in order that it might not commit damage in the

city of Babylonia, in consequence of the extreme rapidity of

its course. The Assyrians universally call this river by the

name of Narmalcha,[17] which signifies the "royal river."

At the point where its waters divide, there was in former times

a very large city, called Agranis, which the Pers have de-

stroyed.



Babylon, the capital of the nations of Chalda, long enjoyed the greatest celebrity of all cities throughout the

whole world: and it is from this place that the remaining

parts of Mesopotamia and Assyria received the name of Babylonia. The circuit of its walls, which were two hundred

feet in height, was sixty miles. These walls were also

fifty feet in breadth, reckoning to every foot three fingers'

breadth beyond the ordinary measure of our foot. The

river Euphrates flowed through the city, with quays of marvellous workmanship erected on either side. The temple

there[18] of Jupiter Belus[19] is still in existence; he was the first







inventor of the science of Astronomy. In all other respects

it has been reduced to a desert, having been drained of its

population in consequence of its vicinity to Seleucia,[20] founded

for that purpose by Nicator, at a distance of ninety miles, on

the confluence of the Tigris and the canal that leads from the

Euphrates. Seleucia, however, still bears the surname of

Babylonia: it is a free and independent city, and retains the

features of the Macedonian manners. It is said that the

population of this city amounts to six hundred thousand, and

that the outline of its walls resembles an eagle with expanded

wings: its territory, they say, is the most fertile in all the East.

The Parthi again, in its turn, founded Ctesiphon,[21] for the

purpose of drawing away the population of Seleucia, at a distance of nearly three miles, and in the district of Chalonitis;

Ctesiphon is now the capital of all the Parthian kingdoms.

Finding, however, that this city did not answer the intended

purpose, king Vologesus[22] has of late years founded another

city in its vicinity, Vologesocerta[23] by name. Besides the

above, there are still the following towns in Mesopotamia: Hipparenum,[24] rendered famous, like Babylon, by the learning of







the Chaldi, and situate near the river Narraga,[25] which falls

into the Narroga, from which a city so called has taken its

name. The Pers destroyed the walls of Hipparenum.

Orchenus also, a third place of learning of the Chaldi, is

situate in the same district, towards the south; after which

come the Notit, the Orothophanit, and the Grecichart.[26]

From Nearchus and Onesicritus we learn that the distance by

water from the Persian Sea to Babylon, up the Euphrates, is

four hundred and twelve miles; other authors, however, who

have written since their time, say that the distance to Seleucia is four hundred and forty miles: and Juba says that

the distance from Babylon to Charax is one hundred and

seventy-five. Some writers state that the Euphrates continues to flow with an undivided channel for a distance of

eighty-seven miles beyond Babylon, before its waters are diverted from their channel for the purposes of irrigation; and

that the whole length of its course is not less than twelve

hundred miles. The circumstance that so many different

authors have treated of this subject, accounts for all these

variations, seeing that even the Persian writers themselves do

not agree as to what is the length of their schni and para-

sang, each assigning to them a different length.



When the Euphrates ceases, by running in its channel, to

afford protections[27] to those who dwell on its banks, which it does

when it approaches the confines of Charax, the country is immediately infested by the Attali, a predatory people of Arabia,

beyond whom are found the Scenite.[28] The banks along this

river are occupied by the Nomades of Arabia, as far as the

deserts of Syria, from which, as we have already stated,[29] it

takes a turn to the south,[30] and leaves the solitary deserts of

Palmyra. Seleucia is distant, by way of the Euphrates, from

the beginning of Mesopotamia, eleven hundred and twenty-







five; from the Red Sea, by way of the Tigris, two hundred and twenty; and from Zeugma, seven hundred and

twenty-three, miles. Zeugma is distant from Seleucia[31] in

Syria, on the shores of our sea, one hundred and seventy-five[32]

miles. Such is the extent of the land that lies in these parts

between the two seas.[33] The length of the kingdom of Parthia

is nine hundred and eighteen miles.







1. The great seat of empire of the Babylonio-Chaldan kingdom. It

either occupied the site, it is supposed, or stood in the immediate vicinity

of the tower of Babel. In the reign of Labynedus, Nabonnetus, or Bel-

shazzar, it was taken by Cyrus. In the reign of Augustus, a small part

only of Babylon was still inhabited, the remainder of the space within the

walls being under cultivation. The ruins of Babylon are found to commence

a little south of the village of Mohawill, eight miles north of Hillah.

2. Nineveh. See c. 16 of the present Book.

3. On the left bank of the Euphrates, opposite to the ford of Zeugma;

a fortress of considerable importance.

4. Its site is unknown. Dupinet confounds it with the place of this name

mentioned in the last Chapter, calling them by the name of Lor.

5. Pliny is wrong in placing Artemita in Mesopotamia. It was a city

of Babylonia, in the district of Apolloniatis. The modern Sherbn is

supposed to occupy its site.

6. Burnouf, having found the name of these people, as he supposes, in

a cuneiform inscription, written "Ayura," would have them to be called

Aroei. The Orei are also mentioned in B. v. c. 20.

7. This Antioch does not appear to have been identified.

8. The mountains of the Gordyi are mentioned in c. 12.

9. This, as previously mentioned in a Note to c. 16, was the scene of

the last great battle between Alexander and Darius, and known as the

battle of Arbela. It has been suggested that it may perhaps be represented by a place now called Karnelis. See p. 27.

10. According to Ansart, now called the Lesser Zab, and by the inhabitants the Altun-su, meaning the "Golden river."

11. According to Parisot, the modern name is Calicala.

12. Strabo speaks of the Aborras, or modern Khabur, as flowing in the

vicinity of Anthemusia, the district probably in which the town of Anthermis was situate. According to Isidorus of Charax, it lay between

Edessa and the Euphrates. Its site does not appear to have been any

further identified. It is called Anthemusia in B. v. c. 21.

13. In B. v. c. 21.

14. In B. v. c. 21.

15. In B. v. c. 21.

16. This canal, leading from the Euphrates to the Tigris, is by some

thought, according to Hardouin, to have been the river Chobar, mentioned in Ezekiel, c. i. v. 3.

17. For Arar-Melik, meaning the "River King," according to Parisot.

18. As to the identity of this, see a Note at the beginning of this Chapter.

19. Meaning Jupiter Uranius, or "Heavenly Jupiter," according to

Parisot, who observes that Eusebius interprets baal, or bel, "heaven."

According to one account, he was the father of king Ninus and son of

Nimrod. The Greeks in later times attached to his name many of their

legendary fables.

20. The city of Seleucia ad Tigrin, long the capital of Western Asia,

until it was eclipsed by Ctesiphon. Its site has been a matter of considerable discussion, but the most probable opinion is, that it stood on the

western bank of the Tigris, to the north of its junction with the royal

canal (probably the river Chobar above mentioned), opposite to the mouth

of the river Delas or Silla (now Diala), and to the spot where Ctesiphon

was afterwards built by the Parthians. It stood a little to the south of

the modern city of Baghdad; thus commanding the navigation of the

Tigris and Euphrates, and the whole plain formed by those two rivers.

21. Ammianus, like Pliny, has ascribed its foundation to the Parthians

under Varanes, or Vardanes, of whom, however, nothing is known. It

stood in the south of Assyria, on the eastern or left bank of the Tigris.

Strabo speaks of it as being the winter residence of the Parthian kings,

who lived there at that season, owing to the mildness of the climate. In

modern times the site of this place has been identified with that called by

the Arabs Al Madain, or the "two cities."

22. Or Vologeses. This was the name of five kings of Parthia, of the

race of the Arsacid, Arsaces xxiii., xxvii., xxviii., xxix., xxx. It

was the first of these monarchs who founded the place here mentioned

by Pliny.

23. Or the "City of Vologesus;" certa being the Armenian for "city."

24. Nothing appears to be known of this place; but Hardouin thinks

that it is the same with one called Maarsares by Ptolemy, and situate on

the same river Narraga.

25. Parisot says that this river is the one set down in the maps as

falling into the Tigris below its junction with the Euphrates, and near the

mouths of the two rivers. He says that near the banks of it is marked

the town of Nabrahan, the Narraga of Pliny.

26. There is great doubt as to the correct spelling of these names.

27. Against the attacks of robbers dwelling on the opposite side; the

Attali, for instance.

28. Or "dwellers in tents," Bedouins, as we call them.

29. B. v. c. 20 and 21

30. Towards Mahamedieh.

31. Near Antioch and the Orontes: now Seleukeh, or Kepse, near

Suadeiah.

32. See B. v. c. 13.

33. The Mediterranean and the Red Sea; the latter including the modern Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.




31. Chap. 31.-The Tigris.


CHAP. 31.-THE TIGRIS.



There is, besides the above, another town in Mesopotamia,

on the banks of the Tigris and near its confluence with the

Euphrates, the name of which is Digba.[1] (27.) But it will be

as well now to give some particulars respecting the Tigris

itself. This river rises in the region of Greater Armenia,[2]

from a very remarkable source, situate on a plain. The name

of the spot is Elegosine,[3] and the stream, as soon as it begins

to flow, though with a slow current, has the name of Diglito.[4]

When its course becomes more rapid, it assumes the name

of Tigris,[5] given to it on account of its swiftness, that

word signifying an arrow in the Median language. It then

flows into Lake Arethusa,[6] the waters of which are able to







support all weighty substances thrown into them, and exhale

nitrous vapours. This lake produces only one kind of fish,

which, however, never enter the current of the river in its

passage through the lake: and in a similar manner, the

fish of the Tigris will never swim out of its stream into the

waters of the lake. Distinguishable from the lake, both by

the rapidity and the colour of its waters, the tide of the river is

hurried along; after it has passed through and arrived at

Mount Taurus, it disappears[7] in a cavern of that mountain,

and passing beneath it, bursts forth on the other side;

the spot bears the name of Zoroande.[8] That the waters on

either side of the mountain are the same, is evident from the

fact, that bodies thrown in on the one side will reappear on the

other. It then passes through another lake, called Thospites,

and once more burying itself in the earth, reappears, after

running a distance of twenty-two miles, in the vicinity of

Nymphum.[9] Claudius Csar informs us that, in the district

of Arrene[10] it flows so near to the river Arsanias,[11] that when

their waters swell they meet and flow together, but without,

however, intermingling. For those of the Arsani, as he says,

being lighter, float on the surface of the Tigris for a distance

of nearly four miles, after which they separate, and the Arsanias flows into the Euphrates. The Tigris, after flowing through

Armenia and receiving the well-known rivers Parthenias and

Nicephorion, separates the Arabian Orei[12] from the Adiabeni,

and then forms by its course, as previously mentioned, the

country of Mesopotamia. After traversing the mountains of

the Gordyi,[13] it passes round Apamea,[14] a town of Mesene, one







hundred and twenty-five miles on this side of Babylonian Seleucia, and then divides into two channels, one[15] of which

runs southward, and flowing through Mesene, runs towards

Seleucia, while the other takes a turn to the north and passes

through the plains of the Cauch,[16] at the back of the district of Mesene. When the waters have reunited, the river

assumes the name of Pasitigris. After this, it receives the

Choaspes,[17] which comes from Media; and then, as we have

already stated,[18] flowing between Seleucia and Ctesiphon, discharges itself into the Chaldan Lakes, which it supplies for a

distance of seventy miles. Escaping from them by a vast

channel, it passes the city of Charax to the right, and empties

itself into the Persian Sea, being ten miles in width at the

mouth. Between the mouths of the two rivers Tigris and the

Euphrates, the distance was formerly twenty-five, or, according

to some writers, seven miles only, both of them being navigable to the sea. But the Orcheni and others who dwell on

its banks, have long since dammed up the waters of the

Euphrates for the purposes of irrigation, and it can only discharge itself into the sea by the aid of the Tigris.



The country on the banks of the Tigris is called Parapotamia;[19] we have already made mention of Mesene, one of its

districts. Dabithac[20] is a town there, adjoining to which is







the district of Chalonitis, with the city of Ctesiphon,[21] famous,

not only for its palm-groves, but for its olives, fruits, and other

shrubs. Mount Zagrus[22] reaches as far as this district, and extends from Armenia between the Medi and the Adiabeni,

above Partacene and Persis. Chalonitis[23] is distant from

Persis three hundred and eighty miles; some writers say

that by the shortest route it is the same distance from Assyria and the Caspian Sea.



Between these peoples and Mesene is Sittacene, which is

also called Arbelitis[24] and Palstine. Its city of Sittace[25] is

of Greek origin; this and Sabdata[26] lie to the east, and on the

west is Antiochia,[27] between the two rivers Tigris and Tornadotus,[28] as also Apamea,[29] to which Antiochus[30] gave this name,

being that of his mother. The Tigris surrounds this city,

which is also traversed by the waters of the Archos.







Below[31] this district is Susiane, in which is the city of Susa,[32]

the ancient residence of the kings of Persia, built by Darius,

the son of Hystaspes; it is distant from Seleucia Babylonia

four hundred and fifty miles, and the same from Ecbatana of

the Medi, by way of Mount Carbantus.[33] Upon the northern

channel of the river Tigris is the town of Babytace,[34] distant

from Susa one hundred and thirty-five miles. Here, for the

only place in all the world, is gold held in abhorrence; the

people collect it together and bury it in the earth, that it may

be of use to no one.[35] On the east of Susiane are the Oxii, a

predatory people, and forty independent savage tribes of the

Mizi. Above these are the Mardi and the Sait, subject to

Parthia: they extend above the district of Elymais, which we

have already mentioned[36] as joining up to the coast of Persis.

Susa is distant two hundred and fifty miles from the Persian

Sea. Near the spot where the fleet of Alexander came up[37] the

Pasitigris to Susa, there is a village situate on the Chaldan

Lake, Aple by name, from which to Susa is a distance of sixty

miles and a half. Adjoining to the people of Susiane, on the

east, are the Cossiei;[38] and above them, to the north, is Mesabatene, lying at the foot of Mount Cambalidus,[39] a branch of

the Caucasian chain: from this point the country of the Bactri

is most accessible.



Susiane is separated from Elymais by the river Eulus,

which rises in Media, and, after concealing itself in the

earth for a short distance, rises again and flows through Mesabatene. It then flows round the citadel of Susa[40] and the







temple of Diana, which is held in the highest veneration by

all these nations; the river itself being the object of many

pompous ceremonials; the kings, indeed, will drink of no

other water,[41] and for that reason carry it with them on their

journies to any considerable distance. This river receives the

waters of the Hedypnos,[42] which passes Asylus, in Persis,

and those of the Aduna, which rises in Susiane. Magoa[43] is

a town situate near it, and distant from Charax fifteen miles;

some writers place this town at the very extremity of Susiane,

and close to the deserts.



Below the Eulus is Elymais,[44] upon the coast adjoining to

Persis, and extending from the river Orates[45] to Charax, a distance of two hundred and forty miles. Its towns are Seleucia[46]

and Socrate,[47] upon Mount Casyrus. The shore which lies in

front of this district is, as we have already stated, rendered inaccessible by mud,[48] the rivers Brixa and Ortacea bringing

down vast quantities of slime from the interior,-Elymais

itself being so marshy that it is impossible to reach Persis

that way, unless by going completely round: it is also

greatly infested with serpents, which are brought down by

the waters of these rivers. That part of it which is the most

inaccessible of all, bears the name of Characene, from

Charax,[49] the frontier city of the kingdoms of Arabia. Of







this place we will now make mention, after first stating the

opinions of M. Agrippa in relation to this subject. That

author informs us that Media, Parthia, and Persis, are bounded

on the east by the Indus, on the west by the Tigris, on the

north by Taurus and Caucasus, and on the south by the Red

Sea; that the length of these countries is thirteen hundred and

twenty miles, and the breadth eight hundred and forty; and

that, in addition to these, there is Mesopotamia, which, taken

by itself, is bounded on the east by the Tigris, on the west

by the Euphrates, on the north by the chain of Taurus, and

on the south by the Persian Sea, being eight hundred miles in

length, and three hundred and sixty in breadth.



Charax is a city situate at the furthest extremity of the

Arabian Gulf, at which begins the more prominent portion of

Arabia Felix:[50] it is built on an artificial elevation, having the

Tigris on the right, and the Eulus on the left, and lies on

a piece of ground three miles in extent, just between the confluence of those streams. It was first founded by Alexander

the Great, with colonists from the royal city of Durine, which

was then destroyed, and such of his soldiers as were invalided

and left behind. By his order it was to be called Alexandria,

and a borough called Pella, from his native place, was to be

peopled solely by Macedonians; the city, however, was destroyed by inundations of the rivers. Antiochus,[51] the fifth king

of Syria, afterwards rebuilt this place and called it by his

own name; and on its being again destroyed, Pasines, the son

of Saggonadacus, and king of the neighbouring Arabians,

whom Juba has incorrectly described as a satrap of king Antiochus, restored it, and raised embankments for its protection,

calling it after himself. These embankments extended in

length a distance of nearly three miles, in breadth a little less.

It stood at first at a distance of ten stadia from the shore, and

even had a harbour[52] of its own. But according to Juba, it is

fifty miles from the sea; and at the present day, the ambassadors from Arabia, and our own merchants who have

visited the place, say that it stands at a distance of one hundred

and twenty miles from the sea-shore. Indeed, in no part of







the world have alluvial deposits been formed more rapidly by

the rivers, and to a greater extent than here; and it is only

a matter of surprise that the tides, which run to a considerable

distance beyond this city, do not carry them back again.

At this place was born Dionysius,[53] the most recent author of

a description of the world; he was sent by the late emperor

Augustus to gather all necessary information in the East, when

his eldest[54] son was about to set out for Armenia to take the

command against the Parthians and Arabians.



The fact has not escaped me, nor indeed have I forgotten,

that at the beginning of this work[55] I have remarked that each

author appeared to be most accurate in the description of his own

country; still, while I am speaking of these parts of the world,

I prefer to follow the discoveries made by the Roman arms, and

the description given by king Juba, in his work dedicated to

Caius Csar above-mentioned, on the subject of the same expedition against Arabia.







1. Forbiger is of opinion that this is the same as the Didigua or Didugua

of Ptolemy. It was situate below Alpamea. D'Anville takes it to be the

modern Corna.

2. The modern Turcomania.

3. Now known as the Plain of Chelat, according to Parisot, extending

between Chelat, a city situate on a great lake and the river Rosso, falling

into the Caspian Sea.

4. Called Diglith by Josephus. Hardouin states that in his time the

name given to the river by the natives was Daghela. This name is also

supposed to be another form of the Hiddekel of Scripture. See Genesis

ii. 14.

5. According to Bochart, this was a corruption of the Eastern name

Deghel, from which were derived the forms Deger, Teger, and ultimately

Tigris.

6. Ritter has identified this with the modern lake Nazuk, in Armenia,

about thirteen miles in length and five in breadth. The water at the present day is said to be sweet and wholesome.

7. Seneca, however, in his Qust. Nat. B. vi., represents the Tigris here

as gradually drying up and becoming gradually smaller, till it disappears.

8. This spot is considered by Parisot to be the modern city of Betlis.

9. A spot where liquid bitumen or naphtha was found.

10. Or probably Arzarene, a province of the south of Armenia, situate on

the left bank of the Tigris. It derived its name from the lake Arsene, or

the town Arzen, situate on this lake. It is comprehended in the modern

Pashalik of Dyr Bekr.

11. Now called the Myrd-cha. See B. v. c. 24. Ritter considers it to

be the southern arm of the Euphrates.

12. Or Aroei, as Littr suggests. See Note to c. 30 in p. 71.

13. See c. 17 of the present Book.

14. The site of this place seems to be unknown. It has been remarked

that it is difficult to explain the meaning of this passage of Pliny, or to

determine the probable site of Apamea.

15. Hardouin remarks that this is the right arm of the Tigris, by Stephanus Byzantinus called Delas, and by Eustathius Sylax, which last he

prefers.

16. According to Ammianus, one of the names of Seleucia on the Tigris

was Coche.

17. A river of Susiana, which, after passing Susa, flowed into the Tigris,

below its junction with the Euphrates. The indistinctness of the ancient

accounts has caused it to be confused with the Eulus, which flows nearly

parallel with it into the Tigris. It is pretty clear that they were not

identical. Pliny here states that they were different rivers, but makes the

mistake below, of saying that Susa was situate upon the Eulus, instead of

the Choaspes. These errors may be accounted for, it has been suggested,

by the fact that there are two considerable rivers which unite at Bund-i-

Kir, a little above Ahwaz, and form the ancient Pasitigris or modern

Karun. It is supposed that the Karun represents the ancient Eulus, and

the Kerkhah the Choaspes.

18. In c. 26 of the present Book. The custom of the Persian kings

drinking only of the waters of the Eulus and Choaspes, is mentioned in

B. xxxi. c. 21.

19. Or the country "by the river."

20. Pliny is the only writer who makes mention of this place. Parisot is of opinion that it is represented by the modern Digil-Ab, on the Tigris,

and suggests that Digilath may be the correct reading.

21. Mentioned in the last Chapter.

22. Now called the Mountains of Luristan.

23. The name of the district of Chalonitis is supposed to be still preserved in that of the river of Holwan. Pliny is thought, however, to have

been mistaken in placing the district on the river Tigris, as it lay to the

east of it, and close to the mountains.

24. From Arbela, in Assyria, which bordered on it.

25. A great and populous city of Babylonia, near the Tigris, but not on

it, and eight parasangs within the Median wall. The site is that probably

now called Eski Baghdad, and marked by a ruin called the Tower of

Nimrod. Parisot cautions against confounding it with a place of a similar

name, mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 17, a mistake into which, he says,

Hardouin has fallen.

26. Now called Felongia, according to Parisot. Hardouin considers it

the same as the Sambana of Diodorus Siculus, which Parisot looks upon

as the same as Ambar, to the north of Felongia.

27. Of this Antiochia nothing appears to be known. By some it has

been supposed to be the same with Apollonia, the chief town of the district of Apolloniatis, to the south of the district of Arbela.

28. Also called the Physcus, the modern Ordoneh, an eastern tributary of

the Tigris in Lower Assyria. The town of Opis stood at its junction with

the Tigris.

29. D'Anville supposes that this Apamea was at the point where the

Dijeil, now dry, branched off from the Tigris, which bifurcation he places

near Samurrah. Lynch, however, has shown that the Dijeil branched off

near Jibbarah, a little north of 34 North lat., and thinks that the Dijeil

once swept the end of the Median wall, and flowed between it and Jebbarah. Possibly this is the Apamea mentioned by Pliny in c. 27.

30. The son of Seleucus Nicator.

31. More to the south, and nearer the sea.

32. Previously mentioned in c. 26.

33. A part of Mount Zagrus, previously mentioned, according to Hardouin.

34. Its site appears to be unknown. According to Stephanus, it was a

city of Persia. Forbiger conjectures that it is the same place as Badaca,

mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, B. xix. c. 19; but that was probably

nearer to Susa.

35. The buryer excepted, perhaps.

36. In c. 28 of the present Book.

37. As mentioned in c. 26 of the present Book,

38. A warlike tribe on the borders of Susiana and the Greater Media. In

character they are thought to have resembled the Bakhtiara tribes, who

now roam over the mountains which they formerly inhabited. It has been

suggested that their name may possibly be connected with the modern

Khuzistan.

39. Supposed to be the same as the modern Kirmnshah mountains.

40. As mentioned in a previous Note, (67 in p. 77), Pliny mistakes the Eulus for the Choaspes. In c. 26 he says that Susa is on the river

Tigris.

41. Pliny says this in B. xxxi. c. 21 of both the Eulus and the Choaspes.

42. Most probably the Hedyphon of Strabo, supposed to be the same as

that now called the Djerrabi.

43. Parisot thinks that this is the modern Jessed, in the vicinity of the

desert of Bealbanet.

44. Previously mentioned in c. 28.

45. The modern Tab.

46. Now called Camata, according to Parisot.

47. The modern Saurac, according to Parisot. The more general reading

is "Sosirate."

48. Our author has nowhere made any such statement as this, for which

reason Hardouin thinks that he here refers to the maritime region mentioned in c. 29 of the present Book (p. 69), the name of which Sillig reads

as Ciribo. Hardouin would read it as Syrtibolos, and would give it the

meaning of the "muddy district of the Syrtes." It is more likely, however, that Pliny has made a slip, and refers to something which, by

inadvertence, he has omitted to mention.

49. Charax Spasinu, or Pasinu, previously mentioned in c. 26 (see p. 62).

The name Charax applied to a town, seems to have meant a fortified place.

50. Called "Eudemon" by Pliny.

51. The Great, the father of Antiochus Epiphanes.

52. Though this passage is probably corrupt, the reading employed by

Sillig is inadmissible, as it makes nothing but nonsense. "Et jam Vip

sanda porticus habet;" "and even now, Vipsanda has its porticos."

53. Dionysius of Charax. No particulars of him are known beyond those

mentioned by Pliny.

54. Caius, the son of Marcus Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of Augustus. He was the adopted son of Augustus.

55. See B. iii. c. 1, p. 151, in vol. 1.




32. Chap. 32. (28.)-Arabia.


CHAP. 32. (28.)-ARABIA.



Arabia, inferior to no country throughout the whole world,

is of immense extent, running downwards, as we have previously stated,[1] from Mount Amanus, over against Cilicia and

Commagene; many of the Arabian nations having been removed to those countries by Tigranes the Great,[2] while others

again have migrated of their own accord to the shores of our

sea[3] and the coast of Egypt, as we have already mentioned.[4]

The Nubei[5] have even penetrated as far as Mount Libanus in

the middle of Syria; in their turn they are bounded by the

Ramisi, these by the Taranei, and these again by the Patami.



As for Arabia itself, it is a peninsula, running out between

the Red and the Persian Seas; and it is by a kind of design,







apparently on the part of nature, that it is surrounded by the

sea in such a manner as to resemble very much the form and

size[6] of Italy, there being no difference either in the climate of

the two countries, as they lie in the same latitudes.[7] This,

too, renders it equally fertile with the countries of Italy. We

have already mentioned[8] its peoples, which extend from our sea

as far as the deserts of Palmyrene, and we shall now proceed to

a description of the remainder. The Scenit, as we have already

stated,[9] border upon the Nomades and the tribes that ravage

the territories of Chalda, being themselves of wandering habits,

and receiving their name from the tents which constitute their

dwellings; these are made of goats' hair, and they pitch them

wherever they please. Next after them are the Nabati,

who have a city called Petra,[10] which lies in a deep valley,

somewhat less than two miles in width, and surrounded by

inaccessible mountains, between which a river flows: it is

distant from the city of Gaza, on our shores, six hundred

miles, and from the Persian Gulf one hundred and thirty-five.

At this place two roads meet, the one leading from Syria to

Palmyra, and the other from Gaza. On leaving Petra we come

to the Omani,[11] who dwell as far as Charax, with their once

famous cities which were built by Semiramis, Besannisa and

Soractia by name; at the present day they are wildernesses.

We next come to a city situate on the banks of the Pasitigris,

Fora by name, and subject to the king of Charax: to this

place people resort on their road from Petra, and sail thence

to Charax, twelve miles distant, with the tide. If you are

proceeding by water from the Parthian territories, you come

to a village known as Teredon; and below the confluence of

the Euphrates and Tigris, you have the Chaldi dwelling







on the left side of the river, and the Nomadic tribes of the

Scenit on the right. Some writers also make mention

of two other cities situate at long intervals, as you sail along

the Tigris, Barbatia, and then Thumata, distant from Petra,

they say, ten days' sail; our merchants report that these places

are subject to the king of Charax. The same writers also state,

that Apamea[12] is situate where the overflow of the Euphrates

unites with the Tigris; and that when the Parthians meditate

an incursion, the inhabitants dam up the river by embankments,

and so inundate their country.



We will now proceed to describe the coast after leaving

Charax,[13] which was first explored by order of king Epiphanes.

We first come to the place where the mouth of the Euphrates

formerly existed, the river Salsus,[14] and the Promontory of

Chaldone,[15] from which spot, the sea along the coast, for an

extent of fifty miles,[16] bears more the aspect of a series of

whirlpools than of ordinary sea; the river Achenus, and then a

desert tract for a space of one hundred miles, until we come

to the island of Ichara; the gulf of Capeus, on the shores of

which dwell the Gaulopes and the Chateni, and then the gulf

of Gerra.[17] Here we find the city of Gerra, five miles in

circumference, with towers built of square blocks of salt. Fifty

miles from the coast, lying in the interior, is the region of At-







tene, and opposite to Gerra is the island of Tylos,[18] as many miles

distant from the shore; it is famous for the vast number of its

pearls, and has a town of the same name; in its vicinity there

is a smaller island,[19] distant from a promontory on the larger

one twelve miles and a half. They say that beyond this large

islands may be seen, upon which no one has ever landed:

the circumference of the smaller island is one hundred and

twelve miles and a half; and it is more than that distance from

the Persian coast, being accessible by only one narrow channel. We then come to the island of Asclie, and the nations

of the Nocheti, the Zurazi, the Borgodi, the Catharrei, the

Nomades, and then the river Cynos.[20] Beyond this, the navigation is impracticable on that side,[21] according to Juba, on

account of the rocks; and he has omitted all mention of Batrasave,[22] a town of the Omani, and of the city of Omana,[23]

which former writers have made out to be a famous port of

Carmania;[24] as also of Homna and Attana, towns which at

the present day, our merchants say, are by far the most famous

ones in the Persian Sea. Passing the river Cynos,[25] there is

a mountain, Juba says, that bears marks of the action of fire;

also, the nation of the Epimaranit, then a nation of Ichthyophagi, and then a desert island, and the nation of the

Bathymi. We then come to the Eblitan Mountains, the

island of Omonus, the port of Mochorbe, the islands of

Etaxalos and Inchobrice, and the nation of the Cadi. There

are many islands also that have no name, but the better known

ones are Isura, Rhinnea, and another still nearer the shore,

upon which there are some stone pillars with an inscription in

unknown characters. There are also the port of Goba, the

desert islands called Brag, the nation of the Thaludi, the







region of Dabanegoris, Mount Orsa, with a harbour, the gulf of

Duatus, with numerous islands, Mount Tricoryphos,[26] the region

of Cardaleon, and the islands called Solanades, Cachinna, and

that of the Ichthyophagi. We then find the Clari, the shore

of Mamum, on which there are gold mines, the region of Canauna, the nations of the Apitami and the Casani, the island of

Devade, the fountain of Coralis, the Carphati, the islands of

Calau and Amnamethus, and the nation of the Darr. Also,

the island of Chelonitis,[27] numerous islands of Ichthyophagi,

the deserts of Odanda, Basa, many islands of the Sabi, the

rivers Thanar and Amnume, the islands of Dorice, and the

fountains of Daulotos and Dora. We find also the islands of

Pteros, Labatanis, Coboris, and Sambrachate, with a town of

the same name[28] on the mainland. Lying to the south are a

great number of islands, the largest of which is Camari; also

the river Musecros, and the port of Laupas. We then come

to the Sabi, a nation of Scenit,[29] with numerous islands, and

the city of Acila,[30] which is their mart, and from which persons

embark for India. We next come to the region of Amithos-

cutta. Damnia, the Greater and the Lesser Mizi, and the

Drimati. The promontory of the Naumachi, over against

Carmania, is distant from it fifty miles. A wonderful circumstance is said to have happened here; Numenius, who was

made governor of Mesena by king Antiochus, while fighting

against the Persians, defeated them at sea, and at low water,

by land, with an army of cavalry, on the same day; in

memory of which event he erected a twofold trophy on the

same spot, in honour of Jupiter and Neptune.[31]



Opposite to this place, in the main sea, lies the island of Ogyris,[32]







famous for being the burial-place of king Erythras;[33] it is distant from the mainland one hundred and twenty miles, being

one hundred and twelve in circumference. No less famous is

another island, called Dioscoridu,[34] and lying in the Azanian

Sea;[35] it is distant two hundred and eighty miles from the

extreme point of the Promontory of Syagrus.[36]



The remaining places and nations on the mainland, lying

still to the south, are the Ausarit, to whose country it is seven

days' journey among the mountains, the nations of the Larendani and the Catabani, and the Gebanit, who occupy a great

number of towns, the largest of which are Nagia, and Thomna

with sixty-five temples, a number which fully bespeaks its size.

We then come to a promontory, from which to the mainland

of the Troglodyt it is fifty miles, and then the Thoani, the

Acti, the Chatramotit, the Tonabei, the Antidalei, the Lexian, the Agri, the Cerbani, and the Sabi,[37] the best known

of all the tribes of Arabia, on account of their frankincense;

these nations extend from sea to sea.[38] The towns which belong to them on the Red Sea are Marane, Marma, Corolia, and

Sabatha; and in the interior, Nascus, Cardava, Carnus, and

Thomala, from which they bring down their spices for exportation. One portion of this nation is the Atramit,[39] whose







capital, Sabota, has sixty temples within its walls. But the

royal city of all these nations is Mariaba;[40] it lies upon a bay,

ninety-four miles in extent, and filled with islands that produce

perfumes. Lying in the interior, and joining up to the Atramit, are the Miti; are the Min; the Elamit[41] dwell on the sea-shore, in a

city from which they take their name. Next to these are the

Chaculat; then the town of Sibi, by the Greeks called Apate;[42]

the Arsi, the Codani, the Vadei, who dwell in a large town,

the Barasasi, the Lechieni, and the island of Sygaros,[43] into

the interior of which no dogs are admitted, and so being exposed on the sea shore, they wander about there and are left to

die. We then come to a gulf which runs far into the interior, upon which are situate the Lnit, who have given

to it their name; also their royal city of Agra,[44] and upon

the gulf that of Lana, or as some call it lana;[45] indeed,

by some of our writers this has been called the lanitic Gulf,

and by others again, the lenitic; Artemidorus calls it the

Alenitic, and Juba the Lnitic. The circumference of Arabia,

measured from Charax to Lana, is said to be four thousand

six hundred and sixty-six miles, but Juba thinks that it is

somewhat less than four thousand. Its widest part is at the

north, between the cities of Heroopolis and Charax. We will

now mention the remaining places and peoples of the interior

of Arabia.



Up to the Nabati[46] the ancients joined the Thimanei; at

present they have next to them the Taveni, and then the Suelleni, the Arraeeni,[47] and the Areni,[48] whose town is the centre of







all the commerce of these parts. Next come the Hemnat,

the Aualit, the towns of Domata and Hegra, the Tamudi,[49]

with the town of Badanatha, the Carrei, with the town of

Cariati,[50] the Achoali, with the town of Foth, and the Mini,

who derive their origin, it is supposed,[51] from Minos, king of

Crete, and of whom the Carmi are a tribe. Next comes a

town, fourteen miles distant, called Marippa, and belonging to

the Palamaces, a place by no means to be overlooked, and then

Carnon. The Rhadami also-these too are supposed to derive

their origin[52] from Rhadamanthus, the brother of Minos-the

Homerit,[53] with their city of Masala,[54] the Hamirei, the Gedranit, the Amphyr, the Ilisanit, the Bachilit, the Samni, the Amitei, with the towns of Nessa[55] and Cennesseris,

the Zamareni, with the towns of Sagiatta and Canthace, the

Bacascami, the town of Riphearma, the name by which they

call barley, the Autei, the Ethravi, the Cyrei and the Mathatri, the Helmodenes, with the town of Ebode, the Agacturi,

dwelling in the mountains, with a town twenty miles distant,

in which is a fountain called nuscabales,[56] which signifies

"the town of the camels." Ampelome[57] also, a Milesian

colony, the town of Athrida, the Calingii, whose city is called

Mariva,[58] and signifies "the lord of all men;" the towns of

Palon and Murannimal, near a river by which it is thought that

the Euphrates discharges itself, the nations of the Agrei and

the Ammonii, the town of Athen, the Caunaravi, a name







which signifies "most rich in herds," the Coranit, the sani,

and the Choani.[59] Here were also formerly the Greek towns

of Arethusa, Larisa, and Chalcis, which have been destroyed

in various wars.



lius Gallus,[60] a member of the Equestrian order, is the

sole person who has hitherto carried the Roman arms into these

lands, for Caius Csar, the son[61] of Augustus, only had a distant view of Arabia. In his expedition, Gallus destroyed the

following towns, the names of which are not given by the

authors who had written before his time, Negrana, Nestum,

Nesca, Masugum, Caminacum, Labecia, and Mariva[62] above-

mentioned, six miles in circumference, as also Caripeta, the

furthest point of his expedition. He brought back with him

the following discoveries-that the Nomades[63] live upon milk

and the flesh of wild beasts, and that the other nations, like

the Indians, extract a sort of wine from the palm-tree, and

oil from sesame.[64] He says that the most numerous of these

tribes are the Homerit and the Mini, that their lands are

fruitful in palms and shrubs, and that their chief wealth is

centred in their flocks. We also learn from the same source

that the Cerbani and the Agri excel in arms, but more

particularly the Chatramotit;[65] that the territories of the

Carrei are the most extensive and most fertile; but that the

Sabi are the richest of all in the great abundance of their

spice-bearing groves, their mines of gold,[66] their streams for







irrigation, and their ample produce of honey and wax. Of

their perfumes we shall have to treat more at large in the

Book devoted to that subject.[67] The Arabs either wear the

mitra,[68] or else go with their hair unshorn, while the beard

is shaved, except upon the upper lip: some tribes, however,

leave even the beard unshaved. A singular thing too, one half

of these almost innumerable tribes live by the pursuits of commerce, the other half by rapine: take them all in all, they are

the richest nations in the world, seeing that such vast wealth

flows in upon them from both the Roman and the Parthian

Empires; for they sell the produce of the sea or of their forests,

while they purchase nothing whatever in return.







1. In B. v. c. 21 and 22.

2. Who called himself the King of kings, and was finally conquered by

Pompey.

3. The Mediterranean.

4. See B. v. c. 12.

5. Salmasius thinks that this should be written "Nombei;" but Hardouin remarks that the Nombi were not of Arabian but Jewish extraction, and far distant from Mount Libanus.

6. The only resemblance between them is, that each is a peninsula; that

of Arabia being of far greater extent than Italy. It will be remarked that

here, contrary to his ordinary practice, Pliny makes a distinction between

the Red Sea and the Persian Sea or Gulf.

7. "In eandem etiam cli partem nulla differentia spectat." A glance

at the map will at once show the fallacy of this assertion.

8. In B. v. c. 12 and 21.

9. In c. 30 of the present Book.

10. Mentioned in B. v. c. 21, if, indeed, that is the same Petra.

11. Omana or Omanum was their chief place, a port on the north-east

coast of Arabia Felix, a little above the promontory of Syagros, now Ras

el Had, on a large gulf of the same name. The name is still preserved in

the modern name Oman.

12. In Sitacene, mentioned in the preceding Chapter.

13. Or rather, as Hardouin says, the shore opposite to Charax, and on

the western bank of the river.

14. Called Core Boobian, a narrow salt-water channel, laid down for the

first time in the East India Company's chart, and separating a large low

island, off the mouth of the old bed of the Euphrates, from the mainland.

15. The great headland on the coast of Arabia, at the entrance of the

bay of Doat-al-Kusma from the south, opposite to Pheleche Island.

16. This is the line of coast extending from the great headland last mentioned to the river Khadema, the ancient Achenus.

17. So called from the city of Arabia Felix, built on its shores. Strabo

says of this city "The city of Gerra lies in a deep gulf, where Chaldan

exiles from Babylon inhabit a salt country, having houses built of salt,

the walls of which, when they are wasted by the heat of the sun, are

repaired by copious applications of sea-water." D'Anville first identified

this place with the modern El Khatiff. Niebuhr finds its site on the

modern Koneit of the Arabs, called "Gran" by the Persians; but Foster

is of opinion that he discovered its ruins in the East India Company's

Chart, situate where all the ancient authorities had placed it, at the end

of the deep and narrow bay at the mouth of which are situated the islands

of Bahrein. The gulf mentioned by Pliny is identified by Foster with

that of Bahrein.

18. The modern island of Bahrein, according to Brotier, still famous for its

pearl-fishery.

19. Now Samaki, according to Ansart. Its ancient name was Aradus.

20. Hardouin takes this to be that which by the Arabians is called by the

name of Falg.

21. On the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf.

22. Considered by modern geographers to be identical in situation with

the Black Mountains and the Cape of Asabi, and still marked by a town

and district named Sabee, close to Cape Mussendom.

23. In the modern district still called Oman.

24. On the opposite coast.

25. He calls it Canis, evidently thinking that "Cynos" was its Greek

appellation only: as meaning the "Dogs'" river.

26. Or the mountain "with the Three Peaks."

27. Stephanus mentions this as an island of the Erythran Sea. Hardly

any of these places appear to have been identified; and there is great uncertainty as to the orthography of the names.

28. From which came the myrrh mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 36.

29. Or the Tent-Dwellers, the modern Bedouins.

30. By some geographers identified with the Ocelis or Ocila, mentioned

in c. 26, the present Zee Hill or Ghela, a short distance to the south of

Mocha, and to the north of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Hardouin says,

however, that it was a different place, Acila being in the vicinity of the

Persian Gulf, in which he appears to be correct.

31. Nothing relative to Numenius beyond this fact has been recorded.

32. Hardouin and Ansart think that under this name is meant the

island called in modern times Mazira or Maceira.

33. There seem to have been three mythical personages of this name;

but it appears impossible to distinguish the one from the other.

34. Or "Dioscoridis Insula," an island of the Indian Ocean, of considerable importance as an emporium or mart, in ancient times. It lay

between the Syagrus Promontorium, in Arabia, and Aromata Promontorium, now Cape Guardafui, on the opposite coast of Africa, somewhat

nearer to the former, according to Arrian, which cannot be the case if it is

rightly identified with Socotorra, 200 miles distant from the Arabian

coast, and 110 from the north-east promontory of Africa.

35. So called from Azania, or Barbaria, now Ajan, south of Somauli, on

the mainland of Africa.

36. Now Cape Fartash, in Arabia.

37. Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture, the

queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the south-western

corner of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the province of Yemen,

though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give it a still wider

extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabi most probably spread

originally on both sides of the southern part of the Red Sea, the shores of

Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba, in which, according to their

usage, their king was confined a close prisoner.

38. The Persian Gulf to the Rd Sea.

39. The modern district of Hadramaut derives its name from this people, who were situate on the coast of the Red Sea to the east of Aden. Sabota, their capital, was a great emporium for their drugs and spices.

40. Still known as Mareb, according to Ansart.

41. Hardouin is doubtful as to this name, and thinks that it ought to be

Elait, or else Lanit, the people again mentioned below.

42. A name which looks very much like "fraud," or "cheating," as

Hardouin observes, from the Greek a)pa/th.

43. Off the Promontory of Ras-el-Had.

44. Probably in the district now known as Akra. It was situate on the

eastern coast of the Red Sea, at the foot of Mount Hippus.

45. See B. v. c. 12, where this town is mentioned.

46. Whose chief city was Petra, previously mentioned.

47. Supposed by some writers to have been the ancestors of the Saracens,

so famous in the earlier part of the middle ages. Some of the MSS., indeed, read "Sarraceni."

48. Their town is called Arra by Ptolemy.

49. Their district is still called Thamud, according to Ansart.

50. Still called Cariatain, according to Ansart.

51. A ridiculous fancy, probably founded solely on the similarity of the

name.

52. A story as probable, Hardouin observes, as that about the descendants

of Minos.

53. The Arabs of Yemen, known in Oriental history by the name of

Himyari, were called by the Greeks Homerit.

54. An inland city, called Masthala by Ptolemy.

55. Agatharchides speaks of a town on the sea coast, which was so called

from the multitude of ducks found there. The one here spoken of was in

the interior, and cannot be the same.

56. Hardouin observes, that neither this word, nor the name Riphearma, above mentioned, has either a Hebrew or an Arabian origin.

57. Probably the same place as we find spoken of by Herodotus as Ampe,

and at which Darius settled a colony of Miletians after the capture of

Miletus, B. C. 494.

58. Hardouin remarks that Mariaba, the name found in former editions,

has no such meaning in the modern Arabic.

59. Mentioned by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, B. v. 1. 165, et seq.

Sillig, however, reads "Ciani."

60. An intimate friend of the geographer Strabo. He was prefect of

Egypt during part of the reign of Augustus, and in the years B. C. 24 and

25. Many particulars have been given by Strabo of his expedition against

Arabia, in which he completely failed. The heat of the sun, the badness

of the water, and the want of the necessaries of life, destroyed the greater

part of his army.

61. By adoption, as previously stated.

62. The town of the Calingii, mentioned above.

63. Or wandering tribes.

64. Its uses in medicine are stated at length in the last Chapter of B. xxi.

65. Another form of the name of Atramit previously mentioned, the

ancient inhabitants of the part of Arabia known as Hadramant, and

settled, as is supposed, by the descendants of the Joctanite patriarch

Hazarmaveth.

66. Arabia at the present day yields no gold, and very little silver. The

queen of Sheba is mentioned as bringing gold to Solomon, 1 Kings, x. 2,

2 Chron. ix. i. Artemidorus and Diodorus Siculus make mention, on the Arabian Gulf, of the Deb, the Alili, and the Gasandi, in whose territories native gold was found. These last people, who did not know its

value, were in the habit of bringing it to their neighbours, the Sabi, and

exchanging it for articles of iron and copper.

67. B. xii.

68. The "mitra," which was a head-dress especially used by the Phrygians, was probably of varied shape, and may have been the early form of

the eastern turban.




33. Chap. 33.-The Gulfs Of The Red Sea.


CHAP. 33.-THE GULFS OF THE RED SEA.



We will now trace the rest of the coast that lies opposite

to that of Arabia. Timosthenes has estimated the length of

the whole gulf at four days' sail, and the breadth at two,

making the Straits[1] to be seven miles and a half in width.

Eratosthenes says that the length of the shore from the mouth

of the gulf is thirteen hundred miles on each side, while Artemidorus states that the length on the Arabian side is seventeen hundred and fifty miles, (29.) and that along the Troglodytic coast, to Ptolemais, the distance is eleven hundred

and thirty-seven and a half. Agrippa, however, maintains

that there is no difference whatever in the length of the two

sides, and makes it seventeen hundred and twenty-two miles.

Most writers mention the length as being four hundred and

seventy-five miles, and make the Straits to face the southeast,

being twelve miles wide according to some, fifteen according to

others.



The localities of this region are as follow: On passing the

lanitic Gulf there is another gulf, by the Arabians called







Sa, upon which is situate the city of Heron.[2] The town

of Cambysu[3] also stood here formerly, between the Neli and

the Marchades, Cambyses having established there the invalids of his army. We then come to the nation of the Tyri,

and the port of the Danei, from which place an attempt has

been made to form a navigable canal to the river Nile, at the

spot where it enters the Delta previously mentioned,[4] the

distance between the river and the Red Sea being sixty-two

miles. This was contemplated first of all by Sesostris,[5] king

of Egypt, afterwards by Darius, king of the Persians, and

still later by Ptolemy II.,[6] who also made a canal, one hundred

feet in width and forty deep, extending a distance of thirty-seven miles and a half, as far as the Bitter Springs.[7] He was

deterred from proceeding any further with this work by apprehensions of an inundation, upon finding that the Red Sea

was three cubits higher than the land in the interior of Egypt.

Some writers, however, do not allege this as the cause, but

say that his reason was, a fear lest, in consequence of introducing the sea, the water of the Nile might be spoilt, that being

the only source from which the Egyptians obtain water for

drinking. Be this as it may, the whole of the journey from

the Egyptian Sea is usually performed by land one of the

three following ways:-Either from Pelusium across the sands,

in doing which the only method of finding the way is by means

of reeds fixed in the earth, the wind immediately effacing all







traces of footsteps: by the route which begins two miles beyond Mount Casius, and at a distance of sixty miles enters the

road from Pelusium, adjoining to which road the Arabian

tribe of the Autei dwell; or else by a third route, which

leads from Gerrum, and which they call Adipsos,[8] passing

through the same Arabians, and shorter by nearly sixty miles,

but running over rugged mountains and through a district

destitute of water. All these roads lead to Arsino,[9] a city

founded in honour of his sister's name, upon the Gulf of Carandra, by Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was the first to explore

Troglodytice, and called the river which flows before Arsino

by the name of Ptolemus. After this comes the little town

of Enum, by some writers mentioned as Philotera; next to

which are the Abasi, a nation sprung from intermarriages

with the Troglodyt, then some wild Arabian tribes, the islands

of Sapirine and Scytala, and after these, deserts as far as

Myoshormon, where we find the fountain of Tatnos, Mount

as, the island of Iambe, and numerous harbours. Berenice

also, is here situate, so called after the name of the mother of

Philadelphus, and to which there is a road from Coptos, as we

have previously stated;[10] then the Arabian Autei, and the Zebadei.







1. The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.

2. Or Heropolis, a city east of the Delta, in Egypt, and situate near

the mouth of the royal canal which connected the Nile with the Red Sea.

It was of considerable consequence as a trading station upon the arm of the

Red Sea, which runs up as far as Arsino, the modern Suez, and was

called the "Gulf" or "Bay of the Heroes." The ruins of Heropolis

are still visible at Abu-Keyscheid.

3. This place, as here implied, took its name from Cambyses, the son of

Cyrus.

4. In c. 9 of the preceding Book. "Dictum," however, may only mean,

"called" the Delta.

5. Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Tzetzes, mention this, not with reference to Sesostris, but Necho, the grandson of Sesostris.

6. Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of Ptolemy Soter, or Lagides.

7. Now known by the name of Scheib. They derived their name from

the saline flavour and deposition of their waters. These springs were

strongly impregnated with alkaline salts, and with muriate of lime washed

from the rocks which separated the Delta from the Red Sea. The salt

which they produced being greatly valued, they were on that account regarded as the private property of the kings.

8. The "not thirsty" route, so called by way of antiphrasis.

9. See B. v. c. 9.

10. In c. 26 of the present Book.




34. Chap. 34.-Troglodytice.


CHAP. 34.-TROGLODYTICE.



Troglodytice comes next, by the ancients called Mido, and

by some Micho; here is Mount Pentedactylos, some islands

called Sten Deir,[1] the Halonnesi,[2] a group of islands

not less in number, Cardamine, and Topazos,[3] which last has

given its name to the precious stone so called. The gulf is

full of islands; those known as Mareu are supplied with

fresh water, those called Erenos, are without it; these were

ruled by governors[4] appointed by the kings. In the interior







are the Candei, also called Ophiophagi, a people in the habit

of eating serpents; there is no region in existence more productive of them.



Juba, who appears to have investigated all these matters

with the greatest diligence, has omitted, in his description of

these regions-unless, indeed, it be an error in the copying-another place called Berenice and surnamed Panchrysos,[5] as

also a third surnamed Epidires,[6] and remarkable for the

peculiarity of its site; for it lies on a long projecting neck of

land, at the spot where the Straits at the mouth of the Red

Sea separate the coast of Africa from Arabia by a distance

of seven miles only: here too is the island of Cytis,[7] which

also produces the topaz.



Beyond this are forests, in which is Ptolemais,[8] built by

Philadelphus for the chase of the elephant, and thence called

Epitheras,[9] situate near Lake Monoleus. This is the same region

that has been already mentioned by us in the Second Book,[10]

and in which, during forty-five days before the summer solstice

and for as many after, there is no shadow at the sixth hour, and

during the other hours of the day it falls to the south; while at

other times it falls to the north; whereas at the Berenice of

which we first[11] made mention, on the day of the summer solstice

the shadow totally disappears at the sixth hour, but no other

unusual phnomenon is observed. That place is situate at a

distance of six hundred and two miles from Ptolemais, which







has thus become the subject of a remarkable theory, and has

promoted the exercise of a spirit of the most profound investigation; for it was at this spot that the extent of the earth was

first ascertained, it being the fact that Erastosthenes, beginning

at this place by the accurate calculation of the length of the

shadow, was enabled to determine with exactness the dimensions of the earth.



After passing this place we come to the Azanian[12] Sea, a

promontory by some writers called Hispalus, Lake Mandalum,

and the island of Colocasitis, with many others lying out in

the main sea, upon which multitudes of turtles are found.

We then come to the town of Suche, the island of Daphnidis,[13]

and the town of the Adulit,[14] a place founded by Egyptian

runaway slaves. This is the principal mart for the Troglodyte,

as also for the people of thiopia: it is distant from Ptolemais

five days' sail. To this place they bring ivory in large quantities, horns of the rhinoceros, hides of the hippopotamus, tortoise-shell, sphingi,[15] and slaves. Beyond the thiopian Aroter are the islands known by the name of Aliu,[16] as also those

of Bacchias, Antibacchias, and Stratioton. After passing these,

on the coast of thiopia, there is a gulf which remains unexplored still; a circumstance the more to be wondered at, seeing

that merchants have pursued their investigations to a greater

distance than this. We then come to a promontory, upon

which there is a spring called Cucios,[17] much resorted to by







mariners. Beyond it is the Port of Isis, distant ten days'

rowing from the town of the Adulit: myrrh is brought to this

port by the Troglodyt. The two islands before the harbour

are called Pseudepyl,[18] and those in it, the same in number,

are known as Pyl;[19] upon one of these there are some stone

columns inscribed with unknown characters. Beyond these is

the Gulf of Abalites, the island of Diodorus,[20] and other desert islands; also, on the mainland, a succession of deserts, and

then the town of Gaza, and the promontory and port of Mossylum,[21] to the latter of which cinnamon is brought for exportation: it was thus far that Sesostris led[22] his army.



Some writers place even beyond this, upon the shore, one

town of Ethiopia, called Baricaza. Juba will have it that at

the Promontory of Mossylum[23] the Atlantic Sea begins, and that

with a north-west wind[24] we may sail past his native country, the

Mauritanias, and arrive at Gades. We ought not on this occasion to curtail any portion of the opinions so expressed by him.

He says that after we pass the promontory of the Indians,[25]

known as Lepteacra, and by others called Drepanum, the distance, in a straight line, beyond the island of Exusta and

Malichu, is fifteen hundred miles; from thence to a place

called Sceneos two hundred and twenty-five; and from thence to

the island of Adanu one hundred and fifty miles; so that the dis-







tance to the open sea[26] is altogether eighteen hundred and

seventy-five miles. All the other writers, however, are of

opinion that, in consequence of the intensity of the sun's heat,

this sea is not navigable; added to which, commerce is

greatly exposed to the depredations of a piratical tribe of

Arabians called Ascit,[27] who dwell upon the islands: placing

two inflated skins of oxen beneath a raft of wood, they ply their

piratical vocation with the aid of. poisoned arrows. We learn

also from the same author that some nations of the Troglodytae

have the name of Therotho,[28] being so called from their skill

in hunting. They are remarkable for their swiftness, he says,

just as the Ichthyophagi are, who can swim like the animals

whose element is the sea. He speaks also of the Bangeni, the

Gangor, the Chalybes, the Xoxin, the Sirech, the Darem,

and the Domazames. Juba states, too, that the inhabitants

who dwell on the banks of the Nile from Syene as far as Mero,

are not a people of thiopia, but Arabians; and that the city

of the Sun, which we have mentioned[29] as situate not far

from Memphis, in our description of Egypt, was founded by

Arabians. There are some writers who take away the further bank of the Nile from thiopia,[30] and unite it to

Africa;[31] and they people its sides with tribes attracted thither

by its water. We shall leave these matters, however, to the

option of each, to form his opinion on them, and shall now

proceed to mention the towns on each side[32] in the order in

which they are given.







1. Or "narrow necks," apparently, from the Greek sthnai\ deirai\. If

this be the correct reading, they were probably so called from the narrow

strait which ran between them.

2. An island called Halonnesus has been already mentioned in B iv.

c. 23. None of these islands appear to have been identified.

3. See B. xxxvii. c. 32.

4. This seems to be the meaning, though, literally translated, it would

be, "These were the prefects of kings."

5. It obtained this title ofpa/nxrusos, or "all golden," from its vicinity to the gold mines of Jebel Allaki, or Ollaki, from which the ancient

Egyptians drew their principal supply of that metal, and in the working

of which they employed criminals and prisoners of war.

6. Or e)pi\ deirh=s, "upon the neck." It was situate on the western side

of the Red Sea, near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.

7. Ansart suggests that the modern island of Mehun is here meant.

Gosselin is of opinion that Pliny is in error in mentioning two islands in

the Red Sea as producing the topaz.

8. Called Theron, as well as Epitheras. It was an emporium on the

coast of the Red Sea for the trade with India and Arabia. It was chiefly

remarkable for its position in mathematical geography, as, the sun having

been observed to be directly over it forty-five days before and after the

summer solstice, the place was taken as one of the points for determining

the length of a degree of a great circle on the earth's surface.

9. From the Greek e)pi\ qh/ras, "for hunting."

10. In B. ii. c. 75.

11. In the same Chapter.

12. So called from Azania, the adjoining coast of Africa, now known as

that of Ajan. It was inhabited by a race of thiopians, who were engaged in catching and taming elephants, and supplying the markets of the

Red Sea coast with hides and ivory.

13. Now called Seyrman, according to Gosselin.

14. Its name was Adule, being the chief haven of the Adulit, of mixed

origin, in the Troglodytic region, situate on a bay of the Red Sea, called

Aduliticus Sinus. It is generally supposed that the modern Thulla or

Zulla, still pronounced Azoole, occupies its site, being situate in lat. 15'

35' N. Ruins are said to exist there. D'Anville, however, in his map

of the Red Sea, places Adule at Arkeeko, on the same coast, and considerably

to the north of Thulla. According to Cosmas, Adule was about two

miles in the interior.

15. Pliny gives a further description of this ape in B. viii. c. 21., and B. x.

c. 72. They were much valued by the Roman ladies for pets, and very

high prices were given for them.

16. Now called Dahal-Alley, according to Gosselin.

17. Hardouin, from Strabo, suggests that the reading ought to be Co-

racios.

18. The "False Gates."

19. The "Gates."

20. D'Anville and Gosselin think that this is the island known as the

French Island.

21. Ansart thinks that this promontory is that known as Cape de Meta,

and that the port is at the mouth of the little river called Soul or Soal.

22. In his Ethiopian expedition. According to Strabo, he had altars and

pillars erected there to record it.

23. Under the impression entertained by the ancients, that the southern

progress of the coast of Africa stopped short here, and that it began at this

point to trend away gradually to the north-west.

24. Coro. Salmasius seems with justice, notwithstanding the censures of

Hardouin, to have found considerable difficulty in this passage. If it is

Pliny's meaning that by sea round the south of the Promontory of Mossylum there is a passage to the extreme north-western point of Africa, it

is pretty clear that it is not by the aid of a north-west wind that it could

be reached. "Euro," "with a south-east wind," has been very properly

suggested.

25. By this name he means the thiopian Troglodyt. Of course it

would be absurd to attempt any identification of the places here named,

as they must clearly have existed only in the imagination of the African

geographer.

26. The supposed commencement of the Atlantic, to the west of the Promontory of Mossylum.

27. From the Greek a)sko\s, a "bladder," or "inflated skin." It is not

improbable that the story as to their mode of navigation is derived only

from the fancied origin of their name.

28. Apparently meaning in the Greek the "jackal-hunters," qhroqw=es.

For an account of this animal, see B. viii. c. 52, and B. xv. c. 95.

29. Heliopolis, described in B. v. c. 4.

30. Considering it as part of Asia.

31. Conformably with the usage of modem geographers, and, one would

almost think, with that of common sense.

32. Of the river Nile.




35. Chap. 35.-Ethiopia.


CHAP. 35.-ETHIOPIA.



On leaving Syene,[1] and taking first the Arabian side, we

find the nation of the Catadupi, then the Syenit, and the







town of Tacompsos,[2] by some called Thatice, as also Aramasos,

Sesamos, Sanduma, Masindomacam, Arabeta and Boggia,

Leupitorga, Tantarene, Mecindita, Noa, Gloploa, Gystate, Megada, Lea, Renni, Nups, Direa, Patiga, Bacata, Dumana,

Rhadata, at which place a golden cat was worshipped as a

god, Boron, in the interior, and Mallos, near Mero; this is

the account given by Bion.



Juba, however, gives another account; he says that there

is a city on Mount Megatichos,[3] which lies between Egypt

and Ethiopia, by the Arabians known as Myrson, after which

come Tacompsos, Aramus, Sesamos, Pide, Mamuda, Orambis,

situate near a stream of bitumen, Amodita, Prosda, Parenta,

Mama, Tesatta, Gallas, Zoton, Graucome, Emeus, the Pidibot, the Hebdomecontacomet,[4] Nomades, who dwell in

tents, Cyste, Macadagale, Proaprimis, Nups, Detrelis, Patis,

the Ganbreves, the Magasnei, Segasmala, Crandala, Denna,

Cadeuma, Thena, Batta, Alana, Mascoa, the Scamini, Hora,

situate on an island, and then Abala, Androgalis, Sesecre,

the Malli, and Agole.



On the African side[5] we find mentioned, either what is

another place with the same name of Tacompsos, or else a part

of the one before-mentioned, and after it Moggore, Sa, Edos,

Plenari, Pinnis, Magassa, Buma, Linthuma, Spintum, Sydop,

the Censi, Pindicitora, Acug, Orsum, Sansa, Maumarum,

Urbim, the town of Molum, by the Greeks called Hypaton,[6]

Pagoarca, Zmanes, at which point elephants begin to be found,

the Mambli, Berressa, and Acetuma; there was formerly a

town also called Epis, over against Mero, which had, however,

been destroyed before Bion wrote.



These are the names of places given as far as Mero: but

at the present day hardly any of them on either side of

the river are in existence; at all events, the prtorian troops







that were sent by the Emperor Nero[7] under the command

of a tribune, for the purposes of enquiry, when, among

his other wars, he was contemplating an expedition against

thiopia, brought back word that they had met with nothing

but deserts on their route. The Roman arms also penetrated

into these regions in the time of the late Emperor Augustus,

under the command of P. Petronius,[8] a man of Equestrian rank, and prefect of Egypt. That general took the

following cities, the only ones we now find mentioned there,

in the following order; Pselcis,[9] Primis, Abuncis, Phthuris,

Cambusis, Atteva, and Stadasis, where the river Nile, as

it thunders down the precipices, has quite deprived the in-

habitants of the power of hearing: he also sacked the town

of Napata.[10] The extreme distance to which he penetrated

beyond Syene was nine hundred and seventy miles; but still.

it was not the Roman arms that rendered these regions a

desert. thiopia, in its turn gaining the mastery, and then

again reduced to servitude, was at last worn out by its con-

tinual wars with Egypt, having been a famous and powerful

country even at the time of the Trojan war, when Memnon[11]

was its king; it is also very evident from the fabulous stories

about Andromeda,[12] that it ruled over Syria in the time of

king Cepheus, and that its sway extended as far as the shores

of our sea.



In a similar manner, also, there have been conflicting

accounts as to the extent of this country: first by Dalion,







who travelled a considerable distance beyond Mero, and after

him by Aristocreon and Basilis, as well as the younger Simonides, who made a stay of five years at Mero,[13] when he

wrote his account of thiopia. Timosthenes, however, the

commander of the fleets of Philadelphus, without giving any

other estimate as to the distance, says that Mero is sixty

days' journey from Syene; while Eratosthenes states that the

distance is six hundred and twenty-five miles, and Artemidorus six hundred. Sebosus says that from the extreme point

of Egypt, the distance to Mero is sixteen hundred and

seventy-five miles, while the other writers last mentioned

make it twelve hundred and fifty. All these differences, however, have since been settled; for the persons sent by Nero

for the purposes of discovery have reported that the distance

from Syene to Mero is eight hundred and seventy-one

miles, the following being the items. From Syene to Hiera

Sycaminos[14] they make to be fifty-four miles, from thence

to Tama seventy-two, to the country of the Evonymit,[15]

the first region of thiopia, one hundred and twenty, to

Acina fifty-four, to Pittara twenty-five, and to Tergedus

one hundred and six. They state also that the island of

Gagaudes lies at an equal distance from Syene and Mero,

and that it is at this place that the bird called the parrot was

first seen; while at another island called Articula, the animal

known as the sphingium[16] was first discovered by them, and

after passing Tergedus, the cynocephalus.[17] The distance from

thence to Napata is eighty miles, that little town being the

only one of all of them that now survives. From thence to

the island of Mero the distance is three hundred and sixty

miles. They also state that the grass in the vicinity of Mero

becomes of a greener and fresher colour, and that there is some

slight appearance of forests, as also traces of the rhinoceros and

elephant. They reported also that the city of Mero stands

at a distance of seventy miles from the first entrance of the

island of Mero, and that close to it is another island, Tadu

by name, which forms a harbour facing those who enter the







right hand channel of the river. The buildings in the city,

they said, were but few in number, and they stated that a

female, whose name was Candace, ruled over the district,

that name having passed from queen to queen for many

years. They related also that there was a temple of Jupiter

Hammon there, held in great veneration, besides smaller

shrines erected in honour of him throughout all the country.

In addition to these particulars, they were informed that in

the days of the thiopian dominion, the island of Meroe

enjoyed great renown, and that, according to tradition, it

was in the habit of maintaining two hundred thousand armed

men, and four thousand artisans. The kings of thiopia

are said even at the present day to be forty-five in number.



(30.) The whole of this country has successively had the

names of theria,[18] Atlantia, and last of all, thiopia, from

thiops, the son of Vulcan. It is not at all surprising that

towards the extremity of this region the men and animals

assume a monstrous form, when we consider the changeableness and volubility of fire, the heat of which is the

great agent in imparting various forms and shapes to bodies.

Indeed, it is reported that in the interior, on the eastern

side, there is a people that have no noses, the whole face

presenting a plane surface; that others again are destitute of

the upper lip, and others are without tongues. Others again,

have the mouth grown together, and being destitute of nostrils,

breathe through one passage only, imbibing their drink

through it by means of the hollow stalk of the oat, which

there grows spontaneously and supplies them with its grain

for food. Some of these nations have to employ gestures

by nodding the head and moving the limbs, instead of speech.

Others again were unacquainted with the use of fire before the time of Ptolemy Lathyrus, king of Egypt. Some

writers have also stated that there is a nation of Pygmies,

which dwells among the marshes in which the river Nile takes

its rise; while on the coast of, thiopia, where we paused,[19]







there is a range of mountains, of a red colour, which have the

appearance of being always burning.



All the country, after we pass Mero, is bounded by the

Troglodyt and the Red Sea, it being three days' journey from

Napata to the shores of that sea; throughout the whole of

this district the rain water is carefully preserved at several

places, while the country that lies between is extremely productive of gold. The parts beyond this are inhabited by the

Adabuli, a nation of thiopia; and here, over against Mero,

are the Megabarri,[20] by some writers called the Adiabari; they

occupy the city of Apollo; some of them, however, are Nomades, living on the flesh of elephants. Opposite to them, on

the African side, dwell the Macrobii,[21] and then again, beyond

the Megabarri, there are the Memnones and the Dabeli, and, at

a distance of twenty days' journey, the Critensi. Beyond these

are the Dochi, and then the Gymnetes, who always go naked;

and after them the Andet, the Mothit, the Mesaches, and

the Ipsodor, who are of a black tint, but stain the body all

over with a kind of red earth. On the African side again there

are the Medimni, and then a nation of Nomades, who live on

the milk of the cynocephalus, and then the Aladi and the

Syrbot,[22] which last are said to be eight cubits in height.



Aristocreon informs us that on the Libyan side, at a distance of five days' journey from Mero, is the town of Tolles,

and then at a further distance of twelve days' journey, Esar, a

town founded by the Egyptians who fled from Psammetichus;[23] he states also that they dwelt there for a period of

three hundred years, and that opposite, on the Arabian side,

there is a town of theirs called Daron.[24] The town, however,

which he calls Esar, is by Bion called Sape, who says that the

name means "the strangers:" their capital being Sembobitis,

situate on an island, and a third place of theirs, Sinat in Arabia.

Between the mountains and the river Nile are the Simbarri,

tile Palugges, and, on the mountains themselves, the Asach,







who are divided into numerous peoples; they are said to be

distant five days' journey from the sea, and to procure their

subsistence by the chase of the elephant. An island in the

Nile, which belongs to the Semberrit, is governed by a

queen; beyond it are the thiopian Nubei,[25] at a distance of

eight days' journey: their town is Tenupsis, situate on the

Nile. There are the Sesambri also, a people among whom

all the quadrupeds are without ears, the very elephants even.

On the African side are the Tonobari, the Ptoenph, a people

who have a dog for their king, and divine from his movements what are his commands; the Auruspi, who have a

town at a considerable distance from the Nile, and then the

Archisarmi, the Phaliges, the Marigerri, and the Casmari.



Bion makes mention also of some other towns situate

on islands, the whole distance being twenty days' journey

from Sembobitis to Mero; a town in an adjoining island, under

the queen of the Semberrit, with another called Asara, and

another, in a second island, called Darde. The name of a third

island is Medo, upon which is the town of Asel, and a fourth

is called Garodes, with a town upon it of the same name. Passing thence along the banks of the Nile, are the towns of Navi,

Modunda, Andatis, Secundum, Colligat, Secande, Navectabe,

Cumi, Agrospi, gipa, Candrogari, Araba, and Summara.[26]



Beyond is the region of Sirbitum, at which the mountains

terminate,[27] and which by some writers is said to contain

the maritime thiopians, the Nisacth, and the Nisyti, a

word which signifies "men with three or four eyes,"-

not that the people really have that conformation, but because they are remarkable for the unerring aim of their

arrows. On that side of the Nile which extends along the

borders of the Southern Ocean beyond the Greater Syrtes,[28]

Dalion says that the people, who use rain-water only, are

called the Cisori, and that the other nations are the Longompori,







distant five days' journey from the calices, the Usibalci, the

Isbeli, the Perusii, the Ballii, and the Cispii, the rest being

deserts, and inhabited by the tribes of fable only. In a more

westerly direction are the Nigro, whose king has only one eye,

and that in the forehead, the Agriophagi,[29] who live principally

on the flesh of panthers and lions, the Pamphagi,[30] who will eat

anything, the Anthropophagi, who live on human flesh, the Cynamolgi,[31] a people with the heads of dogs, the Artabatit, who

have four feet, and wander about after the manner of will

beasts; and, after them, the Hesperi and the Perorsi, whom we

have already spoken[32] of as dwelling on the confines of Mauritania. Some tribes, too, of the thiopians subsist on nothing

but locusts,[33] which are smoke-dried and salted as their

provision for the year; these people do not live beyond their

fortieth year.



M. Agrippa was of opinion that the length[34] of the whole

country of the thiopians, including the Red Sea, was two

thousand one hundred and seventy miles, and its breadth,

including Upper Egypt, twelve hundred and ninety-seven.

Some authors again have made the following divisions of its

length; from Mero to Sirbitum eleven days' sail, from Sirbitum to the Dabelli fifteen days', and from them to the thiopian Ocean six days' journey. It is agreed by most authors,

that the distance altogether, from the ocean[35] to Mero, is six

hundred and twenty-five miles, and from Mero to Syene,

that which we have already mentioned. thiopia lies from

south-east to south-west. Situate as it is, in a southern

hemisphere, forests of ebony are to be seen of the brightest

verdure; and in the midst of these regions there is a mountain of immense height, which overhangs the sea, and emits a

perpetual flame. By the Greeks this mountain is called

Theon Ochema, [36]

and at a distance of four days' sail from it







is a promontory, known as Hesperu Ceras,[37] upon the confines

of Africa, and close to the Hesperi, an thiopian nation.

There are some writers who affirm that in these regions there

are hills of a moderate height, which afford a pleasant shade

from the groves with which they are clad, and are the haunts of

gipans[38] and Satyrs.







1. As to Syene and the Catadupi, see B. v. c. 10.

2. This place was also called in later times Contrapselcis. It was

situate in the Dodecaschnus, the part of thiopia immediately above

Egypt, on an island near the eastern bank of the river, a little above

Pselcis, which stood on the opposite bank. It has been suggested that this

may have been the modern island of Derar. The other places do not

appear to have been identified, and, in fact, in no two of the MSS. do the

names appear to agree.

3. Or the "Great Wall."

4. Meaning, "the people who live in seventy villages."

5. Or western side of the Nile, between Syene and Mero.

6. Upato\n, the "supreme," or perhaps the "last."

7. Dion Cassius also mentions this expedition. From Seneca we learn

that Nero dispatched two centurions to make inquiry into the sources; f

the Nile.

8. Dion Cassius calls him Caius Petronius. He carried on the war in

B.c. 22 against the thiopians, who had invaded Egypt under their queen

Candace. He took many of their towns.

9. Du Bocage is of opinion that this place stood not far from the

present Ibrim.

10. Supposed by Du Bocage to have stood in the vicinity of the modern

Dongola.

11. He was clearly a mythical personage, and nothing certain is known

with respect to him. Tombs of Memnon were shown in several places.

as at Ptolemais in Syria, on the Hellespont, on a hill near the mouth of

the river sepus, near Palton in Syria, in thiopia, and elsewhere.

12. Her story has been alluded to in the account of Joppa, B. v. c. 34.

Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, though possessing the coasts of Syria,

was fabled to have been king of thliop.

13. See B. v. c. 10, where Mero is also mentioned.

14. Or the sacred "sycamore tree."

15. Situate beyond the Great Cataract, and on the western bank.

16. See the Notes to the preceding Chapter, in p. 95.

17. Or dog's-headed ape, described in B. viii. c. 80. It is supposed to be

the baboon.

18. Hesychius says that it was also called Aria, probably from the time

of its king gyptus, who was called Arius.

19. "Ubi desiimus." This appears to be a preferable reading to "ubi

desinit," adopted by Sillig, and apparently referring to the river Nile.

It is not improbable that our author here alludes, as Hardouin says, to his

words in the preceding Chapter, "Hinc in ora thiop," &c. See p. 96.

20. Ansart thinks that the country of this people was the modem Kor-

dofan. This however, could not be the case, if the Macrobii, opposite to

them, dwelt on the African side of the river.

21. Or "long-livers."

22. Mentioned again in c. 2 of the next Book.

23. Who is mentioned again in B. xxxvi. c. 19.

24. Ptolemy, however, speaks of Esar and Daron as the names of towns

situate on the island of Mero.

25. On the eastern side of the Nile, and hearing no reference, as Har-

douin remarks, to the people of modern Nubia.

26. There is considerable doubt as to the correctness of these names, as

they are differently spelt in the MSS.

27. Marcus thinks that these mountains are those which lie to the west

of the Nile, in Darfour, and Dar-Sale, or Dizzela, mentioned by Salt, in

his Travels in Abyssinia.

28. From this it would appear that Pliny, with Dalion, supposed that the

Nile ran down to the southern ocean, and then took a turn along the coast

in a westerly direction; the shore being skirted by Syrtes, or quicksands,

similar to those in the north of Africa.

29. So called from the Greek-"Eaters of wild beasts."

30. The "all-eaters."

31. Or the "livers on the milk of the dog."

32. In c. 8 of the preceding Book.

33. They were thence called by the Greeks "Acridophagi." According

to Agatharchides, these people dwelt in what is modern Nubia, where

Burkhardt found the people subsisting on lizards.

34. Hardouin remarks, that the length is measured from south-east to

south-west; and the breadth from south to north.

35. The supposed Southern Ocean, which joins the Atlantic on the west.

36. Or the "Chariot of the gods," mentioned also in Book ii. c. 110, and B. v. c. 1. It is supposed to have been some portion of the Atlas chain;

but the subject is involved in the greatest obscurity.

37. Or the "Western Horn." It is not known whether this was Cape

de Verde, or Cape Roxo. Ansart thinks that it is the same as Cape Non.

It is mentioned in c. 1 of B. v. as the "promontorium Hesperium."

38. See notes to B. v. c. 1, in vol. i. p. 378.




36. Chap. 36. (31.)-Islands Of The thiopian Sea.


CHAP. 36. (31.)-ISLANDS OF THE THIOPIAN SEA.



We learn from Ephorus, as well as Eudoxus and Timosthenes, that there are great numbers of islands scattered all

over this sea; Clitarchus says that king Alexander was informed of an island so rich that the inhabitants gave a talent

of gold for a horse, and of another[1] upon which there was

found a sacred mountain, shaded with a grove, the trees of

which emitted odours of wondrous sweetness; this last was

situate over against the Persian Gulf. Cerne[2] is the name

of an island situate opposite to thiopia, the size of which

has not been ascertained, nor yet its distance from the main

land: it is said that its inhabitants are exclusively thiopians. Ephorus states that those who sail from the Red

Sea into the thiopian Ocean cannot get beyond the Column[3] there, some little islands so called. Polybius says







that Cerne is situate at the extremity of Mauritania, over

against Mount Atlas, and at a distance of eight stadia from

the land; while Cornelius Nepos states that it lies very

nearly in the same meridian as Carthage, at a distance from the

mainland of ten miles, and that it is not more than two miles

in circumference. It is said also that there is another island

situate over against Mount Atlas, being itself known by the

name of Atlantis.[4] Five days' sail beyond it there are deserts,

as far as the thiopian Hesperi and the promontory, which

we have mentioned as being called Hesperu Ceras, a point at

which the face of the land first takes a turn towards the west

and the Atlantic Sea. Facing this promontory are also said

to be the islands called the Gorgades,[5] the former abodes of

the Gorgons, two days' sail from the mainland, according to

Xenophon of Lampsacus. Hanno, a general of the Carthaginians, penetrated as far as these regions, and brought back

an account that the bodies of the women were covered with

hair, but that the men, through their swiftness of foot, made

their escape; in proof of which singularity in their skin,

and as evidence of a fact so miraculous, he placed the skins[6]

of two of these females in the temple of Juno, which were

to be seen there until the capture of Carthage. Beyond these

even, are said to be the two islands of the Hesperides; but

so uncertain are all the accounts relative to this subject, that

Statius Sebosus says that it is forty days' sail, past the coast

of the Atlas range, from the islands of the Gorgons to those

of the Hesperides, and one day's sail from these to the

Hesperu Ceras. Nor have we any more certain information

relative to the islands of Mauritania. We only know, as a

fact well-ascertained, that some few were discovered by Juba

over against the country of the Autololes, upon which he established a manufactory of Gtulian purple.[7]











1. Marcus says that these islands are those called the "Two Sisters,"

situate to the west of the Isle of Socotra, on the coast of Africa. They

are called by Ptolemy, Cocionati.

2. The position of this island has been much discussed by geographers,

as being intimately connected with the subject of Hanno's voyage to the

south of Africa. Gosselin, who carries that voyage no further south than

Cape Non, in about 28 north lat., identifies Cerne with Fedallah, on the

coast of Fez, which, however, is probably much too far to the north. Major

Rennell places it as far south as Arguin, a little to the south of the southern

Cape Blanco, in about 20 5? North latitude. Heeren, Mannert, and others,

adopt the intermediate portion of Agadir, or Souta Cruz, on the coast of

Morocco, just below Cape Ghir, the termination of the main chain of the

Atlas. If we are to trust to Pliny's statement, it is pretty clear that nothing

certain was known about it in his day.

3. The "Pillars." Marcus thinks that these were some small islands

near the Isle of Socotra.

4. Hardouin says that this is not the Atlantis rendered so famous by

Plato, whose story is distantly referred to in B. ii. c. 92 of this work. It

is difficult to say whether the Atlantis of Plato had any existence at all,

except in the imagination.

5. Medusa and her sisters, the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. The

identity of their supposed islands seems not to have been ascertained. For

the poetical aspect of their story, see Ovid's Met., B. iv.

6. It is not improbable that these were the skins of a species of uran-

outang, or large monkey.

7. The Purpurari, or "Purple Islands," probably the Madeira group.




37. Chap. 37. (32.)-The Fortunate Islands.


CHAP. 37. (32.)-THE FORTUNATE ISLANDS.



There are some authors who think that beyond these are the

Fortunate Islands,[1] and some others; the number of which

Sebosus gives, as well as the distances, informing us that Junonia[2] is an island seven hundred and fifty miles distant from

Gades. He states also that Pluvialia[3] and Capraria[4] are the

same distance from Junonia, to the west; and that in Pluvi-

alia the only fresh water to be obtained is rain water. He

then states that at a distance of two hundred and fifty miles

from these, opposite the left of Mauritania, and situate in the

direction of the sun at the eighth hour, are the Fortunate

Islands,[5] one of which, from its undulating surface, has the

name of Invallis,[6] and another that of Planasia,[7] from the peculiarity[8] of its appearance. He states also that the circumference of Invallis is three hundred miles, and that trees grow

to a height of one hundred and fourteen feet.



Relative to the Fortunate Islands, Juba has ascertained the

following facts: that they are situate to the south in nearly a

due westerly direction, and at a distance from the Purple

Islands of six hundred and twenty-five miles, the sailing being

made for two hundred and fifty miles due west, and then three

hundred and seventy-five towards the east.[9] He states that

the first is called Ombrios,[10] and that it presents no traces of

buildings whatever; that among the mountains there is a lake,

and some trees,[11] which bear a strong resemblance to giant







fennel, and from which water is extracted; that drawn from

those that are black is of a bitter taste, but that produced by

the white ones is agreeable and good for drinking. He states

also that a second island has the name of Junonia, but that

it contains nothing beyond a small temple of stone: also that

in its vicinity there is another, but smaller, island[12] of the

same name, and then another called Capraria, which is infested by multitudes of huge lizards. According to the same

author, in sight of these islands is Ninguaria,[13] which has received that name from its perpetual snows; this island abounds

also in fogs. The one next to it is Canaria;[14] it contains vast

multitudes of dogs of very large size, two of which were

brought home to Juba: there are some traces of buildings to be

seen here. While all these islands abound in fruit and birds

of every kind, this one produces in great numbers the date palm

which bears the caryota, also pine nuts. Honey too abounds

here, and in the rivers papyrus, and the fish called silurus,[15]

are found. These islands, however, are greatly annoyed by

the putrefying bodies of monsters, which are constantly thrown

up by the sea.







1. Or Islands of the Blessed-the modern Canaries.

2. Supposed to be the modern island of Fuerteventura.

3. Supposed to be that now called Ferro.

4. Probably the modern Gomera. In B. iv. c. 36, Pliny mentions them

as six in number, there being actually seven.

5. He does not appear on this occasion to reckon those already men-

tioned as belonging to the group of the Fortunat Insul.

6. The present Isle of Teneriffe.

7. Supposed to be that now called Gran Canaria.

8. The smoothness of its surface.

9. It is impossible to see clearly what he means. Littr says that it

has been explained by some to mean, that from the Purpurari, or Madeira

Islands, it is a course of 250 miles to the west to the Fortunate or Canary

Islands; but that to return from the Fortunat to the Purpurari, required

a more circuitous route in an easterly direction.

10. Or Pluvialia, the Rainy Island, previously mentioned.

11. Salmasius thinks that the sugar-cane is here alluded to. Hardouin says that in Ferro there still grows a tree of this nature, known as the

"holy tree."

12. Or the Lesser Junonia; supposed to be the same as the modern Lanzarote.

13. Or "Snow Island," the same as that previously called Invallis, the

modern Teneriffe, with its snow-capped peak.

14. So called from its canine inhabitants.

15. As to the silurus, see B. ix. c. 17.




38. Chap. 38.-The Comparative Distances Of Places On The Face Of The Earth.


CHAP. 38.-THE COMPARATIVE DISTANCES OF PLACES ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.



Having now fully described the earth, both without[1] as

well as within, it seems only proper that we should succinctly

state the length and breadth of its various seas.



(33.) Polybius has stated, that in a straight line from the

Straits of Gades to the mouth of the Motis, it is a distance of







three thousand four hundred and thirty-seven miles and a half,

and that, starting from the same point,[2] the distance in a

straight line to Sicily is twelve hundred and fifty miles, from

thence to Crete three hundred and seventy-five, to Rhodes one

hundred and eighty-seven and a half, to the Chelidonian Islands

the same distance, to Cyprus two hundred and twenty-five,

and from thence to Seleucia Pieria, in Syria, one hundred and

fifteen miles: the sum of all which distances amounts to two

thousand three hundred and forty miles. Agrippa estimates

this same distance, in a straight line from the Straits of Gades

to the Gulf of Issus, at three thousand three hundred and forty

miles; in which computation, however, I am not certain that

there is not some error in the figures, seeing that the same

author has stated that the distance from the Straits of Sicily to

Alexandria is thirteen hundred and fifty miles. Taking the

whole length of the sea-line throughout the gulfs above-men-

tioned, and beginning at the same point,[3] he makes it ten

thousand and fifty-eight miles; to which number Artemidorus

has added seven hundred and fifty-six: the same author, including in his calculation the shores of the Motis, makes the

whole distance seventeen thousand three hundred and ninety

miles. Such is the measurement given by men who have

penetrated into distant countries, unaided by force of arms,

and have, with a boldness that exhibits itself in the times of

peace even, challenged, as it were, Fortune herself.



I shall now proceed to compare the dimensions of the various

parts of the earth, however great the difficulties which may

arise from the discrepancy of the accounts given by various

authors: the most convenient method, however, will be that

of adding the breadth to the length.[4] Following this mode

of reckoning, the dimensions of Europe will be eight thousand two hundred and ninety-four miles; of Africa, to adopt

a mean between all the various accounts given by authors, the

length is three thousand seven hundred and ninety-four miles,

while the breadth, so far as it is inhabited, in no part exceeds







two hundred and fifty miles.[5] But, as Agrippa, including its

deserts, makes it from Cyrenaica, a part of it, to the country of

the Garamantes, so far as was then known, a further distance of

nine hundred and ten miles, the entire length, added together,

will make a distance of four thousand six hundred and eight

miles. The length of Asia is generally admitted[6] to be six

thousand three hundred and seventy-five miles, and the breadth,

which ought, properly, to be reckoned from the thiopian Sea

to Alexandria,[7] near the river Nile, so as to run through Mero

and Syene, is eighteen hundred and seventy-five. It appears

then that Europe is greater than Asia, by a little less than one

half of Asia, and greater than Africa by as much again of Africa

and one-sixth. If all these sums are added together, it will

be clearly seen that Europe is one-third, and a little more than

one-eighth part of one-third, Asia one-fourth and one-four-

teenth part of one-fourth, and Africa, one-fifth and one-sixtieth

part of one-fifth of the whole earth.[8]







1. Hardouin takes this to mean, both as to the continent, with the

places there situate, and the seas, with the islands there found; the continent being the interior, and the seas the exterior part. It is much more

likely, however, that his description of the interior of the earth is that

given in the 2nd Book, while the account of the exterior is set forth in the

geographical notices contained in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th.

2. The Straits of Gades or Cadiz.

3. The Straits of Gades.

4. Littr has the following remark: "Is it possible that Pliny can have

imagined that the extent of a surface could be ascertained by adding the

length to the breadth?" It is just possible that such may not have been

his meaning; but it seems quite impossible to divine what it was.

5. He means to say that the interior is not inhabited beyond a distance

of 250 miles from the sea-coast.

6. See B. v. c. 9.

7. He is probably speaking only of that part of Asia which included

Egypt, on the eastern side of the river Nile, according to ancient geography.

His mode, however, of reckoning the breadth of Asia, i.e. from south to

north, is singular. See p. 104.

8. On a rough calculation, these aliquot parts in all would make 4/4 2/2 6/9 4/0 3/0

parts of the unit. It is not improbable that the figures given above as the

dimensions are incorrect, as they do not agree with the fractional results

here given by Pliny.




39. Chap. 39.-Division Of The Earth Into Parallels And Shadows Of Equal Length.


CHAP. 39.-DIVISION OF THE EARTH INTO PARALLELS AND SHADOWS OF EQUAL LENGTH.



To the above we shall add even another instance of ingenious

discovery by the Greeks, and indeed of the most minute skilfulness; that so nothing may be wanting to our investigation of

the geographical divisions of the earth, and the various countries

thereof which have been pointed out; that it may be the

better understood, too, what affinity, or relationship as it were,

exists between one region and another, in respect to the length

of their days and nights, and in which of them the shadows

are of equal length, and the distance from the pole is the same.

I shall therefore give these particulars as well, and shall

state the divisions of the whole earth in accordance with the

various sections of the heavens. The lines or segments which







divide the world are many in number; by our people they

are known as "circuli" or circles, by the Greeks they are

called "paralleli" or parallels.



(34.) The first begins at that part of India which looks towards the south, and extends to Arabia and those who dwell

upon the borders of the Red Sea. It embraces the Gedrosi,

the Carmanii, the Pers, the Elymi, Parthyene, Aria, Susiane, Mesopotamia, Seleucia surnamed Babylonia, Arabia as far

as Petra, Cle Syria, Pelusium, the lower parts of Egypt called

the Chora of Alexandria, the maritime parts of Africa, all the

cities of Cyrenaica, Thapsus, Adrumetum, Clupea, Carthage,

Utica, the two Hippo's, Numidia, the two Mauritanias, the

Atlantic Sea, and the Pillars of Hercules. Within the meridian of this parallel, on the middle day of the equinox, the

pin of the dial, usually called the gnomon, if seven feet in

length, throws a shadow at mid-day no more than four feet long:

the longest day and night are fourteen equinoctial hours

respectively, the shortest being only ten.



The next circle or parallel begins with the western parts of

India, and runs through the middle of Parthia, through Persepolis, the nearer parts of Persis, the nearer Arabia, Juda, and

the people who live near Mount Libanus, and it embraces Babylon, Iduma, Samaria, Hierosolyma, Ascalon, Joppa, Csarea

in Phoenicia, Ptolemais, Sidon, Tyre, Berytus, Botrys, Tripolis,

Byblus, Antiochia, Laodicea, Seleucia, the maritime parts of

Cilicia, the southern parts of Cyprus, Crete, Lilybum in

Sicily, and the northern parts of Africa and Numidia. In these

regions, at the time of the equinox, a gnomon of thirty-five

feet in length gives only a shadow twenty-four feet long; and

the longest day and night are respectively fourteen equinoctial

hours, and one-fifth of an hour, in length.



The third circle or parallel begins at the part of India

which lies in the vicinity of Mount Imaiis, and runs through

the Caspian Gates and the nearer parts of Media, Cataonia,

(appadocia, Taurus, Amanus, Issus, the Passes of Cilicia,

Soli, Tarsus, Cyprus, Pisidia, Side in Pamphylia, Lycaonia,

Patara in Lycia, Xanthus, Caunus, Rhodes, Cos, Halicarnassus, Cnidos, Doris, Chios, Delos, the middle of the Cyclades,

Gythium, Malea, Argos, Laconia, Elis, Olympia, Messenia in

Peloponnesus, Syracuse, Catina, the middle of Sicily, the

southern parts of Sardinia, Carteia, and Gades. A gnomon,







one hundred inches in length, throws a shadow seventy-seven inches long; the length of the longest day is fourteen

equinoctial hours and a half, plus one thirtieth of an hour.



Under the fourth circle or parallel lie those parts of India

which are on the other side of the Imaiis, the southern parts

of Cappadocia, Galatia, Mysia, Sardis, Smyrna, Sipylus,

Mount Tmolus, Lydia, Caria, Ionia, Tralles, Colophon,

Ephesus, Miletus, Chios, Samos, the Icarian Sea, the northern

part of the Cyclades, Athens, Megara, Corinth, Sicyon, Achaia,

Patr, the Isthmus, Epirus, the northern parts of Sicily, the

eastern parts of Gallia Narbonensis, and the sea-coast of Spain,

from New Carthage westward. In these districts a gnomon

of twenty-one feet throws a shadow of sixteen feet in length;

the longest day contains fourteen equinoctial hours and two-thirds of an hour.



Under the fifth zone are included, from the entrance to the

Caspian Sea, the Bactri, Iberia, Armenia, Mysia, Phrygia, the

Hellespont, Troas, Tenedos, Abydos, Scepsis, Ilium, Mount

Ida, Cyzicus, Lampsacus, Sinope, Amisus, Heraclea in Pontus,

Paphlagonia, Lemnos, Imbros, Thasos, Cassandria, Thessaly,

Macedonia, Larissa, Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Pella, Edessa,

Bera, Pharsalia, Carystus, Euba in Botia, Chalcis, Delphi,

Acarnania, tolia, Apollonia, Brudisium, Tarentum, Thurii,

Locri, Rhegium, the Lucani, Neapolis, Puteoli, the Tuscan Sea,

Corsica, the Balearic Islands, and the middle of Spain. A

gnomon, seven feet in length, in these countries gives a shadow

of six feet, and the length of the day is fifteen equinoctial hours.



The sixth division, in which Rome is included, embraces

the Caspian nations, Caucasus, the northern parts of Armenia, Apollonia on the Rhyndacus, Nicomedia, Nica,

Chalcedon, Byzantium, Lysimachia, the Chersonnesus, the

Gulf of Melas, Abdera, Samothracia, Maronea, nus, Bessica,

Thracia, Mdica, Ponia, the Illyrii, Dyrrhachium, Canusium, the extreme parts of Apulia, Campania, Etruria, Pis,

Luna, Luca, Genua, Liguria, Antipolis, Massilia, Narbo,

Tarraco, the middle parts of Hispania Tarraconensis, and

thence through Lusitania. A gnomon of nine feet here

throws a shadow eight feet long; the greatest length of the

day is fifteen equinoctial hours, plus one-ninth part of an hour,

or, according to Nigidius, one-fifth.



The seventh division begins on the other side of the Caspian







Sea, and the line runs above Callatis, and through the Bosporus, the Borysthenes, Tomi, the back part of Thrace, the

Triballi, the remainder of Illyricum, the Adriatic Sea, Aquileia,

Altinum, Venetia, Vicetia, Patavium, Verona, Cremona, Ravenna, Ancona, Picenum, the Marsi, the Peligni, the Sabini,

Umbria, Ariminum, Bononia, Placentia, Mediolanum, all the

districts at the foot of the Apennines, and, beyond the Alps,

Gallia Aquitanica, Vienna, the Pyrenan range, and Celtiberia. A gnomon thirty-five feet in length here throws a

shadow of thirty-six feet, except in some parts of Venetia,

where the shadow just equals the length of the gnomon; the

longest day is fifteen equinoctial hours, plus three-fifths of an

hour.



Thus far we have set forth the results of observations made

by the ancients. The remaining part of the earth has been

divided, through the careful researches of those of more recent

times, by three additional parallels. The first runs from the

Tanais through the Motis and the country of the Sarmat,

as far as the Borysthenes, and so through the Daci and part of

Germany, and the Gallic provinces, as far as the shores of the

ocean, the longest day being sixteen hours.



The second parallel runs through the country of the Hyperborei and the island of Britannia, the longest day being

seventeen hours in length.



The last of all is the Scythian parallel, which runs from the

Riphan range to Thule, in which, as we have already stated,[1]

the year is divided into days and nights alternately, of six

months' duration. The same authors have also placed before

the first parallel, which we have here given,[2] two other parallels

or circles; the first running through the island of Mero and

the city of Ptolemais which was built on the Red Sea for

the chase of the elephant; where the longest day is twelve

hours and a half in length; and the second passing through

Syene in Egypt, in which the longest day is thirteen hours in

length. The same authors have also added half an hour to

each of the parallels, till they come to the last.



Thus far on the Geography of the earth.



SUMMARY.-Towns mentioned, eleven hundred and ninety-four. Nations, five hundred and seventy-six. Noted rivers,







one hundred and fifteen. Famous mountains, thirty-eight.

Islands, one hundred and eight. Peoples or towns no longer

in existence, ninety-five. Remarkable events, narratives, and

observations, two thousand two hundred and fourteen.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M.Agrippa,[3] M. Varro,[4] Varro

Atacinus,[5] Cornelius Nepos,[6] Hyginus,[7] L. Vetus,[8] Mela

Pomponius,[9] Domitius Corbulo,[10] Licinius Mucianus,[11] Claudius Csar,[12] Arruntius,[13] Sebosus,[14] Fabricius Tuscus,[15] T.

Livius,[16] Seneca,[17] Nigidius.[18]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-King Juba,[19] Hecatus,[20]

Hellenicus,[21] Damastes,[22] Eudoxus,[23] Dicarchus,[24] Bton,[25]







Timosthenes,[26] Patrocles,[27] Demodamas,[28] Clitarchus,[29]

Eratosthenes,[30] Alexander the Great,[31] Ephorus,[32] Hipparchus,[33] Pantius,[34] Callimachus,[35] Artemidorus,[36] Apol-

lodorus,[37] Agathocles,[38] Polybius,[39] Eumachus,[40] Timus Siculus,[41] Alexander Polyhistor,[42] Isidorus,[43] Amometus,[44] Metrodorus,[45] Posidonius,[46] Onesicritus,[47] Nearchus,[48]

Megasthenes,[49] Diognetus,[50] Aristocreon,[51] Bion,[52] Dalion,[53]







the Younger Simonides,[54] Basilis,[55] Xenophon[56] of Lampsacus.









1. B. iv. c. 26.

2. In p. 111.

3. See end of B. iii.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. See end of B. iii.

6. See end of B. ii.

7. See end of B. iii.

8. See end of B. iii.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. See end of B. v.

11. See end of B. ii.

12. See end of B. v.

13. See end of B. iii.

14. See end of B. ii.

15. See end of B. iii.

16. The famous Roman historian, a native of Padua. He died at his

native town, in the year A.D. 17, aged 76. Of his Annals, composed in

142, only 35 Books have come down to us.

17. L. Annus Seneca, the Roman philosopher and millionnaire. He was

put to death by Nero.

18. P. Nigidius Figulus, a Roman senator, and Pythagorean philosopher,

skilled in astrology and other sciences. He was so celebrated for his

knowledge, that Aulus Gellius pronounces him, next to Varro, the most

learned of the Romans. He was an active partisan of Pompey, and was

compelled by Csar to live at a distance from Rome. He died in exile,

R. C. 44. There is a letter of consolation addressed to him by Cicero in his

Epistles "ad Familiares," which contains a warm tribute to his worth and

learning.

19. See end of B. v.

20. For Hecatus of Miletus, see end of B. iv. Hecatus of Abdera was

a contemporary of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy Lagides. He is

thought to have accompanied the former in his Asiatic expedition as far

as Syria. He was a pupil of the sceptic Pyrrho, and is called a philosopher,

critic, and grammarian. He was the author of a History of Egypt, a work

on the Hyperborei, and a History of the Jews.

21. See end of B. iv.

22. See end of B. iv.

23. For Eudoxus of Cnidos, see end of B. ii. Eudoxus of Cyzicus was a

geographer and a native of Egypt, who was employed by Ptolemy Euergetes and his wife Cleopatra in voyages to India. He made attempts to

circumnavigate Africa by sailing to the south, but without success. He

is supposed to have lived about B.C. 130. See B. ii. c. 67 of the present

work.

24. See end of B. ii.

25. See end of B. v.

26. See end of B. iv.

27. He commanded the fleets of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and of Seleucus Nicator, by whose orders he paid a visit to the coasts of India. Strabo speaks

of his account of India as the best guide to the geography of that country.

28. A native of Miletus-see the tenth Chapter of this Book. He appears

to have written a geographical work on Asia, from which Pliny derived

considerable assistance.

29. Son of Deinon, the historian; he accompanied Alexander in his

Asiatic expedition, and wrote a history of it. Quintus Curtius censures

him for his inaccuracy. Cicero, Quintilian, and Longinus, also speak in

slighting terms of his performance.

30. See end of B. ii.

31. He alludes to the letters of that monarch, and the journals which

were kept on the occasion of his expeditions. In the middle ages several

forged works were current under his name.

32. See end of B. iv.

33. See end of B. ii.

34. See end of B. v.

35. See end of B. iv.

36. See end of B. ii.

37. See end of B. iv.

38. See end of B. iv.

39. See end of B. iv.

40. See end of B. iv.

41. See end of B. iv.

42. See end of B. iii.

43. See end of B. ii.

44. A Greek writer of uncertain date, who wrote, as Pliny tells us, (c. 20 of

the present Book), a work on the people called Attaci, or Attacori. He also

wrote another, describing a voyage, commenced at Memphis in Egypt.

45. See end of B. iii.

46. See end of B. ii.

47. See end of B. ii.

48. The admiral of Alexander, who sailed down the river Indus, and up

the Persian Gulf. It is not known when or where he died. After the

death of Alexander, he supported the cause of Antigonus. He left a

history or journal of his famous voyage.

49. See end of B. v.

50. Mentioned by Pliny in c. 21. He measured the distances of the

marches of Alexander the Great, and wrote a book on the subject.

51. See end of B. v.

52. A native of Soli. He is mentioned by Diogenes Lrtius, as the author

of a work on thiopia, of which some few fragments are preserved. Varro

and Pliny mention him, also, as a writer on agriculture.

53. A writer on geography and botany, again mentioned by Pliny in B. xx.

c. 73. He is supposed to have lived in the first century after Christ. See

also c. 35.

54. Said to have been a native of Mero, and to have written a History

of thiopia; nothing else seems to be known of him.

55. The author of a work on India, of which the second Book is quoted by

Athenus. From what Pliny says, in c. 35, he seems to have also written

on thiopia. He is mentioned by Agatharchides as one of the writers on

the East: but nothing more seems to be known of him.

56. See end of B. iii.




0. > Book Vii. Man, His Birth, His Organization, And The Invention Of The Arts.


BOOK VII.

[1] MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS.







1. We here enter upon the third division of Pliny's Natural History,

which treats of Zoology, from the 7th to the 11th inclusive. Cuvier

has illustrated this part by many valuable notes, which originally appeared

in Lemaire's Bibliotheque Classique, 1827, and were afterwards incorporated,

with some additions, by Ajasson, in his translation of Pliny, published in

1829; Ajasson is the editor of this portion of Pliny's Natural History,

in Lemaire's Edition.-B.




1. Chap. 1.-Man.


CHAP. 1.-MAN.



SUCH then is the present state of the world, and of the countries, nations, more remarkable seas, islands, and cities which it

contains.[1] The nature of the animated beings which exist

upon it, is hardly in any degree less worthy of our contemplation than its other features; if, indeed, the human mind

is able to embrace the whole of so diversified a subject. Our

first attention is justly due to Man, for whose sake all other

things appear to have been produced by Nature; though, on

the other hand, with so great and so severe penalties for the

enjoyment of her bounteous gifts, that it is far from easy to

determine, whether she has proved to him a kind parent, or a

merciless step-mother.



In the first place, she obliges him alone, of all animated

beings, to clothe himself with the spoils of the others; while, to

all the rest, she has given various kinds of coverings, such as

shells, crusts, spines, hides, furs, bristles, hair, down, feathers,

scales, and fleeces.[2] The very trunks of the trees even, she has

protected against the effects of heat and cold by a bark, which

is, in some cases, twofold.[3] Man alone, at the very moment of







his birth cast naked upon the laked earth,[4] does she abandon

to cries, to lamentations, and, a thing that is the case with no

other animal whatever, to tears: this, too, from the very moment that he enters upon existence.[5] But as for laughter,

why, by Hercules!-to laugh, if but for an instant only, has

never been granted to man before the fortieth day[6] from his

birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity.

Introduced thus to the light, man has fetters and swathings

instantly put upon all his limbs,[7] a thing that falls to the lot

of none of the brutes even that are born among us. Born to

such singular good fortune,[8] there lies the animal, which is

destined to command all the others, lies, fast bound hand and

foot, and weeping aloud! such being the penalty which he

has to pay on beginning life, and that for the sole fault of

having been born. Alas! for the folly of those who can think

after such a beginning as this, that they have been born for the

display of vanity!



The earliest presage of future strength, the earliest bounty

of time, confers upon him nought but the resemblance to a

quadruped.[9] How soon does man gain the power of walking?

How soon does he gain the faculty of speech? How soon is his

mouth fitted for mastication? How long are the pulsations of

the crown of his head to proclaim him the weakest of all ani-







mated beings?[10] And then, the diseases to which he is subject,

the numerous remedies which he is obliged to devise against

his maladies, and those thwarted every now and then by new

forms and features of disease.[11] While other animals have

an instinctive knowledge of their natural powers; some, of

their swiftness of pace, some of their rapidity of flight, and

some again of their power of swimming; man is the only one

that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being

taught; he can neither speak, nor walk, nor eat,[12] and, in

short, he can do nothing, at the prompting of nature only, but

weep. For this it is, that many have been of opinion, that it

were better not to have been born, or if born, to have been annihilated[13] at the earliest possible moment.



To man alone, of all animated beings, has it been given, to

grieve,[14] to him alone to be guilty of luxury and excess; and

that in modes innumerable, and in every part of his body.

Man is the only being that is a prey to ambition, to avarice, to







an immoderate desire of life,[15] to superstition,[16]-he is the only

one that troubles himself about his burial, and even what is to

become of him after death.[17] By none is life held on a tenure

more frail;[18] none are more influenced by unbridled desires for

all things; none are sensible of fears more bewildering; none

are actuated by rage more frantic and violent. Other animals,

in fine, live at peace with those of their own kind; we only

see them unite to make a stand against those of a different

species. The fierceness of the lion is not expended in fighting with its own kind; the sting of the serpent is not aimed

at the serpent;[19] and the monsters of the sea even, and the

fishes, vent their rage only on those of a different species. But

with man,-by Hercules! most of his misfortunes are occasioned

by man.[20]



(1.) We have already given[21] a general description of the

human race in our account of the different nations. Nor, indeed, do I now propose to treat of their manners and customs,

which are of infinite variety and almost as numerous as the various

groups themselves, into which mankind is divided; but yet

there are some things, which, I think, ought not to be omitted;







and more particularly, in relation to those peoples which dwell

at a considerable distance from the sea;[22] among which, I

have no doubt, that some facts will appear of an astounding

nature, and, indeed, incredible to many. Who, for instance,

could ever believe in the existence of the thiopians, who

had not first seen them? Indeed what is there that does not appear marvellous, when it comes to our knowledge for the first

time?[23] How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected?[24] But it is

the fact, that every moment of our existence we are distrusting the power and the majesty of Nature, if the mind, instead

of grasping her in her entirety, considers her only in detail.

Not to speak of peacocks, the spotted skins of tigers and panthers, and the rich colours of so many animals, a trifling thing

apparently to speak of, but of inestimable importance, when

we give it due consideration, is the existence of so many languages among the various nations, so many modes of speech,

so great a variety of expressions; that to another, a man who

is of a different country, is almost the same as no man at all.[25]

And then, too, the human features and countenance, although

composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned,

that among so many thousands of men, there are no two in

existence who cannot be distinguished from one another, a

result which no art could possibly have produced, when confined to so limited a number of combinations. In most points,

however, of this nature, I shall not be content to pledge my

own credit only, but shall confirm it in preference by referring

to my authorities, which shall be given on all subjects of a

nature to inspire doubt. My readers, however, must make no

objection to following the Greeks, who have proved them-







selves the most careful observers, as well as of the longest

standing.[26]







1. This remark refers to the five preceding books, in which these subjects have been treated in detail.-B.

2. We have a similar remark in Cicero, De. Nat. Deor. ii. 47.-B.

3. Ajasson remarks, that trees have two barks, an outer, and an inner and

thinner one; but seems to think that by the word "gemino" here, Pliny

only means that the bark of trees is sometimes double its ordinary

thickness.

4. It seems to have been the custom among the ancients to place the newborn child upon the ground immediately after its birth.

5. Pliny appears to have followed Lucretius in this gloomy view of the

commencement of human existence. See B. v. 1. 223, et seq.

6. This term of forty days is mentioned by Aristotle, in his Natural

History, as also by some modern physiologists.-B.

7. We may hence conclude, that the practice of swathing young infants

in tight bandages prevailed at Rome, in the time of Pliny, as it still does

in France, and many parts of the continent; although it has, for some

years, been generally discontinued in this country. Buffon warmly condemned this injurious system, eighty years ago, but without effect.-B.

8. "Feliciter natus;" this appears so inconsistent with what is stated in

the text, that it has been proposed to alter it into infeliciter, although

against the authority of all the MSS.; but it may be supposed, that

Pliny, as is not unusual with him, employs the term ironically.-B.

9. This reminds us of the terms of the riddle proposed to dipus by

the Sphinx: "What being is that, which, with four feet, has two feet and

three feet, and only one voice; but its feet vary, and where it has most it is

weakest?" to which he answered, That it is man, who is a quadruped

(going on feet and hands) in childhood, two-footed in manhood, and

moving with the aid of a staff in old age.

10. He alludes to the gradual induration of the bones of the head which

takes place in the young of the human species, and imparts strength to it.

Aristotle, in his Hist. Anim., states the general opinion of the ancients,

that this takes place with the young of no other class of animated beings.

11. There is little doubt that new forms and features of disease are continually making their appearance among mankind, and even the same

peoples, and have been from the earliest period; it was so at Rome, in the

days of the Republic and of the Emperors. It is not improbable that these

new forms of disease depend greatly upon changes in the temperature and

diet. The plagues of 1348, 1666, and the Asiatic cholera of the present

day, are not improbably various features of what may be radically the same

disease. At the first period the beverage of the English was beer, or

rather sweet-wort, as the hop does not appear to have been used till a

later period. At the present day, tea and coffee, supported by ardent

spirits, form the almost universal beverage.

12. Pliny forgets, however, that infants do not require to be taught how

to suck.

13. According to Cicero, this opinion was more particularly expressed by

Silenus and Euripides. Seneca also, in his Consolation to Marcia, expresses a very similar opinion. It was a very common saying, that "Those

whom the gods love, die young." It will be observed that Pliny here

uses the significant word "aboleri," implying utter annihilation after

death. It will be seen towards the end of this Book, that he laughed to

scorn the notion of the immortality of the soul.

14. By the use of the word "luctus" he may probably mean "tears;"

but there is little doubt that all animals have their full share of sorrows,

brought upon them either by the tyranny and cruelty of man, or their own

unrestrained passions.

15. This is said hyperbolically by Pliny. The brutes of the field have as

strong a love of life as man, although they may not be in fear of death, not

knowing what it is. That they know what pain is, is evident from

their instinctive attempts to avoid it.

16. Under this name he evidently intends to include all systems of religion, which he held in equal contempt.

17. Ajasson seems to think that he alludes to man's craving desire for

posthumous fame; but it is pretty clear that he has in view the then prevalent notions of the life of the soul after the death of the body.

18. Pascal has a similar thought; he says that "Man is a reed, and the

weakest reed of nature." The machinery of his body is minute and complex in the extreme, but it can hardly be said that his life is exposed to as

many dangers dependent on the volition of, or on accidents arising from,

other animated beings, as that of minute insects.

19. Ajasson refers to various classical authors for a similar statement,

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that it is contrary to many well-known

facts.-B. The cravings of hunger and of the sexual appetite, are quite

sufficient to preclude the possibility of such a happy state of things among

the brutes as Pliny here describes.

20. It was this feeling that prompted the common saying among the ancients, "Homo homini lupus"-"Man to man is a wolf;" and most true

it is, that

"Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn."

21. He alludes to the description already given in his geographical

Books, of man taken in the aggregate, and grouped into nations.

22. These are less known, as being less easy of access to travellers, and

it is accordingly in connection with these, that we always meet with the

most wonderful tales.-B.

23. This feeling is well expressed in the old and hackneyedadage, "Omne

ignotum pro mirifico"-"Everything that is unknown is taken for mar-

vellous."

24. Cuvier remarks, that Pliny generally employs this kind of oratorical

language when he is entering upon a part of his work in which he betrays a peculiar degree of credulity, and a total want of correct judgment

on physical topics.-B.

25. Being debarred from holding converse, the first great tie of sociality.

26. Ajasson does not hesitate to style this remark, "ridiculum sane;"

as every one knows that the Greeks were more noted for their lively imagination, than for the correctness of their observations.-B. Surely Ajasson must have forgotten the existence of such men as Aristotle and Theophrastus!




2. Chap. 2.-The Wonderful Forms Of Different Nations.


CHAP. 2.-THE WONDERFUL FORMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.



We have already stated, that there are certain tribes of the

Scythians, and, indeed, many other nations, which feed upon

human flesh.[1] This fact itself might, perhaps, appear incredible, did we not recollect, that in the very centre of the

earth, in Italy and Sicily, nations formerly existed with these

monstrous propensities, the Cyclopes,[2] and the Lstrygones, for

example; and that, very recently, on the other side of the Alps,

it was the custom to offer human sacrifices, after the manner

of those nations;[3] and the difference is but small between

sacrificing human beings and eating them.[4]



In the vicinity also of those who dwell in the northern re-







gions, and not far from the spot from which the north wind

arises, and the place which is called its cave,[5] and is known

by the name of Geskleithron, the Arimaspi are said to exist,

whom I have previously mentioned,[6] a nation remarkable for

having but one eye, and that placed in the middle of the forehead. This race is said to carry on a perpetual warfare with

the Griffins, a kind of monster, with wings, as they are commonly[7] represented, for the gold which they dig out of the mines,

and which these wild beasts retain and keep watch over with

a singular degree of cupidity, while the Arimaspi are equally

desirous to get possession of it.[8] Many authors have stated to







this effect, among the most illustrious of whom are Herodotus

and Aristeas of Proconnesus.[9]



Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there is a country

called Abarimon, situate in a certain great valley of Mount

Imaus,[10] the inhabitants of which are a savage race, whose

feet are turned backwards,[11] relatively to their legs: they possess wonderful velocity, and wander about indiscriminately

with the wild beasts. We learn from Bton, whose duty it

was to take the measurements of the routes of Alexander the

Great, that this people cannot breathe in any climate except

their own, for which reason it is impossible to take them before any of the neighbouring kings; nor could any of them

be brought before Alexander himself.



The Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned[12]

as dwelling ten days' journey beyond the Borysthenes, according to the account of Isigonus of Nica, were in the habit of

drinking out of human skulls,[13] and placing the scalps, with

the hair attached, upon their breasts, like so many napkins.

The same author relates, that there is, in Albania, a certain

race of men, whose eyes are of a sea-green colour, and who

have white hair from their earliest childhood,[14] and that these

people see better in the night than in the day. He states also







that the Sauromat, who dwell ten days' journey beyond the

Borysthenes, only take food every other day.[15]



Crates of Pergamus relates, that there formerly existed in

the vicinity of Parium, in the Hellespont, a race of men whom

he calls Ophiogenes, and that by their touch they were able to

cure those who had been stung by serpents, extracting the

poison by the mere imposition of the hand.[16] Varro tells us,

that there are still a few individuals in that district, whose

saliva effectually cures the stings of serpents. The same, too,

was the case with the tribe of the Psylli,[17] in Africa, according

to the account of Agatharchides; these people received their

name from Psyllus, one of their kings, whose tomb is in existence, in the district of the Greater Syrtes. In the bodies of

these people there was by nature a certain kind of poison,

which was fatal to serpents, and the odour of which overpowered them with torpor: with them it was a custom to expose children immediately after their birth to the fiercest serpents, and in this manner to make proof of the fidelity of their

wives, the serpents not being repelled by such children as were

the offspring of adultery.[18] This nation, however, was almost

entirely extirpated by the slaughter made of them by the







Nasamones, who now occupy their territory.[19] This race, however, still survives in a few persons who are descendants of

those who either took to flight or else were absent on the oc-

casion of the battle. The Marsi, in Italy, are still in possession

of the same power, for which, it is said, they are indebted

to their origin from the son of Circe, from whom they acquired

it as a natural quality. But the fact is, that all men possess

in their bodies a poison which acts upon serpents, and the

human saliva, it is said, makes them take to flight, as though

they had been touched with boiling water. The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their

throat, and more particularly so, if it should happen to be the

saliva of a man who is fasting.[20]



Above the Nasamones,[21] and the Machlyt, who border upon

them, are found, as we learn from Calliphanes, the nation of

the Androgyni, a people who unite the two sexes in the same

individual, and alternately perform the functions of each.

Aristotle also states, that their right breast is that of a male,

the left that of a female.[22]



Isigonus and Nymphodorus inform us that there are in

Africa certain families of enchanters,[23] who, by means of their

charms, in the form of commendations, can cause cattle to

perish, trees to wither, and infants to die. Isigonus adds, that







there are among the Triballi and the Illyrii, some persons of

this description, who also have the power of fascination with

the eyes, and can even kill those on whom they fix their gaze

for any length of time, more especially if their look denotes

anger; the age of puberty is said to be particularly obnoxious

to the malign influence of such persons.[24]



A still more remarkable circumstance is, the fact that these

persons have two pupils in each eye.[25] Apollonides says, that

there are certain females of this description in Scythia, who

are known as Bythi, and Phylarchus states that a tribe of the

Thibii in Pontus, and many other persons as well, have a

double pupil in one eye, and in the other the figure of a horse.[26]

He also remarks, that the bodies of these persons will not sink

in water,[27] even though weighed down by their garments.







Damon gives an account of a race of people, not very much

unlike them, the Pharnaces of thiopia, whose perspiration

is productive of consumption[28] to the body of every person that

it touches. Cicero also, one of our own writers, makes the remark, that the glances of all women who have a double pupil

is noxious.[29]



To this extent, then, has nature, when she produced in man,

in common with the wild beasts, a taste for human flesh,

thought fit to produce poisons as well in every part of his

body, and in the eyes even of some persons, taking care that

there should be no evil influence in existence, which was not

to be found in the human body. Not far from the city of

Rome, in the territory of the Falisci, a few families are found,

who are known by the name of Hirpi. These people perform

a yearly sacrifice to Apollo, on Mount Soracte, on which occasion they walk over a burning pile of wood, without being

scorched even. On this account, by virtue of a decree of the

senate, they are always exempted from military service, and

from all other public duties.[30]



Some individuals, again, are born with certain parts of the

body endowed with properties of a marvellous nature. Such

was the case with King Pyrrhus, the great toe of whose right

foot cured diseases of the spleen, merely by touching the patient.[31] We are also informed, that this toe could not be re-







duced to ashes together with the other portions of his body;

upon which it was placed in a coffer, and preserved in a

temple.



India, and the region of thiopia more especially, abounds

in wonders.[32] In India the largest of animals are produced;

their dogs,[33] for example, are much bigger than those of any

other country.[34] The trees, too, are said to be of such vast

height, that it is impossible to send an arrow over them. This

is the result of the singular fertility of the soil, the equable

temperature of the atmosphere, and the abundance of water;

which, if we are to believe what is said, are such, that a single

fig-tree[35] is capable of affording shelter to a whole troop of

horse. The reeds here are also of such enormous length, that

each portion of them, between the joints, forms a tube, of

which a boat is made that is capable of holding three men.[36]

It is a well-known fact, that many of the people here are more

than five cubits in height.[37] These people never expectorate,

are subject to no pains, either in the head, the teeth, or the

eyes, and rarely in any other parts of the body; so well is the

heat of the sun calculated to strengthen the constitution.

Their philosophers, who are called Gymnosophists, remain in

one posture, with their eyes immovably fixed upon the sun,

from its rising to its setting, and, during the whole of the day,

they are accustomed to stand in the burning sands on one

foot, first one and then the other.[38] According to the ac-







count of Megasthenes, dwelling upon a mountain called Nulo,

there is a race of men who have their feet turned backwards,[39]

with eight toes on each foot.[40]



On many of the mountains again, there is a tribe of men

who have the heads of dogs,[41] and clothe themselves with

the skins of wild beasts. Instead of speaking, they bark; and,

furnished with claws, they live by hunting and catching birds.

According to the story, as given by Ctesias, the number of these

people is more than a hundred and twenty thousand: and the

same author tells us, that there is a certain race in India, of

which the females are pregnant once only in the course of their

lives, and that the hair of the children becomes white the instant they are born. He speaks also of another race of men,

who are known as Monocoli,[42] who have only one leg, but are

able to leap with surprising agility.[43] The same people are

also called Sciapod,:[44] because they are in the habit of lying

on their backs, during the time of the extreme heat, and protect

themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet. These

people, he says, dwell not very far from the Troglodyt;[45] to

the west of whom again there is a tribe who are without

necks, and have eyes in their shoulders.,[46]







Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of

India, in what is called the country of the Catharcludi, we

find the Satyr,[47] an animal of extraordinary swiftness. These

go sometimes on four feet, and sometimes walk erect; they

have also the features of a human being. On account of their

swiftness, these creatures are never to be caught, except when

they are either aged or sickly. Tauron gives the name of

Choromand to a nation which dwell in the woods and have

no proper voice. These people screech in a frightful manner;

their bodies are covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green

colour, and their teeth like those of the dog.[48] Eudoxus tells

us, that in the southern parts of India, the men have feet a

cubit in length; while those of the women are so remarkably

small, that they are called Struthopodes.[49]



Megasthenes places among the Nomades[50] of India, a people

who are called Scyrit. These have merely holes in their

faces instead of nostrils, and flexible feet, like the body of

the serpent. At the very extremity of India, on the eastern

side, near the source of the river Ganges, there is the nation

of the Astomi, a people who have no mouths; their bodies

are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down[51]

plucked from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only

by breathing and by the odours which they inhale through the







nostrils. They support themselves upon neither meat nor

drink; when they go upon a long journey they only carry with

them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and wild apples,[52]

that they may not be without something to smell at. But an

odour, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily destroys them.[53]



Beyond these people, and at the very extremity of the mountains, the Trispithami[54] and the Pygmies are said to exist; two

races which are but three spans in height, that is to say, twenty-seven inches only. They enjoy a salubrious atmosphere, and a

perpetual spring, being sheltered by the mountains from the

northern blasts; it is these people that Homer[55] has mentioned

as being waged war upon by cranes. It is said, that they are

in the habit of going down every spring to the sea-shore, in a large

body, seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with

arrows, and there destroy the eggs and the young of those

birds; that this expedition occupies them for the space of three

months, and that otherwise it would be impossible for them to

withstand the increasing multitudes of the cranes. Their

cabins, it is said, are built of mud, mixed with feathers and

egg-shells. Aristotle, indeed, says, that they dwell in caves;

but, in all other respects, he gives the same details as other

writers.[56]



Isigonus informs us, that the Cyrni, a people of India, live

to their four hundredth year; and he is of opinion that the

same is the case also with the thiopian Macrobii,[57] the Ser,

and the inhabitants of Mount Athos.[58] In the case of these







last, it is supposed to be owing to the flesh of vipers, which

they use as food;[59] in consequence of which, they are free also

from all noxious animals, both in their hair and their garments.



According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there

is no shadow,[60] the bodies of men attain a height of five cubits

and two palms,[61] and their life is prolonged to one hundred and

thirty years; they die without any symptoms of old age, and

just as if they were in the middle period of life. Crates of

Pergamus calls the Indians, whose age exceeds one hundred

years, by the name of Gymnet;[62] but not a few authors style

them Macrobii. Ctesias mentions a tribe of them, known by

the name of Pandore, whose locality is in the valleys, and who

live to their two hundredth year; their hair is white in youth,

and becomes black in old age.[63] On the other hand, there are

some people joining up to the country of the Macrobii, who

never live beyond their fortieth year, and their females have

children once only during their lives. This circumstance is

also mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that

they live[64] on locusts,[65] and are very swift of foot. Clitarchus

and Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandi, and

enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to

them. Their women are capable of bearing children in the

seventh year of their age, and become old at forty.[66]







Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprobane,[67] life is

prolonged to an extreme length, while, at the same time, the

body is exempt from weakness. According to Durisis, some of

the Indians have connection with beasts, and from this union

a mixture of half man, half beast, is produced.[68] Among the

Caling, a nation also of India, the women conceive at five

years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year.[69] In

other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails,[70]

and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that

have ears so large as to cover the whole body.[71]



The Orit are divided from the Indians by the river

Arabis;[72] they are acquainted with no food whatever except

fish, which they are in the habit of tearing to pieces with their

nails, and drying in the sun.[73] Crates of Pergamus states, that

the Troglodyt, who dwell beyond thiopia, are able to outrun the horse; and that a tribe of the thiopians, who are

known as the Syrbot, exceed eight cubits in height.



There is a tribe of thiopian Nomades dwelling on the

banks of the river Astragus, towards the north, and about









twenty days' journey from the ocean. These people are called

Menismini; they live on the milk of the animal which we call

cynocephalus,[74] and rear large flocks of these creatures, taking

care to kill the males, except such as they may preserve for the

purpose of breeding. In the deserts of Africa, men are frequently seen to all appearance, and then vanish in an instant.[75]

Nature, in her ingenuity, has created all these marvels in the

human race, with others of a similar nature, as so many amusements to herself, though they appear miraculous to us. But

who is there that can enumerate all the things that she brings

to pass each day, I may almost say each hour? As a striking

evidence of her power, let it be sufficient for me to have cited

whole nations in the list of her prodigies.

Let us now proceed to mention some other particulars con-

nected with Man, the truth of which is universally admitted.







1. Pliny has previously denominated the Scythians "Anthropophagi;"

and in B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 20, he employs the word as the proper

name of one of the Scythian tribes.-B.

2. See B. iii. c. 9.

3. See B. xxxvi. c. 5.

4. There can be no doubt, that cannibalism has existed at all times,

and that it now exists in some of the Asiatic and Polynesian islands; but

we must differ from Pliny in his opinion respecting the near connection

between human sacrifices and cannibalism; the first was strictly a religious

rite, the other was the result of very different causes; perhaps, in some

cases, the want of food; but, in most instances, a much less pardonable

motive.-B, Still, however, if nations go so far as to sacrifice human

beings, there is an equal chance that a religious impulse may prompt them

to taste the flesh; and when once this has been done, there is no telling

how soon it may be repeated, and that too for the gratification of the palate.

According to Macrobius, human sacrifices were offered at Rome, down to

the time of Brutus, who, on the establishment of the Republic, abolished

them. We read, however, in other authorities, that in 116, B.C. , two Gauls,

a male and a female, were sacrificed by the priests in one of the streets

of Rome, shortly after which such practices were forbidden by the senate,

except in those cases in which they had been ordered by the Sibylline

books. Still we read, in the time of Augustus, of one hundred knights

being sacrificed by his orders, at Perusia, and of a similar immolation in

the time of the emperor Aurelian, A.D. 270. These, however, were all exceptional cases, and do not imply a custom of offering human sacrifices.

5. Pliny, in describing the Riphan mountains, B. iv. c. 26, calls them

"gelida Aquilonis conceptacula," "the cold asylum of the northern

blasts;" but we do not find the cavern mentioned in this or any other passage.

The name here employed has been supposed to be derived from the Greek

words,ghs kleiqron, signifying the limit or boundary of the earth.-B.

"Specuque ejus dicto," most probably means "the place called its cave,"

and not the "cave which I have described," as Dr. B. seems to have

thought.

6. They are merely enumerated among other tribes of Scythians, inhabiting the country beyond the Palus Motis. See B. iv. c. 26, and

B. vi. c. 19.-B.

7. The figures of the Gryphons or Griffins are found not uncommonly

on the friezes and walls at Pompeii. In the East, where there were no

safe places of deposit for money, it was the custom to bury it in the earth;

hence, for the purpose of scaring depredators, the story was carefully circulated that hidden treasures were guarded by serpents and dragons.

There can be little doubt that these stories, on arriving in the western

world, combined with the knowledge of the existence of gold in the Uralian chain and other mountains of the East, gave rise to the stories of the

Griffins and the Arimaspi. It has been suggested that the Arimaspi were

no other than the modern Tsheremis, who dwelt on the left bank of the

Middle Volga, in the governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov, not far

from the gold districts of the Uralian range.

8. It has been conjectured, that these fabulous tales of the combats of

the Arimaspi with the Griffins, were invented by the neighbouring tribes

of the Issedon or Essedones, who were anxious to throw a mystery over

the origin of the gold, that they might preserve the traffic in their own

hands. The Altai Mountains, in the north of Asia, contain many gold

mines, which are still worked, as well as traces of former workings. The

representation of an animal, somewhat similar to the Griffin, has been

found among the sculptures of Persepolis, and is conceived to have had

some allegorical allusion to the religion of the ancient inhabitants of

the place. lian, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 27, gives an account of the

Griffin, and its contests with the Indians, for the gold, similar to that

here given.-B.

9. We have an account of the Arimaspi, and of Aristeas, in Herodotus, B. iv. cc. 13, 15, and 27. Most of the wonderful tales related in this

Chapter may be found in Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 4. We have an account,

also, of the Arimaspi in Solinus, very nearly in the words of Pliny. We

have some valuable remarks by Cuvier, on the account given by Pliny of

the Arimaspi and the Griffins, and on the source from which it appears

to have originated, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 16, and Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 164,

165.-B.

10. The modern Himalaya range.

11. Aulus Gellius relates this, among other wonderful tales, which are

contained in his Chapter "On the Miraculous Wonders of Barbarous

Nations," B. ix. c. 4. He cites, among his authorities, Aristeas and Isigonus, whom he designates as "writers of no mean authority."-B.

12. In B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 29.

13. One of the pleasures promised to the Gothic warriors, in the paradise

of Odin, was to drink out of the skulls of their enemies.-B.

14. The variety of the human species to which the term Albino has

been applied, from the whiteness of their hair and skin, is supposed by

Cuvier to be more frequently found in the close valleys of mountainous

districts, and may therefore have been very often met with in Albania,

which is composed of valleys in the Caucasian range.-B.

15. "Tertio die;" literally, "on the third day." In reckoning the time

between two periods, the Romans included both of those periods in the

computation, whereas we include but one of them.

16. In countries where serpents abound, there have been, at all times,

jugglers, who profess to have a supernatural power, by which they are rendered insensible to the poison of these animals. This is the case with the

Egyptians, and some of the oriental nations. They remove the poison-fang from the serpent, and in this way render it perfectly harmless. Some

of the feats which were performed by the magicians in the court of Pharaoh, seem still to be practised in Egypt; by pressing upon the upper part

of the spine, the animal is rendered rigid, while on removing the pressure,

the animal is restored to its original state. These jugglers were also in the

habit, much to the surprise of the ignorant spectators, of sucking the

poison from the wounds produced by the bite of the serpent, which they

accompanied by various ceremonies and incantations: but it is a well-known fact, that this may be done with perfect safety, in reference to poisons

of all kinds, provided there be no breach in the cuticle of the mouth or

lips.-B.

17. See B. xxviii. c. 7. The best account, probably, of the Psylli, is that

found in Lucan's Pharsalia, B. ix. c. 890, et. seq.

18. This custom is referred to by Lucan, in his account of the Psylli,

B. ix. 1. 890, et seq.; and by lian, Hist. Anim. B. i. e. 57, and B. xvi.

c. 27, 28.-B.

19. Herodotus, B. iv. c. 173, gives a somewhat different account; see also

Aulus Gellius, B. xvi. c. 11, who follows the narrative of Herodotus. Gellius also gives an account of the Marsi, which is similar to that of Pliny.-B.

20. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this alleged effect of the human

saliva is without foundation. The saliva of a person who has fasted for

some time, is still, in this country, a popular remedy for ophthalmia. It

contains a greater proportion of saline matter than saliva under ordinary

circumstances.-B.

21. The Nasamones have been enumerated among the inhabitants of the

northern part of Africa, near the Greater Syrtis, v. 5. See also Herodotus,

B. ii. c. 32, and B. vi. c. 172 and 190.-B.

22. Certain individuals are occasionally met with, whose generative organs

exhibit an unusual formation, so as to give the idea of their uniting both

sexes in the same person; and there are instances, where parts peculiar to

both sexes actually appear to exist, but always in an imperfect or rudimentary

state; all beyond this is undoubtedly fabulous. See Todd's Cyclop. of

Anat. in loco.-B.

23. There are, at the present day, individuals among the negroes, who

profess to have the power of enchantment, which, however, appears to

consist in their possessing the knowledge of various poisons, which they

not unfrequently administer, and by these means obtain great influence

over the minds of the people.-B.

24. This power of the eye is referred to by Virgil, Eel. iii. 1. 103:

"What eye is it that has fascinated my tender lambs?"

The evil eye is still an article of belief in Egypt and in some parts of the

East. Witchcraft, in various forms, was greatly credited in the most enlightened parts of Europe, not more than two centuries ago, and is not yet

excluded from the vulgar creed.-B.

25. It is well known that nothing of this kind was ever observed in any

human eye, nor have we any method of accounting for the origin of this

singular notion.-B. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, says that he

has no doubt whatever that the common expression "no one can say 'black

is my eye"' [or rather "black is the white of my eye"]-meaning that no

one can justly speak ill of me, was derived from the notion of the An-

chanting, or bewitching, eye. He quotes from Reginald Scott's "Discovery of Witchcraft:" "Many writers agree with Virgil and Theocritus

in the effect of bewitching eyes, affirming ' that in Scythia there are women called the Bythi, having two balls, or rather blacks, in the apples of

their eyes.' These, forsooth, with their angry looks, do bewitch and hurt,

not only young lambs, but young children." See Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. pp. 4446. See also Ennemoser's Hist. of Magic,

vol. ii. pp. 160, 161. Bohn's Editions.

26. Some of the commentators have supposed, that Pliny, or Phylarchus,

from whom he borrows, was misled by the ambiguity of the Greek term

i(/ppos, which signifies either a horse, or a tremulous motion of the eye.

But, even admitting this to be the case, the wonder is scarcely diminished;

for we have the double pupil in one eye, while this supposed tremulous

motion is confined to the other.-B.

27. In all ages, it has been a prevalent superstition, that those endowed

with magical qualities will not sink in water, encouraged, no doubt, by the

cunning of those who might wish to make the charge a means of wreaking their vengeance. If they sank, they were to be deemed innocent, but

were drowned; if, on the other hand they floated, they were deemed guilty,

and handed over to the strong arm of the law. In reference to this usage, Brand says ("Popular Antiquities," vol. iii.), "Swimming a witch was another kind of popular ordeal. By this method she was handled not less

indecently than cruelly: for she was stripped naked and cross bound, the

right thumb to the left toe, and the left thumb to the right toe. In this

state she was cast into a pond or river, in which, if guilty, it was thought

impossible for her to sink."

28. This is probably the meaning of the word "tabem" here; though it

may possibly signify "rottenness," or "putrefaction."

29. This remark is not contained in any of the works of Cicero now extant.-B.

30. Cuvier observes, that these people probably exercise some deception,

analogous to that practised by a Spaniard, who exhibited himself in Paris,

and professed to be incombustible, but who, eventually, was the dupe of

his own quackery, and paid the penalty with his life. It would appear,

that the Hirpi were not confined to one district, but dispersed over different parts of Italy. See the note of Heyne, on the prayer of Aruns, n.

B. xi. 1. 785, et seq.-B.

31. Plutarch relates these supposed facts in his life of Pyrrhus; this statement may be considered analogous to what has been recorded in modern

times, respecting the efficacy of the royal touch in curing certain diseases,

especially what has been termed the "King's evil."-B.

32. Horace, Odes, B. i. O. 22, characterises the Hydaspes, a river of India,

by the title of "fabulosus."-B.

33. See B. viii. c. 40.

34. lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvi. c. 11, and B. xvii. c. 26, refers to the

large size of many of the animals of India; and in B. iv. c. 19, he especially

describes the size and fierceness of the Indian dog.-B.

35. The Ficus religiosa of Linnus, the branches of which have the

property of taking root when they are bent down to the ground, and of

forming new stems, which again produce other branches, that may be bent

down in the same way, so as to cover an indefinite space.-B. More popularly known as the "banyan tree." See B. xii. c. 11.

36. The bambos arundinacea, or bamboo cane, is a reed or plant of the

gramineous kind, which frequently grows to the height of the tallest trees.

The stem is hollow, and the parts of it between the joints are used by the

natives to form their canoes. We have an account of them in Herodotus,

B. iii. c. 98.-B. See also B. xvi. c. 65 of this work.

37. It does not appear that the stature of the Indians exceeds that of the

inhabitants of the temperate zones.-B.

38. Some practices very similar to these exist in certain parts of India, by the Fakirs, a peculiar class of devotees, and are regarded either in the

light of religious ceremonies, or of modes of performing penance.-B.

39. Henderson states, in his "Biblical Researches," that there is a race

of people found in the Caucasus, and known as the Ingusch, and that it is

their belief that a race of dmons exists, which assume the appearance of

armed men, and have the feet inverted.

40. Cuvier remarks, that these wonderful tales are generally related of the

inhabitants of mountainous districts, as being less known and less accessible to travellers.-B.

41. This account probably originated in a species of monkey, with a projecting muzzle, called, from this circumstance, "cynocephalus," or the

"Dog's head." This account of the cynocephali is repeated by Aulus

Gellius, B. ix. c. 4.-B. The cynocephalus is generally considered to be

the baboon.

42. So called, a)po\ tou= monou= kw/lou, "from having but one leg." It is

not improbable that these stories were first told of these nations from the

resemblance of their names to the Greek words having these significations.

43. We have no method of explaining the origin of this story. It is to

be regretted, that Pliny should have adopted so many ridiculous fables, on

the doubtful authority of Ctesias.-B.

44. From Skiapo=us, "making a shadow with his foot."-B.

45. Or "dwellers in caves."

46. It has been conjectured, that this account may have originated in the

dwarfish stature and short necks of the northern tribes, according to the usual exaggerated statements of the ancient travellers. Aulus Gellius

also repeats this fable, B. ix. c. 4.-B.

47. These are the great apes, which are found in some of the Oriental

islands; this name was given them from their salacious disposition, which,

it would seem, they have manifested in reference to even the human species. We have an account of the Satyrs in lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvi.

c. 21.-B.

48. We may suppose that this description is taken from some incorrect

account of a large kind of ape; but it seems impossible to refer it to any

particular species.-B.

49. "Sparrow," or "ostrich-footed;" it does not appear that the commentators have attempted to explain this passage; may we not conjecture

that it refers to the Chinese? With respect to the word employed, it has

been generally derived from stro=uqos, "a sparrow;" Dalechamps, how-

ever, as it would appear, with much plausibility, thinks that it is derived

from "struthio," the ostrich.-B. It is not improbable, however, that

these were so called, from the resemblance of their gait to that of a sparrow, as they would be unable to step out, and be obliged to jump from

place to place.

50. Or "wandering tribes."

51. On this subject see B. vi. c. 20. It is clear that either silk or cotton

is here alluded to.

52. In Eastern stories we find not uncommonly, wonderful effects attributed to the smell of the apple. See the Arabian Nights, passim

53. Cuvier remarks, that these accounts of the Struthopodes, the Scyrit,

and the Atomi, are not capable of any explanation, being mere fables.-B.

54. From trei=s, "three," and spiqamai\, "spans," the span being about

nine inches English.

55. He alludes to the wars between the Cranes and the Pygmies in the

Iliad, B. iii. 1. 36. Their story is also referred to by Ovid and Juvenal.

56. On the subject of the Pygmies, Cuvier remarks, "I am not surprised

at finding the Pygmies in the works of Homer; but to find them in Pliny,

I am surprised, indeed."-B.

57. Or the "long livers," from the Greek , makro\s, "long," and bios, "life."

58. Of course, there is no truth in this statement; there are, no doubt,

various circumstances in these countries favourable to longevity; but these

are more than counter-balanced by certain peculiarities in their mode of

life, and by the fatal epidemics to which they are occasionally subject.-B.

59. Pliny, in B. xxix. c. 38, speaks of the use of vipers' flesh as an

article of diet, and gives some minute directions for its preparation. It

was supposed to be peculiarly nutritive and restorative, and it has been

prescribed for the same purpose by modern physicians. There is a medal

in existence, probably struck by the Emperor Commodus, in order to commemorate the benefit which he was supposed to have derived from the use

of the flesh of vipers.-B.

60. See B. ii. c. 75.

61. The cubitus and the palmus of the Romans, estimated, respectively, at

about one foot and-a-half and three inches; this would make the height of

these people eight feet.-B.

62. From the Greek Gumnhth\s, "one who takes much exercise of the

body."

63. There appears to be no foundation for this statement.-B.

64. See B. vi. c. 35.

65. In many of the warmer climates, where the locusts are of large size

and in great abundance, they are occasionally used as food; but we have

no reason to believe that they constitute the sole, or even the principal

article of the food of any tribe or people.-B.

66. In warm climates, the females arrive at maturity considerably earlier than in the more temperate regions, but the age here mentioned is an ex-

aggeration. The female also, in such climates, ceases to bear at an earlier

age, probably before the fortieth year.-B.

67. This is the Island of Ceylon, of which Pliny has given an account

in the last Book, c. 24.

68. Such unnatural unions may have taken place occasionally, but nothing has ever been produced from them.-B.

69. This is a still greater exaggeration than that mentioned above, in

Note 95.-B.

70. Cuvier remarks that this story must have been originally told with re-

ference to the race of large apes. He says, however, that some men have

the "os coccygis" greatly prolonged, and mentions a painter of celebrity

in Paris who had this malformation. "But from this to an actual tail,"

says he, "the distance is very great." In these times we have the (perhaps doubtful) account by M. de Couret, of the Niam Niams, a race in

Abyssinia or Nubia, with tails at least two inches in length. Few will

fail to recollect Lord Monboddo's theory, that mankind originally had

tails, but wore them off in lapse of time by climbing up the trees.

71. As far as there is any truth in this account, it must refer to certain

kinds of apes: but with respect to the size' of the ears, it is, of course,

greatly exaggerated.-B.

72. Or Cophes, see B. vi. c. 25.

73. There are many tribes who live on the sea-coast, and who inhabit a

barren country, with a bad climate, whose diet is almost confined to fish

and who feed their cattle on it. This is the case in some parts of Iceland,

and even, to a certain extent, among the people of the Hebrides.-B.

74. Or dog's-headed ape, the baboon: see B. vi. c. 35, and Note 70,

p. 130.

75. Perhaps these appearances may be referred to effects of what is termed

"mirage," a phenomenon which is described by travellers in different parts

of the torrid zone.-B. And in the temperate regions as well; Switzerland and the Hartz mountains, for instance.




3. Chap. 3.-Marvellous Births.


CHAP. 3.-MARVELLOUS BIRTHS.



(3.) That three children are sometimes produced at one birth, is

a well-known fact; the case, for instance, of the Horatii and

the Curiatii. Where a greater number of children than this is

produced at one birth, it is looked upon as portentous, except,

indeed, in Egypt, where the water of the river Nile, which is

used for drink, is a promoter of fecundity.[1] Very recently,

towards the close of the reign of the Emperor Augustus, now

deified, a certain woman of the lower orders, at Ostia, whose

name was Fausta, brought into the world, at one birth, two

male children and two females, a presage, no doubt, of the famine which shortly after took place. We find it stated, also,

that in Peloponnesus, a woman was delivered of five[2] children at a birth four successive times, and that the greater part

of all these children survived. Trogus informs us, that in







Egypt,[3] as many as seven children are occasionally produced at

one birth.[4]



Individuals are occasionally born, who belong to both sexes;

such persons we call by the name of hermaphrodites;[5] they

were formerly called Androgyni, and were looked upon as

monsters,[6] but at the present day they are employed for sensual

purposes.[7]



Pompeius Magnus, among the decorations of his theatre,[8]

erected certain statues of remarkable persons, which had been

executed with the greatest care by artists of the very highest







reputation. Among others, we here read an inscription to the

following effect: "Eutychis,[9] of Tralles,[10] was borne to the

funeral pile by twenty of her children, having had thirty in

all."[11] Also, Alcippe[12] was delivered of an elephant[13]-but then

that must be looked upon as a prodigy; as in the case, too,

where, at the commencement of the Marsian war,[14] a female

slave was delivered of a serpent.[15] Among these monstrous

births, also, there are beings produced which unite in one body

the forms of several creatures. For instance, Claudius Csar

informs us, in his writings, that a Hippocentaur was born in

Thessaly, but died on the same day: and indeed I have seen

one myself, which in the reign of that emperor was brought

to him from Egypt, preserved in honey.[16] We have a case,







also, of a child at Saguntum, which returned immediately into

its mother's womb, the same year in which that place was

destroyed by Hannibal.



(4) The change of females into males is undoubtedly no

fable. We find it stated in the Annals, that, in the consulship

of P. Licinius Crassus and C. Cassius Longinus,[17] a girl, who

was living at Casinum[18] with her parents, was changed into a

boy; and that, by the command of the Aruspices, he was con-

veyed away to a desert island. Licinius Mucianus informs us,

that he once saw at Argos a person whose name was then Arescon, though he had been formerly called Arescusa: that this person had been married to a man, but that, shortly after, a beard

and marks of virility made their appearance, upon which he

took to himself a wife. He had also seen a boy at Smyrna,[19] to

whom the very same thing had happened. I myself saw in

Africa one L. Cossicius, a citizen of Thysdris,[20] who had been

changed into a man the very day on which he was married

to a husband.[21] When women are delivered of twins, it rarely







happens but that either the mother herself, or one, at least, of

the twins perishes.[22] If, however, the twins should happen to

be of different sexes, it is less probable that both of them will

survive. Female children are matured more quickly than

males,[23] and become old sooner. Of the two, male children

most frequently are known to move in the womb;[24] they mostly

lie on the right side of the body, females on the left.[25]







1. Columella, B. viii. c. 8, speaks of the fecundity of the Egyptians, but

without ascribing any particular cause for it.-B.

2. "Quinos." The old reading was "binos," "two" children only

but Aristotle, in reference, no doubt, to the same circumstance, says, Hist. Anim. B, vii., "One woman, at four births, gave birth to twenty children.

For she brought forth five at a time, and the greater part of them were

reared."

3. It was a very general opinion, that the waters of the Nile possess the

property of promoting fecundity. Seneca mentions it as an acknowledged

fact, Nat. Qust. B. iii. c. 25.-B.

4. There are well-authenticated accounts of four children having been

produced at one birth; but, beyond this, we have no statements in which

we can place much confidence. In a note by Dalechamps, we have an

example of the credulity of the authors who have treated on this topic, as

well modern as ancient.-B. In the recent volumes, however, of "Notes

and Queries," we find some apparently well-authenticated cases of women

being delivered of five children at a birth. Nathaniel Wanley, in his

"Wonders of the Little World," also gives some apparently authentic instances of as many as five children being born at a birth: but we must be

excused giving credit to the story, quoted by him, of Matilda or Margaret,

Countess of Henneberg, who was said to have been delivered, on the Friday before Palm-Sunday, in 1276, "of 365 children, half sons and half

daughters, with the exception of one, which was an hermaphrodite, all

complete and well-fashioned, of the bigness of chickens new hatched,

saith Camerarius."

5. From Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes or Mercury, and Aphrodite

or Venus. According to the poetic story as told by Ovid, Met. B. iv., he

was united in one body, which bore the characteristics of both sexes, with

the nymph Salmacis.

6. Two cases of this description are mentioned by Livy, B. xxvii. c. 37,

and B. xxxi. c. 12. In this latter passage, Livy enumerates the following

prodigious births; among the Sabines, two children of doubtful sex; at

Frusino, a lamb with a sow's head; at Sinuessa, a pig with a human

head; and among the Lucani, a foal with five feet. He informs us that

the hermaphrodites were thrown into the sea.-B.

7. Cuvier says, "From time to time we do see persons of this nature;

and it is not long ago that such a being was exhibited in Paris, though

certainly not of a nature to have been ' in deliciis,' at the present day."

8. Pliny gives further particulars of this theatre in B. xxxvi. c. 24. It

was the first stone theatre erected at Rome, and was built B.C. 55, and

contained 40,000 spectators.

9. Solinus, the ape of Pliny, absolutely takes the meaning of this passage to be, that Eutychis herself was exhibited on the stage by the orders

of Pompey.

10. For Tralles, in Asia Minor, see B. v. c. 29.

11. Cuvier speaks of the wife of a porter at the Jardin du Roi, at Paris,

who, to his knowledge, had been the mother of thirty children.

12. It seems doubtful whether Pliny means that the statue of Alcippe was

also to be seen in the Theatre of Pompey. Tatianus tells the same story

of one Glaucippe, and it is not improbable that under that name he refers

to the same person. He says that a bronze statue of her was made by

Niceretus, the Athenian. Hardouin suggests that this is the story alluded

to by Livy, B. xxvii., and by Valerius Maximus, B. i. e. 6, in their statement that, among other portents, a boy was born with the head of an ele-

phant.

13. Cuvier remarks, that it is not an uncommon circumstance, both in

man and in other animals, for an atrophy of the maxillary bones to cause the

nose to sink down, and produce some resemblance to the trunk of an

elephant. To this circumstance, he refers the tales met with, of women,

sows, and dogs having produced elephants; see also Val. Maximus, B. vi.

c. 5.-B.

14. As to this war, see B. ii. c. 85. The portents observed on this occasion were collected by the historian Sisenna, as we learn from Cicero, De

Divin. B. ii.

15. We find that this incredible tale is not only told by Julius Obsequens, but, according to Dalechamps, by Cornelius Gemma, a comparatively modern writer.-B.

16. Cuvier remarks, that, in certain quadrupeds, individuals are occasionally born with the upper jaw preternaturally small, so much so, that

the lower jaw, by its projection, bears some resemblance to a human chin.

He had seen a case of this description at Geneva, in a calf, supposed, even

by persons of information, to be the produce of an unnatural connection of

a cow with a Savoyard shepherd. This subject is treated very philosophically by Lucretius, B. v. c. 876, et seq. With respect to the supposed Hippocentaur of Thessaly, Cuvier remarks upon the successive additions which the story had gained, in the writings of various authors.

Cicero, in various parts of his writings, refers to the account of the Hippocentaur as a fabulous tale; Tusc. Qust. B. i. e. 27; de Nat. Deor. B. ii. c. 38, and B. ii. c. 2; De Divin. B. ii. c. 21.-B.

17. Consuls A.U.C. 581.

18. See B. iii. c. 9. Hardouin remarks that Aulus Gellius, in copying

from this passage, seems to have read the word "Casini," as though it

were C. Asin, meaning that the boy belonged to one C. Asinius. However, it is pretty clear that the reading adopted is the right one, Pliny

having been careful to give the various localities at which these wonderful

facts occurred.

19. Phlegon tells us that this happened in the first year of Nero, and that

the name of the youth, while supposed to be a girl, was Philotis.

20. See B. v. c. 4, 5.

21. A case of this description is mentioned by Ambrose Par. The individual was brought up as a girl, but, in consequence of a sudden muscular

exertion, the organs of the male were developed, which had previously

been concealed internally. It may be remarked, that a great proportion

of the well-authenticated cases of a supposed change of sex have been from

the female to the male, evidently of the kind mentioned by Par, where

the male organs have been concealed in childhood, and become subsequently

developed. Cases, however, have occasionally occurred of the contrary

kind, arising probably from the unusual size of the clitoris; there are also

certain cases, where, from the malformation of the parts, the sex is actually

doubtful, or where even a certain degree of the two may exist, as has

been stated above, in Note 51 to Chapter 2. This paragraph of Pliny is

quoted by Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 4.-B.

22. This does not correspond with the fact, as it exists in our time; a

circumstance which may probably depend upon our improvement in the

obstetrical art. Nor is the opinion, that both twins are less likely to live,

if of different sexes, sanctioned by modern experience.-B.

23. "Feminas gigni celerius quam mares;" there has been much discussion among the commentators, both with respect to the meaning of these

words, and the fact to which they are supposed to refer. Hardouin interprets the phrase, "crescere, perfici, vigere, adolescere;" Cuvier translates

it, "les filles sont portes moins long-temps par leur mere." There is,

however, no foundation for this opinion as to a difference in the period of

the gestation.-B.

24. There may be some ground for this opinion; it is maintained by

Aristotle in his Hist. Anim.-B. As also by Gale.

25. This statement is made upon the authority of Hippocrates, Aphor.

B. v. c. 48, and Aristotle, Hist. Anim.; but is probably without foundation.-B.




4. Chap. 4. (5.)-The Generation Of Man; Unusual Duration Of Pregnancy; Instances Of It From Seven To Twelve Months.


CHAP. 4. (5.)-THE GENERATION OF MAN; UNUSUAL DURATION OF PREGNANCY; INSTANCES OF IT FROM SEVEN TO TWELVE MONTHS.



In other animals the period of gestation and of birth is fixed

and definite, while man, on the other hand, is born at all seasons of the year,[1] and without any certain period of gestation;[2]

for one child is born at the seventh month, another at the

eighth, and so on, even to the beginning of the tenth and

eleventh. Those children which are born before the seventh

month are never known to survive;[3] unless, indeed, they hap-







pen to have been conceived the day before or the day after the

full moon, or at the change of the moon. In Egypt it is not

an uncommon thing for children to be born at the eighth

month; and in Italy, too, children that are born at this

period live just as long as others, notwithstanding the opinions

of the ancients to the contrary. There are great variations in

this respect, which occur in numerous ways. Vestilia, for

instance, who was the wife of C. Herdicius, and was afterwards

married, first, to Pomponius,[4] and then to Orfitus, very eminent citizens, after having brought forth four children, always

at the seventh month, had Suillius Rufus at the eleventh month,

and then Corbulo at the seventh, both of whom became consuls; after which, at the eighth month, she had Csonia,

who became the wife of the Emperor Caius.[5] As for children

who are born at the eighth month, the greatest difficulty with

them is to get them over the first forty days.[6] Pregnant women, on the other hand, are in the greatest danger during the

fourth and the eighth month, and abortions during these periods

are fatal. Masurius informs us, that L. Papirius, the prtor.

on one occasion, when the next but one in succession was urging

his suit at law, decided against him, in favour of the heir,[7]

although his mother declared that her period of gestation had

lasted thirteen months-upon the ground that it did not appear

that there was any fixed and definite period of gestation.[8]











1. Animals have a certain period for generation, because they are more

immediately affected by the seasons, whereas, in the human race, the arts

of life render these fixed terms unnecessary.-B.

2. Notwithstanding all the observations of the moderns, the question is

scarcely decided respecting the length of time to which pregnancy may be

prolonged. Cuvier says, that the experiments of Tessier have shewn, that

there is a greater latitude in animals than had previously been supposed;

he also remarks, that the same animals when domesticated, become less

regular in this respect than in the wild state.-B.

3. Dalechamps has collected authorities to prove, that a child may survive, when born even at an earlier period; but this, although not absolutely impossible, is improbable in the highest degree.-B.

4. Ajasson expresses himself at a loss to identify this Pomponius; but

thinks that it may have been either Julius Pomponius Grcinus, consul

A.U.C. 759, or L. Pomponius, consul A.U.C. 794, A.D. 41.

5. Caius Caligula. The name of this woman, who was first his mistress

and then his wife, was Milonia Cesonia. She was neither handsome nor

young when Caligula first admired her: but was noted for her extreme licentiousness, and at the time when she first became intimate with Caligula,

had already had three children. She and her daughter, by him, were put

to death on the day on which he was murdered. Corbulo has been mentioned in B. vi. c. 8.

6. Celsus, B. ii. c. 1, speaks of the fortieth day, as one of the critical

periods of childhood; the others are the seventh month, the seventh year,

and the period of puberty.-B.

7. Who appears to have urged the great lapse of time that had intervened between the death of the alleged father and the birth of his opponent.

8. Questions of this nature, of great importance, involving property and

title, have been the subject of judicial consideration in our times; the longest period to which pregnancy may be protracted seems still not to be

determined, but the general result has been to shorten it. Aulus Gellius,

B. iii. c. 16, has collected the opinions of many of the ancients on this

subject.-B.




5. Chap. 5. (6.)-Indications Of The Sex Of The Child During The Pregnancy Of The Mother.


CHAP. 5. (6.)-INDICATIONS OF THE SEX OF THE CHILD DURING THE PREGNANCY OF THE MOTHER. [1]



On the tenth day after conception, pains are felt in the head,

vertigo, and dimness of the sight; these signs, together with

loathing of food and rising of the stomach, indicate the formation of the future human being. If it is a male that is conceived, the colour of the pregnant woman is more healthy,[2] and

the birth less painful: the child moves in the womb upon the

fortieth day. In the conception of a child of the other sex,

all the symptoms are totally different: the mother experiences

an almost insupportable weight, there is a slight swelling of

the legs and the groin, and the first movement of the child is

not felt until the ninetieth day. But, whatever the sex of the

child, the mother is sensible of the greatest languor at the

time when the hair of the ftus first begins to grow, and at

the full moon; at which latter time it is that children newly

born are exposed to the greatest danger. In addition to this,

the mode of walking, and indeed everything that can be mentioned, is of consequence in the case of a woman who is pregnant. Thus, for instance, women who have used too much

salted meat will bring forth children without nails: parturition,

too, is more difficult, if they do not hold their breath. It is

fatal, too, to yawn during labour;[3] and abortion ensues, if the

female should happen to sneeze just after the sexual congress.

(7.) It is a subject for pity, and even for a feeling of shame,

when one reflects that the origin of the most vain of all animated beings is thus frail: so much so, indeed, that very often

the smell even of a lamp just extinguished is a cause of abortion.[4] From such beginnings as these springs the tyrant,







from such the murderous dispositions of men. Thou man, who

placest thy confidence in the strength of thy body, thou, who

dost embrace the gifts of Fortune, and look upon thyself, not

only as her fosterling, but even as her own born child, thou,

whose mind is ever thirsting for blood,[5] thou who, puffed up

with some success or other, dost think thyself a god-by how

trifling a thing might thy life have been cut short! Even

this very day, something still less even may have the same

effect, the puncture, for instance, of the tiny sting of the serpent; or even, as befell the poet Anacreon,[6] the swallowing

of the stone of a raisin, or of a single hair in a draught of milk,

by which the prtor and senator, Fabius, was choked, and

so met his death. He only, in fact, will be able to form a

just estimate of the value of life, who will always bear in

mind the extreme frailty of its tenure.







1. Most of the statements made in this Chapter appear to be taken from

Aristotle's History of Animals; they are, however, either without foundation or much exaggerated, and very incorrect.-B.

2. This opinion, although without foundation, is supported by the authority of Hippocrates, Aphor. B. v. c. 42.-B.

3. This singular opinion is referred to by Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 16.-B.

4. lian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 54, mentions the smell of an extin-

guished lamp, as producing abortion in a mare.-B.

5. "Tinctoria mens;" there has been much discussion, whether the text

does not require correction here; and various conjectural emendations have

been proposed, but not with much success. If the word "tinctoria" was

employed by Pliny, it may be regarded as one of those bold, and somewhat

metaphorical expressions, which are not unfrequently found in his

writings.-B.

6. Valerius Maximus makes the same statement as to the death of

Anacreon, and says that "having lived to an extreme old age, he was

supporting his decayed strength by chewing raisins, when one grain, more

obstinate than the rest, stuck in his parched throat, and so ended his life."

This story has been looked upon by some of the modern scholars as a

fiction of the poets.




6. Chap. 6. (8.)-Monstrous Births.


CHAP. 6. (8.)-MONSTROUS BIRTHS.



It is contrary to nature for children to come into the world

with the feet first, for which reason such children are called

Agripp, meaning that they are born with difficulty.[1] In

this manner, M. Agrippa[2] is said to have been born; the







only instance, almost, of good fortune, out of the number of

all those who have come into the world under these circumstances. And yet, even he may be considered to have paid

the penalty of the unfavourable omen produced by the unnatural mode of his birth, in the unfortunate weakness of his

legs, the misfortunes of his youth, a life spent in the very midst

of arms and slaughter, and ever exposed to the approaches of

death; in his children, too, who have all proved a very curse to

the earth, and more especially, the two Agrippinas, who were the

mothers respectively of Caius and of Domitius Nero,[3] so many

firebrands hurled among the human race. In addition to all

this, we may add the shortness of his life, he being cut off

in his fifty-first year, the distress which he experienced from

the adulteries of his wife,[4] and the grievous tyranny to which

he was subjected by his father-in-law. Agrippina, too, the

mother of Nero, who was lately Emperor, and who proved

himself, throughout the whole of his reign, the enemy of the

human race, has left it recorded in writing, that he was born

with his feet first. It is in the due order of nature that man

should enter the world with the head first, and be carried to

the tomb in a contrary fashion.







1. This explanation of the name is given by Aulus Gellius, B. xvi. c. 6.

-B. It is very doubtful what are the roots from which it is formed;

though Pliny evidently thinks that the word is only a corruption of the

Latin "gre partus," "born with difficulty;" a notion savouring of absurdity.

2. M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus, having married

his dissolute daughter, Julia. He was the son of Lucius Agrippa, and was

descended from a very obscure family. He divorced his wife Marcella, to

marry Julia, the widow of Marcellus, and the daughter of Augustus, by

his third wife, Scribonia.

3. Agrippina, the daughter of Agrippa and Julia, was the mother of

the Emperor Caligula; and of a second Agrippina, who became the

mother of Nero, by whose order she was put to death.-B.

4. Julia, the daughter of Augustus, so notorious for her depravity, who,

as already stated, was the wife of Agrippa.-B. See c. 46 of the present

Book.




7. Chap. 7. (9.)-Of Those Who Have Been Cut Out Of The Womb.


CHAP. 7. (9.)-OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN CUT OUT OF THE WOMB.



Those children, whose birth has cost the mother her life, are

evidently born under more favourable auspices; for such was

the case with the first Scipio Africanus; the first, too, of the

Csars was so named, from his having been removed by an incision in his mother's womb. For a similar reason, too, the

Csones were called by that name.[1] Manilius, also, who entered Carthage with his army, was born in a similar manner.











1. From cdo, "to cut," apparently. The Csones were a branch of

the Fabian family. There has been considerable difference of opinion

among the commentators respecting the individuals referred to in this

Chapter. The subject is discussed at length in the Notes of Hardouin,

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 62.-B. So in Macbeth, act v. sc. 7, Macduff says to

Macbeth-

"And let the angel whom thou still hast serv'd,

Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb

Untimely ripp'd."




8. Chap. 8. (10.)-Who Were Called Vopisci.


CHAP. 8. (10.)-WHO WERE CALLED VOPISCI.



A child used to be called Vopiscus,[1] who, when twins had

been conceived, had been retained in the womb and born alive,

the other having perished by abortion. There are, too, some

very remarkable instances of this kind, although they are singularly rare and uncommon.







1. The commentators are not agreed respecting the origin of this name;

Dalechamps suggests, that it was originally Opiscus, from o)pi/sqion, "because one follows close upon another."-B.




9. Chap. 9. (11.)-The Conception And Generation Of Man.


CHAP. 9. (11.)-THE CONCEPTION AND GENERATION OF MAN.



Few animals, except the female of the human species, receive the male when pregnant. In only one or two species, and

no more, does superftation ever take place.[1] Cases are to

be found stated in the journals of physicians, and of others who

have paid particular attention to the subject, in which twelve

embryos[2] have been removed at a single abortion. When,

however, but a very short time has intervened between two

conceptions, the embryos both of them proceed to maturity;

as was seen to be the case with Hercules and his brother

Iphicles.[3] This was the case also with the woman who brought

forth two children at a birth, one of whom bore a resemblance

to her husband, and the other to her paramour. So too, with

a female slave in Proconnesus,[4] who was delivered of two

children at one birth, one of whom bore a strong resemblance

to her master, and the other to her master's steward, with

both of whom she had had connection on the same day; with

another woman who was delivered of two children at a birth,

the one after the usual period of gestation, the other an em-







bryo only five months old: and again, with another female,

who, having been delivered of one child at the end of seven

months, in due course, two months afterwards, brought forth

twins.[5]







1. Hardouin says, that this is the case with the hare and the dasypus,

which is a species of hare; but there is probably no foundation for the

statement. Pliny repeats it in a subsequent passage, B. viii. c. 81.-B.

2. Pliny evidently considers this a case of superftation, and looks upon

it as not uncommon in the human species: whereas it is now considered

impossible.

3. This refers to the mythological tale of Jupiter and Amphitryon.-B.

4. See B. v. c. 41.

5. Most of these statements appear to be taken from Aristotle, Hist.

Anim.-B.




10. Chap. 10.-Striking Instances Of Resemblance.


CHAP. 10.-STRIKING INSTANCES OF RESEMBLANCE.



It is universally known that well-formed parents often produce defective children; and on the other hand, defective

parents children who are well formed, or else imperfect in the

same part of the body as the parents. It is a well-known fact

also, that marks, moles, and even scars, are reproduced in members of the same family in successive generations. The mark

which the Daci make on their arms for the purpose of denoting their origin, is known to last even to the fourth generation.[1]



(12.) We have heard it stated that three members of the

family of the Lepidi have been born, though not in an uninterrupted succession, with one of the eyes covered with a

membrane.[2] We observe, too, that some children strongly resemble their grandfather, and that of twins one child is like the

father, while the other resembles the mother; and have known

cases where a child that was born a year after another, resembled him as exactly as though they had been twins. Some

women have children like themselves, some like their husband,

while others again bear children who resemble neither the

one nor the other. In some cases the female children resemble

the father, and the males the mother. The case of Nicus,

the celebrated wrestler of Byzantium, is a well-known and un-







doubted instance. His mother was the produce of an act of

adultery, committed with a male of thiopia; and although

she herself differed in no way from the ordinary complexion

of other females, he was born with all the swarthy complexion of his thiopian grandfather.[3]



These strong features of resemblance proceed, no doubt, from

the imagination of the parents, over which we may reasonably

believe that many casual circumstances have a very powerful

influence; such, for instance, as the action of the eyes, the

ears, or the memory, or impressions received at the moment of

conception. A thought[4] even, momentarily passing through

the mind of either of the parents, may be supposed to produce

a resemblance to one of them separately, or else to the two

combined. Hence it is that the varieties are much more numerous in the appearance of man than in that of other animals; seeing that, in the former, the rapidity of the ideas, the

quickness of the perception, and the varied powers of the intellect, tend to impress upon the features peculiar and diversified

marks; while in the case of the other animals, the mind is

immovable, and just the same in each and all individuals of

the same species.[5] A man named Artemon, one of the common

people,[6] bore so strong a resemblance to Antiochus, the king

of Syria, that his queen Laodice, after her husband Antiochus

was slain, acted the farce of getting this man[7] to recommend







her as the successor to the crown. Vibius, a member of the

plebeian order,[8] and Publieius as well, a freedman who had

formerly been a slave, so strongly resembled Pompeius Magnus

in appearance as to be scarcely distinguishable from him; they

both had that ingenuous countenance[9] of his, and that fine

forehead,[10] which so strongly bespoke his noble descent. It

was a similar degree of resemblance to this, that caused the

surname of his cook, Menogenes, to be given to the father

of Pompeius Magnus, he having already obtained that of

Strabo, on account of the cast in his eye,[11] a defect which he

had contracted through imitating a similar one in his slave.

Scipio, too, had the name of Serapion given him, after the vile

slave of a pig-jobber: and after him, another Scipio of the

same family was surnamed Salvitto, after a mime[12] of that

name. In the same way, too, Spinther and Pamphilus, who

were respectively actors of only second and third rate parts,

gave their names to Lentulus and Metellus, who were at that

time colleagues in the consulship; so that, by a very curious

but disagreeable coincidence, the likenesses of the two consuls

were to be seen at the same moment on the stage.



On the other hand again, L. Plancus, the orator, bestowed

his surname on the actor Rubrius: the player, Burbuleius,

again, gave his name to the elder Curio, and the player, Menogenes, to Messala, the censor.[13] There was a certain fisherman, too, a native of Sicily, who bore a strong resemblance to

the proconsul, Sura, not only in his features, but in the mode even







of opening his mouth, and the spasmodic contraction of his

tongue, and his hurried and indistinct utterance when speaking.

Cassius Severus,[14] the celebrated orator, had it thrown in his

teeth how strongly he resembled Armentarius, the gladiator.[15]

Toranius, a slave-dealer, sold to Antony, while he was one of

the Triumvirs, two boys of remarkable beauty, as being twins,

so strong was their resemblance; whereas, in reality, one of them

was born in Asia, and the other beyond the Alps. The fraud,

however, having been soon afterwards discovered through the

difference in the language of the youths, Antony, who was

greatly exasperated, violently upbraided the dealer, and, among

other things, complained that he had fixed the price at so high

a sum as two hundred thousand sesterces.[16] The crafty slave-merchant, however, made answer that that was the very reason

for his having set so high a price upon them; for, as he said,

there would have been nothing particularly striking in the resemblance of the boys, if they had been born of the same mother, whereas, children found to be so exactly like each other,

though natives of different countries, ought to be deemed

above all price; an answer which produced such a reasonable

feeling of surprise and admiration in the mind of the proscriber,[17] that he who was but just before frantic under the

injury he had received, was led to set a higher value on no

part whatever of all the property in his possession.







1. There has been much discussion respecting the meaning of this passage and the fact to which it refers. Aristotle, Hist. Anim., says, that

marks made on the arm are transmitted for three generations; and Pliny,

in B. xxii. c. 2, informs us, that the Daci and the Sarmat "make

written marks upon their bodies." The same custom prevails among the

lower orders, sailors especially, in our own times. We may also remark

the analogy which it bears to the practice of tattooing, so general among

the Polynesian and other barbarous nations.-B.

2. The reader may be amused by a perusal of the collection of wonderful cases of this kind, which has been made by Dalechamps; see Lemaire,

vol. iii. p. 65, note 4.-B.

3. Aristotle, in his History of Animals, relates a similar, but not the

same, story; he says that it occurred in Sicily, though he afterwards speaks

of it as having happened in Elis. It is conjectured by Ajasson, that the

individual might have been born in Sicily, and have exhibited himself in

Elis, as a wrestler. If we are really to believe that his complexion was

that of an thiopian, it is much more probable that his mother may have

had connection with a negro.-B.

4. Few readers will fail here to recall to mind the story about the clock,

in the opening chapter of "Tristram Shandy."

5. Dalechamps refers us to a remark of the same kind in Cicero, Tusc.

Qust. B. i. e. 80; but Ajasson remarks, that the resemblance mentioned

by Cicero refers to the mind and manners, not to the body; Lemaire,

vol. iii. p. 67.-B.

6. Aulus Gellius says, that he was one of the royal family.

7. This man resembled Antiochus III., surnamed the Great, to such a

degree, that when that monarch had been slain in a tumult by his people,

his wife, Laodice, daughter of Mithridates V., King of Pontus, put

Artemon into a bed, pretending that he was the king, but dangerously ill.

Many persons were admitted to see him; and all believed that they were

listening to the words of their king, when he recommended to them Laodice

and her children.

8. This circumstance is related by Valerius Maximus, but he speaks of

Vibius as being "ingenu stirpis," "of good family."-B.

9. Hardouin expands the words "os probum," into "liberale, venustum, gratum, venerandum, probandum," B. xxxvii. c. 6.-B.

10. See B. xxxvii. c. 6.

11. The Latin word "strabo," means "squinting," or "having a cast" or

"defect in the eye."

12. The word "mimus" was applied by the Romans to a species of dramatic performance, as well as to the persons who acted in them. The

Roman mimes were imitations of trivial and sometimes indecent occurrences in life, and scarcely differed from comedy, except in consisting more

of gestures and mimicry than of spoken dialogue. Sylla was very fond

of these performances, and they had more charms for the Roman populace

than the regular drama. As to the mime Salvitto, here mentioned, see

B. xxxv. c. 2.

13. This anecdote, and the one respecting Spinther and Pamphilus, are

mentioned also by Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 24.-B.

14. A celebrated orator and satirical writer of the time of Augustus and

Tiberius. He is mentioned in the Index of authors at the end of B. xxxvi.,

where he is called Longulanus, as being a native of Longula, a town of

Latium. It was even thrown in his teeth, that he was the offspring of

adultery, and that this low-born person was his father.

15. "Mirmillonis." Many of the editions make this word to be a proper

name, and "Armentarius" to signify the calling of the person described,

as being a herdsman. The "Mirmillones" were a peculiar class of gladiators, said to have been so called from their having the image of a fish,

called "mormyr," on their helmets.

16. We assume the sestertium to be equivalent to somewhat more than

eight pounds sterling; this sum will be about 1600.-B.

17. "Proscripter animus." According to Hardouin, this means "delighting in proscription," alluding to the well-known proscriptions of the

triumvirate, in which Antony acted so conspicuous a part.-B.




11. Chap. 11. (13.)-What Men Are Suited For Generation. Instances Of Very Numerous Offspring.


CHAP. 11. (13.)-WHAT MEN ARE SUITED FOR GENERATION. INSTANCES OF VERY NUMEROUS OFFSPRING.



There exists a kind of peculiar antipathy between the bodies







of certain persons, which, though barren with respect to

each other, are not so when united to others;[1] such, for instance, was the case with Augustus and Livia.[2] Certain individuals, again, both men and women, produce only females,

others males; and, still more frequently, children of the two

sexes alternately; the mother of the Gracchi, for instance,

who had twelve children, and Agrippina, the mother of Germanicus, who had nine. Some women, again, are barren in

their youth, while to others it is given to bring forth once only

during their lives. Some women never go to their full time,

or if, by dint of great care and the aid of medicine, they do

give birth to a living child, it is mostly a girl. Among other

instances of rare occurrence, is the case of Augustus, now

deified, who, in the year in which he departed this life, witnessed the birth of M. Silanus,[3] the grandson of his granddaughter: having obtained the government of Asia, after

his consulship, he was poisoned by Nero, on his accession to the

throne.



Q. Metellus Macedonicus,[4] leaving six children, left eleven

grandsons also, with daughters-in-law and sons-in-law,[5]

twenty-seven individuals in all, who addressed him by the

name and title of father. In the records of the times of the

Emperor Augustus, now deified, we find it stated that, in his

twelfth consulship, Lucius Sylla being his colleague, on the







third day before the ides of April,[6] C. Crispinus Hilarus, a

man of a respectable family of the plebeian order, living at

Fsul,[7] came to the Capitol, to offer sacrifice, attended by

eight children (of whom two were daughters), twenty-eight

grandsons, nineteen great-grandsons, and eight granddaughters,

who all followed him in a lengthened train.







1. This opinion is maintained by Hippocrates, and by Aristotle, Hist.

Anim. B. vii. c. 8, and is referred to by Lucretius, B. iv. c. 1242, et

seq.-B.

2. The case of Livia and that of Agrippina, referred to by Pliny, are

mentioned by Suetonius, in the Life of Augustus, c. 63; and that of Caligula, c. 7.-B.

3. M. Junius Silanus, consul under Claudius, A.D. 46, with Valerius

Asiaticus. He was poisoned by order of the younger Agrippina, that he

might not stand in the way of Nero.

4. He is first mentioned in B.C. 168, when he was serving in the army

of milius Paulus, in Macedonia, and was sent to Rome with two other

envoys to announce the defeat of Perseus. He united with the aristocracy

in opposing the measures of the Gracchi; and the speech which he delivered

against Tiberius Gracchus, is spoken of by Cicero m high terms, as replete

with true eloquence.

5. He left four sons and two daughters; some writers say three. The

ten individuals, over and above his children and grandchildren, may have

consisted of the wives and husbands of his sons and daughters then living,

as also of others who had died in his lifetime.

6. 11th of April.

7. See B. iii. c. 8.




12. Chap. 12. (14.)-At What Age Generation Ceases.


CHAP. 12. (14.)-AT WHAT AGE GENERATION CEASES.



Women cease to bear children at their fiftieth year, and,

with the greater part of them, the monthly discharge ceases at

the age of forty. But with respect to the male sex, it is a

well-known fact, that King Masinissa, when he was past his

eighty-sixth year, had a son born to him, whom he named

Metimanus,[1] and that Cato the Censor, after he had completed

his eightieth year, had a son by the daughter of his client,

Salonius: a circumstance from which, while the descendants

of his other sons were surnamed Liciniani, those of this son

were called Saloniani, of whom Cato of Utica was one.[2] It is

equally well known, too, that L. Volusius Saturninus,[3] who

lately died while prefect of the city, had a son when he was

past his seventy-second year,[4] by Cornelia, a member of the

family of the Scipios, Volusius Saturninus, who was afterwards

consul. Among the lower classes of the people, we not uncommonly meet with men who become the fathers of children

after the age of seventy-five.







1. This fact is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13. There

is some variation in the spelling of the name of the son of Masinissa;

Solinus calls him Mathumannus.-B.

2. Hardouin gives a detailed account of the children of Cato, by which

it appears that the Licinian branch descended from the issue by his wife

Licinia, and the Saloniani, of whom Cato of Utica was one, from his son

Salonianus, by his second wife, Salonia.-B

3. Volusius Saturninus is again mentioned in the 49th Chapter, as a re-

markable instance of longevity; also by Tacitus, B. xiii. c. 30.-B

4. This reading seems preferable to sixty-second, adopted by Sillig; as

there would be nothing very remarkable in a man becoming a father when

sixty-two years of age.




13. Chap. 13. (15.)-Remarkable Circumstances Connected With The Menstrual Discharge.


CHAP. 13. (15.)-REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH THE MENSTRUAL DISCHARGE.



Among the whole range of animated beings, the human fe-







male is the only one that has the monthly discharge,[1] and in

whose womb are found what we term "moles." These moles

consist of a shapeless mass of flesh, devoid of all life, and capable of resisting either the edge or the point of the knife;

they are movable in the body, and obstruct the menstrual

discharge; sometimes, too, they are productive of fatal consequences to the woman, in the same manner as a real ftus;

while, at other times, they remain in the body until old age;

in some cases, again, they are discharged, in consequence of an

increased action of the bowels.[2] Something of a very similar

nature is produced in the body of the male, which is called a

"schirrus;"[3] this was the case with Oppius Capito, a man of

prtorian rank.



It would indeed be a difficult matter to find anything which

is productive of more marvellous effects than the menstrual

discharge.[4] On the approach of a woman in this state,

must will become sour, seeds which are touched by her

become sterile, grafts wither away, garden plants are parched

up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she

sits. Her very look, even, will dim the brightness of mirrors,

blunt the edge of steel, and take away the polish from ivory.

A swarm of bees, if looked upon by her, will die immediately;







brass and iron will instantly become rusty, and emit an offensive

odour; while dogs which may have tasted of the matter so discharged are seized with madness, and their bite is venomous

and incurable.



In addition to this, the bitumen which is found at certain

periods of the year, floating on the lake of Juda, known as

Asphaltites, a substance which is peculiarly tenacious, and

adheres to everything that it touches, can only be divided into

separate pieces by means of a thread which has been dipped

in this virulent matter.[5] It is said that the ant, even an

insect so extremely minute, is sensible of its presence, and

rejects the grains which it has been carrying, and will not return to them again.[6]



This discharge, which is productive of such great and singular effects, occurs in women every thirty days, and in a

greater degree every three months.[7] In some individuals

it occurs oftener than once a month, and in others, again,

it never takes place. Women of this nature, however, are not

capable of bearing children, because it is of this substance that

the infant is formed.[8] The seed of the male, acting as a sort

of leaven, causes it to unite and assume a form, and in due

time it acquires life, and assumes a bodily shape. The consequence is, that if the flow continues during pregnancy, the

child will be weak, or else will not live; or if it does, it will

be full of gross humours, Nigidius says.



(16.) The same author is also of opinion, that the milk of a

woman who is giving suck will not become impure, if she should

happen to become pregnant again by the same man.[9]











1. Some of the "simi " are subject to a periodical discharge, analogous

to that of the human female; but, according to Cuvier, it is in smaller

quantity, and not at stated periods. The females of various other animals,

when in a state to receive the male, have a discharge from the same parts,

but totally different in its properties, and the mode in which it makes its

appearance. Virgil, Geor. B. iii. 1. 280, et seq., refers to this subject.-B.

2. Pliny makes some further remarks on these substances in a subsequent

place, see B. x. c. 84; where he says they are produced without the intercourse of the male; this point has been much discussed, and is perhaps

scarcely yet decided.-B.

3. There is no actual resemblance between moles and schirri; they are

produced by different causes, and exist in different parts of the body. Moles

are always formed in the womb, and probably have some connection with

the generative functions; while schirri are morbid indurations, which make

their appearance in various parts of the body. Hippocrates gives some

account of moles, in his work on the Diseases of Women. They are also

noticed by Aristotle.-B.

4. All the poisonous and noxious effects which were attributed by the

ancients to the menstrual discharge, are without the slightest foundation.

The opinions entertained on this point by the Jews, may be collected from

Leviticus, c. xv. ver. 19, et seq. Pliny enlarges upon this subject in a subsequent place. See B. xxviii. c. 23.-B.

5. Both Josephus, Bell. Jud. B. iv. c. 9, and Tacitus, Hist. B. v. c. 6,

give an account of this supposed action of this fluid on the bitumen of

Lake Asphaltites; the statement is no doubt entirely unfounded, but it is a

curious instance of popular credulity.-B.

6. There are still somewhat similar superstitions in existence, even in

this country among others; it is not uncommonly believed that meat will

not take salt from the hands of a female during the discharge of the

catamenia.

7. This statement is without foundation.-B.

8. The fact is true, that females in whom the menstrual discharge does

not take place, are seldom, if ever, capable of conception; but it does not

depend on the cause here assigned. See the remarks of Cuvier, Lemaire,

vol. iii. p. 82, and Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 173.-B.

9. Pliny clearly alludes to an opinion expressed by Galen, in which he says, "that if women while giving suck, have sexual intercourse, the milk

becomes tainted." Hardouin remarks, that Pliny shows considerable caution

here in bringing forward Nigidius as the propounder of these opinions, the

truth of which he himself seems to have doubted.




14. Chap. 14.-The Theory Of Generation.


CHAP. 14.-THE THEORY OF GENERATION.



Conception is generally said to take place the most readily,

either at the beginning or the end of the menstrual discharge.[1]

It is said, too, that it is a certain sign of fecundity in a woman,

when her saliva becomes impregnated with any medicament

which has been rubbed upon her eye-lids.[2]







1. It is generally admitted, that the female is more disposed to conceive

just after the cessation of each periodical discharge. We are informed by

the French historians, that their king, Henry II., and his wife Catharine,

having been childless eleven years, made a successful experiment of this

description, by the advice of the physician Fernel; see Lemaire, vol. iii.

p. 83.-B.

2. This is one of the many idle tales referred to by Pliny, entirely without foundation.-B.




15. Chap. 15.-Some Account Of The Teeth, And Some Facts Concerning Infants.


CHAP. 15.-SOME ACCOUNT OF THE TEETH, AND SOME FACTS CONCERNING INFANTS.



It is a matter beyond doubt, that in young children the

front teeth are produced at the seventh month, and, nearly always, those in the upper jaw the first. These are shed in the

seventh year, and are then replaced by others.[1] Some infants

are even born with teeth:[2] such was the case with Manius

Curius, who, from this circumstance, received the name of

Dentatus; and also with Cn. Papirius Carbo, both of them distinguished men. When this phenomenon happened in the case

of a female, it was looked upon in the time of the kings as an

omen of some inauspicious event. At the birth of Valeria,

under such circumstances as these, it was the answer of the







soothsayers, that any city to which she might happen to be

carried, would be destroyed; she was sent to Suessa Pometia,[3]

at that time a very flourishing place, but the prediction was

ultimately verified by its destruction. Some female children

are born with the sexual organs closed,[4] a thing of very unfa-

vourable omen; of which Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi,

is an instance. Some persons are born with a continuous bone

in the mouth, in place of teeth; this was the case with the

upper jaw of the son of Prusias, the king of Bithynia.[5]



The teeth are the only parts of the body which resist the

action of fire, and are not consumed along with the rest of it.[6]

Still, however, though they are able thus to resist flame, they

become corroded by a morbid state of the saliva. The teeth are

whitened by certain medicinal agents.[7] They are worn down

by use, and fail in some persons long before any other part of

the body. They are necessary, not only for the mastication of

the food, but for many other purposes as well. It is the office

of the front teeth to regulate the voice and the speech; by a

certain arrangement, they receive, as if in concert, the stroke

communicated by the tongue, while by their structure in such

regular order, and their size, they cut short, moderate, or soften







the utterance of the words. When they are lost, the articulation becomes altogether confused and indistinct.[8]



In addition to this, it is generally supposed that we may

form prognostics from the teeth. The number of teeth allotted

to all men, with the exception of the nation of the Turduli,[9] is

thirty-two; those persons who have a greater number, are

thought to be destined to be long-lived. Women have fewer

teeth than men.[10] Those females who happen to have two canine

teeth on the right side of the upper jaw, have promise of being

the favourites of fortune, as was the case with Agrippina,[11]

the mother of Domitius Nero: when they are on the left side,

it is just the contrary. It is the custom of most nations not

to burn the bodies of children who die before they have cut

their teeth. We shall have more to say on this subject when

we give an account of the different parts of the body.[12]



We find it stated that Zoroaster was the only human being

who ever laughed on the same day on which he was born. We

hear, too, that his brain pulsated so strongly that it repelled

the hand when laid upon it, a presage of his future wisdom.







1. This account is correct, to the extent that the first teeth that appear

are the two central incisors of the upper jaw; the next are the two lower

central incisors, then the upper lateral incisors, the lower lateral incisors,

and the upper and lower canines. The molars follow a different order, the

lower ones appearing before the upper.-B.

2. Hardouin mentions a number of authors who relate cases of this

nature. It is said to have taken place with our king Richard III. See

Shakespeare, Richard III., Act i. Scene 4. An individual of very different

character and fortune, Louis XIV., is said to have been born with two teeth

in the upper jaw.-B.

3. A town of Latium we learn from Livy, B. i. c. 53, that it was captured and plundered by Tarquinius Superbus, but he makes no mention of

Valeria. See B. iii. c. 9.

4. It is stated by Seneca, De Consol. c. 16, that Cornelia survived a large

family of children, all of whom were carried off early in life; of these the

two celebrated Gracchi, Tiberius and Caius, met with violent deaths. The

peculiarity here referred to, probably consisted in an imperforated hymen, a

mal-formation which not very unfrequently exists, and requires a surgical

operation.-B.

5. This circumstance is mentioned by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8.-B. We

learn from Plutarch, that the same was the case also with Pyrrhus, king of

Epirus: Euryphus also, the Cyrenian, and Euryptolemus, the king of

Cyprus. Herodotus, B. ix., speaks of a skull found on the plain of Pla-

ta, with a similar conformation.

6. Although the teeth, and especially their enamel, form the most indestructible substance which enters into the composition of the body, it is

not absolutely so; a certain proportion of them consisting of animal matter, which is consumed, when exposed to a sufficient heat; the earthy part

may also be dissolved by the appropriate chemical re-agents.-B.

7. Powerful acids for instance; but they destroy the enamel. Lord Bacon

recommends the ashes of tobacco as a whitener of the teeth; but that has

been found to have a similar effect.

8. We find in Haller, El. Phys. B. ix. c. 2, 4, 8, and in other physiologists, a minute account of the effects produced by the teeth in the articulation of the various letters which compose the alphabet.-B.

9. See B. iii. c. 3, and B. iv. c. 35. He does not say how many teeth

the Turduli naturally had, but no doubt he is mistaken.

10. Pliny repeats this statement in B. xi., c. 63, and extends it to the

females of the sheep, goat, and hog. In the natural condition of the mouth,

the number of the teeth is the same in both sexes; but, according to the

observations of Cuvier, what are called the "wisdom" teeth, though occasionally deficient in both sexes, are most frequently so in the female.-B.

11. He seems to allude to the younger Agrippina, the mother of the emperor Domitius Nero; neither her life, her character, nor her ultimate

fate seem, however, to have entitled her to be called a favourite of Fortune.

Her mother, the first Agrippina, grand-daughter of Augustus, appears, on

the other hand, to have been a woman of virtuous character, and spotless

chastity, without a vice, with the exception, perhaps, of ambition.

12. See B. x. c. 10.




16. Chap. 16.-Examples Of Unusual Size.


CHAP. 16.-EXAMPLES OF UNUSUAL SIZE.



It is a well-known fact, that, at the age of three years, the

body of each person is half the height that it will ever attain.

Taking it all in all, it is observed that in the human race, the

stature is almost daily becoming less and less, and that sons

are rarely taller than their parents, the fertility of the seed







being dried up by the heat of that conflagration to which the

world is fast approaching.[1] A mountain of the island of

Crete having been burst asunder by the action of an earthquake,

a body was found there standing upright, forty-six cubits in

height;[2] by some persons it is supposed to have been that

of Orion;[3] while others again are of opinion that it was that

of Otus.[4] It is generally believed, from what is stated in

ancient records, that the body of Orestes, which was disinterred by command of an oracle, was seven cubits in height.[5]

It is now nearly one thousand years ago, that that divine poet

Homer was unceasingly complaining, that men were of less

stature in his day than they had formerly been.[6] Our Annals







do not inform us what was the height of Nvius Pollio;[7] but

we learn from them that he nearly lost his life from the rush

of the people to see him, and that he was looked upon as a

prodigy. The tallest man that has been seen in our times, was

one Gabbaras[8] by name, who was brought from Arabia by

the Emperor Claudius; his height was nine feet and as many

inches.[9] In the reign of Augustus, there were two persons,

Posio and Secundilla by name, who were half a foot taller

than him; their bodies have been preserved as objects of curiosity in the museum of the Sallustian family.[10]



In the reign of the same emperor, there was a man also,

remarkable for his extremely diminutive stature, being only

two feet and a palm in height; his name was Conopas, and he

was a great pet with Julia, the grand-daughter of Augustus.

There was a female also, of the same size, Andromeda by name,

a freed-woman of Julia Augusta. We learn from Varro, that

Manius Maximus and M. Tullius, members of our equestrian

order, were only two cubits in height; and I have myself

seen them, preserved in their coffins.[11] It is far from an unknown fact, that children are occasionally born a foot and a

half in height, and sometimes a little more; such children,

however, have finished their span of existence by the time they

are three years old.[12]











1. It was one of the tenets of the Stoics, that the world was to be alternately destroyed by water and by fire. The former element having laid it

waste on the occasion of the flood of Deucalion, the next great catastrophe,

according to them, is to be produced by fire. Pliny has previously alluded

to this opinion, B. ii. c. 110.-B.

2. Cuvier remarks, that in the alluvial tracts throughout Europe, Siberia, and America, and probably also in other parts of the world, bones

have been found, which have belonged to very large animals, such as

elephants, mastodons, and whales; and when discovered, the common

people, and sometimes even anatomists, have mistaken them for the bones

of giants. He especially mentions the case of the bones of an elephant,

found near Lucerne, in the sixteenth century, and supposed by Plater to

have belonged to a man seventeen feet in height. Cuvier conceives that

no man in modern times has exceeded the height of seven feet, and even

these cases are extremely rare; for further information he refers to his

Recherches sur les Ossemzens Fossiles. Some of the best authenticated facts

of unusually tall men are in Buffon, Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 276, and vol. iii.

p. 427.-B. The skeleton of O'Brien, in the Museum of the College of

Surgeons, in London, is about seven feet and a half in height.

3. The story of the birth of Orion is beautifully told by Ovid, Fasti,

B. v. 1. 493. et seq. He was often represented by the poets as of gigantic

stature, and after his death was fabled to have been placed among the

stars, where he appears as a giant. It is not improbable that, like the

Cyclopes, Hercules, and Atlas, he may have been one of the earliest benefactors of mankind, and an assiduous improver of their condition; whence

the story of his gigantic size.

4. A gigantic son of Poseidon or Neptune, and Iphimedeia, one of the

Aleid.

5. We have an account of this supposed discovery of the body of Orestes

in Herodotus, B. i. c. 68, and a reference to it, with some pertinent remarks, in Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 10.-B.

6. Il. B. v. 1. 303, 4, B. xii. 1. 449: this opinion of Homer was adopted

by many of the Latin poets; for example, by Virgil, B. xii. 1. 900; by Ju-

venal, Sat. xv. 1. 69, 70; and by Horace, Od. B. iii. O. 6, sub finem.

7. Columella speaks of Cicero as mentioning this Pollio, and stating that

he was a foot taller than any one else. It is most probably in Cicero's lost

book, "De Admirandis," that this mention was made of him.

8. Hardouin supposes that this was not an individual name, but a term

derived from the Hebrew, descriptive of his remarkable size.-B. He

supposes also that not improbably this was the same individual that is mentioned by Tacitus, Annals, B. xii. c. 12, as Acharus, a king of the Arabians.

9. According to our estimate of the Roman measures, this would correspond to about nine feet four and a half inches of our standard.-B.

10. "Conditorio Sallustianorum." The more general meaning attributed

to the word "conditorium," is "tomb" or burial-place. We learn from

other sources that the famous "gardens of Sallust" belonged to the emperor Augustus, and it is not improbable that there was a museum there of

curiosities, in which these remarkable skeletons were kept.

11. "Loculis." It is not quite clear whether this word has the meaning

here of chest or coffin, or of a niche or cavity made in the wall of the

tomb.

12. Among the objects of curiosity which were exhibited by Augustus to

the Roman people, as related by Suctonius, c. 43, was a dwarf named

Lucius, who is there described; but he would appear to be a different person from any of those here mentioned.-B.




17. Chap. 7.-Children Remarkable For Their Precocity.


CHAP. 7.-CHILDREN REMARKABLE FOR THEIR PRECOCITY.



We find it stated by the historians, that the son of Euthymenes of Salamis had grown to be three cubits in height, at

the age of three years; that he was slow of gait and dull of

comprehension; that at that age he had attained puberty even,

and his voice had become strong, like that of a man. We

hear, also, that he died suddenly of convulsions of the limbs,

at the completion of his third year.[1] myself, not very long

ago, was witness to exactly similar appearances, with the exception of the state of puberty, in a son of Cornelius Tacitus,

a member of the equestrian order, and procurator[2] of Belgic

Gaul.[3] The Greeks call such children as these, Extrape/loi;

we have no name for them in Latin.



(17.) It has been observed, that the height of a man from

the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is equal to the

distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands

when extended in a straight line; the right side of the body,

too, is generally stronger than the left; though in some, the

strength of the two sides is equal; while in others again, the

left side is the strongest. This, however, is never found to be

the case in women.[4]







1. Seneca also mentions him in his Consolation to Marcia, c. 23.

2. The procurator of a province was an officer appointed by the Csar to

perform the duties discharged by the qustor in the other provinces.

3. We have an ingenious dissertation by Ajasson, the object of which is

to show, that the Tacitus here referred to, is not the historian, but his

father, and consequently, that the boy prematurely born must have been

the historian's brother, not his son.-B.

4. It is not clear whether Pliny intended to apply all these three observations to the female, or only the last of them; it appears, however, that

the remark is, in either case, without foundation.-B. He appears to intend that his observations should apply more especially to the strength of

the arm.




18. Chap. 18.-Some Remarkable Properties Of The Body.


CHAP. 18.-SOME REMARKABLE PROPERTIES OF THE BODY.



Males are heavier than females, and the bodies of all animals are heavier when they are dead than when alive; they

also weigh more when asleep than when awake. The dead

bodies of men float upon the back, those of women with the







face downwards; as if, even after death, nature were desirous

of sparing their modesty.[1]



(18.) We find it stated, that there are some men whose

bones are solid, and devoid of marrow,[2] and that one mark of

such persons is the fact that they are never thirsty, and emit

no perspiration. At the same time, we know that by the exercise of a resolute determination, any one may resist the

feeling of thirst; a fact which was especially exemplified in the

case of Julius Viator, a Roman of equestrian rank, but by birth

one of the Vocontii, a nation on terms of alliance with us.

Having, in his youth, been attacked by dropsy, and forbidden

the use of liquids by his physicians,[3] use with him became a

second nature, and so, in his old age, he never took any drink

at all. Other persons also, have, by the exercise of a strong

determination, laid similar restraints upon themselves.



(19.) It is said that Crassus, the grandfather of Crassus, who

was slain by the Parthians, was never known to laugh; from

which circumstance he obtained the name of Agelastus.[4] There

are other persons again, who have never been seen to weep.

Socrates, who was so famous for his wisdom, always appeared

with the same countenance, and was never known to appear

either more gay or more sad than ordinary. This even tenor

of the mind, however, sometimes degenerates into a sort of

harshness, and a rigorous and inflexible sternness of nature,

entirely effacing all the human affections. The Greeks, among

whom there have been many persons of this description, are in







the habit of calling them )Apaqei=s.[5] A very remarkable

thing, too, is the fact, that among these persons are to be found

some of the greatest masters of philosophy. Diogenes the

Cynic, for instance, Pyrrho, Heraclitus, and Timon, which last

allowed himself to be so entirely carried away by this spirit,

as to become a hater of all mankind. Less important peculiarities of nature, again, are to be observed in many persons;

Antonia,[6] for instance, the wife of Drusus, was never known

to expectorate; and Pomponius, the poet, a man of consular

rank, was never troubled with eructation. Those rare instances

of men,[7] whose bones are naturally solid and without marrow,

are known to us as men "of horn."[8]







1. This is incorrect; the human body, after death, does not float until

decomposition has commenced, when it becomes more or less buoyant, in

consequence of the formation of gases, which partially distend the cavities;

but we do not observe any difference in the two sexes in this respect.-B.

2. This statement is altogether incorrect.-B.

3. The total abstinence from liquids in dropsy, was a point much insisted

upon by medical practitioners, even in modern times; but it is now generally conceived to have been derived from a false theory, and not to be

essential to the cure of the disease, while it imposes upon the patient a most

severe privation. A moderate use of fluids is even favourable to the operation of the remedies that are employed in this disease.-B.

4. From the Greek a)gelasto)s, "one who does not laugh." Cicero refers to this peculiarity in the character of Crassus, in his treatise De Finibus, B. v. c. 92; and in the Tusc. Quest. B. iii. c. 3, he informs us, on the

authority of Lucilius, that Crassus never laughed but once in his life.-B.

And then, on seeing a donkey eating thistles; upon which he exclaimed,

"Similem habent labia lactucam," "Like lips, like lettuce."

5. "Without passion;" equivalent to our English word "apathetical."-B.

6. The daughter of M. Antony by Octavia. She was the mother of Germanicus Csar, and the grandmother of the emperor Caligula, whom she

lived to see on the throne, and who is supposed to have hastened her death.

She was celebrated for her beauty and chastity-a rare virtue in those

days.

7. Pliny, B. xxxi. c. 45. says, that this state of the bones is found in

fishermen, from their being exposed to the action of the sea and salt water;

but both the fact and the supposed cause are without foundation.-B.

8. "Cornei."




19. Chap. 19. (20.)-Instances Of Extraordinary Strength.


CHAP. 19. (20.)-INSTANCES OF EXTRAORDINARY STRENGTH.



Varro, speaking of persons remarkable for their strength,

gives us an account of Tributanus, a celebrated gladiator,

and skilled in the use of the Samnite[1] arms;[2] he was a

man of meagre person, but possessed of extraordinary strength.

Varro makes mention of his son also, who served in the

army of Pompeius Magnus. He says, that in all parts of his

body, even in the arms and hands, there was a network of

sinews,[3] extending across and across. The latter of these men,

having been challenged by an enemy, with a single finger of

the right hand, and that unarmed,[4] vanquished him, and then







seized and dragged him to the camp. Vinnius Valens, who

served as a centurion in the prtorian guard of Augustus, was

in the habit of holding up waggons laden with casks, until

they were emptied; and of stopping a carriage with one hand,

and holding it back, against all the efforts of the horses to

drag it forward. He performed other wonderful feats also, an

account of which may still be seen inscribed on his monument.

Varro, also, gives the following statement: "Fusius, who

used to be called the ' bumpkin[5] Hercules,' was in the habit

of carrying his own mule; while Salvius was able to mount

a ladder, with a weight of two hundred pounds attached to his

feet, the same to his hands, and two hundred pounds on each

shoulder." I myself once saw,-a most marvellous display of

strength,-a man of the name of Athanatus walk across the

stage, wearing a leaden breast-plate of five hundred pounds

weight, while shod with buskins of the same weight. When

Milo, the wrestler, had once taken his stand, there was not a

person who could move him from his position; and when he

grasped an apple in his hand, no one could so much as open

one of his fingers.







1. It would appear that the Samnites were not only one of the most

warlike people, with whom the Romans had to contest in the infancy of their

state, but that they were particularly celebrated as gladiators.-B.

2. The gladiators, called Samnites, were armed with the peculiar "scutum," or oblong shield, used by the Samnites, a greave on the left leg, a

sponger on the breast, and a helmet with a crest.

3. The term "nervus" was generally applied by the ancients to the

sinews or tendons; they had a very indistinct knowledge of what are properly called the "nerves."-B.

4. Pintianus suggests another reading here, which would appear to be much more consistent with probability. "Inermi dextr superatum, et

uno digito postremo correptum in castra," &c.-"Conquered him with the

right hand, and that unarmed, and then with a single finger dragged him

to the camp."

5. "Rusticellus."




20. Chap. 20.-Instances Of Remarkable Agility.


CHAP. 20.-INSTANCES OF REMARKABLE AGILITY.



It was considered a very great thing for Philippides to run

one thousand one hundred and sixty stadia, the distance between

Athens and Lacedmon, in two days, until Amystis, the Lacedmonian courier, and Philonides,[1] the courier of Alexander

the Great, ran from Sicyon to Elis in one day, a distance of thirteen hundred and five stadia.[2] In our own times, too, we are







fully aware that there are men in the Circus, who are able to

keep on running for a distance of one hundred and sixty miles;

and that lately, in the consulship of Fonteius and Vipstanus,[3]

there was a child eight years of age, who, between morning and

evening, ran a distance of seventy-five miles.[4] We become all

the more sensible of these wonderful instances of swiftness,

upon reflecting that Tiberius Nero, when he made all possible

haste to reach his brother Drusus, who was then sick in Germany, reached him in three stages, travelling day and night

on the road; the distance of each stage was two hundred

miles.[5]







1. Philonides has been already mentioned, B. ii. c. 73, as being in the

habit of going from Sicyon to Elis in nine hours.-B.

2. We may consult the learned notes of Ajasson, Lemaire, vol. ii. p.

99, respecting the exact distances here indicated by Pliny. We may remark, that a stadium is about one-eighth of a mile, according to which estimate, Philippides must have gone 142 miles in two days, and the other 150

miles in one day; as it is implied, that these journeys were performed on

foot, even the former of them is obviously impossible.-B. Query, however, as to this last assertion; according to recent pedestrian feats, it does

not appear to be absolutely impossible.

3. See B. ii. c. 72.

4. This feat is no less incredible than those mentioned above.-B.

5. We have an account of this journey of Tiberius in Dion Cassius.

Val. Maximus, B. v. c. 6, also enumerates this among the extraordinary

examples of fraternal affection.-B. We learn also from Suetonius, that

on learning the accident, a fall from his horse, which had happened to his

brother Drusus, Tiberius took horse at Ticinum, and travelled night and

day till he reached his brother, who was then in Germany, near the Rhine.

He accompanied the body to Rome, preceding it on foot all the way. There

is extant a "Consolation to Livia Augusta," written on this occasion, some

have thought, by Pedo Albinovanus, but it is more likely to have been the

work of Ovid.




21. Chap. 21. (21.)-Instances Of Acuteness Of Sight.


CHAP. 21. (21.)-INSTANCES OF ACUTENESS OF SIGHT.



Instances of acuteness of sight are to be found stated, which,

indeed, exceed all belief. Cicero informs us,[1] that the Iliad

of Homer was written on a piece of parchment so small as to be

enclosed in a nut-shell. He makes mention also of a man who

could distinguish objects at a distance of one hundred and thirty-five miles.[2] M. Varro says, that the name of this man was

Strabo; and that, during the Punic war, from Lilybum, the

promontory of Sicily, he was in the habit of seeing the fleet

come out of the harbour of Carthage, and could even count the

number of the vessels.[3] Callicrates[4] used to carve ants and







other small animals in ivory, so minute in size, that other

persons were unable to distinguish their individual parts.

Myrmecides[5] also was famous in the same line;[6] this man

made, of similar material, a chariot drawn by four horses,

which a fly could cover with its wings; as well as a ship which

might be covered by the wings of a tiny bee.[7]







1. This statement must have been in some of his lost works.

2. Pliny probably here refers to a passage in the Acad. Qust. B. iv. c.

81, where Cicero speaks of a person who could see objects, it was said, at

a distance of 1800 stadia, equal exactly to 125 miles.-B.

3. The actual distance between the promontory of Sicily and the nearest

part of Carthage is between fifty and sixty miles. The acute vision of

Strabo is mentioned by Val. Maximus, B. i. e. 8.-B.

4. See also B. xxxvi. c. 4. He was a Lacedmonian sculptor, who,

according to Athenus, also executed embossed work on vases.

5. His works in ivory were said to have been so small, that they could

scarcely be seen without placing them on black hair.

6. Cicero, Acad. Qust. B. iv. c. 120, speaks of "one Myrmecides, a

maker of minute objects of art;" lian, Vac. Hist. B. i. c. 17, also speaks

of these minute performances of Myrmecides, and styles them "a waste

of time." Pliny, in a subsequent part of his work, B. xxxi. c. 4, speaks

of similar minute works, executed by these artists in marble; but the account which he gives is scarcely credible.-B.

7. See B. xxxvi. c. 5.




22. Chap. 22.(22.)-Instances Of Remarkable Acuteness Of Hearing.


CHAP. 22.(22.)-INSTANCES OF REMARKABLE ACUTENESS OF HEARING.



We have one instance on record of remarkable acuteness of

hearing; the noise of the battle, on the occasion when Sybaris[1]

was destroyed, was heard, the day on which it took place, at

Olympia.[2] But, as to the victory over the Cimbri,[3] and that

over Perseus, the news of which was conveyed to Rome by the

Castors,[4] they are to be looked upon in the light of visions and

presages proceeding immediately from the gods.











1. It would appear that there is a little confusion here of events. Sybaris, so noted for its luxury and effeminacy, was destroyed by the people of

Crotona, under the command of the athlete Milo, B.C. 510. In B.C. 360,

the Crotoniats were defeated at the river Sagras, by the Locrians and Rhegians, 10,000 in number, although they are said to have amounted to

130,000. Now it was on the occasion of this latter battle, that, according

to Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. ii., the noise was heard at Olympia, where the

games were being celebrated. Be it as it may, the story is clearly fabulous.

Evelyn is much more deserving of credit, where we find him stating in his

Diary, that in his garden, at Say's Court, at Deptford, he heard the guns

fired in one of our engagements with the Dutch fleet, at a distance thence

of nearly 200 miles.

2. Ajasson discusses at some length, the possibility of the fact here mentioned, and concludes, that it is not to be credited: he estimates the distance between these two places at 120 miles.-B.

3. As to the miraculous annunciation of the victory of Marius and

Catulus over the Cimbri, see B. ii. c. 58.

4. Meaning, thereby, the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux; who were

said to have announced at Rome the victory gained the day before by

Paulus milius over King Perseus.




23. Chap. 23. (23.)-Instances Of Endurance Of Pain.


CHAP. 23. (23.)-INSTANCES OF ENDURANCE OF PAIN.



Of patience in enduring pain, that being too frequently the

lot of our calamitous fate, we have innumerable instances related. One of the most remarkable instances among the female

sex is that of the courtesan Lena, who, although put to the

torture, refused to betray the tyrant-slayers, Harmodius and

Aristogiton.[1] Among those of men, we have that of Anaxarchus, who, when put to the torture for a similar reason, bit

off his tongue and spit it into the face of the tyrant, thus

destroying the only hope[2] of his making any betrayal.







1. This circumstance is mentioned by Pausanias, in his Attica. She was

an Athenian hetra, or courtesan, beloved by Aristogiton, or, according to

Athenus, by Harmodius. On the murder of Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus, she was put to the torture, being supposed to have been privy

to the conspiracy; but she died under her sufferings without making any

disclosure, and, according to one account, bit off her tongue, that no secret

might be betrayed by her. The Athenians erected in her honour a bronze

statue of a lioness (in reference to her name), without a tongue, in the

vestibule of the Acropolis.

2. This story is related by Val. Maximus, B. iii. c. 3, it is also alluded

to by Cicero, Tus. Qust. B. ii. c. 22, and De Nat. Deor. B. ii. c. 33; but

he only speaks of his tortures, without mentioning what Pliny states of his

biting off his tongue.-B. He was a philosopher of Abdera, of the school

of Democritus, and flourished about B.C. 340. Towards Alexander the

Great, whom he accompanied into Asia, he acted the part of a base

flatterer. He was pounded to death in a mortar, by order of Nicocreon,

king of Cyprus.




24. Chap. 24. (24.)-Memory.


CHAP. 24. (24.)-MEMORY.



It would be far from easy to pronounce what person has been

the most remarkable for the excellence of his memory, that

blessing so essential for the enjoyment of life, there having

been so many who have been celebrated for it. King Cyrus

knew all the soldiers of his army by name:[1] L. Scipio the

names of all the Roman people. Cineas, the ambassador of

king Pyrrhus, knew by name all the members of the senate

and the equestrian order, the day after his arrival at Rome.







Mithridates,[2] who was king of twenty-two nations, administered their laws in as many languages, and could harangue

each of them, without employing an interpreter. There was

in Greece a man named Charmidas, who, when a person

asked him for any book in a library, could repeat it by heart,

just as though he were reading. Memory, in fine, has been

made an art; which was first invented by the lyric poet, Simonides,[3] and perfected by Metrodorus of Scepsis, so as to

enable persons to repeat word for word exactly what they have

heard.[4] Nothing whatever, in man, is of so frail a nature as

the memory; for it is affected by disease, by injuries, and even

by fright; being sometimes partially lost, and at other times

entirely so. A man, who received a blow from a stone, forgot

the names of the letters only;[5] while, on the other hand,

another person, who fell from a very high roof, could not so

much as recollect his mother, or his relations and neighbours.

Another person, in consequence of some disease, forgot his

own servants even; and Messala Corvinus, the orator, lost all

recollection of his own name. And so it is, that very often the

memory appears to attempt, as it were, to make its escape from

us, even while the body is at rest and in perfect health.

When sleep, too, comes over us, it is cut off altogether; so

much so, that the mind, in its vacancy, is at a loss to know

where we are.[6]











1. This statement is also made by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7. Xenophon, Cyropdia, B. v., speaks of the retentive memory of Cyrus, but considerably qualifies the account here given: he says that Cyrus knew the

names of all his commanders or prefects, and of all those to whom he had

occasion to give particular orders.-B.

2. This account is similar to that given by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7,

and by Aulus Gellius, B. xvii. c. 7. We have a learned dissertation by

Ajasson, in which he discusses the possibility of one individual understanding so great a number of languages, as well as the question, whether

it is possible that so great a number of languages were spoken by the subjects of Mithridates. His conclusions greatly tend to prove both these

points; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 295.-B.

3. This invention is referred to by Cicero, De Nat. Deor., B. ii. c. 86.

Cicero also speaks of the remarkable powers of memory possessed by Charmidas and Metrodorus, De Oratore, B. ii. c. 88, and Tusc. Qust. B. i. e.

24.-B.

4. Ajasson gives an account of some of the principal writers in what

has been termed the science of Mnemonics, or artificial memory: he particularly commends the lectures of Aim of Paris on the subject; Lemaire,

vol. iii. p. 310, et seq.-B.

5. This circumstance is related by Val. Maximus, B. i. e. 8.-B.

6. This is not always the case. In dreams we often recollect past events

and localities; we know in what part of the world we are, and even remember the substance of former dreams, and the fact that we have dreamt

of a similar subject before.




25. Chap. 25. (25.)-Vigour Of Mind


CHAP. 25. (25.)-VIGOUR OF MIND



The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigour of mind in

any man ever born, was that of Csar, the Dictator. I am not

at present alluding to his valour and courage, nor yet his exalted genius, which was capable of embracing everything under

the face of heaven, but I am speaking of that innate vigour

of mind, which was so peculiar to him, and that promptness

which seemed to act like a flash of lightning. We find it stated

that he was able to write or read, and, at the same time, to

dictate and listen. He could dictate to his secretaries four

letters at once, and those on the most important business; and,

indeed, if he was busy about nothing else, as many as seven.

He fought as many as fifty pitched battles, being the only commander who exceeded M. Marcellus,[1] in this respect, he having

fought only thirty-nine.[2] In addition, too, to the victories

gained by him in the civil wars, one million one hundred and

ninety-two thousand men were slain by him in his battles.

For my own part, however, I am not going to set it down as a

subject for high renown, what was really an outrage committed

upon mankind, even though he may have been acting under

the strong influence of necessity; and, indeed, he himself

confesses as much, in his omission to state the number of persons

who perished by the sword in the civil wars.







1. The conqueror of Syracuse, and five times consul at Rome. He was

born B.C. 268, and was slain in an engagement with Hannibal, B.C. 208,

in the vicinity of Venusia.

2. Ajasson remarks concerning the number of battles in which Csar is

said to have been engaged, that it has probably been much exceeded by

some of the great warriors of later times. He says that an individual,

"who was raised over our heads and over all Europe, and so reigned much

too long," was personally engaged in nearly 300 battles.-B.




26. Chap. 26.-Clemency And Greatness Of Mind.


CHAP. 26.-CLEMENCY AND GREATNESS OF MIND.



With much more justice we may award credit to Pompeius

Magnus, far having taken from the pirates[1] no less than eight

hundred and forty-six vessels: though at the same time, over

and above the great qualities previously mentioned, we must

with equal justice give Csar the peculiar credit of a remark-







able degree of clemency, a quality, in the exercise of which,

even to repentance, he excelled all other individuals whatsoever. The same person has left us one instance of magnanimity, to which there is nothing that can be at all compared. While one, who was an admirer of luxury, might perhaps on this occasion have enumerated the spectacles which he

exhibited, the treasures which he lavished away, and the magnificence of his public works, I maintain that it was the

great proof, and an incomparable one, of an elevated mind, for

him to have burnt with the most scrupulous carefulness the

papers of Pompeius, which were taken in his desk at the battle

of Pharsalia, and those of Scipio, taken at Thapsus, without so

much as reading them.[2]







1. Who infested the coasts of Cilicia, and whom he dislodged from their

strongholds, and almost utterly extirpated.

2. This fact is mentioned by Seneca, de Ira, B. ii. c. 26. Plutarch

mentions a similar circumstance with respect to Pompey.-B.




27. Chap. 27. (26.)-Heroic Exploits.


CHAP. 27. (26.)-HEROIC EXPLOITS.



But now, as it belongs fully as much to the glorious renown

of the Roman Empire, as to the victorious career of a single

individual, I shall proceed on this occasion to make mention of

all the triumphs and titles of Pompeius Magnus: the splendour

of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of Alexander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Father

Liber[1] even. After having recovered Sicily, where he first

commenced his career as a partizan of Sylla, but in behalf of

the republic, after having conquered the whole of Africa, and

reduced it to subjection, and after having received for his share

of the spoil the title of " Great,"[2] he was decreed the honours

of a triumph; and he, though only of equestrian rank,[3] a

thing that had never occurred before, re-entered the city in the

triumphal chariot: immediately after which, he hastened to the

west, where he left it inscribed on the trophy which he raised

upon the Pyrenees, that he had, by his victories, reduced to

subjection eight hundred and seventy-six cities, from the Alps

to the borders of Farther Spain; at the same time he most







magnanimously said not a word about Sertorius.[4] After

having put an end to the civil war, which indeed was the

primary cause of all the foreign ones, he, though still of only

equestrian rank, again entered Rome in the triumphal chariot,

having proved himself a general thus often before having been

a soldier.[5] After this, he was dispatched to the shores of all

the various seas, and then to the East, whence he brought back

to his country the following titles of honour, resembling therein

those who conquer at the sacred games-for, be it remembered, it is not they that are crowned, but their respective

countries.[6] These honours then did he award to the City,

in the temple of Minerva,[7] which he consecrated from the

spoils that he had gained: "Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, having brought to an end a war of thirty years' duration, and having defeated, routed, put to the sword, or received the submission of, twelve millions two hundred and

seventy-eight thousand men, having sunk or captured eight

hundred and forty-six vessels, having received as allies one

thousand five hundred and thirty-eight cities and fortresses,

and having conquered all the country from the Motis to the

Red Sea, dedicates this shrine as a votive offering due to

Minerva." Such, in few words, is the sum of his exploits in

the East. The following are the introductory words descriptive of the triumph which he obtained, the third day before

the calends[8] of October,[9] in the consulship of M. Piso and







M. Messala;[10] "After having delivered the sea-coast from

the pirates, and restored the seas to the people of Rome, he

enjoyed a triumph over Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia,

Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Juda, the Albanians, Iberia, the island of Crete, the Basterni, and, in addition

to all these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes."



The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from

these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he

made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia,

which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its

centre.[11] If any one should wish, on the other hand, in a

similar manner, to pass in review the exploits of Csar, who

has shown himself greater still than Pompeius, why then he

must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task, I may

say, without an end.







1. Or Bacchus.-"Father Liber" is the name always given to him by

Pliny.

2. "Magnus." Plutarch states, that, on his return from Africa, Sylla

saluted him with the name of "Magnus," which surname he ever afterwards retained.-B.

3. Plutarch says, that the law did not allow a triumph to be granted to

any one who was not either consul or prtor.-B.

4. Sertorius had joined the party of Marius and Cinna, in opposition to

that of Sylla. He fled into Spain, and maintained the war successfully in

that country, until he was treacherously assassinated by one of his supposed

partisans. This may appear a sufficient reason for his not being mentioned

by Pompey.-B.

5. "Toties imperator antequam miles." He had been raised to the

highest rank without passing through the various gradations of military

life.-B.

6. Speaking of this honorary crown, Pliny says, B. xvi. c. 4, "At the

present day it is not given to the victor himself, but proclamation is made

that he confers the crown upon his country."

7. It is noticed by the commentators, that Aulus Gellius, speaking of

this building, calls it the Temple of Victory, B. x. c. 1; the error, it is

supposed, may have arisen from Pompey having placed a statue of Victory

in the Temple.-B.

8. 29th of September.

9. Pliny, referring to these events, in a subsequent place, B. xxvii. c. 6,

says that it took place "pridie Kalend. Octob. die natalis sui." Plutarch

informs us, that the triumph lasted two days, a circumstance which may assist us in reconciling these dates. The same author gives a very minute

detail of all the transactions here referred to.-B.

10. According to the chronology ordinarily adopted, this would be in the

year of the City 692.-B.

11. By Asia, as we see from the geographical portion of this work, the

ancients often designated not the large tract to which we now apply the

name, but a comparatively small district lying on the east of the gean

sea.-B.




28. Chap. 28. (27.)-Union In The Same Person Of Three Of The Highest Qualities With The Greatest Purity.


CHAP. 28. (27.)-UNION IN THE SAME PERSON OF THREE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITIES WITH THE GREATEST PURITY.



Many other men have excelled in different kinds of virtues.

Cato, however, who was the first of the Porcian family,[1] is

generally thought to have been an example of the three greatest

of human endowments, for he was the most talented orator,

the most talented general, and the most talented politician;[2]

all which merits, if they were not perceptible before him,

still shone forth, more refulgently even, in my opinion, in Scipio

milianus, who besides was exempted from that hatred on the

part of many others under which Cato laboured:[3] in cones-







quence of which it was, what must be owned to be a peculiarity in Cato's career, that he had to plead his own cause no

less than four and forty times;[4] and yet, though no person

was so frequently accused, he was always acquitted.







1. See B. xiv. c. 5.

2. Val. Maximus adds, that he was the best lawyer of his time.-B.

3. We meet with a passage in Livy, B. xxxix. c. 44, illustrative of this

view of Cato's character. In Cicero's treatise, De Senectute, where Cato

bears a prominent part, frequent allusion is made to the strictness and even

severity of his principles, although the general impression which we re-

ceive of his character and manners is highly interesting, and, upon the

whole, not unamiable.-B.

4. Plutarch says, that nearly fifty impeachments were brought against

him, the last when he was eighty-six years of age.-B.




29. Chap. 29. (28.)-Instances Of Extreme Courage.


CHAP. 29. (28.)-INSTANCES OF EXTREME COURAGE.



A minute enquiry by whom the greatest valour has ever

been exhibited, would lead to an endless discussion, more especially if all the fables of the poets are to be taken for granted.

Q. Ennius admired T. Ccilius Denter[1] and his brother to such a

degree, that on their account he added a sixteenth book to his

Annals. L. Siccius Dentatus, who was tribune of the people

in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and A. Aterius,[2] not

long after the expulsion of the kings, has also very numerous

testimonies in his favour. This hero fought one hundred and

twenty battles, was eight times victorious in single combat, and

was graced with forty-five wounds in the front of the body,

without one on the back. The same man also carried off

thirty-four spoils,[3] was eighteen times presented with the victor's spear,[4] and received twenty-five pendants,[5] eighty-three







torcs,[6] one hundred and sixty bracelets,[7] twenty-six crowns,

(of which fourteen were civic, eight golden, three mural, and

one obsidional), a fisc[8] of money, ten prisoners, and twenty

oxen altogether.[9] He followed in the triumphal processions

of nine generals, who mainly owed their victories to his exertions; besides all which, a thing that I look upon as the most

important of all his services, he denounced to the people T.

Romilius,[10] one of the generals of the army, at the end of his

consulship, and had him convicted of having made an improper

use of his authority.[11]



The military honours of Manlius Capitolinus would have

been no less splendid than his, if they had not been all effaced

at the close of his life. Before his seventeenth year, he had







gained two spoils, and was the first of equestrian rank who received a mural crown; he also gained six civic crowns, thirty seven donations, and had twenty-three scars on the fore-part of

his body. He saved the life of P. Servilius, the master of the

horse, receiving wounds on the same occasion in the shoulders

and the thigh. Besides all this, unaided, he saved the Capitol,

when it was attacked by the Gauls, and through that, the

state itself; a thing that would have been the most glorious

act of all, if he had not so saved it, in order that he might, as

its king, become its master.[12] But in all matters of this nature,

although valour may effect much, fortune does still more.



No person living, in my opinion at least, ever excelled M.

Sergius,[13] although his great-grandson, Catiline, tarnished the

honours of his name. In his second campaign he lost his right

hand; and in two campaigns he was wounded three and twenty

times; so much so, that he could scarcely use either his hands

or his feet; still, attended by a single slave, he afterwards

served in many campaigns, though but an invalided soldier.

He was twice taken prisoner by Hannibal, (for it was with no

ordinary enemy that he would engage,) and twice did he escape

from his captivity, after having been kept, without a single

day's intermission, in chains and fetters for twenty months.

On four occasions he fought with his left hand alone, two horses

being slain under him. He had a right hand made of iron,

and attached to the stump, after which he fought a battle, and

raised the siege of Cremona, defended Placentia, and took

twelve of the enemy's camps in Gaul. All this we learn from

an oration of his, which he delivered when, in his prtorship,

his colleagues attempted to exclude him from the sacred rites,

on the ground of his infirmities.[14] What heaps upon heaps of

crowns would he have piled up, if he had only had other enemies! For, in matters of this nature, it is of the first importance to consider upon what times in especial the valour of







each man has fallen. What civic crowns did Trebia, what

did the Ticinus, what did Lake Thrasymenus afford? What

crown was there to be gained at Cann, where it was deemed

the greatest effort of valour to have escaped[15] from the enemy?

Other persons have been conquerors of men, no doubt, but

Sergius[16] conquered even Fortune herself.[17]







1. There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining who was the

individual here referred to; the subject is discussed at some length by

Hardouin, who shows that it is probable, that it was Lucius Ccilius, who

was slain in a battle with the Gauls, A.U.C. 470, and in the consulship of

Dolabella and Domitius.-B.

2. The name of this consul has been the subject of much discussion

among the commentators. Livy, B. iii. c. 31, has been referred to, as

calling him Atermius; but in some of the best editions, he is named Aterius. The tribunate of Dentatus took place A.U.C. 299, fifty-five years after

the expulsion of the kings.-B.

3. When a Roman overcame an enemy with whom he had been personally engaged, he took possession of some part of his armour and dress,

which might bear testimony to the victory; this was termed the "spolium."

-B.

4. "Hasta pura;" these words, according to Hardouin, signify a lance

without an iron head. We are told that it was given to him who gained

the first victory in a battle; it was also regarded as an emblem of supreme

power, and as a mark of the authority which one nation claimed over

another.-B.

5. "Phaleris." These were bosses, discs or crescents of metal, sometimes gold, They were mostly used in pairs, and as ornaments for the

helmet; but we more commonly read of them as attached to the harness of horses, and worn as pendants from the head, so as to produce a terrific

effect when shaken by the rapid movements of the horse.

6. The "torques" was an ornament of gold, twisted spirally and bent

into a circular form, and worn among the upper classes of the Persians,

the Gauls, and other Asiatic and northern nations. They are often found

both in France and Ireland, as well as in this country, but varying greatly

in size and weight.

7. Golden "armill," or bracelets, were worn by the Gauls on the arms

and the legs. The Sabines also wore them on the left arm, at the time of

the foundation of Rome.

8. The word "fiscus" signifies a wicker basket or pannier, probably of

peculiar construction, in which the Romans were accustomed to keep and

carry about large sums of money. In process of time the word came to

signify a treasure or money-chest.

9. We have nearly the same detail of the honours bestowed on Dentatus

by Val. Maximus, B. iii. c. 2. Pliny again speaks of Dentatus, and the

honours bestowed upon him, B. xxii. c. 5; and especially notices the "corona graminea," the grass or obsidional crown, as the highest of his honours. The different kinds of honorary crowns are very fully described in

B. xvi. c. 3, 4, and 5; in B. xxii. c. 4, we have a particular account of

the "corona graminea;" in c. 5, mention is made of its having been given

to Dentatus, and, in the next, other individuals are enumerated to whom it

had been presented.-B.

10. T. Romilius Rocus Vaticanus was consul B.C. 455. Having defeated the qui, and gained immense booty, instead of distributing it

among the soldiers, he and his colleague sold it, on account of the poverty

of the treasury. They were, in consequence, brought to trial, and Veturius

was sentenced to pay 10,000 asses. He was, however, elected augur in

453, as some compensation for the ill-treatment he had experienced.

11. Livy, B. iii. c. 31, gives an account of the conviction of Romilius, but

says, that it was effected by C. Claudius Cicero, the tribune of the people.

To obviate the discordance in the names, some commentators have proposed to substitute the words "Lucio Siccio" for "Claudio Cicerone."-B.

12. We have an account of the victories, honours, and unfortunate fate of

Manlius in Livy, B. vi. c. 14-20. In enumerating the honours conferred

upon him, the numbers are given somewhat differently in c. 20; thirty

spoils of enemies slain, forty donations from the generals, two mural and

eight civic crowns.-B.

13. M. Sergius Silus. He was one of the city prtors B.C. 197.

14. Among the Jews and other nations of antiquity, it was considered an

essential point for the priests to be without blemish, perfect and free from

disease.-B.

15. In allusion to the compliment paid by the senate to the consul, M.

Terentius Varro, by whose rashness the battle of Cann was lost. On his

escape and safe return to Rome, instead of visiting him with censure,

he received the thanks of the senate, "that he had not despaired of the

republic."

16. It appears somewhat remarkable, considering the extraordinary acts

of valour here enumerated, as performed by Sergius, that we hear so little

of him from other sources.-B.

17. Hardouin takes the meaning to be, that though ill fortune overtook

the Romans in their wars with Hannibal, nevertheless Sergius defeated

Fortune herself, in dying before his country was overwhelmed by those

calamities.




30. Chap. 30. (29.)-Men Of Remarkable Genius.


CHAP. 30. (29.)-MEN OF REMARKABLE GENIUS.



Among so many different pursuits, and so great a variety of

works and objects, who can select the palm of glory for transcendent genius? Unless perchance we should agree in opinion

that no more brilliant genius ever existed than the Greek poet

Homer, whether it is that we regard the happy subject of his

work, or the excellence of its execution. For this reason it

was that Alexander the Great-and it is only by judges of

such high estate that a sentence, just and unbiassed by envy,

can be pronounced in the case of such lofty claims-when he

found among the spoils of Darius, the king of Persia, a casket

for perfumes,[1] enriched with gold, precious stones, and pearls,

covered as he was with the dust of battle, deemed it beneath a

warrior to make use of unguents, and, when his friends were

pointing out to him its various uses, exclaimed, "Nay, but by

Hercules! let the casket be used for preserving the poems of

Homer;" that so the most precious work of the human mind

might be placed in the keeping of the richest work of art. It

was the same conqueror, too, who gave directions that the







descendants and house of the poet Pindar[2] should be spared, at

the taking of Thebes. He likewise rebuilt the native city[3] of

Aristotle, uniting to the extraordinary brilliancy of his exploits

this speaking testimony of his kindliness of disposition.



Apollo impeached by name the assassins of the poet Archilochus[4] at Delphi. While the Lacedemonians were besieging

Athens, Father Liber ordered the funeral rites to be performed

for Sophocles, the very prince of the tragic buskin; repeatedly warning their king, Lysander, in his sleep, to allow

of the burial of his favourite. Upon this, the king made enquiry who had lately died in Athens; and understanding without

any difficulty from the Athenians to whom the god referred, he

allowed the funeral rites to be performed without molestation.







1. Pliny informs us, B. xiii. c. 1, that the art of making perfumes originated with the Persians.-B.

2. The city was taken by him by assault, and all its buildings, with the

exception of the house of Pindar, levelled to the ground; most of the inhabitants were slaughtered, and the rest sold as slaves.

3. Stagirus, or Stagira, a town of Macedonia, in Chalcidice, on the Strymonic Gulf. It was a colony of Andros, founded B.C. 656, and originally

called Orthagoria. It was destroyed by Philip, and, according to some

accounts, was rebuilt by him, as having been the native place of Aristotle.

4. Archilochus of Paros was one of the earliest Ionian lyric poets, and

was the first who composed in Iambic verse according to fixed rules. He

flourished about 714-676 B.C. Pliny speaks here of his murderers; but

it is generally stated by historians that he was murdered by one individual,

by some called Calondas, or Corax, a Naxian, by others Archias.




31. Chap. 31. (30.)-Men Who Have Been Remarkable For Wisdom.


CHAP. 31. (30.)-MEN WHO HAVE BEEN REMARKABLE FOR WISDOM.



Dionysius the tyrant, who otherwise manifested a natural

propensity for cruelty and pride, sent a vessel crowned with

garlands to meet Plato, that high-priest of wisdom; and on

his disembarcation, received him on the shore, in a chariot

drawn by four white horses. Isocrates was able to sell a

single oration of his for twenty talents.[1] schines, the great

Athenian orator, after he had read to the Rhodians the speech

which he had made on the accusation of Demosthenes, read

the defence made by Demosthenes, through which he had

been driven into exile among them. When they expressed

their admiration of it, "How much more," said he, "would

you have admired it, if you had heard him deliver it him-







self;"[2] a striking testimony, indeed, given in adversity, to the

merit of an enemy! The Athenians sent their general, Thucydides, into banishment, but recalled him as their historian,

admiring his eloquence, though they had punished his want

of valour.[3] A strong testimony, too, was given to the merit

of Menander, the famous comic poet, by the kings of Egypt

and Macedonia, in sending to him a fleet and an embassy;

though, what was still more honourable to him, he preferred

enjoying the converse of his literary pursuits to the favour of

kings.



The nobles too of Rome have given their testimonies in favour

of foreigners, even. Cn. Pompeius, after having finished the

war against Mithridates, when he went to call at the house of

Posidonius, the famous teacher of philosophy, forbade the

lictor to knock at the door, as was the usual custom;[4] and he,

to whom both the eastern and the western world had

yielded submission, ordered the fasces to be lowered before the

door of a learned man. Cato the Censor, after he had heard

the speech of Carneades,[5] who was one of the embassy sent







from Athens, of three men famous for their learning, gave it as

his opinion, that the ambassadors ought to be dismissed as soon

as possible, because, in consequence of his ingenious method of

arguing, it became extremely difficult to distinguish truth from

falsehood.[6] What an extraordinary change too in our modes of

thinking! This Cato constantly gave it out as his decided opinion that all Greeks ought to be expelled from Italy, while, on

the other hand, his great-grandson, Cato of Utica, upon his

return from his military tribuneship, brought back with him a

philosopher, and a second one[7] when he returned from his

embassy to Cyprus;[8] and it is a very remarkable fact, that

the same language which had been proscribed by one of the

Cato's, was introduced among us by the other. But let us now

give some account of the honours of our own countrymen.



The elder Africanus ordered that the statue of Ennius should

be placed in his tomb, and that the illustrious surname, which

he had acquired, I may say, as his share of the spoil on the

conquest of the third part of the world, should be read over

his ashes, along with the name of the poet.[9] The Emperor

Augustus, now deified, forbade the works of Virgil to be burnt,

in opposition to the modest directions to that effect, which the

poet had left in his will: a prohibition which was a greater

compliment paid to his merit, than if he himself had recommended his works.



M. Varro[10] is the only person, who, during his lifetime, saw







his own statue erected. This was placed in the first public

library that was ever built, and which was formed by Asinius

Pollio with the spoils of our enemies.[11] The fact of this distinction being conferred upon him by one who was in the first

rank, both as an orator and a citizen, and at a time, too, when

there was so great a number of men distinguished for their

genius, was not less honourable to him, in my opinion, than

the naval crown which Pompeius Magnus bestowed upon him

in the war against the pirates. The instances that follow

among the Romans, if I were to attempt to reckon them,

would be found to be innumerable; for it is the fact that this

one nation has furnished a greater number of distinguished

men in every branch than all the countries of the world taken

together.[12]



But what atonement could I offer to thee, Marcus Tullius,[13]

were I to be silent respecting thy name? or on what ground

am I to pronounce thee as especially pre-eminent? On what,

indeed, that can be more convincing than the most abundant

testimony that was offered in thy favour by the whole Roman

people? Contenting myself with the selection only of such of the

great actions of the whole of your life, as were performed during

your consulship.-You speak, and the tribes surrender the

Agrarian law, or, in other words, their very subsistence;[14] you

advise them to do so, and they pardon Roscius,[15] the author of the







law for the regulation of the theatres, and, without any feelings

of resentment, allow a mark to be put upon themselves by allotting them an inferior seat; you entreat, and the sons of proscribed men blush at having canvassed for public honours: before your genius, Catiline took to flight, and it was you who

proscribed M. Antonius. Hail then to thee, who wast the first

of all to receive the title of Father of thy country,[16] who wast

the first of all, while wearing the toga, to merit a triumph,

and who didst obtain the laurel for oratory. Great father,

thou, of eloquence and of Latin literature! as the Dictator

Csar, once thy enemy, wrote in testimony of thee,[17] thou

didst require a laurel superior to every triumph! How far

greater and more glorious to have enlarged so immeasurably the

boundaries of the Roman genius, than those of its sway!



(31.) Those persons among the Romans, who surpass all

others in wisdom, have the surnames of Catus and Corculus[18]

given to them. Among the Greeks, Socrates was declared

by the oracle of the Pythian Apollo to be superior to all others

in wisdom.







1. We may here refer to some remarks by Hardouin and Ajasson on the

actual sum obtained by Isocrates; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 126, 127.-B.

2. This anecdote is related by Cicero, De Oratore, B. iii. c. 56, and by

Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 10.-B.

3. This is rather a strong expression, and it is doubtful if the great historian at all deserves it. The facts of the case seem to have been as follow.

Thucydides was employed in a military capacity, and was in command of

an Athenian squadron of seven ships at Thasos, B.C. 424, when Eucles,

who commanded in Amphipolis, sent for his assistance against Brasidas,

who was before that town with an army. Fearing the arrival of a superior

force, Brasidas offered favourable terms to Amphipolis, which were readily

accepted, as there were but few Athenians in the place. Thucydides arrived at Eion, on the mouth of the Strymon, the evening of the same day

on which Amphipolis surrendered: and though too late to save Amphipolis,

prevented Eion from falling into the hands of the enemy. It was in consequence of this failure, that he became voluntarily an exile, perhaps to

avoid the still severer punishment of death, which appears to have been

the penalty of such a failure as that which he had, though unavoidably,

committed. It is most probable that he returned to Athens about B.C. 403,

the period of its liberation by Thrasybulus.

4. The following passage in Livy, B. vi. c. 34, may serve to illustrate this

remark of Pliny:-"The lictors of Sulpicius, the military tribune, when

he went home from the forum, knocked at the door with his staff, as the

usual custom is."

5. Of Cyrene, the Academic philosopher. In B.C. 155, being then fifty-

eight years old, he was chosen with some others to deprecate the fine of

500 talents which had been imposed on the Athenians for the destruction

of Oropus. It was then that, in presence of Cato the Elder, he delivered his famous orations on Justice. The first oration was in commendation of

the virtue, and on the ensuing day the next was delivered, by which all the

arguments of the first were answered, and justice shown to be not a virtue,

but only a matter of compact for the maintenance of civil society. The

honesty of Cato was greatly shocked at this, and he moved the senate to

send the philosopher back to his school, and save the Roman youth from

his demoralizing doctrines. He lived twenty-eight years after this, and

died at Athens B.C. 129, aged eighty-five, or, according to Cicero, ninety.

6. This is related by Plutarch, in his Life of Cato. His general dislike

of the Grecian character is again mentioned, B. xxix. c. 7.-B.

7. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

8. We have an account of this embassy in Plutarch. Pliny informs us,

B. xxxiv. c. 20, that the only article which Cato retained, of the works of

art that he brought from Cyprus, was the statue of Zeno, "not for its intrinsic merit, but because it was the statue of a philosopher." Valerius

Paterculus, B. ii. c. 45, and Plutarch refer to this transaction.-B.

9. This circumstance is related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 14, and

is referred to by Cicero in his defence of Archias, sec. 9.-B.

10. M. Varro, the philosopher, sometimes called "the most learned" of the Romans. His command under Pompey, in the war against the Pirates,

has been already mentioned in B. iii. c. 16. He also served under him

against Mithridates, and was his legatus in Spain, at the first outbreak of

the civil wars.

11. Pliny refers to the same subject: in B. xxxv. c. 2, he speaks of Pollio

as "qui primus, bibliothecam dicando, ingenia hominum rempublicam fecit"-"The first who, by forming a public library, made public property the

genius of learned men." Aulus Gellius, B. vi. c. 18, informs us, that the

first library, formed for the use of the public, was that collected at Athens

by Pisistratus.-B. Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Pergamus, and

Lucullus, had formed extensive libraries, but solely for their own use, and

not that of the public.

12. Some of these are given by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 15.-B. It is

very doubtful, however, if Greece did not greatly excel Rome in this respect.

13. Meaning Cicero, the orator and philosopher.

14. Cicero, in an Epistle to Atticus, B. ii. c. i., enumerates what he styles

his consular orations: the total number is twelve, and among them we find

all those here referred to by Pliny.-B.

15. The individual referred to is L. Roscius Otho; by his law the Roman

equites, who, before this time, sat mingled with the people generally, had appropriate seats allotted to them. Cicero designates this oration, "De

Othone."-B.

16. This title was bestowed upon him by the general acclamation of the

people, at the end of his consulship. We have an account of it in Plutarch.-B.

17. This remark is not found in any of Cesar's works now extant.-B.

18. These terms signify "acute" and "judicious" they are derived respectively from "cautus " and "cor."-B.




32. Chap. 32. (32.)-Precepts The Most Useful In Life.


CHAP. 32. (32.)-PRECEPTS THE MOST USEFUL IN LIFE.



Again, men have placed on an equality with those of the

oracles the precepts uttered by Chilon,[1] the Lacedmonian.

These have been consecrated at Delphi in letters of gold, and

are to the following effect: "That each person ought to know

himself, and not to desire to possess too much;"[2] and "That

misery is the sure companion of debt and litigation." He died of







joy, on hearing that his son had been victorious in the Olympic

games, and all Greece assisted at his funeral rites.







1. Son of Damagetus, and one of the Seven Sages. He flourished towards the beginning of the sixth century B.C. Herodotus says that he

held the office of Ephor Eponymus in Ol. 56. He was a man remarkable

for his wisdom and his sententious brevity, so characteristic of his Spartan

origin.

2. It appears somewhat doubtful to which of the Grecian sages the credit

of this maxim is due.-B.




33. Chap. 33. (33.)-Divination.


CHAP. 33. (33.)-DIVINATION.



A spirit of divination, and a certain communion with the

gods, of the most exalted nature, was manifested-among

women, in the Sibyl, and among men, in Melampodes,[1] the

Greek, and in Marcius,[2] the Roman.







1. We have an account of Melampus, probably the same as the person

here styled Melampodes, in Herodotus, B. ii. c. 49, and B. ix. c. 34; Ajasson, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 135, has given a list of writers who have referred to him as an eminent soothsayer. Pliny mentions him in a subsequent passage, B. xxv. c. 21, as celebrated for his skill in the art of divination.-B.

2. Marcius is said by Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 50, to have given his predictions in verses.-B.




34. Chap. 34. (34.)-The Man Who Was Pronounced To Be The Most Excellent.


CHAP. 34. (34.)-THE MAN WHO WAS PRONOUNCED TO BE THE MOST EXCELLENT.



Scipio Nasica is the only individual who, since the commencement of the Roman era, has been declared, by a vote of

the senate, confirmed by oath, to be the most excellent of

men.[1] And yet, the same person, when he was a candidate

for office, was twice stigmatized by a repulse of the Roman

people. He was not allowed, in fine, to die in his native

country,[2]-no, by Hercules! no more than Socrates, who

was declared by Apollo to be the wisest of men, was permitted to die outside of a prison.











1. We have an account of this in Livy, B. xxix. c. 14, and B. xxxvi. c.

40; it is also referred to by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 15.-B.

2. In consequence of the number of eminent men who bore the name

of Scipio, it is not easy, in all cases, to decide to which of them certain

transactions ought to be referred. In this instance, it has been doubted,

whether it was the same Scipio who was twice an unsuccessful candidate for

the consulship, and who died in a foreign country. Livy, B. xxxv. c. 24,

remarks, "P. Corn. Cn. F. Scipio" had been an unsuccessful candidate

for the consulship; and afterwards, B. xxxix. c. 40, that "P. and L. Scipio" were unsuccessful candidates for the office of censor. Val. Maximus

expressly states, B. v. c. 3, that it was Scipio Nasica, who, in consequence

of the little estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, went

to Pergamus, and "lived there the remainder of his life, without feeling

any regrets for his ungrateful country."-B.




35. Chap. 35. (35.)-The Most Chaste Matrons.


CHAP. 35. (35.)-THE MOST CHASTE MATRONS.



Sulpicia, the daughter of Paterculus, and wife of Fulvius

Flaccus, has been considered, in the judgment of matrons, to

have been the chastest of women. She was selected from one

hundred Roman ladies, who had been previously named, to

dedicate a statue of Venus, in obedience to the precepts contained in the Sibylline books.[1] Again, Claudia gave strong

proof of her piety and virtue, on the occasion of the introduction into Rome of the Mother of the gods.[2]







1. We have this anecdote related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 15.

He informs us, that it was the statue of Venus Verticordia which was

ordered to be consecrated; the more readily to win the hearts of the

maidens and matrons from wanton thoughts to a life of chastity.-B.

2. Her story is told at great length by Ovid, in the Fasti, B. iv. 1. 305,

et seq. Her name was Claudia Quinta, and she is supposed to have been

the sister of Appius Claudius Pulcher, and grand-daughter of Appius Claudius Ccus. The vessel which was conveying the statue of Cybele from

Pessinus to Rome having stuck fast on a shallow at the mouth of the Tiber,

the soothsayers declared that none but a really chaste woman could move

it. Claudia, who had been previously accused of unchastity, being in the

number of the matrons who had accompanied Scipio to Ostia to receive the

statue, immediately presented herself, and calling upon the goddess to vindicate her innocence, seized the rope, and the vessel moved forthwith. A

statue was afterwards erected to her in the vestibule of the temple of the

goddess.




36. Chap. 36. (36.)-Instances Of The Highest Degree Of Affection.


CHAP. 36. (36.)-INSTANCES OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF AFFECTION.



Infinite is the number of examples of affection which have

been known in all parts of the world; but one in particular

occurred at Rome, to which no other can possibly be compared. A woman of quite the lower class, and whose name

has consequently not come down to us, having lately given

birth to a child, obtained permission to visit her mother,[1] who

was confined in prison; but was always carefully searched by

the gaoler before being admitted, to prevent her from intro-







ducing any food. At last, however, she was detected nourishing her mother with the milk of her breast; upon which, in

consideration of the marvellous affection of the daughter, the

mother was pardoned, and they were both maintained for the

rest of their days at the public charge; the spot, too, was

consecrated to Piety, a temple to that goddess being built on

the site of the prison, in the consulship[2] of C. Quintius and

M. Acilius, where the theatre of Marcellus[3][4] now stands.



The father of the Gracchi, on finding [two] serpents in his

house, consulted the soothsayers, and received an answer to

the effect, that he would survive if the serpent of the other

sex was put to death.-"No," said he, "rather kill the serpent of my own sex, for Cornelia is still young, and may

yet bear children."[5] Thus did he shew himself ready, at

the same moment, to spare his wife and to benefit the state;

and shortly after, his wish was accomplished. M. Lepidus

died of regret for his wife, Apuleia, after having been divorced

from her.[6] P. Rupilius,[7] who was at the time affected by a

slight disease, instantly expired, upon news being brought to

him that his brother had failed in obtaining the consulship.

P. Catienus Plotinus was so much attached to his patron, that on

finding himself named heir to all his property, he threw himself on the funeral pile.











1. Solinus and Festus differ somewhat from Pliny, in stating that it

was her father whose life was thus saved by the affectionate daughter.

Valerius Maximus, who tells the story, says that the family was "ingenui

sanguinis," meaning "of genteel origin." Such families were, however,

sometimes reduced, even among the Romans, to a level with the plebeian

classes.

2. A.U.C. 604.

3. This theatre is again mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12. It was built of

stone, and erected by Augustus in honour of his nephew Marcellus.

4. This is related by Valerius Maximus, B. v. c. 8, somewhat more in

detail, and with a degree of animation, which is not frequently to be met

with in that author.-B.

5. Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 18, Val. Maximus, B. iv. c. 6, and Plutarch,

relate this more circumstantially. The serpents were of different sexes; if

the male serpent was killed, his own death was to be the consequence; if

the female, that of his wife, Cornelia.-B.

6. Pliny gives an account of the circumstances which attended the death

of Lepidus, in the 54th Chapter. He was the father of the triumvir.-B.

7. Or Rutilius, consul B.C. 132, the year after the death of Tiberius

Gracchus, whose adherents he prosecuted with the greatest cruelty. He

also obtained a triumph for bringing to a conclusion the Servile war. He

was an intimate friend of the younger Scipio Africanus, who obtained the

consulship for him, but failed in gaining that honour for his brother Lucius.

About the same period, he was condemned, in the tribuneship of Caius

Gracchus, for his illegal acts in the prosecution of the adherents of Tiberius Gracchus. It has been suggested that this indignity may have had a

greater share than the ill success of his brother in causing his death.




37. Chap. 37. (37.)-Names Of Men Who Have Excelled In The Arts, Astrology, Grammar, And Medicine.


CHAP. 37. (37.)-NAMES OF MEN WHO HAVE EXCELLED IN THE ARTS, ASTROLOGY, GRAMMAR, AND MEDICINE.



Innumerable are the men who have excelled in the various

arts; we may, however, take a cursory survey of them, by

citing the names of the principal ones. Berosus excelled in

astrology; and on account of his divinations and predictions,

a public statue was erected in his honour by the Athenians.

Apollodorus, for his skill as a grammarian, had public honours

decreed him by the Amphictyonic Council of Greece. Hip-

pocrates excelled in medicine; before its arrival, he predicted the plague, which afterwards came from Illyria, and

sent his pupils to various cities, to give their assistance.

As an acknowledgment of his merit, Greece decreed him the

same honours as to Hercules.[1] King Ptolemy rewarded a

similar degree of skill in the person of Cleombrotus of Ceos,

by a donation of one hundred talents, at the Megalensian

games,[2] he having succeeded in saving the life of King Anti-

ochus.[3] Critobulus also rendered himself extremely famous,

by extracting an arrow[4] from the eye of King Philip with so







much skill, that, although the sight was lost, there was no

defect to be seen.[5] Asclepiades of Prusa, however, acquired

the greatest fame of all-he founded a new sect, treated with

disdain the promises of King Mithridates conveyed to him

by an embassy, discovered a method of successfully treating

diseases by wine,[6] and, breaking in upon the funeral ceremony,

saved the life of a man, who was actually placed[7] on the funeral pile. He rendered himself, however, more celebrated than

all, by staking his reputation as a physician against Fortune

herself, and asserting that he did not wish to be so much as

looked upon as a physician, if he should ever happen in any

way to fall sick; and he won his wager, for he met his death

at an extreme old age, by falling down stairs.[8]







1. Pliny again speaks of the great talents of Hippocrates, B. xxvi. c. 6,

and B. xxix. c. 2.-B.

2. We have an account of the origin of these games in Livy, B. xxix. c.

14.-B.

3. Cleombrotus is supposed to be the same person who is mentioned in B.

xxix. c. 3, as Erasistratus, the grandson of Aristotle. From Suidas we

learn that a near relative of his was called Cleombrotus, though, from his

perplexed language, it is impossible to say whether father or uncle. The

story to which Pliny is supposed here to refer is a curious one. Antiochus, the son of Seleucus Nicator, fell in love with Stratonice, whom his

father had married in his old age, but struggled to conceal his passion.

The skilful physician discovered the nature of his disease; upon which he

reported to Seleucus that it was incurable, for that he was in love, and it

was impossible that his passion could be gratified. The king, greatly

surprised, inquired who the lady was; to which Erasistratus replied that

it was his own wife; whereupon Seleucus began to try and persuade him

to give her up to his son. The physician upon this asked him if he would

do so himself, if it were his own wife. Seleucus declared that he would;

upon which Erasistratus disclosed to him the truth. Seleucus not only

gave up Stratonice to his son, but resigned to him several provinces.

Erasistratus was one of the most famous physicians and anatomists of

antiquity.

4. It was on this occasion that a label was said to have been fastened on

the arrow, inscribed, "To Philip's right eye." The inhabitants were permitted to depart, however, when the city was taken, with one garment to

each person.

5. This accident occurred to Philip, at the siege of Methone, of which

we have a brief account in Diodorus Siculus, B. xvi. c. 7, and in Justin,

B. vii. c. 6; but neither of these authors makes any mention of Critobulus.

Quintus Curtius, B. ix. c. 5, informs us, that Critobulus exhibited great skill

in relieving Alexander the Great from the effects of a dangerous wound,

which he received in India; but he does not refer to the fact here mentioned.-B.

6. At the present day, this mode of treatment would have figured as the

wine-cure."

7. See B. xxvi. c. 8.

8. Pliny again speaks of Asclepiades, in B. xxvi. c. 7, and B. xxix. c. 5.

The anecdote respecting the man who was saved from the funeral pile is

referred to by Celsus, B. ii. c. 6.-B. Pliny says, in B. xxvi. c. 7, that

Asclepiades first came to Rome as a teacher of rhetoric, and that being unsuccessful, he turned his attention to medicine. Bruce, the Abyssinian

traveller, also met his death by falling down stairs. Rabelais, in the prologue to his Fourth Book, refers to this peculiar death of Asclepiades.




38. Chap. 38.-Geometry And Architecture.


CHAP. 38.-GEOMETRY AND ARCHITECTURE.



M. Marcellus, too, at the taking of Syracuse, offered a remarkable homage to the sciences of geometry and mechanics,

by giving orders that Archimedes was to be the only person

who should not be molested; his commands, however, were

disregarded, in consequence of the imprudence of one of the

soldiers.[1] Chersiphron, also, the Cnossian,[2] was rendered fa-







mous by the admirable construction of the temple of Diana at

Ephesus; Philon, by the construction of the basin at Athens,

which was capable of containing one thousand vessels;[3] Cte-

sibius, by the invention of pneumatics and hydraulic machines; and Dinochares,[4] by the plan which he made of the city

of Alexandria, founded by Alexander in Egypt. The same

monarch, too, by public edict, declared that no one should

paint his portrait except Apelles, and that no one should make a

marble statue of him except Pyrgoteles, or a bronze one except

Lysippus.[5] These arts have all been rendered glorious by

many illustrious examples.







1. This is related more at large by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7, and by

Plutarch.-B.

2. Mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 31.

3. Val. Maximus refers to Philon and his public works, in B. viii. c. 12.

-B. He was an architect of eminence in the reign of the successors of

Alexander. He built for Demetrius Phalereus, about B.C. 318, the portico

of twelve Doric columns to the great temple at Eleusis. He also formed

a basin in the Pirus, which was destroyed at the taking of Athens by the

Romans under Sylla.

4. See B. v. c. 11, and B. xxxiv. c. 42.

5. Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, mentions the restriction made in

favour of Lysippus, but does not extend it to Apelles; he does not speak of

Pyrgoteles. We have an apposite allusion to this circumstance by Horace,

Ep. B. i. 1. 239, 240. Boileau has elegantly imitated Horace, in his "Discours au Roi."-B. For further particulars of him, see B. xxxiv. c. 17

and 19. He was a native of Sicyon, and at first a simple worker in bronze,

but eventually obtained the highest rank among the Grecian statuaries.




39. Chap. 39. (38.)-Of Painting; Engraving On Bronze, Marble, And Ivory; Of Carving.


CHAP. 39. (38.)-OF PAINTING; ENGRAVING ON BRONZE, MARBLE, AND IVORY; OF CARVING.



King Attalus gave one hundred talents,[1] at a public auction,

for a single picture of Aristides, the Theban painter.[2] Csar,

the Dictator, purchased two pictures, the Medea and the Ajax

of Timomachus, for eighty talents,[3] it being his intention to

dedicate them in the temple of Venus Genetrix. King Candaules gave its weight in gold for a large picture by Bularchus,

the subject of which was the destruction of the Magnetes.

Demetrius, who was surnamed the "taker of cities,"[4] refused to







set fire to the city of Rhodes, lest he should chance to destroy

a picture of Protogenes, which was placed on that side of the

walls against which his attack was directed. Praxiteles[5] has

been ennobled by his works in marble, and more especially by his

Cnidian Venus, which became remarkable from the insane love

which it inspired in a certain young man,[6] and the high value

set upon it by King Nicomedes, who endeavoured to procure it

from the Cnidians, by offering to pay for them a large debt

which they owed. The Olympian Jupiter day by day bears

testimony to the talents of Phidias,[7] and the Capitoline Jupiter

and the Diana of Ephesus to those of Mentor;[8] to which

deities, also, were consecrated vases made by this artist.







1. According to the usual estimate of the value of the Attic talent,

193 12s., the sum given for this picture would be about 19,000.-B.

2. Nearly all the topics here treated of are again mentioned in

B. xxxv., which is devoted to the fine arts. The 34th, 35th, and

36th Chapters of that Book, contain an account of all the celebrated painters of antiquity, and their principal works.-B.

3. Between 15,000 and 16,000.-B.

4. "Polioreetes."

5. We have a further account of this artist in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv.

c. 39 and 40, and B. xxxvi. c. 4.

6. This is referred to by Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 4, and by Valerius Maximus,

B. viii. c. 4.-B.

7. He is again mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv. c. 34, and B.

xxxvi. c. 4.-B.

8. Mentor is noticed for his skill in carving, B. xxxiii. c. 55.-B. Littr says, on referring to that passage, "we find that he was a worker in silver,

and a maker of vases of great value." He seems disinclined to believe that

he was a statuary. As Pliny tells us, ubi supra, none of his public works

were in existence in Pliny's time. Some small cups, however, existed,

which were highly prized, though some were undoubtedly spurious.




40. Chap. 40. (39.)-Slaves For Which A High Price Has Been Given.


CHAP. 40. (39.)-SLAVES FOR WHICH A HIGH PRICE HAS BEEN GIVEN.



The highest price ever given for a man born in slavery, so

far as I am able to discover, was that paid for Daphnus, the

grammarian, who was sold by Natius of Pisaurum[1] to M.

Scaurus, the first man in the state, for seven hundred thousand sesterces.[2] In our day, no doubt, comic actors have

fetched a higher price, but then they were purchasing their own

freedom. In the time of our ancestors, Roscius, the actor,

gained five hundred thousand sesterces annually. Perhaps,

too, a person might in the present instance refer to the case of







the army commissary[3] in the Armenian war, which was of late

years undertaken in favour of Tiridates; which officer, in our

own time, received his manumission from Nero for the sum of

thirteen million sesterces;[4] but, in this case, the consideration

was the profit to be derived from the war,[5] and it was not

the value of the man that was paid for. And so, too, when

Lutorius Priscus bought of Sejanus, the eunuch, Pzon, for fifty

million sesterces,[6] the price was given, by Hercules! rather to

gratify the passion of the purchaser, than in commendation of

the beauty of the slave. Universal sorrow and consternation

then reigning, the public were too much pre-occupied with it

to put a stop to a bargain of so scandalous a nature.[7]







1. Now Pesaro.

2. We have the same difficulty in ascertaining the sums here mentioned,

as in all former cases. Holland estimates the sum given for Daphnus

at 300,700 sesterces, vol. i. p. 175.-B.

3. "Dispensator;" we have an explanation of this term, B. xxxiii. c.

13.-B.

4. Holland estimates the sum paid for the enfranchisement of this man

at 120,000 sesterces, vol. i. p. 175.-B.

5. In his capacity, probably, of contractor for provisions and stores.

6. Holland estimates the price paid on this occasion at 3,500 sesterces,

ubi supra, thus differing exceedingly from Ajasson's estimate.-B.

7. "Quam quidam injuriam lucri fecit ille mercatus in luctu civitatis,

quoniam arguere nulli vacabat." We can see the meaning of this passage,

but a literal translation of it, as it stands, is out of the question.




41. Chap. 41. (40.)-Supreme Happiness.


CHAP. 41. (40.)-SUPREME HAPPINESS.



Of all nations of the earth, the Romans have, without doubt,

excelled every other in the display of valour.[1] The human

judgment cannot, however, possibly decide what man has enjoyed the highest degree of happiness, seeing that every one

defines a state of prosperity in a way different from another,

and entirely in conformity with his own notions. If we wish

to form a true judgment and come to a decision, casting aside

all the allurements and illusions of fortune, we are bound to

say that no mortal is happy. Fortune has dealt well, and, indeed, indulgently, to him who feels that he has a right to say

that he is not unhappy. For if there is nothing else, at all

events, there is the fear lest fortune should fail at last; which

fear itself, when it has once fastened upon us, our happiness is

no longer unalloyed. And then, too, is it not the case that there

is no mortal who is always wise? Would that there were







many to be found, who could feel a conviction that this is false,

and that it had not been enunciated by an oracle itself, as it

were! Mortals, vain as they are, and ingenious in deceiving

themselves, calculate in the same way as the Thracians, who,

according to their experience of each day, deposit in an urn

a black or a white pebble; at the close of their life, these

pebbles are separated, and from the relative number of each

kind, they form their conclusions.[2] But really, may not that

very day that has been complimented with a white pebble, have

contained in itself the germ of some misfortune? How many

a man has got into trouble by the very power which has been

bestowed upon him? How many have been brought to ruin

and plunged into the deepest misery by their own blessings? or

rather, by what have been looked upon too fondly as blessings,

for the hour during which they were in the full enjoyment of

them. But most true it is, that it is the day after, that is the

judge of the day before; and after all, it is only the last day

that is to set its stamp on the whole; the consequence is,

that we can put our trust in none of them. And then, too,

is it not the fact that the blessings of life would not be equal

to its evils, even though they were equal in number? For

what pleasure is there that can compensate for the slightest

grief? Alas! what a vain and unreasonable task we impose

upon ourselves! We trouble ourselves with counting the

number of days, when it is their weight[3] that ought to be

taken into consideration.







1. "Virtus"-"manliness," that being esteemed by the Romans the

ideal of true virtue.

2. It appears that a similar custom prevailed among the Scythians, according to Phylarchus, from whom Pliny probably took his account of it;

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 151.

3. As being fraught with an intensity of pain, which no number of days

passed in pleasure can compensate.




42. Chap. 42. (41.)-Rare Instances Of Good Fortune Continuing In The Same Family.


CHAP. 42. (41.)-RARE INSTANCES OF GOOD FORTUNE CONTINUING IN THE SAME FAMILY.



During the whole course of ages, we find only one woman,

and that, Lampido, the Lacedmonian, who was the daughter

of a king, the wife of a king, and the mother of a king.[1]







Berenice was the only woman who was daughter, sister, and

mother of conquerors in the Olympian games,[2] The family

of the Curios[3] has been the only one to produce three orators

in succession; that of the Fabii alone has given three chiefs

of the senate in succession, Fabius Ambustus, his son Fabius

Rullianus, and his grandson Quintus Fabius Gurges.[4]











1. She was the daughter of Leotychides, and the wife of Archidamas,

and mother of gis. Ajasson expresses his surprise, that so diligent a

collector of facts as Pliny, should have been acquainted with only one example of this kind.-B. " The following are additional instances collected by Ajasson :-1. Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus, wife

of Philip II., king of Macedon, and mother of Alexander the Great, kind.

of Macedon. 2. Roxana, daughter of king Darius Codomannus, and wife

of Alexander the Great; her son by whom was proclaimed king by certain

generals of Alexander, but was shortly after slain at Amphipolis. 3. Laodice the Younger, daughter of king Antiochus Soter, sister and wife of

Antiochus Thes, and mother of king Seleucus Callinicus. 4. Berenice,

daughter of king Ptolemy Philadelphus; married to her brother king

Ptolemy Euergetes, and mother of Ptolemy Philopater, by whom she was

put to death. 5. Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria:

she became the wife of king Ptolemy Epiphanes, and was mother of king

Ptolemy Philometor. 6. Cleopatra Cocce, daughter of Ptolemy Philometor, married her uncle, king Ptolemy Physcon, and became mother of

kings Ptolemy Lathyrus and Alexander I. 7. Cleopatra, another daughter

of Ptolemy Philometor, married first to Alexander Balas, the usurper of

the throne of Scythia, then to king Demetrius Nicator, and then to Antiochus Venator. Her sons by Nicator were Seleucus V. and Antiochus

Gryphus, both of whom became kings of Syria; and her son Cyzicenius

by Antiochus Venator, likewise became king of Syria. 8. Selene or Cleo-

patra, daughter of king Ptolemy Physcon, was married, first, to king

Ptolemy Lathyrus, secondly, to king Antiochus Gryphus, and thirdly, to

king Antiochus Eusebes. She was mother of king Antiochus Asiaticus.

In all, she had nine kings as her near relations or connections. 9. Stratoniee, daughter of king Demetrius Poliorcetes, was married first to king

Seleucus Nicator, and then to king Antiochus Soter, and was mother of

king Antiochus Thers.

2. Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 15, gives nearly the same account of a person whom he calls Pherenice; from the resemblance of the names, it has

been supposed, that they may both refer to the same individual.-B.

3. He alludes to the three persons, father, son, and grandson, known by

the name of C. Scribonius Curio. The first was prtor B.C. 121, one

of the most distinguished orators of his time. His son, who acquired

some reputation as an orator, was tribune of the people B.C. 90, prtor

B.C. 82, and consul in B.C. 76, with Cn. Octavius. He is represented as

being possessed of great eloquence, and of extreme purity and brilliancy of

diction, but to have had none of the other requisites of an orator. Like his

son, he enjoyed the friendship of Cicero. The younger Curio was an orator

of great talents, which, from want of industry, he left uncultivated. Cicero

endeavoured to direct his talents into a proper channel, but all in vain,

and he remained to the end a man of worthless and profligate character.

He was married to Fulvia, who afterwards became the wife of Antony.

4. Hardouin observes, that M. Fabius Ambustus was three times consul, Quintus Fabius Rullianus five times, and Q. Fabius Gurges three

times.-B.




43. Chap. 43. (42.)-Remarkable Example Of Vicissitudes.


CHAP. 43. (42.)-REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF VICISSITUDES.



As to examples of the vicissitudes of Fortune, they are

innumerable. For what great pleasures has she ever given

us, which have not taken their rise in misfortunes? And what

extraordinary misfortunes have not taken their first rise in

great pleasures? (43.) It was fortune that preserved the

Senator, M. Fidustius,[1] who had been proscribed by Sylla,

for a period of thirty-six years. And yet he was proscribed a

second time; for he survived Sylla, even to the days of Antony, and, as it appears, was proscribed by him, for no other

reason but because he had been proscribed before.







1. We have a similar account of the fate of Fidustius in Dion Cassius,

by whom he is named Filuscius.-B. He was at length slain by order of

Antony.




44. Chap. 44.-Remarkable Examples Of Honours.


CHAP. 44.-REMARKABLE EXAMPLES OF HONOURS.



Fortune has determined that P. Ventidius alone should enjoy

the honour of a triumph over the Parthians, and yet the same

individual, when he was a child, she led in the triumphal

procession of Cneius Pompeius, the conqueror of Asculum.[1]

Indeed, Masurius says, that he had been twice led in triumph;

and according to Cicero, he used to let out mules for the bakers

of the camp.[2] Most writers, indeed, admit that his younger

days were passed in the greatest poverty, and that he wore the

hob-nailed shoes[3] of the common soldier. Balbus Cornelius,







also, the elder, was elected to the consulate;[4] but he had

previously been accused, and the judges had been charged

to discuss the point whether he could or not lawfully be

scourged with rods; he being the first foreigner,[5]-born even

on the very shores of the ocean,-who obtained that honour,

which our ancestors denied even to the people of Latium.[6]

Among other remarkable instances, also, we have that of L.

Fulvius,[7] the consul of the rebellious Tusculani, who, immediately upon his coming over to the Romans, obtained from

them the same honour. He is the only individual who, in

the same year in which he had been its enemy, enjoyed the

honour of a triumph in Rome, and that too, over the people

whose consul he had previously been.

Down to the present time, L. Sylla is the only man who has

claimed to himself the surname of "Happy;"[8] a name which

he derived, forsooth, from the bloodshed of the citizens and

the oppression of his country! But what claim had he on

which to found his title to this happiness? Was it the power

which he had of proscribing and massacreing so many thousands of his fellow-citizens? Oh interpretation most disgraceful, and which must stamp him as "Unhappy"[9] to all future

time! Were not the men who perished in those times, of

the two, to be looked upon as the more fortunate-seeing that

with them we sympathize, while there is no one who does not







detest Sylla? And then, besides, was not the close of his life

more horrible than the sufferings which had been experienced

by any of those who had been proscribed by him? his very flesh

eating into itself, and so engendering his own punishment.[10]

And this, although he may have thought proper to gloss it

over by that last dream of his,[11] in the very midst of which

he may be said, in some measure, to have died; and in which,

as he pretended, he was told that his glory alone had risen

superior to all envy; though at the same time, he confessed that

it was still wanting to his supreme happiness, that he had not

dedicated the Capitol.[12]







1. We have an account of the vicissitudes in the life of Ventidius Bassus

in A. Gellius, B. xv. c. 4, and in Valerius Paterculus, B. ii. c. 65. We

learn from these writers, that Ventidius was a native of Picenum, and that,

when that city was taken by Cneius Pompeius, in the Social war, Ventidius,

then an infant, was carried in his mother's arms, before the car of the conqueror.-B.

2. The passage of Cicero referred to, occurs in a letter to Plancus, Ep.

ad Fam. B. x. Ep. 18, where, speaking of Ventidius, who had united himself to the party of Antony, he says, "And I look down upon the camp of

the mule-driver, Ventidius."

3. "Caliga." A strong heavy sandal worn by the Roman soldiers and

centurions; but not by the superior officers. The term "a calig," therefore, had the same meaning as our expression, "from the ranks." The

Emperor Caligula received that surname when a boy, in consequence of

wearing the caliga, and being inured to the life of a common soldier.

4. In the year A.U.C. 704.

5. He was a native of Gades, in Spain. A party of the Roman nobles

induced an inhabitant of Gades to accuse him of having illegally assumed

the privileges of a Roman citizen. The cause was tried B.C. 55, and he

was supported by Pompey and Crassus, and defended by Cicero. One of

the tests of the being a Roman citizen, was the immunity from being

scourged, according to the provisions of the Porcian law. So St. Paul,

who, as a citizen of Tarsus, enjoyed the rights of a Roman citizen, says

to the centurion, Acts xxii. 25, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man

that is a Roman, and uncondemned?"

6. The accusation against Balbus appears to have been his illegal usurpation of the rights of a Roman citizen, being born a foreigner. Pliny

has previously informed us, B. v, c. 5, that he was a native of Gades or

Cadiz. He was elected consul A.U.C. 713.-B.

7. L. Fulvius Curius. consul B.C. 322. In B.C. 313 he was master of

the horse to the dictator, L. milius.

8. "Felix." Hardouin informs us, that he transmitted this surname

to his descendants; among them was Felix, the governor of Juda, before

whom St Paul was taken for judgment.-B.

9. "Infelix."

10. According to Pliny, B. xi. c. 39, and Plutarch, Sylla was affected by

what has been termed the "Morbus pediculosus" or "Lousy disease." Plutarch, however, ascribes his death to the bursting of an internal abscess;

and the same cause is assigned by Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 3.-B. It was

probably of a similar disease that Herod Agrippa died, whom we find

mentioned in Acts xii. 23, as being eaten of worms.

11. Plutarch refers to a dream which Sylla had a short time before his

death, but it does not seem to correspond to the one here alluded to.-B.

"Plutarch relates that shortly before his death, Sylla dreamed that his

son Cornelius, who died before his wife, Cecilia Metella, appeared to him,

and summoned him away to join his mother. Appian also states that just

before his death, Sylla beheld a spirit in a dream, which summoned him by

name; upon which he called together his friends, made his will, and died

soon after of a fever. Only two days before his death he finished the

twenty-second book of his Memoirs, in which, foreseeing his end, he

boasted of the prediction of the Chaldans, that it was his fate to die after

a happy life, and in the height of his prosperity.

12. This is referred to by Tacitus, Hist. B. iii. c. 73.-B. Plutarch tells

us that Catulus performed this ceremony of dedication.




45. Chap. 45.-Ten Very Fortunate Circumstances Which Have Happened To The Same Person.


CHAP. 45.-TEN VERY FORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH HAVE HAPPENED TO THE SAME PERSON.



Q. Metellus, in the funeral oration which he made in praise

of his father, L. Metellus, who had been pontiff, twice consul,[1]

dictator, master of the horse, one of the quindecemvirs for

dividing the lands,[2] and the first who had elephants in his triumphal procession,[3] the same having been taken in the first







Punic war, has left it written to the effect that his father had

attained the ten greatest and best things, in the search after

which wise men have spent all their lives. For, as he states,

he was anxious to become the first warrior, the best orator,

the bravest general, that the most important of all business

should be entrusted to his charge, that he should enjoy the very

highest honours, that he should possess consummate wisdom,

that he should be regarded as the most distinguished senator,

that he should by honourable means acquire a large fortune,

that he should leave behind him many children, and that he

should be the most illustrious person in the state. To refute

this assertion, would be tedious and indeed unnecessary, seeing

that it is contradicted more than sufficiently by the single

fact, that Metellus passed his old age, deprived of his sight,

which he had lost in a fire, while rescuing the Palladium

from the temple of Vesta;[4] a glorious action, no doubt, although the result was unhappy: on which account it is, that

although he ought not to be called unfortunate, still he cannot

be called fortunate. The Roman people, however, granted

him a privilege which no one else had ever obtained since the

foundation of the city, that of being conveyed to the senate-

house in a chariot whenever he went to the senate:[5] a great

distinction, no doubt, but bought at the price of his sight.



(44.) The son also, of the same Q. Metellus, who has given

the above account of his father, is considered himself to have

been one of the rarest instances of human felicity.[6] For, in ad-







dition to the very considerable honours which he obtained, and

the surname which he acquired from the conquest of Macedonia,

he was carried to the funeral pile by his four sons,[7] one of

whom had been prtor, three of them consuls, two had obtained triumphs, and one had been censor; each of which

honours falls to the lot of a very few only. And yet, in the

very full-blown pride of his dignity, as he was returning from

the Campus Martius at mid-day, when the Forum and the Capitol are deserted, he was seized by the tribune, Caius Atinius

Labeo,[8] surnamed Macerion, whom, during his censorship, he

had ejected from the senate, and was dragged by him to the

Tarpeian rock, for the purpose of being precipitated there from.

The numerous band, however, who called him by the name of

father, flew to his assistance, though tardily, and only just, as it

were, at the very last moment, to attend his funeral obsequies, seeing that he could not lawfully offer resistance, or repel

force by force in the sacred case of a tribune;[9] and he was just

on the very point of perishing, the victim of his virtues and

the strictness of his censorship, when he was saved by the intervention of another tribune,-only obtained with the greatest difficulty,-and so rescued from the very jaws of death.

He afterwards had to subsist on the bounty of others, his property having been consecrated[10] by the very man whom he had







degraded; and who, as if that had not satiated his vengeance,

still farther wreaked his malice upon him, by throwing a

rope around his neck,[11] and twisting it with such extreme

violence that the blood flowed from out of his ears.[12] And

for my part, too, I should look upon it as in the number of his

misfortunes, to have been the enemy of the second Africanus;

indeed, Macedonicus, in this instance, bears testimony against

himself; for he said to his sons, "Go, my children, render

the last duties to Scipio; you will never witness the funeral

of a greater citizen than him;" and this speech he made to

his sons, one of whom had already acquired the surname of

Balearicus, and another of Diadematus,[13] he himself at the time

bearing that of Macedonicus.



Now, if we take into account the above injury alone, can

any one justly pronounce that man happy, whose life was thus

endangered by the caprice of an enemy, and that enemy, besides, not an Africanus? What victories over enemies could

possibly be counterbalanced by such a price as this? What

honours, what triumphs, did not Fortune cancel, in suffering a

censor to be dragged through the middle of the city-indeed,

that was his only resource for gaining time[14]-dragged to that







Capitol, whither he himself, in his triumph, had forborne to

drag in a similar manner even the very captives whom he had

taken in his conquests? This crime, too, must be looked upon

as all the greater, from its having so nearly deprived Macedonicus of the honours of his funeral, so great and so glorious,

in which he was borne to the pile by his triumphant children,

he himself thus triumphing, as it were, in his very obsequies.

Most assuredly, there is no happiness that can be called unalloyed, when the terror of our life has been interrupted by

any outrage, and much more by such an outrage as this. As

for the rest, I really am at a loss whether we ought most to

commend the manners of the age,[15] or to feel an increased degree

of indignation, that, among so many members of the family of

the Metelli, such wicked audacity as that of C. Atinius remained unpunished.







1. His consulships were A.U.C. 502 and 506-B.

2. Hardouin informs us, that a certain number of public officers, which

varied from three to twenty, were appointed to divide the lands of the

conquered people among the Roman colonists. Lemaire, vol. iii.

p. 159.-B.

3. The commentators have endeavoured to prove, and not without some

success, that Pliny is not correct in the remark, that the first elephants

brought to Rome, were those which followed in the triumph of Metellus.

He has himself informed us, B. viii. c. 6, that they were introduced by

Curius Dentatus, in his triumph over Pyrrhus, some years before that of

Metellus. The same fact is also stated by Florus, B. i. c. 18.-B.

4. Ovid, Fast. B. vi. 1. 436, et seq., and Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 4,

allude to this circumstance.-B.

5. This fact has been supposed by Hardouin to be controverted by the

statement of Aulus Gellius, who says, B. iii. c. 18, that all the senators, who

had passed the curule chair, were carried to the curia or senate-house, in a

chariot. But, as Ajasson correctly observes, Aulus Gellius does not assert

that the senators were carried at the public expense, which was the case

with Metellus.-B.

6. Val. Maximus, B. vii. c. 1, details the various fortunate circumstances

which occurred to Q. Metellus; he makes no mention, however, of the violent attack made upon him by Labeo; indeed, he expressly states, that

his good fortune continued to the last moments of his life.-B.

7. Val. Maximus, ubi supra, and Velleius Paterculus, B. i. c. 11, speak of

the honours obtained by the four sons of Q. Metellus; they are also

alluded to by Cicero in his 8th Philippic, sec. 4., and his Tusc. Qust. B. i.

c. 35.-B.

8. Dalechamps remarks, that we find in the ancient historians a similar

account relative to M. Drusus, who, when tribune of the people, hurried

off the consul Philippus with such violence to prison, that the blood started

from his nostrils: also of P. Sempronius, the tribune of the people, who,

had it not been for the opposition offered by his colleague, would have

carried the censor Appius Claudius to prison.

9. This attack of Labeo on Metellus is mentioned in the Epitome of Livy,

B. lix. The tribunes of Rome were styled "sacrosancti," and it was considered a capital crime to offer personal violence to them, under any circumstances. Hardouin remarks, that the tribune who came to the rescue

of Metellus must have been a military tribune, who, in virtue of his office,

had a right to claim the services of Metellus for the army.-B.

10. Cicero, in his oration "Pro Domo su," sec. 47, refers to the consecration of the property of Metellus, as a case analogous to that of his own

house, which had been similarly consecrated by Clodius.-B. It seems to

have been the custom, when a person had been capitally condemned, for

the tribune of the people to consecrate his property, with certain formali-

ties, to some god or goddess; after which it could not, under ordinary

circumstances, be recovered, whether the sentence was revoked or not.

Cicero had been capitally condemned through the instrumentality of

Clodius, and obliged to fly from Rome.

11. It was a common expression among the Romans, for a person, "obtorto collo ad prtorem trahi," "to be dragged to the prtor with his

neck wrenched;" and we meet with it repeatedly in the writings of

Plautus. It would appear that it was customary for the lictors or officers

of justice to seize criminals in a peculiar manner, perhaps with a rope, and

with the exercise of great violence, whatever their rank.

12. According to the remark of Dalechamps, it appears to have been not

unusual with the Roman magistrates, when resistance was offered to their

order, to seize the party by the throat, as is here stated to have been done

by Labeo.-B.

13. There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining the names which

should be given to the sons of Metellus, as the MSS. differ, and there appears to be no means of coming to any accurate decision, by a reference to

other authorities. The essential circumstance, however, is, that two of the

sons had obtained the honour of a triumph, and had acquired appropriate

surnames.-B. Metellus Diadematus has been much confounded with his

cousin, Metellus Dalmaticus. Diadematus was so called, from his wearing,

for a long time, a bandage round his forehead, in consequence of an ulcer.

He was consul B.C. 117.

14. By being dragged, and not proceeding willingly, in order to gain time

for succour, and so save himself from being hurled from the Tarpeian

rock.

15. Which allowed the laws to take their course, even against an individual

of the first consequence in the state.-B.




46. Chap. 46.-The Misfortunes Of Augustus.


CHAP. 46.-THE MISFORTUNES OF AUGUSTUS.



In the life of the now deified emperor Augustus even, whom

the whole world would certainly agree to place in this class,[1]

if we carefully examine it in all its features, we shall find

remarkable vicissitudes of human fate. There was his rejection from the post of master of the horse, by his uncle,[2] and

the preference which was given to Lepidus, and that, too, in

opposition to his own requests; the hatred produced by the

proscription; his alliance in the Triumvirate[3] with some among

the very worst of the citizens, and that, too, with an unequal







share of influence, he himself being entirely borne down by

the power of Antony; his illness[4] at the battle of Philippi;

his flight, and his having to remain three days concealed in a

marsh,[5] though suffering from sickness, and, according to the

account of Agrippa and Mecnas, labouring under a dropsy;

his shipwreck[6] on the coast of Sicily, where he was again

under the necessity of concealing himself in a cave; his desperation, which caused him even to beg Proculeius[7] to put

him to death, when he was hard-pressed by the enemy in a

naval engagement;[8] his alarm about the rising at Perusia;[9]

his anxiety at the battle of Actium;[10] the extreme danger he

was in from the falling of a tower during the Pannonian war[11]

seditions so numerous among his soldiers; so many attacks by

dangerous diseases;[12] the suspicions which he entertained







respecting the intentions of Marcellus;[13] the disgraceful banishment, as it were, of Agrippa;[14] the many plots against his

life;[15] the deaths of his own children,[16] of which he was

accused, and his heavy sorrows, caused not merely by their

loss;[17] the adultery[18] of his daughter, and the discovery of her

parricidal designs; the insulting retreat of his son-in-law,

Nero;[19] another adultery, that of his grand-daughter;[20] to







which there were added numerous other evils, such as the

want of money to pay his soldiers; the revolt of Illyria;[21]

the necessity of levying the slaves; the sad deficiency of

young men;[22] the pestilence that raged in the City;[23] the

famine in Italy; the design which he had formed of putting

an end to his life, and the fast of four days, which brought

him within a hair's breadth of death. And then, added to

all this, the slaughter of Varus;[24] the base slanders[25] whispered against his authority; the rejection of Posthumous

Agrippa, after his adoption,[26] and the regret to which Augustus was a prey after his banishment;[27] the suspicions too

respecting Fabius, to the effect that he had betrayed his secrets; and then, last of all, the machinations of his wife and

of Tiberius, the thoughts of which occupied his last moments.

In fine, this same god,[28] who was raised to heaven, I am at a







loss to say whether deservedly or not, died, leaving the son of

his own enemy his heir.[29]







1. In the class of those who were considered peculiarly fortunate; "hc

censur," literally, "in this assessment," in allusion to the classification of

the citizens of Rome, according to the estimate of their property.-B.

2. In B.C. 45, when, being but about eighteen years of age, he had the

presumption to ask his uncle for the office of "magister equitum;" upon

which Julius Csar bestowed it on M. Lepidus, probably being of opinion

that his nephew was not yet fit for the office.

3. In his triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, he showed himself no

less cruel than his colleague, Antony, notwithstanding the gloss which

Pliny attempts to throw over his actions. Two thousand equites and

three hundred senators are said to have been put to death during this

proscription.

4. Augustus was detained at Dyrrhachium for some time before the battle

of Philippi by illness, and had not recovered when the battle took place.

5. In the first engagement at Philippi, Brutus defeated the army of Augustus, while Cassius was defeated by Antony. Appian speaks also of his

concealment in a marsh to the south of Philippi.

6. In his war against Sextus Pompeius, his fleet was twice shattered by

shipwreck off the coast of Sicily, and he suffered several defeats by sea.

7. C. Proculeius, a member of the equestrian order, and a familiar friend

of Augustus. It is of him that Horace speaks in the lines (II. Ode 2),



"Vivet extento Proculeius vo

Notus in fratres animi paterni."



He was one of the Romans to whom Augustus thought of giving his

daughter Julia in marriage. The mode of his death is mentioned in B.

xxxvi. c. 59.

8. This circumstance is stated more fully by Suetonius in his Life of

Augustus; he tells, that "in crossing from Sicily to Italy to rejoin his forces,

Augustus was unexpectedly attacked by Demochares and Apollophanes,

two of Pompey's captains, and only escaped in a small vessel with the

greatest difficulty."

9. L. Antonius having raised an army at Prneste, took possession of

the town of Perusia, which was blockaded by Augustus, and Antonius was

at last obliged to surrender. During this siege Augustus encountered

several dangers, and was once nearly killed while sacrificing beneath the

walls, by a band of gladiators, who came upon him unawares.

10. The victory was long doubtful, and it was only the sudden panic of

Cleopatra, that finally ensured it to Augustus.

11. The exact nature of the accident here alluded to, is discussed by Hardouin, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 169; he concludes, from the account of Suetonius and of Dion Cassius, that it was owing to the fall of a gallery, which

extended between two towers.-B.

12. These are fully described by Suetonius, in his Life of Augustus, c. 80

and 81.

13. M. Claudius Marcellus, the son of Octavia, sister of Augustus. He

was adopted by Augustus. Tacitus seems to hint that he was greatly beloved by the Roman people, and it is not improbable that Augustus may

have become suspicious or jealous of him; his decease took place in his

twentieth year.

14. To Mitylene. This refers to the jealousy between Marcellus and his

brother-in-law, M. Vipsanius Agrippa. Pliny probably uses the term

"pudenda," implying that Augustus showed neither firmness nor gratitude

on this occasion; for anxious, at any cost, to prevent these differences, he

sent Agrippa, against his will, as proconsul to Syria; immediately on which

Agrippa left Rome, but stopped at Mitylene, and left the government of

Syria to his legatus. Upon the death of Marcellus, Agrippa returned to

Rome.

15. Dion Cassius mentions three conspiracies, the first by Fabius Cpio

and Murna, a second, of which he does not name the authors, and a

third by Cornelius Cinna.

16. Said in allusion to the suspicious deaths of his grandchildren Lucius

and Caius, the children of his daughter Julia by Agrippa. They were

probably removed by the criminal acts of Livia; but some historians have

hinted that Augustus was privy to their destruction, the object of which

was to remove all obstacles that lay in the way of Tiberius to the throne.

17. Implying that he was conscience-stricken at his share in their death,

as well as struck with sorrow and remorse.

18. She was his only child; Scribonia was her mother. She was first

married to her cousin Marcellus; on his death to L. Vipsanius Agrippa,

and after his decease to Tiberius Nero, the son of Livia. Her profligacy

was universally known, and Augustus did not scruple to enlarge upon it

before the senate; but Pliny is the only writer who states that she contemplated an attempt on the life of his father; though Suetonius says

that she became, at a late period of her reign, an object of interest to those

who were disaffected. Julia was first banished to Pandataria, off the coast

of Campania, and then to Rhegium, which she was never allowed to leave.

Her death took place A.D. 14.

19. Tiberius Nero, afterwards emperor. Pliny here alludes to his retirement to Rhodes, where he remained seven years. Tacitus represents

that his chief reason for leaving Rome was to escape the society of his

wife Julia, who treated him with the utmost contempt, and whose licentious life was not unknown to him. During this retreat he devoted himself to the study of astrology. He left Rome without the consent of Augustus, who was equally unwilling to allow of his return.

20. Julia, one of the daughters of Julia and Agrippa, and the wife of L.

milius Paulus. She fully inherited the vices of her mother. For an

adulterous intercourse with D. Silanus she was banished, by Augustus to

Tremerus, off the coast of Apulia, where she survived twenty years, dependent on the bounty of the empress Livia. A child born after her dis-

grace, was, by order of Augustus, exposed as spurious. She is supposed

by some to be the Corinna of Ovid's amatory poems.

21. He probably alludes to the rising of some tribes in the provinces

on the north-eastern coast of the Adriatic, in B.C. 35, who refused to

pay their tribute. They were finally vanquished by Statilius Taurus,

B.C. 33.

22. After the defeat of his general Varus, by Arminius, in Germany.

23. This pestilence is also mentioned by Dion Cassius; it took place

A.U.C. 732.-B.

24. We have an account of the disastrous expedition of Varus in Florus,

B. iv. c. 12.-B.

25. Suetonius speaks of calumnious pamphlets (libelli), that were circulated about, even in the senate-house, to his extreme disparagement.

26. A posthumous son of M. Vipsanius Agrippa by Julia, the daughter

of Augustus, by whom he was adopted together with Tiberius. He was

afterwards banished to Planaria, off the coast of Corsica, on account of

his savage and intractable character, though guilty of no crime. Augustus is said to have privately visited him there, which, coming to the ears

of Livia, increased her enmity against this youth, and he was murdered by

her orders or those of Tiberius.

27. Tacitus, Ann. B. i. c. 3, says that he was banished by the artifices of

Nero.-B.

28. After his death his solemn apotheosis took place in the Campus Martius. In some of the coins which were struck even during his life-time, he

was called "Divus," or "the god."

29. For Tiberius Nero, the father of Tiberius Csar, took the side of

M. Antonius in the Civil War.-B.




47. Chap. 47. (46.)-Men Whom The Gods Have Pronounced To Be The Most Happy.


CHAP. 47. (46.)-MEN WHOM THE GODS HAVE PRONOUNCED TO BE THE MOST HAPPY.



In reference to this point, two oracles of Delphi may come

under our consideration, which would appear to have been

pronounced as though in order to chastise the vanity of man.

These oracles were the following: by the first, Pedius was

pronounced to be the most happy of men, who had just before

fallen in defence of his country.[1] On the second occasion,

when it had been consulted by Gyges, at that time the most

powerful king in the world, it declared that Aglaiis of

Psophis[2] was a more happy man than himself.[3] This Aglaiis

was an old man, who lived in a poor petty nook of Arcadia,

and cultivated a small farm, though quite sufficient for the

supply of his yearly wants;[4] he had never so much as left it,

and, as was quite evident from his mode of living, his desires

being of the most limited kind, he had experienced but an extremely small share of the miseries of life.







1. We have no mention of Pedius, or Phedius, as he is named in some of

the MSS., in any of the ancient authors. A story of the same import is

related of Solon and Tellus, by Herodotus, B. i. c. 30, and by Plutarch.-B.

2. A town of Arcadia. See B. iv. c. 10.

3. This is also related by Valerius Maximus, B. vii. c. 1.-B.

4. This is very similar to Virgil's beautiful description of the old man

Coryeius, in the Georgics, B. iv. 1. 125, et seq.




48. Chap. 48. (47.)-The Man Whom The Gods Ordered To Be Worshipped During His Life-Time; A Remarkable Flash Of Lightning.


CHAP. 48. (47.)-THE MAN WHOM THE GODS ORDERED TO BE WORSHIPPED DURING HIS LIFE-TIME; A REMARKABLE FLASH OF LIGHTNING.



While still surviving, and in full possession of his senses,

by the command of the same oracle, and with the sanction of

Jupiter, the supreme Father of the gods, Euthymus,[1] the

pugilist, who had always, with one exception, been victorious

in the Olympic games, was deified. He was a native of Locri,







in Italy. I find that Callimachus,[2] considering it a more

wonderful circumstance than any he had ever known, that the

two statues which had been erected to him, one at Locri, and

the other at Olympia, were struck by lightning on the same

day, ordered sacrifices to be offered up to him, which was

accordingly done, both during his life-time, and after his

death. Nothing, indeed, has appeared to me so remarkable,

as this mark of approval given by the gods.







1. We have some account of Euthymus in Pausanias, B. vi., and in

ian, Var. Hist. B. viii. c. 18.-B.

2. It has been conjectured by Poinsiret, that the word "Callimachus"

does not refer to the well-known poet of that name, nor to any other individual, but that it was the title of the president of the Olympic games.

The opinion is not without plausibility, but is scarcely sanctioned by sufficient authority.-B.




49. Chap. 49. (48.)-The Greatest Length Of Life.


CHAP. 49. (48.)-THE GREATEST LENGTH OF LIFE.



Not only the differences of climate, but the multitude of

instances named, and the peculiar destiny attached to each of

us from the moment of his birth,[1] tend to render one very uncertain in forming any general conclusion respecting the length

and duration of human life. Hesiod, who was the first to

make mention of this subject, while he states many circumstances about the age of man, which appear to me to be fabulous, gives to the crow nine times the ordinary duration of our

life, to the stag four times the length of that of the crow, to

the raven three times the length of that of the stag, besides

other particulars with reference to the phnix and the Nymphs

of a still more fabulous nature. The poet Anacreon gives[2]

one hundred and fifty years to Arganthonius,[3] the king of the

Tartessii; ten more to Cinaras,[4] the king of Cyprus, and two







hundred to gimius

.[5] Theopompus gives one hundred and

fifty-three years to Epimenides of Cnossus; according to Hellenicus, some of the nation of the Epii, in tolia, have completed their two hundredth year; and his account is confirmed

by Damastes, who relates that Pictoreus, one of this nation,

who was remarkable for his size and strength, lived even to his

three hundredth year. Ephorus says that some kings of Arcadia have lived three hundred years; Alexander Cornelius, that

there was one Dandon, in Illyricum, who lived five hundred years.

Xenophon, in his Periplus, gives to a king of the island of

the Lutmii six hundred years, and, as though in that instance

he had lied too sparingly, to his son eight hundred.[6] All these

statements, however, have originated in a want of acquaintance with the accurate measurement of time. For some nations

reckon the summer as one year, and the winter as another;

others again, consider each of the four seasons a year; the

Arcadians, for instance, whose years were of three months each.

Others, such as the Egyptians, calculate by the moon, and

hence it is that some individuals among them are said to have

lived as many as one thousand years.



Let us proceed, however, to what is admitted to be true.

It is pretty nearly certain, that Arganthonius of Gades[7] reigned

eighty years, and he is supposed to have commenced his reign

when he was forty. Masinissa, beyond a doubt, reigned

sixty years,[8] and Gorgias, the Sicilian, lived one hundred and





unwittingly the father of Adonis, by his own daughter Myrrha (or Smyrna), in consequence of the anger of Venus or Aphrodite. He was said

to have founded the city of Cinyra in Cyprus.







eight.[9] Quintus Fabius Maximus was an augur for sixty-

three years.[10] M. Perperna, and more recently, L. Volusius

Saturninus, survived all those whose suffrages each had solicited

on the occasion of his consulship;[11] Perperna lived ninety-eight years, and left after him only seven of those whose

names, when censor, he had enrolled. Connected with this

fact, it also suggests itself, and deserves to be remarked, that

it has happened only once, that five successive years have

ever passed without the death of a senator taking place; this

was the case from the occasion on which the censors Flaccus

and Albinus performed the lustration, in the year of the City

579, until the time of the succeeding censors.[12]. M. Valerius

Corvinus completed one hundred years, forty-six of which intervened between his first and sixth consulship.[13] He occupied

the curule chair twenty-one times,[14] a thing that was never

the case with any one besides. The pontiff Metellus also attained the same age.[15]



Among women also, Livia, the wife of Rutilius, exceeded

her ninety-sixth year; during the reign of Claudius, Statilia,

a member of a noble family, died at the age of ninety-nine;

Terentia, the wife of Cicero, lived one hundred and three

years, and Clodia, the wife of Ofilius, one hundred and fifteen;

she had fifteen children.[16]



Lucceia, an actress in the mimes, performed on the stage







when one hundred years old, and Galeria Copiola returned to

the stage, to perform in the interludes,[17] at the votive games

which were celebrated for the health of the deified Augustus, in

the consulship of C. Poppus and Q. Sulpicius.[18] She had

made her first appearance when eight years of age, just ninety-one years before that time, when M. Pomponius was dile of

the people, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo.[19] When

Pompeius Magnus dedicated his great theatre, he brought her

upon the stage, as being quite a wonder, considering her old

age. Asconius Pedianus informs us, that Sammula also lived

one hundred and ten years. I consider it less wonderful that

Stephanio, who was the first to dance on the stage in comedy

descriptive of Roman manners, should have[20] danced at the

two secular games, those celebrated by the deified Augustus, and by Claudius Csar, in his fourth consulship, considering that the interval that elapsed between them was no more

than sixty-three years;[21] indeed, he lived a considerable time

after the last period. We are informed by Mutianus, that, on

the peak of Mount Tmolus, which is called Tempsis, the people

live one hundred and fifty years, and that T. Fullonius, of

Bononia, was set down as of the same age, in the registration

which took place under the censorship of Claudius Csar; and

this appeared to be confirmed by comparing the present with

former registrations, as well as many other proofs that he

had been alive at certain periods-for that prince greatly interested himself in ascertaining the exact truth of the matter.







1. Pliny here alludes to the doctrine of astrology, which forms the

especial subject of the next Chapter.-B.

2. These statements are not found in any of the works of Hesiod now

extant; it is scarcely necessary to observe, that they are entirely without

foundation, and contrary to all observation and experience.-B.

3. The great age of Arganthonius is referred to by Lucian, in his treatise

"De Macrobiis," "on Long-lived Men;" by Herodotus, B. i. c. 163; by

Cicero, de Senect. sec. 19; and by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13; the

three latter writers agree in making his age 120 years, and hence Pliny

assigns to him the same age in the next page.-B. St. Augustine, De

Civitate Dei, B. xv., quotes this passage of Pliny, and mentions the age

of Arganthonius, as stated by him, to have been 152 years. For Tartessus,

in Spain, see B. iii. c. 3, and B. iv. c. 36.

4. His story is told by Ovid, Met. B. x., where he is said to have become

5. Callimachus mentions a person of this name, who wrote a treatise on

the art of making cheesecakes. There was also a physician so called, who

flourished in the fifth century B.C. , and who is said by Galen to have been

the first who wrote a treatise on the probe. Whether either of these individuals is the person here alluded to, is unknown.

6. We have the same statement as to the age of Epimenides, in Valerius

Maximus, B. viii. s. 13; he also, in the same section, gives an account of

the Epii, of Pictoreus, of Dandon, and of the king of the island of the

Tyrians, all of which agree with the present statement, except that the

person mentioned by Damastes is called Literius, and the last-named individual is styled the king of the island of the Lutmii.-B.

7. The king of the Tartessi, mentioned above.-B.

8. Pliny has already spoken of the vigorous old age of Masinissa, in the

12th Chapter of the present Book.-B.

9. We have an account of Gorgias in Cicero, de Seneet. sec. 9; in Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13, and in Lucian.-B.

10. Valerius Maximus, ubi supra, reduces this to sixty-two years.-B.

11. We have the same statement respecting Peperna in Valerius Maximus,

but he does not mention his age.-B.

12. The names of the succeeding censors were C. Claudius Pulcher, and

T. Sempronius Gracchus.

13. V. Maximus gives the same account of the age of Corvinus, but he states

the interval between his consulships to have been forty-seven years. According to the Fasti, in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, the interval

was forty-eight years, from A.U.C. 406 to A.U.C. 455.-B.

14. The honour of the curule-chair-"sella curulis." It was attached to

the offices of consul, prtor, and dile; Corvinus had, therefore, been

elected to one or other of these offices twenty-one times.-B.

15. Valerius Maximus gives the same account of Metellus. He also informs us that Metellus, although of an advanced age when created pontiff,

held the office for twenty-two years; so also Cicero, de Senect. sec. 9.-B.

16. We have the same account of these females in Valerius Maximus.

He adds, that Clodia survived all her children; Seneca, Epist. 77, also refers

to the great age of Statilia.-B.

17. "Emboliaria," an actress in the "embolium," or interlude of the

Roman stage; also called "acroama," by Cicero. It appears to have been

a concert of musical instruments, perhaps accompanied by dancing.

18. Their consulship was A.U.C. 761.-B.

19. Their consulship was A.U.C. 671, which would leave an interval of

ninety years between her first appearance and her appearance at the votive

games.-B.

20. "Togatus saltare instituit." He acted in the "togat fabul," comedies representing Roman life, or the life of those who wore the toga, the

civic costume of the Romans. The Greek comedies were called "palliat."

21. The secular games of Augustus are stated by Suetonius, in his Life

of Augustus, c. 31, and by Dion Cassius, to have taken place A.U.C.

739.-B.




50. Chap. 50. (49.)-The Variety Of Destinies At The Birth Of Man.


CHAP. 50. (49.)-THE VARIETY OF DESTINIES AT THE BIRTH OF MAN.



The present conjuncture would appear to demand from me







some opinion upon the science of the stars. Epigenes[1] used

to maintain that human life could not be possibly prolonged to

one hundred and twelve years, and Berosus[2] that it could

exceed one hundred and seventeen. The system is still in

existence which Petosiris and Necepsos[3] transmitted to us,

and called by them "tartemorion,"[4] from the division of the

signs into four portions; from which it would appear, that life,

in the region of Italy, may possibly be extended to one hundred and twenty-four years They maintain that, reckoning

from the commencement of an ascending sign, no life can possibly exceed a period of ninety degrees from that point; which

periods they call by the name of "anaphor;"[5] they say also,

that these anaphor may be intercepted by meeting with malign stars or their rays even, or those of the sun.[6] To theirs

the school of sculapius succeeded, which admits that the allotted duration of life is regulated by the stars, but that it is

quite uncertain what is the greatest extent of the period.

These say that long life is uncommon, because a very great number of persons are born at critical moments in the hours of the

lunar days; for example, in the seventh and the fifteenth

hours, both by day and night; these individuals are subject

to the malign influence of that ascending scale of the years

which is termed the "climacteric,"[7] and never hardly, when

born under these circumstances, exceed the fifty-fourth year.







First of all, however, it must strike us that the variations

which have taken place in this science prove its uncertainty;

and to this consideration may be added the experience of the

very last census, which was made four years ago, under the

direction of the Emperors Vespasian, father and son.[8] I shall

not search through the registers;[9] I shall only cite some instances in the middle district that lies between the Apennines

and the river Padus. At Parma, three persons declared themselves to be one hundred and twenty years of age; at Brixellum,[10] one was one hundred and twenty-five; at Parma, two

were one hundred and thirty; at Placentia, one was one hundred and thirty; at Faventia, one woman was one hundred and

thirty-two; at Bononia, L. Terentius, the son of Marcus,

and at Ariminum, M. Aponius, were one hundred and forty,

and Tertulla, one hundred and thirty-seven. In the hills

which lie around Placentia is the town of Veleiacium,[11] in

which six persons gave in their ages as one hundred and ten

years, and four one hundred and twenty, while one person, M.

Mucius, the son of Marcus, surnamed Felix, and of the Galerian

tribe,[12] was aged one hundred and forty. Not, however, to

dwell upon what is generally admitted, in the eighth region of

Italy, there appeared by the register, to be fifty-four persons of







one hundred years of age, fourteen of one hundred and ten, two

of one hundred and twenty-five, four of one hundred and

thirty, the same number of one hundred and thirty-five to one

hundred and thirty-seven, and three of one hundred and forty.



Again, we have another illustration of the uncertain tenure

of human life. Homer informs us that Hector and Polydamas[13] were born on the same night,[14] and yet how different

was their fate! M. Clius Rufus[15] and C. Licinius Calvus

were born on the same day, the fifth before the calends of June,

in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo; they both of

them lived to be orators, it is true, but how different their

destiny! The same thing, too, happens every day, and in every

part of the world, with respect to men that are born in the

self-same hour; masters and slaves, kings and beggars, come

into the world at the same moment.







1. We have an account of Epigenes, by Hardouin, Lemaire, vol. i.

pp. 86, 87, where he is designated Rhodius. He is referred to by Varro,

Columella, and Seneca; Pliny mentions him in other parts of his work.-B.

2. Berosus has been referred to in the 37th Chapter of the present

Book.-B.

3. For some account of Petosiris and Necepsos, see end of B. ii.

4. Literally, the fourth part; according to Hardouin's explanation, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 186.-B.

5. Literally. . . . . ."repetitions." Dalechamps explains it as indicating,

"that part of the heavens which is distant thirty parts; that is to say, two

signs from the horoscope;" Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 187.-B.

6. Ajasson refers us to Jul. Firmicus for an explanation of the difference

which may exist in the length of the lives of individuals as depending on

their natal day; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 186. It appears to have been one of

the leading tenets of the astrologers, that the favourable influence of the

ascending sign is diminished or counteracted by the rays of other planets,

or of the sun, falling upon the sign in certain directions or at certain

angles, and that the length of the life of the individual is shortened in proportion to this injurious effect.-B.

7. This term means, literally, "increasing by a regular scale," or, "ac-

cording to a proportional series of numbers;" the multiples of 7 have

been generally supposed to be the critical periods of human life, and, more

especially, 63, or 9 times 7, which was accordingly termed "the grand

climacteric."-B.

8. This census appears to have taken place A.D. 74, under the fifth consulship of Vespasian, and the third of Titus; according to Censorinus, it

was the last of which we have any distinct account.-B.

9. "Vasaria;" it is said, by the commentators, to be a term of German

origin, derived from a word which signified the bark of a tree. It does not

appear, however, from what cause it was appropriated to the sense in which

it is used by Pliny. The word is found in Cicero's oration against Piso,

sec. 35; but is there applied to a totally different object.-B.

10. Now Brigella or Brescella. Parma still retains its ancient name,

Placentia is now Piacenza, and Faventia the modern Faenza.

11. Probably the same as the Velia, mentioned by Phlegon Trallianus as

famous for the longevity of its inhabitants.

12. "Marcus Mucius, M. Filius, Galeria, Felix." It has been doubted by

the commentators, whether the word Galeria refers to the name of the mother of Mucius, or to the tribe to which he belonged. The latter is, perhaps,

the more natural interpretation. Hardouin and Ajasson, however, adopt

the opinion, that Galeria was the mother of Marcus; Lemaire, vol. iii.

pp. 191,192. We meet with a precisely similar construction of words in

Cicero, 9th Philip. sec. 7; "Ser. Sulpicius, Q. Filius, Lemonia Rufus."-B.

13. The son of Panthus, and friend of Hector. He was famous for his

wisdom and prudence in giving counsel. See Iliad, B. xviii. 1. 24952.

14. The passage referred to is in the Iliad, B. xviii. 1. 24951.-B.

15. Respecting Clius [formerly called Ccilius in most editions] Hardouin

informs us that he was the accuser of Calpurnius, that he was prtor during

the consulship of P. Lentulus Spinther and L. Metellus Nepos, and was

oppressed by Clodius. Pliny refers to Clius, and his accusation of Calpurnius, in a subsequent passage, B. xxvii. c. 2.-B. Licinius Calvus

Macer was by some considered, as an orator, to rival even Cicero himself;

and as a poet, is generally mentioned by the side of Catullus. He exhausted

his constitution by his severe application, and died in his thirty-fifth

or thirty-sixth year. He was remarkable for the extreme shortness of his

stature. Clius was a partisan of Pompey, and was eventually put to

death at Thurii.




51. Chap. 51. (50.)-Various Instances Of Diseases.


CHAP. 51. (50.)-VARIOUS INSTANCES OF DISEASES.



P. Cornelius Rufus,[1] who was consul with M. Curio, lost his

sight while he was asleep and dreaming that that accident had

befallen him. On the other hand, Jason, of Pher, when he

was labouring under an abscess and had been given up by the

physicians, determined to end his life in battle, where he received a wound in the chest, and found, at the hands of the

enemy, a remedy for his disease.[2] Q. Fabius Maximus,[3] the







consul, having engaged in battle with the Allobroges and the

Arverni, at the river Isara, on the sixth day before the ides of

August, and having slain there one hundred and thirty thousand of the enemy, found himself cured, during the engage.

ment, of a quartan fever.



This gift of life, which is bestowed upon us by nature, is

extremely uncertain and frail, whatever portion of it may be

allotted to us. The measure is, indeed, but scanty and brief,

even when it is the largest, if we only reflect upon the extent

of eternity. And then, besides, if we take into account our

sleep during the night, we can only be properly said to live

half the period of our life; seeing that just one half of it is

passed, either in a state resembling death, or else of bodily suffering, if we are unable to sleep. Added to this, we ought not

to reckon the years of infancy, during which we are not sensible of our existence, nor yet the years of old age, which is

prolonged only for the punishment of those who arrive at it.

There are so many kinds of dangers, so many diseases, so many

apprehensions, so many cares, we so often invoke death, that

really there is nothing that is so often the object of our wishes.

Nature has, in reality, bestowed no greater blessing on man

than the shortness of life. The senses become dull, the limbs

torpid, the sight, the hearing, the legs, the teeth, and the

organs of digestion, all of them die before us, and yet we

reckon this state as a part of our life. The solitary instance of

Xenophilus, the musician,[4] who lived one hundred and five

years without any infirmity of body, must be regarded then as

a kind of miracle; for, by Hercules! all other men are subject, at certain fixed periods, to recurring and deadly attacks by

heat or cold, in every part of the body, a thing that is not

the case with other animals; and these attacks, too, return not

only at regular hours, but on certain days and certain nights-sometimes the third day, sometimes the fourth, sometimes

every day throughout the year.







And then, too, there is another kind of fatal disease, that

which is produced by over-exertion of the mental faculties.[5]

Nature has appointed certain laws as well for our maladies;

quartan fevers never commence at the winter solstice, nor yet

during the winter months; some diseases never attack us after

the sixtieth year; some again disappear at the age of puberty,

especially in females;[6] while aged persons are but seldom

affected by the plague. There are some diseases which attack

whole nations; others prevail among classes; some among

slaves,[7] others among the higher ranks, and others among other

classes of society. It has been remarked, in reference to this

subject, that the plague always takes a course from the south towards the west,[8] and scarcely ever in an opposite direction; it

never appears in the winter, or lasts longer than three months.







1. Consul A.U.C. 463; he is generally called Rufinus.-B.

2. This anecdote is mentioned by Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. iii. c. 28,

and by Valerius Maximus, B. i. c. 8.-B. He was tyrant of Pher and

Tagus in Thessaly, and was finally assassinated.

3. He was consul A.U.C. 633; in consequence of the victories which he obtained over the Allobroges, he obtained the agnomen of "Allobrogicus."-B.

4. Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13, refers to the great age of Xenophilus, but designates him "Pythagorus;" he says that he obtained his information respecting him from Aristoxenus, the musician, which may have

led to an inaccuracy on the part of Pliny. Poinsinet endeavours to reconcile the discrepancy, by the circumstance, that music formed a prominent

part of the Pythagorean discipline.-B.

5. "Per sapientiam mori." Many conjectures have been formed respecting the meaning of this passage, which is obscure. Attempts have been

made to amend the reading of the text, but; as it appears, without success;

see the notes of Hardouin, Ajasson, and others, Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 197,

8.-B. It is pretty clear, however, that Pliny here refers to what, in the

next Chapter, he calls "sapienti gritudo," the malady by the Greeks

called "phrenesis," and by us "frenzy," which attacks the seat of wisdom,

the understanding. Many pages have been written upon the meaning of

this passage, obvious as it seems to be.

6. The same doctrine is advanced in B. xxviii., which treats of medicine,

sec, c. 10.-B.

7. Among the ancients, all the manufactures and mechanical arts were

carried on by slaves; they were, consequently, subjected to the same kinds

of morbid causes which are found, in modern times, to be so detrimental

to certain descriptions of workmen.-B.

8. Our own experience has taught us the truth of this observation in the

case of the cholera; and the great plague of 1348, which is thought to

have swept off one-third of mankind, is supposed to have travelled to

Europe from the vicinity of the Ganges.




52. Chap. 52. (51.)-Death.


CHAP. 52. (51.)-DEATH.



And now to speak of the premonitory signs of death. Among

these are laughter, in madness[1] in cases of delirium,[2] the

patient carefully folding the fringe or the plaits of the bed-







clothes;[3] insensibility to the attempts of those who would rouse

them from sleep; and involuntary discharges from the body,

which it is not necessary here to particularize; but the most unequivocal signs of all, are certain appearances of the eyes and

the nose, a lying posture with the face continually upwards, an

irregular and feeble motion of the pulse,[4] and the other symptoms, which have been observed by that prince of physicians,

Hippocrates. At the same time that there are innumerable

signs of death, there are none of health and safety; so much

so, that Cato the Censor, when speaking to his son in relation

to those who appear to be in good health, declared, as though

it had been the enunciation of some oracle,[5] that precocity in

youth is a sign of an early death.[6]



The number of diseases is infinite. Pherecydes of Scyros died

from vast numbers of worms issuing from his body.[7] Some

persons are distressed by a perpetual fever; such was the case

with C. Mcenas; during the last three years of his life, he

could never get a single moment's sleep.[8] Antipater of Sidon,

the poet, was attacked with fever every year, and that only on

his birthday; he died of it at, an advanced age.[9]











1. Dalechamps correctly remarks, that the laughter here referred to, is

not the indication of mirth, but what has been termed the "risus Sardonicus," the "Sardonic laugh," produced by a convulsive action of the

muscles of the face; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 201.-B.

2. "Sapientit gritudine." See Note 80 above.

3. Pliny probably took this notion from Celsus, who speaks of this as

being a fatal symptom, B. ii. c. 6; "si manibus qui in febre, &c., in veste

floccos legit, fimbriasque diducit. . . ."-B.

4. "Venarum percussa;" the ancients were not acquainted with the

relation which exists between the arteries and the veins, or the appropriate

functions of these parts.-B.

5. In Seneca, Contr. B. ii., we find the remark, "Suchgenius, at so

early an age, bodes no long life." Apuleius, quoting from some Greek

writer, says, "Odi puerulos prcoci sapienti." "I hate your bits of boys,

with their precocious wisdom." We have a somewhat similar saying to

the above passage from Seneca, "He is too wise," or "too clever to live

long."

6. This remark has been confirmed by various writers, ancient and modern;

it appears to depend upon an unnatural development of the cerebral and

nervous system, which renders it more liable to disease, and less able to

bear the impressions to which it is ordinarily exposed.-B.

7. This was probably Phthiriasis, or the "morbus pediculosus," which

has been previously mentioned in this book with reference to Sulla, and of

which, probably, Herod Agrippa died. Some authors state that Pherecydes put an end to his life by throwing himself from a rock at Delphi;

others give other accounts of his death.

8. This circumstance is mentioned by Seneca, De Provid. c. 3.-B.

9. We have the same account of Antipater in Valerius Maximus, B. i.

c. 8. He was the preceptor of Cato of Utica; Cicero makes honourable

mention of him, De Oratore, B. iii. c. 50.-B.




53. Chap. 53. (52.)-Persons Who Have Come To Life Again After Being Laid Out For Burial.


CHAP. 53. (52.)-PERSONS WHO HAVE COME TO LIFE AGAIN AFTER BEING LAID OUT FOR BURIAL.



Aviola,[1] a man of consular rank, came to life again when

on the funeral pile; but, by reason of the violence of the flames,

no assistance could be rendered him, in consequence of which

he was burnt alive. The same thing is said to have happened

to L. Lamia, a man of prtorian rank. Messala, Rufus,[2] and

many other authors, inform us, that C. lius Tubero, who had

filled the office of prtor, was also rescued from the funeral pile.

Such then is the condition of us mortals: to these and the like

vicissitudes of fortune are we born; so much so, that we cannot

be sure of any thing, no, not even that a person is dead. With

reference to the soul of man, we find, among other instances,

that the soul of Hermotinus of Clazomen was in the habit of

leaving his body, and wandering into distant countries, whence

it brought back numerous accounts of various things, which

could not have been obtained by any one but a person who was

present. The body, in the meantime, was left apparently lifeless.[3] At last, however, his enemies, the Cantharid,[4] as they

were called, burned the body, so that the soul, on its return, was

deprived of its sheath, as it were. It is stated also, that in Pro-







connesus,[5] the soul of Aristeas was seen to fly out of his mouth,

under the form of a raven;[6] a most fabulous story, however,

which may be well ranked with the one that follows. It is

told of Epimenides[7] of Cnossus, that when he was a boy, being

fatigued by heat and walking, he fell asleep in a cave, where he

slept for fifty-seven years; and that when he awoke, as though

it had been on the following day, he was much astonished at the

changes which he saw in the appearance of every thing around

him: after this, old age, it is said, came upon him in an equal

number of days with the years he had slept, but his life was

prolonged to his hundred and fifty-seventh year.[8] The female

sex appear more especially disposed to this morbid state,[9] on

account of the misplacement of the womb;[10] when this is once

corrected, they immediately come to themselves again. The

volume of Heraclides[11] on this subject, which is highly esteemed

among the Greeks, contains the account of a female, who was restored to life, after having appeared to be dead for seven days.







Varro informs us,[12] that when he was one of the "viginti.

viri," or twenty commissioners,[13] appointed to superintend the

division of the lands at Capua, a man who had been carried to the

funeral pile, returned on foot from the Forum to his own house,

and that the very same thing happened also at Aquinum. He

states also, that Corfidius, who had married his maternal aunt,

came to life again, after the funeral had been all arranged, and

that he afterwards attended the funeral of the person who had

so arranged his own. He gives in addition some other marvellous relations, the whole of which it may be as well to set

forth; he says that there were two brothers, members of the

equestrian order, and named Corfidius:[14] it so happened that

the elder of these was seen to breathe his last to all appearance, and on opening his will, it was found that he had named

his brother his heir, who accordingly ordered his funeral. In

the meanwhile, however, he who had been thought to be dead,

clapping his hands,[15] summoned the servants, and told them

that he was just come from his brother's house, who had placed

his daughter in his charge; in addition to which, he had mentioned to him the place where he had secretly buried some gold,

and had requested that the funeral preparations which had been

made, might be employed for himself. While he was stating

to this effect, the servants of his brother came in the greatest

haste, and informed them that he was dead: the gold too,







was found in the place just as he had stated. But throughout

the whole of our lives we are perpetually hearing of such predictions as these; they are not, however, worth collecting,

seeing that they are almost always false, as we shall illustrate

by the following remarkable instance.



In the Sicilian war, Gabienus, the bravest of all Csar's

naval commanders, was taken prisoner by Sextus Pompeius,

who ordered his throat to be cut; after which, his head almost

severed from his body, he lay the whole of the day upon the seashore. Towards evening, with groans and entreaties, he begged

the crowds of people who had assembled, that they would

prevail upon Pompeius to come to him, or else send one of his

most confidential friends, as he had just returned from the

shades below, and had some important news to communicate.

Pompeius accordingly sent several of his friends, to whom

Gabienus stated that the good cause and virtuous partisans of

Pompeius were well pleasing to the infernal deities, and that

the event would shortly prove such as he wished: that he had

been ordered to announce to this effect, and that, as a proof of

its truthfulness, he himself should expire the very moment

he had fulfilled his commission; and his death actually did

take place.



We have instances also of men who have been seen after

their burial; but, for the present, we are treating of the operations of nature, and not of miracles.







1. We have an account of the death of Aviola, in Valerius Maximus,

B. i. c. 8. This name occurs in the Consular Fasti, A.U.C. 806; but it

could not be that of the person referred to by Valerius Maximus, as his

work was published under the reign of Tiberius, who died A.U.C. 789. We

have also an account of the death of Lamia in Valerius Maximus, as occurring under the same circumstances with that of Aviola.-B.

2. Poinsinet, vol. iii. pp. 251, 252, supposes, that Messala and Rufus are

the names of two writers, and not, as usually supposed, of one only. The

conjecture appears not improbable.-B.

3. Plutarch, "De Deo Socratis," gives us the same account of Hermotinus. Ajasson has remarked, not inaptly, that this story is very similar

to the modern statements as to the effect of animal magnetism, Lemaire, iii.

207.-B. Apuleius, in his "Defence," has a passage which is remarkable

as clearly bearing reference to the doctrines inculcated by the mesmerists of

modern times; he says, "Quin et illud mecum reputo, posse animum humanum, prsertim puerilem et simplicem seu carminum avocamento, sine odorum delenimento, soporari et ad oblivionem prsentium externari; et paulisper remot corporis memori, redigi et redire ad naturam suam qu est

immortalis scilicet et divina; atque ita veluti quodam sopore futura rerum

prsagire."

4. We have no notice of any people, under this appellation, in Greece;

Cantharus, however, occurs as the name of an individual, and possibly

these may have been his descendants, or the members of his family.-B.

5. See B. v. c. 44.

6. We have an account of Aristeas in Herodotus, iv. 13, but somewhat

different from that here given; Aristeas is also mentioned by Apollonius

in his Hist. Mirab., and A. Gellius, B. ix. c. 4.-B. He was an epic poet,

who flourished in the time of Crsus and Cyrus. Herodotus mentions a

story that he reappeared at Metapontum, in Italy, 340 years after his death.

He is generally represented as a magician, whose soul could leave, and reenter his body at pleasure.

7. A poet and prophet of Crete. The story was, that being sent by his

father to fetch a sheep, he went into a cave, and fell into a sleep, from which

he did not awake for fifty-seven years. On awaking, he sought for the sheep,

and was astonished on finding everything altered. On returning home, he

found that his young brother had in the meantime become an aged man.

His story is only equalled by the famous one of the Seven Sleepers of Da-

mascus, who fell asleep in the time of the Decian persecution of the Christians, and slept in a cave till the thirtieth year of the reign of the Em-

peror Theodosius, 196 years. It is not improbable that it is to this story

about Epimenides, that we are indebted for the amusing story of Rip Van

Winkle, by Washington Irving.

8. We have the life of Epimenides by Diogenes Laertius, who gives an

account of this long-continued sleep. It is also mentioned by other writers,

but there is some difference in their statements as to its length.-B.

9. According to the interpretation of Dalechamps, "spiritus et anim

interceptioni ac privationi," "the interception and privation of the breath

and faculties;" Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 208.-B.

10. He probably alludes to what are known among us as hysteria, or hysterical affections.

11. We have an account of Heracdes in Diogenes Laertius; he was a

native of Pontus, and a pupil of Aristotle.-B.

12. This circumstance is not mentioned in either of the two works of Varro

which have come down to us, "De Re Rustic," and "De Lingu Latin."-B.

13. They were a body of commissioners appointed for the distribution of

lands in Campania; Julius Csar, when consul, having caused a law to be

passed, dividing that territory among such of the Roman citizens as should

have three or more children.

14. We are not informed, whether these persons of the name of Corfidius,

were in any way connected, nor, indeed, do we appear to have any certain

knowledge of their history.-B. L. Corfidius, a Roman eques, is mentioned by Cicero, in his oration for Ligarius, B.C. 46, as one of the distinguished men who were then interceding with Csar on behalf of Ligarius;

but after the oration was published, Cicero was informed that he had made

a mistake in mentioning the name of Corfidius, as he had died before the

speech was delivered. It does not appear certain that he was one of the

parties here mentioned: but it is not improbable that he was the brother

whose sudden death is mentioned below.

15. Among the ancients, servants used to be summoned by clapping the

hands, as they are, in modern times, by ringing of bells.-B. The same

practice still prevails in the east.




54. Chap. 54. (53.)-Instances Of Sudden Death.


CHAP. 54. (53.)-INSTANCES OF SUDDEN DEATH.



Among the things that are looked upon as more especially

singular, though of frequent occurrence, is sudden death, a thing

that, in fact, is the greatest happiness of life, and, as we will

shew, only a natural occurrence. Verrius has given many instances of it; we will limit ourselves by only making a selection. Besides Chilo, who has been already mentioned,[1] Sophocles,[2] and Dionysius,[3] the tyrant of Sicily, both of them, died







of joy, on learning that they had obtained the prize for tragedy.

After the defeat at Cann, a mother died of joy, on seeing that

her son had returned in safety, she having heard a false report of his death.[4] Diodorus, the professor of logic,[5] died of

mortification, because he could not immediately answer some

question which had been put to him by Stilpo, by way of

joke.



Two of the Csars,[6] one of whom was at the time prtor,

and the other had previously discharged that office, and was

the father of the Dictator Csar, died without any apparent

cause, in the morning, while putting on their shoes; the former

at Pis, the latter at Rome. Quintus Fabius Maximus died

during his consulship, on the day before the calends of January,[7]

and in his place C. Rebilus got himself elected consul for only a

few hours.[8] The same thing happened also to the senator,

C. Volcatius Gurges; these were all of them so well, and in

such perfect health, that they were actually preparing to go

from home. Q. milius Lepidus,[9] just as he was leaving his

house, struck his great toe against the threshold of his chamber

door. C. Aufustius, having gone from home, was proceeding

to the senate-house, when he stumbled in the Comitium,[10] and

expired. Their ambassador, who had just been pleading the

cause of the Rhodians in the senate, to the admiration of every







one, suddenly expired at the door of the senate-house, just as

he was about to retire. Cn. Bbius Tamphilus,[11] who had

been prtor also, expired while he was enquiring of a boy[12]

what time it was: Aulus Pompeius[13] died just after saluting

the gods in the Capitol; and M. Juventius Thalna,[14] the consul,

while he was sacrificing. C. Servilius Pansa expired at the

second hour of the day,[15] while he was standing in the Forum,

near a shop there,[16] and leaning on the arm of his brother,

Publius Pansa: the judge Bbius, while he was giving an

order for an enlargement of bail:[17] M. Terentius Corax, while

he was making an entry in his note-book in the Forum: only

last year too, a member of the equestrian order at Rome,

while whispering in the ear of a man of consular rank, before

the ivory Apollo, in the Forum[18] of Augustus;[19] and, what is

more singular than all, C. Julius, the physician, while he was

applying, with his probe,[20] some ointment to the eye of a patient. Aulus Manlius Torquatus, a man of consular rank, died

in the act of reaching a cake at dinner; L. Tuscius Valla, the

physician, while he was taking a draught of honeyed wine;[21]







Ap. Saufeius, while, on his return from the bath, after drinking

some honeyed wine and water, he was swallowing an egg:

P. Quinctius Scapula, while he was dining with Aquilius

Gallus: Decimus Saufeius, the scribe, while he was breakfasting at his house. Corn. Gallus,[22] who had filled the office of

Prtor, and Titus Haterius,[23] a man of equestrian rank,

died in the venereal act; and, a thing that was especially remarked by those of our day, two members of the equestrian

order expired in the embraces of the same actor of pantomimes,

Mysticus by name, who was remarkable for his singular

beauty.



But the most perfect state, to all appearance, of security

from death, was that of which we have an account given by

the ancients, in the case of M. Ofilius Hilarus. He was an

actor, and after having been very greatly applauded by the

people, was giving, on his birthday, an entertainment. During

dinner he called for a cup of warm drink; at the same time,

looking at the masque which he had worn during the day,

he placed upon it the chaplet,[24] which he had taken from his

own head; and in that position he remained rigidly fixed,

without moving, no one being aware of what had taken place,

until the person who was reclining next to him reminded him

that the drink was getting cold; upon which he was found to

be dead.



These are instances of persons dying a happy death;[25] but,







on the other hand, there are innumerable cases also of unfortunate ends. L. Domitius,[26] a member of a most illustrious family,

having been conquered at Massilia by Csar, and taken prisoner

by him at Corfinium, being weary of life, took poison; but, immediately after, he used every possible exertion to prolong his

life. We find it stated in our Annals, that Felix, a charioteer

of the red party,[27] being placed on the funeral pile, some one

of the number of his admirers threw himself upon the pile; a

most silly piece of conduct. Lest, however, this circumstance

might be attributed to the great excellence of the dead man

in his art, and so redound to his glory, the other parties all

declared that he had been overpowered by the strength of the

perfumes. Not long ago, M. Lepidus, a man of very noble

birth, who died, as I have stated above,[28] of chagrin caused by

his divorce, was hurled from the funeral pile by the violence

of the flames, and in consequence of the heat, could not be replaced upon it; in consequence of which, his naked body was

burnt with some other pieces of brushwood, in the vicinity of

the pile.







1. In the twenty-third Chapter of the present Book.-B.

2. Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 12, and Diodorus Siculus, B. xiii. c. 14, gives

the same account. It has been said, that, when he heard the news, he

called for a draught of wine, and was choked with a grape-stone; this incident forms the subject of an epigram by Simonides, quoted by Hardouir,

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 210.-B.

3. There is reason to believe, that the prize was given rather to the rank,

than to the poetry of Dionysius; see the remarks of Ajasson, Lemaire,

vol. iii. pp. 210, 211.-B.

4. This anecdote is related by Livy, B. xxii. c. 7; by Valerius Maximus,

B. ix. c. 12; and by Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 15; the two former, however, state, that it occurred after the battle of Thrasymenus,-B.

5. Cicero, De Fato, sec. 6, styles Diodorus, "valens dialecticus."-B.

6. According to Hardouin, these were Lucius, the prtor, and Caius,

the father of the dictator; they were brothers, and the sons of C. Csar.

-B.

7. Thirty-first of December; consequently his tenure of office was for a

few hours only. Cicero indulged in several jokes upon his consulship, remarking that no one had died during it; and that the consul was extremely vigilant, for that he had never slept during his term of office.

8. This took place A.U.C. 708; Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, gives us

an account of the jests passed by Cicero and others on the brief duration

of his office.-B.

9. He is supposed to have been the same person who was consul A.U.C.

732.-B.

10. The Comitium was a place in the forum at Rome, where the "comitia curiata" were held, and certain offences tried and punished. It was

here also that the tribunal, or "suggestum," was situate.

11. We are informed by Hardouin, that he held the office of Prtor

A.U.C. 660.-B.

12. "A puero;" not necessarily a slave, as Littr seems to think.

13. On Hardouin's authority, we learn that A. Pompeius was surnamed

Bithynicus, and was prtor A.U.C. 680.B.

14. The death of Thalna is given somewhat more in detail by Valerius

Maximus, B. ix. c. 12; it took place A.U.C. 590.-B.

15. The ancients reckoned the hours from sun-rise; in summer, the

second hour of the day would be six o'clock A.M., and in the winter, a quarter

past eight.-B.

16. Bankers, and usurers more especially, had their shops in the Roman

Forum.

17. "Cum vadimonium differri jubet."-B.

18. Augustus built a third Forum, because the old one and that of Julius

Csar, were not found sufficient for the great increase of business. He

adorned it with a temple of Mars, and the statues of the most distinguished

Romans.

19. According to Hardouin, this ivory statue was in the eighth region of

the city.-B.

20. "Specillum;" this instrument is mentioned by Celsus, B. vi. c. 6,

25, et alibi. There has been a considerable discussion among the commentators respecting the "specillum;" see Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 213, 214.

From the uses to which it was applied by Celsus, we can have little doubt

upon the subject. Poinsinet and Ajasson employ the equivalent French

term "eprouvette."-B.

21. "Mulsum" was the most universally esteemed of all the beverages

used among the Romans. It seems to have been of two kinds: in the

one case honey was mixed with wine, in the other with must. Massic or

Falernian wine was preferred for the purpose, and new Attic honey. The

proportions were four measures of wine to one of honey; and various perfumes and spices were added. See B. xxii, c. 4. It was especially valued

as the most appropriate draught on an empty stomach.

22. The Cornelius Gallus here mentioned could not have been the poet

of the same name, because, as we are informed, he died by his own hand.

The death of the poet Gallus is alluded to by Ovid, Amores, B. iii. El. 9,

1. 64.-B. A similar fate is said, by Tertullian, to have overtaken Speusippus, the Platonic philosopher. The same was also said by some of the

poet Pindar.

23. Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 12, gives the same account of the death of

Gallus and Haterius.-B.

24. Which was usually worn by the Romans at their entertainments.

25. Considering some of the above cases, Pliny must have had a curions

notion of a happy death. Ovid would have agreed with him in one respect; for in his amatory poems, he expresses a wish that he may die of

a surfeit of sensual enjoyment.

26. The great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero. We have a reference

to his death by Seneca, De Benef. B. iii. c. 24, and a more full account of

it by Suetonius, Life of Nero, c. 2.-B.

27. The charioteers at Rome were divided into four companies, or "factiones," each distinguished by a colour, representing the season of the

year. These colours were green for the spring, red for the summer, azure

for autumn, and white for the winter. Domitian afterwards increased

them to six, adding the golden and the purple. The most ardent party

spirit prevailed among them, and the interest in their success extended to

all classes and both sexes.

28. In the thirty-sixth Chapter of this Book.-B.




55. Chap. 55. (54.)-Burial.


CHAP. 55. (54.)-BURIAL.



The burning of the body after death, among the Romans, is

not a very ancient usage; for formerly, they interred it.[1] After

it had been ascertained, however, in the foreign wars, that

bodies which had been buried were sometimes disinterred, the

custom of burning them was adopted. Many families, how-







ever, still observed the ancient rites, as, for example, the Cor-

nelian family, no member of which had his body burnt before

Sylla, the Dictator; who directed this to be done, because,

having previously disinterred the dead body of Caius Marius,

he was afraid that others might retaliate on his own.[2] The

term "sepultus"[3] applies to any mode whatever of disposing

of the dead body; while, on the other hand, the word "humatus" is applicable solely when it is deposited in the

earth.







1. It would appear, from Dalechamps and Hardouin, that this statement,

respecting the period when the custom of burning the body after death

was first adopted by the Romans, is incorrect, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 219.

There is much uncertainty as to its origin, and the source from which they

borrowed it. We learn from Macrobius, that the practice was discontinued

in his time, i. e. in the fourth century after Christ.-B.

2. We have the same remarks, respecting the antiquity of the custom

of interring the body, the continued adoption of it by the Cornelian family,

and the supposed notion of Sylla, in ordering his own body to be burnt, in

Cicero, De Leg. B. ii. c. 22, from whom it is probable Pliny may have

borrowed them.-B.

3. We have no English term that will preserve the distinction which

Pliny makes between the two modes of disposing of the body after death.

-B.




56. Chap. 56. (55.)-The Manes, Or Departed Spirits Of The Soul.


CHAP. 56. (55.)-THE MANES, OR DEPARTED SPIRITS OF THE SOUL.



After burial come the different quiddities as to the existence of

the Manes. All men, after their last day,[1] return to what they

were before the first; and after death there is no more sensation left in the body or in the soul than there was before birth.

But this same vanity of ours extends even to the future, and

lyingly fashions to itself an existence even in the very moments which belong to death itself: at one time it has conferred upon us the immortality of the soul; at another transmigration; and at another it has given sensation to the shades

below, and paid divine honours to the departed spirit, thus

making a kind of deity of him who has but just ceased to be a

man. As if, indeed, the mode of breathing with man was

in any way different from that of other animals, and as if there

were not many other animals to be found whose life is longer

than that of man, and yet for whom no one ever presaged anything of a like immortality. For what is the actual substance

of the soul, when taken by itself? Of what material does it

consist? Where is the seat of its thoughts? How is it to







see, or hear, or how to touch? And then, of what use is it,

or what can it avail, if it has not these faculties? Where,

too, is its residence, and what vast multitudes of these souls

and spirits[2] must there be after the lapse of so many ages?

But all these are the mere figments of childish ravings, and of

that mortality which is so anxious never to cease to exist. It

is a similar piece of vanity, too, to preserve the dead bodies of

men; just like the promise that he shall come to life again,

which was made by Democritus;[3] who, however, never has come

to life again himself. Out upon it! What downright madness is it to suppose that life is to recommence after death! or

indeed, what repose are we ever to enjoy when we have been

once born, if the soul is to retain its consciousness in heaven,

and the shades of the dead in the infernal regions? This

pleasing delusion, and this credulity, quite cancel that chief

good of human nature, death, and, as it were, double the

misery of him who is about to die, by anxiety as to what is

to happen to him after it. And, indeed, if life really is a

good, to whom can it be so to have once lived?



How much more easy, then, and how much more devoid of

all doubts, is it for each of us to put his trust in himself, and

guided by our knowledge of what our state has been before

birth, to assume that that after death will be the same.







1. He views the state after death in the same light as Democritus and

Epicurus, utterly denying the immortality of the soul; though it cannot

be said that he looks upon life in the same cheerful, laissez-faire manner in

which it was regarded by the latter of these philosophers.

2. Hardouin remarks, that the ancients made a distinction between the

souls of the dead, and their spirits or shades, "umbr." The former were

supposed to remain on the earth, while the latter were removed either to

Elysium or to Tartarus, according to the character or actions of the deceased.-B.

3. According to Varro, Democritus directs, that the body shall not be

burnt after death, hut preserved in honey; on which Varro remarks, how

greatly such a practice would tend to raise the price of that article.-B.




57. Chap. 57. (56.)-The Inventors Of Various Things.


CHAP. 57. (56.)-THE INVENTORS OF VARIOUS THINGS.



Before we quit the consideration of the nature of man, it

appears only proper to point out those persons who have been

the authors of different inventions. Father Liber[1] was the first

to establish the practice of buying and selling; he also invented







the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal procession. Ceres[2] introduced corn, the acorn having been previously used by man for food; it was she, also, who introduced

into Attica the art of grinding corn[3] and of making bread,

and other similar arts into Sicily; and it was from these circumstances that she came to be regarded as a divinity. She

was the first also to establish laws;[4] though, according to

some, it was Rhadamanthus. I have always been of opinion,

that letters were of Assyrian origin, but other writers, Gellius,[5]

for instance, suppose that they were invented in Egypt by

Mercury: others, again, will have it that they were discovered

by the Syrians; and that Cadmus brought from Phnicia sixteen letters into Greece. To these, Palamedes, it is said, at the

time of the Trojan war, added these four, Q, C, F, and X.

Simonides,[6] the lyric poet, afterwards added a like number,

Z, H, Y, and W; the sounds denoted by all of which are now

received into our alphabet.[7]







Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of opinion, that there

were originally eighteen letters,[8] A B G D E Z I K L M N O P R S T U F,

and that two, Q namely and X, were introduced

by Epicharmus,[9] and not by Palamedes. Aristides says, that

a certain person of the name of Menos, in Egypt, invented letters fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus,[10] the most ancient of all the kings of Greece, and this he attempts to prove by

the monuments there. On the other hand, Epigenes,[11] a writer

of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have

a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hundred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks.

Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest,

give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years.[12] From







this statement, it would appear that letters have been in use

from all eternity. The Pelasgi were the first to introduce them

into Latium.



The brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius,[13] were the first who

constructed brick-kilns and houses at Athens; before which,

caves in the ground served for houses. Gellius[14] is inclined to

think that Toxius, the son of Clus, was the first inventor of

mortar, it having been suggested to him by the nest of the

swallow. Cecrops[15] gave to a town the name of Cecropia,

after himself; this is now the citadel of Athens. Some persons will have it, that Argos had been founded before this

period by King Phoroneus; others, again, that Sicyon had

been previously built; while the Egyptians declare that their

own city, Diospolis, had been in existence long before them.

Cinyra,[16] the son of Agriopas,[17] invented tiles and discovered







copper-mines,[18] both of them in the island of Cyprus; he also

invented the tongs, the hammer, the lever, and the anvil.

Wells were invented by Danaus,[19] who came from Egypt into

that part of Greece which had been previously known as Argos

Dipsion.



The first stone-quarries were opened by Cadmus at Thebes,

or else, according to Theophrastus, in Phnicia. Walls were

first built by Thrason;[20] according to Aristotle, towers were

first erected by the Cyclopes,[21] but according to Theophrastus,

by the Tirynthii. The Egyptians invented weaving;[22] the







Lydians of Sardis the art of dyeing wool.[23] Closter, the son

of Arachne, invented the spindle for spinning wool;[24] Arachne

herself, linen cloth and nets;[25] Nicias of Megara, the art of

fulling cloth;[26] and Tychius, the Botian, the art of making

shoes.[27] The Egyptians will have it that the medical art was

first discovered among them, while others attribute it to Arabus,

the son of Babylonis and Apollo; botany and pharmacy are

ascribed to Chiron, the son of Saturn and Philyra.[28]



Aristotle supposes that Scythes, the Lydian, was the first

to fuse and temper copper, while Theophrastus ascribes the art

to Delas, the Phrygian.[29] Some persons ascribe the working







of copper to the Chalybes, others to the Cyclopes. Hesiod

says, that iron was discovered in Crete, by the Idan Dactyli.[30]

Erichthonius, the Athenian, or, as some people say, acus,

discovered silver.[31] Gold mines, and the mode of fusing that

metal, were discovered by Cadmus, the Phnician, at the

mountain of Pangus,[32] or, according to other accounts, by

Thoas or Eaclis, in Panchaia;[33] or else by Sol, the son of

Oceanus, whom Gellius mentions as having been the first who

employed honey in medicine. Midacritus[34] was the first who

brought tin from the island called Cassiteris.[35] The Cyclopes

invented the art of working iron.[36] Chorbus, the Athenian,

was the first who made earthen vessels;[37] but Anacharsis, the







Scthian, or, according to others, Hyperbius, the Corinthian,

first invented the potter's wheel. Ddalus[38] was the first

person who worked in wood; it was he who invented the saw,

the axe, the plummet, the gimlet, glue, and isinglass;[39] the

square, the level, the turner's lathe, and the key, were invented

by Theodorus, of Samos.[40] Measures and weights were invented by Phidon, of Argos,[41] or, according to Gellius, by

Palamedes. Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, was the first to strike

fire from the flint, and Prometheus taught us how to preserve

it, in the stalk of giant-fennel.[42]



The Phrygians first taught us the use of the chariot with

four wheels;[43] the Carthaginians the arts of merchandize,[44] and

Eumolpus, the Athenian,[45] the cultivation of the vine, and of

trees in general. Staphylus, the son of Silenus,[46] was the first to

mix water with wine; olive-oil and the oil-press, as also honey,

we owe to Aristus, the Athenian;[47] the use of oxen and the







plough to Buzyges, the Athenian,[48] or, according to other accounts, to Triptolemus.[49]



The Egyptians were the first who established a monarchical

government, and the Athenians, after the time of Theseus,

a democracy. Phalaris,[50] of Agrigentum, was the first tyrant[51]

that existed; the Lacedmonians were the introducers of

slavery;[52] and the first capital punishment inflicted was ordered by the Areiopagus.[53] The first battles were fought by

the Africans against the Egyptians, with clubs, which they

are in the habit of calling phalange. Prtus and Acrisius[54]

were the first to use shields, in their contests with each other;

or, as some say, Chalcus, the son of Athamas. Midias, the

Messenian, invented the coat of mail, and the Lacedmonians

the helmet, the sword, and the spear.[55] Greaves and crests

were first used by the Carians; Scythes, the son of Jupiter,

it is said, invented the bow and arrows, though some say

that arrows were invented by Perses, the son of Perseus.[56]

Lances were invented by the tolians; the javelin, with the







thong[57] attached, by tolus,[58] the son of Mars; the spear of

the light infantry[59] by Tyrrhenus; the dart[60] by Penthesilea,

the Amazon; the axe by Pisus; the hunting-spear, and the

scorpion to hurl missiles, by the Cretans;[61] the catapulta, the

balista,[62] and the sling, by the Syrophnicians.[63] Pisus, the

Tyrrhenian, was the first to invent the brazen trumpet,[64] and

Artemon, of Clazomen, the use of the testudo.[65] The batter-







ing-horse, for the destruction of walls, which is at the present

day styled the "ram," was invented by Epeus, at Troy.[66]

Bellerophon was the first who mounted the horse;[67] bridles and

saddles for the horse were invented by Pelethronius.[68] The

Thessalians, who are called. Centauri, and who dwell along

Mount Pelion, were the first to fight on horse-Back. The people

of Phrygia were the first who used chariots with two horses;

Erichthonius first used four.[69] Palamedes, during the Trojan

war, was the first who marshalled an army, and invented

watchwords,[70] signals, and the use of sentinels. Sinon, at

the same period, invented the art of correspondence by signals.

Lycaon was the first to think of making a truce, and Theseus

a treaty of alliance.



The art of divination by means of birds[71] we owe to Car,







from whom Caria derives its name; Orpheus extended it to

other animals. Delphus taught us the art of divining by the

inspection of entrails; Amphiaras[72] divination by fire; and

Tiresias, the Theban, presages from the entrails of birds. We

owe to Amphictyon[73] the interpretation of portents and of

dreams, and to Atlas,[74] the son of Libya, the art of astrology, or

else, according to other accounts, to the Egyptians or the Assyrians. Anaximander,[75] the Milesian, invented the astronomical sphere; and olus, the son of Hellen, gave us the theory

of the winds.



Amphion was the inventor of music;[76] Pan, the son of

Mercury, the music of the reed, and the flute with the single

pipe; Midas, the Phrygian,[77] the transverse flute;[78] and Marsyas,







of the same country, the double-pipe.[79] Amphion invented

the Lydian measures in music; Thamyris the Thracian, the

Dorian, and Marsyas the Phrygian, the Phrygian style.[80] Amphion, or, according to some accounts, Orpheus, and according

to others, Linus, invented the lyre.[81] Terpander, adding three

to the former four, increased the number of strings to seven;

Simonides added an eighth, and Timotheus a ninth.[82] Thamyris was the first who played on the lyre, without the accompaniment of the voice; and Amphion, or, as some say,

Linus, was the first who accompanied it with the voice.

Terpander was the first who composed songs expressly for the

lyre; and Ardalus, the Trzenian, was the first who taught

us how to combine the voice with the music of the pipe.[83]

The Curetes taught us the dance in armour,[84] and Pyrrhus, the

Pyrrhic dance, both of them in Crete.



We are indebted to the Pythian oracle for the first heroic

verse.[85] A very considerable question has arisen, as to what

was the origin of poetry; it is well known to have existed

before the Trojan war. Pherecydes of Scyros, in the time

of King Cyrus, was the first to write in prose, and Cadmus,

the Milesian, was the first historian.[86]







Lycaon[87] first instituted gymnastic games, in Arcadia;

Acastus funereal games,[88] at Iolcos;[89] and, after him, Theseus

instituted them at the Isthmus.[90] Hercules first instituted

the athletic contests at Olympia.[91] Pythus invented the

game of ball.[92] Painting was invented in Egypt by Gyges,

the Lydian,[93] or, according to Aristotle, in Greece, by Euchir, a







kinsman[94] of Ddalus; according to Theophrastus, again, it

was invented by Polygnotus, the Athenian.



Danais was the first who passed over in a ship from Egypt

to Greece.[95] Before his time, they used to sail on rafts,[96] which

had been invented by King Erythras,[97] to pass from one island

to another in the Red Sea. There are some writers to be

found, who are of opinion that they were first thought of

by the Mysians and the Trojans, for the purpose of crossing

the Hellespont into Thrace. Even at the present day, they

are made in the British ocean, of wicker-work covered with

hides;[98] on the Nile they are made of papyrus, rushes, and

reeds.



We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first

person who sailed in a long vessel;[99] Hegesias says it was







Paralus, Ctesias,[100] Semiramis,[101] and Archemachus, geon.

According to Damastes,[102] the Erythri[103] were the first to

construct vessels with two banks of oars; according to Thucydides,[104] Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them

with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians, those with four banks; according to Mnesigiton,

the people of Salamis, those with five banks;[105] and, according to

Xenagoras, the Syracusans, those with six; those above six, as

far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first constructed by Alexander

the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn that Ptolemy Soter

made them as high as twelve banks; Demetrius, the son of

Antigonus, with fifteen; Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty;

and Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with

forty.[106] Hippus, the Tyrian, was the first who invented

merchant-ships; the Cyrenians, the pinnace; the Phnicians,

the passage-Boat; the Rhodians, the skiff; and the Cyprians,

the cutter.[107]







We are indebted to the Phnicians for the first observation of the stars in navigation; the Cop invented the oar,

and the Platans gave it its broad blade.[108] Icarus was the

person who invented sails,[109] and Ddalus the mast and yards;

the Samians, or else Pericles, the Athenian, transports for

horses,[110] and the Thracians, long covered vessels,[111]-Before

which time they used to fight only from the prow or the stern.

Pisus, the Tyrrhenian, added the beak to ships;[112] Eupalamus, the anchor; Anacharsis, that with two flukes; Pericles,

the Athenian, grappling-irons, and hooks like hands;[113] and

Tiphys,[114] the helm and rudder. Minos was the first who

waged war by means of ships; Hyperbius, the son of Mars,

the first who killed an animal; and Prometheus, the first who

slew the ox.[115]











1. It has been conjectured, that Bacchus derived his name from the

Greek word Ba/skw, on account of his numerous journies into different

parts of the world; it was during these that he conveyed to the various

nations which he visited the arts of civilized life.-B.

2. We have a long discussion by Poinsinet, vol. iii. pp. 234, 235, on the

derivation of the name of Ceres, in which he endeavours to explain the

various attributes that were ascribed to her. The character in which she

was generally regarded by the writers of antiquity, was the one here given

to her by Pliny; in proof of which we may refer, among other authorities,

to Virgil, Geor. B. i. 1. 147, and to Ovid, Metam. B. iii. 1. 341.-B.

3. The earliest method of reducing corn to the state proper for the food

of man, was by pounding it in a mortar; afterwards, when it was ground

between stones, they were moved by the hand, as is still the practice in

many parts of the East. It was not until a comparatively late period that

water was employed as the moving power for mills.-B.

4. It has been supposed by some commentators, that the character of

legislator was bestowed upon Ceres, in consequence of the name by which

she was designated, in the ancient northern languages, being incorrectly

transferred to the Greek. Others have thought that it might be referred

to the connection which may be supposed to exist between an advance in

the arts of life generally and an improvement of the laws.-B.

5. We do not find the circumstance here referred to in the "Noctes Attic" of Aulus Gellius.-B.

6. It would appear that there were two individuals of this name, who

were confounded with each other; Simonides, the celebrated poet, lived as

late as the fifth century before Christ, so that it has been thought improbable that the Greek language could have existed without the four letters

here mentioned, until so recent a period.-B.

7. The account of the original introduction of the alphabet into Greece,

here given, is the one generally adopted in his time. Most readers will

be aware, that the actual invention of letters, the share which the Egyptians and the Phnicians had in it, the identification of Cadmus and still

more of Mercury, with any of the heroes or legislators of antiquity, of

whom we have any correct historical data, and the connection which the

Greek alphabet had with those of other nations, are among the most

curious questions of literary discussion, and are still far from being resolved with any degree of certainty.-B.

8. It seems to have been the general opinion, that the Greek language

had, originally, sixteen or eighteen letters, the source of which was very

uncertain, and of high antiquity; and to these, additional letters were,

from time to time, appended by different individuals. Upon the whole,

the claim of the Egyptians to the invention of letters, seems to rest upon,

at least, a very plausible foundation.-B.

9. Epicharmus was born in the fifth century B.C. , in the island of Cos,

hut removed, probably at an early age, to Sicily, where he passed a considerable portion of his life. His original profession was that of a physician, but he appears to have devoted his attention principally to general

science and literature, and is more especially remarkable as the inventor

of regular comedy. A few fragments only of his dramas remain, but the

titles of no less than forty are preserved. From a line in the Prologue to

the Menchmi of Plautus, where it is said that the plot of the play,

"non Atticissat verum Sicilicissat" "is not Attic, but Sicilian;" it has been

conjectured, that Plautus took the plot of the piece from Epicharmus.

10. Phoroneus was the son of Inachus, and the second king of Argos; he

began to reign about 1807 B.C.-B.

11. Epigenes has already been referred to in the fifty-fourth chapter of

this Book.-B.

12. There has been much discussion respecting the interpretation of this

passage. In the first place, the numbers in the text have extended from

720 and 490 to as many thousands, by the addition of the letter M.,

against the authority, however, of some MSS. In the next place, in

older to curtail the enormous periods thus formed, the years have been

supposed to be only lunar, or even diurnal periods. The opinion of Hardouin and Marcus is perhaps the better founded, who reject the proposed

alteration, and consider these numbers to indicate, according to their

natural signification, periods of years. The principal consideration that

has been urged in favour of the alteration of the text is derived from two

passages in Cicero's Treatise de Divin. B. i. c. 19, and B. ii. c. 46, where

he refers to the very long periods which the Babylonians employed in

their calculations, but which he justly regards as entirely without foundation, and even ridiculous. Pliny, however, professes to follow the opinion

of Epigenes whom he styles "gravis auctor," and who, we may premise.

would reject these improbable tales.-B. The reading, 720 thousands, is

the one adopted by Sillig.

13. Pausanias, in his "Attica," calls the two brothers Agrolas and Hyperbius. Some commentators have supposed, that these names, as well as

Doxius and Clus, mentioned below, are merely symbolical, and that the

personages are fictitious.-B.

14. The Gellius here mentioned had the prnomen of Cneius; he is not

to be confounded with the more noted Aulus Gellius, by whom he is quoted

in the Noct. Att. B. xiii. c. 29.-B.

15. There is a number of ancient legends attached to the name of Cecrops,

yet we have but little authentic information respecting him. What appears

to be the best established is, that he was born in the city of Sais, in Egypt,

and that, about 1556 B.C. , he conducted a colony to Attica, where he built

a fortress, on the Acropolis of Athens, and that his descendants continued,

for some generations, to be kings of Attica.-B.

16. If this is the Cinyra previously mentioned in c. 49, he is more generally represented as the son of Apollo, or of Paphos, a priest of the

Paphian Aphrodite or Venus. The true reading, however, is uncertain.

17. Hardouin informs us, that in all the MSS. which he has consulted,

this person is named Agricola, while in the printed editions of Pliny he

is styled Agriopa, or Ariopas. Poinsinet, vol. iii. pp. 250, 251, endeavours to explain this, by supposing, that the word "Agricola" was the one

employed by Pliny, but was used by him as a generic, not as an appellative term. Some of the earlier editors, however, conceiving that no

agricultural operations could be carried on, before the invention of the

necessary implements had changed the name into Agriopa, derived from

two Greek words, signifying "a man in the savage state, who is only

capable of uttering inarticulate sounds." This method of solving the

difficulty will probably appear fanciful and too refined, but it is the only

one which has been proposed.-B.

18. The copper-mines of Temesa, supposed to have been in Cyprus, are

mentioned by Homer. There was another place of that name in Bruttium, and another in India, both equally famous for their copper.

19. Danaus is said to have migrated from Egypt into Greece about 1485

B.C. He may have introduced wells into Greece, but they had, long before

his time, been employed in Egypt and in other countries. The term

"Dipsion," "thirsting," which it appears had been applied to the district of

Argos, may seem to render it probable, that, before the arrival of Danaus,

the inhabitants had not adopted any artificial means of supplying themselves with water.-B. But this country, we are told, is naturally well

supplied with water.

20. Nothing is known respecting this individual; it does not appear that

he is mentioned by any other of the ancients.-B.

21. There is so much fable mixed up with the account of the Cyclopes,

that it is difficult to ascertain their real history. It seems probable, that

there was a people of high antiquity, who were particularly skilful in the

erection of stone edifices of various kinds, and more especially of those

which served for the defence of cities. The remains of walls and other

structures, which have obtained the name of Cyclopian, are found in various parts of Greece, Italy, and Sicily, and may be regarded as among

the oldest works of man in existence, although they are probably of less

antiquity than those of Egypt and of some parts of Asia.-B.

22. We have sufficient evidence of the early period at which the art of

weaving was practised in Egypt, from the figures to be found on their

monuments, and from the specimens of their manufactures, some of very

delicate texture, which have been found in the most ancient of their tombs.

It was doubted, at one time, whether these fine stuffs were formed from

the fibres of flax or of cotton, or, in other words, whether they were

cambric or muslin; but it is now generally admitted that they are made

of flax. We have frequent mention of the products of the loom in the

Pentateuch; we may select the 13th chapter of Leviticus, where linen

and woollen stuffs are especially mentioned, and distinguished from each

other.-B.

23. It is very difficult, probably impossible, in the present day, to determine to which of the nations of antiquity we are indebted for the invention of the art of dyeing. We have notices of coloured stuffs in various

parts of the Pentateuch, and there is reason to suppose, that the art was

practised, at a very early period, by the Egyptians, the Phnicians, and

the Indians. They had even arrived at the knowledge of partial dyeing,

or what is technically termed "printing," as applied to cotton or linen.-B.

24. According to Justin, B. ii. c. 6, the Athenians introduced the use of

wool among their countrymen; but it has been supposed that they learned

it from the Egyptians.-B.

25. Arachne is said to have been a native of Hypp, near Colophon, in

Asia Minor, and has been celebrated for her skill in embroidery by Ovid,

Metam. B. vi. As we have sufficient evidence that linen was manufactured

by the Egyptians at a very early period, we may presume that this account of Arachne is either fabulous, or that, in some way or other, she was

instrumental in the introduction of linen into Greece.-B.

26. Nothing is known of this individual, nor have we any further information respecting the discovery ascribed to him.-B.

27. Homer, Il. B. vii. 1. 221, and Ovid, Fasti, B. iii. 1. 824, speak of

Tychius, as particularly skilful in making shoes, and other articles of

leather.-B.

28. It is difficult to determine, how far we are to regard the names here

mentioned as belonging to real or only to fictitious personages, nor is it easy

for us to ascertain what should be regarded as the actual invention of medicine. A certain kind of medical, or rather surgical practice, must have

existed in the rudest state of society and in the earliest ages, which was

improved and refined by the gradual experience and increased civilization

of each successive generation.-B.

29. In this, as in so many others of the arts, the original invention has

been given to the Egyptians, while the introduction of it into Greece is

ascribed to Cadmus. The word s, which is generally translated "brass,"

as well as the Greek word xalko\s, was applied by the ancients, either to

copper, or what is properly bronze, i. e. a mixture of copper and tin. Brass,

the compound of copper and zinc, does not appear to have been known to

them. With respect to the claim of the Scythians to the discovery of the

use of copper, it has been justly remarked, that it is natural to suppose it

to have been first known in those countries, where the ore of the metal is

found in large quantities, which is the case in the region that was anciently

named Scythia.-B.

30. According to Pausanias, the art of forging iron was discovered by

Glaucus of Chios. Strabo ascribes it to the Idan Dactyli, and the art of

manufacturing utensils of bronze and iron to the Telchines; the former

were inhabitants of Crete, the latter of Rhodes.-B.

31. According to Hyginus, silver was first discovered in Scythia by Indus,

and introduced into Attica by Erichthonius. acus is said by Cassiodorus to have been the discoverer of gold.-B.

32. Pangus is generally described as a mountain on the confines of

Macedonia and Thrace; but Marcus says that it was a mountain of Abyssinia, near the source of the Nile, and he adduces various passages from

the ancients to prove that the Egyptians had an extensive traffic there in

gold at a very early period; Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 191, 192.-B.

33. Thoas was the king of the Tauric Chersonnesus and Panchaia was a

district of Arabia Felix; it does not appear what connection Thoas could

have with Panchaia.-B.

34. We have no account of any individual bearing this name, and it has

been proposed by Hardouin to substitute for it "Midas Phrygius," who

is said, both by Hyginus and by Cassiodorus, to have been the discoverer of

lead.-B.

35. From the accounts of Pliny, B. iv. c. 36, as well as of Strabo, and the

other ancient geographers, it appears, that he here alludes to the Scilly Isles,

including, probably, the western extremity of Cornwall. We are informed

by Herodotus, B. iii. c. 115, that tin was brought from them, and they

were hence named the "tin islands," from the Greek word for tin,

kassi(teros.-B.

36. On this subject we may refer to Note 72.-B.

37. Pliny, in B. xxxv. c. 45, informs us, that Chorbus invented the art

of making pottery, and that it was first exercised, as a trade, by Chalcosthenes. He says, that a certain district of Athens obtained the name of

"Ceramicos," from his manufactory of earthen-ware, derived from ke/ramos,

"potter's clay."-B.

38. The inventions here ascribed to Ddalus, are, by many of the

ancients, given to his nephew; see Isidorus, Hyginus, Diodorus Siculus,

and Ovid, Metam. B. viii. 1. 234, et seq.-B.

39. "Ichthyocolla," perhaps more properly, "Fish-glue."

40. Pausanias ascribes also to Theodorus the invention of forging iron

and copper. According to Vitruvius, the square was invented by Pythagoras.-B.

41. The same statement is made by Strabo, and other writers of antiquity,

and is confirmed by the Arundelian Marbles.-B.

42. See B. xiii. c. 42.

43. Marcus informs us, that, according to the Arundelian Marbles, Erichthonius, the fourth king of Athens, was the inventor of chariots.-B. See

p. 229.

44. Hardouin remarks, that Pliny, in the beginning of this Chapter, ascribes the invention of commerce to Bacchus; we may suppose, that the

commerce there referred to, was the conveyance of goods by land, while

that of the Carthaginians was traffic by sea.-B.

45. Eumolpus was a native of Thrace; but being expelled from his

native country, he invaded Attica, and, after various contests with Erichthonius, obtained the office of high-priest of Ceres, which was continued

to his descendants.-B.

46. We learn from the writings of Moses, that the planting of the vine,

and the conversion of the juice of the grape into wine, was practised by

Noah immediately after the Flood. The mixing of water with wine would

seem to be a very obvious and natural mode of procuring a pleasant and

refreshing beverage.-B.

47. From the writings of Moses, we learn that the use of oil and of honey

was known to the inhabitants of Palestine and Egypt, at a very early period.-B.

48. "Buzyges" is a Greek term, signifying "one who yokes oxen;" according to Hardouin, the real name of the person here referred to was

Epimenides.-B.

49. For an account of Triptolemus, the reader may consult Hyginus, and

Pausanias, B. vii. Achaica.-B. Also the Fasti of Ovid, B. iv. 1. 507, et seq.

50. Phalaris is supposed to have been contemporary with Servius Tullius,

who reigned from 577 to 533 B.C.-B.

51. Meaning a citizen who obtained the sovereignty by violence and usurpation.

52. This is supposed to have taken place 1000 years before Christ, when

the Lacedmonians conquered the Helots. But Moses had given the

Jews a code of laws, respecting the treatment of slaves, between 400 and

500 years before that event, and we have various intimations of the existence of slavery, in his writings, long before his time. It appears, indeed, that in the different countries of the East, and in Africa, slavery has

existed from time immemorial.-B.

53. This is confirmed by lian, Var. Hist. B. iii. c. 38.-B.

54. According to the same fabulous account of the early Grecian history,

they were twin brothers, kings of the Argives; after much contention,

Acrisius succeeded in expelling Prcetus from Argos; they are said to have

lived 1400 years B.C. Athamas was a king of Thebes, and the contemporary of Acrisius.-B.

55. According to Hardouin, the Lacedmonians had the helmet, the

sword, and the spear, of a peculiar form, different from that used by the

other natives of Greece.-B.

56. This account of the invention of the bow and arrow seems to have

been derived from the high character which the Scythians and Persians

had acquired for their dexterity in the use of those weapons.-B.

57. The "amentum" was a leather thong tied to the middle of the javelin, to assist in throwing it, though it is unknown how it added to the

effect. It has been suggested that it was by imparting rotation, and consequent steadiness.

58. tolus was said to have been the son of Endymion, of Elis, who,

having accidentally killed one of his countrymen, left his native place, and

settled in the part of Greece named after him, tolia.-B.

59. See B. xxviii. c. 6. This was the Roman "veru," or "verutum," so

called from its resemblance to a spit. Its shaft was three feet and a half

long, and its point five inches. The "Velites" did not form part of the

Roman legion, but fought in scattered parties wherever they were required.

60. The "pilum" was short and thick; its shaft, often made of cornel, was

partly square, and five feet and a half long. The head was nine inches

long. It was used either to throw or thrust with, and, in spite of what

Pliny says, was peculiar to the Romans.

61. Julius Firmicus ascribes the invention of the apparatus used in hunting to the Cretans; and Gratius, Cyneg. 1. 108, that of the hunting spear,

with its iron spike, to Dercylus, of Amycl.-B.

62. Vitruvius informs us, that the catapulta and the balista were instruments formed upon the same principle, the former being adapted for the

discharge of arrows, and the latter, masses of stone. Csar, however, in

his account of the siege of Massilia, Bell. Civ. B. ii. c. 8, speaks of stones

being thrown by the catapulta. lian, Hist. Var. B. vi. c. 12, says, that

it was invented by Dionysius, the first king of Syracuse.-B.

63. Strabo ascribes the invention of the sling to the tolians; he informs us, that the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles, so famous for their

dexterity in the use of this instrument, originally obtained it from the

Phrygians.-B.

64. According to Hyginus, Tyrrhenus, the son of Hercules, invented the

trumpet; Clemens, of Alexandria, and Athenus, ascribe the invention to

the Tyrrhenians.-B. Virgil speaks, B. viii. 1. 526, of the "clangor of

the Tyrrhenian trumpet."

65. The "tortoise." He probably means a military machine, moved on

wheels and roofed over, used in besieging cities, and under which the

soldiers worked in undermining the walls. It was usually covered with

raw hides or other materials, which could not easily be set on fire. The

same name was also applied to the covering formed by a compact body of

soldiers, who placed their shields over their heads, and linked them together, to secure themselves against the darts of the enemy. The latter

kind of "testudo" was sometimes formed, by way of an exercise, in the

games of the Circus.

66. This has been supposed to have been the real origin of the Trojan

horse, on which Virgil has built one of his most interesting episodes; the

horse, as described by Virgil, was, however, in every respect, different from

the battering ram.-B.

67. In consequence of some false charges brought against him, Bellerophon was sent to combat with a monster called the Chimra, in the expectation that he would perish in the attempt; but Minerva, pitying his

situation, provided him with a winged horse, named Pegasus, by means of

which he accomplished his perilous task in safety.-B.

68. Pelethronius is said to have been a king of the Lapith, a people of

Thessaly, who were celebrated for their skill in the management of the

horse.-B.

69. According to Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. iii. c. 23, Minerva was the

first who used a chariot with four horses. Hardouin supposes that the

Erichthonius here mentioned was not the king of Athens, but the son of

Dardanus, the king of Troas; he does not state the ground of his opinion,

and lian, Hist. Var. B. iii. c. 38, expressly speaks of him as an Athenian. Virgil, Geor. B. iii. 11. 113, 114, speaks of Erichthonius as the inventor of the chariot with four horses; he is supposed to have lived about

1450 B. C . As Hardouin justly remarks, we have an account, in the writings

of Moses, of chariots being used by the Egyptians long before this period.

It is not, however, stated what was the number of horses used for these

chariots.-B.

70. "Tesser," in the original, which is also the name of the dice used in

various games. But the connection in which the word is here placed

makes it more probable that it refers to some military operation; Virgil

employs it in this sense, neid, B. vii. 1. 637, as also Livy, B. vii. c. 35.

There is, however, a tradition that Palamedes invented the games in which

dice are used, during the siege of Troy.-B.

71. The words are "auguria ex avibus," while the art which is said to

have been taught by Tiresias, is termed "extispicio avium." The first of

these consists in foretelling future events, by observing the flight, the

chirping, or the feeding of birds, the latter by the inspection of their

entrails. But it appears that this distinction is not always observed; see

Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 47. The observation of the auguries was committed to a body or college of priests, regarded as of the highest authority

in the Roman state. The "Haruspices," whose office it was to inspect

the entrails of sacrificed animals, and from their appearance to foretell

future events, were considered as an inferior order.-B.

72. Amphiaras was reputed to be the son of Apollo, and was famous for

his knowledge of futurity; he was one of the Argonauts, and joined in the

expedition of the Epigoni against Thebes, in which he perished. Divine

honours were paid to him after his death, and a temple erected to his

memory, which was resorted to as an oracle.-B.

73. Amphictyon established the celebrated council named after him, and

which consisted of delegates from the principal cities of Greece, who assembled at stated periods to decide upon all public questions. He is supposed to have lived about 1500 B.C.-B.

74. It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to separate the actual history

of Atlas from the mythological and fabulous tales mixed up with it. We

may, however, conclude that he was a king of Libya, or of some part of

the north of Africa; that he was an observer of the heavenly bodies, and

one of the first who gave any connected account of them. Under the term

"astrology," Pliny probably intended to comprehend both the supposed

science, now designated by that name, and likewise astronomy, or the

physical laws of the heavenly bodies.-B.

75. Pliny has previously stated, B. ii. c. 6, that the sphere was invented

by Atlas, and that Anaximander discovered the obliquity of the ecliptic, by

which he is said "to have opened the doors of knowledge."-B.

76. The simplest and most common musical instrument used by the

Greeks, was the "tibia," or pipe.-B.

77. According to Hardouin, the Phrygians invented the pipes employed

by hired mourners at funerals, or, more probably, were the first to adopt

the use of the pipes at that ceremony.-B.

78. Which was played on the side, like the German flute of the present

day.

79. It was not uncommon for two "tibi," or pipes, to be played upon

by one performer at the same time, one being held in each hand.

80. Apuleius, Flor. B. i. c. 4, characterizes the different kinds of music, termed

"moduli" by Pliny, as follows: the olian, as simple, the Asiatic varied,

the Lydian plaintive, the Phrygian solemn, and the Doric warlike.-B.

81. According to the mythological traditions, Mercury, when a child,

found the shell of a tortoise on the banks of the Nile, and made it into a

lyre, by stretching three strings across; he presented it to Apollo, and

he gave it to Orpheus, who added two strings to it; after the death of

Orpheus, his lyre was placed among the stars, and forms the constellation

still known by that name.-B.

82. He was a native of Miletus, and contemporary with Philip, the father

of Alexander the Great. The fact of Timotheus having accompanied

Alexander in his expedition to Asia, which forms the basis of Dryden's

immortal Ode, is not supported by any historical authority.-B.

83. Pausanias (Corinth) informs us, that he was the son of Vulcan, and

invented the tibia, but he does not mention his vocal powers.-B.

84. According to Hardouin, the first of these, the "saltatio armata," or

"armed dance," was performed on foot, and with wooden armour; the

second, the Pyrrhic dance, was performed on horseback, and consisted in

the dextrous management of the animals. Pyrrhus, from whom the dance

received its name, was the son of Achilles.-B.

85. The honour of the invention has been given to Phemono, a priestess

of the oracle of Delphi.-B.

86. Apuleius, Flor. B. ii. c. 15, says that Pherecydes was the first to dis-

regard the fetters of verse, and to write in desultory language. Pliny,

however, in B. v. c. 31, has ascribed the invention of prose to Cadmus.

Hardouin endeavours to reconcile this inconsistency, by supposing that

Cadmus was the first prose writer of history, and that Pherecydes first

applied prose to philosophical subjects. But Cicero, De Orat. B. ii. c. 12,

speaks of Pherecydes as a writer of simple annals.-B.

87. There are several persons of this name among the kings and heroes

of the semi-fabulous periods; but the one here mentioned is said to have

been the son of Phoroneus, and to have lived about 1400 B.C. These

games were celebrated in honour of Pan; the combatants were naked, and

had the body anointed with oil; the Lupercalia of the Romans, in many

respects, resembled the games of Lycaon. We are informed by Livy, B. i.

c. 5, that the Lupercalia were introduced into Italy by Evander, the Arcadian.-B. Ovid, in the Fasti, B. i., states to the same effect.

88. Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, from which place the Argonauts embarked on their expedition to Colchis; Acastus was one of them; the

funereal games which he instituted were in honour of his father, Pelias.-B.

89. See B. iv. c. 10.

90. The Isthmian games were originally instituted by Sisyphus, king of

Corinth; after having been interrupted for some time, they were reestablished by Theseus, who celebrated them in honour of Neptune.-B.

91. These were the celebrated Olympic games; Diodorus Siculus, B. iv. c. 3,

Pausanias, and other ancient writers, as well as Pliny, ascribe their origin

to Hercules; Pausanias, however, says, that some supposed them to have

been instituted by Jupiter.-B.

92. "Pila lusoria." There have been many conjectures respecting the

person to whom this invention is attributed, as well as respecting the

nature of the game itself; in either case it appears that we have nothing

but mere conjecture to direct our opinion.-B. Among the Romans, the

games with the "pila, or ball," were those played with the "pila trigonalis,"

so called, probably, from the players standing in a triangle: the "follis"

was a large ball inflated, and used for football. "Paganica" was a similar

ball, but harder, being stuffed with feathers, and used by rustics. "Harpastum" was a small ball, used by the Greeks, and was scrambled for on

reaching the ground.

93. The MSS. differ as to the name of the person to whom the invention

of painting is ascribed; but, in those which are considered the most worthy

of credit, he is called Gyges Ludius. Marcus endeavours to prove, that

the term "Ludius" refers to the country of Lud or Ludim, to the south of

Egypt; and he points out some analogies between the name Gyges,

and some words which are found in ancient inscriptions, or which are still

in use among the Nubians and Abyssinians. Pliny, B. xxxv. c. 5, attri-

butes the invention of painting to the Egyptians, and says, that "it was

practised by them long before it was known in Greece."-B.

94. The term Euchir, Eu)/xeir, which is literally "dextrous or handy,"

would rather seem to be a prefix to a name, than a proper name itself.

With respect to Polygnotus, and the share which he had in the invention

of painting, the reader may examine what Pliny says in a subsequent part

of his work, B. xxxv. c. 35.-B.

95. The vessel in which Danas came into Greece, may, probably, have

been of a much superior construction, or much larger than those previously

seen in that country; but it is generally supposed, that Cecrops, Cadmus,

and the other Egyptian and Phnician colonists, had come by sea to Greece,

long before the arrival of Danas. In the ancient Egyptian monuments

there are representations of different kinds of vessels of considerable size,

which would imply a knowledge of the art of navigation at a very

remote period. The same is proved by the traditionary annals of the

Egyptians.-B.

96. The word here used, "ratis," would appear to be applied to any

species of slightly built vessel, of whatever form. The term raft is not

altogether appropriate, but we have no English word which exactly corresponds to it.-B.

97. According to the generally received account, Erythras migrated from

Persia to Tyrrhina, an island in the Red Sea. See B. vi. c. 28 and 32.-B.

98. It has been conjectured, that the ancient Britons borrowed the peculiar form of their vessels from the Phnicians, who were known to have

frequented the south-west coasts of our island. Small vessels, not unlike

those here described by Pliny, were used very lately, by the fishermen in

the Bristol channel.-B. They are still used by the Welsh fishermen, and

are made of oil-cloth or leather stretched on a frame. They are called by

the Welch cwrwgle, whence our word "coracle."

99. By the term "longa navis," here used, Pliny probably designates a

vessel which was propelled by a number of rowers, ranged side by side, in

contradistinction to the small skiffs which were moved along, either by a

sail or a single pair of oars, and were more of a rounded form.-B.

100. Ctesias has already been referred to, in c. 2 of the present Book.-B.

101. One of her most remarkable exploits was her expedition against India,

of which we have an account in Diodorus Siculus, B. ii.; he says that

she fitted out a fleet of between 2000 and 3000 vessels.-B.

102. From the account of Damastes, given by Hardouin, he was a native of

Sigum, whose works appear to have been held in considerable estimation

by the ancients.-B.

103. There were at least three ancient cities of the name Erythr, but the

one most noted was situate on the coast of the gean Sea, opposite to the

Isle of Chios.-B.

104. The passage in Thucydides here referred to, is in B. i. c. 13.-B.

105. There appears to be much uncertainty respecting the statements made

in the concluding part of this paragraph, in consequence of the variation

of the MSS.-B.

106. The position of the rowers, in the vessels of the ancients, and, more

especially, the mode in which the ranks, or "ordines," were disposed

with respect to each other, has been a subject of much discussion. From

the incidental remarks in the classical writers, and from the representations

which still remain, particularly those on Trajan's Column, and on certain

coins, it would appear that they were disposed in stages, one above the

other, and provided with oars of different lengths, in proportion to their

distance from the water. But, although we may conceive that this was

the case with two or three rows, it is impossible that a greater number

could have been disposed in this manner.-B.

107. It is not easy to determine what was the construction and form of the

four kinds of vessels here mentioned, which he designates respectively by

the terms "lembus," "cymba," "celes," and "cercurus." The "lem-

bus" is mentioned by Livy, B. xxiv. c. 40, as a vessel with two benches

of oars, "biremis;" and in B. xl. c. 4, he describes it as a small vessel

used for towing large ships. The "cymba" has been supposed to have

been a still smaller vessel, answering to our idea of a common boat; the

"celes," we may suppose, was named from "celer," being especially

adapted for quick motion, and the "cercurus" from kerko\s, "a tail," from

its long narrow form, or from its having a tail-like appendage attached

to it.-B.

108. Hardouin conjectures, that the cities of Cop and Plat derived their

names, respectively, from the inventions here ascribed to them, kwph\ and

plath\.-B.

109. Pausanias ascribes this invention to Ddalus; Diodorus, B. v. c. 1, to

olus, who gave his name to the olian islands.-B.

110. "Hippagus."-B.

111. "Tecta longa;" Csar, Bell. Civ. B. i. c. 56, says that the Massilians

fitted out long ships, of which eleven were "tect."-B.

112. Ships of war had their prows armed with brazen beaks, to which

sharp spears were attached; these were used in their naval engagements

as instruments of attack, and, when the vessels were captured, were considered the trophies of victory. The tribunal, in the Roman Forum, from

which the orators harangued the people, obtained its name of "Rostra,"

from its being ornamented with the beaks of captured ships.-B.

113. The "harpago" and the "manus ferrea" are mentioned by Csar,

Bell. Civ. B. i. c. 57, and by Livy, B. xxx. c. 10; Quintus Curtius also

speaks of them, but considers them as only different names for the same

instrument, B. iv. c. 2, 12.-B.

114. Tiphys was the pilot of the vessel of the Argonauts; he died before

the expedition reached Colchis.-B.

115. Hardouin remarks upon this passage, that Pliny probably means to

speak of the persons who first killed oxen or other animals for what may

be styled profane purposes; as they had long before this been employed for

sacrifice.-B.




58. Chap. 58. (57.)-The Things About Which Mankind First Of All Agreed. The Ancient Letters.


CHAP. 58. (57.)-THE THINGS ABOUT WHICH MANKIND FIRST OF ALL AGREED. THE ANCIENT LETTERS.



There was at the very earliest[1] period a tacit consent among

all nations to adopt the letters now used by the Ionians.[2]

(58.) That the ancient Greek letters were almost the same

with the modern Latin,[3] is proved by the ancient Delphic

inscription on copper, which is now in the Palatine library,

having been dedicated by the emperors to Minerva; this inscription is as follows:



NAUSIKRATHS ANEQETO THI DIOS KORHI.

["Nausicrates offered this to the daughter of Zeus."][4]







1. Herodotus, B. v. c. 59, says that the Phnician letters were very

similar to the Ionian; and we are informed by Hardouin, that Scaliger, in

his Dissertation upon an ancient inscription on a column discovered in the

Via Appia, and removed to the Farnese Gardens, has proved that the

Ionians borrowed their letters from the Phnicians.-B.

2. Herodotus confirms this opinion by a reference to an ancient tripod at

Thebes, written in what he terms Cadmn letters, having a strong resemblance to those used by the Ionians.-B.

3. Tacitus, Ann. B. ix. c. 14, says, "The Latin letters have the same

form as the most ancient Greek ones."-B.

4. There is scarcely a letter of this inscription which has not been controverted, and no two editions hardly agree.-B.




59. Chap. 59. (59.)-When Barbers Were First Employed.


CHAP. 59. (59.)-WHEN BARBERS WERE FIRST EMPLOYED. [1]



The next point upon which all nations appear to have

agreed, was the employment of barbers.[2] The Romans, however, were more tardy in the adoption of their services.

According to Varro, they were introduced into Italy from







Sicily, in the year of Rome 454,[3] having been brought over

by P. Titinius Mena: before which time the Romans did not

cut the hair. The younger Africanus[4] was the first who

adopted the custom of shaving every day. The late Emperor

Augustus always made use of razors.[5]







1. Probably the earliest existing reference to the practice of shaving is

in Genesis, xli. 14, where Joseph is said to have shaved and changed

his raiment, when brought from prison into the presence of Pharaoh; in

this case, we may presume that it was the head, and perhaps not the beard,

which was shaven.-B.

2. The ancients had two methods of arranging the beard; in one it was

cut close to the skin, in the other it was trimmed by means of a comb, and

left of a certain length. These two methods are alluded to by Plautus,

Capt. ii. 2, 16:-B. "Now the old fellow is in the barber's shop; at this

very instant is the other handling the razor-But whether to say that he is

going to shave him close, or to trim him through the comb, I know not."

3. Varro, De Re Rus. B. ii., states this fact in almost the same words.

He remarks, in continuation, that the old statues prove that there were

formerly no barbers, by the length of their beard and hair.-B.

4. "Africanus sequens;" he was the son of Paulus milius, the conqueror of Perseus, and the adopted son of Scipio Africanus. In consequence of his conquest of Carthage, he was named Africanus the Younger.

His custom of shaving is alluded to by Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 4. From

the remarks of these writers, we may conclude that the Romans were not

generally in the habit of shaving until after the age of forty.-B.

5. "Cultus." Suetonius gives a different account of the method in which

Augustus managed his beard. After remarking upon his carelessness as to

his personal appearance, he says, that Augustus sometimes cropped, "tonderet," and sometimes shaved, "raderet," his beard. Dion. Cassius mentions the period when Augustus began to shave, the consulship of L. Marcius Censorinus and C. Calvicius Sabinus, A.U.C. 714; he was then in his

twenty-fourth year.-B.




60. Chap. 60.-When The First Time-Pieces Were Made.


CHAP. 60.-WHEN THE FIRST TIME-PIECES WERE MADE.



(60.) The third point of universal agreement was the division of time, a subject which afterwards appealed to the reasoning faculties. We have already stated, in the Second Book,[1]

when and by whom this art was first invented in Greece;

the same was also introduced at Rome, but at a later period.

In the Twelve Tables, the rising and setting of the sun are

the only things that are mentioned relative to time. Some

years afterwards, the hour of midday was added, the summoner[2] of the consuls proclaiming it aloud, as soon as, from the

senate-house, he caught sight of the sun between the Rostra and

the Grcostasis;[3] he also proclaimed the last hour, when the







sun had gone down from the Mnian column[4] to the prison.

This, however, could only be done in clear weather, but it

was continued until the first Punic war. The first sun-dial

is said to have been erected among the Romans twelve years

before the war with Pyrrhus, by L. Papirius Cursor,[5] at

the temple of Quirinus,[6] on which occasion he dedicated it

in pursuance of a vow which had been made by his father.

This is the account given by Fabius Vestalis; but he makes

no mention of either the construction of the dial or the

artist, nor does he inform us from what place it was brought,

or in whose works he found this statement made.



M. Varro[7] says that the first sun-dial, erected for the use

of the public, was fixed upon a column near the Rostra, in

the time of the first Punic war, by the consul M. Valerius

Messala, and that it was brought from the capture of Catina,

in Sicily: this being thirty years after the date assigned to

the dial of Papirius, and the year of Rome 491. The lines in

this dial did not exactly agree with the hours;[8] it served,

however, as the regulator of the Roman time ninety-nine

years, until Q. Marcius Philippus, who was censor with L.

Paulus, placed one near it, which was more carefully arranged: an act which was most gratefully acknowledged, as

one of the very best of his censorship. The hours, however,

still remained a matter of uncertainty, whenever the weather







happened to be cloudy, until the ensuing lustrum; at which

time Scipio Nasica, the colleague of Lnas, by means of a

clepsydra, was the first to divide the hours of the day and

the night into equal parts: and this time-piece he placed under

cover and dedicated, in the year of Rome 595;[9] for so long a

period had the Romans remained without any exact division

of the day. We will now return to the history of the other

animals, and first to that of the terrestrial.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable events, narratives, and observations, seven hundred and forty-seven.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Verrius Flaccus,[10] Cneius Gellius,[11]

Licinius Mutianus,[12] Massurius Sabinius,[13] Agrippina, the wife

of Claudius,[14] M. Cicero,[15] Asinius Pollio,[16] M. Varro,[17] Messala

Rufus,[18] Cornelius Nepos,[19] Virgil,[20] Livy,[21] Cordus,[22] Melis-







sus,[23] Sebosus,[24] Cornelius Celsus,[25] Maximus Valerius,[26]

Trogus,[27] Nigidius Figulus,[28] Pomponius Atticus,[29] Pedianus

Asconius,[30] Fabianus,[31] Cato the Censor,[32] the Register of the

Triumphs,[33]Fabius Vestalis.[34]







FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Herodotus,[35] Aristeas,[36] Bton,[37]

Isigonus,[38] Crates,[39] Agatharchides,[40] Calliphanes,[41] Aristotle,[42]

Nymphodorus,[43] Apollonides,[44] Phylarchus,[45] Damon,[46] Megasthenes,[47] Ctesias,[48] Tauron,[49] Eudoxus,[50] Onesicritus,[51] Clitarchus,[52] Duris,[53] Artemidorus,[54] Hippocrates[55] the physician,







Asclepiades[56] the physician, Hesiod,[57] Anacreon,[58] Theopompus,[59] Hellanicus,[60] Damastes,[61] Ephorus,[62] Epigenes,[63]

Berosus,[64] Petosiris,[65] Necepsos,[66] Alexander Polyhistor,[67]

Xenophon,[68] Callimachus,[69] Democritus,[70] Diyllus[71] the historian, Strabo,[72] who wrote against the Euremata of Ephorus, Heraclides Ponticus,[73] Aclepiades,[74] who wrote the

Tragodoumena, Philostephanus,[75] Hegesias,[76] Archima-







chus,[77] Thucydides,[78] Mnesigiton,[79] Xenagoras,[80] Metrodorus[81]

of Scepsos, Anticlides,[82] Critodemus.[83]









1. In B. ii. c. 78; where Pliny says, that the first clock was made at

Lacedmon, by Anaximander; he was the contemporary of Servius Tullius,

who commenced his reign 577 B.C.-B.

2. "Accensus;" he was one of the public servants of the magistrates,

and was so called from his office of summoning the people to the public

meetings (acciere).-B.

3. See also B. xxxiii. c. 6. This was a place in Rome appropriated to

the Greek ambassadors; it is mentioned by Cicero, in a letter to his brother,

Quintus, B. ii. c. 1.-B. It stood on the right side of the Comitium, being

allotted to the Greeks from the allied states, for the purpose of hearing the

debates in the comitia curiata.

4. This column is supposed to have stood near the end of the Forum, on

the Capitoline Hill. It was C. Mnius (in whose honour it was erected)

who defeated the Antiates, and adorned the Forum with the "rostra," or

beaks of their ships, from which the "rostrum," or orator's stage, took its

name. His statue was placed on the column. He was consul in B.C. 338.

See B. xxxiv. c. 11.

5. Hardouin supposes that this event took place in the consulship of Papirius Cursor, A.U.C. 461, B.C. 292. According to the commonly received

Chronology, Pyrrhus came into Italy, B.C. 280, twelve years after the consulship of Papirius Cursor.-B.

6. According to Censorinus, in his treatise, De Die Natali, it was difficult

to decide which was the most ancient dial in Rome; some writers agreeing

with Pliny, that it was the one in the Temple of Quirinus, others that in

the Capitol, and others the one in the Temple of Diana, on the Aventine.-B.

7. Marcus conjectures, that this account of the dial was contained in the

work of Varro, De Rebus Humanis, referred to by Aulus Gellius, B. iii.

c. 2, but not now extant.-B.

8. Owing to the circumstance of the dial having been adapted to the

latitude of Catina, now Catania, about four degrees south of Rome-B.

9. Vitruvius describes this instrument. Marcus, Ajasson, vol. vi. pp.

218, 219, gives us an account of two kinds of elepsydr, or water-clocks,

which were constructed by the Greeks.-B. See also the account of clocks

in Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. i.

10. See end of B. iii.

11. He was a contemporary of the Gracchi, and was author of a History of Rome, down to B.C. 145 at least; supposed to have been very voluminous and full in its details of the legendary history of the Roman

nation. Livy probably borrowed extensively from it.

12. See end of B. ii.

13. A hearer of Ateius Capito, and celebrated as a jurist under Tiberius

and later emperors. From him a school of legists, called the Sabiniani,

took their rise. He wrote some works on the Civil Law. Pliny quotes

him, as we have seen, in c. 4, to show the possibility of gestation being

to the thirteenth month.

14. Daughter of the elder Agrippina and Germanicus, and the mother of

Nero. Her memoirs of her life are quoted by Tacitus, but we have no

remains of them.

15. The great Roman orator and philosopher.

16. A distinguished orator, poet, and historian of the Augustan age. He

was an active partisan of Csar, and the patron of Horace and Virgil,

whose property he saved from confiscation. He wrote a history of the

civil war in seventeen books, but none of his works have come down to us.

His tragedies are highly spoken of by Virgil and Horace.

17. See end of B. ii.

18. Nothing whatever seems to be known relative to this author, who is

mentioned in c. 53 of this Book. See the Note to that passage.

19. See end of B. ii.

20. The author of the neid and the Georgics, the friend of Augustus,

Pollio, and Mcenas, one of the most virtuous men of ancient time, and the

greatest probably of the Latin poets.

21. See end of B. vi.

22. Cremutius Cordus, a Roman historian, who was impeached before

Tiberius, by two of his clients, for having praised Brutus, and styled Cassius

"the last of the Romans," his real offence being the freedom with which,

in his work, he had spoken against Sejanus. He starved himself to death,

and the senate ordered his works to be burnt. Some copies, however,

were preserved by his daughter, Marcia, and his friends.

23. C. Mcenas Melissus, a native of Spoletum. He was of free birth,

but exposed in his infancy, and presented to be reared by Mcenas. He

was afterwards manumitted, and obtained the favour of Augustus, who

employed him to arrange the library in the portico of Octavia. At an

advanced age he commenced the composition of a collection of jokes and

bon-mots. He also wrote plays of a novel character, which he styled

"Trabeat."

24. See end of B. ii.

25. A. Cornelius Celsus, the celebrated writer on medicine. Little is

known of his age or origin, or even his profession. It is supposed, however, that he lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius. His treatises on

Medicine and Surgery are still used as hand-Books for the medical student,

and his style is much admired for its purity.

26. Or Valerius Maximus. He is supposed to have lived in the time of

Tiberius, and wrote nine books on memorable deeds and sayings, which

still survive, and are replete with curious information.

27. Trogus Pompeius, the Roman Historian, on whose work Justin

founded his history. His grandfather, who was of the Gaulish tribe of

the Vocontii, received the citizenship of Rome during the war against

Sertorius; and his father was a private secretary of Julius Csar. Except

as set forth in the pages of Justin, no portion of his history, except a few

scattered fragments, exists. The quotations from him in Pliny, are thought

to have been all taken from a treatise of his, "De Animalibus," mentioned

by Charisius, and not from his historical works.

28. See end of B. vi.

29. The friend and correspondent of Cicero, descended from one of the

most ancient equestrian families of Rome. His surname was, probably,

given to him from his long residence at Athens, and his intimate acquaintance with the Greek language and literature. Though, generally, of a

virtuous character, he neglected no means of making money, and was, consequently, a man of great opulence. He wrote a book of Annals, or rather

an Epitome of Roman History, which, like the rest of his works, has perished,

30. He lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, and is mentioned by

the Eusebian Chronicle, as becoming blind in his seventy-third year, during the reign of Vespasian, and attaining the age of eighty-five. He wrote

a work on the Life of Sallust another on the Censurers of Virgil, and

commentaries on the speeches of Cicero, of which alone a few portions are

still extant, and are of considerable value in a historical as well as a grammatical point of view.

31. Probably Papirius Fabianus. See end of B. ii.

32. See end of B. iii.

33. See end of B. v.

34. Nothing whatever is known relative to this author.

35. See end of B. ii.

36. He is said to have written an epic poem, called Arimaspeia, full of

marvellous stories respecting the Arimaspi and the golden regions. See

c. 2 of the present Book, and Note 98 in p. 211, where some further particulars relative to him will be found.

37. See end of B. v.

38. He was a native of Nica, in Bithynia, and the author of some works,

characterized as being full of incredible stories. Cyril, however, says,

that he was born at Cittium, and Gellius styles him a writer of no small

authority. He is generally looked upon as belonging to the class of writers

called Paradoxographi.

39. See end of B. iv.

40. Or Agatharchus, a Greek grammarian of Cnidos. He was, as we

learn from Strabo, attached to the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and

wrote several historical and geographical works. He was living in the

reign of Ptolemy Philometer, who died B.C. 146. His works, which were

very numerous, are enumerated by Photius.

41. See end of B. iii.

42. See end of B. ii.

43. See end of B. iii.

44. Strabo, in B. ii. speaks of a Periplus of Europe, written by a person

of this name. There was also a physician called Apollonides, a native of

Cos, who practised at the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus, where he was

eventually put to death.

45. A Greek historian of the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, and said by

different authors to have been a native of Athens, Naucratis in Egypt, and

Sicyon. He wrote a work on history, of considerable value, though his

credit as an historian has been violently attacked by Polybius.

46. Of Cyrene, an author of uncertain date. He wrote a work on the

philosophers.

47. See end of B. v.

48. See end of B. ii.

49. Nothing is known of this writer.

50. For Eudoxus of Cnidos, see end of B. ii: and for Eudoxus of Cyzicus,

see end of B. vi.

51. See end of B. ii.

52. See end of B. vi.

53. Of Samos, a descendant of Alcibiades, who flourished in the time of

Ptolemy Philadelphus. When a boy, he gained a pugilistic victory at

Olympia. He eventually became tyrant of Samos; but nothing further is

known of his career. From what Pliny says, in c. 40. of B. iii., he is

supposed to have been living in the year B.C. 281. He was the author

of a history of Greece, and other historical works, of which, however, we

possess no remains.

54. See end of B. ii.

55. Of Cos, the father of the medical art, and in many respects the most

celebrated physician of ancient or modern times. It is supposed that he

flouished in the fifth century before Christ. A great number of medical

works, still extant, have been attributed to him: but there were many

other physicians who either had, or assumed, this name.

56. Of Prusa, in Bithynia. He is mentioned in c. 37 of this Book. See

Note 44 in p. 183.

57. Of Ascra, in Botia, the earliest of the Greek poets, with the exception of Homer. His surviving works, are his "Works and Days," and the

"Theogony."

58. Of Teos, in Asia Minor, famous for his amatory and lyric poems; he

died at the age of eighty-five. Pliny mentions the supposed mode of his

death. in c. 5, of the present Book.

59. See end of B. ii.

60. See end of B. iv.

61. See end of B. iv.

62. See end of B. iv.

63. See end of B. ii.

64. A priest of Belus, at Babylonia, and a historian of the time of Alexander the Great. He wrote a History of Babylonia, of which some fragments are preserved by the ecclesiastical writers.

65. See end of B. ii.

66. See end of B. ii.

67. See end of B. iii.

68. See end of B. iv.

69. See end of B. iv.

70. See end of B. ii.

71. An Athenian, who wrote a history of Greece and Sicily in twenty-six

or twenty-seven books, coming down to B.C. 298, from which time Psaon

of Plata continued it.

72. Of Lampsacus, a Peripatetic philosopher, and tutor of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He succeeded Theophrastus, B.C. 288, as head of that school.

He devoted himself to the study of natural science, and appears to have

held a pantheistic system of philosophy. By Cudworth, Leibnitz, and

others, he has been charged with atheism. The "Euremata" of Ephorus,

here mentioned, was a book which treated of inventions.

73. See end of B. iv.

74. Of Tragilus, in Thrace, a disciple and contemporary of Isocrates.

His book, here mentioned, treated on the subjects chosen by the Greek

tragic writers, and the manner in which they had dealt with them.

75. Of Cyrene, the friend or disciple of Callimachus. He flourished

under Ptolemy Philadelphus, about B.C. 249. He wrote works on places

in Asia, on Rivers, and on Islands; but none of his compositions have

survived.

76. A native of Magnesia, who wrote on rhetoric and history, probably in

the early part of the third century B.C. Strabo speaks but slightingly

of him; and Cicero and Dionysius of Halicarnassus agree in looking upon

him as a downright blockhead. Upon the other hand, Varro rather admires his style. The history of Alexander the Great was his favourite

theme; and he is represented by Aulus Gellius as dealing rather largely in

the marvellous.

77. Mentioned by Athenus as having written a history of Euba.

78. See end of B. iii.; and see c. 31 of the present Book, and Note 6 in

p. 175.

79. Nothing whatever appears to be known of this writer.

80. See end of B. iv.

81. See end of B. iii.

82. See end of B. iv.

83. See end of B. ii.




0. > Book Viii. The Nature Of The Terrestrial Animals.


BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Elephants; Their Capacity.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-ELEPHANTS; THEIR CAPACITY.



LET US now pass on to the other animals, and first of all to the

land animals. The elephant is the largest of them all, and in

intelligence approaches the nearest to man. It understands the

language of its country, it obeys commands, and it remembers

all the duties which it has been taught. It is sensible

alike of the pleasures of love and glory, and, to a degree

that is rare among men even, possesses notions of honesty,

prudence, and equity; it has a religious respect also for

the stars, and a veneration for the sun and the moon.[1] It

is said by some authors, that, at the first appearance of the

new moon, herds of these animals come down from the forests

of Mauritania to a river, the name of which is Amilos;[2]

and that they there purify themselves in solemn form by

sprinkling their bodies with water; after which, having thus

saluted the heavenly body, they return to the woods, carrying

before them[3] the young ones which are fatigued. They are

supposed to have a notion, too, of the differences of religion;[4]







and when about to cross the sea, they cannot be prevailed

upon to go on board the ship, until their keeper has promised

upon oath that they shall return home again. They have been

seen, too, when worn out by disease, (for even these vast masses

are liable to disease,) lying on their back, and throwing the grass

up into the air, as if deputing the earth to intercede for them

with its prayers.[5] As a proof of their extreme docility, they

pay homage to the king, fall upon their knees, and offer him

the crown. Those of smaller growth, which the Indians call

bastards,[6] are employed by them in ploughing.[7]







1. Cuvier remarks, that this account of its superior intelligence is exaggerated, it being no greater than that of the dog, if, indeed, equal to it.

The opinion may perhaps have arisen from the dexterity with which the

animal uses its trunk; but this is to be ascribed not to its own intelligence, but to the mechanical construction of the part. The Indians, from

whom we may presume that Pliny derived his account, have always regarded the elephant with a kind of superstitious veneration.-B.

2. Some would read this "Amilo," and others "Annulo." Hardouin

considers it the same with the river Valo, which is mentioned by Ptolemy,

B. iv. c. 1, and said to have its rise in the mountains known as the Seven

Brothers, and mentioned in B. v. c. 1.

3. "Pr se ferentes," probably alluding to the use which the animal

makes of its trunk in seizing and carrying bodies.-B.

4. "Alien religionis." The meaning of this is doubtful. It may mean

"differences in religion," or "religious feeling in others," or perhaps, to

judge from the context, "the religious regard for their oath which others

feel."

5. "Veluti tellure precibus alligata," one of the harsh metaphorical expressions occasionally occurring in Pliny, which it is very difficult to translate, and even perhaps fully to comprehend.-B.

6. "Nothi."

7. Cuvier remarks, that there are two kinds of elephants, one of which

attains sixteen feet, and is chiefly known in Cochin China and Tonquin,

while those that are domesticated in India are seldom more than half that

height. They are supposed, however, to be only varieties of the same species. Pliny, in B. vi. c. 22, gives an account of the uses which the Indians

made of the elephant, and of their different sizes, but he does not state

there that it is the smaller ones only that are employed in agriculture.-B.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-When Elephants Were First Put Into Harness.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-WHEN ELEPHANTS WERE FIRST PUT INTO HARNESS.



The first harnessed elephants that were seen at Rome, were

in the triumph of Pompeius Magnus over Africa, when they

drew his chariot; a thing that is said to have been done long

before, at the triumph of Father Liber on the conquest of

India. Procilius[1] says, that those which were used at the

triumph of Pompeius, were unable to go in harness through

the gate of the city. In the exhibition of gladiators which

was given by Germanicus,[2] the elephants performed a sort of

dance with their uncouth and irregular movements. It was a

common thing to see them throw arrows with such strength,

that the wind was unable to turn them from their course, to

imitate among themselves the combats of the gladiators, and

to frolic through the steps of the Pyrrhic dance.[3] After this,







too, they walked upon the tight-rope,[4] and four of them would

carry a litter in which lay a fifth, which represented a woman

lying-in. They afterwards took their place; and so nicely did

they manage their steps, that they did not so much as touch

any of those who were drinking there.







1. Plutarch informs us, that Pompey had resolved to have his chariot

drawn by four elephants, but finding the gate too narrow, he was obliged

to use horses.-B.

2. See an account of this, and of the feats performed by the elephants, in

lian, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 11.-B.

3. The Pyrrhic dance has been referred to in the last Book, c. 57. p.

231. It is not improbable that the elephants employed in this dance were

caparisoned with armour.

4. However ill adapted the elephant may appear, from its size and form,

for this feat, we have the testimony of Seneca, Suetonius, Dion Cassius,

and lian, to the truth of the fact.-B.




3. Chap. 3. (3.)-The Docility Of The Elephant.


CHAP. 3. (3.)-THE DOCILITY OF THE ELEPHANT.



It is a well-known fact,[1] that one of these animals, who

was slower than usual in learning what was taught him, and

had been frequently chastised with blows, was found conning

over his lesson in the night-time.[2] It is a most surprising

thing also, that the elephant is able not only to walk up the

tight-rope backwards; but to come down it as well, with the

head foremost.[3] Mutianus, who was three times consul, informs us that one of these animals had been taught to trace

the Greek letters, and that he used to write in that language

the following words: "I have myself written these words, and

have dedicated the Celtic spoils."[4] Mutianus states also,

that he himself was witness to the fact, that when some elephants were being landed at Puteoli[5] and were compelled to

leave the ship, being terrified at the length of the platform,

which extended from the vessel to the shore, they walked backwards, in order to deceive themselves by forming a false estimate of the distance.











1. Plutarch, in his treatise on the Shrewdness of Animals, tells us that

this wonderful circumstance happened at Rome.

2. "Eadem illa meditantem," is the expression. It would be curious to

know in what way the elephant showed that he was "conning" over his

lesson.

3. Suetonius is supposed to allude to this circumstance.-B. He tells

us that a horseman ascended a tight rope on an elephant's back.

4. lian informs us, that he had seen an elephant write Latin characters. Hardouin remarks, that the Greek would be Au)to\s e)gw\ ta/d' e)/graya, lafura/ te Kelt' a)ne/qhka.

5. See B. iii. c. 9.




4. Chap. 4.-Wonderful Things Which Have Been Done By The Elephant.


CHAP. 4.-WONDERFUL THINGS WHICH HAVE BEEN DONE BY THE ELEPHANT.



These animals are well aware that the only spoil that we

are anxious to procure of them is the part which forms their

weapon of defence, by Juba, called their horns, but by Herodotus, a much older writer, as well as by general usage and

more appropriately, their teeth.[1] Hence it is that, when their

tusks have fallen off, either by accident or from old age, they

bury them in the earth.[2] These tusks form the only real ivory,

and, even in these, the part which is covered by the flesh is

merely common bone, and of no value whatever; though, indeed, of late, in consequence of the insufficient supply of ivory,

they have begun to cut the bones as well into thin plates.

Large teeth, in fact, are now rarely found, except in India, the

demands of luxury[3] having exhausted all those in our part of

the world. The youthfulness of the animal is ascertained by

the whiteness of the teeth[4] These animals take the greatest

care of their teeth; they pay especial attention to the point of

one of them, that it may not be found blunt when wanted for

combat; the other they employ for various purposes, such as

digging up roots and pushing forward heavy weights. When

they are surrounded by the hunters, they place those in front

which have the smallest teeth, that the enemy may think that

the spoil is not worth the combat; and afterwards, when

they are weary of resistance, they break off their teeth, by







dashing them against a tree, and in this manner pay their

ransom.[5]







1. As to the tusks of the elephant, no doubt the opinion of Herodotus,

B. iii. c. 97, is correct, that they are teeth, and not horns. They are essentially composed of the same substance with the other teeth, and, like them,

are inserted into the jaw, and not into the os frontis, as. is the case with

horns.-B.

2. Not improbably, the great quantity of fossil ivory which has been

found, may have given rise to this tale. We have in Lemaire, vol. iii. p.

581, a long extract from Cuvier's "Recherches sur les ossements fossiles,"

in which he gives an account of the parts of the world in which the bones

of the elephant have been discovered.-B.

3. Tables and bedsteads were not only covered or veneered with ivory

among the Romans, but, in the later times, made of the solid material, as

we learn from lian and Athenus.

4. Plutarch, in his treatise on the Shrewdness of Animals, gives the

same statement respecting the whiteness of the teeth in the young animal.

-B.

5. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that these statements respecting the

sagacity of the elephant in connection with their teeth, are without foundation.-B.




5. Chap. 5. (4.)-The Instinct Of Wild Animals In Perceiving Danger.


CHAP. 5. (4.)-THE INSTINCT OF WILD ANIMALS IN PERCEIVING DANGER.



It is a wonderful thing, that most animals are aware why

it is that they are sought after, and what it is, that, under all

circumstances, they have to guard against. When an elephant

happens to meet a man in the desert, who is merely wandering

about, the animal, it is said, shows himself both merciful and

kind, and even points out the way. But the very same

animal, if he meets with the traces of a man,[1] before he meets

the man himself, trembles in every limb, for fear of an ambush, stops short and scents the wind, looks around him, and

snorts aloud with rage; and then, without trampling upon the

object, digs it up,[2] and passes it to the next one, who again

passes it to the one that follows, and so on from one to the

other, till it comes to the very last. The herd then faces

about, returns, and ranges itself in order of battle; so strongly

does the odour, in all cases, attach itself to the human footstep, even though, as is most frequently the case, the foot itself

is not naked. In the same way, too, the tigress, which is the

dread of the other wild beasts, and which sees, without

alarm, the traces even of the elephant itself, is said at once,

upon seeing the footsteps of man, to carry off her whelps.

How has the animal acquired this knowledge? And where

has it seen him before, of whom it stands in such dread?

Doubt there can be none, that forests such as it haunts are

but little frequented by man! It is not to be wondered at, if

they are astonished at the print of a footstep before unknown;

but how should they know that there is anything that they

ought to dread? And, what is still more, why should they dread

even the very sight of man, seeing that they are so far supe-







rior to him in strength, size, and swiftness? No doubt, such

is the law of Nature, such is the influence of her power-the

most savage and the very largest of wild beasts have never

seen that which they have reason to fear, and yet instantly

have an instinctive feeling of dread, when the moment has come

for them to fear.[3]



(5.) Elephants always move in herds.[4] The oldest takes

the lead, and the next in age brings up the rear. When they

are crossing a river, they first send over the smallest, for fear

lest the weight of the larger ones may increase the depth

of the channel, by working away the bed of the river. We

learn from Antipater, that King Antiochus had two elephants,

which he employed in his wars, and to which he had given the

names of celebrated men; and that they were aware too of this

mark of distinction.[5] Cato, in his Annals, while he has passed

over in silence the names of the generals, has given that of an

elephant called Surus, which fought with the greatest valour

in the Carthaginian army, and had lost one of its tusks.

When Antiochus was sounding the ford of a river, an elephant

named Ajax, which on other occasions had always led the van,

refused to enter the stream; upon which proclamation was

made, that the first rank should belong to the one which should

take the lead in passing over. One called Patroclus hazarded

the attempt, and as a reward, the king presented it with some

silver pendants,[6] a kind of ornament with which these animals

are particularly delighted, and assigned it all the other marks of







command. Upon this, the elephant that had been degraded refused to take its food, and so preferred death to ignominy. Indeed their sense of shame is wonderful, and when one of them

has been conquered, it flies at the voice of the conqueror, and

presents him with earth and vervain.[7]



These animals are sensible to feelings of modesty; they

never couple but in secret:[8] the male after it has attained its

fifth year, the female after the age of ten.[9] It is said, that

their intercourse takes place only every second year, and for

five days only, and no more; on the sixth day they plunge

into a river, before doing which they will not rejoin the herd.

Adulterous intercourse is unknown to them, and they have none

of those deadly combats for the possession of the female, which

take place among the other animals. Nor is this because they

are uninfluenced by the passion of love. One in Egypt, we

are told, fell in love with a woman, who was a seller of garlands; and let no one suppose that he made a vulgar choice, for

she was the especial object of the love of Aristophanes, who

held the very highest rank as a grammarian. Another became

attached to the youth Menander, a native of Syracuse, in the

army of Ptolemy; whenever it did not see him, it would manifest

the regret which it experienced, by refusing its food. Juba

gives an account also of a female who dealt in perfumes, to

whom one of these creatures formed an attachment. All

these animals manifested their attachment by their signs of joy

at the sight of the person, by their awkward caresses, and by

keeping for them and throwing into their bosom the pieces

of money which the public had given them.[10] Nor, indeed,







ought we to be surprised, that an animal which possesses memory should be sensible of affection: for the same author relates, that an elephant recognized, after the lapse of many

years, an old man who had been its keeper in his youth.

They would seem also to have an instinctive feeling of justice.

King Bocchus once fastened thirty elephants to the stake,

with the determination of wreaking his vengeance on them,

by means of thirty others; but though men kept sallying

forth among them to goad them on, he could not, with all his

endeavours, force them to become the ministers of the cruelty

of others.







1. The word employed is vestigiun; it is explained by lian to refer to

the herbage, which has received both the visible impression as well as the

odour of the foot.-B.

2. In the case of a footstep, this must mean the ground with which the

foot has come in contact.

3. It is a general opinion, and one founded upon observations of daily

occurrence, that animals have an instinctive dread of man. We have,

however, facts stated by travellers of undoubted veracity, which would

lead to an opposite conclusion. One of the most remarkable is the account which Denham gives of the tameness of the birds in Lake Tchad.

-B.

4. Cuvier observes, that this is correct; see Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 408, and

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 338.-B.

5. "Novere ea." It is doubtful whether these words do not mean

something more than merely "knew their names," as Hardouin explains

it, for that would be nothing wonderful in an elephant. On the other

hand, to say that they were aware of the honour which had been conferred

on them, in giving the names of famous men, would be to make a statement which exceeds belief; for how could the elephants show that they

appreciated this honour, even supposing that they did appreciate it? Pliny's

elliptical style repeatedly gives rise to doubts of this nature.

6. "Phaleris." See Notes to B. vii. c. 29, p. 170.

7. Pliny informs us, in B. xxii. c. 4, that this was done by those conquered in battle.-B.

8. We may conclude, from the account given by Aristotle, Hist. Anim.

B. v. c. 2, and by lian, B. viii. c. 17, that this opinion was generally

adopted by the ancients.-B. We learn from Cuvier, who mentions the

results of M. Corse's observations, that there is no such modesty in the

elephant, and that the two at the Museum of Natural History at Paris

gave proof of the fact.

9. This is erroneous; the males do not arrive at puberty before the

females, which takes place about the fourteenth or fifteenth year. In the

elephant which was under the inspection of M. Corse, the period of gestation was between twenty and twenty-one months, so that there may be

some foundation for the biennial period, but the term of five days is entirely imaginary. Aristotle makes the interval three years.-B.

10. There is a passage in Suetonius, in his Life of Augustus, and one in

Macrobius, where the custom of offering pieces of money to elephants, which

they took up with the proboscis, is referred to.-B.




6. Chap. 6. (6.)-When Elephants Were First Seen In Italy.


CHAP. 6. (6.)-WHEN ELEPHANTS WERE FIRST SEEN IN ITALY.



Elephants were seen in Italy, for the first time, in the war

with King Pyrrhus,[1] in the year of the City 472; they were

called "Lucanian oxen," because they were first seen in Lucania.[2] Seven years after this period, they appeared at Rome

in a triumph.[3] In the year 502 a great number of them were

brought to Rome, which had been taken by the pontiff Metellus, in his victory gained in Sicily over the Carthaginians;[4]

they were one hundred and forty-two[5] in number, or, as some

say, one hundred and forty, and were conveyed to our shores

upon rafts, which were constructed on rows of hogsheads joined

together. Verrius informs us, that they fought in the Circus,







and that they were slain with javelins, for want of some better

method of disposing of them; as the people neither liked to

keep them nor yet to give them to the kings.[6] L. Piso tells

us only that they were brought into the Circus; and for the

purpose of increasing the feeling of contempt towards them,

they were driven all round the area of that place by workmen, who had nothing but spears blunted at the point. The

authors who are of opinion that they were not killed, do not,

however, inform us how they were afterwards disposed of.







1. In the Epitome of Livy, B. xiii., it is said, that Valerius Corvinus

was unsuccessful in his engagements with Pyrrhus, in consequence of the

terror produced by the elephants.-B.

2. Varro, De Ling. Lat. B. vi. calls the elephant "Lucas bos," "the

Lucanian ox," from the fact of this large quadruped being first seen by the

Romans in the Lucanian army.-B.

3. According to Seneca, Manius Curius Dentatus was the first who

exhibited elephants in his triumph over Pyrrhus. See also Florus, B. i.

c. 18.-B.

4. There are coins extant struck to commemorate this victory, in which

there is the figure of an elephant.-B.

5. The number of elephants brought to Rome by Metellus is differently

stated; Florus, B. ii., says that they were "about a hundred;" in the

Epitome of Livy, B. xix., they are one hundred and twenty, and the same

number is mentioned by Seneca.-B.

6. Who were their allies, or rather vassals; for in such case, they might

make a dangerous use of them.




7. Chap. 7. (7.)-The Combats Of Elephants.


CHAP. 7. (7.)-THE COMBATS OF ELEPHANTS.



There is a famous combat mentioned of a Roman with an

elephant, when Hannibal compelled our prisoners to fight

against each other. The one who had survived all the others

he placed before an elephant, and promised him his life if he

should slay it; upon which the man advanced alone into the

arena, and, to the great regret of the Carthaginians, succeeded

in doing so.[1] Hannibal, however, thinking that the news of

this victory might cause a feeling of contempt for these animals, sent some horsemen to kill the man on his way home.

In our battles with Pyrrhus it was found, on making trial,

that it was extremely easy to cut off the trunks of these animals.[2] Fenestella informs us, that they fought at Rome in

the Circus for the first time during the curule dileship

of Claudius Pulcher, in the consulship of M. Antonius and A.

Postumius, in the year of the City 655; and that twenty years

afterwards, during the curule dileship of the Luculli, they

were set to fight against bulls. In the second consulship[3] of







Pompeius, at the dedication of the temple of Venus Victrix,[4]

twenty elephants, or, as some say, seventeen, fought in the

Circus against a number of Gtulians, who attacked them with

javelins. One of these animals fought in a most astonishing

manner; being pierced through the feet, it dragged itself on

its knees towards the troop, and seizing their bucklers, tossed

them aloft into the air: and as they came to the ground they

greatly amused the spectators, for they whirled round and

round in the air, just as if they had been thrown up with a

certain degree of skill,[5] and not by the frantic fury of a wild

beast. Another very wonderful circumstauce happened; an

elephant was killed by a single blow. The weapon pierced

the animal below the eye, and entered the vital part of the

head. The elephants attempted, too, by their united efforts, to

break down the enclosure, not without great confusion among

the people who surrounded the iron gratings.[6] It was in consequence of this circumstance, that Csar, the Dictator, when

he was afterwards about to exhibit a similar spectacle, had the

arena surrounded with trenches[7] of water, which were lately

filled up by the Emperor Nero,[8] when he added the seats for







the equestrian order.[9] When, however, the elephants in the

exhibition given by Pompeius had lost all hopes of escaping,

they implored the compassion of the multitude by attitudes

which surpass all description, and with a kind of lamentation

bewailed their unhappy fate. So greatly were the people

affected by the scene, that, forgetting the general altogether,

and the munificence which had been at such pains to do them

honour, the whole assembly rose up in tears, and showered

curses on Pompeius, of which he soon afterwards became the

victim. They fought also in the third consulship of the Dic-

tator Csar, twenty of them against five hundred foot soldiers.[10]

On another occasion twenty elephants, carrying towers,[11] and

each defended by sixty men, were opposed to the same number

of foot soldiers as before, and an equal number of horsemen.

Afterwards, under the Emperors Claudius and Nero, the last

exploit[12] that the gladiators performed was fighting singlehanded[13] with elephants.



The elephant is said to display such a merciful disposition

towards animals that are weaker than itself, that, when it

finds itself in a flock of sheep, it will remove with its trunk[14]

those that are in the way, lest it should unintentionally







trample upon them.[15] They will never do any mischief except

when provoked, and they are of a disposition so sociable, that

they always move about in herds, no animal being less fond of

a solitary life. When surrounded by a troop of horsemen,

they place in the centre of the herd those that are weak,

weary, or wounded, and then take the front rank each in its

turn, just as though they acted under command and in accordance with discipline. When taken captive, they are very

speedily tamed, by being fed on the juices of barley.[16]







1. Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 2, gives an account of the brutality of Hannibal on this occasion, in forcing the Roman captives to fight against each

other, until only one was left; but he does not make mention of the combat with the elephant.-B.

2. Florus, B. i. c. 18, states, that this was practised in the later engagements with Pyrrhus, and that by these means the elephants were either

destroyed or rendered useless. Cuvier remarks, that the trunk is composed

of small muscles and fatty matter, enveloped by a tendinous membrane, and

covered with skin.-B.

3. A.U.C. 678.-B.

4. "Venus the Conqueror." This temple was dedicated by Pompey,

after his conquests in the East, in his second consulship, B.C. 55.

5. Pliny here refers to an art, practised among the Romans, of throwing

up a shield into the air, in such a manner that, after performing a circuit,

it would fall down on a certain spot; this trick is also alluded to by Martial, B. ix. Ep. 39.-B. The exercise with the boomerang, which was known

to the ancient Assyrians, and has been borrowed in modern times from

the people of Australasia, seems to have been somewhat similar to this.

6. "Clathri." These were gratings of iron trellis-work, placed in front

of the lowest row of the spectators, to protect them from the wild beasts.

This exhibition took place in Pompey's Amphitheatre, in the Campus Mar-

tius. The arena of the amphitheatre was mostly surrounded by a wall,

distinguished by the name of "podium," which was generally about eighteen

feet in height, and the top of which was protected by this trellis-work. In

the present instance, however, the "podium" can hardly have been so much

as eighteen feet in height.

7. "Euripis." Julius Csar caused a canal, ten feet wide, to be formed

in the Circus Maximus, around the bottom of the "podium," to protect the

spectators from the wild beasts. These "euripi" probably took their

name from the narrow channel so called, which lay between Botia and

the island of Euba.

8. We learn, however, from Lampridius, in his Life of Heliogabalus,

that this euripus was afterwards restored to the Circus.

9. Tacitus and Suetonius mention this separation of the equites from

the rest of the spectators: it took place A.U.C. 816.-B. Up to the time

of Augustus, A.U.C. 758, the senators, equites, and people sat indiscriminately

in the Circus; but that emperor, and after him Claudius, Nero, and Domitian, separated the senators and the equites from the commons.

10. There are coins which bear the figure of an elephant and the word

Csar, probably struck in commemoration of these games.-B.

11. The practice of placing towers filled with soldiers on the backs of the

elephants is alluded to by Lucretius, B. v. 1. 1301, and by Juvenal, Sat.

xii. 1. 110.-B. It still prevails in India.

12. "Consummatione gladiatorum." There is some doubt about the exact

meaning of this. It may mean, "at the conclusion of the gladiatorial

games," as exhibited; or, what is more probable, "as the crowning exploit

of the gladiators," who wished thereby to secure their manumission, which

was granted after remarkable feats of valour. Clius Rhodiginus, B. xi.

c. 11, prefers this last meaning: Dalechamps, with whom Ajasson coincides,

the first.

13. "Postea singulis." Those who coincide with Dalechamps and Ajasson, as to the meaning, would read it, that at the end of the gladiatorial

games, the elephants fought singly one against another, the gladiators

having retired from the arena.

14. Pliny here uses the word "manu," "hand," which although, as he

afterwards remarks, it may not be an inappropriate metaphor, could scarcely

be admitted in our language.-B.

15. This trait has been observed in all ages; the elephant has been known

to remove with its trunk a child lying in its way, and in danger of being

injured. It appears to have an instinctive dread of trampling on a living

animal; the same has also been observed in the horse.-B.

16. "Hordeo succo;" the exact meaning has been the subject of much

discussion; it probably refers to some preparation of barley used by the

ancients, perhaps a maceration of the corn in water; it is scarcely to be

supposed, however, that the words are to be taken literally.-B.




8. Chap. 8. (8.)-The Way In Which Elephants Are Caught.


CHAP. 8. (8.)-THE WAY IN WHICH ELEPHANTS ARE CAUGHT.



In India[1] they are caught by the keeper guiding one of the

tame elephants towards a wild one which he has found alone or

has separated from the herd; upon which he beats it, and when

it is fatigued mounts and manages it just the same way as the

other. In Africa[2] they take them in pit-falls; but as soon as

an elephant gets into one, the others immediately collect boughs

of trees and pile up heaps of earth, so as to form a mound, and

then endeavour with all their might to drag it out. It was formerly the practice to tame them by driving the herds with horsemen into a narrow defile, artificially made in such a way as

to deceive them by its length; and when thus enclosed by means

of steep banks and trenches, they were rendered tame by the







effects of hunger; as a proof of which, they would quietly

take a branch that was extended to them by one of the men.

At the present day, when we take them for the sake of their

tusks, we throw darts at their feet, which are in general the

most tender part of their body. The Troglodyt, who inhabit

the confines of thiopia, and who live entirely on the flesh of

elephants procured by the chase, climb the trees which lie

near the paths through which these animals usually pass.

Here they keep a watch, and look out for the one which comes

last in the train; leaping down upon its haunches, they seize

its tail with the left hand, and fix their feet firmly upon the

left thigh. Hanging down in this manner, the man, with

his right hand, hamstrings the animal on one side, with a

very sharp hatchet. The elephant's pace being retarded by

the wound, he cuts the tendons of the other ham, and then

makes his escape; all of which is done with the very greatest

celerity. Others, again, employ a much safer, though less

certain method; they fix in the ground, at considerable intervals, very large bows upon the stretch; these are kept steady by

young men remarkable for their strength, while others, exerting themselves with equal efforts, bend them, and so wound

the animals as they pass by, and afterwards trace them by

their blood. The female elephant is much more timid by

nature than the male.







1. Albertus Magnus, in his work on Animals, B. viii. c. 3, gives a fuller

account of this method of taking the wild elephant. He says: "A man,

riding on a tame elephant, guides him to the woods, and when he has met

with some wild ones, drives the tame one against them, and makes it

strike them with its trunk: the tame one, being better fed, soon conquers

the wild elephant, and throws him to the ground; upon which, the man

leaps upon him, and flogs him with a whip, and immediately the other becomes quiet." Strabo, B. xv., gives a different account of the mode of

catching and taming the elephant in India.

2. This appears to have been taken from Plutarch; and we have the

same statement in lian, who particularly speaks of the sagacity of the

animal, in endeavouring to extricate itself from the trench.-B.




9. Chap. 9. (9.)-The Method By Which They Are Tamed.


CHAP. 9. (9.)-THE METHOD BY WHICH THEY ARE TAMED.



Elephants of furious temper are tamed by hunger[1] and

blows, while other elephants are placed near to keep them quiet,

when the violent fit is upon them, by means of chains. Besides this, they are more particularly violent when in heat,[2]

at which time they will level to the ground the huts of the

Indians with their tusks. It is on this account that they are

prevented from coupling, and the females are kept in herds







separate from the males, just the same way as with other

cattle. Elephants, when tamed, are employed in war, and

carry into the ranks of the enemy towers filled with armed

men; and on them, in a very great measure, depends the ultimate result of the battles that are fought in the East. They

tread under foot whole companies, and crush the men in their

armour. The very least sound, however, of the grunting of

the hog terrifies them:[3] when wounded and panic-stricken,

they invariably fall back, and become no less formidable for

the destruction which they deal to their own side, than to

their opponents. The African elephant is afraid of the Indian,

and does not dare so much as look at it, for the latter is of

much greater bulk.[4]







1. We have the same account given by lian and by Strabo.-B.

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 18, remarks, that the violence of the

animal, which is produced by an accidental cause, as also that arising from

venereal excitement, are counteracted by opposite modes of treatment; the

one by depriving it of food, the other by over-feeding it; the former, in

order to break its strength, and the latter, to divert it into a different

channel.-B.

3. lian, Anim. Nat. B. i. c. 38, states that the Romans employed this

mode of terrifying the elephants brought against them by Pyrrhus.-B.

4. That this was the general opinion among the ancients, we learn from

Polybius, lian, Livy, Diodorus Siculus, and others. Cuvier remarks,

that this may have been the case with the animals from Barbary, or the

north of Africa, but that it is not so with those from the middle or south

of that continent.-B.




10. Chap. 10. (10.)-The Birth Of The Elephant, And Other Particulars Respecting It.


CHAP. 10. (10.)-THE BIRTH OF THE ELEPHANT, AND OTHER PARTICULARS RESPECTING IT.



The vulgar notion is, that the elephant goes with young ten

years;[1] but, according to Aristotle, it is two years only. He

says also that the female only bears once, and then a single young

one; that they live two hundred years, and some of them as much

as three hundred. The adult age of the elephant begins at the

sixtieth year.[2] They are especially fond of water, and wander

much about streams, and this although they are unable to swim,

in consequence of their bulk.[3] They are particularly sensitive to cold, and that, indeed, is their greatest enemy. They

are subject also to flatulency, and to looseness of the bowels, but







to no other kind of disease.[4] I find it stated, that on making

them drink oil, any weapons which may happen to stick in their

body will fall out; while, on the contrary, perspiration makes

them the more readily adhere.[5] If they eat earth it is poison

to them, unless indeed they have gradually become accustomed

by repeatedly doing so. They also devour stones as well; but the

trunks of trees are their most favourite food. They throw down,

with a blow from their forehead, palms of exceeding height,

and when lying on the ground, strip them of their fruit. They

eat with the mouth, but they breathe, drink,[6] and smell with

[the proboscis], which is not unaptly termed their "hand."

They have the greatest aversion to the mouse of all animals,[7]

and quite loathe their food, as it lies in the manger, if they

perceive that it has been touched by one of those animals.

They experience the greatest torture if they happen to swallow,

while drinking, a horseleech, an animal which people are beginning, I find, to call almost universally a "blood-sucker."[8]

The leech fastens upon the wind-pipe, and produces intolerable

pain.



The skin of the back is extremely hard, that of the belly is

softer. They are not covered with any kind of bristles, nor yet

does the tail even furnish them with any protection from the

annoyance of flies; for vast as these animals are, they suffer

greatly from them. Their skin is reticulated, and invites

these insects by the odour it exhales. Accordingly, when a

swarm of them has settled on the skin, while extended and

smooth, the elephant suddenly contracts it; and, in this way,







the flies are crushed between the folds which are thus closed.

This power serves them in place of tail, mane, and hair.[9]



Their teeth are very highly prized, and from them we obtain the most costly materials for forming the statues of the

gods. Luxury has discovered even another recommendation in

this animal, having found a particularly delicate flavour in the

cartilaginous part of the trunk, for no other reason, in my

belief, than because it fancies itself to be eating ivory.[10] Tusks

of enormous size are constantly to be seen in the temples;

but, in the extreme parts of Africa, on the confines of thiopia, they are employed as door-posts for houses; and Polybius

informs us, on the authority of the petty king Gulussa,[11] that

they are also employed as stakes in making fences for the folds

of cattle.







1. It has been stated, in a Note to chap. 5, that Mr. Corse found the

period of the gestation of the elephant to be between twenty and twenty-one months.-B.

2. lian, Anim. Nat. B. iv. c. 31, considers the age of sixty to be the

prime period of their life, not the commencement of their prime.-B.

3. This remark is incorrect; when the water is sufficiently deep, it swims

with ease; and if the end of the trunk remains exposed to the atmosphere,

it can dive below the surface, or swim with the body immersed.-B.

4. Cuvier remarks, that this statement is incorrect. He dissected three

elephants at Paris, and found that their death had been caused by inflammation of the lungs and chest. The species of elephant, which now inhabits

Asia and Africa, is certainly not adapted to a cold climate; but the numerous remains of elephants found in the north of Asia, prove that a

species formerly existed, capable of enduring great cold. It is to be observed, that this species was covered with a thick, furry coat of wool and

hair.-B.

5. This is from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 26; but it is scarcely

necessary to remark, that it is without foundation. lian, Anim. Nat.

B. ii. c. 18, refers to it, and explains it by supposing that the oil was not

drunk, but applied externally; which is less improbable.-B.

6. They suck the fluid into the cavity of the trunk, and bend the trunk

into the mouth, where it is received and swallowed in the usual manner.-B.

7. This dislike is confirmed by Cuvier.-B.

8. "Sanguisuga."

9. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 1, remarks, that the elephant is the

least hairy of all animals.-B.

10. Cuvier remarks, that the trunk, being composed of a mixture of delicate muscular fibres and rich fat, would, when properly prepared, afford an

article of food that might be very palatable.-B.

11. We learn from Livy, B. xiii. c. 23, that Gulussa was the son of Massinissa.-B.




11. Chap. 11. (11.)-In What Countries The Elephant Is Found; The Antipathy Of The Elephant And The Dragon.


CHAP. 11. (11.)-IN WHAT COUNTRIES THE ELEPHANT IS FOUND; THE ANTIPATHY OF THE ELEPHANT AND THE DRAGON.



Africa produces elephants, beyond the deserts of the Syrtes,

and in Mauritania; they are found also in the. countries of the

thiopians and the Troglodyt as mentioned above.[1] But

it is India that produces the largest,[2] as well as the dragon,[3]

which is perpetually at war with the elephant, and is itself

of so enormous a size, as easily to envelope the elephants

with its folds, and encircle them in its coils. The contest is

equally fatal to both; the elephant, vanquished, falls to the

earth, and by its weight, crushes the dragon which is entwined

around it.[4]











1. In c. 8 of this Book.-B.

2. We learn from Cuvier, that the elephants of Africa and Asia belong to

different species, distinguished by the form of the head, and some peculiarities in the structure of the teeth.-B.

3. By the term "dragon," we may suppose that Pliny refers to some

of the great serpents which exist in hot climates, and are of such vast size,

that they might perhaps be able to perform some of the exploits here

ascribed to the dragon.-B.

4. This account appears to be entirely without foundation.-B.




12. Chap. 12. (12.)-The Sagacity Of These Animals.


CHAP. 12. (12.)-THE SAGACITY OF THESE ANIMALS.



The sagacity which every animal exhibits in its own behalf

is wonderful, but in these it is remarkably so. The dragon

has much difficulty in climbing up to so great a height, and

therefore, watching the road, which bears marks of their footsteps when going to feed, it darts down upon them from a

lofty tree. The elephant knows that it is quite unable to

struggle against the folds of the serpent, and so seeks for trees

or rocks against which to rub itself. The dragon is on its

guard against this, and tries to prevent it, by first of all confining the legs of the elephant with the folds of its tail; while

the elephant, on the other hand, endeavours to disengage itself

with its trunk. The dragon, however, thrusts its head into

its nostrils, and thus, at the same moment, stops the breath and

wounds the most tender parts. When it is met unexpectedly,

the dragon raises itself up, faces its opponent, and flies more

especially at the eyes; this is the reason why elephants are so

often found blind, and worn to a skeleton with hunger and

misery. What other cause can one assign for such mighty

strifes as these, except that Nature is desirous, as it were, to

make an exhibition for herself, in pitting such opponents

against each other?



There is another story, too, told in relation to these combats

-the blood of the elephant, it is said, is remarkably cold; for

which reason, in the parching heats of summer,[1] it is sought

by the dragon with remarkable avidity. It lies, therefore, coiled

up and concealed in the rivers, in wait for the elephants, when

they come to drink; upon which it darts out, fastens itself

around the trunk, and then fixes its teeth behind the ear, that

being the only place which the elephant cannot protect with

the trunk. The dragons, it is said, are of such vast size, that

they can swallow the whole of the blood; consequently, the

elephant, being thus drained of its blood, falls to the earth

exhausted; while the dragon, intoxicated with the draught,

is crushed beneath it, and so shares its fate.











1. The idea of the elephant's blood being cold, and sought after by the

dragon, is, of course, without foundation; its blood being of the same temperature with that of other quadrupeds.-B.




13. Chap. 13. (13.)-Dragons.


CHAP. 13. (13.)-DRAGONS.



thiopia produces dragons, not so large as those of India, but

still, twenty cubits in length.[1] The only thing that surprises

me is, how Juba came to believe that they have crests.[2] The

thiopians are known as the Asachi, among whom they

most abound; and we are told, that on those coasts four or

five of them are found twisted and interlaced together like so

many osiers in a hurdle, and thus setting sail, with their

heads erect, they are borne along upon the waves, to find better sources of nourishment in Arabia.







1. Cuvier states, that in India and America there are serpents of the

genus boa, or python, thirty feet or more in length. He observes, that

there are various species of aquatic reptiles in the seas of India, but that

they never swim twisted together, or with their heads elevated. lian

gives an account of the great size of the dragons in thiopia.-B.

2. Cuvier remarks, that there are no serpents with crests on the head,

and that Juba must have been thinking probably of some animal of the

genus lacertus, when he made this statement. We may here remark, that

the "basiliscus," or "king of serpents," was said by the poets to have

a crown on its head, as denoting its kingly rank. See c. 33 of this Book.




14. Chap. 14. (14.)-Serpents Of Remarkable Size.


CHAP. 14. (14.)-SERPENTS OF REMARKABLE SIZE.



Megasthenes informs us, that in India, serpents grow to

such an immense size, as to swallow stags and bulls;[1] while

Metrodorus says, that about the river Rhyndacus,[2] in Pontus,

they seize and swallow the birds that are flying above them,

however high and however rapid their flight.[3] It is a well-known fact, that during the Punic war, at the river Bagrada, a







serpent one hundred and twenty feet in length was taken by the

Roman army under Regulus, being besieged, like a fortress, by

means of balist and other engines of war.[4] Its skin and jaws

were preserved in a temple at Rome, down to the time of the

Numantine war. The serpents which in Italy are known by

the name of boa, render these accounts far from incredible, for

they grow to such a vast size, that a child was found entire

in the stomach of one of them, which was killed on the Vaticanian Hill during the reign of the Emperor Claudius.[5] These

are nourished, in the first instance, with the milk of the cow,

and from this they take their name.[6] As to the other animals,

which have been of late repeatedly brought to Italy from all

parts of the world, it is quite unnecessary to give any minute

account of their form.







1. It is well known, that certain serpents have the jaws and fauces so

constructed, that they will allow of the passage of an animal more bulky

than themselves; they first crush its bones, and form it into a kind of pulp,

and then pass it, without further change, into the stomach, where it is

slowly dissolved by the gastric juices.-B.

2. Supposed to have been in Mysia, or Bithynia, considerably to the west

of Pontus.-B.

3. This account is entirely without foundation. The same statement is

made by lian, Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 21, who probably copied it from Metrodorus. There are stories of the power which serpents possess of fascinating birds by the eye, but they are not improbably without foundation.

-B. There is little doubt, however, that some serpents have the power,

by some means or other, of fascinating the birds which they make their

prey.

4. This is referred to by many ancient writers; among others, by Livy,

B. xviii.; Florus, B. ii. c. 2; Valerius Maximus, B. i. c. 8; and Aulus

Gellius, B. vi. c. 3.-B.

5. As Cuvier remarks, it is difficult to conceive what he means by the

boa of Italy. At the present day, the longest Italian serpents are the

sculapian serpent (a harmless animal), and the "Coluber quadrilineatus"

of Linnus, neither of which exceeds ten feet in length. The one here

mentioned, was probably, as Cuvier suggests, one of the genuine boa or

python species; but, as he says, where did it come from? and how did it

get there?

6. It is doubtful whether any one ever witnessed a serpent sucking a cow,

but it seems to have been generally believed, and it is therefore probable,

that the name of the animal was derived from this circumstance.-B. It

is still believed of the common snake in some parts of this country. The

reading "primo" has been preferred to "trimo," that adopted by Sillig.




15. Chap. 15. (15.)-The Animals Of Scythia; The Bison.


CHAP. 15. (15.)-THE ANIMALS OF SCYTHIA; THE BISON.



Scythia produces but very few animals, in consequence of

the scarcity of shrubs. Germany, which lies close adjoining

it, has not many animals, though it has some very fine kinds

of wild oxen: the bison, which has a mane, and the urus,[1]







possessed of remarkable strength and swiftness. To these, the

vulgar, in their ignorance, have given the name of bubalus[2]

whereas, that animal is really produced in Africa, and rather

bears a resemblance to the calf and the stag.







1. Cuvier remarks upon the two animals here mentioned, the bison and

the urus, that Europe, at the present time, contains only one species of wild

ox, the bison, or aurochs of the Germans, which still exists, although in

small numbers only, in the forests of Lithuania. There are, however, fossil

remains, in different parts of the north of Europe, of other animals of the

same genus, which may have been the urus of Pliny, and not extinct when

he wrote. Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 413, 414; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 365. The

description by Csar of the urus of Gaul, Bell. Gall. B. vi. c. 26, seems

to agree with the remains of the fossil animal, and may, therefore, be con-

sidered as confirming the opinion, that both animals were in existence when

Pliny wrote.-B.

2. This appears to have been a species of antelope, the Antelope bubalus

of Linnus. Cuvier observes, that Strabo places it among the gazelles,

and Aristotle associates it with the stag and the deer, while Oppian's description of the urus, agrees with those of the gazelle.-B.




16. Chap. 16.-The Animals Of The North; The Elk, The Achlis, And The Bonasus.


CHAP. 16.-THE ANIMALS OF THE NORTH; THE ELK, THE ACHLIS, AND THE BONASUS.



The North, too, produces herds of wild horses, as Africa and

Asia do of wild asses;[1] there is, also, the elk, which strongly

resembles our steers, except that it is distinguished by the

length of the ears and of the neck. There is also the achlis,[2]

which is produced in the island of Scandinavia;[3] it has never

been seen in this city, although we have had descriptions of

it from many persons; it is not unlike the elk, but has no

joints in the hind leg. Hence, it never lies down, but reclines

against a tree while it sleeps; it can only be taken by previously cutting into the tree, and thus laying a trap for it, as

otherwise, it would escape through its swiftness. Its upper lip

is so extremely large, for which reason it is obliged to go backwards when grazing; otherwise, by moving onwards, the lip

would get doubled up. In Ponia, it is said, there is a wild







animal known as the bonasus;[4] it has the mane of the horse,

but is, in other respects, like the bull, with horns, however, so

much bent inwards upon each other, as to be of no use for the

purposes of combat. It has therefore to depend upon its

flight, and, while in the act of flying, it sends forth its excrements, sometimes to a distance of even three jugera;[5] the

contact of which burns those who pursue the animal, just like

a kind of fire.







1. We learn from various travellers, that there are troops of wild horses

and asses in many parts of Tartary and the neighbouring countries; but

it is doubtful whether they have proceeded from an original wild stock, or

may not have been the produce of some individuals which had accidentally

escaped from the domestic state.-B.

2. No doubt Pliny has fallen into an error on this subject, and his elk

and achlis are, in reality, the same animal. The description of the latter,

for the most part, applies to the former, with the exception of the want

of joints in the legs, which is entirely without foundation. Csar's account of the elk, Bell. Gall. B. vi. c. 27, agrees generally with Pliny's

account of the achlis; he also says, that the legs of the alces are "without articulations and joints."

3. The Romans had but a very imperfect knowledge of the Scandinavian

peninsula. They supposed it to be surrounded by the ocean, and to be composed of many islands, which Ptolemy calls Scandi. Of these, the largest

bore especially the name of Scandia or Scandinavia, by which name the

modern Sweden was probably indicated. See B. iv. c. 30.

4. Pliny's account is from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 45, but, as is

often the case, with considerable exaggerations. Aristotle says, that these

animals eject their excrements to a distance of four feet, and that it is of

so acrid a nature, as to cause the hair of the dog to fall off. The word

jugerum is generally used as a measure of superficial surface.-B.

5. Pliny here renders the Greek ple/qron, by "jugerum," which is

ordinarily a measure of superficies. In the present case, therefore, it must

mean a measure of length, of 100 Grecian, or 104 Roman feet.




17. Chap. 17.-Lions; How They Are Produced.


CHAP. 17.-LIONS; HOW THEY ARE PRODUCED.



It is a remarkable fact, that pards,[1] panthers, lions, and

other animals of this kind, walk with the points of their nails

concealed in a sheath in the body, lest they should be broken

or blunted; and that, when they run, their hooked claws are

turned backwards, and are never extended, except in the act of

seizing their prey.[2]



(16.) The noble appearance of the lion is more especially to be

seen in that species which has the neck and shoulders covered

with a mane, which is always acquired at the proper age by

those produced from a lion; while, on the other hand, those

that are the offspring of the pard, are always without this distinction. The female also has no mane. The sexual passions of

these animals are very violent, and render the male quite furious.

This is especially the case in Africa, where, in consequence

of the great scarcity of water, the wild beasts assemble in

great numbers on the banks of a few rivers. This is also the

reason why so many curious varieties of animals are produced







there, the males and females of various species coupling

promiscuously with each other.[3] Hence arose the saying,

which was common in Greece even, that "Africa is always

producing something new." The lion recognizes, by the

peculiar odour of the pard, when the lioness has been unfaithful to him, and avenges himself with the greatest fury.

Hence it is, that the female, when she has been guilty of a

lapse, washes herself, or else follows the lion at a considerable

distance. I find that it was a common belief, that the lioness is

able to bear young no more than once, because, while delivering

herself, she tears her womb with her claws.[4] Aristotle, however, gives a different account; a man of whom I think that

I ought here to make some further mention, seeing that upon

these subjects, I intend, in a great measure, to make him my

guide. Alexander the Great, being inflamed with a strong

desire to become acquainted with the natures of animals, entrusted the prosecution of this design to Aristotle, a man who

held the highest rank in every branch of learning; for which

purpose he placed under his command some thousands of men

in every region of Asia and Greece, and comprising all those

who followed the business of hunting, fowling, or fishing, or

who had the care of parks, herds of cattle, the breeding of bees,

fish-ponds, and aviaries, in order that no creature that was

known to exist might escape his notice. By means of the

information which he obtained from these persons, he was enabled to compose some fifty volumes, which are deservedly esteemed, on the subject of animals; of these I purpose to give

an epitome, together with other facts with which Aristotle

was unacquainted; and I beg the kind indulgence of my readers

in their estimate of this work of mine, as by my aid they

hastily travel through all the works of nature, and through

the midst of subjects with which that most famous of all kings

so ardently desired to be acquainted.



Aristotle then informs us, that the lioness, at the first birth,

produces five whelps, and one less every succeeding year,







until, after having produced one only, she ceases to bear.[5]

The young ones, when first born, are shapeless and extremely

small in flesh, being no larger than a weasel; for six months

they are scarcely able to walk,[6] and until they are two months

old, they cannot move. Lions, he says, are found in Europe,

but only between the rivers Achelous and Nestus; being much

superior in strength to those which are produced in Africa or

Syria.[7]







1. The pard of Pliny, as we shall find stated below, is the male of the

panther.

2. Cuvier remarks, that all the feline animals have retractile claws, drawn

by an elastic ligament into a sheath, and protruded when required for the

purpose of prehension. The sheath is formed of a duplicature or fold of

the skin and the subjacent cellular membrane.-B.

3. What Pliny states here, is without foundation. He supposes that the

leopard is the produce of a pard, or male panther, and the female of the

lion; but this is incorrect, the leopard being a distinct species of animal.-B.

4. Herodotus, B. iii. c. 108, gives the same account, which is refuted by

Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 31. Aulus Gellius, B. xiii. c. 7, refers to

Herodotus, and the refutation by Aristotle.-B.

5. The account here given of the lioness generally, Aristotle gives respecting the Syrian lioness only, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 31; there is some

reason to believe that Aristotle is not correct in what he says. The account given by lian, Anim. Nat. B. iv. c. 33, is nearly the same with

that of Pliny.-B.

6. There is much in this account that is incorrect. It is well ascertained

that the cubs of the lion are proportionably as large and as perfectly formed

as the young of other animals that belong to the same family.-B.

7. Herodotus, B. vii. c. 126, and Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 28,

give a similar account of the district in which lions are found.-B. Littr

remarks, that this statement of Pliny is probably formed, as originally

suggested by M. Maury, upon the fact, that the lions of Europe, as we

learn from Herodotus, attacked the camels of Xerxes, on his invasion of

Europe.




18. Chap. 18.-The Different Species Of Lions.


CHAP. 18.-THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF LIONS.



There are two species of lions; in the one the body is shorter

and more compact, and the mane more crisp and curly;[1] these

are more timid than those with a longer body and straight hair,

which, in fact, have no fear of wounds. The males raise the

leg like the dog, when they pass their urine;[2] which has a

most disagreeable odour, the same being the case too with their

breath. They seldom drink, and only take food every other

day;[3] when they have gorged themselves, they will sometimes







go without food for three days. They swallow their food whole,

without mastication, so far as they are able; and when they

have taken more than the stomach can possibly receive, they

extract part of it by thrusting their claws into the throat; the

same too, if, when full, they have occasion to take to flight.

That they are very long-lived is proved by the fact, that many

of them are found without teeth. Polybius,[4] the companion of

milianus, tells us, that when they become aged they will attack men, as they have no longer sufficient strength for the

pursuit of wild beasts. It is then that they lay siege to the

cities of Africa; and for this reason it was, that he, as well as

Scipio, had seen some of them hung upon a cross; it being

supposed that others, through dread of a similar punishment,

might be deterred from committing the like outrages.







1. Cuvier remarks, that we have no knowledge of the lion with curled

hair, so frequently spoken of by the ancients. He suggests that there may

have been a peculiar variety between the rivers Achelous and Nestus or

Mestus, or perhaps, more probably, that it was altogether imaginary. He

states also, that we no longer see lions without manes, but that Olivier

had seen some at Bagdat. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 44, speaks of

the two species of lions, and describes them nearly as Pliny has done.-B.

2. According to Cuvier, this is not the case; the lion passes its urine

just as the other animals of the same family. Pliny again refers to the

odour of the lion's breath, in B. xi. e. 115.-B.

3. The lion, like other carnivorous animals, is able to receive a large quantity of food into the stomach, and to remain for a proportionably longer

period without eating; but the statement respecting its taking food on

alternate days, is without foundation. There does not appear to be any

ground for the account of the mode by which it relieves the stomach when

overcharged.-B.

4. We learn from Cicero, Ep. Fam. B. v. Ep. 12, that Polybius wrote a

history of the Numantine war, in which we may presume the account

here referred to was contained.-B.




19. Chap. 19.-The Peculiar Character Of The Lion.


CHAP. 19.-THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE LION.



The lion is the only one of all the wild beasts that shows

mercy to the suppliant; after it has conquered, it will spare,[1]

and when enraged, it will vent its fury rather upon men

than women, and never upon children, unless when greatly

pressed by hunger. It is the belief in Libya, that it fully understands the entreaties which are addressed to it. At all events,

I have heard it asserted as a fact, that a female slave, who was

returning from Gtulia, was attacked by a number of lions in

the forests; upon which she summoned sufficient courage to address them, and said that she was a woman, a fugitive, helpless creature, that she implored the compassion of the most

generous of animals, the one that has the command of all the

others, and that she was a prey unworthy of their high repute

-and by these means effectually soothed their ferocity. There







are various opinions on this point, as to whether it is through

some peculiar disposition of the animal, or merely by accident,

that their fury is thus soothed by addressing them. As to

what is alleged, too, about serpents, that they can be drawn

from their holes by singing, and thus be made to yield themselves up to death, the truth or falsity of it has not by any

means been satisfactorily ascertained.[2]



The tail of the lion gives indication of the state of his feelings,

just as the ears do in the horse; for these are the distinguishing

signs which Nature has given to each of the most generous of

animals. Hence it is that, when pleased, the tail is without

motion, and the animal fawns upon those who caress him; a

thing, however, that very rarely happens, for his most frequent state is that of rage. He begins by beating the earth

with his tail; and as he becomes more furious, he lashes his

sides, as if trying to excite himself. His greatest strength

is situate in the breast. From every wound that he makes,

whether it is with his claws or his teeth, a black blood issues.[3]

When his hunger is satisfied, he becomes harmless. The generous disposition of the lion is more especially manifested in

time of danger; not only at the moment when, despising all

weapons, he long defends himself solely by the terror which he

inspires, and protests, as it were, that he is compelled thus to defend himself, but when he rises at last, not as though constrained

by danger, but as if enraged by the mad folly of his adversaries.

This, however, is a still more noble feature of his courage-however numerous the dogs and hunters may be that press

upon him, as he makes his retreat he comes to a stand every now

and then upon the level plain, while he is still in view, and

scowls contemptuously upon them: but as soon as ever he has

entered the thickets and dense forests, he scours away at the

swiftest possible pace, as though aware that the place itself

will shelter his shame. When in pursuit, the lion advances with

a leap, but he does not do so when in flight. When wounded,

he discovers, with wonderful sagacity, the person who struck the

blow, and will find him out, however great may have been the







multitude of his pursuers. If a person has thrown a dart at

him, but has failed to inflict a wound, the animal seizes him,

whirls him round and throws him to the ground, but without

wounding him. When the lioness is defending her whelps, it is

said that she fixes her eyes steadily on the ground, that she

may not be frightened at the spears of the hunters. In all

other respects, these animals are equally free from deceit and

suspicion. They never look at an object obliquely, and they

dislike being looked at themselves in such a manner. It is

generally believed, that, when the lion is dying, he bites at the

earth, and sheds tears at his fate.[4] Powerful, however, and

fierce as this animal is, he is terrified by the motion of wheels

or of an empty chariot, and still more on seeing the crest or

hearing the crowing of a cock;[5] but most of all, is he afraid of

fire. The only malady to which the lion is subject, is loss of

appetite; this, however, is cured by putting insults upon him,

by means of the pranks of monkeys placed about him, a thing

which rouses his anger; immediately he tastes their blood, he is

relieved.







1. Although these accounts of the generosity and clemency of the lion

are in a great measure fabulous, still the accounts of those who have had

the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character of different animals, agree in ascribing to it less ferocity and brutality, in proportion to its size and strength, than to other animals of the same family.-B.

2. In various countries, and more especially in Egypt, the magicians profess to charm serpents by incantations; and it appears that they are able to

acquire some power over them by imitating their natural cries. Cuvier

informs us, that Geoffroi St. Hilaire had witnessed the fact, and was himself able to produce the effect.-B.

3. Aristotle says, a matter of a yellow colour, i)xw=res w)xro\i.

4. Probably, there is no foundation for this opinion: it does not appear

that any animal, except man, has the faculty of weeping, i. e. of shedding

tears, in connection with a peculiar condition of mind and feeling.-B. But

query as to the horse. See c. 64 of the present Book, and the Introduction to vol. i. p. xvii.

5. This supposed fear is without foundation, but appears to have been a

generally received opinion, as it is referred to by Lucretius, B. iv. 1. 714

-725.-B.




20. Chap. 20.-Who It Was That First Introduced Combats Of Lions At Rome, And Who Has Brought Together The Greatest Number Of Lions For That Purpose.


CHAP. 20.-WHO IT WAS THAT FIRST INTRODUCED COMBATS OF LIONS AT ROME, AND WHO HAS BROUGHT TOGETHER THE GREATEST NUMBER OF LIONS FOR THAT PURPOSE.



Q. Scvola, the son of P. Scvola, when he was curule

dile, was the first to exhibit at Rome a combat of a number

of lions; and L. Sylla, who was afterwards Dictator, during his

prtorship, gave the spectacle of a fight of one hundred lions with

manes.[1] After him, Pompeius Magnus exhibited six hundred

lions in the Circus, three hundred and fifteen of which had

manes; Csar, the Dictator, exhibited four hundred.











1. Seneca gives an account of this exhibition; he says that the lions were

turned loose into the Circus, and that spearmen were sent by king Bocchus,

who killed them with darts. Sylla was prtor A.U.C. 661, B.C. 92.-B.




21. Chap. 21.-Wonderful Feats Performed By Lions.


CHAP. 21.-WONDERFUL FEATS PERFORMED BY LIONS.



It was formerly a very difficult matter to catch the lion, and

it was mostly done by means of pit-falls. In the reign, however, of the Emperor Claudius, accident disclosed a method

which appears almost disgraceful to the name of such an

animal; a Gtulian shepherd stopped a lion, that was rushing

furiously upon him, by merely throwing his cloak[1] over the

animal; a circumstance which afterwards afforded an exhibition

in the arena of the Circus, when the frantic fury of the animal

was paralyzed in a manner almost incredible by a light covering

being thrown over its head, so much so, that it was put into

chains without the least resistance; we must conclude, therefore,

that all its strength lies in its eyes. This circumstance renders

what was done by Lysimachus[2] less wonderful, who strangled

a lion, with which he had been shut up by command of Alexander.[3]



Antony subjected lions to the yoke, and was the first at

Rome to harness them to his chariot;[4] and this during the

civil war, after the battle on the plains of Pharsalia; not,

indeed, without a kind of ominous presage, a prodigy that

foretold at the time how that generous spirits were about to be

subdued. But to have himself drawn along in this manner, in company with the actress Cytheris,[5] was a thing that







surpassed even the most monstrous spectacles that were to be

seen at that calamitous period. It is said that Hanno, one of

the most illustrious of the Carthaginians, was the first who

ventured to touch the lion with the hand, and to exhibit it in

a tame state. It was on this account that he was banished;

for it was supposed, that a man so talented and so ingenious

would have it in his power to persuade the people to anything,

and it was looked upon as unsafe to trust the liberties of the

country to one who had so eminently triumphed over even

ferocity itself. There are some fortuitous occurrences cited

also, which have given occasion to these animals to display

their natural clemency. Mentor, a native of Syracuse, was

met in Syria by a lion, who rolled before him in a suppliant

manner; though smitten with fear and desirous to escape, the

wild beast on every side opposed his flight, and licked his feet

with a fawning air. Upon this, Mentor observed on the paw

of the lion a swelling and a wound; from which, after extracting

a splinter, he relieved the creature's pain.[6] There is a picture

at Syracuse, which bears witness to the truth of this transaction.



In the same manner, too, Elpis, a native of Samos, on landing

from a vessel on the coast of Africa, observed a lion near the

beach, opening his mouth in a threatening manner; upon which

he climbed a tree, in the hope of escaping, while, at the same

time, he invoked the aid of Father Liber; for it is the appropriate time for invocations when there is no room left for hope.

The wild beast did not pursue him as he fled, although he might

easily have done so; but, lying down at the foot of the tree,

by the open mouth which had caused so much terror, tried to

excite his compassion. A bone, while he was devouring his

food with too great avidity, had stuck fast between his teeth,

and he was perishing with hunger; such being the punishment

inflicted upon him by his own weapons, every now and then

he would look up and supplicate him, as it were, with mute

entreaties. Elpis,[7] not wishing to risk trusting himself to







so formidable a beast, remained stationary for some time, more

at last from astonishment than from fear. At length, however, he descended from the tree and extracted the bone, the

lion in the meanwhile extending his head, and aiding in the

operation as far as it was necessary for him to do. The story

goes on to say, that as long as the vessel remained off that

coast, the lion showed his sense of gratitude by bringing whatever he had chanced to procure in the chase. In memory of

this circumstance, Elpis consecrated a temple at Samos to Father

Liber, which the Greeks, from the circumstance above related,

called "the temple xeXhno/tos Dionu/sou," or "of the open-mouthed

Bacchus." Can we wonder, after this, that the wild beasts

should be able to recognize the footsteps of man,[8] when of

him alone of all animals they even hope for aid? For why

should they not have recourse to others for assistance? Or how

is it that they know that the hand of man has power to heal

them? Unless, perhaps, it is that the violence of pain can

force wild beasts even to risk every thing to obtain relief.



(17.) Demetrius, the natural philosopher, relates an equally

remarkable instance, in relation to a panther.[9] The animal was

lying in the middle of the road, waiting for some one to pass

that way, when he was suddenly perceived by the father of one







Philinus, an ardent lover of wisdom.[10] Seized with fear, he

immediately began to retreat; while the beast rolled itself

before him, evidently with the desire of caressing him, at the

same time manifesting signs of grief, which could not be

misunderstood in a panther even. The animal had young ones,

which had happened to fall into a pit at some distance from

the place. The first dictates of compassion banished all fear,

and the next prompted him to assist the animal. He accordingly followed her, as she gently drew him on by fixing

her claws in his garment; and as soon as he discovered what

was the cause of her grief and the price of his own safety, he

took the whelps out of the pit, and they followed her to the

end of the desert; whither he was escorted by her, frisking

with joy and gladness, in order that she might more appropriately testify how grateful she was, and how little she had

given him in return; a mode of acting which is but rarely

found, among men even.







1. "Sagum." This was the cloak worn by the Roman soldiers and inferior officers, in contradistinction to the "paludamentum" of the general

and superior officers. It was open in the front, and usually, though not

always, fastened across the shoulders by a clasp. It was thick, and made

of wool.

2. This story is given also by Plutarch, in the life of Demetrius. Lysimachus was a Macedonian by birth, but son of Agathocles, a serf of Thessaly. Through his great courage, he became one of the body-guard of

Alexander. Quintus Curtius tells us that, when hunting in Syria, he

killed a lion of immense size single-handed, though not without receiving

severe wounds in the contest. The same author looks upon this as the

probable origin of the story here referred to by Pliny.

3. This is mentioned by many ancient authors; by Plutarch, Pausanias,

Seneca, Justin, and by Quintus Curtius, who thinks that the account usually

given is fabulous.-B.

4. Related by Plutarch, as among the acts of extravagance and folly,

committed by Antony, which gave much disgust to the grave and respectable citizens of Rome.-B.

5. A famous courtezan of the time of Cicero; being originally the freed-

woman and mistress of Volumnius Eutrapelus, and then successively the

mistress of Antony and the poet Gallus, who mentioned her in his poems

under the name of Lycoris; she did not, however, continue faithful to him.

6. Aulus Gellius, B. v. c. 14, and lian, Anim. Nat. B. viii. c. 48, relate a similar anecdote of Androclus or Androcles, who extracted a thorn

from the foot of a lion.-B.

7. The text is in a state of extreme confusion here, and so hopelessly man-

gled, that we can only guess at the sense of it. In Sillig's edition, which

is generally followed, it runs to this effect: "Neque profugienti, cum potuisset, fera institerat et procumbens ad arborem hiatu quo terruerat miserationem qurebat. Os morsu avidiore inhserat dentibus cruciabatque

inedia, turn pna in ipsis ejus telis suspectantem ac velut mutis precibus

orantem, dum fortuitu fidens non est contra feram; multoque diutius

miraculo quam metu cessatum est." Thus paraphrased by Sillig, who

devotes a long Note to it: "The lion, therefore, being tormented by

hunger and excessive pain, and thus punishing himself for his greediness

in his own weapons (his teeth), looked up, and besought Elpis with silent

prayers, as it were, not, as he trusted to the protection fortuitously given

by the branches, to show himself distrustful of a wild beast."

8. This remark refers to what Pliny has related in c. 5, respecting the

sagacity of the elephant.-B.

9. Cuvier remarks, that this "panthera" is not the same as the pa/nqhr

of the Greeks. From the description of its spots and other circumstances,

he thinks that it was one of the African animals, known by modern naturalists as the leopard, which appear to have been confounded by the Romans

with the panther. The term "leopardus " is not met with until after the

age of Pliny; it was supposed to be the produce of the pardus, or male

panther, and the lioness.-B.

10. "Assectatoris sapienti"-"A follower of wisdom;" meaning a

"philosopher."




22. Chap. 22.-A Man Recognized And Saved By A Dragon.


CHAP. 22.-A MAN RECOGNIZED AND SAVED BY A DRAGON.



Facts such as these induce us to give some credit to what

Democritus relates, who says that a man, called Thoas, was

preserved in Arcadia by a dragon.[1] When a boy, he had become much attached to it, and had reared it very tenderly;

but his father, being alarmed at the nature and monstrous size

of the reptile, had taken and left it in the desert. Thoas being

here attacked by some robbers who lay in ambush, he was

delivered from them by the dragon, which recognized his voice

and came to his assistance. But as to what has been said

respecting infants that have been exposed and nourished by

the milk of wild beasts,[2] as in the case of the founders of our

city by a wolf, I am disposed to attribute such cases as these

rather to the greatness of the destinies which have to be fulfilled, than to any peculiarity in the nature of the animals

themselves.











1. This word here signifies, simply, a "serpent."

2. lian, Var. Hist. B. xiii. c. i., relates an occurrence of this kind, about

Atalanta, and Justin. B. xliv. c. 4, about Habis, a king of Spain. As to

the account of Romulus having been suckled by a wolf, it was generally regarded as a legendary tale by the Romans themselves. See Livy, B. i. c.

4, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. B. i.-B.




23. Chap. 23.-Panthers.


CHAP. 23.-PANTHERS.



The panther and the tiger are nearly the only animals that

are remarkable for a skin distinguished by the variety of its

spots;[1] whereas others have them of a single colour, appropriate to each species. The lions of Syria alone are black.

The spots of the panther are like small eyes, upon a white

ground. It is said that all quadrupeds are attracted in a most

wonderful manner by their odour,[2] while they are terrified

by the fierceness of their aspect; for which reason the creature

conceals its head, and then seizes upon the animals that are

attracted to it by the sweetness of the odour. It is said by

some, that the panther has, on the shoulder, a spot which bears

the form of the moon; and that, like it, it regularly increases

to full, and then diminishes to a crescent. At present, we

apply the general names of varia[3] and pard, (which last belongs to the males), to all the numerous species of this animal,

which is very common in Africa and Syria.[4] Some writers

distinguish the panther, as being remarkable for its whiteness:

but as yet I have not observed any other difference between

them.







1. Pliny, in B. xiii. c. 15, speaks of "tables of tiger and panther pattern," as articles of ornamental furniture among the Romans, named from

the peculiar patterns of the veins in the citrus wood, of which they were

formed.-B.

2. This, though mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 8, is

probably incorrect; and still more the addition made by lian, Anim. Nat.

B. v. c. 40, that this odour is grateful to man. It has, however, induced

some to conjecture, that the animal here described might be the civet

but the description given is inapplicable to that animal; nor, indeed, does

the civet appear to have been known to the ancients. For further information, see the remarks of Cuvier, Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 420, and Lemaire,

vol. iii. p. 386. Pliny, in B. xxi. c. 18, says that no animal, except the

panther, has any odour.-B.

3. Meaning the "spotted" or "parti-coloured" female.

4. Xenophon, in his Cynegetieon, says, that the pard is found on Mount

Pangus, in Macedonia; the truth of which is denied by Aristotle, who

says that it is not to be found in Europe.




24. Chap. 24.-The Decree Of The Senate, And Laws Respecting African Animals; Who First Brought Them To Rome, And Who Brought The Greatest Number Of Them.


CHAP. 24.-THE DECREE OF THE SENATE, AND LAWS RESPECTING AFRICAN ANIMALS; WHO FIRST BROUGHT THEM TO ROME, AND WHO BROUGHT THE GREATEST NUMBER OF THEM.



There was an ancient decree of the senate, which prohibited







animals being imported from Africa into Italy; but Cn. Aufidius, the tribune of the people,[1] procured a law repealing

this, which allowed of their being brought over for the games

of the Circus. Scaurus, in his dileship,[2] was the first who

sent over the parti-coloured kind, one hundred and fifty in the

whole; after which, Pompeius Magnus sent four hundred and

ten, and the late Emperor Augustus four hundred and twenty.







1. He was tribune A.U.C. 670. Cicero says, Tusc. Qust. B. iv. c. 39,

that Aufidius, although blind, was eminent for his political and literary

talents. He wrote a History of Greece.-B.

2. 4th of May, A.U.C. 696.-B.




27. Chap. 27.-The Cameleopard; When It Was First Seen At Rome.


CHAP. 27.-THE CAMELEOPARD; WHEN IT WAS FIRST SEEN AT ROME.



There are two others[1] animals, which have some resemblance

to the camel. One of these is called, by the thiopians, the

nabun.[2] It has a neck like that of the horse, feet and legs

like those of the ox, a head like that of the camel, and is

covered with white spots upon a red ground; from which peculiarities it has been called the cameleopard.[3] It was first

seen at Rome in the Circensian games held by Csar, the

Dictator.[4] Since that time too, it has been occasionally seen.

It is more remarkable for the singularity of its appearance

than for its fierceness; for which reason it has obtained the

name of the wild sheep.[5]







1. He speaks here of only one of the animals which resemble the camel;

the giraffe, namely. The other, which he for the present omits, is the

ostrich.

2. The description of the giraffe, here given, is sufficiently correct, but

we have a more minute account of it by Dion Cassius, B. xliii. In the

time of the Emperor Gordian, ten of these animals were exhibited at

Rome at once; a remarkable fact, when we bear in mind that so few have

been imported into Europe for many centuries past. The giraffe is

figured in the mosaic at Prneste, and under it is inscribed its name,

nabi.-B. It has been found that it is unable to bear the winters of

Europe.

3. Its form being like that of the camel, while its spots resemble those

of the leopard. Horace refers to it, when speaking of an object calculated

to excite the vulgar gaze; "Diversum confusa genus panthera camelo"-

"The race of the panther mingled with the camel," Ep. B. ii.; Ep. i.

1. 195.

4. According to Dion Cassius, B. xliii., these games were celebrated

A.U.C. 708.-B.

5. This comparison can only be employed to indicate the mild nature of

the giraffe.-B.




28. Chap. 28. (19.)-The Chama, And The Cepus.


CHAP. 28. (19.)-THE CHAMA, AND THE CEPUS.



It was at the games of Pompeius Magnus that the chama[1]







was first exhibited; an animal called rufius by the Gauls;

having the figure of a wolf, with the spots of the pard. There

were also exhibited some animals from thiopia, which they

called by the Greek name, xh/poi,[2] the hinder extremities of

which resembled the human feet and legs, while the fore-feet

were like hands. These animals have not been seen at Rome

since that time.







1. In the older editions, the names here given to this animal were

"chaus" and "ruphius;" the alteration was made by Hardouin from a

MS. in the Royal Library of Paris, which he deemed of high authority,

and has been adopted by all the modern editors. There is considerable

doubt respecting the animal here designated by the name of "chama;" it

appears to have been an inhabitant of Gaul, and in c. 34, is styled "lupus

ecrvarius;" but the account does not enable us to identify it with any

animal known to exist in that country.-B. It is generally supposed to

have been a species of lynx.

2. No doubt this description refers to some species of the monkey tribe,

but it is uncertain to what one in particular. Its having been seen only

once at Rome, shows that it was not of the most common kind; Cuvier,

however, thinks it probable, that Pliny may have been incorrect in this;

he supposes that it was the "Simia sphinx" of Linnus, Lem. vol. iii. p. 395.

According to Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 8, khbos is merely a monkey

with a tail; see also the account of lian, Anim. Nat. B. xvii. c. 8.-B.




29. Chap. 29. (20.)-The Rhinoceros.


CHAP. 29. (20.)-THE RHINOCEROS.



At the same games the rhinoceros was also exhibited, an

animal which has a single horn projecting from the nose;[1] it has

been frequently seen since then. This too is another natural-born enemy of the elephant.[2] It prepares itself for the combat by sharpening its horn against the rocks; and in fighting

directs it chiefly against the belly of its adversary, which it

knows to be the softest part. The two animals are of equal

length, but the legs of the rhinoceros are much the shorter:

its skin is the colour of box-wood.







1. Cuvier says, that this was the single-horned rhinoceros of India.

The commentators have been at a loss to reconcile this description with

the Epigram of Martial, Spect. Ep. xxii., where he speaks of the rhinoceros exhibited by Domitian, as having two horns. It has been proved

that this latter was of the two-horned species, by the medals of that emperor, now in existence. Martial, Spect. Ep. ix., seems also to have been

acquainted with the single-horned species. That with two horns is mentioned by Pausanias as the thiopian bull. We learn from modern naturalists, that the two-horned species is a native of the southern parts of

Africa, while that with one horn is from Asia.-B.

2. The other enemy is the dragon, as described in c. 11 and 12 of the

present Book.-B.




30. Chap. 30. (21.)-The Lynx, The Sphinx, The Crocotta, And The Monkey.


CHAP. 30. (21.)-THE LYNX, THE SPHINX, THE CROCOTTA, AND THE MONKEY.



thiopia produces the lynx[1] in abundance, and the sphinx,







which has brown hair and two mamm on the breast,[2] as well

as many monstrous kinds of a similar nature; horses with

wings, and armed with horns, which are called pegasi;[3] the

crocotta, an animal which looks as though it had been produced

by the union of the wolf and the dog,[4] for it can break any

thing with its teeth, and instantly on swallowing it digest it

with the stomach; monkeys, too, with black heads, the hair

of the ass, and a voice quite unlike that of any other animal.[5]

There are oxen, too, like those of India, some with one horn,

and others with three; the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with the legs of

a stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger,

a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous bone instead of teeth;[6] it is said, too, that this animal

can imitate the human voice. Among the same people, there

is also found an animal called eale; it is the size of the river-horse, has the tail of the elephant, and is of a black or tawny







colour.[7] It has also the jaws of the wild boar, and horns that are

moveable, and more than a cubit in length, so that, in fighting,

it can employ them alternately, and vary their position by presenting them directly or obliquely, according as necessity may

dictate. But the wild bulls which this country produces are

the fiercest of all; they are larger than our domestic bull, and

exceed all the others in swiftness; are of a tawny colour, with

azure eyes, and the hair turned the contrary way; while the

jaws open as far as the ears, and the horns are as moveable

as those of the eale. The hide of this animal is as hard as

flint, and effectually resists all wounds. These creatures pursue

all the other wild beasts, while they themselves can only be

taken in pitfalls, where they always perish from excess of rage.

Ctesias informs us, that among these same thiopians, there

is an animal found, which he calls the mantichora;[8] it has a

triple row of teeth, which fit into each other like those of a

comb, the face and ears of a man, and azure eyes, is of the colour

of blood, has the body of the lion, and a tail ending in a sting,

like that of the scorpion. Its voice resembles the union of

the sound of the flute and the trumpet; it is of excessive

swiftness, and is particularly fond of human flesh.







1. According to Cuvier, the lynx of Pliny is the Felis caracal of Lin-

nus: it is common in many parts of Asia and Africa, in the retired

forest districts, and still exists in the Pyrenees and the mountains of

Naples.-B.

2. As far as the accounts of the sphinx are to be regarded as not entirely fabulous, we must suppose it to have originated in some species of

the monkey tribe; perhaps the Sinlia troglodytes or chimpanz.-B.

3. Of course the winged horse is an imaginary being, nor does it appear

what is the origin of the fable; the horns are an unusual appendage to

the pegasus.-B. The pegasus and the rhinoceros together may have

given rise to that fabulous animal, the unicorn. See, however, the Monoceros, mentioned in c. 31.

4. Although a hybrid animal is produced by the union of the wolf and

the dog, it does not form a permanent species. But, as Cuvier remarks,

by the insertion of "velut," Pliny seems to imply that the crocotta unites

the physical properties of the two animals. Ctesias, Indic. c. 32, gives an

account of the cynolycus, or "dog-wolf," from which Pliny seems to have

taken his crocotta.-B.

5. It does not seem possible to determine what species of monkey is

here designated; it is most probable that he himself had no accurate

knowledge.-B.

6. We may here refer to the judicious remarks of Cuvier, Ajasson, vol.

vi. pp. 427, 428, and Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 399, on the leucrocotta. It

seems impossible to identify Pliny's description with any known animal, and

it is not unlikely that he has confused the accounts of authors who were

speaking of different animals. Some of the characteristics of the leucrocotta agree with those of the Indian antelope, while others seem to resemble those of the hyna.-B.

7. Perhaps the eale may have been the two-horned rhinoceros, as some

naturalists say that there is a degree of mobility in the horns of that

animal; the same observation has been made with respect to the wild or

forest bulls, the description of which animal, in Pliny, is probably from

Diodorus Siculus.-B.

8. This description of the mantichora appears to be taken from the

Indica of Ctesias; it has been also adopted by Aristotle and lian, but

they have qualified their accounts by some expressions of doubt, which are

omitted by Pliny. It has been conjectured, that Ctesias took his description from the hieroglyphic figures in his time, probably common in the

East, and still found in the ruins of the Assyrian and Persian cities, Nineveh and Persepolis, for instance.-B.




31. Chap. 31.-The Terrestrial Animals Of India.


CHAP. 31.-THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS OF INDIA.



There are in India oxen also with solid hoofs[1] and a

single horn;[2] and a wild beast called the axis, which has a skin







like that of a fawn, but with numerous spots on it, and whiter;[3]

this animal is looked upon as sacred to Bacchus. The Orsan

Indians hunt down a kind of ape, which has the body white[4] all

over; as well as a very fierce animal called the monoceros,[5]

which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and

the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the

horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black

horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two

cubits in length.[6] This animal, it is said, cannot be taken

alive.







1. Probably meaning, "not cloven."

2. Cuvier conjectures, that this is from Ctesias, and says, that a similar

animal is to be seen on one of the sculptures of Persepolis.-B.

3. Probably the stag of the Ganges, the "Cervus axis" of Linnus; but

if so, Pliny has omitted to mention the horns.-B.

4. White apes are now unknown, as a distinct species, but individuals

are occasionally found nearly without colour.-B.

5. The "one-horned," or the unicorn.

6. We have a discussion by Cuvier, respecting the existence of the unicorn, or of any animal similar to that here described, with a single horn.

He remarks, that the only single-horned quadruped of which we have any

certain knowledge, is the rhinoceros, and that the only horns which have

been discovered, and which can have been single horns, belong to it. There

are five animals mentioned by the ancients, as having single horns, the Indian ass, the single-horned horse, the single-horned ox, the monoceros,

described in the text, and the oryx of Africa, which Pliny speaks of in c.

79 of this Book, and in B. xi. c. 106. There are many curious accounts

given by travellers of acknowledged veracity, respecting animals seen in

the more remote parts of Asia and Africa, answering to the description of

the unicorn, and there are representations of the same in ancient sculptures;

but they do not amount to that kind of evidence which can at all supply

the place of direct proof.-B.




32. Chap. 32.-The Animals Of thiopia; A Wild Beast Which Kills With Its Eye.


CHAP. 32.-THE ANIMALS OF THIOPIA; A WILD BEAST WHICH KILLS WITH ITS EYE.



Among the Hesperian thiopians is the fountain of Nigris, by

many, supposed to be the head of the Nile. I have already mentioned the arguments by which this opinion is supported.[1] Near

this fountain, there is found a wild beast, which is called the

catoblepas;[2] an animal of moderate size, and in other respects

sluggish in the movement of the rest of its limbs; its head

is remarkably heavy, and it only carries it with the greatest

difficulty, being always bent down towards the earth. Were

it not for this circumstance, it would prove the destruction of







the human race; for all who behold its eyes, fall dead upon the

spot.[3]







1. These will be found in B. v. c. 10.

2. From katable/pw, "to look downwards."

3. lian describes this animal more in detail, Anim. Nat. B. vii. c. 5.

Cuvier thinks it probable that it is the Antelope gnu; he remarks, that it

has a very peculiar and mournful appearance; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 435;

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 405.-B.




33. Chap. 33.-The Serpents Called Basilisks.


CHAP. 33.-THE SERPENTS CALLED BASILISKS.



There is the same power also in the serpent called the basilisk.[1] It is produced in the province of Cyrene, being not

more than twelve fingers in length. It has a white spot on the

head, strongly resembling a sort of a diadem.[2] When it

hisses, all the other serpents fly from it: and it does not advance its body, like the others, by a succession of folds, but

moves along upright and erect upon the middle. It destroys

all shrubs, not only by its contact, but those even that it has

breathed upon; it burns up all the grass too, and breaks the

stones, so tremendous is its noxious influence. It was formerly

a general belief that if a man on horseback killed one of these

animals with a spear, the poison would run up the weapon and

kill, not only the rider, but the horse as well. To this dreadful monster the effluvium of the weasel is fatal, a thing that

has been tried with success, for kings have often desired to see

its body when killed; so true is it that it has pleased Nature

that there should be nothing without its antidote. The animal

is thrown into the hole of the basilisk, which is easily known

from the soil around it being infected. The weasel destroys

the basilisk by its odour, but dies itself in this struggle of nature

against its own self.[3]







1. This account of the basilisk's eye, like that of the catoblepas, is entirely devoid of foundation.-B.

2. Many species have certain marks on the head, which were supposed to

resemble a crown.-B.

3. There is probably no foundation for this account of the action of the

effluvium of the weasel upon the basilisk or any other species of serpent.-B.




34. Chap. 34. (22.)-Wolves; The Origin Of The Story Of Versipellis.


CHAP. 34. (22.)-WOLVES; THE ORIGIN OF THE STORY OF VERSIPELLIS.



In Italy also it is believed that there is a noxious influence

in the eye of a wolf; it is supposed that it will instantly take







away the voice of a man,[1] if it is the first to see him. Africa

and Egypt produce wolves of a sluggish and stunted nature;[2] those of the colder climates are fierce and savage.

That men have been turned into wolves, and again restored to

their original form,[3] we must confidently look upon as untrue,

unless, indeed, we are ready to believe all the tales, which, for

so many ages, have been found to be fabulous. But, as the

belief of it has become so firmly fixed in the minds of the

common people, as to have caused the term "Versipellis"[4] to

be used as a common form of imprecation, I will here point

out its origin. Euanthes, a Grecian author of no mean reputation, informs us that the Arcadians assert that a member

of the family of one Anthus is chosen by lot, and then taken

to a certain lake in that district, where, after suspending

his clothes on an oak, he swims across the water and goes

away into the desert, where he is changed into a wolf and associates with other animals of the same species for a space of

nine years. If he has kept himself from beholding a man

during the whole of that time, he returns to the same lake,

and, after swimming across it, resumes his original form, only

with the addition of nine years in age to his former appearance. To this Fabius[5] adds, that he takes his former clothes as

well. It is really wonderful to what a length the credulity[6] of







the Greeks will go! There is no falsehood, if ever so barefaced,

to which some of them cannot be found to bear testimony.



So too, Agriopas, who wrote the Olympionics,[7] informs us

that Demnetus, the Parrhasian, during a sacrifice of human

victims, which the Arcadians were offering up to the Lycan[8]

Jupiter, tasted the entrails of a boy who had been slaughtered;

upon which he was turned into a wolf, but, ten years afterwards, was restored to his original shape and his calling of an

athlete, and returned victorious in the pugilistic contests at

the Olympic games.



It is also commonly supposed, that the tail of this animal

contains a small lock of hair, which possesses an amatory

power; and that when the creature is caught, this hair is shed by

it, but has no virtue whatever, unless it is procured from the

animal while alive.[9] It is said that these animals couple for

no more than twelve days in the year;[10] and that when pressed

by hunger they will eat earth. Among the points of augury,

to have our progress cut short to the right by a wolf, if at the

time its mouth is full, is the best of omens. There is a

species, which is known as the stag-wolf, such as we have already said[11] were brought from Gaul and exhibited in the Circus

by Pompeius Magnus. It is said, that however hungry this

animal may chance to be, if it only turns its head while eating,

it immediately becomes oblivious of the food that is before

it, and takes its departure to seek it elsewhere.[12]







1. Hence the proverbial expression applied to a person who is suddenly

silent upon the entrance of another; "Lupus est tibi visus."

2. Cuvier says, that the wolves of Africa are of the ordinary size, and

conjectures that this remark probably applies to the chakale, or "Canis

aureus" of Linnus, which is of the colour of the wolf, and the size of the

fox, and is common throughout all Africa.-B.

3. The opinion that men were converted into wolves by enchantment, or

a preternatural agency, was at one time so generally received, as to have

led to judicial processes, and the condemnation of the supposed criminal.

-B. To the relator of the above story that men lose their voice on seeing a

wolf, Scaliger wishes as many blows as at different times he had seen a wolf

without losing his voice.

4. This literally means "changing the skin;" it was applied by some

ancient medical writers to a peculiar form of insanity, where the patient

conceives himself changed into a wolf, and named lukanqrw/pia, "lycanthropy." The word appears to have been in common use among the Romans, and to have been applied by them to any one who had undergone a

remarkable change in his character and habits; in this sense it is used by

Plautus, Amphitryon, Prol. 1. 123, and Bacchides, A. iv. sc. 4, 1. 12.-B.

5. It is not known who is here referred to; it is not probable that it is

Fabius Pictor, the Roman historian.-B.

6. It is rather curious to find Pliny censuring others for credulity; indeed

he loses no opportunity of a hit at the Greeks, to whom, after all, he is

greatly indebted. See Introduction to vol. i. p. 17.

7. An account of the victories gained at the Olympic games.-B.

8. It has been conjectured, that the epithet, "Lycan," Au/kaios, was

given to Jupiter by the Arcadians, for this supposed conversion of men into

wolves, which was conceived to be effected by divine interposition.-B.

9. It does not appear what is the foundation of this opinion; of course,

it is without truth.-B.

10. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 35, says that they couple once only in

the year. lian, Anim. Nat. B. iv. c. 4, says that their bringing forth

continues twelve days.-B.

11. See c. 28 of the present Book. He alludes probably to the lynx.

12. It is not easy to say whence this opinion was derived; the general

character of the wolf is that of quickness and watchfulness, rather than

stupidity.-B. But it would appear that it is the lynx that is alluded to.




35. Chap. 35. (23.)-Different Kinds Of Serpents.


CHAP. 35. (23.)-DIFFERENT KINDS OF SERPENTS.



With reference to serpents, it is generally known, that they







assume the colour of the soil in which they conceal themselves.

The different species of them are innumerable. The cerastes[1]

has little horns, often four in number, projecting from the

body, by the movement of which it attracts birds, while the

rest of its body lies concealed.[2] The amphisbna[3] has two

heads,[4] that is to say, it has a second one at the tail, as

though one mouth were too little for the discharge of all its

venom. Some serpents have scales, some a mottled skin, and

they are all possessed of a deadly poison. The jaculus[5] darts

from the branches of trees; and it is not only to our feet that

the serpent is formidable, for these fly through the air even,

just as though they were hurled from an engine.[6] The neck

of the asp[7] puffs out,[8] and there is no remedy whatever







against its sting, except the instant excision of the affected

part.[9] This reptile, which is thus deadly, is possessed of this

one sense, or rather affection; the male and the female are

generally found together,[10] and the one cannot live without

the other; hence it is that, if one of them happens to be killed,

the other takes incredible pains to avenge its death. It follows

the slayer of its mate, and will single him out among ever

such a large number of people, by a sort of instinctive knowledge; with this object it overcomes all difficulties, travels any

distance, and is only to be avoided by the intervention of rivers

or an accelerated flight. It is really difficult to decide, whether

Nature has altogether been more liberal of good or of evil.

First of all, however, she has given to this pest but weak

powers of sight, and has placed the eyes, not in the front of the

head, so that it may see straight before it, but in the temples,

so that it is more frequently put in motion by the approach of

the footstep than through the sight. (24.) The ichneumon, too,

is its enemy[11] to the very death.











1. The cerastes, or horned serpent, is mentioned by Lucan, in his description of serpents, Pharsalia, B. ix. 1. 716. One of the Scholiasts on

Lucan relates a story that when Helen was eloping with Paris, she trod on

the back of a cerastes, and broke it; from which circumstance, the whole

race moved with a crooked course.

2. Cuvier has observed this animal burying itself in the sand, and has

seen the motion of its horns, but does not credit its alleged power of attracting birds; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 412.-B.

3. The ampbisbna is mentioned by Lucan, B. ix. 1. 719. "The dangerous amphisbna, that moves on at either of its heads."

4. The account of the two heads is obviously incorrect; the idea has

arisen from the two extremities being nearly of the same size and appearance. It has been supposed, that there were certain serpents, with the

power of moving with equal facility in both directions; and that the name,

Amfi/sbaina, was derived from this circumstance.-B.

5. Lucan mentions the jaculus, B. ix. 1. 720, and 1. 822. In the last

passage he says: "Behold! afar, around the trunk of a barren tree, a fierce

serpent-Africa calls it the jaculus-wreathes itself, and then darts forth,

and through the head and pierced temples of Paulus it takes its flight:

nothing does venom there affect, death seizes him through the wound. It

was then understood how slowly fly the stones which the sling hurls, how

sluggishly whizzes the flight of the Scythian arrow."

6. There is an account of the jaculus, or, as it is called in Greek,

)Akonti/as, in lian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 18; it is mentioned by Galen,

Theriaca, c. 8.-B.

7. In B. ix. 1. 701, Lucan says: "Here the gore (of the Gorgon Medusa) which first from the sand lifted a head, raised the drowsy asp with

its puffed-out neck." The whole of this passage in Lucan is well worth the

attention of those desirous to know something of the serpent-lore of the

ancients.

8. Cuvier says, that Geoffroi St. Hilaire has identified this animal with

the Coluber haje of Linnus, which has, from the earliest ages, been known

as a native of Egypt, and where it still exists. Its two most remarkable

characteristics are those here referred to; the puffing out of the neck when

enraged, and its capacity of being tamed, or, as it is styled, enchanted.

This last has been taken advantage of by the jugglers of that country from

the most remote antiquity, as appears from the writings of Moses, and something of a similar nature is still practised. They remove the poison fangs,

so as to render the animal harmless, and by certain sounds render it obedient to their call. It appears, also, that by pressing on the upper part

of the spine, the animal is rendered paralytic, and may be said to be changed

into a rod; this fact was witnessed by St. Hilaire. The asp is described

by Aristotle, and is frequently mentioned by lian. Galen speaks of its

deadly poison, in his Theriaca, c. 8. See Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 437-9;

Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 414, 415.-B. Pliny mentions, however, in B. xxiii.

c. 27, that the bite of the asp may be cured with vinegar.

9. Both Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 29, and lian, ubi supra,

speak of the extreme virulence of the poison of the asp, and Cuvier remarks

that the haje, and the haga, which are species of the asp, are among the

most formidable of the serpent tribe.-B.

10. The method of attracting this serpent, by imitating the voice of the

female, proves that there is some foundation for this statement.-B.

11. The ichneumon of the ancients, the "Viverra ichneumon" of Linnus,

is still common in Egypt, and renders essential service by destroying the

eggs of serpents. With respect to what is here said of its covering its

body with mud, to protect itself against the asp, the fact appears to be,

that in searching for the eggs, which are deposited in the mud, its body

becomes more or less covered with that substance, and may possibly in

this way be less exposed to the attacks of the asp. The contest of the

asp and the ichneumon is mentioned by lian, B. iii. c. 22.-B.




36. Chap. 36.-The Ichneumon.


CHAP. 36.-THE ICHNEUMON.



This hostility is the especial glory of this animal, which is

also produced in Egypt. It plunges itself repeatedly into the

mud, and then dries itself in the sun: as soon as, by these

means, it has armed itself with a sufficient number of coatings,

it proceeds to the combat. Raising its tail, and turning its

back to the serpent, it receives its stings, which are inflicted to

no purpose, until at last, turning its head sideways, and viewing its enemy, it seizes it by the throat. Not content, however, with this victory, it conquers another creature also, which

is no less dangerous.










37. Chap. 37. (25.)-The Crocodile.


CHAP. 37. (25.)-THE CROCODILE.



The Nile produces the crocodile also,[1] a destructive quadruped, and equally dangerous on land and in the water. This

is the only land animal that does not enjoy the use of its

tongue,[2] and the only one that has the upper jaw moveable,

and is capable of biting with it; and terrible is its bite, for the

rows of its teeth fit into each other, like those of a comb.[3] Its

length mostly exceeds eighteen cubits. It produces eggs about

the size of those of the goose, and, by a kind of instinctive

foresight, always deposits them beyond the limit to which

the river Nile rises, when at its greatest height.[4] There is

no animal that arrives at so great a bulk as this, from so small

a beginning.[5] It is armed also with claws, and has a skin,







that is proof against all blows. It passes the day on land, and

the night in the water, in both instances on account of the

warmth.[6] When it has glutted itself with fish, it goes to

sleep on the banks of the river, a portion of the food always

remaining in its mouth; upon which, a little bird, which in

Egypt is known as the trochilus, and, in Italy, as the king of

the birds, for the purpose of obtaining food, invites the crocodile to open its jaws; then, hopping to and fro, it first

cleans the outside of its mouth, next the teeth, and then the

inside, while the animal opens its jaws as wide as possible,

in consequence of the pleasure which it experiences from the

titillation.[7] It is at these moments that the ichneumon, seeing

it fast asleep in consequence of the agreeable sensation thus

produced, darts down its throat like an arrow, and eats away

its intestines.[8]







1. Many of the ancients have described the crocodile; of these, the most

important, for the correctness of the description, are Herodotus, B. ii. c.

68; Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 10, et alibi; and Diodorus Siculus,

B. i.-B.

2. The tongue of the crocodile is flat, and, as afterwards stated, B. xi.

c. 65, adheres to the lower jaw, so as to be incapable of motion.-B.

3. This account was first given by Herodotus, ubi supra; and, from the

form of the head and the neighbouring parts, depicts what would naturally

occur to the observer; but it is not correct. The actual state of the parts,

and their connection with each other, as Cuvier informs us, were first

satisfactorily explained by Geoffroi Saint Hilaire.-B.

4. lian, Anim. Nat. B. v. c. 52, observes, that this is the case with

the tortoise, and similar animals.-B.

5. Cuvier says, that when it leaves the egg, the young animal is only

six inches long, and that it ultimately attains a size of from thirty to

forty feet.-B.

6. Herodotus says, that it remains all night in the water, as being

warmer than the external air. So also Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c.

10.-B.

7. The water of the Nile abounds with small leeches, which attach to

the throat of the crocodile, and, as it has no means of removing them, it

allows a little bird to enter its mouth for this purpose; this is described

by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, and by Julian, Anim. Nat. B. iii. c,

2.-B.

8. Although this account is sanctioned by all the ancient naturalists, it

is called in question by Cuvier; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 441; Lemaire, vol. iii.

p. 421.-B.




38. Chap. 38.-The Scincus.


CHAP. 38.-THE SCINCUS.



Like the crocodile, but smaller even than the ichneumon, is

the scincus,[1] which is also produced in the Nile, and the flesh of

which is the most effectual antidote against poisons, and acts as

a powerful aphrodisiac upon the male sex. But so great a pest

was the crocodile to prove, that Nature was not content with

giving it one enemy only; the dolphins, therefore, which enter







the Nile, have the back armed with a spine,[2] which is edged

like a knife, as if for this very purpose; and although these

animals are much inferior in strength, they contrive to destroy the crocodile by artifice, which on the other hand attempts to drive them from their prey, and would reign alone

in its river as its peculiar domain. For all animals have an

especial instinct in this respect, and are able to know not

only what is for their own advantage, but also what is to the

disadvantage of their enemies; they fully understand the use

of their own weapons, they know their opportunity, and the

weak parts of those with which they have to contend.



The skin of the belly of the crocodile is soft and thin,

aware of this, the dolphins plunge into the water, as if in

great alarm, and diving beneath its belly, tear it open with

their spines. There is a race of men also, who are peculiarly

hostile to this animal; they are known as the Tentyrit, from

an island in the Nile which they inhabit.[3] These men are of

small stature, but of wonderful presence of mind, though for

this particular object only. The crocodile is a terrible animal

to those who fly from it, while at the same time it will fly

from those who pursue it; these, however, are the only people

who dare to attack it. They even swim in the river after it, and

mount its back like so many horsemen; and just as the animal

turns up its head for the purpose of biting them, they insert a

club into its mouth, holding which at each end, with the two

hands, it acts like a bit, and, by these means they drive the

captured animal on shore. They also terrify the crocodile so

much by their voice alone even, as to force it to disgorge

the bodies which it has lately swallowed, for the purpose of

burial. This island, therefore, is the only place near which the

crocodile never swims; indeed, it is repelled by the odour of

this race of men, just as serpents are by that of the Psylli.[4] The







sight of this animal is said to be dull when it is in the water,

but, when out of the water, piercing in the extreme; it always

passes the four winter months in a cave, without taking food.[5]

Some persons say, that this is the only animal that continues

to increase in size as long as it lives; it is very long-lived.







1. There is a small lizard, called by the modern naturalists the Lacerta

scincus; but Cuvier conceives that this cannot be the animal here referred

to, because it is so very much smaller than the ichneumon, that no one

would have thought of comparing them; and, what seems a better reason,

because it is not found in the Nile. From the account of the scincus in

B. xxviii. c. 30, it is probable that the animal here referred to is a species

of monitor, popularly called the land crocodile. Herodotus, B. iv. c. 192,

speaks of the land crocodile as found in Libya; it is also mentioned by

Pausanias, Corinthiaca, c. 20, and by Prosper Alpinus, gypt. B. iv. c. 5.

-B. The scincus is probably the "Lacerta ouaran" of Cuvier.

2. Cuvier remarks, that this account cannot really apply to the dolphin,

because none of the cetacea possess the spines here described. He investigates the subject with his usual sagacity, and concludes, with much probability, that the animal here referred to was a squalus, the Squalus centrina, or spinax of Linnus; Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 443, 444; Lemaire, vol.

iii. pp. 422, 423. We have an account of the contest between the crocodile

and the dolphin in Seneca, Nat. Qust. B. iv. c. 2.-B.

3. We have some account of the Tentyrit in lian, Anim. Nat. B. x.

c. 21.-B. See B. xxviii. c. 6.

4. See B. vii. c. 2. The best description of the Psylli is that given by

Lucan in B. ix. 1. 892, et seq., where he describes the march of Cato's army

across the burning coasts of the Syrtes.

5. This, as Cuvier remarks, is the case with the crocodiles of North America, which, like other reptiles, become torpid during the cold season;

Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 444; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 424.-B.




39. Chap. 39.-The Hippopotamus.


CHAP. 39.-THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.



The Nile produces the hippopotamus, another wild beast,

of a still greater size. It has the cloven hoof of the ox; the

back, the mane, and the neighing of the horse; and the

turned-up snout, the tail, and the hooked teeth of the wild

boar, but not so dangerous.[1] The hide is impenetrable, except when it has been soaked with water; and it is used for

making shields and helmets.[2] This animal lays waste the

standing corn, and determines beforehand what part it shall

ravage on the following day; it is said also, that it enters

the field backwards, to prevent any ambush being laid for it

on its return.







1. Cuvier remarks, as singular, that the descriptions given by the ancients

of the hippopotamus should have been incorrect, more especially with reference to Herodotus, who had visited Egypt, and who has described some

of the animals of that country with considerable accuracy; Ajasson, vol.

vi. pp. 444, 445; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 425. Pliny has copied the description of Herodotus, B. ii. c. 71, almost verbatim, and the same has been

done by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 7. Even the Latin authors, such

as Diodorus Siculus and lian, who might have seen the animal in Rome,

continued to transcribe the account of Herodotus.-B.

2. Herodotus and Aristotle, ubi supra, assert, that his hide is so hard,

that spears and other missiles are formed from it; the statement of Pliny

is, however, much more correct.-B.




40. Chap. 40. (26.)-Who First Exhibited The Hippopotamus And The Crocodile At Rome.


CHAP. 40. (26.)-WHO FIRST EXHIBITED THE HIPPOPOTAMUS AND THE CROCODILE AT ROME.



M. Scaurus was the first who exhibited this animal at Rome,

together with five crocodiles, at the games which he gave in

his dileship, in a piece of water[1] which had been temporarily

prepared for the purpose. The hippopotamus has even been







our instructor in one of the operations of medicine.[2] When

the animal has become too bulky by continued over-feeding,

it goes down to the banks of the river, and examines the

reeds which have been newly cut; as soon as it has found a

stump that is very sharp, it presses its body against it, and

so wounds one of the veins in the thigh; and, by the flow of

blood thus produced, the body, which would otherwise have

fallen into a morbid state, is relieved; after which, it covers

up the wound with mud.







1. "Euripo." See the Notes to c. 7 of this Book.

2. Pliny, speaking of the hippopotamus, in B. xxviii. c. 31, styles it,

"the discoverer of the art of letting blood."-B.




41. Chap. 41. (27.)-The Medicinal Remedies Which Have Been Borrowed From Animals.


CHAP. 41. (27.)-THE MEDICINAL REMEDIES WHICH HAVE BEEN

BORROWED FROM ANIMALS. [1]



The bird also, which is called the ibis,[2] a native of the same

country of Egypt, has shewn us some things of a similar

nature. By means of its hooked beak, it laves the body

through that part, by which it is especially necessary for

health that the residuous food should be discharged. Nor, indeed, are these the only inventions which have been borrowed

from animals, to prove of use to man. The power of the

herb dittany, in extracting arrows, was first disclosed to us by

stags that had been struck by that weapon; the weapon being







discharged on their feeding upon this plant.[3] The same animals, too, when they happen to have been wounded by the

phalangium, a species of spider, or by any insect of a similar

nature, cure themselves by eating crabs. One of the very best

remedies for the bite of the serpent, is the plant[4] with which

lizards treat their wounds when injured in fighting with each

other. The swallow has shown us that the chelidonia[5] is

very serviceable to the sight, by the fact of its employing it

for the cure of its young, when their eyes are affected. The

tortoise recruits its powers of effectually resisting serpents, by

eating the plant which is known as cunile bubula;[6] and the

weasel feeds on rue, when it fights with the serpent in the

pursuit of mice.[7] The stork cures itself of its diseases with wild

marjoram, and the wild boar with ivy, as also by eating crabs,

and more particularly those that have been thrown up by the

sea.[8] The snake, when the membrane which covers its body







has been contracted by the cold of winter, throws it off in the

spring by the aid of the juices of fennel,[9] and thus becomes

sleek and youthful in appearance. First of all, it disengages

the head, and it then takes no less than a day and a night in

working itself out, and divesting itself of the membrane in

which it has been enclosed. The same animal, too, on finding

its sight weakened during its winter retreat, anoints and refreshes its eyes by rubbing itself on the plant called fennel or

marathrum; but if any of the scales are slow in coming off,[10] it

rubs itself against the thorns of the juniper. The dragon relieves the nausea which affects it in spring, with the juices of

the lettuce.[11] The barbarous nations go to hunt the panther,

provided with meat that has been rubbed with aconite,

which is a poison.[12] Immediately on eating it, compression

of the throat overtakes them, from which circumstance it is,

that the plant has received the name of pardalianches.[13] The

animal, however, has found an antidote against this poison in

human excrements; besides which, it is so eager to get at

them, that the shepherds purposely suspend them in a vessel,

placed so high, that the animal cannot reach them even by

leaping, when it endeavours to get at them; accordingly, it

continues to leap until it has quite exhausted itself, and at last

expires: otherwise, it is so tenacious of life, that it will con-







tinue to fight long after its intestines have been dragged out of

its body.



When an elephant has happened to devour a chameleon,

which is of the same colour with the herbage, it counteracts

this poison by means of the wild olive. Bears, when they

have eaten of the fruit of the mandrake, lick up numbers of

ants.[14] The stag counteracts the effect of poisonous plants by

eating the artichoke. Wood-pigeons, jackdaws, blackbirds,

and partridges, purge themselves once a year by eating bay

leaves; pigeons, turtle-doves, and poultry, with wall-pellitory,

or helxine; ducks, geese, and other aquatic birds, with the

plant sideritis or vervain; cranes, and birds of a similar nature,

with the bulrush. The raven, when it has killed a chameleon, a contest in which even the conqueror suffers, counteracts the poison by means of laurel.







1. Cuvier remarks upon this and the following Chapter, that they are

entirely fabulous. The diseases, remedies, and instructions given by the

animals are equally imaginary, although Pliny has taken the whole from

authors of credit, and it has been repeated by Plutarch, De Iside, and by

lian, Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 35, and many others. Ajasson, vol. vi. p.

446; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 426.-B.

2. Cuvier has given an interesting account of the ibis, the opinions entertained of it by various travellers and naturalists, and a detail of the

examination which he made of two of its mummies, which were brought

by Grobert to Paris, from the wells of Sakhara. These mummies were

found to be similar to those previously examined by Buffon, Shaw, and

others, and proved the ibis of the ancient Egyptians to have been a species

of curlew. This opinion he further supports by a reference to various

sculptures and mosaics, where this bird is represented, and he remarks

upon the errors into which most travellers and historians have fallen as to

it; the only correct account he conceives to be that of the African traveller,

Bruce, who describes and figures it under the name of Abou hanns. See

the extract in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 633, et seq., from his Recherches sur les

Ossements Fossiles, vol. i. p. 141, et seq. Herodotus gives an account of

the ibis, B. i. c. 75, 76, but it is not correct.-B.

3. The fabulous account of the powers of this herb is referred to in B.

xxv. c. 53, and supported by the highest authorities; among others, by

Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6.; Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. ii. c. 50;

Virgil, n. B. xii. c. 412.-B.

4. See B. xxii. c. 45, for a similar cure. It is not known what plant is

here alluded to, but it has been thought to be the cinara, or artichoke.

5. The Chelidonium majus of Linnus. It probably derived its name

from the swallow, xeli/dwn, because its flowers appear at the time that

bird makes its first appearance in the spring. This supposed property is

mentioned by lian, Anim. Nat. B. iii. c. 25. Pliny speaks of its efficacy

in diseases of the eyes, B. xxv. c. 50, and c. 91.-B.

6. Pliny speaks of the medical virtues of cunile bubula, in B. xx. c. 61

Columella, B. vi. c. 13, says that it is a cure for scabies. It is not certain

what is the plant here referred to; it is considered identical with origanum,

by Hardouin, and has been supposed by some to be marjoram, or pennyroyal. The effect of the cunile on the tortoise is mentioned by Aristotle,

Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6; by Plutarch, Nat. Qust.; lian, Anim. Nat.

B. vi. c. 12; and by Albertus Magnus, B. viii. Tr. ii. c. 2; but there is

some difference in their statements. Some speak of it as an antidote, enabling the tortoise to counteract the poison of the serpent, while others

regard it as giving the tortoise increased vigour to resist the attacks.

7. Aristotle, ubisupra, and lian, Anim. Nat. B. iv. c. 14, refer to this

supposed fact, which is without foundation, so far, at least, as the contest

of the weasels with the serpents and the rue are concerned. The hostility of

the weasel to the mouse is probably correct. Pliny again refers to it, B.

xx. c. 51, and it forms the subject of one of Phdrus's Fables, B. iv.

c. 2.-B.

8. We have the same account in Plutarch.-B. Plutarch speaks, however,

of the river crab.

9. Pliny refers to this effect, B. xx. c. 95; he speaks also of its application to the eyes of the animal; it is probable, that feniculum and marathrum both refer to the same plant; the latter being the ordinary Greek,

and the former the Latin, name. This effect of the feniculum is also

mentioned by lian, B. ix. c. 16.-B.

10. "Si vero squam obtorpuere;" Hardouin supposes that this applies

particularly to the eyes.-B. There can be little doubt that he is correct

in that supposition.

11. Aristotle, ubi supra, and lian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 4, state that the

dragon takes the juice of the picris into the stomach, when overloaded with

food. The exact plant referred to, under that name, cannot be ascertained

for certain; but it appears probable, that it is a wild lettuce or endive, or

some plant belonging to that family.-B.

12. This effect of aconite, and the antidote for it, are mentioned in B.

xxvii. c. 2; they are also mentioned by Aristotle, ubi supra; and by lian,

Anim. Nat. B. iv. c. 49, and alluded to by Cicero, De. Nat. Deor. B. ii.

c. 50. It appears from a statement of Tavernier, as referred to by

Hardouin, that the same antidote against poisoned weapons is still employed in the island of Java.-B.

13. From the Greek pardaliagxh\s, "pard-strangle."

14. This is again referred to, B. xxix. c. 39.-B.




42. Chap. 42. (28.)-Prognostics Of Danger Derived From Animals.


CHAP. 42. (28.)-PROGNOSTICS OF DANGER DERIVED FROM ANIMALS.



There are a thousand other facts of this kind: and the

same Nature has also bestowed upon many animals as well,

the faculty of observing the heavens, and of presaging the

winds, rains, and tempests, each in its own peculiar way. It

would be an endless labour to enumerate them all; just as

much as it would be to point out the relation of each to man.[1]

For, in fact, they warn us of danger, not only by their fibres

and their entrails, to which a large portion of mankind attach

the greatest faith, but by other kinds of warnings as well.

When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it[2]

before-hand, and the spiders with their webs are the first to

drop. Divination from birds has been made a science among

the Romans, and the college of its priests is looked upon as

peculiarly sacred.[3] In Thrace, when all parts are covered







with ice, the foxes are consulted, an animal which, in other

respects, is baneful from its craftiness. It has been observed,

that this animal applies its ear to the ice, for the purpose of

testing its thickness; hence it is, that the inhabitants will

never cross frozen rivers and lakes until the foxes have passed

over them and returned.







1. "Quod persequi immensum est que scilicet quam reliquam cum

singulis homiaum societatem." The meaning of this passage is obscure,

and extremely doubtful.

2. This is alluded to by Cicero in his letters to Atticus, and is mentioned

by lian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 41; B. xi. c. 19; and Var. Hist. B. i.

c. 11.-B. The same is still said of rats, whence our expression "to rat,"

i. e. to desert a falling cause.

3. The priests of this college, or augurs, were among the most important

public functionaries in the Roman state, both from the rank of the indivi-

duals and the political power which they derived from their office.-B. The

augurs, or diviners by birds, held the highest rank in the state; but the

power of their college greatly declined in the later period of the Roman

history. It was finally abolished by the Emperor Theodosius.




43. Chap. 43. (29.)-Nations That Have Been Exterminated By Animals.


CHAP. 43. (29.)-NATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN EXTERMINATED BY ANIMALS.



We have accounts, too, no less remarkable, in reference even

to the most contemptible of animals. M. Varro informs us,

that a town in Spain was undermined by rabbits, and one in

Thessaly, by mice; that the inhabitants of a district in

Gaul were driven from their country by frogs,[1] and a place

in Africa by locusts;[2] that the inhabitants of Gyarus,[3]

one of the Cyclades, were driven away by mice;[4] and the

Amuncl, in Italy, by serpents. There is a vast desert tract

on this side of the thiopian Cynamolgi,[5] the inhabitants of

which were exterminated by scorpions and venomous ants.[6]







and Theophrastus informs us, that the people of Rhteum[7]

were driven away by scolopendr.[8] But we must now return

to the other kinds of wild beasts.







1. Other instances are mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, B. iii. Justin, B.

xv. c. 2, and lian, Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 41.-B. Showers of frogs

are a thing not unknown in England even. They are probably caused by

whirlwinds acting upon waters which are the haunt of these animals.

2. The ravages of locusts have been known in all ages; their destructive

effects in Egypt and Judea, have formed the subject of a very elaborate

dissertation by Bochart, in his work on the "Animals of Scripture," Part

i. B. iv. c. 3 and 4.-B.

3. Used as a place of banishment by the Romans. See B. iv. c. 28, and

c. 82, of the present Book.

4. See c. 82 of the present Book, and B. x. c. 85.-B.

5. The "dog-milkers." See B. vi. c. 35.

6. "Solipugis." There has been much discussion as to the word here

employed by Pliny, and the animal which he intends to designate. The

solipugus, solpugus, solipuga, or solipunga, probably different names of

the same animal, is mentioned by various writers; among others, by Lucan,

Phars. B. ix. 1. 837; Diodorus Siculus, B. iii.; Strabo, B. xvi.; and lian,

Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 40. It is again referred to in B. xxix. c. 16. The

description given is, however, too indefinite to enable us to identify it with

any known animal; it would almost seem to indicate something between

the spider and the ant.-B. We still hear in modern times of the venomous

and destructive nature of the red ants on the coast of Guinea; and it is not

improbable that it is to these that Pliny alludes.

7. See B. v. c. 33.

8. This is mentioned by lian, Anim. Nat. B. xv. c. 26.-B. The

scolopendra is one of the multipede insects.




44. Chap. 44. (30.)-The Hyna.


CHAP. 44. (30.)-THE HYNA.



It is the vulgar notion, that the hyna possesses in itself

both sexes, being a male during one year, and a female the

next, and that it becomes pregnant without the co-operation

of the male; Aristotle, however, denies this.[1] The neck, with

the mane, runs continuously into the back-Bone, so that the

animal cannot bend this part without turning round the whole

body. Many other wonderful things are also related of this animal; and strangest of all, that it imitates the human voice among

the stalls of the shepherds; and while there, learns the name of

some one of them, and then calls him away, and devours him.

It is said also, that it can imitate a man vomiting, and that,

in this way, it attracts the dogs, and then falls upon them.

It is the only animal that digs up graves, in order to obtain

the bodies of the dead. The female is rarely caught: its

eyes, it is said, are of a thousand various colours and changes

of shade. It is said also, that on coming in contact with its

shadow, dogs will lose their voice, and that, by certain magical influences, it can render any animal immoveable, round

which it has walked three times.







1. Aristotle, De Gener. Anim. B. iii. c. 6, and Hist. Anim. B. vi c. 32,

accounts for the vulgar error, by stating that the hyna has a peculiar

structure of the parts about the anus, which might, to an unpractised eye,

give the idea, that it possesses the generative organs of both sexes. lian,

Anim. Nat. B. i. c. 25, and Oppian, Cyneget. B. iii. c. 289, have adopted

this erroneous opinion. What is said respecting the hyena, in the remaining part of this Chapter, is mostly without foundation.-B.




45. Chap. 45.-The Corocotta; The Mantichora.


CHAP. 45.-THE COROCOTTA; THE MANTICHORA. [1]



By the union of the hyena with the thiopian lioness, the







corocotta is produced, which has the same faculty of imitating

the voices of men and cattle. Its gaze is always fixed and

immoveable; it has no gums in either of its jaws, and the

teeth are one continuous piece of bone; they are enclosed in a

sort of box as it were, that they may not be blunted by rubbing against each other. Juba informs us, that the mantichora

of thiopia can also imitate the human speech.







1. We have had some account given of the mantichora, in c. 30. The

mantichora and the corocotta are altogether imaginary.-B. Cuvier. in

Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 447; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 439, thinks that the stories

of the corocotta and the catoblepas, owe their origin to mutilated accounts

of the hyna, and the animal known to us as the gnu.




46. Chap. 46.-Wild Asses.


CHAP. 46.-WILD ASSES.



Great numbers of hynas are produced in Africa, which

also gives birth to multitudes of wild asses. In this species

each male rules over a herd of females. Fearing rivals in

their lust, they carefully watch the pregnant females, and castrate the young males with their teeth, as soon as they are

born.[1] The pregnant females, on the other hand, seek concealment, and endeavour to bring forth in secret, being

desirous to increase their opportunities of sexual indulgence.







1. According to Cuvier, what Pliny here says respecting the herds of

wild asses, and the power of the old males, is correct; but it is doubtful

whether there is any foundation for 'what is said about the castration of

the newly-Born animals; Ajasson, ubi supra; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 440.-B.




47. Chap. 47.-Beavers, Amphibious Animals; Others.


CHAP. 47.-BEAVERS, AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS; [1] OTHERS.



The beavers of the Euxine, when they are closely pressed by

danger, themselves cut off the same part, as they know that

it is for this that they are pursued. This substance is called

castoreum by the physicians.[2] In addition to this, the bite

of this animal is terrible; with its teeth it can cut down trees







on the banks of rivers, just as though with a knife.[3] If they

seize a man by any part of his body, they will never loose

their hold until his bones are broken and crackle under their

teeth. The tail is like that of a fish;[4] in the other parts of

the body they resemble the otter;[5] they are both of them

aquatic animals, and both have hair softer than down.







1. "De aquaticis et iisdem terrestribus;" although these words are inserted in the title of this Chapter, the subject is not treated of in it.-B.

2. Pliny here adopts the vulgar opinion respecting the origin of the

substance called "castor," and in B. xxxii. c. 13, gives a more correct description, which he had derived from a physician, named Sextius. It is

a fetid, oily substance, secreted by a gland situate near the prepuce. Cuvier remarks, that when the gland becomes distended with this secretion,

the animal may probably get rid of it by rubbing the part against a stone

or tree, and in this way, leave the castor for the hunters, thus giving rise

to the vulgar error. Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 448; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 440.-B.

3. The beaver has the most powerful teeth of any animal of the class

Rodentia, to which it belongs; it uses them for cutting down trees, with

which it constructs its habitation. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5,

refers to this.-B.

4. The tail is covered with a kind of scale, and is flattened; but, in its

internal organization, is formed like those of other quadrupeds.-B.

5. See B. xxxii. c. 52.




48. Chap. 48. (31.)-Bramble-Frogs.


CHAP. 48. (31.)-BRAMBLE-FROGS.



Bramble-frogs,[1] also, which live both on land and in water,

are replete with various medicinal substances, which they are

said to discharge each day, and to take in again with their

food, of which they only retain the poisonous parts.







1. Pliny, speaking of the different kinds of frogs, B. xxxii. c. 18, says,

"There are some which live only in the hedges, and thence have the name

of rubeta, or bramble frogs." It seems impossible to identify this reptile

with any of our known animals: and we may conclude that there is no

foundation for the statement. lian gives an account of the venomous

nature of this animal. Anim. Nat. B. xvii. c. 12.-B.




49. Chap. 49.-The Sea-Calf; Beavers; Lizards.


CHAP. 49.-THE SEA-CALF; BEAVERS; LIZARDS.



The sea-calf, too, lives equally in the sea and on land,

being possessed of the same degree of intelligence as the beaver.

It vomits forth its gall, which is useful for many purposes in

medicine; also the rennet,[1] which serves as a remedy in

epilepsy; for it is well aware that it is hunted for these sub-







stances. Theophrastus informs us, that lizards[2] also cast their

skins like the serpent, and instantly devour them, thus depriving us of a powerful remedy for epilepsy; he says, too,

that the bite of the lizard is fatal in Greece, but harmless in

Italy.[3]







1. As Cuvier remarks, it is impossible that any animal can discharge by

vomiting what Pliny terms the "coagulum," which is the fourth stomach

of a ruminant animal; the same substance which, under the name of

rennet, is employed to coagulate milk. He conjectures, that the error may

have originated in the observation, that occasionally in fish, when suddenly

drawn out of the water, the air-Bladder is protruded from the mouth,

which may have been mistaken for the stomach. The circumstance is

mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 23, and by lian, Anim.

Nat. B. iii. c. 19, as well as the vomiting of the bile; respecting this

latter, we may remark, that vomiting is produced in various animals, when

under the influence of extreme terror.-B.

2. The gecko, according to Littr.

3. This is incorrect; the bite of this animal, wherever found, is never

fatal.-B.




50. Chap. 50. (32.)-Stags.


CHAP. 50. (32.)-STAGS.



Stags, although the most mild of all animals, have still their

own feelings of malignancy;[1] when hard pressed by the

hounds, of their own accord they fly for refuge to man; and

when the females bring forth, they are less anxious to avoid

the paths which bear traces of human footsteps, than solitary

spots which offer a retreat to wild beasts.[2] They become

pregnant after the rising of the constellation Arcturus;[3] they

bring forth after a gestation of eight months, and sometimes

produce two young ones. They separate after conception, but

the males, upon being thus abandoned, become maddened with

the fury of their passion; they dig up the earth, and their

muzzles become quite black, until they have been washed by

the rain.[4] The females, before they bring forth, purge themselves by means of a certain herb, which is called seselis, by

the use of which parturition is rendered more easy. After delivery, they take a mixture of the two plants called seselis[5] and

aros,[6] and then return to the fawn; they seem desirous, for







some reason or other, that their first milk, after parturition,

should be impregnated with the juice of these plants. They

then exercise the young ones in running, and teach them how

to take to flight, leading them to precipices, and showing them

how to leap. The sexual passion of the male having been now

satisfied, he repairs to the pasture lands with the greatest eagerness. When they feel themselves becoming too fat, they seek

some retired spot, thus acknowledging the inconvenience arising

from their bulk. Besides this, they continually pause in their

flight, stand still and look back, and then again resume their

flight when the enemy approaches. This pause is occasioned

by the intense pain which they feel in the intestines, a part

which is so weak, that a very slight blow will cause them to

break within. The barking of a dog instantly puts them to

flight, and they always run with the wind, in order that no

trace of them may be left. They are soothed by the shepherd's pipe and his song;[7] when their ears are erect, their

sense of hearing is very acute, but when dropped, they become

deaf.[8]

In other respects the stag is a simple animal, which regards

every thing as wonderful, and with a stupid astonishment; so

much so, indeed, that if a horse or cow happens to approach

it, it will not see the hunter, who may be close at hand, or, if

it does see him, it only gazes upon his bow and arrow. Stags

cross the sea in herds, swimming in a long line, the head

of each resting on the haunches of the one that precedes it,

each in its turn falling back to the rear. This has been particularly remarked when they pass over from Cilicia to the

island of Cyprus. Though they do not see the land, they still

are able to direct themselves by the smell. The males have

horns, and are the only animals that shed them every year, at

a stated time in the spring; at which period they seek out

with the greatest care the most retired places, and after

losing them, remain concealed, as though aware that they







are unarmed. Still, however, they envy us the good that these

might do us; for it is said the right horn, which possesses, as it

were, certain medicinal properties, can never be found, a circumstance the more astonishing, from the fact that they change their

horns every year, even when kept in parks;[9] it is generally

thought that they bury their horns in the ground. The odour

of either horn, when burnt, drives away serpents and detects

epilepsy. They also bear the marks of their age on the horns,

every year, up to the sixth,[10] a fresh antler being added; after

which period the horns are renewed in the same state, so that

by means of them their age cannot be ascertained. Their old

age, however, is indicated by their teeth, for then they have

only a few, or none at all; and we then no longer perceive, at

the base of their horns, antlers projecting from the front of the

forehead, as is usually the case with the animal when young.



When this animal is castrated it does not shed its horns, nor

are they reproduced. When the horns begin to be reproduced,

two projections are to be seen, much resembling, at first, dry

skin; they grow with tender shoots, having upon them a soft

down like that on the head of a reed. So long as they are

without horns, they go to feed during the night. As the

horns grow, they harden by the heat of the sun, and the

animal, from time to time, tries their strength upon the trees;

when satisfied with their strength, it leaves its retreat.



Stags, too, have been occasionally caught with ivy green

and growing on their horns,[11] the plant having taken root

on them, as it would on any piece of wood, while the animal

was rubbing them against the trees. The stag is sometimes

found white, as is said to have been the case with the hind

of Q. Sertorius, which he persuaded the nations of Spain to

look upon as having the gift of prophecy.[12] The stag, too,







fights with the serpent: it traces out the serpent's hole, and

draws it forth by the breath of its lostrils,[13] and hence it is

that the smell of burnt stags' horn has the remarkable power

of driving away serpents. The very best remedy for the bite

of a serpent is the rennet of a fawn that has been killed in the

womb of its mother.



The stag is generally admitted to be very long lived; some

were captured at the end of one hundred years with the golden

collars which Alexander the Great had put upon them, and

which were quite concealed by the folds of the skin, in consequence of the accumulation of fat.[14] This animal is not subject to fever, and, indeed, it is a preservative against that complaint. We know that of late some women of princely rank

have been in the habit of eating the flesh of the stag every

morning, and that they have arrived at an extreme old age,

free from all fevers. It is, however, generally supposed that

the animal must be killed by a single wound to make sure of

it possessing this virtue.



(33.) Of the same species is an animal, which only differs

from the stag in having a beard and long hair about the

shoulders: it is called tragelaphus,[15] and is produced nowhere

except on the banks of the Phasis.[16]







1. This refers to what will be found stated in this Chapter, that stags

conceal their horns, when they fall off, that they may not be used in medicine.-B.

2. This is mentioned by Aristotle, Plutarch, and lian, but it must be

considered as very doubtful.-B.

3. See B. xviii. c. 74.

4. It seems that Pliny here attributes the blackening of the mouths of

the stags to their turning up the earth with their muzzles; Aristotle, however, refers it to a constitutional cause, arising from their violent sexual

excitement; Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 29.-B.

5. Or seseli, probably hart-wort. See B. xx. c. 87, and B. xxv. c. 52.

6. We learn from Hardouin, that there has been much discussion respecting the plants or other substances which the female is supposed to eat

after parturition. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, asserts that it eats

the chorion, the membrane in which the ftus has been enveloped, and

afterwards the herb seselis. To make the account of Pliny agree with

that of Aristotle, some of the commentators have even supposed, that

chorion here means the name of a plant, and they have proposed to substitute the word chorion for aros in the text.-B. Aros is probably the

present "Arum maculatum," or wake-robin. See p. 307, N. 78.

7. Aristotle, Plutarch, and Xenophon speak of the influence of music on

these animals.-B.

8. Aristotle, ubi supra, mentions this respecting their ears; the same

takes place, to a certain extent, with all animals that have large external

auricles.-B.

9. Aristotle, ubi supra, lian, ubi supra, and B. iii. c. 17, and Theophrastus, in a fragment on the Envious among Animals, agree in stating

that one of the horns of the stag is never found, although they differ respecting the individual horn, whether the right one or the left. Aristotle

says that it is the left, while Theophrastus and lian agree with the statement of Pliny.-B.

10. Cuvier says, that no antlers are added after the eighth year.-B.

11. This, as well as most of the statements respecting the growth of the

horns, is mentioned by Aristotle, ubi supra, but it is quite unfounded.-B.

12. This story of the white hind of Sertorius, is given in detail by Aulus

Gellius, B. xv. c. 22, who tells us that it was given to him by a native of

Lusitania, upon which Sertorius pretended that it had been sent from Diana, who, through it, held converse with him, and instructed him how

to act. Plutarch, Frontinus, and Valerius Maximus, also relate the story.

13. This story, which is obviously incorrect, is mentioned by lian,

Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 9; and is again referred to in B. xxviii. c. 42.-B.

14. Graguinus, Hist. Franc. B. ix. c. 3, relates a still more wonderful

anecdote of a similar nature; but, as Buffon remarks, such tales are without foundation, the life of the stag not being more than thirty or forty

years. Cuvier, also, says that its life does not exceed thirty-six or forty

years.-B.

15. The real nature of the tragelaphus of Pliny, and the hippelaphus,

or horse-stag of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 1, which appear to be the

same animal, had long remained a disputed question among naturalists,

when, as Cuvier states, the point was decided by Alphonse Duvaucel, who

ascertained that it was a species of stag, which inhabited the mountains of

the north of Hindostan.-B.

16. And in Arabia as well, according to Diodorus Siculus, B. ii.




51. Chap. 51.-The Chameleon.


CHAP. 51.-THE CHAMELEON.



Africa is almost the only country that does not produce[1]







the stag, but then it produces the chameleon,[2] although it is

much more commonly met with in India. Its figure and size

are that of a lizard, only that its legs are straight and longer.

Its sides unite under its belly, as in fishes, and its spine projects in a similar manner. Its muzzle is not unlike the snout

of a small hog, so far as in so small an animal it can be. Its

tail is very long, and becomes smaller towards the end, coiling

up in folds like that of the viper. It has hooked claws, and

a slow movement like that of the tortoise; its body is rough

like that of the crocodile; its eyes are deep sunk in the orbits,

placed very near each other, very large, and of the same

colour as the body. It never closes them, and when the

animal looks round, it does so, not by the motion of the pupil,

but of the white of the eye.[3] It always holds the head upright and the mouth open, and is the only animal which receives nourishment neither by meat nor drink, nor anything

else, but from the air alone.[4] Towards the end of the dog-days[5]

it is fierce, but at other times quite harmless. The nature

of its colour, too, is very remarkable, for it is continually

changing; its eyes, its tail, and its whole body always

assuming the colour of whatever object is nearest, with the

exception of white and red.[6] After death, it becomes of a







pale colour. It has a little flesh about the head, the jaws,

and the root of the tail, but none whatever on the rest of the

body. It has no blood whatever, except in the heart and

about the eyes, and its entrails are without a spleen.[7] It

conceals itself during the winter months, just like the lizard.







1. This fact is confirmed by Cuvier, who observes, that it is the more

remarkable that Africa should be without stags, as it abounds in gazelles of

all forms and colours. He supposes that those travellers, who affirm that they have seen stags in this country, had really met with gazelles, which

they mistook for those animals; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 451; Lemaire, vol.

iii. p. 453.-B

2. Cuvier remarks, that Pliny's account of the chameleon appears to be

taken from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii c. 11, but that it is less correct.

He notices Aristotle's account of the eye, which is more accurately given

than the account of Pliny; Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 451, 452; Lemaire, vol. iii.

p. 454.-B. The chameleon receives its name from the Greek xamai\ le/wn,

"the lion on the ground."

3. See B. xi. c. 55.

4. One of those popular errors which have descended from the ancients

to our times; the chameleon feeds on insects, which it seizes by means of

its long flexible tongue; the quantity of food which it requires appears,

however, to be small in proportion to its bulk.-B.

5. "Circa caprificos." Some commentators would understand this in

reference to the wild fig-tree, and take it to mean that the animal is more

furious when in its vicinity. The conjecture of Hardouin, however, seems

more reasonable. He takes "caprificos" to mean the same as the "caprificialis dies," mentioned in B. xi. c. 15, as being sacred to Vulcan, and

falling towards the end of the dog-days.

6. This is another of the erroneous opinions respecting the chameleon,

which has been very generally adopted. It forms the basis of Merrick's popular poem of the Chameleon. The animal, indeed, assumes various

shades or tints, but the changes depend upon internal or constitutional

causes, not any external object. lian, Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 14, refers to

the change of colour, but does not allude to its colour having any connection with that of the object with which it comes in contact.-B.

7. The quantity of muscular fibre and blood in the chameleon is no

doubt small in proportion to the bulk of the animal, although not much

less than in other animals of the same natural order; its spleen is very

minute, as Cuvier says, not larger than the seed of a lentil.-B.




52. Chap. 52.-Other Animals Which Change Colour; The Tarandus, The Lycaon, And The Thos.


CHAP. 52.-OTHER ANIMALS WHICH CHANGE COLOUR; THE TARANDUS, THE LYCAON, AND THE THOS.



The tarandrus,[1] too, of the Scythians, changes its colour,

but this is the case with none of the animals which are covered

with hair, except the lycaon[2] of India, which is said to have

a mane on the neck. But with respect to the thos,[3] (which is

a species of wolf, differing from the common kind in having a

larger body and very short legs, leaping with great activity,

living by the chase, and never attacking man); it changes its







coat, and not its colour, for it is covered with hair in the winter,

and goes bare in summer. The tarandrus is of the size of

the ox; its head is larger than that of the stag, and not very

unlike it; its horns are branched, its hoofs cloven, and its

hair as long as that of the bear. Its proper colour, when it

thinks proper to return to it, is like that of the ass. Its hide

is of such extreme hardness, that it is used for making breastplates. When it is frightened, this animal reflects the colour

of all the trees, shrubs, and flowers, or of the spots in which it

is concealed; hence it is that it is so rarely captured. It is

wonderful that such various hues should be given to the body,

but still more so that it should be given to the hair.







1. Cuvier remarks, that this account is from the anonymous treatise

De Mirab. Auscult. p. 1152, and from Theophrastus; and that it was probably derived, in the first instance, from the imperfect account which the

ancients possessed of the reindeer, the hair of which animal becomes

nearly white in the winter, and in the summer of a brown or grey colour.

Bekmann, however, who has written a commentary on the above-mentioned

treatise, supposes that the tarandrus is the elk. Cuvier conceives, that the

animal described by Csar, Bell. Gall. B. vi. c. 26, as inhabiting the

Hercynian Forest, which he designates as "bos cervi figura," is the reindeer; and suggests that "tarandrus" may have originated in the German,

das rennthier. Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 453, 454; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 456, 457.

lian, Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 16, speaks of the change of colour in the tarandrus in a way which does not correspond with any animal known to

exist.-B. Pliny's stories of the tarandrus, thos, and chameleon are ridiculed by Rabelais, B. iv. c. 3.

2. Cuvier supposes that the lycaon of Pliny is the Indian tiger, which

has a mane; but what is said of its change of colour is incorrect.-B.

3. Naturalists have differed respecting the identity of the animal here

described, but Cuvier conceives, that Bochart has proved it to be the canis

aureus chakal (jackal) of Linnus. The description given by Aristotle,

Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 17, and B. ix. c. 44, agrees with this supposition;

it is also described by Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. c. 615.-B.




53. Chap. 53. (35.)-The Porcupine.


CHAP. 53. (35.)-THE PORCUPINE.



India and Africa produce the porcupine, the body of which

is covered with prickles. It is a species of hedgehog, but the

quills of the porcupine are longer, and when it stretches the

skin, it discharges them like so many missiles. With these it

pierces the mouths of the dogs which are pressing hard upon

it, and even sends its darts to some distance further[1] It

conceals itself during the winter months, which, indeed, is the

nature of many animals, and more especially the bear.







1. It is possible that the quills of the porcupine may be stuck into the

skin of the dog so firmly, as to be detached from their natural situation;

but there is no reason to believe that they can be darted out or projected

by any exertion of the animal. lian, Anim. Nat. B. i. c. 31, and B. xii.

c. 26, describes the hystrix; see also Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi, c.

30.-B.




54. Chap. 54. (36.)-Bears And Their Cubs.


CHAP. 54. (36.)-BEARS AND THEIR CUBS.



Bears couple in the beginning of winter,[1] and not after the

fashion of other quadrupeds; for both animals lie down and embrace each other.[2] The female then retires by herself to a separate den, and there brings forth on the thirtieth day, mostly

five young ones. When first born, they are shapeless masses of

white flesh, a little larger than mice;[3] their claws alone being







prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into proper

shape. There is nothing more uncommon than to see a she-bear in the act of parturition.[4] The male remains in his

retreat for forty days, the female four months. If they

happen to have no den, they construct a retreat with branches

and shrubs, which is made impenetrable to the rain and is

lined with soft leaves. During the first fourteen days they are

overcome by so deep a sleep, that they cannot be aroused by

wounds even. They become wonderfully fat, too, while in this

lethargic state. This fat is much used in medicine; and it is

very useful in preventing the hair from falling off.[5] At the end

of these fourteen days they sit up, and find nourishment by

sucking their fore-paws.[6] They warm their cubs, when cold,

by pressing them to the breast, not unlike the way in which

birds brood over their eggs. It is a very astonishing thing, but

Theophrastus believes it, that if we preserve the flesh of the

bear, the animal being killed in its dormant state, it will increase in bulk, even though it may have been cooked.[7] During

this period no signs of food are to be found in the stomach

of the animal, and only a very slight quantity of liquid; there

are a few drops of blood only near the heart, but none whatever in any other part of the body.[8] They leave their retreat

in the spring, the males being remarkably fat: of this circumstance, however, we cannot give any satisfactory explanation, for the sleep, during which they increase so much in bulk,

lasts, as we have already stated, only fourteen days.[9] When

they come out, they eat a certain plant, which is known as







aros,[10] in order to relax the bowels, which would otherwise

become in a state of constipation; and they sharpen the edges

of their teeth against the young shoots of the trees. Their

eye-sight is dull, for which reason in especial, they seek the

combs of bees, in order that from the bees stinging them in

the throat and drawing blood, the oppression in the head may

be relieved.[11] The head of the bear is extremely weak, whereas,

in the lion, it is remarkable for its strength: on which account

it is, that when the bear, impelled by any alarm, is about to

precipitate itself from a rock, it covers its head with its paws.

In the arena of the Circus they are often to be seen killed by

a blow on the head with the fist. The people of Spain have

a belief, that there is some kind of magical poison in the brain

of the bear, and therefore burn the heads of those that have

been killed in their public games; for it is averred, that the

brain, when mixed with drink, produces in man the rage of

the bear.[12] These animals walk on two feet, and climb down

trees backwards.[13] They can overcome the bull, by suspending

themselves, by all four legs, from its muzzle and horns, thus

wearing out its powers by their weight. In no other animal

is stupidity found more adroit in devising mischief. It is re-

corded in our Annals, that on the fourteenth day before the

calends of October,[14] in the consulship of M. Piso and M. Messala, Domitius Ahenobarbus, the curule dile, brought into

the Circus one hundred Numidian bears, and as many thiopian hunters. I am surprised to find the word Numilian

added, seeing that it is well known that there are no bears produced in Africa.[15]











1. Cuvier remarks, that this account of the bear is generally correct; he

points out, however, certain errors, which will be duly noticed. lian,

Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 3, gives an account of the parturition of the bear.-B.

2. This description of their mode of coupling, though from Aristotle,

Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 30, is not correct. Buffon and other naturalists

assure us that they do not differ herein from other quadrupeds.-B.

3. Aristotle says, that the cubs are born blind, without hair, and that their limbs are ill formed, which is correct; but the account here given is

greatly exaggerated.-B.

4. As the birth takes place when the mother is in her winter retreat, it

can have been witnessed only when in the menagerie.-B.

5. This is referred to in B. xxviii. c. 46; this property of the fat of the

bear is also mentioned by Galen and by Dioscorides, and it still retains its

place among our popular remedies; but it is difficult to conceive that it can

have any virtue above other fatty substances of the same consistence.-B.

6. This, which appears to be a vulgar error, is mentioned by Aristotle,

Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 17; by lian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 3; and by Oppian, Halieut. B. ii.-B.

7. We have a somewhat similar account in the treatise De Mirab.

Auscult. p 1155.-B.

8. Probably from Aristotle, ubi supra.-B.

9. This apparent anomaly has been attempted to be explained, by supposing that the bears lay up a plentiful store of provisions in their winter

retreats, which they consume while they remain without exercise.-B.

10. Pliny enumerates, at considerable length, the varieties of aros, in B.

xxiv. c. 92; it is also described in B. xix. c. 30; it is probably a species

of arum.-B. See pp. 299, 300, N. 47.

11. This is, of course, without foundation.-B.

12. This supposed noxious quality is entirely without foundation.-B.

13. This probably refers more particularly to the mode in which the bear

descends from trees or poles, in the supine posture, not, as is the case in

most other animals, with the head downwards.-B.

14. 18th September.

15. It appears, from the remarks of Cuvier, to be still doubtful whether

the bear be really a native of Africa; see Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 457; Le-

maire, vol. iii. p. 466.-B.




55. Chap. 55. (37.)-The Mice Of Pontus And Of The Alps.


CHAP. 55. (37.)-THE MICE OF PONTUS AND OF THE ALPS.



The mice of Pontus also conceal themselves during the

winter; but only the white ones.[1] I wonder how those

authors, who have asserted that the sense of taste in these

animals is very acute, found out that such is the fact. The

Alpine mice, which are the same size as badgers, also conceal

themselves;[2] but they first carry a store of provisions into

their retreat. Some writers, indeed, say that the male and

female, lying on their backs alternately, hold in their paws a

bundle of gnawed herbs, and, the tail of each in its turn being

seized by the teeth of the other, in this way, they are

dragged into their hole; hence it is, that at this season

their hair is found to be rubbed off their backs. There is a

similar animal also in Egypt,[3] which sits, in the same way,

upon its haunches, and walks on two feet, using the fore feet

as hands.







1. It is supposed that the white mouse of Pontus, mentioned also by

Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 17, is the ermine, or else the marten;

but, as Cuvier remarks, Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 457, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 467,

the ermine does not hibernate.-B.

2. Cuvier, ubi supra, conceives that the Alpine mouse is the marmot;

but he remarks, that it is inferior in size to the badger.-B.

3. Cuvier, ubi supra, conceives the Egyptian mouse to be the jerboa,

the Musjaculus of Linnus; but it is much smaller than the marmot.

Pliny, in B. x. c. 85, says, that the Egyptian mouse walks on two feet, as

does the mouse of the Alps. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 37, and

lian, Anim. Nat. B. xv. c. 26, refer to the mouse of Egypt.-B. Probably the Mus cahirinus.




56. Chap. 56.-Hedgehogs.


CHAP. 56.-HEDGEHOGS.



Hedgehogs also lay up food for the winter; rolling themselves

on apples as they lie on the ground, they pierce one with their

quills, and then take up another in the mouth, and so carry

them into the hollows of trees. These animals also, when they

conceal themselves in their holes, afford a sure sign that the

wind is about to change from north-east to south.[1] When they







perceive the approach of the hunter, they draw in the head

and feet, and all the lower part of the body, which is covered

by a thin and defenceless down only, and then roll themselves

up into the form of a ball, so that there is no way of taking

hold of them but by their quills. When they are reduced

to a state of desperation, they discharge a corrosive urine,

which injures their skin and quills, as they are aware that it

is for the sake of them that they are hunted. A skilful hunter,

therefore, will only pursue them when they have just discharged

their urine. In this case the skin retains its value; while

in the other case, it becomes spoilt and easily torn, the quills

rotting and falling off, even though the animal should escape

with its life. For this reason it is that it never moistens itself

with this poisonous fluid, except when reduced to the last stage

of desperation; for it has a perfect hatred for its own venomous

distillation, and so careful is the animal, so determined to wait

till the very last moment, that it is generally caught before it

has employed this means of defence.



They force it to unroll itself, by sprinkling warm water upon it, and then, suspended by one of its hind legs, it is left

to die of hunger; for there is no other mode of destroying it,

without doing injury to its skin. This animal is not, as many

of us imagine, entirely useless to man. If it were not for the

quills which it produces, the soft fleece of the sheep would

have been given in vain to mankind; for it is by means of its

skin, that our woollen cloth is dressed. From the monopoly

of this article, great frauds and great profits have resulted;[2]

there is no subject on which the senate has more frequently

passed decrees, and there is not one of the Emperors, who has

not received from the provinces complaints respecting it.[3]











1. The faculty which these and other animals possess of foreseeing the

weather and the future direction of the wind, is mentioned by Plutarch,

and as existing especially in the hedgehog. It is also mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6; but it is not confined, as Pliny states, to

its change in one direction only. It has been suggested by some commentators, that, by a slight alteration in the text, the statement may be

extended to a change of the wind in either direction, Lemaire, vol. iii. p.

468.-B.

2. The teasel, or carding thistle, is now used for this purpose; as also

iron wires, crooked and sharpened at the point. Not a single quill, probably of the hedgehog, is now used in the manufacture of cloth.

3. Dalechamps suggests that these complaints were probably to the

effect that thistles and thorns were employed instead of the quills of the

hedgehog; that the skin of the hedgehog was brought to market in a bad

state; and again, that the rich merchants were in the habit of buying them

up, and forestalling the market. Hardouin quotes an edict of the Emperor

Zeno against monopolies of hedgehogs and carding materials, if, indeed,

that is the meaning of the word "pectinum."




57. Chap. 57. (38.)-The Leontophonus, And The Lynx.


CHAP. 57. (38.)-THE LEONTOPHONUS, AND THE LYNX. [1]



There are also two other animals, whose urine possesses

very wonderful properties. We have heard speak of a small

animal, to which the name of leontophonus[2] has been given,

and which is said to exist only in those countries where the lion

is produced; if its flesh is only tasted by the lion, so intensely

venomous is its nature, that this lord of the other quadrupeds

instantly expires. Hence it is, that the hunters of the lion

burn its body to ashes, and sprinkle a piece of flesh with the

powder, and so kill the lion by means of the ashes even-so

fatal to it is this poison! The lion, therefore, not without

good reason hates the leontophonus, and after destroying its

sight, kills it without inflicting a bite: the animal, on the

other hand, sprinkles the lion with its urine, being well aware

that this too is fatal to it.



The urine of the lynx, in the countries[3] where that animal

is produced, either becomes crystallized, or else hardens into a

precious stone, resembling the carbuncle, and which shines like

tire.[4] This is called lyncurium;[5] and hence it is, that many

persons believe that this is the way in which amber is produced. The lynx, being well aware of this property, envies

us the possession of its urine, and therefore buries it in the

earth;[6] by this, however, it becomes solid all the sooner.







1. These statements are from the treatise De Mirab. Ausc., but, as

Cuvier remarks, are fabulous, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 470; Ajasson, vol. vi.

p. 458.-B.

2. Leontofono\s,the "lion-killer."

3. See c. 30 of this Book.

4. This fable is referred to by Ovid, Metam. B. xv. 1. 414, and by Theophrastus in his Treatise on Stones.

5. See B. xxxvii. c. 11.

6. It is not unusual for animals to cover their excrements with earth,

probably from the fact of their being annoyed by the unpleasant odour.

-B.




58. Chap. 58.-Badgers And Squirrels.


CHAP. 58.-BADGERS AND SQUIRRELS.



The badger, when alarmed, shows its fear by a different

kind of artifice; inflating the skin, it distends it to such a

degree, as to repel equally the blows of men and the bite of

dogs.[1] The squirrel, also, has the power of foreseeing storms,







and so, stopping up its hole at the side from which the wind

blows, it leaves the other side open; besides which, the tail,

which is furnished with longer hair than the rest of the body,

serves as a covering for it. It appears, therefore,[2] that some

animals lay up a store of food for the winter, while others

pass the time in sleep, which serves them instead of food.







1. This statement respecting the "meles," or badger, as well as what is

said of the prescience of the squirrel, is without foundation. There has been some difference of opinion respecting the identity of the animal, which

Pliny calls "meles;" by some it has been supposed to be the polecat, or

else the weasel.-B.

2. This bears reference to what is said of bears in c. 54, and of Alpine

mice and hedgehogs.




59. Chap. 59. (39.)-Vipers And Snails.


CHAP. 59. (39.)-VIPERS AND SNAILS.



It is said, that the viper is the only one among the serpents

that conceals itself in the earth; the others lurking either in

the hollows of trees or in holes in the rocks.[1] Provided they

are not destroyed by cold, they can live there, without taking

food, for a whole year.[2] During the time that they are asleep

in their retreat, none of them are venomous.



A similar state of torpor exists also in snails. These animals

again become dormant during the summer, adhering very

powerfully to stones; and even, when turned up and pulled

away from the stones, they will not leave their shells. In the

Balearic isles, the snails which are known as the cave-snail,[3]

do not leave their holes in the ground, nor do they feed upon

any green thing, but adhere to each other like so many grapes.

There is another less common species also, which is closed by

an operculum that adheres to the shell.[4] These animals always burrow under the earth, and were formerly never found,

except in the environs of the Maritime Alps; they have, however, of late been dug up in the territory of Liternum;[5] the







most valued, however, of all, are those of the island of Astypala.[6]







1. This statement is contrary to the account given by Aristotle, Hist.

Anim. B. viii. c. 15; he says, that while other serpents conceal themselves

in holes in the earth, vipers conceal themselves under rocks.-B.

2. Cuvier remarks, Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 458, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 473, that

nothing is more striking, either to the vulgar or to the man of science,

than the long abstinence from food which serpents are capable of

enduring.-B.

3. Cavatica.

4. This is the case with the Helix Pomatia, and still more so with the

Helix Neritoidea, which is very common in the neighbourhood of Nice,

and which, at the approach of winter, is furnished with an operculum of

great thickness.-B.

5. See B. iii. c. 9.

6. See B. iv. c. 23. The Romans valued them as a delicate food.




60. Chap. 60.-Lizards.


CHAP. 60.-LIZARDS. [1]



It is said, that the lizard, the greatest enemy of all to the

snail, never prolongs its life beyond six months. The lizards

of Arabia are a cubit in length,[2] while those upon Nysa,[3] a

mountain of India, are twenty-four feet long, their colour

being either yellow, purple, or azure blue.







1. This account appears to be principally from Aristotle, Hist Anim.

B. v. c. 29.-B.

2. According to Cuvier, Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 458, and Lemaire, vol. iii.

p. 475, the species of lizard named monitor, frequently exceeds this size;

but he remarks, in reference to the size of the Indian lizard, that none of

the saurians, except the crocodile, attains the length here mentioned.-B.

3. See B. vi. c. 23.




61. Chap. 61. (40.)-The Qualities Of The Dog; Examples Of Ts Attachment To Its Master; Nations Which Have Kept Dogs For The Purposes Of War.


CHAP. 61. (40.)-THE QUALITIES OF THE DOG; EXAMPLES OF TS ATTACHMENT TO ITS MASTER; NATIONS WHICH HAVE KEPT DOGS FOR THE PURPOSES OF WAR.



Among the animals, also, that are domesticated with mankind,

there are many circumstances that are far from undeserving

of being known: among these, there are more particularly

that most faithful friend of man, the dog, and the horse. We

have an account of a dog that fought against a band of robbers,

in defending its master; and although it was pierced with

wounds, still it would not leave the body, from which it drove

away all birds and beasts. Another dog, again, in Epirus,

recognized the murderer of its master, in the midst of an assemblage of people, and, by biting and barking at him, extorted from him a confession of his crime. A king of the

Garamantes also was brought back from exile by two hundred

dogs, which maintained the combat against all his opponents.

The people of Colophon[1] and Castabala[2] kept troops of dogs,

for the purposes of war; and these used to fight in the front

rank, and never retreat; they were the most faithful of auxiliaries, and yet required no pay. After the defeat of the

Cimbri, their dogs defended their moveable houses, which were

carried upon waggons. Jason, the Lycian, having been slain,







his dog refused to take food, and died of famine. A dog, to

which Darius gives the name of Hyrcanus, upon the funeral

pile of King Lysimachus being lighted, threw itself into the

flames,[3] and the dog of King Hiero did the same. Philistus

also gives a similar account of Pyrrhus, the dog of the tyrant

Gelon: and it is said, also, that the dog of Nicomedes, king of

Bithynia, tore Consingis,[4] the wife of that king, in consequence

of her wanton behaviour, when toying with her husband.



Among ourselves, Volcatius, a man of rank, who instructed

Cascellius in the civil law,[5] as he was riding on his Asturian

jennet, towards evening, from his country-house, was attacked

by a robber, and was only saved by his dog. The senator

Clius,[6] too, while lying sick at Placentia, was surprised by

armed men, but received not a wound from them until they

had first killed his dog. But a more extraordinary fact than

all, is what took place in our own times, and is testified by the

public register of the Roman people. In the consulship of

Appius Junius and P. Silius, when Titius Sabinus[7] was put to







death, together with his slaves, for the affair of Nero, the son of

Germanicus, it was found impossible to drive away a dog which

belonged to one of them from the prison; nor could it be forced

away from the body, which had been cast down the Gemitorian

steps;[8] but there it stood howling, in the presence of vast

multitudes of people; and when some one threw a piece of bread

to it, the animal carried it to the mouth of its master. Afterwards, when the body was thrown into the Tiber, the dog

swam into the river, and endeavoured to raise it out of the

water; quite a throng of people being collected to witness this

instance of an animal's fidelity.



Dogs are the only animals that are sure to know their masters;

and if they suddenly meet him as a stranger, they will instantly

recognize him. They are the only animals that will answer

to their names, and recognize the voices of the family. They

recollect a road along which they have passed, however long

it may be. Next to man, there is no living creature whose

memory is so retentive. By sitting down on the ground, we

may arrest their most impetuous attack, even when prompted

by the most violent rage.



In daily life we have discovered many other valuable qualities in this animal; but its intelligence and sagacity are more

especially shown in the chase. It discovers and traces out the

tracks of the animal, leading by the leash[9] the sportsman who

accompanies it straight up to the prey; and as soon as ever it

has perceived it, how silent it is, and how secret but significant

is the indication which it gives, first by the tail and afterwards

by the nose![10] Hence it is, that even when worn out with

old age, blind, and feeble, they are carried by the huntsman

in his arms, being still able to point out the coverts where

the game is concealed, by snuffing with their muzzles at the

wind. The Indians raise a breed between the dog and the

tiger,[11] and for this purpose tie up the females in the forests







when in heat. The first two litters they look upon as too savage

to be reared, but they bring up the third.



The Gauls do the same with the wolf and the dog;[12] and

their packs of hounds have, each of them, one of these dogs,

which acts as their guide and leader. This dog they follow

in the chase, and him they carefully obey; for these animals

have even a notion of subordination among themselves. It is

asserted that the dogs keep running when they drink at the

Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the voracity of the

crocodile.[13] When Alexander the Great was on his Indian

expedition, he was presented by the king of Albania with a

dog of unusual size; being greatly delighted with its noble

appearance, he ordered bears, and after them wild boars, and

then deer, to be let loose before it; but the dog lay down, and

regarded them with a kind of immoveable contempt. The

noble spirit of the general became irritated by the sluggishness thus manifested by an animal of such vast bulk, and he

ordered it to be killed. The report of this reached the king,

who accordingly sent another dog, and at the same time sent

word that its powers were to be tried, not upon small animals,

but upon the lion or the elephant; adding, that he had had

originally but two, and that if this one were put to death, the

race would be extinct. Alexander, without delay, procured a

lion, which in his presence was instantly torn to pieces. He

then ordered an elephant to be brought, and never was he

more delighted with any spectacle; for the dog, bristling up

its hair all over the body, began by thundering forth a loud

barking, and then attacked the animal, leaping at it first on

one side and then on the other, attacking it in the most skilful

manner, and then again retreating at the opportune moment,

until at last the elephant, being rendered quite giddy by turning round and round, fell to the earth, and made it quite reecho with his fall.











1. See B. v. c. 31.

2. See B. v. c. 22, and B. vi. c. 3.

3. This anecdote is referred to by lian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 25. He

gives an account of the dog of Gelon, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 62, and Var.

Hist. B. i. c. 13.-B.

4. Tzetzes, Chil. iii. of his History, calls her Ditizela, and thus alludes

to this story: "The said Nicomedes had a dog of very large size, and of

Molossian breed, which manifested great fidelity to him. One day seeing

his mistress, the wife of Nicomedes, and the mother of Prusias, Zielus, and

Lysandra, Ditizela, by name, and a Phrygian by birth, toying with the

king, he took her for an enemy, and rushing on her, tore her right shoulder." It is supposed that she died of the injuries thus received. Some

editions call her Condingis, and others Cosingis.

5. A. Cascellius was an eminent Roman jurist, but nothing seems to be

known of his preceptor, Volcatius, whose prnomen is thought to have been

Mucius. Cascellius was noted for his great eloquence and his stern republican principles; and of Csar's conduct and government he spoke with

the greatest freedom. He never advanced in civic honours beyond the

qustorship, though he was offered the consulship by Augustus; which he

declined. He is frequently quoted in the Digest. Horace, in his Art of

Poetry, 11. 371, 372, pays a compliment to the legal reputation of

Cascellius, who is also mentioned by Valerius Maximus and Macrobius.

6. From lian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 10, it appears that his name was

Clius Calvus, but probably no further particulars are known of him.

7. He was a distinguished Roman eques, and a friend of Germanicus;

for which reason he incurred the hatred of Sejanus. To satisfy the vengeance of Tiberius and his favourite Sejanus, one Latinus Latiaris, a sup-

posed friend of Sabinus, induced him to speak in unguarded terms of

Sejanus and Tiberius, and then betrayed his confidence. He was put to

death in prison.

8. More commonly called the Gradus or Scale Gemoni, "the stairs of

wailing;" a place down which the bodies of the criminals were thrown,

when executed in prison.-B.

9. "Lorum," the leather thong by which the dogs were held until the

proper moment, when they were "let slip" upon their prey.

10. This is mentioned by Gratian, Cyneget. 1. 237.-B.

11. This practice is mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 33,

and Diodorus Siculus, B. xvii. But Cuvier informs us, that neither the

tiger nor the panther are capable of generating with the dog; he supposes that the account was invented to enhance the value of the spotted or striped

dogs, which were brought from India.-B.

12. The dog is capable of generating with the wolf; and as what is termed

the shepherd's dog much resembles the wolf, Cuvier conceives it not impossible, that it may have originated from this mixture; Ajasson, vol. vi. p.

459; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 481.-B.

13. This is mentioned by lian, in his Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 53, and his Var.

Hist. B. i. c. 4. It likewise forms the subject of one of Phdrus's Fables.




62. Chap. 62.-The Generation Of The Dog.


CHAP. 62.-THE GENERATION OF THE DOG. [1]



This animal brings forth twice in the year; it is capable

of bearing young when a year old, and gestation continues for

sixty days. The young ones are born blind, and the greater

the supply of nourishment from the mother's milk, the more

slowly do they acquire their sight; still, however, this never

takes place later than the twentieth day, or earlier than the

seventh. It is said by some writers, that if only one is born,

it is able to see on the ninth day; and that if there are two,

they begin to see on the tenth, every additional one causing the

power of seeing to come a day later. It is said, too, that the

females which are produced by the mother in her first litter,

are subject to the night-mare.[2] The best dog of the litter is

the one which is last in obtaining its sight, or else the one

which the mother carries first into her bed.







1. These statements are probably, for the most part, from Aristotle,

Hist. Anim, B. v. c. 14, and B. vi. c. 20.-B.

2. "Faunos cerni." Hardouin remarks on these words; "Flitting before

the sight, and rushing upon each other, like the Ephialtes," and refers,

for a farther explanation, to his commentary on the passage in B. xxv. c.

10, where the subject is treated more at large. The Ephialtes is generally

supposed to have been what we term incubus or nightmare.-B.




63. Chap. 63.-Remedies Against Canine Madness.


CHAP. 63.-REMEDIES AGAINST CANINE MADNESS. [1]



Canine madness is fatal to man during the heat of Sirius,[2]

and, as we have already said, it proves so in consequence of

those who are bitten having a deadly horror of water.[3] For

this reason, during the thirty days[4] that this star exerts its

influence, we try to prevent the disease by mixing dung from







the poultry-yard with the dog's food; or else, if they are already attacked by the disease, by giving them hellebore.



(41.) We have a single remedy against the bite, which has

been but lately discovered, by a kind of oracle, as it were-the root of the wild rose, which is called cynorrhodos,[5] or dogrose. Columella informs us, that if, on the fortieth day after

the birth of the pup, the last bone of the tail is bitten off, the

sinew will follow with it; after which, the tail will not grow,

and the dog will never become rabid.[6] It is mentioned, among

the other prodigies, and this I take to be one indeed, that a

dog once spoke;[7] and that when Tarquin was expelled from

the kingdom, a serpent barked.







1. All these remedies are perfectly useless.-B.

2. Pliny details the noxious effects, conceived to be produced by the influence of Sirius, in B. ii. c. 40, and, among others, its tendency to produce

canine madness. In B. xxix. c. 32, he enumerates the various remedies

proposed for the disease; these, however, are equally inefficacious with

those mentioned here.-B.

3. We have an account of this disease in Celsus, B. v. c. 27, and

especially of the peculiar symptom from which it derives its classical

denomination. It is remarkable that Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 22,

speaking of canine madness, says, that it is communicated by the dog to all

animals, except man.-B. See B. vii. c. 13.

4. It appears that there was a difference of opinion as to the number of

days during which the Dog-star continued to exercise its influence.-B.

5. The history of this supposed discovery is related more at large, B. xxv.

c. 2 and 6. The popular name of the plant is still the "dog-rose."-B.

6. Columella says, that the operation prevents the tail from acquiring

"fdum incrementum," "afoul increase;" and, as many shepherds say,

secures the animal from the disease.-B.

7. This is one of the marvellous tales related by Julius Obsequens,

c. 103.-B.




64. Chap. 64. (42.)-The Nature Of The Horse.


CHAP. 64. (42.)-THE NATURE OF THE HORSE.



King Alexander had also a very remarkable horse;[1] it

was called Bucephalus, either on account of the fierceness of

its aspect, or because it had the figure of a bull's head marked

on its shoulder. It is said, that he was struck with its beauty

when he was only a boy, and that it was purchased from the stud

of Philonicus, the Pharsalian, for thirteen talents.[2] When it

was equipped with the royal trappings, it would suffer no one

except Alexander to mount it, although at other times it would

allow any one to do so. A memorable circumstance connected

with it in battle is recorded of this horse; it is said that when

it was wounded in the attack upon Thebes, it would not allow

Alexander to mount any other horse. Many other circumstances, also, of a similar nature, occurred respecting it; so that

when it died, the king duly performed its obsequies, and built

around its tomb a city, which he named after it.[3]



It is said, also, that Csar, the Dictator, had a horse, which







would allow no one to mount but himself, and that its forefeet were like those of a man; indeed it is thus represented

in the statue before the temple of Venus Genetrix.[4] The late

Emperor Augustus also erected a tomb to his horse; on which

occasion Germanicus Csar[5] wrote a poem, which still exists.

There are at Agrigentum many tombs of horses, in the form of

pyramids.[6] Juha informs us, that Semiramis was so greatly

enamoured of a horse, as to have had connection with it.[7]

The Scythian horsemen make loud boasts of the fame of their

cavalry. On one occasion, one of their chiefs having been

slain in single combat, when the conqueror came to take the

spoils of the enemy, he was set upon by the horse of his opponent, and trampled on and bitten to death. Another horse,

upon the bandage being removed from his eyes, found that he

had covered his mother, upon which he threw himself down a

precipice, and was killed. We learn, also, that for a similar

cause, a groom was torn to pieces, in the territory of Reate.[8]

For these animals have a knowledge of the ties of consanguinity,

and in a stud a mare will attend to its sister of the preceding

year, even more carefully than its mother.



Their docility, too, is so great, that we find it stated that

the whole of the cavalry of the Sybarite army were accustomed

to perform a kind of dance to the sound of musical instruments.

These animals also foresee battles; they lament over their

masters when they have lost them, and sometimes shed tears[9]

of regret for them. When King Nicomedes was slain, his

horse put an end to its life by fasting. Phylarchus relates,







that Centaretus,[10] the Galatian, after he had slain Antiochus

in battle, took possesion of his horse, and mounted it in triumph; upon which the animal, inflamed with indignation,

regardless of the rein and become quite ungovernable, threw

itself headlong down a precipice, and they both perished together. Philistus relates, that Dionysius having left his horse

stuck fast in a morass, the animal, as soon as it disengaged

itself, followed the steps of its master, with a swarm of bees,

which had settled on its mane; and that it was in consequence

of this portent, that Dionysius gained possession of the kingdom.[11]







1. Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander, gives some account of this celebrated horse, and Aulus Gellius, B. v. c. 2, devotes a chapter to it.-B.

2. Ajasson estimates the price to have been 70,200 francs, 2925

sterling.-B.

3. Situate on the river Hydaspes; Q. Curtius calls it Bucephalus.-B.

See B. vi. c. 23, where it is called Bucephala.

4. This account is given by Suetonius, Life of Julius Cesar, c. 61. Cuvier

suggests that the hoofs may have been notched, and that the sculptor

probably exaggerated the peculiarity, so as to produce the resemblance to

a human foot.-B.

5. The nephew of Tiberius and the father of the Emperor Caligula.-B.

6. lian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 40, states that three mares of Miltiades

and Evagoras, which had been victorious in the Olympic games, were buried

with sepulchral honours in the Ceramicus.-B.

7. Ajasson suggests, with much plausibility, that when connections of this

description are mentioned, the report originated from persons who had

significant names, as Lebuf and Poulain; analogous to our names of

Lamb, Bull, Hog, &c.-B.

8. See B. iii. c. 17.

9. We here find Pliny tripping, for he has previously said, in B. vii.

c. 1, that man is the only animated being that sheds tears. See also c.

19 of the present Book, where he represents the lion as shedding tears.

10. lian calls him Centoarates. Antiochus I., or Soter, is here alluded

to. He was killed in battle with the Galli or Galatians, B.C. 261.

11. Mentioned by Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 33.-B.




65. Chap. 65.-The Disposition Of The Horse; Remarkable Facts Concerning Chariot Horses.


CHAP. 65.-THE DISPOSITION OF THE HORSE; REMARKABLE FACTS

CONCERNING CHARIOT HORSES.



These animals possess an intelligence which exceeds all description.[1] Those who have to use the javelin are well

aware how the horse, by its exertions and the supple movements of its body, aids the rider in any difficulty he may have

in throwing his weapon. They will even present to their

master the weapons collected on the ground. The horses too,

that are yoked to the chariots in the Circus, beyond a doubt,

display remarkable proofs how sensible they are to encouragement and to glory. In the Secular games, which were celebrated in the Circus, under the Emperor Claudius, when the

charioteer Corax, who belonged to the white party,[2] was

thrown from his place at the starting-post, his horses took the

lead and kept it, opposing the other chariots, overturning them,

and doing every thing against the other competitors that could

have been done, had they been guided by the most skilful

charioteer; and while we quite blushed to behold the skill of

man excelled by that of the horse, they arrived at the goal,

after going over the whole of the prescribed course. Our

ancestors considered it as a still more remarkable portent, that







when a charioteer had been thrown from his place, in the plebeian games of the Circus,[3] the horses ran to the Capitol, just

as if he had been standing in the car, and went three times

round the temple there. But what is the greatest prodigy of all,

is the fact that the horses of Ratumenna came from Veii to

Rome, with the palm branch and chaplet, he himself having

fallen from his chariot, after having gained the victory; from

which circumstance the Ratumennian gate derived its name.[4]



When the Sarmat are about to undertake a long journey,

they prepare their horses for it, by making them fast the

day before, during which they give them but little to drink;

by these means they are enabled to travel on horseback, without stopping, for one hundred and fifty miles. Some horses

are known to live fifty years; but the females are not so long-lived.[5] These last come to their full growth at the fifth year,

the males a year later. The poet Virgil has very beautifully

described the points which ought more especially to be looked

for, as constituting the perfection of a horse;[6] I myself have

also treated of the same subject, in my work[7] on the Use of the

Javelin by Cavalry, and I find that pretty nearly all writers are

agreed respecting them.[8] The points requisite for the Circus

are somewhat different, however; and while horses are put

in training for other purposes at only two years old, they are

not admitted to the contests of the Circus before their fifth year.







1. Hardouin refers to the works of Busbequius, in which we meet with

nearly the same account of the sagacity of the horse, as in Pliny; Lemaire, iii. 489.

2. As already mentioned in the Note to c. 54 of the last Book, there

were four parties or factions of the charioteers who were named from the

colour of their dress.

3. The games of the Circus were divided into the Patrician and the Plebeian;the first being conducted by generals, consuls, and the cuiule dilcs,

the latter by the dles of the people.-B.

4. Related somewhat more at large by Plutarch, in his Life of Publicola.

-B.

5. Many of these particulars are from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi.

c. 22.-B.

6. Georgics, B. iii. 1. 72, et seq.-B.

7. See Introduction to vol. i. p. vii.

8. Varro, de Re Rust. B. ii. c. 7; and Columella, B. vi. c. 29, have

treated on this subject at considerable length.-B.




66. Chap. 66.-The Generation Of The Horse.


CHAP. 66.-THE GENERATION OF THE HORSE. [1]



The female of this animal carries her young for eleven

months, and brings forth in the twelfth. The connection takes

place at the vernal equinox, and generally in both sexes, at

the age of two years; but the colt is much stronger when the

parents are three years old. The males are capable of cover-







ing up to the thirty-third year, and it is not till after the twentieth that they are taken for this purpose from the Circus.

At Opus,[2] it is said, a horse served as a stallion until his

fortieth year; though he required some assistance in raising the

fore part of the body. There are few animals, however, in

which the generative powers are so limited, for which reason

it is only admitted to the female at certain intervals;[3] indeed it

cannot cover as many as fifteen times in the course of one year.[4]

The sexual passion of the mare is extinguished by cropping her

mane; she is capable of bearing every year up to the fortieth.

We have an account of a horse having lived to its seventy-fifth

year. The mare brings forth standing upright, and is attached,

beyond all other animals, to her offspring. The horse is born

with a poisonous substance on its forehead, known as hippomanes,[5] and used in love philtres; it is the size of a fig, and of

a black colour; the mother devours it immediately on the birth

of the foal, and until she has done so, she will not suckle it.

When this substance can be rescued from the mother, it has

the property of rendering the animal quite frantic by the

smell. If a foal has lost its mother, the other mares in the

herd that have young, will take charge of the orphan. It

is said that the young of this animal cannot touch the earth

with the mouth for the first three days after its birth. The

more spirited a horse is, the deeper does it plunge its nose into

the water while drinking. The Scythians prefer mares for

the purposes of war, because they can pass their urine without

stopping in their career.











1. The materials of this chapter appear to have been principally taken

from Aristotle, Varro, and Columella-B.

2. See B. iv. c. 12.

3. Varro, ubi supra, gives considerably different directions on this point;

he says, "Intercourse is to be allowed, at the proper season of the year,

twice a day, morning and evening."

4. This sentence in Columella, ubi supra, seems to illustrate the meaning,

which is somewhat obscure "Veruntamen nec minus quam quindecim, nec

plures quam viginti, unus debet implere"-"One male ought to be coupled

with not more than twenty females, nor less than fifteen."

5. Cuvier states, that the hippomanes is a concretion occasionally found

in the liquor amnii of the mare, and which it devours, from the same kind

of instinctive feeling which causes quadrupeds generally to devour the afterbirth. He remarks, however, that this can have no connection with the

attachment which the mother bears to her offspring; Ajasson, vol. vi. p.

459; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 495. The hippomanes is said to have been employed by the sorceresses of antiquity, as an ingredient in their amatory potions. See Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 24, and lian, Anim. Nat.

B. xiv. c. 18.-B. See also B. xxviii. c. 11.




67. Chap. 67.-Mares Impregnated By The Wind.


CHAP. 67.-MARES IMPREGNATED BY THE WIND.



It is well known that in Lusitania, in the vicinity of the town

of Olisipo[1] and the river Tagus, the mares, by turning their faces

towards the west wind as it blows, become impregnated by its

breezes,[2] and that the foals which are conceived in this way are remarkable for their extreme fleetness; but they never live beyond

three years. Gallicia and Asturia are also countries of Spain;

they produce a species of horse known to us as thieldones,[3]

and when smaller, asturcones;[4] they have a peculiar and not

common pace of their own, which is very easy, and arises from

the two legs of the same side being moved together;[5] it is by

studying the nature of this step that our horses have been taught

the movement which we call ambling.[6] Horses have very

nearly the same diseases as men;[7] besides which, they are

subject to an irregular action of the bladder, as, indeed, is the

case with all beasts of burden.[8]







1. Now Lisbon. See B. iv. c. 35.

2. The accounts given, by Phnician navigators, of the fertility of Lusitania, and the frequency of the mild western breezes, gave rise to the fable

here mentioned, which has been generally received by the ancients; and

that not merely by the poets, as Virgil, Geor. B. iii. 1. 274, 275, but by

practical writers, as Varro, B. ii. c. 1, and Columella, B. vi. c. 27. Justin,

however, B. xliv. c. 3, attributes the opinion to the great size of the horses,

and their remarkable fleetness, from which they were said to be the sons of

the wind.-B.

3. The origin and meaning of this name is not known.-B.

4. Martial describes the peculiar short, quick step of the "asturco," in

one of his Epigrams, B. xiv. Ep. 199.-B.

5. "Alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio;" it would not be possible to

give a literal translation, but we may judge of the meaning by the context.

-B. He clearly alludes to a movement like our canter.

6. "Tolutim carpere incursus;" Hardouin explains this by a reference

to Plautus, Asinaria, A. iii. sc. 3,1. 116. "Tolutim ni badizas"-"If you

do not amble, lifting up your feet."

7. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 24, gives an account of the diseases

of horses.-B.

8. "Genere veterino;" so called, according to Hardouin, from "vectllra," "carriage," as applicable to horses, asses, and mules; Lemaire, vol.

iii. p. 497.-B.




68. Chap. 68. (45.)-The Ass, Its Generation.


CHAP. 68. (45.)-THE ASS, ITS GENERATION.



M. Varro informs us that Quintus Axius, the senator, paid

for an ass the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces;[1] I am







not sure whether this did not exceed the price ever given

for any other animal. It is certainly a species of animal singularly useful for labour and ploughing,[2] but more especially

for the production of mules.[3] In these animals also, the

country in which they are born is taken into consideration;

in Greece, those from Arcadia[4] are the most valued; and in

Italy, those of Reate.[5] The ass is an animal which is unable

to endure cold,[6] for which reason it is that it is never produced

in Pontus; nor is it allowed to cover at the vernal equinox, like

other cattle, but at the summer solstice. The males are less

proper for covering, when out of work. The earliest age at

which the females are ever capable of bearing is the thirtieth

month, but the usual time begins at the age of three years.

The number to which it gives birth is the same as the mare,

which it also resembles, in the length of its gestation, and in

its mode of bringing forth; but the female will discharge the

generative fluid from the womb, being unable to retain it,

unless by blows she is forced to run immediately after

being covered. They seldom bring forth two at one birth.[7]

When the she-ass is about to bring forth, she shuns the

light and seeks darkness, in order to escape the observation

of man. Asses are capable of breeding throughout the

whole of their life, which extends to thirty years. Their

attachment to their young is great in the extreme, but their

aversion to water is still greater. They will pass through fire to

get at their foals, while the very same animal, if the small-







est stream intervenes, will tremble, and not dare so much as

to wet even its feet. Nor yet in their pastures will they

ever drink at any but the usual watering-place, and they make

it their care to find some dry path by which to get at it.

They will not pass over a bridge either, when the water can be

seen between the planks beneath.[8] Wonderful to relate, too,

if their watering-places are changed, though they should be

ever so thirsty, they will not drink without being either beaten

or caressed. They ought always to have plenty of room for

sleeping; for they are very subject to various diseases in their

sleep, when they repeatedly throw out their feet, and would

immediately lame themselves by coming in contact with any

hard substance; so that it is necessary that they should be

provided with an empty space. The profit which is derived

from these animals exceeds that arising from the richest estate.

It is a well-known fact, that in Celtiberia there are some sheasses which have produced to their owners as much as four hundred thousand sesterces.[9] In the rearing of she-mules it is said

to be particularly necessary to attend to the colour of the hair

of the ears and the eyelids, for, although the rest of the body

be all of one colour, the mule that is produced will have all the

colours that are found in those parts. Mcenas was the first

person who had the young of the ass served up at his table;[10]

they were in those times much preferred to the onager or wild

ass;[11] but, since his time, the taste has gone out of fashion.

An ass, after witnessing the death of another ass, survives it

but a very short time only.







1. There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the exact amount of sums of money mentioned by the ancients. We read in Varro, B. ii. c. 1,

and B. ii. c. 8, of enormous prices said to have been given for asses, and

the particular case of Axius is mentioned, B. iii. c. 2; according to the

usual estimate, the sum here mentioned amounts to upwards of 3200

sterling,-B.

2. See B. xvii. c. 5.

3. Varro, B. i. c. 20, and B. iii. c. 16, and Columella, B. vii. c. 1, enlarge upon the valuable qualities of the ass for agricultural purposes; Columella, B. vi. c. 37, treats at length upon the production of mules.-B.

4. See a passage in Plautus, in which the superior excellence of the asses

of Arcadia is referred to; Asinaria, A. ii. sc. 2, 1. 67.-B.

5. See B. iii. c. 17.

6. This property is mentioned by Herodotus, B. iv. c. 28, and by Aristotle,

Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 27, also De Gener. Anim. B. ii. c. 8, and by Strabo,

B. vii. The ass is a native of Arabia, and degenerates when brought into

a cold climate.-B.

7. These circumstances appear to have been taken from Aristotle, Hist.

Anitn. B. v. c. 14, and B. vi. c. 23.-B.

8. "Per raritatem eorum translucentibus fluviis."-B.

9. Upwards of 3200 sterling.-B.

10. An epigram of Martial, B. xiii. Ep. 97, appears to refer to the employment of the young ass as an article of food.-B. The famous sausages

of Bologna are made, it is said, of asses' flesh.

11. The onager, according to Cuvier, is the same with the ass, in the wild

state; it still exists in large herds in various parts of Southern Asia, and

is called by the Tartars, Kulan.-B.




69. Chap. 69. (44.)-The Nature Of Mules, And Of Other Beasts Of Burden.


CHAP. 69. (44.)-THE NATURE OF MULES, [1] AND OF OTHER BEASTS OF BURDEN.



From the union of the male ass and the mare a mule is pro-







duced in the thirteenth month, an animal remarkable for its

strength in laborious work. We are told that, for this purpose,

the mare ought not to be less than four years old, nor more

than ten. It is said also that these two species will repulse

each other, unless the male has been brought up, in its infancy,

upon the milk of the other species; for which reason they

take the foals away from the mare, in the dark, and substitute

for them the male colts of the ass. A mule may also be produced from a horse and a female ass; but it can never be properly broken in, and is incorrigibly sluggish,[2] being in all

respects as slow as an old animal. If a mare has conceived

by a horse, and is afterwards covered by an ass, the first conception is abortive; but this is not the case when the horse

comes after the ass. It has been observed, that the female is

in the best state for receiving the male in the seventh day

after parturition, and that the males are best adapted for the

purpose when they are fatigued.[3] A female ass, which has

not conceived before shedding what are called the milk-teeth,

is considered to be barren; which is also looked upon as the

case when a she-ass does not become pregnant after the first

covering. The male which is produced from a horse and a

female ass, was called by the ancients "hinnulus," and that

from an ass and a mare "mulus."[4] It has been observed

that the animal which is thus produced by the union of the

two species is of a third species, and does not resemble either

of the parents; and that all animals produced in this way, of

whatever kind they may be, are incapable of reproduction;

she-mules are therefore barren. It is said, indeed, in our

Annals, that they have frequently brought forth;[5] but such

cases must be looked upon only as prodigies.[6] Theophrastus







says that they commonly bring forth in Cappadocia; but that

the animal of that country is of a peculiar species.[7] The

mule is prevented from kicking by frequently giving it wine

to drink.[8] It is said in the works of many of the Greek

writers, that from the union of a mule with a mare, the dwarf

mule is produced, which they call "ginnus." From the union

of the mare and the wild ass, when it has been domesticated, a

mule is produced which is remarkably swift in running, and has

extremely hard feet, and a thin body, while it has a spirit that

is quite indomitable. The very best stallion of all, however,

for this purpose, is one produced from a union of the wild ass

and the female domesticated ass. The best wild asses are

those of Phrygia and Lycaonia. Africa glories in the wild

foals which she produces, as excelling all others in flavour;

these are called "lalisiones."[9] It appears from some Athenian

records, that a mule once lived to the age of eighty years. The

people were greatly delighted with this animal, because on

one occasion, when, on the building of a temple in the citadel,[10] it had been left behind on account of its age, it persisted

in promoting the work by accompanying and assisting them;

in consequence of which a decree was passed, that the dealers

in corn were not to drive it away from their sieves.[11]







1. Most of the circumstances here mentioned appear to have been taken

from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 24 and 36; Varro, B. ii. c. 8; and

Columella, B. vi. c. 37.-B.

2. It is expressly stated by Columella, ubi supra, that the mules '"produced from a horse and a female ass, are in all respects most like the mother."

3. This is explained by Columella, ubi supra, who remarks, that when a

stallion is admitted to a female in the full heat of its passion, it often causes

mischief; which is not the case when its ardour has been a little subdued

by having been worked for some time.-B.

4. Varro, ubi supra, says: "The produce of a mare and a male ass is a

mule, of a horse and a female ass a hinnus."

5. Varro, B. ii. c. 1, alludes to this occurrence; Livy mentions two instances, B. xxvi. c. 23, and B. xxxvii. c. 3; these prodigies were said both

to have occurred at Reatc.-B.

6. Herodotus relates two cases, which were regarded as presaging some extraordinary event, B. iii. c. 153, and B. vii. c. 57. Juvenal, Sat. xiii.

1. 66, and Suetonius, Life of Galba, c. 4, speak of a pregnant mule as a

most extraordinary circumstance; it seems to have given rise to a proverbial

expression among the Romans.-B.

7. Cuvier remarks, that there is, in the deserts of Asia, a peculiar animal,

with undivided hoofs, the Equus hemionus of naturalists, and the Dgiggetai

of the Tartars, which bears a resemblance to our mules, but is not the produce of the horse and the ass; he refers us to Professor Pallas's account of

it in Acad. Petrop. Nov. Cor. vol. xix. p. 394; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 461;

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 505.-B.

8. Pliny repeats this advice in B. xxx. c. 53; it is, of course, entirely

without foundation.-B.

9. The epigram of Martial previously referred to bears this title.-B.

See N. 69, p. 324.

10. This temple was the Parthenon. This anecdote is mentioned by

Arist. Hist Anim. B. vi. c. 24; lian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 49.-B.

11. In which they probably exposed their samples for sale, as our farmers

do in small bags. The phrase is a)po\ tw=n thliw=n, in Aristotle, Hist. Anim.

B. vi. c. 24, from whom Pliny takes the story.




70. Chap. 70. (45.)-Oxen; Their Generation.


CHAP. 70. (45.)-OXEN; THEIR GENERATION.



We find it stated, that the oxen of India are of the height







of camels, and that the extremity of their horns are four feet

asunder. In our part of the world the most valuable oxen are

those of Epirus, owing, it is said, to the attention paid to

their breed by King Pyrrhus.[1] This perfection was acquired

by not permitting them to breed until after their fourth year.

By these means he brought them to a very large size, and descendants of this breed are still to be seen at the present day.

But in our times, we set heifers to breed in their first year, or,

at the latest, in their second. Bulls are fit for breeding in their

fourth year; one being sufficient, it is said, for ten cows during

the whole year. If the bull, after covering, goes to the right

side, the produce will be a male; if to the left, a female.[2]

Conception takes place after a single union; but if, by any

accident, it should not have taken place, the cow seeks the

male again, at the end of twenty days. She brings forth in

the tenth month; whatever may be produced before that time

cannot be reared. Some writers say, that the birth takes place

the very day on which the tenth month is completed. This

animal but rarely produces twins. The time of covering begins

at the rising of the Dolphin, the day before the nones of

January,[3] and continues for the space of thirty days. Sometimes it takes place in the autumn; and among those nations

which live upon milk, they manage so as to have a supply of

it at all times of the year. Bulls never cover more than twice

in the same day. The ox is the only animal that walks backwards while it is feeding; among the Garamantes, they feed

in no other manner.[4] The females live fifteen years at the

longest, and the males twenty; they arrive at their full vigour

in their fifth year. It is said that they are made fat by being







washed in warm water, or by having the entrails inflated with

air by means of a reed, introduced through an incision in the

skin. We must not look upon those kinds as having degenerated, the appearance of which is not so favourable. Those

that are bred in the Alps, although very small of body, give a

great quantity of milk, and are capable of enduring much

labour; they are yoked by the horns, and not by the neck.

The oxen of Syria have no dewlap, but they have a hump on

the back. Those of Caria also, which is in Asia, are unsightly[5] in appearance, having a hump hanging over the

shoulders from the neck; and their horns are moveable;[6]

they are said, however, to be excellent workers, though those

which are either black or white are condemned as worthless for

labour.[7] The horns of the bull are shorter and thinner than

those of the ox. Oxen must be broken in when they are three

years old; after that time it is too late, and before that time

too early. The ox is most easily broken in by yoking it with

one that has already been trained.[8] This animal is our especial companion, both in labour generally, and in the operations

of agriculture. Our ancestors considered it of so much value,

that there is an instance cited of a man being brought before

the Roman people, on a day appointed, and condemned, for

having killed an ox, in order to humour an impudent concubine of his, who said that she had never tasted tripe; and he

was driven into exile, just as though he had killed one of his

own peasants.[9]







The bull has a proud air, a stern forehead, shaggy ears, and

horns which appear always ready, and challenging to the combat; but it is by his fore feet that he manifests his threatening

anger. As his rage increases, he stands, lashing back his

tail[10] every now and then, and throwing up the sand against

his belly; being the only animal that excites himself by these

means. We have seen them fight at the word of command, and

shown as a public spectacle; these bulls whirled about and

then fell upon their horns, and at once were up again; then,

at other times, they would lie upon the ground and let themselves be lifted up; they would even stand in a two-horsed

chariot, while moving at a rapid rate, like so many charioteers.[11] The people of Thessaly invented a method of killing

bulls, by means of a man on horseback, who would ride up

to them, and seize one of the horns, and so twist their neck.

Csar the Dictator was the first person who exhibited this

spectacle at Rome.



Bulls are selected as the very choicest of victims, and are

offered up as the most approved sacrifice for appeasing the

gods.[12] Of all the animals that have long tails, this is the

only one whose tail is not of proportionate length at the moment of birth; and in this animal alone it continues to grow

until it reaches its heels. It is on this account, that in making

choice of a calf for a victim, due care is taken that its tail

reaches to the pastern joint; if it is shorter than this, the

sacrifice is not deemed acceptable to the gods. This fact has

also been remarked, that calves, which have been carried to

the altar on men's shoulders, are not generally acceptable to

the gods; and also, if they are lame, or of a species which is

not appropriate,[13] or if they struggle to get away from the







altar. It was a not uncommon prodigy among the ancients,

for an ox to speak;[14] upon such a fact being announced to

the senate, they were in the habit of holding a meeting in

the open air.







1. This alleged superiority is mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iii.

c. 91, by Varro, B. ii. c. 5, and by Columella, B. vi. c. 1; but it is remarked by Dalechamps and Hardouin, that the appellation of Pyrrhic given

to these oxen, was more probably derived from their red colour,pur)r(o\s,

than from the name of the king. The materials of this chapter are principally from the above writers, especially Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c.

21, and B. viii. c. 7.-B.

2. This singular notion is mentioned by Varro and Columella, ubi supra;

Cuvier says, that it is the origin of the pretended secret of producing the

sexes at pleasure, which was published by Millot; Ajasson, vol. vi. p.

461.-B.

3. 4th January. See B. xviii. c. 64.

4. This is mentioned by Herodotus, B. iv. c. 183; this peculiarity in

their mode of taking their food is ascribed to the extraordinary length of

the horns; it is also mentioned by lian, Anim. Nat. B. xvi. c. 33.-B.

5. "Fdi visu." This is very similar to the expression used by Virgil,

Georg. B. iii., when describing the points of an ox, 1. 52,-"oui turpi

caput "-"the head of which is unsightly"-probably in allusion to its

large size.

6. According to Cuvier, there is an ox, in warm climates, which has a

mass of fat on the shoulders, and whose horns are only attached to the

skin; Buffon has described it under the name of Zebu; Ajasson, vol. vi.

p. 461; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 512.-B.

7. "Ad laborem damnantur;" with respect to the colour, Varro, B. ii.

c. 5, has the following remarks: "The best colours are black, red, pale red,

and white. The latter ones are the most delicate, the first the most hardy.

Of the two middle ones, the first is the best, and both are more valuable

than the first and last."

8. We have an account of this process in Columella, B. ii. c. 6.-B.

9. This anecdote is related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 1. Virgil,

Georg. B. ii. 1. 537, speaks of the use of oxen in food, as a proof of the de-

generacy of later times, and as not existing during the Golden Age; "Ante

Ympia quam csis gens est epulata juvencis." This feeling is alluded to by. lian, Anim. Nat. B. xii. c. 34, and by Suetonius, Life of Domitian,

c. ix.-B.

10. It is doubtful whether this is the meaning of "alternos replicans

orbes," or what indeed is the meaning. Most editions omit "orbes," thus

making the matter still worse.

11. Hardouin supposes that this alludes to the exhibition of oxen hunted

at the exhibition of shows and in the Circus, for the gratification of the

Roman people.-B.

12. Referred to by Virgil, Georg. B. ii. 11. 145, 146, "et maxima taurus

Victima," "and the bull the largest victim of all."-B.

13. In reference to this remark, we may mention the passage in Virgil,

n. B. iii. c. 119, "Taurum Neptuno, taurum tibi, pulcher Apollo." "A

bull to thee, Neptune, a bull to thee, beauteous Apollo."

14. Instances are mentioned by Livy, B. xxxv. c. 21, and by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 65.-B.




71. Chap. 71. (46.)-The Egyptian Apis.


CHAP. 71. (46.)-THE EGYPTIAN APIS. [1]



In Egypt an ox is even worshipped as a deity; they call it

Apis. It is distinguished by a conspicuous white spot on the

right side, in the form of a crescent. There is a knot also under

the tongue, which is called "cantharus."[2] This ox is not

allowed to live beyond a certain number of years; it is then destroyed by being drowned in the fountain of the priests. They

then go, amid general mourning, and seek another ox to replace

it; and the mourning is continued, with their heads shaved,

until such time as they have found one; it is not long, however,

at any time, before they meet with a successor. When one has

been found, it is brought by the priests to Memphis. There

are two temples appropriated to it, which are called thalami,[3]

and to these the people resort to learn the auguries. According as the ox enters the one or the other of these places, the

augury is deemed favourable or unfavourable. It gives

answers to individuals, by taking food from the hand of those

who consult it. It turned away from the hand of Germanicus

Csar, and not long after he died.[4] In general it lives in

secret; but, when it comes forth in public, the multitudes

make way for it, and it is attended by a crowd of boys, singing

hymns in honour of it; it appears to be sensible of the adoration

thus paid to it, and to court it. These crowds, too, suddenly

become inspired, and predict future events. Once in the year

a female is presented to the ox, which likewise has her appro-







priate marks, although different from those on the male; and

it is said that she is always killed the very same day that

they find her. There is a spot in the Nile, near Memphis,

which, from its figure, they call Phiala;[5] here they throw into

the water a dish of gold, and another of silver, every year upon

the days on which they celebrate the birth of Apis.[6] These

days are seven in number, and it is a remarkable thing, that

during this time, no one is ever attacked by the crocodile; on

the eighth day, however, after the sixth hour, these beasts

resume all their former ferocity.







1. We have an account of Apis in Herodotus, B. iii. c. 28; also in Pomponius Mela, B. i. c. 9; and in, lian, Anim. Nat. B. xi. c. 10.-B.

2. "Quem cantharum appellant." According to Dalechamps, "So

called from the blackness of the colour, and its resemblance to a beetle."

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 516. He refers the reader to a further account in B.

xxx. c. 30.-B.

3. From the Greek,qalamo\i, "bed-chambers."

4. Tacitus, Ann. B. ii. c. 69, gives an account of the sickness of Germanicus after his return from Egypt, but does not refer to the circumstance

here mentioned.-B.

5. The "goblet." See B. v. c. 10.

6. Seneca, Qust. Nat. B. iv. c. 2, gives an account of this ceremony,

but does not refer to the birth of Apis.-B.




72. Chap. 72. (47.)-Sheep, And Their Propagation.


CHAP. 72. (47.)-SHEEP, AND THEIR PROPAGATION. [1]



Many thanks, too, do we owe to the sheep, both for appeasing the gods, and for giving us the use of its fleece. As

oxen cultivate the fields which yield food for man, so to sheep

are we indebted for the defence of our bodies. The generative

power lasts in both sexes from the second to the ninth year,

sometimes to the tenth.[2] The lambs produced at the first

birth are but small. The season for coupling, in all of them,

is from the setting of Arcturus, that is to say, the third day

before the ides of May,[3] to the setting of Aquila, the tenth

day before the calends of August.[4] The period of gestation is

one hundred and fifty days. The lambs that are produced

after this time are feeble; the ancients called those that were

born after it, cordi.[5] Many persons prefer the lambs that

are born in the winter to those of the spring, because it is

of much more consequence that they should have gained

strength before the summer solstice than before the winter

one; consequently, the sheep is the only animal that is bene-

fitted by being born in the middle of winter. It is the nature of







the ram to reject the young and prefer the old ones, and he himself is more serviceable when old,[6] and when deprived of his

horns.[7] He is also rendered less violent by having one horn

pierced towards the ear. If the right testicle is tied up, the

ram will generate females, and if the left, males.[8] The noise of

thunder produces abortion in sheep, if they are left alone; to

prevent such accidents, they are brought together into flocks,

that they may be rendered less timid by being in company.

When the north-east wind blows, males are said to be conceived;

and when the south wind, females. In this kind of animal,

the mouth of the ram is especially looked to, for whatever may

be the colour of the veins under the tongue, the wool of the

young one will be of a similar colour.[9] If these veins are

many in number, it will be mottled. Any change, too, in their

water or drink, will render them mottled.[10]



There are two principal kinds of sheep, the covered[11] and

the colonic,[12] or common sheep; the former is the more tender

animal, but the latter is more nice about its pastures, for the







covered sheep will feed on brambles even. The best coverings

for sheep are brought from Arabia.[13]







1. The contents of this Chapter appear to be principally from Varro, B.

ii. cc. 1, 2, and Columella, B. vii. cc. 2, 3, 4.-B.

2. This account is probably from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14; B.

vi. c. 19; and B. ix. c. 3, where we have various particulars respecting

the production and mode of life of the sheep.-B.

3. 13th May.

4. 23rd July.

5. Varro, ubi supra, gives a somewhat different account: "Those lambs

are called 'cordi,' which are born after their time, and have remained

in the womb, called xori/on from which they take that name."-B.

6. The expression "senecta melior," here employed, is limited by Colu-

mella, ubi supra, to the third year.-B.

7. Columella, B. vii. c. 8, remarks, "When deprived of his horns he

knows himself to be disarmed, as it were, and is not so ready to quarrel

and is less vehement in his passion."

8. Columella, B. vii. c. 23, refers to this practice; he informs us, B. vi,

c. 28, that it is practised with respect to the horse. It is also referred to

by Aristotle, De Gen. Anim. B. iv. c. 1.-B.

9. For this we have the authority of Aristotle, ubi supra, and of Columella, ubi supra, who quotes from Virgil in support of it, Geor. B. iii. 1.

387, et seq.-B. "Although the-ram be white himself, if there is a black

tongue beneath the palate, reject him, that he may not tinge the fleece of

the young with black spots."

10. Varro, B. ii. c. 2, remarks, "While the coupling is taking place, you

must use the same water; for if it is changed, it will render the wool

spotted, and injure the womb."

11. "Tect." The context shows that this means covered with skins or

a woollen girth, probably on account of their delicate nature, while the

common sheep of husbandry, or the "colonic" sheep, were able to endure

the rigour of the weather without any such protection.

12. The words are tectun and colonicum; Columella, B. vii. c. 4, uses the

terms molle and hirsutum, and Varro, B. ii. c. 2, pellitum and hirtum. The

first obtained its name from its being covered with skins, to protect its

delicate fleece. The colonic is so called, from "colonus," a "husbandman," this kind being so common as to be found in any village; whereas

the tect were rare.

13. We have some account of the Arabian sheep in lian, Anim. Nat.

B. x. c. 4.-B. Columella says, that the wool which was brought over to

make these coverings, was only to be obtained at a very great price.




73. Chap. 73. (43.)-The Different Kinds Of Wool, And Their Colours.


CHAP. 73. (43.)-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF WOOL, AND THEIR COLOURS. [1]



The most esteemed wool of all is that of Apulia, and that

which in Italy is called Grecian wool, in other countries

Italian. The fleeces of Miletus hold the third rank.[2] The

Apulian wool is shorter in the hair, and only owes its high

character to the cloaks[3] that are made of it. That which

comes from the vicinity of Tarentum and Canusium is the most

celebrated; and there is a wool from Laodicea, in Asia, of a

similar quality.[4] There is no white wool superior to that of

the countries bordering on the Padus,[5] nor up to the present

day has any wool exceeded the price of one hundred sesterces

per pound.[6] The sheep are not shorn in all countries; in some

places it is still the custom to pull off the wool.[7] There are

various colours of wool; so much so, indeed, that we want

terms to express them all. Several kinds, which are called







native,[8] are found in Spain; Pollentia, in the vicinity of the

Alps,[9] produces black fleeces of the best quality; Asia, as well

as Btica,[10] the red fleeces, which are called Erythran; those

of Canusium are of a tawny colour;[11] and those of Tarentum

have their peculiar dark tint.[12] All kinds of wool, when not

freed from the grease,[13] possess certain medicinal properties.

The wool of Istria is much more like hair than wool, and is

not suitable for the fabrication of stuffs that have a long nap;[14]

so too is that which Salacia,[15] in Lusitania, finds the most useful

for making its chequered cloths. There is a similar wool, too,

found about Piscen,[16] in the province of Narbonensis, as also

in Egypt; a garment, when it has been worn for some time,

is often embroidered with this wool, and will last for a considerable time.



The thick, flocky wool has been esteemed for the manufacture of carpets from the very earliest times; it is quite

clear, from what we read in Homer, that they were in use in

his time.[17] The Gauls embroider them in a different manner

from that which is practised by the Parthians.[18] Wool is







compressed also for making a felt,[19] which, if soaked in vinegar,[20]

is capable of resisting iron even; and, what is still more, after

having gone through the last process,[21] wool will even resist

fire; the refuse, too, when taken out of the vat of the scourer,

is used for making mattresses,[22] an invention, I fancy, of the

Gauls. At all events, it is by Gallic names that we distinguish the different sort of mattresses[23] at the present day;

but I am not well able to say at what period wool began to be

employed for this purpose. Our ancestors made use of straw[24]

for the purpose of sleeping upon, just as they do at present

when in camp. The gausapa[25] has been brought into use in

my father's memory, and I myself recollect the amphimalla[26]

and the long shaggy apron[27] being introduced; but at the present day, the laticlave tunic[28] is beginning to be manufactured,

in imitation of the gausapa.[29] Black wool will take no colour.







I shall describe the mode of dyeing the other kinds of wool

when speaking of the sea-purple,[30] or of the nature of various

plants.[31]







1. The greatest part of this Chapter appears to be taken, with little variation, from Columella, B. vii. c. 2-4.-B.

2. Here Pliny differs from Columella, who remarks, B. vii. c. 2, "Our

people considered the Milesian, Calabrian, and Apulian wool as of excellent quality, and the Tarentine the best of all."

3. "Pnula" was a check cloak, used chiefly by the Romans when

travelling, instead of the toga, as a protection against the cold and rain.

It was used by women as well as men. It was long, and without sleeves,

and with only an opening for the head. Women were forbidden by Alexander Severus to wear it in the city. It was made particularly of the

woolly substance known as gausapa.

4. The wool of Laodicea is celebrated by Strabo, B. xii.-B.

5. Columella, B. vii. c. 2, particularly notices the excellence of the wool

of Altinum, situate near the mouth of the Padus or Po. The following

epigram of Martial, B. xiv. c. 155, may be presumed to convey the opinion

of the respective merits of the different kinds of wool; it is entitled "Lan

alb:" "Velleribus primis Apulia; Parma secundis Nobilis; Altinum

tertia laudat ovis." "Apulia is famed for its fleeces of the first quality,

Parma for the second, while Altinum is praised for those of the third."-B.

6. About twelve shillings sterling.-B.

7. Varro remarks, B. ii. c. 2, that the term "vellus." obviously from

"vello," "to pluck," proves that the wool was anciently plucked from the

sheep, before shearing had been invented.-B.

8. "Quas nativas appellant." The term "nativa," as applied to the

wool, has been supposed to refer to those fleeces that possess a natural

colour, and do not require to be dyed.-B.

9. Martial, B. xiv. Ep. 157, calls the fleeces of Pollentia "lugentes,"

"mournful," from their black colour; they are also mentioned by Colu-

mella, ubi supra, and by Silius Italicus, B. viii. 1. 599.-B.

10. Martial, B. v. c. 37, describing the charms of a lady, says, "surpassing with her locks the fleece of the Btic sheep," no doubt referring

to the colour. In another Epigram, B. xii. E. 200, he speaks of the

"aurea vellera," the "golden fleece" of Btis.-B.

11. Martial has two Epigrams on the wool of Canusium, B. xiv. E. 127,

and E. 129. In the former it is designated as "fusca," tawny; in the

latter, "rufa," red.-B.

12. "Su pulliginis."-B.

13. The term here used, "succidus," is explained by Varro, B. ii. c. 11:

"While the newly-clipped wool has the sweat in it, it is called ' succida.'"

See B. xxix. c. 9.

14. "Pexis vestibus." According to Hardouin, the "pexa vestis," was

worn by the rich, and had a long and prominent nap, in contradistinction

to the smooth or worn cloths. He refers to a passage in Horace, B. i. Ep. i.

1. 95, and to one in Martial, B. ii. E. 58, which appear to sanction this

explanation. See Lem. vol. iii. p. 524.-B.

15. See B. iv. c. 35.

16. See B. iii. c. 5. Now Pezenas.

17. Kai\ r(h/gea kala\

Porfu/r) e)mbale/ein, store/sai d' e)fu/perqe ta/phtas.

Od. B. iv. 1. 427. "And to throw on fair coverlets of purple, and to lay

carpets upon them."

18. These were probably much like what we call "Turkey" carpets.

19. The name given to this article, "lana coacta," "compressed wool,"

correctly designates its texture. The manufacturers of it were called "lanarii coactores," and "lanarii coactiliarii."

20. "I have macerated unbleached flax in vinegar saturated with salt,

and after compression have obtained a felt, with a power of resistance quite

comparable with that of the famous armour of Conrad of Montferrat;

seeing that neither the point of a sword, nor even balls discharged from

fire-arms, were able to penetrate it." Memoir on the substance called Plina,

by Papadopoulo-Vretos, on the Mein. presented to the Royal Academy of In-

scriptions and Belles Lettres, 1845 , as quoted by Littr.

21. Pliny probably conceived that by the removal of all the grease from

the wool, or the "purgamentum," it became less combustible.-B.

22. "Tomentum;" an Epigram of Martial, B. xiv. E. 160, explains the

meaning of this word.-B.

23. See B. xix. c. 2.

24. Probably in the form of what we call "palliasses."

25. The "gausapa," or "gausapum," was a kind of thick cloth, very

woolly on one side, and used especially for covering tables, beds, and

making cloaks to keep out the wet and cold. The wealthier Romans had

it made of the finest wool, and mostly of a purple colour. It seems also to

have been sometimes made of linen, but still with a rough surface.

26. From a)mfi/malla,"napped on both sides." They probably resembled

our baizes or druggets, or perhaps the modern blanket.

27. Pliny again makes mention of the "ventrale," or apron, in B. xxvii.

c. 28.

28. He seems to allude here to the substance of which the laticlave tunic

was made, and not any alteration in its cut or shape. Some further

information on the laticlave or broad-striped tunic will be found in B.

ix, c. 63.

29. About the time of Augustus, the Romans began to exchange the

"toga," which had previously been their ordinary garment, for the more convenient "lacerna" and "pnula," which were less encumbered with

folds, and better adapted for the usual occupations of life.-B.

30. See B. ix. c. 62.

31. See B. xxi. c. 12.




74. Chap. 74.-Different Kinds Of Cloths.


CHAP. 74.-DIFFERENT KINDS OF CLOTHS.



Varro informs us, he himself having been an eye-witness, that

in the temple of Sancus,[1] the wool was still preserved on the

distaff and spindle of Tanaquil,[2] who was also called Caia C-

cilia; and he says that the royal waved[3] toga, formerly worn by

Servius Tullius, and now in the temple of Fortune, was made

by her. Hence was derived the custom, on the marriage of a

young woman, of carrying in the procession a dressed distaff

and a spindle, with the thread arranged upon it. Tanaquil was

the first who wove the straight tunic,[4] such as our young

people wear with the white toga;[5] newly-married women also.

Waved garments were at first the most esteemed of all: after

which those composed of various colours[6] came into vogue.

Fenestella informs us, that togas with a smooth surface, as well







as the Phryxian togas,[7] began to be used in the latter part of the

reign of Augustus. Thick stuffs, in the preparation of which

the poppy[8] was used, are of more ancient date, being mentioned by the poet Lucilius, in his lines on Torquatus. The

prtexta[9] had its origin among the Etrurians. I find that

the trabea[10] was first worn by the kings; embroidered garments

are mentioned by Homer,[11] and in this class originated the

triumphal robes.[12] The Phrygians first used the needle for

this purpose,[13] and hence this kind of garment obtained the

name of Phrygionian. King Attalus, who also lived in Asia,

invented the art of embroidering with gold, from which these

garments have been called Attalic.[14] Babylon was very famous

for making embroidery in different colours, and hence stuffs of

this kind have obtained the name of Babylonian.[15] The method of weaving cloth with more than two threads was in-







vented at Alexandria; these cloths are called polymita;[16] it

was in Gaul that they were first divided into chequers.[17] Metellus Scipio, in the accusation which he brought against

Cato,[18] stated that even in his time Babylonian covers for

couches were selling for eight hundred thousand sesterces, and

these of late, in the time of the Emperor Nero, had risen to

four millions.[19] The prtext of Servius Tullius, with which

the statue of Fortune, dedicated by him, was covered,[20] lasted

until the death of Sejanus; and it is a remarkable fact, that,

during a period of five hundred and sixty years, they had never

become tattered,[21] or received injury from moths. I myself

have seen the fleece upon the living animal dyed purple,

scarlet, and violet,-a pound and a half[22] of dye being used for

each,-just as though they had been produced by Nature in

this form, to meet the demands of luxury.







1. This deity was also called Sangus, or Semo Sancus; and Ovid, Fasti,

B. vi. c. 216, et seq., gives us much information concerning him. He was

of Sabine origin, and identical with Hercules and Dius Fidius. If we

may judge from the derivation of the name, it is not improbable that he

presided over the sanctity of oaths. His temple at Rome was on the

Quirinal, opposite to that of Quirinus, and near the gate which from him

derived the name of "Sanqualis porta." He was said to have been the

father of the Sabine hero Sabus.

2. According to the commonly received account, Tanaquil was the wife

of Tarquinius Priscus, and a native of Etruria; when she removed to

Rome, and her husband became king, her name was changed to Caia

Ccilia.-B.

3. "Undulata;" it has been suggested that this means the same as our

stuffs which we term "watered."-B.

4. "Tunica recta;" according to Festus, it was "so called from being

woven perpendicularly by people standing."-B. It probably means woven

from top to bottom and cross-wise in straight lines.

5. Toga pura;" so called from being white, without a mixture of any

other colour.

6. "Sororiculata;" there is much uncertainty respecting the derivation

of this word and its meaning, but it is generally supposed to signify some

kind of stuff, composed of a mixture of different ingredients or of different

colours.-B. "Orbiculata," "with round spots," is one reading, and

probably the correct one.

7. According to Hardouin, these were cloths which imitated the crisp

and prominent hair of the Phryxian fleece, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 529. Some

editions read "Phrygianas."

8. "Papaverata;" there is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the

meaning of this word, as applied to garments. Pliny, in two other passages,

speaks of a certain species of poppy-"from this, linens receive a peculiar

whiteness," B. xix. "From this, linens receive a brilliant whiteness in

time," B. xx. c. 78. It would appear, in these cases, that the fibres of the

stem of the poppy were mixed with the flax; though, perhaps, this would

be scarcely practicable with wool.-B.

9. The prtexta is described by Varro as a white toga, with a purple

band; it was worn by males, until their seventeenth year, and by young

women until their marriage.-B.

10. The trabea differed from the prtexta, in being ornamented with

stripes (trabes) of purple, whence its name.-B.

11. Helen is introduced, Il. B. iii. 1. 125, weaving an embroidered garz

ment, in which were figured the battles of the Greeks and Trojans. It was

probably somewhat of the nature of modern tapestry.-B.

12. See B. ix. c. 60.

13. This passage, in which the needle is said to have been used, proves

that when the word I "pict" is applied to garments, it is equivalent to our

term "embroidered."-B.

14. Pliny refers to the "Attalica tunica," B. xxxiii. c. 29, and to the

"Attalica vestis," B. xxxvi. c. 20, and B. xxxvii. c. 6; Propertius speaks

of "Attalica aula," B. ii. c. 32, 1. 12, "Attalicas torus," B. ii. c. 13, 122,

and B. iv. c. 5, 1. 24, and "Attalic vestes," B. iii. c. 18, 1. 19.-B.

15. Plautus, Stich. A. ii. s. 2, 1. 54, speaks of "Babylonica peristromata,

consuta tapetia," "Babylonian hangings, and embroidered tapestry;" and

Martial, B. viii. Ep. 28, 1. 17, 18, of "Babylonica texta," "Babylonian

textures."-B.

16. From Martial's epigram, entitled "Cubicularia polymita," B. xiv. Ep.

150, we may conclude that the Egyptian polymita were formed in a loom,

and of the nature of tapestry, while the Babylonian were embroidered with

the needle. Plautus probably refers to the Egyptian tapestry, in the

Pseud. A. i. s. 2, 1. 14, "Neque Alexandrina belluata conchyliata tapetia"

-"Nor yet the Alexandrine tapestries, figured over with beasts and shells."

17. "Scutulis divider." This term may mean "squares," "diamonds,"

or "lozenges," something like the segments into which a spider's web is

divided. It is not improbable that he alludes here to the plaids of the

Gallic nations.

18. We have an account of this contention in Plutarch, and we may presume that this accusation was produced at that time.-B.

19. The first sum amounts to about 4,600 sterling, the latter to

23,000.-B.

20. The following lines in Ovid, Fasti, B. vi. 1. 509, et seq., have been

supposed to refer to this temple, and prove that the account of it is correct.

"Lux eadem, Fortuna, tuaque est, auctorque, locusque.

"Sed superinjectis quis latet de togis?

"Servius est ..."

"The same day is thine, O Fortune; the same the builder, the same the

site. But who is this that lies hid beneath the garments covering him?

It is Servius."



21. Perhaps "changed their colour" may be a better translation of "do-

fluxisse."

22. "Sesquipedalibus libris." It seems impossible to translate this literally. Hardouin explains it by supposing that the fleeces were dyed in

strips of three colours, each strip being half a foot in breadth, and that

three of these required a pound of the dyeing materials.-B.




75. Chap. 75.-The Different Shapes Of Sheep; The Musmon.


CHAP. 75.-THE DIFFERENT SHAPES OF SHEEP; THE MUSMON.



In the sheep, it is considered a proof of its being of a very







fair breed, when the legs are short, and the belly is covered

with wool; when this part is bare, they used to be called

apic, and were looked upon as worthless.[1] The tail of the

Syrian sheep is a cubit in length,[2] and it is upon that part

that most of the wool is found. It is considered too early to

castrate lambs before they are five months old.

(49.) There is in Spain, and more especially in Corsica, a

peculiar kind of animal called the musmon,[3] not very unlike a

sheep, but with a fleece which more resembles the hair of the

goat than the wool of the sheep. The ancients gave the name

of umbri[4] to the breed between this animal and the sheep.

The head of the sheep is the weakest part of all, on which

account it is obliged, when it feeds, to turn away from the

sun.[5] The animals which are covered with wool are the most

stupid of all.[6] When they are afraid to enter any place, if

one is only dragged into it by the horns, all the rest will

follow. The longest duration of their life is ten years; but in

thiopia it is thirteen. Goats live in that country eleven

years, but in other parts of the world mostly eight years only.

Both of these animals require to be covered not more than four

times to ensure conception.







1. Pliny probably took this from Varro, B. ii. c. 2. This term is derived

from pei/kw, "to shear," with the negative prefix.-B.

2. The word "cubitales" alone is used, which might be supposed to

refer only to the length of the tail; but Hardouin conceives that it must

also apply to the breadth, and refers to Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c.

28, and others, in proof of the great size which the tails of the Syrian

sheep attain, and which would not be indicated by merely saying that they

are a cubit long; this being little more than the ordinary length in other

countries.-B.

3. According to Hardouin, this term, or some word nearly resembling it,

was applied to mules or mongrels, as well as to individual animals of di-

minutive size or less perfect form.-B. Called "moufflon" by the French.

4. The term "umbri" appears to have been applied to a mongrel or less

perfect animal; like "musmon," it is of uncertain derivation.-B.

5. So also Varro, ubi supra, and Columella, B. vii. c. 3.-B. See also

B. xviii. c. 76.

6. This remark, and the others in the remainder of this Chapter, appear

to be taken from Aristotle, list. Anim. B. ix. c. 3.-B.




76. Chap. 76. (50.)-Goats And Their Propagation.


CHAP. 76. (50.)-GOATS AND THEIR PROPAGATION.



The goat occasionally brings forth as many as four at a

birth; but this is rarely the case.[1] It is pregnant five months,







like the sheep. Goats become barren when very fat. There

is little advantage to be derived from their bringing forth

before their third year, or after the fourth, when they begin

to grow old.[2] They are capable of generating in the seventh

month, and while they are still sucking. In both sexes those

that have no horns are considered the most valuable.[3] A

single coupling in the day is not sufficient; the second and the

following ones are more effectual. They conceive in the month

of November, so as to bring forth in the month of March,

when the buds are bursting; this is sometimes the case with

them when only one year old, and always with those of the

second year; but the produce of those which are three years

old is the most valuable.[4] They continue to bring forth for a

period of eight years. Cold produces abortion. When their

eyes are surcharged, the female discharges the blood from the

eye by pricking it with the point of a bulrush, and the male

with the thorn of a bramble.



Mutianus relates an instance of the intelligence of this

animal, of which he himself was an eye-witness. Two goats,

coming from opposite directions, met on a very narrow bridge,

which would not admit of either of them turning round, and

in consequence of its great length, they could not safely go

backwards, there being no sure footing on account of its

narrowness, while at the same time an impetuous torrent was

rapidly rushing beneath; accordingly, one of the animals lay

down flat, while the other walked over it.



Among the males, those are the most esteemed which have

flat noses and long hanging ears,[5] the shoulders being covered







with very thick shaggy hair; the mark of the most valuable

among the females is the having two folds[6] hanging down the

body from under the neck. Some of these animals have no

horns; but where there are horns, the age of the animal is

denoted by the number of knots on them. Those that have

no horns give the most milk.[7] According to Archelaus,[8] they

breathe, not through the nose, but the ears,[9] and they are

never entirely free from fever,[10] from which circumstance it is,

probably, that they are more animated than sheep, more ardent,

and have stronger sexual passions. It is said also, that they

have the power of seeing by night as well as in the day, for

which reason those persons who are called Nyctalopes,[11] recover the power of seeing in the evening, by eating the liver

of the he-goat. In Cilicia, and in the vicinity of the Syrtes,

the inhabitants shear the goat for the purpose of clothing

themselves.[12] It is said that the she-goats in the pastures will

never look at each other at sun-set, but lie with their backs

towards one another,[13] while at other times of the day they lie

facing each other and in family groups. They all have long hair

hanging down from the chin, which is called by us aruncus.[14]

If any one of the flock is taken hold of and dragged by this

hair, all the rest gaze on in stupid astonishment; and the same







happens when any one of them has eaten of a certain herb[15]

Their bite is very destructive to trees, and they make the

olive barren by licking it;[16] for which reason they are not

sacrificed to Minerva.[17]







1. We have an account of the generation of the goat in Aristotle. Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 19. lian, Anim. Nat. B. iii. c. 38, says that the goats

of Egypt sometimes produce five young ones at a birth.-B.

2. Columella, B. vii. c. 6, gives a somewhat different account; he says,

"Before its sixth year it is old-so that when five years old, it is not suitable for coupling."-B.

3. According to Columella, ubi supra, "Because those with horns are

usually troublesome, from their uncertainty of temper."-B.

4. There has been considerable difference of opinion respecting the reading of the original, whether the word "utiles," or "inutiles," was the one

here employed. Hardouin conceives it was the latter, and endeavours to

reconcile the sense with this reading; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 538, 539. But,

notwithstanding his high authority, there is still great doubt on the matter.-B.

5. "Infractis," probably in contradistinction to erect ears. Columella,

ubi supra, terms them, "flaccidis et prgrandibus auribus"-"flaccid ears,

and very large."-B.

6. "Lacini;" Varro, B. ii. c. 3, describes them as "mammulas pensiles;" Columclla, ubi supra, calls them "verruculas;" he, however, assigns

this appendage to the male goat.-B.

7. The word "mutilus" is employed, which Hardouin interprets, "having had the horns removed." But the same word is applied by Columella,

B. vii. c. 6, to an animal naturally without horns.-B.

8. On this reference to Archelaus, Dalechamps remarks that he is incorrect; but refers to Varro, ubi supra, who ascribes this opinion to Archelaus;

Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 540.-B.

9. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 9, refers to this opinion, as being erroneous; lian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 53, supposes that they breathe both

through the nose and the ears.-B.

10. Varro, ubi supra, remarks, "that no one in his senses speaks of a goat

in health; for they are never without fever."

11. Meaning those who cannot see at night, who have a weak sight, and

therefore require a strong light to distinguish objects. See also, as to the

Nyctalopes, B. xxviii. c. 47. The same remedy, the liver of the goat, is

recommended for its cure.-B. See also B. xxviii. c. 11.

12. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 28, says that the inhabitants of Cilicia

shear the goats in the same manner as the sheep.-B.

13. This is mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 3.-B.

14. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 3, refers to the beard of the goat, under the name of, h)/ruggon.

15. According to Hardouin, the herb referred to is the "erngium;" prob-

ably the "eringo:" he cites various authorities in support of his opinion.-B.

16. This is repeated in B. xvii. c. 24.-B.

17. Varro, B. i. c. 2, says: "Hence it is that they sacrificed no goats to

Minerva, on account of the olive;" he then explains why the circumstance

of the goat injuring the olive-tree was a reason for not offering it in sacrifice to Minerva, the patroness of this tree. Ovid, on the other hand, in

the Fasti, B. i. 1. 360, says that the goat was sacrificed to Bacchus, because

it gnawed the vine.




77. Chap. 77. (51.)-The Hog.


CHAP. 77. (51.)-THE HOG. [1]



The period for coupling the hog lasts from the return of the

west wind to the vernal equinox; the proper age commences

in the eighth month, indeed, in some places, in the fourth

even, and continues until the eighth year[2] They bring forth

twice in the year, the time of gestation being four months;

the number at a birth amounts to twenty even, but they cannot rear so large a number.[3] Nigidius informs us, that those

which are produced within ten days of the winter solstice are

born with teeth. One coupling is sufficient, but it is repeated,

on account of their extreme liability to abortion; the remedy

for which is not to allow coupling the first time the female is

in heat, nor until its ears are flaccid and pendant. The males

do not generate after they are three years old. When the

females become feeble from old age, they receive the males

lying down.[4] It is not looked upon as anything portentous

when they eat their young. The young of the hog is considered in a state of purity for sacrifice when five days old,[5] the

lamb on the seventh day, and the calf on the thirtieth. Coruncanius asserts, that ruminant animals are not proper for







victims until they have two teeth.[6] It has been supposed,

that when a pig has lost one eye, it will not live long;[7] otherwise, these animals generally live up to fifteen, or sometimes

twenty years. They sometimes become mad; besides which, they

are liable to other diseases, especially to quinsy[8] and to scrofula.[9] It is an indication that the hog is diseased, when blood

is found at the root of a bristle pulled from its back, and when it

holds its head on one side while walking. When the female

becomes too fat, she has a deficiency of milk; the first litter is

always the least numerous. Animals of this kind delight in

rolling in the mud.[10] The tail is curled, and it has also been

remarked, that those are a more acceptable offering to the gods,

whose tail is turned to the right than those which have it

turned to the left. They may be fattened in sixty days, and

more especially if they have been kept without food for three

days before fattening. The swine is by far the most brutish

of all the animals, and it has been said, and not unaptly, that

life has been given them in place of salt.[11] And yet it has been

known, that these animals, when carried away by thieves,

have recognized the voice of their keeper; and when a vessel

has been under water through the inclination of one of its

sides, they have had the sense to go over to the other side.

The leader of the herd will even learn to go to market, and to







different houses in the city. In the wild state also, they have

the sense to pass their urine in plashy places, that they may

destroy all traces of them, and so lighten themselves for

flight.[12] The female is spayed, just as is done with the camel;

after they have fasted two days, they are suspended by the

hind feet, and the orifice of the womb is cut; after this operation, they fatten more quickly.[13]



M. Apicius[14] made the discovery, that we may employ the

same artificial method of increasing the size of the liver of the

sow, as of that of the goose;[15] it consists in cramming them

with dried figs, and when they are fat enough, they are drenched

with wine mixed with honey, and immediately killed. There

is no animal that affords a greater variety to the palate of the

epicure; all the others have their own peculiar flavour, but the

flesh of the hog has nearly fifty different flavours. Hence it

is, that there are whole pages of regulations made by the cen-

sors, forbidding the serving up at banquets of the belly, the

kernels,[16] the testicles, the womb, and the cheeks. However,

notwithstanding all this, the poet Publius,[17] the author of the

Mimes, when he ceased to be a slave, is said to have given

no entertainment without serving up the belly of a sow, to

which he also gave the name of "sumen."







1. We have an account of the hog in Varro, B. ii. c. 4, from whom most

of Pliny's remarks are probably derived.-B.

2. Varro, B. ii. c. 4, and Columella, B. vii. c. 9. fix upon the seventh

year.-B.

3. Varro, and Columella, ubi supra, recommend that the sow should not

he allowed to rear more than eight young ones at each birth.-B.

4. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 13.-B.

5. Varro, ubi supra, says on the tenth day; Hardouin endeavours to prove

that the number in Varro was originally five.-B.

6. The term "bidens," employed by Pliny, although it literally means

"having two teeth," has been referred to the age of the animal, as indicated

rather by the respective size of the teeth than by their number. It has

been supposed to designate an animal of two years old, when the canine

teeth of the lower jaw had become prominent.-B

7. This is also referred to by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 18, but is

without foundation.-B.

8. Aristotle, ubi supra, B. viii. c. 26. It is mentioned as a frequent

occurrence by Plautus, Trinum. A. ii. s. 4, 1. 139.-B.

9. Columella, B. vii. c. 10, gives directions for the treatment of hogs

affected with scrofula. The name of the disease has been supposed to be

derived from the frequency of its occurrence in this animal, anciently called

"scrofa."

10. It may appear unnecessary to refer to authorities on this subject, which

is a matter of daily observation; it has, however, been stated by some

naturalists, that the hog, in its wild state, does not exhibit any of the

filthy propensities so generally observed in it when domesticated.-B.

11. This saying is found in Varro, B. ii. c. 4; it is referred to by Cicero, De

Nat. Deor. B. ii. c. 64, and ascribed to Chrysippus; "ne putisceret, ani-

mam ipsam pro sale datam."-B. "That they are only of use for their

flesh, which is kept from putridity by their life, which acts as salt."

12. Pliny speaks of this more at large in B. xxviii. c. 60.-B.

13. This operation, and the effect of it, are mentioned by Aristotle, Hist.

Anim. B. ix. c. 79, and by Columella, B. vii. c. 9.-B.

14. There were three Romans of this name, celebrated for their skill in

gastronomy; of these the most illustrious lived in the reigns of Augustus

and Tiberius. A treatise (probably spurious) is extant, to which his name

is attached, entitled "De Arte Culinari"-"On the Art of Cookery." Pliny

refers to him again, B. xix. c. 41, and he is mentioned by many others of

the classical writers.-B.

15. See B. x. c. 1. A much more cruel mode of increasing the liver of

this animal, by confining it in hot ovens, is practised at the present day, to

satisfy the palate of the admirers of the Strasburg pats de foies gras.

16. Pliny, in B. ix. c. 66, employs the expression "tonsil in homine,

in sue glandule," as if he considered them analogous parts.-B. See

Plautus passim.

17. Publius Syrus was a comic performer and a writer, who acquired considerable celebrity; he lived during the reign of Augustus.-B.




78. Chap. 78.-The Wild Boar; Who Was The First To Establish Parks For Wild Animals.


CHAP. 78.-THE WILD BOAR; WHO WAS THE FIRST TO ESTABLISH

PARKS FOR WILD ANIMALS.



The flesh of the wild boar is also much esteemed. Cato,







the Censor, in his orations, strongly declaimed against the use

of the brawn of the wild boar.[1] The animal used to be divided

into three portions, the middle part of which was laid by,[2]

and is called boar's chine. P. Servilius Rullus was the first

Roman who served up a whole boar at a banquet; the father

of that Rullus, who, in the consulship of Cicero, proposed the

Agrarian law. So recent is the introduction of a thing which

is now in daily use. The Annalists have taken notice of such

a fact as this, clearly as a hint to us to mend our manners;

seeing that now-a-days two or three boars are consumed, not

at one entertainment, but as forming the first course only.



(52.) Fulvius Lupinus was the first Roman who formed

parks[3] for the reception of these and other wild animals: he

first fed them in the territory of Tarquinii: it was not long,

however, that imitators were found in L. Lucullus and Q.

Hortensius.[4] The wild sow brings forth once only in the

year. The males are very fierce during the rutting time;

they fight with each other, having first hardened their sides

by rubbing them against the trees, and covered themselves

with mud. The females, as is the case with animals of every

kind, become more fierce just after they have brought forth.

The wild boar is not capable of generating before the first

year. The wild boar of India[5] has two curved teeth, projecting from beneath the muzzle, a cubit in length; and the same

number projecting from the forehead, like the horns of the

young bull. The hair of these animals, in a wild state, is the







eclour of copper, the others are black. No species whatever

of the swine is found in Arabia.







1. "Aprugnum callum;" Plauts, in detailing the preparations for a

feast, enumerates the following articles, "pernam, callum, glandium,

sumen;" Pseudolus, A. i. s. 2, 1. 32; all of which are parts of the hog.

2. "Ponebatur." Littr and Ajasson render this, "placed at table."

It would appear, however, that the meaning is that this part was put by

for salting, and the other parts were served at table while fresh.

3. "Vivaria;" Varro, B. iii. c. 12, and Aulus Gellius, B. ii. c. 20, give

an account of the different places which were employed by the Romans

for preserving animals of various descriptions, with their appropriate

designations. Varro names the inventor Fulvius Lippinus.-B.

4. Varro, B. iii. c. 13, gives an animated description of a visit to what

he calls the leporarium of Hortensius, where, besides hares, as the name

implies, there was a multitude of stags, boars, and other four-footed

animals.

5. lian, De Anim. Nat. B. xvi. c. 37, says, that no boar, either wild or

tame, is produced in India, and that the Indians never use the flesh of

this animal, as they would regard the use of it with as much horror as of

human flesh.-B. The "Sus babiroussa" is probably meant by Pliny.




79. Chap. 79. (53.)-Animals In A Half-Wild State.


CHAP. 79. (53.)-ANIMALS IN A HALF-WILD STATE.



In no species is the union with the wild animal so easy as

in that of the swine; the produce of such unions was called

by the ancients hybrid,[1] or half savage; which appellation

has also been transferred to the human race, as it was to C.

Antonius, the colleague of Cicero in his consulship. Not

only, however, with respect to the hog, but all other animals

as well, wherever there is a tame species, there is a corresponding wild one as well; a fact which is equally true with reference to man himself, as is proved by the many races of wild

men of which we have already spoken.[2] There is no kind of

animal, however, that is divided into a greater number of varieties than the goat. There are the capra,[3] the rupicapra

or rock-goat, and the ibex, an animal of wonderful swiftness,

although its head is loaded with immense horns, which bear a

strong resemblance to the sheath of a sword.[4] By means of

these horns the animal balances itself, when it darts along

the rocks, as though it had been hurled from a sling;[5] more

especially when it wishes to leap from one eminence to another. There are the oryges also,[6] which are said to be the







only animals that have the hair the contrary way, the points

being turned towards the head. There are the dama also,[7]

the pygargus,[8] and the strepsiceros,[9] besides many others

which strongly resemble them. The first mentioned of these

animals,[10] however, dwell in the Alps; all the others are sent

to us from the parts beyond sea.







1. There has been some difference of opinion respecting the derivation

of this word, but it is generally used to express a "mongrel," i. e. an ani-

mal whose parents are of different natures, or, when applied to the human

species, of different countries.-B.

2. See B. vii. c. 2.

3. It is not easy to determine what animals Pliny intended to designate.

Cuvier employs the terms "chlevreuils, chamois, and bouquetins," as the

corresponding words in the French. In English we have no names to

express these varieties; we may, however, regard them generally, as different species of wild goats. Cuvier conceives that the Linnan names of

the animals mentioned were, probably, Cervus capreolus, Antelope rupicapra,

and Capra ibex.-B.

4. The resemblance may be supposed to consist in the horns being hollow, and tapering to a point.-B.

5. There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the correct reading,

or the exact meaning which the writer intended to convey by the words

employed.-B.

6. There is some difficulty in determining the nature of the variety

which Pliny terms "oryges;" Hardouin has collected the opinions of naturalists, and we have some remarks by Cuvier; he refers to Buffon's

account of the Antelope oryx, as agreeing, in the essential points, with the

description given by pliny; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 554. See B. xi. c. 106.

7. Cuvier remarks, that there is some doubt respecting the dama of

Pliny; he is, however, disposed to regard it as a species of antelope.

Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 464, 465; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 554.-B.

8. The term pygargus is derived from the words pugh\ a\rgo\s, denoting

"white buttocks." Probably a kind of gazelle.

9. "With twisted horns." It is probable that Pliny intended to designate a species of antelope,-B. See B. xi. c. 45.

10. In this division Pliny, probably, included what he has termed the

"capra," the rupicapra, and the ibex.-B.




80. Chap. 80. (54.)-Apes.


CHAP. 80. (54.)-APES.



The different kinds of apes, which approach the nearest to

the human figure, are distinguished from each other by the

tail.[1] Their shrewdness is quite wonderful. It is said that,

imitating the hunters, they will besmear themselves with

bird-lime, and put their feet into the shoes, which, as so many

snares, have been prepared for them.[2] Mucianus says, that

they have even played at chess, having, by practice, learned

to distinguish the different pieces, which are made of wax.[3]







He says that the species which have tails become quite melancholy when the moon is on the wane, and that they leap

for joy at the time of the new moon, and adore it. Other

quadrupeds also are terrified at the eclipses of the heavenly

bodies. All the species of apes manifest remarkable affection

for their offspring. Females, which have been domesticated,

and have had young ones, carry them about and shew them to

all comers, shew great delight when they are caressed, and appear to understand the kindness thus shewn them. Hence it

is, that they very often stifle their young with their embraces.

The dog's-headed ape[4] is of a much fiercer nature, as is the

case with the satyr. The callitriche[5] has almost a totally

different aspect; it has a beard on the face, and a tail, which

in the first part of it is very bushy. It is said that this animal cannot live except in the climate of thiopia, which is

its native place.







1. Some of these animals are entirely without a tail, and this circumstance has been employed to form the primary division of the simile into

the two species, those with and those without tails. We have an epigram of Martial, in which this is referred to. "Si mihi cauda foret,

cercopithecus eram"-"If I had but a tail, I should be a monkey." B.

iv. Ep. 102.-B. See B. xi. c. 100.

2. We learn from Strabo, Ind. Hist. B. xv., that, in catching the monkey,

the hunters took advantage of the propensity of these animals to imitate

any action they see performed. "Two modes," he says, "are employed in

taking this animal, as by nature it is taught to imitate every action, and to

take to flight by climbing up trees. The hunters, when they see an ape

sitting on a tree, place within sight of it a dish full of water, with which

they rub their eyes; and then, slyly substituting another in its place, full of

bird-lime, retire and keep upon the watch. The animal comes down from

the tree, and rubs its eyes with the bird-lime, in consequence of which the

eyelids stick together, and it is unable to escape." lian also says, Hist.

Anim. B. xvii. c. 25, that the hunters pretend to put on their shoes, and

then substitute, in their place, shoes of lead; the animal attempts to imitate

them, and, the shoes being so contrived, when it has once got them on, it

finds itself unable to take them off, or to move, and is consequently taken.

3. There has been some difficulty in ascertaining the exact reading here; but the meaning seems to be, that the pieces were made of wax, and that

the animals had learned to distinguish them from each other, and move

them in the appropriate manner; how far this is to be credited, it is not

easy to decide, but it would certainly require very strong and direct evidence. We are told that the Emperor Charles V. had a monkey that

played at chess with him.-B.

4. In the original, termed "cynocephali," "dog's-headed;" an appellation given to them, according to Cuvier, from their muzzle projecting like

that of a dog; we have an account of this species in Aristotle, Hist. Anim.

B. ii. c. 13.-B. Probably the baboon. See B. vi. c. 35, and B. vii.

c. 2. The satyr is, perhaps, the uran-utang. See B. v. c. 8, and B. vii. c. 2.

5. Or "fine-haired monkey;" supposed to be the Silenus of Linnus; it

is described by Buffon, under the name of Callitrix.-B. It seems to be

also called the "Simia hamadryas."




81. Chap. 81. (55.)-The Different Species Of Hares.


CHAP. 81. (55.)-THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HARES.



There are also numerous species of hares. Those in the

Alps are white,[1] and it is believed that, during the winter,

they live upon snow for food; at all events, every year, as the

snow melts, they acquire a reddish colour; it is, moreover, an

animal which is capable of existing in the most severe climates.

There is also a species of hare, in Spain, which is called the







rabbit;[2] it is extremely prolific, and produces famine in the

Balearic islands, by destroying the harvests. The young ones,

either when cut from out of the body of the mother, or taken

from the breast, without having the entrails removed, are considered a most delicate food; they are then called laurices.[3]

It is a well-known fact, that the inhabitants of the Balearic

islands begged of the late Emperor Augustus the aid of a

number of soldiers, to prevent the too rapid increase of these

animals. The ferret[4] is greatly esteemed for its skill in

catching them. It is thrown into the burrows, with their

numerous outlets, which the rabbits form, and from which circumstance they derive their name,[5] and as it drives them out,

they are taken above. Archelaus informs us, that in the hare,

the number of cavernous receptacles in the body for the excrements always equals that of its years;[6] but still the numbers

are sometimes found to differ. He says also, that the same individual possesses the characteristics of the two sexes, and that

it becomes pregnant just as well without the aid of the male.

It is a kind provision of Nature, in making animals which are

both harmless and good for food, thus prolific. The hare, which

is preyed upon by all other animals, is the only one, except

the dasypus,[7] which is capable of superftation;[8] while the

mother is suckling one of her young, she has another in the

womb covered with hair, another without any covering at all,

and another which is just beginning to be formed. Attempts







have been made to form a kind of stuff of the hair of these

animals; but it is not so soft as when attached to the skin,

and, in consequence of the shortness of the hairs, soon falls to

pieces.







1. Hardouin gives references to the authors who have observed this

change in the colour of the hare, apparently depending upon the peculiar

locality, and its consequent exposure to a low temperature. Cuvier considers

it as characteristic of a peculiar species, the Lepus variabilis, "which being

peculiar to the highest mountains, and the regions of the north, is white in

winter."-B.

2. Or coney, "cuniculus." Hardouin makes some observations upon

the derivation of this term, to show that Pliny was mistaken in supposing

it to be of Spanish origin; we have also an observation of Cuvier's to the

same effect.-B.

3. "Laurices;" we have no explanation of this word in any of the

editions of Pliny. Its origin appears to be quite unknown.

4. According to Cuvier, the Mustela furo of Linus. Ajasson, ubi

supra.-B.

5. Because, as Varro says, De Re Rus. B. iii. c. 12, they are in the habit

of making burrows-cuniculos-in the earth.

6. This reference to the opinion of Archelaus appears to be from Varro,

ubi supra; the same reference is made by lian, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 2.-B.

7. Respecting the dasypus of Pliny, it has been doubted whether it be a

distinct species, a variety of the hare, or merely a synonyme.-B.

8. It is by some contended, that the human female, and perhaps some

other animals, have occasionally been the subjects of what is termed superftation; whereas, according to Pliny, in the hare and the dasypus it takes

place frequently, but in no other animals.-B. On this subject, see B. vii.

c. 9.




82. Chap. 82. (56.)-Animals Which Are Tamed In Part Only.


CHAP. 82. (56.)-ANIMALS WHICH ARE TAMED IN PART ONLY.



Hares are seldom tamed, and yet they cannot properly be

called wild animals; indeed, there are many species of them

which are neither tame nor wild, but of a sort of intermediate

nature; of the same kind there are among the winged animals,

swallows and bees, and among the sea animals, the dolphin.



(57.) Many persons have placed that inhabitant of our

houses, the mouse, in this class also; an animal which is not

to be despised, for the portents which it has afforded, even in

relation to public events. By gnawing the silver shields at

Lanuvium,[1] mice prognosticated the Marsian war; and the

death of our general, Carbo, at Clusium,[2] by gnawing the

latchets with which he fastened his shoes.[3] There are many

species of this animal in the territory of Cyrenaica; some of

them with a wide, others with a projecting, forehead, and some

again with bristling hair, like the hedgehog.[4] We are informed by Theophrastus, that after the mice had driven the

inhabitants of Gyara[5] from their island, they even gnawed the

iron; which they also do, by a kind of natural instinct, in the

iron forges among the Chalybes. In gold mines, too, their







stomachs are opened for this purpose, and some of the metal is

always to be found there, which they have pilfered,[6] so great

a delight do they take in stealing! We learn from our Annals,

also, that at the siege of Casilinum,[7] by Hannibal, a mouse was

sold for two hundred denarii,[8] and that the person who sold

it perished with hunger, while the purchaser survived. To

be visited by white mice is considered as indicative of a fortunate event; but our Annals are full of instances in which the

singing[9] of a mouse has interrupted the auspices.[10] Nigidius

informs us, that the field-mouse conceals itself during winter:

this is also said to be the case with the dormouse, which the

regulations of the censors, and of M. Scaurus, the chief of the

senate, when he was consul,[11] have banished from our tables,[12]

no lebs than shell-fish and birds, which are brought from a

foreign country. The dormouse is also a half-wild animal, and

the same person[13] made warrens for them in large casks, who

first formed parks for wild boars. In relation to this subject,

it has been remarked that dormice will not mate, unless they

happen to be natives of the same forest; and that if those are

put together that are brought from different rivers or mountains, they will fight and destroy each other. These animals

nourish their parents, when worn out with old age, with a

singular degree of affection. This old age of theirs is put an







end to by their winter's rest, when they conceal themselves

and sleep; they are young again by the summer. The field-mouse[14] also enjoys a similar repose.







1. This is referred to by Cicero, in his treatise, De Divinatione, B. i. c.

44, and B. ii. c. 27; in the latter he treats it as an idle tale.-B.

2. See B. iii. c. 8.

3. C. Papirius Carbo, a contemporary and friend of the Gracchi. In

B. C. 119, the orator, Licinius Crassus, brought a charge against him, the

nature of which is not known; but Carbo put an end to his life, by taking

cantharides.

4. These different species are thus characterized by Cuvier: "Les premiers sent les souris et les rats, de formes ordinaires; les seconds, les

grandes musaraignes [shrew-mice] de la taille du rat, telles que l'on te

trouve en Egypte; les troisiemes, une espece de souris particuliere i

l'Egypte, et peut-tre la Barbaric, arme d'epines parmi ses poils dont

Aristote avait deja parle (B. vi. 1. 37, cap. ult.) et que AM. Geoffroy a re-

trouve et nomme mus cahirinus." Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 467, and Le-

maire, ubi supra.-B. See B. viii. c. 55, and B. x. c. 85.

5. lian, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11, mentions this circumstance, but says

that it occurred in the island of Paros. For Gyara, see B. iv. c. 23.

6. We have two passages in Livy, B. xxvii. and B. xxx., where gold is

said to have been gnawed by mice.-B.

7. See B. iii. c. 9. In B. C. 217, this place was occupied by Fabius with

a strong garrison, to prevent Hannibal from passing the Vulturnus; and

the following year, after the battle of Cann, was occupied by a small body

of Roman troops, who, though little more than 1000 in number, withstood

the assaults of Hannibal during a protracted siege, until compelled by

famine to surrender.

8. This sun would be about 7.-B.

9. It is by no means improbable that "occentus" here means "singing,"

and not merely "squeaking;" as the singing of a mouse would no doubt be

deemed particularly ill-boding in those times. At the present day, a mouse

has been heard to emit a noise which more nearly resembled singing than

squeaking; and a "singing mouse" has been the subject of an exhibition

more than once.

10. We have frequent allusions to this occurrence in the writings of the

Romans, some of which are referred to by Dalechamps; Lemaire, vol. iii.

p. 563.-B.

11. A.U.C. 639; it does not appear what was the cause of this prohibition.-B.

12. See B. xxxvi. c. 2.

13. Fulvius Lupinus, as already stated in c. 78.-B.

14. "Nitelis." See B. xvi. o. 69. Probably the animal now known as

the Myoxus nitela of Linnus.




83. Chap. 83. (58.)-Places In Which Certain Animals Are Not To Be Found.


CHAP. 83. (58.)-PLACES IN WHICH CERTAIN ANIMALS ARE NOT

TO BE FOUND.



It is a remarkable fact, that nature has not only assigned

different countries to different animals, but that even in the

same country, it has denied certain species to peculiar localities.[1]

In Italy the dormouse is found in one part only, the Messian

forest.[2] In Lycia the gazelle never passes beyond the mountains which border upon Syria;[3] nor does the wild ass in that

vicinity pass over those which divide Cappadocia from Cilicia.

On the banks of the Hellespont, the stags never pass into a

strange territory, and about Arginussa[4] they never go beyond

Mount Elaphus; those upon that mountain, too, have cloven

ears. In the island of Poroselene,[5] the weasels will not so

much as cross a certain road. In Botia, the moles, which were

introduced at Lebadea, fly from the very soil of that country,

while in the neighbourhood, at Orchomenus, the very same

animals tear up all the fields. We have seen coverlets for

beds made of the skins of these creatures, so that our sense of

religion does not prevent us from employing these ominous

animals for the purposes of luxury. When hares have been

brought to Ithaca, they die as soon as ever they touch the

shore, and the same is the case with rabbits, on the shores of

the island of Ebusus;[6] while they abound in the vicinity,







Spain namely, and the Balearic isles. In Cyrene, the frogs

were formerly dumb, and this species still exists, although

croaking ones were carried over there from the continent.

At the present day, even, the frogs in the island of Seriphos

are dumb; but when they are carried to other places, they

croak; the same thing is also said to have taken place at

Sicandrus, a lake of Thessaly.[7] In Italy, the bite of the

shrew-mouse[8] is venomous; an animal which is not to be found

in any region beyond the Apennines. In whatever country

it exists, it always dies immediately if it goes across the rut

made by a wheel. Upon Olympus, a mountain of Macedonia, there are no wolves, nor yet in the isle of Crete.[9] In

this island there are neither foxes, nor bears, nor, indeed, any

kind of baneful animal,[10] with the exception of the phalangium,

a species of spider, of which I shall speak in its appropriate

place.[11] It is a thing still more remarkable, that in this island

there are no stags, except in the district of Cydon;[12] the same

is the case with the wild boar, the woodcock,[13] and the hedgehog. In Africa, there are neither wild boars, stags, deer, nor

bears.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 33.-B.

2. According to Hardouin, this forest is termed, in modem times, Bosco

di Baccano; it is nine miles S.W. of Rome.

3. Cuvier informs us, that "Le dorcas des Grecs n'est le daim, comme

le dit Hardouin, mais le chevreuil; car Aristote (De Partib. Anim. 1. iii.

c. 2) dit que c'est le plus petit des animaux a comes que nous connaissions

(sans doute en Grce); et le dorcas Libyca, trs-bien decrit par lien

(1. xiv. c. 4), est certainement la gazelle commune, 'antelope dorcas,'"

Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 467, 468; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 565. Respecting the

localities here mentioned, it has been proposed to substitute Cilicia for Syria,

Syria and Lycia being at a considerable distance from each other.-B.

4. See B. v. c. 39.

5. See B. v. c.. 38.

6. See B. iii. c. 1, and the Note to the passage. See also c. 81 of this Book.

7. lian, B. ii. c. 37, gives the same account of the frogs of Seriphos

and the lake of Thessaly, but gives the name of Pierus to the lake.-B.

8. "Mus aranes; the' shrew-mouse,'" according to Cuvier, "La musaraigne n'est pas venimeuse. Il s'en faut beaucoup qu'elle n'existe pas au

nord des Apennins; et elle ne prit point passe qu'elle a travers une

ornire, quoique souvent elle puisse y tre crase. C'est un des quadrupdes

que l'on tue le plus aisment par un coup lger." Ajasson, vol. vi. p.

468.-B.

9. lian, 13. iii. c. 32, gives the same account, which he professes to have

taken from Theophrastus.-B.

10. This is also stated by lian.

11. B. xi. c. 23, and B. xxix. c. 27.-B.

12. See B. iv. c. 20.

13. "Attagen;" the commentators have suspected some inaccuracy with

respect to this word, as we have no other remarks on birds in this part of

Pliny's work; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 567, 568.-B.




84. Chap. 84. (59.)-Animals Which Injure Strangers Only, As Also Animals Which Injure The Natives Of The Country Only, And Where They Are Found.


CHAP. 84. (59.)-ANIMALS WHICH INJURE STRANGERS ONLY, AS

ALSO ANIMALS WHICH INJURE THE NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY

ONLY, AND WHERE THEY ARE FOUND.



Besides this, there are certain animals, which are harmless

to the natives of the country, but destroy strangers; such are







the little serpents at Tirynthus,[1] which are said to spring from

out of the earth. In Syria, also, and especially on the banks

of the Euphrates, the serpents never attack the Syrians when

they are asleep, and even if they happen to bite a native who

treads upon them, their venom is not felt; but to persons of

any other country they are extremely hostile, and fiercely attack them, causing a death attended with great torture. On

this account, the Syrians never kill them. On the contrary,

on Latmos, a mountain[2] of Caria, as Aristotle tells us, strangers

are not injured by the scorpions, while the natives are killed

by them. But I must now give an account of other animals

as well, and of the productions of the earth.[3]



SUMMARY.-Remarkable events, narratives, and observations,

seven hundred and eighty-seven.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Mucianus,[4] Procilius,[5] Verrius

Flaccus,[6] L. Piso,[7] Cornelius Valerianus,[8] Cato the Censor,[9] Fenestclla,[10] Trogus,[11] the Register of the Triumphs,[12] Columella,[13]







Virgil,[14] Varro,[15] Lucilius,[16] Metellus Scipio,[17] Cornelius Cel-

sus,[18] Nigidius,[19] Trebius Niger,[20] Pomponius Mela,[21] Mamilius Sura.[22]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-King Juba,[23] Polybius,[24] Herodotus,[25] Antipater,[26] Aristotle,[27] Demetrius[28] the physician, Democritus,[29] Theophrastus,[30] Euanthes,[31] Agriopas,[32] who wrote







the "Olympionic," King Hiero,[33] King Attalus[34] Philometor, Ctesias,[35] Duris,[36] Philistus,[37] Archytas,[38] Phylarchus,[39] Amphilochus[40] of Athens, Anaxapolis[41] the Thasian, Apollodorus[42]

of Lemnos, Aristophanes[43] the Milesian, Antigonus[44] the Cuman, Agathocles[45] of Chios, Apollonius[46] of Pergamus, Aris-







tander[47] of Athens, Bacchius[48] of Miletus, Bion[49] of Soli,

Chireas[50] the Athenian, Diodorus[51] of Priene, Dion[52] the

Colophonian, Epigenes[53] the Rhodian, Euagon[54] of Thasos,

Euphronius[55] of Athens, Hegesias[56] of Maronea, the Menanders[57] of Priene and of Heraclea, Menecrates[58] the poet,

Androtion[59] who wrote on Agriculture, schrion[60] who wrote

on Agriculture, Lysimachus[61] who wrote on Agriculture,

Dionysius[62] who translated Mago, Diophanes[63] who made an

epitome of the work of Dionysius, King Archelaus,[64] Nicander.[65]









1. See B. iv. c. 9.

2. See B. v. c. 31.

3. More especially of trees, plants, flowers, medicinal substances, metals,

and gems, which form the most prominent subjects of the remaining Books

after the eleventh, which concludes the account of the animals.-B.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. A Roman historian, and a contemporary of Cicero. He is thought to

have written on early Roman history, as Varro quotes his account of the

Curtian Lake, and on the later history of Rome, as we have seen Pliny

referring to him in c. 2, respecting Pompey's triumph on his return from

Africa. He was held in high estimation by Pomponius Atticus, but seems

not to have been so highly esteemed as a writer by Cicero.

6. See end of B. iii.

7. See end of B. ii.

8. Of this writer nothing seems to be known. He probably flourished

in the reign of Tiberius or Caligula.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. A Roman historian, who flourished in the reign of Augustus, and

died A. D. 21, in the seventieth year of his age. His great work was called

"Annales," and extended to at least twenty-two books, and seems to have

contained much minute, though not always accurate, information with regard to the internal affairs of the city; only a few fragments remain,

which bear reference to events subsequent to the Carthaginian wars. He

is also thought to have written a work called "Epitoma." A treatise

was published at Vienna, in 1510, in two Books, "On the Priesthood and

Magistracy of Rome," under the name of Fenestella; but it is in reality

the composition of Andrea Domenico Fiocchi, a Florentine jurist of the

fourteenth century.

11. See end of B. vii.

12. See end of B. v.

13. L. Junius Moderatus Columella. He was a native of Gades, or Cadiz, and was a contemporary of Celsus and Seneca. He is supposed to have

resided at Rome, and from his works it appears that he visited Syria and

Cilicia. It has been conjectured that he died at Tarentum. His great

work is a systematic treatise upon Agriculture, divided into Twelve Books.

14. See end of B. vii.

15. See end of B. ii.

16. C. Lucilius, the first Roman satirical poet of any importance, was

born B.C. 148, and died B. C. 103. From Juvenal we learn that he was

born at Suessa of the Aurunci, and from Velleius Paterculus and Horace

other particulars respecting him. He is supposed to have been either the

maternal grand-uncle or maternal grandfather of Pompeius Magnus. If

not absolutely the inventor of Roman satire, he was the first to mould it

into that form which was afterwards fully developed by Horace, Juvenal,

and Perseus. He is spoken of in high terms as a writer by Cicero.

Horace, and Quintilian.

17. The father of Cornelia, the wife of Pompeius Magnus. After his

defeat by Csar at the battle of Thapsus, he stabbed himself, and leaped

into the sea. In what way he distinguished himself as an author, does

not appear.

18. See end of B. vii.

19. See end of B. vi.

20. He was one of the companions of L. Lucullus, proconsul in Btica,

the province of Spain, B. C. 150. His work on Natural History is several

times referred to by Pliny.

21. See end of B. iii.

22. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned by Varro and Columella. Nothing more seems to be known of him.

23. See end of B. v.

24. See end of B. iv.

25. See end of B. ii.

26. Of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, the disciple and successor of Diogenes,

and the teacher of Pantius, about B. C. 144. Of his personal history but

little is known. Mention is made of his History of Animals by the

Scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius.

27. See end of B. ii.

28. There were several physicians of this name; one was a native of

Apamea in Bithynia, a follower of Herophilus, who flourished in the third

or second century B.C.; another lived about the same period, and is by

some supposed to have been the same as the last. No particulars seem to

he known of the individual here mentioned.

29. See end of B. ii.

30. See end of B. iii.

31. Of Miletus. He wrote on mythical subjects, and is mentioned as

an author by Diogenes Lrtius; but nothing further seems to have been

known respecting him.

32. Some of the MSS. call him Acopas, or Copas. He was the author of an account of the victors at the Olympic games, the work here referred to

by Pliny.

33. Hiero II., the king of Syracuse, and steady friend and ally of the

Romans. He died probably a little before the year B.C. 216, having attained the age of ninety-two. Varro and Columella speak of a Treatise on

Agriculture written by him.

34. Attalus III., king of Pergamus, son of Eumenes II. and Stratonice,

daughter of Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia. In his will he made the

Roman people his heirs. Being struck with remorse for the murders and

other crimes of which he had previously been guilty, he abandoned all

public business, and devoted himself to the study of physic, sculpture, and

gardening, on which he wrote a work. He died B. C. 133, of a fever, with

which he was seized through exposing himself to the sun's rays, while

engaged in erecting a monument to his mother.

35. See end of B. ii.

36. See end of B. vii.

37. An historian of Syracuse, one of the most celebrated of antiquity,

though, unfortunately, none of his works have come down to us. He was

born about B.C. 435, and died B. C. 356. He wrote histories of Egypt,

Libya, Syria, and Phnicia.

38. A Greek of Tarentum, famous as a philosopher, mathematician, statesman, and general. The lives of him by Aristoxenus and Aristotle are unfortunately lost. He lived probably about B. C. 400, and he is said to have

saved the life of Plato by his influence with the tyrant Dionysius. He

was finally drowned in the Adriatic. He attained great skill as a prac-

tical mechanician; and his flying dove of wood was one of the wonders of

antiquity. The fragments and titles of works ascribed to him are very

numerous, but the genuineness of some is doubted.

39. See end of B. vii.

40. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella. In

B. xviii. c. 43, Pliny speaks of a work of his on lucerne clover and cytisus.

41. Or Anaxipolis. He was a writer on Agricultural subjects, and is

mentioned by Varro and Columella; but nothing further is known respecting him.

42. A writer on Agriculture. He is supposed to have lived before the

time of Aristotle, and is also mentioned by Varro. No further particulars

are known respecting him.

43. A writer on Agriculture; Varro calls him a native of Mallus, in

Cilicia.

44. A native of Cum or Cym, in Asia Minor, a Greek writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella.

45. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella.

46. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro, Columella, Galen,

and the Scholiast on Nicander.

47. The most famous among the soothsayers of Alexander the Great. He

probably wrote the work on Prodigies, which is referred to by Pliny in

B. xvii. c. 38, and elsewhere, as also by Lucian the satirist.

48. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella.

49. See end of B. vi.

50. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella.

51. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella.

52. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella.

53. See end of B. ii.

54. A writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro and Columella.

55. Or Euphonius, a writer on Agriculture, also mentioned by Varro and

Columella. Nothing further is known relative to him.

56. See end of B. vii.

57. Menander of Priene was a writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by

Varro and Columella. Menander of Heraclea was a writer on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro.

58. A poet who wrote on Agriculture, mentioned also by Varro. It is

not improbable that he is the same person with the Menecrates of Smyrna,

the author of two epigrams in the Greek Anthology.

59. A Greek writer on Agriculture, who wrote before the time of Theophrastus, by whom he is mentioned, as also by Athenus and Varro.

60. He is mentioned also by Varro, but nothing is known of him.

61. He is often referred to by Varro and Columella. He is also supposed to have been the writer of a History of Thebes, mentioned by the

Scholiast and Apollonius Rhodius, B. iii.

62. Cassius Dionysius of Utica. He translated into Greek the twenty-

eight Books on Husbandry written by Mago the Carthaginian, in the

Punic language. Of Mago nothing further is known.

63. Diophanes of Bithynia made an epitome of the same work in Greek,

and dedicated it to King Deiotarus. Columella styles Mago the Father of

Agriculture.

64. Made king of Cappadocia by Antony, B. C. 34. He died at Rome, at

an advanced age, A.D. 17. Plutarch attributes to King Archelaus-if, indeed, this was the same-a treatise on Minerals.

65. A native of Claros, near Colophon, in Ionia. It is not a matter of

certainty, but it is most probable, that he lived in the reign of Ptolemy V.,

who died B.C. 181. He was a poet, grammarian, and physician. His

"Theriaca," a poem on the wounds inflicted by venomous animals, still

exists, as also another called "Alexipharmia."




0. > Book Ix. The Natural History Of Fishes.


BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Why The Largest Animals Are Found In The Sea.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-WHY THE LARGEST ANIMALS ARE FOUND IN THE SEA.



WE have now given an account of the animals which we

call terrestrial, and which live as it were in a sort of society

with man. Among the remaining ones, it is well known

that the birds are the smallest; we shall therefore first describe those which inhabit the seas, rivers, and standing

waters.



(2.) Among these there are many to be found that exceed

in size any of the terrestrial animals even; the evident cause

of which is the superabundance of moisture with which they

are supplied. Very different is the lot of the winged animals,

whose life is passed soaring aloft in the air. But in the seas,

spread out as they are far and wide, forming an element at once

so delicate and so vivifying, and receiving the generating principles[1] from the regions of the air, as they are ever produced

by Nature, many animals are to be found, and indeed, most of

those that are of monstrous form; from the fact, no doubt, that

these seeds and first principles of being are so utterly conglomerated and so involved, the one with the other, from being

whirled to and fro, now by the action of the winds and now

by the waves. Hence it is that the vulgar notion may very

possibly be true, that whatever is produced in any other department of Nature, is to be found in the sea as well; while,

at the same time, many other productions are there to be found

which nowhere else exist. That there are to be found in the

sea the forms, not only of terrestrial animals, but of inanimate

objects even, is easily to be understood by all who will take the







trouble to examine the grape-fish,[2] the sword-fish,[3] the sawfish,[4] and the cucumber-fish,[5] which last so strongly resembles

the real cucumber both in colour and in smell. We shall find

the less reason then to be surprised to find that in so small an

object as a shell-fish[6] the head of the horse is to be seen protruding from the shell.







1. He has already said, in B. ii. c. 3, that "the seeds of all bodies fall

down from the heavens, principally into the ocean, and being mixed

together, we find that a variety of monstrous forms are in this way fre-

quently produced."

2. Hardouin has the following remark on this passage. "Rondelet

and Aldrovandus only waste their time and pains in making their minute

inquiries into the present names of these fish, which took their names

from grapes, the wood, the saw, and the cucumber; for by no other writer

do we find them mentioned even." Cuvier, however, does not seem to

be of Hardouin's opinion, that such investigations are a waste of time, and

has suggested that the eggs of the Sepia officinalis may be alluded to, the

eggs of which are in clusters of a dark colour, and bearing a strong resemblance to black grapes. This resemblance to a bunch of grapes is noticed

by Pliny himself, in c. 74 of the present Book.

3. He alludes, most probably, to what we call the "sword-fish," the

"Xiphias gladius" of Linnus.

4. Probably, in allusion to the "Squalus pristis" of Linnus.

5. Cuvier suggests that he probably alludes to the "Holothuria pentactes" of Linnus, or the sea-priapus; and remarks, that when the animal

contracts itself, it bears a very strong resemblance to a cucumber.

6. Cuvier says, that he most probably alludes to the "Syngnathus

hippocampus" of Linnus. This little fish, he says, is also called the seahorse, and having the body armed with a hard coat, might very easily have

been taken for a shell-fish. Its head, in miniature, bears a very strong

resemblance to that of a horse.




2. Chap. 2. (3.)-The Sea Monsters Of The Indian Ocean.


CHAP. 2. (3.)-THE SEA MONSTERS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.



But the most numerous and largest of all these animals are

those found in the Indian seas; among which there are baln,[1]

four jugera[2] in extent, and the pristis,[3] two hundred cubits







long: here also are found cray-fish[4] four cubits in length, and

in the river Ganges there are to be seen eels three hundred[5]

feet long. But at sea it is more especially about the time of

the solstices that these monsters are to be seen. For then

it is that in these regions the whirlwind comes sweeping on,

the rains descend, the hurricane comes rushing down, hurled

from the mountain heights, while the sea is stirred up from the

very bottom, and the monsters are driven from their depths

and rolled upwards on the crest of the billow. At other times

again, there are such vast multitudes of tunnies met with, that

the fleet of Alexander the Great was able to make head against

them only by facing them in order of battle, just as it would

have done an enemy's fleet. Had the ships not done this,

but proceeded in a straggling manner, they could not possibly

have made their escape. No noises, no sounds, no blows had

any effect on these fish; by nothing short of the clash of battle

were they to be terrified, and by nothing less than their utter

destruction were they overpowered.



There is a large peninsula in the Red Sea, known by the

name of Cadara:[6] as it projects into the deep it forms a vast

gulf, which it took the fleet of King Ptolemy[7] twelve whole

days and nights to traverse by dint of rowing, for not a breath

of wind was to be perceived. In the recesses of this becalmed spot more particularly, the sea-monsters attain so vast

a size that they are quite unable to move. The commanders of the fleets of Alexander the Great have related that

the Gedrosi,[8] who dwell upon the banks of the river Ara-







bis,[9] are in the habit of making the doors of their houses with

the jaw-bones[10] of fishes, and raftering the roofs with their bones,

many of which were found as much as forty cubits in length.

At this place, too, the sea-monsters, just like so many cattle,[11]

were in the habit of coming on shore, and, after feeding on the

roots of shrubs, they would return; some of them, which had

the heads of horses,[12] asses, and bulls, found a pasture in the

crops of grain.







1. It is not accurately known what fish was meant by the ancients, under

the name of "balna." According to some writers, it is considered to be

the same with what we call the "grampus."

2. A space, as Hardouin remarks, greater than that occupied by some

towns, the "jugerum" being 240 feet long, and 120 broad. The vast size

of great fishes was a favourite subject with some of the ancient writers,

and their accounts were eagerly copied by some of the early fathers.

Bochart has collected these various accounts in his work on Animals, B. i.

c. 7. In the "Arabian Nights" also, we find accounts of huge fishes in

the eastern seas, so large as to be taken for islands. The existence of the

sea-serpent is still a question in dispute; and a whale of large size, is a

formidable obstacle in the way of a ship of even the largest burthen.

3. As Hardouin remarks, we can learn neither from the works of Pliny,

nor yet of lian, what fish the pristis really was. From Nonius Marcellus, c. 13, we find that it was a very long fish of large size, but narrow body. Hardouin says that it was a fish of the cetaceous kind, found in the

Indian seas, which, in his time, was known by some as the "vivella," with

a long bony muzzle serrated on either side, evidently meaning the sawfish. Pristis was a favourite name given by the Romans to their ships.

In the boat-race described by Virgil in the neid, B. v., one of the boats

is so called.

4. Cuvier remarks, that he himself had often seen the "langouste," or

large lobster, as much as four feet in length, and the "homard," usually a

smaller kind, of an equal size. The length, however, given by Pliny

would make six or eight feet, according to the length of the cubit.

5. Cuvier says, that it is an exaggeration by travellers, which there is

nothing in nature at all to justify. Probably, however, some animals of

the genus boa, or python, or large water-snakes may have given rise to

the story.

6. On the southern coast of Arabia.

7. Ptolemy Philadelphus.

8. See B. vi. c. 23, 25. Strabo, in his fifteenth Book, tells the same story

of the Ichthyophagi, situate between the Carmani and the Orit. Dalechamps suggests that the Gedrosi mentioned this in relation to the

Ichthyophagi, who were probably their neighbours.

9. Also called the Cophetes. See B. vi. c. 25. The commander of

Alexander's fleet more especially alluded to, is probably Nearchus, who

wrote an account of his voyage, to which Pliny has previously made allusion in B. vi. and which is followed by Strabo, in B. xv., and by Arrian, in

his "Indica."

10. Hardouin remarks, that the Basques of his day were in the habit of

fencing their gardens with the ribs of the whale, which sometimes exceeded twenty feet in length; and Cuvier says, that at the present time, the

jaw-bone of the whale is used in Norway for the purpose of making beams

or posts for buildings.

11. Onesicritus, quoted by Strabo, B. xv., says., that in the vicinity of

Taprobane, or Ceylon, there were animals which had an amphibious life,

some of which resembled oxen, some horses, and various other land animals.

Cuvier is of opinion, that not improbably tie "Trichecum manatum" and

the "Trichecum dugong" of Linnus are alluded to, which are herbivorous

animals, though nearly allied to the cetacea, and which are in the habit of

coming to pasture on the grass or sea-weed they may chance to find on the

shore.

12. It is remarked by Cuvier, that there is no resemblance whatever between the domesticated animals and any of the cetacea; but that the

imagination of the vulgar has pictured to itself these supposed resemblances, by the aid of a lively imagination.




3. Chap. 3. (4.)-The Largest Animals That Are Found In Each Ocean.


CHAP. 3. (4.)-THE LARGEST ANIMALS THAT ARE FOUND IN EACH OCEAN.



The largest animals found in the Indian Sea are the pistrix

and the balna; while of the Gallic Ocean the physeter[1] is







the most bulky inhabitant, raising itself aloft like some vast

column, and as it towers above the sails of ships, belching forth,

as it were, a deluge of water. In the ocean of Gades there is

a tree,[2] with outspread branches so vast, that it is supposed

that it is for that reason it has never yet entered the Straits.

There are fish also found there which are called sea-wheels,[3] in

consequence of their singular conformation; they are divided

by four spokes, the nave being guarded on every side by a

couple of eyes.







1. From the Greek fushth\r, "a blower," probably one of the whale

species, so called from its blowing forth the water. Hardouin remarks, that

Pliny mentions the Gallic Ocean, in B. vi. c. 33, as ending at the Pyrenees;

and, probably, by this term he means the modern Bay of Biscay. Rondeletius, B. xvi. c. 14, says, that this fish is the same that is called by the

Narbonnese peio mular, by the Italians capidolio, and by the people of

Saintonge, "sedenette." Cuvier conjectures also, that this was some kind

of large whale; a fish which was not unfrequently found, in former times,

in the gulf of Aquitaine, the inhabitants of the shores of which were skilled

in its pursuit. Ajasson states that Valmont de Bomare was of opinion that it was the porpoise; but, as he justly remarks, the size of that animal

does not at all correspond with the magnitude of the "physeter," as here

mentioned.

2. Cuvier suggests that the idea of such an animal as the one here

mentioned. probably took its rise in the kind of sea star-fish, now known

as Medusa's head, the Asterias of Linnus; but that the enormous size here

attributed to it, has no foundation whatever in reality. He remarks also,

that the inhabitants of the north of Europe, have similar stories relative

to a huge polypus, which they call the "kraken." We may, however, be

allowed to observe, that the "kraken," or "korven," mentioned by good

bishop Pontoppidan, bears a closer resemblance to the so-called "seaserpent," than to anything of the polypus or sepia genus.

3. "Rot." Cuvier suggests that this idea of the wheel was taken

from the class of zoophytes named "Medus," by Linnus, which have the

form of a disc, divided by radii, and dots which may have been taken for

eyes. But then, as he says, there are none of them of an excessive size,

as Pliny would seem to indicate by placing them in this Chapter, and which

lian has absolutely attributed to them in B. xiii. c. 20. Of the largest

rhizostoma, Cuvier says, that he had even seen, the diameter of the disc

did not exceed two feet.




4. Chap. 4. (5.)-The Forms Of The Tritons And Nereids. The Forms Of Sea Elephants.


CHAP. 4. (5.)-THE FORMS OF THE TRITONS AND NEREIDS. THE FORMS OF SEA ELEPHANTS.



A deputation of persons from Olisipo,[1] that had been sent

for the purpose, brought word to the Emperor Tiberius that a

triton had been both seen and heard in a certain cavern, blowing

a conch-shell,[2] and of the form under which they are usually







represented. Nor yet is the figure generally attributed to the

nereids[3] at all a fiction; only in them, the portion of the body

that resembles the human figure is still rough all over with

scales. For one of these creatures was seen upon the same

shores, and as it died, its plaintive murmurs were heard even

by the inhabitants at a distance. The legatus of Gaul,[4] too,

wrote word to the late Emperor Augustus that a considerable

number of nereids had been found dead upon the sea-shore. I

have, too, some distinguished informants of equestrian rank,

who state that they themselves once saw in the ocean of Gades

a sea-man,[5] which bore in every part of his body a perfect resemblance to a human being, and that during the night he

would climb up into ships; upon which the side of the vessel

where he seated himself would instantly sink downward, and

if he remained there any considerable time, even go under

water.



In the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, a subsidence of the

ocean left exposed on the shores of an island which faces the

province of Lugdunum[6] as many as three hundred animals or

more, all at once, quite marvellous for their varied shapes and

enormous size, and no less a number upon the shores of the







Santones;[7] among the rest there were elephants[8] and rams,

which last, however, had only a white spot to represent horns.

Turranius has also left accounts of several nereids, and he

speaks of a monster[9] that was thrown up on the shore at

Gades, the distance between the two fins at the end of the tail

of which was sixteen cubits, and its teeth one hundred and

twenty in number; the largest being nine, and the smallest

six inches in length.



M. Scaurus, in his dileship, exhibited at Rome, among other

wonderful things, the bones of the monster to which Andromeda was said to have been exposed, and which he had brought

from Joppa, a city of Juda. These bones exceeded forty feet

in length, and the ribs were higher than those of the Indian

elephant, while the back-bone was a foot and a half[10] in thickness.











1. Lisbon. See B. iv. c. 35.

2. One of the Scholiasts on Homer says, that before the discovery of the

brazen trumpet by the Tyrrhenians, the conch-shell was in general use

for that purpose. Hardouin, with considerable credulity, remarks here,

that it is no fable, that the nereids and tritons had a human face; and says

that no less than fifteen instances, ancient and modern, had been adduced,

in proof that such was the fact. He says that this was the belief of Scaliger, and quotes the book of Aldrovandus on Monsters, p. 36. But, as

Cuvier remarks, it is impossible to explain these stories of nereids and

tritons, on any other grounds than the fraudulent pretences of those who have exhibited them, or asserted that they have seen them. "It was only

last year," he says, "that all London was resorting to see a wonderful sight

in what is commonly called a mermaid. I myself had the opportunity of

examining a very similar object: it was the body of a child, in the mouth

of which they had introduced the jaws of a sparus [probably our "gilthead]," while for the legs was substituted the body of a lizard. The body

of the London mermaid," he says, "was that of an ape, and a fish attached

to it supplied the place of the hind legs."

3. Primarily the nereids were sea-nymphs, the daughters of Nereus and

Doris. Dalechamps informs us, that Alexander ab Alexandro states that

he once saw a nereid that had been thrown ashore on the coasts of the

Peloponnesus, that Trapezuntius saw one as it was swimming, and that

Draconetus Bonifacius, the Neapolitan, saw a triton that had been preserved in honey, and which many had seen when taken alive on the coast

of Epirus. We may here remark, that the triton is the same as our "merman," and the nereid is our "mermaid."

4. Of Gallia Lugdunensis, namely. The legatus was also called "rector," and "proprtor."

5. Or "mer-man," as we call it. Dalechamps, in his note, with all the

credulity of his time, states that a similar sea-man had been captured, it

was said, in the preceding age in Norway, and that another had been seen

in Poland, dressed like a bishop, in the year 1531. Juvenal, in his 14th

Satire, makes mention of the "monsters of the ocean, and the youths of the

sea."

6. See B. iv. c. 31, 32.

7. See B. iv. c. 33.

8. Dalechamps says that this elephant is the same as the "rosmarus" of

Olaus Magnus, B. xxxii. c. 11. It is remarked by Cuvier, that cetaceous

animals have at all times received the names of those belonging to the land.

The sea-ram, he thinks, may have been the great dolphin, which is called

the "bootskopf," and which has above the eye a white spot, curved in nearly

a similar manner to the horn of a ram. The "elephant," again, he suggests,

may have been the Trichechus rosmarus of Linnus, or the morse, which

has large tusks projecting from its mouth, similar to those of the elephant.

This animal, however, as he says, is confined to the northern seas, and does

not appear ever to have come so far south as our coasts. Juba and Pausanias, however, speak of these horns of the sea-ram as being really teeth

or tusks.

9. Judging from the account of it here given, and especially in relation

to the teeth, Cuvier is inclined to think that the cachelot whale, the Physeter macrocephalus of Linnus, is the animal here alludedto.

10. Solinus, generally a faithful mimic of Pliny, makes the measure only

half a foot. Cuvier says that there can be little doubt that the bones represented to have been those of the monster to which Andromeda was exposed, were the bones, and more especially the lower jaws, of the whale.

Ajasson certainly appears to have mistaken the sense of this passage. He

says that it must not be supposed that Pliny means the identical bones of

the animal which was about to devour Andromeda, but of one of the animals of that kind; and he exercises his wit at the expense of those who

would construe the passage differently, in saying that these bones ought to

have been sent to those who show in their collections such articles as the

knife with which Cain slew Abel. Now, there can be no doubt that these

bones were not those of the monster which the poets tell us was about to

devour Andromeda; but the Romans certainly supposed that they were,

and Pliny evidently thought so too, for in B. v. c. 14, he speaks of the

chains by which she was fastened to the rock, at Joppa, as still to be seen

there. M. milius Scaurus, the younger, is here referred to.




5. Chap. 5. (6.)-The Balna And The Orca


CHAP. 5. (6.)-THE BALNA AND THE ORCA



The balna[1] penetrates to our seas even. It is said that

they are not to be seen in the ocean of Gades before the winter

solstice, and that at periodical seasons they retire and conceal

themselves in some calm capacious bay, in which they take a

delight in bringing forth. This fact, however, is known to

the orca,[2] an animal which is peculiarly hostile to the balna,

and the form of which cannot be in any way adequately described, but as an enormous mass of flesh armed with teeth.

This animal attacks the balnain its places of retirement, and

with its teeth tears its young, or else attacks the females which

have just brought forth, and, indeed, while they are still pregnant: and as they rush upon them, it pierces them just as though

they had been attacked by the beak of a Liburnian[3] galley.

The female baln, devoid of all flexibility, without energy to

defend themselves, and over-burdened by their own weight,

weakened, too, by gestation, or else the pains of recent parturition, are well aware that their only resource is to take to flight







in the open sea and to range over the whole face of the ocean;

while the orc, on the other hand, do all in their power to meet

them in their flight, throw themselves in their way, and kill

them either cooped up in a narrow passage, or else drive them

on a shoal, or dash them to pieces against the rocks. When

these battles are witnessed, it appears just as though the sea

were infuriate against itself; not a breath of wind is there to

be felt in the bay, and yet the waves by their pantings and

their repeated blows are heaved aloft in a way which no whirlwind could effect.



An orca has been seen even in the port of Ostia, where it was

attacked by the Emperor Claudius. It was while he was

constructing the harbour[4] there that this orca came, attracted

by some hides which, having been brought from Gaul, had

happened to fall overboard[5] there. By feeding upon these for

several days it had quite glutted itself, having made for itself

a, channel in the shoaly water. Here, however, the sand was

thrown up by the action of the wind to such an extent, that

the creature found it quite impossible to turn round; and while

in the act of pursuing its prey, it was propelled by the waves

towards the shore, so that its back came to be perceived above

the level of the water, very much resembling in appearance

the keel of a vessel turned bottom upwards. Upon this, Csar

ordered a great number of nets to be extended at the mouth of

the harbour, from shore to shore, while he himself went there

with the prtorian cohorts, and so afforded a spectacle to the

Roman people; for boats assailed the monster, while the soldiers on board showered lances upon it. I myself saw one of

the boats[6] sunk by the water which the animal, as it respired,

showered down upon it.











1. As already mentioned, there is considerable doubt what fish of the

whale species is meant under this name. Cuvier says, that even at the

present day whales are occasionally found in the Mediterranean, and says

that there is the head of one in the Museum of Natural History, that was

thrown ashore at Martigues. He also observes, that in the year 1829, one

had been cast upon the coasts of Languedoc. Ajasson suggests, that not

improbably whales once frequented the Mediterranean in great numbers,

but that as commerce increased, they gradually retreated to the open ocean.

2. Rondelet, B xvi. c. 13, says that this animal was called "espaular"

by the people of Saintonge. Cuvier is of opinion, also, that it is the same

animal, which is also known by the name of "bootskopf," the Delphinus

orca of Linnus. (See N. 28.) This cetaceous animal, he says, is a most

dangerous enemy to the whale, which it boldly attacks, devouring its tongue,

which is of a tender quality and enormous size. He thinks, however, that

the orca taken at the port of Ostia was no other than a cachelot.

3. The Liburna, or Liburnica, was usually a bireme, or two-oared galley,

with the mast in the middle, though sometimes of larger bulk. From the

description given of these by Varro, as quoted by Aulus Gellius, B. xvii.

c. 3, they seem, as it has been remarked, somewhat similar to the light

Indian massooliah boats, which are used to cross the serf in Madras roads.

Pliny tells us, in B. xvi. c. 17, that the material of which they were constructed was pine timber, as free from resin as it could possibly be obtained. The beak of these vessels was of great comparative weight, and

its sharpness is evidently alluded to in the present passage, as also in B.

x. c. 32. The term "Liburna" was adopted from the assistance rendered

to Augustus by the Liburni at the battle of Actium.

4. These works were completed by Nero the successor of Claudius, and

consisted of a new and more capacious harbour on the right arm of the

Tiber. It was afterwards enlarged and improved by Trajan. This harbour was simply called "Portus Romanus," or "Porbus Augusti;" and

around it there sprang up a town known as "Portus," the inhabitants of

which were called "Portuenses."

5. "Naufragiis tergorum." This may probably mean a shipwreck, in

which some hides had fallen into the sea.

6. It is remarked by Rezzonico, that Palermus, in the account of this

story given by him in B. i. c. 1, has mistaken Pliny's meaning, and evidently thinks that "unum" refers to the soldiers, and not the boats en-

gaged in the attack.




6. Chap. 6.-Whether Fishes Respire, And Whether They Sleep.


CHAP. 6.-WHETHER FISHES RESPIRE, AND WHETHER THEY SLEEP.



Baln have the mouth[1] in the forehead; and hence it is

that, as they swim on the surface of the water, they discharge

vast showers of water in the air. (7.) It is universally agreed,

however, that they respire, as do a very few other animals[2]

in the sea, which have lungs among the internal viscera; for

without lungs it is generally supposed that no animal can

breathe. Those, too, who are of this opinion are of opinion

also that no fishes that have gills are so constituted as to

inhale and exhale alternately, nor, in fact, many other kinds of

animals even, which are entirely destitute of gills. This, I find,

was the opinion of Aristotle,[3] who, by his learned researches[4]

on the subject, has induced many others to be of the same

way of thinking. I shall not, however, conceal the fact, that

I for one do not by any means at once subscribe to this

opinion, for it is very possible, if such be the will of Nature,

that there may be other organs[5] fitted for the purposes of

respiration, and acting in the place of lungs; just as in many

animals a different liquid altogether takes the place of blood.[6]

And who, in fact, can find any ground for surprise that the

breath of life can penetrate the waters of the deep, when he







sees that it is even exhaled[7] from them? and when we find,

too, that it can even enter the very depths of the earth, an

element of so much greater density, a thing that is proved by

the case of animals which always live under ground, the mole

for instance? There are other weighty reasons as well, which

induce me to be of opinion that all aquatic animals respire,

conformably to their natural organization; for, in the first place,

there has been often remarked in fishes a certain degree of anhelation during the heat of summer, and at other times again,

a kind of leisurely gaping,[8] as it were. And then, besides, we

have the admission of those who are of the contrary opinion,

that fishes do sleep; but what possibility is there of sleeping[9]

without respiring as well? And again, we see their breath

disengaged in bubbles which rise to the water's surface, and

the influence too of the moon makes even the very shells[10]

grow in bulk.



But the most convincing reason of all is, the undoubted fact

that fishes have the power of hearing[11] and of smelling, two

senses for the operation of both of which the air is a necessary

vehicle; for by smell we understand nothing else than the air

being charged with certain particles.[12] However, let every

person form his own opinion on these subjects, just in such way

as he may think best.



Neither the balna nor the dolphin has any gills.[13] Both







of these animals respire[14] through vent-holes, which communicate with the lungs; in the balna they are on the fore-

head,[15] and in the dolphin on the back. Sea-calves, too, which

we call "phoc,"[16] breathe and sleep upon dry land-sea-

tortoises also,[17] of which we shall have more to say hereafter.







1. "Ora." Cuvier remarks, that it is not the "mouth of the animal but

the nostrils, that are situate on the top of the head, and that through these

it sends forth vast columns of water." Aristotle, in his Hist. Anim. B. i.

c. 3, has a similar passage, from which Pliny copied this assertion of his.

2. Cuvier remarks, that these are the animals of the cetaceous class,

which resemble the quadrupeds in the formation of the viscera, their

respiration, and the mamm; and which, in fact, only differ from them in

their general form, which more nearly resembles that of fishes.

3. Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 2.

4. "Doctrin indaginibus." This certainly seems a better reading than

"doctrina indignis," which has been adopted by Sillig, and which would

make complete nonsense of the passage.

5. Dalechamps states that Clius Rhodiginus, B. iv. c. 15, has entered

very fully into this subject.

6. Cuvier remarks, on this passage, that the mollusca have, instead of

blood, a kind of azure or colourless liquid. He observes also, that insects

respire by means of trache, or elastic tubes, which penetrate into every

part of the body; and that the gills of fish are as essentially an organ of

respiration as the lungs. All, he says, that Pliny adds as to the introduction of air into water, is equally conformable to truth; and that it is by

means of the air mingled with the water, or of the atmosphere which they

inhale at the surface, that fishes respire.

7. In the shape of vapour raised by the action of the sun. In accordance with this opinion, Cicero says, De Nat. Deor. B. ii. s. 27, "The air

arises from the respiration of the waters, and must be looked upon as a

sort of vapour coming from them."

8. But, as Hardouin remarks, this act on the part of the fish is caused

as much by the water as the air.

9. As Hardouin remarks, this is a somewhat singular notion that sleep

is produced by the action of the lungs.

10. Hardouin asks, what this has to do with the question about the air

which Pliny is here discussing? and then suggests that his meaning may

possibly be, that the moon has an influence on bodies through the medium

of the air, in accordance with the notion of the ancients that the respira-

tion was more free during the time of full moon. Littr says, that Pliny's

meaning is, that since the influence of the moon is able to penetrate the

waters, the air and the vital breath can of course penetrate them also.

11. See B. x. c. 89, where this subject is further discussed.

12. "Infectum aera."

13. See Aristotle, De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 13, and Hist. Anim. B. viii.

c. 2.

14. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 5.

15. Cuvier remarks, that these nostrils, or vent-holes, are placed somewhat further back on the head in the dolphin than in the whale; but at

the same time they cannot be said to be situate on the back of the animal.

16. Or "seals." They will be further mentioned in c. 15 of the present

Book.

17. Or "turtles," which are more fully described in c. 21 of this Book.




7. Chap. 7. (8.)-Dolphins.


CHAP. 7. (8.)-DOLPHINS.



The swiftest[1] not only of the sea animals, but of all animals

whatever, is the dolphin.[2] He is more rapid in his move-







ments than a bird, more instantaneous than the flight of an

arrow, and were it not for the fact that his mouth is situate

much below his muzzle,[3] almost, indeed, in the middle of the

belly, not a fish would be able to escape his pursuit. But

Nature,[4] in her prudence, has thrown certain impediments in

his way; for unless he turns, and throws himself on his back,

he can seize nothing, and it is this circumstance more especially that gives proof of his extraordinary swiftness. For, if

pressed by hunger,[5] he will follow a fish, as it flies down, to

the very bottom of the water, and then after holding his breath

thus long, will dart again to the surface to respire, with the

speed of an arrow discharged from a bow; and often, on such

occasions, he is known to leap out of the water with such a

bound, as to fly right over the sails[6] of a ship.



Dolphins generally go in couples; the females bring forth

their young in the tenth month, during the summer season,

sometimes two in number.[7] They suckle their young at the

teat like the balna, and even carry them during the weakness of infancy; in addition to which, long after they are

grown up, they accompany them, so great is their affection for

their progeny. The young ones grow very speedily, and in

ten years are supposed to arrive at their full size. The dol-







phin lives thirty years; a fact that has been ascertained from

cutting marks[8] on the tail, by way of experiment. It conceals itself for thirty days, at about the rising of the Dog-star,

and hides itself so effectually, that it is not known whither it

goes; a thing that is more surprising still, if it is unable to

respire under water. Dolphins are in the habit of darting

upon the shore, for some reason or other, it is not known[9]

what. They do not die the moment that they touch the dry

land, but will die much more speedily if the vent-hole is closed.

The tongue, contrary to the nature of aquatic animals in

general, is moveable, being short and broad, not much unlike

that of the pig. Instead of a voice, they emit a moaning

sound[10] similar to that made by a human being; the back is

arched, and the nose turned up. For this reason[11] it is that

they all recognize in a most surprising manner the name of

Simo, and prefer to be called by that rather than by any other.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 74.

2. Cuvier remarks, that in the present Chapter there is a confusion of the

peculiarities of two different animals, and refers the reader to his Note on

B. viii. c. 38, which, so far as it has not been set forth, is to the following effect:-"I may here remark, that Pliny speaks on several occasions

of dolphins with spines or stings on the back, although at other times he

is found to give that name to the same cetaceous animal which is so denominated by us. Thus, in his story in B. ix. c. 8, of the friendship conceived by a dolphin in Lake Lucrinus for a child at Baie, he takes care to

remark that the dolphin, when taking the child on his back, concealed his

spines beneath his dorsal fin. I am of opinion, however, that I have recognized the fish which Seneca, Pliny, and even Aristotle have sometimes

confounded with the real dolphin, apparently because it had received that

name from certain fishermen, and these are my reasons for forming this

conclusion. In c. 7 of the Ninth Book, Pliny mingles with many facts that

really do belong to the real dolphin, one trait which is quite foreign to it.

It is so swift,' says he, 'that were it not for the fact that its mouth is

situate much beneath its muzzle, almost, indeed, in the middle of its belly,

not a fish would be able to escape its pursuit: in consequence of this, it

can only seize its prey by turning on its back.' This, it must be observed,

is not one of those mistakes which we are to put down to Pliny's own account, and of which he has so many; for we find Aristotle as well, who has

so perfectly known and described the ordinary dolphin, attributing a mouth

similarly situate to the dolphin and the cartilaginous animals. This fact,

which is totally false as regards the real dolphin, is, in all probability, applicable to the alleged dolphin, whose back is mentioned as being armed

with spines. These three characteristics, a mouth situate very far beneath the nose, spines on the back, and power and swiftness sufficient to

enable it to fight the crocodile, are only to be found united in certain of

the genus 'Squalus,' such as the 'Squalus centrina,' and the 'Squalus

spinax' of Linnus."

3. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5. From this description Hardouin

is induced to think that Rondelet and Aldrovandus are wrong in their

conclusions that it is the sea-hog, or porpoise, that is meant. Cuvier also

says, that this description will not apply to the real dolphin, though it is

strictly applicable to the Squalus acanthias, Squalus ricinus, and others; to

the former of which also the spines or stings mentioned by Pliny appropriately belong; all the other characteristics, he says, which are here mentioned by Pliny, are applicable to the real dolphin, though in modern

times it has never been brought to such a degree of tameness. Hence it

is that some writers have supposed that Pliny is here speaking of the Trichechus manatus of Linnus, by the French called "lamentin," by us

the "sea-cow." Cuvier says, that he should be inclined to be of the same

opinion, were it not for the fact that that animal does not frequent the coasts

of the Mediterranean.

4. Copied literally from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, and De Part.

Anim. B. iv. c. 13.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix, c. 74.

6. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 48, says not the sails, but the masts

of ships; and Pintianus remarks, that Pliny has been deceived by the resemblance of the words, i(sto\s and i(sti/on. lian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c.

12, has a similar statement also.

7. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 9. Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 660.

8. Fishermen having notched the tail of the animal when young, and recognized it by these marks thirty years afterwards.

9. "Incert de caus." Pintianus, following the similar account given

by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 48, takes the words to mean "temere,"

"hap-hazard," "without any motive whatever." Ajasson says that it is

their eager pursuit of small fishes which sometimes betrays them into leaping

on shore, and occasionally, the pain caused by attacks of parasitical sea-insects and other animals.

10. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 49, says that the dolphin makes this

noise when it comes to the air.

11. He would seem to imply that the dolphin knows that it is "simus,"

or "flat-nosed," for which reason it is particularly fond of being called

"Simo," or "flat-nose," a piece of good taste and intelligence remarkable

even in a dolphin. Hardouin undertakes to explain their remarkable liking

for this name on other grounds, and says that when a song was sung, they

were charmed by the pronunciation of the word "Simo" every now and

then, the last syllable being drawn out at great length. Ajasson suggests

that the only reason for which this name delighted them, was probably the

sibilant or hissing sound made when it is frequently repeated.




8. Chap. 8.-Human Beings Who Have Been Beloved By Dolphins.


CHAP. 8.-HUMAN BEINGS WHO HAVE BEEN BELOVED BY DOLPHINS.



The dolphin is an animal not only friendly to man, but a

lover of music as well; he is charmed by melodious concerts,[1]







and more especially by the notes of the water-organ.[2] He

does not dread man, as though a stranger to him, but comes to

meet ships, leaps and bounds to and fro, vies with them in

swiftness, and passes them even when in full sail.



In the reign[3] of the late Emperor Augustus, a dolphin

which had been carried to the Lucrine Lake[4] conceived a

most wonderful affection for the child of a certain poor man,

who was in the habit of going that way from Bai to Puteoll[5] to school, and who used to stop there in the middle of

the day, call him by his name of Simo, and would often entice

him to the banks of the lake with pieces of bread which he

carried for the purpose. I should really have felt ashamed to

mention this, had not the incident been stated in writing in

the works of Mcenas, Fabianus, Flavius Alfius, and many

others. At whatever hour of the day he might happen to be

called by the boy, and although hidden and out of sight at the

bottom of the water, he would instantly fly to the surface,

and after feeding from his hand, would present his back for

him to mount, taking care to conceal the spiny projection of

his fins[6] in their sheath, as it were; and so, sportively taking

him up on his back, he would carry him over a wide expanse







of sea to the school at Puteoli, and in a similar manner bring

him back again. This happened for several years, until at

last the boy happened to fall ill of some malady, and died.

The dolphin, however, still came to the spot as usual, with a

sorrowful air and manifesting every sign of deep affliction,

until at last, a thing of which no one felt the slightest doubt,

he died purely of sorrow and regret.



Within these few years also,[7] another at Hippo Diarrhytus,[8] on the coast of Africa, in a similar manner used to

receive his food from the hands of various persons, present

himself for their caresses, sport about among the swimmers,

and carry them on his back. On being rubbed with unguents

by Flavianus, the then proconsul of Africa, he was lulled to

sleep, as it appeared, by the sensation of an odour so new to him,

and floated about just as though he had been dead. For some

months after this, he carefully avoided all intercourse with

man, just as though he had received some affront or other; but

at the end of that time he returned, and afforded just the same

wonderful scenes as before. At last, the vexations that were

caused them by having to entertain so many influential men

who came to see this sight, compelled the people of Hippo to

put the animal to death.



Before this, there was a similar story told of a child at the

city of Iasus,[9] for whom a dolphin was long observed to have

conceived a most ardent affection, until at last, as the animal

was eagerly following him as he was making for the shore,[10]

it was carried by the tide on the sands, and there expired.

Alexander the Great appointed this boy[11] high priest of Neptune at Babylon, interpreting this extraordinary attachment

as a convincing proof of the favour of that divinity.



Hegesidemus has also informed us, that in the same city[12] of







lasus there was another boy also, Hermias by name, who in a

similar manner used to traverse the sea on a dolphin's back,

but that on one occasion a tempest suddenly arising, he lost

his life, and was brought back dead; upon which, the dolphin,

who thus admitted that he had been the cause of his death,

would not return to the sea, but lay down upon the dry land,

and there expired.



Theophrastus[13] informs us, that the very same thing happened at Naupactus also; nor, in fact, is there any limit to

similar instances. The Amphilochians[14] and the Tarentines[15]

have similar stories also about children and dolphins; and all

these give an air of credibility to the one that is told of

Arion,[16] the famous performer on the lyre. The mariners

being on the point of throwing him into the sea, for the purpose of taking possession of the money he had earned, he prevailed upon them to allow him one more song, accompanied

with the music of his lyre. The melody attracted numbers of

dolphins around the ship, and, upon throwing himself into the

sea, he was taken up by one of them, and borne in safety to

the shore of the Promontory of Tnarum.[17]







1. "Symphoni cantu." Hardouin is of opinion that this means the

music of the "symphonia," that being some kind of musical instrument.

But, as Ajasson remarks, the meaning is much more likely to be, "singing

in concert," where there are several performers, and each takes his own

part in the symphony. It might, however, possibly mean singing and music combined, similar to the performance of Arion, mentioned at the end

of the Chapter.

2. The organ was so called by the ancients, from the resemblance borne

by its pipes to "hydraula," or water-pipes, and from the fact of the

bellows being acted on by the pressure of water. According to an author

quoted by Athcnaus, B. iv. c. 75, the first organist was Ctesibius of Alexandria, who lived about B. C. 200. It is not improbable that Pliny refers

to this invention in B. vii. c. 38. The pipes of the organ of Ctesibius were

partly of bronze and partly of reed, and Tertullian describes it as a very

complicated instrument.

3. lian, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 15, tells this story as well, and Aulus

Gellius, B. vii. c. 8, relates it from the fifth Book of the gyptiaca of Apion,

who stated that he himself had witnessed the fact.

4. The Lucrine Lake originally communicated with the sea, but was afterwards separated from the Bay of Cum by a dyke eight stadia in length.

In the time of Augustus, however, Agrippa opened a communication between

the Lake and the Bay, for the purpose of forming the Julian harbour. If

the circumstance here mentioned by Pliny happened before this period,

"invectus" must mean "carried by human agency;" but if after, it is possible that the fish may have been carried into the lake by the tide. For

an account of the lake, see B. iii. c. 9.

5. See B. iii. c. 9.

6. "Pinnarum aculeas." See the remarks of Cuvier on this passage,

and his conclusion as to the fish meant, in his Note in p. 369.

7. Oppian, in his Halieutica, B. v. 1. 453, mentions this story also, and

of course Solinus does.

8. See B. v. c. 3.

9. The island and city of Caria. See B. v. c. 29.

10. Being alarmed by the pursuit of the fish while he was swimming.

11. Athenus, B. xiii., tells this story more at large, and states that the

name of the child was Dionysius. Hardouin remarks, that Solinus, the

ape of Pliny, has absolutely read this passage as though the child's name

had been Babylon; upon the strength of which, Saumaise had proposed to

alter the reading in Pliny, not remembering at the time that the boy's name

had been given by Atheneus.

12. This story is also told by Plutarch, in his work on the Instincts of

Animals.

13. Anlus Gellius, B. vii. c. 8, mentions this story, borrowing it probably

from Theophrastus.

14. The people of the territory in which Amphilochian Argos was situate,

and lying to the south of Ambracia. See B. iv. c. 2.

15. The people of Tarentum. See B. iii. c. 16.

16. Ovid tells the story of Arion more fully, and in beautiful language,

in the Fasti, B. ii. 1. 92, et seq.

17. A promontory in the south of Laconia, now Cape Matapan. See B.

iv. c. 7. Solinus, c. 7, tells us that there was a temple of Arion of Methymna, situate on this spot, in which there was a figure of him seated on

a dolphin's back, and made of bronze; with an inscription stating that this

wonderful circumstance took place in the 29th Olympiad, in which year

Arion had been victorious in the Sicilian games. Philostorgius, in B. i. of

his Ecclesiastical History, tells us also of a martyr who was saved by a

dolphin, which bore him to Helenopolis, a city of Nicomedia.




9. Chap. 9.-Places Where Dolphins Help Men To Fish.


CHAP. 9.-PLACES WHERE DOLPHINS HELP MEN TO FISH.



There is in the province of Gallia Narbonensis and in the

territory of Nemausus[1] a lake known by the name of Latera,[2] where dolphins fish in company with men. At the







narrow outlet[3] of this lake, at stated seasons of the year innumerable multitudes of mullets make their way into the sea,

taking advantage of the turn of the tide; hence it is that it is

quite impossible to employ nets sufficiently strong to bear so

vast a weight, even though the fish had not the instinctive

shrewdness to watch their opportunity. By a similar instinct

the fish immediately make with all speed towards the deep

water which is found in a gulf in that vicinity, and hasten to

escape from the only spot that is at all convenient for spreading the nets. As soon as ever the fishermen perceive this, all

the people-for great multitudes resort thither, being well

aware of the proper time, and especially desirous of sharing

in the amusement-shout as loud as they can, and summon

Simo to the scene of action. The dolphins very quickly understand that they are in requisition, as a north-east wind speedily

carries the sound to their retreats, though a south one would

somewhat retard it by carrying it in an opposite direction.

Even then however, sooner than you could have possibly supposed, there are the dolphins, in all readiness to assist. They

are seen approaching in all haste in battle array, and, imme-

diately taking up their position when the engagement is about

to take place, they cut off all escape to the open sea, and drive

the terrified fish into shallow water. The fishermen then throw

their nets, holding them up at the sides with forks, though the

mullets with inconceivable agility instantly leap over them;[4]







while the dolphins, on the other hand, are waiting in readiness

to receive them, and content themselves for the present with

killing them only, postponing all thoughts of eating till after

they have secured the victory. The battle waxes hot apace,

and the dolphins, pressing on with the greatest vigour,

readily allow themselves to be enclosed in the nets; but in

order that the fact of their being thus enclosed may not urge

the enemy to find additional means of flight, they glide

along so stealthily among the boats and nets, or else the swimmers, as not to leave them any opening for escape. By leaping,

which at other times is their most favourite amusement, not

one among them attempts to make its escape, unless, indeed,

the nets are purposely lowered for it; and the instant that it

has come out it continues the battle, as it were, up to the very

ramparts. At last, when the capture is now completed, they

devour those among the fish which they have killed;[5] but

being well aware that they have given too active an assistance

to be repaid with only one day's reward, they take care to wait

there till the following day, when they are filled not only with

fish, but bread crumbs soaked in wine as well.







1. Now Nismes. See B. iii. c. 5.

2. Still known as the Lake of Lattes, in the department of Narbonne.

Cuvier says that the mullet-fishing is still carried on in this lake, which is on the shores of Languedoc, and refers to D'Astruc's Memoirs on the Natural History of that province. The dolphins, however, he says, no longer

take part in the sport; and he observes that the same story is told by

lian, B. ii. c. 8, and Albertus Magnus, De Anim. B. xxiv., with reference

to other places. Oppian, in his Halieutica, B. v., makes Euba the scene

of these adventures, while Albertus Magnus speaks of the shores of Italy.

Rondelet, in his Book on Fishes, says that it used to take place on the

coasts of Spain, near Palamos. Cuvier suggests, with Belon and D'Astruc,

that the story arose from the fact that the dolphins, while pursuing the

shoals of mullets, sometimes drove them into the creeks and salt-water lakes

on the coast; a fact which has been sometimes found to cause the fish to

be caught in greater abundance.

3. Dalechamps tells us that the people of Montpellier call this outlet

"La Crau," and that it is in the vicinity of Mangueil.

4. Were it not for the word "nihilominus" here, it would look as if the

meaning were, that although the ends of the nets are hoisted up, the fish

are so active that they jump over the side, and thus get enclosed. By the

use of that word, however, it would seem to mean, that although the sides

are hoisted up, the fish are so nimble, that they clear the nets altogether.

5. "Quos interemere." Pintianus suggests "quo interim jure"-

"with equal rights," instead of these words, and Pelicier does not disapprove of the suggestion; for lian states, in B. ii. c. 8, Hist. Anim., that

the dolphins used to share the fish equally with the fishermen of Euba.

But, as Hardouin says, the words "quos interemere" have reference to the

statement above, that "they content themselves for the present with killing

them only." And besides, if the fishermen gave them an equal share, it is

not likely that they would give them still more of the fish on the following

day.




10. Chap. 10.-Other Wonderful Things Relating To Dolphins.


CHAP. 10.-OTHER WONDERFUL THINGS RELATING TO DOLPHINS.



The account which Mucianus gives of a similar mode of

fishing in the Iasian Gulf differs from the preceding one, in

the fact that there the dolphins make their appearance of their

own accord, and do not require to be called: they receive their

share from the hands of the people, each boat having its own

particular associate among the dolphins; and this, although the

fishing is carried on at night-time by the light[1] of torches.



If the latter is the meaning, Pliny probably intends to speak only of what

some of them are able to do: otherwise it is hard to see of what utility the

nets were in the operation.







Dolphins, also, form among themselves[2] a sort of general

community. One of them having been captured by a king of

Caria and chained up in the harbour, great multitudes of dolphins assembled at the spot, and with signs of sorrow which

could not be misunderstood, appealed to the sympathies of

the people, until at last the king ordered it to be released.

The young dolphins, also, are always attended[3] by a larger

one, who acts as a guardian to them; and before now, they have

been seen[4] carrying off the body of one which had died, that

it might not be devoured by the sea-monsters.







1. lian also mentions this, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 8.

2. The same is stated in Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 74, and lian,

Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 6.

3. This is also mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 74.

4. lian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 6.




11. Chap. 11. (9.)-The Tursio.


CHAP. 11. (9.)-THE TURSIO.



There is a fish called the tursio,[1] which bears a strong resemblance to the dolphin; it differs from it, however, in a

certain air of sadness, and is wanting in its peculiar vivacity.

This animal most resembles the dog-fish,[2] however, in the

shape and dangerous powers of the muzzle.







1. Cuvier remarks, that there is some confusion here between an animal

of the dolphin kind, and another of the genus Squalus. He suggests that

the Delphinus tursio of Linnus (our porpoise) is meant; but then there

would be no ground for comparing its teeth with those of the dog-fish or

shark. He remarks also, that Athenus, B. vii. p. 310, speaks of pieces of

salted flesh from the dog-fish, as being called by the name of tursio.

2. Under this name he probably means the shark as well as the dog-fish.

This passage is curiously rendered by Holland. "But especially they are

snouted like dogges, when they snarle, grin, and are readie to do a shrewd

turne."




12. Chap. 12. (10.)-Turtles. The Various Kinds Of Turtles, And How They Are Caught.


CHAP. 12. (10.)-TURTLES. [1] THE VARIOUS KINDS OF TURTLES,

AND HOW THEY ARE CAUGHT.



The Indian Sea[2] produces turtles of such vast[3] size, that

with the shell of a single animal they are able to roof a habit-







able cottage;[4] and among the islands of the Red Sea, the navigation is mostly carried on in boats formed of these shells.

They are to be caught in many ways; but they are generally

taken when they have come up to the surface of the water

just before midday, a season at which they experience great

delight in floating on the calm surface, with the back entirely

out of the water. Here the delightful sensations[5] which attend a free respiration beguile them to such a degree, and

render them so utterly regardless of their safety, that their

shell becomes dried up by the heat of the sun, so much so, indeed, that they are unable to descend, and, having to float

against their will, become an easy prey to the fishermen. It

is said also, that they leave the water at night for the purpose

of feeding, and eat with such avidity as to quite glut themselves: upon which, they become weary, and the moment

that, on their return in the morning, they reach the sea,

they fall asleep on the surface of the water. The noise

of their snoring betrays them, upon which the fishermen

stealthily swim towards the animals, three to each turtle;

two of them, in a moment, throw it on its back, while a third

slings a noose around it, as it lies face upwards, and then

some more men, who are ready on shore, draw it to land.



In the Phoenician Sea they are taken without the slightest

difficulty, and, at stated periods of the year, come of their own

accord to the river Eleutherus,[6] in immense numbers. The turtle has no teeth, but the edge of the mouth is sharp, the upper

part shutting down over the lower just like the lid of a box.

In the sea it lives upon shell-fish,[7] and such is the strength of its

jaws, that it is able to break stones even; when on shore, it

feeds upon herbage. The female turtle lays eggs like those of

birds, one hundred in number; these she buries on the dry

land, and covering them over with earth, pats it down with her

breast, and then having thus rendered it smooth, sits on them

during the night. The young are hatched in the course of a







year. Some persons are of opinion that they hatch their eggs

by means of the eyes, by merely looking at them, and that the

female refuses to have any intercourse with the male until he

has placed a wisp of straw[8] upon her back. The Troglodyt

have turtles with horns,[9] which resemble the branches of a

lyre; they are large, but moveable, and assist the animal like so

many oars while swimming. The name of this fine, but rarely-found turtle, is "chelyon;"[10] for the rocks, from the sharpness of their points, frighten away the Chelonophagi,[11] while

the Troglodyt, whose shores these animals frequent, worship

them as sacred. There are some land turtles also, the shells

of which, used for the purposes of art, are thence called by

the name of "chersin;[12] they are found in the deserts of

Africa, in the parts where the scorched sands are more especially destitute of water, and subsist, it is believed, upon the

moisture of the dews. No other animal is to be found there.







1. We may here remark, that Pliny throughout calls these animals

"testudines,"-"tortoises." It has been thought better, in the translation, in order to avoid confusion, to give them their distinctive name of

"turtle."

2. This passage, down to the words "to the fishermen," is found in

Agatharchides, as quoted by Photius.

3. See B. xxxii. c. 4.

4. Cuvier says that this is evidently a gross exaggeration on the part of

some traveller; and Ajasson remarks, that the very largest turtle known

does not exceed five feet in length, and four in breadth. In such a case,

the superficies of the calapash or shell would be only from twenty to

twenty-four feet, and this, be it remembered, in one of the very largest size.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, has a similar passage.

6. See B. v. c. 17.

7. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, states to a similar effect.

8. Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 522, has a passage to a somewhat similar

effect. Holland's notion of the meaning of this passage is singular in the

extreme. "The female fleeth from the male, and will not abide to engender, until such time as he pricke her behind, and sticke somewhat in her

taile for running away from him so fast"

9. Cuvier remarks, that it is evident that the fore-feet were here taken for

horns, they being in the turtle long, narrow, and pointed.

10. From the Greek xe/luon, "tortoise-shell." See B. vi. c. 34.

11. Or "turtle eaters." See B. vi. c. 28.

12. From xersina\i, "land turtles," or "tortoises."




13. Chap. 13.-( 1.)-Who First Invented The Art Of Cutting Tortoise-Shell.


CHAP. 13.-( 1.)-WHO FIRST INVENTED THE ART OF CUTTING TORTOISE-SHELL.



Carvilius Pollio, a man of prodigal habits and ingenious in

inventing the refinements of luxury, was the first to cut the

shell of the tortoise into lamin, and to veneer beds and cabinets[1] with it.







1. "Repositorium" seems to have been the name for a large tray upon

which viands were brought to table; and probably for stands similar to

our sideboards, as well as cabinets or wardrobes. Carvilius Pollio, a

Roman eques, lived in the time of the Dictator Sylla, and was celebrated

for his luxury in ornamental furniture. He is again mentioned by Pliny

in B. xxx. c. 51.




14. Chap. 14. (12.)-Distribution Of Aquatic Animals Into Various Species.


CHAP. 14. (12.)-DISTRIBUTION OF AQUATIC ANIMALS INTO VARIOUS SPECIES.



The integuments of the aquatic animals are many in num-







ber. Some are covered with a hide and hair, as the sea-calf

and hippopotamus, for instance; others again, with a hide

only, as the dolphin; others again, with a shell,[1] as the turtle;

others, with a coat as hard as a stone, like the oyster and other

shell-fish; others, with a crust, such as the cray-fish; others,

with a crust and spines, like the sea-urchin; others, with

scales, as fishes in general; others, with a rough skin, as the

squatina,[2] the skin of which is used for polishing wood and

ivory; others, with a soft skin, like the murna;[3] and others

with none at all, like the polypus.[4]







1. The Latin is "cortex," which probably means a "bark," or "rind."

Ajasson remarks upon the meagreness of the Latin language, in supplying

appropriate words for scientific purposes, and congratulates himself upon

adding the word, "carapax," (signifying "callipash," as we call it) to the

Latin vocabulary.

2. By us known as the "angel-fish," the "Squalus squatina" of Linnus,

a kind of shark. From this property of its skin, it was called by the Greeks

r(inh, the "file." See B. xxxii. c. 53.

3. Probably the Murna helena of Linnus. See more on it in c. 23 of

the present Book.

4. Spoken of more fully in c. 23 of this Book.




15. Chap. 15. (13.)-Those Which Are Covered With Hair, Or Have None, And How They Bring Forth. Sea-Calves, Or Phoc.


CHAP. 15. (13.)-THOSE WHICH ARE COVERED WITH HAIR, OR HAVE NONE, AND HOW THEY BRING FORTH. SEA-CALVES, OR PHOC.



Those aquatic animals which are covered with hair are viviparous, such, for instance, as the pristis, the balna,[1] and the

sea-calf. This last brings forth its young on land, and, like the

sheep, produces an after-birth. In coupling, they adhere

after the manner of the canine species; the female sometimes produces even more than two, and rears her young at

the breast. She does not take them down to the sea until the

twelfth day, and after that time makes them become used to

it by degrees.[2] These animals are killed with the greatest dif-







ficulty, unless the head is cut off at once. They make a noise

which sounds like lowing, whence their name of "sea-calf."

They are susceptible, however, of training, and with their voice,

as well as by gestures, can be taught to salute the public; when

called by their name, they answer with a discordant kind of

grunt.[3] No animal has a deeper sleep[4] than this; on dry

land it creeps along as though on feet, by the aid of what it

uses as fins when in the sea. Its skin, even when separated from the body, is said to retain a certain sensitive sympathy with the sea, and at the reflux[5] of the tide, the hair on

it always rises upright: in addition to which, it is said that

there is in the right fin a certain soporiferous influence, and

that, if placed under the head, it induces sleep.



(14.) There are only two animals without hair that are

viviparous, the dolphin and the viper.[6]







1. Cuvier remarks, how very inappropriately Pliny places the pristis

(probably the saw-fish) and the balna among the animals that are

covered with hair. Aristotle, he says, in his Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 12,

goes so far as to say that the pristis and the ox-fish (a kind of ray or

thorn-back, probably) bring forth their young like the balna and the

dolphin, but does not go beyond that. Cuvier says also, that what is here

stated of the sea-calf is in general correct, except the statements as to the

properties of its skin and its right fin, the stories relative to which are, of

course, neither more nor less than fabulous.

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 11, states to the like effect.

3. "Fremitu." From their lowing noise, the French have also called

these animals "veaux de mer," and we call them "sea-calvs." lian,

Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 56, and Diodorus Siculus, B. iii., also speak of training the sea-calf. Hardouin says that Lopez de Gomara, one of the more

recent writers on Mexico, in his day, had given an account of an Indian

sea-calf, or manati, as it was called by the natives, that had become quite

tame, and answered readily to its name; and that, although not very large,

it was able to bear ten men on its back. He also tells us of a much more

extraordinary one, which Aldrovandus says he himself had seen at Bologna, which would give a cheer (vocem ederet) for the Christian princes when

asked, but would refuse to do so for the Turks; just, Hardouin says, as

we see dogs bark, and monkeys grin and jump, at the mention of a particular name.

4. Oppian, Haliut. B. i. 1. 408, mentions this fact, and Juvenal, Sat.

iii. 1. 238, alludes to it: "Would break the slumbers of Drusus and of

sea-calves."

5. This assertion, though untrue, no doubt, as to sympathy with the tides,

is in some degree supported by the statement of Rondelet, B. xvi. c. 6,

who says that he had often perceived changes in the wind and weather

prognosticated by the hide of this animal; for that when a south wind

was about to blow, the hair would stand erect, while when a north wind

was on the point of arising, it would lie so flat that you would hardly

know that there was any hair on the surface.

6. Hardouin remarks, that Pliny classes the viper probably among the

aquatic animals, either because it was said to couple with the murna, or

else because it has a womb not unlike that of the cartilaginous fishes.




16. Chap. 16.-How Many Kinds Of Fish There Are.


CHAP. 16.-HOW MANY KINDS OF FISH THERE ARE.



There are seventy-four[1] species of fishes, exclusive of those







that are covered with crusts; the kinds of which are thirty

in number. We shall, on another occasion,[2] speak of each

individually; but, for the present, we shall treat only of the

nature of the more remarkable ones.







1. Hardouin suggests that the proper reading here is probably 144, because in B. xxxii. c. 51, Pliny speaks of 174 different kinds of fishes, and

here he says that the crustacea are thirty in number. Daubenton speaks

of the species of fishes as being 866 in number, while Lacpede says that

he had examined more than a thousand, but that was far below the real

number. Cuvier mentions specimens of about 6000 kinds of fishes, in the

Cabinet du Roi. Ajasson remarks upon the learned investigations of

Cuvier on this subject, and his researches in Sumatra, Java, Kamschatka,

New Zealand, New Guinea, and elsewhere, for the purpose of increasing

the list of the known kinds of fishes.

2. B. xxx. c. 53.




17. Chap. 17. (15.)-Which Of The Fishes Are Of The Largest Size.


CHAP. 17. (15.)-WHICH OF THE FISHES ARE OF THE LARGEST SIZE.



Tunnies are among the most remarkable for their size; we

have found one weighing as much as fifteen[1] talents, the

breadth of its tail being five cubits and a palm.[2] In some of

the rivers, also, there are fish of no less size, such, for instance,

as the silurus[3] of the Nile, the isox[4] of the Rhenus, and the







attilus[5] of the Padus, which, naturally of an inactive nature,

sometimes grows so fat as to weigh a thousand pounds, and

when taken with a hook, attached to a chain, requires a yoke

of oxen to draw it[6] on land. An extremely small fish, which

is known as the clupea,[7] attaches itself, with a wonderful

tenacity, to a certain vein in the throat of the attilus, and destroys it by its bite. The silurus carries devastation with it

wherever it goes, attacks every living creature, and often drags

beneath the water horses as they swim. It is also remark-







able, that in the Mnus,[8] a river of Germany, a fish that bears[9]

a very strong resemblance to the sea-pig, requires to be drawn

out of the water by a yoke of oxen; and, in the Danube, it is

taken with large hooks of iron.[10] In the Borysthenes, also, there

is said to be a fish of enormous size, the flesh of which has no

bones or spines in it, and is remarkable for its sweetness.



In the Ganges, a river of India, there is a fish found which

they call the platanista;[11] it has the muzzle and the tail of

the dolphin, and measures sixteen cubits in length. Statius

Sebosus says, a thing that is marvellous in no small degree,

that in the same river there are fishes[12] found, called worms;

these have two gills,[13] and are sixty cubits in length; they are









of an azure colour, and have received their name from their

peculiar conformation. These fish, he says, are of such enormous strength, that with their teeth they seize hold of the

trunks of elephants that come to drink, and so drag them into

the water.







1. About 1200 pounds. Cetti, in his "Natural History of Sardinia," vol.

iii. p. 134, says that tunnies weighing a thousand pounds are far from uncommon, and that they have been taken weighing as much as 1800 pounds.

2. The same as the Latin "dodrans," or about nine inches. This passage is taken almost verbatim from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. c. 34. Cuvier

says that this passage, although like the preceding one, taken from Aristotle, is much more incredible, (though Lacpede, by the way, disputes

Pliny's statement as to the weight of the tunny). "A distance," Cuvier

says, "of from seven to eight feet from one point of the fork of the tail

to the other, would denote a fish twenty-five feet in length; and it must be

observed, that most of the MSS. of Pliny say two cubits." Aristotle, however, beyond a doubt saysfice.

3. Now universally recognized as the sly silurus, or sheat-fish, called in

the United States the horn-pout, the Silurus glanis of Linnus. On this

formerly much-discussed question, Cuvier has an interesting Note. "There

can now be no longer any doubt as to the silurus; it is evidently synonymons with the 'glanis' of Aristotle; as we find Pliny, in c. 17 and 51,

giving the same characteristics of the silurus, as Aristotle does of the

glanis, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 20, and B. ix. c. 37; such, for instance, as

the care it takes of its young, and the effects produced upon it by the dogfish and the approach of storms. It is easy to prove also that it is not

the sturgeon, [as Hardouin thought it to be], but the fish that is still called

'silurus' by the naturalists, the ' wels' or 'schaid' of the Germans, the

'saluth' of the Swiss, &c."

4. Cuvier remarks, that it is by no means clear what fish is meant by this name, which is only found here and once in Hesychius, who calls it

khtw/dhs, "of the large kind." Rondelet, in his account of river fish,

suggests that "exos" is the proper reading, and that under this name is

meant a species of sturgeon. Gesner asks if it might not possibly have

been the "brochet;" but, as Cuvier says, that fish was well-known to

the Romans under the name of "lucius" [our pike], and it is not sufficiently large for Pliny to compare it to the wels or the attilus, and for

Hesychius to have enumerated it among the "large" fishes. It is in

accordance, however, with this suggestion of Gesner that the pike genus

bears the name of "esox" in modern Natural History.

5. Cuvier says that there are found in the river Padus, or Po, several

species of very large sturgeons, and that there is one of these which still

bears the name, according to Salvian and Rondelet, of adello and adilo.

Aldrovandus, he says, calls it adelo or ladano. This Cuvier takes to be the

attilus of Pliny. But, according to Rezzonico, Paulus Jovius denies that

the attilus or adelus of the people of Ferrara is of the sturgeon genus;

but says that it is so much larger than the sturgeon, and so different in

shape, flavour, value, and natural habits, that the names of these two

fishes were used proverbially by the people, when they were desirous to

signify two objects of totally different nature. Rezzonico remarks, that

the name given to it in Ferrara was properly "l'adano," which became

corrupted into "ladano," and expresses it as his opinion that it was the

same with the esox of the Rhine. He also states, that, from the exceeding

whiteness of the flesh, the ladano was called by the fishermen, sturione

bianco.

6. Rezzonico says that this may possibly have happened in Pliny's day,

but that in modern times no attilus or ladano is found weighing more

than 500 pounds. He says that this fish may, in comparison with the

sturgeon, be aptly called an inert fish; for while the sturgeon makes the

greatest possible resistance to the fishermen, the other is taken with the

greatest ease.

7. Cuvier says, that this was probably the Petromyzon branchialis of

Linneus, the lampillon, a little fish resembling a worm, which adheres to

the gills of other fish, and sucks the blood. The same name was also

given to the Clupea alosa of Linnus, our "shad;" indeed Linnus gave

this name to the whole herring and pilchard genus, erroneously classing

them with the shad.

8. The Main of the present day. But Dalechamps would read "Rheno;"

for, he says, this river was not known to the ancients by the name of Mnus.

9. According to Albertus Magnus, this fish, which so strongly resembled

the sea-pig, or porpoise, was the huso, a kind of sturgeon.

10. See B. iv. c. 26. Cuvier says, that the fish here alluded to, is one of

the large species of sturgeon, so common in the rivers that fall into the

Black Sea, the bones of which are cartilaginous, and the flesh is generally

excellent eating.

11. Cuvier says, that this is probably the dolphin of the Ganges; a fish

described by Dr. Roxburgh, in his "Account of Calcutta," vol. vii. This fish,

he says, has the muzzle and the tail of the common dolphin; but he declines

to assert that it attains the length of sixteen cubits.

12. Solinus gives an account of these worms of the Ganges, also front

Sebosus, but not exactly to the same effect as Pliny. He says, that they

are of an azure colour, are six cubits in length, and that they have two

arms. He gives the same account as to their extraordinary strength.

13. It is evident that there is some mistake in the MSS. either of Solinus

or Pliny, as they both copied from the same source. Pliny speaks of

"branchi," or gills, while Solinus mentions "brachia," or arms; the

former, however, appears to be the preferable reading. Cuvier remarks

that Ctesias, in his Indica, c. 27, has given a similar account, but that the

worm mentioned by him has two teeth, and not gills, and that it only seizes

oxen and camels, and not elephants. He states also, that an oil was extracted from it, which set on fire everything that it touched. Cuvier

observes, that in most of the MSS. of Pliny the worm is sixty cubits long,

instead of six, as in some few, a length which was quite necessary to

enable it to devour an elephant; and he suggests that some large conger

or murna may have originally given rise to the story. It is by no means

improbable that some individuals of the boa or python tribe, in the vicinity of the river, may have been taken for vast fish or river worms.

Among the German traditions, we find the name "worm" given to huge

serpents, which are said to have spread devastation far and wide; and in

the north of England legends about, similar "worms," are by no means

uncommon: the story about the "Laidly Worm," in the county of Durham,

for instance.




18. Chap. 18.-Tunnies, Cordyla, And Pelamides, And The Various Parts Of Them That Are Salted. Melandrya, Apolecti, And Cybia.


CHAP. 18.-TUNNIES, CORDYLA, AND PELAMIDES, AND THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THEM THAT ARE SALTED. MELANDRYA, APOLECTI, AND CYBIA.



The male tunny has no ventral fin;[1] these fish enter the

Euxine in large bodies from the main[2] sea, in the spring, and

will spawn nowhere else. The young ones, which in autumn

accompany the females to the open sea, are known as "cordyla."[3] In the spring they are called "pelamides,"[4] from

phlo\s, the Greek for "mud," and after they are a year old,

"thynni." When this fish is cut up into pieces, the neck,

the belly, and the throat,[5] are the most esteemed parts; but

they must be eaten only when they are quite fresh, and even

then they cause severe fits of flatulence; the other parts; with

the flesh entire, are preserved in salt. Those pieces, which

bear a resemblance to an oaken board, have thence received

the name of "melandrya."[6] The least esteemed among these

parts are those which are the nearest to the tail, because they

have no fat upon them; while those parts are considered the

most delicate, which lie nearest the neck;[7] in other fishes,







however, the parts about the tail have the most nutriment[8] in

them. The pelamides are cut up into small sections, known

as "apolecti;"[9] and these again are divided into cubical

pieces, which are thence called "cybia."[10]







1. Although taken primarily from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 9, as

Cuvier observes, this assertion is incorrect, as the male does not in any way

differ from the female in the conformation of the fins. Pliny, however, has

exaggerated the statement of Aristotle, who only says, that the female

differs from the male in having a little fin under the belly, which the male

has not; and not that the male has no ventral fin whatever.

2. "Magno mari;" meaning, no doubt, the Mediterranean.

3. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 17.

4. Or "mud-fish," either from being born in mud, as Festus says, or

from their concealing themselves in it.

5. "Clidio." The "clidion," or "clidium," was the part of the fish

which extended, as Festus says, from the two shoulders (armos) to the

breast. The "clavicul" were thus called by the Greek physicians.

6. The Greeks called the inner part, or black-coloured heart of the oak,

me/lan druo\s, whence the present name. Athenus, B. vi. speaks, f

the choice parts cut from the orcyni, large tunnies, which were taken in

the straits of Gades.

7. "Faucibus." Cuvier observes, that modern experience has confirmed what Pliny says, as to the difference of flavour in these various parts of the

tunny. He refers to Cetti, Ist. Nat. di Sardegna, vol. iii. p. 137.

8. "Exercitatissima." "In greatest request, as being most stirred and

exercised," is the translation given by Holland; while Littr renders it

"mieux nourries," "best nourished." According to the general notion in

this country, the part about the tail is reckoned inferior, and anything but

the "best nourished." It is doubtful if "exercitatissima" is the correct

reading; and if it is, its precise meaning has yet to be ascertained.

9. From the Greek a)po/lektoi, "choice bits," or, as we should say,

"tit-bits."

10. From the Greek ku/bia.




19. Chap. 19.-The Aurias And The Scomber.


CHAP. 19.-THE AURIAS AND THE SCOMBER.



All kinds of fish grow[1] with remarkable rapidity, and more

especially those in the Euxine; the reason[2] of which is the

vast number of rivers which discharge their fresh water into

it. One fish, the growth of which is quite perceptible, day by

day, is known as the amia.[3] This fish, and the pelamides,

together with the tunnies,[4] enter the Euxine in shoals, for

the purpose of obtaining a sweeter nutriment, each under the

command of its own leader; but first of all the scomber[5] ap-







pears, which is of a sulphureous tint when in the water, but

when out of it resembles other fish in colour. The salt-water

preserves[6] of Spain are filled with these last fish, but the tunnies do not consort with them.[7]







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 16.

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 25.

3. This fish does not seem to have been exactly identified till recently

but was generally supposed to have been of the tunny genus. Appian

says, that it israther smaller than the tunny. Rondelet, B. viii., speaks of

it as being, in his time, known by the name of "byza." Cuvier has the following remark. "The 'amia' of the ancients, as Rondelet was well aware,

was the same fish, to which, incorrectly, upon nearly all the coasts of the

Mediterranean, the name of 'pelamis' has been transferred. It is, in

fact, the same as the 'limosa' of Salvianus, the 'pelamis' of Belon,

the ' thynnus primus' of Aldrovandus, and the 'scomber sarda' of Bloch.

The proof of all these being synonymous, is the fact, that the ' scomber sarda'

is the only species of the tunny genus in the Mediterranean, which has

strong, sharp, cutting teeth, and is capable of attacking large fish, which

Aristotle relates respecting the amia, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 37. The same

author too, was well aware of the length of its gall-bladder, which is greater

than in most other fishes."

4. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16.

5. Generally supposed, as Cuvier says, to have been the same as the

mackerel, or Scomber scombrus of Linnus, and with very fair reason.

From the frequent remarks made on the subject by the Roman poets, we find that it was a very common fish at Rome, of small size, and was in little

repute. It was wrapped in paper when exposed for sale, and bad poets

were threatened with the mackerel, as they are at the present day with the

grocer or butterman; or, as in the time of the Spectator, with the trunk-maker. Thus Persius says, Sat. i, 1. 43. "and to leave writings worthy

to be preserved in cedar, and verses that dread neither mackerel nor

frankincense." Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 2, enumerates this fish

among those that are gregarious, and places it in company with the tunny

and the pelamis, but states that it is inferior in strength, B. viii. c. 2.

Cuvier says, that the mackerel still has names in different parts that are

derived from the word "scomber," they being called "sgombri" at Con-

stantinople, scombri at Venice, and scurmu, scrumiu, and scumbirro in

Sicily.

6. Cetarias. These "cetari," or "cetaria," Papias says, were pieces of

standing salt water, in the vicinity of the sea-shore, in which tunnies and

other large fish were kept, and adjoining to which were the salting-houses.

In the middle ages these preserves were called "tunnari," or "tunneries."

7. As in the Euxine. Tunnies were caught on the Spanish coasts, as we

learn from Athenveus, who, as quoted above, mentions the fisheries off

Gades, for the orcynus, or large tunny. See N. 37, p. 385.




20. Chap. 20.-Fishes Which Are Never Found In The Euxine; Those Which Enter It And Return.


CHAP. 20.-FISHES WHICH ARE NEVER FOUND IN THE EUXINE;

THOSE WHICH ENTER IT AND RETURN.



The Euxine, however, is never entered by any animal[1] that

is noxious to fish, with the exception of the sea-calf and the

small dolphin. On entering, the tunnies range along[2] the

shores to the right, and on departing, keep to those on the

left; this is supposed to arise from the fact that they have

better sight with the right eye, their powers of vision with

either being naturally very limited. In the channel of the

Thracian Bosporus, by which the Propontis is connected with

the Euxine, at the narrowest part of the Straits which separate







Europe from Asia, there is, near Chalcedon, on the Asiatic

side, a rock of remarkable Whiteness, the whole of which can

be seen from the bottom of the sea at the surface. Alarmed

at the sudden appearance of this rock, the tunnies always

hasten in great numbers, and with headlong impetuosity, towards the promontory of Byzantium, which stands exactly

opposite to it, and from this circumstance has received the

name of the Golden Horn.[3] Hence it is, that all the fishing

is at Byzantium, to the great loss of Chalcedon,[4] although it

is only separated from it by a channel a mile in width. They

wait, however, for the blowing of the north wind to leave the

Euxine with a favourable tide, and are never taken until

they have entered the harbour of Byzantium. These fish do

not move about in winter;[5] in whatever place they may happen to be surprised by it, there they pass the winter, till the

time of the equinox.



Manifesting a wonderful degree of delight, they will often

accompany a vessel in full sail, and may be seen from the

poop following it for hours, and a distance of several miles.

If a fish-spear even is thrown at them ever so many times,

they are not in the slightest degree alarmed at it. Some

writers call the tunnies which follow ships in this manner, by

the name of "pompili."[6]



Many fishes pass the summer in the Propontis, and do not

enter the Euxine; such, for instance, as the sole,[7] while on







the other hand, the turbot[8] enters it. The sepia[9] is not found

in this sea, although the lolig[10] is. Among the rock-fish, the

sea-thrush[11] and the sea-blackbird are wanting, as also purples,

though oysters abound here. All these, however, pass the

winter in the gean Sea; and of those which enter the Euxine,

the only ones that do not[12] return are the trichi.[13]-It will

be as well to use the Greek names which most of them bear,

seeing that to the same species different countries have given

different appellations.-These last, however, are the only ones

that enter the river Ister,[14] and passing along its subterraneous

passages, make their way from it to the Adriatic;[15] and this is







the reason why they are to be seen descending into the Euxine

Sea, but never in the act of returning from it. The time for

taking tunnies is, from the rising of the Vergili[16] to the setting

of Arcturus:[17] throughout the rest of the winter season, they

lie concealed at the bottom of deep creeks, unless they are in-

duced to come out by the warmth of the weather or the full

moon. These fish fatten[18] to such an extraordinary degree as

to burst. The longest period of their life[19] is two years.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, from whom Pliny has here

borrowed, makes a somewhat dissimilar statement. He says that "no

noxious animal enters the Euxine, except the phocena [or porpoise], and the

dolphin and little dolphin." Hardouin remarks, however, that Pliny is

right in his statement that seals are to be found in the Euxine, and that

Rondelet, B. xvi. c. 9, for that reason has suggested that the reading ought

to be altered in Aristotle, and not in Pliny.

2. Aristotle, B. viii. c. 6. Plutarch on the Instinct of Animals, and

lian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 42, say the same.

3. Called "chrysoceras," in B. iv. c. 18, that being the Greek name for

"golden horn." He means, that in consequence of the lucrative nature of

this fishery, it thence obtained the name of the "golden" horn. Dalechamps is of opinion that some person has here substituted the Latin

"Aurei cornus," for the Greek name Chrysoceras.

4. Hence, according to Strabo, Chalcedon obtained the name of the

"City of the Blind," the people having neglected to choose the opposite

shore for the site of their city. Still, however, a kind of pelamis, or young

tunny, from this place, had the name of "Chalcedonia," and is spoken

of as a most exquisite dainty by Aulus Gellius, B. vii c. 16.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16; lian, Hist. Anim. B. ix.; and

Plutarch, in his Treatise on the Instincts of Animals, state to a similar

effect.

6. Cuvier remarks that the "pompilos" of the ancients, which accompanied

ships and left them on nearing the land, was the pilot-fish of the moderns,

the Gasterosteus ductor of Linnus. He thinks, however, that the name

may have also been given to other fish as well, of similar habits.

7. Pleuronectes solea of Linnns.

8. Pleuronectes maximus of Linnus.

9. The cuttle-fish. The Sepia officinalis of Linnus.

10. The ink-fish. The Sepia loligo of Linnus.

11. Cuvier suggests that the turdus, or sea-thrush, and the merula, or sea-blackbird, were both fishes of the labrus tribe, usually known as "breams."

Hippolytus Salvianus, in his book on the Water Animals, states, that in his

day-both these fish were extremely well known, and that they still

retained the names of tordo and merlo. Rondelet, B. vi., says, that the

fish anciently called turdus, was in his time known by the name of

"vielle," among the French. The dictionaries give "merling, or

whiting," as the synonyme of "merula."

12. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, says, that on going into the

Euxine, the trichi are either taken or else devoured by the other fishes,

for that they are never seen to return.

13. The trichias, according to Cuvier, is a fish belonging to the family of

herrings. A scholiast on Aristophanes attributes the origin of the name

to the fine fish bones like hairs (qri\c), with which the flesh is filled, which

is a characteristic peculiar to the herring kind. Aristotle, Hist. Anim.

B. vi. c. 15, represents the membras, the trichis, and the trichias, as different ages of the same fish. The trichis was little, and very common. In

Aristophanes, Knights, 1. 662, we find an obol mentioned as the price of a

hundred. From the Acharn of the same author, we learn that it was

salted as provision for the fleets. Cuvier thinks that everything combines

to point out the sardine, the Clupea sprattus of Linnus, as the trichis or

else a similar kind of fish, the melette of the African coast, the Clupea

meletta of the naturalists. In this latter case the trichias, he thinks, may

have been the sardine, or, perhaps, the Clupea ficta of Lacpede, which is

called the "sardine" in some places, and at Lake Garda, in Lombardy,

more especially.

14. The Danube. Cuvier says, that this passage probably bears reference

to the clupea ficta or finte, which, as well as the shad, is in the habit of

passing up streams. As for the story of the fish finding their way to the

Adriatic, it is utterly without foundation. Cuvier adds, that the main

difference between the finte and the clupea alosa, or shad, is, that the

former has very fine teeth, the latter none at all.

15. Pliny has already remarked, B. iii. c. 18, in reference to the supposed descent of the Argonauts from the Ister into the Adriatic, that such a

passage by water was totally impossible; hence, as Hardouin says, he is

obliged here to have recourse to subterraneous passages.

16. The Pleiades. See B. ii. c. 47. The rising of the Pleiades was considered the beginning of summer, being the forty-eighth day after the

vernal equinox. See also B. xviii. c. 59.

17. The evening setting, namely. This took place on the fourth day before

the nones of November. See B. xviii. c. 74.

18. Aristotle, Hist. Anim, B. vi. c. 16.

19. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 16. Hardouin remarks, that the

tunny which Pliny mentions in c. 17, as weighing so many hundreds of

pounds, must certainly have been older than this.




21. Chap. 21.-Why Fishes Leap Above The Surface Of The Water.


CHAP. 21.-WHY FISHES LEAP ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE WATER.



There is a little animal,[1] in appearance like a scorpion, and

of the size of a spider.[2] This creature, by means of its sting,

attaches itself below the fin to the tunny and the fish known

as the sword-fish[3] and which often exceeds the dolphin in

magnitude, and causes it such excruciating pain, that it will

often leap on board of a ship even. Fish will also do the same

at other times, when in dread of the violence of other fish, and

mullets more especially, which are of such extraordinary swiftness, that they will sometimes leap over a ship, if lying cross-

wise.











1. This is, as Cuvier has remarked, a crustaceous insect of the parasitical

class Lerna, which are monoculcus [and form the modern class of the

Epizoa]. Gmelin, he says, has called it "Pennatula filosa," though, in fact,

it is not a pennatula [or polyp] at all. As Dalechamps observes, its ap-

pearance is very different from that of a scorpion. Penetrating the flesh

of the tunny or sword-fish, it almost drives the creature to a state of

madness.

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 19. Appian also, in his Halieutics, B ii.,

makes mention of this animal. Pintianus remarks, that Athenus, on reading this passage of Aristotle, read it not as "arachnes," but "drachmes;"

not the size of a spider, but the weight of a "drachma," or Roman denarius.

3. Or the emperor fish, Cuvier says, the Xiphias gladius of Linnus.




22. Chap. 22. (16.)-That Auguries Are Derived From Fishes.


CHAP. 22. (16.)-THAT AUGURIES ARE DERIVED FROM FISHES.



Auguries are also derived from this department of Nature,

and fishes afford presages of coming events. While Augustus[1]

was walking on the sea-shore, during the time of the Sicilian

war, a fish leapt out of the sea, and fell at his feet. The diviners, who were consulted, stated that this was a proof that

those would fall beneath the feet of Csar who at that moment

were in possession of the seas-it was just at this time that

Sextus Pompeius had adopted[2] Neptune as his father, so elated

was he with his successes by sea.







1. In confirmation of this, Suetonius says, "The day before Augustus

fought the sea-battle off Sicily, while he was walking on the sea-shore, a

fish leapt out of the sea and fell at his feet."

2. Appian tells us, B. v., that Sextus Pompeius, on gaining some successes against Augustus at sea, caused himself to be called the "Son of

Neptune," as having been adopted by that divinity. There is also a coin

of Pompey extant, which attests that he adopted the surname of "Neptunius."




23. Chap. 23.-What Kinds Of Fishes Have No Males.


CHAP. 23.-WHAT KINDS OF FISHES HAVE NO MALES.



The females of fishes are larger[1] in size than the males, and

in some kinds there are no males[2] at all, as in the erythini[3]

and the channi;[4] for all of these that are taken are found to







be full of eggs. Nearly all kinds of fish that are covered with

scales are gregarious. They are most easily taken before sunrise;[5] for then more particularly their powers of seeing are

defective. They sleep during the night; and when the weather

is clear, are able to see just as well then as during the

day. It is said, also, that it greatly tends to promote their

capture to drag the bottom of the water, and that by so doing

more are taken at the second haul[6] than at the first. They

are especially fond of the taste of oil, and find nutriment in

gentle showers of rain. Indeed, the very reeds,[7] even, although

they are produced in swamps, will not grow to maturity without the aid of rain: in addition to this, we find that wherever

fishes remain constantly in the same water, if it is not renewed

they will die.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. e. 5. Cuvier remarks, that this is true,

and more especially during the spawning season.

2. Aristotle says the same, but with the expression of some doubt as

to the truth of the assertion. B. vi. c. 13.

3. The erythinus is supposed to be the roach, or rochet, of the present

day, and the channe, the ruff or perch. Ovid, in his Halieuticon, 1. 107,

alludes to the same notion that is here mentioned: "And the channe,

that reproduces itself, deprived of two-fold parents." Cuvier remarks,

that, wonderful as these assertions may be, they are not devoid, to all appearance, of a certain foundation; for that Cavolini has observed in the

Perca cabrilla and Perca scriba of Linnus, a species of hermaphroditism;

the ovary having always in the interior a lobe, which, from its conformation, would appear to be for the milt; and that he is strongly of opinion

that in this species, and some others of the same genus, all the fish produce

eggs, and fecundate them themselves.

4. Cuvier says, that the channe is the Perca cabrilla of Linnus, one of

the serrans or trumpet-fish of the coasts of Provence. According to Forskal, Fauna Arabica, and Sonnini, it still has the name among the Turks

and modern Greeks, of "chani," or "channo," and it was in these that

Cavolini observed the singular organization previously mentioned. According to Athenus, B. vii., Aristotle has described this fish as of a red colour, variegated with black rays, which answers very well to the Perca

scriba of Linnus, approaching most nearly to the Perca cabrilla.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 75.

6. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 7.

7. Aristotle makes the same remark, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 25.




24. Chap. 24.-Fishes Which Have A Stone In The Head; Those Which Keep Themselves Concealed During Winter; And Those Which Are Not Taken In Winter, Except Upon Stated Days.


CHAP. 24.-FISHES WHICH HAVE A STONE IN THE HEAD; THOSE WHICH KEEP THEMSELVES CONCEALED DURING WINTER; AND THOSE WHICH ARE NOT TAKEN IN WINTER, EXCEPT UPON STATED DAYS.



All fish have a presentiment of a rigorous winter, but more

especially those which are supposed to have a stone[1] in the

head, the lupus,[2] for instance, the chromis,[3] the sci-







na,[4] and the phagrus.[5] When the winter has been very severe,







many fish are taken in a state of blindness.[6] Hence it is, that

during these months they lie concealed in holes, in the same

manner as land animals, as we have already[7] mentioned;

and more especially the hippurus,[8] and the coracinus,[9] which

Archestratus looks upon its head as a delicacy, but thinks so little of the

other parts, that they are not, in his opinion, worth carrying away. He was,

however, well known to be much too refined in his notions of epicurism.







are never taken during the winter, except only on a few stated

days, which are always the same. The same with the murna[10] also, and the orphus,[11] the conger,[12] the perch,[13] and all







the rock-fish. It is said that, during the winter, the torpedo,[14]

the psetta,[15] and the sole, conceal themselves in the earth, or

rather, I should say, in excavations made by them at the bottom of the sea.







1. Cuvier observes, that all fishes are found to have in the membranous

labyrinth of the ear, bodies like stone, enclosed in a certain kind of gelatinous liquor. These bodies, however, he says, are not equally large in

all kinds of fish. He says that it is found largest in the scina.

2. The Perca labrax of Linnus. Called "loup," or "wolf," on

the Mediterranean coasts of France, and "bar" on the shores of the

ocean.

3. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 19, attributes to the chromis, Cuvier says, stones in the head, B. iv. c. 8, an acute hearing, B. iv. c. 9, the

power of making a sort of grunting noise, and the habit of living gregariously, and depositing the eggs once a year, B. iv. c. 9; all which characteristics, he says, are found in the Scina umbra of the naturalists, the maigre

of the French. In addition to this, Epicharmus, as quoted by Athenus,

B. vii., says that the chromis and the xiphias are, at the beginning of

spring, the very best of fish; a quality which must be admitted to belong

to the maigre, for its size and its excellent flavour. However, he says,

seeing that the glaucus, which Aristotle has distinguished from the chromis, has a still stronger resemblance to the maigre, and that, as Belon

informs us, the ombrine, or Scina cirrhosa, is still sometimes called at

Marseilles the "chro," or the "chrau," and that, as Gyllius says, on the

coast of Genoa it has the name of "chro," it would not be improbable

that this is really the chromis of the Greeks, as Belon supposes.

4. From skia), the Greek for "shadow;" which name, as Cuvier says,

has been translated by the moderns by the word "ombre," or "umbra."

But this name has been given at the present day to so many fish of various

kinds, from the "ombra" of the Italians and the "maigre" of the French,

the Scina umbra of the naturalists, the ombrine or Scina cirrhosa of

Linnus, to the ombre of Auvergne, the Salmo thymallus of Linnus, and

the ombre chevalier, the Salmo umbra of Linnus, that this synonyme does

not aid us in discovering its identity. Aristotle says nothing relative to his

scina, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 19, except that it has stones in the head, a

thing that is common to this with many other fish. Pliny, in copying this

passage, preserves the Greek name; but Ovid, Columella, and Ausonius

give it the name of "umbra:" the one, however, described by the first two

is a sea-fish, while that of Ausonius is a fresh-water fish. Varro, who cites

the name of umbra among those given to fish, adds that the species which

bears it owes its name to its peculiar colour; and as Ovid calls it "liveus,"

or "livid," it may be presumed to have been of a dark colour. It is very

possible, then, that it may have been the corvus marinus, or sea-crow, the

Scina nigra of Linnus.

5. Or pagrus. This passage is from Aristotle, Hist. Nat. B. viii. c. 19.

Cuvier says that there are several names of fish, known in the Mediteranean

at the present day, as being from the fa/gros of Aristotle, such as the

pagri or pageau, the fragolino, &c. names of a fish of a red silvery hue, the

Sparus erythrinus of Linnus, his Sparus pagrus being another species.

The modern Greeks also call it fa/gros, the best proof of its identity with

the phagros of Aristotle, or pager or phagrus of Pliny. This phagrus, Cuvier says, was not improbably the same as the modern pagre, as their characteristics quite agree, so far as those of the ancient phagrus are described.

It is of red colour, and we find Ovid (Halieut. 1. 108,) speaking of the

"rutilus pagur," and it was, according to Aristotle, 13. viii. c. 13, caught

equally out at sea and near the shore, and had stones in the head, B. viii. c.

19, or, in other words, stony bodies of large size in the labyrinthine cavities

of the ear. Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 185, says that the channe forms a

delicate morsel for the pagrus, which shows that it was of considerable size;

and several authors quoted by Athenus, B. vii., give it the epithet of

"great." Hicesius says, in the same place, that it resembles the erythrus,

the chromis, the anthias, and other fish of very different character among

themselves; but it is only in relation to the flesh that he makes these comparisons, so that we are unable to come to any conclusion as to the form.

But we find Numenius, also quoted by Athenus, speaking of the fa/gron

lofi/hn, the "crested phagrus," possibly in allusion to the height of the

neck. The properties of its flesh are, if possible, still less characteristic. Hecesius says that it is of sweet flavour and nourishing, but rather astringent.

Galen, however, says that it is hard, and difficult of digestion, when old.

6. Hardouin says that Aristotle, B. viii. c. 20, from whom this account

is taken, does not say this of all kinds of fish, but only of those which have

large heads.

7. In B. viii. c. 54 and 55, where he is speaking of bears and other

animals.

8. Cuvier states that Pliny takes this name from Aristotle, and that

Athenus, B. vii., says that it is synonymous with the Greek name, koru/-

fainh. He also informs us, that modern naturalists have applied these

two names to the dorade of navigators, the lampuga of the Spaniards and

Sicilians, the Coryphna hippurus of Linnus, but that it is not clear that

it has been applied on sufficient grounds: as there is no trace whatever of

either of the two ancient names on the coasts of the Mediterranean, and the

ancient writers have given no sufficient characteristics of the coryphna or

hippurus. It was, we learn, of excellent flavour, and in the habit of

springing out of the water, from which, Athenus says, it received the

name of "arneutes," from a)rno\s, "a lamb."

9. Cuvier remarks, that Rondelet and others of the moderns have

thought that this was synonymous with the crow-fish, the corb of the

French, the Scina nigra of Linnus, but that his own researches on the

subject had led him to a different conclusion. Its name was derived, he

says, from the Greek ko/rac, "a crow," on account of the blackness of its

colour, as Oppian says, Halieut. B. i. 1. 133; but there were white ones as

well, which Athenus, 13. viii., says, were the best eating, though the

black ones were the most common. Aristophanes, as quoted by Athenus,

B. viii., calls it also the fish with black gills, melanopte/rugon. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 10, says that it was a small fish, and one of

those that increase rapidly in growth. It was little esteemed, and was

much used, as we learn from Athenus and the Geoponica, for salting, and

making garum or fish-sauce. It was also used as a bait for the anthias or

flower-fish. Strabo, B. xiii., also speaks of a river-fish of this name, as

being found in the Nile; the flesh of which Athenus mentions as being

remarkably good eating, and the best among the fishes of the Nile. Martial also, B. xiii. Ep. 85, calls it "princeps Niliaci macelli," the "prince

of the produce of the Nile." That fish, however, Pliny says, B. xxxii. c.

5, was peculiar to the Nile; and he states, B. v. c. 9, that in consequence

of finding it in a lake of Lower Mauritania, Juba pretended that the Nile

took its rise in that lake. Athenus says, B. iii., that the dwellers on the

Nile called it pe/lth, "the buckler;" and in B. vii., that the people of Alexandria called it pla/tac from its broad shape. Now, Cuvier remarks, it

is well known that the best fish of the Nile at the present day is the bolty,

the Labrus Niloticus of Linnus, and the Chromis Nilotica of his own system, and this he takes to be the Coracinus albus. It is flat and compressed, and when held on the side, would appear almost circular in shape. Its

colour appears white in comparison with that of another little fish of the

same genus, the Sparus chromis of Linnus, the Chromis castanea of Cuvier,

which is of a brownish colour, and is found on the coast of France, where

it has never been held in high esteem, except for the purposes of salting

or making bait for other fish. He concludes, then, that this last was the

sea coracinus, and the "bolty" of the present day that of the Nile.

10. Cuvier says, that it has been doubted, upon the authority of Paulus

Jovius, whether by this name was signified the murna of the present day,

the Murna helena of Linnus, or the Petromizon marinus of Linnus,

the modern lamprey. These two fishes, he says, have in common a long

smooth body, and are devoid of the symmetrical fins, and the flesh of both

is of a delicate flavour. There are, however, several other characteristics

mentioned, he says, from which it can be easily proved that in most of the

passages of Pliny, Aristotle, and lian, where the murna is mentioned,

it is the Murna helena that is meant. Ovid says, Halieut. 11. 114, 115,

"the murna burning with its spots of gold"-but the lamprey has no

yellow spots whatever: and in 1. 27, he speaks of it as "ferox," or "fierce,"

a characteristic which also belongs to the murna, but not to the lamprey.

lian also states, B. x. c. 40, that the murna defends itself with its teeth,

which form a double row, and Aristotle says, B. viii. c. 2, that it lives upon

flesh; while Pliny says, in c. 88 of the present Book, that it bites off the

tail of the conger. It was the Murna helena only, and not the lamprey,

that could have devoured the slaves whom Vedius Pollio ordered to be

thrown into their preserves, as is mentioned by our author in the present

Book, and by Seneca and Tertullian. Finally, a thing that he considers

quite decisive on the point, Aristotle says, B. ii. c. 13, that the murna

has four gills on each side, like the eel; while the fact is that the lamprey

has only seven in all. Where we find Pliny speaking of the seven spots

upon the murna found in Northern Gaul, it appears most likely, Cuvier

says, that he speaks after some traveller, who had observed the seven

branchial orifices on the lamprey, and had taken them for spots.

11. This fish, Cuvier says, was of a reddish colour, had rough scales,

sharp teeth, large eyes, and a tough flesh. It lived a solitary life in the

sea, near rocks which were the resort of shell-fish, which formed its principal nutriment. It passed the winter in the crevices of rocks under water.

Its growth was rapid, and the length of its life two years; when cut in

pieces, its muscles, were still seen to palpitate. Rondelet, having gathered

these characteristics, looks upon the orphus as belonging to the genus

Pagrus. Cuvier says, however, that it would not be easy to prove that

this is a warranted conclusion, and that it is not justified by tradition, as

the name has utterly disappeared from the coasts of France and Italy;

though, according to Gillius and Belon, it is found among the modern

Greeks, in the shape of the "ropho." Cuvier suggests that it may have

been the Anthias sacer of Bloch, the "barbier" of the French.-It is

supposed by some that it is our "gilt-head."

12. The Murna conger of Linnus.

13. "Perc." Cuvier says that it is most probable that he is Lere speaking of this opinion, he says, and the serran [our trumpet-fish] which bears

this resemblance, is in many parts of Italy, at the present day, called the

"Percia marina."

14. The Raia torpedo of Linnus.

15. Cuvier states, that Athenus, B. vii., says that the psetta was the same

as the rhombus of the Romans, the modern turbot, the Pleuronectes maximus of Linnus. From a passage, however, of Aristotle, Hist. Anim.

B. ix. c. 37, he feels convinced that it is the Pleuronectes rhombus of Linnus, the barbue of the French, and with us the dab or sandling. Aristotle says in that passage, that it is in the habit of concealing itself in the

sand, while it moves to and fro the filaments around the mouth, and so

attracts the little fish. These filaments, Cuvier says, are small radii of the

anterior part of the dorsal fin, which form a sort of fringe around the mouth,

whence its French name of barbue. The turbot has no such filaments.




25. Chap. 25.-Fishes Which Conceal Themselves During The Summer; Those Which Are Influenced By The Stars.


CHAP. 25.-FISHES WHICH CONCEAL THEMSELVES DURING THE SUMMER; THOSE WHICH ARE INFLUENCED BY THE STARS.



Other fishes,[1] again, are unable to bear the heat of summer,

and lie concealed during the sixty days of the hottest weather

of midsummer; such, for instance, as the glaucus,[2] the asellus,[3]

of the fish generally known by the ancients as the sea-perch; and that

there is reason for thinking that it was similar to the Perca scriba of Linnus, having black lines running across the body. Most naturalists are







and the dorade.[4] Among the river-fish, the silurus[5] is affected by the rising of the Dog-star, and at other times it is

always sent to sleep by thunder. The same is also believed

to be the case with the sea-fish called cyprinus.[6] In addition

to this, the whole sea is sensible[7] of the rising of this star, a

thing which is more especially to be observed in the Bosporus:

for there sea-weeds and fish are seen floating on the surface, all

of which have been thrown up from the bottom.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 20. As Hardouin remarks, Aristotle appears to assign the sixty days to the glaucus only.

2. Naturalists have generally supposed, following Rondelet, Cuvier says,

that the ancient glaucus was one of the class of centronotal fishes, the

Scomber amia, or the Scomber glaucus of Linnus; but that the incorrectness of this notion is easily proved. Aristotle says, that in the glaucus

the appendices to the pylorus are few in number, as in the dorado (the

Sparus aurata of Linnus), while on the other hand the centronoti have

them in almost greater number than any other kind of fish. Athenus

says, B. iii., that the glaucus was a large fish, and Oppian, Hal. iii. 1. 193,

speaks of it as taken with mullet. Aristotle, B. ii. c. 13, says, that it

dwelt in deep water; but, according to Oppian, Hal. i. 170, it sought its

food among rocks and in the sand; in addition to which characteristics,

we find that it was a fish highly esteemed as a delicacy, the head being

the part more especially preferred. From all these circumstances, Cuvier

concludes that it was more probably a maigre, the Scina aquila of Cuvier,

than one of the centronotal fishes.

3. Literally, the "little ass." Cuvier says, that nearly all the naturalists, following Rondelet, apply this name to the merlus, the Gadus merluccius of Linnus, or else the genus of the gadus, or cod, in general. It is true, he says, that the "onos," or "ass" of the Greeks, the "asellus"

of the Romans, was also known as the gado\s, by the Greeks; but still this

onos had very different characteristics from those of the Gadus merluccius;

and among all the gadi of Linnus, he finds the only one that presents

any of them to be the Gadus tricirrhatus, or sea-weasel, which he therefore thinks to represent the ancient "asellus."

4. Aurata, "golden-fish." Cuvier observes, that by the Greeks this was

called xru/sofrus, "eye-brow of gold." It is the French daurade of the

Mediterranean, the "Sparus aurata" of Linnus, and is remarkable

for a golden line in form of a crescent over the eyes. Ajasson remarks,

that it was also called )Iw/niskos, and suggests that it may have been originally called so from being first found in the Ionian Sea. From an

epigram of Martial, B. xiii. Ep. 110, it would appear that this fish was

considered a very great dainty, and that it was fattened with Lucrine

oysters.

5. This fish has been already mentioned in c. 17 of the present Book.

Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 20, says this of the glanis.

6. Further mention is made of this fish in c. 74 of the present Book.

Aristotle mentions it in B. viii. c. 25, but says nothing about it being a

sea-fish; while Dorion, as quoted by Athenus, B. vii., expressly mentions

it among the lake and river fish. Hence Daldechamps seems inclined to

censure our author for this addition; but we find Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 11.

101 and 592, speaking of the sea cyprinus; and Athenus speaks of the

cyprinus of Aristotle as being a sea-fish.

7. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 20. This subject is also treated of

by Pliny in B. ii. c. 40, and is again mentioned in B. xviii. c. 58.




26. Chap. 26. (17.)-The Mullet.


CHAP. 26. (17.)-THE MULLET.



One singular propensity of the mullet[1] has afforded a subject

for laughter;[2] when it is frightened, it hides its head, and

fancies that the whole of its body is concealed. Their salacious

propensities[3] render them so unguarded, that in Phoenicia and

in the province of Gallia Narbonensis, at the time of coupling,







a male, being taken from out of the preserves, is fastened to a

long line, which is passed through his mouth and gills; he is

then let go in the sea, after which he is drawn back again by

the line, upon which the females will follow him to the very

water's edge; and so, on the other hand, the male will follow

the female, during the spawning season.







1. Cuvier remarks, that it does not appear that the characteristics of the

mullet, here mentioned by Pliny, have been observed in modern times.

2. The same story is told of the ostrich.

3. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 4, states to a similar effect.




27. Chap. 27.-The Acipenser.


CHAP. 27.-THE ACIPENSER.



Among the ancients, the acipenser[1] was esteemed the most







noble fish of all; it is the only one that has the scales turned

towards the head, and in a contrary direction to that in which

it swims. At the present day, however, it is held in no esteem,

which I am the more surprised at, it being so very rarely found.

Some writers call this fish the elops.







1. Cuvier says, that the peculiarity in the scales here mentioned is not

found in any fish; but that the sturgeon genus has, in place of scales,

lamin disposed in longitudinal lines in such a way, that the one does

not lap over the other, as is the case with fish in general. It was

this fact, misstated probably, that gave rise to the story; and it is most

likely this that has led Rondelet, and most of the modern naturalists, to

look upon the acipenser as the common sturgeon, and to give that name

to the sturgeon genus. Athenus reckons it among the cartilaginous

fishes, and in the family of the squali; but Pliny here speaks of it as very

rare, and Martial and Cicero say the same, which cannot be so accurately

said of the sturgeon. Archestratus, in Athenus, speaks of it as small,

having a sharp-pointed muzzle, and of triangular shape, and tells us that

a very inferior one was valued at 1000 Attic drachm. The sturgeon, on

the other hand, is often ten or twelve feet in length. The acipenser was

not always in vogue with the Romans, but when it was, it was most highly

esteemed; and according to Athenus, B. vii., and Sammonicus Severus,

as quoted by Macrobius, B. ii. c. 12, it was brought to table by servants

crowned with flowers and preceded by a piper. All these circumstances

lead Cuvier to be of opinion that under this name is meant a kind of small

sturgeon with a sharp muzzle, greatly esteemed by the Russians, and by

them known as the sterlet, the Acipenser Ruthenus of Linnus, the Acipenser Pygmus of Pallas. It is found in the Black Sea, and in the

rivers that fall into it; and has been carried with success to Lake Ladoga,

as also Lake Meler, in Sweden. This is the smallest and most delicate of

the sturgeon genus, and Professor Pallas says that they are sold at St.

Petersburgh at "insane prices," when more than two feet in length. it

is not improbable that it was found in the rivers of Asia Minor, and thence

carried to Rome occasionally. Pliny, indeed, B. xxxiii. c. 11, says that it

is not a stranger to Italy; if so, it would seem to be different from the

"elops," of which Ovid says, Halieut. 1. 96, "and the precious elops,

unknown in our waters," though he also says of the "acipenser," in 1.

132, "and thou, acipenser, famed in distant waters." Still, however,

Cuvier says, the use of names was not so accurate among the ancients, but

what that of "acipenser" may have been given to the sturgeon in general;

and this may have given rise to the present assertions of Pliny. Oppian,

in Athenus, B. vii., says, like Pliny, that the elops was the same as the

acipenser, and we find no characteristics given of the elops to make us conclude that the two were not synonymous. Indeed, we find that Varro,

De Re Rustica, B. ii. c. 6, and Pliny in c. 54 of the present Book, speak

of the elops as being most excellent at Rhodes, while we find Archestratus

in Athenus, B. vii., speaking of the same as being the locality of the

acipenser; and Columella, B. viii. c. 16, and lian, B. viii. c. 28, place

it in the Pamphylian Sea, which is not far distant from Rhodes. Pliny,

B. xxxii. c. 11, states, that the palm of fine flavour was by many accorded

to the elops; while Matron Parodus, in Athenus, calls it the "most noble

of all fishes, food worthy of the gods." From the immense sums that

were given for it, as we learn from Varro, quoted by Nonius Marcellus, it

was called the "multum munus," or "multinummus," the "much-money

fish." lian says, B. viii. c. 28, that the fishermen who were fortunate

enough to take an elops, were in the habit of crowning themselves and

their vessel with garlands, and announcing it, on entering harbour, by the

sound of the trumpet. Professor Pallas, in his work on the Russian Zoography, takes the elops to be a kind of sturgeon, more spiny than the rest,

which is represented by Marsigli under the name of "Huso sextus." He

does not, however, give his reason for fixing on this as the elops of the

ancients. It has been also suggested that the elops was the same as the

sword-fish.




28. Chap. 28.-The Lupus, Asellus.


CHAP. 28.-THE LUPUS, ASELLUS.



At a later period, they set the highest value on the lupus[1]

and the asellus,[2] as we learn from Cornelius Nepos, and the

poet, Laberius, the author of the Mimes. The most approved

kinds of the lupus are those which have the name of "lanati,"

or "woolly," in consequence of the extreme whiteness and

softness of the flesh. Of the asellus there are two sorts, the

callarias, which is the smallest, and the bacchus,[3] which is only

taken in deep water, and is hence much preferred to the former.

On the other hand, among the varieties of the lupus, those are

the most esteemed which are taken in rivers.











1. The wolf-fish. Generally supposed to be the basse, or lubin of the

French, much esteemed for their delicacy.

2. See N. 97 above.

3. Cuvier remarks, that we find this name in Euthydemus, as quoted by

Athenus, B. vii., used synonymously with that of "onos." We also find

the names Callarias, Galerias, and Galerides; but none of the characteristics

are given, by which to distinguish them.




29. Chap. 29.-The Scarus, The Mustela.


CHAP. 29.-THE SCARUS, THE MUSTELA.



At the present day, the first place is given to the scarus,[1] the

only fish that is said to ruminate, and to feed on grass and not

on other fish. It is mostly found in the Carpathian Sea, and

never of its own accord passes Lectum,[2] a promontory of Troas.

Optatus Elipertius, the commander of the fleet under the Emperor Claudius, had this fish brought from that locality, and

dispersed in various places off the coast between Ostia and the







districts of Campania. During five years, the greatest care

was taken that those which were caught should be returned to

the sea; but since then they have been always found in great

abundance off the shores of Italy, where formerly there were

none to be taken. Thus has gluttony introduced these fish, to

be a dainty within its reach, and added a new inhabitant to

the seas; so that we ought to feel no surprise that foreign

birds breed at Rome.



The fish that is next in estimation for the table is the mustela,[3] but that is valued only for its liver. A singular thing

to tell of-the lake of Brigantia,[4] in Rhtia, lying in the

midst of the Alps, produces them to rival even those of the

sea.[5]







1. Cuvier says that this fish held, as Pliny here states, the very highest

place at the Roman tables, and was especially famous: First, because it

was supposed to ruminate; in allusion to which, Ovid says, Halieut. 1. 118,

"But, on the other hand, some fishes extend themselves on the sands

covered with weeds, as the scarus, which fish alone ruminates the food it

has eaten." Secondly, because, as Aristotle, B. viii. c. 2, and lian, B. i.

c. 2, inform us, it lived solely on vegetables. Thirdly, because it had the

faculty of producing a sound, as we learn from Oppian, Halieut. B. i.

1. 134, and Suidas. Fourthly, for its salacious propensities, numbers being

taken by means of a female attached to a string, Oppian, Halieut. B. iv.

1. 78, and lian, B. i. c. 2. Fifthly, for its remarkable sagacity in affording assistance to another, when taken in the net; relative to which Ovid

has the following curious passage, Halieut. 1. 9, et seq. "The scarus is

caught by stratagem beneath the waves, and at length dreads the bait

fraught with treachery. It dares not strike the osiers with an effort of its

head; but, turning away, as it loosens the twigs with frequent blows of its

tail, it makes its passage, and escapes safely into the deep. Moreover, if

perchance any kind scarus, swimming behind, sees it struggling within the

osiers, he takes hold of its tail in his mouth, as it is thus turned away, and

so it makes its escape." Oppian, Halieut. B. iv. 1. 40, and lian, Hist.

Anim. B. i. c. 4, mention the same circumstance. We find that it was

highly esteemed by the Roman epicures, even in early times, it being mentioned by Ennius and Horace. It was salted with the intestines in it; and

Martial, B. xiii. Ep. 84, seems to speak of it as not being good to eat without them. It was a high-coloured fish, so much so, that Marcellus Sidetes

called it "floridum," while by Oppian it is called poiki/lon, or "variegated."

Rondelet thinks that it was one of spari or the labri, while Belon describes

as such, a fish now unknown to zoologists, the tail of which, he says, has

projecting spines. Aldrovandus calls it by the name of Scarus Cretensis, a

species of the genus which at present goes by the name of Scarus, and which

is distinguished by osseous jaw-bones, resembling in shape the beak of a

parrot. Cuvier says, that on finding from Belon that the name ska/ros was

still in use in the gean Sea, he ordered the various kinds of it to be

brought to Paris; upon which he found that they exactly resembled the

Scarus Cretensis of Aldrovandus, and he consequently has no doubt that it

is essentially the same fish as the scarus of the Greeks and Romans. From

the resemblance above stated, it is not uncommonly called the "parrotfish;" while by some it has been thought to have resembled our char.

2. See B. v. cc. 32, 41.

3. Or weasel-fish. Cuvier is of opinion that Hardouin is right in his

conjecture, that this is the Lote, or Gadus lota of Linnus, which is still

called motelle in some of the provinces of France. Its liver, he says, is one

of the greatest delicacies that can be eaten.

4. The present Boden See, or Lake of Constance.

5. Instead of "marinis," Sillig adopts the reading "murnis," making

them to rival the murna even. The other, however, seems to be the pre-

ferable reading.




30. Chap. 30.-The Various Kinds Of Mullets, And The Sargus That Attends Them.


CHAP. 30.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MULLETS, AND THE SARGUS

THAT ATTENDS THEM.



Of the remaining fish that are held in any degree of esteem,

the mullet[1] is the most highly valued, as well as the most

abundant of all; it is of only a moderate size, rarely exceeds

two pounds in weight, and will never grow beyond that weight

in preserves or fish-ponds. These fish are only to be found in

the Northern Ocean,[2] exceeding two pounds in weight, and

even there in none but the more westerly parts. As for the

other kinds, the various species are numerous; some[3] live

upon sea-weed, while others feed on the oyster, slime, and the

flesh of other fish. The more distinctive mark is a forked







beard, that projects beneath the lower lip. The lutarius,[4] or

mud-mullet, is held in the lowest esteem of all. This last is

always accompanied[5] by another fish, known as the sargus,

and where the mullet stirs up the mud, the other finds aliment

for its own sustenance. The mullet that is found on the coast

is not[6] highly esteemed, and the most esteemed of all have a

strong flavour[7] of shell-fish. Fenestella is of opinion, that

this fish received its name of mullet [mullus] from its resemblance to the colour of the red or mullet-coloured shoes.[8] The

mullet spawns three[9] times a year: at all events, the fry

makes its appearance that number of times. The masters in

gastronomy inform us, that the mullet, while dying, assumes

a variety of colours and a succession of shades, and that the

hue of the red scales, growing paler and paler, gradually

changes, more especially if it is looked at enclosed in glass.[10]







M. Apicius, a man who displayed a remarkable degree of ingenuity in everything relating to luxury, was of opinion, that

it was a most excellent plan to let the mullet die in the pickle

known as the "garum of the allies"[11]-for we find that even

this has found a surname-and he proposed a prize for any

one who should invent a new sauce,[12] made from the liver of

this fish. I find it much easier to relate this fact, than to state

who it was that gained the prize.







1. Cuvier says that this is the triglaof the Greeks, the triglia of modern Italy, the rouget of Provence, and the Mullus barbatus of Linnus.

2. The coasts of La Manche, Cuvier says, and the Gulf of Gascony produce a kind of mullet of larger size than usual, varied with stripes of a

yellow colour. This, the Mullus surmuletus of Linnus, is also to be found

in the Mediterranean, but much more rarely than the smaller kind, which

is red all over.

3. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii c. 5; lian, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 41;

and Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 435.

4. Hardouin says that it is larger than the sea-mullet; and that it dwells

in muddy or slimy spots in the vicinity of the sea-shore.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5.

6. Probably from the fact of its living in the mud. "Doctors differ"

on this point. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, says that shore-fish

are superior to those caught out at sea; while Seneca, on the other hand,

Nat. Qust. B. iii. c. 18, says that rock-fish and those caught out at sea

are the best.

7. He would almost seem to imply by this that they feed upon shell-fish:

but Hardouin has a note to the effect, that Pliny does not mean that they

live on shell-fish, as it would be impossible for them to break the shell

to devour the fish within, but only that they have the same flavour as shellfish. But query as to this explanation.

8. On the other hand, Isidorus says that the mullet-coloured shoes were

so called from the colour of the fish, which, indeed, is most probable. These

shoes were made of a kind of red Parthian leather, probably not unlike our

morocco leather. Festus seems to say that they were worn in general by

all the patricians; but the passage of Varro which he quotes, only shows

that they were worn by the curule magistrates, the consul, prtor, and curule dile.

9. Hence their Greek name,tri/gla, according to Oppian, Halieut. B. i.

1. 590.

10. Seneca has a passage on this subject, Qust. Nat. B. iii. c. 18, which

strongly bespeaks the barbarous tastes of the Romans. He says: "A mul-

let even, if just caught, is thought little of, unless it is allowed to die in

the hand of your guest. They are carried about enclosed in globes of

glass, and their colour is watched as they die, which is changed by the

struggles of death into various shades and hues." And again: "There is

nothing, you say, more beautiful than the colours of the dying mullet; as

it struggles and breathes forth its life, it is first purple, and then a paleness

gradually comes over it; and then, placed as it is between life and death,

an uncertain hue comes over it."

11. This anchovy, pickle, or fish-sauce, will be found more fully spoken

of in B. xxxi. c. 44.

12. Alecem. See B. xxxi. c. 44. Seneca speaks of this cruel custom of

pickling fish alive, Qust. Nat. B. iii. c. 17. "Other fish, again, they

kill in sauces, and pickle them alive. There are some persons who look

upon it as quite incredible that a fish should be able to live under-ground.

How much more so would it appear to them, if they were to hear of a fish

swimming in sauce, and that the chief dish of the banquet was killed at the

banquet, feeding the eye before it does the gullet?"




31. Chap. 31.-Enormous Prices Of Some Fish.


CHAP. 31.-ENORMOUS PRICES OF SOME FISH.



Asinius Celer,[1] a man of consular rank, and remarkable for

his prodigal expenditure on this fish, bought one at Rome,

during the reign of Caius,[2] at the price of eight thousand sesterces.[3] A reflection upon such a fact as this will at once lead

us to turn our thoughts to those who, making loud complaints

against luxury, have lamented that a single cook cost more

money to buy than a horse; while at the present day a cook

is only to be obtained for the same sum that a triumph would

cost, and a fish is only to be purchased at what was formerly

the price for a cook! indeed, there is hardly any living being

held in higher esteem than the man who understands how, in

the most scientific fashion, to get rid of his master's property.



(18.) Licinius Mucianus relates, that in the Red Sea there

was caught a mullet eighty[4] pounds in weight. What a price







would have been paid for it by our epicures, if it had only been

found off the shores in the vicinity of our city!







1. He may have been the son of C. Asinius Gallus, who was consul B. C.

8; but he does not appear to have ever been consul himself.

2. The reign of the Emperor Caligula.

3. Juvenal, Sat. iv. 1. 15, speaks of a mullet being bought for 6000 sesterces, a thousand for every pound, and Suetonius tells us that in the reign

of Tiberius three mullets were sold for 30,000 sesterces. It is in allusion

to this kind of extravagance that Juvenal says, in the same Satire, that it

is not unlikely that the fisherman could be bought as a slave for a smaller

sum than the fish itself. At the above rate, each of these mullets sold for

about 70 of our money.

4. Cuvier says that although the mullet of the Indian Seas is in general

larger than ours, it is never found at all approaching the weight here mentioned.




32. Chap. 32.-That The Same Kinds Are Not Everywhere Equally Esteemed.


CHAP. 32.-THAT THE SAME KINDS ARE NOT EVERYWHERE

EQUALLY ESTEEMED.



There is this also in the nature of fish, that some are more

highly esteemed in one place, and some in another; such, for

instance, as the coracinus[1] in Egypt, the zeus,[2] also called the

faber,[3] at Gades, the salpa,[4] in the vicinity of Ebusus,[5] which

is considered elsewhere an unclean fish, and can nowhere[6] be

thoroughly cooked, wherever found, without being first beaten

with a stick: in Aquitania, again, the river salmon[7] is preferred to all the fish that swim in the sea.











1. The bolty of the modern Egyptians, as previously mentioned.

2. Or Jove-fish. Cuvier says that Gillius has applied the name of

"faber" to the dory, or fish of Saint Peter, and has stated that the Dalmatians, who call it the "forga," pretend that they can find in its bones all

the instruments of a forge. After him, other modern naturalists have called

the same fish Zeus faber; but nothing, Cuvier says, goes to prove that the

dory is the fish so called by the ancients. The epithet even of "rare,"

given to it by Ovid, Halieut. 1. 112, is far from applicable to the dory,

which is common enough in the Mediterranean. If, indeed, the xalke/us

of the Greeks were the same as the "faber," as, indeed, we have reason to

suppose, it would be something in favour of the dory, as Athenus, B. vii.,

says that the xalke/us is of a round shape: but then, on the other hand,

Oppian, Halicut. B. v. 1. 135, ranks it among the rock-fish which feed near

rocks with herbage on them; while the dory is found only in the deep sea.

3. Or "blacksmith."

4. Cuvier says that this fish has still the same name in Italy; that it is

called the "saupe" in Provence, and the "vergadelle" in Languedoc, being

the Sparus salpa of Linnus; and that it still answers to all the ancient

characteristics of the salpa, eating grass and filling its stomach, and having

numerous red lines upon the body. It is common, and bad eating, but is

no better at Ivica, the ancient Ebusus, than anywhere else. M. De la

Roche, when describing the fishes of that island, says expressly that the

flesh of the saupe is but very little esteemed there. Ovid, Halieut. 1. 122,

speaks of it as "deservedly held in little esteem."

5. See B. iii. c. 11.

6. Neither at Ebusus nor anywhere else.

7. Hardouin remarks, that Pliny and Ausonius are the only Latin writers

that mention this fish; while not one among the Greeks speaks of it. It

was probably a native of regions too far to the north for them to know

much about it. In this country it holds the same rank that the scarus and

the mullet seem to have held at the Roman tables.




33. Chap. 33.-Gills And Scales.


CHAP. 33.-GILLS AND SCALES.



Some fishes have numerous gills, others again single[1] ones,

others double; it is by means of these that they discharge the

water that has entered the mouth. A sign of old age[2] is the

hardness of the scales, which are not alike in all. There are

two lakes[3] of Italy at the foot of the Alps, called Larius and

Verbanus, in which there are to be seen every year, at the

rising of the Vergili,[4] fish remarkable for the number of their

scales, and the exceeding sharpness[5] of them, strongly resembling hob-nails[6] in appearance; these fish, however, are only

to be seen during that month,[7] and no longer.











1. He must mean single ones, on each side of the head. Cuvier remarks,

that the present passage is from a longer one in Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B.

ii. c. 13, which, however, has come down to us in such a corrupt and fragmentary state, that it is totally unintelligible, or, at all events, does not correspond with modern experience. No fish, he says, is known to us that

has one or two gills only. The Lophii of the system of Linnus have three

gills on each side, and the greater number of fish four, with a half one attached to the opercule. Some cartilaginous fish, again, have five or six,

and the lampreys seven.

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iii. c. 10.

3. The modern Lago di Como, and Lago Maggiore. See B. iii. c. 23.

4. See c. 20, as to the Vergili.

5. Cuvier says, that in various species of the cyprinus, and more especially

the rubellio, the Cyprinus rutilus of Linnus, the roach, the Cyprinus jeses

of Linnus, and the bream, the Cyprinus brama of Linnus, the male has,

during the spawning season, little warts adhering to the skin and scales.

This appearance has been remarked in especial on a species found in the

lakes of Lombardy, known there as the "pigo," and similar to the roach

of other countries. It is most probable that it is to this appearance that

Pliny alludes. Rondelet, in his book on Fishes, gives a representation of

it, and calls it "pigus," or "cyprinus clavatus;" but he wrongly, like Pliny,

takes it to be a peculiar genus of fish.

6. Clavorum caligarium"-"nails for the caliga." This was a strong,

heavy sandal, worn by the Roman soldiers. It was worn by the centurions,

but not by the superior officers; and from the use of it, the common soldiers, including the centurions, were distinguished by the name of "caligati." The Emperor Caligula received that cognomen when a boy, in consequence of wearing the "caliga," and being inured to the life of a common

soldier. The hob-nails with which the "caliga" was studded are men-

tioned again in B. xxii. c. 46, and B. xxxiv. c. 41. Josephus tells us of

the death of a Roman centurion, which was occasioned by these nails. As

lie was running over the marble pavement of the temple of Jerusalem, his

foot slipped, and he was unable to rise, upon which he was overpowered

by the Jews, and slain. After the decline of the Roman empire, the caliga

was no longer worn by the soldiers, but was assumed by the monks and recluses.

7. Dalechamps says, that in a similar manner, in the lake known by the

name of Paladru, fish of most delicate flavour, called "umbl," were to

be taken in the month of December, and at no other part of the year; so,

too, the alaus, which are found in the Rhine, near Strasburg, in the month

of May only, and at no other time.




34. Chap. 34. (19.)-Fishes Which Have A Voice .- Fishes Without Gills.


CHAP. 34. (19.)-FISHES WHICH HAVE A VOICE .- FISHES WITHOUT GILLS.



Arcadia produces a wonder in its fish called exoctus,[1] from

the fact that it comes ashore to sleep. In the neighbourhood

of the river Clitorius,[2] this fish is said to be gifted with powers

of speech, and to have no gills;[3] by some writers it is called

the adonis.







1. )Apo\ to=n e)/cw koita=n, "from its sleeping out of the water." This

fish is also mentioned by Theophrastus, in his Fragment on the "Fish that

live on dry land;" by Clearchus the Peripatetic, as quoted by Athenus,

B. viii.; Oppian, in his Halieutics, B. i. 1. 158; and. lian, Hist. Anim.

B. ix. c. 36. The fish, however, mentioned by all these authorities, is a sea-

fish, while that of Pliny, being found in Arcadia, must, of necessity, be a river

fish. The proper name of the fish here mentioned by him was poikili/as,

Hardouin says, so called from the variety of its colours. Cuvier says, that

the fish here mentioned is not the Exoctus of Linnus, which is one of

the flying fish, but is clearly of opinion that it is one of the genus Blennius, or Gobio, that is alluded to; for these small fish are often to be found

left on the shore when the waters retire, and have the property of being

able to remain alive for a considerable time without water.

2. In the river Aroanius, which falls into the Clitorius. Pausanias

mentions this story, but adds, that he never could hear the fish, although

he often went there to listen, Mnaseas of Patr, an author quoted by

Athenus, B. viii., also mentions these vocal fishes.

3. Cuvier understands this to mean only, that the openings of the gills

are remarkably small: for, as he says, there is no fish whatever without

gills. It is very possible, however, that Pliny may have mistranslated a

passage found in Athenus, and quoted from Clearchus the Peripatetic,

in which he says that some fish have a voice, and yet have no throat,

bro/gxon; which may have, possibly, been mistaken by our author for

bra/gxia, "gills."




35. Chap. 35.-Fishes Which Come On Land. The Proper Time For Catching Fish.


CHAP. 35.-FISHES WHICH COME ON LAND. THE PROPER TIME FOR

CATCHING FISH.



Those fish, also, which are known by the name of sea-mice,[1]







as well as the polyp[2] and the murn,[3] are in the habit of

coming ashore-Besides which, there is in the rivers of India[4]

one kind that does this, and then leaps back again into the

water-for they are found to pass over into standing waters and

streams. Most fishes have an evident instinct, which teaches

them where to spawn in safety; as in such places there are no

enemies found to devour their young, while at the same time

the waves are much less violent. It will be still more a matter

of surprise, to find that they thus have an appreciation of cause

and effect, and understand the regular recurrence of periods,

when we reflect how few persons there are that know that the

most favourable time for taking fish is while the sun is passing

through the sign of Pisces.[5]







1. "Marini mures." Cuvier says, that according to Oppian, Halieut. B.

v. c. 174, et seq., the sea-mice, small as they are, attack other fish, and

offer resistance even to man himself. Their skin, he says, is very solid,

and their teeth very strong. Theophrastus names them along with seals

and birds, as feeding both on land and at sea. Cuvier is somewhat at a

loss whether to pronounce them, with Dalechamps, to be a kind of turtle.

If so, he considers that this would be the little turtle, Testudo coriacea of

Linnus, which is by no means uncommon in the Mediterranean. He

suggests, however, that there are equal grounds for taking it to be the

Flasco psaro, or Tetrodon lineatus of Linnus.

2. The Sepia octopodia of Linnus.

3. The Murna helena of Linnus. This animal, Cuvier says, like the

eel, is able to live out of water, in consequence of the minute size of the

branchial orifices, as Theophrastus very accurately explains. It is a common opinion that they come out of the water in search of others of their

kind; but Spallanzani was informed by the fishermen of Comacchio, that

this hardly ever is the case, and that they will only leave the water when

compelled. The polypus also crawls very briskly on the shore when it has

been thrown up by the tide, and moves with considerable swiftness.

4. This is also stated by the author of the treatise, De Mirab. Auscult.

c. 72; and Theophrastus, in his work on the "Fishes that can live on land,"

says, that these Indian fishes resemble the mullet. Cuvier says, that these

fish are those known as the various species of the genus Ophicephalus of

Bloch, which bear a strong resemblance to the mullet in the head and

body. Mr. Hamilton Buchanan, in his "History of the Fishes of Bengal,"

says, that these fish crawl on the grass to so great a distance from their

rivers, that the people absolutely believe that they must have fallen from

heaven.

5. Or the "Fishes." As if, indeed, Hardouin says, the resemblance of

name given to the constellation could have any effect upon the fish!




36. Chap. 36. (20.)-Classification Of Fishes, According To The Shape Of The Body.


CHAP. 36. (20.)-CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES, ACCORDING TO THE

SHAPE OF THE BODY.



Some sea-fish are flat, such, for instance, as the rhombus,[1]

the sole,[2] and the sea-sparrow;[3] which last only differs from







the rhombus in the lateral position of the body. The rhombus

lies with the right side upwards,[4] while in the sea-sparrow the

left side is uppermost. Some sea-fish, again, are long, as the

murna and the conger.







1. The turbot, Pleuronectes maximus of Linnus.

2. Pleuronectes solea of Linnus.

3. "Passer." Probably our "plaice"-the Pleuronectes platessa of

Linnus.

4. The pleuronectes in general, Cuvier says, have the two eyes situate on

the same side of the body. The turbot has them on the left side, and lies

on the sand on the right side, while the plaice or the flounder has the eyes

on the right, and lies on the left side-the reverse of what Pliny says.




37. Chap. 37.-The Fins Of Fish, And Their Mode Of Swimming.


CHAP. 37.-THE FINS OF FISH, AND THEIR MODE OF SWIMMING.



Hence it is that there is a difference,[1] also, in the fins of

fish, which have been given them to serve in place of feet, none

having more than four,[2] some two[3] only, and others none.[4]

It is in Lake Fucinus[5] only that there is a fish found that has

eight fins[6] for swimming. Those fishes which are long and

slimy, have only two at most, such, for instance, as eels and

congers: others, again, have none, such as the murna, which

is also without gills.[7] All these fish[8] make their way in the

sea by an undulatory motion of the body, just as serpents do

on land; on dry land, also, they are able to crawl along, and

hence those of this nature are more long-lived than the others.

Some of the flat-fish, also, have no fins, the pastinac,[9] for instance-for these swim broad-wise-those, also, which are

known as the "soft" fish, such as the polypi, for their feet [10]

serve them in stead of fins.











1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 6.

2. By this Pliny means, Cuvier says, only the symmetrical fins, or pairs

of fins, the pectoral namely, which are in place of arms, and the ventral,

which are instead of feet; of which, in fact, no fish has more than two

pairs. Pliny does not include in this statement the dorsal, anal, and pectoral fins.

3. Eels and congers, for instance, which have but one pair.

4. Mursen and lampreys.

5. See B. iii. c. 17.

6. Cuvier thinks that there can be no question that he is speaking here

of some mollusc or crustaceous animal.

7. Mureen, like eels, have gills, but the orifice, Cuvier says, is much

smaller than in the eel, and the opercula, under the skin, are so small as to

be hardly perceptible; indeed, so much so, that modern naturalists, Lacepde,

for instance, have denied the fact of their existence.

8. Aristotle, De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 13, and Hist. Anim. B. i. c, 6.

9. Or sting-ray. On the contrary, Cuvier says, the pastinaca, more than

any other ray, has large pectoral fins, horizontally placed; but they adhere

so closely to the body that they do not appear to be fins, unless closely

examined.

10. By this name, Cuvier says, he calls the tentacles or feelers, which

adhere to the head of the polypus, and which it uses equally for the purpose of swimming or crawling.




38. Chap. 38. (21)-Eels


CHAP. 38. (21)-EELS



Eels live eight[1] years; they are able to survive out of water

as much as six days,[2] when a north-east wind blows; but when

the south wind prevails, not so many. In winter,[3] they cannot live if they are in very shallow water, nor yet if the water

is troubled. Hence it is that they are taken more especially

about the rising of the Vergili,[4] when the rivers are mostly

in a turbid state. These animals seek their food at night;

they are the only fish the bodies of which, when dead, do not

float[5] upon the surface.



(22.) There is a lake called Benacus,[6] in the territory of

Verona, in Italy, through which the river Mincius flows.[7] At

the part of it whence this river issues, once a year, and mostly

in the month of October, the lake is troubled, evidently by the

constellations[8] of autumn, and the eels are heaped together[9]

by the waves, and rolled on by them in such astonishing multitudes, that single masses of them, containing more than a

thousand in number, are often taken in the chambers[10] which

are formed in the bed of the river for that purpose.







1. Spallanzani, in his "Nat. Hist. of the Eel in the Lagunes of Comacchio," says, that immediately after their birth they retreat to the Lagunes,

and at the end of five years re-enter the river Po.

2. Eighty or a hundred hours at most, Spallanzani says.

3. Cold, or a foul state of the water, Cuvier says, is very destructive to

the eel.

4. Or Pleiades. See c. 20.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 75, says the same, and likewise that

they feed mostly at night. The reason for their not floating when dead, he

says, is their peculiar conformation; the belly being so remarkably small

that the water cannot find an entrance; added to which they have no fat

upon them.

6. See B. iii. c. 23.

7. See B. iii. c. 20.

8. The setting of the Pleiades or the rising of Arcturus. See B. ii. c. 47.

9. Spallanzani informs us that the fishermen of the Lagunes of

Comacchio form with reeds small chambers, by means of which they take

the eels when endeavouring to re-enter the river Po; in these such vast

multitudes are collected, that they are absolutely to be seen above the

surface of the water.

10. Excipalis.




39. Chap. 39. (23.)-The Murna.


CHAP. 39. (23.)-THE MURNA.



The murna brings forth every month, while all the other







fishes spawn only at stated periods: the eggs of this fish

increase with the greatest rapidity.[1] It is a vulgar[2] belief

that the murna comes on shore, and is there impregnated

by intercourse with serpents. Aristotle[3] calls the male,

which impregnates the female, by the name of "zmyrus;"

and says that there is a difference between them, the murna

being spotted[4] and weakly, while the zmyrus is all of one

colour and hardy, and has teeth which project beyond the

mouth. In northern Gaul all the murn have on the

right jaw seven spots,[5] which bear a resemblance to the constellation of the Septentriones,[6] and are of a gold colour,

shining as long as the animal is alive, but disappearing as soon

as it is dead. Vedius Pollio,[7] a Roman of equestrian rank,

and one of the friends of the late Emperor Augustus, found a

method of exercising his cruelty by means of this animal, for

he caused such slaves as had been condemned by him, to be

thrown into preserves filled with murn; not that the land







animals would not have fully sufficed for this purpose, but

because he could not see a man so aptly torn to pieces all at

once by any other kind of animal. It is said that these fish

are driven to madness by the taste of vinegar. Their skin is

exceedingly thin; while that of the eel, on the other hand, is

much thicker. Verrius informs us that formerly the children

of the Roman citizens, while wearing the prtexta,[8] were

flogged with eel-skins, and that, for this reason, no pecuniary

penalty[9] could by law be inflicted upon them.







1. Hardouin says, that though this assertion is repeated by Pliny in

c. 74 of the present Book, it is a mistake; we learn, however, from

Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11, and Athenus, B. vii., that the young

of the murna are remarkable for the quickness of their growth.

2. This vulgar belief is, however, followed by Oppian, Halieut. B. i.

c. 555; Athenus, B. vii.; lian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 50, and B. ix. c. 66;

and Nicander, Theriac., who, however, adds, "if indeed it is the truth." It

is also alluded to by Basil, in Hexaem. Homil. vii., and Ambrose, Homil.

v. c. 7.

3. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. V. C 11, only quotes this story as he had

heard it, and does not vouch for its truth. Doro, as quoted by Athenus,

B. vii., makes the zmyrus and the murna to be of totally different genera.

The zmyrus, he says, is without bone, the whole of it is eatable, and it is

remarkable for the tenderness of the flesh. There are two kinds, of which

the best, he says, are those which are black.

4. The common murna, Cuvier says, is spotted with brown and

yellow, but there is a larger kind, with stronger teeth and brown all over,

the Murna Christini, of Risso. This, he has no doubt, is the zmyrus of

the ancients. Modern naturalists, he says, have incorrectly called Murna

zmyrus, a small kind of conger, which has yellow spots upon the neck.

5. Cuvier has already made some remarks on this passage in one of his

Notes to c. 24 of the present Book. See p. 395.

6. The Seven Terriones, or plough oxen. The constellation of Ursa

Major was thus called by the Romans.

7. This wretched man was originally a freedman, and though he was on

one occasion punished by Augustus for his cruelty, he left him a great part

of his property. He died B. C. 15. He is supposed to be the same person

as the one against whom Augustus wrote some Fescennine verses, mentioned by Macrobius, Sat. B. ii. c. 4.

8. Until the Roman youth assumed the toga virilis, they wore the toga

prtexta, or senatorial gown. The toga virilis was assumed at the Liberalia, in the month of March; and though no age appears to have been

positively fixed for the ceremony, it probably took place, as a general rule,

on the feast which next followed the completion of the fourteenth year;

though it is not certain that the completion of the fourteenth year was not

always the time observed. So long as a male wore the prtexta, he was

considered "impubes," and when he had assumed the toga virilis, he was

"pubes." Hence the word "investis," or "prtextatus," (here employed),

was the same as impubes.

9. Thus the "impubes" paid, as Hardouin says, "not in money, but in

skin." Isidorus, in his Glossary, says, "'Anguilla' is the name given to

the ordinary 'scutica,' or whip with which boys are chastised at school."

The witty Rabelais says, B. ii. c. 30, "Whereupon his master gave him

such a sound lashing with an eel-skin, that his own would have been worth

nothing to make bag-pipe bags of."




40. Chap. 40. (24.)-Various Kinds Of Flat Fish.


CHAP. 40. (24.)-VARIOUS KINDS OF FLAT FISH.



There is another kind of flat fish, which, instead of bones, has

cartilage, such, for instance, as the raia,[1] the pastinaca,[2] the

squatina,[3] the torpedo,[4] and those which, under their respective

Greek names, are known as the ox,[5] the lamia,[6] the eagle,[7] and







the frog.[8] In this number, also, the squali[9] ought to be included,

although they are not flat fish. Aristotle was the first to call

these fish by the one generic name of sela/xh,[10] which he has

given them: we, however, have no mode of distinguishing them,

unless, indeed, we choose to call them the "cartilaginous"

fishes. All these fish are carnivorous,[11] and feed lying on their

backs, just as dolphins do, as already[12] noticed; while the other

fishes,[13] too, are oviparous, this one kind, with the exception of

that known as the sea-frog, is viviparous, like the cetacea.[14]







1. The ray.

2. The sting-ray; the Raia pastinaca of Linnus.

3. The angel-fish; the Squalus squatina of Linnus.

4. The Raia torpedo of Linnus.

5. Galen, in his explanation of words used by Hippocrates, speaks of the,

bou=s qala/ssios, which is also described by Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. 1. 141,

et seq. He speaks of it as growing to the length of eleven or twelve cubits,

and having small, weak teeth, which are not easily seen, and compares it

in appearance to the roof of a house. Cuvier thinks, that although its

horns are not mentioned, a species of large horned ray is alluded to, which

is known by the modern naturalists by the name of Cephalopterus, and he

thinks it very likely these horns may have given it its Greek appellation.

Indeed Pliny himself, in another place, B. xxxii. c. 53, speaks of it under

the name of "cornuta," the "horned-fish."

6. A species of ray, most probably.

7. Cuvier suggests that this was the mylobates, the Raia aquila of Lin-

nus, which probably obtained this name on account of the width of the

pectoral fins, and its peculiar shape.

8. Ba/traxos a(lieu\s, the sea-frog, the Lophius piscatorius of Linnus,

and the baudroie of the French. Cuvier remarks, that though there is

little solidity or firmness in the bones of this animal, it is not properly a

cartilaginous fish.

9. This is borrowed from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v., who, however, says,

kai\ pa/nta ta\ galew/dh; from which Massarius, Turnebus, and Hippolytus

Salvianus are inclined to read "galei," instead of "squali." Both terms,

however, Hardouin says, are used to denote the genus which the French

call "chiens de mer," "dog-fish."

10. It is curious that Aristotle, though he was the inventor of this name,

has nowhere stated in what it originated. Galen, De Alim. Fac. B. iii.

c. 36, says that it is a)po tou= se/las e)/xeion, from the fact of their shining at

night.

11. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, and De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 13.

12. In c. 7 of the present Book.

13. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 8.

14. Cuvier says that it is true that the sea-frog is oviparous; but it is

far from being the case that all the cartilaginous fishes but it are viviparous.

The rays, for instance, produce large eggs of a square shape, and enveloped

with a very hard horny shell. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5, and B.

ii. c. 16, makes the same exception as to the sea-frog or frog-fish.




41. Chap. 41. (25.)-The Echeneis, And Its Uses In Enchantments.


CHAP. 41. (25.)-THE ECHENEIS, AND ITS USES IN ENCHANTMENTS.



There is a very small fish[1] that is in the habit of living

among the rocks, and is known as the echeneis.[2] It is believed

that when this has attached itself to the keel of a ship its pro-







gress is impeded, and that it is from this circumstance that it

takes its name.[3] For this reason, also, it has a disgraceful

repute, as being employed in love philtres,[4] and for the purpose of retarding judgments and legal proceedings-evil properties, which are only compensated by a single merit that it

possesses-it is good for staying fluxes of the womb in pregnant women, and preserves the ftus up to birth: it is never

used, however, for food.[5] Aristotle[6] is of opinion that this fish

has feet, so strong is the resemblance, by reason of the form and

position of the fins.



Mucianus speaks of a murex[7] of larger size than the purple,

with a head that is neither rough nor round; and the shell

of which is single, and falls in folds on either side.[8] He tells

us, also, that some of these creatures once attached themselves

to a ship freighted with children[9] of noble birth, who were

being sent by Periander for the purpose of being castrated,

and that they stopped its course in full sail; and he further







says, that the shell-fish which did this service are duly honoured in the temple of Venus,[10] at Cnidos. Trebius Niger

says that this fish is a foot in length, and that it can retard

the course of vessels, five fingers in thickness; besides which,

it has another peculiar property-when preserved in salt, and

applied, it is able to draw up gold which has fallen into a well,

however deep it may happen to be.[11]







1. This is also from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 1. ii. c. 17. Oppian also

mentions it, Halieut. B. i. 1. 223, et seq., but he gives it all the character-

istics of the modern lamprey.

2. This is the Echeueis remora of Linnus, Cuvier says. It has upon

the head an organ, by means of which it can attach itself to any body.

It is thus enabled to fasten to ships and larger fishes; but as for staving a

ship, it has not, as Cuvier remarks, the slightest power over the very smallest boat. All the eloquence, therefore, which Pliny expends upon it, in B.

xxxii. c. 1, is entirely thrown away.

3. )Apo\ tou= e)\xein nh=as. "From holding back ships."

4. Used for the purpose of bringing back lost love, or preventing incon-

stancy.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B, ii. c. 17.

6. Hardouin says that it is very possible that Aristotle may have written

to this effect in some one of the fifty books of his that have perished, but that

such is not the case in his account given of this fish in his Hist. Anim. B.

ii. c. 17, for there he expressly says, "There are some people that say this

fish has feet, whereas it has none at all; but they are deceived by the fins,

which bear a resemblance to feet." Cuvier says he cannot see in what way

the fins of the remora, or sucking-fish, resemble feet, any more than those

belonging to any other fish.

7. Cuvier says, that the shell-fish to which Pliny here ascribes a power

similar to that of the remora, is, if we may judge from his description of

it, of the genus called Cypra, and has very little doubt that its peculiar

form caused its consecration to Venus, fully as much as its supposed miraculous powers. He also remarks that Hardouin, in his Note upon this

passage, supposes an impossibility, in suggesting that the lips of this shellfish can bite the sides of a ship; these lips or edges being hard and immoveable. For some curious particulars as to the peculiar form of some

kinds of Cypra, or cowry, and why they more especially attracted attention, and were held sacred to Venus, see the discussion on them, in the

Defence made by Apuleius against the charge of sorcery, which was brought

against him.

8. Rondelet, B. xiii. c. 12, says that this kind of shell was formerly used

for the purpose of smoothing paper.

9. Herodotus tells us, B. iii. c. 48, that these were 300 boys of noble

families of the Corcyrans, and that they were being sent from Periander

of Corinth, to Alyattes, king of Sardes.

10. Venus was fabled to have emerged from the sea in a shell.

11. Rabelais refers to these wonderful stories about the echeneis or remora,

B. iv. c. 62: "And indeed, why should he have thought this difficult, seeing

that--an echeneis or remora, a silly, weakly fish, in spite of all the

winds that blow from the thirty-two points of the compass, will in the

midst of a hurricane make you, the biggest first-rate, remain stock still, as

if she were becalmed, or the blustering tribe had blown their last; nay,

and with the flesh of that fish, preserved with salt, you may fish gold out

of the deepest well that ever was sounded with a plummet; for it will

certainly draw up the precious metal."




42. Chap. 42. (26.)-Fishes Which Change Their Colour.


CHAP. 42. (26.)-FISHES WHICH CHANGE THEIR COLOUR.



The mna changes[1] its white colour, and in summer becomes swarthy. The phycis[2] also changes its colour, and







while at other times it is white, in spring it is parti-coloured.

This last is the only fish that builds itself a nest; it makes it

of sea-weed, and there deposits its eggs.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 34; lian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c.

48. Rondelet is of opinion that this mna was the fish still called menola

by the people of Liguria and Rome. It was a fish little valued, and we

find it called by Martial, "inutilis mna," B. xii. Epigr. 30. Cuvier

says, that if it does not change from white to black, as Pliny states, its

colours are much more lively in the spring. It also has an offensive smell

at certain times, as is noticed by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 30, and

to which Martial alludes in the above epigram. Ovid also mentions it as

a fish of no value; held, in all probability, in the same degree of estimation

as a sprat with us. It is, no doubt, the Sparus mna of Linnus.

2. We learn from Aristotle, B. viii. c. 30, that the phycis was a whitish

fish, which in the spring assumed a variegated colour. In an Epigram of

Apollonides it is called "red;" and Speusippus, as quoted in Athenus,

B. v., says that it is similar to the perch and the channe. Ovid speaks of

it as frequenting the shore, and Oppian represents it as dwelling among

the sea-weed on the rocks. It also lived on shrimps, and its flesh was

light and wholesome; while its most singular property was that of making

its nest among the fucus or sea-weed, whence its name. All these characteristics, Cuvier says, are to be found, from what Olivi states, in the "go" of

the Venetians, found in the Adriatic, the Gobius of Linnus; the male of

which in the spring makes a nest of the roots of the zostera in the mud,

in which the female lays her eggs, which are fecundated by itself, and

then protected by it against the attacks of enemies. This is probably the

fish that is alluded to by Ovid, Halieut. 1. 121, "The fish that imitates,

beneath the waves, the pretty nests of the birds."




43. Chap. 43.-Fishes Which Fly Above The Water. - The Sea-Swallow. - The Fish That Shines In The Night .- The Horned Fish. - The Sea-Dragon.


CHAP. 43.-FISHES WHICH FLY ABOVE THE WATER. - THE SEA-SWALLOW. - THE FISH THAT SHINES IN THE NIGHT .- THE HORNED FISH. - THE SEA-DRAGON.



The sea-swallow,[1] being able to fly, bears a strong resemblance to the bird of that name; the sea-kite[2] too, flies as well.



(27.) There is a fish that comes up to the surface of the sea,

known, from the following circumstance, as the lantern-fish:[3]

thrusting from its mouth a tongue that shines like fire, it emits

a most brilliant light on calm nights. Another fish, which,

from its horns, has received its name,[4] raises them nearly a







foot and a half above the surface of the water. The seadragon,[5] again, if caught and thrown on the sand, works out

a hole for itself with its muzzle, with the most wonderful

celerity.







1. This name, Cuvier observes, is still common on the coasts of the

Mediterranean, to two kinds of flying fish, the Dactylopterus, or Trigla

volitans of Linnus, and the Exoctus volitans of Linnus. It is to the

first, he thinks, that the ancients more especially gave the name of swallow,

although Salvianus and Belon are of the contrary opinion. Oppian,

Halieut. B. ii. 11. 457461, ranks the sea-swallow with the scorpion, the

dragon, and other fish the spines of which produce mortal wounds, and

lian, B. ii. c. 5, states to the same effect. But the exoctus has no

spines, while the dactylopterus has terrible ones on its propercules. Speusippus also, as quoted in Athenus, B. vii., gives no less decisive testimony,

in saying that the sea-cuckoo, the trigla, and the sea-swallow, have a

strong resemblance to each other; the fact being that the dactylopterus is

of the same genus as the sea-cuckoo, the Trigla cuculus of Linnus.

2. Ovid, Halieut. 1. 96, speaks of this fish as having a black back. Cuvier therefore suggests that it may possibly be the perlon, the Trigla hirundo of Linnns, the back of which is of a dark brown, and the great

size of the pectoral fins of which may have given rise to the notion of its

being able to fly. It is also very possible, he says, that it may have been

the exoctus, the back of which is of a blue colour.

3. Lucerna. Probably, as Cuvier says, one of those numerous molluscs,

or zoophytes, which give out a brilliant light, and perhaps the Pyrosoma

of Pron. No period being found in the MSS. after the word "milvus"

-"kite," it was long thought that this passage applied to the sea-kite;

and it is owing to this circumstance that we find the ichthyologists enumerating a Trigla lucerna. The correction, however, is approved of by Cuvier,

who says that he has found none of the genus trigl to give forth a light;

except, indeed, when, like other fish, it begins to be putrid.

4. Probably the "cornuta," mentioned in the Note on the sea-ox in c. 40;

see p. 411. Cuvier says that it was long supposed that the fish here alluded

to might be the Malarmat of the Mediterranean, the Trigla cataphracta of

Linnus, the muzzle of which is divided into two horns; but then they

are only half an inch long, instead of a foot and a half. He is of opinion,

therefore, that it is the great horned ray, now known as the cephalopterus,

which, being often fifteen feet and more in diameter, answers much better

to the description of its size implied by Pliny from the length of its horns.

It is also mentioned under the name of cornuta in B. xxxii. c. 53, in company with the saw-fish, the sword-fish, the dog-fish, and other large fishes.

5. Cuvier is of opinion, that Rondelet is correct in his suggestion that

this is the sea-spider, called the "vive" in France, the viver or weever

with us, and the Trachinus draco of Linnus, which fish is still called

dra/kaina by the modern Greeks. Pliny, in c. 48 of the present Book,

charges the sea-spider with doing much mischief, by means of the spines or

stickles on its back. Now lian, B. ii. c. 50, and Oppian, Halieut. 1. 458,

say the same of the sea-dragon; and this is a well-known property of the

modern vive, the Trachinus draco of Linnus. Pliny speaks more especially,

in B. xxxii. c. 53, of the wounds which it makes with the spines or stickles

of its opercules, which the vive is also able to inflict; and in addition to

this, it has the power of burrowing into the sand in a most incredibly short

space of time.




44. Chap. 44. (28.)-Fishes Which Have No Blood.-Fishes Known As Soft Fish.


CHAP. 44. (28.)-FISHES WHICH HAVE NO BLOOD.-FISHES KNOWN AS SOFT FISH.



The varieties of fish which we shall now mention are those

which have no blood: they are of three kinds[1]-first, those

which are known as "soft;" next, those which have thin crusts;

and, lastly, those which are enclosed in hard shells. The soft

fish are the loligo,[2] the spia,[3] the polypus,[4] and others of a

similar nature. These last have the head between the feet

and the belly, and have, all of them, eight feet: in the spia

and the loligo two of these feet are very long[5] and rough,

and by means of these they lift the food to their mouth, and

attach themselves to places in the sea, as though with an

anchor; the others act as so many arms, by means of which

they seize their prey.[6]











1. Cuvier remarks, that this division of the bloodless fish by Aristotle into

the mollusca, testacea, and crustacea, has been followed by naturalists almost

down to the present day.

2. The Spia loligo of Linneus; the calmar of the French, or ink-fish.

3. The Spia officinalis of Linnus; the seche of the French; our cuttlefish.

4. The Sepia octopodia of Linnus, or eight-footed cuttle-fish.

5. Cuvier remarks, that this account of the arms or feelers of the spia

and loligo is very exact.

6. "Quibus venantur." Hardouin suggests that the proper reading

would be "quibus natant"-"by means of which they swim;" for Aristotle

says, in the corresponding passage, "with the fins that surround the body

they swim."




45. Chap. 45. (29.)-The Spia, The Loligo, The Scallop.


CHAP. 45. (29.)-THE SPIA, THE LOLIGO, THE SCALLOP.



The loligo is also able to dart above the surface of the water,

and the scallop does the same, just like an arrow as it were.

In the spia,[1] the male is parti-coloured, blacker than the

female, and more courageous. If the female is struck with a

fish-spear, the male comes to her aid; but the female, the instant the male is struck, takes to flight. Both of them, as

soon as ever they find themselves in danger of being caught,

discharge[2] a kind of ink, which with them is in place of

blood,[3] and thus darkening the water, take to flight.







1. Plautus has a line in his Rudens, which shows that when the spia

was cooked for table, it was customary to take the eyes out. "Bid them

knock out his eyes, just as the cooks do with the spia."

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, states to a similar effect, as also

lian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 34; Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 156.

3. This so-called ink, Cuvier says, is neither their blood nor their bile,

but a liquid that is secreted in a bag peculiar to the animal. It is said,

that it is from the juices of certain polypi of the Eastern seas, that the

genuine Indian or Chinese ink is made; but M. Abel Remusat assures us

that he has found nothing in the Chinese writers to confirm this conjecture.




46. Chap. 46.-The Polypus.


CHAP. 46.-THE POLYPUS.



There are numerous kinds of polypi. The land[1] polypus is

larger than that of the sea; they all of them use their arms[2] as

feet and hands; and in coupling they employ the tail, which is

forked[3] and sharp. The polypus has a sort of passage in the

back,[4] by which it lets in and discharges the water, and which







it shifts from side to side, sometimes carrying it on the right,

and sometimes on the left. It swims obliquely,[5] with the

head on one side, which is of surprising hardness while the

animal is alive, being puffed out with air.[6] In addition to

this, they have cavities[7] dispersed throughout the claws,

by means of which, through suction, they can adhere to

objects; which they hold, with the head upwards, so tightly,

that they cannot be torn away. They cannot attach themselves, however, to the bottom of the sea, and their retentive powers are weaker in the larger ones. These are the

only[8] soft fish that come on dry land, and then only where

the surface is rugged: a smooth surface they will not come

near. They feed upon the flesh of shell-fish, the shells of

which they can easily break in the embrace of their arms:

hence it is that their retreat may be easily detected by the pieces

of shell which lie before it. Although, in other respects, this

is looked upon as a remarkably stupid kind of animal, so much

so, that it will swim towards the hand of a man, to a certain

extent in its own domestic matters it manifests considerable

intelligence. It carries its prey to its home, and after eating

all the flesh, throws out the debris, and then pursues such

small fish as may chance to swim towards them. It also

changes its colour[9] according to the aspect of the place where

it is, and more especially when it is alarmed. The notion is

entirely unfounded that it gnaws[10] its own arms; for it is from

the congers that this mischance befalls it; but it is no other







than true that its arms shoot forth again, like the tail in the

colotus[11] and the lizard.[12]







1. This, as Hardouin says, is the polypus which is found on the seashore, and which more frequently comes on dry land than the other kinds.

2. The arms of the polypus have numerous names with the Latin authors.

Ovid calls them "flagella,"-"whips;" others again, "cirri"-"curls;"

"pedes"-"feet" "crura"-"legs;" and "crines"-"hair."

3. This, Cuvier says, is quite unintelligible; for all the polypi have an

oval body, of the shape of a bag, and there is nothing in them that bears

any resemblance to a tail, forked or otherwise.

4. This channel, Cuvier says, is in form of a funnel reversed, by means

of which the animal draws in and ejects the water that is requisite for its

respiration, and discharges the ink and other excretions. It is in the forepart of the body, and at the orifice of the bag, and not on the back, as

Pliny says; but, as Cuvier remarks, it was very easy for a person to be

deceived in this matter, as the head, being in form of a cylinder, and

fringed with the so-called feet, cannot be said to be distinguished into an

upper and lower side.

5. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, says that the animal is obliged to

do so, on account of the situation of the eyes.

6. But Aristotle says, kaqa/per e)mpefushme/nhn, "as though it were

puffed out with air."

7. "Acetabulis." The acetabulum was properly a vinegar cruet, in

shape resembling an inverted cone; from a supposed similarity in the

appearance. it is here applied to the suckers of the polypus. The Greek

name is kotulhdw\n.

8. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 59.

9. Cuvier says, that the changes of colour of the skin of the polypus

are continual, and succeed each other with an extreme rapidity; but that

it has not been observed, any more than the chameleon, to take the colour

of objects in its vicinity.

10. This notion is mentioned by Athenus, Pherecrates, Alcus, Hesiod,

Oppian, and lian.

11. Cuvier says, that Pliny states, in B. xxix. c. 28, that the colotis, or

colotes of the Greeks, is the same as their ascalabotes, the "stellio" of the

Latins. This stellio is the same as the "gecko" of the moderns, and the

species known in Italy and Greece is the same as the "wall gecko" of the

French, or the tarente of the Provencals. From what Pliny says here

about its tail, it would appear to have been a lizard; but its identity

with the stellio, Cuvier says, is very doubtful. It will be mentioned more

at length in B. xi. c. 31.

12. It is very true, Cuvier says, that the tail of the gecko and lizard will

grow again after it has been cut off, but without vertebra. As to the

arms of the polypus, he says, it is very possible, seeing that the horns of

the snail, which belongs to the same family, will grow again.




47. Chap. 47.-The Nautilus, Or Sailing Polypus.


CHAP. 47.-THE NAUTILUS, OR SAILING POLYPUS.



Among the most remarkable curiosities is the animal which

has the name[1] of nautilus, or, as some people call it, the

pompilos. Lying with the head upwards, it rises to the surface

of the water, raising itself little by little, while, by means of

a certain conduit in its body, it discharges all the water, and

this being got rid of like so much bilge-water as it were, it

finds no difficulty in sailing along. Then, extending backwards its two front arms, it stretches out between them a

membrane[2] of marvellous thinness, which acts as a sail

spread out to the wind, while with the rest of its arms it

paddles along below, steering itself with its tail in the middle,

which acts as a rudder. Thus does it make its way along the

deep, mimicking the appearance of a light Liburnian[3] bark;

while, if anything chances to cause it alarm, in an instant it

draws in the water, and sinks to the bottom.[4]







1. This account of the nautilus, Cuvier says, the Argonauta argo of

Linnus, wonderful as it may appear, has been often confirmed by modern

observation.

2. This, Cuvier says, is not a membrane between the two feet or tentacles, but a distinct membranous delatation of the extremity of each of those

two organs.

3. These vessels have been already remarked upon in Note 33 to c. 5 of

the present Book.

4. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 61.




48. Chap. 48. (30.)-The Various Kinds Of Polypi; Their Shrewdness.


CHAP. 48. (30.)-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF POLYPI; THEIR

SHREWDNESS.



Belonging to the genus of polypi is the animal known as the







ozna,[1] being so called from the peculiarly strong smell

exhaled by the head;[2] in consequence of which, the mu-

rn[3] pursue it with the greatest eagerness. The polypi

keep themselves concealed for two months in the year; they

do not live beyond two[4] years, and always die of consumption, the females even sooner,[5] and mostly after bringing

forth. I must not omit here the observations which L. Lucullus, the proconsul of Btica, made with reference to the

polypus, and which Trebius Niger, one of his suite, has published. He says that it is remarkably fond of shell-fish, and

that these, the moment that they feel themselves touched by

it, close their valves, and cut off the feelers of the polypus,

thus making a meal at the expense of the plunderer. Shellfish are destitute of sight, and, indeed, all other sensations but

those which warn them of hunger and the approach of danger.

Hence it is, that the polypus lies in ambush[6] till the fish opens

its shell, immediately upon which, it places within it a small

pebble, taking care, at the same time, to keep it from touching the body of the animal, lest, by making some movement,

it should chance to eject it. Having made itself thus secure, it attacks its prey, and draws out the flesh, while the

other tries to contract itself, but all in vain, in consequence of

the separation of the shell, thus effected by the insertion of

the wedge. So great is the instinctive shrewdness in animals

that are otherwise quite remarkable for their lumpish stupidity.



In addition to the above, the same author states, that there

is not an animal in existence, that is more dangerous for its

powers of destroying a human being[7] when in the water.







Embracing his body, it counteracts his struggles, and draws

him under with its feelers and its numerous suckers, when, as

often is the case, it happens to make an attack upon a shipwrecked mariner or a child. If, however, the animal is turned

over, it loses all its power; for when it is thrown upon the

back, the arms open of themselves.



The other particulars, which the same author has given,

appear still more closely to border upon the marvellous. At

Carteia,[8] in the preserves there, a polypus was in the habit of

coming from the sea to the[9] pickling-tubs that were left

open, and devouring the fish laid in salt there-for it is quite

astonishing how eagerly all sea-animals follow even the very

smell of salted condiments, so much so, that it is for this reason, that the fishermen take care to rub the inside of the wicker

fish-kipes[10] with them.-At last, by its repeated thefts and

immoderate depredations, it drew down upon itself the wrath

of the keepers of the works. Palisades were placed before

them, but these the polypus managed to get over by the aid of

a tree,[11] and it was only caught at last by calling in the assistance of trained dogs, which surrounded it at night, as it

was returning to its prey; upon which, the keepers, awakened

by the noise, were struck with alarm at the novelty of the

sight presented. First of all, the size of the polypus was enormous beyond all conception; and then it was covered all over







with dried brine, and exhaled a most dreadful stench. Who

could have expected to find a polypus there, or could have recognized it as such under these circumstances? They really

thought that they were joining battle with some monster, for

at one instant, it would drive off the dogs by its horrible

fumes,[12] and lash at them with the extremities of its feelers;

while at another, it would strike them with its stronger arms,

giving blows with so many clubs, as it were; and it was only

with the greatest difficulty that it could be dispatched with

the aid of a considerable number of three-pronged fish-spears.

The head of this animal was shewn to Lucullus; it was in

size as large as a cask of fifteen amphor, and had a beard,[13]

to use the expressions of Trebius himself, which could hardly

be encircled with both arms, full of knots, like those upon a club,

and thirty feet in length; the suckers or calicules,[14] as large as

an urn, resembled a basin in shape, while the teeth again were

of a corresponding largeness: its remains, which were carefully preserved as a curiosity, weighed seven hundred pounds.

The same author also informs us, that specimens of the spia

and the loligo have been thrown up on the same shores of a

size fully as large: in our own seas[15] the loligo is sometimes

found five cubits in length, and the spia, two. These animals do not live beyond two years.







1. From o)/zw, "to emit an odour." This was a small kind of polypus.

2. Cuvier remarks that, in this Chapter, there are many details relative

to the polypus, that have not been observed by modern naturalists; but

they may have been observed by the Greeks, upon whose shores and islands

the animal was much more frequently to be found than in the west of

Europe.

3. Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. 1. 260, describes the battles of these animals

with the polypus. He also says, B. iii. c. 198, that they are attracted by

the smell of the flesh of the polypus, and so are easily taken.

4. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 59.

5. Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 1. 551, says, that they hardly live a year; and

lian, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 28, states to a similar effect.

6. Basil attributes a similar craftiness to the crab; Hexaem. Homil. vii.

7. The fishermen at the present day, upon the coast of Normandy, say

that the polypus, which they call the chatrou, is a most formidable enemy to

swimmers and divers; for when it has embraced any of the limbs with-its

tentacles, it adheres with such tenacity, that it is quite impossible for a

person to disengage himself, or to move any of his limbs.

8. In Spain; see B. iii. c. 3. lian, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 13, tells a

similar story about a polypus at Puteoli.

9. "Lacus ;" large tubs used in the process of pickling. This story,

Cuvier observes, is only surpassed by those told by the Norwegians relative

to the "kraken" of their seas, which, according to some versions of the fable,

is a polypus of such vast size, that sailors have sometimes mistaken it for

an island.

10. "Nassis." The "nassa" was a contrivance for catching fish by

the junction of osier or willow rods. It was probably made in the shape

of a large bottle with a narrow mouth, and placed with the mouth facing

the current. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, states, that the fishermen,

when they were desirous of bringing the fish out of their holes, were in the

habit of rubbing the mouth of the holes with salted flesh.

11. Oppian, Halieut. B. i. c. 310, tells a story of a polypus, of the

ozna species, that was in the habit of climbing trees, and plundering the

fruit.

12. "Afflatu terribili." This, as Hardouin says, may either mean its

had smell, or stinking water, ejected from its canal.

13. Its arms or feelers. The amphora, as a measure of capacity, held

about nine English gallons.

14. "Caliculis;" literally, "little glasses." Its "acetabula," or suckers,

are so called from their peculiar shape.

15. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, says the same; but, as Hardouin

observes, he must mean the Ionian sea.




49. Chap. 49.-The Sailing Nauplius.


CHAP. 49.-THE SAILING NAUPLIUS.



Mucianus also relates that he had seen, in the Propontis,

another curious resemblance to a ship in full sail.[1] There is







a shell-fish, he says, with a keel, just like that of the vessel

which we know by the name of acatium,[2] with the poop

curving inwards, and a prow with the beak[3] attached. In

this shell-fish there lies concealed also an animal known as the

nauplius, which bears a strong resemblance to the spia, and

only adopts the shell-fish as the companion of its pastimes.

There are two modes, he says, which it adopts in sailing;

when the sea is calm, the voyager hangs down its arms,[4] and

strikes the water with a pair of oars as it were; but if, on the

other hand, the wind invites, it extends them, employing

them by way of a helm, and turning the mouth of the shell to

the wind. The pleasure experienced by the shell-fish is that

of carrying the other, while the amusement of the nauplius

consists in steering; and thus, at the same moment, is an instinctive joy felt by these two creatures, devoid as they are of

all sense, unless, indeed, a natural antipathy to man-for it is

a well-known fact, that to see them thus sailing along, is a bad

omen, and that it is portentous of misfortune to those who

witness it.







1. Cuvier says, that this is only a reproduction, under another name, and

with other details, of the story of the nautilus or argonauta; but under the

impression that the polyp is not the animal which owns the shell, but is

only its associate. It has also been asserted in modern times, he says, that

the polyp has seized this shell by force from some other animal, in order

to convert it into its boat; but the opinion has not been adopted, as the

shell of the nautilus has been never found in the possession of any other

animal.

2. Probably borrowed from the Greeks, who called it a)/katos. It is supposed to have been a small boat, similar to the Roman "scapha;" like our

"skiff" probably.

3. The "rostrum" of the ancient ships of war.

4. "Palmulis." This word also means the blade or broad part of an oar;

in which sense it may, perhaps, be here taken.




50. Chap. 50.-Sea-Animals, Which Are Enclosed With A Crust; The Cray-Fish.


CHAP. 50.-SEA-ANIMALS, WHICH ARE ENCLOSED WITH A CRUST; THE CRAY-FISH.



The cray-fish,[1] which belongs to that class of animals which

is destitute of blood, is protected by a brittle crust. This

creature keeps itself concealed for five months, and the same is

the case with crabs, which disappear for the same period. At

the beginning of spring, however, they both[2] of them, after the







manner of snakes, throw off old age, and renew their coverings.

While other animals swim on the water, cray-fish float with a

kind of action like creeping. They move onwards, if there is

nothing to alarm[3] them, in a straight line, extending on each

side their horns, which are rounded at the point by a ball

peculiar to them; but, on the other hand, the moment they

are alarmed, they straighten these horns, and proceed with

a sidelong motion. They also use[4] these horns when fighting with each other. The cray-fish is the only animal that

has the flesh in a pulpy state, and not firm and solid, unless

it is cooked alive in boiling water.



(31.) The cray-fish frequents rocky places, the crab[5] spots

which present a soft surface. In winter they both choose

such parts of the shore as are exposed to the heat of the sun,

and in summer they withdraw to the shady recesses of deep

inlets of the sea. All fish of this kind suffer from the cold of

winter, but become fat during autumn and spring, and more

particularly during the full moon; for the warmth of that luminary, as it shines in the night, renders[6] the temperature of the

weather more moderate.







1. "Locusta;" literally, the "locust" of the sea. By this name is meant,

Cuvier says, the "langouste" of the French (our cray-fish), which has no

large forcipes, and has a thorax covered with spines; the Palinurus quadricornis of the naturalists. This is clearly the ka/rabos of Aristotle, Hist.

Anim. B. viii. c. 23; for we generally find it thus translated by Pliny,

when he borrows anything from that philosopher. We know that the body

of this animal was spiny, from the fact that Tiberius, as we learn from

Suetonius, cruelly caused the face of a fisherman who had offended him, to

be rubbed with a locusta.

2. Aristotle, and Theophrastus, in his "Treatise on Animals which

conceal themselves," state to a similar effect.

3. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 4, states to a similar effect.

4. Aristotle, loc. cit., and lian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 25, state to the

same effect.

5. Hardouin says, that this must be only understood of the kind of crab

known as the "astacus;" that being the one mentioned by Aristotle, in

the passage from which Pliny has borrowed.

6. He mentions, in B. ii. c. 41, the effect which the rays of the moon

have upon the growth of shell-fish.




51. Chap. 51.-The Various Kinds Of Crabs; The Pinnotheres, The Sea Urchin, Cockles, And Scallops.


CHAP. 51.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF CRABS; THE PINNOTHERES, THE SEA URCHIN, COCKLES, AND SCALLOPS.



There are various kinds of crabs,[1] known as carabi,[2] astaci,[3]







mai,[4] paguri,[5] heracleotici,[6] lions,[7] and others of less

note. The carabus differs[8] from other crabs, in having a tail:

in Phoenicia they are called hippoi,[9] or horses, being of such

extraordinary swiftness, that it is impossible to overtake

them. Crabs are long-lived, and have eight feet, all of

which are bent obliquely. In the female[10] the first foot is







double, in the male single; besides which, the animal has two

claws with indented pincers. The upper part only of these

fore-feet is moveable, the lower being immoveable: the right

claw is the largest in them all.[11] Sometimes they assemble

together in large bodies; [12] but as they are unable to cross the

mouth of the Euxine, they turn back again and go round by

land, and the road by which they travel is to be seen all beaten

down with their foot-marks.



The smallest crab of any is that known as the pinnotheres,[13]

and hence it is peculiarly exposed to danger; its shrewdness,

however, is evinced by its concealing itself in the shell of the

oyster; and as it grows larger, it removes to those of a larger

size.



Crabs, when alarmed, go backwards as swiftly as when

moving forwards. They fight with one another like rams,

butting at each other with their horns. They have[14] a mode of

curing themselves of the bites of serpents. It is said,[15] that







while the sun is passing through the sign of Cancer, the dead

bodies of the crabs, which are lying thrown up on the shore,

are transformed into serpents.



To the same class[16] also belongs the sea-urchin,[17] which has

spines in place of feet[18] its mode of moving along is to roll

like a ball, hence it is that these animals are often found with

their prickles rubbed off. Those among them which have the

longest spines of all, are known by the name of echinometr,[19]

while at the same time their body is the very smallest. They

are not all of them of the same glassy colour; in the vicinity

of Torone[20] they are white,[21] with very short spines. The eggs[22]

of all of them are bitter, and are five in number; the mouth

is situate in the middle of the body, and faces the earth.[23] It is

said [24] that these creatures foreknow the approach of a storm at

sea, and that they take up little stones with which they cover[25]

themselves, and so provide a sort of ballast against their volubility, for they are very unwilling by rolling along to wear

away their prickles. As soon as seafaring persons observe

this, they at once moor their ship with several anchors.



(32.) To the same genus[26] also belong both land and water[27]

snails, which thrust the body forth from their abode, and

extend or contract two horns, as it were. They are without







eyes,[28] and have, therefore, to feel their way, by means of

these horns.



(33.) Sea-scallops[29] are considered to belong to the same

class, which also conceal themselves during severe frosts and

great heats; the onyches,[30] too, which shine in the dark like

fire, and in the mouth even while being eaten.







1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, has a somewhat similar passage.

"The kinds of crabs are numerous, and not easily to be enumerated.

First, there are those known as maim, then the paguri, which are also

called 'heracleotici;' and, after them, the river crabs. There are others,

again, of a smaller size, and which, for the most part, are known by no

name in particular."

2. This is, no doubt, the cray-fish, the same animal that has been called

the "locusta" in the preceding Chapter. Aristotle states, B. iv. c. 8, that

the carabus has the thorax rough and spiny. It is most probable, that it

is from this name that our word "crab" is derived.

3. Cuvier says, that the astacus, which is very accurately described by

Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, is indisputably the homard of the

French (the common lobster of the English); the Cancer gammarius of

Linnus. Pliny, in another place, B. xxx. c. ii., describes it himself under

the name of elephantus.

4. Cuvier remarks, that according to Aristotle, B. iv. c. 2, the mai are

in the number of the karki/noi, or crabs that have a short tail concealed

beneath the body, being those of the largest kind. The same philosopher,

De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, adds, that these have also short feet and a hard

shell. Cuvier says, that many writers have applied this name to the crabs

at the present day belonging to the genus inachus, and more especially the

Cancer maia of Linnus. He is more inclined, however, to think that the

maia was the common French crab, known as poupart or tourtue, the

Cancer pagurus of Linnus.

5. Hardouin says, that these are the same that the Venetians were in the

habit of calling "cancro poro," the last word being a corruption, as he

thinks, of pagurus. Aristotle says, loc. cit., that they were crabs of middling size.

6. Or Heracleotic crabs. Aristotle says, De Partib. Anim. B. iv. c. 8,

that these crabs had shorter feet and thinner than those of the mai.

Cuvier suggests, that these may be the commonest kind of crab, the Cancer

Mnas of Linnus, or a species very similar.

7. "Leones." This name is not found in Aristotle's account, but it is

found in Athenus, B. iii. c. 106; and in lian, Hist. Anim. B. xiv. c. 9.

According to Diphilus, as quoted by Atheneus, it was of larger size than

the astacus. lian describes it as more slender in shape than the crayfish, and partly of a bluish colour, and with very large forcipes, in which

it resembles, Cuvier says, the homard of the French. It is possible, however, he adds, that it may have been only a second name given to the

astacus already mentioned; as both Pliny and lian, who were not critical observers, are very liable to make errors in names.

8. Aristotle, Cuvier observes, states the carcini, or crabs, have no tail,

the fact being that the tail is extremely small, and is concealed, as it were,

in a furrow in the under part of the body. The cray-fish, on the other

hand, has a large and broad tail.

9. (Ippoi\. The more common reading is i(ppe=is, "horsemen." Cuvier

thinks, that in all probability, these are a kind of crab with very long legs,

vulgarly known as the sea-spider; the Macropodia and the Leptopodia of

Linnus.

10. Hardouin remarks, that Aristotle says this only of the carabi, or

cray-fish, and not of the crabs in general; and that, on the contrary, in B.

v. c. 7, he says, that in the crab the male does not differ in conformation

from the female, except in the opercule. There seems, in reality, to be

no foundation for the statement here made by Pliny.

11. Both in the crab and the cray-fish, Aristotle says.

12. lian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 24, calls this kind of crab dromi/as,

the "runner," from the great distance it is known to travel. He says,

that they meet together, coming in one by one, at a certain bay in the

Thracian Bosporus, where those who have arrived wait for the others; and

that on finding that the waves of the Euxine are sufficiently violent to

sweep them away, they unite in a dense body, and then waiting till the

waters have retired, make a passage across the straits.

13. Cuvier remarks, that Hardouin is correct in considering this the same

as the crab known in France as Bernard the Hermit (our hermit-crab), tile

Cancer Bernardus of Linnus, a species of the genus now known as the

Pagur. This animal hides its tail and lower extremities in the empty shells

of whelks, or other univalves. Cuvier suggests that our author committed

a slip of the pen, in using the word oyster here for shell-fish. This is the

karki/nion, probably, of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 16, and De Part.

Anim. B. iv. c. 8; and it is most probable that, as Cuvier states, the real

pinnoth/rhs of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 4, and B. v. c. 14, was

another of the crustacea, of which Pliny speaks under the same name in

c. 66. This last is a small crab, that lives in the shells of bivalves, such

as mussels, &, but not when empty. See the Notes to c. 66.

14. This circumstance is more fully treated of in B. xxxii. c. 19,

15. Our author speaks rather more guardedly here than usual; and Har-

douin seems almost inclined to believe the story. Ovid also alludes to this

story in the Met. B. xv. 1. 370, et seq. "If you take off the bending claws

from the crab of the sea-shore, and bury the rest in the earth, a scorpion

will come forth from the part so buried, and will threaten with its crooked

tail."

16. Of animals covered with a thin crust.

17. The sea-urchin, the herisson de mer of the French, and the Echinus

of Linnus.

18. Cuvier remarks, that it does not use the spines or prickles for this

purpose, but that it moves by means of tentacules, which it projects from

between its prickles.

19. The Echinus cidaris of Linnus; with a small body, and very long

spines. The name, according to Hardouin, is from the Greek, meaning

the "mother of the echini."

20. See B. iv. c. 17.

21. The same, Cuvier says, with the Echinus spatagus of Linnus.

22. Not "ova," Cuvier says, but "ovaria" rather. Each urchin has five

"ovaria," arranged in the form of stars. They are supposed to be hermaphroditical, but there is considerable doubt on the subject.

23. The mouth of the sea-urchin, armed with five teeth, is generally turned

to the ground, Cuvier says.

24. Plutarch, in his Book "on the Instincts of Animals." Oppian, Halieut.

B. ii. 1. 225, and lian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 44, all mention this.

25. This idea probably arose from the fact of their being sometimes found

with stones sticking between their spines or prickles.

26. The thin-crusted animals.

27. Known to us as periwinkles.

28. It is now known, thanks to the research of Swammerdam, that the

black points at the extremity of the great horns of the land snail, or Helix

terrestris, and at the base of them in the water snail, are eyes.

29. "Pectines in mari;" literally, "sea-combs." The French still call

them by a similar name, "peignes." They are known also in France as

"coquilles de St. Jaques," or St. James's shells; probably, because worn

by pilgrims who had visited the shrine of St. Jago, at Compostella. In-

deed, the scallop shell was a favourite emblem with the palmers and pilgrims of the middle ages, who were in the habit of wearing it on their

return in the hat.

30. He Latinizes the Greek name, calling it "unguis"-"a nail;" and,

according to Varro, they were so called from their resemblance to the human nail. Pliny mentions them again in c. 87 of this Book, and in B.

xxxii. c. 53, where he states that they are also called "dactyli," or "fingers." Cuvier says, that under this name are meant the pholades, a bivalve shell-fish, which give forth a very brilliant light.




52. Chap. 52.-Various Kinds Of Shell-Fish.


CHAP. 52.-VARIOUS KINDS OF SHELL-FISH.



Let us now pass on to the murex[1] and various kinds of shellfish, which have a stronger shell, and in which Nature, in her

sportive mood, has displayed a great variety-so many are

the various hues of their tints, so numerous are their shapes,

flat,[2] concave,[3] long,[4] crescent-shaped,[5] rounded into a globe,

cut[6] through into a semi-globe, arched in the back, smooth,

rough, indented, streaked, the upper part spirally wreathed, the

edge projecting in a sharp point, the edge wreathed outwards,[7] or

else folding inwards.[8] And then, too, there are the various dis-







tinctions[9] of rayed shells, long-haired[10] shells, wavy-haired shells,

channelled shells, pectinated shells, imbricated shells, reticulated shells, shells with lines oblique or rectilinear, thick-set

shells, expanded shells, tortuous shells, shells the valves or

which are united by one small knot, shells which are held together all along one side, shells which are open as if in the

very act of applauding,[11] and shells which wind,[12] resembling a

conch. The fish of this class, known as the shells of Venus,[13]

are able to navigate the surface of the deep, and, presenting to

the wind their concave side, catch the breeze, and sail along on

the surface of the sea. Scallops are also able to leap[14] and

fly above the surface of the water, and they sometimes employ

their shell by way of a bark.







1. Univalves, with a thick spinous shell.

2. The flat shell-fish, for instance, according to Cuvier, of the genus

patella, or lepas.

3. Other fish of the genus patella, only more concave; the haliotes, for

instance.

4. Forming a prolonged cone, Cuvier says, like the cerites.

5. The mouth of which is shaped like a crescent; such as the helices,

Cuvier says.

6. The nerites, Cuvier says, which are cut into two hemispheres.

7. Such as many of the whelks, Cuvier says.

8. The whelks that have the edge turned inwards, so that one lip appears

to fold under the other.

9. As no two naturalists might probably agree as to the exact meaning of

the terms here employed, it has been thought advisable to give the passage

as it appears in the original: "Jam distinctione virgulata, crinita, crispa,

cuniculatim, pectinatim divisa, imbricatim undata, cancellatim reticulata,

in obliquum, in rectum expansa, densata, porrecta, sinuata, brevi nodo legatis, toto latere connexis, ad plausum apertis, ad buccinum recurvis."

10. In allusion, probably, to the streaks or lines drawn upon the exterior of

the shell.

11. With the mouth wide open, like that of a person in the act of applauding.

12. By "ad buccinum recurvis," he probably alludes to a whelk, or fish

with a turbinated shell, resembling the larger conch or trumpet shell, which

Triton is sometimes described as blowing.

13. Probably some of the Cypra; which have been already alluded to in

Note 6 to c. 41 of the present Book. Cuvier remarks, that there are many

of the univalve shell-fish that float on the surface of the water, but none,

with the exception of the argonauta or nautilus, are known to employ a

membranous sail.

14. Cuvier says, that he has been informed that the scallop, by suddenly

bringing together the valves of its shell, is able to make a bound, and leap

above the surface of the water.




53. Chap. 53. (34.)-What Numerous Appliances Of Luxury Are Found In The Sea.


CHAP. 53. (34.)-WHAT NUMEROUS APPLIANCES OF LUXURY ARE FOUND IN THE SEA.



But why mention such trifles as these, when I am sensible

that no greater inroads have been made upon our morals, and

no more rapid advances have been made by luxury, than

those effected through the medium of shell-fish? Of all the

elements that exist, the sea is the one that costs the dearest

to the belly; seeing that it provides so many kinds of meats,







so many dishes, so many exquisite flavours derived from fish,

all of which are valued in proportion to the danger undergone

by those who have caught them.



(35.) But still, how insignificant is all this when we come

to think of our purple, our azure,[1] and our pearls; it was not

enough, forsooth, for the spoils of the sea to be thrust down

the gullet-But they must be employed as well to adorn the

hands, the ears, the head, the whole body, in fact, and that

of the men pretty nearly as much as the women. What has

the sea to do with our clothes?[2] What is there in com-

mon between waves and billows and a sheep's fleece? This

one element ought not to receive us, according to ordinary

notions, except in a state of nakedness. Let there be ever

so strong an alliance between it and the belly, on the score of

gluttony, still, what can it possibly have to do with the

back? It is not enough, forsooth, that we are fed upon what

is acquired by perils, but we must be clothed, too, in a similar

way; so true it is, that for all the wants of the body, that

which is sought at the expense of human life, is sure to

please us the most.







1. Ajasson says, that the words "purpuras, conchylia," here signify not

the fish themselves, but the various tints produced by them; the purpura

and the conchylium being, in fact, exactly the same fish, though, as will be

explained in c. 60 of the present Book, by various modes of treatment,

various colours were extracted from them. See also B. xxi. c. 22.

2. Dalechamps notices here an ancient proverb, which says, "Qui nare

vult, se exuit." "He who wishes to swim, takes off his clothes."




54. Chap. 54.-Pearls; How They Are Produced, And Where.


CHAP. 54.-PEARLS; HOW THEY ARE PRODUCED, AND WHERE.



The first rank then, and the very highest position among all

valuables, belongs to the pearl. It is the Indian Ocean that

principally sends them to us: and thus have they, amid those

monsters so frightful and so huge which we have already described,[1] to cross so many seas, and to traverse such lengthened

tracts of land, scorched by the ardent rays of a burning sun:

and then, too, by the Indians themselves they have to be sought

in certain islands, and those but very few in number. The

most productive of pearls is the island of Taprobane, and that

of Stoidis, as already mentioned[2] in the description of the







world; Perimula,[3] also, a promontory of India. But those

are most highly valued which are found in the vicinity of

Arabia,[4] in the Persian Gulf, which forms a part of the Red

Sea.



The origin[5] and production of the shell-fish is not very different from that of the shell of the oyster. When the genial

season of the year[6] exercises its influence on the animal, it is

said that, yawning, as it were, it opens its shell, and so receives

a kind of dew, by means of which it becomes impregnated;

and that at length it gives birth, after many struggles, to the

burden of its shell, in the shape of pearls, which vary according to the quality of the dew. If this has been in a perfectly

pure state when it flowed into the shell, then the pearl produced is white and brilliant, but if it was turbid, then the

pearl is of a clouded colour also; if the sky should happen to

have been lowering when it was generated, the pearl will be

of a pallid colour; from all which it is quite evident that the

quality of the pearl depends much more upon a calm state of

the heavens than of the sea, and hence it is that it contracts a

cloudy hue, or a limpid appearance, according to the degree of

serenity of the sky in the morning.



If, again, the fish is satiated in a reasonable time, then the

pearl produced increases rapidly in size. If it should happen

to lighten at the time, the animal shuts its shell, and the pearl

is diminished in size in proportion to the fast that the animal

has to endure: but if, in addition to this, it should thun-







der[7] as well, then it becomes alarmed, and closing the shell in

an instant, produces what is known as a physema,[8] or pearl-bubble, filled with air, and bearing a resemblance to a pearl,

but in appearance only, as it is quite empty, and devoid of

body; these bubbles are formed by the abortion of the shellfish. Those which are produced in a perfectly healthy state

consist of numerous layers, so that they may be looked upon,

not inappropriately, as similar in conformation to the callosities

on the body of an animal; and they should therefore be cleaned

by experienced hands. It is wonderful, however, that they

should be influenced thus pleasurably by the state of the heavens, seeing that by the action of the sun the pearls are turned

of a red colour, and lose all their whiteness, just like the human

body. Hence it is that those which keep their whiteness the

best are the pelagie, or main-sea pearls, which lie at too

great a depth to be reached by the sun's rays; and yet these

even turn yellow with age, grow dull and wrinkled, and it

is only in their youth that they possess that brilliancy which

is so highly esteemed in them. When old, too, the coat grows

thick, and they adhere to the shell,[9] from which they can

only be separated with the assistance of a file.[10] Those pearls

which have one surface flat and the other spherical, opposite

to the plane side, are for that reason called tympania,[11] or tambour-pearls. I have seen pearls still adhering to the shell;

for which reason the shells were used as boxes for unguents.

In addition to these facts, we may remark that the pearl is

soft[12] in the water, but that it grows hard the instant it is

taken out.











1. In c. 2 of the present Book.

2. In B. vi. cc. 24 and 28.

3. See B. vi. c. 23. lian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says to the same

effect, but calls it "Perimuda, a city of India."

4. lian, Hist. Anim. B. x. c. 13. It has been already remarked, in the

sixth Book, that the ancients looked upon the Persian Gulf as forming

part of the Erythran or Red Sea.

5. The pearl itself, Cuvier says, is nothing else but an extravasation, so

to say, of the juices, whose duty it is to line the interior of the shell, to

thicken and so amplify it; and consequently, it is produced by a malady.

It is possible, he says, for them to be found in all shell-fish; but they have

no beauty in them, unless the interior of the shell, the nacre, or, as we call

it, the mother of pearl, is lustrous and beautiful itself. Hence it is, that

the finest of them come from the east, and are furnished by the kind of

bivalve, called by Linnus, "Mytilus margaritiferus," which has the most

beautiful mother of pearl in the interior that is known. The parts of the

Indian sea which are mentioned by Pliny, are those in which the pearl

oyster is still found in the greatest abundance.

6. All this theory, as Cuvier says, is totally imaginary.

7. Isidorus of Charax, in his description of Parthia, commended by

Athenus, B. iii., says, on the other hand, that the fish are aided in bringing forth, by rain and thunder.

8. From the Greek fush/ma, "air-Bubble."

9. It sometimes happens, Cuvier says, that the secretion which forms the

mother-of-pearl makes tubercles in the interior of the shell, which are the

pearls adhering to the shell here spoken of.

10. Persius alludes to this in Sat. ii. 1. 66. "Hc baccam conch

rasisse;" "to file the pearl away from its shell."

11. From this passage we learn that the "tympana," or hand-drums of

the ancients, were often of a semiglobular shape, like the kettle-drums of

the present day.

12. Cuvier remarks that this is not the fact: the concretions are perfectly

hard before the animal leaves the water.




55. Chap. 55.-How Pearls Are Found.


CHAP. 55.-HOW PEARLS ARE FOUND.



The fish, as soon as ever it perceives the hand,[1] shuts

its shell and covers up its treasures, being well aware that it is

for them that it is sought; and if it happens to catch the hand,[2]

it cuts it off with the sharp edge of the shell. And no punishment is there that could be more justly inflicted. There are

other penalties added as well, seeing that the greater part of

these pearls are only to be found among rocks and crags, while

on the other hand, those which lie out in the main sea are generally accompanied by sea-dogs.[3] And yet, for all this, the

women will not banish these gems from their ears! Some

writers say,[4] that these animals live in communities, just like

swarms of bees, each of them being governed by one remarkable for its size and its venerable old age;[5] while at the same

time it is possessed of marvellous skill in taking all due pre-







cautions against danger; the divers, they say, take especial care

to find these, and when once they are taken, the others stray to

and fro, and are easily caught in theirnets. We learn also

that as soon as they are taken they are placed under a thick

layer of salt in earthen-ware vessels; as the flesh is gradually

consumed, certain knots,[6] which form the pearls, are disengaged[7] from their bodies, and fall to the bottom of the

vessel.







1. Isidorus of Charax, as quoted by Athenus, B. iii.; and lian,

Hist. Anim. B. x. c. 20, make similar statements. Rondelet, in his treatise

on Testaceous Fishes, B. i., complains of Pliny using the word "videt,"

"sees," in the present passage; but, as Hardouin says, he only uses it in

a free sense, meaning, "is aware of the approach of," or "has a perception

of."

2. Isidorus of Charax, in Athenus, B. iii., tells a similar story; but

modifies it by saying that the fish sometimes cuts off the fingers of the

divers, and not the hands.

3. "Canes marini." He calls by this name the same animal that a little

further on he describes by the name of "canicula," "dog-fish;" alluding,

probably, under that name to various species of the shark. Procopius, in

his book, De Bell. Pers. B. i. c. 4, has a wonderful story in relation to this

subject. He says, that the sea-dogs are wonderful admirers of the pearl-fish, and follow them out to sea; that when the sea-dogs are pressed by

hunger, they go in quest of prey, and then return to the shell-fish and gaze

upon it. A certain fisherman, having watched for the moment when the

shell-fish was deprived of the protection of its attendant sea-dog, which

was seeking its prey, seized the shell-fish, and made for the shore. The

sea-dog, however, was soon aware of the theft, and making straight

for the fisherman, seized him. Finding himself thus caught, he made a

last effort, and threw the pearl-fish on shore, immediately on which he was

torn to pieces by its protector.

4. Such, for instance, as Megasthenes, quoted by Arrian in his Indica,

and lian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8.

5. Hardouin suggests that a preferable reading to "vetuslate," would

be "venustate," by its beauty; and indeed, lian, in the corresponding

passage, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says, that the chief is remarkable "for its

size, and the extreme beauty of its colours."

6. "Nucleos." The Greek authors occasionally call them "stones"

and "bones." Tertullian calls them "maladies of shell-fish and warts"-

"concharum vitia et verrucas."

7. Cuvier says, that the most efficient mode of extracting all the concretions that may happen to be concealed in the body of the animal, is to

leave the flesh to dissolve in water, upon which the concretions naturally

fall to the bottom.




56. Chap. 56.-The Various Kinds Of Pearls.


CHAP. 56.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF PEARLS.



There is no doubt that pearls wear with use, and will change

their colour, if neglected. All their merit consists in their

whiteness, large size, roundness, polish, and weight; qualities

which are not easily to be found united in the same; so much

so, indeed, that no two pearls are ever found perfectly alike;

and it was from this circumstance, no doubt, that our Roman

luxury first gave them the name of "unio,"[1] or the unique

gem: for a similar name is not given them by the Greeks; nor,

indeed, among the barbarians by whom they are found are

they called anything else but "margarit."[2] Even in the very

whiteness of the pearl there is a great difference to be observed. Those are of a much clearer water that are found in

the Red Sea,[3] while the Indian pearl resembles in tint the

scales[4] of the mirror-stone, but exceeds all the others in size.

The colour that is most highly prized of all, is that of those







which are thence called alum-coloured[5] pearls. Long pearls

also have their peculiar value; those are called "elenchi,"

which are of a long tapering shape, resembling our alabaster[6]

boxes in form, and ending in a full bulb.[7] Our ladies

quite glory in having these suspended from their fingers, or

two or three of them dangling from their ears. For the purpose of ministering to these luxurious tastes, there are various

names and wearisome refinements which have been devised by

profuseness and prodigality; for after inventing these ear-rings,

they have given them the name of "crotalia,"[8] or castanet

pendants, as though quite delighted even with the rattling of

the pearls as they knock against each other; and now, at the

present day, the poorer classes are even affecting them, as

people are in the habit of saying, that "a pearl worn by a

woman in public, is as good as a lictor[9] walking before her."

Nay, even more than this, they put them on their feet, and

that, not only on the laces of their sandals, but all over the







shoes;[10] it is not enough to wear pearls, but they must tread

upon them, and walk with them under foot as well.



Pearls used formerly to be found in our sea, but more frequently about the Thracian Bosporus;[11] they were of a red

colour, and small,[12] and enclosed in a shell-fish known by the

name of "myes." In Acarnania there is a shell-fish called

"pina,"[13] which produces pearls; and from this it is quite

evident that it is not one kind of fish only that produces them.

Juba states also, that on the shores of Arabia there is a shellfish which resembles a notched comb, and covered all over with

hair[14] like a sea-urchin, and that the pearl lies imbedded in its

flesh, in appearance bearing a strong resemblance to a hailstone.[15] No such shell-fish, however, as these are ever brought to

Rome. Nor yet are anypearls of value found in Acarnania, being

shapeless, rough, and of a marble hue; those are better which

are found in the vicinity of Actium; but still they are small,

which is the case also with those found on the coast of Mauritania. Alexander Polyhistor and Sudines[16] are of opinion that

as they grow old their tints gradually fade.







1. Isidorus and Solinus, however, say that the pearl is so called, because

two are never found together. The derivation given by Pliny is, however,

the more probable one. From the Latin "unio," comes our word

"onion;" which, like the pearl, consists of numerous coats, one laid

upon the other.

2. Hence we must conclude that the word "margarita" is not of Greek,

but Eastern origin.

3. lian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says, that the Indian pearls, and

those which come from the Red Sea, are the best.

4. The lamin of the lapis specularis, described by Pliny, B. xxxvi.

c. 45.

5. "Exaluminatos." It is clear from this passage that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, as he here clearly implies that the alum known

to him was of a white colour. Beckmann, however, in his History of

Inventions, asserts that our alum was certainly not known to the Greeks

and Romans, and that their "alumen" was nothing else but vitriol, the

green sulphate of iron, and that not in its pure state, but such as forms

in mines. Pereira, however, in his Materia Medica, says, that there can

be little doubt that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, but did not distinguish it from sulphate of iron, as he informs us that one kind of alum

was white, and was used for dyeing wool of various colours. It is mentioned more fully in B. xxxv. c. 52, where he speaks of its use in dyeing.

6. These alabaster boxes for unguents are mentioned by Pliny in

B. xxxvi. c. 12. They were usually pear-shaped; and as they were held

with difficulty in the hand, on account of their extreme smoothness, they

were called a)la/bastra, from a\, "not," and labe/sqai, "to be held."

The reader will recollect the offer made to our Saviour, of the "alabaster

box of ointment of spikenard, very precious." Matt. xxvi. 7. Mark

xiv. 3.

7. Seneca, Benef. B. vii. c. 9, speaks of them as hanging in tiers from

the ears of the Roman matrons, two and two; and he says that they are

not satisfied unless they have two or three patrimonies suspended from each

ear.

8. From their resemblance to "crotala," used by dancers, and similar to

our castanets.

9. That the pearls as fully bespeak the importance of the wearer, as the

lictor does of the magistrate whom he is preceding. The honour of being

escorted by one or two lictors, was usually granted to the wives and other

members of the imperial family.

10. Even on the "socculus," or "soccus," a shoe or slipper which did not

require any "obstragulum," or tie. We find from Seneca, De Ben. B. ii.

c. 12, and Pliny, B. xxxvii. c. 6, that Caligula wore gold and pearls upon

his socculi.

11. ian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, states to this effect from Juba.

12. They are found also, Ajasson says, at the present day, in some of the

coldest rivers and torrents of Auvergne.

13. Or "pinna," the Greek name of this kind of pearl oyster.

14. Cuvier remarks, that he is here probably speaking of some spiny

bivalve, perhaps the Spondylus of Linnus.

15. "Grandini." But Hardouin thinks, and probably correctly, that the

meaning here of the word is the "measles of swine;" for Androsthenes, in

Athenus, B. iii., has a similar passage, in which he says: "The stone

(i. e. pearl) grows in the flesh of the shell-fish, just as the measles grow in

the flesh of swine."

16. He is also mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12, and B. xxxvii. cc. 9, 11, 23,

35, and 50, as a writer on gems; but nothing else seems to be known of

him.




57. Chap. 57.-Remarkable Facts Connected With Pearls - Their Nature.


CHAP. 57.-REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH PEARLS - THEIR NATURE.



It is quite clear that the interior of the pearl is solid, as no

fall is able to break it. Pearls are not always found in the

middle of the body of the animal, but sometimes in one place,







and sometimes another. Indeed, I have seen some which lay

at the edge of the shell, just as though in the very act of

coming forth, and in some fishes as many as four or five.

Up to the present time, very few have been found which exceeded half an ounce in weight, by more than one scruple. It

is a well-ascertained fact, that in Britannia[1] pearls are found,

though small, and of a bad colour; for the deified Julius Csar[2]

wished it to be distinctly understood,[3] that the breast-plate

which he dedicated to Venus Genetrix, in her temple, was

made of British pearls.







1. Cuvier observes, that most of the rivers and lakes of the north of

Europe possess the mya margarifera: the pearls of which, though much

inferior to those of the East, are sufficiently esteemed to be made an article

of commerce. Pad pearls, of a dead marble colour, are also very frequently

found in the mussels taken off our coasts. Pearls have in modern times

declined very considerably in value; those of about the size of a large pea

can be purchased, of very fine quality, for about a guinea each, while those

of the size of a pepper-corn sell at about eighteen-pence. Seed pearls, of

the size of small shot, are of very little value. Tavernier speaks of a remarkable pearl, that was found at Catifia, in Arabia, the fishery probably

alluded to by Pliny, in C. 54, and which he bought for the sum of 110,000,

some accounts say 10,000, of our money. It is pear-shaped, the elenchus

of the ancients, regular, and without blemish. The diameter is .63 of an

inch, at the largest part, and the length from two to three inches. It is

said to be in the possession of the Shah of Persia.

2. Tacitus, in his Agricola, says that pearls of a tawny and livid colour

are thrown up on the shores of Britain, and there collected. Suetonius

absolutely says, c. 4, that Julius Csar invaded Britain in the hope of

obtaining pearls, in the weight and size of which he took considerable

interest.

3. By the inscription placed beneath the thorax, or breast-plate.




58. Chap. 58.-Instances Of The Use Of Pearls.


CHAP. 58.-INSTANCES OF THE USE OF PEARLS.



I once saw Lollia Paulina,[1] the wife of the Emperor Caius[2]

-it was not at any public festival, or any solemn ceremonial,

but only at an ordinary wedding entertainment[3]-covered







with emeralds and pearls, which shone in alternate layers upon

her head, in her hair, in her wreaths, in her ears, upon her neck,

in her bracelets, and on her fingers, and the value of which

amounted in all to forty millions [4] of sesterces; indeed[5] she

was prepared at once to prove the fact, by showing the receipts

and acquittances. Nor were these any presents made by a

prodigal potentate, but treasures which had descended to her

from her grandfather, and obtained by the spoliation of the

provinces. Such are the fruits of plunder and extortion! It

was for this reason that M. Lollius[6] was held so infamous all

over the East for the presents which he extorted from the kings;

the result of which was, that he was denied the friendship of

Caius Csar, and took poison;[7] and all this was done, I say,

that his grand-daughter might be seen, by the glare of lamps,

covered all over with jewels to the amount of forty millions

of sesterces! Now let a person only picture to himself, on

the one hand, what was the value of the habits worn by

Curius or Fabricius in their triumphs, let him picture to himself the objects displayed to the public on their triumphal

litters,[8] and then, on the other hand, let him think upon this

Lollia, this one bit[9] of a woman, the head of an empire, taking

her place at table, thus attired; would he not much rather

that the conquerors had been torn from their very chariots,

than that they had conquered for such a result as this?







Nor, indeed, are these the most supreme evidences of luxury.

There were formerly two pearls, the largest that had been ever

seen in the whole world: Cleopatra, the last of the queens of

Egypt, was in possession of them both, they having come to

her by descent from the kings of the East. When Antony

had been sated by her, day after day, with the most exquisite

banquets, this queenly courtesan, inflated with vanity and disdainful arrogance, affected to treat all this sumptuousness and

all these vast preparations with the greatest contempt; upon

which Antony enquired what there was that could possibly be

added to such extraordinary magnificence. To this she made

answer, that on a single entertainment she would expend ten

millions[10] of sesterces. Antony was extremely desirous to

learn how that could be done, but looked upon it as a thing

quite impossible; and a wager was the result. On the following day, upon which the matter was to be decided, in order

that she might not lose the wager, she had an entertainment

set before Antony, magnificent in every respect, though no

better than his usual repast. Upon this, Antony joked

her, and enquired what was the amount expended upon it; to

which she made answer that the banquet which he then beheld was only a trifling appendage[11] to the real banquet, and

that she alone[12] would consume at the meal to the ascertained

value of that amount, she herself would swallow the ten

millions of sesterces; and so ordered the second course to be

served. In obedience to her instructions, the servants placed

before her a single vessel, which was filled with vinegar, a

liquid, the sharpness and strength of which is able[13] to dis-







solve pearls. At this moment she was wearing in her ears

those choicest and most rare and unique productions of Nature;

and while Antony was waiting to see what she was going to

do, taking one of them from out of her ear, she threw it into the

vinegar, and directly it was melted, swallowed it. Lucius

Plancus,[14] who had been named umpire in the wager, placed

his hand upon the other at the very instant that she was

making preparations to dissolve it in a similar manner, and

declared that Antony had lost-an omen which,[15] in the result,

was fully confirmed. The fame of the second pearl is equal

to that which attends its fellow. After the queen, who had

thus come off victorious on so important a question, had been

seized, it was cut asunder, in order that this, the other half of

the entertainment, might serve as pendants for the ears of

Venus, in the Pantheon at Rome.







1. The grand-daughter of M. Lollius, and heiress to his immense wealth.

She was first married to C. Memmius Regulus; but was divorced from

him, and married to the Emperor Caligula, who, however, soon divorced

her. At the instigation of Agrippina, Claudius first banished her, and

then caused her to be murdered. A sepulcher to her honour was erected

in the reign of the Emperor Nero.

2. Caligula.

3. Or rather "betrothal entertainment," "sponsalium cena." The

"sponsalia" were not an unusual preliminary of marriage, but were not

absolutely necessary.

4. 7,600,000 francs, Hardouin says; which would make 304,000 of our

money.

5. "Ipsa confestim parata mancupationem tabulis probare."

6. He was proprtor of the province of Galatia, Consul B. C. 21, and

B. C. 16 legatus in Gaul; where he suffered a defeat from certain of the

German tribes. He was afterwards appointed by Augustus tutor to his

grandson, C. Csar, whom he accompanied to the East in B. C. 2. He was

a personal enemy of Tiberius, which may in some measure account for the

had character given him by Velleius Paterculus, who describes him as more

eager to make money than to act honourably, and as guilty of every kind

of vice. Horace, on the other hand, in the ode addressed to him, Carm. iv.

9, expressly praises him for his freedom from all avarice. His son, M.

Lollius, was the father of Lollia Paulina.

7. This does not appear to be asserted by any other author; but Velleius

Paterculus almost suggests as much, B. ii., "Cujus mors intra paucos dies

fortuita an voluntaria fuerit ignoro." It was said that he was in the habit

of selling the good graces of Caius Csar to the Eastern sovereigns for sums

of money.

8. "Fercula." See vol. i. p. 400, Note 1.

9. "Unam imperii mulierculam accubantem."

10. A fourth of the sum mentioned in Note 55.

11. "Corollarium."

12. "Et consumpturam eam cnam taxationem confirmans."

13. "It was because pearls are calcareous, that Cleopatra was able to dissolve hers in vinegar, and by these means to gain a bet from her lover, as

we are told by Pliny, B. ix. c. 58, and Macrobius, Sat. B. ii. c. 13. She

must, however, have employed stronger vinegar than that which we use

for our tables; as pearls, on account of their hardness and their natural

enamel, cannot be easily dissolved by a weak acid. Nature has secured

the teeth of animals against the effect of acids, by an enamel covering,

which answers the same purpose; but if this enamel happens to be injured

only in one small place, the teeth soon spoil and rot. Cleopatra, perhaps,

broke and pounded the pearls [pearl]; and it is probable that she afterwards diluted the vinegar with water, that she might be able to drink it;

though dissolved calcareous matter neutralizes acids, and renders them imper-

ceptible to the tongue. That pearls are not peculiar to one kind of shellfish, as many believe, was known to Pliny." Beckmann's History of In-

ventions, vol. i. p. 258, note 1, Bohn's Ed. We may remark, however

that as the story is told by Pliny, there is no appearance that Cleopatra

pounded the pearl. It is more likely that she threw it into the vinegar,

and immediately swallowed it, taking it for granted that it had melted.

14. Macrobius, Saturn. B. iii. says, "Monatius" Plancus. His name

was in reality Lucius Munatius Plancus. He afterwards deserted Antony,

and took the side of Octavianus; and it was on his proposal that Octavianus received the title of Augustus in B. C. 27. He built the temple of

Saturn, in order to secure the emperor's favour. It is not known in what

year he died.

15. "Omine rato." He means, that in the result, it was only too true

that Antony was "victus," conquered, and that by his enemy Octavianus.




59. Chap. 59.-How Pearls First Came Into Use At Rome.


CHAP. 59.-HOW PEARLS FIRST CAME INTO USE AT ROME.



Antony and Cleopatra, however, will not bear away the palm

of prodigality in this respect, and will be stripped of even

this boast in the annals of luxury. For before their time,

Clodius, the son of the tragic actor sopus,[1] had done the







same at Rome; having been left by his father heir to his ample wealth and possessions. Let not Antony then be too

proud, for all his trumvirate, since he can hardly stand in comparison with an actor; one, too, who had no wager to induce

him-a thing which adds to the regal munificence of the act

-But was merely desirous of trying, by way of glorification

to his palate, what was the taste of pearls. As he found it to

be wonderfully pleasing, that he might not be the only one to

know it, he had a pearl set before each of his guests for him

to swallow. After the surrender of Alexandria, pearls came

into common and, indeed, universal use at Rome; but they

first began to be used about the time of Sylla, though but of

small size and of little value, Fenestella says-in this, however, it is quite evident that he is mistaken, for lius Stilo

tells us, that it was in the time of the Jugurthine war, that

the name of "unio" was first given to pearls of remarkable

size.







1. Claudius, or Clodius sopus, was the most celebrated tragic actor at

Rome in the time of Cicero, and was probably a freedman of the Clodian

family. Horace and other authors put him on a level with Roscius.

From Cicero we learn that his acting was characterized chiefly by strong

emphasis and vehemence. Cicero characterizes him as a "summus artifex," a "consummate artist." He was a firm friend of Cicero, whose

cause he advocated indirectly more than once during his banishment

from Rome. It appears from Pliny, B. x. c. 72, that he was far from

frugal, though he left a large fortune to his spendthrift son, Clodius

sopus. This man, among his other feats, dissolved in vinegar (or at

least attempted to do so), a pearl worth about 8000, which he took from

the ear-ring of Ccilia Metella. It is alluded to by Horace, B. ii. Sat. iii.

1. 239.




60. Chap. 60.-The Nature Of The Murex And The Purple.


CHAP. 60.-THE NATURE OF THE MUREX AND THE PURPLE.



And yet pearls may be looked upon as pretty nearly a possession of everlasting duration-they descend from a man to

his heir, and they are alienated from one to another just like

any landed estate. But the colours that are extracted from

the murex[1] and the purple fade from hour to hour; and yet

luxury, which has similarly acted as a mother to them, has

set upon them prices almost equal to those of pearls.







(36.) Purples live mostly seven[2] years. Like the murex,

they keep themselves in concealment for thirty days, about the

time of the rising of the Dog-star; in the spring season they unite

in large bodies, and by rubbing against each other, produce a

viscous spittle, from which a kind of wax is formed. The

murex does the same; but the purple[3] has that exquisite

juice which is so greatly sought after for the purpose of dyeing

cloth, situate in the middle of the throat. This secretion

consists of a tiny drop contained in a white vein, from which

the precious liquid used for dyeing is distilled, being of the

tint of a rose somewhat inclining to black. The rest of the

body is entirely destitute of this juice. It is a great point to

take the fish alive; for when it dies, it spits out this juice.

From the larger ones it is extracted after taking off the shell;

but the small fish are crushed alive, together with the shells,

upon which they eject this secretion.



In Asia the best purple is that of Tyre, in Africa that

of Meninx[4] and the parts of Gtulia that border on the

Ocean, and in Europe that of Laconia. It is for this colour

that the fasces and the axes[5] of Rome make way in the

crowd; it is this that asserts the majesty of childhood;[6] it is

this that distinguishes the senator[7] from the man of equestrian

rank; by persons arrayed in this colour are prayers[8] ad-







dressed to propitiate the gods; on every garment[9] it sheds a

lustre, and in the triumphal vestment[10] it is to be seen mingled with gold. Let us be prepared then to excuse this

frantic passion for purple, even though at the same time we

are compelled to enquire, why it is that such a high value has

been set upon the produce of this shell-fish, seeing that while

in the dye the smell of it is offensive, and the colour itself

is harsh, of a greenish hue, and strongly resembling that of

the sea when in a tempestuous state?



The tongue of the purple is a finger[11] in length, and by

means of this it finds subsistence, by piercing other shellfish,[12] so hard is the point of it. They die in fresh water, and

in places where rivers discharge themselves into the sea;

otherwise, when taken, they will live as long as fifty days on

their saliva. All shell-fish grow very fast, and purples more

especially; they come to their full size at the end of a year.







1. Or "conchylium." We find that Pliny generally makes a difference

between the colours of the "murex," or "conchylium," and those of the

"purpura," or "purple." Cuvier says, that they were the names of different shell-fish which the ancients employed for dyeing in purple of

various shades. It is not known exactly, at the present day, what species

they employed; but it is a fact well ascertained, that the greater part of

the univalve shell-fish, more especially the Buccini and Murices of Linnus, distil a kind of red liquid. The dearness of it arose, Cuvier thinks,

from the remarkably small quantity that each animal afforded. Since the

coccus, or kermes, he says, came to be well known, and more especially

since the New World has supplied us with cochineal, we are no longer

necessitated to have recourse to the juices of the murex.

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, says, "about six." The murex of

Pliny is the kh/ruc of Aristotle.

3. Aristotle says, that the purple consists of three parts, the upper being

the tra/xhlos, or neck; the middle the mh/xwn,, or poppy; and the lower

the puqmh/n, or trunk; and that the juice lies between the first and second

of these parts, or the throat. This juice, which Pliny calls "flos,"

"flower," "ros," "dew," and "succus," "juice," is distilled, Cuvier

says, not from the fauces of the animal, but from the mantle or membranous tissue which lines the shell.

4. See B. v. c. 7. See also B. vi. c. 36.

5. Which preceded the Roman consuls, who were clothed with the toga

prtexta, the colour of which was Syrian purple.

6. Hardouin seems to think that "majestate pueritia" means "children

of high birth;" but it was the fact that all children of free birth wore the

prtexta, edged with purple, till they attained puberty. It is much more

probable that by these words Pliny means the "majesty of youth," in its

simplicity and guileless nature, that commands our veneration and respect.

7. He means that the purple laticlave or broad hem of the senator's toga

distinguished him from the eques, who wore a toga with an angusticlave,

or narrow hem.

8. From Cicero, Epist. Ad. Attic. B. ii. Ep. 9, we learn that purple

was worn by the priests when performing sacrifice. Ajasson, however,

agrees with Dalechamps in thinking that this passage bears reference to

the consuls, who wore purple when sacrificing to the gods.

9. The prtexta, for instance, the laticlave, the chlamys, the paludamentum, and the trabea.

10. On the occasion of a triumph, the victor was arrayed in a "toga

picta," an embroidered garment, which, from the present passage, would

appear to have been of purple and gold. Pliny tells us, B. xxxiii. c. 19,

that Tarquinius, on his triumph over the Sabines, wore a robe of cloth of

gold.

11. Aristotle says the same, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, and De Partib.

Anim. B. ii. c. 17. Cuvier says, that the buccinus and murex have a long

neck, in which there is a tongue armed with little teeth, but very sharp,

by means of which the animal is enabled to pierce other shell-fish.

12. "Conchylia;" other fish of the same kind apparently; as Pliny uses

the word "conchylium" synonymously with "murex."




61. Chap. 61.-The Different Kinds Of Purples.


CHAP. 61.-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PURPLES.



Were I at this point to pass on to other subjects, luxury, no

doubt would think itself defrauded of its due, and so accuse

me of negligence; I must therefore make my way into the

very workshops even, so that, just as among articles of food

the various kinds and qualities of corn are known, all those

who place the enjoyment of life in these luxuries, may have

a still better acquaintance with the objects for which they

live.[1]







There are two kinds of fish that produce the purple colour;

the elements in both are the same, the combinations only are

different; the smaller fish is that which is called the "buccinum," from its resemblance to the conch by which the sound

of the buccinus or trumpet is produced, and to this circumstance it owes its name: the opening in it is round, with an

incision in the margin.[2] The other fish is known as the

"purpura," or purple, and has a grooved and projecting muzzle, which being tubulated on one side in the interior, forms

a passage for the tongue;[3] besides which, the shell is studded

with points up to the very apex, which are mostly seven in

number, and disposed[4] in a circle; these are not found on the

buccinum, though both of them have as many spirals as they

are years old. The buccinum attaches itself only to crags,

and is gathered about rocky places.



(37.) Purples also have another name, that of "pelagi[5]

there are numerous kinds of them, which differ only in their

element and place of abode. There is the mud[6] purple, which

is nurtured upon putrid mud; and the sea-weed[7] purple, which

feeds on sea-weed; both of which are held in the very lowest

esteem. A better kind is the reef-purple,[8] which is collected

on the reefs or out at sea; still, however, the colour extracted

from this is too light and thin. Then, again, there is the variety

known as the pebble-purple,[9] so called from the pebbles of

the sea, and wonderfully well adapted for dyeing; and, better







than any of them, that known by the name of "dialutensis,"[10]

because of the various natures of the soil on which it feeds.

Purples are taken with a kind of osier kipe[11] of small size, and

with large meshes; these are cast into the sea, and in them

cockles are put as a bait, that close the shell in an instant,

and snap at an object, just as we see mussels do. Though half

dead, these animals, as soon as ever they are returned to the

sea, come to life again, and open their shells with avidity;

upon which the purples seek them, and commence the attack,

by protruding their tongues. The cockles, on the other hand,

the moment they feel themselves pricked, shut their shells,

and hold fast the object that has wounded them: in this way,

victims to their greediness, they are drawn up to the surface

hanging by the tongue.







1. "Prmia vit sus."

2. Cuvier says that the buccini, properly so called, have at the bottom of

the orifice of the shell an incision, which is the characteristic of the genus.

Our whelks are the best known specimen of the buccinum that we have.

They received their name, he says, from the buccinum, or buccina, the conchshell. (with which Triton is commonly painted), and that in its turn was so

called from its resemblance to a buccina, trumpet or herdsman's horn.

3. It is not the tongue, Cuvier says, that occupies this passage, but a

prolongation of the skin or coat that envelopes the animal, and its office

is to conduct to the branchi the water necessary for the purposes of respiration.

4. This description, Cuvier says, is applicable to the Murex brandaris,

the Murex tribulus of Linnus, and other species that denote their growth

by the increase of the spirals furnished with spines.

5. Or "deep sea" purples. Dalechamps remarks, that Pliny here unwittingly gives to the purples in general, a name which only belonged to

one species; there being some that only frequent the shore, and are not

found out at sea.

6. "Lutnensis."

7. "Algensis."

8. "Tniensis."

9. "Calculensis."

10. From the Greek dialuto\s, "free," or "roving;" in consequence of

its peculiar mode of life.

11. Nassis. See Note 51 in p. 421.




62. Chap. 62. (38.)-How Wools Are Dyed With The Juices Of The Purple.


CHAP. 62. (38.)-HOW WOOLS ARE DYED WITH THE JUICES OF THE PURPLE.



The most favourable season for taking these fish is after the

rising of the Dog-star, or else before spring; for when they have

once discharged[1] their waxy secretion, their juices have no

consistency: this, however, is a fact unknown in the dyers'

workshops, although it is a point of primary importance.

After it is taken, the vein is extracted, which we have[2] previously spoken of, to which it is requisite to add salt, a sextarius[3] about to every hundred pounds of juice. It is sufficient

to leave them to steep for a period of three days, and no







more, for the fresher they are, the greater virtue there is

in the liquor. It is then set to boil in vessels of tin,[4] and

every hundred amphor[5] ought to be boiled down to five hundred pounds of dye, by the application of a moderate heat; for

which purpose the vessel is placed at the end of a long funnel,

which communicates with the furnace; while thus boiling,

the liquor is skimmed from time to time, and with it the flesh,

which necessarily adheres to the veins. About the tenth day,

generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a liquified

state, upon which a fleece, from which the grease has been

cleansed, is plunged into it by way of making trial; but until

such time as the colour is found to satisfy the wishes of those

preparing it, the liquor is still kept on the boil. The tint that

inclines to red is looked upon as inferior to that which is

of a blackish hue. The wool is left to lie in soak for five

hours, and then, after carding it, it is thrown in again, until it

has fully imbibed the colour. The juice of the buccinum

is considered very inferior if employed by itself, as it is found

to discharge its colour; but when used in conjunction with

that of the pelagi, it blends[6] with it very well, gives a bright

lustre to its colour, which is otherwise too dark, and imparts

the shining crimson hue of the kermes-Berry, a tint that is

particularly valued. By the admixture of their respective

virtues these colours are thus heightened or rendered sombre

by the aid of one another. The proper proportions for mixing

are, for fifty pounds of wool, two hundred pounds of juice of the

buccinum and one hundred and eleven of juice of the pelagi.







From this combination is produced the admirable tint known

as amethyst colour.[7] To produce the Tyrian hue the wool is

soaked in the juice of the pelagi while the mixture is in an

uncooked and raw state; after which its tint is changed by

being dipped in the juice of the buccinum. It is considered of

the best quality when it has exactly the colour of clotted blood,

and is of a blackish hue to the sight, but of a shining appearance when held up to the light; hence it is that we find

Homer speaking of "purple blood."[8]







1. "Quum cerificavere." Cuvier remarks that Aristotle, Hist. Anim.

B. v. c. 14, says, that these shell-fish make "waxen combs," meaning

thereby collections of cells, similar to those formed by the bee; and it is

to this notion that Pliny refers in the use of the word "cerificavere." It is

the fact, Cuvier says, that the univalve sea shell-fish, and more particularly

the buccini and the murices, envelope their eggs with glutinous vesicles of

varied forms, according to the respective species; which, when massed together, may be not inappropriately termed "combs."

2. In c. 60. As Cuvier remarks, with considerable justice, this description by Pliny of the process of dyeing in purple, is very difficult to explain,

seeing that the art is now entirely lost. Reaumur, he says, made some

attempts at dyeing with a small buccinum found off the French coasts, the

Buccinum lapillus of Linnus; but without any result.

3. About twenty ounces.

4. Because iron or brazen vessels might impart a tinge to the colour.

The same would probably be the case if the word "plumbo "were to be

considered as signifying "lead." As, however, Pliny uses this word in

the signification of "tin," it is most probable that that is his meaning.

Littr, however, translates the word "plombe," "lead."

5. Hardouin says, that the weight of the contents of the amphora would

be about eighty pounds: it would therefore take eight thousand pounds of

material, to make five hundred pounds of dye. The passage, however, which

runs as follows, "Fervere in plumbo, singulasque amphoras centenas ad

quingentenas medicaminis libras aequari," may be rendered, "It is then

set to boil in vessels of tin, and every hundred amphor of water ought to

he proportioned to five hundred pounds of the material;" indeed, this

is probably the correct translation, though Littr, who is generally very

exact, adopts that given in the text.

6. "Alligatur:" which word may also mean, that mixed with the buccinum, it will hold fast, and not speedily fade or wash out.

7. So called from the gem of that name; see B. xxxvii. c. 40.

8. Ai(/mati porfure/w|. II. P. 1. 360, for instance.




64. Chap. 64.-Fabrics Called Conchyliated.


CHAP. 64.-FABRICS CALLED CONCHYLIATED.



Fabrics that are called conchyliated are subjected to the

same process in all other respects, but without any admixture

of the juice of the buccinum; in addition to which, the liquid

is mixed with water and human urine in equal parts,[1] one-half[2] only of the proportion of dye being used for the same quantity of wool. From this mixture a full colour is not obtained,

but that pale tint, which is so highly esteemed; and the clearer[3]

it is, the less of it the wool has imbibed.



(40.) The prices of these dyes vary in proportion to the

quantity produced by the various shores; still, however, those

who are in the habit of paying enormous prices for them, may

as well be informed that on no occasion ought the juice of







of the pelagi to exceed fifty,[4] and that of the buccinum one

hundred sesterces for one hundred pounds.[5]







1. "Pro indiviso."

2. "Dimidia et medicamina adduntur." This, no doubt, is the sense of

the passage, as it is evident that only a thinner dye was required for tint,

though at first sight it would appear as though one-half more were required for the same quantity of wool. The quantity therefore would be

155 1/2 pounds of dye to fifty pounds of wool.

3. Tantoque dilutior, quanto magis vellera esuriunt." This seems to

be the meaning of the passage: some commentators would read "dilucidior" for "dilutior," and it would appear to be preferable.

4. There can be little doubt that Salmasius is right in his conjecture that

the reading here should be "quingentos," "five hundred," instead of "quinquagenos," "fifty:" as it is evident from what Pliny has said in previous

Chapters, that the juices of the pelagia were considerably more valuable

than those of the buccinum.

5. He states this by way of warning to those who are in the habit of

paying enormous prices for dyes, such as one hundred denarii for a pound,

as mentioned in the last Chapter.




65. Chap. 65.-The Amethyst, The Tyrian, The Hysginian, And The Crimson Tints.


CHAP. 65.-THE AMETHYST, THE TYRIAN, THE HYSGINIAN, AND THE CRIMSON TINTS.



But no sooner have we finished with one branch of this

subject than we have to begin upon another, for we find that

it is made quite a matter of sport to create expense; and not

only this, but the sport must be doubled by making new mixtures and combinations, and falsifying over again what was

a falsification of the works of Nature already; such, for instance, as staining tortoise-shell,[1] alloying gold with silver for

the purpose of making electrum,[2] and then adding copper to

the mixture to make Corinthian metal.[3]



(41.) It was not sufficient to have borrowed from a precious

stone the name of "amethyst" for a dye, but when we have obtained this colour we must drench it over again with Tyrian

tints,[4] so that we may have an upstart name[5] compounded of

both, and at the same moment a two-fold display of luxury;

for as soon as ever people have succeeded in obtaining the

conchyliated colour, they immediately begin to think that it

will do better as a state of transition to the Tyrian hues.

There can be little doubt that this invention is due to some

artist who happened to change his mind, and alter a tint

with which he was not pleased: hence a system has taken its

rise, and spirits, ever on the rack for creating wonders, have

transformed what was originally a blunder into something

quite desirable; while, at the same time, a double path has







been pointed out to luxury, in thus making one colour carry

another, and thereby become, as they say, softer and more

mellow. And what is even more than this, human ingenuity

has even learned to mingle with these dyes the productions of

the earth, and to steep in Tyrian purple fabrics already dyed

crimson with the berry of the kermes, in order to produce the

hysginian[6] tint. The kermes of Galatia, a red berry which

we shall mention when we come to speak[7] of the productions

of the earth, is the most esteemed of all, except, perhaps, the

one that grows in the vicinity of Emerita,[8] in Lusitania.

However, to make an end, once for all, of my description of

these precious dyes, I shall remark, that the colour yielded by

this grain[9] when a year old, is of a pallid hue, and that if it is

more than four years old, it is quickly discharged: hence we

find that its energies are not developed either when it is too

young or when old.



I have now abundantly treated of an art, by means of which

men, just as much as women, have an idea that their appearance

may be set off to the greatest possible advantage.







1. This is mentioned more fully in B. xvi. c. 84.

2. See B. xxxiii. c. 23. Electrum was an artificial metal, resembling

amber in colour, and consisting of gold alloyed with one-fifth part of

silver.

3. See B. xxxiv. c. 3. It was a mixture of gold, silver, and copper.

4. Described at the end of c. 62.

5. "Nomen imprubum."

6. From the Greek u(/sginos, after the herb hysge, which was used in

dyeing. Judging from the present passage, it would almost appear to have

been the colour now known as puce. See B. xxi. c. 36 and c. 97; and B.

xxxv. c. 26.

7. See B. xvi. c. 8, and B. xxiv. c. 4.

8. See B. iv. c. 35.

9. This is in reality the Coccus ilicis of Linnus, a small insect of the

genus Coccus, the female of which, when impregnated, fastens itself to a

tree from which they derive nourishment, and assumes the appearance of a

small grain: on which account they were long taken for the seeds of the

tree, and were hence called grains of kermes. They are used as a red and

scarlet dye, but are very inferior to cochineal, which has almost entirely

superseded the use of the kermes. The colour is of a deep red, and will

stand better than that of cochineal, and is less liable to stain.




66. Chap. 66. (42.)-The Pinna, And The Pinnotheres.


CHAP. 66. (42.)-THE PINNA, AND THE PINNOTHERES.



Belonging to the shell-fish tribe there is the pinna[1] also:

it is found[2] in slimy spots, always lying upright, and never







without a companion, which some writers call the pinnotheres,[3]

and others, again, pinnophylax, being a small kind of shrimp,

or else a parasitical crab. The pinna,[4] which is destitute of

sight, opens its shell, and in so doing exposes its body within

to the attacks of the small fish, which immediately rush upon it,

and finding that they can do so with impunity, become bolder

and bolder, till at last they quite fill the shell. The pinnotheres, looking out for the opportunity, gives notice to the

pinna at the critical moment by a gentle bite, upon which

the other instantly closes its shell, and so kills whatever it has

caught there; after which, it divides the spoil with its companion.







1. Or pina. The Pinna marina, Cuvier says, is a large bivalve shell-fish,

which is remarkable for its fine silky hair, by means of which it fastens

itself to the bottom of the sea.

2. The poet Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. 1. 186, relates the same story about

the pinna and its protector; which is also mentioned by Cicero, Plutarch,

and Aristotle.

3. We have already had an account of one pinnotheres, in c. 51. Some

of the editions, however, make a difference in the spelling of the name,

and call the animal mentioned in the 51st Chapter, "pinnotheres," and

the one here spoken of, the "pinnoteres," the "guardian of the pinna;"

from the Greek verb thre/w, "to keep," or "guard." "Pinnophylax"

has the same meaning.

4. Cuvier says, that in the shell of the pinna, as, in fact, of all the bivalves, there are often found little crabs, which are, as it were, imprisoned

there; and that it is this fact that has given rise to the story of the treaty

of amity between these two animals, which appears in various authors, and

is related in various forms, which only agree in being devoid of truth. Cuvier says that a careful distinction must be made between the pinnotheres

of this Chapter, the one of which Aristotle makes mention, and that which

is mentioned by Pliny in c. 51, the hermit-crab of the moderns. There

can, however, be but little doubt that they are different accounts of the

same animal.




67. Chap. 67.-The Sensitiveness Of Water Animals; The Torpedo, The Pastinaca, The Scolopendra, The Glanis, And The Ram-Fish.


CHAP. 67.-THE SENSITIVENESS OF WATER ANIMALS; THE TORPEDO, THE PASTINACA, THE SCOLOPENDRA, THE GLANIS, AND THE RAM-FISH.



Upon[1] reflecting on such facts as these, I am the more inclined to wonder at the circumstance that some persons have

been found who were of opinion that the water animals are

devoid of all sense. The torpedo[2] is very well aware of the

extent of its own powers, and that, too, although it experiences

no benumbing effects from them itself. Lying concealed in







the mud, it awaits the approach of the fish, and, at the moment

that they are swimming above in supposed security, communicates the shock, and instantly darts upon them: there is no

delicate[3] morsel in existence that is preferred to the liver

of this fish. And no less wonderful, too, is the shrewdness[4]

manifested by the sea-frog,[5] which is known by us as the

"fisher." Stirring up the mud, it protrudes from the surface

two little horns, which project from beneath the eyes, and so

attracts the small fish which are sporting around it, until at

last they approach so close that it is able to seize them. In a

similar manner, too, the squatina and the rhombus[6] conceal

themselves, but extend their fins, which, as they move to and

fro, resemble little worms; the ray also does the same. The

pastinaca,[7] too, lies lurking in ambush, and pierces the fish

as they pass with the sting with which it is armed. Another proof of instinctive shrewdness is the fact, that although

the ray is the very slowest of all the fish in its movements, it

is found with the mullet in its belly, which is the swiftest of

them all.



(43.) The scolopendra,[8] which bears a strong resemblance[9]







to the land insect which we call a centipede, if it chances to

swallow a hook, will vomit forth all its intestines, until it has

disengaged itself, after which it will suck them in again. The

sea-fox[10] too, when exposed to a similar peril, goes on

swallowing the line until it meets with a weak part of it,

and then with its teeth snaps it asunder with the greatest ease.

The fish called the glanis[11] is more cautious; it bites at the

hooks from behind, and does not swallow them, but only strips

them of the bait.



(44.) The sea-ram[12] commits its ravages just like a wary

robber; at one time it will lurk in the shadow of some large

vessel that is lying out at sea, and wait for any one who may

be tempted to swim; while at another, it will raise its head

from the surface of the water, survey the fishermen's boats,

and then slily swim towards them and sink them.







1. The whole, nearly, of this Chapter is taken from Aristotle, B. v. c. 16.

2. Plutarch speaks of this fish, in his "Treatise on the Instincts of Animals;" also Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. 1. 62. The Raia torpedo of Linnus,

Cuvier says, has on each side of the body a galvanic organ, which produces

an electric shock, similar to that communicated by the use of the Leyden

vial. By this means it baffles its enemies, and drives them away; or else,

having stupefied them, devours them at its leisure.

3. Cuvier confirms this statement. The liver of the torpedo, he says, is

very delicate eating, as, indeed, is that part in most of the ray genus.

4. Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. 1. 86; lian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 24; and

Cicero, De Nat. Deor. make mention of this.

5. The Lophius piscatorius of Linnus, the baudroie of the French.

This is a fish, Cuvier says, with a large wide mouth, and having upon the

top of the head moveable filaments, surmounted by a sort of membranous

lashes. It seems that it is the fact that it buries itself in the sand, and

then employs the artifice here mentioned by Pliny, for the purpose of attracting the fish that serve as its food.

6. Or turbot. This fish, the Pleuronectes maximus of Linnus, and the

Squalus squatina of Linnus, presents no sufficiently distinct filaments at the

extremity of the fins to justify what Pliny says. But the word "rhombus,"

Cuvier says, which ordinarily means the common turbot, here means the

psetta of the Greeks, the Pleuronectes rhombus of Linnus, which has the

anterior radii of the dorsal fin separated, and forming small filaments. For

an account of the psetta, see c. 24, p. 396.

7. The sting-ray, the Raia pastinaca of Linnus. This fish, Cuvier

says, has upon the tail a pointed spine, compressed and notched like a saw,

which forms a most dangerous weapon. It is again mentioned in c, 72 of

the present Book, under its Greek name of "trigon."

8. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 17, and B. ix. c. 51; Oppian, Halieut.

B. ii. 1. 424; and lian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 35, make a similar statement as to the scolopendra.

9. The animal, Cuvier says, which is here mentioned as the scolopendra,

is in reality of the class of worms that have red blood, or annelides, such,

for instance, as the Nereides of larger size. These having on the sides tentacles, which bear a strong resemblance to feet, and sharp jaws, might, he

says, be very easily taken for scolopendr. They have also a fleshy trunk,

often very voluminous, and so flexible that it can be extended or withdrawn,

according to the necessities of the animal. It is this trunk, Cuvier thinks,

that gave occasion to the story that it could disgorge its entrails, and then

swallow them again.

10. This fish, Cuvier says, was doubtless a species of squalus; which have

the power, in consequence of the sharpness of their saw-like teeth, of cutting

a line with the greatest ease. It is mentioned by Aristotle, B. ix. c. 52;

lian, Var. Hist. B. i. c. 43; and Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. 1. 144.

11. The fish that has been previously mentioned in c. 17 of this Book,

under the name of silurus.

12. "Aries." The Delphinus orca of Linnus. See c. 4 of the present

Book.




68. Chap. 68. (45.)-Bodies Which Have A Third Nature, That Of The Animal And Vegetable Combined-The Sea-Nettle.


CHAP. 68. (45.)-BODIES WHICH HAVE A THIRD NATURE, THAT OF THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE COMBINED-THE SEA-NETTLE.



Indeed, for my own part, I am strongly of opinion that there

is sense existing in those bodies which have the nature[1] of

neither animals nor vegetables, but a third which partakes of

them both:-sea-nettles and sponges, I mean. The sea-nettle[2]

wanders to and fro by night, and at night changes its locality.

These creatures are by nature a sort of fleshy branch,[3] and are

nurtured upon flesh. They have the power of producing an







itching, smarting pain,[4] just like that caused by the nettle found

on land. For the purpose of seeking its prey, it contracts and

stiffens itself to the utmost possible extent, and then, as a

small fish swims past, it will suddenly spread out its branches,

and so seize and devour[5] it. At another time it will assume

the appearance of being quite withered away, and let itself be

tossed[6] to and fro by the waves like a piece of sea-weed, until

it happens to touch a fish. The moment it does so, the fish

goes to rub itself against a rock, to get rid of the itching; immediately upon which, the nettle pounces upon it. By night

also it is on the look-out for scallops and sea-urchins. When

it perceives a hand approaching it, it instantly changes its

colour, and contracts itself; when touched it produces a

burning sensation, and if ever so short a time is afforded,

makes its escape. Its mouth is situate, it is said, at the root or

lower part,[7] and the excrements[8] are discharged by a small

canal situated above.







1. The zophytes, or the zodendra.

2. The wandering urtic, or sea-nettles, are the Medus of Linnus;

the stationary nettle is the Actinia of the same naturalist.

3. "Camos frondis his natura."

4. Many species of the medus, Cuvier says, and other animals of the

same class, the physalus more especially, cause an itching sensation in the

skin when they are touched. This is noticed also by lian, Hist. Anim.

B. vii. c. 35; and by Diphilus of Siphnos, in Athenus, B. iii.

5. This is true, Cuvier says, and more especially with reference to the

actini. They have the mouth provided with numerous fleshy tentacles,

by means of which they can seize very small animals which come within

their reach, which they instantly swallow.

6. Cuvier says, that this is the case more especially with the medus

and the physali.

7. "Ora ei in radice." Aristotle, however, says, fist. Anim. B. iv. c. 5,

and B. viii. c. 3, that the sea-nettle has the mouth situate e)n me/sw|, "in the

middle of the body." Hardouin attempts to explain the passage on the

ground that Pliny has made a mistake, in an endeavour to suit his similitude

of a tree to the language of Aristotle. Cuvier says, that there exists one

genus or species of the medus, which appears to feed itself by the aid of

an apparatus of branches, and is divided into such a multitude of filaments,

almost innumerable, that it bears a strong resemblance to the roots of a

tree or vegetable. It is this kind, he says, that he has called by the name

of "Rhizostomos."

8. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, says the same; though, on the

other hand, in the Fourth Book, he says that the animal has no excrements,

although it has a mouth, and feeds.




70. Chap. 70. (46.)-Dog-Fish.


CHAP. 70. (46.)-DOG-FISH. [1]



Vast numbers of dog-fish infest the seas in the vicinity of

the sponges, to the great peril of those who dive for them.

These persons say that a sort of dense cloud gradually thickens

over their[2] heads, bearing the resemblance of some kind of







animal like a flat-fish,[3] and that, pressing downward upon them,

it prevents them from returning to the surface. It is for this

reason that they carry stilettos with them,[4] which are very

sharp at the point, and attached to them by strings; for if they

did not pierce the object with the help of these, it could not

be got rid of. This, however, is entirely the result, in my

opinion, of the darkness and their own fears; for no person

has ever yet been able to find, among living creatures, the fish-cloud or the fish-fog, the name which they give to this enemy

of theirs.



The divers, however, have terrible combats with the dogfish, which attack with avidity the groin, the heels, and all

the whiter parts of the body. The only means of ensuring

safety, is to go boldly to meet them, and so, by taking the

initiative, strike them with alarm: for, in fact, this animal

is just as frightened at man, as man is at it; and they are on

quite an equal footing when beneath the water. But the moment the diver has reached the surface, the danger is much

more imminent; for he loses the power of boldly meeting his

adversary while he is endeavouring to make his way out of the

water, and his only chance of safety is in his companions, who

draw him along by a cord that is fastened under his shoulders.

While he is engaging with the enemy, he keeps pulling this

cord with his left hand, according as there may be any sign of

immediate peril, while with the right he wields the stiletto,

which he is using in his defence. At first they draw him along

at a moderate pace, but as soon as ever they have got him close

to the ship, if they do not whip him out in an instant, with

the greatest possible celerity, they see him snapped asunder;

and many a time, too, the diver, even when already drawn

out, is dragged from their hands, through neglecting to aid the

efforts of those who are assisting him, by rolling up his body

in the shape of a ball. The others, it is true, are in the meantime brandishing their pronged fish-spears; but the monster

has the craftiness to place himself beneath the ship, and so







wage the warfare in safety. Consequently, every possible

care is taked by the divers to look out[5] for the approach of

this enemy.



(47.) It is the surest sign of safety to see flat-fish, which

never frequent the spots where these noxious monsters are

found: and it is for this reason that the divers[6] call them sacred.







1. It is pretty clear that under the name of "canicula," "dog-fish," or

"canis marinus," "sea-dog," Pliny includes the whole genus of sharks.

2. Rondelet and Dalechamps absolutely interpret this passage as though

it were the dog-fish and flat-fish over whose eyes this cloud comes, and

the latter proceeds to describe it as a malady which hinders the fish from

taking its own part in the combat. Hardouin, however, detects this

absurdity, and justly reprehends it; though it must be confessed that there

is some obscurity in the passage, arising from the way in which it is

worded.

3. Cuvier thinks it not improbable that it may have been some of the

large rays that were seen by the divers, and more especially, the largest of

them all, the Cephalopterus.

4. "Stilos."

5. Clius Rhodigonus, B. xxv. c. 16, states that the divers for sponges

were in the habit of pouring forth oil at the bottom of the sea, for the

purpose of increasing the light there; and Pliny states the same in B. ii.

c. 106.

6. Cuvier says, that the name of "sacred fish" has been given to several

fish of very different character; such as the anthias or aulopias of Aristotle, B. ix. c. 37, the pompilus and the dolphin (Atheneus, B. vii.), because it was thought that their presence was a guarantee against the

vicinity of dangerous fish. The authors, however, that were consulted by

Pliny, seem to have given this name to the flat-fish, the Pleuronectes of

Linnus; and in fact, unprovided as they are with any means of defence,

their presence is not unlikely to prove, in a very great degree, the absence

of the voracious class of fishes.




71. Chap. 71.-Fishes Which Are Enclosed In A Stony Shell - Sea Animals Which Have No Sensation - Other Animals Which Live In The Mud.


CHAP. 71.-FISHES WHICH ARE ENCLOSED IN A STONY SHELL - SEA ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO SENSATION - OTHER ANIMALS WHICH LIVE IN THE MUD.



Those animals, however, it must be admitted, which lie enclosed in a stony shell, have no sensation whatever-such as

the oyster,[1] for instance. Many, again, have the same nature

as vegetables; such as the holothuria,[2] the pulmones,[3] and

the sea-stars.[4] Indeed, I may say that there is no land produc-







tion which has not its like in the sea;[5] no, not even those insects

which frequent our public-houses[6] in summer, and are so trouble-

some with their nimble leaps, nor yet those which more especially make the human hair their place of refuge; for these

are often drawn up in a mass[7] collected around the bait. This,

too, is supposed to be the reason why the sleep of fish is sometimes so troubled in the night. Upon some fish, indeed, these

animals breed[8] as parasites: among these, we find the fish

known as the chalcis.[9]







1. It is singular that Pliny, after his numerous stories as to the sensitiveness of numerous bivalves, should make this statement in reference

to the oyster; for, on the contrary, as Cuvier says, the oyster, in common

with the other bivalves, is extremely sensitive to the touch.

2. Cuvier says, that the different zophytes, the sea-star, at least, are

far from having the life of vegetables only; for that they are real animals,

which have the sense of touch, a voluntary power of motion more or less

complete, and seize and devour their prey. It is not, however, very well

known, he says, what was the "holothurium" of the ancients. Aristotle,

Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 1, ranks it, as well as the oyster, among the animals

which, without being attached to any object, have not the faculty of

moving; and in his work, De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 5, he adds, that the

holothurium and the pulmo only differ from the sponge in being detached.

Cuvier is of opinion, however, that they both belong to the halcyones, the

round kinds of which easily detach themselves from the places upon which

they have grown.

3. Pulmo, "the sea-lungs."

4. Or, as we call it, the star-fish.

5. "Adeoque nihil non gignitur in mari."

6. "Cauponarum." "Caupona" had two significations; that of an inn

where travellers obtained food and lodging, and that of a shop where wine

and ready-dressed meat were sold. A lower kind of inn was the popina,

which was principally frequented by the slaves and lower classes, and was

mostly used as a brothel as well.

7. He alludes to various kinds of sea-animals, called sea-lice and seafleas. Cuvier says, that there are some crustacea which have been called

sea-fleas and sea-lice, some of which kinds are parasites, and are attached

to various fishes and cetacea. Thus, he says, a pycnogonum is commonly

named "pediculus baln," or the "whale-louse;" one of the calyg is

called the "fish-flea," another the "mackerel-flea." The name of sea-flea,

he observes, has been given more especially to a very diminutive kind of

shrimp, in consequence of its power of leaping from place to place.

8. Aristotle says, that the chalcis is greatly tormented by sea-fleas, which

attach themselves to its gills. Cuvier remarks, that a great number of

fish are subject to have the gills attacked by parasitical animals of the

genus Lerna or that of the monoculi of Linnus, which have been divided

into many classes since. They have nothing in common, he says, with the

land-flea, except the name and the property of living at the expense of

other animals.

9. The ancients, Cuvier says, speak of their chalcis as being of a similar

nature to the thryssa and the sardine (Athenus, B. vii.), gregarious fishes,

which live both in the sea and in fresh water, and the flesh of which was

salted. Hence he concludes that it was the same as the Clupea ficta of

Lacepde, the "finte" of the French, and the agone of Lombardy,

which unites all these characteristics, and is sometimes called the "sardine" of the Lago di Garda.




72. Chap. 72. (48.)-Venomous Sea-Animals.


CHAP. 72. (48.)-VENOMOUS SEA-ANIMALS.



Nor yet are dire and venomous substances found wanting in the

sea: such, for instance, as the sea-hare[1] of the Indian seas,







which is even poisonous by the very touch, and immediately

produces vomiting and disarrangement of the stomach. In

our seas it has the appearance of a shapeless mass, and only

resembles the hare in colour; in India it resembles it in its

larger size, and in its hair, which is only somewhat coarser:

there it is never taken alive. An equally deadly animal is the

sea-spider,[2] which is especially dangerous for a sting which it

has on the back: but there is nothing that is more to be dreaded

than the sting which protrudes from the tail of the trygon,[3]

by our people known as the pastinaca, a weapon five inches in

length. Fixing this in the root of a tree, the fish is able to

kill it; it can pierce armour too, just as though with an arrow,

and to the strength of iron it adds all the corrosive qualities of

poison.







1. It is mentioned again in B. xxiii. c. 3. Cuvier says, that the sea-hare of the ancients is the mollusc to which Linnus has 'injudiciously

given the name of aplysia, which Pliny gives to certain of the sponge

genus, and to which nomenclature of Linnus the modern naturalists have

assented. (See N. 51, p. 456.) Its tentacles and its muzzle, he says, resemble

the muzzle and ears of the hare, closely enough to have caused this appellation.

As its smell is disagreeable, and its figure repulsive, a multitude of marvellous, and indeed fatal qualities, he says, have been ascribed to this animal,

which fishermen still speak of, but which, nevertheless, are not confirmed by

actual experience. The only true fact that can be alleged against it is,

that it secretes from an organ, situate in its body, a kind of acrid liquid.

As to the Indian sea-hare, the body of which was covered with hair, Cuvier

professes himself quite at a loss to know what it might be; but he thinks

that this name must have been given to some tetrodon, which may have

received the name from the cleft in the jaw and the skin, bristling with fine

and minute spines. The sailors, he says, attribute to the tetrodon certain

venomous properties.

2. Cuvier says, that there is reason to believe that this is the same as

the vive of the French (probably our weever), the Trachinus draco of

Linnus. This creature, with the spiny projections of its first dorsal fin,

is able to inflict wounds that are extremely difficult to cure; not because

they are venomous in any degree, but because the extremities being very

minute, sharp, and pointed, penetrate deep into the flesh. See c. 43 of

this Book.

3. Or sting-ray, mentioned in c 40 and c. 67 of this Book; so called

from the Greek trugw\n. Cuvier says, that this sting, or spine, is sharp,

like a saw; and that when it has penetrated the flesh, it cannot be got out

without enlarging the wound. This it is, and not its fancied poisonous

qualities, that renders its wound so dangerous; and as for its action upon

trees and iron, they are entirely fabulous.




73. Chap. 73. (49.)-The Maladies Of Fishes.


CHAP. 73. (49.)-THE MALADIES OF FISHES.



We do not find it stated that all kinds of fishes are subject

to epizotic diseases,[1] like other animals of a wild nature:







but it is evidently the fact that individuals[2] among them are

attacked by maladies, from the emaciated appearance that many

present, while at the same moment others of the same species

are taken quite remarkable for their fatness.







1. Nosh/mata loimw/dh, as Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 25, calls

them.

2. Cuvier says, that there are some maladies by which individuals are

attacked; but that it is not uncommonly the case that certain species are

attacked universally, as it were, by a sort of epidemic. There was an

instance of this, he says, in the lake of the valley of Montmorency, where

numbers of the fish were suddenly to be seen floating dead on the surface,

the skin of which was covered with red spots, while at the same time their

flesh had become disagreeable to the taste, and unwholesome.




74. Chap. 74. (50.)-The Generation Of Fishes.


CHAP. 74. (50.)-THE GENERATION OF FISHES.



The curiosity and wonder which have been excited in mankind by this subject, will not allow me any longer to defer

giving an account of the generation of these animals. Fishes

couple by rubbing their bellies[1] against one another; an operation, however, that is performed with such extraordinary

celerity as to escape the sight. Dolphins[2] also, and other

animals of the cetaceous kind, couple in a similar manner,

though the time occupied in so doing is somewhat longer. The

female fish, at the season for coupling, follows the male, and

strikes against its belly with its muzzle; while the male in its

turn, when the female is about to spawn, follows it and devours[3]

the eggs. But with them, the simple act of coupling is not

sufficient[4] for the purposes of reproduction; it is necessary

for the male to pass among the eggs which the female has produced, in order to sprinkle them with its vitalizing fluid. This

does not, however, reach all the eggs out of so vast a multitude; indeed, if it did, the seas and lakes would soon be filled,

seeing that each female produces these eggs in quantities innumerable.[5]







(51.) The eggs[6] of fishes grow in the sea; some of them

with the greatest rapidity, those of the murna, for instance;

others, again, somewhat more slowly. Those among the flat

fishes,[7] whose tails or stings are not in the way, as well as

those of the turtle kind, couple the one upon the other:

the polypus by attaching one of its feelers to the nostrils[8]

of the female, the spia and loligo, by means of the tongue;

uniting the arms, they then swim contrary ways; these last also

bring forth at the mouth. The polypi,[9] however, couple

with the head downwards towards the ground, while the rest

of the soft[10] fish couple backwards in the same manner as the

dog; cray-fish and shrimps do the same, and crabs employ the

mouth.



Frogs leap the one upon the other, the male with its forefeet clasping the armpits of the female, and with its hinder

ones the haunches. The female produces tiny pieces of black

flesh, which are known by the name of gyrini,[11] and are only







to be distinguished by the eyes and tail; very soon, however, the feet are developed, and the tail, becoming bifurcate,

forms the hind legs. It is a most singular thing, but, after a

life of six months' duration, frogs melt away[12] into slime,

though no one ever sees how it is done; after which they come

to life again in the water during the spring, just as they were[13]

before. This is effected by some occult operation of Nature,

and happens regularly every year.



Mussels, also, and scallops are produced in the sand by the

spontaneous[14] operations of nature. Those which have a harder

shell, such as the murex and the purple, are formed from a

viscous fluid like saliva, just as gnats are produced from liquids

turned sour,[15] and the fish called the apua,[16] "from the foam of

the sea when warm, after the fall of a shower.



Those fish, again, which are covered with a stony coat, such

as the oyster, are produced from mud in a putrid state, or else

from the foam that has collected around ships which have been

lying for a long time in the same position, about posts driven

into the earth, and more especially around logs of wood.[17] It

has been discovered, of late years, in the oyster-Beds,[18] that







the animal discharges an impregnating liquid,[19] which has the

appearance of milk. Eels, again, rub themselves against rocks,

upon which, the particles[20] which they thus scrape from off their

bodies come to life, such being their only means of reproduction.

The various kinds of fishes do not couple out of their own kind,

with the exception of the squatina and the ray.[21] The fish

that is produced from the union of these two, resembles a ray

in the fore part, and bears a name among the Greeks compounded of the two.[22]



Certain animals are produced only at certain seasons of the

year, both in water and on the land, such, for instance, as scallops, snails, and leeches, in the spring, which also disappear at

stated periods. Among fishes, the wolf-fish[23] and the trichias[24]

bring forth twice in the year, as also do all kinds of rock-fish;

the mullet and the chalcis[25] thrice in the year, the cyprinus[26]

six times, the scorpna[27] twice, and the sargus in spring and

autumn. Among the flat-fish, the squatina brings forth twice







a year, being the only[28] one that does so at the setting of the[29]

Vergili in autumn. Most fish spawn in the three months of

April, May, and June. The salpa brings forth in the autumn,

the sargus, the torpedo, and the squalus[30] about the time of the

autumnal equinox. The soft fishes[31] bring forth in spring, the

spia every month in the year; its eggs adhere together with

a kind of black glutinous substance, in appearance like a bunch

of grapes, and the male is very careful to go among them and

breathe[32] upon them, as otherwise they would be barren. The

polypi couple in winter, and produce eggs in the spring twisted

in spiral clusters, in a similar manner to the tendrils of the

vine; and so remarkably prolific are they, that when the animal is killed in a state of pregnancy, the cavities of the head

are quite unable to contain the multitude[33] of eggs enclosed

therein. They bring forth these eggs at the fiftieth day, but in

consequence of the vast number of them, great multitudes

perish. Cray-fish, and other sea-animals with a thinner crust,

lay their eggs one upon the other, and then sit upon them.

The female polypus sometimes sits upon its eggs, and at other

times closes the entrance of its retreat by spreading out its

feelers, interlaced like a net. The spia brings forth on dry

land, among reeds or such sea-weed as it may find growing

there, and hatches its eggs on the fifteenth day. The

loligo produces its eggs out at sea, clustered together like

those of the spia. The purple,[34] the murex, and other fishes

of the same kind, bring forth in the spring. Sea-urchins have

their eggs at full moon during the winter; sea-snails[35] also are

produced during the winter season.







1. Cuvier says, that this is not the case in general; but that some,

more especially those which are viviparous, actually do couple; while, on

the other hand, in most, the male does nothing else but besprinkle with the

milt the eggs which the female has deposited, as is stated by Pliny a little

further on.

2. These belong to the cetacea; which, as Cuvier says, are now universally placed among the mammifera, and not among the fishes. They

couple, he says, in the same manner as quadrupeds do in general.

3. As Aristotle says, "from those that are left the fishes are produced."

4. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 12.

5. It has been calculated, Cuvier says, that a female cod, or sturgeon,

produces in a year more than one hundred thousand eggs.

6. Cuvier says, that the eggs of the common fishes, of toads, frogs, &,

have no shells, but only a membranous tunic; and when they have been

once fecundated, they imbibe the surrounding moisture, and increase till

they produce the animal.

7. It is probable, Cuvier thinks, that this passage relates more especially

to the ray genus, but that there is no very positive knowledge as to the

mode in which they do couple. It is probable, he suggests, that they may

do it in the manner above mentioned, by the attrition of the belly. As to

the turtle genus, he says, it is certain that the male mounts the back of the

female; and in some species the sternum of the male is concave, the better

to adapt itself to the convex callipash of the female.

8. More properly, the physeter, passage, or orifice.

9. Cuvier remarks, that this account of the coupling of the cephalopodes

is taken from Aristotle. He says, that he is not aware whether modern

observation has confirmed these statements, and almost doubts whether,

considering the organization of these animals, it is not almost more probable that they do not couple at all, and that the male, as in the case of

most other fishes, only fecundates the eggs after they have been deposited

by the female.

10. Cuvier says, that whatever may be the sense in which the word

"mollia" is here taken, the assertion is not correct. The gasteropod

molluscs, he says, whether hermaphroditical, or whether of separate sexes,

couple side to side. The acephalous molluscs do not couple at all, and

each individual fecundates its own eggs. The crustacea couple by attrition

of the belly.

11. "Tadpoles." There is both truth and falsehood, Cuvier says, in the

statements here made relative to the tadpole. Frogs, he says, produce

eggs, from which the tadpole developes itself, with a tail like that of a fish.

The feet, however, are not produced by any bifurcation of the tail, but

shoot out at the base of the tail, and in the same proportion that they grow,

the tail decreases, till at last it entirely disappears.

12. Frogs, Cuvier says, conceal themselves in mud and slime during the

winter, but, of course, are not changed into it.

13. "Qu fuere." Just in the same state, he probably means to say, in

which they were when they were melted into slime, and not as they were

when in the tadpole state.

14. All that is asserted here, Cuvier says, about the spontaneous operations of nature is totally false. Everything connected with the eggs and

the generation of the mussel, the murex, and the scallop is now clearly

ascertained.

15. "Acescente humore." Hardouin has suggested that the proper

reading may be "arescente humore"-" from moisture dried up;" for, he

remarks, Aristotle, in his Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 18, states, that the

"empides," gnats formed from the ascarides in the slime of wells, are

more frequently produced in the autumn season.

16. The apu, or aphy, Cuvier says, are nothing else but the fry of fish

of a large kind.

17. Cuvier says, that some of the shell-fish deposit their eggs upon stakes

and piles, which are driven down into the water among sea-weed, and the

bottoms of old ships: but that many of them perish from the solutions

formed by those bodies in a state of rottenness, or, at all events, are not

produced from their decomposition.

18. "Ostreariis." This was unknown to Aristotle, who, in his work De

Gener. Anim. B. iii. c. 11, expressly denies that the oyster secretes any

generative or fecundating liquid.

19. Cuvier says, that at the time of the oyster spawning, its body appears

swollen in some parts with a milky fluid, which is not improbably the fecundating fluid. During this season the oyster is generally looked upon as

unfit for food; among us, from the beginning of May to the end of July.

20. This, Cuvier remarks, is a mere vague hypothesis, as to the reproduction of the eel, without the slightest foundation. Pliny borrows it

from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 9.

21. The squatina and the ray do not interbreed, Cuvier observes, any

more than other fish; and the Squatina raia, or rhinobatis, (which was

said to be their joint production), is a particular species, more flat in form

than the squalus, and longer than the ray.

22. Rino/batos, the squatinoraia."

23. "Lupus." The Perca labrax of Linnus; see c. 28 of the present

Book.

24. The sardine. See c. 20 of the present Book.

25. Sec c. 71 of the present Book.

26. This name, Cuvier says, appears so rarely in the ancient writers, that

it is difficult to ascertain its exact signification. The moderns, he says,

have pretty generally agreed to give it to the carp, but without any good

and sufficient foundation. It was a lake or river fish, which, as Aristotle

says, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 14, deposited its eggs five or six times in the

year, and which had a palate so fleshy, that it might almost be mistaken

for a tongue, B. iv. c. 8, characteristics that appear well suited to the carp.

But then, on the other hand, Oppian mentions it, Halieut. B. i., as a shore

fish, implying apparently that it belonged to the sea; and Pliny himself,

in c. 25 of the present Book, does the same, by his words, "hoc et in mari

accidere cyprino." The words "in mari," however, he has added, of his

own accord, to the account which he has derived from Aristotle.

27. The fish called the sea-scorpion. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.

28. "Sola autumno, occasu Vergiliarum." It seems questionable whether

the reading should not be "solea:" "the sole in autumn, at the setting of

the Vergili."

29. The Pleiades.

30. See c. 40 of the present Book.

31. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.

32. "Prosequitur afflatu." Aristotle says that it pours over them its ink

or atramentum, katafusa=| to\n qo/lon.

33. Philostratus, Hist. B. v. c. 17, says that so full is it of eggs, that after

it is dead they will more than fill a vessel far larger than the cavities of its

head.

34. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v, c. 14.

35. Our periwinkles.




75. Chap. 75.-Fishes Which Are Both Oviparous And Viviparous.


CHAP. 75.-FISHES WHICH ARE BOTH OVIPAROUS AND VIVIPAROUS.



The torpedo is known to have as many as eighty young







ones. It produces within itself[1] very soft eggs, which it then

transfers to another place in the uterus, and from that part

ejects them. The same is the case with all those fish to which

we have given the name of cartilaginous; hence it is, that

these alone of all the fishes are at once viviparous and oviparous.

The male silurus[2] is the only fish among them all that watches

the eggs after they are brought forth, often for as long a period

as fifty days, that they may not be devoured by other fish.

The females of other kinds bring forth their eggs in the course

of three days, if the male has only touched them.







1. All the chondropterygian fishes, Cuvier says, have, in addition to their

ovaries, real oviducts, which the ordinary fishes have not; the lower part

of which, being detached, acts as the uterus, into which the eggs descend

when they have gained their proper size: and it is here that the young

ones burst forth from the egg, when the parent animal is viviparous.

2. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 13, says the same of the glanis, or

silurus.




76. Chap. 76.-Fishes The Belly Of Which Opens In Spawning, And Then Closes Again.


CHAP. 76.-FISHES THE BELLY OF WHICH OPENS IN SPAWNING, AND THEN CLOSES AGAIN.



The sea-needle,[1] or the belone, is the only fish in which the

multitude of its eggs, in spawning, causes the belly to open

asunder; but immediately after it has brought forth, the wound

heals again: a thing which, it is said, is the case with the

blind-worm as well. The sea-mouse[2] digs a hole in the earth,

deposits its eggs there, and then covers them up. On the

thirtieth day it opens the hole, and leads its young to the

water.







1. The Syngnathus acus of Linnus. This fish, Cuvier says, and in

general all of the same genus, has a channel situate under the tail, which

is opened by two moveable valves. In this they deposit their eggs at the

moment of excluding them. After this, the valves open, to give a passage

to the eggs, or the young enclosed in them. This circumstance, he says,

gave rise to the notion mentioned in the text.

2. Mentioned in c. 35 of the present Book. Cuvier says that the sea tortoises, or turtles, to which no doubt this animal belonged, do deposit

their eggs much in the way here mentioned.




77. Chap. 77. (52.)-Fishes Which Have A Womb; Those Which Impregnate Themselves.


CHAP. 77. (52.)-FISHES WHICH HAVE A WOMB; THOSE WHICH

IMPREGNATE THEMSELVES.



The fishes called the ervthinus[1] and the channe[2] are said to







have a womb; and those which by the Greeks are called

trochi,[3] it is said, impregnate themselves. The young of all

aquatic animals are without sight at their birth.[4]







1. Both these fishes have been mentioned in c. 23 of the present Book.

2. Pliny means to say, Cuvier says, that all these fish are to be looked

upon as females: and, in fact, he says, Cavolini discovered eggs and a milt

in every one that he examined; so that they appear to have all the appliances of self-fecundation.

3. Or wheel-fish: from the Greek troxo\s, "a wheel." It is not clearly

known what animal he alludes to under this name. Snails, Cuvier says, are

hermaphrodites, and so is the helix, but still they require sexual connection

for the purposes of reproduction. The greater part of the marine univalves, on the other hand, are of separate sexes; but the organ of the male

being proportionally of great length, and coiled in part beneath its mantle,

this fact may very possibly have given rise to the notion here mentioned

by our author, that the animal impregnates itself.

4. This can only be understood, Cuvier says, as applying to those animals

the young of which are still enveloped in the membranes of the egg: for

in general, the young of fish, from the moment of their birth, have eyes

of great beauty, and are remarkable for the quickness of their sight.




78. Chap. 78. (53.)-The Longest Lives Known Amongst Fishes.


CHAP. 78. (53.)-THE LONGEST LIVES KNOWN AMONGST FISHES.



We have lately heard of a remarkable instance of length of

life in fish. Pausilypum[1] is the name of a villa in Campania,

not far from Neapolis; here, as we learn from the works of

M. Annsaus Seneca, a fish is known to have died sixty years

after it had been placed in the preserves of Csar[2] by Vedius

Pollio; while others of the same kind, and its equals in age,

were living at the time that he wrote. This mention of fish-preserves reminds me that I ought to mention a few more particulars connected with this subject, before we leave the aquatic

animals.







1. From the Greek tausi)lupon, "grief-assuaging." This was the

name of a splendid villa belonging to Vedius Pollio, and which he bequeathed to Augustus. It was famous for its fish preserves; and it was

here probably that Pollio kept his muren, previously mentioned by Pliny

as being fed on human flesh. The vicinity is still called Monte Posilipo.

2. "Csaris piscinis. "This may either mean, preserves which had

their name from Csar, or preserves which afterwards belonged to Csar.

The work of Seneca, in which this circumstance was mentioned, is no

longer in existence.




79. Chap. 79. (54.)-The First Person That Formed Artificial Oyster-Beds.


CHAP. 79. (54.)-THE FIRST PERSON THAT FORMED ARTIFICIAL

OYSTER-BEDS.



The first person who formed artificial oyster-beds was Ser-







gius Orata,[1] who established them at Bai, in the time of L.

Crassus, the orator, just before the Marsic War. This was

done by him, not for the gratification of gluttony, but of avarice, as he contrived to make a large income by this exercise

of his ingenuity. He was the first, too, to invent hanging

baths,[2] and after buying villas and trimming them up, he

would every now and then sell them again.[3] He, too, was the

first to adjudge the pre-eminence for delicacy of flavour to the

oysters of Lake Lucrinus;[4] for every kind of aquatic animal

is superior in one place to what it is in another. Thus, for instance, the wolf-fish of the river Tiber is the best that is caught

between the two bridges,[5] and the turbot of Ravenna is the

most esteemed, the murena of Sicily, the elops of Rhodes; the

same, too, as to the other kinds, not to go through all the items

of the culinary catalogue. The British[6] shores had not as yet

sent their supplies, at the time when Orata thus ennobled the

Lucrine oysters: at a later period, however, it was thought

worth while to fetch oysters all the way from Brundisium, at

the very extremity of Italy; and in order that there might

exist no rivalry[7] between the two flavours, a plan has been







more recently hit upon, of feeding the oysters of Brundisium

in Lake Lucrinus, famished as they must naturally be after so

long a journey.







1. He was a contemporary of L. Crassus, and was distinguished for his

great wealth, and his love of luxury and refinement, but possessed an unblemished character. His surname, Orata or Aurata, was given to him, it

is said, because he was remarkably fond of gold-fish-aurat pisces-though, according to other authorities, it was because he was in the habit

of wearing two very large gold rings.

2. "Pensiles balineas." This expression has been differently rendered by

various commentators, but it is now generally supposed to refer to the

manner in which the flooring of the bathing rooms was suspended over the

hollow cells of the hypocaust or heating furnace. This is called by Vitruvius, "Suspensura caldariorum."

3. "Ita mangonicatas villas subinde vendendo."-By the use of the

word "ita," Pliny may possibly mean that he was in the habit of filling

up the villas with the "baline pensiles," which he had invented. "Mangonizo" was to set off or trim up a thing, that it might sell again all the

better.

4. Varro speaks of those of Tarentum, as being the best. The Greeks

preferred the oysters of Abydos; the Romans, under the empire, those of

Britain.

5. It does not appear to be known what two bridges are here alluded to;

the Sublician, or wooden bridge, was probably one of them, and, perhaps,

the Palatine bridge was the other. The former was built by Ancus

Martius.

6. For some further account of the British oyster, see B. xxxii. c. 21.

7. See B. xxxii c. 21.




80. Chap. 80.-Who Was The First Inventor Of Preserves For Other Fish.


CHAP. 80.-WHO WAS THE FIRST INVENTOR OF PRESERVES FOR

OTHER FISH.



In the same age, also, Licinius Murena[1] was the first to

form preserves for other fish; and his example was soon followed by the noble families of the Philippi and the Hortensii.

Lucullus had a mountain pierced near Naples, at a greater outlay even, than that which had been expended on his villa;

and here he formed a channel,[2] and admitted the sea to his

preserves; it was for this reason that Pompeius Magnus gave

him the name of " Xerxes in a toga." [3] After his death, the fish

in his preserves was sold for the sum of four million sesterces.







1. He was the first of this family, a branch of the Licinian gens, who

bore the surname of Murena, from his love for that fish, it was said. He,

like his father P. Licinius, attained the rank of prtor, and was a contemporary of the orator, L. Crassus.

2. "Euripum."

3. "Xerxen togatum," or "the Roman Xerxes," in allusion to Xerxes

cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of

Mount Athos with Chalcidice. See B. iv. c. 17, and the Note, vol. i.

p. 300.




81. Chap. 81. (55.)-Who Invented Preserves For Muren.


CHAP. 81. (55.)-WHO INVENTED PRESERVES FOR MUREN.



C. Hirrus[1] was the first person who formed preserves for

the murena; and it was he who lent six thousand of these

fishes for the triumphal banquets of Csar the Dictator; on

which occasion he had them duly weighed, as he declined to

receive the value of them in money or any other commodity.

His villa, which was of a very humble character in the interior,

sold for four millions[2] of sesterces, in consequence of the valuable nature of the stock-ponds there. Next after this, there

arose a passion for individual fish. At Bauli,[3] in the territory







of Bai, the orator Hortensius had some fish-preserves, in

which there was a murena to which he became so much attached, as to be supposed to have wept on hearing of its

death.[4] It was at the same villa that Antonia,[5] the wife of

Drusus, placed earrings upon a murena which she had become

fond of; the report of which singular circumstance attracted

many visitors to the place.







1. Probably the same person as the C. Hirrius Posthumius, who is

mentioned as a voluptuary by Cicero, De Fin. B. ii. c. 22, 70. Varro

speaks of him, as expending the rent of his houses, amounting to twelve

millions of sesterces, in bait for his muren.

2. This is, probably, the meaning of "quadragies "here, though it has

been translated 400,000.

3. See B. iii. c. 9.

4. Porphyry, Tzetzes, and Macrobius relate the same story.

5. See B. vii. c. 18, and B. xxxv. c. 36. Her grandson, Caligula, is

supposed to have hastened her death.




82. Chap. 82. (56.)-Who Invented Preserves For Sea-Snails.


CHAP. 82. (56.)-WHO INVENTED PRESERVES FOR SEA-SNAILS.



Fulvius Lupinus[1] first formed preserves for sea-snails,[2] in

the territory of Tarquinii, shortly before the civil war between

Csar and Pompeius Magnus. He also carefully distinguished

them by their several species, separating them from one another.

The white ones were those that are produced in the district

of Reate;[3] those of Illyria were remarkable for the largeness

of their size; while those from Africa were the most prolific;

those, however, from the Promontory of the Sun[4] were the

most esteemed of all. For the purpose, also, of fattening them,

lie invented a mixture of boiled wine,[5] spelt-meal, and other

substances; so that fattened periwinkles even became quite an

object of gastronomy; and the art of breeding them was brought

to such a pitch of perfection, that the shell of a single animal

would hold as much as eighty quadrantes.[6] This we learn

from M. Varro.











1. Hirpinius is the more common reading. He is mentioned in B. viii.

c. 78. If the reading "Lupinus" is adopted, nothing seems to be known

of this epicurean trifler.

2. Our periwinkles.

3. See B. iii. c. 17.

4. Off the coast of Africa, see B. v. c. 1. These periwinkles, or sea-snails, are again mentioned in B. xxx. c. 15.

5. "Sapa." Must, or new wine, boiled down to one half, according to

Pliny; and one third, according to Varro.

6. The "quadrans" contained three cyathi, and was the fourth part of

a sextarius, which consisted of about a pint and a-half; in which case the

contents of one of their shells would be no less than fifteen quarts!! A

statement to which no credit can be attached, unless, indeed, the sea-snail

was something quite different to our periwinkle.




83. Chap. 83. (57.)-Land Fishes.


CHAP. 83. (57.)-LAND FISHES.



Besides these, there are still some wonderful kinds of fishes[1]

which we find mentioned by Theophrastus: he says, that when

the waters subside, which have been admitted for the purposes

of irrigation in the vicinity of Babylon, there are certain fish

which remain in such holes as may contain water; from these

they come forth for the purpose of feeding, moving along with

their fins by the aid of a rapid movement of the tail. If pursued, he says, they retreat to their holes, and, when they have

reached them, will turn round and make a stand. The head

is like that of the sea-frog, while the other parts are similar

to those of the gobio,[2] and they have gills like other fish.

He says also, that in the vicinity of Heraclea and Cromna,[3] and about the river Lycus, as well as in many parts

of the Euxine, there is one kind of fish[4] which frequents the

waters near the banks of the rivers, and makes holes for

itself, in which it lives, even when the water retires and the

bed of the river is dry; for which reason these fishes have to

be dug out of the ground, and only show by the movement

of the body that they are still alive. He says also, that in the

vicinity of the same Heraclea, when the river Lycus ebbs, the

eggs are left in the mud, and that the fish, on being produced

from these, go forth to seek their food by means of a sort of

fluttering motion,-their gills being but very small, in consequence of which they are not in need of water; for this







reason it is that eels also can live so long out of water;[5] and

that their eggs come to maturity on dry land, like those of the

sea-tortoise[6]. In the same regions also of the Euxine, he

says, various kinds of fishes are overtaken by the ice, the gobio

more particularly, and they only betray signs of life, by

moving when they have warmth applied by the saucepan.

All these things, however, though very remarkable, still admit

of some explanation. He tells us also, that in Paphlagonia,

land fishes are dug up that are most excellent eating; these, he

says, are found in deep holes or spots where there is no standing

water whatever, and he expresses his surprise at their being

thus produced without any contact with moisture, stating it as

his opinion, that there is some innate virtue in these holes,[7]

similar to that of wells; as if, indeed, fishes really were to be

found in wells.[8] However this may be, these facts, at all

events, render the life of the mole under ground less a matter

for surprise; unless, perhaps, these fishes mentioned by Theophrastus are similar in nature to the earth-worm.







1. Cuvier remarks, that nothing is known of the fish of the Euphrates

here mentioned by Pliny from Theophrastus; as, indeed, all particulars relative to the fresh-water fish of foreign countries are the portion of Ichthyology with which we are the least acquainted. Judging, however, from

what is stated as to their habits and appearance, they may be various species of the genus Gobius of Linnus, and more especially the one called

periophthalmus by Bloch. These species are in the habit of crawling

along the grass on the banks of rivers.

2. Generally considered the same as our gudgeon. It is called "cobio"

(from the Greek kwbio\s), by Pliny, in B. xxxii. c. 53. It was a worthless

fish, "Vilis piscis," as Juvenal says.

3. What Heraclea, if that is the correct reading, is meant here, it is

impossible to say. Cromna is mentioned in B. vi. c. 2.

4. Cuvier thinks, that Pliny here alludes to a species of loche, the

Cobitis fossilis of Linnus, which keeps itself concealed in the mud, and

can survive a long time in it, after the water above it is absorbed. Hence

it is often found alive in the mud of drained marshes, or in the dried-up

beds of rivers.

5. Cuvier remarks, that many fish, the orifice of the gills of which, like

those of the eel, is small, or which have in the interior of those parts

organs proper for the preservation there of water, are able, like the eel, to

live for some time on dry land; such, for instance, as the periophthalmi

previously mentioned, the chironectes, the ophicephali, the anabas, and

others; but it is difficult to say, he observes, of what species were those of

the Lycus, which are here mentioned.

6. Or turtle. See c. 12 of the present Book.

7. It is most probable that Sillig is right in his supposition, that

"quam" should be read "quam;" otherwise it does not appear that any

sense can be made of the passage. Schneider, in his commentaries upon

Theophrastus, Sillig says, quite despaired of either amending or explaining

this passage; which, however, with Sillig's emendation is very easily to be

understood.

8. In accordance with the opinion of Vossius and Sillig, we read here

"in illis," instead of the common, and most probably incorrect, reading,

in nullis."




84. Chap. 84. (58.)-The Mice Of The Nile.


CHAP. 84. (58.)-THE MICE OF THE NILE.



But all these things, singular as they are, are rendered

credible by a marvel which exceeds them all, at the time of the

inundation of the Nile; for, the moment that it subsides, little

mice[1] are found, the first rudiments of which have been







formed by the generative powers of the waters and the earth:

in one part of the body they are already alive, while in that

which is of later formation, they are still composed of earth.







1. Pomponius Mela, B. i. c. 9., and Ovid, Met. B. i. 1. 422, et seq., tell

the same story, which, however, has no truth in it whatever.




85. Chap. 85. (59.)-How The Fish Called The Anthias Is Taken.


CHAP. 85. (59.)-HOW THE FISH CALLED THE ANTHIAS

IS TAKEN.



Nor would it be right to omit what is said about the fish called

anthias, and which I find is looked upon as true by most

writers. I have already mentioned[1] the Chelidoni, certain

islands off the coast of Asia; they are situate off a promontory

there, in the midst of a sea full of crags and reefs. These parts

are much frequented by this fish, which is very speedily taken

by the employment of a single method of catching it. A fisherman pushes out in a little boat, dressed in a colour resembling

that of his boat; and every day, for several days together, at

the same hour, he sails over the same space, while doing which

he throws a quantity of bait into the sea. Whatever is thrown

from the boat is an object of suspicion to the fish, who keep

at a distance from what causes them so much alarm; but after

this has been repeated a considerable number of times, one of

the fish, reassured by becoming habituated to the scene, at last

snaps at the bait. The movements of this one are watched

with the greatest care and attention, for in it are centred all

the hopes of the fishermen, as it is to be the means of securing

them their prey; nor, indeed, is it difficult to recognize it,

seeing that for some days it is the only one that ventures to

come near the bait. At last, however, it finds some others to

follow its example, and by degrees it is better and better

attended, till at last it brings with it shoals innumerable.

The older ones, at length becoming quite accustomed to the

fisherman, easily recognize him, and will even take food from

his hands. Upon this, the man throws out, a little way beyond

the tips of his fingers, a hook concealed in a bait, and smuggles them out one by one, rather than catches them, standing

in the shadow of the boat and whipping them out of the water

with a slight jerk, that the others may not perceive it;

while another fisherman is ready inside to receive them upon

pieces of cloth, in order that no floundering about or other

noise may scare the others away. It is of importance to know







which has been the betrayer of the others, and not to take it,

otherwise the shoal will take to flight, and appear no more for

the future.[2] There is a story that a fisherman, having quarrelled once with his mate, threw out a hook to one of these

leading fishes, which he easily recognized, and so captured it

with a malicious intent. The fish, however, was recognized

in the market by the other fisherman, against whom he had

conceived this malice; who accordingly brought an action

against him for damages;[3] and, as Mucianus adds, he was

condemned to pay them on the hearing of the case. These

anthi, it is said, when they see one of their number taken

with a hook, cut the line with the serrated spines which they

have on the back, the one that is held fast stretching it out

as much as it can, to enable them to cut it. But among the

sargi, the fish itself, that is held fast, rubs the line asunder

against the rocks.







1. B. v. c, 35.

2. Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. c. 305, et seq., tells a similar story as to the

mode of taking the anthias, with some slight variation, however.

3. "Damni formulam editam."




86. Chap. 86. (60.)-Sea-Stars.


CHAP. 86. (60.)-SEA-STARS.



In addition to what I have already stated, I find that authors,

distinguished for their wisdom, express surprise at finding a

star in the sea-for such, in fact, is the form of the animal,

which has but very little flesh[1] within, and nothing but a

hard skin without. It is said that in this fish there is such

a fiery heat, that it scorches everything it meets with in

the sea, and instantaneously digests its food. By what experiments[2] all this came to be known, I cannot so easily say;

but I am about to make mention of one fact which is more remarkable still, and which we have the opportunity of testing

by every day's experience.











1. Cuvier says, that the star-fish, the Asterias of Linnus, is covered

with a callous shell without, and has within only the viscera and the ovaria,

apparently without any muscles. Aristotle reckons it among the fishes

which he calls o)strakode/rmata, or hard-shelled fish; while, on the other

hand, lian, Hist. Anim. B. xi. c. 22, reckons it among the malako/straka,

or soft-shelled fish.

2. Cuvier says, that Pliny has good reason to say that he does not know

upon what authority this power has been attributed to the star-fish; as it

is altogether fabulous.




87. Chap. 87. (61.)-The Marvellous Properties Of The Dactylus.


CHAP. 87. (61.)-THE MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES OF THE

DACTYLUS.



Belonging also to the class of shell-fish is the dactylus,[1] a

fish so called from its strong resemblance to the human nails.

It is the property of these fish to shine brightly in the dark,

when all other lights are removed, and the more moisture

they have, the brighter is the light they emit. In the mouth

even, while they are being eaten, they give forth their light, and

the same too when in the hands; the very drops, in fact, that

fall from them on the ground, or on the clothes, are of the same

nature. Hence it is beyond a doubt, that it is a liquid that

possesses this peculiar property, which, even in a solid body,

would be a ground for considerable surprise.







1. "Or finger." The same fish that have been mentioned as "ungues," or

"onyches," in c. 51 of the present Book. They are a multivalve shellfish, Cuvier says, which live in hardened mud or the interior of rocks, into

which they burrow cavities, from which they cannot retreat; and they can

only be taken by breaking the stone. They have a flavour like pepper,

and give out a phosphorescent light. See the end of c. 51.




88. Chap. 88. (62.)-The Antipathies And Sympathies That Exist Between Aquatic Animals.


CHAP. 88. (62.)-THE ANTIPATHIES AND SYMPATHIES THAT

EXIST BETWEEN AQUATIC ANIMALS.



There are also marvellous instances to be found of antipathies

and sympathies existing between them. The mullet and the

wolf-fish[1] are animated with a mutual hatred; and so too, the

conger and the murena gnaw each other[2] tails. The crayfish has so great a dread of the polypus, that if it sees it near,

it expires in an instant: the conger dreads the cray-fish;

while, again, the conger tears the body of the polypus. Nigidius

informs us that the wolf-fish gnaws the tail of the mullet, and

yet that, during certain months, they are on terms of friendship; all those, however, which thus lose their tails, survive

their misfortune. On the other hand, in addition to those which

we have already mentioned as going in company together, an

instance of friendship is found in the balna and the musculus,[3]







for, as the eye-Brows of the former are very heavy, they sometimes fall over its eyes, and quite close them by their ponderousness, upon which the musculus swims before, and points out

the shallow places which are likely to prove inconvenient to

its vast bulk,[4] thus serving it in the stead of eyes. We

shall now have to speak of the nature of the birds.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

650.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Turranius Gracilis,[5] Trogus,[6]

Mcenas,[7] Alfius Flavus,[8] Cornelius Nepos,[9] Laberius the

Mimographer,[10] Fabianus,[11] Fenestella,[12] Mucianus,[13] lius







Stilo,[14] Statius Sebosus,[15] Melissus,[16] Seneca,[17] Cicero,[18] milius Macer,[19] Messala Corvinus,[20] Trebius Niger,[21] Nigidius.[22]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Aristotle,[23] King Archelaus,[24]

Callimachus,[25] Democritus,[26] Theophrastus,[27] Thrasyllus,[28]

Hegesidemus,[29] Cythnius,[30] Alexander Polyhistor.[31]









1. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 3. lian, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 48.

2. Aristotle says, that the tail of the conger is bitten by the murena,

but not that of the murena by the conger. Hardouin suggests that Pliny

may have learned this fact from the works of Nigidius Figulus.

3. Cuvier remarks, that in another passage, B. xi. c. 62, Pliny states that

the "musculus qui balnam antecedit" has no teeth, but only bristles in

its mouth. Now, in B. xxxii. c. 53, he speaks of the musculus as among

the largest of animals; from which Cuvier concludes it to have been a

species of whale, probably the "rorqual" of the Mediterranean. In confirmation of this, he thinks that the word "antecedit," in B. xi. c. 62,

has not the meaning of "goes before," but "exceeds in size;" though

here it is spoken of as leading the whale; and Oppian, lian, Plutarch,

Claudian, speak of the conductor of the whale as a little fish. He is

of opinion, in fine, that either Pliny or some of the authors from

which he has borrowed, have made a mistake in the name, and probably given that of "musculus," which was really a large fish, to a small

one, which was commonly supposed to attend on the movements of the

whale.

4. It is evident from this passage, that Pliny is speaking of a little fish

here, and not one to which he would assign such bulk as is ascribed to the

musculus in B. xxxii. c. 53.

5. See end of B. iii.

6. See end of B. vii.

7. Caius Cilnius Mecnas, or rather Mcenas, a descendant of the kings

of Etruria, and of equestrian rank. He was the favourite minister of

Augustus, and the friend and patron of Horace, Virgil, and most of the

more deserving among the learned of his day. He is supposed to

have written two tragedies, the Prometheus and Octavia; an epic poem,

and a work on Natural History, to which Pliny frequently alludes, and

which seems to have related, principally, to fishes and gems. He is also

thought to have written some memoirs of the life of Augustus.

8. A rhetorician, who flourished in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius.

His school was attended by the elder Seneca, who had then recently removed to Rome from Corduba. He was regarded at Rome as a prodigy of

learning, and gave lectures before he had assumed the toga virilis. He is

supposed to have written poetry, and a history of the Carthaginian wars.

9. See end of B. ii.

10. Or " writer of Mimes." Laberius Decimus was of equestrian rank,

born about B. C. 107, and died B. C. 43. Half compelled, and half induced

by the offer of a reward by Csar, he appeared on the stage, in his old age,

as an actor of mimes. A few verses, and a prologue still in existence, are

attributed to him.

11. Fabianus Papirius. See end of B. ii.

12. See end of B. viii.

13. See end of B. ii.

14. L. lius Prconinus Stilo, a Roman of equestrian rank, one of the

earliest grammarians, and also one of the most celebrated. He instructed

Varro, and was one of Csar's instructors in rhetoric. He received the

name of Preconinus, from the circumstance of his father having been a

"prco," and that of Stilo, on account of his writings. He wrote commentaries on the songs of the Salii, and on the Twelve Tables, a work De

Proloquiis, &c.

15. See end of B. ii.

16. See end of B. vii.

17. L. Annus Seneca. See end of B. vi.

18. See end of B. vii.

19. A poet of Verona, who died B. C. 16. He wrote a poem upon birds,

snakes, and medicinal plants, in imitation, probably, of the Theriaca of

Nicander. There is a work, still extant, under his name, "On the Virtues

of Herbs;" which, no doubt, belongs to the middle ages. He also wrote

sixteen or more Books of Annals.

20. M. Valerius Messala Corvinus. He was born at Rome, B.C. 59. He

joined the party of Cassius against Antony and Augustus, which last he

defeated at the battle of Philippi. He afterwards served under Antony,

and then Augustus; the centre of whose fleet he commanded at Actium.

About two years before his death, which happened in the middle of the

reign of Augustus, his memory failed him, and he was often unable to

recollect his own name. He wrote a history, or rather, commentaries on

the Civil wars after the death of Csar, and towards the close of his life

composed a genealogical work "On the Families of Rome." He also

wrote poems of a satirical, and sometimes licentious character; and works

on grammar, the titles of only two of which have come down to us. He

was especially famous for his eloquence.

21. See end of B. viii.

22. See end of B. vi.

23. See end of B. ii.

24. See end of B. viii.

25. See end of B. iv.

26. See end of B. ii.

27. See end of B. iii.

28. See end of B. iii.

29. See end of B. ii.

30. Nothing whatever is known of him.

31. See end of B. iii.




0. > Book Xx. Remedies Derived From The Garden Plants.


BOOK XX.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE GARDEN PLANTS.










1. Chap. 1.-Introduction.


CHAP. 1.-INTRODUCTION.



WE are now about to enter upon an examination of the greatest

of all the operations of Nature-we are about to discourse to

man upon his aliments,[1] and to compel him to admit that he is

ignorant by what means he exists. And let no one, misled by

the apparent triviality of the names which we shall have to

employ, regard this subject as one that is frivolous or contemptible:

for we shall here have to set forth the state of peace

or of war which exists between the various departments of

Nature, the hatreds or friendships which are maintained by

objects dumb and destitute of sense, and all, too, created-a

wonderful subject for our contemplation!-for the sake of man

alone. To these states, known to the Greeks by the respective

appellations "sympathia" and "antipathia," we are indebted for the

first principles[2] of all things; for hence it is that

water has the property of extinguishing fire, that the sun

absorbs water, that the moon produces it, and that each of

those heavenly bodies is from time to time eclipsed by the

other.



Hence it is, too, descending from the contemplation of a

loftier sphere, that the loadstone[3] possesses the property of at-







tracting iron, and another stone,[4] again, that of repelling it:

and that the diamond, that pride of luxury and opulence,

though infrangible by every other object, and presenting a

resistance that cannot be overcome, is broken asunder by a

he-goat's blood[5]-in addition to numerous other marvels of

which we shall have to speak on more appropriate occasions,

equal to this or still more wonderful even. My only request is

that pardon may be accorded me for beginning with objects of

a more humble nature, though still so greatly conducive to our

health-I mean the garden plants, of which I shall now proceed to speak.







1. Fe remarks, that the commencement of this exordium is contrary to

truth, and that Pliny appears to forget that in the Eighteenth Book he

has treated, at very considerable length, of the various cereals, the art of

preparing bread, pottages, ptisans. &c. He suggests, that the author may

have originally intended to place the Eighteenth Book after the present

one, and that on changing his plan he may have neglected to alter the present passage. From his mention, however, of man's "ignorance by what

means he exists," it is not improbable that he may have considered that

the nutritive qualities of plants are really based upon their medicinal vir-

tues, a point of view little regarded by the majority of mankind in his

time, but considered by Pliny to be the true key to a just appreciation of

their utility.

2. "Quibus cuncta constant." See B. xxiv. c. 1.

3. See B. xxxiv. c. 42.

4. The "theamedes." See B. xxxvi. c. 25.

5. Pliny is the only author who makes mention of this singularly absurd

notion.




2. Chap. 2. (1.)-The Wild Cucumber; Twenty-Six Remedies.


CHAP. 2. (1.)-THE WILD CUCUMBER; TWENTY-SIX REMEDIES.



We have already stated[1] that there is a wild cucumber, considerably smaller than the cultivated one. From this cucumber the medicament known as "elaterium" is prepared, being

the juice extracted from the seed.[2] To obtain this juice the

fruit is cut before it is ripe-indeed, if this precaution is not

taken at an early period, the seed is apt to spirt[3] out and be

productive of danger to the eyes. After it is gathered, the fruit is

kept whole for a night, and on the following day an incision

is made in it with a reed. The seed, too, is generally sprinkled

with ashes, with the view of retaining in it as large a quantity of

the juice as possible. When the juice is extracted, it

is received in rain water, where it falls to the bottom; after

which it is thickened in the sun, and then divided into lozenges,







which are of singular utility to mankind for healing dimness[4]

of sight, diseases of the eyes, and ulcerations of the eyelids.

It is said that if the roots of a vine are touched with this

juice, the grapes of it will be sure never to be attacked by

birds.



The root,[5] too, of the wild cucumber, boiled in vinegar, is

employed in fomentations for the gout, and the juice of it is

used as a remedy for tooth-ache. Dried and mixed with resin,

the root is a cure for impetigo[6] and the skin diseases known

as "psora"[7] and "lichen:"[8] it is good, too, for imposthumes

of the parotid glands and inflammatory tumours,[9] and restores

the natural colour to the skin when a cicatrix has formed.-

The juice of the leaves, mixed with vinegar, is used as an

injection for the ears, in cases of deafness.







1. In B. xix. c. 24: so, too, Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 154. The wild

cucumber of Pliny, as Fe observes, is in reality not a cucumber,

but a

totally different plant, the Cucumis silvestris asininus of C. Bauhin, the

Momordica elaterium of Linnus, or squirting cucumber.

2. Elaterium, Fe says, is not extracted from the seed, but is the juice

of the fruit itself, as Pliny, contradicting himself, elsewhere informs us.

Theophrastus commits the same error, which Dioscorides does not; and

it is not improbable that Pliny has copied from two sources the method

of making it.

3. Meaning the juice and seed combined, probably. Fe thinks that it

is to this the medicament owes its name, from e)la/unw, to "drive" or

"impel." It is much more probable, however, that the medicine was so

called from its strong purgative powers; for, as Galen tells us,

e)lath/rion

was a name given to purgative medicines in general.

4. Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 154, states to this effect. Fe remarks that,

singularly enough, most of the antiophthalmies used by the ancients, were

composed of acrid and almost corrosive medicaments, quite in opposition to

the sounder notions entertained on the subject by the moderns.

5. Dioscorides says the same; and much the same statements are made

by Celsus, Apulcius, Marcellus Empiricus, and Plinius Valerianus The

different parts of the plant, dried, have but very feeble properties,

Fe says.

6. A sort of tetter or ring-worm. Celsus enumerates four varieties.

7. Itch-scab, probably.

8. A disease of the skin, in which the scab assumes the form almost of a

lichen or moss.

9. "Panos." "Panus" was the name given to a wide-spreading, but

not deeply-seated, tumour, the surface of which presented a blistered

appearance.




3. Chap. 3.-Elaterium; Twenty-Seven Remedies.


CHAP. 3.-ELATERIUM; TWENTY-SEVEN REMEDIES.



The proper season for making elaterium is the autumn; and

there is no medicament known that will keep longer than this.[1]

It begins to be fit for use when three years old; but if it is

found desirable to make use of it at an earlier period than

this, the acridity of the lozenges may be modified by putting

them with vinegar upon a slow fire, in a new earthen pot.

The older it is the better, and before now, as we learn from

Theophrastus, it has been known to keep[2] so long as two hundred

years. Even after it has been kept so long as fifty[3]

years, it retains its property of extinguishing a light; indeed,







it is the proper way of testing the genuineness of the drug to

hold it to the flame and make it scintillate above and below,

before finally extinguishing it. The elaterium which is pale,

smooth, and slightly bitter, is superior[4] to that which has a

grass-green appearance and is rough to the touch.



It is generally thought that the seed of this plant will

facilitate conception if a woman carries it attached to her person,

before it has touched the ground; and that it has the effect of

aiding parturition, if it is first wrapped in ram's wool, and then

tied round the woman's loins, without her knowing it, care

being taken to carry it out of the house the instant she is

delivered.



Those persons who magnify the praises of the wild cucumber say

that the very best is that of Arabia, the next being

that of Arcadia, and then that of Cyren: it bears a resemblance to

the heliotropium,[5] they say, and the fruit, about the

size of a walnut, grows between the leaves and branches. The

seed, it is said, is very similar in appearance to the tail of

a scorpion thrown back, but is of a whitish hue. Indeed,

there are some persons who give to this cucumber the name of

"scorpionium," and say that its seed, as well as the elaterium,

is remarkably efficacious as a cure for the sting of the scorpion. As

a purgative, the proper dose of either is from half

an obolus to an obolus, according to the strength of the patient, a

larger dose than this being fatal.[6] It is in the same

proportions, too, that it is taken in drink for phthiriasis[7] and

dropsy; applied externally with honey or old olive oil, it is

used for the cure of quinsy and affections of the trachea.







1. Fe says that this is not the fact, as it speedily deteriorates by

keeping.

2. Fe says that this is not the fact, as it speedily deteriorates by

keeping.

3. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. ix. c. 10.

4. Fe acknowledges the truth of this observation, that of a green colour

containing feculent matter, and showing that the juice is not pure.

5. In reality there is no such resemblance whatever. See B. xxii.

c. 29.

6. Fe says that this is an exaggerated account of the properties of the

wild cucumber, as it would require a very considerable dose to cause

death.

7. The Morbus pedicularis, or "lousy disease."




9. Chap. 9.-Rape; Nine Remedies.


CHAP. 9.-RAPE; NINE REMEDIES.



Rape, too, has its medicinal properties. Warmed, it is used as

an application for the cure of chilblains,[1] in addition to which,

it has the effect of protecting the feet from cold. A hot decoction

of rape is employed for the cure of cold gout; and raw

rape, beaten up with salt, is good for all maladies of the feet.

Rape-seed, used as a liniment, and taken in drink, with wine,

is said to have a salutary effect[2] against the stings of serpents,







and various narcotic poisons; and there are many persons who

attribute to it the properties of an antidote, when taken with

wine and oil.



Democritus has entirely repudiated the use of rape as an

article of food, in consequence of the flatulence[3] which it

produces; while Diocles, on the other hand, has greatly extolled

it, and has even gone so far as to say that it acts as an

aphrodisiac.[4] Dionysius, too, says the same of rape, and more

particularly if it is seasoned with rocket;[5] he adds, also, that

roasted, and then applied with grease, it is excellent for pains

in the joints.







1. A decoction of rape or turnips is still recommended for chilblains at

the present day. Fe remarks that ground mustard is much preferable.

2. This, as Fe remarks, he says of nearly all the vegetable productions

known.

3. It is only suited as an aliment to a strong stomach, and it is owing

to the property here mentioned that the School of Salerno says,-

Ventum spe capis, si tu vis vivere rapis.

and

Rapa juvat stomachum, novit producere ventum.

4. Dioscorides and Galen say the same, but this property is not

recognized in modern times.

5. "Eruca:" a plant itself of a very stimulating nature.




34. Chap. 34.-Pinions Of The Greeks Relative Thereto.


CHAP. 34.-PINIONS OF THE GREEKS RELATIVE THERETO.



As we have already given those of Cato, it will be as well

to set forth the opinions entertained by the Greek writers on

this subject, only in relation, however, to those points upon

which he has omitted to touch. They are of opinion that

cabbage, not thoroughly boiled, carries off the bile, and has

the effect of loosening the bowels; while, on the other hand,

if it is boiled twice over, it will act as an astringent. They

say, too, that as there is a natural[1] enmity between it and the

vine, it combats the effects of wine; that, if eaten before drinking, it is sure to prevent[2] drunkenness, being equally a dispellent of crapulence[3] if taken after drinking: that cabbage

is a food very beneficial to the eyesight, and that the juice of

it raw is even more so, if the corners of the eyes are only

touched with a mixture of it with Attic honey. Cabbage, too,







according to the same testimony, is extremely easy of digestion,[4] and, as an aliment, greatly tends to clear the senses.



The school of Erasistratus proclaims that there is nothing

more beneficial to the stomach and the sinews than cabbage;

for which reason, he says, it ought to be given to the paralytic

and nervous, as well as to persons affected with spitting of

blood. Hippocrates prescribes it, twice boiled, and eaten with

salt, for dysentery and cliac affections, as also for tenesmus

and diseases of the kidneys; he is of opinion, too, that, as

an aliment, it increases the quantity of the milk in women

who are nursing, and that it promotes the menstrual discharge.[5] The stalk, too, eaten raw, is efficacious in expelling

the dead ftus. Apollodorus prescribes the seed or else the

juice of the cabbage to be taken in cases of poisoning by fungi;

and Philistion recommends the juice for persons affected with

opisthotony, in goats'-milk, with salt and honey.



I find, too, that persons have been cured of the gout by eating

cabbage and drinking a decoction of that plant. This decoction

has been given, also, to persons afflicted with the cardiac disease

and epilepsy, with the addition of salt; and it has been ad-

ministered in white wine, for affections of the spleen, for a

period of forty days.



According to Philistion, the juice of the raw root should be

given as a gargle to persons afflicted with icterus[6] or phrenitis,

and for hiccup he prescribes a mixture of it, in vinegar, with

coriander, anise, honey, and pepper. Used as a liniment, cabbage, he says, is beneficial for inflations of the stomach; and

the very water, even, in which it has been boiled, mixed with

barley-meal, is a remedy for the stings of serpents[7] and foul

ulcers of long standing; a result which is equally effected by

a mixture of cabbage-juice with vinegar or fenugreek. It is

in this manner, too, that some persons employ it topically, for

affections of the joints and for gout. Applied topically, cabbage is a cure for epinyetis, and all kinds of spreading eruptions

on the body, as also for sudden[8] attacks of dimness; indeed, if







eaten with vinegar, it has the effect of curing the last. Applied by itself, it heals contusions and other livid spots; and

mixed with a hall of alum in vinegar, it is good as a liniment

for leprosy and itch-scabs: used in this way, too, it prevents

the hair from falling off.



Epicharmus assures us that, applied topically, cabbage is

extremely beneficial for diseases of the testes and genitals, and

even better still when employed with bruised beans; he says,

too, that it is a cure for convulsions; that, in combination

with rue, it is good for the burning heats of fever and maladies

of the stomach; and that, with rue-seed, it brings away the

after-birth. It is of use, also, for the bite of the shrew-mouse.

Dried cabbage-leaves, reduced to a powder, are a cathartic both

by vomit and by stool.







1. This absurd notion of antipathy is carried so far by the author of the

Geoponica, B. v. c. 11, that he states that if wine is thrown on cabbage

while on the fire, it will never be thoroughly boiled.

2. Fe remarks, that this fact would surely have engaged the attention

of the moderns, if there had been any truth in the statement.

3. "Crapulam discuti." "Crapula" was that state, after drinking, colloquially known at the present day as "seediness."

4. The contrary is in reality the case, it being a diet only suitable to

strong stomachs.

5. De Morb. Mulier. B. i. cc. 73 and 74. De Nat. Mulier. 29 and 31.

6. The jaundice.

7. Fe is inclined to account for the numerous antidotes and remedies

mentioned for the stings of serpents, by supposing that the stings them-

selves of many of them were not really venomous, but only supposed to be so.

8. "Repentinas caligines."




35. Chap. 35.-Cabbage-Sprouts.


CHAP. 35.-CABBAGE-SPROUTS.



In all varieties of the cabbage, the part most agreeable to

the taste is the cyma,[1] although no use is made of it in medicine, as it is difficult to digest, and by no means beneficial to

the kidneys. At the same time, too, it should not be omitted,

that the water in which it has been boiled,[2] and which is so

highly praised for many purposes, gives out a very bad smell

when poured upon the ground. The ashes of dried cabbage-stalks are generally reckoned among the caustic substances:

mixed with stale grease, they are employed for sciatica,

and, used as a liniment, in the form of a depilatory, toge-

ther with silphium[3] and vinegar, they prevent hair that has

been once removed from growing again. These ashes, too, are

taken lukewarm in oil, or else by themselves, for convulsions, internal ruptures, and the effects of falls with violence.



And are we to say then that the cabbage is possessed of no

evil qualities whatever? Certainly not, for the same authors

tell us, that it is apt to make the breath smell, and that it is

injurious to the teeth and gums. In Egypt, too, it is never

eaten, on account of its extreme bitterness.[4]











1. "Sprout," or "Brussels sprout." See B. xix. e. 41.

2. He is probably speaking of cabbage-water in general.

3. See B. xix. c. 15.

4. This bitter or pungent cabbage, Fe suggests, did not, probably,

belong to the genus Brassica.




41. Chap. 41.-Bulbine; One Remedy. Bulb Emetic.


CHAP. 41.-BULBINE; ONE REMEDY. BULB EMETIC.



The Greeks give the name bulbine[1] to a plant with leaves

resembling those of the leek, and a red bulbous root. This

plant, it is said, is marvellously good for wounds, but only

when they are of recent date. The bulbous plant known as

the "emetic" bulb,[2] from the effects which it produces, has

dark leaves,[3] and longer than those of the other kinds.











1. The Hyacinthus botryoides of Linnus, most probably.

2. "Bulbus vomitorius." The Narcissus jonquilla of Linnus, the

"emetic jonquil." The bulb of the Spanish jonquil acts as a strong emetic.

3. Dioscorides says, more correctly, a black outer coat or peeling.




42. Chap. 42. (10.)-Garden Asparagus; With The Next Twenty-Four Remedies.


CHAP. 42. (10.)-GARDEN ASPARAGUS; WITH THE NEXT

TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES.



Asparagus[1] is said to be extremely wholesome as an aliment

to the stomach. With the addition of cummin, it dispels

flatulency of the stomach and colon; it sharpens the eyesight

also, acts as a mild aperient upon the stomach, and, boiled with

wine, is good for pains in the chest and spine, and diseases of

the intestines. For pains in the loins and kidneys asparagus-

seed[2] is administered in doses of three oboli, taken with an

equal proportion of cummin-seed. It acts as an aphrodisiac,

and is an extremely useful diuretic, except that it has a tendency to ulcerate the bladder.[3]



The root, also, pounded and taken in white wine, is highly

extolled by some writers, as having the effect of disengaging

calculi, and of soothing pains in the loins and kidneys;

there are some persons, too, who administer this root with

sweet wine for pains in the uterus. Boiled in vinegar the

root is very beneficial in cases of elephantiasis. It is said that

if a person is rubbed with asparagus beaten up in oil, he will

never be stung by bees.







1. Asparagus is recognized in modern times, as exercising a strong action

on the kidneys. Fe says, that according to Dr. Broussais, it is a sedative

to palpitations of the heart, an assertion, the truth of which, he says, his

own experience has confirmed. The root is also looked upon as diuretic.

2. Asparagus seed is not used in modern pharmacy, and it is very doubtful if it possesses any virtues at all.

3. Fe says that there is no truth in this assertion.




43. Chap. 43.-Corruda, Libycum, Or Orminum.


CHAP. 43.-CORRUDA, LIBYCUM, OR ORMINUM.



Wild asparagus is by some persons called "corruda," by

others "libycum," and by the people of Attica "orminus."[1]

For all the affections above enumerated it is more efficacious

even than the cultivated kind, that which is white[2] more

particularly. This vegetable has the effect of dispelling the

jaundice, and a decoction of it, in doses of one hemina, is

recommended as an aphrodisiac; a similar effect is produced

also by a mixture of asparagus seed and dill in doses of three







oboli respectively. A decoction of asparagus juice is given

also for the stings of serpents; and the root of it, mixed with

that of marathrum,[3] is reckoned in the number of the most

valuable remedies we are acquainted with.



In cases of hmaturia, Chrysippus recommends a mixture

of asparagus, parsley, and cummin seed, to be given to the

patient every five days, in doses of three oboli, mixed with

two cyathi of wine. He says, however, that though employed

this way, it is a good diuretic, it is bad for dropsy, and

acts as an antaphrodisiac; and that it is injurious to the

bladder, unless it is boiled first.[4] He states also, that if the

water in which it is boiled is given to dogs, it will kill them;[5]

and that the juice of the root boiled in wine, kept in the mouth,

is an effectual cure for tooth-ache.







1. See B. xix. c. 42: the Asparagus tenuifolius of Linnus, the wild

asparagus, or Corruda of the South of France.

2. Fe says that in the South of Europe there is a kind, known to botanists as white asparagus, with a prickly stem: he suggests that it may

possibly be the same as that here spoken of.

3. Or fennel. Fe says that, till very recently, the roots of asparagus

and of fennel were combined in medicine, forming part of the five "major

aperitive" roots. The sirop of the five aperitive roots is still used, he says,

in medicine.

4. Chrysippus and Dioscorides were of opinion, that a decoction of asparagus root causes sterility in women; a false notion, which, as Fe remarks, prevailed very generally in Greece.

5. See B. xix. c. 37. Parsley, though possessed of marked properties,

is but little employed in medicine. What Pliny here states respecting it,

Fe says, is a tissue of fables: but it is still used for the cure of sores, and

even as an ophthalmic.




44. Chap. 44. (11.)-Parsley; Seventeen Remedies.


CHAP. 44. (11.)-PARSLEY; SEVENTEEN REMEDIES.



Parsley[1] is held in universal esteem; for we find sprigs of

it swimming in the draughts of milk given us to drink in

country-places; and we know that as a seasoning for sauces, it

is looked upon with peculiar favour. Applied to the eyes with

honey, which must also be fomented from time to time with a

warm decoction of it, it has a most marvellous efficacy in cases

of defluxion of those organs or of other parts of the body; as

also when beaten up and applied by itself, or in combination

with bread or with polenta. Fish, too, when found to be in

an ailing state in the preserves, are greatly refreshed by

giving them green parsley. As to the opinions entertained

upon it among the learned, there is not a single production

dug out of the earth in reference to which a greater diversity

exists.







Parsley is distinguished as male and female:[2] according to

Chrysippus, the female plant has a hard leaf and more curled

than the other, a thick stem, and an acrid, hot taste. Dionysius says, that the female is darker than the other kind,

has a shorter root, and engenders small worms.[3] Both of

these writers, however, agree in saying that neither kind of

parsley should be admitted into the number of our aliments;

indeed, they look upon it as nothing less than sacrilege to do so,

seeing that parsley is consecrated to the funereal feasts in honour

of the dead. They say, too, that it is injurious to the eyesight, that the stalk of the female plant engenders small worms,

for which reason it is that those who eat of it become barren-males as well as females; and that children suckled by females

who live on a parsley diet, are sure to be epileptic. They

agree, however, in stating that the male plant is not so injurious in its effects as the female, and that it is for this reason

that it is not absolutely condemned and classed among the forbidden plants. The leaves of it, employed as a cataplasm, are

used for dispersing hard tumours[4] in the mamill; and when

boiled in water, it makes it more agreeable to drink. The

juice of the root more particularly, mixed with wine, allays

the pains of lumbago, and, injected into the ears, it diminishes

hardness of hearing. The seed of it acts as a diuretic, promotes the menstrual discharge, and brings away the afterbirth.



Bruises and livid spots, if fomented with a decoction of

parsley-seeed, will resume their natural colour. Applied topically, with the white of egg, or boiled in water, and then

drunk, it is remedial for affections of the kidneys; and beaten

up in cold water it is a cure for ulcers of the mouth. The

seed, mixed with wine, or the root, taken with old wine, has

the effect of breaking calculi in the bladder. The seed, too,

is given in white wine, to persons afflicted with the jaundice.







1. This is not consistent with fact.

2. This distinction, Fe says, cannot be admitted.

3. Or maggots.

4. This belief in its efficacy, Fe says, still exists.




45. Chap. 45.-Apiastrum, Or Melissophyllum.


CHAP. 45.-APIASTRUM, OR MELISSOPHYLLUM.



Hyginus gave the name of "apiastrum" to melissophyl-

lum:[1] but that which grows in Sardinia is poisonous, and







universally condemned. I speak here of this plant, because

I feel it my duty to place before the reader every object which

has been classified, among the Greeks, under the same name.







1. See B. xxi. c. 86: this is the Melissa officinalis of Linnus, or balm-

gentle, from which the bees gather honey, quite a different plant to apiastrum or wild parsley. The Sardinian plant here mentioned, is probably

the same as the Ranunculus, mentioned in B. xxv. c. 109, where its iden-

tification will be further discussed.




47. Chap. 47. (12.)-Petroselinon; One Remedy. Buselinon; One Remedy.


CHAP. 47. (12.)-PETROSELINON; ONE REMEDY. BUSELINON;

ONE REMEDY.



Another kind again, which grows in rocky places, is known

by some persons as "petroselinon:"[1] it is particularly good

for abscesses, taken in doses of two spoonfuls of the juice to

one cyathus of juice of horehound, mixed with three cyathi of

warm water. Some writers have added buselinon[2] to the list,







which differs only from the cultivated kind in the shortness

of the stalk and the red colour of the root, the medicinal

properties being just the same. Taken in drink or applied topically, it is an excellent remedy for the stings of

serpents.







1. "Rock-parsley:" from this name comes our word "parsley." It is

not clearly known to what variety of parsley he refers under this name.

2. Or "ox-parsley." C. Bauhin identifies this with the Petroselinum Cre-

ticum or Agriopastinaca of Crete; but, as Fe remarks, it is not clear to

which of the Umbellifer he refers under that name.




48. Chap. 48.-Ocimum; Thirty-Five Remedies.


CHAP. 48.-OCIMUM; THIRTY-FIVE REMEDIES.



Chrysippus has exclaimed as strongly, too, against ocimum[1]

as he has against parsley, declaring that it is prejudicial to the

stomach and the free discharge of the urine, and is injurious

to the sight; that it produces insanity, too, and lethargy, as

well as diseases of the liver; and that it is for this reason that

goats refuse to touch it. Hence he comes to the conclusion,

that the use of it ought to be avoided by man. Some persons

go so far as to say, that if beaten up, and then placed beneath

a stone, a scorpion will breed there;[2] and that if chewed, and

then placed in the sun, worms will breed in it. The people of

Africa maintain, too, that if a person is stung by a scorpion

the same day on which he has eaten ocimum, his life cannot

possibly be saved. Even more than this, there are some who

assert, that if a handful of ocimum is beaten up with ten sea

or river crabs, all the scorpions in the vicinity will be attracted

to it. Diodotus, too, in his Book of Recipes,[3] says, that

ocimum, used as an article of food, breeds lice.



Succeeding ages, again, have warmly defended this plant; it

has been maintained, for instance, that goats do eat it, that

the mind of no one who has eaten of it is at all affected, and,

that mixed with wine, with the addition of a little vinegar, it is

a cure for the stings of land scorpions, and the venom of those

found in the sea. Experience has proved, too, that the smell

of this plant in vinegar is good for fainting fits and lethargy,







as well as inflammations; that employed as a cooling liniment, with rose oil, myrtle oil, or vinegar, it is good for headache; and that applied topically with wine, it is beneficial for

defluxions of the eyes. It has been found also, that it is good

for the stomach; that taken with vinegar, it dispels flatulent

eructations; that applications of it arrest fluxes of the bowels;

that it acts as a diuretic, and that in this way it is good for

jaundice and dropsy, as well as cholera and looseness of the

bowels.



Hence it is that Philistio has prescribed it even for cliac

affections, and boiled, for dysentery. Some persons, too,

though contrary to the opinion of Plistonicus, have given it

in wine for tenesmus and spitting of blood, as also for obstructions of the viscera. It is employed, too, as a liniment

for the mamill, and has the effect of arresting the secretion

of the milk. It is very good also for the ears of infants, when

applied with goose-grease more particularly. The seed of it,

beaten up, and inhaled into the nostrils, is provocative of

sneezing, and applied as a liniment to the head, of running

at the nostrils: taken in the food, too, with vinegar, it purges

the uterus. Mixed with copperas[4] it removes warts. It acts,

also, as an aphrodisiac, for which reason it is given to horses

and asses at the season for covering.



(13.) Wild ocimum has exactly the same properties in every

respect, though in a more active degree. It is particularly

good, too, for the various affections produced by excessive vo-

miting, and for abscesses of the womb. The root, mixed with

wine, is extremely efficacious for bites inflicted by wild

beasts.







1. The Ocimum basilicum of Linnus, according to most commentators:

though Fe is not of that opinion, it being originally from India, and never

found in a wild state. From what Varro says, De Re Rust. B. i. c. 31,

he thinks that it must be sought among the leguminous plants, the genus

Hedysarum, Lathyrus, or Medicago. He remarks also, that Pliny is the

more to be censured for the absurdities contained in this Chapter, as the

preceding writers had only mentioned them to ridicule them.

2. See B. ix. c. 51.

3. "In Empericis."

4. "Atramento sutorio."




65. Chap. 65.-Cultivated Cunila; Three Remedies. Mountain Cunila; Seven Remedies.


CHAP. 65.-CULTIVATED CUNILA; THREE REMEDIES. MOUNTAIN CUNILA; SEVEN REMEDIES.



Cultivated cunila[1] has also its medicinal uses. The juice

of it, in combination with rose oil, is good for the ears; and

the plant itself is taken in drink, to counteract the effects of

violent blows.[2]



A variety of this plant is the mountain cunila, similar to wild

thyme in appearance, and particularly efficacious for the stings of

serpents. This plant is diuretic, and promotes the lochial discharge:

it aids the digestion, too, in a marvellous degree. Both

varieties have a tendency to sharpen the appetite, even when

persons are troubled with indigestion, if taken fasting in drink:

they are good, too, for sprains, and, taken with barley-meal, and

vinegar and water, they are extremely useful for stings inflicted

by wasps and insects of a similar nature.



We shall have occasion to speak of other varieties of

libanotis[3] in their appropriate places.







1. The Satureia thymbra of Linnus. See B. xix. c. 50.

2. "Ictus," possibly "stings."

3. See the preceding Chapter: also B. xix. c. 62, and B. xxi. c. 32.




100. Chap. 100. (24.)-The Composition Of Theriaca.


CHAP. 100. (24.)-THE COMPOSITION OF THERIACA.



But as we are now about to leave the garden plants, we will

take this opportunity of describing a very famous preparation







extracted from them as an antidote against the stings of all

kinds of venomous animals: it is inscribed in verse[1] upon a

stone in the Temple of sculapius at Cos.



Take two denarii of wild thyme, and the same quantity of

opopanax and meum respectively; one denarius of trefoil

seed; and of aniseed, fennel-seed, ammi, and parsley, six

denarii respectively, with twelve denarii of meal of fitches.

Beat up these ingredients together, and pass them through a

sieve; after which they must be kneaded with the best wine

that can be had, and then made into lozenges of one victoriatus[2] each: one of these is to be given to the patient, steeped

in three cyathi of wine. King Antiochus[3] the Great, it is

said, employed this theriaca[4] against all kinds of venomous

animals, the asp excepted.



SUMMARY.-Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations,

one thousand, five hundred, and six.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Cato[5] the Censor, M. Varro,[6]

Pompeius Linnus,[7] C. Valgius,[8] Hyginus,[9] Sextius Niger[10]







who wrote in Greek, Julius Bassus[11] who wrote in Greek,

Celsus,[12] Antonius Castor.[13]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Democritus,[14] Theophrastus,[15]

Orpheus,[16] Monander[17] who wrote the "Biochresta," Pythagoras,[18] Nicander.[19]



MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.-Chrysippus,[20] Diocles,[21] Ophelion,[22] Heraclides,[23] Hicesius,[24] Dionysius,[25] Apollodorus[26] of

Citium, Apollodorus[27] of Tarentum, Praxagoras,[28] Plistoni-







cus,[29] Medius,[30] Dieuches,[31] Cleophantus,[32] Philistion,[33] Asclepiades,[34] Crateuas,[35] Petronius Diodotus,[36] lollas,[37] Erasistratus,[38] Diagoras,[39] Andreas,[40] Mnesides,[41] Epicharmus,[42] Damion,[43] Dalion,[44] Sosimenes,[45] Tlepolemus,[46] Metrodo-







rus,[47] Solo,[48] Lycus,[49] Olympias[50] of Thebes, Philinus,[51] Petrichus,[52] Micton,[53] Glaucias,[54] Xenocrates.[55]









1. Galen gives these lines, sixteen in number, in his work De Antidot.

B. ii. c. 14; the proportions, however, differ from those given by Pliny.

2. Half a denarius; the weight being so called from the coin which was

stamped with the image of the Goddess of Victory. See B. xxxiii. c. 13.

3. Antiochus II.. the father of Antiochus Epiphanes.

4. Or "antidote." In this term has originated our word "treacle," in

the Elizabethan age spelt "triacle." The medicinal virtues of this com-

position were believed in, Fe remarks, so recently as the latter half of

the last century. The most celebrated, however, of all the "theriac"

of the ancients, was the "Theriaca Andromachi," invented by Androma-

chus, the physician of the Emperor Nero, and very similar to that com-

posed by Mithridates, king of Pontus, and by means of which he was ren-

dered proof, it is said, against all poisons. See a very learned and inter-

esting account of the Theriac of the ancients, by Dr. Greenhill, in Smith's

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. His articles "Pharmaceu-

tica," an "Therapeutica," will also be found well worth attention by the

reader of Pliny.

5. See end of B. iii.

6. See end of B. ii.

7. See end of B. xiv.

8. He is also mentioned in B. xxv. c. 2, as having commenced a treatise

on Medicinal Plants, which he did not live to complete. It is not im-

probable that he is the same Valgius that is mentioned in high terms by

Horace B. i. Sat. 10.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. See end of B. xii.

11. Supposed by some to be the same with the Bassus Tullius mentioned

by ancient writers as the friend of Niger, possibly the Sextius Niger here

mentioned.

12. See end of B. vii.

13. He lived at Rome in the first century of the Christian era, and possessed a botanical garden, probably the earliest mentioned. He lived

more than a hundred years, in perfect health both of body and mind. See

B. xxv. c. 5.

14. See end of B. ii.

15. See end of B. iii.

16. A mystic personage of the early Grecian Mythology, under whose

name many spurious works were circulated. Pliny says, B. xxv. c. 2, that

he was the first who wrote with any degree of attention on the subject of

Plants.

17. See end of B. xix.

18. See end of B. ii.

19. See end of B. viii.

20. Probably Chrysippus of Cnidos, a pupil of Eudoxus and Philistion,

father of Chrysippus, the physician to Ptolemy Soter, and tutor to Erasistratus. Others, again, think that the work "on the Cabbage," mentioned

by Pliny in c. 33, was written by another Chrysippus, a pupil of Erasistratus, in the third century B.C.

21. A native of Carystus, in Euba, who lived in the fourth century B.C.

He belonged to the medical sect of the Dogmatici, and wrote several medical works, of which the titles only and a few fragments remain.

22. Of this writer nothing whatever is known.

23. For Heraclides of Heraclea, see end of B. xii.; for Heraclides of

Pontus, see end of B. iv.; and for Heraclides of Tarentum, see end of B.

xii. They were all physicians.

24. See end of B. xv.

25. See end of B. xii.

26. It was probably this personage, or the one next mentioned, who wrote

to Ptolemy, one of the kings of Egypt, giving him directions as to what

wines he should drink. See B. xiv. c. 9. A person of this name wrote a

work on Ointments and Chaplets, quoted by Athenus, and another on

Venomous Animals, quoted by the same author. This last is probably the

work referred to by Pliny, B. xxi. cc. 15, 29, &c. It has been suggested

also, that the proper reading here is "Apollonius" of Citium, a pupil of

Zopyrus, a physician of Alexandria.

27. See the preceding Note.

28. A celebrated physician, a native of the island of Cos. He belonged

to the medical sect of the Dogmatici, and flourished probably in the fourth

century B.C. He was more particularly celebrated for his comparatively

accurate knowledge of anatomy. The titles only and a few fragments of

his works survive.

29. A pupil of Praxagoras. He appears to have written a work on

Anatomy, quoted more than once by Galen.

30. A pupil of Chrysippus of Cnidos, and who lived probably in the

fourth and third centuries B.C. Galen speaks of him as being held in

great repute among the Greeks.

31. He flourished in the fourth century B.C., and belonged to the medical sect of the Dogmatici. He wrote some medical works, of which no-

thing but a few fragments remain.

32. He lived probably about the beginning of the third century B.C., as

he was the tutor of Antigenes and Mnemon. He seems to have been

famous for his medicinal prescriptions of wine, and the quantities of cold

water which he gave to his patients.

33. Born either in Sicily or at Locri Epizephyrii, in Italy. He is supposed to have lived in the fourth century B.C. By some persons he was

thought to have been one of the founders of the sect of the Empirici. He

wrote works on Malteria Medica and Cookery, and is several times quoted

by Pliny and Galen.

34. See end of B. vii.

35. A Greek herbalist, who lived about the beginning of the first cen-

tury B.C. He is mentioned by Galen as one of the most eminent writers

on Materia Medica. Another physician of the same name is supposed to

have lived in the time of Hippocrates.

36. A Greek physician, supposed to have lived in or before the first century B.C. Dioscorides and Saint Epiphanius speak of Petronius and Dio-

dotus, making them different persons; and it is not improbable that the

true reading in c. 32 of this Book, is "Petronius et Diodotus."

37. See end of B. xii.

38. See end of B. xi.

39. See end of B. xii.

40. It is probable that there were several Greek physicians of this name;

but the only one of whom anything certain is known is the physician to

Ptolemy Philopater, king of Egypt, in whose tent he was killed by Theodotus, the tolian, B.C. 217. He was probably the first writer on hydrophobia. Eratosthenes is said to have accused him of plagiarism.

41. See end of B. xii.

42. It is doubtful if the person of this name to whom Pliny attributes a

work on the Cabbage, in cc. 34 and 36 of this Book, was the same individual as Epicharmus of Cos, the Comic poet, born B.C. 540. It has been

suggested that the botanical writer was a different personage, the brother

of the Comic poet Demologus.

43. Possibly the same person as the Damon mentioned at the end of B.

vii. He is mentioned in c. 40 of this Book, and in B. xxiv. c. 120, and

wrote a work on the Onion.

44. See end of B. vi.

45. Beyond the mention made of him in c. 73 of this Book, nothing whatever is known relative to this writer.

46. Beyond the mention made of him in c. 73, nothing is known of him.

Some read "Theopolemus."

47. Probably Metrodorus of Chios, a philosopher, who flourished about

B. C. 330, and professed the doctrine of the Sceptics. Cicero, Acad. ii. 23,

73, gives a translation of the first sentence of his work "On Nature."

48. A physician of Smyrna. He is called Solon the Dietetic, by Galen;

but nothing further seems to be known of his history.

49. See end of B. xii.

50. A Theban authoress, who wrote on Medicine; mentioned also by

Plinius Valerianus, the physician, and Pollux.

51. A Greek physician, a native of Cos, the reputed founder of the sect

of the Empirici. He probably lived in the third century B.C. From

Athenus we learn that he wrote a work on Botany. A parallel has been

drawn between Philinus and the late Dr. Hahnemann, by F. F. Brisken,

Berlin, 1834.

52. See end of B. xix.

53. The Scholiast on Nicander mentions a treatise on Botany written by

a person of this name: and a work of his on Medicine is mentioned by

Labbe as existing in manuscript in the Library at Florence.

54. A Greek physician of this name belonging to the sect of the Empirici,

lived probably in the third or second century B.C. Galen mentions him

as one of the earliest commentators on the works of Hippocrates. It is

uncertain, however, whether he is the person so often quoted by Pliny.

55. A physician of Aphrodisias, in Cilicia, who lived in the reign of

Tiberius. He wrote some pharmaceutical works, and is censured by Galen

for his disgusting remedies, such as human brains, flesh, urine, liver, excrements, &c. There is a short essay by him still in existence, on the

Aliments derived from the Aquatic Animals.




0. > Book Xxi. An Account Of Flowers. And Those Used For Chaplets More Particularly.


BOOK XXI.

AN ACCOUNT OF FLOWERS. AND THOSE USED FOR

CHAPLETS MORE PARTICULARLY.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Nature Of Flowers And Garlands.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE NATURE OF FLOWERS AND GARLANDS.



Cato has recommended that flowers for making chaplets

should also be cultivated in the garden; varieties remarkable

for a delicacy which it is quite impossible to express, inas-

much as no individual can find such facilities for describing

them as Nature does for bestowing on them their numerous tints

-Nature, who here in especial shows herself in a sportive

mood, and takes a delight in the prolific display of her varied

productions. The other[1] plants she has produced for our use

and our nutriment, and to them accordingly she has granted

years and even ages of duration: but as for the flowers and

their perfumes, she has given them birth for but a day-a

mighty lesson to man, we see, to teach him that that which in

its career is the most beauteous and the most attractive to the

eye, is the very first to fade and die.



Even the limner's art itself possesses no resources for reproducing the colours of the flowers in all their varied tints

and combinations, whether we view them in groups alternately blending their hues, or whether arranged in festoons, each

variety by[2] itself, now assuming a circular form, now running

obliquely, and now disposed in a spiral pattern: or whether,

as we see sometimes, one wreath is interwoven within another.







1. See B. xxii. c. 1.

2. "Sive privatis generum funiculis in orbem, in obliquum, in ambitarm

qudam coron per coronas currunt." As we know but little of the forms

of the garlands and chaplets of the ancients, the exact translation of this

passage is very doubtful.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-Garlands And Chaplets.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-GARLANDS AND CHAPLETS.



The ancients used chaplets of diminutive size, called

"struppi;"[1] from which comes our name for a chaplet, "stro-







phiolum." Indeed, it was only by very slow degrees that

this last word[2] became generalized, as the chaplets that were

used at sacrifices, or were granted as the reward of military

valour, asserted their exclusive right to the name of "corona."

As for garlands, when they came to be made of flowers, they

received the name of "serta," from the verb "sero,"[3] or

else from our word "series."[4] The use[5] of flowers for garlands is not so very ancient, among the Greeks even.







1. According to Boettiger, the word "struppus" means a string arranged

as a fillet or diadem.

2. Fe makes the word "vocabulum" apply to "corona," and not to

"struppus;" but the passage will hardly admit of that rendering.

3. "To bind" or "join together."

4. A "connected line," from the verb "sero."

5. By "quod," Hardouin takes Pliny to mean, the use of the word

sparto\n, among the Greeks, corresponding with the Latin word "sertum."




5. Chap. 5.-The Great Honour In Which Chaplets Were Held By The Ancients.


CHAP. 5.-THE GREAT HONOUR IN WHICH CHAPLETS WERE HELD

BY THE ANCIENTS.



Chaplets, however, were always held in a high degree of

estimation, those even which were acquired at the public

games. For it was the usage of the citizens to go down in

person to take part in the contests of the Circus, and to

send their slaves and horses thither as well. Hence it is that

we find it thus written in the laws of the Twelve Tables:







"If any person has gained a chaplet himself, or by his

money,[1] let the same be given to him as the reward of his

prowess." There is no doubt that by the words "gained by

his money," the laws meant a chaplet which had been gained

by his slaves or horses. Well then, what was the honour acquired

thereby? It was the right secured by the victor, for

himself and for his parents, after death, to be crowned without fail,

while the body was laid out in the house,[2] and on its

being carried[3] to the tomb.



On other occasions, chaplets were not indiscriminately

worn, not even those which had been won in the games.







1. "Pecuni." Fe compares this usage with the employment of jockies

at horse-races in England and France.

2. "Intus positus esset."

3. "Foris ferretur."




6. Chap. 6.-The Severity Of The Ancients In Reference To Chaplets.


CHAP. 6.-THE SEVERITY OF THE ANCIENTS IN REFERENCE TO CHAPLETS.



Indeed the rules upon this point were remarkably severe.

L. Fulvius, a banker,[1] having been accused, at the time of

the Second Punic War, of looking down from the balcony[2]

of his house upon the Forum, with a chaplet of roses upon

his head, was imprisoned by order of the Senate, and was not

liberated before the war was brought to a close. P. Munatius, having

placed upon his head a chaplet of flowers taken

from the statue of Marsyas,[3] was condemned by the Triumviri to be

put in chains. Upon his making appeal to the

tribunes of the people, they refused to intercede in his behalf

-a very different state of things to that at Athens, where

the young men,[4] in their drunken revelry, were in the habit,







before midday, of making their way into the very schools of

the philosophers even. Among ourselves, no such instance of

a similar licentiousness is to be found, unless, indeed, in the

case of the daughter[5] of the late Emperor Augustus, who, in

her nocturnal debaucheries, placed a chaplet on the statue[6]

of Marsyas, conduct deeply deplored in the letters of that

god.[7]







1. Or "money-changer," "argentarius."

2. "E pergul su." Scaliger thinks that the "pergula" was a part

of a house built out into the street, while, according to Ernesti, it was a

little room in the upper part of a house. In B. xxxv. c. 36, it clearly

means a room on the ground-floor.

3. In the Fora of ancient cities there was frequently a statue of

this mythological personage, with one hand erect, in token, Servius

says (on

B. iv. 1. 58 of the neid), of the freedom of the state, Marsyas having been

the minister of Bacchus, the god of liberty. His statue in the Forum of

Rome was the place of assembly for the courtesans of that city, who used

to crown it with chaplets of flowers. See also Horace i. Sat. 6. 1. 120;

Juvenal, Sat. 9. l. 1 and 2; and Martial,ii. Ep. 64. l. 7.

4. Cujacius thinks that Pliny has in view here Polemen of Athens, who

when a young man, in his drunken revelry, burst into the school of

Xenocrates, the philosopher, with his fellow-revellers, wearing his

festive garland on his head. Being arrested, however, by the

discourse, he stopped

to listen, and at length, tearing off the garland, determined to enter on a

more abstemious course of life. Becoming an ardent disciple of

Xenocrates, he ultimately succeeded him at the head of the school.

The passage as given in the text, from its apparent incompleteness,

would appear to be in a mutilated state.

5. Julia. See B. vii. c. 46.

6. Thus acknowledging herself to be no better than a common courtesan.

7. "Illius dei."




7. Chap. 7.-A Citizen Decked With Flowers By The Roman People.


CHAP. 7.-A CITIZEN DECKED WITH FLOWERS BY THE ROMAN PEOPLE.



Scipio is the only person that ever received from the Roman

people the honour of being decked with flowers. This

Scipio received the surname of Serapio,[1] from his remarkable

resemblance to a certain person of that name who dealt in

pigs. He died in his tribuneship, greatly beloved by the

people, and in every way worthy of the family of the Africani.

The property he left was not sufficient to pay the expenses of

his burial; upon which the people made a subscription and

contracted[2] for his funeral, flowers being scattered upon the

body from every possible quarter[3] as it was borne along.







1. See B. vii. c. 10.

2. "Funus elocavit."

3. "E prospectu omni." "From every look-out:" i.e. from the roofs,

doors, and windows.




8. Chap. 8.-Plaited Chaplets. Needle-Work Chaplets. Nard-Leaf Chaplets. Silken Chaplets.


CHAP. 8.-PLAITED CHAPLETS. NEEDLE-WORK CHAPLETS. NARD-LEAF CHAPLETS. SILKEN CHAPLETS.



In those days, too, chaplets were employed in honour of the

gods, the Lares, public as well as domestic, the sepulchres,[1]

and the Manes. The highest place, however, in public estimation, was

held by the plaited chaplet; such as we find used







by the Salii in their sacred rites, and at the solemnization of

their yearly[2] banquets. In later times, the rose chaplet has

been adopted, and luxury arose at last to such a pitch that a

chaplet was held in no esteem at all if it did not consist entirely of leaves sown together with the needle. More recently,

again, they have been imported from India, or from nations

beyond the countries of India.



But it is looked upon as the most refined of all, to present

chaplets made of nard leaves, or else of silk of many colours

steeped in unguents. Such is the pitch to which the luxuriousness of our women has at last arrived!







1. This usage is still observed in the immortelles, laid on

the tombs of

departed friends, in Catholic countries on the continent. Tibullus

alludes to it, B. ii. El. 4:

"Atque aliquis senior veteres veneratus amores,

Annua constructo serta dabit tumulo."

2. At the conclusion of the festival of Mars on the 1st of March, and

for several successive days. These entertainments were celebrated in the

Temple of that god, and were proverbial for their excellence.




9. Chap. 9.-Authors Who Have Written On Flowers. An Anecdote Relative To Queen Cleopatra And Chaplets.


CHAP. 9.-AUTHORS WHO HAVE WRITTEN ON FLOWERS. AN ANECDOTE RELATIVE TO QUEEN CLEOPATRA AND CHAPLETS.



Among the Greeks, the physicians Mnesitheus and Callimachus have written separate treatises on the subject of

chaplets, making mention of such flowers as are injurious to

the head.[1] For, in fact, the health is here concerned to some

extent, as it is at the moments of carousal and gaiety in particular that penetrating odours steal insidiously upon the

brain-witness an instance in the wicked cunning displayed

upon one occasion by Cleopatra.



At the time when preparations were making for the battle

that was eventually fought at Actium, Antonius held the

queen in such extreme distrust as to be in dread of her very

attentions even, and would not so much as touch his food,

unless another person had tasted it first. Upon this, the

queen, it is said, wishing to amuse herself with his fears, had

the extremities of the flowers in a chaplet dipped in poison, and

then placed it upon her head.[2] After a time, as the hilarity

increased apace, she challenged Antonius to swallow the chap-







lets, mixed up with their drink. Who, under such circumstances

as these, could have apprehended treachery? Accordingly,

the leaves were stripped from off the chaplet, and thrown into

the cup. Just as Antonius was on the very point of drinking,

she arrested his arm with her hand.-"Behold, Marcus Antonius," said

she, "the woman against whom you are so careful to take these new

precautions of yours in employing your

tasters! And would then, if I could exist without you, either

means or opportunity of effecting my purpose be wanting to

me?" Saying this, she ordered a man to be brought from

prison, and made him drink off the potion; he did so, and

fell dead[3] upon the spot.



Besides the two authors above-mentioned, Theophrastus,[4]

among the Greeks, has written on the subject of flowers.

Some of our own writers also have given the title of "Anthologica" to their works, but no one, to my knowledge at least,

has treated expressly[5] of flowers. In fact, we ourselves have

no intention here of discussing the mode of wearing chaplets,

for that would be frivolous[6] indeed; but shall proceed to

state such particulars in relation to flowers as shall appear to

us deserving of remark.







1. It is a well-known fact, as Fe remarks, that the smell of flowers is

productive, in some persons, of head-ache, nausea, and vertigo. He states

also that persons have been known to meet their death from sleeping all

night in the midst of odoriferous flowers.

2. "Ipsaque capiti imposita." Holland and Ajasson render this as

though Cleopatra placed the garland on Antony's head, and not her own.

Littr agrees with the translation here adopted.

3. Fe remarks that we know of no poisons, hydrocyanic or prussic acid

excepted, so instantaneous in their effects as this; and that it is very

doubtful if they were acquainted with that poison.

4. Hist. Plant. B. vi. cc. 6, 7.

5. "Persecutus est."

6. A characteristic, it would appear, of the greater part of the

information already given in this Book.




13. Chap. 13.-How Seed Is Stained To Produce Tinted Flowers.


CHAP. 13.-HOW SEED IS STAINED TO PRODUCE TINTED FLOWERS.



There has been invented[1] also a method of tinting the lily,

thanks to the taste of mankind for monstrous productions.

The dried stalks[2] of the lily are tied together in the month of

July, and hung up in the smoke: then, in the following

March, when the small knots[3] are beginning to disclose themselves, the stalks are left to steep in the lees of black or Greek

wine, in order that they may contract its colour, and are then

planted out in small trenches, some semi-sextarii of wine-lees

being poured around them. By this method purple lilies are

obtained, it being a very remarkable thing that we should be

able to dye a plant to such a degree as to make it produce a

coloured flower.







1. Fe remarks, that the extravagant proceeding here described by

Pliny with a seriousness that is perfectly ridiculous, does not merit any

discussion.

2. When detached from the bulb, the stem of the lily will infallibly die.

3. "Nudantibus se nodulis." There are no such knots in the lily, as

Fe remarks.




14. Chap. 14. (6.)-How The Several Varieties Of The Violet Are Respectively Produced, Grown, And Cultivated. The Three Different Colours Of The Violet. The Five Varieties Of The Yellow Violet.


CHAP. 14. (6.)-HOW THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THE VIOLET ARE RESPECTIVELY PRODUCED, GROWN, AND CULTIVATED. THE THREE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF THE VIOLET. THE FIVE VARIETIES OF THE YELLOW VIOLET.



Next after the roses and the lilies, the violet is held in the

highest esteem: of this there are several varieties, the purple,[1] the yellow, and the white, all of them reproduced from

plants, like the cabbage. The purple violet, which springs

up spontaneously in sunny spots, with a thin, meagre soil, has

larger petals than the others, springing immediately from the

root, which is of a fleshy substance. This violet has a name,

too, distinct from the other wild kinds, being called "ion,"[2]

and from it the ianthine[3] cloth takes its name.



Among the cultivated kinds, the yellow[4] violet is held in the

greatest esteem. The Tusculan violet, and that known as the







"marine"[5] violet, have petals somewhat broader than the

others, but not so odoriferous; the Calatian[6] violet, too, which

has a smaller leaf, is entirely destitute of smell. This last is

a present to us from the autumn, the others from the spring.







1. The Viola odorata of Linnus.

2. The Greek name.

3. "Ianthina vestis," violet-coloured.

4. Desfontaines identifies this with the Cheiranthus Cheiri; but Fe says

that there is little doubt that it belongs to the Viola tricolor herbensis

(pansy, or heart's-ease), in the petals of which the yellow predominates,

and the type of which is the field violet, or Viola arvensis, the flowers of

which are extremely small, and entirely yellow.

5. This has been identified with the Cheiranthus incanus, the Cheiranthus

tricuspidatus of the shores of the Mediterranean, the Hesperis maritima of

Linnus; also, by some commentators, with the Campanula Medium of

Linnus.

6. So called, according to Pintianus and Salmasius, from Calatia, a town

of Italy. Fe adopts the reading "Calathiana," and considers it to have

received that name from its resemblance to the Caltha mentioned in the

next Chapter. Dalechamps identifies it with the Digitalis purpurea;

Gessner, Dodonus, and Thalius, with the Gentiana pneumonanthe, others

with the Gentiana ciliata and Pannonica, and Sprengel with the Gentiana

verna of Linnus. Fe admits himself totally at a loss on the subject.




15. Chap. 15.-The Caltha. The Scopa Regia.


CHAP. 15.-THE CALTHA. THE SCOPA REGIA.



Next to it comes the caltha, the flowers of which are of

similar colour and size;[1] in the number of its petals, however,

it surpasses the marine violet, the petals of which are never

more than five in number. The marine violet is surpassed,

too, by the other in smell; that of the caltha being very powerful. The smell, too, is no less powerful in the plant known as

the "scopa regia;"[2] but there it is the leaves of the plant,

and not the flowers, that are odoriferous.







1. "Concolori amplitudine." Gronovius, with considerable justice, expresses himself at a loss as to the exact meaning of these words. If

Sprengel and Salmasius are right in their conjectures that the Caltha of

Pliny and Virgil is the marigold, our Calendula officinalis, the passage

cannot mean that the flower of it is of the same size and colour with

any variety of the violet mentioned in the preceding Chapter. From the

description given of it by Dioscorides, it is more then probable that the

Caltha of the ancients is not the marigold, and Hardouin is probably

right in his conjecture that Pliny intends to describe a variety of the violet

under the name. Fe is at a loss as to its identification.

2. Or "royal broom." Sprengel thinks that this is the Chenopodium

scoparia, a plant common in Greece and Italy; and Fe is inclined to

coincide with that opinion, though, as he says, there are numerous other

plants with odoriferous leaves and pliant shoots, as its name, broom, would

seem to imply. Other writers would identify it with a Sideritis, and

others, again with an Achilla.




16. Chap. 16.-The Bacchar. The Combretum. Asarum.


CHAP. 16.-THE BACCHAR. THE COMBRETUM. ASARUM.



The bacchar,[1] too, by some persons known as "field nard,"







is odoriferous in the root only. In former times, it was the

practice to make unguents of this root, as we learn from the

poet Aristophanes, a writer of the Ancient Comedy; from

which circumstance some persons have erroneously given the

name of "exotic"[2] to the plant. The smell of it strongly resembles that of cinnamomum; and the plant grows in thin

soils, which are free from all humidity.



The name of "combretum"[3] is given to a plant that bears

a very strong resemblance to it, the leaves of which taper to

the fineness of threads; in height, however, it is taller than

the bacchar. These are the only[4] * * * * The error,

however, ought to be corrected, on the part of those who have

bestowed upon the bacchar the name of "field nard;" for that

in reality is the surname given to another plant, known to the

Greeks as "asaron," the description and features of which we

have already[5] mentioned, when speaking of the different va-

rieties of nard. I find, too, that the name of "asaron" has

been given to this plant, from the circumstance of its never[6]

being employed in the composition of chaplets.







1. See B. xii. c. 26. Fe. is inclined to coincide with Ruellius, and to

identify this with the Digitalis purpurea, clown's spikenard, or our Lady's

gloves. The only strong objection to this is the fact that the root of the

digitalis has a very faint but disagreeable smell, and not at all like that of

cinnamon. But then, as Fe says, we have no positive proof that the

"cinnamomum" of the ancients is identical with our cinnamon. See Vol.

iii. p. 138. Sprengel takes the "bacchar" of Virgil to be the Valeriana

Celtica, and the "baccharis" of the Greeks to be the Gnaphalium sanguineum, a plant of Egypt and Palestine. The bacchar has been also

identified with the Asperula odorata of Linnus, the Geum urbanum of

Linnus (the root of which has the smell of cloves), the Inula Vaillantii,

the Salvia Sclarea, and many other plants.

2. "Barbaricam." Everything that was not indigenous to the territory

of Rome, was "barbarum," or "barbaricum."

3. Csalpinus says that this is a rushy plant, called, in Tuscany, Herba

luziola; but Fe is quite at a loss for its identification.

4. Sillig is most probably right in his surmise that there is an hiatus

here.

5. In B. xii. c. 27. Asarum Europum, or foal-foot.

6. Probably meaning that it comes from a), "not," and sai/rw, "to adorn."




18. Chap. 18.-The Nature Of Odours.


CHAP. 18.-THE NATURE OF ODOURS.



All the odoriferous[1] substances, and consequently the plants,

differ from one another in their colour, smell, and juices. It

is but rarely[2] that the taste of an odoriferous substance is not







bitter; while sweet substances, on the other hand, are but

rarely odoriferous. Thus it is, too, that wine is more odoriferous

than must, and all the wild plants more so than the cultivated

ones.[3] Some flowers have a sweet smell at a distance,

the edge of which is taken off when they come nearer; such is

the case with the violet, for instance. The rose, when fresh

gathered, has a more powerful smell at a distance, and dried,[4]

when brought nearer. All plants have a more penetrating

odour, also, in spring[5] and in the morning; as the hour of

midday approaches, the scent becomes gradually weakened.[6]

The flowers, too, of young plants are less odoriferous than those

of old ones; but it is at mid-age[7] that the odour is most

penetrating in them all.



The rose and the crocus[8] have a more powerful smell when

gathered in fine weather, and all plants are more powerfully

scented in hot climates than in cold ones. In Egypt, however,

the flowers are far from odoriferous, owing to the dews and

exhalations with which the air is charged, in consequence of

the extended surface of the river. Some plants have an agreeable,

though at the same time extremely powerful smell; some,

again, while green, have no[9] smell at all, owing to the excess

of moisture, the buceros for example, which is the same as







fenugreek.[10] Not all flowers which have a penetrating odour

are destitute of juices, the violet, the rose, and the crocus, for

example; those, on the other hand, which have a penetrating

odour, but are destitute of juices, have all of them a very powerful smell, as we find the case with the two varieties[11] of the

lily. The abrotonum[12] and the amaracus[13] have a pungent

smell. In some plants, it is the flower only that is sweet, the

other parts being inodorous, the violet and the rose, for example.



Among the garden plants, the most odoriferous are the dry

ones, such as rue, mint, and parsley, as also those which grow

on dry soils. Some fruits become more odoriferous the older

they are, the quince, for example, which has also a stronger

smell when gathered than while upon the tree. Some plants,

again, have no smell but when broken asunder, or when bruised,

and others only when they are stripped of their bark. Certain

vegetable substances, too, only give out a smell when subjected

to the action of fire, such as frankincense and myrrh, for example. All flowers are more bitter to the taste when bruised

than when left untouched.[14] Some plants preserve their smell

a longer time when dried, the melilote, for example; others,

again, make the place itself more odoriferous where they grow,

the iris[15] for instance, which will even render the whole of a

tree odoriferous, the roots of which it may happen to have

touched. The hesperis[16] has a more powerful odour at night,

a property to which it owes its name.



Among the animals, we find none that are odoriferous, unnless, indeed, we are inclined to put faith in what has been said

about the panther.[17]











1. All these statements as to the odours of various substances, are from

Theophrastus, De Causis, B. vi. c. 22.

2. He does not say, however, that it is but rarely that a bitter substance

is not odoriferous; a sense in which Fe seems to have understood him, as

he says, "This assertion is not true in general, and there are numerous

exceptions; for instance, quassia wood, which is inodorous and yet

intensely bitter." The essential oil, he remarks, elaborated in the

tissue of the corolla, is the ordinary source of the emanations of

the flower.

3. Fe remarks that cultivation gives to plants a softer and more aqueous

consistency, which is consequently injurious to the developement of the

essential oil.

4. Theophrastus, from whom this is borrowed, might have said with

more justice, Fe remarks, that certain roses have more odour when dried

than when fresh gathered. Such is the case, he says, with the Provence

rose. Fresh roses, however, have a more pronounced smell, the nearer

they are to the olfactory organs.

5. This is by no means invariably the case: in fact, the smell of most

odoriferous plants is most powerful in summer.

6. Because the essential oils evaporate more rapidly.

7. With Littr, we adopt the reading "tate," "mid-age," and

not "state," "midsummer," for although the assertion would be in

general correct, Pliny would contradict the statement just made, that

all plants have a more penetrating odour in spring. This reading is

supported also by the text of Theophrastus.

8. Or saffron.

9. This is a just observation, but the instances might be greatly extended, as Fe says.

10. See B. xviii. c. 39.

11. The white lily and the red lily. See c. 11 of this Book.

12. As to the Abrotonum, see B. xiii. c. 2, and c. 34 of this Book.

13. See c. 35 of this Book.

14. Or in other words, the interior of the petals has a more bitter flavour

than that of the exterior surface.

15. Pliny makes a mistake here, in copying from Theophrastus. De Causis,

B. vi. c. 25. That author is speaking not of the flower, but of the rainbow, under the name of "iris." Pliny has himself made a similar statement as to the rainbow, in B. xii. c. 52, which he would appear here to

have forgotten.

16. The Cheiranthus tristis of Linnus, or sad gilliflower, Fe thinks.

17. See B. viii. c. 23. Pliny did not know of the existence of the

muskdeer, the Muschus moschiferus of Eastern Asia: and lie seems not

to have

thought of the civet, (if, indeed, it was known to him) the fox, the weasel,

and the polecat, the exhalations from which have a peculiar smell. The

same, too, with the urine of the panther and other animals of the genus

Felis.




19. Chap. 19.-The Iris.


CHAP. 19.-THE IRIS.



There is still another distinction, which ought not to be

omitted,-the fact, that many of the odoriferous plants never[1]

enter into the composition of garlands, the iris [2] and the saliunca, for example, although, both of them, of a most exquisite

odour. In the iris, it is the root[3] only that is held in esteem,

it being extensively employed in perfumery and medicine. The

iris of the finest quality is that found in Illyricum,[4] and in

that country, even, not in the maritime parts of it, but in the

forests on the banks of the river Drilon[5] and near Narona.

The next best is that of Macedonia,[6] the plant being extremely

elongated, white, and thin. The iris of Africa[7] occupies the

third rank, being the largest of them all, and of an extremely

bitter taste.



The iris of Illyricum comprehends two varieties-one of

which is the raphanitis, so called from its resemblance to the

radish,[8] of a somewhat red colour, and superior[9] in quality to

the other, which is known as the "rhizotomus." The best

kind of iris is that which produces sneezing[10] when handled.

The stem of this plant is a cubit in length, and erect, the flower

being of various colours, like the rainbow, to which circumstance it is indebted for its name. The iris, too, of Pisidia[11]

is far from being held in disesteem. Persons[12] who intend taking







up the iris, drench the ground about it some three months before with hydromel, as though a sort of atonement offered to

appease the earth; with the point of a sword, too, they trace

three circles round it, and the moment they gather it, they lift

it up towards the heavens.



The iris is a plant of a caustic nature, and when handled, it

causes blisters like burns to rise. It is a point particularly

recommended, that those who gather it should be in a state of

chastity. The root, not only when dried,[13] but while still in

the ground, is very quickly attacked by worms. In former

times, it was Leucas and Elis that supplied us with the best

oil[14] of iris, for there it has long been cultivated; at the present

day, however, the best comes from Pamphylia, though that of

Cilicia and the northern climates is held in high esteem.







1. For some superstitious reason, in all probability. Pliny mentions

below, the formalities with which this plant ought to be gathered.

2. See B. xiii. c. 2. The ancient type of this plant, our iris, sword-

lily, or flower-de-luce, was probably the Iris Florentina or Florentine iris

of modern botany.

3. At the present day, too, it is the root of the plant that is the most

important part of it.

4. The Iris Florentina, probably, of Linnus.

5. Mentioned by Nicander, Theriaca, l. 43.

6. Probably a variety only of the preceding kind.

7. The most common varieties in Africa are the Iris alata of Lamarck,

l. Mauritanica of Clusius, I. juncea, and I. stylosa of Desfontaines.

8. "Raphanus." C. Bauhin identifies the Rhaphanitis with the Iris biflora,

and the Rhizotomus with the Iris angustifolia prunum redolens.

9. See c, 38 of this Book.

10. No kind of iris, Fe says, fresh or dried, whole or powdered, is pro-

ductive of this effect.

11. Very similar, probably, to that of Illyria.

12. All these superstitions are from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. ix. c. 9.

13. This, Fe says, is quite consistent with modern experience.

14. "Irinum." See B. xiii. c. 2.




20. Chap. 20.-The Saliunca.


CHAP. 20.-THE SALIUNCA.



The saliunca[1] has a rather short leaf, which does not admit

of its being plaited for garlands, and numerous roots, by which

it is held together; being more of a herb than a flower, and

so closely matted and tangled that it would almost appear to

have been pressed together with the hand-in short, it is a

turf[2] of a peculiar nature. This plant grows in Pannonia and

the sunny regions of Noricum and the Alps, as also the vicinity

of the city of Eporedia;[3] the smell being so remarkably sweet

that the crops of it have been of late quite as profitable as the

working of a mine. This plant is particularly valued for the

pleasant smell it imparts to clothes among which it is kept.







1. Probably the Valeriana Celtica of Linnus. See B. xii. c. 27, where

it is mentioned as Gallic nard.

2. "Cspes."

3. See B. iii. c. 21.




21. Chap. 21.-The Polium, Or Teuthrion.


CHAP. 21.-THE POLIUM, OR TEUTHRION.



It is the same, too, with the polium,[1] a herb employed for

a similar purpose among the Greeks, and highly extolled by

Musus and Hesiod, who assert that it is useful for every purpose,

and more particularly for the acquisition of fame and

honour;[2] indeed, it is a truly marvellous production, if it is







the fact, as they state, that its leaves are white in the morning,

purple at midday, and azure[3] at sunset. There are two

varieties of it, the field polium, which is larger, and the wild,[4]

which is more diminutive. Some persons give it the name of

"teuthrion."[5] The leaves resemble the white hairs of a

human being; they take their rise immediately from the root,

and never exceed a palm in height.







1. Probably the Teucrium polium of Linnus; the herb poley, or poleymountain.

2. By those who carry it on their person.

3. This marvel is related by Dioscorides in reference to the Tripolium,

and not the Polium.

4. The Teucrium montanum, probably, of Linnus.

5. This name belongs, properly, to the wild or mountain Polium.




22. Chap. 22. (8.)-Fabrics Which Rival The Colours Of Flowers.


CHAP. 22. (8.)-FABRICS WHICH RIVAL THE COLOURS OF FLOWERS.



We have now said enough on the subject of the odoriferous

flowers; in relation to which, luxury not only glories in having

vanquished Nature in the composition of unguents, but has

even gone so far as to challenge, in her fabrics, those flowers

which are more particularly recommended by the beauty of

their tints. I remark that the following are the three principal[1] colours; the red, that of the kermes[2] for instance, which,

beginning in the tints of the rose, reflects, when viewed[3] sideways and held up to the light, the shades that are found in the

Tyrian purple,[4] and the colours of the dibapha[5] and Laconian

cloths: the amethystine colour, which is borrowed from the

violet, and to which, bordering as it does on the purple, we

have given the name of "ianthinum"[6]-it must, however, be

remembered, that we here give a general name to a colour

which is subdivided into numerous tints[7]-and a third, properly

known as the "conchyliated" colour, but which comprehends







a variety of shades, such, for instance, as the tints of the heliotropium, and others of a deeper colour, the hues of the mallow,

inclining to a full purple, and the colours of the late[8] violet;

this last being the most vivid, in fact, of all the conchyliated

tints. The rival colours being now set side by side, Nature

and luxury may enter the lists, to vie for the mastery.



I find it stated that, in the most ancient times, yellow was

held in the highest esteem, but was reserved exclusively for

the nuptial veils[9] of females; for which reason it is perhaps

that we do not find it included among the principal colours,

those being used in common by males and females: indeed, it

is the circumstance of their being used by both sexes in common that gives them their rank as principal colours.







1. "Principales." The meaning of this term is explained at the end of

this Chapter. Red, yellow, and blue-or else, red, green, and violet, are

probably the primary colours of light.

2. See B. ix. c. 65, and B. xvi. c. 12. He alludes to the Coccus ilicis

of Linnus.

3. See B. xxxvii. c. 40, as to the meaning of the word "Suspectus."

This passage, however, as Sillig remarks, is hopelessly corrupt.

4. See B. ix. cc. 60, 63.

5. "Doubly-dyed," or "twice dipped," in purple. See B. ix. c. 63.

Littr remarks here that, according to Doctor Bizio, it was the Murex

brandaris that produced the Tyrian purple, and the Murex trunculus the

amethystine purple.

6. Or "violet-colour." See B. xxxvii. c. 40.

7. For further information on these tints, see B. ix. cc. 64, 65.

8. Belonging, probably, Fe thinks, to the Crucifer of the genera

Hesperis and Cheiranthus.

9. "Flammeis" The "flammeum," or flame-coloured veil of the bride,

was of a bright yellow, or rather orange-colour, perhaps.




23. Chap. 23.-The Amaranth.


CHAP. 23.-THE AMARANTH.



There is no doubt that all the efforts of art are surpassed

by the amaranth,[1] which is, to speak correctly, rather a purple

ear[2] than a flower, and, at the same time, quite inodorous. It is

a marvellous feature in this plant, that it takes a delight in being

gathered; indeed, the more it is plucked, the better it grows.

It comes into flower in the month of August, and lasts throughout the autumn. The finest of all is the amaranth of Alexandria, which is generally gathered for keeping; for it is a

really marvellous[3] fact, that when all the other flowers have

gone out, the amaranth, upon being dipped in water, comes to

life again: it is used also for making winter chaplets. The

peculiar quality of the amaranth is sufficiently indicated by

its name, it having been so called from the circumstance that

it never fades.[4]











1. The Celosia cristata of Linnus.

2. "Spica." The moderns have been enabled to equal the velvety appearance of the amaranth in the tints imparted by them to their velvets.

The Italians call it the "velvet-flower."

3. The real fact is, that the amaranth, being naturally a dry flower, and

having little humidity to lose, keeps better than most others.

4. From the Greek a), "not," and mara/inesqai, "to fade."




26. Chap. 26.-The Chrysocome, Or Chrysitis.


CHAP. 26.-THE CHRYSOCOME, OR CHRYSITIS.



The chrysocome,[1] or chrysitis, has no Latin appellation: it

is a palm in height, the flowers forming clusters of a golden

colour. The root of it is black, and it has a taste both rough

and sweet: it is found growing in stony and umbrageous

spots.







1. "Golden locks," or "gold plant;" probably the Chrysocoma linosyris

of Linnus; though the name appears to have been given to numerous

plants.




27. Chap. 27. (9.)-Shrubs, The Blossoms Of Which Are Used For Chaplets.


CHAP. 27. (9.)-SHRUBS, THE BLOSSOMS OF WHICH ARE USED FOR CHAPLETS.



Having thus passed in review nearly all the best-known

colours, we must now give our attention to the chaplets which

are pleasing merely on account of the variety of their materials. Of such chaplets there are two kinds, one composed of

flowers, the other of leaves. The flowers so employed, I may

say, are those of broom[1]-the yellow blossom gathered from

it-the rhododendron,[2] and the jujube,[3] also known as the

tree of Cappadocia, which bears an odoriferous flower similar

to that of the olive. Among the brambles, too, we find the

cyclaminum growing, of which we shall have to speak more

at length on a future occasion:[4] its flower, which reflects the

hues of the purple of Coloss,[5] is used as an ingredient in

chaplets.







1. See B. xvi. c. 69, B. xviii. c. 65, B. xix. c. 2, B. xxiv. c. 40; also

c. 42 of the present Book.

2. The Nerium oleander of Linnus. See B. xvi. c. 33, and B. xxiv.

cc. 47, 49.

3. As to the Zizyphum, or jujube, see B. xv. c. 14. The flower, as Pliny

says, is not unlike that of the olive; but Fe remarks, that it may at the

present day as justly be called the tree of Provence or of Italy, as in

ancient times "the tree of Cappadocia."

4. B. xxv. c. 67.

5. See B. v. c. 41.




28. Chap. 28.-Shrubs, The Leaves Of Which Are Used For Chaplets.


CHAP. 28.-SHRUBS, THE LEAVES OF WHICH ARE USED FOR CHAPLETS.



The leaves, also, of smilax and ivy are employed in chaplets;

indeed, the clusters of these plants are held in the very highest

esteem for this purpose: we have already[1] spoken of them at

sufficient length when treating of the shrubs. There are also

other kinds of shrubs, which can only be indicated by their







Greek names, little attention having been paid by the framers

of our language to this branch of nomenclature. Most of

them grow in foreign countries, it is true; but still, it is our

duty to make some mention of them, as it is of Nature in

general that we are speaking, and not of Italy in particular.







1. See B. xvi. cc. 62 and 63, and B. xxiv. cc. 47 and 49.




29. Chap. 29.-The Melothron, Spira, And Origanum. The Cneorum Or Cassia; Two Varieties Of It. The Melissophyllum Or Melittna. The Melilote, Otherwise Known As Campanian Garland.


CHAP. 29.-THE MELOTHRON, SPIRA, AND ORIGANUM. THE CNEORUM OR CASSIA; TWO VARIETIES OF IT. THE MELISSOPHYLLUM OR MELITTNA. THE MELILOTE, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS CAMPANIAN GARLAND.



Thus it is, that we find employed for chaplets, the leaves of

the melothron,[1] spira,[2] origanum,[3] cneorum,[4] by Hyginus

called "cassia," conyza or cunilago,[5] melissophyllon or apiastrum,[6] and melilote, known to us by the name of "Campanian[7] garland," the best kind of melilote[8] in Italy being that

of Campania, in Greece that of Cape Sunium, and next to that

the produce of Chalcidice and Crete: but wherever this plant

grows it is only to be found in rugged and wild localities. The

name "sertula" or "garland," which it bears, sufficiently

proves that this plant was formerly much used in the composition of chaplets. The smell, as well as the flower, closely

resembles that of saffron, though the stem itself is white; the

shorter and more fleshy the leaves, the more highly it is

esteemed.







1. Or Vitis alba, "white vine," the Bryonia dioica of modern botany.

See B. xxiii. c. 16.

2. The Spira salicifolia of Linnus, or meadowsweet.

3. See B. xx. c. 67, and c. 30 of this Book.

4. The Daphne Cnidium of Linnus. See B. xxiii. c. 35; also P. xii.

c. 43. It is altogether different from the Laurus cassia, or genuine cassia.

5. See B. xx. c. 63.

6. See B. xx. c. 45.

7. "Sertula Campana."

8. Most probably, Fe thinks, the Trifolium Melilotus officinalis, a

clover, or trefoil.




31. Chap. 31.-Two Varieties Of Thyme. Plants Produced From Blossoms And Not From Seed.


CHAP. 31.-TWO VARIETIES OF THYME. PLANTS PRODUCED FROM BLOSSOMS AND NOT FROM SEED.



There are also as many varieties of thyme[1] employed, the

one white, the other dark:[2] it flowers about the summer solstice, when the bees cull from it. From this plant a sort of

augury is derived, as to how the honey is likely to turn out:







for the bee-keepers have reason to look for a large crop when

the thyme blossoms in considerable abundance. Thyme receives great injury from showers of rain, and is very apt to

shed its blossom. The seed of thyme is so minute[3] as to be

imperceptible, and yet that of origanum, which is also extremely minute, does not escape the sight. But what matters

it that Nature has thus concealed it from our view? For we

have reason to conclude that it exists in the flower itself;

which, when sown in the ground, gives birth to the plant

-what is there, in fact, that the industry of man has left

untried?



The honey of Attica is generally looked upon as the best in

all the world; for which reason it is that the thyme of that

country has been transplanted, being reproduced, as already

stated, with the greatest difficulty, from the blossom. But

there is also another peculiarity in the nature of the thyme of

Attica, which has greatly tended to frustrate these attempts-it will never live except in the vicinity of breezes from the

sea. In former times, it was the general belief that this is the

case with all kinds of thyme, and that this is the reason why

it does not grow in Arcadia:[4] at a period when it was universally supposed, too, that the olive never grows beyond three

hundred stadia[5] from the sea. But, at the present day, we

know for certain that in the province of Gallia Narbonensis

the Stony Plains[6] are quite overgrown with thyme; this being,

in fact, the only source of revenue to those parts, thousands

of sheep[7] being brought thither from distant countries to

browse upon the plant.







1. Under the head "Thymus," Fe thinks that both the Satureia capitata of Linnus, headed savory, and the Thymus vulgaris, and Thymus

zygis of Linnus (varieties of thyme), should be included.

2. Fe thinks that in the expression "nigricans," he may allude to the

deep red of the stalk of some kinds of thyme, more particularly at the end

of summer. It is the Thymus zigis that has a white, downy stem.

3. From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. 2, and De Causis, B. i.

c. 5. Fe suggests, that the seed, lying at the bottom of the calyx, may

have escaped notice, and that in reality, when the ancients imagined they

were sowing the blossoms, they were putting the seed in the earth. That,

in fact, seems to agree with the view which Pliny takes of the matter.

4. Which lies in the interior of the Peloponnesus.

5. See B. xv. c. 1.

6. "Lapidei Campi." See B. iii. c. 5.

7. Similar to our practice of depasturing sheep on Dartmoor and other

favourite moors and downs.




32. Chap. 32.-Conyza.


CHAP. 32.-CONYZA.



There are two varieties of conyza, also, employed in making







chaplets, the male[1] plant and the female. The difference

consists in the leaves, those of the female plant being thinner,

more tapering, and narrower, and those of the male being of

an imbricated shape, the plant having a greater number of

branches. The blossom, too, of the male plant is more vivid

than that of the female: in both kinds it is late in making its

appearance, not till after the rising of Arcturus.



The smell of the male conyza is more powerful than that

of the female plant: the latter, however, is of a more penetrating

nature, for which reason it is that the female plant is

held in higher esteem for the treatment of the bites of animals.

The leaves of the female plant have exactly the smell of honey;

and the root of the male has received the name of "libanotis"

from some: we have already made mention[2] of it on a previous occasion.







1. Fe takes this to be the Inula viscosa of Desfontaines, and identifies

the other kind with the Inula pulicaria of Linnus. See B. xx. cc. 63, 64.

2. B. xx. c. 64.




33. Chap. 33.-The Flower Of Jove. The Hemerocalles. The Helenium. The Phlox. Plants In Which The Branches And Roots Are Odoriferous.


CHAP. 33.-THE FLOWER OF JOVE. THE HEMEROCALLES. THE HELENIUM. THE PHLOX. PLANTS IN WHICH THE BRANCHES AND ROOTS ARE ODORIFEROUS.



Of the following plants, too, it is only the leaves that are

employed for chaplets-the flower of Jove,[1] the amaracus,

the hemerocalles,[2] the abrotonum, the helenium,[3]

sisymbrium,[4] and wild thyme, all of them ligneous plants, growing

in a manner similar to the rose. The flower of Jove is

pleasing only for its colours, being quite inodorous; which is

the case also with the plant known by the Greek name of

"phlox."[5] All the plants, too, which we have just mentioned

are odoriferous, both in the branches and the leaves, with the

sole exception of wild thyme.[6] The helenium is said to have







had its origin in the tears of Helen, and hence it is that the

kind grown in the island of Helena[7] is so highly esteemed. It

is a shrub which throws out its tiny branches along the ground,

some nine inches in length, with a leaf very similar to that of

wild thyme.







1. Supposed to be the same as the Agrostemma coronaria of Linnus.

2. Sprengel identifies it with the Pancratium maritimum of Linnus.

As described by Dioscorides, however, Fe takes it to be the

Lilium Martagon, or Turk's-cap lily. See c. 90 of this Book.

3. This is different from the Helenium of the Greeks, the Inula

Helenium of Linnus, mentioned in B. xv. c. 7. Sprengel identifies

it with

the Teucrium Creticum of Linnus, the Cretan germander.

4. See B. xx. c. 91.

5. "Flame." Sprengel identifies it with the Agrostemma coronaria of

Linnus, making the flower of Jove to the Agrostemma flos Jovis.

6. Fe remarks, that if this is our Thymus serpyllum, this exception is

inexact.

7. For two islands of this name, see B. iv. c. 20, and c. 23.




35. Chap. 35. (11.)-Two Varieties Of The Amaracus.


CHAP. 35. (11.)-TWO VARIETIES OF THE AMARACUS.



Diodes, the physician, and the people of Sicily have given

the name of "amaracus" to the plant known in Egypt and

Syria as sampsuchum.[1] It is reproduced two ways, from







seed and from cuttings, being more long-lived than the preceding plants, and possessed of a more agreeable smell. The

amaracus, like the abrotonum, has a great abundance of seed,

but while the abrotonum has a single root, which penetrates

deep into the ground, those of the other plant adhere but

lightly to the surface of the earth. Those of the other plants

which love the shade, water, and manure, are generally set

at the beginning of autumn, and even, in some localities, in

spring.







1. See B. xiii. c. 2. The sampsuchum, or amaracus, is generally

thought to be the sweet majoram, or Origanum marjorana of Linnus.

But Fe identifies it with the Origanum majoranoides of Willdenow, our

organy, wild or false marjoram.




36. Chap. 36.-The Nyctegreton, Chenomyche, Or Nyctalops.


CHAP. 36.-THE NYCTEGRETON, CHENOMYCHE, OR NYCTALOPS.



Democritus has regarded the nyctegreton[1] as one of the

most singular of plants. According to that author, it is of a

dark red colour, has leaves like those of a thorn, and creeps

upon the ground. He says that it grows in Gedrosia[2] more

particularly, and that it is taken up by the roots immediately

after the vernal equinox, and dried in the moonlight for thirty

days; after which preparation it emits light by night. He

states also, that the Magi and the kings of Parthia employ this plant in their ceremonies when they make a vow to

perform an undertaking; that another name given to it is

"chenomyche,"[3] from the circumstance that, at the very

sight of it, geese will manifest the greatest alarm; and that by

some persons, again, it is known as the "nyctalops,"[4] from the

light which it emits at a considerable distance by night.







1. The "night-watcher." According to Sprengel, this is the Csalpina

pulcherrima of Linnus. But, as Fe says, that is entirely an Indian

plant, and has only been introduced but very recently into Europe. Hardouin identifies it with a plant called "lunaria" by the naturalists of his

day, which shines, he says, with the moon at night.

2. The Csalpina pulcherrima is not to be found in or near Gedrosia (in

ancient Persia), but solely on the shores of the Bay of Bengal.

3. From xh=nes, "geese," and mu/xos, a "corner;" because geese run

into a corner on seeing it.

4. As to the meaning of this word, see B. xxviii. c. 47.




37. Chap. 37.-Where The Melilote Is Found.


CHAP. 37.-WHERE THE MELILOTE IS FOUND.



The melilote[1] is found growing everywhere, though that

of Attica is held in the highest esteem. In all countries, however, it is preferred when fresh gathered; that too, the colour

of which is not white, but approaches as nearly as possible to







the colour of saffron. In Italy, however, it is the white kind

that is the most odoriferous.







1. See c. 29 of this Book.




40. Chap. 40.-The Duration Of Life In The Various Kinds Of Flowers.


CHAP. 40.-THE DURATION OF LIFE IN THE VARIOUS KINDS OF

FLOWERS.



At the very utmost, the white[1] violet never lasts longer

than three years: should it exceed that period, it is sure to

degenerate. The rose-tree will last so long as five years without being pruned or cauterized,[2] methods by which it is made

to grow young again. We have already stated[3] that the nature of the soil is of the very greatest importance; for in

Egypt, we find, all these plants are perfectly inodorous, and

it is only the myrtle that has any particular smell. In some

countries, too, the germination of all the plants precedes that

in other parts of the world by so long a period as two months

even. The rose-beds should be well spaded immediately after

the west winds begin to prevail, and, a second time, at the

summer solstice: every care, however, should be paid, between

these two periods, to keeping the ground well raked and

cleaned.







1. See c. 38 of this Book.

2. This method of cultivation, also mentioned by Theophrastus, is never

employed in modern horticulture.

3. In c. 10 of this Book.




41. Chap. 41. (12.)-Plants Which Should Be Sown Among Flowers For Bees. The Cerintha.


CHAP. 41. (12.)-PLANTS WHICH SHOULD BE SOWN AMONG

FLOWERS FOR BEES. THE CERINTHA.



Bees and beehives, too, are a subject extremely well suited

to a description of gardens and garland plants, while, at the

same time, where they are successfully managed, they are a

source, without any great outlay, of very considerable profit.

For bees, then, the following plants should be grown-thyme,

apiastrum, the rose, the various violets, the lily, the cytisus,

the bean, the fitch, cunila, the poppy, conyza,[1] cassia, the me-







lilote, melissophyllum,[2] and the cerintha.[3] This last is a plant

with a white leaf, bent inwards, the stem of it being a cubit

in height, with a flower at the top presenting a concavity full

of a juice like honey. Bees are remarkably fond of the flowers

of these plants, as also the blossoms of mustard, a thing that

is somewhat surprising, seeing that it is a well-known fact that

they will not so much as touch the blossoms of the olive: for

which reason, it will be as well to keep that tree at a distance

from them.[4]



There are other trees, again, which should be planted as

near the hives as possible, as they attract the swarm when it

first wings its flight, and so prevent the bees from wandering

to any considerable distance.







1. See B. xix. c. 50.

2. "Honey-leaf." The Melissa officinalis of Linnus: our balm-

gentle. It is the same as the "apiastrum," though Pliny has erroneously

made them distinct plants.

3. "Wax-flower." The Cerinthe major of Linnus: the greater honey-

wort.

4. See B. xi. c. 8. On the contrary, Virgil says, Georg. iv. 1. 20, that

a wild olive-tree should be planted near the hives, to protect them with its

shade. Varro says also, De Re Rust. iii. 16, that the bee extracts honey

from the olive-tree; but according to Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 64,

it is from the leaf, and not the flower of that tree that the honey is extracted.




42. Chap. 42.-The Maladies Of Bees, And The Remedies For Them.


CHAP. 42.-THE MALADIES OF BEES, AND THE REMEDIES FOR

THEM.



The greatest care, too, should be taken to keep the cornel[1]

at a distance from the hives: for if the bees once taste the

blossoms of it, they will speedily die of flux and looseness.

The best remedy in such case is to give them sorb apples

beaten up with honey, or else human urine or that of oxen, or

pomegranate seeds moistened with Aminean[2] wine. It is a

very good plan, too, to plant broom about the hives, the bees

being extremely fond of the blossoms.







1. See B. xv. c. 31. Fe is inclined to doubt the correctness of the

assertion here made by Pliny.

2. See B. xiv. c. 5. The remedies for the diseases of bees in modern

times are of a very similar nature, but attention is equally paid to the

proper ventilation of the hives.




43. Chap. 43.-The Food Of Bees.


CHAP. 43.-THE FOOD OF BEES.



In relation to the food of bees, I have ascertained a very

singular fact, and one that well deserves to be mentioned.







There is a village, called Hostilia, on the banks of the river

Padus: the inhabitants of it, when food[1] fails the bees in their

vicinity, place the hives in boats and convey them some five

miles up the river in the night. In the morning the bees go

forth to feed, and then return to the boats; their locality

being changed from day to day, until at last, as the boats sink

deeper and deeper in the water, it is ascertained that the hives

are full, upon which they are taken home, and the honey is

withdrawn.



(13.) In Spain, too, for the same purpose, they have the

hives carried from place to place on the backs of mules.







1. This plan is still adopted on the river Po, the ancient Padus, as also

at Beauce, in the south of France, where the hives are carried from place

to place upon carts. In the north of England it is the practice to carry

the hives to the moors in autumn.




44. Chap. 44.-Poisoned Honey, And The Remedies To Be Employed By Those Who Have Eaten Of It.


CHAP. 44.-POISONED HONEY, AND THE REMEDIES TO BE EMPLOYED

BY THOSE WHO HAVE EATEN OF IT.



Indeed, the food of bees is of the very greatest importance,

as it is owing to this that we meet with poisonous[1] honey

even. At Heraclia[2] in Pontus, the honey is extremely pernicious in certain years, though it is the same bees that make

it at other times. Authors, however, have not informed us

from what flowers this honey is extracted; we shall, therefore,

take this opportunity of stating what we have ascertained

upon the subject.



There is a certain plant which, from the circumstance that

it proves fatal to beasts of burden, and to goats in particular,

has obtained the name of "golcthron,"[3] and the blossoms of







which, steeped in the rains of a wet spring, contract most

noxious properties, Hence it is that it is not every year that

these dangerous results are experienced. The following are

the signs of the honey being[4] poisonous: it never thickens,

the colour is redder than usual, and it emits a peculiar smell

which immediately produces sneezing; while, at the same

time, it is more weighty than a similar quantity of good

honey. Persons, when they have eaten of it, throw themselves on the ground to cool the body, which is bathed with a

profuse perspiration. There are numerous remedies, of which

we shall have occasion to speak in a more appropriate place;[5]

but as it will be as well to mention some of them on the present occasion, by way of being provided for such insidious accidents, I will here state that old honied wine is good, mixed

with the finest honey and rue; salt meats, also, taken repeatedly in small quantities, and as often brought up again.



It is a well-known fact that dogs, after tasting the excretions of persons suffering from these attacks, have been attacked with similar symptoms, and have experienced the same

kind of pains.



Still, however, it is equally well ascertained, that honied

wine prepared from this honey, when old, is altogether innoxious; and that there is nothing better than this honey, mixed

with costus,[6] for softening the skin of females, or, combined

with aloes, for the treatment of bruises.







1. This has been doubted by Spielmann, but it is nevertheless the truth;

the nature of the sugar secreted by the glands of the nectary, being ana-

logous to that of the plant which furnishes it. The honey gathered from

aconite in Switzerland has been known to produce vertigo and even delirium. Dr. Barton also gives a similar account of the effects of the poisonous

honey collected from the Kalmia latifolia in Pennsylvania; and Geoffroi

Saint Hilaire says that, having eaten in Brazil some honey prepared by a

wasp called "lecheguana," his life was put in very considerable danger

thereby. Xenophon also speaks of the effects of the intoxicating or mad-

dening honey upon some of the Ten Thousand in their retreat.

2. The rhododendrons and rose laurels, Fe says, which are so numerous

in these parts, render the fact here stated extremely probable.

3. "Goats' death." Fe says that this is the Rhododendron Ponticum

of Linnus. Desfontaines identifies it with the Azalea Pontica of modern

botany.

4. In reality, there are no visible signs by which to detect that the honey

is poisonous.

5. B. xxix. c. 31.

6. See B. xii. c. 25.




45. Chap. 45.-Maddening Honey.


CHAP. 45.-MADDENING HONEY.



In the country of the Sanni, in the same part of Pontus,

there is another kind of honey, which, from the madness it

produces, has received the name of "mnomenon."[1] This

evil effect is generally attributed to the flowers of the rhododendron,[2] with which the woods there abound; and that people,

though it pays a tribute to the Romans in wax, derives no

profit whatever from its honey, in consequence of these dangerous properties. In Persis, too, and in Gtulia, a district







of Mauritania Csariensis, bordering on the country of the

Masssyli, there are poisonous honeycombs found; and some,

too, only partly so,[3] one of the most insidious things that

possibly could happen, were it not that the livid colour of the

honey gives timely notice of its noxious qualities. What can

we suppose to have possibly been the intention of Nature in

thus laying these traps in our way, giving us honey that is

poisonous in some years and good in others, poisonous in some

parts of the combs and not in others, and that, too, the produce

in all cases of the self-same bees? It was not enough, forsooth,

to have produced a substance in which poison might be administered without the slightest difficulty, but must she herself

administer it as well in the honey, to fall in the way of so

many animated beings? What, in fact, can have been her

motive, except to render mankind a little more cautious and

somewhat less greedy?



And has she not provided the very bees, too, with pointed

weapons, and those weapons poisoned to boot? So it is, and

I shall, therefore, without delay, set forth the remedies to

counteract the effects of their stings. It will be found a very

excellent plan to foment the part stung with the juice of mallows[4] or of ivy leaves, or else for the person who has been stung

to take these juices in drink. It is a very astonishing thing,

however, that the insects which thus carry these poisons in

their mouths and secrete them, should never die themselves

in consequence; unless it is that Nature, that mistress of all

things, has given to bees the same immunity from the effects

of poison which she has granted against the attacks of serpents

to the Psylli[5] and the Marsi among men.







1. Maino/menon, "maddening."

2. The golethron of the preceding Chapter, Fe thinks. If so, the

word rhododendron, he says, would apply to two plants, the Nerion oleander

or rose laurel (see B. xvi. c. 33), and the Rhododendron Ponticum.

3. Fe refuses to credit this: but still such a thing might accidentally

happen.

4. These asserted remedies would be of no use whatever, Fe says.

5. See B. vii. c. 2.




46. Chap. 46. (14.)-Honey That Flies Will Not Touch.


CHAP. 46. (14.)-HONEY THAT FLIES WILL NOT TOUCH.



Another marvellous fact, again, connected with honey in

Crete. Upon Mount Carma in that island, which is nine

miles in circuit, there is not a fly to be found, and the honey

that is made there no fly will touch.[1] It is by this circum-







stance that honey said to have come from that district is usually

tested, it being highly prized for medicinal preparations.







1. Fe seems to take it for granted that Pliny is speaking here of honey

made by other insects than bees; but such does not appear to be the case.




47. Chap. 47.-Beehives, And The Attention Which Should Be Paid To Them.


CHAP. 47.-BEEHIVES, AND THE ATTENTION WHICH SHOULD BE

PAID TO THEM.



The hives ought to have an aspect due east,[1] but never looking towards the north-east or the west. The best hives are

those made of bark, the next best those of fennel-giant, and the

next of osier: many persons, too, have them made of mirror-stone,[2] for the purpose of watching[3] the bees at work within.

It is the best plan to anoint the hives all over with cow-dung.

The lid of the hive should be made to slide from behind, so as

to admit of being shut to within, in case the hive should prove

too large or their labours unproductive; for, if this is not

done, the bees are apt to become discouraged and abandon

their work. The slide may then be gradually withdrawn, the

increase of space being imperceptible to the bees as the work

progresses. In winter, too, the hives should be covered with

straw, and subjected to repeated fumigations, with burnt cow-

dung more particularly. As this is of kindred[4] origin with

the bees, the smoke produced by it is particularly beneficial in

killing all such insects as may happen to breed there, such as

spiders, for instance, moths,[5] and wood-worms;[6] while, at the

same time, it stimulates the bees themselves to increased activity. In fact, there is little difficulty in getting rid of the

spiders, but to destroy the moths, which are a much greater

plague, a night must be chosen in spring, just when the mallow is ripening, there being no moon, but a clear sky: flam-

beaux are then lighted before the hives, upon which the moths

precipitate themselves in swarms into the flame.











1. Fe remarks here that Pliny is right, and that Columella and Palladius are wrong, who would have the hives to look due north.

2. Lapis specularis: a sort of talc, probably. Sec B. iii. c. 4. B. ix. c.

56. B. xv. c. 1. B. xix. c. 23, and B. xxxvi. c. 45.

3. In B. ix. c. 16, he mentions hives made of horn for this purpose.

Glass hives are now made for the purpose, but the moisture which adheres

to the interior of the glass prevents the operations of the bees from being

watched with any degree of nicety.

4. "Cognatum hoc." He probably alludes to the notion entertained

by the ancients that bees might be reproduced from the putrefied entrails of

an ox, as wasps from those of a horse. See the story of Aristus in B.

iv. of Virgil's Georgics.

5. Or butterflies-"papiliones."

6. "Tcredines."




48. Chap. 48.-That Bees Are Sensible Of Hunger.


CHAP. 48.-THAT BEES ARE SENSIBLE OF HUNGER.



If it is found that the bees are in want of aliment, it will

be a good plan to place at the entrance of the hive raisins or

dried figs beaten up,[1] as also carded wool soaked in raisin

wine, boiled[2] must, or hydromel, and sometimes even the raw[3]

flesh of poultry. In certain summers, too, when long-con-

tinued drought has deprived them of the nutriment which

they usually derive from flowers, similar food must be provided for them.



When the honey is taken, the outlets of the hive should be

well rubbed with melissophyllum or broom,[4] beaten up, or else

the middle of it should be encircled with bands of white vine,

to prevent the bees from taking to flight. It is recommended,

too, that the honey-pots and combs should be washed with

water: this water, boiled, it is said, will make an extremely

wholesome vinegar.[5]







1. Honeycombs and rough wax are placed in the hive, when the bees

are in want of aliment; also honey and sugar-sirop.

2. "Defrutum:" grape-juice boiled down to one-half.

3. Fe is at a loss to know how this could be of any service as an ali-

ment to bees.

4. A mere puerility, Fe says.

5. But extremely weak, no doubt; for after boiling, the hydromel must

be subjected, first to vinous, and then to acetous, fermentation.




49. Chap. 49.-The Method Of Preparing Wax. The Best Kinds Of Wax. Punic Wax.


CHAP. 49.-THE METHOD OF PREPARING WAX. THE BEST KINDS

OF WAX. PUNIC WAX.



Wax is made[1] from the honeycombs after the honey has

been extracted. For this purpose, they are first cleaned with

water, and then dried three days in the shade: on the fourth

day they are melted on the fire in a new earthen vessel, with

sufficient water to cover them, after which the liquor is strained

off in a wicker basket.[2] The wax is then boiled again with

the same water and in the same pot, and poured into vessels of

cold water, the interior of which has been well rubbed with

honey. The best wax is that known as Punic[3] wax, the next

best being that of a remarkably yellow colour, with the smell

of honey. This last comes from Pontus, and, to my surprise,

it is in no way affected by the poisonous honey which it has







contained.[4] The next in quality is the Cretan wax, which

contains the largest proportion of propolis,[5] a substance of

which we have previously made mention when treating of

bees. Next to these varieties comes the Corsican wax, which,

being the produce of the box-tree, is generally thought to be

possessed of certain medicinal properties.



The Punic wax is prepared in the following manner: yellow

wax is first blanched in the open air, after which it is boiled

in water from the open sea, with the addition of some nitre.[6]

The flower of the wax, or, in other words, the whitest part of

it, is then skimmed off with spoons, and poured into a vessel

containing a little cold water. After this, it is again boiled

in sea-water by itself, which done, the vessel is left to cool.

When this operation has been three times repeated, the wax is

left in the open air upon a mat of rushes, to dry in the light of

the sun and moon; for while the latter adds to its whiteness,

the sun helps to dry[7] it. In order, however, that it may not

melt, it is the practice to cover it with a linen cloth: if, when

it has been thus refined, it is boiled once more, the result is a

wax of the greatest possible whiteness.



Punic wax is considered the best for all medicinal preparations. Wax is made black by the addition of ashes of papyrus, and a red colour is given to it by the admixture of alkanet; indeed, by the employment of various pigments, it is

made to assume various tints, in which state it is used for

making models,[8] and for other purposes without number,

among which we may mention varnishing walls[9] and armour,

to protect them from the air. We have given the other particulars relative to bees and honey, when speaking[10] of the

nature of those insects. We have now stated pretty nearly

all that we have to say on the subject of the pleasure garden.











1. The method here described differs but little from that employed at

the present day.

2. "Sporta."

3. Or Carthaginian.

4. In reality, the wax has properties totally different from those of the

honey, and it is not always gathered from the same plants.

5. A kind of bee-glue. See B. xi. c. 6.

6. Neither the nitre nor the salt, Fe says, would be of the slightest utility.

7. By causing the aqueous particles that may remain in it, to evaporate.

8. Or "likenesses"-"similitudines." Waxen profiles seem to have been

the favourite likenesses with the Romans: See the Asinaria of Plautus,

A. iv. sc. i. 1. 19, in which one of these portraits is clearly alluded to.

Also Ovid, Heroid. xiii. 1. 152, and Remed. Amor. 1. 723. The "imagines"

also, or busts of their ancestors, which were kept in their "atria," were

made of wax.

9. To protect the paintings, probably, with which the walls were decorated.

10. In B. xi.




51. Chap. 51.-The Colocasia.


CHAP. 51.-THE COLOCASIA.



But the plant of this nature that is the most famous in

Egypt is the colocasia,[1] known as the "cyamos"[2] to some.

It is gathered in the river Nilus, and the stalk of it, boiled,







separates[3] into fine filaments when chewed, like those of the

spider's web. The head,[4] protruding from among the leaves,

is very remarkable; and the leaves, which are extremely large,

even when compared with those of trees, are very similar to

those of the plant found in our rivers, and known by the

name of "personata."[5] So much do the people of that

country take advantage of the bounteousness displayed by

their river, that they are in the habit of plaiting[6] the leaves

of the colocasia with such skill as to make vessels of various

shapes, which they are extremely fond of using for drinking

vessels. At the present day, however, this plant is cultivated

in Italy.[7]







1. The Arum colocasia of Linnus.

2. The "bean." Not, however, the Egyptian bean, which is the Nym-

pha nelumbo of Linnus, the Nelumbum speciosum of Willdenow.

3. These filaments are mentioned also by Martial, Epig., B. viii. Ep.

33, and B. xiii. Ep. 57. But according to Desfontaines, this description

applies to the stalks of the Nympha lotos, and not of the Arum colocasia.

4. "Thyrsus."

5. Desfontaines has identified this with the Arctium lappa of botanists;

but that is a land plant, and this, Pliny says, grows in the rivers. If

the reading here is correct, it cannot be the plant of the same name mentioned in B, xxv. c. 58.

6. This applies, Desfontaines says, to the Nympha nelumbo.

7. Here he returns, according to Desfontaines, to the Arum colocasia.




53. Chap. 53.-Four Varieties Of The Cnecos.


CHAP. 53.-FOUR VARIETIES OF THE CNECOS.



The Egyptians have many other plants also, of little note;

but they speak in the highest terms of the cnecos;[1] a plant

unknown to Italy, and which the Egyptians hold in esteem,

not as an article of food, but for the oil it produces, and which

is extracted from the seed. The principal varieties are the

wild and the cultivated kinds; of the wild variety, again, the

are two sorts, one of which is less prickly[2] than the other, but

with a similar stem, only more upright: hence it is that in

former times females used it for distaffs, from which circumstance it has received the name of "atractylis"[3] from some;

the seed of it is white, large, and bitter. The other variety[4]

is more prickly, and has a more sinewy stem, which may be

said almost to creep upon the ground; the seed is small. The

cnecos belongs to the thorny plants: indeed, it will be as well

to make some classification of them.







1. The Carthamus tinctorius of Linnus, or bastard saffron. The seed

of it is a powerful purgative to man, but has no effect on birds: it is much

used for feeding parrots, hence one of its names, "parrot-seed."

2. Identified by Fe with the Atractylis of Dioscorides, the Carthamus

mitissimus of Linnus; the Carduncellus mitissimus of Decandolle.

3. From a)/traktos, "a distaff."

4. The Centaurea lanata of Decandolle, the Centaurea benedicta of

Linnus.




55. Chap. 55.-Four Varieties Of The Nettle. The Lamium And The Scorpio.


CHAP. 55.-FOUR VARIETIES OF THE NETTLE. THE LAMIUM

AND THE SCORPIO.



But of all these plants, it is the nettle that is the best

known to us, the calyces[1] of the blossoms of which produce a

purple down: it frequently exceeds two cubits even in

height.[2] There are numerous varieties of this plant; the

wild nettle, known also as the female nettle, does not inflict

so bad a sting as the others. Among the several varieties of

the wild nettle, the one known as the dog[3]-nettle, stings the







worst, the stem of it even possessing that property; the leaves

of the nettle are indented at the edge. There is one kind

also, which emits a smell, known as the Herculanean[4] nettle.

The seed of all the nettles is copious, and black. It is a singular fact that, though possessed of no spinous points, the

down[5] of the nettle is of a noxious nature, and that, though

ever so lightly touched, it will immediately produce an itching sensation, and raise a blister on the flesh similar in appearance to a burn: the well-known remedy for it is olive oil.



The stinging property of the nettle does not belong to the

plant at the earliest period of its growth, but only developes

itself under the influence of the sun. The plant first begins

to grow in the spring, at which period it is by no means a

disagreeable food;[6] indeed, it has become quite a religious observance to employ it as such, under the impression that it is

a preventive from diseases the whole year through. The root,

too, of the wild nettle, has the effect of rendering all meat

more tender that is boiled with it.[7] The kind that is innoxious

and destitute of all stinging properties, is known as the "la-

mium."[8] Of the scorpio[9] we shall have occasion to speak

when treating of the medicinal plants.











1. "Acetabulis." Fe complains of the use of this term (meaning a

"small cup") in relation to the calyces of the nettle; such not being in

reality their form.

2. Probably in allusion to the Urtica dioica, which grows to a greater

height than the Urtica urens. See B. xxii. c. 15.

3. "Canina." A variety, probably, of the Urtica urens, the nettle, with

the exception of the Urtica pilifera, which has the most stinging properties of all those found in Europe, and the leaves of which are the most

deeply indented.

4. This has not been identified. They are all of them either inodorous,

or else possessed of a faint, disagreeable smell.

5. This "lanugo," or down, as he calls it, consists of a fine elongated

tube of cellular tissue, seated upon a gland of similar tissue. In this

gland a poisonous fluid is secreted, and when any pressure is made upon

the gland, the fluid passes upwards in the tube. The nettle of the East,

known as the Devil's Leaf, is of so poisonous a quality as to produce

death.

6. In some parts of the north of England and of Scotland the young

plant of the Urtica dioica is eaten as greens, and is far from a disagreeable

dish, strongly resembling spinach. It is also reckoned a very wholesome

diet, and is taken habitually in the spring, under the impression that it

purifies the blood. This notion, we see from the context, is as old as the

time of the Romans.

7. Dalechamps speaks of it as the custom in his time to wrap up fish

and game in nettles, under the impression that they would keep the longer

for it.

8. The dead nettle, or blind nettle. Sec B. xxii. c. 16.

9. See B. xxii. c. 17.




56. Chap. 56. (16).-The Carduus, The Acorna, The Phonos, The Leucacanthos, The Chalceos, The Cnecos, The Polyacan- Thos, The Onopyxos, The Helxine, The Scolymos, The Cha- Mleon, The Tetralix, And Acanthice Mastiche.


CHAP. 56. (16).-THE CARDUUS, THE ACORNA, THE PHONOS, THE

LEUCACANTHOS, THE CHALCEOS, THE CNECOS, THE POLYACAN-

THOS, THE ONOPYXOS, THE HELXINE, THE SCOLYMOS, THE CHA-

MLEON, THE TETRALIX, AND ACANTHICE MASTICHE.



The carduus[1] has leaves and a stem covered with a prickly

down; the same is the case, too, with the acorna,[2] the leucacanthos,[3] the chalceos,[4] the cnecos,[5] the polyacanthos,[6] the

onopyxos,[7] the helxine,[8] and the scolymos;[9] the chamleon,[10]

however, has no prickles upon the leaves. There is, however,

this difference among these plants, that some of them have

numerous stems and branches, such as the carduus, for instance; while others, again, have a single stem and no branches,

the cnecos, for example. Some, again, such as the erynge,[11]

are prickly at the head only; and some blossom in the summer,

the tetralix and the helxine, for instance. The scolymos

blossoms late, and remains a considerable period in flower:

the acorna being distinguished only for its red colour and its

unctuous juice. The atractylis would be similar in every

respect to the last, were it not that it is somewhat whiter,

and produces a juice the colour of blood, a circumstance to

which it owes the name of "phonos,"[12] given to it by some.







The smell of this plant is powerful, and the seed only ripens

at a late period, and never before autumn, although the same

may be said of all the prickly plants, in fact. All of them

are capable, however, of being reproduced from either seed

or root.



The scolymos, which belongs to the thistle[13] genus, differs

from the rest of them in the circumstance that the root of it

is boiled and eaten. It is a singular fact that this genus of

plants bears blossoms, buds, and fruit the whole of the summer

through, without any interruption: when the leaf is dried,

the prickles lose their pungency. The helxine is a plant but

rarely seen, and in some countries only. It throws out leaves

at the root, from the middle of which there is a protuberance

in the shape of an apple, covered with leaves of its own: the

head of it contains a thick juice, of a sweet flavour, the name

given to which is "acanthice mastiche."[14]







1. He probably means the thistle, but possibly the artichoke, under this

name. See B. xix. cc. 19 and 43, and B. xx. c. 99.

2. This is probably the same with the second variety of the "Cnecos,"

mentioned above in c. 53, the Centaurea lanata, or benedicta.

3. Probably the Carduus leucographus of Linnus.

4. According to Dalechamps, this is the Echinops ritro of modern

botany.

5. See c. 93 of this Book.

6. "Many thorns." According to Dalechamps, this is the Carduus spinosissimus angustifolius vulgaris of C. Bauhin, the Cirsium spinosissimum

of Linnus.

7. Identified by Dalechamps with the Onopordon Illyricum, or Acanthium of modern botany.

8. The Acarna gummifera of modern botanists, the flowers of which

yield a kind of gum with an agreeable smell. It is quite a different plant

from Wall pellitory, mentioned in B. xxii. c. 19, under this name.

9. See B. xx. c. 99, and B. xxii. c. 43.

10. The black chamlcon is identified by Fe with the Brotera corymbosa of Willdenow: the white variety, mentioned in B. xxii. c. 21, with the

Acarna gummifera of Willdenow, the Helxine above mentioned. Des-

fontaines identifies it with the Carlina acaulis.

11. See B. xxii. c. 8.

12. The Greek for "blood" or "slaughter."

13. "Carduus."

14. "Thorn mastich," or "resin."




57. Chap. 57.-The Cactos; The Piernix, Pappus, And Ascalias.


CHAP. 57.-THE CACTOS; THE PIERNIX, PAPPUS, AND

ASCALIAS.



The cactos,[1] too, is a plant that grows only in Sicily, having

peculiar characteristics of its own: the root throws out stalks

which creep along the ground, the leaves being broad and

thorny. The name given to these stalks is "cactos," and they

are not disliked as an article of food,[2] even when old. The

plant, however, has one stem which grows upright, and is

known by the name of "pternix;" it has the same sweet

flavour as the other parts, though it will not keep. The seed

of it is covered with a kind of down, known as "pappus:"[3]

when this is removed, as well as the rind[4] of the fruit, it is

tender, and like the pith of the palm: the name given to it is

"ascalias."











1. This is not the Cactus of modern botany, a plant mentioned in the

sequel under the name of "Opuntia," but probably the Cinara cardun-

cellus. See B. xx. c. 99.

2. Theophrastus says, that when peeled they have a somewhat bitter

flavour, and are kept pickled in brine.

3. This name is now given by naturalists to the calyx of Composit.

which exists in the rudimentary condition, of a membranous coronet, or of

downy hairs, like silk.

4. "Cortex."




62. Chap. 62-The Perdicium. The Ornithogale.


CHAP. 62-THE PERDICIUM. THE ORNITHOGALE.



It is not in Egypt only that the perdicium[1] is eaten; it owes

its name to the partridge,[2] which bird is extremely fond of

digging it up. The roots of it are thick and very numerous:

and so, too, with the ornithogale,[3] which has a tender white

stalk, and a root half a foot in thickness, bulbous, soft, and







provided with three or four other offsets attached to it. It is

generally used boiled in pottage.[4]







1. Supposed by most commentators to be the Parietaria officinalis of

Linnus; Wall pellitory or parietary. Some, however, have suggested

the Polygonum maritimum, or the Polygonum divaricatum of Linnus.

Fe expresses doubts as to its identity, but remarks that the modern Greek

name of pellitory is "perdikaki." See c. 104 of this Book, and B. xxii.

c. 20.

2. "Perdix," the Greek name.

3. Probably the Ornithogalum umbellatum of Linnus. Sprengel identifies it with the Ornithogalum natans: but that variety is not found in

Greece, while the other is.

4. "Puls."




63. Chap. 63.-Plants Which Only Make Their Appearance At The End Of A Year. Plants Which Begin To Blossom At The Top. Plants Which Begin To Blossom At The Lower Part.


CHAP. 63.-PLANTS WHICH ONLY MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE AT

THE END OF A YEAR. PLANTS WHICH BEGIN TO BLOSSOM AT

THE TOP. PLANTS WHICH BEGIN TO BLOSSOM AT THE LOWER

PART.



It is a remarkable thing that the herb lotus[1] and the gilops[2] never make their appearance above ground till the end of

a year after the seed has been sown. The anthemis,[3] too, offers

the singular peculiarity that it begins to blossom at the top,

while in all the other plants which flower gradually, it is at

the lower part that the blossom first makes its appearance.







1. Probably the Melilotus crulea of Linnus, Fe says. Desfontaines

mentions the Melilotus Cretica or Italica.

2. The Avena fatua or sterilis; the barren oat. See B. xviii. c. 44.

3. See B. xxii. c. 26.




64. Chap. 64.-The Lappa, A Plant Which Produces Within Itself. The Opuntia, Which Throws Out A Root From The Leaf.


CHAP. 64.-THE LAPPA, A PLANT WHICH PRODUCES WITHIN ITSELF.

THE OPUNTIA, WHICH THROWS OUT A ROOT FROM THE LEAF.



In the lappa,[1] too, which clings so tenaciously, there is this

remarkable peculiarity, that within it there grows a flower,

which does not make its appearance, but remains concealed

and there produces the seed, like those among the animals

which produce within themselves. In the vicinity of Opus

there grows a plant[2] which is very pleasant eating to man,

and the leaf of which, a most singular thing, gives birth to a

root by means of which it reproduces itself.







1. The Gallium aparine of Linnus. See B. xviii. c. 44.

2. The Opuntia. The Cactus Opuntia of Linnaus; the cactus, or

Indian fig.




65. Chap. 65.-The Iasione. The Chondrylla. The Picris, Which Remains In Flower The Whole Year Through.


CHAP. 65.-THE IASIONE. THE CHONDRYLLA. THE PICRIS, WHICH

REMAINS IN FLOWER THE WHOLE YEAR THROUGH.



The iasione[1] has a single leaf only, but that so folded and

involved, as to have all the appearance of being several in

number. The chondrylla[2] is bitter, and the juice of the root







is of an acrid taste. The aphace, too, is bitter, and so is the

plant called "picris,"[3] which also remains in flower the whole

year through: it is to this bitterness that it is indebted for its

name.[4]







1. Perhaps the Convolvulus sepium of Linnus; though Fe dissents

from that opinion. See B. xxii. c. 39.

2. See c. 52 of this Book.

3. See B. xxii. c. 31.

4. From the Greek pikros.




66. Chap. 66.-Plants In Which The Blossom Makes Its Appear- Ance Before The Stem. Plants In Which The Stem Appears Before The Blossom. Plants Which Blossom Three Times In The Year.


CHAP. 66.-PLANTS IN WHICH THE BLOSSOM MAKES ITS APPEAR-

ANCE BEFORE THE STEM. PLANTS IN WHICH THE STEM APPEARS

BEFORE THE BLOSSOM. PLANTS WHICH BLOSSOM THREE TIMES

IN THE YEAR.



The peculiarities also of the squill and saffron deserve remark; for while all other plants put forth their leaves first,

and then a round stem, these show the stem before the leaf

makes its appearance: in the saffron, however, the blossom is

protruded by the stem, but in the squill it is the stem that

first makes its appearance, and then the flower emerges from

it. This plant blossoms three times in the year, indicating

thereby, as previously stated,[1] the three seasons for ploughing.







1. In B. xviii. c. 65.




67. Chap. 67.-The Cypiros. The Thesion.


CHAP. 67.-THE CYPIROS. THE THESION.



Some authors reckon among the bulbs the root of the cypiros,

or gladiolus;[1] it is a pleasant food, and when boiled and

kneaded up with bread, makes it more agreeable to the taste,

and at the same time more weighty. Not unlike it in appear-

ance is the plant known to us as the "thesion,"[2] but it is of an

acrid flavour.







1. "Little sword:" the Gladiolus communis of Linnus. See the remarks on the hyacinthus of the ancients in the Notes to c. 38 of this Book.

2. Sprengel says that it is the Thesium linophyllum of modern botany;

an opinion at which Fe expresses his surprise. See B. xxii. c. 31.




68. Chap. 68.-The Asphodel, Or Royal Spear. The Anthericus Or Albucus.


CHAP. 68.-THE ASPHODEL, OR ROYAL SPEAR. THE ANTHERICUS

OR ALBUCUS.



Other plants of the bulbous kind differ in the leaf: that of

the asphodel[1] is long and narrow, that of the squill broad and

supple, and the form of that of the gladiolus is bespoken by its

name.[2] The asphodel is used as an article of food, the seed of

it being parched, and the bulb roasted;[3] this last, however,







should be cooked in hot ashes, and then eaten with salt and

oil. It is beaten up also with figs, and forms, as Hesiod assures us, a very delicate dish. It is said, too, that the asphodel,

planted before the doors of a farm-house, will act as a preservative against the effects of noxious spells.



Homer,[4] too, makes mention of the asphodel. The bulbs

of it are like moderately-sized turnips, and there is no plant

the root of which has more of them, as many as eighty bulbs

being often grouped together. Theophrastus, and nearly all

the Greek writers, with Pythagoras at the head of them, have

given the name of "anthericos" to its stem, which is one cubit,

and often two, in length, the leaves being very similar to those

of the wild leek; it is to the root, or in other words, the bulbs,

that they have given the name of asphodel. The people of our

country call this plant[5] "albucus," and they give the name

of "royal[6] spear" to the asphodel the stem of which bears

berries,[7] thus distinguishing two[8] varieties of it. The albucus has a stalk a cubit in length, large, naked, and smooth, in

reference to which, Mago recommends that it should be cut at

the end of March and the beginning of April, the period at

which it blossoms, and before the seed has begun to swell; he

says, too, that the stalks should be split, and exposed on the

fourth day in the sun, after which, when dry, they should be

made up into bundles.



The same author states, also, that the Greeks give the name

of "pistana" to the aquatic plant known to us as the "sagitta;"[9] and he recommends that it should be stripped of its

bark, and dried in a mild sun, between the ides of May[10] and

the end of October. He says, too, that it is usual to cut down

to the root, throughout all the month of July, the variety of

the gladiolus called "cypiros," which is a marsh-plant also,

and at the end of three days to dry it in the sun, until it turns

white; but that care must be taken every day to carry it under

cover before sunset, the night dews being very injurious to

marsh plants when cut.











1. The Asphodelus ramosus of Linnus.

2. "Little sword."

3. It is no longer employed as an article of food.

4. Od. xi. 539, and xxiv. 13.

5. It is difficult to say to what "illud" refers, if, indeed, it is the correct

reading.

6. "Hastula regia."

7. "Caulis acinosi."

8. See B. xxii. c. 32.

9. "Arrow." The Sagittaria sagittifolia of Linnus; our arrow-head,

or adder's tongue.

10. 15th of May.




71. Chap. 71.-The Holoschnus.


CHAP. 71.-THE HOLOSCHNUS.



The root of the rush, boiled down to one third in three

hemin of water, is a cure for cough; the seed of it, parched

and taken in water, arrests looseness of the bowels and the

menstrual discharge, though at the same time it causes headache. The name given to this rush is holoschnus; the parts

of it nearest the root are chewed, as a cure for the bites of

spiders.



I find mention made, also, of one other kind of rush, the

name of which is "euripice;"[1] the seed, they say, is narcotic,

but the greatest care is necessary, not to throw the patient into

a lethargy.







1. Mentioned also by Dioscoridcs. It has not been identified.




72. Chap. 72.-Ten Remedies Derived From The Sweet-Scented Rush, Or Teuchites.


CHAP. 72.-TEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SWEET-SCENTED

RUSH, OR TEUCHITES.



We will also take this opportunity of mentioning the medicinal properties of the sweet-scented rush, which is found

in Cle-Syria, as already stated by us in the appropriate

place[1] The most esteemed kind, however, is that which

grows in the country of the Nabati, and is known as the

"teuchites;"[2] the next best being the produce of Babylonia,

and the very worst that of Africa, which is entirely destitute

of smell. This rush is round, and when applied to the tongue,

has a pungent, vinous flavour. The genuine kind, when

rubbed, gives out an odour like that of the rose, and when

broken asunder it is red within. It dispels flatulency, and

hence it is very good for the stomach, and for persons when

vomiting the bile or blood. It arrests hiccup also, promotes

eructations, acts as a diuretic, and is curative of affections of

the bladder. A decoction of it is used for female complaints;

and in cases of opisthotony, it is applied in plasters with dry

resin, these being highly valued for their warming properties.







1. B. xii. c. 48.

2. Dioscorides says that it grows in Babylonia. It is a variety, no

doubt, of the Andropogon schnanthus.




74. Chap. 74.-Twenty-One Remedies Derived From The Lily.


CHAP. 74.-TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE LILY.



The roots of the lily[1] ennoble that flower in manifold ways

by their utility in a medicinal point of view. Taken in wine,

they are good for the stings of serpents, and in cases of poisoning by fungi. For corns on the feet, they are applied boiled







in wine, not being taken off before the end of three days. A

decoction of them with grease or oil, has the effect of making

the hair grow again upon burns. Taken with honied wine,

they carry off corrupt blood by stool; they are good, also, for

the spleen and for hernia, and act as an emmenagogue. Boiled

in wine and applied with honey, they are curative of wounds

of the sinews. They are good, too, for lichens, leprous sores,

and scurf upon the face, and they efface wrinkles of the body.



The petals of the lily are boiled in vinegar, and applied, in

combination with polium,[2] to wounds; if it should happen,

however, to be a wound of the testes, it is the best plan to

apply the other ingredients with henbane and wheat-meal.

Lily-seed is applied in cases of erysipelas, and the flowers and

leaves are used as a cataplasm for inveterate ulcers. The

juice which is extracted from the flower is called "honey"[3]

by some persons, and "syrium" by others; it is employed as

an emollient for the uterus, and is also used for the purpose of

promoting perspirations, and for bringing suppurations to a

head.







1. See c. 11 of this book. The bulbs of the lily contain a mucilage,

and roasted or boiled the are sometimes employed, Fe says, to bring inflammations to a head. Employed internally, he thinks that they would

be of no use whatever, and there is nothing in their composition, he says,

which would induce one to think that they might be employed to advan-

tage in most of the cases mentioned by Pliny.

2. Or "Poley." See c. 21 of this Book.

3. "Mel."




75. Chap. 75.-Sixteen Remedies Derived From The Narcissus.


CHAP. 75.-SIXTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE NARCISSUS.



Two varieties of the narcissus are employed in medicine,

the one with a purple[1] flower, and the herbaceous narcissus.[2]

This last is injurious to the stomach, and hence it is that it

acts both as an emetic and as a purgative: it is prejudicial,

also, to the sinews, and produces dull, heavy pains in the head:

hence it is that it has received its name, from "narce,"[3] and

not from the youth Narcissus, mentioned in fable. The roots of

both kinds of narcissus have a flavour resembling that of wine

mixed with honey. This plant is very useful, applied to

burns with a little honey, as also to other kinds of wounds,

and sprains. Applied topically, too, with honey and oatmeal,

it is good for tumours, and it is similarly employed for the

extraction of foreign substances from the body.



Beaten up in polenta and oil it effects the cure of contusions and blows inflicted by stones; and, mixed with meal,







it effectually cleanses wounds, and speedily removes black

morphews from the skin. Of this flower oil of narcissus is

made, good for softening indurations of the skin, and for warming parts of the body that have been frost-bitten. It is very

beneficial, also, for the ears, but is very apt to produce

head-ache.







1. See c. 12 of this Book.

2. The Narcissus pseudo-narcissus of Linnus, the meadow narcissus,

or daffodil. The epithet "herbaceous," Fe says, applies, not to the

flower, but to the leaves, which are larger and greener than in the

other kinds.

3. "Torpor," or "lethargy."




76. Chap. 76.-Seventeen Remedies Derived From The Violet.


CHAP. 76.-SEVENTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VIOLET.



There are both wild and cultivated violets.[1] The purple

violet is of a cooling nature: for inflammations they are applied to the stomach in the burning heats, and for pains in the

head they are applied to the forehead. Violets, in particular,

are used for defluxions of the eyes, prolapsus of the fundament

and uterus, and suppurations. Worn in chaplets upon the

head, or even smelt at, they dispel the fumes of wine and headache; and, taken in water, they are a cure for quinsy. The

purple violet, taken in water, is a remedy for epilcpsy, in

children more particularly: violet seed is good for the stings

of scorpions.



On the other hand, the flower of the white violet opens suppurations, and the plant itself disperses them. Both the white

and the yellow violet check the menstrual discharge, and act

as diuretics. When fresh gathered, they have less virtue, and

hence it is that they are mostly used dry, after being kept a

year. The yellow violet, taken in doses of half a cyathus to

three cyathi of water, promotes the eatamenia; and the roots

of it, applied with vinegar, assuage affections of the spleen, as

also the gout. Mixed with myrrh and saffron, they are good

for inflammation of the eyes. The leaves, applied with honey,

cleanse ulcerous sores of the head, and, combined with cerate,[2]

they are good for chaps of the fundament and other moist parts

of the body. Employed with vinegar, they effect the cure of

abscesses.







1. See c. 14 of this Book.

2. An ointment made of wax and oil.




77. Chap. 77.-Seventeen Remedies Derived From The Bacchar. One Remedy Derived From The Combretum.


CHAP. 77.-SEVENTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE BACCHAR.

ONE REMEDY DERIVED FROM THE COMBRETUM.



The bacchar that is used in medicine is by some of our

writers called the "perpressa." It is very useful for the stings

of serpents, head-ache and burning heats in the head, and







for defluxions of the eyes. It is applied topically for swellings

of the mamill after delivery, as also incipient fistulas[1] of the

eyes, and erysipelas; the smell of it induces sleep. It is

found very beneficial to administer a decoction of the root for

spasms, falls with violence, convulsions, and asthma. For an

inveterate cough, three or four roots of this plant are boiled

down to one-third; this decoction acting also as a purgative

for women after miscarriage, and removing stitch in the side,

and calculi of the bladder. Drying powders[2] for perspiration

are prepared also from this plant; and it is laid among garments for the smell.[3] The combretum which we have spoken[4]

of as resembling the bacchar, beaten up with axle-grease, is a

marvellous cure for wounds.







1. "gilopiis."

2. "Diapasmata."

3. This, as Fe remarks, can hardly apply to the Digitalis purpurea of

Linnus, with which he has identified it, the smell of which is disagreeable rather than otherwise.

4. In c. 16 of this Book.




78. Chap. 78.-Eight Remedies Derived From Asarum.


CHAP. 78.-EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM ASARUM.



It is generally stated that asarum[1] is good for affections of

the liver, taken in doses of one ounce to a semisextarius of

honied wine mixed with water. It purges the bowels like

hellebore, and is good for dropsy and affections of the thoracic

organs and uterus, as also for jaundice. When mixed with

must, it makes a wine with strongly diuretic qualities. It

is taken up as soon as it begins to put forth its leaves, and is

dried in the shade. It is apt however to turn mouldy very

speedily.







1. The Asarum Europum of Linnus; our foalfoot. See B. xii. c. 27.




79. Chap. 79. (20.)-Eight Remedies Derived From Gallic Nard.


CHAP. 79. (20.)-EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM GALLIC NARD.



Some authors, as we have already[1] stated, having given the

name of "field nard" to the root of the bacchar, we will here

mention the medicinal properties of Gallic nard, of which we

have[2] already spoken, when treating of the foreign trees,

deferring further notice of it till the present occasion. In

doses of two drachm, taken in wine, it is good for the stings

of serpents; and taken in water or in wine it is employed for

inflations of the colon, maladies of the liver or kidneys, and

suffusions of the gall. Employed by itself or in combination







with wormwood it is good for dropsy. It has the property,

also, of arresting excessive discharges of the catamenia.







1. In c. 16 of this Book.

2. In B. xii. c. 26.




80. Chap. 80.-Four Remedies Derived From The Plant Called "Phu."


CHAP. 80.-FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE PLANT CALLED

"PHU."



The root of the plant which we have mentioned in the same

place under the name of "phu,"[1] is given in drink, either

bruised or boiled, in cases of hysterical suffocation, and for

pains of the chest or sides. It acts as an emmenagogue, and is

generally taken in wine.







1. B. xii. c. 26. Either the Valeriana Italica, Fe says, or the Valeriana Dioscoridis of Sibthorpe. The Valeriana phu and the Valeriana

officinalis of Linnus have been suggested by some commentators.




81. Chap. 81.-Twenty Remedies Derived From Saffron.


CHAP. 81.-TWENTY REMEDIES DERIVED FROM SAFFRON.



Saffron does not blend well with honey, or, indeed, with any

sweet substance, though very readily with wine or water: it

is extremely useful in medicine, and is generally kept in horn

boxes. Applied with egg it disperses all kinds of inflammation, those of the eyes in particular: it is employed also for

hysterical suffocations, and for ulcerations of the stomach, chest,

kidneys, liver, lungs, and bladder. It is particularly useful

also in cases of inflammation of those parts, and for cough and

pleurisy. It likewise removes itching[1] sensations, and acts as

a diuretic. Persons who have used the precaution of first

taking saffron in drink will never experience surfeit or headache, and will be proof against inebriation. Chaplets too,

made of saffron, and worn on the head, tend to dispel the fumes

of wine. The flower of it is employed topically with Cimolian[2] chalk for erysipelas. It is used also in the composition

of numerous other medicaments.







1. Or "prurigo."

2. See B. xxxv. cc. 18 and 57.




84. Chap. 84.-Eighteen Remedies Derived From The Polium.


CHAP. 84.-EIGHTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE POLIUM.



Those persons, according to Musus and Hesiod, who are

desirous of gaining honour and glory, should rub the body

all over with polium,[1] and handle and cultivate it as much

as possible. They say, too, that it should be kept about the

person as an antidote to poison, and that to keep serpents away it

should be strewed beneath the bed, burnt, or else carried on the

person; decoctions of it in wine, either fresh-gathered or dried,

should be used too as a liniment for the body. Medical men

prescribe it in vinegar for affections of the spleen, and in wine

for the jaundice; a decoction of it in wine is recommended

also for incipient dropsy; and in this way too, it is employed as a

liniment for wounds. This plant has the effect of bringing

away the after-birth and the dead ftus, and of dispelling

pains in various parts of the body: it empties the bladder also,

and is employed in liniments for defluxions of the eyes. In-







deed, there is no plant known that better deserves to form an

ingredient in the medicament known to us as the "alexipharmacon:"[2] though there are some who say that it is injurious to

the stomach and is apt to stuff the head, and that it produces

abortion-assertions which[3] others, again, totally deny.



There is a superstitious observance also, to the effect that,

for cataract, it ought to be attached to the neck the moment

it is found, every precaution being taken not to let it touch the

ground. The same persons state too that the leaves of it are

similar to those of thyme, except that they are softer and more

white and downy. Beaten up with wild rue in rain water, it

is said to assuage the pain of the sting of the asp; it is quite

as astringent too as the flower[4] of the pomegranate, and as

efficacious for closing wounds and preventing them from

spreading.







1. See c. 21 of this Book. Fe remarks, that in reality it possesses none

of the qualities that are attributed to it.

2. The "protection against poisons."

3. We have adopted Sillig's emendation of this passage; the words

"aiunt, quod alii" being evidently required by the context.

4. "Cytinus" appears to be a preferable reading here to "cyanus," the

"blue-bell."




85. Chap. 85.-Three Remedies Derived From The Holochrysos. Six Remedies Derived From The Chrysocome.


CHAP. 85.-THREE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HOLOCHRYSOS. SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CHRYSOCOME.



The holochrysos,[1] taken in wine, is a cure for strangury,

and it is employed in liniments for defluxions of the eyes.

Mixed with burnt lees of wine and polenta, it is curative of

lichens.



The root of the chrysocome[2] is warming and astringent; it

is taken in drink for affections of the liver and lungs, and a

decoction of it in hydromel is good for pains of the uterus. It

acts as an emmenagogue also, and, administered raw, draws off

the water in dropsy.







1. See c. 24 of this Book. Its medicinal properties, Fe says, are next

to nothing.

2. See c. 26 of this Book. If it is the Chrysocoma linosyris, it has no

peculiar medicinal properties, Fe says. All these statements are found in

Dioscorides.




86. Chap. 86.-Twenty-One Remedies Derived From Melissophyllum.


CHAP. 86.-TWENTY-ONE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MELISSOPHYLLUM.



If the bee-hives are rubbed all over with melissophyllum[1]







or melittna, the bees will never desert them; for there is no

flower in which they take greater delight. If branches[2] of

this plant are used, the bees may be kept within bounds without any difficulty. It is an excellent remedy, also, for the

stings of bees, wasps, and similar insects, as also for wounds

made by spiders and scorpions; it is used, too, for hysterical

suffocations, in combination with nitre, and for gripings of the

bowels, with wine. The leaves of it are employed topically

for scrofulous sores, and, in combination with salt, for maladies

of the fundament. A decoction of the juice promotes the menstrual discharge, dispels inflammations, and heals ulcerous

sores: it is good, too, for diseases of the joints and the bites

of dogs, and is beneficial in cases of inveterate dysentery, and

for cliac affections, hardness of breathing, diseases of the

spleen, and ulcerations of the thoracic organs. For films on

the eyes, it is considered a most excellent plan to anoint them

with the juice of this plant mixed with honey.







1. Sec B. xx. c. 45, and c. 41 of this Book. It is a plant of somewhat

stimulating properties, and may possibly be useful, Fe thinks, for nervous

affections.

2. "Scopis." He may possibly mean small brooms made of the sprigs

of the plant.




87. Chap. 87.-Thirteen Remedies Derived From The Melilote.


CHAP. 87.-THIRTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE MELILOTE.



The melilote,[1] again, applied with the yolk of an egg, or

else linseed, effects the cure of diseases of the eyes. It assuages

pains, too, in the jaws and head, applied with rose oil; and,

employed with raisin wine, it is good for pains in the ears, and

all kinds of swellings or eruptions on the hands. A decoction

of it in wine, or else the plant itself beaten up raw, is good

for pains in the stomach. It is equally beneficial, too, for

maladies of the uterus; and for diseases of the testes, prolapsus

of the fundament, and all other diseases of those parts, a decoction is made of it, fresh-gathered, in water or in raisin wine.

With the addition of rose oil, it is used as a liniment for carcinoma. Boiled in sweet wine, it is particularly useful for the

treatment of the ulcers known as "melicerides."[2]







1. See c. 29 of this Book. The melilote is possessed of no peculiar

energy, but decoctions of it are sometimes employed as a lotion.

2. Sores "resembling a boney-comb."




88. Chap. 88. (21.)-Four Remedies Derived From Trefoil.


CHAP. 88. (21.)-FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM TREFOIL.



The trefoil,[1] I know, is generally looked upon as being par-







ticularly good for the stings of serpents and scorpions, the seed

being taken in doses of twenty grains, with either wine or

oxycrate; or else the leaves and the plant itself are boiled together, and a decoction made of them; indeed, it is stated, that

a serpent is never to be seen among trefoil. Celebrated authors,

too, I find, have asserted that twenty-five grains of the seed of

the kind of trefoil which we have[2] spoken of as the "minyanthes," are a sufficient antidote for all kinds of poisons: in addition to which, there are numerous other remedial virtues

ascribed to it.



But these notions, in my opinion, are counterbalanced by

the authority of a writer of the very highest repute: for we

find the poet Sophocles asserting that the trefoil is a venomous

plant. Simus, too, the physician, maintains that a decoction

of it, or the juice, poured upon the human body, is productive

of burning sensations similar to those experienced by persons

when they have been stung by a serpent and have trefoil applied to the wound. It is my opinion, then, that trefoil should

never be used in any other capacity than as a counter-poison;

for it is not improbable that the venom of this plant has a

natural antipathy to all other kinds of poisons, a phnomenon

which has been observed in many other cases as well. I find

it stated, also, that the seed of the trefoil with an extremely

diminutive leaf, applied in washes to the face, is extremely

beneficial for preserving the freshness of the skin in females.







1. See c. 30 of this Book.

2. In c. 30 of this Book.




89. Chap. 89.-Twenty-Eight Remedies Derived From Thyme.


CHAP. 89.-TWENTY-EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THYME.



Thyme[1] should be gathered while it is in flower, and dried

in the shade. There are two kinds of thyme: the white thyme

with a ligneous root, which grows upon declivities, and is the

most esteemed of the two, and another variety, which is of a

darker colour, and bears a swarthy flower. They are, both of

them, considered to be extremely beneficial to the sight, whether used as an article of food or as a medicament, and to be

good for inveterate coughs. Used as an electuary, with vinegar and salt, they facilitate expectoration, and taken with

honey, they prevent the blood from coagulating. Applied ex-







ternally with mustard, they dispel chronic fluxes of the fauces,

as well as various affections of the stomach and bowels. Still,

however, these plants must be used in moderation, as they are

of a heating nature, for which reason it is that they act so

astringently upon the bowels. In cases of ulceration of the

intestines, the dose should be one denarius of thyme to one

sextarius of oxymel; the same proportions, too, should be taken

for pains in the sides, between the shoulder-blades, or in the

thoracic organs. Taken with oxymel, these plants are used for

the cure of intestinal diseases, and a similar draught is administered in cases of alienation of the senses and melancholy.



Thyme is given also for epilepsy, when the fits come on, the

smell of it reviving the patient; it is said, too, that epileptic

persons should sleep upon soft thyme. It is good, also, for

hardness of breathing, and for asthma and obstructions of the

catamenia. A decoction of thyme in water, boiled down to

one-third, brings away the dead ftus, and it is given to males

with oxymel, as a remedy for flatulency, and in cases of swelling of the abdomen or testes and of pains in the bladder. Applied with wine, it removes tumours and fluxes, and, in combination with vinegar, callosities and warts. Mixed with wine,

it is used as an external application for sciatica; and, beaten

up with oil and sprinkled upon wool, it is employed for diseases

of the joints, and for sprains. It is applied, also, to burns,

mixed with hogs' lard. For maladies of the joints of recent

date, thyme is administered in drink, in doses of three oboli to

three cyathi of oxymel. For loss of appetite, it is given, beaten

up with salt.







1. See c. 31 of this Book. Thyme yields an essential oil, possessed of

stimulating properties. Most of the assertions here made as to its virtues

are quite unfounded.




90. Chap. 90.-Four Remedies Derived From The Hemerocalles.


CHAP. 90.-FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HEMEROCALLES.



The hemerocalles[1] has a soft, pale green leaf, with an odo-

riferous, bulbous root. This root, applied with honey to the

abdomen, draws off the aqueous humours and all corrupt blood.

The leaves of it are applied for defluxions of the eyes, and for

pains in the mamill, after childbirth.







1. See c. 33 of this Book. The Pancratium maritimum, if that plant is

identical with it, is but little used, but has a marked action, Fe says,

upon the human frame.




91. Chap. 91.-Five Remedies Derived From The Helenium.


CHAP. 91.-FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HELENIUM.



The helenium, which springs, as we have already[1] stated,







from the tears of Helena, is generally thought to have been

produced for improving the appearance, and to maintain unimpaired the freshness of the skin in females, both of the face

and of other parts of the body. Besides this, it is generally

supposed that the use of it confers additional graces on the

person, and ensures universal attraction. They say, too, that,

taken with wine, it promotes gaiety of spirit, having, in fact, a

similar effect to the nepenthes, which has been so much vaunted

by Homer,[2] as producing forgetfulness of all sorrow. The

juice of this plant is remarkably sweet, and the root of it, taken

fasting in water, is good for hardness of breathing; 'it is white

within, and sweet. An infusion of it is taken in wine for the

stings of serpents; and the plant, bruised, it is said, will kill

mice.







1. In c. 33 of this Book.

2. Od. iv. 1. 221. This has been supposed by many commentators to

have been opium. The origin of the word is nh/, "not," and pe/nqos,

"grief;" and, as Fe says, it would seem to indicate rather a composition

than a plant. Saffron, mandragore, nightshade, and even tea and coffee,

have been suggested by the active imaginations of various writers. Fe is

of opinion that it is impossible to come to any satisfactory conclusion, but

inclines to the belief that either the poppy or a preparation from it, is

meant. In confirmation of this opinion, it is a singular fact, that, as Dr.

Paris remarks (in his Pharmacologia), the Nepenthes of Homer was obtained from Thebes in Egypt, and that tincture of opium, or laudanum,

has received the name of "Thebaic tincture." Gorrus, in his "Definitiones Medic," thinks that the herb alluded to is the Inula Campania,

or Elecampane, which was also said to have derived its name of

"Helenium" from Helen. Dr. Greenhill, in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, inclines to the opinion that it was opium. See the article

"Pharmaceutica."




92. Chap. 92.-Twenty-Two Remedies Derived From The Abrotonum.


CHAP. 92.-TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE ABROTONUM.



We find two varieties of abrotonum[1] mentioned, the field,

and the mountain kind; this last, it is generally understood,

is the female plant, the other the male. They are both of them

bitter, like wormwood. That of Sicily is the most esteemed,

and next to it, that of Galatia. The leaves of it are sometimes

employed, but it is the seed that possesses the most warming







properties; hence it is, that it is so beneficial for maladies of

the sinews,[2] for cough, hardness of breathing, convulsions, ruptures, lumbago, and strangury. Several handfuls of this plant

are boiled down to one-third, and the decoction of it, in doses

of four cyathi, is administered in drink. The seed is given,

pounded, in water, in doses of one drachma; it is very good

for affections of the uterus.



Mixed with barley-meal, this plant brings tumours to a

head, and boiled with quinces, it is employed as a liniment for

inflammations of the eyes. It keeps away serpents, and for

their stings it is either taken in wine, or else employed in

combination with it as a liniment. It is extremely efficacious,

also, for the stings of those noxious insects by which shivering

fits and chills are produced, such as the scorpion and the spider

called "phalangium,"[3] for example; taken in a potion, it is

good for other kinds of poison, as also for shivering fits, however produced, and for the extraction of foreign substances adhering to the flesh; it has the effect, also, of expelling intestinal worms. It is stated that a sprig of this plant, if put beneath the pillow, will act as an aphrodisiac, and that it is of

the very greatest efficacy against all those charms and spells by

which impotence is produced.







1. See c. 34 of this Book. Both of the plants mentioned share the medicinal properties of wormwood, being stimulants, tonics, anthelmintics,

and febrifuges. It would be dangerous, however, Fe says, to administer

them in most of the cases mentioned by Pliny, nor would they be good for

strangury, or affections of the chest.

2. "Nervis." Pliny had no knowledge, probably, of the nervous system;

but Fe seems to think that such is his meaning here. See B. xi. c. 88.

3. See B. xi. cc. 24, 28, and 29.




93. Chap. 93. (22.)-One Remedy Derived From The Leucanthemum. Nine Remedies Derived From The Amaracus.


CHAP. 93. (22.)-ONE REMEDY DERIVED FROM THE LEUCANTHEMUM. NINE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AMARACUS.



The leucanthemum,[1] mixed with two-thirds of vinegar, is

curative of asthma. The sampsuchum or amaracus,[2]-that of

Cyprus being the most highly esteemed, and possessed of the

finest smell-is a remedy for the stings of scorpions, applied

to the wound with vinegar and salt. Used as a pessary, too,

it is very beneficial in cases of menstrual derangement; but

when taken in drink, its properties are not so powerfully developed. Used with polenta, it heals defluxions of the eyes;

and the juice of it, boiled, dispels gripings of the stomach. It

is useful, too, for strangury and dropsy; and in a dry state, it

promotes sneezing. There is an oil extracted from it, known







as "sampsuchinum," or "amaracinum," which is very good

for warming and softening the sinews; it has a warming effect,

also, upon the uterus. The leaves are good for bruises, beaten

up with honey, and, mixed with wax, for sprains.







1. See c. 34 of this Book; also B. xxii. c. 26.

2. See c. 35 of this Book.




94. Chap. 94. (23.)-Ten Remedies Derived From The Anemone Or Phrenion.


CHAP. 94. (23.)-TEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE ANEMONE OR PHRENION.



We have as yet spoken[1] only of the anemone used for making

chaplets; we will now proceed to describe those kinds which

are employed for medicinal purposes. Some persons give the

name of "phrenion" to this plant: there are two species of

it; one of which is wild,[2] and the other grows on cultivated[3]

spots; though they are, both of them, attached to a sandy

soil. Of the cultivated anemone there are numerous varieties;

some, and these are the most abundant, have a scarlet flower,

while others, again, have a flower that is purple or else milk-white. The leaves of all these three kinds bear a strong resemblance to parsley, and it is not often that they exceed half

a foot in height, the head being very similar to that of asparagus. The flower never opens, except while the wind is

blowing, a circumstance to which it owes its name.[4] The wild

anemone is larger than the cultivated one, and has broader

leaves, with a scarlet flower.



Some persons erroneously take the wild anemone to be the

same as the argemone,[5] while others, again, identify it with

the poppy which we have mentioned[6] under the name of

"rhas:" there is, however, a great difference between them,

as these two other plants blossom later than the anemone, nor

does the anemone possess a juice or a calyx like theirs; besides

which, it terminates in a head like that of asparagus.



The various kinds of anemone are good for pains and inflammations of the head, diseases of the uterus, and stoppage

of the milk in females; taken, too, in a ptisan, or applied as a

pessary in wool, they promote the menstrual discharge. The

root, chewed, has a tendency to bring away the phlegm, and







is a cure for tooth-ache: a decoction of it is good, too, for

defluxions of the eyes,[7] and effaces the scars left by wounds.

The Magi have attributed many very wonderful properties to

these plants: they recommend it to be gathered at the earliest

moment in the year that it is seen, and certain words to be

repeated, to the effect that it is being gathered as a remedy for

tertian and quartan fevers; after which the flower must be

wrapped up in red cloth and kept in the shade, in order to be

attached to the person when wanted. The root of the anemone with a scarlet flower, beaten up and applied to the body

of any animated being,[8] produces an ulcer there by the agency

of its acrid qualities; hence it is that it is so much employed

as a detergent for ulcerous sores.







1. In c. 38 of this Book.

2. The Anemone coronaria of Linnus, Fe thinks.

3. Probably the Adonis stivalis of Linnus, a ranunculus. These

plants are of an acrid, irritating nature, and rank at the present day among

the vegetable poisons.

4. The "wind-flower," from the Greek a)/memos, "wind."

5. See B. xxv. c. 26.

6. In B. xix. c. 53.

7. As Fe remarks, it would be very dangerous to use it.

8. "Cuique animalium."




95. Chap. 95. (24.)-Six Remedies Derived From The nanthe.


CHAP. 95. (24.)-SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE NANTHE.



The nanthe[1] is a plant which is found growing upon

rocks, has the leaf of the parsnip, and a large root with numerous fibres. The stalk of it and the leaves, taken with

honey and black wine, facilitate delivery and bring away the

after-birth: taken with honey, also, they are a cure for cough,

and act as a powerful diuretic. The root of this plant is curative of diseases of the bladder.







1. The nanthe pimpinellifolia of Linnus. If taken internally, Fe

says, it would tend to aggravate the disease so treated, in a very high

degree.




96. Chap. 96. (25.)-Eleven Remedies Derived From The Helichrysos.


CHAP. 96. (25.)-ELEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HELICHRYSOS.



The helichrysos is by some persons called the "chrysanthemon.[1] It has small, white branches, with leaves of a

whitish colour, similar to those of the abrotonum. The clusters,

disposed around it, and glistening like gold in the rays of the

sun, are never known to fade; hence it is that they make

chaplets of it for the gods, a custom which was most faithfully

observed by Ptolemus, the king of Egypt. This plant grows

in shrubberies: taken in wine, it acts as a diuretic and emmenagogue, and, in combination with honey, it is employed topically for burns. It is taken also in potions for the stings of

serpents, and for pains in the loins; and, with honied wine, it







removes coagulated blood in the abdominal regions and the

bladder. The leaves of it, beaten up and taken in doses of

three oboli, in white wine, arrest the menstrual discharge

when in excess.



The smell of this plant is far from disagreeable, and hence

it is kept with clothes, to protect them from the attacks of

vermin.







1. See c. 38. Also B. xxvi. c. 55.




97. Chap. 97. (26.)-Eight Remedies Derived From The Hyacinth.


CHAP. 97. (26.)-EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HYACINTH.



The hyacinth[1] grows in Gaul more particularly, where it

is employed for the dye called "hysginum."[2] The root of it

is bulbous, and is well known among the dealers in slaves:

applied to the body, with sweet wine, it retards the signs of

puberty,[3] and prevents them from developing themselves. It

is curative, also, of gripings of the stomach, and of the bites of

spiders, and it acts as a diuretic. The seed is administered,

with abrotonum, for the stings of serpents and scorpions, and

for jaundice.







1. See c. 38 of this Book; also B. xvi. c. 31.

2. From the herb "hysge," used for dyeing a deep red. See B. ix. c.

65, and B. xxi. c. 36. No such colour, Fe says, can be obtained from

the petals of either the Lilium Martagon or the Gladiolus communis, with

which it has been identified.

3. It has no such effect; and the slave-dealers certainly lost their pains

in cosmetizing their slaves with it, their object being to make them look

younger than they really were, and not older, as Hardouin seems to think.




98. Chap. 98.-Seven Remedies Derived From The Lychnis.


CHAP. 98.-SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE LYCHNIS.



The seed of the lychnis,[1] too, which is just the colour of

fire, is beaten up and taken in drink for the stings of serpents,

scorpions, hornets, and other insects of similar nature: the

wild variety, however, is prejudicial to the stomach. It acts

as a laxative to the bowels; and, taken in doses of two

drachm, is remarkably efficacious for carrying off the bile.

So extremely baneful is it to scorpions, that if they so much

as see it, they are struck with torpor. The people of Asia

call the root of it "bolites," and they say that if it is attached

to the body it will effectually disperse albugo.[2]











1. See c. 10 of this Book.

2. White specks in the pupil of the eye, or whiteness of the cornea.




99. Chap. 99. (27.)-Four Remedies Derived From The Vincapervinca.


CHAP. 99. (27.)-FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VINCAPERVINCA.



The vincapervinca,[1] too, or chamdaphne,[2] is dried and

pounded, and given to dropsical patients in water, in doses of

one spoonful; a method of treatment which speedily draws off

the water. A decoction of it, in ashes, with a sprinkling of

wine, has the effect of drying tumours: the juice, too, is employed as a remedy for diseases of the ears. Applied to the

regions of the stomach, this plant is said to be remarkably

good for diarrha.







1. See c. 39 of this Book.

2. "Ground-laurel."




100. Chap. 100.-Three Remedies Derived From Butcher's Broom.


CHAP. 100.-THREE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM BUTCHER'S BROOM.



A decoction of the root of butcher's broom[1] is recommended to

be taken every other day for calculus in the bladder, strangury,

and bloody urine. The root, however, should be taken up

one day, and boiled the next, the proportion of it being one

sextarius to two cyathi of wine. Some persons beat up the

root raw, and take it in water: it is generally considered, too,

that there is nothing in existence more beneficial to the male

organs than the young stalks of the plant, beaten up and used

with vinegar.







1. See c. 50, and B. xxiii. c. 83. The medicinal properties of this plant

are not developed to any great extent; but it was thought till lately, Fe

says, to be an excellent diuretic.




101. Chap. 101.-Two Remedies Derived From The Batis.


CHAP. 101.-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE BATIS.



The batis,[1] too, relaxes the bowels, and, beaten up raw,

it is employed topically for the gout. The people of Egypt

cultivate the acinos,[2] too, both as an article of food and for

making chaplets. This plant would be the same thing as

ocimum, were it not that the leaves and branches of it are

rougher, and that it has a powerful smell. It promotes the

catamenia, and acts as a diuretic.







1. See c. 49 and B. xxvi. c. 50.

2. The Thymus acinos of Linnus.




102. Chap. 102. (28.)-Two Remedies Derived From The Colocasia.


CHAP. 102. (28.)-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE COLOCASIA.



The colocasia,[1] according to Glaucias, softens the acridity of

humours of the body, and is beneficial to the stomach.











1. See c. 51 of this Book. It is an alimentary plant, but eaten raw, it

is possessed of some acridity.




103. Chap. 103. (29.)-Six Remedies Derived From The Anthyllium Or Anthyllum.


CHAP. 103. (29.)-SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE ANTHYLLIUM OR ANTHYLLUM.



The people of Egypt eat the anthalium,[1] but I cannot find

that they make any other use of it; but there is another plant

called the "anthyllium,"[2] or, by some persons, the "anthyllum," of which there are two kinds: one, similar in its leaves

and branches to the lentil, a palm in height, growing in sandy

soils exposed to the sun, and of a somewhat saltish taste; the

other, bearing a strong resemblance to the champitys,[3] but

smaller and more downy, with a purple flower, a strong smell,

and growing in stony spots.



The first kind, mixed with rose-oil and applied with milk,

is extremely good for affections of the uterus and all kinds of

sores: it is taken as a potion for strangury and gravel in the

kidneys, in doses of three drachm. The other kind is taken

in drink, with oxymel, in doses of four drachm, for indurations of the uterus, gripings of the bowels, and epilepsy.







1. The Cyperus esculentus of Linnus, the esculent souchet.

2. The two varieties are identified with the Cressa Cretica and the

Teucrium iva of Linnus. The latter plant is said to be a sudorific.

3. See B. xxvi. c. 53.




104. Chap. 104. (30.)-Eight Remedies Derived From The Parthenium, Leucanthes, Or Amaracus.


CHAP. 104. (30.)-EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE PARTHENIUM, LEUCANTHES, OR AMARACUS.



The parthenium[1] is by some persons called the "leucanthes," and by others the "amaracus." Celsus, among the

Latin writers, gives it the names of "perdicium"[2] and "muralis." It grows in the hedge-rows of gardens, and has the

smell of an apple, with a bitter taste. With the decoction of

it, fomentations are made for maladies of the fundament, and

for inflammations and indurations of the uterus: dried and

applied with honey and vinegar, it carries off black bile, for

which reason it is considered good for vertigo and calculus in

the bladder. It is employed as a liniment, also, for erysipelas, and, mixed with stale axle-grease, for scrofulous sores.

For tertian fevers the Magi recommend that it should be

taken up with the left hand, it being mentioned at the time

for whom it is gathered, care being also taken not to look back







while doing so: a leaf of it should be laid beneath the patient's

tongue, after which it must be eaten in a cyathus of water.







1. The Matricaria parthenium of Linnus. See c. 52.

2. De Re Med. ii. 33. It must not be confounded with the plant of

that name mentioned in c. 62 of this Book.




105. Chap. 105. (31.)-Eight Remedies Derived From The Strychnum Or Strychnum, Halicacabum, Callias, Dorcynion, Manicon, Neuras, Morio, Or Moly.


CHAP. 105. (31.)-EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE STRYCHNUM OR STRYCHNUM, HALICACABUM, CALLIAS, DORCYNION, MANICON, NEURAS, MORIO, OR MOLY.



The trychnon[1] is by some called "strychnon;" I only wish

that the garland-makers of Egypt would never use this plant

in making their chaplets, being deceived as they are by the

resemblance in the leaves of both kinds to those of ivy. One

of these kinds, bearing scarlet berries with a stone, enclosed

in follicules, is by some persons called the "halicacabum,"[2] by

others the "callion," and by the people of our country, the

"vesicaria," from the circumstance of its being highly beneficial to the bladder[3] and in cases of calculus.



The trychnon is more of a woody shrub than a herb, with

large follicules, broad and turbinated, and a large berry within,

which ripens in the month of November. A third[4] kind,

again, has a leaf resembling that of ocimum-but it is not my

intention to give an exact description of it, as I am here speaking of remedies, and not of poisons; for a few drops of the

juice, in fact, are quite sufficient to produce insanity. The

Greek writers, however, have even turned this property into

matter for jesting; for, according to them, taken in doses of

one drachma, this plant is productive of delusive and prurient

fancies, and of vain, fantastic visions, which vividly present all

the appearance of reality: they say, too, that it the dose is

doubled, it will produce downright madness, and that any further addition to it, will result in instant death.



This is the same plant which the more well-meaning writers

have called in their innocence "dorycnion,"[5] from the circumstance that weapons used in battle are poisoned with it-for it

grows everywhere-while others, again, who have treated of it







more at length,[6] have given it the surname of "manicon."[7]

Those, on the other hand, who have iniquitously concealed its

real qualities, give it the name of "erythron" or "neuras,"

and others "perisson"-details, however, which need not be

entered into more fully, except for the purpose of putting

persons upon their guard.



There is another kind, again, also called "halicacabum,"

which possesses narcotic qualities, and is productive of death

even more speedily than opium: by some persons it is called

"morio," and by others "moly."[8] It has, however, been

highly extolled by Diocles and Evenor, and, indeed, Timaristus

has gone so far as to sing its praises in verse. With a wonderful obliviousness of remedies really harmless, they tell us, forsooth, that it is an instantaneous remedy for loose teeth to

rinse them with halicacabum steeped in wine: but at the same

time they add the qualification that it must not be kept in the

mouth too long, or else delirium will be the result. This, however, is pointing out remedies with a vengeance, the employment of which will be attended with worse results than the

malady itself.



There is a third kind[9] of halicacabum, that is esteemed as an

article of food; but even though the flavour of it may be preferred to garden plants, and although Xenocrates assures us that

there is no bodily malady for which the trychnos is not highly

beneficial, they are none of them so valuable as to make me

think it proper to speak more at length upon the subject, more

particularly as there are so many other remedies, which are

unattended with danger. Persons who wish to pass themselves

off for true prophets, and who know too well how to impose

upon the superstitions of others, take the root of the halicacabum in drink. The remedy against this poison-and it is with

much greater pleasure that I state it-is to drink large quantities of honied wine made hot. I must not omit the fact,

too, that this plant is naturally so baneful to the asp, that when

the root is placed near that reptile, the very animal which

kills others by striking them with torpor, is struck with torpor







itself; hence it is, that, beaten up with oil, it is used as a cure

for the sting of the asp.







1. The Solanum nigrum of Linnus, or black night-shade. See B.

xxiii. c. 108.

2. The Physalis alkekengi of Linnus; red night-shade, alkekengi, or

winter cherry. Fe remarks, that the varieties of this plant in Egypt are

very numerous, and that in many places, till very recently, it was employed as an article of food.

3. "Vesica."

4. The Solanum villosum of Lamarck.

5. From doru\, a "spear."

6. "Apertius," as suggested by Sillig, is a preferable reading to "parcius."

7. From ma/nia, "madness."

8. The Physalis somnifera of Linnus, the somniferous nightshade.

9. The Solanum melongena of Linnus.




106. Chap. 106.-Six Medicines Derived From The Corchorus.


CHAP. 106.-SIX MEDICINES DERIVED FROM THE CORCHORUS.



The corchorus[1] is a plant which is used at Alexandria as an

article of food: the leaves of it are rolled up, one upon the

other, like those of the mulberry, and it is wholesome, it is

said, for the viscera, and in cases of alopecy, being good also

for the removal of freckles. I find it stated also, that it cures

the scab in cattle very rapidly: and, according to Nicander,[2]

it is a remedy for the stings of serpents, it gathered before it

blossoms.







1. The Corchorus olitorius of Linnus. See B. xxv. c. 92.

2. Theriaca, p. 44.




107. Chap. 107.-Three Remedies Derived From The Cnecos.


CHAP. 107.-THREE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CNECOS.



There would be no necessity to speak at any length of the

cencos or atractylis,[1] an Egyptian plant, were it not for the fact

that it offers a most efficacious remedy for the stings of veno-

mous animals, as also in cases of poisoning by fungi. It is

a well-known fact, that persons, when stung by the scorpion,

are not sensible of any painful effects so long as they hold this

plant in their hand.







1. See c. 53 of this Book.




108. Chap. 108. (33.)-One Remedy Derived From The Pesoluta.


CHAP. 108. (33.)-ONE REMEDY DERIVED FROM THE PESOLUTA.



The Egyptians also cultivate the pesoluta[1] in their gardens,

for chaplets. There are two kinds of this plant, the male and

the female: either of them, it is said, placed beneath the person, when in bed, acts as an antaphrodisiac, upon the male sex

more particularly.







1. It has not been identified. Dalechamps, without any proof, identifies it

with the Tussilago petasites of modern botany.




109. Chap. 109. (34.)-An Explanation Of Greek Terms Relative To Weights And Measures.


CHAP. 109. (34.)-AN EXPLANATION OF GREEK TERMS RELATIVE TO WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.



As we have occasion to make use of Greek names very fre-

quently when speaking of weights and measures,[1] I shall here

subjoin, once for all, some explanation of them.



The Attic drachma-for it is generally the Attic reckoning







that medical men employ-is much the same in weight as the

silver denarius, and is equivalent to six oboli, the obolus being

ten chalci; the cyathus is equal in weight to ten drachmm.

When the measure of an acetabulum is spoken of, it is the

same as one fourth part of a hemina, or fifteen drachm in

weight. The Greek mna, or, as we more generally call it,

"mina," equals one hundred Attic drachm in weight.



Summary.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, seven

hundred and thirty.



Roman Authors Quoted.-Cato the Censor,[2] M. Varro,[3] Antias,[4] Cpio,[5] Vestinus,[6] Vibius Rufus,[7] Hyginus,[8] Pompo-

nius Mela,[9] Pompeius Lennus,[10] Cornelius Celsus,[11] Calpurnius

Bassus,[12] C. Valgius,[13] Licinius Macer,[14] Sextius Niger[15] who

wrote in Greek, Julius Bassus[16] who wrote in Greek, Autonius

Castor.[17]



Foreign Authors Quoted.-Theophrastus,[18] Democritus,[19]

Orpheus,[20] Pythagoras,[21] Mago,[22] Menander[23] who wrote the

Biochresta, Nicander,[24] Homer, Hesiod,[25] Musmus,[26] Sophocles,[27]

Anaxilas.[28]







Medical Authors Quoted.-Mnesitheus[29] who wrote on

Chaplets, Callimachus[30] who wrote on Chaplets, Phanias[31] the

physician, Simus,[32] Timaristus,[33] Hippocrates,[34] Chrysippus,[35]

Diocles,[36] Ophelion,[37] Hieraclides,[38] Hicesius,[39] Dionysius,[40] Apollodorus[41] of Citium, Apollodorus[42] of Tarentum, Praxagoras,[43]

Plistonicus,[44] Medius,[45] Dieuches,[46] Cleophantus,[47] Philistio,[48]

Asclepiades,[49] Crateaus,[50] Petronius Diodotus,[51] Iollas,[52] Erasistratus,[53] Diagoras,[54] Andreas,[55] Mnesides,[56] Epicharmus,[57] Da-

mion,[58] Dalion,[59] Sosimenes,[60] Tlepolemus,[61] Metrodorus,[62] Solo,[63]

Lyeus,[64] Olympias[65] of Thebes, Phlilinus,[66] Petrichus[67] Micton,[68]

Glaucias,[69] Xenocrates.[70]









1. See the Introduction to Vol. 111.

2. See end of B. iii.

3. See end of B. ii.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. A writer on flowers and chaplets, in the time of Tiberius. Nothing

whatever beyond this seems to be known of him.

6. C. Julius Atticus Vestinus, or, according to some authorities, M. Atticus Vestinus. He was consul a.d. 65; and, though innocent, was put

to death by Nero's order, for alleged participation in the conspiracy of Piso.

7. See end of B. xiv.

8. See end of B. iii.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. See end of B. xiv.

11. See end of B. vii.

12. See end of B. xvi.

13. See end of B. xx.

14. See end of B. xix.

15. See end of B. xii.

16. See end of B. xx.

17. See end of B. xx. See also B. xxv. c. 5.

18. See end of B. iii.

19. See end of B. ii.

20. See end of B. xx.

21. See end of B. ii.

22. See end of B. viii.

23. See end of B. xix.

24. See end of B. viii.

25. See end of B. vii.

26. An alleged disciple of Orpheus, and probably as fabulous a personage.

Many works, now lost, passed under his name.

27. One of the most celebrated of the Greek tragic writers; born B.C. 495. Of his 127 tragedies, only seven have come down to us.

28. A Pythagorean philosopher, a native of one of the cities called Larissa. Being accused of magical practices, he was banished from the city of Rome by the Emperor Augustus. The explanation of these charges is, that he probably possessed a superior knowledge of natural philosophy. See B. xxv. c. 95. B. xxxiii. c. 49. B. xxxii. c. 52, and B. xxxv. c. 50.

29. A physician, a native of Athens in the fourth century B.C. He is

supposed to have belonged to the sect of the Dogmatiei, and was greatly

celebrated for his classification of diseases. He wrote on diet and drink,

among other subjects.

30. Probably the same writer that is mentioned at the end of B. iv.; or,

possibly, a physician of that name, who was a disciple of Herophilus, and

lived about the second century B.C.

31. A distinguished Peripatetic philosopher of Eresos in Lesbos, a disciple

of Aristotle, and a contemporary of Theophrastus.

32. Of this writer, nothing whatever is known, beyond the mention made

of him in c. 88 of this Book, and in B. xxii. c. 32.

33. Nothing whatever is known relative to this writer.

34. See end of B. vii.

35. See end of B. xx.

36. See end of B. xx.

37. See end of B. xx.

38. For Heraclides of Pontus, see end of B. iv. For Heraclides of Ta-

rentum, see end of B. xii.

39. See end of B. xv.

40. See end of B. xii.

41. See end of B. xx.

42. See end of B. xx.

43. See end of B. xx.

44. See end of B. xx.

45. See end of B. xx.

46. See end of B. xx.

47. See end of B. xx.

48. See end of B. xx.

49. See end of B. vii.

50. See end of B. xx.

51. See end of B. xx.

52. See end of B. xii.

53. See end of B. xi.

54. See end of B. xii.

55. See end of B. xx.

56. See end of B. xii.

57. Sec end of B. xx.

58. See end of B. xx.

59. See end of B. vi.

60. See end of B. xx.

61. See end of B. xx.

62. See end of B. xx.

63. See end of B. xx.

64. See end of B. xii.

65. See end of B. xx.

66. See end of B. xx.

67. See end of B. xix.

68. See end of B. xx.

69. Sec end of B. xx.

70. See end of B. xx.




0. > Book Xxii. The Properties Of Plants And Fruits.


BOOK XXII.

THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS AND FRUITS.










1. Chap. 1.-The Properties Of Plants.


CHAP. 1.-THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS.



Nature and the earth might have well filled the measure of

our admiration, if we had nothing else to do but to consider

the properties enumerated in the preceding Book, and the numerous varieties of plants that we find created for the wants

or the enjoyment of mankind. And yet, how much is there

still left for us to describe, and how many discoveries of a still

more astonishing nature! The greater part, in fact, of the

plants there mentioned recommend themselves to us by their

taste, their fragrance, or their beauty, and so invite us to

make repeated trials of their virtues: but, on the other hand.

the properties of those which remain to be described, furnish

us with abundant proof that nothing has been created by Nature

without some purpose to fulfil, unrevealed to us though it

may be.










2. Chap. 2. (1.)-Plants Used By Nations For The Adornment Of The Person.


CHAP. 2. (1.)-PLANTS USED BY NATIONS FOR THE ADORNMENT OF THE PERSON.



I remark, in the first place, that there are some foreign nations which, in obedience to long-established usage, employ

certain plants for the embellishment of the person. That,

among some barbarous peoples, the females[1] stain the face by

means of various plants, there can be little doubt, and among

the Daci and the Sarmat we find the men even marking[2] their

bodies. There is a plant in Gaul, similar to the plantago in

appearance, and known there by the name of "glastum:"[3]







with it both matrons and girls[4] among the people of Britain

are in tile habit of staining the body all over, when taking

part in the performance of certain sacred rites; rivalling

hereby tile swarthy hue of the thiopianls, they go in a state

of nature.







1. Fe remarks, that at the present day, in all savage nations in which

tatooing is practised, the men display more taste and care in the operation

than is shewn by the females. There is little doubt that it is the art of

tatooing the body, or in other words, first puncturing it and then rubbing

in various colours, that is here spoken of by Pliny.

2. "Inscribunt." "Writing upon," or "tatooing," evidently.

3. Our "word," the Isatis tinctoria of Linnus, which imparts a blue colour. The root of this Celtic wood is probably "glas," "blue," whence

also our word "glass;" and it is not improbable that the name of glass

was given to it from the blue tints which it presented. Julius Csar and

Pomponius Mela translate this word "glastum," by the Latin "vitrum"

"glass."

4. "Conjuges nurusque." Csar says that all the people in Britain were

in the habit of staining the body with woad, to add to the horror of their

appearance in battle. Pomponius Mela expresses himself as uncertain for

what purpose it was done, whether it was to add to their beauty, or for

some other reasons to him unknown.




3. Chap. 3. (2.)-Employment Of Plants For Dyeing. Explanation Of The Terms Sagmen, Verbena, And Clarigatio.


CHAP. 3. (2.)-EMPLOYMENT OF PLANTS FOR DYEING. EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS SAGMEN, VERBENA, AND CLARIGATIO.



We know, too, that from plants are extracted admirable

colours for dyeing; and, not to mention the berries[1] of Galatia,[2]

Africa, and Lusitania, which furnish the coccus, a dye reserved for the military costume[3] of our generals, the people of

Gaul beyond the Alps produce the Tyrian colours, the conchyliated,[4] and all the other hues, by the agency of plants[5] alone.

They have not there to seek the murex at tine bottom of the

sea, or to expose themselves to be the prey of the monsters of

the deep, while tearing it from their jaws, nor have they to go

searching in depths to which no anchor has penetrated-and

all this for the purpose of finding the means whereby some

mother of a family may appear more charming in the eyes of

her paramour, or the seducer may make himself more captivating to the wife of another man. Standing on dry land, the

people there gather in their dyes just as we do our crops of







corn-though one great fault in them is, that they wash[6] out;

were it not for which, luxury would have the means of bedecking itself with far greater magnificence, or, at all events,

at the price of far less danger.



It is not my purpose, however, here to enter further into

these details, nor shall I make the attempt, by substituting

resources attended with fewer risks, to circumscribe luxury

within the limits of frugality; though, at the same time, I

shall have to speak on another occasion how that vegetable

productions are employed for staining stone and imparting

their colours to walls.[7] Still, however, I should not have

omitted to enlarge upon the art of dyeing, had I found that it

had ever been looked upon as forming one of our liberal[8] arts.

Meantime, I shall be actuated by higher considerations, and

shall proceed to show in what esteem we are bound to hold

the mute[9] plants even, or in other words, the plants of little

note. For, indeed, the authors and founders of the Roman

sway have derived from these very plants even almost boundless results; as it was these same plants, and no others, that

afforded them the "sagmen,"[10] employed in seasons of public

calamity, and the "verbena" of our sacred rites and embassies.

These two names, no doubt, originally signified the same thing,

-a green turf torn up from the citadel with the earth attached

to it; and hence, when envoys were dispatched to the enemy

for the purpose of clarigation, or, in other words, with the

object of clearly[11] demanding restitution of property that had

been carried off, one of these officers was always known as

the "verbenarius."[12]











1. "Granis." What the ancients took to be a vegetable substance, is

now known to be an insect, the kermes of the Quercus coccifera.

2. See B. ix. c. 63.

3. "Paludamentis." The "paliudamentum" was the cloak worn by a

Roman general when in command, his principal officers, and personal attendants. It was open in front, reached to the knees or thereabout, and

hung over the shoulders, being fastened across the chest by a clasp. It

was commonly white or purple.

4. For an account of all these colours see B. ix. cc. 6065.

5. The vaccinium for instance. See B. xvi. c. 31.

6. Fe thinks that

7. Fe thinks that the art of dyeing with alkanet and madder may be

here alluded to.

11 See B. xxxv. c. 1.

8. The "good," "ingenuous," or "liberal" arts were those which might

be practised by free men without loss of dignity. Pliny is somewhat inconsistent here, for he makes no scruple at enlarging upon the art of medicine, which among the Romans was properly not a liberal, but a servile,

art.

9. "Surdisart of dyeing with alkanet and madder may be her alluded too."

10. Festus says the "verben," or pure herbs, were called "sagmina,"

because they were taken from a sacred (sacer) place. It is more generally

supposed that "sagmen" comes from "sanction," "to render inviolable,"

the person of the bearer being looked upon as inviolable.

11. "Clare."

12. Or bearer of the "verbena." See further on this subject in B. xxv.

c. 59.




5. Chap. 5. (5.)-The Only Persons That Have Been Presented With This Crown.


CHAP. 5. (5.)-THE ONLY PERSONS THAT HAVE BEEN PRESENTED WITH THIS CROWN.



L. Siccius Dentatus[1] was presented with this crown but

once, though he gained as many as fourteen civic crowns, and

fought one hundred and twenty battles, in all of which he was

victorious-so rarely is it that an army has to thank a single

individual only for its preservation! Some generals, however, have been presented with more than one of these crowns,

P. Decius Mus,[2] the military tribune, for example, who received one from his own army, and another from the troops

which he had rescued[3] when surrounded. He testified by an

act of devoutness in what high esteem he held such an honour

as this, for, adorned with these insignia, he sacrificed a white

ox to Mars, together with one hundred red oxen, which had

been presented to him by the beleaguered troops as the recompense of his valour: it was this same Decius, who afterwards,

when consul, with Imperiosus[4] for his colleague, devoted his

life to secure victory to his fellow-citizens.



This crown was presented also by the senate and people of

Rome-a distinction than which I know of nothing in existence more glorious-to that same Fabius[5] who restored the

fortunes of Rome by avoiding a battle; not, however, on the

occasion when he preserved the master of the horse[6] and his

army; for then it was deemed preferable by those who were

indebted to him for their preservation to present him with a

crown under a new title, that of "father." The crown of

grass was, however, awarded to him, with that unanimity

which I have mentioned, after Hannibal had been expelled

from Italy; being the only crown, in fact, that has hitherto

been placed upon the head of a citizen by the hands of the

state itself, and, another remarkable distinction, the only one

that has ever been conferred by the whole of Italy united.











1. See B. vii. c. 29.

2. See B. xvi. c. 5.

3. In the Samnite war. He died B.C. 340.

4. Titus Manlins Torquatus Imperiosus, consul A.U.C. 414. It was he

who put his own son to death for engaging the enemy against orders.

5. Q. Fabius Maximus, surnamed Cunctator, for his skill in avoiding an

engagement with Hannibal, and so wearing out the Carthaginian troops.

6. Q. Minutius, the Magister Equitum.




6. Chap. 6. (6.)-The Only Centurion That Has Been Thus Honoured.


CHAP. 6. (6.)-THE ONLY CENTURION THAT HAS BEEN THUS HONOURED.



In addition to the persons already mentioned, the honour

of this crown has been awarded to M. Calpurnius Flamma,[1]

then a military tribune in Sicily; but up to the present time

it has been given to a single centurion only, Cneius Petreius

Atinas, during the war with the Cimbri. This soldier, while

acting as primipilus[2] under Catulus, on finding all retreat for

his legion cut off by the enemy, harangued the troops, and

after slaying his tribune who hesitated to cut a way through the

encampment of the enemy, brought away the legion in safety.

I find it stated also by some authors, that, in addition to this

honour, this same Petreius, clad in the prtexta, offered sacrifice at the altar, to the sound of the pipe,[3] in presence of the

then consuls,[4] Marius and Catulus.



The Dictator Sylla has also stated in his memoirs, that when

legatus in the Marsic War he was presented with this crown

by the army, at Nola; an event which he caused to be com-

memorated in a painting at his Tusculan villa, which afterwards became the property of Cicero. If there is any truth

in this statement, I can only say that it renders his memory

all the more execrable, and that, by his proscriptions, with his

own hand he tore this crown from his brow, for few indeed

were the citizens whom he thus preserved, in comparison with

those he slaughtered at a later period. And let him even add

to this high honour his proud surname of "Felix,"[5] if he will;

all the glories of this crown he surrendered to Sertorius, from

the moment that he put his proscribed fellow-citizens in a

stage of siege throughout the whole world.



Varro, too, relates that Scipio milianus was awarded the

obsidional crown in Africa, under the consul Manilius,[6] for the

preservation of three cohorts, by bringing as many to their

rescue; an event commemorated by an inscription upon the

base of the statue erected in honour of him by the now deified

Emperor Augustus, in the Forum which bears his name. Au-







gustus himself was also presented by the senate with the obsidional crown, upon the ides[7] of September, in the consulship[8]

of M. Cicero the Younger, the civic crown being looked upon

as not commensurate with his deserts. Beyond these, I do not

find any one mentioned as having been rewarded with this

honour.







1. See Livy, B. xxii.

2. the primipilus was the first centurion of the first maniple of the

triarii; also called "primus centurionum."

3. "Ad tibicinem."

4. A.U.C. 652.

5. The "Fortunate."

6. A.U.C. 605.

7. 13th of September.

8. A.U.C. 723.




7. Chap. 7.-Remedies Derived From Other Chaplet Plants.


CHAP. 7.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM OTHER CHAPLET PLANTS.



No plant[1] in particular was employed in the composition of

this crown, such only being used as were found growing on

the spot so imperilled; and thus did they become the means,

however humble and unnoted themselves, of conferring high

honour and renown. All this, however, is but little known

among us at the present day; a fact which I am the less surprised at, when I reflect that those plants even are treated

with the same indifference, the purpose of which it is to preserve our health, to allay our bodily pains, and to repel the

advances of death! And who is there that would not visit

with censure, and justly visit, the manners of the present day?

Luxury and effeminacy have augmented the price at which

we live, and never was life more hankered after, or worse

cared[2] for, than it is at present. This, however, we look upon

as the business of others, forsooth; other persons must see to it,

without our troubling ourselves to request them, and the physicians must exercise the necessary providence in our behalves.[3]

As for ourselves, we go on enjoying our pleasures, and are con-

tent to live-a thing that in my opinion reflects the highest

possible disgrace-by putting faith in others.[4]



Nay, even more than this, we ourselves are held in derision

by many, for undertaking these researches, and are charged

with busying ourselves with mere frivolities! It is some

solace, however, in the prosecution of these our boundless

labours, to have Nature as our sharer in this contempt: Nature who, as we will prove beyond a doubt, has never failed

in coming to the assistance of man, and has implanted[5] reme-







dies for our use in the most despised even of the vegetable productions, medicaments in plants which repel us with their

thorns.



It is of these, in fact, that it remains for us now to speak, as

next in succession to those which we have mentioned in the

preceding Book; and here we cannot sufficiently admire, and,

indeed, adore,[6] the wondrous providence displayed by Nature.

She had given us, as already[7] shewn, plants soft to the touch,

and agreeable to the palate; in the flowers she had painted

the remedies for our diseases with her varied tints, and, while

commingling the useful with the delicious, had attracted our

attention by means of the pleasures of the eye. Here, how-

ever, she has devised another class of plants, bristling and repulsive to the sight, and dangerous to the touch; so much so,

indeed, that we fancy we all but hear the voice of her who

made them as she reveals to us her motives for so doing. It is

her wish, she says, that no ravening cattle may browse upon

them, that no wanton hand may tear them up, that no heedless footstep may tread them down, that no bird, perching there,

may break them: and in thus fortifying them with thorns, and

arming them with weapons, it has been her grand object

to save and protect the remedies which they afford to man.

Thus we see, the very qualities even which we hold in such

aversion, have been devised by Nature for the benefit and advantage of mankind.







1. Hence we may conclude that the word "gramen" signified not only

"grass," but any plant in general.

2. By reason of the luxury and sensuality universally prevalent.

3. This is said in bitter irony.

4. Trusting to the good faith and research of the physician.

5. "Inseruisse."

6. "Amplecti."

7. In the Twentieth Book.




8. Chap. 8. (7.)-The Erynge Or Eryngium.


CHAP. 8. (7.)-THE ERYNGE OR ERYNGIUM.



In the first rank of the plants armed with prickles, the

erynge,[1] or eryngion stands pre-eminent, a vegetable production

held in high esteem as an antidote formed for the poison of ser-

pents and all venomous substances. For stings and bites of

this nature, the root is taken in wine in doses of one drachma,

or if, as generally is the case, the wound is attended with

fever, in water. It is employed also, in the form of a lini-







ment, for wounds, and is found to be particularly efficacious

for those inflicted by water-snakes or frogs. The physician

Heraclides states it as his opinion that, boiled in goose-broth,

it is a more valuable remedy than any other known, for aconite[2] and other poisons.[3] Apollodorus recommends that, in

cases of poisoning, it should be boiled with a frog, and other

authorities, in water only. It is a hardy plant, having much

the appearance of a shrub, with prickly leaves and a jointed

stem; it grows a cubit or more in height. Sometimes it is

found of a whitish colour, and sometimes black,[4] the root of it

being odoriferous. It is cultivated in gardens, but it is frequently to be found growing[5] spontaneously in rugged and

craggy localities. It grows, too, on the sea-shore, in which case

it is tougher and darker than usual, the leaf resembling that of

parsley.[6]







1. It has been thought by some that this is the Scolymus maculatus of

Linnus; the spotted yellow thistle. But the more general opinion is

that it is the eringo, or Eryngium campestre of Linnus. It derives its

name from the Greek e)reu/gein, from its asserted property of dispelling

flatulent erucatatins. It is possessed in reality of few medicinal proper-

ties, and is only used occasionally, at the present day, as a diuretic. See

B. xxi. c. 56.

2. See B. xxvii. c. 2.

3. By the word "toxica," Poinsinet would understand, not poisons in

general, but the venom of the toad, which was called, he says, in the

Celtic and Celto-Scythic languages, toussac and tossa. Fe ridicules the

notion.

4. Or rather, Fe says, deep blue. He identifies this with the Eryngium

cyaneum of Linnus, the eringo, with a blue flower.

5. This, as well as the next, is identical, probably, with the Eryngium

maritimum of Linnus; our sea-holly. The species found in Greece, in

addition to the above; are the Eryngium tricuspidatum, multifidum, and

parviflorum.

6. Pliny probably makes a mistake here, and reads seli/non, "parsley,"

for sko/lumos, a "thistle." Dalechamps is of this opinion, from an examination of the leaf; and Brotier adopts it.




10. Chap. 10. (9.)-The Acanos; One Remedy.


CHAP. 10. (9.)-THE ACANOS; ONE REMEDY.



There are some authors, too, who make the acanos[1] to be a

species of eryngium. It is a thorny plant, stunted, and

spreading, with prickles of a considerable size. Applied topically, they say, it arrests hmorrhage in a most remarkable

degree.











1. Sprengel identifies this with the Onopordum acanthium; but Fe

thinks that if it belongs to the Onopordum at all, it is more likely to be

the Onopordum acaulton, or the O. Grcum.




12. Chap. 12. (10.)-Two Varieties Of The Tribulus; Twelve Remedies.


CHAP. 12. (10.)-TWO VARIETIES OF THE TRIBULUS; TWELVE REMEDIES.



Of the two[1] kinds of tribulus, the one is a garden plant,

the other grows in rivers only. There is a juice extracted from

them which is employed for diseases of the eyes, it being of a

cool and refreshing nature, and, consequently, useful for inflammations and abscesses. Used with honey, this juice is

curative of spontaneous ulcerations, those of the mouth in particular; it is good also for affections of the tonsils. Taken in

a potion, it breaks calculi of the bladder.



The Thracians who dwell on the banks of the river Strymon

feed their horses[2] on the leaves of the tribulus, and employ the

kernels as an article of food, making of them a very agreeable

kind of bread, which acts astringently[3] upon the bowels. The







root, if gathered by persons in a state of chastity and purity,[4]

disperses scrofulous sores; and the seed, used as an amulet,

allays the pains attendant upon varicose veins: pounded and

mixed with water, it destroys fleas.







1. Probably the Fagonia Cretica and the Trapa natans of Linnus. See

B. xxi. c. 58. The first, Fe remarks, is a native of Candia, the ancient

Crete, and a stranger to the climates of Greece and Italy. This may account for Pliny calling it a garden plant.

2. This is said, Fe remarks, in reference to the Trapa natans, the seed

of which is rich in fecula, and very nutritious.

3. "Contrahat ventrem." It would not act, Fe says, as an astringent, but would have the effect of imparting nutriment in a very high degree,

without overloading the stomach.

4. A harmless, or, perhaps, beneficial, superstition.




13. Chap. 13. (11.)-The Stbe Or Pheos.


CHAP. 13. (11.)-THE STBE OR PHEOS.



The stbe,[1] by some persons known as the "pheos," boiled

in wine, is particularly good for the cure of suppurations of the

ears, and for extravasations of blood in the eyes from the effects

of a blow. It is employed also in injections for hmorrhage

and dysentery.







1. The synonym of this plant is probably unknown. Dalechamps identifies it with the Sagittaria sagittifolia, C. Bauhin with the Centaurea calcitrapa, and Clusius, Belli, and Sprengel, with the Poterium spinosum.

None of these plants, however, are prickly and aquatic, characteristics, according to Theophrastus, of the Stbe: Hist. Plant. B. iv. c. 11. Fe

considers its identification next to impossible.




22. Chap. 22. (19.)-The Coronopus.


CHAP. 22. (19.)-THE CORONOPUS.



The coronopus[1] is an elongated plant, with fissures in the

leaves. It is sometimes cultivated, as the root, roasted in

hot ashes, is found to be an excellent remedy for cliac com-

plaints.







1. The Cochlearia coronopus of Linnus, crow's-foot, or buck's-horn

plantain.




31. Chap. 31. (22.)-The Picris; One Remedy. The Thesion; One Remedy.


CHAP. 31. (22.)-THE PICRIS; ONE REMEDY. THE THESION; ONE REMEDY.



The picris[1] derives its name from its intense bitterness, as

we have previously stated. The leaf of it is round; it is remarkably efficacious for the removal of warts.



The thesium,[2] too, has a bitterness not unlike it: it is a

powerful purgative, for which purpose it is employed bruised

in water.







1. See B. xxi. c. 65. The Picris asplenioides of Linnus, Fe thinks,

though Sprengel identifies it with the Helminthia echioides of Linnus;

but the leaves of that plant are not round.

2. See B. xxi. c. 67.




32. Chap. 32.-The Asphodel; Fifty-One Remedies.


CHAP. 32.-THE ASPHODEL; FIFTY-ONE REMEDIES.



The asphodel[1] is one of the most celebrated of all the plants,

so much so, indeed, that by some persons it has been called

"heroum."[2] Hesiod has mentioned the fact of its growing in

rivers, and Dionysius distinguishes it into male and female.[3]

It has been observed that the bulbs of it, boiled with a ptisan,

are remarkably good for consumption and phthisis,[4] and that







bread in which they have been kneaded up with the meal, is

extremely wholesome. Nicander[5] recommends also, for the

stings of serpents and scorpions, either the stalk, which we

have already[6] spoken of under the name of "anthericus," or

else the seed or bulbs, to be taken in wine, in doses of three

drachm; and he says that these should be strewed beneath

the bed, if there is any apprehension of their presence. The

asphodel is prescribed also for wounds inflicted by marine

animals of a venomous nature, and the bite of the land scolopendra. It is quite wonderful how the snails, in Campania,

seek the stalk of this plant, and dry it by extracting the

inside. The leaves, too, are applied with wine to wounds

made by venomous animals, and the bulbs are beaten up with

polenta and similarly used for affections of the sinews and

joints. It is also a very good plan to rub lichens with them

chopped up and mixed with vinegar, and to apply them in

water to putrid sores, as also to inflammations of the tests or

mamill. Boiled in lees of wine, and applied in a linen pledged,

they are used for the cure of defluxions of the eyes.



Whatever the malady may happen to be, it is generally in

a boiled[7] state that the bulbs are employed; but for foul

ulcers of the legs and for chaps upon any part of the body,

they are dried and reduced to powder. The bulbs are usually

gathered in autumn,[8] a period when their medicinal properties

are most fully developed. The juice extracted from them

pounded, or else a decoction of them, is good, mixed with honey,

for pains in the body: it is employed also with dried iris and a

little salt by those who wish to impart an agreeable odour to

the person. The leaves are used for the cure of the various

maladies above mentioned, as also, boiled in wine, for scrofu-

lous sores, inflamed tumours, and ulcers of the face. The ashes

of the root are a remedy for alopecy and chaps on the feet;

and an extract of the root, boiled in oil, is good for burns and

chilblains. It is injected also into the ears for deafness, and,

for tooth-ache, it is poured into the ear opposite to the part

affected. A moderate dose of the root, taken in drink, acts as







a diuretic and emmenagogue; it is good also for pains in the

sides, ruptures, convulsions, and coughs, in doses of one drachma,

taken in wine. Chewed, the root promotes vomiting, but the

seed, taken internally, disorders the bowels.



Chrysermus used to employ a decoction of the root, in wine,

for imposthumes of the parotid glands; and he has prescribed

it, in combination with cachrys,[9] in wine, for the cure of

scrofulous sores. Some persons say that if, after applying the

root to the sores, a part of it is hung up in the smoke to dry,

and not taken down till the end of four days, the sores

will gradually dry up with this portion of the root. Sophocles[10]

used to employ it both ways, boiled and raw, for the cure of

gout; and he prescribes it, boiled in oil, for chilblains, and,

in vinegar, for jaundice and dropsy. It has been stated,

also, that, used as a friction with wine and honey, or taken in

drink, it acts as an aphrodisiac. Xenocrates assures us, too,

that a decoction of the root in vinegar removes lichens, itchscabs, and leprous sores; and that a decoction of it, with henbane and tar, has a similar effect, and is good also for the removal of bad odours[11] of the armpits and thighs: he states,

also, that if the head is well rubbed with the root, being first

shaved, the hair will curl all the better for it. Simus prescribes a decoction of it, in wine, to be taken for calculi in

the kidneys; and Hippocrates recommends the seed for obstructions of the spleen. The root, or else a decoction of it,

applied topically, restores the hair in beasts of burden, where it

has been lost by ulcerations or scab. It has the effect, too, of

driving away rats and mice, and of exterminating them, if

placed before their holes.







1. See B. xxi. c. 68.

2. "Plant of the heroes."

3. Mere varieties of the plant, so called with reference, probably, to the

relative energy of their properties.

4. Regarded in a medicinal point of view the bulb of the asphodel pos-

sesses some emollient properties, and nothing more. As an application to

sores and abscesses it may reduce the inflammation, and being rich in

mucilage, the pulp may form a nourishing food. All the other statements

as to its medicinal properties are, as Fe remarks, quite fabulous.

5. Theriaca, p. 39.

6. In B. xxi. c. 68.

7. This practice, as Fe remarks, was based on sound principles, the

acrid properties of the bulbs being removed by boiling.

8. Most medicinal roots are gathered at this period, their properties

being, as Pliny says, most fully developed in the autumn.

9. See B. xvi. c. 11.

10. Other readings are Diocles, Socles, and Socrates. If "Sophocles" is

the correct reading, all memorials of this physician have perished, beyond

the mention made of him by Clius Aurelianus, Chron. c. i.

11. "Vitia."




39. Chap. 39.-The Iasione; Four Remedies.


CHAP. 39.-THE IASIONE; FOUR REMEDIES.



The iasione,[1] which is also looked upon as a wild vegetable,

is a creeping plant, full of a milky juice: it bears a white







flower, the name given to which is "concilium." The chief

recommendation of this plant, too, is that it acts as an aphrodisiac. Eaten with the food, raw, in vinegar, it promotes the

secretion of the milk in nursing women. It is salutary also

for patients who are apprehensive of phthisis; and, applied to

the head of infants, it makes the hair grow, and renders the

scalp more firm.







1. See B. xxi. c. 65.




42. Chap. 42.-The Sillybum.


CHAP. 42.-THE SILLYBUM.



The sillybum[1] resembles the white chamleon, and is a

plant quite as prickly. In Cilicia, Syria, and Phoenicia, the

countries where it grows, it is not thought worth while to

boil it, the cooking of it being so extremely troublesome, it is

said. It is of no use whatever in medicine.







1. See B. xxvi. c. 25. Sprengel identifies it with the Carduus marianus of Linnus. Fe inclines, however, to the belief that it is the

Sonchus palustris of Linnus; the marsh sow-thistle.




51. Chap. 51.-The Various Influences Of Different Aliments Upon The Disposition.


CHAP. 51.-THE VARIOUS INFLUENCES OF DIFFERENT ALIMENTS UPON THE DISPOSITION.



While speaking of the uses of honey, we ought also to treat

of the properties of hydromel.[1] There are two kinds of hydromel, one of which is prepared at the moment, and taken

while fresh,[2] the other being kept to ripen. The first,







which is made of skimmed honey, is an extremely wholesome beverage for invalids who take nothing but a light diet,

such as strained alica for instance: it reinvigorates the body,

is soothing to the mouth and stomach, and by its refreshing

properties allays feverish heats. I find it stated,[3] too, by

some authors, that to relax the bowels it should be taken cold,

and that it is particularly well-suited for persons of a chilly

temperament, or of a weak and pusillanimous[4] constitution,

such as the Greeks, for instance, call "micropsychi."



For there is a theory,[5] remarkable for its extreme ingenuity,

first established by Plato, according to which the primary atoms

of bodies, as they happen to be smooth or rough, angular or

round, are more or less adapted to the various temperaments

of individuals: and hence it is, that the same substances are

not universally sweet or bitter to all. So, when affected with

lassitude or thirst, we are more prone to anger than at other

times.[6] These asperities, however, of the disposition, or rather

I should say of the mind,[7] are capable of being modified by

the sweeter beverages; as they tend to lubricate the passages

for the respiration, and to mollify the channels, the work of

inhalation and exhalation being thereby unimpeded by any

rigidities. Every person must be sensible of this experiment-

ally, in his own cease: there is no one in whom anger, affection, sadness, and all the emotions of the mind may not, in

some degree, be modified by diet. It will therefore be worth

our while to observe what aliments they are which exercise a

physical effect, not only upon the body, but the disposition

as well.







1. "Aqua mulsa." See B. xiv. c. 20, where it is described as Hydro-

meli, or Melicraton.

2. Fe says that this must have been a wholesome beverage, but that it would cease to be so after undergoing fermentation. In the description

of its uses there are some errors, Fe says, combined with some rational

observations.

3. See B. xviii. c. 29; also c. 61 of this Book.

4. This seems to be the meaning of "prparei" here, though it generally signifies "niggardly," or "sordid."

5. Fe combats this theory at considerable length; but there can be

little doubt that the same substance has not the same taste to all indi-

viduals.

6. Seneca makes a similar observation, De Ira, B. iii. C. 10.

7. "Animi seu potius anim."




56. Chap. 56.-Remarks In Disparagement Of Medicinal Compositions.


CHAP. 56.-REMARKS IN DISPARAGEMENT OF MEDICINAL COMPOSITIONS.



As to the different uses to which wax is applied, in combination with other substances in medicine, we could no more

make an enumeration of them than we could of all the other

ingredients which form part of our medicinal compositions.

These preparations, as we have already[1] observed, are the results of human invention. Cerates, poultices,[2] plasters, eyesalves, antidotes,-none of these have been formed by Nature,

that parent and divine framer of the universe; they are merely

the inventions of the laboratory, or rather, to say the truth,

of human avarice.[3] The works of Nature are brought into

existence complete and perfect in every respect, her ingredients being but few in number, selected as they are from a

due appreciation of cause and effect, and not from mere guesswork; thus, for instance, if a dry substance is wanted to assume a liquefied form, a liquid, of course, must be employed as

a vehicle, while liquids, on the other hand, must be united with

a dry substance to render them consistent. But as for man,

when he pretends, with balance in[4] hand, to unite and combine the various elementary substances, he employs himself

not merely upon guesswork, but proves himself guilty of downright impudence.



It is not my intention to touch upon the medicaments afforded by the drugs of India, or Arabia and other foreign

climates: I have no liking for drugs that come from so great a

distance;[5] they are not produced for us, no, nor yet for the

natives of those countries, or else they would not be so ready

to sell them to us. Let people buy them if they please, as

ingredients in perfumes, unguents, and other appliances of

luxury; let them buy them as adjuncts to their superstitions

even, if incense and costus we must have to propitiate the

gods; but as to health, we can enjoy that blessing without







their assistance, as we can easily prove-the greater reason

then has luxury to blush at its excesses.







1. In c. 49 of this Book.

2. "Malagmata."

3. Fe, at some length, and with considerable justice, combats this

assertion; though at the same time he remarks that Pliny is right in calling the attention of the medical world to the use of simple substances.

4. "Scripulatim"-"By scruples."

5. He forgets that many of them could only be produced by the agency

of an Eastern sun.




81. Chap. 81.-Remedies For Injuries Inflicted By Insects Which Breed Among Leguminous Plants.


CHAP. 81.-REMEDIES FOR INJURIES INFLICTED BY INSECTS WHICH BREED AMONG LEGUMINOUS PLANTS.



There are some venomous insects also, of the solipuga[1] kind,

which breed upon leguminous plants, and which, by stinging

the hands, endanger life. For these stings all those remedies

are efficacious which have been mentioned for the bite of the

spider and the phalangium.[2] Such, then, are the medicinal

properties for which the cereals are employed.











1. See B. viii. c. 43.

2. See B. x. c. 95, and B. xi. cc. 24, 28.




82. Chap. 82.-The Use Made Of The Yeast Of Zythum.


CHAP. 82.-THE USE MADE OF THE YEAST OF ZYTHUM.



Different beverages, too, are made from the cereals, zythum

in Egypt, clia and cerea in Spain, cervesia[1] and numerous

liquors in Gaul and other provinces. The yeast[2] of all of these

is used by women as a cosmetic for the face.-But as we are

now speaking of beverages, it will be the best plan to pass on

to the various uses of wine, and to make a beginning with the

vine of our account of the medicinal properties of the trees.



Summary.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine

hundred and six.



Authors quoted.-All those mentioned in the preceding

Book: and, in addition to them, Chrysermus,[3] Eratosthenes,[4]

and Alcus.[5]









1. As to the beers of the ancients, see B. xiv. c. 29. Very few particulars are known of them; but we learn from the Talmud, where it is

called zeitham. that zythum was an Egyptian beverage made of barley, wild

saffron, and salt, in equal parts. In the Mishna, the Jews are enjoined

not to use it during the Passover.

2. "Spuma;" literally, "foam."

3. A physician who lived, probably, at the end of the second or the beginning of the first century B.C., as he was one of the tutors of Heraclides

of <*>rythr. His definition of the pulse has been preserved by Galen, De

Differ. Puls. B. iv. c. 10, and an anecdote of him is mentioned by Sextus

Empiricus.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. A native of Mytilene, in the island of Lesbos, the earliest of the

olian lyric poets. He flourished at the latter end of the seventh century B.C. Of his Odes only a few fragments, with some Epigrams, have

come down to us.




0. > Book Xxiii. The Remedies Derived From The Cultivated Trees.


BOOK XXIII.

THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CULTIVATED TREES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Introduction.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-INTRODUCTION.



We have now set forth the various properties, medicinal or

otherwise, as well of the cereals as of the other productions

which lie upon[1] the surface of the earth, for the purpose either

of serving us for food, or for the gratification of our senses

with their flowers or perfumes. In the trees, however,

Pomona has entered the lists with them, and has imparted

certain medicinal properties to the fruits as they hang. Not content with protecting and nourishing, under the shadow of the

trees, the various plants which we have[2] already described,

she would even appear to be indignant, as it were, at the

thought that we should derive more succour from those productions which are further removed from the canopy of heaven,

and which have only come into use in times comparatively recent. For she bids man bear in mind that it was the fruits of

the trees which formed his first nourishment, and that it was

these which first led him to look upwards towards the heavens:

and not only this, but she reminds him, too, that even still it

is quite possible for him to derive his aliment from the trees,

without being indebted to grain for his subsistence.







1. In contradistinction to the fruits which hang from trees.

2. See B. xvii. c. 18.




2. Chap. 2.-The Vine.


CHAP. 2.-THE VINE.



But, by Hercules! it is the vine more particularly to which

she has accorded these medicinal properties, as though she

were not contented with her generosity in providing it with

such delicious flavours, and perfumes, and essences, in its omphacium, its nanthe, and its massaris, preparations upon

which we have already[1] enlarged. "It is to me," she says,

"that man is indebted for the greater part of his enjoyments,







it is I that produce for him the flowing wine and the trickling

oil, it is I that ripen the date and other fruits in numbers so

varied; and all this, not insisting, like the earth, on their purchase at the cost of fatigues and labours. No necessity do I

create for ploughing with the aid of oxen, for beating out

upon the threshing-floor, or for bruising under the millstone,

and all in order that man may earn his food at some indefinite

time by this vast expenditure of toil. As for me, all my gifts

are presented to him ready prepared: for no anxieties or

flatigues do they call, but, on the contrary, they offer them-

selves spontaneously, and even fall to the ground, if man

should be too indolent to reach them as they hang." Vying

even with herself, Pomona has done still more for our practical advantage than for the mere gratification of our pleasures

and caprices.







1. In B. xii. cc. 60 and 61.




6. Chap. 6.-Grapes, Fresh Gathered.


CHAP. 6.-GRAPES, FRESH GATHERED.



As to grapes when allowed to gain maturity, the black ones

have more marked properties[1] than the others; and hence it

is, that the wine made from them is not so agreeable. The

white grapes, on the other hand, are sweeter, for, being transparent, the air penetrates them with greater facility.



Grapes fresh gathered are productive of flatulency, and disturb the stomach and bowels; hence it is that they are avoided

in fevers, in large quantities more particularly. Indeed, they

are very apt to produce oppression of the head, and to bring on

the malady known as lethargy.[2] Grapes which have been

gathered, and left to hang for some time, are much less[3] injurious, the exposure to the air rendering them beneficial even to

the stomach, and refreshing to the patient, as they are slightly

cooling, and tend to remove nausea and qualmishness.







1. This remark is founded, in a great measure, upon fact. The skin of

the black grape contains a colouring principle in considerable abundance.

and a small proportion of tannin; that of the white grape possesses no

colouring principle, but a considerable quantity of tannin. The white

grape contains more saccharine matter than the black one, and they are

both of them of a laxative nature.

2. Littr remarks, that under the name of "lethlargus," a febrile malady

is probably meant, which belongs probably to the class of pseudo-con-

tinuous fevers.

3. Fe thinks that in reality there can be little or no difference in their

effects, but that, being eaten in larger quantities at the vintage than afterwards, it stands to reason that the result will be different.




19. Chap. 19.-Particulars Relative To Wine.


CHAP. 19.-PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO WINE.



We have already[1] described the various kinds of wine, the

numerous differences which exist between them, and most of

the properties which each kind possesses. There is no subject

that presents greater difficulties than this, or, indeed, a more

varied field for discussion, it being extremely difficult to pronounce whether wine is more generally injurious in its effects,

or beneficial. And then, in addition to this, how very uncertain is it, whether, the moment we have drunk it, it will be

productive of salutary results, or turn out no better than so

much poison! However, it is only with reference to its medicinal properties, that we are now about to speak of it.







Asclepiades has composed a whole treatise (which has

thence received its name[2]) on the proper methods of administering wine; and the number of commentators who have since

written on this treatise, is almost innumerable. For my own

part, with all that gravity which becomes a Roman, and one

zealous for the furtherance of liberal pursuits, I shall enter into a

careful examination of this subject, not, indeed, in the character of a physician, but as a careful investigator of the

effects which wine is likely to produce upon the health of man-

kind. To treat, however, of the medicinal properties of each

individual kind, would be a labour without end, and quite inexhaustible; the more so, as the opinions of medical men are

so entirely at variance upon the subject.







1. In B. xiv. cc. 8, 9, 10. It is impossible, with any degree of accuracy, to discuss the properties of these various wines, as they no longer

exist.

2. "Cognominatum" appears to be a better reading than "cognominatus," which Sillig has adopted; as it is much more probable that the

work received its name from the subject than that the writer did.




21. Chap. 21.-The Setine Wines; One Observation Upon Them. The Statan Wines; One Observation Upon Them. The, Signian Wines; One Remedy.


CHAP. 21.-THE SETINE WINES; ONE OBSERVATION UPON THEM. THE STATAN WINES; ONE OBSERVATION UPON THEM. THE, SIGNIAN WINES; ONE REMEDY.



Among the wines, however, which still exist, those of Setia[1]

promote the digestion, having more strength than the Surrentine wines, and more roughness than those of Alba. The

wines of Falernum are not so powerful. Those of Stata are

but very little inferior in quality to the wines already mentioned. It is universally agreed that the wines of Signia are

extremely beneficial in cases of derangement of the bowels.







1. These wines also are described in B. xiv.




23. Chap. 23.-Sixty-One Observations Relative To Wine.


CHAP. 23.-SIXTY-ONE OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO WINE.



Persons whose wish it is to make flesh, or to keep the bowels

relaxed, will do well to drink while taking their food. Those,

on the other hand, who wish to reduce themselves, or prevent

the bowels from being relaxed, should abstain from drinking

while taking their meals, and drink but a very little only

when they have done eating. To drink wine fasting is a

fashion of recent introduction[1] only, and an extremely bad

one for persons engaged in matters of importance, and requiring a continued application of the mental faculties. Wine, no

doubt, was taken fasting in ancient times, but then it was as

a preparative for sleep and repose from worldly cares; and it

is for this reason that, in Homer,[2] we find Helen presenting

it to the guests before the repast. It is upon this fact, too,

that the common proverb is founded, which says that "wisdom is obscured by wine."[3] It is to wine that we men are

indebted for being the only animated beings that drink without

being thirsty. When drinking wine, it is a very good plan to

take a draught of water every now and then; and to take one

long draught of it at the last, cold water taken internally

having the effect of instantaneously dispelling inebriation.







It is strongly recommended by Hesiod[4] to drink undiluted

wine[5] for twenty days before the rising of the Dog-star, and

as many after. Pure wine, too, acts as an antidote to hemlock, coriander,[6] henbane, mistletoe, opium, mercury, as also

to stings inflicted by bees, wasps, hornets, the phalangium,

serpents, and scorpions; all kinds of poison, in fact, which are

of a cold nature, the venom of the hmorrhois and the

prester,[7] in particular, and the noxious effects of fungi. Undiluted wine is good, too, in cases of flatulency, gnawing pains

in the thoracic organs, excessive vomitings at the stomach,

fluxes of the bowels and intestines, dysentery, excessive perspirations after prolonged fits of coughing, and defluxions of

various kinds. In the cardiac[8] disease, it is a good plan to

apply a sponge soaked in neat wine to the left breast: in all

these cases, however, old white wine is the best. A fomentation of hot wine applied to the genitals of beasts of burden is

found to be very beneficial; and, introduced into the mouth,

with the aid of a horn, it has the effect of removing all sensations of fatigue.[9] It is asserted that in apes, and other quadrupeds with toes, the growth will be impeded if they are

accustomed to drink undiluted wine.[10]







1. In the time of the Emperor Tiberius. See B. xiv. c. 28.

2. Odyssey, B. iv. 1. 219, et seq.

3. "Supientiam vino obumbrari."

4. Works and Days, 1. 594.

5. "Merum."

6. It is surprising, as Fe says, to find coriander enumerated among the

poisons. Mistletoe, too, and mercury are neither of them poisons. As to

hemlock, see B. xiv. c. 7.

7. See Lucan's Pharsalia, B. ix. 11. 722, 791.

8. See B. xi. c. 71.

9. This method is still employed with race-horses. See B. xiv. c. 28.

10. It is still a very prevalent notion that the growth of dogs is stunted

by giving them raw spirits.




24. Chap. 24.-In What Maladies Wine Should Be Administered; How It Should Be Administered, And At What Times.


CHAP. 24.-IN WHAT MALADIES WINE SHOULD BE ADMINISTERED; HOW IT SHOULD BE ADMINISTERED, AND AT WHAT TIMES.



We shall now proceed to speak of wine in relation to its

medicinal uses. The wines of Campania[1] which have the

least body, are the most wholesome beverage for persons of

rank and station; and for the lower classes[2] the best kind of

wine is that which is the most pleasant to the person who

drinks it, provided he is in robust health. For persons of all

ranks, however, the most serviceable wine is that the strength







of which has been reduced by the strainer;[3] for we must bear

in mind that wine is nothing else but juice of grapes which

has acquired strength by the process of fermentation. A mixture of numerous kinds of wine is universally bad, and the

most wholesome wine of all is that to which no ingredient has

been added when in a state of must; indeed, it is still better

if the vessels even in which it is kept have never been pitched.[4]

As to wines which have been treated with marble, gypsum,

or lime,[5] where is the man, however robust he may be, that

has not stood in dread of them?



Wines which have been prepared with sea-water[6] are par-

ticularly injurious to the stomach, nerves, and bladder. Those

which have been seasoned with resin are generally looked

upon as beneficial to a cold stomach, but are considered unsuitable where there is a tendency to vomit: the same, too, with

must, boiled grape-juice,[7] and raisin wine. New wines sea-

soned with resin are good for no one, being productive of

vertigo and head-ache: hence it is that the name of "crapula"[8] has been given equally to new resined wines, and to

the surfeit and head-ache which they produce.



The wines above mentioned[9] by name, are good for cough

and catarrh, as also for cliac affections, dysentery, and

the catamenia. Those wines of this sort which are red[10] or

black,[11] are more astringent and more heating than the others.

Wines which have been seasoned with pitch only, are not so

injurious; but at the same time we must bear in mind that

pitch is neither more nor less than resin liquefied[12] by the action

of fire, These pitched wines are of a heating nature, promote

the digestion, and act as a purgative; they are good, also, for

the chest and the bowels, for pains in the uterus, if there are

no signs of fever, for inveterate fluxes, ulcerations, ruptures,

spasms, suppurated abscesses, debility of the sinews, flatulency,







cough, asthma, and sprains, in which last case they are applied

in uncleansed wool. For all these purposes the wine is preferred which has naturally the flavour of pitch,[13] and is

thence known as "picatum:" it is generally agreed, however,

that the produce of the vine called "helvennaca,"[14] if taken in

too large a quantity, is trying to the head.



In reference to the treatment of fever, it is well known that

wine should never be given, unless the patient is an aged person, or the symptoms are beginning to abate. In cases of acute

fever, wine must never be given, under any circumstance,

except when there is an evident remission of the attack, and

more particularly if this takes place in the night, for then the

danger is diminished by one half, there being the probability

of the patient sleeping off the effects of the wine. It is equally

forbidden, also, to females just after delivery or a miscarriage,

and to patients suffering from over-indulgence of the sexual

passions; nor should it be given in cases of head-ache, of

maladies in which the attacks are attended with chills at the

extremities, of fever accompanied with cough, of tremulousness[15] in the sinews, of pains in the fauces, or where the disease

is found to concentrate itself in the iliac regions. Wine is

strictly forbidden, too, in cases of induration of the thoracic

organs, violent throbbings of the veins, opisthotony, tetanus,

asthma, and hardness of breathing attended with fever.



Wine is far from beneficial for a patient, when the eyes are

fixed and rigid, and when the eyelids are immoveable, or else

relaxed and heavy; in cases, too, where, with an incessant nictation, the eyes are more than usually brilliant, or where the

eyelids refuse to close-the same, too, if that symptom

should occur in sleep-or where the eyes are suffused with

blood, or congealed matter makes its appearance in the corners

of those organs. The same rule should be observed, also, when

the tongue is heavy and swollen, or when there is an impediment from time to time in the speech, when the urine is passed

with difficulty, or when a person has been seized with a sudden

fright, with spasms, or recurrent fits of torpor, or experiences

seminal discharges during sleep.











1. The wines of Surrentum and Stata were Campanian wines.

2. "Volgo."

3. "Sacco." A strainer of linen cloth. See B. xiv. c. 28, and B. xix.

c. 19. While it diminished the strength, however, it was considered to

injure the flavour.

4. In that case, Fe says, they would differ but little from the wines of

the present day. See B. xiv. c. 25.

5. See B. xiv. c. 24.

6. See B. xiv. cc. 9, 10.

7. "Sapa."

8. See B. xiv. c. 25.

9. Surrentine, Alban, Falernian, &c.

10. The colour of Tent and Burgundy.

11. The colour of Port.

12. See B. xiv. c. 25.

13. See B. xiv. cc. 3, 4.

14. See B. xiv. c. 4: Vol. III. p. 227.

15. "Tremore nervorum;" perhaps "nervousness."




25. Chap. 25.-Ninety-One Observations With Reference To Wine.


CHAP. 25.-NINETY-ONE OBSERVATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO WINE.



It is a well-ascertained fact, that in the cardiac[1] disease the

only resource is wine. According to some authorities, however, wine should only be given when the attacks come on,

while others, again, are of opinion, that it must only be administered between the attacks; it being the object with the

former to arrest the profuse perspirations, while the latter base

their practice on an impression that it may be given with more

safety at a moment when the malady has diminished in intensity; and this I find is the opinion entertained by most people.

In all cases, wine must only be administered just after taking

food, never after sleep, and under no circumstances after any

other kind of drink, or in other words, only when the patient

is thirsty; in no case whatever should it be given, except at the

very last extremity. Wine is better suited to males than to

females, to aged people than to youths, to youths than to children, and to persons who are used to it than to those who are

not in the habit of taking it; winter, too, is a better time for

using it than summer. As to the quantity to be prescribed,

and the proportion of water to be mixed with it, that depends

entirely upon the strength of the wine; it is generally thought,

however, that the best proportions are one cyathus of wine and

two of water. If, however, there is a derangement of the

stomach, and if the food does not pass downward, the wine must

be given in a larger proportion.







1. See B. xi. c. 71. There is little doubt that generous wine promotes

the rapid circulation of the blood.




26. Chap. 26.-Artificial Wines.


CHAP. 26.-ARTIFICIAL WINES.



Among the artificial wines, the preparation of which we

have[1] described, [there are some which],[2] I think, are no

longer made; in addition to which, it would be a mere loss of

time to enlarge upon their medicinal effects, having expatiated elsewhere upon the properties of the various elements of

which they are composed. And then, besides, the conceits of

the medical men in relation to these wines have really passed

all bounds; they pretend, for instance, that a wine extracted







from turnips[3] is good for recruiting the exhausted strength,

after exercises in arms or on horseback; and, not to speak of

other preparations, they attribute a similar effect to wine of

juniper.[4] Who is there, too, that would think of looking

upon wormwood wine[5] as superior in its effects to wormwood

itself?



I shall pass in silence the rest of these preparations, and

among them palm wine,[6] which is injurious to the head, and

is beneficial only as a laxative to the bowels, and as a cure for

spitting of blood. We cannot, however, look upon the liquor

which we have spoken of[7] under the name of "bion," as being

an artificial wine; for the whole art of making it consists merely

in the employment of grapes before they have arrived at maturity. This preparation is extremely good for a deranged

stomach or an imperfect digestion, as also for pregnancy, fainting fits, paralysis, fits of trembling, vertigo, gripings of the

bowels, and sciatica. It is said, too, that in times of pestilence, and for persons on a long journey, this liquid forms a

beverage of remarkable efficacy.







1. In B. xiv. cc. 18, 19, 20.

2. In accordance with the suggestion of Sillig, we insert "sunt qu,"

otherwise the passage is defective.

3. This would be a vigorous liquor, Fe thinks, and a good tonic;

similar, in fact, to the modern antiscorbutie wines.

4. Fe queries whether this was made from the fermented berries, or

from an infusion of them in wine. In the former case it would bear some

slight resemblance to our gin.

5. "Apsinthites." See B. xiv. c. 10.

6. See B. xiii. c. 9.

7. In B. xiv. c. 10.




54. Chap. 54. (6.)-Remedies Derived From The Blossoms, Leaves, Fruit, Branches, Bark, Juices, Wood, Roots, And Ashes Of Various Kinds Of Trees. Six Observations Upon Apples. Twenty-Two Observations Upon Quinces. One Observation Upon Struthea.


CHAP. 54. (6.)-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE BLOSSOMS, LEAVES,

FRUIT, BRANCHES, BARK, JUICES, WOOD, ROOTS, AND ASHES OF

VARIOUS KINDS OF TREES. SIX OBSERVATIONS UPON APPLES.

TWENTY-TWO OBSERVATIONS UPON QUINCES. ONE OBSERVATION

UPON STRUTHEA.



We next come to the medicinal properties of the various

kinds of apples. The spring fruits of this nature are sour and

unwholesome[1] to the stomach, disturb the bowels, contract the

bladder, and act injuriously upon the nerves; when cooked,

however, they are of a more harmless nature. Quinces are

more pleasant eating when cooked; still however, eaten

raw, provided they are ripe, they are very useful[2] for spitting

of blood, dysentery, cholera, and cliac affections; indeed,

they are not of the same efficacy when cooked, as they then

lose the astringent properties which belong to their juice.

They are applied also to the breast in the burning attacks of

fever, and, in spite of what has been stated above, they are

occasionally boiled in rain-water for the various purposes before-mentioned. For pains in the stomach they are applied[3]

like a cerate, either raw or boiled. The down upon them

heals[4] carbuncles.



Boiled in wine, and applied with wax, they restore the hair,

when it has been lost by alopecy. A conserve of raw quinces

in honey relaxes the bowels; and they add very materially to

the sweetness of the honey, and render it more wholesome to

the stomach. Boiled quinces preserved in honey are beaten

up with a decoction of rose-leaves, and are taken as food by some







for the cure of affections of the stomach. The juice of raw quinces

is very good, also, for the spleen, hardness of breathing, dropsy,

affections of the mamill, condylomata, and varicose veins.

The blossoms, either fresh or dried, are useful for inflammations of the eyes, spitting of blood, and irregularities of the

catamenia. By beating them up with sweet wine, a sooth-

ing sirop is prepared, which, is very beneficial for cliac

affections and diseases of the liver: with a decoction of them

a fomentation is made for procidence of the uterus and intestines.



From quinces an oil is also extracted, which we have spoken

of under the name of "melinum:"[5] in order to make it, the

fruit must not have been grown in a damp soil; hence it is

that the quinces which come from Sicily are so highly esteemed

for the purpose; while, on the other hand, the strutheum,[6]

though of a kindred kind, is not so good.



A circle[7] is traced round the root of this tree, and the root

itself is then pulled up with the left hand, care being taken

by the person who does so to state at the same moment the

object for which it is so pulled up, and for whom. Worn as

an amulet, this root is a cure for scrofula.







1. In consequence of the malic and tartaric acid which they contain.

2. Quinces are of an astringent nature; and an astringent sirop, Fe

says, is still prepared from them.

3. They are no longer used for this purpose.

4. Fe observes that it has no such effect.

5. B. xiii. c. 2.

6. Or "sparrow-quince." See B. xv. c. 10.

7. He states this so gravely, that he would almost appear to believe it.




61. Chap. 61.-The Wild Pomegranate.


CHAP. 61.-THE WILD POMEGRANATE.



There is a tree, also, which is called the wild pomegranate,[1]

on account of its strong resemblance to the cultivated pomegranate. The roots of it have a red bark, which taken in

wine in doses of one denarius, promotes sleep. The seed of







it taken in drink is curative of dropsy. Gnats are kept at a

distance by the smoke of burnt pomegranate rind.







1. Fe thinks that there is no doubt that this was really the pomegranate,

left to grow wild. Dalechamps and Fe suggest that, misled by the

resemblance of the Greek names, Pliny has here attributed to the wild

pomegranate the properties attributed to the red poppy, or corn poppy.

Hardouin, however, is not of that opinion, and thinks that the mention of

the roots of the plant proves that Pliny has not committed any error here;

as in B. xx. c. 77, he has attributed the narcotic effects of the poppy to

the head only.




71. Chap. 71.-The Medicament Called Stomatice, Arteriace, Or Panchrestos. Four Remedies.


CHAP. 71.-THE MEDICAMENT CALLED STOMATICE, ARTERIACE, OR

PANCHRESTOS. FOUR REMEDIES.



From the fruit of the mulberry a medicament is prepared,

called "panchrestos,"[1] "stomatice," or "arteriace:" the following is the method employed. Three sextarii of the juice







are reduced, at a slow heat, to the consistency of honey; two

denarii of dried omphacium[2] or one of myrrh, with one denarius of saffron, are then added, the whole being beaten up together and mixed with the decoction. There is no medica-

ment known that is more soothing than this, for affections of

the mouth, the trachea, the uvula, and the stomach. There

is also another mode of preparing it: two sextarii of mulberry

juice and one of Attic honey are boiled down in the manner

above stated.



There are some other marvellous properties, also, which are

mentioned in reference to this tree. When the tree is in bud,

and before the appearance of the leaves, the germs of the fruit

must be gathered with the left hand-the Greeks give them

the name of "ricini."[3] These germs, worn as an

amulet before they have touched

the ground, have the effect of arresting

hmrrhage, whether proceeding from a wound,

from the

mouth, from the nostrils, or from piles; for which purposes

they are, accordingly, put away and kept. Similar virtues

are attributed to a branch just beginning to bear, broken off at

full moon, provided also it has not touched the ground: this

branch, it is said, attached to the arm, is peculiarly efficacious

for the suppression of the catamenia when in excess. The

same effect is produced, it is said, when the woman herself

pulls it off, whatever time it may happen to be, care being

taken not to let it touch the ground, and to wear it attached to

the body. The leaves of the mulberry-tree beaten up fresh,

or a decoction of them dried, are applied topically for stings

inflicted by serpents: an infusion of them, taken in drink, is

equally efficacious for that purpose. The juice extracted from

the bark of the root, taken in wine or oxycrate, counteracts

the venom of the scorpion.



We must also give some account of the method of preparing

this medicament employed by the ancients: extracting the

juice from the fruit, both ripe and unripe, they mixed it to-

gether, and then boiled it down in a copper vessel to the con-







sistency of honey. Some persons were in the habit of adding

myrrh and cypress, and then left it to harden in the sun, mixing

it with a spatula three times a-day. Such was their receipt for

the stomatice, which was also employed by them to promote

the cicatrization of wounds. There was another method, also,

of dealing with the juice of this fruit: extracting the juice,

they used the dried fruit with various articles of food,[4] as

tending to heighten the flavour; and they were in the habit

of employing it medicinally[5] for corroding ulcers, pituitous

expectorations, and all cases in which astringents were required for the viscera. They used it also for the purpose of

cleaning[6] the teeth. A third mode of employing the juices of

this tree is to boil down the leaves and root, the decoction

being used, with oil,[7] as a liniment for the cure of burns.

The leaves are also applied by themselves for the same

purpose.



An incision made in the root at harvest-time, supplies a

juice that is extremely useful for tooth-ache, gatherings, and

suppurations; it acts, also, as a purgative upon the bowels.

Mulberry-leaves, macerated in urine, remove the hair from

hides.







1. "All-healing," "mouth-medicine," and "medicine for the trachea."

2. See B. xii. c. 60. A rob, or sirop of mulberries is prepared for much

the same purposes at the present day, but without the omphaciun, myrrh,

or saffron. An "arteriace" is also mentioned in B. xx. c. 79.

3. Hermolas Barbarus is possibly right in suggesting "cytini," which

name has been previously mentioned in connection with the calyx of the

pomegranate.

4. From the account given by Dioscorides, B. i. c. 181, this appears to

be the meaning of the passage, which is very elliptically expressed, if, indeed, it is not imperfect.

5. In a powdered state, probably, as mentioned by Dioscorides.

6. The use of the word "conluebant" would almost make it appear that

he is speaking of a liquid.

7. The juice (if, indeed, Pliny intends to specify it as an ingredient)

will not, as Fe remarks, combine with oil. Dioscorides says, B. i. c. 180,

that the leaves are bruised aud applied with oil to burns.




80. Chap. 80.-The Laurel; Sixty-Nine Observations Upon It.


CHAP. 80.-THE LAUREL; SIXTY-NINE OBSERVATIONS UPON IT.



All parts of the laurel, both the leaves, bark, and berries,

are of a warming[1] nature; and a decoction of them, the

leaves in particular, is very useful for affections of the bladder and uterus.[2] The leaves, applied topically, neutralize the

poison of wasps, bees, and hornets, as also that of serpents,

the seps,[3] dipsas,[4] and viper, in particular. Boiled in oil,







they promote the catamenia; and the more tender of the leaves

beaten up with polenta, are used for inflammations of the eyes.

with rue for inflammations of the testes, and with rose-oil, or

oil of iris,[5] for head-ache. Three leaves, chewed and swallowed for three days in succession, are a cure for cough, and

beaten up with honey, for asthma. The bark of the root is

dangerous to pregnant women; the root itself disperses calculi, and taken in doses of three oboli in aromatic wine, it

acts beneficially on the liver. The leaves, taken in drink, act

as an emetic;[6] and the berries, pounded and applied as a pessary, or else taken in drink, promote menstruation. Two of

the berries with the skin removed, taken in wine, are a cure

for inveterate cough and hardness of breathing; if, however,

this is accompanied with fever, they are given in water, or

else in an electuary with raisin wine, or boiled in hydromel.

Employed in a similar manner, they are good for phthisis, and

for all defluxions of the chest, as they have the effect of

detaching the phlegm and bringing it off.



For stings inflicted by scorpions, four laurel-berries are

taken in wine. Applied with oil, they are a cure for epinyctis, freckles, running sores, ulcers of the mouth, and scaly

eruptions. The juice of the berries is curative of porrigo

and phthiriasis; and for pains in the ears, or hardness of hearing, it is injected into those organs with old wine and oil of

roses. All venomous creatures fly at the approach of persons

who have been anointed with this juice: taken in drink, the

juice of the small-leaved[7] laurel in particular, it is good for

stings inflicted by them. The berries,[8] used with wine, neu-

tralize the venom of serpents, scorpions, and spiders; they

are applied also, topically, with oil and vinegar, in diseases of

the spleen and liver, and with honey to gangrenous sores. In

cases of lassitude and shivering fits, it is a very good plan to

rub the body with juice of laurel-berries mixed with nitre.

Some persons are of opinion that delivery is accelerated by

taking laurel-root to the amount of one acetabulum, in water,

and that, used fresh, it is better than dried. It is recommended







by some authorities, to take ten of the berries in drink, for

the sting of the scorpion; and in cases of relaxation of the

uvula, to boil a quarter of a pound of the berries, or leaves,

in three sextarii of water, down to one third, the decoction

being used warm, as a gargle. For head-ache, also, it is recommended to bruise an uneven number of the berries in oil,

the mixture being warmed for use.



The leaves of the Delphic laurel[9] bruised and applied to the

nostrils from time to time, are a preservative[10] against conta-

gion in pestilence, and more particularly if they are burnt.

The oil of the[11] Delphic laurel is employed in the preparation

of cerates and the medicinal composition known as "acopum,"[12]

and is used for fits of shivering occasioned by cold, for the

relaxation of the sinews, and for the cure of pains in the side

and the cold attacks in fevers.[13] Warmed in the rind of a

pomegranate, it is applied topically for the cure of ear-ache. A

decoction of the leaves boiled down in water to one third, used

as a gargle, braces the uvula, and taken in drink allays pains

in the bowels and intestines. The more tender leaves, bruised

in wine and applied at night, are a cure for pimples and

prurigo.



The other varieties of the laurel possess properties which

are nearly analogous. The root of the laurel of Alexandria,[14]

or of Mount Ida,[15] accelerates delivery, being administered in

doses of three denarii to three cyathi of sweet wine; it acts

also as an emmenagogue, and brings away the after-birth.

Taken in drink in a similar manner, the wild laurel, known as

"daphnoides" and by the other names which we have mentioned,[16] is productive of beneficial effects. The leaves of it,

either fresh or dried, taken in doses of three drachm, in

hydromel with salt, act as a purgative[17] upon the bowels.







The wood, chewed, brings off phlegm, and the leaves act as

an "emetic;" they are unwholesome, however, to the stomach.

The berries, too, are sometimes taken, fifteen in number, as a

purgative.







1. All parts of the laurel, the berries in particular, are impregnated with

an essential oil with a powerful odour and of an exciting nature. Upon

this volatile principle, and nothing else, the whole of its medicinal properties are based.

2. This assertion, Fe says, is no better than fabulous.

3. See Lucan's Pharsalia, B. ix. Il. 723, 776.

4. See the Pharsalia, B. ix. 1. 719.

5. "Irino." See B. xiii. c. 2.

6. This assertion, Fe says, is untrue.

7. See B. xv. c. 39.

8. All these statements as to the properties of the berries, Fe says, are

hypothetical and more than doubtful.

9. The Laurus nobilis of modern botany.

10. A statement, Fe says, that is altogether illusory.

11. Of the berries, Fe thinks.

12. See c. 45 of this Book; also B. xxvii. c. 13.

13. Fe thinks that this oil, in conjunction with adipose substances, might

be useful for the treatment of rheumatic affections.

14. The Ruscus hypophyllum of Linnus. It is quite inodorous, Fe

says, and has no analogous properties whatever with the next-mentioned

plant.

15. See B. xv. c. 39.

16. In B. xv. c. 39.

17. The peasantry of France, Fe says, still use as a purgative the berries of the Daphne mezereum, and of the Daphne laureola; and in Aragon

and Catalonia, the leaves of the Thymelea are used for a similar purpose.

The employment of them, however, is not unattended with danger.




81. Chap. 81.-Myrtle; Sixty Observations Upon It.


CHAP. 81.-MYRTLE; SIXTY OBSERVATIONS UPON IT.



The white[1] cultivated myrtle is employed for fewer medicinal purposes than the black one.[2] The berries[3] of it are

good for spitting of blood, and taken in wine, they neutralize

the poison of fungi. They impart an agreeable smell[4] to the

breath, even when eaten the day before; thus, for instance, in

Menander we find the Synaristos[5] eating them. They are

taken also for dysentery,[6] in doses of one denarius, in wine:

and they are employed lukewarm, in wine, for the cure of

obstinate ulcers on the extremities. Mixed with polenta, they

are employed topically in ophthalmia, and for the cardiac

disease[7] they are applied to the left breast. For stings inflicted by scorpions, diseases of the bladder, head-ache, and

fistulas of the eye before suppuration, they are similarly employed; and for tumours and pituitous eruptions, the kernels

are first removed and the berries are then pounded in old

wine. The juice of the berries[8] acts astringently upon the

bowels, and is diuretic: mixed with cerate it is applied topically to blisters, pituitous eruptions, and wounds inflicted by

the phalangium; it imparts a black tint,[9] also, to the hair.







The oil of this myrtle is of a more soothing nature than the

juice, and the wine[10] which is extracted from it, and which

possesses the property of never inebriating, is even more so.

This wine, used when old, acts astringently upon the stomach

and bowels, cures griping pains in those regions, and dispels

nausea.



The dried leaves, powdered and sprinkled upon the body,

check profuse perspirations, in fever even; they are good, too,

used as a fomentation, for cliac affections, procidence of the

uterus, diseases of the fundament, running ulcers, erysipelas,

loss of the hair, scaly and other eruptions, and burns. This

powder is used as an ingredient, also, in the plasters known as

"lipar;"[11] and for the same reason the oil of the leaves is

used for a similar purpose, being extremely efficacious as an

application to the humid parts of the body, the mouth and the

uterus, for example.



The leaves themselves, beaten up with wine, neutralize[12] the

bad effects of fungi; and they are employed, in combination

with wax, for diseases of the joints, and gatherings. A decoction of them, in wine, is taken for dysentery and dropsy.

Dried and reduced to powder, they are sprinkled upon ulcers

and hmorrhages. They are useful, also, for the removal of

freckles, and for the cure of hang-nails,[13] whitlows, condylo-

mata, affections of the testes, and sordid ulcers. In combination

with cerate, they are used for burns.



For purulent discharges from the ears, the ashes of the

leaves are employed, as well as the juice and the decoction:

the ashes are also used in the composition of antidotes. For a

similar purpose the blossoms are stripped from off the young

branches, which are burnt in a furnace, and then pounded in

wine. The ashes of the leaves, too, are used for the cure of

burns. To prevent ulcerations from causing swellings in the

inguinal glands, it will suffice for the patient to carry[14] a sprig

of myrtle about him which has never touched the ground or

any implement of iron.











1. A variety with white berries, but which variety it appears impossible

to say.

2. See B. xv. c. 37.

3. The leaves and berries are bitter, and rich in volatile oil.

4. This is consistent with fact.

5. A work of some kind, (perhaps a play, if the comic writer; Menander,

is the person alluded to) the title of which means "the Women Dining

together." Hardouin, with justice, ridicules the notion of Ortelius that

this is the name of some place or town.

6. The astringency communicated by the tannin which they contain

would probably make them useful for dysentery; if at the same time, as

Fe says, they are not too exciting, by reason of their essential oil.

7. See B. xi. c. 71.

8. "Succus seminis." Sillig has "succus feminis," apparently a misprint-the only one that has been met with thus far in his elaborate edition.

9. It might change the colour of the hair, but for a short time only.

10. See B. xv. c. 37.

11. Cerates, or adipose or oleaginous plasters.

12. In reality they have no such effect.

13. "Pterygia."

14. Fe says here-"Pliny terminates, by a credulity quite unworthy of

him, a Chapter, full of false or exaggerated assertions, relative to the pro-

perties of the myrtle."




0. > Book Xxiv. The Remedies Derived From The Forest Trees.


BOOK XXIV.

THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE FOREST TREES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Antipathies And Sympathies Which Exist Among Trees And Plants.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE ANTIPATHIES AND SYMPATHIES WHICH EXIST

AMONG TREES AND PLANTS.



NOT even are the forests and the spots in which the aspect of

Nature is most rugged, destitute of their peculiar remedies;

for so universally has that divine parent of all things distributed

her succours for the benefit of man, as to implant for hint

medicinal virtues in the trees of the desert even, while at

every step she presents us with most wonderful illustrations of

those antipathies and sympathies which exist in the vegetable

world.



Between the quercus[1] and the olive[2] there exists a hatred

so inveterate, that transplanted, either of them, to a site previously occupied by the other, they will die.[3] The quercus

too, if planted near the walnut, will perish. There is a mortal

feud[4] existing also between the cabbage and the vine; and the

cabbage itself, so shunned as it is by the vine, will wither immediately if planted in the vicinity of cyclamen[5] or of origanum.

We find it asserted even, that aged trees fit to be felled, are

cut with all the greater difficulty, and dry all the more rapidly,







if touched by the hand of man before the axe is applied: it

is a common belief, too, that when their load consists of fruit,

beasts of burden are immediately sensible[6] of it, and will instantly begin to sweat, however trifling it may be, unless the

fruit is duly shown to them before starting. Fennel-giant, as

a fodder, is extremely grateful to the ass, and yet to other beasts

of burden it is a deadly poison: hence it is that the ass is consecrated to Father Liber,[7] to which deity the fennel is also

sacred.



Inanimate objects again, even of the most insignificant

character, have their own peculiar antipathies. Cooks disengage meat of the brine, when it has been too highly salted,

by the agency of fine meal and the inner bark[8] of the lindentree. Salt again, tends to neutralize the sickly flavour of food

when over-sweet. The taste of water, when nitrous or bitter,

is modified by the addition of polenta,[9] so much so indeed, as

to be rendered potable[10] in a couple of hours: it is for a similar

reason, too, that a layer of polenta is put[11] in our linen winestrainers. A similar property is possessed also by the chalk[12]

of Rhodes, and the argilla of our own country.



Equal affinities exist as well; pitch, for instance, is extracted

by the agency of oil, both of them being of an unctuous nature

oil again, will incorporate only with lime, both of them having

a natural antipathy[13] to water. Gum is most[14] easily removed

with vinegar, and ink[15] with water; in addition to which, there







are numberless other instances of sympathy and antipathy

which we shall be careful to mention in their appropriate places.



It is in tendencies of this description that the medical art

first took its rise; though it was originally intended, no doubt,

by Nature, that our only medicaments should be those which

universally exist, are everywhere to be found, and are to he

procured at no great outlay, the various substances, in fact, from

which we derive our sustenance. But at a later period the

fraudulent disposition of mankind, combined with an ingenuity

prompted by lucre, invented those various laboratories,[16] in

which each one of us is promised an extension of his life-that

is, if he will pay for it. Compositions and mixtures of an in-

explicable nature forthwith have their praises sung, and the

productions of Arabia and India are held in unbounded ad-

miration in the very midst[17] of us. For some trifling

sore or other, a medicament is prescribed from the shores

of the Red Sea; while not a day passes but what the real

remedies are to be found upon the tables of the very poorest

man among us.[18] But if the remedies for diseases were

derived from our own gardens, if the plants or shrubs were

employed which grow there, there would be no art, forsooth,

that would rank lower than that of medicine.



Yes, avow it we must-the Roman people, in extending its

empire, has lost sight of its ancient manners, and in that we

have conquered we are the conquered:[19] for now we obey the

natives of foreign[20] lands, who by the agency of a single art have

even out-generalled our generals.[21] More, however, on this

topic hereafter.







1. See B. xvi. cc. 6, 8, 33, 50.

2. See B. xvii. c. 3.

3. As Fe justly remarks, the greater part of these so-called sympathies

and antipathies must be looked upon as so many fables. In the majority of

instances, it is the habitual requirements of the tree or plant that constitute the difference; thus, for instance, the oak or quercus requires a

different site and temperature from that needed by the olive, and the stony

soil adopted by the vine is but ill-suited for the cultivation of the cabbage.

4. See B. xx. c. 36.

5. See B. xxi, cc. 27, 38, and B. xxv. c. 67.

6. See the same statement made in B. xxiii. c. 62.

7. Or Bacchus.

8. "Philvra." Fe does not think that it can be of any use for such a

purpose. Hardouin says, however, that in his time meat when too highly

salted was wrapped in leaves of the lime or linden, for the purpose of ex-

tracting the salt.

9. See B. xviii. c. 14

10. Instead of having this effect, Fe says, it would render it much worse.

11. The intention being to clear the wine, though in reality, as Fe observes, it would have a tendency to turn the wine into vinegar.

12. Chalk, or in other words, sub-carbonate of lime, and argilla, or

aluminous earth combining several earthy salts, would probably neutralize

the acetic acid in the wine, but would greatly deteriorate its flavour.

13. On the contrary, lime would appear to have a great affinity for water.

absorbing it with avidity, if we may use the term.

14. More easily with water; though vinegar will do for the purpose.

15. "Atramentum." Br this passage, Fe says, it is clearly proved that

the ink of the ancients was soluble in water, and that it contained neither

galls nor salts of iron. What it really was made of is still a matter of

doubt; but it is not improbable that the basis of it was spodium, or ashes

of ivory.

16. Officinas.

17. "In medio." The reading is very doubtful here.

18. This, of course, is mere exaggeration.

19. He would seem to imply that the medical men of his age had conspired

to gain an adventitious importance by imposing upon the credulity of the

public, on the principle "Omne ignotum pro magnifico;" much as the

"medicine-men" of the North American Indians do at the present day.

20. He alludes to the physicians of Greece more particularly.

21. "Imperatoribus quoque imperaverunt."




39. Chap. 39.-The Erica; One Remedy.


CHAP. 39.-THE ERICA; ONE REMEDY.



The Greeks give the name of "erice,"[1] to a shrub that is but

little different from the myrice.[2] It has the colour, and very

nearly the leaf, of rosemary. It neutralizes[3] the venom of

serpents, it is said.







1. Probably the Erica arborea of Linnus; see B. xiii. c. 35. It has

not, however, a leaf similar to that of rosemary, with the sole exception,

Fe says, of the Erica cinerea of Linnus.

2. See B. xiii. c. 37.

3. It has no such effect, in reality.




40. Chap. 40.-The Broom; Five Remedies.


CHAP. 40.-THE BROOM; FIVE REMEDIES.



The broom is used for making withes;[1] the flowers of it

are greatly sought by bees. I have my doubts whether this

is not the same plant that the Greek writers have called

"sparton," and of which, in those parts of the world, as I have

already[2] stated, they are in the habit of making fishing-nets.

I doubt also whether Homer[3] has alluded to this plant, when

he speaks of the seams of the ships,-"the sparta" coming

asunder; for it is certain that in those times the spartum[4] of

Spain or Africa was not as yet in use, and that vessels made

of materials sown together, were united by the agency, not of

spartum, but of flax.







The seed of the plant to which the Greeks now give the

name of "sparton," grows in pods like those of the kidneybean. It is as strongly drastic[5] as hellebore, and is usually

taken fasting, in doses of one drachma and a half, in four

cyathi of hydromel. The branches also, with the foliage, are

macerated for several days in vinegar, and are then beaten up,

the infusion being recommended for sciatica, in doses of one

cyathus. Some persons think it a better plan, however, to

make an infusion of them in sea-water, and to inject it as a

clyster. The juice of them is used also as a friction for sciatica,

with the addition of oil. Some medical men, too, make use

of the seed for strangury. Broom, bruised with axle-grease, is

a cure for diseases of the knees.







1. See B. xvi. c. 69. The kind here alluded to is the Spanish broom,

Fe thinks.

2. In B. xix. c. 2. Vol. IV. p. 135.

3. Iliad, B. ii. 1. 135. See B. xix. c. 6, where Pliny states it as his

opinion that in this passage Homer is speaking of flax

4. See B. xix. c. 7. Fe thinks that the plant under consideration in

this Chapter is the Spanish broom, Genista juncea of Lamarck, the Spartium junceum of Linnus, a different plant from the Spartum of B. xix.

c. 7, the Stipa tenacissima of Linnus. He is of opinion also, that Homer

in the passage referred to alludes, not to flax, but to the Genista juncea. See

this question further discussed, in the additional Note at the end of B. xxvii.

5. Fe says that the blossoms and seed of the junciform genista and

other kinds are of a purgative nature; indeed, one variety has been called

the Genista purgans by Lamarck. None of them, however, are so potent

in their effects as Pliny in the present passage would lead us to suppose.




60. Chap. 60.-The Seed Called Cachrys.


CHAP. 60.-THE SEED CALLED CACHRYS.



As already[1] stated, there are several kinds of cachrys;[2]

but that which is produced by rosemary above-mentioned,

when rubbed, is found to be of a resinous nature. It neutralizes poisons and the venom of animals, that of serpents

excepted. It acts also as a sudorific, dispels griping pains in

the bowels, and increases the milk in nursing women.







1. In B. xvi. c. 11.

2. A gall or fungoid production, or, in some instances, a catkin. Fe

says that Pliny has committed an error here in attributing a cachrys to

rosemary, the Libanotis stephanomaticos, which, in reality, belongs to

the Libanotis canchryphorus or Libanotis prima.




75. Chap. 75.-The Idan Bramble.


CHAP. 75.-THE IDAN BRAMBLE.



The Idan bramble[1] is so called from the fact that it is the

only plant of the kind found growing upon Mount Ida. It is

of a more delicate nature than the others, and smaller; the

canes too are thinner, and not[2] so prickly: it mostly grows

beneath the shade of trees. The blossom of it, mixed with

honey, is applied topically for defluxions of the eyes, and is

administered in water for erysipelas and affections of the

stomach.[3] In other respects, it has properties similar to those

of the plants[4] already mentioned.







1. The raspberry; see B. xvi. c. 71.

2. There is one variety which is very diminutive, and entirely destitute

of thorns, the Rubus Idus lvis of C. Bauhin, the Rubus idus non

spinosus of J. Bauhin.

3. See B. xvi. c. 71.

4. Of the bramble genus.




88. Chap. 88.-The Clematis Centunculus; Three Remedies.


CHAP. 88.-THE CLEMATIS CENTUNCULUS; THREE REMEDIES.



We shall now have to annex some plants, of a marvellous

nature no doubt, but not so well known, reserving those of a

higher reputation for the succeeding Books.



Our people give the name of "centunculus,"[1] to a creeping plant that grows in the fields, the leaves of which bear a

strong resemblance to the hoods attached to our cloaks. By

the Greeks it is known as the "clematis," Taken in astringent wine it is wonderfully effectual for arresting[2] diarrha:

beaten up, in doses of one denarius, in five cyathi of oxymel

or of warm water, it arrests hmorrhage, and facilitates the

after-birth.







1. Turner and C. Bauhin identify it with the Gnaphalium Germanicum

of Lamarck, and Sprengel with the Polygonum convolvulus of Linnus.

If so, Fe says, the synonym here given by Pliny is erroneous; for the

Greek clematis, there can be little doubt, is the Clematis cirrhosa of Lin-

nus. See the account given of the Gnaphalion in B. xxvii. c. 61.

2. All that Pliny states as to its medicinal properties, Fe says, is

erroneous.




89. Chap. 89.-The Clematis Echites, Or Laiine.


CHAP. 89.-THE CLEMATIS ECHITES, OR LAIINE.



The Greeks have other varieties also of the clematis, one of

which is known as "echites"[1] or "lagine," and by some as

the "little scammony." Its stems are about two Feet in height,

and covered with leaves: in general appearance it is not

unlike scammony, were it not that the leaves are darker and

more diminutive; it is found growing invineyards and cultivated

soils. It is eaten as a vegetable, with oil and salt, and acts as

a laxative upon the bowels. It is taken[2] also for dysentery,







with linseed, in astringent wine. The leaves of this plant are

applied with polenta for defluxions of the eyes, the part

affected being first covered with a pledget of wet linen. Applied

to scrofulous sores, they cause them to suppurate, and if some

axle-grease is then applied, a perfect cure will be effected.

They are applied also to piles, with green oil, and are good

for phthisis, in combination with honey. Taken with the

food, they increase the milk in nursing women, and, rubbed

upon the heads of infants, they promote the rapid growth of

the hair. Eaten with vinegar, they act as an aphrodisiac.







1. Probably the Asclepias nigra of Linnus, black swallow-wort.

2. The Asclepias nigra has no such medicinal effects as those mentioned

by Pliny.




91. Chap. 91. (16.)-Different Opinions On The Dracontium.


CHAP. 91. (16.)-DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THE DRACONTIUM.



It is Egypt more particularly that produces the clematis

known as the "aron," of which we have already[1] made some

mention when speaking of the bulbs. Respecting this plant

and the dracontium, there have been considerable differences

of opinion. Some writers, indeed, have maintained that they

are identical, and Glaucias has made the only distinction

between them in reference to the place of their growth,

assuming that the dracontium is nothing else than the aron in

a wild state. Some persons, again, have called the root "aron,"

and the stem of the plant "dracontium:" but if the dracontium is the same as the one known to us as the "dracunculus,"[2] it is a different plant altogether; for while the aron has

a broad, black, rounded root, and considerably larger,-large

enough, indeed, to fill the hand,-the dracunculus has a







reddish root of a serpentine form, to which, in fact, it owes its

name.[3]







1. In B. xix. c. 30.

2. Fe says that the Dracontion of the Greeks and the Dracunculus of

the Latins are identical, being represented in modern Botany by the Arum

dracunculus of Linnus, the common dragon.

3. From "draco," a "dragon" or "serpent." Fe says, that it is not

to its roots, but to its spotted stem, resembling the skin of an adder, that

it owes its name.




93. Chap. 93.-The Dracunclus; Two Remedies.


CHAP. 93.-THE DRACUNCLUS; TWO REMEDIES.



The plant which I have spoken of[1] as the dracunculus, is

taken out of the ground just when the barley is ripening, and

at the moon's increase. It is quite sufficient to have this

plant about one, to be safe from all serpents; and it is said,

that an infusion of the larger kind taken in drink, is very useful

for persons who have been stung by those reptiles: it is stated

also that it arrests the catamenia when in excess, due care being

taken not to let iron touch it. The juice of it too is very useful for pains in the ears.



As to the plant known to the Greeks by the name of "dracontion," I have[2] had it pointed out to me under three dif-

ferent forms; the first[3] having the leaves of the beet, with a

certain proportion of stem, and a purple flower, and bearing

a strong resemblance to the aron. Other persons, again, have

described it as a plant[4] with a long root, embossed to all appearance and full of knots, and consisting of three stems in all;

the same parties have recommended a decoction of the leaves

in vinegar, as curative of stings inflicted by serpents. The

third[5] plant that has been pointed out to me has a leaf larger

than that of the cornel, and a root resembling that of the reed.

This root, I have been assured, has as many knots on it as the

plant is years old, the leaves, too, being as many in number.

The plant is recommended also for the stings of serpents,

administered either in wine or in water.







1. In c. 91 of this Book. This story is owing merely to its appearance,

which somewhat resembles the skin of a serpent.

2. "Demonstratum mihi est."

3. Identified by Fe with the Arum Italicum of Lamarck.

4. Fe queries whether this may not be the Arum maculatum of Linnus,

wake-robin, cuckoo pint, or lords and ladies.

5. Identified by C. Bauhin with the Calla palustris of Linnus.




95. Chap. 95.-The Millefoijum Or Myriophyllon; Seven Remedies.


CHAP. 95.-THE MILLEFOIJUM OR MYRIOPHYLLON; SEVEN

REMEDIES.



The myriophyllon,[1] by our people known as the "mille-

folium" has a tender stem, somewhat similar to fennel-giant

ill appearance, with vast numbers of leaves, to which circum-

stance it is indebted for its name. It grows in marshy localities, and is remarkably useful for the treatment of wounds.

It is taken in vinegar for strangury, affections of the bladder,

asthma, and falls with violence; it is extremely efficacious also

for tooth-ache.



In Etruria, the same name is given to a small meadow-

plant,[2] provided with leaves at the sides, like hairs, and particularly useful for wounds. The people of that country say

that, applied with axle-grease, it will knit together and unite

the tendons of oxen, when they have been accidentally severed

by the plough-share.[3]







1. Or "ten thousand leaves." The Myriophyllum spicatum of Linnus,

according to most authorities, though Fe considers it very doubtful.

2. Possibly the Achillea millefolium of Linnus, our milfoil or yarrow.

It is still said to have the property of healing wounds made by edge-tools,

for which reason it is known in France as the "carpenter's plant."

3. This assertion, as Fe remarks, is more than doubtful.




99. Chap. 99. (17.)-Coracesta And Callicia.


CHAP. 99. (17.)-CORACESTA AND CALLICIA.



While I am treating of plants of a marvellous nature, I am

induced to make some mention of certain magical plants-for

what, in fact, can there be more marvellous than they? The first

who descanted upon this subject in our part of the world were

Pythagoras and Democritus, who have adopted the accounts

given by the Magi. Coracesta[1] and callicia, according to

Pythagoras, are plants which congeals[2] water. I find no

mention made of them, however, by any other author, and he

himself gives no further particulars relative to them.











1. Dalechamps considers these appeilations to mean the "virgins' plant,"

and the "plant of beauty."

2. The Cissampelos Pareira, as already stated, abounds in mucilage

such a degree, as to impart a consistency to water, without impairing its

transparency. See c. 72 of this Book.




103. Chap. 103. (18.)-The Eripiha.


CHAP. 103. (18.)-THE ERIPIHA.



Many authors have made mention of the eriphia,[1] a plant

which contains a kind of beetle in its hollow stem. This







beetle is continually ascending the interior of the stalk, and

as often descending, while it emits a sound like the cry of a

kid; a circumstance to which the plant is indebted for its name.

There is nothing in existence, they say, more beneficial to the

voice.







1. From e)ri/fos, a "kid." Ruellius has attempted to identify this plant

with one of the Ranunculace; but there is little doubt, as Fe says, that

both plant and insect are imaginary.




119. Chap. 119.-Dactylos; Five Remedies.


CHAP. 119.-DACTYLOS; FIVE REMEDIES.



There are some authorities who mention three varieties of

the pointed gramen. That which has at the extremity five[1]

points at the utmost, is called "dactylos." Twisting these

points together, persons introduce them into the nostrils and then

withdraw them, with the view of preventing hmorrhage.

The second kind, which resembles aizon,[2] is employed with

axle-grease for whitlows and hangnails, and for fleshy excrescences upon the nails: this also is called "dactylos," because

it is so useful as a remedy for diseases of the fingers.



The third[3] kind, which is also known as "dactylos," is more

diminutive, and is found growing upon walls or tiles. It has

certain caustic properties, and arrests the progress of serpigi-

nous ulcers. By placing a wreath of gramen round the head,

bleeding at the nose is stopped. In Babylonia, it is said, the

gramen[4] which grows by the wayside is fatal to camels.











1. Fe is somewhat at a loss as to its identity, but thinks that it may be

the Panicum sanguinale of Linnus, or possibly the Cynodon dactylon;.

2. See 13. xix. c. 58, and B. xxv. c. 102. Possibly a Sedum or houseleek,

Fe thinks; certainly not a grass.

3. Fe queries whether this may not be the Poa rigida of Linnus, hard

meadow-grass.

4. An Euphorbia, Fe thinks.




0. > Book Xxv. The Natural History Of Wild Plant


BOOK XXV.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF WILD PLANT










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-When The Waild Plants Were First Brought Into Use.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-WHEN THE WAILD PLANTS WERE FIRST BROUGHT

INTO USE.



THE more highly esteemed plants of which I am now about

to speak, and which are produced by the earth for medicinal

purposes solely, inspire me with admiration of the industry

and laborious research displayed by the ancients. Indeed there

is nothing that they have not tested by experiment or left

untried; no discovery of theirs which they have not disclosed,

or which they have not been desirous to leave for the benefit

of posterity. We, on the contrary, at the present day, make

it our object to conceal and suppress the results of our labours,

and to defraud our fellow-men of blessings even which have

been purchased by others. For true it is, beyond all doubt,

that those who have gained any trifling accession of knowledge,

keep it to themselves, and envy the enjoyment of it by others; to

leave mankind uninstructed being looked upon as the high prerogative of learning. So far is it from being the habit with them

to enter upon new fields of discovery, with the view of benefitting mankind at large, that for this long time past it has been

the greatest effort of the ingenuity of each, to keep to himself

the successful results of the experience of former ages, and so

bury them for ever!



And. yet, by Hercules! a single invention before now has

elevated men to the rank of gods; and how many an individual

has had his name immortalized in being bestowed upon some

plant which he was the first to discover, thanks to the

gratitude which prompted a succeeding age to make some

adequate return! If it had been expended solely upon the

plants which are grown to please the eye, or which invite

us by their nutrimental properties, this laborious research on

the part of the ancients would not have been so surprising;

but in addition to this, we find them climbing by devious

tracts to the very summit of mountains, penetrating to the very







heart of wilds and deserts, and searching into every vein and

fibre of the earth-and all this, to discover the hidden virtues

of every root, the properties of the leaf of every plant, and the

various purposes to which they might be applied; converting

thereby those vegetable productions, which the very beasts of

the field refuse to touch, into so many instruments for our

welfare.










2. Chap. 2. (2.)-The Latin Authors Who Have Written Upon These Plants.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-THE LATIN AUTHORS WHO HAVE WRITTEN UPON

THESE PLANTS.



This subject has not been treated of by the writers in our

own language so extensively as it deserves, eager as they have

proved themselves to make enquiry into everything that is

either meritorious or profitable. M. Cato, that great master

in all useful knowledge, was the first, and, for a long time, the

only author who treated of this branch[1] of learning; and

briefly as he has touched upon it, he has not omitted to make

some mention of the remedial treatment of cattle. After him,

another illustrious personage, C. Valgius,[2] a man distinguished

for his erudition, commenced a treatise upon the same subject,

which he dedicated to the late Emperor Augustus, but left

unfinished. At the beginning of his preface, replete as it is

with a spirit of piety,[3] he expresses a hope that the majestic

sway of that prince may ever prove a most efficient remedy

for all the evils to which mankind are exposed.







1. As Fe remarks, it is more as a writer upon Agriculture than upon

Materia Medica, that Cato is entitled to the thanks of posterity.

2. See end of B. xx.

3. His piety, apparently, was tainted with adulation.




3. Chap. 3.-At What Period The Romans Acquired Some Know- Ledge Of This Subject.


CHAP. 3.-AT WHAT PERIOD THE ROMANS ACQUIRED SOME KNOW-

LEDGE OF THIS SUBJECT.



The only[1] person among us, at least so far as I have been able

to ascertain, who had treated of this subject before the time of

Valgius, was Pompeius Lenus,[2] the freedman of Pompeius

Magnus; and it was in his day, I find, that this branch of

knowledge first began to be cultivated among us. Mithridates,

the most powerful monarch of that period, and who was finally

conquered by Pompeius, is generally thought to have been a







more zealous promoter of discoveries for the benefit of mankind,

than any of his predecessors-a fact evinced not only by many

positive proofs, but by universal report as well. It was he

who first thought, the proper precautions being duly taken, of

drinking poison every day; it being his object, by becoming

habituated to it, to neutralize its dangerous effects. This

prince was the first discoverer too of the various kinds of antidotes, one[3] of which, indeed, still retains his name; and it is

generally supposed that he was the first to employ the blood

of the ducks of Pontus as an ingredient in antidotes, from the

circumstance that they derive their nutriment from poisons.[4]



It was to Mithridates that Asclepiades,[5] that celebrated

physician, dedicated his works, still extant, and sent them, as a

substitute for his own personal attendance, when requested by

that monarch to leave Rome and reside at his court. It is a

well-known fact, that this prince was the only person that was

ever able to converse in so many as two-and-twenty languages,

and that, during the whole fifty-six years of his reign, he never

required the services of an interpreter when conversing with

any individuals of the numerous nations that were subject to

his sway.



Among the other gifts of extraordinary genius with which

he was endowed, Mithridates displayed a peculiar fondness for

enquiries into the medical arts; and gathering items of information from all his subjects, extended, as they were, over a large

proportion of the world, it was his habit to make copies

of their communications, and to take notes of the results which

upon experiment had been produced. These memoranda, which

he kept in his private cabinet,[6] fell into the hands of Pompeius,

when he took possession of the royal treasures; who at once

commissioned his freedman, Lenus the grammarian, to translate them into the Latin language: the result of which was,

that his victory was equally conducive to the benefit of the

republic and of mankind at large.











1. With the exception of Cato, of course.

2. See end of B. xiv.

3. See c. 79 of this Book: also B. xxiii. c. 77, and B. xxix. c. 8.

4. A mere prejudice, arising from the fact that numerous poisonous plants

grew in the countries on the shores of the Euxine. The blood of no

animal whatever is an antidote to any poison.

5. See B. vii. c. 37. An interesting account of his system will be found

in B. xxvi. c. 7. See also B. xxix. c. 5.

6. See B. xxiii. c. 77.




4. Chap. 4.-Greek Authors Who Have Delineated The Plants In Colours.


CHAP. 4.-GREEK AUTHORS WHO HAVE DELINEATED THE

PLANTS IN COLOURS.



In addition to these, there are some Greek writers who

have treated of this subject, and who have been already mentioned on the appropriate occasions. Among them, Crateuas,

Dionysius, and Metrodorus, adopted a very attractive method

of description, though one which has done little more than

prove the remarkable difficulties which attended it. It was

their plan to delineate the various plants in colours, and then

to add in writing a description of the properties which they

possessed. Pictures, however, are very apt to mislead, and

more particularly where such a number of tints is required,

for the imitation of nature with any success; in addition to

which, the diversity of copyists from the original paintings,

and their comparative degrees of skill, add very considerably

to the chances of losing the necessary degree of resemblance

to the originals. And then, besides, it is not sufficient to delineate a plant as it appears at one period only, as it presents

a different appearance at each of the four seasons of the year.[1]







1. The four great changes in plants, though not always at the four

seasons of the year, are the budding and foliation, the blossoming, the

fructification, and the fall of the leaf.




5. Chap. 5.-The First Greek Authors Who Wrote Upon Plants.


CHAP. 5.-THE FIRST GREEK AUTHORS WHO WROTE UPON PLANTS.



Hence it is that other writers have confined themselves to

a verbal description of the plants, indeed some of them have

not so much as described them even, but have contented themselves for the most part with a bare recital of their names,

considering it sufficient if they pointed out their virtues and

properties to such as might Feel inclined to make further enquiries into the subject. Nor is this a kind of knowledge

by any means difficult to obtain; at all events, so far as regards myself, with the exception of a very few, it has been

my good fortune to examine them all, aided by the scientific

researches of Antonius Castor,[1] who in our time enjoyed the

highest reputation for an intimate acquaintance with this

branch of knowledge. I had the opportunity of visiting his

garden, in which, though he had passed his hundredth year, he

cultivated vast numbers of plants with the greatest care.

Though he had reached this great age, he had never experienced







any bodily ailment, and neither his memory nor his natural

vigour had been the least impaired by the lapse of time.



There was nothing more highly admired than an intimate

knowledge of plants, in ancient times. It is long since the

means were discovered of calculating before-hand, not only

the day or the night, but the very hour even at which an

eclipse of the sun or moon is to take place; and yet the greater

part of the lower classes still remain firmly persuaded that

these phenomena are brought about by compulsion, through the

agency of herbs and enchantments, and that the knowledge of

this art is confined almost exclusively to females. What

country, in fact, is not filled with the fabulous stories about

Medea of Colchis and other sorceresses, the Italian Circe in

particular, who has been elevated to the rank of a divinity

even? It is with reference to her, I am of opinion, that

schylus,[2] one of the most ancient of the poets, asserts that

Italy is covered with plants endowed with potent effects, and

that many writers say the same of Circeii,[3] the place of her

abode. Another great proof too that such is the case, is the

fact, that the nation of the Marsi,[4] descendants of a son of

Circe, are well known still to possess the art of taming serpents.



Homer, that great parent of the learning and traditions of

antiquity, while extolling the fame of Circe in many other

respects, assigns to Egypt the glory of having first discovered

the properties of plants, and that; too at a time when the

portion of that country which is now watered by the river

Nilus was not in existence, having been formed at a more recent

period by the alluvion[5] of that river. At all events, he states[6]

that numerous Egyptian plants were sent to the Helena of his

story, by the wife of the king of that country, together with

the celebrated nepenthes,[7] which ensured oblivion of all

sorrows and forgetfulness of the past, a potion which Helena

was to administer to all mortals. The first person, however,

of whom the remembrance has come down to us, as having







treated with any degree of exactness on the subject of plants,

is Orpheus; and next to him Musus and Hesiod, of whose

admiration of the plant called polium we have already made

some mention on previous occasions.[8] Orpheus and Hesiod

too we find speaking in high terms of the efficacy of fumigations. Homer also speaks of several other plants by name, of

which we shall have occasion to make further mention in their

appropriate places.



In later times again, Pythagoras, that celebrated philosopher,

was the first to write a treatise on the properties of plants, a

work in which he attributes the origin and discovery of them

to Apollo, sculapius, and the immortal gods in general.

Democritus too, composed a similar work. Both of these philosophers had visited the magicians of Persia, Arabia, thiopia,

and Egypt, and so astounded were the ancients at their recitals,

as to learn to make assertions which transcend all belief.

Xanthus, the author of some historical works, tells us, in the

first of them, that a young dragon[9] was restored to life by its

parent through the agency of a plant to which he gives the

name of "ballis," and that one Tylon, who had been killed by

a dragon, was restored to life and health by similar means.

Juba too assures us that in Arabia a man was resuscitated by

the agency of a certain plant. Democritus has asserted-and

Theophrastus believes it-that there is a certain herb in

existence, which, upon being carried thither by a bird, the name

of which we have already[10] given, has the effect, by the contact

solely, of instantaneously drawing a wedge from a tree, when

driven home by the shepherds into the wood.



These marvels, incredible as they are, excite our admiration

nevertheless, and extort from us the admission that, making

all due allowance, there is much in them that is based on

truth. Hence it is too that I find it the opinion of most

writers, that there is nothing which cannot be effected by the

agency of plants, but that the properties of by far the greater

part of them remain as yet unknown. In the number of

these was Herophilus, a celebrated physician, a saying of whose

is reported, to the effect that some plants may possibly exercise

a beneficial influence, if only trodden under foot. Be this as

it may, it has been remarked more than once, that wounds and







maladies are sometimes inflamed[11] upon the sudden approach of

persons who have been journeying on foot.







1. See end of B. xx.

2. There is little doubt that he alludes to the passage of schylus,

quoted by Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. ix. c. 15. Tur)r(h/nwn genean

farmakopoio\n e)/qnos-"The race of the Tyrrheni, a drug-preparing nation."

3. See B. ii. c. 87, B. iii. c. 9, B. xv. c. 36, and B. xxxii. c. 21.

4. See B. vii. c. 2.

5. See B. ii. c. 87.

6. Od. iv. 228, et seq.

7. See B. xxi. c. 91.

8. See B. xxi. cc. 21, 84.

9. Or serpent.

10. In B. x. c. 20

11. Most probably by the agency of "feverish expectation" on the

part of the patient.




7. Chap. 7.-What Diseases Are Attended With The Greatest Pain. Names Of Persons Who Have Discovered Famous Plants.


CHAP. 7.-WHAT DISEASES ARE ATTENDED WITH THE GREATEST PAIN.

NAMES OF PERSONS WHO HAVE DISCOVERED FAMOUS PLANTS.



In former times there was a sort of ambition, as it were, of

adopting plants, by bestowing upon them one's name, a thing

that has been done before now by kings even, as we shall have

occasion to show:[1] so desirable a thing did it appear to have

made the discovery of some plant, and thus far to have contributed to the benefit of mankind. At the present day, however,

it is far from impossible that there may be some who will

look upon these researches of ours as frivolous even, so distasteful to a life of ease and luxury are the very things which so

greatly conduce to our welfare.



Still, however, it will be only right to mention in the first

place those plants the discoverers of which are known, their

various properties being classified[2] according to the several

maladies for the treatment of which they are respectively employed: in taking a review of which one cannot do otherwise

than bewail the unhappy lot of mankind, subject as it is, in

addition to chances and changes, and those new afflictions which

every hour is bringing with it, to thousands of diseases which

menace the existence of each mortal being. It would seem

almost an act of folly to attempt to determine which of these

diseases is attended with the most excruciating pain, seeing

that every one is of opinion that the malady with which for

the moment he himself is afflicted, is the most excruciating

and insupportable. The general experience, however, of the

present age has come to the conclusion, that the most agonizing

torments are those attendant upon strangury, resulting from

calculi in the bladder; next to them, those arising from maladies of the stomach; and in the third place, those caused by

pains and affections of the head; for it is more generally in







these cases, we find, and not in others, that patients are

tempted to commit suicide.



For my own part, I am surprised that the Greek authors

have gone so far as to give a description of noxious plants

even; in using which term, I wish it to be understood that

I do not mean the poisonous plants merely; for such is our

tenure of life that death is often a port of refuge to even the

best of men. We meet too, with one case of a somewhat

similar nature, where M. Varro speaks of Servius Clodius,[3] a

member of the Equestrian order, being so dreadfully tormented

with gout, that he had his legs rubbed all over with poisons,

the result of which was, that from that time forward all sensation, equally with all pain, was deadened in those parts of his

body. But what excuse, I say, can there be for making the

world acquainted with plants, the only result of the use of

which is to derange the intellect, to produce abortion, and to

cause numerous other effects equally pernicious? So far as I am

concerned, I shall describe neither abortives nor philtres,

bearing in mind, as I do, that Lucullus, that most celebrated

general, died of the effects of a philtre.[4] Nor shall I speak

of other ill-omened devices of magic, unless it be to give

warning against them, or to expose them, for I most emphatically condemn all faith and belief in them. It will suffice for

me, and I shall have abundantly done my duty, if I point out

those plants which were made for the benefit of mankind, and

the properties of which have been discovered in the lapse of

time.







1. In c. 33, et seq., of this Book.

2. In the next Book.

3. See the case of M. Agrippa, mentioned in 1. xxiii. c. 27.

4. Said, by Plutarch, to have been administered to him by his freedman

Callisthenes, with the view of securing his affection.




22. Chap. 22.-Twenty-Four Remedies Derived From Black Helle- Bore. How It Should Be Taken.


CHAP. 22.-TWENTY-FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM BLACK HELLE-

BORE. HOW IT SHOULD BE TAKEN.



Black hellebore is administered for the cure of paralysis,

insanity, dropsy-provided there is no fever-chronic gout,

and diseases of the joints: it has the effect too, of carrying







off the bilious secretions and morbid humours by stool. It is

given also in water as a gentle aperient, the proportion being

one drachma at the very utmost, and four oboli for a moderate

dose. Some authorities have recommended mixing scammony

with it, but salt is looked upon as more safe. If given in any

considerable quantity in combination with a sweet substance,

it is highly dangerous: used in the form of a fomentation, it

disperses films upon the eyes; and hence it is that some medical

men have pounded it and used it for an eye-salve. It ripens

and acts detergently upon scrofulous sores, suppurations, and

indurated tumours, as also upon fistulas, but in this latter case

it must be removed at the end of a couple of days. In combination with copper filings[1] and sandarach, it removes warts;

and it is applied to the abdominal regions, with barley-meal

and wine, in cases of dropsy.



This plant is employed for the cure of pituitous defluxions

in cattle and beasts of burden, a slip of it being passed[2]

through the ear, and removed at the same hour on the fol-

lowing day. With frankincense also, wax, and pitch, or else

pisselon,[3] it is used for the cure of itch in quadrupeds.







1. "Squama sens."

2. See a similar statement as to Consiligo, in B. xxvi. c. 21.

3. See B. xv. c. 7, and B. xxiv. c. 11.




23. Chap. 23.-Twenty-Three Remedies Derived From White Hellebore.


CHAP. 23.-TWENTY-THREE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WHITE

HELLEBORE.



The best white hellebore is that which acts most speedily as

a sternutatory; but it would seem to be a much more formidable[1] plant than the black kind; more particularly if we read

in the ancient authors the precautions used by those about

to take it, against cold shiverings, suffocation, unnatural

drowsiness, continuous hiccup or sneezing, derangements of

the stomach, and vomitings, either retarded or prolonged, too

sparing or in excess. Indeed, it was generally the practice to

administer other substances to promote vomiting, and to carry

off the hellebore by the aid of purgatives or clysters, while

bleeding even was frequently had recourse to. In addition to

all this, however successful the results may prove, the symptoms

by which it is attended are really most alarming, by reason of







the various colours which the matter vomited presents: besides

which, after the vomiting has subsided, the physician has to

pay the greatest attention to the nature of the alvine evacuations, the due and proper use of the bath, and the general

regimen adopted by the patient; all of them inconveniences

in themselves, and preceded by the terrors naturally inspired

by the character of the drug; for one story is, that it has the

property of consuming flesh, if boiled with it.



The great error,[2] however, on the part of the ancients was,

that in consequence of these fears, they used to give it too

sparingly, the fact being, that the larger the dose, the more

speedily it passes through the body. Themison used to give

no more than two drachm, but at a later period as much as

four drachm was administered; in conformity with the cele-

brated eulogium passed upon it by Herophilus,[3] who was in

the habit of comparing hellebore to a valiant general, and

saying, that after it has set in motion all within, it is the

first to sally forth and show the way. In addition to these

particulars, there has been a singular discovery made: the

hellebore which, as we have already stated, has been cut with

a small pair of scissors,[4] is passed through a sieve, upon which

the pith makes its way through, while the outer coat remains

behind. The latter acts as a purgative, while the former is

used for the purpose of arresting vomiting when that evacuation

is in excess.







1. Its properties, Fe says, are not more active than those of black hellebore.

2. Fe remarks, that they showed their wisdom in this.

3. Herophilus, it must be remembered, lived a considerable time before

Themison.

4. "Forficulis." He probably refers to c. 21, where, however, he has

mentioned only a needle-"acus." It is possibly a lapsus memori on

his part.




24. Chap. 24.-Eighty-Eight Observations Upon The Two Kinds Of Hellebore.


CHAP. 24.-EIGHTY-EIGHT OBSERVATIONS UPON THE TWO KINDS

OF HELLEBORE.



In order to secure a beneficial result, due precautions must

be taken not to administer hellebore in cloudy weather; for if

given at such a time, it is sure to be productive of excruciating

agonies. Indeed there is no doubt that summer is a better

time for giving it than winter: the body too, by an abstinence

from wine, must be prepared for it seven days previously,

emetics being taken on the fourth and third days before, and







the patient going without his evening meal the previous day.

White hellebore, too, is administered in a sweet[1] medium,

though lentils or pottage are found to be the best for the purpose. There has been a plan also, lately discovered, of splitting

a radish, and inserting the hellebore in it, after which the

sections are pressed together; the object being that the strength

of the hellebore may be incorporated with the radish, and modified thereby.



At the end of about four hours it generally begins to be

brought up again; and within seven it has operated to the full

extent. Administered in this manner, it is good for epilepsy,

as already[2] stated, vertigo, melancholy, insanity, delirium,

white elephantiasis, leprosy, tetanus, palsy, gout, dropsy, incipient tympanitis, stomachic affections, cynic spasms,[3] sciatica,

quartan fevers which defy all other treatment, chronic coughs,

flatulency, and recurrent grippings in the bowels.







1. This he has stated to be attended with danger, in the case of black

hellebore, should the dose be too strong.

2. In c. 21 of this Book.

3. Twitchings of the mouth, which cause the patient to show his teeth,

like a dog.




25. Chap. 25.-To What Persons Hellebore Should Never Be Administered.


CHAP. 25.-TO WHAT PERSONS HELLEBORE SHOULD NEVER BE

ADMINISTERED.



It is universally recommended not to give hellebore to aged

people or children, to persons of a soft and effeminate habit of

body or mind, or of a delicate or tender constitution. It is given

less frequently too to females than to males; and persons of a

timorous disposition are recommended not to take it: the same

also, in cases where the viscera are ulcerated or tumefied, and

more particularly when the patient is afflicted with spitting of

blood, or with maladies of the side or fauces. Hellebore is applied, too, externally, with salted axle-grease, to morbid eruptions

of the body and suppurations of long standing: mixed with

polenta, it destroys rats and mice. The people of Gaul, when

hunting, tip their arrows with hellebore, taking care to cut

away the parts about the wound in the animal so slain: the

flesh, they say, is all the more tender for it. Flies are destroyed

with white hellebore, bruised and sprinkled about a place with

milk: phthiriasis is also cured by the use of this mixture.














26. Chap. 26. (6.)-The Mithridatia.


CHAP. 26. (6.)-THE MITHRIDATIA.



Crateuas ascribes the discovery of one plant to Mithridates

himself, the name of which is "mithridatia."[1] Near the root

it has two leaves resembling those of the acanthus, between

which it puts forth a stem supporting a flower at the extremity, like a rose.







1. Csalpinus identifies it with the Erythronium dens canis of Linnus,

and Commerson and Schreiber with the Dorstenia tambourissa of Sonnerat.

Fe is probably right in considering its synonym as still unknown.




52. Chap. 52.-The Elaphoboscon.


CHAP. 52.-THE ELAPHOBOSCON.



The hind, with a much greater degree of frankness, has discovered to us the elaphoboscon, a plant of which we have

already[1] spoken, and which is also called "helxine,"[2] from the

assistance it affords those animals in yeaning.







1. In B. xxii. c. 37.

2. From the Greek e(/lkw, "to draw."




55. Chap. 55.-The Employment Of These Plants For Injuries Inflicted By Serpents.


CHAP. 55.-THE EMPLOYMENT OF THESE PLANTS FOR INJURIES

INFLICTED BY SERPENTS.



But it will be as well now to mention the various uses made

of these plants, and the effects produced by them, beginning

with that most dangerous of all evils that can befall us, stings

inflicted by serpents. In such cases the plant britannica[1]

effects a cure, and the same is the case with the root of all the

varieties of panaces,[2] administered in wine. The flower, too,

and seed of panaces chironion are taken in drink, or applied

externally with wine and oil: cunila bubula,[3] too, is looked

upon as particularly useful for this purpose, and the root of

polemonia or phileteris is taken in doses of four drachm in

unmixed wine. Teucria,[4] sideritis,[5] and scordotis,[6] are used

in wine, plants particularly good, all of them, for injuries inflicted by snakes; the juice or leaves, or else a decoction of







them, being taken in drink or applied to the wound. For a

similar purpose also, the root of the greater centaury is taken,

in doses of one drachma to three cyathi of white wine. Gentian,

too, is particularly good for the stings of snakes, taken either

fresh or dried, in doses of two drachm, mixed with rue and

pepper in six cyathi of wine. The odour, too, of lysimachia[7] puts serpents to flight.



Chelidonia[8] is also given in wine to persons who have been

stung; and betony in particular is used as an external application to the wound, a plant the virtues of which are so extraordinary, it is said, that if a circle of it is traced around a

serpent, it will lash itself to death[9] with its tail. The seed

of this plant is also administered in such cases, in doses of one

denarius to three cyathi of wine; or else it is dried and powdered, and applied to the wound, in the proportion of three

denarii of powder to one sextarius of water.



Cantabrica, dittany, and aristolochia, are also similarly used,

one drachma of the root of this last plant being taken every

now and then in a semisextarius of wine. It is very useful

too, rubbed in with vinegar, and the same is the case, also,

with plistolochia:[10] indeed it will be quite sufficient to suspend

this last over the hearth, to make all serpents leave the house.







1. See c. 6 of this Book.

2. See cc. 11, 12, 13, 14, of this Book.

3. See B. xx. c. 61.

4. See B. xxiv. c. 80.

5. See c. 15 of this Book.

6. See c. 27 of this Book.

7. See c. 35 of this Book.

8. See c. 50 of this Book.

9. See B. xvi. c. 24.

10. See c. 54 of this Book. As Fe remarks, these asserted remedies for

the stings of serpents are not deserving of discussion.




66. Chap. 66.-The Persolata Or Arcion; Eight Remedies.


CHAP. 66.-THE PERSOLATA OR ARCION; EIGHT REMEDIES.



The persolata,[1] a plant known to every one, and called

"arcion" by the Greeks, has a leaf, larger, thicker, more

swarthy, and more hairy than that of the gourd even, with a

large white root. This plant also is taken, in doses of two

denarii, in wine.











1. Fe thinks that there is an error in the name, and that it is the "personata" that is here spoken of, the plant already mentioned in c. 58 of

this Book. Hardouin identifies it with the Tussilago petasites-the Butter-burr, according to Nemnich-but apparently without any sufficient authority.




76. Chap. 76.-The Phlynion, Neuras, Or Poterion ; One Remedy.


CHAP. 76.-THE PHLYNION, NEURAS, OR POTERION ; ONE

REMEDY.



Frogs, too, have their venom, the bramble-frog[1] in particular,







and I myself have seen the Psylli, in their exhibitions,

irritate them by placing them upon flat vessels made red hot,[2]

their bite being fatal more instantaneously than the sting even

of the asp. One remedy for their poison is the phrynion,[3]

taken in wine, which has also the additional names of "neuras"[4]

and "poterion:" it bears a small flower, and has numerous

fibrous roots, with an agreeable smell.







1. "Rubetis." A kind of toad, probably. See B. viii. c. 48, B. xi. c.

16, and B. xxxii. c. 18.

2. Schneider, on Nicander's Alexiph. p. 277, says that he cannot under-

stand this passage. There is little doubt that Sillig is right in his conjecture that it is imperfect, for the pith of the narrative, whatever it may

have been, is evidently wanting. The Psylli were said to be proof against

all kinds of poisons. See B. viii. c. 38, and 13. xi. c. 30; also lucan's

Pharsalia, B. ix. 1. 192, el seq.

3. See also B. xxvii. c. 97. Fe identifies it with the Astragalas Creticus of Lamarek, Desfontaines with the Astragalus poterium.

4. The "nerve-plant " and the "drinking-plant," apparently.




79. Chap. 79.- Remedies Against Certain Poisons.


CHAP. 79.- REMEDIES AGAINST CERTAIN POISONS.



Closely approaching in their nature to these various kinds of

poisons, are those which have been devised by man for his own

destruction. In the number of antidotes to all these artificial

poisons as well as to the spells of sorcery, the very first place

must be accorded to the moly[1] of Homer; next to which come

the mithridatia,[2] scordotis,[3] and centaury. The seed of betony

carries offail kinds of noxious substances by stool; being taken

for the purpose in honied wine or raisin wine, or else pulverized,

and taken, in doses of one drachma, in four cyathi of old wine:

in this last case, however, the patient must bring it off the

stomach by vomit and then repeat the dose. Persons who

accustom themselves to take this plant daily, will never experience any injury, they say, from substances of a poisonous

nature.



When a person has taken poison, one most powerful remedy

is aristolochia,[4] taken in the same proportions as those used for

injuries inflicted by serpents.[5] The juice, too, of cinquefoil is

given for a similar purpose; and in both cases, after the patient

has vomited, agaric is administered, in doses of one denarius, in

three cyathi of hydromel.











1. See c. 8 of this Book.

2. By "Mithridatia" he probably means the antidotes attributed to

Mithridates in c 3 of this Book, and in B. xxix. c. 8, and not the plant

previously mentioned in c. 26.

3. See c.. 27 of this Book.

4. See c. 54 of this Book.

5. See c. 55.




91. Chap. 91. (12.)-Remedies For Diseases Of The Eyes.


CHAP. 91. (12.)-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EYES.



It is generally thought that the greater centaury[1] strengthens

the sight, if the eyes are fomented with it steeped in water;

and that by employing the juice of the smaller kind, in combination with honey, films and cloudiness may be dispersed,

marks obliterated, and small flies removed which have got

into the eve. It is thought also that sideritis is curative of

albugo in beasts of burden. As to chelidonia,[2] it is marvellously good for all the affections above mentioned. Root of

panaces[3] is applied, with polenta,[4] to defluxions of the eyes;

and for the purpose of keeping them down, henbane-seed is

taken, in doses of one obolus, with an equal proportion of

opium, in wine. Juice, too, of gentian is used as a lini-

ment, and it sometimes forms an ingredient in the more active eyesalves,[5] as a substitute for meconium. Euphorbia,[6]

applied in the form of a liniment, improves the eyesight,

and for ophthalmia juice of plantago[7] is injected into the

eyes.



Aristolochia disperses films upon the eyes; and iberis,[8]

attached to the head with cinquefoil, is curative of defluxions

and other diseases of the eyes. Verbascum[9] is applied topically to defluxions of the eyes, and vervain is used for a

similar purpose, with rose oil and vinegar. For the treatment of cataract and dimness of sight, cyclaminos is reduced

to a pulp and divided into lozenges. Juice, too, of peu-

cedanum, as already mentioned,[10] mixed with meconium and oil

of roses, is good for the sight, and disperses films upon the

eyes. Psyllion,[11] applied to the forehead, arrests defluxions of

the eyes.







1. All the plants here mentioned are of a more or less irritating nature,

and would greatly imperil the sight.

2. See c. 50 of this Book.

3. See c. 11 of this Book.

4. See B.xviii.c.14, and B.xxii.c.59.

5. most dangerous application, in reality.

6. A most dangerous application, in reality.

7. A comparatively harmless, though useless application.

8. See c. 49 of this Book.

9. See c. 73 of this Book.

10. In c. 70 of this Book.

11. See c. 90 of this Book.




104. Chap. 104.-A Remedy For Diseases Of The Nostrils.


CHAP. 104.-A REMEDY FOR DISEASES OF THE NOSTRILS.



Aristolochia,[1] mixed with cyperus,[2] is curative of polypus

of the nose.[3]







1. See c. 54 of this Book.

2. See B.xxi.cc.69,70

3. "Oznam."




105. Chap. 105.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Teeth.


CHAP. 105.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE TEETH.



The following are remedies for diseases of the teeth: root







of panaces,[1] chewed, that of the chironion in particular, and

juice of panaces, used as a collutory; root, too, of henbane,

chewed with vinegar, and root of polemonia.[2] The root of

plantago is chewed for a similar purpose, or the teeth are

rinsed with a decoction of the juice mixed with vinegar. The

leaves, too, are said to be useful for the gums, when swollen

with sanious blood, or if there are discharges of blood there-from. The seed, too, of plantago is a cure for abscesses in the

gums, and for gum-boils. Aristolochia has a strengthening

effect upon the gums and teeth; and the same with vervain,

either chewed with the root of that plant, or boiled in wine

and vinegar, the decoction being employed as a gargle. The

same is the case, also, with root of cinquefoil, boiled down to

one third, in wine or vinegar; before it is boiled, however, the

root should be washed in sea or salt water: the decoction, too,

must be kept a considerable time in the mouth. Some persons

prefer cleaning the teeth with ashes of cinquefoil.



Root of verbascum[3] is also boiled in wine, and the decoction

used for rinsing the teeth. The same is done too with hyssop

and juice of peucedanum, mixed with opium; or else the juice

of the root of anagallis,[4] the female plant in particular, is

injected into the nostril on the opposite side to that in which

the pain is felt.







1. See c. 11 of this Book.

2. See c. 28 of this Book.

3. See c. 73 of this Book.

4. See c. 92 of this Book.




0. > Book Xxvi. A Continuation Of The Remedies Derived From Plants, Classified According To Particular Diseases.


BOOK XXVI.

A CONTINUATION OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM

PLANTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO PARTICULAR

DISEASES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-New Forms Of Disease.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-NEW FORMS OF DISEASE.



THE face of man has recently been sensible of new forms of

disease, unknown[1] in ancient times,

not only to Italy, but to

almost the whole of Europe. Still, however, they have not as

yet extended to the whole of Italy, nor have they made any

very great inroads in Illyricum, Gaul, or Spain, or indeed

any other parts, to so great an extent as in Rome and its environs. Though unattended with pain, and not dangerous to

life, these diseases are of so loathsome a nature, that any form

of death would be preferable to them.







1. probably as littr suggests, a peculiar form of elephantiasis the leprosy of middle ages




2. Chap. 2.-The Nature Of Lichen.


CHAP. 2.-THE NATURE OF LICHEN.



The most insupportable of all these diseases is the one which,

after its Greek appellation, is known to us as "lichen."[1] In

consequence, however, of its generally making its first appearance at the chin, the Latin's, by way of joke, originally-so

prone are mankind to make a jest of the misfortunes of others

-gave it the name of "mentagra;"[2] an appellation which has

since become established in general use. In many cases, however, this disease spreads over the interior of the mouth, and

takes possession of the whole face, with the sole exception of

the eyes; after which, it passes downwards to the neck, breast,

and hands, covering them with foul furfuraceous eruptions.







1. Probably as Littr suggests, a peculiar form of elephantiasis, the

leprosy of the middle ages.

2. The "chin disease:" from "mentum," the "chin." It is difficult to

detect the joke which has here incurred the censure of our author.




3. Chap. 3.-At What Period Lichen First Made Its Appearance In Italy.


CHAP. 3.-AT WHAT PERIOD LICHEN FIRST MADE ITS APPEARANCE

IN ITALY.



This curse was unknown to the ancients,[1] and in the times of

our fathers even, having first entered Italy in the middle of







the reign of the Emperor Tiberius[2] Claudius Csar; where

it was introduced from Asia,[3] in which country it had lately

made[4] its appearance, by a member of the equestrian order at

Rome, a native of Perusiun, secretary to the qustor. The

disease, however, did not attack either females or slaves,[5]

nor yet the lower orders, or, indeed, the middle classes, but

only the nobles, being communicated even by the momentary

contact requisite for the act of salutation.[6] Many of those

who persevered in undergoing a course of remedial treatment,

though cured of the disease, retained scars upon the body more

hideous even than the malady itself; it being treated with

cauteries, as it was certain to break out afresh, unless means

were adopted for burning it out of the body by cauterizing to

the very bone.



Upon this occasion several physicians repaired to Rome

from Egypt, that fruitful parent of maladies of this nature,

men who devoted themselves solely to this branch of medical

practice; and very considerable were the profits they made.

At all events, it is a well-known fact that Manilius Cornutus,

a personage of prtorian rank, and legatus of the province of

Aquitania, expended no less a sum than two hundred thousand[7] sesterces upon his cure.



It is much more frequently, on the other hand, that we hear

of new forms of diseases attacking the lower orders; a singular

fact, and one quite unequalled for the marvellous phnomena

which sometimes attend these outbreaks. Thus, for instance,

we find an epidemic suddenly making its appearance in a certain country, and then confining itself, as though it had made

its election so to do, to certain parts of the body, certain ages,

and even certain pursuits in life. In the same way, too, while







one class of diseases attacks the young, another confines itself

to adults; while one malady extends itself only to the higher

classes, another is felt exclusively by the poor.







1. Meaning the people of Italy.

2. It is somewhat difficult to say whether Tiberius, the predecessor, or

Claudius, the successor of Caligula, is meant; most probably the latter,

as the former's reign would have been in the times of "our fathers."

3. Asia Minor.

4. "Cum apparuisset." He is probably wrong here, for leprosy was

known in Asia from the very earliest times.

5. This assertion as to the slaves and lower orders is somewhat doubtful,

though it is very possible that the diet and habits of the higher orders

may have predisposed them more particularly for the attacks of the diseases.

6. "Osculi," "kissing;" a nauseous and silly practice, still adhered to,

between bearded men even, in many parts of Europe.

7. Upwards of 1500.




4. Chap. 4.-Carbuncle.


CHAP. 4.-CARBUNCLE.



We find it stated in the Annals, that it was in the censorship[1]

of L. Paulus and Q. Marcius that carbuncle[2] was first introduced into Italy, a malady which till then had confined itself

solely to the province of Gallia Narbonensis. In the year

in which I am writing these lines, two persons of consular

rank have died of this disease, Julius Rufus[3] and Q. Lecanius

Bassus;[4] the former in consequence of an incision unskilfully

made by his medical attendants, the latter through a wound

upon the thumb of the left hand by pricking a carbuncle with

a needle, a wound so small originally as to be hardly perceptible.



This disease makes its appearance in the more hidden[5] parts

of the human body, and mostly beneath the tongue. It originally has the form of a hard, red, pimple, with a blackish

head mostly, though sometimes of a livid colour. It produces

tension of the flesh, but unattended with swelling, pain, or

any itching sensation; indeed, the only symptom that accompanies it is a confirmed drowsiness, which overpowers the patient, and carries him off in the course of three days. Sometimes, however, it is accompanied with shuddering, and small

pustules about the sore; and occasionally, though but rarely,

with fever. When these symptoms extend to the fauces and

sophagus, death ensues with the greatest rapidity.







1. A.U.C. 590.

2. "Carbunculus." A malignant pustule, accompanied with swelling and

ending with gangrene, is still known by this name, but it does not manifest any particular preference for the mouth and tongue. Fe says that

carbuncle was recently (1833) endemic in Provence, the ancient Gallia

Narbonensis, for which reason it had received the name of "Charbon Provencal."

3. Consul, A.U.C. 819.

4. Consul, A.U.C. 816.

5. Judging from this symptom, Dalechamps says that it looks more like

chancre than carbuncle.




5. Chap. 5-Elephantiasis.


CHAP. 5-ELEPHANTIASIS.



We have already[1] stated that elephantiasis[2] was unknown







in Italy before the time of Pompeius Magnus. This malady,

too, like those already mentioned, mostly makes its first appearance in the face. In its primary form it bears a considerable resemblance to a small lentil upon the nose; the skin

gradually dries up all over the body, is marked with spots of

various colours, and presents an unequal surface, being thick

in one place, thin in another, indurated every here and there,

and covered with a sort of rough scab. At a later period, the

skin assumes a black hue, and compresses the flesh upon the

bones, the fingers and toes becoming swollen.



This disease was originally peculiar to Egypt. Whenever it

attacked the kings of that country, it was attended with peculiarly fatal effects to the people, it being the practice to

temper their sitting-baths with human blood, for the treatment

of the disease. As for Italy, however, its career was very

soon cut short: the same was the case, too, with the disease

known as "gemursa" Fe thinks that this may have been a sort of abscess similar to those

between the fingers which are known as fourches by the French, and by

medical men as "Aposthema phalangum." Gruner considers it to be a sort

of Elephantiasis, and Triller identifies it with the disease called Gumretha

by the Talmudists. to the ancients, a malady which made

its appearance between the toes, and the very name of which is

now buried in oblivion.







1. In B. xx. c. 52.

2. Supposed, as Pliny says, to have originally come from Upper Egypt.

Lucretius, B. vi. 1. 1111, et seq., attributes it to the water of the Nile. It

is but rarely known in Europe.




6. Chap. 6.-Colic.


CHAP. 6.-COLIC.



It is a remarkable fact that some diseases should disappear

from among us, while others, again, should continue to prevail,

colic[1] for example. It was only in the reign of Tiberius

Csar that this malady made its appearance in Italy, the

emperor himself being the first to be attacked by it; a circumstance which produced considerable mystification throughout the City, when it read the edict issued by that prince

excusing his inattention to public business, on the ground of his

being laid up with a disease, the very name of which was till

then unknown. To what cause are we to attribute these various

diseases, or how is it that we have thus incurred the anger of

the gods? Was it deemed too little for man to be exposed to







fixed and determinate classes of maladies, already more than

three hundred in number, that he must have new forms of

disease to alarm him as well? And then, in addition to all

these, not less in number are the troubles and misfortunes which

man brings upon himself!



The remedies which I am here describing, are those which

were universally employed in ancient times, Nature herself,

so to say, making up the medicines: indeed, for a long time

these were the only medicines employed.



(2.) Hippocrates,[2] it is well known, was the first to compile a code of medical precepts, a thing which he did with the

greatest perspicuity, as his treatises, we find, are replete with

information upon the various plants. No less is the information which we gain from the works of Diocles[3] of Carystus,

second only in reputation, as well as date, to Hippocrates.

The same, too, with reference to the works of Praxagoras,

Chrysippus, and, at a later period, Erasistratus[4] of Cos.

Herophilus[5] too, though himself the founder of a more refined

system of medicine, was extremely profuse of his commendations of the use of simples. At a later period, however, experience, our most efficient instructor in all things, medicine in

particular, gradually began to be lost sight of in mere words

and verbiage: it being found, in fact, much more agreeable

to sit in schools, and to listen to the talk of a professor, than

to go a simpling in the deserts, and to be searching for this

plant or that at all the various seasons of the year.







1. "Colum." Fe takes this to be Schirrus of the colon.

2. See B. xxix. c. i.

3. See end of B. xx.

4. See B. xxix. c. 3.

5. See B. xxix. c. o.




8. Chap. 8.-Tie Changes Effected By Asclepiades In The Practice Of Medicine.


CHAP. 8.-TIE CHANGES EFFECTED BY ASCLEPIADES IN THE

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.



In addition to this, he had a wonderful tact in gaining the

full confidence of his patients: sometimes he would make then

a promise of wine, and then seize the opportune moment for

administering it, while on other occasions, again, he would

prescribe cold water: indeed, as Herophilus, among the ancients, had been the first to enquire into the primary causes of

disease, and Cleophantus had brought into notice the treat-

ment of diseases by wine, so did Asclepiades, as we learn from

M. Varro, prefer to be indebted for his surname and repute

to the extensive use made by him of cold water as a

remedy. He employed also various other soothing remedies

for his patients; thus, for instance, it was he that introduced

swinging beds, the motion of which might either lull the

malady, or induce sleep, as deemed desirable. It was he,

too, that brought baths into such general use,-a method of

treatment that was adopted with the greatest avidity-in

addition to numerous other modes of treatment of a pleasant

and soothing nature. By these means he acquired a great

professional reputation, and a no less extended fame; which







was very considerably enhanced by the following incident:

meeting the funeral procession of a person unknown to him,

he ordered the body to be removed from the funeral pile[1] and

carried home, and was thus the means of saving his life. This

circumstance I am the more desirous to mention, that it may

not be imagined that it was on slight grounds only that so

extensive a revolution was effected in the medical art.



There is, however, one thing, and one thing only, at which

we have any ground for indignation,-the fact, that a single

individual, and he belonging to the most frivolous nation[2] in

the world, a man born in utter indigence, should all on a

sudden, and that, too, for the sole purpose of increasing his

income, give a new code of medical laws to mankind; laws,

however, be it remembered, which have been annulled by

numerous authorities since his day. The success of Asclepiades was considerably promoted by many of the usages of ancient

medicine, repulsive in their nature, and attended with far too

much anxiety: thus, for instance, it was the practice to cover

up the patient with vast numbers of clothes, and to adopt

every possible method of promoting the perspiration; to order

the body to be roasted before a fire; or else to be continually

sending the patient on a search for sunshine, a thing hardly to

be found in a showery climate like that of this city of ours;

or rather, so to say, of the whole of Italy, so prolific[3] as it is

of fogs and rain.[4] It was to remedy these inconveniences,

that he introduced the use of hanging baths,[5] an invention

that was found grateful to invalids in the very highest

degree.



In addition to this, he modified the tortures which had

hitherto attended the treatment of certain maltdies; as in

quinzy for instance, the cure of which before his time had been

usually effected by the introduction of an instrument[6] into the

throat. He condemned, and with good reason, the indiscriminate use of emetics, which till then had been resorted to in;







most extraordinary degree. He disapproved also of the practice of administering internally potions that are naturally

injurious to the stomach, a thing that may truthfully be pronounced of the greater part of them. Indeed it will be as well

to take an early opportunity of stating what are the medicaments which act

beneficially upon the stomach.







1. See B. vii. c. 37. Apuleius gives the story at considerable length, in

the Florida, B. iv.

2. Asia Minor. Asclepiades was a native of Prusa in Bithynia.

3. We adopt Sillig's suggestion, and read "nimiborum altrice," the

word "imperatrice" being evidently out of place. The climate of Italy

seems to have changed very materially since his day.

4. See B.ii.c.51

5. See B.ix.c.79

6. "organo"




9. Chap. 9. (4).-Remarks In Dispraise Of The Practices Of Magic.


CHAP. 9. (4).-REMARKS IN DISPRAISE OF THE PRACTICES OF MAGIC.



But above all things, it was the follies of magic more particularly that contributed so essentially to his success-follies

which had been carried to such a pitch as to destroy all confidence in the remedial virtues of plants. Thus, for instance,

it was stoutly maintained that by the agency of the plant aethiopis[1] rivers and standing waters could be dried up, and that by

the very touch[2] * * * * all bars and doors might be opened:

that if the plant achnis[3] were thrown into the ranks of the

enemy it would be certain to create a panic and put them to

flight: that latace[4] was given by the Persian kings to their

ambassadors, to ensure them an abundant supply of everything wherever they might happen to be: with numerous

other reveries of a similar nature. Where, I should like to

know, were all these plants, when the Cimbri and Teutones

brought upon us the horrors of warfare with their terrific yells?

or when Lucullus defeated, with a few legions, so many kings

who ruled over the Magi?[5] Why is it too that the Roman

generals have always made it their first care in warfare to

make provision for the victualling of their troops? And how

was it that at Pharsalia the troops of Csar were suffering from

famine, if an abundance of everything could have been ensured

by the fortunate possession of a single plant? Would it not have

been better too for Scipio milianus to have opened the gates

of Carthage by touching them with a herb, than to have taken

so many years to batter down its bulwarks with his engines of

war?



Turning to the present moment, let them, by the agency of

the herb meros,[6] dry up the Pomptine[7] Marshes, if they can,







and by these means restore so much territory to the regions of

Italy in the neighbourhood of our city. In the works, too, of

Democritus, already mentioned,[8] we find a recipe for the composition of a medicament which will ensure the procreation of

issue, both sure to be good and fortunate.-What king of Persia,

pray, ever obtained that blessing? It really would be a marvellous fact that human credulity, taking its rise originally in

the very soundest of notions, should have ultimately arrived at

such a pitch as this, if the mind of man understood, under any

circumstances, how to keep within the bounds of moderation; and if the very system of medicine thus introduced by

Asclepiades, had not been carried to a greater pitch of extravagance than the follies of magic even, an assertion which

I shall prove on a more appropriate occasion.[9]



Such, however, is the natural constitution of the human

mind, that, be the circumstances what they may, commencing

with what is necessary it speedily arrives at the point of

launching out in excess.



We will now resume our account of the medicinal properties

of the plants mentioned in the preceding Book, adding to our

description such others as the necessities of the case may seem

to require.







1. See B. xxiv. c. 102.

2. We agree with Pintianus that the name of some plant here has been

lost, the word "condiendis" making no sense.

3. See B. xxiv. c. 102.

4. Some plant as fictitious as the others here mentioned.

5. See B. xxx. c. i.

6. See 1. xxiv.c. 102

7. See B. ii. c. c.9.

8. In B. xxiv. c. 102.

9. In B. xxix. c. 5.




11. Chap. 11.-Quinzy.


CHAP. 11.-QUINZY.



For the treatment of quinzy, we find argemonia[1] recommended, in wine; a decoction of hyssop, boiled with figs,

used as a gargle; peucedanum,[2] with an equal proportion of

sea-calf's rennet; proserpinaca,[3] beaten up in the pickle of the

mna[4] and oil, or else placed beneath the tongue; as also

juice of cinquefoil, taken in doses of three cyathi. Used as a

gargle, juice of cinquefoil is good for the cure of all affections

of the fauces: verbascum,[5] too, taken in wine, is particularly

useful for diseases of the tonsillary glands.







1. See B. xxv. c. 56.

2. See B. xxv. c. 70.

3. See B. xxvii. c. 104.

4. See B. ix. c. 42.

5. See B. xxv. c. 73.




12. Chap. 12. (5.)-Scrofula.


CHAP. 12. (5.)-SCROFULA.



For the cure of scrofula[1] plantago is employed, chelidonia[2]

mixed with honey and axle-grease, cinquefoil, and root of per-







solata[3]-this last being applied topically, and covered with the

leaf of the plant-artemisia,[4] also, and an infusion of the

root of mandragora[5] in water. The large-leaved sideritis,[6]

cleft by the left hand with a nail, is worn attached as an

amulet: but after the cure has been effected, due care must be

taken to preserve the plant, in order that it may not be set

again, to promote the wicked designs of the herbalists and so

cause the disease to break out afresh; as sometimes happens in

the cases already mentioned,[7] and others which I find stated,

in reference to persons cured by the agency of artemisia or

plantago.



Damasonion,[8] also known as alcea, is gathered at the summer

solstice, and applied with rain-water, the leaves being beaten

up, or the root pounded, with axle-grease, so as to admit, when

applied, of being covered with a leaf of the plant. The same

plan is adopted also for the cure of all pains in the neck, and

tumours on all parts of the body.







1. Fe remarks that none of the plants here mentioned are of any utility

for the cure of scrofula.

2. See B. xxv. c. 50.

3. See B. xxv. c. 66.

4. See B. xxv. c. 36.

5. See B. xxv. c. 94.

6. See B. xxv. c. 19, where our author has confused the Achillea with the Sideritis; also c. 15, where he describes the Heraclion siderion. Fe

identifies the Sideritis mentioned in B. xxv. c. 19, as having a square stem

and leaves like those of the quercus, with the Stachys heraclea of modern

botany. That mentioned in the same Chapter, as having a fetid smell, he

identifies with the Phellandrium mutellina of Linnus. The large-leaved

Sideritis is, no doubt, the one mentioned as having leaves like those of

the quercus. See the Note to B. xxv. c. 19.

7. In B. xxi. c. 83, and B. xxv. c. 119.

8. See B. xxv. c. 77.




14. Chap. 14.-The Condurdum.


CHAP. 14.-THE CONDURDUM.



The condurdum,[1] too, is a plant with a red blossom, which

flowers at the summer solstice. Suspended from the neck, it







arrests scrofula, they say: the same being the case also with

vervain, in combination with plantago. For the cure of all

diseases of the fingers, hangnails in particular, cinquefoil is

used.







1. Identified by Sprengel and Desfontaines with the Saponaria vaccaria,

the Perfoliate soapwort. Other commentators have suggested the Valeriana

rubra, but Fe thinks that its synonym has not been hitherto discovered.




15. Chap. 15.-Cough.


CHAP. 15.-COUGH.



Of all diseases of the chest, cough is the one that is the

most oppressive. For the cure of this malady, root of panaces[1] in sweet wine is used, and in cases where it is attended

with spitting of blood, juice of henbane. Henbane, too, used as

a fumigation, is good for cough; and the same with scordotis,[2]

mixed with nasturtium and dry resin, beaten up with honey:

employed by itself also, scordotis facilitates expectoration, a

property which is equally possessed by the greater centaury,

even where the patient is troubled with spitting of blood; for

which last juice of plantago is very beneficial. Betony, taken

in doses of three oboli in water, is useful for purulent or

bloody expectorations: root also of persolata,[3] in doses of

one drachma, taken with eleven pine-nuts; and juice of peu-

cedanum.[4]



For pains in the chest, acoron[5] is remarkably useful; hence

it is that it is so much used an ingredient in antidotes. For

cough, daucus[6] and the plant scythice [7] are much employed,

this last being good, in fact, for all affections of the chest,

coughs, and purulent expectorations, taken in doses of three

oboli, with the same proportion of raisin wine. The verbascum[8] too, with a flower like gold, is similarly employed.



(6.) This last-named plant is so remarkably energetic, that

an infusion of it, administered in their drink, will relieve

beasts of burden, not only when troubled with cough, but when

broken-winded even-a property which I find attributed to

gentian also. Root of cacalia[9] chewed, or steeped in wine, is

good for cough as well as all affections of the throat. Five

sprigs of hyssop, with two of rue and three figs, act detergently

upon the thoracic organs and allay cough,











1. See B. xxv. c. 11.

2. See B. xxv. c. 27.

3. See B. xxv. c. 66.

4. See B. xxv. c. 70.

5. See B. xxv. c. 100.

6. See B. xxv. c. 64.

7. See B. xxii. c. 11, and B. xxv. c. 43. Our Liquorice probably, which,

Fe remarks, as also figs and hyssop, has maintained its ancient reputation

as a pectoral.

8. See B. xxv. c. 73.

9. See B. xxv. c. 85.




18. Chap. 18. (7.)-Affections Of The Side, Chest, And Stomach.


CHAP. 18. (7.)-AFFECTIONS OF THE SIDE, CHEST, AND STOMACH.



For the cure of pains in the side and chest, verbascum[1] is

used in water, with rue; powdered betony is also taken in

warm water. Juice of scordotis[2] is used as a stomachic,







centaury also, gentian taken in water, and plantago, either

eaten with the food, or mixed with lentils or a pottage of

alica.[3] Betony, which is in general prejudicial to the stomach,

is remedial for some stomachic affections, taken in drink or

chewed, the leaves being used for the purpose. In a similar

manner too, aristolochia[4] is taken in drink, or dried agaric is

chewed, a draught of undiluted wine being taken every now

and then. Nympha heraclia[5] is also applied topically in

these cases, and juice of peucedanum.[6] For burning pains in

the stomach psyllion[7] is applied, or else cotyledon[8] beaten up

with polenta, or aizom.[9]







1. See B. xxv. c. 73.

2. See B. xx. c. 27.

3. See B. xviii. c. 29. Fe observes that none of these prescriptions

would be countenanced at the present day.

4. See B. xxv. c. 54.

5. See B. xxv. c. 37.

6. See B. xxv. c. 70.

7. See B. xxv. c. 90.

8. See B. xxv. c. 101.

9. See B. xxv. c. 102.




19. Chap. 19.-Molon Or Syron. Amomum.


CHAP. 19.-MOLON OR SYRON. AMOMUM.



Molon[1] is a plant with a striated stem, a soft diminutive

leaf, and a root four fingers in length, at the extremity of

which there is a head like that of garlic; by some persons it

is known as "syron." Taken in wine, it is curative of affections of the stomach, and of hardness of breathing. For similar

purposes the greater centaury is used, in an electuary; juice

also of plantago, or else the plant itself, eaten with the food;

pounded betony, in the proportion of one pound to half an

ounce of Attic honey, taken daily in warm water; and aristolochia[2] or agaric, taken in doses of three oboli, in warm water

or asses' milk.



For hardness of breathing an infusion of cissanthemos[3] is

taken in drink, and for the same complaint, as also for asthma,

hyssop. For pains in the liver, chest, and side, if unattended

with fever, juice of peucedanum is used. For spitting of

blood agaric is employed, in doses of one victoriatus,[4] bruised

and administered in five cyathi of honied. wine: amomum,[5]

too, is equally useful for that purpose. For liver diseases in







particular, teucria[6] is taken fresh, in doses of four drachme

to one hemina of oxycrate; or else betony, in the proportion

of one drachma to three cyathi of warm water. For diseases

or the heart, betony is recommended, in doses of one drachma

to two cyathi of cold water. Juice of cinquefoil is remedial

for diseases of the liver and lungs, and for spitting of blood as

well as all internal affections of the blood. The two varieties

of anagallis[7] are wonderfully efficacious for liver complaints.

Patients who eat the plant called "capnos"[8] discharge the

bile by urine. Acoron[9] is also remedial for diseases of the liver,

and daucus[10] is useful for the thorax and the pectoral organs.







1. Possibly the same plant as the "Moly" of B. xxv. c. 8. If so, as

Fe says, it would appear to belong to the genus Allium, or garlic.

2. See B. xxv. c. 84.

3. See B. xxv. c. 68.

4. See Introduction to Vol. III.

5. See B. xii. c. 28. Fe says that none of these so-called remedies

would now be recognised.

6. See B. xxv. c. 20.

7. See B. xxv. c. 92.

8. See B. xxv. c. 99.

9. See B. xxv. c. 100.

10. See 1B. xxv. c. 64.




20. Chap. 20-The Ephedra Or Anabasis; Three Remedies.


CHAP. 20-THE EPHEDRA OR ANABASIS; THREE REMEDIES.



The ephedra,[1] by some persons called "anabasis," mostly

grows in localities exposed to the wind. It climbs the trunks of

trees, and hangs down from the branches, is destitute of leaves,

but has numerous suckers, jointed like a bulrush; the root

is of a pale colour. This plant is given, pounded, in astringent

red wine, for cough, asthma, and gripings in the bowels. It

is administered also in the form of a pottage, to which some

wine should be added. For these complaints, gentian is also

used, being steeped in water the day before, and then pounded

and given in doses of one denarius, in three cyathi of wine.







1. Probably the Equisetum silvaticum of Linnus, our Wild horse-tail.

He is in error in saying that it climbs the trunks of trees a mistake also

made by Dioscorides, B. iv. c. 46, who calls it "hippuris." It is said by

some to be a strong diuretic. Littr, however, gives as its synonym the

Ephedra fragilis of Linnus.




23. Chap. 23.-The Gromphna.


CHAP. 23.-THE GROMPHNA.



Gromphna[1] is the name of a plant, the stem of which is

covered with leaves of a green and rose colour, arranged alter-

nately. The leaves of it are administered in oxycrate, in

cases of spitting of blood.







1. Sprengel and Desfontaines identify it with the Amaranthus tricolor;

Fe is strongly of opinion that it has not been correctly identified.




25. Chap. 25.-Chalcetum; Two Remedies. Molemonium; One Remedy.


CHAP. 25.-CHALCETUM; TWO REMEDIES. MOLEMONIUM;

ONE REMEDY.



Chalcetum[1] also is the name of a plant, which is pounded

with grape husks and applied topically, for the cure of liver

complaints. Root of betony acts as a gentle emetic, taken in

the same way as hellebore, in doses of four drachm in

raisin wine or honied wine. Hyssop, too, is beaten up with

honey for similar purposes; but it is more efficacious if nasturtium or irio[2] is taken first.



Molemonium[3] is used as an emetic, being taken in doses of one

denarius; the same, too, with sillybum.[4] Both of these plants

have a milky juice, which thickens like gum, and is taken with

honey in the proportions above-mentioned, being particularly

good for carrying off bile. On the other hand, vomiting is

arrested by the use of wild cummin or powdered betony,

taken in water. Crudities and distaste for food are dispelled,

and the digestion promoted by employing daucus,[5] powdered

betony[6] taken in hydromel, or else plantago boiled like

greens. Hiccup is arrested by taking hemionium[7] or aristolochia,[8] and asthma by the use of clymenus.[9] For pleurisy

and peripneumony, the greater centaury is used, or else

hyssop, taken in drink. Juice of peucedanum[10] is also good

for pleurisy.











1. C. Bauhin identifies it with the Valeriana locusta of Linnus, Corn

valerian, Corn-salad, or Lamb's lettuce. Fe considers its identity as still

unknown.

2. See B. xviii. c. 10.

3. Perhaps the same as the Limonium of B. xxv. c. 61.

4. See B. xxii. c. 42; one of the Sonchi, probably, which contain a

milky juice. Littr gives the Sonchus palustris of Linnus.

5. See B. xxv. c. 64.

6. The Betonica officinalis of Linnus.

7. Either the Asplenium ceterach of Linnus, Spleenwort, Ceterach, or

Miltwaste, or the A. hemionitis of Linnus, Mule's fern. See B. xxvii. c. 17.

8. See B. xxv. c. 54.

9. See B. xxv. c. 33.

10. See B. xxv. c. 70.




28. Chap. 28. (8.)-Remedies For Diseases Of The Belly.


CHAP. 28. (8.)-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE BELLY.



But it is the belly, for the gratification of which the greater

part of mankind exist, that causes the most suffering to man.

Thus, for instance, at one time it will not allow the aliments

to pass, while at another it is unable to retain them. Sometimes, again, it either cannot receive the food, or, if it can,

cannot digest it; indeed, such are the excesses practised at

the present day, that it is through his aliment, more than anything else, that man hastens his end. This receptacle,[1] more

troublesome to us than any other part of the body, is ever craving,

like some importunate creditor, and makes its calls repeatedly

in the day. It is for its sake, more particularly, that avarice

is so insatiate, for its sake that luxury is so refined,[2] for its sake

that men voyage to the shores even of the Phasis, for its sake

that the very depths of the ocean are ransacked. And yet,

with all this, no one ever gives a thought how abject is the

condition of this part of our body, how disgusting the results

of its action upon what it has received! No wonder then,







that the belly should have to be indebted to the aid of medicine

in the very highest degree



Scordotis,[3] fresh-gathered and beaten up, in doses of one

drachma, with wine, arrests flux of the bowels; an effect

equally produced by a decoction of it taken in drink. Polemonia,[4] too, is given in wine for dysentery, or two fingers'

length of root of verbascum,[5] in water; seed of nymlpha

heraclia,[6] in wine; the upper root of xiphion,[7] in (loses of one

drachma, in vinegar; seed of plantago, beaten up in wine ;

plantago itself boiled in vinegar, or else a pottage of alica[8]

mixed with the juice of the plant; plantago boiled with

lentils ; plantago dried and powdered, and sprinkled in drink,

with parched poppies pounded; juice of plantago, used as an

injection, or taken in drink ; or betony taken in wine heated

with a red-hot iron. For cliac affections, betony is taken in

astringent wine, or iberis is applied topically, as alrealdy[9]

stated. For tenesmus, root of nympha heraclia is taken in

wine, or else psyllion[10] in water, or a decoction of root of

acoron.[11] Juice of aizom[12] arrests diarrha and dysentery, and

expels round tape-worm. Root of symphytum,[13] taken in wine,

arrests diarrha and dysentery, and daucus[14] has a similar

effect. Leaves of aizom[15] beaten up in wine, and dried

alcea[16] powdered and taken in wine, are curative of griping

pains in the bowels.







1. "Vas."

2. In search of pheasants. See B. vi. c. 4.

3. See B. xxv. c. 27.

4. See B. xxv. c. 28.

5. See B. xxv. c. 73.

6. See B. xxv. c. 37.

7. See B. xxv. c. 89.

8. See B. xviii. c. 29.

9. In B. xxv. c. 84.

10. See B. xxv. c. 90.

11. See B. xxv. c. 100.

12. See B. xxv. c. 102.

13. See B. xxvii. c. 24.

14. See B. xxv. c. 84.

15. See Note 32 above.

16. See B. xxvii. c. 6.




36. Chap. 36.-Pycnocomon; Four Remedies.


CHAP. 36.-PYCNOCOMON; FOUR REMEDIES.



Pycnocomon,[1] too, is a purgative. It is a plant with leaves

like those of rocket, only thicker and more acrid; the root is

round, of a yellow colour, and with an earthy smell. The

stem is quadrangular, of a moderate length, thin, and surmounted with a flower like that of ocimum.[2] It is found

growing in rough stony soils. The root, taken in doses of two

denarii in hydromel, acts as a purgative upon the bowels,

and effectually carries off bile and pituitous humours. The

seed, taken in doses of one drachma in wine, is productive of

dreams and restlessness. Capnos,[3] too, carries off bile by the

urine.







1. "Thick hair." It is generally identified with the Leonurus marrubiastrum of Linnus. Columna makes it to be the Scabiosa succisa of

Linnus, the Devil's bit scabious, and Brunsfeld the Angelica silvestris of

Linnus, Wild angelica.

2. See B. xxi. c. 60.

3. See B. xxv. c. 98.




38. Chap. 38.-Scammony; Eight Remedies.


CHAP. 38.-SCAMMONY; EIGHT REMEDIES.



Scammony,[1] also, is productive of derangement of the

stomach. It carries off bile, and acts strongly as a purgative

upon the bowels; unless, indeed, aloes are added, in the proportion of two drachm of aloes to two oboli of scammony. The

drug thus called is the juice of a plant that is branchy from

the root, and has unctuous, white, triangular, leaves, with

a solid, moist root, of a nauseous flavour: it grows in rich

white soils. About the period of the rising of the Dogstar, an excavation is made about the root, to let the juice

collect: which done. it is dried in the sun and divided into

tablets. The root itself, too, or the outer coat of it, is sometimes dried. The scammony most esteemed is that of Colophon,

Mysia, and Priene. In appearance it ought to he smooth and

shiny, and as much like bull glue as possible: it should present

a fungous surface also, covered with minute holes; should melt

with the greatest rapidity, have a powerful smell, and be sticky

like gum. When touched with the tongue, it should give out

a white milky liquid; it ought also to be extremely light, and

to turn white when melted.







This last feature is recognized in the spurious scammony

also, a compound of meal of fitches and juice of marine tithy-

malos,[2] which is mostly imported from Judea, and is very apt

to choke those who use it. The difference may be easily

detected, however, by the taste, as tithymalos imparts a burning sensation to the tongue. To be fully efficacious, scammony

should be two[3] years old; before or after that age it is useless.

It has been prescribed to be taken by itself also, in doses of

four oboli, with hydromel and salt: but the most advantageous

mode of using it is in combination with aloes, care being taken

to drink honied wine the moment it begins to operate. The

root, too, is boiled down in vinegar to the consistency of honey,

and the decoction used as a liniment for leprosy. The head is

also rubbed with this decoction, mixed with oil, for head-ache.







1. The produce of the Convolvulus scammonia of Linnus, the Scam-

mony bind-weed. The scammony of Aleppo is held in the highest esteem,

and is very Valuable. That of Smyrna also is largely imported.

2. See the following Chapters.

3. This assertion is erroneous; it has all its properties in full vigour immediately after extraction, and retains them for an indefinite period.




39. Chap. 39.-The Tithymalos Characias.


CHAP. 39.-THE TITHYMALOS CHARACIAS.



The tithymalos is called by our people the "milk plant,"[1]

and by some persons the "goat lettuce."[2] They say, that if

characters are traced upon the body with the milky juice of

this plant, and powdered with ashes, when dry, the letters will

be perfectly visible; an expedient which has been adopted

before now by intriguers, for the purpose of communicating

with their mistresses, in preference to a correspondence by

letter. There are numerous varieties of this plant.[3] The

first kind has the additional name of "characias,"[4] and is

generally looked upon as the male plant. Its branches are

about a finger in thickness, red and full of juice, five or six in

number, and a cubit in length. The leaves near the root are

almost exactly those of the olive, and the extremity of the

stem is surmounted with a tuft like that of the bulrush: it is

found growing in rugged localities near the sea-shore. The

seed is gathered in autumn, together with the tufts, and after

being dried in the sun, is beaten out and put by for keeping.







As to the juice, the moment the down begins to appear

upon the fruit, the branches are broken off and the juice of

them is received upon either meal of fitches or else figs, and

left to dry therewith. Five drops are as much as each fig

ought to receive; and the story is, that if a dropsically patient

eats one of these figs he will have as many motions as the fig

has received drops. While the juice is being collected, due

care must be taken not to let it touch the eyes. From the leaves,

pounded, a juice is also extracted, but not of so useful a

nature as the other kind: a decoction, too, is made from the

branches.



The seed also is used, being boiled with honey and made up

into purgative[5] pills. These seeds are sometimes inserted in

hollow teeth with wax: the teeth are rinsed too, with a decoction of the root in wine or oil. The juice is used externally

for lichens, and is taken internally both as an emetic and to

promote alpine evacuation: in other respects, it is prejudicial to

the stomach. Taken in drink, with the addition of salt, it carries off pituitous humours; and in combination with saltpeter,[6]

removes bile. In cases where it is desirable that it should purge

by stool, it is taken with oxycrate, but where it is wanted

to act as an emetic, with raisin wine or hydromel; three oboli

being a middling dose. The best method, however, of using it,

is to eat the prepared figs above-mentioned, just after taking

food. In taste, it is slightly burning to the throat; indeed it

is of so heating a nature, that, applied externally by itself, it

raises blisters on the flesh, like those caused by the action of

fire. Hence it is that it is sometimes employed as a cautery.







1. "Herba lactaria."

2. Because goats are fond of it. See B. xx. c. 24.

3. Known to us by the general name of Euphorbia of Spurge.

4. The Euphorbia characias of Linnus, Red spurge. An oil is still

extracted from the seed of several species of Euphorbia, as a purgative;

but they are in general highly dangerous. taken internally.

5. "Catalonia."

6. "Aphronitrum. " See B. xxx. c.46,




40. Chap. 40.-The Tithymalos Myrtites, Or Caryites; Twenty- One Remedies.


CHAP. 40.-THE TITHYMALOS MYRTITES, OR CARYITES; TWENTY-

ONE REMEDIES.



A second kind of tithymalos is called "myrtites"[1] by some

persons, and "caryites" by others. It has leaves like those

of myrtle, pointed and prickly, but with a softer surface, and

grows, like the one already mentioned, in rugged soils. The

tufted heads of it are gathered just as barley is beginning to

swell in the ear, and, after being left for nine days in the shade,

are thoroughly dried in the sun. The fruit does not ripen all at







once, some, indeed, not till the ensuing year. The name given to

this fruit is the "nut," whence the Greek appellation "caryites."[2] It is gathered at harvest, and is washed and dried, being

given with twice the quantity of black poppy, in doses of one

acetabulum in all.



As an emetic, this kind is not so efficacious as the preceding

one, and, indeed, the same may be said of all the others. Some

physicians recommend the leaf to be taken in the manner

already mentioned, but say that the nut should either be taken

in honied wine or raisin wine, or else with sesame. It carries

off pituitous humours and bile by stool, and is curative of ulcerations of the mouth. For corrosive sores of the mouth,

the leaf is eaten with honey.







1. The Euphorbia myrsinites of Linnus.

2. From the Greek ka/ruon,, a "nut."




47. Chap. 47.-Remedies For Griping Pains In The Bowels.


CHAP. 47.-REMEDIES FOR GRIPING PAINS IN THE BOWELS.



Every kind of panaces[1] is curative of gripings in the bowels;

as also betony, except in those cases where they arise from

indigestion. Juice of peucedanum[2] is good for flatulency, acting

powerfully as a carminative: the same is the case, also, with

root of acoron[3] and with daucus,[4] eaten like lettuce as a salad.

Ladanum[5] of Cyprus, taken in drink, is curative of intestinal

affections; and a similar effect is produced by powdered gentian,

taken in warm water, in quantities about as large as a bean.

For the same purpose, plantago[6] is taken in the morning, in

doses of two spoonfuls, with one spoonful of poppy in four

cyathi of wine, due care being taken that it is not old wine. It

is given, too, at the last moment before going to sleep, and with

the addition of nitre or polenta,[7] if a considerable time has

elapsed since the last meal. For colic, an injection of the juice

is used, one hemina at a time, even in cases where fever has

supervened.







1. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

2. See. xxv. c. 70.

3. See B. xxv. c. 100.

4. See B. xxv. e. 64.

5. See B. xii. c. 37, and c. 30 of this Book.

6. See B. xxv. c. 39.

7. See B. xviii. c. 14.




48. Chap. 48.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Spleen.


CHAP. 48.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN.



Agaric, taken in doses of three oboli in one cyathus of old

wine, is curative of diseases of the spleen. The same, too,

with the root of every kind of panaces,[1] taken in honied wine:

teucria,[2] also, is particularly useful for the same purpose,







taken in a dry state, or boiled down in the proportion of one

handful to three hemin of vinegar. Teucria, too, is applied

with vinegar to wounds of the spleen, or, if the patient cannot

bear the application of vinegar, with figs or water. Polemo-

nia[3] is taken in wine, and betony, in doses of one drachma,

in three cyathi of oxymel: aristolochia, too, is used in the

same manner as for injuries inflicted by serpents.[4] Argemonia,[5] it is said, taken with the food for seven consecutive

days, diminishes the volume of the spleen; and a similar effect

is attributed to agaric, taken in doses of two oboli, in oxymel.

Root, too, of nympha heraclia,[6] taken in wine, or by itself,

diminishes the spleen.



Cissanthemos,[7] taken twice a day, in doses of one drachma

in two cyathi of white wine, for forty consecutive days,

gradually carries off the spleen, it is said, by urine. Hyssop,

boiled with figs, is very useful for the same purpose: root of

lonchitis,[8] also, boiled before it has shed its seed. A decoction

of root of peucedanum[9] is good for the spleen and kidneys.

Acoron,[10] taken in drink, diminishes the spleen; and the roots

of it are very beneficial for the viscera and iliac regions. For

similar purposes, seed of clymenus[11] is taken, for thirty consecutive days, in doses of one denarius, in white wine. Powdered

betony is also used, taken in a potion with honey and squill

vinegar; root too of lonchitis is taken in water. Tourism[12]

is used externally for diseases of the spleen; sodium,[13] also,

in combination with wax: and agaric, mixed with powdered

fenugreek.







1. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

2. See B. xxiv. c. 80.

3. See B. xxv. c. 28.

4. See B. xxv. c. 55.

5. See B. xxv. c. .56.

6. See B. xxv. c. 37.

7. See B. xxv. c. 68.

8. See B. xxv. c. 88. Fe says that it is the Aspidium lonchitis of Linnus, that is meant.

9. See B. xxv. c. 70.

10. See B. xxv. c. 100.

11. See B. xxv. c. 33.

12. See B. xxv. c. 20.

13. Or Scordotis. See B. xxv. c. 27.




49. Chap. 49.-Remedies For Calculi And Diseases Of The Bladder.


CHAP. 49.-REMEDIES FOR CALCULI AND DISEASES OF THE BLADDER.



For diseases of the bladder and calculi (affections which, as

:already observed,[1] produce the most excruciating torments),

palimonies[2] is highly efficacious, taken in wine; agaric also,

and leaves or root of plantago, taken in raisin wine. Betony,







too, is very good, as already observed, when speaking[3] of

diseases of the liver. This last plant is used also for hernia,

applied topically or taken in drink: it is remarkably efficacious

too for stranger. For calculi some persons recommend

betony, vervain, and milfoil, in equal proportions in water, as

a sovereign remedy. It is universally agreed that dittany is

curative of strangury, and that the same is the case with

ainquefoil, boiled down to one third in wine: this last plant is

very useful, too, taken internally and applied topically, for

rupture of the groin.



The upper part of the root of xiphion[4] has a diuretic effect

upon infants; it is administered also in water for rupture of

the groin, and is applied topically for diseases of the bladder.

Juice of peucedanumn[5] is employed for hernia in infants, and

psyllion[6] is used as an application in cases of umbilical

bernia. The two kinds of anagallis[7] are diuretic, and a

similar effect is produced by a decoction of root of acoron,[8] or

the plant itself bruised and taken in drink; this last is

good too for all affections of the bladder. Both the stem and

root of cotyledon[9] are used for the cure of calculi; and for all

inflammations of the genitals, myrrh is mixed in equal proportions with the stem and seed. The more tender leaves of

ebulum,[10] beaten up and taken with wine, expel calculi of the

bladder, and an application of them is curative of diseases of

the testes. Erigeron,[11] with powdered frankincense and sweet

wine, is curative of inflammation of the testes; and root of

symphytum,[12] applied topically, reduces rupture of the groin.

The white hypocisthis [13] is curative of corroding ulcers of the

genitals. Artemisia[14] is prescribed also in sweet wine for the

cure of calculi and of strangury; and root of nympha heraclia,[15]

taken in wine, allays pains in the bladder.







1. In B. xxv. c. 7.

2. See B. xxv. c. 28.

3. See c. 19 of this Book.

4. See B. xxv. cc. 88, 89.

5. See B. xxv. c. 70.

6. See B. xxv. c. 90.

7. See B. xxv. c. 92.

8. See B. xxv. c. 100.

9. It is quite useless for such a purpose; and the same is the case, Fe

says, with all the asserted remedies mentioned in this Chapter. See B.

xxv. c. 101.

10. See B. xxv. c. 71.

11. See B. xxv. c. 106.

12. See B. xxvii. c. 24.

13. See c. 31 of this Book.

14. See B. xxv. c. 36.

15. Sec B. xxv. c. 37.




57. Chap. 57.-The Plant Of Fulvius.


CHAP. 57.-THE PLANT OF FULVIUS.



The plant of Fulvius[1] too-so called from the first discoverer

of it, and well known [2] to herbalists-bruised in wine, acts as

a diuretic.







1. "Herba Fulviana."

2. A plant now unknown.




58. Chap. 58.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Testes And Of The Fundament.


CHAP. 58.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE TESTES AND OF

THE FUNDAMENT.



Scordion[1] reduces swellings of the testes. Henbane is

curative of diseases of the generative organs. Strangury is cured

by juice of peucedanum,[2] taken with honey; as also by the

seed of that plant. Agaric is also used for the same purpose,

taken in doses of three oboli in one cyathus of old wine; root

of trefoil, in doses of two drachm in wine; and root or seed

of daucus,[3] in doses of one drachma. For the cure of sciatica,

the seed and leaves of erythrodanum[4] are used, pounded;

panaces,[5] taken in drink; polemonia,[6] employed as a friction;

and leaves of aristolochia,[7] in the form of a decoction. Agaric,

taken in doses of three oboli in one cyathus of old wine, is

curative of affections of the tendon known as "platys"[8] and

of pains in the shoulders. Cinquefoil is either taken in drink

or applied topically for the cure of sciatica; a decoction of

scammony is used also, with barley meal; and the seed of

either kind of hypericon[9] is taken in wine.







For diseases of the fundament and for excoriations plantago

is remarkably efficacious; for condylomata, cinquefoil; and for

procidence of the rectum, root of cyclaminos,[10] applied in

vinegar. The blue anagallis[11] reduces procidence of the

rectum, while, on the contrary, that with a red flower has a

tendency to bear it down. Cotyledons[12] is a marvellous cure

for condylomatous affections and piles; and root of acoron,[13]

boiled in wine and beaten up, is a good application for swelling of the testes. According to what Cato[14] says, those who

carry about them Pontic[15] wormwood, will never experience

chafing between the thighs.



(9.) Some persons add pennyroyal to the number of these

plants: gathered fasting, they say, and attached to the hinder

part of the body, it will be an effectual preservative against

all pains in the groin, and will allay them in cases where they

already exist.







1. See B. xxv. c. 27. In reality it is of an irritating nature.

2. See B. xxv. c. 70.

3. See B. xxv. .64.

4. Or madder; see B. xix. c. 17. The seed and leaves are no longer

employed in medicine; the root has been employed in modern times, Fe

says, but with no success.

5. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

6. See B. xxv. c. 28.

7. See B. xxv. c. 54.

8. Or "broad" tendon. The Tendon Achillis.

9. See ec. 53 and 54 of this Book.

10. See B. xxv. c. 67.

11. See B. xxv. c. 92.

12. See B. xxv. c. 101.

13. See B. xxv. c. 100.

14. The rust c.159. He says that it must be carried under the ring.

15. See B.xxvii.c.28.




59. Chap. 59.-Inguinalis Or Argemo.


CHAP. 59.-INGUINALIS OR ARGEMO.



Inguinalis[1] again, or, as some persons call it, "argemo," a

plant commonly found growing in bushes and thickets, needs

only to be held in the hand to be productive of beneficial effects

upon the groin.







1. The "Groin plant." Probably the came as the Bubonion of B. xxvii.

c. 19.




61. Chap. 61. (10.)-Aphrodisiacs And Ant Aphrodisiacs.


CHAP. 61. (10.)-APHRODISIACS AND ANT APHRODISIACS.



Nympha heraclia, used as already stated,[1] acts most

powerfully as an ant aphrodisiac; the same too if taken once

every forty days in drink. Taken in drink fasting, or eaten

with the food, it effectually prevents the recurrence of libidinous dreams. The root too, used in the form of a liniment and

applied to the generative organs, not only represses all prurient

desires, but arrests the seminal secretions as well; for which

reason, it is said to have a tendency to make flesh and to

improve the voice.[2]



The upper part of the root of xiphion,[3] taken in wine, acts

as an aphrodisiac. The same is the case too with the wild

crethmos,[4] or agrees as it is called, and with holmium,[5] beaten

up with polenta.[6]







1. In B. xxv. c. 37. This alleged property of the Nympha is entirely

fabulous.

2. See B. xx. c. 13.

3. See B. xxv. cc. 88 and 89.

4. See B. xxv. c. 96.

5. See B. xviii. cc. 10 and 22.

6. See B. xviii. c. 14.




64. Chap. 64.-Remedies For The Gout And Diseases Of The Feet.


CHAP. 64.-REMEDIES FOR THE GOUT AND DISEASES OF THE

FEET.



Sideritis,[1] attached to the body as an amulet, reduces varicose veins, and effects a painless cure. Gout used to be an

extremely rare disease, not in the times of our fathers and

grandfathers only, but within my own memory even. Indeed,

it may justly be considered a foreign complaint; for if it had

been formerly known in Italy, it would surely have found a

Latin name. It should, however, by no means be looked

upon as an incurable malady; for before now, in many instances, it has quitted the patient all at once, and still more

frequently, a cure has been effected by proper treatment.



For the cure of gout, roots of panaces[2] are used, mixed with

raisins; juice of henbane, or the seed, combined with meal;

scordion,[3] taken in vinegar; iberis, as already mentioned;[4]

vervain, beaten up with axle-greaseor root of cyclaminos,[5]

a decoction of which is good also for chilblains.



As cooling applications for gout, root of xiphion[6] is used;

seed of psyllion;[7] hemlock, with litharge or axle-grease;

and, at the first symptoms of red gout, or, in other words, hot

gout, the plant aizom.[8] For either kind of gout, erigeron,[9]

with axle-grease, is very useful; leaves of plantago, beaten up

with a little salt; or argemonia,[10] pounded with honey. An.

application of vervain is also remedial, and it is a good plan

to soak the feet in a decoction of that plant in water.







1. See B. xxv. c. 19.

2. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

3. See B. xxv. c. 27.

4. In B. xxv. c. 49. None of these so-called remedies are now employed.

5. See B. xxv. c. 67.

6. See B. xxv. cc. 88, 89.

7. See B. xxv. c. 90.

8. See B. xxv c. 102.

9. See B. xxv. c. 106.

10. See B. xxv. c. 66.




67. Chap. 67.-Maladies Which Attack The Whole Of The Body.


CHAP. 67.-MALADIES WHICH ATTACK THE WHOLE OF THE BODY.



Having now finished the detail of the diseases which are

perceptible in individual parts of the body, we shall proceed

to speak of those which attack the whole of the body. The

following I find mentioned as general remedies: in preference

to anything else, an infusion of dodecatheos,[1] a plant already

described, should be taken in drink, and then the roots of the

several kinds[2] of panaces, in maladies of long standing more

particularly: seed, too, of panaces should be used for intestinal

complaints. For all painful affections of the body we find

juice of scordium[3] recommended, as also that of betony: this

last, taken in a potion, is particularly excellent for removing

a wan and leaden hue of the skin, and for improving its gene-

ral appearance.











1. See B. xxv.c.9

2. See B. xxv.c.11, et seq.

3. see B. xxv.c.27.




70. Chap. 70.-Remedies For Epilepsy.


CHAP. 70.-REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.



Epilepsy is cured by the root of the panaces which we have

spoken[1] of as the "heraclion," taken in drink with sea-calf's

rennet, the proportions being three parts of panaces and one of

rennet. For the same purpose an infusion of plantago[2] is

taken, or else betony or agaric, with oxymel, the former in

doses of one drachma, the latter in doses of three oboli; leaves







of cinquefoil are taken, also, in water. Archezostis[3] is also

curative of epilepsy, but it must be taken constantly for a

year; root of bacchar,[4] too, dried and powdered, and taken in

warm water, in the proportion of three cyathi to one cyathus

of coriander; centunculus[5] also, bruised in vinegar, warn

water, or honey; vervain, taken in wine; hyssop[6] berries,

three in number, pounded and taken in water, for sixteen days

consecutively; peucedanum,[7] taken in drink with sea-calf's

rennet, in equal proportions; leaves of cinquefoil, bruised is

wine and taken for thirty days; powdered betony, in doses of

three denarii, with one cyathus of squill vinegar and an ounce

of Attic honey; as also scammony, in the proportion of two

oboli to four drachm of castoreum.







1. In B. xxv. c. 12.

2. See B. xxv. c. 39.

3. See B. xxiii. c. 16.

4. See B. xxi. c. 16.

5. See B. xxiv. c. 88.

6. See B. xxv. c. 87.

7. See B. xxv. c. 70.




71. Chap. 71.-Remedies For Fevers.


CHAP. 71.-REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.



Agaric, taken in warm water, alleviates cold fevers: sideritis,

in combination with oil, is good for tertian fevers; bruised

ladanum[1] also, which is found in corn fields; plantago,[2] taken

in doses of two drachm, in hydromel, a couple of hours before

the paroxysms come on; juice of the root of plantago made

warm or subjected to pressure; or else the root itself beaten up

in water made warm with a hot iron. Some medical men prescribe three roots of plantago, in three cyathi of water; and

in a similar manner, four roots for quartan fevers. When

buglossos[3] is beginning to wither, if a person takes the pith out

of the stem, and says while so doing, that it is for the cure

of such and such a person suffering from fever, and then

attaches seven leaves to the patient, just before the paroxysms

come on, he will experience a cure, they say.



Fevers too, those which are attended with recurrent cold

shiverings more particularly, are cured by administering one

drachma of betony, or else agaric, in three cyathi of hydromel.

Some medical men recommend three leaves of cinquefoil for

tertian, four for quartan, and an increased number for other

fevers; while others again prescribe in all cases three oboli of

cinquefoil, with pepper, in hydromel.



Vervain, administered in water, is curative of fever, in beasts







of burden even; but care must be taken, in cases of tertian

fever, to cut the plant at the third joint, and of quartan fever

at the fourth. The seed of either kind of hypericons[4] is taken

also for quartan fevers and cold shiverings. Powdered betony

modifies these fits, and panaces[5] is of so warming a nature

that persons when about to travel amid the snow are recommended to drink an infusion of it, and to rub the body all over

with the plant. Aristolochia[6] also arrests shivering produced

by cold.







1. See c. 30 of this Book.

2. See B. xxv. c. 39.

3. See B. xxv. c. 40.

4. See Chapters 53 and 64 of this Book.

5. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

6. See B. xxv. c. 54.




72. Chap. 72.-Remedies For Phrenitis, Lethargy, And Carbuncles.


CHAP. 72.-REMEDIES FOR PHRENITIS, LETHARGY, AND

CARBUNCLES.



Phlebitis is cured by sleep induced by the agency of an

infusion of peucedanum[1] in vinegar, poured upon the head, or

else by the juice of either kind of anagallis.[2] On the other

hand, when patients are suffering from lethargy, it is with the

greatest difficulty that they are aroused; a result which may

be effected, they say, by touching the nostrils with juice of

peucedanum in vinegar. For the cure of insanity, betony is

administered in drink. Panaces[3] brings carbuncles to a head,

and makes them break; and they are equally cured by

powdered betony applied in water, or else cabbage leaves

mixed with frankincense in warm water, and taken in considerable quantities. For a similar purpose, a red-hot coal is

extinguished in the patient's presence, and the ashes are taken

up with the finger and applied to the sore. Bruised plantago[4]

is also used for the cure of carbuncles.







1. See B. xxv. c. 70.

2. See B. xxv. c. 92.

3. See B xxv. c. 11, et seq.

4. See B. xxv. c. 39.




73. Chap. 73.-Remedies For Dropsy. Acte Or Ebulum. Chamacte.


CHAP. 73.-REMEDIES FOR DROPSY. ACTE OR EBULUM.

CHAMACTE.



For the cure of dropsy, tithymalos characias[1] is employed;

panaces[2] also; plantago,[3] used as a diet, dry bread being

eaten first, without any drink; betony, taken in doses of two

drachme in two cyathi of ordinary wine or honied wine;

agaric or seed of lonchitis,[4] in doses of two spoonfuls, in







water; psyllion,[5] taken in wine; juice of either anagallis;[6]

root of cotyledon[7] in honied wine; root of ebulum,[8] fresh

gathered, with the mould shaken off, but not washed in

water, a pinch in two fingers being taken in one hemina of

old wine mulled; root of trefoil, taken in doses of two

drachm in wine; the tithymalos[9] known as "platyphyllos;"

seed of the hypericon,[10] otherwise known as "caros;" the

plant called "acte"-the same thing as ebulum[11] according to

some-the root of it being pounded in three cyathi of wine, if

there are no symptoms of fever, or the seed of it being administered in red wine; a good handful of vervain also, boiled

down in water to one half. But of all the remedies for this

disease, juice of chamacte[12] is looked upon as by far the most

efficacious.



Morbid or pituitous eruptions are cured by the agency of

plantago, or else root of cyclaminos[13] with honey. Leaves of

ebulum,[14] bruised in old wine and applied topically, are curative

of the disease called "boa," which makes its appearance in

the form of red pimples. Juice of strychnos,[15] applied as a

liniment, is curative of prurigo.









1. See c. 39 of this Book.

2. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

3. See B. xxv. c. 39.

4. See B. xxv. c. 88.

5. See B. xxv. c. 90.

6. See B. xxv. c. 92.

7. See B. xxv. c. 101.

8. See B. xxv. c. 71.

9. See c. 44 of this Book.

10. See c. 64 of this Book.

11. See B. xxv. c. 71.

12. See B. xxv. c. 71.

13. See B. xxv. c. 67.

14. See B. xxv. c. 71.

15. See B. xxi. c. 105.




74. Chap. 74.-Remedies For Erysipelas.


CHAP. 74.-REMEDIES FOR ERYSIPELAS.



For the cure of erysipelas, aizom[1] is used, or else pounded

leaves of hemlock, or root of mandragora;[2] this last being cut

into round slices like cucumber and suspended over must,[3] after

which it is hung up in the smoke, and then pounded in wine

or vinegar. It is a good plan too to use fomentations with

myrtle wine: two ounces of mint beaten up in vinegar with

one ounce of live sulphur, form a mixture sometimes employed;

as also soot mixed with vinegar.



There are several kinds of erysipelas, one in particular

which attacks the middle of the body, and is known as

"zoster:"[4] should it entirely surround the body, its effects are







fatal. For this disease, plantago[5] is remedial, mixed with

Cimolian[6] chalk; vervain, used by itself; or root of persolata.[7]

For other kinds of erysipelas of a spreading nature, root of

cotyledon[8] is used, mixed with honied wine; aizom also,[9] or

juice of linozostis,[10] in combination with vinegar.







1. See B. xxv. c. 102.

2. See B. xxv. c. 94.

3. Or Grape-juice.

4. The "belt"-known to us as "shingles."

5. See B. xxv. c. 39.

6. See B. xxxv. c. 57.

7. See B. xxv. c. 66.

8. See B. xxv. c. 101.

9. See B. xxv. c. 102.

10. See B. xxv. c. 18.




75. Chap. 75. (12.)-Remedies For Sprains.


CHAP. 75. (12.)-REMEDIES FOR SPRAINS.



For the cure of sprains, root of polypodion[1] is used, in the

form of a liniment: the pain and swelling are modified also by

using seed of psyllion;[2] leaves of plantago[3] beaten up with

a little salt; seed of verbascum,[4] boiled in wine and pounded;

or hemlock with axle-grease. Leaves of ephemeron[5] are applied

topically to tumours and tuberosities, so long as they are

capable of being dispersed.







1. See c. 37 of this Book.

2. See B. xxv. c. 90.

3. See B. xxv. c. 39.

4. See B. xxv. c. 73.

5. See B. xxv. c. 107.




76. Chap. 76.-Remedies For Jaundice.


CHAP. 76.-REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.



It is upon the eyes in particular that jaundice is productive

of so remarkable an effect; the bile penetrating between the

membranes, so extremely delicate as they are and so closely

united. Hippocrates[1] tells us that the appearance of jaundice

on or after the seventh day in fevers is a fatal symptom; but

I am acquainted with some instances in which the patients

survived after having been reduced to this apparently hopeless

state. We may remark also, that jaundice sometimes comes

on without fever supervening. It is combated by taking the

greater centaury,[2] as already mentioned, in drink; agaric, in

doses of three oboli in old wine; or leaves of vervain, in doses

of three oboli, taken for four consecutive days in one hemina of

mulled wine. But the most speedy cure of all is effected by

using juice of cinquefoil, in doses of three cyathi, with salt

and honey. Root of cyclaminos[3] is also taken in drink in

doses of three drachm, the patient sitting in a warm room

free from all cold and draughts, the infusion expelling the

bile by its action as a sudorific.







Leaves of tussilago[4] are also used in water for this purpose;

the seed of either kind of linozostis,[5] sprinkled in the drink, or

made into a decoction with chick-pease or wormwood: hyssop

berries taken in water; the plant lichen,[6] all other vegetables being carefully abstained from while it is being used;

polythrix,[7] taken in wine; and struthion,[8] in honied wine.







1. See B. iv. cc. 62, 64.

2. See B. xxv. c. 30.

3. See B. xxv. c. 67.

4. Or Bechion. See B. xxiv. c. 85.

5. See B. xxv. c. 19.

6. See c. 10 of this Book.

7. See B. xxv. c. 83.

8. See B. xix. c. 18.




77. Chap. 77.-Remedies For Boils.


CHAP. 77.-REMEDIES FOR BOILS.



There are boils also, known as "furunculi,"[1] which make

their appearance indiscriminately on all parts of the body, and

are productive of the greatest inconvenience: sometimes

indeed, when the constitution is exhausted, they are fatal in

their effects. For their cure, leaves of pycnocomon[2] are employed, beaten up with polenta,[3] if the boil has not come to a

head. They are dispersed also by an application of leaves of

ephedron.[4]







1. "Little thieves," literally.

2. See c. 36 of this Book.

3. See B. xviii. c. 14.

4. See c. 83 of this Book.




78. Chap. 78.-Remedies For Fistula.


CHAP. 78.-REMEDIES FOR FISTULA.



Fistulas, too, insidiously attack all parts of the body, owing

to unskilfulness on the part of medical men in the use of the

knife. The smaller centaury[1] is used for their cure, with the

addition of lotions[2] and boiled honey: juice of plantago[3] is

also employed, as an injection; cinquefoil, mixed with salt and

honey; ladanum,[4] combined with castoreum;[5] cotyledon,[6]

applied hot with stag's marrow; pith of the root of verbascum[7]

reduced to a liquid state in the shape of a lotion, and injected;

root of aristolochia;[8] or juice of tithymalos.[9]







1. See B. xxv. c. 31.

2. "Collyriis."

3. See B. xxv. c. 39

4. See B. xii. c. 37, and c. 30 of this Book.

5. See B. viii. c. 47.

6. See B. xxv. c. 101.

7. See B. xxv. c. 73.

8. See B. xxv. c. 54.

9. See c. 39 of this Book.




79. Chap. 79.-Remedies For Abscesses And Hard Tumours.


CHAP. 79.-REMEDIES FOR ABSCESSES AND HARD TUMOURS.



Abscesses and inflammations are cured by an application of

leaves of argemonia.[1] For indurations and gatherings of all

descriptions a decoction of vervain or cinquefoil in vinegar is







used; leaves or root of verbascum;[2] a liniment made of wine

and hyssop; root of acoron,[3] a decoction of it being used as a

fomentation; or else aizom.[4] Contusions also, hard tumours,

and fistulous abscesses are treated with illecebra.[5]



All kinds of foreign substances which have pierced the

flesh are extracted by using leaves of tussilago,[6] daucus,[7] or

seed of leontopodium[8] pounded in water with polenta.[9] To

suppurations, leaves of pycnocomon[10] are applied, beaten up

with polenta, or else the seed of that plant, or orchis.[11] An

application of root of satyrion[12] is said to be a most efficacious

remedy for deep-seated diseases of the bones. Corrosive ulcers

and all kinds of gatherings are treated with sea-weed,[13] used

before it has dried. Root, too, of alcima[14] disperses gatherings.







1. See B. xxv. c. 56.

2. See B. xxv. c. 73.

3. See B. xxv. c. 100.

4. See B. xxv. c. 102.

5. See B. xxv. c. 103.

6. See B. xxiv. c. 85.

7. See B. xxv. c. 64.

8. See B. xxvii. c. 72.

9. See B. xviii. c. 14.

10. See Chapters 36 and 77 of this Book.

11. See c. 62 of this Book.

12. See c. 62 of this Book.

13. See c. 66 of this Book.

14. Probably the "Alcea" of B. xxvii. c. 6. See also B. xxv. c. 77.




80. Chap. 80.-Remedies For Burns.


CHAP. 80.-REMEDIES FOR BURNS.



Burns are cured by the agency of plantago,[1] or of arction,[2]

so effectually indeed as to leave no scar. The leaves of this

last plant are boiled in water, beaten up, and applied to the

sore. Roots of cyclaminos[3] are used, in combination with

aizom;[4] the kind of hypericon also, which we have mentioned

as being called "corissum."[5]







1. See B. xxv. c. 39.

2. See B. xxvii. c. 16.

3. See B. xxv. c. 67.

4. See B. xxv. c. 102.

5. Or "Corison." See c. 53 of this Book.




81. Chap. 81.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Sinews And Joints.


CHAP. 81.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SINEWS AND JOINTS.



For diseases of the sinews and joints, plantago,[1] beaten up

with salt, is a very useful remedy, or else argemonia,[2] pounded

with honey. Patients affected with spasms or tetanus are

rubbed with juice of peucedanum.[3] For indurations of the

sinews, juice of gilops[4] is employed, and for pains in those

parts of the body erigeron[5] or epithymum,[6] used as a liniment,







with vinegar. In cases of spasms and opisthotony, it is an

excellent plan to rub the part affected with seed of the hype-

ricon known as "caros,"[7] and to take the seed in drink.

Phrynion,[8] it is said, will effect a cure even when the sinews

have been severed, if applied instantaneously, bruised or

chewed. For spasmodic affections, fits of trembling, and opisthotony, root of alcima[9] is administered in hydromel; used in

this manner, it has a warming effect when the limbs are

benumbed with cold.







1. See B. xxv. c. 39.

2. See B. xxv. c. 56.

3. See B. xxv. c. 70.

4. See B. xxv. c. 93.

5. See B. xxv. c. 106.

6. See c. 35 of this Book.

7. See c. 53 of this Book.

8. See B. xxv. c. 76.

9. See Note 49 above.




82. Chap. 82.-Remedies For Hmorrhage.


CHAP. 82.-REMEDIES FOR HMORRHAGE.



The red seed of the plant called "pmonia"[1] arrests hmorrhage; the root also is possessed of similar properties. But it

is clymenus[2] that should be employed, when there are discharges of blood at the mouth or nostrils, from the bowels, or

from the uterus. In such cases, lysimachia[3] also is taken in

drink, applied topically, or introduced into the nostrils; or

else seed of plantago,[4] or cinquefoil, is taken in drink, or employed in the form of a liniment. Hemlock seed is introduced

into the nostrils, for discharges of blood there, or else it is

pounded and applied in water; aizom[5] also, and root of astragalus.[6] Ischmon[7] and achillea[8] likewise arrest hmorrhage.







1. Our peony. See B. xxv. c. 10.

2. See B. xxv. c. 33.

3. See B. xxv. c. 35.

4. See B. xxv. c. 39.

5. See B. xxv. c. 102.

6. See c. 29 of the present Book.

7. See B. xxv. c. 45.

8. See B. xxv. c. 19.




84. Chap. 84.-Stephanomelis.


CHAP. 84.-STEPHANOMELIS.



For bleeding at the nostrils, seed of hemlock, pounded in

water, is considered efficacious, as also stephanomelis,[1] applied

with water. Powdered betony, taken with goat's milk, or

bruised plantago,[2] arrests discharges of blood from the ma-

mill. Juice of plantago is administered to patients when

vomiting blood. For local discharges of blood, an application of

root of persolata[3] with stale axle-grease is highly spoken of.







1. Dalechamps identifies it with the Potentilla anserina of Linnus,

Silver-weed, or White tansy; but on insufficient grounds, Fe thinks.

2. See B. xxv. c. 39.

3. See B. xxv. c. 66.




86. Chap. 86.-Remedies For Phthiriasis.


CHAP. 86.-REMEDIES FOR PHTHIRIASIS.



Phthiriasis is a disease which proved fatal to the Dictator

Sylla,[1] and which developes itself by the production of insects

in the blood, which ultimately consume the body. It is combated

by using the juice of Taminian grapes[2] or of hellebore, the

body being rubbed all over with it, in combination with oil.

A decoction of Taminian grapes in vinegar, has the effect, also,

of ridding the clothes of these vermin.







1. See B. xi. c. 39, and B. xx. c. 32.

2. See B. xxiii. c. 13.




87. Chap. 87. (14.)-Remedies For Ulcers And Wounds.


CHAP. 87. (14.)-REMEDIES FOR ULCERS AND WOUNDS.



Of ulcers there are numerous kinds, which are treated in

various ways. The root of all the varieties of panaces[1] is

used as an application for running ulcers, in warm wine.



That which we have spoken of as the "chironion"[2] is particularly good as a desiccative: bruised with honey, it opens

tumours, and is useful for serpiginonus ulcers, the cure of which

appears more than doubtful; in which case it is amalgamated

with flower[3] of copper tempered with wine, either the seed,

flower, or root, being employed for the purpose. Mixed with

polenta[4] it is good for old wounds. The following are also

good detergents for wounds: heraclion siderion,[5] apollinaris,[6]

psyllion,[7] tragacantha,[8] and scordotis[9] mixed with honey.

Powdered scordotis applied by itself, consumes fleshy excrescences on the body. Polemonia[10] is curative of the malignant

ulcer known as "cacothes." The greater centaury,[11] sprinkled

in powder, or applied in the form of a liniment, or the leaves of

the smaller[12] centaury, boiled or pounded, act as a detergent

upon inveterate ulcers, and effect a cure. To recent wounds,

the follicules of the clymenus[13] are applied. Gentian is applied

to scrpiginous ulcers, the root being bruised or else boiled down

in water to the consistency of honey; the juice also of the

plant is employed. For wounds, a kind of lycium[14] is prepared

from gentian.







Lysimachia[15] is curative of recent wounds, and plantago[16] of

all kinds of ulcerations, those on females, infants, and aged persons more particularly. This plant, when softened by the action

of fire, is better still: in combination with cerate it acts as a

detergent upon ulcers with indurated edges, and arrests the

progress of corrosive sores: when applied bruised, it should be

covered with its own leaves. Chelidonia[17] also acts as a

desiccative upon suppurations, abscesses, and fistulous ulcers;

indeed, it is so remarkably useful for the cure of wounds, as

to be employed as a substitute for spodium[18] even. In cases

where the cure is almost hopeless, it is applied with axle-

grease. Dittany,[19] taken internally, causes arrows to fall from

the flesh; used as a liniment, it has the effect of extracting other

kinds of pointed weapons: the leaves are taken in the proportion of one obolus to one cyathus of water. Nearly equal

in its efficacy is pseudo-dictamnon:[20] they are both of them

useful, also, for dispersing suppurations.



Aristolochia[21] cauterizes putrid sores, and, applied with honey,

acts as a detergent upon sordid ulcers. At the same time also,

it removes maggots, and extracts hard cores, and all foreign

bodies adhering to the flesh, arrows more particularly, and,

applied with resin, splintered bones. Used by itself, it fills the

cavities made by ulcers with new flesh, and, employed with

iris,[22] in vinegar, it closes recent wounds. Vervain, or cinquefoil with salt and honey, is remedial for ulcers of long standing. Roots of persolata[23] are applied to recent wounds inflicted with iron, but for old wounds, it is the leaves that are

employed: in both cases, in combination with axle-grease, the

sore being then covered with the leaves of the plant. Damasonium[24] is used for wounds the same way as for scrofula,[25] and

leaves of verbascum[26] are employed with vinegar or wine.



Vervain is useful for all kinds of callosities or putrid sores;

root of nympha heraclia[27] is curative of running ulcers; and







the same is the case with root of cyclaminos,[28] either used by

itself, or in combination with vinegar or honey. This last root

is useful also for the cure of steatomatous tumours, and hyssop

for that of running ulcers; an effect equally produced by peucedanum,[29] a plant which exercises so powerful an influence upon

fresh wounds, as to cause exfoliation even of the bones. The two

varieties of anagallis[30] are possessed of similar properties, and

act as a check upon the corrosive sores known as "nom" and

upon defluxions; they are useful also in cases of recent wounds,

those of aged people in particular. Fresh leaves of mandragora,[31] applied with cerate, are curative of apostemes and

sordid ulcers: the root too is used, with honey or oil, for wounds.



Hemlock, incorporated with flour of winter wheat[32] by the

agency of wine-as also the plant Aizom[33]-is curative of herpetic eruptions, and corrosive or putrid sores. Erigeron[34]

is employed for ulcers which breed maggots. Root of astra-

galus[35] is used for the cure of recent wounds or of ulcers of

long standing; and upon these last either kind of hypocisthis[36]

acts as a detergent. Seed of leontopodium,[37] bruised in water

and applied with polenta,[38] extracts pointed weapons from the

flesh: a result equally produced by using seed of pycnocomon.[39]

The tithymalos characias[40] supplies its juice for the cure of gangrenes, phagednic sores, and putrid ulcers; or else a decoction

is made of the branches with polenta and oil. Roots of orchis[41] have a similar effect; in addition to which, 'applied,

either dry or fresh gathered, with honey and vinegar, they are

curative of the ulcer known as "cacothes." Onothera[42] also,

used by itself; is curative of ulcers when rapidly gaining head.



The people of Scythia employ scythice[43] for the treatment

of wounds. For carcinoma, argemonia,[44] applied with honey,

is extremely efficacious. For sores that have prematurely

closed, root of asphodel is boiled, in manner already[45] stated.







and then beaten up with polenta,[46] and applied. For all kinds

of wounds apollinaris[47] is very useful. Root of astragalus,[48]

reduced to powder, is good for running ulcers; the same, too,

with callithrix,[49] boiled in water. For blisters, more particularly when caused by the shoes, vervain is used, as also pounded

lysimachia,[50] or nympha[51] dried and powdered; but when

they have assumed the form of inveterate ulcers, polythrix[52]

will be found more serviceable.







1. See B.C. 11, et seq.

2. See B. xxv. c. 15.

3. For a description of this substance, see B. xxxiv. c. 24.

4. See B. xviii. c. 14.

5. See B. xxv. c. 15.

6. See B. xxv. c. 17.

7. See B. xxv. c. 90.

8. See B. xii. c. 36.

9. See B. xxv. c. 27.

10. See B. xxv. c. 28.

11. See B. xxv. c. 30.

12. See B. xxv. c. 31.

13. See B. xxv. c. 33.

14. See B. xxiv. c. 77.

15. See B. xxv. c. 35.

16. See B. xxv. c. 39.

17. See B. xxv. c. 50.

18. See B. xix. c. 4, B. xxiii. c. 35, and 1. xxxiv. c. 52.

19. See B. xxv. c. 53.

20. Bastard dittany. See B. xxv. c. 53.

21. See B. xxv. c. 54.

22. See B. xxi. c. 19.

23. See B. xxv. c. 66.

24. See B. xxv. c. 77.

25. See c. 12 of this Book.

26. See B, xxv. c. 73.

27. See B. xxv. c. 37.

28. See B. xxv. c. 67.

29. See B. xxv. c. 70.

30. See B. xxv. c. 92.

31. See B. xxv. c. 94.

32. "Siligo." See B. xviii. c. 20.

33. See B. xxv. c. 102.

34. See B. xxv. c. 106.

35. See c. 29 of this Book.

36. See c. 31 of this Book.

37. See B. xxvii. c. 72.

38. See B. xxviii. c. 14.

39. See c. 36 of this Book.

40. See c. 39 of this Book.

41. See c. 62 of this Book.

42. See c. 69 of this Book.

43. Our "liquorice," see B. xxv. c. 43.

44. See B. xxv. c. 66.

45. In B. xxii. c. 33.

46. See B. xviii. c. 14.

47. See B. xxv. c. 17.

48. See c. 29 of this Book.

49. See B. xxii. c. 30, and B. xxv. c. 86.

50. See B. xxv. c. 35.

51. See B. xxv. c. 37.

52. See Note 46 above.




89. Chap. 89.-Remedies For Warts. And Applications For The Removal Of Scars.


CHAP. 89.-REMEDIES FOR WARTS. AND APPLICATIONS FOR THE

REMOVAL OF SCARS.



Argemonia[1] with vinegar, or root of batrachion,[2] removes

warts; this last having the effect also of bringing off malformed







nails. The juice or the leaves, applied topically, of either

kind of linozostis,[3] remove warts. All the varieties of tithy-

malos[4] are efficacious for the removal of every kind of wart,

as also of hangnails[5] and wens. Ladanum[6] imparts a fresh

colour and seemly appearance to scars.



(15.) The traveller who carries artemisia[7] attached to his

person, or elelisphacus,[8] will never be sensible of lassitude, it

is said.







1. See B. xxv. c. 56.

2. See B. xxv. c. 109.

3. See B. xxv. c. 18.

4. See c. 39 of this Book, et seq.

5. "Pterygia."

6. See B. xii. c. 37 and c. 30 of this Book.

7. See B. xxv. c. 81.

8. See B. xxii. c. 71.




90. Chap. 90.-Remedies For Female Diseases.


CHAP. 90.-REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES.



One great remedy for all female diseases in common, is the

black seed of the herbaceous plant ponia,[1] taken in hydro-

mel: the root also is an effectual emmenagogue. Seed of

panaces,[2] mixed with wormwood, acts as an emmenagogue and

as a sudorific: the same, too, with scordotis,[3] taken internally

or applied topically. Betony, in doses of one drachma to

three cyathi of wine, is taken for various affections of the

uterus, as also directly after child-birth. Excessive menstruation is arrested by a pessary of achillea,[4] or else a sitting-bath

composed of a decoction of that plant. Seed of henbane in

wine is used as a liniment for diseases of the mamill,

and the root is employed in the form of a plaster for uterine

affections; chelidonia,[5] too, is applied to the mamill.



Roots of panaces,[6] applied as a pessary, bring away the

after-birth and the dead ftus, and the plant itself, taken in

wine, or used as a pessary with honey, acts as a detergent

upon the uterus. Polemonia,[7] taken in wine, brings away the

after-birth; used as a fumigation, it is good for suffocations of

the uterus. Juice of the smaller centaury,[8] taken in drink, or

employed as a fomentation, acts as an emmenagogue. The root

also of the larger centaury, similarly used, is good for pains in

the uterus; scraped and used as a pessary, it expels the

dead ftus. For pains of the uterus, plantago[9] is applied as

a pessary, in wool, and for hysterical suffocations, it is taken in







drink. But it is dittany that is of the greatest efficacy in cases

of this description; it acts as an emmenagogue, and is an expellent of the ftus when dead or lying transversely in the

uterus. In these cases the leaves of it are taken, in doses of

one obolus, in water: indeed so active is it in its effects that

ordinarily it is forbidden to be introduced into the chamber of

a woman lying-in. Not only is it thus efficacious when taken

in drink, but even when applied topically or used as a fumiga-

tion. Pseudodictamnum[10] possesses pretty nearly the same virtues, but it acts as an emmenagogue also, boiled in doses of one

denarius in unmixed wine. Aristolochia,[11] however, is employed

for a greater number of purposes: in combination with myrrh

and pepper, either taken in drink or used as a pessary, it acts

as a powerful emmenagogue, and brings away the dead ftus

and the after-birth. This plant, the smaller kind in particular,

used either as a fomentation, fumigation, or pessary, acts as a

preventive of procidence of the uterus.



Hysterical suffocations and irregularities of the catamenia

are treated with agaric, taken in doses of three oboli, in one

cyathus of old wine: vervain is used also in similar cases, as a

pessary, with fresh hog's lard; or else antirrhinum,[12] with rose

oil and honey. Root of Thessalian nympha,[13] used as a

pessary, is curative of pains in the uterus; taken in red wine,

it arrests uterine discharges. Root of cyclaminos,[14] on the

other hand, taken in drink and employed as a pessary, acts as

an emmenagogue: a decoction of it, used as a sitting-bath,

cures affections of the bladder. Cissanthemos,[15] taken in drink,

brings away the after-birth, and is curative of diseases of the.

uterus. The upper part of the root of xiphion,[16] taken in

doses of one drachma, in vinegar, promotes menstruation. A

fumigation of burnt peucedanum[17] has a soothing effect in

cases of hysterical suffocation. Psyllion,[18] taken in the proportion of one drachma to three cyathi of hydromel, is particularly good for promoting the lochial discharge. Seed of

mandragora,[19] taken in drink, acts as a detergent upon the







uterus; the juice, employed in a pessary, promotes menstruation

and expels the dead fetus. The seed of this plant, used with

live sulphur,[20] arrests menstruation when in excess; while batrachion,[21] on the other hand, acts as an emmenagogue. This

last plant is either used as an article of food, or is taken in

drink: in a raw state, as already stated,[22] it has a burning

flavour; but when cooked, the taste of it is greatly improved by

the addition of salt, oil, and cummin. Daucus,[23] taken in drink,

promotes the catamenia, and is an expellent of the after-birth

in a very high degree. Ladanum,[24] used as a fumigation, acts

as a corrective upon the uterus, and is employed topically for

pains and ulcerations of that organ.



Scammony, taken in drink or used as a pessary, is an expellent of the dead ftus. Either kind of hypericon,[25] used

as a pessary, promotes menstruation: but for this purpose it

is crethmos,[26] according to Hippocrates, that is the most efficacious, the seed or root of it being taken in wine.[27]

of the outer coat brings away the after-birth. This plant,

taken in water, is good for hysterical suffocations; root of

geranion[28] also, which is peculiarly useful for the after-birth,

and for inflation of the uterus. Hippuris,[29] taken in drink

or applied as a pessary, acts as a detergent upon the uterus:

polygonos,[30] taken in drink, promotes menstruation; and the

sane with root of alcima.[31] Leaves of plantago,[32] and agaric

in hydromel, have a similar effect. Artemisia,[33] bruised and

applied as a pessary, with oil of iris,[34] figs, or myrrh, is curative

of diseases of the uterus; the root, too, of this plant, taken

in drink, is so strongly purgative as to expel the dead ftus

even. A decoction of the branches, used as a sitting-bath,

promotes menstruation and brings away the after-birth; the







same, too, with the leaves, taken in doses of one drachma in

drink. The leaves, if applied to the lower regions of the

abdomen with barley-meal, will prove equally efficacious.



Acoron[35] is very useful for internal complaints of females;

as also the two varieties of conyza,[36] and crethmos.[37] Either

kind of anthyllis,[38] taken in wine, is remarkably good for uterine

affections, griping pains in that organ, and retardations of the

after-birth. Callithrix,[39] applied as a fomentation, is curative

of affections of the vagina: it removes scaly eruptions[40] also

of the head, and, beaten up in oil, it stains the hair. Geranion,[41] taken in white wine, or hypocisthis[42] in red, arrests

all uterine discharges. Hyssop modifies hysterical suffocations.

Root of vervain, taken in water, is a most excellent remedy

for all accidents incident to, or consequent upon, delivery.

Some persons mix bruised cypress seed with peucedanum[43] in

red wine. Seed, too, of psyllion,[44] boiled in water and taken

warm, has a soothing effect upon all defluxions of the uterus.

Symphyton,[45] bruised in wine, promotes menstruation. Juice

of scordotis,[46] in the proportion of one drachma to four cyathi

of hydromel, accelerates delivery. Leaves of dittany are given

for the same purpose, in water, with remarkable success. It

is a well-known fact, too, that these leaves, to the extent of a

single obolus even, will bring away the ftus instantaneously,

even when dead, without the slightest inconvenience to the

patient. Pseudodictamnum[47] is productive of a somewhat

similar effect, but not in so marked a degree: cyclaminos,[48]

too, attached as an amulet; cissanthemos,[49] taken in drink;

and powdered betony, in hydromel.







1. See B. xxv. c, 10.

2. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

3. See B. xxv. c. 27.

4. See B. xxv. c. 19.

5. See B. xxv. c. 50.

6. See B. xxv. c. 11, et seq.

7. See B. xxv. c. 28.

8. See B. xxv. c. 31.

9. See B. xxv. c. 39.

10. "Bastard dittany." See B. xxv. c. .53.

11. S B. xxv. c. 54.

12. See B. xxv. c. 80.

13. See B. xxv. c. 37.

14. See B. xxv. c. 67.

15. See B. xxv. c. 68.

16. See B. xxv. c. 88.

17. See B. xxv. c 70.

18. See B. xxv. c. 90

19. See B. xv. c. 94.

20. See B. xxxv. c. 50.

21. See B. xxv. c. 109.

22. In B. xxv. c. 109.

23. See B. xxv. c. 64.

24. See B. xii. c. 37, and c. 30 of this Book.

25. See Chapters 53 and 54 of this Book.

26. See B. xxv. c. 96.

27. Probably the word "juice," or "decoction," is lost here.

28. See c. 68 of this Book.

29. See Chapters 20 and 83 of this Book.

30. See B. xxvii. c. 91.

31. The same as "Alcea" probably; see Chapters 79 and 81 of this

Book. Also B. xxvii. c. 6.

32. See B. xxv. c. 39.

33. See B. xxv. c. 36.

34. See B. xiii. c. 2, and B. xxi. cc. 19. 83.

35. See B. xxv. c. 100.

36. See B. xxi. c. 29.

37. See B. xxv. c. 96.

38. See B. xxi. c. 103.

39. See B. xxii. c. 30, and B. xxv. c. 86.

40. "Albugines."

41. See c. 68 of this Book.

42. See c. 31 of this Book.

43. See B. xxv. c. 70.

44. See B. xxv. c. 90.

45. See B. xxvii. c. 24.

46. See B. xxv. c. 27.

47. See B. xxv. c. 63.

48. See B. xxv. c. 67.

49. See B. xxv. c. 68.




93. Chap. 93.-Applications For The Hair. Lysimachia. Ophrys.


CHAP. 93.-APPLICATIONS FOR THE HAIR. LYSIMACHIA. OPHRYS.



Lysimachia[1] imparts a blonde tint[2] to the hair, and the hypericon,[3] otherwise called "corisson," makes it black. The

same too, with ophrys,[4] a plant with indentations, which re







sembles the cabbage, but has only two leaves. Polemonia,[5]

too, boiled in oil, imparts blackness to the hair.



As for depilatories, I reckon them in the number of cosmetics, fit for women only, though men use them now-a-days.

For this purpose archezostis[6] is looked upon as highly

efficacious, as also juice of tithymalos,[7] applied with oil

every now and then in the sun, or after pulling out the hairs.

Hyssop, applied with oil, heals itch-scab in beasts, and side-

citis[8] is particularly useful for quinzy in swine.



But let us now turn to the remaining plants of which we

have to speak.



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, one

thousand and nineteen.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[9] C. Valgius,[10] Pompeius Lenus,[11] Sextius Niger[12] who wrote in Greek, Julius

Bassus[13] who wrote in Greek, Antonius Castor,[14] Cornelius

Celsus.[15]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Theophrastus,[16] Democritus,[17]

Juba,[18] Orpheus,[19] Pythagoras,[20] Mago,[21] Menander[22] who wrote

the "Biochresta," Nicander,[23] Homer, Hesiod,[24] Musus,[25]

Sophocles,[26] Xanthus,[27] Anaxilas.[28]



MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.-Mnesitheus,[29] Callimachus,[30]







Phanias[31] the physician, Timaristus,[32] Simus,[33] Hippocrates,[34]

Chrysippus,[35] Diocles,[36] Ophelion,[37] Heraclides,[38] Hicesius,[39]

Dionysius,[40] Apollodorus[41] of Citium, Apollodorus[42] of Tarentum, Praxagoras,[43] Plistonicus,[44] Medius,[45] Dieuches,[46] Cleophantus,[47] Philistion,[48] Asclepiades,[49] Creteuas,[50] Petronius Diadotus,[51]

Iollas,[52] Erasistratus,[53] Diagoras,[54] Andreas,[55] Mnesides,[56] Epicharmus,[57] Damion,[58] Tlepolemus,[59] Metrodorus,[60] Solo,[61]

Lycus,[62] Olympias[63] of Thebes, Philinus,[64] Petrichus,[65] Micton,[66]

Glaucias,[67] Xenocrates.[68]









1. See B. xxv. c. 35.

2. The most highly esteemed among the Romans of all colours of the hair.

3. See Chapter 53 of this Book.

4. The "eye-brow" plant. It is identified by Fe with the Ophrys

ovata or bifolia of Linnus, Ivy blade. The indentations in the leaves

are almost imperceptible.

5. See B. xxv. c. 28.

6. See B. xxvi. c. 70.

7. See c. 39 of this Book, et seq.

8. See B. xxv. c. 19.

9. See end of B. ii.

10. See end of B. xx.

11. See end of B. xiv.

12. See end of B. xii.

13. See end of B. xx.

14. See end of B. xx.

15. See end of B. vii.

16. See end of B. iii.

17. See end of B. ii.

18. See end of B. v.

19. See end of B. xx.

20. See end of B. ii.

21. See end of B. viii.

22. See end of B. xix.

23. See end of B. viii.

24. See end of B. vii.

25. See end of B. xxi.

26. See end of B. xxi.

27. See end of B. xxv.

28. See end of B. xxi.

29. See end of B. xxi.

30. See end of B. iv.

31. See end of B. xxi.

32. See end of B. xxi.

33. See end of B. xxi.

34. See end of B. vii.

35. See end of B. xx.

36. See end of B. xx.

37. See end of B. xx.

38. See end of B. xii.

39. See end of B. xv.

40. See end of B. xii.

41. See end of B. xx.

42. See end of B. xx.

43. See end of B. xx.

44. See end of B. xx.

45. See end of B. xx.

46. See end of B. xx.

47. See end of B. xx.

48. See end of B. xx.

49. See end of B. vii.

50. See end of B. xx.

51. See end of B. xx.

52. See end of B. xii.

53. See end of B. xi.

54. See end of B. xii.

55. See end of B. xx.

56. See end of B. xii.

57. See end of B. xx.

58. See end of B. xx.

59. See end of B. xx.

60. See end of B. xx.

61. See end of B. xx.

62. See end of B. xii.

63. See end of B. xx.

64. See end of B. xx.

65. See end of B. xix.

66. See end of B. xx.

67. See end of B. xx.

68. See end of B. xx.




0. > Book Xxvii. A Description Of Plants, And Of The Remedies Derived From Them.


BOOK XXVII.

A DESCRIPTION OF PLANTS, AND OF THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THEM.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Researches Of The Ancients Upon This Subject.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-RESEARCHES OF THE ANCIENTS UPON THIS

SUBJECT.



THE further I proceed in this work, the more I am impressed

with admiration of the ancients; and the greater the number

of plants that remain to be described, the more I am induced

to venerate the zeal displayed by the men of former times in

their researches, and the kindly spirit manifested by them in

transmitting to us the results thereof. Indeed their bounteousness in this respect would almost seem to have surpassed the

munificent disposition even of Nature herself, if our knowledge

of plants had depended solely upon man's spirit of discovery:

but as it is, it is evident beyond all doubt that this knowledge

has emanated from the gods themselves, or, at all events, has

been the result of divine inspiration, even in those cases where

man has been instrumental in communicating it to us. In

other words, if we must confess the truth-a marvel surpassed

by nothing in our daily experience-Nature herself, that

common parent of all things, has at once produced them, and

has discovered to us their properties.



Wondrous indeed is it, that a Scythian[1] plant should be

brought from the shores of the Palus Motis, and the euphorbia[2] from Mount Atlas and the regions beyond the Pillars of

Hercules, localities where the operations of Nature have reached

their utmost limit! That in another direction, the plant

britannica[3] should be conveyed to us from isles of the

Ocean situate beyond the confines of the earth![4] That the

thiopis[5] should reach us from a climate scorched by the







luminaries of heaven! And then, in addition to all this, that

there should be a perpetual interchange going on between all

parts of the earth, of productions so instrumental to the welfare

of mankind! Results, all of them, ensured to us by the peace

that reigns under the majestic sway of the Roman power, a

peace which brings in presence of each other, not individuals

only, belonging to lands and nations far separate, but mountains even, and heights towering above the clouds, their plants

and their various productions! That this great bounteousness

of the gods may know no end, is my prayer, a bounteousness

which seems to have granted the Roman sway as a second

luminary for the benefit of mankind.







1. He alludes to the Glycyrrhiza or Scythice, our Liquorice, which is

still found on the banks of the river Volga. See B. xxi. c. 54, B. xxii.

c. 11, B. xxv. c. 43, and B. xxvi. cc. 15, 87.

2. See B. xxv. c. 38.

3. See B. xxv. c. 6.

4. "Extra terras." Meaning, the continental part of the earth.

5. See c. 3 of this Book.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-Aconite, Otherwise Called Thelyphonon, Cam- Maron, Pardalianches, Or Scorpio; Four Remedies.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-ACONITE, OTHERWISE CALLED THELYPHONON, CAM-

MARON, PARDALIANCHES, OR SCORPIO; FOUR REMEDIES.



But who, I say, can sufficiently venerate the zeal and spirit of

research displayed by the ancients? It is they who have shown

us that aconite is the most prompt of all poisons in its effects

-so much so indeed, that female animals, if the sexual parts[1]

are but touched with it, will not survive a single day. With

this poison it was that M. Ccilius[2] accused Calpurnius Bestia

of killing his wives in their sleep, and this it was that gave

rise to that fearful peroration of his, denouncing the murderous

finger of the accused.[3] According to the fables of mythology,

this plant was originally produced from the foam of the dog

Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules from the Infernal[4] Regions; for which reason, it is said, it is still so remarkably

abundant in the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus, a spot where

the entrance is still pointed out to the shades below.



And yet, noxious as it is, the ancients have shown us how to

employ aconite for the benefit of mankind, and have taught us

as the result of their experience, that, taken in mulled wine,

it neutralizes the venom of the scorpion: indeed such is the

nature of this deadly plant, that it kills man, unless it can find







in man something else to kill. When such is the case, as

though it had discovered in the body a fit rival to contend with,

that substance is the sole object of its attack; finding another

poison in the viscera, to it alone it confines its onslaught;

and thus, a truly marvellous thing! two poisons, each of them

of a deadly nature, destroy one another within the body, and

the man survives. Even more than this, the ancients have

handed down to us remedies employed by the animals themselves, and have shown how that venomous creatures even effect

their own cure. By the contact of aconite the scorpion is

struck with torpor,[5] is quite benumbed, assumes a pallid hue,

and so confesses itself vanquished. When this is the case,

white hellebore is its great auxiliary: the very touch of it dispels its torpor, and the aconite is forced to yield before two

foes, its own enemy[6] and the common[7] enemy of all.



Now, after this, if any one should be of opinion that man

could, by any chance or possibility, make such discoveries as

these, he must surely be guilty of ingratitude in thus appre-

ciating the beneficence of the gods! In countries frequented

by the panther, they rub meat with aconite, and if one of

those animals should but taste it, its effects are fatal: indeed

were not these means adopted, the country would soon be overrun by them. It is for this reason, too, that some persons

have given to hellebore the name of "pardalianches."[8] It has

been well ascertained, however, that the panther instantaneously

recovers if it can find the opportunity of eating human ordure.[9]

So far as these animals are concerned, who can entertain a

doubt that it was chance only that first led them to this discovery; and that as often as this happens the discovery is only

a mere repetition of the accident, there being neither reason

nor an appreciation of experience to ensure its transmission

among them?



(3.) It is chance,[10] yes, it is chance that is the Deity who

has made to us these numerous revelations for our practical







benefit;[11] always understanding that under this name we mean

Nature, that great parent and mistress of all things: and this

is evident, whether we come to the conclusion, that these wild

beasts make the discovery from day to day, or that they are

gifted from the first with these powers of perception. Regarded in another point of view, it really is a disgrace that

all animated beings should have an exact knowledge of what

is beneficial to them, with the exception of man!



The ancients, openly professing their belief that there is no

evil without some admixture of good, have asserted that aconite

is a remarkably useful ingredient in compositions for the eyes.

It may therefore be permitted me, though I have hitherto

omitted a description of the poisonous plants, to point out the

characteristics of aconite, if only that it may be the more

easily detected. Aconite[12] has leaves like those of cyclaminos[13]

or of the cucumber, never more than four in number, slightly

hairy, and rising from near the root. This root, which is of

moderate size, resembles the sea-fish known as the "cammarus,"[14] a circumstance owing to which the plant has received

the name of "cammaron" from some; while others, for the

reason already[15] mentioned, have called it "thelyphonon."[16]

The root is slightly curved, like a scorpion's tail, for which

reason some persons have given it the name of "scorpio."

Others, again, have preferred giving it the name of "myoctonon,"[17] from the fact that the odour of it kills mice at a

considerable distance even.



This plant is found growing upon the naked rocks known

as "aeon;"[18] and hence it is, according to some authorities,







that it is called "aconitum," there being not so much as dust

even about it to conduce to its nutriment. Such is the reason

given for its name by some: but according to others, it receives this appellation from the fact that it fatally exercises the

same effects upon the body that the whetstone[19] does upon the

edge of iron, being no sooner employed than its effects are felt.







1. See B. xxv. c. 75.

2. Properly "Clius "-the same M. Clius Rufus who is mentioned

in B. vii. c. 50. See also B. xxxv. c. 46.

3. "Hinc illa atrox peroratio ejus in digitum." Sillig is probably right

in his suggestion that the word "mortiferum" is wanting at the end of

the sentence. Bestia was accused of having killed his wives by the

contact of aconite, applied, through the agency of the finger, to the secret

parts.

4. See B. vi. c. i.

5. See B. xxv. c. 75.

6. The hellebore. See B. xxiii. c. 75, and B. xxv. c. 21.

7. The scorpion.

8. "Pard-strangle."

9. See B. viii. c. 41.

10. He seems here, by implication, to contradict himself, and, by his explanation, to be sensible that he does so. He would appear not to have

known exactly what his belief was in reference to first causes.

11. "Hoc habet nomen" is omitted; for, as Sillig says, it is evidently a

gloss, which has crept into the text.

12. The ancients no doubt knew several plants under the common name

of Aconitum. The one here described, is identified by Fe with the Doronicum pardalianches of Linnus, Leopard's bane.

13. See B. xxv. c. 67. Fe says that neither the leaves of the Doronicum,

nor of any plant of the genus Arnica, bear any resemblance to those of

the Cyclamen, or the cucumber. He remarks also, that the contact solely

of it is not productive of poisonous effects.

14. A kind of crab.

15. At the beginning of this Chapter.

16. "Female-bane," or "female-killer." See B. xx. c. 23.

17. "ice-killer." This assertion is incorrect.

18. So called from a), "without," and ko/nis, "dust," Theophrastus

says that it received its name from the town of Acon, in the vicinity of

which it grew in great abundance.

19. Also called a)ko/nh.




5. Chap. 5.-The Aloe; Twenty-Nine Remedies.


CHAP. 5.-THE ALOE; TWENTY-NINE REMEDIES.



The aloe[1] bears a resemblance to the squill, except that it is

larger, and has more substantial leaves, with streaks running

obliquely. The stem is tender, red in the middle, and not

unlike that of the anthericus.[2] It has a single root, which runs

straight downwards, like a stake driven into the ground; its

smell is powerful, and it has a bitter taste. The most esteemed

aloes are those imported from India, but it grows in the Asiatic

provinces[3] as well. This last kind, however, is never used,

except that the leaves are applied fresh to wounds; indeed,

these leaves, as well as the juice, are glutinous to a marvellous

degree, and it is for this property that it is grown in vessels of

a conical form, in the same way as the greater Aizom.[4] Some

persons make incisions in the stem to obtain the juice, before

the seed is ripe, while others, again, make them in the leaves

as well. Tearlike drops are also found adhering to it, which

exude spontaneously: hence it is that some recommend that

the place should be paved where it is grown, to prevent this

juice from being absorbed.



Some authors have stated, that there is found in Juda,

beyond Hierosolyma, a mineral[5] aloe, but that it is inferior to

the other kinds, being of a darker colour and more humid than

any of the rest. Aloes[6] of the finest quality should be

unctuous and shining, of a red colour, brittle, compact, like

the substance of liver, and easily liquefied. That which is

hard and black should be rejected; the same, too, when it is

mixed with sand or adulterated with gum and acacia, a fraud

which may be easily detected by the taste.



This plant is of an astringent nature, binding, and slightly

calorific. It is employed for numerous purposes, but principally

as a purgative,[7] it being almost the only one of all the medica-







ments which produce that effect, that is at the same time a

good stomachic, and does not exercise the slightest noxious

influence upon the stomach. It is taken in doses of one

drachma, and, in cases of derangement of the stomach, it is

administered two or three times a day, in the proportion of

one spoonful to two cyathi of warm or cold water, at intervals,

according to the nature of the emergency. As a purgative it

is mostly taken in doses of three drachm; and it operates

still more efficaciously, if food is eaten directly afterwards.

Used with astringent wine, it prevents[8] the hair from falling

off, the head being rubbed with it the contrary way of the

hair, in the sun. Applied to the temples and forehead with

rose oil and vinegar, or used as an infusion, in a more diluted

form, it allays head-ache. It is generally agreed that it is

remedial for all diseases[9] of the eyes, but more particularly for

prurigo and scaly eruptions of the eye-lids; as also for marks

and bruises, applied in combination with honey, Pontic honey

in particular.



It is employed, also, for affections of the tonsillary glands and

gums, for all ulcerations of the mouth, and for spitting of

blood, if not in excess-the proper dose being one drachma,

taken in water or else vinegar. Used by itself, or in combination

with vinegar, it arrests hmorrhage, whether proceeding front

wounds or from other causes. In addition to these properties, it

is extremely efficacious for the cure of wounds, producing

cicatrization very rapidly: it is sprinkled also upon ulcerations

of the male organs, and is applied to condylomata and chaps

of the fundament, either in common wine, raisin wine, or by

itself in a dry state, according as a mollifying or restrictive

treatment is required. It has the effect, also, of gently

arresting hmorrhoidal bleeding, when in excess. In cases of

dysentery, it is used as an injection, and where the digestion

is imperfect it is taken shortly after the evening meal. For

jaundice, it is administered in doses of three oboli, in

water. As a purgative for the bowels, it is taken in pills, with

boiled honey or turpentine. It is good also for the removal of

hangnails. When employed in ophthalmic preparations, it is

first washed, that the more gravelly portions of it may subside;







or else it is put over the fire in a pipkin, and stirred with a

feather from time to time, that the whole of it may be equally

warmed.







1. The ancients probably included under this name several distinct species

of the aloe. They were well acquainted, Fe says, with the Indian aloe,

but probably not with that of Africa. As described by Pliny, he identifies

it with the Aloe perfoliata of Linnus: Desfontaines gives the Aloe

umbellata.

2. See B. xxi. c. 68.

3. "Asia."

4. See B. xxv. c. 102. The aloe is still grown in large wooden vessels,

in this country, at least; but only as an ornament.

5. He alludes to the bitumen of Juda, much used by the Egyptians for

the purposes of embalmment.

6. He is speaking of the prepared aloes of commerce.

7. It is still used for this purpose.

8. There is no foundation, Fe says, for this statement.

9. It would appear that it is still employed in India for this purpose,

but it is no longer used in Europe.




49. Chap. 49.-The Dryophonon.


CHAP. 49.-THE DRYOPHONON.



The dryophonon[1] is a similar plant, with thin stems a cubit

in length, and surrounded on either side with leaves about as

large as the thumb and like those of the oxymyrsine[2] in appearance, only whiter and softer: the blossom is white, and

similar to that of the elder. The shoots of it are eaten boiled,

and the seed is used as a substitute for pepper.







1. The "oak-killer." Fe thinks that it may possibly be the Convallaria uniflora of Linnus. Desfontaines names the Cochlearia draba, and

Littr the Lepidium draba of Linnus.

2. See B. xv. cc. 7, 37, and B. xxiii. c. 83.




56. Chap. 56.-Femur Bubulum, Or Ox Thigh.


CHAP. 56.-FEMUR BUBULUM, OR OX THIGH.



The name of femur bubulum[1] is given to a plant which is

good for the sinews, applied fresh, and beaten up with salt and

vinegar.







1. The Femur bubulum has not been identified. C. Bauhin has suggested

the Leonurus cardiaca of Linnus, Motherwort.




63. Chap. 63.-Holcus Or Aristis.


CHAP. 63.-HOLCUS OR ARISTIS.



Holcus[1] is a plant that grows in arid, stony, spots: it has an

ear at the end of a fine stem, and looks like barley that has put

forth again when cut. Attached to the head or around the arm,

it extracts[2] spikes of corn adhering to the flesh; for which

reason, some persons give it the name of "aristis."







1. Identified with the Hordeum murinum of Linnus, and the same,

most probably, as the Mouse barley of B. xxii. c. 65.

2. Whence its name, from the Greek ,e)/lkw, "to draw."




68. Chap. 68.-Hypecon.


CHAP. 68.-HYPECON.



Hypecon[1] is a plant found growing in corn-fields, with

leaves like those of rue. Its properties are similar to those of

juice of poppies.







1. The Hypecom procumbens of Linnus, Horned cummin.




117. Chap. 117.-The Tragopogon Or Come.


CHAP. 117.-THE TRAGOPOGON OR COME.



There is the tragopogon,[1] also, by some called "come;" a

plant with a small stem, leaves like those of saffron, an elongated, sweet, root, and a large, swarthy calyx at the extremity

of the stem. It grows in rugged soils, and is never used.







1. "Goat's-beard. Probably the Tragopogon crocifolium of Linnus,

the Saffron-leaved goat's beard. Though its properties are not inert, it

is never used in medicine.




118. Chap. 118.-The Ages Of Plants.


CHAP. 118.-THE AGES OF PLANTS.



Such, then, is all that I have hitherto been enabled to

learn or discover, worthy of mention, relative to plants. At

the close of this subject, it seems to me that it will not be out

of place to remind the reader, that the properties of plants

vary according to their age. It is elaterium, as already

stated,[1] that preserves its properties the longest of all. The

black chamleon[2] retains its virtues forty years, centaury not

more than twelve, peucedanum[3] and aristolochia[4] six, and

the wild vine one year-that is to say, if they are kept in the

shade. I would remark, also, that beyond those animals which

breed within the plants, there are none that attack the roots







of any of those which have been mentioned by me; with the

exception, indeed, of the sphondyle,[5] a kind of creeping

insect,[6] which infests them all.







1. In B. xx. c. 3.

2. See c. 41 of this Book.

3. See B. xxv. c. 70.

4. See B. xxv. c. 54.

5. A kind of ftid beetle, Hardouin says. Probably an Aphis.

6. "Serpentis."




119. Chap. 119.-How The Greatest Efficacy In Plants May Be Ensured.


CHAP. 119.-HOW THE GREATEST EFFICACY IN PLANTS MAY BE

ENSURED.



It is also an undoubted truth, that the virtues and properties

of all roots are more feebly developed, when the fruit has been

allowed to ripen; and that it is the same with the seed, when

incisions have been previously made in the root, for the extraction of the juice. The efficacy, too, of all plants is impaired

by making habitual use of them; and these substances, if employed daily, lose equally their good or bad properties, when

required to be effectual. All plants, too, have more powerful

properties, when grown in soils that are cold and exposed to

the north-eastern blasts, or in dry localities.










120. Chap. 120.-Maladies Peculiar To Various Nations.


CHAP. 120.-MALADIES PECULIAR TO VARIOUS NATIONS.



There are certain differences, also, by no means inconsiderable, in the predispositions of the various nations of the earth.

I have been informed, for instance, that the people of Egypt,

Arabia, Syria, and Cilicia, are subject to tapeworm and mawworm, while those of Thracia and Phrygia, on the other hand,

are totally exempt from them. This, however, is less surprising than the fact that, although Attica and Botia are

adjoining territories, the Thebans are troubled with these

inflictions, while among the people of Athens they are unknown.



Considerations of this description lead me now to turn my

attention to the nature of the animated beings themselves, and

the medicinal properties which are inborn in them, the most

assured remedies, perhaps, for all diseases.



For Nature, in fact, that parent of all things, has produced no

animated being for the purpose solely of eating; she has willed

that it should be born to satisfy the wants of others, and in

its very vitals has implanted medicaments conducive to health.

While she has implanted them in mute[1] and inanimate

objects even, she has equally willed that these, the most in-







valuable aids of life, should be also derived from the life of

another-a subject for contemplation, marvellous in the highest

degree![2]



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, six hundred and two.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Caius Valgius,[3] Pompeius Lenus,[4] Sextius Niger[5] who wrote in Greek, Julius Bassus[6]

who wrote in Greek, Antonius Castor,[7] Cornelius Celsus.[8]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Theophrastus,[9] Apollodorus,[10]

Democritus,[11] Aristogiton,[12] Orpheus,[13] Pythagoras,[14] Mago,[15]

Menander[16] who wrote the "Biochresta," Nicander.[17]



MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.-Mnesitheus,[18] Timaristus,[19] Simus,[20] Hippocrates,[21] Chrysippus,[22] Diocles,[23] Ophelion,[24] Hera-

clides,[25] Hicesius,[26] Dionysius,[27] Apollodorus[28] of Citium, Apol-







lodorus[29] of Tarentum, Praxagoras,[30] Plistonicus,[31] Medius,[32]

Dieuches,[33] Cleophantus,[34] Philistion,[35] Asclepiades,[36] Crateuas,[37]

Petronius Diodotus,[38] Iollas,[39] Erasistratus,[40] Diagoras,[41] Andreas,[42] Mnesides,[43] Epicharmus,[44] Damion,[45] Tlepolemus,[46] Me-

trodorus,[47] Solo,[48] Lycus,[49] Olympias[50] of Thebes, Philinus,[51]

Petrichus,[52] Micton,[53] Glaucias,[54] Xenocrates.[55]



*** Before quitting the Botanical Books of Pliny, it is a duty both to

our author and to the reader, to call attention to the illustrations of a few

passages in this work, which will he found in the Textrinum Antiquorum,

by Dr. James Yates, F.R.S., a book characterized by learning, equally profound and extensive, and the most indefatigable research: it being hut recently, we are sorry to say, that we have been made acquainted with its

valuable contents.



The following are selected as among the most useful and interesting results

of his enquiries.



B. vi. c. 20 [V. ii. p. 36]. Dr. Yates is of opinion that Pliny has here

mistranslated a passage of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. v. 19, and that he has

mistaken the word bombu/kia, "cocoons," for webs, similar to those of

the spider, attached to the leaves of trees. Not understanding the original,

he would seem to have given a distorted account of the simple operation

of winding the threads from off the cocoons of the silkworm upon bobbins,

by the hands of females; the threads upon which bobbins would be afterwards unwound for the manufacture of silken fabrics. See Notes 8 and 9

on the passage in question; also B. xi. c. 26.



B. viii. c. 74 [V. ii. p. 336]. For the word "Sororiculata," Dr. Yates

proposes to read "Soriculata," and he suggests that the cloth thus called

may have been a velvet or plush, which received its name from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse, "sorex," the diminutive of which

would be "soricula"



B. xix. c. 2 [V. iv. p. 133] and c. 6 [p. 138]. I)r. Yates expresses it

as his opinion that the words "Carbasus" and "Carbasa" are derived from

the oriental word Carpas, signifying "cotton," and thinks that Pliny, in

B. xix. c. 2, may have used the word by Catachresis, as meaning linen, in

the same manner as the Latin poets repeatedly use the word "carbasa,"

as signifying various kinds of woven textures. If this view be correct,

the word "Carbasina" in B. xix. c. 6, will probably mean "awnings of







woven material" generally, and not of fine linen, or cambric, as suggested

in Note 55.



B. xix. c. 2 [V. iv. p. 134]. The genuineness of the passage which

makes mention of the "Gossypium," is questioned by Dr. Yates, who

thinks it possible that it is an interpolation: such, however, if we may

judge from the result of Sillig's researches, does not appear to have been

the case. If, on the other hand, the passage is genuine, Dr. Yates is of

opinion that the statement is incorrect, and that cotton was not grown in

Egypt. It seems just possible, however, that Pliny may have had in view

the trees mentioned by him in B. xiv. c. 28.



B. xix. c. 4 [V. iv. p. 137, also p. 134, Note 37]. Dr. Yates has adduced a number of convincing arguments to prove that the "Byssus" of

the ancients cannot have been cotton, but that in all probability it was a

texture of fine flax. The passages of Pausanias, (B. v. c. 25, and 1. vi.

c. 26) in which "Byssus" is mentioned, would certainly seem to apply

to flax, a product which is still cultivated near the mouth of the river

Peneus, in ancient Elis. There is no doubt, however, that Philostratus,

though perhaps erroneously, has used the word "Byssus" as meaning

cotton.









1. See B. xxii. c. 3.

2. It is with regret that at the close of this Book, we take leave of

the valuable Annotations of M. Fe, a series of illustrations which reflect

the highest credit on his learning, his industry, and his critical acumen.

Were the ancient authors in general subjected to the same minute examination and thorough enquiry which he has expended upon the Sixteen

Botanical Books of Pliny, their value would be greatly enhanced, equally

to the critical scholar, and to the general reader who makes his acquaintance with them through the medium of a translation. To say, that, in

reference to their respective labours upon Pliny, M. Fe deserves our thanks

almost equally with the learned Sillig-now, alas! no more-is to say much

indeed in his praise, and to bestow upon him a commendation to which he

is eminently entitled.

3. See end of B. xx.

4. See end of B. xiv.

5. See end of B. xii.

6. See end of B. xx.

7. See end of B. xx.

8. See end of B. vii.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. See end of B. xi.

11. See end of B. ii.

12. Beyond being mentioned here, and in c. 14 of this Book, nothing is

known of this writer.

13. See end of B. xx.

14. See end of B. ii.

15. See end of B. viii.

16. See end of B. xix.

17. See end of B. viii.

18. See end of B. xix.

19. See end of B. xxi.

20. See end of B. xxi.

21. See end of B. vii.

22. See end of B. xx.

23. See end of B. xx.

24. See end of B. xv.

25. See end of B. xii.

26. See end of B. xv.

27. See end of B. xii.

28. See end of B. xx.

29. See end of B. xx.

30. See end of B. xx.

31. See end of B. xx.

32. See end of B. xx.

33. See end of B. xx.

34. See end of B. xx.

35. See end of B. xx.

36. See end of B. vii.

37. See end of B. xx.

38. See end of B. xx.

39. See end of B. xii.

40. See end of B. xi.

41. See end of B. xii.

42. See end of B. xx.

43. See end of B. xii.

44. See end of B. xx.

45. See end of B. xx.

46. See end of B. xx.

47. See end of B. xx.

48. See end of B. xx.

49. See end of B. xii.

50. See end of B. xx.

51. See end of B. xx.

52. See end of B. xxi.

53. See end of B. xx.

54. See end of B. xx.

55. See end of B. xx.




0. > Book Xxviii. Remedies Derived From Living Creatures.


BOOK XXVIII.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Introduction.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-INTRODUCTION.



WE should have now concluded our description of the various

things[1] that are produced between the heavens and the earth,

and it would have only remained for us to speak of the substances that are dug out of the ground itself; did not our exposition of the remedies derived from plants and shrubs necessarily lead us into a digression upon the medicinal properties

which have been discovered, to a still greater extent, in those

living creatures themselves which are thus indebted [to other

objects] for the cure of their respective maladies. For ought we,

after describing the plants, the forms of the various flowers, and

so many objects rare and difficult to be found-ought we to pass

in silence the resources which exist in man himself for the

benefit of man, and the other remedies to be derived from the

creatures that live among us-and this more particularly,

seeing that life itself is nothing short of a punishment, unless

it is exempt from pains and maladies? Assuredly not; and

even though I may incur the risk of being tedious, I shall

exert all my energies on the subject, it being my fixed determination to pay less regard to what may be amusing, than to

what may prove practically useful to mankind.



Nay, even more than this, my researches will extend to the

usages of foreign countries, and to the customs of barbarous

nations, subjects upon which I shall have to appeal to the

good faith of other authors; though at the same time I have

made it my object to select no[2] facts but such as are established







by pretty nearly uniform testimony, and to pay more attention

to scrupulous exactness than to copiousness of diction.



It is highly necessary, however, to advertise the reader, that

whereas I have already described the natures of the various

animals, and the discoveries[3] due to them respectively-for, in

fact, they have been no less serviceable in former times in dis-

covering remedies, than they are at the present day in providing us with them-it is my present intention to confine myself

to the remedial properties which are found in the animal

world, a subject which has not been altogether lost sight of in

the former portion of this work. These additional details

therefore, though of a different nature, must still be read in

connexion with those which precede.







1. The trees and plants.

2. On the contrary, this and the four following Books are full of the most

extravagant assertions, which bear ample testimony to his credulity, not-

withstanding the author's repeated declarations that he does not believe in

Magic. As Ajasson says, he evidently does not know what he ought to

have inserted in his work, and what to reject as utterly unworthy of belief.

His faults, however, were not so much his own as those of his age. Want

of space, equally with want of inclination, compels us to forego the task of

entering into an examination of the system of Animal Therapeaties upon.

which so much labour has been waste by our author.

3. See B. viii. c. 97, et seq., and B. xxv. c. 89, et seq.




2. Chap. 2.-Remedies Derived From Man.


CHAP. 2.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MAN.



We will begin then with man, and our first enquires will

be into the resources which he provides for himself-a subject

replete with boundless difficulties at the very outset.[1]



Epileptic patients are in the habit of drinking the blood

even of gladiators, draughts teeming with life,[2] as it were; a

thing that, when we see it done by the wild beasts even, upon

the same arena, inspires us with horror at the spectacle! And

yet these persons, forsooth, consider it a most effectual cure

for their disease, to quaff the warm, breathing, blood from man

himself, and, as they apply their mouth to the wound, to draw

forth his very life; and this, though it is regarded as an act

of impiety to apply the human lips to the wound even of a

wild beast! Others there are, again, who make the marrow[3]

of the leg-bones, and the brains of infants, the objects of their

research!



Among the Greek writers, too, there are not a few who have

enlarged upon the distinctive flavours of each one of the viscera

and members of the human body, pursuing their researches

to the very parings of the nails! as though, forsooth, it could







possibly be accounted the pursuit of health for man to make

himself a wild beast, and so deserve to contract disease from

the very remedies he adopts for avoiding it. Most righteously,

by Hercules! if such attempts are all in vain, is he disappointed of his cure! To examine human entrails is deemed

an act of impiety;[4] what then must it be to devour them?



Say, Osthanes,[5] who was it that first devised these practices;

for it is thee that I accuse, thou uprooter of all human laws,

thou inventor of these monstrosities; devised, no doubt, with

the view that mankind might not forget thy name! Who was

it that first thought of devouring each member of the human

body? By what conjectural motives was he induced? What

can possibly have been the origin of such a system of medicine as

this? Who was it that thus made the very poisons less baneful

than the antidotes prescribed for them? Granted that barbarous

and outlandish tribes first devised such practices, must the

men of Greece, too, adopt these as arts of their own?



We read, for instance, in the memoirs of Democritus, still

extant, that for some diseases, the skull of a malefactor is most

efficacious, while for the treatment of others, that of one who

has been a friend or guest is required. Apollonius, again, informs us in his writings, that the most effectual remedy for

tooth-ache is to scarify the gums with the tooth of a man who

has died a violent death; and, according to Miletus, human gall

is a cure for cataract.[6] For epilepsy, Artemon has prescribed

water drawn from a spring in the night, and drunk from the

skull of a man who has been slain, and whose body remains

unburnt. From the skull, too, of a man who had been hanged,

Antus made pills that were to be an antidote to. the bite of;

mad dog. Even more than this, man has resorted to similar remedies for the cure of four-footed beasts even-for tympanitis in

oxen, for instance, the horns have been perforated, and human

bones inserted; and when swine have been found to be diseased,







fine wheat has been given them which has lain for a night in

the spot where a human being has been slain or burnt!



Far from us, far too from our writings, be such prescriptions[7] as these! It will be for us to describe remedies only,

and not abominations;[8] cases, for instance, in which the milk

of a nursing woman may have a curative effect, cases where

the human spittle may be useful, or the contact[9] of the human

body, and other instances of a similar nature. We do not look

upon life as so essentially desirable that it must be prolonged

at any cost, be it what it may-and you, who are of that

opinion, be assured, whoever you may be, that you will die

none the less, even though you shall have lived in the midst

of obscenities or abominations!



Let each then reckon this as one great solace to his mind,

that of all the blessings which Nature has bestowed on man,

there is none greater than the death[10] which comes at a seasonable hour; and that the very best feature in connexion with it

is, that every person has it in his own power to procure it for

himself.[11]







1. See B. xxviii. c. 3.

2. This practice is mentioned with reprobation by Celsus and Tertullian.

It was continued, however, in some degree through the middle ages, and

Louis XV. was accused by his people of taking baths of infants' blood to

repair his premature decrepitude.

3. In recent times, Guettard, a French practitioner, recommended human

marrow as an emollient liniment.

4. Hence, as Ajasson remarks, the ignorance of anatomy displayed by the

ancients.

5. For further particulars as to Osthanes, see B. xxix. c. 80, and B. xxx.

cc. 5 and 6; also cc. 19 and 77 of the present Book. The reading, however, is very doubtful.

6. "Oculorum suffusiones." As Ajasson says, the remedy here mentioned

reminds us of the more harmless one used by Tobias for the cure of the

blindness of his father Tobit.

7. He gives a great many, however, which are equally abominable.

8. "Piacula."

9. We may here discover the first rudiments of the doctrine of Animal

Magnetism.

10. In accordance with the republican doctrines of Cato of Utica, Brutus,

Cassius, and Portia.

11. Holland remarks, "Looke for no better divinitie in Plinie, a meere

Pagan, Epicurean, and professed Atheist." See B. vii. cc. 53, 54.




3. Chap. 3. (2.)-Whether Words Are Possessed Of Any Healing Efficacy.


CHAP. 3. (2.)-WHETHER WORDS ARE POSSESSED OF ANY

HEALING EFFICACY.



In reference to the remedies derived from man, there arises

first of all one question, of the greatest importance and always

attended with the same uncertainty, whether words, charms,

and incantations, are of any efficacy or not?[1] For if such

is the case, it will be only proper to ascribe this efficacy to

man himself;[2] though the wisest of our fellow-men, I should

remark, taken individually, refuse to place the slightest faith

in these opinions. And yet, in our every-day life, we practically show, each passing hour, that we do entertain this belief,







though at the moment we are not sensible of it. Thus, for

instance, it is a general belief that without a certain form of

prayer[3] it would be useless to immolate a victim, and that,

with such an informality, the gods would be consulted to little

purpose. And then besides, there are different forms of

address to the deities, one form for entreating,[4] another form for

averting their ire, and another for commendation.



We see too, how that our supreme magistrates use certain

formul for their prayers: that not a single word may be

omitted or pronounced out of its place, it is the duty of one

person to precede the dignitary by reading the formula before

him from a written ritual, of another, to keep watch upon

every word, and of a third to see that[5] silence is not ominously

broken; while a musician, in the meantime, is performing on the

flute to prevent any other words being heard.[6] Indeed, there

are memorable instances recorded in our Annals, of cases where

either the sacrifice has been interrupted, and so blemished,

by imprecations, or a mistake has been made in the utterance

of the prayer; the result being that the lobe of the liver or

the heart has disappeared in a moment, or has been doubled,[7]

while the victim stood before the altar. There is still in existence a most remarkable testimony,[8] in the formula which the

Decii, father and son, pronounced on the occasions when they

devoted themselves.[9] There is also preserved the prayer

uttered by the Vestal Tuccia,[10] when, upon being accused of

incest, she carried water in a sieve-an event which took place

in the year of the City 609. Our own age even has seen a

man and a woman buried alive in the Ox Market,[11] Greeks by

birth, or else natives of some other[12] country with which we







were at war at the time. The prayer used upon the occasion

of this ceremonial, and which is usually pronounced first by

the Master of the College of the Quindecimviri,[13] if read by a

person, must assuredly force him to admit the potency of

formul; when it is recollected that it has been proved to

be effectual by the experience of eight hundred and thirty

years.



At the present day, too, it is a general belief, that our Vestal

virgins have the power, by uttering a certain prayer, to arrest

the flight of runaway slaves, and to rivet them to the spot,

provided they have not gone beyond the precincts of the

City. If then these opinions be once received as truth, and if it

be admitted that the gods do listen to certain prayers, or are

influenced by set forms of words, we are bound to conclude

in the affirmative upon the whole question. Our ancestors,

no doubt, always entertained such a belief, and have even

assured us, a thing by far the most difficult of all, that it is

possible by such means to bring down lightning from heaven,

as already[14] mentioned on a more appropriate occasion.







1. Whether or not, they cannot, as Ajasson remarks, be regarded as

remedies derived from the human body, being no part of the human body.

2. "Homini acceptun fieri oportere conveniat." This passage is pro-

bably corrupt.

3. Beginning with an address to Janus and Vesta, imploring their intercession with the other divinities, and concluding with an appeal to Janus.

4. "Impetritis."

5. "Qui favere linguis jubeat." "Favete linguis" were the words used

in enjoining strict silence.

6. By him who is offering up the prayer.

7. A trick adroitly performed by the priests, no doubt.

8. Given by Livy, in Books viii. and x.

9. To death, in battle, for the good of their country.

10. Preserved by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 1. Tertullian and Saint

Augustin doubt the authenticity of the story. She is said to have carried

water in a sieve from the river Tiber to the temple of Vesta.

11. "Forum Boarium;" in the Eighth Region of the City.

12. Of Gaul, as Plutarch informs us, who mentions also the Greek victims.

The immolation of the Gauls is supposed to have happened in the beginning

of the reign of Vespasian.

13. Originally the "Decemviri Sacris Faciundis," whose number was increased by Sylla to fifteen. They had the management of the Games of

Apollo, and the Secular Games.

14. In B. ii. c. 54.




4. Chap. 4.-That Prodigies And Portents May Be Confirmed, Or Made Of No Effect.


CHAP. 4.-THAT PRODIGIES AND PORTENTS MAY BE CONFIRMED, OR

MADE OF NO EFFECT.



L. Piso informs us, in the first Book of his Annals, that King

Tullus Hostilius,[1] while attempting, in accordance with the

books of Numa, to summon Jupiter from heaven by means of a

sacrifice similar to that employed by him, was struck by

lightning in consequence of his omission to follow certain

forms with due exactness. Many other authors, too, have

attested, that by the power of words a change has been

effected in destinies and portents of the greatest importance.

While they were digging on the Tarpeian Hill for the foundations of a temple, a human head was found; upon which deputies were sent to Olenus Calenus, the most celebrated

diviner of Etruria. He, foreseeing the glory and success which







attached to such a presage as this, attempted, by putting a

question to them, to transfer the benefit of it to his own

nation. First describing, on the ground before him, the outline

of a temple with his staff-"Is it so, Romans, as you say?"

said he; "here then must be the temple[2] of Jupiter, all good

and all powerful; it is here that we have found the head"-and the constant asseveration of the Annals is, that the destiny

of the Roman empire would have been assuredly transferred to

Etruria, had not the deputies, forewarned by the son of the

diviner, made answer-"No, not here exactly, but at Rome,

we say, the head was found."



It is related also that the same was the case when a certain

four-horse chariot, made of clay, and intended for the roof of

the same temple, had considerably increased while in the

furnace;[3] and that on this occasion, in a similar manner, the

destinies of Rome were saved. Let these instances suffice

then to show, that the virtues of presages lie in our own hands,

and that they are valuable in each instance according as they

are received.[4] At all events, it is a principle in the doctrine

of the augurs, that neither imprecations nor auspices of any

kind have any effect upon those who, when entering upon an

undertaking, declare that they will pay no attention whatever

to them; a greater instance than which, of the indulgent disposition of the gods towards us, cannot be found.



And then besides, in the laws themselves of the Twelve

Tables, do we not read the following words-"Whosoever shall

have enchanted the harvest,"[5] and in another place, "Whosoever shall have used pernicious incantations"?[6] Verrius Flaccus cites authors whom he deems worthy of credit, to show

that on the occasion of a siege, it was the usage, the first thing of

all, for the Roman priests to summon forth the tutelary divinity

of that particular town, and to promise him the same rites, or

even a more extended worship, at Rome; and at the present day

even, this ritual still forms part of the discipline of our pontiffs.







Hence it is, no doubt, that the name[7] of the tutelary deity of

Rome has been so strictly kept concealed, lest any of our enemies

should act in a similar manner. There is no one, too, who does

not dread being spell-bound by means of evil imprecations;[8] and

hence the practice, after eating eggs or snails, of immediately breaking[9] the shells, or piercing them with the spoon.

Hence, too, those love-sick imitations of enchantments which

we find described by Theocritus among the Greeks, and by

Catullus, and more recently, Virgil,[10] among our own writers.

Many persons are fully persuaded that articles of pottery may

be broken by a similar agency; and not a few are of opinion

even that serpents can counteract incantations, and that this is

the only kind of intelligence they possess-so much so, in fact,

that by the agency of the magic spells of the Marsi, they may

be attracted to one spot, even when asleep in the middle of the

night. Some people go so far, too, as to write certain words[11]

on the walls of houses, deprecatory of accident by fire.



But it is not easy to say whether the outlandish and unpronounceable words that are thus employed, or the Latin expressions that are used at random, and which must appear

ridiculous to our judgment, tend the most strongly to stagger

our belief-seeing that the human imagination is always conceiving something of the infinite, something deserving of the

notice of the divinity, or indeed, to speak more correctly, something that must command his intervention perforce. Homer[12]

tells us that Ulysses arrested the flow of blood from a wound







in the thigh, by repeating a charm; and Theophrastus[13] says

that sciatica may be cured by similar means. Cato[14] has

preserved a formula for the cure of sprains, and M. Varro for

that of gout. The Dictator Csar, they say, having on one

occasion accidentally had a fall in his chariot,[15] was always in

the habit, immediately upon taking his seat, of thrice repeating

a certain formula, with the view of ensuring safety upon the

journey; a thing that, to my own knowledge, is done by many

persons at the present day.







1. It has been suggested that Tullus Hostilius was acquainted with some

of the secrets of electricity, and that he met his death while trying experiments with a lightning conductor. See B. ii. c. 54.

2. Ajasson thinks that there is an equivoque here upon the word "tem-

plum," which signified not only a building, but certain parts of the heavens,

and corresponding lines traced on the earth by the augur's staff.

3. This story is mentioned by Plutarch, in the Life of Publicola.

4. In which case it was considered necessary to repeat the words, "Accipio omen," "I accept the omen."

5. "Qui fruges excantassit."

6. "Qui malum carmen incantassit."

7. Ajasson is of opinion that this name was either Favra or Fona, Acca,

Flora, or Valesia or Valentia.

8. "As in saying thus, The Devill take thee, or The Ravens peck out

thine eyes, or I had rather see thee Pie peckt, and such like."-Holland.

9. It is a superstition still practised to pierce the shell of an egg after

eating it, "lest the witches should come." Holland gives the following

Note-"Because afterwards no witches might pricke them with a needle

in the name and behalfe of those whom they would hurt and mischeefe,

according to the practice of pricking the images of any person in wax;

used in the witchcraft of these daies." We learn from Ajasson that till

recently it was considered a mark of ill-breeding in France not to pierce

the shell after eating the egg. See also Brand's Popular Antiquities,

Vol. III. p. 19, Bohn's Ed.

10. See the Eighth Eclogue of Virgil.

11. "That is to say, Arse verse, out of Afranius, as Festus noteth, which

in the old Tuscane language signifieth, Averte ignem, Put backe the fire."

-Holland.

12. Odyss. xix. 457. It is not Ulysses, but the sons of Autolycus that do

this. Their bandages, however, were more likely to be effectual.

13. De Enthusiasmo.

14. See B. xvii. c. 47.

15. In passing along the Velabrum, on the occasion of his Gallic triumph,

the axle of the carriage having broke.




5. Chap. 5.-A Description Of Various Usages.


CHAP. 5.-A DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS USAGES.



I would appeal, too, for confirmation on this subject, to the

intimate experience of each individual. Why, in fact, upon

the first day of the new year, do we accost one another with

prayers for good fortune,[1] and, for luck's sake, wish each other

a happy new year? Why, too, upon the occasion of public

lustrations, do we select persons with lucky names, to lead the

victims? Why, to counteract fascinations, do we Romans

observe a peculiar form of adoration, in invoking the Nemesis

of the Greeks; whose statue, for this reason, has been placed

in the Capitol at Rome, although the goddess herself possesses

no Latin name?[2] Why, when we make mention of the dead,

do we protest that we have no wish[3] to impeach their good

name?[4] Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every

purpose odd numbers are the most effectual;[5]-a thing that is

particularly observed with reference to the critical days in

fevers? Why is it that, when gathering the earliest fruit,

apples, on pears, as the case may be, we make a point of saying



"This fruit is old, may other fruit be sent us that is new?"

Why is it that we salute[6] a person when he sneezes, an observance which Tiberius Csar, they say, the most unsociable of

men, as we all know, used to exact, when riding in his chariot







even? Some there are, too, who think it a point religiously

to be observed to mention the name as well of the person whom

they salute.



And then, besides, it is a notion[7] universally received, that

absent persons have warning that others are speaking of them,

by the tingling of the ears. Attalus[8] assures us, that if a

person, the moment he sees a scorpion, says "Duo,"[9] the reptile will stop short, and forbear to sting. And now that I am

speaking of the scorpion, I recall to mind that in Africa no one

ever undertakes any matter without prefacing with the word

"Africa;" while in other countries, before an enterprise is

commenced, it is the practice to adjure the gods that they

will manifest their good will.



In addition to this, it is very clear that there are some

religious observances, unaccompanied by speech, which are

considered to be productive of certain effects. Thus,[10] when

we are at table, for instance, it is the universal practice, we

see, to take the ring from off the finger. Another person,

again, will take some spittle from his mouth and place it with

his finger behind the ear, to propitiate and modify disquietude

of mind. When we wish to signify applause, we have a proverb

even which tells us we should press the thumbs.[11] When paying adoration, we kiss the right hand, and turn the whole

body to the right: while the people of the Gallic provinces, on

the contrary, turn to the left, and believe that they show

mere devoutness by so doing. To salute summer lightning

with clapping of the hands, is the universal practice with all

nations. If, when eating, we happen to make mention of a

fire that has happened, we avert the inauspicious omen by pouring water beneath the table. To sweep the floor at the moment

that a person is rising from table, or to remove the table

or tray,[12] as the case may be, while a guest is drinking, is

looked upon as a most unfortunate presage. There is a treatise,







written by Servius Sulpicius, a man of the highest rank, in

which reasons are given why we should never leave the table

we are eating at; for in his day it was not yet[13] the practice to

reckon more tables than guests at an entertainment. Where a

person has sneezed, it is considered highly ominous for the

dish or table to be brought back again, and not a taste thereof

to be taken, after doing so; the same, too, where a person at

table eats nothing at all.



These usages have been established by persons who entertained a belief that the gods are ever present, in all our affairs

and at all hours, and who have therefore found the means of appeasing them by our vices even. It has been remarked, too,

that there is never a dead silence on a sudden among the guests

at table, except when there is an even number present; when

this happens, too, it is a sign that the good name and repute of

every individual present is in peril. In former times, when

food fell from the hand of a guest, it was the custom to return

it by placing it on the table, and it was forbidden[14] to blow

upon it, for the purpose of cleansing it. Auguries, too, have been

derived from the words or thoughts of a person at the moment

such an accident befalls him; and it is looked upon as one of

the most dreadful of presages, if this should happen to a pontiff,

while celebrating the feast of Dis.[15] The proper expiation in

such a case is, to have the morsel replaced on table, and then

burnt in honour of the Lar.[16] Medicines, it is said, will prove

ineffectual, if they happen to have been placed on a table before

they are administered. It is religiously believed by many,

that it is ominous in a pecuniary point of view, for a person to

pare his nails without speaking, on the market days[17] at Rome,

or to begin at the forefinger[18] in doing so: it is thought, too,







to be a preventive of baldness and of head-ache, to cut the hair

on the seventeenth and twenty-ninth[19] days of the moon.



A rural law observed in most of the farms of Italy, forbids[20]

women to twirl their distaffs, or even to carry them uncovered,

while walking in the public roads; it being a thing so prejudicial to all hopes and anticipations, those of a good harvest[21]

in particular. It is not so long ago, that M. Servilius

Nonianus, the principal citizen at Rome,[22] being apprehensive

of ophthalmia, had a paper, with the two Greek letters P and

A[23] written upon it, wrapped in linen and attached to his neck,

before he would venture to name the malady, and before any

other person had spoken to him about it. Mucianus, too, who

was thrice consul, following a similar observance, carried about

him a living fly, wrapped in a piece of white linen; and it

was strongly asserted, by both of them, that to the use of these

expedients they owed their preservation from ophthalmia.

There are in existence, also, certain charms against hail-storms,

diseases of various kinds, and burns, some of which have been

proved, by actual experience, to be effectual; but so great is the

diversity of opinion upon them, that I am precluded by a

feeling of extreme diffidence from entering into further particulars, and must therefore leave each to form his own conclusions as he may feel inclined.







1. See Ovid's Fasti, B. i. 1. 175, et seq., and Epist. de Ponto. B. iv.

El. 4. 1. 23, et seq.

2. See B. xi. c. 103.

3. Hence the saying, "De mortuis nil nisi bonum."

4. "Defunctorum memoriam a nobis non sollicitari."

5. It is still a saying, and perhaps a belief, that "There is luck in

odd numbers."

6. This has been a practice from the earliest times to the present day.

See Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 123, Bohn's Ed.

7. In France and England, at the present day, this notion, or rather, perhaps, the memory of it, is universally to he found. If the right ear tingles,

some one is speaking well of us; if the left ear, the reverse.

8. King Attalus Philometor. See end of B. viii.

9. "Two."

10. This passage, it is pretty clear, ought to follow the preceding one,

though in the Latin it is made to precede.

11. The thumb was turned upwards as a mark of favour, downwards, as

a mark of disfavour.

12. "Repositorium."

13. It was not yet the custom to bring in several courses, each served up

on a separate table.

14. Good manners possibly, more than superstition, may have introduced

this practice.

15. Or Pluto. He alludes to the Feralia, or feasts celebrated, in the

month of February, in honour of the dead.

16. Or household god.

17. The "Nundin, "held every ninth day; or rather every eighth day,

recording to our mode of reckoning.

18. Gronovius suggests a reading which would make this to mean that it

is "ominous to touch money with the forefinger." It does not appear to

be warranted, however.

19. Twenty-eighth, according to our reckoning.

20. Probably from their ominous resemblance to the Parce, or Fates, with

their spindles.

21. "Frugum."

22. "Princeps civitatis."

23. "Rho" and "Alpha."




6. Chap. 6. (3.)-Two Hundred And Twenty-Six Observations On Remedies Derived From Man. Eight Remedies Derived, From Children.


CHAP. 6. (3.)-TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX OBSERVATIONS

ON REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MAN. EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED,

FROM CHILDREN.



We have already,[1] when speaking of the singular peculiarities of various nations, made mention of certain men of a

monstrous nature, whose gaze is endowed with powers of

fascination; and we have also described properties belonging to

numerous animals, which it would be superfluous here to repeat.

In some men, the whole of the body is endowed with remarkable properties, as in those families, for instance, which are a

terror to serpents; it being in their power to cure persons

when stung, either by the touch or by a slight suction of the

wound. To this class belong the Psylli, the Marsi, and the people







called "Ophiogenes,"[2] in the Isle of Cyprus. One Euagon,

a member of this family, while attending upon a deputation at

Rome, was thrown by way of experiment, by order of the consuls, into a large vessel[3] filled with serpents; upon which,

to the astonishment of all, they licked his body all over with

their tongues. One peculiarity of this family-if indeed it is

still in existence-is the strong offensive smell which proceeds

from their body in the spring; their sweat, too, no less than

their spittle, was possessed of remedial virtues. The people

who are born at Tentyris, an island in the river Nilus, are

so formidable[4] to the crocodiles there, that their voice even is

sufficient to put them to flight. The presence even, it is well

known, of all these different races, will suffice for the cure of

injuries inflicted by the animals to which they respectively

have an antipathy; just in the same way that wounds are

irritated by the approach of persons who have been stung by

a serpent at some former time, or bitten by a dog. Such

persons, too, by their presence, will cause the eggs upon which

a hen is sitting to be addled, and will make pregnant cattle

cast their young and miscarry; for, in fact, so much of

the venom remains in their body, that, from being poisoned

themselves, they become poisonous to other creatures. The

proper remedy in such case is first to make them wash their

hands, and then to sprinkle with the water the patient who is

under medical treatment. When, again, persons have been

once stung by a scorpion they will never afterwards be attacked

by hornets, wasps, or bees: a fact at which a person will be

the less surprised when he learns that a garment which has

been worn at a funeral will never be touched by moths;[5] that

it is hardly possible to draw serpents from their holes except

by using the left hand; and that, of the discoveries made by

Pythagoras, one of the most unerring, is the fact, that in the

name given to infants, an odd number of vowels is portentous

of lameness, loss of eyesight, or similar accidents, on[6] the right







side of the body, and an even number of vowels of the like

infirmities on the left.



(4.) It is said, that if a person takes a stone or other missile

which has slain three living creatures, a man, a boar, and a

bear, at three blows, and throws it over the roof of a house

in which there is a pregnant woman, her delivery, however

difficult, will be instantly accelerated thereby. In such a case,

too, a successful result will be rendered all the more probable,

it a light infantry lance[7] is used, which has been drawn from

a man's body without touching the earth; indeed, if it is

brought into the house it will be productive of a similar result.

In the same way, too, we find it stated in the writings of

Orpheus and Archelaiis, that arrows, drawn from a human

body without being allowed to touch the ground, and placed

beneath the bed, will have all the effect of a philtre; and,

what is even more than this, that it is a cure for epilepsy if

the patient eats the flesh of it wild beast killed with an iron

weapon with which a human being has been slain.



Some individuals, too, are possessed of medicinal properties

in certain parts of the body; the thumb of King Pyrrhus, for

instance, as already[8] mentioned. At Elis, there used to

be shown one of the ribs[9] of Pelops, which, it was generally

asserted, was made of ivory. At the present day even, there

are many persons, who from religious motives will never clip

the hair growing upon a mole on the face.







1. In B. vii. c. 2.

2. In B. vii. c. 2, he speaks of these people-"the serpent-born"-as

natives of Parium, a town of the Hellespont. Ajasson suggests that they

may have been a branch of the Thamirades, a sacerdotal family of Cyprus.

3. "Dolium."

4. See B. viii. c. 38.

5. Ajasson has thought it worth while to contradict this assertion.

6. Meaning, of course, in case such an accident should befall the party.

The passage appears, however, to be corrupt.

7. "Hasta velitaris."

8. In B. vii. c. 2.

9. It is the shoulder-blade of Pelops that is generally mentioned in the

ancient Mythology. Pliny omits to say of what medicinal virtues it was

possessed.




7. Chap. 7.-Properties Of The Human Spittle.


CHAP. 7.-PROPERTIES OF THE HUMAN SPITTLE.



But it is the fasting spittle of a human being, that is, as

already[1] stated by us, the sovereign preservative against the

poison of serpents; while, at the same time, our daily experience

may recognize its efficacy and utility,[2] in many other respects.

We are in the habit of spitting,[3] for instance, as a preservative

from epilepsy, or in other words, we repel contagion thereby:







in a similar manner, too, we repel fascinations, and the evil

presages attendant upon meeting a person who is lame in the

right leg. We ask pardon of the gods, by spitting in[4] the

lap, for entertaining some too presumptuous hope or expectation.[5] On the same principle, it is the practice in all cases

where medicine is employed, to spit three times on the ground,

and to conjure the malady as often; the object being, to aid the

operation of the remedy employed. It is usual, too, to mark

a boil, when it first makes its appearance, three times with

fasting[6] spittle. What we are going to say is marvellous,

but it may easily be tested[7] by experiment: if a person repents of a blow given to another, either by hand or with a

missile, he has nothing to do but to spit at once into the palm

of the hand which has inflicted the blow, and all feelings[8] of

resentment will be instantly alleviated in the person struck.

This, too, is often verified in the case of a beast of burden,

when brought on its haunches with blows; for upon this remedy

being adopted, the animal will immediately step out and mend

its pace. Some persons, however, before making an effort, spit

into the hand in manner above stated, in order to make the

blow more heavy.[9]



We may well believe, then, that lichens and leprous spots

may be removed by a constant application of fasting spittle;

that ophthalmia may be cured by anointing, as it were, the

eyes every morning with fasting spittle; that carcinomata

may be effectually treated, by kneading the root of the plant

known as "apple of the earth,"[10] with human spittle; that

crick in the neck may be got rid of by carrying fasting spittle

to the right knee with the right hand, and to the left knee

with the left; and that when an insect has got into the ear, it







is quite sufficient to spit into that organ, to make it come out.

Among the counter-charms too, are reckoned, the practice of

spitting into the urine the moment it is voided, of spitting into

the shoe of the right foot before putting it on, and of spitting

while a person is passing a place in which he has incurred any

kind of peril.



Marcion of Smyrna, who has written a work on the virtues

of simples, informs us that the sea scolopendra will burst

asunder if spit upon; and that the same is the case with bram-

ble-frogs,[11] and other kinds of frogs. Opilius says that serpents

will do the same, if a person spits into their open mouth; and

Salpe tells us, that when any part of the body is asleep, the

numbness may be got rid of by the person spitting into his

lap, or touching the upper eyelid with his spittle. If we are

ready to give faith to such statements as these, we must believe also in the efficacy of the following practices: upon the

entrance of a stranger, or when a person looks at an infant

while asleep, it is usual for the nurse to spit three times upon

the ground; and this, although infants are under the especial

guardianship of the god Fascinus,[12] the protector, not of infants

only, but of generals as well, and a divinity whose worship is

entrusted to the Vestal virgins, and forms part of the Roman

rites. It is the image of this divinity that is attached beneath

the triumphant car of the victorious general, protecting him,

like some attendant physician, against the effects of envy;[13]

while, at the same time, equally salutary is the advice of the

tongue, which warns him to be wise in time,[14] that so Fortune







may be prevailed upon by his prayers, not to follow, as the

destroyer of his glory, close upon his back.







1. In B. vii. c. 2.

2. It certainly does seem to be possessed of some efficacy for the removal

of spots and stains, but for no other purpose probably.

3. In some parts of France, the peasants spit in the hand when in terror

of spectres at night. In our country, prize-fighters spit in the band before

beginning the combat, and costermongers spit on their morning's handsel,

or first earned money, for good luck.

4. "In sinum."

5. See Juvenal, Sat. v. 1. 112.

6. Ajasson remarks that the human spittle contains hydrochlorate of

soda and potash; the remedial virtues of which, however, would be infinitely small.

7. A quibble, Ajasson remarks. Did Pliny ever test it himself? He

would seem to imply it.

8. "Levatur illico in percusso culpa."

9. This is still the case with pugilists, and persons requiring to use strong

exertion. It is based, however, on a mere superstition, as Ajasson remarks.

10. "Malum terram." See B. xxv. c. 54, and B. xxvi. c. 56. Littr

translates "malum," "apple," in the former passage; but here he calls it

"curse of the earth."

11. "Rubetas." See B. viii. c. 48, B. xi. cc. 19, 76, and 116, and B.

xxv. c. 76.

12. This divinity was identical with Mutinus or Tutinus, and was

worshipped under the form of a phallus, the male generative organ. As

the guardian of infants, his peculiar form is still unconsciously represented

in the shape of the coral bauble with which infants are aided in cutting

their teeth.

13. Hence the expression "prfiscini," "Be it said without envy," supposed to avert the effects of the envious eye, fascination, or enchantment.

14. "Resipiscere" seems to be a preferable reading to "respicere," adopted

by Sillig. This passage is evidently in a very corrupt state; but it is most

probable that reference is made to the attendant who stood behind the

general in his triumph, and reminded him that he was a man-or, according

to Tzetzes, bade him look behind him. Pliny speaks of a servant attending

the triumphant general, with a golden crown, in B. xxxiii. c. 4. Hardouin

attempts another explanation, but a very confused and improbable one.




8. Chap. 8.-Remedies Derived From The Wax Of The Human Ear.


CHAP. 8.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE WAX OF THE HUMAN

EAR.



The human bite is also looked upon as one of the most dangerous of all. The proper remedy for it is human ear-wax:

a thing that we must not be surprised at, seeing that, if applied immediately, it is a cure for the stings of scorpions even,

and serpents. The best, however, for this purpose, is that

taken from the ears of the wounded person. Agnails, too,

it is said, may be cured in a similar manner. A human tooth,

reduced to powder, is a cure, they say, for the sting of a serpent.










9. Chap. 9.-Remedies Derived From The Human Hair, Teeth, Etc.


CHAP. 9.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HUMAN HAIR,

TEETH, ETC.



The first hair, it is said, that is cut from an infant's head,

and, in fact, the hair of all persons that have not reached the

age of puberty, attached to the limbs, will modify the attacks

of gout. A man's hair, applied with vinegar, is a cure for the

bite of a dog, and, used with oil or wine, for wounds on the

head. It is said, too, if we choose to believe it, that the hair

of a man torn down from the cross, is good for quartan fevers.

Ashes, too, of burnt human hair are curative of carcinomata.

If a woman takes the first tooth that; a child has shed, provided

it has not touched the ground, and has it set in a bracelet, and

wears it constantly upon her arm, it will preserve her from

all pains in the uterus and adjacent parts. If the great toe

is tied fast to the one next to it, it will reduce tumours in the

groin; and if the two middle fingers of the right hand are

slightly bound together with a linen thread, it will act as a

preservative against catarrhs and ophthalmia. A stone, it is

said, that has been voided by a patient suffering from calculi,

if attached to the body above the pubes, will alleviate the

pains of others similarly afflicted, as well as pains in the liver;

it will have the effect, also, of facilitating delivery. Granius[1]

adds, however, that for this last purpose, the stone will be more

efficacious if it has been extracted with the knife. Delivery,

when near at hand, will be accelerated, if the man by whom







the woman has conceived, unties his girdle, and, after tying it

round her, unties it, adding at the same time this formula, "I

have tied it, and I will untie it," and then taking his de-

parture.







1. See end of the present Book.




10. Chap. 10.-Remedies Derived From The Human Blood, The Sexual Congress, Etc.


CHAP. 10.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HUMAN BLOOD, THE

SEXUAL CONGRESS, ETC.



The blood of the human body, come from what part it may,

is most efficacious, according to Orpheus and Archelaiis, as an

application for quinzy: they say, too, that if it is applied to

the mouth of a person who has fallen down in a fit of epilepsy,

he will come to himself immediately. Some say that, for

epilepsy, the great toes should be pricked, and the drops of

blood that exude therefrom applied to the face; or else, that a

virgin should touch the patient with her right thumb-a cir-

cumstance that has led to the belief that persons suffering from

epilepsy should eat the flesh of animals in a virgin state.

schines of Athens used to cure quinzy, carcinoma, and affec-

tions of the tonsillary glands and uvula, with the ashes of

burnt excrements, a medicament to which he gave the name

of "botryon."[1]

There are many kinds of diseases which disappear entirely

after the first sexual congress,[2] or, in the case of females, at the

first appearance of menstruation; indeed, if such is not the

case, they are apt to become chronic, epilepsy in particular.

Even more than this-a man, it is said, who has been stung

by a serpent or scorpion, experiences relief from the sexual

congress; but the woman, on the other hand, is sensible of

detriment. We are assured, too, that if persons, when washing

their feet, touch the eyes three times with the water, they will

never be subject to ophthalmia or other diseases of the eyes.







1. Properly meaning "a cluster of grapes."

2. Ajasson remarks that there is a considerable degree of truth in this

assertion. He gives a long list of French works on the subject.




11. Chap. 11.-Remedies Derived From The Dead.


CHAP. 11.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE DEAD.



Scrofula, imposthumes of the parotid glands, and throat

diseases, they say, may be cured by the contact of the hand of

a person who has been carried off. by an early death: indeed

there are some who assert that any dead body will produce the

same effect, provided it is of the same sex as the patient, and







that the part affected is touched with the back of the left

hand.[1] To bite off a piece from wood that has been struck

by lightning, the hands being held behind the back, and then

to apply it to the tooth, is a sure remedy, they say, for toothache. Some persons recommend the tooth to be fumigated

with the smoke of a burnt tooth, which has belonged to another

person of the same sex; or else to attach to the person a dogtooth, as it is called, which has been extracted from a body

before burial. Earth, they say, taken from out of a human

skull, acts as a depilatory to the eyelashes; it is asserted, also,

that any plant which may happen to have grown there, if

chewed, will cause the teeth to come out; and that if a circle

is traced round an ulcer with a human bone, it will be effectually prevented from spreading.



Some persons, again, mix water in equal proportions from

three different wells, and, after making a libation with part of

it in a new earthen vessel, administer the rest to patients suffering from tertian fever, when the paroxysms come on. So,

too, in cases of quartan fever, they take a fragment of a nail

from a cross, or else a piece of a halter[2] that has been used

for crucifixion, and, after wrapping it in wool, attach it to the

patient's neck; taking care, the moment he has recovered, to

conceal it in some hole to which the light of the sun cannot

penetrate.







1. This superstition still exists among the lower classes of this country,

with reference to the beneficial effects of stroking neck diseases with the

hand of a man who has been hanged.

2. Made of "spartum." See B. xix. cc. 6, 7.




12. Chap. 12.-Various Reveries And Devices Of The Magicians.


CHAP. 12.-VARIOUS REVERIES AND DEVICES OF THE MAGICIANS.



The following are some of the reveries of magic.[1] A whetstone upon which iron tools have been frequently sharpened,

if put, without his being aware of it, beneath the pillow of a

person sinking under the effects of poison, will make him give

evidence and declare what poison has been administered, and

at what time and place, though at the same time he will not

disclose the author of the crime. When a person has been

struck by lightning, if the body is turned upon the side which

has sustained the injury, he will instantly recover the power







of speech-that is quite certain.[2] For the cure of inguinal

tumours, some persons take the thrum of an old web, and after

tying seven or nine knots in it, mentioning at each knot the

name of some widow woman or other, attach it to the part

affected. To assuage the pain of a wound, they recommend

the party to take a nail or any other substance that has been

trodden under foot, and to wear it, attached to the body with

the thrum of a web. To get rid of warts, some lie in a

footpath with the face upwards, when the moon is twenty days

old at least, and after fixing their gaze upon it, extend their

arms above the head, and rub themselves with anything

within their reach. If a person is extracting a corn at the

moment that a star shoots, he will experience an immediate

cure,[3] they say. By pouring vinegar upon the hinges of a

door, a thick liniment is formed, which, applied to the forehead, will alleviate headache: an effect equally produced, we

are told, by binding the temples with a halter with which a

man has been hanged. When a fish-bone happens to stick in

the throat, it will go down immediately, if the person plunges

his feet into cold water; but where the accident has happened

with any other kind of bone, the proper remedy is to apply

to the head some fragments of bones taken from the same dish.

In cases where bread has stuck in the throat, the best plan is

to take some of the same bread, and insert it in both ears.







1. Of which the Persian Magi were the most noted professors.

2. The "constat" here, whether it belongs to the magicians, or to Pliny

himself, is highly amusing, as Ajasson remarks.

3. Sillig appears to be right in his conjecture that the "vel" here

should be omitted.




13. Chap. 13.-Remedies Derived From The Human Excretions.


CHAP. 13.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HUMAN EXCRETIONS.



In Greece, where everything is turned to account, the

owners of the gymnasia have introduced the very excretions[1]

even of the human body among the most efficient remedies;

so much so, indeed, that the scrapings from the bodies of the

athletes are looked upon as possessed of certain properties of

an emollient, calorific, resolvent, and expletive nature, resulting from the compound of human sweat and oil. These

scrapings are used, in the form of a pessary, for inflammations

and contractions of the uterus: similarly employed, they act

as an emmenagogue, and are useful for reducing condylomata

and inflammations of the rectum, as also for assuaging pains







in the sinews, sprains, and nodosities of the joints. The

scrapings obtained from the baths are still more efficacious for

these purposes, and hence it is that they form an ingredient in

maturative preparations. Such scrapings as are impregnated

with wrestlers' oil,[2] used in combination with mud, have a

mollifying effect upon the joints, and are more particularly

efficacious as a calorific and resolvent; but in other respects

their properties are not so strongly developed.



The shameless and disgusting researches that have been

made will quite transcend all belief, when we find authors of

the very highest repute proclaiming aloud that the male

seminal fluid is a sovereign remedy for the sting of the scorpion! In the case too, of women afflicted with sterility, they

recommend the application of a pessary, made of the first

excrement that is voided by an infant at the moment of its

birth; the name they give it is "meconium."[3] They have

even gone so far, too, as to scrape the very filth from off the

walls of the gymnasia, and to assert that this is also possessed

of certain calorific properties. These scrapings are used as a

resolvent for inflamed tumours, and are applied topically to

ulcers upon aged people and children, and to excoriations and

burns.







1. See B. xv. c. 5.

2. "Ceroma." A mixture of oil and wax.

3. Properly, "poppy juice."




14. Chap. 14.-Remedies Depending Upon The Human Will.


CHAP. 14.-REMEDIES DEPENDING UPON THE HUMAN WILL.



It would be the less becoming then for me to omit all

mention of the remedies which depend upon the human will.

Total abstinence from food or drink, or from wine only, from

flesh, or from the use of the bath, in cases where the health

requires any of these expedients, is looked upon as one of the

most effectual modes of treating diseases. To this class of

remedies must be added bodily exercise, exertion of the voice,[1]

anointings, and frictions according to a prescribed method:

for powerful friction, it should be remembered, has a binding

effect upon the body, while gentle friction, on the other hand,

acts as a laxative; so too, repeated friction reduces the

body, while used in moderation it has a tendency to make

flesh. But the most beneficial practice of all is to take walking







or carriage[2] exercise; this last being performed in various ways.

Exercise on horseback is extremely good for affections of the

stomach and hips, a voyage for phthisis,[3] and a change of

locality[4] for diseases of long standing. So, too, a cure may

sometimes be effected by sleep, by a recumbent position in bed,

or by the use of emetics in moderation. To lie upon the back

is beneficial to the sight, to lie with the face downwards is

good for a cough, and to lie on the side is recommended for

patients suffering from catarrh.



According to Aristotle and Fabianus, it is towards spring and

autumn that we are most apt to dream; and they tell us that

persons are most liable to do so when lying on the back, but

never when lying with the face downwards. Theophrastus

assures us that the digestion is accelerated by lying on the

right side; while, on the other hand, it is retarded by lying

with the face upwards. The most powerful, however, of all

remedies, and one which is always at a person's own command,

is the sun: violent friction, too, is useful by the agency of

linen towels and body-scrapers.[5] To pour warm water on the

head before taking the vapour-bath, and cold water after it, is

looked upon as a most beneficial practice; so, too, is the habit

of taking cold water before food, of drinking it every now and

then while eating, of taking it just before going to sleep, and,

if practicable, of waking every now and then, and taking a

draught. It is worthy also of remark, that there is no living

creature but man[6] that is fond of hot drinks, a proof that they

are contrary to nature. It has been ascertained by experiment,

that it is a good plan to rinse the mouth with undiluted wine,

before going to sleep, for the purpose of sweetening the breath;

to rinse the mouth with cold water an odd number of times

every morning, as a preservative against tooth-ache; and to

wash the eyes with oxycrate, as a preventive of ophthalmia.

It has been remarked also, that the general health is improved

by a varying regimen, subject to no fixed rules.







(5.) Hippocrates informs us that the viscera of persons who

do not take the morning meal[7] become prematurely aged and

feeble; but then he has pronounced this aphorism, it must be

remembered, by way of suggesting a healthful regimen, and not

to promote gluttony; for moderation in diet is, after all, the

thing most conducive to health. L. Lucullus gave charge to

one of his slaves to overlook him in this respect; and, a thing

that reflected the highest discredit on him, when, now an aged

man and laden with triumphs, he was feasting in the Capitol

even, his hand had to be removed. from the dish to which he

was about to help himself. Surely it was a disgrace for a man

to be governed by his own slave[8] more easily than by himself!







1. Or "clara lectio," "reading aloud," as Celsus calls it, recommending

it for persons of slow digestion.

2. "Gestatio." Exercise on horseback, in a carriage drawn by horses,

or in a litter. See B. xxvi. c. 7.

3. See B. xxxi. c. 33. A sea voyage, to Madeira, for instance, is still recommended for consumptive patients.

4. Change of locality is still recommended for diseases of the spleen, as

they are called.

5. "Strigilium."

6. Except monkeys and some domesticated animals, Ajasson remarks.

7. "Non prandentium."

8. Callisthenes the physician is the person supposed to be alluded to.

Lucullus did not seem to be of opinion that a man "must be a fool or a

physician at forty."




15. Chap. 15. (6.)-Remedies Derived From Sneezing.


CHAP. 15. (6.)-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM SNEEZING.



Sneezing, provoked by a feather, relieves heaviness in the

head; it is said too, that to touch the nostrils of a mule with

the lips, will arrest sneezing and hiccup. For this last purpose, Varro recommends us to scratch the palm, first of one

hand and then of the other; while many say that it is a good

plan to shift the ring from off the left hand to the longest finger

of the right, and then to plunge the hands into hot water.

Theophrastus says, that aged persons sneeze with greater difficulty than others.










16. Chap. 16.-Remedies Derived From The Sexual Congress.


CHAP. 16.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SEXUAL CONGRESS.



Democritus spoke in condemnation of the sexual congress, as[1]

being merely an act through which one human being springs from

another; and really, by Hercules! the more rarely it is used

the better. Still however, athletes, we find, when they become

dull and heavy, are re-established by it: the voice, too, is restored by it, when from being perfectly clear, it has degenerated

into hoarseness. The congress of the sexes is a cure also for

pains in the loins, dimness of the eyesight,[2] alienation of the

mental difficulties, and melancholy.











1. "Ut in qu homo alius exsiliret ex homine." The true meaning of

this it seems impossible, with certainty, to ascertain: though a more indelicate one than that given might be easily suggested.

2. On the contrary, some authorities say that it is apt to cause dimness of

sight.




17. Chap. 17.-Various Other Remedies.


CHAP. 17.-VARIOUS OTHER REMEDIES.



To sit by a pregnant woman, or by a person to whom any

remedy is being administered, with the fingers of one hand

inserted between those of the other, acts as a magic spell; a

discovery that was made, it is said, when Alcmena[1] was

delivered of Hercules. If the fingers are thus joined, clasping

one or both knees, or if the ham of one leg is first put upon

the knee of the other, and then changed about, the omen is of

still worse signification. Hence it is, that in councils held by

generals and persons in authority, our ancestors forbade these

postures, as being an impediment to all business.[2] They have

given a similar prohibition also with reference to sacrifices and

the offering of public vows; but as to the usage of uncovering

the head in presence of the magistrates, that has been enjoined,

Varro says, not as a mark of respect, but with a view to

health, the head being strengthened[3] by the practice of keeping

it uncovered.



When anything has got into the eye, it is a good plan to

close the other; and when water has got into the right ear,

the person should hop about on the left foot, with the head

reclining upon the right shoulder, the reverse being done

when the same has happened to the left ear. If the secretion

of the phlegm produces coughing, the best way of stopping it

is for another person to blow in the party's face. When the

uvula is relaxed, another person should take the patient with

his teeth by the crown,[4] and lift him from the ground; while

for pains in the neck, the hams should be rubbed, and for

pains in the hams the neck. If a person is seized in bed with

cramp in the sinews of the legs or thighs, he should set his

feet upon the ground: so, too, if he has cramp on the left

side, he should take hold of the great toe of the left foot with

the right hand, and if on the right side, the great toe of the

right foot with the left hand. For cold shiverings or for

excessive bleeding at the nostrils, the extremities of the body

should be well rubbed with sheep's wool. To arrest incontinence of urine, the extremities of the generative organs should







be tied with a thread of linen or papyrus, and a binding passed

round the middle of the thigh. For derangement of the

stomach, it is a good plan to press the feet together, or to

plunge the hands into hot water.



In addition to all this, in many cases it is found highly beneficial to speak but little; thus, for instance, Mcenas Melissus,[5] we are told, enjoined silence on himself for three

years, in consequence of spitting blood after a convulsive fit.

When a person is thrown from a carriage, or when, while

mounting an elevation or lying extended at full length, he

is menaced with any accident, or if he receives a blow, it is

singularly beneficial to hold the breath; a discovery for which

we are indebted to an animal, as already[6] stated.



To thrust an iron nail into the spot where a person's head

lay at the moment he was seized with a fit of epilepsy, is said

to have the effect of curing him of that disease. For pains in

the kidneys, loins, or bladder, it is considered highly soothing

to void the urine lying on the face at full length in a reclining

bath. It is quite surprising how much more speedily wounds

will heal if they are bound up and tied with a Hercules' knot:[7]

indeed, it is said, that if the girdle which we wear every day

is tied with a knot of this description, it will be productive of

certain beneficial effects, Hercules having been the first to

discover the fact.



Demetrius, in the treatise which he has compiled upon the

number Four, alleges certain reasons why drink should never

be taken in proportions of four cyathi or sextarii. As a preventive of ophthalmia, it is a good plan to rub the parts behind the ears, and, as a cure for watery eyes, to rub the forehead. As to the presages which are derived from man himself, there is one to the effect that so long as a person is able

to see himself reflected in the pupil of the patient's eye,

there need be no apprehension of a fatal termination to the

malady.







1. See Ovid, Met. ix. 273, et seq.

2. Much more probably, because they were considered to be significant

of anything but seriousness and attention.

3. Exemplified in the case of the Egyptians, Herodotus says.

4. The remedy would seem to be worse than the evil.

5. See end of B. vii.

6. In B. viii. c. 58.

7. A knot tied very hard, and in which no ends were to be seen.




18. Chap. 18.-Remedies Derived From The Urine.


CHAP. 18.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE URINE.



The urine,[1] too, has been the subject not only of numerous







theories with authors, but of various religious observances as

well, its properties being classified under several distinctive

heads: thus, for instance, the urine of eunuchs, they say, is

highly beneficial as a promoter of fruitfulness in females. But

to turn to those remedies which we may be allowed to name

without impropriety-the urine of children who have not

arrived at puberty is a sovereign remedy for the poisonous

secretions of the asp known as the "ptyas,"[2] from the fact

that it spits its venom into the eyes of human beings. It is

good, too, for the cure of albugo, films and marks upon the

eyes, white specks[3] upon the pupils, and maladies of the eyelids. In combination with meal of fitches, it is used for the

cure of burns, and, with a head of bulbed leek, it is boiled

down to one half, in a new earthen vessel, for the treatment of

suppurations of the ears, or the extermination of worms breeding in those organs: the vapour, too, of this decoction acts as

an emmenagogue. Salpe recommends that the eyes should

be fomented with it, as a means of strengthening the sight;

and that it should be used as a liniment for sun scorches,

in combination with white of egg, that of the ostrich being

the most effectual, the application being kept on for a couple

of hours.



Urine is also used for taking out ink spots. Male urine

cures gout, witness the fullers for instance,[4] who, for this

reason, it is said, are never troubled with that disease. With

stale urine some mix ashes of calcined oyster-shells, for the

cure of eruptions on the bodies of infants, and all kinds of

running ulcers: it is used, too, as a liniment for corrosive sores,

burns, diseases of the rectum, chaps upon the body, and stings

inflicted by scorpions. The most celebrated midwives have

pronounced that there is no lotion which removes itching sensations more effectually; and, with the addition of nitre,[5] they

prescribe it for the cure of ulcers of the head, porrigo, and

cancerous sores, those of the generative organs in particular.

But the fact is, and there is no impropriety in saying so, that

every person's own urine is the best for his own case, due







care being taken to apply it immediately, and unmixed with

anything else; in such cases as the bite of a dog, for instance,

or the quill of a hedge-hog entering the flesh, a sponge or

some wool being the vehicle in which it is applied. Kneaded

up with ashes, it is good for the bite of a mad dog, and for the

cure of stings inflicted by serpents. As to the bite of the

scolopendra, the effects of urine are said to be quite marvellous-the person who has been injured has only to touch

the crown of his head with a drop of his own urine, and he

will experience an instantaneous cure.







1. This excretion was, till lately, thought of great importance, as indicative of the health of the patient.

2. From the Greek ptuw\, "to spit."

3. "Argema."

4. Who had to use lant, or stale urine, in their business.

5. At a future period we shall have to discuss the identity of the

"nitrum" of Pliny. See B. xxxi. c. 46.




19. Chap. 19.-Indications Of Health Derived From The Urine.


CHAP. 19.-INDICATIONS OF HEALTH DERIVED FROM THE URINE.



Certain indications of the health are furnished by the urine.

Thus, for example, if it is white at first in the morning and

afterwards high-coloured, the first signifies that the digestion is

going on, the last that it is completed. When the urine is red,

it is a bad sign; but when it is swarthy, it is the worst sign

of all. So, too, when it is thick or full of bubbles, it is a bad

sign; and when a white sediment forms, it is a symptom of

pains in the region of the viscera or in the joints. A green-coloured urine is indicative of disease of the viscera, a pale urine

of biliousness, and a red urine of some distemper in the blood.

The urine is in a bad state, too, when certain objects form in

it, like bran or fine clouds in appearance. A thin, white, urine

also is in a diseased state; but when it is thick and possessed

of an offensive smell, it is significant of approaching death: so,

too, when with children it is thin and watery.



The adepts in magic expressly forbid a person, when about

to make water, to uncover the body in the face of the sun[1] or

moon, or to sprinkle with his urine the shadow of any object

whatsoever. Hesiod[2] gives a precept, recommending persons to

make water against an object standing full before them, that no

divinity may be offended by their nakedness being uncovered.

Osthanes maintains that every one who drops some urine

upon his foot in the morning will be proof against all noxious

medicaments.







1. This was also one of the Pythagorean precepts.

2. Works and Days, 1. 727, et seq.




20. Chap. 20. (7.)-Forty-One Remedies Derived From The Female Sex.


CHAP. 20. (7.)-FORTY-ONE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE

FEMALE SEX.



The remedies said to be derived from the bodies of females







closely approach the marvellous nature of prodigies; to say

nothing of still-born infants cut up limb by limb for the most

abominable practices, expiations made with the menstrual discharge, and other devices which have been mentioned, not

only by midwives but by harlots[1] even as well! The smell of a

woman's hair, burnt, will drive away serpents, and hysterical

suffocations, it is said, may be dispelled thereby. The ashes

of a woman's hair, burnt in an earthen vessel, or used in

combination with litharge, will cure eruptions and prurigo of

the eyes: used in combination with honey they will remove

warts and ulcers upon infants; with the addition of honey and

frankincense, they will heal wounds upon the head, and fill up

all concavities left by corrosive ulcers; used with hogs' lard,

they will cure inflammatory tumours and gout; and applied topically to the part affected, they will arrest erysipelas and hmorrhage, and remove itching pimples on the body which

resemble the stings of ants.







1. The use of the word "prodidere" shows that treatises had been

written on these abominable subjects. Las, Elephantis, and Salpe were

probably the "meretrices" to whom he here alludes. See c. 23, and the

end of this Book.




21. Chap. 21.-Remedies Derived From Woman's Milk.


CHAP. 21.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WOMAN'S MILK.



As to the uses to which woman's milk has been applied, it

is generally agreed that it is the sweetest and the most delicate of all, and that it is the best[1] of remedies for chronic

fevers and cliac affections, when the woman has just weaned

her infant more particularly. In cases, too, of sickness at

stomach, fevers, and gnawing sensations, it has been found by

experience to be highly beneficial; as also, in combination

with frankincense, for abscesses of the mamill. When the

eyes are bloodshot from the effects of a blow, or affected with

pain or defluxion, it is a very good plan to inject woman's milk

into them, more particularly in combination with honey and

juice of daffodil, or else powdered frankincense. In all cases,

however, the milk of a woman who has been delivered of a

male child is the most efficacious, and still more so if she has

had male twins; provided always she abstains from wine and

food of an acrid nature. Mixed with the white of an egg in

a liquid state, and applied to the forehead in wool, it arrests







defluxions of the eyes. If a frog[2] has spirted its secretions[3]

into the eye, woman's milk is a most excellent remedy; and

for the bite of that reptile it is used both internally and externally.



It is asserted that if a person is rubbed at the same moment

with the milk of both mother and daughter, he will be proof

for the rest of his life against all affections of the eyes.

Mixed with a small quantity of oil, woman's milk is a cure for

diseases of the ears; and if they are in pain from the effects

of a blow, it is applied warm with goose-grease. If the ears

emit an offensive smell, a thing that is mostly the case in

diseases of long standing, wool is introduced into those organs,

steeped in woman's milk and honey. While symptoms of

jaundice are still visible in the eyes, woman's milk is injected,

in combination with elaterium.[4] Taken as a drink, it is productive of singularly good effects, where the poison of the

sea-hare, the buprestis,[5] or, as Aristotle tells us, the plant

dorycnium[6] has been administered; as a preventive also of the

madness produced by taking henbane. Woman's milk also,

mixed with hemlock, is recommended as a liniment for gout;

while some there are who employ it for that purpose in combination with wool-grease[7] or goose-grease; a form in which

it is used as an application for pains in the uterus. Taken as

a drink, it arrests diarrha, Rabirius[8] says, and acts as an

emmenagogue; but where the woman has been delivered of a

female child, her milk is of use only for the cure of face

diseases.



Woman's milk is also a cure for affections of the lungs; and,

mixed with the urine of a youth who has not arrived at puberty, and Attic honey, in the proportion of one spoonful

of each, it removes singing in the ears, I find. Dogs which

have once tasted the milk of a woman who has been delivered

of a male child, will never become mad, they say.











1. There is probably no foundation for this assertion.

2. "Rana." He means the "rubeta" probably, or "bramble-frog,"

so often mentioned by him. See Note 84, p. 290.

3. "Salivam."

4. See B. xx. c. 2.

5. See B. xxx. c. 10. Latreille has written a very able treatise on the

Buprestis of the ancients, and considers it to belong to the family of Cantharides. Alnnales du Museum d'histoire Naturelle, Vol. xix. p. 129, et seq.

6. Convolvulus dorycnium; see B. xxi. c. 105, and B. xxiii. c. 18.

7. "sypum." See B. xxx. c. 23.

8. Possibly the Epic writer of that name, mentioned by Ovid, Seneca,

Quintilian, and Velleius Paterculus.




22. Chap. 22.-Remedies Derived From The Spittle Of Females.


CHAP. 22.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SPITTLE OF FEMALES.



A woman's fasting spittle is generally considered highly

efficacious for bloodshot eyes: it is good also for defluxions of

those organs, the inflamed corners of the eyes being moistened

with it every now and then; the result, too, is still more successful, if the woman has abstained from food and wine the

day before.



I find it stated that head-ache may be alleviated by tying a

woman's fillet[1] round the head.







1. "Fascia." Either a stomacher, or a fillet for the head.




23. Chap. 23.-Facts Connected With The Menstrual Discharge.


CHAP. 23.-FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE MENSTRUAL DISCHARGE.



Over and above these particulars, there is no limit to the

marvellous powers attributed to females. For, in the first

place, hailstorms, they say, whirlwinds, and lightning[1] even,

will be scared away by a woman uncovering her body while

her monthly courses are upon her. The same, too, with all

other kinds of tempestuous weather; and out at sea, a storm

may be lulled by a woman uncovering her body merely, even

though not menstruating at the time. As to the menstrual

discharge itself, a thing that in other respects, as[2] already

stated on a more appropriate occasion, is productive of the most

monstrous effects, there are some ravings about it of a most

dreadful and unutterable nature. Of these particulars, however, I do not feel so much shocked at mentioning the following. If the menstrual discharge coincides with an eclipse of

the moon or sun, the evils resulting from it are irremediable;

and no less so, when it happens while the moon is in conjunction with the sun; the congress with a woman at such a period

being noxious, and attended with fatal effects to the man. At

this period also, the lustre of purple is tarnished by the touch

of a woman: so much more baneful is her influence at this

time than at any other. At any other time, also, if a woman

strips herself naked while she is menstruating, and walks

round a field of wheat, the caterpillars, worms, beetles, and

other vermin, will fall from off the ears of corn. Metrodorus

of Scepsos tells us that this discovery was first made in Cappadocia; and that, in consequence of such multitudes of can-







tharides being found to breed there, it is the practice for

women to walk through the middle of the fields with their

garments tucked up above the thighs.[3] In other places, again,

it is the usage for women to go barefoot, with the hair

dishevelled and the girdle loose: due precaution must be taken,

however, that this is not done at sun-rise, for if so, the crop

will wither and dry up. Young vines, too, it is said, are injured irremediably by the touch of a woman in this state; and

both rue and ivy, plants possessed of highly medicinal virtues,

will die instantly upon being touched by her.



Much as I have already stated on the virulent effects of this

discharge, I have to state, in addition, that bees, it is a well-known fact, will forsake their hives if touched by a menstruous

woman; that linen boiling in the cauldron will turn black, that

the edge of a razor will become blunted, and that copper vessels will contract a fetid smell and become covered with verdigrease, on coming in contact with her. A mare big with foal,

if touched by a woman in this state, will be sure to miscarry;

nay, even more than this, at the very sight of a woman,

though seen at a distance even, should she happen to be

menstruating for the first time after the loss of her virginity,

or for the first time, while in a state of virginity. The bitumen[4] that is found in Juda, will yield to nothing but the

menstrual discharge; its tenacity being overcome, as already

stated, by the agency of a thread from a garment which has

been brought in contact with this fluid. Fire itself even, an

element which triumphs over every other substance, is unable

to conquer this; for if reduced to ashes and then sprinkled

upon garments when about to be scoured, it will change their

purple tint, and tarnish the brightness of the colours. Indeed

so pernicious are its properties, that women themselves, the

source from which it is derived, are far from being proof against

its effects; a pregnant woman, for instance, if touched with

it, or indeed if she so much as steps over it, will be liable to

miscarry.



Las and Elephant is[5] have given statements quite at variance, on the subject of abortives; they mention the efficacy







for that purpose of charcoal of cabbage root, myrtle root, or

tamarisk root, quenched in the menstrual discharge; they say

that she-asses will be barren for as many years as they have

eaten barley-corns steeped in this fluid; and they have enumerated various other monstrous and irreconcileable properties,

the one telling us, for instance, that fruitfulness may be ensured

by the very same methods, which, according to the statement

of the other, are productive of barrenness; to all which stories it

is the best plan to refuse credit altogether. Bithus of Dyrrhachium informs us that a mirror,[6] which has been tarnished by

the gaze of a menstruous female, will recover its brightness if

the same woman looks steadily upon the back of it; he states,

also, that all evil influences of this nature will be entirely

neutralized, if the woman carries the fish known as the sur

mullet about her person.



On the other hand, again, many writers say that, baneful as

it is, there are certain remedial properties in this fluid; that it

is a good plan, for instance, to use it as a topical application for

gout, and that women, while menstruating, can give relief by

touching scrofulous sores and imposthumes of the parotid

glands, inflamed tumours, erysipelas, boils, and defluxions of

the eyes. According to Las and Salpe, the bite of a mad (log,

as well as tertian or quartan fevers, may be cured by putting

some menstruous blood in the wool of a black ram and enclosing it in a silver bracelet; and we learn from Diotimus of

Thebes that the smallest portion will suffice of any kind of

cloth that has been stained therewith, a thread even, if inserted and worn in a bracelet. The midwife Sotira informs

us that the most efficient cure for tertian and quartan fevers is

to rub the soles of the patient's feet therewith, the result being

still more successful if the operation is performed by the woman

herself, without the patient being aware of it; she says, too,

that this is an excellent method for reviving persons when

attacked with epilepsy.



Icetidas the physician pledges his word that quartan fever

may be cured by sexual intercourse, provided the woman is

just beginning to menstruate. It is universally agreed, too, that

when a person has been bitten by a dog and manifests a dread

of water and of all kinds of drink, it will be quite sufficient

to put under his clip a strip of cloth that has been dipped in







this fluid; the result being that the hydrophobia will immediately disappear. This arises, no doubt, from that powerful

sympathy which has been so much spoken of by the Greeks,

and the existence of which is proved by the fact,[7] already mentioned, that dogs become mad upon tasting this fluid. It is a well-

known fact, too, that the menstruous discharge, reduced to ashes,

and applied with furnace soot and wax, is a cure for ulcers upon

all kinds of beasts of burden; and that stains made upon a garment with it can only be removed by the agency of the urine

of the same female. Equally certain it is, too, that this fluid, reduced to ashes and mixed with oil of roses, is very useful, applied

to the forehead, for allaying head-ache, in women more particularly; as also that the nature of the discharge is most virulent in females whose virginity has been destroyed solely by

the lapse of time.



Another thing universally acknowledged and one which I

am ready to believe with the greatest pleasure, is the fact, that

if the door-posts are only touched with the menstruous fluid

all spells of the magicians will be neutralized-a set of men

the most lying in existence, as any one may ascertain. I will

give an example of one of the most reasonable of their prescriptions-Take the parings of the toe-nails and finger-nails

of a sick person, and mix them up with wax, the party saying

that he is seeking a remedy for a tertian, quartan, or quotidian

fever, as the case may be; then stick this wax, before sunrise,

upon the door of another person-such is the prescription they

give for these diseases! What deceitful persons they must be

if there is no truth in it! And how highly criminal, if they

really do thus transfer diseases from one person to another!

Some of them, again, whose practices are of a less guilty

nature, recommend that the parings of all the finger-nails

should be thrown at the entrance of ant-holes, the first ant to be

taken which attempts to draw one into the hole; this, they say,

must be attached to the neck of the patient, and he will experience a speedy cure.







1. The mention of lightning here, Hardouin seems to look upon as an

interpolation.

2. In B. vii. c. 13.

3. Columella describes this practice in verse, in B. x., and in B. xi. c. 3.

lian also mentions it.

4. See B. vii. c. 13. Tacitus tells the same wonderful story.

5. See the end of this Book.

6. See B. vii. c. 13.

7. See B, vii. c. 13.




25. Chap. 25.-Ten Remedies Derived From The Lion.


CHAP. 25.-TEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE LION.



Lion's fat, mixed with oil of roses, protects the skin of the

face from all kinds of spots, and preserves the whiteness of the

complexion; it is remedial also for such parts of the body as

have been frozen by snow, and for swellings in the joints. The

frivolous lies of the magicians assert that persons who are

anointed with lion's fat, will more readily win favour with

kings and peoples; more particularly when the fat has been

used that lies between the eyebrows of the animal-a place, in

fact, where there is no fat to be found! The like effects they

promise also from the possession of a lion's tooth, one from the

right side in particular, as also the shaggy hairs that are

found upon the lower jaw. The gall, used as an ointment in

combination with water, improves the eyesight, and, employed

with the fat of the same animal, is a cure for epilepsy; but

a slight taste only must be taken of it, and the patient must

run immediately after swallowing it, in order to digest it. A

lion's heart, used as food, is curative of quartan fevers, and

the fat, taken with oil of roses, of quotidian fevers. Wild

beasts will fly from persons anointed with lion's fat, and it is

thought to be a preservative even against treacherous practices.










26. Chap. 26.-Ten Remedies Derived From The Camel.


CHAP. 26.-TEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CAMEL.



A camel's[1] brains, dried and taken in vinegar, are a cure, they







say, for epilepsy: the same, too, with the gall, taken with

honey; which is a remedy also for quinzy. A camel's tail

dried, it is said, is productive of diarrha, and ashes of burnt

camel's dung, mixed with oil, make the hair curl. These

ashes, applied topically, are very useful for dysentery, as also

taken in drink, the proper dose being a pinch in three fingers

at a time; they are curative also of epilepsy. Camel's urine

it is said, is very useful to fullers, and is good for the cure of

running sores. Barbarous nations, we are told, are in the habit

of keeping it till it is five years old, and then taking it as a

purgative, in doses of one semisextarius. The hairs of the

tail, it is said, plaited and attached to the left arm, are a cure

for quartan fevers.







1. Pliny has omitted the milk of the camel, which, according to Tavernier, is an excellent cure for dropsy.




27. Chap. 27.-Seventy-Nine Remedies Derived From The Hyna.


CHAP. 27.-SEVENTY-NINE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HYNA.



But of all animals, it is the hyna that has been held in

the highest admiration by the magicians, who have gone so

far as to attribute to it certain magical virtues even, and the

power of alluring[1] human beings and depriving them of their

senses. Of its change of sex each year, and other monstrous

peculiarities[2] in its nature, we have spoken already;[3] we

will now proceed to describe the medicinal virtues that are

ascribed to it.



The hyna, it is said, is particularly terrible to panthers; so

much so, indeed, that they will not attempt to make the slightest resistance to it, and will never attack a man who has any

portion of a hyna's skin about him. A thing truly marvellous to tell of, if the hides of these two animals are hung up

facing one another, the hair will fall from off the panther's skin!

When the hyna flies before the hunter, it turns off on the

right, and letting the man get before it, follows in his track:

should it succeed in doing which, the man is sure to lose his

senses and fall from his horse even. But if, on the other hand,

it turns off to the left, it is a sign that the animal is losing

strength, and that it will soon be taken. The easiest method,

however, of taking it, they say, is for the hunter to tie his

girdle with seven knots, and to make as many knots in the







whip with which he guides his horse. In addition to all this,

so full of quirks and subtleties are the vain conceits of the

magicians, they recommend the hyna to be captured while

the moon is passing through the sign of Gemini, and every

hair of it to be preserved, if possible. They say, too, that the

skin of the head is highly efficacious, if attached to a person

suffering from head-ache; that the gall, applied to the forehead, is curative of ophthalmia; and that if the gall is boiled

down with three cyathi of Attic honey and one ounce of saffron,

it will be a most effectual preservative against that disease,

the same preparation being equally good for the dispersion of

films on the eyes and cataract. If, again, this preparation is

kept till it is old, it will be all the better for improving the

sight, due care being taken to preserve it in a box of Cyprian

copper: they assert also, that it is good for the cure of argema,

eruptions and excrescences of the eyes, and marks upon those

organs. For diseases[4] of the crystalline humours of the eyes,

it is recommended to anoint them with the gravy of hyna's

liver roasted fresh, incorporated with clarified honey.



We learn also, from the same sources, that the teeth of the

hyna are useful for the cure of tooth-ache, the diseased tooth

being either touched with them, or the animal's teeth being

arranged in their regular order, and attached to the patient;

that the shoulders of this animal are good for the cure of pains

in the arms and shoulders; that the teeth, extracted from the

left side of the jaw, and wrapped in the skin of a sheep or hegoat, are an effectual cure for pains in the stomach; that the

lights of the animal, taken with the food, are good for cliac

affections; that the lights, reduced to ashes and applied with oil,

are also soothing to the stomach; that the marrow of the backbone, used with old oil and gall, is strengthening to the sinews;

that the liver, tasted thrice just before the paroxysms, is good

for quartan fevers; that the ashes of the vertebr, applied in

hyena's skin with the tongue and right foot of a sea-calf and a

bull's gall, the whole boiled up together, are soothing for gout;

that for the same disease hyna's gall is advantageously employed in combination with stone of Assos;[5] that for cold shiverings, spasms, sudden fits of starting, and palpitations of the







heart, it is a good plan to eat some portion of a hyna's heart

cooked, care being taken to reduce the rest to ashes, and to

apply it with the brains of the animal to the part affected;

that this last composition, or the gall applied alone, acts as

a depilatory, the hairs being first plucked out which are

wanted not to grow again; that by this method superfluous hairs

of the eyelids may be removed; that the flesh of the loins,

eaten and applied with oil, is a cure for pains in the loins; and

that sterility in females may be removed by giving them the

eye of this animal to eat, in combination with liquorice and dill,

conception within three days being warranted as the result.



Persons afflicted with night-mare and dread of spectres, will

experience relief, they say, by attaching one of the large teeth

of a hyna to the body, with a linen thread. In fits of delirium

too, it is recommended to fumigate the patient with the smoke

of one of these teeth, and to attach one in front of his chest,

with the fat of the kidneys, or else the liver or skin. They

assert also that a pregnant woman will never miscarry, if she

wears suspended from her neck, the white flesh from a hyena's

breast, with seven hairs and the genitals of a stag, the whole

tied up in the skin of a gazelle. The genitals, they say, eaten

with honey, act as a stimulant upon a person, according to

the sex, and this even though it should be the case of a man

who has manifested an aversion to all intercourse with females.



Nay, even more than all this, we are assured that if the

genitals and a certain joint of the vertebr are preserved in

a house with the hide adhering to them, they will ensure peace

and concord between all members of the family; hence it is

that this part is known as the "joint of the spine,"[6] or "Atlantian[7] knot." This joint, which is the first, is reckoned among

the remedies for epilepsy.



The fumes of the burnt fat of this animal will put serpents to flight, they say; and the jawbone, pounded with anise

and taken with the food, is a cure for shivering fits. A fumigation made therewith has the effect of an emmenagogue; and

such are the frivolous and absurd conceits of the professors of

the magic art, that they boldly assert that if a man attaches to







his arm a tooth from the right side of the upper jaw, he will

never miss any object he may happen to aim at with a dart.

The palate, dried and warmed with Egyptian alum,[8] is curative

of bad odours and ulcers of the mouth, care being taken to

renew the application three times. Dogs, they say, will never

bark at persons who have a hyna's tongue in the shoe,

beneath the sole of the foot. The left side of the brain, applied

to the nostrils, is said to have a soothing effect upon all

dangerous maladies either in men or beasts. They say, too, that

the skin of the forehead is a preservative against all fascinations; that the flesh of the neck, whether eaten or dried and

taken in drink, is good for pains in the loins; that the sinews

of the back and shoulders, used as a fumigation, are good for

pains in the sinews; that the bristles of the snout, applied to

a woman's lips, have all the effect of a philtre; and that the

liver, administered in drink, is curative of griping pains and

urinary calculi.



The heart, it is said, taken with the food or drink, is remedial

for all kinds of pains in the body; the milt for pains in the

spleen; the caul, in combination with oil, for inflammatoryulcers; and the marrow for pains in the spine and weakness in the

sinews. The strings of the kidneys, they say, if taken with

wine and frankincense, will restore fruitfulness, in cases where

it has been banished through the agency of noxious spells; the

uterus, taken in drink with the rind of a sweet pomegranate,

is highly beneficial for diseases of the uterus; and the fat of

the loins, used as a fumigation, removes all impediments to

delivery, and accelerates parturition. The marrow of the back,

attached to the body as an amulet, is an effectual remedy for

fantastic illusions,[9] and the genitals of the male animal, used

as a fumigation, are good for the cure of spasms. For ophthalmia, ruptures, and inflammations, the feet, which are kept

for the purpose, are touched; the left feet for affections on the

right side of the body, and the right feet for affections on the

left. The left foot, if laid upon the body of a woman in travail,

will be productive, they say, of fatal effects; but the right foot,

similarly employed, will facilitate delivery. The vesicle

which has contained the gall, taken in wine or with the food. is







beneficial for the cardiac disease; and the bladder, taken in

wine, is a good preservative against incontinence of urine.

The urine, too, which is found in the bladder, taken with oil,

sesame, and honey, is said to be useful for diseases of long

standing.



The first rib and the eighth, used as a fumigation, are said

to be useful for ruptures; the vertebr for women in travail;

and the blood, in combination with polenta,[10] for griping pains

in the bowels. If the door-posts are touched with this blood,

the various arts of the magicians will be rendered of no effect;

they will neither be able to summon the gods into their presence nor to converse with them, whatever the method to which

they have recourse, whether lamps or basin, water or globe,[11]

or any other method.



The flesh of the hyna, taken as food, is said to be efficacious

for the bite of a mad dog, and the liver still more so. The

flesh or bones of a human being which have been found in the

belly of a slain hyna, used as a fumigation, are said to be

remedial for gout: but if among these remains the nails are

found, it is looked upon as a presage of death to some one among

those who have captured it. The excrements or bones which

have been voided by the animal at the moment when killed,

are looked upon as counter-charms to magic spells. The dung

found in the intestines is dried and administered in drink for

dysentery; and it is applied to all parts of the body with

goose-grease, in the form of a liniment, in the case of persons

who have received injury from some noxious medicament. By

rubbing themselves with the grease, and lying upon the skin,

of a hyna, persons who have been bitten by dogs are cured.



On the other hand, the ashes of the left pastern-bone, they

say, boiled with weasel's blood, and applied to a person's body,

will ensure universal hatred; a similar effect being equally

produced by the eye when boiled. But the most extraordinary

thing of all is, their assertion that the extremity of the rectum

of this animal is a preservative against all oppression on the

part of chiefs and potentates, and an assurance of success in all

petitions, judgments, and lawsuits, and this, if a person only

carries it about him. The anus, according to them, has so

powerful an effect as a philtre, that if it is worn on the left

arm, a woman will be sure to follow the wearer the moment







he looks at her. The hairs, too, of this part, reduced to ashes,

and applied with oil to the body of a man who is living a life

of disgraceful effeminacy, will render him not only modest,

they assure us, but of scrupulous morals even.







1. See B. viii. c. 44.

2. One peculiarity not mentioned by Pliny, is, that its skin, like that of

the sea-calf, was said to be proof against the effects of lightning.

3. In 13. viii. c. 44.

4. "Glaucomata." Littr considers, on the authority of M. Sichel, that

"Glaucoma" and "suffusio" are different names for the same disease-cataract.

5. See B. xxxvi. c. 27.

6. "Spin" seems a preferable reading to "ruin," adopted by Sillig.

7. "Nodum Atlantion." From the Greek a)/tlas, "much enduring,"

Julius Pollux says, because it was fitted for supporting burdens. The

"hinc"-"hence," of Pliny here appears to be a non sequitur.

8. We shall have occasion to make enquiry as to the identity of the

"alumen" of Pliny on a future occasion.

9. "Vanas species."

10. See B. xviii. c. 14.

11. "Pila."




28. Chap. 28.-Nineteen Remedies Derived From The Crocodile.


CHAP. 28.-NINETEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CROCODILE.



For fabulous stories connected with it the crocodile may

challenge the next place; and, indeed for cunning, the one[1]

which lives both upon land and in the water is fully its equal:

for I would here remark, that there are two varieties of this

animal. The teeth of the right jaw of the amphibious crocodile, attached to the right arm as an amulet, acts as an aphrodisiac, that is, if we choose to believe it. The eye-teeth of

the animal, filled with frankincense-for they are hollow-are

a cure for periodical fevers, care being taken to let the patient

remain five days without seeing the person who has attached

them to his body. A similar virtue is attributed to the small

stones which are found in the belly of this animal, as being a

check to the cold shiverings in fevers, when about to come on;

and with the same object the gyptians are in the habit of

anointing their sick with the fat of the crocodile.



The other kind of crocodile[2] resembles it, but is much inferior in size: it lives upon land only, and among the most

odoriferous flowers; hence it is that its intestines are so greatly

in request, being filled as they are with a mass of agreeable

perfumes. This substance is called "crocodilea," and it is

looked upon as extremely beneficial for diseases of the eyes,

and for the treatment of films and cataract, being applied with

leek-juice in the form of an ointment. Applied with oil of

cyprus,[3] it removes blemishes growing upon the face; and, employed with water, it is a cure for all those diseases, the

nature of which it is to spread upon the face, while at the same

time it restores the natural tints of the skin. An application

of it makes freckles disappear, as well as all kinds of spots and







pimples; and it is taken for epilepsy, in doses of two oboli, in

oxymel. Used in the form of a pessary it acts as an emmenagogue. The best kind of crocodilea, is that which is the whitest,

friable, and the lightest in weight: when rubbed between the

fingers it should ferment like leaven. The usual method is

to wash it, as they do white lead. It is sometimes adulterated

with amylum[4] or with Cimolian earth, but the most common

method of sophistication is to catch the crocodiles and feed

them upon nothing but rice. It is recommended as one of

the most efficient remedies for cataract to anoint the eyes with

crocodile's gall, incorporated with honey. We are assured

also that it is highly beneficial for affections of the uterus to

make fumigations with the intestines and rest of the body, or

else to envelope the patient with wool impregnated with the

smoke.



The ashes of the skin of either crocodile, applied with vinegar

to such parts of the body as are about to undergo an incision,

or indeed the very smell of the skin when burning, will render

the patient insensible to the knife. The blood of either crocodile, applied to the eyes, effaces marks upon those organs and

improves the sight. The body, with the exception of the head

and feet, is eaten, boiled, for the cure of sciatica, and is found

very useful for chronic coughs, in children more particularly:

it is equally good, too, for the cure of lumbago. These animals

have a certain fat also, which, applied to the hair, makes it fall

off; persons anointed with this fat are effectually protected

against crocodiles, and it is the practice to drop it into wounds

inflicted by them. A crocodile's heart, attached to the body

in the wool of a black sheep without a speck of any other

colour, due care too being taken that the sheep was the first

lamb yeaned by its dam, will effectually cure a quartan fever,

it is said.







1. Identified by Ajasson with the chamses, or common crocodile of the

Nile.

2. See B. viii. c. 38. Identified by Ajasson with the souchos of Geoffroy

Saint-Hilaire. It is equally amphibious with the other; and the account

of its habits given by Pliny is probably founded on the fact that Upper

Egypt, which it inhabits, is covered with a more aromatic vegetation than

the other parts of that country.

3. See B. xii. c. 51.

4. See B. xviii. C. 17.




29. Chap. 29.-Fifteen Remedies Derived From The Chamleon.


CHAP. 29.-FIFTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE CHAMLEON.



To these animals we shall annex some others that are equally

foreign, and very similar in their properties. To begin then

with the chameleon, which Democritus has considered worthy

to be made the subject of an especial work, and each part of

which has been consecrated to some particular purpose-This

book, in fact, has afforded me no small amusement, revealing







as it does, and exposing the lies and frivolities of the Greeks.-

In size, the chameleon resembles the crocodile last mentioned,

and only differs from it in having the back-bone arched at a

more acute angle, and a larger tail. There is no animal, it is

thought, more[1] timid than this, a fact to which it owes its

repeated changes of colour.[2] It has a peculiar ascendancy over

the hawk tribe; for, according to report, it has the power of

attracting those birds, when flying above it, and then leaving

them a voluntary prey for other animals. Democritus[3] asserts

that if the head and neck of a chamleon are burnt in a

fire made with logs of oak, it will be productive of a storm

attended with rain and thunder; a result equally produced by

burning the liver upon the tiles of a house. As to the rest of

the magical virtues which he ascribes to this animal, we shall

forbear to mention them, although we look upon them as unfounded;[4] except, indeed, in some few instances where their

very ridiculousness sufficiently refutes his assertions.



The right eye, he says, taken from the living animal and

applied with goats' milk, removes diseases of the crystalline

humours of the eyes; and the tongue, attached to the body as

an amulet, is an effectual preservative against the perils of

child-birth. He asserts also that the animal itself will facilitate

parturition, if in the house at the moment; but if, on the

other hand, it is brought from elsewhere, the consequences, he

says, will be most dangerous. The tongue, he tells us, if taken

from the animal alive, will ensure a favourable result to suits

at law; and the heart, attached to the body with black wool

of the first shearing, is a good preservative against the attacks

of quartan fever.



He states also that the right fore-paw, attached to the left

arm in the skin of the hyena, is a most effectual preservative against robberies and alarms at night; that the pap on

the right side is a preventive of fright and panics; that the

left foot is sometimes burnt in a furnace with the plant which

also has the name of "chamleon,"[5] and is then made up, with

some unguent, into lozenges; and that these lozenges, kept in







a wooden vessel, have the effect, if we choose to believe him,

of making their owner invisible to others; that the possession,

also, of the right shoulder of this animal will ensure victory over

all adversaries or enemies, provided always the party throws

the sinews of the shoulder upon the ground and treads them

under foot. As to the left shoulder of the chamleon, I should

be quite ashamed to say to what monstrous purposes Democritus devotes it; how that dreams may be produced by the

agency thereof, and transferred to any person we may think

proper; how that these dreams may be dispelled by the employment of the right foot; and how that lethargy, which has

been produced by the right foot of this animal, may be removed

by the agency of the left side.



So, too, head-ache, he tells us, may be cured by sprinkling

wine upon the head, in which either flank of a chameleon has

been macerated. If the feet are rubbed with the ashes of the

left thigh or foot, mixed with sow's milk, gout, he says, will

be the result. It is pretty generally believed, however, that

cataract and diseases of the crystalline humours of the eyes

may be cured by anointing those organs with the gall for three

consecutive days; that serpents may be put to flight by dropping some of it into the fire; that weasels may be attracted by

water into which it has been thrown; and that, applied to the

body, it acts as a depilatory. The liver, they say, applied with

the lungs of a bramble-frog, is productive of a similar effect:

in addition to which, we are told that the liver counteracts the

effects of philtres; that persons are cured of melancholy by

drinking from the warm skin of a chamleon the juice of

the plant known by that name; and that if the intestines of

the animal and their contents-we should bear in mind that

in reality the animal lives without food[6]-are mixed with

apes' urine, and the doors of an enemy are besmeared with the

mixture, he will, through its agency, become the object of

universal hatred.



We are told, too, that by the agency of the tail, the

course of rivers and torrents may be stopped, and serpents

struck with torpor; that the tail, prepared with cedar and

myrrh, and tied to a double branch of the date-palm, will

divide waters that are smitten therewith, and so disclose every-







thing that lies at the bottom-and I only wish[7] that Democri-

tus himself had been touched up with this branch of palm,

seeing that, as he tells us, it has the property of putting an

end to immoderate garrulity. It is quite evident that this

philosopher, a man who has shown himself so sagacious in

other respects, and so useful to his fellow-men, has been led

away, in this instance, by too earnest a desire to promote the

welfare of mankind.







1. It is a timid animal, but Pliny's authorities have exaggerated its

timidity.

2. This change of colour is in reality owing to change of locality.

3. A. Gellius tells the same story, B x. c. 12.

4. And therefore harmloss

5. See B xxii. c. 21.

6. See B. viii. c. 51. Flies and gnats are, in reality, its food.

7. One of the few pieces of wit in which Pliny is found to indulge.




30. Chap. 30.-Four Remedies Derived From The Scincus.


CHAP. 30.-FOUR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SCINCUS.



Similar in appearance to the preceding animals is the

scincus,[1] which by some writers has been called the land

crocodile; it is, however, whiter in appearance, and the skin is

not so thick. But the main difference between it and the cro-

codile is in the arrangement of the scales, which run from the

tail towards the head. The largest of these animals is the Indian

scincus, and next to it that of Arabia; they are brought here

salted. The muzzle and fat of the scincus, taken in white

wine, act as an aphrodisiac; when used with satyrion[2] and

rocket-seed more particularly, in the proportion of one drachma

of each, mixed with two drachm of pepper; the whole being

made up into lozenges of one drachma each, and so taken in

drink. The flesh from the flanks, taken internally in a similar

manner, in doses of two oboli, with myrrh and pepper, is

generally thought to be productive of a similar effect, and to

be even more efficacious for the purpose. According to Apelles,

the flesh of the scincus is good for wounds inflicted by poisoned

arrows, whether taken before or after the wound is inflicted:

it is used as an ingredient, also, in the most celebrated anti-

dotes. Sextius tells us, that, taken in doses of more than one

drachma, in one semisextarius of wine, the flesh is productive of

deadly results: he adds, too, that a broth prepared from it.

taken with honey, acts as an antaphrodisiac.







1. See B. viii. c. 33. Probably the Lacerta onaran of Cuvier.

2. See B. xxiv. c. 62.




31. Chap. 31.-Seen Remedies Derived From The Hippopotamus.


CHAP. 31.-SEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.



Between the crocodile, too, and the hippopotamus there is a

certain affinity, frequenting as they do the same river, and

being both of them of an amphibious nature. The hippopo-







tamus was the first inventor of the practice of letting blood, a

fact to which we have[1] made allusion on a previous occasion:

it is found, too, in the greatest numbers in the parts above the

prefecture of Sas.



The hide, reduced to ashes and applied with water, is curative of inflamed tumours, and the fat, as well as the dung,

used as a fumigation, is employed for the cure of cold agues.

With the teeth of the left side of the jaw, the gums are

scarified for the cure of tooth-ache. The skin of the left side of

the forehead, attached to the groin, acts as an antaphrodisiac; and

an application of the ashes of the same part will cause the hair

to grow when lost through alopecy. The testes are taken in

water, in doses of one drachma, for the cure of injuries inflicted

by serpents. The blood is made use of by painters.







1. In B. viii. c. 40.




32. Chap. 32.-Five Remedies Derived From The Lynx.


CHAP. 32.-FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE LYNX.



To foreign countries, also, belongs the lynx, which of all

quadrupeds is possessed of the most piercing sight. It is said

that in the Isle of Carpathus a most powerful medicament is

obtained by reducing to ashes the nails of the lynx, together

with the hide; that these ashes, taken in drink, have the

effect of checking abominable desires in men; and that, if they

are sprinkled upon women, all libidinous thoughts will be

restrained. They are good too for the removal of itching

sensations in any part of the body. The urine of the lynx is

a remedy for strangury; for which reason the animal, it is

said, is in the habit of rooting up the ground and covering it

the moment it is voided.[1] It is mentioned, too, that this urine

is an effectual remedy for pains in the throat. Thus much

with reference to foreign animals.







1. See B. viii. c. 57.




33. Chap. 33. (9.)-Remedies Furnished In Common By Animals Of The Same Class, Whether Wild Or Tame. Fifty-Four Medicinal Uses Of Milk, With Observations Thereon.


CHAP. 33. (9.)-REMEDIES FURNISHED IN COMMON BY ANIMALS

OF THE SAME CLASS, WHETHER WILD OR TAME. FIFTY-FOUR

MEDICINAL USES OF MILK, WITH OBSERVATIONS THEREON.



We will now return to our own part of the world, speaking,

first of all, of certain remedies common to animals in general,

but excellent in their nature; such as the use of milk, for

example. The most beneficial milk to every creature is the

mother's[1] milk. It is highly dangerous for nursing women to







conceive: children that are suckled by them are known among

us as "colostrati,"[2] their milk being thick, like cheese in appearance-the name "colostra,"[3] it should be remembered, is

given to the first milk secreted after delivery, which assumes a

spongy, coagulated form. The most nutritive milk, in all

cases, is woman's milk, and next to that goats' milk, to which

is owing, probably, the fabulous story that Jupiter was suckled

by a goat.[4] The sweetest, next to woman's milk, is camels'

milk; but the most efficacious, medicinally speaking, is asses'

milk. It is in animals of the largest size and individuals

of the greatest bulk, that the milk is secreted with the greatest

facility. Goats' milk agrees the best with the stomach, that

animal browsing more than grazing. Cows' milk is considered

more medicinal, while ewes' milk is sweeter and more nutritive, but not so well adapted to the stomach, it being more

oleaginous than any other.



Every kind of milk is more aqueous in spring than in summer, and the same in all cases where the animal has grazed

upon a new pasture. The best milk of all is that which adheres

to the finger nail, when placed there, and does not run from off

it. Milk is most harmless when boiled, more particularly if

sea pebbles[5] have been boiled with it. Cows' milk is the most

relaxing, and all kinds of milk are less apt to inflate when

boiled. Milk is used for all kinds of internal ulcerations,

those of the kidneys, bladder, intestines, throat, and lungs in

particular; and externally, it is employed for itching sensations

upon the skin, and for purulent eruptions, it being taken fasting

for the purpose. We have already[6] stated, when speaking of

the plants, how that in Arcadia cows' milk is administered for

phthisis, consumption, and cachexy. Instances are cited, also,

of persons who have been cured of gout in the hands and feet,

by drinking asses' milk.



To these various kinds of' milk, medical men have added

another, to which they have given the name of "schiston;"[7]







the following being the usual method of preparing it. Goats'

milk, which is used in preference for the purpose, is boiled in

a new earthen vessel, and stirred with branches of a fig-tree

newly gathered, as many cyathi of honied wine being added to

it as there are semisextarii of milk. When the mixture boils,

care is taken to prevent it running over, by plunging into it a

silver cyathus measure filled with cold water, none of the water

being allowed to escape. When taken off the fire, the constituent parts of it divide as it cools, and the whey is thus separated

from the milk. Some persons, again, take this whey, which is

now very strongly impregnated with wine, and, after boiling

it down to one third, leave it to cool in the open air. The

best way of taking it, is in doses of one semisextarius, at stated

intervals, during five consecutive days; after taking it, riding

exercise should be used by the patient. This whey is admi-

nistered in cases of epilepsy, melancholy, paralysis, leprosy,

elephantiasis, and diseases of the joints.



Milk is employed as an injection where excoriations have

been caused by the use of strong purgatives; in cases also

where dysentery is productive of chafing, it is similarly employed, boiled with sea pebbles or a ptisan of barley. Where,

however, the intestines are excoriated, cows' milk or ewes'

milk is the best. New milk is used as an injection for dysentery; and in an unboiled state, it is employed for affections of

the colon and uterus, and for injuries inflicted by serpents. It

is also taken internally as an antidote to the venom of cantharides, the pine-caterpillar, the buprestis, and the salamander.

Cows' milk is particularly recommended for persons who have

taken colchicum, hemlock, dorycnium,[8] or the flesh of the seahare; and asses' milk, in cases where gypsum, white-lead,

sulphur,[9] or quick-silver, have been taken internally. This

last is good too for constipation attendant upon fever, and is

remarkably useful as a gargle for ulcerations of the throat. It

is taken, also, internally, by patients suffering from atrophy, for

the purpose of recruiting their exhausted strength; as also in

cases of fever unattended with head-ache. The ancients held

it as one of their grand secrets, to administer to children, before

taking food, a semisextarius of asses' milk, or for want of that,

goats' milk; a similar dose, too, was given to children troubled







with chafing of the rectum at stool. It is considered a sovereign remedy for hardness of breathing, to take cows' milk

whey, mixed with nasturtium. In cases of ophthalmia, too, the

eyes are fomented with a mixture of one semisextarius of

milk and four drachm of pounded sesame.



Goats' milk is a cure for diseases of the spleen; but in such

case the goats must fast a couple of days, and be fed on ivyleaves the third; the patient, too, must drink the milk for three

consecutive days, without taking any other nutriment. Milk,

under other circumstances, is detrimental to persons suffering

from head-ache, liver complaints, diseases of the spleen, and

affections of the sinews; it is bad for fevers, also, vertigo-except, indeed, where it is required as a purgative--oppression of

the head, coughs, and ophthalmia. Sows' milk is extremely use-

ful in cases of tenesmus, dysentery, and phthisis; authors have

been found too, to assert that it is very wholesome for females.







1. Except, of course, when the mother is in a state of disease.

2. See B. xi. c. 96. Dalechamps remarks that Pliny is in error here:

this name being properly given to infants which have been put to the breast

too soon after child-birth. And so it would appear from the context.

3. The "biestings."

4. Amaltha.

5. Dioscorides says "river pebbles."

6. In B. xxv. c. 53.

7. From the Greek sxisto\n, "divided" milk or "curds."

8. See B. xxi. c. 105.

9. He perhaps means a sulphate, and not sulphur, which is harmless.




34. Chap. 34.-Twelve Remedies Derived From Cheese.


CHAP. 34.-TWELVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CHEESE.



We have already[1] spoken of the different kinds of cheese

when treating of the mamill and other parts of animals.

Sextius attributes the same properties to mares' milk cheese

that he does to cheese made of cows' milk: to the former he

gives the names of "hippace." Cheese is best for the stomach when not salted, or, in other words, when new cheese is

used. Old [salted] cheese has a binding effect upon the

bowels, and reduces the flesh, but is more wholesome to

the stomach [than new salted cheese]. Indeed, we may pronounce of aliments in general, that salt meats reduce the system,

while fresh food has a tendency to make flesh. Fresh cheese,

applied with honey, effaces the marks of bruises. It acts,

also, emolliently upon the bowels; and, taken in the form of

tablets, boiled in astringent wine and then toasted with honey on

a platter, it modifies and alleviates griping pains in the bowels.



The cheese known as "saprum,"[2] is beaten up, in wine, with

salt and dried sorb apples, and taken in drink, for the cure of

celiac affections. Goats' milk cheese, pounded and applied to

the part affected, is a cure for carbuncle of the generative organs;

sour cheese, also, with oxymel, is productive of a similar effect.

In the bath it is used as a friction, alternately with oil, for the

removal of spots.



[3]











1. In B. xi. c. 97.

2. From the Greek sapro\n, "rotten" cheese.

3. Like our cream cheese, or new milk cheese. probably.




35. Chap. 35.-Twenty-Five Remedies Derived From Butter.


CHAP. 35.-TWENTY-FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM BUTTER.



From milk, too, butter is produced; held as the most delicate

of food among barbarous[1] nations, and one which distinguishes[2]

the wealthy from the multitude at large. It is mostly made

from cows' milk, and hence its name;[3] but the richest butter

is that made from ewes' milk. There is a butter made also

from goats' milk; but previously to making it, the milk should

first be warmed, in winter. In summer it is extracted from

the milk by merely shaking it to and fro in a tall vessel, with

a small orifice at the mouth to admit the air, but otherwise

closely stopped, a little water[4] being added to make it curdle

the sooner. The milk that curdles the most, floats upon the surface; this they remove, and, adding salt to it, give it the name

of "oxygala."[5] They then take the remaining part and boil

it down in pots, and that portion of it which floats on the

surface is butter, a substance of an oily nature. The more[6]

rank it is in smell, the more higthly it is esteemed. When old,

it forms an ingredient in numerous compositions. It is of an

astringent, emollient, repletive, and purgative nature.











1. The people of Germany and Scythia, for instance.

2. In this passage also it is generally supposed that he refers to the

nomadic life of barbarous nations, in which multitudes of sheep and

cattle constituted the chief wealth. It is, however, not improbable that

he means to say that among the Romans it was only the wealthy who could

afford to use it.

3. Bou/turon, "cow cheese."

4. Qy. whether for "aqu" "water," we should not read "acidi"

here, "sour milk," as at the beginning of the next Chapter Beckmann

suggests "aceti," "vinegar."-Hist. Inv. I. 505, Bohn's Ed.

5. Beckmann says on this passage, "what Pliny says respecting oxygala

is attended with difficulties: and I am fully persuaded that his words are

corrupted, though I find no variations marked in MSS. by which this con-

jecture can be supported."-Hist. Inv. I. 505. He suggests another

arrangement of the whole passage, but without improving it, for the difficulty would appear to be totally imaginary; as it is quite clear that by

"oxygala," or "sour milk," Pliny means the thickest part of the curd,

which is first removed and then salted, forming probably a sort of cream

cheese. Though his meaning is clear, he may very possibly give an

erroneous description of the process.

6. The remark of Holland on this passage is curious-"Some would

amend this place, and for 'magis,' 'more,' put 'minus,' 'less,' in a contrary sense; but I suppose he writeth in regard of barbarous people, who

make more account of such ranke butyr; like as the uncivile Irish in

these daies."




37. Chap. 37.-The Various Uses Of Fat And Observations Upon It, Fifty-Two In Number.


CHAP. 37.-THE VARIOUS USES OF FAT AND OBSERVATIONS UPON

IT, FIFTY-TWO IN NUMBER.



Among the remedies common to living creatures, fat is the

substance held in the next highest esteem, that of swine in

particular, which was employed by the ancients for certain

religious purposes even: at all events, it is still the usage for

the newly-wedded bride, when entering her husband's house,

to touch the door-posts with it. There are two methods of

keeping hogs' lard, either salted or fresh; indeed, the older it

is, the better. The Greek writers have now given it the name

of "axungia,"[1] or axle-grease, in their works. Nor, in fact,

is it any secret, why swine's fat should be possessed of such

marked properties, seeing that the animal feeds to such a great

extent upon the roots of plants-owing too, to which, its dung

is applied to such a vast number of purposes. It will be as

well, therefore, to premise, that I shall here speak only of the

hog that feeds in the open field, and no other; of which kind

it is the female that is much the most useful-if she has never

farrowed, more particularly. But it is the fat of the wild boar

that is held in by far the highest esteem of all.



The distinguishing properties, then, of swine's-grease, are

emollient, calorific, resolvent, and detergent. Some physicians

recommend it as an ointment for the gout, mixed with goose grease, bull-suet, and wool-grease: in cases, however, where

the pain is persistent, it should be used in combination with

wax, myrtle, resin, and pitch. Hogs' lard is used fresh for

the cure of burns, and of blains, too, caused by snow: with

ashes of burnt barley and nutgalls, in equal proportions, it is employed for the cure of chilblains. It is good also for excoriations

of the limbs, and for dispelling weariness and lassitude arising

from long journeys. For the cure of chronic cough, new

lard is boiled down, in the proportion of three ounces to three







cyathi of wine, some honey being added to the mixture. Old

lard too, if it has been kept without salt, made up into pills

and taken internally, is a cure for phthisis: but it is a general

rule not to use it salted in any cases except where detergents are

required, or where there are no symptoms of ulceration. For

the cure of phthisis, some persons boil down three ounces of

hogs' lard and honied wine, in three cyathi of ordinary wine;

and after swathing the sides, chest, and shoulders of the patient

with compresses steeped in the preparation, administer to him,

every four days, some tar with an egg: indeed, so potent is

this composition, that if it is only attached to the knees even,

the flavour of it will ascend to the mouth, and the patient

will appear to spit it out,[2] as it were.



The grease of a sow that has never farrowed, is the most

useful of all cosmetics for the skin of females; but in all cases,

hogs' lard is good for the cure of itch-scab, mixed with pitch

and beef-suet in the proportion of one-third, the whole being

made lukewarm for the purpose. Fresh hogs' lard, applied as

a pessary, imparts nutriment to the infant in the womb, and

prevents abortion. Mixed with white lead or litharge, it restores scars to their natural colour; and, in combination with

sulphur, it rectifies malformed nails. It prevents the hair also

from falling off; and, applied with a quarter of a nutgall, it

heals ulcers upon the head in females. When well smoked, it

strengthens the eyelashes. Lard is recommended also for phthisis,

boiled down with old wine, in the proportion of one ounce to a

semisextarius, till only three ounces are left; some persons add

a little honey to the composition. Mixed with lime, it is used

as a liniment for inflamed tumours, boils, and indurations of

the mamill: it is curative also of ruptures, convulsions,

cramps, and sprains. Used with white hellebore, it is good

for corns, chaps, and callosities; and, with pounded earthen-

ware[3] which has held salted provisions, for imposthumes of

the parotid glands and scrofulous sores. Employed as a friction in the bath, it removes itching sensations and pimples: but

for the treatment of gout there is another method of preparing

it, by mixing it with old oil, and adding pounded sarcophagus[4] stone and cinquefoil bruised in wine, or else with lime







or ashes. A peculiar kind of plaster is also made of it for the

cure of inflammatory ulcers, seventy-five denarii of hogs' lard

being mixed with one hundred of litharge.



It is reckoned a very good plan also to anoint ulcers with

boars' grease, and, if they are of a serpiginous nature, to add

resin to the liniment. The ancients used to employ hogs' lard

in particular for greasing the axles of their vehicles, that the

wheels might revolve the more easily, and to this, in fact, it owes

its name of "axungia." When hogs' lard has been used for this

purpose, incorporated as it is with the rust of the iron upon

the wheels, it is remarkably useful as an application for diseases of the rectum and of the generative organs. The ancient

physicians, too, set a high value upon the medicinal properties

of hogs' lard in an unmixed state: separating it from the

kidneys, and carefully removing the veins, they used to wash

and rub it well in rain water, after which they boiled it several

times in a new earthen vessel, and then put it by for keeping.

It is generally agreed that it is more emollient, calorific, and

resolvent, when salted; and that it is still more useful when

it has been rinsed in wine.



Massurius informs us, that the ancients set the highest'

value of all upon the fat of the wolf: and that it was for this

reason that the newly-wedded bride used to anoint the doorposts of her husband's house with it, in order that no noxious

spells might find admittance.







1. From the Latin "axis," an "axle," and ungo," "to anoint."

2. Hence it was a notion in the sixteenth century, that pitch and hogs'

lard is a cure for syphilis, by promoting salivation.

3. "Farina salsamentari test."

4. See B. xxxvi. c. 27.




38. Chap. 38.-Suet.


CHAP. 38.-SUET.



Corresponding with the grease of the swine, is the suet[1] that

is found in the ruminating animals, a substance employed in

other ways, but no less efficacious in its properties. The proper mode of preparing it, in all cases, is to take out the veins

and to rinse it in sea or salt-water, after which it is beaten up

in a mortar, with a sprinkling of sea-water in it. This done,

it is boiled in several waters, until, in fact, it has lost all smell,

and is then bleached by continual exposure to the sun; that of

the most esteemed quality being the fat which grows about the

kidneys. In case stale suet is required for any medicinal purpose, it is recommended to melt it first, and then to wash it in

cold water several times; after which, it must again be melted

with a sprinkling of the most aromatic wine that can be pro-







cured, it being then boiled again and again, until the rank

smell has totally disappeared.



Many persons recommend that the fat of bulls, lions, panthers, and camels, in particular, should be thus prepared. As

to the various uses to which these substances are applied, we

shall mention them on the appropriate occasions.







1. "Sebum"-Suet or tallow.




39. Chap. 39.-Marrow.


CHAP. 39.-MARROW.



Common too, to all these animals, is marrow; a substance

which in all cases is possessed of certain emollient, expletive,

desiccative, and calorific properties. The most highly esteemed

of all is deer's marrow, the next best being that of the calf, and

then that of the goat, both male and female. These substances

are prepared before autumn, by washing them in a fresh state,

and drying them in the shade; after which they are passed

through a sieve, and then strained through linen, and put by

in earthen pots for keeping, in a cool spot.










40. Chap. 40.-Gall.


CHAP. 40.-GALL.



But among the substances which are furnished in common

by the various animals, it is the gall, we may say, that is the

most efficacious of all. The properties of this substance are of

a calorific, pungent, resolvent, extractive, and dispersive nature.

The gall of the smaller animals is looked upon as the most

penetrating; for which reason it is that it is generally considered the most efficacious for the composition of eye-salves.

Bull's gall is possessed of a remarkable degree of potency,

having the effect of imparting a golden tint to the surface

of copper even and to vessels made of other metals. Gall in every

case is prepared in the following manner: it is taken fresh,

and the orifice of the vesicle in which it is contained being tied

fast with a strong linen thread, it is left to steep for half

an hour in boiling water; after which it is dried in the shade,

and then put away for keeping, in honey.



That of the horse is condemned, being reckoned among the

poisons only. Hence it is that the Flamen[1] of the Sacrifices

is not allowed to touch a horse, notwithstanding that it is the







custom to immolate one[2] of these animals at the public sacrifices at Rome.







1. Or Flamen Dialis. Festus gives another reason: lest the Flamen

should travel to a distance, and so neglect his duties.

2. The "Equus October," sacrificed to Mars on the Campus Martius in

October. This sacrifice was attended with some very ridiculous ceremonies.




41. Chap. 41.-Blood.


CHAP. 41.-BLOOD.



The blood, also, of the horse is possessed of certain corrosive

properties; and so, too, is mare's blood-except, indeed, where

the animal has not been covered-it having the effect of

cauterizing the margins of ulcers, and so enlarging them.

Bull's blood too, taken fresh, is reckoned[1] among the poisons;

except, indeed, at gira,[2] at which place the priestess of the

Earth, when about to foretell coming events, takes a draught

of bull's blood before she descends into the cavern: so powerful, in fact, is the agency of that sympathy so generally spoken

of, that it may occasionally originate, we find, in feelings of religious awe,[3] or in the peculiar nature of the locality.



Drusus,[4] the tribune of the people, drank goats' blood, it is

said; it being his object by his pallid looks to suggest that his

enemy, Q. Cpio, had given him poison, and so expose him to

public hatred. So remarkably powerful is the blood of the hegoat, that there is nothing better in existence for sharpening

iron implements, the rust produced by this blood giving them

a better edge even than a file. Considering, however, that the

blood of all animals cannot be reckoned as a remedy in common,

will it not be advisable, in preference, to speak of the effects

that are produced by that of each kind?







1. This, as already observed, was probably a fallacy.

2. See B. iv. c. 6.

3. His meaning is, that the excitement produced by religious feeling

neutralizes that antipathy which, under ordinary circumstances, is manifested

towards the system by bull's blood.

4. See B. xxxiii. c. 6.




42. Chap. 42.-Peculiar Remedies Derived From Various Animals, And Classified According To The Maladies. Remedies Against The Poison Of Serpents, Derived From The Stag, The Fawn, The Ophion, The She-Goat, The Kid, And The Ass.


CHAP. 42.-PECULIAR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM VARIOUS ANIMALS,

AND CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE MALADIES. REMEDIES

AGAINST THE POISON OF SERPENTS, DERIVED FROM THE STAG,

THE FAWN, THE OPHION, THE SHE-GOAT, THE KID, AND THE

ASS.



We will therefore classify the various remedies, according

to the maladies for which they are respectively used; and, first

of all, those to which man has recourse for injuries inflicted by







serpents. That deer are destructive to those reptiles[1] no one

is ignorant; as also of the fact that they drag them from their

holes when they find them, and so devour them. And it is

not only while alive and breathing that deer are thus fatal to

serpents, but even when dead and separated limb from limb.

The fumes of their horns, while burning, will drive away

serpents, as already[2] stated; but the bones, it is said, of the

upper part of a stag's throat, if burnt upon a fire, will bring those

reptiles together. Persons may sleep upon a deer's skin in

perfect safety, and without any apprehension of attacks by

serpents; its rennet too, taken with vinegar, is an effectual antidote to the stings of those reptiles; indeed, if it has been only

touched by a person, he will be for that day effectually protected from them. The testes, dried, or the genitals of the

male animal, are considered to be very wholesome, taken in

wine, and so are the umbles, generally known as the "centipellio."[3] Persons having about them a deer's tooth, or who

have taken the precaution of rubbing the body with a deer or

fawn's marrow, will be sure to repel the attacks of all serpents.



But the most effectual remedy of all is thought to be the

rennet of a fawn that has been cut from the uterus of the

dam, as already[4] mentioned in another place. Deer's blood,

burnt upon a fire of lentisk wood, with dracontium,[5] cunilago,[6]

and alkanet, will attract serpents, they say; while, on the

other hand, if the blood is removed and pyrethrum[7] substituted

for it, they will take to flight.



I find an animal mentioned by Greek writers, smaller than

the stag, but resembling it in the hair, and to which they give

the name of "ophion."[8] Sardinia, they say, is the only country that produces it; I am of opinion, however, that it is now

extinct, and for that reason I shall not enlarge upon its medicinal properties.



(10.) As a preservative against the attacks of serpents, the

brains and blood of the wild boar are held in high esteem:

the liver also, dried and taken in wine with rue; and the fat,







used with honey and resin. Similar properties are attributed

to the liver of the domesticated boar and the outer filaments,

and those only, of the gall, these last being taken in doses of

four denarii; the brains also, taken in wine, are equally ef-

fectual. The fumes of the burning horns or hair of a she-goat

will repel serpents, they say: the ashes, too, of the horns, used

either internally or externally, are thought to be an antidote

to their poison. A similar effect is attributed to goats' milk,

taken with Taminian[9] grapes; to the urine of those animals,

taken with squill vinegar; to goats' milk cheese, applied with

origanum;[10] and to goat suet, used with wax.



In addition to all this, as will be seen hereafter, there are a

thousand other remedial properties attributed to this animal;

a fact which surprises me all the more, seeing that the goat,

it is said, is never free from fever.[11] The wild animals of the

same species, which are very numerous, as already[12] stated,

have a still greater efficacy attributed to them; but the hegoat has certain properties peculiar to itself, and Democritus

attributes properties still more powerful to the animal when it

has been the only one yeaned. It is recommended also to apply

she-goat's dung, boiled[13] in vinegar, to injuries inflicted by

serpents, as also the ashes of fresh dung mixed with wine.

As a general rule, persons who find that they are recovering

but slowly from injuries inflicted by a serpent, will find their

health more speedily re-established by frequenting the stalls

where goats are kept. Those, however, whose object is a more

assured remedy, attach immediately to the wound the paunch

of a she-goat killed for the purpose, dung and all. Others,

again, use the flesh of a kid just killed, and fumigate it with

the singed hair, the smell of which has the effect of repelling

serpents.



For stings of serpents, as also for injuries inflicted by the

scorpion and shrew-mouse, some employ the skin of a goat

newly killed, as also the flesh and dung of a horse that has

been out at pasture, or a hare's rennet in vinegar. They say,

too, that if a person has the body well rubbed with a hare's

rennet, he will never receive injury from venomous animals.

When a person has been stung by a scorpion, she-goat's dung,







boiled with vinegar, is considered a most efficient remedy: in

cases too, where a buprestis has been swallowed, bacon and the

broth in which it has been boiled, are highly efficacious. Nay,

what is even more than this, if a person applies his mouth to

an ass's ear, and says that he has been stung by a scorpion, the

whole of the poison, they say, will immediately pass away

from him and be transferred to the animal. All venomous

creatures, it is said, are put to flight by a fumigation made

by burning an ass's lights. It is considered an excellent

plan too, to fumigate persons, when stung by a scorpion, with

the smoke of burnt calves' dung.







1. See B. viii. c. 50.

2. In B. viii. c. 50.

3. Or "hundred skins." Called the mirefeuillet in French.

4. In B. viii. c. 50.

5. See B. xxiv. c. 91.

6. See B. xx. c. 63.

7. The Anthemis pyrethrum of Linnus, Spanish camomile or pellitory.

8. Possibly the Musmon of B. viii. c. 49. See also B. xxx. c. 52.

9. See B. xxiii. cc. 13, 14.

10. See B. xx. c. 67.

11. See B. viii. c. 76.

12. In B. viii. c. 76.

13. A remedy of which H. Cloquet highly approves, on chemical grounds.




43. Chap. 43.-Remedies For The Bite Of The Mad Dog. Remedies Derived From The Calf, The He-Goat, And Various Other Animals.


CHAP. 43.-REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE MAD DOG. REMEDIES

DERIVED FROM THE CALF, THE HE-GOAT, AND VARIOUS OTHER

ANIMALS.



When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, it is the

practice to make an incision round the wound to the quick,

and then to apply raw veal to it, and to make the patient

take either veal broth or hogs' lard, mixed with lime internally.

Some persons recommend a he-goat's liver, and maintain that

if it is applied to the wound the patient will never be attacked

with hydrophobia. She-goat's dung, too, is highly spoken of,

applied with wine, as also the dung of the badger, cuckoo, and

swallow, boiled and taken in drink.



For bites inflicted by other animals, dried goats' milk cheese

is applied with origanum and taken with the drink; and for

injuries caused by the human[1] teeth, boiled beef is applied;

veal, however, is still more efficacious for the purpose, provided

it is not removed before the end of four days.







1. Cloquet says that the application would be useless.




44. Chap. 44.-Remedies To Be Adopted Against Enchantments.


CHAP. 44.-REMEDIES TO BE ADOPTED AGAINST ENCHANTMENTS.



The dried muzzle of a wolf, they say, is an effectual preservative against the malpractices of magic; and it is for this

reason that it is so commonly to be seen fastened to the doors of

farm-houses. A similar degree of efficacy, it is thought,

belongs to the skin of the neck, when taken whole from the

animal. Indeed, so powerful is the influence of this animal,

in addition to what we have already[1] stated, that if a horse







only treads in its track, it will be struck with torpor[2] in

consequence.







1. In B. viii. c. 34.

2. Cloquet and Ajasson admit the truth of this statement: the latter

suggests that it may be owing to electricity.




45. Chap. 45.-Remedies For Poisons.


CHAP. 45.-REMEDIES FOR POISONS.



In case where persons have swallowed quicksilver,[1] bacon

is the proper remedy to be employed. Poisons are neutralized by

taking asses' milk; henbane more particularly, mistletoe, hemlock, the flesh of the sea-hare, opocarpathon,[2] pharicon,[3] and

dorycnium:[4] the same, too, where coagulated milk[5] has been

productive of bad effects, for the biestings,[6] or first curdled

milk, should be reckoned as nothing short of a poison.[7] We

shall have to mention many other uses to which asses' milk is

applied; but it should be remembered that in all cases it must

be used fresh, or, if not, as new as possible, and warmed, for

there is nothing that more speedily loses its virtue. The

bones, too, of the ass are pounded and boiled, as an antidote to

the poison of the sea-hare. The wild ass[8] is possessed of

similar properties in every respect, but in a much higher

degree.



Of the wild horse[9] the Greek writers have made no mention,

it not being a native of their country; we have every reason to

believe, however, that it has the same properties as the animal

in a tame state, but much more fully developed. Mares' milk

effectually neutralizes the venom of the sea-hare and all

narcotic poisons. Nor had the Greeks any knowledge from

experience of the urns[10] and the bison,[11] although in India the

forests are filled with herds of wild oxen: it is only reasonable,







however, to conclude that all their medicinal properties must

be much more highly developed than in the animal as found

among us. It is asserted also, that cows' milk is a general

counter-poison, in the cases above-mentioned, more particularly,

as also where the poison of ephemeron[12] has settled internally,

or cantharides have been administered; it acting upon the

poison by vomit. Broth, too, made from goats' flesh, neutral-

izes the effects of cantharides, in a similar manner, it is said.

To counteract the corrosive poisons which destroy by ulceration, veal or beef-suet is resorted to; and in cases where a

leech has been swallowed, butter is the usual remedy, with

vinegar heated with a red-hot iron. Indeed, butter employed

by itself is a good remedy for poisons, for where oil is not

to be procured, it is an excellent substitute for it. Used with

honey, butter heals injuries inflicted by millepedes. The

broth of boiled tripe, it is thought, is an effectual repellent of

the above-mentioned poisons, aconite and hemlock more particularly; veal-suet also has a similar repute.



Fresh goats' milk cheese is given to persons who have taken

mistletoe, and goats' milk itself is a remedy for cantharides.

Taken with Taminian[13] grapes, goats' milk is an antidote to the

effects of ephemeron. Goats' blood, boiled down with the marrow, is used as a remedy for the narcotic[14] poisons, and kids' blood

for the other poisons. Kid's rennet is administered where per-

sons have taken mistletoe, the juice of the white chamleon,[15]

or bull's blood: for which last, hare's rennet in vinegar is also

used by way of antidote. For injuries inflicted by the pastinaca,[16] and the stings or bites of all kinds of marine animals,

hare's rennet, kid's rennet, or lamb's rennet is taken, in doses

of one drachma, in wine. Hare's rennet, too, generally forms

an ingredient in the antidotes for poisons.



The moth that is seen fluttering about the flame of a lamp

is generally reckoned in the number of the noxious substances:

its bad effects are neutralized by the agency of goat's liver.

Goat's gall, too, is looked upon as an antidote to venomous







preparations from the field weazel.[17] But we will now return

to the other remedies, classified according to the various diseases.







1. It is no longer reckoned among the poisons.

2. Juice of carpathum, a substance which does not appear to have been

identified; but supposed by Bruce to have been a gum called sassa , with

which aloes are adulterated in Abyssinia, a thing that Galen tells us was

done with the carpathum of the ancients. The sea-hare is the Aplysia

depilans of Gmelin. It is not poisonous. See B. ix. c. 72, and B. xxxii.

c. 3.

3. A composite poison, probably, the ingredients of which are now un-

known.

4. See Chap. 21 of this Book,

5. See B. xx. c. 53.

6. See B. xi. c. 96.

7. On the contrary, cows' biestings are highly thought of in some parts

of England; and a very delicate dish is made of them, baked.

8. "Onager."

9. See B. viii. c. 16, and B. xvi. c. 9.

10. See B. viii. c. 1.5.

11. See B. viii. c. 1.5.

12. See B. xxv. c. 107, and B. xxvi. c. 75.

13. See B. xxiii. cc. 13, 14.

14. "Toxica"-properly, those poisons in which the barbarous nations

dipped their arrows.

15. See B. xxii. c. 21.

16. Or, sting-ray.

17. See B. xxix. c. 16.




46. Chap. 46. (11.)--Remedies For Dieases Of The Head, And For Alopecy.


CHAP. 46. (11.)--REMEDIES FOR DIEASES OF THE HEAD, AND

FOR ALOPECY.



Bears' grease,[1] mixed with ladanum[2] and the plant adiantum,[3] prevents the hair from falling off; it is a cure also

for alopecy and defects in the eyebrows, mixed with the fungus

from the wick of a lamp, and the soot that is found in the

nozzle. Used with wine, it is good for the cure of porrigo, a

malady which is also treated with the ashes of deer's horns in

wine: this last substance also prevents the growth of vermin

in the hair. For porrigo some persons employ goat's gall, in

combination with Cimolian chalk and vinegar, leaving the prepration to dry for a time on the head. Sow's gall, too, mixed

with bull's urine, is employed for a similar purpose; and when

old, it is an effectual cure, with the addition of sulphur, for

furfuraceous eruptions. The ashes, it is thought, of an ass's

genitals, will make the hair grow more thickly, and prevent it

from turning grey; the proper method of applying it being to

shave the head and to pound the ashes in a leaden mortar with

oil. Similar effects are attributed to the genitals of an ass's

foal, reduced to ashes and mixed with urine; some nard being

added to render the mixture less offensive. In cases of alopecy

the part affected is rubbed with bull's gall, warmed with

Egyptian alum. Running ulcers of the head are successfully

treated with bull's urine, or stale human urine, in combination

with cyclaminos[4] and sulphur: but the most effectual remedy is

calf's gall, a substance which, heated with vinegar, has also the

effect of exterminating lice. Veal suet, pounded with salt and

applied to ulcers of the head, is a very useful remedy: the fat,

too, of the fox is highly spoken of, but the greatest value is

set upon cats' dung, applied in a similar manner with mustard.



Powdered goats' horns, or the horns reduced to ashes, those

of the he-goat in particular, with the addition of nitre, tamarisk-seed, butter, and oil, are remarkably effectual for preventing the hair from coming off, the head being first shaved for

the purpose. So too, the ashes of burnt goats' flesh, applied







to the eye-brows with oil, impart to them a black tint. By

using goats' milk, they say, lice may be exterminated; and the

dung of those animals, with honey, is thought to be a cure for

alopecy: the ashes, too, of the hoofs, mixed with pitch, prevent

the hair from coming off.



The ashes of a burnt hare, mixed with oil of myrtle, alleviate head-ache, the patient drinking some water that has

been left in the trough after an ox or ass has been drinking

there. The male organs of a fox, worn as an amulet, are

productive, if we choose to believe it, of a similar effect: the

same, too, with the ashes of a burnt deer's horn, applied with

vinegar, rose oil, or oil of iris.







1. This substance still maintains its reputation, as preservative of the

hair.

2. See B. xii. c. 37. and B. xxvi. c. 30

3. See B. xxii. c. 30.

4. See B. xxv. c. 67.




47. Chap. 47.--Remedies For Affections Of The Eyes.


CHAP. 47.--REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES.



For defluxions[1] of the eyes, beef suet, boiled with oil, is

applied to the parts affected; and for eruptions of those organs,

ashes of burnt deer's horns are similarly employed, the tips of

the horns being considered the most effectual for the purpose.

For the cure of cataract, it is reckoned a good plan to apply

a wolf's excrements: the same substance, too, reduced to

ashes, is used for the dispersion of films, in combination with

Attic honey. Bear's gall, too, is similarly employed; and for

the cure of epinyctis, wild boar's lard, mixed with oil of

roses, is thought to be very useful. An ass's hoof, reduced to

ashes and applied with asses' milk, is used for the removal of

marks in the eyes and indurations of the crystalline humours.

Beef marrow, from the right fore leg, beaten up with soot,

is employed for affections of the eyebrows, and for diseases

of the eyelids and corners of the eyes. For the same purpose,

also, a sort of calliblepharon[2] is prepared from soot, the best

of all being that made from a wick of papyrus mixed with

oil of sesame; the soot being removed with a feather and

caught in a new vessel prepared for the purpose. This mixture, too, is very efficacious for preventing superfluous eyelashes from growing again when once pulled out.



Bull's gall is made up into eye-salves[3] with white of egg,







these salves being steeped in water and applied to the eyes for

four days successively. Veal suet, with goose-grease and the

extracted juice of ocimum, is remarkably good for diseases of

the eye-lids. Veal marrow, with the addition of an equal

proportion of wax and oil or oil of roses, an egg being added

to the mixture, is used as a liniment for indurations of the eyelids. Soft goats' milk cheese is used as an application, with

warm water, to allay defluxions of the eyes; but when they

are attended with swelling, honey is used instead of the water.

In both cases, however, the eyes should be fomented with

warm whey. In cases of dry ophthalmia, it is found a very

useful plan to take the muscles[4] lying within a loin of pork,

and, after reducing them to ashes, to pound and apply them to

the part affected.



She-goats, they say, are never affected with ophthalmia,

from the circumstance that they browse upon certain kinds of

herbs: the same, too, with the gazelle. Hence it is that we

find it recommended, at the time of new moon, to swallow the

dung of these animals, coated with wax. As they are able to

see, too, by night, it is a general belief that the blood of a hegoat is a cure for those persons affected with dimness of sight

to whom the Greeks have given the name of "nyctalopes."[5]

A similar virtue is attributed to the liver of a she-goat, boiled

in astringent wine. Some are in the habit of rubbing the eyes

with the thick gravy[6] which exudes from a she-goat's liver

roasted, or with the gall of that animal: they recommend the

flesh also as a diet, and say that the patient should expose

his eyes to the fumes of it while boiling: it is a general

opinion, too, that the animal should be of a reddish colour.

Another prescription is, to fumigate the eyes with the steam

arising from the liver boiled in an earthen jar, or, according to

some authorities, roasted.



Goats' gall is applied for numerous purposes: with honey,

for films upon the eyes; with one-third part of white hellebore,

for cataract; with wine, for spots upon the eyes, indurations of

the cornea, films, webs, and argema; with extracted juice

of cabbage, for diseases of the eyelids, the hairs being first

pulled out, and the preparation left to dry on the parts affected;







and with woman's milk, for rupture of the coats of the eye.

For all these purposes, the gall is considered the most efficacious, when dried. Nor is the dung of this animal held in

disesteem, being applied with honey for defluxions of the eyes.

The marrow, too, of a goat, or a hare's lights, we find used

for pains in the eyes; and the gall of a goat, with raisin wine

or honey, for the dispersion of films upon those organs. It is

recommended also, for ophthalmia, to anoint the eyes with

wolf's fat or swine's marrow: we find it asserted, too, that persons who carry a wolf's tongue, inserted in a bracelet, will

always be exempt from ophthalmia.







1. If they are occasioned by irritation, Ajasson thinks that Pliny's re-

medy may he of some utility.

2. A cosmetic for "beautifying the eye-brows."

3. "Collyria."

4. This is the translation suggested by Dalechamps for "lumbulis."

5. "Seers by night."

6. "Sanie."




48. Chap. 48.-Remedies For Diseases And Affections Of The Ears.


CHAP. 48.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES AND AFFECTIONS OF

THE EARS.



Pains and diseases of the ears are cured by using the urine

of a wild boar, kept in a glass vessel, or the gall of a wild

boar, swine, or ox, mixed with castor-oil and oil of roses in

equal proportions. But the best remedy of all is bull's gall,

warmed with leek juice, or with honey, if there is any suppuration. Bull's gall too, warmed by itself in a pomegranate

rind, is an excellent remedy for offensive exhalations from the

ears: in combination with woman's milk, it is efficacious as a

cure for ruptures of those organs. Some persons are of opinion

that it is a good plan to wash the ears with this preparation in

cases where the hearing is affected; while others again, after

washing the ears with warm water, insert a mixture composed

of the old slough of a serpent and vinegar, wrapped up in a

dossil of wool. In cases, however, where the deafness is very

considerable, gall warmed in a pomegranate rind with myrrh

and rue, is injected into the ears; sometimes, also, fat bacon

is used for this purpose, or fresh asses' dung, mixed with oil

of roses: in all cases, however, the ingredients should be

warmed.



The foam from a horse's mouth is better still, or the ashes

of fresh horse dung, mixed with oil of roses: fresh butter too

is good; beef-suet mixed with goose-grease; the urine of a

bull or she-goat; or fullers' lant, heated to such a degree that

the steam escapes by the neck of the vessel. For this purpose

also, one third part of vinegar is mixed with a small portion of

the urine of a calf, which has not begun to graze. They apply

also to the ears calf's dung, mixed with the gall of that animal







and sloughs of serpents, care being taken to warm the ears before the application, and all the remedies being wrapped in

wool. Veal-suet, too, is used, with goose-grease and extract of

ocimum; or else veal marrow, mixed with bruised cummin

and injected into the ears. For pains in the ears, the liquid

ejected by a boar in copulation is used, due care being taken to

receive it before it falls to the ground. For fractures of the

ears, a glutinous composition is made from the genitals of a

calf, which is dissolved in water when used; and for other

diseases of those organs, foxes' fat is employed, goat's gall

mixed with rose-oil warmed, or else extracted juice of leeks:

in all cases where there is any rupture, these preparations are

used in combination with woman's milk. Where a patient is

suffering from hardness of hearing, ox-gall is employed, with

the urine of a he or she-goat; the same, too, where there is

any suppuration.



Whatever the purpose for which they are wanted, it is the

general opinion that these substances are more efficacious when

they have been smoked in a goat's horn for twenty days.

Hare's rennet, too, is highly spoken of, taken in Aminean[1]

wine, in the proportion of one third of a denarius of rennet to

one half of a denarius of sacopenum.[2] Bears' grease, mixed

with equal proportions of wax and bull-suet, is a cure for

imposthumes of the parotid glands: some persons add hypocisthis[3] to the composition, or else content themselves with

employing butter only, after first fomenting the parts affected

with a decoction of fenugreek, the good effects of which are

augmented by strychnos. The testes, too, of the fox, are very

useful for this purpose; as also bull's blood, dried and reduced

to powder. She-goats' urine, made warm, is used as an injection for the ears; and a liniment is made of the dung of those

animals, in combination with axle-grease.







1. See B. xiv. c. 4.

2. See B. xx. c. 75.

3. See B. xxvi. c. 31.




49. Chap. 49.-Remedies For Tooth-Ache.


CHAP. 49.-REMEDIES FOR TOOTH-ACHE.



The ashes of deer's horns strengthen loose teeth and allay

tooth-ache, used either as a friction or as a gargle. Some persons,

however, are of opinion that the horn, unburnt and reduced to

powder, is still more efficacious for all these purposes. Dentifrices are made both from the powder and the ashes. Another







excellent remedy is a wolf's head, reduced to ashes: it is a

well-known fact, too, that there are bones generally found in

the excrements of that animal; these bones, attached to the

body as an amulet, are productive of advantageous effects. For

the cure of tooth-ache, hare's rennet is injected into the ear:

the head also of that animal, reduced to ashes, is used in the

form of a dentifrice, and, with the addition of nard, is a corrective of bad breath. Some persons, however, think it a better

plan to mix the ashes of a mouse's head with the dentifrice.

In the side of the hare there is a bone found, similar to a

needle in appearance: for the cure of tooth-ache it is recommended to scarify the gums with this bone. The pastern-bone

of an ox, ignited and applied to loose teeth which ache, has

the effect of strengthening them in the sockets; the same bone,

reduced to ashes, and mixed with myrrh, is also used as a dentifrice. The ashes of burnt pig's feet are productive of a similar

effect, as also the calcined bones of the cotylod cavities in which

the hip-bones move. It is a well-known fact, that, introduced

into the throat of beasts of burden, these bones are a cure for

worms, and that, in a calcined state, they are good for strength-

ening the teeth.



When the teeth have been loosened by a blow, they are

strengthened by using asses' milk, or else ashes of the burnt

teeth of that animal, or a horse's lichen, reduced to powder,

and injected into the car with oil. By lichen[1] I do not mean

the hippomanes, a noxious substance which I purposely forbear

to enlarge upon, but an excrescence which forms upon the

knees of horses, and just above the hoofs. In the heart[2] of

this animal there is also found a bone which bears a close

resemblance to the eye-teeth of a dog: if the gums are scarified

with this bone, or with a tooth taken from the jaw-bone of a

dead horse, corresponding in place with the tooth affected, the

pain will be removed, they say. Anaxilas assures us that if

the liquid which exudes from a mare when covered, is ignited

on the wick of a lamp, it will give out a most marvellous

representation[3] of horses' heads; and the same with reference



[4]







to the she-ass. As to the hippomanes, it is possessed of properties so virulent and so truly magical, that if it is only thrown

into fused metal[5] which is being cast into the resemblance of

an Olympian mare, it will excite in all stallions that approach

it a perfect frenzy for copulation.



Another remedy for diseases of the teeth is joiners' glue,

boiled in water and applied, care being taken to remove it very

speedily, and instantly to rinse the teeth with wine in which

sweet pomegranate-rind has been boiled. It is, considered,

also, a very efficacious remedy to wash the teeth with goats'

milk, or bull's gall. The pastern-bones of a she-goat just

killed, reduced to ashes, and indeed, to avoid the necessity for

repetition, of any other four-footed beast reared in the farmyard, are considered to make an excellent dentifrice.







1. See B. viii. c. 66.

2. See B. xi. c. 70. Ajasson remarks that this bone is only found in

animals that have undergone much fatigue, and that it results from the

consolidation of certain tendinous fibres which form the ligament of the heart.

3. "Capitum visus" seems to be a more probable reading than "capi-

tum usus" given by Sillig. Be it what it may, the meaning of the passage is doubtful.

4. See B. xxi. c. 105.

5. See lian, Var. Hist. xiv. 18.




50. Chap. 50. (12.)-Remedies For Diseases Of The Face.


CHAP. 50. (12.)-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE FACE.



It is generally believed that asses' milk effaces wrinkles in

the face, renders the skin more delicate, and preserves its whiteness: and it is a well-known fact, that some women are in the

habit of washing their face with it seven[1] hundred times daily,

strictly observing that number. Poppa, the wife of the

Emperor Nero, was the first to practise this; indeed, she had

sitting-baths, prepared solely with asses' milk, for which purpose whole troops of she-asses[2] used to attend her on her journies.[3] Purulent eruptions on the face are removed by an

application of butter, but white lead, mixed with the butter,

is an improvement. Pure butter, alone, is used for serpiginous eruptions of the face, a layer of barley-meal being pow-

dered over it. The caul of a cow that has just calved, is

applied, while still moist, to ulcers of the face.



The following recipe may seem frivolous, but still, to please

the women,[4] it must not be omitted; the pastern-bone of a

white steer, they say, boiled forty days and forty nights, till it is







quite dissolved, and then applied to the face in a linen cloth,

will remove wrinkles and preserve the whiteness of the skin.

An application of bull's dung, they say, will impart a rosy

tint to the cheeks, and not crocodilea[5] even is better for the

purpose; the face, however, must be washed with cold water,

both before and after the application. Sun-burns and all other

discolorations of the skin, are removed by the aid of' calves'

dung kneaded up by hand with oil and gum; ulcerations and

chaps of the mouth, by an application of veal or beef-suet,

mixed with goose-grease and juice of' ocimum. There is

another composition, also, made of veal-suet with stag's

marrow and leaves of white-thorn, the whole beaten up

together. Marrow, too, mixed with resin, even if it be cow

marrow only, is equally good; and the broth of cow-beef is

productive of similar effects. A most excellent remedy for

lichens on the face is a glutinous substance prepared from the

genitals of a male calf, melted with vinegar and live sulphur,

and stirred together with the branch of a fig-tree: this composition is applied twice a day, and should be used quite fresh.

This glue, similarly prepared from a decoction of honey and

vinegar, is a cure for leprous spots, which are also removed by

applying a he-goat's liver warm.



Elephantiasis, too, is removed by an application of goats'

gall; and leprous spots and furfuraceous eruptions by em-

ploying bull's gall with the addition of nitre, or else asses' urine

about the rising of the Dog-star. Spots on the face are removed by either bull's gall or ass's gall diluted in water by

itself, care being taken to avoid the sun or wind after the skin

has peeled off. A similar effect is produced, also, by using bull's

gall or calf's gall, in combination with seed of cunila and the

ashes of a deer's horn, burnt at the rising of Canicula.



Asses' fat, in particular, restores the natural colour to scars

and spots on the skin caused by lichen or leprosy. A he-goat's

gall, mixed with cheese, live sulphur, and sponge reduced

to ashes, effectually removes freckles, the composition being

brought to the consistency of honey before being applied.

Some persons, however, prefer using dried gall, and mix with it

warm bran, in the proportion of one obolus to four oboli of honey,

the spots being rubbed briskly first. He-goat suet, too, is highly







efficacious, used in combination with gith, sulphur, and iris; this

mixture being also employed, with goose-grease, stag's marrow,

resin, and lime, for the cure of cracked lips. I find it stated

by certain authors, that persons who have freckles on the skin

are looked upon as disqualified from taking any part in the

sacrifices prescribed by the magic art.







1. There surely must be a wrong reading here, or he cannot intend this

to be understood literally.

2. See B. xi. c. 96.

3. One of the mistresses of Louis XV. not only did this, but (in a spirit

of great charity and consideration, of course) gave the milk to the poor

after she had thus used it.

4. "Ad desideria mulierum."

5. See c. 28 of this Book.




51. Chap. 51.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Tonsillary Glands, And For Scrofula.


CHAP. 51.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE TONSILLARY GLANDS,

AND FOR SCROFULA.



Cow's milk or goat's milk is good for ulcerations of the

tonsillary glands and of the trachea. It is used in the form of

a gargle, warm from the udder or heated, goat's milk being

the best, boiled with mallows and a little salt. A broth made

from tripe is an excellent gargle for ulcerations of the tongue and

trachea; and for diseases of the tonsillary glands, the kidneys of a

fox are considered a sovereign remedy, dried and beaten up with

honey, and applied externally. For quinzy, bull's gall or goat's

gall is used, mixed with honey. A badger's liver, taken in

water, is good for offensive breath, and butter has a healing

effect upon ulcerations of the mouth. When a pointed or

other substance has stuck in the throat, by rubbing it externally with cats' dung, the substance, they say, will either come

up again or pass downwards into the stomach.



Scrofulous sores are dispersed by applying the gall of a wild

boar or of an ox, warmed for the purpose: but it is only when the

sores are ulcerated that hare's rennet is used, applied in a linen

cloth with wine. The ashes of the burnt hoof of an ass or

horse, applied with oil or water, is good for dispersing scrofu-

lous sores; warmed urine also; the ashes of an ox's hoof,

taken in water; cow-dung, applied hot with vinegar; goat-

suet with lime; goats' dung, boiled in vinegar; or the testes

of a fox. Soap,[1] too, is very useful for this purpose, an

invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish[2] tint to the hair.

This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best ashes

for the purpose being those of the beech and yoke-elm: there

are two kinds of it, the hard soap and the liquid, both of them

much used by the people of Germany, the men, in particular,

more than the women.











1. See Beckmann's Hist. Inx. II. 923, Bohn's Ed., where this subject is treated at considerable length.

2. "Rutilandis capillis."




52. Chap. 52-Remedies For Pains In The Neck.


CHAP. 52-REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE NECK.



For pains in the neck, the part should be well rubbed with

butter or bears' grease; and for a stiff neck, with beef suet, a

substance which, in combination with oil, is very useful for

the cure of scrofula. For the painful cramp, attended with

inflexibility, to which people give the name of "opisthotony,"

the urine of a she-goat, injected into the ears, is found very

useful; as also a liniment made of the dung of that animal,

mixed with bulbs.

In cases where the nails have been crushed, it is an excel-

lent plan to attach to them the gall of any kind of animal.

Whitlows upon the fingers should be treated with dried

bull's gall, dissolved in warm water. Some persons are in the

habit of adding sulphur and alum, of each an equal weight.










53. Chap. 53.--Remedies For Cough And For Spitting Of Blood.


CHAP. 53.--REMEDIES FOR COUGH AND FOR SPITTING OF BLOOD.



A. wolf's liver, administered in mulled wine, is a cure for

cough; a bear's gall also, mixed with honey; the ashes of the

tips of a cow's horn; or else the saliva of a horse, taken in the

drink for three consecutive days-in which last case the horse

will be sure to die, they say.[1] A deer's lights are useful for

the same purpose, dried with the gullet of the animal in the

smoke, and then beaten up with honey, and taken daily as an

electuary: the spitter[2] deer, be it remarked, is the kind that

is the most efficacious for the purpose.



Spitting of blood is cured by taking ashes of burnt deer's

horns, or else a hare's rennet in drink, in doses of one-third

of a denarius, with Samian earth and myrtle-wine. The dung

of this last animal, reduced to ashes and taken in the evening,

with wine, is good for coughs that are recurrent at night.

The smoke, too, of a hare's fur, inhaled, has the effect of bringing off from the lungs such humours as are difficult to be discharged by expectoration. Purulent ulcerations of the chest

and lungs, and bad breath proceeding from a morbid state of

the lungs, are successfully treated with butter boiled with an

equal quantity of Attic honey till it assumes a reddish hue, a

spoonful of the mixture being taken by the patient every

morning: some persons, however, instead of honey prefer

using larch-resin for the purpose. In cases where there are







discharges of blood, cow's blood, they say, is good, taken in

small quantities with vinegar; but as to bull's blood, it would

be a rash thing to believe in any such recommendation. For

inveterate spitting of blood, bull-glue is taken, in doses of three

oboli, in warm water.







1. "Earn mori tradunt," The reading here is very doubtful.

2. "Subulo."




54. Chap. 54. (13.)-Remedies For Affections Of The Stomach.


CHAP. 54. (13.)-REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE STOMACH.



Ulcerations of the stomach are effectually treated with

asses' milk[1] or cows' milk. For gnawing pains in that region,

beef is stewed, with vinegar and wine. Fluxes are healed by

taking the ashes of burnt deer's horns; and discharges of blood

by drinking the blood of a kid just killed, made hot, in doses

of three cyathi, with equal proportions of vinegar and tart

wine; or else by taking kid's rennet, with twice the quantity

of vinegar.







1. Asses' milk is still recommended for pulmonary phthisis.




55. Chap. 55.-Remedies For Liver Complaints And For Asthma.


CHAP. 55.-REMEDIES FOR LIVER COMPLAINTS AND FOR ASTHMA.



Liver complaints are cured by taking a wolf's liver dried, in

honied wine; or by using the dried liver of an ass, with twice

the quantity of rock-parsley and three nuts, the whole beaten

up with honey and taken with the food. The blood, too, of a

he-goat is prepared and taken with the food. For persons suffering from asthma, the most efficient remedy of all is the blood

of wild horses[1] taken in drink; and next to that, asses' milk

boiled with bulbs, the whey being the part used, with the

addition of nasturtium steeped in water and tempered with

honey, in the proportion of one cyathus of nasturtium to three

semi-sextarii of whey. The liver or lights of a fox, taken in

red wine, or bear's gall in water, facilitate the respiration.







1. See B. viii. c. 16.




56. Chap. 56.-Remedies For Pains In The Loins.


CHAP. 56.-REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE LOINS.



For pains in the loins and all other affections which require

emollients, frictions with bears' grease should be used; or else

ashes of stale boars' dung or swine's dung should be mixed

with wine and given to the patients. The magicians, too,

have added to this branch of medicine their own fanciful

devices. In the first place of all, madness in he-goats, they

say, may be effectually calmed by stroking the beard; and if

the beard is cut off, the goat will never stray to another flock,







To the above composition they add goats' dung, and recommend it to be held in the hollow of the hand, as hot as possible,

a greased linen cloth being placed beneath, and care being

taken to hold it in the right hand if the pain is on the left

side, and in the left hand if the pain is on the right. They

recommend also that the dung employed for this purpose should

be taken up on the point of a needle made of copper. The

mode of treatment is, for the patient to hold the mixture in

his hand till the heat is felt to have penetrated to the loins,

after which the hand is rubbed with a pounded leek, and the

loins with the same dung annealed with honey. They prescribe

also for the same malady the testes of a hare, to be eaten by the

patient. In cases of sciatica they are for applying cow-dung

warmed upon hot ashes in leaves: and for pains in the kidneys

they recommend a hare's kidneys to be swallowed raw, or

perhaps boiled, but without letting them be touched by the

teeth. If a person carries about him the pastern-bone of a

hare, he will never be troubled with pains in the bowels,

they say.










57. Chap. 57.-Remedies For Affections Of The Spleen.


CHAP. 57.-REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SPLEEN.



Affections of the spleen are alleviated by taking the gall of

a wild boar or hog in drink; ashes of burnt deer's horns in

vinegar; or, what is best of all, the dried spleen of an ass, the

good effects being sure to be felt in the course of three days.

The first dung voided by an ass's foal-a substance known as

"polea"[1] by the people of Syria-is administered in oxymel

for these complaints; a dried horse tongue, too, is taken in

wine, a sovereign remedy which, Ccilius Bion tells us, he first

heard of when living among the barbarous nations. The milt

of a cow or ox is used in a similar manner; but when it is

quite fresh, the practice is to roast or boil it and take it with

the food. For pains in the liver a topical application is made

by bruising twenty heads of garlick in one sextarius of vinegar,

and applying them in a piece of ox bladder. For the same

malady the magicians recommend a calf's milt, bought at the

price set upon it and without any haggling, that being an

important point, and one that should be religiously observed.

This done, the milt must be cut in two lengthwise, and attached







to the patient's shirt,[2] on either side; after which, the patient

must put it on and let the pieces fall at his feet, and must

then pick them up, and dry them in the shade. While this

last is doing, the diseased liver of the patient will gradually

contract, they say, and he will eventually be cured. The

lights, too, of a fox are very useful for this purpose, dried on

hot ashes and taken in water; the same, too, with a kid's

milt, applied to the part affected.







1. This would appear to be a Greek word in reality.

2. "Tunica."




58. Chap. 58. (14.)-Remedies For Bowel Complaints.


CHAP. 58. (14.)-REMEDIES FOR BOWEL COMPLAINTS.



To arrest looseness of the bowels, deer's blood is used; the

ashes also of deer's horns; the liver of a wild boar, taken fresh

and without salt, in wine; a swine's liver roasted, or that of a

he-goat, boiled in five semisextarii of wine; a hare's rennet

boiled, in quantities the size of a chick-pea, in wine, or, if

there are symptoms of fever, in water. To this last some

persons add nut-galls, while others, again, content themselves

with hare's blood boiled by itself in milk. Ashes; too, of

burnt horse-dung are taken in water for this purpose; or else

ashes of the part of an old bull's horn which lies nearest the

root, sprinkled in water; the blood, too, of a he-goat boiled

upon charcoal; or a decoction made from a goat's hide boiled

with the hair on.



For relaxing the bowels a horse's rennet is used, or else the

blood, marrow, or liver of a she-goat. A similar effect is produced by applying a wolf's gall to the navel, with elaterium;[1]

by taking mares' milk, goats' milk with salt and honey, or a

she-goat's gall with juice of cyclaminos,[2] and a little alum-in

which last case some prefer adding nitre and water to the

mixture. Bull's gall, too, is used for a similar purpose, beaten

up with wormwood and applied in the form of a suppository; or

butter is taken, in considerable doses.



Cliac affections and dysentery are cured by taking cow's

liver; ashes of deer's horns, a pinch in three fingers swallowed

in water; hare's rennet, kneaded up in bread, or, if there is

any discharge of blood, taken with polenta;[3] or else boar's







dung, swine's dung, or hare's dung, reduced to ashes and

mixed with mulled wine. Among the remedies, also, for the

cliac flux and dysentery, veal broth is reckoned, a remedy very

commonly used. If the patient takes asses' milk for these

complaints, it will be all the better if honey is added; and no

less efficacious for either complaint are the ashes of asses' dung

taken in wine; or else polea, the substance above[4]-mentioned.

In such cases, even when attended with a discharge of blood,

we find a horse's rennet recommended, by some persons known

as "hippace;" ashes of burnt horse-dung; horses' teeth

pounded; and boiled cows' milk. In cases of dysentery, it is

recommended to add a little honey; and, for the cure of griping pains, ashes of deer's horns, bull's gall mixed with cum-

min, or the flesh of a gourd, should be applied to the navel.

For both complaints new cheese made of cows' milk is used,

as an injection; butter also, in the proportion of four semisextarii to two ounces of turpentine, or else employed with a decoction of mallows or with oil of roses. Veal-suet or beef-suet

is also given, and the marrow of those animals is boiled with

meal, a little wax, and some oil, so as to form a sort of pottage.

This marrow, too, is kneaded up with bread for a similar purpose; or else goats' milk is used, boiled down to one half. In

cases, too, where there are gripings in the bowels, wine of the

first running[5] is administered. For the last-named pains, some

persons are of opinion that it is a sufficient remedy to take

a single dose of hare's rennet in mulled wine; though others

again, who are more distrustful, are in the habit of applying a

liniment to the abdomen, made of goats' blood, barley-meal,

and resin.



For all defluxions of the bowels it is recommended to apply

soft cheese, and for cliac affections and dysentery old cheese,

powdered, one cyathus of cheese being taken in three cyathi of

ordinary wine. Goats' blood is boiled down with the marrow

of those animals for the cure of dysentery; and the cliac flux

is effectually treated with the roasted liver of a she-goat, or,

what is still better, the liver of a he-goat boiled in astringent

wine, and administered in the drink, or else applied to the navel

with oil of myrtle. Some persons boil down the liver in three

sextarii of water to half a sextarius, and then add rue to it.







The milt of a he or she-goat is sometimes roasted for this purpose, or the suet of a he-goat is incorporated in bread baked

upon the ashes; the fat, too, of a she-goat, taken from the kidneys

more particularly, is used. This last, however, must be taken

by itself and swallowed immediately, being generally recommended to be taken in water moderately cool. Some persons,

too, boil goats' suet in water, with a mixture of polenta, cummin, anise, and vinegar; and for the cure of cliac affections,

they rub the abdomen with a decoction of goats' dung and

honey.



For both the cliac flux and dysentery, kid's rennet is

employed, taken in myrtle wine in pieces the size of a bean,

or else kid's blood, prepared in the form of a dish known by

the name of "sanguiculus."[6] For dysentery an injection is

employed, made of bull glue dissolved in warm water. Flatulency is dispelled by a decoction of calf's dung in wine. For

intestinal affections deer's rennet is highly recommended,

boiled with beef and lentils, and taken with the food; hare's

fur, also reduced to ashes and boiled with honey; or boiled

goat's milk, taken with a small quantity of mallows and some

salt; if rennet is added, the remedy will be all the more effectual. Goat suet, taken in any kind of broth, is possessed of

similar virtues, care being taken to swallow cold water immediately after. The ashes of a kid's thighs are said to be marvellously efficacious for intestinal hernia; as also hare's dung,

boiled with honey, and taken daily in pieces the size of a bean;

indeed, these remedies are said to have proved effectual in cases

where a cure has been quite despaired of. The broth too,

made from a goat's head, boiled with the hair on, is highly

recommended.







1. See B. xx. c. 2.

2. See B. xxv. c. 67. Mares' milk is not a purgative; and goats' milk,

as Ajasson remarks, is somewhat astringent. Juice of Cyclamen, on the

other hand, or sow-bread, is highly purgative.

3. See B. xviii. c. 14.

4. In Chap. 57 of this Book.

5. "Protropum." See B. xiv. cc. 9. 11.

6. A kind of black pudding. Dupinet, the old French translator, says

that in his time the people of the Alpine regions still called this dish sanchet.




59. Chap. 59.-Remedes For Tenesmus, Tapeworm, And Affections Of The Colon.


CHAP. 59.-REMEDES FOR TENESMUS, TAPEWORM, AND

AFFECTIONS OF THE COLON.



The disease called "tenesmus," or in other words, a frequent

and ineffectual desire to go to stool, is removed by drinking

asses' milk or cows' milk. The various kinds of tapewormn[1] are

expelled by taking the ashes of deer's horns in drink. The bones







which we have spoken[2] of as being found in the excrements

of the wolf, worn attached to the arm, are curative of diseases

of the colon, provided they have not been allowed to touch the

ground. Polea, too, a substance already mentioned,[3] is remarkably useful for this purpose, boiled in grape juice:[4] the

same too with swine's dung, powdered and mixed with cummin, in a decoction of rue. The antler of a young stag,

reduced to ashes and taken in wine, mixed with African snails,

crushed with the shells on, is considered a very, useful remedy.







1. He uses "tnia" probably, as a general name for intestinal worms.

2. In c. 49 of this Book.

3. In c. 57 of this Book.

4. "Sapa." Grape-juice boiled down to two-thirds: see B. xiv. c. 11.




60. Chap. 60. (15.)--Remedies For Affections Of The Bladder, And For Urinary Calculi.


CHAP. 60. (15.)--REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER,

AND FOR URINARY CALCULI.



Diseases of the bladder, and the torments attendant upon

calculi, are treated with the urine of a wild boar, or the

bladder of that animal taken as food; both of them being still

more efficacious if they have been thoroughly soaked first.

The bladder, when eaten, should be boiled first, and if the

patient is a female, it should be a sow's bladder. There are

found in the liver of the wild boar certain small stones,[1] or

what in hardness resemble small stones, of a white hue, and

resembling those found in the liver of the common swine: if

these stones are pounded and taken in wine, they will expel

calculi, it is said. So oppressed is the wild boar by the burden of his urine,[2] that if he has not first voided it, he is

unable to take to flight, and suffers himself to be taken as

though he were enchained to the spot. This urine, they say,

has a consuming effect upon urinary calculi. The kidneys of

a hare, dried and taken in wine, act as an expellent upon

calculi. We have already[3] mentioned that in the gammon of

the hog there are certain joint-bones; a decoction made from

them is remarkably useful for urinary affections. The kidneys

of an ass, dried and pounded, and administered in undiluted

wine, are a cure for diseases of the bladder. The excrescences

that grow on horses' legs, taken for forty days in ordinary

wine or honied wine, expel urinary calculi. The ashes, too, of







a horse's hoof, taken in wine or water, are considered highly

useful for this purpose; and the same with the dung of a she-goat-if a wild goat, all the better-taken in honied wine:

goats' hair, too, is used, reduced to ashes.



For carbuncles upon the generative organs, the brains and

blood of a wild boar or swine are highly recommended: and

for serpiginous affections of those parts, the liver of those

animals is used, burnt upon juniper wood more particularly,

and mixed with papyrus and arsenic;[4] the ashes, also, of their

dung; ox-gall, kneaded to the consistency of honey, with

Egyptian alum and myrrh, beet-root boiled in wine being laid

upon it; or else beef. Running ulcers of those parts are

treated with veal-suet and marrow, boiled in wine, or with the

gall of a she-goat, mixed with honey and the extracted juice

of the bramble.[5] In cases where these ulcers are serpiginous,

it is recommended to use goats' dung with honey or vinegar,

or else butter by itself. Swellings of the testes are reduced by

using veal-suet with nitre, or the dung of the animal boiled in

vinegar. The bladder of a wild boar, eaten roasted, acts as a

check upon incontinence of urine; a similar effect being produced by the ashes of the feet of a wild boar or swine sprinkled

in the drink; the ashes of a sow's bladder taken in drink; the

bladder or lights of a kid; a hare's brains taken in wine; the

testes of a male hare grilled; the rennet of that animal taken

with goose-grease and polenta;[6] or the kidneys of an ass, beaten

up and taken in undiluted wine.



The magicians tell us, that after taking the ashes of a boar's

genitals in sweet wine, the patient must make water in a dog

kennel, and repeat the following formula-"This I do that I

may not wet my bed as a dog does." On the other hand, a

swine's bladder, attached to the groin, facilitates the discharge

of the urine, provided it has not already touched the ground.







1. In reality, these are biliary calculi, found in the gall-bladder of the

animal. They are called "bezoar" stones, from a Persian word signifying

"destructive to poison."

2. See B, viii. c. 77.

3. In c. 49 of this Book.

4. Ajasson remarks that arsenic should be used with the greatest care in

such a case.

5. "Rubi." He probably means the bramble-berry.

6. See B. xviii. c. 14.




61. Chap. 61.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Generative Organs And Of The Fundament.


CHAP. 61.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS

AND OF THE FUNDAMENT.



For diseases of the fundament, a sovereign remedy is bear's

gall, mixed with the grease; to which some persons are in the







habit of adding litharge and frankincense. Butter, too, is very

good, employed with goose-grease and oil of roses. The proportions in which they are mixed will be regulated by the

circumstances of the case, care being taken to see that they are

of a consistency which admits of their being easily applied.

Bull's gall upon lint is a remarkably useful remedy, and has

the effect of making chaps of the fundament cicatrize with

great rapidity. Swellings of those parts are treated with veal

suet-that from the loins in particular-mixed with rue. For

other affections, goats' blood is used, with polenta. Goats'

gall, too, is employed by itself, for the cure of condylomata, and

sometimes, wolf's gall, mixed with wine.



Bears' blood is curative of inflamed tumours and apostemes upon these parts in general; as also bulls' blood, dried

and powdered. The best remedy, however, is considered to

be the stone which the wild ass[1] voids with his urine, it is

said, at the moment he is killed. This stone, which is in a

somewhat liquefied state at first, becomes solid when it reaches

the ground: attached to the thigh, it; disperses all collections

of humours and all kinds of suppurations: it is but rarely

found, however, and it is not every wild ass that produces it,

but as a remedy it is held in high esteem. Asses' urine too,

used in combination with gith, is highly recommended; the

ashes of a horse's hoof, applied with oil and water; a horse's

blood, that of a stone-horse in particular; the blood, also, of an

ox or cow, or the gall of those animals. Their flesh too, applied

warm, is productive of similar results; the hoofs reduced to

ashes, and taken in water or honey; the urine of a she-goat;

the flesh of a he-goat, boiled in water; the dung of these

animals, boiled with honey; or else a boar's gall, or swine's

urine, applied in wool.



Riding on horseback, we well know, galls and chafes the

inside of the thighs: the best remedy for accidents of this

nature is to rub the parts with the foam which collects at a

horse's mouth. Where there are swellings in the groin, arising[2]

from ulcers, a cure is effected by inserting in the sores three

horse-hairs, tied with as many knots.











1. "Onager."

2. Arising, by sympathy, from sores in other parts of the body.




62. Chap. 62. (16.)-Remedies For Gout And For Diseases Of The Feet.


CHAP. 62. (16.)-REMEDIES FOR GOUT AND FOR DISEASES OF

THE FEET.



For the cure of gout, bears' grease is employed, mixed in

equal proportions with bull-suet and wax; some persons add

to the composition, hypocisthis[1] and nut-galls. Others, again,

prefer he-goat suet, mixed with the dung of a she-goat and

saffron, or else with mustard, or sprigs of ivy pounded and

used with perdicium,[2] or with flowers of wild cucumber. Cowdung is also used, with lees of vinegar. Some persons speak

highly in praise of the dung of a calf which has not begun to

graze, or else a bull's blood, without any other addition; a

fox, also, boiled alive till only the bones are left; a wolf boiled

alive in oil to the consistency of a cerate; he-goat suet, with

an equal proportion of helxine,[3] and one-third part of mustard; or ashes of goats' dung, mixed with axle-grease. They

say, too, that for sciatica, it is an excellent plan to apply this

dung boiling[4] hot beneath the great toes; and that, for diseases

of the joints, it is highly efficacious to attach bears' gall or

hares' feet to the part affected. Gout, they say, may be allayed

by the patient always carrying about with him a hare's foot,

cut off from the animal alive.



Bears' grease is a cure for chilblains and all kinds of chaps

upon the feet; with the addition of alum, it is still more efficacious. The same results are produced by using goat-suet;

a horse's teeth powdered; the gall of a wild boar or hog; or

else the lights of those animals, applied with their grease; and

this, too, where the soles are blistered, or the feet have been

crushed by a substance striking against them. In cases where

the feet have been frozen, ashes of burnt hare's fur are used;

and for contusions of the feet, the lights of that animal are

applied, sliced or reduced to ashes. Blisters occasioned by the

sun are most effectually treated by using asses' fat, or else

beef-suet, with oil of roses. Corns, chaps, and callosities of

the feet are cured by the application of wild boars' dung or

swine's dung, used fresh, and removed at the end of a couple







of days. The pastern-bones of these animals are also used, reduced to ashes; or else the lights of a wild boar, swine, or deer.

When the feet have been galled by the shoes, they are rubbed

with the urine of an ass, applied with the mud formed by it

upon the ground. Corns are treated with beef-suet and powdered frankincense; chilblains with burnt leather, that of an

old shoe, in particular; and injuries produced by tight shoes

with ashes of goat-skin, tempered with oil.



The pains attendant upon varicose veins are mitigated by

using ashes of burnt calves' dung, boiled with lily roots and a

little honey: a composition which is equally good for all kinds

of inflammations and sores that tend to suppurate. It is very

useful, also, for gout and diseases of the joints, when it is the

dung of a bull-calf that is used more particularly. For excoriations of the joints, the gall of a wild boar or swine is applied,

in a warm linen cloth: the dung, also, of a calf that has not

begun to graze; or else goat-dung, boiled in vinegar with honey.

Veal-suet rectifies malformed nails, as also goat-suet, mixed with

sandarach. Warts are removed by applying ashes of burnt

calves' dung in vinegar, or else the mud formed upon the ground

by the urine of an ass.







1. See B. xxvi. c. 31. Bears' grease is of no use whatever for the care

of gout.

2. See B. xix. c. 31. B. xxi. cc. 62, 104, and B. xxii. cc. 19, 20.

3. See B. xxi. c. 56.

4. This mode of cure, Ajasson says, is still employed in the East, where

the preparation is known by the name of moza.




63. Chap. 63.-Remedies For Epilepsy.


CHAP. 63.-REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.



In cases of epilepsy, it is a good plan to eat a bear's testes, or

those of a wild boar, with mares' milk or water; or else to drink

a wild boar's urine with honey and vinegar, that being the

best which has been left to dry in the bladder. The testes,

also, of swine are prescribed, dried and beaten up in sows'

milk, the patient abstaining from. wine some days before and

after taking the mixture. The lights of a hare, too, are recom-

mended, salted, and taken with one third of frankincense, for

thirty consecutive days, in white wine: hare's rennet also

and asses' brains, smoked with burning leaves, and administered in hydromel, in doses of half an ounce per day. An

ass's hoofs are reduced to ashes, and taken for a month together, in doses of two spoonfuls; the testes, also, of an ass,

salted and mixed with the drink, asses' milk or water in particular. The secundines, also, of a she-ass are recommended,

more particularly when it is a male that has been foaled: placed

beneath the nostrils of the patient, when the fits are likely to

come on, this substance will effectually repel them.







There are some persons who recommend the patient to eat

the heart of a black he-ass in the open air with bread, upon

the first or second day of the moon: others, again, prescribe

the flesh of that animal, and others the blood, diluted with

vinegar, and taken for forty days together. Some mix horse-

stale for this purpose, with smithy water fresh from the forge,

employing the same mixture for the cure of delirium. Epilepsy

is also treated with mares' milk, or the excrescences from a

horse's legs, taken in honey and vinegar. The magicians

highly recommend goats' flesh, grilled upon a funeral pile; as

also the suet of that animal, boiled with an equal quantity of

bull's gall, and kept in the gall-bladder; care being taken not

to let it touch the ground, and the patient swallowing it in

water, standing aloft.[1] The smell arising from a goat's horns

or deer's antlers, burnt, efficiently detects the presence of

epilepsy.



In cases where persons are suddenly paralyzed, the urine of

an ass's foal, applied to the body with nard, is very useful, it is







1. "Potum vero ex aqua sublime." The true reading and the meaning

are equally doubtful.




64. Chap. 64.-Remedies For Jaundice.


CHAP. 64.-REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.



For the cure of jaundice, the ashes of a stag's antlers are

employed; or the blood of an ass's foal, taken in wine. The

first dung,[1] too, that has been voided by the foal after its

birth, taken in wine, in pieces the size of a bean, will effect a

cure by the end of three days. The dung of a new-born colt

is possessed of a similar efficacy.







1. Spoken of as "polea" in c. 57.




65. Chap. 65.--Remedies For Broken Bones.


CHAP. 65.--REMEDIES FOR BROKEN BONES.



For broken bones, a sovereign remedy is the ashes of the

jaw-bone of a wild boar or swine: boiled bacon, too, tied round

the broken bone, unites it with marvellous rapidity. For

fractures of the ribs, goats' dung, applied in old wine, is extolled

as the grand remedy, being possessed in a high degree of

aperient, extractive, and healing properties.










66. Chap. 66.-Remedies For Fevers.


CHAP. 66.-REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.



Deer's flesh, as already[1] stated, is a febrifuge. Periodical







and recurrent fevers are cured, if we are to believe what the

magicians tell us, by wearing the right eye of a wolf, salted,

and attached as an amulet. There is one kind of fever generally known as "amphemerine"[2] it is to be cured, they say,

by the patient taking three drops of blood from an ass's ear, and

swallowing them in two semi-sextarii of water. For quartan

fever, the magicians recommend cats' dung to be attached to

the body, with the toe of a horned owl, and, that the fever

may not be recurrent, not to be removed until the seventh

paroxysm is past. Who,[3] pray, could have ever made such a

discovery as this? And what, too, can be the meaning of this

combination? Why, of all things in the world, was the toe

of a horned owl made choice of?



Other adepts in this art, who are more moderate in their

suggestions, recommend for quartan fever, the salted liver of a

cat that has been killed while the moon was on the wane, to be

taken in wine just before the paroxysms come on. The magicians recommend, too, that the toes of the patient should be

rubbed with the ashes of burnt cow-dung, diluted with a boy's

urine, and that a hare's heart should be attached to the hands;

they prescribe, also, hare's rennet, to be taken in drink just

before the paroxysms come on. New goats' milk cheese is

also given with honey, the whey being carefully extracted

first.







1. In B. viii. c. 50. Because the animal itself was supposed to be free

from fever.

2. Or "quotidian," daily fever.

3. A rather singular episode in his narrative. It looks like a gloss.




67. Chap. 67. (17.)-Remedies For Melancholy, Lethargy, And Phthsis.


CHAP. 67. (17.)-REMEDIES FOR MELANCHOLY, LETHARGY, AND

PHTHSIS.



For patients affected with melancholy,[1] calves' dung, boiled

in wine, is a very useful remedy. Persons are aroused from

lethargy by applying to the nostrils the callosities from an

ass's legs steeped in vinegar, or the fumes of burnt goats'

horns or hair, or by the application of a wild boar's liver: a

remedy which is also used for confirmed[2] drowsiness.



The cure of phthisis is effected by taking a wolf's liver

boiled in thin wine; the bacon of a sow that has been fed

upon herbs; or the flesh of a she-ass, eaten with the broth:

this last mode in particular, being the one that is employed by







the people of Achaia. They say too, that the smoke of dried

cow-dung-that of the animal when grazing, I mean-is remarkably good for phthisis, inhaled through a reed;[3] and we

find it stated that the tips of cows' horns are burnt, and administered with honey, in doses of two spoonfuls, in the form

of pills. Goat suet, many persons say, taken in a pottage of

alica,[4] or melted fresh with honied wine, in the proportion of

one ounce of suet to one cyathus of wine, is good for cough

and phthisis, care being taken to stir the mixture with a sprig

of rue. One author of credit assures us that before now, a

patient whose recovery has been despaired of; has been restored

to health by taking one cyathus of wild goat[5] suet and an

equal quantity of milk. Some writers, too, have stated that

ashes of burnt swine's dung are very useful, mixed with raisin

wine; as also the lights of a deer, a spitter[6] deer in particular,

smoke-dried and beaten up in wine.







1. Under this name, as Ajasson remarks, the affections now called "hysteria" are included.

2. "Veternum."

3. Another instance of smoking, though not a very tempting one.

4. See B. xviii. c. 29.

5. "Rupicapra."

6. "Subulo."




68. Chap. 68.-Remedies For Dropsy.


CHAP. 68.-REMEDIES FOR DROPSY.



For dropsy, a will boar's urine is good, taken in small doses

in the patient's drink; it is of much greater efficacy, however,

when it has been left to dry in the bladder of the animal. The

ashes, too, of burnt cow-dung, and of bulls' dung in particular

-animals that are reared in herds, I mean-are highly esteemed.

This dung, the name given to which is "bolbiton,"[1] is re-

duced to ashes, and taken in doses of three spoonfuls to one

semisextarius of honied wine; that of the female animal being

used where the patient is a woman, and that of the other sex

in the case of males; a distinction about which the magicians

have made a sort of grand mystery. The dung of a bull-calf is

also applied topically for this disease, and ashes of burnt calves'

dung are taken with seed of staphylinos,[2] in equal proportions,

in wine. Goats' blood also is used, with the marrow; but it

is generally thought that the blood of the he-goat is the most

efficacious, when the animal has fed upon lentisk, more particularly.











1. From the Greek.

2. See B. xix. c. 27, B. xx. c. 15, and B. xxv. c. 64.




69. Chap. 69.-Remedies For Erysipelas, And For Purulent Eruptions.


CHAP. 69.-REMEDIES FOR ERYSIPELAS, AND FOR PURULENT

ERUPTIONS.



For erysipelas a liniment of bears' grease is used, that from

the kidneys in particular; fresh calves' dung also, or cow-dung;

dried goats' milk cheese, with leeks; or else the fine scrapings of

a deer's skin, brought off with pumice-stone and beaten up in

vinegar. Where there is redness of the skin attended with

itching, the foam from a horse's mouth is used, or the hoof,

reduced to ashes.



For the cure of purulent[1] eruptions ashes of burnt asses'

dung are applied, with butter; and for the removal of swarthy

pimples, dried goats' milk cheese, steeped in honey and vinegar,

is applied in the bath, no oil being used. Pustules are treated

with ashes of swine's dung, applied with water, or else ashes

of deer's antlers.







1. "Eruptionibus pituit."




70. Chap. 70.-Remedies For Sprains, Indurations, And Boils.


CHAP. 70.-REMEDIES FOR SPRAINS, INDURATIONS, AND BOILS.





For the cure of sprains the following applications are used;

wild boars' dung or swine's dung; calves' dung; wild boars'

foam, used fresh with vinegar; goats' dung, applied with

honey; and raw beef, used as a plaster. For swellings, swine's

dung is used, warmed in an earthen pot, and beaten up with

oil. The best emollient for all kinds of indurations upon the

body is wolf's fat, applied topically. In the case of sores

which are wanted to break, the most effectual plan is to apply

cow-dung warmed in hot ashes, or else goats' dung boiled in

vinegar or wine. For the cure of boils, beef-suet is applied

with salt; but if they are attended with pain, it is melted with

oil, and no salt is used. Goat-suet is employed in a similar

manner.










71. Chap. 71.-Remedies For Burns. The Method Of Testing Bull-Glue; Seven Remedies Derived From It.


CHAP. 71.-REMEDIES FOR BURNS. THE METHOD OF TESTING

BULL-GLUE; SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.



For the treatment of burns, bears' grease is used, with lily

roots; dried wild boars' dung also, or swine's dung; the ashes

of burnt bristles, extracted from plasterers' brushes, beaten up

with grease; the pastern-bone of an ox, reduced to ashes, and

mixed with wax and bull's marrow or deer's marrow; or the

dung of a hare. The dung, too, of a she-goat, they say, will

effect a cure without leaving any scars.







The best glue is that prepared from the ears and genitals of

the bull, and there is no better cure in existence for burns.

There is nothing, however, that is more extensively adulterated;

which is done by boiling up all kinds of old skins, and shoes

even, for the purpose. The Rhodian glue is the purest of all,

and it is this that painters and physicians mostly use. The

whiter it is, the more highly glue is esteemed: that, on the

other hand, which is black and brittle like wood, is looked upon

is good for nothing.










72. Chap. 72.- Remedies For Affections Of The Sinews And For Contusions.


CHAP. 72.- REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SINEWS AND FOR

CONTUSIONS.



For pains in the sinews, goats' dung, boiled in vinegar with

honey, is considered one of the most useful remedies, and this

even where the sinew[1] is threatened with putrefaction. Strains

and contusions are healed with wild boars' dung, that has been

gathered in spring and dried. A similar method is employed

where persons have been dragged by a chariot or lacerated by

the wheels, or have received contusions in any other way, the

application being quite as effectual, should the dung happen

to be fresh. Some think it a better plan, however, to boil it

in vinegar; and if only powdered and taken in vinegar, they

vouch for its good effects where persons are ruptured, wounded

internally, or suffering from the effects of a fall.



Others again, who are of a more scrupulous tendency,[2] take

the ashes of it in water; and the Emperor Nero, it is said, was

in the habit of refreshing himself with this drink, when he attempted to gain the public applause at the three-horse chariot

races.[3] Swine's dung, it is generally thought, is the next

best to that of the goat.







1. Where the sinew has been wounded and exposed, either vinegar or

honey, Ajasson remarks, would be a highly dangerous application.

2. "Reverentiores."

3. "Trigario"




73. Chap. 73. (18.)-Remedies For Hmorrhage.


CHAP. 73. (18.)-REMEDIES FOR HMORRHAGE.



Hmorrhage is arrested by applying deer's rennet with

vinegar, hare's rennet, hare's fur reduced to ashes, or ashes of

burnt asses' dung. The dung, however, of male animals is the

most efficacious for this purpose, being mixed with vinegar, and

applied with wool, in all cases of hmorrhage. In the same way,

too, the ashes of a horse's head or thigh, or of burnt calves' dung,

are used with vinegar; the ashes also of a goat's horns or dung,







with vinegar. But it is the thick blood that issues from the

liver of a he-goat when cut asunder, that is looked upon as the

most efficacious; or else the ashes of the burnt liver of a goat

of either sex, taken in wine or applied to the nostrils with

vinegar. The ashes, too, of a leather wine-bottle-but only

when made of he-goat skin-are used very efficiently with

an equal quantity of resin, for the purpose of stanching blood,

and knitting together the lips of the wound. A kid's rennet

in vinegar, or the thighs of that animal, reduced to ashes, are

said to be productive of a similar result.










74. Chap. 74.-Remedies For Ulcers And Caracinomatous Sores.


CHAP. 74.-REMEDIES FOR ULCERS AND CARACINOMATOUS SORES.



Ulcers upon the legs and thighs are cured by an application

of bears' grease, mixed with red earth: and those of a serpiginous nature by using wild boar's gall, with resin and white

lead; the jaw-bone of a wild boar or swine, reduced to ashes;

swine's dung in a dry state; or goats' dung, made luke-warm

in vinegar. For otter kinds of ulcers butter is used, as a

detergent, and as tending to make new flesh; ashes of deer's

antlers, or deer's marrow; or else bull's gall, mixed with

oil of cyprus[1] or oil of iris. Wounds inflicted with edged

weapons are rubbed with fresh swine's dung, or with dried

swine's dung, powdered. When ulcers are phagednic or

fistulous, bull's gall is injected, with leek-juice or woman's

milk; or else bull's blood, dried and powdered, with the plant

cotyledon.[2]



Carcinomatous sores are treated with hare's rennet, sprin-

kled upon them with an equal proportion of capers in wine;

gangrenes, with bears' grease, applied with a feather; and

ulcers of a serpiginous nature with the ashes of an ass's hoofs,

powdered upon then. The blood of the horse corrodes the

flesh by virtue of certain septic powers which it possesses;

dried horse-dung, too, reduced to ashes, has a similar effect.

Those kinds of ulcer which are commonly known as "phagednic," are treated with the ashes of a cow's hide, mixed with

honey. Calves' flesh, as also cow-dung mixed with honey, prevents recent wounds from swelling. The ashes of a leg of veal,

applied with woman's milk, are a cure for sordid ulcers, and the

malignant sore known s "cacothes:"[3] bull-glue, melted, is







applied to recent wounds inflicted with edged weapons, the

application being removed before the end of three days. Dried

goats' milk cheese, applied with vinegar and honey, acts as a

detergent upon ulcers; and goat suet, used in combination

with wax, arrests the spread of serpiginous sores if employed

with pitch and sulphur, it will effect a thorough cure. The

ashes of a kid's leg, applied with woman's milk, have a similar

effect upon malignant ulcers; for the cure, too, of carbuncles, a

sow's brains are roasted and applied.







1. See B. xii. c. 51.

2. See B. xxv. c. 101.

3. "Bad habit." Asort of cancer, or malignant ulcer.




75. Chap. 75.-Remedies For The Itch.


CHAP. 75.-REMEDIES FOR THE ITCH.



The itch in man is cured very effectually by using the

marrow of an ass, or the urine of that animal, applied with

the mud it has formed upon the ground. Butter, too, is very

good; as also in the case of beasts of burden, if applied with

warmed resin: bull glue is also used, melted in vinegar, and

incorporated with lime; or goat's gall, mixed with calcined

alum. The eruption called "boa,"[1] is treated with cow-dung,

a fact to which it is indebted for its name. The itch in dogs

is cured by an application of fresh cows' blood, which, when

quite dry, is renewed a second time, and is rubbed off the next

day with strong lie-ashes.







1. See B. xxiv. c. 35.




76. Chap. 76.-Methods Of Extracting Foreign Substances Which Adhere To The, Body, And Of Restoring Scars To Their Natural Colour.


CHAP. 76.-METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN SUBSTANCES WHICH

ADHERE TO THE, BODY, AND OF RESTORING SCARS TO THEIR

NATURAL COLOUR.



Thorns and similar foreign substances are extracted from the

body by using cats' dung, or that of she-goats, with wine; the

rennet also of any kind of animal, that of the hare more particularly, with powdered frankincense and oil, or an equal quan-

tity of mistletoe, or else with bee-glue.[1]



Ass suet restores scars of a swarthy hue to their natural

colour; and they are equally effaced by using calf's gall made

warm. Medical men add myrrh, honey, and saffron, and keep

the mixture in a copper box; some, too, incorporate with it

flower of copper.







1. "Prcholis." See 1. xi. c. 6.




77. Chap. 77. (19.)-Remedies For Female Diseases.


CHAP. 77. (19.)-REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES.



Menstruation is promoted by using hall's gall, in unwashed

wool, as a pessary: Olympias of Thebe adds hyssop and nitre.







Ashes, too, of deer's horns are taken in drink for the same purpose, and for derangements of the uterus they are applied topically, as also bull's gall, used as a pessary with opium, in the

proportion of two oboli. It is a good plan, too, to use fumigations

for the uterus, made with deer's hair, burnt. Hinds, they say,

when they find themselves pregnant, are in the habit of swallowing a small stone. This stone, when found in their excrements, or in the uterus-for it is to be found there as well-attached to the body as an amulet, is a preventive of abortion.

There are also certain small stones, found in the heart and uterus

of these animals, which are very useful for women during pregnancy and in travail. As to the kind of pumice-stone which

is similarly found in the uterus of the cow, we have already[1]

mentioned it when treating of the formation of that animal.



A wolf's fat, applied externally, acts emolliently upon the

uterus, and the liver of a wolf is very soothing for pains in

that organ. It is found advantageous for women, when near

delivery, to eat wolf's flesh, or, if they are in travail, to have

a person near them who has eaten it; so much so, indeed, that

it will act as a countercharm even to any noxious spells which

may have been laid upon them. In case, however, a person

who has eaten wolf's flesh should happen to enter the room

at the moment of parturition, dangerous effects will be sure to

follow. The hare, too, is remarkably useful for the complaints

of females: the lights of that animal, dried and taken in drink,

are beneficial to the uterus; the liver, taken in water with Samian

earth, acts as an emmenagogue; and the rennet brings away

the after-birth, due care being taken by the patient not to bathe

the day before. Applied in wool as a pessary, with saffron and

leek-juice, this last acts as an expellent upon the dead ftus. It

is a general opinion that the uterus of a hare, taken with the

food, promotes the conception of male offspring, and that a

similar effect is produced by using the testes and rennet of that

animal. It is thought, too, that a leveret, taken from the uterus

of its dam, is a restorative of fruitfulness to women who are

otherwise past child-bearing. But it is the blood of a hare's

ftus that the magicians recommend males to drink: while for

young girls they prescribe nine pellets of hare's dung, to ensure

a durable firmness to the breasts. For a similar purpose, also,







they apply hare's rennet with honey; and to prevent hairs

from growing again when once removed, they use a liniment

of hare's blood.



For inflations of the uterus, it is found a good plan to apply

wild boars' dung or swine's dung topically with oil: but a

still more effectual remedy is to dry the dung, and sprinkle it,

powdered, in the patient's drink, even though she should be

in a state of pregnancy or suffering the pains of child-birth.

By administering sow's milk with honied wine, parturition is

facilitated; and if taken by itself it will promote the secretion of the milk when deficient in nursing women. By rubbing the breasts of females with sow's blood they are prevented from becoming too large. If pains are felt in the

breasts, they will be alleviated by drinking asses' milk; and the

same milk, taken with honey, has considerable efficacy as an

emmenagogue. Stale fat, too, from the same animal, heals

ulcerations of the uterus: applied as a pessary, in wool, it acts

emolliently upon indurations of that organ; and, applied fresh

by itself, or in water when stale, it has all the virtues of a

depilatory.



An ass's milt, dried and applied in water to the breasts,

promotes the secretion of the milk; and used in the form of a

fumigation, it acts as a corrective upon the uterus. A fumigation made with a burnt ass's hoof; placed beneath a woman,

accelerates parturition, so much so, indeed, as to expel the dead

ftus even: hence it is that it should only be employed in cases

of miscarriage, it having a fatal effect upon the living ftus.

Asses' dung, applied fresh, has a wonderful effect, they say, in

arresting discharges of blood in females: the same, too, with

the ashes of this dung, which, used as a pessary, are very good

for the uterus. If the skin is rubbed with the foam from a

horse's mouth for forty days together, before the first hair has

made its appearance, it will effectually prevent the growth

thereof: a decoction, too, made from deer's antlers is productive

of a similar effect, being all the better if they are used quite

fresh. Mares' milk, used as an injection, is highly beneficial

to the uterus.



Where the ftus is felt to be dead in the uterus, the

lichens or excrescences from a horse's legs, taken in fresh

water, will act as an expellent: an effect produced also by a

fumigation made with the hoofs or dry dung of that animal.







Procidence of the uterus is arrested by using butter, in the

form of an injection; and indurations of that organ are removed

by similarly employing ox-gall, with oil of roses, turpentine

being applied externally in wool. They say, too, that a fumigation, made from ox-dung, acts as a corrective upon procidence

of the uterus, and facilitates parturition; and that conception

is promoted by the use of cows' milk. It is a well-known

fact that sterility is often entailed by suffering in child-birth;

an evil which may be averted, Olympias of Thebes assures us,

by rubbing the parts, before sexual intercourse, with bull's

gall, serpents' fat, verdigrease, and honey. In cases, too, where

menstruation is too abundant, the external parts should be

sprinkled with a solution of calf's gall, the moment before the

sexual congress; a method which acts emolliently also upon

indurations of the abdomen. Applied to the navel as a liniment, it arrests excessive discharges, and is generally beneficial

to the uterus. The proportions generally adopted are-one

denarius of gall, one-third of a denarius of opium, and as much

oil of almonds as may appear to be requisite; the whole being

applied in sheep's wool. The gall, too, of a bull-calf is beaten

up with half the quantity of honey, and kept in readiness for

the treatment of uterine diseases. If a woman about the time

of conception eats roasted veal with the plant aristolochia,[2] she

will bring forth a male child, we are assured. Calf's marrow,

boiled in wine and water with the suet, and applied as a pessary, is good for ulcerations of the uterus; the same, too, with

foxes' fat and cats' dung, the last being applied with resin and

oil of roses.



It is considered a remarkably good plan to subject the uterus

to fumigations made with burnt goats' horns. The blood of

the wild goat, mixed with sea-palm,[3] acts as a depilatory. The

gall of the other kinds of goat, used as an injection, acts

emolliently upon callosities of the uterus, and ensures conception immediately after menstruation: it possesses also the

virtues of a depilatory, the application being left for three days

upon the flesh after the hair has been removed. The midwives

assure us that she-goats' urine, taken in drink, and the dung,

applied topically, will arrest uterine discharges, however

much in excess. The membrane in which the kid is enclosed in the uterus, dried and taken in wine, acts as an expel-







lent upon the after-birth. For affections of the uterus, it is

thought a desirable plan to fumigate it with burnt kids' hair;

and for discharges of blood, kids' rennet is administered in

drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According to Osthanes,

if a woman's loins are rubbed with blood taken from the ticks

upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to

sexual intercourse: she will forget, too, her former love, by

taking a he-goat's urine in drink, some nard being mixed with

it to disguise the loathsome taste.







1. In 1. xi. c. 79,

2. See B. xxv. cc. 79, 84, 91.

3. See B. xiii. c. 49.




78. Chap. 78.-Remedies For The Diseases Of Infants.


CHAP. 78.-REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.



For infants there is nothing more useful than butter,[1] either

by itself or in combination with honey; for dentition more

particularly, for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of

the mouth. A wolf's tooth, attached to the body, prevents

infants from being startled, and acts as a preservative against

the maladies attendant upon dentition; an effect equally

produced by making use of a wolf's skin. The larger teeth,

also, of a wolf, attached to a horse's neck, will render him

proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare's rennet, applied

to the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrha in

the infant suckled by her. An ass's liver, mixed with a little

panax, and dropped into the mouth of an infant, will preserve

it from epilepsy and other diseases to which infants are liable;

this, however, must be done for forty days, they say. An ass's

skin, too, thrown over infants, renders them insensible to fear.

The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as an amulet to infants,

facilitate dentition, and are better still, when not allowed to

touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox's milt is administered in honey, and applied topically; and for running

ulcers it is used as an application, with honey. A calf's milt,

boiled in wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers

of the mouth.



The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing

them through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the infant before it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy

and other infantile diseases. Goats' dung, attached to infants in a piece of cloth, prevents them from being restless, female infants in particular. By rubbing the gums of







infants with goats' milk or hare's brains, dentition is greatly

facilitated.







1. There is probably some truth in these statements as to the utility of

butter and honey for infants.




79. Chap. 79.-Provocatives Of Sleep.


CHAP. 79.-PROVOCATIVES OF SLEEP.



Cato was of opinion that hare's flesh,[1] taken as a diet, is

provocative of sleep. It is a vulgar notion, too, that this diet

confers beauty for nine days on those who use it; a silly play[2]

upon words, no doubt, but a notion which has gained far too

extensively not to have had some real foundation. According

to the magicians, the gall of a she-goat, but only of one that

has been sacrificed, applied to the eyes or placed beneath the

pillow, has a narcotic effect. Too profuse perspiration is

checked by rubbing the body with ashes of burnt goats' horns

mixed with oil of myrtle.







1. Ajasson explains this by saying that the hare being eaten by the people

of ancient Latium on festival days, with plenteous potations, they erroneously supposed the narcotic effects of the wine to be produced by the

flesh of the hare.

2. The resemblance of "lepos," "grace," to "lepus," "a hare." See

Martial, B. v. Ep. 29.




80. Chap. 80.-Stimlants For The Sexual Passions.


CHAP. 80.-STIMLANTS FOR THE SEXUAL PASSIONS.



Among the aphrodisiacs, we find mentioned, a wild boar's

gall, applied externally; swine's marrow, taken inwardly;

asses' fat, mixed with the grease of a gander and applied as a

liniment; the virulent substance described by Virgil[1] as distilling from mares when covered; and the dried testes of a

horse, pulverized and mixed with the drink. The right testicle,

also, of an ass, is taken in a proportionate quantity of wine, or worn

attached to the arm in a bracelet; or else the froth discharged

by that animal after covering, collected in a piece of red cloth

and enclosed in silver, as Osthanes informs us. Salpe recom-

mends the genitals of this animal to be plunged seven times in

boiling oil, and the corresponding parts to be well rubbed

therewith. Balcon[2] says that these genitals should be reduced

to ashes and taken in drink; or else the urine: that has been

voided by a bull immediately after covering: lie recommends,

also, that the groin should be well rubbed with earth moistened

with this urine.







Mouse-dung, on the other hand, applied in the form of a

liniment, acts as an antaphrodisiac. The lights of a wild boar or

swine, roasted, are an effectual preservative against drunkenness; they must, however, be eaten fasting, and upon the

same day. The lights of a kid, too, are productive of the

same effect.







1. Georg. iii. 28. He alludes to the "hippomanes."

2. Hardouin is probably right in his suggestion that "Dalion" is the

correct reading here.




81. Chap. 81. (20.)-Remarkable Facts Relative To Animals.


CHAP. 81. (20.)-REMARKABLE FACTS RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.



In addition to those already mentioned, there are various

other marvellous facts related, with reference to these animals.

When a horse-shoe becomes detached from the hoof, as often

is the case, if a person takes it up and puts it by, it will act as

a remedy for hiccup the moment he calls to mind the spot

where he has placed it. A wolf's liver, they say, is similar to

a horse's hoof in appearance; and a horse, they tell us, if

it follows in the track of a wolf, will burst[1] asunder beneath

its rider. The pastern-bones of swine have a certain tendency

to promote discord, it is said. In cases of fire, if some of the

dung can be brought away from the stalls, both sheep and

oxen may be got out all the more easily, and will make no attempt to return. The flesh of a he-goat will lose its rank

smell, if the animal has eaten barley-bread, or drunk an infusion of laser[2] the day on which it was killed. Meat that

has been salted while the moon was on the wane, will never

be attacked by worms. In fact, so great has been the care

taken to omit no possible researches, that a deaf hare, we find,

will grow fat[3] sooner than one that can hear!



As to the remedies for the diseases of animals-If a beast of

burden voids blood, an injection must be used of swine's dung

mixed with wine. For the maladies of oxen, a mixture of suet

is used with quicksilver, and wild garlic boiled; the whole

eaten up and administered in wine. The fat, too, of a fox

is employed. The liquor of boiled horse-flesh, administered in

their drink, is recommended for the cure of diseased swine:

and, indeed, the maladies of all four-footed beasts may be effec-







tually treated by boiling a she-goat whole, in her skin, along

with a bramble-frog. Poultry, they say, will never be touched

by a fox, if they have eaten the dried liver of that animal, or

if the cock, when treading the hen, has had a piece of fox's

skin about his neck. The same property, too, is attributed to

a weazel's gall. The oxen in the Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the abdomen, it is said, by swallowing[4]

human excrements: the feet, too, of oxen will never be worn

to the quick, if their hoofs are well rubbed with tar before

they begin work. Wolves will never approach a field, if, after

one has been caught and its legs broken and throat cut, the

blood is dropped little by little along the boundaries of the

field, and the body buried on the spot from which it was

first dragged. The share, too, with which the first furrow

in the field has been traced in the current year, should be taken

from the plough, and placed upon the hearth of the Lares,

where the family is in the habit of meeting, and left there till

it is consumed: so long as this is in doing, no wolf will attack

any animal in the field.



We will now turn to an examination of those animals which,

being neither tame nor wild, are of a nature peculiar to them-

selves.



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, one

thousand six hundred and eighty-two.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[5] L. Piso,[6] Fabianus,[7] Va-

lerius Antias,[8] Verrius Flaccus,[9] Cato the Censor,[10] Servius Sul-

picius,[11] Licinius Macer,[12] Celsus,[13] Massurius,[14] Sextius Niger[15]







who wrote in Greek, Bithus[16] of Dyrrhachium, Opilius[17] the

physician, Granius[18] the physician.



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.--Democritus,[19] Apollonius[20] who

wrote the "Myrosis," Melitus,[21] Artemon,[22] Sextilius,[23] Au-

tus,[24] Homer, Theophrastus,[25] Lysimachus,[26] Attalus,[27] Xenocrates,[28] Orpheus[29] who wrote the "Idiophya," Archelas[30]

who wrote a similar work, Demetrius,[31] Sotira,[32] Las,[33] Ele-







phantis,[34] Salpe,[35] Olympias[36] of Thebes, Diotimus[37] of Thebes,

Iollas,[38] Andreas,[39] Marcion[40] of Smyrna, schines[41] the

physician, Hippocrates,[42] Aristotle,[43] Metrodorus[44] of Scepsos,

Icetidas[45] the physician, Apelles[46] the physician, Hesiod,[47]

Dalion,[48] Ccilius,[49] Bion[50] who wrote "On Powers,"[51] Anaxilaiis,[52] King Juba.[53]









1. He has already stated, in c. 44, that a horse will become torpid if it

follows in the track of a wolf; for which statement, according to Ajasson,

there appears to be some foundation.

2. See B. xix. c. 15.

3. This is not unlikely; for it has no alarms to make it grow thin.

4. See B. viii. c. 41, as to a similar practice on the part of the panther.

5. See end of B. ii.

6. See end of B. ii.

7. For Fabianus Papirius, see end of B. ii. For Falbianus Sabinus,

see end of B. xviii.

8. See end of B. ii.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. See end of B. iii.

11. Servius Sulpicius Lemonia Rufus, a contemporary and friend of Cicero.

He was Consul with M. Claudius Marcellus, B.C. 51, and died B.C. 43, at

the siege of Mutina. He left about 180 treatises on various subjects; but

beyond the fact that he is often quoted by the writers whose works form

part of the Digest, none of his writings (with the exception of two letters

to Cicero) have come down to us.

12. See end of B. xix.

13. See end of B. vii.

14. See end of B. vii.

15. See end of B. xii.

16. From the mention made of him in Chap. 23, he was probably a

physician. Nothing further is known of him.

17. Aurelius Opilius, the freedman of an Epicurean. He taught philosophy,

rhetoric, and grammar at Rome. but finally withdrew to Smyrna. One of

his works, mentioned by A. Gellius, was entitled "Mus," and the name

of another was "Pinax."

18. From the mention made of his profound speculations in Chap. 9,

Fabricius has reckoned him among the medical writers of Rome. It has

also been suggested that he may have been the Granius Flaccus mentioned

by Censorinus as the author of the "Indigitamenta," or Register of the

Pontiffs.

19. See end of B. ii.

20. Probably Apollonius Mus, or Myronides, a physician who flourished

in the first century B.C., who is mostly identified with Apollonius Herophileius. His "Myrosis" here mentioned is probably the work "On

Unguents" mentioned by Athenus, B. xv.

21. Nothing whatever is known of him. It has been suggested that the

name may have been "Melitus." A contemporary of Socrates, an orator

and tragic writer, was so named.

22. Beyond the mention of him in c. 2 of this Book, nothing is known

relative to this medical writer no great loss, perhaps, if we may judge from

the extract there given.

23. Though mentioned among the foreign writers, the name is evidently

Roman. Nothing relative to him is ;known.

24. See end of B. xii.

25. See end of B. iii.

26. Probably the writer mentioned at the end of B. viii.

27. See end of B. viii.

28. See end of B. xx.

29. See end of B. xx. The "Idiophya" was probably a work "On the,

Peculiar Animals," which passed as the composition of the mythic Orpheus.

30. A Greek poet, said to have been born at Chersonesus, a town in Egypt.

Some of his Epigrams are still extant in the Anthology, and it has been

suggested that he flourished either in the time of Ptolemy Soter, of Peculiar

Euergetes II., or of Ptolemy Philadelphus. His work "On Peculiar

Animals," here mentioned, was probably written in verse.

31. See end of B. viii.

32. A female writer on medical subjects. In addition to her work mentioned in Chap. 23 of this Book, Labbe speaks of a work of hers in MS.

"On Menstruation," preserved in the Library at Florence.

33. The female who is mentioned in Chap. 23 of this Book as having

written on Abortion, or the Diseases peculiar to Females, was probably a

different person from either of the two famous courtesans of that name.

Nothing whatever is known of her.

34. The writer of certain amatory poems, much admired by the Emperor

Tiberius, generally supposed, from the grammatical form of the name, to

have been a female. Galen quotes a work "On Cosmetics," as written by

a person of this name.

35. A native of Lemnos, who wrote on the Diseases of Women. Nymphodorus, as quoted by Athenus, states that she also wrote verses on

Sportive subjects.

36. See end of B. xx.

37. Beyond the mention made of him in c. 23, nothing further is known

relative to this writer. Theophrastus, in his work on Sudorifics, speaks of

a person of this name as having written on Perspiration.

38. See end of B. xii.

39. See end of B. xx.

40. Beyond the mention made of him in c. 7 of this Book, nothing is

known of this writer. Hardouin suggests that he may have been identical

with the Micton mentioned at the end of B. xx.

41. He is spoken of as a native of Athens, in c. 10 of this Book. Beyond this, nothing is known of him.

42. See end of B. vii.

43. See end of B. ii.

44. See end of B. iii.

45. Or more probably, Hicetidas. Nothing is known of this writer.

46. A native of Thasos. He is also mentioned by Galen.

47. See end of B. vii.

48. See end of B. vi.

49. Probably a physician, of whom Athenus speaks as being a native of

Argos, and writer of a treatise on Fish.

50. Probably a different writer from the one of that name mentioned at

the end of B. vi.

51. Peri\ duna/mewn.

52. See end of B. xxi.

53. See end of 13. v.




0. > Book Xxix. Remedies Derived From Living Creatures.


BOOK XXIX.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Origin Of The Medical Art.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE ORIGIN OF THE MEDICAL ART.



THE nature and multiplicity of the various remedies already

described or which still remain to be enlarged upon, compel

me to enter upon some further details with reference to the

art of medicine itself: aware as I am, that no one[1] has hitherto

treated of this subject in the Latin tongue, and that if all new

enterprises are difficult or of doubtful success, it must be one in

particular which is so barren of all charms to recommend it,

and accompanied with such difficulties of illustration. It will

not improbably suggest itself, however, to those who are familiar with this subject, to make enquiry how it is that in the

practice of medicine the use of simples has been abandoned,

so convenient as they are and so ready prepared to our hand:

and they will be inclined to feel equal surprise and indignation

when they are informed that no known art, lucrative as this is

beyond all the rest, has been more fluctuating, or subjected to

more frequent variations.



Commencing by ranking its inventors in the number of the

gods,[2] and consecrating for them a place in heaven, the art of medicine, at the present day even, teaches us in numerous instances

to have recourse to the oracles for aid. In more recent times

again, the same art has augmented its celebrity, at the cost perhaps

of being charged with criminality, by devising the fable that

sculapius was struck by lightning for presuming to raise Tyndareus[3] to life. And this example notwithstanding, it has not

hesitated to relate how that others, through its agency, have

since been restored to life. Already enjoying celebrity in the days







of the Trojan War, its traditions from that period have ac-

quired an additional degree of certainty; although in those

times, we may remark, the healing art confined itself solely to

the treatment of wounds.







1. He must surely have forgotton Celsus; unless, indeed, Pliny was unacquainted with his treatise "De Medicin."

2. Apollo and sculapius, Agenor, Hercules, Chiron, and others.

3. The husband of Leda, and the father of Castor, Timandra, Clytmnestra, and Philono. Hippolytus also was fabled to have been raised from

the dead by sculapius.




2. Chap. 2.-Particulars Relative To Hippocrates. Date Of The Origin Of Clinical Practice And Of That Of Iatraliptics.


CHAP. 2.-PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO HIPPOCRATES. DATE OF THE

ORIGIN OF CLINICAL PRACTICE AND OF THAT OF IATRALIPTICS.



Its succeeding history, a fact that is truly marvellous, remains enveloped in the densest night, down to the time of

the Peloponnesian War;[1] at which period it was restored to

light by the agency of Hippocrates, a native of Cos, an island

flourishing and powerful in the highest degree, and consecrated

to sculapius. It being the practice for persons who had recovered from a disease to describe in the temple of that god the

remedies to which they had owed their restoration to health,

that others might derive benefit therefrom in a similar emergency; Hippocrates, it is said, copied out these prescriptions,

and, as our fellow-countryman Varro will have it, after burning the temple to the ground,[2] instituted that branch of medical practice which is known as "Clinics."[3] There was no

limit after this to the profits derived from the practice of medicine; for Prodicus,[4] a native of Selymbria, one of his disciples,

founded the branch of it known as "Iatraliptics,"[5] and so discovered a means of enriching the very anointers even and the

commonest drudges[6] employed by the physicians.







1. Hippocrates is generally supposed to have been born B.C. 460.

2. In order to destroy the medical books and prescriptions there. The

same story is told, with little variation, of Avicenna. Cnidos is also mentioned as the scene of this act of philosophical incendiarism.

3. "Clinice"-Chamber-physic, so called because the physician visited

his patients e)n kli/nh, "in bed."

4. It is supposed by most commentators that Pliny commits a mistake

here, and that in reality he is alluding to Herodicus of Selymbria in Thrace,

who was the tutor, and not the disciple, of Hippocrates. Prodicus of Selymbria does not appear to be known.

5. "Healing by ointments," or, as we should call it at the present day,

"The Friction cure."

6. "Mediastinis."




3. Chap. 3.-Particulars Relative To Chrysippus And Erasis- Tratus.


CHAP. 3.-PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO CHRYSIPPUS AND ERASIS-

TRATUS.



In the rules laid down by these professors, changes were

effected by Chrysippus with a vast parade of words, and, after







Chrysippus, by Erasistratus, son[1] of the daughter of Aristotle.

For the cure of King Antiochus-to give our first illustration

of the profits realized by the medical art-Erasistratus received from his son, King Ptolemus, the sum of one hundred

talents.







1. Pythias, the daughter of Aristotle, was his stepmother, and adopted

him. His mother's name was Cretoxena.




4. Chap. 4.-The Empiric Branch Of Medicine.


CHAP. 4.-THE EMPIRIC BRANCH OF MEDICINE.



Another sect again, known as that of the Empirics[1]-be-

cause it based its rules upon the results of experiment-took its rise in Sicily, having for its founder Acron of Agri-

gentum, a man recommended by the high authority of Empedocles[2] the physician.







1. Or "Sect of Experimentalists." They based their practice upon experience derived from the observation of facts. The word "Empiric" is

used only in a bad sense at the present day. For an account of Hippocrates, see end of B. vii.; of Chrysippus, see end of B. xx.; and of Erasis-

tratus, see end of B. xi.

2. See end of B. xi.




5. Chap. 5.-Particulars Relative To Herophilus And Other Celebrated Physicians. The Various Changes That Have Been Made In The System Of Medicine.


CHAP. 5.-PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO HEROPHILUS AND OTHER

CELEBRATED PHYSICIANS. THE VARIOUS CHANGES THAT HAVE

BEEN MADE IN THE SYSTEM OF MEDICINE.



These several schools of medicine, long at variance among

themselves, were all of them condemned by Herophilus,[1] who

regulated the arterial pulsation according to the musical[2]

scale, correspondingly with the age of the patient. In succeeding years again, the theories of this sect were abandoned,

it being found that to belong to it necessitated an acquaintance

with literature. Changes, too, were effected in the school, of

which, as already[3] stated, Asclepiades had become the founder.

His disciple, Themison,[4] who at first in his writings implicitly

followed him, soon afterwards, in compliance with the growing

degeneracy of the age, went so far as to modify his own methods of treatment; which, in their turn, were entirely dis-

placed, with the authorization of the late Emperor Augustus,

by Antonius Musa,[5] a physician who had rescued that prince







from a most dangerous malady, by following a mode of treatment diametrically opposite.

I pass over in silence many physicians of the very highest

celebrity, the Cassii, for instance, the Calpetani, the Arruntii,

and the Rubrii, men who received fees yearly from the great,

amounting to no less than two hundred and fifty thousand

sesterces. As for Q. Stertinius, he thought that he conferred

an obligation upon the emperors in being content with five

hundred thousand[6] sesterces per annum; and indeed he proved,

by an enumeration of the several houses, that a city practice

would bring him in a yearly income of not less than six hundred thousand sesterces.



Fully equal to this was the sum lavished upon his brother

by Claudius Csar; and the two brothers, although they had

drawn largely upon their fortunes in beautifying the public

buildings at Neapolis, left to their heirs no less than thirty

millions of sesterces![7] such an estate as no physician but Arruntius had till then possessed.



Next in succession arose Vettius Valens, rendered so noto-

rious by his adulterous connection[8] with Messalina, the wife

of Claudius Csar, and equally celebrated as a professor of

eloquence. When established in public favour, he became the

founder of a new sect.



It was in the same age, too, during the reign of the Emperor

Nero, that the destinies of the medical art passed into the

hands of Thessalus,[9] a man who swept away all the precepts

of his predecessors, and declaimed with a sort of frenzy against

the physicians of every age; but with what discretion and

in what spirit, we may abundantly conclude from a single trait

presented by his character-upon his tomb, which is still

to be seen on the Appian Way, he had his name inscribed as

the "Iatronices"-the "Conqueror of the Physicians." No

stage-player, no driver of a three-horse chariot, had a greater

throng attending him when he appeared in public: but he

was at last eclipsed in credit by Crinas, a native of Massilia,

who, to wear an appearance of greater discreetness and more

devoutness, united in himself the pursuit of two sciences, and







prescribed diets to his patients in accordance with the move-

ments of the heavenly bodies, as indicated by the almanacks

of the mathematicians, taking observations himself of the

various times and seasons. It was but recently that he died,

leaving ten millions of sesterces, after having expended hardly

a less sum upon building the walls of his native place and

of other towns.



It was while these men were ruling our destinies, that

all at once, Charmis, a native also of Massilia, took[10] the

City by surprise. Not content with condemning the practice

or preceding physicians, he proscribed the use of warm baths

as well, and persuaded people, in the very depth of winter

even, to immerse themselves in cold water. His patients

he used to plunge into large vessels filled with cold water,

and it was a common thing to see aged men of consular

rank make it a matter of parade to freeze themselves; a

method of treatment, in favour of which Annus[11] Seneca gives

his personal testimony, in writings still extant.



There can be no doubt whatever, that all these men, in the

pursuit of celebrity by the introduction of some novelty or other,

made purchase of it at the downright expense of human life.

Hence those woeful discussions, those consultations at the bedside of the patient, where no one thinks fit to be of the same

opinion as another, lest he may have the appearance of being

subordinate to another; hence, too, that ominous inscription

to be read upon a tomb, "It was the multitude of physicians

that killed me."[12]



The medical art, so often modified and renewed as it has

been, is still on the change from day to day, and still are we

impelled onwards by the puffs[13] which emanate from the ingenuity of the Greeks. It is quite evident too, that every

one among them that finds himself skilled in the art of speech,

may forthwith create himself the arbiter of our life and death:

as though, forsooth, there were not thousands[14] of nations who







live without any physicians at all, though not, for all that,

without the aid of medicine. Such, for instance, was the Roman[15] people, for a period of more than six hundred years; a

people, too, which has never shown itself slow to adopt all

useful arts, and which even welcomed the medical art with

avidity, until, after a fair experience of it, there was found

good reason to condemn it.







1. See end of B. xi.

2. See B. xi. c. 88. The Chinese, Ajasson remarks, apply the musical

scale to the pulsation; it being a belief of the Mandarins that the body is

a musical instrument, and that to be in health it must be kept in tune.

3. In B. xxvi. cc. 7, 8.

4. See end of B. xi.

5. See B. xix. c. 38.

6. Rather more than 4400.

7. More than 265,000,

8. For which he was put to death A.D. 48.

9. A native of Tralles in Lydia, and the son of a weaver there. Galen

mentions him in terms of contempt and ridicule.

10. "Invasit."

11. Ep. 53 and 83. His "adstipulatio" is of a very equivocal character,

however.

12. "Turb medicorum perii." This is supposed to be borrowed from a

line of Menander-

Pollw=n i)atrw=n e)/isodos m' a\pw/lesen.

13. "Flatu."

14. Herodotus states this with reference to the Babylonians; Strabo, the

Bastitani, a people of Spain; and Eusebius, the more ancient inhabitants

of Spain.

15. See B. xx. c. 33.






6. Chap. 6.-Who First Practised As A Physician At Rome, And At What Period.


CHAP. 6.-WHO FIRST PRACTISED AS A PHYSICIAN AT ROME, AND

AT WHAT PERIOD.



And, indeed, it appears to me not amiss to take the present

opportunity of reviewing some remarkable facts in the days of

our forefathers connected with this subject. Cassius Hemina,[1]

one of our most ancient writers, says that the first physician

that visited Rome was Archagathus, the son of Lysanias, who

came over from Peloponnesus, in the year of the City 535, L.

milius and M. Livius being consuls. He states also, that the

right of free citizenship[2] was granted him, and that he had a

shop[3] provided for his practice at the public expense in the

Acilian Cross-way;[4] that from his practice he received the

name of "Vulnerarius;"[5] that on his arrival he was greatly

welcomed at first, but that soon afterwards, from the cruelty

displayed by him in cutting and searing his patients, he acquired the new name of "Carnifex,"[6] and brought his art and

physicians in general into considerable disrepute.



That such was the fact, we may readily understand from the

words of M. Cato, a man whose authority stands so high of

itself, that but little weight is added to it by the triumph[7]

which he gained, and the Censorship which he held. I shall,

therefore, give his own words in reference to this subject.







1. See end of B. xii.

2. "Jus Quiritium."

3. "Tabernam." A surgery, in fact, the same as the "iatreion" of the

Greeks.

4. Or "carrefour"-"compitum." The Acilian Gens pretended to be

under the especial tutelage of the gods of medicine.

5. The "Wound-curer," from "vulnus," a wound.

6. "Executioner," or "hangman."

7. For his conquests in Spain.




7. Chap. 7.-The Opinions Entertained By The Romans On The Ancient Physicians.


CHAP. 7.-THE OPINIONS ENTERTAINED BY THE ROMANS ON THE

ANCIENT PHYSICIANS.



"Concerning those Greeks, son Marcus, I will speak to you







more at length on the befitting occasion. I will show you the

results of my own experience at Athens, and that, while it is a

good plan to dip into their literature,[1] it is not worth while to

make a thorough acquaintance with it. They are a most iniquitous and intractable race, and you may take my word as the word

of a prophet, when I tell you, that whenever that nation shall

bestow its literature upon Rome it will mar everything; and that

all the sooner, if it sends its physicians among us. They have

conspired among themselves to murder all barbarians with their

medicine; a profession which they exercise for lucre, in order

that they may win our confidence,[2] and dispatch us all the

more easily. They are in the common habit, too, of calling us

barbarians, and stigmatize us beyond all other nations, by

giving us the abominable appellation of Opici.[3] I forbid you

to have anything to do with physicians."







1. "Illorum literas inspicere."

2. On the principle that that which costs money must be worth having.

3. The Opici or Osci were an ancient tribe of Italy, settled in Campania,

Latium, and Samnium. From their uncivilized habits the name was long

used as a reproachful epithet, equivalent to our words "bumpkin," "clodhopper," or "chawbacon."




8. Chap. 8.-Evils Attendant Upon The Practice Of Medicine.


CHAP. 8.-EVILS ATTENDANT UPON THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.



Cato, who wrote to this effect, died in his eighty-fifth year,

in the year of the City 605; so that no one is to suppose that

he had not sufficient time to form his experience, either with

reference to the duration of the republic, or the length of his

own life. Well then-are we to conclude that he has stamped

with condemnation a thing that in itself is most useful? Far

from it, by Hercules! for he subjoins an account of the medical

prescriptions, by the aid of which he had ensured to himself

and to his wife a ripe old age; prescriptions[1] upon which we are

now about to enlarge. He asserts also that he has a book of

recipes in his possession, by the aid of which he treats the

maladies of his son, his servants, and his friends; a book from

which we have extracted the various prescriptions according to

the several maladies for which they are employed.



It was not the thing itself that the ancients condemned, but

it was the art as then practised, and they were shocked, more

particularly, that man should pay so dear for the enjoyment of

life. For this reason it was, they say, that the Temple of







sculapius, even after he was received as a divinity, was built

without the City, and afterwards on an island;[2] for this reason, too, it was, that when, long after the time of Cato, the

Greeks were expelled from Italy, the physicians were not[3]

exempted from the decree. And here I will[4] improve upon

the foresight displayed by them. Medicine is the only one of

the arts of Greece, that, lucrative as it is, the Roman gravity

has hitherto refused to cultivate. It is but very few of our

fellow-citizens that have even attempted it, and so soon as ever

they have done so, they have become deserters to the Greeks

forth with.[5] Nay, even more than this, if they attempt to treat

of it in any other language than Greek, they are sure to lose

all credit, with the most ignorant even, and those who do not

understand a word of Greek; there being all the less confidence

felt by our people in that which so nearly concerns their welfare, if it happens to be intelligible to them. In fact, this is

the only one of all the arts, by Hercules! in which the moment

a man declares[6] himself to be an adept, he is at once believed,

there being at the same time no imposture, the results of which

are more fraught with peril. To all this, however, we give

no attention, so seductive is the sweet influence of the hope

entertained of his ultimate recovery by each.



And then besides, there is no law in existence whereby

to punish the ignorance of physicians, no instance before us

of capital punishment inflicted. It is at the expense of our

perils that they learn, and they experimentalize by putting us

to death, a physician being the only person that can kill another with sovereign impunity. Nay, even more than this, all

the blame is thrown upon the sick man only; he is accused of

disobedience forthwith, and it is the person who is dead and

gone that is put upon his trial. It is the usage at Rome for

the decuries[7] to pass examination under the censorship of the







emperor, and for inquisitions to be made at our party-walls[8]

even: persons who are to sit in judgment on our monetary

matters are sent for to Gades[9] and the very Pillars of Hercules;

while a question of exile is never entertained without a panel

of forty-five men selected for the purpose.[10] But when it is

the judge's own life that is at stake, who are the persons that

are to hold council upon it, but those who the very next moment

are about to take it!



And yet so it is, that we only meet with our deserts, no

one of us feeling the least anxiety to know what is necessary

for his own welfare. We walk[11] with the feet of other people,

we see with the eyes of other people, trusting to the memory of

others we salute one another, and it is by the aid of others that

we live. The most precious objects of existence, and the chief

supports[12] of life, are entirely lost to us, and we have nothing

left but our pleasures to call our own. I will not leave Cato

exposed to the hatred of a profession so ambitious as this, nor

yet that senate which judged as he did, but at the same time

I will pursue my object without wresting to my purpose the

crimes practised by its adepts, as some might naturally expect.

For what profession has there been more fruitful in poisonings,

or from which there have emanated more frauds upon wills

And then, too, what adulteries have been committed, in the

very houses of our princes even! the intrigue of Eudemus,[13]

for example, with Livia, the wife of Drusus Csar, and that of

Valens with the royal lady previously mentioned.[14] Let us

not impute these evils, I say, to the art, but to the men who

practise it; for Cato, I verily believe, as little apprehended







such practices as these in the City, as he did the presence of

royal ladies[15] there.



I will not accuse the medical art of the avarice even of its

professors, the rapacious bargains made with their patients while

their fate is trembling in the balance, the tariffs framed upon

their agonies, the monies taken as earnest for the dispatching

of patients, or the mysterious secrets of the craft. I will not

mention how that cataract must be couched[16] only, in the eye,

in preference to extracting it at once-practices, all of them,

which have resulted in one very great advantage, by alluring

hither such a multitude of adventurers; it being no moderation on their part, but the rivalry existing between such

numbers of practitioners, that keeps their charges within moderation. It is a well-known fact that Charmis, the physician[17] already mentioned, made a bargain with a patient of

his in the provinces, that he should have two hundred thousand

sesterces for the cure; that the Emperor Claudius extorted

from Alcon, the surgeon,[18] ten millions of sesterces by way of

fine; and that the same man, after being recalled from his

exile in Gaul, acquired a sum equally large in the course of a

few years.



These are faults, however, which must be imputed to individuals only; and it is not my intention to waste reproof

upon the dregs of the medical profession, or to call attention to

the ignorance displayed by that crew,[19] the violation of all

regimen in their treatment of disease, the evasions practised in

the use of warm baths, the strict diet they imperiously prescribe, the food that is crammed into these same patients,

exhausted as they are, several times a day; together with a

thousand other methods of showing how quick they are to

change their mind, their precepts for the regulation of the

kitchen, and their recipes for the composition of unguents,

it being one grand object with them to lose sight of none

of the usual incitements to sensuality. The importation of

foreign merchandize, and the introduction of tariffs settled by

foreigners,[20] would have been highly displeasing to our ances-







tors, I can readily imagine; but it was not these inconveniences that Cato had in view, when he spoke thus strongly in

condemnation of the medical art.



"Theriace"[21] is the name given to a preparation devised by

luxury; a composition formed of six hundred[22] different ingredients; and this while Nature has bestowed upon us such

numbers of remedies, each of which would have fully answered

the purpose employed by itself! The Mithridatic[23] antidote

is composed of four and fifty ingredients, none of which are

used in exactly the same proportion, and the quantity prescribed is in some cases so small as the sixtieth part of one

denarius! Which of the gods, pray, can have instructed man

in such trickery as this, a height to which the mere subtlety

of human invention could surely never have reached? It

clearly must emanate from a vain ostentation of scientific skill,

and must be set down as a monstrous system of puffing off the

medical art.



And yet, after all, the physicians themselves do not understand this branch of their profession; and I have ascertained

that it is a common thing for them to put mineral vermilion[24]

in their medicines, a rank poison, as I shall have occasion[25] to

show when I come to speak of the pigments, in place of Indian

cinnabar, and all because they mistake the name of the one

drug for that of the other! These, however, are errors which

only concern the health of individuals, while it is the practices

which Cato foresaw and dreaded, less dangerous in themselves

and little regarded, practices, in fact, which the leading men

in the art do not hesitate to avow, that have wrought[26] the

corruption of the manners of our empire.



The practices I allude to are those to which, while enjoying

robust health, we submit: such, for instance, as rubbing the body

with wax and oil,[27] a preparation for a wrestling match, by

rights, but which, these men pretend, was invented as a preservative of health; the use of hot baths, which are necessary,







they have persuaded us, for the proper digestion of the food,

baths which no one ever leaves without being all the weaker

for it, and from which the more submissive of their patients

are only carried to the tomb; potions taken fasting; vomits to

clear the stomach, and then a series of fresh drenchings with

drink; emasculation, self-inflicted by the use of pitch-plasters

as depilatories; the public exposure, too, of even the most delicate parts of the female body for the prosecution of these

practices. Most assuredly so it is, the contagion which has

seized upon the public morals, has had no more fertile source

than the medical art, and it continues, day by day even, to

justify the claims of Cato to be considered a prophet and an

oracle of wisdom, in that assertion of his, that it is quite sufficient to dip into the records of Greek genius, without becoming

thoroughly acquainted with them.



Such then is what may be said in justification of the senate

and of the Roman people, during that period of six hundred

years in which they manifested such repugnance to an art, by

the most insidious terms of which, good men are made to lend

their credit and authority to the very worst, and so strongly

entered their protest against the silly persuasions entertained by

those, who fancy that nothing can benefit them but what is

coupled with high price.



I entertain no doubt, too, that there will be found some to express their disgust at the particulars which I am about to give, in

relation to animals: and yet Virgil himself has not disdained

-when, too, there was no necessity for his doing so-to speak

of ants and weevils,

"And nests by beetles made that shun the light."[28]

Homer,[29] too, amid his description of the battles of the gods,

has not disdained to remark upon the voracity of the common

fly; nor has Nature, she who engendered man, thought it beneath

her to engender these insects as well. Let each then make it

his care, not so much to regard the thing itself, as to rightly

appreciate in each case the cause and its effects.







1. Marked by their supereminent absurdity, as Fe remarks.

2. Formed by the river Tiber. See the Qust. Rom. of Plutarch, on

this subject.

3. We have adopted Sillig's suggestion, and read "nec" for "et" here.

The meaning, however, is very doubtful.

4. "Augebo providentiam illorum." The meaning of this passage also

is doubtful.

5. By adopting that language instead of the Latin; Sextius Niger, for instance.

6. Diplomas seem to have been less cared for in those times than at the

present day even, when quackery has so free a range.

7. See B. iii. c. 26, and B. xxxiii. cc. 7, 8.

8. "Inquisitio per parietes." The reading is doubtful, but he not im-

probably alludes to the employment of spies.

9. Hardouin thinks that he alludes to Cornelius Balbus here, a native of

Gades. See B. v. c. 5, and B. vii. 44.

10. "Electis viris datur tabula." He alludes to the three tablets delivered to the Judices, one of which had inscribed on it "Acquitted," another "Not proven," and a third "Guilty"-Absolvatur, Non liquet, and

Condemno.

11. "In this place he casteth in the Romans' teeth, their Lecticarii, Anag-

nostec, and Nomseclatores."-Holland. Letter-bearers, readers, and prompters as to the names of the persons addressed.

12. He alludes to the resources of medicine.

13. A physician at Rome, who was afterwards put to the torture for this

crime. Livia was the daughter of Drusus Nero, the brother of Tiberius.

14. Messalina, mentioned in c. 5 of this Book.

15. Nothing could possibly be more remote from his republican notions,

than "regin" at Rome.

16. "Emovendam." In order that a future job may be ensured.

17. In c. 5 of this Book.

18. "Vulnerum medico."

19. "Ejus turb."

20. See B. xxiv. c. 1.

21. The origin of our word "treacle." See B. xx. c. 100, and Note 97.

22. Used as a round number, like our expression "ten thousand."

23. See B. xxiii. c. 77, and B. xxv. c. 26.

24. "Minium." This red lead had the name of "cinnabaris nativa,"

whence the error.

25. In B. xxxiii. c. 38.

26. As tending to effeminacy, or undermining the constitution.

27. See B. xxviii. c. 13.

28. "Lucifugis congesta cubilia blattis." Georg. I. 184, IV. 243.

29. Il. xvii. 570, et seq.




9. Chap. 9.-Thirty-Five Remedies Deeived From Wool.


CHAP. 9.-THIRTY-FIVE REMEDIES DEEIVED FROM WOOL.



I shall begin then with some remedies that are well known,







those namely, which are derived from wool and from the eggs of

birds, thus giving due honour to those substances which hold

the principal place in the estimation of mankind; though at

the same time I shall be necessitated to speak of some others out

of their proper place, according as occasion may offer. I should

not have been at a loss for high-flown language with which to

grace my narrative, had I made it my design to regard anything else than what, as being strictly trustworthy,[1] becomes

my work: for among the very first remedies mentioned, we

find those said to be derived from the ashes and nest of the

phnix,[2] as though, forsooth, its existence were a well ascertained fact, and not altogether a fable. And then besides, it

would be a mere mockery to describe remedies that can only

return to us once in a thousand years.



(2.) The ancient Romans attributed to wool a degree of religious importance even, and it was in this spirit that they enjoined

that the bride should touch the door-posts of her husband's

house with wool. In addition to dress and protection from the

cold, wool, in an unwashed state, used in combination with oil,

and wine or vinegar, supplies us with numerous remedies, according as we stand in need of an emollient or an excitant, an astringent or a laxative. Wetted from time to time with these liquids,

greasy wool is applied to sprained limbs, and to sinews that are

suffering from pain. In the case of sprains, some persons are

in the habit of adding salt, while others, again, apply pounded

rue and grease, in wool: the same, too, in the case of contusions or tumours. Wool will improve the breath, it is said,

if the teeth and gums are rubbed with it, mixed with honey;

it is very good, too, for phrenitis,[3] used as a fumigation. To

arrest bleeding at the nose, wool is introduced into the nostrils

with oil of roses; or it is used in another manner, the ears

being well plugged with it. In the case of inveterate ulcers it is

applied topically with honey: soaked in wine or vinegar, or

in cold water and oil, and then squeezed out, it is used for

the cure of wounds.



Rams' wool, washed in cold water, and steeped in oil, is

used for female complaints, and to allay inflammations of the

uterus. Procidence of the uterus is reduced by using this wool







in the form of a fumigation. Greasy wool, used as a plaster

and as a pessary, brings away the dead ftus, and arrests

uterine discharges. Bites inflicted by a mad dog are plugged

with unwashed wool, the application being removed at the end

of seven days. Applied with cold water, it is a cure for

agnails: steeped in a mixture of boiling nitre, sulphur, oil,

vinegar, and tar, and applied twice a day, as warm as possible,

it allays pains in the loins. By making ligatures with unwashed rams' wool about the extremities of the limbs, bleeding is effectually stopped.



In all cases, the wool most esteemed is that from the neck of

the animal; the best kinds of wool being those of Galatia,

Tarentum, Attica, and Miletus. For excoriations, blows,

bruises, contusions, crushes, galls, falls, pains in the head and

other parts, and for inflammation of the stomach, unwashed

wool is applied, with a mixture of vinegar and oil of roses.

Reduced to ashes, it is applied to contusions, wounds, and

burns, and forms an ingredient in ophthalmic compositions. It

is employed, also, for fistulas and suppurations of the ears.

For this last purpose, some persons take the wool as it is shorn,

while others pluck it from the fleece; they then cut off the

ends of it, and after drying and carding it, lay it in pots of

unbaked earth, steep it well in honey, and burn it. Others,

again, arrange it in layers alternately with chips of torchpine,[4] and, after sprinkling it with oil, set fire to it: they

then rub the ashes into small vessels with the hands, and let

them settle in water there. This operation is repeated and the

water changed several times, until at last the ashes are found

to be slightly astringent, without the slightest pungency; upon

which, they are put by for use, being possessed of certain

caustic properties,[5] and extremely useful as a detergent for

the eyelids.







1. He certainly does not always keep this object in view.

2. See B. x. c. 2, and 1. xii. c. 42.

3. A form of fever, Littr remarks, that is known by the moderns as

"pseudo-continuous."

4. See B. xvi. c. 19.

5. "Smectica" is suggested by Gesner, Hist. Anim., as a better reading

than "septica."




10. Chap. 10.-Thirty-Two Remedies Derived From Wool-Grease.


CHAP. 10.-THIRTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WOOL-GREASE.



And not only this, but the filthy excretions even of sheep,

the sweat adhering to the wool of the flanks and of the

axillary concavities-a substance known as "sypum"[1]-are







applied to purposes almost innumerable; the grease produced

by the sheep of Attica being the most highly esteemed. There

are numerous ways of obtaining it, but the most approved

method is to take the wool, fresh clipped from those parts of

the body, or else the sweat and grease collected from any part of

the fleece, and boil it gently in a copper vessel upon a slow fire:

this done, it is left to cool, and the fat which floats upon the

surface collected into an earthen vessel. The material originally

used is then subjected to another boiling, and the two results

are washed in cold water; after which, they are strained

through a linen cloth and exposed to the sun till they become

bleached and quite transparent, and are then put by in a pewter box for keeping.



The best proof of its genuineness is its retention of the

strong smell of the original grease, and its not melting when

rubbed with water upon the hand, but turning white, like

white-lead in appearance. This substance is extremely useful for inflammations of the eyes and indurations of the eyelids. Some persons bake the wool in an earthen pot, until it

has lost all its grease, and are of opinion that, prepared this

way, it is a more useful remedy for excoriations and indurations

of the eyelids, for eruptions at the corners of the eyes, and for

watery eyes. And not only does this grease heal ulcerations

of the eyes, but, mixed with goose-grease, of the ears and

generative organs as well; in combination also with melilote

and butter, it is a cure for inflammations of the uterus, and for

excoriations of the rectum and condylomata. The other uses

to which it is applied, we shall detail on a more appropriate

occasion.



The grease, too, of the wool about the tail is made up into

pills, unmixed with any substance: these pills are dried and

pulverized, being an excellent application for the teeth, when

loose even, and for the gums, when attacked by spreading ulcers

of a cancerous nature. Sheep's wool, too, cleaned, is applied

by itself, or with the addition of sulphur, for dull, heavy pains,

and the ashes of it, burnt, are used for diseases of the generative organs: indeed, this wool is possessed of such sovereign

virtues, that it is used as a covering for medicinal applications

even. It is also an especial remedy for the sheep itself, when

it has lost its stomach, and refuses to feed; for, upon plucking

some wool from the tail, and then tying the tail therewith, as







tight as possible, the sheep will fall to feeding immediately. It

is said, however, that the part of the tail which lies beyond

the knot so made will quickly mortify and die.







1. "sypum" is often mentioned by Ovid as a favourite cosmetic with

the Roman ladies.




11. Chap. 11. (3.)-Twenty-Two Remedies Derived From Eggs.


CHAP. 11. (3.)-TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM EGGS.



There is a considerable affinity also between wool and eggs,

which are applied together as a frontal to the forehead by way

of cure for defluxions of the eyes. Wool, however, is not

required for this purpose to have been dressed with radicula,[1]

the only thing requisite to be combined with it being the

white of an egg and powdered frankincense. The white of an

egg, also applied by itself, arrests defluxions of the eyes, and has

a cooling effect upon inflammations of those organs: some, however, prefer mixing saffron with it, and employ it as an ingredient in eye-salves, in place of water. For ophthalmia in infants

there is hardly any remedy to be found, except white of egg

mixed with fresh butter. Eggs beaten up with oil, are very

soothing for erysipelas, beet leaves being laid on the liniment.



White of egg, mixed with pounded gum ammoniac, is used

as a bandoline for arranging the hairs of the eyelids; and, in

combination with pine-nuts and a little honey, it forms a

liniment for the removal of pimples on the face. If the face

is well rubbed with it, it will never be sun-burnt. If, the

moment the flesh has been scalded, an egg is applied, no blisters will form: some persons, however, mix with it barley-

meal and a little salt. In cases of ulceration formed by burns,

there is nothing better than parched barley and hogs' lard,

mixed with the white of an egg. The same mixture is also

used as an application for diseases of the rectum, in infants

even, and in cases, too, when there is procidence of those parts.

For the cure of chaps upon the feet, white of eggs is boiled,

with two denarii of white lead, an equal quantity of litharge,

a little myrrh, and some wine. For the cure of erysipelas they

use the whites of three eggs with amylum:[2] it is said, too,

that white of egg has the effect of knitting wounds and of

expelling urinary calculi. The yolk of eggs boiled hard,

applied in woman's milk with a little saffron and honey, has

a soothing effect upon pains in the eyes. The yolk is applied

also to the eyes in wool, mixed with honied wine and oil of







roses; or else mixed with ground parsley-seed and polenta, and

applied with honied wine. The yolk of a single egg, swallowed

raw by itself without being allowed to touch the teeth, is

remarkably good for cough, defluxions of the chest, and irritations of the fauces. It is used, too, both internally and externally, in a raw state, as a sovereign cure for the sting of the

hmorrhos;[3] and it is highly beneficial for the kidneys, for

irritations and ulcerations of the bladder, and for bloody expectorations. For dysentery, the yolks of five eggs are taken raw

in one semi-sextarius of wine, mixed with the ashes of the shells,

poppy-juice, and wine.



For cliac fluxes, it is recommended to take the yolks of

eggs, with like proportions of pulpy raisins and pomegranate

rind, in equal quantities, for three consecutive days; or else

to follow another method, and take the yolks of three eggs,

with three ounces of old bacon and honey, and three cyathi of

old wine; the whole being beaten up to the consistency of

honey, and taken in water, when needed, in pieces the size of

a hazel nut. In some cases, too, the yolks of three eggs are

fried in oil, the whole of the egg having been steeped a day

previously in vinegar. It is in this way that eggs are used for

the treatment of spleen diseases; but for spitting of blood, they

should be taken with three cyathi of must. Yolk of egg is used,

too, for the cure of bruises of long standing, in combination

with bulbs and honey. Boiled and taken in wine, yolks of

eggs arrest menstruation: applied raw with oil or wine, they

dispel inflations of the uterus. Mixed with goose-grease and

oil of roses, they are useful for crick in the neck; and they

are hardened over the fire, and applied warm, for the cure of

maladies of the rectum. For condylomata, eggs are used in

combination with oil of roses; and for the treatment of burns,

they are hardened in water, and set upon hot coals till the

shells are burnt, the yellow being used as a liniment with oil

of roses.



Eggs become entirely transformed into yolk, on being removed after the hen has sat upon them for three days; in

which state they are known by the name of "sitista."[4] The

chicks that are found within the shell are used for strengthen-







ing a disordered stomach, being eaten with half a nut-gall,

and no other food taken for the next two hours. They are

given also for dysentery, boiled in the egg with one semisexta-

rius of astringent wine, and an equal quantity of olive oil and

polenta. The pellicle that lines the shell is used, either raw

or boiled, for the cure of cracked lips; and the shell itself,

reduced to ashes, is taken in wine for discharges of blood: care

must be taken, however, to burn it without the pellicle. In

the same way, too, a dentifrice is prepared. The ashes of the

shell, applied topically with myrrh, arrest menstruation when

in excess. So remarkably strong is the shell of an egg, that

if it is set upright, no force or weight can break it, unless a

slight inclination be made to one side or other of the circumference. Eggs taken whole in wine, with rue, dill, and cum-

min, facilitate parturition. Used with oil and cedar-resin,

they remove itch and prurigo, and, applied in combination with

cyclaminos,[5] they are remedial for running ulcers of the head.

For purulent expectorations and spitting of blood, a raw egg

is taken, warmed with juice of cut-leek and an equal quantity

of Greek honey. For coughs, eggs are administered, boiled

and beaten up with honey, or else raw, with raisin wine and an

equal quantity of olive oil. For diseases of the male organs,

an injection is made, of an egg, three cyathi of raisin wine,

and half an ounce of amylum,[6] the mixture being used immediately after the bath. Where injuries have been inflicted by

serpents, boiled eggs are used as a liniment, beaten up with

nasturtium.



In what various ways eggs are used as food is well known

to all, passing downwards, however swollen the throat may

be, and warming the parts as they pass. Eggs, too, are the

only diet which, while it affords nutriment in sickness, does

not load the stomach, possessing at the same moment all the

advantages both of food and drink. We have already[7] stated,

that the shell of an egg becomes soft when steeped in vinegar:

it is by the aid of eggs thus prepared, and kneaded up with

meal into bread, that patients suffering from the cliac flux

are often restored to strength. Some, however, think it a better

plan to roast the eggs, when thus softened, in a shallow pan;

a method, by the aid of which, they arrest not only looseness of







the bowels, but excessive menstruation as well. In cases,

again, where the discharges are greatly in excess, eggs are

taken raw, with meal, in water. The yolks, too, are employed

alone, boiled hard in vinegar and roasted with ground pepper,

when wanted to arrest diarrha.



For dysentery, there is a sovereign remedy, prepared in the

following manner: an egg is emptied into a new earthen vessel,

which done, in order that all the proportions may be equal,

fill the shell, first with honey, then with oil, and then with

vinegar; beat them up together, and thoroughly incorporate

them: the better the quality of the several ingredients, the

more efficacious the mixture will be. Others, again, instead

of oil and vinegar, use the same proportions of red resin and

wine. There is also another way of making up this prepara-

tion: the proportion of oil, and of that only, remains the same,

and to it they add two sixtieth parts of a denarius of the

vegetable which we have spoken of under the name of "rhus,"[8]

and five oboli of honey. All these ingredients are boiled down

together, and no food is eaten by the patient till the end of

four hours after taking the mixture. Many persons, too, have

a cure for griping pains in the bowels, by beating up two eggs

with four cloves of garlick, and administering them, warmed

in one semi-sextarius of wine.



Not to omit anything in commendation of eggs, I would

here add that glair of egg, mixed with quicklime, unites

broken[9] glass. Indeed, so great is the efficacy of the substance

of an egg, that wood dipped in it will not take fire, and cloth

with which it has come in contact will not ignite.[10] On this

occasion, however, it is only of the eggs of poultry that I have

been speaking, though those of the various other birds as well

are possessed of many useful properties, as I shall have to

mention on the appropriate occasions.







1. See B. xix. c. 1, B. xxiv. c 58, and B. xxv. c. 21.

2. See B, xviii. c. 17.

3. See B. xx. c. 23.

4. Hermolas suggests "schista," "divided," and Dalechamps proposes

"synchyta," "mixed." The reading is very doubtful.

5. Or Sowbread. See B. xxv. c. 67.

6. See B. xviii. c. 17.

7. In B. x. c. 80.

8. See B. xxiv. c. 54.

9. This is the fact, and it is similarly used for mending china. White

of ego, mixed with whiskey or spirits of wine, will answer the purpose

equally well.

10. Ajasson remarks that there is some slight truth in this assertion.




12. Chap. 12.-Serpents' Eggs.


CHAP. 12.-SERPENTS' EGGS.



In addition to the above, there is another kind of egg,[1] held







in high renown by the people of the Gallic provinces, but

totally omitted by the Greek writers. In summer[2] time, numberless snakes become artificially entwined together, and form

rings around their bodies with the viscous slime which exudes

from their mouths, and with the foam secreted by them: the

name given to this substance is "anguinum."[3] The Druids

tell us, that the serpents eject these eggs into the air by their

hissing,[4] and that a person must be ready to catch them in a

cloak, so as not to let them touch the ground; they say also that he

must instantly take to flight on horseback, as the serpents will

be sure to pursue him, until some intervening river has placed

a barrier between them. The test of its genuineness, they say,

is its floating against the current of a stream, even though it

be set in gold. But, as it is the way with magicians to be

dexterous and cunning in casting a veil about their frauds, they

pretend that these eggs can only be taken on a certain day of

the moon; as though, forsooth, it depended entirely upon the

human will to make the moon and the serpents accord as to

the moment of this operation.



I myself, however, have seen one of these eggs: it was

round, and about as large as an apple of moderate size; the

shell[5] of it was formed of a cartilaginous substance, and it was

surrounded with numerous cupules, as it were, resembling

those upon the arms of the polypus: it is held in high estimation







among the Druids. The possession of it is marvellously vaunted

as ensuring success[6] in law-suits, and a favourable reception

with princes; a notion which has been so far belied, that a

Roman of equestrian rank, a native of the territory of the

Vocontii,[7] who, during a trial, had one of these eggs in his

bosom, was slain by the late Emperor Tiberius, and for no

other reason, that I know of, but because he was in possession

of it. It is this entwining of serpents with one another, and

the fruitful results of this unison, that seem to me to have

given rise to the usage among foreign nations, of surrounding

the caduceus[8] with representations of serpents, as so many

symbols of peace-it must be remembered, too, that on the

caduceus, serpents are never[9] represented as having crests.







1. Pliny alludes here to the beads or rings of glass which were used by

the Druids as charms to impose on the credulity of their devotees, under

the name of Glain naidr, or "the Adder gem." Mr. Luyd (in Rowland's

Mona Antiqua, p. 342) says that the genuine Ovum anguinum can be no

other than a shell of the kind called echinus marinus, and that Dr. Borlase

observes that, instead of the natural anguinum, artificial rings of stone,

glass, and sometimes baked clay, were substituted as of equal validity.

The belief in these charms very recently existed in Cornwall and Wales, if

indeed it does not at the present day. The subject is very fully discussed in

Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 286, et seq., and p. 369, et seq.,

Bohn's Edition. These gems and beads are not uncommonly found in tumuli

of the early British period.

2. A similar belief in its origin was prevalent in Cornwall and Wales,

and whoever found it was supposed to ensure success in all his undertakings.

3. "The snake's egg"ovum being understood.

4. "The vulgar opinion in Cornwall and most parts of Wales is that these

are produced through all Cornwall by snakes joining their heads together

and hissing, which forms a kind of bubble like a ring about the head of

one of them, which the rest, by continual hissing, blow on till it comes off

at the tail, when it immediately hardens and resembles a glass ring."-

Gough's Camden, Vol. II. p. 571, Ed. 1789.

5. The shell of a sea urchin most probably. See Note 81 above.

6. See Note 82 above.

7. nation of Gaul. See B. iii. cc. 5, 21.

8. The wand held by heralds, and generally represented as being carried

by Mercury in his character of messenger of the gods.

9. And therefore not portentous of war.




13. Chap. 13.-The Method Of Preparing Commagenum. Four Remedies Derived From It.


CHAP. 13.-THE METHOD OF PREPARING COMMAGENUM. FOUR

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.



Having to make mention, in the present Book, of the eggs

of the goose and the numerous uses to which they are applied,

as also of the bird itself, it is our duty to award the honour to

Commagene[1] of a most celebrated preparation there made.

This composition is prepared from goose-grease, a substance

applied to many other well-known uses as well; but in the

case of that which comes from Commagene, a part of Syria, the

grease is first incorporated with cinnamon, cassia,[2] white pepper, and the plant called "commagene,"[3] and then placed in

vessels and buried in the snow. The mixture has an agreeable smell, and is found extremely useful for cold shiverings,

convulsions, heavy or sudden pains, and all those affections, in

fact, which are treated with the class of remedies known as

"acopa;"[4] being equally an unguent and a medicament.



There is another method, also, of preparing it in Syria: the

fat of the bird is preserved in manner already[5] described, and







there is added to it erysisceptrum,[6] xylobalsamum,[7] palm

elate,[8] and calamus, each in the same proportion as the grease;

the whole being gently boiled some two or three times in wine.

This preparation is made in winter, as in summer it will never

thicken, except with the addition of wax. There are numerous other remedies, also, derived from the goose, as well as

from the raven;[9] a thing I am much surprised at, seeing that

both the goose and the raven[10] are generally said to be in a

diseased state at the end of summer and the beginning of

autumn.







1. See B. v. cc. 13, 20.

2. See B. xii. c. 43.

3. See B. x. c. 28. Generally supposed to be Syrian nard; though some

identify it with the Comacum of Theophrastus.

4. See B. xxiii. cc. 45, 80.

5. In B. xxviii. c. 38.

6. See B. xxiv. c. 69.

7. See B. xii. c. 54.

8. See B. xii. c. 62.

9. No MS., it would appear, gives "corvis" here, the reading being

"capris," "goats." Ajasson, however, is most probably right in his suggestion that "corvis" is the correct reading.

10. See B. x. c. 15.




14. Chap. 14. (4.)-Remedies Derved From The Doo.


CHAP. 14. (4.)-REMEDIES DERVED FROM THE DOO.



We have already[1] spoken of the honours earned by the

geese, when the Gauls were detected in their attempt to scale

the Capitol. It is for a corresponding reason, also, that punishment is yearly inflicted upon the dogs, by crucifying them alive

upon a gibbet of elder, between the Temple of Juventas[2] and

that of Summanus.[3]



In reference to this last-mentioned animal, the usages of our

forefathers compel us to enter into some further details. They

considered the flesh of sucking whelps to be so pure a meat,

that they were in the habit of using them as victims even in

their expiatory sacrifices. A young whelp, too, is sacrificed to

Genita Mana;[4] and, at the repasts celebrated in honour of the

gods, it is still the usage to set whelps' flesh on table; at the

inaugural feasts, too, of the pontiffs, this dish was in common use, as we learn from the Comedies[5] of Plautus. It is

generally thought that for narcotic[6] poisons there is nothing

better than dogs' blood; and it would appear that it was this

animal that first taught man the use of emetics. Other me-







dicinal uses of the dog which are marvellously commended, I

shall have occasion to refer to on the appropriate occasions.







1. In B. x. c. 26.

2. Or Youth, in the Eighth Region of the City.

3. See B. ii. c. 53.

4. An ancient divinity, who is supposed to have presided over childbirth.

See Plutarch, Qust. Rom. 52.

5. In the Saturio probably, quoted by Festus, and now lost. The

aborigines of Canada, and the people of China and Tartary, hold whelps'

flesh in esteem as a great delicacy.

6. "Toxica."




15. Chap. 15.-Remedies Classified According To The Different Maladies. Remedies For Injuries Inflicted By Serpents. Remedies Derived From Mice.


CHAP. 15.-REMEDIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE DIFFERENT

MALADIES. REMEDIES FOR INJURIES INFLICTED BY SERPENTS.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MICE.



We will now resume the order originally proposed.[1] For

stings inflicted by serpents fresh sheeps'-dung, boiled in wine,

is considered a very useful application: as also mice split

asunder and applied to the wound. Indeed, these last animals

are possessed of certain properties by no means to be despised,

at the ascension of the planets more particularly, as already[2]

stated; the lobes increasing or decreasing in number, with the

age of the moon, as the case may be. The magicians have a

story that swine will follow any person who gives them a

mouse's liver to eat, enclosed in a fig: they say, too, that it

has a similar effect upon man, but that the spell may be destroyed by swallowing a cyathus of oil.







1. Of remedies classified according to the different maladies.

2. In B. xi. c. 76.




16. Chap. 16.-Remedies Derived From The Weasel.


CHAP. 16.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE WEASEL.



There are two varieties of the weasel; the one, wild,[1] larger

than the other, and known to the Greeks as the "ictis:" its

gall is said to be very efficacious as an antidote to the sting of

the asp, but of a venomous nature in other respects.[2] The

other kind,[3] which prowls about our houses, and is in the

habit, Cicero tells us,[4] of removing its young ones, and

changing every day from place to place, is an enemy to serpents. The flesh of this last, preserved in salt, is given, in

doses of one denarius, in three cyathi of drink to persons who

have been stung by serpents: or else the maw of the animal is

stuffed with coriander seed and dried, to be taken for the same

purpose in wine. The young one of the weasel is still more

efficacious for these purposes.







1. The ferret, most probably.

2. See c. 33 of this Book.

3. The common weasel.

4. Probably in his work entitled "Admiranda," now lost. Holland says

"some take these for our cats."




17. Chap. 17.-Remedies Derived From Bugs.


CHAP. 17.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM BUGS.



There are some things, of a most revolting nature, but which







are recommended by authors with such a degree of assurance,

that it would be improper to omit them, the more particularly

as it is to the sympathy or antipathy of objects that remedies

owe their existence. Thus the bug, for instance, a most filthy

insect, and one the very name of which inspires us with loathing, is said to be a neutralizer of the venom of serpents, asps in

particular, and to be a preservative against all kinds of poisons.

As a proof of this, they tell us that the sting of an asp is never

fatal to poultry, if they have eaten bugs that day; and that,

if such is the case, their flesh is remarkably beneficial to persons

who have been stung by serpents. Of the various recipes[1]

given in reference to these insects, the least revolting are the

application of them externally to the wound, with the blood of

a tortoise; the employment of them as a fumigation to make

leeches loose their hold; and the administering of them to animals in drink when a leech has been accidentally swallowed.

Some persons, however, go so far as to crush bugs with salt

and woman's milk, and anoint the eyes with the mixture; in

combination, too, with honey and oil of roses, they use them

as an injection for the ears. Field-bugs, again, and those found

upon the mallow,[2] are burnt, and the ashes mixed with oil

of roses as an injection for the ears.



As to the other remedial virtues attributed to bugs, for the

cure of vomiting, quartan fevers, and other diseases, although

we find recommendations given to swallow them in an egg,

some wax, or in a bean, I look upon them as utterly unfounded,

and not worthy of further notice. They are employed, however, for the treatment of lethargy, and with some fair reason,

as they successfully neutralize the narcotic effects of the poison

of the asp: for this purpose seven of them are administered

in a cyathus of water, but in the case of children only four.

In cases, too, of strangury, they have been injected into the

urinary channel:[3] so true it is that Nature, that universal

parent, has engendered nothing without some powerful reason

or other. In addition to these particulars, a couple of bugs,







it is said, attached to the left arm in some wool that has been

stolen from the shepherds, will effectually cure nocturnal fevers;

while those recurrent in the daytime may be treated with

equal success by enclosing the bugs in a piece of russet-coloured

cloth. The scolopendra, on the other hand, is a great enemy

to these insects; used in the form of a fumigation, it kills

them.







1. Guettard, a French commentator on Pliny, recommends bugs to be

taken internally for hysteria!

2. Perhaps the Cimex pratensis is meant here. Neither this nor the

Cimex juniperinus, the Cimex brassic, or the Lygus hyoscami has the

offensive smell of the house bug.

3. An excellent method, Ajasson remarks, of adding to the tortures of

the patient.




18. Chap. 18.-Particulars Relative To The Asp.


CHAP. 18.-PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO THE ASP.



The sting of the asp takes deadly effect by causing torpor

and drowsiness. Of all serpents, injuries inflicted by the asp

are the most incurable; and their venom, if it comes in contact

with the blood or a recent wound, produces instantaneous death.

If, on the other hand, it touches an old sore, its fatal effects

are not so immediate. Taken internally, in however large a

quantity, the venom is not injurious,[1] as it has no corrosive properties; for which reason it is that the flesh of animals killed

by it may be eaten with impunity.



I should hesitate in giving circulation to a prescription for

injuries inflicted by the asp, were it not that M. Varro, then

in the eighty-third year of his age, has left a statement to the

effect that it is a most efficient remedy for wounds inflicted by

this reptile, for the person stung to drink his own urine.







1. This is the fact.




19. Chap. 19.-Remedies Derived From The Basilisk.


CHAP. 19.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE BASILISK.



As to the basilisk,[1] a creature which the very serpents fly

from, which kills by its odour even, and which proves fatal to

man by only looking upon him, its blood has been marvellously extolled by the magicians.[2] This blood is thick and

adhesive, like pitch, which it resembles also in colour: dissolved in water, they say, it becomes of a brighter red than

that of cinnabar. They attribute to it also the property of

ensuring success to petitions preferred to potentates, and to

prayers even offered to the gods; and they regard it as a

remedy for various diseases, and as an amulet preservative

against all noxious spells. Some give it the name of "Saturn's

blood."











1. See B. viii. c. 33.

2. The Magi of the East, probably.




20. Chap. 20.-Remedies Derived From The Dragon.


CHAP. 20.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE DRAGON.



The dragon[1] is a serpent destitute of venom. Its head,

placed beneath the threshold of a door, the gods being duly

propitiated by prayers, will ensure good fortune to the house,

it is said. Its eyes, dried and beaten up with honey, form a

liniment which is an effectual preservative against the terrors

of spectres by night, in the case of the most timorous even.

The fat adhering to the heart, attached to the arm with a

deer's sinews in the skin of a gazelle, will ensure success in

law-suits, it is said; and the first joint of the vertebr will

secure an easy access to persons high in office. The teeth,

attached to the body with a deer's sinews in the skin of a roebuck, have the effect of rendering masters indulgent and potentates gracious, it is said.



But the most remarkable thing of all is a composition, by

the aid of which the lying magicians profess to render persons

invincible. They take the tail and head of a dragon, the hairs

of a lion's forehead with the marrow of that animal, the foam

of a horse that has won a race, and the claws of a dog's feet:

these they tie up together in a deer's skin, and fasten them

alternately with the sinews of a deer and a gazelle. It is,

however, no better worth our while to refute such pretensions

as these, than it would be to describe the alleged remedies for

injuries inflicted by serpents, seeing that all these contrivances

are so many evil devices to poison[2] men's morals.



Dragon's fat will repel venomous creatures; an effect which is

equally produced by burning the fat of the ichneumon.[3] They

will take to flight, also, at the approach of a person who has

been rubbed with nettles bruised in vinegar.







1. Some serpent of the boa species, probably. See B. viii. cc. 13, 14,

22, 41, and B. x. cc. 5, 92, 95, 96.

2. By leading them to confound truth with fiction.

3. See B. viii. c. 35.




21. Chap. 21.-Remedies Derived From The Viper.


CHAP. 21.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VIPER.



The application of a viper's head, even if it be not the one

that has inflicted the wound, is of infinite utility as a remedy.

It is highly advantageous, too, to hold the viper that inflicted

the injury on the end of a stick, over the steam of boiling







water, for it will quite undo[1] the mischief, they say. The

ashes, also, of the viper, are considered very useful, employed as

a liniment for the wound. According to what Nigidius tells

us, serpents are compelled, by a sort of natural instinct, to

return to the person who has been stung by them. The people

of Scythia split the viper's head between the ears, in order to

extract a small stone,[2] which it swallows in its alarm, they

say: others, again, use the head entire.



From the viper are prepared those tablets which are known

as "theriaci"[3] to the Greeks: for this purpose the animal is

cut away three fingers' length from both the head and the tail,

after which the intestines are removed and the livid vein adhering to the back-bone. The rest of the body is then boiled

in a shallow pan, in water seasoned with dill, and the bones are

taken out, and fine wheaten flour added; after which the

preparation is made up into tablets,[4] which are dried in the

shade and are employed as an ingredient in numerous medicaments. I should remark, however, that this preparation, it

would appear, can only be made from the viper. Some persons, after cleansing the viper in manner above described, boil

down the fat, with one sextarius of olive oil, to one half. Of

this preparation, when needed, three drops are added to some

oil, with which mixture the body is rubbed, to repel the

approach of all kinds of noxious animals.







1. This is perhaps the meaning of "prcanere." Sillig suggests "recanere."

2. Which was said to act as an antidote to the poison, applied to the

wound.

3. "Antidotes to serpents' poison."

4. "Pastilli."




22. Chap. 22.-Remedies Derived From The Other Serpents.


CHAP. 22.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE OTHER SERPENTS.



In addition to these particulars, it is a well-known fact that

for all injuries inflicted by serpents, and those even of an

otherwise incurable nature, it is an excellent remedy to apply

the entrails of the serpent itself to the wound; as also, that

persons who have once swallowed a viper's liver, boiled, will

never afterwards be attacked by serpents. The snake, too,

is not venomous, except, indeed, upon certain days of the

month when it is irritated by the action of the moon: it is a

very useful plan to take it alive, and pound it in water, the

wound inflicted by' it being fomented with the preparation.

Indeed, it is generally supposed that this reptile is possessed of







numerous other remedial properties, as we shall have occasion

more fully to mention from time to time: hence it is that the

snake is consecrated to sculapius.[1] As for Democritus, he

has given some monstrous preparations from snakes, by the aid

of which the language of birds, he says, may be understood.[2]



The sculapian snake was first brought to Rome from

Epidaurus,[3] but at the present day it is very commonly reared

in our houses[4] even; so much so, indeed, that if the breed

were not kept down by the frequent conflagrations, it would

be impossible to make head against the rapid increase of them.

But the most beautiful of all the snakes are those which are

of an amphibious nature. These snakes are known as

"hydri,"[5] or water-snakes: in virulence their venom is inferior to that of no other class of serpents, and their liver is

preserved as a remedy for the ill effects of their sting.



A pounded scorpion neutralizes the venom of the spotted

lizard.[6] From this last animal, too, there is a noxious preparation

made; for it has been found that wine in which it has been

drowned, covers the face of those who drink it with morphew.

Hence it is that females, when jealous of a rival's beauty, are

in the habit of stifling a spotted lizard in the unguents which

they use. In such a case, the proper remedy is yolk of egg,

honey, and nitre. The gall of a spotted lizard, beaten up in

water, attracts weasels, they say.







1. The god of Medicine.

2. A favourite reverie with the learned of the East. Dupont de Nemours, Ajasson informs us, has left several Essays on this subject.

3. In Peloponnesus, the principal seat of his worship. A very full

account of his introduction, under the form of a huge serpent, into the

city of Rome, is given by Ovid, Met. B. xv. 1. 544, et seq. This took

place B.C. 293.

4. Among the snakes that are tamed, Ajasson enumerates the Coluber

flagelliformis of Dandin, or American coach-whip snake; the Coluber constructor of Linnus, or Black snake; and the Coluber viridiflavus of

Lacepede. The sculapian serpent is still found in Italy.

5. Or "chersydri," "amphibious."

6. Or "starred lizard"-"stellio." In reality it is not poisonous.




23. Chap. 23.-Remedies Derived From The Salamander.


CHAP. 23.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SALAMANDER.



But of all venomous animals it is the salamander[1] that is







by far the most dangerous; for while other reptiles attack

individuals only, and never kill many persons at a time-not

to mention the fact that after stinging a human being they

are said to die of remorse, and the earth refuses to harbour[2]

them-the salamander is able to destroy whole nations at once,

unless they take the proper precautions against it. For if this

reptile happens to crawl up a tree, it infects all the fruit with

its poison, and kills those who eat thereof by the chilling properties of its venom, which in its effects is in no way different

from aconite. Nay, even more than this, if it only touches

with its foot the wood upon which bread is baked, or if it

happens to fall into a well, the same fatal effects will be sure

to ensue. The saliva, too, of this reptile, if it comes in contact

with any part of the body, the sole of the foot even, will

cause the hair to fall off from the whole of the body. And yet

the salamander, highly venomous as it is, is eaten by certain

animals, swine for example; owing, no doubt, to that antipathy

which prevails in the natural world.



From what we find stated, it is most probable, that, next

to the animals which eat it, the best neutralizers of the poison

of this reptile, are, cantharides taken in drink, or a lizard eaten

with the food; other antidotes we have already mentioned, or

shall notice in the appropriate place. As to what the magicians[3] say, that it is proof against fire, being, as they tell us,

the only animal that has the property of extinguishing fire, if it

had been true, it would have been made trial of at Rome long

before this. Sextius says that the salamander, preserved in

honey and taken with the food, after removing the intestines,

head, and feet, acts as an aphrodisiac: he denies also that it

has the property of extinguishing fire.







1. See B. x. c. 86. Some kind of starred lizard, or an eft or newt perhaps, was thus called: but in most respects it appears to be entirely a

fabulous animal.

2. See B ii. c. 63.

3. He probably alludes to the Magi of Persia here, as most of the stories

about the salamander appear to bear the aspect of an Eastern origin.




24. Chap. 24.-Remedies Derived From Birds For Injuries In- Flicted By Serpents. Remedies Derived From The Vulture.


CHAP. 24.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM BIRDS FOR INJURIES IN-

FLICTED BY SERPENTS. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE VULTURE.



Among the birds that afford us remedies against serpents, it

is the vulture that occupies the highest rank; the black vulture,

it has been remarked, being less efficacious than the others.

The smell of their feathers, burnt, will repel serpents, they say;

and it has been asserted that persons who carry the heart of







this bird about them will be safe, not only from serpents, but

from wild beasts as well, and will have nothing to fear from

the attacks of robbers or from the wrath of kings.










25. Chap. 25.-Remedies Derived From Poultry.


CHAP. 25.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM POULTRY.



The flesh of cocks and capons, applied warm the moment it

has been plucked from the bones, neutralizes the venom of

serpents; and the brains, taken in wine, are productive of a

similar effect. The people of Parthia, however, prefer applying a hen's brains to the wound. Poultry broth, too, is highly

celebrated as a cure, and is found marvellously useful in many

other cases. Panthers and lions will never touch persons who

have been rubbed with it, more particularly if it has been

flavoured with garlic. The broth that is made of an old cock

is more relaxing to the bowels; it is very good also for chronic

fevers, numbness of the limbs, cold shiverings and maladies of

the joints, pains also in the head, defluxions of the eyes,

flatulency, sickness at stomach, incipient tenesmus, liver

complaints, diseases of the kidneys, affections of the bladder,

indigestion, and asthma. Hence there are several recipes for

preparing this broth; it being most efficacious when boiled up

with sea-cabbage,[1] salted tunny,[2] capers, parsley, the plant

mercurialis,[3] polypodium,[4] or dill. The best plan, however,

is to boil the cock or capon with the plants above-mentioned in

three congii of water, down to three semi-sextarii; after which

it should be left to cool in the open air, and given at the proper

moment, just after an emetic has been administered.



And here I must not omit to mention one marvellous fact,

even though it bears no reference to medicine: if the flesh of

poultry is mingled with gold[5] in a state of fusion, it will

absorb the metal and consume it, thus showing that it acts

as a poison upon gold. If young twigs are made up into a

collar and put round a cock's neck, it will never crow.











1. See B. xxii. c. 33.

2. "Cybium,." See B. ix. c. 18. Dioscorides says the plant cnecos, described by Pliny in B. xxi. c. 107.

3. See B. xxv. c. 18, and B. xxvii. c. 77.

4. See B. xvi. c. 92, and B. xxvi. cc. 37, 66.

5. "Hereupon peradventure it is that in collices and cockbroths we use

to seeth pieces of gold, with an opinion to make them thereby more re-

storative."-Holland.




26. Chap. 26.-Remedies Derived From Other Birds.


CHAP. 26.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM OTHER BIRDS.



The flesh of pigeons also, or of swallows, used fresh and

minced, is a remedy for injuries inflicted by serpents: the

same, too, with the feet of a horned owl, burnt with the plant

plumbago.[1] While mentioning this bird, too, I must not

forget to cite another instance of the impositions practised by the

magicians: among other prodigious lies of theirs, they pretend

that the heart of a horned owl, applied to the left breast of a

woman while asleep, will make[2] her disclose all her secret

thoughts. They say, also, in addition to this, that persons who have

it about them in battle will be sure to display valour. They

describe, too, certain remedies made from the egg of this bird for

the hair. But who, pray, has ever had the opportunity of

seeing the egg of a horned owl, considering that it is so highly

ominous to see the bird itself?[3] And then besides, who has

ever thought proper to make the experiment, and upon his hair

more particularly? In addition to all this, the magicians go

so far as to engage to make the hair curl by using the blood of

the young of the horned owl.



What they tell us, too, about the bat, appears to belong to

pretty much the same class of stories: if one of these animals is

carried alive, three times round a house, they say, and then

nailed outside of the window with the head downwards, it will

have all the effects of a countercharm: they assert, also, that the

bat is a most excellent preservative for sheepfolds, being first

carried three times round them, and then hung up by the foot

over the lintel of the door.[4] The blood of the bat is also

recommended by them as a sovereign remedy, in combination

with a thistle,[5] for injuries inflicted by serpents.







1. See B. xxv. c. 97.

2. The same is said of a frog's tongue, in B. xxxii. c. 18.

3. That is no reason, as Ajasson remarks, why the egg should not be

found, it being easy to take it from the nest at night, when, the bird

being absent, no ill omen will arise from seeing it.

4. We still see bats nailed upon and over stable doors in various parts

of this country.

5. "Carduus."




27. Chap. 27.-Remedies For The Bite Of The Phalangium. The Several Varieties Of That Insect, And Of The Spider.


CHAP. 27.-REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE PHALANGIUM. THE

SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THAT INSECT, AND OF THE SPIDER.



Of the phalangium,[1] an insect unknown to Italy, there are







numerous kinds; one of which resembles the ant, but is much

larger, with a red head, black as to the other parts of the

body, and covered with white spots. Its sting is much more

acute than that of the wasp, and it lives mostly in the vicinity

of ovens and mills. The proper remedy is, to present before

the eyes of the person stung another insect of the same description, a purpose for which they are preserved when found

dead. Their husks also, found in a dry state, are beaten up

and taken in drink for a similar purpose. The young of the

weasel, too, as already[2] stated, are possessed of a similar property. The Greeks give the name of "phalangion" also to a

kind of spider, but they generally distinguish it by the surname

of the "wolf."[3] A third kind, also known as the "phalangium," is a spider with a hairy[4] body, and a head of enormous

size. When opened, there are found in it two small worms,

they say: these, attached in a piece of deer's skin, before sunrise, to a woman's body, will prevent conception, according to

what Ccilius, in his Commentaries, says. This property lasts,

however, for a year only; and, indeed, it is the only one of all

the anti-conceptives[5] that I feel myself at liberty to mention,

in favour of some women whose fecundity, quite teeming with

children,[6] stands in need of some such respite.



There is another kind again, called "rhagion,"[7] similar to

a black grape in appearance, with a very diminutive mouth,

situate beneath the abdomen, and extremely short legs, which

have all the appearance of not being fully developed. The bite

of this last insect causes fully as much pain as the sting of the

scorpion, and the urine of persons who are injured by it, presents filmy appearances like cobwebs. The asterion[8] would be

identical with it, were it not distinguished by white streaks

upon the body: its bite causes failing in the knees. But

worse than either of these last, is a blue spider, covered with

black hair, and causing dimness of the sight and vomiting of

a matter like cobwebs in appearance. A still more dangerous

kind is one which differs only from the hornet, in form, in







being destitute of wings, and the bite of which causes a

wasting away of the system. The myrmecion[9] in the head

resembles the ant, has a black body spotted with white, and

causes by its bite a pain like that attendant upon the sting of

the wasp. Of the tetragnathius[10] there are two varieties, the

more noxious of which has two white streaks crossing each

other on the middle of the head; its bite causes the mouth

to swell. The other one is of an ashy colour, whitish on the

posterior part of the body, and not so ready to bite.



The least noxious of all is the spider that is seen extending

its web along the walls, and lying in wait for flies; it is of the

same ashy colour as the last.



For the bite of all spiders, the best remedies are: a cock's

brains, taken in oxycrate with a little pepper; five ants, swallowed in drink; sheep's dung, applied in vinegar; and spiders

of any kind, left to putrefy in oil. The bite of the shrewmouse is cured by taking lamb's rennet in wine; the ashes of a

ram's foot with honey; or a young weasel, prepared in manner

already[11] mentioned by us when speaking of serpents. In

cases where a shrewmouse has bitten beasts of burden, a mouse,.

fresh caught, is applied to the wound with oil, or a bat's gall

with vinegar. The shrew-mouse itself too, split asunder and

applied to the wound, is a cure for its bite; indeed, if the

animal is with young when the injury is inflicted, it will

instantly burst asunder. The best plan is to apply the mouse

itself which has inflicted the bite, but others are commonly

kept for this purpose, either steeped in oil or coated with clay.

Another remedy, again, for its bite is the earth taken from the

rut made by a cart-wheel; for this animal, it is said, owing

to a certain torpor which is natural to it, will never cross[12]

a rut made by a wheel.







1. A sort of spider. See B. xi. cc. 21, 28, 29.

2. In c. 16 of this Book.

3. "Lupus." See B. xi. c. 28.

4. The Tarantula has been suggested, but that is a native of Italy.

5. "Atocium."

6. "Plena liberis."

7. From )ra/c,, a "grape."

8. Or "starred" spider. Nicander describes all these varieties of the

Phalangium.

9. From murmh\c, "an ant."

10. The "four-jawed" spider.

11. In c. 16 of this Book.

12. See B. viii. c. 83.




28. Chap. 28.-Remedies Derived From The Stellio Or Spotted Lizard.


CHAP. 28.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE STELLIO OR SPOTTED

LIZARD.



The stellio, in its turn, is said to have the greatest antipathy

to the scorpion;[1] so much so indeed, that the very sight of it

strikes terror in that reptile, and a torpor attended with cold

sweats; hence it is that this lizard is left to putrefy in oil, as







a liniment for injuries inflicted by the scorpion. Some persons

boil down the oil with litharge, and make a sort of plaster of

it to apply to the wound. The Greeks give the name of

"colotes" to this lizard, as also "ascalabotes," and "galeotes:"

it is never[2] found in Italy, and is covered with small spots,

utters a shrill, piercing noise, and lives on food; characteristics,

all of them, foreign to the stellio of Italy.







1. See B. xix. c. 22. For further particulars as to the Stellio, see B. xi.

. 31, and the Note.

2. This is probably an error; see the Note to B. xi. c. 31.




29. Chap. 29.-Remedies Derived From Various Insects.


CHAP. 29.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM VARIOUS INSECTS.



Poultry dung, too, is good as an application for the sting of

the scorpion; a dragon's liver also; a lizard or mouse split

asunder; or else the scorpion itself, either applied to the wound,

grilled and eaten, or taken in two cyathi of undiluted wine.

One peculiarity of the scorpion is, that it never stings the

palm of the hand, and never touches any parts of the body but

those covered with hair. Any kind of pebble, applied to the wound

on the side which has lain next to the ground, will alleviate the

pain. A potsherd too, covered with earth on any part of it, and

applied just as it is found, will effect a cure, it is said-the

person, however, who applies it must not look behind him,

and must be equally careful that the sun does not shine upon

him. Earth-worms also, are pounded and applied to the

wound; in addition to which, they form ingredients in numerous

other medicaments, being kept in honey for the purpose.



For injuries inflicted by bees, wasps, hornets, and leeches,

the owlet is considered a very useful remedy; persons, too, who

carry about them the beak of the woodpecker[1] of Mars are

never injured by any of these creatures. The smaller kinds

of locusts also, destitute of wings and known as "attelebi,"

are a good remedy for the sting of the scorpion.



There is a kind of venomous ant, by no means common in

Italy; Cicero calls it "solipuga," and in Btica it is known

as "salpuga."[2] The proper remedy for its venom and that

of all kinds of ants is a bat's heart. We have already[3] stated

that cantharides are an antidote to the salamander.







1. See B. x. cc. 18, 41, 44, and 50.

2. See B. viii. c. 43. Ajasson remarks that this is a mere fabulous story,

in reference to the venom of the ants.

3. In B. xxix. c. 23.




31. Chap. 31.-Various Counter-Poisons.


CHAP. 31.-VARIOUS COUNTER-POISONS.



We have already[1] spoken of various kinds of poisonous

honey: the antidote employed for it is honey in which the

bees have been stifled. This honey, too, taken in wine, is a

remedy for indispositions caused by eating fish.







1. In B. xxi. c. 34.




32. Chap. 32.-Remedies For The Bite Of The Mad Dog.


CHAP. 32.-REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE MAD DOG.



When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, he may be

preserved from hydrophobia by applying the ashes of a dog's

head to the wound. All ashes of this description, we may

here remark once for all, are prepared in the same method;

the substance being placed in a new earthen vessel well covered

with potter's clay, and put into a furnace. These ashes, too,

are very good, taken in drink, and hence some recommend the

head itself to be eaten in such cases. Others, again, attach to the

body of the patient a maggot, taken from the carcase of a dead

dog; or else place the menstruous blood of a bitch, in a linen

cloth, beneath his cup, or insert in the wound ashes of hairs

from the tail of the dog that inflicted the bite. Dogs will fly

from any one who has a dog's heart about him, and they will

never bark at a person who carries a dog's tongue in his shoe,

beneath the great toe, or the tail of a weasel which has been

set at liberty after being deprived of it. There is beneath the

tongue of a mad dog a certain slimy spittle, which, taken in

drink, is a preventive of hydrophobia: but much the most

useful plan is, to take the liver of the dog that has inflicted

the injury, and eat it raw, if possible; should that not be the

case, it must be cooked in some way or other, or else a broth

must be taken, prepared from the flesh.







There is a small worm[1] in a dog's tongue, known as "lytta"[2]

to the Greeks: if this is removed from the animal while a

pup, it will never become mad or lose its appetite. This worm,

after being carried thrice round a fire, is given to persons who

have been bitten by a mad dog, to prevent them from becoming mad. This madness, too, is prevented by eating a cock's

brains; but the virtue of these brains lasts for one year only,

and no more. They say, too, that a cock's comb, pounded, is

highly efficacious as an application to the wound; as also,

goose-grease, mixed with honey. The flesh also of a mad

dog is sometimes salted, and taken with the food, as a remedy

for this disease. In addition to this, young puppies of the

same sex as the dog that has inflicted the injury, are drowned

in water, and the person who has been bitten eats their liver

raw. The dung of poultry, provided it is of a red colour, is

very useful, applied with vinegar; the ashes, too, of the tail

of a shrew-mouse, if the animal has survived and been set at

liberty; a clod from a swallow's nest, applied with vinegar;

the young of a swallow, reduced to ashes; or the skin or old

slough of a serpent that has been cast in spring, beaten up

with a male crab in wine: this slough, I would remark, put

away by itself in chests and drawers, destroys moths.



So virulent is the poison of the mad dog, that its very urine

even, if trod upon, is injurious, more particularly if the person

has any ulcerous sores about him. The proper remedy in such

case is to apply horse-dung, sprinkled with vinegar, and warmed

in a fig. These marvellous properties of the poison will occasion the less surprise, when we remember that, "a stone bitten

by a dog" has become a proverbial expression for discord and

variance.[3] Whoever makes water where a dog has previously watered, will be sensible of numbness in the loins, they

say.







The lizard known by some persons as the "seps,"[4] and by

others as the "chalcidice," taken in wine, is a cure for its

own bite.







1. This is still the vulgar notion; but in reality there is no worm, but

certain white pustules beneath the tongue, which break spontaneously at

the end of twelve days after birth. Puppies are still "wormed," as it is

called, as a preventive of hydrophobia, it is said, and of a propensity to

gnaw objects which come in their way. The "worming "consists in the

breaking of these pustules.

2. "Rage" or "madness."

3. "For the manner of a dog is to bee angrie with the stone that is

thrown at him, without regard to the partie that flung it, whereupon grew

the proverb in Greeke, ku/wn e)is to\n li/qon a\ganakto=usa ('A dog venting

his rage upon a stone.')"-Holland.

4. See B. xx. cc. 6, 20. It is somewhat doubtful what the "seps"

really was; whether, in fact, it was a lizard at all. Littr suggests the Tridactylus saurius.




33. Chap. 33.-Remedies For The Other Poisons.


CHAP. 33.-REMEDIES FOR THE OTHER POISONS.



Where persons have been poisoned by noxious preparations

from the wild weasel,[1] the proper remedy is the broth of an

old cock, taken in considerable quantities. This broth, too,

is particularly good, taken as a counter-poison for aconite, in

combination with a little salt. Poultry dung-but the white

part only-boiled with hyssop, or with honied wine, is an excellent antidote to the poison of fungi and of mushrooms: it is

a cure also for flatulency and suffocations; a thing the more to

be wondered at, seeing that if any other living creature only

tastes this dung, it is immediately attacked with griping pains

and flatulency. Goose blood, taken with an equal quantity of

olive oil, is an excellent neutralizer of the venom of the seahare: it is kept also as an antidote for all kinds of noxious

drugs, made up into lozenges with red earth of Lemnos and juice

of white-thorn, five drachm of the lozenges being taken in

three cyathi of water. The same property belongs also to the

young of the weasel, prepared in manner already[2] mentioned.



Lambs' rennet is an excellent antidote to all noxious preparations; the blood, also, of ducks from Pontus;[3] for which

reason it is preserved in a dry state, and dissolved in wine when

wanted, some persons being of opinion that the blood of the

female bird is the most efficacious. In a similar manner, the

crop of a stork acts as an universal counter-poison; and so does

sheep's rennet. A broth made from ram's flesh is particularly good as a remedy for cantharides: sheep's milk also, taken

warm; this last being very useful in cases where persons

have drunk an infusion of aconite, or have swallowed the

buprestis in drink. The dung of wood-pigeons is particularly

good taken internally as an antidote to quicksilver; and for







narcotic poisons the common weasel is kept dried, and taken

internally, in doses of two drachm.







1. Or Ferret, probably. See c. 16 of this Book.

2. In c. 16 of this Book.

3. From the circumstance that that country was covered with herbs and

plants of a medicinal nature.




34. Chap. 34. (6.)-Remedies For Alopecy.


CHAP. 34. (6.)-REMEDIES FOR ALOPECY.



Where the hair has been lost through alopecy,[1] it is made

to grow again by using ashes of burnt sheep's dung, with oil of

cyprus[2] and honey; or else the hoof of a mule of either sex,

burnt to ashes and mixed with oil of myrtle. In addition to these

substances, we find our own writer, Varro, mentioning mousedung, which he calls "muscerda,"[3] and the heads of flies,

applied fresh, the part being first rubbed with a fig-leaf.

Some recommend the blood of flies, while others, again, apply

ashes of burnt flies for ten days, in the proportion of one part

of the ashes to two of ashes of papyrus or of nuts. In other

cases, again, we find ashes of burnt flies kneaded up with

woman's milk and cabbage, or, in some instances, with honey

only. It is generally believed that there is no creature less

docile or less intelligent than the fly; a circumstance which

makes it all the more marvellous that at the sacred games at

Olympia, immediately after the immolation of the bull in

honour of the god called "Myiodes,"[4] whole clouds of them

take their departure from that territory. A mouse's head or

tail, or, indeed, the whole of the body, reduced to ashes, is a

cure for alopecy, more particularly when the loss of the hair has

been the result of some noxious preparation. The ashes of a

hedge-hog, mixed with honey, or of its skin, applied with tar,

are productive of a similar effect. The head, too, of this last

animal, reduced to ashes, restores the hair to scars upon the

body; the place being first prepared, when this cure is made

use of, with a razor and an application of mustard: some

persons, however, prefer vinegar for the purpose. All the

properties attributed to the hedge-hog are found in the porcupine in a still higher degree.[5]



A lizard burnt, as already[6] mentioned, with the fresh root

of a reed, cut as fine as possible, to facilitate its being re-







duced to ashes, and then mixed with oil of myrtle, will

prevent the hair from coming off. For all these purposes

green lizards are still more efficacious, and the remedy is rendered most effectual, when salt is added, bears' grease, and

pounded onions. Some persons boil ten green lizards in ten

sextarii of oil, and content themselves with rubbing the place

with the mixture once a month. Alopecy is also cured very

speedily with the ashes of a viper's skin, or by an application

of fresh poultry dung. A raven's egg, beaten up in a copper

vessel and applied to the head, previously shaved, imparts a

black colour to the hair; care must be taken, however, to keep

some oil in the mouth till the application is quite dry, or else

the teeth will turn black as well. The operation must be performed also in the shade, and the liniment must not be washed

off before the end of three days. Some persons employ the

blood and brains of a raven, in combination with red wine;

while others, again, boil down the bird, and put it, at bedtime,

in a vessel made of lead. With some it is the practice, for

the cure of alopecy, to apply bruised cantharides with tar, the

skin being first prepared with an application of nitre:-it

should be remembered, however, that cantharides are possessed

of caustic properties, and due care must be taken not to let

them eat too deep into the skin. For the ulcerations thus produced, it is recommended to use applications made of the heads,

gall, and dung of mice, mixed with hellebore and pepper.







1. So called from a)lwph\c, "a fox," an animal very subject to the less

of its hair.

2. See B. xii. c. 51.

3. So swine's dung was called "sucerda," and cowdung "bucerda."

4. Or Maagrus, the "fly catcher," the name of a hero, invoked at Aliphera, at the festivals of Athena, as the protector against flies. It was

also a surname of Hercules. See B. x. c. 40.

5. See B. viii. c. 53.

6. In c. 32 of this Book.




35. Chap. 35.-Remedies For Lice And For Porrigo.


CHAP. 35.-REMEDIES FOR LICE AND FOR PORRIGO.



Nits are destroyed by using dogs' fat, eating serpents cooked[1]

like eels, or else taking their sloughs in drink. Porrigo is

cured by applying sheep's gall with Cimolian chalk, and rubbing the head with the mixture till dry.







1. A recipe well understood in the restaurants of the French provinces,

Ajasson says, but it is doubtful whether with the object named byour author.




36. Chap. 36.-Remedies For Head-Ache And For Wounds On The Head.


CHAP. 36.-REMEDIES FOR HEAD-ACHE AND FOR WOUNDS ON

THE HEAD.



A good remedy for head-ache are the heads taken from the

snails which are found without[1] shells, and in an imperfect

state. In these heads there is found a hard stony substance,

about as large as a common pebble: on being extracted from







the snail, it is attached to the patient, the smaller snails being

pounded and applied to the forehead. Wool-grease, too, is

used for a similar purpose; the bones of a vulture's head, worn

as an amulet; or the brains of that bird, mixed with oil and

cedar resin, and applied to the head and introduced into the

nostrils. The brains of a crow or owlet, are boiled and taken

with the food: or a cock is put into a coop, and kept without

food a day and a night, the patient submitting to a similar

abstinence, and attaching to his head some feathers plucked

from the neck or the comb of the fowl. The ashes, too, of a

weasel are applied in the form of a liniment; a twig is taken

from a kite's nest, and laid beneath the patient's pillow; or a

mouse's skin is burnt, and the ashes applied with vinegar:

sometimes, also, the small bone is extracted from the head of

a snail that has been found between two cart ruts, and after

being passed through a gold ring, with a piece of ivory, is

attached to the patient in a piece of dog's skin; a remedy

well known to most persons, and always used with success.[2]



For fractures of the cranium, cobwebs are applied, with oil

and vinegar; the application never coming away till a cure

has been effected. Cobwebs are good, too, for stopping the

bleeding of wounds[3] made in shaving. Discharges of blood

from the brain are arrested by applying the blood of a goose

or duck, or the grease of those birds with oil of roses. The

head of a snail cut off with a reed, while feeding in the

morning, at full moon more particularly, is attached to the

head in a linen cloth, with an old thrum, for the cure of headache; or else a liniment is made of it, and applied with white

wax to the forehead. Dogs' hairs are worn also, attached to

the forehead in a cloth.







1. He means slugs probably.

2. He does not appear to state this on hearsay only!

3. Cobwebs are still used for this purpose, as also the fur from articles

made of beaver. Ajasson mentions English taffeta.




37. Chap. 37.-Remedies For Affections Of The Eyelids.


CHAP. 37.-REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE EYELIDS.



A crow's brains, taken with the food, they say, will make

the eyelashes grow; or else wool-grease, applied with warmed

myrrh, by the aid of a fine probe. A similar result is promised by using the following preparation: burnt flies and

ashes of mouse-dung are mixed in equal quantities, to the

amount of half a denarius in the whole; two sixths of a dena-







rius of antimony are then added, and the mixture is applied

with wool-grease. For the same purpose, also, the young ones

of a mouse are beaten up, in old wine, to the consistency of the

strengthening preparations known as "acopa."[1] When eyelashes are plucked out that are productive of inconvenience, they

are prevented from growing again by using a hedge-hog's gall;

the liquid portion, also, of a spotted lizard's eggs; the ashes

of a burnt salamander; the gall of a green lizard, mixed with

white wine, and left to thicken to the consistency of honey in

a copper vessel in the sun; the ashes of a swallow's young,

mixed with the milky juice of tithymalos;[2] or else the slime

of snails.







1. See c. 13 of this Book.

2. See B. xxvi. c. 39.




38. Chap. 38.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Eyes.


CHAP. 38.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE EYES.



According to what the magicians say, glaucoma[1] may be

cured by using the brains of a puppy seven days old; the probe

being inserted in the right side [of the eye], if it is the right

eye that is being operated on, and in the left side, if it is the

left. The fresh gall, too, of the asio[2] is used, a bird belonging

to the owlet tribe, with feathers standing erect like ears.

Apollonius of Pitan used to prefer dog's gall, in combination with honey, to that of the hyna, for the cure of cataract,

as also of albugo. The heads and tails of mice, reduced to

ashes and applied to the eyes, improve the sight, it is said; a

result which is ensured with even greater certainty by using the

ashes of a dormouse or wild mouse, or else the brains or gall

of an eagle. The ashes and fat of a field-mouse, beaten up

with Attic honey and antimony, are remarkably useful for

watery eyes-what this antimony[3] is, we shall have occasion

to say when speaking of metals.



For the cure of cataract, the ashes of a weasel are used, as

also the brains of a lizard or swallow. Weasels, boiled and

pounded, and so applied to the forehead, allay defluxions of the

eyes, either used alone, or else with fine flour or with frankincense. Employed in a similar manner, they are very good for

sun-stroke, or in other words, for injuries inflicted by the sun.

It is a remarkably good plan, too, to burn these animals alive,

and to use their ashes, with Cretan honey, as a liniment for







films upon the eyes. The cast-off[4] slough of the asp, with

the fat of that reptile, forms an excellent ointment for improving the sight in beasts of burden. To burn a viper alive

in a new earthen vessel, with one cyathus of fennel juice,

and a single grain of frankincense, and then to anoint the eyes

with the mixture, is remarkably good for cataract and films

upon the eyes; the preparation being generally known as

"echeon."[5] An eye-salve, too, is prepared, by leaving a

viper to putrefy in an earthen pot, and bruising the maggots

that breed in it with saffron. A viper, too, is burnt in a

vessel with salt, and the preparation is applied to the tip of

the tongue, to improve the eyesight, and to act generally as a

corrective of the stomach and other parts of the body. This

salt is given also to sheep, to preserve them in health, and is

used as an ingredient in antidotes to the venom of serpents.



Some persons, again, use vipers as an article of food: when

this is done, it is recommended, the moment they are killed,

to put some salt in the mouth and let it melt there; after

which, the body must be cut away to the length of four fingers

at each extremity, and, the intestines being first removed, the

remainder boiled in a mixture of water, oil, salt, and dill.

When thus prepared, they are either eaten at once, or else

kneaded in a loaf, and taken from time to time as wanted.

In addition to the above-mentioned properties, viper-broth

cleanses all parts of the body of lice,[6] and removes itching

sensations as well upon the surface of the skin. The ashes,

also, of a viper's head, used by themselves, are evidently productive of considerable effects; they are employed very advantageously in the form of a liniment for the eyes; and so, too, is

viper's fat. I would not make so bold as to advise what is

strongly recommended by some, the use, namely, of vipers'

gall; for that, as already stated[7] on a more appropriate occasion, is nothing else but the venom of the serpent. The fat of

snakes, mixed with verdigrease,[8] heals ruptures of the cuticle

of the eyes; and the skin or slough that is cast off in spring,

employed as a friction for the eyes, improves the sight. The







gall of the boa[9] is highly vaunted for the cure of albugo, cataract, and films upon the eyes, and the fat is thought to improve

the sight.



The gall of the eagle, which tests its young, as already

stated,[10] by making them look upon the sun, forms, with Attic

honey, an eye-salve which is very good for the cure of webs,

films, and cataracts of the eye. A vulture's gall, too, mixed

with leek-juice and a little honey, is possessed of similar properties; and the gall of a cock, dissolved in water, is employed

for the cure of argema and albugo: the gall, too, of a white

cock, in particular, is recommended for cataract. For shortsighted persons, the dung of poultry is recommended as a liniment, care being taken to use that of a reddish colour only.

A hen's gall, too, is highly spoken of, and the fat in particular,

for the cure of pustules upon the pupils, a purpose for which

hens are expressly fattened. This last substance is marvellously useful for ruptures of the coats of the eyes, incorporated

with the stones known as schistos[11] and hmatites. Hens'

dung, too, but only the white part of it, is kept with old oil

in boxes made of horn, for the cure of white specks upon the

pupil of the eye. While mentioning this subject, it is worthy

of remark, that peacocks[12] swallow their dung, it is said, as

though they envied man the various uses of it. A hawk,

boiled in oil of roses, is considered extremely efficacious as a liniment for all affections of the eyes, and so are the ashes of its

dung, mixed with Attic honey. A kite's liver, too, is highly

esteemed; and pigeons' dung, diluted with vinegar, is used as

an application for fistulas of the eye, as also for albugo and

marks upon that organ. Goose gall and duck's blood are very

useful for contusions of the eyes, care being taken, immediately

after the application, to anoint them with a mixture of woolgrease and honey. In similar cases, too, gall of partridges is

used, with an equal quantity of honey; but where it is only

wanted to improve the sight, the gall is used alone. It is

generally thought, too, upon the authority of Hippocrates,[13]







that the gall to be used for these purposes should be kept in a

silver box.



Partridges' eggs, boiled in a copper vessel, with honey, are

curative of ulcers of the eyes, and of glaucoma. For the

treatment of blood-shot eyes, the blood of pigeons, ring-doves,

turtle-doves, and partridges is remarkably useful; but that

of the male pigeon is generally looked upon as the most efficacious. For this purpose, a vein is opened beneath the wing,

it being warmer than the rest of the blood, and consequently

more[14] beneficial. After it is applied, a compress, boiled in

honey, should be laid upon it, and some greasy wool, boiled in

oil and wine. Nyctalopy,[15] too, is cured by using the blood of

these birds, or the liver of a sheep-the most efficacious

being that of a tawny sheep-as already[16] stated by us

when speaking of goats. A decoction, too, of the liver is

recommended as a wash for the eyes, and, for pains and swellings in those organs, the marrow, used as a liniment. The eyes

of a horned owl, it is strongly asserted, reduced to ashes and

mixed in an eye-salve, will improve the sight. Albugo is made

to disappear by using the dung of turtle-doves, snails burnt to

ashes, and the dung of the cenchris, a kind of hawk, according

to the Greeks.[17] All the substances above mentioned, used in

combination with honey, are curative of argema: honey, too,

in which the bees have died, is remarkably good for the eyes.



A person who has eaten the young of the stork will never

suffer from ophthalmia for many years to come, it is said; and

the same when a person carries about him the head of a

dragon:[18] it is stated, too, that the fat of this last-named

animal, applied with honey and old oil, will disperse incipient

films of the eyes. The young of the swallow are blinded at

full moon, and the moment their sight is restored,[19] their heads

are burnt, and the ashes are employed, with honey, to improve

the sight, and for the cure of pains, ophthalmia, and contusions of the eyes.



Lizards, also, are employed in numerous ways as a remedy







for diseases of the eyes. Some persons enclose a green lizard

in a new earthen vessel, together with nine of the small stones

known as "cindia,"[20] which are usually attached to the body

for tumours in the groin. Upon each of these stones they

make nine[21] marks, and remove one from the vessel daily,

taking care, when the ninth day is come, to let the lizard go,

the stones being kept as a remedy for affections of the eyes.

Others, again, blind a green lizard, and after putting some

earth beneath it, enclose it in a glass vessel, with some small

rings of solid iron or gold. When they find, by looking

through the glass, that the lizard has recovered its sight,[22] they

set it at liberty, and keep the rings as a preservative against

ophthalmia. Others employ the ashes of a lizard's head as

a substitute for antimony, for the treatment of eruptions of the

eyes. Some recommend the ashes of the green lizard with a long

neck that is usually found in sandy soils, as an application for

incipient defluxions of the eyes, and for glaucoma. They say,

too, that if the eyes of a weasel are extracted with a pointed

instrument, its sight will return; the same use being made of it

as of the lizards and rings above mentioned. The right eye

of a serpent, worn as an amulet, is very good, it is said, for

defluxions of the eyes, due care being taken to set the serpent

at liberty after extracting the eye. For continuous watering[23]

of the eyes, the ashes of a spotted lizard's head, applied with

antimony, are remarkably efficacious.



The cobweb of the common fly-spider, that which lines its

hole more particularly, applied to the forehead across the

temples, in a compress of some kind or other, is said to be

marvellously useful for the cure of defluxions of the eyes: the

web must be taken, however, and applied by the hands of a

boy who has not arrived at the years of puberty; the boy,

too, must not show himself to the patient for three days, and

during those three days neither of them must touch the

ground with his feet uncovered. The white spider[24] with







very elongated, thin, legs, beaten up in old oil, forms an ointment which is used for the cure of albugo. The spider, too,

whose web, of remarkable thickness, is generally found adhering to the rafters of houses, applied in a piece of cloth, is

said to be curative of defluxions of the eyes. The green

scarabus has the property of rendering the sight more

piercing[25] of those who gaze upon it: hence it is that the

engravers of precious stones use these insects to steady their

sight.







1. A disease of the crystalline humours of the eye.

2. See B. x. c. :33.

3. "Stibium." See B. xxxiii. c. 33.

4. "Exuta vere," as suggested by Sillig, would appear a better reading

than "ex utero," which can have no meaning here.

5. "Viper mixture."

6. See c. 35 of this Book.

7. In B xi. c. 62.

8. As Ajasson remarks, this would be very likely to gangrene the wound.

9. See B. viii. c. 14. Not the Boa constrictor of modern Natural History.

10. In B. x. c. 3.

11. See B. xxxiii. c. 25, and B. xxxvi. cc. 37, 38.

12. The tongues of peacocks and larks are recommended for epilepsy, by

Lampridius, in his Life of the Emperor Elagabalus. The statement in the

text is, of course, a fiction.

13. The reading here is doubtful.

14. A puerile reason, Ajasson remarks. It is much more probable that

the reason was, because this vein was the most easily discovered.

15. See B. xxviii. c. 47.

16. In B. xxviii. c. 47.

17. See B. x. c. 52.

18. The serpent so called.

19. An absurdity. The probability is, that the sight of the young birds

was only supposed to be destroyed, the operation being imperfectly performed.

20. See B. xxxvii. c. 56.

21. The mention of this number denotes the Eastern origin of this remedy, Ajasson remarks.

22. See Note 6 above.

23. "Lacrymantibus sine fine oculis."

24. Ajasson remarks, that Pliny has given here a much more exact description of the varieties of the Spider, than in the Eleventh Book. The

learned Commentator gives an elaborate discussion, of eighteen pages, on

the varieties of the Spider as known to the ancients in common with modern

naturalists.

25. Green is universally the colour least fatiguing to the eye.




39. Chap. 39.-Remedies For Pains And Diseases Of The Ears.


CHAP. 39.-REMEDIES FOR PAINS AND DISEASES OF THE EARS.



A sheep's gall, mixed with honey, is a good detergent of the

ears. Pains in those organs are allayed by injecting a bitch's

milk; and hardness of hearing is removed by using dogs' fat,

with wormwood and old oil, or else goose-grease. Some persons add juice of onions and of garlic,[1] in equal proportions.

The eggs, too, of ants are used, by themselves, for this purpose;

these insects being possessed, in fact, of certain medicinal properties, and bears, it is well known, curing themselves when

sick, by eating[2] them as food. Goose-grease, and indeed that

of all birds, is prepared by removing all the veins and leaving

the fat, in a new, shallow, earthen vessel, well covered, to melt

in the sun, some boiling water being placed beneath it; which

done, it is passed through linen strainers, and is then put by

in a cool spot, in a new earthen vessel, for keeping: with the

addition of honey it is less liable to turn rancid. Ashes of

burnt mice, injected with honey or boiled with oil of roses,

allay pains in the ears. In cases where an insect has got into

the ears, a most excellent remedy is found in an injection of

mouse gall, diluted with vinegar; where, too, water has made

its way into the passages of the ear, goose-grease is used, in combination with juice of onions. Some persons skin a dormouse,

and after removing the intestines boil the body in a new vessel

with honey. Medical men, however, prefer boiling it down

to one-third with nard, and recommend it to be kept in that

state, and to be warmed when wanted, and injected with a

syringe. It is a well-known fact, that this preparation is an







effectual remedy for the most desperate maladies of the ears

the same, too, with an injection of earth-worms boiled with

goose-grease. The red worms, also, that are found upon trees,

beaten up with oil, are a most excellent remedy for ulcerations

and ruptures of the ears. Lizards, which have been suspended

for some time and dried, with salt in the mouth, are curative

of contusions of the ears, and of injuries inflicted by blows:

the most efficacious for this purpose are those which have ironcoloured spots upon the skin,[3] and are streaked with lines

along the tail.



Millepedes, known also as "centipedes" or "multipedes,"

are insects belonging to the earth-worm genus, hairy, with

numerous feet, forming curves as they crawl, and contracting

themselves when touched: the Greeks give to this insect the

name of "oniscos,"[4] others, again, that of "tylos." Boiled

with leek-juice in a pomegranate rind, it is highly efficacious,

they say, for pains in the ears; oil of roses being added to

the preparation, and the mixture injected into the ear opposite

to the one affected. As for that kind which does not describe a

curve when moving, the Greeks give it the name of "seps,"

while others, again, call it "scolopendra;" it is smaller than the

former one, and is injurious.[5] The snails which are commonly

used as food, are applied to the ears with myrrh or powdered

frankincense; and those with a small, broad, shell are employed

with honey as a liniment for fractured ears. Old sloughs of

serpents, burnt in a heated potsherd and mixed with oil of

roses, are used as an injection for the ears, which is considered

highly efficacious for all affections of those organs, and for

offensive odours arising there from in particular. In cases

where there is suppuration of the ears, vinegar is used, and it

is still better if goat's gall, ox-gall, or that of the sea tortoise, is

added. This slough, however, is good for nothing when more

than a year old; the same, too, when it has been drenched with







rain, as some think. The thick pulp of a spider's body, mixed

with oil of roses, is also used for the ears; or else the pulp applied

by itself with saffron or in wool: a cricket, too, is dug up with

some of its earth, and applied. Nigidius attributes great[6]

virtues to this insect, and the magicians still greater, and all

because it walks backwards, pierces the earth, and chirrups by

night! The mode of catching it is by throwing an ant,[7] made

fast with a hair, into its hole, the dust being first blown away

to prevent it from concealing itself: the moment it seizes the

ant, it is drawn out.



The dried craw of poultry, a part that is generally thrown

away, is beaten up in wine, and injected warm, for suppurations of the ears; the same, too, with the grease of poultry.



On pulling off the head of a black beetle,[8] it yields a sort

of greasy substance, which, beaten up with rose oil, is marvellously good, they say, for affections of the ears: care must be

taken, however, to remove the wool very soon, or else this substance will be speedily transformed into an animal, in the

shape of a small grub. Some writers assert that two or three

of these insects, boiled in oil, are extremely efficacious for the

ears; and that they are good, beaten up and applied in linen,

for contusions of those organs.



This insect, also, is one of those that are of a disgusting

character; but I am obliged, by the admiration which I feel for

the operations of Nature, and for the careful researches. of the

ancients, to enter somewhat more at large upon it on the present occasion. Their writers have described several varieties

of it; the soft beetle, for instance, which, boiled in oil, has

been found by experience to be a very useful liniment for

warts. Another kind, to which they have given the name of

"mylcon,"[9] is generally found in the vicinity of mills: deprived of the head, it has been found to be curative of leprosy

-at least Musa[10] and Picton[11] have cited instances to that effect.







There is a third kind, again, odious for its abominable smell,

and tapering at the posterior extremities. Used in combination with pisselon,[12] it is curative, they say, of ulcers of a

desperate nature, and, if kept applied for one-and-twenty days,

for scrofulous sores and inflamed tumours. The legs and wings

being first removed, it is employed for the cure of bruises, contusions, cancerous sores, itch-scabs, and boils-remedies, all of

them, quite disgusting even to hear of. And yet, by Hercules!

Diodorus[13] tells us that he has administered this remedy internally, with resin and honey, for jaundice and hardness of

breathing; such unlimited power has the medical art to prescribe as a remedy whatever it thinks fit!



Physicians who keep more within bounds, recommend the

ashes of these insects to be kept for these various purposes in a

box made of horn; or else that they should be bruised and injected

in a lavement for hardness of breathing and catarrhs. At all

events, that, applied externally, they extract foreign substances

adhering to the flesh, is a fact well known.



Honey, too, in which the bees have died, is remarkably useful for affections of the ears. Pigeons' dung, applied by itself,

or with barley-meal or oat-meal, reduces imposthumes of the

parotid glands; a result which is equally obtained by injecting

into the ear an owlet's brains or liver, mixed with oil, or by

applying the mixture to the parotid glands; also, by applying

millepedes with one-third part of resin; by using crickets in the

form of a liniment; or by wearing crickets attached to the body

as an amulet. The other kinds of maladies, and the several

remedies for them, derived from the same animals or from others

of the same class, we shall describe in the succeeding Book.



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, six

hundred and twenty-one.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[14] L. Piso,[15] Flaccus

Verrius,[16] Antias,[17] Nigidius,[18] Cassius Hemina,[19] Cicero,[20]

Plautus,[21] Celsus,[22] Sextius Niger[23] who wrote in Greek, Cci-







lius[24] the physician, Metellus Scipio,[25] the Poet Ovid,[26] Licinius Macer.[27]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Homer, Aristotle,[28] Orpheus,[29]

Palphatus,[30] Democritus,[31] Anaxilaiis.[32]



MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.-Botrys,[33] Apollodorus,[34] Archi-

demus,[35] Aristogenes,[36] XenocrDemo,[37] Democrates,[38] Diodorus,[39]

Chrysippus[40] the philosopher, Horus,[41] Nicander,[42] Apollonius[43]

Of Pitan.









1. See B. xx. c. 23.

2. See B. vii. c. 27, and B. viii. c. 41. The formic acid which ants contain may possibly possess some medicinal properties.

3. Ajasson suggests that this may be the Lacerta cpium of Dandin, of

a reddish brown colour, with two blackish lines running longitudinally

along the back.

4. This insect in reality is a woodlouse, whereas the millepedes previously

described are evidently caterpillars. Woodlice are still swallowed alive by

schoolboys, and old women are to be found who recommend them for consumption. Holland says that woodlice are good for pains in the ears.

5. "Perniciosam."

6. In the middle ages there were many superstitions with reference to

this insect, some of which have survived to the present day.

7. Ajasson seems to think that this passage means that the ant itself

adopts this plan of catching the cricket. If so, he is certainly in error.

and his attack upon Pliny's credulity is, in this instance at least, misplaced.

8. See B. xi. c. 34. and B. xxv. c. 60.

9. "Inhabiting mills."

10. See B. six. c. 38. and B. xxv. c. 33.

11. Of this writer nothing is known.

12. See B. xxiv. c. 11.

13. See the end of this Book.

14. See end of B. ii.

15. See end of B. ii.

16. See end of B. iii.

17. See end of B. ii.

18. See end of B. vi.

19. See end of B. xii.

20. See end of B. vii.

21. See end of B. xiv.

22. See end of B. vii.

23. See end of B. xii.

24. See end of B. xxviii.

25. See end of B. viii.

26. See end of B. xviii.

27. See end of B. xix.

28. See end of B. ii.

29. See end of B. xx.

30. There are four literary persons of this name mentioned by Suidas, who

appears to give but a confused account of them. He speaks of an ancient

poet of Athens of this name, who wrote a Cosmogony and other works,

a native of Priene, to whom some attributed the work on "Incredible

Stories," by most persons assigned to Palphatus of Athens; an historian

of Abydos, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and a friend of Aristotle;

and a grammarian of Athens of uncertain date, to whom the work on

"incredible Stories "is mostly assigned. But in the former editions of

Pliny, the reading "Philopator" is mostly adopted; bearing reference, it

has been suggested, to a Stoic philosopher and physician of that name mention by Galen, "On the Symptoms of Mental Diseases," c. 8.

31. See end of B. ii.

32. See end of B. xxi.

33. See end of B. xiii

34. See end of B. xi.

35. See end of B. xii.

36. There were two Greek physicians of this name, one of whom was a

native of Thasos, and wrote several medical works. The other was a native

of Cnidos, and, according to Suidas, a slave of the philosopher Chrysippus. Galen, however, says that he was a pupil of the physician of that

name, and afterwards became physician to Antigonus Gonatas, king of

Macedonia, B.C. 283-239. Hardouin is of opinion that the two physicians were one and the same person.

37. See end of B. xx.

38. Servilius Democrates, a Greek physician at Rome about the time of

the Christian era. He probably received his prnomen from being a

client of the Servilian family. Pliny speaks of him in B. xxiv. c.

28 and B. xxv. c. 49. He wrote several works on medicine in Greek

lambic verse, the titles and a few extracts from which are preserved by

Galen.

39. Probably the same physician that is mentioned by Galen as belonging

to the sect of the Empirici. See c. 39 of this Book.

40. See end of B. xx.

41. A fabulous king of Assyria, or Egypt, to whom was attributed the

discovery of many remedies and medicaments. See B. xxx. c. 51, and

B. xxxvii. c. 52.

42. See end of B. viii.

43. Beyond the mention made of his absurd remedy in c. 38 of the present Book, nothing seems to be known of this writer.




0. > Book Xxx. Remedies Derieved From Living Creatures.


BOOK XXX.

REMEDIES DERIEVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Origin Of The Magic Art.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE ORIGIN OF THE MAGIC ART.



IN former parts of this work, I have had occasion more than.

once, when the subject demanded it, to refute the impostures

of the magic art, and it is now my intention to continue still

further my exposure thereof. Indeed, there are few subjects

on which more might be profitably said, were it only that,

being, as it is, the most deceptive of all known arts, it has

exercised the greatest influence in every country and in nearly

every age. And no one can be surprised at the extent of its

influence and authority, when he reflects that by its own energies it has embraced, and thoroughly amalgamated with itself;

the three other sciences[1] which hold the greatest sway upon

the mind of man.



That it first originated in medicine, no one entertains a

doubt;[2] or that, under the plausible guise of promoting health,

it insinuated itself among mankind, as a higher and more holy

branch of the medical art. Then, in the next place, to promises the most seductive and the most flattering, it has added

all the resources of religion, a subject upon which, at the present day, man is still entirely in the dark. Last of all, to

complete its universal sway, it has incorporated with itself the

astrological art;[3] there being no man who is not desirous to

know his future destiny, or who is not ready to believe that

this knowledge may with the greatest certainty be obtained,

by observing the face of the heavens. The senses of men

being thus enthralled by a three-fold bond, the art of magic

has attained an influence so mighty, that at the present day

even, it holds sway throughout a great part of the world, and

rules the kings[4] of kings in the East.











1. "Artes." Medicine, religion, and the art of divination.

2. Ajasson remarks that, on the contrary, this is a subject of great doubt.

3. "Mathematicas artes."

4. The title of the ancient kings of Persia.




3. Chap. 3.-Whether Magic Was Ever Practised In Italy. At What Period The Senate First Forbade Human Sacrifices.


CHAP. 3.-WHETHER MAGIC WAS EVER PRACTISED IN ITALY. AT

WHAT PERIOD THE SENATE FIRST FORBADE HUMAN SACRIFICES.



It is clear that there are early traces still existing of the







introduction of magic into Italy; in our laws of the Twelve

Tables for instance; besides other convincing proofs, which I

have already noticed in a preceding Book.[1] At last, in the

year of the City 657, Cneius Cornelius Lentulus and P. Licinius Crassus being consuls, a decree forbidding human sacrifices[2] was passed by the senate; from which period the celebration of these horrid rites ceased in public, and, for some[3]

time, altogether.







1. B. xxviii. c. 4.

2. These sacrifices forming the most august rite of the Magic art, as

practised in Italy.

3. That this art was still practised in secret in the days of Pliny himself,

we learn from the testimony of Tacitus (Annals, II. 69), in his account of

the enquiries instituted on the death of Germanicus.




4. Chap. 4.-The Druids Of The Gallic Provinces.


CHAP. 4.-THE DRUIDS OF THE GALLIC PROVINCES.



The Gallic provinces, too, were pervaded by the magic art,[1]

and that even down to a period within memory; for it was

the Emperor Tiberius that put down their Druids,[2] and all that

tribe of wizards and physicians. But why make further mention of these prohibitions, with reference to an art which has

now crossed the very Ocean even, and has penetrated to the

void[3] recesses of Nature? At the present day, struck with

fascination, Britannia still cultivates this art, and that, with

ceremonials so august, that she might almost seem[4] to have

been the first to communicate them to the people of Persia.[5]

To such a degree are nations throughout the whole world,

totally different as they are and quite unknown to one another,

in accord upon this one point!







Such being the fact, then, we cannot too highly appreciate

the obligation that is due to the Roman people, for having put

an end to those monstrous rites, in accordance with which, to

murder a man was to do an act of the greatest devoutness, and

to eat[6] his flesh was to secure the highest blessings of health.







1. More particularly in the worship of their divinity lieu or Hesus, the

god of war.

2. This he did officially, but not effectually, and the Druids survived as

a class for many centuries both in Gaul and Britain.

3. He alludes to the British shores bordering on the Atlantic. See B.

xix. c. 2.

4. It is a curious fact that the round towers of Ireland bear a strong resemblance to those, the ruins of which are still to be seen on the plains of

ancient Persia.

5. "Ut dedisse Persis videri possit." This might possibly mean, "That

Persia might almost seem to have communicated it direct to Britain." Ajasson enumerates the following superstitions of ancient Britain, as bearing

probable marks of an Oriental origin: the worship of the stars, lakes,

forests, and rivers; the ceremonials used in cutting the plants samiolus,

selago, and mistletoe, and the virtues attributed to the adder's egg.

6. Ajasson seems inclined to suggest that this may possibly bear reference

to the Christian doctrines of redemption and the Sacrament of the Lord's

Supper.




5. Chap. 5. (2.)-The Various Branches Of Magic.


CHAP. 5. (2.)-THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF MAGIC.



According to what Osthanes tells us, there are numerous

sorts of magic. It is practised[1] with water, for instance, with

balls, by the aid of the air, of the stars, of lamps, basins, hatchets,

and numerous other appliances; means by which it engages

to grant a foreknowledge of things to come, as well as converse

with ghosts and spirits of the dead. All these practices, however, have been proved by the Emperor Nero, in our own day,

to be so many false and chimrical illusions; entertaining as

he did a passion for the magic art, unsurpassed even by his

enthusiastic love for the music of the lyre, and for the songs of

tragedy; so strangely did his elevation to the highest point

of human fortune act upon the deep-seated vices of his mind!

It was his leading desire to command the gods of heaven, and

no aspiration could he conceive more noble than this. Never

did person lavish more favours upon any one of the arts; and

for the attainment of this, his favourite object, nothing was

wanting to him, neither riches, nor power, nor aptitude at

learning, and what not besides, at the expense of a suffering

world.



It is a boundless, an indubitable proof, I say, of the utter

falsity of this art, that such a man as Nero abandoned it; and

would to heaven that he had consulted the shades below, and

any other spirits as well, in order to be certified in his suspicions, rather than commissioned the denizens of stews and

brothels to make those inquisitions of his [with reference to

the objects of his jealousy]. For assuredly there can be no







superstition, however barbarous and ferocious the rites which

it sanctions, that is not more tolerant than the imaginations

which he conceived, and owing to which, by a series of bloodstained crimes, our abodes were peopled with ghosts.







1. These kinds of divination, rather than magic, were called hydromancy,

sphromancy, aromancy, astromancy, lychnomancy, lecanomancy, and

axinomancy. See Rabelais, B. iii. c. 25, where a very full account is given

of the Magic Art, as practised by the ancients. Coffee-grounds, glair of

eggs, and rose-leaves, are still used in France for purposes of divination

by the superstitious.




6. Chap. 6.-The Subterfuges Practised By The Magicians.


CHAP. 6.-THE SUBTERFUGES PRACTISED BY THE MAGICIANS.



The magicians, too, have certain modes of evasion, as, for

instance, that the gods will not obey, or even appear to, persons

who have freckles upon the skin. Was this perchance the

obstacle[1] in Nero's way? As for his limbs, there was[2] nothing

deficient in them. And then, besides, he was at liberty to

make choice of the days prescribed by the magic ritual: it

was an easy thing for him to make choice of sheep whose

colour was no other than perfectly black: and as to sacrificing

human beings, there was nothing in the world that gave him

greater pleasure. The Magian Tiridates[3] was at his court,

having repaired thither, in token of our triumph over Armenia,

accompanied by a train which cost dear to the provinces through

which it passed. For the fact was, that he was unwilling to

travel by water, it being a maxim with the adepts in this art

that it is improper to spit into the sea or to profane that element

by any other of the evacuations that are inseparable from the

infirmities of human nature. He brought with him, too,

several other Magi, and went so far as to initiate the emperor

in the repasts[4] of the craft; and yet the prince, for all he had

bestowed a kingdom upon the stranger, found himself unable

to receive at his hands, in return, this art.



We may rest fully persuaded then, that magic is a thing

detestable in itself. Frivolous and lying as it is, it still bears,

however, some shadow of truth upon it; though reflected, in

reality, by the practices of those who study the arts of secret

poisoning, and not the pursuits of magic. Let any one picture

to himself the lies of the magicians of former days, when he

learns what has been stated by the grammarian Apion,[5] a







person whom I remember seeing myself when young. He

tells us that the plant cynocephalia,[6] known in Egypt as

"osiritis," is useful for divination, and is a preservative against

all the malpractices of magic, but that if a person takes it out

of the ground entire, he will die upon the spot. He asserts,

also, that he himself had raised the spirits[7] of the dead, in

order to make enquiry of Homer in reference to his native

country and his parents; but he does not dare, he tells us,

disclose the answer he received.







1. Suetonius says that his body was full of foul spots.

2. It was probably a doctrine of Magic, that an adept must not be de-

ficient in any of his limbs.

3. After being conquered by the Roman general, Corbulo, he received

the crown of Armenia from Nero, A.D. 63.

4. All vegetable substances were divided, according to their doctrine, into

the pure and the impure, the rule being strictly observed at their repasts.

5. See end of this Book.

6. See B. xxv. c. 80.

7. Like the assertions of the famous impostor of the close of the last

century, Count Cagliostro.




7. Chap. 7. (3.)-Opinions Of The Magicians Relative To The Mole. Five Remedies Derived From It.


CHAP. 7. (3.)-OPINIONS OF THE MAGICIANS RELATIVE TO THE

MOLE. FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.



Let the following stand as a remarkable proof of the frivolous nature of the magic art. Of all animals it is the mole

that the magicians admire most! a creature that has been

stamped with condemnation by Nature in so many ways;

doomed as it is to perpetual blindness,[1] and adding to this

darkness a life of gloom in the depths of the earth, and a state

more nearly resembling that of the dead and buried. There

is no animal in the entrails of which they put such implicit

faith, no animal, they think, better suited for the rites of religion; so much so, indeed, that if a person swallows the heart of

a mole, fresh from the body and still palpitating, he will receive

the gift of divination, they assure us, and a foreknowledge of

future events. Tooth-ache, they assert, may be cured by

taking the tooth of a live mole, and attaching it to the body.

As to other statements of theirs relative to this animal, we

shall draw attention to them on the fitting occasions, and shall

only add here that one of the most probable of all their assertions is, that the mole neutralizes the bite of the shrew-mouse;

seeing that, as already[2] stated, the very earth even that is

found in the rut of a cart-wheel, acts as a remedy in such a

case.











1. A mistake, of course; and one for which there is little excuse, as its

eyes are easily perceptible. It is not improbable, however, that it was an

impression with the ancients that its sight is impeded by the horny covering

of its eyes.

2. In B. xxix. c. 27.




8. Chap. 8.-The Other Remedies Derived From Living Creatures. Classified According To The Respective Diseases. Remedies For Tooth-Ache.


CHAP. 8.-THE OTHER REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIVING CREATURES.

CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE RESPECTIVE DISEASES. REMEDIES

FOR TOOTH-ACHE.



But to proceed with the remedies for tooth-ache-the magicians tell us, that it may be cured by using the ashes of the

head of a dog that has died in a state of madness. The head,

however, must be burnt without the flesh, and the ashes

injected with oil of cyprus[1] into the ear on the side affected.

For the same purpose also, the left eye-tooth of a dog is used.

the gum of the affected tooth being lanced with it; one of the

vertebr also of a dragon or of an enhydris, which is a male

white serpent.[2] The eye-tooth, too, of this last, is used for

scarifying the gums; and when the pain affects the teeth of the

upper jaw, they attach to the patient two of the upper teeth of

the serpent, and, similarly, two of the lower ones for tooth-ache

in the lower jaw. Persons who go in pursuit of the crocodile,

anoint themselves with the fat of this animal. The gums are

also scarified with the frontal bones of a lizard, taken from

it at full moon, and not allowed to touch the ground: or else

the mouth is rinsed with a decoction of dogs' teeth in wine,

boiled down to one half.



Ashes of dogs' teeth, mixed with honey, are useful for

difficult dentition in children, and a dentifrice is similarly

prepared from them. Hollow teeth are plugged with ashes of

burnt mouse-dung, or with a lizard's liver, dried. To eat a

snake's heart, or to wear it, attached to the body, is considered

highly efficacious. There are some among the magicians, who

recommend a mouse to be eaten twice a month, as a preventive

of tooth-ache. Earth-worms, boiled in oil and injected into

the ear on the side affected, afford considerable relief: ashes,

too, of burnt earth-worms, introduced into carious teeth, make

them come out easily; and, used as a friction, they allay pains

in such of the teeth as are sound: the proper way of burning

them is in an earthen potsherd. They are useful, too, boiled

with root of the mulberry-tree in squill vinegar, and employed

as a collutory for the teeth. The small worm that is found

in the plant known as Venus'[3] bath, is remarkably useful,







introduced[4] into a hollow tooth; and as to the cabbage caterpillar, it will make hollow teeth come out, by the mere contact

only. The bugs[5] that are found upon mallows, are injected

into the ears, beaten up with oil of roses.



The small grits of sand that are found in the horns of snails,

introduced into hollow teeth, remove the pain instantaneously.

Ashes of empty snail-shells, mixed with myrrh,[6] are good for

the gums; the ashes also of a serpent, burnt with salt in an

earthen pot, and injected, with oil of roses, into the ear opposite

to the side affected; or else the slough of a snake, warmed with

oil and torch-pine resin,[7] and injected into either ear. Some

persons add frankincense and oil of roses, a preparation which,

of itself, introduced into hollow teeth, makes them come out

without pain. It is all a fiction, in my opinion, to say that

white snakes cast this slough about the rising of the Dog-star;

for such a thing has never been seen in Italy, and it is still

more improbable that sloughing should take place at so late

a period in the warmer climates. We find it stated also, that this

slough, even when it has been kept for some time, mixed with

wax, will extract a tooth very expeditiously, if applied thereto: a snake's tooth, also, attached to the body as an amulet,

allays tooth-ache. Some persons think that it is a good remedy

to catch a spider with the left hand, to beat it up with oil of

roses, and then to inject it into the ear on the side affected.



The small bones of poultry, preserved in a hole in a wall,

the medullary channel being left intact, will immediately cure

tooth-ache, they say, if the tooth is touched or the gum

scarified therewith, care being taken to throw away the bone

the moment the operation is performed. A similar result is

obtained by using raven's dung, wrapped in wool and attached

to the body, or else sparrow's dung, warmed with oil and injected into the ear on the side affected. This last remedy,

however, is productive of an intolerable itching, for which

reason it is considered a better plan to rub the part with the

ashes of young sparrows burnt upon twigs, mixed with vinegar

for the purpose.











1. See B. xii. c. 51.

2. It is doubtful what is meant by this male white "water-serpent."

In B. xxxii. c. 26, he appears to include it among the fishes.

3. See 13. xxv. c. 108.

4. It is a singular thing that we still hear of the maggots found in filberts

being used for the same purpose.

5. See B. xxix. c. 17.

6. Marcus Empiricus says, honey.

7. See B. xvi. c. 19.




9. Chap. 9. (4.)-Remedies For Offensive Odours And Sores Of The Mouth.


CHAP. 9. (4.)-REMEDIES FOR OFFENSIVE ODOURS AND SORES OF

THE MOUTH.



To impart sweetness to the breath, it is recommended to

rub the teeth with ashes of burnt mouse-dung and honey:

some persons are in the habit of mixing fennel root. To pick

the teeth with a vulture' s feather, is productive of a sour

breath; but to use a porcupine's quill for that purpose, greatly

strengthens the teeth. Ulcers of the tongue and lips are cured

by taking a decoction of swallows, boiled in honied wine; and

chapped lips are healed by using goose-grease or poultry-grease,

wool-grease mixed with nut-galls, white spiders' webs, or the

fine cobwebs that are found adhering to the beams of roofs.

If the inside of the mouth has been scalded with any hot substance, bitches' milk will afford an immediate cure.










10. Chap. 10.-Remedies For Spots Upon The Face.


CHAP. 10.-REMEDIES FOR SPOTS UPON THE FACE.



Wool-grease, mixed with Corsican honey-which by the way

is considered the most acrid honey of all-removes spots upon

the face. Applied with oil of roses in wool, it causes scurf upon

the face to disappear: some persons add butter to it. In cases

of morphew, the spots are first pricked with a needle, and then

rubbed with dog's gall. For livid spots and bruises on the

face, the lights of a ram or sheep are cut fine and applied

warm, or else pigeons' dung is used. Goose-grease or poultry-grease is a good preservative of the skin of the face. For

lichens a liniment is used, made of mouse-dung in vinegar, or

of the ashes of a hedge-hog mixed with oil: but, when these

remedies are employed, it is recommended first to foment the

face with nitre dissolved in vinegar. Maladies of the face are also

removed by employing the ashes of the small, broad, snail that

is so commonly found, mixed with honey. Indeed, the ashes

of all snails are of an inspissative nature, and are possessed of

certain calorific and detersive properties: hence it is that they

form an ingredient in caustic applications, and are used in the

form of a liniment for itch-scabs, leprous sores, and freckles on

the face.



I find it stated that a certain kind of ant known by the name

of "Herculanea,"[1] is beaten up, with the addition of a little







salt, and used for the cure of these diseases. The buprestis[2]

is an insect but rarely found in Italy, and very similar to a

scarabus, with long legs. Concealed among the grass, it is

very liable to be swallowed unobserved, by oxen in particular;

and the moment it comes in contact with the gall, it causes

such a degree of inflammation, that the animal bursts asunder;

a circumstance to which the insect owes its name. Applied

topically with he-goat suet, it removes lichens on the face,

owing to its corrosive properties, as previously[3] stated. A

vulture's blood, beaten up with cedar resin and root of white

chamleon-a plant which we have already[4] mentioned-and

covered with a cabbage leaf, when applied, is good for the cure

of leprosy; the same, too, with the legs of locusts, beaten up

with he-goat suet. Pimples are treated with poultry grease,

beaten up and kneaded with onions. One very useful substance for the face is honey in which the bees have died; but a

sovereign detergent for that part is swans' grease, which has

also the property of effacing wrinkles. Brand-marks[5] are

removed by using pigeons' dung, diluted in vinegar.







1. Dalechamps thinks that these "Herculean" ants were so called from

their great size. Ajasson queries whether they may not be the "grenadier

ants" of Dupont de Nemours.

2. See B. xxii. c. 36. Belon takes it to be the Lixus paraplecticus.

3. In B. xxix. c. 30.

4. In B. xxii. c. 21.

5. "Stigmata."




11. Chap. 11.-Remedies For Affections Of The Throat.


CHAP. 11.-REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE THROAT.



I find it stated that catarrhs oppressive to the head may be

cured by the patient kissing a mule's nostrils. Affections of

the uvula and pains in the fauces are alleviated by using the dung

of lambs before they have begun to graze, dried in the shade.

Diseases of the uvula are cured with the juices of a snail pierced

with a needle; the snail, however, must be then hung up in the

smoke. The same maladies are treated also with ashes of

burnt swallows, mixed with honey; a preparation which is

equally good for affections of the tonsillary glands. Sheep's

milk, used as a gargle, alleviates diseases of the fauces and

tonsillary glands. Millepedes, bruised with pigeons' dung, are

taken as a gargle, with raisin wine; and they are applied, externally, with dried figs and nitre, for the purpose of soothing

roughness of the fauces and catarrhs. For such cases, too,

snails should be boiled unwashed, the earth only being removed, and then pounded and administered to the patient in

raisin wine. Some persons are of opinion that for these pur-







poses the snails of Astypala[1] are the most efficacious, and

they give the preference to the detersive preparation[2] made

from them. The parts affected are sometimes rubbed with

a cricket, and affections of the tonsillary glands are alleviated

by being rubbed with the hands of a person who has bruised a

cricket.







1. See B. iv. c. 23, B. viii. c. 59, and cc. 15 and 43 of the present Book.

2. "Smegma."




12. Chap. 12.-Remedies For Quinzy And Scrofula.


CHAP. 12.-REMEDIES FOR QUINZY AND SCROFULA.



For quinzy we have very expeditious remedies in goose-gall,

mixed with elaterium[1] and honey, an owlet's brains, or the

ashes of a burnt swallow, taken in warm water; which last

remedy we owe[2] to the poet Ovid. But of all the remedies

spoken of as furnished by the swallow, one of the most efficacious is that derived from the young of the wild swallow, a

bird which may be easily recognized by the peculiar conformation of its nest.[3] By far the most effectual, however, of them

all, are the young of the bank-swallow,[4] that being the name

given to the kind which builds its nest in holes on the banks of

rivers. Many persons recommend the young of any kind of

swallow as a food, assuring us that the person who takes it

need be in no apprehension of quinzy for the whole of the

ensuing year. The young of this bird are sometimes stifled

and then burnt in a vessel with the blood, the ashes being

administered to the patient with bread or in the drink: some,

however, mix with them the ashes of a burnt weasel, in equal

proportion. The same remedies are recommended also for

scrofula, and they are administered for epilepsy, once a day, in

drink. Swallows preserved in salt are taken for quinzy, in

(loses of one drachma, in drink: the nest,[5] too, of the bird,

taken internally, is said to be a cure for the same disease.



Millepedes,[6] it is thought, used in the form of a liniment, are

peculiarly efficacious for quinzy: some persons, also, administer

eleven of them, bruised in one semi-sextarius of hydromel,

through a reed, they being of no use whatever if once touched

by the teeth. Other remedies mentioned are, the broth of a







mouse boiled with vervain, a thong of dogskin passed three

times round the back, and pigeons' dung mixed with wine and

oil. For the cure of rigidity of the muscles of the neck, and

of opisthotony, a twig of vitex, taken from a kite's nest, is

attached to the body as an amulet.



(5.) For ulcerated scrofula, a weasel's blood is employed, or

the animal itself, boiled in wine; but not in cases where the

tumours have been opened with the knife. It is said, too,

that a weasel, eaten with the food, is productive of a similar

effect; sometimes, also, it is burnt upon twigs, and the ashes

are applied with axle-grease. In some instances, a green lizard

is attached to the body of the patient, a fresh one being substituted at the end of thirty days. Some persons preserve the

heart of this animal in a small silver vessel,[7] as a cure for

scrofula in females. Old snails, those found adhering to shrubs

more particularly, are pounded with the shells on, and applied

as a liniment. Asps, too, are similarly employed, reduced to

ashes and mixed with bull suet; snakes' fat also, diluted with

oil; and the ashes of a burnt snake, applied with oil or wax.

It is a good plan also, in cases of scrofula, to eat the middle

of a snake, the extremities being first removed, or to drink

the ashes of the reptile, similarly prepared and burnt in a

new earthen vessel: they will be found much more efficacious,

however, when the snake has been killed between the ruts

made by wheels. It is recommended also, to dig up a cricket

with the earth about its hole, and to apply it in the form of a

liniment; to use pigeons' dung, either by itself, or with barleymeal, or oatmeal and vinegar; or else to apply the ashes of a

burnt mole, mixed with honey.



Some persons apply the liver of this last animal, crumbled

in the hands, due care being taken not to wash it off for three

days: it is said, too, that a mole's right foot is a remedy for

scrofula. Others, again, cut off the head of a mole, and after

kneading it with earth thrown up by those animals, divide

it into tablets, and keep it in a pewter box, for the treatment

of all kinds of tumours, diseases of the neck, and the affections

known as "apostemes:" in all such cases the use of swine's







flesh is forbidden to the patient. "Taurus"[8] is the name

usually given to an earth-beetle, very similar to a tick in

appearance, and which it derives from the diminutive horns

with which it is furnished: some persons call it the "earth-louse."[9] From the earth thrown up by these insects a liniment is prepared for scrofula and similar diseases, and for gout,

the application not being washed off till the end of three days.

This last remedy is effectual for a whole year, and all those

other properties are attributed to it which we have mentioned[10]

when speaking of crickets. There are some, again, who make

a similar use of the earth thrown up by ants; while others

attach to the patient as many earth-worms as there are scrofu-

lous tumours, the sores drying as the worms dry up.



Some persons cut off the head and tail of a viper, as already

mentioned,[11] about the rising of the Dog-star, which done, they



burn the middle, and give a pinch of the ashes in three fingers,

for thrice seven days, in drink-such is the plan they use for



the cure of scrofula. Others, again, pass round the scrofulous

tumours a linen thread, with which a viper has been suspended

by the neck till dead. Millepedes[12] are also used, with one

fourth part of turpentine; a remedy which is equally recommended for the cure of all kinds of apostemes.







1. See B. xx. c. 2.

2. No very great obligation, apparently.

3. See B. x. c. 49.

4. "Riparia."

5. The only birds' nests that are now taken internally are the soutton

bourong, or, edible birds' nests of the Chinese.

6. See B. xxix. c. 39.

7. Marcus Empiricus says that the heart must be enclosed in a silver

lupine and worn suspended from the neck, being efficacious for scrofula

both in males and females. The silver lupine was probably what we

should call a "locket."

8. "The bull." Dalechamps takes this to be the stag-beetle or bull-fly;

but that, as Ajasson remarks, has four horns, two antenne, and two large

mandibules; in addition to which, from its size, it would hardly be called

the "earth-louse." He concludes that a lamellicorn is meant; but whether

belonging to the Lucanid or the Scarabid, it is impossible to say.

9. "Pediculus terr."

10. In B. xxix. c. 33.

11. In B. xxix. c. 21.

12. He probably speaks of woodlice here. Ettmuller asserts their utility

in this form for scrofula. Valisnieri says the same; Spielmann prescribes

them for arthrosis; Riviere considers them as a detergent for ulcers, and

a resolvent for tumours of the mamill; and Baglivi maintains that they

are a first-rate diuretic, and unequalled as a lithontriptic. They contain

muriate of lime and of potash, which may possibly, in some small degree,

give them an aperitive virtue.




13. Chap. 13.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Shoulders.


CHAP. 13.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SHOULDERS.



The ashes of a burnt weasel, mixed with wax, are a cure

for pains in the shoulders. To prevent the arm-pits of young

persons from becoming hairy, they should be well rubbed with

ants' eggs. Slave-dealers also, to impede the growth of

the hair in young persons near puberty, employ the blood that







flows from the testes of lambs when castrated. This blood,

too, applied to the arm-pits,[1] the hairs being first pulled out,

is a preventive of the rank smell of those parts.







1. See Horace, Epode xii. 1. 5.




14. Chap. 14.-Remedies For Pains In The Viscera.


CHAP. 14.-REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE VISCERA.



We give the one general name of "prcordia" to the

human viscera; for pains in any part of which, a sucking

whelp is applied, being pressed close to the part affected.[1] The

malady, it is said, will in such case pass into the animal; a

fact which may be satisfactorily ascertained; for on disembowelling it, and sprinkling the entrails with wine, that part of the

viscera will be found affected in which the patient himself

was sensible of pain: to bury the animal in such a case is a

point most religiously observed. The dogs,[2] too, which we

call "Meliti," applied to the stomach every now and then,

allay pains in that region: the malady, it is supposed, passes

into the animal's body, as it gradually loses its health, and

it mostly dies.



(6.) Affections of the lungs are cured by using mice, those of

Africa more particularly, the animal being skinned and boiled

in salt and oil, and then taken with the food. The same preparation is used also, for the cure of purulent or bloody expectorations.







1. Hence, perhaps, the practice of nursing lap-dogs.

2. See B. iii. c. 30, and Note 2, p. 267.




15. Chap. 15.-Remedies For Pains In The Stomach.


CHAP. 15.-REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE STOMACH.



One of the very best remedies for affections of the stomach,

is to use a snail diet.[1] They must first be left to simmer in

water for some time, without touching the contents of the

shell, after which, without any other addition, they must be

grilled upon hot coals, and eaten with wine and garum;[2] the

snails of Africa being the best of all for the purpose. The

efficacy of this remedy has been proved in numerous instances

of late. Another point, too, to be observed, is to take an uneven number of them. Snails, however, have a juice, it should

be remembered, which imparts to the breath an offensive smell.







For patients troubled with spitting of blood, they are remarkably good, the shell being first removed, and the contents

bruised and administered in water. The most esteemed kinds

of all are those of Africa-those which come from Iol,[3] in

particular-of Astypala, and, after them, those of tna, in

Sicily, those I mean of moderate size, for the large ones are

hard, and destitute of juice. The Balearic snails, called "cavatic," from being found in caverns, are much esteemed; and

so, too, are those from the islands of Capre.[4] Those of Greece,

on the other hand, are never used for food, either old or

fresh.



River snails, and those with a white shell, have a strong,

rank, juice, and forest snails are by no means good for the

stomach, having a laxative effect upon the bowels; the same,

too, with all kinds of small snails. Sea-snails,[5] on the other

hand, are more beneficial to the stomach; but it is for pains

in that region that they are found the most efficacious: the

best plan, it is said, is to eat them alive, of whatever kind

they may happen to be, with vinegar. In addition to these,

there are the snails called "acerat,"[6] with a broad shell, and

found in numerous localities: of the uses to which they are

put we shall[7] speak further on the appropriate occasions. The

craw of poultry, dried and sprinkled in the drink, or else used

fresh and grilled, has a soothing effect upon pectoral catarrhs

and coughs attended with phlegm.[8] Snails, beaten up raw

and taken in three cyathi of warm water, allay cough. A

piece of dog's skin, wrapped round any one of the fingers, affords relief to patients suffering from catarrh. A broth made

of boiled partridges is strengthening for the stomach.







1. In France and Italy, snails are considered a delicacy by some. Snail

milk is sometimes used medicinally in England for consumptive patients:

it is doubtful with what effect.

2. Or fish-sauce. See B. xxxi. c. 43.

3. See B. v. c. 20.

4. See B. iii. c. 12.

5. Our periwinkles.

6. Dalechamps takes this to mean "without horns:" and Hardouin is

of opinion that it means "genuine" or "unmixed." In either sense,

the word is derived from the Greek.

7. He has omitted to do so.

8. "Humida tussis."




16. Chap. 16.-Remedies For Pains In The Liver, And For Spitting Of Blood.


CHAP. 16.-REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE LIVER, AND FOR SPITTING

OF BLOOD.



For the cure of pains in the liver, a wild weasel is taken

with the food, or the liver only of that animal; a ferret also,

roasted like a sucking-pig. In cases of asthma, millepedes

are used, thrice seven of them being soaked in Attic honey,







and taken internally by the aid of a reed:[1] for all vessels, it

should be remembered, turn black on coming in contact with

them. Some persons grill one sextarius of these insects on a

flat pan, till they become white, and then mix them with

honey. There are some authorities who call this insect a

"centipede," and recommend it to be given in warm water.

Snails are administered to persons subject to fainting fits,

alienation of the senses, and vertigo: for which purposes, a

snail is beaten up, shell and all, with three cyathi of raisin

wine, and the mixture is administered warm with the drink,

for nine days at most. Others, again, give one snail the first

day, two the second, three the third, two the fourth, and one

the fifth; a mode of treatment also adopted for the cure of

asthma and of abscesses.



There is, according to some authorities, an insect resembling the locust in appearance, destitute of wings, and known

by the Greek name of "troxallis," it being without a name in

Latin: a considerable number of writers, however, consider

it as identical with the insect known to us as "gryllus."[2]

Twenty of these insects, they say, should be grilled, and taken

in honied wine, by patients troubled with hardness of breathing or spitting of blood. Some persons pour pure grape-juice,[3]

or sea-water, upon unwashed snails, and then boil and eat

them for food; or else they bruise the snails, shells and all,

and take them with this grape-juice. A similar method is

also adopted for the cure of cough. Honey in which the bees

have died, is particularly good for the cure of abscesses. For

spitting of blood a vulture's lungs are used, burnt upon vine

logs, and mixed with half the quantity of pomegranate blossoms, or with the same proportion of quince and lily blossom:

the whole being taken morning and evening, in wine, if there

is no fever; but where there are symptoms of fever, instead of

wine, water is used in which quinces have been boiled.







1. See c. 12 of this Book.

2. Our "cricket." The troxallis was probably a kind of locust, still

known to naturalists by that name.

3. "Protropum." Wine of the first running.




17. Chap. 17.-Remedies For Affections Of The Spleen.


CHAP. 17.-REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SPLEEN.



According to the prescriptions given by the magicians, a

fresh sheep's milt is the best application for pains in the spleen,

the person who applies it uttering these words: "This I do







for the cure of the spleen." This done, it is enjoined that the

milt should be covered up with mortar in the wall of the

patient's sleeping-room, and sealed with a ring, a charm[1] being

repeated thrice nine times. A dog's milt, removed from the

animal while still alive, taken with the food, is a cure for diseases of the spleen: some, again, attach it fresh to that part

of the patient's body. Others give the patient-without his

knowing it-the milt of a puppy two days old, to eat, in

squill vinegar; the milt, too, of a hedge-hog is similarly

used. Ashes of burnt snails are employed, in combination

with linseed, nettle-seed, and honey, the treatment being persisted in till the patient is thoroughly cured.



A green lizard has a remedial effect, suspended alive in an

earthen vessel, at the entrance of the sleeping-room of the

patient, who, every time he enters or leaves it, must take care

to touch it with his hand: the head, too, of a horned owl, reduced to ashes and incorporated with an unguent; honey, also,

in which the bees have died; and spiders, the one known as

the "lycos"[2] in particular.







1. "Carmen." Holland says "the aforesaid charm:" but this does

not appear from the context. From the account, however, given by Marcus

Empiricus, we learn that the charm, thus repeated twenty-seven times, is

the same as that already given.

2. Or "wolf." See B. xi. c. 28.




18. Chap. 18.-Remedies For Pains In The Side And In The Loins.


CHAP. 18.-REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE SIDE AND IN THE LOINS.



For pains in the side, the heart of a hoopoe is highly esteemed; ashes, too, of burnt snails, that have been boiled in

a ptisan, snails being sometimes applied in the form of a liniment, alone. Potions employed for this purpose have a sprinkling in them of the ashes of a mad dog's skull. For the cure

of lumbago, the spotted lizard[1] from beyond seas is used:

the head and intestines being first removed, the body is boiled

in wine, with half a denarius of black poppy, and the decoction is taken in drink. Green lizards, also, are taken with

the food, the feet and head being first removed; or else three

snails are crushed, shells and all, and boiled with fifteen peppercorns in wine. The feet of an eagle are wrenched off in a

contrary direction to the joint, and the right foot is attached

to the right side, the left foot to the left, according as the

pains are situate. The miilepede,[2] which we have spoken of







as being called the "oniscos," is a cure for these pains,

taken, in doses of one denarius, in two cyathi of wine.

The magicians recommend an earth-worm to be put in a

wooden dish, which has been split and mended with iron

wire; which done, some water must be taken up with the dish,

the worm drenched with it and buried in the spot from

which it was taken, and the water drunk from the dish.

They assert, also, that this is a marvellously excellent cure for

sciatica.







1. See B. xxix. c. 28.

2. Or woodlouse. See B. xxix. c. 39.




19. Chap. 19. (7.)-Remedies For Dysentery.


CHAP. 19. (7.)-REMEDIES FOR DYSENTERY.



Dysentery is cured by taking the broth of a leg of mutton,

boiled with linseed in water; by eating old ewe-milk cheese;

or by taking mutton suet boiled in astringent wine. This

last is good, too, for the iliac passion, and for inveterate coughs.

Dysentery is removed also, by taking a spotted lizard from

beyond seas, boiled down till the skin only is left, the head,

feet, and intestines, being first removed. A couple of snails

also, and an egg, are beaten up, shells and all, in both cases,

and made lukewarm in a new vessel, with some salt, three

cyathi of water, and two cyathi of raisin-wine or date-juice,

the decoction being taken in drink. Ashes, too, of burnt snails,

are very serviceable, taken in wine with a modicum of resin.



The snails without shells, which we have[1] mentioned as

being mostly found in Africa, are remarkably useful for dysentery, five of them being burnt with half a denarius of gum

acacia, and taken, in doses of two spoonfuls, in myrtle wine or

any other kind of astringent wine, with an equal quantity of

warm water. Some persons employ all kinds of African snails

indiscriminately in this manner; while others, again, make use

of a similar number of African snails or broad-shelled snails,

as an injection, in preference: in cases, too, where the flux is

considerable, they add a piece of gum acacia, about the size of

a bean. For dysentery and tenesmus, the cast-off slough of a

snake is boiled in a pewter vessel with oil of roses: if prepared in any other kind of vessel, it is applied with an instru-

ment made of pewter. Chicken-broth is also used as a remedy

for these affections; but the broth of an old cock, strongly

salted, acts more powerfully as a purgative upon the bowels.

A pullet's craw, grilled and administered with salt and oil, has







a soothing effect upon cliac affections; but it is absolutely

necessary that neither fowl nor patient should have eaten

corn[2] for some time before. Pigeons' dung, also, is grilled and

taken in drink. The flesh of a ring-dove, boiled in vinegar,

is curative of dysentery and cliac affections: and for the cure

of the former, a thrush is recommended, roasted with myrtleberries; a blackbird, also; or honey, boiled, in which the bees

have died.







1. In B. xxix. c. 36.

2. See B. xxix. c. 36.




20. Chap. 20.-Remedes For The Iliac Passion, And For Other Maladies Of The Bowels.


CHAP. 20.-REMEDES FOR THE ILIAC PASSION, AND FOR OTHER

MALADIES OF THE BOWELS.



One of the most dangerous of maladies is that known by the

name of "ileos:"[1] it may be combatted, they say, by tearing

a bat asunder, and taking the blood, or by rubbing the abdo.

men with it. Diarrha is arrested more particularly by taking

snails, prepared in manner already[2] mentioned for cases of

asthma; the ashes, also, of snails burnt alive, administered in

astringent wine; the liver of poultry grilled; the dried craw

of poultry, a part that is usually thrown away, mixed with

poppy-juice-in some cases it is used fresh, grilled, and taken

in wine-partridge broth; the craw of partridges beaten up by

itself in red wine; a wild ringdove boiled in oxycrate; a sheep's

milt, grilled and beaten up in wine; or else pigeons' dung,

applied with honey. The crop of an ossifrage, dried and taken

in drink, is remarkably useful for patients whose digestion is

impaired-indeed, its good effects may be felt if they only hold

it in the hand while eating. Hence it is that some persons

wear it attached to the body as an amulet; a practice which

must not be too long continued, it being apt to cause a wasting

of the flesh. The blood, too, of a drake has an astringent

effect.



Flatulency is dispelled by eating snails; and griping pains

in the bowels, by taking a sheep's milt grilled, with wine; a

wild ringdove boiled in oxycrate; the fat of an otis[3] in wine; or

the ashes of an ibis, burnt without the feathers, administered in

drink. Another prescription mentioned for griping pains in

the bowels is of a very marvellous nature: if a duck, they say,

is applied to the abdomen, the malady will pass into the bird,







and it will die.[4] Gripings of the bowels are treated also with

boiled honey in which the bees have died.



Colic is most effectually cured by taking a roasted lark with

the food. Some recommend, however, that it should be burnt

to ashes in a new vessel, feathers and all, and then pounded

and taken for four consecutive days, in doses of three spoonfuls,

in water. Some say that the heart of this bird should be

attached to the thigh, and, according to others, the heart should

be swallowed fresh, quite warm, in fact. There is a family

of consular dignity, known as the Asprenates,[5] two brothers,

members of which, were cured of colic; the one by eating a

lark and wearing its heart in a golden bracelet; the other, by

performing a certain sacrifice in a chapel built of raw bricks,

in form of a furnace, and then blocking up the edifice the moment the sacrifice was concluded. The ossifrage has a single

intestine only, which has the marvellous property of digesting

all that the bird has swallowed: the extremity of this intestine, it is well known, worn as an amulet, is an excellent

remedy for colic.



There are certain concealed maladies incident to the intestines, in relation to which there are some marvellous statements

made. If to the stomach and chest, more particularly, blind

puppies are applied, and suckled with milk from the patient's

mouth,[6] the virulence of the malady, it is said, will be transferred to them, and in the end they will die: on opening

them, too, the causes of the malady will be sure to be discovered. In all such cases, however, the puppies must be

allowed to die, and must be buried in the earth. According

to what the magicians say, if the abdomen is touched with a

bat's blood, the person will be proof against colic for a whole

year: when a patient, too, is attacked with the pains of colic,

if he can bring himself to drink the water in which he has

washed his feet, he will experience a cure.







1. The iliac passion, or ileus volvulus.

2. In c. 16 of this Book.

3. A kind of bustard. See B. x. cc. 29, 50, and c. 45 of this Book.

4. See c. 14 of this Book, where a similar notion is mentioned.

5. There were three consuls of this name, L. Nonius Asprenas, A.D. 7;

L. Nonius Asprenas, A.D. 29; and P. Nonius Asprenas, A.D. 38. They

are mentioned also by Suetonius, Tacitus, Dion Cassius, Frontinus, and

Seneca.

6. See c. 14 of this Book.




21. Chap. 21. (8.)-Remedies For Urinary Calculi And Affections Of The Bladder.


CHAP. 21. (8.)-REMEDIES FOR URINARY CALCULI AND

AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER.



For the cure of urinary calculi, it is a good plan to rub







the abdomen with mouse-dung. The flesh of a hedge-hog is

agreeable eating, they say, if killed with a single blow upon

the head, before it has had time to discharge its urine[1] upon

its body: [persons[2] who eat this flesh, it is said, will never by

any possibility suffer from strangury.] The flesh of a hedgehog thus killed, is a cure for urinary obstructions of the bladder; and the same, too, with fumigations made therewith. If,

on the other hand, the animal has discharged its urine upon its

body, those who eat the flesh will be sure to be attacked by

strangury, it is said. As a lithontriptic,[3] earth-worms are

recommended, taken in ordinary wine or raisin wine; or else

boiled snails, prepared the same way[4] as for the cure of asthma.

For the cure of urinary obstructions, snails are taken from the

shells, pounded, and administered in one cyathus of wine, three

the first day, two the second, and one the third. For the expulsion of calculi, the empty shells are reduced to ashes and

taken in drink: the liver also of a water-snake, and the ashes

of burnt scorpions are similarly employed, or are taken with

bread or eaten with a locust. For the same purpose, the

small grits that are found in the gizzard of poultry or in the

craw of the ringdove, are beaten up and sprinkled in the

patient's drink; the craw, too, of poultry is taken, dried, or if

fresh, grilled.



For urinary calculi and other obstructions of the bladder,

dung of ring-doves is taken, with beans; ashes also of wild

ring-doves' feathers, mixed with vinegar and honey; the intestines of those birds, reduced to ashes, and administered in

doses of three spoonfuls; a small clod from a swallow's nest,

dissolved in warm water; the dried crop of an ossifrage; the

dung of a turtle-dove, boiled in honied wine; or the broth of

a boiled turtle-dove.



It is very beneficial also for urinary affections to eat thrushes

with myrtle-berries, or grasshoppers grilled on a shallow-pan;

or else to take the millepedes, known as "onisci,"[5] in drink.

For pains in the bladder, a decoction of lambs' feet is used.







Chicken-broth relaxes the bowels and mollifies acridities;

swallows' dung, too, with honey, employed as a suppository,

acts as a purgative.







1. See B. viii. c. 56.

2. This passage is omitted by Sillig as an evident interpolation from the

context a couple of lines below.

3. The belief in lithontriptics can hardly be said to exist at the present

day. Ajasson refers to the grant made by the British Parliament of 5000

to Mrs. Stephens for her lithontriptic!!

4. In c. 16 of this Book.

5. See B. xxix. c. 39.




22. Chap. 22.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Fundament And Of The Generative Organs.


CHAP. 22.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE FUNDAMENT AND OF

THE GENERATIVE ORGANS.



The most efficacious remedies for diseases of the rectum are

wool-grease-to which some add pompholix[1] and oil of roses-a dog's head, reduced to ashes; or a serpent's slough, with

vinegar. In cases where there are chaps and fissures of those

parts, the ashes of the white portion of dogs' dung are used,

mixed with oil of roses; a prescription due, they say, to sculapius,[2] and remarkably efficacious also for the removal of

warts. Ashes of burnt mouse-dung, swan's fat, and cow

suet, are also used. Procidence of the rectum is reduced by an

application of the juices discharged by snails when punctured.

For the cure of excoriation of those parts, ashes of burnt woodmice are used, with honey; the gall of a hedge-hog, with a

bat's brains and bitches' milk; goose-grease, with the brains of

the bird, alum, and wool-grease; or else pigeons' dung, mixed

with honey. A spider, the head and legs being first removed,

is remarkably good as a friction for condylomata. To prevent

the acridity of the humours from fretting the flesh, goosegrease is applied, with Punic wax, white lead, and oil of

roses; swan's grease also, which is said to be a cure for piles.



A very good thing, they say, for sciatica, is, to pound raw

snails in Aminean[3] wine, and to take them with pepper; to

eat a green lizard, the feet, head, and intestines being first

removed; or to eat a spotted lizard, with the addition of three

oboli of black poppy. Ruptures and convulsions are treated

with sheep's gall, diluted with woman's milk. The gravy which

escapes from a ram's lights roasted, is used for the cure of

itching pimples and warts upon the generative organs: for

other affections of those parts, the ashes of a ram's wool, unwashed even, are used, applied with water; the suet of a

sheep's caul, and of the kidneys more particularly, mixed with

ashes of pumice-stone and salt; greasy wool, applied with cold

water; sheep's flesh, burnt to ashes, and applied with water;







a mule's hoofs, burnt to ashes; or the powder of pounded

horse teeth, sprinkled upon the parts. In cases of decidence

of either of the testes, an application of the slime discharged

by snails is remedial, they say. For the treatment of sordid

or running ulcers of those parts, the fresh ashes of a burnt

dog's head are found highly useful; the small, broad kind of

snail, beaten up in vinegar; a snake's slough, or the ashes of

it, applied in vinegar; honey in which the bees have died,

mixed with resin; or the kind of snail without a shell, that is

found in Africa, as already[4] mentioned, beaten up with powdered frankincense and white of eggs, the application being

renewed at the end of thirty days; some persons, however,

substitute a bulb for the frankincense.



For the cure of hydrocele, a spotted lizard, they say, is

marvellously good, the head, feet, and intestines being first

removed, and the rest of the body roasted and taken frequently

with the food. For incontinence[5] of urine dogs' fat is used,

mixed with a piece of split alum the size of a bean; ashes,

also, of African snails burnt with the shells, taken in drink;

or else the tongues of three geese roasted and eaten with the

food, a remedy which we owe to Anaxilaiis. Mutton-suet,[6]

mixed with parched salt, has an aperient effect upon inflammatory tumours, and mouse-dung, mixed with powdered

frankincense and sandarach, acts upon them as a dispellent:

the ashes, also, of a burnt lizard, or the lizard itself, split

asunder and applied; or else bruised millepedes, mixed with one

third part of turpentine. Some make use of earth of Sinope[7]

for this purpose, mixed with a bruised snail. Ashes of

empty snail-shells burnt alone, mixed with wax, possess certain repercussive properties; the same, too, with pigeons' dung,

employed by itself, or applied with oat-meal or barley-meal.

Cantharides, mixed with lime, remove inflammatory tumours

quite as effectually as the lancet; and small snails, applied

topically with honey, have a soothing effect upon tumours in

the groin.











1. See B. xxxiv. c. 33.

2. It can hardly be said to add to his fame.

3. See B. xiv. c. 4.

4. In B. xxix. c. 36 and in c. 19 of this Book.

5. See B. xxxii. c. 35.

6. Ajasson remarks that this may probably be useful.

7. See B. xxxv. cc. 12, 13.




23. Chap. 23. (9.)-Remedies For Gout And For Diseases Of The Feet.


CHAP. 23. (9.)-REMEDIES FOR GOUT AND FOR DISEASES OF THE

FEET.



To prevent varicose veins, the legs of children are rubbed

with a lizard's blood: but both the party who operates and the

patient must be fasting at the time. Wool-grease, mixed with

woman's milk and white lead, has a soothing effect upon gout;

the liquid dung also voided by sheep; a sheep's lights; a

ram's gall, mixed with suet; mice, split asunder and applied;

a weasel's blood, used as a liniment with plantago; the ashes

of a weasel burnt alive, mixed with vinegar and oil of roses,

and applied with a feather, or used in combination with wax

and oil of roses; a dog's gall, due care being taken not to touch

it with the hand, and to apply it with a feather; poultry dung;

or else ashes of burnt earth-worms, applied with honey, and

removed at the end of a couple of days. Some, however, prefer using this last with water, while others, again, apply the

worms themselves, in the proportion of one acetabulum[1] to

three cyathi of honey, the feet of the patient being first anointed

with oil of roses. The broad, flat, kind of snail, taken in drink,

is used for the removal of pains in the feet and joints; two of

them being pounded for the purpose and taken in wine. They

are employed, also, in the form of a liniment, mixed with the

juice of the plant helxine:[2] some, however, are content to

beat up the snails with vinegar. Some say that salt, burnt

in a new earthen vessel with a viper, and taken repeatedly, is

curative of gout, and that it is an excellent plan to rub the

feet with viper's fat. It is asserted, too, that similar results

are produced by keeping a kite till it is dry, and then powdering it and taking it in water, a pinch in three fingers at a

time; by rubbing the feet with the blood of that bird mixed

with nettles; or by bruising the first feathers of a ring-dove

with nettles. The dung of ring-doves is used as a liniment

for pains in the joints; the ashes also of a burnt weasel, or

of burnt snails, mixed with amylum[3] or gum tragacanth.



A very excellent cure for contusions of the joints is a spider's

web; but there are persons who give the preference to ashes

of burnt cobwebs or of burnt pigeons' dung, mixed with

polenta and white wine. For sprains of the joints a sovereign







remedy is mutton suet, mixed with the ashes of a woman's hair;

a good application, too, for chilblains is mutton suet, mixed

with alum, or else ashes of a burnt dog's head or of burnt

mouse-dung. Ulcers, free from discharge, are brought to cicatrize by using the above-named substances in combination with

wax; ashes, also, of burnt dormice, mixed with oil; ashes of

burnt wood-mice, mixed with honey; ashes of burnt earthworms, applied with old oil; or else ashes of the snails without

a shell that are so commonly found. All ulcers on the feet are

cured by the application of ashes of snails, burnt alive; and

for excoriations of the feet, ashes of burnt poultry-dung are

used, or ashes of burnt pigeons' dung, mixed with oil. When

the feet have been galled by the shoes, the ashes of an old shoe-

sole are used, or the lights of a lamb or ram. For gatherings

beneath[4] the nails, a horse's tooth, powdered, is a sovereign

remedy. A light application of a green lizard's blood, will

cure the feet of man or beast when galled beneath.



For the removal of corns upon the feet, the urine of a mule

of either sex is applied, mixed with the mud which it has

formed upon the ground; sheep's dung, also; the liver of a

green lizard, or the blood of that animal, applied in wool;

earth-worms, mixed with oil; the head of a spotted lizard,

pounded with an equal quantity of vitex and mixed with oil;

or pigeons' dung, boiled with vinegar. For the cure of all kinds

of warts, dogs' urine is applied fresh, with the mud which it

has formed upon the ground; dogs' dung, also, reduced to ashes

and mixed with wax; sheep's dung; the blood of mice, ap-

plied fresh, or the body of a mouse, split asunder; the gall of

a hedgehog; a lizard's head or blood, or the ashes of that

animal, burnt entire; the cast-off slough of a snake; or else

poultry dung, applied with oil and nitre. Cantharides, also,

bruised with Taminian[5] grapes, act corrosively upon warts:

but when warts have been thus removed, the remedies should

be employed which we have pointed out for ulcerations on the

skin.







1. "Acetabuli mensur" seems a preferable reading to "aceto mensur,"

which makes no sense.

2. See B. xxi. c. 56.

3. See B. xviii. c. 17.

4. "Subluviem." The same, probably, as the disease of the fingers which

he elsewhere calls "paronychia," and perhaps identical with whitlow.

5. See B. xxiii. c. 13.




24. Chap. 24. (10.)-Remedies For Evils Which Are Liable To Affect The Whole Body.


CHAP. 24. (10.)-REMEDIES FOR EVILS WHICH ARE LIABLE TO

AFFECT THE WHOLE BODY.



We will now turn our attention to those evils which are a







cause of apprehension, as affecting the whole body. According

to what the magicians say, the gall of a male black dog is a

counter-charm for the whole of a house; and it will be quite sufficient to make fumigations with it, or to use it as a purification,

to ensure its preservation against all noxious drugs and preparations. They say the same, too, with reference to a dog's

blood, if the walls are sprinkled with it; and the genitals of

that animal, if buried beneath the threshold. This will surprise persons the less who are aware how highly these same

magicians extol that most abominable insect, the tick, and

all because it is the only one that has no[1] passage for the

evacuations, its eating ending only in its death, and it living all

the longer for fasting: in this latter state it has been known

to live so long as seven days, they say, but when it gorges to

satiety it will burst in a much shorter period. According to

these authorities, a tick from a dog's left ear, worn as an

amulet, will allay all kinds of pains. They presage, too, from

it on matters of life and death; for if the patient, they say,

gives an answer to a person who has a tick about him, and,

standing at the foot of the bed, asks how he is, it is an infallible sign that he will survive; while, on the other hand, if he

makes no answer, he will be sure to die. They add, also, that

the dog from whose left ear the tick is taken, must be entirely

black. Nigidius has stated in his writings that dogs will

avoid the presence all day of a person who has taken a tick

from off a hog.



The magicians likewise assure us that patients suffering

from delirium will recover their reason on being sprinkled

with a mole's blood; and that persons who are apt to be

troubled by the gods of the night[2] and by Fauni, will experience relief by rubbing themselves morning and evening with

the tongue, eyes, gall, and intestines of a dragon,[3] boiled in

oil, and cooled in the open air at night.







1. A popular fallacy of Pliny's time. See B. xi. c. 40.

2. Spectres and nightmare.

3. The serpent so called.




25. Chap. 25.-Remedies For Cold Shiverings.


CHAP. 25.-REMEDIES FOR COLD SHIVERINGS.



A remedy for cold shiverings, according to Nicander, is a

dead amphisbna,[1] or its skin only, attached to the body: in

addition to which, he informs us that if one of these reptiles







is attached to a tree that is being felled, the persons hewing

it will never feel cold, and will fell it all the more easily. For

so it is, that this is the only one among all the serpents that

faces the cold, making its appearance the first of all, and even

before the cuckoo's note is heard. There is another marvellous

fact also mentioned, with reference to the cuckoo: if, upon the

spot where a person hears this bird for the first time, he traces

round the space occupied by his right foot and then digs

up the earth, it will effectually prevent fleas from breeding,

wherever it is thrown.







1. See B. viii. c. 35.




26. Chap. 26.-Remedies For Paralysis.


CHAP. 26.-REMEDIES FOR PARALYSIS.



For persons apprehensive of paralysis the fat of dormice and

of field-mice, they say, is very useful, boiled: and for patients

threatened with phthisis, millepedes are good, taken in drink,

in manner already[1] mentioned for the cure of quinzy. The

same, too, with a green lizard, boiled down to one cyathus in

three sextarii of wine, and taken in doses of one spoonful

daily, until the patient is perfectly cured; the ashes also of

burnt snails, taken in wine.







1. In c. 12 of this Book. Woodlice are meant.




27. Chap. 27.-Remedies For Epilepsy.


CHAP. 27.-REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.



For the cure of epilepsy wool-grease is used, with a modicum of myrrh, a piece about the size of a hazel-nut being dissolved and taken after the bath, in two cyathi of wine: a

ram's testes, also, dried and pounded, and taken in doses of

half a denarius, in water, or in a semi-sextarius of asses'

milk; the patient being forbidden wine five days before and

after using the remedy. Sheep's blood, too, is mightily praised,

taken in drink; sheep's gall, also, and lambs' gall in particular,

mixed with honey; the flesh of a sucking puppy, taken with

wine and myrrh, the head and feet being first removed; the

callosities from a mule's legs, taken in three cyathi of oxymel;

the ashes of a spotted lizard from beyond seas, taken in vinegar; the thin coat of a spotted lizard, which it casts like a

snake, taken in drink-indeed some persons recommend the

lizard itself; gutted with a reed and dried and taken in drink;

while others, again, are for roasting it on a wooden spit and

taking it with the food.



It is worth while knowing how the winter slough of this







lizard is obtained when it casts it off, before it has had the opportunity of devouring[1] it; there being no creature, it is said, that

resorts in its spite to more cunning devices for the deception of

man; a circumstance owing to which, the name of "stellio"[2]

his been borrowed as a name of reproach. The place to which

it retires in summer is carefully observed, being generally some

spot beneath the projecting parts of doors or windows, or else

in vaults or tombs. In the early days of spring, cages made

of split reeds are placed before these spots; and the narrower

the interstices the more delighted is the animal with them,

it being all the better enabled thereby to disengage itself of

the coat which adheres to its body and impedes its freedom of

action: when, however, it has once quitted it, the construction of the cage prevents its return. There is nothing whatever preferred to this lizard as a remedy for epilepsy. The

brains of a weasel are also considered very good, dried and

taken in drink; the liver, too, of that animal, or the testes,

uterus, or paunch, dried and taken with coriander, in manner

already[3] mentioned; the ashes also of a burnt weasel; or a

wild weasel, eaten whole with the food. All these properties

are equally attributed to the ferret. A green lizard is some-

times eaten, dressed with seasonings to stimulate the appetite,

the feet and head being first removed; the ashes, too, of burnt

snails are used, as an ointment, with linseed, nettle-seed, and

honey.



The magicians think highly of a dragon's tail, attached to

the body, with a deer's sinews, in the skin of a gazelle; as

also the small grits found in the crops of young swallows,

tied to the left arm of the patient; for swallows, it is said, give

small stones to their young the moment they are hatched.

If, at the commencement of the first paroxysm, an epileptic

patient eats the first of a swallow's brood that has been

hatched, he will experience a perfect cure: but at a later

period the disease is treated by using swallow's blood with

frankincense, or by eating the heart of the bird quite fresh.

Nay, even more than this, a small stone taken from a

swallow's nest will relieve the patient the moment it is applied, they say; worn, too, as an amulet, it will always act as







a preservative against the malady. A kite's liver, too, eaten

by the patient, is highly vaunted; the slough also of a serpent; a vulture's liver, beaten up with the blood of the bird,

and taken thrice seven days in drink; or the heart of a young

vulture, worn attached to the body.



And not only this, but the vulture itself is recommended as

a food for the patient, and that, too, when it has been glutted

with human flesh. Some recommend the breast of this bird

to be taken in drink from a cup made of cerrus[4] wood, or the

testes of a dunghill cock to be taken in milk and water; the

patient abstaining from wine the five preceding days, and the

testes being dried for the purpose. There have been authorities found to recommend one-and-twenty red flies-and those

found dead, too!-taken in drink, the number being reduced

where the patient is of a feeble habit.







1. See B. viii. c. 49.

2. A cozener, cheat, or rogue. Ajasson has a page of discussion on the

origin of this appellation.

3. In B. xxix. c. 16.

4. See B. xvi. e. 6.




28. Chap. 28. (11.)-Remedies For Jaundice.


CHAP. 28. (11.)-REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.



Jaundice is combated by administering ear-wax to the patient,

or else the filth that adheres to the udders of sheep, in doses

of one denarius, with a modicum of myrrh, in two cyathi of

wine; the ashes, also, of a dog's head, mixed with honied

wine; a millepede, in one semi-sextarius of wine; earth-

worms, in hydromel with myrrh; wine in which a hen's

feet have been washed, after being first cleansed with water-

the hen must be one with yellow[1] feet-the brains of a partridge

or of an eagle, in three cyathi of wine; the ashes of a ring-

dove's feathers or intestines, in honied wine, in doses of three

spoonfuls; or ashes of sparrows burnt upon twigs, in doses of

two spoonfuls, in hydromel.



There is a bird, known as the "icterus,"[2] from its peculiar

colour: if the patient looks at it, he will be cured of jaun-

dice, they say, and the bird will die. In my opinion this

is the same bird that is known in Latin by the name of

"galgulus."[3]







1. Like our game poultry.

2. This word being also the Greek name for the jaundice.

3. See B. x. c. 50. The witwall.




29. Chap. 29.-Remedies For Phrenitis.


CHAP. 29.-REMEDIES FOR PHRENITIS.



In cases of phrenitis a sheep's lights, attached warm round

the patient's head, would appear to be advantageous. But as

to giving a man suffering from delirium a mouse's brains in







water to drink, the ashes of a burnt weasel, or the dried flesh

even of a hedgehog, who could possibly do it, supposing even

the effects of the remedy were certain? I should be inclined,

too, to rank the ashes of the eyes of a horned owl in the number of those monstrous prescriptions with which the adepts in

the magic art abuse the credulity of mankind.



It is in cases, too, of fever, more particularly, that the acknowledged rules of medicine run counter to the prescriptions

of these men: for they have classified the various modes of

treating the disease in accordance with the twelve signs of the

Zodiac, and relatively to the revolutions of the sun and moon,

a system which deserves to be utterly repudiated, as I shall

prove by a few instances selected from many. They recommend, for example, when the sun is passing through Gemini,

that the patient should be rubbed with ashes of the burnt

combs, ears, and claws of cocks, beaten up and mixed with

oil. If, again, it is the moon that is passing through that

sign, it is the spurs and wattles of cocks that must be similarly employed. When either of these luminaries is passing

through Virgo, grains of barley must be used; and when

through Sagittarius, a bat's wings. When the moon is passing through Leo, it is leaves of tamarisk that must be employed,

and of the cultivated tamarisk, they add: if, again, the sign

is Aquarius, the patient must use an application of box-wood

charcoal, pounded.



Of the remedies, however, that we find recommended by

them, I shall be careful to insert those only the efficacy

of which has been admitted, or, at least, is probable in any

degree; such, for instance, as the use of powerful odours, as

an excitant for patients suffering from lethargy; among which,

perhaps, may be reckoned the dried testes of a weasel, or the

liver of that animal, burnt. They consider it a good plan,

too, to attach a sheep's lights, made warm, round the head of

the patient.










30. Chap. 30.-Remedies For Fevers.


CHAP. 30.-REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.



In the treatment of quartan fevers, clinical medicine is, so to

say, pretty nearly powerless; for which reason we shall insert

a considerable number of remedies recommended by professors

of the magic art, and, first of all, those prescribed to be worn

as amulets: the dust, for instance, in which a hawk has bathed







itself, tied up in a linen cloth, with a red string, and attached

to the body; the longest tooth of a black dog; or the wasp

known by the name of "pseudosphex,"[1] which is always to

be seen flying alone, caught with the left hand and attached

beneath the patient's chin. Some use for this purpose the

first wasp that a person sees in the current year. Other

amulets are, a viper's head, severed from the body and wrapped

in a linen cloth; a viper's heart, removed from the reptile

while still alive; the muzzle[2] of a mouse and the tips of its

ears, wrapped in red cloth, the animal being set at liberty

after they are removed; the right eye plucked from a living

lizard, and enclosed with the head, seperated from the body,

in goat's skin; the scarabnus also that forms pellets[3] and rolls

them along.



It is on account of this kind of scarabus that the people

of a great part of Egypt worship those insects as divinities;

an usage for which Apion gives a curious reason, asserting, as he

does, by way of justifying the rites of his nation, that the, insect

in its operations pictures the revolution of the sun. There is

also another kind of scarabus, which the magicians recom-

mend to be worn as an amulet-the one that has small horns[4]

thrown backwards; it must be taken up, when used for this

purpose, with the left hand. A third kind also, known by the

name of "fullo,"[5] and covered with white spots, they recom-

mend to be cut asunder and attached to either arm, the other

kinds being worn upon the left arm. Other amulets recom-

mended by them, are, the heart of a snake taken from the

living animal with the left hand; or four joints of a scorpion's

tail. together with the sting,, attached to the body in a piece of

black cloth; due care being taken that the patient does not see







the scorpion, which is set at liberty after the operation, or

the person who has attached the amulet, for the space of

three days: after the recurrence, too, of the third paroxysm,

he must bury the whole in the ground. Some enclose a caterpillar in a piece of linen with a thread passed three times

round it, and tie as many knots, repeating at each knot why it

is that the patient performs that operation. A slug is sometimes wrapped in a piece of skin, or the heads of four slugs,

cut from the body with a reed: a millepede is rolled up in

wool: the small grubs that produce the gadfly,[6] are used

before the wings of the insect are developed; or any other kind

of hairy grub is employed that is found adhering to prickly

shrubs. Some persons attach to the body four of these grubs,

enclosed in an empty walnut shell, or else some of the snails

that are found without a shell.



In other cases, again, it is the practice to enclose a spotted

lizard in a little box, and to place it beneath the pillow, of the

patient, taking care to set it at liberty when the fever abates.

It is recommended also, that the patient should swallow the

heart of a sea-diver, removed from the bird without the aid of

iron, it being first dried and then bruised and taken in warm

water. The heart of a swallow is also recommended, with

honey; and there are persons who say that, just before the

paroxysms come on, the patient should take one drachma of

swallow's dung in three cyathi of goats' milk or ewes' milk,

or of raisin wine: others, again, are of opinion that the birds

themselves should be taken, whole. The nations of Parthia,

as a remedy for quartan fevers, take the skin of the asp, in

doses of one sixth of a denarius, with an equal quantity of

pepper. The philosopher Chrysippus has left a statement to

the effect, that the phryganion,[7] worn as an amulet, is a

remedy for quartan fevers; but what kind of animal this is he

has nowhere informed us, nor have I been able to meet with

any one who knows. Still, however, I felt myself bound to

notice a remedy that was mentioned by an author of such high

repute, in case any other person should happen to be more

successful in his researches. To eat the flesh of a crow, and







to use nitre in the form of a liniment, is considered highly

efficacious for the treatment of chronic diseases.



In cases of tertian fever-so true it is that suffering takes

delight in prolonging hope by trying every remedy-it may be

worth while to make trial whether the web of the spider called

"lycos"[8] is of any use, applied, with the insect itself, to the

temples and forehead in a compress covered with resin and wax;

or the insect itself, attached to the body in a reed, a form in

which it is said to be highly beneficial for other fevers. Trial

may be made also of a green lizard, enclosed alive in a vessel

just large enough to receive it, and worn as an amulet; a

method, it is said, by which recurrent fevers are often dispelled.







1. "Bastard-wasp."

2. "Rostellum." Holland renders it "The little prettie snout's end of

a mouse."

3. Of cowdung. It was supposed that there was no female scarabus,

and that the male insect formed these balls for the reproduction of its

species. It figures very largely in the Egyptian mythology and philosophy

as the emblem of the creative and generative power. It has been suggested

that its Coptic name "skalouks" is a compound Sinscrit word. signifying

-"The ox-insect that collects dirt into a round mass." See B. xi, c. 34.

4. Probably the "lucanus" mentioned in B. xi. c. 34; supposed to be

the same as the stag-beetle.

5. The "fuller," apparently. This name may possibly be derived, however, from the Greek fullo\n, a "leaf."

6. See B. xi. c. 38.

7. Some suppose that this was an insect that lived among dry wood,

and derive the name from the Greek frugano\n. Queslon is of opinion that

it is the salamander.

8. The "wolf" spider. See c. 17 of this Book.




31. Chap. 31.-Remedies For Dropsy.


CHAP. 31.-REMEDIES FOR DROPSY.



For the cure of dropsy, wool-grease, a piece about the size

of a hazel-nut, is given in wine, with the addition of a little

myrrh: some add goose-grease, steeped in myrtle wine. The

filth that adheres to the udders of sheep is productive of a

similar effect, as also the dried flesh of a hedge-hog, taken with

the food. Matter vomited by a dog, we are assured, applied

to the abdomen, will draw off the water that has accumulated

there.










32. Chap. 32. (12).-Remedies For Erysipelas.


CHAP. 32. (12).-REMEDIES FOR ERYSIPELAS.



For the cure of erysipelas, wool-grease is used, with pomnpholix[1] and oil of roses; the blood[2] also extracted from a tick;

earth worms, applied in vinegar; or else a cricket crushed between the hands-the good effect of this last being that the person who uses this precaution before the malady has made its

appearance, will be preserved therefrom for a whole year. Care

must be taken also that iron is used for the removal of the

cricket, with some of the earth about its hole. Goose-grease

is also employed for this purpose; a viper's head, dried and

burnt, and applied with vinegar; or a serpent's slough, applied

to the body, immediately after the bath, with bitumen and

lamb suet.











1. See B. xxxiv. c. 33.

2. Ajasson remarks that, in reality, this is not blood, but a kind of

viscous liquid.




33. Chap. 33.-Remedies For Carbuncles.


CHAP. 33.-REMEDIES FOR CARBUNCLES.



Carbuncles are removed by an application of pigeons' dung,

either alone or in combination with linseed and oxymel; or

of bees that have died in the honey. A sprinkling of polenta

upon the sores is also used. For carbuncles and other sores of

the generative organs, wool-grease is used as a remedy, with

refuse of lead; and for incipient carbuncles, sheep's dung is

employed.. Tumours and all other affections that stand in need

of emollients are treated most effectually with goose-grease;

that of cranes, too, is equally efficacious.










34. Chap. 34.-Remedies For Boils.


CHAP. 34.-REMEDIES FOR BOILS.



For boils the following remedies are prescribed; a spider,

applied before mentioning the insect by name, care being

taken to remove it at the end of two days; a shrew-mouse,

suspended by the neck till it is dead, care being taken not

to let it touch the earth when dead, and to pass it three

times around the boil, both operator and patient spitting on the

floor each time; poultry-dung, that of a red colour in particular,

applied fresh with vinegar; the crop of a stork, boiled in wine;

flies, an uneven number of them, rubbed upon the patient with

the ring[1] finger; the filth from sheep's ears; stale mutton

suet, with ashes of women's hair; ram suet also, with ashes of'

burnt pumice and an equal quantity of salt.







1. "Digitus medicus"-"The physician's finger," properly. Why

the fourth finger, or that next to the little finger, was thus called, it seems

impossible to say.




35. Chap. 35.-Remedies For Burns.


CHAP. 35.-REMEDIES FOR BURNS.



For burns, the ashes of a dog's head are used; ashes of

burnt dormice, with oil; sheep's dung, with wax; ashes also

of burnt snails, an application so effectual, as not to leave a

scar even. Viper's fat, too, is used, and ashes of burnt pigeons'

dung, applied with oil.










36. Chap. 36.-Remedies For Affections Of The Sinews.


CHAP. 36.-REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SINEWS.



For nodosities in the sinews, the ashes of a viper's head are

applied, with oil of cyprus;[1] or else earth-worms, with honey.

Pains in the sinews should be treated with an application of

grease; the body of a dead amphisbna, worn as an amulet;

vulture's grease, dried with the crop of the bird and beaten up

with stale hog's lard; or else ashes of the head of a horned







owl, taken in honied wine with a lily root-that is, if we believe

what the magicians tell us. For contractions of the sinews, the

flesh of ring-doves is very good, dried and taken with the food:

and for spasmodic affections, the ashes of a hedge-hog or weasel

are used. A serpent's slough, attached to the patient's body in

a piece of bull's hide, is a preventive of spasms: and the dried

liver of a kite, taken in doses of three oboli, in three cyathi

of hydromel, is a preservative against opisthotony.







1. See B. xii. c. 51.




37. Chap. 37.-Remedies For Maladies Of The Nails And Fingers.


CHAP. 37.-REMEDIES FOR MALADIES OF THE NAILS AND FINGERS.



Agnails and hangnails upon the fingers are removed by

using the ashes of a burnt dog's head, or the uterus of a bitch

boiled in oil, the fingers being first rubbed with a liniment of

ewe-milk butter, mixed with honey. The gall-bladder, too, of

any animal is very useful for this purpose. Malformed nails

are healed with an application of canthlarides and pitch, which

is removed at the end of two days; or else with locusts friel

with he-goat suet; or with an application of mutton suet. Some

mix mistletoe and purslain with these ingredients; while

others, again, use verligrease and mistletoe, removing the application at the end of two days.










38. Chap. 38. (13.)-Methods For Arresting Hmorrhage.


CHAP. 38. (13.)-METHODS FOR ARRESTING HMORRHAGE.



Bleeding at the nostrils is arrested by mutton suet taken

from the caul, introduced into the nostrils; by draing up

rennet, lamb's rennet in particular, mixed with water, into the

nostrils, or by using it as an injection, a remedy which succeeds

even where other remedies; have failed: by making up goosegrease into a bolus with an equall quantity of butter, and

plugging the nostrils with it; or by using the earth that

adheres to snails, or else the snails themselves, extracted from

the shell. Excessive discharges from the nostrils are arrested

also by applying crushed snails, or cobwebs, to the forehead.

For issues of blood from the brain, the blood or brains of

poultry are used, as also pigeons' dung, thickened and kept

for the purpose. In cases where there is and immoderate flow

of blood from a wound, an application of horse-dung, burnt

with egg-shells, is marvellously good for stopping it.










39. Chap. 39.-Remedies For Ulcerous Sores And Wounds.


CHAP. 39.-REMEDIES FOR ULCEROUS SORES AND WOUNDS.



For the cure of ulcers, wool-grease is used, with ashes of







burnt barley and verdigrease, in equal quantities; a preparation which is good, too, for carcinomata and spreading sores.

It cauterizes the flesh also around the margins of ulcers, and

reduces and makes level fungous excrescences formed by sores.

Ashes, too, of burnt sheep's dung, mixed with nitre, are of great

efficacy for the cure of carcinomata; as also those of lambs'

thigh-bones, in cases more particularly where ulcers refuse to

cicatrize. Very considerable, too, is the efficacy of lights,

ram's lights in particular, which are of the greatest utility for

reducing and making level the fleshy excrescences formed by

ulcerous sores. With sheep's dung, warmed beneath an

earthen pan and kneaded, the swellings attendant upon wounds

are reduced, and fistulous sores and epinyctis are cleansed and

made to heal.



But it is in the ashes of a burnt dog's head that the

greatest efficacy is found; as it quite equals spodium[1] in

its property of cauterizing all kinds of fleshy excrescences,

and causing sores to heal. Mouse-dung, too, is used as a

cautery, and weasels' dung, burnt to ashes. Pounded millepedes, mixed with turpentine and earth of Sinope,[2] are used

for penetrating carcinomata and fleshy indurations in deep-

seated sores; and the same substances are remarkably useful

for the treatment of ulcers threatened with maggots.



Indeed the several varieties of worms themselves are possessed of marvellously useful properties. The worms,[3] for

instance, that breed in wood are curative of all kinds of ulcers:

reduced to ashes, with an equal quantity of anise, and applied

with oil, they heal cancerous sores. Earthworms are so remark-

ably healing for wounds recently inflicted, that it is a very

general belief that by the end of seven days they will unite

sinews even that have been cut as under: hence it is that it is re-

commended to keep them preserved in honey. Ashes of burnt

earth-worms, in combination with tar or Simblian honey,[4] cau-

terize the indurated margins of ulcerous sores. Some persons dry

earthworms in the sun, and apply them to wounds with vinegar,

the application not being removed till the end of acouple of days.

The earth also that adheres to snails is useful, similarly em-







ployed; snails, too, taken whole from the shell, are pounded

and applied to fresh wounds, to heal them, and they arrest the

progress of cancerous sores.



There is an insect called "herpes"[5] by the Greeks, which

is particularly useful for the cure of all kinds of serpiginous[6]

sores. Snails, beaten up, shells and all, are very good for this

purpose; and it is said that, with myrrh and frankincense,

they will unite the sinews even when cut asunder. The fat,

too, of a dragon,[7] dried in the sun, is remarkably usefull, and

so are the brains of a cock or capon for recent wounds. By

taking with the food salt in which vipers have been preserved,

ulcers are rendered more easy of treatment, it is said, and are

made to heal all the sooner. Antonius[8] the physician, after

operating in vain upon ulcers, that were incurable with the

knife, used to prescribe viper's flesh to be eaten by the patient,

whereby a marvellously speedy cure was effected.



The locust called "troxallis,"[9] reduced to ashes and applied

with honey, removes the indurated margins of ulcerous sores:

ashes, also, of burnt pigeons' dung, with arsenic and honey,

are very effectual in all cases where a cautery is required.

The brains of a horned owl, applied with goose-grease, are

marvellously efficacious for uniting wounds, it is said. For

the malignant ulcer known as "cacothes,"[10] the ashes of a

ram's thigh-bones are used, mixed with woman's milk, the sores

being washed with linen cloths well rinsed. For the same

purpose, the bird known as the screech-owl[11] is boiled in oil,

ewe-milk butter and honey being added to the preparation,

when properly dissolved. An application of bees that have

died in the honey, acts emolliently upon the indurated margins

of ulcerous sores; and for the cure of elephantiasis, the blood

and ashes of a weasel are employed. Wounds and weals pro-

duced by blows are effaced by an application of sheep-skins

fresh from the body.







1. See B. xxxiv. c. 34.

2. See B. xxxv. cc. 12, 13.

3. "Cosses."

4. Dioscorides speaks of this honey as the produce of Sicily.

5. The "creeper." It has not been identified.

6. Which are also called "herpetic" or "creeping."

7. The serpent so called.

8. Antonius Castor, probably. See end of B. xx.

9. See c. 16 of this Book.

10. A chronic cancer.

11. "Ulula."




40. Chap. 40.-Remedies For Broken Bones.


CHAP. 40.-REMEDIES FOR BROKEN BONES.



For fractures of the joints, ashes of sheep's thigh-bones are







particularly useful, applied in combination with wax; and the

remedy is all the more efficacious, if a sheep's jaw-bones are

burnt with the other ingredients, together with a deer's antler,

and some wax dissolved in oil of roses. For broken bones, a

dog's brains are used, spread upon a linen cloth, with wool

laid upon the surface and moistened every now and then. The

fractured bone will mostly unite in the course of fourteen

days; and a cure equally expeditious may be effected by using

the ashes of burnt field-mice, with honey, or of burnt earthworms; a substance which is extremely useful for the extraction of splintered bones.










41. Chap. 41.-Applications For Cicatrizations, And For, The Cure Of Morphew.


CHAP. 41.-APPLICATIONS FOR CICATRIZATIONS, AND FOR, THE

CURE OF MORPHEW.



Cicatrizations are restored to their original colour by applying sheep's lights, those of a ram in particular; mutton-suet,

mixed with nitre; the ashes of a green lizard; a snake's slough,

boiled in wine; or else pigeons' dung, mixed with honey;

a preparation which, in combination with wine, is good for

the removal of white morphew. For the cure, also, of mor-

phew, cantharides are used, with two-thirds of rue-leaves;

a preparation which the patient must keep applied, in the sun,

till the skin itches and rises in blisters; after which it must

be fomented and well rubbed with oil, and the application repeated. This must be done for several days in succession, due

precautions being taken that the ulcerations do not penetrate

too deep.



For the cure, too, of morphew, a liniment is recommended,

made of flies and root of agrimony; the white part also of

poultry dung, kept in a horn box with stale oil; a bat's blood;

or else the gall of a hedge-hog applied with water. Itch-scab

is cured by using the brains of a horned owl, incorporated with

saltpetre; but dog's blood is the best thing to keep it in

check. The small, broad, snail that is found, crushed and ap-

plied topically, is an effectual cure for itching sensations.










42. Chap. 42.-Methods Of Extrictxing Foreign Substances From The Body.


CHAP. 42.-METHODS OF EXTRICTXING FOREIGN SUBSTANCES FROM

THE BODY.



Arrows, pointed weapons, and other foreign substances that

require to be extracted from the body, are removed by the







application of a mouse split asunder, or of a lizard more particularly, similarly divided, or else the head only of the animal,

pounded with salt. The snails, too, that are found in clusters

upon leaves, are pounded and applied with their shells on; as

also those that are used as food, the shells being first removed,

applied with hare's rennet in particular. The bones of a

snake, applied with the rennet of any four-footed animal, will

produce a similar effect before the end of two days: cantha-

rides, also, bruised applied with barley-meal, are highly

extolled.










43. Chap. 43. (14.)-Remedies For Female Complaints.


CHAP. 43. (14.)-REMEDIES FOR FEMALE COMPLAINTS.



For diseases incident to females, a ewe's placenta is very

useful, as already[1] mentioned by us, when speaking of goats:

sheep's dung, too, is equally good. A fumigation of' burnt

locusts, applied to the lower parts, affords relief to strangury,

in females more particularly. It; immediately after conception, a woman eats a cock's testes every now and then, the

child of which she is pregnant will become[2] a male, it is said.

The ashes of a burnt poricupinel taken in drink, are a preventive

of abortion: bitches' milk facilitates delivery: and the after-

birth of a bitch, provided it has not touched the ground, will

act as an expellent of the ftus. Milk, taken as a drink,

strengthens the loins of women when in travail. Mouse-dung,

diluted with rain water, reduces the breasts of females, when

swollen after delivery. The ashes of a burnt hedge-hog,

applied with oil, act as a preventive of abortion. Delivery is

facilitated, in cases where the patient has taken, either goose-

dung in two cyathi of water, or the liquid that escapes from

the uterus of a weasel by its genitals.



Earth-wormrs, applied topically, effectually prevent pains in

the sinews of the neck and shoulders; taken in raisin wine,

they expel the after-birth, when retarded. Applied by themselves, earthworms ripen abscesses of the breasts, open them,

draw the humours, and make them cicatrize: taken in honied

wine, they promote the secretion of the milk. In hay-grass there

are small worms found, which, attached to the neck, act as a

preventive of premature delivery; they are removed, however,

at the moment of childbirth, as otherwise they would have the

effect of impeding delivery; care must be taken, also, not to put







them on the ground. To promote conception, five or seven of

them are administered in drink. Snails, taken with the food,

accelerate delivery; and, applied with saffron, they promote

conception. Used in the form of a liniment, with amylum[3]

and gum tragacanth, they arrest uterine discharges. Taken

with the food, they promote menstruation; and, mixed with

deer's marrow, in the proportion of one denarius and the same

quantity of cyprus[4] to each snail, they reduce the uterus when

displaced. Taken from the shell, and beaten up with oil of

roses, they dispel inflations of the uterus; the snails of Astypala being those that are mostly chosen for these purposes.



Those of Africa, again, are employed in a different manner,

two of them being beaten up with a pinch of fenulgreek in

three fingers, and four spoonfuls of honey, and the preparation

applied to the abdomen, after it has been rubbed with juice of

iris.[5] There is a kind of small, white, elongated snail,[6] that

is found straying here and there: dried upon tiles in the sun,

and reduced to powder, these snails are mixed with bean-meal,

in equal proportions, forming a cosmetic which whitens and

softens the skin. The small, broad, kind of snail, mixed with

polenta, is good for the removal of a tendency to scratch and

rub the skin.



If a pregnant woman steps over a viper, she will be sure to

miscarry;[7] the same, too, in the case of the anphisbna, but

only when it is dead. If, however, a woman carries about her a

live amphlisbna in a box, she may step over one with impunity, even though it be dead. An amphisbna, preserved for

the purpose, will ensure an easy delivery, even though it be

dead.[8] It is a truly marvellous fact, but if a pregnant woman

steps over one of these serpents that has not been preserved, it

will be perfectly harmless, provided she immediately steps

over another that has been preserved. A fumigation made

with a dried snake, acts powerfully as an emmenagogue.







1. In B. xxvi. c. 77.

2. "Fieri."

3. See B. xviii. c. 17.

4. See B. xii. c. 51.

5. See B. xxi. cc. 19, 83.

6. Varro calls them "albul," and says that they were found at Reate.

7. Of course she will be liable to do so, from fright.

8. The whole of this account appears to be in a very confused state; and

is probably corrupt. Sillig's punctuation has not been adopted.




44. Chap. 44.-Methods Of Facilitating Delivery.


CHAP. 44.-METHODS OF FACILITATING DELIVERY.



The cast-off slough of a snake, attached to the loins, facili-







tates delivery: care must be taken, however, to remove it

immediately after. It is administered, too, in wine, mixed

with frankincense: taken in any other form, it is productive

of abortion. A staff, by the aid of which a person has parted[1]

a frog from a snake, will accelerate parturition. Ashes of the

troxallis,[2] applied with honey, act as an emmenagogue; the

same, too, with the spider that descends as it spins its thread

from aloft; it must be taken, however, in the hollow of the

hand, crushed, and applied accordingly: if, on the contrary,

the spider is taken while ascending, it will arrest menstruation.



The stone atites,[3] that is found in the eagle's nest, preserves

the ftus against all insidious attempts at producing abortion.

A vulture's feather, placed beneath the feet of the woman,

accelerates parturition. It is a well-known fact, that pregnant

women must be on their guard against ravens' eggs, for if a

female in that state should happen to step over one, she will

be sure to miscarry by the mouth.[4] A hawk's dung, taken in

honied: wine, would appear to render females fruitful. Goose-

grease, or that of the swan, acts emolliently upon indurations

and abscesses of the uterus.







1. Ajasson has wasted ten lines of indignation upon the question where

such a staff is to be found!

2. See c. 16 of this Book.

3. See B. xxxvi. c. 39.

4. An impossibility. See B. x. c. 15, for the stories about the raven on

which this notion was based.




45. Chap. 45.-Methods Of Preserving The Breasts From Injury.


CHAP. 45.-METHODS OF PRESERVING

THE BREASTS FROM INJURY.



Goose-grease, mixed up with oil of roses and a spider, protects the breasts after delivery. The people of Phrygia and

Lycaonia have made the discovery, that the grease of the otis[1]

is good for affections of the breasts, resulting from recent de-

livery: for females affected with suffocations of the uterus,

they employ a liniment made of beetles. The shells of par-

tridges' eggs, burnt to ashes and mixed with cadmia[2] and

wax, preserve the firmness[3] of the breasts. It is generally

thought, that if the egg of a partridge or * * * * is passed

three times round a woman's breasts, they will never become

flaccid; and that, if these eggs are swallowed, they will be

productive of fruitfulness, and promote the plentiful secretion







of the milk. It is believed, too, that by anointing a woman's

breasts with goose-grease, pains therein may be allayed; that

moles formed in the uterus may be dispersed thereby; and

that itch[4] of the uterus may be dispelled by the application of

a liniment made of crushed bugs.







1. See B. x. cc. 29, 50.

2. See B. xxxiv. cc. 22, 23.

3. See B. xxviii. c. 77.

4. "Scabiem vulvarum."




46. Chap. 46.-Various Kinds Of Depilatories.


CHAP. 46.-VARIOUS KINDS OF DEPILATORIES.



Bats' blood has all the virtues of a depilatory: but if applied

to the cheeks of youths, it will not be found sufficiently efficacious, unless it is immediately followed up by an application

of verdigrease or hemlock-seed; this method having the effect

of entirely removing the hair, or at least reducing it to the

state of a fine down. It is generally thought, too, that bats'

brains are productive of a similar effect; there being two kinds

of these brains, the red and the white. Some persons mix

with the brains the blood and liver of the same animal: others,

again, boil down a viper in three semisextarii of oil, and, after

boning it, use it as a depilatory, first pulling out the hairs

that are wanted not to grow. The gall of a hedgehog is a

depilatory, more particularly if mixed with bats' brains and

goats' milk: the ashes, too, of a burnt hedgehog are used for a

similar purpose. If, after plucking out the hairs that arc

wanted not to grow, or if, before they make their appearance,

the parts are well rubbed with the milk of a bitch with her

first litter, no hairs will grow there. The same result is ensured, it is said, by using the blood of a tick taken from off a

dog, or else the blood or gall of a swallow.



(15.) Ants' eggs, they say, beaten up with flies, impart a

black colour[1] to the eyebrows. If it is considered desirable

that the colour of the infant's eyes should be black, the preg-

nant woman must eat a rat.[2] Ashes of burnt earth-worms,

applied with oil, prevent the hair from turning white.







1. Ajasson queries whether "denigrare" may not mean here "to render

pale."

2. "Sorex."




47. Chap. 47.-Remedies For The Diseases Of Infants.


CHAP. 47.-REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.



For infants that are troubled with coagulation of the milk,

a grand preservative is lamb's rennet, taken in water; and in

cases where the milk has so coagulated, it may be remedied

by administering rennet in vinegar. For the pains incident







to dentition, sheep's brains are a very useful remedy. The

inflammation called "siriasis,"[1] to which infants are liable, is

cured by attaching to them the bones that are found in the

dung of dogs. Hernia in infants is cured by letting a green

lizard bite the child's body while asleep, after which the lizard

is attached to a reed, and hung up in the smoke; by the time

the animal dies, the child will be perfectly cured, it is said.

The slime of snails, applied to the eyes of children, straightens

the eyelashes, and makes them grow. Ashes of burnt snails,

applied with frankincense and juice of white grapes, are a cure

for hernia [in infants], if applied for thirty days consecutively.

Within the horns[2] of snails, there are certain hard substances

found, like grits of sand: attached to infants, they facilitate

dentition.



Ashes of empty snail-shells, mixed with wax, are a preventive of procidence of the rectum; but they must be used

in combination with the matter that exudes from a viper's

brains, on the head being pricked. Vipers' brains, attached to

the infant's body in a piece of skin, facilitate dentition, a similar effect being produced by using the larger teeth of serpents.

Ravens' dung, attached to an infant with wool, is curative of

cough.



It is hardly possible to preserve one's seriousness in describing

some of these remedies, but as they have been transmitted to

us, I must not pass them in silence. For the treatment of

hernia in infants, a lizard is recommended; but it must be a

male lizard, a thing that may be ascertained by its having but

one orifice beneath the tail. The method of proceeding, is for

the lizard to bite the part affected through cloth of gold, cloth

of silver, and cloth dyed purple; after which it is tied fast in a

cup that has never been used, and smoked. Incontinence of

urine in infants is checked by giving them boiled mice[3] with

their food. The large indented horns of the scarabmus, attached

to the bodies of infants, have all the virtues of an amulet. In

the head of the boa;[4] there is a small stone, they say, which

the serpent spits out, when it is in fear of death: if the reptile

is taken by surprise, and the head cut off, and this stone ex-







tracted, it will aid dentition to a marvellous degree, attached

to the neck of infants. The brains, too, of the same serpent

are recommended to be attached to the body for a similar purpose, as also the small stone or bone that is found in the back

of the slug.



An admirable promoter of dentition is found in sheep's

brains, applied to the gums; and equally good for diseases of

the ears, is an application of goose-grease, with juice of ocimum.

Upon prickly plants there is found a kind of rough, hairy,

grub: attached to the neck of infants, these insects give instant

relief, it is said, when any of the food has stuck in the throat.







1. Supposed to be an inflammation of the membranes of the brain.

2. See c. 8 of this Look.

3. A remedy still used, Ajasson says, in the French provinces.

4. See B. vii. c. 14, and B. xxix. c. 38.




48. Chap. 48.-Provocatiyes Of Sleep.


CHAP. 48.-PROVOCATIYES OF SLEEP.



As a soporific, wool-grease is employed, diluted in two

cyathi of wine with a modicum of myrrh, or else mixed with

goose-grease and myrtle wine. For a similar purpose also, a

cuckoo is attached to the body in a hare's skin, or a young

heron's bill to the forehead in an ass's skin: it is thought, too,

that the beak alone, steeped in wine, is equally efficacious. On

the other hand, a bat's head, dried and worn as an amulet, acts

as a preventive of sleep.










49. Chap. 49.-Aphrodisiacs And Antaphrodisiacs.


CHAP. 49.-APHRODISIACS AND ANTAPHRODISIACS.



A lizard drowned in a man's urine has the effect of an antaphrodisiac upon the person whose urine it is; for this animal

is to be reckoned among the philtres, the magicians say. The

same property is attributed to the excrements of snails, and to

pigeons' dung, taken with oil and wine. The right lobe of a

vulture's lungs, attached to the body in the skin of a crane,

acts powerfully as a stimulant upon males: an effect equally

produced by taking the yolks of five pigeons' eggs, in honey,

mixed with one denarius of hog's lard; sparrows, or eggs of

sparrows, with the food; or by wearing the right testicle of a

cock, attached to the body in a ram's skin. The ashes of a

burnt ibis, it is said, employed as a friction with goose-grease

and oil of iris, will prevent abortion when a female has once,

conceived; while the testes of a game-cock, on the other hand,

rubbed with goose-grease and attached to the body in a ram's

skin, have all the effect of an antaphrodisiac: the same, too,

with the testes of any kind of dunghill cock, placed, together

with the blood of a cock, beneath the bed. Hairs taken from







the tail of a she-mule while being covered by the stallion, will

make a woman conceive, against her will even, if knotted

together at the moment of the sexual congress.[1] If a man

makes water upon a dog's urine, he will become disinclined to

copulation, they say.



A singular thing, too, is what is told about the ashes of a

spotted lizard-if indeed it is true-to the effect that, wrapped

in linen and held in the left hand, they act as an aphrodisiac,

while, on the contrary, if they are transferred to the right, they

will take effect as an antaphrodisiac. A bat's blood, too, they

say, received on a flock of wool and placed beneath a woman's

head, will promote sexual desire; the same being the case also

with a goose's tongue, taken with the food or drink.







1. "Inter se conligat in coitu."




50. Chap. 50.-Remedies For Phthiriasis, And For Various Other Affections.


CHAP. 50.-REMEDIES FOR PHTHIRIASIS, AND FOR VARIOUS OTHER

AFFECTIONS.



In phthiriasis, all the vermin upon the body may be killed in

the course of three days, by taking the cast-off slough of a serpent, in drink, or else whey of milk after the cheese is removed,

with a little salt, Cheese, it is said, will never become rotten

with age or be touched by mice, if a weasel's brains have been

mixed with the rennet. It is asserted, too, that if the ashes, of

a burnt weasel are mixed with the cramming for chickens or

young pigeons, they will be safe from the attacks of weasels.

Beasts of burden, when troubled with pains in staling, find

immediate relief, if a bat is attached to the body; and they are

effectually cured of bots by passing a ring-dove three times

round their generative parts-a truly marvellous thing to relate,

the ring-dove, on being set at liberty, dies, and the beast is in-

stantly relieved from pain.










51. Chap. 51.-Remedies For Intoxication.


CHAP. 51.-REMEDIES FOR INTOXICATION.



The eggs of an owlet, administered to drunkards three days

in wine, are productive of a distaste for that liquor. A sheep's

lights roasted, eaten before drinking,[1] act as a preventive of

inebriety. The ashes of a swallow's beak, bruised with myrrh

and sprinkled in the wine, act as a preservative against intoxica-

tion: Horus,[2] king of Assyria, was the first to discover this.[3]











1. See B. xxviii. c. 80.

2. See end of B. xxix.

3. He has hardly immortalized his name by it.




52. Chap. 52.-Peculiarities Relative To Certain Animals.


CHAP. 52.-PECULIARITIES RELATIVE TO CERTAIN ANIMALS.



In addition to these, there are some other peculiar properties

attributed to certain animals, which require to be mentioned in

the present Book. Some authors state that there is a bird in

Sardinia, resembling the crane and called the "gromphena;"[1]

but it is no longer known even by the people of that country,

in my opinion. In the same province, too, there is the ophion,

an animal which resembles the deer in the hair only, and to be

found[2] nowhere else. The same authors have spoken also of

the "subjugus,"[3] but have omitted to state what animal it is,

or where it is to be found. That it did formerly exist, however,

I have no doubt, as certain remedies are described as being

derived from it. M. Cicero speaks of animals called "biuri,"[4]

which gnaw the vines in Campania.







1. Possibly a kind of crane.

2. See B. viii. c. 75, and B. xxviii. c. 42.

3. It has not been identified.

4. Hardouin thinks that the worm called i)/c by the Greeks is meant.

Ovid speaks in his Fasti, B. i. 11. 354-360, of the goat, as being very fond

of gnawing the vine.




53. Chap. 53. (16.)-Other Marvellous Facts Connected With Animals.


CHAP. 53. (16.)-OTHER MARVELLOUS FACTS CONNECTED WITH

ANIMALS.



There are still some other marvellous facts related, with

reference to the animals which we have mentioned. A dog

will not bark at a person who has any part of the secundines

of a bitch about him, or a hare's dung or fur. The kind of

gnats called "muliones,"[1] do not live more than a single day.

Persons when taking honey from the hives, will never be

touched by the bees if they carry the beak of a wood-pecker[2]

about them. Swine will be sure to follow the person who has

given them a raven's brains, made up into a bolus. The dust

in which a she-mule has wallowed, sprinkled upon the body,

will allay the flames of desire. Rats may be put to flight by

castrating a male rat, and setting it at liberty. If a snake's

slough is beaten up with some spelt, salt, and wild thyme, and

introduced into the throat of oxen, with wine, at the time

that grapes are ripening, they will be in perfect health for a

whole year to come: the same, too, if three young swallows are

given to them, made up into three boluses. The dust gathered

from the track of a snake, sprinkled among bees, will make







them return to the hive. If the right testicle of a ram[3] is

tied up, he will generate females only. Persons who have

about them the sinews taken from the wings or legs of a crane,

will never be fatigued with any kind of laborious exertion.

Mules will never kick when they have drunk wine.



Of all known substances, it is a mule's[4] hoofs only that are

not corroded by the poisonous waters of the fountain Styx: a

memorable discovery made by Aristotle,[5] to his great infamy,

on the occasion when Antipater sent some of this water to

Alexander the Great, for the purpose of poisoning him.



We will now pass on to the aquatic productions.



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, eight

hundred and fifty-four.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[6] Nigidius,[7] M. Cicero,[8]

Sextius Niger[9] who wrote in Greek, Licinius Macer.[10]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Eudoxus,[11] Aristotle,[12] Hermippus,[13] Homer, Apion,[14] Orpheus,[15] Democritus,[16] Anaxilaiis.[17]



MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.-Botrys,[18] Horus,[19] Apollodorus,[20]

Menander,[21] Archidemus,[22] Aristogenes,[23] Xenocrates,[24] Diodorus,[25]

Chrysippus,[26] Nicander,[27] Apollonius[28] of Pitan.









1. See B. xi. c. 19.

2. See B. x. c. 20.

3. See B. viii. c. 72.

4. Some authorities say the ass, and others the Onager, or wild ass.

5. This story is generally regarded as an absurdity, and is rejected by

Arrian and Plutarch.

6. See end of B. ii.

7. See end of B. vi.

8. See end of B. vii.

9. See end of B. xii.

10. See end of B. xix.

11. See end of B. ii.

12. See end of B. ii.

13. An eminent philosopher, a native of Smyrna, and disciple of Callimachus. He flourished about the middle of the third century B.C., and

left numerous works, the principal of which was a Biography of the Philosophers, Poets, and Historians, which seems to have been highly esteemed.

It is thought, too, that he wrote a work on Magic and Astrology; but there

are some doubts about the writer's identity.

14. A native of Oasis in Egypt, who taught rhetoric at Rome in the reigns

of Tiberius and Claudius. Some curious particulars are given respecting

him in c. 6 of the present Book. His ostentation, vanity, and insolent

pretensions fully merited the title "Cymbalum mundi," which Tiberius

bestowed on him. He was a man, however, of considerable learning and

great eloquence, and was distinguished for his hatred to the Jews. Of his

numerous works only some fragments remain.

15. See end of B. xx.

16. See end of B. ii.

17. See end of B. xxi.

18. See end of B. xiii.

19. See end of B. xxix.

20. See end of . xi.

21. See end of B. xix.

22. See end of B. xii.

23. See end of B. xxix.

24. See end of B. xx.

25. See end of B. xxix.

26. See end of B. xx.

27. See end of B. viii.

28. See end of B. xxix.




0. > Book Xxxi. Remedies Derived From The Aquatic Production


BOOK XXXI.

REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AQUATIC PRODUCTION










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Remarkable Facts Connected With Water.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED WITH WATER.



WE have now to speak of the benefits derived, in a medicinal

point of view, from the aquatic productions; for not here even

has all-bounteous Nature reposed from her work. Amid waves

and billows, and tides of rivers for ever on the ebb and flow,

she still unceasingly exerts her powers; and nowhere, if we

must confess the truth, does she display herself in greater

might, for it is this among the elements that holds sway over

all the rest. It is water that swallows up dry land, that

extinguishes flame, that ascends aloft, and challenges possession of the very heavens: it is water that, spreading clouds as

it does, far and wide, intercepts the vital air we breathe; and,

through their collision, gives rise to thunders and lightnings,[1]

as the elements of the universe meet in conflict.



What can there be more marvellous than waters suspended

aloft in the heavens? And yet, as though it were not enough to

reach so high an elevation as this, they sweep along with them

whole shoals of fishes, and often stones as well, thus lading

themselves with ponderous masses which belong to other

elements, and bearing them on high. Falling upon the earth,

these waters become the prime cause of all that is there produced; a truly wondrous provision of Nature, if we only consider, that in order to give birth to grain and life to trees and

to shrubs, water must first leave the earth for the heavens, and

thence bring down to vegetation the breath of life! The

admission must be surely extorted from us, that for all our

resources the earth is indebted to the bounteousness of water.







It will be only proper, therefore, in the first place to set forth

some instances of the powerful properties displayed by this

element; for as to the whole of them, what living mortal could

describe them?







1. See B. ii. c. 43. Ajasson remarks, that the electric fluid, forming

lightning, escapes from the clouds through causes totally independent of

water. Still, Pliny would appear to be right in one sense; for if there

were no water, there would be no clouds; and without clouds the electric

fluid would probably take some other form than that of lightning.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-The Different Properties Of Waters.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-THE DIFFERENT PROPERTIES OF WATERS.



On all sides, and in a thousand countries, there are waters

bounteously springing forth from the earth, some of them cold,

some hot, and some possessed of these properties united: those

in the territory of the Tarbelli,[1] for instance, a people of Aquitania, and those among the Pyrencan[2] Mountains, where hot

and cold springs are separated by only the very smallest distance. Then, again, there are others that are tepid only, or

lukewarm, announcing thereby the resources they afford for

the treatment of diseases, and bursting forth, for the benefit of

man alone, out of so many animated beings.[3]



Under various names, too, they augment the number of the

divinities,[4] and give birth to cities; Puteoli,[5] for example, in

Campania, Statyell[6] in Liguria, and Sexti[7] in the province

of Gallia Narbonensis. But nowhere do they abound in greater

number, or offer a greater variety of medicinal properties than

in the Gulf of Bai;[8] some being impregnated with sulphur,

some with alum, some with salt, some with nitre,[9] and some

with bitumen, while others are of a mixed quality, partly acid

and partly salt. In other cases, again, it is by their vapours

that waters are so beneficial to man, being so intensely hot as

to heat our baths even, and to make cold water boil in our

sitting-baths; such, for instance, as the springs at Bai, now

known as "Posidian," after the name of a freedman[10] of the

Emperor Claudius; waters which are so hot as to cook articles







of food even. There are others, too,-those, for example,

formerly the property of Licinius Crassus-which send forth

their vapours in the sea[11] even, thus providing resources for the

health of man in the very midst of the waves!







1. He alludes to the mineral waters of Acqs or Dax on the Adour, in the

French department of the Arige. They are still highly esteemed.

2. The principal of which are those of Aigues-Chaudes, Aigues-Bonnes,

Bagnres-Adores, Cambo, Bagnres, Barges, Saint-Sauveur, and Cauteret,

3. Ajasson remarks that animals in all cases refuse to drink mineral waters.

4. He alludes to Neptune, Amphitrite, the Oceanides, Nereides, Tritons,

Crenides, Limnades, Potamides, and numerous other minor divinities.

5. See B. iii. c. 9.

6. See B. iii. c. 7.

7. See B. iii. c. 5.

8. The mineral waters of Bai are still held in high esteem.

9. As to the identity of the "nitrum" of Pliny, see c. 46 of this Book.

10. Posides, a eunuch who belonged to the Emperor Claudius, according

to Suetonius, c. 28.

11. There are still submarine volcanoes in the vicinity of Sicily, but the

spot here referred to is now unknown.




3. Chap. 3.-Remedies Derived From Water.


CHAP. 3.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM WATER.



According to their respective kinds, these waters are beneficial for diseases of the sinews, feet, or hips, for sprains or for

fractures; they act, also, as purgatives upon the bowels, heal

wounds,[1] and are singularly useful for affections of the head

and ears: indeed, the waters of Cicero are good for the eyes.[2]

The country-seat where these last are found is worthy of some

further mention: travelling from Lake Avernus towards

Puteoli, it is to be seen on the sea-shore, renowned for its fine

portico and its grove. Cicero gave it the name of Academia,[3]

after the place so called at Athens: it was here that he composed those treatises[4] of his that were called after it; it was

here, too, that he raised those monuments[5] to himself; as

though, indeed, he had not already done so throughout the

length and breadth of the known world.



Shortly after the death of Cicero, and when it had come

into the possession of Antistius Vetus,[6] certain hot springs

burst forth at the very portals[7] of this house, which were

found to be remarkably beneficial for diseases of the eyes, and

have been celebrated in verse by Laurea Tullius,[8] one of the

freedmen of Cicero; a fact which proves to demonstration that

his servants even had received inspiration from that majestic

and all-powerful genius of his. I will give the lines, as they

deserve to be read, not there only, but everywhere:







Great prince of Roman eloquence, thy grove,

Where erst thou bad'st it rise, is verdant now;

Thy villa, from fair Academia[9] nam'd,

From Vetus now its finish'd graces takes.

Here, too, fair streams burst forth, unknown before,

Which with their spray the languid eves relieve.

The land, I ween, these bounteous springs reveal'd,

To honour Cicero, its ancient lord.

Throughout the world his works by eyes are scann'd;

May eyes unnunber'd by these streams be heal'd.







1. The Eaux Bonnes in the Basses Pyrnes are good for wounds. After

the battle of Pavia they received from the soldiers of Jean d'Albret, king

of Navarre, the name of Eaux d'arquebusade.

2. Only, Ajasson remarks, where the ophthalmia is caused by inflammation of the conjunctive.

3. He also called it his Puteolan villa.

4. The "Qustiones Academic."

5. "Monumenta." Ajasson queries what monuments they were, thus

raised by the "parvenu of Arpinum." He suggests that the erection may

have been a chapel, temple-library, or possibly funeral monument.

6. C. Antistius Vetus probably, a supporter of Julius Csar, Consul

Suffectus, B. C. 30.

7. "In parte prim."

8. There are three Epigrams, probably by this author, in the Greek Anthology.

9. We are sensible that, in thus shortening the penultimate, we shall

incur the censure of solecizing, which Hardouin has cast upon the poet

Claudian for doing the same.




4. Chap. 4.-Waters Productive Of Fecundity. Waters Curative Of Insanity.


CHAP. 4.-WATERS PRODUCTIVE OF FECUNDITY. WATERS CURATIVE

OF INSANITY.



In Campania, too, are the waters of Sinuessa,[1] remedial, it

is said, for sterility in females, and curative of insanity in men.







1. At the Torre de' Bagni, Hardouin says, near the church of Santa

Maria a Caudara.




5. Chap. 5.-Waters Remedial For Urinary Calculi.


CHAP. 5.-WATERS REMEDIAL FOR URINARY CALCULI.



The waters of the island of naria are curative of urinary

calculi,[1] it is said; and the same is the case with the cold

spring of Acidula,[2] four miles distant from Teanum[3] Sidici-

num, the waters at Stabi, known as the Dimidi,[4] and those

in the territory of Venafrum,[5] which take their rise in the

spring of Acidula. Patients suffering from these complaints

may be cured also by drinking the waters of Lake Velia;[6] the

same effects being produced by those of a spring in Syria, near

Mount Taurus, M. Varro says, and by those of the river Gallus

in Phrygia, as we learn from Callimachus. In taking the waters,

however, of this last, the greatest moderation is necessary, as

they are apt to cause delirium; an effect equally produced,

Ctesias tells us, by the waters of the Red Fountain[7] in

thiopia.











1. Saline and gaseous waters are good for this purpose. See B. iii. c. 12.

2. It has still the same reputation, Hardouin says, and is situate near

the castle of Francolici.

3. See B. iii. c. 9.

4. Or "half-strength" waters, apparently. See B. iii. c. 9.

5. See B. iii. c. 9.

6. See B. ii. cc. 62, 106, and B. iii. c. 17.

7. Alluded to, probably, by Ovid, Met. xv. 319, et seq.




6. Chap. 6.-Waters Curative Of Wounds.


CHAP. 6.-WATERS CURATIVE OF WOUNDS.



The tepid waters of Albula,[1] near Rome, have a healing

effect upon wounds. Those of Cutilia,[2] again, in the Sabine

territory, are intensely cold, and by a kind of suction penetrate

the body to such a degree as to have the effect of a mordent

almost. They are remarkably beneficial for affections of the

stomach, sinews, and all parts of the body, in fact.







1. The present Bagni di Tivoli. They have other sanitary properties

as well, a fact known to Strabo. Martial and Vitruvius also mention them,

2. See B. iii. c, 17. Called Cotiscoli by Strabo. They were of a salt

and aluminous nature.




7. Chap. 7.-Waters Preventive Of Abortion.


CHAP. 7.-WATERS PREVENTIVE OF ABORTION.



The waters of Thespi[1] ensure conception to females; the

same, too, with those of the river Elatus[2] in Arcadia. The

spring Linus,[3] also in Arcadia, acts as a preservative of the

ftus, and effectually prevents abortion. The waters of the

river Aphrodisius, on the other hand, in the territory of

Pyrrhsa,[4] are productive of sterility.







1. See 13. iv. c. 2.

2. Pausanias calls it the "Elaphus."

3. Isidorus, in his "Origines," calls it the "Lechnus."

4. In Thessaly, probably, according to Stephanus Byzantinus.




8. Chap. 8.-Waters Which Remove Morphew.


CHAP. 8.-WATERS WHICH REMOVE MORPHEW.



The waters of Lake Alphius remove white morphew,[1] Varro

tells us; who also mentions the fact that one Titius,[2] a personage who had held the prtorship, had a face to all appearance

like that of a marble statue, in consequence of this disease.

The waters of the river Cydnus,[3] in Cilicia, are curative of

gout, as would appear from a letter addressed by Cassius[4] of

Parma to Marcus Antonius. At Trzen, on the contrary, all

the inhabitants are subject to diseases of the feet, owing to the

bad quality of the water there. The state of the Tungri,[5] in







Gaul, has a spring of great renown, which sparkles as it

bursts forth with bubbles innumerable, and has a certain

ferruginous taste, only to be perceived after it has been

drunk. This water is strongly purgative, is curative of tertian

fevers, and disperses urinary calculi: upon the application of

fire it assumes a turbid appearance, and finally turns red. The

springs[6] of Leucoga, between Puteoli and Neapolis, are

curative of eye diseases and of wounds. Cicero, in his work

entitled "Admiranda,"[7] has remarked that it is only by the

waters of the marshes of Reate[8] that the hoofs of beasts of

burden are hardened.







1. )/Alfos; from which the lake probably derived its name. It has

been suggested that the source of the river Anigrus in Elis is meant. Its

waters had an offensive smell, and its fish were not eatable; and near it

were caverns sacred to the Nymphs Anigrides, where persons with cutaneous

diseases were cured. The water of these caverns is impregnated with

sulphur.

2. Possibly the M. Titius who was proscribed by the Triumvirs, B.C. 43,

and escaped to Sex. Pompeius in Sicily.

3. See B. v. c. 22.

4. "Cassius Parmensis." See the end of this Book.

5. According to some authorities, he alludes to the still famous water of

Spa; but it is more probable that he alludes to the spring still in existence

at the adjacent town of Tongres, which was evidently well known to the

Romans, and is still called the "Fountain of Pliny."

6. The springs on the present Monte Posilippo.

7. This work is lost. Chifflet suggests that "Varro" should be read.

See, however, B. vii. c. 2, L. xxix. c. 16 and c. 28 of this Book. It was

a common-place book, probably, of curious facts.

8. See B. ii. c. 106, where a growing rock in the marsh of Reate is

mentioned.




9. Chap. 9.-Waters Witch Colour The Hair.


CHAP. 9.-WATERS WITCH COLOUR THE HAIR.



Eudicus informs us that in Hestiotis[1] there are two

springs; one of which, Cerona, renders sheep black that drink

of it, while the other, called Neleus, turns them white: if,

again, a sheep should happen to drink their waters mixed, its

fleece will be mottled. According to Theophrastus, the water

of the Crathis,[2] a river of Thurii, makes sheep and cattle

white, while that of the river Sybaris turns them black.







1. In Thessaly. A mere fable, no doubt.

2. Ovid, Met. xv. 315, et seq., tells very nearly the same fabulous story

about the rivers Crathis and Sybaris.




10. Chap. 10.-Waters Which Colour The Human Body.


CHAP. 10.-WATERS WHICH COLOUR THE HUMAN BODY.



And not only this, but human beings even, Theophrastus

tells us, are sensible of this difference: for persons who drink

the water of the Sybaris, he says, become more swarthy and

more hardy, the hair inclining to curl: while those, again,

who drink of the Crathis become fair and more soft-skinned,

with the hair growing straight and long. So, too, in Macedonia, persons who wish the produce to be white, drive their

cattle to the river Haliacmon, while those who desire a black

or tawny colour, take them to water at the Axius. Upon the







same authority, too, we learn that in certain localities, as in

the country of the Messapii, for instance, all the productions,

the cereals even, grow of a tawny colour; and that at Lusi,[1]

in Arcadia, there is a certain fountain in which land-mice

live and dwell. The river Aleos, which passes through Erythr, promotes the growth of hair upon the body.







1. This marvellous story appears to have been derived from the works of

Aristotle.




11. Chap. 11.-Waters Which Aid The Memory, Or Are Productive Of Forgetfulness.


CHAP. 11.-WATERS WHICH AID THE MEMORY, OR ARE PRODUCTIVE

OF FORGETFULNESS.



At the Temple[1] of the god Trophonius, in Botia, near the

river Hercynnus, there are two fountains,[2] one of which aids

the memory, while the other is productive of forgetfulness:

hence the names which they respectively bear.







1. Near the town of Lebadea, now Livadhia.

2. One called "Mnemosyne," or Memory, and the other "Lethe," or

Forgetfulness.




12. Chap. 12.-Waters Which Sharpen Or Dull The Senses. Waters Which Improve The Voice.


CHAP. 12.-WATERS WHICH SHARPEN OR DULL THE SENSES.

WATERS WHICH IMPROVE THE VOICE.



Near the town of Cescum, in Cilicia, runs the river Nus,[1]

the waters of which, according to Varro, sharpen the intellect;

while those of a certain spring in the island of Cea dull the

senses. At Zama, in Africa, there is a spring, the waters of

which render the voice more musical.[2]







1. From the Greek nou=s, "spirit," "mind," or "intelligence." Ajasson thinks it possible that its water may have assuaged vertigo, or accelerated the circulation of the blood, and that thence its reputation.

2. A fable invented by the priests, Ajasson thinks.




13. Chap. 13.-Waters Which Cause A Distaste For Wine. Waters Which Produce Inebriety.


CHAP. 13.-WATERS WHICH CAUSE A DISTASTE FOR WINE. WATERS

WHICH PRODUCE INEBRIETY.



Eudoxus says that persons who drink the water[1] of Lake

Clitorius take a distaste for wine, and Theopompus asserts that

the waters of the springs already[2] named are productive of

inebriety. According to Mucianus,[3] there is a fountain at







Andros, consecrated to Father Liber, from which wine flows

during the seven days appointed for the yearly festival of that

god, the taste of which becomes like that of water the moment it is taken out of sight of the temple.







1. See Ovid, Met. xv. 322. It sems to be uncertain whether it was at

this lake or the adjoining spring of Lusi above-mentioned, that the

daughters of Prtus were purified by Melampus. See the "Eliaca" of

Pausanias.

2. In B. ii. c. 106.

3. See B. ii. c. 106. As Ajasson remarks, Mucianus should have had

the sense to see that it was only a juggle of the priests of Bacchus. He

compares it to the miracle of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples. The

contrivance of the priests of Bel was not very dissimilar; but in their

case, they themselves were the real recipients of what the god was supposed

to devour.




14. Chap. 14.-Waters Which Serve As A Substitute For Oil.


CHAP. 14.-WATERS WHICH SERVE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR OIL.



Polyclitus says, that the water[1] of the river Liparis,[2] near

Soli, in Cilicia, is used as a substitute for oil, and Theophrastus

mentions a spring of that name in thiopia, which is possessed

of similar properties. Lycus says, that at Tasitia[3] there is a

fountain of it, the water of which emits light: the same is

asserted, too, of a spring at Eebatana. According to Theopompus, there is a lake at Scotussa,[4] the waters of which

heal wounds.







1. He no doubt alludes to "petroleum," rock-oil, or Barbadoes tar.

2. So called from the Greek liparo\s, "unctuous."

3. A new reading given by Sillig in place of "India," the former one.

Tasitia is the name of a district mentioned by Ptolemy, iv. 7, 15, as being

in thiopia. He alludes to a burning spring, probably, of naphtha or of

petroleum. The burning springs of Bakou in the East are well known.

Genoa is lighted with naphtha from the village of Amiano, in Parma.

4. In Macedonia.




15. Chap. 15.-Salt And Bitter Waters.


CHAP. 15.-SALT AND BITTER WATERS.



Juba says, that in the country of the Troglodyt there is a

lake, called the "Lake of Insanity,"[1] from its highly noxious

properties: thrice a day it becomes salt and bitter, and then

again fresh, the same taking place as many times during the

night. It is full, he says, of white serpents, twenty cubits

long.[2] He mentions, also, a certain spring in Arabia, which

rises from the ground with such remarkable force, as to throw

back any object pressed down upon it, however weighty.







1. "Lacum insanum."

2. Juba has been deceived, Ajasson remarks, by the tales of travellers,

there being no serpents of this length in Africa, except boas. He thinks

that large congers, and other similar fishes, may be the animals really

alluded to.




16. Chap. 16.-Waters Which Throw Up Stones. Waters Which Cause Laughter And Weeping. Waters Which Are Said To Bf Curative Of Love.


CHAP. 16.-WATERS WHICH THROW UP STONES. WATERS WHICH

CAUSE LAUGHTER AND WEEPING. WATERS WHICH ARE SAID

TO BF CURATIVE OF LOVE.



Theophrastus makes mention of the fountain of Marsyas,







near the city of Cellen, in Phrygia, which throws up masses

of stone. Not far from it are two other springs, called Clon[1]

and Gelon by the Greeks, from the effects which they respectively produce. At Cyzicus is a fountain known as that

of Cupido, the waters of which, Mucianus believes,[2] cure those

who drink thereof of love.







1. From klai/ein, "to weep," and gela=|n, "to laugh."

2. His credulity, we have seen already, was pretty extensive.




17. Chap. 17.-Waters Which Preserve Their Warmth For Three Days.


CHAP. 17.-WATERS WHICH PRESERVE THEIR WARMTH FOR THREE

DAYS.



At Crannon[1] there are certain hot springs, though not at

boiling heat, the water of which, mixed with wine, preserves

it warm in the vessels for a period of three days. The same is

the case, too, with the springs of Mattiacum[2] in Germany,

beyond the river Rhenus, the water of which retains its boiling heat three days. The margin of these springs is covered

with pumice, formed by the action of the water.







1. In Thessaly.

2. At the town called "Aquas Mattiac," the modern Wiasbaden.




18. Chap. 18.-Other Marvellous Facts Connected With Water. Waters In Which Everything Will Sink. Waters In Which Nothing Will Sink.


CHAP. 18.-OTHER MARVELLOUS FACTS CONNECTED WITH WATER.

WATERS IN WHICH EVERYTHING WILL SINK. WATERS IN WHICH

NOTHING WILL SINK.



If any of the above-mentioned facts have the appearance

of being incredible to a person, I would have him know that

there is no department of Nature which presents greater marvels than this, independently of the numerous peculiarities

which have been already mentioned[1] in an earlier part of this

work. Ctesias informs us that, in India, there is a lake of

standing water, upon which nothing[2] will float, every object

instantly sinking to the bottom. Clius says that in the

waters of Lake Avernus,[3] in our own part of the world, the

very leaves of the trees even will sink; and, according to

Varro, these waters are fatal to such birds as fly towards them.



On the other hand, again, in the waters of Lake Apuscidamus,[4] in Africa, nothing will sink; the same, too, Apion tells







us, with the fountain of Plinthia in Sicily, as also a certain

lake in Media, and the well of Saturn. The spring of Limyra[5] not unfrequently makes its way through the neighbouring localities, and when it does so, is always portentous of

some coming event. It is a singular thing too, that the fish

always accompany its waters on these occasions; the inhabitants of the adjoining districts being in the habit of consulting them by offering them food. When the fishes seize it with

avidity, the answer is supposed to be favourable; but if, on the

other hand, they reject the food, by flapping it with their tails,

the response is considered to be unfavourable. The river

Holcas, in Bithynia, runs close to Bryazus,[6] the name of a

temple and of a divinity there worshipped; persons guilty of

perjury, it is said, cannot endure contact with its waters,

which burn like flame.[7]



The sources, too, of the Tamaricus,[8] a river of Cantabria,

are considered to possess certain powers of presaging future

events: they are three in number, and, separated solely by an

interval of eight feet, unite in one channel, and so form a mighty

stream. These springs are often dry a dozen times in the day,

sometimes as many as twenty, without there being the slightest trace of water there: while, on the other hand, a spring

close at hand is flowing abundantly and without intermission.

It is considered an evil presage when persons who wish to see

these springs find them dry: a circumstance which happened

very recently, for example, to Lartius Licinius,[9] who held the

office of legatus after his prtorship; for at the end of seven

days after his visit he died.



In Juda there is a river[10] that is dry every Sabbath day.







1. In B. ii. c. 106.

2. Sotion, professing to quote from Ctesias, says that it rejected everything

placed on its waters, and hurled it back upon dry land.

3. Whence, as it was said, its name, a)/ornos, "Without birds." Strabo

ridicules this story.

4. M. Douville says that in the interior of Africa there is a lake called

Kalouga Kouffona, or the Dead Lake, the surface of which is covered with

bitumen and naphtha, which contains no fish, has oleaginous waters, and

presents all the phnomena of the Dead Sea.

5. In Lycia.

6. Hardouin is of opinion that a river also was so called. See B. v.

c. 43. Of the divinity of this name, nothing further is known.

7. A story evidently connected with a kind of ordeal.

8. See B. iv. c. 34. Intermittent springs are not uncommon. See B.

ii. c. 106.

9. See B. xix. c. 11.

10. According to Elias of Thisbe this river was the Goza; but Holstenius

says that it was the Eleutherus. or one of its tributaries. Josephus says

that it flowed on the Sabbath day, and was dry the other six.




19. Chap. 19.-Deadly Waters. Poisonous Fishes.


CHAP. 19.-DEADLY WATERS. POISONOUS FISHES.



There are other marvels again, connected with water, but of







a more fatal nature. Ctesias states in his writings, that there

is a spring in Armenia, the fishes in which are black,[1] and, if

used as food, productive of instantaneous death. I have heard

the same, too, with reference to the waters near the sources

of the river Danuvius,[2] until a spring is reached which is

near its main channel, and beyond which this poisonous kind

of fish is not to be found. Hence it is that this spot is generally looked upon as the source of the river. The same, too, is

reported of the Lake of the Nymphs, in Lydia. Near the river

Pheneus, in Achaia, there flows from the rocks a spring known

as the Styx, the waters of which, as already[3] stated, are instantly fatal. And not only this, but there are also small fish

in it, Theophrastus says, which are as deadly as the water,

a thing that is not the case with the fish of any other poisonous springs. Theopompus says, that at the town of Cychri,

in Thrace, the waters are deadly; and Lycus states, that at

Leontium[4] there is a spring, the waters of which are fatal at

the end of a couple of days to those who drink thereof. Varro

speaks also of a spring upon Mount Soracte, some four feet in

breadth, the waters of which bubble forth at sunrise, as though

they were boiling; birds, he says, which only taste thereof,

fall dead close by.



And then, besides, we meet with this insidious circumstance,

that in some cases, waters of this nature are inviting even in

their appearance; those at Nonacris, in Arcadia, for example,

the water of which fountain possesses no apparent quality to

excite mistrust, though, owing to its intense coldness, it is

generally looked upon as highly injurious, seeing that it petrifies as it flows. It is otherwise with the waters of Tempe,

in Thessaly, their baneful properties inspiring universal terror,

and possessing the property of corroding copper even and

iron, it is said. This stream runs a short distance only, as

already stated;[5] and it is truly marvellous that, according

to general report, the banks of its source[6] are surrounded with

the roots of a wild carob,[7] always covered with purple flowers,







while the margin is clothed with a green herbaceous plant of

a peculiar species. In Macedonia, not far from the tomb of

the Poet Euripides, is the confluence of two streams, the water

of one of which is extremely wholesome, that of the other

fatal.







1. Ajasson thinks that he means, grey. He remarks also, that it is a

matter of doubt whether there are any fishes that are poisonous.

2. The Danube.

3. In B. ii. c. 106, see also B. xxx. c. 53.

4. See B. iii. c. 14, and B. xviii. c. 21.

5. In B. iv. c. 15.

6. He alludes, according to Dalechamps, to the Eurotas, a tributary, and

not the source, of the Peneus. See B. iv. c. 8.

7. "Siliqu."




20. Chap. 20.-Waters Which Petrify, Themselves, Or Cause Other Objects To Petrify.


CHAP. 20.-WATERS WHICH PETRIFY, THEMSELVES, OR CAUSE OTHER

OBJECTS TO PETRIFY.



At Perperena,[1] there is a spring which petrifies[2] the ground

wherever it flows, the same being the case also, with the hot

waters at depsus, in Euba; for there, wherever the stream

falls, the rocks are continually increasing in height. At Eury-

mente,[3] chaplets, when thrown into the waters of a certain fountain there, are turned to stone. At Coloss there is a river, into

the water of which if bricks[4] are thrown, when taken out they

are found changed into stone. In the mines of Scyros, the trees

petrify that are watered by the river, branches and all. In

the caverns of Mount Corycus, the drops of water that trickle

down the rocks become hard in the form of a stone.[5] At

Mieza, too, in Macedonia, the water petrifies as it hangs from

the vaulted roofs of the rocks; but at Corycus it is only when

it has fallen that it becomes hard.



In other caverns, again, the water petrifies both ways,[6] and

so forms columns; as we find the case in a vast grotto at Phlan-

sia, a town of the Chersonesus[7] of the Rhodians, the columns

of which are tinted with various colours. These instances will

suffice for the present.







1. A town of Mysia, south of Adramyttium.

2. As Ajasson remarks, numerous instances are known of this at the

present day. Pliny, however, does not distinguish the incrusting springs

from the petrifying springs.

3. In Thessaly, according to Hecatus.

4. "Lateres." He means unburnt bricks, probably.

5. He alludes to stalactites and stalagmites.

6. Both on the roof and on the floor.

7. In Caria, opposite Rhodes.




21. Chap. 21. (3.)-The Wholesomieness Of Waters.


CHAP. 21. (3.)-THE WHOLESOMIENESS OF WATERS.



It is a subject of enquiry among medical men, which kind

of water is the most beneficial. They condemn, and with

justice, all stagnant, sluggish, waters, and are of opinion that

running water is the best, being rendered lighter and more







salubrious by its current and its continuous agitation. Hence it

is that I am much surprised that persons should be found to

set so high a value as they do, upon cistern water. These last

give as their reason, however, that rain-water must be the

lightest water of all, seeing that it has been able to rise[1] aloft

and remain suspended in the air. Hence it is, too, that they

prefer snow-water to rain-water, and ice, again, to snow, as

being water subtilized to the highest possible degree; on the

ground that snow-water and ice-water must be lighter thin

ordinary water, and ice, of necessity, considerably lighter. It

is for the general interest, however, of mankind, that these

notions should be refuted. For, in the first place, this comparative lightness which they speak of, could hardly be ascertained in any other way than by the sensation, there being

pretty nearly no difference at all in weight between the kinds of

water. Nor yet, in the case of rain-water, is it any proof of

its lightness that it has made its way upwards into the air,

seeing that stones,[2] it is quite evident, do the same: and then.

besides, this water, while falling, must of necessity become

tainted with the vapours which rise from the earth; a circumstance owing to which it is, that such numerous impurities[3]

are to be detected in rain-water, and that it ferments[4] with

such extreme rapidity.



I am, surprised, too, that snow[5] and ice should be regarded

as the most subtilized states of this element, in juxtaposition

with the proofs supplied us by hail, the water of which, it is

generally agreed, is the most pernicious of all to drink. And

then, besides, there are not a few among the medical men

themselves, who assert that the use of ice-water and snow-water is highly injurious, from the circumstance that all the

more refined parts thereof have been expelled by congelation.

At all events, it is a well-ascertained fact that the volume of

every liquid is diminished by congelation; as also that exces-







sive dews[6] a reproductive of blight in corn, and that hoar-

trosts result in blast; of a kindred nature, both of them, to

snow. It is generally agreed, too, that rain-water putrefies

with the greatest rapidity, and that it keeps but very badly on

a voyage. Epigenes, however, assures us that water which

has putrefied seven times and as often purified[7] itself, will no

longer be liable to putrefaction. As to cistern-water, medical

men assure us that, owing to its harshness, it is bad for the

bowels and throat:[8] and it is generally admitted by them that

,there is no kind of water that contains more slime or more

numerous insects of a disgusting nature. But it does not,

therefore, follow that river water is the best of all, or that, in

fact, of any running stream, the water of many lakes being

found to be wholesome in the very highest degree.



What water, then, out of all these various kinds, are we to

look upon as best adapted for the human constitution? Different kinds in different localities, is my answer. The kings

of Parthia drink no water but that of the Choaspes[9] or of the

Eulus, and, however long their journies, they always have

this water carried in their suite. And yet it is very evident

that it is not merely because this water is river-water that it

is thus pleasing to them, seeing that they decline to drink the

water of the Tigris, Euphrates, and so many other streams.







1. Rain-water really is the lightest, but the reason here given is frivolous,

for it does not ascend as water, but as vapour.

2. See B. ii. c. 38. Before venturing on this argument, he should have-

been certain as to the circumstances under which arolites are generated; a

question which still remains hidden in mystery.

3. Ajasson remarks that this is only the case in the water of heavy falls

of rain after long drought.

4. "Calefiat."

5. Snow-water is pernicious in a very high degree, being the fruitful

source of goitre and cretinism.

6. See B. xvii. c. 44, and B. xviii. c. 68.

7. This is somewhat similar to what is said of the putrefaction and

purification of Thames water, on a voyage.

8. "Inutilis alvo duritia faucibusque". The passage is probably corrupt.

9. See B. vi. c. 27.




22. Chap. 22.-The Impurities Of Water.


CHAP. 22.-THE IMPURITIES OF WATER.



Slime[1] is one great impurity of water: still, however, if a

river of this description is full of eels, it is generally looked

upon as a proof[2] of the salubrity of its water; just as it is

regarded as a sign of its freshness when long worms[3] breed in

the water of a spring. But it is bitter water, more particu-

larly, that is held in disesteem, as also the water which swells

the stomach the moment it is drunk, a property which belongs







to the water at Trzen. As to the nitrous[4] and salso-acid[5]

waters which are found in the deserts, persons travelling across

towards the Red Sea render them potable in a couple of hours

by the addition of polenta, which they use also as food.

Those springs are more particularly condemned which secrete

mud,[6] or which give a bad complexion to persons who drink

thereof. It is a good plan, too, to observe if water leaves

stains upon copper vessels; if leguminous vegetables boil with

difficulty in it; if, when gently decanted, it leaves an earthy

deposit; or if, when boiled, it covers the vessel with a thick

crust.[7]



It is a fault also in water[8]

but to have any flavour[9] not only to have a bad smell,[10] at all, even though it be a flavour

pleasant and agreeable in itself, or closely approaching, as we

often find the case, the taste of milk. Water, to be truly

wholesome, ought to resemble air[11] as much as possible. There

is only one[12] spring of water in the whole universe, it is said,

that has an agreeable smell, that of Chabura, namely, in Mesopotamia: the people give a fabulous reason for it, and say

that it is because Juno[13] bathed there. Speaking in general

terms, water, to be wholesome, should have neither taste nor

smell.







1. Or "mud"-"limus." All rivers of necessity have it, in a greater or

less degree.

2. On the contrary, the more the mud and slime, the more numerous the

eels

3. "Tnias."

4. Waters, probably, impregnated with mineral alkali. As to the "nitrum" of Pliny, see c. 46 of this Book.

5. "Salmacidas."

6. "Cnum."

7. Also, Ajasson says, to observe whether soap will melt in it. If it will

not, it is indicative of the presence of selenite.

8. As drinking water.

9. As Plautus says of women, Mostell, A. i. S. 3-"They smell best,

when they smell of nothing at all."

10. See B. xv. c. 32.

11. In purity and tastelessness. As Ajasson observes, Pliny could hardly

appreciate the correctness of this remark, composed as water is of two

gases, oxygen and hydrogen.

12. Pausanias and Athenus mention also the well of Mothone in Peloponnesus, the water of which exhaled the odour of the perfumes of Cyzicus.

Such water, however, must of necessity be impure.

13. More probably Astarte, Fe thinks, Juno being unknown in Mesopotamia.




23. Chap. 23.-The Modes Of Testing Water.


CHAP. 23.-THE MODES OF TESTING WATER.



Some persons judge of the wholesomeness of water through

the agency of a balance:[1] their pains, however, are expended

to little purpose, it being but very rarely that one water is







lighter than another. There is, however, a more certain mode

of ascertaining the difference in quality, that water being the

better of the two which becomes hot and cold with the greatest

rapidity: in addition to which, not to keep poising a balance,[2]

after water has been drawn up in vessels, if it is good, it should

gradually become warmer, they say, when placed upon the

ground. Which water, then, of the several kinds will be

most likely to be good and wholesome? Well-water, no doubt,

if we are to judge from the general use made of it in cities:

but only in the case of wells in which it is kept in continual

agitation by repeated drawing, and is refined by the earth acting

as a filter. These conditions are sufficient to ensure salubrity

in water: in regard to coolness, the well must be in a shaded

spot, and the water kept exposed to the air. There is, however,

one thing above all to be observed, a point, too, of considerable

importance with reference to the continuance of the flow-the

spring must issue from the bed of the well, and not from the

sides. To make water cold to the touch may be effected artificially even, either by forcing it to rise aloft or by making it

fall from a height, and so come in collision with the air, and be-

come incorporated[3] therewith: for in swimming,[4] we find,

when we hold our breath, the water is felt to be all the colder.



It was the Emperor Nero's invention[5] to boil water, and

then enclose it in glass vessels and cool it in snow; a method

which ensures all the enjoyment of a cold beverage, without any

of the inconveniences resulting from the use of snow. Indeed, it

is generally admitted that all water is more[6] wholesome when







it has been boiled; as also, that water when it has once been

heated, will become more intensely[7] cold than before-a most

ingenious discovery.[8] The best corrective of unwholesome

water is to boil it down to one half. Cold water, taken internally, arrests hmorrhage. By keeping cold water in his

mouth, a person may render himself proof against the intense

heat of the bath. Many a person knows by his own every-day

experience, that water which is the coldest to drink is not of

necessity the coldest to the touch, this delightful property being

subject to considerable fluctuations.[9]







1. "Statera." Ajasson remarks that it does not require an instrument

very nicely adjusted to indicate the difference in weight between pure and

very impure water. Synesius, Ep. xv., gives an account of the "hydroscopium" used by the ancients for ascertaining the weight of water. Beckmann enters into a lengthy examination of it, as also an enquiry into the

question whether the ancients, and among them Pliny, were acquainted

with the hydrometer. See his Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 163-169. Bohn's Ed.

2. "Ne manus pendeant." These words, which Hardouin pronounces

to be full of obscurity, have caused considerable discussion. The passage

appears to be imperfect, but it is not improbable that he alludes to the use

of the balance or scales for ascertaining the comparative wholesomeness of

water.

3. "Corripiat."

4. The thread of his reasoning is not very perceptible; but he seems to

mean that the more air there is in a body the colder it is. If the air is

inhaled by a person when eating peppermint, he will be sensible of a cold

feeling in the mouth.

5. Galen believes this method to have been known to Hippocrates, and

Aristotle was undoubtedly acquainted with it. See Beckmann's Hist. Inv.

Vol. II. pp. 1434. Bohn's Ed.

6. This is not at all the opinion at the present day.

7. "Magis refrigerari." The experiments made by Mariotte, Perrault,

the Academy del Cimento, Mariana, and others, showed no perceptible difference in the time of freezing, between boiled and unboiled water; but the

former produced ice harder and clearer, the latter ice more full of blisters.

In later times, Dr. Black, of Edinburgh, has from his experiments asserted

the contrary. "Boiled water," he says, "becomes ice sooner than unboiled,

if the latter be left at perfect rest." Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 145.

Bohn's Ed.

8. "Subtilissimo invento."

9. Or perhaps, as we say, "to the touch:, and vice vers." The original

is "Alternante hoc bono."




24. Chap. 24.-The Marcian Waters.


CHAP. 24.-THE MARCIAN WATERS.



The most celebrated water throughout the whole world, and

the one to which our city gives the palm for coolness and salu-

brity, is that of the Marcian[1] Spring, accorded to Rome among

the other bounties of the gods: the name formerly given to

the stream was the "Aufeian," the spring itself being known

as "Pitonia." It rises[2] at the extremity of the mountains of

the Peligni, passes through the territory of the Marsi and through

Lake Fucinus, and then, without deviating, makes directly for

Rome: shortly after this, it loses itself in certain caverns, and

only reappears in the territory of Tibur, from which it is

brought to the City by an arched aqueduct nine miles in

length. Ancus Marcius, one of the Roman kings, was the

first[3] who thought of introducing this water into the City.

At a later period, the works were repaired by Quintus Mar-

cius Rex: and, more recently, in his prtorship, by M.

Agrippa.[4]











1. A considerable number of its arches are yet standing, and it still in

part supplies Rome with water.

2. At Sublaqueum, now Subiaco.

3. "Primus auspicatus est." In obedience to the "auspices," probably.

4. In A.U.C. 720. See B. xxxvi. c. 24.




25. Chap. 25.-The Virgin Waters.


CHAP. 25.-THE VIRGIN WATERS.



It was he, too, who brought the Virgin[1] Waters from the

bye-road situate at the eighth milestone from the City, which

runs for two miles along the Prnestine Way. Near these

waters is the stream of Hercules, which the former shun, to

all appearance, and have thence obtained[2] the name of "Virgin

Waters." On instituting a comparison between the waters of

these streams, the difference above-mentioned[3] may be immediately detected, the Virgin water being as much cooler to

the touch, as the Marcian water is in taste. And yet, for this

long time past, the pleasure of drinking these waters has been

lost to the City, owing to the ambition and avarice of certain

persons who have turned[4] them out of their course for the

supply of their country-seats and of various places in the suburbs,

to the great detriment of the public health.







1. "Aqua Virgo." This aquednet, erected A.U.C. 735, still exists, and

bears the name of "Aqua Vergine."

2. Another story was, that it had this name from the circumstance that

the spring was first pointed out by a girl to some soldiers in search of water.

3. In C. 23 of this Book.

4. This was only temporarily, in all probability.




26. Chap. 26.-Te Method Of Searching For Water.


CHAP. 26.-TE METHOD OF SEARCHING FOR WATER.



It will not be out of place to append here an account of the

method employed in searching for water. Water is mostly to

be found in valleys, whether formed by the intersection of declivities or lying at the lower part of mountains. Many persons have been of opinion that all places with a northern[1]

aspect are naturally provided with water: a point upon which

it will not be amiss to explain the diversities presented to us

by Nature. On the south side of the mountains of Hyrcania

it never rains; and hence it is that it is only on the northeast side that they are wooded. As for Olympus, Ossa, Parnassus, the Apennines, and the Alps, they are covered with

wood on every side, and abundantly watered with streams.

Some mountains, again, are wooded on the south side, the

White[2] Mountains in Crete, for example. On this point,

therefore, we may come to the conclusion that there is no rule

which in all cases holds good.











1. There seems, as he says below, to be no general rule as to this point.

2. So called from the snow on their summit.




27. Chap. 27.-Signs Indicative Of The Presence Of Water.


CHAP. 27.-SIGNS INDICATIVE OF THE PRESENCE OF WATER.



The following are indications of the presence of water:-

rushes, reeds, the plant mentioned with reference to this point

already,[1] or frogs sitting squatted on a spot for a long time

together. As to the wild[2] willow, alder, vitex, reed, and ivy,

all of which grow spontaneously on low grounds in which

there is a settling of rain water from higher localities, considered as indications of the presence of water, they are all[3] of

them of a deceptive nature. A sign much more to be depended

upon, is a certain misty exhalation, visible from a distance

before sunrise. The better to observe this, some persons ascend

an eminence, and lie flat at full length upon the ground, with

the chin touching the earth. There is also another peculiar

method of judging upon this point, known only to men of

experience in these matters: in the very middle of the heats

of summer they select the hottest hours of the day, and observe

how the sun's rays are reflected in each spot; and if, notwithstanding the general dryness of the earth, a locality is observed

to present a moist appearance, they make no doubt of finding

water there.



But so intense is the stress upon the eyes in doing this, that

it is very apt to make them ache; to avoid which inconvenience, they have recourse to other modes of testing. They dig

a hole, for instance, some five feet in depth, and cover it with

vessels of unbaked pottery, or with a copper basin well-oiled;

they then place a burning lamp on the spot, with an arch-work

over it of leaves, and covered with earth on the top. If, after a

time, they find the pots wet or broken, the copper covered with

moisture, or the lamp extinguished, but not from want of oil, or

if a lock of wool that has been left there is found to be moist,

it is a sign of the presence of water, beyond all doubt. With

some persons it is the practice to light a fire on the spot before

they dig the hole, a method which renders the experiment with

the vessels still more conclusive.







1. In B. xxvi. c. 16.

2. "Salix erratica."

3. Surely not the reed, as he has mentioned it above as one of the indications to be depended upon. In one MS. it appears to be omitted, and

with justice, probably.




28. Chap. 28.-Differences In Waters, According To The Nature Of The Soil.


CHAP. 28.-DIFFERENCES IN WATERS, ACCORDING TO THE NATURE

OF THE SOIL.



The soil itself, too, gives indications of the presence of







water, by presenting white spots, or an uniformly green appearance: for where the stratum is black the springs are mostly

not of a permanent nature. The presence of potter's clay

always puts an end to all hopes of finding water, and the excavation is immediately abandoned; an eye being carefully

kept to the strata[1] of the earth, to see whether, beginning

with black mould, it successively presents the appearances

above-mentioned. The water is always fresh that is found

in argillaceous soils, but in a stratum of tufa it is colder than

elsewhere; this, indeed, being a soil which is highly approved

of, as having a tendency to make the water pure and extremely

light to the stomach, and, by its action as a filter, to withhold

all impurities. The presence of sand[2] gives indications of

springs of but limited extent, and of water impregnated with

slime; while that of gravel announces the presence of water of

excellent flavour, but not to be depended upon for permanence.

Male:[3] sand, fine sea[4]-sand, and charcoal[5] earth, yield a constant supply of water of a highly wholesome quality; but it

is the presence of red stones that is the most to be depended

upon, and the water found there is of the very finest quality.

Craggy localities at the foot of mountains, and silicious soils,

are equally good; in addition to which, the water found there

is cooler than elsewhere.



In boring for water, the soil should always become more

and more humid, and, the deeper the descent, with the greater

facility the implements should penetrate. In deep-sunk wells,

the presence of sulphureous[6] or aluminous substances is fatal

to the sinkers; a danger that may be guarded against by letting

down a lighted lamp, and ascertaining whether the flame is

extinguished. When such is found to be the case, it is the

practice to sink vent-holes on each side of the well, both right

and left, in order to receive and carry off the noxious exhalations. Independently of these evils, the air becomes heavier,

from the great depth merely of the excavation, an inconvenience

which is remedied by keeping up a continual circulation with

ventilators of linen cloth. As soon as water is reached, walls







are constructed at the bottom, but without cement,[7] in order

that the springs may not be intercepted.



Some waters, the sources of which do not lie on elevated

ground, are coldest at the beginning of spring, being maintained by the winter rains in fact. Others, again, are coldest at

the rising of the Dog-star-peculiarities, both of them, to be

witnessed at Pella in Macedonia; for in front of that city there

is a marsh-spring, which at the beginning of summer is cold,

while in the more elevated parts of the city the water is ice-cold[8] in the hottest days of summer. The same is the case,

too, at Chios, the water-supply of the harbour and of the

city occupying the same relative positions. At Athens, the

water of the Fountain Enneacrunos[9] is colder in a cloudy

summer than the well there in the garden of Jupiter; while

on the other hand, this last is ice-cold during the drought of a

hot summer. For the most part, however, wells are coldest

about the rising of Arcturus.[10]



(4.) The water-supply of wells never fails in summer, but

in all cases it falls low during four days at the rising of the

constellation above-mentioned. Throughout the whole winter,

on the other hand, many wells entirely fail; as in the neighbourhood of Olynthus, for example, where the water returns

in the early days of spring. In Sicily too, in the vicinity of

Messana and Myl, the springs are entirely dry throughout

the winter, while in summer they overflow and form quite a

river. At Apollonia in Pontus there is to be seen, near the

sea-shore, a fountain which overflows in summer only, and

mostly about the rising of the Dog-star; should the summer,

however, not be so hot as usual, its water is less abundant.

Certain soils become drier in consequence of rain, that in the

territory of Narnia for example: a fact which M. Cicero has

mentioned in his "Admiranda," with a statement that drought

is there productive of mud, and rain of dust.[11]







1. "Coria."

2. "Sabulum."

3. "Sabulum masculum." Coarse, reddish sand, Dalechamps says.

4. "Arena."

5. See B. xvii. c. 3.

6. An inconvenience neutralized in a considerable degree by Davy's invention of the safety-lamp.

7. "Arenatum." Properly a mortar, which consisted of one part lime

and two parts sand.

8. "Riget."

9. See B. iv. c. 11. At Bisley, in Surrey, there is a spring, Aubrey says,

that is cold in summer and warm in winter.

10. See B. xviii. c. 7.

11. The sandy soil being dried in hot weather into masses of mud or clay,

which become loosened when rain falls.




29. Chap. 29.-The Qualities Of Water At The Different Seasons Of The Year.


CHAP. 29.-THE QUALITIES OF WATER AT THE DIFFERENT SEASONS

OF THE YEAR.



Every kind of water is freshest in winter, not so fresh in







summer, still less so in autumn, and least of all in times of drought.

River-water, too, is by no means always the same in taste, the

state of the bed over which it runs making a considerable

difference. For the quality of water, in fact, depends upon the

nature of the soil through which it flows, and the juices[1] of

the vegetation watered by it; hence it is that the water of the

same river is found in some spots to be comparatively unwholesome. The confluents, too, of rivers, are apt to change the

flavour of the water, impregnating the stream in which they

are lost and absorbed; as in the case of the Borysthenes, for

example. In some instances, again, the taste of river-water is

changed by the fall of heavy rains. It has happened three

times in the Bosporus that there has been a fall of salt rain, a

phnomenon which proved fatal to the crops. On three occasions, also, the rains have imparted a bitterness to the overflowing streams of the Nilus, which was productive of great

pestilence throughout Egypt.







1. See B. ii. c. 106.




30. Chap. 30.-Historical Observations Upon Waters Which Have Suddenly Made Their Appearance Or Suddenly Ceased.


CHAP. 30.-HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS UPON WATERS WHICH HAVE

SUDDENLY MADE THEIR APPEARANCE OR SUDDENLY CEASED.



It frequently happens that in spots where forests have been

felled, springs of water make[1] their appearance, the supply of

which was previously expended in the nutriment of the trees.

This was the case upon Mount Hmus for example, when,

during the siege by Cassander,[2] the Gauls cut down a forest

for the purpose of making a rampart. Very often too, after

removing the wood which has covered an elevated spot and

so served to attract and consume the rains, devastating torrents

are formed by the concentration of the waters. It is very important also, for the maintenance of a constant supply of

water, to till the ground and keep it constantly in motion,

taking care to break and loosen the callosities of the surface

crust: at all events, we find it stated, that upon a city of

Crete, Arcadia by name, being razed to the ground, the springs

and water-courses, which before were very numerous in that

locality, all at once dried up; but that, six years after, when







the city was rebuilt, the water again made its appearance, just

as each spot was again brought into cultivation.



(5.) Earthquakes also are apt to discover or swallow[3] up

springs of water; a thing that has happened, it is well known,

on five different occasions in the vicinity of Pheneus, a town of

Arcadia. So too, upon Mount Corycus,[4] a river burst forth;

after which, the soil was subjected to cultivation. These

changes are very surprising where there is no apparent cause

for them; such as the occurrence at Magnesia,[5] for instance,

where the warm waters became cold, but without losing their

brackish flavour; and at the Temple[6] of Neptune in Caria,

where the water of the river, from being fresh, became salt.

Here, too, is another fact, replete with the marvellous-the

fountain of Arethusa at Syracuse has a smell of dung, they say,

during the celebration of the games at Olympia,[7] a thing that

is rendered not improbable by the circumstance,[8] that the river

Alpheus makes its way to that island beneath the bed of the

se-a. There is a spring in the Chersonesus of the Rhodians[9]

which discharges its accumulated impurities every nine years.



Waters, too, sometimes change their colour; as at Babylon,

for example, where the water of a certain lake for eleven days

in summer is red. In the summer season, too, the current of

the Borysthenes[10] is blue, it is said, and this, although its

waters are the most rarefied in existence, and hence float upon

the surface of those of the Hypanis;[11]-though at the same time

there is this marvellous fact, that when south winds prevail, the

waters of the Hypanis assume the upper place. Another proof,

too, of the surpassing lightness of the water of the Borysthenes,

is the fact that it emits no exhalations, nor, indeed, the slightest

vapour even. Authors that would have the credit of diligent

research in these enquiries, assure us that water becomes

heavier after the winter-solstice.











1. Ajasson remarks, that just the converse of this has been proved by

modern experience to be the case.

2. The son of Antipater, then acting for Alexander during his absence

in the East.

3. See B. ii. c. 84.

4. In Cilicia.

5. Whether he means the district of Thessaly so called, or one of the

two cities of that name in Lydia, does not appear to be known.

6. Its locality is unknown, but it was probably near the sea-shore.

7. In Elis in Peloponnesus.

8. His credulity is influenced by the popular story that the river Alpheus

in Peloponnesus, in its love for the Fountain Nymph Arethusa, penetrated

beneath the bed of the sea, and reappeared in Sicily. See B. iii. c. 14.

9. See c. 20.

10. The modern Dnieper.

11. The Boug.




31. Chap. 31. (6.)-The Method Of Conveying Water.


CHAP. 31. (6.)-THE METHOD OF CONVEYING WATER.



The most convenient method of making a watercourse from

the spring is by employing earthen pipes, two fingers in thick-

ness, inserted in one another at the points of junction-the one

that has the higher inclination fitting into the lower one-and

coated with quick-lime macerated in oil. The inclination, to

ensure the free flow of the water, ought to be at least one-fourth

of an inch to every hundred feet; and if the water is conveyed

through a subterraneous passage, there should be air-holes let in

at intervals of every two[1] actus. Where the water is wanted

to ascend[2] aloft, it should be conveyed in pipes of lead:

water, it should be remembered, always rises to the level of its

source. If, again, it is conveyed from a considerable distance,

it should be made to rise and fall every now and then, so as

not to lose its motive power. The proper length for each

leaden pipe is ten feet; and if[3] the pipe is five fingers in circumference its weight should be sixty pounds; if eight feet,

one hundred; if ten, one hundred and twenty; and so on in the

same proportion.



A pipe is called "a ten-finger"[4] pipe when the sheet of

metal is ten fingers in breadth before it is rolled up; a sheet

one half that breadth giving a pipe "of five fingers."[5] In all

sudden changes of inclination in elevated localities, pipes of

five fingers should be employed, in order to break the impetu-

osity of the fall: reservoirs,[6] too, for branches should be made

as circumstances may demand.







1. See B. xviii. c. 3, and the Introduction to Vol. III.

2. In jets, he means.

3. "Si quinarie erunt."

4. "Denaria."

5. "Quinaria."

6. The name given to these reservoirs was "castellum" or "dividien-

lum:" in French the name is "regard." Vitruvius describes them, B. vii. c. 7.




32. Chap. 32-How Mineral Waters Should Be Used.


CHAP. 32-HOW MINERAL WATERS SHOULD BE USED.



I am surprised that Homer has made no[1] mention of hot

springs, when, on the other hand, he has so frequently intro-

duced the mention of warm baths: a circumstance from which

we may safely conclude that recourse was not had in his time

to mineral waters for their medicinal properties, a thing so

universally the case at the present day. Waters impregnated







with sulphur are good for the sinews,[2] and aluminous waters

are useful for paralysis and similar relaxations of the system.

Those, again, which are impregnated with bitumen or nitre, the

waters of Cutilia,[3] for example, are drunk as a purgative.[4]



Many persons quite pride themselves on enduring the heat

of mineral waters for many hours together; a most pernicious

practice, however, as they should be used but very little longer

than the ordinary bath, after which the bather should be

shampooed[5] with cold water, and not leave the bath without

being rubbed with oil. This last operation, however, is commonly regarded as altogether foreign to the use of mineral baths;

and hence it is, that there is no situation in which men's

bodies are more exposed to the chances of disease, the head

becoming saturated with the intensity of the odours exhaled,

and left exposed, perspiring as it is, to the coldness of the

atmosphere, while all the rest of the body is immersed in the

water.[6]



There is another mistake, also, of a similar description, made

by those who pride themselves upon drinking enormous

quantities of these waters;[7] and I myself have seen persons,

before now, so swollen with drinking it that the very rings on

their fingers were entirely concealed by the skin, owing to

their inability to discharge the vast quantities of water which

they had swallowed. It is for this reason, too, that these

waters should never be drunk without taking a taste of salt

every now and then. The very mud,[8] too, of mineral springs

may be employed to good purpose; but, to be effectual, after

being applied to the body, it must be left to dry in the sun.



It must not be supposed, however, that all hot waters are







of necessity medicated, those of Segesta in Sicily, for example,

of Larissa, Troas, Magnesia, Melos, and Lipara. Nor is the

very general supposition a correct one, that waters, to be medicinal, must of necessity discolour copper or silver; no such

effect being produced by those of Patavium,[9] or there being

the slightest difference perceptible in the smell.







1. Pliny appears to have forgotten the warm springs of the Seamander,

mentioned by Homer in the Iliad, B. xxii. 1. 147. et seq.

2. Or rather, as Ajasson says, for cutaneous diseases.

3. See B. iii. c. 17.

4. In conformity with Sillig's suggestion, we reject "atque" as an interpolation.

5. "Mulceri."

6. In spite of what Pliny says, in some cases the use of a mineral bath

is recommended for a long period of time together. At Leuk or Lch,

for instance, in the Valais, the patients, Ajasson says, remain in the bath

as much as eight hours together.

7. To promote expectoration, Dalechamps says; or rather vomiting,

according to Holland.

8. This substance, Ajasson says, is still used in medicine; that of the

waters of Silvanez, for example, in the department of Aveyron, is highly

celebrated for the cure of inveterate ulcers and sciatica. The mud baths,

too, of Saint Arnand, enjoy an European reputation.

9. See B. ii c. 106.




33. Chap. 33.-The Uses Of Sea-Water. The Advantages Of A Sea-Voyage.


CHAP. 33.-THE USES OF SEA-WATER. THE ADVANTAGES OF

A SEA-VOYAGE.



Sea-water also is employed in a similar manner for the cure

of diseases. It is used, made hot, for the cure of pains in the

sinews, for reuniting fractured bones, and for its desiccative

action upon the body: for which last purpose, it is also used

cold. There are numerous other medicinal resources derived

from the sea; the benefit of a sea-voyage, more particularly,

in cases of phthisis, as already[1] mentioned, and where patients

are suffering from hmoptosis, as lately experienced, in our

own memory, by Annus Gallio,[2] at the close of his consulship:[3] for it is not for the purpose of visiting the country, that

people so often travel to Egypt, but in order to secure the

beneficial results arising from a long sea-voyage. Indeed, the

very sea-sickness that is caused by the rocking of the vessel

to and fro, is good for many affections of the head, eyes, and

chest, all those cases, in fact, in which the patient is recommended to drink an infusion of hellebore. Medical men con-

sider sea-water, employed by itself,' highly efficacious for the

dispersion of tumours, and, boiled with barley-meal, for the

successful treatment of imposthumes of the parotid glands: it

is used also as an ingredient in plasters, white plasters more

particularly, and for emollient[4] poultices. Sea-water is very

good, too, employed as a shower-bath; and it is taken internally, though not without[5] injury to the stomach, both as a







purgative and as an expellent, by vomit and by alvine evacuation, of black bile[6] or coagulated blood, as the case may be.



Some authorities prescribe it, taken internally, for quartan

fevers, as also for tenesmus and diseases of the joints; purposes for which it is kept a considerable time, to mellow with

age, and so lose its noxious[7] properties. Some, again, are for

boiling it, but in all cases it is recommended to be taken from

out at sea, and untainted with the mixture of fresh water, an

emetic also being taken before using it. When used in this

manner, vinegar or wine is generally mixed with the water.

Those who give it unmixed, recommend radishes with oxymel

to be eaten upon it, in order to provoke vomiting. Sea-water,

made hot, is used also as an injection; and there is nothing in

existence preferred to it as a fomentation for swellings of the

testes, or for chilblains before they ulcerate. It is similarly

employed, also, for the cure of prurigo, itch-scab, and lichens.

Lice and other foul vermin of the head, are removed by the

application of sea-water, and lividities of the skin are restored

to their natural colour; it being a remarkably good plan, in

such cases, after applying the sea-water, to foment the parts

with hot vinegar.



It is generally considered, too, that sea-water is highly

effcacious for the stings of venomous insects, those of the pha-

langium and scorpion, for example, and as an antidote to the

poisonous secretions of the asp, known as the "ptyas;"[8] in all

which cases it is employed hot. Fumigations are also made of

it, with vinegar, for the cure of head-ache; and, used warm as

at injection, it allays griping pains in the bowels and cholera.

Things that have been heated in sea-water are longer than

ordinary in cooling. A sea-water bath is an excellent corrective for swelling[9] of the bosoms in females, affections of

the thoracic organs, and ermaciation of the body. The steam

also of sea-water boiled with vinegar, is used for the removal

of hardness of hearing and head-ache. An application of

sea-water very expeditiously removes rust upon iron; it is







curative also of scab in sheep, and imparts additional softness

to the wool.







1. In B. xxiv. c. 19, and B. xxviii. c. 14.

2. An elder brother of the philosopher Seneca. His original name was

M. Annus Noratus; but upon being adopted by the rhetorician Junius

Gallio, he changed his name into L. Junius Annus-or Annanus-

Gallio. He destroyed himself, A.D. 65.

3. He was "Consul subrogatus" only.

4. "Malagmatis."

5. It acts in most cases as an emetic, and is highly dangerous if taken

in considerable quantities.

6. It is still considered useful, Ajasson says, for the treatment of lymphatic diseases.

7. "Virus."

8. Or "spitter." See B. xxviii. c. 18.

9. "Mammas sororiantes." A malady, according to Dalechamps, in

which the mamill are so distended with milk that they kiss, like sisters

-"sorores."




34. Chap. 34.-How Artificial Sea-Water May Be Made In Places At A Distance From The Sea.


CHAP. 34.-HOW ARTIFICIAL SEA-WATER MAY BE MADE IN PLACES

AT A DISTANCE FROM THE SEA.



I am by no means unaware that these details may very

possibly appear superfluous to persons who live at a distance

from the sea; but scientific research has made provision against

this objection, by discovering a method of enabling every one

to make sea-water[1] for himself. It is a singular fact in connexion with this discovery, that if more than one sextarius of

salt is put into four sextarii of water, the liquefying properties of the water will be overpowered, and the salt will no

longer melt. On the other hand, again, a mixture of one sextarius of salt with four sextarii of water, acts as a good substitute for the efficacy and properties of the very saltest sea-water.

The most reasonable proportion, however, is generally thought

to be eight cyathi of salt, diluted in the quantity of water

above mentioned; a preparation which has been found to

have a warming effect upon the sinews, without in any degree

chafing the body.







1. The ancients being unable to analyze sea-water, could only imitate it

very clumsily.




35. Chap. 35.-How Thalassomeli Is Made.


CHAP. 35.-HOW THALASSOMELI IS MADE.



There is also a composition made to ripen for use, known as

"thalassomeli,"[1] and prepared with equal parts of sea-water,

honey, and rain-water. For this purpose, also, the water is

brought from out at sea, and the preparation is kept in an

earthen vessel well pitched. It acts most efficiently as a purgative, and without in the least fatiguing the stomach; the

taste, too, and smell of it, are very agreeable.







1. "Sea-water honey."




36. Chap. 36.-How Hydromeli Is Made.


CHAP. 36.-How HYDROMELI IS MADE.



Hydromeli,[1] also, was a mixture formerly made with pure

rain-water and honey, and was prescribed for patients who,

were anxious for wine, as being a more harmless drink. For

these many years past, however, it has been condemned, as

having in reality all the inconveniences of wine, without the

advantages.











1. See B. xiv. c. 20, and B. xxii. c. 51. He is speaking, probably. of

fermented hydromel, a sort of mead.




37. Chap. 37.-Methods Of Providing Against The Inconvenience Of Drinking Suspected Water.


CHAP. 37.-METHODS OF PROVIDING AGAINST THE INCONVENIENCE

OF DRINKING SUSPECTED WATER.



As persons out at sea often suffer great inconvenience from

the want of fresh water, we will here describe some methods

of obviating it. Fleeces are spread round the ship, and on

becoming moistened with the exhalations arising from the sea,

the water is wrung from them, and found to be quite fresh.

Hollow balls of wax, also, or empty vessels sealed at the mouth,

upon being let down into the sea in a net, become filled with

water that is fresh and potable. On shore, too, sea-water may

be made fresh, by filtering it through argillaceous earth.



By swimming in water of any kind, sprains of the limbs in

man or beast are reduced[1] with the greatest facility. Persons

when travelling, are sometimes apprehensive that the use of

water, the quality of which is unknown to them, may prove

injurious to their health: as a precaution against this, they

should drink the suspected water cold, immediately after leaving

tie bath.







1. The joints being rendered more supple thereby.




38. Chap. 38.-Six Remedies Derived From Moss. Remedies Derived From Sand.


CHAP. 38.-SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MOSS. REMEDIES

DERIVED FROM SAND.



Moss which has grown in water[1] is excellent as a topical

application for gout; and, in combination with oil, it is good

for pains and swellings in the ankles. The foam that floats[2]

upon the surface of the water, used as a friction, causes warts

to disappear. The sand,[3] too, of the sea-shore, that more

particularly which is very fine and burnt white by the heat of

the sun, is used remedially for its desiccative properties, the

bodies of dropsical or rheumatic patients being entirely covered

with it.



Thus much with reference to water itself; we will now

turn to the aquatic productions, beginning, as in all other

instances, with the principal of them, namely, salt and sponge.











1. He probably means sea-water, alluding to certain kinds of sea-seed.

Dioscorides speaks of it, in B. iv. c. 99, as being good for gout. It is, in

reality, of some small utility in such cases.

2. He most probably means sea-water.

3. The Greeks used sand-baths for the purpose of promoting the perspiration; tie names given to them were par|o/pthsis and foi/nigmos.




39. Chap. 39. (7.)-The Various Kinds Of Salt; The Methods Of Preparing It, And The Remedies Derived From It. Two Hundred And Four Observations There Upon.


CHAP. 39. (7.)-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SALT; THE METHODS OF

PREPARING IT, AND THE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT. TWO

HUNDRED AND FOUR OBSERVATIONS THERE UPON.



All salt is either native or artificial;[1] both kinds being

formed in various ways, but produced from one of these two

causes, the condensation or the desiccation, of a liquid.[2] The

Lake of Tarentum is dried up by the heat of the summer sun,

and the whole of its waters, which are at no time very deep,

not higher than the knee in fact, are changed into once mass

of salt. The same, too, with a lake in Sicily, Cocanicus by

name, and another in the vicinity of Gela. But in the case of

these two last, it is only the sides[3] that are thus dried up:

whereas in Phrygia, in Cappadocia, and at Aspendus, where

the same phnomena are observable, the water is dried up to

a much larger extent, to the very middle of the lake, in fact.

There is also another marvellous[4] circumstance connected with

this last-however much salt is taken out of it in the day, its

place is supplied again during the night. Every kind of lake-

salt is found in grains, and not in the form of blocks.[5]



Sea-water, again, spontaneously produces another kind of

salt, from the foam which it leaves on shore at high-water

n-ark, or adhering to rocks; this being, in all cases, condensed

by the action of the sun, and that[6] salt being the most pun-

gent of the two which is found upon the rocks.



There are also three different kinds of native salt. In Bac-

triana there arc two vast lakes;[7] one of them situate on the side







of Scythia, the other on that of Ariana, both of which throw

up vast quantities of salt.[8] So, too, at Citium, in Cyprus; and,

in the vicinity of Memphis, they extract salt from the lake

and dry it in the sun. The surface-waters of some rivers, also,

condense[9] in the form of salt, the rest of the stream flowing

beneath, as though under a crust of ice; such as the running

waters near the Caspian Gates[10] for instance, which are known

as the "Rivers of Salt." The same is the case, too, in the vicinity of the Mardi and of the people of Armenia. In Bactriana,

also, the rivers Ochus[11] and Oxus carry down from the mountains on their banks, fragments of salt. There are also in

Africa some lakes, the waters of which are turbid, that are

productive of salt. Some hot springs, too, produce salt-those

at Pagas for example. Such, then, are the various kinds of

salt produced spontaneously by water.



There are certain mountains, also, formed of native salt; that

of Oromenus, in India, for example, where it is cut out like

blocks from a quarry, and is continually reproduced, bringing

in a larger revenue to the sovereigns of those countries than

that arising from their gold and pearls. In some instances

it is dug out of the earth, being formed there, evidently, by

the condensation of the moisture, as in Cappadocia for example,

where it is cut in sheets, like those of mirror-stone.[12] The

blocks of it are very heavy, the name commonly given to them

being "mica."[13] At Gerrh,[14] a city of Arabia, the ramparts

and houses are constructed of blocks of salt, which are soldered together by being moistened with water. King Ptole-

ms discovered salt also in the vicinity of Pelusium, when

he encamped there; a circumstance which induced other persons to seek and discover it in the scorched tracts that lie

between Egypt and Arabia, beneath the sand. In the same







manner, too, it has been found in the thirsting deserts of

Africa, as far as the oracle of Hammon,[15] a locality in which

the salt increases at night with the increase of the moon.



The districts of Cyrenaica are ennobled, too, by the production

of hammoniacum,[16] a salt so called from the fact of its being

found beneath the sands[17] there. It is similar in colour to the

alum known as "schiston,"[18] and consists of long pieces, by no

means transparent, and of an unpleasant flavour, but highly

useful in medicine; that being held in the highest esteem,

which is the clearest and divides into straight[19] flakes. There

is one remarkable fact mentioned in connexion with it: so long

as it lies under ground in its bed[20] it is extremely light, but the

moment it is exposed to the light, it is hardly credible to what

an extent its weight is increased. The reason for this is evident:[21] the humid vapours of the excavations bear the masses

upwards, as water does, and so aid the workmen. It is adulterated with the Sicilian salt which we have mentioned as being

found in Lake Cocanicus, as also with that of Cyprus, which

is marvellously like it. At Egelasta,[22] in Nearer Spain, there

is a salt, hewn from the bed in almost transparent blocks, and

to which for this long time past most medical men, it is said,

have given the preference over all other salt. Every spot in







which salt[23] is found is naturally barren, and produces nothing.

Such are the particulars, in general, which have been ascertained with reference to native salt.



Of artificial salt there are several kinds; the common salt,

and the most abundant, being made from sea-water drained

into salt-pans, and accompanied with streams of fresh water;

but it is rain more particularly, and, above all things, the sun,

that aids in its formation; indeed without this last it would

never dry. In the neighbourhood of Utica, in Africa, they build

up masses of salt, like hills in appearance; and when these have

been hardened by the action of the sun and moon, no moisture

will ever melt them, and iron can hardly divide them. In

Crete, however, salt is made without the aid of fresh water,

and merely by introducing sea-water into the salt-pans. On

the shores of Egypt, salt is formed by the overflow of the sea

upon the land, already prepared for its reception, in my opinion,

by the emanations of the river Nilus. It is made here, also,

from the water[24] of certain wells, discharged into salt-pans. At

Babylon, the result of the first condensation is a bituminous[25]

liquid, like oil, which is used for burning in lamps; when this

is skimmed off, the salt is found beneath. In Cappadocia,

also, both well and spring-water are introduced into the saltpans. In Chaonia there is a spring, from the water of which,

when boiled[26] and left to cool, there is an inert salt obtained,

not so white as ordinary salt. In the Gallic provinces and

in Germany, it is the practice to pour salt-water upon burning

wood.[27]







1. "Sal fit." This expression is not correct, there being no such thing

as made salt. It is only collected from a state of suspension or dissolution.

Pliny, however, includes under the name "sal" many substances, which

in reality are not salt. His "hammoniacum" for instance if identical

with hydrochlorate of ammonia, can with justice be said to made, being

formed artificially from other substances.

2. "Catco humere vel siccato." These two terms in reality imply the

same process, by the medium of evaporation; the former perfect, the latter

imperfect.

3. The evaporation not being sufficiently strong to dry up the deeper parts.

4. There is in reality nothing wonderful in this, considering' that most

lakes are constantly fed with the streams of rivers, which carry mineral sails

along with them, and that the work of evaporation is always going on.

5. "Glbas."

6. Because it is necessarily purer than that found upon the sand.

7. The description is not sufficiently clear to enable us to identify these

lakes with certainty. Ajasson,, thinks that one of them may be the Lake

of Badakandir in the Khanat of Bokhara; and the other the lake that lies

between Ankhio and Akeha, in the west of the territory of Balkh, and near

the Usbek Tartars.

8. "Sale exstuant."

9. In consequence of the intense heat.

10. All these regions, Ajasson remarks, are covered with salt. An immense desert of salt extends to the north-east of Irak-Adjemi, and to the

north of Kerman, between Tabaristan, western Khoraclu, and Khohistan.

11. Identified by Ajasson with the Herat and the Djihioun. He thinks

that it is of some of the small affluents of this last that Pliny speaks.

12. "Lapis specularis."

13. A "crumb" properly, in the Latin language.

14. See B. vi. c. 32.

15. More commonly known as Jupiter Hammon.

16. See B. xii. c. 49, and B. xxiv. c. 28, for an account of gum resin am-

moniac, a produce of the same locality. The substance here spoken of is

considered by Beckmann to be nothing but common salt in an impure state.

See his Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 3989, where this passage is discussed at

considerable length. Ajasson, on the other hand, considers it to be Hydrochlorate of ammonia, the Sal ammoniac of commerce. According to some

accounts, it was originally made in the vicinity of the Temple of Jupiter

Hammon, by burning camels' dung.

17. Called a)/mmos, in Greek.

18. See B. xxxv. c. 52.

19. Sal ammoniac crystallizes in octahedrons.

20. "Intra specus suos." On this passage, Beckmann says, "From what

is said by Pliny it may with certainty be concluded that this salt was dug

up from pits or mines in Africa.--Many kinds of rock-salt, taken from

the mines of Wieliczka, experience the same change in the air; so that

blocks which a labourer can easily carry in the mine, can scarcely be lifted

by him after being for some time exposed to the air. The cause here is

undoubtedly the same as that which makes many kinds of artificial salt to

become most and to acquire more weight."-Vol. II. p. 399, Bohn's Ed.

21. According to modern notions, his reason is anything but evident.

22. In Celtiberia. He alludes to the mountain of salt at Cardona, near

Montserrat in Catalonia.

23. Speaking generally, this is true; but soils which contain it in small

quantities as fruitful.

24. A simile method is still employed, Ajasson says, at the salt-mines near

Innspruck in the Tyrol.

25. Native bitumen; always to be found in greater or less quantities, in

saliferous earns.

26. The process of artificial evaporation.

27. This would produce an impure alkaline salt. According to Townson,

this practice sll prevails in Transylvania and Moldavia.




40. Chap. 40.-Muria.


CHAP. 40.-MURIA.



In one part of Spain, they draw a brine for this purpose

from deep-sunk pits, to which they give the name of "muria;"

being of opinion, also, that it makes a considerable difference

upon what kind of wood it is poured. That of the quercus

they look upon as the best, as the ashes of it, unmixed, have







the pungency of salt.[1] In other places, again, the wood of

the hazel is held in high esteem; and thus, we see, by pouring

brine upon it, charcoal even is converted into salt. All salt

that is thus prepared with burning wood is black. I find it

stated by Theophrastus, that the Umbri[2] are in the habit of

boiling ashes of reeds and bulrushes in water, till there remains

but little moisture unconsumed. The brine, too, of salted

provisions is sometimes boiled over again, and, as soon as all

the moisture has evaporated, the salt resumes its original form.

That prepared from the pickle of the mna[3] has the finest

flavour.







1. "The water, eraporating, would leave the salt behind, but mixed with

charcoal, ashes, earth, and alkaline salts; consequently it must have been

moist, or at any rate nauseous, if not refined by a new solution."-Beck-

mann's Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 493. Bohn's Ed.

2. Not improbably a people of India so called, and mentioned in B. vi.

c. 20.

3. See B.C. .42.




45. Chap. 45. (9.)-The Nature Of Salt.


CHAP. 45. (9.)-THE NATURE OF SALT.



Salt, regarded by itself, is naturally igneous, and yet it

manifests an antipathy to fire, and flies[1] from it. It consumers

everything, and yet upon living bodies it has an astringent,

desiccative, and binding effect, while the dead it preserves

from putrefaction,[2] and makes them last for ages even. In

respect, however, of its medicinal properties, it is of a mordent,

burning, detergent, attenuating, and resolvent nature; it is, however, injurious to the stomach, except that it acts as a stimulant







to the appetite, For the cure of injuries inflicted by serpents, it

is used with origanum, honey, and hyssop; and for the sting of

the cerastes, with origanum, cedar-resin, pitch, or honey. Taken

internally with vinegar, it is good for injuries caused by the

scolopendra; and, applied topically, with an equal proportion

of linseed, in oil or vinegar, for stings inflicted by scorpions. For

stings of hornets, wasps, and insects of a similar description,

it is applied with vinegar; and, for the cure of hemicrania,

ulcers on the head, blisters, pimples, and incipient warts, with

veal-suet. It is used also among the remedies for the eyes,

and for the removal of fleshy exrescences upon those organs,

as also of hangnails[3] upon the fingers or toes. For webs that

form upon the eyes it is peculiarly useful, and hence it is that

it is so commonly employed as an ingredient in eye-salves, as

well as plasters. For all these last-mentioned purposes, the

salt of Tatta or of Caunus is more particularly in request.



In cases where there is ecchymosis of the eyes, or a bruise

from the effects of a blow, salt is applied, with an equal quantity of myrrh and honey, or with hyssop in warm water, the

eyes being also fomented with salsugo. For this last-mentioned

purpose, the Spanish salt is preferred; and when wanted for

the treatment of cataract, it is ground upon small whet-

stones, with milk. For bruises it is particularly useful,

wrapped in a linen pledget and renewed from time to time,

being first dipped in boiling water. For the cure of running

ulcers of the mouth, it is applied with lint; gum-boils are also

rubbed with it; and, broken to pieces and powdered fine, it

removes granulations on the tongue. The teeth, it is said,

will never become carious or corroded, if a person every morin-

ing puts some salt beneath his tongue, fasting, and leaves it

there till it has melted. Salt effects the cure also of leprosy,

boils, lichens, and itch-scabs; for all which purposes it is ap-

plied with raisins-the stones being first removed-beef-suet,

origanum, and leaven, or else bread. In such cases it is the

salt from Thebas that is mostly used; the same salt being

considered preferable for the treatment of prurigo, and being

highly esteemed for affections of the uvula and tonsillary glands,

in combination with honey.







Every kind of salt is useful for the cure of quinzy; but, in

addition to this, it is necessary to make external applications

simultaneously with oil, vinegar, and tar. Mixed with

wine, it is a gentle aperient to the bowels, and, taken in a

similar manner, it acts as an expellent of all kinds of intestinal

worms. Placed beneath the tongue, it enables convalescents

to support the heat[4] of the bath. Burnt more than once upon

a plate at a white heat, and then enclosed in a bag, it alleviates

pains in the sinews, about the shoulders and kidneys more

particularly. Taken internally, and similarly burnt at a white

heat and applied in bags, it is curative of colic, griping pains

in the bowels, and sciatica. Beaten up in wine and honey,

with meal, it is a remedy for gout; a malady for the especial

behoof of which the observation should be borne in mind,

that there is nothing better for all parts of the body than sun

and salt:[5] hence[6] it is that we see the bodies of fishermen as

hard as horn-gout, however, is the principal disease for the

benefit of which this maxim should be remembered.



Salt is useful for the removal of corns upon the feet, and of

chilblains: for the cure of burns also, it is applied with oil, or

else chewed. It acts as a check also upon blisters, and, in cases

of erysipelas and serpiginous ulcers, it is applied topically with

vinegar or with hyssop. For the cure of carcinoma it is

employed in combination with Taminian[7] grapes; and for

phagednic ulcers it is used parched with barley-meal, a

linen pledget steeped in wine being laid upon it. In cases of

jaundice, it is employed as a friction before the fire, with oil

and vinegar, till the patient is made to perspire, for the purpose

of preventing the itching sensations attendant upon that dis-

ease. When persons are exhausted with fatigue, it is usual to

rub them with salt and oil. Many have treated dropsy with

salt, have used external applications of salt and oil for the

burning heats of fever, and have cured chronic coughs by laying

salt upon the patient's tongue. Salt has been used, also, as

an injection for sciatica, and has been applied to ulcers of a

fungous or putrid nature.



To bites inflicted by the crocodile, salt is applied, the sores







being tightly bandaged with linen cloths, first dipped[8] in

vinegar. It is taken internally, with hydromel, to neutralize

the effects of opium, and is applied topically, with meal and

honey, to sprains and fleshy excrescences. In cases of toothache, it is used as a collutory with vinegar, and is very useful,

applied externally, with resin. For all these purposes, however,

froth of salt[9] is found to be more agreeable and still more

efficacious. Still, however, every kind of salt is good as an

ingredient in acopa,[10] when warming properties are required:

the same, too, in the case of detersive applications, when required for plumping out and giving a smooth surface to the

skin. Employed topically, salt is curative of itch-scab in sheep

and cattle, for which disease it is given them to lick. It is

injected, also, with the spittle, into the eyes of beasts of burden.

Thus much with reference to salt.







1. He alludes to its decrepitation in flame.

2. Pharnaces caused the body of his father Mithridates to be deposited

in brine, in order to trausmit it to Pompey.

3. He uses the word "pterygia" here, as applied to the whole of the

body-"totius corporis"-in its two distinct senses, a hangnail or excrescence on the fingers, and a web or film on the eyes.

4. In c. 23, he has said much the same of cold water.

5. "Sale et sole."

6. This Passage would come more naturally after the succeeding one.

7. See B. xxiii. . 13.

8. "Ita ut batuerentur ante." From the corresponding passage in

Dioscorides, where the expression Bapto/m<*>noi e)is o)\cos is used, it would appear that the proper word here is "bapiltizarentur;" or possibly; a last

Gracco-Latin word, "bapterentur." Littr suggests "hebetarentur," "the

part being first numbed" by the aid of a bandage.

9. "Spama salis." Colleted from the from on the sea-shore.

10. See Note 36, above, p. 507.




0. > Book Xxxii. Remedies Derived From Aquatic Animals.


BOOK XXXII.[1]



REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS.







1. It is in the last six Books of Pliny, and those only, we regret to say,

that we are enabled to avail ourselves of the new readings of the Bamberg

MS., which has been so admirably collated by M. Ian. In a vast number

of passages previously looked upon as hopelessly corrupt, or else not at all

suspected of being in a mutilated state, this MS. supplies words and clauses,

the existence of which in the original was hitherto unknown; indeed by its

aid the indefatigable Sillig has been enabled, if we may be allowed the

term, almost to rewrite the last six Books of Pliny. From a perusal of

these new readings, as Dr. Smith has justly remarked, we have reason to

infer "that the text of the earlier Books is still in a very defective state,

and that much of the obscurity of Pliny may be traced to this cause."




4. Chap. 4.-Marvels Of The Red Sea.


CHAP. 4.-MARVELS OF THE RED SEA.



Juba, in those books descriptive of Arabia, which he has

dedicated to Caius Csar, the son of Augustus, informs us that

there are mussels[1] on those coasts, the shells of which are

capable of holding three semisextarii; and that, on one occasion,

a whale,[2] six hundred feet in length and three hundred

and sixty feet broad,[3] made its way up a river of Arabia,







the blubber of which was bought up by the merchants there.

He tells us, too, that in those parts they anoint their camels

with the grease of all kinds of fish, for the purpose of keeping

off the gad-flies[4] by the smell.







1. Mituli. See B. ix. c. 74.

2. "Cetos."

3. Ajasson remarks, in confutation of this story, that there are few

rivers in Arabia of such a breadth.

4. See B. xi. c. 34.




5. Chap. 5. (2.)-The Instincts Of Fishes.


CHAP. 5. (2.)-THE INSTINCTS OF FISHES.



The statements which Ovid has made as to the instincts

of fish, in the work[1] of his known as the "Halieuticon,"[2]

appear to me truly marvellous. The scarus,[3] for instance,

when enclosed in the wicker kype, makes no effort to escape

with its head, nor does it attempt to thrust its muzzle between

the oziers; but turning its tail towards them, it enlarges the

orifices with repeated blows therefrom, and so makes its escape

backwards. Should,[4] too, another scarus, from without, chance

to see it thus struggling within the kype, it will take the tail

of the other in its mouth, and so aid it in its efforts to escape.

The lupus,[5] again, when surrounded with the net, furrows[6]

the sand with its tail, and so conceals itself, until the net has

passed over it. The murna,[7] trusting in the slippery smoothness[8]

of its rounded back, boldly faces the meshes of the net,

and by repeatedly wriggling its body, makes its escape. The

polyp[9] makes for the hooks, and, without swallowing the bait,

clasps it with its feelers; nor does it quit its hold until it has

eaten off the bait, or perceives itself being drawn out of the

water by the rod.



The mullet,[10] too, is aware[11] that within the bait there is a

hook concealed, and is on its guard against the ambush; still

however, so great is its voracity, that it beats the hook with

its tail, and strikes away from it the bait. The lupus,[12] again,







shows less foresight and address, but repentance at its imprudence

arms it with mighty strength; for, when caught by the

hook, it flounders from side to side, and so widens the wound,

till at last the insidious hook falls from its mouth. The murna[13]

not only swallows the hook, but catches at the line

with its teeth, and so gnaws it asunder. The anthias,[14] Ovid

says, the moment it finds itself caught by the hook, turns its

body with its back downwards, upon which there is a sharp

knife-like fin, and so cuts the line asunder.



According to Licinius Macer, the murna is of the female

sex only, and is impregnated by serpents, as already[15] mentioned;

and hence it is that the fishermen, to entice it from its

retreat, and catch it, make a hissing noise in imitation of the

hissing of a serpent. He states, also, that by frequently beating

the water it is made to grow fat, that a blow with a stout

stick will not kill it, but that a touch with a stalk of fennel-

giant[16]

is instantly fatal. That in the case of this animal, the

life is centred in the tail, there can be no doubt, as also that

it dies immediately on that part of the body being struck;

while, on the other hand, there is considerable difficulty in

killing it with a blow upon the head. Persons who have

come in contact with the razor-fish[17] smell of iron.[18] The

hardest of all fishes, beyond a doubt, is that known as the

"orbis:"[19] it is spherical, destitute[20] of scales, and all head.[21]











1. Of this work, begun by Ovid during his banishment in Pontus, and

probably never completed, only a fragment of one hundred and thirty-two

lines has come down to us. Pliny again makes reference to it, in the last

Chapter of the present Book.

2. Or "Treatise on Fishes."

3. See B. ix. c. 69, and B. xi. c. 61.

4. Quoted from the Halieuticon.

5. The wolf fish. The Perca labrax of Linnus. See B. ix. cc. 24,

28, 74, 79, and B. x. c. 89.

6. From the Halieuticon of Ovid.

7. See B. ix. cc. 14, 35, 39, 48, 74, 79, 81.

8. From the Halieuticon.

9. From the Halieuticon.

10. See B. ix. cc. 21, 26, 67.

11. From the Halieuticon.

12. From the Halieuticon. See Note 31 above, if indeed the same fish

is meant. See also B. xxxi. c. 44, and the Note.

13. From the Halieuticon.

14. See B. ix. c. 85.

15. In B. ix. c. 39. Aristotle, however, as there stated, was not of the

same opinion.

16. See B. xx. c. 98.

17. "Novacula piscis." Pliny is the only ancient author that mentions

this fish. There are numerous varieties of it, among which the best known

are the Coryphna novacula of Linnus, the Rason of the Mediterranean,

highly esteemed as an article of food, and the Coryphna pentedactyle of

Bloch, identical with the Hemiptronote cinq taches, of Lacpde.

18. An absurdity, owing, no doubt, to its name.

19. Or "globe-fish." The Mola, orbis marinus, or sun-fish of modern

Natural History, the Lune de mer, or poisson-lune of the French. Though

the skin is harsh and tough, there is no firmness in its flesh, which is of a

gluey consistency.

20. In reality it has scales, but they are almost imperceptible, from

their minuteness.

21. Or rather, as Dalechamps observes, "all belly."




6. Chap. 6.-Marvellous Properties Belonging To Certain Fishes.


CHAP. 6.-MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGING TO CERTAIN FISHES.



Trebius Niger informs us that whenever the loligo[1] is seen

darting above the surface of the water, it portends a change

of weather: that the xiphias,[2] or, in other words, the swordfish,

has a sharp-pointed muzzle, with which it is able to pierce

the sides of a ship and send it to the bottom: instances of

which have been known near a place in Mauritania, known as

Cotte, not far from the river Lixus.[3] He says, too, that the

loligo sometimes darts above the surface, in such vast numbers,

as to sink the ships upon which they fall.







1. See B. ix. cc. 44, 45, and B. xviii. c. 87.

2. See B. ix. cc. 1, 21 and c. 53 of the present Book. There are two varieties

of it, the Xiphias gladius of Bloch and Lacpde, and the

Xiphias machra of Shaw.

3. See B. v. c. 1.




7. Chap. 7.-Places Where Fish Eat From The Hand.


CHAP. 7.-PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND.



At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the

fish eat[1] from the hand: but the stories of this nature, told

with such admiration by the ancients, bear reference to lakes

formed by Nature, and not to fish-preserves; that at Elorus, a

fortified place in Sicily, for instance, not far from Syracuse.

In the fountain, too, of Jupiter, at Labranda,[2] there are eels

which eat from the hand, and wear ear-rings,[3] it is said. The

same, too, at Chios, near the Old Men's Temple[4] there; and

at the Fountain of Chabura in Mesopotamia, already mentioned.[5]







1. Martial, B. iv. Ep. 30, speaks of this being the case at the fishponds

of Bai, where the Emperor's fish were in the habit of making

their appearance when called by name.

2. A village of Caria, celebrated for its sanctuary of Zeus Stratios.

lian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 30, says that there was a spring of clear

water, within the sanctuary, which contained fish with golden necklaces and

rings.

3. "Inaures." He probably means ornaments suspended from the

gills, a thing which, in the case of eels, might be done.

4. "Senum delubrum." lian speaks of tame fish in the Old Men's

Harbour (limh\n) at Chios.

5. In B. xxxi. c. 22.




8. Chap. 8.-Places Where Fish Recognize The Human Voice. Oracular Responses Given By Fish.


CHAP. 8.-PLACES WHERE FISH RECOGNIZE THE HUMAN VOICE.

ORACULAR RESPONSES GIVEN BY FISH.



At Myra, too, in Lycia, the fish in the Fountain of Apollo,







known as Surium, appear and give oracular presages, when

thrice summoned by the sound of a flute. If they seize the

flesh thrown to them with avidity, it is a good omen for the

person who consults them; but if, on the other hand, they

flap at it with their tails, it is considered an evil presage. At

Hierapolis[1] in Syria, the fish in the Lake of Venus there obey

the voice of the officers of the temple: bedecked with ornaments

of gold, they come at their call, fawn upon them while

they are scratched, and open their mouths so wide as to admit

of the insertion of the hands.



Off the Rock of Hercules, in the territory of Stabi[2] in

Campania, the melanuri[3] seize with avidity bread that is thrown

to them in the sea, but they will never approach any bait in

which there is a hook concealed.







1. The seat of the worship of the half-fish goddess Addirga, Atergatis,

Astarte, or Derceto. See B. v. c. 19. The original names of Hierapolis

(the Holy City) were Bambyce and Mabog.

2. See B. iii. c. 9.

3. A Greek name signifying "black-tails." See c. 53 of this Book.

Holland translates it "the black-tailed ruffe" or "sea-bream."




9. Chap. 9.-Places Where Bitter Fish Are Found, Salt, Or Sweet.


CHAP. 9.-PLACES WHERE BITTER FISH ARE FOUND, SALT, OR SWEET.



Nor is it by any means the least surprising fact, that off the

island of Pele,[1] the town of Clazomen,[2] the rock[3] [of

Scylla] in Sicily, and in the vicinity of Leptis in Africa,[4]

Euba, and Dyrrhachium,[5] the fish are bitter. In the neighbourhood

of Cephallenia, Ampelos, Paros, and the rocks of

Delos, the fish are so salt by nature that they might easily be

taken to have been pickled in brine. In the harbour, again,

of the last-mentioned island, the fish are sweet: differences,

all of them, resulting, no doubt, from the diversity[6] of their

food.



Apion says that the largest among the fishes is the seapig,[7]

known to the Lacedmonians as the "orthagoriscos;"







he states also that it grunts[8] like a hog when taken. These

accidental varieties in the natural flavour of fish-a thing that

is still more surprising-may, in some cases, be owing to the

nature of the locality; an apposite illustration of which is, the

well-known fact that, at Beneventum[9] in Italy, salted provisions

of all kinds require[10] to be salted over again.







1. See B. v. c. 38.

2. See B. v. c. 31, and B. xxxi. c. 43.

3. See B. iii. c. 14.

4. See B. v. cc. 3, 4.

5. See B. iii. cc. 16, 26.

6. Ajasson thinks that this may possibly be true to some small extent.

7. Identical with the fish called "orbis," already mentioned in c. 5 of

this Book. Ajasson remarks that though these fish have been known to

weigh as much as three hundred pounds, there are many others which

grow to a larger size, the sturgeon, and the silurus, for instance.

8. Ajasson thinks that this notion may possibly have been derived from

the name, which not improbably was given to it from the spongy and

oleaginous nature of the flesh.

9. See B. iii. c. 16.

10. Owing, perhaps, to the moisture of the atmosphere.




10. Chap. 10.-When Sea-Fish Were First Eaten By The People Of Rome. The Ordinance Of King Numa As To Fish.


CHAP. 10.-WHEN SEA-FISH WERE FIRST EATEN BY THE PEOPLE OF ROME. THE ORDINANCE OF KING NUMA AS TO FISH.



Cassius Hemina informs us that sea-fish have been in use

at Rome from the time of its foundation. I will give his own

words, however, upon the subject:-"Numa ordained that fish

without[1] scales should not be served up at the Festivals of

the Gods; a piece of frugality, the intention of which was,

that the banquets, both public and private, as well as the

repasts laid before the couches[2] of the gods, might be provided

at a smaller expense than formerly: it being also his

wish to preclude the risk that the caterers for the sacred

banquets would spare no expense in buying provisions, and so

forestall the market."







1. We learn from Festus, that he prohibited the use also of the scarus,

a fish with scales.

2. "Ad pulvinaria." Literally, "At the cushions;" in reference to

the practice of placing the statues of the gods upon pillows at the Lectisternia,

which were sacrifices in the nature of feasts, at which images of

the gods were placed reclining on couches, with tables and food before

them, as if they were really partaking of the things offered in sacrifice.

Livy, B. v. c. 13. gives an account of a Lectisternium celebrated with great

pomp, which he asserts to have been the first instance of the practice.




15. Chap. 15.-Remedies Derived From The Aquatic Animals, Classified According To The Respective Diseases.


CHAP. 15.-REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AQUATIC ANIMALS,

CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE RESPECTIVE DISEASES.



We will now proceed to classify the various remedies derived

from the aquatic animals, according to the several diseases;

not that we are by any means unaware that an exposition

of all the properties of each animal at once, would be

more to the reader's taste, and more likely to excite his admi-







ration; but because we consider it more conducive to the

practical benefit of mankind to have the various recipes thus

grouped and classified; seeing that this thing may <*> good for

one patient, that for another, and that some of these remedies

may be more easily met with in one place and some in another.












29. Chap. 29.-Remedies For Cough And Diseases Of The Chest.


CHAP. 29.-REMEDIES FOR COUGH AND DISEASES OF THE CHEST.



Surmullets act as an emetic, dried and pounded, and taken

in drink. Castoreum, taken fasting, with a small quantity of

hammoniacum[1] in oxymel, is extremely good for asthma:

spasms, too, in the stomach are assuaged by taking a similar

potion with warm oxymel. Frogs stewed in their own liquor

in the saucepan, the same way in fact that fish are dressed,

are good for a cough, it is said. In some cases, also, frogs are

suspended by the legs, and after their juices[2] have been received

in a platter, it is recommended to gut them, and the entrails

being first carefully removed, to preserve them for the above







purpose. There is a small frog,[3] also, which ascends trees, and

croaks aloud there: if a person suffering from cough spits into

its mouth and then lets it go, he will experience a cure, it is said.

For cough attended with spitting of blood, it is recommended

to beat up the raw flesh of a snail, and to drink it in hot water.







1. It is not clear whether he means the gum ammoniac of B. xii. c. 49,

and B. xxiv. c. 14, or the sal ammoniac of B. xxxi. c. 39.

2. " Saliva." See the recipe of Sallustius Dionysius in Chapter 26 of

this Book.

3. The Dryophites of Rondelet, Dalechamps says.




36. Chap. 37.-Remedies For Epilepsy.


CHAP. 37.-REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.



Epileptic patients, as already[1] stated, are recommended to

drink the rennet of the sea-calf,[2] mixed with mares' milk or

asses' milk, or else with pomegranate juice, or, in some cases,

with oxymel: some persons, too, swallow the rennet by itself,

in the form of pills. Castoreum[3] is sometimes administered, in

three cyathi of oxymel, to the patient fasting; but where the

attacks are frequent, it is employed in the form of a clyster,

with marvellous effect. The proper proportions, in this last case,

are two drachm of castoreum, one sextarius of oil and honey,

and the same quantity of water. At the moment that the

patient is seized with a fit, it is a good plan to give him castoreum,

with vinegar, to smell. The liver, too, of the sea-

weasel[4]

is given to epileptic patients, or else that of sea-mice,[5]

or the blood of tortoises.







1. In B. viii. c. 49.

2. See Note 14 above.

3. See Chapter 13 of the present Book.

4. See B. ix. c. 29.

5. See B. ix. cc. 35, 76.




38. Chap. 39.-Remedies For Lethargy, Cachexy, And Dropsy.


CHAP. 39.-REMEDIES FOR LETHARGY, CACHEXY, AND DROPSY.



Strombi,[1] left to putrefy in vinegar, act as an excitant upon

lethargic patients by their smell; they are very useful, too,

for the cure of cardiac diseases. For cachectic patients, where

the body is wasting with consumption, tethe[2] are considered

beneficial, mixed with rue and honey. For the cure of

dropsy, dolphin's fat is melted and taken with wine, the repulsive

taste of it being neutralized by first touching the

nostrils with unguent or some other odoriferous substance, or

else by plugging the nostrils in some way or other. The flesh

of strombi, pounded and given in three hemin of honied

wine and the same quantity of water, or, if there is fever,

in hydromel, is very useful for dropsy: the same, too, with

the juice of river-crabs, administered with honey. Water

frogs, too, are boiled with old wine and spelt,[3] and taken as

food, the liquor in which they have been boiled being drunk

from the same vessel: or else the feet, head, and tail of a

tortoise are cut off, and the intestines removed, the rest of

the flesh being seasoned in such a manner as to allow of

its being taken without loathing. River-crabs, too, eaten with

their broth, are said to be very good for the cure of phthisis.







1. See Chapter 29 of this Book.

2. See Chapters 30 and 31 of the present Book.

3. See B. xviii. c. 19.




39. Chap. 40.-Remedies For Burns And For Erysipelas.


CHAP. 40.-REMEDIES FOR BURNS AND FOR ERYSIPELAS.



Burns are cured by applying ashes of calcined sea-crabs or

river-crabs with oil: fish-glue, too, and calcined frogs are

used as an application for scalds produced by boiling water.

The same treatment also restores the hair, provided the ashes

are those of river-crabs: it is generally thought, too, that the

preparation should be applied with wax and bears' grease.

Ashes, too, of burnt beaver-skin are very useful for these

purposes. Live frogs act as a check upon crysipelas, the belly

side being applied to the part affected: it is recommended,

too, to attach them lengthwise by the hinder legs, so as to

render them more beneficial by reason of their increased respiration.[1]

Heads, too, of salted siluri[2] are reduced to ashes

and applied with vinegar.



Prurigo and itch-scab, not only in man but in quadrupeds







as well, are most efficaciously treated with the liver of the

pastinaca[3] boiled in oil.







1. "Crebriore anhelitu."

2. See B. ix. cc. 17, 25, 75.

3. Or sting-ray. See B. ix. cc. 37, 40, 67, 72.




40. Chap. 41.-Remedies For Diseases Of The Sinews.


CHAP. 41.-REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE SINEWS.



The exterior callosity with which the flesh of purples is

covered, beaten up, unites the sinews, even when they have

been severed asunder. It is a good plan, for patients suffering

from tetanus, to take sea-calf's rennet in wine, in doses of one

obolus, as also fish-glue.[1] Persons affected with fits of trembling

find much relief from castoreum,[2] provided they are

well anointed with oil. I find it stated that the surmullet,[3]

used as an article of diet, acts injuriously upon the sinews.







1. Ichthyocolla. See Chapter 24 of this Book.

2. See Chapter 13 of this Book.

3. See B. ix. c. 30.




42. Chap. 43.-Methods Of Extracting Foreign Bodies From The Flesh.


CHAP. 43.-METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN BODIES FROM

THE FLESH.



To extract pointed weapons which have pierced the flesh,

ashes of calcined shells of the spia are used, as also of the







purple, the meat of salted fish, bruised river-crabs, or flesh

of the silurus[1] (a river-fish that is found in other streams

as well as the Nilus[2]), applied either fresh or salted. The

ashes also of this fish, as well as the fat, have the property of

extracting pointed bodies, and the back-bone, in a calcined

state, is used as a substitute for spodium.[3]







1. See B. ix. cc. 17, 25, 75.

2. See B. ix. c. 17. Ajasson says that it is also found of enormous

size, in the Danube and in the Theisse.

3. See B. xxxiv. c. 33.




43. Chap. 44.-Remedies For Ulcers, Carcinomata, And Carbuncles.


CHAP. 44.-REMEDIES FOR ULCERS, CARCINOMATA, AND CARBUNCLES.



Ulcers of a serpiginous nature, as also the fleshy excrescences

which make their appearance in them, are kept in check by

applying ashes of calcined heads of mn,[1] or else ashes of

the silurus.[2] Carcinomata, too, are treated with heads of

salted perch, their efficacy being considerably increased by

using some salt along with the ashes, and kneading them up

with heads of cunila[3] and olive-oil. Ashes of sea-crabs, calcined

with lead, arrest the progress of carcinomatous sores: a

purpose for which ashes of river-crabs, in combination with

honey and fine lint, are equally useful; though there are some

authorities which prefer mixing alum and barley with the

ashes. Phagednic ulcers are cured by an application of

dried silurus pounded with sandarach;[4] malignant cancers,

corrosive ulcers, and putrid sores, by the agency of stale

cybium.[5]



Maggots that breed in sores are removed by applying frogs'

gall; and fistulas are opened and dried by introducing a tent

made of salt fish, with a dossil of lint. Salt fish, kneaded up

and applied in the form of a plaster, will remove all proud

flesh in the course of a day, and will arrest the further progress

of putrid and serpiginous ulcers. Alex,[6] applied in

lint, acts detergently, also, upon ulcers; the same, too, with the

ashes of calcined shells of sea-urchins. Salted slices of the

coracinus[7] disperse carbuncles, an effect equally produced by

the ashes of salted surmullets.[8] Some persons, however, use







the head only of the surmullet, in combination with honey

or with the flesh of the coracinus. Ashes of the murex, applied

with oil, disperse tumours, and the gall of the sea-scorpion

makes scars disappear.







1. See B. ix. c. 42.

2. See Note 55 above.

3. "Cunila capitata." See B. xx. c. 65.

4. See B. xxxiv. c. 55.

5. Tunny sliced and salted; see B. ix. c. 18.

6. See B. xxxi. c. 44.

7. See B. ix. cc. 24, 32.

8. See B. ix. c. 30.




46. Chap. 47.-Methods Of Removing Superfluous Hair. Depilatories.


CHAP. 47.-METHODS OF REMOVING SUPERFLUOUS HAIR.

DEPILATORIES.



Depilatories are prepared from the blood, gall, and liver of the

tunny, either fresh or preserved; as also from pounded liver of

the same fish, preserved with cedar resin[1] in a leaden box; a re-







cipe which we find given by the midwife Salpe[2] for disguising

the age of boys on sale for slaves. A similar property belongs

to the pulmo marinus,[3] to the blood and gall of the sea-hare,

and to the sea-hare itself, stifled in oil. The same, too, with

ashes of burnt crabs or sea scolopendr,[4] mixed with oil;

sea-nettles,[5] bruised in squill vinegar; and brains of the torpedo[6]

applied with alum on the sixteenth day of the moon.

The thick matter emitted by the small frogs, which we have

described when treating[7] of eye-diseases, is a most efficient

depilatory, if applied fresh: the same, too, with the frog itself,

dried and pounded, and then boiled down to one-third in three

hemin of water, or else boiled in a copper vessel with oil in a

like proportion. Others, again, prepare a depilatory from fifteen

frogs, in manner already[8] stated under the head of remedies

for the eyes. Leeches, also, grilled in an earthen vessel, and

applied with vinegar, have the same property as a depilatory;

the very odour, too, which attaches to the persons who thus burn

them is singularly efficacious for killing bugs.[9] Cases are to be

found, too, where persons have used castoreum with honey,

for many days together, as a depilatory. In the case, however,

of every depilatory, the hairs should always be removed before

it is applied.







1. "Cedrium." See B. xvi. c. 21, and B. xxiv. c. 11.

2. See end of B. xxviii.

3. Or "sea-lungs." See Chapter 36 of this Book.

4. See B. ix. c. 67

5. See B. ix. c. 68.

6. See Note 90 above.

7. In Chapter 24 of this Book.

8. See the preceding Note.

9. See Chapter 42 of this Book.




47. Chap. 48.-Remedies For The Diseases Of Infants.


CHAP. 48.-REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.



Dentition in infants is promoted, and the gums greatly relieved,

by rubbing them with ashes of a dolphin's teeth,

mixed with honey, or else by touching the gums with the tooth

itself of that fish. One of these teeth, worn as an amulet, is

a preventive of sudden frights;[1] the tooth of the dog-fish[2]

being also possessed of a similar property. As to ulcers which

make their appearance in the ears, or in any other parts of the

body, they may be cured by applying the liquor of river-crabs,[3]

with barley-meal. These crabs, too, bruised in oil and employed

as a friction, are very useful for other kinds of maladies. A







sponge moistened with cold water from time to time,[4] or a frog

applied, the back part to the head, is a most efficacious cure for

siriasis[5] in infants. When the frog is removed, it will be found

quite dry, they say.







1. In the case of infants, probably.

2. "Canicula." See B. ix. cc. 11, 70.

3. Or "crawfish,"

4. "Crebro humefacto" seems a preferable reading to "cerebro humefacto,"

though supported by the Bamberg MS.

5. See B. xxii. c. 29, and B. xxx. c. 47.




50. Chap. 51.-Remedies For The Diseases Of Animals.


CHAP. 51.-REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF ANIMALS.



A decoction of frogs in water, reduced to the form of a lini-







ment, is curative of itch-scab in horses; indeed, it is said, that

a horse, when once treated in this manner, will never again

be attacked with the disease. Salpe says that if a live frog

is given to dogs in their mess, they will lose the power of

barking.










52. Chap. 53. (11.)-The Names Of All The Animals That Exist In The Sea, One Hundred And Seventy-Six In Number.


CHAP. 53. (11.)-THE NAMES OF ALL THE ANIMALS THAT EXIST

IN THE SEA, ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX IN NUMBER.



Having now completed our exposition of the properties which

belong to the aquatic productions, it would appear by no means

foreign to my purpose to give a list of the various animated

beings which inhabit the seas; so many as these are in number,

of such vast extent, and not only making their way into

the interior of the land to a distance of so many miles, but also

surrounding the exterior of it to an extent almost equal to that

of the world itself. These animals, it is generally considered,

embrace one hundred and seventy-six different[1] species, and it

will be my object to set them forth, each by its distinct name,

a thing that cannot possibly be done in reference to the terrestrial

animals and the birds.



For, in fact, we are by no means acquainted with all the

wild beasts or all the birds that are to be found in India, thiopia,

Scythia, or the desert regions of the earth; and even of

man himself there are numerous varieties, which as yet we

have been unable[2] to make ourselves acquainted with. In addition,

too, to the various countries above mentioned, we have

Taprobane[3] and other isles of the Ocean, about which so many

fabulous stories are related. Surely then, every one must allow

that it is quite impossible to comprise every species of animal in

one general view for the information of mankind. And yet, by

Hercules! in the sea and in the Ocean, vast as it is, there exists

nothing that is unknown to us,[4] and, a truly marvellous fact,

it is with those things which Nature has concealed in the deep

that we are the best acquainted!



To begin then with the monsters[5] that are found in this ele-







ment. We here find sea-trees,[6] physeters,[7] baln,[8] pistrices,[9]

tritons,[10] nereids,[11] elephants,[12] the creatures known as seamen,[13]

sea-wheels,[14] ore,[15] sea-rams,[16] musculi,[17] other fish too

with the form of rams,[18] dolphins,[19] sea-calves,[20] so celebrated by

Homer,[21] tortoises[22] to minister to our luxury, and beavers, so

extensively employed in medicine,[23] to which class belongs

the otter,[24] an animal which we nowhere find frequenting the

sea, it being only of the marine animals that we are speaking.

There are dog-fish,[25] also, drinones,[26] cornut,[27] swordfish,[28]

saw-fish,[29] hippopotami[30] and crocodiles,[31] common to the

sea, the land, and the rivers; tunnies[32] also, thynnides, siluri,[33]

coracini,[34] and perch,[35] common to the sea only and to rivers.



To the sea only, belong also the acipenser,[36] the dorade,[37]

the asellus,[38] the acharne,[39] the aphye,[40] the alopex,[41] the







eel,[42] the araneus,[43] the boca,[44] the batia,[45] the bacchus,[46] the batrachus,[47]

the belon,[48] known to us as "aculeati,"[49] the balanus,[50]

the corvus,[51] the citharus, the least esteemed of all the

turbots, the chalcis,[52] the cobio,[53] the callarias,[54] which would

belong to the genus of the aselli[55] were it not smaller; the

colias,[56] otherwise known as the fish of Parium[57] or of Sexita,[58]

this last from a place of that name in Btica its native region,

the smallest, too, of the lacerti;[59] the colias of the

Motis, the next smallest of the lacerti; the cybium,[60] (the

name given, when cut into pieces, to the pelamis[61] which returns

at the end of forty days from the Euxine to the Palus

Motis); the cordyla[62]-which is also a small pelamis, so

called at the time when it enters the Euxine from the Palus

Motis-the cantharus,[63] the callionymus[64] or uranoscopus,

the cindus, the only[65] fish that is of a yellow colour; the

cnide, known to us as the sea-nettle;[66] the different kinds of







crabs,[67] the striated chem,[68] the smooth chem, the chem

belonging to the genus of pelorides,[69] all differing in the variety

of their colours and in the roundness of the shells; the

chem glycymarides,[70] still larger than the pelorides; the coluthia

or coryphia;[71] the various kinds of shellfish, among

which we find the pearl oysters,[72] the cochle,[73] (belonging to

which class are the pentadactyli,[74]) the helices,[75] by some known

as actinophori, the spokes[76] on whose shells are used for musical

purposes;[77] and, in addition to these, the round cochle, the

shells of which are used in measuring oil, as also the seacucumber,[78] the cynopos,[79] the cammarus,[80] and the cynosdexia.[81]



Next to these we have the sea-dragon,[82] a fish which, according

to some, is altogether distinct from the dracunculus,[83] and

resembles the gerricula in appearance, it having on the gills a

stickle which points towards the tail and inflicts a wound like

that of the scorpion[84] when the fish is handled-the erythinus,[85]

the echenes,[86] the sea-urchin,[87] the sea-elephant, a black

kind of crayfish, with four forked legs, in addition to two

arms with double joints, and furnished, each of them, with

a pair of claws, indented at the edge; the faber,[88] also, or

zus, the glauciscus,[89] the glanis,[90] the gonger,[91] the gerres,[92]







the galeos,[93] the garos,[94] the hippos,[95] the hippuros,[96] the hirundo,[97]

the halipleumon,[98] the hippocampus,[99] the hepar,[100] the

ictinus[101] and the iulis.[102] There are various kinds also of lacerti,[103]

the springing loligo,[104] the crayfish,[105] the lantern-fish,[106]

the lepas,[107] the larinus, the sea-hare,[108] and the sea-lion,[109] with

arms like those of the crab, and in the other parts of the body

like the cray-fish.



We have the surmullet[110] also, the sea black-bird,[111] highly

esteemed among the rock-fish; the mullet,[112] the melanurus,[113]

the mna,[114] the motis,[115] the murna,[116] the mys,[117] the mitulus,[118]

the myiscus,[119] the murex,[120] the oculata,[121] the ophidion,[122]

the oyster,[123] the otia,[124] the orcynus-the largest of all the pelamides[125] and one that never returns to the Palus Motis, like

the tritomus[126] in appearance, and best when old-the orbis,[127]







the orthagoriscus,[128] the phager,[129] the phycis[130] a rock-fish, the

pelamis,[131] (the largest kind of which is called "apolectum,"[132]

and is tougher than the tritomus) the sea-pig,[133] the phthir,[134]

the sea-sparrow,[135] the pastinaca,[136] the several varieties of the

polyp,[137] the scallop,[138] which is larger and more swarthy in

summer than at other times, and the most esteemed of which

are those of Mitylene,[139] Tyndaris,[140] Salon,[141] Altinum,[142] the

island of Chios, and Alexandria in Egypt; the small scallop,[143]

the purple,[144] the pegris,[145] the pinna,[146] the pinnotheres,[147] the

rhine[148] or squalus of the Latins, the turbot,[149] the scarus[150] a

fish which holds the first rank at the present day; the sole,[151] the

sargus,[152] the squilla,[153] the sarda[154]-such being the name of an

elongated pelamis[155] which comes from the Ocean; the scomber,[156]

the salpa,[157] the sorus,[158] the scorpna,[159] the sea-scorpion,[160] the solas,[161]

the scina,[162] the sciadeus,[163] the scolopendra,[164] the smyrus,[165]

the spia,[166] the strombus,[167] the solen,[168] otherwise known as the







aulos, donax, onyx or dactylus; the spondylus,[169] the smaris,[170]

the starfish,[171] and the sponges.[172] There is the sea-thrush[173] also,

famous among the rock-fish, the thynnis,[174] the thranis, by some

writers known as the xiphias;[175] the thrissa,[176] the torpedo,[177] the

tethea,[178] the tritomus, a large kind of pelamis,[179] which admits

of being cut into three cybia;[180] the shells of Venus,[181] the grapefish,[182]

and the xiphias.[183]







1. Some MSS. have here "164," the Bamberg MS. and others" 144."

Owing to the corrupt state of the text in many parts of this Chapter, it is

impossible to say which reading is correct.

2. "Invenire non potuimus" seems a preferable reading to "invenire

potuimus."

3. Modern Ceylon. See B. vi. cc. 23, 24, B. vii. c. 2, and B. ix. c. 54.

4. "Qu nascuntur certa sunt." A bold assertion. The various fishes

now known amount to many thousands; and there are still vast numbers,

no doubt, with which science has not hitherto become acquainted.

5. "Bellu."

6. He may possibly allude to the plants mentioned in B. xiii. cc. 48, 49,

50, 51, and 52; though Hardouin seems to think it impossible to discover

what he means, seeing that he is speaking of sea-monsters, beings

with animal life. See also B. ix. c. 3.

7. See B. ix. c. 3.

8. See B. ix. cc. 2, 5.

9. See B. ix. c. 3; probably the same as the "pristis" of B. ix. c. 2.

10. See B. ix. c. 4.

11. See B. ix. c. 4.

12. See B. ix. c. 4.

13. "Homines marini." See B. ix. c. 4.

14. See B. ix. c. 3.

15. See B. ix. c. 5.

16. See B. ix. c. 4.

17. See B. ix. c. 88, and B. xi. c. 62

18. See B. ix. c. 67.

19. See B. ix. c. 7.

20. See B. ix. c. 15.

21. Odyssey, B. iv. 1. 436.

22. Turtles. See B. ix. c. 13.

23. See Chapter 13 of this Book.

24. See B. viii. c. 47; also Chapters 26 and 32 of this Book.

25. See B. ix. c. 70.

26. The name of a fish unknown. Sillig conjectures that Pliny may

have had in view the fish called "dromades" by Aristotle. "Dromones"

is another reading, a sort of small crab.

27. Littr translates this "horned ray."

28. "Gladii." See B. ix. cc. 1, 21; the same, probably, as the "xiphias"

mentioned at the end of this Chapter.

29. See B. ix. c. 1.

30. See B. viii. c. 39.

31. See B. viii. c. 37.

32. See B. ix. cc. 18, 20. Holland says, "Some take 'thynni' for the

milters, and 'thynnides' for the spawners." In his translation, however,

he identifies the "thynnides" with the "pelamides," or young tunnies,

mentioned in this Chapter, and in B. ix. c. 18.

33. See B. ix. cc. 17, 25.

34. See B. ix. cc. 24, 32.

35. "Per." See B. ix. c. 24.

36. See B. ix. c. 27.

37. "Aurata." See B. ix. c. 25.

38. See B. ix. cc. 25, 28.

39. Considered by some to be the whiting. Littr identifies it with the

Perca labrax of Linnus.

40. See B. ix. c. 74; where it is called "apua."

41. The "sea-fox." See B. ix. c. 67.

42. "Anguilla." See B. ix. cc. 2, 37, 38.

43. Or sea-spider. See B. ix. c. 72.

44. The same as the bogue of the coasts of Narbonne, according to Rondelet,

B. v. c. 11.

45. See Chapter 25 of the present Book.

46. See B. ix. c. 28.

47. Or frog.fish. See B. ix. c. 40.

48. "Sea-needles." Identified by some with the horn-fish, horn-back,

or needle-fish.

49. "Needle-fish."

50. "Acorn-fish." A shell-fish, according to Rondelet, B. i. c. 30,

which frequents the clefts of rocks.

51. "Sea-raven." According to some authorities, identical with the

Trigla hirundo of Linnus. Hardouin says that it is the fish called capone

by the people of Rome.

52. See B. ix. c. 71

53. The same, probably, as the "gobio," mentioned in B. ix. c. 83.

54. See B. ix. c. 28.

55. See B. ix. cc. 25, 28.

56. Thought by some to be a kind of mackerel, by others to be a tunny.

Rondelet says, B. viii. c. 8, that it is a fish still called coguiol by the people

of Marseilles.

57. In the Hellespont.

58. Or Sexis, according to Pintianus.

59. Or "sea-lizards."

60. See B. ix. c. 18. He surely does not intend to include this among

his "one hundred and seventy-six different kinds of aquatic animals"!

61. Or young tunny. See B. ix. c. 18.

62. See B. ix. c. 18.

63. Rondelat says, B. v. c. 4, that it is a fish still known (in his time)

as cantheno, by the people of Narbonne. Ovid, in his Halieuticon, 1. 103,

speaks of the unpleasant flavour of its juices.

64. See Chapter 24 of the present Book.

65. Of course, as Hardouin says, he does not include the shell-fishes in

this assertion. The fish with this uncomplimentary name has not been

identified.

66. "Urtica." See B. ix. c. 68.

67. See B. ix. c. 51.

68. Or "cham;" different varieties of gaping cockles.

69. Or "monster"-cockles.

70. Or "sweet" cockles.

71. See Chapter 27 of this Book.

72. See B. ix. c. 54.

73. Or "cochli." As to the various kinds of cochle, see B. ix. c. 51.

74. "Five-fingered." So called from some peculiarity in their shape.

75. Considered by some to be the striated mussel, the Pecten of Linnus.

76. "Radii."

77. This is not improbably the meaning of the very elliptical sentence,

"Quibus radii cantant."

78. See B. ix. c. 1.

79. The "dog's-face," literally. This fish has not been identified: indeed

the reading is doubtful.

80. A kind of crab or crayfish. See B. xxvii. c. 2.

81. Literally, the "dog's right hand." This fish has not been identified:

Hardouin suggests that it may have been a zophyte.

82. See B. ix. c. 43, and Chapters 17 and 26 of this Book.

83. Or "little dragon."

84. The sea-scorpion, probably.

85. See B. ix. c. 23; also Chapters 31 and 50 of this Book.

86. Or Remora. See B. ix. c. 41; also Chapter 1 of this Book.

87. See B. ix. cc. 14, 74.

88. See B. ix. c. 32.

89. See Chapter 46 of the present Book.

90. See B. ix. c. 67.

91. Possibly the same as the "Conger" of B. ix. c. 24.

92. A fish similar, most probably, to the "gerricula" previously mentioned.

Holland calls it a "pilchard" or "herring."

93. A kind of squalus. See B. ix. c. 70.

94. See B. xxxi. c. 43.

95. Or "horse." The crab, probably, mentioned in B. ix. c. 51.

96. See B. ix. c. 24.

97. Or sea-swallow. See B. ix. c. 43.

98. "Lungs of the sea." The same as the Pulmones, or sea-lungs, mentioned

in B. ix. c. 71, and in Chapter 36 of this Book.

99. See B. ix. c. 1.

100. Or "sea-liver." A sort of rock-fish, according to Athenus.

101. The same as the "milvus" or "sea-kite," mentioned in B. ix. c. 43.

102. See Chapter 31 of this Book. Instead of this fish and the preceding

one, most of the editions mention the "elacatenes," a cetaceous fish, according

to Athenus, much used for salting.

103. "Sea-lizards."

104. See B. ix. c. 45.

105. "Locusta." See B. ix. c. 50.

106. "Lucerna." See B. ix. c. 43.

107. Neither this fish nor the "larinus" has been identified.

108. See B. ix. c. 72, and Chapter 3 of this Book.

109. See B. ix. c. 51.

110. See B. ix. c. 30.

111. See B. ix. c. 20.

112. See B. ix. c. 26.

113. See Chapter 8 of this Book. Holland translates this-"The blacke

taile perch, (which some take for a ruffe, others for a sea-breame)."

114. See B. ix. c. 42.

115. A fish of the Nile, according to lian. "Meryx" is another

reading, a kind of Scarus, it is thought.

116. See B. ix. c. 23.

117. A shell-fish. See B. ix. c. 56.

118. See Chapter 31 of this Book.

119. See Chapter 31 of this Book.

120. See B. ix. c. 61.

121. The "eye-fish." A kind of lamprey has been suggested.

122. See Chapter 35 of this Book.

123. See B. ix. c. 21.

124. "Sea-ears." A kind of oyster, Holland says.

125. See B. ix. c. 20.

126. He speaks of it as a kind of Pelamis, a little further on.

127. The sun-fish. See Chapter 5 of this Book.

128. The same, probably, as the "orbis." See Chapters 5 and 9 of the

present Book.

129. Or phagrus. See B. ix. c. 24.

130. See B. ix. c. 42.

131. A young tunny. See B. ix. c. 20.

132. A "choice bit." See B. ix. c. 20.

133. See B. ix. c. 17.

134. This fish has not been identified.

135. See B. ix. c. 36.

136. Or sting-ray. See B. ix. c. 40.

137. See B. ix. c. 48.

138. See B. ix. c. 51.

139. See B. v. c. 39.

140. Probably the place of that name in Sicily, mentioned in B. ii. c. 94,

and B. iii. c. 14.

141. See B. iii. c. 26.

142. See B. iii. c. 22.

143. "Pectunculus." See Note 65 above.

144. See B. ix. c. 60.

145. An unknown fish. The reading is doubtful.

146. See B. ix. c. 66.

147. See B. ix. c. 66.

148. See B. ix. c. 40.

149. "Rhombus." See B. ix. c. 36.

150. See B. ix. c. 29.

151. See B. ix. c. 36.

152. See B. ix. c. 30.

153. The same, perhaps, as the "pinnotheres" of B. ix. c. 66, a kind of

shrimp.

154. See Chapter 17 of this Book.

155. See B. ix. c. 18.

156. See B. ix. c. 19.

157. See B. ix. c. 32.

158. Considered by Sillig to be the same as the "Saurus" of Chapter 28 of

this Book; the "sea-lizard," apparently.

159. It does not seem to have been identified; though Rondelet says that

it is the same as the Rascasse of the Mediterranean.

160. See B. xx. c. 53, and Chapters 23, 30, 32, 34, and 35 of this Book.

161. This fish has not been identified; indeed the reading is very doubtful.

162. See B. ix. c. 24.

163. A fish similar to the preceding one, probably; some kind of ombre,

Littr thinks.

164. See B. ix. c. 67.

165. Probably the same as the "Myrus" of B. ix. c. 39.

166. See B. ix. c. 45.

167. See Chapter 30 of this Book.

168. See Chapter 32 of this Book.

169. A sort of mollusk, Littr thinks. There is a shell-fish known as the

Spondylus gderopus of Linnus.

170. See Chapters 34, 45, and 46, of this Book

171. See B. ix. c. 86.

172. See B. ix. c. 69.

173. See B. ix. c. 20.

174. A sort of tunny, probably.

175. See Chapter 6 of this Book. Probably the same as the "gladius"

of this Chapter, and of B. ix. cc. 1, 21.

176. Considered by Littr to be the Shad.

177. See B. ix. c. 67.

178. See Chapter 30 of this Book.

179. See B. ix. c. 18.

180. See B. ix. c. 18.

181. See B. ix. c. 52, and Chapter 1 of this Book.

182. See B. ix. c. 1, and c. 49 of this Book.

183. See Note 3 above.




53. Chap. 54.-Additional Names Of Fishes Found In The Poem Of Ovid.


CHAP. 54.-ADDITIONAL NAMES OF FISHES FOUND IN THE POEM

OF OVID.



To the above enumeration we will add some names given in

the poem of Ovid,[1] which are not to be found in any other

writer: species, however, which are probably peculiar to the

Euxine, on the shores[2] of which he commenced that work

towards the close of his life. The fishes thus mentioned by

him are the sea-ox, the cercyrus, that dwells among the rocks,

the orphus,[3] the red erythinus,[4] the iulus,[5] the tinted mormyr,

the chrysophrys[6] a fish of a golden colour, the parus,[7]

the tragus,[8] the melanurus[9] remarkable for the beauty of its

tail, and the epodes,[10] a flat fish.



In addition to these remarkable kinds of fishes, the same

poet tells us that the channes[11] conceives of itself, that the







glaucus[12] never makes its appearance in summer, that the pompilus[13] always accompanies vessels in their course, and that

the chromis[14] makes its nest in the water. The helops, he

says, is unknown to our waters; from which it would appear

that those are in error who look upon it as identical with our

acipenser.[15] Many persons have given the preference to the

helops before all other fish, in point of flavour.



There are several fishes also, which have been mentioned by

no author; such, for instance, as the one called "sudis" by

the Latins, and "sphyrene" by the Greeks, names which indicate

the peculiar form of its muzzle.[16] It is one of the very

largest kinds, but rarely found, and by no means of inferior

flavour. "Perna," too, is the name given to a kind of shellfish,

found in vast numbers in the vicinity of the islands of the

Euxine. These fish are found firmly planted in the sand, resembling

in appearance the long shank[17] of a hog. Opening

wide their shells, where there is sufficient space, they lie in

wait for their prey; this opening being not less than a foot in

breadth, and the edges of it garnished around with teeth

closely set, much resembling the teeth of a comb in form.

Within the shell, the meat consists of a vast lump of flesh.

I once saw, too, a fish called the "hyna,"[18] which had been

caught off the island of naria.[19]



In addition to these animals, there are certain excretions

thrown up by the sea, which do not merit any further notice,

and indeed ought to be reckoned among the sea-weeds, rather

than looked upon as animated beings.



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine

hundred and ninety.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Licinius Macer,[20] Trebius Niger,[21]







Sextius Niger[22] who wrote in Greek, the Poet Ovid,[23] Cassius

Hemina,[24] Mcenas,[25] Iacchus,[26] Sornatius.[27]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Juba,[28] Andreas,[29] Salpe,[30]

Apion,[31] Pelops,[32] Apelles,[33] Thrasyllus,[34] Nicander.[35]









1. The Halieuticon, already mentioned in Chapter 5 of this Book.

2. At the town of Tomi, whither he was banished by Augustus Csar.

3. See B. ix. c. 24.

4. See B. ix. cc. 23, 77, and Chapters 31, 50, of this Book.

5. The same, probably, as the "iulis" mentioned in the preceding Chapter.

6. The "golden brow." The same as the "Aurata" or "dorade" of

B. ix. c. 25, and Chapters 16 and 53 of this Book.

7. An unknown fish; the reading is doubtful.

8. The "goat-fish." It does not appear to have been identified.

9. Literally, the "black tail." See the preceding Chapter.

10. According to Rondelet, a fish resembling the Coracinus.

11. See B. ix. c. 23.

12. See B. ix. c. 25.

13. See B. ix. c. 47.

14. See B. ix. c. 42.

15. See B. ix. c. 27. Ajasson is of opinion that the "helops" is the

Russian sturgeon, the "acipenser," the common sturgeon.

16. Resembling a "stake" in appearance. It has been suggested that

this is the Esox sphyrna.

17. "Perna." Hardouin says that from the diminutive of this, "pernula,"

the modern word "pearl" is derived.

18. A sort of "tursio," Dalechamps says. See B. ix. c. 11.

19. See B. iii. c. 12.

20. See end of B. xix.

21. See end of B. viii.

22. See end of B. xii.

23. See end of B. xviii.

24. See end of B. xii.

25. See end of B. ix.

26. According to Suetonius, Fescennius Iacchus was a grammarian who

taught in Cisalpine Gaul. See also B. xxxvii. c. 54.

27. See end of B. xxxi.

28. See end of B. v.

29. See end of B. xx.

30. See end of B. xxviii.

31. See end of B. xxx.

32. See end of B. xxxi.

33. See end of B. xxviii.

34. See end of B. ii.

35. See end of B. viii.




0. > Book Xxxiii. The Natural History Of Metals.


BOOK XXXIII.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.[1]







1. We now enter upon the Sixth division of Pliny's work, containing an

account of mineral substances of all descriptions.-Dr. Bostock.




1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Metals.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-METALS.



WE are now about to speak of metals, of actual wealth,[1]

the standard of comparative value, objects for which we diligently

search, within the earth, in numerous ways. In one

place, for instance, we undermine it for the purpose of obtaining

riches, to supply the exigencies of life, searching for either

gold or silver, electrum[2] or copper.[3] In another place, to

satisfy the requirements of luxury, our researches extend to

gems and pigments, with which to adorn our fingers[4] and the

walls of our houses: while in a third place, we gratify our

rash propensities by a search for iron, which, amid wars and

carnage, is deemed more acceptable even than gold. We trace

out all the veins of the earth, and yet, living upon it, undermined

as it is beneath our feet, are astonished that it should occasionally

cleave asunder or tremble: as though, forsooth, these







signs could be any other than expressions of the indignation

felt by our sacred parent! We penetrate into her entrails, and

seek for treasures in the abodes even of the Manes,[5] as though

each spot we tread upon were not sufficiently bounteous and

fertile for us!



And yet, amid all this, we are far from making remedies the

object of our researches: and how few in thus delving into the

earth have in view the promotion of medicinal knowledge! For

it is upon her surface, in fact, that she has presented us with

these substances, equally with the cereals, bounteous and ever

ready, as she is, in supplying us with all things for our benefit!

It is what is concealed from our view, what is sunk far beneath

her surface, objects, in fact, of no rapid formation,[6] that

urge us to our ruin, that send us to the very depths of hell.

As the mind ranges in vague speculation, let us only consider,

proceeding through all ages, as these operations are, when will

be the end of thus exhausting the earth, and to what point

will avarice finally penetrate! How innocent, how happy, how

truly delightful even would life be, if we were to desire nothing

but what is to be found upon the face of the earth; in a

word, nothing but what is provided ready to our hands!







1. "Ips opes." The metals were looked upon by the ancients as the

only true riches. It is in this sense that Ovid says, Metam. B. i.: "Effodiuntur

opes, irritamenta malorum." Pliny applies the term "pretia rerum"

to metals, as forming the unit of value.

2. Electrum is described in c. 23, as gold mixed with a certain quantity

of silver. The word "electrum" is also used to signify amber, as in

B. iii. c. 30.-B.

3. "s;" by "s" is here probably meant copper, as the author is speaking

of what is dug out of the earth; it is more fully described in the first two

Chapters of the next Book. According to the analysis of Klaproth, the

s of the ancients, when employed in works of art, cutting instruments,

statues, vases, &c., was the "bronze" of the moderns, a mixture of copper

and tin, in which the proportion of tin varied, from a little more than 2

to 1.14 per cent. according as the object was to procure a flexible or a

hard substance. Agricola speaks of "s" as synonymous with "cuprum,"

and Pliny will be found several times in the present Book, speaking of

"s Cyprium," meaning probably the finest kind of copper, and that without

alloy.-B.

4. Pliny has already referred to this topic in B. ii. c. 63.-B.

5. Or shades below.

6. "Illa qu non nascuntur repente."




2. Chap. 2.-Gold.


CHAP. 2.-GOLD.



Gold is dug out of the earth, and, in close proximity to it,

chrysocolla,[1] a substance which, that it may appear all the

more precious, still retains the name[2] which it has borrowed

from gold.[3] It was not enough for us to have discovered one

bane for the human race, but we must set a value too upon the

very humours of gold.[4] While avarice, too, was on the search







for silver, it congratulated itself upon the discovery of minium,[5]

and devised a use to be made of this red earth.



Alas for the prodigal inventions of man! in how many

ways have we augmented the value of things![6] In addition

to the standard value of these metals, the art of painting lends

its aid, and we have rendered gold and silver still more costly

by the art of chasing them. Man has learned how to challenge

both Nature and art to become the incitements to vice! His

very cups he has delighted to engrave with libidinous subjects,

and he takes pleasure in drinking from vessels of obscene form![7]

But in lapse of time, the metals passed out of fashion, and

men began to make no account of them; gold and silver, in

fact, became too common. From this same earth we have extracted

vessels of murrhine[8] and vases of crystal,[9] objects

the very fragility of which is considered to enhance their value.

In fact, it has come to be looked upon as a proof of opulence,

and as quite the glory of luxury, to possess that which may be

irremediably destroyed in an instant. Nor was even this

enough;-we now drink from out of a mass of gems,[10] and we

set our goblets with smaragdi;[11] we take delight in possessing

the wealth of India, as the promoter of intoxication, and gold

is now nothing more than a mere accessory.[12]











1. "Chrysocolla" is fully described in Chapter 26 of this Book.-B.

2. Meaning "gold glue," or "gold solder."

3. There is considerable variation in the text of this passage, as found in

the different editions. In that of Dalechamps, the Variorum, and those of

De Lat and Sillig, the sentence concludes with the words "nomen ex auro

custodiens;" while in those of Valpy, Lemaire, Poinsinet, Ajasson, and

others, we find substituted for them the words, "Non natura," "Nomen

natura," "Nomine natura," or "Nomen naturam."-B. The first reading

is warranted by the Bamberg MS.

4. "Auri sanies." More properly speaking, "the corrupt matter discharged

by gold." See Chapter 26.

5. "Minium" is treated of in Chapter 36 of this Book.-B.

6. "Pretia rerum." The value of the raw material.

7. Pliny here refers both to the art of producing figures in relief on drinking

vessels made of the precious metals, and also of giving them particular

forms. A well-known line of Juvenal, Sat. ii. 1. 95, affords a striking

illustration of the depraved taste which existed in his time.-B. Lampridius

also speaks of vessels of silver "defiled with representations of a most

libidinous character;" and Capitolinus speaks of "phallovitroboli," glass

drinking vessels shaped like a phallus.

8. "Murrhina" or "myrrhina," are described in B. xxxvii. c. 8; they

were, perhaps, onyxes or opals, though possibly the term was not strictly

confined to these substances, but signified any transparent minerals, that

exhibited a variety of colours. Salmasius, however, ridicules the idea of

their being onyxes, and is of opinion that these vessels were made of porcelain;

Exer. Plin. p. 144.-B.

9. See B. xxxvii. c. 9.

10. He alludes to the cups known as "chrysendeta," adorned with circlets

of gold, exquisite chasings, and groups of precious stones. See Juvenal,

Sat. v. 1. 42.

11. The "Smaragdus" is described in B. xxxvii. c. 13.

12. "Et aurum jam accessio est."




3. Chap. 3.-What Was The First Recommendation Of Gold.


CHAP. 3.-WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECOMMENDATION OF GOLD.



Would that gold could have been banished for ever from

the earth, accursed by universal report,[1] as some of the most

celebrated writers have expressed themselves, reviled by the

reproaches of the best of men, and looked upon as discovered

only for the ruin of mankind. How much more happy the

age when things themselves were bartered for one another; as

was the case in the times of the Trojan war, if we are to believe

what Homer says. For, in this way, in my opinion, was

commerce then carried on for the supply of the necessaries of

life. Some, he tells us, would make their purchases by bartering

ox-hides, and others by bartering iron or the spoil which they

had taken from the enemy:[2] and yet he himself, already an

admirer of gold, was so far aware of the relative value of things,

that Glaucus, he informs us, exchanged his arms of gold, valued

at one hundred oxen, for those of Diomedes, which were worth

but nine.[3] Proceeding upon the same system of barter, many

of the fines imposed by ancient laws, at Rome even, were

levied in cattle,[4] [and not in money].







1. "Sacrum fam." This is the reading given by the Bamberg MS.

in substitution for "aurum, sacra fames" and other readings of a similar

nature, in which Pliny was thought by the commentators to allude to the

famous lines of Virgil-

"Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,

Auri sacra fames!"

Had he alluded to the passage of Virgil, it is not probable that he would

have used the expression in the plural, "celeberrimi auctores."

2. Il. B. vii. ll. 4725.-B.

3. Il. B. vi. l. 236.

4. We may infer that this was the reason why the figure of an ox or

other animal was impressed on the earliest Roman coins.-B.




4. Chap. 4.-The Origin Of Gold Rings.


CHAP. 4.-THE ORIGIN OF GOLD RINGS.



The worst crime against mankind was committed by him

who was the first to put a ring upon his fingers: and yet we

are not informed, by tradition, who it was that first did so. For

as to all the stories told about Prometheus, I look upon them as

utterly fabulous, although I am aware that the ancients used

to represent him with a ring of iron: it was their intention,

however, to signify a chain thereby, and not an ornament.

As to the ring of Midas,[1] which, upon the collet being turned







inwards, conferred invisibility upon the wearer, who is there

that must not admit, perforce, that this story is even still

more fabulous? It was the hand, and a sinister[2] hand, too, in

every sense, that first brought gold into such high repute: not

a Roman hand, however, for upon that it was the practice to

wear a ring of iron only, and solely as an indication of warlike

prowess.



As to the usage followed by the Roman kings, it is not easy

to pronounce an opinion: the statue of Romulus in the Capitol

wears no ring, nor does any other statue-not that of L. Brutus

even-with the sole exception of those of Numa and Servius

Tullius. I am surprised at this absence of the ring, in the

case of the Tarquinii more particularly, seeing that they were

originally from Greece,[3] a country from which the use of

gold rings was first introduced; though even at the present

day the people of Lacedmon are in the habit of wearing rings

made of iron. Tarquinius Priscus, however, it is well known,

was the first who presented his son with the golden bulla,[4] on

the occasion of his slaying an enemy before he had laid aside the

prtexta;[5] from which period the custom of wearing the bulla

has been continued, a distinction confined to the children of

those who have served in the cavalry, those of other persons

simply wearing a leather thong.[6] Such being the case, I am

the more surprised that the statue of this Tarquinius should

be without a ring.



And yet, with reference to the very name of the ring, I find

that there has been considerable uncertainty. That given to







it originally by the Greeks is derived from the finger;[7] while

our ancestors styled it "ungulus;"[8] and in later times both

Greeks and Latins have given it the name of "symbolum."[9]

For a great length of time, it is quite clear, not even the

Roman senators wore rings of gold: for rings were given, and

at the public expense, to those only who were about to proceed

on an embassy to foreign nations, the reason being, I suppose,

because men of highest rank among foreign nations were perceived

to be thus distinguished. Nor was it the practice for

any person to wear these rings, except those who for this reason

had received them at the public expense; and in most instances,

it was without this distinction that the Roman generals

celebrated their public triumphs.[10] For whereas an Etruscan

crown[11] of gold was supported from behind over the head of

the victor, he himself, equally with the slave probably, who

was so supporting the crown, had nothing but a ring of

iron upon his finger.[12] It was in this manner that C. Marius

celebrated his triumph over Jugurtha; and he never assumed[13]

the golden ring, it is said, until the period of his

third consulship.[14] Those, too, who had received golden rings

on the occasion of an embassy, only wore them when in public,

resuming the ring of iron when in their houses. It is in pursuance

of this custom that even at the present day, an iron

ring[15] is sent by way of present to a woman when betrothed,

and that, too, without any stone in it.



For my own part, I do not find that any rings were used in

the days of the Trojan War; at all events, Homer nowhere







makes mention of them; for although he speaks of the practice

of sending tablets[16] by way of letter,[17] of clothes and gold and

silver plate being kept laid up in chests,[18] still he gives us to

understand that they were kept secure by the aid of a knot

tied fast, and not under a seal impressed by a ring. He does

not inform us too, that when the chiefs drew lots to ascertain

which one of them should reply to the challenge[19] of the

enemy, they made any use of rings[20] for the purpose; and when

he enumerates the articles that were manufactured at the

forge[21] of the gods, he speaks of this as being the origin[22] of

fibul[23] and other articles of female ornament, such as earrings

for example, but does not make any mention of rings.



[24] Whoever it was that first introduced the use of rings, he

did so not without hesitation; for he placed this ornament on

the left hand, the hand which is generally concealed,[25] whereas,

if he had been sure of its being an honourable distinction, it

would have been made more conspicuous upon the right. And if

any one should raise the objection that this would have acted

as an impediment to the right hand, I can only say that the

usage in more recent times fortifies my opinion, and that the

inconvenience of wearing rings on the left hand would have

been still greater, seeing that it is with the left hand that the







shield is held. We find mention made too, in Homer,[26] of men

wearing gold plaited with the hair; and hence it is that I am

at a loss to say whether the practice first originated with

females.







1. As Hardouin remarks, "This story is told by others, of Gyges, and

not of Midas." He refers to Cicero, De Off. B. iii. c. 9, in confirmation of

his assertion.-B. Both Gyges and Midas were noted for their wealth.

2. "Sinistr." The play here upon the word "sinister" cannot be so

well transferred into the English language; but it bears reference to the

double meaning of the word, "on the left hand," and "unlucky," "illomened,"

or, as we say "sinister." We may remark, that rings were

very generally employed by the Romans, not merely as ornaments, but as

indications of office and rank.-B.

3. From Corinth, it was said: Damaratus of Corinth being the father of

the first Tarquin. See B. xxxv. c. 5.

4. On the subject of "Bull," golden balls, worn hy the children of the

nobles, see Dr. Smith's Dict. Antiq. p. 168.-B.

5. As to the "Toga prtexta," see B. viii. c. 74.

6. "Lorum." This word literally signifies a leather strap or thong, and

Pliny is supposed by Hardouin to mean simply, that, in this latter case

the strap was worn without the bulla, which was in other cases attached to

it. Juvenal, Sat. v. l. 164, speaks of the "lorum" of the children of the

poor.-B.

7. Daktu/lion, from da/ktulos, a "finger."

8. Festus says that this was the Oscan name for a ring. It would

appear to be allied to the word "unguis," which means a nail of the

finger or toe, and would perhaps signify a "nail ornament."

9. As meaning a seal or signet, for which purpose, as we shall find explained

in the sequel, the ring was used.

10. This seems to be the meaning of "Vulgoque sic triumphabant."

11. As to these crowns, see B. xxi. c. 4.

12. As to some other particulars connected with this usage, see the end

of B. xxviii. c. 7.

13. And yet, as Hardouin remarks, before his time, when Scipio was

besieging Carthage, the bodies of the Roman tribunes, when selected for

burial by Hasdrubal, were distinguished by their rings of gold. The

object of Marius, no doubt, was to ingratiate himself with the upper classes.

14. A. U. C. 651.

15. Known as the "anulus pronubus," or "engaged ring," according to

Dalechamps.

16. "Codicillos." Il. B. vi. l. 168.

17. See B. xiii. c. 21.

18. Od. B. viii. ll. 424, 443, 447.

19. See the Iliad. B. iii. and B. vii. l. 175, et seq.

20. His meaning is, that although were used, lots or balls made of

earth, we do not read that the impressions on them were made by the aid

of signet-rings.

21. "Fabrie dem." He alludes to the forge of Vulcan, described in

the Eighteenth Book of the Iliad, l. 400, et seq.

22. This seems to be the meaning of "In primordio factitsse."

23. The "fibul" were the brooches of the ancients, consisting of a pin,

and of a curved portion furnished with a hook. See Dr. Smith's Diet.

Antiq. p. 417.

24. As the meaning of this passage has been the subject of much discussion

with commentators, we give it in full, as found in the Edition of

Sillig. "Et quisquis primus instituit, cunctanter id fecit, lvis manibus

latentibusque induit, cum, si honos securus fuisset, dextr fuerit ostentandus.

Quodsi impedimentum potuit in eo aliquod intelligi, etiam serior is

usus argumentum est, et majus in lv fuisset, qu seutum capitur."

Sillig is of opinion that Pliny is here alluding to the reason given by Ateius

Capito (quoted in Maerobius, Saturn. B. vii. c. 13), for wearing the ring

on the left hand. It was so worn, he says, from an apprehension that

the precious stone with which it was set, might receive injury from the

continual use made of the right hand.

25. Under the folds of the toga.

26. Il. B. xvii. l. 52.




5. Chap. 5.-The Quantity Of Gold Possessed By The Ancients.


CHAP. 5.-THE QUANTITY OF GOLD POSSESSED BY THE ANCIENTS.



At Rome, for a long period of time, the quantity of gold

was but very small. At all events, after the capture of the

City by the Gauls, when peace was about to be purchased, not

more than one thousand pounds' weight of gold could be collected.

I am by no means unaware of the fact that in the

third[1] consulship of Pompeius there was lost from the throne

of Jupiter Capitolinus two thousand pounds' weight of gold,

originally placed there by Camillus; a circumstance which has

led most persons to suppose, that two thousand pounds' weight

was the quantity then collected. But in reality, this excess

of one thousand pounds was contributed from the spoil taken

from the Gauls, amplified as it was by the gold of which they

had stripped the temples, in that part of the City which they

had captured.



The story of Torquatus,[2] too, is a proof that the Gauls were

in the habit of wearing ornaments of gold when engaged in

combat;[3] from which it would appear that the sum taken

from the Gauls themselves, and the amount of which they had

pillaged the temples, were only equal to the amount of gold

collected for the ransom, and no more; and this is what was

really meant by the response given by the augurs, that Jupiter

Capitolinus had rendered again the ransom twofold.[4] As we







were just now speaking on the subject of rings, it may be as

well to add, by way of passing remark, that upon the officer[5]

in charge of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus being arrested,

he broke the stone of his ring between his teeth,[6] and expired

upon the spot, thus putting an end to all possibility of discovering

the perpetrator of the theft.



It appears, therefore, that in the year of the City 364, when

Rome was captured by the Gauls, there was but two thousand

pounds' weight of gold, at the very most; and this, too, at a

period when, according to the returns of the census, there were

already one hundred and fifty-two thousand five hundred and

seventy-three free citizens in it. In this same city, too, three

hundred and seven years later, the gold which C. Marius the

younger[7] conveyed to Prneste from the Temple of the Capitol

when in flames, and all the other shrines, amounted to thirteen

thousand pounds' weight, such being the sum that figured in the

inscriptions at the triumph of Sylla; on which occasion it was

displayed in the procession, as well as six thousand pounds'

weight of silver. The same Sylla had, the day before, displayed

in his triumph fifteen thousand pounds' weight of gold,

and one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds' weight of silver,

the fruit of all his other victories.







1. The reading in most MSS. is the "fourth consulship." This, however,

is an error which has been rectified by the Bamberg and some other

MSS. Pompey was but thrice consul. M. Crassus was the person generally

accused of the act of robbery here alluded to.

2. Who took the golden tore (torques) from the Gaul whom he slew;

whence his name.

3. "Cum auro pugnare solitos."

4. "Quod equidem in augurio intellectum est, cum Capitolinus duplum

reddidisset." The meaning of this passage is obscure, and cannot with

certainty be ascertained. Holland renders it, "To the light and knowledge

whereof we come by means of revelation from Augurie, which gave

us to understand, that Jupiter Capitolinus had rendered again the foresaid

summe in duple proportion." Littr gives a similar translation. Ajasson

translates it, "This, at least, is what we may presume, from the fact of

there being discovered double the amount expected;" following the explanation

given by Hardouin.

5. The "dituus," or "temple keeper." See B. xxxvi. 4.

6. Beneath which there was poison concealed, Hardouin says. Hannibal

killed himself in a similar manner; also Demosthenes, as mentioned

in the next Chapter.

7. The adopted son of the great Marius. This event happened in his

consulship, B.C. 82. After his defeat by Sylla at Sacriportus, he retired

into the fortified town of Prneste, where he had deposited the

treasures of the Capitoline temple. The temple, after this conflagration,

was rebuilt by order of Sylla.




6. Chap. 6.-The Right Of Wearing Gold Rings.


CHAP. 6.-THE RIGHT OF WEARING GOLD RINGS.



It does not appear that rings were in common use before the

time of Cneius Flavius, the son of Annius. This Flavius was

the first to publish a table[1] of the days for pleading,[2] which

till then the populace had to ascertain each day from a few







great personages.[3] The son of a freedman only, and secretary

to Appius Ccus,[4] (at whose request, by dint of natural shrewdness

and continual observation, he had selected these days and

made them public),[5] he obtained such high favour with the

people, that he was created curule dile; in conjunction with

Quintus Anicius Prnestinus, who a few years before had been

an enemy to Rome,[6] and to the exclusion of C. Ptilius and

Domitius, whose fathers respectively were of consular rank.[7]

The additional honour was also conferred on Flavius, of making

him tribune of the people at the same time, a thing which occasioned

such a degree of indignation, that, as we find stated in

the more ancient Annals, "the rings[8] were laid aside!"



Most persons, however, are mistaken in the supposition that

on this occasion the members of the equestrian order did the

same: for it is in consequence of these additional words, "the

phaler,[9] too, were laid aside as well," that the name of the

equestrian order was added. These rings, too, as the Annals

tell us, were laid aside by the nobility, and not[10] by the whole

body of the senate. This event took place in the consulship

of P. Sempronius and P. Sulpicius.[11] Flavius made a vow

that he would consecrate a temple to Concord, if he should

succeed in reconciling the privileged orders with the plebeians:

and as no part of the public funds could be voted for the purpose,

he accordingly built a small shrine of brass[12] in the Gr-







costasis,[13] then situate above the Comitium,[14] with the fines

which had been exacted for usury. Here, too, he had an inscription

engraved upon a tablet of brass, to the effect that the

shrine was dedicated two hundred and three years after the

consecration of the Capitol. Such were the events that happened

four hundred and forty-nine years after the foundation

of the City, this being the earliest period at which we find

any traces of the common use of rings.



A second occasion, however, that of the Second Punic War,

shows that rings must have been at that period in very general

use; for if such had not been the case, it would have been

impossible for Hannibal to send the three[15] modii of rings, which

we find so much spoken of, to Carthage. It was through a

dispute, too, at an auction about the possession of a ring, that

the feud first commenced between Cpio[16] and Drusus,[17] a dispute

which gave rise to the Social War,[18] and the public disasters

which thence ensued. Not even in those days, however,

did all the senators possess gold rings, seeing that, in the

memory of our grandsires, many personages who had even

filled the prtorship, wore rings of iron to the end of their

lives; Calpurnius,[19] for example, as Fenestella tells us, and

Manilius, who had been legatus to Caius Marius in the Jugurthine

War. Many historians also state the same of L.

Fufidius, he to whom Scaurus dedicated the history of his

life.



In the family of the Quintii,[20] it is the usage for no one, not

the females even, ever to wear a ring; and even at the present

day, the greater part of the nations known to us, peoples

who are living under the Roman sway, are not in the habit of







wearing rings. Neither in the countries of the East,[21] nor

in Egypt, is any use made of seals, the people being content

with simple writing only.[22]



In this, as in every other case, luxury has introduced various

fashions, either by adding to rings gems of exquisite brilliancy,

and so loading the fingers with whole revenues, as we shall

have further occasion to mention in our Book on Gems;[23] or

else by engraving them with various devices: so that it is in

one instance the workmanship, in another the material, that

constitutes the real value of the ring. Then again, in the

case of other gems, luxury has deemed it no less than sacrilege

to make a mark[24] even upon them, and has caused them to be set

whole, that no one may suppose that the ring was ever intended

to be employed as a signet. In other instances, luxury has

willed that certain stones, on the side even that is concealed by

the finger, should not[25] be closed in with gold, thus making

gold of less account than thousands of tiny pebbles. On the

other hand again, many persons will admit of no gems being

set in their rings, but impress their seal with the gold[26] itself,

an invention which dates from the reign of Claudius Csar.

At the present day, too, the very slaves even, incase their iron

rings with gold (while other articles belonging to them, they

decorate with pure gold),[27] a licence which first originated in

the Isle of Samothrace,[28] as the name given to the invention

clearly shows.







It was the custom at first to wear rings on a single finger[29]

only, the one, namely, that is next to the little finger; and this

we see the case in the statues of Numa and Servius Tullius

In later times, it became the practice to put rings on the finger

next to the thumb, even in the case of the statues of the gods;

and more recently, again, it has been the fashion to wear them

upon the little finger[30] as well. Among the peoples of Gallia

and Britannia, the middle finger, it is said, is used for this purpose.

At the present day, however, among us, this is the only

finger that is excepted, all the others being loaded with rings,

smaller rings even being separately adapted for the smaller

joints of the fingers. Some there are who heap several rings

upon the little finger alone; while others, again, wear but one

ring upon this finger, the ring that sets a seal upon the signetring

itself, this last being kept carefully shut up as an object

of rarity, too precious to be worn in common use, and only to

be taken from the cabinet[31] as from a sanctuary. And thus is

the wearing of a single ring upon the little finger no more

than an ostentatious advertisement that the owner has property

of a more precious nature under seal at home!



Some, too, make a parade of the weight of their rings, while

to others it is quite a labour[32] to wear more than one at a time:

some, in their solicitude for the safety of their gems, make the

hoop of gold tinsel, and fill it with a lighter material than gold,

thinking thereby to diminish the risks of a fall.[33] Others, again,

are in the habit of inclosing poisons beneath the stones of

their rings, and so wear them as instruments of death; Demosthenes,

for instance, that greatest of the orators of Greece.[34]

And then, besides, how many of the crimes that are stimulated

by cupidity, are committed through the instrumentality of







rings![35] How happy the times, how truly innocent, in which

no seal was ever put to anything! At the present day, on the

contrary, our very food even and our drink have to be preserved

from theft[36] through the agency of the ring: a result owing to

those legions of slaves, those throngs of foreigners which are

introduced into our houses, multitudes so numerous that we

require the services of a nomenclator[37] even, to tell us the

names of our own servants. Very different was it in the times

of our forefathers, when each person possessed a single servant

only, one of his master's own lineage, called Marcipor or

Lucipor,[38] from his master's name, as the case might be, and

taking all his meals with him in common; when, too, there

was no occasion for taking precautions at home by keeping a

watch upon the domestics. But at the present day, we not

only procure dainties which are sure to be pilfered, but hands

to pilfer them as well; and so far is it from being sufficient to

have the very keys sealed, that the signet-ring is often taken

from off the owner's finger while he is overpowered with sleep

or lying on his death-bed.[39]



Indeed the most important transactions of life are now made

to depend upon this instrument, though at what period this first

began to be the case, I am at a loss to say. It would appear,

however, so far as foreign nations are concerned, that we may

admit the importance attached to it, from the days of Polycrates,[40]

the tyrant of Samos, whose favourite ring, after being







thrown in the sea, was recovered from a fish that was caught;

and this Polycrates, we know, was put to death[41] about the

year of our City, 230. The use of the ring must, of necessity,

have become greatly extended with the increase of usury;

one proof of which is, the usage still prevalent among the

lower classes, of whipping off the ring[42] the moment a simple

contract is made; a practice which takes its date, no doubt,

from a period when there was no more expeditious method of

giving an earnest on closing a bargain. We may therefore

very safely conclude, that though money was first introduced

among us, the use of rings was introduced very shortly after.

Of money, I shall shortly have occasion to speak further.[43]







1. Called the "Fasti;" probably because this was the first word of the

title.

2. "Dies fasti." These were the days on which the courts sat, and the

Prtor, who was the chief judge, gave his decisions. The word "fasti"

is derived from the ancient Latin "for," or from the old Greek word fa/w,

both signifying "to speak:" consequently the "dies fasti" were "the

speaking days," and the "dies nefasti" the "non-speaking days," in

allusion to the restrictions put upon the judgments of the Prtor.

3. This complex state of the Roman Calendar long remained one of the

sources from which the priesthood and the patrician order derived their

power and influence over the plebeians. Having no other method of ascertaining

what days were "fasti," and what were "nefasti," the lower

classes were obliged either to apply to the priests and nobles for information,

or to await the proclamation by the priests of the various festivals

about to take place.

4. Appius Claudius Ccus, the Censor and jurisconsult, who constructed

the Appian Way.

5. A.U.C. 440, or B.C. 314.

6. In the war, probably, with the twelve nations of Etruria, who were

conquered by the Consul Fabius A.U.C. 444. See Livy, B. ix.

7. The father of the former C. Ptilius Libo, was Consul A.U.C. 428:

the father of the latter, Cneius Domitius Calvinus, was Consul A.U.C. 432.

8. "Anulos abjectos."

9. The "phaler" were bosses of metal, often gold, attached to the

harness of the horse. See B. vii. c. 29.

10. He would probably imply hereby that, as he states subsequently,

at this period gold rings were not as yet worn by all the members of the

senate.

11. A.U.C. 449.

12. "diculam ream"-of brass or bronze.

13. For the explanation of this term, see B. vii. c. 60.

14. See B. x. c. 2. Livy tells us that this shrine or temple was built in

the area or place of Vulcan.

15. Livy, B. xxiii. speaks of one modius as being the real quantity.

Florus, B. ii. c. 16, says two modii: but Saint Augustin, De Civit. Dei.

B. iii. c. 19, and most other writers, mention three modii.

16. Q. Servilius Cpio. He and M. Livius Drusus had been most intimate

friends, and each had married the other's sister. The assassination

of Drusus was supposed by some to have been committed at the instigation

of Cpio. The latter lost his life in an ambush, B.C. 90.

17. See B. xxviii. c. 41.

18. See B. ii. c. 85.

19. M. Calpurnius Flamma. See B. xxii. c. 6.

20. A patrician family; branches of which were the Cincinnati, the

Capitolini, the Crispini, and the Flaminini.

21. This is an erroneous assertion, both as to the East, and as to Egypt.

See instances to the contrary in Genesis, c. xli. v. 42; and in Esther, c. iii.

verses 10, 12, and c. viii. verses 2, 8, 10.

22. "Literis contenta solis."

23. The Thirty-seventh Book. See also his remarks in B. ii. c. 63:

"We tear out earth's entrails in order to extract the gems with which we

may load our fingers. How many hands are worn down that one little joint

may be ornamented!" Martial, Epigr. B. v. Ep. 11, speaks of his friend

Stella as wearing on the joint of one finger sardonyxes, emeralds, and

jaspers.

24. "Violari." See B. xxxvii. c. 1.

25. A fashion much followed at the present day.

26. This also is a not uncommon fashion at the present day.

27. From the "Trinummus" of Plautus, A. iv. s. 4, we learn that the ring

worn by slaves was called "condalium." From the "Truculentus" of Plautus

we learn also that these rings were sometimes made of bronze. The

"jus anuli," or right of wearing a gold ring, was never conceded to slaves.

28. See B. iv. c. 23. In the Origines of Isidorus Hispalensis, B. xix. c.

32, we find mention made of "A Samothracian gold ring, with an iron

bezil, so called from the place of its invention." Pliny has already made

allusion to the luxurious habits of the slaves, in B. xiii. c. 4; and B.

xviii. c. 2; a subject upon which Juvenal enlarges in his Third Satire.

29. The reasons are mentioned by Ateius Capito, as quoted by Macrobius,

Saturnal. B. vii. c. 13: also by Apion the Grammarian, as quoted by

Aulus Gellius, B. x. c. 10.

30. The ring of each finger had its own appropriate name.

31. The "dactyliotheca," or "ring-box."

32. Juvenal, Sat. i. l. 26, et. seq., speaks of the summer rings of the

Roman fops, and their fingers sweating beneath the weight.

33. Martial, Epigr. B. xiv., speaks of the numerous accidents to which a

weighty ring was liable.

34. Hannibal, too, for instance, as mentioned in Note 51 to the preceding

Chapter.

35. He alludes, probably, to forgeries perpetrated through the agency of

false signets.

36. Plautus, Cicero, Horace, and Martial, each in his own age, bears

testimony to the truth of this statement.

37. Or remembrancer; a slave whose duty it was to remind his master of

the name of each member of his household; see B. xxix. c. 8. Athenus,

B. vi., speaks of as many as twenty thousand slaves belonging to one

household. Demetrius, the freedman of Pompey, mentioned in B. xxxv.

c. 58, had a retinue of slaves equal to an army in amount.

38. Meaning "Marci puer," or "Luci puer"-"Marcius' boy," or

"Lucius' boy."

39. Suetonius says, c. 73, that Tiberius, in his last illness, awoke after a

long lethargy, and demanded his signet-ring, which his son-in-law, Caligula,

had removed from his finger, under the supposition that he was

dead. Macro, to avoid any unpleasant results in the way of punishment,

caused the emperor to be smothered with the pillows and bedclothes.

40. This famous and somewhat improbable story of the ring of Polycrates

is told by Valerius Maximus, B. vi. c. 9; Herodotus, B. iii.; and Cicero,

De Finibus, B. iv. Pliny again mentions it in B. xxxvii. cc. 2, 4.

41. He was crucified by Oroetes, the Persian satrap of Sardis.

42. "Anulo exsiliente."

43. In Chapter 13 of this Book.




7. Chap. 7.-The Decuries Of The Judges.


CHAP. 7.-THE DECURIES OF THE JUDGES.



Rings, as soon as they began to be commonly worn, distinguished

the second order from the plebeians, in the same

manner as the use of the tunic[1] distinguished the senate from

those who only were the ring. Still, however, this last distinction

was introduced at a later period only, and we find it

stated by writers that the public heralds[2] even were formerly

in the habit of wearing the tunic with the purple laticlave;

the father of Lucius lius Stilo,[3] for instance, from whom

his son received the cognomen of "Prconinus," in consequence

of his father's occupation as a herald. But the use of

rings, no doubt, was the distinguishing mark of a third and

intermediate order, between the plebeians and the senators;

and the title of "eques," originally derived from the possession

of a war-horse,[4] is given at the present day as an indication

of a certain amount of income. This, however, is of

comparatively recent introduction; for when the late Emperor

Augustus made his regulations for the decuries,[5] the greater

part of the members thereof were persons who wore iron rings,

and these bore the name, not of "equites," but of "judices,"







the former name being reserved solely for the members of the

squadrons[6] furnished with war-horses at the public charge.



Of these judices, too, there were at first but four[7] decuries

only, and in each of these decuries there was hardly one thousand

men to be found, the provinces not having been hitherto

admitted to the office; an observance which is still in force at

the present day, no one newly admitted to the rights of citizenship

being allowed to perform the duties of judex as a member

of the decuries.



(2.) These decuries, too, were themselves distinguished by

several denominations-" tribunes[8] of the treasury," "selecti,"[9]

and "judices:" in addition to whom, there were the persons

styled the "nine hundred,"[10] chosen from all the decuries for

the purpose of keeping the voting-boxes at the comitia. From

the ambitious adoption, however, of some one of these names,

great divisions ensued in this order, one person styling himself

a member of the nine hundred, another one of the selecti, and

a third a tribune of the treasury.







1. The laticlave tunic. See B. viii. c. 73, and B. ix. c. 63.

2. "Prcones."

3. See the list of writers at the end of B. ix.

4. "Equus militaris."

5. See B. xxix. c. 8. The "Decuri" of "judices," or "judges," were

so called, probably, from ten (decem) having been originally chosen from

each tribe. As to the Decuri of the judices, see Smith's Diet. Antiq.

pp. 5312. The account given by Pliny is confused in the extreme.

6. "Turm." Squadrons of thirty "equites" or horsemen; ten of

which squadrons were attached to each legion.

7. Before the time of Augustus, there were but three decuries.

8. A law introduced by Aurelius Cotta, B.C. 70, enacted that the Judices

should be chosen from the three classes-of Senators, Equites, and

Tribuni arii, or Tribunes of the treasury, these last being taken from

the body of the people, and being persons possessed of some property.

9. Members selected by lot.

10. "Nongenti."




8. Chap. 8.-Particulars Connected With The Equestrian Order.


CHAP. 8.-PARTICULARS CONNECTED WITH THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER.



At length, however, in the ninth[1] year of the reign of the

Emperor Tiberius, the equestrian order was united in a single

body; and a decree was passed, establishing to whom belonged

the right of wearing the ring, in the consulship of C. Asinius

Pollio and C. Antistius Vetus, the year from the foundation of the

City, 775. It is a matter for surprise, how almost futile, we

may say, was the cause which led to this change. C. Sulpicius

Galba,[2] desirous in his youth to establish his credit with the

Emperor by hunting[3] out grounds for prosecuting[4] the keepers







of victualling-houses, made complaint in the senate that the

proprietors of those places were in the habit of protecting

themselves from the consequences of their guilt by their plea

of wearing the golden ring.[5] For this reason, an ordinance

was made that no person whatsoever should have this right of

wearing the ring, unless, freeborn himself as regarded his

father and paternal grandfather, he should be assessed by the

censors at four hundred thousand sesterces, and entitled, under

the Julian Law,[6] to sit in the fourteen tiers of seats at the

theatre. In later times, however, people began to apply in

whole crowds for this mark of rank; and in consequence of

the diversities of opinion which were occasioned thereby, the

Emperor Caius[7] added a fifth decury to the number. Indeed

to such a pitch has conceit now arisen, that whereas, under the

late Emperor Augustus, the decuries could not be completed,

at the present day they will not suffice to receive all the members

of the equestrian order, and we see in every quarter persons

even who have been but just liberated from slavery, making

a leap all at once to the distinction of the golden ring: a thing

that never used to happen in former days, as it was by the

ring of iron that the equites and the judices were then to be

recognized.



Indeed, so promiscuously was this privilege at last conferred,

that Flavius Proculus, one of the equites, informed against

four hundred persons on this ground, before the Emperor Claudius,

who was then censor:[8] and thus we see, an order, which

was established as a mark of distinction from other private individuals

of free birth, has been shared in common with slaves !



The Gracchi were the first to attach to this order the separate

appellation of "judices," their object being at the same moment

a seditious popularity and the humiliation of the senate. After

the fall of these men, in consequence of the varying results of

seditious movements, the name and influence of the equestrian

order were lost, and became merged in those of the publicani,[9]







who, for some time, were the men that constituted the third

class in the state. At last, however, Marcus Cicero, during

his consulship, and at the period of the Catilinarian troubles,

re-established the equestrian name, it being his vaunt that he

himself had sprung from that order, and he, by certain acts of

popularity peculiar to himself, having conciliated its support.

Since that period, it is very clear that the equites have formed

the third body in the state, and the name of the equestrian order

has been added to the formula-"The Senate and People of

Rome." Hence[10] it is, too, that at the present day even, the

name of this order is written after that of the people, it being

the one that was the last instituted.







1. Tacitus says that this took place the year before, in the consulship of

C. Sulpicius, and D. Haterius. See the Annales, B. iii. c. 86.

2. Brother of the Emperor Galba.

3. "Aucupatus."

4. Suetonius says that Tiberius instructed the diles to prohibit stews

and eating-houses: from which we may conclude, Hardouin says, that C.

Sulpicius Galba was an dile.

5. Or, in other words, belonging to the equestrian order. The Roman

equites often followed the pursuits of bankers, and farmers of the public

revenues.

6. A law passed in the time of Julius Csar, B.C. 69, which permitted

Roman equites, in case they or their parents had ever had a Census

equestris, to sit in the fourteen rows fixed by the Lex Roscia Theatralis.

7. Caligula.

8. Conjointly with L. Vitellius.

9. Or farmers of the public revenues; the "publicans" of Scripture. In reality, they were mostly members of the equestrian order, and the

words "equites" and "publicani" are often used as synonymous.

10. "This passage seems to be the addition of some ignorant copyist. It

is indeed a remarkable fact, that we have no inscription in which we see

the Equites named after the people as well as the Senate."-Laboulaye,

Essai sur les lois Criminelles des Romains: Paris, 1845, p. 224.




9. Chap. 9.-Howoften The Name Of The Equestrian Order Has Been Changed.


CHAP. 9.-HOWOFTEN THE NAME OF THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER

HAS BEEN CHANGED.



Indeed, the name itself of the equites even, has been frequently changed, and that too, in the case of those who only

owed their name to the fact of their service on horseback.

Under Romulus and the other kings, the equites were known

as "Celeres,"[1] then again as "Flexuntes,"[2] and after that

as "Trossuli,"[3] from the fact of their having taken a certain

town of Etruria, situate nine miles on this side of Volsinii,

without any assistance from the infantry; a name too which

survived till after the death of C. Gracchus.







At all events, in the writings left by Junius, who, from his

affection for C. Gracchus, took the name of Gracchanus,[4] we

find the following words-"As regards the equestrian order,

its members were formerly called 'Trossuli,' but at the

present day they have the name of 'Equites;' because it is

not understood what the appellation 'Trossuli' really means,

and many feel ashamed at being called by that name."[5]-He[6]

then goes on to explain the reason, as above mentioned, and

adds that, though much against their will, those persons are

still called "Trossuli."







1. According to Livy, B. i. c. 15, the Celeres were three hundred Roman

knights whom Romulus established as a body-guard. Their name, probably,

was derived from the Greek ke/lhs, a "war-horse," or "charger,"

and the body consisted, no doubt, of the patricians in general, or such of

them as could keep horses. Another origin assigned to the appellation is

"Celer," the name of a chieftain, who was a favourite of Romulus. The

adjective "celer," "swift," owes its origin, probably, to the title of these

horsemen.

2. A title derived, possibly, as Delafosse suggests, "a flectendis habenis,"

from "managing the reins."

3. Called "Trossum" or "Trossulum," it is supposed. The remains

of a town are still to be seen at Trosso, two miles from Montefiascone in

Tuscany. The Greek word trwcalli\s, a "cricket," and the Latin "torosulus,"

"muscular," have been suggested as the origin of this name.

Ajasson suggests the Latin verb "truso," to "push on," as its origin.

4. See the end of this Book.

5. From the ambiguous nature of the name, it being in later times an

expression of contempt, like our word "fop," or "beau." In this latter

sense, Salmasius derives it from the Greek trusso\s, "effeminate."

6. This concluding passage is omitted in most editions.




10. Chap. 10.-Gifts For Military Services, In Gold And Silver.


CHAP. 10.-GIFTS FOR MILITARY SERVICES, IN GOLD AND SILVER.



There are also some other distinctions connected with gold,

the mention of which ought not to be omitted. Our ancestors,

for instance, presented tores[1] of gold to the auxiliaries and

foreign troops, while to Roman citizens they only granted

silver[2] ones: bracelets[3] too, were given by them to citizens,

but never to foreigners.







1. See B. vii. c. 29.

2. Dionysius of Halicarnassus is therefore probably wrong in his assertion

that tores of gold were given to Siccius Dentatus, a Roman citizen,

as the reward of valour.

3. See B. vii. c. 29.




11. Chap. 11.-At What Period The First Crown Of Gold Was Presented.


CHAP. 11.-AT WHAT PERIOD THE FIRST CROWN OF GOLD WAS

PRESENTED.



But, a thing that is more surprising still, crowns[1] of gold

were given to the citizens as well. As to the person who was

first presented with one, so far as I have enquired, I have not

been able to ascertain his name: L. Piso says, however, that

the Dictator[2] A. Posthumius was the first who conferred one:

on taking the camp of the Latins at Lake Regillus,[3] he gave

a crown of gold, made from the spoil, to the soldier whose

valour had mainly contributed to this success. L. Lentulus,







also, when consul,[4] presented one to Servius Cornelius Merenda,

on taking a town of the Samnites; but in his case it was five

pounds in weight. Piso Frugi, too, presented his son with a

golden crown, at his own private expense, making[5] it a specific

legacy in his will.







1. On this subject, see B. xvi. c. 3, and B. xxi. c. i.

2. A.U.C. 323, or 431 B.C.

3. Situate about fourteen miles from Rome, and on the road to the

town called La Colonna.

4. A.U.C. 479, and B.C. 275. In the following year Merenda himself

was consul, with Manius Curius Dentatus.

5. "Testamento prlegavit." Properly speaking, "prlegare" was

"to bequeath a thing to be given before the inheritance was divided."

The crown thus left by Piso was to be three pounds in weight.




12. Chap. 12. (3.)-Other Uses Made Of Gold, By Females.


CHAP. 12. (3.)-OTHER USES MADE OF GOLD, BY FEMALES.



To honour the gods at their sacrifices, no greater mark of

honour has been thought of than to gild the horns of the animals

sacrificed-that is, of the larger victims[1] only. But in warfare,

this species of luxury made such rapid advances, that in the

Epistles of M. Brutus from the Plains of Philippi, we find expressions

of indignation at the fibul[2] of gold that were worn

by the tribunes. Yes, so it is, by Hercules! and yet you, the

same Brutus, have not said a word about women wearing gold

upon their feet; while we, on the other hand, charge him with

criminality[3] who was the first to confer dignity upon gold by

wearing the ring. Let men even, at the present day, wear gold

upon the arms in form of bracelets-known as "dardania,"

because the practice first originated in Dardania, and called

"viriol" in the language of the Celts, "viri"[4] in that of

Celtiberia, let women wear gold upon their arms[5] and

all their fingers, their necks, their ears, the tresses of their

hair; let chains of gold run meandering along their sides;

and in the still hours of the night let sachets filled with pearls

hang suspended from the necks of their mistresses, all bedizened

with gold, so that in their very sleep even they may still

retain the consciousness that they are the possessors of such







gems: but are they to cover their feet[6] as well with gold, and

so, between the stola[7] of the matrons and the garb of the

plebeians, establish an intermediate[8] or equestrian[9] order of

females? Much more becomingly do we accord this distinction

to our pages,[10] and the adorned beauty of these youths has

quite changed the features of our public baths.



At the present day, too, a fashion has been introduced

among the men even, of wearing effigies upon their fingers

representing Harpocrates[11] and other divinities of Egypt. In

the reign of Claudius, also, there was introduced another

unusual distinction, in the case of those to whom was granted

the right of free admission,[12] that, namely, of wearing the

likeness of the emperor engraved in gold upon a ring: a

circumstance that gave rise to vast numbers of informations,

until the timely elevation of the Emperor Vespasianus rendered

them impossible, by proclaiming that the right of admission to

the emperor belonged equally to all. Let these particulars

suffice on the subject of golden rings and the use of them.







1. Oxen, namely. The smaller victims had the head encircled with

chaplets.

2. The clasps by which the "sagum" or military cloak was fastened on

the shoulders.

3. See the beginning of Chapter 4 of the present Book.

4. Isidorus Hispalensis, Orig. B. xix. c. 30, says that bracelets were formerly

so called from the circumstance of being conferred on warriors as

the reward of bravery-"ob virtutem." Scvola, Ulpian, and others speak

of "viriol" as ornaments worn by females.

5. See B. xxxvii. c. 6.

6. In allusion to the use of gold as an ornament for the shoes and

sandal-ties.

7. A dress worn over the tunic, and which came as low as the ankles or

feet. The stola was the characteristic dress of the Roman matrons of

rank; other females being restricted to the use of the toga, which did not

reach so low.

8. Between the matrons of rank whose feet were not to be seen at all,

and the plebeian females, whose feet were seen, but comparatively unadorned.

9. In the same way that the gold ring was the distinguishing mark of

the Equites, so would the gold ankle-jewels be the characteristic of this

new order of females. In the use of the word "Equcstrem," Ajasson

absolutely detects an indelicate allusion, and rallies our author on thus retaining

"the aroma of the camp!"

10. "Pdagogiis." The origin of our word "page." The pages of

the Romans were decorated with gold ankle-jewels and other ornaments

for the legs.

11. Or Horus, the god of silence. Ajasson is of opinion that this impression on the seal was symbolical of the secrecy which ought to be preserved

as to written communications.

12. To the Emperor's presence.




14. Chap. 14.-Considerations On Man's Cupidity For Gold.


CHAP. 14.-CONSIDERATIONS ON MAN'S CUPIDITY FOR GOLD.



But the invention of money opened a new field to human

avarice, by giving rise to usury and the practice of lending

money at interest, while the owner passes a life of idleness:

and it was with no slow advances that, not mere avarice only,

but a perfect hunger[1] for gold became inflamed with a sort of

rage for acquiring: to such a degree, in fact, that Septimuleius,

the familiar friend of Caius Gracchus, not only cut off his

head, upon which a price had been set of its weight in gold,







but, before[2] bringing it to Opimius,[3] poured molten lead into

the mouth, and so not only was guilty of the crime of parricide,

but added to his criminality by cheating the state. Nor

was it now any individual citizen, but the universal Roman

name, that had been rendered infamous by avarice, when King

Mithridates caused molten gold to be poured into the mouth

of Aquilius[4] the Roman general, whom he had taken prisoner:

such were the results of cupidity.



One cannot but feel ashamed, on looking at those new-fangled

names which are invented every now and then, from the

Greek language, by which to designate vessels of silver filagreed[5]

or inlaid with gold, and the various other practices by

which such articles of luxury, when only gilded,[6] are made to

sell at a higher price than they would have done if made of

solid gold: and this, too, when we know that Spartacus[7] forbade

any one of his followers to introduce either gold or silver into

the camp-so much more nobleness of mind was there in those

days, even in our runaway slaves.



The orator Messala has informed us that Antonius the triumvir

made use of golden vessels when satisfying the most humiliating

wants of nature, a piece of criminality that would have

reflected disgrace upon Cleopatra even! Till then, the most

consummate instances of a similar licentiousness had been found

among strangers only-that of King Philip, namely, who was in

the habit of sleeping with a golden goblet placed beneath his pillows,

and that of Hagnon of Teos, a commander under Alexander

the Great, who used to fasten the soles of his sandals

with nails of gold.[8] It was reserved for Antonius to be the

only one thus to impart a certain utility to gold, by putting an







insult upon Nature. Oh how righteously would he himself

have been proscribed! but then the proscription should have

been made by Spartacus.[9]







1. "Fames auri." Similar to the words of Virgil, "Auri sacra fames."

"The curst greed for gold." See Note 17 to Chapter 3 of this Book.

2. Another version of this story was, that he extracted the brain, and

inserted lead in its place.

3. See B. xiv. c. 16.

4. In B.C. 88, M. Aquilius proceeded to Asia Minor as one of the

consular legati to prosecute the war against Mithridates. On being defeated

near Protomachium, he was delivered up to Mithridates by the

inhabitants of Mytilene, and after being treated in the most barbarous

manner, was put to death by pouring molten gold down his throat.

5. "Insperso." Sillig is of opinion that Pliny is here speaking of the

work now known by Italian artists as tausia or lavoro all' agemina.

6. Hardouin thinks that Pliny is here making allusion to the Greek

word "chrysendeta," vessels "encircled with gold." It is frequently

used in Martial's works.

7. See B. xv. c. 38.

8. It is against such practices as these that Martial inveighs, B. i, Ep. 28,

and B. ix. Ep. 12.

9. A slave only; and not by any of his brother patricians. Antony was

rendered infamous by his proscriptions.




15. Chap. 15.-The Persons Who Have Possessed The Greatest Quantity Of Gold And Silver.


CHAP. 15.-THE PERSONS WHO HAVE POSSESSED THE GREATEST QUANTITY OF GOLD AND SILVER.



For my own part, I am much surprised that the Roman people

has always imposed upon conquered nations a tribute in

silver, and not in gold; Carthage, for instance, from which,

upon its conquest under Hannibal, a ransom was exacted in

the shape of a yearly[1] payment, for fifty years, of eight hundred

thousand pounds' weight of silver, but no gold. And yet

it does not appear that this could have arisen from there being

so little gold then in use throughout the world. Midas and

Crsus, before this, had possessed gold to an endless amount:

Cyrus, already, on his conquest of Asia,[2] had found a booty

consisting of twenty-four thousand pounds' weight of gold,

in addition to vessels and other articles of wrought gold, as

well as leaves[3] of trees, a plane-tree, and a vine, all made of

that metal.



It was through this conquest too, that he carried off five

hundred thousand[4] talents of silver, as well as the vase of

Semiramis,[5] the weight of which alone amounted to fifteen

talents, the Egyptian talent being equal, according to Varro,

to eighty of our pounds. Before this time too, Saulaces, the

descendant of tes, had reigned in Colchis,[6] who, on finding







a tract of virgin earth, in the country of the Suani,[7] extracted

from it a large amount of gold and silver, it is said, and whose

kingdom besides, had been famed for the possession of the

Golden Fleece. The golden arches, too, of his palace, we find

spoken of, the silver supports and columns, and pilasters, all

of which he had come into possession of on the conquest of

Sesostris,[8] king of Egypt; a monarch so haughty, that every

year, it is said, it was his practice to select one of his vassal

kings by lot, and yoking him to his car, celebrate his triumph

afresh.







1. Appian and Livy mention the fine as consisting of ten thousand

talents in all, or in other words, eight hundred thousand pounds of silver

(at eighty pounds to the talent). Sillig is therefore of opinion that Pliny

is in error here in inserting the word "annua." The payment of the ten

thousand talents, we learn from the same authorities, was spread over fifty

years.

2. Asia Minor.

3. "Folia." Hardouin prefers the reading "solia," meaning "thrones,"

or "chairs of state," probably.

4. Ajasson refuses to place credit in this statement.

5. This vase of Semiramis was her drinking bowl, in much the same

sense that the great cannon at Dover was Queen Elizabeth's "pocket

pistol."

6. The country to which, in previous times, the Argonauts had sailed in

quest of the Golden Fleece, or in other words in search of gold, in which

those regions were probably very prolific.

7. See B. vi. c. 4.

8. This story of the defeat of the great Ramses-Sesostris by a petty king

of Colchis, would almost appear apocryphal. It is not improbable, how

ever, that Sesostris, when on his Thracian expedition, may have received

a repulse on penetrating further north, accustomed as his troops must have

been, to a warmer climate.




16. Chap. 16.-At What Period Silver First Made Its Appearance Upon The Arena And Upon The Stage.


CHAP. 16.-AT WHAT PERIOD SILVER FIRST MADE ITS APPEARANCE UPON THE ARENA AND UPON THE STAGE.



We, too, have done things that posterity may probably look

upon as fabulous. Csar, who was afterwards dictator, but

at that time dile, was the first person, on the occasion of the

funeral games in honour of his father, to employ all the apparatus

of the arena[1] in silver; and it was on the same occasion

that for the first time criminals encountered wild beasts

with implements of silver, a practice imitated at the present

day in our municipal towns even.



At the games celebrated by C. Antonius the stage was made

of[2] silver; and the same was the case at those celebrated

by L. Murna. The Emperor Caius had a scaffold[3] introduced

into the Circus, upon which there were one hundred and

twenty-four thousand pounds' weight of silver. His successor

Claudius, on the occasion of his triumph over Britain, announced

by the inscriptions that among the coronets of gold,

there was one weighing seven thousand[4] pounds' weight, contributed

by Nearer Spain, and another of nine thousand pounds,







presented by Gallia Comata.[5] Nero, who succeeded him, covered

the Theatre of Pompeius with gold for one day,[6] the occasion on

which he displayed it to Tiridates, king of Armenia. And

yet how small was this theatre in comparison with that Golden

Palace[7] of his, with which he environed our city.







1. Of the amphitheatre.

2. Covered, probably, with plates of silver.

3. "Pegma." A scaffold with storeys, which were raised or depressed,

to all appearance, spontaneously. Caligula is the emperor meant.

4. Another reading is "seven" pounds in weight, and "nine" pounds;

which would appear to be more probable than seven thousand, and nine

thousand, as given by the Bamberg MS. It is just possible, however, that

the latter may have been the united weights of all the coronets contributed

by Spain and Gaul respectively, the word "inter" being an interpolation.

5. See B. iv. c. 31, B. xi. c. 47, and B. xviii. c. 20.

6. Hence known as the "Golden Day," according to Dion Cassius,

B. lxiii.

7. For further particulars as to the Golden Palace, see B. xxxvi. c. 24.




17. Chap. 17.-At What Periods There Was The Greatest Quantity Of Gold And Silver In The Treasury Of The Roman People.


CHAP. 17.-AT WHAT PERIODS THERE WAS THE GREATEST QUANTITY OF GOLD AND SILVER IN THE TREASURY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE.



In the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Aurelius,[1]

seven years before the commencement of the Third Punic War,

there was in the treasury of the Roman people seventeen thousand

four hundred and ten pounds' weight of uncoined gold,

twenty-two thousand and seventy pounds' weight of silver, and

in specie, six million one hundred and thirty-five thousand

four hundred sesterces.



In the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Marcius,

that is to say, at the commencement of the Social War,[2] there

was in the public treasury one million[3] six hundred and twenty

thousand eight hundred and thirty-one pounds' weight of gold.

Caius Csar, at his first entry into Rome, during the civil

war which bears his name, withdrew from the treasury fifteen

thousand pounds' weight in gold ingots, thirty thousand pounds'

weight in uncoined silver, and in specie, three hundred thousand

sesterces: indeed, at no[4] period was the republic more

wealthy. milius Paulus, too, after the defeat of King Perseus,

paid into the public treasury, from the spoil obtained in

Macedonia, three hundred millions[5] of sesterces, and from this

period the Roman people ceased to pay tribute.







1. A.U.C. 597.

2. Or Marsic War. See B. ii. c. 85.

3. There is an error in this statement, probably, unless we understand

by it the small libra or pound of two ounces, mentioned in c. 13 of this

Book.

4. This remark is confirmatory of the incorrectness of the preceding

statement.

5. The reading here is doubtful.




18. Chap. 18.-At What Period Ceilings Were First Gilded.


CHAP. 18.-AT WHAT PERIOD CEILINGS WERE FIRST GILDED.



The ceilings which, at the present day, in private houses

even, we see covered with gold, were first gilded in the Capi-







tol, after the destruction of Carthage, and during the censorship

of Lucius Mummius.[1] From the ceilings this luxuriousness

has been since transferred to the arched roofs of buildings,

and the party-walls even, which at the present day are gilded

like so many articles of plate: very different from the times

when Catulus[2] was far from being unanimously approved of for

having gilded the brazen tiles of the Capitol!







1. A.U.C. 612.

2. See B. xix. c. 6.




19. Chap. 19.-For What Reasons The Highest Value Is Set Upon Gold.


CHAP. 19.-FOR WHAT REASONS THE HIGHEST VALUE IS SET UPON GOLD.



We have already stated, in the Seventh[1] Book, who were the

first discoverers of gold, as well as nearly all the other metals.

The highest rank has been accorded to this substance, not, in

my opinion, for its colour, (which in silver is clearer[2] and more

like the light of day, for which reason silver is preferred for

our military ensigns, its brightness being seen at a greater distance);

and those persons are manifestly in error who think

that it is the resemblance of its colour to the stars[3] that is

so prized in gold, seeing that the various gems[4] and other

things of the same tint, are in no such particular request.

Nor yet is it for its weight or malleability[5] that gold has been

preferred to other metals, it being inferior in both these respects

to lead-but it is because gold is the only[6] substance in

nature that suffers[7] no loss from the action of fire, and passes

unscathed through conflagrations and the flames of the funeral

pile. Nay, even more than this, the oftener gold is subjected

to the action of fire, the more refined in quality it becomes;

indeed, fire is one test of its goodness, as, when sub-







mitted to intense heat, gold ought to assume a similar colour,

and turn red and igneous in appearance; a mode of testing

which is known as "obrussa."[8]



The first great proof, however, of the goodness of gold, is

its melting with the greatest difficulty: in addition to which,

it is a fact truly marvellous, that though proof against the most

intense fire, if made with wood charcoal, it will melt with the

greatest readiness upon a fire made with chaff;[9] and that, for

the purpose of purifying it, it is fused with lead.[10] There is

another reason too, which still more tends to enhance its value,

the fact that it wears the least of all metals by continual use:

whereas with silver, copper, and lead, lines may be traced,[11] and

the hands become soiled with the substance that comes from off

them. Nor is there any material more malleable than this,

none that admits of a more extended division, seeing that a

single ounce of it admits of being beaten out into seven hundred

and fifty[12] leaves, or more, four fingers in length by the

same in breadth. The thickest kind of gold-leaf is known as

"leaf of Prncste,"it still retaining that name from the

excellence of the gilding upon the statue of Fortune[13] there.

The next in thickness is known as the "qustorian leaf." In

Spain, small pieces of gold are known by the name of "striges."[14]



A thing that is not the case with any other metal, gold is

found pure in masses[15] or in the form of dust;[16] and whereas







all other metals, when found in the ore, require to be brought

to perfection by the aid of fire, this gold that I am speaking of

is gold the moment it is found, and has all its component parts

already in a state of perfection. This, however, is only such

gold as is found in the native state, the other kinds that we

shall have to speak of, being refined by art. And then, more

than anything else, gold is subject to no rust, no verdigris,[17]

no emanation whatever from it, either to alter its quality or

to lessen its weight. In addition to this, gold steadily resists

the corrosive action of salt and vinegar,[18] things which obtain

the mastery over all other substances: it admits, too, beyond

all other metals, of being spun out and woven[19] like wool.[20] Verrius

tells us that Tarquinius Priscus celebrated a triumph, clad

in a tunic of gold; and I myself have seen Agrippina, the wife

of the Emperor Claudius, on the occasion of a naval combat

which he exhibited, seated by him, attired in a military scarf[21]

made entirely of woven gold without any other material. For

this long time past, gold has been interwoven in the Attalic[22]

textures, an invention of the kings of Asia.







1. Chapter 57.

2. In fact, no colour at all.

3. In this climate, the light of most of the stars has the complexion, not

of gold, but of silver.

4. The topaz, for instance.

5. For ductility and malleability, both which terms may perhaps be included

in the "facilitas" of Pliny, gold is unrivalled among the metals. As

to weight, it is heavier than lead, the specific gravity of gold being 19.258,

and that of lead 11 352. Pliny is therefore wrong in both of these assertions.

6. He forgets asbestus here, a substance which he has mentioned in

B. xix. c. 4.

7. Chlorine, however, and nitro-muriatic acid corrode and dissolve gold,

forming a chloride of gold, which is soluble in water. Ajasson remarks,

that gold becomes volatilized by the heat of a burning glass of three or

four feet in diameter; and that when it acts as the conductor of a strong

current of electricity, it becomes reduced to dust instantaneously, presenting

a bright greenish light.

8. The gold thus tested was called "obrussum," "obryzum," or "obrizum,"

from the Greek o)/bruzon, meaning "pure gold."

9. See B. xviii. c. 23, where he calls the chaff used for this purpose by the

name of "acus."

10. The present mode of assaying the precious metals, is by fusing them

upon a cupel with lead.

11. For which purpose, lead was used, no doubt, in drawing the lines in the

MSS. of the ancients. See Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. 11. p. 389, Bohn's Ed.

12. This is far surpassed at the present day, its malleability being such

that it may be beaten into leaves not more than one two hundred and

eighty thousandth of an inch in thickness, and its ductility admitting of

one grain being drawn out into five hundred feet of wire. For further

particulars as to the gold leaf of the ancients, and the art of gilding, as

practised by them, see Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 391, et seq.

Bohn's Edition.


13. See B. xxxvi. c. 64.

14. He alludes to what are now known as pepitas, oval grains of rivergold.

"Striges" is the reading in the Bamberg MS., "strigles" in the

former editions.

15. "Massa." As we should say at the present day, "nuggets."

16. "Ramentum."

17. The contrary is now known to be the case; gold is sometimes, though

rarely, found in an oxidized state.

18. As to the solvents of gold, see Note 2 above. Stahl says that three parts

of sub-carbonate of potash, dissolved in water, and heated with three parts

of sulphur and one part of gold, will yield a complete solution of the metal.

19. Aldrovandus relates, in his "Museum Metallicum," that the grave of

the Emperor Honorius was discovered at Rome about the year 1544, and

that thirty-six pounds' weight of gold were procured from the mouldering

dress that covered the body. See, on the subject of gold threads, Beckmann's

Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415. Bohn's Edition.

20. The "cloth of gold" of the present day, is made of threads of silk

or hair, wound round with silver wire flattened and gilded.

21. "Paludamento."

22. See B. viii. c. 74. Beckmann is of opinion, from a passage of Silius

Italicus, B. xiv. 1. 661, that the cloth of Attalns was embroidered with the

needle. See this subject fully discussed in his Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415.

See also Dr. Yates's "Textrinum Antiquorum," pp. 371, 464.




20. Chap. 20.-The Method Of Gilding.


CHAP. 20.-THE METHOD OF GILDING.



On marble and other substances which do not admit of being

brought to a white heat, gilt is laid with glair of egg, and on

wood by the aid of a glutinous composition,[1] known as "leucophoron:"

what this last is, and how it is prepared, we shall







state on the appropriate occasion.[2] The most convenient method

for gilding copper would be to employ quicksilver, or, at

all events, hydrargyros;[3] but with reference to these substances,

as we shall have occasion to say when describing the nature[4] of

them, methods of adulteration have been devised. To effect this

mode of gilding, the copper is first well hammered, after which

it is subjected to the action of fire, and then cooled with a

mixture of salt, vinegar, and alum.[5] It is then cleansed of all

extraneous substances, it being known by its brightness when

it has been sufficiently purified. This done, it is again

heated by fire, in order to enable it, when thus prepared, with

the aid of an amalgam of pumice, alum, and quicksilver, to

receive the gold leaf when applied. Alum has the same property

of purifying copper, that we have already[6] mentioned

as belonging to lead with reference to gold.







1. "Without entering into any research respecting the minerals employed for this cement, called 'leucophoron,' one may readily conceive

that it must have been a ferruginous ochre, or kind of bole, which is still

used as a ground. Gilding of this kind must have suffered from dampness,

though many specimens of it are still preserved."-Beckmann's Hist. Inv.

Vol. II. p. 294. Bohn's Edition.

2. B. xxxv. c. 17.

3. Literally, "fluid silver." "The first name here seems to signify

native quicksilver, and the second that separated from the ore by an artificial

process." Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 72.

4. In Chapters 32 and 41 of this Book.

5. As to the identity of the "alumen" of Pliny, see B. xxxv. c. 52.

6. In the preceding Chapter.




21. Chap. 21. (4.)-How Gold Is Found.


CHAP. 21. (4.)-HOW GOLD IS FOUND.



Gold is found in our own part of the world; not to mention

the gold extracted from the earth in India by the ants,[1] and

in Scythia by the Griffins.[2] Among us it is procured in

three different ways; the first of which is, in the shape of

dust, found in running streams, the Tagus[3] in Spain, for instance,

the Padus in Italy, the Hebrus in Thracia, the Pactolus in

Asia, and the Ganges in India; indeed, there is no gold found

in a more perfect state than this, thoroughly polished as it is

by the continual attrition of the current.



A second mode of obtaining gold is by sinking shafts or seeking

it among the debris of mountains; both of which methods

it will be as well to describe. The persons in search of gold

in the first place remove the "segutilum,"[4] such being the







name of the earth which gives indication of the presence of

gold. This done, a bed is made, the sand of which is washed,

and, according to the residue found after washing, a conjecture

is formed as to the richness of the vein. Sometimes, indeed,

gold is found at once in the surface earth, a success, however,

but rarely experienced. Recently, for instance, in the reign of

Nero, a vein was discovered in Dalmatia, which yielded daily

as much as fifty pounds' weight of gold. The gold that is

thus found in the surface crust is known as "talutium,"[5] in

cases where there is auriferous earth beneath. The mountains

of Spain,[6] in other respects arid and sterile, and productive of

nothing whatever, are thus constrained by man to be fertile,

in supplying him with this precious commodity.



The gold that is extracted from shafts is known by some

persons as "canalicium," and by others as "canaliense;"[7] it

is found adhering to the gritty crust of marble,[8] and, altogether

different from the form in which it sparkles in the sapphirus[9]

of the East, and in the stone of Thebais[10] and other gems, it

is seen interlaced with the molecules of the marble. The

channels of these veins are found running in various directions

along the sides of the shafts, and hence the name of the gold

they yield-"canalicium."[11] In these shafts, too, the superincumbent

earth is kept from falling in by means of wooden

pillars. The substance that is extracted is first broken up,

and then washed; after which it is subjected to the action of

fire, and ground to a fine powder. This powder is known as

"apitascudes," while the silver which becomes disengaged in

the[12] furnace has the name of "sudor"[13] given to it. The im-







purities that escape by the chimney, as in the case of all

other metals, are known by the name of "scoria." In the

case of gold, this scoria is broken up a second time, and melted

over again. The crucibles used for this purpose are made of

"tasconium,"[14] a white earth similar to potter's clay in appearance;

there being no other substance capable of with-standing

the strong current of air, the action of the fire, and

the intense heat of the melted metal.



The third method of obtaining gold surpasses the labours

of the Giants[15] even: by the aid of galleries driven to a long

distance, mountains are excavated by the light of torches, the

duration of which forms the set times for work, the workmen

never seeing the light of day for many months together.

These mines are known as "arrugi;"[16] and not unfrequently

clefts are formed on a sudden, the earth sinks in, and the workmen

are crushed beneath; so that it would really appear less rash

to go in search of pearls and purples at the bottom of the sea,

so much more dangerous to ourselves have we made the earth

than the water! Hence it is, that in this kind of mining,

arches are left at frequent intervals for the purpose of supporting

the weight of the mountain above. In mining either

by shaft or by gallery, barriers of silex are met with, which

have to be driven asunder by the aid of fire and vinegar;[17] or

more frequently, as this method fills the galleries with suffocating

vapours and smoke, to be broken to pieces with bruising-

machines

shod with pieces of iron weighing one hundred and

fifty pounds: which done, the fragments are carried out on the

workmen's shoulders, night and day, each man passing them

on to his neighbour in the dark, it being only those at the pit's

mouth that ever see the light. In cases where the bed of silex

appears too thick to admit of being penetrated, the miner traces

along the sides of it, and so turns it. And yet, after all, the labour

entailed by this silex is looked upon as comparatively easy, there

being an earth-a kind of potter's clay mixed with gravel,

"gangadia" by name, which it is almost impossible to overcome.

This earth has to be attacked with iron wedges and hammers







like those previously mentioned,[18] and it is generally considered

that there is nothing more stubborn in existence-except indeed

the greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of all things.



When these operations are all completed, beginning at the

last, they cut away[19] the wooden pillars at the point where

they support the roof: the coming downfall gives warning,

which is instantly perceived by the sentinel, and by him only,

who is set to watch upon a peak of the same mountain. By

voice as well as by signals, he orders the workmen to be immediately

summoned from their labours, and at the same

moment takes to flight himself. The mountain, rent to pieces,

is cleft asunder, hurling its debris to a distance with a crash

which it is impossible for the human imagination to conceive;

and from the midst of a cloud of dust, of a density quite incredible,

the victorious miners gaze upon this downfall of

Nature. Nor yet even then are they sure of gold, nor indeed

were they by any means certain that there was any to be

found when they first began to excavate, it being quite sufficient,

as an inducement to undergo such perils and to incur

such vast expense, to entertain the hope that they shall obtain

what they so eagerly desire.



Another labour, too, quite equal to this, and one which entails

even greater expense, is that of bringing rivers[20] from

the more elevated mountain heights, a distance in many instances

of one hundred miles perhaps, for the purpose of

washing these debris. The channels thus formed are called

"corrugi," from our word "corrivatio,"[21] I suppose; and even

when these are once made, they entail a thousand fresh labours.

The fall, for instance, must be steep, that the water may be

precipitated, so to say, rather than flow; and it is in this

manner that it is brought from the most elevated points.

Then, too, vallies and crevasses have to be united by the aid of

aqueducts, and in another place impassable rocks have to be

hewn away, and forced to make room for hollowed troughs of

wood; the person hewing them hanging suspended all the

time with ropes, so that to a spectator who views the operations







from a distance, the workmen have all the appearance, not so

much of wild beasts, as of birds upon the wing.[22] Hanging

thus suspended in most instances, they take the levels, and

trace with lines the course the water is to take; and thus,

where there is no room even for man to plant a footstep, are

rivers traced out by the hand of man. The water, too, is considered

in an unfit state for washing, if the current of the

river carries any mud along with it. The kind of earth that

yields this mud is known as "urium;"[23] and hence it is that

in tracing out these channels, they carry the water over beds

of silex or pebbles, and carefully avoid this urium. When

they have reached the head of the fall, at the very brow of the

mountain, reservoirs are hollowed out, a couple of hundred

feet in length and breadth, and some ten feet in depth. In

these reservoirs there are generally five sluices left, about

three feet square; so that, the moment the reservoir is filled, the

floodgates are struck away, and the torrent bursts forth with

such a degree of violence as to roll onwards any fragments of

rock which may obstruct its passage.



When they have reached the level ground, too, there is

still another labour that awaits them. Trenches-known as

"agog"[24]-have to be dug for the passage of the water; and

these, at regular intervals, have a layer of ulex placed at the

bottom. This ulex[25] is a plant like rosemary in appearance,

rough and prickly, and well-adapted for arresting any pieces

of gold that may be carried along. The sides, too, are closed

in with planks, and are supported by arches when carried over

steep and precipitous spots. The earth, carried onwards in

the stream, arrives at the sea at last, and thus is the shattered

mountain washed away; causes which have greatly tended to

extend the shores of Spain by these encroachments upon the

deep. It is also by the agency of canals of this description

that the material, excavated at the cost of such immense labour

by the process previously described,[26] is washed and car-







ried away; for otherwise the shafts would soon be choked up

by it.



The gold found by excavating with galleries does not require

to be melted, but is pure gold at once. In these excavations,

too, it is found in lumps, as also in the shafts which are sunk,

sometimes exceeding ten pounds even. The names given to

these lumps are "palag," and "palacurn,"[27] while the gold

found in small grains is known as "baluce." The ulex that

is used for the above purpose is dried and burnt, after which

the ashes of it are washed upon a bed of grassy turf, in order

that the gold may be deposited thereupon.



Asturia, Gallcia, and Lusitania furnish in this manner,

yearly, according to some authorities, twenty thousand pounds'

weight of gold, the produce of Asturia forming the major part.

Indeed, there is no part of the world that for centuries has

maintained such a continuous fertility in gold. I have already[28]

mentioned that by an ancient decree of the senate, the soil of

Italy has been protected from these researches; otherwise,

there would be no land more fertile in metals. There is extant

also a censorial law relative to the gold mines of Victumul,

in the territory of Vercell,[29] by which the farmers of the

revenue were forbidden to employ more than five thousand

men at the works.







1. See B. xi. c. 36.

2. See B. vii. c. 2.

3. See B. iv. c. 17.

4. Ajasson remarks, that the Castilians still call the surface

earth of auriferous deposits by the name of segullo. He also

doubts the correctness of

Pliny's assertion as to the produce of the mines of Dalmatia.

5. See B. xxxiv. c. 47.

6. We learn from Ajasson that numerous pits or shafts are still to be

seen in Spain, from which the Romans extracted gold. At Riotento, he

says, there are several of them.

7. Both meaning "channel gold."

8. "Marmoris glare." Under this name, he no doubt means quartz and schist

9. See B. xxxvii. c. 39.

10. See B. xxxvi. c. 13.

11. "Channel-gold" or "trench-gold."

12. Becoming volatilized, and attaching itself in crystals to the side of

the chimney.

13. Or "sweat." This "sweat" or "silver" would in reality be a

general name for all the minerals that were volatilized by the heat of the

furnace; while under the name of "scoria" would be comprised pyrites,

quartz, petrosilex, and other similar substances.

14. The cupel or crucible is still known in Spain by the name of tasco.

15. Who were said to have heaped one mountain on another in their war

with the gods.

16. Deep mines in Spain are still called arrugia, a term also used to

signify gold beneath the surface. According to Grimm, arruzi was the

ancient High German name for iron.

17. See B. xxiii. c. 27.

18. The breaking-machines, used for crushing the silex.

19. "Cdunt" is certainly a preferable reading to "cadunt," though the

latter is given by the Bamberg MS.

20. A similar method of washing auriferous earth or sand in the mines,

is still employed in some cases.

21. The bringing of water into one channel."

22. Or as Holland quaintly renders it, "Some flying spirit or winged

devill of the air."

23. Magnesian carbonate of lime, or dolomite, Ajasson thinks.

24. From the Greek, a\gwgh\.

25. It does not appear to have been identified; and it can hardly be

the same as the Ulex Europus of modern Natural History, our Furze

or Gorse.

26. That of sinking shafts, described already in this Chapter.

27. All these names, no doubt, are of Spanish origin, although Salmasius

would assign them a Greek one.

28. In B. iii. c. 24.

29. See B. iii. c. 21.




22. Chap. 22.-Orpiment.


CHAP. 22.-ORPIMENT.



There is also one other method of procuring gold; by making

it from orpiment,[1] a mineral dug from the surface of the earth

in Syria, and much used by painters. It is just the colour of

gold, but brittle, like mirror-stone,[2] in fact. This substance

greatly excited the hopes of the Emperor Caius,[3] a prince who

was most greedy for gold. He accordingly had a large quantity

of it melted, and really did obtain some excellent gold;[4] but

then the proportion was so extremely small, that he found himself

a loser thereby. Such was the result of an experiment

prompted solely by avarice: and this too, although the price







of the orpiment itself was no more than four denarii per pound.

Since his time, the experiment has never been repeated.







1. "Auripigmentum." Yellow sulphuret of arsenic. See B. xxxiv. c. 56.

2. "Lapis specularis." See B. xxxvi. c. 45.

3. Caligula.

4. It was accidently mixed with the ore of arsenic, no doubt, unless, indeed,

the emperor was imposed upon.




23. Chap. 23.-Electrum.


CHAP. 23.-ELECTRUM.



In all[1] gold ore there is some silver, in varying proportions;

a tenth part in some instances, an eighth in others. In one

mine, and that only, the one known as the mine of Albucrara,

in Gallcia,[2] the proportion of silver is but one thirty-sixth:

hence it is that the ore of this mine is so much more valuable

than that of others. Whenever the proportion of silver is one-fifth,

the ore is known also by the name of "electrum;"[3] grains,

too, of this metal are often found in the gold known as "canaliense."[4]

An artificial[5] electrum, too, is made, by mixing

silver with gold. If the proportion of silver exceeds one-fifth,

the metal offers no resistance on the anvil.



Electrum, too, was highly esteemed in ancient times, as we

learn from the testimony of Homer, who represents[6] the palace

of Menelas as refulgent with gold and electrum, silver and

ivory. At Lindos, in the island of Rhodes, there is a temple

dedicated to Minerva, in which there is a goblet of electrum,

consecrated by Helena: history states also that it was moulded

after the proportions of her bosom. One peculiar advantage

of electrum is, its superior brilliancy to silver by lamp-light.

Native electrum has also the property of detecting poisons;

for in such case, semicircles, resembling the rainbow in appearance,

will form upon the surface of the goblet, and emit a

crackling noise, like that of flame, thus giving a twofold indication

of the presence of poison.[7]







1. This is almost, but not quite, universally the case.

2. In Spain. See B. iii. c. 4, B. iv. c. 34, and B. ix. c. 2. The locality

alluded to is now unknown.

3. A name also given by the ancients to amber. Artificial "electrum,"

or gold alloyed with silver, was known in the most ancient times.

4. The gold found by sinking shafts. See Chapter 21.

5. See B. ix. c. 65.

6. Od. B. iv. 1. 71.

7. Pliny no doubt has been imposed upon in this instance.




24. Chap. 24.-The First Statues Of Gold.


CHAP. 24.-THE FIRST STATUES OF GOLD.



The first statue of massive gold, without any hollowness

within, and anterior to any of those statues of bronze even,

which are known as "holosphyrat,"[1] is said to have been







erected in the Temple of the goddess Anatis. To what particular

region this name belongs, we have already[2] stated, it

being that of a divinity[3] held in the highest veneration by

the nations in that part of the world. This statue was carried

off during the wars of Antonius with the people of Parthia;

and a witty saying is told, with reference to it, of one of the

veterans of the Roman army, a native of Bononia. Entertaining

on one occasion the late Emperor Augustus at dinner,

he was asked by that prince whether he was aware that the

person who was the first to commit this violence upon the

statue, had been struck with blindness and paralysis, and then

expired. To this he made answer, that at that very moment

Augustus was making his dinner off of one of her legs, for that

he himself was the very man, and to that bit of plunder he

had been indebted for all his fortune.[4]



As regards statues of human beings, Gorgias of Leontini[5]

was the first to erect a solid statue of gold, in the Temple at

Delphi, in honour of himself, about the seventieth[6] Olympiad:

so great were the fortunes then made by teaching the art of

oratory!







1. "Solid hammer-work," in opposition to works in metal, cast and hollow

within.

2. In B. v. c. 20, most probably. See also B. xvi. c. 64.

3. The worship of Anaitis was probably a branch of the Indian worship

of Nature. The Greek writers sometimes identify this goddess with their

Artemis and their Aphrodite.

4. Holland has strangely mistaken the meaning of the veteran's reply;

"Yea, sir, that it is; and that methinks you should know best, for even

now a leg of his you have at supper, and all your wealth besides is come

unto you by that saccage." He then adds, by way of Note, "For Augustus

Csar defeited Antonie, and was mightily enriched by the spoile

of him."

5. In Sicily. According to Valerius Maximus and other writers, a statue

of solid gold was erected by the whole of Greece, in the temple at Delphi,

in honour of Gorgias, who was distinguished for his eloquence and literary

attainments. The leading opinion of Gorgias was, that nothing had any

real existence.

6. The ninetieth Olympiad, about the year 420 B.C., is much more probably the correct reading; as it was about the seventieth Olympiad, or somewhat

later, that Gorgias was born.




25. Chap. 25.-Eight Remedies Derived From Gold.


CHAP. 25.-EIGHT REMEDIES DERIVED FROM GOLD.



Gold is efficacious as a remedy in many ways, being applied

to wounded persons and to infants, to render any malpractices

of sorcery comparatively innocuous that may be directed against

them. Gold, however, itself is mischievous in its effects if







carried over the head, in the case of chickens and lambs more

particularly. The proper remedy in such case is to wash the

gold, and to sprinkle the water upon the objects which it is

wished to preserve. Gold, too, is melted with twice its weight

of salt, and three times its weight of misy;[1] after which it is

again melted with two parts of salt and one of the stone called

"schistos."[2] Employed in this manner, it withdraws the

natural acridity from the substances torrefied with it in the

crucible, while at the same time it remains pure and incorrupt;

the residue forming an ash which is preserved in an earthen

vessel, and is applied with water for the cure of lichens on the

face: the best method of washing it off is with bean-meal.

These ashes have the property also of curing fistulas and the

discharges known as "hmorrhoides:" with the addition, too, of

powdered pumice, they are a cure for putrid ulcers and sores

which emit an offensive smell.



Gold, boiled in honey with melanthium[3] and applied as a

liniment to the navel, acts as a gentle purgative upon the

bowels. M. Varro assures us that gold is a cure for warts.[4]







1. See B. xxxiv. c. 29.

2. See B. xxix. c. 38. and B. xxxvi. cc. 27, 38.

3. Or gith. See B. xx. c. 71.

4. Similar to the notion still prevalent, that the application of pure gold

will remove styes on the eyelids.




26. Chap. 26. (5.)-Chrysocolla.


CHAP. 26. (5.)-CHRYSOCOLLA.



Chrysocolla[1] is a liquid which is found in the shafts already

mentioned,[2] flowing through the veins of gold; a kind of

slime which becomes indurated by the cold of winter till it

has attained the hardness even of pumice. The most esteemed

kind of it, it has been ascertained, is found in copper-mines,

the next best being the produce of silver-mines: it is found

also in lead-mines, but that found in combination with gold

ore is much inferior.



In all these mines, too, an artificial chrysocolla is manu-







factured; much inferior, however, to the native chrysocolla.

The method of preparing it consists in introducing water

gradually into a vein of metal, throughout the winter and until

the month of June; after which, it is left to dry up during

the months of June and July: so that, in fact, it is quite evident

that chrysocolla is nothing else but the putrefaction of a metallic

vein. Native chrysocolla, known as "uva," differs from

the other in its hardness more particularly; and yet, hard as

it is, it admits of being coloured with the plant known as

"lutum."[3] Like flax and wool, it is of a nature which imbibes

liquids. For the purpose of dyeing it, it is first bruised in a

mortar, after which, it is passed through a fine sieve. This

done, it is ground, and then passed through a still finer sieve;

all that refuses to pass being replaced in the mortar, and subjected

once more to the mill. The finest part of the powder is

from time to time measured out into a crucible, where it is

macerated in vinegar, so that all the hard particles may be

dissolved; after which, it is pounded again, and then rinsed

in shell-shaped vessels, and left to dry. This done, the chrysocolla

is dyed by the agency of schist alum[4] and the plant

above-mentioned; and thus is it painted itself before it serves

to paint. It is of considerable importance, too, that it should

be absorbent and readily take the dye: indeed, if it does not

speedily take the colour, scytanum and turbistum[5] are added to

the dye; such being the name of two drugs which compel it to

absorb the colouring matter.







1. It has been supposed by some, that the "Chrysocolla" of the ancients,

as well as the "Cruleum," mentioned in c. 57 of this Book, were the produce

of cobalt; but the more generally received opinion is that "chrysocolla"

(gold-solder) was green verditer, or mountain-green, carbonate and

hydrocarbonate of copper, green and blue, substances which are sometimes

found in gold mines, but in copper mines more particularly. It must not

be confounded with the modern chrysocolla or Borax.

2. In Chapter 21 of this Book.

3. The "Reseda luteola," Dyer's weed, or Wild woad. See Beckmann's

Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 478481, where the identity of the Chrysocolla of

the ancients is discussed at considerable length.

4. As to the identity of this substance, see B. xxxv. c. 52.

5. These drugs have not been identified.




27. Chap. 27.-The Use Made Of Chrysocolla In Painting.


CHAP. 27.-THE USE MADE OF CHRYSOCOLLA IN PAINTING.



When chrysocolla has been thus dyed, painters call it "orobitis," and distinguish two kinds of it, the cleansed[1] orobitis,[2]

which is kept for making lomentum,[3] and the liquid, the balls







being dissolved for use by evaporation.[4] Both these kinds

are prepared in Cyprus,[5] but the most esteemed is that made

in Armenia, the next best being that of Macedonia: it is Spain,

however, that produces the most. The great point of its excellence

consists in its producing exactly the tint of corn when

in a state of the freshest verdure.[6] Before now, we have seen,

at the spectacles exhibited by the Emperor Nero, the arena of

the Circus entirely sanded with chrysocolla, when the prince

himself, clad in a dress of the same colour, was about to exhibit

as a charioteer.[7]



The unlearned multitude of artisans distinguish three

kinds of chrysocolla; the rough chrysocolla, which is valued

at seven denarii per pound; the middling, worth five denarii;

and the bruised, also known as the "herbaceous" chrysocolla,

worth three denarii per pound. Before laying on the

sanded[8] chrysocolla, they underlay coats of atramentum[9]

and partonium,[10] substances which make it hold, and impart

a softness to the colours. The partonium, as it is

naturally very unctuous, and, from its smoothness, extremely

tenacious, is laid on first, and is then covered with a coat of

atramentum, lest the partonium, from its extreme whiteness,

should impart a paleness to the chrysocolla. The kind known

as "lutea," derives its name, it is thought, from the plant

called "lutum;" which itself is often pounded with cruleum[11] instead of real chrysocolla, and used for painting,







making a very inferior kind of green and extremely deceptive.[12]







1. "Elutam." Though this is the reading given by the Bamberg MS.,

"luteam" seems preferable; a name owing, probably, to its being coloured

with the plant "lutum," as mentioned at the end of this Chapter.

2. So called, probably, from being made up into little balls resembling

the "orobus" or vetch.

3. A powder, probably, prepared from "cruleum." See the end of the

present Chapter, and Chapter 57 of this Book. Littr renders the words

"in lomentum," kept "in the form of power," without reference to the

peculiar pigment known as "lomentum."

4. "Sudore resolutis."

5. A strong proof that chrysocolla was a preparation from copper, and

not cobalt. Copper owes its name to the Isle of Cyprus, in which it was

found in great abundance. See Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 480.

Bohn's Edition.

6. The colour now known by painters as Emerald green.

7. As a "trigarius." See B. xxviii. c. 72, and B. xxix. c. 5. From

Suetonius, c. 18, we learn that the Emperor Caligula, also, had the Circus

sanded with minium and chrysocolla. Ajasson is of opinion that the

chrysocolla thus employed was a kind of yellow mica or talc.

8. "Arenosam." He alludes, probably, to the kind previously mentioned

as "aspera" or "rough chrysocolla."

9. For its identification, see B. xxxiv. cc. 26, 32.

10. See B. xxxv. cc. 12, 18.

11. Making a spurious kind of "lomentum," possibly, a pigment mentioned

in c. 57 of this Book. This passage seems to throw some light.

upon the words "in lomentum," commented upon in Note 81 above.

12. As to durability, probably.




28. Chap. 28.-Seven Remedies Derived From Chrysocolla.


CHAP. 28.-SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CHRYSOCOLLA.



Chroysocolla, too, is made use of in medicine. In combination

with wax and oil, it is used as a detergent for wounds;

and used by itself in the form of a powder, it acts as a desiccative,

and heals them. In cases, too, of quinsy and hardness

of breathing, chrysocolla is prescribed, in the form of an electuary,

with honey. It acts as an emetic also, and is used as an

ingredient in eye-salves, for the purpose of effacing cicatrizations

upon the eyes. In green plasters too, it is used, for

soothing pain and making scars disappear. This kind of

chrysocolla[1] is known by medical men as "acesis," and is altogether

different from orobitis.







1. It was the mineral, probably, in an unprepared state.




29. Chap. 29.-The Chrysocolla Of The Goldsmiths, Known Also As Santerna.


CHAP. 29.-THE CHRYSOCOLLA OF THE GOLDSMITHS, KNOWN ALSO

AS SANTERNA.



The goldsmiths also employ a chrysocolla[1] of their own, for

the purpose of soldering gold; and it is from this chrysocolla,

they say, that all the other substances, which present a similar

green, have received their name. This preparation is made

from verdigris of Cyprian copper, the urine of a youth who

has not arrived at puberty, and a portion of nitre.[2] It is then

pounded with a pestle of Cyprian copper, in a copper mortar,

and the name given to the mixture is "santerna." It is in this

way that the gold known as "silvery"[3] gold is soldered; one

sign of its being so alloyed being its additional brilliancy on

the application of santerna. If, on the other hand, the gold

is impregnated with copper, it will contract, on coming in

contact with the santerna, become dull, and only be soldered

with the greatest difficulty: indeed, for this last kind of gold,

there is a peculiar solder employed, made of gold and one-

seventh

part of silver, in addition to the materials above-mentioned,

the whole beaten up together.











1. Gold-glue or gold-solder.

2. See B. xxxi. c. 46, as to the "nitrum" of Pliny. Galen, in de-

scribing the manufacture of "santerna," omits the nitre as an ingredient.

3. "Argentosum." The "electrum," probably, mentioned in c. 23.




30. Chap. 30.-The Marvellous Operations Of Nature In Soldering Metallic Substances, And Bringing Them To A State Of Perfection.


CHAP. 30.-THE MARVELLOUS OPERATIONS OF NATURE IN SOLDERING

METALLIC SUBSTANCES, AND BRINGING THEM TO A STATE OF

PERFECTION.



While speaking on this subject, it will be as well to annex

the remaining particulars, that our admiration may here be

drawn to all the marvels presented by Nature in connection

therewith. The proper solder for gold is that above described;

for iron, potter's clay; for copper, when in masses, cadmia,[1]

and in sheets, alum; for lead and marble, resin. Lead is also

united by the aid of white lead;[2] white lead with white lead,

by the agency of oil; stannum, with copper file-dust; and

silver, with stannum.[3]



For smelting copper and iron, pine-wood is the best, Egyptian

papyrus being also very good for the purpose. Gold is

melted most easily with a fire made of chaff.[4] Limestone

and Thracian stone[5] are ignited by the agency of water, this

last being extinguished by the application of oil. Fire, however,

is extinguished most readily by the application of vinegar,

viscus,[6] and unboiled eggs. Earth will under no circumstance

ignite. When charcoal has been once quenched, and then again

ignited, it gives out a greater heat than before.







1. As to the "cadmia" of Pliny, see B. xxxiv. c. 22.

2. "Plumbum album." Tin, most probably. See B. xxxiv. cc. 47, 48,

49. Also Beckmann's Hist. Inv., Vol. II. p. 219. Bohn's Edition.

3. Of doubtful identity. See B. xxxiv. c. 48.

4. See Chapter 19 of this Book.

5. "Thracius lapis." This stone, which is mentioned also by Nicander,

Galen, Simplicius, and Dioscorides, has not been identified. Holland has

the following Note on this passage: "Which some take for pit-cole, or sea-cole

rather, such as commeth from Newcastle by sea; or rather, a kind of

jeat (jet)." In either case, he is probably wide of the mark, neither coal

nor jet igniting on the application of water.

6. Or mistletoe.




31. Chap. 31. (6.)-Silver.


CHAP. 31. (6.)-SILVER.



After stating these facts, we come to speak of silver ore,

the next[1] folly of mankind. Silver is never found but in

shafts sunk deep in the ground, there being no indications to

raise hopes of its existence, no shining sparkles, as in the case

of gold. The earth in which it is found is sometimes red, sometimes

of an ashy hue. It is impossible, too, to melt[2] it, except







in combination with lead[3] or with galena,[4] this last being the

name given to the vein of lead that is mostly found running

near the veins of the silver ore. When submitted, too, to the

action of fire, part of the ore precipitates itself in the form of

lead,[5] while the silver is left floating on the surface,[6] like oil

on water.



Silver is found in nearly all our provinces, but the finest of

all is that of Spain; where it is found, like gold, in uncultivated

soils, and in the mountains even. Wherever, too, one

vein of silver has been met with, another is sure to be found

not far off: a thing that has been remarked, in fact, in the case

of nearly all the metals, which would appear from this circumstance

to have derived their Greek name of "metalla."[7] It

is a remarkable fact, that the shafts opened by Hannibal[8] in

the Spanish provinces are still worked, their names being derived

from the persons who were the first to discover them.

One of these mines, which at the present day is still called Bbelo,

furnished Hannibal with three hundred pounds' weight of silver

per day. The mountain is already excavated for a distance of

fifteen hundred[9] paces; and throughout the whole of this

distance there are water-bearers[10] standing night and day,

baling out the water in turns, regulated by the light of torches,

and so forming quite a river.



The vein of silver that is found nearest the surface is known







by the name of "crudaria."[11] In ancient times, the excavations

used to be abandoned the moment alum[12] was met with, and no

further[13] search was made. Of late, however, the discovery of

a vein of copper beneath alum, has withdrawn any such limits

to man's hopes. The exhalations from silver-mines are dangerous

to all animals, but to dogs more particularly. The

softer they are, the more beautiful gold and silver are considered.

It is a matter of surprise with most persons, that lines

traced[14] with silver should be black.







1. In due succession to gold.

2. See B. xxxiv. cc. 17, 53.

3. "Plumbum nigrum"-"Black lead," literally: so called by the ancients,

in contradistinction to "plumbum album," white lead," our "tin,"

probably.

4. Lead ore; identified with "molybdna" in B. xxxiv. c. 53. Native

sulphurate of lead is now known as "galena." See Beckmann's Hist. Inv.

Vol. II. p. 211, where this passage is commented upon.

5. This Beckmann considers to be the same as the "galena" above mentioned;

half-vitrified lead, the "gltte" of the Germans.

6. The specific gravity of lead is 11.352, and of silver only 10.474.

7. From the words met) a)/lla, "one after another."

8. It is supposed that these shafts were in the neighbourhood of Castulo,

now Cazlona, near Linares in Spain. It was at Castulo that Hannibal

married his rich wife Himilce; and in the hills north of Linares there are

ancient silver mines still known as Los Pozos de Anibal.

9. A mile and a half.

10. The proper reading here, as suggested by Sillig, is not improbably

"aquatini," "water-carriers." That, however, found in the MSS. is "Aquitani;"

but those were a people, not of Spain, but of Gaul. Hardouin suggests

that "Accitani" may be the correct reading, a people of that name

in Spain being mentioned in B. iii. c. 5.

11. Meaning "raw" silver, apparently.

12. "Alumen." See B. xxxv. c. 52.

13. Kircher speaks of this being still the case in his time.

14. See Chapter 19 of this Book.




32. Chap. 32.-Quicksilver.


CHAP. 32.-QUICKSILVER.



There is a mineral also found in these veins of silver, which

yields a humour that is always[1] liquid, and is known as

"quicksilver."[2] It acts as a poison[3] upon everything, and

pierces vessels even, making its way through them by the

agency of its malignant properties.[4] All substances float upon

the surface of quicksilver, with the exception of gold,[5] this

being the only substance that it attracts to itself.[6] Hence

it is, that it is such an excellent refiner of gold; for, on being

briskly shaken in an earthen vessel with gold, it rejects all

the impurities that are mixed with it. When once it has thus

expelled these superfluities, there is nothing to do but to separate

it from the gold; to effect which, it is poured out upon

skins that have been well tawed, and so, exuding through them

like a sort of perspiration, it leaves the gold in a state of

purity behind.[7]







Hence it is, too, that when copper has to be gilded,[8] a coat of

quicksilver is laid beneath the gold leaf, which it retains in its

place with the greatest tenacity: in cases, however, where the

leaf is single, or very thin, the presence of the quicksilver is

detected by the paleness of the colour.[9] For this reason, persons,

when meditating a piece of fraud, have been in the habit

of substituting glair of egg for quicksilver, and then laying

upon it a coat of hydrargyros, a substance of which we shall

make further mention in the appropriate place.[10] Generally

speaking, quicksilver has not been found in any large quantities.











1. "Vomica liquoris terni." Mercury or quicksilver becomes solidified

and assumes a crystalline texture at 40 below zero. It is found chiefly

in the state of sulphuret, which is decomposed by distillation with iron or

lime. It is also found in a native state.

2. "Argentum vivum," "living silver."

3. Ajasson thinks that this is not to be understood literally, but that

Pliny's meaning is, that mercury is a universal dissolvent.

4. "Permanans tabe dir."

5. The specific gravity of mercury is 13.598, that of hammered gold

19.361. Platinum is only a recent discovery.

6. "Id unum ad se trahit."

7. "The first use of quicksilver is commonly reckoned a Spanish invention,

discovered about the middle of the sixteenth century; but it

appears from Pliny, that the ancients were acquainted with amalgam and

its use, not only for separating gold and silver from earthy particles, but

also for gilding."-Beckmann, Hist. Inv., Vol. I. p. 15. Bohn's Edition.



8. See the description of the mode of gilding, given in Chapter 20 of

this Book. Beckmann has the following remarks on the present passage;

"That gold-leaf was affixed to metals by means of quicksilver, with the assistance

of heat, in the time of Pliny, we are told by himself in more passages

than one. The metal to be gilded was prepared by salts of every kind,

and rubbed with pumice-stone in order to clean it thoroughly (see Chapter

20), and to render the surface a little rough. This process is similar to

that used at present for gilding with amalgam, by means of heat, especially

as amalgamation was known to the ancients. But, to speak the truth,

Pliny says nothing of heating the metal after the gold is applied, or of

evaporating the quicksilver, but of drying the cleaned metal before the

gold is laid on. Had he not mentioned quicksilver, his gilding might

have been considered as that with gold leaf by means of heat, dorure en

feuille feu, in which the gold is laid upon the metal after it has been

cleaned and heated, and strongly rubbed with blood-stone, or polished steel.

Felibien (Principes de l'Architecture. Paris, 1676, p. 280) was undoubtedly

right when he regretted that the process of the ancients, the excellence

of which is proved by remains of antiquity, has been lost."-Hist. Inv.

Vol. II. pp. 294, 295. Bohn's Edition.

9. Beckmann finds considerable difficulties in this description-"I acknowledge

that this passage I do not fully comprehend. It seems to say

that the quicksilver, when the gold was laid on too thin, appeared through

it, but that this might be prevented by mixing with the quicksilver the

white of an egg. The quicksilver then remained under the gold: a thing

which is impossible. When the smallest drop of quicksilver falls upon

gilding, it corrodes the noble metal, and produces an empty spot. It is,

therefore, incomprehensible to me how this could be prevented by using

the white of an egg. Did Pliny himself completely understand gilding?

Perhaps he only meant to say that many artists gave out the cold-gilding.

where the gold-leaf was laid on with the white of an egg, as gilding by

means of heat."-Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 295.

10. Chapter 42 of this Book. See also Chapter 20, in Note 20, to which

it has been mentioned as artificial quicksilver.




33. Chap. 33.-Stimmi, Stibi, Alabastrum, Larbasis, Or Platyophthalmon.


CHAP. 33.-STIMMI, STIBI, ALABASTRUM, LARBASIS, OR PLATYOPHTHALMON.



In the same mines in which silver is found, there is also

found a substance which, properly speaking, may be called a

stone made of concrete froth.[1] It is white and shining, without

being transparent, and has the several names of stimmi,

stibi, alabastrum,[2] and larbasis. There are two kinds of it,

the male and the female.[3] The latter kind is the more approved

of, the male[4] stimmi being more uneven, rougher to

the touch, less ponderous, not so radiant, and more gritty.

The female kind, on the other hand, is bright and friable, and

separates in lamin, and not in globules.[5]







1. He is speaking of Antimony.

2. From its whiteness.

3. Under the name of "female stimmi," Ajasson thinks that pure, or

native, antimony is meant, more particularly the lamelliform variety, remarkable

for its smoothness. He thinks it possible, also, that it may have

derived its Greek name "larbason," or "larbasis," from its brittleness.

4. Ajasson thinks that under this name, crude antimony or sulphuret of

antimony may have been included; as also sulphuret of lead, sulphuret of

antimony and copper, and sulphuret of antimony and silver; the last of

which is often found covered with an opaque pellicle.

5. "Globis." The fracture of sulphuret of antimony is, in reality, small

subconchodal.




34. Chap. 34.-Seven Remedies Derived From Stimmi.


CHAP. 34.-SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM STIMMI.



Stimmi is possessed of certain astringent and refrigerative

properties, its principal use, in medicine, being for the eyes.

Hence it is that most persons call it "platyophthalmon,"[1] it being

extensively employed in the calliblepharie[2] preparations of

females, for the purpose of dilating the eyes. It acts also as a

check upon fluxes of the eyes and ulcerations of those organs;

being used, as a powder, with pounded frankincense and gum.

It has the property, too, of arresting discharges of blood from







the brain; and, sprinkled in the form of a powder, it is extremely

efficacious for the cure of recent wounds and bites of dogs which

have been some time inflicted. For the cure of burns it is remarkably

good, mixed with grease, litharge,[3] ceruse, and wax.



The method of preparing it, is to burn it, enclosed in a

coat of cow-dung, in a furnace; which done, it is quenched

with woman's milk, and pounded with rain-water in a mortar.[4]

While this is doing, the thick and turbid part is poured off

from time to time into a copper vessel, and purified with nitre.[5]

The lees of it, which are rejected, are recognized by their

being full of lead and falling to the bottom. The vessel into

which the turbid part has been poured off, is then covered

with a linen cloth and left untouched for a night; the portion

that lies upon the surface being poured off the following day,

or else removed with a sponge. The part that has fallen to

the bottom of the vessel is regarded as the choicest[6] part, and

is left, covered with a linen cloth, to dry in the sun, but not

to become parched. This done, it is again pounded in a

mortar, and then divided into tablets. But the main thing of

all is, to observe such a degree of nicety in heating it, as not

to let it become lead.[7] Some persons, when preparing it on

the fire, use grease[8] instead of dung. Others, again, bruise it

in water and then pass it through a triple strainer of linen

cloth; after which, they reject the lees, and pour off the

remainder of the liquid, collecting all that is deposited at the

bottom, and using it as an ingredient in plasters and eye-salves.







1. "Eye dilating." Belladonna, a preparation from the Atropa belladonna,

is now used in medicine for this purpose. A similar effect is attributed

in B. xxv. c. 92, to the plant Anagallis. In reality, the application

of prepared antimony would contract the eyelids, and so appear to enlarge

the eyes. This property is peculiar, Ajasson remarks, to sulphuret of antimony,

and sulphuret of antimony and silver.

2. Preparations "for beautifying the eyebrows." See B. xxi. c. 73, B.

xxiii. c. 51, and B. xxxv. c. 56. Omphale, the Lydian queen, who captivated

Hercules, is represented by the tragic poet Ion, as using "stimmi"

for the purposes of the toilet. It was probably with a preparation of antimony

that Jezebel "painted her face, and tired her head." 2 Kings, ix. 30.

The "Kohl" used by the females in Egypt and Persia is prepared from antimony.

3. "Spuma argenti." See the next Chapter.

4. According to Dioscorides, it was prepared as a cosmetic by enclosing

it in a lump of dough, and then burning it in the coals till reduced to a

cinder. It was then extinguished with milk and wine, and again placed

upon coals, and blown till ignition.

5. As to the "nitrum" of the ancients, see B. xxxi. c. 46.

6. "Flos"-literally the "flower."

7. "From this passage we may infer that the metal antimony was occasionally

seen by the ancients, though not recognized by them as distinct

from lead."-Dana's System of Mineralogy, p. 418. New York, 1850.

8. Pliny has here mistaken the sense of the word ste/ar, which in the

passage of Dioscorides, B. v. c. 99, borrowed probably from the same

source, evidently means dough, and not grease.




35. Chap. 35.-The Scoria Of Silver. Six Remedies Derived From It.


CHAP. 35.-THE SCORIA OF SILVER. SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.



The scoria of silver is called by the Greeks "helcysma."[1]







It has certain restringent and refrigerative effects upon bodies,

and, like molybdna, of which we shall make further mention

when speaking[2] of lead, is used as an ingredient in making

plasters, those more particularly which are to promote the

cicatrization of wounds. It is employed also for the cure of

tenesmus and dysentery, being injected in the form of a clyster

with myrtle-oil. It forms an ingredient, too, in the medicaments

known as "lipar,"[3] for the removal of fleshy excrescences

in sores, ulcerations arising from chafing, or running

ulcers on the head.



The same mines also furnish us with the preparation known

as "scum of silver."[4] There are three[5] varieties of it; the

best, known as "chrysitis;" the second best, the name of

which is "argyritis;" and a third kind, which is called

"molybditis." In most instances, too, all these tints are to

be found in the same cake.[6]



The most approved kind is that of Attica; the next being

that which comes from Spain. Chrysitis is the produce of

the metallic vein,[7] argyritis is obtained from the silver itself,

and molybditis is the result of the smelting of lead,[8] a work

that is done at Puteoli; to which last circumstance, in fact, molybditis

owes its name.[9] All these substances are prepared in

the following manner: the metal is first melted, and then allowed

to flow from a more elevated receiver into a lower. From

this last it is lifted by the aid of iron spits, and is then twirled

round at the end of the spit in the midst of the flames, in

order to make it all the lighter. Thus, as may be easily per-







ceived from the name, it is in reality the scum of a substance

in a state of fusion-of the future metal, in fact. It differs

from scoria in the same way that the scum of a liquid differs

from the lees, the one[10] being an excretion thrown out by

the metal while purifying itself, the other[11] an excretion of

the metal when purified.



Some persons distinguish two kinds of scum of silver, and

give them the names of "scirerytis" and "peumene;[12] a third

variety being molybdna, of which we shall have to make

further mention when treating of lead.[13] To make this scum

fit for use, the cakes are again broken into pieces the size

of a hazel-nut, and then melted, the fire being briskly blown

with the bellows. For the purpose of separating the charcoal

and ashes from it, it is then rinsed with vinegar or with wine,

and is so quenched. In the case of argyritis, it is recommended,

in order to blanch it, to break it into pieces the size

of a bean, and then to boil it with water in an earthen vessel,

first putting with it, wrapped in linen cloths, some new wheat

and barley, which are left there till they have lost the outer

coat. This done, they bruise the whole in mortars for six consecutive

days, taking care to rinse the mixture in cold water

three times a day, and after that, in an infusion of hot

water and fossil salt, one obolus of the latter to every pound

of scum: at the end of the six days it is put away for keeping

in a vessel of lead.



Some persons boil it with white beans and a ptisan[14] of

barley, and then dry it in the sun; others, again, with white

wool and beans, till such time as it imparts no darkness to the

wool; after which, first adding fossil[15] salt, they change the

water from time to time, and then dry it during the forty hot-

test days of summer. In some instances the practice is, to

boil it in water in a swine's paunch, and then to take it out

and rub it with nitre; after which, following the preceding

method, they pound it in a mortar with salt. Some again







never boil it, but pound it only with salt, and then rinse it

with water.



Scum of silver is used as an ingredient in eye-salves, and,

in the form of a liniment, by females, for the purpose of removing

spots and blemishes caused by scars, as also in washes

for the hair. Its properties are desiccative, emollient, refrigerative,

temperative, and detergent. It fills up cavities in

the flesh produced by ulceration, and reduces tumours. For

all these purposes it is employed as an ingredient in plaster,

and in the lipar previously mentioned.[16] In combination

with rue, myrtle, and vinegar, it removes erysipelas: and,

with myrtle and wax, it is a cure for chilblains.







1. From e(/lkw, "to drag"-in consequence of its viscous consistency,

Hardouin says.

2. In B. xxxiv. c. 53.

3. Cerates, adipose or oleaginous plasters. See B. xxiii. c. 81.

4. "Spuma argenti." This he uses as a general name for fused oxide

of lead, the Litharge of commerce.

5. Ajasson thinks it possible that the "chrysitis," or "golden" litharge,

may have been the yellow deutoxide of lead; the argyritis, or "silver"

litharge, the white variety of the same deutoxide; and the "molybditis,"

or "leaden" litharge, a general name for sulphuret of lead and silver; of

lead and antimony; of lead, antimony, and bismuth; and of lead, antimony,

and copper. Or perhaps, he thinks, they may have been the respective

names of yellow or golden litharge, white or silver litharge, and terne.

With the latter opinion Delafosse seems to coincide.

6. "Tubulis." These cakes were probably made in a tubular form.

7. "Vena;" meaning the ore probably in its raw state, and mixed with

earth. All these distinctions are probably unfounded.

8. See B. xxxiv. c. 53.

9. Of "Puteolana."

10. The litharge.

11. The scoria.

12. Nothing whatever is known as to the identity of these varieties of

litharge. Indeed the words themselves are spelt in various ways in the

respective MSS.

13. In B. xxxiv. c. 53, where he identifies it with "galena," mentioned

in Chapter 31 of this Book.

14. See B. xviii. c. 13, B. xxi. c. 61, and B. xxii. c. 66.

15. Sal gem, or common salt.

16. In this Chapter. See note 36 above.




37. Chap. 37.-The Discovery And Origin Of Minium.


CHAP. 37.-THE DISCOVERY AND ORIGIN OF MINIUM.



Theophrastus states that, ninety years before the magistracy

of Praxibulus at Athens-a date which answers to the

year of our City, 439-minium was discovered by Callias the

Athenian, who was in hopes to extract gold, by submitting to

the action of fire the red sand that was found in the silver-mines.

This, he says, was the first discovery of minium. He states,

also, that in his own time, it was already found in Spain, but

of a harsh and sandy nature; as also in Colchis, upon a certain

inaccessible rock there, from which it was brought down

by the agency of darts. This, however, he says, was only an

adulterated kind of minium, the best of all being that procured

in the Cilbian Plains,[1] above Ephesus, the sand of which

has just the colour of the kermes berry.[2] This sand, he informs

us, is first ground to powder and then washed, the

portion that settles at the bottom being subjected to a second

washing. From this circumstance, he says, arises a difference

in the article; some persons being in the habit of preparing

their minium with a single washing, while with others it is

more diluted. The best kind, however, he says, is that which

has undergone a second washing.







1. See B. v. c. 31.

2. See B. xvi. c. 12, and B. xxiv. c. 4.




38. Chap. 38.-Cinnabaris.


CHAP. 38.-CINNABARIS.



I am not surprised that this colour should have been held

in such high esteem; for already, in the days of the Trojan

War, rubrica[1] was highly valued, as appears from the testimony

of Homer, who particularly notices the ships that were

coloured with it, whereas, in reference to other colours and

paintings, he but rarely notices them. The Greeks call this

red earth "miltos," and give to minium the name of "cinnabaris,"

and hence the error[2] caused by the two meanings of







the same word; this being properly the name given to the

thick matter which issues from the dragon when crushed beneath

the weight of the dying elephant, mixed with the blood

of either animal, as already described.[3] Indeed this last is the

only colour that in painting gives a proper representation of

blood. This cinnabaris, too, is extremely useful as an ingredient

in antidotes and various medicaments. But, by Hercules !

our physicians, because minium also has the name of

"cinnabaris," use it as a substitute for the other, and so employ

a poison, as we shall shortly[4] show it to be.







1. The same as the miltos mentioned below, "miltos" being the word

used by Homer, II. II. 637. This substance is totally different from the

minium of the preceding Chapters, and from that mentioned in c. 40. It

is our red ochre, peroxide of iron, mixed in a greater or less degree with

argillaceous earth.

2. See B. xxix. c. 8; where he speaks of the mistake made by the physicians

in giving mineral vermilion or minium to their patients instead of Indian cinnabar. The latter substance is probably identical with that

which is now used for varnishes, being imported from India, and still

known as " dragons' blood," the resin of the Ptero-carpus draco, or Calamus

palm.

3. In B. viii. c. 12.

4. In Chapter 41.




39. Chap. 39.-The Employment Of Cinnabaris In Painting.


CHAP. 39.-THE EMPLOYMENT OF CINNABARIS IN PAINTING.



The ancients used to paint with cinnabaris[1] those pictures

of one colour, which are still known among us as " monochromata."[2]

They painted also with the minium of Ephesus:[3]

but the use of this last has been abandoned, from the vast

trouble which the proper keeping of the picture entailed. And

then besides, both these colours were thought to be too harsh;

the consequence of which is, that painters have now adopted

the use of rubrica[4] and of sinopis, substances of which I shall

make further mention in the appropriate places.[5]



Cinnabaris[6] is adulterated by the agency of goats' blood, or

of bruised sorb-apples. The price of genuine cinnabaris is fifty

sesterces per pound.







1. The dragon's blood, mentioned in the preceding Chapter.

2. "Single colour paintings." See B. xxxv. cc. 5, 11, 34, 36.

3. Mentioned in Chapter 37.

4. The "miltos" of the preceding Chapter. See Note 55 above.

5. In B. xxxv. c. 13, et seq.

6. He is here speaking of our cinnabar, or vermilion, mentioned in

Chapter 36.




40. Chap. 40.-The Various Kinds Of Minium. The Use Made Of It In Painting.


CHAP. 40.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MINIUM. THE USE MADE OF

IT IN PAINTING.



According to Juba minium is also a production of Carmania,[1]

and Timagenes says that it is found in thiopia. But from

neither of those regions is it imported to Rome, nor, indeed,







from hardly any other quarter but Spain ; that of most note

coming from Sisapo,[2] a territory of Btica, the mine of minium

there forming a part of the revennes of the Roman

people. Indeed there is nothing guarded with a more constant

circumspection; for it is not allowable to reduce and refine

the ore upon the spot, it being brought to Rome in a crude

state and under seal, to the amount of about two thousand

pounds per annum. At Rome, the process of washing is performed,

and, in the sale of it, the price is regulated by statute;

it not being allowed to exceed[3] seventy sesterces per pound.

There are numerous ways, however, of adulterating it, a source

of considerable plunder to the company.[4]



For there is, in fact, another kind[5] of minium, found in most

silver-mines as well as lead-mines, and prepared by the calcination

of certain stones that are found mixed with the metallic

vein-not the minerals, however, to the fluid humours of

which we have given[6] the name of quicksilver; for if those are

subjected to the action of fire they will yield silver-but another

kind of stone[7] that is found with them. These barren[8] stones,

too, may be recognized by their uniform leaden colour, and it

is only when in the furnace that they turn red. After being

duly calcined they are pulverized, and thus form a minium of

second-rate quality, known to but very few, and far inferior

to the produce of the native sand that we have mentioned.[9]

It is with this substance, then, as also with syricum, that

the genuine minium is adulterated in the manufactories of the

company. How syricum is prepared we shall describe in the

appropriate place.[10] One motive, however, for giving an under-coat

of syricum to minium, is the evident saving of expense

that results therefrom. Minium, too, in another way affords a

very convenient opportunity to painters for pilfering, by wash-







ing their brushes,[11] filled with the colouring matter, every now

and then. The minium of course falls to the bottom, and is

thus so much gained by the thief.



Genuine minium ought to have the brilliant colour of the

kermes berry;[12] but when that of inferior quality is used for

walls, the brightness of it is sure to be tarnished by the

moisture, and this too, although the substance itself is a sort

of metallic mildew. In the mines of Sisapo, the veins are

composed exclusively of the sandy particles of minium, without

the intermixture of any silver whatever; the practice being

to melt it like gold. Minium is assayed by the agency of gold

in a state of incandescence: if it has been adulterated, it will

turn black, but if genuine, it retains its colour. I find it

stated also that minium is adulterated with line; the proper

mode of detecting which, is similarly to employ a sheet of red

hot iron, if there should happen to be no gold at hand.



To objects painted with minium the action of the sun and

moon is highly injurious. The proper method of avoiding

this inconvenience, is to dry the wall, and then to apply, with

a hair brush, hot Punic wax, melted with oil; after which,

the varnish must be heated, with an application of gall-nuts,

burnt to a red heat, till it quite perspires. This done, it must

be smoothed down with rollers[13] made of wax, and then polished

with clean linen cloths, like marble, when made to shine.

Persons employed in the manufactories in preparing minium

protect the face with masks of loose bladder-skin, in order to

avoid inhaling the dust, which is highly pernicious; the covering

being at the same time sufficiently transparent to admit of

being seen through.



Minium is employed also for writing[14] in books; and the

letters made with it being more distinct, even on gold or marble,

it is used for the inscriptions upon tombs.











1. See B. vi. cc. 27, 28, 32.

2. See B. iii. c. 3, Vol. I. p. 163. He alludes to the district of Almaden,

in Andalusia, still famous for its quicksilver mines.

3. When sold by the "publicani," or farmers of the revenue.

4. Of the publicani.

5. Red oxide of lead, a much inferior pigment to cinnabar, or the minium

of Chapter 36.

6. In Chapter 32 of this Book.

7. Dana informs us that minium is usually associated with galena and

with calamine. Syst. Mineral, p. 495.

8. "Steriles." Barren of silver, probably; though Hardouin thinks

that it means "barren of lead." Holland renders it "barraine and void

of the right vermilion."

9. In Chapter 37.

10. B. xxxv. c. 24.

11. When hired by the job for colouring walls or objects of art. See

B. xxxv. c. 12.

12. See B. xvi. c. 12, and B. xxiv. c. 4.

13. "Candelis." The Abate Requeno thinks that these "candel" were

used as a delicate cauterium, simply to keep the wax soft, that it might

receive a polish from the friction of the linen.

14. Hence the use of it in the middle ages; a reminiscence of which still

exists in our word "rubric."




41. Chap. 41. (8.)-Hydrargyros. Remedies Derived From Minium.


CHAP. 41. (8.)-HYDRARGYROS. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MINIUM.



Human industry has also discovered a method of extracting

hydrargyros[1] from the inferior minium, a substitute for quick-silver,

the further mention of which was deferred, a few pages

before,[2] to the present occasion. There are two methods of

preparing this substance; either by pounding minium and

vinegar with a brazen pestle and mortar, or else by putting

minium into flat earthen pans, covered with a lid, and then

enclosed in an iron seething-pot well luted with potter's clay.

A fire is then lighted under the pans, and the flame kept continually

burning by the aid of the bellows; which done, the

steam is carefully removed, that is found adhering to the lid,

being like silver in colour, and similar to water in its fluidity.

This liquid, too, is easily made to separate in globules, which,

from their fluid nature, readily unite.[3]



As it is a fact generally admitted, that minium is a poison,[4]

I look upon all the recipes given as highly dangerous which

recommend its employment for medicinal purposes; with the

exception, perhaps, of those cases in which it is applied to the

head or abdomen, for the purpose of arresting hmorrhage,

due care being taken that it is not allowed to penetrate to the

viscera, or to touch any sore. Beyond such cases as these, for

my own part, I should never recommend it to be used in

medicine.







1. Or artificial quicksilver. In reality, hydrargyrus is prepared from the

genuine minium of Pliny, the cinnabar mentioned in Chapter 36: it being

obtained by the sublimation of sulphuret of mercury.

2. In Chapters 20 and 32.

3. This, probably, is the meaning of "lubrico humore compluere."

4. See the end of Chapter 38.




42. Chap. 42.-The Method Of Gilding Silver.


CHAP. 42.-THE METHOD OF GILDING SILVER.



At the present day silver is gilded almost exclusively by

the agency of hydrargyros;[1] and a similar method should

always be employed in laying gold leaf upon copper. But

the same fraud which ever shows itself so extremely ingenious

in all departments of human industry, has devised a







plan of substituting an inferior material, as already mentioned.[2]







1. Artificial quicksilver is still used for this purpose. See Note 24 to

Chapter 32 of this Book; also Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 295.

Bohn's Edition.

2. In Chapter 32. He alludes to the use of glair of eggs.




43. Chap. 43.-Touchstones For Testing Gold.


CHAP. 43.-TOUCHSTONES FOR TESTING GOLD.



A description of gold and silver is necessarily accompanied

by that of the stone known as "coticula."[1] In former times,

according to Theophrastus, this stone was nowhere to be

found, except in the river Tmolus,[2] but at the present day it is

found in numerous places. By some persons it is known as

the "Heraclian," and by others as the "Lydian" stone. It

is found in pieces of moderate size, and never exceeding four

inches in length by two in breadth. The side that has lain

facing the sun is superior[3] to that which has lain next to the

ground. Persons of experience in these matters, when they

have scraped a particle off the ore with this stone, as with a

file, can tell in a moment the proportion of gold there is in it,

how much silver, or how much copper; and this to a scruple,

their accuracy being so marvellous that they are never mistaken.







1. Literally "whetstone." He is speaking of the stone known to us as

Touchstone, Lydian stone, or Basanite-"a velvet-black siliceous stone or

flinty jasper, used on account of its hardness and black colour for trying

the purity of the precious metals. The colour left on the stone after rubbing

the metal across it, indicates to the experienced eye the amount of

the alloy." -Dana, Syst. Mineral. p. 242.

2. In Lydia. See B. v. cc. 30, 31.

3. As a test. At the present day, concentrated nitric acid is dropped on

the mark left by the metal; and the more readily the mark is effaced, the

less pure is the metal.




44. Chap. 44.-The Different Kinds Of Silver, And The Modes Of Testing It.


CHAP. 44.-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SILVER, AND THE MODES

OF TESTING IT.



There are two kinds of silver. On placing a piece of it

upon an iron fire-shovel at a white heat, if the metal remains

perfectly white, it is of the best quality: if again it turns of a

reddish colour, it is inferior; but if it becomes black, it is

worthless. Fraud, however, has devised means of stultifying

this test even; for by keeping the shovel immersed in men's

urine, the piece of silver absorbs it as it burns, and so displays

a fictitious whiteness. There is also a kind of test with

reference to polished silver: when the human breath comes







in contact with it, it should immediately be covered with

steam,[1] the cloudiness disappearing at once.







1. This seems to be the meaning of "si sudet protinus."




45. Chap. 45. (9.)-Mirrors.


CHAP. 45. (9.)-MIRRORS.



It is generally supposed among us that it is only the very

finest silver that admits of being laminated, and so converted

into mirrors. Pure silver was formerly used for the purpose,

but, at the present day, this too has been corrupted by the

devices of fraud. But, really, it is a very marvellous property

that this metal has, of reflecting objects; a property which, it

is generally agreed, results from the repercussion of the air,[1]

thrown back as it is from the metal upon the eyes. The

same too is the action that takes place when we use a mirror.

If, again, a thick plate of this metal is highly polished, and is

rendered slightly concave,[2] the image or object reflected is

enlarged to an immense extent; so vast is the difference between

a surface receiving,[3] and throwing back the air. Even

more than this-drinking-cups are now made in such a

manner, as to be filled inside with numerous[4] concave facets,

like so many mirrors; so that if but one person looks into the

interior, he sees reflected a whole multitude of persons.



Mirrors, too, have been invented to reflect monstrous[5]

forms; those, for instance, which have been consecrated in the

Temple at Smyrna. This, however, all results from the configuration

given to the metal; and it makes all the difference

whether the surface has a concave form like the section of a

drinking cup, or whether it is [convex] like a Thracian[6]

buckler; whether it is depressed in the middle or elevated;

whether the surface has a direction[7] transversely or obliquely;

or whether it runs horizontally or vertically; the

peculiar configuration of the surface which receives the shadows,







causing them to undergo corresponding distortions: for, in

fact, the image is nothing else but the shadow of the object

collected upon the bright surface of the metal.



However, to finish our description of mirrors on the present[8]

occasion-the best, in the times of our ancestors, were those of

Brundisium,[9] composed of a mixture of[10] stannum and copper:

at a later period, however, those made of silver were preferred,

Pasiteles[11] being the first who made them, in the time[12]

of Pompeius Magnus. More recently,[13] a notion has arisen

that the object is reflected with greater distinctness, by the

application to the back of the mirror of a layer of gold.[14]











1. A very far-fetched explanation, and very wide of the mark.

2. "Paulum propulsa."

3. Which he supposes a concave surface to do.

4. This passage is noticed by Beckmann, in his account of Mirrors;

Vol. II. p. 58. Bohn's Edition.

5. Distorting the image reflected, by reason of the irregularities of the

surface. See Seneca, Nat. Qust. B. i. c. 5.

6. "Parma Thrcidica."

7. He probably means, whether the surface is made convex or concave

at these different angles.

8. A subject to which he returns iu various parts of B. xxxvi.

9. See B. xxxiv. c. 48.

10. As to the identification of "stannum," on which there have been

great differences of opinion, see B. xxxiv cc. 47, 48, and the Notes.

11. For some account of this artist, see Chapter 55 and the Notes at the

end of this Book.

12. "Silver mirrors were known long before this period, as is proved by

a passage in the Mostellaria of Plautus, A. 1, S. 3. 1. 101, where they are

distinctly mentioned. To reconcile this contradiction, Meursius remarks

that Pliny speaks only of his countrymen, and not of the Greeks, who had

such articles much earlier, though the scene in Plautus is at Athens."-

Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 62. Bohn's Edition.

13. "Nuper credi cptum certiorem imaginem reddi auro opposito

aversis."-"Of what Pliny says here I can give no explanation. Hardouin

(qy. if not Dalechamps ?) is of opinion that mirrors, according to the

newest invention, at that period were covered behind with a plate of gold,

as our mirrors are with an amalgam. But as the ancient plates of silver

were not transparent, how could the gold at the back of them produce any

effect in regard to the image ? May not the meaning be that a thin plate

of gold was placed at some distance before the mirror, in order to throw

more light upon its surface ? Whatever may have been the case, Pliny

himself seems not to have had much confidence in the invention."- Beckmann,

Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 62.

14. Dr. Watson (Chemical Essays. Vol. IV. p. 246) seems to think that

Pliny is here speaking of glass mirrors: "If we admit that Pliny was

acquainted with glass mirrors, we may thus understand what he says

respecting an invention which was then new, of applying gold behind a

mirror. Instead of an amalgam of tin, some one had proposed to cover

the back of the mirror with an amalgam of gold, with which the ancients

were certainly acquainted, and which they employed in gilding." See

Chapter 20 of the present Book. On the above passage by Dr. Watson,

Beckmann has the following remarks: "This conjecture appears, at any

rate, to be ingenious; but when I read the passage again, without prejudice,

I can hardly believe that Pliny alludes to a plate of glass in a place

where he speaks only of metallic mirrors; and the overlaying with amalgam

requires too much art to allow me to ascribe it to such a period without sufficient proof. I consider it more probable, that some person had

tried, by means of a polished plate of gold, to collect the rays of light, and

to throw them either on the mirror or the object, in order to render the

image brighter."-Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 72.




46. Chap. 46.-Egyptian Silver.


CHAP. 46.-EGYPTIAN SILVER.



The people of Egypt stain their silver vessels, that they

may see represented in them their god Anubis;[1] and it is the

custom with them to paint,[2] and not to chase, their silver.

This usage has now passed to our own triumphal statues even;

and, a truly marvellous fact, the value of silver has been

enhanced by deadening its brilliancy.[3] The following is the

method adopted: with the silver are mixed two-thirds of the

very finest Cyprian copper, that known as "coronarium,"[4]

and a proportion of live sulphur equal to that of the silver.

The whole of these are then melted in an earthen vessel well

luted with potter's clay, the operation being completed when

the cover becomes detached from the vessel. Silver admits

also of being blackened with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg; a

tint, however, which is removed by the application of vinegar

and chalk.



The Triumvir Antonius alloyed the silver denarius with

iron: and in spurious coin there is an alloy of copper employed.

Some, again, curtail[5] the proper weight of our denarii,

the legitimate proportion being eighty-four denarii to a

pound of silver. It was in consequence of these frauds that a

method was devised of assaying the denarius: the law ordaining

which was so much to the taste of the plebeians, that in

every quarter of the City there was a full-length statue

erected[6] in honour of Marius Gratidianus. It is truly marvellous,

that in this art, and in this only, the various methods

of falsification should be made a study:[7] for the sample of







the false denarius is now an object of careful examination,

and people absolutely buy the counterfeit coin at the price

of many genuine ones!







1. The dog-headed divinity. The seat of his worship was at Cynopolis,

mentioned in B. v. c. 11. Under the Empire his worship became widely

spread both in Greece and at Rome.

2. Under the word "pingit," he probably includes the art of enamelling

silver.

3. "Fulgoris exccati."

4. "Chaplet" copper.

5. He either alludes to the practice of clipping the coin, or else to the

issue of forged silver denarii, short of weight.

6. During the prtorship of Marius Gratidianus. He was on terms of

great intimacy with Cicero, and was murdered by Catiline in a most barbarous

manner during the proscriptions of Sylla.

7. By public enactment probably; samples of the false denarius being sold for the purpose of showing the difference between it and the genuine

coin.




47. Chap. 47. (10.)-Instances Of Immense Wealth. Persons Who Have Possessed The Greatest Sums Of Money.


CHAP. 47. (10.)-INSTANCES OF IMMENSE WEALTH. PERSONS

WHO HAVE POSSESSED THE GREATEST SUMS OF MONEY.



The ancients had no number whereby to express a larger

sum than one hundred thousand; and hence it is that, at

the present day, we reckon by multiples of that number, as,

for instance, ten times one hundred thousand, and so on.[1] For

these multiplications we are indebted to usury and the use of

coined money; and hence, too, the expression "s alienum,"

or "another man's money," which we still use.[2] In later

times, again, the surname "Dives"[3] was given to some: only

be it known to all, that the man who first received this surname

became a bankrupt and so bubbled his creditors.[4] M.

Crassus,[5] a member of the same family, used to say that no

man was rich, who could not maintain a legion upon his yearly

income. He possessed in land two hundred millions[6] of

sesterces, being the richest Roman citizen next to Sylla. Nor

was even this enough for him, but he must want to possess all

the gold of the Parthians too![7] And yet, although he was the

first to become memorable for his opulence-so pleasant is the

task of stigmatizing this insatiate cupidity-we have known

of many manumitted slaves, since his time, much more

wealthy than he ever was; three for example, all at the same







time, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, Pallas,[8] Callistus,[9]

and Narcissus.[10]



But to omit all further mention of these men, as though

they were still[11] the rulers of the empire, let us turn to C.

Ccilius Claudius Isidorus, who, in the consulship of C.

Asinius Gallus and C. Marcius Censorinus,[12] upon the sixth

day before the calends of February, declared by his will, that

though he had suffered great losses through the civil wars, he

was still able to leave behind him four thousand one hundred

and sixteen slaves, three thousand six hundred pairs of oxen,

and two hundred and fifty-seven thousand heads of other kind

of cattle, besides, in ready money, sixty millions of sesterces.

Upon his funeral, also, he ordered eleven hundred thousand

sesterces to be expended.



And yet, supposing all these enormous riches to be added

together, how small a proportion will they bear to the wealth

of Ptolemus; the person who, according to Varro, when

Pompeius was on his expedition in the countries adjoining

Juda, entertained eight thousand horsemen at his own expense,

and gave a repast to one thousand guests, setting before

every one of them a drinking-cup of gold, and changing these

vessels at every course! And then, again, how insignificant

would his wealth have been by the side of that of Pythius

the Bithynian[13]-for I here make no mention of kings, be it







remarked. He it was who gave the celebrated plane-tree and

vine of gold to King Darius, and who entertained at a

banquet the troops of Xerxes, seven hundred and eighty-eight

thousand men in all; with a promise of pay and corn

for the whole of them during the next five months, on condition

that one at least of his five children, who had been

drawn for service, should be left to him as the solace of his old

age. And yet, let any one compare the wealth of Pythius to

that possessed by King Crsus!



In the name of all that is unfortunate, what madness it is

for human nature to centre its desires upon a thing that has

either fallen to the lot of slaves, or else has reached no known

limit in the aspirations even of kings!







1. Twenty times one hundred thousand, &c.

2. As signifying a "debt owing to another."

3. "The Rich."

4. This seems the best translation for "decoxisse creditoribus suis,"

which literally means that he "boiled" or "melted away" his fortune from

his creditors. In this remark Pliny is more witty than usual.

5. The Triumvir. The first person mentioned in Roman history as

having the cognomen "Dives," is P. Licinius Crassus, the personage

mentioned in B. xxi. c. 4. As he attained the highest honours of the

state, and died universally respected, he cannot be the person so opprobriously

spoken of by Pliny.

6. The meaning appears to be doubtful here, as it is not clear whether

"sesterces," or "sestertia," "thousands of sesterces," is meant.

7. Who cut off his head after his death, and poured molten gold down

his throat.

8. Originally the slave of Antonia, the mother of Claudius. Agrippina,

the wife of Claudius, admitted him to her embraces, and in conjunction

with her he for some time ruled the destinies of the Roman Empire. He

was poisoned by order of Nero, A.D. 63.

9. C. Julius Callistus, the freedman of Caligula, in whose assassination

he was an accomplice. The physician Scribonius Largus dedicated his

work to Callistus.

10. A freedman of the Emperor Claudius, whose epistolary correspondence

he superintended. He was put to death on the accession of Nero,

A.D. 54.

11. In which case it would be dangerous to speak of them.

12. A.U.C. 746.

13. According to some authorities, he was a Lydian. He derived his

wealth from his gold mines in the neighbourhood of Celn in Phrygia,

and would appear, in spite of Pliny's reservation, to have been little less

than a king. His five sons accompanied Xerxes; but Pythius, alarmed by

an eclipse of the sun, begged that the eldest might be left behind. Upon

this, Xerxes had the youth put to death, and his body cut in two, the army

being ordered to march between the portions, which were placed on either

side of the road. His other sons were all slain in battle, and Pythius

passed the rest of his life in solitude.




48. Chap. 48.-At What Period The Roman People First Made Voluntary Contributions.


CHAP. 48.-AT WHAT PERIOD THE ROMAN PEOPLE FIRST MADE

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS.



The Roman people first began to make voluntary contributions[1]

in the consulship of Spurius Posthumius and Quintus

Marcius.[2] So abundant was money at that period, that the

people assessed themselves for a contribution to L. Scipio, to

defray the expenses of the games which he celebrated.[3] As

to the contribution of the sixth part of an as, for the purpose

of defraying the funeral expenses of Agrippa Menenius, I look

upon that to have been a mark of respect paid to him, an

honour, too, that was rendered necessary by his poverty,

rather than in the light of a largess.







1. "Stipem spargere."

2. A.U.C. 568.

3. In performance of a vow made in the war with King Antiochus.

See Livy, B. xxxix.




49. Chap. 49. (11.)-Instances Of Luxury In Silver Plate.


CHAP. 49. (11.)-INSTANCES OF LUXURY IN SILVER PLATE.



The caprice of the human mind is marvellously exemplified

in the varying fashions of silver plate; the work of no individual

manufactory being for any long time in vogue. At one

period, the Furnian plate, at another the Clodian, and at

another the Gratian,[1] is all the rage-for we borrow the shop

even at our tables.[2]-Now again, it is embossed plate[3] that







we are in search of, and silver deeply chiselled around the

marginal lines of the figures painted[4] upon it; and now we are

building up on our sideboards fresh tiers[5] of tables for supporting

the various dishes. Other articles of plate we nicely

pare away,[6] it being an object that the file may remove as

much of the metal as possible.



We find the orator Calvus complaining that the saucepans

are made of silver; but it has been left for us to invent a plan

of covering our very carriages[7] with chased silver, and it was

in our own age that Poppa, the wife of the Emperor Nero,

ordered her favourite mules to be shod even with gold!







1. So called from the silversmiths who respectively introduced them.

The Gratian plate is mentioned by Martial, B. iv. Epigr. 39.

2. "Etenim tabernas mensis adoptamus."

3. "Anaglypta." Plate chased in relief. It is mentioned in the Epigram

of Martial above referred to.

4. "Asperitatemque exciso circa liniarum picturas,"-a passage, the

obscurity of which, as Littr remarks, seems to set translation at defiance.

5. He alludes, probably to tiers of shelves on the beaufets or sideboards

-"repositoria"-similar to those used for the display of plate in the

middle ages. Petronius Arbiter speaks of a round "repositorium,"

which seems to have borne a considerable resemblance to our "dumb

waiters." The "repositoria" here alluded to by Pliny were probably

made of silver.

6. "Interradimus."

7. "Carruc." The "carruca" was a carriage, the name of which

only occurs under the emperors, the present being the first mention of it.

It had four wheels and was used in travelling, like the "carpentum."

Martial, B. iii. Epig. 47, uses the word as synonymous with "rheda."

Alexander Severus allowed the senators to have them plated with silver.

The name is of Celtic origin, and is the basis of the medival word "carucate,"

and the French carrosse.




50. Chap. 50.-Instances Of The Frugality Of The Ancients In Reference To Silver Plate.


CHAP. 50.-INSTANCES OF THE FRUGALITY OF THE ANCIENTS IN

REFERENCE TO SILVER PLATE.



The younger Scipio Africanus left to his heir thirty-two

pounds' weight of silver; the same person who, on his triumph

over the Carthaginians, displayed four thousand three hundred

and seventy pounds' weight of that metal. Such was the sum

total of the silver possessed by the whole of the inhabitants of

Carthage, that rival of Rome for the empire of the world!

How many a Roman since then has surpassed her in his display

of plate for a single table! After the destruction of

Numantia, the same Africanus gave to his soldiers, on the

day of his triumph, a largess of seven denarii each-and right

worthy were they of such a general, when satisfied with such

a sum! His brother, Scipio Allobrogicus,[1] was the very

first who possessed one thousand pounds' weight of silver,







but Drusus Livius, when he was tribune of the people, possessed

ten thousand. As to the fact that an ancient warrior,[2] a man,

too, who had enjoyed a triumph, should have incurred the notice

of the censor for being in possession of five pounds' weight of

silver, it is a thing that would appear quite fabulous at the

present day.[3] The same, too, with the instance of Catus

lius,[4] who, when consul, after being found by the tolian

ambassadors taking his morning meal[5] off of common earthenware,

refused to receive the silver vessels which they sent him;

and, indeed, was never in possession, to the last day of his

life, of any silver at all, with the exception of two drinking-cups,

which had been presented to him as the reward of his

valour, by L. Paulus,[6] his father-in-law, on the conquest of

King Perseus.



We read, too, that the Carthaginian ambassadors declared

that no people lived on more amicable terms among themselves

than the Romans, for that wherever they had dined

they had always met with the same[7] silver plate. And yet,

by Hercules! to my own knowledge, Pompeius Paulinus, son

of a Roman of equestrian rank at Arelate,[8] a member, too, of

a family, on the paternal side, that was graced with the fur,[9]

had with him, when serving with the army, and that, too, in

a war against the most savage nations, a service of silver plate

that weighed twelve thousand pounds!











1. So called from his victory over the Allobroges.

2. In allusion to the case of P. Cornelius Rufinus, the consul, who was

denounced in the senate by the censors C. Fabricius Luscinus and Q. milius

Rufus, for being in possession of a certain quantity of silver plate.

This story is also referred to in B. xviii. c. 8, where ten pounds is the

quantity mentioned.

3. This is said ironically.

4. Sextus lius Ptus Catus, Consul B.C. 198.

5. "Prandentem."

6. L. Paulus milius.

7. It being lent from house to house. This, no doubt, was said ironically,

and as a sneer at their poverty.

8. Now Arles. It was made a military colony in the time of Augustus.

See B. iii. c. 5, and B. x. c. 57.

9. "Pellitum." There has been considerable doubt as to the meaning

of this, but it is most probable that the "privilege of the fur," or in other

words, a license to be clad in certain kinds of fur, was conferred on certain

men of rank in the provinces. Holland considers it to be the old participle

of "pello," and translates the passage "banished out of the country

and nation where his father was born."




51. Chap. 51.-At What Period Silver Was First Used As An Ornament For Couches.


CHAP. 51.-AT WHAT PERIOD SILVER WAS FIRST USED AS AN

ORNAMENT FOR COUCHES.



For this long time past, however, it has been the fashion to

plate the couches of our women, as well as some of our ban-

quetting-couches,[1]

entirely with silver. Carvilius Pollio,[2] a

Roman of equestrian rank, was the first, it is said, to adorn

these last with silver; not, I mean, to plate them all over, nor

yet to make them after the Delian pattern; the Punic[3] fashion

being the one he adopted. It was after this last pattern too,

that he had them ornamented with gold as well: and it was

not long after his time that silver couches came into fashion,

in imitation of the couches of Delos. All this extravagance,

however, was fully expiated by the civil wars of Sulla.







1. "Triclinia." The couches on which they reclined when at table.

2. See B. ix. c. 13.

3. This pattern, whatever it may have been, is also spoken of by Cicero,

pro Muren, and by Valerius Maximus, B. vii. c. 1.




52. Chap. 52.-At What Period Silver Chargers Of Enormous Size Were First Made. When Silver Was First Used As A Material For Sideboards. When The Sideboards Called Tympana Were First Introduced.


CHAP. 52.-AT WHAT PERIOD SILVER CHARGERS OF ENORMOUS

SIZE WERE FIRST MADE. WHEN SILVER WAS FIRST USED AS

A MATERIAL FOR SIDEBOARDS. WHEN THE SIDEBOARDS CALLED

TYMPANA WERE FIRST INTRODUCED.



In fact, it was but very shortly before that period that these

couches were invented, as well as chargers[1] of silver, one

hundred pounds in weight: of which last, it is a well-known

fact, that there were then upwards of one hundred and fifty in

Rome, and that many persons were proscribed through the

devices of others who were desirous to gain possession thereof.

Well may our Annals be put to the blush for having to impute

those civil wars to the existence of such vices as these!



Our own age, however, has waxed even stronger in this

respect. In the reign of Claudius, his slave Drusillanus,

surnamed Rotundus, who acted as his steward[2] in Nearer

Spain, possessed a silver charger weighing five hundred

pounds, for the manufacture of which a workshop had had to be

expressly built. This charger was accompanied also by eight

other dishes, each two hundred and fifty pounds in weight.

How many of his fellow-slaves,[3] pray, would it have taken to

introduce these dishes, or who[4] were to be the guests served

therefrom?







Cornelius Nepos says that before the victory gained[5] by

Sylla, there were but two banquetting couches adorned with

silver at Rome, and that in his own recollection, silver was

first used for adorning sideboards. Fenestella, who died at the

end of the reign of Tiberius Csar, informs us that at that

period sideboards, inlaid even with tortoiseshell,[6] had come

into fashion; whereas, a little before his time, they had been

made of solid wood, of a round shape, and not much larger

than our tables. He says, however, that when he was quite

a boy, they had begun to make the sideboards square, and of

different[7] pieces of wood, or else veneered with maple or

citrus:[8] and that at a later period the fashion was introduced

of overlaying the corners and the seams at the joinings with

silver. The name given to them in his youth, he says, was

"tympana;"[9] and it was at this period, too, that the chargers

which had been known as "magides" by the ancients, first

received the name of "lances," from their resemblance[10] to the

scales of a balance.







1. "Lances."

2. "Dispensator."

3. "Conservi"-said in keen irony.

4. Giants, at least, one would think.

5. Over the party of Marius.

6. See B. ix. c. 13.

7. "Compacta;" probably meaning inlaid like Mosaic.

8. See B. xiii. c. 29, B. xv. c. 7, and B. xvi. cc. 26, 27, 84.

9. Meaning, "drum sideboards," or "tambour sideboards," their shape,

probably, being like that of our dumb waiters.

10. The name given to which was "lanx," plural "lances."




53. Chap. 53.-The Enormous Price Of Silver Plate.


CHAP. 53.-THE ENORMOUS PRICE OF SILVER PLATE.



It is not, however, only for vast quantities of plate that there

is such a rage among mankind, but even more so, if possible,

for the plate of peculiar artists: and this too, to the exculpation

of our own age, has long been the case. C. Gracchus

possessed some silver dolphins, for which he paid five thousand

sesterces per pound. Lucius Crassus, the orator, paid

for two goblets chased by the hand of the artist Mentor,[1] one

hundred thousand sesterces: but he confessed that for very

shame he never dared use them, as also that he had other

articles of plate in his possession, for which he had paid at

the rate of six thousand sesterces per pound. It was the conquest

of Asia[2] that first introduced luxury into Italy; for we







find that Lucius Scipio, in his triumphal procession, exhibited

one thousand four hundred pounds' weight of chased silver,

with golden vessels, the weight of which amounted to one

thousand five hundred pounds. This[3] took place in the year

from the foundation of the City, 565. But that which inflicted

a still more severe blow upon the Roman morals, was

the legacy of Asia,[4] which King Attalus[5] left to the state at

his decease, a legacy which was even more disadvantageous

than the victory of Scipio,[6] in its results. For, upon this

occasion, all scruple was entirely removed, by the eagerness

which existed at Rome, for making purchases at the auction

of the king's effects. This took place in the year of the City,

622, the people having learned, during the fifty-seven years

that had intervened, not only to admire, but to covet even,

the opulence of foreign nations. The tastes of the Roman

people had received, too, an immense impulse from the conquest

of Achaia,[7] which, during this interval, in the year of

the City, 608, that nothing might be wanting, had introduced

both statues and pictures. The same epoch, too, that saw the

birth of luxury, witnessed the downfall of Carthage; so that,

by a fatal coincidence, the Roman people, at the same moment,

both acquired a taste for vice and obtained a license

for gratifying it.



Some, too, of the ancients sought to recommend themselves

by this love of excess; for Caius Marius, after his victory over

the Cimbri, drank from a cantharus,[8] it is said, in imitation

of Father Liber;[9] Marius, that ploughman[10] of Arpinum, a

general who had risen from the ranks.![11]







1. His age and country are uncertain. We learn, however, from Chapter

55 of this Book, that he flourished before the burning of the Temple of

Diana at Ephesus, B.C. 356. He is frequently mentioned in the classical

writers. See also B. vii. c. 39.

2. He includes, probably, under this name both Asia Minor and Syria.

See a similar passage in Livy, B. xxxix.

3. This passage is rejected by Sillig as a needless interpolation.

4. Asia Minor.

5. King of Pergamus.

6. Over King Antiochus.

7. He alludes to the destruction of Corinth, by L. Mummius Achacus.

8. A drinking cup with handles, sacred to Bacchus. See B. xxxiv. c. 25.

9. Bacchus.

10. In allusion to the plebeian origin of C. Marius, who was born at the

village of Cereat, near Arpinum. It is more than probable that the

story that he had worked as a common peasant for wages, was an invention

of the faction of Sylla.

11. "Ille arator Arpinas, et manipularis imperator."




54. Chap. 54. (12.)-Statues Of Silver.


CHAP. 54. (12.)-STATUES OF SILVER.



It is generally believed, but erroneously, that silver was







first employed for making statues of the deified Emperor

Augustus, at a period when adulation was all the fashion:

for I find it stated, that in the triumph celebrated by Pompeius

Magnus there was a silver statue exhibited of Pharnaces, the

first[1] king of Pontus, as also one of Mithridates Eupator,[2]

besides chariots of gold and silver.



Silver, too, has in some instances even supplanted gold; for

the luxurious tastes of the female plebeians having gone so far

as to adopt the use of shoe-buckles of gold,[3] it is considered old-fashioned

to wear them made of that metal.[4] I myself, too,

have seen Arellius Fuscus[5]-the person whose name was erased

from the equestrian order on a singularly calumnious charge,[6]

when his school was so thronged by our youth, attracted

thither by his celebrity-wearing rings made of silver. But

of what use is it to collect all these instances, when our very

soldiers, holding ivory even in contempt, have the hilts of

their swords made of chased silver? when, too, their scabbards

are heard to jingle with their silver chains, and their belts

with the plates of silver with which they are inlaid?



At the present day, too, the continence of our very pages is

secured by the aid of silver:[7] our women, when bathing,

quite despise any sitting-bath that is not made of silver:

while for serving up food at table, as well as for the most

unseemly purposes, the same metal must be equally employed!

Would that Fabricius could behold these instances of luxuriousness,

the baths of our women-bathing as they do in







company with the men-paved with silver to such an extent

that there is not room left for the sole of the foot even!

Fabricius, I say, who would allow of no general of an army

having any other plate than a patera and a salt-cellar of silver.

-Oh that he could see how that the rewards of valour in our

day are either composed of these objects of luxury, or else

are broken up to make them![8] Alas for the morals of our

age! Fabricius puts us to the blush.







1. Meaning the first king of that name. He was son of Mithridates IV.,

king of Pontus.

2. Appian says that there "was a gold statue of this Mithridates, exhibited

in the triumph of Pompey, eight cubits in height," Plutarch speaks

of another statue of the same king, exhibited by Lucullus, six feet in

height.

3. "Compedes." See Chapter 12 of this Book.

4. The translation of this passage is somewhat doubtful. We will, therefore,

subjoin that of Holland, who adopts the other version. "As we

may see by our proud and sumptuous dames, that are but commoners and

artizans' wives, who are forced to make themselves carquans and such ornaments

for their shoes, of silver, because the rigour of the statute provided

in that case will not permit them to weare the same of gold."

5. A rhetorician who taught at Rome in the reign of Augustus. The

poet Ovid was one of his pupils. His rival in teaching declamation was

Porcius Latro.

6. Of an improper intimacy with his pupils.

7. Rings of silver being passed through the prepuce. This practice is

described by Celsus, B. vii. c. 25.

8. "Videret hinc dona fortium fieri, aut in hc frangi."




55. Chap. 55.-The Most Remarkable Works In Silver, And The Names Of The Most Famous Artists In Silver.


CHAP. 55.-THE MOST REMARKABLE WORKS IN SILVER, AND THE

NAMES OF THE MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS IN SILVER.



It is a remarkable fact that the art of chasing gold should

have conferred no celebrity upon any person, while that of

embossing silver has rendered many illustrious. The greatest

renown, however, has been acquired by Mentor, of whom

mention has been made already.[1] Four pairs [of vases] were

all that were ever[2] made by him; and at the present day, not

one of these, it is said, is any longer in existence, owing to

the conflagrations of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and of

that in the Capitol.[3] Varro informs us in his writings that he

also was in possession of a bronze statue, the work of this

artist. Next to Mentor, the most admired artists were Acra-







gas,[4] Bothus,[5] and Mys.[6] Works of all these artists are still

extant in the Isle of Rhodes; of Bothus, in the Temple of

Minerva, at Lindus; of Acragas, in the Temple of Father

Liber, at Rhodes, consisting of cups engraved with figures in

relief of Centaurs and Bacchantes; and of Mys, in the same

temple, figures of Sileni and Cupids. Representations also

of the chase by Acragas on drinking cups were held in high

estimation.



Next to these in repute comes Calamis.[7] Antipater[8] too, it

has been said, laid, rather than engraved,[9] a Sleeping Satyr

upon a drinking-bowl.[10] Next to these come Stratonicus[11] of

Cyzicus, and Tauriscus:[12] Ariston[13] also, and Eunicus,[14] of

Mytilene are highly praised; Hecatus[15] also, and, about the

age of Pompeius Magnus, Pasiteles,[16] Posidonius[17] of Ephesus,

Hedystratides[18] who engraved battle-scenes and armed warriors,

and Zopyrus,[19] who represented the Court of the Areopa-







gus and the trial of Orestes,[20] upon two cups valued at twelve

thousand sesterces. There was Pytheas[21] also, a work of

whose sold at the rate of ten thousand denarii for two

ounces: it was a drinking-bowl, the figures on which represented

Ulysses and Diomedes stealing the Palladium.[22] The

same artist engraved also, upon some small drinking-vessels,

kitchen scenes,[23] known as "magiriscia;"[24] of such remarkably

fine workmanship and so liable to injury, that it was quite

impossible to take copies[25] of them. Teucer too, the inlayer,[26]

enjoyed a great reputation.



All at once, however, this art became so lost in point of

excellence, that at the present day ancient specimens are the

only ones at all valued; and only those pieces of plate are held

in esteem the designs on which are so much worn that the

figures cannot be distinguished.



Silver becomes tainted by the contact of mineral waters,

and of the salt exhalations from them, as in the interior of

Spain, for instance.







1. In B. vii. c. 39, and in Chapter 53 of this Book.

2. "Quatuor paria ab eo omnino facta sunt." Sillig, in his Dictionary

of Ancient Artists,
finds a difficulty in this passage. "The term 'omnino'

seems to imply that the productions in question, all of which perished,

were the only works executed by this artist; but we find several passages

of ancient writers, in which vases, &c. engraved by Mentor, are mentioned

as extant. Thus, then, we must conclude, either that the term 'omnino'

should be understood in the sense of 'chiefly,' 'pre-eminently,' or that the

individuals claiming to possess works of Mentor, were themselves misinformed,

or endeavoured to deceive others." If, however, we look at the

word "paria" in a strictly technical sense, the difficulty will probably be

removed. Pliny's meaning seems to be that Mentor made four pairs, and

no more, of some peculiar kind of vessel probably, and that all these

pairs were now lost. He does not say that Mentor did not make other

works of art, in single pieces. Thiersch, Act. Acad. Monac. v. p. 128, expresses

an opinion that the word "omnino" is a corruption and that in

it lies concealed the name of the kind of plate that is meant.

3. See B. vii. c. 39.

4. His age and country are unknown.

5. From Pausanias we learn that he was a statuary and engraver on

plate, born at Carthage; but Raoul Rochette thinks that he was a native

of Chalcedon. He is mentioned also by Cicero, In Verrem, 4. 14, and in

the Culex, 1. 66, ascribed by some to Virgil.

6. His country is uncertain. According to the statements of Pausanias,

B. i. c. 28, he must have been a contemporary of Phidias, about Olymp.

84, B.C. 444. He is mentioned also by Propertius, Martial, and Statius.

7. His birth-place is unknown, but he probably lived about the time of

Phidias, and we learn from Pausanias that he was living when the plague

ceased at Athens, in B.C. 429. He is mentioned also by Cicero, Ovid,

Quintilian, Lucian, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

8. Nothing further is known of this artist.

9. "Collocavisse verius quam classe."

10. "Phiala."

11. He lived probably about Olymp. 126; but his country is unknown.

He is mentioned by Athenus. See also B. xxxiv. c. 19.

12. Nothing whatever is known of him, unless indeed he is identical with

the Tauriscus mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 5.

13. Nothing is known of his age or country. He is also mentioned in

B. xxxiv. c. 19.

14. His age and country are unknown. See B. xxxiv. c.19.

15. Nothing further is known of him. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

16. See the end of this Book.

17. Beyond the mention made of him in B. xxxiv. c. 19, no particulars

relative to him are known.

18. Other readings of this name are "Ldus Stratiotes," "Ledis Thracides,"

"Hieris Thracides," and "Lidistratices." The Bamberg MS. has

"Hedys Trachides." Salmasius, Hardouin, and Sillig propose "Leostratides,"

and Thiersch "Lysistratides."

19. Nothing further is known of him.

20. For the murder of his mother Clytmnestra.

21. Nothing is known of this artist.

22. From Troy.

23. "Coquos," literally, "cooks."

24. "Cooks in miniature."

25. By the process of moulding, probably.

26. "Crustarius." Of this artist nothing further is known.




57. Chap. 57. (13.)-Cruleum.


CHAP. 57. (13.)-CRULEUM.



Cruleum[1] is a kind of sand. In former times there were

three kinds of it; the Egyptian, which was the most esteemed

of all; the Scythian, which is easily dissolved, and which

produces four colours when pounded, one of a lighter blue

and one of a darker blue, one of a thicker consistency and

one comparatively thin;[2] and the Cyprian, which is now preferred

as a colour to the preceding. Since then, the kinds

imported from Puteoli and Spain have been added to the list,

this sand having of late been prepared there. Every kind,[3]







however, is submitted to a dyeing process, it being boiled with

a plant[4] used particularly for this purpose,[5] and imbibing its

juices. In other respects, the mode of preparing it is similar

to that of chrysocolla. From cruleum, too, is prepared the

substance known as "lomentum,"[6] it being washed and

ground for the purpose. Lomentum is of a paler tint than

cruleum; the price of it is ten denarii per pound, and that

of cruleum but eight. Cruleum is used upon a surface

of clay, for upon lime it will not hold. A more recent

invention is the Vestorian[7] cruleum, so called from the

person who first manufactured it: it is prepared from the finer

parts of Egyptian cruleum, and the price of it is eleven

denarii per pound. That of Puteoli is used in a similar

manner,[8] as also for windows:[9] it is known as "cylon."







It is not so long since that indicum[10] was first imported to

Rome, the price being seventeen[11] denarii per pound. Painters

make use of it for incisures, or in other words, the division of

shadows from light. There is also a lomentum of very inferior

quality, known to us as "ground" lomentum, and valued

at only five asses per pound.



The mode of testing the genuineness of cruleum, is to see

whether it emits a flame, on being laid upon burning coals.

One method of adulterating it is to boil dried violets in water,

and then to strain the liquor through linen into Eretrian[12]

clay.







1. "It is possible that the 'cruleum' of the ancients may in some cases

have been real ultramarine, but properly and in general, it was only copper

ochre."-Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 472. Bohn's Edition. Delafosse

identifies it with blue carbonate and hydrocarbonate of copper, one

of the two azurites.

2. "Candidiorem nigrioremve, et crassiorem tenuioremve."

3. Beckmann thinks that Pliny is here alluding to an artificial kind of "cruleum." "Pliny clearly adds to it an artificial colour, which in my

opinion was made in the same manner as our lake; for he speaks of an

earth, which when boiled with plants, acquired their blue colour."-Hist.

Inv., Vol. II. p. 480.

4. Supposed by Hardouin to have been "glastum" or "woad," the Isatis

tinctoria of Linnus, mentioned in B. xxii. c. 2.

5. "In su coquitur herb."

6. A blue powder; see Chapter 27 of this Book. Beckmann has the

following remarks on this and the preceding lines: "The well-known

passage of Pliny in which Lehmann thinks he can with certainty discover

cobalt, is so singular a medley that nothing to be depended on can be

gathered from it. The author, it is true, where he treats of mineral pigments,

seems to speak of a blue sand which produced different shades of

blue paint, according as it was pounded coarser or finer. The palest powder

was called lomentum, and this Lehmann considers as our powder-blue. I

am, however, fully convinced that the cyanus of Theophrastus, the cruleum

of Pliny, and the chrysocolla (see Chapter 26), were the blue copper earth

already mentioned, which may have been mixed and blended together."-

Hist. Inv. Vol. I. pp. 480, 481. Bohn's Edition.

7. According to Vitruvius, B. vii. c. 11, the manufactory of Vestorius

was at Puteoli, now Pozzuoli. This was probably the same C. Vestorius

who was also a money-lender and a friend of Atticus, and with whom

Cicero had monetary transactions. He is mentioned as "Vestorium meum,"

in the Epistles of Cicero to Atticus.

8. For colouring surfaces of clay or cretaceous earth. This kind was also

manufactured by Vesturius, most probably.

9. "Idem et Puteolani usus, prterque ad fenestras." "The expression

here, usus ad fenestras, has been misapplied by Lehmann, as a strong proof

of his assertion; for he explained it as if Pliny had said that a blue pigment

was used for painting window-frames; but glass windows were at

that time unknown. I suspect that Pliny meant to say only that one

kind of paint could not be employed near openings which afforded a passage to the light, as it soon decayed and lost its colour. This would

have been the case in particular with lake, in which there was a mixture of

vegetable particles."-Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 480.

10. "Indian" pigment. Probably our "indigo." It is again mentioned,

and at greater length, in B. xxxv. c. 27. See also Beckmann, Hist.

Inv. Vol. II. pp. 259, 267. Bohn's Edition.

11. This is probably a more correct reading than "seven."

12. See B. xxxv. c. 19. Vitruvius, B. vii. c. 14, describes an exactly

similar method adopted by dyers for imitating the colour of Attic sil, or

ochre, mentioned in Chapter 56.




58. Chap. 58.-Two Remedies Derived From Cruleum.


CHAP. 58.-TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CRULEUM.



Cruleum has the medicinal property of acting as a detergent

upon ulcers. Hence it is, that it is used as an ingredient

in plasters, as also in cauteries. As to sil, it is pounded with

the greatest difficulty: viewed as a medicament, it is slightly

mordent and astringent, and fills up the cavities left by ulcers.

To make it the more serviceable, it is burnt in earthen

vessels.



The prices of things, which I have in different places

annexed, vary, I am well aware, according to the locality, and

experience a change almost every year: variations dependent

upon the opportunities afforded for navigation, and the terms

upon which the merchant may have purchased the article. It

may so happen, too, that some wealthy dealer has engrossed

the market, and so enhanced the price: for I am by no means

forgetful of the case of Demetrius, who in the reign of the

Emperor Nero was accused before the consuls by the whole

community of the Seplasia.[1] Still, however, I have thought







it necessary to annex the usual price of each commodity at

Rome, in order to give some idea of their relative values.



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, one

thousand one hundred and twenty-five.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Domitianus Csar,[2] Junius Gracchanus,[3]

L. Piso,[4] Verrius,[5] M. Varro,[6] Corvinus,[7] Atticus

Pomponius,[8] Calvus Licinius,[9] Cornelius Nepos,[10] Mucianus,[11]

Bocchus,[12] Fetialis,[13] Fenestella,[14] Valerius Maximus,[15] Julius

Bassus[16] who wrote on Medicine in Greek, Sextius Niger[17]

who did the same.



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Theophrastus,[18] Democritus,[19]







Juba,[20] Timus[21] the historian, who wrote on Metallic Medicines,

Heraclides,[22] Andreas,[23] Diagoras,[24] Botrys,[25] Archidemus,[26]

Dionysius,[27] Aristogenes,[28] Democles,[29] Mnesides,[30] Attalus[31]

the physician, Xenocrates[32] the son of Zeno, Theomnestus,[33]

Nymphodorus,[34] Iollas,[35] Apollodorus,[36] Pasiteles[37]

who wrote on Wonderful Works, Antigonus[38] who wrote on

the Toreutic art, Menchmus[39] who did the same, Xenocrates[40]







who did the same, Duris[41] who did the same, Menander[42] who

wrote on Toreutics, Heliodorus[43] who wrote on the Votive Offerings

of the Athenians, Metrodorus[44] of Scepsis.









1. A quarter in the city of Capua, inhabited by druggists and perfumers;

see B. xvi. c. 18, and B. xxxiv. c. 25.

2. In some MSS. the reading here is "Domitius," and in others the

name is omitted altogether. We learn from the writings of Suetonius,

that the Emperor Domitian devoted himself to literary pursuits in his

younger days, and Quintilian and the younger Pliny speak of his poetical

productions as equal to those of the greatest masters. Sillig expresses an

opinion that Pliny may possibly have borrowed something from his works,

and inserted his name, with a view of pleasing the young prince and his

father, the Emperor Vespasian.

3. He is quoted in Chapter 9 of this Book, where it appears that he took

his cognomen on account of his friendship for C. Gracchus. He wrote a

work, "De Potestatibus," which gave an account of the Roman magistrates

from the time of the kings. A few fragments of this work, which was

highly esteemed by the ancients, are all that remain.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. See end of B. iii.

6. See end of B. ii.

7. Valerius Messala Corvinus. See end of B. ix.

8. See end of B. vii.

9. Calvus Licinius Macer was the son of C. Licinius Macer, a person of

prtorian rank, who, on being impeached of extortion by Cicero, committed

suicide. We learn from our author, B. xxxiv. c. 50, that in his

youth he devoted himself to study with the greatest zeal, and applied himself

with singular energy to intellectual pursuits. His constitution, however,

was early exhausted, and he died in his 35th or 36th year, leaving

behind him twenty-one orations. We learn from Cicero and Quintilian

that his compositions were carefully moulded after the models of the Attic

school, but were deficient in ease and freshness. As a poet he was the

author of many short pieces, equally remarkable for their looseness and

elegance. He wrote also some severe lampoons on Pompey and Csar,

and their respective partisans. Ovid and Horace, besides several of the

prose writers, make mention of him.

10. See end of B. ii.

11. See end of B. ii.

12. Cornelius Bocchus. See end of B. xvi.

13. Annius or Annus Fetialis. See end of B. xvi.

14. See end of B. viii.

15. See end of B. vii.

16. See end of B. xx.

17. See end of B. xii.

18. See end of B. iii.

19. See end of B. ii.

20. See end of B. v.

21. The person mentioned in Chapter 13 of this Book, is probably different

from those of the same name mentioned at the end of Books ii. and iv. If

so, no further particulars are known of him.

22. It seems impossible to say which of the physicians of this name is

here alluded to. See end of Books iv. and xii.

23. See end of B. xx.

24. See end of B. xii.

25. See end of B. xiii.

26. See end of B. xii.

27. See end of B. xii.; and for Sallustius Dionysius, see end of B. xxxi.

28. See end of B. xxix.

29. See end of B. xii.

30. See end of B. xii.

31. As King Attalus was very skilful in medicine, Hardouin is of

opinion that he is the person here meant; see end of B. viii.

32. A different person, most probably, from the writer of Pliny's age,

mentioned in B. xxxvii. c. 2. The Xenocrates here mentioned is probably

the same person that is spoken of in B. xxxv. c. 36, a statuary of the

school of Lysippus, and the pupil either of Tisicrates or of Euthycrates,

who flourished about B.C. 260.

33. There were two artists of this name, prior to the time of Pliny; a

sculptor, mentioned by him in B. xxxiv. c. 19, and a painter, contemporary

with Apelles, mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 36. It is impossible to say which

of them, if either, is here meant.

34. See end of B. iii.

35. See end of B. xii.

36. It is impossible to say which writer of this name is here meant. See

end of Books iv., viii., xi., and xx.

37. A statuary, sculptor, and chaser in silver, who flourished at Rome

about B.C. 60. He was a native of Magna Grcia, in the south of Italy.

He is not only mentioned in Chapter 55 of the present Book, but also in

B. xxxv. c. 45, as an artist of the highest distinction. His narrow escape

from a panther, while copying from nature, is mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 4.

His five Books on the most celebrated works of sculpture and chasing were

looked upon as a high authority in art. He was also the head of a school

of artists.

38. A writer on painting of this name is mentioned by Diogenes Laertius,

B. vii. c. 12. He is probably the same as the person here mentioned, and

identical with the Greek sculptor mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxiv. c. 19,

who probably flourished about 240 B.C. The Toreutic Art, "Toreutice,"

was the art of making raised work in silver or bronze, either by graving

or casting: but the exact meaning of the word is somewhat uncertain.

39. Menchmus of Sievon, probably; see end of B. iv., also B. xxxiv. c. 19.

40. If he is really a different person from the Xenocrates mentioned above,

nothing is known of him.

41. See end of B. vii.

42. Possibly one of the persons mentioned at the end of Books viii., xix.,

and xxxi. If not, nothing whatever is known of him.

43. An Athenian writer, surnamed "Periegetes." The work here mentioned,

is alluded to by other writers under different names. From a

passage in Athenus, he is supposed to have lived after the time of Antiochus

Epiphanes.

44. See end of B. iii.




0. > Book Xxxiv. The Natural History Of Metals.


BOOK XXXIV.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Ores Of Brass.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE ORES OF BRASS.[1]

WE must, in the next place, give an account of the ores of

brass,[2] a metal which, in respect of utility, is next in value;

indeed the Corinthian brass comes before silver, not to say

almost before gold itself. It is also, as I have stated above,[3]

the standard of monetary value;[4] hence the terms "ra militum,"

"tribuni rarii," "rarium," "obrati," and "re

diruti."[5] I have already mentioned for what length of time

the Roman people employed no coin except brass;[6] and there is







another ancient fact which proves that the esteem in which it

was held was of equal antiquity with that of the City itself,

the circumstance that the third associated body[7] which Numa

established, was that of the braziers.







1. The present

Book is translated by the late Dr. Bostock, the translation

being corrected by the readings of the Bamberg MS., which do not appear

to have come under his notice. Some Notes by Dr. Bostock will be also

found at the commencement of Books 33 and 35; they are distinguished

by the initial B.



2. "ris Metalla." The word "s" does not entirely correspond to

our word "brass;" the brass of the moderns being a compound of copper

and zinc, while the "s" of the ancients was mostly composed of copper

and tin, and therefore, would be more correctly designated by the word

"bronze." But this last term is now so generally appropriated to works of

art, that it would seem preferable to employ in most cases the more general

terms "copper" or "brass." For an excellent account of the "s" of the

ancients, see Smith's Dict. Antiq. "s."-B. Mr. Westmacott, in the

above-mentioned article, says that the ancient "s" has been found,

upon analysis, to contain no zinc, but in nearly every instance to be a mixture

of copper and tin, like our bronze. Beckmann says, on the other

hand, that the mixture of zinc and copper now called "brass," first discovered

by ores, abundant in zinc, was certainly known to the ancients.

"In the course of time, an ore, which must have been calamine, was added

to copper while melting, to give it a yellow colour." Hist. Inv. Vol. II.

pp. 32, 33. Bohn's Edition. There can be little doubt that the native

Cadmia of Chapter 22 of this Book was our Calamine, hydrosilicate of

zinc, or carbonate of zinc, or else copper ore impregnated with calamine.

3. In B. xxxiii. c. 13.

4. "Stipis auctoritas." The standard in money payments.

5. These terms must have come into use when brass, "s," was the

ordinary medium of circulation.-B. Their meaning is, "soldiers' pay,"

"tribunes of the treasury," the "public treasury," "made bondmen for

debt," and "mulcted of their pay."

6. In B. xxxiii. c. 13.-B.

7. "Collegium." The colleges of the priests and of the augurs being

the first two associated bodies.-B.




2. Chap. 2.-The Different Kinds Of Copper.


CHAP. 2.-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COPPER.



The ore is extracted in the mode that has been described

above,[1] and is then purified by fusion. The metal is also

obtained from a coppery stone called "cadmia."[2] The most

highly esteemed copper is procured from beyond seas: it was

formerly obtained in Campania also, and at present is found in

the country of the Bergomates,[3] at the extremity of Italy.

It is said to have been lately discovered also in the province of

Germany.



(2.) In Cyprus, where copper was first discovered, it is also procured

from another stone, which is called "chalcitis."[4] This,

however, was afterwards considered of little value, a better

kind having been found in other regions, especially that called

"aurichalcum,"[5] which was long in high request, on account of







its excellent quality; but none of it has been found for this

long time, the earth having been quite exhausted. The kind

which was next in value was the Sallustian,[6] procured from

the Alpine district of the Centrones;[7] but this did not last

long, and was succeeded by the Livian, in Gaul. They both

took their names from the owners of the mines; the former a

friend of the Emperor Augustus, the latter that emperor's

wife.[8] They soon failed, however, and in the Livian even

there is now found but a very small quantity of ore. That

which is at present held in the highest estimation is the

Marian, likewise known as the Corduban:[9] next to the Livian,

this kind most readily absorbs cadmia, and becomes almost as

excellent as aurichalcum[10] for making sesterces and double

asses,[11] the Cyprian copper being thought good enough for the

as. Thus much concerning the natural qualities of this metal.







1. In B. xxxiii. c. 31, where we have an account of the ores of silver.-B.

2. Pliny again refers to this mineral in the 22d Chapter. We have no

means of ascertaining, with certainty, what is the substance to which this

name was applied by the ancients. The ores of copper are very numerous,

and of various chemical constitutions: the most abundant, and those

most commonly employed in the production of the pure metal, are the

sulphurets, more especially what is termed copper pyrites, and the oxides.

It has been supposed, by some commentators, that the Cadmia of the ancients

was Calamine, which is an ore of zinc; but we may be confident

that the s of the ancients could not be produced from this substance,

because, as has been stated above, the s contains no zinc. I must, however,

observe that the contrary opinion is maintained by M. Delafosse.-B.

See Note 2 above.

3. The inhabitants of Bergamum, the modern Bergamo.-B. See B. iii.

c. 21.

4. Aristotle gives the same account of the copper ore of Cyprus. Chalcitis

is also spoken of by Dioscorides, as an ore of copper.-B. See further

as to "Chaicitis," in Chapter 29 of this Book.

5. There has been much discussion respecting the nature of this substance,

and the derivation of the word. Hardouin conceives it probable

that it was originally written "orichaleum," i.e. "mountain brass" or

"copper."-B. Ajasson considers it to be native brass, a mixture of copper

and zinc. In the later writers it signifies artificial brass. The exact composition

of this metal is still unknown, but there is little doubt that Hardouin

is right in his supposition as to the origin of the name.

6. Possibly so called from Sallustius Crispus, the historian, who was one

of the secretaries of Augustus.

7. There is some doubt respecting the locality of these people; they are

enumerated by Pliny among the inhabitants of the mountainous districts of

Savoy, B. iii. c. 24, and are referred to by Ptolemy.-B.

8. Livia.

9. It was named "Marian," after the celebrated Marius, and "Corduban,"

from the place whence it was procured; probably the mountains near

Corduba, in Spain, well known as the birth-place of the two Senecas and

of Lucan.-B. See B. iii. c. 3, and B. xix. c. 43.

10. No light is thrown upon the nature either of Cadmia or Aurichalcum

by this statement; we only learn from it that different compounds, or substances

possessing different physical properties, went under the common

appellation of s, and were, each of them, employed in the formation of

coins.-B.

11. "Dupondiariis." The "as," it must be remembered, originally

weighed one pound. See B. xxxiii. c. 13, and the Introduction to Vol. III.

19 He alludes to the ancient works of art in this compound metal.




3. Chap. 3.-The Corinthian Brass.


CHAP. 3.-THE CORINTHIAN BRASS.



The other kinds are made artificially, all of which will be

described in the appropriate places, the more celebrated kinds

first coming under our notice. Formerly a mixture was made

of copper fused with gold and silver, and the workmanship in

this metal was considered even more valuable than the material

itself; but, at the present day, it is difficult to say

whether the workmanship in it, or the material, is the worst.

Indeed, it is wonderful, that while the value of these works[1]







has so infinitely increased, the reputation of the art itself[2] is

nearly extinct. But it would appear, that in this, as in every

thing else, what was formerly done for the sake of reputation,

is now undertaken for the mere purpose of gain. For

whereas this art was ascribed to the gods[3] themselves, and

men of rank in all countries endeavoured to acquire fame by

the practice of it, we have now so entirely lost the method of

making this valuable compound by fusion, that, for this long

time past, not even chance itself has assumed, in this department,

the privilege which formerly belonged to art.[4]



Next after the above compound, so celebrated in antiquity,

the Corinthian metal has been the most highly esteemed. This

was a compound produced by accident, when Corinth was burnt

at the time of its capture.[5] There has been a wonderful mania

with many for gaining possession of this metal. It is even said,

that Verres, whom M. Cicero caused to be condemned, was

proscribed by Antonius, along with Cicero, for no other reason

than his refusal to give up some specimens of Corinthian metal,

which were in his possession. But most of these people seem

to me to make a pretence of their discernment in reference to

this metal, rather for the purpose of distinguishing themselves

from the multitude, than from any real knowledge which they

possess; and this I will briefly show.



Corinth was captured in the third year of the 158th

Olympiad, being the year of the City, 608,[6] some ages after the

period when those artists flourished, who produced all the

specimens of what these persons now call Corinthian metal.

It is in order, therefore, to refute this opinion, that I shall

state the age when these different artists lived; for, if we

reckon according to the above-mentioned era of the Olympiads,

it will be easy to compare their dates with the corresponding

years of our City. The only genuine Corinthian vessels, then,







are those which these men of taste metamorphose, sometimes

into dishes, sometimes into lamps, or even into washing-basins,[7]

without any regard to decency. They are of three

kinds; the white variety, approaching very nearly to the

splendour of silver, and in which that metal forms a large

proportion of the compound; a second kind, in which the

yellow colour of gold predominates; and a third, in which all

the metals are mixed in equal proportions. Besides these,

there is another mixture, the composition of which it is impossible

to describe, for although it has been formed into

images and statues by the hand of man, it is chance that rules

in the formation of the compound. This last is highly prized

for its colour, which approaches to that of liver, and it is

on this account that it is called "hepatizon:"[8] it is far inferior

to the Corinthian metal, but much superior to the

ginetan and Delian, which long held the first rank.







1. He alludes to the ancient works of art in this compound metal.

2. The art of making compound metals.

3. Vulcan, namely.

4. No one has accidentally stumbled upon the art of making this composite

metal.

5. We have an account of the destruction of Corinth, and the accidental

formation of this compound, in Florus, B. ii. c. 16. Although this account

was generally received by the ancients, we may venture to assert,

that it cannot be correct; we cannot conceive the possibility of such a

fusion taking place during the destruction of the city, or of the complete

union of the components, in the mode in which they have been found to

exist.-B.

6. B.C. 146.-B.

7. "Trulleos." In an epigram of Martial, B. ix. Ep. 97, the word

"trulla" signifies a chamber-pot.

8. From the Greek h(/par, "the liver."




4. Chap. 4.-The Delian Brass.


CHAP. 4.-THE DELIAN BRASS.



The Delian brass was the first[1] that became famous, all the

world coming to Delos to purchase it; and hence the attention

paid to the manufacture of it. It was in this island that

brass first obtained celebrity for the manufacture of the feet

and supports of dining-couches. After some time it came

to be employed for the statues of the gods, and the effigies of

men and other animated beings.







1. The Delian brass is mentioned by Cicero, in his oration "Pro Roscio

Amerino," s. 46, and in his Fourth oration "In Verrem," s. 1.-B. Pausanias,

in his "Eliaca," says that the Spanish copper, or copper of Tartessus,

was the first known.




5. Chap. 5.-The ginetan Brass.


CHAP. 5.-THE GINETAN BRASS.



The next most esteemed brass was the ginetan; the

island itself being rendered famous for its brass-not indeed

that the metal was produced there, but because the annealing

of the ginetan manufactories was so excellent. A brazen

Ox, which was taken from this is and, now stands in the

Forum Bearium[1] at Rome. This is a specimen of the

ginetan metal, as the Jupiter in the Temple of Jupiter







Tonans, in the Capitol, is of the Delian. Myron[2] used the

former metal and Polycletus[3] the latter; they were contemporaries

and fellow-pupils, but there was great rivalry between

them as to their materials.







1. Or Cattle Market: in the Eighth Region of the City. See B. xxxv.

c. 7, and Chapter 16 of this Book.

2. A distinguished statuary and engraver on silver. He lived in Olympiad

87. Further mention is made of him by Cicero, Ovid, Strabo, and

Pansanias. See also Chapter 19 of this Book.

3. There were several artists of this name. The elder Polycletus, a

native either of Sicyon or of Argos, is probably the one here referred to.

For further particulars of him, see Chapter 19.




6. Chap. 6. (3.)-Stands For Lamps.


CHAP. 6. (3.)-STANDS FOR LAMPS.



gina was particularly famous for the manufacture of

sockets only for lamp-stands, as Tarentum was for that of the

branches;[1] the most complete articles were, therefore, produced

by the union of the two. There are persons, too, who

are not ashamed to give for one a sum equal to the salary of

a military tribune,[2] although, as its name indicates, its only

use is to hold a lighted candle. On the sale of one of these

lamp-stands, Theon the public crier announced, that the purchaser

must also take, as part of the lot, one Clesippus, a

fuller, who was hump-backed, and in other respects, of a

hideous aspect. The purchase was made by a female named[3]

Gegania, for fifty thousand sesterces. Upon her exhibiting

these purchases at an entertainment which she gave, the

slave, for the amusement of her guests, was brought in naked.

Conceiving an infamous passion for him, she first admitted

him to her bed, and finally left him all her estate. Having

thus become excessively rich, he adored the lamp-stand as

much as any divinity, and the story became a sort of pendant

to the celebrity of the Corinthian lamp-stands. Still, however,

good morals were vindicated in the end, for he erected a

splendid monument to her memory, and so kept alive the eternal

remembrance of the misconduct of Gegania. But although

it is well known that there are no lamp-stands in existence

made of the Corinthian metal, yet this name is very generally

attached to them, because, in consequence of the victory of







Mummius,[4] Corinth was destroyed: at the same time, however,

it should be remembered that this victory dispersed a number

of bronzes which originally came from many other cities of

Achaia.







1. The words in the original are, respectively candelabra, superficics,

and scapi.-B.

2. Probably a proverbial expression at Rome, as it is employed by Juvenal,

in an analogous manner, upon another occasion; Sat. iii. 1. 132.-B.

33 Plutarch speaks of the Geganii as an ancient noble family at Rome.

3. Pultarch speaks of the Geganii as an ancient noble family at Rome.

4. See B. xxxiii. c. 53.




7. Chap. 7.-Ornaments Of The Temples Made Of Brass.


CHAP. 7.-ORNAMENTS OF THE TEMPLES MADE OF BRASS.



The ancients were in the habit of making the door-sills and

even the doors of the temples of brass. I find it stated, also,

that Cneius Octavius, who obtained a naval triumph over King

Perseus,[1] erected the double portico to the Flaminian Circus,

which was called the "Corinthian" from the brazen capitals of

the pillars.[2] It is stated also, that an ordinance was made that

the Temple of Vesta[3] should be covered with a coating of

Syracusan metal. The capitals, too, of the pillars, which were

placed by M. Agrippa in the Pantheon, are made of similar

metal. Even the opulence, too, of private individuals has

been wrested to similar purposes. Spurius Carvilius, the

qustor, among the other charges which he brought against

Camillus,[4] accused him of having brazen doors in his house.







1. A. U. C. 585; we have an account of it in Livy, B. xiv. c. 42.-B.

2. This building is referred to by Velleius Paterculus, in the beginning

of the Second Book of his History.-B. According to Aurelius Victor,

it was situated in the Ninth Region of the City.

3. The Temple of Vesta is described by Ovid, Fasti, B. vi. 1. 265,

et seq.-B.

4. C. Camillus probably, the Roman jurist and friend of Cicero.




8. Chap. 8.-Couches Of Brass.


CHAP. 8.-COUCHES OF BRASS.



We learn from L. Piso,[1] that Cneius Manlius was the first who

introduced brazen banquetting-couches, buffets, and tables

with single feet,[2] when he entered the City in triumph, in the

year of Rome 567, after his conquests in Asia. We also

learn from Antias,[3] that the heirs of L. Crassus, the orator,

sold a number of banquetting-couches adorned with brass. The







tripods,[4] which were called Delphian, because they were

devoted more particularly to receiving the offerings that were

presented to the Delphian Apollo, were usually made of brass:

also the pendant lamps,[5] so much admired, which were placed

in the temples, or gave their light in the form of trees loaded

with fruit; such as the one, for instance, in the Temple of the

Palatine Apollo,[6] which Alexander the Great, at the sacking

of Thebes, brought to Cyme,[7] and dedicated to that god.







1. See end of B. ii.

2. "Triclinia," "abaci," and "monopodia;" these appear to have been

couches for dining-tables, tables furnished with cupboards, and tables

standing on a single foot. Livy, B. xxxix. c. 6, informs us, that Cneius

Manlius, in his triumphal procession, introduced into Rome various articles

of Asiatic luxury; "Lectos ratos, vestem stragulam preciosam, monopodia,

et abacos." We are not to suppose that the whole of these articles

were made of brass, but that certain parts of them were formed of this

metal, or else were ornamented with brass.-B.

3. See end of B. ii.

4. "Cortinas tripodum." These articles of furniture consisted of a

table or slab, supported by three feet, which was employed, like our sideboards,

for the display of plate, at the Roman entertainments.-B.

5. "Lychnuchi pensiles," this term is applied by Suetonius, Julius,

s. 37; we may conceive that they were similar to the modern chandeliers.-B

6. This temple was dedicated by Augustus A.U.C. 726. The lamps in it,

resembling trees laden with fruit, are mentioned by Victor in his description

of the Tenth Quarter of the City.-B.

7. See B. v. c. 32.




9. Chap. 9. (4.)-Which Was The First Statue Of A God Made Of Brass At Rome. The Origin Of Statues, And The Respect Paid To Them.


CHAP. 9. (4.)-WHICH WAS THE FIRST STATUE OF A GOD MADE OF

BRASS AT ROME. THE ORIGIN OF STATUES, AND THE RESPECT

PAID TO THEM.



But after some time the artists everywhere applied themselves

to representations of the gods. I find that the first

brass image, which was made at Rome, was that of Ceres;

and that the expenses were defrayed out of the property that

belonged to Spurius Cassius, who was put to death by his own

father, for aspiring to the regal office.[1] The practice, however,

soon passed from the gods to the statues and representations

of men, and this in various forms. The ancients stained

their statues with bitumen, which makes it the more remarkable

that they were afterwards fond of covering them with

gold. I do not know whether this was a Roman invention;

but it certainly has the repute of being an ancient practice at

Rome.



It was not the custom in former times to give the likeness

of individuals, except of such as deserved to be held in lasting

remembrance on account of some illustrious deed; in the first

instance, for a victory at the sacred games, and more particularly

the Olympic Games, where it was the usage for the victors

always to have their statues consecrated. And if any one was

so fortunate as to obtain the prize there three times, his statue







was made with the exact resemblance of every individual

limb; from which circumstance they were called "iconic."[2]

I do not know whether the first public statues were not erected

by the Athenians, and in honour of Harmodius and Aristogiton,

who slew the tyrant;[3] an event which took place in

the same year in which the kings were expelled from Rome.

This custom, from a most praiseworthy emulation, was afterwards

adopted by all other nations; so that statues were

erected as ornaments in the public places of municipal towns,

and the memory of individuals was thus preserved, their

various honours being inscribed on the pedestals, to be read

there by posterity, and not on their tombs alone. After some

time, a kind of forum or public place came to be made in private

houses and in our halls, the clients adopting this method

of doing honour to their patrons.







1. We have an account of this event in Livy, B. ii. c. 41, in Valerius

Maximus, and in Dionysius of Halicarnassus.-B.

2. "Iconic," "portrait statues," from e)/ikwn, of the same meaning.

This term is employed by Suetonius, in speaking of a statue of Caligula,

c. 22.-B.

3. Pisistratus. These statues are mentioned in the 19th Chapter of this

Book, as being the workmanship of Praxiteles.-B.




10. Chap. 10. (5.)-The Different Kinds And Forms Of Statues. Statues At Rome With Cuirasses.


CHAP. 10. (5.)-THE DIFFERENT KINDS AND FORMS OF STATUES.

STATUES AT ROME WITH CUIRASSES.



In former times the statues that were thus dedicated were

clad in the toga.[1] Naked statues also, brandishing a spear,

after the manner of the youths at their gymnastic exercises,

were much admired; these were called "Achillean." The

Greek practice is, not to cover any part of the body; while,

on the contrary, the Roman and the military statues have the

addition of a cuirass. Csar, the Dictator, permitted a statue

with a cuirass to be erected in honour of him in his Forum.[2] As

to the statues which are made in the garb of the Luperci,[3]

they are of no older date than those which have been lately

erected, covered with a cloak.[4] Mancinus gave directions,

that he should be represented in the dress which he wore when

he was surrendered to the enemy.[5] It has been remarked by







some authors, that L. Attius,[6] the poet, had a statue of himself

erected in the Temple of the Muses,[7] which was extremely

large, although he himself was very short.



Equestrian statues are also held in esteem in Rome; but

they are of Greek origin, no doubt. Among the Greeks, those

persons only were honoured with equestrian statues who were

victors on horseback[8] in the sacred games; though afterwards

the same distinction was bestowed on those who were successful

in the races with chariots with two or four horses: hence

the use of chariots with us in the statues of those who have

triumphed. But this did not take place until a late period;

and it was not until the time of the late Emperor Augustus,

that we had chariots represented with six horses,[9] as also with

elephants.







1. See B. vii. cc. 31, 34: B. viii. c. 74: and B. ix. c. 63.

2. Near the Temple of Janus, in the Eighth Region of the City.

3. The Luperci were the priests of Pan, who, at the celebration of their

games, called Lupercalia, were in the habit of running about the streets of

Rome, with no other covering than a goat's skin tied about the loins.-B.

4. "Pnula." See B. viii. c. 73.

5. We are informed by Cicero, De Off. B. iii. c. 30, and by Valerius Maximus, B. ii. c. 7, that Marcinus made a treaty with the Numantines,

which the senate refused to ratify, and that he was, in consequence, surrendered

to the enemy. We may suppose that he regarded the transaction as redounding more to the discredit of the senate than of himself.-B.

6. See end of B. xviii.

7. In the First Region of the City, near the Capenian Gate.

8. "Celetes;" this appellation is derived from the Greek word ke/lhs,

"swift," and was applied to those who rode on horseback, in opposition to

the charioteers.-B.

9. Poinsinet remarks that Pliny has forgotten the gilded chariot, with

six horses, which Cneius Cornelius dedicated in the Capitol, two hundred

years before Augustus; he also refers to an ancient inscription in Gruter,

which mentions chariots of this description.-B.




12. Chap. 12.-In Honour Of What Foreigners Public Statues Were Erected At Rome.


CHAP. 12.-IN HONOUR OF WHAT FOREIGNERS PUBLIC STATUES

WERE ERECTED AT ROME.



I find also, that statues were erected in honour of Pythagoras

and of Alcibiades, in the corners of the Comitium; in obedience

to the command of the Pythian Apollo, who, in the

Samnite War,[1] had directed that statues of the bravest and

the wisest of the Greeks should be erected in some conspicuous

spot: and here they remained until Sylla, the Dictator,

built the senate-house on the site. It is wonderful that the

senate should then have preferred Pythagoras to Socrates, who,

in consequence of his wisdom, had been preferred to all other

men[2] by the god himself; as, also, that they should have preferred

Alcibiades for valour to so many other heroes; or, indeed,

any one to Themistocles, who so greatly excelled in both qualities.

The reason of the statues being raised on columns, was,

that the persons represented might be elevated above other

mortals; the same thing being signified by the use of arches,

a new invention which had its origin among the Greeks. I

am of opinion that there is no one to whom more statues were

erected than to Demetrius Phalereus[3] at Athens: for there

were three hundred and sixty erected in his honour, there

being reckoned at that period no more days in the year: these,

however, were soon broken to pieces. The different tribes

erected statues, in all the quarters of Rome, in honour of

Marius Gratidianus, as already stated;[4] but they were all

thrown down by Sylla, when he entered Rome.











1. A.U.C. 441.

2. See B. vii. c. 31.

3. His life has been written by Diogenes Laertius, and he is mentioned

by Cicero, de Fin. B. v. c. 19, and by Strabo.-B.

4. In B. xxxiii. c. 46.




13. Chap. 13.-The First Equestrian Statues Publicly Erected At Rome, And In Honour Of What Females Statues Were Publicly Erected There.


CHAP. 13.-THE FIRST EQUESTRIAN STATUES PUBLICLY ERECTED

AT ROME, AND IN HONOUR OF WHAT FEMALES STATUES WERE

PUBLICLY ERECTED THERE.



Pedestrian statues have been, undoubtedly, for a long time

in estimation at Rome: equestrian statues are, however, of

considerable antiquity, and females even have participated in

this honour; for the statue of Cllia is equestrian,[1] as if it

had not been thought sufficient to have her clad in the toga;

and this, although statues were not decreed to Lucretia, or to

Brutus, who had expelled the kings, and through both of whom

Cllia had been given as a hostage.[2] I should have thought

that this statue, and that of Cocles, were the first that were

erected at the public expense-for it is most likely that the

statues of Attus and the Sibyl were erected by Tarquinius,

and those of each of the other kings by themselves respectively

-had not Piso stated that the statue of Cllia was erected by

those who had been hostages with her, when they were given

up by Porsena, as a mark of honour.



But Annius Fetialis[3] states, on the other hand, that the

equestrian statue, which stood opposite the Temple of Jupiter

Stator, in the vestibule of the house of Tarquinius Superbus,

was that of Valeria,[4] the daughter of the consul Publicola; and

that she was the only person that escaped and swam across

the Tiber; the rest of the hostages that had been sent to

Porsena having been destroyed by a stratagem of Tarquinius.







1. We have an account of the exploit of Cllia in Livy, B. ii. c. 13, and

in Valerius Maximus, B. iii. c. 2: there is a reference to this statue in

Seneca, de Consol. c. 16.-B.

2. To King Porsena.

3. See end of B. xvi.

4. Plutarch says that it was uncertain whether the statue was erected to

Cllia or to Valcria.-B.




14. Chap. 14.-At What Period All The Statues Erected By Private Individuals Were Removed From The Public Places.


CHAP. 14.-AT WHAT PERIOD ALL THE STATUES ERECTED BY

PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS WERE REMOVED FROM THE PUBLIC

PLACES.



We are informed by L. Piso, that when M. milius and C.

Popilius were consuls, for the second time,[1] the censors, P.

Cornelius Scipio and M. Popilius, caused all the statues

erected round the Forum in honour of those who had borne

the office of magistrates, to be removed; with the exception of

those which had been placed there, either by order of the







people or of the senate. The statue also which Spurius

Cassius,[2] who had aspired to the supreme authority, had

erected in honour of himself, before the Temple of Tellus, was

melted down by order of the censors; for even in this respect,

the men of those days took precautions against ambition.



There are still extant some declamations by Cato, during

his censorship, against the practice of erecting statues of

women in the Roman provinces. However, he could not

prevent these statues being erected at Rome even; to Cornelia,

for instance, the mother of the Gracchi, and daughter of the

elder Scipio Africanus. She is represented in a sitting posture,

and the statue is remarkable for having no straps to the

shoes. This statue, which was formerly in the public Portico

of Metellus, is now in the Buildings of Octavia.[3]







1. A.U.C. 596.-B.

2. See Chapter 9.

3. "In Octavi operibus." These were certain public buildings, erected

in Rome by Augustus, and named by him after his sister Octavia; they are

mentioned by Suetonius.-B.




15. Chap. 15.-The First Statues Publicly Erected By Foreigners.


CHAP. 15.-THE FIRST STATUES PUBLICLY ERECTED BY

FOREIGNERS.



The first statue that was erected at Rome at the expense of

a foreigner was that of C. lius, the tribune of the people,

who had introduced a law against Sthennius Statilius Lucanus,[1] for having twice attacked Thurii: on which account

the inhabitants of that place presented lius with a statue

and a golden crown. At a later period, the same people

erected a statue to Fabricius,[2] who had delivered their city

from a state of siege. From time to time various nations

thus placed themselves under the protection of the Romans;

and all distinctions were thereby so effectually removed, that

statues of Hannibal even are to be seen in three different

places in that city, within the walls of which, he alone of all

its enemies, had hurled his spear.[3]











1. Valerius Maximus refers to this event, but he names the individual

Statius Servilius, B. i. c. 8, 6.-B.

2. See B. xxxiii. cc. 50, 54.

3. We have an account of the attack by Hannibal on Rome in the

twenty-sixth Book of Livy, but we have no mention of the particular circumstance here referred to.-B.




16. Chap. 16. (7.)-That There Were Statuaries In Italy Also At An Early Period.


CHAP. 16. (7.)-THAT THERE WERE STATUARIES IN ITALY ALSO

AT AN EARLY PERIOD.



Various circumstances prove, that the art of making statues

was commonly practised in Italy at an early period. The

statue in the Cattle Market[1] is said to have been consecrated

to Hercules by Evander; it is called the triumphal Hercules,

and, on the occasion of triumphal processions, is arrayed in

triumphal vestments. And then besides, King Numa dedicated

the statue of the two-faced Janus;[2] a deity who is

worshipped as presiding over both peace and war. The

fingers, too, are so formed as to indicate three hundred and

sixty-five days,[3] or in other words, the year; thus denoting

that he is the god of time and duration.



There are also Etruscan statues dispersed in various parts

of the world, which beyond a doubt were originally made in

Etruria. I should have supposed that these had been the

statues only of divinities, had not Metrodorus[4] of Scepsis, who

had his surname from his hatred to the Roman name,[5] reproached

us with having pillaged the city of Volsinii for the

sake of the two thousand statues which it contained. It

appears to me a singular fact. that although the origin of

statues was of such great antiquity in Italy, the images of the

gods, which were consecrated to them in their temples, should

have been formed either of wood or of earthenware,[6] until

the conquest of Asia, which introduced luxury among us. It

will be the best plan to enlarge upon the origin of the art of

expressing likenesses, when we come to speak of what the







Greeks call "plastice;"[7] for the art of modelling was prior to

that of statuary. This last, however, has flourished to such an

extraordinary degree, that an account of it would fill many

volumes, if we were desirous of making an extensive acquaintance

with the subject: but as to learning everything connected

with it, who could do it?







1. "Forum Boarium." See Chapter 5.

2. Livy, B. i. c. 19, informs us, that Numa made Janus of a form to

denote both peace and war.-B.

3. The mode in which the fingers were placed, so as to serve the purpose

here indicated, is supposed to have been by their forming the letters which

were the Roman numerals for the figures in question. We are informed

that some MSS. of Pliny give the number three hundred and fifty-five only,

and there is reason to believe that, in the time of Numa, this was considered

to be the actual number of days in the year. Some of the commentators,

however, are disposed to read three hundred and sixty-five; and this opinion

derives some support from Macrobius, who refers to this statue as indicating

this latter number with its fingers.-B. The Bamberg MS. gives three

hundred and sixty-five.

4. See end of B. iii.

5. "Misoromus"-"Roman-hater." See end of B. iii.

6. Pliny himself informs us, in B. xxxv. c. 45, that the statue of Jupiter

in the Capitol, erected by Tarquinius Priscus, was formed of earth.-B.

7. The art of moulding or modelling in argillaceous earth; see B. xxxv.

cc. 43, 45.




17. Chap. 17.-The Immoderate Prices Of Statues.


CHAP. 17.-THE IMMODERATE PRICES OF STATUES.



In the dileship of M. Scaurus, there were three thousand

statues erected on the stage of what was a temporary theatre[1]

only. Mummius, the conqueror of Achaia, filled the City

with statues; he who at his death was destined not to leave a

dowry to his daughter,[2] for why not mention this as an

apology for him? The Luculli[3] also introduced many articles

from abroad. Yet we learn from Mucianus,[4] who was

thrice consul, that there are still three thousand statues in

Rhodes, and it is supposed that there are no fewer in existence

at Athens, at Olympia, and at Delphi. What living

mortal could enumerate them all? or of what utility would

be such information? Still, however, I may, perhaps, afford

amusement by giving some slight account of such of those works

of art as are in any way remarkable, and stating the names of

the more celebrated artists. Of each of these it would be

impossible to enumerate all the productions, for Lysippus[5]

alone is said to have executed no less than fifteen hundred[6]

works of art, all of which were of such excellence that any

one of them might have immortalized him. The number was

ascertained by his heir, upon opening his coffers after his

death, it having been his practice to lay up one golden







denarius[7] out of the sum which he had received as the price

of each statue.



This art has arrived at incredible perfection, both in successfulness

and in boldness of design. As a proof of successfulness,

I will adduce one example, and that of a figure which

represented neither god nor man. We have seen in our own

time, in the Capitol, before it was last burnt by the party[8] of

Vitellius, in the shrine of Juno there, a bronze figure of a dog

licking its wounds. Its miraculous excellence and its perfect

truthfulness were not only proved by the circumstance of its

having been consecrated there, but also by the novel kind of

security that was taken for its safety; for, no sum appearing

equal to its value, it was publicly enacted that the keepers of

it should be answerable for its safety with their lives.







1. See B. xxxvi. c. L, where he informs us that this theatre was hardly

one month in use.-B.

2. Hardouin gives several quotations illustrative of his liberality in

bestowing ornaments in the City, and his inattention to his domestic

concerns.-B.

3. The brothers Lucius and Marcus, the former of whom triumphed in

the Mithridatic, the latter in the Macedonian War.-B.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. See B. vii. c. 38.

6. The absolute number of statues assigned to Lysippus differs considerably

in the different editions, as is the case in almost every instance where

figures are concerned. Pliny gives a further account of his works in the

next two Chapters and in the following Book.-B.

7. "Aureum." See B. xxxiii. c. 13, and B. xxxvii. c. 3.

8. In their attack upon Flavius Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian;

A.U.C. 822.




18. Chap. 18.-The Most Celebrated Colossal Statues In The City.


CHAP. 18.-THE MOST CELEBRATED COLOSSAL STATUES IN THE

CITY.



As to boldness of design, the examples are innumerable;

for we see designed, statues of enormous bulk, known as

colossal statues and equal to towers in size. Such, for

instance, is the Apollo in the Capitol, which was brought by

M. Lucullus from Apollonia, a city of Pontus,[1] thirty cubits

in height, and which cost five hundred talents: such, too, is

the statue of Jupiter, in the Campus Martius, dedicated by

the late Emperor Claudius, but which appears small in comparison

from its vicinity to the Theatre of Pompeius: and such

is that at Tarentum, forty cubits in height, and the work of

Lysippus.[2] It is a remarkable circumstance in this statue,

that though, as it is stated, it is so nicely balanced as to be

moveable by the hand, it has never been thrown down by a

tempest. This indeed, the artist, it is said, has guarded

against, by a column erected at a short distance from it,

upon the side on which the violence of the wind required

to be broken. On account, therefore, of its magnitude, and

the great difficulty of moving it, Fabius Verrucosus[3] did not







touch it, when he transferred the Hercules from that place to

the Capitol, where it now stands.



But that which is by far the most worthy of our admiration,

is the colossal statue of the Sun, which stood formerly at

Rhodes, and was the work of Chares the Lindian, a pupil

of the above-named Lysippus;[4] no less than seventy cubits in

height. This statue fifty-six years after it was erected, was

thrown down by an earthquake; but even as it lies, it excites

our wonder and admiration.[5] Few men can clasp the thumb

in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues.

Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen

yawning in the interior. Within it, too, are to be seen large

masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it

while erecting it. It is said that it was twelve years before

this statue was completed, and that three hundred talents were

expended upon it; a sum raised from the engines of warfare

which had been abandoned by King Demetrius,[6] when tired

of the long-protracted siege of Rhodes. In the same city

there are other colossal statues, one hundred in number; but

though smaller than the one already mentioned, wherever

erected, they would, any one of them, have ennobled the place.

In addition to these, there are five colossal statues of the gods,

which were made by Bryaxis.[7]



Colossal statues used also to be made in Italy. At all events,

we see the Tuscan Apollo, in the library of the Temple of

Augustus,[8] fifty feet in height from the toe; and it is a question

whether it is more remarkable for the quality of the metal, or

for the beauty of the workmanship. Spurius Carvilius also

erected the statue of Jupiter which is seen in the Capitol, after he







had conquered the Samnites,[9] who fought in obedience to a most

solemn oath; it being formed out of their breast-plates, greaves,

and helmets, and of such large dimensions that it may be

seen from the statue of Jupiter Latiaris.[10] He made his

own statue, which is at the feet of the other one, out of the

filings of the metal. There are also, in the Capitol, two heads

which are very much admired, and which were dedicated by

the Consul P. Lentulus, one of them executed by the above-mentioned

Chares,[11] the other by Decius;[12] but this last is so

greatly excelled by the former, as to have all the appearance of

being the work of one of the poorest of artists.



But all these gigantic statues of this kind have been surpassed

in our own age by that of Mercury, made by Zenodotus[13]

for the city of the Arverni in Gaul,[14] which was ten years in

being completed, and the making of which cost four hundred

thousand sesterces. Having given sufficient proof there

of his artistic skill, he was sent for by Nero to Rome, where

he made a colossal statue intended to represent that prince,

one hundred and ten feet in height. In consequence, however,

of the public detestation of Nero's crimes, this statue was consecrated

to the Sun.[15] We used to admire in his studio, not

only the accurate likeness in the model of clay, but in the

small sketches[16] also, which served as the first foundation

of the work. This statue proves that the art of fusing

[precious] brass was then lost, for Nero was prepared to furnish







the requisite gold and silver, and Zenodotus was inferior to

none of the ancients, either as a designer or as an engraver.[17]

At the time that he was working at the statue for the Arverni,

he copied for Dubius Avitus, the then governor of the province,

two drinking-cups, chased by the hand of Calamis,[18] which

had been highly prized by Germanicus Csar, and had been

given by him to his preceptor Cassius Silanus, the uncle of

Avitus; and this with such exactness, that they could scarcely

be distinguished from the originals. The greater, then, the superiority

of Zenodotus, the more certainly it may be concluded

that the secret of fusing [precious] brass is lost.



(8.) Persons who possess what are called Corinthian bronzes,[19]

are generally so much enamoured of them, as to carry them

about with them from place to place; Hortensius, the orator,

for instance, who possessed a Sphinx, which he had made

Verres give him, when accused. It was to this figure that

Cicero alluded, in an altercation which took place at the trial:

when, upon Hortensius saying that he could not understand

enigmas, Cicero made answer that he ought to understand

them, as he had got a Sphinx[20] at home. The Emperor Nero,

also, used to carry about with him the figure of an Amazon, of

which I shall speak further hereafter;[21] and, shortly before this,

C. Cestius, a person of consular[22] rank, had possessed a figure,

which he carried with him even in battle. The tent, too, of

Alexander the Great was usually supported, it is said, by statues,

two of which are consecrated before the Temple of Mars

Ultor,[23] and a similar number before the Palace.[24]











1. See B. iv. c. 27.

2. It was a statue of Jupiter.

3. Better known by the name of Q. Fabius Maximus; he acquired the

soubriquet of Verrucosus from a large wart on the upper lip.-B.

4. The Colossus of Rhodes was begun by Chares, but he committed

suicide, in consequence of having made some mistake in the estimate; the

work was completed by Laches, also an inhabitant of Lindos.-B.

5. It remained on the spot where it was thrown down for nearly nine

hundred years, until the year 653 A.D., when Moavia, khalif of the

Saracens, after the capture of Rhodes, sold the materials; it is said that

it required nine hundred camels to remove the remains.-B.

6. Demetrius Poliorcetes. See B. xxxv. c. 36.

7. He is mentioned by Columella, in his Introduction to his work De

Re Rustic, in connexion with the most celebrated Grecian artists.-B.

8. Suetonius, in describing the temple which Augustus dedicated to

Apollo, on the Palatine Hill, speaks of the Portico with the Latin and

Greek library.-B.

9. This victory took place A.U.C. 461; we have an account of it in Livy,

the concluding Chapter of the Tenth Book.-B.

10. This was a statue of Jupiter, placed on the Alban Mount, twelve miles

from Rome. At this place the various states of Latium exercised their

religious rites in conjunction with the Romans; it was sometimes called

Latialis.-B. See B. iii. c. 9, and Notes; Vol. I. p. 205.

11. The designer of the Colossus at Rhodes.

12. Decius is said by Hardouin to have been a statuary, but nothing is

known respecting him or his works.-B. He probably lived about the

time of the Consul P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, A.U.C. 697.

13. His country is unknown.

14. See B. iv. c. 33.

15. St. Jerome informs us, that Vespasian removed the head of Nero, and

substituted that of the Sun with seven rays. Martial refers to it in the

Second Epigram De Spectaculis, and also B. i. Ep. 71.-B.

16. "Parvis admodum surculis." There is, it appears, some difficulty in

determining the application of the word surculis to the subject in question,

and we have no explanation of it by any of the commentators. Can it

refer to the frame of wicker work which contained the model into which

the melted metal was poured?-B.

17. This observation has been supposed to imply, that Zenodotus cast his

statues in a number of separate pieces, which were afterwards connected

together, and not, as was the case with the great Grecian artists, in one

entire piece.-B.

18. See B. xxxiii. c. 55.

19. The term signum, which is applied to the Corinthian figures, may

mean a medallion, or perhaps a seal-ring or brooch; we only know that

it must have been something small, which might be carried about the person,

or, at least, easily moved from place to place.-B. Statuette, probably.

20. Her riddle, and its solution by dipus, are too well known to need

repetition here.

21. In the following Chapter.

22. Consul A.U.C. 787.

23. The "Avenger." In the Forum of Augustus, in the Eighth Region

of the City.

24. "Regia." The palace of Minerva, also in the Forum of Augustus.-B.




19. Chap. 19.-An Account Of The Most Celebrated Works In Brass, And Of The Artists, 366 In Number.


CHAP. 19.-AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST CELEBRATED WORKS IN

BRASS, AND OF THE ARTISTS, 366 IN NUMBER.



An almost innumerable multitude of artists have been rendered

famous by their statues and figures of smaller size.

Before all others is Phidias,[1] the Athenian, who executed the

Jupiter at Olympia, in ivory and gold,[2] but who also made

figures in brass as well. He flourished in the eighty-third

Olympiad, about the year of our City, 300. To the same age

belong also his rivals Alcamenes,[3] Critias,[4] Nesiotes,[5] and

Hegias.[6] Afterwards, in the eighty-seventh Olympiad, there

were Agelades,[7] Callon,[8] and Gorgias the Laconian. In the

ninetieth Olympiad there were Polycletus,[9] Phradmon,[10]

Myron,[11] Pythagoras,[12] Scopas,[13] and Perellus.[14] Of these,

Polycletus had for pupils, Argius,[15] Asopodorus, Alexis,

Aristides,[16] Phrynon, Dinon, Athenodorus,[17] and Demeas[18] the







Clitorian: Lycius,[19] too, was the pupil of Myron. In the

ninety-fifth Olympiad flourished Naucsydes,[20] Dinomenes,[21]

Canachus,[22] and Patroclus.[23] In the hundred and second

Olympiad there were Polycles,[24] Cephisodotus,[25] Leochares,[26]

and Hypatodorus.[27] In the hundred and fourth Olympiad,

flourished Praxiteles[28] and Euphranor;[29] in the hundred and

seventh, Ation[30] and Therimachus;[31] in the hundred and

thirteenth, Lysippus,[32] who was the contemporary of Alexander

the Great, his brother Lysistratus,[33] Sthennis,[34] Euphron,

Eucles, Sostratus,[35] Ion, and Silanion,[36] who was remarkable for







having acquired great celebrity without any instructor:

Zeuxis[37] was his pupil. In the hundred and twenty-first

Olympiad were Eutychides,[38] Euthycrates,[39] Lappus,[40] Cephisodotus,[41]

Timarchus,[42] and Pyromachus.[43]



The practice of this art then ceased for some time, but

revived in the hundred and fifty-sixth Olympiad, when there

were some artists, who, though far inferior to those already mentioned,

were still highly esteemed; Antus, Callistratus,[44] Polycles,[45]

Athenus,[46] Callixenus, Pythocles, Pythias, and Timocles.[47]



The ages of the most celebrated artists being thus distinguished,

I shall cursorily review the more eminent of them,

the greater part being mentioned in a desultory manner. The

most celebrated of these artists, though born at different

epochs, have joined in a trial of skill in the Amazons which

they have respectively made. When these statues were dedicated

in the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, it was agreed, in

order to ascertain which was the best, that it should be left to

the judgment of the artists themselves who were then present:

upon which, it was evident that that was the best, which all

the artists agreed in considering as the next best to his own.

Accordingly, the first rank was assigned to Polycletus, the

second to Phidias, the third to Cresilas, the fourth to Cydon,

and the fifth to Phradmon.[48]







Phidias, besides the Olympian Jupiter, which no one has

ever equalled, also executed in ivory the erect statue of

Minerva, which is in the Parthenon at Athens.[49] He also

made in brass, beside the Amazon above mentioned,[50] a Minerva,

of such exquisite beauty, that it received its name from its fine

proportions.[51] He also made the Cliduchus,[52] and another

Minerva, which Paulus milius dedicated at Rome in the

Temple of Fortune[53] of the passing day. Also the two statues,

draped with the pallium, which Catulus erected in the same

temple; and a nude colossal statue. Phidias is deservedly

considered to have discovered and developed the toreutic art.[54]



Polycletus of Sicyon,[55] the pupil of Agelades, executed

the Diadumenos,[56] the statue of an effeminate youth, and

remarkable for having cost one hundred talents; as also

the statue of a youth full of manly vigour, and called the

Doryphoros.[57] He also made what the artists have called the

Model statue,[58] and from which, as from a sort of standard,







they study the lineaments: so that he, of all men, is thought in

one work of art to have exhausted all the resources of art.

He also made statues of a man using the body-scraper,[59] and

of a naked man challenging to play at dice;[60] as also of two

naked boys playing at dice, and known as the Astragalizontes;[61]

they are now in the atrium of the Emperor Titus, and it is generally

considered, that there can be no work more perfect than

this. He also executed a Mercury, which was formerly at Lysimachia;

a Hercules Ageter,[62] seizing his arms, which is now at

Rome; and an Artemon, which has received the name of

Periphoretos.[63] Polycletus is generally considered as having

attained the highest excellence in statuary, and as having perfected

the toreutic[64] art, which Phidias invented. A discovery

which was entirely his own, was the art of placing statues on

one leg. It is remarked, however, by Varro, that his statues

are all square-built,[65] and made very much after the same

model.[66]







Myron of Eleuther,[67] who was also the pupil of Agelades,

was rendered more particularly famous by his statue of a

heifer,[68] celebrated in many well-known lines: so true is it,

that most men owe their renown more to the genius of others,

than to their own. He also made the figure of a dog,[69] a

Discobolus,[70] a Perseus,[71] the Prist,[72] a Satyr[73] admiring a flute,

and a Minerva, the Delphic Pentathletes,[74] the Pancratiast,[75]

and a Hercules,[76] which is at the Circus Maximus, in the house

of Pompeius Magnus. Erinna,[77] in her poems,[78] makes allusion

to a monument which he erected to a cricket and a locust.

He also executed the Apollo, which, after being taken from the

Ephesians by the Triumvir Antonius, was restored by the

Emperor Augustus, he having been admonished to do so in a

dream. Myron appears to have been the first to give a varied

development to the art,[79] having made a greater number of

designs than Polycletus, and shewn more attention to symmetry.

And yet, though he was very accurate in the proportions

of his figures, he has neglected to give expression;

besides which, he has not treated the hair and the pubes with







any greater attention than is observed in the rude figures of

more ancient times.



Pythagoras of Rhegium, in Italy, excelled him in the figure

of the Pancratiast[80] which is now at Delphi, and in which he

also surpassed Leontiscus.[81] Pythagoras also executed the statue

of Astylos,[82] the runner, which is exhibited at Olympia; that

of a Libyan boy holding a tablet, also in the same place; and

a nude male figure holding fruit. There is at Syracuse a

figure of a lame man by him: persons, when looking at it,

seem to feel the very pain of his wound. He also made an

Apollo, with the serpent[83] pierced by his arrows; and a Player

on the Lyre, known as the Dicus,[84] from the fact that, when

Thebes was taken by Alexander the Great, a fugitive successfully

concealed in its bosom a sum of gold. He was the first artist

who gave expression to the sinews and the veins, and paid

more attention to the hair.



There was also another Pythagoras, a Samian,[85] who was

originally a painter, seven of whose nude figures, in the

Temple of Fortune of the passing day,[86] and one of an aged

man, are very much admired. He is said to have resembled

the last-mentioned artist so much in his features, that they

could not be distinguished. Sostratus, it is said, was the

pupil of Pythagoras of Rhegium, and his sister's son.



According to Duris,[87] Lysippus the Sicyonian was not the

pupil[88] of any one, but was originally a worker in brass, and

was first prompted to venture upon statuary by an answer that

was given by Eupompus the painter; who, upon being asked

which of his predecessors he proposed to take for his model,

pointed to a crowd of men, and replied that it was Nature herself,







and no artist, that he proposed to imitate. As already mentioned,[89]

Lysippus was most prolific in his works, and made more

statues than any other artist. Among these, is the Man using the

Body-scraper, which Marcus Agrippa had erected in front of his

Warm Baths,[90] and which wonderfully pleased the Emperor

Tiberius. This prince, although in the beginning of his reign

he imposed some restraint upon himself, could not resist the

temptation, and had this statue removed to his bed-chamber,

having substituted another for it at the baths: the people,

however, were so resolutely opposed to this, that at the theatre

they clamourously demanded the Apoxyomenos[91] to be replaced;

and the prince, notwithstanding his attachment to it, was

obliged to restore it.



Lysippus is also celebrated for his statue of the intoxicated

Female Flute-player, his dogs and huntsmen, and, more particularly,

for his Chariot with the Sun, as represented by the

Rhodians.[92] He also executed a numerous series of statues of

Alexander the Great, commencing from his childhood.[93] The

Emperor Nero was so delighted with his statue of the infant

Alexander, that he had it gilt: this addition, however, to its

value, so detracted from its artistic beauty that the gold was

removed, and in this state it was looked upon as still more

precious, though disfigured by the scratches and seams which

remained upon it, and in which the gold was still to be seen.[94]

He also made the statue of Hephstion, the friend of Alexander

the Great, which some persons attribute to Polycletus,

whereas that artist lived nearly a century before his time.[95]

Also, the statue of Alexander at the chase, now consecrated at

Delphi, the figure of a Satyr, now at Athens, and the Squadron



[96]







of Alexander,[97] all of whom he represented with the greatest

accuracy. This last work of art, after his conquest of Macedonia,[98]

Metellus conveyed to Rome. Lysippus also executed

chariots of various kinds. He is considered to have contributed

very greatly to the art of statuary by expressing the

details of the hair,[99] and by making the head smaller than had

been done by the ancients, and the body more graceful and less

bulky, a method by which his statues were made to appear

taller. The Latin language has no appropriate name for that

"symmetry,"[100] which he so attentively observed in his new and

hitherto untried method of modifying the squareness observable

in the ancient statues. Indeed, it was a common saying

of his, that other artists made men as they actually were, while

he made them as they appeared to be. One peculiar characteristic

of his work, is the finish and minuteness which are observed

in even the smallest details. Lysippus left three sons,

who were also his pupils, and became celebrated as artists,

Laippus, Bdas, and, more particularly, Euthycrates; though

this last-named artist rivalled his father in precision rather

than in elegance, and preferred scrupulous correctness to gracefulness.

Nothing can be more expressive than his Hercules

at Delphi, his Alexander, his Hunter at Thespi, and his

Equestrian Combat. Equally good, too, are his statue of Trophonius,

erected in the oracular cave[101] of that divinity, his

numerous chariots, his Horse with the Panniers,[102] and his hounds.



Tisicrates, also a native of Sicyon, was a pupil of Euthycrates,

but more nearly approaching the style of Lysippus; so

much so, that several of his statues can scarcely be distinguished

from those of Lysippus; his aged Theban, for example, his King

Demetrius, and his Peucestes, who saved the life of Alexander

the Great, and so rendered himself deserving of this honour.[103]







Artists, who have transmitted these details in their works,

bestow wonderful encomiums upon Telephanes, the Phocan,

a statuary but little known, they say, because he lived in Thessaly,

where his works remained concealed; according to their

account, however, he is quite equal to Polycletus, Myron, and

Pythagoras. They more particularly commend his Larissa,

his Spintharus, the pentathlete,[104] and his Apollo. Others,

however, assign another reason for his being so little known;

it being owing, they think, to his having devoted himself to

the studios established by Kings Xerxes and Darius.



Praxiteles, who excelled more particularly in marble, and

thence acquired his chief celebrity, also executed some very

beautiful works in brass, the Rape of Proserpine, the Catagusa,[105]

a Father Liber,[106] a figure of Drunkenness, and the celebrated

Satyr,[107] to the Greeks known as "Periboetos."[108] He also executed

the statues, which were formerly before the Temple[109] of Good

Fortune, and the Venus, which was destroyed by fire, with

the Temple of that goddess, in the reign of Claudius, and was

considered equal to his marble statue of Venus,[110] so celebrated

throughout the world. He also executed a Stephanusa,[111] a Spilumene,[112]

an nophorus,[113] and two figures of Harmodius and

Aristogiton, who slew the tyrants; which last, having been taken

away from Greece by Xerxes, were restored to the Athenians on







the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great.[114] He also made

the youthful Apollo, known as the "Sauroctonos,"[115] because he

is aiming an arrow at a lizard which is stealing towards him.

There are greatly admired, also, two statues of his, expressive

of contrary emotions-a Matron in tears, and a Courtesan full

of gaiety: this last is supposed to be a likeness of Phryne, and

it is said that we can detect in her figure the love of the artist,

and in the countenance of the courtesan the promised reward.[116]



His kindness of heart, too, is witnessed by another figure;

for in a chariot and horses which had been executed by Calamis,[117]

he himself made the charioteer, in order that the artist,

who excelled in the representation of horses, might not be

considered deficient in the human figure. This last-mentioned

artist has executed other chariots also, some with four

horses, and some with two; and in his horses he is always

unrivalled. But that it may not be supposed that he was so

greatly inferior in his human figures, it is as well to remark

that his Alcmena[118] is equal to any that was ever produced.



Alcamenes,[119] who was a pupil of Phidias, worked in marble

and executed a Pentathlete in brass, known as the "Encrinomenos."[120]

Aristides, too, who was the scholar of Polycletus,

executed chariots in metal with four and two horses. The







Lena[121] of Amphicrates[122] is highly commended. The courtesan[123]

Lena, who was a skilful performer on the lyre, and

had so become acquainted with Harmodius and Aristogiton,

submitted to be tortured till she expired, rather than betray

their plot for the extermination of the tyrants.[124] The Athenians,

being desirous of honouring her memory, without at

the same time rendering homage to a courtesan, had her represented

under the figure of the animal whose name she bore;[125]

and, in order to indicate the cause of the honour thus paid her,

ordered the artist to represent the animal without a tongue.[126]



Bryaxis executed in brass statues of sculapius and Seleucus;[127]

Bdas[128] a figure in adoration; Baton, an Apollo and a

Juno, which are in the Temple of Concord[129] at Rome.



Ctesilas[130] executed a statue of a man fainting from his

wounds, in the expression of which may be seen how little

life remains;[131] as also the Olympian Pericles,[132] well worthy of

its title: indeed, it is one of the marvellous adjuncts of this

art, that it renders men who are already celebrated even more

so.



Cephisodotus[133] is the artist of an admirable Minerva, now

erected in the port of Athens; as also of the altar before the







Temple of Jupiter Servator,[134] at the same place, to which,

indeed, few works are comparable.



Canachus[135] executed a nude Apollo, which is known as the

"Philesian:"[136] it is at Didymi,[137] and is composed of bronze

that was fused at gina. He also made a stag with it, so

nicely poised on its hoofs, as to admit of a thread being passed

beneath. One[138] fore-foots, too, and the alternate hind-foot are

so made as firmly to grip the base, the socket being[139] so indented

on either side, as to admit of the figure being thrown

at pleasure upon alternate feet. Another work of his was the

boys known as the "Celetizontes."[140]



Chreas made statues of Alexander the Great and of his

father Philip. Desilas[141] made a Doryphoros[142] and a wounded

Amazon; and Demetrius[143] a statue of Lysimache, who was

priestess of Minerva sixty-four years. This statuary also made

the Minerva, which has the name of Musica,[144] and so called because

the dragons on its Gorgon's head vibrate at the sound of

the lyre; also an equestrian statue of Simon, the first writer







on the art of equitation.[145] Ddalus,[146] who is highly esteemed

as a modeller in clay, made two brazen figures of youths using

the body-scraper;[147] and Dinomenes executed figures of Protesilas[148]

and Pythodemus the wrestler.



The statue of Alexander Paris is the work of Euphranor:[149] it

is much admired, because we recognize in it, at the same moment,

all these characteristics; we see him as the umpire between

the goddesses, the paramour of Helen, and yet the slayer

of Achilles. We have a Minerva, too, by Euphranor, at Rome,

known as the "Catulina," and dedicated below the Capitol, by Q.

Lutatius;[150] also a figure of Good Success,[151] holding in the right

hand a patera, and in the left an ear of corn and a poppy.

There is also a Latona by him, in the Temple of Concord,[152]

with the new-born infants Apollo and Diana in her arms. He

also executed some brazen chariots with four and two horses,

and a Cliduchus[153] of beautiful proportions; as also two colossal

statues, one representing Virtue, the other Greece;[154] and a

figure of a female lost in wonder and adoration: with statues of

Alexander and Philip in chariots with four horses. Eutychides

executed an emblematic figure of the Eurotas,[155] of which it has

been frequently remarked, that the work of the artist appears

more flowing than the waters even of the river.[156]



Hegias[157] is celebrated for his Minerva and his King Pyrrhus,

his youthful Celetizontes,[158] and his statues of Castor and Pollux,







before the Temple of Jupiter Tonans:[159] Hegesias,[160] for his

Hercules, which is at our colony of Parium.[161] Of Isidotus we

have the Buthytes.[162]



Lycius was the pupil[163] of Myron: he made a figure representing

a boy blowing a nearly extinguished fire, well worthy

of his master, as also figures of the Argonauts. Leochares

made a bronze representing the eagle carrying off Ganymede:

the eagle has all the appearance of being sensible of the importance

of his burden, and for whom he is carrying it, being

careful not to injure the youth with his talons, even through

the garments.[164] He executed a figure, also, of Autolycus,[165] who

had been victorious in the contests of the Pancratium, and for

whom Xenophon wrote his Symposium;[166] the figure, also, of

Jupiter Tonans in the Capitol, the most admired of all his

works; and a statue of Apollo crowned with a diadem. He

executed, also, a figure of Lyciscus, and one of the boy Lagon,[167]

full of the archness and low-bred cunning of the slave. Lycius

also made a figure of a boy burning perfumes.



We have a young bull by Menchmus,[168] pressed down beneath

a man's knee, with its neck bent back:[169] this Mench-







mus has also written a treatise on his art. Naucydes[170] is

admired for a Mercury, a Discobolus,[171] and a Man sacrificing a

Ram. Naucerus made a figure of a wrestler panting for

breath; Niceratus, an sculapius and Hygeia,[172] which are

in the Temple of Concord at Rome. Pyromachus represented

Alcibiades, managing a chariot with four horses: Polycles

made a splendid statue of Hermaphroditus; Pyrrhus, statues of

Hygeia and Minerva; and Phanis, who was a pupil of Lysippus,

an Epithyusa.[173]



Stypax of Cyprus acquired his celebrity by a single work,

the statue of the Splanchnoptes;[174] which represents a slave of

the Olympian Pericles, roasting entrails and kindling the fire

with his breath. Silanion made a statue in metal of Apollodorus,

who was himself a modeller, and not only the most

diligent of all in the study of this art, but a most severe

criticizer of his own works, frequently breaking his statues to

pieces when he had finished them, and never able to satisfy

his intense passion for the art-a circumstance which procured

him the surname of "the Madman." Indeed, it is this expression

which he has given to his works, which represent in

metal embodied anger rather than the lineaments of a human

being. The Achilles, also, of Silanion is very excellent, and

his Epistates[175] exercising the Athletes. Strongylion[176] made a

figure of an Amazon, which, from the beauty of the legs, was

known as the "Eucnemos,"[177] and which Nero used to have carried

about with him in his travels. Strongylion was the artist,







also, of a youthful figure, which was so much admired by

Brutus of Philippi, that it received from him its surname.[178]



Theodorus of Samos,[179] who constructed the Labyrinth,[180] cast

his own statue in brass; which was greatly admired, not only

for its resemblance, but for the extreme delicacy of the work.

In the right hand he holds a file, and with three fingers of the

left, a little model of a four-horse chariot, which has since

been transferred to Prneste:[181] it is so extremely minute, that

the whole piece, both chariot and charioteer, may be covered

by the wings of a fly, which he also made with it.



Xenocrates[182] was the pupil of Ticrates, or, as some say, of

Euthycrates: he surpassed them both, however, in the number

of his statues, and was the author of some treatises on his art.



Several artists have represented the battles fought by Attalus

and Eumenes with the Galli;[183] Isigonus, for instance, Pyromachus,

Stratonicus, and Antigonus,[184] who also wrote some

works in reference to his art. Bothus,[185] although more celebrated

for his works in silver, has executed a beautiful figure

of a child strangling a goose. The most celebrated of all the

works, of which I have here spoken, have been dedicated, for

some time past, by the Emperor Vespasianus in the Temple of

Peace,[186] and other public buildings of his. They had before







been forcibly carried off by Nero,[187] and brought to Rome,

and arranged by him in the reception-rooms of his Golden

Palace.[188]



In addition to these, there are several other artists, of about

equal celebrity, but none of whom have produced any first-rate

works; Ariston,[189] who was principally employed in chasing

silver, Callides, Ctesias, Cantharus of Sicyon,[190] Diodorus, a

pupil of Critias, Deliades, Euphorion, Eunicus,[191] and Hecatus,[192]

all of them chasers in silver; Lesbocles, also, Prodorus, Pythodicus,

and Polygnotus,[193] one of the most celebrated painters;

also two other chasers in silver, Stratonicus,[194] and Scymnus, a

pupil of Critias.



I shall now enumerate those artists who have executed

works of the same class:-Apollodorus,[195] for example, Antrobulus,

Asclepiodorus, and Aleuas, who have executed statues

of philosophers. Apellas[196] has left us some figures of females

in the act of adoration; Antignotus, a Perixyomenos,[197] and

figures of the Tyrannicides, already mentioned. Antimachus

and Athenodorus made some statues of females of noble birth;

Aristodemus[198] executed figures of wrestlers, two-horse chariots

with the charioteers, philosophers, aged women, and a statue

of King Seleucus:[199] his Doryphoros,[200] too, possesses his characteristic

gracefulness.



There were two artists of the name of Cephisodotus:[201] the







earlier of them made a figure of Mercury nursing Father Liber[202]

when an infant; also of a man haranguing, with the hand

elevated, the original of which is now unknown. The younger

Cephisodotus executed statues of philosophers. Colotes,[203] who

assisted Phidias in the Olympian Jupiter, also executed statues

of philosophers; the same, too, with Cleon,[204] Cenchramis,

Callicles,[205] and Cepis. Chalcosthenes made statues of comedians

and athletes. Dappus[206] executed a Perixyomenos.[207]

Daphron, Democritus,[208] and Dmon made statues of philosophers.



Epigonus, who has attempted nearly all the above-named

classes of works, has distinguished himself more particularly

by his Trumpeter, and his Child in Tears, caressing its murdered

mother. The Woman in Admiration, of Eubulus, is

highly praised; and so is the Man, by Eubulides,[209] reckoning

on his Fingers. Micon[210] is admired for his athletes; Menogenes,

for his four-horse chariots. Niceratus,[211] too, who

attempted every kind of work that had been executed by any

other artist, made statues of Aleibiades and of his mother

Demarate,[212] who is represented sacrificing by the light of

torches.







Tisicrates[213] executed a two-horse chariot in brass, in which

Piston afterwards placed the figure of a female. Piston also

made the statues of Mars and Mercury, which are in the

Temple of Concord at Rome. No one can commend Perillus;[214]

more cruel even than the tyrant Phalaris[215] himself, he made

for him a brazen bull, asserting that when a man was enclosed

in it, and fire applied beneath, the cries of the man would

resemble the roaring of a bull: however, with a cruelty in

this instance marked by justice, the experiment of this torture

was first tried upon himself. To such a degree did this man

degrade the art of representing gods and men, an art more

adapted than any other to refine the feelings! Surely so many

persons had not toiled to perfect it in order to make it an instrument

of torture! Hence it is that the works of Perillus are

only preserved, in order that whoever sees them, may detest

the hands that made them.



Sthennis[216] made the statues of Ceres, Jupiter, and Minerva,

which are now in the Temple of Concord; also figures of matrons

weeping, adoring, and offering sacrifice; Simon[217] executed

figures of a dog and an archer. Stratonicus,[218] the chaser

in silver, made some figures of philosophers; and so did both

of the artists named Scopas.[219]



The following artists have made statues of athletes, armed

men, hunters, and sacrificers-Baton,[220] Euchir,[221] Glaucides,[222]

Heliodorus,[223] Hicanus, Leophon, Lyson,[224] Leon, Menodorus,[225]







Myagrus,[226] Polycrates, Polyidus,[227] Pythocritus, Protogenes, a

famous painter, whom we shall have occasion to mention hereafter;[228]

Patrocles, Pollis, Posidonius[229] the Ephesian, who was

also a celebrated chaser in silver; Periclymenus,[230] Philon,[231]

Symenus, Timotheus,[232] Theomnestus,[233] Timarchides,[234] Timon,

Tisias, and Thrason.[235]



But of all these, Callimachus is the most remarkable, on

account of his surname. Being always dissatisfied with himself,

and continually correcting his works, he obtained the name

of "Catatexitechnos;"[236] thus affording a memorable example

of the necessity of observing moderation even in carefulness.

His Laconian Female Dancers, for instance, is a most correct

performance, but one in which, by extreme correctness, he has

effaced all gracefulness. It has been said, too, that Callimachus

was a painter also. Cato, in his expedition against

Cyprus,[237] sold all the statues that he found there, with the exception

of one of Zeno; in which case he was influenced, neither

by the value of the metal nor by its excellence as a work of

art, but by the fact that it was the statue of a philosopher. I

only mention this circumstance casually, that an example[238]

so little followed, may be known.



While speaking of statues, there is one other that should

not be omitted, although its author is unknown, that of Her-







cules clothed in a tunic,[239] the only one represented in that

costume in Rome: it stands near the Rostra, and the countenance

is stern and expressive of his last agonies, caused by

that dress. There are three inscriptions on it; the first of

which states that it had formed part of the spoil obtained by

L. Lucullus[240] the general; the second, that his son, while still

a minor, dedicated in accordance with a decree of the Senate;

the third, that T. Septimius Sabinus, the curule dile, had it

restored to the public from the hands of a private individual.

So vast has been the rivalry caused by this statue, and so high

the value set upon it.







1. See B. vii. c. 39, B. xxxv. c. 34, and B. xxxvi. c. 4.

2. We have an account of this statue, and of the temple in which it was

placed, by Pausanias, B. v. There is no work of Phidias now in existence;

the sculptures in the Parthenon were, however, executed by his pupils and

under his immediate directions, so that we may form some judgment of

his genius and taste.-B. There is a foot in the British Museum, said to

be the work of Phidias.

3. An Athenian; see B. xxxvi. c. 5. He is spoken of in high terms by

Pausanias and Valerius Maximus.

4. Tutor of Ptolichus of Corcyra, and highly distinguished for his statues

of the slayers of the tyrants at Athens. He is mentioned also by Lucian

and Pausanias.

5. The reading is uncertain here, the old editions giving "Nestocles."

We shall only devote a Note to such artists as are mentioned by other

authors besides Pliny.

6. An Athenian; mentioned also by Pausanias.

7. There were probably two artists of this name; one an Argive, tutor

of Phidias, and the other a Sicyonian, the person here referred to.

8. A native of gina, mentioned by Pausanias. There is also a statuary

of Elis of the same name, mentioned by Pausanias, and to whom

Thiersch is of opinion reference is here made.

9. See Chapter 5 of this Book.

10. An Argive, mentioned by Pausanias.

11. See Chapter 5 of this Book.

12. Again mentioned by Pliny, as a native of Rhegium in Italy.

13. A native of Paros, mentioned also by Pausanias and Strabo.

14. Probably "Perillus," the artist who made the brazen bull for Phalaris,

the tyrant of Agrigentum. The old reading is "Parelius."

15. This and the following word probably mean one person-"Asopodorus

the Argive."

16. Perhaps the same person that is mentioned by Pausanias, B. vi. c. 20,

as having improved the form of the starting-place at the Olympic Games.

17. Mentioned by Pausanias as an Arcadian, and son of Clitor.

18. A native of Clitorium in Arcadia, and mentioned also by Pausanias.

19. He is said by Pausanias and Athenus to have been the son, also, of

Myron.

20. Son of Motho, and a native of Argos. He was brother and instructor

of the younger Polycletus, of Argos. He is mentioned also by Pausanias

and Tatian.

21. He is once mentioned by Pausanias, and there is still extant the basis

of one of his works, with his name inscribed.

22. It is supposed that there were two artists of this name, both natives

of Sicyon, the one grandson of the other. They are both named by Pausanias.

23. Probably a Sicyonian; he is mentioned also by Pausanias.

24. As Pliny mentions two artists of this name, it is impossible to say to

which of them Pausanias refers as being an Athenian, in B. vi. c. 4.

25. The elder artist of this name. He was an Athenian, and his sister

was the wife of Phocion. He is also mentioned by Plutarch and Pausanias.

26. An Athenian; he is mentioned also by Vitruvius, Pausanias, and

Tatian. Winckelmann mentions an inscription relative to him, which, however,

appears to be spurious.

27. He is mentioned also by Pausanias, and is supposed by Sillig to have

been a Theban.

28. Praxiteles held a high rank among the ancient sculptors, and may be

considered as second to Phidias alone; he is frequently mentioned by Pausanias

and various other classical writers. Pliny gives a further account of

the works of Praxiteles in the two following Books.-B.

29. He was also an eminent painter, and is also mentioned by Quintilian,

Dio Chrysostom, and Plutarch.

30. Another reading is "Echion."

31. See B. xxxv. cc. 32, 36.

32. This great artist, a native of Sicyon, has been already mentioned in

B. vii. c. 39, and in the two preceding Chapters of the present Book; he is

again mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 39.-B. See note 28 above.

33. Also a native of Sicyon. He is mentioned by Tatian.

34. Mentioned also by Pausanias, Plutarch, Strabo, and Appian. The

next two names in former editions stand as one, "Euphronides."

35. Supposed to have been an architect, and builder of the Pharos near

Alexandria: see B. xxxvi. c. 18. The same person is mentioned also by

Strabo, Lucian, and Suidas.

36. An Athenian. He is mentioned also by Pausanias, Plutarch, Diogenes

Laertius, and Tatian.

37. See B. xxxv. c. 36.

38. A Sicyonian, pupil of Lysippus. He is also mentioned by Pausanias;

see also B. xxxvi. c. 4.

39. Son and pupil of Lysippus. He is mentioned also by Tatian, and by

some writers as the instructor of Xenocrates.

40. Sillig thinks that this is a mistake made by Pliny for "Dappus," a

statuary mentioned by Pausanias.

41. Son of Praxiteles, and mentioned by Tatian in conjunction with Euthycrates.

The elder Cephisodotus has been already mentioned. See Note 52.

42. Another son of Praxiteles. He is also alluded to by Pausanias, though

not by name.

43. His country is uncertain, but he was preceptor of Mygdon of Soli.

See B. xxxv. c. 40.

44. Mentioned also by Tatian; his country is unknown.

45. It is doubtful whether Pausanias alludes, in B. vi. c. 4, to this artist,

or to the one of the same name mentioned under Olymp. 102. See Note 51.

46. Sillig suggests that this word is an adjective, denoting the country of

Polycles, in order to distinguish him from the elder Polycles.

47. We learn from Pausanias that he worked in conjunction with Timarchides.

The other artists here mentioned are quite unknown.

48. Sillig, in his "Dictionary of Ancient Artists," observes that "this

passage contains many foolish statements." Also that there is "an obvious

intermixture in it of truth and falsehood."

49. This is universally admitted to have been one of the most splendid

works of art. It is celebrated by various writers; Pausanias speaks of it in

B. i. See also B. xxxvi. c. 4.-B.

50. As being made for the Temple of Diana at Ephesus.

51. Probably "Callimorphos," or "Calliste." We learn from Pausanias

that it was placed in the Citadel of Athens. Lucian prefers it to every

other work of Phidias.

52. A figure of a female "holding keys." The key was one of the

attributes of Proserpina, as also of Janus; but the latter was an Italian

divinity.

53. "dem Fortun hujusce diei." This reading, about which there has

been some doubt, is supported by an ancient inscription in Orellius.

54. "Artem toreuticen." See Note at the end of B. xxxiii.

55. Pliny has here confounded two artists of the same name; the

Polycletus who was the successor of Phidias, and was not much inferior to

him in merit, and Polycletus of Argos, who lived 160 years later, and who

also executed many capital works, some of which are here mentioned. It

appears that Cicero, Vitruvius, Strabo, Quintilian, Plutarch, and Lucian

have also confounded these two artists; but Pausanias, who is very correct

in the account which he gives us of all subjects connected with works of

art, was aware of the distinction; and it is from his observations that we

have been enabled to correct the error into which so many eminent writers

had fallen.-B.

56. Derived from the head-dress of the statue, which had the "head ornamented

with a fillet" Lucian mentions it.

57. The "Spear-bearer."

58. "Canon." This no doubt was the same statue as the Doryphoros.

See Cicero, Brut. 86, 296.

59. Or "strigil." Visconti says that this was a statue of Tydeus purifying

himself from the murder of his brother. It is represented on gems

still in existence.

60. "Talo incessentem." "Gesner (Chrestom. Plin.) has strangely explained these words as intimating a person in the act of kicking another.

He seems to confound the words talus and calx."-Sillig, Dict. Ancient

Artists.

61. "The players at dice." This is the subject of a painting found at

Herculaneum.-B.

62. The "Leader." A name given also to Mercury, in Pausanias, B.

viii. c. 31. See Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists.

63. "Carried about." It has been supposed by some commentators,

that Artemon acquired this surname from his being carried about in a

litter, in consequence of his lameness; a very different derivation has been

assigned by others to the word, on the authority of Anacreon, as quoted

by Heraclides Ponticus, that it was applied to Artemon in consequence of

his excessively luxurious and effeminate habits of life.-B. It was evidently a recumbent figure. Ajasson compares this voluptuous person to

"le gentleman Anglais aux Indes"-"The English Gentleman in India!"

64. See Note 80 above.

65. "Quadrata." Brotero quotes a passage from Celsus, B. ii. c. 1,

which serves to explain the use of this term as applied to the form of a

statue; "Corpus autem habilissimum quadratum est, neque gracile, neque

obesum."-B. "The body best adapted for activity is square-built, and

neither slender nor obese."

66. "Ad unum exemplum." Having a sort of family likeness, similarly

to our pictures by Francia the Goldsmith, and Angelica Kaufmann.

67. Myron was born at Eleuther, in Botia; but having been presented

by the Athenians with the freedom of their city, he afterwards resided

there, and was always designated an Athenian.-B.

68. This figure is referred to by Ovid, De Ponto, B. iv. Ep. 1, l. 34, as

also by a host of Epigrammatic writers in the Greek Anthology.

69. See the Greek Anthology, B. vi. Ep. 2.

70. "Player with the Discus." It is mentioned by Quintilian and Lucian.

There is a copy of it in marble in the British Museum, and one in the

Palazzo Massimi at Rome. The Heifer of Myron is mentioned by Procopius,

as being at Rome in the sixth century. No copy of it is known to

exist.

71. Seen by Pausanias in the Acropolis at Athens.

72. Or "Sawyers."

73. In reference to the story of the Satyr Marsyas and Minerva; told by

Ovid, Fasti, B. vi. l. 697, et seq.

74. Persons engaged in the five contests of quoiting, running, leaping,

wrestling, and hurling the javelin.

75. Competitors in boxing and wrestling.

76. Mentioned by Cicero In Verrem, Or. 4. This Circus was in the

Eleventh Region of the city.

77. See the Anthology, B. iii. Ep. 14, where an epigram on this subject

is ascribed to Anytes or Leonides; but the Myro mentioned is a female.

See Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists.

78. She was a poetess of Teios or Lesbos, and a contemporary of Sappho.

79. "Multiplicasse veritatem." Sillig has commented at some length on

this passage, Dict. Ancient Artists.

80. See Note 2 above.

81. There is a painter of this name mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 43. The

reading is extremely doubtful.

82. Mentioned by Plato, De Legibus, B. viii. and by Pausanias, B. vi.

c. 13. He was thrice victorious at the Olympic Games.

83. Python.

84. From the Greek word Dikaio\s, "just," or "trustworthy."-B.

85. Diogenes Laertius mentions a Pythagoras, a statuary, in his life of

his celebrated namesake, the founder of the great school of philosophy.-B.

Pausanias, B. ix. c. 35, speaks of a Parian statuary of this name.

86. See Note 79 above.

87. See end of B. vii.

88. Cicero remarks, Brut. 86, 296, "that Lysippus used to say that the

Doryphoros of Polycletus was his master," implying that he considered

himself indebted for his skill to having studied the above-mentioned work

of Polycletus.-B.

89. In Chapter 17 of this Book.-B.

90. The same subject, which, as mentioned above, had been treated by

Polycletus.-B.

91. )Apocuomenos, the Greek name of the statue, signifying one "scraping

himself."

92. The head encircled with rays.

93. The lines of Horace are well known, in which he says, that Alexander

would allow his portrait to be painted by no one except Apelles, nor

his statue to be made by any one except Lysippus, Epist. B. ii. Ep. 1,

l. 237.-B.

94. This story is adopted by Apuleius, in the "Florida," B. i., who says

that Polycletus was the only artist who made a statue of Alexander.

95. This expression would seem to indicate that the gold was attached to the bronze by some mechanical process, and not that the statue was covered with thin leaves of the metal.-B.

96. In the Eighth Region of the City.

97. A large group of equestrian statues, representing those of Alexander's

body-guard, who had fallen at the battle of the Granicus.

98. A.U.C. 606.

99. See the Greek Anthology, B. iv. Ep. 14, where this subject is treated

of in the epigram upon his statue of Opportunity, represented with the

forelock.

100. Which is a word of Greek origin, somewhat similar to our word

"proportion."

101. At Lebada in Botia.

102. Hardouin seems to think that "fiscina" here means a "muzzle." The

Epigram in the Greek Anthology, B. iv. c. 7, attributed to King Philip, is

supposed by Hardouin to bear reference to this figure.

103. The circumstance here referred to is related by Q. Curtius, B. ix. c. 5, as having occurred at the siege of the city of the Oxydrac; according to

other historians, however, it is said to have taken place at a city of the

Malli.-B.

104. See Note 1, above.

105. Kata/gousa; a figure of Ceres, probably, "leading back" Proserpine

from the domains of Pluto. Sillig, however, dissents from this interpretation;

Dict. Ancient Artists.

106. Or Bacchus.

107. See Pausanias, B. i. c. 20. Sillig says, "Pliny seems to have confounded

two Satyrs made by Praxiteles, for that here named stood alone

in the 'Via Tripodum' at Athens, and was quite different from the one

which was associated with the figure of Intoxication, and that of Bacchus."

-Dict. Ancient Artists.

108. "Much-famed." Visconti is of opinion that the Reposing Satyr, formerly

in the Napoleon Museum at Paris, was a copy of this statue. Winckelmann

is also of the same opinion.

109. In the Second Region of the city. According to Cicero, in Verrem. vi.,

they were brought from Achaia by L. Mummius, who took them from

Thespi, A.U.C. 608.

110. See B. xxxvi. c. 4.

111. A woman plaiting garlands.

112. A soubriquet for an old hag, it is thought.

113. A female carrying wine.

114. According to Valerius Maximus, B. ii. s. 10, these statues were restored,

not by Alexander, but by his successor Seleucus.-B. Sillig makes

the following remark upon this passage-" Pliny here strangely confounds

the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, made by Praxiteles, with other

figures of those heroes of a much more ancient date, made by Antenor."

115. From sauro\s, a "lizard," and kte)lnw, "to kill." This statue is described

by Martial, B. xiv. Ep. 172, entitled "Sauroctonos Corinthius."-B.

Many fine copies of it are still in existence, and Winckelmann is of opinion

that the bronze at the Villa Albani is the original. There are others at

the Villa Borghese and in the Vatican.

116. In her worthless favours, probably. Praxiteles was a great admirer

of Phryne, and inscribed on the base of this statue an Epigram of Simonides,

preserved in the Greek Anthology, B. iv. Ep. 12. She was also said

to have been the model of his Cnidian Venus.

117. This artist is mentioned also by Cicero, Pausanias, Propertius, and

Ovid, the two latter especially remarking the excellence of his horses.-B.

See B. xxxiii. c. 55.

118. The mother of Hercules.-B.

119. See B. xxxvi. c. 4. Having now given an account of the artists

most distinguished for their genius, Pliny proceeds to make some remarks

upon those who were less famous, in alphabetical order.-B.

120. The "highly approved."

121. Or "Lioness." See B. vii. c. 23.

122. The reading is doubtful here. "Iphicrates" and "Tisicrates" are

other readings.

123. The same story is related by Athenus, B. xiii., and by Pausanias.-B.

124. Pisistratus and his sons, Hippias and Hipparchus.

125. A lioness.

126. She having bitten off her tongue, that she might not confess.

127. Hardouin has offered a plausible conjecture, that for the word "Seleucum,"

we should read "Salutem," as implying that the two statues executed

by Bryaxis were those of sculapius and the Goddess of Health.-B.

128. Already mentioned as a son of Lysippus.

129. In the Eighth Region of the City.

130. This reading appears preferable to "Cresilas," though the latter is

supported by the Bamberg MS.

131. Ajasson quotes here the beautiful words of Virgil-"Et dulces moriens

reminiscitur Argos"-"Remembers his lov'd Argos, as he dies."

132. Dalechamps supposes that Pericles was here represented in the act

of addressing the people; Hardouin conceives that this statue received

its title from the thunder of his eloquence in debate, or else from the

mighty power which he wielded both in peace and war, or some of the

other reasons which Plutarch mentions in the Life of Pericles.-B.

133. It is doubtful to which of the artists of this name he alludes, the

elder or the younger Cephisodotus, the son of Praxiteles. Sillig inclines

to think the former-Dict. Ancient Artists.

134. The "Deliverer."

135. The elder Canachus, probably.

136. The "Lovely." Brotero says that this is believed to be the Florentine

Apollo of the present day. It stood in the Temple at Didymi,

near Miletus, until the return of Xerxes from his expedition against Greece,

when it was removed to Ecbatana, but was afterwards restored by Seleucus

Nicator.

137. See B. v. c. 31.

138. "Alterno morsu calce digitisque retinentibus solum, ita vertebrato

dente utrisque in partibus ut a repulsu per vices resiliat." He seems to

mean that the statue is so made as to be capable of standing either on the

right fore foot and the left hind foot, or on the left fore foot and the right

hind foot, the conformation of the under part of the foot being such as to

fit into the base.

139. The following are the words of the original: "Ita vertebrato dente

utrisque in partibus." I confess myself unable to comprehend them, nor do

I think that they are satisfactorily explained by Hardouin's comment.-B.

140. The "Riders on horseback."

141. It is supposed by Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists, that this is the same

person as the Cresilas, Ctesilas, or Ctesilas, before mentioned in this Chapter,

and that Pliny himself has committed a mistake in the name.

142. A figure of a man "brandishing a spear." See Note 83 above.

143. He is mentioned by Quintilian as being more attentive to exactness

than to beauty; also by Diogenes Laertius, B. v. c. 85. Sillig supposes

that he flourished in the time of Pericles. Pausanias, B. i., speaks of his

Lysimache.

144. The Athenians in their flattery, as we learn from Seneca, expressed a

wish to affiance their Minerva Musica to Marc Antony. His reply was,

that he would be happy to take her, but with one thousand talents by way

of portion.

145. He is mentioned by Xenophon, according to whom, he dedicated the

brazen statue of a horse in the Eleusinium at Athens. He was probably

an Athenian by birth.

146. Son of Patroclus, who is previously mentioned as having lived in the

95th Olympiad. He was a native of Sicyon, and flourished about B.C. 400.

Several works of his are also mentioned by Pausanias.

147. Or "strigil." See Note 19 above.

148. The first Grecian slain at Troy.

149. Famous also as a painter. See B. xxxv. c. 40.-B. Paris, the son

of Priam, was known by both of these names.

150. Q. Lutatius Catulus.

151. "Bonus Eventus;" Varro, de Re Rustica, B. i. c. 1, applies this term

to one of the deities that preside over the labours of the agriculturist.

His temple was situate near the Baths of Agrippa.-B.

152. In the Eighth Region of the City.

153. See Note 78, page 171.

154. Pausanias, B. vi., speaks of a statue of Ancient Greece, but the name

of the artist is not mentioned.-B.

155. See B. iv. c. 8.

156. Brotero informs us, from Ficoroni, that there is a gem still in existence

on which this design of Eutychides is engraved.-B.

157. Thiersch considers him to be identical with the elder Hegesias. He

is mentioned also by Pausanias, B. viii. c. 42.

158. See Note 68, above.

159. Dedicated by Augustus on the Capitoline Hill, in the Eighth Region of

the City.

160. Sillig distinguishes three artists of this name.

161. See B. v. c. 40, and B. vii. c. 2.

162. The "Sacrificers of the ox."

163. The son also.

164. Martial expresses the same idea in his Epigram, B. i. Ep. 7; but he

does not refer to this statue.-B. Two copies of this Ganymede are still

in existence at Rome.

165. Pausanias informs us, B. i. and B. ix., that he saw this statue in the

Prytanum of Athens.-B. Autolycus obtained this victory about the

89th or 90th Olympiad.

166. It was in honour of a victory gained by him in the pentathlon at the

Great Panathena, that Callias gave the Symposium described by Xenophon.

167. Martial, B. ix. Ep. 51, where he is pointing at the analogy between

his poems and the works of the most eminent sculptors, probably refers to

this statue:-

"Nos facimus Bruti puerum, nos Lagona vivum."-B.

The reading "Lagonem," or "Langonem," certainly seems superior to

that of the Bamberg MS.-"Mangonem," a "huckster."

168. For some further mention of him, see end of B. iv.

169. Delafosse has pointed out the resemblance between this statue and one

of the works of Michael Angelo, representing David kneeling on Goliath,

and pressing back the giant's neck.-B.

170. A native of Argos, who flourished in the 95th Olympiad. He was the

son of Motho, and brother and instructor of the younger Polycletus of

Argos. Several of his statues are mentioned by Pausanias and Tatian.

171. Ajasson thinks that three statues in the Royal Museum at Paris

may possibly be copies of this Discobolus of Naucydes.

172. The Goddess of Health, and daughter of sculapius. Niceratus was

a native of Athens, and is also mentioned by Tatian.

173. A "Female sacrificing." The reading is very doubtful.

174. The "Man cooking entrails." For some further account of this

statue, see B. xxii. c. 20. This artist is unknown, but Thiersch suggests

that he may have been the father of Cleomenes, whose name appears on

the base of the Venus de Medicis.

175. The master of the Gymnasium.

176. He is twice mentioned by Pausanias: more particularly for the excellence of

his horses and oxen. His country is unknown.

177. "The beautiful-legged." This statue has been mentioned at the end

of Chapter 18, as having been greatly admired by Nero.

178. This, it is supposed, is the statue to which Martial alludes in his

Epigram, mentioned in Note 95 above.-B.

179. There were two artists of this name, both natives of Samos. The

present is the elder Theodorus, and is mentioned by Pausanias as having

been the first to fuse iron for statues. He is spoken of by numerous ancient

authors, and by Pliny in B. vii. c. 57, B. xxxv. c. 45, and B. xxxvi.

c. 19, where he is erroneously mentioned as a Lemnian.

180. At Crete: Athenagoras mentions him in conjunction with Ddalus.

181. See B. vii. c. 21. Hardouin thinks that this bears reference to the

conquest of the younger Marius by Sylla, mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. 5.

Mller and Meyer treat this story of the brazen statue as a fiction.

182. Probably the same author that is mentioned at the end of B. xxxiii.

See also B. xxxv. c. 36.

183. The Galli here spoken of were a tribe of the Celts, who invaded Asia

Minor, and afterwards uniting with the Greeks, settled in a portion of

Bithynia, which hence acquired the name of Gallo-Grcia or Galatia.-B.

184. See end of B. xxxiii. Attalus I., king of Pergamus, conquered the

Galli, B.C. 239. Pyromachus has been mentioned a few lines before, and

Stratonicus, in B. xxxiii. c. 55, also by Athenus.

185. A native of Carthage. A work of his is mentioned by Cicero, In

Verrem 4, 14, and in the Culex, 1. 66, attributed to Virgil. See also B.

xxxiii. c. 55.

186. In the Eighth Region of the City.

187. We are informed by Pausanias, B. x., that Nero carried off from

Greece 500 bronze statues of gods and men.-B.

188. See B. xxxvi. c. 24.

189. See B. xxxv. c. 55.

190. Mentioned by Pausanias, B. vi. Many of these artists are altogether

unknown.

191. See B. xxxiii. c. 55.

192. See B. xxxiii. c. 55.

193. See B. xxxiii. c. 56, and B. xxxv. c. 35.

194. Probably the same artist that has been mentioned in the preceding

page.

195. The artist already mentioned as having been represented by Silanion.

196. Pausanias, B. iii., speaks of his statue of Cynisca, a female who was

victor at the Olympic games. Indeed, the victors at these games were frequently

represented in a posture resembling that of adoration.

197. A man "scraping himself," probably. See Note 19, page 175. The

"Tyrannicides" were Harmodius and Aristogiton.

198. Tatian mentions an artist of this name.

199. Sillig thinks that this was Seleucus, king of Babylon, B.C. 312.

200. See Note 70 above

201. Pausanias, B. viii., gives an account of a statue of Diana, made of

Pentelican marble, by this Cephisodotus, a native of Athens; he is supposed

to have flourished in the 102nd Olympiad. In the commencement of this Chapter, Pliny has enumerated a Cephisodotus among the artists

of the 120th Olympiad.-B.

202. Bacchus.

203. The elder artist of this name. See B. xxxv. c. 34.

204. A native of Sicyon; Pausanias, B. v. cc. 17, 21, informs us that Cleon

made a statue of Venus and two statues of Jupiter; he also mentions others

of his works in B. vi.-B.

205. A native of Megara. He made a 'statue of Diagoras the pugilist,

who was victor at the Olympic games, B.C. 464. He is mentioned also by

Pausanias.

206. Probably the same with the "Lappus" mentioned in the early part

of this Chapter. Silling, Diet. Ancient Artists, considers "Dappus" to

be the right name.

207. See Note 26 above.

208. A native of Sicyon, and pupil of Pison, according to Pausanias, B. vi.

c. 3. He flourished about the 100th Olympiad.

209. Works of his at Athens are mentioned by Pausanias, B. i. c. 2, who

also states that he was father of Euohir, the Athenian.

210. A statuary of Syracuse, son of Niceratus. He made two statues of

Hiero Il., king of Syracuse, who died B.C. 215. He must not be confounded

with the painter and statuary of the same name, mentioned in

B. xxxiii. c. 56, and B. xxxv. c. 35. He is mentioned also by Pausanias.

211. An Athenian, son of Euctemon. He is mentioned also by Tatian, and

is supposed by Sillig to have flourished about B.C. 420.

212. Called Dinomache by Plutarch.

213. Already mentioned as a successful pupil of Lysippus.

214. He was probably a native of Agrigentum, and flourished about B.C.

560. The brazen bull of Perillus, and his unhappy fate, are recorded by

many of the classical writers, among others by Valerius Maximus, B. ix.

cc. 2, 9, and by Ovid, Art. Am. B. i. ll. 653-4.-B.

215. See B. vii. c. 57.

216. Mentioned at the commencement of this Chapter.

217. A statuary of gina, mentioned also by Pausanias, B. v. c. 27, in

connexion with Dionysius of Argos. He flourished about Olymp. 76.

218. Already mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. 55, and previously in this Chapter.

219. "Scopas uterque." Sillig, Diet. Ancient Artists, expresses an opinion

that these words are an interpolation; but in his last edition of

Pliny, he thinks with M. Ian, that some words are wanting, expressive of

the branch in which these artists excelled. See also B. xxxvi. cc. 5, 14.

220. He is previously mentioned in this Chapter. See p. 179.

221. An Athenian artist, son of Eubulides. He is also mentioned by

Pausanias.

222. A Lacedmonian artist, also mentioned by Pausanias.

223. See B. xxxvi. c. 4.

224. Mentioned also by Pausanias, B. i. c. 3.

225. Probably not the Athenian statuary mentioned by Pausanias, B. ix.

c. 7. See Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists.

226. A native of Phocis, mentioned also by Vitruvius.

227. Also a Dithyrambic poet; mentioned by Diodorus Siculus.

228. In B. xxxv. c. 36.

229. See B. xxxiii. c. 55.

230. Mentioned by Tatian as having made the statue of Eutychis. See

Pliny, B. vii. c. 3.

231. He executed a statue of Hephstion; and an inscription relative to

him is preserved by Wheler, Spon, and Chishull.

232. See B. xxxvi. c. 4.

233. A native of Sardis; mentioned by Pausanias.

234. An Athenian, mentioned also by Pausanias.

235. Strabo mentions some of his productions in the Temple at Ephesus.

236. "Fritterer away of his works." He was also an engraver on gold,

and a painter. He is spoken of in high terms by Vitruvius, Pausauias,

and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

237. We have an account of Cato's honourable conduct on this occasion in

Plutarch.-B. See also B. xxix. c. 30.

238. "Inane exemplum." Hardouin thinks that this is said in reference

to his neglect of the example set by his grandfather, Cato the Censor, who

hated the Greeks. See B. vii. c. 31.

239. In the poisoned garment, which was the eventual cause of his

death.-B.

240. The general who conducted the war against Mithridates.-B.




20. Chap. 20.-The Different Kinds Of Copper And Its Combinations. Pyropus. Campanian Copper.


CHAP. 20.-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COPPER AND ITS COMBINATIONS.

PYROPUS. CAMPANIAN COPPER.



We will now return to the different kinds of copper, and its

several combinations. In Cyprian copper we have the kind

known as "coronarium,"[1] and that called "regulare,"[2] both

of them ductile. The former is made into thin leaves, and,

after being coloured with ox-gall,[3] is used for what has all

the appearance of gilding on the coronets worn upon the stage.

The same substance, if mixed with gold, in the proportion of

six scruples of gold to the ounce, and reduced into thin plates,

acquires a fiery red colour, and is termed "pyropus."[4] In

other mines again, they prepare the kind known as "regulare,"

as also that which is called "caldarium."[5] These differ from

each other in this respect, that, in the latter, the metal is only

fused, and breaks when struck with the hammer, whereas the

"regulare" is malleable, or ductile,[6] as some call it, a property

which belongs naturally to all the copper of Cyprus. In the

case, however, of all the other mines, this difference between

bar copper and cast brass is produced by artificial means. All







the ores, in fact, will produce bar or malleable copper when

sufficiently melted and purified by heat. Among the other

kinds of copper, the palm of excellence is awarded to that of

Campania,[7] which is the most esteemed for vessels and utensils.

This last is prepared several ways. At Capua it is melted

upon fires made with wood, and not coals, after which it

is sprinkled with cold water and cleansed through a sieve

made of oak. After being thus smelted a number of times,

Spanish silver-lead is added to it, in the proportion of ten

pounds of lead to one hundred pounds of copper; a method

by which it is rendered pliable, and made to assume that agreeable

colour which is imparted to other kinds of copper by the

application of oil and the action of the sun. Many parts,

however, of Italy, and the provinces, produce a similar kind

of metal; but there they add only eight pounds of lead, and,

in consequence of the scarcity of wood, melt it several times

over upon coals. It is in Gaul more particularly, where the

ore is melted between red-hot stones, that the difference is to

be seen that is produced by these variations in the method of

smelting. Indeed, this last method scorches the metal, and

renders it black and friable. Besides, they only melt it twice;

whereas, the oftener this operation is repeated, the better in

quality it becomes.



(9.) It is also as well to remark that all copper fuses best

when the weather is intensely cold. The proper combination

for making statues and tablets is as follows: the ore is first

melted; after which there is added to the molten metal one

third part of second-hand[8] copper, or in other words, copper

that has been in use and bought up for the purpose. For it

is a peculiarity of this metal that when it has been some time

in use, and has been subject to long-continued friction, it becomes

seasoned, and subdued, as it were, to a high polish.

Twelve pounds and a half of silver-lead are then added to

every hundred pounds of the fused metal. There is also a

combination of copper, of a most delicate nature, "mould-copper,"[9]

as it is called; there being added to the metal one







tenth part of lead[10] and one twentieth of silver-lead, this

combination being the best adapted for taking the colour

known as "Grcanicus."[11] The last kind is that known as

"ollaria,"[12] from the vessels that are made of it: in this

combination three or four pounds of silver-lead[13] are added to

every hundred pounds of copper. By the addition of lead to

Cyprian copper, the purple tint is produced that we see upon

the drapery of statues.







1. See B. xxxiii. c. 46. "Chaplet" copper.

2. "Bar" copper, or "malleable."

3. It is very improbable that this effect could be produced by the cause

here assigned; but without a more detailed account of the process employed,

we cannot explain the change of colour.-B.

4. Purwpo\s, "sparkling like fire." Similar to, if not identical with,

our tinsel.

5. "Cast brass."

6. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415. Bohn's Edition.

7. In the former Editions the whole of the next ten lines, from this word

down to "sun" is omitted. It is evident that it has been left out by accident,

in consequence of the recurrence of the word "Campano." The

hiatus has been supplied from the Bamberg MS., and the reading is supported

by the text of Isidorus, Orig. B. xvi. c. 20, s. 9.

8. "Collectanei."

9. "Formalis."

10. "Piumbi nigri"-"black lead," literally, but not what we mean by

that name.

11. The "Grecian" colour. It does not appear to have been identified,

nor does it appear what it has to do with moulds.

12. "Pot" copper, or brass.

13. Beckmann is of opinion that this "plumbum argentarium" was a

mixture of equal parts of tin and lead. Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 220. Bohn's

Edition.





21. Chap. 21.-The Method Of Preserving Copper.


CHAP. 21.-THE METHOD OF PRESERVING COPPER.



Copper becomes covered with verdigris more quickly when

cleaned than when neglected, unless it is well rubbed with

oil. It is said that the best method of preserving it is

with a coating of tar. The custom of making use of copper

for monuments, which are intended to be perpetuated, is of

very ancient date: it is upon tablets of brass that our public

enactments are engraved.










22. Chap. 22. (10.)-Cadmia.


CHAP. 22. (10.)-CADMIA.



The ores of copper furnish a number of resources[1] that are

employed in medicine; indeed, all kinds of ulcers are healed

thereby with great rapidity. Of these, however, the most

useful is cadmia.[2] This substance is formed artificially,







beyond a doubt, in the furnaces, also, where they smelt silver,

but it is whiter and not so heavy, and by no means to be compared

with that from copper. There are several kinds of it. For,

as the mineral itself, from which it is prepared artificially, so

necessary in fusing copper ore, and so useful in medicine, has

the name of "cadmia,"[3] so also is it found in the smelting-furnaces,

where it receives other names, according to the way in

which it is formed. By the action of the flame and the blast,

the more attenuated parts of the metal are separated, and

become attached, in proportion to their lightness, to the

arched top and sides of the furnace. These flakes are the

thinnest near the exterior opening of the furnace, where the

flame finds a vent, the substance being called "capnitis;"[4]

from its burnt appearance and its extreme lightness it resembles

white ashes. The best is that which is found in the

interior, hanging from the arches of the chimney, and from its

form and position named "botryitis."[5] It is heavier than the

first-mentioned kind, but lighter than those which follow. It

is of two different colours: the least valuable is ash-coloured,

the better kind being red, friable, and extremely useful as a

remedy for affections of the eyes.



A third kind of cadmia is that found on the sides of the

furnace, and which, in consequence of its weight, could not

reach the arched vaults of the chimney. This species is

called "placitis,"[6] in reference to its solid appearance, it presenting

a plane surface more like a solid crust than pumice,

and mottled within. Its great use is, for the cure of itch-scab,

and for making wounds cicatrize. Of this last there

are two varieties, the "onychitis," which is almost entirely

blue on the exterior, and spotted like an onyx within;

and the "ostracitis,"[7] which is quite black and more dirty

than the others, but particularly useful for healing wounds.

All the species of cadmia are of the best quality from the

furnaces of Cyprus. When used in medicine it is heated a







second time upon a fire of pure charcoal, and when duly

incinerated, is quenched in Aminean[8] wine, if required for

making plasters, but in vinegar, if wanted for the cure of itch-scab.

Some persons first pound it, and then burn it in

earthen pots; which done, they wash it in mortars and then

dry it.



Nymphodorus[9] recommends that the most heavy and dense

pieces of mineral cadmia that can be procured, should be

burnt upon hot coals and quenched in Chian wine; after

which, it must be pounded and then sifted through a linen

cloth. It is then pulverized in a mortar and macerated in

rain water, the sediment being again pounded until it is

reduced to the consistency of ceruse, and presents no grittiness

to the teeth. Iollas[10] recommends the same process;

except that he selects the purest specimens of native cadmia.







1. Most of these preparations are in reality highly dangerous. Oxides,

however, or salts of copper, have been employed internally with success,

acting by alvine evacuation and by vomiting. The Crocus Veneris of the

old chemists was an oxide of copper. It is still used by the peasants of

Silesia, Ajasson says.

2. It is obvious that the "cadmia" here described must be an essentially

different substance from the "cadmia" mentioned in the second

Chapter of this Book, that being a natural production, possibly calamine

or hydrosilicate or carbonate of zinc; while the "cadmia" of this Chapter

is a furnace-calamine, a product of the fusion of the ore of copper, or

zinc.-B. It is evident, too, that copper ores, impregnated with zinc or calamine,

also passed under this name. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II.

pp. 3335, Bohn's Edition, where this subject is discussed at considerable

length: also the treatise by Delafosse, in Lemaire's Edition of Pliny.

3. The metal known to us as "cadmium" was discovered by Professor

Stromeyer in 1818: it is either associated in its ores with zinc, or forms a

native sulphuret.

4. "Smoky residue." None of these substances formed in smelting are

preserved for medicinal purposes at the present day. Tutty is an impure

oxide of zinc.

5. "Cluster residue." From its resemblance to a bunch of grapes.

6. "Caked residue."

7. "Shell-formed residue."

8. See B. xiv. c. 16.

9. See end of B. iii.

10. See end of B. xii.




23. Chap. 23.-Fifteen Remedies Derived From Cadmia. Ten Medicinal Effects Of Calcined Copper.


CHAP. 23.-FIFTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CADMIA. TEN

MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF CALCINED COPPER.



Cadmia[1] acts as a desiccative, heals wounds, arrests discharges,

acts detergently upon webs and foul incrustations of

the eyes, removes eruptions, and produces, in fact, all the good

effects which we shall have occasion to mention when speaking

of lead. Copper too, itself, when calcined, is employed for

all these purposes; in addition to which it is used for white

spots and cicatrizations upon the eyes. Mixed with milk, it

is curative also of ulcers upon the eyes; for which purpose,

the people in Egypt make a kind of eye-salve by grinding it

upon whet stones. Taken with honey, it acts as an emetic.

For these purposes, Cyprian copper is calcined in unbaked

earthen pots, with an equal quantity of sulphur; the apertures

of the vessel being well luted, and it being left in the furnace

until the vessel itself has become completely hardened. Some

persons add salt, and others substitute alum[2] for sulphur;

others, again, add nothing, but merely sprinkle the copper with

vinegar. When calcined, it is pounded in a mortar of Thebaic

stone,[3] after which it is washed with rain water, and then







pounded with a large quantity of water, and left to settle.

This process is repeated until the deposit has gained the

appearance of minium;[4] after which it is dried in the sun, and

put by for keeping in a box made of copper.







1. We have the same account of the medicinal effects of Cadmia, and

the other preparations mentioned in this Chapter, given by Dioscorides.-B.

2. For an account of the "alumen" of the ancients, see B. xxxv. c. 52.

3. See B. xxxiii. c. 21, and B. xxxvi. c. 13.

4. See B. xxxiii. c. 37.




24. Chap. 24. (11.)-The Scoria Of Copper.


CHAP. 24. (11.)-THE SCORIA OF COPPER.



The scoria, too, of copper is washed in the same manner; but

the action of it is less efficacious than that of copper itself.

The flower, too, of copper[1] is also used in medicine; a substance

which is procured by fusing copper, and then removing it into

another furnace, where the repeated action of the bellows

makes the metal separate into small scales, like the husks of

millet, and known as "flower of copper." These scales are

also separated, when the cakes of metal are plunged into

water: they become red, too, like the scales of copper known

as "lepis,"[2] by means of which the genuine flower of copper

is adulterated, it being also sold under that name. This last is

made by hammering nails that are forged from the cakes of

metal. All these processes are principally carried on in the

furnaces of Cyprus; the great difference between these substances

being, that this lepis is detached from the cakes by

hammering, whereas the flower falls off spontaneously.







1. "ris flos." Ajasson makes some correct remarks upon the difference

between the "scoria" and the "flower" of the metal. The former

may be considered as consisting of the metal, mixed with a certain proportion

of heterogeneous matter, which has been separated during the

fusion of the ore, while the latter consists of the pure metal in a state of

mechanical division.-B.

2. From the Greek lepi\s, "husk," or "scale,"




25. Chap. 25.-Stomoma Of Copper; Forty-Seven Remedies.


CHAP. 25.-STOMOMA OF COPPER; FORTY-SEVEN REMEDIES.



There is another finer kind of scale which is detached from

the surface of the metal, like a very fine down, and known

as "stomoma."[1] But of all these substances, and even of

their names, the physicians, if I may venture so to say, are

quite ignorant, as appears by the names they give them; so







unacquainted are they with the preparation of medicaments,

a thing that was formerly considered the most essential part

of their profession.[2] At the present day, whenever they

happen to find a book of recipes, if they wish to make any

composition from these substances, or, in other words, to make

trial of the prescription at the expense of their unhappy

patients, they trust entirely to the druggists,[3] who spoil

everything by their fraudulent adulterations. For this long

time past, they have even purchased their plasters and eye-salves

ready made, and the consequence is, that the spoiled or

adulterated wares in the druggists' shops are thus got rid of.



Both lepis and flower of copper are calcined in shallow

earthen or brazen pans; after which they are washed, as

described above,[4] and employed for the same purposes; in addition

to which, they are used for excrescences in the nostrils and

in the anus, as also for dullness of the hearing, being forcibly

blown into the ears through a tube. Incorporated with meal,

they are applied to swellings of the uvula, and, with honey, to

swellings of the tonsils. The scales prepared from white

copper are much less efficacious than those from Cyprian

copper. Sometimes they first macerate the nails and cakes of

copper in a boy's urine; and in some instances, they pound

the scales, when detached, and wash them in rain water.

They are then given to dropsical patients, in doses of two

drachm, with one semisextarius of honied wine: they are also

made into a liniment with fine flour.







1. Ajasson describes this substance as consisting merely of the pure metal

in a state of minute mechanical division; it would appear, therefore, to be

scarcely, if at all, different from the articles described in the last Chapter.

The word Sto/mwma means a "hard substance," or "hard scales," therefore

the application of this term to a substance like down, "lanugo," is

perhaps not very appropriate.-B.

2. Beckmann comments at some length on this passage; Vol. I. p. 328.

Bohn's Edition.

3. "Seplasi." The druggists dwelling in the Seplasia. See B. xxxiii.

c. 58.

4. In Chapters 22 and 23, as applied to Cadmia and Cyprian copper, respectively.-B.




26. Chap. 26.-Verdigris; Eighteen Remedies.


CHAP. 26.-VERDIGRIS; EIGHTEEN REMEDIES.



Verdigris[1] is also applied to many purposes, and is prepared







in numerous ways. Sometimes it is detached already formed,

from the mineral from which copper is smelted: and sometimes

it is made by piercing holes in white copper, and suspending

it over strong vinegar in casks, which are closed with

covers; it being much superior if scales of copper are used for

the purpose. Some persons plunge vessels themselves, made

of white copper, into earthen pots filled with vinegar, and

scrape them at the end of ten days. Others, again, cover the

vessels with husks of grapes,[2] and scrape them in the same

way, at the end of ten days. Others sprinkle vinegar upon

copper filings, and stir them frequently with a spatula in the

course of the day, until they are completely dissolved. Others

prefer triturating these filings with vinegar in a brazen

mortar: but the most expeditious method of all is to add to

the vinegar shavings of coronet copper.[3] Rhodian verdigris,

more particularly, is adulterated with pounded marble; some

persons use pumice-stone or gum.



The adulteration, however, which is the most difficult to

detect, is made with copperas;[4] the other sophistications

being detected by the crackling of the substance when bitten

with the teeth. The best mode of testing it is by using an

iron fire-shovel; for when thus subjected to the fire, if pure,

the verdigris retains its colour, but if mixed with copperas, it

becomes red. The fraud may also be detected by using a leaf

of papyrus, which has been steeped in an infusion of nut-galls;

for it becomes black immediately upon the genuine verdigris

being applied. It may also be detected by the eye; the green

colour being unpleasant to the sight. But whether it is pure

or adulterated, the best method is first to wash and dry it, and

then to burn it in a new earthen vessel, turning it over until

it is reduced to an ash;[5] after which it is pounded and put by

for use. Some persons calcine it in raw earthen vessels, until

the earthenware becomes thoroughly baked: others again add

to it male frankincense.[6] Verdigris is washed, too, in the same

manner as cadmia.







It affords a most useful ingredient for eye-salves, and from

its mordent action is highly beneficial for watery humours of

the eyes. It is necessary, however, to wash the part with

warm water, applied with a fine sponge, until its mordency

is no longer felt.







1. "rugo." The researches of modern chemists have ascertained the

composition of verdigris to be a diacetete of copper; the sesquibasic

acetate and the triacetate are also to be considered as varieties of this

substance; we have an exact analysis of these salts in the "Elements" of

the late Dr. Turner, the Sixth Edition, edited by Professor Liebig and Mr.

W. Turner, pp. 931, 2. Most of the processes described in this Chapter

are mentioned by Dioscorides.-B. See also Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I.

p. 171, et seq., Bohn's Edition.

2. According to Brotero, this is the process generally adopted in France,

in preference to the employment of vinegar in a pure state.-B.

3. The form of copper which was termed "coronarium" has been already

described in Chapter 22.-B.

4. "Atramento sutorio." "Shoemakers' black." See Chapters 27 and

32 of this Book.

5. Until it assumes an ashy colour, Dioscorides says.-B.

6. See B. xii. cc. 30, 32.




27. Chap. 27.-Hieracium.


CHAP. 27.-HIERACIUM.



"Hieracium"[1] is the name given to an eye-salve, which is

essentially composed of the following ingredients; four ounces

of sal ammoniac, two of Cyprian verdigris, the same quantity

of the kind of copperas which is called "chalcanthum,"[2] one

ounce of misy[3] and six of saffron; all these substances being

pounded together with Thasian vinegar and made up into

pills. It is an excellent remedy for incipient glaucoma and

cataract, as also for films upon the eyes, eruptions, albugo,

and diseases of the eye-lids. Verdigris, in a crude state, is

also used as an ingredient in plasters for wounds. In combination

with oil, it is wonderfully efficacious for ulcerations

of the mouth and gums, and for sore lips. Used in the form

of a cerate, it acts detergently upon ulcers, and promotes their

cicatrization. Verdigris also consumes the callosities of fistulas

and excrescences about the anus, either used by itself,

applied with sal ammoniac, or inserted in the fistula in the

form of a salve. The same substance, kneaded with one third

part of resin of turpentine, removes leprosy.







1. According to Celsus, this substance obtained its name from the person

who invented or compounded it; he calls it "Collyrium of Hierax."-B.

2. "Atramenti sutorii, quod chalcanthum vocant." We may presume that

this substance was somewhat different from the "atramentum sutorium"

mentioned in the last Chapter: the word "chalcanthum" means "flower of

copper;" xalkou= a)/nqos.-B. Delafosse identifies it with blue vitriol,

sulphate, or hydro-trisulphate of copper. See Chapter 32.

3. See Chapter 31.




28. Chap. 28. (12.)-Scolex Of Copper; Eighteen Remedies.


CHAP. 28. (12.)-SCOLEX OF COPPER; EIGHTEEN REMEDIES.



There is another kind of verdigris also, which is called

"scolex."[1] It is prepared by triturating in a mortar of







Cyprian copper, alum and salt, or an equal quantity of nitre,

with the very strongest white vinegar. This preparation is

only made during the hottest days of the year, about the

rising of the Dog-star. The whole is triturated until it becomes

green, and assumes the appearance of small worms, to

which it owes its name. This repulsive form is corrected by

mixing the urine of a young child, with twice the quantity of

vinegar. Scolex is used for the same medicinal purposes as

santerna, which we have described as being used for soldering

gold,[2] and they have, both of them, the same properties as

verdigris. Native scolex is also procured by scraping the

copper ore of which we are about to speak.







1. From the Greek skwlh\c, "a worm," "Vermicular Verdigris."-

"The accounts of this substance in ancient authors seem to some commentators

to be obscure; but in my opinion we are to understand by them

that the ingredients were pounded together till the paste they formed assumed

the appearance of pieces or threads like worms. For the same

reason the Italians give the name of vermicelli to wire-drawn paste of flour used in cookery."-Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 173, Bohn's

Edition.


2. In B. xxxiii. c. 29-B.




33. Chap. 33. (13.)-Pompholyx.


CHAP. 33. (13.)-POMPHOLYX.



The substances called pompholyx[1] and spodos[2] are also

found in the furnaces of copper-smelting works; the difference

between them being, that pompholyx is disengaged by washing,

while spodos is not washed. Some persons have called the

part which is white and very light "pompholyx," and say that

it is the ashes of copper and cadmia; whereas spodos is darker

and heavier, being a substance scraped from the walls of the

furnace, mixed with extinguished sparks from the metal, and

sometimes with the residue of coals. When vinegar is combined

with it, pompholyx emits a coppery smell, and if it is touched

with the tongue, the taste is most abominable. It is useful as

an ingredient in ophthalmic preparations for all diseases of the

eyes, as also for all the purposes for which spodos is used;

this last only differing from it in its action being less powerful.

It is also used for plasters, when required to be gently

cooling and desiccative. For all these purposes it is more

efficacious when it has been moistened with wine







1. It is difficult to ascertain the exact nature of the substances treated

of in this Chapter. Ajasson has some judicious remarks upon them, in

which he points out what appear to be inconsistencies in the account given

of them, and of their relation to each other.-B. Ajasson says that there

is no doubt that a mammose or terreous carbonate of copper is meant

under these names. These substances are no longer known, but our tutty,

or impure oxide of zinc, bears some resemblance to them.

2. See B. xix. c. 4, and Chapters 34 and 52 of this Book.




34. Chap. 34.-Spodos; Five Remedies.


CHAP. 34.-SPODOS; FIVE REMEDIES.



The Cyprian spodos[1] is the best. It is formed by fusing







cadmia with copper ore. This substance, which is the lightest

part of the metal disengaged by fusion, escapes from the furnace,

and adheres to the roof, being distinguished from the

soot by the whiteness of its colour. Such parts of it as are

less white are indicative of incomplete combustion, and it is this

which some persons call "pompholyx." Such portions of it as

are of a more reddish colour are possessed of a more energetic

power, and are found to be so corrosive, that if it touches

the eyes, while being washed, it will cause blindness. There

is also a spodos of a honey colour, an indication that it contains

a large proportion of copper. All the different kinds,

however, are improved by washing; it being first skimmed with

a feather,[2] and afterwards submitted to a more substantial

washing, the harder grains being removed with the finger. That,

too, which has been washed with wine is more modified in its

effects; there being also some difference according to the kind of

wine that is used. When it has been washed with weak wine

the spodos is considered not so beneficial as an ingredient in

medicaments for the eyes; but the same kind of preparation is

more efficacious for running sores, and for ulcers of the mouth

attended with a discharge of matter, as well as in all those

remedies which are used for gangrene.



There is also a kind of spodos, called "lauriotis,"[3] which

is made in the furnaces where silver is smelted. The kind,

however, that is best for the eyes, it is said, is that produced in

the furnaces for smelting gold. Indeed there is no department

of art in which the ingenuity of man is more to be admired;

for it has discovered among the very commonest objects, a

substance that is in every way possessed of similar properties.







1. A Greek word, signifying "ashes," or the residuum after combustion.-B.

2. From the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, there is some doubt

whether the account of this process here given is correct.-B.

3. So called from Laurium, a district in Attica, in which there were silver

mines. See Pausanias, B. i.-B.




35. Chap. 35.-Fifteen Varieties Of Antispodos.


CHAP. 35.-FIFTEEN VARIETIES OF ANTISPODOS.



The substance called "antispodos"[1] is produced from the

ashes of the fig-tree or wild fig, or of leaves of myrtle, together

with the more tender shoots of the branches. The

leaves, too, of the wild olive[2] furnish it, the cultivated olive,

the quince-tree, and the lentisk; unripe mulberries also, before







they have changed their colour, dried in the sun; and the

foliage of the box, pseudo-cypirus,[3] bramble, terebinth and

nanthe.[4] The same virtues have also been found in the ashes

of bull-glue[5] and of linen cloth. All these substances are

burnt in a pot of raw earth, which is heated in a furnace,

until the earthenware is thoroughly baked.







1. Meaning "Substitute for spodos."

2. See B. xxiii. cc. 38, 63.

3. See B. xxi. c. 26, and B. xvi. c. 20.

4. See B. xxi. c. 95.

5. See B. xi. c. 94.-B.




36. Chap. 36.-Smegma.


CHAP. 36.-SMEGMA.



In the copper forges also smegma[1] is prepared. When the

metal is liquefied and thoroughly smelted, charcoal is added

to it and gradually kindled; after which, upon it being suddenly

acted upon by a powerful pair of bellows, a substance is

disengaged like a sort of copper chaff. The floor on which

it is received ought to be prepared with a stratum of coal-dust.







1. " Detersive composition."




37. Chap. 37.-Diphryx.


CHAP. 37.-DIPHRYX.



There is another product of these furnaces, which is easily

distinguished from smegma, and which the Greeks call "diphryx,"[1]

from its being twice calcined. This substance is prepared

from three different sources. It is prepared, they say,

from a mineral pyrites, which is heated in the furnace until

it is converted by calcination into a red earth. It is also

made in Cyprus, from a slimy substance extracted from a certain

cavern there, which is first dried and then gradually heated,

by a fire made of twigs. A third way of making it, is from

the residue in the copper-furnaces that falls to the bottom.

The difference between the component parts of the ore is this;

the copper itself runs into the receivers, the scori make their

escape from the furnace, the flower becomes sublimated, and

the diphryx remains behind.



Some say that there are certain globules in the ore, while

being smelted, which become soldered together; and that the

rest of the metal is fused around it, the mass itself not becoming

liquefied, unless it is transferred to another furnace, and forming

a sort of knot, as it were, in the metal. That which remains

after the fusion, they say, is called "diphryx." Its use in medicine

is similar to that of the substances mentioned above;[2] it







is desiccative, removes morbid excrescenses, and acts as a detergent.

It is tested by placing it on the tongue, which ought to

be instantly parched by it, a coppery flavour being perceptible.







1. From Di\s fruge/sqai.-" being twice calcined."-B.

2. The Scori, Cadmia, and Flos, which are described in Chapters 22,

23 and 24.-B.




38. Chap. 38.-Particulars Relative To The Servilian Triens.


CHAP. 38.-PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO THE SERVILIAN TRIENS.



We must not neglect to mention one other very remarkable

fact relative to copper. The Servilian family, so illustrious in

our annals, nourishes with gold and silver a copper triens,[1]

which devours them both. The origin and nature of this coin is

to me incomprehensible;[2] but I will quote the very words of

the story, as given by old Messala[3] himself-"The family of

the Servilii is in possession of a sacred triens, to which they

offer every year a sacrifice, with the greatest care and magnificence;

the triens itself, they say, appears sometimes to increase

in size and sometimes to diminish; changes which indicate the

coming advancement or decadence of the family."







1. A Roman coin, equal to the third part of the "as."-B.

2. We most fully coincide with Pliny in this sentiment, but we are

constrained to differ from him in giving credit to the alleged fact, as he

appears to have done.-B.

3. See the list of authors at the end of this Book.




39. Chap. 39. (14).-Iron Ores.


CHAP. 39. (14).-IRON ORES.



Next to copper we must give an account of the metal known

as iron, at the same time the most useful and the most fatal

instrument in the hand of mankind. For by the aid of iron

we lay open the ground, we plant trees, we prepare our vineyard-trees,[1]

and we force our vines each year to resume their

youthful state, by cutting away their decayed branches. It is

by the aid of iron that we construct houses, cleave rocks, and

perform so many other useful offices of life. But it is with

iron also that wars, murders, and robberies are effected, and

this, not only hand to hand, but from a distance even, by the

aid of missiles and winged weapons, now launched from engines,

now hurled by the human arm, and now furnished with

feathery wings. This last I regard as the most criminal

artifice that has been devised by the human mind; for, as

if to bring death upon man with still greater rapidity, we

have given wings to iron and taught it to fly.[2] Let us there-







fore acquit Nature of a charge that here belongs to man himself.[3]



Indeed there have been some instances in which it has been

proved that iron might be solely used for innocent purposes.

In the treaty which Porsena granted to the Roman people, after

the expulsion of the kings, we find it expressly stipulated, that

iron shall be only employed for the cultivation of the fields;

and our oldest authors inform us, that in those days it was

considered unsafe to write with an iron pen.[4] There is an edict

extant, published in the third consulship of Pompeius Magnus,

during the tumults that ensued upon the death of Clodius,

prohibiting any weapon from being retained in the City.







1. " Arbusta:" trees on which vines were trained. See B. xvii. c. 35.

2. Holland has the following Note upon this passage: "O Pliny, what

wouldst thou say, if thou didst see and hear the pistols, muskets, culverines,

and cannons in these days." Vol. II. p. 513.-B.

3. The charge that death is always the work of Nature.-B.

4. Or "stylus."




40. Chap. 40.-Statues Of Iron; Chased Works In Iron.


CHAP. 40.-STATUES OF IRON; CHASED WORKS IN IRON.



Still, however, human industry has not failed to employ iron

for perpetuating the honours of more civilized life. The

artist Aristonidas, wishing to express the fury of Athamas

subsiding into repentance, after he had thrown his son Learchus

from the rock,[1] blended copper and iron, in order that the

blush of shame might be more exactly expressed, by the rust of

the iron making its appearance through the shining substance of

the copper; a statue which still exists at Rhodes. There is also,

in the same city, a Hercules of iron, executed by Alcon,[2] the

endurance displayed in his labours by the god having suggested

the idea. We see too, at Rome, cups of iron consecrated in

the Temple of Mars the Avenger,[3] Nature, in conformity

with her usual benevolence, has limited the power of iron, by

inflicting upon it the punishment of rust; and has thus displayed

her usual foresight in rendering nothing in existence

more perishable, than the substance which brings the greatest

dangers upon perishable mortality.







1. See Ovid, Metam. B. iv. 1. 467, et seq.; and

Fasti, B. vi. 1. 489, et seq.-B.

2. An artist mentioned also by Ovid

and Pausanias.-B. And by Virgil.

3. " Mars Ultor." In the Forum of Augustus, in the Eighth Region of

the City.




41. Chap. 41.-The Different Kinds Of Iron, And The Mode Of Tempering It.


CHAP. 41.-THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF IRON, AND THE MODE OF

TEMPERING IT.



Iron ores are to be found almost everywhere; for they exist







even in the Italian island of Ilva,[1] being easily distinguished

by the ferruginous colour of the earth. The method of working

the ore is the same as that employed in the case of copper. In

Cappadocia, however, it is peculiarly questionable whether this

metal is a present due to the water or to the earth; because,

when the latter has been saturated with the water of a certain

river, it yields, and then only, an iron that may be obtained

by smelting.



There are numerous varieties of iron ore; the chief causes

of which arise from differences in the soil and in the climate.

Some earths produce a metal that is soft, and nearly akin to

lead; others an iron that is brittle and coppery, the use of which

must be particularly avoided in making wheels or nails, the

former kind being better for these purposes. There is another

kind, again, which is only esteemed when cut into short lengths,

and is used for making hobnails;[2] and another which is

more particularly liable to rust. All these varieties are known

by the name of "strictura,"[3] an appellation which is not used

with reference to the other metals, and is derived from the steel

that is used for giving an edge.[4] There is a great difference,







too, in the smelting; some kinds producing knurrs of metal,

which are especially adapted for hardening into steel, or else,

prepared in another manner, for making thick anvils or heads

of hammers. But the main difference results from the quality of

the water into which the red-hot metal is plunged from time to

time. The water, which is in some places better for this purpose

than in others, has quite ennobled some localities for the

excellence of their iron, Bilbilis,[5] for example, and Turiasso[6]

in Spain, and Comum[7] in Italy; and this, although there are

no iron mines in these spots.



But of all the different kinds of iron, the palm of excellence

is awarded to that which is made by the Seres,[8]who send it to

us with their tissues and skins;[9] next to which, in quality, is

the Parthian[10] iron. Indeed, none of the other kinds of iron are

made of the pure hard metal, a softer alloy being welded with

them all. In our part of the world, a vein of ore is occasionally

found to yield a metal of this high quality, as in Noricum[11] for

instance; but, in other cases, it derives its value from the

mode of working it, as at Sulmo,[12] for example, a result owing

to the nature of its water, as already stated. It is to be observed

also, that in giving an edge to iron, there is a great difference

between oil-whetstones and water-whetstones,[13] the use

of oil producing a much finer edge. It is a remarkable fact,

that when the ore is fused, the metal becomes liquefied like







water, and afterwards acquires a spongy, brittle texture. It is

the practice to quench smaller articles made of iron with oil,

lest by being hardened in water they should be rendered brittle.

Human blood revenges itself upon iron; for if the metal has been

once touched by this blood it is much more apt to become rusty.







1. The Isle of Elba, which has been celebrated for the extent and the

richness of its iron mines both by the ancients and the moderns.-B.

Ajasson remarks that it appears to be a solid rock composed of peroxide

of iron.

2. " Clavis caligariis." See B. viii. c. 44, B. ix. c. 33, and B. xxii. c. 46.

3. There have been numerous opinions on the meaning of this word,

and its signification is very doubtful. Beckmann has the following remarks

in reference to this passage:-"In my opinion, this was the name

given to pieces of steel completely manufactured and brought to that state

which rendered them fit for commerce. At present steel comes from

Biscay in cakes, from other places in bars, and both these were formerly

called 'strictur,' because they were employed chiefly for giving sharpness

to instruments, or tools, that is, for steeling them. In speaking of other

metals, Pliny says that the finished productions at the works were not called

'strictur' (the case, for example, with copper), though sharpness could

be given to instruments with other metals also. The words of Pliny just

quoted are read different ways, and still remain obscure. I conjecture

that he meant to say, that some steel-works produced things which were

entirely of steel, and that others were employed only in steeling-'ad

densandas incudes malleorumve rostra.' I shall here remark that these

'strictur ferri' remind us of the ' striges auri,' (see B. xxxiii. c. 19),

such being the name given to native pieces of gold, which, without being

smelted, were used in commerce."-Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 327. Bohn's Edition.

4. " A stringenda acie." The iron was probably formed into thin, long bars, in thickness resembling a steel used for sharpening. The

French word acier, meaning "steel," may possibly come from the Latin

" acies"-" edge," as Beckmann has suggested.

5. Situate at the spot now known as "Bambola," near Calatayud. The

river Salo ran near it, the waters of which, as here mentioned, were celebrated

for their power of tempering steel. The poet Martial was a native

of this place.

6. Supposed to be the modern Tarragona.

7. See B. iii. c. 21.

8. See B. vi. cc. 20-24, B. vii. c. 2, and B. xii. cc. 1, 41. This Seric iron

has not been identified. Ctesias, as quoted by Photius, mentions Indian

iron. See Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 228. Bohn's Edition.

9. Thought by Beckmann, quoting from Bottiger, possibly to bear reference

to a transfer trade of furs, through Serica, from the North of Asia.

See Vol. II. p. 307. As to the Seric tisssues, see B. xxxvii. c. 77.

10. Or "Persian." The steel of Damascus had in the middle ages a

high reputation.

11. See B. iii. cc. 24, 27. Horace speaks of the "Norican sword" on

two occasions.-B.

12. See B. iii. cc. 9, 17.

13. See B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xxxvi. c. 38.




42. Chap. 42.-The Metal Called Live Iron.


CHAP. 42.-THE METAL CALLED LIVE IRON.



We shall speak of the loadstone in its proper place,[1] and of

the sympathy which it has with iron. This is the only metal

that acquires the properties of that stone, retaining them for a

length of time, and attracting other iron, so that we may sometimes

see a whole chain formed of these rings. The lower

classes, in their ignorance, call this "live iron," and the wounds

that are made by it are much more severe. This mineral is

also found in Cantabria, not in continuous strata, like the

genuine loadstone, but in scattered fragments, which they call

"bullationes."[2] I do not know whether this species of ore is

proper also for the fusion of glass,[3] as no one has hitherto tried

it; but it certainly imparts the same property as the magnet

to iron. The architect Timochares[4] began to erect a vaulted roof

of loadstone, in the Temple of Arsino,[5] at Alexandria, in order

that the iron statue of that princess might have the appearance

of hanging suspended in the air:[6] his death, however,

and that of King Ptolemus, who had ordered this monument

to be erected in honour of his sister, prevented the completion

of the project.







1. B. xxxvi. c. 25.

2. Properly "bubbles," or "beads."

3. See B. xxxvi. c. 66. In the account of the loadstone referred to

above, he informs us that this mineral was employed in the formation of

glass.-B. Beckmann is of opinion that Manganese is here alluded to.

See Vol. II. p. 237.

4. Another reading is "Dinochares," or "Dinocrates," for an account of

whom, see B. v. c. 11, and B. vii. c. 38.

5. Wife and sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus. See B. vi. c. 33, and

B. xxxvi. c. 14.

6. Some accounts state that the statue was to be of brass, and the head

of iron. It is said that the same thing was attempted with respect to the

statue of Mahomet, in his tomb at Medina.-B.




43. Chap. 43. (15.)-Methods Of Preventing Rust.


CHAP. 43. (15.)-METHODS OF PREVENTING RUST.



Of all metals, the ores of iron are found in the greatest

abundance. In the maritime parts of Cantabria[1] which are







washed by the Ocean, there is a steep and lofty mountain,

which, however incredible it may appear, is entirely composed

of this metal, as already stated in our description of the parts

bordering upon the Ocean[2]



Iron which has been acted upon by fire is spoiled, unless it

is forged with the hammer. It is not in a fit state for being

hammered when it is red-hot, nor, indeed, until it has begun to

assume a white heat. By sprinkling vinegar or alum upon it,

it acquires the appearance of copper. It is protected from

rust by an application of ceruse, gypsum, and tar; a property

of iron known by the Greeks as "antipathia."[3] Some pretend,

too, that this may be ensured by the performance of certain

religious ceremonies, and that there is in existence at the

city of Zeugma,[4] upon the Euphrates, an iron chain, by means

of which Alexander the Great constructed a bridge across the

river; the links of which that have been replaced are attacked

with rust, while the original links are totally exempt

from it.[5]







1. We learn from Bowles that the celebrated mine of Sommorostro is

still worked for this metal.

2. See B. iv. c. 34.-B.

3. Both the reading and the meaning of this passage are very doubtful.

4. See B. v. c. 21.-B.

5. We may presume that Pliny supposed that the ancient links had

been protected by some of the substances mentioned above, although this

is not distinctly stated.-B. Or rather by some religious ceremony as

above alluded to.




44. Chap. 44.-Seven Remedies Derived From Iron.


CHAP. 44.-SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IRON.



Iron is employed in medicine for other purposes besides that

of making incisions. For if a circle is traced with iron, or a

pointed weapon is carried three times round them, it will preserve

both infant and adult from all noxious influences: if

nails, too, that have been extracted from a tomb, are driven

into the threshold of a door, they will prevent night-mare.[1]

A slight puncture with the point of a weapon, with which a

man has been wounded, will relieve sudden pains, attended

with stitches in the sides or chest. Some affections are cured

by cauterization with red-hot iron, the bite of the mad dog

more particularly; for even if the malady has been fully developed,

and hydrophobia has made its appearance, the patient

is instantly relieved on the wound being cauterized.[2] Water







in which iron has been plunged at a white heat, is useful, as

a potion, in many diseases, dysentery[3] more particularly.







1. "Nocturnas lymphationes."-B.

2. The actual cautery, as it is termed, is occasionally employed, in certain

diseases, by the moderns, but I am not aware that it has been tried in

hydrophobia.-B. This precaution is sometimes used by country practitioners,

at all events.

3. I cannot agree with Delafosse in his remark that "this remedy also

is much in use for cliac and other affections at the present day."-B. It

is still recommended by old women in the country, for children more particularly.




45. Chap. 45.-Fourteen Remedies Derived From Rust.


CHAP. 45.-FOURTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM RUST.



Rust itself, too, is classed among the remedial substances;

for it was by means of it that Achilles cured Telephus, it is

said, whether it was an iron weapon or a brazen one that he

used for the purpose. So it is, however, that he is represented

in paintings detaching the rust with his sword.[1] The rust of

iron is usually obtained for these purposes by scraping old nails

with a piece of moistened iron. It has the effect of uniting

wounds, and is possessed of certain desiccative and astringent

properties. Applied in the form of a liniment, it is curative of

alopecy. Mixed with wax and myrtle-oil, it is applied to granulations

of the eyelids, and pustules in all parts of the body,

with vinegar it is used for the cure of erysipelas; and, applied

with lint, it is curative of itch, whitlows on the fingers, and

hang-nails. Used as a pessary with wool, it arrests female

discharges. Diluted in wine, and kneaded with myrrh, it is

applied to recent wounds, and, with vinegar, to condylomatous6

swellings. Employed in the form of a liniment, it alleviates

gout.[2]







1. There are two versions of this story. In B. xxv. c. 19, Pliny says

that Achilles cured Telephus by the application of a plant, which from

him received its name. According to the other account, the oracle had

declared, that the wound of Telephus, which had been inflicted by

Achilles, could only be cured by means of the same weapon which had

caused it.-B.

2. All the statements in this Chapter are to be found in Dioscorides,

B. v. c. 93.-B.




46. Chap. 46.-Seventeen Remedies Derived From The Scales Of Iron. Hygremplastrum.


CHAP. 46.-SEVENTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SCALES OF IRON. HYGREMPLASTRUM.



The scales of iron,[1] which are procured from a fine point or

a sharp edge, are also made use of, being very similar in effect

to rust, but more active; for which reason they are employed

for defluxions of the eyes. They arrest bleeding, also, more







particularly from wounds inflicted with iron; and they act as

a check upon female discharges. They are applied, too, for

diseases of the spleen, and they arrest hmorrhoidal swellings

and serpiginous ulcers. They are useful also for affections of

the eyelids, gradually applied in the form of a fine powder.

But their chief recommendation is, their great utility in the

form of a hygremplastrum[2] or wet plaster, for cleansing

wounds and fistulous sores, consuming all kinds of callosities,

and making new flesh on bones that are denuded. The following

are the ingredients: of pitch, six oboli, of Cimolian chalk,[3]

six drachm, two drachm of pounded copper, the same quantity

of scales of iron, six drachm of wax, and one sextarius of oil.

To these is added some cerate, when it is wanted to cleanse

or fill up wounds.







1. The scaly excrescences beaten from iron in the forges, Hardouin says.-B.

2. From the Greek u(/gron plastro\n.-B.

3. See B. xxxv. c. 57.-B.




47. Chap. 47. (16.)-The Ores Of Lead.


CHAP. 47. (16.)-THE ORES OF LEAD.



The nature of lead next comes to be considered. There

are two kinds of it, the black and the white.[1] The white is

the most valuable: it was called by the Greeks "cassiteros,"[2]

and there is a fabulous story told of their going in quest of

it to the islands of the Atlantic, and of its being brought in

barks made of osiers, covered with hides.[3] It is now known

that it is a production of Lusitania and Gallcia.[4] It is a

sand found on the surface of the earth, and of a black colour,

and is only to be detected by its weight. It is mingled with

small pebbles, particularly in the dried beds of rivers. The

miners wash this sand, and calcine the deposit in the furnace.

It is also found in the gold mines that are known as "aluti,"[5]







the stream of water which is passed through them detaching

certain black pebbles, mottled with small white spots and of

the same weight[6] as gold. Hence it is that they remain with

the gold in the baskets in which it is collected; and being

separated in the furnace, are then melted, and become converted

into white lead.[7]



Black lead is not procured in Gallcia, although it is so

greatly abundant in the neighbouring province of Cantabria;

nor is silver procured from white lead, although it is from

black.[8] Pieces of black lead cannot be soldered without the

intervention of white lead, nor can this be done without employing

oil;[9] nor can white lead, on the other hand, be united

without the aid of black lead. White lead was held in estimation

in the days even of the Trojan War, a fact that is attested

by Homer, who calls it "cassiteros."[10] There are two

different sources of black lead: it being procured either from

its own native ore, where it is produced without the intermixture

of any other substance, or else from an ore which contains

it in common with silver, the two metals being fused together.

The metal which first becomes liquid in the furnace,

is called "stannum;"[11] the next that melts is silver; and the

metal that remains behind is galena,[12] the third constituent

part of the mineral. On this last being again submitted to

fusion black lead is produced, with a deduction of two-ninths.











1. It is most probable that the "black lead" of Pliny was our lead, and

the "white lead" our tin. Beckmann has considered these Chapters at

great length, Vol. II. p. 209, et seq. Bohn's Edition.

2. Supposed to have been derived from the Oriental word Kastra.

3. What is here adduced as a fabulous narrative is not very remote

from the truth; the Scilly Isles and Cornwall being the principal sources

of the tin now employed in Europe. Small boats, corresponding to the

description here given, were very lately still in use among the inhabitants

of some parts of the south-west coast of England [and on the Severn].

Pliny has already spoken of these boats in B. vii. c. 57.-B. See also B. iv.

c. 30, as to the coracles of the ancient Britons.

4. The ores of tin are known to exist in Gallicia; but the mines in that

country are very scanty compared to those of Cornwall.-B.

5. "Talutium" is mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. 21.

6. Tin ore is among the heaviest of minerals, though the specific gravity

of the metal is small. M. Hfer is of opinion that these pebbles contained

platinum.

7. Or tin. The greater fusibility of the tin producing this separation.-B.

8. We may conclude that the "plumbum nigrum," or "black lead" of

Pliny is the Galena or sulphuret of lead of the moderns; it is frequently

what is termed argentiferous, i. e. united with an ore of silver, and this in

such quantity as to cause it to be worked for the purpose of procuring the

silver.-B. See Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 210.

9. "Instead of oil, workmen use at present 'colophonium,' or some

other resin."-Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 223. See also B. xxxiii. c. 20.

10. Iliad, xi. 25, and xxiii. 561.-B.

11. Ajasson considers this to be Bismuth; but it is more probable that

Beckmann is right in his conclusion, supported by Agricola, Entzel,

Fallopius, Savot, Bernia, and Jung, that it was a compound metal, the

Werk of the German smelting houses: a metal not much unlike our

pewter, probably. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 209, 212, 224.

Bohn's Edition.

12. See B. xxxiii. c. 31, and c. 53 of this Book.




48. Chap. 48. (17.)-Stannum. Argentarium.


CHAP. 48. (17.)-STANNUM. ARGENTARIUM.



When copper vessels are coated with stannum,[1] they produce

a less disagreeable flavour, and the formation of verdigris

is prevented; it is also remarkable, that the weight of the

vessel is not increased. As already mentioned,[2] the finest

mirrors were formerly prepared from it at Brundisium, until

everybody, our maid-servants even, began to use silver ones.

At the present day a counterfeit stannum is made, by adding

one-third of white copper to two-thirds of white lead.[3] It

is also counterfeited in another way, by mixing together equal

parts of white lead and black lead; this last being what is

called "argentarium."[4] There is also a composition called

"tertiarium," a mixture of two parts of black lead and one of

white: its price is twenty denarii per pound, and it is used

for soldering pipes. Persons still more dishonest mix together[5]

equal parts of tertiarium and white lead, and, calling the compound

"argentarium," coat articles with it melted. This last

sells at sixty denarii per ten pounds, the price of the pure unmixed

white lead being eighty denarii, and of the black seven.[6]



White lead is naturally more dry; while the black, on the

contrary, is always moist; consequently the white, without

being mixed with another metal, is of no use[7] for anything.

Silver too, cannot be soldered with it, because the silver becomes

fused before the white lead. It is confidently stated,

also, that if too small a proportion of black lead is mixed with







the white, this last will corrode the silver. It was in the

Gallic provinces that the method was discovered of coating

articles of copper with white lead, so as to be scarcely distinguishable

from silver: articles thus plated are known as

"incoctilia."[8] At a later period, the people of the town of

Alesia[9] began to use a similar process for plating articles with

silver, more particularly ornaments for horses, beasts of burden,

and yokes of oxen: the merit, however, of this invention

belongs to the Bituriges.[10] After this, they began to ornament

their esseda, colisata, and petorita[11] in a similar manner; and

luxury has at last arrived at such a pitch, that not only are

their decorations made of silver, but of gold even, and what

was formerly a marvel to behold on a cup, is now subjected to

the wear and tear of a carriage, and this in obedience to

what they call fashion!



White lead is tested, by pouring it, melted,[12] upon paper,

which ought to have the appearance of being torn rather by

the weight than by the heat of the metal. India has neither

copper nor lead,[13] but she procures them in exchange for her

precious stones and pearls.







1. A compound metal, probably, somewhat like pewter. See Note 95

above. He evidently alludes to the process of "tinning."

2. In B. xxxiii. c. 45: where he says that the best mirrors were

formerly made of a mixture of stannum and copper.-B. See Beckmann,

Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 6062, 72.

3. Or tin.

4. "Silver mixture."

5. Such a mixture as this would in reality become more valuable than

"argentarium," as the proportion would be two-thirds of tin and one of

lead. How then could the workmen merit the title of dishonest? Beckmann

suggests that the tinning ought to have been done with pure tin, but

that unprincipled artists employed tin mixed with lead. It is most

probable, however, that Pliny himself has made a mistake, and that we

should read "equal parts of black lead" (our lead); in which case the

mixture passed off as "argentarium," instead of containing equal parts of

tin and lead, would contain five-sixths of lead. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv.

Vol. II. p. 221. Bohn's Edition.

6. All these readings are doubtful in the extreme.

7. As being too brittle, probably; the reason suggested by Beckmann,

Vol. II. p. 221.

8. Literally, "inboiled," being coated by immersion in the molten tin.

9. Supposed by Hardouin to have been the town of Alise, in Auxois.

10. See B. iv. c. 33.

11. The names of various kinds of carriages,

the form of which is now unknown.

12. Both tin and lead can be fused in paper, when it is closely wrapped

around them.

13. In reality India did and does possess them both; but it is possible

that in those days it was not considered worth while to search for them.




49. Chap. 49.-Black Lead.


CHAP. 49.-BLACK LEAD.



Black lead[1] is used in the form of pipes and sheets: it is extracted

with great labour in Spain, and throughout all the Gallic

provinces; but in Britannia[2] it is found in the upper stratum of

the earth, in such abundance, that a law has been spontaneously

made, prohibiting any one from working more than a certain

quantity of it. The various kinds of black lead are known by

the following names-the Ovetanian,[3] the Caprariensian,[4]







and the Oleastrensian.[5] There is no difference whatever in

them, when the scoria has been carefully removed by calcination.

It is a marvellous fact, that these mines, and these only,

when they have been abandoned for some time, become replenished,

and are more prolific than before. This would

appear to be effected by the air, infusing itself at liberty

through the open orifices, just as some women become more

prolific after abortion. This was lately found to be the case

with the Santarensian mine in Btica;[6] which, after being

farmed at an annual rental of two hundred thousand denarii,

and then abandoned, is now rented at two hundred and fifty-

five thousand per annum. In the same manner, the Antonian

mine in the same province has had the rent raised to four

hundred thousand sesterces per annum.



It is a remarkable fact, that if we pour water into a vessel

of lead, it will not melt; but that if we throw into the water

a pebble or a copper quadrans,[7] the vessel will be penetrated

by the fire.







1. The "lead" of the moderns.

2. Mr. T. Wright, the eminent antiquarian, is of opinion that the extensive

Roman lead mines at Shelve, in Shropshire, are here alluded to.

See the Illustrated London News, Oct. 4, 1856.

3. Probably from Ovetum, the modern Oviedo.-B.

4. So called from the island of Capraria. See B. iii. cc. 11, 12, and B.

vi. c. 37.

5. See B. iii c 12.

6. Not in Btica, as Brotero remarks, but in Lusitania, or Portugal;

the modern Santarem.-B.

7. See Introduction to Vol. III.




50. Chap. 50. (18.)-Fifteen Remedies Derived From Lead.


CHAP. 50. (18.)-FIFTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LEAD.



Lead is used in medicine, without any addition, for the

removal of scars; if it is applied, too, in plates, to the region of

the loins and kidneys, in consequence of its cold nature it will

restrain the venereal passions, and put an end to libidinous

dreams at night, attended with spontaneous emissions, and assuming

all the form of a disease. The orator Calvus, it is said,

effected a cure for himself by means of these plates, and so preserved

his bodily energies for labour and study. The Emperor

Nero-for so the gods willed it-could never sing to the full

pitch of his voice, unless he had a plate of lead upon his chest;

thus showing us one method of preserving the voice.[1] For

medicinal purposes the lead is melted in earthen vessels; a layer

of finely powdered sulphur being placed beneath, very thin

plates of lead are laid upon it, and are then covered with a

mixture of sulphur and iron. While it is being melted, all

the apertures in the vessel should be closed, otherwise a







noxious vapour is discharged from the furnace, of a deadly

nature, to dogs in particular. Indeed, the vapours from all

metals destroy flies and gnats; and hence it is that in mines

there are none of those annoyances.[2] Some persons, during the

process, mix lead-filings with the sulphur, while others substitute

ceruse for sulphur. By washing, a preparation is made

from lead, that is much employed in medicine: for this purpose,

a leaden mortar, containing rain water, is beaten with a

pestle of lead, until the water has assumed a thick consistency;

which done, the water that floats on the surface is removed

with a sponge, and the thicker part of the sediment is left to

dry, and is then divided into tablets. Some persons triturate

lead-filings in this way, and some mix with it lead ore, or

else vinegar, wine, grease, or rose-leaves. Others, again,

prefer triturating the lead in a stone mortar, one of Thebaic

stone more particularly, with a pestle of lead; by which

process a whiter preparation is obtained.



As to calcined lead, it is washed, like stibi[3] and cadmia.

Its action is astringent and repressive, and it is promotive of

cicatrization. The same substance is also employed in preparations for the eyes, cases of procidence[4] of those organs more

particularly; also for filling up the cavities left by ulcers, and

for removing excrescences and fissures of the anus, as well as

hmorrhoidal and condylomatous tumours. For all these purposes

the lotion of lead is particularly useful; but for serpiginous

or sordid ulcers it is the ashes of calcined lead that are

used, these producing the same advantageous effects as ashes of

burnt papyrus.[5]



The lead is calcined in thin plates, laid with sulphur in

shallow vessels, the mixture being stirred with iron rods or

stalks of fennel-giant, until the melted metal becomes calcined;

when cold, it is pulverized. Some persons calcine lead-filings

in a vessel of raw earth, which they leave in the

furnace, until the earthenware is completely baked. Others,

again, mix with it an equal quantity of ceruse or of barley, and

triturate it in the way mentioned for raw lead; indeed, the







lead which has been prepared this way is preferred to the

spodium of Cyprus.







1. This circumstance is mentioned by Suetonius, c. 20.-B.

2. Hardouin observes, that these insects are never met with in mines;

but probably this may depend more upon other causes, than upon the

vapours which are supposed to proceed from the metals.-B.

3. See B. xxxiii. cc. 33, 34.

4. See B. xx. c. 81, and B. xxiv. c. 73.

5. "Charta." See B. xxiv. c. 51.




51. Chap. 51.-Fifteen Remedies Derived From The Scoria Of Lead.


CHAP. 51.-FIFTEEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE SCORIA OF LEAD.



The scoria[1] of lead is also made use of; the best kind being

that which approaches nearest to a yellow colour, without any

vestiges of lead, or which has the appearance of sulphur without

any terreous particles. It is broken into small pieces and

washed in a mortar, until the mortar assumes a yellow colour;

after which, it is poured off into a clean vessel, the process

being repeated until it deposits a sediment, which is a substance

of the greatest utility. It possesses the same properties

as lead, but of a more active nature. How truly wonderful is

the knowledge which we gain by experiment, when even the

very dregs and foul residues of substances have in so many

ways been tested by mankind!







1. This, according to Ajasson, is the protoxide, or probably, in some

cases, the arseniate of lead.-B.




52. Chap. 52.-Spodium Of Lead.


CHAP. 52.-SPODIUM OF LEAD.



A spodium[1] of lead is also prepared in the same manner as

that extracted from Cyprian copper.[2] It is washed with rain

water, in linen of a loose texture, and the earthy parts are

separated by pouring it off; after which it is sifted, and then

pounded. Some prefer removing the fine powder with a

feather, and then triturating it with aromatic wine.







1. From spodo\s, "ashes."-B.

2. See Chapter 34 of this Book.-B.




54. Chap. 54.-Psimithium, Or Ceruse; Six Remedies.


CHAP. 54.-PSIMITHIUM, OR CERUSE; SIX REMEDIES.



Psimithium,[1] which is also known as ceruse, is another

production of the lead-works. The most esteemed comes from

Rhodes. It is made from very fine shavings of lead, placed

over a vessel filled with the strongest vinegar; by which means

the shavings become dissolved. That which falls into the

vinegar is first dried, and then pounded and sifted, after

which it is again mixed with vinegar, and is then divided

into tablets and dried in the sun, during summer. It is also

made in another way; the lead is thrown into jars filled with

vinegar, which are kept closed for ten days; the sort of mould

that forms upon the surface is then scraped off, and the lead is

again put into the vinegar, until the whole of the metal is

consumed. The part that has been scraped off is triturated

and sifted, and then melted in shallow vessels, being stirred

with ladles, until the substance becomes red, and assumes the

appearance of sandarach. It is then washed with fresh water,

until all the cloudy impurities have disappeared, after which

it is dried as before, and divided into tablets.



Its properties are the same as those of the substances above







mentioned.[2] It is, however, the mildest of all the preparations

of lead; in addition to which, it is also used by females

to whiten the complexion.[3] It is, however, like scum of

silver, a deadly poison. Melted a second time, ceruse becomes red.







1. According to Ajasson, this substance is properly a sub-carbonate of

lead, commonly called white lead.-B.

2. Scoria of lead and molybdna.-B.

3. Preparations of lead are still used in cosmetics for whitening the

complexion.




55. Chap. 55.-Sandarach; Eleven Remedies.


CHAP. 55.-SANDARACH; ELEVEN REMEDIES.



We have already mentioned nearly all the properties of

sandarach.[1] It is found both in gold-mines and in silver-mines.

The redder it is, the more pure and friable, and

the more powerful its odour, the better it is in quality. It is

detergent, astringent, heating, and corrosive, but is most remarkable

for its septic properties. Applied topically with

vinegar, it is curative of alopecy. It is also employed as an

ingredient in ophthalmic preparations. Used with honey, it

cleanses the fauces and makes the voice more clear and harmonious.

Taken with the food, in combination with turpentine,

it is a pleasant cure for cough and asthma. In the form

of a fumigation also, with cedar, it has a remedial effect upon

those complaints.[2]







1. The Realgar of the moderns, red orpiment, or red sulphuret of arsenic.

Pliny has in numerous places spoken of it as a remedy for certain morbid

states both of animals and vegetables, B. xvii. c. 47, B. xxiii. c. 13, B.

xxv. c. 22, and B. xxviii. c. 62, but he has not previously given any account

of its origin and composition.-B.

2. Dioscorides, B. v. c. 122, informs us, with respect to this effect of sandarach,

that it was burned in combination with resin, and that the smoke

was inhaled through a tube.-B.




56. Chap. 56.-Arrhenicum.


CHAP. 56.-ARRHENICUM.



Arrhenicum,[1] too, is procured from the same sources. The

best in quality is of the colour of the finest gold; that which is

of a paler hue, or resembling sandarach, being less esteemed.

There is a third kind also, the colour of which is a mixture of

that of gold and of sandarach. The last two kinds are both of

them scaly, but the other is dry and pure, and divides into







delicate long veins.[2] This substance has the same virtues as

the one last mentioned, but is more active in its effects.

Hence it is that it enters into the composition of cauteries

and depilatory preparations. It is also used for the removal

of hangnails, polypi of the nostrils, condylomatous tumours,

and other kinds of excrescences. For the purpose of increasing

its energies, it is heated in a new earthen vessel, until it

changes its colour.[3]



SUMMARY.-Remedies, one hundred and fifty-eight, Facts,

narratives, and observations, nine hundred and fifteen.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-L. Piso,[4] Antias,[5] Verrius,[6] M.

Varro,[7] Cornelius Nepos,[8] Messala,[9] Rufus,[10] the Poet

Marsus,[11] Bocchus,[12] Julius Bassus[13] who wrote in Greek on

Medicine, Sextus Niger[14] who did the same, Fabius Vestalis.[15]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Democritus,[16] Metrodorus[17] of

Scepsis, Menchmus[18] who wrote on the Toreutic art, Xenocrates[19]

who did the same, Antigonus[20] who did the same,

Duris[21] who did the same, Heliodorus[22] who wrote on the

Votive Offerings of the Athenians, Pasiteles[23] who wrote on

Wonderful Works, Timus[24] who wrote on the Medicines de-







rived from Metals, Nymphodorus,[25] Iollas,[26] Apollodorus,[27]

Andreas,[28] Heraclides,[29] Diagoras,[30] Botrys,[31] Archidemus,[32]

Dionysius,[33] Aristogenes,[34] Democles,[35] Mnesides,[36] Xenocrates[37]

the son of Zeno, Theomnestus.[38]









1. The substance here mentioned, though its name is the foundation

of our word "arsenic," is not the arsenic of modern commerce, but

probably a sulphuret of arsenic containing a less proportion of sulphur

than the Sandarach of the last Chapter.-B.

2. The other two mentioned species naturally divide into lamin, while

this kind is disposed to separate into fine fibres.-B.

3. By this process a considerable portion of the sulphur is expelled, so

as to cause the orpiment to approximate to the state of arsenic.-B.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. See end of B. ii.

6. See end of B. iii.

7. See end of B. ii.

8. See end of B. ii.

9. A different person from the Messala mentioned at the end of B. ix.

He is mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. 14, B. xxxv. c. 2, and in Chapter 38

of this Book; but nothing further seems to be known of him.

10. See end of B. vii. and Note 94 to B. vii. c. 53.

11. Domitius Marsus, a poet of the Augustan age, of whom few particulars

are known, except that he wrote an epitaph on the poet Tibullus, who died

B.C. 18. He is mentioned by Ovid and Martial, from the latter of whom

we learn that his epigrams were distinguished for their wit, licentiousness,

and satire.

12. See end of B. xvi.

13. See end of B. xx.

14. See end of B. xii.

15. See end of B. vii.

16. See end of B. ii.

17. See end of B. iii.

18. See end of B. iv.

19. See c. 19 of this Book, Note 11, page 184.

20. See end of B. xxxiii.

21. See end of B. vii.

22. See end of B. xxxiii.

23. See end of B. xxxiii.

24. See end of B. xxxiii.

25. See end of B. iii.

26. See end of B. xii.

27. See end of Books iv., viii., xi., and xx.

28. See end of B. xx.

29. See end of Books iv., and xii.

30. See end of B. xii.

31. See end of B. xiii.

32. See end of B. xii.

33. See end of B. xii.

34. See end of B. xxix.

35. See end of B. xii.

36. See end of B. xii.

37. See end of B. xxxiii.

38. See end of B. xxxiii.




0. > Book Xxxv. An Account Of Paintings And Colours.


BOOK XXXV.

AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOURS.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The Honour Attached To Painting.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE HONOUR ATTACHED TO PAINTING.



I HAVE now given at considerable length an account of the

nature of metals, which constitute our wealth, and of the

substances that are derived from them; so connecting my

various subjects, as, at the same time, to describe an immense

number of medicinal compositions which they furnish, the

mysteries[1] thrown upon them by the druggists, and the tedious

minuti of the arts of chasing,[2] and statuary,[3] and of dyeing.[4]

It remains for me to describe the various kinds of earths and

stones; a still more extensive series of subjects, each of which

has been treated of, by the Greeks more particularly, in a great

number of volumes. For my own part, I propose to employ a

due degree of brevity, at the same time omitting nothing that

is necessary or that is a product of Nature.



I shall begin then with what still remains to be said with

reference to painting, an art which was formerly illustrious,

when it was held in esteem both by kings and peoples, and

ennobling those whom it deigned to transmit to posterity.

But at the present day, it is completely banished in favour

of marble, and even gold. For not only are whole walls now

covered with marble, but the marble itself is carved out or

else marqueted so as to represent objects and animals of

various kinds. No longer now are we satisfied with formal

compartitions of marble, or with slabs extended like so many

mountains in our chambers, but we must begin to paint the

very stone itself! This art was invented in the reign of

Claudius, but it was in the time of Nero that we discovered the

method of inserting in marble spots that do not belong to it,







and so varying its uniformity; and this, for the purpose of

representing the marble of Numidia[5] variegated with ovals,

and that of Synnada[6] veined with purple; just, in fact, as

luxury might have willed that Nature should produce them.

Such are our resources when the quarries fail us, and luxury

ceases not to busy itself, in order that as much as possible may

be lost whenever a conflagration happens.







1. "Officinarum tenebr;" probably in reference to the ignorance displayed

by the compounders of medicines, as pointed out in B. xxxiii. c. 38,

and in B. xxxiv. c. 25.-B.

2. See B. xxxiii. c. 55.

3. See B. xxxiv. c. 9.

4. See B. xxxiii. c. 36.

5. See B. xxxvi. c. 8.

6. See B. v. c. 29.




2. Chap. 2. (2.)-The Honour Attached To Portraits.


CHAP. 2. (2.)-THE HONOUR ATTACHED TO PORTRAITS.



Correct portraits of individuals were formerly transmitted to

future ages by painting; but this has now completely fallen into

desuetude. Brazen shields are now set up, and silver faces, with

only some obscure traces of the countenance:[1] the very heads,

too, of statues are changed,[2] a thing that has given rise before

now to many a current sarcastic line; so true it is that people

prefer showing off the valuable material, to having a faithful

likeness. And yet, at the same time, we tapestry the walls of

our galleries with old pictures, and we prize the portraits of

strangers; while as to those made in honour of ourselves, we

esteem them only for the value of the material, for some heir to

break up and melt, and so forestall the noose and slip-knot of

the thief.[3] Thus it is that we possess the portraits of no

living individuals, and leave behind us the pictures of our

wealth, not of our persons.



And yet the very same persons adorn the palstra and the

anointing-room[4] with portraits of athletes, and both hang

up in their chamber and carry about them a likeness of

Epicurus.[5] On the twentieth day of each moon they celebrate

his birthday[6] by a sacrifice, and keep his festival.

known as the "Icas,"[7] every month: and these too, people who







wish to live without being known![8] So it is, most assuredly,

our indolence has lost sight of the arts, and since our minds

are destitute of any characteristic features, those of our bodies

are neglected also.



But on the contrary, in the days of our ancestors, it was

these that were to be seen in their halls, and not statues made

by foreign artists, or works in bronze or marble: portraits

modelled in wax[9] were arranged, each in its separate niche,

to be always in readiness to accompany the funeral processions

of the family;[10] occasions on which every member of the

family that had ever existed was always present. The pedigree,

too, of the individual was traced in lines upon each of

these coloured portraits. Their muniment-rooms,[11] too, were

filled with archives and memoirs, stating what each had done

when holding the magistracy. On the outside, again, of their

houses, and around the thresholds of their doors, were placed

other statues of those mighty spirits, in the spoils of the enemy

there affixed, memorials which a purchaser even was not

allowed to displace; so that the very house continued to

triumph even after it had changed its master. A powerful

stimulus to emulation this, when the walls each day reproached

an unwarlike owner for having thus intruded upon

the triumphs of another! There is still extant an address by

the orator Messala, full of indignation, in which he forbids

that there should be inserted among the images of his family

any of those of the stranger race of the Lvini.[12] It was the

same feeling, too, that extorted from old Messala those compilations

of his "On the Families of Rome;" when, upon

passing through the hall of Scipio Pomponianus,[13] he observed

that, in consequence of a testamentary adoption, the Salvittos[14]







-for that had been their surname-to the disgrace of the

Africani, had surreptitiously contrived to assume the name of

the Scipios. But the Messalas must pardon me if I remark,

that to lay a claim, though an untruthful one, to the statues

of illustrious men, shows some love for their virtues, and is

much more honourable than to have such a character as to

merit that no one should wish to claim them.



There is a new invention too, which we must not omit to

notice. Not only do we consecrate in our libraries, in gold

or silver, or at all events, in bronze, those whose immortal

spirits hold converse with us in those places, but we even go

so far as to reproduce the ideal of features, all remembrance of

which has ceased to exist; and our regrets give existence to

likenesses that have not been transmitted to us, as in the case

of Homer, for example.[15] And indeed, it is my opinion, that

nothing can be a greater proof of having achieved success in

life, than a lasting desire on the part of one's fellow-men, to

know what one's features were. This practice of grouping

portraits was first introduced at Rome by Asinius Pollio,

who was also the first to establish a public library, and so

make the works of genius the property of the public.

Whether the kings of Alexandria and of Pergamus, who had

so energetically rivalled each other in forming libraries, had

previously introduced this practice, I cannot so easily say.



That a strong passion for portraits formerly existed, is

attested both by Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who wrote a

work on this subject,[16] and by M. Varro, who conceived the

very liberal idea of inserting, by some means[17] or other, in his

numerous volumes, the portraits of seven hundred individuals;

as he could not bear the idea that all traces of their features

should be lost, or that the lapse of centuries should get the







better of mankind. Thus was he the inventor of a benefit to

his fellow-men, that might have been envied by the gods

themselves; for not only did he confer upon them immortality,

but he transmitted them, too, to all parts of the earth; so that

everywhere it might be possible for them to be present, and

for each to occupy his niche. This service, too, Varro conferred upon persons who were no members of his own family.







1. "Surdo figurarum discrimine."

2. We are informed by Suetonius, that this practice existed in the time

of Tiberius.-B. See also Note 18, p. 196.

3. Which he is ready to employ in carrying away his plunder.

4. "Ceromata;" this is properly a Greek term, signifying an ointment

used by athletes, composed of oil and wax.-B.

5. This practice is referred to by Cicero, De Finib. B. v.-B.

6. In reality, his birth-day was not on the twentieth day of any month;

but, for some reason which is not known, he fixed upon this day.-B. He

was born on the seventh day of the month Gamelion.

7. From the Greek ei\ka\s, the "twentieth" day of the month.

8. In obedience to the maxim of Epicurus, La/qe biw=sas-"Live in obscurity."

9. See B. xxi. c. 49, and Note 4, p. 346.

10. This appears to have been the usual practice at the funerals of distinguished

personages among the Romans: it is referred to by Tacitus,

Ann. B. ii. c. 73, in his account of the funeral of Germanicus.-B.

11. "Tabulina." Rooms situate near the atrium.

12. A cognomen of the Gens Valeria at Rome, from which the family of

the Messal had also originally sprung.

13. So called from his father-in-law Pomponius, a man celebrated for his

wealth, and by whom he was adopted. It would appear that Scipio Pomponianus

adopted Scipio Salvitto, so called from his remarkable resemblance

to an actor of mimes. See B. vii. c. 10.

14. They were probably, like the Scipios, a branch of the Gens Cornelia. Suetonius speaks in very derogatory terms of a member of this family, who

accompanied Julius Csar in his Spanish campaign against the Pompeian

party.

15. In the Greek Anthology, B. v., we have the imaginary portrait of

Homer described at considerable length.-B.

16. Hardouin supposes that this work was written by Cicero, and that he

named it after his friend Atticus; but, as Delafosse remarks, it is clear

from the context that it was the work of Atticus.-B.

17. M. Deville is of opinion that these portraits were made in relief upon

plates of metal, perhaps bronze, and coloured with minium, a red tint much

esteemed by the Romans.




3. Chap. 3. (3.)-When Shields Were First Invented With Portraits Upon Them; And When They Were First Erected In Public.


CHAP. 3. (3.)-WHEN SHIELDS WERE FIRST INVENTED WITH

PORTRAITS UPON THEM; AND WHEN THEY WERE FIRST ERECTED

IN PUBLIC.



So far as I can learn, Appius Claudius, who was consul

with P. Servilius, in the year of the City, 259, was the first to

dedicate shields[1] in honour of his own family in a sacred or

public place.[2] For he placed representations of his ancestors

in the Temple of Bellona, and desired that they might be

erected in an elevated spot, so as to be seen, and the inscriptions

reciting their honours read. A truly graceful device;

more particularly when a multitude of children, represented

by so many tiny figures, displays those germs, as it were,

which are destined to continue the line: shields such as these,

no one can look at without a feeling of pleasure and lively

interest.







1. "Clypei." These were shields or escutcheons of metal, with the features

of the deceased person represented either in painting or in relief.

2. Hardouin informs us that there are some Greek inscriptions given by

Gruter, p. 441, and p. 476, from which it appears that public festivals

were celebrated on occasions of this kind.-B.




4. Chap. 4.-When These Shields Were First Placed In Private Houses.


CHAP. 4.-WHEN THESE SHIELDS WERE FIRST PLACED IN

PRIVATE HOUSES.



More recently, M. milius, who was consul[1] with Quintus

Lutatius, not only erected these shields in the milian

Basilica,[2] but in his own house as well; in doing which

he followed a truly warlike example. For, in fact, these

portraits were represented on bucklers, similar to those used

in the Trojan War;[3] and hence it is that these shields received

their present name of "clypei," and not, as the perverse







subtleties of the grammarians will have it, from the word

"cluo."[4] It was an abundant motive for valour, when upon

each shield was represented the features of him who had borne

it. The Carthaginians used to make both their bucklers and their

portraits of gold, and to carry them with them in the camp: at

all events, Marcius, the avenger of the Scipios[5] in Spain, found

one of this kind on capturing the camp of Hasdrubal, and it

was this same buckler that remained suspended over the gate of

the Capitoline Temple until the time when it was first burnt.[6]

Indeed, in the days of our ancestors, so assured was the safety

of these shields, that it has been a subject of remark, that in

the consulship of L. Manlius and Q. Fulvius, in the year of

the City, 575, M. Aufidius, who had given security for the

safety of the Capitol, informed the senate that the bucklers

there which for some lustra[7] had been assessed as copper,

were in reality made of silver.







1. A.U.C. 671.-B. See B. vii. c. 54.

2. See B. xxxvi. c. 24.

3. It is scarcely necessary to refer to the well-known description of the

shield of Achilles, in the Iliad, B. xviii. 1. 478 et seq., and of that of

neas, n. B. viii. 1. 626, et seq.-B.

4. He implies that the word is derived from the Greek glu/fein, "to

carve" or "emboss," and not from the old Latin "cluo," "to be famous."

Ajasson suggests the Greek kalu/ptw, "to cover."

5. Cneius and Publius Scipio, who had been slain by Hasdrubal.-B.

As to L. Marcius, see B. ii. c. 3.

6. See B. xxxiii. c. 5.

7. "Lustrations." Periods at the end of the census, made by the censors

every five years. The censors were the guardians of the temples,

and consequently these bucklers would come under their supervision.




5. Chap. 5.-The Commencement Of The Art Of Painting. Mo- Nochrome Paintings. The Earliest Painters.


CHAP. 5.-THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ART OF PAINTING. MO-

NOCHROME PAINTINGS. THE EARLIEST PAINTERS.



We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of

the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration.

The Egyptians assert that it was invented among

themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece; a

vain boast, it is very evident.[1] As to the Greeks, some say

that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they

all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human

shadow.[2] The first stage of the art, they say, was this, the







second stage being the employment of single colours; a process

known as "monochromaton,"[3] after it had become more

complicated, and which is still in use at the present day.

The invention of line-drawing has been assigned to Philocles,

the Egyptian, or to Cleanthes[4] of Corinth. The first

who practised this line-drawing were Aridices, the Corinthian,

and Telephanes, the Sicyonian, artists who, without making

use of any colours, shaded the interior of the outline by

drawing lines;[5] hence, it was the custom with them to add to

the picture the name of the person represented. Ecphantus,

the Corinthian, was the first to employ colours upon these

pictures, made, it is said, of broken earthenware, reduced to

powder. We shall show on a future[6] occasion, that it was a

different artist of the same name, who, according to Cornelius

Nepos, came to Italy with Demaratus, the father of the Roman

king, Tarquinius Priscus, on his flight from Corinth to escape

the violence of the tyrant Cypselus.







1. This period for the invention of painting by the Egyptians is evidently

incorrect; but still there is sufficient reason for concluding that

there now exist specimens of Egyptian art, which were in existence previous

to the time of the earliest Grecian painters of whom we have any

certain account.-B.

2. All the ancients who have treated of the history of the art agree,

that the first attempt at what may be considered the formation of a picture, consisted in tracing the shadow of a human head or some other object

on the wall, the interior being filled up with one uniform shade of

colour.-B.

3. From the Greek monoxrw/maton "single colouring."-B.

4. He is mentioned also by Athenagoras, Strabo, and Athenus.

5. Called "graphis," by the Greeks, and somewhat similar, probably, to

our pen and ink drawings.

6. In Chapter 43 of this Book.-B.




6. Chap. 6.-The Antiquity Of Painting In Italy.


CHAP. 6.-THE ANTIQUITY OF PAINTING IN ITALY.



But already, in fact, had the art of painting been perfectly

developed in Italy.[1] At all events, there are extant in the

temples at Ardea, at this day, paintings of greater antiquity

than Rome itself; in which, in my opinion, nothing is more

marvellous, than that they should have remained so long

unprotected by a roof, and yet preserving their freshness.[2] At

Lanuvium, too, it is the same, where we see an Atalanta and a

Helena, without drapery, close together, and painted by the







same artist. They are both of the greatest beauty, the former

being evidently the figure of a virgin, and they still remain

uninjured, though the temple is in ruins. The Emperor

Caius,[3] inflamed with lustfulness, attempted to have them

removed, but the nature of the plaster would not admit of it.

There are in existence at Cre,[4] some paintings of a still higher

antiquity. Whoever carefully examines them, will be forced

to admit that no art has arrived more speedily at perfection, seeing that it evidently was not in existence at the time

of the Trojan War.[5]







1. Ajasson remarks, that a great number of paintings have been lately

discovered in the Etruscan tombs, in a very perfect state, and probably of

very high antiquity.-B.

2. There would appear to be still considerable uncertainty respecting

the nature of the materials employed by the ancients, and the manner of

applying them, by which they produced these durable paintings; a

branch of the art which has not been attained in equal perfection by the

moderns.-B.

3. Caligula.

4. See B. iii. c. 8.

5. We have already remarked that painting was practised very extensively

by the Egyptians, probably long before the period of the Trojan

war.-B.




7. Chap. 7. (4.)-Roman Painters.


CHAP. 7. (4.)-ROMAN PAINTERS.



Among the Romans, too, this art very soon rose into esteem,

for it was from it that the Fabii, a most illustrious family, derived

their surname of "Pictor;" indeed the first of the family

who bore it, himself painted the Temple of Salus,[1] in the year

of the City, 450; a work which lasted to our own times, but was

destroyed when the temple was burnt, in the reign of Claudius.

Next in celebrity were the paintings of the poet Pacuvius, in

the Temple of Hercules, situate in the Cattle Market:[2] he was

a son of the sister of Ennius, and the fame of the art was

enhanced at Rome by the success of the artist on the stage.

After this period, the art was no longer practised by men of

rank; unless, indeed, we would make reference to Turpilius,

in our own times, a native of Venetia, and of equestrian rank,

several of whose beautiful works are still in existence at

Verona. He painted, too, with his left hand, a thing never

known to have been done by any one before.[3]



Titidius Labeo, a person of prtorian rank, who had been

formerly proconsul of the province of Gallia Narbonensis, and

who lately died at a very advanced age, used to pride himself

upon the little pictures which he executed, but it only caused

him to be ridiculed and sneered at. I must not omit, too, to

mention a celebrated consultation upon the subject of painting,

which was held by some persons of the highest rank.







Q. Pedius,[4] who had been honoured with the consulship and a

triumph, and who had been named by the Dictator Csar as

co-heir with Augustus, had a grandson, who being dumb from

his birth, the orator Messala, to whose family his grandmother

belonged, recommended that he should be brought up as a

painter, a proposal which was also approved of by the late

Emperor Augustus. He died, however, in his youth, after

having made great progress in the art. But the high estimation

in which painting came to be held at Rome, was principally

due, in my opinion, to M. Valerius Maximus Messala,

who, in the year of the City, 490, was the first to exhibit a

painting to the public; a picture, namely, of the battle in

which he had defeated the Carthaginians and Hiero in Sicily,

upon one side of the Curia Hostilia.[5] The same thing was done,

too, by L. Scipio,[6] who placed in the Capitol a painting of the

victory which he had gained in Asia; but his brother Africanus,

it is said, was offended at it, and not without reason, for his

son had been taken prisoner in the battle.[7] Lucius Hostilius

Mancinus,[8] too, who had been the first to enter Carthage at the

final attack, gave a very similar offence to milianus,[9] by

exposing in the Forum a painting of that city and the attack

upon it, he himself standing near the picture, and describing

to the spectators the various details of the siege; a piece of

complaisance which secured him the consulship at the ensuing

Comitia.



The stage, too, which was erected for the games celebrated

by Claudius Pulcher,[10] brought the art of painting into great

admiration, it being observed that the ravens were so deceived

by the resemblance, as to light upon the decorations

which were painted in imitation of tiles.











1. Or "Health." It was situate on the Quirinal Hill, in the Sixth Region

of the City.

2. "Forum Boarium." In the Eighth Region of the City.

3. Holbein and Mignard did the same.

4. Q. Pedius was either nephew, or great nephew of Julius Csar, and

had the command under him in the Gallic War; he is mentioned by Csar

in his Commentaries, and by other writers of this period.-B.

5. Originally the palace of Tullus Hostilius, in the Second Region of

the City.

6. Asiaticus, the brother of the elder Africanus.-B.

7. It was beforethe decisive battle near Mount Sipylus, that the son of

Africanus was made prisoner. King Antiochus received him with high

respect, loaded him with presents, and sent him to Rome.-B.

8. He was legatus under the consul L. Calpurnius Piso, in the Third

Punic War, and commanded the Roman fleet. He was elected Coasul

B.C. 145.

9. The younger Scipio Africanus.

10. We learn from Valerius Maximus, that C. Puleher was the first to

vary the scenes of the stage with a number of colours.-B.




8. Chap. 8.-At What Period Foreign Paintings Were First Introduced At Rome.


CHAP. 8.-AT WHAT PERIOD FOREIGN PAINTINGS WERE FIRST

INTRODUCED AT ROME.



The high estimation in which the paintings of foreigners were

held at Rome commenced with Lucius Mummius, who, from

his victories, acquired the surname of "Achaicus." For upon

the sale of the spoil on that occasion, King Attalus having purchased,

at the price of six thousand denarii, a painting of Father

Liber by Aristides,[1] Mummius, feeling surprised at the

price, and suspecting that there might be some merit in it of

which he himself was unaware,[2] in spite of the complaints of

Attalus, broke off the bargain, and had the picture placed in

the Temple of Ceres;[3] the first instance, I conceive, of a foreign

painting being publicly exhibited at Rome.



After this, I find, it became a common practice to exhibit

foreign pictures in the Forum; for it was to this circumstance

that we are indebted for a joke of the orator Crassus. While

pleading below the Old Shops,[4] he was interrupted by a witness

who had been summoned, with the question, "Tell me then,

Crassus, what do you take me to be?" "Very much like

him," answered he, pointing to the figure of a Gaul in a picture,

thrusting out his tongue in a very unbecoming manner.[5]

It was in the Forum, too, that was placed the picture of the

Old Shepherd leaning on his staff; respecting which, when the

envoy of the Teutones was asked what he thought was the

value of it, he made answer that he would rather not have

the original even, at a gift.







1. See Chapter 36 of this Book.

2. We have an amusing proof of this ignorance of Mummius given by

Paterculus, B. i. c. 13, who says that when he had the choicest of the

Corinthian statues and pictures sent to Italy, he gave notice to the contractors

that if they lost any of them, they must be prepared to supply new

ones. Ajasson offers a conjecture which is certainly plausible, that Mummius

might possibly regard this painting as a species of talisman.-B.

3. In the Eleventh Region of the City.

4. "Sub Veteribus;" meaning that part of the Forum where the "Old

Shops" of the "argentarii" or money-brokers had stood.

5. We have an anecdote of a similar event, related by Cicero, as having

occurred to Julius Csar, De Oratore, B. ii. c. 66.-B.




9. Chap. 9.-At What Period Painting Was First Held In High Esteem At Rome, And From What Causes.


CHAP. 9.-AT WHAT PERIOD PAINTING WAS FIRST HELD IN HIGH

ESTEEM AT ROME, AND FROM WHAT CAUSES.



But it was the Dictator Csar that first brought the public







exhibition of pictures into such high estimation, by consecrating

an Ajax and a Medea[1] before the Temple of Venus Genetrix.[2]

After him there was M. Agrippa, a man who was naturally more

attached to rustic simplicity than to refinement. Still, however,

we have a magnificent oration of his, and one well worthy of

the greatest of our citizens, on the advantage of exhibiting in

public all pictures and statues; a practice which would have

been far preferable to sending them into banishment at our

country-houses. Severe as he was in his tastes, he paid the

people of Cyzicus twelve hundred thousand sesterces for two

paintings, an Ajax and a Venus. He also ordered small paintings

to be set in marble in the very hottest part of his Warm

Baths;[3] where they remained until they were removed a short

time since, when the building was repaired.







1. See B. vii. c. 39.

2. We have had this Temple referred to in B. ii. c. 23, B. vii. c. 39,

B. viii. c. 64, and B. ix. c. 57: it is again mentioned in the fortieth Chapter

of this Book, and in B. xxxvii. c. 5.-B.

3. In the "Vaporarium," namely.-B. The Therm of Agrippa were

in the Ninth Region of the City.




10. Chap. 10.-What Pictures The Emperors Have Exhibited In Public.


CHAP. 10.-WHAT PICTURES THE EMPERORS HAVE EXHIBITED

IN PUBLIC.



The late Emperor Augustus did more than all the others;

for he placed in the most conspicuous part of his Forum, two

pictures, representing War and Triumph.[1] He also placed in

the Temple of his father,[2] Csar, a picture of the Castors,[3]

and one of Victory, in addition to those which we shall mention

in our account of the works of the different artists.[4] He

also inserted two pictures in the wall of the Curia[5] which

he consecrated in the Comitium;[6] one of which was a Nemea[7]

seated upon a lion, and bearing a palm in her hand. Close to







her is an Old Man, standing with a staff, and above his head

hangs the picture of a chariot with two horses. Nicias[8] has

written upon this picture that he "inburned"[9] it, such being

the word he has employed.



In the second picture the thing to be chiefly admired, is the

resemblance that the youth bears to the old man his father,

allowing, of course, for the difference in age; above them soars

an eagle, which grasps a dragon in its talons. Philochares[10]

attests that he is the author of this work, an instance, if we

only consider it, of the mighty power wielded by the pictorial

art; for here, thanks to Philochares, the senate of the Roman

people, age after age, has before its eyes Glaucion and his son

Aristippus, persons who would otherwise have been altogether

unknown. The Emperor Tiberius, too, a prince who was by

no means very gracious, has exhibited in the temple dedicated

by him, in his turn, to Augustus, several pictures which

we shall describe hereafter.[11]







1. According to Hardouin, this was done after the battle of Actium, in

which Augustus subdued his rival Antony.-B.

2. By adoption. The Temple of Julius Csar was in the Forum, in the

Eighth Region of the City.

3. See B. vii. c. 22, B. x. c. 60, and B. xxxiv, c. 11.

4. In Chapter 36 of this Book.-B.

5. See B. vii. cc. 45, 54, 60, and B. xxxiv. c. 11.

6. See B. vii. c. 54, B. xv. c. 20, B. xxxiii. c. 6, and B. xxxiv. c. 11.

7. This was the personification of the Nemean forest in Peloponnesus,

where Hercules killed the lion, the first of the labours imposed upon him

by Eurystheus.-B.

8. See Chapter 40 of this Book,

9. "Inussisse;" meaning that he executed it in encaustic. The Greek

term used was probably ENEKAUSE.

10. Hemsterhuys is of opinion that he was the brother of schines, the

orator, contemptuously alluded to by Demosthenes, Fals. Legat. Sec. 237,

as a painter of perfume pots. If sc, he was probably an Athenian, and

must have flourished about the 109th Olympiad.

11. In Chapter 40 of this Book.




11. Chap. 11. (5.)-The Art Of Painting.


CHAP. 11. (5.)-THE ART OF PAINTING.



Thus much then with reference to the dignity of this now

expiring art. We have already[1] stated with what single

colours the earlier artists painted, when speaking of these

pigments under the head of metals. The new modes of

painting which were afterwards discovered, and are known as

"neogrammatea,"[2] the names of the artists, their different inventions,

and the periods at which these inventions were adopted,

will all be described when we come to enumerate the painters:

for the present, however, the proposed plan of this work

requires, that I should enlarge upon the nature of the several

colours that are employed.



The art of painting at last became developed, in the inven-







tion of light and shade, the alternating contrast of the colours

serving to heighten the effect of each. At a later period, again,

lustre[3] was added, a thing altogether different from light. The

gradation between lustre and light on the one hand and shade

on the other, was called "tonos;" while the blending of the

various tints, and their passing into one another, was known as

"harmoge."[4]







1. In B. xxxiii. c. 39. He alludes to cinnabaris, minium, rubrica, and

sinopis.

2. Meaning "new painting," probably. The reading, however, is doubtful.

3. "Splendor." Supposed by Wornum to be equivalent to our word

"tone," applied to a coloured picture, which comprehends both the "tonos"

and the "harmoge" of the Greeks. Smith's Diet. Antiq. Art. Painting.

4. "Tone," says Fuseli, (in the English acceptation of the word) "is the

element of the ancient 'harmoge,' that imperceptible transition, which,

without opacity, confusion, or hardness, united local colour, demitint, shade,

and reflexes."-Lect. I.




12. Chap. 12. (6.)-Pigments Other Than Those Of A Metallic Origin. Artificial Colours.


CHAP. 12. (6.)-PIGMENTS OTHER THAN THOSE OF A METALLIC

ORIGIN. ARTIFICIAL COLOURS.



Colours are either[1] sombre or florid, these qualities arising

either from the nature of the substances or their mode of combination.

The florid colours are those which the employer

supplies[2] to the painter at his own expense; minium,[3]

namely, armenium, cinnabaris,[4] chrysocolla,[5] indicum, and

purpurissum. The others are the sombre colours. Taking

both kinds together, some are native colours, and others are

artificial. Sinopis, rubrica, partonium, melinum, cretria and

orpiment, are native colours. The others are artificial, more

particularly those described by us when speaking of metals;

in addition to which there are, among the more common colours,

ochra, usta or burnt ceruse, sandarach, sandyx, syricum, and

atramentum.







1. "Austeri aut floridi."

2. Because of their comparatively great expense.

3. See B. xxxiii. cc. 36, 37. Under this name are included Sulphuret of

mercury, and Red oxide of lead.

4. See B. xxxiii. cc. 38, 39.

5. See B. xxxiii. c. 26. "Indicum" and "purpurissum" will be described

in the present Book.




15. Chap. 15.-Egyptian Earth.


CHAP. 15.-EGYPTIAN EARTH.



Of the other kinds of rubrica, those of Egypt and Africa are

of the greatest utility to workers in wood, from the fact of

their being absorbed with the greatest rapidity. They are

used also for painting, and are found in a native state in iron-mines.[1]







1. Ajasson thinks that this was an hydroxide of iron, of a greenish yellow

or brown colour.




17. Chap. 17.-Leucophoron.


CHAP. 17.-LEUCOPHORON.



Half a pound of Pontic sinopis, ten pounds of bright sil,[1]







and two pounds of Greek melinum,[2] well mixed and triturated

together for twelve successive days, produce "leucophoron,"[3]

a cement used for applying gold-leaf to wood.







1. See B. xxxiii. cc. 56, 57.

2. A white earth from the Isle of Melos. See Chapter 19.

3. See B. xxxiii. c. 20. "One may readily conceive that this must have

been a ferruginous ochre, or kind of bole, which is still used as a ground,

poliment, assiette."-Beckman, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 294. Bohn's Edition.




18. Chap. 18.-Partonium.


CHAP. 18.-PARTONIUM.



Partonium[1] is so called from the place[2] of that name in

Egypt. It is sea-foam,[3] they say, solidified with slime, and

hence it is that minute shells are often found in it. It is prepared

also in the Isle of Crete, and at Cyren. At Rome, it is

adulterated with Cimolian[4] earth, boiled and thickened. The

price of that of the highest quality is fifty denarii per six

pounds. This is the most unctuous of all the white colours,

and the most tenacious as a coating for plaster, the result of

its smoothness.







1. A white, much used for fresco painting. Ajasson is of opinion, that

Pliny, in this Chapter, like the other ancient authors, confounds two earths

that are, in reality, totally different,-Hydrosilicate of magnesia, or Steatite,

and Rhomboidical carbonate of line.

2. See B. v. c. 6.

3. Ajasson thinks that possibly our compact magnesite, meerschaum, or

sea-foam, may be the substance here alluded to.

4. See Chapter 57 of this Book.




20. Chap. 20.-Usta.


CHAP. 20.-USTA.



Usta[1] was accidentally discovered at a fire in the Pirus,

some ceruse having been burnt in the jars there. Nicias, the

artist above-mentioned,[2] was the first to use it. At the

present day, that of Asia, known also as "purpurea," is considered

the best. The price of it is six denarii per pound. It

is prepared also at Rome by calcining marbled sil,[3] and

quenching it with vinegar. Without the use of usta shadows

cannot be made.[4]







1. "Burnt" ceruse. This was, in fact, one of the varieties of "minium,"

red oxide of lead, our red lead. Vitruvius and Dioscorides call it "sandaraca,"

differing somewhat from that of Pliny.

2. In Chapter 10.

3. See B. xxxiii. cc. 56, 57.

4. It was possibly owing to this that the colour known as "umber" received

its name, and not from Ombria, in Italy. Ajasson says that shadows

cannot be successfully made without the use of transparent colours,

and that red and the several browns are remarkably transparent.




21. Chap. 21.-Eretria.


CHAP. 21.-ERETRIA.



Eretria takes its name from the territory[1] which produces

it. Nicomachus[2] and Parrhasius made use of it. In a medicinal

point of view, it is cooling and emollient. In a calcined

state, it promotes the cicatrization of wounds, is very useful

as a desiccative, and is particularly good for pains in the head,

and for the detection of internal suppurations. If the earth,

when applied[3] with water, does not dry with rapidity, the

presence of purulent matter is apprehended.







1. See B. iv. c. 21.

2. As to both of these artists, see Chapter 36.

3. To the chest.




22. Chap. 22.-Sandarach.


CHAP. 22.-SANDARACH.



According to Juba, sandarach and ochra are both of them

productions of the island of Topazus,[1] in the Red Sea; but

neither of them are imported to us from that place. The







mode of preparing sandarach we have described[2] already:

there is a spurious kind also, prepared by calcining ceruse in

the furnace. This substance, to be good, ought to be of a

flame colour; the price of it is five asses per pound.







1. See B. vi. c. 34, and B. xxxvii. c. 32.

2. In B. xxxiv. c. 55. "Pliny speaks of different shades of sandaraca,

the pale, or massicot, (yellow oxide of lead), and a mixture of the pale

with minium. It also signified Realgar, or red sulphuret of arsenic."

-Wornum, in Smith's Diet. Antiq. Art. Colores.




23. Chap. 23.-Sandyx.


CHAP. 23.-SANDYX.



Calcined with an equal proportion of rubrica, sandarach

forms sandyx;[1] although I perceive that Virgil, in the following

line,[2] has taken sandyx to be a plant-

"Sandyx itself shall clothe the feeding lambs."



The price of sandyx[3] is one half that of sandarach; these

two colours being the heaviest of all in weight.







1. Sir H. Davy supposes this colour to have approached our crimson.

In painting, it was frequently glazed with purple, to give it an additional

lustre.

2. Ecl. iv. 1. 45. "Sponte su sandyx pascentes vestiet agnos." Ajasson

thinks that "Sandyx" may have been a name common to two colouring

substances, a vegetable and a mineral, the former being our madder. Beckmann

is of the same opinion, and that Virgil has committed no mistake in

the line above quoted. Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 110. Bohn's Edition.See

also B. xxiv. c. 56.

3. The form "sand," in these words, Ajasson considers to be derived

either from "Sandes," the name of Hercules in Asia Minor, or at least

in Lydia: or else from Sandak, the name of an ancestor of Cinyras and

Adonis.




24. Chap. 24.-Syricum.


CHAP. 24.-SYRICUM.



Among the artificial colours, too, is syricum, which is used

as an under-coating for minium, as already[1] stated. It is

prepared from a combination of sinopis with sandyx.







1. In B. xxxiii. c. 40. According to Aetius, syricum was made by the

calcination of pure ceruse, (similar to the "usta" above mentioned). He

states also that there was no difference between sandyx and syricum, the

former being the term generally used by medical men.




25. Chap. 25.-Atramentum.


CHAP. 25.-ATRAMENTUM.



Atramentum,[1] too, must be reckoned among the artificial colours,

although it is also derived in two ways from the earth.







For sometimes it is found exuding from the earth like the

brine of salt-pits, while at other times an earth itself of a

sulphurous colour is sought for the purpose. Painters, too, have

been known to go so far as to dig up half-charred bones[2] from

the sepulchres for this purpose.



All these plans, however, are new-fangled and troublesome;

for this substance may be prepared, in numerous ways, from

the soot that is yielded by the combustion of resin or pitch;

so much so, indeed, that manufactories have been built on the

principle of not allowing an escape for the smoke evolved by

the process. The most esteemed black,[3] however, that is made

in this way, is prepared from the wood of the torch-pine.



It is adulterated by mixing it with the ordinary soot from

furnaces and baths, a substance which is also employed for the

purpose of writing. Others, again, calcine dried wine-lees, and

assure us that if the wine was originally of good quality from

which the colour is made, it will bear comparison with that of

indicum.[4] Polygnotus and Micon, the most celebrated painters

of Athens, made their black from grape-husks, and called it

"tryginon."[5] Apelles invented a method of preparing it from

burnt ivory, the name given to it being "elephantinon."



We have indicum also, a substance imported from India, the

composition of which is at present unknown to me.[6] Dyers,

too, prepare an atramentum from the black inflorescence which

adheres to the brazen dye-pans. It is made also from logs of

torch-pine, burnt to charcoal and pounded in a mortar. The spia,

too, has a wonderful property of secreting a black liquid;[7]

but from this liquid no colour is prepared. The preparation of

every kind of atramentum is completed by exposure to the sun;







the black, for writing, having an admixture of gum, and that

for coating walls, an admixture of glue. Black pigment that

has been dissolved in vinegar is not easily effaced by washing.







1. "Black colouring substance."

2. "Carbones infectos." The reading is very doubtful. It may possibly

mean "charred bones tainted with dirt." This would make an inferior

ivory-black. The earth before-mentioned is considered by Ajasson

to be a deuto-sulphate of copper, a solution of which, in gallic acid, is

still used for dyeing black. The water near copper-mines would very probably

be also highly impregnated with it. Beckmann considers these to

have been vitriolic products. Vol. II. p. 265.

3. Our Lamp-black. Vitruvius describes the construction of the manufactories above alluded to.

4. Probably, our Chinese, or Indian ink, a different substance from the indicum of Chapter 27.

5. From tru/c, "grape-husks," or "wine-lees."

6. Indian ink is a composition of fine lamp-black and size.

7. See B. ii. c. 29. Sepia, for sepic drawing, is now prepared from

these juices.




26. Chap. 26.-Purpurissum.


CHAP. 26.-PURPURISSUM.



Among the remaining colours which, as already stated,[1]

owing to their dearness are furnished by the employer, purpurissum

holds the highest rank. For the purpose of preparing

it, argentaria or silver chalk[2] is dyed along with purple[3]

cloth, it imbibing the colour more speedily than the wool. The

best of all is that which, being thrown the very first into the

boiling cauldron, becomes saturated with the dye in its primitive

state. The next best in quality is that which has been

put into the same liquor, after the first has been removed.

Each time that this is done, the quality becomes proportionally

deteriorated, owing, of course, to the comparative thinness

of the liquid. The reason that the purpurissum of Puteoli

is more highly esteemed than that of Tyre, Gtulia, or Laconia,

places which produce the most precious kinds of purple, is the

fact that it combines more readily with hysginum,[4] and that

it is made to absorb the colouring liquid of madder. The

worst purpurissum is that of Lanuvium.[5]



The price of purpurissum is from one to thirty denarii per

pound. Persons who use it in painting, place a coat of sandyx

beneath; a layer on which of purpurissum with glair of egg,

produces all the brilliant tints of minium. If, on the other

hand, it is their object to make a purple, they lay a coat of

cruleum[6] beneath, and purpurissum, with egg,[7] upon it.







1. In Chapter 12 of this Book.

2. Plate powder. See B. xvii. c. 4, and Chapter 58 of this Book.

3. See B. ix. c. 60.

4. See B. ix. c. 65, and B. xxi. cc. 38, 97. According to Vitruvius, it is

a colour between scarlet and purple. It may possibly have been made

from woad.

5. See B. iii. c. 16.

6. See B. xxxiii. c. 57.

7. White of egg, probably.




27. Chap. 27.-Indicum.


CHAP. 27.-INDICUM.



Next in esteem to this is indicum,[1] a production of India,

being a slime[2] which adheres to the scum upon the reeds there.







When powdered, it is black in appearance, but when diluted in

water it yields a marvellous combination of purple and cruleum.

There is another[3] kind, also, which floats upon the surface

of the pans in the purple dye-houses, being the scum

which rises upon the purple dye. Persons who adulterate it,

stain pigeons' dung with genuine indicum, or else colour Selinusian[4]

earth, or anularian[5] chalk with woad.



The proper way of testing indicum is by laying it on hot

coals, that which is genuine producing a fine purple flame,

and emitting a smell like that of sea-water while it smokes:

hence it is that some are of opinion that it is gathered from the

rocks on the sea-shore. The price of indicum is twenty denarii

per pound. Used medicinally, it alleviates cold shiverings

and defluxions, and acts as a desiccative upon sores.







1. Indigo, no doubt, is the colour meant. See B. xxxiii. c. 57.

2. It is the produce of the Indigofera tinctoria, and comes from Bengal

more particularly. Beckmann and Dr. Bancroft have each investigated this

subject at great length, and though Pliny is greatly mistaken as to the mode in which the drug was produced, they agree in the conclusion that

his "indicum" was real indigo, and not, as some have supposed, a pigment

prepared from isatis, or woad.

3. This passage, similar in many respects to the account given by Dioscorides, is commented on at great length by Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II.

p. 263. Bohn's Edition.

4. See Chapter 56 of this Book.

5. See Chapter 30 of this Book.




28. Chap. 28.-Armenium; One Remedy.


CHAP. 28.-ARMENIUM; ONE REMEDY.



Armenia sends us the colouring substance which is known

to us by its name.[1] This also is a mineral, which admits of

being dyed, like chrysocolla,[2] and is best when it most closely

resembles that substance, the colour being pretty much that of

cruleum. In former times it was sold at thirty sesterces per

pound; but there has been found of late in the Spanish

provinces a sand which admits of a similar preparation, and

consequently armenium has come to be sold so low as at six

denarii per pound. It differs from cruleum in a certain

degree of whiteness, which causes the colour it yields to be

thinner in comparison. The only use made of it in medicine

is for the purpose of giving nourishment to the hair, that of

the eyelids in particular.







1. "Armenium." Armenian bole is still used for colouring tooth-powder

and essence of anchovies.

2. See B. xxxiii. c. 26.




29. Chap. 29.-Appianum.


CHAP. 29.-APPIANUM.



There are also two colours of very inferior quality, which

have been recently discovered. One of these is the green







known as "appianum,"[1] a fair imitation of chrysocolla; just

as though we had not had to mention sufficient of these counterfeits

already. This colour, too, is prepared from a green

chalk, the usual price of it being one sesterce per pound.







1. So called, probably, either from the place where it was made, or

from the person who first discovered it. Some commentators have suggested

that it should be "apian" green, meaning "parsley" colour.




30. Chap. 30.-Anularian White.


CHAP. 30.-ANULARIAN WHITE.



The other colour is that known as "anularian[1] white;"

being used for giving a brilliant whiteness to the figures of

females.[2] This, too, is prepared from a kind of chalk, combined

with the glassy paste which the lower classes wear in their

rings:[3] hence it is, that it has the name "anulare."







1. So called from "anulus," a "ring," as mentioned below.

2. "Quo muliebres pictur illuminantur." The meaning of this passage

is obscure. It would seem almost to apply to paintings, but Beckmann

is of opinion that the meaning is, "This is the beautiful white with

which the ladies paint or ornament themselves."-Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p.

261. Bohn's Edition.

3. Beckmann suggests that it was so called from its being one of the

sealing earths, "anulus" being the name of a signet ring. Vol. II. p. 260.




31. Chap. 31. (7.)-Which Colours Do Not Admit Of Being Laid On A Wet Coating.


CHAP. 31. (7.)-WHICH COLOURS DO NOT ADMIT OF BEING

LAID ON A WET COATING.



Those among the colours which require a dry, cretaceous,

coating,[1] and refuse to adhere to a wet surface, are purpurissum,

indicum, cruleum,[2] melinum, orpiment, appianum, and

ceruse. Wax, too, is stained with all these colouring substances

for encaustic painting;[3] a process which does not admit of







being applied to walls, but is in common use[4] by way of ornament

for ships of war, and, indeed, merchant-ships at the present

day. As we go so far as to paint these vehicles of danger, no

one can be surprised if we paint our funeral piles as well, or

if we have our gladiators conveyed in handsome carriages to

the scene of death, or, at all events, of carnage. When we

only contemplate this extensive variety of colours, we cannot

but admire the ingenuity displayed by the men of former

days.







1. "Cretulam."

2. See B. xxxiii. c. 57.

3. See Chapter 39, where this process is more fully described. "'Cer,'

or 'waxes,' was the ordinary term for painters' colours among the Romans,

but more especially encaustic colours, which were probably kept dry

in boxes, and the wet brush or pencil was rubbed upon them when colour

was required, or they were moistened by the artist previous to commencing

work. From the term 'cer' it would appear that wax constituted the

principal ingredient in the colouring vehicle used; but this does not necessarily

follow, and it is very improbable that it did; there must have

been a great portion of gum or resin in the colours, or they could not have

hardened. Wax was undoubtedly a most essential ingredient, since it

apparently prevents the colours from cracking. 'Cer' therefore might

originally simply mean colours which contained wax, in contradistinction

to those which did not; but was afterwards applied generally by the Romans

to the colours of painters."-Wornum, Smith's Diet. Antiq. Art.

Painting.

4. Called "Inceramenta navium," in Livy, B. xxviii. c. 45. See also

Chapters 39 and 41 of this Book.




32. Chap. 32.-What Colours Were Used By The Ancients In Painting.


CHAP. 32.-WHAT COLOURS WERE USED BY THE ANCIENTS IN

PAINTING.



It was with four colours only,[1] that Apelles,[2] Echion,

Melanthius, and Nicomachus, those most illustrous painters,

executed their immortal works; melinum[3] for the white, Attic

sil[4] for the yellow, Pontic sinopis for the red, and atramentum

for the black;[5] and yet a single picture of theirs has sold before

now for the treasures of whole cities. But at the present day,

when purple is employed for colouring walls even, and when

India sends to us the slime[6] of her rivers, and the corrupt blood

of her dragons[7] and her elephants, there is no such thing as a

picture of high quality produced. Everything, in fact, was superior

at a time when the resources of art were so much fewer

than they now are. Yes, so it is; and the reason is, as we







have already stated,[8] that it is the material, and not the efforts

of genius, that is now the object of research.







1. Pliny here commits a mistake, which may have arisen from an imperfect

recollection, as Sir. H. Davy has supposed, of a passage in Cicero

(Brutus, c. 18), which, however, quite contradicts the statement of Pliny.

"In painting, we admire in the works of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, Timanthes,

and those who used four colours only, the figure and the lineaments; but

in the works of Echion, Nicomachus, Protogenes, and Apelles, everything

is perfect." Indeed Pliny contradicts himself, for he speaks of two others

colours used by the earliest painters, the testa trita, or ground earthenware,

in Chapter 5 of this Book; and "cinnabaris," or vermilion, in B. xxxiii.

c. 36. Also, in Chapter 21 of this Book he speaks of Eretrian earth as

having been used by Nicomachus, and in Chapter 25 of ivory black as

having been invented by Apelles.

2. These painters will all be noticed in Chapter 36.

3. See Chapter 19 of this Book.

4. See B. xxxiii. c. 56.

5. Blue is here excluded altogether, unless under the term "atramentum"

we would include black and blue indicum, or in other words, Indian

ink and indigo.

6. See Chapter 27 of this Book.

7. In allusion to "Dragon's blood." See B. xxxiii. c. 38.

8. In Chapter 2 of this Book.




33. Chap. 33.-At What Time Combats Of Gladiators Were First Painted And Publicly Exhibited.


CHAP. 33.-AT WHAT TIME COMBATS OF GLADIATORS WERE FIRST

PAINTED AND PUBLICLY EXHIBITED.



One folly, too, of this age of ours, in reference to painting, I

must not omit. The Emperor Nero ordered a painting of himself

to be executed upon canvass, of colossal proportions, one

hundred and twenty feet in height; a thing till then unknown.[1]

This picture was just completed when it was burnt

by lightning, with the greater part of the gardens of Maius,

in which it was exhibited.



A freedman of the same prince, on the occasion of his exhibiting

a show of gladiators at Antium, had the public porticos

hung, as everybody knows, with paintings, in which

were represented genuine portraits of the gladiators and all

the other assistants. Indeed, at this place, there has been a

very prevailing taste for paintings for many ages past. C.

Terentius Lucanus was the first who had combats of gladiators

painted for public exhibition: in honour of his grandfather,

who had adopted him, he provided thirty pairs of gladiators

in the Forum, for three consecutive days, and exhibited a

painting of their combats in the Grove of Diana.[2]







1. From the construction of the passage, it is difficult to say whether he

means to say that such colossal figures were till then unknown in painting,

or whether that the use of canvass in painting was till then unknown.

If the latter is the meaning, it is not exactly correct, though it is probable

that the introduction of canvass for this purpose was comparatively late;

there being no mention of its being employed by the Greek painters of the

best periods.

2. See B. iii. c. 9, B. xiv. c. 3, and B. xvi. c. 91.




34. Chap. 34. (8.)-The Age Of Painting; With The Names Of The More Celebrated Works And Artists, Four Hundred And Five In Number.


CHAP. 34. (8.)-THE AGE OF PAINTING; WITH THE NAMES OF

THE MORE CELEBRATED WORKS AND ARTISTS, FOUR HUNDRED

AND FIVE IN NUMBER.



I shall now proceed to enumerate, as briefly as possible, the

more eminent among the painters; it not being consistent with

the plan of this work to go into any great lengths of detail.

It must suffice therefore, in some cases, to name the artist in a

cursory manner only, and with reference to the account given of

others; with the exception, of course, of the more famous pro-







ductions of the pictorial art, whether still in existence or

now lost, all of which it will be only right to take some notice

of. In this department, the ordinary exactness of the Greeks

has been somewhat inconsistent, in placing the painters so

many Olympiads after the statuaries and toreutic[1] artists, and

the very first of them so late as the ninetieth Olympiad; seeing

that Phidias himself is said to have been originally a painter,

and that there was a shield at Athens which had been painted

by him: in addition to which, it is universally agreed that in

the eighty-third Olympiad, his brother Pannus[2] painted, at

Elis,[3] the interior of the shield of Minerva, which had been

executed by Colotes,[4] a disciple of Phidias and his assistant

in the statue of the Olympian Jupiter.[5] And then besides, is it

not equally admitted that Candaules, the last Lydian king of the

race of the Heraclid, very generally known also by the name

of Myrsilus, paid its weight in gold for a picture by the painter

Bularchus,[6] which represented the battle fought by him with

the Magnetes? so great was the estimation in which the art

was already held. This circumstance must of necessity have

happened about the period of our Romulus; for it was in the

eighteenth Olympiad that Candaules perished, or, as some

writers say, in the same year as the death of Romulus: a thing

which clearly demonstrates that even at that early period the

art had already become famous, and had arrived at a state of

great perfection.



If, then, we are bound to admit this conclusion, it must be

equally evident that the commencement of the art is of much

earlier date, and that those artists who painted in monochrome,[7]

and whose dates have not been handed down to us,

must have flourished at even an anterior period; Hyginon,

namely, Dinias, Charmadas,[8] Eumarus, of Athens, the first who







distinguished the sexes[9] in painting, and attempted to imitate

every kind of figure; and Cimon[10] of Cleon, who improved

upon the inventions of Eumarus.



It was this Cimon, too, who first invented foreshortenings,[11]

or in other words, oblique views of the figure, and who first

learned to vary the features by representing them in the

various attitudes of looking backwards, upwards, or downwards.

It was he, too, who first marked the articulations of

the limbs, indicated the veins, and gave the natural folds and

sinuosities to drapery. Pannus, too, the brother of Phidias,

even executed a painting[12] of the battle fought by the Athenians

with the Persians at Marathon: so common, indeed, had

the employment of colours become, and to such a state of perfection

had the art arrived, that he was able to represent, it is

said, the portraits of the various generals who commanded at

that battle, Miltiades, Callimachus, and Cyngirus, on the

side of the Athenians, and, on that of the barbarians, Datis

and Artaphernes.







1. "Toreut." For the explanation of this term, see end of B. xxxiii.

2. In reality he was cousin or nephew of Phidias, by the father's side,

though Pausanias, B. v. c. 11, falls into the same error as that committed

by Pliny. He is mentioned likewise by Strabo and schines.

3. See B. xxxvi. c. 55.

4. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

5. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

6. See B. vii. c. 39.

7. Paintings with but one colour. "Monochromata," as we shall see in

Chapter 36, were painted at all times, and by the greatest masters. Those

of Zeuxis corresponded with the Chiariscuri of the Italians, light and

shade being introduced with the highest degree of artistic skill.

8. These several artists are quite unknown, being mentioned by no other

author.

9. It is pretty clear, from vases of a very ancient date, that it is not the

sexual distinction that is here alluded to. Eumarus, perhaps, may have been

the first to give to each sex its characteristic style of design, in the compositions,

draperies, attitudes, and complexions of the respective sexes.

Wornum thinks that, probably, Eumarus, and certainly, Cimon, belonged

to the class of ancient tetrachromists, or polychromists, painting in a variety

of colours, without a due, or at least a partial, observance of the

laws of light and shade. Smith's Dict. Antiq. Art. Painting.

10. He is mentioned also by lian. Bttiger is of opinion that he flourished

about the 80th Olympiad. It is probable, however, that he lived

long before the age of Polygnotus; but some time after that of Eumarus.

Wornum thinks that he was probably a contemporary of Solon, a century

before Polygnotus.

11. "Catagrapha."

12. This picture was placed in the Pcile at Athens, and is mentioned

also by Pausanias, B. i. c. 15, and by schines, Ctesiph. s. 186.




35. Chap. 35. (9.)-The First Contest For Excellence In The Pictorial Art.


CHAP. 35. (9.)-THE FIRST CONTEST FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE

PICTORIAL ART.



And not only this, but, during the time that Pannus

flourished, there were contests in the pictorial art instituted

at Corinth and Delphi. On the first occasion, Pannus himself

entered the lists, at the Pythian Games, with Timagoras

of Chalcis, by whom he was defeated; a circumstance which

is recorded in some ancient lines by Timagoras himself, and

an undoubted proof that the chroniclers are in error as to







the date of the origin of painting. After these, and yet

before the ninetieth Olympiad, there were other celebrated

painters, Polygnotus of Thasos,[1] for instance, who was the

first to paint females in transparent drapery, and to represent

the head covered with a parti-coloured head-dress. He, too,

was the first to contribute many other improvements to the

art of painting, opening the mouth, for example, showing the

teeth, and throwing expression into the countenance, in place

of the ancient rigidity of the features.



There is a picture by this artist in the Portico[2] of Pompeius,

before the Curia that was built by him; with reference to

which, there is some doubt whether the man represented with

a shield is in the act of ascending or descending. He also

embellished the Temple[3] at Delphi, and at Athens the Portico

known as the Pcile;[4] at which last he worked gratuitously,

in conjunction with Micon,[5] who received pay for his labours.

Indeed Polygnotus was held in the higher esteem of the two;

for the Amphictyons,[6] who form the general Council of Greece,

decreed that he should have his lodging furnished him at the

public expense.



There was also another Micon, distinguished from the first

Micon by the surname of "the younger," and whose daughter

Timarete[7] also practised the art of painting.







1. See B. vii. c. 57. (Vol. II. p. 233), where he is mentioned as an Athenian.

It is not improbable that he became a citizen of Athens in the seventy-ninth

Olympiad, B.C. 463, when Thasos was brought under the power of

Athens, and, as Sillig suggests, at the solicitation of Cimon, the son of

Miltiades. It is generally supposed that he flourished about the eightieth

Olympiad.

2. Belonging to the Theatre of Pompey, in the Ninth Region of the City.

3. With scenes from the Trojan War, and the adventures of Ulysses.

4. Or "Variegated;" from its various pictures.

5. See B. xxxiii. c. 56.

6. See B. vii. c. 37.

7. She is again mentioned in Chapter 40.




36. Chap. 36.-Artists Who Painted With The Pencil.


CHAP. 36.-ARTISTS WHO PAINTED WITH THE PENCIL.



In the ninetieth Olympiad lived Aglaophon,[1] Cephisodorus,

Erillus, and Evenor, the father of Parrhasius, one of the







greatest of painters, and of whom we shall have to speak

when we come to the period at which he flourished. All

these were artists of note, but not sufficiently so to detain us

by any further details, in our haste to arrive at the luminaries

of the art; first among whom shone Apollodorus of Athens,

in the ninety-third Olympiad. He was the first to paint

objects as they really appeared; the first too, we may justly

say, to confer glory[2] by the aid of the pencil.[3] Of this artist

there is a Priest in Adoration, and an Ajax struck by Lightning,

a work to be seen at Pergamus at the present day:

before him, there is no painting of any artist now to be seen

which has the power of rivetting the eye.



The gates of art being now thrown open by Apollodorus,

Zeuxis of Heraclea[4] entered upon the scene, in the fourth year

of the ninety-fifth Olympiad, destined to lead the pencil-for

it is of the pencil that we are still speaking-a pencil for

which there was nothing too arduous, to a very high pitch of

glory. By some writers he is erroneously placed in the

eighty-ninth Olympiad, a date that must of necessity be reserved

for Demophilus of Himera and Neseus of Thasos, of

one of whom, it is uncertain which, Zeuxis was the pupil.

It was in reference to him that Apollodorus, above-mentioned,

wrote a verse to the effect, that Zeuxis had stolen the art

from others and had taken it all to himself.[5] Zeuxis also

acquired such a vast amount of wealth, that, in a spirit of

ostentation, he went so far as to parade himself at Olympia

with his name embroidered on the checked pattern of his

garments in letters of gold. At a later period, he came to the







determination to give away his works, there being no price

high enough to pay for them, he said. Thus, for instance,

he gave an Alcmena to the people of Agrigentum, and a Pan

to Archelas.[6] He also painted a Penelope, in which the

peculiar character of that matron appears to be delineated to

the very life; and a figure of an athlete, with which he was

so highly pleased, that he wrote beneath it the line which has

since become so famous, to the effect that it would be easier

to find fault with him than to imitate him.[7] His Jupiter

seated on the throne, with the other Deities standing around

him, is a magnificent production: the same, too, with his

Infant Hercules strangling the Dragons, in presence of Amphitryon

and his mother Alcmena, who is struck with horror.

Still, however, Zeuxis is generally censured for making the

heads and articulations of his figures out of proportion. And

yet, so scrupulously careful was he, that on one occasion, when

he was about to execute a painting for the people of Agrigentum,[8]

to be consecrated in the Temple of the Lacinian

Juno there, he had the young maidens of the place stripped

for examination, and selected five of them, in order to adopt

in his picture the most commendable points in the form of

each. He also painted some monochromes in white.[9]



The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes,

Androcydes, Eupompus, and Parrhasius. (10.) This last, it

is said, entered into a pictorial contest with Zeuxis, who

represented some grapes, painted so naturally that the birds

flew towards the spot where the picture was exhibited.

Parrhasius, on the other hand, exhibited a curtain, drawn with

such singular truthfulness, that Zeuxis, elated with the

judgment which had been passed upon his work by the birds,

haughtily demanded that the curtain should be drawn aside to

let the picture be seen. Upon finding his mistake, with a great

degree of ingenuous candour he admitted that he had been

surpassed, for that whereas he himself had only deceived the

birds, Parrhasius had deceived him, an artist.







There is a story, too, that at a later period, Zeuxis having

painted a child carrying grapes, the birds came to peck at them;

upon which, with a similar degree of candour, he expressed

himself vexed with his work, and exclaimed-" I have surely

painted the grapes better than the child, for if I had fully

succeeded in the last, the birds would have been in fear of

it." Zeuxis executed some figures also in clay,[10] the only

works of art that were left behind at Ambracia, when Fulvius

Nobilior[11] transported the Muses from that city to Rome. There

is at Rome a Helena by Zeuxis, in the Porticos of Philippus,[12]

and a Marsyas Bound, in the Temple of Concord[13] there.



Parrhasius of Ephesus also contributed greatly to the progress

of painting, being the first to give symmetry to his

figures, the first to give play and expression to the features,

elegance to the hair, and gracefulness to the mouth: indeed,

for contour, it is universally admitted by artists that he bore

away the palm. This, in painting, is the very highest point

of skill. To paint substantial bodies and the interior of

objects is a great thing, no doubt, but at the same time it is a

point in which many have excelled: but to make the extreme

outline of the figure, to give the finishing touches to the

painting in rounding off the contour, this is a point of success

in the art which is but rarely attained. For the extreme

outline, to be properly executed, requires to be nicely rounded,

and so to terminate as to prove the existence of something

more behind it, and thereby disclose that which it also serves

to hide.



Such is the merit conceded to Parrhasius by Antigonus[14]

and Xenocrates,[15] who have written on the art of painting;

and in this as well as in other points, not only do they admit

his excellence, but enlarge upon it in terms of the highest

commendation. There are many pen sketches by him still in

existence, both upon panel and on parchment, from the study

of which, even artists, it is said, may greatly profit.



Notwithstanding these points of excellence, however, Parrhasius

seems comparatively inferior to himself in giving the







proper expression to the middle of the body. In his allegorical

picture of the People of Athens, he has displayed

singular ingenuity in the treatment of his subject; for in

representing it, he had to depict it as at once fickle, choleric,

unjust, and versatile; while, again, he had equally to show its

attributes of implacability[16] and clemency, compassionateness

and pride, loftiness and humility, fierceness and timidity-

and all these at once. He painted a Theseus also, which was

formerly in the Capitol at Rome, a Naval Commander[17] wearing

a cuirass, and, in one picture, now at Rhodes, figures of

Meleager, Hercules, and Perseus. This last painting, though

it has been thrice struek by lightning, has escaped being

effaced, a circumstance which tends to augment the admiration

which it naturally excites. He painted an Archigallus[18]

also, a picture which the Emperor Tiberius greatly

admired. According to Deculo,[19] that prince had it shut up in

his chamber, the price at which it was valued being six

hundred thousand sesterces.



Parrhasius also painted a Thracian Nurse, with an Infant

in her arms, a Philiscus,[20] a Father Liber[21] attended by Virtue,

Two Children, in which we see pourtrayed the careless simplicity

of childhood, and a Priest attended by a Boy, with a

censer and chaplet. There are also two most noble pictures

by him; one of which represents a Runner[22] contending for the

prize, completely armed, so naturally depicted that he has all

the appearance of sweating. In the other we see the Runner

taking off his armour, and can fancy that we hear him panting

aloud for breath. His neas, Castor, and Pollux, all represented

in the same picture, are highly praised; his Telephus also,

and his Achilles, Agamemnon, and Ulysses.



Parrhasius was a most prolific artist, but at the same time

there was no one who enjoyed the glory conferred upon him by

his talent with greater insolence and arrogance. It was in this







spirit, that he went so far as to assume certain surnames, and

to call himself "Habroditus;"[23] while in some other verses

he declared himself to be the "prince of painters," and asserted

that in him the art had arrived at perfection. But above all

things, it was a boast with him that he had sprung from the

lineage of Apollo, and that he had painted his Hercules, a

picture now at Lindos, just as he had often seen him in his

sleep. It was in this spirit, too, that upon being defeated by

Timanthes, at Samos, by a great majority of votes, the subject

of the picture being Ajax and the Award of the Arms,[24] he

declared, in the name of his hero, that he felt himself quite

disgraced on thus seeing himself a second time defeated by an

unworthy opponent. He painted also some smaller pictures of

an immodest nature, indulging his leisure in such prurient

fancies as these.[25]



As to Timanthes,[26] he was an artist highly gifted with

genius, and loud have some of the orators[27] been in their commendations

of his Iphigenia, represented as she stands at the

altar awaiting her doom. Upon the countenance of all present,

that of her uncle[28] in particular, grief was depicted; but

having already exhausted all the characteristic features of

sorrow, the artist adopted the device of veiling the features

of the victim's father,[29] finding himself unable adequately to

give expression to his feelings. There are also some other

proofs of his genius, a Sleeping Cyclops, for instance, which he

has painted upon a small panel; but, being desirous to convey an

idea of his gigantic stature, he has painted some Satyrs near

him measuring his thumb with a thyrsus. Indeed, Timanthes

is the only one among the artists in whose works there is

always something more implied by the pencil than is expressed,

and whose execution, though of the very highest quality, is

always surpassed by the inventiveness of his genius. He has

also painted the figure of a Hero, a master-piece of skill, in

which he has carried the art to the very highest pitch of per-







fection, in the delineation of the warrior: this last-mentioned

work is now at Rome, in the Temple of Peace.[30]



It was at this period, too, that Euxinidas had for his pupil

Aristides,[31] who became a most illustrious artist; and that

Eupompus instructed Pamphilus, who afterwards became the

instructor of Apelles. There is by Eupompus, a Victor in a

gymnastic contest, holding a palm. So high was the reputation

of this artist, that he established a school of painting, and

so divided the art into three styles; whereas till then there had

been but two, known respectively as the Helladic[32] and the

Asiatic. In honour of him, a native of Sicyon by birth, the

Helladic school was divided into two, and from this period

there were three distinct styles recognized, the Ionic, the

Sicyonian, and the Attic.



We have, by Pamphilus,[33] a picture representing the Alliance

and the Battle that was fought at Phlius;[34] the Victory[35] also

that was gained by the Athenians, and a representation of

Ulysses in his ship. He was a Macedonian by birth, but was

the first painter who was also skilled in all the other sciences,

arithmetic and geometry more particularly, without the aid of

which he maintained that the pictorial art could not attain

perfection. He gave instruction to no one for a smaller sum

than one talent, at the rate of five hundred denarii per

annum,[36] and this fee both Apelles and Melanthius paid. It

was through his influence that, first at Sicyon, and then

throughout the whole of Greece, all children of free birth were

taught the graphic[37] art, or in other words, the art of depicting

upon boxwood, before all others; in consequence of which this

came to be looked upon as the first step in the liberal arts. It







is the fact, however, that this art has always been held in high

estimation, and cultivated by persons of free birth, and that, at a

more recent period, men of rank even began to pursue it; it

having always been forbidden that slaves should receive instruction

in it. Hence it is, that neither in painting nor in the

toreutic[38] art has there been any celebrated work executed by

a slave.



In the hundred and seventh Olympiad, flourished Ation and

Therimachus.[39] By the former we have some fine pictures; a

Father Liber,[40] Tragedy and Comedy, Semiramis from the rank

of a slave elevated to the throne, an Old Woman bearing

torches, and a New-made Bride, remarkable for the air of

modesty with which she is pourtrayed.



But it was Apelles[41] of Cos, in the hundred and twelfth

Olympiad, who surpassed all the other painters who either

preceded or succeeded him. Single-handed, he contributed

more to painting than all the others together, and even went

so far as to publish some treatises on the principles of the art.

The great point of artistic merit with him was his singular charm

of gracefulness,[42] and this too, though the greatest of painters

were his contemporaries. In admiring their works and bestowing

high eulogiums upon them, he used to say that there

was still wanting in them that ideal of beauty[43] so peculiar to

himself, and known to the Greeks as "Charis;"[44] others, he said,

had acquired all the other requisites of perfection, but in this one

point he himself had no equal. He also asserted his claim to

another great point of merit: admiring a picture by Protogenes,

which bore evident marks of unbounded laboriousness and the

most minute finish, he remarked that in every respect Protogenes

was fully his equal, or perhaps his superior, except in

this, that he himself knew when to take his hand off a

picture-a memorable lesson, which teaches us that over-carefulness

may be productive of bad results. His candour







too, was equal to his talent; he acknowledged the superiority

of Melanthius in his grouping, and of Asclepiodorus in the

niceness of his measurements, or, in other words, the distances

that ought to be left between the objects represented.



A circumstance that happened to him in connection with

Protogenes is worthy of notice. The latter was living at Rhodes,

when Apelles disembarked there, desirous of seeing the works

of a man whom he had hitherto only known by reputation.

Accordingly, he repaired at once to the studio; Protogenes

was not at home, but there happened to be a large panel

upon the easel ready for painting, with an old woman who

was left in charge. To his enquiries she made answer, that

Protogenes was not at home, and then asked whom she

should name as the visitor. "Here he is," was the reply of

Apelles, and seizing a brush, he traced with colour upon the

panel an outline of a singularly minute fineness. Upon his

return, the old woman mentioned to Protogenes what had

happened. The artist, it is said, upon remarking the delicacy

of the touch, instantly exclaimed that Apelles must have been

the visitor, for that no other person was capable of executing

anything so exquisitely perfect. So saying, he traced within

the same outline a still finer outline, but with another colour,

and then took his departure, with instructions to the woman

to show it to the stranger, if he returned, and to let him know

that this was the person whom he had come to see. It happened

as he anticipated; Apelles returned, and vexed at finding

himself thus surpassed, he took up another colour and split[45]

both of the outlines, leaving no possibility of anything finer being

executed. Upon seeing this, Protogenes admitted that he was

defeated, and at once flew to the harbour to look for his guest.







He thought proper, too, to transmit the panel to posterity, just

as it was, and it always continued to be held in the highest

admiration by all, artists in particular. I am told that it was

burnt in the first fire which took place at Csar's palace on

the Palatine Hill; but in former times I have often stopped

to admire it. Upon its vast surface it contained nothing

whatever except the three outlines, so remarkably fine as to

escape the sight: among the most elaborate works of numerous

other artists it had all the appearance of a blank space; and

yet by that very fact it attracted the notice of every one, and

was held in higher estimation than any other painting there.



It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously

adhered, never to let any day pass, however busy he might be,

without exercising himself by tracing some outline or other; a

practice which has now passed into a proverb.[46] It was also

a practice with him, when he had completed a work, to exhibit

it to the view of the passers-by in some exposed place;[47] while

he himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the

criticisms that were passed upon it; it being his opinion that

the judgment of the public was preferable to his own, as being

the more discerning of the two. It was under these circumstances,

they say, that he was censured by a shoemaker for

having represented the shoes with one shoe-string too little.

The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former

error corrected, thanks to his advice, began to criticize the

leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head

out, and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion

beyond the shoes, a piece of advice which has equally passed into

a proverbial saying.[48] In fact, Apelles was a person of great

amenity of manners, a circumstance which rendered him particularly

agreeable to Alexander the Great, who would often

come to his studio. He had forbidden himself, by public edict,

as already stated,[49] to be represented by any other artist. On

one occasion, however, when the prince was in his studio,

talking a great deal about painting without knowing anything

about it, Apelles quietly begged that he would quit the sub-







ject, telling him that he would get laughed at by the boys who

were there grinding the colours: so great was the influence

which he rightfully possessed over a monarch, who was otherwise

of an irascible temperament. And yet, irascible as he was,

Alexander conferred upon him a very signal mark of the high

estimation in which he held him; for having, in his admiration

of her extraordinary beauty, engaged Apelles to paint

Pancaste undraped,[50] the most beloved of all his concubines,

the artist while so engaged, fell in love with her; upon which,

Alexander, perceiving this to be the case, made him a present

of her, thus showing himself, though a great king in courage,

a still greater one in self-command, this action redounding no

less to his honour than any of his victories. For in thus conquering

himself, not only did he sacrifice his passions in

favour of the artist, but even his affections as well; uninfluenced,

too, by the feelings which must have possessed his favourite

in thus passing at once from the arms of a monarch to

those of a painter. Some persons are of opinion that Pancaste

was the model of Apelles in his painting of Venus Anadyomene.[51]



It was Apelles too, who, courteous even to his rivals, first

established the reputation of Protogenes at Rhodes. Held as

he was in little estimation by his own fellow-countrymen,

a thing that generally[52] is the case, Apelles enquired of him

what price he set upon certain finished works of his, which

he had on hand. Upon Protogenes mentioning some very

trifling sum or other, Apelles made him an offer of fifty talents,

and then circulated a report that he was buying these works

in order to sell them as his own. By this contrivance, he

aroused the Rhodians to a better appreciation of the merits

of their artist, and only consented to leave the pictures with

them upon their offering a still larger price.



He painted portraits, too, so exactly to the life, that a fact

with which we are made acquainted by the writings of Apion

the grammarian seems altogether incredible. One of those

persons, he says, who divine events by the traits of the fea-







tures, and are known as "metoposcopi,"[53] was enabled, by an

examination of his portraits, to tell the year of their death,

whether past or future, of each person represented. Apelles

had been on bad terms with Ptolemus in former times, when

they formed part of the suite of Alexander. After Ptolemus

had become king of Egypt, it so happened that Apolles was

driven by the violence of a tempest to Alexandria. Upon this,

some of his rivals fraudulently suborned a jester, who was attached

to the court, to carry him an invitation to dine with the

king. Accordingly, Apelles attended; upon which Ptolemus

was highly indignant, and, summoning before him his stewards[54]

of the household, requested that the artist would point out the

one that had given him the invitation. Thus challenged,

Apelles seized a piece of quenched charcoal that lay in the

fire-place, and traced a likeness upon the wall, with such exactness,

that the king, the moment he began it, recognized the

features as those of the jester. He also painted a portrait of

King Antigonus;[55] and as that monarch was blind of one eye, he

invented a method of concealing the defect. With this object,

he painted him in profile, in order that what in reality was

wanting to the person might have the semblance of being

wanting to the picture rather, he making it his care to show

that side of the face only which he could show without any

defect. Among his works, too, there are some figures representing

persons at the point of death; but it is not easy to say

which of his productions are of the highest order of excellence.



His Venus Rising from the Sea, known as the Venus Anadyomene,[56]

was consecrated by the late Emperor Augustus in the

Temple[57] of his father[58] Csar; a work which has been cele-







brated in certain Greek lines,[59] which, though they have out-

lived it, have perpetuated its fame.[60] The lower part of the

picture having become damaged, no one could be found to

repair it; and thus did the very injury which the picture had

sustained, redound to the glory of the artist. Time, however,

and damp at last effaced the painting, and Nero, in his reign,

had it replaced by a copy, painted by the hand of Dorotheus.[61]

Apelles also commenced another Venus for the people of Cos,[62]

which would have outshone even the former one; but death

invidiously prevented its completion, nor could any one be

found to complete the work in conformity with the sketches of

the outline. He painted also, in the Temple of Diana at

Ephesus, Alexander the Great wielding the Thunderbolts, a

picture for which he received twenty talents of gold. The

fingers have all the appearance of projecting from the surface,

and the lightning seems to be darting from the picture.

And then, too, let the reader bear in mind that all these works

were executed by the aid of four[63] colours only. The price

paid in golden coin for this picture was ascertained by weight,[64]

there being no specific sum agreed upon.



He also painted a Procession of the Megabyzus,[65] the priest

of Diana at Ephesus; and a Clitus[66] on Horseback, hastening to the combat, his Armour-bearer handing him his helmet

at his command. How many times he painted Alexander and

Philip, it would be quite superfluous to attempt to enumerate.

At Samos, there is a Habron[67] by him, that is greatly admired;

at Rhodes a Menander,[68] king of Caria, and an Ancus;[69] at







Alexandria, a Gorgosthenes, the Tragedian; and at Rome, a Castor

and Pollux, with figures of Victory and Alexander the Great,

and an emblematical figure of War with her hands tied behind

her, and Alexander seated in a triumphal car; both of

which pictures the late Emperor Augustus, with a great degree

of moderation[70] and good taste, consecrated in the most frequented

parts of his Forum: the Emperor Claudius, however,

thought it advisable to efface the head of Alexander in both

pictures, and substitute likenesses of his predecessor Augustus.

It is by his hand too, it is generally supposed, that the Hercules,

with the face averted, now in the Temple of Anna,[71] was

painted; a picture in which, one of the greatest difficulties in

the art, the face, though hidden, may be said to be seen rather

than left to the imagination. He also painted a figure of a

naked[72] Hero,[73] a picture in which he has challenged Nature

herself.



There exists too, or did exist, a Horse that was painted by

him for a pictorial contest; as to the merits of which, Apelles

appealed from the judgment of his fellow-men to that of the

dumb quadrupeds. For, finding that by their intrigues his

rivals were likely to get the better of him, he had some horses

brought, and the picture of each artist successively shown to

them. Accordingly, it was only at the sight of the horse

painted by Apelles that they began to neigh; a thing that has

always been the case since, whenever this test of his artistic

skill has been employed. He also painted a Neoptolemus[74] on

horse-back, fighting with the Persians; an Archelus,[75] with

his Wife and Daughter; and an Antigonus on foot, with a







cuirass on, and his horse led by his side. Connoisseurs in the

art give the preference, before all other works of his, to his

paintings of King Archelus on horseback, and of Diana

in the midst of a throng of Virgins performing a sacrifice;

a work in which he would appear to have surpassed

the lines[76] of Homer descriptive of the same subject. He

also portrayed some things, which in reality do not admit

of being portrayed-thunder, lightning, and thunderbolts, in

pictures which are known by the respective names of Bronte,

Astrape, and Ceraunobolia.



His inventions, too, in the art of painting, have been highly

serviceable to others; but one thing there was in which no one

could imitate him. When his works were finished, he used to

cover them with a black varnish, of such remarkable thinness,

that while by the reflection it gave more vivacity to the colours,

and preserved them from the contact of dust and dirt, its

existence could only be detected by a person when close enough

to touch it.[77] In addition to this, there was also this other

great advantage attending it: the brightness of the colours

was softened thereby, and harmonized to the sight, looking as

though they had been viewed from a distance, and through a

medium of specular-stone;[78] the contrivance, by some indescribable

means, giving a sombreness to colours which would otherwise

have been too florid.



One of the contemporaries of Apelles was Aristides[79] of

Thebes; the first of all the painters to give full expression to

the mind[80] and passions of man, known to the Greeks us h)/qh,

as well as to the mental perturbations which we experience:

he was somewhat harsh, however, in his colours. There is a

picture by him of a Captured City, in which is represented an

infant crawling toward the breast of its wounded mother, who,







though at the point of death, has all the appearance of being

aware of it, and of being in dread lest the child should suck

blood in place of milk from her exhausted breast: this picture

Alexander the Great ordered to be transferred to Pella, his

native place. Aristides also painted a Battle with the Persians,

a picture which contained one hundred figures, for each

of which he was paid at the rate of ten min by Mnason, the

tyrant of Elatea.[81] He also painted Chariots with four horses

in full career; a Suppliant, which almost speaks, Huntsmen

with game; Leontion, the mistress of Epicurus; the Anapauomenc,[82]

a damsel pining to death from love for her brother;

a Father Liber[83] also, and an Artamene, two fine pictures now

to be seen in the Temple of Ceres[84] at Rome; a Tragedian and

a Child, in the Temple of Apollo,[85] a picture which has lost its

beauty, owing to the unskilfulness of the painter to whom M.

Junius, the prtor, entrusted the cleaning of it, about the

period of the Apollinarian Games.[86] There was also to be

seen, in the Temple of Faith, in the Capitol, a picture of his,

representing an Aged Man giving instructions to a Child on

the lyre. He executed also a painting of an Invalid, upon

which endless encomiums have been lavished. Indeed, so great

was the excellence of this artist, that King Attalus, it is said,

purchased one picture of his at the price of one hundred

talents.



At the same period[87] flourished Protogenes, as already stated.

He was a native of Caunus,[88] a place held in subjection by the

Rhodians. Great poverty in his early days, and extreme

application to his art, were the causes of his comparative unproductiveness.

It is not known with certainty from whom

he received his instruction in the art: indeed some say that he

was only a ship-decorator down to his fiftieth year; a proof of







which, it is asserted, is the fact, that in decorating the Propylum[89]

of the Temple of Minerva, situate in one of the most

celebrated spots in Athens, where he has painted the fine picture[90]

of Paralus and Hammonias, known by some as the

Nausicaa, he has added in the side pieces of the picture, by

painters called "parerga," several small ships of war;[91] wishing

thereby to show in what department that skill had first

manifested itself which had thus reached the citadel of Athens,

the scene of his glory. Of all his compositions, however, the

palm has been awarded to his Ialysus,[92] now at Rome, consecrated

in the Temple of Peace there. So long as he was at

work upon it, he lived, it is said, upon nothing but soaked

lupines; by which means he at once appeased both hunger and

thirst, and avoided all risk of blunting his perception by too

delicate a diet. In order to protect this picture against the effects

of ill-usage and old age, he painted it over four times,[93] so that

when an upper coat might fail, there would be an under one to

succeed it. There is in this picture the figure of a dog,

which was completed in a very remarkable manner, inasmuch

as accident had an equal share with design in the execution of

it. The painter was of opinion that he had not given the

proper expression to the foam at the mouth of the animal,

panting for breath, as it was represented; while, with all

other parts of the picture, a thing extremely difficult with him,

he was perfectly satisfied. The thing that displeased him was,

the evident traces of art in the execution of it, touches which

did not admit of any diminution, and yet had all the appearance

of being too laboured, the effect produced being far removed

from his conception of the reality: the foam, in fact,







bore the marks of being painted, and not of being the natural

secretion of the animal's mouth. Vexed and tormented

by this dilemma, it being his wish to depict truth itself, and

not something that only bore a semblance of truth, he effaced

it again and again, changed his pencil for another, and yet by

no possibility could satisfy himself. At last, quite out of temper

with an art, which, in spite of him, would still obtrude

itself, he dashed his sponge against the vexatious spot; when

behold: the sponge replaced the colours that it had just removed,

exactly in accordance with his utmost wishes, and thus did

chance represent Nature in a painting.



Following his example, Nealces,[94] it is said, succeeded in

representing the foam at a horse's mouth; for on one occasion,

when engaged in painting a man holding in a pair of horses

and soothing them with his voice,[95] he also dashed his sponge

against the picture, with the view of producing a like effect.



It was on account of this Ialysus, which he was apprehensive

of destroying, that King Demetrius[96] forbore to set fire to

the only side of the city of Rhodes by which it was capable of

being taken; and thus, in his anxiety to spare a picture, did

he lose his only opportunity of gaining a victory. The

dwelling of Protogenes at this period was situate in a little

garden in the suburbs, or in other words, in the midst of the

camp of Demetrius. The combats that were taking place

made no difference whatever to the artist, and in no way interrupted

his proceeding with the works which he had commenced;

until at last he was summoned before the king, who

enquired how he could have the assurance thus to remain without

the walls. "Because I know," was his answer, "that you

are waging war with the Rhodians, and not with the arts."

Upon this, the king, delighted at having the opportunity of

protecting the hand which he had thus spared, ordered a

guard to be placed at his disposal for the especial purpose of

his protection. In order, too, that he might not distract the

artist's attention by sending for him too often, he would often

go, an enemy albeit, to pay him a visit, and, abandoning his

aspirations for victory, in the midst of arms and the battering

down of walls, would attentively examine the compositions of the







painter. Even to this day, the story is still attached to the

picture which he was then engaged upon, to the effect, that

Protogenes painted it beneath the sword. It is his Satyr,

known as the "Anapauomenos;"[97] in whose hand, to mark the

sense of security that he felt, the painter has placed a pair of

pipes.



Protogenes executed also, a Cydippe; a Tlepolemus; a

portrait of Philiscus, the tragic poet, in an attitude of meditation;

an Athlete; a portrait of King Antigonus, and one of

the mother of Aristotle.[98] It was this philosopher too, who

advised him to paint the exploits of Alexander the Great, as

being certain to be held in everlasting remembrance. The

impulse, however, of his natural disposition, combined with a

certain artistic caprice, led him in preference to adopt the

various subjects which have just been mentioned. His last

works were representations of Alexander and the god Pan.

He also executed some figures in bronze, as already[99] stated.



At the same period also, lived Asclepiodorus,[100] who was

greatly admired by Apelles for his proportions. The tyrant

Mnason[101] paid him, for his picture of the Twelve Gods, at the

rate of thirty min for each divinity. This same Mnason also

paid Theomnestus twenty min for each of his Heroes.



In addition to these, it is only proper to mention Nicomachus,[102]

the son and disciple of Aristius. He painted a Rape of

Proserpina, a picture that was formerly in the Temple of

Minerva in the Capitol, above the shrine of Juventas.[103] Another

picture of his was to be seen also in the Capitol, placed there by

the Roman general Plancus,[104] a Victory soaring aloft in a

chariot: he was the first painter who represented Ulysses

wearing the pileus.[105] He painted also an Apollo and Diana;

the Mother[106] of the Gods seated on a Lion; the fine picture

of the Bacchantes, with Satyrs moving stealthily towards







them; and a Scylla, now at Rome in the Temple of Peace.

No painter ever worked with greater rapidity than Nicomachus;

indeed it is said, that on one occasion having entered

into an engagement with Aristratus,[107] the tyrant of Sicyon, to

paint within a given time the monument which he was raising

to the memory of the poet Telestis,[108] the artist only arrived a

few days before the expiration of the term; upon which, the

tyrant was so angry that he threatened to punish him: however, in the few days that were left, Nicomachus, to the admiration

of all, completed the work, with equal promptitude

and success. Among his pupils, were his brother Ariston, his

son Aristides, and Philoxenus of Eretria, who painted for

King Cassander a picture representing one of the battles between

Alexander and Darius, a work which may bear comparison with any.

He also painted a picture in grotesque,

representing Three Sileni at their revels. Imitating the

celerity of execution displayed by his master, he introduced a

more sketchy style of painting, executed in a comparatively

off-hand manner.[109]



To these artists Nicophanes[110] has also been added, an elegant

and finished painter, to whom for gracefulness few can

be compared, but for a severe and tragic style far inferior to

Zeuxis or Apelles. Perseus also belongs to this period, a pupil of

Apelles, who dedicated to him his work on painting. Aristides

of Thebes had for pupils his sons Niceros and Ariston. By

the latter of these artists, there is a Satyr crowned with a

chaplet and holding a goblet: two of his pupils were Antorides

and Euphranor, of the latter of whom we shall have to

make mention again.[111]







1. He was a native of Thasos, and father and instructor of Polygnotus.

As Pliny has already stated that Polygnotus flourished before the ninetieth

Olympiad, there is an inconsistency in his making mention of the son as

flourishing before the father. Hence Sillig, with Bttiger, is inclined to

think that there were two artists of this name, one about the seventieth,

and the other about the ninetieth Olympiad, the former being the father

of Polygnotus.

2. "Primusque gloriam penicillo jure contulit." Wornum considers

that "the rich effect of the combination of light and shade with colour is

clearly expressed in these words."-Smith's Dict. Antiq. Art. Painting.

This artist, who was noted for his arrogance, is mentioned by other ancient

writers.

3. "Penicillus." This was the hair-pencil or brush, which was used by

one class of painters, in contradistinction to the stylus or cestrum used for

spreading the wax-colours. Painters with the brush used what we should

term "water-colours;" oil-colours, in our sense of the word, being unknown

to the ancients.

4. In "Magna Grcia," near Crotona, it is supposed. Tzetzes styles

him as an Ephesian.

5. This is probably the meaning of the words-"Artem ipsis ablatam

Zeuxim ferre secum." It is doubtful whether "ipsis" or "ipsi" is the

correct reading.

6. King of Macedonia.

7. Mwmh/setai tis ma=llon h\ mimh/setai. This line is attributed by

Plutarch to Apollodorus.

8. Cicero and Dionysius of Halicarnassus say that this picture was

executed at Crotona, and not at Agrigentum. It is generally supposed to

have been the painting of Helena, afterwards mentioned by Pliny.

9. "Ex albo." "That is, in grey and grey, similar to the Chiariscuri

of the Italians."-Wornum, in Smith's Dict. Antiq. Art. Painting.

10. "Figlina opera." It is not improbable that this may allude to the

painting of fictile vases.

11. A.U.C. 666. As to this expedition of Fulvius Nobilior, see Livy, B.

xxxviii.

12. Of Philippus Marcius, in the Ninth Region of the City.

13. In the Eighth Region of the City.

14. See end of B. xxxiii.

15. See end of B. xxxiii. and B. xxxiv.

16. The antithesis seems to require here the reading "inexorabilem,"

instead of "exorabilem."

17. "Navarchum."

18. The "Chief of the Galli," or high priest of Cybele.

19. See end of B. x.

20. Possibly the person mentioned in B. xi. c. 9, or perhaps the Tragic

writer of this name, mentioned in the present Chapter.

21. Bacchus.

22. "Hoplites." A runner in pairoply, or complete armour, at the

Olympic Games.

23. The "Liver in luxury." Athenus, B. xii., confirms this statement,

and gives some lines which Parrhasius wrote under certain of his works.

24. Of Achilles, which were awarded to Ulysses in preference to Ajax.

25. We learn from Suetonius that Tiberius possessed a Meleager and

Atalanta by Parrhasius, of this nature.

26. Said by Eustathius to have been a native of Sicyon, but by Quintilian,

of Cythnos.

27. Cicero, for instance, De Oratore, c. 22, s. 74.

28. Menelas.

29. Agamemnon.

30. Built near the Forum, by Vespasian, according to Suetonius.

31. A native of Thebes. A full account of him will be given in the

course of this Chapter.

32. Or "Grecian."

33. He was a native of Amphipolis in Macedonia.

34. Phlius was the chief town of Phliasia, in the north-east of Peloponnesus.

It seems to be quite unknown to what events Pliny here alludes.

35. Possibly the naval victory gained by the Athenians under Chabrias

near Naxos, in the first year of the 101st Olympiad.

36. Which would make the course of study, as M. Ian says, extend over

a period of twelve years.

37. "Graphice;" equivalent, perhaps, to our word "drawing." "The

elementary process consisted in drawing lines or outlines with the graphis,

(or stylus) upon tablets of box; the first exercise was probably to draw a

simple line."-Wornum, in Smith's Dict. Antiq. Art. Painting.

38. See end of B. xxxiii.

39. Both of whom are mentioned as statuaries, in the early part of B.

xxxiv. c. 19.

40. Bacchus.

41. The generality of Greek writers represent him as a native either of

Ephesus, or of Colophon.

42. "Venustas." This word, it has been remarked, will hardly bear a

definition. It has been rendered "grace," "elegance," "beauty."

43. "Venerem." The name of the Goddess of Beauty.

44. "Gracefulness."

45. "Secuit." Possibly meaning that he drew another outline in each

of these outlines. The meaning, however, is doubtful, and has occasioned

much trouble to the commentators. Judging from the words used by

Apelles and Protogenes, each in his message, it is not unlikely that the

"linea" or outline drawn by each was a profile of himself, and that the

profile of Protogenes was drawn within that of Apelles; who, on the

second occasion, drew a third profile between the other two, but with a still

finer line than either of them. In Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Biography,

art. Apelles, it is thus explained: "The most natural explanation of this

difficult passage seems to be, that down the middle of the first line of

Apelles, Protogenes drew another, so as to divide it into two parallel

halves, and that Apelles again divided the line of Protogenes in the same

manner."

46. The Latin form of which, as given by Erasmus, is "Nulla dies abeat,

quin linea ducta supersit." "Let no day pass by, without an outline

being drawn, and left in remembrance."

47. "In pergul."

48. "Ne sutor ultra crepidam." Equivalent to our saying, "Let not

the shoemaker go beyond his last."

49. In B. vii. c. 38.

50. Also known as "Campaspe," and "Pacate." She was the favourite

concubine of Alexander, and is said to have been his first love.

51. "Venus rising out of the waters." Athenus says, B. xiii., that the

courtesan Phryne was his model, whom, at the festival of Neptune, he had

seen enter the sea naked at Eleusis.

52. See Matthew xiii. 57; Mark vi. 4. "A prophet is not without honour,

save in his own country."

53. "Physiognomists."

54. "Vocatores"-more literally, his "inviting officers."

55. Strabo mentions a portrait of Antigonus in the possession of the

inhabitants of Cos.

56. See Note 59 above. Propertius mentions this as his greatest work.

B. III. El. 9, 1. 11. "In Veneris tabul summam sibi ponit Apelles."

"In his picture of Venus, Apelles produces his masterpiece." It is mentioned

also by Ovid, Tristia, B. II. 1. 527, and Art. Amor. B. III. 1. 401.

The line in B. III. 1. 224 is also well known-

"Nuda Venus madidas exprimit imbre comas."

"And naked Venus wrings her dripping locks."

57. In the Forum, in the Eighth Region of the City.

58. His father by adoption.

59. There are several Epigrams descriptive of it in the Greek Anthology.

60. This, probably, is the meaning of "Tali opere dum laudatur victo sed

illustrato," words which have given much trouble to the commentators.

61. Nothing further seems to be known of him.

62. "Cois." The first one was also painted for the people of Cos, by

whom it was ultimately sold to Augustus.

63. See Chapter 32 of this Book. That this is an erroneous assertion,

has been shown in Note 78 above.

64. Probably the weight of the panel, frame, and ornamental appendages.

65. This word was probably a title, meaning "Keeper of the temple."

Strabo tells us that the "megabyzi," or as he calls them, the "megalobyzi,"

were eunuch priests in the Temple of Artemis, or Diana, at Ephesus.

66. The favourite of Alexander, by whom he was afterwards slain.

67. Probably the name of a rich sensualist who lived at Argos. A son

of the Attic orator Lycurgus, one of the sophists, also bore this name.

68. This name is supposed by Sillig to have been inserted erroneously,

either by Pliny, or by his transcribers.

69. Either the Argonaut of that name, who was killed by the Caledonian

Boar, or else, which is the most probable, a King of the Leleges in Samos,

with whom, according to the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, originated

the saying, "There is many a slip between the cup and the lip;" in reference

to his death, by a wild boar, when he was about to put a cup of wine

to his mouth.

70. Shown in his forbearing to appropriate them to his own use.

71. Anna Perenna, probably, a Roman divinity of obscure origin, the

legends about whom are related in the Fasti of Ovid, B. iii. l. 523. et seq.

See also Macrobius, Sat. I. 12. Her sacred grove was near the Tiber, but

of her temple nothing whatever is known. "Antoni" is another reading,

but no such divinity is mentioned by any other author.

72. Sillig (Dict. Anc. Art.) is of opinion that the reading is corrupt here,

and that the meaning is, that Apelles "painted a Hero and Leander."

73. Or Demigod.

74. One of the followers of Alexander, ultimately slain by Eumenes in

Armenia.

75. King of Macedonia.

76. Odyss. B. vi. 1. 102, et seq.

77. Sir Joshua Reynolds discovers in the account here given "an artist-like

description of the effect of glazing, or scumbling, such as was practised

by Titian and the rest of the Venetian painters."-Notes to Du Fresnoy.

78. "Lapis specularris." See B. xxxvi. c. 45.

79. He was son of Aristodemus, and brother and pupil of Nicomachus,

in addition to Euxenidas, already mentioned in this Chapter. He, Pausanias,

and Nicophanes, excelled, as we learn from Athenus, B. xiii., in the

portraits of courtesans; hence their name, porno/grafoi.

80. It has been well remarked by Wornum, in the article so often quoted,

that "expression of the feelings and passions cannot be denied to Polygnotus,

Apollodorus, Parrhasius, Timanthes, and many others."

81. See B. iv. c. 12.

82. Meaning, "Her who has ceased" to live. The reference is to Byblis,

who died of love for her brother Caunus. See Ovid's Metam. B. ix. 1.

455, et seq.

83. Or Bacchus. Already mentioned in Chapter 8 of this Book, in reference to the Roman general Mummius.

84. In the Eleventh Region of the City.

85. In the Tenth Region of the City.

86. Celebrated on the 3rd of July.

87. In reference to the age of Apelles, whom he is supposed to have survived.

88. In Caria, near to Lycia. Suidas says that he was born at Xanthus

in Lycia.

89. Or Vestibule.

90. Supposed by Sillig to have been an allegorical painting representing

two of the sacred ships of the Athenians; but to have been mistaken in

later times for a picture of Ulysses and Nausicaa, a subject taken from

the Odyssey, B. vi. 1. 16, et seq. As to Paralus, said to have been the first

builder of long ships, or ships of war, see B. vii. c. 57.

91. Or "long ships."

92. Son of Cercaphus and Cydippe or Lysippe, and grandson of Apollo.

He is said to have been the founder of the town of Ialysus, mentioned in

B. v. c. 86.

93. "These four times most probably were, the dead colouring, a first

and a second painting, and lastly, scumbling with glazing."-Wornum,

Smith's Diet. Antiq. Art. Painting.

94. See Chapter 40 in this Book.

95. "Poppyzonta." "Smacking with his lips." Somewhat similar to the

s-s-s-s of our grooms and ostlers.

96. Poliorcetes.

97. "In repose."

98. Phstis, or Phstias by name.

99. In B. xxxiv. c. 19.

100. A native of Athens, ranked by Plutarch with Euphranor and Nicias.

101. Tyrant of Elatea, mentioned already in this Chapter. See Note 89.

102. Supposed by Sillig to have been a native of Thebes.

103. Or "Youth;" in the Eighth Region of the City.

104. See B. xiii. c. 5.

105. A round, closely-fitting skull cap, made of felt. St. Jerome, Epist.

120, speaks of Ulysses as being thus represented in paintings. Statues of

him with the "pileus" are still to be seen.

106. See B. ii. c. 6.

107. A contemporary of Philip of Macedon.

108. A dithyrambic poet, born at Selinus. He flourished B.C. 398. Only

a few lines of his works remain.

109. "Breviores etiamnum quasdam pictur compendiarias invenit." Delafosse

is of opinion that paintings in grotesque are probably meant.

110. His country is uncertain, but he probably lived about the time of

Apelles.

111. In Chapter 40 of this Book.




37. Chap. 37.-Various Other Kinds Of Painting.


CHAP. 37.-VARIOUS OTHER KINDS OF PAINTING.



We must now, however, make some mention of those

artists who acquired fame by the pencil in an inferior style of

painting. Among these was Piricus, inferior to few of the

painters in skill. I am not sure that he did not do injustice to







himself by the choice of his subjects,[1] seeing that, although

he adopted an humble walk, he still attained in that walk the

highest reputation. His subjects were barbers' shops, cobblers'

stalls, jackasses, eatables, and the like, and to these he was

indebted for his epithet of "Ithyparographos."[2] His paintings,

however, are exquisitely pleasing, and have sold at higher

prices than the very largest works of many masters.



On the other hand again, as Varro tells us, a single picture

by Serapio covered the whole space of the balustrades,[3]

beneath the Old Shops,[4] where it was exhibited. This artist

was very successful in painting stage-scenery, but was unable

to depict the human form. Dionysius,[5] on the contrary,

painted nothing but men, and hence it was that he had the

surname of "Anthropographos."[6] Callicles[7] also painted

some small pictures, and Calates executed some small works in

the comic style. Both of these styles were adopted by

Antiphilus;[8] who painted a very fine Hesione, and a Philip

and Alexander with Minerva, now in the School of the

Porticos[9] of Octavia. In the Portico of Philippus,[10] also,

there is a Father Liber[11] by him; an Alexander when a child;

and an Hippolytus alarmed at the Bull, which is rushing

upon him:[12] and in the Portico of Pompeius[13] we have his

Cadmus and Europa. On the other hand, again, he painted a







figure in a ridiculous costume, known jocosely as the Gryllus;

and hence it is that pictures of this class[14] are generally known

as "Grylli." Antiphilus was a native of Egypt, and received

instruction in the art from Ctesidemus.[15]



It would not be right to pass in silence the painter of the

Temple at Ardea,[16] the more particularly as he was honoured

with the citizenship at that place, and with the following inscription

in verse upon one of the paintings which he executed

there:

"These paintings, worthy of this worthy place,

Temple of Juno, queen, and wife of Jove,

Plautius Marcus,[17] from Alalia, made.

May Ardea now and ever praise him for his skill."



These lines are written in ancient Latin characters.



Ludius too, who lived in the time of the late Emperor

Augustus, must not be allowed to pass without some notice;

for he was the first to introduce the fashion of covering the

walls of our houses with most pleasing landscapes, representing

villas, porticos, ornamental gardening, woods, groves, hills,

fishponds, canals,[18] rivers, sea-shores, and anything else one

could desire; varied with figures of persons walking, sailing,

or proceeding to their villas, on asses or in carriages. Then.

too, there are others to be seen fishing, fowling, or gathering

in the vintage. In some of his decorations there are fine

villas to be seen, and roads to them across the marshes, with

women making[19] bargains to be carried across on men's

shoulders, who move along slipping at every step and tottering

beneath their load; with numberless other subjects of a

similar nature, redolent of mirth and of the most amusing ingenuity.

It was this artist, too, who first decorated our uncovered[20]







edifices with representations of maritime cities, a subject

which produces a most pleasing effect, and at a very trifling

expense.



But as for fame, that has been reserved solely for the artists

who have painted pictures; a thing that gives us all the more

reason to venerate the prudence displayed by the men of

ancient times. For with them, it was not the practice to

decorate the walls of houses, for the gratification of the

owners only; nor did they lavish all their resources upon a

dwelling which must of necessity always remain a fixture in

one spot, and admits of no removal in case of conflagration.

Protogenes was content with a cottage in his little garden;

Apelles had no paintings on the plaster of his walls; it not

being the fashion in their day to colour the party-walls of

houses from top to bottom. With all those artists, art was

ever watchful for the benefit of whole cities only, and in those

times a painter was regarded as the common property of all.



Shortly before the time of the late Emperor Augustus,

Arellius was in high esteem at Rome; and with fair reason,

had he not profaned the art by a disgraceful piece of profanity;

for, being always in love with some woman or other, it was

his practice, in painting goddesses, to give them the features of

his mistresses; hence it is, that there were always some figures

of prostitutes to be seen in his pictures. More recently, lived

Amulius,[21] a grave and serious personage, but a painter in

the florid style. By this artist there was a Minerva, which

had the appearance of always looking at the spectators, from

whatever point it was viewed. He only painted a few hours

each day, and then with the greatest gravity, for he always

kept the toga on, even when in the midst of his implements.

The Golden Palace[22] of Nero was the prison-house of this

artist's productions, and hence it is that there are so few of

them to be be seen elsewhere.



Next in repute to him were Cornelius Pinus and Attius

Priscus, who painted the Temple of Honour and that of

Virtue,[23] on their restoration by the Emperor Vespasianus

Augustus. Priscus approaches more closely to the ancient

masters.











1. He belonged, as Wornum remarks, to the class of genre-painters.

or peintres du genre bas, as the French term them. His age and country

are unknown.

2. "Painter of low subjects." This term is equivalent in meaning,

probably, to our expression-"The Dutch style."

3. "Mniana." Balustrades or balconies, said to have been so called

from one Mnius, who built them.

4. See Chapter 8 of this Book. They are mentioned also in the "Curculio"

of Plautus, A. iv. s. i. l. 19. Nothing further is known of Serapio.

5. His country is unknown, but he is supposed to have lived in the first

century B.C. See also Chapter 40 of this Book.

6. "Painter of men."

7. Mentioned also by Varro. He probably lived in the time of Alexander the Great.

8. A native of Egypt, compared by many to the most eminent artists.

He is spoken of in high terms by Quintilian, B. xii. c. 10. See also Chapter

40 of this Book.

9. Built by Augustus in the Ninth Region of the City, in honour of his

sister Octavia.

10. See Chapter 36.

11. Bacchus.

12. And so caused his death by falling from his chariot. See the "Hippolytus" of Euripides.

13. Near the Theatre of Pompey, in the Ninth Region of the City.

14. "Caricatures." Sillig thinks it not unlikely that Gryllus was painted

with a pig's face, that animal being signified by the Greek word grullo\s.

15. See Chapter 40 of this Book.

16. See Chapter 6 of this Book.

17. In the original, as given by Sillig, "Plautiu, Marcus Cletas."

That commentator supposes him to have been a Greek by birth, and adopted

into the Plautian family, on being made a citizen of Rome.

18. "Euripi." See B. ii. c. 100, B. viii. c. 40, and B. ix. cc. 22, 80.

The landscape paintings on the interior walls of houses at Herculaneum

and Pompeii may be taken as specimens of this artist's style.

19. "Succollatis sponsione mulieribus." This passage appears to be a

mass of confusion, in spite of Sillig's attempts to amend and explain it.

The meaning can only be guessed at, not given with any degree of certainty:

of Ludius himself, no further particulars are known.

20. The "hypthra" or promenades.

21. Most editions give "Famulus." Nothing further is known of him.

22. See B. xxxvi. c. 24.

23. Both in the First Region of the City, near the Capenian Gate.




38. Chap. 38. (11.)-An Effectual Way Of Putting A Stop To The Singing Of Birds.


CHAP. 38. (11.)-AN EFFECTUAL WAY OF PUTTING A STOP TO THE

SINGING OF BIRDS.



I must not omit here, in reference to painting, a celebrated

story that is told about Lepidus. During the Triumvirate,

when he was entertained by the magistrates of a certain place,

he had lodgings given him in a house that was wholly surrounded

with trees. The next day, he complained to them in

a threatening tone, that he had been unable to sleep for the

singing of the birds there. Accordingly, they had a dragon

painted, on pieces of parchment of the greatest length that

could possibly be obtained, and surrounded the grove with it;

a thing that so terrified the birds, it is said, that they became

silent at once; and hence it was that it first became known

how this object could be attained.










39. Chap. 39.-Artists Who Have Painted In Encaustics Or Wax, With Either The Cestrum Or The Pencil.


CHAP. 39.-ARTISTS WHO HAVE PAINTED IN ENCAUSTICS OR WAX,

WITH EITHER THE CESTRUM OR THE PENCIL.



It is not agreed who was the inventor of the art of painting

in wax and in encaustic.[1] Some think that it was a discovery

of the painter Aristides,[2] and that it was afterwards brought to

perfection by Praxiteles: but there are encaustic paintings in

existence, of a somewhat prior date to them, those by Polygnotus,[3]

for example, and by Nicanor and Arcesilas,[4] natives

of Paros. Elasippus too, has inscribed upon a picture of his

at gina, the word e)ne/xaen;[5] a thing that he certainly could

not have done, if the art of encaustic painting had not been

then invented.







1. See Chapter 41 of this Book, where the difficulties attending this description

will be considered.

2. See Chapter 36 of this Book.

3. See Chapter 35 of this Book.

4. Possibly the artist of that name mentioned by Athenus, B. x., as a

tutor of Apelles. If so, he must have flourished about the ninety-seventh

Olympiad.

5. Elasippus "inburned" this picture, i. e. executed it in encaustic.

From the Attic form of this word, it has been conclnded that he was an

Athenian. The spelling of his name is very doubtful.




41. Chap. 41.-Encaustic Painting.


CHAP. 41.-ENCAUSTIC PAINTING.



In ancient times there were but two methods of encaustic[1]

painting, in wax and on ivory,[2] with the cestrum or pointed

graver. When, however, this art came to be applied to the

painting of ships of war, a third method was adopted, that of

melting the wax colours and laying them on with a brush,

while hot.[3] Painting of this nature,[4] applied to vessels, will

never spoil from the action of the sun, winds, or salt water.







1. See Chapter 39 of this Book. Pausias painted in wax with the cestrum.

2. Wornum is of opinion that this must have been a species of drawing

with a heated point, upon ivory, without the use of wax. Smith's Dict.

Antiq. Art. Painting.

3. This method, as Wornum remarks, though first employed on ships,

was not necessarily confined to ship-painting; and it must have been a

very different style of painting from the ship-colouring of Homer, since it

was of a later date even than the preceding methods.

4. Though he says nothing here of the use of the "cauterium," or process

of burning in, its employment may certainly be inferred from what he

has said in Chapter 39. Wornum is of opinion that the definition at the

beginning of this Chapter, of two methods apparently, "in wax and on ivory,"

is in reality an explanation of one method only, and that the ancient modes

of painting in encaustic were not only three, but several.




42. Chap. 42.-The Colouring Of Tissues.


CHAP. 42.-THE COLOURING OF TISSUES.



In Egypt, too, they employ a very remarkable process for the

colouring of tissues. After pressing the material, which is white

at first, they saturate it, not with colours, but with mordents

that are calculated to absorb colour. This done, the tissues,

still unchanged in appearance, are plunged into a cauldron of

boiling dye, and are removed the next moment fully coloured.

It is a singular fact, too, that although the dye in the pan is of

one uniform colour, the material when taken out of it is of

various colours, according to the nature of the mordents that

have been respectively applied to it: these colours, too, will never

wash out. Thus the dye-pan, which under ordinary circum-







stances, no doubt, would have made but one colour of several,

if coloured tissues had been put into it, is here made to yield

several colours from a single dye. At the same moment that

it dyes the tissues, it boils in the colour; and it is the fact,

that material which has been thus submitted to the action of

fire becomes stouter and more serviceable for wear, than it

would have been if it had not been subjected to the process










43. Chap. 43. (12.)-The Inventors Of The Art Of Modelling.


CHAP. 43. (12.)-THE INVENTORS OF THE ART OF MODELLING.



On painting we have now said enough, and more than enough;

but it will be only proper to append some accounts of the

plastic art. Butades, a potter of Sicyon, was the first who invented,

at Corinth, the art of modelling portraits in the earth

which he used in his trade. It was through his daughter that

he made the discovery; who, being deeply in love with a young

man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of

his face, as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp. Upon

seeing this, her father filled in the outline, by compressing clay

upon the surface, and so made a face in relief, which he then

hardened by fire along with other articles of pottery. This

model, it is said, was preserved in the Nymphum[1] at Corinth,

until the destruction of that city by Mummius.[2] Others, again,

assert that the first inventors of the plastic art were Rhcus[3]

and Theodorus,[4] at Samos, a considerable period before the expulsion

of the Bacchiad from Corinth: and that Damaratus,[5]

on taking to flight from that place and settling in Etruria, where

he became father of Tarquinius, who was ultimately king of

the Roman people, was accompanied thither by the modellers

Euchir,[6] Diopus, and Eugrammus, by whose agency the art

was first introduced into Italy.







Butades first invented the method of colouring plastic compositions,

by adding red earth to the material, or else modelling

them in red chalk: he, too, was the first to make masks on the

outer edges of gutter-tiles upon the roofs of buildings; in

low relief, and known as "prostypa" at first, but afterwards

in high relief, or "ectypa." It was in these designs,[7] too, that

the ornaments on the pediments of temples originated;

and from this invention modellers first had their name of

"plast."







1. Or Temple of the Nymphs. The daughter of Butades is called "Core"

by Athenagoras.

2. See B. xxxiv. c. 3.

3. Son of Philus. He is mentioned by Pausanias, B. viii. c. 14, and

by Herodotus, B. iii. c. 60, as the architect of a fine temple at Samos,

and, with Smilis and Theodorus, of the Labyrinth at Lemnos.

4. Mentioned also in B. xxxiv. c. 19. Pliny is in error here in using the

word "plastice;" for it was the art of casting brass, and not that of making

plaster casts, that these artists invented.

5. See Chapter 5 of this Book. He is said by Dionysius of Halicarnassus,

B. iii., to have been a member of the family of the Bacchiad.

6. A different person, probably, from the one of the same name mentioned

in B. vii. c. 56.

7. Terra cotta figures.




44. Chap. 44.-Who Was The First To Mould Figures In Imitation Of The Features Of Living Persons, Or Of Statues.


CHAP. 44.-WHO WAS THE FIRST TO MOULD FIGURES IN IMITATION

OF THE FEATURES OF LIVING PERSONS, OR OF STATUES.



The first person who expressed the human features by fitting

a mould of plaster upon the face, and then improving it by

pouring melted wax into the cast, was Lysistratus[1] of Sicyon,

brother of Lysippus, already mentioned. It was he, in fact,

who first made it his study to give a faithful likeness; for

before his time, artists only thought how to make their portraits

as handsome as possible. The same artist, too, was the

first who thought of making models for his statues; a method

which afterwards became so universally adopted, that there

could be neither figure nor statue made without its model in

clay. Hence it would appear, that the art of modelling in

clay is more ancient than that of moulding in bronze.[2]







1. See B. xxxiv. c. 19. Tatian mentions a statue of Melanippe by Lysistratus.

2. See B. xxxvi. c. 4.




45. Chap. 45.-The Most Famous Modellers.


CHAP. 45.-THE MOST FAMOUS MODELLERS.



The most celebrated modellers were Damophilus and Gorgasus,

who were painters as well. These artists adorned with

their works, in both kinds, the Temple of Ceres,[1] in the Circus

Maximus at Rome; with an inscription in Greek, which

stated that the decorations on the right-hand were the workmanship

of Damophilus, and those on the left, of Gorgasus.

Varro says that, before the construction of this temple, everything

was Tuscan[2] in the temples; and that, when the temple

was afterwards repaired, the painted coatings of the walls were







cut away in tablets and enclosed in frames, but that the figures

on the pediments were dispersed. Chalcosthenes,[3] too,[4] executed

at Athens some works in unbaked earth, on the spot

which, from his manufactory, has since obtained the name of

"Ceramicus."[5]



M. Varro states that he knew an artist at Rome, Possis by

name, who executed fruit, grapes, and fish, with such exactness,

that it was quite impossible, by only looking at them, to

distinguish them from the reality. He speaks very highly

also of Arcesilas,[6] who was on terms of intimacy with

Lucius Lucullus,[7] and whose models in plaster used to sell at

a higher rate, among artists themselves, than the works of

others. He informs us, also, that it was by this modeller that

the Venus Genetrix in the Forum of Csar was executed, it

having been erected before completion, in the great haste that

there was to consecrate it; that the same artist had made an

agreement with Lucullus to execute a figure of Felicity, at the

price of sixty thousand sesterces, the completion of which was

prevented by their death; and that Octavius, a Roman of

equestrian rank, being desirous of a model for a mixing-bowl,[8]

Arcesilas made him one in plaster, at the price of one talent.



Varro praises Pasiteles[9] also, who used to say, that the

plastic art was the mother of chasing, statuary, and sculpture,

and who, excellent as he was in each of these branches, never

executed any work without first modelling it. In addition to

these particulars, he states that the art of modelling was

anciently cultivated in Italy, Etruria in particular; and that

Volcanius was summoned from Veii, and entrusted by Tarquinius

Priscus with making the figure of Jupiter, which he

intended to consecrate in the Capitol; that this Jupiter was

made of clay, and that hence arose the custom of painting it

with minium;[10] and that the four-horse chariot, so often[11]







mentioned, upon the pediment of the temple, was made of clay

as well. We learn also from him, that it was by the same

artist that the Hercules was executed, which, even to this day,

is named[12] at Rome from the material of which it is composed.

Such, in those times, were the most esteemed statues of the

gods; and small reason have we to complain of our forefathers

for worshipping such divinities as these; for in their day there

was no working of gold and silver-no, not even in the

service of the gods.







1. In the Eleventh Region of the City. This Temple of Ceres, Bacchus,

and Proserpine, in the Circus Maximus, was vowed by A. Posthumius, the

Dictator, A.U.C. 258, and dedicated by the consul Cassius, A.U.C. 261,

or B.C. 493.

2. See B. xxxiv. c. 16.

3. Sillig (Dict. Anc. Art.) is of opinion that this Chalcosthenes is not

identical with the artist of that name mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19; the

name "Ceramicus" probably being of far earlier origin than the formation

of the statues of Comedians.

4. "Et." The insertion of this word seems to militate against Sillig's

position.

5. The "Pottery.

6. See also B. xxxvi. c. 4.

7. See Chapter 40 of this Book.

8. "Crater." A vase in which wine and water were mixed for drinking.

9. See B. xxxiii. c. 55, B. xxxvi. c. 4, and end of B. xxxiii.

10. See B. xxxiii. c. 36.

11. In B. viii c. 4, for instance.

12. The "Hercules fictilis." It is mentioned by Martial, B. xiv. Ep. 178.




46. Chap. 46.-Works In Pottery.


CHAP. 46.-WORKS IN POTTERY.



Statues of this nature are still in existence at various

places. At Rome, in fact, and in our municipal towns, we

still see many such pediments of temples; wonderful too, for their

workmanship, and, from their artistic merit and long duration,

more deserving of our respect than gold, and certainly far less

baneful. At the present day even, in the midst of such

wealth as we possess, we make our first libation at the sacrifice,

not from murrhine[1] vases or vessels of crystal, but from ladles[2]

made of earthenware.



Bounteous beyond expression is the earth, if we only consider

in detail her various gifts. To omit all mention of the cereals,

wine, fruits, herbs, shrubs, medicaments, and metals, bounties

which she has lavished upon us, and which have already passed

under our notice, her productions in the shape of pottery

alone, would more than suffice, in their variety, to satisfy our

domestic wants; what with gutter-tiles of earthenware, vats for

receiving wine, pipes[3] for conveying water, conduits[4] for

supplying baths, baked tiles for roofs, bricks for foundations,

the productions, too, of the potter's wheel; results, all of

them, of an art, which induced King Numa to establish, as a

seventh company,[5] that of the makers of earthenware.



Even more than this, many persons have chosen to be buried

in coffins[6] made of earthenware; M. Varro, for instance, who







was interred, in true Pythagorean style, in the midst of leaves

of myrtle, olive, and black poplar; indeed, the greater part of

mankind make use of earthen vases for this purpose. For the

service of the table, the Samian pottery is even yet held in high

esteem; that, too, of Arretium in Italy, still maintains its high

character; while for their cups, and for those only, the manufactories

of Surrentum, Asta, Pollentia, Saguntum in Spain,

and Pergamus in Asia,[7] are greatly esteemed.



The city of Tralles, too, in Asia, and that of Mutina in Italy,

have their respective manufactures of earthenware, and even

by this branch of art are localities rendered famous; their productions,

by the aid of the potter's wheel, becoming known to

all countries, and conveyed by sea and by land to every

quarter of the earth. At Erythr, there are still shown, in

a temple there, two amphor, that were consecrated in consequence

of the singular thinness of the material: they originated

in a contest between a master and his pupil, which of the

two could make earthenware of the greatest thinness. The

vessels of Cos are the most highly celebrated for their beauty,

but those of Adria[8] are considered the most substantial.



In relation to these productions of art, there are some instances

of severity mentioned: Q. Coponius, we find, was

condemned for bribery, because he made present of an amphora

of wine to a person who had the right of voting. To

make luxury, too, conduce in some degree to enhance our estimation

of earthenware, "tripatinium,"[9] as we learn from

Fenestella, was the name given to the most exquisite course of

dishes that was served up at the Roman banquets. It consisted

of one dish of murn,[10] one of lupi,[11] and a third of a

mixture of fish. It is clear that the public manners were

then already on the decline; though we still have a right to

hold them preferable to those of the philosophers even of

Greece, seeing that the representatives of Aristotle, it is said,

sold, at the auction of his goods, as many as seventy dishes of

earthenware. It has been already[12] stated by us, when on the

subject of birds, that a single dish cost the tragic actor sopus

one hundred thousand sesterces; much to the reader's indignation,

no doubt; but, by Hercules! Vitellius, when emperor,







ordered a dish to be made, which was to cost a million of

sesterces, and for the preparation of which a furnace had to

be erected out in the fields! luxury having thus arrived at

such a pitch of excess as to make earthenware even sell at

higher prices than murrhine[13] vessels. It was in reference to

this circumstance, that Mucianus, in his second consulship,

when pronouncing one of his perorations, reproached the

memory of Vitellius with his dishes as broad as the Pomptine

Marsh; not less deserving to be execrated than the poisoned

dish of Asprenas, which, according to the accusation brought

against him by Cassius Severus, caused the death of one

hundred and thirty guests.[14]



These works of artistic merit have conferred celebrity on

some cities even, Rhegium for example, and Cum. The

priests of the Mother of the gods, known as the Galli, deprive

themselves of their virility with a piece of Samian[15] pottery,

the only means, if we believe M. Clius,[16] of avoiding dangerous

results. He it was, too, who recommended, when inveighing

against certain abominable practices, that the person guilty of

them should have his tongue cut out, in a similar manner;

a reproach which would appear to have been levelled by anticipation

against this same Vitellius.



What is there that human industry will not devise? Even

broken pottery has been utilized; it being found that, beaten

to powder, and tempered with lime, it becomes more solid and

durable than other substances of a similar nature; forming the

cement known as the "Signine"[17] composition, so extensively

employed for even making the pavements of houses.[18]







1. See B. xxxiii. c. 2, and B. xxxvii. cc. 7, 8, 11.

2. "Simpuvia."

3. See B. xxxi. c. 31.

4. "Mammatis." The exact meaning of this word is unknown. The

passage is evidently in a corrupt state.

5. As to the Roman "Collegia," see B. viii. c. 42, and B. xxxiv. c. 1.

6. "Solia."-The same name is given also to a kind of sitting or re-

clining-bath, often mentioned by Pliny.

7. Asia Minor.

8. See B. iii. c. 18.

9. A service of three dishes.

10. See B. ix. c. 39.

11. See B. ix. cc. 24, 28, 74, 79.

12. In B. x. c. 72.

13. See Note 60 above.

14. See B. xxiii. c. 47, and the end of this Book.

15. Martial speaks of this practice, B. iii. Epigr. 81.

16. Nothing further seems to be known of this personage, or of the

grounds of his invective. Pliny may possibly allude to some abominable

practices, with which Vitellius is charged by Suetonius also.

17. The "Opus Signinum" was a plaster or cement much used for making

pavements. It took its name from Signia, in Italy, celebrated for its tiles.

See B. iii. c. 9.

18. The floors of the Roman houses were seldom boarded.




47. Chap. 47. (13.)-Various Kinds Of Earth. The Puteolan Dust, And Other Earths Of Which Cements Like Stone Are Made.


CHAP. 47. (13.)-VARIOUS KINDS OF EARTH. THE PUTEOLAN DUST,

AND OTHER EARTHS OF WHICH CEMENTS LIKE STONE ARE MADE.



But there are other resources also, which are derived immediately

from the earth. Who, indeed, cannot but be surprised







at finding the most inferior constituent parts of it, known as

"dust"[1] only, on the hills about Puteoli, forming a barrier

against the waves of the sea, becoming changed into stone the

moment of its immersion, and increasing in hardness from day

to day-more particularly when mixed with the cement of

Cum? There is an earth too, of a similar nature found in

the districts about Cyzicus; but there, it is not a dust, but a

solid earth, which is cut away in blocks of all sizes, and which,

after being immersed in the sea, is taken out transformed into

stone. The same thing may be seen also, it is said, in the

vicinity of Cassandrea;[2] and at Cnidos, there is a spring of

fresh water which has the property of causing earth to petrify

within the space of eight months. Between Oropus and Aulis,

every portion of the land upon which the sea encroaches becomes

transformed into solid rock.



The finer portion of the sand of the river Nilus is not very

different in its properties from the dust of Puteoli; not, indeed,

that it is used for breaking the force of the sea and withstanding

the waves, but only for the purpose, forsooth, of subduing[3]

the body for the exercises of the palestra! At all events,

it was for this purpose that it used to be brought over for

Patrobius,[4] a freedman of the Emperor Nero. I find it stated

also, that Craterus, Leonnatus, and Meleager, generals of Alexander

the Great, had this sand transported along with their

munitions of war. But I forbear to enlarge any further upon

this subject; or indeed, by Hercules! upon those preparations

of earth and wax of which the ceromata are made, so much

employed by our youth in their exercises of the body, at the

cost of all vigour of the mind.







1. "Pulvis." See B. iii. c. 9, B. xvi. c. 76, and B. xxxvi. c. 14. He

alludes to the cement made of volcanic ashes, now known as "Pozzuolane."

2. See B. iv. c. 17.

3. It being the practice to rub the bodies of the athletes with sand.

4. This circumstance is mentioned also by Suetonius, in his life of Nero.

Patrobius was slain by order of the Emperor Galba.




48. Chap. 48. (14.)-Formacean Walls.


CHAP. 48. (14.)-FORMACEAN WALLS.



And then, besides, have we not in Africa and in Spain

walls[1] of earth, known as "formaceoan" walls? from the fact

that they are moulded, rather than built, by enclosing earth







within a frame of boards, constructed on either side. These

walls will last for centuries, are proof against rain, wind, and

fire, and are superior in solidity to any cement. Even at this

day, Spain still beholds watch-towers that were erected by

Hannibal, and turrets of earth[2] placed on the very summits of

her mountains. It is from the same source, too, that we derive

the substantial materials so well adapted for forming the

earth-works of our camps and embankments against the impetuous

violence of rivers. What person, too, is unacquainted

with the fact, that partitions are made of hurdles coated with

clay, and that walls are constructed of unbaked bricks?







1. Ajasson says that they are called tapias at the present day in Spain.

2. See B. ii. c. 73.




49. Chap. 49.-Walls Of Brick. The Method Of Making Bricks.


CHAP. 49.-WALLS OF BRICK. THE METHOD OF MAKING BRICKS.



Earth for making bricks should never be extracted from a

sandy or gravelly soil, and still less from one that is stony;

but from a stratum that is white and cretaceous, or else impregnated

with red earth.[1] If a sandy soil must be employed

for the purpose, it should at least be male[2] sand, and no other.

The spring is the best season for making bricks, as at midsummer

they are very apt to crack. For building, bricks two

years old are the only ones that are approved of; and the

wrought material of them should be well macerated before

they are made.



There are three different kinds of bricks; the Lydian, which

is in use with us, a foot-and-a-half in length by a foot in

breadth; the tetradoron; and the pentadoron; the word "doron"

being used by the ancient Greeks to signify the palm[3]-hence,

too, their word "doron" meaning a gift, because it is the

hand that gives.-These last two kinds, therefore, are named

respectively from their being four and five palms in length,

the breadth being the same. The smaller kind is used in

Greece for private buildings, the larger for the construction of

public edifices. At Pitane,[4] in Asia, and in the cities of Maxilua

and Calentum in Farther Spain, there are bricks[5] made,

which float in water, when dry; the material being a sort of







pumice-earth, extremely good for the purpose when it can be

made to unite. The Greeks have always preferred walls of

brick, except in those cases where they could find silicious

stone for the purposes of building: for walls of this nature

will last for ever, if they are only built on the perpendicular.

Hence it is, that the Greeks have built their public edifices and

the palaces of their kings of brick; the wall at Athens, for

example, which faces Mount Hymettus; the Temples of

Jupiter and Hercules at Patr,[6] although the columns and

architraves in the interior are of stone; the palace of King

Attalus at Tralles; the palace of Crsus at Sardes, now converted

into an asylum[7] for aged persons; and that of King

Mausolus at Halicarnassus; edifices, all of them, still in existence.



Murna and Varro, in their dileship, had a fine fresco painting,

on the plaster of a wall at Lacedmon, cut away from

the bricks, and transported in wooden frames to Rome, for the

purpose of adorning the Comitium. Admirable as the work

was of itself, it was still more admired after being thus transferred.

In Italy also there are walls of brick, at Arretium

and Mevania.[8] At Rome, there are no buildings of this description,

because a wall only a foot-and-a-half in thickness

would not support more than a single story; and by public

ordinance it has been enacted that no partition should exceed

that thickness; nor, indeed, does the peculiar construction of

our party-walls admit of it.







1. "Rubrica."

2. See B. xxxi. c. 28.

3. Which was, as a measure, nearly three inches in breadth. See Introduction

to Vol. III.

4. See B. v. c. 32.

5. Ajasson says that these bricks have been imitated by Fabroni, with a

light argillaceous earth, found in the territory of Sienna. Delafosse thinks

that a place called "Cala," in the Sierra Morena, probably marks the site

of the cities above mentioned.

6. See B. iv. c. 5, and B. xxxvi. c. 4.

7. "Gerusia."

8. See B. iii. c. 19.




51. Chap. 51.-Bitumen, And The Several Varieties Of It; Twenty-Seven Remedies.


CHAP. 51.-BITUMEN, AND THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF IT;

TWENTY-SEVEN REMEDIES.



Nearly approaching to the nature of sulphur is that of bitumen,[1]

which in some places assumes the form of a slime, and

in others that of an earth; a slime, thrown up, as already[2]

stated, by a certain lake in Juda, and an earth, found in the

vicinity of Sidon, a maritime town of Syria. In both these

states, it admits of being thickened and condensed. There

is also a liquid[3] bitumen, that of Zacynthus, for example, and

the bitumen that is imported from Babylon; which last kind

is also white: the bitumen, too, of Apollonia is liquid. All

these kinds, in Greek, have the one general name of "pissasphaltos,"[4]

from their strong resemblance to a compound of

pitch and bitumen. There is also found an unctuous liquid

bitumen, resembling oil, in a spring at Agrigentum, in Sicily,

the waters of which are tainted by it. The inhabitants of the

spot collect it on the panicles of reeds, to which it very readily

adheres, and make use of it for burning in lamps, as a substitute

for oil, as also for the cure of itch-scab in beasts of

burden.



Some authorities include among the bitumens, naphtha, a substance

which we have already mentioned in the Second Book;[5]

but the burning properties which it possesses, and its susceptibility

of igniting, render it quite unfit for use. Bitumen,

to be of good quality, should be extremely brilliant, heavy,

and massive; it should also be moderately smooth, it being

very much the practice to adulterate it with pitch. Its medi-







cinal properties are similar to those of sulphur, it being naturally

astringent, dispersive, contractive, and agglutinating: ignited,

it drives away serpents by the smell. Babylonian bitumen is

very efficacious, it is said, for the cure of cataract and albugo,

as also of leprosy, lichens, and pruriginous affections. Bitumen

is employed, too, in the form of a liniment, for gout; and

every variety of it is useful for making bandolines for eyelashes

that are refractory and impede the sight. Applied topically

with nitre,[6] it is curative of tooth-ache, and, taken internally,

with wine, it alleviates chronic coughs and difficulty

of respiration. It is administered in a similar manner for

dysentery, and is very good for arresting looseness of the

bowels. Taken internally with vinegar, it dissolves and brings

away coagulated blood. It modifies pains also in the loins

and joints, and, applied with barley-meal, it forms a peculiar

kind of plaster, to which it has given its name.[7] It stanches

blood also, heals wounds, and unites the sinews when severed.

Bitumen is administered for quartan fevers, in doses of one

drachma to an equal quantity of hedyosmos,[8] the whole kneaded

up with one obolus of myrrh. The smell of burnt bitumen

detects a tendency to epilepsy, and, applied to the

nostrils with wine and castoreum,[9] it dispels suffocations of

the uterus. Employed as a fumigation, it acts as a check upon

procidence of the uterus, and, taken internally with wine, it

has the effect of an emmenagogue.



Another use that is made of it, is for coating the inside

of copper vessels, it rendering them proof against the action

of fire. It has been already[10] stated that bitumen was formerly

employed for staining copper and coating statues. It has been

used, too, as a substitute for lime; the walls of Babylon, for

instance, which are cemented with it. In the smithies they are

in the habit of varnishing iron and heads of nails with it, and

of using it for many other purposes as well.







1. There are three distinct kinds of bitumen. 1. Naphtha, also known

as petroleum, or rock-oil, inflammable, volatile, soluble in alcohol, and

found in France and Italy. 2. Asphalt, or bitumen of Juda, solid, insoluble

in alcohol, and found in Lake Asphaltites in Syria, more particularly.

3. Pissasphalt, of a medium consistency between the other substances,

of which it appears to be composed. See B. xxiv. c. 25.

2. In B. v. c. 15

3. Naphtha, most probably.

4. See B. xxiv. c. 25.

5. Chapter 109.

6. As to the "nitrum" of Pliny, see B. xxxi. c. 46.

7. "Asphalt plaster," probably.

8. Or mint. See B. xix. c. 47, and B. xx. c. 53.

9. See B. xxxii. c. 13.

10. In B. xxxiv. c. 9.




52. Chap. 52.-Alumen, And The Several Varieties Of It; Thirty-Eight Remedies.


CHAP. 52.-ALUMEN, AND THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF IT;

THIRTY-EIGHT REMEDIES.



Not less important, or indeed very dissimilar, are the uses







that are made of alumen;[1] by which name is understood a

sort of brine[2] which exudes from the earth. Of this, too,

there are several kinds. In Cyprus there is a white alumen,

and another kind of a darker colour. The difference, however,

in their colour is but trifling in reality, though the uses made

of them are very dissimilar; the white liquid alumen being

employed for dyeing[3] wool of bright colours, and the black,

on the other hand, for giving wool a tawny or a sombre tint.

Gold, too, is purified[4] by the agency of black alumen. Every

kind of alumen is a compound of slime and water, or in other

words, is a liquid product exuding from the earth; the concretion

of it commencing in winter, and being completed by the

action of the summer sun. That portion of it which is the

first matured, is the whitest in appearance.



The countries which produce this substance, are Spain,

gypt, Armenia, Macedonia, Pontus, Africa,[5] and the islands

of Sardinia, Melos, Lipara, and Strongyle:[6] the most esteemed,

however, is that of Egypt,[7] the next best being the

produce of Melos. Of this last kind there are also two

varieties, the liquid alumen, and the solid. Liquid alumen,

to be good, should be of a limpid, milky, appearance: when

rubbed between the fingers it should be free from grit, and

productive of a slight sensation of heat. The name given to it

is "phorimon."[8] The mode of detecting whether or not it has

been adulterated, is by the application of pomegranate-juice;

for if genuine, it will turn black on combining with the

juice. The other, or solid alumen, is pale and rough in ap-







pearance, and turns black on the application of nut-galls; for

which reason it is known by the name of "paraphoron."[9]



Liquid alumen is naturally astringent, indurative, and corrosive:

used in combination with honey, it heals ulcerations of

the mouth, pimples, and pruriginous eruptions. The remedy,

when thus used, is employed in the bath, the proportions

being two parts of honey to one of alumen. It has the effect,

also, of checking and dispersing perspiration, and of neutralizing

offensive odours of the arm-pits. It is taken too, in

the form of pills, for affections of the spleen, and for the purpose

of carrying off blood by the urine: incorporated with nitre

and melanthium,[10] it is curative of itch-scab.



There is one kind of solid alumen, known to the Greeks as

"schiston,"[11] which splits into filaments of a whitish colour;

for which reason some have preferred giving it the name of

"trichitis."[12] It is produced from the mineral ore known to

us as "chalcitis,"[13] from which copper is also produced, it

being a sort of exudation from that mineral, coagulated into

the form of scum. This kind of alumen is less desiccative

than the others, and is not so useful as a check upon bad

humours of the body. Used, however, either in the form of a

liniment or of an injection, it is highly beneficial to the ears;

as also for ulcerations of the mouth, and for tooth-ache, if

retained with the saliva in the mouth. It is employed also

as a serviceable ingredient in compositions for the eyes, and

for the generative organs in either sex. The mode of preparing

it is to roast it in crucibles, until it has quite lost its

liquid form.



There is another variety of alumen also, of a less active nature,

and known as "strongyle;"[14] which is again subdivided

into two kinds; the fungous, which easily dissolves in any

liquid, and is looked upon as altogether worthless; and the

porous, which is full of small holes like a sponge, and in

pieces of a globular form, more nearly approaching white

alumen in appearance. It has a certain degree, too, of unctuousness,

is free from grit, friable, and not apt to blacken the







fingers. This last kind is calcined by itself upon hot coals,

unmixed with any other substance, until it is entirely reduced

to ashes.



The best kind of all, however, is that called "melinum,"[15]

as coming from the Isle of Melos, as already mentioned; none

being more effectual for acting as an astringent, staining

black, and indurating, and none assuming a closer consistency.

It removes granulations of the eye-lids, and, in a calcined state,

is still more efficacious for checking defluxions of the eyes:

in this last form, too, it is employed for the cure of pruriginous

eruptions on the body. Whether taken internally, or

employed externally, it arrests discharges of blood; and if it is

applied with vinegar to a part from which the hair has been

first removed, it will change into a soft down the hair which

replaces it. The leading property of every kind of alumen is

its remarkable astringency, to which, in fact, it is indebted for

its name[16] with the Greeks. It is for this property that the

various kinds are, all of them, so remarkably good for the

eyes. In combination with grease, they arrest discharges of

blood; and they are employed in a similar manner for checking

the spread of putrid ulcers, and for removing sores upon

the bodies of infants.



Alumen has a desiccative effect upon dropsical eruptions;

and, in combination with pomegranate juice, it removes diseases

of the ears, malformed nails, indurations resulting from

cicatrization, hangnails, and chilblains. Calcined, with vinegar

or nut-galls, in equal proportions, it is curative of phagednic

ulcers; and, in combination with extracted juice of

cabbage, of leprosy. Used in the proportion of one part of

alumen to two of salt, it arrests the progress of serpiginous

eruptions; and an infusion of it in water destroys lice and

other parasitical insects that infest the hair. Employed in a

similar manner, it is good for burns; and, in combination with

the serous[17] part of pitch, for furfuraceous eruptions on the

body. It is used also as an injection for dysentery, and, employed

in the form of a gargle, it braces the uvula and tonsillary

glands. For all those maladies which we have men-







tioned as being treated with the other kinds of alumen, that

imported from Melos, be it understood, is still more efficacious.

As to the other uses that are made of it for industrial purposes,

such as preparing hides and wool, for example, they

have been mentioned already.[18]







1. Beckmann is of opinion that our alum was not known to the Greeks

or Romans, and that what the latter called "alumen" was green vitriol,

or sulphate of the protoxide of iron, in an impure state. Hist. Inv. Vol. I.

p. 180. Bohn's Edition. Dr. Pereira remarks, however, that "there

can be little doubt that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, but did not

distinguish it from sulphate of iron, for he informs us that one kind of

alum was white, and was used for dyeing wool of bright colours." Materia

Medica, Vol. I. Delafosse identifies the "alumen" of Pliny with double

sulphate of alum and iron.

2. "Salsugo terr."

3. See Note 11 above.

4. For gilding, Hardouin says.

5. The Roman provinces in Africa, other than Egypt.

6. Now Strombolo. See B. iii. c. 14.

7. Herodotus, B. ii., mentions the fact that King Amasis sent the people

of Delphi a thousand talents of this substance, as his contribution towards

rebuilding their temple.

8. "Fruitful," or "useful."

9. "Adulterated."

10. See B. xx. c. 71.

11. "Split" alum. Probably iron alum, the French alum de plume; of a

flaky, silky appearance.

12. "Hairy alum."

13. See B. xxxiv. cc. 2, 29.

14. So called, according to Dioscorides, from the "round" form of the pieces.

15. He has previously said that the most esteemed kind was the Egyptian,

that of Melos being the next best.

16. Stupthri/a, the "styptic."

17. "Sero picis." Hardouin is of opinion that under this name pisselon

is intended. See B. xv. c. 7, B. xxiv. cc. 11, 24, and B. xxv. c. 22.

18. At the beginning of this Chapter in part.




54. Chap. 54.-The Various Kinds Of Eretria.


CHAP. 54.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF ERETRIA.



Of eretria, or Eretrian[1] earth, there are also the same number

of varieties; one white, and the other of an ashy colour, this

last being preferred in medicine. To be good, this earth

should be of a soft consistency, and when rubbed upon copper

it should leave a violet tint. The virtues of cretria in a medicinal

point of view, and the methods of using it, have been

already mentioned[2] in our description of the pigments.







1. In Chapter 21 of this Book.

2. In Chapter 21 of this Book.




55. Chap. 55.-The Method Of Washing Earths For Medicinal Purposes.


CHAP. 55.-THE METHOD OF WASHING EARTHS FOR MEDICINAL

PURPOSES.



All these earths-for we will take the present opportunity

of mentioning it-are well washed in water, and then dried







in the sun; after which, they are again triturated in water,

and left to settle: this done, they are divided into tablets.

They are usually boiled in earthen vessels, which are well

shaken every now and then.










56. Chap. 56.-Chian Earth; Three Remedies. Selinusian Earth; Three Remedies. Pnigitis; Nine Remedies. Ampelitis; Four Remedies.


CHAP. 56.-CHIAN EARTH; THREE REMEDIES. SELINUSIAN EARTH;

THREE REMEDIES. PNIGITIS; NINE REMEDIES. AMPELITIS; FOUR

REMEDIES.



Among the medicinal substances, there is the white earth of

Chios also, the properties of which are the same as those of

Samian earth. It is used more particularly as a cosmetic for

the skin of females; the Selinusian[1] earth being also employed

for a similar purpose. This last is of a milk-white colour,

and melts very rapidly in water: dissolved in milk, it is employed

for whitening the plaster coats on walls. Pnigitis[2] is

very similar to Eretrian earth, only that it is found in larger

masses, and is of a glutinous consistency. Its effects are

similar to those produced by Cimolian[3] earth, but are not so

energetic.



Ampelitis[4] is an earth which bears a strong resemblance to

bitumen. The test of its goodness is its dissolving in oil, like

wax, and preserving its black colour when submitted to the

action of fire. Its properties are emollient and repercussive;

for which reason, it is used in medicinal compositions, those

known as "calliblephara,"[5] more particularly, and in preparations

for dyeing the hair.







1. It appears to be a matter of doubt whether it was found at Selinus,

in Sicily, or the place of that name in Cilicia. See B. iii. c. 14, and B. v.

c. 22.

2. Agricola is of opinion that this earth had its name from the place

called Pnigeum, in the Libyan Mareotis. Other commentators would have

it to be derived from pni/gw, "to suffocate," such being its effect if taken

internally.

3. See the next Chapter.

4. So called from a)mpe/los, a "vine;" either because it was applied to

vines to kill the insects, or because its admixture with the soil was favourable

to the cultivation of the vine.

5. "Washes for beautifying the eye-brows." See B. xxi. c. 73, B. xxiii.

c. 51, and B. xxxiii. c. 34.




57. Chap. 57. (17.)-Cretaceous Earths Used For Scouring Cloth. Cimolian Earth; Nine Remedies. Sardinian Earth. Umbrian Earth. Saxum.


CHAP. 57. (17.)-CRETACEOUS EARTHS USED FOR SCOURING CLOTH.

CIMOLIAN EARTH; NINE REMEDIES. SARDINIAN EARTH. UMBRIAN

EARTH. SAXUM.



Of cretaceous[1] earths there are several varieties; and among







them, two kinds of Cimolian earth, employed in medicine, the

one white and the other inclining to the tint of purpurissum.[2]

Both kinds, moistened with vinegar, have the effect of dispersing

tumours and arresting defluxions. They are curative

also of inflammatory swellings and imposthumes of the parotid

glands; and, applied topically, they are good for affections of

the spleen and pustules on the body. With the addition of

aphronitrum,[3] oil of cypros,[4] and vinegar, they reduce

swellings of the feet, care being taken to apply the lotion in

the sun, and at the end of six hours to wash it off with salt

and water. In combination with wax and oil of cypros,

Cimolian earth is good for swellings of the testes.



Cretaceous earths, too, are of a cooling tendency, and,

applied to the body in the form of a liniment, they act as a

check upon excessive perspiration: taken with wine, in the

bath, they remove pimples on the body. The most esteemed

of all these earths is that of Thessaly: it is found also in the

vicinity of Bubon[5] in Lycia.



Cimolian earth is used also for another purpose, that of

scouring cloth. As to the kind which is brought from Sardinia,

and is known as "sarda," it is used for white tissues

only, and is never employed for coloured cloths. Indeed, this

last is held in the lowest estimation of all the Cimolian earths;

whereas, that of Umbria is more highly esteemed, as also the

kind generally known as "saxum."[6] It is a property of

this last to increase in weight[7] by maceration, and it is by

weight that it is usually sold, Sardinian earth being sold by

measure. Umbrian earth is only used for giving lustre to

cloths.



It will not be deemed out of place to give some further

account here of this process, there being still in existence the

Metilian Law, relative to fullers; an enactment which C.

Flaminius and L. milius, in their censorship,[8] had passed by







the people,[9] so attentive to everything were our ancestors.

The following then is the method employed in preparing

cloth: it is first washed in an infusion of Sardinian earth, and

is then exposed to a fumigation with sulphur. This done, it is

scoured[10] with Cimolian earth, when the cloth has been found

to be of a genuine colour; it being very soon detected when it

has been coloured with spurious materials, by its turning

black and the colours becoming dispersed[11] by the action of the

sulphur. Where the colours are genuine and rich, they are

softened by the application of Cimolian earth; which brightens

and freshens them also when they have been rendered sombre

by the action of the sulphur. Saxum is better for white tissues,

after the application of sulphur, but to coloured cloths it is

highly injurious.[12] In Greece they use Tymphan[13] gypsum in

place of Cimolian earth.







1. Cimolian earth, known in modern chemistry as Cimolite, is not a cretaceous earth, but an aluminous silicate, still found in the island of

Kimoli, or Argentiera, one of the Cyclades; See B. iv. c. 23. Tournefort

describes it as a white chalk, very heavy, tasteless, and dissolving in

water. It is found also at Alexandrowsk in Russia.

2. See Chapter 25 of this Book.

3. See B. xxxi. c. 46.

4. See B. xii. c. 51.

5. See B. v. c. 28.

6. Beckmann thinks that this may have been our common chalk.

Vol. II. p. 105.

7. This seems to be the meaning of "crescit in macerando."

8. A.U.C. 535, it is supposed.

9. As a plebiscitum.

10. "Desquamatur." This is most probably the meaning of the word,

though Beckmann observes "that it was undoubtedly a term of art, which

cannot be further explained, because we are unacquainted with the operation

to which it alludes."-Vol II. p. 104. Bohn's Edition.

11. " Funditur sulphure." The meaning of these words is very doubtful.

Beckmann proposes to read "offenditur," but he is not supported

by any of the MSS. He has evidently mistaken the meaning of the

whole passage.

12. Probably because it was too calcareous, Beckmann thinks.

13. See B. iv. c. 3, and B. xxxvi. c. 59.




58. Chap. 58.-Argentaria. Names Of Freedmen Who Have Either Risen To Power Themselves, Or Have Belonged To Men Of Influence.


CHAP. 58.-ARGENTARIA. NAMES OF FREEDMEN WHO HAVE

EITHER RISEN TO POWER THEMSELVES, OR HAVE BELONGED TO

MEN OF INFLUENCE.



There is another cretaceous earth, known as "argentaria,"[1]

from the brightness[2] which it imparts to silver. There is also

the most inferior kind of chalk; which was used by the

ancients for tracing the line of victory[3] in the Circus, and for

marking the feet of slaves on sale, that were brought from

beyond sea. Such, for instance, were Publilius[4] Lochius, the







founder of our mimic scenes; his cousin, Manilius Antiochus,[5]

the first cultivator of astronomy; and Staberius Eros, our first

grammarian; all three of whom our ancestors saw brought

over in the same ship[6]



(18.) But why mention these names, recommended as they are

by the literary honours which they acquired? Other instances

too, Rome has beheld of persons rising to high positions from

the slave-market;[7] Chrysogonus, for example, the freedman

of Sylla; Amphion, the freedman of Q. Catulus; the man who

was the keeper[8] of Lucullus; Demetrius, the freedman of Pompeius,

and Auge, the freedwoman of Demetrius,[9] or else of

Pompeius himself, as some have supposed; Hipparchus, the

freedman of M. Antonius; as also, Menas[10] and Menecrates,[11]

freedmen of Sextus Pompeius, and many others as well, whom

it would be superfluous to enumerate, and who have enriched

themselves at the cost of Roman blood, and the licence that

results from proscription.



Such is the mark that is set upon those droves of slaves

which we see on sale, such the opprobrium thrown upon them

by a capricious fortune ! And yet, some of these very men have

we beheld in the enjoyment of such power and influence, that

the senate itself has decreed them-at the command of Agrippina,[12]

wife of the Emperor Claudius-the decorations even of

the prtorship: all but honoured with the fasces and their

laurels, in fact, and sent back in state to the very place from

which they originally came, with their feet whitened with the

slave-dealer's chalk!











1. Plate powder; from "argentum," "silver." See B. xvii. c. 4.

2. Whitening, or chalk washed and prepared, is still used for this purpose.

3. The goal for the chariots.

4. This reading is restored by Sillig from the Bamberg MS., but no

particulars are known relative to the person alluded to; unless, indeed,

as Sillig suspects to be the case, he is identical with Publius Syrus, the

writer of mimes, mentioned in B. viii. c. 77.

5. Supposed by some to have been the Manilius who was author of the

poem called "Astronomica," still in existence. It is more probable, however,

that he was the father of the poet, or perhaps the grandfather; as it

is clear from a passage in Suetonius, that Staberius Eros taught at Rome

during the civil wars of Sylla, while the poem must have been written, in

part at least, after the death of Augustus.

6. Being afterwards manumitted. Sillig thinks that they may have

arrived in Rome about B.C. 90.

7. "Catasta." A raised platform of wood on which the slaves were

exposed for sale.

8. "Rectorem." For an explanation of this allusion, see B. xxviii. c. 14.

9. A native of Gadara in Syria, according to Josephus. Seneca speaks of

him as being more wealthy than his master.

10. Or Menodorus, who deserted Sextus Pompeius and went over to

Octavianus.

11. Who remained faithful to Pompeius, and died in his cause.

12. He is probably speaking in reference to her paramour, the freedman

Pallas. See B. xxxiii. c. 47.




59. Chap. 59. (19.)-The Earth Of Galata; Of Clypea; Of The Baleares; And Of Ebusus.


CHAP. 59. (19.)-THE EARTH OF GALATA; OF CLYPEA; OF THE

BALEARES; AND OF EBUSUS.



In addition to these, there are various other kinds of earth,

endowed with peculiar properties of their own, and which have

been already mentioned on former occasions.[1] We may,

however, take the present opportunity of again remarking the

following properties. The earth of the island of Galata and of

the vicinity of Clypea, in Africa, is fatal to scorpions; and that

of the Balearic Islands and of Ebusus kills serpents.



SUMMARY.-Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine

hundred and fifty-six.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Messala[2] the Orator, the Elder

Messala,[3] Fenestella,[4] Atticus,[5] M. Varro,[6] Verrius,[7] Cornelius

Nepos,[8] Deculo,[9] Mucianus,[10] Melissus,[11] Vitruvius,[12] Cassius

Severus Longulanus,[13] Fabius Vestalis,[14] who wrote on Painting.



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Pasiteles,[15] Apelles,[16] Melanthius[17]

Asclepiodorus,[18] Euphranor,[19] Heliodorus,[20] who wrote

on the Votive Offerings of the Athenians, Metrodorus,[21] who

wrote on Architecture, Democritus,[22] Theophrastus,[23] Apion[24]







the grammarian, who wrote on the Medicines derived from

Metals, Nymphodorus,[25] Iollas,[26] Apollodorus,[27] Andreas,[28]

Heraclides,[29] Diagoras,[30] Botrys,[31] Archidemus,[32] Dionysius,[33]

Aristogenes,[34] Democles,[35] Mnesides,[36] Xenocrates[37] the son of

Zeno, Theomnestus.[38]









1. As to the earths of Galata and Clypea, see B. v. c. 7. The others are

mentioned in B. iii. c. 11.

2. See end of B. ix.

3. See end of B. xxxiv.

4. See end of B. viii.

5. See end of Books vii. and xiv.

6. See end of B. ii.

7. See end of B. iii.

8. See end of B. ii.

9. See end of B. x.

10. See end of B. ii.

11. See end of B. vii.

12. See end of B. xvi.

13. A native of Longula in Latium. Though of dissolute character, he

was famous as an orator and satirical writer. It was he who accused

Nonius Asprenas of poisoning, as mentioned in Chapter 46 of this Book.

He died in exile at the island of Seriphos, about A.D. 33. His works were

at first proscribed, but were afterwards permitted by Caligula to be read.

14. See end of B. vii.

15. See end of B. xxxiii.

16. The painter, mentioned at great length in Chapter 36 of this Book,

and elsewhere.

17. A painter of Sicyon, mentioned in Chapters 32 and 36 of this Book.

18. Probably the painter of that name, mentioned in Chapter 36 of this

Book.

19. The artist mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19, and in Chapter 40 of the

present Book.

20. See end of B. xxxiii.

21. Possibly the painter of that name, mentioned in Chapter 40 of this

Book.

22. See end of B. ii.

23. See end of B. iii.

24. See end of B. xxx.

25. See end of B. iii.

26. See end of B. xii.

27. See end of Books iv., viii., xi., and xx.

28. See end of B. xx.

29. See end of Books iv. and xii.

30. See end of B. xii.

31. See end of B. xiii.

32. See end of B. xii.

33. See end of B. xii.

34. See end of B. xxix.

35. See end of B. xii.

36. See end of B. xii.

37. See end of B. xxxiii.

38. See end of B. xxxiii.




0. > Book Xxxvi. The Natural History Of Stones.


BOOK XXXVI.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF STONES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-Luxury Displayed In The Use Of Various Kinds Of Marble.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-LUXURY DISPLAYED IN THE USE OF VARIOUS KINDS

OF MARBLE.



IT now remains for us to speak of stones, or, in other words,

the leading folly of the day; to say nothing at all of our taste

for gems and amber, crystal and murrhine vases.[1] For everything

of which we have previously treated, down to the

present Book, may, by some possibility or other, have the appearance

of having been created for the sake of man: but as

to the mountains, Nature has made those for herself, as a kind

of bulwark for keeping together the bowels of the earth; as

also for the purpose of curbing the violence of the rivers, of

breaking the waves of the sea, and so, by opposing to them

the very hardest of her materials, putting a check upon those

elements which are never at rest. And yet we must hew

down these mountains, forsooth, and carry them off; and this,

for no other reason than to gratify our luxurious inclinations:

heights which in former days it was reckoned a miracle even to

have crossed!



Our forefathers regarded as a prodigy the passage of the

Alps, first by Hannibal,[2] and, more recently, by the Cimbri:

but at the present day, these very mountains are cut asunder

to yield us a thousand different marbles, promontories are

thrown open to the sea, and the face of Nature is being everywhere

reduced to a level. We now carry away the barriers

that were destined for the separation of one nation from

another; we construct ships for the transport of our marbles;

and, amid the waves, the most boisterous element of Nature,

we convey the summits of the mountains to and fro: a thing,

however, that is even less unpardonable than to go on the







search amid the regions of the clouds for vessels[3] with which

to cool our draughts, and to excavate rocks, towering to the

very heavens, in order that we may have the satisfaction of

drinking from ice! Let each reflect, when he hears of the

high prices set upon these things, when he sees these ponderous

masses carted and carried away, how many there are whose

life is passed far more happily without them. For what

utility or for what so-called pleasure do mortals make themselves

the agents, or, more truly speaking, the victims of such

undertakings, except in order that others may take their repose

in the midst of variegated stones? Just as though too, the

shades of night, which occupy one half of each man's existence,

would forbear to curtail these imaginary delights.







1. See B. xxxvii. cc. 7, 8, 11.

2. See the lines of Juvenal, Sat. x. 1. 151, et seq.

3. He alludes to vessels made of crystal, which, as Dalechamps remarks,

was long supposed to be nothing but ice in a concrete form. See B. xxxvii.

c. 9.




2. Chap. 2.-Who Was The First To Employ Marble In Public Buildings.


CHAP. 2.-WHO WAS THE FIRST TO EMPLOY MARBLE IN PUBLIC

BUILDINGS.



Indeed, while making these reflections, one cannot but feel

ashamed of the men of ancient times even. There are still in

existence censorial[1] laws, which forbid the kernels[2] in the

neck of swine to be served at table, dormice too, and other

things too trifling to mention: and yet there has been no law

passed, forbidding marble to be imported, or the seas to be

traversed in search of it!



(2.) It may possibly be observed, that this was, because

marble was not then introduced. Such, however, is not the

fact; for in the dileship of M. Scaurus,[3] three hundred and

sixty columns were to be seen imported; for the decorations of

a temporary theatre, too, one that was destined to be in use for

barely a single month. And yet the laws were silent thereon;

in a spirit of indulgence for the amusements of the public, no

doubt. But then, why such indulgence? or how do vices

more insidiously steal upon us than under the plea of serving

the public? By what other way, in fact, did ivory, gold, and

precious stones, first come into use with private individuals?



Can we say that there is now anything that we have reserved

for the exclusive use of the gods? However, be it so,

let us admit of this indulgence for the amusements of the

public; but still, why did the laws maintain their silence







when the largest of these columns, pillars of Lucullan[4] marble,

as much as eight-and-thirty feet in height, were erected in

the atrium of Scaurus? a thing, too, that was not done

privately or in secret; for the contractor for the public sewers

compelled him to give security for the possible damage that

might be done in the carriage of them to the Palatium.[5]

When so bad an example as this was set, would it not have

been advisable to take some precautions for the preservation

of the public morals? And yet the laws still preserved their

silence, when such enormous masses as these were being carried

past the earthenware[6] pediments of the temples of the

gods, to the house of a private individual!







1. See B. viii. c. 82.

2. "Glandia."

3. See Chapter 24 of this Book.

4. See Chapter 8 of this Book.

5. In the Eleventh Region of the City.

6. See B. xxxv. cc. 43, 45.




3. Chap. 3. (3.)-Who Was The First To Erect Columns Of Foreign Marble At Rome.


CHAP. 3. (3.)-WHO WAS THE FIRST TO ERECT COLUMNS OF

FOREIGN MARBLE AT ROME.



And yet it cannot be said that Scaurus, by way of a first

essay in vice, took the City by surprise, in a state of ignorance

and totally unguarded against such evils as these. Already

had L. Crassus,[1] the orator, he who was the first to possess

pillars of foreign marble, and in this same Palatium too, received

from M. Brutus, on the occasion of a dispute, the nickname

of the "Palatine Venus," for his indulgence in this

kind of luxury. The material, I should remark, was Hymettian

marble, and the pillars were but six in number, and not

exceeding some twelve feet in height. Our forefathers were

guilty of this omission, no doubt, because morals were universally

contaminated; and, seeing that things which had been interdicted

had been forbidden in vain, they preferred the absence

of laws to laws that were no better than a dead letter. These

particulars and others in the sequel will show that we are so

far improved; for who is there at the present day that has, in

his atrium, any such massive columns as these of Scaurus?



But before proceeding to treat of the several varieties of this

material, it will be as well to mention the various artists, and

the degrees of estimation in which they are held, who have

worked in marble. We will, therefore, proceed to review the

sculptors who have flourished at different periods.











1. See B. xvii. c. 1.




4. Chap. 4. (4.)-The First Artists Who Excelled In The Sculpture Of Marble, And The Various Periods At Which They Flourished. The Mausoleum In Caria. The Most Celebrated Sculptors And Works In Marble, Two Hundred And Twenty-Five In Number.


CHAP. 4. (4.)-THE FIRST ARTISTS WHO EXCELLED IN THE SCULPTURE

OF MARBLE, AND THE VARIOUS PERIODS AT WHICH THEY

FLOURISHED. THE MAUSOLEUM IN CARIA. THE MOST CELEBRATED

SCULPTORS AND WORKS IN MARBLE, TWO HUNDRED AND

TWENTY-FIVE IN NUMBER.



The first artists who distinguished themselves in the sculpture

of marble, were Dipnus[1] and Scyllis, natives of the Isle

of Crete. At this period the Medians were still in power, and

Cyrus had not begun to reign in Persia; their date being about

the fiftieth Olympiad. They afterwards repaired to Sicyon, a

state which for a length of time[2] was the adopted country of

all such pursuits as these. The people of Sicyon had made a

contract with them for the execution of certain statues of the

gods; but, before completing the work, the artists complained

of some injustice being done them, and retired to tolia. Immediately

upon this, the state was afflicted with sterility and

famine, and dreadful consternation was the result. Upon

enquiry being made as to a remedy for these evils, the Pythian

Apollo made answer, that Dipnus and Scyllis must complete

the statues of the gods; an object which was attained at the

cost of great concessions and considerable sums of money.

The statues were those of Apollo,[3] Diana, Hercules, and

Minerva; the last of which was afterwards struck by

lightning.



(5.) Before these artists were in existence, there had already

appeared Melas, a sculptor of the Isle of Chios; and, in succession

to him, his son Micciades, and his grandson Archermus;[4]

whose sons, Bupalus and Athenis, afterwards attained the highest

eminence in the art. These last were contemporaries of the

poet Hipponax, who, it is well known, lived in the sixtieth

Olympiad. Now, if a person only reckons, going upwards

from their time to that of their great-grandfather, he will find







that the art of sculpture must have necessarily originated about

the commencement of the era of the Olympiads. Hipponax

being a man notorious for his ugliness, the two artists, by way

of joke,[5] exhibited a statue of him for the ridicule of the public.

Indignant at this, the poet emptied upon them all the

bitterness of his verses; to such an extent indeed, that, as

some believe, they were driven to hang themselves in despair.

This, however, is not the fact; for, at a later period, these

artists executed a number of statues in the neighbouring islands;

at Delos for example, with an inscription subjoined to the effect,

that Chios was rendered famous not only by its vines[6] but by

the works of the sons of Archermus as well. The people of

Lasos[7] still show a Diana that was made by them; and we

find mention also made of a Diana at Chios, the work of their

hands: it is erected on an elevated spot, and the features appear

stern to a person as he enters, and joyous as he departs.

At Rome, there are some statues by these artists on the summit

of the Temple[8] of the Palatine Apollo, and, indeed, in most of

the buildings that were erected by the late Emperor Augustus.

At Delos and in the Isle of Lesbos there were formerly some

sculptures by their father to be seen. Ambracia too, Argos,

and Cleon, were filled with productions of the sculptor Dipnus.



All these artists, however, used nothing but the white marble

of the Isle of Paros, a stone which was known as "lychnites"

at first, because, according to Varro, it was cut in the quarries

by lamplight.[9] Since their time, many other whiter marbles

have been discovered, and very recently that of the quarries

of Luna.[10] With reference to the marble of Paros, there is one

very marvellous circumstance related; in a single block that

was split with wedges, a figure[11] of Silenus made its appearance.







We must not omit to remark, that the art of sculpture is

of much more ancient[12] date than those of painting and of

statuary in bronze; both of which commenced with Phidias,

in the eighty-third Olympiad, or in other words, about

three hundred and thirty-two years later. Indeed, it is said,

that Phidias himself worked in marble, and that there is a

Venus of his at Rome, a work of extraordinary beauty, in the

buildings of Octavia.[13] A thing, however, that is universally

admitted, is the fact that he was the instructor of Alcamenes,[14]

the Athenian, one of the most famous among the sculptors.

By this last artist, there are numerous statues in the temples

at Athens; as also, without the walls there, the celebrated

Venus, known as the Aphroditee)n xh/pois,[15] a work to which

Phidias himself, it is said, put the finishing hand. Another

disciple also of Phidias was Agoracritus[16] of Paros, a great

favourite with his master, on account of his extremely youthful

age; and for which reason, it is said, Phidias gave his own name

to many of that artist's works. The two pupils entering into a

contest as to the superior execution of a statue of Venus,

Alcamenes was successful; not that his work was superior, but

because his fellow-citizens chose to give their suffrages in his

favour in preference to a stranger. It was for this reason, it

is said, that Agoracritus sold his statue, on the express condition

that it should never be taken to Athens, and changed its

name to that of Nemesis.[17] It was accordingly erected at

Rhamnus,[18] a borough of Attica, and M. Varro has considered

it superior to every other statue. There is also to be seen in







the Temple of the Great Mother, in the same city, another

work[19] by Agoracritus.



Among all nations which the fame of the Olympian Jupiter

has reached, Phidias is looked upon, beyond all doubt, as

the most famous of artists: but to let those who have never

even seen his works, know how deservedly he is esteemed,

we will take this opportunity of adducing a few slight proofs

of the genius which he displayed. In doing this, we shall

not appeal to the beauty of his Olympian Jupiter, nor yet to

the vast proportions of his Athenian Minerva, six and twenty

cubits in height, and composed of ivory and gold; but it is to

the shield of this last statue that we shall draw attention;

upon the convex face of which he has chased a combat of the

Amazons, while, upon the concave side of it, he has represented

the battle between the Gods and the Giants. Upon

the sandals again, we see the wars of the Lapith and

Centaurs, so careful has he been to fill every smallest portion

of his work with some proof or other of his artistic skill. To

the story chased upon the pedestal of the statue, the name of

the "Birth of Pandora"[20] has been given; and the figures

of new-born[21] gods to be seen upon it are no less than twenty

in number. The figure of Victory, in particular, is most

admirable, and connoisseurs are greatly struck with the serpent

and the sphinx in bronze lying beneath the point of

the spear. Let thus much be said incidentally in reference to

an artist who can never be sufficiently praised; if only to let

it be understood that the richness of his genius was always

equal to itself, even in the very smallest details.



When speaking[22] of the statuaries, we have already given

the period at which Praxiteles flourished; an artist, who, in

the glory which he acquired by his works in marble, surpassed

even himself. There are some works of his in the

Ceramicus[23] at Athens; but, superior to all the statues, not

only of Praxiteles, but of any other artist that ever existed,

is his Cnidian Venus; for the inspection of which, many persons

before now have purposely undertaken a voyage to







Cnidos. The artist made two statues of the goddess, and

offered them both for sale: one of them was represented

with drapery,[24] and for this reason was preferred[25] by the people

of Cos, who had the choice; the second was offered them at

the same price, but, on the grounds of propriety and modesty,

they thought fit to choose the other. Upon this, the Cnidians

purchased the rejected statue,[26] and immensely superior has it

always been held in general estimation. At a later period,

King Nicomedes wished to purchase this statue of the Cnidians,

and made them an offer to pay off the whole of their

public debt, which was very large. They preferred, however,

to submit to any extremity rather than part with it; and with

good reason, for by this statue Praxiteles has perpetuated the

glory of Cnidos. The little temple in which it, is placed is

open on all sides, so that the beauties[27] of the statue admit of







being seen from every point of view; an arrangement which

was favoured by the goddess herself, it is generally believed.

Indeed, from whatever point it is viewed, its execution is

equally worthy of admiration. A certain individual, it is

said, became enamoured of this statue, and, concealing himself

in the temple during the night, gratified his lustful passion

upon it, traces of which are to be seen in a stain left upon

the marble.[28]



There are also at Cnidos some other statues in marble, the

productions of illustrious artists; a Father Liber[29] by Bryaxis,[30]

another by Scopas,[31] and a Minerva by the same hand: indeed,

there is no greater proof of the supreme excellence of the

Venus of Praxiteles than the fact that, amid such productions

as these, it is the only one that we generally find noticed.

By Praxiteles, too, there is a Cupid, a statue which occasioned[32]

one of the charges brought by Cicero against Verres,

and for the sake of seeing which persons used to visit Thespi:

at the present day, it is to be seen in the Schools[33] of Octavia.

By the same artist there is also another Cupid, without

drapery, at Parium, a colony of the Propontis; equal to the

Cnidian Venus in the fineness of its execution, and said to have

been the object of a similar outrage. For one Alcetas, a

Rhodian, becoming deeply enamoured of it, left upon the

marble similar traces of the violence of his passion.



At Rome there are, by Praxiteles, a Flora, a Triptolemus,

and a Ceres, in the Gardens of Servilius; statues of Good

Success[34] and Good Fortune, in the Capitol; as also some

Mnades,[35] and figures known as Thyiades[36] and Caryatides;[37]







some Sileni,[38] to be seen in the memorial buildings of Asinius

Pollio, and statues of Apollo and Neptune.



Cephisodotus,[39] the son of Praxiteles, inherited his father's

talent. There is, by him, at Pergamus, a splendid Group[40] of

Wrestlers, a work that has been highly praised, and in which

the fingers have all the appearance of being impressed upon

real flesh rather than upon marble. At Rome there are by

him, a Latona, in the Temple of the Palatium; a Venus, in the

buildings that are memorials of Asinius Pollio; and an sculapius,

and a Diana, in the Temple of Juno situate within

the Porticos of Octavia.



Scopas[41] rivals these artists in fame: there are by him, a

Venus[42] and a Pothos,[43] statues which are venerated at Samothrace

with the most august ceremonials. He was also the

sculptor of the Palatine Apollo; a Vesta seated, in the Gardens

of Servilius, and represented with two Bends[44] around her, a

work that has been highly praised; two similar Bends, to be

seen upon the buildings of Asinius Pollio; and some figures of

Canephori[45] in the same place. But the most highly esteemed

of all his works, are those in the Temple erected by Cneius

Domitius,[46] in the Flaminian Circus; a figure of Neptune

himself, a Thetis and Achilles, Nereids seated upon dolphins,

cetaceous fishes, and[47] sea-horses,[48] Tritons, the train of Phor-







cus,[49] whales,[50] and numerous other sea-monsters, all by the

same hand; an admirable piece of workmanship, even if it had

taken a whole life to complete it. In addition to the works

by him already mentioned, and others of the existence of

which we are ignorant, there is still to be seen a colossal Mars

of his, seated, in the Temple erected by Brutus Callcus,[51]

also in the Flaminian Circus; as also, a naked Venus, of anterior

date to that by Praxiteles, and a production that would

be quite sufficient to establish the renown of any other place.



At Rome, it is true, it is quite lost sight of amid such a vast

multitude of similar works of art: and then besides, the inattention

to these matters that is induced by such vast numbers

of duties and so many items of business, quite precludes the

generality of persons from devoting their thoughts to the

subject. For, in fact, the admiration that is due to this art,

not only demands an abundance of leisure, but requires that

profound silence should reign upon the spot. Hence it is,

that the artist is now forgotten, who executed the statue of

Venus that was dedicated by the Emperor Vespasianus in his

Temple of Peace, a work well worthy of the high repute of

ancient times. With reference, too, to the Dying Children of

Niobe, in the Temple of the Sosian[52] Apollo, there is an equal

degree of uncertainty, whether it is the work[53] of Scopas or of

Praxiteles. So, too, as to the Father Janus, a work that was

brought from Egypt and dedicated in his Temple[54] by Augustus,

it is a question by which of these two artists[55] it was made:

at the present day, however, it is quite hidden from us by the







quantity of gold that covers it. The same question, too,

arises with reference to the Cupid brandishing a Thunderbolt,

now to be seen in the Curia of Octavia: the only thing, in

fact, that is affirmed with any degree of certainty respecting

it, is, that it is a likeness of Alcibiades, who was the handsomest

man of his day. There are, too, in the Schools[56] of

Octavia, many other highly attractive works, the authors of

which are now unknown: four Satyrs, for example, one of

which carries in his arms a Father Liber, robed in the palla;[57]

another similarly supports the Goddess Libera;[58] a third is

pacifying a child who is crying; and a fourth is giving a child

some water to drink, from a cup; two Zephyrs also, who

agitate their flowing drapery with their breath. No less is

the uncertainty that prevails as to the authors of the statues

now to be seen in the Septa;[59] an Olympus[60] and Pan, and a

Charon and Achilles;[61] and yet their high reputation has

caused them to be deemed valuable enough for their keepers

to be made answerable for their safety at the cost of their lives.



Scopas had for rivals and contemporaries, Bryaxis,[62] Timotheus,[63]

and Leochares,[64] artists whom we are bound to mention together, from the fact that they worked together at the

Mausoleum; such being the name of the tomb that was

erected by his wife Artemisia in honour of Mausolus, a petty

king of Caria, who died in the second year of the hundred and

seventh Olympiad. It was through the exertions of these

artists more particularly, that this work came to be reckoned

one of the Seven Wonders of the World.[65] The circumference[66]

of this building is, in all, four hundred and forty feet,







and the breadth from north to south sixty-three, the two

fronts[67] being not so wide in extent. It is twenty-five cubits

in height, and is surrounded with six-and-thirty columns,

the outer circumference being known as the "Pteron."[68] The

east side was sculptured by Scopas, the north by Bryaxis, the

south by Timotheus, and the west by Leochares; but, before

their task was completed, Queen Artemisia died.[69] They did

not leave their work, however, until it was finished, considering

that it was at once a memorial of their own fame and of

the sculptor's art: and, to this day even, it is undecided which

of them has excelled. A fifth artist also took part in the

work; for above the Pteron there is a pyramid erected, equal

in height to the building below, and formed of four and

twenty steps, which gradually taper upwards towards the

summit; a platform, crowned with a representation of a four-horse

chariot by Pythis. This addition makes the total height

of the work one hundred and forty feet.[70]



There is at Rome, by Timotheus, a Diana, in the Temple of

Apollo in the Palatium, the head of which has been replaced

by Avianius Evander.[71] A Hercules, too, by Menestratus,[72] is

greatly admired; and there is a Hecate of his at Ephesus, in







the Temple of Diana there, behind the sanctuary. The keepers

of the temple recommend persons, when viewing it, to be

careful of their eyes, so remarkably radiant is the marble.

No less esteemed, too, are the statues of the Graces,[73] in the

Propylum[74] at Athens; the workmanship of Socrates the

sculptor, a different person from the painter[75] of that name,

though identical with him in the opinion of some. As to

Myron,[76] who is so highly praised for his works in bronze,

there is by him at Smyrna, An Old Woman Intoxicated, a

work that is held in high estimation.



Asinius Pollio, a man of a warm and ardent temperament,

was determined that the buildings which he erected as memorials

of himself should be made as attractive as possible; for

here we see groups representing, Nymphs carried off by Centaurs,

a work of Arcesilas:[77] the Thespiades,[78] by Cleomenes:[79] Oceanus

and Jupiter, by Heniochus:[80] the Appiades,[81] by Stephanus:[82]

Hermerotes,[83] by Tauriscus, not the chaser in silver, already[84]

mentioned, but a native of Tralles:[85] a Jupiter Hospitalis[86] by Papylus,

a pupil of Praxiteles: Zethus and Amphion, with Dirce,

the Bull,[87] and the halter, all sculptured from a single block of







marble, the work of Apollonius and Tauriscus, and brought to

Rome from Rhodes. These two artists made it a sort of rivalry

as to their parentage, for they declared that, although Apollodorus

was their natural progenitor, Menecrates[88] would appear to have

been their father. In the same place, too, there is a Father

Liber,[89] by Eutychides,[90] highly praised. Near the Portico of Octavia,

there is an Apollo, by Philiscus[91] of Rhodes, placed in the

Temple of that God; a Latona and Diana also; the Nine Muses;

and another Apollo, without drapery. The Apollo holding the

Lyre, in the same temple, was executed by Timarchides.[92] In

the Temple of Juno, within the Porticos of Octavia, there is

a figure of that goddess, executed by Dionysius,[93] and another

by Polycles,[94] as also other statues by Praxiteles.[95] This Polycles,

too, in conjunction with Dionysius,[96] the son of Timarchides,

made the statue of Jupiter, which is to be seen in the

adjoining temple.[97] The figures of Pan and Olympus Wrestling,

in the same place, are by Heliodorus;[98] and they are considered

to be the next finest group[99] of this nature in all the world. The

same artist also executed a Venus at the Bath, and Polycharmus

another Venus, in an erect[100] posture.



By the honourable place which the work of Lysias occupies,

we may see in what high esteem it was held by the late Emperor

Augustus, who consecrated it in honour of his father

Octavius, in the Palatium, placing it on an arch within a small







temple, adorned with columns: it is the figure of a four-horse

chariot, with an Apollo and Diana, all sculptured from a single

block. I find it stated, also, that the Apollo by Calamis, the

chaser already[101] mentioned, the Pugilists by Dercylides, and

the statue of Callisthenes the historian, by Amphistratus,[102] all

of them now in the Gardens of Servilius, are works highly

esteemed.



Beyond these, there are not many sculptors of high repute;

for, in the case of several works of very great excellence,

the number of artists that have been engaged upon them has

proved a considerable obstacle to the fame of each, no individual

being able to engross the whole of the credit, and it being

impossible to award it in due proportion to the names of the

several artists combined. Such is the case with the Laocon,

for example, in the palace of the Emperor Titus, a work that

may be looked upon as preferable to any other production of

the art of painting or of statuary. It is sculptured from a single

block, both the main figure as well as the children, and the serpents with their marvellous folds. This group was made in concert by three most eminent artists,[103] Agesander, Polydorus, and

Athenodorus, natives of Rhodes. In similar manner also, the

palaces of the Csars, in the Palatium, have been filled with

most splendid statuary, the work of Craterus, in conjunction







with Pythodorus, of Polydeuces with Hermolus, and of another

Pythodorus with Artemon; some of the statues, also, are by

Aphrodisius of Tralles, who worked alone. The Pantheon of

Agrippa has been decorated by Diogenes of Athens, and the

Caryatides, by him, which form the columns of that temple, are

looked upon as master-pieces of excellence: the same, too,

with the statues that are placed upon the roof, though, in

consequence of the height, they have not had an opportunity

of being so well appreciated.



Without glory, and excluded from every temple, is the

statue of Hercules,[104] in honour of whom the Carthaginians

were accustomed to sacrifice human victims every year: it

stands upon the ground before the entrance of the Portico of

the Nations.[105] There were erected, too, near the Temple of

Felicity, the statues of the Thespian[106] Muses; of one of which,

according to Varro, Junius Pisciculus, a Roman of equestrian

rank, became enamoured. Pasiteles,[107] too, speaks in terms of

high admiration of them, the artist who wrote five Books on

the most celebrated works throughout the world. Born upon

the Grecian[108] shores of Italy, and presented with the Roman

citizenship granted to the cities of those parts, Pasiteles constructed

the ivory statue of Jupiter which is now in the Temple

of Metellus,[109] on the road to the Campus Martius. It so happened,

that being one day at the Docks,[110] where there were

some wild beasts from Africa, while he was viewing through

the bars of a cage a lion which he was engaged in drawing, a

panther made its escape from another cage, to the no small

danger of this most careful artist. He executed many other

works, it is said, but we do not find the names of them specifically

mentioned.







Arcesilas,[111] also, is an artist highly extolled by Varro; who

states that he had in his possession a Lioness in marble of his,

and Winged Cupids playing with it, some holding it with

cords, and others making it drink from a horn, the whole

sculptured from a single block: he says, also, that the fourteen

figures around the Theatre of Pompeius,[112] representing different

Nations, are the work of Coponius.



I find it stated that Canachus,[113] an artist highly praised among

the statuaries in bronze, executed some works also in marble.

Saurus,[114] too, and Batrachus must not be forgotten, Lacedmonians

by birth, who built the temples[115] enclosed by the Porticos

of Octavia. Some are of opinion that these artists were

very wealthy men, and that they erected these buildings at

their own expense, expecting to be allowed to inscribe their

names thereon; but that, this indulgence being refused them,

they adopted another method of attaining their object. At

all events, there are still to be seen, at the present day, on the

spirals[116] of the columns, the figures of a lizard and a frog,[117]

emblematical of their names. In the Temple of Jupiter by

the same artists, the paintings, as well as all the other ornaments,

bear reference to the worship of a goddess. The[118] fact

is, that when the temple of Juno was completed, the porters, as

it is said, who were entrusted with the carriage of the statues,

made an exchange of them; and, on religious grounds, the

mistake was left uncorrected, from an impression that it had

been by the intervention of the divinities themselves, that

this seat of worship had been thus shared between them.

Hence it is that we see in the Temple of Juno, also, the ornaments

which properly pertain to the worship of Jupiter.







Some minute works in marble have also gained reputation for

their artists: by Myrmecides,[119] there was a four-horse chariot,

so small that it could be covered, driver and all, by the wings

of a fly; and by Callicrates,[120] some ants, in marble, the feet

and other limbs of which were so fine as to escape the sight.







1. These two artists are invariably mentioned together. Pausanias, B.

ii. c. 14 and B. iii. c. 17, speaks of them as the pupils or sons of Ddalus;

only intimating thereby, as Sillig thinks, that they were the first

sculptors worthy of being associated with the father of artists. Pausanias,

B. ii. c. 22, mentions ebony statues by them.

2. In the time of the Telchines, before the arrival of Inachus in Argolis.

3. Pausanias says that this statue was completed by their pupils. Clemens

Alexandrinus mentions other works of theirs.

4. Another reading is "Anthermus." Of many of these sculptors, no

further particulars are known.

5. Another cause of the quarrel is said to have been the refusal of Bupalus

to give his daughter in marriage to Hipponax. This quarrel is referred

to in the Greek Anthology, B. iii. Epigr. 26.

6. See B. xiv. c. 9.

7. See B. iv. c. 20.

8. Dedicated by Augustus, in the Tenth Region of the City.

9. Lu/xnos being the Greek for a "lamp."

10. See B. iii. c. 8: now known as the marble of Massa and Carrara, of

a bluish white, and a very fine grain.

11. A similar case has been cited, in the figure of St. Jerome, to be seen

on a stone in the Grotto of Our Saviour at Bethlehem, and in a representation

of the Crucifixion, in the Church of St. George, at Venice. A miniature

resembling that of the poet Chaucer is to be seen on the surface of

a small stone in the British Museum.

12. See B. xxxv. c. 44.

13. See B. xxxv. cc. 37, 40.

14. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

15. "In the Gardens." A suburb of Athens, in which there was a temple

of Venus, or Aphrodite Urania.

16. He is mentioned also by Pausanias and Strabo.

17. The Goddess of Retribution. Pausanias, B. i. c. 33, says that it

was the work of Phidias, and that it was made of Parian marble, which

the Persians had brought into Attica for the purpose of erecting a trophy.

Strabo, however, in B. ix., says that it was the work of Agoracritus and

Diodotus (an artist otherwise unknown), and that it was not at all inferior

to the production of Phidias. Tzetzes again, Suidas, and Photius, say

that it was the work of Phidias, and that it was presented by him to his

favourite pupil, Agoracritus. Sillig rejects the story of the contest, and

the decision by the suffrages of the Athenian people. Some modern

writers have doubted also, whether a statue of Venus could be modified so

as to represent Nemesis; but not with sufficient reason, Sillig thinks.

18. See B. iv. c. 11.

19. A statue, Sillig supposes, of the goddess Cybele.

20. "Pandoras Genesis."

21. Sillig is of opinion that this passage is corrupt, and is inclined to

think, with Panofka, that the reading should be "nascenti adstantes,"-

gods "standing by the new-born" Pandora.

22. In B. xxxiv. c. 19.

23. See B. xxxv. c. 45

24. "Velat specie." There has been much discussion about the meaning

of these words; and Sillig is of opinion that the figure was represented

draped in a garment, which, while it seemed designed to hide the

person, really exposed it to view. This dress would not improbably recommend

it additionally to the inhabitants of Cos, who were skilled in

making the Co vestes, garments which, while they covered the body, revealed

its naked charms. See further mention of them in B. ix. c. 26.

25. Visconti thinks that a statue still preserved in the Royal Museum at

Paris, is a copy of the Coan Venus. It has, however, a figure of Cupid

associated with it, which, as Sillig observes, militates against the supposition.

26. The ancient writers abound in praises of this wonderful statue.

Lucian, however, has given the most complete and artistic description of

it. It was supposed by the ancients, to represent Venus as standing before

Paris, when he awarded to her the prize of beauty; but it has been

well remarked, that the drapery in the right hand, and the vase by the

side of the figure, indicate that she has either just left or is about to enter

the bath. The artist modelled it from Phryne, a courtesan or hetra of

Athens, of whom he was greatly enamoured. It was ultimately carried

to Constantinople, where it perished by fire in the reign of Justinian. It

is doubtful whether there are any copies of it in existence. There is,

however, a so-called copy in the gardens of the Vatican, and another in

the Glyptothek, at Munich. A Venus in the Museo Pio-Clementino, at

Rome, is considered by Visconti and others to have been a copy of the

Cnidian Venus, with the addition of drapery. It is supposed that Cleomenes,

in making the Venus de Medici, imitated the Cnidian Venus in

some degree.

27. There are numerous Epigrams in reference to this statue in the Greek

Anthology; the most striking line in any of which is the beautiful Pentameter:

Feu=! feu=! po=u gumnh/n e=/ide me Pracite/lhs;

"Alas! where has Praxiteles me naked seen?"

28. Lucian, Valerius Maximus, and Athenus, tell the same improbable

story, borrowing it from Posidippus the historian.

29. Bacchus.

30. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

31. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

32. Pliny is mistaken here: for in the time of Cicero, as we find in Verr.

4, 2, 4, the Thespian Cupid was still at Thespi, in Botia, where it had

been dedicated by Phryne, and was not removed to Rome till the time of

the emperors. It was the Parian Cupid, originally made for the people of

Parium, that, after coming into the possession of Heius, a rich Sicilian,

was forcibly taken from him by Verres.

33. Where it was destroyed by fire in the reign of Titus. See B. xxxiv.

c. 37.

34. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

35. Frantic Bacchantes.

36. Sacrificing Bacchantes.

37. The name given in architecture to figures of females employed as

columns in edifices. The Spartans, on taking the city of Carya, in Laconia,

massacred the male inhabitants, and condemned the females to the

most bitter servitude, as "hewers of wood and drawers of water." Hence

the memorials of their servitude thus perpetuated in architecture.

38. Or companions of Bacchus. See B. xxxv. c. 36.

39. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

40. "Symplegma."

41. Also mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19.

42. Pausanias, B. I., speaks of three figures sculptured by Scopas; Ers,

Himeros, and Pothos. It is doubtful, however, whether they are identical

with those here spoken of.

43. Or "Desire." The name of "Phathon" is added in most of the

editions, but Sillig rejects it as either a gloss, or a corruption of some

other name.

44. "Campteras." This, which is probably the true reading, has been

restored by Sillig from the Bamberg MS. The kampth/r was the bend or

turning, round the goal in the race-course for chariots; and as Vesta was

symbolical of the earth, these figures, Sillig thinks, probably represented

the poles, as goals of the sun's course.

45. Figures of Virgins, carrying on their heads baskets filled with objects

consecrated to Minerva.

46. Dedicated to Neptune by Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, in the Ninth

Region of the City.

47. "Et" appears a preferable reading to the "aut" of the Bamberg MS.

48. "Hippocampi." It is pretty clear that by this name he cannot mean

the small fish so called in B. xxxii. cc. 20, 23, 27, 30, 35, 38, 50, and 53,

and alluded to in B. ix. c. 1; the Syngnathus hippocampus of Linnus.

49. A sea-divinity.

50. "Pistrices." See B. ix. cc. 2, 3, 15.

51. Conqueror of Callcia. See B. iv. c. 35. This temple was dedicated

to Mars.

52. A statue of Apollo, Hardouin thinks, which was originally brought

from Seleucia by C. Sosius, the qustor of M. Lepidus. See B. xiii. c. 5.

53. Ajasson says that this work is identical with the group representing

Niobe and her children, now at Florence. It was found in 1535, or, as

some say, 1583, near the Lateran Gate at Rome; upon which, it was

bought by Ferdinand de Medici, and placed in the park of one of his

villas. More recently, the Emperor Leopold purchased it, and had it removed

to Florence.

54. The Temple of Janus, in the Eighth Region of the City.

55. Probably by neither of them, as Janus was essentially an Italian Divinity.

See Ovid's Fasti, B. I.

56. See B. xxxv. c. 37.

57. A large upper garment, reaching to the ankles.

58. Both Liber and Libera were originally Italian Divinities, who presided

over the vine and the fields. Pliny, however, always identifies the

former with Bacchus, and other writers the latter with Persephone, or

Proserpina, the daughter of Demeter or Ceres. Ovid, Fasti, B. iii. 1. 512,

calls Ariadne, "Libera."

59. See B. xvi. c. 76.

60. A disciple of Marsyas, and a famous player on the flute. See p. 319.

61. All these figures have been found copied in the frescoes of Herculaneum.

62. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

63. It is doubtful whether this is the same artist that is mentioned in B.

xxxiv. c. 19.

64. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

65. Hence, too, the use of the word "Mausoleum," as meaning a splendid

tomb.

66. He means, probably, the extent of the colonnade or screen which

surrounded it. The Mausoleum was erected at Halicarnassus.

67. Facing east and west.

68. Or "wing." The "ptera," or "pteromata," properly speaking, were

the two wings at the sides of a building. See Note 80 below.

69. She only survived her husband two years.

70. Another reading, and perhaps a preferable one, is "one hundred" feet.

The account given by Pliny is very confused, and Littr has taken some

pains to explain the construction of this building. He is of opinion that

in the first place, a quadrangular main building was erected, 63 feet in

length on the north and south, the breadth of the east and west faces

being shorter, some 42 feet perhaps. Secondly, that there was a screen of

36 columns surrounding the main building, and 411 feet in circumference.

(He adopts this reading in preference to the 440 feet of the Bamberg MS.)

That the longer sides of this screen were 113.25 feet in extent, and the

shorter 92.125 feet. That between the main building and this screen, or

colonnade, there was an interval of 25.125 feet. Thirdly, that the colonnade

and the main buildings were united by a vaulted roof, and that this

union formed the "Pteron." Fourthly, that rising from this Pteron,

there was a quadrangular truncated pyramid, formed of twenty-four steps,

and surmounted with a chariot of marble. This would allow, speaking in

round numbers, 37 1/2 feet for the height of the main body of the building,

37 1/2 feet for the pyramid, and twenty-five feet for the height of the chariot

and the figure which it doubtless contained.

71. Supposed to be the person alluded to by Horace, 1 Sat. 3, 90.

72. He is mentioned also by Tatian, and is supposed to have lived about

the time of Alexander the Great.

73. "Charites."

74. "Porch," or "Vestibule" of the Citadel at Athens.

75. Mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 40. The present Socrates is identified by

Pausanias, B. i. c. 22, and B. ix. c. 25, and by Diogenes Laertius, B. ii.

c. 19, with the great Athenian philosopher of that name, son of the statuary

Sophroniscus: but the question as to his identity is very doubtful. Diogenes

Laertius adds, that whereas artists had previously represented the Graces

naked, Socrates sculptured them with drapery.

76. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

77. See B. xxxv. c. 45.

78. Or Muses of Thespi, in Botia.

79. There have been several distinguished sculptors, all of this name.

A statuary, son of Apollodorus the Athenian, made the celebrated Venus

de Medici. It is the opinion of Visconti and Thiersch, that the artist here

mentioned flourished before the destruction of Corinth.

80. This name is doubtful, and nothing is known relative to the artist.

81. "Hippiades" is the old reading, which Dalechamps considers to

mean "Amazons." The Appiades were Nymphs of the Appian Spring,

near the temple of Venus Genetrix, in the Forum of Julius Csar. See

Ovid, Art. Am. B. i. 1. 81, and B. iii. 1. 451; and Rem. Am. 1. 659.

82. From an inscription on a statue still extant, he is supposed to have

been a pupil of Pasiteles, and consequently to have flourished about B.C. 25.

83. Figures in which the form and attributes of Hermes, or Mercury, and

Eros, or Cupid, were combined, Hardouin thinks.

84. In B. xxxiii. c. 55.

85. In Caria: see B. v. c. 29.

86. Or "Xenias"-"Presiding over hospitality," or "Protector of strangers."

87. The story was, that Zethus and Amphion bound Dirce, queen of

Thebes, to the flanks of an infuriated bull, in revenge for the death of

their mother, Antiope, who had been similarly slain by her. This group

is supposed still to exist, in part, in the "Farnese Bull," which has been

in a great measure restored. Winckelmann is of opinion, however, that

the Farnese Bull is of anterior date to that here mentioned, and that it

belongs to the school of Lysippus.

88. Probably a native of Rhodes. No further particulars of this artist

appear to be known.

89. Bacchus.

90. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

91. A different person, probably, from the painter, mentioned in B. xxxv.

c. 40.

92. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

93. Supposed by Sillig not to be the early statuary of Argos of that name,

who flourished, probably, B.C. 476.

94. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

95. "Pasiteles" would appear to be a preferable reading; for Pliny would

surely have devoted more space to a description of these works of Praxiteles.

96. The same artist that is previously mentioned, Sillig thinks.

97. Of Jupiter.

98. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

99. "Symplegma." See Note 49, page 314.

100. The first being in a stooping posture, washing herself.

101. In B. xxxiii. c. 55, and B. xxxiv. c. 18.

102. A sculptor of the age of Alexander the Great. He is also mentioned

by Tatian. For an account of Callisthenes, see end of B. xii.

103. Winckelmann supposes that these artists lived in the time of Lysippus;

but, as may be discovered from an attentive examination of the

present passage, Lessing and Thiersch are probably right in considering

them to have been contemporaries of the Emperor Titus. This group is

generally supposed to have been identical with the Laocon still to be seen

in the Court of the Belvedere, in the Vatican at Rome; having been

found, in 1506, in a vault beneath the spot known as the Place de Sette

Sale,
by Felix de Fredi, who surrendered it, in consideration of a pension,

to Pope Julius II. The group, however, is not made of a single block,

which has caused some to doubt its identity: but it is not improbable, that

when originally made, its joints were not perceptible to a common observer. The spot, too, where it was found was actually part of the palace

of Titus. It is most probable that the artists had the beautiful episode

of Laocon in view, as penned by Virgil, n. B. II.; though Ajasson

doubts whether they derived any inspiration from it. Laocon, in the

sublime expression of his countenance, is doing any thing, he says, but-

"Clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit."

"Sending dire outcries to the stars of heaven."

104. This was an ancient and hideous idol, probably. Plato, Diodorus

Siculus, Plautus, Lactantius, Arnobius, and Isidorus, all concur in saying

that it was Saturn in honour of whom human victims were immolated.

105. "Ad Nationes." A portico built by Augustus, and adorned with

statues representing various nations.

106. "Thespiades." They were brought by Mummius from Thespi, in

Botia. See B. xxxiv. c. 19, and Note 88, above.

107. See B. xxxv. c. 45, and end of B. xxxiii.

108. Magna Grcia.

109. Built by Metellus Macedonicus.

110. "Navalia." This was the name of certain docks at Rome, where

ships were built, laid up, and refitted. They were attached to the Emporium,

without the Trigeminian Gate, and were connected with the Tiber.

111. See B. xxxv. c. 45.

112. In the Ninth Region of the City. These figures are mentioned also

by Suetonius, C. 46.

113. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

114. A singular combination of names, as they mean "Lizard" and

"Frog." No further particulars of these artists are known, but they appear

to have lived in the time of Pompey.

115. Of Juno and Apollo.

116. "Spir." See Chapter 56 of this Book.

117. Winckelmann, in Vol. II. p. 269, of the Monumenti Antichi ined.,

gives the chapiter of an Ionic column, belonging to the church of San

Lorenzo, without the walls, at Rome, on the volutes of which are represented

a frog and a lizard.

118. The old reading is adopted here, in preference to that of the Bamberg

MS., which does not appear reconcileable to sense in saying that this

temple of Jupiter was originally made in honour of Juno; for in such case

there could be no mistake in introducing the emblems of female worship.

119. A sculptor of Miletus. See B. vii. c. 21.

120. A Lacedmonian artist. See B. vii. c. 21.




5. Chap. 5. (6.)-At What Period Marble Was First Used In Buildings.


CHAP. 5. (6.)-AT WHAT PERIOD MARBLE WAS FIRST USED IN

BUILDINGS.



This must suffice for the sculptors in marble, and the works

that have gained the highest repute; with reference to which

subject it occurs to me to remark, that spotted marbles were not

then in fashion. In making their statues, these artists used the

marble of Thasos also,[1] one of the Cyclades, and of Lesbos, this

last being rather more livid than the other. The poet Menander,

in fact, who was a very careful enquirer into all matters of

luxury, is the first who has spoken, and that but rarely, of variegated

marbles, and, indeed, of the employment of marble in

general. Columns of this material were at first employed in

temples, not on grounds of superior elegance, (for that was not

thought of, as yet), but because no material could be found of

a more substantial nature. It was under these circumstances,

that the Temple[2] of the Olympian Jupiter was commenced at

Athens, the columns of which were brought by Sylla to Rome,

for the buildings in the Capitol.



Still, however, there had been a distinction drawn between

ordinary stone and marble, in the days of Homer even. The

poet speaks in one passage of a person[3] being struck down

with a huge mass of marble; but that is all; and when he

describes the abodes of royalty adorned with every elegance,

besides brass, gold, electrum,[4] and silver, he only mentions

ivory. Variegated marbles, in my opinion, were first discovered

in the quarries of Chios, when the inhabitants were

building the walls of their city; a circumstance which gave

rise to a facetious repartee on the part of M. Cicero. It being

the practice with them to show these walls to everybody, as







something magnificent; "I should admire them much more,"

said he, "if you had built them of the stone used at Tibur."[5]

And, by Hercules! the art of painting[6] never would have

been held in such esteem, or, indeed, in any esteem at all, if

variegated marbles had been held in admiration.







1. As well as that of Paros.

2. Only completed in the time of the Emperor Adrian.

3. Cebriones, the charioteer of Hector. See Il. B. xvi. l. 735.

4. See B. xxxiii. c. 23.

5. This is generally explained as meaning ordinary stone, but covered

with elaborate paintings, as was then the practice in the magnificent villas

that were built at Tibur, the modern Tivoli. See, however, Chapter 48,

and Note 36.

6. As applied to the decorations of the walls of houses.




6. Chap. 6.-Who Were The First To Cut Marble Into Slabs, And At What Period.


CHAP. 6.-WHO WERE THE FIRST TO CUT MARBLE INTO SLABS,

AND AT WHAT PERIOD.



I am not sure whether the art of cutting marble into slabs,

is not an invention for which we are indebted to the people of

Caria. The most ancient instance of this practice, so far as I

know of, is found in the palace of Mausolus, at Halicarnassus,

the walls of which, in brick, are covered with marble of Proconnesus.

Mausolus died in the second year of the hundred

and seventh[1] Olympiad, being the year of Rome, 403.







1. This date does not agree with that given to Scopas, one of the artists

who worked at the Mausoleum, in the early part of B. xxxiv. c. 19. Sillig,

however, is inclined to think that there were two artists named Scopas,

and would thus account for the diversity of about seventy years between

the dates.




7. Chap. 7.-Who Was The First To Encrust The Walls Of Houses At Rome With Marble.


CHAP. 7.-WHO WAS THE FIRST TO ENCRUST THE WALLS OF HOUSES

AT ROME WITH MARBLE.



The first person at Rome who covered the whole of the walls

of his house with marble, according to Cornelius Nepos,[1] was

Mamurra,[2] who dwelt upon the Clian Hill, a member of the

equestrian order, and a native of Formi, who had been prfect

of the engineers under C. Csar in Gaul. Such was the

individual, that nothing may be wanting to the indignity

of the example, who first adopted this practice; the same

Mamurra, in fact, who has been so torn to pieces in the verses

of Catullus of Verona. Indeed, his own house proclaimed

more loudly than Catullus could proclaim it, that he had come

into possession of all that Gallia Comata had had to possess.







For Nepos adds, as well, that he was the first to have all the

columns of his house made of nothing but solid marble, and

that, too, marble of Carystus[3] or of Luna.[4]







1. See end of B. ii.

2. Owing to the liberality of Csar, he amassed great riches. He is

repeatedly attacked by Catullus (Carm. xxix., xliii., lvii.), and accused of

extortion, and other vices. Horace also speaks of him in terms of ridicule,

I Sat. 5, 37.

3. See B. iv. c. 21.

4. See Chapter 4 of this Book.




8. Chap. 8.-At What Period The Various Kinds Of Marble Came Into Use At Rome.


CHAP. 8.-AT WHAT PERIOD THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MARBLE CAME

INTO USE AT ROME.



M. Lepidus, who was consul with Q. Catulus, was the

first to have the lintels of his house made of Numidian marble,

a thing for which he was greatly censured: he was consul in

the year of Rome, 676. This is the earliest instance that I

can find of the introduction of Numidian marble; not in the

form of pillars, however, or of slabs, as was the case with the

marble of Carystus, above-mentioned, but in blocks, and that

too, for the comparatively ignoble purpose of making the

thresholds of doors. Four years after this Lepidus, L. Lucullus

was consul; the same person who gave its name, it is

very evident, to the Lucullan marble; for, taking a great fancy

to it, he introduced it at Rome. While other kinds of marble

are valued for their spots or their colours, this marble is entirely

black.[1] It is found in the island of Melos,[2] and is

pretty nearly the only marble that has taken its name from

the person who first introduced it. Among these personages,

Scaurus, in my opinion, was the first to build a theatre with

walls of marble: but whether they were only coated with

slabs of marble or were made of solid blocks highly polished,

such as we now see in the Temple of Jupiter Tonans,[3] in the

Capitol, I cannot exactly say: for, up to this period, I cannot

find any vestiges of the use of marble slabs in Italy.







1. The black marbles, Ajasson remarks, are comparatively rare. He is

of opinion that the colour of the Lucullan marble was the noir antique of

the French, and says that it is to be found at Bergamo, Carrara, Prato in

Tuscany, and near Spa in Belgium.

2. "Chios" is another reading.

3. "Thundering Jupiter." This temple was built by Augustus.




9. Chap. 9.-The Method Of Cutting Marble Into Slabs. The Sand Used In Cutting Marble.


CHAP. 9.-THE METHOD OF CUTTING MARBLE INTO SLABS. THE

SAND USED IN CUTTING MARBLE.



But whoever it was that first invented the art of thus cutting

marble, and so multiplying the appliances of luxury, he displayed

considerable ingenuity, though to little purpose. This







division, though apparently effected by the aid of iron, is in

reality effected by sand; the saw acting only by pressing upon

the sand within a very fine cleft in the stone, as it is moved

to and fro.



The[1] sand of thiopia is the most highly esteemed for this

purpose; for, to add to the trouble that is entailed, we have

to send to thiopia for the purpose of preparing our marble-aye,

and as far as India even; whereas in former times, the

severity of the Roman manners thought it beneath them to

repair thither in search of such costly things even as pearls!

This Indian sand is held in the next highest degree of estimation,

the thiopian being of a softer nature, and better

adapted for dividing the stone without leaving any roughness

on the surface; whereas the sand from India does not leave so

smooth a face upon it. Still, however, for polishing marble,

we find it recommended[2] to rub it with Indian sand calcined.

The sand of Naxos has the same defect; as also that from

Coptos, generally known as "Egyptian" sand.



The above were the several varieties of sand used by the

ancients in dividing marble. More recently, a sand has been

discovered that is equally approved of for this purpose; in a

certain creek of the Adriatic Sea, which is left dry at low

water only; a thing that renders it not very easy to be found.

At the present day, however, the fraudulent tendencies of our

workers in marble have emboldened them to use any kind of

river-sand for the purpose; a mischief which very few employers

rightly appreciate. For, the coarser the sand, the

wider is the division made in the stone, the greater the quantity

of material consumed, and the more extensive the labour

required for polishing the rough surface that is left; a result

of which is that the slabs lose so much more in thickness.

For giving the last polish to marble,[3] Thebaic stone[4] is considered

well adapted, as also porous stone, or pumice, powdered

fine.











1. Ajasson says that his remarks on the choice of the sand for this purpose,

are very judicious.

2. A recommendation worse than useless, Ajasson remarks.

3. For this purpose, at the present day, granular corindon, or yellow

emery, is used, as also a mixture composed of the oxides of lead and of

tin; the substance being repeatedly moistened when applied.

4. See Chapters 13 and 43 of this Book.




10. Chap. 10. (7.)-Stone Of Naxos. Stone Of Armenia.


CHAP. 10. (7.)-STONE OF NAXOS. STONE OF ARMENIA.



For polishing marble statues, as also for cutting and giving

a polish to precious stones, the preference was long given to

the stone of Naxos,[1] such being the name of a kind of touchstone[2]

that is found in the Isle of Cyprus. More recently,

however, the stones imported from Armenia for this purpose

have displaced those of Naxos.







1. A city in Crete where the stone was prepared for use.

2. "Cotes."




11. Chap. 11.-The Marbles Of Alexandria.


CHAP. 11.-THE MARBLES OF ALEXANDRIA.



The marbles are too well known to make it necessary for

me to enumerate their several colours and varieties; and,

indeed, so numerous are they, that it would be no easy task to

do so. For what place is there, in fact, that has not a marble

of its own? In addition to which, in our description of the

earth and its various peoples,[1] we have already made it our

care to mention the more celebrated kinds of marble. Still,

however, they are not all of them produced from quarries, but

in many instances lie scattered just beneath the surface of the

earth; some of them the most precious even, the green Lace-dmonian

marble, for example, more brilliant in colour than

any other; the Augustan also; and, more recently, the Tiberian;

which were first discovered, in the reigns respectively of

Augustus and Tiberius, in Egypt. These two marbles differ

from ophites[2] in the circumstance that the latter is marked

with streaks which resemble serpents[3] in appearance, whence

its name. There is also this difference between the two

marbles themselves, in the arrangement of their spots: the

Augustan marble has them undulated and curling to a point;

whereas in the Tiberian the streaks are white,[4] not involved,

but lying wide asunder.



Of ophites, there are only some very small pillars known to

have been made. There are two varieties of it, one white

and soft, the other inclining to black, and hard. Both kinds,

it is said, worn as an amulet, are a cure for head-ache, and for







wounds inflicted by serpents.[5] Some, too, recommend the

white ophites as an amulet for phrenitis and lethargy. As a

counter-poison to serpents, some persons speak more particularly

in praise of the ophites that is known as "tephrias,"[6]

from its ashy colour. There is also a marble known as

"memphites," from the place[7] where it is found, and of a

nature somewhat analogous to the precious stones. For medicinal

purposes, it is triturated and applied in the form of a

liniment, with vinegar, to such parts of the body as require

cauterizing or incision; the flesh becoming quite benumbed,

and thereby rendered insensible to pain.



Porphyrites,[8] which is another production of Egypt, is of a

red colour: the kind that is mottled with white blotches is

known as "leptospsephos."[9] The quarries there are able to

furnish blocks[10] of any dimensions, however large. Vitrasius

Pollio, who was steward[11] in Egypt for the Emperor Claudius,

brought to Rome from Egypt some statues made of this stone;

a novelty which was not very highly approved of, as no one

has since followed his example. The Egyptians, too, have

discovered in thiopia the stone known as "basanites;"[12]

which in colour and hardness resembles iron, whence the

name[13] that has been given to it. A larger block of it has

never been known than the one forming the group which has

been dedicated by the Emperor Vespasianus Augustus in the

Temple of Peace. It represents the river Nilus with sixteen

children sporting around it,[14] symbolical of the sixteen cubits,

the extreme height[15] to which, in the most favourable seasons,

that river should rise. It is stated, too, that in the Temple

of Serapis at Thebes, there is a block not unlike it, which

forms the statue of Memnon[16] there; remarkable, it is said, for







emitting a sound each morning when first touched by the rays

of the rising sun.







1. Books III. IV. V. and VI.

2. The modern Ophite, both Noble, Serpentine, and Common.

3. From the Greek o)/fis, a "serpent."

4. This would appear to be a kind of Apatite, or Augustite, found in

crystalline rocks.

5. A superstition, owing solely to the name and appearance of the stone.

6. From the Greek te/fra, "ashes." The modern Tephroite is a

silicate of manganese.

7. Memphis, in Egypt.

8. A variety of the modern Porphyry, possibly; a compact feldspathic

base, with crystals of feldspar. Ajasson refuses to identify it with porphyry,

and considers it to be the stone called Red antique, of a deep uniform

red, and of a very fine grain; which also was a production of Egypt.

9. "Small stone."

10. Of porphyrites.

11. "Procurator."

12. See B. xxxvi. c. 38. See also the Lydian stone, or touchstone, mentioned

in B. xxxiii. c. 43.

13. From Ba/sanos, a "touchstone."

14. Philostratus gives a short account of this group, and copies of it are

to be seen in the Vatican, and in the grounds of the Tuilleries.

15. See B. v. c. 10.

16. The Egyptians called it, not Memnon, but Amenophis, and it is supposed that it represented a monarch of the second dynasty. This is probably

the statue still to be seen at Medinet Abou, on the Libyan side of

the Nile, in a sitting posture, and at least 60 feet in height. The legs,

arms, and other parts of the body are covered with inscriptions, which

attest that, in the third century of the Christian era, the priests still practised

upon the credulity of the devotees, by pretending that it emitted

sounds. It may possibly have been erected for astronomical purposes, or

for the mystic worship of the sun. The Greek name "Memnon" is supposed

to have been derived from the Egyptian Mei Amun, "beloved of

Ammon."




12. Chap. 12.-Onyx And Alabastrites; Six Remedies.


CHAP. 12.-ONYX AND ALABASTRITES; SIX REMEDIES.



Our forefathers imagined that onyx[1] was only to be

found in the mountains of Arabia, and nowhere else; but

Sudines[2] was aware that it is also found in Carmania.[3]

Drinking-vessels were made of it at first, and then the feet of

beds and chairs. Cornelius Nepos relates that great was the

astonishment, when P. Lentulus Spinther exhibited amphor

made of this material, as large as Chian wine-vessels in

size; "and yet, five years after," says he, "I saw columns of

this material, no less than two-and-thirty feet in height." At

a more recent period again, some change took place[4] with

reference to this stone; for four[5] small pillars of it were

erected by Cornelius Balbus in his Theatre[6] as something

quite marvellous: and I myself have seen thirty columns, of

larger size, in the banquetting-room which Callistus[7] erected,

the freedman of Claudius, so well known for the influence

which he possessed.



(8.) This[8] stone is called "alabastrites"[9] by some, and is

hollowed out into vessels for holding unguents, it having the

reputation of preserving them from corruption[10] better than

anything else. In a calcined state, it is a good ingredient for







plaisters.[11] It is found in the vicinity of Thebes in Egypt and

of Damascus in Syria, that of Damascus being whiter than the

others. The most esteemed kind, however, is that of Carmania,

the next being the produce of India, and then, those of

Syria and Asia. The worst in quality is that of Cappadocia,

it being utterly destitute of lustre. That which is of a honey

colour is the most esteemed, covered with spots curling in

whirls,[12] and not transparent. Alabastrites is considered defective,

when it is of a white or horn colour, or approaching

to glass in appearance.







1. Ajasson remarks that under this name the ancients meant, first, yellow

calcareous Alabaster, and secondly, Chalcedony, unclassified.

2. See end of the present Book.

3. See B. vi. cc. 27, 23, 32.

4. "Variatum est."

5. Ajasson thinks that these columns, in reality, were made, in both

instances, of yellow jasper, or else yellow sardonyx, a compound of sard

and chalcedony.

6. Erected A.U.C. 741.

7. See B. xxxiii. c. 47.

8. The reading here is doubtful, and it is questionable whether he considers the two stones as identical.

9. Probably calcareous Alabaster, Ajasson thinks. See B. xxxvii. c. 54.

10. See B. xiii. c. 3.

11. Plaster of Paris is made of gypsum or alabaster, heated and ground.

12. A feature both of jasper and of sardonyx.




13. Chap. 13.-Lygdinus; Corallitic Stone; Stone Of Alabanda; Stone Of Thebais; Stone Of Syene.


CHAP. 13.-LYGDINUS; CORALLITIC STONE; STONE OF ALABANDA;

STONE OF THEBAIS; STONE OF SYENE.



Little inferior to it for the preservation of unguents, in the

opinion of many, is the stone, called "lygdinus,"[1] that is

found in Paros, and never of a larger size than to admit of a

dish or goblet being made of it. In former times, it was only

imported from Arabia, being remarkable for its extreme

whiteness.



Great value is placed also upon two other kinds of stone, of

quite a contrary nature; corallitic[2] stone, found in Asia, in blocks

not more than two cubits in thickness, and of a white some-what

approaching that of ivory, and in some degree resembling

it; and Alabandic stone, which, on the other hand, is black,

and is so called from the district[3] which produces it: though







it is also to be found at Miletus, where, however, it verges

somewhat more upon the purple. It admits of being melted

by the action of fire, and is fused for the preparation of glass.



Thebaic stone, which is sprinkled all over with spots like

gold, is found in Africa, on the side of it which lies adjacent

to Egypt; the small hones which it supplies being peculiarly

adapted, from their natural properties, for grinding the ingredients

used in preparations for the eyes. In the neighbourhood

of Syene, too, in Thebais, there is a stone found

that is now known as "syenites,"[4] but was formerly called

"pyrrhopcilon."[5]







1. By some persons it has been considered to be the same with the "lychnitis,"

or white marble, mentioned in Chapter 4 of this Book. Ajasson

is of opinion that it has not been identified.

2. Ajasson is in doubt whether this stone was really a marble or a gypsic

alabaster. It received its name from the river Curalius or Coural, near

which it was found; and it was also known as Sangaric marble. Ajasson

thinks that the ancient milk-white marble, still found in Italy, and known

to the dealers in antiquities as Palombino, may have been the "corallitic"

stone. He also mentions the fine white marble known as Grechetto.

3. See B. v. c. 29. Sulphuret of manganese is now known as Alabandine;

it is black, but becomes of a tarnished brown on exposure to the

air. It is not improbable that this manganese was used for colouring

glass, and that in Chapter 66 of this Book Pliny again refers to manganese

when speaking of a kind of "magnet" or load-stone. See Beckmann,

Hist. Inv. Vol. pp. 2378, Bohn's Edition; who thinks, that

in the present passage Pliny is speaking of a kind of marble. It is

the fact, however, that Pyrolusite, or grey ore of manganese, is used, at a

red heat, for discharging the brown and green tints of glass. See also B.

xxxiv. c. 42, and the Note.

4. Syenite is the name still given to feldspar, hornblende, and quartz,

passing into each other by insensible gradations, and resembling granite.

5. "Varied with red spots," similar to our red granite.




14. Chap. 14.-Obelisks.


CHAP. 14.-OBELISKS.



Monarchs, too, have entered into a sort of rivalry with one

another in forming elongated blocks of this stone, known as

"obelisks,"[1] and consecrated to the divinity of the Sun.

The blocks had this form given to them in resemblance to

the rays of that luminary, which are so called[2] in the Egyptian

language.



Mesphres,[3] who reigned in the City of the Sun,[4] was the

first who erected one of these obelisks, being warned to do so

in a dream: indeed, there is an inscription upon the obelisk to

this effect; for the sculptures and figures which we still see

engraved thereon are no other than Egyptian letters.[5]



At a later period other kings had these obelisks hewn.

Sesosthes[6] erected four of them in the above-named city,

forty-eight cubits in height. Rhamsesis,[7] too, who was







reigning at the time of the capture of Troy, erected one, a

hundred and forty cubits high. Having quitted the spot

where the palace of Mnevis[8] stood, this monarch erected

another obelisk,[9] one hundred and twenty cubits in height,

but of prodigious thickness, the sides being no less than

eleven cubits in breadth. (9.) It is said that one hundred

and twenty thousand men were employed upon this work;[10]

and that the king, when it was on the point of being elevated,

being apprehensive that the machinery employed might not

prove strong enough for the weight, with the view of increasing

the peril that might be entailed by due want of precaution

on the part of the workmen, had his own son fastened to the

summit; in order that the safety of the prince might at the

same time ensure the safety of the mass of stone. It was in his

admiration of this work, that, when King Cambyses took the

city by storm, and the conflagration had already reached the

very foot of the obelisk, he ordered the fire to be extinguished;

he entertaining a respect for this stupendous erection which

he had not entertained for the city itself.



There are also two other obelisks, one of them erected by

Zmarres,[11] and the other by Phius;[12] both of them without

inscriptions, and forty-eight cubits in height. Ptolemus

Philadelphus had one erected at Alexandria, eighty cubits

high, which had been prepared by order of King Necthebis:[13]

it was without any inscription, and cost far more trouble in

its carriage and elevation, than had been originally expended

in quarrying it. Some writers inform us that it was conveyed

on a raft, under the inspection of the architect Satyrus;

but Callixenus[14] gives the name of Phnix. For this pur-







pose, a canal was dug from the river Nilus to the spot where

the obelisk lay; and two broad vessels, laden with blocks of

similar stone a foot square, the cargo of each amounting to

double the size, and consequently double the weight, of the

obelisk, were brought beneath it; the extremities of the

obelisk remaining supported by the opposite sides of the canal.

The blocks of stone were then removed, and the vessels, being

thus gradually lightened, received their burden. It was

erected upon a basis of six square blocks, quarried from the

same mountain, and the artist was rewarded with the sum of

fifty talents.[15] This obelisk was placed by the king abovementioned

in the Arsinoum,[16] in testimony of his affection for

his wife and sister Arsino. At a later period, as it was found

to be an inconvenience to the docks, Maximus, the then prfect

of Egypt, had it transferred to the Forum there, after removing

the summit for the purpose of substituting a gilded point; an

intention which was ultimately abandoned.



There are two other obelisks, which were in Csar's Temple

at Alexandria, near the harbour there, forty-two cubits in

height, and originally hewn by order of King Mesphres. But

the most difficult enterprise of all, was the carriage of these

obelisks by sea to Rome, in vessels which excited the greatest

admiration. Indeed, the late Emperor Augustus consecrated

the one which brought over the first obelisk, as a lasting

memorial of this marvellous undertaking, in the docks at

Puteoli; but it was destroyed by fire. As to the one in which,

by order of the Emperor Caius,[17] the other obelisk had been

transported to Rome, after having been preserved for some

years and looked upon as the most wonderful construction ever

beheld upon the seas, it was brought to Ostia, by order of the

late Emperor Claudius; and towers of Puteolan[18] earth being

first erected upon it, it was sunk for the construction of the

harbour which he was making there. And then, besides, there

was the necessity of constructing other vessels to carry these

obelisks up the Tiber; by which it became practically ascer-







tained, that the depth of water in that river is not less than

that of the river Nilus.



The obelisk that was erected by the late Emperor Augustus

in the Great Circus,[19] was originally quarried by order of King

Semenpserteus,[20] in whose reign it was that Pythagoras[21] visited

Egypt. It is eighty-five feet[22] and three quarters in height,

exclusive of the base, which is a part of the same stone. The

one that he erected in the Campus Martius, is nine feet less in

height, and was originally made by order of Sesothis. They

are both of them covered with inscriptions, which interpret

the operations of Nature according to the philosophy of the

Egyptians.







1. "Obelisci." So called from o)belisko\s a "small spit," in consequence

of their tapering form.

2. Meaning, probably, that in the Egyptian language, the same word is

used as signifying a "spit" and a "ray" of light; for it is generally agreed

that the word "obeliscus" is of Greek origin.

3. He does not appear to have been identified; and the correct reading

is doubtful.

4. Heliopolis, or On. See B. v. c. 11.

5. These figures or hieroglyphics did not denote the phonetic language of

Egypt, but only formed a symbolical writing.

6. Perhaps the same as "Sesostris." The former reading is "Sothis."

7. Ajasson identifies him with Rameses III., a king of the eighteenth dynasty,

who reigned B.C. 1561. This was also one of the names of Sesostris

the Great.

8. The name of the bull divinity worshipped by the people of On, or

Heliopolis; while by the people of Memphis it was known as Apis.

9. This, Hardouin says, was the same obelisk that was afterwards erected

by Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, in the Circus Maximus

at Rome; whence it was removed by Pope Sextus V., in the year 1588,

to the Basilica of the Lateran.

10. This, Hardouin says, was the same obelisk that was afterwards erected

by Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, in the Circus Maximus

at Rome; whence it was removed by Pope Sextus V., in the year 1588,

to the Basilica of the Lateran.

11. This name is probably mutilated: there are about twenty different

readings of it.

12. This name is also very doubtful. One reading is "Eraph," and Hardouin

attempts to identify him with the Pharaoh Hophra of Jeremiah, xliv.

30, the Ouafres of the Chronicle of Eusebius, and the Apries of Herodotus.

13. The Nectanabis, probably, of Plutarch, in his Life of Agesilas, and

the Nectanebus of Nepos, in the Life of Chabrias.

14. Callixenus of Rhodes was a contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus,

and was the author of a description of Alexandria, and of a catalogue of

painters and sculptors.

15. Egyptian talents, probably. See. B. xxxiii. c. 15.

16. Evidently a stupendous monument, or rather aggregate of buildings,

erected by Ptolemy II., Philadelphus, in memory of his wife and sister,

Arsino. See B. xxxiv. c. 42.

17. Caligula.

18. See B. xvi. c. 76, and B. xxxv. c. 47.

19. Or Circus Maximus; in the Eleventh Region of the City. According

to Kircher, it was this obelisk that Pope Sextus V. had disintereed,

and placed before the church of the Madonna del Popolo.

20. There are sixteen various readings to this name.

21. Diogenes Laertius says that he arrived in Egypt in the reign of King

Amasis.

22. Boscovich and Brotero would read here "eighty-two feet and three

quarters," which is more in accordance with its height, as measured by

Kircher.




15. Chap. 15. (10.)-The Obelisk Which Serves As A Dial In The Campus Martius.


CHAP. 15. (10.)-THE OBELISK WHICH SERVES AS A DIAL IN THE

CAMPUS MARTIUS.



The one that has been erected in the Campus Martius[1] has

been applied to a singular purpose by the late Emperor

Augustus; that of marking the shadows projected by the sun,

and so measuring the length of the days and nights. With this

object, a stone pavement was laid, the extreme length of

which corresponded exactly with the length of the shadow

thrown by the obelisk at the sixth hour[2] on the day of the winter

solstice. After this period, the shadow would go on, day by

day, gradually decreasing, and then again[3] would as gradually

increase, correspondingly with certain lines of brass that were

inserted in the stone; a device well deserving to be known,

and due to the ingenuity of Facundus Novus, the mathematician.

Upon the apex of the obelisk he placed a gilded

ball in order that the shadow of the summit might be con-







densed and agglomerated, and so prevent the shadow of the

apex itself from running to a fine point of enormous extent;

the plan being first suggested to him, it is said, by the shadow

that is projected by the human head. For nearly the last

thirty years, however, the observations derived from this dial

have been found not to agree: whether it is that the sun

itself has changed its course in consequence of some derangement

of the heavenly system; or whether that the whole

earth has been in some degree displaced from its centre, a

thing that, I have heard say, has been. remarked in other places

as well; or whether that some earthquake, confined to this

city only, has wrenched the dial from its original position; or

whether it is that in consequence of the inundations of the

Tiber, the foundations of the mass have subsided, in spite of

the general assertion that they are sunk as deep into the earth

as the obelisk erected upon them is high.



(11.) The third[4] obelisk[5] at Rome is in the Vaticanian[6]

Circus, which was constructed by the Emperors Caius[7] and Nero;

this being the only one of them all that has been broken in

the carriage. Nuncoreus,[8] the son of Sesoses, made it: and

there remains[9] another by him, one hundred cubits in height,

which, by order of an oracle, he consecrated to the Sun, after

having lost his sight and recovered it.







1. After being long buried in ruins, it was disinterred, but not re-erected,

by Pope Benedict XIV. When thus brought to light, it was found to be

broken asunder. On it there was an inscription stating that the Emperor

Augustus had "presented it to the Sun"- "Soli donum dedit."

2. Twelve o' clock in the day.

3. After the summer solstice.

4. The one that is mentioned above as having been removed from Alexandria

by Caligula.

5. This obelisk was transferred by Pope Sextus V. from the Circus Vaticanus

to the place of the Cathedral of St. Peter.

6. So called because it was laid out on some gardens which had belonged

to one Vaticanus.

7. Caligula.

8. There are nine or ten readings of this name. Bunsen suggests "Menophtheus,"

the Egyptian king Meneph-Pthah.

9. In Egypt, probably.




16. Chap. 16. (12.)-Marvellous Works In Egypt. The Pyramids.


CHAP. 16. (12.)-MARVELLOUS WORKS IN EGYPT. THE PYRAMIDS.



We must make some mention, too, however cursorily, of the

Pyramids of Egypt, so many idle[1] and frivolous pieces of

ostentation of their resources, on the part of the monarchs of

that country. Indeed, it is asserted by most persons, that the

only motive for constructing them, was either a determination

not to leave their treasures to their successors or to rivals that







might be plotting to supplant them, or to prevent the lower

classes from remaining unoccupied. There was great vanity

displayed by these men in constructions of this description,

and there are still the remains of many of them in an unfinished

state. There is one to be seen in the Nome of Arsinotes;[2]

two in that of Memphites, not far from the Labyrinth,

of which we shall shortly have to speak;[3] and two in the place

where Lake Mris[4] was excavated, an immense artificial

piece of water, cited by the Egyptians among their wondrous

and memorable works: the summits of the pyramids, it is said,

are to be seen above the water.



The other three pyramids, the renown of which has filled

the whole earth, and which are conspicuous from every quarter

to persons navigating the river, are situate on the African[5]

side of it, upon a rocky sterile elevation. They lie between

the city of Memphis and what we have mentioned[6] as the

Delta, within four miles of the river, and seven miles and

a-half from Memphis, near a village known as Busiris, the

people of which are in the habit of ascending them.







1. Ajasson thinks that they were intended as places of sepulture for the

kings, but for the concealment, also, of their treasures.

2. See B. v. c. 9.

3. In Chapter 19 of this Book.

4. See B. v. c. 9. Herodotus says that these pyramids were built by

King Mris, in the middle of the lake, towering fifty paces above the surface

of the water. Diodorus Siculus says that they were built by him in

honour of himself and his wife.

5. Or left-hand side to those coming down the stream. He alludes to

the three great Pyramids of Ghizeh, not far from Cairo. There are

numerous other pyramids to be seen in Egypt.

6. In B. v. c. 9.




17. Chap. 17.-The Egyptian Sphinx.


CHAP. 17.-THE EGYPTIAN SPHINX.



In front of these pyramids is the Sphinx,[1] a still more

wondrous object of art, but one upon which silence has been

observed, as it is looked upon as a divinity by the people of

the neighbourhood. It is their belief that King Harmas was

buried in it, and they will have it that it was brought there

from a distance. The truth is, however, that it was hewn

from the solid rock; and, from a feeling of veneration, the face

of the monster is coloured red. The circumference of the head,

measured round the forehead, is one hundred and two feet, the

length of the feet being one hundred and forty-three, and the







height, from the belly to the summit of the asp on the head,

sixty-two.[2]



The largest[3] Pyramid is built of stone quarried in Arabia:

three hundred and sixty thousand men, it is said, were employed

upon it twenty years, and the three were completed in

seventy-eight years and four months. They are described by

the following writers: Herodotus,[4] Euhemerus, Duris of

Samos, Aristagoras, Dionysius, Artemidorus, Alexander Polyhistor,

Butoridas, Antisthenes, Demetrius, Demoteles, and

Apion. These authors, however, are disagreed as to the persons

by whom they were constructed; accident having, with very

considerable justice, consigned to oblivion the names of those

who erected such stupendous memorials of their vanity. Some

of these writers inform us that fifteen hundred talents were

expended upon radishes, garlic, and onions[5] alone.



The largest Pyramid occupies seven[6] jugera of ground, and

the four angles are equidistant, the face of each side being eight

hundred and thirty-three[7] feet in length. The total height

from the ground to the summit is seven hundred and twenty-five

feet, and the platform on the summit is sixteen feet and

a-half in circuit. Of the second Pyramid, the faces of the four

sides are each seven hundred and fifty-seven feet and a-half in

length.[8] The third is smaller than the others, but far more

prepossessing in appearance: it is built of thiopian stone,[9]







and the face between the four corners is three hundred and

sixty-three feet in extent. In the vicinity of these erections,

there are no vestiges of any buildings left. Far and wide

there is nothing but sand to be seen, of a grain somewhat like

a lentil in appearance, similar to that of the greater part of

Africa, in fact.



The most difficult problem is, to know how the materials

for construction could possibly be carried to so vast a height.

According to some authorities, as the building gradually advanced,

they heaped up against it vast mounds of nitre[10] and

salt; which piles were melted after its completion, by introducing

beneath them the waters of the river. Others, again,

maintain, that bridges were constructed, of bricks of clay, and

that, when the pyramid was completed, these bricks were distributed

for erecting the houses of private individuals. For[11]

the level of the river, they say, being so much lower, water

could never by any possibility have been brought there by the

medium of canals. In the interior of the largest Pyramid

there is a well, eighty-six cubits deep, which communicates

with the river, it is thought. The method of ascertaining the

height of the Pyramids and all similar edifices was discovered[12]

by Thales of Miletus; he measuring the shadow at the hour of

the day at which it is equal in length to the body projecting it.



Such are the marvellous Pyramids; but the crowning marvel

of all is, that the smallest, but most admired of them-that we

may feel no surprise at the opulence of the kings-was built by

Rhodopis,[13] a courtesan! This woman was once the fellow-slave

of sopus the philosopher and fabulist, and the sharer







of his bed; but what is much more surprising is, that a courtesan

should have been enabled, by her vocation, to amass such

enormous wealth.







1. It still exists, though the face is mutilated. It was disinterred from

the sand by Belzoni, but is now again nearly covered. According to Cavaglia,

the signature of the Historian Arrian was found inscribed on one

of the fore-paws, when it was disinterred.

2. This reading is, perhaps, preferable to the LXI. s, (61 1/2) of the Bamberg

MS. The head and neck, when uncovered, were found to be 27 feet

in height.

3. Built by King Cheops, according to Herodotus, B. ii.

4. All these writers are mentioned in the list of authors at the end of

the present Book.

5. For the use of the workmen. There is, probably, no foundation for

a statement so exact as this; as it would be very singular that such a fact

should continue to be known, and the names of the builders be buried in

oblivion.

6. According to modern measurement, the sides of its base measure at

the foundation 763 feet 4 inches, and it occupies a space of more than 13

acres. Its perpendicular height is 480 feet.

7. Other readings are 883, and 783.

8. Differing very considerably from the modern measurement. These

variations may possibly arise, however, from a large portion of the base

being covered with sand.

9. It was entirely coated with marble from the Thebaid; which, however

was removed by the Arabs in the middle ages. In the vicinity there

is a fourth pyramid, but of such small dimensions that some of the Egyptian

obelisks exceed it in height.

10. "Nitrum." See B. xxxi. c. 46.

11. From this reason being given, it would almost appear that these

"bridges" in reality were aqueducts, for conveying the water, in order to

melt the mounds of salt and nitre.

12. A very improbable story, as Ajasson remarks; as if the method of

ascertaining the heights of edifices was unknown to the sages of Egypt,

and the constructors of the Pyramids!

13. Herodotus, B. ii. cc. 134, 5, takes great pains to prove the absurdity

of this story; and there is little doubt that the beautiful courtesan has been

confounded with the equally beautiful Egyptian Queen, Nitocris, who is

said by Julius Africanus and Eusebius to have built the third pyramid.

As to the courtesan having been a fellow-slave of the fabulist, sop, it is

extremely doubtful.




18. Chap. 18.-The Pharos.


CHAP. 18.-THE PHAROS.



There is another building, too, that is highly celebrated;

the tower that was built by a king of Egypt, on the island of

Pharos, at the entrance to the [1] harbour of Alexandria. The

cost of its erection was eight hundred talents, they say; and,

not to omit the magnanimity that was shown by King Ptolemus[2]

on this occasion, he gave permission to the architect,

Sostratus[3] of Cnidos, to inscribe his name upon the edifice

itself. The object of it is, by the light of its fires at night,

to give warning to ships, of the neighbouring shoals, and to

point out to them the entrance of the harbour. At the

present day, there are similar fires lighted up in numerous

places, Ostia and Ravenna, for example. The only danger[4]

is, that when these fires are thus kept burning without intermission,

they may be mistaken for stars, the flames having

very much that appearance at a distance. This architect 'is

the first person that built a promenade upon arches; at Cnidos,

it is said.







1. The greater harbour, there being two at Alexandria.

2. Ptolemy Lagus.

3. Supposed by Thiersch to have been the same person as the statuary

mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19.

4. A risk that is now obviated, if, indeed, there is such a risk, by the

use of revolving lights and coloured lights.




19. Chap. 19. (13.)-Labyrinths.


CHAP. 19. (13.)-LABYRINTHS.



We must speak also of the Labyrinths, the most stupendous

works, perhaps, on which mankind has expended its labours;

and not for chimerical purposes, merely, as might possibly be

supposed.



There is still in Egypt, in the Nome of Heracleopolites,[1] a

labyrinth,[2] which was the first constructed, three thousand

six hundred years ago, they say, by King Petesuchis or

Tithes: although, according to Herodotus, the entire work

was the production of no less than twelve kings, the last of







whom was Psammetichus. As to the purpose for which it

was built, there are various opinions: Demoteles says that it

was the palace of King Moteris, and Lyceas that it was the tomb

of Mris, while many others assert that it was a building

consecrated to the Sun, an opinion which mostly prevails.



That Ddalus took this for the model of the Labyrinth

which he constructed in Crete, there can be no doubt; though

he only reproduced the hundredth part of it, that portion,

namely, which encloses circuitous passages, windings, and

inextricable galleries which lead to and fro. We must not,

comparing this last to what we see delineated on our mosaic

pavements, or to the mazes[3] formed in the fields for the

amusement of children, suppose it to be a narrow promenade

along which we may walk for many miles together; but we

must picture to ourselves a building filled with numerous

doors, and galleries which continually mislead the visitor,

bringing him back, after all his wanderings, to the spot from

which he first set out. This[4] Labyrinth is the second, that of

Egypt being the first. There is a third in the Isle of

Lemnos, and a fourth in Italy.



They are all of them covered with arched roofs of polished

stone; at the entrance, too, of the Egyptian Labyrinth, a thing

that surprises me, the building is constructed of Parian marble,

while throughout the other parts of it the columns are of

syenites.[5] With such solidity is this huge mass constructed,

that the lapse of ages has been totally unable to destroy it,

seconded as it has been by the people of Heracleopolites, who

have marvellously ravaged a work which they have always

held in abhorrence. To detail the position of this work and

the various portions of it is quite impossible, it being sub-







divided into regions and prfectures, which are styled nomes,[6]

thirty in number, with a vast palace assigned to each. In

addition to these, it should contain temples of all the gods of

Egypt, and forty statues of Nemesis[7] in as many sacred

shrines; besides numerous pyramids, forty ells[8] in height, and

covering six arur[9] at the base. Fatigued with wandering

to and fro, the visitor is sure to arrive at some inextricable

crossing or other of the galleries. And then, too, there are

banquetting rooms situate at the summit of steep ascents;

porticos from which we descend by flights of ninety steps;

columns in the interior, made of porphyrites;[10] figures of gods;

statues of kings; and effigies of hideous monsters. Some of

the palaces are so peculiarly constructed, that the moment the

doors are opened a dreadful sound like that of thunder reverberates

within: the greater part, too, of these edifices have to be

traversed in total darkness. Then again, without the walls of

the Labyrinth, there rises another mass of buildings known as

the "Pteron;"[11] beneath which there are passages excavated

leading to other subterranean palaces. One person, and only

one, has made some slight repairs to the Labyrinth; Chremon,[12]

an eunuch of King Necthebis, who lived five hundred

years before the time of Alexander the Great. It is asserted,

also, that while the arched roofs of squared stone were being

raised, he had them supported by beams of thorn[13] boiled

in oil.



As for the Cretan Labyrinth, what I have already stated

must suffice for that. The Labyrinth of Lemnos[14] is similar

to it, only that it is rendered more imposing by its

hundred and fifty columns; the shafts of which, when in the

stone-yard, were so nicely balanced, that a child was able to

manage the wheel of the lathe in turning them. The archi-







tects were, Smilis,[15] Rhcus,[16] and Theodorus, natives of the

island, and there are still in existence some remains of it;

whereas of the Cretan Labyrinth and of that in Italy not a

vestige is left.



As to this last, which Porsena, King of Etruria, erected as

his intended sepulchre, it is only proper that I should make

some mention of it, if only to show that the vanity displayed

by foreign monarchs, great as it is, has been surpassed. But

as the fabulousness of the story connected with it quite exceeds

all bounds, I shall employ the words given by M. Varro

himself in his account of it:-"Porsena was buried," says he,

"beneath the city of Clusium;[17] in the spot where he had had

constructed a square monument, built of squared stone. Each

side of this monument was three hundred feet in length and

fifty in height, and beneath the base, which was also square,

there was an inextricable labyrinth, into which if any one

entered without a clew of thread, he could never find his way

out. Above this square building there stand five pyramids,

one at each corner, and one in the middle, seventy-five feet

broad at the base, and one hundred and fifty feet in height.

These pyramids are so tapering in their form, that upon the

summit of all of them united there rests a brazen globe, and

upon that a petasus;[18] from which there hang, suspended by

chains, bells, which make a tinkling when agitated by the

wind, like what was done at Dodona[19] in former times. Upon

this globe there are four other pyramids, each one hundred

feet in height; and above them is a single platform, on which

there are five more pyramids,"[20]-the height of which Varro has

evidently felt ashamed to add; but, according to the Etruscan

fables, it was equal to that of the rest of the building. What







downright madness this, to attempt to seek glory at an outlay

which can never be of utility to any one; to say nothing of

exhausting the resources of the kingdom, and after all, that

the artist may reap the greater share of the praise!







1. See B. v. c. 9.

2. The site of this labyrinth has not been traced, but Sir G. Wilkinson

is inclined to think that it was at Howarah el Sogha in the Faium.

3. Similar, probably, to the one at Hampton Court.

4. Most modern writers, and some of the ancients, have altogether denied

the existence of the Cretan Labyrinth; but, judging from the testimony

of Tournefort and Cockerell, it is most probable that it really did

exist, and that it was a vast natural grotto or cavern, enlarged and made

additionally intricate by human ingenuity. There are many caverns of

this nature in Crete, and one near Gortyna, at Hagios-Deka, is replete with

galleries and intricate windings similar to those ascribed to the Labyrinth

of Ddalus.

5. See Chapter 13 of this Book. He is surprised that the people of

Egypt, a country which abounded in exquisite marbles, should have used

that of another country in preference to their own.

6. As to the meaning of this word, see B. v. c. 9.

7. See Chapter 5 of this Book.

8. "Uln." See Introduction to Vol. III.

9. The a\roura was a Greek square measure, containing 2500 square

feet.

10. See Chapter 11 of this Book.

11. As to the meaning of this word, see Chapter 4 of this Book, page 317,

and Note 77.

12. "Circummon" is a more common reading.

13. Or acacia. See B. xxiv. c. 65.

14. Welcker remarks that it is uncertain whether this Labyrinth was

erected as a temple of the Cabiri, or whether it had any connection with

the art of mining.

15. Smilis lived, probably, 200 years before Rhcus and Theodorus, and

was a native of gina, not Lemnos. Sillig, however, is inclined to think

that there were two artists of this name; the elder a contemporary of

Ddalus, and the maker of several wooden statues.

16. See B. xxxv. c. 43.

17. See B. iii. c. 8.

18. A round, broad-brimmed hat, such as we see represented in the statues

of Mercury.

19. Where two brazen vessels were erected on a column, adjoining to

which was the statue of a boy with a whip; which, when agitated by the

wind, struck the vessels, and omens were drawn from the tinkling noise

produced, significant of future events, it was supposed.

20. A building like this, as Niebuhr says, is absolutely impossible, and

belongs to the "Arabian Nights." The description in some particulars resembles

that of a Chinese pagoda.




20. Chap. 20.-Hanging Gardens. A Hanging City.


CHAP. 20.-HANGING GARDENS. A HANGING CITY.



We read, too, of hanging gardens,[1] and what is even more

than this, a hanging city,[2] Thebes in Egypt: it being the practice

for the kings to lead forth their armies from beneath,

while the inhabitants were totally unconscious of it. This, too,

is even less surprising than the fact that a river flows through

the middle of the city. If, however, all this had really been

the case, there is no doubt that Homer would have mentioned

it, he who has celebrated the hundred gates of Thebes.







1. Probably of Babylon, which were built on terraces raised on arches.

2. His meaning is, that it was built upon arches.




21. Chap. 21. (14.)-The Temple Of Diana At Ephesus.


CHAP. 21. (14.)-THE TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS.



The most wonderful monument of Grcian magnificence,

and one that merits our genuine admiration, is the Temple of

Diana at Ephesus, which took one hundred and twenty years

in building, a work in which all Asia[1] joined. A marshy soil

was selected for its site, in order that it might not suffer from

earthquakes, or the chasms which they produce. On the

other hand, again, that the foundations of so vast a pile might

not have to rest upon a loose and shifting bed, layers of trodden

charcoal were placed beneath, with fleeces[2] covered with wool

upon the top of them. The entire length of the temple is

four hundred and twenty-five feet, and the breadth two hundred

and twenty-five. The columns are one hundred and

twenty-seven in number, and sixty feet in height, each of

them presented by a different king. Thirty-six of these

columns are carved, and one of them by the hand of Scopas.[3]

Chersiphron[4] was the architect who presided over the work.







The great marvel in this building is, how such ponderous

Architraves[5] could possibly have been raised to so great a

height. This, however, the architect effected by means of

bags filled with sand, which he piled up upon an inclined

plane until they reached beyond the capitals of the columns;

then, as he gradually emptied the lower bags, the architraves[6]

insensibly settled in the places assigned them. But the

greatest difficulty of all was found, in laying the lintel which

he placed over the entrance-doors. It was an enormous mass

of stone, and by no possibility could it be brought to lie level

upon the jambs which formed its bed; in consequence of

which, the architect was driven to such a state of anxiety and

desperation as to contemplate suicide. Wearied and quite

worn out by such thoughts as these, during the night, they

say, he beheld in a dream the goddess in honour of whom the

temple was being erected; who exhorted him to live on, for

that she herself had placed the stone in its proper position.

And such, in fact, next morning, was found to be the case,

the stone apparently having come to the proper level by dint

of its own weight. The other decorations of this work would

suffice to fill many volumes, but they do not tend in any way

to illustrate the works of Nature.







1. Asia Minor.

2. The Hotel de Ville at Brussels is said to have been built upon a

stratum of hides.

3. See Chapter 4 of the present Book. Sillig, in his "Dictionary of

Ancient Artists," suggests a reading which would make the passage to

mean that Scopas was jointly architect with Chersiphron. The latter, however,

was not the architect of the second temple at Ephesus, but flourished

nearly four hundred years before.

4. Strabo says that, in conjunction with his son Metagenes, he began the

first Temple at Ephesus. Thiersch is of opinion that he lived about the

first Olympiad. He is mentioned also in B. vii. c. 38.

5. "Epistylia." See B. xxxv. c. 49.

6. Which must have been above the bags and at the summit of the inclined

plane.




22. Chap. 22. (15.)-Marvels Connected With Other Temples.


CHAP. 22. (15.)-MARVELS CONNECTED WITH OTHER TEMPLES.



There still exists, too, at Cyzicus,[1] a temple of polished

stone, between all the joints of which the artist has inserted a

thread of gold; it being his intention to erect an ivory statue

of Jupiter within, with Apollo in marble crowning him. The

result is, that the interstices quite glisten with their fine,

hair-like threads; and the reflection of the gold, obscured as it

is, gently falling upon the statues, besides proclaiming the

genius of the artist, heightens their effect, and so teaches us

to appreciate the costliness of the work.







1. See B. v. c. 40.




23. Chap. 23.-The Fugitive Stone. The Seven-Fold Echo. Buildings Erected Without The Use Of Nails.


CHAP. 23.-THE FUGITIVE STONE. THE SEVEN-FOLD ECHO.

BUILDINGS ERECTED WITHOUT THE USE OF NAILS.



In the same city also, there is a stone, known as the "Fugi-







tive Stone;"[1] the Argonaut, who used it for the purposes of

an anchor, having left it there. This stone having repeatedly

taken flight from the Prytanum,[2] the place so called where

it is kept, it has been fastened down with lead. In this

city also, near the gate which is known as the "Trachia,"[3]

there are seven towers, which repeat a number of times all

sounds that are uttered in them. This phenomenon, to which

the name of "Echo," has been given by the Greeks, depends

upon the peculiar conformation of localities, and is produced

in valleys more particularly. At Cyzicus, however, it is the

effect of accident only; while at Olympia, it is produced by

artificial means, and in a very marvellous manner; in a portico

there, which is known as the "Heptaphonon,"[4] from the circumstance

that it returns the sound of the voice seven times.



At Cyzicus, also, is the Buleuterium,[5] a vast edifice, constructed

without a nail of iron; the raftering being so contrived

as to admit of the beams being removed and replaced

without the use of stays. A similar thing, too, is the case

with the Sublician Bridge[6] at Rome; and this by enactment,

on religious grounds, there having been such difficulty experienced

in breaking it down when Horatius Cocles[7] defended it.







1. "Lapis Fugitivus."

2. A public place where the Prytanes or chief magistrates assembled,

and where the public banquets were celebrated.

3. Or "Narrow" gate, apparently. Dion Cassius, B. 74, tells a similar

story nearly, of seven towers at Byzantium, near the Thracian Gate; and

"Thracia" is given by the Bamberg MS. It is most probable that the two

accounts were derived from the same source.

4. )Epta/fwnon "seven times vocal," Plutarch also mentions this

portico.

5. Bouleuth/rion the "senate house" or "council-chamber."

6. It was the most ancient of the bridges at Rome, and was so called

from its being built upon "sublices," or wooden beams. It was originally

built by Ancus Martius, and was afterwards rebuilt by the Pontifices or

pontiffs. We learn from Ovid, Fasti, B. v. 1. 621, that it was still a

wooden bridge in the reign of Augustus. In the reign of Otho it was

carried away by an inundation. In later times it was also known as the

Pons milius, from the name of the person probably under whose superintendence

it was rebuilt.

7. See B, xxxiv. c. 11.




24. Chap. 24.-Marvellous Buildings At Rome, Eighteen In Number.


CHAP. 24.-MARVELLOUS BUILDINGS AT ROME, EIGHTEEN IN NUMBER.



But it is now time to pass on to the marvels in building

displayed by our own City, and to make some enquiry into the

resources and experience that we have gained in the lapse of

eight hundred years; and so prove that here, as well, the rest of







the world has been outdone by us: a thing which will appear,

in fact, to have occurred almost as many times as the marvels

are in number which I shall have to enumerate. If, indeed,

all the buildings of our City are considered in the aggregate,

and supposing them, so to say, all thrown together in one

vast mass, the united grandeur of them would lead one to

suppose that we were describing another world, accumulated

in a single spot.



Not to mention among our great works, the Circus Maximus,

that was constructed by the Dictator Csar, one stadium

in width and three in length, and occupying, with the adjacent

buildings, no less than four jugera, with room for two

hundred and sixty thousand spectators seated; am I not to

include in the number of our magnificent constructions, the

Basilica of Paulus,[1] with its admirable Phrygian columns; the

Forum of the late Emperor Augustus; the Temple of Peace,

erected by the Emperor Vespasianus Augustus-some of the

finest works that the world has ever beheld-the roofing,

too, of the Vote-Office,[2] that was built by Agrippa? not to

forget that, before his time, Valerius of Ostia, the architect,

had covered in a theatre at Rome, at the time of the public

Games celebrated by Libo?[3]



We behold with admiration pyramids that were built by

kings, when the very ground alone, that was purchased by the

Dictator Csar, for the construction of his Forum, cost one

hundred millions of sesterces! If, too, an enormous expenditure

has its attractions for any one whose mind is influenced

by monetary considerations, be it known to him that the house

in which Clodius dwelt, who was slain by Milo, was purchased

by him at the price of fourteen million eight hundred thousand

sesterces! a thing that, for my part, I look upon as no

less astounding than the monstrous follies that have been displayed

by kings. And then, as to Milo himself, the sums in

which he was indebted, amounted to no less than seventy mil-







lions of sesterces; a state of things, to be considered, in my

opinion, as one of the most portentous phnomena in the history

of the human mind. But it was in those days, too, that

old men still spoke in admiration of the vast proportions of

the Agger,[4] and of the enormous foundations of the Capitol;

of the public sewers, too, a work more stupendous than any;

as mountains had to be pierced for their construction, and,

like the hanging city[5] which we recently mentioned, navigation

had to be carried on beneath Rome; an event which

happened in the dileship[6] of M. Agrippa, after he had filled

the office of consul.



For this purpose, there are seven rivers, made, by artificial

channels, to flow beneath the city. Rushing onward, like so

many impetuous torrents, they are compelled to carry off and

sweep away all the sewerage; and swollen as they are by the

vast accession of the pluvial waters, they reverberate against

the sides and bottom of their channels. Occasionally, too,

the Tiber, overflowing, is thrown backward in its course, and

discharges itself by these outlets: obstinate is the contest that

ensues within between the meeting tides, but so firm and solid

is the masonry, that it is enabled to offer an effectual resistance.

Enormous as are the accumulations that are carried along

above, the work of the channels never gives way. Houses

falling spontaneously to ruins, or levelled with the ground

by conflagrations, are continually battering against them;

the ground, too, is shaken by earthquakes every now and

then; and yet, built as they were in the days of Tarquinius

Priscus, seven hundred years ago, these constructions have

survived, all but unharmed. We must not omit, too, to mention

one remarkable circumstance, and all the more remarkable

from the fact, that the most celebrated historians have

omitted to mention it. Tarquinius Priscus having commenced

the sewers, and set the lower classes to work upon them, the

laboriousness and prolonged duration of the employment became

equally an object of dread to them; and the consequence

was, that suicide was a thing of common occurrence, the







citizens adopting this method of escaping their troubles. For

this evil, however, the king devised a singular remedy, and

one that has never[7] been resorted to either before that time or

since: for he ordered the bodies of all who had been thus

guilty of self-destruction, to be fastened to a cross, and left

there as a spectacle to their fellow - citizens and a prey

to birds and wild beasts. The result was, that that sense

of propriety which so peculiarly attaches itself to the Roman

name, and which more than once has gained a victory

when the battle was all but lost, came to the rescue on this

occasion as well; though for this once, the Romans were in

reality its dupes, as they forgot that, though they felt shocked

at the thoughts of such ignominy while alive, they would be

quite insensible to any such disgrace when dead. It is said

that Tarquinius made these sewers of dimensions sufficiently

large to admit of a waggon laden with hay passing along them.



All that we have just described, however, is but trifling

when placed in comparison with one marvellous fact, which I

must not omit to mention before I pass on to other subjects.

In the consulship[8] of M. Lepidus and Q. Catulus, there was

not at Rome, as we learn from the most trustworthy authors,

a finer house than the one which belonged to Lepidus

himself: and yet, by Hercules! within five-and-thirty years

from that period, the very same house did not hold the hundredth

rank even in the City! Let a person, if he will, in

taking this fact into consideration, only calculate the vast

masses of marble, the productions of painters, the regal treasures

that must have been expended, in bringing these hundred

mansions to vie with one that had been in its day the most sumptuous

and the most celebrated in all the City; and then let

him reflect how that, since that period, and down to the present

time, these houses have all of them been surpassed by

others without number. There can be no doubt that conflagrations

are a punishment inflicted upon us for our luxury;

but such are our habits, that in spite of such warnings as these,

we cannot be made to understand that there are things in existence

more perishable even than man himself.



But there are still two other mansions by which all these

edifices have been eclipsed. Twice have we seen the whole







City environed by the palaces of the Emperors Caius[9] and

Nero; that of the last, that nothing might be wanting to

its magnificence, being coated with gold.[10] Surely such palaces

as these must have been intended for the abode of those who

created this mighty empire, and who left the plough or their

native hearth to go forth to conquer nations, and to return

laden with triumphs! men, in fact, whose very fields even occupied

less space than the audience-chambers[11] of these palaces.



Indeed, one cannot but help reflecting how trifling a portion of

these palaces was equal to the sites which the republic granted

to its invincible generals, for the erection of their dwellings.

The supreme honour, too, attendant upon these grants-as in

the case of P. Valerius Publicola, the first consul with L. Brutus,

for his many meritorious services; and of his brother,

who twice in one consulship defeated the Sabines-was the

permission granted, by the terms of the decree, to have the

doors of their houses opening from without, and the gates

thrown back upon the public street. Such was the most distinguished

privilege accorded in those days to triumphal mansions

even!



I will not permit, however, these two Caiuses,[12] or two

Neros, to enjoy this glory even, such as it is; for I will prove

that these extravagant follies of theirs have been surpassed, in

the use that was made of his wealth by M. Scaurus, a private

citizen. Indeed, I am by no means certain that it was not

the dileship of this personage that inflicted the first great

blow upon the public manners, and that Sylla was not guilty

of a greater crime in giving such unlimited power to his stepson,[13]

than in the proscription of so many thousands. During

his dileship, and only for the temporary purposes of a few

days, Scaurus executed the greatest[14] work that has ever been







made by the hands of man, even when intended to be of everlasting

duration; his Theatre, I mean. This building consisted

of three storeys, supported upon three hundred and

sixty columns; and this, too, in a city which had not allowed

without some censure one of its greatest citizens[15] to erect

six[16] pillars of Hymettian marble. The ground-storey was of

marble, the second of glass, a species of luxury which ever

since that time has been quite unheard of, and the highest of

gilded wood. The lowermost columns, as previously[17] stated,

were eight-and-thirty feet in height; and, placed between

these columns, as already[18] mentioned, were brazen statues,

three thousand in number. The area[19] of this theatre afforded

accommodation for eighty thousand spectators; and yet the

Theatre of Pompeius, after the City had so greatly increased,

and the inhabitants had become so vastly more numerous, was

considered abundantly large, with its sittings for forty thousand

only. The rest of the fittings of it, what with Attalic[20]

vestments, pictures, and the other stage-properties,[21] were of

such enormous value that, after Scaurus had had conveyed to

his Tusculan villa such parts thereof as were not required for

the enjoyment of his daily luxuries, the loss was no less than

three hundred millions of sesterces, when the villa was burnt

by his servants in a spirit of revenge.



The consideration of such prodigality as this quite distracts

my attention, and compels me to digress from my original purpose,

in order to mention a still greater instance of extravagance,

in reference to wood. C. Curio,[22] who died during the

civil wars, fighting on the side of Csar, found, to his dismay,

that he could not, when celebrating the funeral games in

honour of his father, surpass the riches and magnificence of

Scaurus-for where, in fact, was to be found such a stepsire

as Sylla, and such a mother as Metella, that bidder at all

auctions for the property of the proscribed? Where, too, was

he to find for his father, M. Scaurus, so long the principal man

in the city, and one who had acted, in his alliance with Marius,







as a receptacle for the plunder of whole provinces?-Indeed,

Scaurus himself was now no longer able to rival himself; and it

was at least one advantage which he derived from this destruction

by fire of so many objects brought from all parts of the earth,

that no one could ever after be his equal in this species of folly.

Curio, consequently, found himself compelled to fall back upon

his own resources, and to think of some new device of his

own. It is really worth our while to know what this device

was, if only to congratulate ourselves upon the manners of the

present day, and to reverse the ordinary mode of expression,

and term ourselves the men of the olden time.[23]



He caused to be erected, close together, two theatres of very

large dimensions, and built of wood, each of them nicely poised,

and turning on a pivot. Before mid-day, a spectacle of games

was exhibited in each; the theatres being turned back to back,

in order that the noise of neither of them might interfere with

what was going on in the other. Then, in the latter part of

the day, all on a sudden, the two theatres were swung round,

and, the corners uniting, brought face to face; the outer

frames,[24] too, were removed, and thus an amphitheatre was

formed, in which combats of gladiators were presented to the

view; men whose safety was almost less compromised than was

that of the Roman people, in allowing itself to be thus whirled

round from side to side. Now, in this case, which have we

most reason to admire, the inventor or the invention? the artist,

or the author of the project? him who first dared to think of

such an enterprize, or him who ventured to undertake it? him

who obeyed the order, or him who gave it? But the thing that

surpasses all is, the frenzy that must have possessed the public,

to take their seats in a place which must of necessity have been

so unsubstantial and so insecure. Lo and behold! here is a

people that has conquered the whole earth, that has subdued

the universe, that divides the spoils of kingdoms and of nations,

that sends its laws to foreign lands, that shares in some degree

the attributes of the immortal gods in common with mankind,

suspended aloft in a machine, and showering plaudits even upon

its own peril!







This is indeed holding life cheap; and can we, after this,

complain of our disasters at Cann? How vast the catastrophe

that might have ensued! When cities are swallowed up by

an earthquake, it is looked upon by mankind as a general calamity;

and yet, here have we the whole Roman people, embarked,

so to say, in two ships, and sitting suspended on a

couple of pivots; the grand spectacle being its own struggle

with danger, and its liability to perish at any moment that the

overstrained machinery may give way! And then the object,

too, of all this-that public favour may be conciliated for the

tribune's[25] harangues at a future day, and that, at the Rostra,

he may still have the power of shaking the tribes, nicely

balanced[26] as they are! And really, what may he not dare

with those who, at his persuasion, have braved such perils as

these? Indeed, to confess the truth, at the funeral games

celebrated at the tomb of his father, it was no less than the

whole Roman people that shared the dangers of the gladiatorial

combats. When the pivots had now been sufficiently worked

and wearied, he gave another turn to his magnificent displays.

For, upon the last day, still preserving the form of the amphitheatre,

he cut the stage in two through the middle, and exhibited

a spectacle of athletes; after which, the stage being

suddenly withdrawn on either side, he exhibited a combat,

upon the same day, between such of the gladiators as had

previously proved victorious. And yet, with all this, Curio

was no king, no ruler of the destinies of a nation, nor yet a

person remarkable for his opulence even; seeing that he possessed

no resources of his own, beyond what he could realize

from the discord between the leading men.[27]



But let us now turn our attention to some marvels which,

justly appreciated, may be truthfully pronounced to remain

unsurpassed. Q. Marcius Rex,[28] upon being commanded by

the senate to repair the Appian[29] Aqueduct, and those of the







Anio[30] and Tepula,[31] constructed during his prtorship a new

aqueduct,[32] which bore his name, and was brought hither by a

channel pierced through the sides of mountains. Agrippa,[33]

in his dileship, united the Marcian with the Virgin[34] Aqueduct,

and repaired and strengthened the channels of the others.

He also formed seven hundred wells, in addition to five hundred

fountains, and one hundred and thirty reservoirs, many

of them magnificently adorned. Upon these works, too, he

erected three hundred statues of marble or bronze, and four

hundred marble columns; and all this in the space of a single

year! In the work[35] which he has written in commemoration

of his dileship, he also informs us that public games were

celebrated for the space of fifty-nine days, and that one hundred

and seventy gratuitous baths were opened. The number

of these last at Rome, has increased to an infinite[36] extent

since his time.



The preceding aqueducts, however, have all been surpassed

by the costly work which was more recently commenced by

the Emperor Caius,[37] and completed by Claudius. Under these

princes, the Curtian and Crulean Waters, with the New

Anio,[38] were brought from a distance of forty miles, and at so

high a level that all the hills were supplied with water, on

which the City is built. The sum expended on these works

was three hundred and fifty millions of sesterces. If we only

take into consideration the abundant supply of water to the

public, for baths, ponds, canals, household purposes, gardens,







places in the suburbs, and country-houses; and then reflect

upon the distances that are traversed, the arches that have been

constructed, the mountains that have been pierced, the valleys

that have been levelled, we must of necessity admit that there

is nothing to be found more worthy of our admiration throughout

the whole universe.



Among the most memorable works, too, I, for my own part,

should include another undertaking of the Emperor Claudius,

although it was afterwards abandoned in consequence of the

hatred borne him by his successor;[39] I mean the channel that

was cut through a mountain as an emissary for Lake Fucinus;[40]

a work which cost a sum beyond all calculation, and employed

a countless multitude of workmen for many years. In those

parts where the soil was found to be terreous, it was necessary

to pump up the water by the aid of machinery; in other parts,

again, the solid rock had to be hewn through. All this, too,

had to be done in the midst of darkness within; a series of

operations which can only be adequately conceived by those

who were witnesses of them, and which no human language

can possibly describe.



I pass in silence the harbour that has been formed at Ostia;

the various roads, too, that have been cut across mountains;

the Tyrrhenian Sea separated by an embankment from Lake

Lucrinus;[41] and vast numbers of bridges constructed at an

enormous expense. Among the many other marvels, too, of

Italy, we are informed by Papirius Fabianus, a most diligent

enquirer into the operations of Nature, that the marble there

grows in the quarries; and those who work in the quarries

assure us that the wounds thus inflicted upon the mountains

fill up spontaneously. If such is the fact, luxury has good







grounds for hoping that it will never be at a loss for a supply

of materials for its gratification.







1. L. milius Paulus, who was consul with C. Marcellus, A.U.C. 703.

His Basilica, a building which served as a court of law and as an exchange,

was erected in the Eighth Region of the City, at the cost of 1500

talents; which were sent to him by Csar, Plutarch says, as a bribe to

gain him over from the aristocratical party. It was surrounded with an

open peristyle of columns of Phrygian marble.

2. "Diribitorium." See B. xvi. c. 76.

3. Scribonius Libo, who was dile during the consulship of Cicero.

4. "Mound," or "Terrace." See B. iii. c. 9, where it is ascribed to

Tarquinius Superbus; but Strabo seems to attribute its foundation to

Servius Tullius.

5. Thebes, in Egypt. See Chapter 20 of this Book.

6. A.U.C. 721. He alludes probably to the cleansing of the sewers beneath

the city, which took place, Dion Cassius informs us, in the dileship

of Agrippa.

7. As Hardouin remarks, the story of the Milesian Virgins, as related

by Aulus Gellius and Plutarch, is very similar.

8. A.U.C. 676.

9. Caligula. The Palace of Caligula was situate on the Palatine Hill:

that of Nero extended from the Palatine Hill to the Esquiline, nearly the

whole of which was covered by it. It was left unfinished by Nero, but

the Emperor Otho completed it, Martial, Spectac. Ep. 2, speaks in terms

of indignation of there being now "but one house in all the City;" but,

unfortunately, he gives utterance to it with a view of flattering Domitian.

10. Whence its name, "Aurea," the "golden" Palace.

11. "Sellaria."

12. By this mode of expression, he probably means that they were "birds

of a feather"-one as bad as the other.

13. His mother, Metella Ccilia, became the wife of Sylla.

14. He forgets the Pyramids and the Labyrinth of Egypt, which he has

so recently described.

15. See B. xvii. c. 1, and Chapter 3 of the present Book. L. Crassus is

the person alluded to.

16. "Four" is the number mentioned in B. xvii. c. 1.

17. In Chapter 2 of this Book.

18. In B. xxxiv. c. 17.

19. "Cavea." The place where the spectators sat; much like the "pit"

of our theatres.

20. See B. xxxiii. c. 19

21. "Choragio."

22. He was defeated and slain in Africa by Juba and P. Attius Varus.

23. And, consequently, of more strict manners, and more strict morals.

24. "Tabulis." The wooden frames, probably, which formed the

margin of one side of each theatre, and which, when they were brought

together, would make a diameter running through the circle which they

formed. Hardouin thinks that these theatres are alluded to in Virgil,

Georg. B. III. l. 22, et seq.

25. In allusion, probably, to the addresses delivered by Curio, when

tribune, from the Rostra, in favour of Csar.

26. "Pensiles." Pliny not improbably intends a pun here, this word

meaning also "suspended," or "poised"-in reference, probably, to their

suspension on the pivots in Curio's theatres.

27. Between Csar and Pompey, which he is supposed to have inflamed

for his own private purposes.

28. He was prtor B.C. 144; and, in order that he might complete his

aqueduct, his office was prolonged another year.

29. This aqueduct was begun by Appius Claudius Ccus, the censor, and

was the first made at Rome; B.C. 313.

30. See B. iii. c. 17. It was commenced by M. Curius Dentatus, B.C.

273, the water being brought a distance of 43 miles. It was afterwards

known as the "Anio Vetus," to distinguish it from another aqueduct from

the same river, mentioned in this Chapter, and called the "Anio Novus."

The former was constructed of Peperino stone, and the water-course was

lined with cement. Considerable remains of it are still to be seen.

31. The Aqua Tepula was constructed B.C. 127; so that it is doubtful if

Pliny is not here in error.

32. The Aqua Marcia was brought a distance of upwards of 60 miles,

from the vicinity of Sublaqueum now Subiaco, and was of such elevation

that water could be supplied to the loftiest part of the Capitoline Hill.

A considerable number of the arches are still standing. In the vicinity of

the city it was afterwards united with the Aqua Tepula and the Aqua

Julia; the watercourse of the last being above that of the Aqua Tepula,

and that above the course of the Aqua Marcia. See B. xxxi. cc 24, 25.

33. See B. xxxi. cc. 24, 25.

34. See B. xxxi. c. 25.

35. See end of B. iii.

36. Victor mentions 856 public baths at Rome.

37. Caligula.

38. Anio Novus.

39. Nero.

40. See B. ii. c. 106, and B. iii. c. 17. In order to check the sudden

rise of its waters, a design was entertained by Julius Csar to construct a

subterranean canal from the lake into the valley of the Liris, which, unfortunately, was frustrated by his death. Claudius, however, executed the work,

by cutting a gallery upwards of an English mile and a half through the

limestone rock; a work which, according to Suetonius, occupied thirty

thousand workmen continually for eleven years. On opening it with a

mock naval combat, an accident happened in which many persons lost

their lives, and Claudius himself but narrowly escaped. The emissary

answered its purpose for some time, and, though Nero suffered the works

to fall into decay, they were repaired by Hadrian. In the middle ages,

however, the work fell in, and has not since been restored.

41. See B. iii. c. 9.




26. Chap. 26.-Stone Of Scyros.


CHAP. 26.-STONE OF SCYROS.



In the Isle of Scyros[1] there is a stone,[2] they say, which floats

upon water when whole, but which falls to the bottom when

broken into fragments.







1. See B. iv. c. 23.

2. See B. ii. c. 106, Vol. I. p. 137, and Note 4. There is little doubt that

this was a volcanic, porous product.




28. Chap. 28.-Chernites.


CHAP. 28.-CHERNITES.



Less active in its properties is chernites,[1] a stone which

preserves bodies without consuming them, and strongly resembles

ivory in appearance: the body of King Darius, they say,

was buried in it. The stone that is known as "porus,"[2] is

similar to Parian marble in hardness and whiteness, but is not

so heavy. Theophrastus mentions also a transparent stone

that is found in Egypt, and is similar to stone of Chios in

appearance; it is by no means improbable that it may have

existed in his time, for stones, we know, disappear, and new

kinds are discovered. The stone of Assos,[3] which is saltish

to the taste, modifies the attacks of gout, the feet being placed

in a vessel made of it for the purpose; in addition to which,







in the quarries of this stone, all maladies of the legs disappear,

whereas, in mines in general, the legs become affected with

disease. "Flower of stone of Assos" is the name given to

a soft stone which crumbles into dust, and is found very efficacious

in some cases; it resembles red pumice in appearance.

In combination with Cyprian wax, this stone is curative of affections

of the mamill; and, employed with pitch or resin, it

disperses scrofulous sores and inflammatory tumours. Used in

the form of an electuary, it is good for phthisis, and, with honey,

it causes old sores to cicatrize, and consumes proud flesh. It

is used, also, for the cure of wounds of an obstinate nature

inflicted by animals, and acts as a desiccative upon suppurations.

Plaisters, too, are made of it for gout, bean-meal being

incorporated with it for the purpose.







1. Both of them varieties of calcareous tufa, Ajasson thinks.

2. Both of them varieties of calcareous tufa, Ajasson thinks.

3. Or Sarcophagus: see the preceding Chapter.




29. Chap. 29. (18.)-Osseous Stones. Palm Stones. Corani. Black Stones.


CHAP. 29. (18.)-OSSEOUS STONES. PALM STONES. CORANI.

BLACK STONES.



Theophrastus and Mucianus are of opinion that there are

certain stones which bring[1] forth other stones. Theophrastus

states, also, that a fossil[2] ivory is found, both white and

black; that the earth, too, produces bones, and that osseous[3]

stones are sometimes found. In the vicinity of Munda in

Spain, the place where the Dictator Csar defeated Pompeius,[4]

there are stones found, which, when broken asunder, bear the

impression of palm leaves.[5]



There are some black stones, also, which are held in much

the same esteem as the marbles; the Tnarian[6] stone, for

example. Varro says that the black stone of Africa is more

durable than that of Italy; while, on the other hand, the white

corani[7] are harder than Parian marble. He states, also, that







the silex of Luna admits of being cut with a saw; that that

of Tusculum decrepitates in the fire; that the tawny silex of

the Sabine districts, with the addition of oil, will yield a flame

even; and that, at Volsinii, molar stones[8] for grinding are

found. Among the prodigies that have happened, I find mention

made of millstones that have moved of themselves.







1. Democritus, amongst the ancients, and Savonarola and Cardan, in more

recent times, have attributed to stones the powers of reproduction. Vivs

speaks of certain diamonds which conceive and fructify; and Avicenna

speaks of the selenite or moon-stone of Arabia, which, when suspended

from a tree, generates other stones of a similar nature. Tournefort also

entertained similar opinions.

2. Fossil teeth of mammifer, probably.

3. Fossil animal remains, no doubt.

4. Cneius Pompeius. See B. iii. c. 3.

5. "Palmati." This is more probably the meaning, than the "human

palm," as Littr renders it. They were fossil impressions of leaves, in

all probability.

6. See Chapter 43 of this Book: also B. iv. cc. 7, 8.

7. Stones so called, possibly, from being found in the vicinity of Cora

in Italy: See B. iii. c. 9. These stones are also mentioned by Isidorus,

Orig. B. xvi. c. 4.

8. Identified by Ajasson and Defontaines with Quartz molar agate, very

abundant in this volcanic region of Italy.




30. Chap. 30.-Molar Stones. Pyrites; Seven Remedies.


CHAP. 30.-MOLAR STONES. PYRITES; SEVEN REMEDIES.



In no country are the molar stones[1] superior to those of

Italy; stones, be it remembered, and not fragments of rock:

there are some provinces, too, where they are not to be found

at all. Some stones of this class are softer than others, and

admit of being smoothed with the whetstone, so as to present

all the appearance, at a distance, of ophites.[2] There is no

stone of a more durable nature than this; for in general, stone,

like wood, suffers from the action, more or less, of rain, heat,

and cold. Some kinds, again, become deteriorated by the action

of the moon, while others are apt to contract a rust in lapse of

time, or to change their white colour when steeped in oil.



(19.) Some persons give this molar stone the name of

"pyrites,"[3] from the circumstance that it has a great affinity

to fire;[4] but there is also another kind of pyrites, of a more

porous nature, and another,[5] again, which resembles copper.

This last, it is said, is found in the mines, near Acamas,[6] in the

Isle of Cyprus; one variety of it being of a silver, another of a

golden, colour. There are various methods of melting these

stones, some persons fusing them twice, or three times even, in

honey, till all the liquid has evaporated; while others, again,

calcine them upon hot coals, and, after treating them with

honey, wash them like copper.



The medicinal properties which these minerals possess are of

a calorific, desiccative, dispersive, and resolvent nature, and,







applied topically, they cause indurations to suppurate. They

are employed also, in a crude state and pulverized, for the

cure of scrofulous sores and boils. Some writers mention

another kind of pyrites also. Those among them have the

greatest affinity to fire which we distinguish as "live"[7]

pyrites. They are the most ponderous of all, and are found

remarkably useful for advance-guards when laying out encampments;

for, on being struck with a nail or any other kind of stone,

they emit a spark, which, received upon sulphur, dried fungus,[8]

or leaves, produces a fire almost sooner than it could be named.







1. "Molares." "Millstone."

2. Or Serpentine. See Chapter 11 of this Book.

3. Not the Pyrites of modern Mineralogy, combinations of sulphur with

various mineral ores.

4. The Greek for "fire" being pu=r.

5. Sulphate of copper, probably, our Chalcopyrite, or yellow copper

pyrites.

6. See B. v. c. 35.

7. Or "quick," "vivos." Ajasson identifies these with the quartz

agates that form our gun-flints, a Chalcedonic variety of Silica.

8. Amadue, or German tinder.




31. Chap. 31.-Ostracites; Four Remedies. Amianthus; Two Remedies.


CHAP. 31.-OSTRACITES; FOUR REMEDIES. AMIANTHUS; TWO

REMEDIES.



The several varieties of ostracites[1] bear a resemblance to

shells. They are used by way of substitute for pumice-stone,

for smoothing the skin. Taken in drink, they arrest discharges

of blood; and, applied topically with honey, they are

curative of ulcerations and pains in the mamill.



Amianthus[2] resembles alumen[3] in appearance, and suffers

no diminution from the action of fire. This substance effectually

counteracts all noxious spells, those wrought by magicians

in particular.







1. Fossil shells of oysters and bivalve mollusks, combined, probably,

with Fahlunite or Hydrous Iolite.

2. This is the most delicate variety of Asbestus, a kind of Hornblende.

it presents the lustre of satin. As to Asbestus, see B. xix. c. 4, where

Pliny has evidently taken it to be a vegetable production.

3. See B. xxxv. c. 52.




32. Chap. 32.-Geodes; Three Remedies.


CHAP. 32.-GEODES; THREE REMEDIES.



Geodes[1] is so called from its formation, it containing earth

within. It is remarkably beneficial for the eyes, and is used

for the cure of diseases of the testes and mamill.







1. "Earthy" stone. These are either nodules of iron-stone, hollow in

the centre, or else round, inorganic masses, hollow, and lined with crystals

within. These latter are mostly of a silicious nature.




33. Chap. 33.-Melitinus; Six Remedies.


CHAP. 33.-MELITINUS; SIX REMEDIES.



The stone called "melitinus"[1] yields a liquid that is sweet,







like honey. Bruised and incorporated with wax, it is curative

of pituitous eruptions, spots upon the skin, and ulcerations of

the fauces. It removes epinyctis[2] also, and, applied as a pessary,

in wool, it alleviates pains in the uterus.







1. It was, probably, a yellow, argillaceous earth, and it is more proba-

ble that it derived its name from meli\, "honey," in consequence of its

colour than by reason of its supposed sweet juices. The Mellite, Mellitite,

or Honey-stone of modern Mineralogy, also known as Mellate of

Alumina, has its name from its honey-yellow colour. It is found in Thuringia,

Moravia, and Bohemia; but most probably was unknown in the

days of Pliny.

2. See B. xx. cc. 6, 21.




36. Chap. 36.-Phrygian Stone.


CHAP. 36.-PHRYGIAN STONE.



Phrygian stone is so called from the country which produces

it, and is a porous mass like pumice. It is first saturated with

wine, and then calcined, the fire being kept up with the

bellows till the stone is brought to a red heat; which done, it

is quenched in sweet wine. This operation is repeated three

times. The only use made of it is for dyeing cloths.[1]







1. Dioscorides says that it was found in Cappadocia also; and both he

and Galen attribute to it certain medicinal properties. It was used either

for colouring, or else, like fuller's earth, for taking the grease out of wool

and cloth. Ajasson is inclined to think that it was either a volcanic scoria

or a Peperite, also of volcanic origin.




38. Chap. 38.-thiopic Hmatites. Androdamas; Two Remedies. Arabian Hmatites. Miltites Or Hepatites. Anthracites.


CHAP. 38.-THIOPIC HMATITES. ANDRODAMAS; TWO REMEDIES.

ARABIAN HMATITES. MILTITES OR HEPATITES. ANTHRACITES.



Sotacus, one of the most ancient writers, says, that there are

five kinds of hmatites, in addition to the magnet[1] so called.

He gives the preference among them to that of thiopia,[2] a

very useful ingredient in ophthalmic preparations and the compositions

which he calls "panchresta,"[3] and good for the cure of

burns. The second, he says, is called "androdamas,"[4] of a

black[5] colour, remarkable for its weight and hardness, to which

it owes its name, in fact, and found in Africa more particularly.

It attracts silver, he says, copper, and iron, and is tested with

a touchstone made of basanites.[6] It yields a liquid the colour

of blood, and is an excellent remedy for diseases of the liver.

The third kind that he mentions is the hmatites[7] of Arabia, a

mineral of equal hardness, and which with difficulty yields,

upon the water-whetstone, a liquid sometimes approaching the

tint of saffron. The fourth[8] kind, he says, is known as "hepa-







tites,"[9] while raw, and as "miltites"[10] when calcined; a substance

good for burns, and more efficacious than rubrica[11] for all

the purposes for which that mineral is employed. The fifth[12]

variety is schistos; a substance which, taken internally, arrests

hmorrhoidal discharges. Upon the same authority, it is recommended

to take any kind of hmatites, fasting, in doses of

three drachm, triturated in oil, for affections of the blood.[13]



The same author mentions also a kind of schistos which has no

affinity to hmatites, and to which he gives the name of "anthracites,"[14]

It is a native of Africa, he says, and is of a

black colour. When rubbed upon a water-whetstone, it yields

a black colour on the side which has adhered to the earth, and,

on the opposite side, a saffron tint. He states also that it is a

useful ingredient in ophthalmic preparations.







1. Mentioned in Chapter 25 of this Book.

2. Mentioned also in Chapter 25. Probably Red peroxide of iron, in a

massive form.

3. "All-serviceable," or "all-heal."

4. "Man-subduing."

5. The colour of Specular iron, or red peroxide of iron, being of a dark

steel-grey or iron-black, this is probably another variety of it. Ajasson

thinks that it includes compact or massive red oxide of iron, and scaly red

iron, or red iron froth, which leaves red marks upon the fingers.

6. See Chapter 11 of this Book. Its alleged attraction of silver and

copper is fabulous, no doubt.

7. This is probably the Limonite, or Hydrous peroxide of iron, mentioned

in the preceding Chapter. See Note 70 above.

8. Identified by Ajasson with Red ochre, or Reddle, a red peroxide of

iron, used for red crayons in drawing.

9. "Liver-stone." Not to be confounded with the Hepatite of modern

Mineralogy, or Sulphate of Barytes.

10. "Spleen-stone."

11. See B. xxxv. c. 14.

12. Identified by Ajasson with Laminated protoxide of iron. It has probably

an affinity to the variety noticed above, in Notes 70 and 78.

13. Owing solely, in all probability, to its name, "blood-stone."

14. Ajasson is at a loss to know whether this is our Anthracite, a nonbituminous

coal, or some kind of bituminous coal. Delafosse takes it to be

pit-coal.




39. Chap. 39. (21)-Atites. Taphiusian Stone. Callimus.


CHAP. 39. (21)-ATITES. TAPHIUSIAN STONE. CALLIMUS.



The stone called atites[1] has a great reputation, in consequence

of the name which it bears. It is found in the nests

of eagles, as already mentioned in our Tenth Book.[2] There

are always two of these stones found together, they say, a male

stone and a female; and without them, it is said, the various

eagles that we have described would be unable to propagate.

Hence it is, too, that the young of the eagle are never more

than two in number. There are four varieties of the atites:

that of Africa is soft and diminutive, and contains in the

interior-in its bowels as it were-a sweet, white, argillaceous

earth. It is friable, and is generally thought to be of the

female sex. The male stone, on the other hand, which is found

in Arabia, is hard, and similar to a nut-gall in appearance;

or else of a reddish hue, with a hard stone in the interior. The

third kind is a stone found in the Isle of Cyprus, and resembles







those of Africa in appearance, but is larger and flat, while the

others are of a globular form: it contains a sand within, of a

pleasing colour, and mixed with small stones; being so soft

itself as to admit of being crushed between the fingers.



The fourth variety is known as the Taphiusian atites, and

is found near Leucas,[3] at Taphiusa, a locality which lies to

the right as you sail from Ithaca towards Cape Leucas. It is

met with in the beds of rivers there, and is white and round;

having another stone in the interior, the name given to which

is "callimus:" none of the varieties of atites have a smoother

surface than this. Attached to pregnant women or to cattle,

in the skins of animals that have been sacrificed, these stones

act as a preventive of abortion, care being taken not to remove

them till the moment of parturition; for otherwise procidence

of the uterus is the result. If, on the other hand, they are not

removed at the moment when parturition is about to ensue,

that operation of Nature cannot be effected.







1. Or "eagle-stone." It is a Geodes, mentioned in Chapter 23 of this

Book, a globular mass of clay iron-stone. Sometimes it is hollow within,

and sometimes it encloses another stone, or a little water, or some mineral

dust.

2. Chapter 4.

3. See B. iv. c. 2.




41. Chap. 41.-Arabian Stone; Six Remedies.


CHAP. 41.-ARABIAN STONE; SIX REMEDIES.



Arabian[1] stone resembles ivory in appearance; and in a







calcined state it is employed as a dentifrice.[2] It is particularly

useful for the cure of hmorrhoidal swellings, applied either

in lint or by the aid of linen pledgets.







1. Probably of a similar nature to the Samian stone.

2. Pumice is still used as the basis of a dentifrice, but it destroys the

enamel of the teeth.




42. Chap. 42.-Pumice; Nine Remedies.


CHAP. 42.-PUMICE; NINE REMEDIES.



And here, too, I must not omit to give some account of

pumice.[1] This name is very generally given, it is true, to those

porous pieces of stone, which we see suspended in the erections

known as "musa,"[2] with the view of artificially

giving them all the appearance of caverns. But the genuine

pumice-stones, that are in use for imparting smoothness to the

skin of females, and not females only, but men as well, and, as

Catullus[3] says, for polishing books, are found of the finest quality

in the islands of Melos and Nisyros[4] and in the olian Isles.

To be good, they should be white, as light as possible, porous and

dry in the extreme, friable, and free from sand when rubbed.



Considered medicinally, pumice is of a resolvent and desiccative

nature; for which purpose it is submitted to calcination,

no less than three times, on a fire of pure charcoal, it being

quenched as often in white wine. It is then washed, like

cadmia,[5] and, after being dried, is put by for keeping, in a

place as free from damp as possible. In a powdered state,

pumice is used in ophthalmic preparations more particularly,

and acts as a lenitive detergent upon ulcerations of the eyes.

It also makes new flesh upon cicatrizations of those organs,

and removes all traces of the marks. Some prefer, after the

third calcination, leaving the pumice to cool, and then triturating

it in wine. It is employed also as an ingredient in emollient

poultices, being extremely useful for ulcerations on the head

and generative organs; dentifrices, too, are prepared from it.

According to Theophrastus,[6] persons when drinking for a wager

are in the habit[7] of taking powdered pumice first; but they

run great risk, he says, if they fail to swallow the whole

draught of wine at once; it being of so refrigerative a nature







that grape-juice[8] will absolutely cease to boil if pumice is put

into it.







1. See Note 90 above.

2. Or "temples of the Muses;" evidently grottos in the present instance.

3. In allusion to the line, "Arid modo pumice expolitum"-"Just

polished with dry pumice-stone." Ep. 1. 1. 2. Both the backs of books

and the parchment used for writing were rubbed with pumice.

4. See B. v. c. 36.

5. See B. xxxiv. c. 22.

6. Hist. B. ix. c. 18.

7. As a preventive of vomiting.

8. "Musta." Grape-juice in the process of being made into wine.




43. Chap. 43. (22.)-Stones For Mortars Used For Medicinal And Other Purposes. Etesian Stone. Thebaic Stone. Chalazian Stone.


CHAP. 43. (22.)-STONES FOR MORTARS USED FOR MEDICINAL AND

OTHER PURPOSES. ETESIAN STONE. THEBAIC STONE. CHALAZIAN STONE.



Authors, too, have paid some attention to the stones in use

for mortars, not only those employed for the trituration of

drugs and pigments, but for other purposes as well. In this

respect they have given the preference to Etesian[1] stone before

all others, and, next to that, to Thebaic stone, already mentioned[2]

as being called "pyrrhopcilon," and known as "psaranus"

by some. The third rank has been assigned to chrysites,[3]

a stone nearly allied to Chalazian[4] stone. For medicinal

purposes, however, basanites[5] has been preferred, this being a

stone that remits no particles from its surface.[6]



Those stones which yield a liquid, are generally looked upon

as good for the trituration of ophthalmic preparations; and

hence it is, that the thiopian stone is so much in request for

the purpose. Tnarian stone, they say, Phnician stone, and

hmatites, are good for the preparation of those medicinal

compositions in which saffron forms an ingredient; but they

also speak of another Tnarian stone, of a dark colour, which,

like Parian[7] stone, is not so well adapted for medicinal purposes.

We learn from them, too, that Egyptian alabastrites,[8]

or white ophites,[9] from the virtues inherent in them, are considered

still better adapted for these purposes than the kinds

last mentioned. It is this kind of ophites, too, from which

vessels, and casks even, are made.











1. Delafosse suggests that this may have been grey-spotted granite.

The name is doubtful, as "Edesian" and Ephesian" are other readings.

2. In Chapter 13 of this Book.

3. "Golden stone." A variety, perhaps, of the Thebaic stone with gold

spots, mentioned in Chapter 13 of this Book.

4. Possibly so called from Xa/laza "hail," it being, perhaps, a granite

with spots like hailstones.

5. See Chapters 11 and 38 of this Book.

6. In consequence of its extreme hardness.

7. Phnician stone and Tnarian stone do not appear to have been

identified. Parian stone may probably have been white Parian marble.

8. See Chapter 12 of this Book.

9. Serpentine. See Chapters 11 and 30.




44. Chap. 44.-Stone Of Siphnos. Soft Stones.


CHAP. 44.-STONE OF SIPHNOS. SOFT STONES.



At Siphnos,[1] there is a kind of stone[2] which is hollowed

and turned in the lathe, for making cooking-utensils and vessels

for keeping provisions; a thing too, that, to my own knowledge,[3]

is done with the green stone[4] of Comum[5] in Italy.

With reference, however, to the stone of Siphnos, it is a singular

fact, that, when heated in oil, though naturally very soft,

it becomes hard and black; so great a difference is there in

the qualities of stone.



There are some remarkable instances, too, beyond the Alps, of

the natural softness of some kinds of stone. In the province

of the Belg, there is a white stone[6] which admits of being cut

with the saw that is used for wood, and with greater facility

even. This stone is used as a substitute for roof-tiles and

gutter-tiles, and even for the kind of roofing known as the

pavonaceous[7] style, if that is preferred. Such are the stones

that admit of being cut into thin slabs.







1. See B. iv. cc. 22, 23.

2. Ajasson identifies it with Ollar stone, talc, or soap-stone, a hydrous

silicate of magnesia, and nearly allied to the Ophites of Chapters 11 and 30.

3. He being a native of that part of Italy.

4. The Green Colubine Ollar stone, or soap-stone of Italy.

5. See B. iii. c. 21.

6. Identified by Brotero with our Free-stone or grit-stone.

7. So called from its resemblance to the spots on a peacock's tail. He

alludes, probably, to the mode of roofing with tiles cut in the form of

scales, still much employed on the continent, and in Switzerland more

particularly.




45. Chap. 45.-Specular Stones.


CHAP. 45.-SPECULAR STONES.



As to specular[1] stone-for this, too, is ranked as one of the

stones-it admits of being divided with still greater facility,

and can be split into leaves as thin as may be desired. The

province of Nearer Spain used formerly to be the only one

that furnished it-not, indeed, the whole of that country, but

a district extending for a hundred miles around the city of

Segobrica[2] But at the present day, Cyprus, Cappadocia, and

Sicily, supply us with it; and, still more recently, it has been

discovered in Africa: they are all, however, looked upon as

inferior to the stone which comes from Spain. The sheets







from Cappadocia are the largest in size; but then they are

clouded. This stone is to be found also in the territory of

Bononia,[3] in Italy; but in small pieces only, covered with

spots and encrusted in a bed of silex, there being a considerable

affinity, it would appear, in their nature.



In Spain, the specular-stone is extracted from shafts sunk

in the earth to a very considerable depth; though it is occasionally

to be found just beneath the surface, enclosed in the

solid rock, and extracted without difficulty, or else cut away

from its bed. In most cases, however, it admits of being dug

up, being of an isolated nature, and lying in pieces, like ragstone,

but never known as yet to exceed five feet in length.

It would appear that this substance is originally a liquid,

which, by an animating power in the earth, becomes congealed

like crystal; and it is very evident that it is the result of petrifaction,

from the fact that, when animals have fallen into the

shafts from which it is extracted, the marrow of their bones

becomes transformed into stone of a similar nature, by the end

of a single winter. In some cases, too, it is found of a black

colour: but the white stone has the marvellous property, soft

as it is known to be, of resisting the action of the sun and of

cold. Nor will it, if it is only protected from accidents,

become deteriorated by lapse of time, a thing that is so generally

the case with many other kinds of stone that are used

for building purposes. The shavings, too, and scales of this

stone, have been used of late for another purpose; the Circus

Maximus having been strewed with them at the celebration of

the games, with the object of producing an agreeable whiteness.







1. Or "Mirror-stone." Transparent Selenite or gypsum; a sulphate of

lime.

2. Now Segorba, in Valentia.

3. Ajasson is of opinion that various kinds of mica and talc are the

minerals here alluded to.




46. Chap. 46.-Phengites.


CHAP. 46.-PHENGITES.



During the reign of Nero, there was a stone found in Cappadocia,

as hard as marble, white, and transparent even in those parts

where red veins were to be seen upon it; a property which has obtained

for it the name of "phengites."[1] It was with this stone[2]







that Nero rebuilt the Temple of Fortune, surnamed Seia,[3]

originally consecrated by King Servius, enclosing it within the

precincts of his Golden Palace.[4] Hence it was that, even

when the doors were closed, there was light in the interior

during the day; not transmitted from without, as would be the

case through a medium of specular-stone, but having all the

appearance of being enclosed within[5] the building.



In Arabia, too, according to Juba, there is a stone, transparent

like glass, which is used for the same purposes as specular-stone.







1. From feggo\s, "brightness." Beckmann is of opinion that this was

a calcareous or gypseous spar (Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 66); but Ajasson

seems to think that it was very similar to Parian marble, which was sometimes

called by this name.

2. This is more likely to apply to a white marble than to a calcareous or

gypseous spar. Suetonius says, c. 14, that Domitian, when he suspected

that plots were forming against him, caused the porticos in which he

walked to be lined with Phengites, which by its reflection showed what

was going on behind his back.

3. See B. xviii. c. 2.

4. See Chapter 24 of this Book.

5. Beckmann says, in reference to this passage, supposing that a kind

of spar is meant by the word phengites-"It is probable that the openings

of the walls of the building where the windows used to be, were in this

instance filled up with phengites, which, by admitting a faint light, prevented

the place from being dark, even when the doors were shut."-Hist.

Inv. Vol. II. p. 66. Bohn's Edition.




47. Chap. 47.-Whetstones.


CHAP. 47.-WHETSTONES.



We must now pass on to the stones that are employed for

handicrafts, and, first of all, whetstones for sharpening iron.

Of these stones there are numerous varieties; the Cretan stones

having been long held in the highest estimation, and the next

best being those of Mount Taygetus, in Laconia; both of

which are used as hones, and require oil. Among the water-whetstones,

the first rank belonged to those of Naxos, and the

second to the stones of Armenia, both of them already[1] mentioned.

The stones of Cilicia are of excellent quality, whether

used with oil or with water; those of Arsine,[2] too, are very

good, but with water only. Whetstones have been found also

in Italy, which with water give a remarkably keen edge; and

from the countries beyond the Alps, we have the whetstones

known as "passernices."[3]



To the fourth class belong the hones which give an edge

by the agency of human saliva, and are much in use in barbers'

shops. They are worthless, however, for all other purposes,

in consequence of their soft and brittle nature: those

from the district of Laminium,[4] in Nearer Spain, are the best

of the kind.











1. In Chapter 10 of this Book.

2. See B. v. cc. 22, 35, for two places of this name.

3. A Celtic word, probably

4. See B. iii. c. 2.




48. Chap. 48.-Tophus.


CHAP. 48.-TOPHUS.



Among the multitude of stones which still remain undescribed,

there is tophus;[1] a material totally unsuited for building

purposes, in consequence of its perishableness. Still, however,

there are some localities which have no other, Carthage,

in Africa, for example. It is eaten away by the emanations

from the sea, crumbled to dust by the wind, and shattered by

the pelting of the rain: but human industry has found the

means of protecting walls of houses built of it, with a coating of

pitch, as a plaster of lime would corrode it. Hence it is,

that we have the well-known saying, "that the Carthaginians

use pitch[2] for their houses and lime[3] for their wines," this

last being the method used by them in the preparation of their

must.



In the territories of Fiden and Alba, in the vicinity of

Rome, we find other soft kinds of stone; and, in Umbria and

Venetia, there is a stone[4] which admits of being cut with the

teeth of a saw. These stones are easy to be worked, and are

capable of supporting a considerable weight, if they are only

kept sheltered from the weather. Rain, however, frost, and dew,

split them to pieces, nor can they resist the humidity of the

sea-air. The stone[5] of Tibur can stand everything except

heat, which makes it crack.







1. Identical, probably, with the Tufa of modern Mineralogy, which

thence derives its name, a Carbonate of lime.

2. Thus reversing the order of things with the Romans, who put the

lime on their houses, and the pitch in their wines. See B. xiv. cc. 3, 24,

25.

3. See B. xiv. c. 24.

4. A white tufa, Vitruvius says, B. i. c. 7.

5. It was in reference, possibly, to this stone that Cicero made the remark,

mentioned in Chapter 5 of this Book; the heat of Chios being so

great, perhaps, that the Tiburtine stone could not have endured it.




49. Chap. 49.-The Various Kinds Of Silex..


CHAP. 49.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SILEX..



The black silex[1] is in general the best; but in some localities,

it is the red, and occasionally the white; as in the

Anician quarries at Tarquinii, near Lake Volsinius,[2] for example,

and those at Statonia,[3] the stone of which is proof

against fire even.[4] These stones, sculptured for monumental







purposes, are subject to no deterioration by lapse of time:

moulds, too, are made from them, for the purpose of fusing

copper. There is a green silex, also, which offers a most

powerful resistance to the action of fire, but is never found in

any large quantities, and, in all cases, in an isolated form, and

not as a constituent part of solid rock. Of the other kinds,

the pale silex is but rarely used for erections: being of globular

form, it is not liable to injury, but at the same time it is

insecure for building purposes, unless it is well braced and

tightly held together. Nor yet does river silex offer any

greater security, for it always has the appearance of being

wet.







1. A general name for Silica, Flint, or Quartz, and the several varieties.

2. See B. iii. c. 8.

3. See B. ii. c. 96, B. iii. c. 9, and B. xiv. c. 8.

4. Ajasson thinks that Travertine is meant; a tufa, or carbonate of lime,

which is common in Tuscany.




50. Chap. 50.-Other Stones Used For Building.


CHAP. 50.-OTHER STONES USED FOR BUILDING.



When the nature of stone is doubtful, the proper precaution

is, to quarry it in summer, and not to use it for building before

the end of a couple of years, leaving it in the meantime to

be well seasoned by the weather. The slabs which have been

damaged will be found to be better suited for the foundations

under ground: while those, on the other hand, which have remained

uninjured, may be employed with safety, and exposed

to the open air even.










51. Chap. 51.-The Various Methods Of Building.


CHAP. 51.-THE VARIOUS METHODS OF BUILDING.



The Greeks construct party-walls, resembling those of brickwork,

of hard stone or of silex, squared. This kind of stonework

is what they call "isodomon,"[1] it being "pseudisodomon"[2]

when the wall is built of materials of unequal dimensions.

A third kind of stonework is called "emplecton,"[3] the two

exteriors only being made with regularity, the rest of the

material being thrown in at random. It is necessary that

the stones should lie over one another alternately, in such a

way that the middle of one stone meets the point of junction

of the two below it; and this, too, in the middle of the wall,

if possible; but if not, at all events, at the sides. When the

middle of the wall is filled up with broken stones, the work

is known as "diatoichon."[4]







The reticulated[5] kind of building, which is mostly in use

at Rome, is very liable to crack.[6] All building should be

done by line and rule, and ought to be strictly on the perpendicular.







1. "Built of stones of equal size."

2. "Built of stones of unequal sizes."

3. "Filled up work," apparently.

4. The reading is very doubtful here for the word seems to mean, in

Greek, "From one wall to another." "Diamicton"-"Mixed up," is

another reading.

5. Where the outer face of each stone forms an exact square; the pointings

consequently having a netlike or reticulated appearance.

6. The vertical pointings or junctures lying one over the other.




52. Chap. 52. (23.)-Cisterns.


CHAP. 52. (23.)-CISTERNS.



Cisterns should be made of five parts of pure, gravelly, sand,

two of the very strongest quicklime, and fragments of silex

not exceeding a pound each in weight; when thus incorporated,

the bottom and sides should be well beaten with iron

rammers. The best plan, too, is to have the cisterns double;

so that all superfluities may settle in the inner cistern, and

the water filter through, as pure as possible, into the outer

one.










53. Chap. 53.-Quick-Lime.


CHAP. 53.-QUICK-LIME.



Cato[1] the Censor disapproves of lime prepared from stones

of various colours: that made of white stone is the best.

Lime prepared from hard stone is the best for building purposes, and that from porous stone for coats of plaster. For

both these purposes, lime made from silex is equally rejected.

Stone that has been extracted from quarries furnishes a better

lime than that collected from the beds of rivers; but the best of

all is the lime that is obtained from the molar-stone,[2] that being

of a more unctuous nature than the others. It is something

truly marvellous, that quick-lime, after the stone has been subjected

to fire, should ignite on the application of water!







1. De Re Rust. c. 38.

2. See Chapters 29 and 30 of this Book,




54. Chap. 54.-The Various Kinds Of Sand. The Combinations Of Sand With Lime.


CHAP. 54.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF SAND. THE COMBINATIONS

OF SAND WITH LIME.



There are three kinds of sand: fossil[1] sand, to which

one-fourth part of lime should be added;[2] river sand; and

sea sand; to both of which last, one third of lime should be

added. If, too, one third of the mortar is composed of bruised

earthenware, it will be all the better. Fossil sand is found in

the districts that lie between the Apennines and the Padus,

but not in the parts beyond sea.











1. To which Pozzuolane belongs.

2. For making mortar.




55. Chap. 55.-Defects In Building. Plasters For Walls.


CHAP. 55.-DEFECTS IN BUILDING. PLASTERS FOR WALLS.



The great cause of the fall of so many buildings in our City, is,

that through a fraudulent abstraction of the lime, the rough

work is laid without anything to hold it together. The

older, too, the mortar is, the better it is in quality. In the

ancient laws for the regulation of building, no contractor was

to use mortar less than three months old; hence it is, that no

cracks have disfigured the plaster coatings of their walls.

These stuccos will never present a sufficiently bright surface,

unless there have been three layers of sanded mortar, and two

of marbled[1] mortar upon that. In damp localities and places

subject to exhalations from the sea, it is the best plan to substitute

ground earthenware mortar for sanded mortar. In

Greece, it is the practice, first to pound the lime and sand used

for plastering, with wooden pestles in a large trough. The test

by which it is known that marbled mortar has been properly

blended, is its not adhering to the trowel; whereas, if it is

only wanted for white-washing, the lime, after being well

slaked with water, should stick like glue. For this last

purpose, however, the lime should only be slaked in lumps.



At Elis, there is a Temple of Minerva, which was pargetted,

they say, by Pannus, the brother of Phidias, with a mortar

that was blended with milk and saffron:[2] hence it is, that,

even at the present day, when rubbed with spittle on the

finger, it yields the smell and flavour of saffron.







1. Pounded marble mixed with quicklime.

2. "Lacte et croco" appears to be a preferable reading to "late e croco,"

as given by the Bamberg MS.




56. Chap. 56.-Columns. The Several Kinds Of Columns.


CHAP. 56.-COLUMNS. THE SEVERAL KINDS OF COLUMNS.



The more closely columns are placed together, the thicker

they appear to be. There are four different kinds of pillars.

Those of which the diameter at the foot is one-sixth part

of the height, are called Doric. When the diameter is one-ninth,

they are Ionic; and when it is one-seventh, Tuscan.

The proportions in the Corinthian are the same as those of

the Ionic; but they differ in the circumstance that the

Corinthian capitals are of the same height as the diameter

at the foot, a thing that gives them a more slender appearance;

whereas, in the Ionic column, the height of the

capital is only one-third of the diameter at the foot. In







ancient times the rule was, that the columns should be one-third

of the breadth of the temple in height.



It was in the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, as originally

built, that spirals[1] were first placed beneath, and capitals

added: and it was determined that the diameter of the shafts

should be one-eighth of their height, and that the spirals

should be one-half of the diameter in height, the upper extremity

of the shaft being one-seventh less in diameter than

the foot. In addition to these columns, there are what are

called "Attic" columns, quadrangular, and with equal sides.







1. It seems difficult to understand whether by the word "spir" he

means astragals, or bases. It would almost appear, by the use of the word

"subdit," that it is "bases" for the shafts. It is just possible, however,

that the meaning may be that the "spire" were placed beneath the

capitals which were added.




57. Chap. 57. (24.)-Five Remedies Derived From Lime.


CHAP. 57. (24.)-FIVE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM LIME.



Lime is also employed very extensively in medicine. For

this purpose, fresh lime is selected, which has not been slaked

with water. Its properties are caustic, resolvent, and attractive;

and it prevents serpiginous ulcers from spreading, being

incorporated with vinegar and oil of roses, for the purpose.

When this has been effected, it is tempered with wax and oil of

roses, and applied to promote cicatrization. In combination

with honey, and liquid resin, or hogs' lard, lime is curative of

sprains and scrofulous sores.










58. Chap. 58.-Maltha.


CHAP. 58.-MALTHA.



Maltha[1] is a cement prepared from fresh lime; lumps of

which are quenched in wine, and then pounded with hogs'

lard and figs, both of them, mollifying substances.[2] It is the

most tenacious of all cements, and surpasses stone in hardness.

Before applying the maltha, the substance upon which it is

used must be well rubbed with oil.











1. A different thing altogether from the Maltha or Pissasphalt of B. ii.

c. 108. Festus describes it as a mixture of pitch and wax; and Palladius,

in B. i. c. 17, speaks of it as being composed of tar, grease, and lime

boiled; and in c. 35 he describes Maltha caldaria as a mixture of hammoniacum,

figs, tow, tar, and melted suet. It was probably a general name for

several kinds of cement. Heineccius says that it was employed for sealing,

but on what authority does not appear. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv.

Vol. 1. p. 141. Bohn's Edition.

2. This is perhaps the meaning of "duplici lenimento." The reading,

however, is doubtful.




59. Chap. 59.-Gypsum.


CHAP. 59.-gypsum.



Gypsum[1] has a close affinity with limestone, and there are

numerous varieties of it. One kind is prepared from a calcined[2]

stone, as in Syria, and at Thurii, for example. In

Cyprus and at Perrhbia,[3] gypsum is dug out of the earth,

and at Tymph[4] it is found just below the level of the soil.

The stone that is calcined for this purpose, ought to be very

similar to alabastrites,[5] or else of a grain like that of marble.

In Syria, they select the hardest stones for the purpose, and

calcine them with cow-dung, to accelerate the process. Experience

has proved, however, that the best plaster of all is

that prepared from specular-stone,[6] or any other stone that is

similarly laminated. Gypsum, when moistened, must be used

immediately, as it hardens with the greatest rapidity; it

admits, however, of being triturated over again, and so reduced

to powder. It is very useful for pargetting, and has a

pleasing effect when used for ornamental figures and wreaths

in buildings.



There is one remarkable fact connected with this substance;

Caius Proculeius,[7] an intimate friend of the Emperor Augustus,

suffering from violent pains in the stomach, swallowed gypsum,

and so put an end to his existence.[8]







1. The name now given to Sulphate of lime, including the varieties of

Alabaster and Selenite. Plaster of Paris is prepared from it.

2. The method of preparing plaster of Paris.

3. See B. iv. c. 3.

4. See B. iv. c. 3.

5. The same thing, strictly speaking. See Chapter 12 of this Book.

6. See Chapter 45 of this Book.

7. See B. vii. c. 46.

8. Dioscorides says, B. v. c. 134, that, taken internally, it produces suffocation.




60. Chap. 60. (25.)-Pavements. The Asarotos cos.


CHAP. 60. (25.)-PAVEMENTS. THE ASAROTOS COS.



Pavements are an invention of the Greeks, who also practised

the art of painting them, till they were superseded by

mosaics.[1] In this last branch of art, the highest excellence

has been attained by Sosus,[2] who laid, at Pergamus, the

mosaic pavement known as the "Asarotos cos;"[3] from the

fact that he there represented, in small squares of different

colours, the remnants of a banquet lying upon the pavement,

and other things which are usually swept away with the broom,







they having all the appearance of being left there by accident.

There is a dove also, greatly admired, in the act of drinking,

and throwing the shadow of its head upon the water; while

other birds are to be seen sunning and pluming themselves, on

the margin of a drinking-bowl.







1. "Lithostrota."

2. His age and country are unknown.

3. "The house that has no sweeping."




61. Chap. 61.-The First Pavements In Use At Rome.


CHAP. 61.-THE FIRST PAVEMENTS IN USE AT ROME.



The first pavements, in my opinion, were those now known

to us as barbaric and subtegulan[1] pavements, a kind of work

that was beaten down with the rammer: at least if we may

form a judgment from the name[2] that has been given to them.

The first diamonded[3] pavement at Rome was laid in the Temple

of Jupiter Capitolinus, after the commencement of the Third

Punic War. That pavements had come into common use before

the Cimbric War, and that a taste for them was very

prevalent, is evident from the line of Lucilius-

"With checquered emblems like a pavement marked."[4]







1. "Subtegulanea."-"Under cover;" in contradistinction to the "subdialia"

of next Chapter.

2. "Pavimentum," from "pavio," to "beat down."

3. "Scutulatum."-Having figures in the shape of a lozenge or rhombus.

4. The line is,

"Arte pavimenti atque emblemate vermiculato;"

literary compositions being compared by him to the artificial construction

of a pavement.




62. Chap. 62.-Terrace-Roof Pavements.


CHAP. 62.-TERRACE-ROOF PAVEMENTS.



The Greeks have also invented terrace-roof[1] pavements, and

have covered their houses with them; a thing that may easily be

done in the hotter climates, but a great mistake in countries

where the rain is apt to become congealed. In making these

pavements, the proper plan is to begin with two layers of boards,

running different ways, and nailed at the extremities, to prevent

them from warping. Upon this planking a rough-work must

be laid, one-fourth of which consists of pounded pottery: and

upon this, another bed of rough-work, two-fifths composed of

lime, a foot in thickness, and well beaten down with the

rammer. The nucleus[2] is then laid down, a bed six fingers

in depth; and upon that, large square stones, not less than a







couple of fingers in thickness; an inclination being carefully

observed, of an inch and a half to every ten feet. This done,

the surface is well rubbed down with a polishing stone. The

general opinion is, that oak[3] should never be used for the

planking, it being so very liable to warp; and it is considered

a good plan to cover the boards with a layer of fern or chaff,

that they may be the better able to resist the action of the

lime. It is necessary, too, before putting down the planking,

to underset it with a bed of round pebbles. Wheat-ear[4] tesselated pavements are laid down in a similar manner.







1. "Subdialia;" more literally, "open-air pavements."

2. Or "kernel;" so called because it lay in the middle. Vitruvius says

that it was composed of one part lime, and three parts pounded pottery.

3. "Quercus."

4. "Spicata testacea." These pavements were probably so called because

the bricks were laid at angles to each other (of about forty-five

degrees), like the grains in an ear of wheat; or like the spines projecting

from either side of the back-bone of a fish.




63. Chap. 63.-Grcanic Pavements.


CHAP. 63.-GRCANIC PAVEMENTS.



We must not omit here one other kind of pavement, that

known as the "Grcanic." The ground is well rammed down,

and a bed of rough work, or else broken pottery, is then laid

upon it. Upon the top of this, a layer of charcoal is placed,

well trodden down with a mixture of sand, lime, and ashes; care

being taken, by line and rule, to give it a uniform thickness

of half a foot. The surface then presents the ordinary appearance

of the ground; but if it is well rubbed with the

polishing-stone, it will have all the appearance of a black

pavement.










64. Chap. 64.-At What Period Mosaic Pavements Were First Invented. At What Period Arched Roofs Were First Decorated With Glass.


CHAP. 64.-AT WHAT PERIOD MOSAIC PAVEMENTS WERE FIRST

INVENTED. AT WHAT PERIOD ARCHED ROOFS WERE FIRST

DECORATED WITH GLASS.



Mosaic[1] pavements were first introduced in the time of

Sylla; at all events, there is still in existence a pavement,

formed of small segments, which he ordered to be laid down

in the Temple of Fortune, at Prneste. Since his time, these

mosaics have left the ground for the arched roofs of houses,

and they are now made of glass. This, however, is but a

recent invention; for there can be no doubt that, when Agrippa

ordered the earthenware walls of the hot baths, in the

Therm which he was building at Rome, to be painted in

encaustic, and had the other parts coated with pargetting, he







would have had the arches decorated with mosaics in glass, if

the use of them had been known; or, at all events, if from the

walls of the Theatre of Scaurus, where it figured, as already[2]

stated, glass had by that time come to be used for the arched

roofs of apartments. It will be as well, therefore, to give

some account, also, of glass.







1. "Lithostrota."

2. In Chapter 24 of this Book.




65. Chap. 65. (26.)-The Origin Of Glass.


CHAP. 65. (26.)-THE ORIGIN OF GLASS.



In Syria there is a region known as Phnice,[1] adjoining to

Juda, and enclosing, between the lower ridges of Mount

Carmelus, a marshy district known by the name of Cendebia.

In this district, it is supposed, rises the river Belus,[2] which,

after a course of five miles, empties itself into the sea near the

colony of Ptolemas. The tide of this river is sluggish, and

the water unwholesome to drink, but held sacred for the

observance of certain religious ceremonials. Full of slimy

deposits, and very deep, it is only at the reflux of the tide

that the river discloses its sands; which, agitated by the

waves, separate themselves from their impurities, and so

become cleansed. It is generally thought that it is the

acridity of the sea-water that has this purgative effect upon

the sand, and that without this action no use could be made

of it. The shore upon which this sand is gathered is not

more than half a mile in extent; and yet, for many ages, this

was the only spot that afforded the material for making glass.



The story is, that a ship, laden with nitre,[3] being moored

upon this spot, the merchants, while preparing their repast

upon the sea-shore, finding no stones at hand for supporting

their cauldrons, employed for the purpose some lumps of nitre

which they had taken from the vessel. Upon its being subjected to the action of the fire, in combination with the sand

of the sea-shore, they beheld transparent streams flowing forth

of a liquid hitherto unknown: this, it is said, was the origin

of glass.[4]











1. See B. v. c. 17.

2. See B. v. c. 19.

3. A mineral alkali, Beckmann thinks; for it could not possibly be our

saltpetre, he says. See B. xxxi. c. 46.

4. Beckmann discredits this story, because sand, he says, is not so easily

brought to a state of fusion. Hist. lnv. Vol. II. p. 496. Bohn's Edition.




66. Chap. 66.-The Various Kinds Of Glass, And The Mode Of Making It.


CHAP. 66.-THE VARIOUS KINDS OF GLASS, AND THE MODE OF

MAKING IT.



In process of time, as human industry is ingenious in discovering,

it was not content with the combination of nitre,

but magnet-stone[1] began to be added as well; from the impression

that it attracts liquefied[2] glass as well as iron. In a

similar manner, too, brilliant stones of various descriptions

came to be added in the melting, and, at last, shells and fossil

sand. Some authors tell us, that the glass of India is made of

broken crystal, and that, in consequence, there is none that

can be compared to it.



In fusing it, light and dry wood is used for fuel, Cyprian

copper and nitre being added to the melting, nitre of Ophir[3]

more particularly. It is melted, like copper, in contiguous

furnaces, and a swarthy mass of an unctuous appearance is the

result. Of such a penetrating nature is the molten glass, that

it will cut to the very bone any part of the body which it

may come near, and that, too, before it is even felt. This

mass is again subjected to fusion in the furnace, for the purpose

of colouring it; after which, the glass is either blown

into various forms, turned in a lathe, or engraved[4] like silver.

Sidon was formerly famous for its glass-houses, for it was this

place that first invented[5] mirrors.







Such was the ancient method of making glass: but, at the

present day, there is found a very white sand for the purpose,

at the mouth of the river Volturnus, in Italy. It spreads

over an extent of six miles, upon the sea-shore that lies

between Cum and Liternum, and is prepared for use by

pounding it with a pestle and mortar; which done, it is mixed

with three parts of nitre, either by weight or measure, and,

when fused, is transferred to another furnace. Here it forms

a mass of what is called "hammonitrum;" which is again

submitted to fusion, and becomes a mass of pure, white, glass.

Indeed, at the present day, throughout the Gallic and Spanish

provinces even, we find sand subjected to a similar process.

In the reign of Tiberius, it is said, a combination was devised

which produced a flexible[6] glass; but the manufactory of the

artist was totally destroyed, we are told, in order to prevent the

value of copper, silver, and gold, from becoming depreciated.[7]

This story, however, was, for a long time, more widely spread

than well authentieated. But be it as it may, it is of little

consequence; for, in the time of the Emperor Nero, there was a

process discovered, by which two small glass cups were made,

of the kind called "petroti,"[8] the price of which was no less

than six thousand sesterces!







1. "Magnes lapis." See B. xxxiv. c. 42, and Chapter 25 of this Book.

Beckmann is of opinion that an ore of Manganese is meant, a substance

which has a resemblance to the magnet, and is of the greatest utility in

making glass. Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 237.

2. This appears to be the meaning of "Quoniam in se liquorem vitri

quoque ut ferrum trahere creditur."

3. In the description given by Isidorus in the "Origines," which in other

respects is similar, these words are omitted, and it is possible that they are

a gloss by some one who was better acquainted with the Old Testament

than with Pliny. On the other hand, as Sillig remarks, the Phnicians

may, at an early period, have imported into Greece a substance which they

called "nitre of Ophir."

4. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 84.

5. "Excogitaverat." Beckmann would seem to give this word the

force only of "thought of," for he gives it as his opinion that attempts

were made at Sidon to form glass mirrors, but that the experiments had

not completely succeeded. "Had this invention formed an epoch in the

art of making mirrors, Pliny, in another place (B. xxxiii. c. 45), where

he describes the various improvements of it so fully, would not have omitted

it: but of those experiments he makes no further mention." He also

expresses an opinion that the Sidonian mirrors consisted of dark-coloured

glass, resembling obsidian stone."-Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp 69,70. Bohn's

Edition.

6. Knowles says, in his Turkish History, p.1273, that in 1610, among

other rare presents sent to the King of Spain from the Sophy of Persia,

there were six drinking-glasses, made of malleable glass so exquisitely

tempered that they could not be broken.

7. Dion Cassius and Suetonius tell a similar story; and, according to one

account, Tiberius ordered the artist to be put to death.

8. This reading is doubtful. It would appear to mean "stone bandled."

Another reading is "pterotos," "with winged handles."




67. Chap. 67.-Obsian Glass And Obsian Stone.


CHAP. 67.-OBSIAN GLASS AND OBSIAN STONE.



Among the various kinds of glass, we may also reckon

Obsian glass, a substance very similar to the stone[1] which

Obsius discovered in thiopia. This stone is of a very dark

colour, and sometimes transparent; but it is dull to the sight,

and reflects, when attached as a mirror to walls, the shadow

of the object rather than the image. Many persons use it[2]







for jewellery, and I myself have seen solid statues[3] in this

material of the late Emperor Augustus, of very considerable

thickness. That prince consecrated, in the Temple of Concord,

as something marvellous, four figures of elephants made

of Obsian stone. Tiberius Csar, too, restored to the people

of Heliopolis, as an object of ceremonial worship, an image in

this stone, which had been found among the property left by

one of the prfects of Egypt. It was a figure of Menelas; a

circumstance which goes far towards proving that the use of

this material is of more ancient date than is generally supposed,

confounded as it is at the present day with glass, by

reason of its resemblance. Xenocrates says that Obsian stone

is found in India also, and in Samnium in Italy; and that it

is a natural product of Spain, upon the coasts which border

on the Ocean.[4]



There is an artificial Obsian stone, made of coloured glass

for services for the table; and there is also a glass that is red

all through, and opaque, known as "hmatinum."[5] A dead

white glass, too, is made, as also other kinds in imitation of murrhine[6]

colour, hyacinthine, sapphire, and every other tint:

indeed, there is no material of a more pliable[7] nature than

this, or better suited for colouring. Still, however, the

highest value is set upon glass that is entirely colourless and

transparent, as nearly as possible resembling crystal, in fact.

For drinking-vessels, glass has quite superseded the use of

silver and gold; but it is unable to stand heat unless a

cold liquid is poured in first. And yet, we find that globular

glass vessels, filled with water, when brought in contact with

the rays of the sun,[8] become heated to such a degree as to

cause articles of clothing to ignite. When broken, too, glass

admits of being joined by the agency of heat; but it cannot







be wholly fused without being pulverized into small fragments,[9]

as we see done in the process of making the small

checquers, known as "abaculi," for mosaic work; some of

which are of variegated colours, and of different shapes. If

glass is fused with sulphur, it will become as hard as stone.







1. Voleanic glass, feldspar in a more or less pure state, our Obsidian, is

probably meant; a word derived from the old reading, Obaidius, corrected

by Sillig to Obsius.

2. He is speaking of the stone, not the glass that resembled it.

3. A thing very difficult to be done, as Beckmann observes, by reason

of its brittleness.

4. The present Portugal.

5. "Blood-red" glass.

6. See B. xxxvii. cc. 7, 8, 11. This glass was probably of an opal

colour, like porcelain.

7. This passage is commented upon by Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 75, in

connexion with a similar passage in Isidorus, Orig., which is probably corrupt.

8. See B. xxxvii. c. 10. He was not aware, apparently, that in such case

they act as convex burning-glasses, and that ice even may be similarly

employed.

9. This is, probably, the meaning of "in guttas;" a new reading, which

is only found in the Bamberg MS.




68. Chap. 68. (27.)-Marvellous Facts Connected With Fire.


CHAP. 68. (27.)-MARVELLOUS FACTS CONNECTED WITH FIRE.



Having now described all the creations of human ingenuity,

reproductions, in fact, of Nature by the agency of art, it

cannot but recur to us, with a feeling of admiration, that there

is hardly any process which is not perfected through the

intervention of fire. Submit to its action some sandy soil,

and in one place it will yield glass, in another silver, in

another minium, and in others, again, lead and its several

varieties, pigments, and numerous medicaments. It is through

the agency of fire that stones[1] are melted into copper; by fire

that iron is produced, and subdued to our purposes; by fire

that gold is purified; by fire, too, that the stone is calcined,

which is to hold together the walls of our houses.



Some materials, again, are all the better for being repeatedly

submitted to the action of fire; and the same substance will

yield one product at the first fusion, another at the second, and

another at the third.[2] Charcoal, when it has passed through fire

and has been quenched, only begins to assume its active properties;

and, when it might be supposed to have been reduced

to annihilation, it is then that it has its greatest energies. An

element this, of immense, of boundless[3] power, and, as to

which, it is a matter of doubt whether it does not create even

more than it destroys!







1. See B. xxxiv. c. 2.

2. See B. xxxiv. c. 47.

3. "Improba" seems to be used here in much the same sense in which

Virgil has said "Labor improbus"-"Unremitting labour."




69. Chap. 69.-Three Remedies Derived From Fire And From Ashes.


CHAP. 69.-THREE REMEDIES DERIVED FROM FIRE AND FROM ASHES.



Fire even has certain medicinal virtues of its own. When

pestilences prevail, in consequence of the obscuration[1] of the

sun, it is a well-known fact, that if fires are lighted, they are







productive of beneficial results in numerous ways. Empedocles

and Hippocrates have proved this in several passages.



"For convulsions or contusions of the viscera," says M.

Varro-for it is his own words that I use- "let the hearth be

your medicine-box; for lie of ashes,[2] taken from thence, mixed

with your drink, will effect a cure. Witness the gladiators, for

example, who, when disabled at the Games, refresh themselves

with this drink." Carbuncle too, a kind of disease which, as

already[3] stated, has recently carried off two persons of consular

rank, admits of being successfully treated with oak-charcoal,[4]

triturated with honey. So true is it that things which are despised

even, and looked upon as so utterly destitute of all virtues,

have still their own remedial properties, charcoal and ashes for

example.







1. He alludes, probably, to eclipses of the sun.

2. Acacia charcoal is still recommended as a valuable tonic, and as good

for internal ulcerations and irritations of the mucous membrane.

3. In B. xxvi. c. 4.

4. "Querneus."




70. Chap. 70.-Prodigies Connected With The Hearth.


CHAP. 70.-PRODIGIES CONNECTED WITH THE HEARTH.



I must not omit too, one portentous fact connected with the

hearth, and famous in Roman history. In the reign of Tarquinius

Priscus, it is said, there appeared upon his hearth a resemblance

of the male generative organ in the midst of the

ashes. The captive Ocrisia, a servant of Queen Tanaquil, who

happened to be sitting there, arose from her seat in a state of

pregnancy, and became the mother of Servius Tullius, who eventually

succeeded to the throne.[1] It is stated, too, that while the

child was sleeping in the palace, a flame was seen playing

round his head; the consequence of which was, that it was

believed that the Lar of the household was his progenitor. It

was owing to this circumstance, we are informed, that the

Compitalia,[2] games in honour of the Lares, were instituted.



SUMMARY.-Remedies mentioned, eighty-nine. Facts and

narratives, four hundred and thirty-four.







ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[3] Clius,[4] Galba,[5]

Cincius,[6] Mucianus,[7] Nepos Cornelius,[8] L. Piso,[9] Q. Tubero,[10]

Fabius Vestalis,[11] Annius Fetialis,[12] Fabianus,[13] Seneca,[14]

Cato the Censor,[15] Vitruvius.[16]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-Theophrastus,[17] Pasiteles,[18] King

Juba,[19] Nicander,[20] Sotacus,[21] Sudines,[22] Alexander[23] Polyhistor,

Apion,[24] Plistonicus,[25] Duris,[26] Herodotus,[27] Euhemerus,[28]

Aristagoras,[29] Dionysius,[30] Artemidorus,[31] Butoridas,[32] Antisthenes,[33]

Demetrius,[34] Demoteles,[35] Lyceas.[36]









1. It is much more likely that he was the son of Tarquin himself, who

not improbably, if indeed there ever was such a person, invented the story,

to escape the wrath of Queen Tanaquil. This absurd story is mentioned

also by Ovid, Arnobius, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

2. See B. iii. c. 9, and B. xix. c. 4.

3. See end of B. ii. L. Clius Antipater.

4. See end of B. ii.

5. Probably Sulpicius Galba, who devoted his time to literary pursuits,

and rose to no higher office than the prtorship. He was grand-father of

the Emperor Galba, and wrote a historical work.

6. Another reading is "Ictius," but nothing is known of either.

7. See end of B. ii.

8. See end of B. ii.

9. See end of B. ii.

10. See end of B. ii. and end of B. xviii.

11. See end of B. vii.

12. See end of B. xvi.

13. See end of B. ii. and end of B. xviii.

14. See end of B. vi.

15. See end of B. iii.

16. See end of B. xvi.

17. See end of B. iii.

18. See end of B xxxiii.

19. See end of B. v.

20. See end of B. viii.

21. All that we know of him is, that he wrote on Precious Stones. Apollonius

Dyscolus mentions an author who wrote on the same subject, whose

name was "Tacus;" and possibly the same person is meant.

22. Mentioned in this and the next Book, as a writer on Precious Stones.

23. Cornelius Alexander. See end of B. iii.

24. See end of B. xxx.

25. See end of B. xx.

26. See end of B. vii.

27. See end of B. ii.

28. A Sicilian author of the time of Alexander. In his "Sacred History,"

he interpreted the legends of the popular religion as based upon historical

facts, and taught that the gods of Mythology were only deified men. His

system has been compared with the rationalism of some German theologians,

and Euhemerists were still to be found at the close of last century.

Diodorus Siculus, Polybius, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus have followed

in his track; and the poet Ennius translated his work, which is now lost.

29. A Greek writer on Egypt. He is often quoted by Stephanus Byzantinus,

who says that he was not much younger than Plato. He is mentioned

as a writer on the Pyramids of Egypt, in Chapter 17 of this Book.

30. See end of B. xii.

31. See end of B. ii.

32. From the mention made of him in Chapter 17 of this Book, he must

have lived in the first century before, or the first century after Christ.

33. Possibly Antisthenes of Rhodes, a historian who lived about 200 B.C.

34. Possibly the author mentioned by Athenus, B. xv., as having written

on Egypt. He is mentioned in Chapter 17 of this Book.

35. Hardouin thinks that he is the same person as Hermateles, mentioned

by Tertullian, De Spectaculis, c. 8, as having written on Obelisks.

36. A native of Naucratis, in Egypt, who wrote a work on that country,

mentioned by Athenus, and some Poems.




0. > Book Xxxvii. The Natural History Of Precious Stones.


BOOK XXXVII.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES.










1. Chap. 1. (1.)-The First Use Of Precious Stones.


CHAP. 1. (1.)-THE FIRST USE OF PRECIOUS STONES.



THAT nothing may be wanting to the work which I have

undertaken, it still remains for me to speak of precious stones:

a subject in which the majestic might of Nature presents itself

to us, contracted within a very limited space, though, in the

opinion of many, nowhere displayed in a more admirable form.

So great is the value that men attach to the multiplied varieties

of these gems, their numerous colours, their constituent parts,

and their singular beauty, that, in the case of some of them, it

is looked upon as no less than sacrilege to engrave them, for

signets even, the very purpose for which, in reality, they were

made. Others, again, are regarded as beyond all price, and could

not be valued at any known amount of human wealth; so much

so that, in the case of many, it is quite sufficient to have some

single gem or other before the eyes, there to behold the supreme

and absolute perfection of Nature's work.



We have already[1] stated, to some extent, when speaking on

the subject of gold and rings, how the use of precious stones

first originated, and from what beginnings this admiration of

them has now increased to such an universal passion. According

to fabulous lore, the first use of them was suggested

by the rocks of Caucasus, in consequence of an unhappy interpretation

which was given to the story of the chains of Prometheus:

for we are told by tradition, that he enclosed a fragment

of this stone in iron, and wore it upon his finger;[2] such

being the first ring and the first jewel known.







1. In B. xxxiii. c. 4.

2. This being imposed as a punishment on him, in remembrance of his

sacrilegious crimes, when released by Jupiter from the rock. Prometheus

and Vulcan, as Ajasson remarks, are personifications of fire, employed for

artistic purposes.




2. Chap. 2.-The Jewel Of Polycrates.


CHAP. 2.-THE JEWEL OF POLYCRATES.



With a beginning such as this, the value set upon precious







stones increased to such a boundless extent, that Polycrates,[1]

the tyrant of Samos, who ruled over the islands and the adjacent

shores, when he admitted that his good fortune had been

too great, deemed it a sufficient expiation for all this enjoyment

of happiness, to make a voluntary sacrifice of a single

precious stone; thinking thereby to balance accounts with the

inconstancy of fortune, and, by this single cause for regret,

abundantly to buy off every ill-will she might entertain.

Weary, therefore, of his continued prosperity, he embarked on

board a ship, and, putting out to sea, threw the ring which he

wore into the waves. It so happened, however, that a fish of remarkable

size, one destined for the table of a king, swallowed

the jewel, as it would have done a bait; and then, to complete

the portentous omen, restored it again to the owner in the

royal kitchen, by the ruling hand of a treacherous[2] fortune.



The stone in this ring, it is generally agreed, was a sardonyx,[3]

and they still show one at Rome, which, if we believe the

story, was this identical stone. It is enclosed in a horn of gold,

and was deposited, by the Emperor Augustus, in the Temple

of Concord, where it holds pretty nearly the lowest rank among

a multitude of other jewels that are preferable to it.







1. See B. xxxiii. c. 6.

2. For ultimately, Oroetes, the satrap of Sardes, contrived to allure him

into his power, and had him crucified, B.C. 522. Fuller, in his Worthies,

p. 370, tells a very similar story of the loss and recovery of his ring by

one Anderson, a merchant of Newcastle-on-Tyne; and Zuinglius gives a

similar statement with reference to Arnulph, duke of Lorraine, who dropped

his ring into the Moselle, and recovered it from the belly of a fish.

3. See Chapter 23. According to Herodotus, Pausanias, Dionysius of

Halicarnassus, and Suidas, the stone was an emerald; and Lessing thinks

that there was no figure engraved on it. See Chapter 4 of this Book.

Without vouching for the truth of it, we give the following extract from

the London Journal, Vol. xxiii. No. 592. "A vine-dresser of Albano,

near Rome, is said to have found in a vineyard, the celebrated ring of

Polycrates.-The stone is of considerable size, and oblong in form. The

engraving on it, by Theodore of Samos, the son of Talikles, is of extraordinary

fineness and beauty. It represents a lyre, with three bees flying

about; below, on the right, a dolphin; on the left, the head of a bull.

The name of the engraver is inscribed in Greek characters. The upper

surface of the stone is slightly concave, not highly polished, and one

corner broken. It is asserted that the possessor has been offered 50,000

dollars for it."




3. Chap. 3.-The Jewel Of Pyrrbus.


CHAP. 3.-THE JEWEL OF PYRRBUS.



Next in note after this ring, is the jewel that belonged to







another king, Pyrrhus, who was so long at war with the Romans.

It is said that there was in his possession an agate,[1] upon which

were to be seen the Nine Muses and Apollo holding a lyre; not

a work of art, but the spontaneous produce of Nature,[2] the veins

in it being so arranged that each of the Muses had her own

peculiar attribute.



With the exception of these two jewels, authors make no

mention of any others that have been rendered famous. We

only find it recorded by them, that Ismenias the flute-player[3]

was in the habit of displaying great numbers of glittering

stones, a piece of vanity, on his part, which gave occasion to

the following story. An emerald,[4] upon which was engraved

a figure of Amymone,[5] being offered for sale in the Isle of

Cyprus at the price of six golden denarii, he gave orders to

purchase it. The dealer however, reduced the price, and

returned two denarii; upon which, Ismenias remarked-"By

Hercules! he has done me but a bad turn in this, for the merit

of the stone has been greatly impaired by this reduction in

price."



It seems to have been this Ismenias who introduced the

universal practice among musicians of proclaiming their artistic

merit by this kind of ostentation. Thus Dionysodorus, for

instance, his contemporary and rival, imitated his example,

in order that he might not appear to be his inferior in skill;

whereas, in reality, he only held the third rank among the

musicians of that day. Nicomachus, too, it is said, was the

possessor of great numbers of precious stones, though selected

with but little taste. In mentioning these illustrations, by way

of prelude to this Book, it is by no means improbable that they

may have the appearance of being addressed to those, who,

piquing themselves upon a similar display, become puffed up

with a vanity which is evidently much more appropriate to a

performer on the flute.











1. "Achates." A variegated chalcedony. It was probably what is

called, from its radiated streaks, a fortification agate. See Chapter 54 of

this Book.

2. Ajasson remarks that there can be little doubt that Nature bad at

least been very extensively seconded by Art.

3. "Choraules." One who accompanies the chorus on the pipe or flute.

4. "Smaragdus."

5. One of the Danades.




4. Chap. 4.-Who Were The Most Skilful Lapidaries. The Finest Specimens Of Engraving On Precious Stones.


CHAP. 4.-WHO WERE THE MOST SKILFUL LAPIDARIES. THE

FINEST SPECIMENS OF ENGRAVING ON PRECIOUS STONES.



The stone of the ring[1] which is now shown as that of Polycrates,

is untouched and without engraving. In the time of

Ismenias, long[2] after his day, it would appear to have become

the practice to engrave smaragdi even; a fact which is established

by an edict of Alexander the Great, forbidding his portrait

to be cut upon this stone by any other engraver than

Pyrgoteles,[3] who, no doubt, was the most famous adept in this

art. Since his time, Apollonides and Cronius have excelled in

it; as also Dioscurides,[4] who engraved a very excellent likeness

of the late Emperor Augustus upon a signet, which, ever since,

the Roman emperors have used. The Dictator Sylla, it is

said, always made use of a seal[5] which represented the surrender

of Jugurtha. Authors inform us also, that the native

of Intercatia,[6] whose father challenged Scipio milianus,[7]

and was slain by him, was in the habit of using a signet

with a representation of this combat engraved upon it; a circumstance

which gave rise to the well-known joke of Stilo

Prconinus,[8] who naively enquired, what he would have done

if Scipio had been the person slain?



The late Emperor Augustus was in the habit, at first, of

using the figure of a Sphinx[9] for his signet; having found

two of them, among the jewels of his mother, that were perfectly

alike. During the Civil Wars, his friends used to employ

one of these signets, in his absence, for sealing such letters

and edicts as the circumstances of the times required to be

issued in his name; it being far from an unmeaning pleasantry







on the part of those who received these missives, that the

Sphinx always brought its enigmas[10] with it. The frog, too,

on the seal of Mcenas, was held in great terror, by reason of

the monetary imposts which it announced. At a later period,

with the view of avoiding the sarcasms relative to the Sphinx,

Augustus made use of a signet with a figure upon it of Alexander

the Great.







1. This is said with reference to the one in the Temple of Concord,

mentioned in Chapter 2.

2. But see Exodus xxvii. 9, et. seq., where it is shown that the practice

existed many hundreds of years before.

3. See B. vii. c. 38; where marble is the substance named. There are

still two gems in existence said to have been engraved by this artist; but

by some they are thought to be spurious.

4. There are many precious stones with his name, still extant: but only

six appear to have been really engraved by him.

5. This signet is mentioned also by Plutarch and Valerius Maximus.

6. See B. iii. c. 4.

7. The younger Africanus. This circumstance is mentioned in the

Epitome of Livy, B. xlviii.

8. See B. xxxiii. c. 5, and end of Book ix.

9. In reference to the ambiguous part which he acted, Ajasson thinks,

in the early part of his career.

10. In reference to the story of dipus and the Sphinx.




5. Chap. 5.-The First Dactyliothec At Rome.


CHAP. 5.-THE FIRST DACTYLIOTHEC AT ROME.



A collection of precious stones bears the foreign name of

"dactyliotheca."[1] The first person who possessed one at Rome

was Scaurus,[2] the step-son of Sylla; and, for a long time,

there was no other such collection there, until at length Pompeius

Magnus consecrated in the Capitol, among other donations,

one that had belonged to King Mithridates; and which,

as M. Varro and other authors of that period assure us, was

greatly superior to that of Scaurus. Following his example,

the Dictator Csar consecrated six dactyliothec in the Temple

of Venus Genetrix; and Marcellus, the son of Octavia,[3] presented

one to the Temple of the Palatine Apollo.







1. A Greek word, signifying a "repository of kings."

2. See B. xxxvi. c. 24.

3. The sister of Augustus.




6. Chap. 6.-Jewels Displayed At Rome In The Triumph Of Pompeius Magnus.


CHAP. 6.-JEWELS DISPLAYED AT ROME IN THE TRIUMPH OF

POMPEIUS MAGNUS.



But it was this conquest by Pompeius Magnus that first

introduced so general a taste for pearls and precious stones;

just as the victories, gained by L. Scipio[1] and Cneius Manlius,[2]

had first turned the public attention to chased silver,

Attalic tissues, and banquetting-couches decorated with bronze;

and the conquests of L. Mummius had brought Corinthian

bronzes and pictures into notice.



(2.) To prove more fully that this was the case, I will here

give the very words of the public Registers[3] with reference

to the triumphs of Pompeius Magnus. On the occasion of his

third triumph, over the Pirates and over the Kings and nations

of Asia and Pontus that have been already enumerated in the

Seventh Book[4] of this work, M. Piso and M. Messala being







consuls,[5] on the day before[6] the calends of October, the anniversary

of his birth, he displayed in public, with its pieces,

a chess-board,[7] made of two precious stones, three feet in

width by two in length-and to leave no doubt that the resources

of Nature do become exhausted, I will here observe,

that no precious stones are to be found at the present day, at all

approaching such dimensions as these; as also that there was

upon this board a moon of solid gold, thirty pounds in weight!

-three banquetting-couches; vessels for nine waiters, in

gold and precious stones; three golden statues of Minerva,

Mars, and Apollo; thirty-three crowns adorned with pearls;

a square mountain of gold, with stags upon it, lions, and all

kinds of fruit, and surrounded with a vine of gold; as also a

musum,[8] adorned with pearls, with an horologe[9] upon the

top of it.



There was a likeness also in pearls of Pompeius himself, his

noble countenance, with the hair thrown back from the forehead,

delighting the eye. Yes, I say, those frank features, so

venerated throughout all nations, were here displayed in pearls!

the severity of our ancient manners being thus subdued, and

the display being more the triumph of luxury than the triumph

of conquest. Never, most assuredly, would Pompeius have so

long maintained his surname of "Magnus" among the men of

that day, if on the occasion of his first[10] conquest his triumph

had been such as this. Thy portrait in pearls, O Magnus! those

resources of prodigality, that have been discovered for the

sake of females only! Thy portrait in pearls, refinements in

luxury, which the Roman laws would not have allowed thee to

wear even! And was it in this way that thy value must be appreciated?

Would not that trophy have given a more truthful likeness

of thee which thou hadst erst erected upon the Pyrenan[11]

mountain heights? Assuredly such a portrait as this had been

no less than a downright ignominy and disgrace, were we not

bound to behold in it a menacing presage of the anger of the

gods, and to see foreshadowed thereby the time when that head,

now laden with the wealth of the East, was to be displayed,

severed from the body.[12]







But in other respects, how truly befitting the hero was this

triumph! To the state, he presented two thousand millions of

sesterces; to the legati and qustors who had exerted themselves

in defence of the sea coast, he gave one thousand millions

of sesterces; and to each individual soldier, six thousand sesterces.

He has rendered, however, comparatively excusable

the Emperor Caius,[13] who, in addition to other femmine luxuries,

used to wear shoes adorned with pearls; as also the

Emperor Nero, who used to adorn his sceptres with masks

worked in pearls, and had the couches, destined for his pleasures,

made of the same costly materials. Nay, we have no longer any

right, it would seem, to censure the employment of drinking-cups

adorned with precious stones, of various other articles in

daily use that are similarly enriched, and of rings that sparkle

with gems: for what species of luxury can there be thought of,

that was not more innocent in its results than this on the part of

Pompeius?







1. See B. xxxiii c. 53.

2. See B. xxxiv. c. 8.

3. "Acta."

4. Chapter 7.

5. A.U.C. 693.

6. 30th of September

7. "Alveum lusorium."

8. Probably meaning a shrine dedicated to the Muses.

9. See B. ii. c. 78, and B. vii. c. 60.

10. That of Africa.

11. See B. vii. c. 27.

12. As was the case, after the murder of Pompey in Egypt.

13. Caligula.




7. Chap. 7.-At What Period Murrhine Vessels Were First Introduced At Rome. Instances Of Luxury In Reference To Them.


CHAP. 7.-AT WHAT PERIOD MURRHINE VESSELS WERE FIRST INTRODUCED

AT ROME. INSTANCES OF LUXURY IN REFERENCE TO THEM.



It was the same conquest, too, that first introduced murrhine[1]

vessels at Rome; Pompeius being the first to dedicate, at

the conclusion of this triumph, vases and cups, made of this

material, in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus: a circumstance

which soon brought them into private use, waiters, even, and

eating-utensils made of murrhine being in great request.

This species of luxury, too, is daily on the increase, a single

cup, which would hold no more than three sextarii, having

been purchased at the price of seventy thousand sesterces. A

person of consular rank, who some years[2] ago used to drink

out of this cup, grew so passionately fond of it, as to gnaw its







edges even, an injury, however, which has only tended to enhance

its value: indeed there is now no vessel in murrhine that

has ever been estimated at a higher figure than this. We

may form some opinion how much money this same personage

swallowed up in articles of this description, from the fact that

the number of them was so great, that, when the Emperor

Nero deprived his children of them, and they were exposed to

public view, they occupied a whole theatre to themselves, in

the gardens beyond the Tiber; a theatre which was found

sufficiently large even, for the audience that attended on the

occasion when Nero[3] rehearsed his musical performances before

his appearance in the Theatre of Pompeius. It was at this

exhibition, too, that I saw counted the broken fragments of a

single cup, which it was thought proper to preserve in an urn

and display, I suppose, with the view of exciting the sorrows

of the world, and of exposing the cruelty of fortune; just as

though it had been no less than the body of Alexander the

Great himself!



T. Petronius,[4] a personage of consular rank, intending, from

his hatred of Nero, to disinherit the table of that prince, broke

a murrhine basin, which had cost him no less than three

hundred thousand sesterces. But Nero himself, as it was only

proper for a prince to do, surpassed them all, by paying one

million of sesterces for a single cup: a fact well worthy of

remembrance, that an emperor, the father of his country,

should have drunk from a vessel of such costly price!







1. Modern writers differ as to the material of which these vessels were

composed. Some think that they were of variegated glass, and others of

onyx; but the more general opinion is, that they were Chinese porcelain,

and we have the line in Propertius, B. iv. El. 5, 1. 26. "And murrhine

vessels baked on Parthian hearths." Ajasson is of opinion, from the description

given by Pliny, that these vessels were made of Fluor spar, or

fluate of lime. "Myrrhine" is another reading of the word.

2. "Ante hos annos." Sillig is of opinion that the reading here should

be "L. Annius," and that L. Annius Bassus, who was Consul suffectus in

the year 70 A.D., is the person referred to; or possibly, T. Arrius Antoninus,

who was Consul suffectus, A.D. 69.

3. The Gardens of Nero, in the Fourteenth Region of the City.

4. He had been formerly a sharer in the debaucheries of Nero. Tacitus

called him "Caius."




8. Chap. 8.-The Nature Of Murrhine Vessels.


CHAP. 8.-THE NATURE OF MURRHINE VESSELS.



Murrhine vessels come from the East, in numerous localities

of which, remarkable for nothing else, they are to be found.

It is in the empire of the Parthians, more particularly, that

they are met with, though those of the very finest quality

come to us from Carmania.[1] It is generally thought that

these vessels are formed of a moist substance, which under

ground becomes solidified by heat.[2] In size they never ex-







ceed a small waiter,[3] and, as to thickness, they rarely admit of

being used as drinking-cups, so large as those already[4] mentioned.

The brightness of them is destitute of strength, and

it may be said that they are rather shining than brilliant.[5]

But the chief merit of them is the great variety of their

colours, and the wreathed veins, which, every here and there,

present shades of purple and white, with a mixture of the two;

the purple gradually changing, as it were, to a fiery red, and

the milk-white assuming a ruddy hue. Some persons praise

the edges of these vessels more particularly, with a kind of

reflection in the colours, like those beheld in the rain-bow.

Others, again, are more pleased with them when quite opaque,

it being considered a demerit when they are at all transparent,

or of a pallid hue. The appearance, too, of crystals[6] in them

is highly prized, and of spots that look like warts; not prominent,

but depressed, as we mostly see upon the human body.

The perfume,[7] too, of which they smell, is looked upon as an

additional recommendation.







1. See B. vi. cc. 27, 28, 32.

2. Ajasson is of opinion that this passage bears reference to crystallization.

Both he and Desfontaines see in the present Chapter a very exact

description of Fluor spar; and there is certainly great difficulty in recognizing any affinity between murrhine vessels, as here described, and porcelain.

3. "Abacus."

4. In the preceding Chapter.

5. Meaning that they are semitransparent, Ajasson thinks. One great

characteristic of Fluor spar is its being subtranslucent.

6. This would appear to be the meaning here of "sales." See p. 396.

7. One of the grounds, Ajasson says, on which may be based the

opinion that they were artificial.




9. Chap. 9.-The Nature Of Crystal.


CHAP. 9.-THE NATURE OF CRYSTAL.



It is a diametrically opposite cause to this that produces

crystal,[1] a substance which assumes a concrete form from excessive

congelation.[2] At all events, crystal is only to be found

in places where the winter snow freezes with the greatest intensity;

and it is from the certainty that it is a kind of ice,

that it has received the name[3] which it bears in Greek. The

East, too, sends us crystal, there being none preferred to the produce

of India. It is to be found, also, in Asia, that of the vicinity

of Alabanda,[4] Orthosia,[5] and the neighbouring mountains,

being held in a very low degree of esteem. In Cyprus, also,







there is crystal, but that found upon the Alpine heights in

Europe is, in general, more highly valued. According to

Juba, there is crystal in a certain island of the Red Sea, opposite

the coast of Arabia, called "Necron;"[6] as, also, in another

neighbouring island[7] which produces the precious stone

known as the "topazus;" where a block of crystal was extracted,

he says, by Pythagoras, the prfect of King Ptolemaus,

no less than a cubit in length.



Cornelius Bocchus informs us that in Lusitania, there have

been blocks of crystal found, of extraordinary weight, in sinking

shafts in the Ammiensian[8] mountains there, to a water-level

for the supply of wells. It is a marvellous fact, stated by Xenocrates

of Ephesus, that in Asia and in the Isle of Cyprus,

crystal is turned up by the plough; it having been the general

belief that it is never to be found in terreous soils, and only

in rocky localities. That is much more probable which the

same Xenocrates tells us, when he says that the mountain

streams often bring down with them fragments of crystal.

Sudines says, that crystal is only to be found in localities that

face the south, a thing that is known to be really the fact:

indeed, it is never found in humid spots, however cold the

climate may be, even though the rivers there freeze to the very

bottom. Rain-water and pure snow are absolutely necessary

for its formation,[9] and hence it is, that it is unable to endure

heat, being solely employed for holding liquids that are taken

cold. From the circumstance of its being hexagonal[10] and

hexahedral, it is not easy to penetrate this substance; and the

more so, as the pyramidal terminations do not always have

the same appearance. The polish on its faces is so exquisite,

that no art can possibly equal it.







1. Colourless crystals, quartz, or rock crystal; called "white stone" in

jewellery.

2. See B. xxxvi. c. 45. This was a very general opinion of the ancients

with respect to crystal.

3. Kru/stallos, from kru/os, "cold."

4. See B. v. c. 29.

5. In Caria, see B. v. c. 29.

6. The Island "of the dead." Brotero supposes it to be the island of

Maceira.

7. See B. vi. c. 34. As Ajasson remarks, there could be no snow or ice

here.

8. See B. iv. c. 35.

9. Dioscorides attributes the hardening of crystal to the action of the sun.

10. "Its shape is rhombohedral, and hemihedral in some of its modifications.

The planes on the angles between the prism and pyramidal terminations,

incline sometimes to the right, and sometimes to the left, and the

crystals are termed right and left-handed crystals."-Dana, System of

Mineralogy,
Art. Quartz.




10. Chap. 10.-Luxury Displayed In The Use Of Crystal. Remedies Derived From Crystal.


CHAP. 10.-LUXURY DISPLAYED IN THE USE OF CRYSTAL. REMEDIES

DERIVED FROM CRYSTAL.



The largest block of crystal that has ever been beheld by







us, is the one that was consecrated by Julia Augusta in the Capitol,

and which weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds.[1]

Xenocrates speaks of having seen a vase of crystal, which held

one amphora,[2] and we find other writers mentioning a vessel

from India which held four sextarii. For my own part, I can

positively say, that there is crystal amid the crags of the Alps,

so difficult of access, that it is usually found necessary to be

suspended by ropes in order to extract it. Persons who are

experienced in the matter detect its presence by certain signs

and indications.



Crystal is subject to numerous defects, sometimes presenting

a rough, solder-like, substance, or else clouded by spots

upon it; while occasionally it contains some hidden humour[3]

within, or is traversed by hard and brittle knurrs,[4]

which are known as "salt grains."[5] Some crystal, too, has a

red rust upon it, while, in other instances, it contains filaments

that look like flaws, a defect which artists conceal by

engraving it. But where crystals are entirely free from defect,

they are preferred uncut; in which case, they are known

as "acenteta,"[6] and have the colour, not of foam, but of

limpid water. In the last place, the weight of crystals is a

point which is taken into consideration.



I find it stated by medical men that the very best cautery

for the human body is a ball of crystal acted upon by the rays

of the sun.[7] This substance, too, has been made the object of

a mania; for, not many years ago, a mistress of a family,

who was by no means very rich, gave one hundred and fifty

thousand sesterces for a single basin made of crystal. Nero,

on receiving tidings that all was lost, in the excess of his

fury, dashed two cups of crystal to pieces; this being his last

act of vengeance upon his fellow-creatures, preventing any

one from ever drinking again from these vessels. Crystal,

when broken, cannot by any possibility be mended. Vessels in







glass have been brought to a marvellous degree of resemblance

to crystal; and yet, wonderful to say, they have only tended

to enhance the value of crystal, and in no way to depreciate

it.







1. Ajasson remarks that blocks have been found in Switzerland, weighing

above eight hundred pounds.

2. Forty-eight sextarii. See Introduction to Vol. III.

3. This "vomica," Ajasson says, is either water, azote, rarified oxygen,

or water in combination with naphtha.

4. "Centra," knots, or flaws. See B. xvi. c. 76, where he speaks of

the "centra" in marble. See also Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 471.

Bohn's Edition.

5. "Sale." See Note 46 above.

6. "Without flaw."

7. See B. xxxvi. c. 67.




14. Chap. 14.-The Various Precious Stones, Classified According To Their Principal Colours.


CHAP. 14.-THE VARIOUS PRECIOUS STONES, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING

TO THEIR PRINCIPAL COLOURS.



We will now proceed to speak of the various kinds of precious

stones, the existence of which is generally admitted,

beginning with those which are the most highly esteemed.

Nor shall we content ourselves with doing this only; but, with

the view of consulting the general welfare of mankind, we

shall also refute the infamous lies that have been promulgated

by the magicians: for it is with reference to precious stones,

more particularly, that they have circulated most of their

fabulous stories, stepping, under that most alluring guise of

ascertaining remedial virtues, beyond all bounds, and entering

the region of the marvellous.










16. Chap. 16.-Smaragdus.


CHAP. 16.-SMARAGDUS.



Next[1] in esteem with us are the pearls of India and Arabia,

of which we have already spoken in the Ninth Book,[2] when

treating of the marine productions.



(5.) The third rank, for many reasons, has been given to







the smaragdus.[3] Indeed there is no stone, the colour of which

is more delightful to the eye; for whereas the sight fixes itself

with avidity upon the green[4] grass and the foliage of the trees,

we have all the more pleasure in looking upon the smaragdus,

there being no green in existence of a more intense colour[5]

than this. And then, besides, of all the precious stones, this is

the only one that feeds the sight without satiating it. Even

when the vision has been fatigued with intently viewing other

objects, it is refreshed by being turned upon this stone; and

lapidaries know of nothing that is more gratefully soothing to

the eyes, its soft green tints being wonderfully adapted for

assuaging lassitude, when felt in those organs.



And then, besides, when viewed from a distance, these stones

appear all the larger to the sight, reflecting as they do, their

green hues upon the circumambient air. Neither sunshine,

shade, nor artificial light effects any change in their appearance;

they have always a softened and graduated brilliancy; and

transmitting the light with facility, they allow the vision to

penetrate their interior; a property which is so pleasing, also,

with reference to water. In form they are mostly concave, so

as to re-unite the rays of light and the powers of vision:

and hence it is, that it is so universally agreed upon among

mankind to respect these stones, and to forbid their surface[6]

to be engraved. In the case, however, of the stones of Scythia

and Egypt, their hardness is such, that it would be quite impossible

to penetrate them. When the surface of the smaragdus

is flat, it reflects the image of objects in the same manner as

a mirror. The Emperor Nero used to view[7] the combats of

the gladiators upon a smaragdus.











1. At the present day the ruby is next in esteem to the diamond.

2. Chapter 54, et seq.

3. The Emerald, and various other green precious stones, were included

under this name.

4. "Virentes" seems a very preferable reading to "silentes," as given

by the Bamberg MS.

5. The emerald is supposed to derive this colour from a minute portion

of oxide of chrome.

6. Engraved emeralds are but seldom found among collections of ancient

gems. In 1593, there was one found in the tomb of Maria, daughter of

Stilicho, in the Vatican, with the head of Honorius, her husband, engraved

upon it.

7. "It may here be objected that real emeralds are too small to admit

of being used as mirrors; but the ancients speak of some sufficiently large

for that purpose, and also of artificial ones; so that we may with certainty

conclude, that they classed among the emeralds fluor spar, green vitrified

lava, or the green Icelandic agate, as it is called, green jasper, and also green

glass."-Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 67. Bohn's Edition. It has

also been suggested, with reference to this passage, that Nero was shortsighted,

and that this emerald was formed like a concave lens. The passage,

however, will hardly support such a construction. Ajasson thinks that it

must have been a Dioptase or Siberian emerald; or else a green Corundum.




17. Chap. 17.-Twelve Varieties Of The Smaragdus.


CHAP. 17.-TWELVE VARIETIES OF THE SMARAGDUS.



Of this stone there are no less than twelve different kinds;

of which the finest is the Scythian[1] smaragdus, so called from

the country where it is found. None of them has a deeper

colour than this, or is more free from defects: indeed, in the

same degree that the smaragdus is superior to other precious

stones, the Scythian smaragdus is superior to the other varieties.

Next in esteem to this, as also in locality, is the smaragdus

of Bactriana.[2] These stones are collected, it is said, in the

fissures of rocks, when the Etesian[3] winds prevail; a period

at which the earth that covers them is removed, and the stones

are detected by their brightness, the sands being greatly agitated

by the action of the winds. These last, however, are

much inferior, they say, to those of Scythia in size. The third

rank is held by the stones of Egypt,[4] which are extracted from

the hills in the vicinity of Coptos, a city of Thebais.



All the other kinds are found in copper-mines, and hence it

is that, of these varieties, the smaragdus of Cyprus holds the

highest rank. The merit of them consists in their clear colour,

which has nothing thin or diluted in it, but presents a rich

and humid transparency, closely resembling the tints of the

sea, in fact. Hence it is that these stones are at once diaphanous

and shining, or, in other words, reflect their colours and

allow the vision to penetrate within. They say that in this

island, upon the tomb of a petty king named Hermias, near

the fisheries[5] there, there was formerly a lion in marble, with

eyes made of smaragdi; the brilliancy of which penetrated







the sea to such a degree, as to alarm the tunnies and put them

to flight: a novel circumstance, which for a long time excited

wonder in the fishermen, till at last the stones in the statue

were changed for others.







1. Ajasson is of opinion that the Dioptase, Siberian emerald, or Malachite

emerald is meant.

2. Ajasson thinks that this may be the Dioptase or Achirite of Chinese

Bucharia; and that the merchant Achir Mahmed, from whom it takes its

name, was by no means the first to introduce it, or to circulate his wonderful

stories as to its formation.

3. See B. ii. cc. 47, 48, and B. xviii. c. 74.

4. Mount Zalora, in Upper Egypt, still produces emeralds, and was probably

the only locality of the genuine stone that was known to the ancients.

5. "Cetarias,"




18. Chap. 18.-Defects In The Smaragdus.


CHAP. 18.-DEFECTS IN THE SMARAGDUS.



It will be only proper, too, seeing that the prices of these

stones are so exorbitant, to point out their defects. Some

defects, no doubt, are common to all of them, while others,

again, like those found in the human race, are peculiar only

to those of a certain country. Thus, for example, the stones

of Cyprus are not all green alike, and in the same smaragdus

some parts are more or less so than others, the stone not always

preserving that uniform deep tint which characterizes the smaragdus

of Scythia. In other instances, a shadow runs through

the stone, and the colour becomes dulled thereby; the consequence

of which is, that its value is depreciated; and even

more so, when the colour is thin and diluted.



In consequence of the defects[1] in these stones, they have

been divided into several classes. Some of them are obscure,

and are then known as "blind" stones; some have a certain

density, which impairs their transparency; others, again, are

mottled, and others covered with a cloud. This cloud, however,

is altogether different from the shadow above mentioned;

for it is a defect which renders the stone of a whitish hue, and

not of a transparent green throughout; presenting, as it does, in

the interior or upon the surface, a certain degree of whiteness

which arrests the vision. Other defects, again, in these stones,

are filaments, salt-like[2] grains, or traces of lead ore, faults

which are mostly common to them all.



Next after the kinds above described, the smaragdus of

thiopia is held in high esteem; being found, as Juba tells

us, at a distance of twenty-five days' journey from Coptos.

These are of a bright green, but are seldom to be met with perfectly

clear or of an uniform colour. Democritus includes in

this class the stones that are known as "herminei," and as

"Persian" stones; the former of which are of a convex,







massive shape, while the latter are destitute of transparency,

but have an agreeable, uniform colour, and satisfy the vision

without allowing it to penetrate them; strongly resembling, in

this respect, the eyes of cats and of panthers, which are radiant

without being diaphanous. In the sun, he says, they lose their

brilliancy, but they are radiant in the shade, the brightness of

them being seen at a greater distance than in the case of other

stones. One other fault, too, in all these stones is, that they

often have a colour like that of honey or rancid oil, or else

are clear and transparent, but not green.



These defects exist in the smaragdi of Attica,[3] more particularly,

which are found in the silver-mines there, at a place

known by the name of Thoricos.[4] These last are never so

massive as the others, and are always more pleasing to the

sight when viewed from a distance: lead ore, too, is often to

be detected in them, or, in other words, they have a leaden

appearance when looked at in the sun.[5] One peculiarity in

them is, that some of them become impaired by age, gradually

lose their green colour, and are even deteriorated by exposure

to the sun. Next to the stones of Attica come those of

Media, a variety which presents the most numerous tints of all,

and sometimes approaches sapphiros[6] in colour. These stones

are wavy,[7] and represent various natural objects, such as

poppy-heads, for example, birds, the young of animals, and

feathers: all of them appear naturally of a green colour, but

become improved by the application of oil. No stones of this

species are of a larger size than these.



I am not aware that any of these stones[8] are still in existence

at Chalcedon, the copper mines of that locality being now

exhausted: but be this as it may, they were always the smallest

in size and the most inferior in value. Brittle, and of a colour







far from distinctly pronounced, they resembled in their tints

the feathers that are seen in the tail of the peacock or on the

necks of pigeons.[9] More or less brilliant, too, according to the

angle at which they were viewed, they presented an appearance

like that of veins and scales. There was another defect, also,

peculiar to these stones, known as "sarcion," from the circumstance

that a kind of flesh[10] appeared to attach itself to the

stone. The mountain near Chalcedon, where these stones were

gathered, is still known by the name of "Smaragdites." Juba

informs us that a kind of smaragdus, known as "cloras,"[11] is

used in Arabia as an ornament for buildings, as also the stone

which by the people of Egypt is called "alabastrites." On the

same authority, too, we learn that there are several varieties

of the smaragdus in the neighbouring mountains, and that

stones like those of Media are found in Mount Taygetus,[12] as

also in Sicily.







1. Ajasson remarks that the greater part of the defects here described

belong in reality to the Dioptase.

2. "Sal." See Chapters 8, 10, 22, and 37, of this Book.

3. Ajasson is of opinion that Diallage is here meant, known also by the

names of Bronzite, schillerspath, schillerstein, and omphasite.

4. See B. iv. c. 11.

5. "In sole" seems a preferable reading to "in solo," "on the ground,"

as given by the Bamberg MS.

6. See Chapter 39 of this Book; where it will be shown that this probably

is not the modern Sapphire.

7. Ajasson suggests that these may have been Quartz agates of the

dendritic or arborized kind.

8. He probably alludes here to some variety of the Chalcedony or Opal

quartz.

9. Said with reference to Chrysoprase, Ajasson thinks; a leek-green

chalcedony, coloured by nickel.

10. Probably the Cacholong of modern mineralogy, a variety of opal,

nearly opaque, and of a porcelain or bluish white colour.

11. Ajasson and Brotero identify this with milk-white chalcedony; but

on what authority, does not appear.

12. See B. iv. c. 8.




19. Chap. 19.-The Precious Stone Called Tanos. Chalcosma-Ragdos.


CHAP. 19.-THE PRECIOUS STONE CALLED TANOS. CHALCOSMA-RAGDOS.



Among the smaragdi is also included the precious stone

known as "tanos."[1] It comes from Persia, and is of an

unsightly green, and of a soiled colour within. There is the

chalcosmaragdos[2] also, a native of Cyprus, the face of which is

mottled with coppery veins. Theophrastus relates that he

had found it stated in the Egyptian histories, that a king of

Babylon once sent to the king of Egypt a smaragdus[3] four







cubits in length by three in breadth. He informs us, also, that

in a temple of Jupiter in Egypt there was an obelisk made of

four smaragdi, forty cubits in length, and four in breadth at

one extremity, and two at the other. He says, too, that at

the period at which he wrote, there was in the Temple of Hercules

at Tyrus a large column made of a single smaragdus;[4]

though very possibly it might only be pseudo-smaragdus, a

kind of stone not uncommonly found in Cyprus, where a block

had been discovered, composed, one half of smaragdus, and

one half of jasper,[5] and the liquid in which had not as yet

been entirely transformed. Apion, surnamed "Plistonices,"[6]

has left a very recent statement, that there was still in existence,

in his time, in the Labyrinth of Egypt, a colossal statue

of Serapis made of a single smaragdus, nine cubits in height.







1. Supposed by Ajasson to be the Euclase, a brittle green stone, composed

of silica, alumina, and glucina. Hay gave it this name from the

Greek words eu, "easily," and kla/w, "to break." According to Dana,

however, Euclase was first brought from Peru: if such is the fact, we must,

perhaps, look for its identification in Epidote, a green silicate of alumina.

2. "Brazen smaragdus." It was probably Dioptase, combined with copper

Pyrites. See Notes 26, 28, and 29, above.

3. With reference to this statement and the others in this Chapter,

Ajasson remarks that these stones can have been nothing but prases, green

jaspers, fusible spaths, emerald quartz, and fluates of lime.

4. Herodotus mentions this smaragdus and the temple, B. ii. c. 44, as

having been seen by himself.

5. "Iaspis." See Chapter 37 of this Book.

6. Meaning "the conqueror of many," probably; in reference to his

contentious disposition. See end of B. xxx.




23. Chap. 23.-Sardonyx; The Several Varieties Of It. Defects In The Sardonyx.


CHAP. 23.-SARDONYX; THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF IT. DEFECTS

IN THE SARDONYX.



Thus far we have spoken in reference to the stones, which,

it is generally agreed, belong to the highest rank; in obedience,

more particularly, to a decree[1] that has been passed by the

ladies to that effect. There is less certainty with respect to

those upon which the men as well have been left to form a

judgment; seeing that the value of each stone depends more

particularly upon the caprice of the individual and the rivalry

that exists in reference thereto; as, for example, when Claudius

Csar was so much in the habit of wearing the smaragdus and

the sardonyx.[2] The first Roman who wore a sardonyx, according

to Demostratus, was the elder Africanus, since whose







time this stone has been held in very high esteem at Rome: for

which reason, we shall give it the next place after the opal.

By sardonyx, as the name[3] itself indicates, was formerly understood

a sarda with a white ground beneath it, like the flesh

beneath the human finger-nail; both parts of the stone being

equally transparent. Such, according to Ismenias, Demostratus,

Zenothemis, and Sotacus, is the sardonyx of India; the last

two giving the name of "blind" sardonyx to all the other

stones of this class which are not transparent, and which have

now entirely appropriated the name to themselves. For, at

the present day, the Arabian sardonyx presents no traces whatever

of the Indian sarda,[4] it being a stone that has been found

to be characterized by several different colours of late; black

or azure for the base, and vermilion, surrounded with a line of

rich white, for the upper part, not without a certain glimpse[5]

of purple as the white passes into the red.[6]



We learn from Zenothemis that in his time these stones

were not held by the people of India in any high esteem, although

they are found there of so large a size as to admit of

the hilts of swords being made of them. It is well known, too,

that in that country they are exposed to view by the mountain-streams,

and that in our part of the world they were formerly

valued from the fact that they are nearly the only ones[7] among

the engraved precious stones that do not bring away the wax

when an impression is made. The consequence is, that our

example has at last taught the people of India to set a value

upon them, and the lower classes there now pierce them even,

to wear them as ornaments for the neck; the great proof, in

fact, at the present day, of a sardonyx being of Indian origin.

Those of Arabia are remarkable for their marginal line of

brilliant white, of considerable breadth, and not glistening in

hollow fissures in the stone or upon the sides, but shining upon

the very surface, at the margin, and supported by a ground

intensely black beneath. In the stones of India, this ground







is like wax in colour,[8] or else like cornel, with a circle also of

white around it. In some of these stones, too, there is a play

of colours like those of the rainbow, while the surface is redder

even than the shell of the sea-locust.[9]



Those stones which are like honey in appearance, or of a

fculent[10] colour-such being the name given to one defect in

them-are generally disapproved of. They are rejected also

when the white zone blends itself with the other colours, and

its limits are not definitely marked; or if, in like manner, it is

irregularly intersected by any other colour; it being looked

upon as an imperfection if the regularity of any one of the

colours is interrupted by the interposition of another. The

sardonyx of Armenia is held in some esteem, but the zone

round it is of a pallid hue.







1. Said ironically. There is a somewhat similar remark in B. xxxiii.

c. 12.

2. A mixture of brown-red and white chalcedony.

3. From the Greek Sa/rdion, "sard," and o)/nuc, a "finger nail."

4. His meaning seems to be that it does not present the bright transparent

red of the Indian Sarda or Carnelian. See Chapter 31 of this

Book.

5. "Qudam spe." Un soupon, as the French would say.

6. This would appear, from the description, to be an Agate, or variegated

Chalcedony.

7. He probably intends to include the Sarda or Caruelian here.

8. A variety, probably, of common Chalcedony.

9. See B. ix. cc. 74, 88, and B. xxxii. c. 53.

10. "Fculent," of the colour of wine-lees.




26. Chap. 26.-Defects In Carbunculus, And The Mode Of Testing It.


CHAP. 26.-DEFECTS IN CARBUNCULUS, AND THE MODE OF

TESTING IT.



Nothing is more difficult than to distinguish the several

varieties of this stone, so great an opportunity do they afford

to artistic skill of compelling them to reflect the colours of

substances placed beneath. It is possible, they say, to heighten

the brilliancy of dull stones, by steeping them for fourteen

days in vinegar, this adventitious lustre being retained by them







as many months. They are counterfeited, too, with great exactness

in glass; but the difference may be detected with the

touchstone; the same being the case also with other artificial

stones, as the material is always of a softer nature and comparatively

brittle. When thus tested by the stone, hard knots,

too, are detected in them; and the weight of the glass counterfeit

is always less. In some cases, too, they present small blisters

within, which shine like silver.










27. Chap. 27. -Anthracitis.


CHAP. 27. -ANTHRACITIS.



There is also a fossil stone found in Thesprotia, known as

"anthracitis,"[1] and resembling a burning coal[2] in appearance.

Those who have stated that it is a native also of Liguria, are

mistaken, in my opinion, unless perhaps it was to be found

there in their time. Some of these stones, they say, are surrounded

with a vein of white. Like those which we have

mentioned above, they have a fiery colour, but there is this

peculiarity in them, that when thrown into the fire they have all

the appearance of becoming quenched and deadened; while, on

the other hand, if they are drenched with water, they become

doubly glowing.[3]







1. See B. iv. c. 1.

2. "Carbo." This word may mean either a "burning coal" or" charcoal,"

hence the confusion that has arisen in identifying the mineral

substance that is meant.

3. See Note 90, to Chapter 25.




28. Chap. 28. -Sandastros. Sandaresos.


CHAP. 28. -SANDASTROS. SANDARESOS.



Of a kindred nature, too, is sandastros,[1] known as "garamantites"

by some: it is found in India, at a place of that

name, and is a product also of the southern parts of Arabia.

The great recommendation of it is, that it has all the appearance

of fire placed behind a transparent substance, it burning with

star-like scintillations within, that resemble drops of gold, and



[2]







are always to be seen in the body of the stone, and never upon

the surface. There are certain religious associations, too, connected

with this stone, in consequence of the affinity which it

is supposed to bear with the stars; these scintillations being

mostly, in number and arrangement, like the constellations of

the Pleiades and Hyades; a circumstance which had led to the

use of it by the Chaldi in the ceremonials which they practise.



Here, too, the male stones are distinguished from the female,

by their comparative depth of colour and the vigorousness of

the tints which they impart to objects near them: indeed the

stones of India, it is said, quite dim the sight by their brilliancy.

The flame of the female sandastros is of a more softened nature,

and may be pronounced to be lustrous rather than brilliant.

Some prefer the stone of Arabia to that of India, and say that

this last bears a considerable resemblance to a smoke-coloured

chrysolithos. Ismenias asserts that sandastros, in consequence

of its extreme softness, will not admit of being polished, a

circumstance which makes it sell all[3] the dearer: other writers,

again, call these stones "sandrisit." One point upon which

all the authorities are agreed is, that the greater the number

of stars upon the stone, the more costly it is in price.



The similarity of the name has sometimes caused this stone to be

confounded with that known as "sandaresos," and which Nicander

calls "sandaserion," and others "sandaseron." Some, again,

call this last-mentioned stone "sandastros," and the former one

"sandaresos." The stone[4] that is thus mentioned by Nicander,

is a native of India as well as the other, and likewise takes

its name from the locality where it is found. The colour of

it is that of an apple, or of green oil, and no one sets any

value on it.







1. "Sandaresus" and "Sandasiros" are other readings. This stone

has not been identified, but Ajasson is inclined to think that it may have

been Aventurine quartz, and is the more inclined to this opinion, as that

mineral is found in Persia, and sandastra or tchandastra is purely a Sanscrit

word. The description, however, would hardly seem to apply to

Aventurine.

2. Dalechamps thinks that this is the same as the "anthracites" mentioned

in B. xxxvi. c. 38, and identifies it either with our Anthracite, or

else with pit-coal or bituminous coal. It is much more likely, however,

that a precious stone is meant; and, in conformity with this opinion, Brotero

and Ajasson have identified it with the Spinelle or scarlet Ruby, and the

Balas or rose-red ruby, magnesiates of alumina.

3. Littr suggests that the reading here probably might be "ob id non

magno"-" sell not so dear."

4. It has not been identified.




30. Chap. 30.-Carchedonia.


CHAP. 30.-CARCHEDONIA.



Carchedonia,[1] too, is said to have the same property, though

far inferior in value to the stones already mentioned. It is

found in the mountains among the Nasamones,[2] being produced,

the natives think, by showers sent for the purpose from

heaven. These stones are found by the light of the moon,

more particularly when at full: in former days, Carthage was

the entrep for them. Archelas speaks of a brittle variety being

found in the vicinity of Thebes also, in Egypt, full of veins,

and similar to dying embers in appearance. I find it stated,

too, that in former times, drinking-vessels used to be made of

this stone and of lychnis:[3] all these kinds of stone, however,

offer the most obstinate resistance to the graver, and, if used

for seals, are apt to bring away a part of the wax.







1. Not identical, most probably, with the Carchedonian or Carthaginian

stone mentioned in Chapter 25, which was probably a garnet or a ruby.

Ajasson has no doubt that it is identical with jasper quartz, including the

varieties called Striped or Riband jasper, and Egyptian jasper.

2. See B. v. c. 5, and B. vii. c. 2.

3. Tourmaline, probably, in combination with other mineral substances.




33. Chap. 33.-Callaina.


CHAP. 33.-CALLAINA.



With this stone we must also couple another, which resembles

it more closely in appearance than in value, the stone known

as "callaina,"[1] and of a pale green colour. It is found in the

countries[2] that lie at the back of India, among the Phycari,







namely, who inhabit Mount Caucasus, the Sac, and the

Dah. It is remarkable for its size, but is covered with holes

and full of extraneous matter; that, however, which is found

in Carmania is of a finer quality, and far superior. In both

cases, however, it is only amid frozen and inaccessible rocks that

it is found, protruding from the surface, like an eye in appearance,

and slightly adhering to the rock; not as though it formed

an integral part of it, but with all the appearance of having

been attached to it. People so habituated as they are to riding

on horseback, cannot find the energy and dexterity requisite

for climbing the rocks to obtain the stones, while, at the same

time, they are quite terrified at the danger of doing so. Hence

it is, that they attack the stones with slings from a distance,

and so bring them down, moss and all. It is with this stone

that the people pay their tribute, and this the rich look upon

as their most graceful ornament for the neck.[3] This constitutes

the whole of their wealth, with some, and it is their chief

glory to recount how many of these stones they have brought

down from the mountain heights since the days of their childhood.

Their success, however, is extremely variable;[4] for while

some, at the very first throw, have brought down remarkably

fine specimens, many have arrived at old age without obtaining

any.



Such is the method of procuring these stones; their form

being given them by cutting, a thing that is easily effected.

The best of them have just the colour of smaragdus, a thing

that proves that the most pleasing property in them is one that

belongs of right to another stone. Their beauty is heightened

by setting them in gold, and there is no stone to which the

contrast of the gold is more becoming. The finest of them lose

their colour by coming in contact with oil, unguents, or undiluted

wine even; whereas those of a poorer quality preserve

their colour better. There is no stone, too, that is more easily

counterfeited in glass. Some writers say, that this stone is to

be found in Arabia also, in the nest of the bird known as the

"melancoryphus."[5]











1. Dana thinks this identical with the Turquois. Ajasson and Desfontaines

identify it with Oriental Peridote.

2. Turquois is found in large quantities in a mountainous district of Persia, not far from Nichabour; where it occurs in veins which traverse the mountains

in all directions.

3. Isidorus says, B. xvi. c. 17, that they wore it in the ears. The Shah

of Persia, it is said, retains for his own use all the larger and more finely

tinted specimens of turquois that are found in his dominions.

4. This story is now regarded as fabulous.

5. See B. x. cc. 44, 79.




34. Chap. 34.-Prasius; Three Varieties Of It.


CHAP. 34.-PRASIUS; THREE VARIETIES OF IT.



There are numerous other kinds also of green stones. To

the more common class belongs prasius;[1] one variety of which

is disfigured with spots[2] like blood, while another kind is

marked with three streaks of white. To all these stones

chrysoprasus[3] is preferred, which is also similar to the colouring

matter of the leek, but varies in tint between topazos and gold.

This stone is found of so large a size as to admit of drinking-

boats[4]

even being made of it, and is cut into cylinders very

frequently.







1. The stone now known as "Prase" is a vitreous, leek-green, variety

of massive quartz.

2. This may possibly have been Plasma, a faintly translucent Chalcedony,

approaching jasper, having a greenish colour, sprinkled with yellow

and whitish dots, and a glistening lustre. Or, perhaps, Bloodstone or

Heliotrope, a kind of jasper.

3. See the preceding Chapter, and Note 31.

4. "Cymbia." Drinking vessels shaped like a boat.




35. Chap. 35.-Nilion.


CHAP. 35.-NILION.



India, which produces these stones, produces nilion[1] also, a

stone that differs from the last in its dull, diminished lustre,

which, when steadily looked upon, soon fades from the sight.

Sudines says that it is to be found also in the Siberus, a river of

Attica. In appearance it resembles a smoke-coloured topazos, or,

in some cases, a topazos with a tint like honey. According to

Juba, thiopia produces it, upon the shores of the river known

to us as the Nilus; to which circumstance, he says, it owes its

name.







1. Or "Nile-stone." Egyptian jasper, or Egyptian pebble, a kind of

quartz.




36. Chap. 36.-Molochitis.


CHAP. 36.-MOLOCHITIS.



Molochitis[1] is not transparent, being of a deeper green, and

more opaque than smaragdus; its name is derived from the

mallow,[2] which it resembles in colour. It is highly esteemed

for making seals, and it is endowed by Nature with medicinal

properties which render it a preservative for infants against

certain dangers which menace them. This stone is a native of

Arabia.[3]











1. Our Malachite, a green carbonate of copper. See B. xxxiii. c. 26.

2. Called molo/xh or mala/xh in Greek.

3. Also of Siberia, Shetland, the United States, and numerous other

localities.




37. Chap. 37.-Iaspis; Fourteen Varieties Of It. Defects Found In Iaspis.


CHAP. 37.-IASPIS; FOURTEEN VARIETIES OF IT. DEFECTS FOUND

IN IASPIS.



Iaspis,[1] too, is green, and often transparent; a stone which, if

surpassed by many others, still retains the renown which it

acquired in former times. Many countries produce this stone:

that of India is like smaragdus in colour; that of Cyprus is

hard, and of a full sea-green; and that of Persia is sky-blue,

whence its name, "arizusa."[2] Similar to this last is the

Caspian iaspis. On the banks of the river Thermodon the

iaspis is of an azure colour; in Phrygia, it is purple; and in

Cappadocia of an azure purple, sombre, and not refulgent.

Amisos[3] sends us an iaspis like that of India in colour, and

Chalcedon,[4] a stone of a turbid hue.



But it is of less consequence to distinguish the several localities

that furnish it, than it is to remark upon the degrees of

excellence which they present. The best kind is that which

has a shade of purple, the next best being the rose-coloured,

and the next the stone with the green colour of the smaragdus;

to each of which the Greeks have given names[5] according to

their respective tints. A fourth kind, which is called by them

"boria,"[6] resembles in colour the sky of a morning in autumn;

this, too, will be the same that is known as "arizusa."[7] There

is an iaspis also which resembles sarda[8] in appearance, and

another with a violet tint. Not less numerous, too, are the

other kinds that are left undescribed; but they are all blue to

a fault,[9] or else resemble crystal in appearance, or the tints of

the myxa[10] plum. There is the terebenthine[11]-coloured iaspis

also; improperly so called, in my opinion, as it has all the appearance

of being a composition of numerous gems of this description.



The best of these stones are set in an open bezel, the gold of







which only embraces the margins of the stone, leaving the

upper and lower surfaces uncovered. One great defect in

them is a subdued lustre, and a want of refulgence when

viewed from a distance. Grains also like salt appear within the

stone, and all the other defects which are common[12] to precious

stones in general. Sometimes they are imitated in glass; a fraud,

however, which may be easily detected, from the material

throwing out its refulgence, instead of concentrating it within

itself. To this class also belongs the stone called "sphragis,"[13]

which is only reckoned as belonging to the domain of precious

stones, from the circumstance that it is the best of all for

making signets.[14]



(9.) Throughout all the East, it is the custom, it is said, to

wear iaspis by way of amulet. The variety of this stone

which resembles smaragdus in colour is often found with a

white line running transversely through the middle; in which

case it is known as "monogrammos:"[15] when it is streaked

with several lines, it is called "polygrammos."[16] Here, too, I

may take the opportunity of exposing the falsehoods[17] of the

magicians, who pretend that this stone is beneficial for persons

when speaking in public. There is a stone also that is formed of

iaspis and onyx combined, and is known as "iasponyx."[18] Sometimes

this stone has a clouded appearance; sometimes it has

spots upon the surface like snow;[19] and sometimes it is stellated

with red spots.[20] One kind resembles salt of Megara[21] in

appearance, and another is known as capnias,[22] and looks as if

it had been smoked. We have seen in our day an iaspis[23]







fifteen inches in length, of which a figure of Nero was made,

armed with a cuirass.







1. Meadow-green jasper

2. Salmasius erroneously takes this to be the Turquoise. It is our skyblue

jasper, no doubt. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 471, Bohn's

Edition
.

3. See B. vi. c. 2.

4. The Bamberg MS. gives "Calchedon" here.

5. Namely, poufuri)zousa, r(odi/zousa, and smaragdi/cousa.

6. "Northern," apparently.

7. "Sky-blue," mentioned above.

8. See Chapter 31. Red jasper, or perhaps Red porphyry.

9. "Aut" appears to be a preferable reading to the "ut" of the Bambarg

MS.

10. See B. xv. cc. 12, 13.

11. "Terebinthizusa." Yellow jasper, Ajasson says.

12. See Chapter 18 of this Book.

13. "Seal stone." A kind of carnelian, probably.

14. "Publico gemmarum dominio iis tantum dato, quoniam optime signent."

The above is the sense given to the passage by Holland, Ajasson,

and Littr; but another translation may also be suggested- "A stone to

which alone, by general consent, is awarded the custody of precious stones,

from the fact that it makes the best impression as a seal." In reference

to the custom of putting a seal on the dactyliothec, or jewel-caskets. See

page 80 of this Book.

15. "Single-lined."

16. "Many-lined."

17. Albertus Magnus, De Mineral. B. ii., has several other stories respecting

it of a similar nature.

18. Jasper onyx.

19. Identified by Ajasson with snow-flake chalcedony.

20. Spotted jasper onyx.

21. See B. xxxi. c. 41.

22. Smoked jasper onyx.

23. It is still used for making vases, boxes, knife-handles, and other articles,

and is much used in the manufacture of Florentine mosaics. We may also remark, that the "iaspis" of Pliny probably included some stones

not of the jasper kind.




38. Chap. 38.-Cyanos; The Several Varieties Of It.


CHAP. 38.-CYANOS; THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF IT.



We must also give a separate account of cyanos,[1] a name

which, until very recently, was given to a species of iaspis,

on account of its crulean colour. The best kind is that of

Scythia,[2] the next best being the produce of Cyprus, and, last

of all, that of Egypt. An artificial[3] kind is much in use,

that is prepared by dyeing other substances; and this invention

is looked upon as one of the great glories of the kings

of Egypt, the name of the king who first discovered it being

still preserved in their annals. This stone, too, is divided into

male and female, and sometimes it has the appearance of being

powdered with a golden dust, in much the same way as sapphiros.







1. "Azure stone;" generally supposed to have been a species of Lapis

lazuli or azure. Beckmann is of opinion that it was a mineral or mountain

blue, tinged with copper.

2. It is found in China, Persia, Siberia, and Bucharia.

3. Ultramarine is prepared from Lapis lazuli, and an artificial kind is

extensively in use, which equals the native in permanency and brilliancy

of colour, and is very extensively employed in the arts. Theophrastus,

De Lapid. sec. 55, speaks of this artificial ultramarine.




39. Chap. 39.-Sapphiros.


CHAP. 39.-SAPPHIROS.



For sapphiros,[1] too, is refulgent with spots[2] like gold. It is

also of an azure colour, though sometimes, but rarely, it is purple;

the best kind being that which comes from Media. In no

case, however, is this stone diaphanous; in addition to which,

it is not suited for engraving when intersected with hard particles

of a crystalline[3] nature. Those among them that have

the colour of cyanos are generally thought to be the male stones.







1. This must not be taken for the Sapphire of the present day, but was

most probably Lapis lazuli, and identical, perhaps, with Cyanos. Beckmann

has devoted considerable attention to this subject; Hist. Inv. Vol. I.

pp. 468473. Bohn's Edition.

2. Particles of iron pyrites, probably, which are frequently to be seen

in Lapis lazuli.

3. Quartz, probably, according to some authorities.




40. Chap. 40.-Amethystos; Four Varieties Of It. Socondion. Sapenos. Pharanitis. Aphrodites Blepharon, Anteros, Or Pderos.


CHAP. 40.-AMETHYSTOS; FOUR VARIETIES OF IT. SOCONDION.

SAPENOS. PHARANITIS. APHRODITES BLEPHARON, ANTEROS, OR

PDEROS.



We will now commence with another class of precious stones,







those of a purple colour, or whose tints are derived from purple.

To the first rank belongs the amethystos[1] of India; a stone

which is also found in the part of Arabia that adjoins Syria

and is known as Petra, as also in Lesser Armenia, Egypt, and

Galatia; the very worst of all, and the least valued, being those

of Thasos and Cyprus. The name which these stones bear,

originates, it is said, in the peculiar tint of their brilliancy,

which, after closely approaching the colour of wine, passes off

into a violet without being fully pronounced; or else, according

to some authorities, in the fact that in their purple there

is something that falls short of a fiery colour, the tints fading

off and inclining to the colour of wine.



All these stones are transparent and of an agreeable violet

colour, and are easy[2] to engrave. Those of India have in

perfection the very richest shades of purple, and it is to attain

this colour that the dyers[3] in purple direct all their endeavours;

it presenting a fine mellowed appearance to the eye, and not

dazzling the sight, as in the case with the colours of the carbunculus.

Another variety approaches more nearly the hyacinth

in colour: the people of India call this tint "socon," and the

stone itself "socondion." A third stone of this class is of a

more diluted colour, and is known as "sapenos," being identical

with "pharanitis," so called from a country[4] on the

frontiers of Arabia that produces it. Of a fourth kind, the

colour is like that of wine; and in a fifth it borders very closely

upon that of crystal, the purple gradually passing off into

white. This last kind is but little valued; for a fine amethyst

should always have, when viewed sideways[5] and held up to the

light, a certain purple refulgence, like that of carbunculus,

slightly inclining to a tint of rose.



Some prefer giving these stones the name of "pderos"[6] or







of "anteros,"[7] while to many they are known as "Venus'[8]

eyelid," a name which would seem to be particularly appropriate

to the colour and general appearance of the gem. The

falsehoods of the magicians would persuade us that these stones

are preventive of inebriety, and that it is from this that they

have derived[9] their name. They tell us also, that if we inscribe

the names of the sun and moon upon this stone, and then

wear it suspended from the neck, with some hair of the cynocephalus[10]

and feathers of the swallow, it will act as a preservative

against all noxious spells. It is said too, that worn in any

manner, this stone will ensure access to the presence of kings;

and that it will avert hail and the attacks of locusts, if a certain

prayer is also repeated which they mention. They make similar

promises, too, in reference to the smaragdus, if graven with the

figure of an eagle or of a scarabus: statements which, in my

opinion, they cannot have committed to writing without a feeling

of contempt and derision for the rest of mankind.







1. So called, according to some authorities, from a), "not," mequ/w, "to

intoxicate," on account of its being a supposed preservative against inebriety.

Ajasson is of opinion that Pliny does not here speaks of the Quartz Amethyst

of modern mineralogy, but only the Oriental Amethyst, violet Sapphire,

or violet Corundum. It is not improbable, however, that he includes

them all, as well as violet Fluor spar, and some other purple stones; inclusive,

possibly, of the Garnet.

2. He is probably speaking here of violet Fluor spar; Oriental amethyst,

or violet sapphire, it is next to impossible to engrave.

3. See B. ix. c. 62.

4. The city of Pharan, mentioned by St. Jerome and Eusebius.

5. "In suspectu." See B. xxi. c. 22.

6. "Lovely youth." The Opal has been thus called in Chapter 22.

7. "Avenger of slighted love."

8. "Veneris gena;" called in Greek "Aphrodites blepharon."

9. Which is most probable; however untrue the story itself may be.

See Note 75 above.

10. A kind of Baboon. See B. vi. c. 35, B. vii. c. 2, and B. viii. c. 80.




41. Chap. 41.-Hyacinthos.


CHAP. 41.-HYACINTHOS.



Very different from this stone is hyacinthos,[1] though partaking

of a colour that closely borders upon it. The great

difference between them is, that the brilliant violet which is

so refulgent in the amethystos, is diluted in the other stone.

Though pleasing at first sight, its beauty fades before the eye

is satiated; indeed, so far is it from satisfying the sight, that

it almost wholly fails to attract the eye, its lustre disappearing

more rapidly than the tints of the flower[2] known by the same

name.







1. It is considered very doubtful whether the modern Hyacinth or Zircon

is one of the number of stones that were called "Hyacinthus" by the

ancients. Jameson appears to have thought that they gave this name to

the oriental amethyst or violet sapphire.

2. See B. xxi. c. 38.




43. Chap. 43.-Chryselectrum.


CHAP. 43.-CHRYSELECTRUM.



Though it has now altogether gone out of use for jewellery,

there is a precious stone known as "chryselectrum,"[1] the colour

of which inclines to that of amber;[2] but only when viewed by

a morning[3] light. The stones of Pontus are known by their

lightness. Some of them are hard and reddish, while others,

again, are soft and of a soiled appearance. According to Bocchus,

these stones are found in Spain as well; in a spot where,

according to him, fossil crystal has been discovered, in sinking

to the water-level for wells.[4] He tells us also that he once

saw a chrysolithos twelve[5] pounds in weight.







1. Supposed to be yellow-white Hyacinth. See Chapter 12 of this Book.

2. "Electrum."

3. See Chapter 76 of this Book.

4. See Chapter 9 of this Book.

5. Yellow quartz crystal probably, or False topaz.




45. Chap. 45.-Melichrysos. Xuthon.


CHAP. 45.-MELICHRYSOS. XUTHON.



To this class also belongs melichrysos,[1] a stone which has

all the appearance of pure honey, seen through transparent

gold. India produces these stones, and, although hard, they

are very brittle, but not unpleasing to the sight. The same

country, too, produces xuthon,[2] a stone much used by the lower

classes there.







1. "Honey gold stone." Some are of opinion that this was the Honey-

coloured

Hyacinth. Others, again, identify it with the yellow, honey-

coloured

Topaz; an opinion with which Ajasson coincides.

2. "Xanthon" is another reading. See Chapter 60 of this Book.




46. Chap. 46.-Pderos, Sangenon, Or Tenites.


CHAP. 46.-PDEROS, SANGENON, OR TENITES.



At the very head of the white stones is pderos;[1] though

it may still be questionable to which of the colours it in

reality belongs. As to the name, it has been so much bandied

about among other precious stones of conspicuous beauty, that

it has quite assumed the privilege of being a synonymous

term[2] for all that is charming to the eye. Still, however, there

is one[3] stone in particular which fully merits all the commendation

that might be expected for a stone with so prepossessing

a name: for in itself it reunites the transparency of crystal,

the peculiar green of the sky, the deep tints of purple,

and a sort of bright reflex, like that of a golden-coloured

wine; a reflex, indeed, that is always the last to meet

the eye, but is always crowned with the lustrous hues of

purple. The stone, in fact, has all the appearance of having

been bathed in each of these tints, individually, and yet in the

whole of them at once. There is no precious stone either that

has a clearer water than this, or that presents a more pleasing

sweetness to the eye.



Pderos of the finest quality comes from India, where it is

known as "sangenon;" the next best being that of Egypt,

called "tenites." That of third-rate quality is found in Arabia,

but it is rough upon the surface. Next, we have the stone of

Pontus, the radiance of which is softer than in that of Thasos,

which, in its turn, is of a more mellowed colour than the

stones of Galatia, Thrace, and Cyprus. The defects com-







monly found in these stones are, a want of brilliancy, a confusion

with colours which do not properly belong to them, and the

other imperfections which are found in stones in general.[4]







1. "Lovely youth." See Chapter 22, where it has been already mentioned.

He here reverts to the Opals.

2. See Chapter 40, for example, where it is given to a variety of the

Amethyst.

3. The Opal, which he is about to describe.

4. See Chapter 18 of this Book.




47. Chap. 47.-Asteria.


CHAP. 47.-ASTERIA.



Next among the white stones is "asteria,"[1] a gem which

holds its high rank on account of a certain peculiarity in its

nature, it having a light enclosed within, in the pupil of an

eye as it were. This light, which has all the appearance of

moving within the stone, it transmits according to the angle of

inclination at which it is held; now in one direction, and

now in another. When held facing the sun, it emits white

rays like those of a star, and to this, in fact, it owes its name.[2]

The stones of India are very difficult to engrave, those of Carmania being preferred.







1. The vitreous Asteriated crystals of Sapphire are still called by this

name. Ajasson, however, and Desfontaines, identify this gem with Girasol

opal or fire opal. See Note 60.

2. From a)ster, a star.




48. Chap. 48.-Astrion.


CHAP. 48.-ASTRION.



Of a similar white radiance is the stone that is known as

"astrion,"[1] closely resembling crystal in its nature, and found

in India and upon the coasts of Pallene.[2] In the centre of it

there shines internally a brilliant star, with a refulgence like

that of the moon when full. Some will have it that this stone

receives its name from the fact that, when held opposite to the

stars, it absorbs the light they emit and then returns it. The

finest stones, they say, are those of Carmania, there being

none more entirely free from all defects. They add, also, that

a stone of inferior quality is known as "ceraunia,"[3] and that,

in the worst of all, the light is very similar to that given by a

lamp.







1. "Star-stone." Ajasson identifies this stone with the Asteriated Sapphire

or Corundum, mentioned in Note 4 above.

2. See B. iv. cc. 10, 17.

3. "Lightning darting."




49. Chap. 49.-Astriotes.


CHAP. 49.-ASTRIOTES.



Astriotes,[1] too, is a stone that is highly esteemed, and Zoroaster,

they say, has sung its wondrous praises as an adjunct of

the magic art.











1. "Star-like." Ajasson thinks, that it is identical with the stone next

mentioned.




50. Chap. 50.-Astrobolos.


CHAP. 50.-ASTROBOLOS.



Sudines says, that astrobolos[1] resembles the eye of a fish in

appearance, and that it has a radiant white refulgence when

viewed in the sun.







1. "Planet-stricken." It is not improbable that this was Cat's-eye, a

translucent Chalcedony, presenting a peculiar opalescence, or internal reflections,

when cut en cabochon. The colour is either bright-greenish grey,

or else yellow, red, or brownish.




51. Chap. 51.-Ceraunia; Four Varieties Of It.


CHAP. 51.-CERAUNIA; FOUR VARIETIES OF IT.



Among the white stones also, there is one known as

"ceraunia,"[1] which absorbs the brilliancy of the stars. It is

of a crystalline formation, of a lustrous azure colour, and is a

native of Carmania. Zenothemis admits that it is white, but

asserts that it has the figure of a blazing star within. Some of

them, he says, are dull, in which case it is the custom to steep

them for some days in a mixture of nitre and vinegar; at the

end of which period the star makes its appearance, but gradually

dies away by the end of as many months.



Sotacus mentions also two other varieties of ceraunia, one

black and the other red; and he says that they resemble axes

in shape. Those which are black and round,[2] he says, are

looked upon as sacred, and by their assistance cities and fleets

are attacked and taken: the name given to them is "btyli,"

those of an elongated form being known as "cerauni."[3] They

make out also that there is another kind, rarely to be met with,

and much in request for the practices of magic, it never being

found in any place but one that has been struck by lightning.[4]







1. See Note 8 above. Parisot thinks that these must have been

Arolites or Meteorites.

2. Brotero thinks that these were petrified shells, to which the magicians

imputed marvellous properties.

3. Brotero is of opinion that those were Belemnites, more commonly

known as "thunderstones." The reading "btyli" is doubtful; but Parisot

says, on what authority does not appear, that "Betylus" meant "Great

father," and that this name, as well as "Abaddir" of similar signification,

was given by magicians to arolites or meteorites used in their enohantments.

4. A meteoric stone or arolite, evidently.




52. Chap. 52.-Iris; Two Varieties Of It.


CHAP. 52.-IRIS; TWO VARIETIES OF IT.



The next name mentioned by these authors is that of the

stone called "iris;"[1] which is found, in a fossil state, in a

certain island of the Red Sea, forty miles distant from the city







of Berenice. It is partly composed of crystal, and hence it is

that some have called it "root of crystal." It takes its name

"iris" from the properties which it possesses; for, when

struck by the rays of the sun in a covered spot, it projects upon

the nearest walls the form and diversified colours of the rainbow;

continually changing its tints, and exciting admiration

by the great variety of colours which it presents. That it is

hexahedral in form, like crystal, is generally agreed; but some

say that it is rough on the sides and of unequal angles;

and that, when exposed to a full sun, it disperses the rays

that are thrown upon it, while at the same time, by throwing

out a certain brightness[2] before it, it illumines all objects

that may happen to be adjacent. The stone, however,

as already stated, only presents these colours when under

cover; not as though they were in the body of the stone

itself, but, to all appearance, as if they were the result of the

reflected light upon the surface of the wall. The best kind is

the one that produces the largest arcs, with the closest resemblance

to the rainbow.



"Iritis" is the name of another stone, similar to the last in

all other respects, but remarkable for its extreme hardness.

Horus says, in his writings, that this stone, calcined and triturated,

is a remedy for the bite of the ichneumon, and that it is

a native of Persia.







1. "Rainbow." Opinion seems divided as to whether this is Hyalin quartz iridized internally, or prismatic crystals of Limpid quartz, which

decompose the rays of the sun.

2. The reading and meaning of this passage are very doubtful.




53. Chap. 53.-Leros.


CHAP. 53.-LEROS.



The stone called "leros"[1] is similar in appearance, but does

not produce the same effects. It is a crystal, with streaks of

white and black running across it.







1. The reading is doubtful, "zeros" and "erros" being given by some

MSS. Ajasson hazards a conjecture that it may have been a variety of

quartz, formed of a concretion of agates united by a cement of a similar

nature.




55. Chap. 55.-Balanites. Batrachitis. Baptes. Beli Oculus. Belus. Baroptenus Or Barippe. Botryitis. Bostrychitis. Bucardia. Brontea. Bolos.


CHAP. 55.-BALANITES. BATRACHITIS. BAPTES. BELI OCULUS.

BELUS. BAROPTENUS OR BARIPPE. BOTRYITIS. BOSTRYCHITIS.

BUCARDIA. BRONTEA. BOLOS.



Of balamites[1] there are two kinds, the one of a greenish hue,

and the other like Corinthian bronze in appearance; the former

comes from Coptos, and the latter from Troglodytica. They

are both of them intersected by a flame-like vein, which runs

through the middle. Coptos, too, sends us batrachitis;[2] one

kind of which is like a frog in colour, another has the tint of

ebony, and a third is blackish inclining to red. Baptes[3] is a

soft stone, and of a most excellent smell. Beli oculus[4] is a

stone of a whitish hue, surrounding a black pupil in the middle,

which shines amid a lustre like that of gold. This stone, in

consequence of its singular beauty, has been consecrated to the

deity[5] held in the highest veneration by the people of Assyria.

According to Democritus, there is also a stone called belus,

and found at Arbela; it is about the size of a walnut, and

looks[6] like glass. Baroptenus or barippe is black, and covered







with knots of a white and blood-red colour: the use of it as

an amulet is avoided, as being apt to produce monstrosities.



Botryitis[7] is sometimes black and sometimes purple-red,[8]

and resembles a bunch of grapes[9] in form, when making its

first appearance. Zoroaster says, that bostrychitis[10] is a stone

which is more like the hair of females than anything else.

Bucardia[11] resembles an ox-heart in appearance, and is only

found at Babylon. Brontea[12] is a stone like the head of a

tortoise, which falls with thunder, it is supposed: if too, we

are to believe what is said, it has the property of quenching

the fire in objects that have been struck by lightning. Bolos[13]

is the name of a stone found in Iberia,[14] similar to a clod of

earth in appearance.







1. "Acorn stone." Like an olive in appearance, and now known as

"Jew stone," probably, a fossil.

2. "Frog-stone." Varieties of quartz, probably.

3. "Dipped stone." Dalechamps says that it was amber stained with

alkanet, but on what authority does not appear.

4. "Eye of Belus." Supposed by Ajasson and Desfontaines to be Cat's

eye Chalcedony. See Chapter 50, Note 10.

5. Belus, the father of Ninus, the "Bel" of Scripture. See Chapter 58.

6. A kind of Tecolithos, Dalechamps says. See B. xxxvi. c. 35, and

Chapter 68 of this Book.

7. "Grape-cluster stone."

8. "Puniceus" seems to be a preferable reading to "pampineus,"

"like a vine-tendril," given by the Bamberg MS.

9. Possibly it may have been Datholite or Borate of lime, a variety of

which is known as Botryolite.

10. "Hair-stone." This was probably either Iron alum, known also as

Alun de plume; Alunogen, known also as Feather Alum or hair salt; or

Amianthus, also called satin Asbestus. See B. xxxvi. c 31.

11. "Ox-heart." Supposed to be a sort of Turquois, Hardouin says.

12. "Thunder-stone.

13. "Clod-stone." It may possibly have been a kind of Geodes. See

B. xxxvi. c. 32. Dalechamps, however, identifies it with Crapaudine,

Toad-stone, or Bufonite, supposed in former times to be produced by the

toad, but in reality the fossil tooth of a fish.

14. See B. iii. c. 4.




57. Chap. 57.-Daphnea. Diadochos. Diphyes. Dionysias. Draconitis.


CHAP. 57.-DAPHNEA. DIADOCHOS. DIPHYES. DIONYSIAS.

DRACONITIS.



Daphnea[1] is mentioned by Zoroaster as curative of epilepsy.

Diadochos[2] is a stone that resembles the beryl. Of diphyes[3]

there are two kinds, the white and the black, male and female,

with a line dividing the characteristics of either sex. Dionysias[4]

is hard and black, and covered with red spots. Triturated in

water, this stone imparts to it the flavour of wine, and it is

generally thought to be a preservative against intoxication.

Draconitis[5] or dracontia is a stone produced from the brain of

the dragon;[6] but unless the head of the animal is cut off

while it is alive, the stone will not assume the form of a gem,

through spite on the part of the serpent, when finding itself at

the point of death: hence it is that, for this purpose, the head

is cut off when it is asleep.[7]



Sotacus, who tells us that he once saw a stone of this kind in

the possession of a king, says that persons go in search of it in

a chariot drawn by two horses; and that, the moment they see

the serpent, they strew narcotic drugs in its way, and then cut

off its head when asleep. According to him, this stone is

white and pellucid, and admits of no polishing or engraving.











1. "Laurel-stone."

2. "Substitute" for beryl.

3. "Two-formed," or "of a double nature." A grand acquisition, as

Ajasson remarks, for the worshippers of Priapus. See a similar characteristic

in the Eryngium, our Eringo, B. xxii. c. 9: also Mandragora, B. xxv.

c. 94, Note 70.

4. "Stone of Dionysus" or "Bacchus."

5. "Dragon stone."

6. The serpent so called-"draco." See B. xxix. c. 20.

7. A story invented, no doubt, by the sellers of some kind of precious

stone.




58. Chap. 58.-Encardia Or Ariste. Enorchis. Exebenus. Erythalls. Erotylos. Amphicomos, Or Hieromnemon. Eumeces. Eumithres. Eupetalos. Eureos. Eurotias. Eusebes. Epimelas.


CHAP. 58.-ENCARDIA OR ARISTE. ENORCHIS. EXEBENUS. ERYTHALLS.

EROTYLOS. AMPHICOMOS, OR HIEROMNEMON. EUMECES.

EUMITHRES. EUPETALOS. EUREOS. EUROTIAS. EUSEBES. EPIMELAS.



The stone encardia[1] is also called "ariste."[2] There are three

varieties of it; one of a black colour, with a figure in relief

upon it like a heart: a second of a green colour, and like a heart

in shape; and a third, with a black heart upon it, the rest of

the stone being white. Enorchis[3] is a white stone, the fragments

of which, when it is split asunder, resemble the testes

in shape. Exebenus, Zoroaster tells us, is a white, handsome

stone, employed by goldsmiths for polishing gold. Erythallis,[4]

though a white stone, assumes a red hue when viewed at an

inclined angle. Erotyles,[5] also known as "amphicomos"[6]

and "hieromnemon,"[7] is highly praised by Democritus for its

use in the art of divination.



Eumeces[8] is a stone of Bactriana, like silex in appearance;

placed beneath the head, it produces visions in the night of an

oracular description. Eumithres[9] is called by the Assyrians

"gem of Belus,"[10] the most sacred of all their gods; it is of a

leek-green colour, and greatly in request for superstitious purposes.

Eupetalos[11] is a stone that has four different tints,

azure, fiery, vermilion, and apple-colour. Eureos[12] is similar

to an olive-stone in form, streaked like a shell, and moderately

white. Eurotias[13] has all the appearance of concealing its







black colour beneath a coat of mould. Eusebes[14] is the stone,

it is said, of which the seat was made in the Temple of

Hercules at Tyrus, from which the pious [only] could raise

themselves without difficulty. Epimelas[15] is a white gem,

with a black hue reflected from its surface.







1. "Heart-shaped." A tarquois, Hardouin thinks. See "Bucardia"

in Chapter 55 above.

2. "The best."

3. "Formed like the testes."

4. "Red stone," apparently. The reading is very doubtful.

5. The reading is doubtful, but the word may possibly mean "stone of

love," or something equivalent.

6. "Fine-haired."

7. "Skilled in sacred matters."

8. "Of fair length." Ajasson thinks that this may have been a variety

of Pyromachic silex, or gun flint, nearly allied to Chalcedony.

9. A preferable reading, probably, to "Eumitres." It perhaps took its

name from Mithres, the god of the Sun among the Persians, and meant

"blessing of Mithres." Ajasson thinks that it may have been green Tourmaline,

and that its electric properties may have been very "serviceable to

the charlatans who had the monopoly of the Temple of Bel."

10. See Chapter 55 of this Book.

11. "With beautiful leaves." By some authorities this is thought to be

Opal, by others Heliotrope or Bloodstone. Ajasson thinks that it may

have been a general name for Jasper quartz, or else that it was Quartz

agate opalized.

12. This reading is very doubtful.

13. "Mouldy stone."

14. "Stone of the religious."

15. "Black on the surface." This is the case, Ajasson remarks, with

many stones of the class known as "Cat's eye."




59. Chap. 59.-Galaxias. Galactitis, Leucoga, Leucograpritis, Or Synnephitis. Gallaica. Gassinade. Glossopetra. Gorgonia. Goniaa.


CHAP. 59.-GALAXIAS. GALACTITIS, LEUCOGA, LEUCOGRAPRITIS,

OR SYNNEPHITIS. GALLAICA. GASSINADE. GLOSSOPETRA. GORGONIA.

GONIAA.



Galaxias,[1] by some called "galactitis,"[2] is a stone that closely

resembles those next mentioned, but is interspersed with

veins of blood-red or white. Galactitis[3] is of the uniform

colour of milk; other names given to it are, leucoga,[4] leucographitis,[5]

and synnephitis,[6] and, when pounded in water,

both in taste and colour it marvellously resembles milk. This

stone promotes the secretion of the milk in nursing women, it

is said; in addition to which, attached to the neck of infants, it

produces saliva, and it dissolves when put into the mouth.

They say, too, that it deprives persons of their memory: it is

in the rivers Nilus and Achelos that it is produced. Some

persons give the name of "galactitis" to a smaragdus surrounded

with veins of white. Gallaica is a stone like argyrodamas,[7]

but of a somewhat more soiled appearance; these stones are

found in twos and threes clustered together. The people of

Media send us gassinade,[8] a stone like orobus in colour, and

sprinkled with flowers, as it were: it is found at Arbela.

This stone, too, conceives,[9] it is said; a fact which it admits

when shaken; the conception lasting for a period of three

months. Glossopetra,[10] which resembles the human tongue, is

not engendered, it is said, in the earth, but falls from the

heavens during the moon's eclipse; it is considered highly necessary

for the purposes of selenomancy.[11] To render all this







however, still more incredible, we have the evident untruthfulness

of one assertion made about it, that it has the property of

silencing the winds. Gorgonia[12] is nothing but a coral, which

has been thus named from the circumstance that, though soft

in the sea, it afterwards assumes the hardness of stone: it has

the property of counteracting fascinations,[13] it is said. Gonia,[14]

it is asserted, and with the same degree of untruthfulness,

ensures vengeance upon our enemies.







1. "Galaxy stone." Ajasson thinks that this may possibly have been an

Opal, or a dead white Topaz, traversed by lines of other colours.

2. "Milk stone."

3. Probably milk-white Quartz, Ajasson thinks.

4. "White earth."

5. "White-streaked stone."

6. "Clouded."

7. See Chapter 54 of this Book.

8. An Eastern name, probably.

9. A Geodes or Atites, probably. See B. xxxvi. c. 39, and Chapter 56

of this Book, Note 92.

10. "Tongue of stone."

11. Divination from the appearance of the moon.

12. "Gorgon stone," The head of the Gorgon Medusa was fabled to turn

those into stone who looked upon it.

13. See B. xxxii. c. 11.

14. This reading is very doubtful.




60. Chap. 60.-Heliotropium. Hepilestitis. Hermuaidoion. Hexlcontalitros. Hieracitis. Hammitis. Hammonis Cornu. Hormiscion. Hynia. Hmatitis.


CHAP. 60.-HELIOTROPIUM. HEPILESTITIS. HERMUAIDOION. HEXLCONTALITROS.

HIERACITIS. HAMMITIS. HAMMONIS CORNU.

HORMISCION. HYNIA. HMATITIS.



Heliotropium[1] is found in thiopia, Africa, and Cyprus:

it is of a leek-green colour, streaked with blood-red veins. It

has been thus named,[2] from the circumstance that, if placed

in a vessel of water and exposed to the full light of the sun,

it changes to a reflected colour like that of blood; this being

the case with the stone of thiopia more particularly. Out

of the water, too, it reflects the figure of the sun like a mirror,

and it discovers eclipses of that luminary by showing the

moon passing over its disk. In the use of this stone, also, we

have a most glaring illustration of the impudent effrontery

of the adepts in magic, for they say that, if it is combined with

the plant[3] heliotropium, and certain incantations are then repeated

over it, it will render the person invisible who carries

it about him.



Hephsititis[4] also, though a radiant stone, partakes of the

properties of a mirror in reflecting objects. The mode of

testing it is to put it into boiling water, which should immediately

become cold. If exposed to the rays of the sun, it

should instantly cause dry fuel to ignite:[5] Corycus[6] is the

place where it is found. Hermuaidoion[7] is so called from the







resemblance to the male organs which it presents, on a ground

that is sometimes white, sometimes black, and sometimes of

a pallid hue, with a circle surrounding it of a golden colour.

Hexecontalithos[8] receives its name from the numerous variety

of colours which, small as it is, it presents: it is found in

Troglodytica.[9] Hieracitis[10] is entirely covered with mottled

streaks, resembling a kite's feathers alternately with black.

Hammitis[11] is similar in appearance to the spawn of fish: there

is also one variety of it which has all the appearance of being

composed of nitre,[12] except that it is remarkably hard. Hammonis

cornu[13] is reckoned among the most sacred gems of

thiopia; it is of a golden colour, like a ram's horn in shape,

and ensures prophetic dreams, it is said.



Hormiscion[14] is one of the most pleasing stones to the sight;

it is of a fiery colour, and emits rays like gold, tipped at the

extremity with a whitish light. Hynia[15] is derived from the

eyes of the hyna, it is said, the animal being hunted to obtain

it; placed beneath the tongue, if we believe the story,

it will enable a person to prophesy the future. Hmatitis,[16]

of the very finest quality, comes from thiopia, but it is found

in Arabia and Africa as well. It is a stone of a blood-red

colour, and we must not omit to mention the assurance given

[by the magicians], that the possession of it reveals treacherous

designs on the part of the barbarians. Zachalias of Babylon,

in the books which he dedicated to King Mithridates, attributing

the destinies of man to certain properties innate in

precious stones, is not content with vaunting the merits of this

stone as curative of diseases of the eyes and liver, but recommends

it also as ensuring success to petitions addressed to

kings. He also makes it play its part in lawsuits and judg-







ments, and even goes so far as to say that it is highly beneficial

to be rubbed with it on the field of battle. There is another

stone of the same class, called "menui" by the people of

India, and "xanthos"[17] by the Greeks: it is of a whitish, tawny

colour.







1. Now known as Heliotrope, bloodstone, or blood jasper. It is of a

deep-green colour, with red spots.

2. "Furning under the sun."

3. See B. xxii. c. 29.

4. "Stone of Hephstos" or "Vulcan."

5. It acting as a burning-glass, probably.

6. See B. iv. c. 20, and B. v. c. 22.

7. "Genitals of Mercury." This singular stone does not appear to have

been identified. See Note 9 above.

8. "Sixty colour stone."

9. See B. v. cc. 5, 8, and B. vi. c. 34.

10. "Hawk stone." It is perhaps identical with the "Circos," mentioned

in Chapter 56. Atius says that Hieracitis was of a greenish hue.

11. "Sand-stone." Ajasson thinks that this was a granular quartz, of a

friable nature when subjected to compression.

12. As to the identity of "nitrum," see B. xxxi. c. 46.

13. "Horn of [Jupiter] Hammon." He here alludes to the Ammonites

of modern Geology, an extinct race of molluscous animals that inhabited

convoluted shells, and which are commonly known as "snake-stones."

They abound in strata of the secondary formation, and vary from the size

of a bean to that of a coach-wheel.

14. The reading of this word is doubtful.

15. "Hyna stone."

16. As to this stone, see B. xxxvi. c. 25.

17. "Yellow" stone. See Chapter 45.




61. Chap. 61.-Idi Dactyli. Icterias. Jovis Gemma. Indica. Ion.


CHAP. 61.-IDI DACTYLI. ICTERIAS. JOVIS GEMMA. INDICA.

ION.



The stones called Idi dactyli,[1] and found in Crete, are of

an iron colour, and resemble the human thumb in shape. The

colour of icterias[2] resembles that of livid skin, and hence it

is that it has been thought so excellent a remedy for jaundice.

There is also another stone of this name, of a still more livid

colour; while a third has all the appearance of a leaf. This

last is broader than the others, almost imponderous, and streaked

with livid veins. A fourth kind again is of the same colour,

but blacker, and marked all over with livid veins. Jovis

gemma[3] is a white stone, very light, and soft: another name

given to it is "drosolithos."[4] Indica[5] retains the name of

the country that produces it: it is a stone of a reddish colour,

and yields a purple liquid[6] when rubbed. There is another

stone also of this name, white, and of a dusty appearance.

Ion[7] is an Indian stone, of a violet tint: it is but rarely,

however, that it is found of a deep, full, colour.







1. "Idan fingers." These were probably Belemnites, so called from

their long, tapering shape, and being first observed, perhaps, on Mount

Ida in Crete. Belemnites are the shells of fossil Cephalopods, and are

commonly known as "thunder stones."

2. "Jaundice stone."

3. "Gem of Jove."

4. "Dew stone."

5. "Indian stone."

6. It is just possible that he may be thinking of Indigo here, which he

has before called by the same name. See B. xxxiii. c. 57.

7. "Violet-coloured."




62. Chap. 62-Lepidotis. Lesbias. Leucophthalmos. Leucopcilos. Libanochrus. Limoniatis. Liparea. Lysimachos. Leucochrysos.


CHAP. 62-LEPIDOTIS. LESBIAS. LEUCOPHTHALMOS. LEUCOPCILOS.

LIBANOCHRUS. LIMONIATIS. LIPAREA. LYSIMACHOS.

LEUCOCHRYSOS.



Lepidotis[1] is a stone of various colours, and resembles the

scales of fish in appearance. Lesbias, so called from Lesbos

which produces it, is a stone found in India as well. Leucophthalmos,[2]

which in other respects is of a reddish hue,

presents all the appearance of an eye, in white and black.







Leucopcilos[3] is white, variegated with drops of vermilion of

a golden hue. Libanochrus[4] strongly resembles frankincense,

and yields a liquid like honey. Limoniatis[5] would appear to

be the same as smaragdus; and all that we find said about

liparea[6] is, that employed in the form of a fumigation, it allures

all kinds of wild beasts. Lysimachos resembles Rhodian

marble, with veins of gold: in polishing it, it is reduced very

considerably in size, in order to remove all defects. Leucochrysos[7]

is a kind of chrysolithos interspersed with white.







1. "Scale stone." A fossil, probably.

2. "White eye." Cat's eye chalcedony, perhaps. See "Astrobolos" in

Chapter 48, and "Beli oculus" in Chapter 55, of this Book.

3. "Variegated with white."

4. "Yellow incense."

5. "Meadow-green stone."

6. "Fat stone."

7. "White gold." Ajasson thinks that this may have been either a sub-

variety

of Hyalin amethystine quartz, a yellow quartz or false topaz, or

else an unctuous, white quartz, either opaque or transparent.




63. Chap. 63.-Memnonia. Media. Meconitis. Mithrax, Morochthos. Mormorion Or Promnion. Murrhitis. Myrmecias. Myrsinitis. Mesoleucos. Mesomelas.


CHAP. 63.-MEMNONIA. MEDIA. MECONITIS. MITHRAX, MOROCHTHOS.

MORMORION OR PROMNION. MURRHITIS. MYRMECIAS.

MYRSINITIS. MESOLEUCOS. MESOMELAS.



What kind of stone memnonia[1] is, we do not find mentioned.

Medea[2] is a black stone, said to have been discovered

by the Medea[3] of fable: it has veins of a golden lustre, and

yields a liquid like saffron in colour and with a vinous flavour.

Meconitis[4] strongly resembles poppies. Mithrax[5] comes from

Persia and the mountains of the Red Sea: it is of numerous

colours, and reflects various tints when exposed to the sun.[6]

Morochthos[7] is a stone of a leek-green colour, from which a milk

exudes. Mormorion[8] is a transparent stone from India, of a

deep black colour, and known also as "promnion." When it

has a mixture of the colour[9] of carbunculus, it is from Alexandria;

and when it shares that of sarda,[10] it is a native of

Cyprus. It is found also at Tyrus and in Galatia; and, according

to Xenocrates, it has been discovered at the foot of the







Alps. These stones are well adapted for cutting in relief.[11]

Murrhitis[12] has just the colour of myrrh, and very little of

the appearance of a gem: it has the odour also of an unguent,

and smells like nard when rubbed. Myrmecias[13] is black, and

has excrescences upon it like warts. Myrsinitis[14] has a colour

like that of honey, and the smell of myrtle. "Mesoleucos"[15]

is the name given to a stone when a white line runs through

the middle; and when a black vein intersects any other colour,

it is called "mesomelas."[16]







1. "Stone of Memnon."

2. This reading seems preferable to "Media," given by the Bamberg

and some other MSS.

3. The enchantress of Colchis. The stone, no doubt was as fabulous as

the enchantress.

4. "Poppy stone."

5. For the origin of this name, see "Eumithres," in Chapter 58, Note

22.

6. It was probably a kind of Opal.

7. The reading here is very doubtful.

8. This reading also is doubtful: it is probably an Eastern word. According

to some authorities, this stone was a dark-brown rock crystal.

Ajasson identifies it with Schorl or black Tourmaline, with a base of Magnesia.

9. Red Tourmaline, possibly, or Rubellite.

10. Carnclian. See Chapter 31 of this Book.

11. "Ectyp sculptur." See B. xxxv. c. 43.

12. "Myrrh stone." It was an Eastern compound, probably. See

Chapter 54, Note 25.

13. "Wart stone."

14. "Myrtle stone."

15. "White in the middle." This and the next seem to have been

general names for stones of a particular appearance.

16. "Black in the middle."




64. Chap. 64.-Nasamonitis. Nebritis. Nipparene.


CHAP. 64.-NASAMONITIS. NEBRITIS. NIPPARENE.



Nasamonitis is a blood-red stone, marked with black veins.

Nebritis, a stone sacred to Father Liber,[1] has received its name

from its resemblance to a nebris.[2] There is also another stone

of this kind, that is black. Nipparene[3] bears the name of a

city and people of Persia, and resembles the teeth of the hippopotamus.







1. Bacchus.

2. A Greek word, signifying the skin of a fawn or deer, as worn by the

Bacchanals in the celebration of their orgies. Ajasson is of opinion that

this was a mottled quartz or agate, similar to those mentioned as resembling

the spots of the lion, in Chapter 54, the Leontios and Pardalios of Chapter 73.

3. This reading is doubtful.




65. Chap. 65.-Oica. Ombria Or Notia. Onocardia. Oritis Or Sideritis. Ostracias. Ostritis. Ophicardelon. Obsian Stone.


CHAP. 65.-OICA. OMBRIA OR NOTIA. ONOCARDIA. ORITIS OR

SIDERITIS. OSTRACIAS. OSTRITIS. OPHICARDELON. OBSIAN

STONE.



Oica is the barbarian name given to a stone which is pleasing

for its colours, black, reddish yellow, green, and white.

Ombria,[1] by some called notia,"[2] falls with showers and

lightning, much in the same manner as ceraunia[3] and brontea,[4]

the properties of which it is said to possess. There is a

statement also, that if this stone is placed upon altars it will

prevent the offerings from being consumed. Onocardia[5] is

like kermesberry in appearance, but nothing further is said

about it. Oritis,[6] by some called "sideritis,"[7] is a stone of







globular form, and proof against the action of fire. Ostracias,[8]

or ostracitis, is a testaceous stone, harder than ceramitis,[9] and

similar in all respects to achates,[10] except that the latter has

an unctuous appearance when polished: indeed, so remarkably

hard is ostritis, that with fragments of it other gems are

engraved. Ostritis[11] receives its name from its resemblance to

an oyster-shell. Ophicardelon is the barbarian name for a

stone of a black colour, terminated by a white line on either

side. Of Obsian[12] stone we have already spoken in the preceding

Book. There are gems, too, of the same name and

colour, found not only in thiopia and India, but in Samnium

as well, and, in the opinion of some, upon the Spanish shores

that lie towards the Ocean.







1. "Shower stone," apparently.

2. From "Notus," the south wind, which usually brought rain.

3. See Chapters 48 and 51.

4. See Chapter 55 of this Book.

5. "Ass's heart."

6. "Mountain stone."

7. See Chapter 67.

8. "Shell-stone." Not the same, probably, as the Cadmitis or Ostracitis

mentioned in Chapter 56 of this Book. See B. xxxvi. c. 31, where a stone

of this name is also mentioned. Horn-stone, probably, a Chalcedony, more

brittle than flint, is meant in the present passage.

9. See Chapter 56 of this Book.

10. See the beginning of Chapter 54.

11. "Oyster-stone."

12. See B. xxxvi. chap. 67; our "Obsidian."




66. Chap. 66.-Panchrus. Pangonus. Paneros Or Panerastos. Pontica; Four Varieties Of It. Phloginos Or Chrysitis. Phnicitis. Phycitis. Perileucos. Panitis Or Ganis.


CHAP. 66.-PANCHRUS. PANGONUS. PANEROS OR PANERASTOS.

PONTICA; FOUR VARIETIES OF IT. PHLOGINOS OR CHRYSITIS.

PHNICITIS. PHYCITIS. PERILEUCOS. PANITIS OR GANIS.



Panchrus[1] is a stone which displays nearly every colour.

Pangonus[2] is no longer than the finger: the only thing that

prevents it from being taken for a crystal, is, its greater number

of angles. What kind of stone paneros[3] is, Metrodorus does

not inform us; but he gives some lines, by no means without

elegance, that were written upon this stone by Queen Timaris,

and dedicated to Venus; from which we have reason to conclude

that certain fecundating virtues were attributed to it. By

some writers it is called panerastos.[4] Of the stone called

"pontica"[5] there are numerous varieties: one is stellated, and

presents either blood-red spots, or drops like gold, being reckoned

in the number of the sacred stones. Another, in place of

stars, has streaks of the same colour, and a fourth presents all

the appearance of mountains and valleys.







Phloginos,[6] also called "chrysitis,"[7] strongly resembles

Attic ochre,[8] and is found in Egypt. Phnicitis[9] is a stone

so called from its resemblance to a date. Phycitis receives its

name from its resemblance to sea-weed.[10] Perileucos[11] is the

name given to a gem, in which a white colour runs down from

the margin of the stone to the base. Panitis,[12] by some called

"ganis,"[13] conceives, it is said, and is good for females

at the time of parturition: this stone is found in Macedonia,

near the monument[14] of Tiresias there, and has all the appearance

of congealed water.







1. "Of all colours." Either Opal, Ajasson thinks, or Iridized hyalin quartz.

2. "All corners." Ajasson seems to think that this may have been

Hyalin quartz.

3. "Worthy of all love."

4. Of the same meaning as "paneros."

5. "Gem of Pontus." According to Desfontaines, these stones are

identified, by some with agates, by others with sapphires.

6. "Flame-coloured."

7. "Golden-coloured stone."

8. See B. xxxiii. c. 56, and B. xxxv. cc. 12, 16.

9. "Palm-date stone. Desfontaines says that this is Jew stone, the

fossil spine of an egg-shaped echinus, See Chapter 56, Note 55.

10. Fu=kos whence the Latin "fucus."

11. "White around."

12. An Atites or Geodes, probably. See Chapter 56, Note 92; also B.

xxx. c. 44, and B. xxxvi. cc. 32, 39.

13. "Earth stone," apparently.

14. The tomb of Tiresias was ordinarily pointed out in the vicinity of the

Tilphusan Well. near Thebes; at least Pausanias states to that effect.




67. Chap. 67.-Solis Gemma. Sagda. Samothracia. Sauritis. Sarcitis. Selenitis. Sideritis. Sideropcilos. Spongitis. Synodontitis. Syrtitis. Syringitis.


CHAP. 67.-SOLIS GEMMA. SAGDA. SAMOTHRACIA. SAURITIS.

SARCITIS. SELENITIS. SIDERITIS. SIDEROPCILOS. SPONGITIS.

SYNODONTITIS. SYRTITIS. SYRINGITIS.



Solis gemma[1] is white, and, like the luminary from which

it takes its name, emits brilliant rays in a circular form. Sagda

is found by the people of Chalda adhering to ships, and is of

a leek-green colour. The Isle of Samothrace gives its name to

a stone[2] which it produces, black and imponderous, and similar

to wood in appearance. Sauritis[3] is found, they say, in the belly

of the green lizard, cut asunder with a reed. Sarcitis[4] is a stone,

like beef in appearance. Selenitis[5] is white and transparent,

with a reflected colour like that of honey. It has a figure

within it like that of the moon, and reflects the face of that

luminary, if what we are told is true, according to its phases,

day by day, whether on the wane or whether on the increase:

this stone is a native of Arabia, it is thought. Sideritis[6] is a







stone like iron, the presence of which in lawsuits creates discord.

Sideropcilos,[7] which is a variety of the same stone, is

a native of thiopia, and is covered with variegated spots.



Spongitis has its name from its resemblance to sponge. Synodontitis

is a stone found in the brain of the fish known as

"synodus."[8] Syrtitis is a stone that used formerly to be

found on the shores of the Syrtes,[9] though now it is found on

the coasts of Lucania as well: it is of a honey colour, with a

reflected tint of saffron, and contains stars of a feeble lustre

within. Syringitis[10] is hollow throughout, like the space between

the two joints in a straw.







1. "Gem of the Sun." According to some, this is the Girasol opal; but

Ajasson has no doubt. from the description given of it by Photius, from

Damascius, that it is identical with the "Asteria" of Chapter 47. See also

the "Astrion" of Chapter 48.

2. Supposed to be jet.

3. "Lizard stone."

4. "Flesh stone"

5. "Moon stone." Our Selenite probably, crystallized sulphate of lime:

the thin lamin of which reflect the disk of the: un or moon.

6. "Stone like iron" See "Oritis" in Chapter 65; also B. xxxvi. c. 25,

and Chapter 15 of this Book, for minerals of this name.

7. "Variegated iron."

8. So called from its teeth meeting evenly, like the jaw-teeth, and not

shaped like those of a saw, so formed that the teeth of one jaw lock with

those of the other. See B. xi. c. 5. The Linnan genus Sparus is of this

kind.

9. See B. v. cc. 4, 5, and B. vi. c. 37.

10. "Fistulous stone."




68. Chap. 68.-Trichrus. Thelyrrhizos. Thelycardios Or Mulc. Thracia; Three Varieties Of It. Tephritis. Tecolithos.


CHAP. 68.-TRICHRUS. THELYRRHIZOS. THELYCARDIOS OR

MULC. THRACIA; THREE VARIETIES OF IT. TEPHRITIS. TECOLITHOS.



Trichrus[1] comes from Africa: it is of a black colour, but

yields three different liquids, black at the lower part, blood-

red

in the middle, and of an ochre colour at the top. Thelyrrhizos[2]

is of an ashy or russet colour, but white at the lower

part. Thelycardios[3] is like a heart in colour, and is held in

high esteem by the people of Persia, in which country it is

found: the name given to it by them is "mule." Of thracia[4]

there are three varieties; a green stone, one of a more pallid

colour, and a third with spots like drops of blood. Tephritis[5]

is crescent-shaped, with horns like those of the new moon, but

it is of an ashy colour. Tecolithos[6] has all the appearance of

an olive stone: it is held in no estimation as a gem, but a

solution of it will break and expel urinary calculi.











1. "Three-coloured stone.

2. Meaning "Female heart," apparently. The reading, however, is uncertain.

3. "Female heart," apparently. The reading is doubtful.

4. "Thracian stone." The reading, however, is doubtful.

5. "Ash-coloured stone." It has been identified with Uranian agate

by some.

6. "Dissolving stone." Probably our Jew stone, and identical with the

Phnicitis of Chapter 66. See Note 13.




69. Chap. 69.-Veneris Crines. Veientana.


CHAP. 69.-VENERIS CRINES. VEIENTANA.



Veneris crines[1] is the name given to a stone that is remarkably

black and shining, with an appearance like red hair within.

Veientana is an Italian stone, found at Veii: it is black,

divided by a line of white.







1. "Venus' hair." As Ajasson remarks, the description renders it next

to impossible to say what the stone was.




70. Chap. 70.-Zathene. Zmilampis. Zoranisca.


CHAP. 70.-ZATHENE. ZMILAMPIS. ZORANISCA.



Zathene, according to Democritus, is a native of Media. It

is like amber in colour, and, if beaten up with palm-wine and

saffron, it will become soft like wax, yielding a very fragrant

smell. Zmilampis is found in the river Euphrates: it resembles

marble of Proconnesus in appearance, and is of a seagreen

colour within. Zoranisca is found in the river Indus:

it is a stone used by magicians, it is said, but I find no further

particulars relative to it.










71. Chap. 71. (11.)-Precious Stones Which Derive Their Names From Various Parts Of The Human Body. Hepatitis. Steatitis. Adadunephros. Adaduophthalmos. Adadudactylos. Triophthalmos.


CHAP. 71. (11.)-PRECIOUS STONES WHICH DERIVE THEIR NAMES

FROM VARIOUS PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY. HEPATITIS. STEATITIS.

ADADUNEPHROS. ADADUOPHTHALMOS. ADADUDACTYLOS.

TRIOPHTHALMOS.



There is also another method of classifying stones; according

to the resemblance which they bear to various other objects.

Thus, for example, the different parts of the body give the

following names to stones:-Hepatitis[1] is so called from the

liver; and steatitis[2] from its resemblance to the fat of various

animals. Adadunephros, adaduophthalmos, and adadudactylos,

mean "kidney of Adad," "eye of Adad," and "finger of

Adad," a god[3] of the Syrians so called. Triophthalmos[4] is a

stone found in conjunction with onyx, which resembles three

human eyes at once.











1. "Liver stone." Heavy spar, a sulphate of barytes, is sometimes called

Hepatite.

2. "Fat stone." Saponite or soapstone, a silicate of magnesia, is also

known as Steatite.

3. An ancient king of Syria, worshipped by the people of that country

and the inhabitants of Phrygia. According to Macrobius, the Assyriana

worshipped Jupiter and the Sun under this name.

4. "Three-eye stone." Some kind of Cat's eye chalcedony, probably.




72. Chap. 72.-Precious Stones Which Derive Their Names From Animals. Carcinias. Echitis. Scorpitis. Scaritis. Triglitis. gophthalmos. Hyophthalmos. Geranitis. Hieracitis. Aetitis. Myrmecitis. Cantharias. Lycophthalmos. Taos. Timictonia.


CHAP. 72.-PRECIOUS STONES WHICH DERIVE THEIR NAMES FROM

ANIMALS. CARCINIAS. ECHITIS. SCORPITIS. SCARITIS. TRIGLITIS.

GOPHTHALMOS. HYOPHTHALMOS. GERANITIS. HIERACITIS.

AETITIS. MYRMECITIS. CANTHARIAS. LYCOPHTHALMOS.

TAOS. TIMICTONIA.



Other stones, again, derive their names from various animals.

Carcinias[1] is so called from the colour of the sea-crab; echitis,[2]

from the colour of the viper; scorpitis,[3] from either the colour

or the shape of the scorpion; scaritis, from the fish called

scarus;[4] triglitis, from the sur-mullet;[5] gophthalmos, from

the eye of the goat; hyophthalmos, from the eye of the swine;

geranitis, from the neck of the crane; hieracitis, from the

neck of the hawk; and atitis, from the colour of the whitetailed

eagle. Myrmecitis[6] presents the appearance of an ant

crawling within, and cantharias,[7] of a scarabus. Lycophthalmos[8]

is a stone of four different colours; on the exterior

it is ruddy and blood-red, and within it is black, surrounded

with a line of white, closely resembling the eye of the wolf in

every respect. Taos[9] is a stone with colours like those of the

peacock. Timictonia, I find, is the name of a stone, like the

asp in colour.







1. "Crab stone."

2. "Viper-stone."

3. "Scorpion stone."

4. See B. ix. c. 29, B. xi. c. 61, and B. xxxii. c. 53. This was perhaps

the same stone as the "Synodontitis" of Chapter 67.

5. Which was called trigla\ in Greek.

6. "Ant stone." Possibly a kind of amber.

7. "Beetle stone."

8. "Wolf's eye."

9. "Peacock stone."




74. Chap. 74. (12.)-Precious Stones That Suddenly Make Their Appearance. Cochlides.


CHAP. 74. (12.)-PRECIOUS STONES THAT SUDDENLY MAKE THEIR

APPEARANCE. COCHLIDES.



New species of precious stones are repeatedly brought into

existence, and fresh ones are found all at once, destitute of

names. Thus, for example, there was a stone formerly discovered

in the gold-mines of Lampsacus, which, on account of

its extraordinary beauty, was sent to King Alexander, as we

learn from Theophrastus.[1] Cochlides,[2] too, which are now so

common, are rather artificial productions than natural, and in

Arabia there have been found vast masses of them; which are

boiled, it is said, in honey, for seven days and nights without

intermission. By doing this, all earthy and faulty particles

are removed; after which, the mass, thus cleansed and purified,

is adorned by the ingenuity of artists with variegated veins and

spots, and cut into such shapes as may be most to the taste of

purchasers. Indeed, these articles, in former times, were made







of so large a size, that they were employed in the East as

frontals for the horses of kings, and as pendants for their trappings.[3]



All precious stones in general are improved in brilliancy by

being boiled in honey, Corsican honey more particularly; but

acrid substances are in every respect injurious to them. As

to the stones which are variegated, and to which new colours

are imparted by the inventive ingenuity of man, as they have

no name in common use, they are usually known by that of

"physis;"[4] a name which claims for them, as it were, that admiration

which we are more ready to bestow upon the works

of Nature. But really, these artificial stones have names

without end, and I could never think of recounting the infinite

series of them, coined as they have been by the frivolous tendencies

of the Greeks.



Having already described the more noble gems, and indeed

those of inferior quality which are found among the stones that

are held in high esteem, I must content myself with knowing

that I have pointed out those kinds which are the most deserving

of mention. It will be as well, however, for the reader to

bear in mind, that, according to the varying number of the

spots and inequalities on their surface, according to the numerous

intersections of lines and their multiplied tints and shades,

the names of precious stones are subject to repeated changes;

the material itself, for the most part, remaining just the same.







1. De Lapidibus.

2. He alludes to petrified shells, most probably.

3. "Phaler." See B. vii. c. 2, and B. xxxiii. c. 6.

4. "Nature;" i. e. "works of Nature."




75. Chap. 75.-The Various Forms Of Precious Stones.


CHAP. 75.-THE VARIOUS FORMS OF PRECIOUS STONES.



We will now make some observations in reference to precious

stones in general, following therein the opinions that

have been expressed by various authors. Stones with a level

surface are preferred to those which are concave or protuberant

on the face. An oblong shape is the one that is most approved

of, and, next to that, the lenticular[1] form, as it is called. After

this, the stone with a plane surface and circular is admired,

those which are angular being held in the least esteem. There

is considerable difficulty in distinguishing genuine stones from

false; the more so, as there has been discovered a method of

transforming genuine stones of one kind into false stones of







another.[2] Sardonyx, for example, is imitated by cementing

together three other precious stones, in such a way that no

skill can detect the fraud; a black stone being used for the

purpose, a white stone, and one of a vermilion[3] colour, each

of them, in its own way, a stone of high repute. Nay, even

more than this, there are books in existence, the authors of

which I forbear to name,[4] which give instructions how to stain

crystal in such a way as to imitate smaragdus and other transparent stones,

how to make sardonyx of sarda, and other

gems in a similar manner. Indeed, there is no kind of fraud

practised, by which larger profits are made.







1. "Lenticula." Like a lentil in shape.

2. Substituting garnets for rubies, as an illustration.

3. "Minium." See Chapter 23 of this Book.

4. Lest the deception should be commonly practised. Seneca, Epist. 19,

mentions one Democritus, who had discovered the art of making artificial

Emeralds. See further on this subject, Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p.

124. Bohn's Edition.




76. Chap. 76. (13.)-The Methods Of Testing Precious Stones.


CHAP. 76. (13.)-THE METHODS OF TESTING PRECIOUS STONES.



On the contrary, we will make it our business to point out

the methods of detecting these false stones, seeing that it is

only proper to put luxury even on its guard against fraud.

In addition to the particulars which we have already given,

when treating of each individual kind of precious stone, it is

generally agreed that transparent stones should be tested by

a morning light, or even, if necessary, so late as the fourth[1]

hour, but never after that hour. The modes of testing[2] stones

are numerous: first, by their weight, the genuine stone being

the heavier of the two; next, by their comparative coolness,

the genuine stone being cooler than the other to the mouth;

and, next to that, by their substance; there being blisters perceptible

in the body of the fictitious stone, as well as a certain

roughness on the surface; filaments, too, an unequal brilliancy,

and a brightness that falls short before it reaches the eye.

The best[3] mode of testing is to strike off a fragment with

an iron saw; but this is a thing not allowed by the

dealers, who equally refuse to let their gems be tested by the

file. Dust of Obsian[4] stone will not leave a mark upon the

surface of a genuine stone: but where the gem is artificial,







every mark that is made will leave a white scratch upon it.

In addition to this, there is such a vast diversity in their degrees

of hardness, that some stones do not admit of being

engraved with iron, and others can only be cut with a graver

blunted at the edge. In all cases, however, precious stones

may be cut and polished by the aid of adamas;[5] an operation

which may be considerably expedited by heating the graver.

The rivers which produce precious stones, are the Acesinus[6]

and the Ganges; and, of all countries, India is the most prolific

of them.







1. Ten in the morning.

2. See Chapters 18 and 20.

3. We can only guess at the meaning of this passage, as it is acknowledgedly corrupt.

4. Our Obsidian. See B. xxxvi. c. 67, and Chapter 65 of this Book.

5. See Chapter 15 of this Book. Ajasson thinks that he has here confounded

two different substances, powdered emery and diamond dust.

6. See B. iv. c. 26.




77. Chap. 77.-A Comparative View Of Nature As She Appears In Different Countries. The Comparative Values Of Things.


CHAP. 77.-A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF NATURE AS SHE APPEARS IN

DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. THE COMPARATIVE VALUES OF THINGS.



Having now treated of all the works of Nature, it will be

as well to take a sort of comparative view of her several productions,

as well as the countries which supply them. Throughout

the whole earth, then, and wherever the vault of heaven

extends, there is no country so beautiful, or which, for the productions

of Nature, merits so high a rank as Italy, that ruler

and second parent of the world; recommended as she is by

her men, her women, her generals, her soldiers, her slaves,

her superiority in the arts, and the illustrious examples of

genius which she has produced. Her situation, too, is equally

in her favour; the salubrity and mildness of her climate; the

easy access which she offers to all nations; her coasts indented

with so many harbours; the propitious breezes, too, that always

prevail on her shores; advantages, all of them, due to her situation,

lying, as she does, midway between the East and the West,

and extended in the most favourable of all positions. Add to

this, the abundant supply of her waters, the salubrity of her

groves, the repeated intersections of her mountain ranges, the

comparative innocuousness of her wild animals, the fertility of

her soil, and the singular richness of her pastures.



Whatever there is that the life of man ought not to feel in

want of, is nowhere to be found in greater perfection than

here; the cereals, for example, wine, oil, wool, flax, tissues,

and oxen. As to horses, there are none, I find, preferred to

those of Italy for the course;[1] while, for mines of gold, silver,







copper, and iron, so long as it was deemed lawful to work

them,[2] Italy was held inferior to no country whatsoever. At

the present day, teeming as she is with these treasures, she

contents herself with lavishing upon us, as the whole of her

bounties, her various liquids, and the numerous flavours yielded

by her cereals and her fruits. Next to Italy, if we except the

fabulous regions of India, I would rank Spain, for my own

part, those districts, at least, that lie in the vicinity of the sea.[3]

She is parched and sterile in one part, it is true; but where

she is at all productive, she yields the cereals in abundance,

oil, wine, horses, and metals of every kind. In all these respects,

Gaul is her equal, no doubt; but Spain, on the other

hand, outdoes the Gallic provinces in her spartum[4] and her

specular stone,[5] the products of her desert tracts, in her pigments

that minister to our luxuries, in the ardour displayed by

her people in laborious employments, in the perfect training

of her slaves, in the robustness of body of her men, and in

their general resoluteness of character.



As to the productions themselves, the greatest value of

all, among the products of the sea, is attached to pearls:

of objects that lie upon the surface of the earth, it is crystals

that are most highly esteemed: and of those derived from

the interior, adamas,[6] smaragdus,[7] precious stones, and murrhine,[8]

are the things upon which the highest value is placed.

The most costly things that are matured by the earth, are

the kermes-berry[9] and laser;[10] that are gathered from trees,

nard[11] and Seric tissues;[12] that are derived from the trunks of

trees, logs of citrus[13]-wood; that are produced by shrubs, cin-







namon,[14] cassia,[15] and amomum;[16] that are yielded by the juices

of trees or of shrubs, amber,[17] opobalsamum,[18] myrrh,[19] and frankincense;[20]

that are found in the roots of trees, the perfumes

derived from costus.[21] The most valuable products furnished

by living animals, on land, are the teeth of elephants; by

animals in the sea, tortoise-shell; by the coverings of animals,

the skins which the Seres[22] dye, and the substance gathered

from the hair of the she-goats of Arabia, which we have

spoken of under the name of "ladanum;"[23] by creatures that

are common to both land and sea, the purple[24] of the murex.

With reference to the birds, beyond plumes for warriors' helmets,

and the grease that is derived from the geese of Commagene,[25]

I find no remarkable product mentioned. We must

not omit, too, to observe, that gold, for which there is such a

mania with all mankind, hardly holds the tenth rank as an

object of value, and silver, with which we purchase gold,

hardly the twentieth!



HAIL to thee, Nature, thou parent of all things! and do

thou deign to show thy favour unto me, who, alone of all the

citizens of Rome, have, in thy every department,[26] thus made

known thy praise.[27]



SUMMARY.-Facts, narratives, and observations, one thousand

three hundred.



ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.-M. Varro,[28] the Register of the

Triumphs,[29] Mcenas,[30] Iacchus,[31] Cornelius Bocchus.[32]



FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.-King Juba,[33] Xenocrates[34] the







son of Zeno, Sudines,[35] schylus,[36] Philoxenus,[37] Euripides,[38]

Nicander,[39] Satyrus,[40] Theophrastus,[41] Chares,[42] Philemon,[43]

Demostratus,[44] Zenothemis,[45] Metrodorus,[46] Sotacus,[47] Pytheas,[48]

Timus[49] the Sicilian, Nicias,[50] Theochrestus,[51] Asarubas,[52]

Mnaseas,[53] Theomenes,[54] Ctesias,[55] Mithridates,[56] Sophocles,[57]







King Archelas,[58] Callistratus,[59] Democritus,[60] Ismenias,[61] Olympicus,[62]

Alexander[63] Polyhistor, Apion,[64] Horus,[65] Zoroaster,[66]

Zachalias.[67]









1. "Trigariis." "Three-horse chariot races," literlly. See B. xxviii.

c. 72, and B. xxix. c. 5.

2. It having been in recent times declared unlawful to work them, as

he has already informed us.

3. "Quacunque ambitur mari." With these words the Natural History

of Pliny terminates in all the former editions. M. lan was the first

among the learned to express a suspicion that the proper termination of

the work was wanting; an opinion in which Sillig coincided, and which

was happily confirmed, in the course of time, by the discovery of the Bamberg

MS., the only copy of the Natural History (or rather the last Six

Books) in which the concluding part of this Chapter has been found.

4. See B. xix. c. 7.

5. See. B. xxxvi. c. 45.

6. See Chapter 15 of this Book.

7. See Chapter 16 of this Book.

8. See Chapters 7, 8, and 11 of this Book.

9. "Coccum." See B. xvi. c. 12, and B. xxiv. c. 4.

10. See B. xix. c. 15, and B. xxii. c. 49.

11. See B. xii. c. 26.

12. See B. vi. c. 20, and B. xii. c. 1.

13. See B. xiii. c. 29, and B. xv. c. 7.

14. See B. xii. c. 42.

15. See B. xii. c. 43.

16. See B. xii. c. 28.

17. See Chapter 11 of this Book.

18. See B. xii. c. 54.

19. See B. xii. c. 33.

20. See B. xii. c. 30.

21. See B. xii. c. 25.

22. See B. xxxiv. c. 41.

23. In B. xii. c. 37, and B. xxvi. c. 30.

24. See B. ix. cc. 60, 61



25. See B. x. c. 28, and B. xxix. c. 13.

26. "Numeris omnibus."

27. Bernhardy, Grundriss d. Rm. Lit. p. 644, has expressed an opinion

that there is still some deficiency after the concluding words, "tuis fave;"

notwithstanding the comparative completeness of the restored text as

given by the Bamberg MS.

28. See end of B. ii.

29. See end of B. v.

30. See end of B. ix.

31. See end of B. xxxii.

32. See end of B. xvi.

33. See end of B. v.

34. See end of B. xxxiii.

35. See end of B. xxxvi.

36. See end of B. x.

37. A Dithyrambic poet, a native of Cythera. or, according to some, of

Heraclea in Pontus. During the latter part of his life he resided at the

court of the younger Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, and died B.C. 380, at

the age of 55. Of his poems, only a few fragments are left.

38. One of the great Tragic Poets of Greece, born at Salamis B.C. 480.

Of his Tragedies, eighteen are still extant, out of seventy-five, or, according

to some accounts, ninety-two, which he originally wrote.

39. See end of B. viii.

40. Nothing positive seems to be known of this

author, who is mentioned in Chapters 11, 24, and 25 of the present Book

as having written on Precious Stones. It is possible that he may have

been the architect mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 14. Hardouin would identify

him with a Comic writer of Olynthus, of this name.

41. See end of B. iii.

42. See end of B. xii.

43. See end of B. x.

44. A Roman senator, who wrote a work on Fishing, in 26 Books, one

on Hydromancy or aquatic divination, and other works connected with

history. It is probably from a work of his, "On Rivers," that Plutarch

quotes. See Chapters 11 and 23 of the present Book.

45. Author of a "Periplus," and of a poem "on the Fabulous forms

of Men," both mentioned by Tzetzes. See Chapters 11, 23, 24, and 51 of

this Book.

46. See end of Books iii. and xxxv.

47. See end of B. xxxvi.

48. See end of B. ii.

49. See end of B. iv.

50. A writer on Stones, of this name, is also mentioned by Plutarch and

Stobaus, but no further particulars are known of him. He is mentioned

in Chapter 11 of this Book.

51. Mentioned also in Chapter 11 of this Book. A person of this name

is quoted by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius as the author of a work

on Libya; from which he is supposed to have been a native of Africa.

52. Beyond the mention made of him in Chapter 11 of this Book, as a

contemporary of Pliny, no further particulars are known.

53. A native of Patara in Lycia, who wrote a Description of the Earth,

and a collection of the Oracles given at Delphi. See Chapter 11 of this

Book.

54. Beyond the mention made of him in Chapter 11 of this Book, nothing

relative to this writer seems to be known.

55. See end of B. ii.

56. Mithridates VI., Eupator, or Dionysus, King of Pontus, and the

great adversary of the Romans, commonly known as Mithridates the Great.

His notes and Memoirs were brought to Rome by Pompey, who had them

translated into Latin by his freedman Pompeius Lenus. See end of B.

xiv.: also B. vii. c. 24, B. xxiii. c. 77, B. xxv. cc. 3, 27, 79, B. xxxiii. c.

54, and Chapters 5 and 11 of the present Book.

57. See end of B. xxi.

58. See end of B. viii.

59. From the mention made of him in Chapters 12 and 25 of this Book,

we may conclude that he was a writer on Precious Stones.

60. See end of B. ii.

61. From the mention of him in Chapters 23 and 28 of this Book, he

appears to have been a writer on Precious Stones.

62. Probably the physician of Miletus, sometimes called Olympiacus,

who, according to Galen, belonged to the sect of the Methodici, and lived

in the first century after Christ. Galen speaks of him as "a frivolous person."

63. See Cornelius Alexander, end of B. iii.

64. See end of B. xxx.

65. See end of B. xxix.

66. See end of B. xviii.

67. A native of Babylon, mentioned in Chapter 60 of this Book, as having

dedicated a work, on Precious Stones, to King Mithridates.